#I SHOULD GIVE THEM NAMES AT SOME POINT. AND MAKE FANART.

[fujii-draws]

You said in the an ask that you played rescue team. You have a team there as well I assume.

YEAH :]. UNAMED TOTODILE/TREECKO DUO WITH THE HORRENDOUS TEAMNAME “POOPSHIT”

They r near and dear to me :,]

[lankylunatic]

What could possibly go wrong when you give a cowboy obsessed plant with an insane IQ access to a workshop and bunch of lost tech? Robo Honse is what happens Brad promptly banned him from being unsupervised in the workshop after this. He's still not sure how the hell Nai made this without anyone finding out

I've decided Redemption AU Nai gets to build a robo horse because the Toma don't like him very much (he doesn't like them either)

[iceclew]

Guess what I've been doing last night (and by last night I mean I couldn't sleep and got up again at 1 am and was awake 'till 5am or smth.... :D told ya my sleep schedule is in shambles by now)

Yeaah..I am actually suprised it took me this long to squeeze them onto my most favorite universe of all...so..yeah.. hit the old fantasy- and witcher playlist and well...the mind was loong gone..at this point... I feel like this is not really 100% Witcher-verse, but also a bit Skyrim-ish?...something in between but def. fantasy like..

So what came from it are some messy sketches I like very much :D even if Hoshina is a little T-posing, lol, but that's OK..

I love how I'm not even putting the names in anymore.. xD you should now my fav bois by now hopefully...

since I totally stole that badass posture from Zhen Qu'S fanart, I feel like I at least should tag the reference - LOOK at it it's amazing <3

I wonder if I will continue the series this time, 'cause I'd love to give Narumi a proper armour and there's a certain forest elve I'd like to add as well, BUT I know my adhd brain, and I'm making no promises here..

(and def. no more allnighters, I need to get my schedule fixed, I'm at a Con this weekend, I need to get up at DECENT times god dammit)

[yamujiburo]

✨YAMUJIBURO F.A.Q.✨

Should've made this a while ago! I'm starting to get a lot of the same questions in my inbox nowadays tho and I feel bad for clogging up y'all's timelines with the same questions haha

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Who are you?

I'm Kiana, I'm a queer, Japanese Jamaican woman, and a Director/Storyboard artist at Disney Television Animation.

What are your pronouns

I usually go by she/her but I don't really mind any pronouns~

Where did you go to school?

California College of the Arts (but I dropped out when I was hired at Disney)

How did you get hired at Disney?

My bosses found me on twitter through my Team Rocket fanart. They liked my drawing style and asked if I wanted to take a storyboard test. I did, I passed, I got interviewed and moved to LA two weeks later to start storyboarding.

Is this a repost blog??

No, you might know be better as @kianamaiart. This is just my Pokémon sideblog where I post exclusively (for the most part) Team Rocket and Pokémon art.

What does your username mean?

It's a combination of the main 4 Team Rocket members' Japanese names: Yamato (cassidy), Musashi (jessie), Kojiro (james), Kosaburo (butch)

What program and brush do you use to draw?

Default brush in Storyboard pro

**************************************

GENERAL POKEMON QUESTIONS

Who's your favorite Pokémon?

What are your favorite ships?

Any ship with Jessie. Yamushipping, Rocketshipping and Hanamusashipping are my top three!

Who do you ship Ash with?

I was a big Pokéshipper when I was younger but nowadays don't really feel strongly about any of the ships involving the kid characters. I'm also in the "Ash is aroace" camp.

Do you have any trans headcanons?

You can find em here along with other headcanons! It should be noted that I don't usually marry myself to one hc (unless it's for a specific AU I'm trying to build out) and love seeing various interpretations of a character! Trans woman Jessie, Trans woman James, Trans man James, Genderfluid Jessie, give em to me!

Do you play the games?

I've played all the mainline Pokémon games and very much enjoy them! But I am much more invested in the anime and the characters in the anime.

**************************************

HANAMUSA AU QUESTIONS

Where can I read all the comics in order?

Here! I update anytime I make a new comic and list them in chronological order (since I just draw comics at random points in the timeline as they interest me). This post also already answers some of the frequently asked questions about this AU like: How did Jessie and Delia meet? What are James and Meowth up to? How old are Jessie and Delia? etc.

What does "Hanamusa" mean?

Hanamusa is a combination of Delia and Jessie's Japanese names, Hanako and Musashi respectively.

When does this AU take place?

It takes place sometime after the Mezase Pokémon Master/To Be a Pokémon Master series. So all the events that happened in the series, unless retconned within the series, happened. Ash is 10 at the start of the comics.

What's the status between Jessie, James, Meowth and Giovanni/Team Rocket?

Not great terms since they were fired, but also not the worst terms. Giovanni just let the three of them go without any further issues. I will say that I've always loved the theory that Giovanni keeps Jessie specifically around because of her parentage and he as a soft spot for her that he keeps a secret. I feel like Matori was the one that got the three of them fired and Giovanni wasn't able to make an excuse for them this time (without showing nepotism/special treatment) so he was forced to let them go.

If you headcanon Delia as a lesbian, how did Ash come to be?

Delia was young when she had Ash and I hc that she just didn’t really explore her sexuality much! I myself didn’t realized I liked women until I was 18 and didn’t know I liked ONLY women until like 2 years ago. She got married, had a baby and realized after her husband left that she liked women (trans people exist obviously but I’m also interpreting Ash’s father as a cis man).

Who do you think Ash’s dad is?

I don’t know and I don’t really care to explore it. I’m going off of the novel interpretation that he’s just a deadbeat that left to be a trainer, failed and never came back because of the shame. He’s not important.

Isn’t Giovanni Ash’s dad?

That’s a common misconception that people remember wrong from the Pokémon Live show. Delia mentions she dated Giovanni but then left him and his gang after meeting Ash’s father. I also don’t consider the live show canon personally! I follow The Birth of Mewtwo timeline where Madame Boss founded Team Rocket.

Do you think Delia and Giovanni dated at least?

Nah, I think he’s too old for her? I always got the vibe from The Birth of Mewtwo that he was quite a bit older than Jessie and it’d be sus if he was dating Delia when she was married to, and had a child with her husband at 18/19. He’s a bad guy but not a BAD guy.

You mentioned you still ship Jessie and James. Why not make a Jessie, James, Delia polycule?

I have a few reasons I’ve mentioned before! 1. I’m in super deep with this AU already and I feel it’d be very confusing for casual viewers of my stuff if James was added into the relationship haha. 2. I’ve drawn Jessie and James together since 2011 and took this AU as an opportunity to try my hand at writing them as queer, platonic besties bc I love that interpretation of them a lot as well. 3. I’m not poly myself and the way I write this ship is largely based off of my experiences with my girlfriend. I just know I’d favor the Jessie/Delia of it all which isn’t fair and not a good interpretation of a poly relationship. All that said, I DO super enjoy seeing peoples’ poly headcanons and art!

Who does James end up with in this AU?

No one. He's aroace and is happy to be single

Do Jessie and James have all their Pokémon in this AU

I think they have all the Pokémon that they did by the end of Mezase Pokémon Master (all their Pokémon that were left at HQ). Most of their released Pokémon have stayed released and the Alola Pokémon are still in Alola. I bring back Arbok and Weezing post-Jessie and Delia getting married. I may bring back Chimecho, Growlie and Cacnea if I think of an idea I like!

What are Meowth and James up to in this AU?

Hop back to the top of this post under the "Where to Start" section. All your questions will be answered.

Does Ash travel with anyone at this point of his life?

I don't have anyone in particular in mind! I could see him making new friends (Nemona???) or traveling with different combinations of old friends. Like him, Misty and Goh, him, Dawn and Cilan, him, Serena and Lillie etc.

Will Delia ever get over her phobia of snake Pokémon

Not fully! I think overcoming fears is fine and good but I think real PHOBIAS are much harder to get past and I don't want to cheapen it. She slowly gets used to Jessie's Seviper specifically and gets to the point where she can pet it comfortably with Jessie in the room. But otherwise, still scared and would need that same amount of time per Pokémon

Is Jessie gaining weight or is it just me?

Not just you! Jessie puts on a bit of relationship weight overtime as you'll see in the later comics in the timeline. Jessie grew in poverty, never knowing when her next meal would be and that continued into her life as a Team Rocket member. Once she was able to settle down (with a woman who runs her own restaurant no less) she's able to live a healthier lifestyle with regular meals and puts on some weight because of that.

Does Jessie ever feel self conscious about gaining weight?

Nope! She feels happier and healthier and hotter. She's also unreasonably excited to clear out her old clothes and get a new wardrobe.

Would Jessie and Delia ever have kids together or adopt?

Nah, Ash is enough for them! I have come up with hypothetical kids for them but they're not canon to this AU. Just a fun little thing for me.

Will you ever put this on webtoon?

Nah. People mostly ask me this because they want to read everything in the order of the timeline but to my knowledge, you can’t reorder chapters or installments which would defeat the purpose. I also don’t think nintendo fan stuff would fly there. Also, also it’s just extra work and another place to upload and I want to keep this all fun for myself~

[blazehedgehog]

After watching SAGE's 2024 trailer, you ever get the feeling that most people want to be making indie games instead of fan games nowadays,? Every year there's been less and less fan works there.

This is the first year I've really felt it in any meaningful way.

There have been attempts for more than a decade to rename SAGE to drop the "Sonic" part. I've always pushed back against that and at this point the branding is too strong to give up, I think. People know about and come to SAGE because the brand is strong. Renaming it would be a death sentence.

Taking off my business hat, it's a bummer to see fangames in the minority here. Everybody wants to hop on that indie game gravy train and chase the success of Pizza Tower (seriously, count how many Pizza Tower clones are in the trailer this year) or Freedom Planet or Spark the Electric Jester or whatever.

And it's easy to congratulate people for striking out on their own and making original games. I was one of the many voices urging Sabrina to divorce Freedom Planet from the Sonic franchise and make it into an original game she could sell. So she ran a crowdfunding campaign (multiple, actually), was successful, and now we have two Freedom Planet games. And that's great!

But... does that mean all fangames should go away forever?

The example I lean on the hardest is comic books.

A lot of the guys who created the biggest super heroes aren't around anymore. They gave up control long ago or are straight up dead now. These books are effectively officialized fanfiction now, as are the $300,000,000 movies based on them. An ever-increasing number of people writing, drawing and directing these characters today were not alive when they were originally created.

But people still keep writing Batman stories, officially or otherwise. Because there are some stories you can only tell with Batman. Now, you could break off and make your own character that's similar to Batman, build up this history for him, and then finally tell your original story with that character. And maybe that's satisfying, to have built something of your own like that.

But for one: that's a lot of work. Batman is interesting because he has decades (almost a century now) of history behind him to play off of and work with. There are people out there who will tell you to just start writing your dream story and forget about building up to it first, but that's more about motivation and confidence than the idea that stories don't need historical context.

And two: that's already been done.

There's a good chance you know who Rob Liefeld is from his, uh, "distinctive" art style. He also created Deadpool, a katana-wielding mercenary assassin that dresses in red and black, whose real name is Wade Wilson. But before Deadpool, he created Deathstroke, a katana-wielding mercenary assassin that dresses in orange and black, whose real name is Slade Wilson.

Here is a guy who has built a career on copying his own work (and the work of others) over and over and over again.

Did it make Rob Liefeld rich and famous? Technically yes, but he kind of got rich because other people made better work using his characters, and he's famous for being kind of a hack.

So which is better?

Creative output you can do right here, right now, today, but is considered "fanfiction" or "fanart" or a "fangame", which may or may not lead to you being the person handling the official thing at some point down the road...

Or spending years of your life toiling to bring an original concept to life, and even if you struggle through all of the boredom and hardship of getting your original product out the door, it gets lost in the noise of now-million other creators trying to do the exact same thing. And then, at the end of your launch, after 2, 3, even 5 years of working and working and working, you've only made enough money to cover rent on your apartment for a month and a half.

Or, to put it another way:

Are you ditching fangame development because you have a legitimately great story you want to tell, or are you just doing it because you can't make money on a fangame?

Are you just creating another Bloodstrike?

As someone who has struggled to justify putting lots of hard work into a fangame myself, and have both made very popular fangames and some not-so-great original games, I don't know if I have a definitive answer for you. But I do wish there were more fangames at the fangaming event, and I will say, as always, if I could get paid a livable wage for making fangames, I would drop everything and do it in a heartbeat.

[jennydwren]

My Arthur: Some Night Thoughts

In between the cancellation of The Acolyte (there's still hope, Clone Wars came back) and the premiere of Rings of Power S2 -- and I PROMISE you that each and every dudebro I blocked in these situations on the former bird app either had crypto in bio or a timeline that was entirely focused on a sports team... I mean, why not think about RDR2? I want to think what it means that so many players speak of MY Arthur, like we all have little pocket Arthurs as pets. "I like my Arthur to be a scary bad guy so I keep him shaved bald." "Well, my Arthur looks his best with Level 7 or 8 hair and a Level 1 or 2 beard." "This time I'm making sure that my Arthur has the best satchel and the Legend of the East outfit." "I always pamper my Arthur before a hard mission. I buy him a ribeye steak at a saloon, get him a bath, and let him sleep just one more night in a hotel. I feed him up to Overweight before Guarma and Chapter 6." "My Arthur is high honor. He would never do XYZ." "Oh yeah? I think my Arthur loves being low honor and beating the crap out of people." "Weird. My Arthur's favorite missions are the dinosaur bones." All of these Arthurs are different and yet the same. All of them are doomed. You have to rewind the timeline and go back to a Chapter 2 save to have a healthy Arthur who can chat and sing with his compadres at the campfire. Nobody's Arthur, until you take him out of the game and into some of the absolutely and utterly beautiful fanart and fanfics, can succeed with Mary Linton, or Charles for that matter. The R* canon Arthur is always doomed. What does it say about us that we can't bear to let go of him, even though his own dialogue tells us he clearly sees the writing on the wall as early as Chapter 1? Is it just the natural human abhorrence of the reality that we too will someday die without accomplishing all that we wanted to? I can relate. Big mood, Arthur. In fragmenting into all of these disparate Arthurs -- Roger Clark has pointed out more people own copies of the game than live in Ireland -- maybe that's how the egregore, the Arthur conjured from the collective consciousness of millions of individual players, stays alive. Many writers of fanfics want their Arthur to be theirs. Not just a rough fuck on daddy's kitchen counter, although I've read that story too, and not just the Not Enough Beds trope, though that too was a fine story. They want to smash Arthur because who doesn't? But they want him to love them, despite R* Arthur having not one single solitary relationship skill. This new Arthur teaches you to draw (the preponderance of Arthur fics I've read involve a "you" reader). Your wish that he address you as he does a mare, "That's mah good girl," comes resplendently true. Sometimes, such are the fix-him powers of You that You and he escape the gang before the name Thomas Downes can be uttered. Arthur's heart beats for You and You alone. Sometimes he protects You from danger. Sometimes he accepts a free sample of sponge cake from You in a bakery. All of these Arthurs go out Arthuring all over the wrong but familiar RDR2 America, often with You at their side. Sometimes You even find him on the cliffside before his rattling last breath, and drag him to safety and a warm, dry climate. One Arthur I read was even saved by a doctor in Mexico with the only available treatment of the period -- collapsing part of the lung -- and recovered fully, having four kids with Sadie Adler and saving most of the RDR world along the way.

You can have your Arthur and play him too. Indeed, a fresh shot of Roger Clark's bravura performance -- combined, as he is the first to point out, with the animators' work, for example giving him the most delicious lower lip -- compounds the infatuation should it threaten to recede.

People suffer profound grief over this game. Of course, it is their own grief from non-digital life: "It is Margaret you mourn for" -- Gerard Manley Hopkins. Perhaps the loss of their Arthur and the way his surviving friends gradually adjust to the loss helps people make room for the holes in their own lives. But that's the thing. That's the comfort at the bottom of the grief pit.

Because once you find your Arthur, including within yourself (I don't just mean cosplay, but I've seen people of all genders don the stained blue workshirt, the suspenders, the neckerchief, the goddamn hat, and wear Arthur on their bodies)... you can't ever really lose him. He changes you. And that may be the strangest and most wonderful thing you can say about a work of fiction.

Keep sharing your Arthurs. The chibis, the young Arthurs cradling poor Isaac or reading to child John Marston, the AUs, the low-honor black coyotes and the high-honor 14-point stags. Marthur, Charthur, Albert Mason x Arthur. All the versions of him. Because they're also You.

[taybatwo2]

Spelldon Monster High Custom

Once I saw that G3 Deuce had green skin, I knew I had to try my hand at making Spelldon Cauldronello. I re-haired him and flocked the sides of his head with yarn to imitate dreads. I sewed him a jacket, shirt, joggers, and socks. I made his little potions (out of beads), earrings (also out of beads), necklaces, gloves, pointed ears (I wish I could have gotten them smoother, but they were so delicate that I could not sand them without them breaking), shoes (out of paperboard and papier-mâché), and repainted his face (my first full face repaint and daaang was that difficult to try and make his eyes and eyebrows look related to one another).

He’s not perfect, but he was super fun to pose and creating him was a HUGE learning experience (like to start sealing all of my thread knots with fabric glue).

You’re more than welcome to draw fanart/make your own based on mine, just tag me- I’d love to see them. Feel free to comment what you like/dislike think I should improve on. :)

Edit: thank you for all the sweet comments in the reblogs guys. You’re all making my day. :)

More under the cut

Close ups of his left side (I like how this ear turned out the best).

And his right side. I couldn’t get this side smoothed out to save my life, haha. Hopefully his earrings distract enough from it. Keeping beads from old bracelets come in handy! These were just the right size for him. I repainted the lower earring in black, with a stripe of purple, and added silver Ancient Greek designs on either side.

One more close up of his left ear and earring (I added a purple pentagram in the center of the silver Greek designs and the color shift sparkle paint around the rim). His upper earring is the same as his right lower earring, but has an orange stripe.

His face-up took awhile, but it is very rewarding to finally give him a face. I tried to make it look like the factory g1 monster high face up and took a lot of inspiration from his older sister Casta’s pupils. I gave him darker purple eyes, with the yellow/gold zig-zags. I gave him three moles, instead of just the one that Casta has, to mix it up a little. I did take a little inspiration from G3 for his eyebrows to add some orange and purple streaks in the front and a cut in his left eyebrow (I don’t know if that is still trendy, but I think it looks cool). The eyebrows are still not super symmetrical, but I already sealed it. I went back and forth on what I wanted his lip colors to be (I know I wanted something two toned) but finally decided on a dark purple upper lip, with a green outlined lower lip.

Also G3 heads are SUPER difficult to try and reattach (and remove) and have to be VERY squishy to put back on their bodies (even after I had trimmed down the neck peg).

Okay, onto his wardrobe! I wanted to imitate Casta’s color pallet: black, orange, purple, silver (and sparkles and studs), while bringing in more “witchy” themes (the buckles, stripe socks, and pentagrams), and his scaritage from his mama Circe (hence the potions, boars on his shirt and shoes, the greek vase designs and the boar designs being black on orange -like the Ancient Greek vases). Even on the Greek designs, I put some teeny tiny pentagrams (namely on his jacket sand socks).

His jacket took the longest (his shoes were the second longest). It is fully lined (the sleeves have a white lining to keep staining to a minimum), and working pockets. I liked the sparkly material I found, but does it shed like crazy (I used it for his collar, cuffs, pockets, and the bottom of his jacket in the back, and wrong side-out for his sleeves -they still have silver sparkles showing though and it doesn’t shed…but it will catch on things). I used thin ribbon for the outside of his pockets (next time I will fabric glue the ends shut on all my ribbons and a thicker ribbon for the bottom of his coat), and bent some wire into buckles. I also used ribbon wire and looped black thread over it to make it look like a zipper. I used fabric paint for the pattern down the front and REALLY hope it stays on there.

I really wanted a mesh back to his coat (I love how that part turned out), and then added this purple sparkly ribbon to his sleeves. He was going to have another pentagram in the back but it was too much (but it left a cool shadow of the star after I removed it).

His gloves are made of mesh and ribbon (with glitter fabric glue continuously added on top of each other, and then painted silver, to make the spikes on his knuckles -same thing I did with his choker and shoes). His nails are painted black with the same color flash glaze paint as part of his earrings.

Okay onto his main outfit without the coat (he’s much more fun and easier to pose without his jacket).

“Spelldon, please move your necklace out of the way, so we can see your shirt better, thank you.”

Close up of his wild boar and Greek vase designs on his shirt (done in fabric paint). I REALLY love how the boar turned out as I was SUPER nervous I was going to mess it up. Having a boar/Greek vase design on an orange shirt was also inspired by @spookberry ‘s design of Spelldon. His necklace pendant was another bead I had (and it worked great for attacking thread too).

Side and back of his outfit (you can see some of that stray black glitter).

“‘Scuse me Spelldon, can you lift your shirt so we can see you joggers better? Thank you.” His joggers/capri’s and socks were inspired by @peppapigvevo ‘s Spelldon design. Once again I used ribbon, that sparkly material for his waistband and cuffs, and silver fabric paint for Greek vase design.

I attached a chain to his joggers and added these potion bottles (while Casta looks like she uses more magic spells and incantations through her singing, I like to think Spelldon uses potions -more like his mom). I made these potions out of wire, beads, thread and air-dry clay.

Onto his shoes and socks. I made the shoes out of paperboard and paper-maché. I wanted them to be boar themed while still having pentagrams and studs on them. They turned out a bit wonky (and a tad too long -but it helps him stand up, haha), but I spent too much time on them to redo them, haha. His shoe sole I also painted with that sparkle flash glaze paint too. I also gave him the striped socks, because I love striped socks and tights on witches.

“Thanks for holding still Spelldon, and being patient with me.” I’m going to make another post or two with comparisons with his sister, some of my other customs, and some vampire that claims he knows him or something, heehee.

Oh yeah! My sketches for him:

[doedipus]

Guilty gear fandom misogyny is so incredibly frustrating

Like you can pick any boy out of the roster and the entire fanbase is probably falling over themselves to hype them up; people pop off for their associated players' gameplay, they construct elaborate fan media that brings out the intricacies of the characters and shows off their best points, and won't take no for an answer if someone claims to not find them maddeningly attractive

But then with the girls, at best nobody cares about them besides the dedicated superfans, and at worst literally every other player only speaks the character's name to complain. They'll get nothing but vapid pinup fanart with no regard for character, if they're even on the radar at all. Whenever one of the female characters gets a buff or a player makes a good tournament run, everyone stops what they're doing to complain for a month, until they go back to largely ignoring them again. And then whenever a patch brings a new boy people convince themselves is cool, or gives an existing one significant buffs, half the players on a female character drop her to switch. It's like clockwork.

Also for some reason every male character has people headcanoning them as trans in both directions, regardless of anything about their actual characterization, but none of the not-canonically-transfem girls really get that kind of fan attention, which is disappointing. Except that one artist who thinks elphelt should be transmasc.

I think the only guilty gear girl to escape this is Bridget, by dint of being a little sweetie pie. But she's still like a purely auxiliary character to the canon, so there's not a ton to talk about besides decade old discourse, and she's underdeveloped at a top level, with the only notable reps being players who use her to try and scam opponents out of a few games before switching to their real mains once they drop one themselves. Like despite her popularity among casual fans there's still no daru for Bridget

And honorable mention to season 2 baiken, who attracted a lot of upper level players who were unsatisfied with their mains at the time, who then nearly unanimously dropped her for John or sin in S3 when it became apparent that it wasn't as easy to win with her as they initially thought

[lynxnothinks2]

FR Fanart Stats

Have you ever wondered which FR dragons are the most popular to draw? No? Well clearly you're not a university student with looming deadlines, a severe procrastination problem and unlimited access to research grade statistics software let's dive in

Originally I was doing this to see which dragons I'd drawn the most for commissions over the years, but then I got curious generally about if the popularity of dragon breeds correlated with the amount of fanart produced. We artists are always fighting algorithms and trends, so this info may be useful to those of us looking to utilise them!

A brief intro/some disclaimers to the data:

I've only included modern breeds as they are more numerous than ancients on-site, have been around for less time (excl. Obelisks) and Excel was already protesting with what I had so I saved myself the headache. Look forward to the ancient breed sequel ahahahah :P that's a joke i'm not doing this again

For my 'tumblr popularity' data, I counted the breed of dragon of the first 100 featured in the '#flight rising art' tag. I excluded ancients and any unidentifiable breeds. Each individual dragon was counted in multi-image posts, unless if the dragon(s) in question were in a comic, series etc. in which case each unique dragon was counted once.

Assuming my personal commission stats are the least interesting to most people, but I'll give some background. I started doing comms in mid-2018, producing art at a relatively impressive volume (rip my time and motivation.) I do a lot less FR art now, but if we assume breed popularity has stayed consistent since then the only breed this should really effect are Obelisks as the newbies.

And then finally, on-site breed popularity. I used the dragon search feature on FR to identify the number of named, active dragons for each breed. Total dragons as of 27/01/24, if you were curious: 12,924,070! That's a lot of guys!!

I threw everything into percentages, then made a graph. it's got issues probably but my degree isn't in niche pixel dragon info and i was getting bored at this point

I ran some stuff through statistical tests but they don't show anything remarkable that you can't see in the graph. Rstudio claimed a few more years from my lifespan for naught

Conclusions:

Skydancers and Imperials are crazy popular in all categories, but SDs are Tumblr's favourite

Obelisks and Ridgebacks do disproportionately well on Tumblr compared to their site popularity

Snappers and Bogsneaks are pretty unpopular across the board. I've never drawn either! But at least snaps are getting a bit of love on here

The popularity of Faes and Guardians on-site is not significantly reflected in fanart (excl. Guardian comms for me which is? an odd outlier??)

Mirrors and Nocturnes are not popular on Tumblr - found the latter interesting as I thought there may be lingering bias from NotN, but apparently not

Coatls, Pearlcatchers, Spirals and Tundras are pretty consistent between categories. Nothing really of note for these guys except for less people wanting me to draw spirals (good they're complicated)

I could draw a Wildclaw with my eyes closed and although that will not make me popular, it can make me money

Well that was a good use of 4 hours I'm going to write my essay now

and if you'd like to show your support for this cool art stats guy check out my main @lynxnothinks commissions are open thank you byeee

[dicenete]

Hey, I'm rambling about IkePri again

Okay, I just need to get these thoughts I have about Gilbert von Obsidian out because I enjoy predicting stuff and overthinking design and narrative choices even tho they might not be right. :P But there really isn't that much predicting other than me overthinking about narrative and design choices. This time there will be most likely spoilers of Gilbert's route so far, and route of Clavis and some thoughts I have just gathered while playing the game in general. I try to put these thoughts in cohesive order, but well... I don't know if I can really, because I just need to get these out of my head. These are my thoughts, ramblings and opinions. Feel free to form your own and certainly disagree with me! I apologize about the lack of art in this post. I'm busy with work currently so no fanart for a while. I'm also not native English speaker, so there might be grammatical errors and such. Sorry about that. Everything under the cut.

To start with Ikemen Prince is a romance visual novel first and foremost. That doesn't mean it can't be deep (and it certainly has been deeper than I initially expect, which left me positively surprised). I suppose there is somesort of thematic vibe that there is no prince whose ideals are the main thesis of the game itself. But that also kinda leaves that fact there is no huge catharsis regarding the world and it's state. Everything so far has been left quite open. And the more I have learned about lore of the world, I really feel like anti-monarchist here xd Clavis really sold me the idea for real. Or atleast throw away the absolute monarchy. That's where I think things should go, but that's my own belief. (really, the last king of Rhodolite... He umm... I have some opinions.) Chevalier and Gilbert First things first: I don't hate or dislike Chevalier as a character. There are just some things that give me Deus Ex Machina feels. But I know it is what they are going for with him. This genius that so far ahead of everyone that it is so alien concept to rest of the people. And well that is a very hard concept to pull off without being a genius yourself as a writer. Or that is what I feel like. But what I do love is what the writers are doing with him and Gilbert in thematic sense! (Hence why Chev x Gilbert sounds so juicy to me)

I really took steps to the deep end as I started to think about why I have enjoyed Gilbert's route or was interested in his story to begin with, but have little interest in trying Chev's one. Because they are so similar but they really aren't.

How I would describe it is that where as Clavis is the complementary to Chev, the purple to his yellow, the emotionality vs rationality, the heart vs the brain, Gilbert is more like right brain to Chev's left brain. If it makes sense like that xd Their color schemes are harmonious. Not opposite. Almost like how Nokto and Licht's color schemes are harmonious with each others.

(Nokto (Blue + white + gold) vs Licht (Blue + black + gold)) Not to mention that their names clearly are meant to mean light and dark. (Licht: variant for light, Nokto: comes form latin nox or noctis, meaning night = dark) But that is a rambling for another time.) Both their crests are tigers. White and black tiger. Chev's color scheme is White + gold and black. Whereas Gilbert's is Black + gold and white. But then the overall color that game devs use to signal about the characters baffles me a bit. Gold/Yellow vs Black/dark red. They don't seem to have too much connection or that of which comes to my mind quickly and without digging deeper. (because I believe that if you dig deep enough, you have digged yourself into a trap of overthinking about things. (Justifying things because you want to justify them, which I'm not big fan of. And sometimes things don't need meaning and we have to live with that. As much as it pains my overthinker brain.)) But here is my impressions about Gilbert so far. I'm at the point where MC has left the Clavis's party (I loved it btw). Gilbert really does give me toxic INFJ villain feels, but let's not get too hang up on terms such as that. But he is someone who is driven forth by his own ideals and desire to change the world better. He, like Clavis, seems to cloak himself in this idea that he is the villain and is okay, even happy, to take that role. He is the one who, like Chevalier, has thrown away emotional attachment out of the window (or so they say) unlike Clavis who makes his choices based more on emotion rather than rational thinking. Maybe that's why I like Clavis and Gilbert, they push MC out of their black and white thinking. That things are not so easy peezy as "choose a right king and everyone will be happy". There will always be someone who is mad about it. That's why I really loved the scene with Gilbert with the orphaned kids and the Clavis's party. He seems to enjoy the company of children (who are not morally corrupted or tainted) and he really empathically listens to those who are angry. He believes in the idea that "no one remembers what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel". (A quote with debatable origin, people say that it was coined by Maya Angelou. But I really love this quote, because I think it is the truth.) Gilbert isn't trying to rationalize against someone's choices with pure intellect. He uses empathy to guide him to the most rational outcome in that emotional scope. But he also uses this to manipulate people with fear. He uses fear extensively and he does it actively. Where as I feel like Chev just has that aura about him automatically. Hence my next thought: Action vs Stasis!

Gilbert and Clavis are action oriented. They shake the gameboard, they make the first moves. Gilbert probably more than Clavis. They both want change. Is it change for the better, we will see, I still haven't finished Gilbert's route but he really gives me this "I'm willing to become the greatest threat so that people unite to defeat me." or "I will conquer all so there will no longer be wars.". Chev, on the other hand, symbolizes stasis. His goal is to keep the kingdom of Rhodolite going. That's his duty and he is willing to take it. (even tho we can debate if that is something he really really believes in or even thinks about that much. I feel like it is out of obligation rather than of personal ideal. But alas, I have not played Chev's route yet.) Chev is reactive rather than proactive. He waits for the opponent to make the first move and reacts accordingly. (I'm not saying he is not reactive once game is on. More like "if there was not threat to deal with, he wouldn't create one".)

Chev doesn't care what you think about him. Gilbert does. He might seem like he doesn't but he is really there to prove a point. (I will pick up his dislike for lying later >.>) Chev is not. Chev knows that his way is the right way for him and that is enough for him. Chev also actively makes a "gettaway plan" for himself in Clavis. He knows that Clavis is the final thread that keeps him from going overboard because he understand that he has to be blind for "individual people" aspect to be a good ruler. Gilbert probably understands this about himself too, but he is trying to prove a point. So he needs to go overboard. Because masses of people need absolutes to react to. If it is something banal, it won't do. His evil actions need to shake the very foundation of ideas. The people have to face those things head on and see it for themselves. They cannot be sheltered. Gilbert gives me the vibes that he is willing to sacrifice himself not for the kingdom, but for the betterment of all mankind. He is happy to become the villain #1 if that means that other people will rise and take down the corrupted Obsidian or the corrupted idea. I would say that he is Lawful Good going on about things like Lawful Evil.

Gilbert asking questions means that he wants you to think, he wants to challenge your opinions and how you look at the world. Same as Clavis. They yearn for change. They want to change the world. Where as Chev wants to maintain things as they are. Chev "If it is not broken, we don't need to fix it" Michel. Where as Clavis and Gilbert want to improve the system. They are idealistic. Gilbert and lying

This is something very interesting. At first I thought that he was all "I dislike when people lie to me." but he really is "I dislike lying in all its forms." And he does say that he doesn't lie. And I'm starting to believe that is really the case. All the things he says are true. But because how other people see him, they are suspicious anyway. Like MC is. Like we all probably are when we start the route and think "So what is your trauma, baby girl?" When he is unsure or knows that he shouldn't say the thing he really thinks or that is true, he will deflect or give a very vague response. Which makes me quite happy to replay his route at somepoint with this in mind. In conclusion: Welcome to my TED talk, with no head or tail, just me overthinking about things about a otome gacha game. If you read this far, thank you for your time. Remember, if I ramble about it, it just means that I'm invested. Have a good day~

[numba1hateer]

Ranting:UgiGiugi "Fanfic" Moments that truly disgust me. PT 1

⚠️Trigger Warning⚠️

I decided to redo my shitty ranting because the ones I did, if I'm honest, felt very rushed.

Don't mind my shitty ranting.

Julia, though , is 25-29, and yes, Julia should be 29 and Guilia if I remember correctly. Julia is to be born on June 30 and Giulia on June 30 by the information on her fanfics. Yes, being at this grown age surprisingly, the headmaster allows Julia to get "basic household necessities" excuse, but when does that cheapskate of an ancient crow willing to do that?? And ugigiugi confuses me with her school uniform. She says everyone thinks she's a boy yet wears a skirt in some of her pathetic excuse of tracing since she's so fucking lazy is some of them she wears pants or a cardigan?? Huh? I haven't ever seen her wear that other stuff ever again because that's how lazy she is. And also why is she even wearing a school uniform even though she already went to college?? The headmaster would kick her out like he did to Yuu at first, but since Julia is an old fart I believe he would've never let her near the boys or school or even teach there because based on the information she posted in her fanfics she worked at a nursery which is why she proudly calls herself an educator yet having 0 qualities of one typical egostical maniac.

I don't understand what's with ugigiugi making Julia 25-29 kiss everyone?? It's gross and SA like she made the leech twin do to her old ass. Or those Diasomia shit she did hugging or making sebek give her a kiss on the cheek or the damn forehead I don't remember but like what's up with her pedo ass being affection with Malleus ,Lilia,Silver,Sebek practically everyone?? Azul, the leech twins? Or when she made Ace and Deuce kiss her. Or also being affection with Idia and Ortho and Leona,Jack or making Rollo "Fall in love with her" bruh Rollo don't deserve none of this he's a traumatized dude actually the majority of the boys are none of them deserve this she ooc the shit out of them to fit her disgusting "world" as ugigiugi calls it. She also kisses them and hugs them respectfully, I can see them dying of cringe and file a restraining order against her.

Now I do believe Sam, Divus,Trein, and Ashton would not want Julia on school grounds at all because of her old ass she older than Sam too.

If you don't get this bullshit out, my face, Guilia.🤢

Sorry, but back in reality, Julia. Lilia wouldn't want you near Malleus or Silver, even Sebek. Leona is far too young her for you Julia 🤢 and no Malleus wouldn't hurt Leona just for your ass nor would Leona hurt him just for your egostical maniac self. Respectfully, if you lay your hands on Leona, he would laugh and in your face Julia and get ur ass arrested for hella shit.

This feishizer, I swear. 🤢 this shit is mad disrespectful.

Bro went from that spider dude to Seth, Horus?? to jack to Leona to Malleus and Lilia to the Azul, the leech twins and Idia and Vil and Rook to Kalim, and then Rollo and the others shit I can't at this point bruh.

If you don't get this bullshit out my face.

Nepo baby type shit. That's makes me wonder how does Julia feed grim? Does he have canned tuna every day? Does he go to the cafeteria every day? And what's funny, she has kids with Malleus and Leona and Lilia. How tf does she feed them?? Or do the servants and nannies have to do it, or does Lilia do all of it?? Mf what?? But what I can tell is that "Julian and Aurora," especially "Aurora," seem to have inherent her egostical maniac from shitty tracing. And that's mad disrespectful to have a kid with Leona and name him Seth. 🤮 and then Fauna and Flora, bruh, I can't 🤮

This is funny because the traced art of her Egyptian fanart of the corn stand. And how tf does she survive in the twisted wonderland cafeteria?? How will she survive the food anywhere or from the events or from the cultures of Sunset Savanah or Briar Valley?? Ain't no way she gonna make them cook pizza for her every day because that's her favorite food?? And then saying she got an eating disorder . Why is she glorifying this shit I can't no wonder her traced ass looks sicks asf and her "kids" look sick asf too

Ight that's all for today, folks

[ghost-bxrd]

Give me court of owls hedcanons or lore … anything court of owls send it my way please 😊

My pleasure!!! ✨💚

Ok so, I’m mostly going with headcanons and some Gotham Knights lore because my knowledge of canon is passable at best but since the moment I first saw a Talon (I’m pretty sure it was fanart of Talon!Dick) I was obsessed. Evil organization comprised of a city’s elite? Sign me tf up.

A lot of this will mostly be in line with my Owl Song verse tho so bear with me >.<

The Court is ruthless. The Court controls Gotham. There’s an entire nursery rhyme dedicated to them and their most infamous weapon; the Talon.

And, see, Talon is where it gets interesting.

The Court has always had indoctrinated assassins working for them. But simple humans with human flaws and limitations… well, there was a point where that simply wasn’t enough anymore. They needed something better. Something stronger.

So they began researching, gathering scientists into their ranks and having them work on an interesting substance they’d discovered in one of the cave systems below Gotham: Electrum.

Human experimentation wasn’t far off at that point and soon they injected the first person with it. Unsurprisingly, that person died within a day. But instead of remaining inanimate (you know, like corpses should be) the body… started moving again after continued electrum exposure. Regaining mobility and basic brain functions with the added benefit regenerative abilities, increased agility and strength, and absolutely zero pain response.

The “corpse” was intelligent enough to follow simple instructions, but it wasn’t capable of speech or intelligent thought and perished not long after they stopped injecting electrum.

Regardless, the experiment was deemed a success and research into electrum and its “resurrection” properties continued.

The Electrum got modified over the years and infused with several genetic properties of various kinds of birds (mostly owls) to encourage animalistic traits to develop and aid in missions (and also to erase as much of the Talons’ humanity). Eventually the Court succeeded in making Talons that would not immediately die without a steady supply of Electrum, but since the Court doesn’t have use of most of them 24/7 (and because they are technically still corpses) they built cryostasis chambers in which the talons would be “stored” in between missions. Only a select few talons were kept in the mines at all times as a sort of guard should any civilian become curious and try to snoop around.

Of course those mindless soldiers are nice and all, exactly what the Court needed at the time, but they lack the ability to think for themselves, gather intel, and follow more complex orders.

New experimentations began. After all there must be a way to create a Talon that’s still all of the above but also capable of intelligent thought. They simply need to indoctrinate the chosen person early enough that disloyalty would never even cross their mind.

If we’re talking Owl Song verse, Dick was the perfect candidate for it. Recently orphaned and with amazing training? Young enough to be impressionable and twist his mind? It’s like he was made for this. For the Court.

But before they could turn him into their perfect little weapon he needed more training, so they kept him in the mines with the undead Talons, injecting small doses of electrum into him every couple days and pitting him against other talons.

After surviving for several months without any human contact save the scientists that would monitor his body’s reaction to the electrum, the Court deemed him ready for his first simple mission. To kill a low ranking member of the Court.

Dick refused.

The Court stepped up their game.

What followed were several months of indoctrination and veritable brainwashing through various methods. At the end of it Dick was actively suppressing any and all memories of his old life until he eventually ended up forgetting even his own name and started to refer to himself as Takon.

The next time the Court asked him to kill for them, he complied.

(Two years and many gruesome missions later they put him into the cryostasis chamber for the first time.

Dick felt his heartbeat slow down and his muscles lock—- but he didn’t lose consciousness. He remembers ever single moment of being stuck in the cold, in the darkness, dead but at the same time not.)

[rattys-prinxiety-countdown]

HE'S FINALLY DONE! This would have been posted hours ago but the day got away from me and I needed to catch up. Presenting the one, the only, Intruality fusion Cox! (Thank you to @frogsandsquids for the name recommendation, I hope you like it!)

Intruality is admittedly not a ship I know a lot about, or initially one I liked very much. At the start of creating this fusion, I had no idea how to mesh a character I adore (Remus) with one I don't really care for (Patton). I gave it my all to figure out what worked, and what didnt 😩. I started with trying to do a something that leaned into a creepy/cute aesthetic (Sort of like Melanie Martinez if you know her vibe??) but then my friends thought I should try to lean more into a "Sexy Dad" aesthetic, so it got scrapped, and I restarted. Two more times. (HUGE thanks to my friend Miles, who let me bounce ideas off them for hours before I settled on what became the final product.)

Beyond the designing nightmare, this took way longer than it should have (9 hours) but I have a good excuse. I was testing new skills and trying new things during this process. This was the first time I tried giving my art a thicker outline to make it pop. Also, this was the first time I made a piece where I had to add "layers of clothing" to the base layer. Click more to see what I mean

BOOM! Hes a jester!

This is Cox (He/They). This fusion has a love for jokes, pranks, and above all, baking (who cares if only 10 percent of the time the recipe goes according to plan, we're measuring with our HEARTS, and NOT with the recipe cards!)

Thanks again to my friend Miles, I got some ideas for how this fusion behaves. One may think the fusion would be a little sexual or even flirtatious, but anything Cox comes up with goes through the Patton-Pending Dad™ filter. He's very affectionate, and unfortunately, can be little overbearing/annoying without realizing it. He constantly deflects with humor, and is a little self deprecating, but they're working on it and doing a hell of a job.

Lets talk about the mask. (This gets a little heavy and I do apologize for that)

It was initially going to stay bunny ears until Miles+CO. talked me out of it. The mask is literal. Cox uses it to mask himself, and put out a very bubbly "Patton-like" persona. He choses to keep the "less happy, family friendly" part of himself away from view while Patton and Remus work on it from the inside. They enjoy the quiet time they get while baking, and it gives the Remus inside Cox to experiment with some less than ideal recipes.

There's so much I still want to say I'm just forgetting. I will point out that Miles hasn't even seen Sanders Sides, all the information they got (and by extension, the ideas they passed onto me) were given from the Sanders Sides Wikis 😭 he took the time out of his day to research Sanders Sides lore and I'm so appreciative of it. They also sketched an idea for their own Intruality fusion, but admittedly its got an incredibly angsty, dark theme and I dunno if he's ok with me sharing it.

I'll be working on the analogical fusion next! It will be here soon-ish!

Ps: I went digging for some intruality fusions to gain ANY sort of inspiration for this, and instead found tons and tons of fanart. I came out of this understanding the appeal of the ship a lot more and *dramatic sigh* woe is me,,,, i ship them now 🤭

[srmt-zine]

At last, some details!

(A while back on @srmthg we had a zine interest check, and it remains open for any additional suggestions/feedback about what you'd like the zine to be (you can also shoot this blog an ask) but I don't plan on doing a second interest check. If enough people feel this is a mistake, there's still time to do one, but as it stands I don't see the point. I will continue to accept feedback and take it into account moving forward!)

By the way, my name is @netbug009 and I'm your friendly head mod for this project! This will be my first time running a zine, but I've been helping run projects in this fandom for 18 years!

The Format

SRMTHG Zine (cooler name tbd) will be a free PDF zine scheduled to release on September 18th, 2024, AKA the 20th anniversary of the series' first episode!

I know a lot of folks (myself included) like to have nice, shiny, hard copies of zines, and I hope to get the zine onto a publishing on demand site such as Lulu to let people buy them at-print-cost if they'd like, but a free digital edition will be the first priority. Since this zine is a celebration of the anniversary of a relatively small fandom, I want as many people to be able to access and enjoy it as possible! Plus, this is my first time running a zine, so I think it's smart to keep it simple. This also lets us worry less about page counts - if a lot of cool people contribute cool stuff, a PDF can be a chonk as we want!

The Content

The zine will include both fanart and fan fiction (and maybe even a few QR codes to some other digital goodies like AMVs and fanmixes if there's enough contributor interest!)

Light shipping will be allowed, with a few exceptions - no adult x child and no monkey x human ships will be allowed. (This was THE overwhelming request in the interest check and is not open for debate.)

We're going for a general vibe and love the idea of getting copies into the hands of voice actors/staff, which should give you a rough idea of the type of content we're going for - if it's too creepy/fetishy to hand to Ciro at a convention, it's too creepy/fetishy for the book. (That said, Monkey Team is a very silly and weird show with a love for classic horror tropes so I hope people don't let that limit their imaginations too much if they wanna do something spoopy!)

NO AI WORK WILL BE USED OR ACCEPTED IN THE CREATION OF THIS ZINE. I hope that'd be a given but just to be 100% clear, no.

The (Rough) Timeline

March 2024 - Contributor Applications Open!

April 22nd - Zine members selected and invited to Discord

May 1st - Zine members finalized

June 1st - Zine check-in 1

July 1st - Zine check-in 2

August 1st - Zine pieces due!

September 1st - Zine layout finalization due!

September 18th - ZINE RELEASED!

You might notice this is a pretty long timeline for a zine and we're starting pretty early; because this fandom is fairly small and this is a big occasion, I want to provide extra time so that as many people can hear about the project and participate as possible.

If you're looking for something to do until contributor apps open, SIGNAL BOOST, SIGNAL BOOST, SIGNAL BOOST! Reblog, post to Twitter, tell your friends, get the word out so this can be the biggest celebration it possibly can! If you make any graphics in your quest to help get the word out, PLEASE tag this blog so they can be shared!

Aaaand that's the basics! Again, feel free to send an ask with any additional questions. If you're considering applying in January, it's never too early to start sketching/considering ideas!

[pippin-katz]

Reference To Heathers In Dead Boy Detectives

I was going through some of my notebooks and journals yesterday, and I found a composition notebook I got from a concert-style performance of Heathers: The Musical. It has yellow typewriter-style stickers on it that says the very first line of the show.

"September 1st, 1989: Dear Diary..."

My brain buffered so hard I gasped out loud. Obviously, that's the same year Charles died. At first, I was like, "Oh that's a cool coincidence!"

But then my brain went deeper, because I have seen and reblogged a piece of fanart of the Dead Boys with a caption referencing a quote from the film that was turned into a musical number: "I love my dead, gay son."

For those who are confused as hell, probably cause you're unfamiliar with the film/show, this is when I started to think it might not be a coincidence, and I'll explain why!

Brad & Hunter = Ram & Kurt

Anyone who knows Heathers is probably starting to be like, "OMG that's a great comparison!" But I'm not sure if this is just a comparison, or actually a hidden reference to Heathers.

⚠️ Warning! ⚠️ Heathers is a black comedy, also referred to as a dark comedy or morbid humor, meaning it makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discuss. TW: suicide, murder, attempted nonconsensual sex, homophobia Short Synopsis of Heathers: Veronica tries to join a toxic clique of three girls named Heather who rule high school. A new bad boy named Jason Dean, JD for short, arrives at the school. The two of them develop a relationship that leads to the murders and coverups of several of their incredibly toxic classmates.

(For those who want more specifics, to better understand the movie, keep reading. For those who don't need or want to read it, skip down to where the text turns back to the end of the parathesis and the text goes back to normal size.

Veronica was a nobody, but is gradually being inducted into the Heathers group. There are three Heathers: Heather Chandler, Heather Duke, and Heather McNamara. Veronica is an excellent forger, able to replicate hand writing. JD is new to school and gets sought out at lunch by the two biggest jocks, Ram and Kurt. They try to intimidate him, but it backfires because he pulls out a handgun. He shoots at them with blank bullets, scaring the shit out of them.

JD is a deeply traumatized and troubled person due to his shitty father, and the fact that his mother committed suicide in front of him when he was a kid by entering a building she knew was about to be demolished by her husband's construction company. His view on humanity is skewed and grim, and he can get violent when provoked or angered. He believes in extreme action to a sociopathic level, in this case, removing the problematic people who are the root of the toxicity in order to make a happier society.

Veronica and JD get into a relationship after she fights with Heather Chandler at a party. They go over to her house in the morning to suck up to her, but it ends in her death (will be explained). To cover it up, Veronica forges a suicide note.

JD sees it as a win, because with her gone and the contents of her fake suicide note, everyone is starting to be nicer to each other and be more open about their feelings. Veronica is torn up because she accidentally killed her "best friend" and "worst enemy", and also sees JD's point.

It spirals from there, but that should be enough specifics of the plot and characters for you to understand the rest of the essay better, at least in the sense of the tone of the film.)

Heather Chandler, the first victim, was killed because Veronica accidentally gave her toxic sink cleaner JD had joked about giving her instead of the hangover cure they're concocting. They stage it as a suicide so they don't get in trouble, but Veronica is a bit shaken, obviously. It was an accident, at least for her; JD saw her pick up the wrong mug and chose not to tell her.

The next victim, or victims, is a pair of jocks who are the coolest guys on the football team, Ram Sweeney and Kurt Kelly. They sexually assault Veronica (unsuccessfully), lie about it to the school newspaper, claiming they had a threesome to humiliate her. She's upset, JD is furious, and they are the most toxic guys in the school. JD comes up with the idea to "prank" them; they'll "shoot" them and make it look like a gay suicide pact with a note and stereotypical gay items, humiliating them when they wake up. This is the '80s, so homophobia was super common.

Veronica thinks they're going to use fake bullets on them, but JD obviously lies and puts real bullets in the guns. They do the "prank", JD kills Ram, but Veronica misses Kurt. She's laughing because they scared the shit out of them, but JD chases him down to finish the job. She realizes Ram is not unconscious, but dead, and JD kills Kurt as well. They stage it as a gay suicide pact in order not to get caught, again.

A funeral is held for the two boys, and in the film, one of their father's goes up to the casket and tearfully declares he's not going to be homophobic anymore, ending with the line: "I love my dead, gay son."

A line so iconic that it got an entire musical number in the musical adaptation, with the line being the title and part of the chorus. It is absolutely hilarious.

Now, let's break that down into a simplified list:

two jocks who the coolest members on their team

said jocks have a reputation of mistreating girls

said mistreatment of girls leads to their murder

said murder is covered up by making it look like something self-induced

said murder is also committed unintentionally with the goal simply to make them unconscious

The fifth episode of Dead Boy Detectives is the same thing in a different font! Brad and Hunter were to two most popular jocks, on the baseball team rather than football team. They treated girls horribly, something Ram and Kurt were also notorious for. It's because of the way they treated Maren that they end up being killed, just like Ram and Kurt's treatment of Veronica is the cause for their deaths. Both of the murders are made to look self-induced, an intentional suicide pact for Ram and Kurt, and an accidental alcohol poisoning for Brad and Hunter. Both murders are also not intended to be murders by the girls behind them; Veronica and Maren both believe that they will only be knocking them out, not killing them.

That is a lot of specific parallels!

But what makes me even more suspicious of it being intentional is the fact that Twitchy Richie literally says, "But I also heard they died in a secret gay suicide pact."

Back in the '80s? Unfortunately somewhat common, that's why they used in Heathers. It was made in the '80s and takes place in the '80s. Veronica and JD used it because it was easy to believe, and unlikely to draw suspicion. Back then, if something looked like a suicide, complete with a forged note, props, and whatnot, they tended not to bother investigating further; that's especially believable for a gay suicide since homophobia was so high.

Now? Definitely wouldn't be one of the first explanations you would think of. If a pair of guys died in a car accident, or surfing, or an activity they are doing together, and they did not have any indicators of it being suicide and/or queer (straight dudes Brad and Hunter's alcohol poisoning), I'm pretty sure "secret gay suicide pact" would not come up in the conversation by anyone other than conspiracy theorists, or dickheads like Richie. Crystal even refers to him bringing it up and making the "giving each other hand jobs" comment as him making "gay jokes". It's not even remotely considered to be an actual theory. He said it just to be an asshole.

There's also a small correlation that the only other victim in Heathers is Heather Chandler. Of the three victims, she's the only girl, and she also "commits suicide", at least in the eyes of the public. There is a third death relating to Brad and Hunter's case: Shelby. She's the singular female victim who actually commits suicide.

That is just too many similarities and parallels for it to be a coincidence, right? This all has to be an intentional nod to Heathers, right??

(ko-fi)

[blackbutlerfandomnerddomain]

Twst au where everyone of the nrc student bois are dating kalim

All of them. The whole (named) nrc cast

Headcanons?? 👀

Boo this was originally meant to be posted FOREVER AGO but this took me so long to finally find the words, find fanart, fics were discovered, prompts were randomly generated, and at long last the Kalim Harem Ship is here~!

First off, theme songs:

I can most defiantly picture him singing any of these to his partners, especially extra flirty or if he senses they're insecure.

I see him singing Perfect and Just the Way you Are to basically Jamil, Riddle, Azul, and Idia while he sings If I Had You in all his concerts or just goofy and flirty in the living room

Spoils his lover A LOT

Ruggie and Azul and Vil are loving it a bit too much lol

Nothing happened for a while and EVERYONE was collectively equally flustered and shy about the fact they love the same guy, some where holding back and giving up for others while others just didn't know how to act with these feelings

Meanwhile Kalim knew he liked them all just didn't see a issue of it until his family pressured him to think about the line of brides they picked out for him

He kept thinking back on everything and decided he was just gonna date someone from NRC to get them off his back

BUT HE COULDN'T PICK!

Ace's freckles were so cute

Deuce's sweetness and loyal soul melts his heart

Jack's muscles are a bonus but he adores his fluffy tail

Epel's attitude on rules and how you should act inspire him

He finds Sebek's eyes the prettiest gems in the world

Riddle's red hair is a beautiful red and his brave soul is a plus

Ruggie's humor is magic to his soul and his big heart doesn't help!

Azul's confidence and singing are a peaceful spell

Floyd's energy is amazing and his food is amazing

Jade's honesty is refreshing and his hobbies, though weird, are cute

And Jamil, what can he not name what he loves about Jamil???

Silver's eyes and quirky sleep habits drew that boy like a moth to a flame

Trey's baking and kind eyes and his loyalty wins his heart instantly

Cater's personality equals his own and his eyes and smile are the brightest star in the galaxy

Leona's chill attitude on royal stuff makes him calm and his purrs and loyalty to those who are "lesser" than him makes it better

Vil's beauty was a win sure but he was drawn first with those beautiful colors and singing voice but stayed due to his mind

Rook's view of beauty and his strong loyalty was impressive and hot lets be honest for him and the laughter they share is treasure

Idia's unique beauty and speech makes him curious, even more with how much he cares for his brother dearly

Malleus' curiously and fascination of everything and everyone was a selling point alongside his kind soft nature

And Lilia's humor, his style, his loyalty and bravery saves him from a sad day when no one else could help him

WHY WAS HE IN A SCHOOL FULL OF BEAUTIFUL AND PERECT MEN AND BABES!?!

It finally came to light when Kalim finally broke during school and hid in Scarabia for almost a week, not even Jamil could convince him to come out which was when alarms starting going off for the servant boy

Jamil finally informed the other dorm leaders and those who ask Kalim seems to not be feeling well and now everyone's worried for Kalim and all go to see him in Scarabia.

EVEN IDIA WENT OUT OF HIS HOME TO CHECK ON HIM!

Kalim's denying hard of the reason until Jamil, through push and shove, made him confess by ordering the truth with Ruggie's power's help keeping him still

Kalim tearfully confessed, crying harder as he vent outside Snake's Whisper and sobbed about his feelings for them all soon after

Everyone was like "You like him..? Wait me? Wait what-" at first until Jamil wiped Kalim's face with a tissue and soothed him and then Silver piped up he liked Kalim back

This soon started a string after Sebek got jealous and confessed too which made Ace jealous and yeah you get the picture everyone said they liked Kalim back and Kalim was growing more and more red

Everyone basically left alone for the rest of the week to decide what he wants to do

No one slept that week not even Silver as they contemplated what'll happen and fearing the friendship of Kalim and the others will be ruined

Riddle held a secret late night meeting, first time he broke a rule in a while, with Trey, Cater, Ace, and Deuce and they chatted a bit before Riddle confessed saying he's willing to abandoned his feelings if that means they are happy

Leona, Ruggie, and Jack were a bit tense but Jack sat them down and talked in which Leona said he wouldn't be shocked if Kalim preferred someone else

Ocavinelle were shocked to see the Leech Twins and Azul argue one night about the other being selfish and soon all exclaimed "Kalim wouldn't want a ugly octopus/crazy eel/forgotten one like me!" which shuts them up and even Floyd apologizes for fighting with them

Jamil did so much to not let the idea of Kalim loving others hurt him. He accepted since his first realization of his feelings won't be good but he can't help but be angry and sad about the idea Kalim was hurting

Epel was very open about voicing how he feels about the situation. Him, Rook, and Vil were really showing their ugly flaws during some nights when they fought over A) I deserve him more and B) You're a coward to give up

Idia just locked down most. He accepted he was no where near the top three picks for perfect boyfriend for Kalim but as those hours ticked he slowly felt sick as he couldn't stop seeing Kalim smiling at him

Draconia, similar to Savanaclaw, was tense for a while. But like Heartslabyul, they hosted a secret meeting to discuss the options before them when they kind of got emotional with jealous emotions than sadness about what they were being like and huddling close like they used to back in the days

Then one day Kalim returned to physical classes. He started helping with Jamil's chores to make it easier for him, and everyone else was very easing back and just being good friends and not pushing him to give a verdict yet

This soon led to Kalim asking them to meet in Scarabia for a party which once everyone else hit the hay/left he confessed properly to them all including the things I mentioned above and in the end mentioned he likes them all the same and can't decide so he requested they all date each other to see what happens

There was some objections (mostly Jamil 'cuz "what would your family think'') but pretty much everyone soon agreed to try it out and will accept Kalim's choice if he decides differently (please send me a ask on their dates PLEASE DAMN THE LIMIT!)

This happened with Riddle one karaoke date ay Scarabia for all with Kalim recording (I like to hc he had a great voice)

Kalim was heart broken when he was still forced to find a bride despite loving so many, he fell deep into depression and the next concert sang this

Neige and Chenya didn't join until MUCH later due to them finding Kalim pretty and Kalim in turn asked them out, things got used for them right away

Vil and Neige sang this after catching one of this girls sent by his family (Vil being Jade and Neige being Cat)

LOTS OF CUDDLES

Jamil was the hardest to accept this change but soon grew as he saw how much the others mattered to them, since they also helped him in so many ways

Kalim uses Oasis Maker a lot for his partners, especially Floyd and Jade

Chenya gets so much pets from Kalim and food for Jamil lol

I want to do a part 2 and art! I'm sorry it's not much there's a word limit apparently so PLEASE ASK THIS AGAIN SO I CAN WRITE MORE OR HAVE A EXCUSE TO MAKE THIS MORE FUN!!