#I managed to draw this whole comic idea that I thought was so funny and well made

[allonsyisabelli]

My phone did a factory reset out of nowhere and I lost ALL of my drawings. So fuck it, here are the sketches I've managed to recover by screenshotting and sending them to my friends.

[starsonablackboard]

managed to finish another decent ish piece so here's narinder's inutial design!! as always probably will change later

we're living by furry laws in this house so "head fur" aka hair is an option and im using it. period. another unpopular(??) choice is giving narinder a fur pattern, and don't get me wrong i love the pure black void nari, but as an artist i enjoy making up details to draw, so i indulged myself here. (but if i ever were to draw comics with him i would simplify it or just make him all-black, because repeating this every frame is a misery. fun for a one-off ref sheet tho)

not a lot of lore stuff for the guy since the idea of the au is still fresh and im figuring it all out, but there're design inspirations under the cut if you're interested!!

sooo lets go

i wanted narinder to have that dramatic sharp featured og cartoon villain look, so i took inspiration from oriental longhairs for the facial structure and from maine coons for fluffy dramatics. also i just love using maine coons as cat references. look at those things. marvellous.

from the very start (pretty much) my brain was consistently giving me images of narinder with hair, specifically dark long-ish straight-ish, so i tried to walk this mental image backwards to find the origins of it, and i think scar and ozai are my best bets. in my first sketches narinder had shoulder length hair with slight waves, but in the end i opted for long and straight. not really a reason to, just was vibing better to me

clothes are pretty standard narinder robes i think. i find it funny that fandom unanimously gave him basically a priest outfit, and i like it too, so i kept it. that red stripe gave me a little bit of a headache though, couldn't get it to look okay and not weird or tacky. i think i managed. i had to contain my urge to design him an intricate outfit with different textiles and embroidery and shit, but i try to keep it at least somewhat tied to logic and the au, and let's say that no-one was willing to do something this elaborate for narinder for quite some time

and some lore crumbs

• narinder is declawed (after his defeat that is).

see the narinder's claw relic and the whole do no evil motive. the most evil narinder directly did was the injures he inflicted on his siblings, and he did it by, quoting shamura, "such sharp claws". so yeah, that tracks. funfact i considered taking only one of his claws, from the left ring finger, because the relic is "narinder's claw" singular, but "callamar's ear" relic is also one ear and not two, so it didn't feel kike a good enough basis to take only one claw yk. so sorry big cat, all your claws are now gone

• lamb did kill narinder after defeating him. there's nothing on the pic that's tied to that fact, just thought it would be interesting to know

[triglycercule]

alright i finished this so i need to celebrate my accomplishment (???) by sharing it to the world

BETTER versions of my trio designs. because boo boo the other old ones were BORING and TOO SIMPLE and lowhighkey UGLY. i had no idea what i was thinking when i made this but i guess design notes before to see if i can figure out what the fuck these mean 💀

killer🔪:3

he got a GLOW UP!!! when i was figuring him out i was thinking like. this man needs to look combat ready he CANNOT look chill and relaxed he MUST look good to fight. killer can't catch a break 💀 anyways. it's ALSO not revealing (⁎˃ᴗ˂⁎) because i feel he would NOT wear that stuff cmon flirty =/= revealing. his charms are found through his words and actions (stabbing someone through the heart) (speaking of the heart i couldn't be bothered to draw his soul mb)

the gloves/shirt/leggings under his clothes may LOOK seperate. but its actually all one big piece!!! because i thought it would be silly and funny :3 but like on a serious note i like this because it provides an extra layer of protection (both in a fight and not) and like. a sense of anonymity i guess??? like you can't see killer's natural body you cant SEE who he was before because hes changed that much (or i guess HE cant see who he was b4 wtvr)

actually a lot of killer's outfit has meaning behind it. knee pads = unnatural body imitation killer is a whole new being now not monster (also adding 2 the combat look :3) belts = restraint killer needs to stay in line and do as he's ordered (i needed some visual interest 💀) zippers on shoes?? actually no meaning i just thought it would be cute. somehow i managed to find meanings 4 all of the trio's zippers. killer's is jammed in that spot. show like idk he is irreversibly changed to what he is now (a lot of this makes no sense)

horror 🪓 :3

if you remove all the rips in the clothes he'd be the most basic out of all of them. but theyre there so he's NOT the most basic! 4 horror i was thinking like "you can see he's fucked up but you can also see he's desperately trying to keep it together" type feel. i totally didnt steal those under socket lines (thank you mania and paranoia for donating to your og versions :3) to make horror look more 🌀🌀🌀 (cannot describe it)

the cloak was stolen from undyne trust. he wears it as a power move FUCK YOU!!! to her :3 also it looks royal and regal which could kinda show like horror's power and sway over snowdin. he's DEFINITELY not a king but he is a provider and a lot of what he says goes around those parts. a lot of ppl look to him as like world's shittiest leader(ish). also i just wanted him to have something unique!

underneath horror's jacket his shirt is reaaaally torn he should probably replace it. there are some holes from when he was pinned down with spears during the core incident and then the whole lower half is just totally torn off from that one comic 💀 but thats why the jacket is zipped up! however the zipper broke and now the jacket can't unzip! (because horror struggles with the fact that horrortale ISNT gonna be perpetually shitty (everyone say thanks aliza) and would rather nobody see him vulnerable)

dust🧣:3

i didn't change much about him lowkey he's pretty much wearing the same CLOTHES. just that the style and way he's wearing them changed. wanted him to give like,,,,, comfy (because bro did not change out of his sansish clothes) but also like FOCUSED o(≧口≦)o like horror he has the under socket line but thats just to make him look more stressed and tired

i moved around the scarf to NOT be around his neck bc it was sooo annoying drawing the hood and then having to account for the scarf. it kind gave him a baby face vibe which i did NOT like. also i think dust would wear the scarf however. very versatile as long as the scarf remains intact. so it COULD go around waist COULD be around neck COULD be around limbs

i didn't mean to do this but the black thingy around his shoulders (was originally there just to fill in the empty space without the scarf there 💀) could be seen as like mourning wear. again with the silly zipper symbolism but dust's zipper is fine its not broken like horror or killer's are because he chose to go down this path. dust CHOSE to zip it up and now its too late to go back now (so bro MUST power through ‼️‼️ he cant unzip the zipper now!!!!)

overall i like these. usually i like coming up with cool unique character designs its so fun but my trio was hard (im hard). probably bc i didnt wanna make then wear anything too weird Dx BUT NOW AT LEAST THEY ALL LOOK LESS BABY!!!! i think i depicted how i see them though like ughhh cannot explain but now they look like how i want them to sound

[bloggingboutburgers]

Hey I just wanted to say I love your comics and I think they do a great job connecting ace experiences to the rest of the LGBTQ+ community. I feel like there's a sort of divide because aces and allo LGBTQ+ don't always understand each other, but your comics describe ace experiences in a respectful and non-judgemental kind of way that opens discussion. It's so cool seeing allos reblog and relate to your comics because it shows that we have more in common than we might have thought. Thank you and please keep being awesome.

Hey and sorry I'm replying so late!!

Thank you so so much for this, honestly, that's absolutely what I strive for! TwT Some of my comics definitely are more vent-art-y gut reactions, but I tend to think a lot about how I can present an idea in a way that points fingers as little as possible, most of the time... I can't always avoid it, but I think it's still best to avoid it as much as possible if we all want to understand each other or at least get along as much as possible, and honestly, that's the goal ultimately, right? At least not damage each other more than we're already being damaged.

...Also I wanna be funny. I like drawing funny stuff. I don't think I really have the potential to make people laugh but I hope I can at least make them smile, I also think there's no better way to encourage people to think about something.

Having such positive responses not only from aspec people but also allo people is super encouraging, so I wanna keep doing my best on that, because it's been so much fun so far. Hopefully I'll make something a bit more concrete out of these comics someday, if I even ever dare, or manage. Building confidence is hard TwT So... Yeah this helps, and I hope the whole thing doesn't just help ME, even though it's really really self-serving for me ultimately 🙈

(...But also literally though, we're all in this together, aren't we? If one non-hetero non-conformist orientation or identity gets threatened it's only a matter of time before the others do, too. I don't see how we could manage any other way than by trying to connect and stand by each other at least as much as we can.)

[chelzone]

Assorted Thoughts - My Webcomic

if u haven't gotten a chance yet, please check out my webcomic ..Just Another Day!. there's 120 pages currently (as of writing this post on August 31, 2024), and its draw in a line-focused style with lots of neon colors and a sort of abstract-minimalist-adjacent look. in a simple sense, the webcomic is a slice-of-life and paranormal flavored experience for a handful of furry folkz of diff genduhs and sexualities in the fictional country of Corter. in a wider-scope, its also a simulated life experience managed by an android named Odell Scout. on the main website linked at the start of this paragraph, the reader is given commentary by Scout at the bottom of the page (the Operator's Notes section)

anyway, ive some thoughts i wanna ramble on about this webcomic so far. might have spoilers might not, so hiding it all under a read more incase.

Its Roots

A drawn page from 2018, from the now-expunged former webcomic of mine - COMIKZONE.

see that ancient comic page above? for starters, that's the precursor to ..Just Another Day! basically, a loose page from an old comic series i attempted between 2018 an 2019 called COMIKZONE. it was probably my first legit attempt at a webcomic of any kind, and is pretty rough technically in comparison to its more-proper successor these days. i got through making at least 20 pages over the span of a year or so, each one just being a spur of the moment thing made purely for fun and with no connected story in mind for itself and its sibling pages before and after. a lot of its looks where made from me taking photographs in chicago, cropping out small chunks of said photos, and then editing them to make textures of sorts for the characters and environments. theres a slim chance an archive of COMIKZONE is out there online on some random upload site, but these days i only have it saved locally and do not wish to repost it back online in full.*

basically, this would later inspire me to create ..Just Another Day! on July 24, 2023 and continuing updating it since then. it took the improvised and spur-of-the-moment feeling of COMIKZONE, attached to it a proper story both for the characters within and the meta shit outside it, and used that character seen above as a prototype design for my current webcomic's character Ede Matches. funny enough, this would be the second time i refolded that one-off design from COMIKZONE for one of my present-day OCs - as it also served as the prototype design for my characters Jason Millveille and his 'father' Prof. Roger Clements.

The Protagonist(s)

Proper full drawing made of the webcomic characters Ede and Rosa respectively. Their colors here are canon for how they look outside of the webcomic's intentional limitations.

when i began work on ..Just Another Day! back in July 2023, i originally had the idea that the proper protagonists would just be lovers Ede Matches and Rosa Lithium for the whole thing. but really, it can't truly be like that if i want this experience to feel alive while also just being about whatever. in the 120 pages drawn so far, the role of the protagonist has jumped back and forth a lot depending on the situation.

in my mind, everyone plays a part in this whole thing - i can't just say Ede and Rosa handle it alone. everyone's got their struggles, everyone's pushing the story ahead, and everyone's influencing each other. in one sense, i like to look towards real life where there is no protagonist of this world we all share together - for better or worse. in another sense, i like to look towards something like Seinfeld where the protagonist can shift depending on who's manning the A plot and B plot respectively from episode to episode. that show also is an inspiration, what with its 'show about nothing' concept. there's still a lot of time ahead to give certain characters the spotlight for awhile, an see where it takes us.

The End (What is..? When is..? Etc.)

Drawing I made back in August 2022 of my character Odell Scout - the creator and narrator of the simulated project.

it has to be stressed that the story of ..Just Another Day! is genuinely handled a few pages at a time. right now as I type this, i have in mind what'll follow for maybe the next 5 to 10 pages at most, but not what will carry on after them. the ending? sure, there's been a handful of ideas in mind, but nothing is set in stone aside from how the presentation of its finale someday will be drawn. this isn't just a case of "oh i didnt plan ahead" but rather "its done when i can find peace with it, and then properly wrap it up without feel like its being dragged on forever like the Simpsons".

within the characters' lives, i want to hit a point where i've showcases enough shapshots of their lives and given them enough of a meaty story to make it feel like you - the reader - had enough time to enjoy getting a look at chunks of their lives. for the outside story, that is, the simulation aspect of it, i want to stretch it until the point that Odell Scout feels like his project was a roaring success and can be put to rest properly. his satisfaction is felt thru me in turn, and his project in-universe must end someday for he'll have to move onto other scientific adventures (i too must finish it someday and move onto other projects). for now, enjoy what's going on right now and know someday it will have a definite end with no sequels nor reboots to follow.

will another webcomic follow in its footsteps? at the moment, im leaning towards no personally. but never say never, right? in the meantime, thanks for reading and make sure to keep checking the main site for any new page updates. current schedule is 2-3 pages put up per week usually, with rare off-days if needed for my health.

[clutchpowers]

Sooooo... i wanted to stick this little rambly thing at the bottom of the redraw but it would have made it look UGLY so im doing this separately... just wanna talk about the whole thing and What Not.

TLDR: its been a slash positive ride thats been worth it to try "something new" every year and my favorite piece out of all of them is the 9th. also for the curious heres the comparison of the 5th anni piece to the recent one (2018 -> 2023)

anyway. personal post time.

oh where to begin *rocks on my rocking chair* i guess it would be with the 5th anniversary piece...at the time it had been a long while since i did lineless art and i thought it would be cool to try it again for that one so i did by redrawing an old piece from 2014... that was the first "finished piece" i made of Them. i think i even made it into a wallpaper for myself lmao. anyway after i posted it i was like "aw man i should draw something every year until the 10th" but i thought yeah right. im going to forget next year like the idiot i am. but i Some How managed to do one every year... th worms got me... i honestly didnt think id make it all the way to the 10th but i did!! AND WITHOUT MISSING A DAY EXCEPT FOR THE 7TH WHERE I WAS A WEEK LATE???? UNREAL especially when fun fact! every year i had no idea what i wanted to do! all i knew for sure is that i wanted each piece to be out of my comfot zone to push me to do something a little different. unfortunately the subjects tm where always the same so it feels a little. samey. but these are my celebratory posts I GET TO ONLY POST ABOUT THE OTP SUPER BLORBOS OF ALL TIME

the 6th anniversary was a redraw of that one scene. you know the one. the helicopter one. fucking hate that scene btw it actually causes me psychic damage i cant watch with the audio or ill scream. but it is my favorite scene of mine despite all the horrors it causes <3 and i wanted to redraw it as if it was a cartoon... like i had taken screencaps from the lcu cartoon in my head. i still remember the backgrounds being such a pain in the ass. honestly id like to go back and redo this one one day too or do something similar to the concept because its a fun one that i always saw done growing up and i wanted to try it myself.

for the 7th anniversary you can see the turn.. no more humans... return to lego... i was getting a little more confident in drawing them in the lego form so i did another redraw this time with the ending!! honestly i still like this one and how it looks even with how late it was but i wanted to test my confidence and do a real True and Finished piece with COLORED LINES and EVERYTHING!!!!! im glad i ended up taking the turn because for the LONGEST TIME i wanted to try and draw them as lego so bad because all i did was draw them as humans and its funny because now its the exact opposite. glad this piece was kinda the solidification in my head that yeah okay im a bit better at drawing the stylized lego toy now i can keep drawing them like this without feeling like im going to want to delete this in 2 weeks.

the 8th anniversary one is so weird. somewhere toward the beginning of the year it got into my head that i wanted to do a comic of them but time/school would have gotten in the way so i ended up opting for a page. another redraw of the ending scene which honestly out of all of them this is my least favorite one and its solely because its all so off. i def could have formated it better so the background shot doesnt take up the entire fucking page but then again im not a comic guy and this was my first time so the layout was bound to look HORRID but this is something id like to come back to ive had the idea of making like a genuine short comic about them since FOREVER and now that im a bit more experienced (lying) i would like to make one day!!!! just gotta stop getting caught up in my scripts!! and going in circles!! Because im obviously not a writer and i keep getting first-hand embarrassment from these!! but ill get over it one day lol.

OH THE 9TH ANNIVERSARY PIECE MY BELOVED. ONE OF MY FAVORITE PIECES ACTUALLY i love this stupid thing so much you have no idea.i know its re-using lineless but i just loved the idea of what it would look like lineless AND IT CAME OUT SO PERFECT I LOVE IT SO MUCH obv it needs a few touch-ups so the main issues dont stand out to me but god. i love this piece so much. idk what came out of me to make this but its so good ill never get over it. and the little lego them as a cake topper ITS JUST SO CUTE I DONT HAVE MUCH TO SAY OTHER THAN I LOVE THIS SO MUCH SORRY

finally. the 10th anniversary piece. oh my god. okay. i need everyone to understand this. i had woken up with this fucking Unbearable pounding headache that was trying to kill me. my body the entire day wanted me to stop and lie down, but last night i was already done with a good chunk of it and all i had to do that day was finish some lines and the coloring?? i literally don't remember all i remember is my body actively trying to shut down and force me to stop and sleep which i took a nap? didnt help. so i said fuck it im finishing this. i was. an entire goddamn corpse arched over my laptop. i was so delirious the entire time its a fucking miracle it even came out as good as it did but honestly. i still hate how it fucking looks. like you can TELL when i gave up (the shading) and it sticks out like a sore fucking thumb to me and it pisses me off because i knew i could have done so much better if i wasnt being stricken down by gods hand and his every attempt to get me to rest. idk like im generally proud ot it, with this one i wanted to go out with a bang tm so i tried to draw every important and relevant character instead of ALL of them like I was originally planning LMAO but ah well. maybe one day when im faster at drawing. this one i defiantly wanna go back and touch up but i everytime i open the file i can see 40 more things wrong with it and it drives me nuts. so ill just have to wait for when im ready. i guess.

can i just say though. the improvement is crazy. it always catches me off guard because tbh i uh. dont like my own art. im getting better at not fucking hating it because i can pinpoint everything wrong with it but whenever i see the side by sides it always surprises me. i always dont think im improving but then i see it and its like wow i really am getting better! i still suck at 3000 things but im getting better! and its overall just a nice thing to see after having drawn them for as long as i have... the power of the worms is strong and has ruined my brain...... speaking of i know ive said a few times that i fucking hate certain pieces, not just LCU related ones but almost anything i post, but if you love them and are able to look at them with a twinkle in your eye then thank you. genuinely. i honestly love looking over the tags of people exploding and saying nice things. it warms my cold little heart and im glad there are people out there that genuinely love some of the things what i do! even if its just fanart and its just their blorbo. thank you for sticking around even tho all i do is draw my otp super blorbos :'^) this game means the world to me and im glad like more than 2 people wanna spread it around.

to wrap back around to the anniversary stuff and speaking of big love to the people out there THE FREAKING EPIC ZINE i was just a small thing but it came out amazing even for how small it was thank you to the contributors and thank you to everyone whos downloaded it!! its still getting the occasional and i love getting the notif in my email about it. i love that there are still people out there who wanna see it and all the hard work everyone put into it to celebrate the games 10th just thank you again i really does mean alot to me ALSO IF YOU HAVENT CHECKED IT OUT PLEASE DO IT IS 100% WORK YOUR TIME AND ITS DIGITAL WITH PRINT AT HOME STICKERS AND YOU CAN KEEP IT AND LOOK AT IT FOREVER

uh to end this off....would I like to do this again..... I mean I kinda am? by that i mean ill do the big numbers (15, 20, 25, 30, 40, etc) till the day i freaking die!!!! but yeah no countdown stuff ever again!!!!! sorry :^( it was super fun to do though!!!! and im glad i did it that piece is the conclusion to the whole thing but that doesnt mean ill stop drawing them. duh. theyre my characters now! but heres to many more anniversaries and to hopefully another game! or to just see them again in any other lego media! or even better... a mischaracterized cameo in ninjago!

[hyperfixationtimego]

I tried to be open minded about the show but I just can’t. Like I was enjoying the animation, then the girl who got murdered in the first scene was used to fill out a small crowd and I was like… this is kind of lazy. Absolutely none of the jokes have been funny. Some don’t even seem like jokes, just two unrelated thoughts smashed together in a way they’re hoping is funny. the only moment that kind of struck joy was when Fred’s dad spoke and I was like, hey that’s Fred og voice actor isn’t it? Cool.

The whole “Velma has ghastly mystery induced hallucinations” is an interesting angle bc I think it justified her sometimes ridiculous skepticism in other iterations. I do think my main problem is it’s trying to deconstruct popular character tropes by forcing existing characters into tropes they’ve never really fit.

Like it works better for a show like riverdale bc the Archie comics characters are relatively one note and just adapt to whatever situation they’re in. Velma is a high school setting prequel for characters who are already teenagers in the source so of course people are questioning why things are so different, and every scooby adaptation for 50 years has developed them into characters people are attached to. It’s like, two years tops before these kids are living in a van with each other and a fully grown Great Dane.

I kind of think an edgy scooby doo show should go the opposite way. They’re all like 40, scooby isn’t around anymore, they’re washed up and directionless because being a teen detective is cute but not a career choice. The live action scooby doo movie already kind of explored the gang breaking up as grownups though and can’t possibly be beaten, so instead there’s another scooby doo prequel but this time the characters are intentionally grating and the humor simply doesn’t work. And there’s no scooby doo

You raise some very good points! And I concur with a lot of what you’re saying!

I agree, a good deal of the humor and dialogue doesn’t land, or feels overly embellished. At best, it’s pretty meh.

Frankly, I completely understand why diehard fans of previous scooby doo versions wouldn’t enjoy it; there’s a lot of change that’s been done to the characters and world you’ve already come to love, so it makes sense why VELMA’s more sardonic and satirical nature might be off-putting or difficult to stand. (I get it!! I’m a huge TMNT fan, but I personally just can’t enjoy ROTTMNT because of how fundamentally different it is from what I grew up with, and I feel a similar way about the current Monster High generation!)

(also yes!! The og va for Fred playing Fred’s dad was indeed a cool little Easter egg! not sure if you managed to get that far, but Norville’s dad’s appearance was also included as homage to Shaggy’s original character design, which I thought was pretty fun!)

You gave it a shot, and you didn’t like it! That’s completely fair! I admire the fact that you were willing to try it, though!!

But I hear what you’re saying in terms of the show being a prequel, and I think the only answer I really have is that, for as much of it is rooted in the past of Scooby Doo canon, the show itself is its own work, and it’s probably going to make a lot of choices that conflict with past iterations. I feel Scooby’s lack of presence is a pretty fair indicator of that; it’s not the gang we’re used to, and it may well be that the gang we end up with when the season/series wraps won’t be concurrent with the mystery inc we all currently know and love.

But I think that’s mostly because I don’t think VELMA is meant to be a prequel of any iteration in particular, you know? like the show is telling the origin story of ITS Velma Dinkley and ITS mystery incorporated, not the origin story of every version of Velma & Mystery Inc. ever. It draws heavy inspiration from its source material, but a lot of the broad strokes are likely to be pretty unfamiliar!

As for the idea of an older and washed up edgy mystery inc, I think that that could make for a HILARIOUS punchy animated short, but the idea of it as the premise for an on-going comedic series sounds a bit depressing. I don’t know! I feel like there’s at least a little bit of a safety net in knowing that this is an origin story; we know they ultimately end up happier and closer to one another than where they initially began!

Thank you for the ask, anon; I really appreciate it!

(Also, do you happen to know which scene the dead girl’s character model gets used in to fill out a crowd? I’m just curious to see if I can spot it for myself!)

[chuya-chuya-blog]

Congratulations to the winners of the My Copic Moment contest. I thought third place was super talented and would come in first, actually. That person is really skilled. Second place is really charming to me. It looks like a children's picture book and makes me feel nostalgic. The perspective in first place is really good.

I was bummed when I saw I didn't win. Call me a sore loser, I don't care! I really had my hopes up! And it was super disappointing to see I didn't even place. Is my art bad? Were my concepts bad? I don't know. This is also coming on to the realization that I will not be able to enter the Pixiv Global Contest that I wanted to, either.

I had PLENTY of time to complete an entry for that contest and continue working on my own web comic afterwards but I just couldn't find the motivation. I had a cute and funny concept and I really enjoyed drawing it but eventually the motivation just died. Somewhere between my usual struggles with making backgrounds look like anything but bland boxes and my inability to draw dogs, my drive turned to fear, and I just froze.

I would sketch here and there but just couldn't bring myself to do my absolute best. I'm ashamed because I've always been this way when it counts. I just couldn't buckle down and do it. Not even the free three years of Clip Studio could get me to do it. And I really wanted that too! But I guess I just didn't care enough. I couldn't make myself do the work. And it's not like I'm still a kid, either. I'm a full blown adult who can't manage discipline and time management and it's embarrassing. So many people around me have been able to get stuff done through consistent steady work and I can't figure out how to manage myself. And no I don't have ADHD. I actually got really REALLY good grades in school. So I can do the work when it counts. I just couldn't do it this time.

It's worrisome because if I want to start making money off of my art, I have to be able to meet deadlines. I have to be able to finish things. I have sooooooooo much trouble finishing things! I don't know what's wrong with me! It's why I barely post because I can never finish anything. Sometimes I'll be really motivated and will love a piece I'm working on, but I'll just put it somewhere and forget it exists. I really wanted to produce more work in 2024, but the fear that I'm not actually cut out to be an artist is creeping up on me. I have to improve my focus and discipline this year!

This sucks, but I wanted to be transparent. One of my resolutions this year was to draw a lot more and complete a lot more art. I haven't given up, but I need to improve my workflow. I need to work out the kinks beforehand so when I get to a road bump I can navigate it. This whole time I put my other projects on pause because I HAD to complete this contest entry...and got nothing done. I was completely stuck in some weird limbo and could not make it out. I did do the script and layout but after a while, I just didn't CARE. And when I don't care, my art immediately devolves and when my art devolves, I start hating myself for drawing crummy art. The gag is that when I'm drawing random things in my sketchbook without even thinking, some of it comes out SO COOL! It's part of why I opened a sketch dump!

I wanted a publisher to notice me and say, "wow, she's good!" But I can't seem to get my artwork to agree with me when I want it to. I can't even win a drawing contest! I didn't even get an honorable mention! (And that hurts, I thought I'd AT LEAST get mentioned.) This isn't a one time thing, either. I have NEVER won an art contest, NEVER had my work accepted to a magazine I submitted to. The ONE time I got second place in an art contest was something I did in high school and was just screwing around because I had no idea what to paint, and was sure an "official art contest" wouldn't accept anime art. And you know who won? Someone who drew anime.😐 (I was SOOOOOOO mad! Are you toying with me, universe? Are you telling me art is not my calling after all?)

What if a publisher DID contact me and ask me to draw something I don't care about? I have the worst discipline ever, and if I can't force myself to do good work when I need to, then I am of no use to them. I've accepted that I'll probably never do commissions, either.

If a publisher comes across this post, I don't mind. A bad work ethic is bad for business and the manga business is tough. They want people who grind HARD. It's well documented. We've all heard the stories about the mangaka struggle in Japan. And I've been in the workforce long enough to know that employers don't care about your feelings or your mental health. They only care about the results they can pay you pennies for. And that's life.

I'm still happy with the art I did for the My Copic Moment contest. (It's actually one of my favorite pieces in my portfolio right now, and I want to draw more pieces like it.) I actually want to try and enter their big copic contest for the year now, but wasn't going to because I only have like five markers of theirs and for this contest, you HAVE to use their products. But maybe I can screw around and mysteriously win this time. (The grand prize is 300 markers! Or something like that.) You can draw whatever you want, too. Maybe I'll do something really really crazy. I'll just unleash my emotions on the canvas like the first episode of Barakamon. (And then he went right back to struggling with his work. WHYYYY are we like this?😭)

I've also decided to set some time aside for scripts and planning. Since my excitement tends to come in waves, I'll try to get pre work done so I can heavily focus on a task at hand when the time comes. For instance, since I'm scripting right now, I'm really excited about the stories I'm making and fleshing out the plot points for them! I love coming with ideas and dumping my creativity out whenever I can. So if you give me a paper and tell me to just write, it feels so freeing. I'll hopefully work on these scripts and come up with a bunch of cool stuff to draw this week. Then I can do the layouts and get excited about the focus on flow and design of the pages. I tend to come up with new ideas and change my mind about things during the layout stages, so I'm going to proceed with caution. But for now, the plan is set and I'm going to move forward. The task is a lot less daunting when I have my ducks in a row.

[jjorbles]

(Repost) The real reason for Warner/DC’s “no jokes” policy

Note: This article was originally posted September 4th, 2014 on the Agony Booth, which I used to write for. Since that site is sadly no longer with us, I’m reposting my old articles here.

First, I might as well get this out of the way, since I still get confused comments about this: Yes, I like Man of Steel significantly less than I did when I wrote my initial review last year. Honestly, I don’t think I ever truly liked it. I just so very badly wanted to. I clung to the elements that worked and told myself those niggling doubts in the back of my head didn’t matter. I wanted so much to like Man of Steel, had myself so on edge, torn between excitement and dread, and so turned around that in my zeal to be a “professional” critic and judge whether or not the film was “objectively” good, I managed to overlook the most important factor of all while watching it:

I wasn’t having fun.

After all, if you’re not having fun watching a damn superhero movie, what’s the point? Sure, comics can have different goals than pulp entertainment. They can be dramatic, or dark and depressing, or spiritual, or psychedelic, or whatever the imagination can conceive, just like any art form. But this isn’t Watchmen. This isn’t The Invisibles or Maus. This is Superman. Ground zero for the comic book superhero. And if you’re not having fun watching Superman, why are you watching to begin with?

And that was ultimately what killed Man of Steel for me. Not it being a bad movie (though it was very much that, failing to do a good job of being what it wanted to be, much less what I wanted it to be), but rather utterly joyless and morose. Even more so than the Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel was completely devoid of levity. And after so much anticipation, and so much promise, this was completely soul-crushing for me. Superman means something to me, and always has. This is a character I draw hope and inspiration from, a character who’s helped get me through my darkest days. And to see him drained of all that optimism and joy… I honestly think it broke something in me.

Ever since, I’ve been a more cynical person when it comes to movies. I find it much harder to get excited for anything movie-related anymore. Every time a new movie is announced that sounds like something I might like, I react with suspicion or apathy. The world of cinema post-Man of Steel just seems like a far bleaker place to me.

That may sound melodramatic, and it probably is. But as if to assure me I’m justified in feeling this way, along comes rumors that Warner Brothers has instituted an already infamous “no jokes policy” for all future DC movies.

Everybody together now…

(EDIT: I cannot find or remember what image was originally posted here as a follow up to that line)

I honestly can barely find the words right now. I feel crushed by the very idea of what lies ahead. I’m still feeling drained from Man of Steel, and the thought that there are more movies coming just like it, each just as depressing as the last… I just want it to stop. I don’t want to live in a world where this is what Superman is now. Where this is what Wonder Woman, what the whole Justice League is. I’d rather never see them onscreen again than have to sit through another movie like Man of Steel.

But I’ll try to compose myself long enough to say something of substance about this. Which is difficult, because as it is, it actually doesn’t seem to tell us all that much. For instance, exactly how literal a mandate is this? Are they actually saying that no kind of humor at all will be permitted in their films? Is any line of dialogue that resembles a joke to be purged from the scripts? Are actors to be forbidden from smiling during their performances? Likely not. After all, even Man of Steel had one or two jokes… I think. Let’s see, there was the bit where he smashes that guy’s truck, I guess. That was sort of a joke. Then there was the bit where that girl said Superman was hot. I think that was meant to be funny… for some reason. And I think Superman smiled once while flying… or maybe that was just a grimace. Ooh, that bit about his “S” we all remember from the trailer! That was a joke, right? Or was that just awkward setup? I really can’t remember; I was busy having my inner child stomped into submission at the time.

But regardless, surely they don’t mean literally no jokes at all. That would be ludicrous. Almost no movie in the history of cinema can claim to be completely devoid of any kind of humor. Hell, even The Act of Killing had humor in it, and that was the most depressing movie of last year (which I’ll remind you is a year that also gave us 12 Years a Slave and Fruitvale Station).

But even if Warners isn’t being completely literal, what do they think actively discouraging humor will accomplish? Who is this meant to appeal to, exactly? Robots? Vulcans? Oscar the Grouch? Is there a single demographic anywhere in the world that does not like humor at all in their movies? Are there actually people who walk into a film saying, “This movie better not make me laugh, not once”?

It’s weird, because from an outsider’s perspective, it feels like Warner Brothers, a company that’s been making films since 1923, has somehow forgotten how movies work. Humor is one of the basic tools of not just movies, but all forms of storytelling. It provides levity, which in turn provides relief from conflict and tension. Without it, the narrative becomes oppressively dull. Drama and tragedy don’t work when there’s no lighter counterpoint to balance them out. Sadness and anger have no meaning when they’re your character’s default state of being. And absolute stone-faced seriousness at all times makes characters cold and impenetrable, which in turn makes it very difficult for audiences to feel engaged.

Why? Why do this? What is to be gained, exactly? Is there some sort of fear that allowing Batman to ever again crack a smile is to risk another Batman & Robin, from which they must forever run in the opposite direction? Why mandate such dour and joyless tones for superhero movies? Why craft a Superman who spreads mass destruction instead of hope? Who sulks and broods instead of comforts and inspires? Who lives in a world of the worst possible tragedies that somehow have no consequences at all? Why does WB want to ban fun?

And then it hit me: Because Superman is Donald Rumsfeld now.

It came to me while reading about some of the plot details of Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice, specifically in regards to how Superman’s mass-murdering punch up will be viewed by the general public. What do we know? Apparently, they’ve built a statue of Superman. So it would seem the people of Metropolis aren’t terribly upset that he leveled their city and killed most of them. We even know that a crippled Jimmy Olsen may enter the story as a victim of Superman’s rampage, whose role is apparently to be totally cool with his horrific injuries. We’re told he still loves Superman, despite the fact that he, you know, maimed him for life. Because he saved the world, it’s all good.

And suddenly it all becomes clear. This is Christopher Nolan’s right-wing politics working their way into Superman the way they worked their way into Batman. This is turning Superman into a metaphor for U.S. actions in Iraq, by having him destroy an entire city full of innocents to kill one guy, and trying to make us feel like it was completely justified. It doesn’t matter who gets hurt along the way, as long as we get the bad guy. This is basically the misguided U.S. fantasy of the rest of the world loving us for what we’ve done in the Middle East. The filmmakers even give Superman a whole arc about rejecting and then violently destroying the remnants of his alien heritage, and then they throw in that “I’m as American as it gets” scene just to solidify him as America personified.

Regardless of your personal politics, we should all be able to agree on one thing: Superman should never say “It was for the greater good.” The whole point of Superman is he never has to say “It was for the greater good.” He’s so powerful that he always finds a way to save everyone. That’s the fantasy of Superman: The idea of someone who can fix everything, someone who’s incorruptible and can make everything okay.

Superman is not a character for a “post-9/11 world”, where everything has to be dark and morally ambiguous, with of lots of political undertones. That’s why Man of Steel didn’t work, why Dawn of Justice won’t work, and why this “no jokes” policy is a bad idea. They’re trying to force Superman into a mold that wasn’t made for him. And in order for him to fit into it, he has to be stripped of everything that makes him Superman: Hope, optimism… and fun.

[donnerpartyofone]

But seriously folks! I get why people would build their whole personal culture around comfort-seeking in this cold dark world of ours, but...well, I guess you have as much a right to do it as I have to make fun of it.

I complain about fandom culture a lot, and it's from this perspective: My tumblr experience starting in 2010 was highly curatable, I think just because of the manageable volume of people on here. Sometimes I see these posts reminiscing about the Superwholock era of 2012, which apparently represents the whole idea of tumblr for a lot of people, and I just had no idea it was even going on until many years later! Now the density of fan activity is such that I'm never more than a degree or two away from it no matter who I follow or block, so it feels like it's in my yard and I get crotchety about it. We all know the search function sucks in general, but it also seems like every time I try to look anything up, no matter how general or specific I am, I just get yards of fan fiction and art, often relating to stuff I've never even heard of before. And the thing that's eerie about it is that to my untrained eye, it all looks and sounds like it was made by more or less the same person. Which makes sense if you assume that all the creators are consuming the same limited range of media and their creations are mostly designed to both imitate whatever that is and gain acceptance and popularity among their peers who are all hooked on the same stuff. This appearance of being so weirdly homogeneous and bent on conformity totally freaks me out. I accept that statistically there could be really unique, provocative fan production out there, I've just never seen it. From my personal position of just seeing it only because there is so much of it that I can't avoid it anymore--and I assume that the stuff I'm seeing is popular because it's being boosted enough to break through my own curatorial behavior--it's all disturbingly oriented on similarity and mass acceptance, and frankly, it's just not that good! Is my very important opinion.

But there's another Real Reason I don't like this stuff, which is that reminds me of my own misspent youth and what I think that did to me. I was a major league '90s X-Men cultist. It was like the only thing I thought about, for years. The early '90s was this moment in comics where the art was very static, pin-up oriented, and kind of sleazy. The writing tended toward dreary, erotic soap opera fare--and to be frank I kind of miss the lack of smirking irony and knowing in-jokes of those days, which wouldn't last much longer. I was a precocious artist and writer as a little kid, but I just didn't have anything in my mind other than imitating Jim Lee and Chris Claremont. To this day I could probably draw every single stock Jim Lee pose (which were once catalogued in a big grid in Wizard Magazine, that was kind of funny and smart even though I'm sure it wasn't meant to be critical) without looking anything up. My art professor parents were pretty unhappy with this; my dad would try to coach me to think up characters that were less like fascist uber-beings--you know, what about a really ugly girl who can control men, what about a big fat guy who is super strong, etc--while my mother would denounce something I was drawing or copying as "BORDERLINE PORNOGRAPHY!!!" and storm out of the room without a discussion. I was totally undeterred; I had absorbed that fake belief that attractiveness was directly correlated with health and fitness, you know, that anyone who takes care of themselves like a superhero would have to do will just naturally start looking like Pam Anderson and David Hasselhoff. I continued to obsessively, exclusively draw skanky-looking characters in painted-on outfits that were either X-Men or so nearly ripped off that it wasn't worth calling them mine.

One day when I was a teenager, I began to realize I couldn't draw anything else. The only mental reference points I had were these commercial products, and I couldn't draw cars or buildings or regular people in regular clothes. (One of the main guys I had imprinted on, the notorious Rob Liefeld, became famous for not drawing backgrounds at all once he was successful enough to refuse, so that's what I was working with) I tried to make myself learn, and it was excruciating. This was nonsense because technically I was very proficient, so there was no reason I shouldn't have been able to improve other than that I was so brainwashed by my childhood favorite thing that I couldn't find the inspiration for anything else.

On the literary side of things, I was also pretty hobbled because I had attached all my lonely, alienated, self-loathing childhood emotions to these narratives about inhumanly perfect people being amazing in between mopey makeout sessions with each other. I mean I just had no connection to really smart or interesting stories, and no taste at all, for a really, really long time. Basically all of my media consumption AND creation had only served my escapist fantasies about a world of beautiful people with unstoppable power. It wasn't great.

Around the early '00s a new breed of independent comic started to emerge, and I was all about it. The art and writing was smart, funny, and most of all really, REALLY cool, and this material took over my life for a little while. But then I started to notice something I found troubling; a large amount of that output was still oriented on the kind of sexiness and fashionability only accessible to the young and beautiful. I had met some of these artists and they weren't all vanity cases, in fact a lot of them were proper geeks, but it seemed like a substantial amount of their work was all about this idea of the hot, impossibly chic teenager. I thought that if I had to draw sexy 19 year olds all the time, no matter what kinds of rebellious style experiments I was up to, it would start to have a really negative effect on me, especially as I exited my 20s. In fact, just reading comics like that all the time--that on their most basic level expressed the longing for something that adults can't have and a lot of kids never had at all--was already having a negative effect on me, and eventually I gave them up.

And if right now you're thinking about the "old man pussy" fandom phenomenon as some kind of alternative to the fixation on the youthful hardbody, it really isn't. You still have these goggles on that evaluate everything you see for potential boyfriend material, you're still boiling everything down to sexual aids and ignoring, like...everything else that art and literature can do for you. I mean you can do that, you have a right. I just also have the right, as previously stated, to think that you're depriving yourself of a richer experience and insulting the multidimensional work that you supposedly love so much.

So anyway, more about ME. Chris Claremont's writing also kind of fucked up my life, overgrown teenager that he is, but it wasn't in quite such a toxic way. It's true that for a long time I was only keying on material that was trashy, soapy, horny, and pretentious, and this definitely affected my writing. Everything I've ever turned out has been overwrought, sappy, and full of juvenile angst, to greater and lesser degrees. It seems like I'm beyond the point of like healing from that inclination. But fortunately I cared about writing, and got cool opportunities to improve, and started reading MORE AND DIFFERENT KINDS OF STUFF. I'm still a melodramatist at heart, but I managed to move on from Chris Claremont to e.g. Douglas Sirk, who could write these delirious tearjerkers that were simultaneously earnest AND full of social critique and ironic reflection on America's destructive cultural ideals. Like that's the hope, that you can take the junk food you're addicted to and make it an ingredient in something bigger, as opposed to making it the only thing you ever have for dinner. That makes you a better creator, and a better consumer. It should make you a better fan too; I'm sure your favorite writer isn't totally thrilled when they craft this whole story out of something they were profoundly motivated to express, and you just suck the characters out of it and mash them into various sexual situations that have nothing to do with anything. I mean everyone likes to count money, but everyone also likes to feel listened-to and like all the work they do to express something personal is actually worth while.

So yeah, I complain about fandom culture from the perspective of someone who was once deeply under that kind of influence. I imagine myself being a little younger, having the internet as a 24/7 reality, and feeling compelled to tailor all of my art and writing to how many Likes and Reblogs it's going to get, and that idea really scares me. Manifestly lots of other people enjoy that lifestyle, but I'm so glad it didn't happen to me. I can sort of feel what it would have been like, based on my real experiences, and I'm so happy none of that defines my adult life--even as a serious nerd with lots of geeky obsessions that bring me constant pleasure and inspiration. I get to indulge those things without ever worrying about impressing other people in my community with my similarity to them. I get to enjoy the excitement of embracing outgrowths of what I love that are strange and new, without constantly repeating myself or wearing the stuff of my childhood into the ground. And not to toot my own horn but maybe, just maybe if there were more nerds like I became, and fewer dogmatic fandom cultists, then the tumblr search function would work a little better, and it would be a better world for all of us.

The End.

Comfort movie this comfort character that, what are you doing to make yourself profoundly uncomfortable, what are you watching that's so disgusting you can't take your eyes off it, what scares you so much it makes you intensely aware of what you take for granted, if you don't have stuff like this in your regimen then you are operating on a serious nutritional deficit and also your opinions on media are worthless.

[neptune-midheaven]

The Third House Placements and Their Handwriting Styles ~💖🌺🐚

Welcome back babes 😁🙏✨ I’m back posting someee bit but anything nonetheless ! This was a post I wanted to do for a while, this really intrigued me💫

I’m going to be talking about third house placements and their unique to the placement writing styles. Third house rules hands, arms, fingers and writing, correct !😄🎶 There is a correlation between handwriting and third house in astrology as it literlaly rules over it, so components in your third house astrology will dictate how this will look. Use all of the possible combinations you have in your chart ! 🙂☝️

For generational planet ruled signs, use whatever works better.

🔆Sun/leo ~

May have a gift in being very dramatic and showy whenever they express their ideas or in their communication they can be very bright and charming. They’re very talented at absorbing knowledge and facts, they usually are the types of people to dish out random facts about anything whoever you’re talking to them, they have so much random knowledge kept in their minds it’s almost funny. They’re silly and a bit childlike people,

Handwriting style 🦁

Regal, nice looking. They have a confidence to their writing, if the whole class wrote on one piece of paper, theirs would stand out more, maybe a “I can trust what they write is the best there is here” is what people reading over theirs would think.

🌙Moon/cancer ~

Loves sentimental things, talking about the past and family makes them feel good and safe, attachments to the mother, most likely missed her or their family whenever they had to go to school, homesickness at school

Handwriting style 🌝

Soft, homely words. Shyer? They write with a grace and their words are poetically beautiful. It looks like something out of a movie. Nostalgic, their ink is softer and lighter, their curves are soft, their lines and o’s are soft and so sensitive. SO gentle and calm. It’s sleepy?

💫Mercury/gemini/virgo ~

The wittiest, most social people ever. They’re all definitely extroverts, I am one with my gemini in 3rd house ova here 😘, they love talking, and never stop talking and love chatting about anything and never stop chatting about anything, they love walking up to random people and never stop walking up to random people and staring a convo with them out of nowhere 😀. My friends bully me all the time for this. I understand. The one kid in school with like all the answers, they just knew the answer to things and easily got good grades. People asked them for answers all of the time since they are so smart and intelligent, they absorb what they’re being taught so quickly they don’t ever let the teacher finish talking. They’re fast and versatile.

Handwriting style 🤸‍♀️

Fast writing, so many words. They write super fast and probably have so many typos in their essays and papers. Handwriting can look like crap 🤨😐. Like there’s no rush, you’re gonna get your paper done on time! You can’t read what they write al of the time because they rush through writing everything. Their letters and words look fancy somehow, like they were written by the scholar of all scholars, they’re just unintelligible words and sentences. Teachers may need to ask what the student with this placement writes because they can’t read it. Scribbles, jumbled and mixing up things all over the page. You can tell they write fast with the jagged lines and crooked n’s and t’s ajakksks.

💕Venus/taurus/libra ~

Very sweet and charming way of talking to others, they have strong persuasive powers with their honeyed words, they can almost charm you into doing anything, they seem so innocent and sweet. These people are very kind though of course! They love giving others compliments, strangers, their friends, their family, they’re such sweet people to have in your life. They attract partners and relationships by doing their daily tasks, lovers can show up suddenly when they’re running errands or they can attract a lot of interest at their school.

Handwriting style 🍓

The most pleasant, aesthetic handwriting i have ever seen, even if their handwriting is bad it still becomes an art style somehow, i don’t really know how else to describe that. It’s like no matter how bad it could possibly look or how incoherent it is, their script still manages to look NICE.

💥Mars/aries ~

Very loud voices, a bit like sun, but it’s more like their power and strength is used whenever they talk. They could be meaner or aggressive classmates, angry talkers, I know so many people with this placement who talk so mad, so much cursing, ranting and screaming. We love it all.

Handwriting style 🥵

Very rough and fast handwriting, similar to mercury; however, it has more fervor, the messiest and most impulsive handwriting out of all of the other placements.

🐚Jupiter/sagittarius ~

Loud and expressive communicators, similar to the sun here, but they’re louder and bigger. You can hear their voices from across the room and they’re usually the know-it-all’s in the classroom. Very friendly and fun to talk to, they talk about so many exotic and interesting things. They love to crack a joke or two. Also, it’s something about these peoples voices are just FUNNY. Like how they talk is like hilarious and jolly in a good way. It make you wanna crack up and feel good. They make you feel good and BLESSED when they talk to you.

Handwriting style 🍀

Larger letters, I’ve noticed they have bigger “holes” and like to expand their letters over the pages, their words go over the lines and it could be messy usually, sort of like mars fashion but it’s just wider words on the paper.

🪐Saturn/capricorn ~

Very punctual people with perfect punctuation. They hate it whenever their thoughts are messy or unorganized, it makes it hard for them to think thoroughly like they are expected to. They’re the smarter most mature minds in the room. Very deep, daddy voices. IDK HOW TO DESCRIBE IT. THEY SOUND LIKE THEIR DADS. ITS CRAZY. They talk with so authority and sureness, their diction is so perfect it makes everyone mad.

Handwriting style ✏️

Perfect handwriting, they hate it when their sentences look off or unstructured on a page. The most rounded o’s, the straightest lines and perfect length for every letter they write. Correct punctuation once again, their words look like they were printed by a typewriter.

🌪Uranus/aquarius ~

Very different minds, they could feel strange or odd in school, like they were just the oddball learners, had weird interests, or was a huge nerd over so many subjects. Crazy coffee drinkers, the ones with monster drinks and twenty textbooks that are about to fall out of their open backpacks because they rushed to get to school on time. The craziest people actually, their minds are like on drugs, they can be hard to keep up with.

Handwriting style ⚡️

Weird ways they write certain styles of their letters and their words can “come out” of the page. They write SO fast this is usually why they take harder classes in school with more work just solely on the fact they can write much faster than anyone else. Maybe comic-book looking writing? They’re dynamic and crazy like harsh lines and crazy o’s, there’s something unique about the way they write.

🌊Neptune/pisces ~

Such idealistic thinkers. They want to see the good in their surroundings, they do need to be careful with this because surroundings and things can be deceiving. They can absorb such much of their surroundings, they can be quieter communicators because of this. It can be taken advantage of since they’re overwhelmed by conversations or they can be easily fooled by the wrong people. Like they believe things that aren’t even true? Or they like tell a lot of white lies when they’re talking that make people go like uhh is that even true?😀😀 But they play it off when they’re caught lying, it’s very deceptive. The quietest kids in school that either did drugs or tried to escape class by doing some illegal stuff, or they just left. Some were never seen at school.

Handwriting style 🌀

The sleepiest handwriting I’ve ever seen. It’s provably hard to read what they write. Faded words maybe? Faded words on faded paper. So poetic though, it’s pretty but not in a venus way, it like captivates you. It’s hypnotizing they way they draw out their e’s and their a’s have a dreamy tail that connects to their next letter.

🥀Pluto/scorpio ~

Obsessive minds, they want to know everything possible, they want to reach the deepest depths on information and knowledge. They are motived and driven to know as much as they can, and they always seem to succeed. They’re very smart. The kids in school who would keep to themselves or would obsess over what the teacher taught them, the way they communicate is like they’ve read the same page over and over again for days. Obsessive.

Handwriting style 🖤

Darker, hard to see words, they can have obsessive writing. It’s perfect but fast writing, maybe a bit scary that they have the ability to write so much with so much power? People can be freaked out with just how much they know already. So their words can be very persuasive, so the letters would be magnetic, you love their writing once you read one of their essays. You’re obsessed, just like they are.

[funneylizzie]

I really do like your art bits based around a trip to Grulovia! Raz & Lili heading over there would make for an interesting opening for another game (or a short story in an official comic). I can see them going there on a mission to get Helmut's body back and Raz commenting on how this is the first time he's ever set foot on his country of origin

Yeah!!!! Actually lemme give u a bit of an idea dump LOL because I feel like it would be SO FUN (plus some bonus art, some I have posted before) so prepare, long post! Lizzie Ramblings!!

First of all, I ABSOLUTELY ADOREEEEE the idea of cozy winter fits with the whole gang, they gave me a taste in this old concept art and I want more HAHA, since we already got some pics of Sasha & Millas fits I did some doodles of what I think Raz & Lili would wear (u can just ignore my little notes or not, id like to think they’re somewhat entertaining HAH)

SO ANYWAYS, love the idea of Raz in a bomber jacket (I believe that’s what it’s called? Correct me if I’m wrong), but I was like A HEEM HEEM I could do like a little story with this (:<

I think it would be fun if Raz & Lili werent originally assigned to the mission, I was thinking Norma and Lizzie were assigned to go with Sasha and Milla (and Bob and Helmut ofc, but that’s obvious and I kind of wanted to do something based around Sasha and Milla & their two kids Raz & Lili) and they just so happened to hear about it, maybe from Norma bragging, “I have no time to talk, Raz, me and Lizzie are going on an OFFICIAL Psychonauts mission with the super-star special agents Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello, and I have to prepare.” Ykno, braggin’

You know both Raz & Lili would kill to go on a mission like that!!! (Lili showed a lot of interest in going on a psychonauts mission Re:“Yes! Isn’t that GREAT?!” “What?! How is that great?” “THIS could be an honest to goodness psychic emergency!” LOL) and I know Raz would love an opportunity to go on this mission too, I could see him telling Lili something like “this is my chance to see where my family COMES from! We have to go!”

So them being sneaky kids, this part is not completely thought through but I thought this would be funny, Lili manages to ‘hack’ into the PN database or SOMETHING, she’s got connections, and manages to change the assignment to her and Raz.

Here she is being sneaky HAHDHAHDJH

And the context of the “EVIL” drawing, I know a lot of u guys were a big fan of it khdkahf

Queue the jet, flight to Grulovia, shenanigans ensue, I have NOT thought this part through at all, I was just thinking about What If a villain shows up outta nowhere and starts like causing a ruckus 😭 not too serious a villain! I had this whole funny storyline where Raz and Lili are somehow kidnapped (not in a serious way, more like a ‘oh no haha lets annoy the crap out of our captor because he doesn’t really pose a threat and we know Sasha and Milla are gonna find us’ kind of way LOL HAHA)

Like literally heres them trying not to laugh at the villain monologuing

This is a TPT comic idea too, so it would be more centered on Sasha and Milla like goin to rescue their kids Raz and Lili, so we would get like HELLA badass teamwork moments with those two, that’s something I just really wanna see!!!!! Kickbutt power couple!!

Everything is resolved yadda yadda yadda, Helmuts body is recovered, emotional stuff happens, everybody goes home, found family happy end!!! Until Raz and Lili get in trouble for changing up the mission assignments, they’re on brain tumblr delousing duty for a MONTH!

Also!!! If this interests you in any way POSSIBLE, id love to talk more about it! Maybe steal some ideas from any y’all, would be fun!

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

just because you’re afraid it doesn’t mean you’re broken.

Titans 3.05

once more into the cold dark void of the internet with my stream-of-consciousness take on a superhero tv show...

spoilers ahead.

1. i cannot believe that among the first things i get to hear in this episode with my own two ears is the line 'eluded our overdudes'. why must you give me such pain along with so much joy, show?

1.5. scarecrow stringing jason along on this path to red-hood-dom is not something i would’ve ever expected, but does kind of make sense. 

1.55. i don’t know all the details of the original resurrection arc in the comics but i like that jason, weirdly, has a greater role to play in his own demise and rebirth? i think it makes it easier to draw a line between his past trauma, the demonstrably shitty and terrifying responsibility of being robin, the ways bruce and the titans wronged him, his responses to that, the reasons he turns to scarecrow, and his final evolution to red hood. it makes for a smoother character arc rather than a one that was interrupted for two decades before somebody went oh hey let’s resurrect that kid that the audience once voted to kill and make him an anti-hero!

1.75. what’s crane giving him? anti fear toxin? anyway, crane is a fucking creep and i’m not sure i want to see a whole lot of him on my screen.

2. oh, um, heads up: there’s a long sequence of unsteady cam + flickering lights right after the title card upto the 3:16 mark. it’s a bit headache-inducing so if you want to skip, you can go ahead and do that. 

2.45. that’s... weird... why would he dream about... donna...

ok, who am i kidding. i’m going to jump right into my theory about Why Titans Makes Sense Actually because the show itself is apparently not interested in explaining itself:

a) it makes no sense for jason to be conjuring up donna--who famously did not care much for him!--in his dreams. (he wasn’t even there when she died.) or for her to be telling him don’t go or there’s still time.

b) this leads me to think that that’s actually donna, in some sort of limbo between life and death, the kind of place where jericho used to be

c) rachel has demonstrated that she has the power to link the minds of the titans across great distances--she called jason and hank/dawn for help in 2.01, she linked up everybody later in the season, projected dick’s hallucination of his father into their brains without even realising she was doing it, and in the finale, she managed to get dick into conner’s brain. she’s in themyscira now. is this how she gets donna back to life? but reaching out to her in that non-space between life and death?

d) the next obvious question is: why isn’t donna appearing in the dreams of the other titans? she probably is, but they have better reason to be dreaming about her since they were actually close to her, unlike jason.

e) but why would she warn jason in particular? does she foresee jason entering the afterlife--however briefly? does she have an idea of what jason plans to do and what he will become?

f) anyway, more trippy mindscapes and weird psychic powers, yay!

2.5. my heart clenched when bruce comforted jason post-nightmare: clearly i’ve been reading way too much batfam fic. this is a side of bruce we haven’t really been told to expect by all the characters on the show calling him a ‘psychopath’ (*cough*unreliablenarrators*cough*) and him getting jason to speak to a professional speaks volumes about the kind of self-reflection he’s done post dick’s departure, and maybe some of the regrets he has with regards to how he dealt with dick’s traumas.

i mean, just look at him when jason dismisses his concerns! BRUCE IS TRYING JASON

anyway, i have a whole lot more i want to say about this, but i’ll save it for later. 

also: LESLIE THOMPKINS!!!!

3. i really like molly--and i love that she’s a friend from before jason got taken in by bruce, the implication that they meet up regularly and that she’s a grounding influence on him (tho clearly not grounding enough to not go along with his dumbass idea about confronting a child trafficker alone). 

3.5. aw, jason. robin was his armour against everything in the world that would throw him down and chew him to bits, but san francisco proved that even robin wasn’t enough to protect him. it’s really interesting how ‘disillusionment with the idea of robin’ is so integral to the traumas of both dick and jason but in such different ways. 

4. LESLIE!!!!!!! i even forgive her office being so goddamn blue because leslie! 

4.5. it makes so much sense for titans!verse leslie to be a therapist, because this show is so inward looking anyway, and therapist sessions are a useful tool to showcase this character work in a story. besides, at least in fanfic, leslie often seems to double up as a counsellor anyway. 

4.6. oh man. i’m not terribly convinced by walters’ red hood (tho i think that may be the point--argh. i’ll come back to this thought later. have to stop getting distracted!) but he plays the asshole kid that’s trying not to let any real emotion seep through really well.

“you’d like me to punch you, wouldn’t you”

5. not sure what to think of batman’s little trophy case other than the show winking unsubtly at us and going look look - catwoman! the riddler! two face! you excited yet?! it’s like the scene from the end of amazing spiderman 2 when they were trying to drum up excitement for a sinister six spinoff by having harry osborne walk by a bunch of display cases with stuff from iconic villains in them.

... but then again, bruce does like to display a lot of shit in his batcave, including his dead robin’s bloodstained costume, so.

5.5. bruce is so soft with jason it’s killing me. beyond just trying to learn from his mistakes with dick, it speaks to his own genuine desire to balance his dedication to gotham with doing the best by his sons, although he’s often not successful with that. 

i love that titans is really playing the long game with bruce wayne, with each season and character-perspective sliding in fresh pieces of a bigger puzzle. titans’ bruce has always been a phantom of other peoples’ making, but now we’re getting the idea that he’s a whole lot more complicated than other people make it seem.

5.75. it really recontextualises some of his actions from previous seasons: the fact that he locked dick out of his security systems in 1.06 is likely his way of respecting dick’s independence and his desire not to be associated with batman/gotham anymore. jason knowing about bruce’s tracker while dick doesn’t is probably bruce trying to be more honest and upfront with his charges. bruce sending jason packing off to sanfran to spend time with the titans is probably not him passing on a big responsibility to dick (as i first uncharitably thought) but him trying to get jason out of the toxic influence of gotham for a while and a sign of his trust in dick as a leader and a mentor,

5.8. i mean, bruce is a prick, but he’s also human.

6. i think leslie is doing some good work with jason here, though she may have overstepped the line with her line about robin as a construct being projected by a man with BPD. her speculations about bruce’s diagnosis have no place in her session with jason, and if bruce confides in her, an egregious violation of patient-therapist confidentiality. 

(about the diagnosis itself... i don’t know. i can’t really confirm or refute this without a whole lot more information, and i’m not sure if the writer of this episode means BPD in the same way an actual professional might.)

6.5. i think a huge thing that gets missed out in a lot of recent comics as well as movies/shows is that bruce didn’t create the robin persona out of whole cloth. dick did. he’s the starting point of that legacy and to call it entirely bruce’s creation is blatant erasure of that. in fact, i’m surprised that dick doesn’t feature more in the conversations they’re having about the pressures of being robin. after all, the guy had been robin--bruce’s partner--for such a long time before jason. 

6.8. (and here’s the primal part of me that resonates the deepest with dick grayson--the Eldest Daughter part--that’s sort of resentful: that jason gets the therapy and softness and the learning from mistakes when it took years and years for bruce to reach out in any meaningful way to dick.)

7. oooh that was a great scene!

it’s fun to do these stream-of-consciousness live reactions, because the moment you step down from your soapbox, the episode goes right into tackling what you were just complaining about. bruce means well, he’s learning, but he goes about exactly the wrong way to help jason: taking away robin now can’t be read by jason as anything but a devastating judgment call from bruce. and iain glen really sells the moment that bruce realises this--too late--and his helplessness in trying to get jason to see that it isn’t jason’s fault that he’s trying to do this. he loves jason enough that jason is enough. 

7.5. aaaah so jason brings up the elephant in the room at last. dick got everything makes sense from his perspective, where getting to put on a costume and fight crime means approval, means being something stronger and better than you are. dick got to be robin, then nightwing, and a leader of a whole team of other costume-clad heroes. 

8. ... how did jason just walk into arkham????? this is ridiculous.

8.3. i mean, clearly jason’s not thinking straight, but betraying batman like this puts his possibilities of being robin again even further away. 

8.5. watching that chemistry experiment montage was strangely funny. this guy is looking for an antidote to fear? well, constantly mixing up and inhaling gases concocted by a mad-scientist supervillain is something only the very fearless--reckless to the point of foolishness!--would do. what’s to say crane’s not given you a formula for a drug that will keep you tethered to his every will and whim? hmmmm?

8.7. so he sought out the joker to... test the formula??? 

9. wow the “loud and clear... boss” hits different after a whole episode of them referring to each other as father and son.

9.3. waitwaitwait HOLD UP. wait a DANG MINUTE. you’re telling me that scarecrow had enough resources that he could not only have folks on the outside steal jason away and dunk him in a lazarus pit (i TOLD you that this show would bring up and dismiss ra’s al ghul in a ten second aside! I TOLD YOU) but also have his own little chemistry lab in the basement, AND have enough resources for jason to build his red hood persona???????? all of this in barely twenty four hours?

well there goes my ‘jason orchestrated his death’ theory. it was nice while it lasted. *cups hands to the sky* fly away, my baby.

9.6. a part of me is gleeful at the rushed nature of such an iconic transformation though, especially when compared to all the character work that went before it. we’re so used to getting the opposite that it’s fucking delightful to have a show that’s more interested in exploring its characters’ minds rather than battle scenes or recreating transformations from the comics. that’s taken such bold and exciting steps to fully convey all the nuances of its most recognisable character, bruce wayne, from casting an older actor to play him to unflinchingly showing just how damaging the vigilante lifestyle has been to him and the people he loves. BRILLIANT

*sporfle*

10. again, heads up: a whole lot of flashing lights between 40:28 and 42:00. 

10.3. i guess it’s the super-compressed timeline that’s really throwing me off. where did he have the time to get/develop the mind control thing from? or is it something that he got from the cabal of villains that he intimidated at the beginning of 3.02? very messy.

10.5. i love molly, i hope she shows up again this season.

11. aaaand that’s it! that was a solid episode as flashback episodes go, but now i can’t wait to return to the present.

[babyflossy]

is this real?

pairing; taeyong x female!reader (my future works are gonna be gender neutral unless explicitly stated otherwise)

word count; 1.7k

summary/requested; taeyong wants a calm birthday but you have important news to tell him. I deleted the request for this and I'm pretty sure they wanted smut but I just want this out of my drafts so I'm really sorry! also this was supposed to be a birthday request rip,,, also another instalment of flossy can’t think of titles

genre/warnings; cringey (I'm so sorry), pregnancy (?), fluff

the day had been simple. taeyong had requested you to keep his celebrations to a minimum this year; a true day for him to relax and not have to worry about anything. it had started just as he had wanted, you had made breakfast in bed for him, waking him up with feathery kisses to his cheeks. regardless of his wishes for you to not get him anything, you couldn’t resist getting a few token gifts you knew he would like.

at first, your plan had been to surprise him in the morning, soon after he had woken up. the little wrapped box had never been far from your reach the whole day, even as you found yourself getting ready for the dinner his members had insisted on. every chance you had to give it to him you lost; shaky hands and sweaty palms not allowing you to simply hand over the box wrapped so neatly, a little silver ribbon tied around it.

as you brushed on your blush, convince yourself you would give it to him before you left the house, at least. that didn’t happen, of course, as when you went to get it the only thing you could think of was taeyong’s disappointed face when he opened it. what if he didn’t want it? what if he wasn’t ready.

sure, you had both agreed you wanted kids, but was now the right time? a few months ago he had suggested you to stop taking the pill and just see what happened, but when his company suggested a solo album you had gone back on it. what he didn’t know, and what he was soon to find out, was that in those few weeks of being off the pill you had gotten pregnant.

it had been hell, as expected, keeping it from him. you wanted nothing more than to tell him the moment you found out, but deciding it was only a few weeks until his birthday you managed to hold off telling him. as the weeks dragged on your anxiety only grew until you weren’t even sure if you were ready, let alone him.

a hand rubbing along the bare expanse of your shoulders shakes you from your thoughts and you meet taeyong’s eyes in the mirror, offering him a smile. a frown settles on his face as he toys with the thin strap of the silk dress you’re wearing. the material is tight on your body and it glitters under the artificial light in your bedroom. you think about how you won’t be able to wear dresses like this for a while and sigh.

“you okay?” he mumbles, hands letting your straps go to pull your hair behind your back, leaning down to trail kisses along your shoulder. the action is so caring, so soft and familiar you can feel the familiar tingle of emotion in your eyes.

the brush drops onto the table with a clatter and you stand, turning around to face him. there’s concern still brimming his eyes and you looking away for a moment to calm yourself.

“of course i am, baby,” the suit he’s wearing fits him perfectly and you let your eyes linger down his body before you meet his gaze again, hands rubbing the smooth fabric between your fingers. “you look amazing, as always.”

“not even half as amazing as you, princess,” his hands grip your waist and you feel a sickening twist of your stomach as you look up at him. this was so perfect, you and him, did you really want to change that dynamic? you had heard stories of couples falling out of love after having children and you weren’t sure you wanted to risk it anymore.

“i love you,” with your words, you let your face drop into his chest, closing your eyes as you listen to his heartbeat. you hear him sigh above you and you can tell he sees right through your mask but you’re grateful when he doesn’t push it further. a reply is whispered into your hair before a ringtone breaks you out of your embrace.

“it’s johnny, we should go.”

there’s a chandelier hanging over your head and the crystals glimmer onto the tablecloth in front of you. the soft glittering is calming and a stark contrast to how you feel inside. the look taeyong had shot you when you denied the expensive champagne from the waiter did nothing to soothe your nerves and as you sip your lemon water you question if this is really a good idea.

around you the conversations move too quickly for you to keep up with and you’re close to grateful when johnny turns to you. this is the first time you’ve seen him since you had spilled your biggest secret a few weeks ago, needing to tell someone about the positive pregnancy test. when you were plannnig the day, johnny had made you promsie to tell taeyong before the dinner, but as soon as you had met eyes in the enterance he knew you hadn’t.

it was your first oppurtunity to talk to him and you both keep smiles on your faces so the others around you won’t suspect anything. “why haven’t you told him?”

“i got scared,” you take a sip of water in between your words, “every time i tried to give it to him i– i just couldn’t.”

“you’re a fucking idiot. you know he’ll notice eventually, right? that’s how pregnancy works, dumbass.” johnny teases, the polite grin covering his face is almost comical in comparison to his words. you laugh mockingly and nudge his arm too hard for it to be accidental.

“make fun of me one more time, and i’ll kick you in the shins.”

soon enough, johnny is pulled into a different conversation and you focus on eating your food and calming your heart rate. you vowed silently to yourself that no matter what happens, you’ll tell him before tomorrow morning.

in your daze, the dinner passes quickly and before you know it everyone around you is standing, pulling their coats and suit jackets over their shoulders. taeyong pulls your chair out for you and links his hand in yours as he bids farewell to group. as you’re leaving, you catch johnny’s eyes one last time and scowl at the way he raises his eyebrows expectantly, a sarcastic smirk painting his features.

the car ride home is silent, suffocating. taeyong sits in the passenger seat and watches you frown at the road in front of you, deciding to question you when you're not behind the wheel. the walk into your apartment is silent as well, the same confused expression consuming you as you make your way straight to your bedroom to rid your feet of the heels trapping them.

when you sigh for the umpteenth time in front of your dressing table mirror taeyong realises he's had enough. "what's wrong with you?" the words are firm but hold no malice. in the reflection you watch him run a hand through his hair, his eyes focused straight on you. it’s now or never, you think and reluctantly reach for the draw next to you, retrieving the little box with shaking hands.

when you place it in his lap, the face that looks up at you is nothing but confused. "you got me another present? i told you to keep this–"

"just open it," a nod in the direction of the box accompanies your words and your heartbeat leaps to your throat as you watch him untie the ribbon. fleetingly, you think about ripping it back out of his hands and hiding it again but by now, you want nothing more than to get this over with.

time seems to freeze as he picks up the little white stick out of the clouds of tissue paper. his fingers turn it around a few times before bringing it closer to his eyes. you're not sure why, the two pink lines are visible even from where you're standing. for a heart-stopping moment you think he's going to throw it away, but in an instant he's standing. his arms wrap around you tighter than you think they ever have and relief floods you like a dam breaking.

"is this real?" the whisper is soft and child-like in innocence, taeyong's wide eyes staring at you tenderly. the lump in your throat doesn't allow any words out and you can only nod in reply. the next embrace is longer, and sweeter. he hooks his hand under your head and cradle you to his chest, dropping his face to kiss the top of your head. being held like this does nothing to curb your emotions and the tears start falling before you can stop them. "we're gonna be parents?"

you nod and his lips are on yours in an instant, hands falling back to your waist to pull you into him. the kiss is tender and warm and it shows every emotion you’ve been trying to hide from him for so long. “you’re happy, right?” he asks when you haven’t said anything.

“i'm happy– don’t get me wrong, but i'm so scared, taeyong." the words make him frown down at you, the tears in his eyes making him appear so vulnerable. "what if we're bad parents–"

"hey, hey, hey," he whispers against your forehead, fingers rubbing soothing circles into your waist, "we can't think like that, i'm sure we'll be fine." there's nothing you can do except nod into his chest, exhausted after finally letting out your secret. "how long have you known?"

"a few weeks," you can't help but let out a teary laugh at the shock on his face when you pull away. "i wanted to tell you straight away, believe me i did, but i thought it would be a good surprise."

"that's impressive, i have to admit. i can't wait to tell everyone!"

"about that," you pause, knowing he probably won't like the fact johnny found out about your pregnancy before he did. "johnny already knows."

"you told johnny?" there's disbelief in his voice but you can tell he's not angry. "before me?"

"i'm sorry!" you laugh out, the pout on his face being anything except for funny to you now. "i needed to tell someone!"

"their first word better be daddy to make up for this."

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About "Eda's Requiem" from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who certainly won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

...

...

...HOW IS SEASON TWO SO GOOD?! WE'VE HAD SEVEN EPISODES SO FAR, AND EACH ONE OF THEM WAS A HIT!

Take "Eda's Requiem," for example. It's yet another episode where I have NOTHING bad to say about it! That's two weeks in a row where that happened! HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN?!

HOW!

HOW!

...But anyways, "Eda's Requiem." It's another fantastic episode, and I'm about to dive into explaining how and why. Just keep in mind, it's gonna require spoilers to do so, so be wary of that as you keep reading.

Now, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Eda’s Checklist and Grom Photo: Within the first second, "Eda's Requiem" perfectly sets up Eda's central conflict in the episode. Despite spending years being on her own and looking after herself, she now has two kids that she's constantly caring over. Eda can try all she wants to say that she doesn't care, and I bet she has in the past. But given the hard work she's putting into getting King and Luz what they need and having a grom photo of the three of them together pinned in her mirror, it's pretty clear that those two knuckleheads wormed their way into her heart and are never getting out.

Eda’s Worried About King and Luz Leaving: And thus, that's precisely why something like this bothers her so much. Eda inadvertently adopted two rambunctious rapscallions (Yeah, I know. I'll get to it), so the idea of them not being around her anymore is going to be terrifying. That is a situation most parents, especially mothers, can identify with. It’s called empty nest syndrome and it proves just how much Eda loves Luz and King that she can't stand the thought of her babies leaving the nest. It's yet another well-made, wholesome, found-family moment that this series continues to excel at each week, making me extra excited for more like it to come...while also readying myself for heartbreak when one of them eventually does leave Eda.

Eda and Raine’s Music: Ok, I don't know the exact instruments that were played during this episode, but I also don't care because it was all (for lack of a better term) music to my ears. Every time Eda and Raine played resulted in melodies that are so beautiful and filled with so much emotion and feeling that I'm honestly tempted to listen to them again, multiple times, on repeat. Shows rarely do that for me, as background music doesn't always draw me in as much as lyrical songs do. Usually, it takes something so extraordinarily composed to give me the desire to listen again, and that's the case here. So huge congrats to Brad Breek for doing so. Seriously, the man's been killing it this season.

Eda’s Bard Magic Causing Things to Turn to Ash: This was assuredly a surprise side-effect of the curse. The fact that Eda can sort of do magic at all was its own shock. To then reveal that a specific type can do dangerous things to people and environments is...Well, it definitely brings up its own fair share of questions. Like, how can she do this? Will she do it again, one day? And are there other types of spells that can be negatively affected by Eda's curse? We don't get answers for any of these questions, and odds are, we never will. But that's alright with me. Because if a show makes me consider these many possibilities after a brief amount of time, it is a show that has to be doing something right. Even if I don't get the answers I want, the fact that it caused such a reaction makes me less willing to care.

Raine Whispers: Hey, would you look at that. Another fun, interesting, and compelling character added to the list of this shows' other fun, interesting, and compelling characters...how is this series so good at this!?

Joking aside, Raine's pretty good. I like Raine. They could have been this super serious leader who lost all their fun after years apart from Eda, but I'm glad that they're not. There are moments when Raine takes their job as leader of the BATs seriously, as one would, but I still prefer the fact that they kept a jovial nature despite how grim their situation is. It's an admirable trait to have, and it avoids the trope of making leader characters boring just because they're the ones who have to take things seriously.

Oh, and also, Raine's Disney's first non-binary character who has a stake in the plot. This is a tremendous deal, as you don't usually see that many non-binary characters in children's animation, let alone ones that hold importance to the story. So it's pretty cool for the writers to feature Raine, as it helps several kids feel as though they're finally seen and respected. And the fact that Disney of all companies gave the thumbs up is even more impressive. I hear people say that Dana Terrace should have pitched The Owl House to more progressive networks to avoid pushback, and while I absolutely see your point, I'll have to respectfully disagree. Disney is the largest entertainment industry of all time, so if you want to make LGBTQA+ representation normalized, you gotta stop making splashes and start making waves. Because if the same company that made three racist cats in the span of a few years manages to say that being gay is a-ok, then you know there's something wrong with you. Yes, Disney ended up screwing over the show anyway. But for that one moment, when kids felt pride after seeing a character like Raine, then, in the end, it's kind of worth it.

Also, if you're still having issues with more representation like this popping up in kids' shows, then allow me to redirect you to the complaint department.

...I made that post earlier today for this bit. YOU HAVE BETTER APPRECIATED IT!

Day of Unity is meant to be a Secret: At least, that's what I got when Raine stumbled over their own words. So if it's true, then I wonder why? Why does Belos want to keep the most critical change in the Boiling Isles a secret? Does he want to make it a surprise for his grateful subjects, or does he not want to spread worry and fear amongst the wild witches? It has to be something big if he doesn't want his followers to even say the words "Day of Unity." Whatever reason he has, we most likely won't know until the future. A future that I grow more and more afraid of each week.

Hooty Eating Echo Mouse: My heart sank in that brief moment when I thought that Hooty intensely screwed Luz over in getting back home. But looking back...it is pretty funny.

Just the suddenness of Hooty eating the poor creature that Luz desperately tried to earn its trust is priceless in how shocking it was. And also, Luz's expression.

That was the look of a young girl who immediately shoved her hand down an owl demon's throat the second the scene cut away. The Owl House may not always be a hit in the comedy department, but scenes like this prove that when it's funny, it is hilarious.

Luz and King Entering the Grand Prix: Not much to discuss here. It's just a cute subplot that adds frivolity to the intensity of what's going on through Eda and Raine's story. But I will say that I love how both stories occasionally interconnect with each other through the many moments of Eda being worried about King wanting to leave to find his father and avoiding any conversation about it. It helps both plotlines feel like they belong together, without being something like "Through the Looking Glass Ruins," whereas both stories could have been in their own episode. Which is neat.

How Bard Magic Works: I really love how this season is diving into how the other magic types work. More specifically, the ones that seem a little vague. I mean, stuff like healing, potions, and plants are easy to figure out, but what does it mean when a witch's talents are construction, beast keeping, and bard magic? We've been getting a lot of clearing up lately, with bard magic looking like a witch can control their environments and enemies through the power of music. Which is fair. Music is pretty powerful in the metaphorical sense, and I actually love that it's powerful in the literal sense when in the Boiling Isles.

The BATs: Not much to comment on these three either. The BATs have the potential to have an entertaining dynamic, but they do very little in this episode that I can't say much other than I hope they make a return in the future. But I will make this claim: Amber is my favorite. I'm sorry, but her screaming "You're not our mom!" to then go, "Bye, mommy Eda" is just too precious for me not to love.

I'm a simple man who falls for cute s**t. Leave me alone.

Raeda (RainexEda): Well, EdaxCamila, you were a fun crack ship while it lasted, but I'm afraid that this is now goodbye. The current canon has provided an incredibly adorable and believable relationship that I would be a monster not to support with my whole bi-heart. It's been real.

Ok, back in serious mode: I love these two together. Eda and Raine are grown-ups, and they still act all flustered near each other as if they were still Luz and Amity's age. It's definitive proof that you're never too old to get flustered near a crush, and seeing them interact adds a sense of wholesomeness when seeing them together as well as heartbreak when they're forced apart. Plus, we get confirmation that Eda's LGBTQA+! Whether she's bi, pan, or whatever, now that we know Eda can catch feelings for someone like Raine, it's yet another case that The Owl House is the most important series to the community. Because having the main character be queer is fantastic in its own right. But having the same apply to the motherly mentor figure? That's is an extra bit of normalization that anybody would be willing to appreciate.

Unique Guard Designs: Not many fans are going to appreciate this, primarily compared to everything else this episode does perfectly. For me, I actually like that you see a few Coven Guards looking differently from the others, as it helps make them less like clones and makes it seem like anybody of any body type could be a part of the coven.

Gus Looking Uninterested when Presenting Grand Prix with his Dad: I am positive that you didn't notice this (I didn't even notice it until someone else pointed it out), but there's something to dissect here. It hints that perhaps Gus isn't as interested in his father's field of work as one might think. If he did, he would look a lot less bored and much more excited to be helping Perry Porter present the race. It could just be the race itself, but judging from Gus' expression, it really seems like the kid would prefer to be anywhere but there. And why would he have that reaction to a race that his best friend is competing in? To me, this seems like an inkling of what Gus' relationship with Perry could be, which may not actually get time to shine, what with how little wiggle room the series has now (Thanks Disney). Regardless, it is interesting to notice, and it will certainly have fans thinking for a while.

Bump Being Smug of Luz Being in the Lead: That's it. Principal Bump looking smug as his human student is beating the students of his rivals is yet another moment that proves why Bump is easily the best cartoon principal.

Darius: First of all, this guy is f**king fabulous, and I love him. *Snaps*

Second, he is definitive proof that you do NOT want to f**k around with Coven Leaders. Lilith may have had her intimidating moments, but none of them compare to the guy who can turn himself into an abomination monster where only magic that hasn't existed before can take him down. It's genuinely scary to see Darius lose control, and I fear for the day when Luz inevitably ends up in his crosshairs.

With that said, Darius' still a ton of fun! He may be threatening, but he's just a flamboyant guy that hates the idea of getting his outfit the tiniest bit dirty. And I love that. I love that these Coven Heads have actual personalities instead of being generically evil. I consider it preferable to make villains entertaining rather than blatantly scary as I'll remember the personalities first and the villainous acts last.

Eberwolf: But this one's my favorite. I told you: I'm a simple man who gets easily swayed by cute s**t. And Eber? I mean, just look at her:

She's just a cute widdle rascal! I just want to pinch her cheeks, give her a belly rub, and--

...Eberwolf is not a cute widdle rascal. She is a strong, independent woman, and I will respect her as such from this moment forward...lest I feel her wrath.

That is all. Let's move on.

Eda and Raine Attempting a Final Performance: This was the best scene of the episode. It looked gorgeous, it shows the dedication Eda and Raine have for stopping Belos, and it says so much through so little. Go back and look at how Eda and Raine regard one another when performing Eda's requiem. Through their expressions and a few short words, you know they understand that if they complete the song/spell, they probably won't make it in the end. And yet, they don't care. They both know bad stuff will happen if Belos wins, so Eda and Raine put everything to the side, both their feelings for one another and the people they leave behind if it means putting an end to a tyrant. That level of dedication...Words can't fully describe how powerful that is.

Raine Sacrificing Themselves Instead: But in the end, Raine can't do it. Not when they know the life that Eda has and the people she'll be leaving behind. It's an extra bit of nobleness to the character seeing that Raine refuses to take away a woman from two kids who need her the most. A tad bit selfish, sure, knowing what Belos has planned. But when it comes to love, the romantic, familial, or platonic, the best decisions aren't always the logical ones.

Eda Crying: Luz crying tears me up, but seeing Eda cry is a whole different level of heartbreak. Like Lilith, Eda has her emotions locked up tight, with the closest she came to weeping were those two tears in "Young Blood, Old Souls." In "Eda's Requiem," she cries but almost quickly stops herself. As if she knows that doing so isn't going to save Raine. That is...even worse than seeing Luz break down after losing Eda. The fact that Eda refuses to give herself time to mourn losing someone she loved is tragic because crying is the most natural way of showing grief. Turning that off isn't healthy, and seeing her do it with little resistance is sad to me. It's sad to see a character I love can easily shut off all emotions despite how badly she may want to embrace them. It's one of those moments that, again, by doing so little, it shows so much.

“No one watches Crystal Balls anymore. It’s all about streaming.”: Oof. Even I felt that burn towards cable.

King’s Message: King's message was the pick-me-up I needed after the heart-wrenching sadness this episode put me through a few minutes ago. Seeing King say who he is and listing all the things he loves is nothing short of adorable. On top of that, I adore that Eda willingly recorded the whole thing. She may not want King to leave, but that doesn't mean she'll sabotage the one thing he wants. Especially not after Raine gave up everything so Eda could be with her kids. The opening scene may prove how much Eda cares about a rascal like King, but this heartwarmingly sweet moment reveals just how far she'll go to make him happy.

King’s Dad Reveal: ...ok, I'll be honest, I did not think we'd get that reveal this soon. Dumb of me to say, considering the number of times I've said that these writers don't waste time getting to the s**t, I know. But still, it's pretty cool knowing that King's dad is alive and well, added with the fact that we've got a fair idea of what he looks like. At this point, it's only a matter of time before we see him figure out where the Clawthorne residence is and witness the tear-jerking moments that will follow.

King Changing his Name to King Clawthorne: Not the official adoption I was expecting Eda to make...but DANG IT, is it still diabetes-inducing levels of sweetness!

Personally, I feel like the main reason why Eda breaks down this time is not only because she shouldn't be worried about King leaving her life, but also because Raine's sacrifice wasn't in vain. Her kids really do need Eda because no matter how far apart they'll be, she will always be a part of their life...dang it, I'm going to cry too!

What those Coven patches really do: Well...that was horrifying to see.

...Writers, if you kill off the best non-binary character in animation (it's a short list, I know), we are going to have PROBLEMS!

IN CONCLUSION

"Eda's Requiem" is--surprise surprise--another A+. The emotions hit hard, the representation hits harder, Raine is a fantastic addition to the cast, and it was all surprisingly cute at times. Season Two is currently on a hot streak, constantly winning with every episode that's come out so far. When a bad episode does eventually show up (IT'S GONNA HAPPEN!), I'll be sure to sing my requiem then. For now, I'm just gonna enjoy the ride.

[sinkix]

~ Haikyuu!! Boys baking with reader - Ft. Ushijima, Tendou, Oikawa, Hinata & Nishinoya ~

YO! SO UHHHH... I’M BACK??? I GUESS?? MAYBE??? After a little break I had this in my drafts for a while and realllyyy wanted to complete it since it’s such a cute concept. Honestly at this point my posting frequencies are so sporadic and random pls forgive me lmao.

@deathcab4daddy​ gave me the inspo to include Ushi and it was so funny coming up with ideas for him, he is no.1 country boi chef 

Dude I’m listening to the Mario Kart soundtrack ‘Coconut Mall’ while I continue writing this someone save me. Like u think I’m joking. UR WRONG.

Ushijima:

The most straightforward yet idiotic baker you will ever come across.

Before you even THINK about performing step 1, he will read the entire fucking leaflet like it’s a Shakesperean monologue.

INGREDIENTS INCLUDED.

LIKE SIS I DIDN’T NEED TO KNOW IT CONTAINS  MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE THANK YOU.

I’m surprised he doesn’t count every single particle in the brownie mix.

You bought him a frilly cupcake-printed apron stating ‘best wife’ not expecting him to actually wear it

But since he’s secretly a big softie and treasures anything you buy he wears it proudly.

His stoic and dignified disposition is a comical contrast to the words printed on the front lmao.

Ushi best wifey bro.

The tight fit of the apron is pretty hot since it outlines every ridge of his pecs and tightly toned torso.

Gotta resist groping your mans while stirring the brownie batter.

tbh he’s more likely to grope you, he can’t resist that a$$.

And let’s face it he’s def an ass/thigh kinda guy.

Can and will try to casually initiate some form of unholy activities by lifting you up onto the kitchen counter, goading you to slowly lick the spoon and locking gazes before pulling you in for a deep, open-mouthed kiss to get a taste of the incomplete creation himself.

Ushi’s lips and brownie batter are a knock-out combo js.

Literally has the most serious face when he’s cracking the eggs into the bowl

The amount of concentration is equivalent to that of when he’s performing a serve at match-point.

HAS to set the temperature to the EXACT degree stated on the box

Everything is done by the book if you do one thing out of place he will pull you up on it lol.

“(Y/N) you were supposed to stir it for 5 minutes, not 7.”

When its done you feed him some and he can’t help but smile its so ADORBALE AHHH.

You end up eating most of it since Ushi doesn’t strike me as much of a chocolate/junk food lover.

STILL A VERY FUN BUT F R U S T R A T I N G EXPERIENCE.

Tendou:

The complete opposite of Ushi

Does everything wrong and the unconventional way.

Absolute disaster but doesn’t even sweat it since Tendou basically thrives in chaos and the disorderly.

To him instructions are purely equivocal, will read them for five seconds then toss them away.

Step aside Gordon Ramsey, Chef Tendou is here.

Despite doing everything the unorthodox way it still comes out amazing.

Like??? how???

Will cheekily place a dollop batter on your nose then lick it off fh3jkeffefds

Or if he’s feelin’ a lil freaky, he’ll swipe it off with his long ass finger and make you suck it clean, smirking at your submission as you coat his finger with your saliva.

oop-

Constantly cracking jokes and shitty food puns, pretending to drop the bowl to make you go into preemptive cardiac arrest before you can swat him with the spatula.

While you’re waiting for the timer to ping, Satori being the schemer he is will use this as an opportunity to pull some fuckery and tease you in any way he can.

u better be praying like bodhisattva TanaNoya rn because he is MERCILESS.

Suggestive comments, the brush of his fingers against your thigh, it’ll leave you A C H I N G in frustration by the end of it.

Unholy activities aside, once your baking session is completed you finish it off by feeding PHAT forkfuls of brownie to each other and giggling like dorks when it gets all over your mouth.

The jackass actually got a fingerful and SMEARED it over your cheek and forehead, drawing a little cross and snickering when the crumbs fall onto your nose.

Tendou was smart to draw a cross bc he gonna need jesus with the ATTACK you launch on him after that, which promptly leads to an all out food war in your kitchen that neither of you want to clean up after ward.

Don’t worry though it’s Tendou, he’ll somehow find a way to make such a mundane activity fun.

Nishinoya:

stirs WAY TOO VIOLENTLY

IT’S LIKE AN ELECTRIC WHISK ON OVERDRIVE.

IT WILL SPLATTER OVER THE COUNTER, CUPBOARDS AND EVERYTHING YOU HOLD DEAR WITHIN A 1 MILE RADIUS.

You best believe he will try and eat some of the batter and you have to swat the spoon away from his mouth since he has NO REGARD FOR THE FACT HE COULD GET SALMONELLA.

Plus you know what Noya’s like once he starts eating something the whole thing will be gone in a matter of milliseconds.

He somehow managed to get Baking powder EVERYWHERE and even gave him self a little moustache with it.

The white substance kinda looked like something else but you didn’t really wanna say lmaooo.

could explain why he has so much energy all the time oK ILL STOP-

While you’re putting the mix on the tray he is SO extra and will do fancy lil swirls and over extend his arm like a swan to gracefully spread the batter

until he nearly fucking knocks it over.

During processing time since he is so excitable and impatient you best believe he’s gonna suggest a game of ping pong or something because my guy can well and truly never sit still.

ping pong match with the spatulas, kitchen island and a hard boiled egg.

Pls be careful he will rolling thunder that egg and pimp slap it so hard with the spatula it’ll damn near give you a concussion, not intentionally, but like protect your noggin. Wear a helmet.

For the remaining 5 minutes of baking time y’all just sit like kids in front of the oven and watching it rise like starved hyena’s observing it’s pray before demolishing it into sad particles of cocoa.

And lemme tell u, once the timer pings, that baking tray is free real estate for Noya. Half of your creation will be devoured before you can even put it on a plate and marvel at your handiwork. 

He kicked your ass at spatula ping pong btw I’m sorry sweaty but short kings stay winning.

Oikawa:

Such a dramatic bitch like he got the whole she-bang going on.

Strapped with a pink apron, a whisk at his side and standing proudly with both hands on his hips.He is prepared like a greek gladiator going into battle.

You better believe he gonna make some snarky remarks and tease your method of doing things. 

“Ah-ah-ahhh (Y/N)-chan you’re doing it all wrong, let me show you how a PRO does it.”

Proceeds to drop entire bowl on his foot and yelp like a little girl in pain.

Well and truly embarrassed with himself, you put a band-aid on his toe and he piped down after that.

Shattered big toe and mixing bowl aside, actually a really good baker??

He is a PRO at decorating, y’all decided on cupcakes since its literally his forte to make them look aesthetic and pretty.

You almost don’t wanna eat them from how good they look.

jk almost

You take it in turns breaking bits off and placing pieces into each others mouth with a loud “aaaaaahhh!”

Places a piece in your mouth, leans forward and locks lips with you in a soft, passionate kiss before pulling away and uttering the words “It tastes even better coming from your mouth ;)”

hnnnNNGGGGGGggGg.

You both whine and bicker over who cleans up after.

“You cleaaannnnn!”

“no Toru YOU clean!”

“but I made the cupcakes look pretty :(”

“not as pretty as you <3″

He did the cleaning after that.

Like just stroke his ego with some compliments and he’s whipped with a smug grin on his face for the next 30 minutes.

You decide to save the rest and bring them to his next practise.

Literally on the verge of tears when he sees you beaming and holding the platter of treats, Kiyotani mauls half of them in a matter of seconds to which Oiks gets salty over LMAO.

Hinata:

So excited oh my god he’s so precious please protect him I will CRY-

Has a little sunflower apron on and JBJKNDDDKDW IM SMILING JUST IMAGINING HIM FIDGETING IN EXCITEMENT OVER THE THOUGHT OF BAKING COOKIES.

Yes you decided on cookies bc he goes rabid for some choc chip biccies.

You have to guide him v carefully because of how easily confused and clumsy he is.

Cannot for the life of him crack the eggs without getting a quarter of the shell in the bowl so you have to do it instead.

Has a surprising amount of strength and forearm power bc holy shit boy can stir FAST.

Hums a little tune while he does it and bobs up and down with a wide grin on his face it’s so adorable, he has such a gentle singing voice I can’t-

Attempts different shapes with the batter when pouring it onto the tray but fails pretty miserably lol.

he tried ok???

Once they’re done he takes the tray out of the oven and since it was heavy, subconsciously propped it with his knee and nearly dropped the entire tray from the pain. (I’ve actually done this before when making chicken nuggets I do not advise being that brain dead)

Had to put some burn cream on the bbies knee :’((

When you decided to dig in, he handed you a cookie that looked like a crooked circle and said he tried to make that one a heart and insisted he feed it to you.

Blushed VERY hard at the moment of silence and intense eye contact while he fed it to you.

Nearly short circuited when his fingers brushed against your lips.

Moe moe x100000000000000000000000000000

You offer to do the cleaning after because he hurt himself and you didn’t wanna make him do any work, but he still offered to wipe the surfaces for you bc he’s an angel <333

literally just wanna marry him.