#I don't actually expect anyone to read this

[haywirecompass]

also something i haven't noticed being talked about - THE TEACHERS ARE USING IT TOO!!!

rarely, obviously, and not to the same extent but still. i was at a workshop and the teacher handed out these quotes with reflective prompts, and admitted proudly that she'd asked ChatGPT for them. she talked about easy it was to get teaching materials. this was a workshop aimed at PhD students! and it was about teaching! we were recommended to use AI to help us teach! i lost all interest in the workshop after that - if they don't respect me enough to put the effort in to create teaching materials, why should i respect them enough to put any effort in?

in that same vein, it helps me have some understanding for why students use it so much, or at least for why it is so tempting.

at my uni, the biology campus is really far away from the chemistry campus, and biochem students would often have to be late for lectures because a lecture on the biology campus would be straight after one on the chemistry campus or vice versa. if the uni couldn't respect these students' time enough to avoid that simple issue, why should they respect the uni and give it their time? why should they be expected to put extra work in to catch up on what was lost because of the uni's error? i can fully understand how that becomes "let the computer do it".

also at my uni (at least in the stem department), anyone wanting to so research at the university must also do some form of teaching as part of their contract. so you get these academics who haven't had any training in teaching at all, reading out dull, convoluted slides word for word, not being able to properly answer questions (not the academics' fault tbf but i know some that have been teaching for years and never bothered to do actual training). you also get TAs not even bothering to read the guidance, simply writing "good job" when they're meant to be providing actual constructive feedback. i can fully understand thinking "well ive put all this effort in and get nothing good back, so why keep putting the effort in?"

and in my first year, there was an absolutely brutal timetable of lectures and practical labs, each of the latyer with a lab report due 3 working days later. i know i personally have agreed with posts like "you should do all your assignments in a caffeine-fuelled haze at 3am", but in reality, i really can't see myself blaming anyone in that same spot for using a tool to help with that immense workload so that they can actually take care of their health and get the right amount of sleep. especially in that first year where maybe 20% is anywhere near to what they're interested in, but they're expected to be equally good at all of it. i'd rather kids resort to ChatGPT than study drugs, ya know?

like do i agree that there is this very concerning growing lack of critical thinking? absolutely. do i think there is truth to the merit of pushing through those intense workloads? yeah at least somewhat. do i despair for the students who are refusing to grow their critical thinking skills and are relying on AI to do it for them? of course!!!

but i just think a lot of people are ignoring that it is starting to go both ways.

at the same workshop, we were asked to research a concept, and 3 out of the 5 in the group immediately went to ChatGPT. and like, INSISTED we just use that summary. these are postgrads doing masters and PhDs. we were given post it notes to write something very simple and i had to remind people like 7-8 times that the colours of the post-its meant nothing and what the task actually was. now that is what truly scares me. these people assumingly got their undergrad degree before ChatGPT was a thing, but as soon as it became available, they gave up all that knowledge and critical thinking to make the machine do it for them. same goes for the academics encouraging people to use AI the same way.

Generative AI has destroyed academia.

In the next few decades we’re going to have thousands of people who don’t really know anything, and can’t do any critical thinking.

[mainblogonly]

hinata x streamer!reader | fluff | gn!reader | lowercase intentional

it's a pr day for msby - which means a day full of photoshoots and interviews and smiling at every camera in sight.

despite his teammate's brewing annoyance at having to deal with all of this, hinata honestly enjoys it! he gets to talk about the sport he loves, show off the physique he's worked so hard on, and make connections with all the different production team members (which he thinks is very important, especially since he's still a rookie).

he's now on his second to the last interview of the day, seated across his companion for the next half hour or so—the interviewer.

"all right, we'll do some fun quick-fire questions for the fans to get to know you a bit more. sound good?"

"absolutely," hinata flashes a smile.

he easily flies through the questions, throwing in a joke or two to the interviewer's delight. they go through a wide range of questions from his pre-game ritual to his favorite snack.

"celebrity crush?" the interviewer asks, expecting the name of a popular supermodel or actor but still hoping for something a little more interesting.

"Y/N." hinata replies, with absolutely zero hesitation.

"Y/N?"

"they're a streamer. you might see them in some of my friend kenma's streams, too! they're sweet, funny, gorgeous—"

"do i smell something more than just a celebrity crush on this streamer?" the interviewer teases.

"something like that," hinata winks. "i'm just saying, my dms are open."

"alright, alright," the interviewer laughs, before moving on to the other questions and wrapping up the interview.

what the interviewer—and the rest of the world—don't know is that he's been in your dm's for the past year. in fact, he's heading over to your apartment once this pr day is over (and he's actually been staying over for the past few weekends). neither of you have announced anything, and he just has so much fun being a tease about all of this.

as hinata intended, your chat goes absolutely wild after the interview goes live a week later. he would know—he's in the room with you as you deal with all the excitement from your fans. little do you know, he has a little plan for this stream.

"okay, before anyone else asks," you prompt as more viewers tune into your stream, "yes i saw the interview. yes i am very flattered. yes i think he's cute. no i did not slide into his dms—"

"actually, i slid into theirs." hinata pops his head in frame for your stream, for the first time ever, talking directly to your viewers.

the chat pretty much explodes while you panic and try to recover from this huge reveal.

OMG he's there with you?

pls be on a date

is this fr or are yall messing with us

OK SEEING YALL TOGETHER I GET ITTTTTTT

we defs need the whole story NOWWWWWW

"guys- hold on- wait- i wouldn't stream during a date- listen- the whole story- well-" you stutter out.

"aren't they cute when they're nervous?" hinata drapes his arm around your shoulders, leaning in to read all the messages coming through the chat.

"sho, not now," you gently whine, leaning into his touch anyway.

"yeah, yeah, i'll let you get to your game," he whispers as he kisses the top of your head. "just wanted 'em to know i'm yours."

he stands up straighter and, before moving back to his spot off-screen, he turns to the camera.

"you guys can't really be that shocked, right? she's had this orange sticker on her headset for months. and my jacket is right there." he laughs, pointing to the background.

"stop, now they're going to overanalyze every single thing in my room," you laugh, gently pushing him off camera.

he sends you a wink before moving back to his usual spot to watch you stream.

(you end up having to hold a special stream later to answer a bunch of questions about your relationship and how you two got together)

[hbosscreations]

Gonna be vulnerable on main for a hot second because my special interest is breaking me.

Background: I used to write crazy amounts of fanfiction. I still read an unhealthy amount of fanfiction. I edited so much smut (sadly very poorly) on adultfanfiction.net when I was a teenager. My favorite baby was a Red vs Blue fanfic that as of today hasn't been updated since 2019 and has 314,000 words not including one shots on the side.

I basically stopped writing in 2018. The demons were winning. It was a bad time for me.

August 2023, I rediscovered Hellblazer's existence thanks to tumblr.

I had a vague sort of knowledge about it, the kind of thing one absorbs when you're a kid and your stepfather is really into comics, but you're only allowed to look at the ones he doesn't really care about, so you end up reading about random characters you've never heard of and chunks of event comics that he freaking hates, but keeps buying anyway and also you had to watch the movie in secret because it's an abomination and anyone who likes it deserves to be (all manner of vile harm).

What can I say, the story of a mentally ill person so damaged that they lash out at the world around them and chase people off while also desperately wanting to be liked and not be alone? Of a person who's become good at tricking people because 'normal' interactions are fake and they can't have friends without bribes or manipulation because they feel so unlovable? A person who constantly loses friends, family, and loved ones because they're fucked up and when they fuck up, it directly hurts the people around them?

Let's just say, I vibe hard with the material in question for personal reasons.

I'm 1/4 through my second read of the original vertigo line because I know I didn't absorb everything the first time around. I expect that when I've done this, I'll want round three. I've got the spinoffs, I've got the reboots, I've got several movies, and one of the novels. I haven't had this much energy to read in years. I'm obsessed. It's opening the doors up for other projects I've put on the back burner thanks to my crippling depression.

I have feelings about the 2019 run, Marks of Woe and The Best Version of You. Complicated feelings. Feelings that make my fingers itch in the best way.

October 2023, I started writing again. Really writing. I can't call anything I write good, because it's the reader who decides if something is good or not, and I'm not done being the writer yet.

But I'm finally making the clicky clacky noises on my keyboard again and it feels like coming home.

I'm doing research, I'm throwing scenes together, I'm expanding on characterization for characters that barely exist. Thriving. Vibing. As of today I'm at 111,972 words written, and 18,000 of that was done in the past four days.

I'm so sad.

No one should care this much about anything. It's isolating and frustrating that there is no one in the world who cares as much as I do. And they shouldn't. It's not fair to expect people to care about the things I care about just because I want them to.

I have several people in my life who very patiently sit and let me talk at them about my comics and my writing progress and my feelings about where things are going and the things I've learned. They are so kind to tolerate me, because I know that I'm a lot and not a one of them cares at all about any of it, the way I don't really care about cars or glazing pottery or boho fashion or gel nail techniques.

I sit and listen and try to take in the information because it makes them happy, but it's not fun in the slightest, so I get it from the other angle.

Conventional advice says you should write for yourself, but if I believed that, I would never bother typing anything. I've spent my whole life with my stupidly vivid imagination, a rich inner world was and is necessary for my survival. I'm that person who can use all five sense when imagining a boat on the water, so making up a story for myself is a thing I barely need to think about.

My longest lasting hobby is 'fixing' movies in my head. My grandfather told me once I started 'making stories better' before I was reading (grain of salt with that one).

The act of physical creation has never been something I do for me. I wrote D&D campaigns and settings and painted minis and built model battlegrounds for my friends. I handmade gifts because that was what my family said they valued. I wrote fanfiction because there were people who shared my interest and would talk to me about the topic.

I'm so far into this, and for what? For me? Fuck that, I could have been done with this months ago if this was for me.

But if it's not for me, who is it for? I don't know anyone else who cares this much about a very specific storyline from a niche comic series. No one I know in person is ever going to read it, not a word, and I wouldn't expect them to. Frankly, I think if one of my friends did say they read it and was ambivalent about the actual text as they are about me trying to talk about themes, I might just crawl under my bed and never come back out.

But if it's not for me and it's not for anyone else, why am I doing this? There's not an answer here.

I feel like the demons might be winning again and I just haven't realized.

[egophiliac]

A-anime?

you know, sometimes I forget that Twst is actually an isekai that starts with the protagonist getting run over by an inexplicable horse-drawn carriage. and every time I'm reminded is a delight because that's AMAZING.

also. look. okay. there's a lot of very fun stuff in the trailer but I am obsessed with that Crowley surprised pikachu face. me when I spend all my keys and gems literally hours before they announce overblot SSRs and drop the anime trailer:

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

Sasha going from thin popular cheerleader popular pretty girl before Amphibia and coming back taller and with muscle and covered in scars and maybe missing an eye and with hair short like a boy and she's no longer considered as pretty as she was before, to the point her mother takes hoursssss doing her daughter's makeup to cover her face scar or getting her an uncomfortable but hyperrealistic eye prosthetic (when she wanted one custom-made to look like Grime's eye) and trying to put her on some weird diet to make her lose muscle?? Which just made her feel tired and sick because she got it from shady internet articles. Getting kicked out of the cheerleading team despite being 10 times better than she was before with her amazing strength and agility because she has too many scars and looks scary to her old teammates instead of attractive now (why her coach is concerned about how attractive a middle-schoolers are is never questioned though). She's still popular and has a lot of cool made up stories about being missing in the woods and having to fight mountain lions with her bare hands or something, but it's different now. The new friendships she makes are more genuine, maybe she gets into some other team sport and while she can never tell anyone everything, she's a lot more emotionally honest now. Marcy designs her a beautiful prosthetic that looks exactly how she wanted and is a lot more comfortable and wears it despite her mother's complains. Now she almost kinda looks like the man (toad?) she actually wishes were her parent! How cool is that? Ugh, she just knows he would help her cope with the headaches and poor vision far better than her parents do. Her dad doesn't really care. He just looks at her weird when she does anything that requires even the littlest bit of strength, like helping him change a tire or carrying big boxes lmao. She's not even that butchy! Just a lil bit sometimes, she does like her sports and short hair, and picking up her girlfriends like they weight nothing (oh it gives her such a power rush!) but she still loves her skirts and dresses too! And she still thinks she looks great in them! She tells herself this must be how Captain Beatrix looked like during military galas, if she ever took off that uniform of her. It's certainly how Braddock would look. Somehow seeing herself through toad beauty standards helps a lot. Reminds her of how Anne would come back home dirty and sweaty and covered in mud after her parents took her on some day-long family trip to the mountains to look for frogs, happy and smiling so brightly, because "Hop Pop used to say 'if it ain't a little bit muddy, it ain't honest work'". And she knows Marcy feels a little bit better about her cane and crutches and wheelchair thinking about Andrias, and how much he changed his body to stay alive and look strong and healthy. Her body may not work the way it used to, but at least it doesn't have anything weird in it, at least she doesn't have robot parts - they got rid of the ports in her arms and legs just fine - at least it's all hers again. Plus, the weakness in her legs gives her a great excuse to ask for piggyback rides from her strong, beautiful girlfriend.

[hellooobees]

I can't stop thinking about how the show sets up selfishness and selflessness as two sides of the same coin. How do you walk the line between making sure your loved ones can achieve their own dreams even if it means hurting yourself, and hurting your loved ones because you're hurting yourself for their sake?

It all goes back to Thame putting up his wish on the orange tree that he'll make all of the other members' dreams come true. Thame, who agrees to a shitty contract and works himself to the bone and makes it completely his burden to prove that Mars is a good investment for the company. Thame, who is made to believe that that very act of love and sacrifice is only debilitating his friends' dreams and the only way to keep his original promise is to leave.

We see Thame essentially being back at square one in this episode. He has to leave and go to Korea alone so the people he loves can achieve their dreams. But so much has changed since then. Thame had found hope, that he could simultaneously keep his promise and be selfish to want both his band and his partner. He's once again been working himself to the bone, giving up all of his time and attention between the band and Po, because his tiredness is such a small price to pay to turn that dream into reality. Why wouldn't he gladly take on all of that tiredness and more?

But despite all of the groundbreaking things he's achieved and everything he's given of himself, it doesn't work. His friends break down around him possibly reigniting the same insecurities from earlier that he worked so hard to ensure wouldn't come to pass. His boyfriend breaks up with him despite Thame promising to take on all of the burden and tiredness to make it work. He's being forced to leave everyone behind and he's being left behind too.

That flip from Thame being convinced that the best thing for him to do would be to leave for everyone else's sake, to the rest of Mars and Po being convinced that the best thing for them to do is to step back for Thame's sake is so so important to me. It's not just Thame who made making his friends' dreams come true into his own dream. The rest of Mars and Po did the same thing with Thame's dream. But how does it all work when the sacrifices you're willing to make for the dreams of your loved ones are at the cost of their happiness because they're at the cost of your own?

Thame's effort didn't go to waste. We see all of that effort manifesting in how it opens doors for the other members and Po so much more easily now. But it's also true that at the base of those new successes lie the shattered hopes of that shared dream between them.

The show sets up the question of whether the person who's leaving others behind feels hurt, and we see so many iterations of it. We see Earn leaving behind the person who was an instrumental part of his success without a second thought. We see Thame giving himself up and leaving for the band's sake. We see Jun leave twice, the first so that his friend would for once think of himself and his own success instead of letting the others drag him away from it, and the second when he's sure that his friend can be what the person that he cares for deserves. We see Pepper being completely willing to leave if the two biggest parts of his life cannot exist together and we see Gam actually leaving when it proves to be true. And we see Po leave because he cannot let himself become an obstacle in Thame's path and make all of their efforts come to waste. If that's the price to pay so that the people they love can have what they want then so be it, right? Their sacrifices are insignificant in the face of that.

But what happens when all those sacrifices still aren't enough? When the cost becomes too huge to bear?

[bujlililu]

I originally wasn't gonna do this (because of embarrassment and shame), but whatever, we ball.

A bit of extra info/explanation:

Nightmare is hated mostly by everyone (who would have thought), but family relationships are messy and complicated. And then there's Ink. And my character. And Ccino who just has to run his cafe despite the occasional visit.

The 'different timeline' kinda just means that the relationship isn't simultaneously happening while all the others are, but instead in a different timeline/universe.

The relationship with Fresh is simply from my character's side

Likewise, their and Ink's 'friendship' is also strained because of conflicting goals and mindsets

Chart by @signanothername

[appystruda]

Small ramble about my art

[rmbunnie]

Another little inconsequential red hood thing and I'll admit that I'm decently biased but it irks me to see the whole "Jason can't shut up about his death/he makes his death everyone else's problem" take really frequently because he simply does not do that enough for it to be a thing in like any actual Red Hood story.

It's a thing you see sometimes in modern annuals/comics with large casts, particularly if a writer doesn't seem super confident with writing all of the characters that they're working with or if he's just a background character in this one, because with comics it's quicker to reduce a character to recognizable landmarks than to try and work out a whole new complex voice if you don't really need to, so it's tire iron, Jane Austen, Joker, and death, and it's all written out in dialogue because every character in a group event can't have their own internal monologue, but like. That's pretty much it. UTRH is the establishing event for Jason Todd post death so of course a lot of it is about his death, although it's arguably about the lack of response to his death more than his death itself, and he certainly makes it Bruce's issue but one beef doesn't make a trend. Plus if his death is anyone's issue beyond his own Bruce and Joker are like the number one guys whose issue it is. He THINKS about his death a ton in Lost Days, but it doesn't really reflect externally on any of his interactions besides with Joker, which again, that's justified and relevant beef. Teen Titans 29 is more about his place in the hero community/feeling like he was an outsider even before the bomb/Tim being the new robin than about his death, and side note, that being counted as an attempt on Tim's life also bugs me. He beat him up and then left of his own volition. That's not an assassination attempt its called a fight, albeit a sneaky and unfair one. But anyways. I can't speak on Battle for the Cowl because i haven't read it, both that and Batman and Robin 2009 don't really compel me, but it's entirely possible that's an outlier to my point seeing as I kinda sorta haven't read it and don't care to lmao. Even New 52 (although HIGHLY unpopular) and Rebirth/Dawn of DC/Whatever we're doing now Red Hood content don't really have him talking to people about it besides the occasional little quips. He might make stances that were developed because of his death other people's problem, like in the Mia Dearden Green Arrow situation with the "getting involved in other people's business" issue, but acting like he makes specifically his death everyone else's problem is ignoring all of the perfectly valid actually canon things he makes other people's problem. Most of the unpleasant traits he brings to the table are a result of his death and the sense of abandonment and betrayal that came with it, but that doesn't mean he's bringing his death into it when he acts unpleasantly any more than he's bringing his birth into it when he shows up in the first place. The consequences do not equal the event. All this to say it's irritating when people say the character is grating because he doesn't stop whining about his death when that kinda just indicates to me that they're working off fanon based on fanon based on kinda mid batman annual.

[ayrennaranaaldmeri]

the fact is, if varric lives (and that's an if bc maybe solas does kill him lmao idk how much to trust that minimap reveal) it IS weird that you can't customise a hawke or account for the decision because it would be a little weird if a man who has lived through a wannabe god + blight dragon attacking warden fortress has nothing to say about ghilan'nain and her blight dragon attacking a warden fortress, especially if he potentially lost his best friend (Hawke). It's not outlandish for people to be a little disappointed to not get some customisation there because the choices are not equal to varric. the loss of hawke is obviously a bigger impact on him than whichever warden is there. given varric's personality, it's not outlandish to expect him to talk about it with Rook either especially considering weisshaupt is a thing that happens in the game. if he dies beforehand it doesn't matter, but if he's going to be around? yeah you'd think he'd be talking about it here.

speaking of weisshaupt, A PLACE YOU GET TO GO, a hero of ferelden who made the ultimate sacrifice IS FUCKING INTERRED THERE. But it's just "whining" to expect a nod (esp one that you can customise so it's your hero of ferelden) i guess.

regardless of whether morrigan has mythal or not, who she is as a person does change based on whether she was romanced and whether she had a child. it is natural that this matters and people aren't stupid to be tentatively concerned that nothing of her history is "required" but she's apparently this important vip character who will have more involvement in the game than you expect. like you are allowed to ask: okay what does this mean, what will she be like, will she be the same character i've loved across multiple games?

people are allowed to be upset or concerned that a game series that historically took your choices and your decisions into account has watered that down to 3 choices when certain choices that WOULD impact characters that appear in THIS game aren't. (and to be clear being upset does not mean harassing the devs, don't do that).

[asgardian--angels]

....idk in a fandom this gigantic how are people already coalescing onto a handful of popular headcanons and scenarios that just become the baseline now, when the source material gives us literally limitless possibilities to work with

[the-one-who-lambs]

I wrote 1400 words today in 3 hours, which is absolutely nuts for me (usually I write in like 1, max 2 hour sessions, and get like 200-500 done on days that I write). I'm tempted to write more, but I'm just about to finish the first big scene of the chapter and if I leave that for myself tomorrow that gives me a really easy starting point to get into a good flow again.

My chapters are usually about 6k-7k on average. I warned y'all in advance that I expected this to be the longest chapter in the entire fic, because this (and ch 16+17) are going to be the most character development-heavy, climactic parts of the narrative. And since I'm want to make this chapter in particular hit like a motherfucker, I am being very generous about not rushing the pacing here. So far Chapter 15 is 4500 words, and my god do I want to write more of it right now, but I know damn well that overall writing more consistently in shorter sessions gives me much better results so I'm going to let my creative batteries recharge.

Normally, I don't make my writing any longer than it needs to be, because I am able to take the events of what could be a 15k chapter and make it just as effective in, say, 5-7k, and it's taken a lot of skill development to be able to do that successfully and without much difficulty. However, (I hope) I have enough practice with the "rules/standards" of "good writing" that I'm experimenting with breaking that particular convention intentionally.

Which is... not usually what my readers expect from my updates lmao. So I'm giving y'all a warning in advance:

I'm gonna estimate that this chapter's gonna be 13k-15k. Probably 12k at the absolute minimum. Will it actually take too much longer than a regular chapter? Probably not a whole lot because I'm in the creative-energy-overflow stage of chapter writing that gets me so in the zone that I've powered through half the chapter in a week before I know it.

[platinumgigi]

you know, in light of the Great James Somerton Callout Double Feature™ recently, it made me think back to when i used to watch James' videos. i wasn't an avid fan and never watched his streams or anything so i couldn't have any inkling of the plagiarism on my own, but this all now reminded me of one instance where he made a point of something in one of his videos that was so blatantly wrong, it made me wonder "wait...did you even watch the thing you're talking about?"

and that was with his video on the Owl House, because i believe there was a bit near-ish to the end where he's talking about the open queer representation in TOH, and at the time the video came out the show itself hadn't concluded yet, but he mentioned alongside the not only very canon Lumity as representation the show had to offer, he also mentioned...that the show was hinting at there being a potential romantic relation between Hunter and Gus????

and that had grabbed my attention and made me confused, because...no?? did we watch the same show??? cause if you've watched the Owl House not only would you know that Hunter was 16 and Gus was 12, which is really stretching it in terms of acceptable age gaps, but also...their relationship was not like that, and didn't have any sort of romantic subtext to try and grasp at. the way they hung out and interacted was much more of a "dudes being bros" way (silly headbump handshake, comforting each other in their insecurities and what people saw them as "weak" for), and i'm pretty sure even at the time the episode came out where Gus and Hunter officially became friends, Hunter was already showing signs of crushing on Willow???

so, in retrospect, it now occurs to me that the reason James mentioned that was not because he had simply misinterpreted Gus and Hunter's interactions and the shows intentions for them in the future, but it was deliberately James grasping at straws to shoehorn in some kind of MLM representation into the show where there wasn't any. and while, yeah, in an openly queer show, still not seeing yourself represented kinda sucks, but James Somerton is clearly a person who doesn't value anything in the LGBTQ+ community other than the G. he thinks being a gay man (especially a cis white gay man) is the only real way of being queer, or at least the most "oppressed" type of queer, probably because news media only ever gave significant attention to the deaths of cis white gay men during the AIDS crisis, and that is pretty much James' only point of reference in "historical events that happened to queer people" because god knows he didn't care enough to research and write on his own, let alone research and write about queer history involving queer people who weren't cis white gay men like him.

and it's especially shitty that he that he tries to force this idea of Hunter and Gus having romantic subtext right after he talks about Luz and Amity's relationship. i'm personally not the biggest fan of Lumity within the story of the Owl House, but the representation is really great, especially for something in a disney cartoon. so him trying to then detract all the sapphic representation that Lumity provided and even built the show upon with an MLM relationship that not only is weird in context but also never even happened?? the AUDACITY.

and what gets me even more is that, by the end of the show, while Hunter does end up in a relationship with Willow, it's not a straight relationship. it was confirmed by the show's creator Dana Terrace after it concluded that Hunter is bisexual and Willow is pansexual, and while yeah, real shame that there wasn't any actual expression of those facts during the show's runtime, it's still nice to know that they're queer, and thus their relationship is queer. it's also great to have a canon bi/pan couple when there's STILL an immense infighting problem between bi and pan people thinking that one of the sexualities is trying to erase the other due to their similar (but not same) definitions. so having them not only coexist but also be in love is great!

but you just know, you just KNOW, that even if James' video was made after the show's official conclusion, he would probably either:

A: ignore Hunter and Willow's relationship and try to play on plausible deniability that they're just friends since they never had any great romantic gestures like Lumity's confession and many kisses

or

B: make a shitty argument out of it that the Owl House "could have gone leaps and bounds further with their representation, but Disney was so homophobic that Hunter couldn't possibly get to also be gay, so he had to end up with a woman :("

and while i think both are probably just as possible as each other, my money would be on option B, because god damn it this man can't praise a piece of queer media if it doesn't somewhat center around or involve gay men, and leave it to James Somerton to try and project himself onto the white teenage boy and think that if he were gay, that'd somehow make the story better.

this man actively hates women, especially queer women whom he loves to pretend are actually straight women, and if he had the chance would still do everything he can to try and make a queer relationship between a man and a woman into some woeful narrative of "what could have been" if they just made the man gay.

god, from this singular moment alone where i had a very questionable opinion of James, the knowledge i have now completely recontextualizes everything. this guy is a plagiarist, a misogynist, but most of all, an internalized homophobe who replaces the word "gay" in the content he steals from with "LGBTQ+" and "queer" because he actually *would* just like to use the word gay, but if he did it would make it more obvious that he's plagiarizing, so he instead makes "queer" and "LGBTQ+" be synonymous with gay to make it look like he's actually being inclusive.

and i don't really remember much about his video about Korra, i don't know if i even watched it, so the only frame of reference that i have is what Hbomberguy said about it in his video, and i frankly do not want to go and give James anymore views he has not earned and will never deserve, but i think he did a similar thing in trying to grasp at straws with a potential queer relationship between Mako and some guy who i don't remember (i really didn't watch much of Korra sorry) but that also kind of was not the case of their relationship at all either, from what i've heard. at most it was just people shipping them, especially since the footage James Somerton used in his video was from a fucking ship AMV and not even from any of the high resolution episodes. so again it seems like there's an instance of James trying to shove in an MLM relationship that doesn't exist in a show whose lead representation is a WLW couple.

again i could be wrong, and correct me if i am, but unless there's a convenient re-upload of that entire video on another channel or even another video website, i'm not going to give James' channel any more attention than it unrightfully has.

fuck this guy.

[smoshingatut]

I'm kinda tired of dungeon meshi fans blatantly misinterpreting Kabru's goals, motivations, and character so they can ship him with Laios...like obviously it's awesome if you enjoy Laikabu but can you nooot twist Kabru's intentions for involving himself with the guy who constantly triggers his monster trauma and pisses him off so bad he gets brain damage so that he turns into "the guy who wants to suck Laios's dick" as his entire character? I've even seen people cut off Kabru's words to make it seem like he is admiring Laios because it would disrupt that narrative

[chiimeramanticore]

waow

[shiori8]

Oh look! It's another redesign!

Here, have this little illustration based on my Ladybug/Chat Noir re-designs, that I've been slaving away at for the past month (we're just gonna ignore the fact that I started plotting out the costumes and sketched the pose a year ago lol). I know, I know. A redesign? Very original. But hey I haven't done it yet, so that makes it different ok😝!

(Gosh, I usually don't post sketches, I feel like this is exposing all my drawing weaknesses lol)

These are some of the first doodles I did. For Marinette I basically looked at some traditional Qui Pao and Hanfu dresses for inspiration and mixed and matched details I liked. I also gave her these little skirt flaps (?? whatever you want to call it) to symbolise the ladybug wings and kept the spots concentrated there. All in all I actually immediately knew what I wanted to do with her costume and pretty much just kept to my first draft, but what really gave me trouble was the hair somehow. I really wanted to incorporate actual antennae (I just think it's cute🤧!!!!) but it got too crowded up there so I had to let them go eventually🥺. In the end I settled for her twin tails pulled up instead of down. To make it look more distinct from her civilian form the idea was also that her hair colour changes to black after the transformation.

Chat Noir on the other hand was so difficult😭😭😭. I honestly like the original design soo much it was hard to think about alternatives. I wanted something that matched better with my new Ladybug, but I don't think I succeeded much. Also I hyperfocused on giving him this little scarf/oversized collar thing in my first doodles because I thought it looked cool and ended up scrapping it because the little bell is just too iconic not to keep lol. As you can tell from the final illustration there is actually not all that much that made it into the final version, except for the sheer sleeves, the shoes, the claw marks and some neon green details. I also ended up giving both of them some gold accents to make them match a bit more. As with Marinette, the idea is that Adrien's hair changes colour a bit after transforming too. So I envision Adrien having more of the smooth platinum blond in his civillian form and a more brown-ish dirty blond as Chat Noir, to go for the whole stray cat look lol.

I might come back to this one day, to re-do their civilian forms too or make these costumes more practical rather than just focusing on aesthetics (But hey if the show does this than I am allowed too😂!)