#I'm objectively correct about this XD

[alifeasvivid]

Let me be very, very clear.

England and America's caregiver/ward-charge-""~son~"" relationship (as it kind of relates a lot to this post) is only interesting to me at all if they end up in a romantic/sexual relationship later and not because I think it's incest because it is not that (.that's not a thing in hetalia. even if it was, America is not "blood" related to England. England has actual brothers, we know what that looks like. the implications born out of England being his colonies' "father" give me the ick.)

It's interesting to me in the sense of America having "been in love" with England for his entire existence and England being basically the only one with that caregiver view of the relationship. America definitely wanted to be England's wife and/or husband from the time he was very wee smol and England laughed indulgently and said of course, of course and thought it was "cute" at the time, but America was dead fucking serious about it and never really stopped being so.

Even England thinking that he is/was a caregiver to America is a retcon in his own mind because he definitely was just the world's worst babysitter. He's painting a better picture of himself by claiming that he gave America the world on a string and nursing his own ego over America giving him the finger and demanding independence. He liked knowing America was out there, across the sea, loving him and always being happy to see him, but he was never there. Not even at the end (rainy battlefields be damned, he was way too busy with more pressing matters).

The fact that England is so much older than America but they end up at very similar ages in the modern day so that England is suddenly forced to see America as an adult and equal in a way that isn't the same old "older adult sees 18 year old as 'grown up' for the first time', is just... I dunno it's very unique to them as far as I've encountered and I can never properly articulate just exactly what I mean by this. It's a vibe. I've only ever gotten the full experience of it from a few artists/writers.

Let me be even more clear: in my mind, as far as Hetalia goes, America declared independence, yes for himself primarily, but also because England wouldn't see him as an adult and specifically because he wouldn't see him as a potential partner.

I understand where people find the idea of them having a father/son relationship sort of warm and sweet (esp face family) and/or sort of dark and twisted (they're too alike in all the wrong ways). I get it. And I go out of my way to respect people who don't ship them. If a post says "don't tag as ship" I don't tag it as ship... and if it's not tagged when it comes across my dash and it's not overtly shippy, I check OP's tags and honor that. So let's just be clear. If you interpret a post of mine as them having a familial relationship, keep your mitts off of it, capiche?

[worstloki]

I would just like to calmly point out that it may be recurring but it’s not much of a joke beyond the fact that before the series it was a plain falsehood to say he talked too much, that Norse Myth Loki is a vastly different character, that even if the muzzle was a reference that doesn't vindicate it, and that the silencing has been happening long before the series without being a joke.

Though I understand you are only stating possible links the moments reference, I've repeated @lucianalight's reply as I do not believe it matters if any of the listed moments are part of a recurring joke.

While in Thor 1, the moments when Loki is mocked and silenced are put there to convey that he is being mistreated and ignored and that’s part of the reason why he is justified to be hurt and angry about it, in the show Loki’s mistreatment and the way he is silenced are justified because of the framing that he is so full of himself and talks so much.

I'm also throwing a link to this relevant gifset @lokihiddleston made bc I like it XD

appropriate reaction

[uva124]

So yeah, I finished the drawing of Asha's redesign from Wish :D, maybe I'll make some changes in the future, but I'm happy to have finished it, it should be noted that I haven't seen the movie. , so I can't give my opinion on it yet, but I found it very interesting that their fandom is mainly made up of people who rewrote or made their own version of the movie, they are all very creative and it got me out of an artistic block. that I had a few months ago, but above all I found the rewriting of @annymation which is the one I have been most hooked on, so I wanted to do some redesigns of the characters coming out of its rewriting, that's why everything that has to do with the story of this version of Asha, as well as her personality and her world on which I base my drawing are the ideas and work of this account: @annymation

I'm just making a drawing of her character and how I would design her as well as sharing part of the process I had to do to draw her because, why not?

BOARD:

The first thing I had to do was put together a table full of references that reminded me of the character and things that I would like to add to her design, so I used milanote to do it:

-Looked for some Asha's concept art and save the ones I liked the most, and add the main colors that I used in the design. -I also created notes to write down the personality of the character and some of his data to have a better guide, I did a little research and found publications that talked a lot about Asha's discarded designs and how Disney workers had put that she had tribe ancestry Amazigh on his mother's side and since his father was from the Iberian Peninsula, that's why the next thing I wanted to do is research more about their culture. -I am not an expert on this topic, nor do I belong to the cultures from which Asha has ancestry, so you can comment on any correction regarding this topic, I wanted to implement details of this culture to her design and I would really like to give a correct representation :)

HAIRSTYLE

Continuing with the theme, I saw that the hairstyles in the Amazigh culture mostly had this type of colorful decorations on their braids and dreadlocks, that's why I also posted these reference photos for Asha's hairstyle.

-Finally I decided that Asha would not have all her hair full of braids or dreadlocks, but only a few accompanied by these decorations with a great variation of colors, although it was fun to sketch the many hairstyle options that I had in mind based on these concept art and other photos that I had saved

TATTOOS:

-Another detail that I liked was giving Asha some tattoos with designs from the Amazigh culture, because I saw that it was quite common for women to get them, the tattoo on her forehead is a symbol of protection against bad influences, that's why the The middle symbol is responsible for deflecting it in the 4 directions, I also added a similar one in Asha's right hand.

ASTROLOGY AND THE SPACE:

-An important part of Asha's rewrite is her knowledge of astronomy inherited from her father, especially with the stars for obvious reasons xd, so in addition to adding constellations to her dresses, research the meaning (or something like that) of the planets. Only 3 really reminded me of the character, which were: -Mars: Symbolization of the internal conquering function of moving forward, independent, self-determined, enduring failures with new energy, courage and energy to fight for your desires. -Saturn: Maturity, effort to solidly build realistic criteria, frustrations are transformed into objectives to continue growing, critical and realistic, far from getting frustrated when an objective does not work, you strive to move forward and obtain even more resistant and solid achievements, perseverance , and tenacity (I feel like yhis it the most similar to Asha :D) -Moon: protective role, feeling very vulnerable outside your known areas, feeling of security with your ties, importance of family ties. The one that reminded me the most of Asha was Saturn, that's why I drew those Saturn-shaped earrings :).

SUITS:

I looked for references and placed some on milanote, I noticed that the concept art was mainly divided into whether the dresses have lilac colors or warm colors, I decided to draw 2 models based on the discarded designs, although at first I thought of using only one color palette lilac and bluish, I realized that the reddish colors of her dress reminded me of Mars which has certain meanings that in my opinion coincide with Asha's personality. In the end I didn't decide what wardrobe she would primarily have 😅, but I like to think that in this version of Wish, Asha would have wardrobe and hairstyle changes like in some older Disney movies.

-These are some of the concepts that I mainly used for my version of the dresses

FINAL COMMENTS:

I am satisfied with the result, it was fun to make all this, although what I researched mostly seems little, it actually cost me several hours and I did it at night, so as a funny fact the next day I was explaining all this information to my mother and I felt like I looked like that:

(Make this drawing was so funny LMAO)

(Apologies if there are errors in my writing, English is not my first language and my writing is very basic)

[thetombedspirit]

First Playthrough of AFoP: Secret of the Spires! - WARNING! Spoilers Ahead!

The Majority of my thoughts throughout playing the DLC.

Finally, I got the glitching drum quest and the Games Camp community basket done and over with! It was a good way to get back into practice with the controls.

Am I just dumb, or is the game glitching on me?! Why won't the plane blow up- OH COME ON! I'M THROWING EVERYTHING BY THE HOMETREE AT THIS MOFO!! - Really?! You wouldn't blow up because I wasn't shooting you in a very specific spot?! Bird you, dude!

Nor? Oh NOOOOOOR! Where are youuuuuuu? Oh, talk of a stranger Na'vi hanging around the area? About time- wait, Rasi who-? Oh, hello, fellow Sarentu character! Have you seen Nor? He's about this tall, clearly emo (and maybe gay) but we never had the talk.

Oooh, I have more skills for my Ikran and I can actually apply defensive armour and cook treats for her? WHERE WERE THESE OPTIONS IN THE CORE GAME!?

Getting mad at video game mechanics is automatically cured by sneaking around and killing video game fascist mercenaries.

... we don't talk about Bruno, no, no, no.

Oh, random Na'vi identified as a Sarentu saved So'lek from a sniper shot! Is it Rasi and Nor? Nope, just Rasi, that's cool! Love how protective Teylan already is of her once I said she was in the base.

Once I finished speaking to Anufi and Tsu'lo, I go up to find Teylan and Ri'nela and on my way I think, "Wait, what if Rasi is Nor's mum?" . I don't think that's the case, or she would have verbalize as such when we were talking about Nor, but how neat would that be. It'd be like we have a piece of Nor with us until we find him. Anyway, now that Rasi is here, I expect us to be re-educated on the way of the Sarentu. Maybe we'll finally get a Na'vi accent 😆

Cons:

This game needs some SERIOUS fine tuning, because I'm having bad guys be 'alerted' to my presence, when I'm literally half way across the map. One instance, where I'm trying to hunt for some Meer Dear, and this chopper just comes out of nowhere, attacks me, flies off to the horizon, but then summons two more choppers and a squad to my location, and they are already in the red despite being several yards away from me.

Maybe I'm just dumb, but I feel like it should not be so hard to find the objectives of certain quests.

Pros:

New Location!

And it looks gorgeous. The Spires are beautiful, there are new animals, and they freaked me out (the whole bit with the tunnels in the beginning, I thought I was being chased by something much bigger and completely ignored the first appearance of the Chiroptera XD)

2. The New Characters

The story kicks off when Anufi asks us to find another branch of the Kame'tire, who have still yet to return. While it is ultimately disappointing that we're not getting an entirely new clan, just a variation of a familiar clan, we are introduced to a new character: Rasi, a fellow Sarentu Survivor living in self-imposed exile.

Speaking of which, I like the one Na'vi that chided me for using a Sky Person name for a Pandoran creature, and my character correcting herself for it. Yes!

4. The Chrioptera

These guys were so cool, and so annoying at the same time. I thought they were gonna be so much bigger, but thanks Eywa, they were Ikran size!

4. Taylen is as cute as ever.

Just throwing that in there, I love my tall, strange son. I love when he starts geeking out, and we have to kindly reprimand him that we are in the middle of a hostile base and nows not the time!

My poor baby misses Nor so bad and just wants him to come back.

Overall View

While I am a little bit disappointed that we didn't get a brand new clan and that we didn't get Nor back, I do think this DLC was worth the wait.

While tiresome that there weren't that many fast travel points around the map, I actually like that, as it forces us to get to places via Ikran, something that the DLC advertised!

And while the new villain of the DLC was pretty boring compared to our literal kidnappers and abusers, he was a very challenging boss and it felt good to hit him with lightning and watch him crash and burn.

And we have a new veteran Sarentu to add to our family. I love that Ri'nela tries to comfort a homesick Teylan by humming the Sarentu song, only for Rasi to appear out of nowhere, singing the words and painting a Sarentu mural (seriously though, how did she get that done so quickly without anyone noticing? No wonder the RDA couldn't find her.)

And that voice cameo of freaking Quaritch basically putting his foot down on our resistance efforts and demanding we get squashed. Nice! And with how pissed he sounds, I'm guessing that this is right after ATWOW, where not only he lost his entire team of Recoms, but lost Spider too. Cuz yeah, he sounds angee.

Love how tight knit our little family has become and how steadfast they are in their bond (thought Ri'nela was running up to hug So'lek for a second, and my man looked so surprised when Teylan touched his shoulder XD) and now they all agree that it's time to find Nor and bring him back to the clan and prove that the Sarentu has a future.

So, overall, while I felt that this DLC was a bit short and the villain had little meat on his bones, this was a good DLC and with how they ended it with a possible sequel game with the mission to find Nor and the cameo of Quaritch so fingers crossed that AFOP comes back and that whatever sequels pops out pops with a BANG!

And hey! Since this game takes place during the one year absence of the Sullys, maybe if they do make a sequel, it'll take place during Ash and Fire! Maybe, Quaritch's cameo is a hint of him coming in, after aligning with Varang and the Mangkwan Clan! Can you imagine? A small clan that is rising to reclaim what is taken from them, vs a clan that has forsaken Eywa willingly and aligned with the RDA! With Quaritch leading them! That'd be bananas!!

Fingers crossed! C you guys around!!💙

[quitealotofsodapop]

Awh! Baby Yuebei loving dinos is everything to me!

Now I wanna see her family take her the dinosaur exhibit at a museum or science center or something. The science center near me has a whole exhibit for all things dinosaur related including fun interactive learning activities for little ones like fossil ecivission in rubber sand and life-size dinosaur animatronics in fake habitats we can walk through. I can't remember the rest rn, my favorite exhibit is the astronomy room! It's so dark in there, whole different vibe from all the others. But the whole building is like a science playground, the cubs(stoplight trio included, tho Redson is probably too much of a know-it-all to let himself enjoy it) would get a kick out of it. I can already imagine which exhibits some of them would enjoy.

-💜

yes! since Yuebei Xing as a character is tied to skulls and bones, I figured it would be cute that she'd have an interest in beings mostly know through their bones.

I know some larger museums have big sand pits to emulate excavations, like the one in New York. The zoo-aquarium in my granddads town has one of those walkable habitats too! The water/fake swamp was actually an aquarium for brackish water fish!

Now I'm loving the idea of Wukong letting the cubs go on a Museum Day to Megapolis, and ofc little kids love Natural History cus thats where the dinosaurs are! Tang pouts and wants to come along too - until Pigsy points out that he's a grown man that can pay his own ticket.

Wukong gets MK and Mei (and Redson since he's been pretty much adopted into the squad) to help bring the kids around to all the exhibits. When Wukong gets too tired to run around (especially cus of his condition), the Stoplight trio take over cub-wrangling duty while Wukong chills at the museum's cafe. Mei and MK treat it like a super-dangerous mission and try their best to engage in what's caught the cubs attentions. MK noticeably blanks in fear when he sees a model of Carboniferous bugs. Redson is a bit of smarty pants, but he's interested in the provided literature/the more obscure creatures on display. Tang is barely any help with babysitting since he gets as easily distracted as the cubs! XD

Yuebei is having the time of her life. Can't keep still for a moment - there's so many things to see and touch! And if there's an excavation pit - she's jumping straight in like a fox. No regards for her nice clothes, she's covered in sand and clay within seconds. Just absolutely feral over these bones.

Mei, pointing to a model: "Do you know what that is Yuebei?" Yuebei, holding a plush dino: "Ty-ranno-saur-us rex!" Mei: "Omg you're so good at this! What about that one?" Yuebei: "Pterro-dact-ill!" Mei: "Yup! Pterodactyl! It's a pretty cool dinosaur huh?" Yuebei, suddenly very serious: "Not dinosaur." Mei: "Huh?" Yuebei: "Not dinosaur." Red Son, reading a museum pamphlet: "She's correct. Pterosaurs are a different branch of archosaur separate from Dinosauria. It's like comparing snakes to lizards." Mei: "Omg! You're so smart, baby girl!" Yuebei: "Thank." (*smug "I know" face*)

If Macaque is around post S3, he helps out with wrangling the kids, but he'd quickly get over-stimulated by all the sights and sounds - so MK would take over for him so dear bama/baba can sit down with Wukong and de-stress. Wukong and Macaque might just wander off into the quiet art gallery if it's nearby (usually is in my experience) and poke fun at the historic art.

The Eclipse twins I feel are more into the astronomy side of the museum (hard not to since Space) and demand that they stay for a lecture on objects in the solar system. And if there's a planetarium - oh boy you know the cubs (and the grown-ups too) are gonna be entranced by the projections of all the stars and planets.

Wukong, pointing to a star: "Hey I know that guy! We fought one time!" Tang: "...what?" Wukong: (*pointing to Zeta Piscium*) "Wood Wolf of Legs; Revati." Tang, gasping: "The Yellow Robed Demon." Wukong: "Yeah!" Luzhen, in baby babble: "He's very far away." (*tries grabbing for the projection of the star*)

The gift shop is decimated. XD

[craftlands]

oop sorry! i did come across one of your mor pankh posts regarding the designs and such about the characters and i do have some points to lay out on their accuracies and inaccuracies, as an indian myself, though i cannot say my word for it will be wholly accurate since again, india as a subcontinent is VERY chaotic and the cultures within different states and a lot of times, certain villages and territories vary drastically. a lot of my points could be disagreed with by another indian and if some of my points ARE incorrect, i'm open to being corrected.

i know it's also pretty late, considering this was one of your older posts but i did give it some chew time. sorry if i'm bothering you.

1) first up is kaalaa baunaa. she IS wearing a saree but the draping and style is pretty reminiscent of modernized styles of saree draping. we do have the traditional drape but the generations right now have gotten to mixing and matching western clothing and experimenting with saree drapes. her outfit, while not culturally inaccurate ( because we HAVE the short/pant combo with the saree ) is grossly inaccurate to the time and setting.

there's also the fact that her outfit screams 'bollywood' in a sense. the blouse in particular is something you'd see on actresses during burner movie shoots ( and even those were a little less provocative...but again the blouse does hold a lot of callbacks to colonial oppression and wearing sleeveless blouses back then was considered 'rebellious' ). in my opinion, if i were to change up her design, i would just omit the saree and put her in a salwaar, since that is the usual go to in northern indian states ( unless in formal events ).

but for the stuff i loved about the design? is the design itself XD. it's just grossly inaccurate to the timeline, but in a modern context, it does have a very stylish flair to it. i just wish she reserved those for festivals rather than everyday living ( because from experience, sarees are HARD to walk in depending on how you drape it which is why my college uniform is a salwaar ). unless they were trying to hammer home how alien she is perceived to be, as an arcanist, which in this case? it works thematically. just tone down the sexualization.

her second outfit is a little more accurate though and i have a preference to that. mostly because of the jewellery she uses. mh. the bollywood style outfit? the embroided saree? the baithale bottu? MH. y e s.

tldr ; the design is pretty good but contextually, for the timeline and for her occupation? it's not the most accurate. but i wouldn't call it a travesty and completely inaccurate either. in a modern setting, her outfit would have passed well in a get together or a friend's party.

2) shamane. okay so the imagery and his outfit WAS something i needed to do my research on. but the 'connection to nature' thing is pretty common here too in tribal societies. my own community, while centuries far removed from it's initial tribal roots, still worships familial sprits and natural objects alonsgside the usual practice of hinduism. i kind of liked that aspect about him tbh because it did reflect of the few vestiges that were left over in my community XD. hell a good chunk of his design was very steeped in tribal influence, though differentiating it is a little difficult ( which again is my critique, but that could also be me not being as well versed in indian tribal culture. it's probably in part because of ignorance. ).

the closes i can get to the influence of his outfit would be naga tribes in nagaland with a mix in of a few others. i'll try to do more research and get back to you on that. i'm just wondering how he got all the way to nagaland???? that's like in the far east...though if were to narrow down the locations, it would be in the few locations where it snows...HMMMM. but yeah the feather motif? tribes here seem to tout it too, depending on what tribe it is.

he does wear your typical sherwani with a large coat on top, something that is, in fact accurate to men's fashion at the time. most middle class or well to do families ( the ones who were not a part of the 60% - 70% below the poverty line ) did hold that similar style of traditional wear with western influence, or straight up turn to western clothing as a whole. its a very small nod to the fact that he was from a well to do family at least. then the eye imagery on the prosthetic arm could be a reference to the nazar, though it's not blue.

tldr; his outfit holds heavy tribal influence but i really need to do my research on which ones in particular.

3) kanjira.

okay. i'm a little upset with her. the fortune teller aspect is rooted in how astrology played a huge part in indian culture. the coffee readings could have been an aspect carried over by cultural mixing through islamic trade and invasions as well. kanjira is another aspect that is a little more of unsure territory. there are parts of her outfit that i can recognize. but together it does feel a little disjointed. and confusing. her jewelry is recognizable. her kamarbandh for one and her skirt.

the blouse though? that confuses me. for one it's more in line with 1910s fashion. the blouse was initially not a part of a lot of traditional indian dresses and were introduced by the british due to extreme discomfort ( aka they didn't like that indian women didn't cover up their chest ). the earlier blouses strongly resembles victorian blouses, with puffed sleeves and ruffles. but then there is that older the shoulder thingie and i'm like ??? HOW DOES THAT WORK-

the snake motif could be a reference to the irula tribe from south india. even her name is a reference to an instrument in south india ( which resembles a tambourine ). i don't think her base outfit is based on accuracy due to the mismatched nature of it. it seems like she just took what clothes she could and made do with that, which given her economic status, makes sense. her alt outfit does glean into what influences she took after, perhaps the banjara tribe. i will need to look into it some more. but it is admittedly, facing a similar problem to kaalaa in how it's so heavy stylized. it's not accurate save for the motifs and yes, it could do with some better work in both versions.

now for the stereotype. i'm very on the fence in this sense with how i could understand that the 'thief' stereotype is referenced. but kanjira is however, a product of some very real stuff that happened ( and still goes on even now ). the unfortunate reality is that people who are considered beneath the lower caste and obc umbrella face their share of discrimination as hooligans and thieves amongst the indian majority as well, even today. it's harmful, but she's the reflection of the struggles of a lot of communities who lived in poverty post colonial india. the british left a lot of scars and the governments after did very little to help and kanjira, as a child with no parents did what a lot of kids back then turned to. it's circumstances deeply rooted in systemic oppression, casteism and so many other issues. i've had family members in similar situations ( my mother's side in particular ).

so i do wince at the fact that she's labelled as a 'stereotype' even though i do see WHY she's a stereotype when the context is removed. her spoken english is also another wince. i know you didn't mean to be offensive and i'm sure to a lot of indians you might not be but kanjira's english is the way it is simply because she was never formally educated in it. she does refer to asking for help to read english words and it's fairly obvious she picked up on the language by listening to others speak it. matilda however, did have to learn it from a pretty young age in the foundation. she was educated in it, whether she likes it or not ( a lot like my case ).

a bit of a breakdown here. english is mostly learned in india for the sake of convenience. it's used in our parliament because it's culturally neutral and doesn't show favor to certain state languages ( and native language in itself is a very culturally sensitive topic in india ). you learn it in case you need to study in foreign firms or if you travel abroad. it also means that if you and a good chunk of other indians speak in english, it allows some leeway to communicate in other states. because again, different languages and dialects are spoken in different parts of india. i myself have a better chance of communicating with a different people from different states in english, no matter how broken it is than having to learn a separate language every time.

i know a lot of people in my college who didn't start learning english till grade 11 and speak pretty similarly to kanjira. so alluding to her imperfect english as a 'not great thing' kind of rubs me the wrong way due to personal gripes of mine, mostly in part due to how eletist it tends to be at times. the mindset of janjira not being good at english being considered 'really not great' kind of fuels into a still ongoing problem of insecurity and a lot of other issues i'd rather not clog the post with.

she's fluent in hindi and it's obviously her preferred language and she can certainly write and read hindi as well. it's kind of similar to making fun of an american for not knowing fluent french they picked up from a few classes, while they're still in america. again, i doubt you meant any harm saying that but my gripe with how learning english is so desperately seeded in some families just to appease how the west views us ( that stereotype you mentioned? yeah ) and the constant perpetuation of the stereotype, has a lot of ramifications.

i don't know how to explain it but it's kind of like this : you call broken english a stereotype, we're afraid of being stereotyped, we try to avoid being stereotyped. but there are people here who can't. maybe their medium of education wasn't english for a good few years, even if their family is well off. that leads to further discrimination from us to them and from you to them.

yes english is a neutral language, but it's also horrifically overrated due to the imbued belief that it also alludes to being educated. i lost chunks of my own mother tongue trying to learn english, simply because it was given more priorities at my home and at my school because of us moving and the imbued fear of seeming uneducated.

i know you meant no harm to that.

but on a cooler note, punji literally means 'money'. kanjira named her snake 'money' and with the drip it has? it's strangely cute XD. it's like that one meme.

also kanjira's accent, kind of reminds me of a few annoying girls in my school ( it's a very common accent in north india and my hindi speakers tbh ). she's literally the valley girl's take in india. the drawl, the lilting tones every time i listen to her, i hear that one girl from fourthe grade and i'm like "n o." because it has that condescending edge to it. i love it XD.

tldr ; kanjira is both 'it kind of makes sense' and 'fuck it we ball'. she could do with reworking. i like the thought that her outdated blouse and her clothing was a mix and match, possibly picked up from charities as well but...yeah XD.

these are mostly my takes. overall, i thing r1999 actually has some of the better depictions of indian culture compared to a lot of other stuff out there ( and there is a LOT of bad stuff ). the fact that there was variation in their accents, the casual switch between english and hindi, the story of mor pankh itself and shamane's incessant need to feed us ( which is a thing in our families btw )...i'm pretty happy with it. and yes, even we fuck up aspects of our own culture. aka, adipurush exists and i will shit on that way more.

sorry for bothering you and thanks for reading through it all ( and i hope i didn't come across as rude in that segment about language )!

hiya! sorry for taking so long to get to this ask -- i was out of town for like a week and had absolutely Zero energy on coming back for like another week afterwards. i want to head this off by saying you're not bothering me in the slightest, i'm genuinely delighted to get to be able to talk about things like this in more depth and i really appreciate you taking the time to write this out! (peek behind the curtain: i have gotten up several times and paced around excitedly in the course of writing this. i REALLY love discussion and critique and Learning Context in general.)

i think time's been pretty kind to the Mor Pankh update, all things considered -- having several months to sit on it (and also no longer playing CROB -- good god Centipede and Black Pepper are an absolute mess of racist/Orientalist tropes, and that was pretty recent at the time of Mor Pankh), it's definitely better than i initially gave it credit for. a lot of things you've mentioned here -- especially a good deal of the further context on Kaalaa Baunaa and Shamane's clothing, as well as further context on Kanjira -- is something i truly don't have much to add to other than "i didn't know that, and this makes me a lot more favorable towards them than before".

definitely Kanjira is still someone i find myself heavily split on. i think a lot of what you mentioned about the way i treated her speaking broken English very callously is probably right on the money and thank you for the correction on that end -- given the context of the story that seems to be one of the more thoughtful aspects of her overall characterization and design. the thief/fortuneteller stereotype is something i'm a little more hesitant to dismiss at face value, though; while it may be a coincidence, there's definitely a history of stereotyping Rromani people in particular as like... scantily clad fortunetellers who steal from people, and it's something that feels really prevalent in Kanjira's design for me. from an in-story perspective i think rev19 does a great job of contextualizing and fleshing her out as a character, but from an overview of the character it rings eerily similar to Orientalist tropes about both Indian and Rromani people in a way that i will probably never be fully comfortable with.

i do think it's hilarious that her snake is named Money though. that's beautiful and i can't complain in the slightest.

Kaalaa Baunaa is a delight to read about in terms of where her outfit might be drawn from. i genuinely don't know a good 90% of the fashion/clothing context when it comes to basically anything in rev19, so for a lot of it i'm definitely deferring to you in terms of whether or not her outfit is accurate. i do definitely like her second outfit better as well (it also looks a lot more comfortable. we're under a heat advisory where i am right now and i WISH i had something like that to wear when i eventually have to go out and walk the dog). i don't really have much else to say here, though

finally for Shamane i will fully admit to being woefully out of my depth and being very attuned to looking for First Nations stereotypes owing to that be a particular trope i'm very used to seeing (gods the feather thing happens SO MUCH). that said, i am absolutely kicking myself for not researching things first, i think learning more about the context of his specific design and beliefs makes me come around a lot more positively to some of the aspects of his design -- especially what you mentioned about it being historically accurate, as that's something i did not consider initially and is really cool to hear about wrt what the design process may have been! (also i love his arm design, like, a lot. no idea if connecting it to nazar designs makes sense or not, it does appear that those are almost exclusively blue though maybe in the context of rev19's worldbuilding red eyes would have developed as the "evil eye" instead? idk, but i can probably count on one hand the amount of prosthetic users in gacha games whose missing limbs are actually given thought and treated as aspects of the story rather than just visual flavor.)

in conclusion: yeah, i think after learning more about the context behind these character designs i was definitely a bit harder on Mor Pankh than i needed to be -- relative to other games that take a swing at depicting SWANA and/or Indian cultures i think rev19 is doing way better in that category than most of them. i will say part of why i am so frequently critical of rev19 is that i also love the game a lot -- i don't put much time or effort into critiquing things that are just straight up bad, and if i'm hard on something that's usually because i really want to sink my teeth into it and talk about what works and doesn't work within its story and broader cultural contexts.

(and also -- thank you again for taking the time and thought to send me this! i can't express enough how much i appreciate being able to learn more about the context of a lot of these characters and the story and just, like, talk about it openly. it rocks! thank you!!)

[fencer-x]

SasaMyaa FujiSai Event (afternoon) Report

So! Today I attended the afternoon part of the SasaMyaa "Fujisai" event, a kind of post-Graduation Movie event to look back on it and have fun with the cast, which included the VAs of Sasaki, Miyano, Hirano, Kagiura, and Tashiro and Kuresawa as well. For ease of readers' understanding, I'll use the character names for the VAs throughout this report.

The stage (Yamano Hall, in Yoyogo, Tokyo) was set up to look like an actual festival, with little booths for games around the stage. This will become relevant later XD The audience was overwhelmingly women, but there were a few guys there too (including a few clearly there on their own as fans and not as boyfriends/husbands to their fan-wives).

The event opened with a small video recap of the movie, and then Tashiro and Kuresawa came out to introduce everyone as the MCs for the event. There was a huge monitor over the stage, through which were streamed live feeds of the actors (ostensibly for closeups so that the people in the back could get a good look at the stage, but also probably for future DVD releases).

All the actors introduced themselves, but when it came to Hirano's VA's turn to introduce himself, he shouted "Hirano~!" as a prompt for the audience. Except the audience had no idea what we were supposed to respond with (Taiga???), so he was greeted with DEAD SILENCE. Poor guy XD But then after a brief discussion of why he bombed so hard, Kagi's VA decided to try it too, and "Kagiura~!" was greeted with "Akira~!" from the audience XDDD He then explained that he'd really wanted to do a call-response with a different phrase, so we all let him say, "Hirano-san is so…" and then we responded with, "…nice!" He did this several times throughout the event--Kagi's VA is very clearly the biggest KagiHira shipper out there XD

The next segment was spent discussin favorite scenes from the movies, decided in pairs (SasaMyaaand KagiHira, and then Tashiro and Kuresawa chose by themselves). This was made even better because, in MST3K style, the guys would riff on the scene while it was being played on the monitors lol. Sasaki's VA in particular loved lampooning his own performance. The favorite scenes were as follows:

1) SasaMyaa: the opening scene on the train platform 2) Kuresawa: Miyano and Satoko's conversation in the park 3) Tashiro: Sasaki summoning Miyano to the empty classroom after he got his acceptance letter 4) KagiHira: the very last scene with the smooch in the committee room, but SPECIFICALLY the crumbs of Kagi and Hirano you get in that scene

The next segment was UPCOMING NEWS!

Sanrio collab! I know zilch about these characters except that Hello Kitty is paired with Ogasawara, and that feels Correct. (Dec 18 to Jan 8)

Illustration Exhibition for SasaMyaa/KagiHira + Yurukyun BL from gene pixiv (Dec 23 to Jan 15)

The stage play is going to stream on U-next! It'll be a lot easier for people to see it now, and I'm hoping that means a DVD release is right around the corner. It deserves it!!

Then it was TIME FOR SOME GAMES. The object was for each of the four main cast members to play each of the three games for 30 seconds each, 90 seconds total, and whoever got the most points in each game in total would win. The games were:

1) Super Ball Scoop (scooping up as many little rubber bouncy balls from a bucket of water using a scoop made of tissue and ergo prone to breaking after just a few scoops) 2) Ring Toss (toss rings onto a stake) 3) Shooting (use a little cork gun to knock over targets) [one extra challenge here is that the targets were all color-coded in the characters' colors and you were only supposed to knock over your own character's targets--except Miyano's blue and Kagi's teal are VERY SIMILAR COLORS so the VAs were whining about not being able to tell them apart XDDD]

All in all, these were the final totals after everyone's attempts: Miyano: 33 points Kagiura: 65 points Sasaki: 83 points Hirano: 64 points

A clear win for Sasaki's VA XDDDD

The next corner was a weird goofy 'fortune telling' corner where Tashiro and Kuresawa's VAs pretended to be fortune tellers for the two couples, except the VAs weren't playing their characters, they were just randomly improving being some kind of couple, idk XD the KagiHira segment went totally off the rails and resulted in Kagi and Hirano's VAs rushing each other on stage into a passionate hug, which you can understand the audience was THRILLED by XD

And last but not least for the event was…an original short story live reading. This was brand new content, performed live in person. ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC.

The setting was one month post-graduation (so a bit before current canon, but not too much), and it opened with Miyano and Kuresawa waiting for Tashiro to meet up with them. After Tashiro arrives late from helping an old lady carry some heavy bags home, they recall the previous year's cultural festival (aka their second-year festival, Sasaki and Hirano's third-year festival).

Elsewhere, Sasaki and Hirano are hanging out, having run into each other. Hirano asks what Sasaki is up to, he says he's killing time to meet up with Miyano for a date later--what about Hirano? Hirano is, of course, cagey, but says "something along those lines." They too recall the previous year's cultural festival and how Tashiro had spilled juice on some cardboard boxes, sending Miyano running to them looking for spare cardboard boxes they could use.

Hirano had tried getting in contact with Hanzawa to find out where more boxes were, but he was out of reach, which really ticked Hirano off. Miyano "casually" mentioned reading in a BL manga recently that getting a hug from someone was a great stress-reliever, as it triggered a release of endorphins and made you feel much calmer. Hirano thinks this is bunk and goes off to look for Hanzawa himself.

Left alone, Sasaki brings up all the stuff he's been having to do to prep for this festival…and booooyyy has it really heaped a bunch of stress on him, and does Miyano think that a hug might help? It sure would be nice…

Just as he's about to laugh it off as a joke, like usual, Miyano grudgingly agrees, if Sasaki really is that stressed.

Back in the present, Miyano recalls this moment himself and squeaks.

Hirano gets a text (from presumably Kagi) and parts ways with Sasaki, telling him "Say hi to Miyano for me." When he meets up with Kagi, Kagi asks if he's been waiting long, and Hirano brushes him off, saying, "Nah, I was just talking to Sasa--er, an old classmate of mine." Good for you, Hirano; you've finally learned to avoid triggering Kagi's jealousy unnecessarily. Gold star!

Hirano mentions remembering that previous cultural festival, and Kagi recalls it too--especially the part where he'd heard that hugging someone could help reduce their stress and had taken his chance with Hirano then. When Hirano had been confused (but not pushing him away) about why Kagi was hugging him, Kagi had explained that it was part of their 10-second-touching time, doing the countdown and everything (bruh idk why but it did something to me finally hearing actual mention of that rule in the characters' voices! Felt like it's closer to being animated, even though it's definitely going to take some time…)

The main thing I took from this short story was: KAGI AND HIRANO STILL AREN'T DATING IN FUCKING OCTOBER??!?!?! FUCK ME.

Aaaand that was about it! I can't attend the evening show, but I'm excited to hear what happens there! Hope you enjoyed this little peek!

[celaenaeiln]

Hello, love. I just wanted to say that I get on tumblr once in a blue moon and i came here from Chapter 10 of your react fic on ao3. And I love you??? I'm BINGING your Dick Grayson posts and I love them. Even if you didn't have screenshot proof, i would believe you 100%, but i LOVE that you put screenshots and pictures and references. Genuinely, the Best. I need to comment on the chapter with all of thoughts and squealing but it's like 3am for me XD, so I'll have to do it later. Thank you so much!!

(And I'm super tired and I haven't looked through everything of yours but i was wondering how exactly you felt about WFA and Dickie in that, particularly the most recent episodes wirh him and Bruce. Only if you'd like, i dont mind)

Link to fic

OMG BESTIE!!!! HI!!!!

GIRLIE YOU CAN LITERALLY LEAVE A DOT AND YOU'D HAVE ME KICKING AND SCREAMING ILYSM!!!! <333!!!

IM ALWAYS SUPER SUPER SUUUUUPPPPEEERRRRR HAPPY TO SEE YOU!!!!

HMU LATER I HAVE SO MUCH TO SCREAM WITH YOU ABOUT!!! omg LOVEEEE talking to you, you always get me hyped!!!

babe, i'll talk about everything with you, with utter joy! Omg sorry for the late response, you and anon especially, I genuinely just had no idea how I felt about wfa.

I thought about this for a long time but it wasn't until I got a third post on it that I realized what i thought about it and why.

I, personally, kinda hate it. But let me also start off by saying that because I hate it, I don't read it. I've seen some of it on tumblr and it's cute but also the thing is it's not really accurate and I'm alllll about not standing for mischaracterization just because there's already so much of it present in the batfam fandom, a serialization of this just makes the incorrect assumptions worse.

See, the thing about wfa is that it's the batfam set in a very idealized world. And because of how the perfect world is created, some of the characters personalities and actions have been altered. So their trauma and beliefs are kinda bashed away, but it's implied that their histories still follow canon comics.

And that's where it pisses me off. If wfa was pure crack and humor, I would love the heck out of it, but the irritating thing is it tries to stay accurate to the characterizations. But because it's set in such a perfect world, the character's personalities are distorted in some aspects but left alone in others.

So what's the problem with this? It causes the webtoon to be both correct in their characterizations and absolutely as far wrong as possible. If the webtoon was completely wrong with the portrayal of the characters, it would be easy to enjoy or critique the content and easy to at least be aware of what's true and what's not. But it's not like that. It's 50% absolutely correct and 50% horribly, couldn't-be-more wrong which just increases the amount of mischaracterizations that going on about the characters. If there's a problem it lasts for liek two seconds and they immediately fix it without exploring the character's thought process in any way that can be taken seriously. All their problems are treated like scratching at the newly healed skin of a wound. It's useless but a temporarily worthwhile distraction.

Of the pages I've seen, I also don't like it because while it's light hearted, it's not my style of humor. Everyone is literally just a big manchild. It's nice in a objective kind of way and it's entertaining in that it comes up with a lot of fantasy scenarios that are new but the character's personalities are bland and all kind of the same. They're all happy, sarcastic, and pouty.

If this was the masked singer style and wfa characters were drawn with no identifying features - just a blank circle for arms and some rectangles for body parts but had dialogue, you literally wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

So in summary I dislike it because while the super idealized world is nice, the character's personalities are altered only sometimes to make them act in a way they never would in canon while at the same time, picking and choosing what they like from canon relationships which causes the horrible mischaracterization and bland personalities. It's manchild humor and lame jokes. But it's very creative and I can appreciate it for that. So I dislike but I don't hate it. It just sort of irritates me.

[vellaphoria]

14. Is there a character or ship you were so sure you would never write/draw but now you've changed your mind?

6. Show us a bit of a WIP!

👀👀

3. NoTP?

Thanks for the ask!!! <3 I'm gonna do this out of order so that the fic excerpt can go beneath the cut 14. Ironically, DickTim XD When I first started in this fandom I was strictly in the Dick & Tim tag. This was at a point where there just wasn't very much there though, so eventually I ran out of content and tripped face-first into DickTim. Then I ran out of content in that tag and decided that the only way to stay sane was to learn how to write more of what I wanted to read

3. That's a bit of a tough one for DC, since I tend to just be uninterested in most of the ships. Though I personally have a strong aversion towards Joker x Harley (or whatever the ship name is). It's just not my thing :P 6. An excerpt from the Recursion epilogue/followup that I'm gonna finish someday:

Most of the equipment isn’t salvageable. And what is salvageable isn’t exactly transportable.

All in all, he leaves the warehouse with a flash drive full of blueprints, his Red Robin gear, his bike, and the bag he’s been living out of for longer than he really wants to think about. 

Still, there’s an exhilaration to traveling light, taking barely anything with him as his motorcycle speeds down semi-empty streets. The neon drenched backdrop of Gotham flies past him in a blur. He takes each turn too fast. He feels alive. 

At the junction that would take him to the outskirts of the city and Wayne Manor, he nearly takes a wrong turn, forgetting for a moment that Dick hasn’t set up shop there for a long while now. Some backtracking later and he finds the correct turn-off, bringing his bike down into the tunnels that run beneath the city. 

When he finally pulls into what serves as the Bunker’s garage, Dick is already waiting for him. He lurks at the edge of the room, looking uncertain about trying to approach as Tim removes his helmet and shoulders his bag.

He’d stuck to civilian clothes on the way here; jeans, a long sleeve shirt, and a beat-up leather jacket to keep out the wind as he rode.

Dick seems to have had the same idea. The sweatpants and threadbare t-shirt suggest that he came straight down from the penthouse. 

It feels strange to see each other without layers of kevlar and nomex between them. At least when it's this them, here and now.

In the present, he hasn't seen Dick look so casual since before Batman's disappearance became well known and Gotham became a living hell. In those days, they were all but living in their suits, ready to go at a moment's notice. 

Tim is pretty sure that he's been going at nearly that pace ever since. And, from the dark circles beneath his eyes, he suspects that Dick has as well. Back on that rooftop, he hadn't had enough emotional distance from the situation to see how Dick looks just as exhausted as Tim feels.

He gets off the bike, stashing it in an open spot. It isn't until he removes his bag from the back of the bike that Dick approaches.

“It’s good to see you,” he says, quietly. When he smiles, it's faint, and a little sad.

“You too," Tim says.

He steps closer, not entirely sure what he's intending to do. 

Dick doesn't seem to know either. But he opens his arms, just a bit, and-

The hug is a careful, fragile thing. Threaded through with the knowledge that a single wrong move could shatter them. Still, when he tries to pull back, the arms around him tighten as Dick keeps him pressed against his chest. 

Tim lets him. It feels good to be close. To have Dicks’ hands on him, despite the context. 

There are some nights when he wants to rage at him, throwing objects and insults across the room to try and find some way to make everything make sense. But then there are the nights when all he wants is this: to be wrapped in Dick’s arms, feeling nothing but the strength of his muscles and warmth of his skin. 

Tim gives in, leaning into it, pressing his own hands into Dick’s back. 

There’s a kiss against his forehead, then his temple.

“I missed you,” Dick says, against his ear. 

“Missed you too,” Tim whispers back. 

When they finally pull apart, it almost feels like it's too soon. His body aches with the phantom feeling of being held.

The deceptively simple solution here would be to take Dick's hand and lead him upstairs. It would be so easy to say that he doesn't want to be alone tonight, to ask Dick for his company and for whatever else he'd be willing to give.

Dick can be very giving when he's trying to make something up to someone.

But… no.

Tim said they would talk about this, and he doesn't quite trust himself to let himself have this again without first untangling the mess in which they've caught themselves. 

So he stays content with the way that Dick’s hand cups his face, lingering a moment before he turns to lead Tim further into the Bunker. 

He saw the blueprints back when Bruce was first having the place built, but he never saw the finished product. It looks very efficient. While the Bat Cave was adapted to fit the space, The Bunker was clearly built from the ground up with a vigilante operation in mind. Everything fits together like clockwork, with some notable exceptions.

There are strategically placed empty spaces. They pass by two work benches full of half-finished projects and a third that’s entirely empty. A row of storage lockers is meticulously labeled, with the exception of the one to the right of the one labeled for Dick’s personal use. 

When he glances at Dick, it’s clear that he’s very purposely not looking at any of them. Trying to not call attention to it. 

The implication of it all makes something in Tim ache a little. For all that his reasons for leaving were justified…

They have a lot to talk about. (asks are from this post)

[diy-fire-water-pups]

//hello to the mod! just wanna give a heads up about your blog's colors since they can get pretty straining to the eyes, other than that it's really cool! marshall! im gonna quiz you a little if you dont mind heh, (holds up TEN strips of juicy bacon)

number 1! hypothetically, if a person gets cardiac arrest what are the courses of action you should take? What if you don't know how to do CPR? I'm pretty sure you're trained to do CPR, but in the hypothetical situation where you don't, do you just do nothing while waiting for help to arrive?

number 2! what are the principles of radiation exposure?

number 3! Blood and bodily fluids must always be treated as ____________.

number 4! you came upon a casualty who has hit his head badly in a strange position: his legs are rigid and extended, with pointed and turned-in toes. his arms are straight and tense; his wrists are flexed outward and his fingers are curled, making his hands look like "e"s. Where do you think is the brain injury located?

and finally: what are the components of a fire tetrahedron?

you get two pieces of bacon for each correct answer, good luck!

A quiz? Sounds like a surprise test. Scary... But okay, let's see.

1- Well, this first one is easy. If you don't know how to perform CPR- and no, "I saw it in a movie" doesn't count as knowing how to do that- what you gotta do is call your local emergency number, like, immediately. You can't move the body under any circumstances, except if it's to take it away from risky situations such as explosion, fire, drowning, and even then, the most you can do is to place them on a flat surface and pull their head back up to open their respiratory tract. Now seriously, if you're not trained to do CPR, just DON'T, because you'll probably just make things WORSE. For example, if you do it wrong and blow air into their esophagus instead of their larynx, you'll risk making them throw up right on your face! 😖 Yuck!

2- Principles of radiation exposure... Justification, if exposure is really necessary or if it will bring benefits; Dose Limitation per individual and Optimization of Protection, like using as little exposure as possible and being as quick as possible. Now if you're talking about reducing exposure, then it's Time, Distance and Shielding, I guess.

3- Uh... Infectious substance, or object? I keep forgetting this.

4- What...? Okay, hold on, this is VERY specific, let me think. I didn't go that far with my training, I just work with whatever superficial injuries, sprains and fractures or broken bones. I leave specific stuff like that for the leveled up professionals at the actual hospitals, most I do in these cases is first aid to lessen further damage or blood loss, immobilization and take the victim to the nearest hospital for proper care. That being said... Hmm... Is it somewhere in the frontal lobe area? I forgot what it's called, but as far as I remember, that's the area responsible for limbs movement, so an injury there could result in limbs paralysis...? I think I'm shooting in the dark here.

5- Ah, now that's basic firefighting knowledge! The components of a Fire Tetrahedron are fuel, heat, oxygen, and a chemical chain reaction. You take any of these out, the fire will stop!

So... How did I go?

(( As for the blog colors, just so other people know, we sorted things out with another ask already XD One way or another I already made a couple subtle changes in post background and text colors in this blog's theme, what I'm "unable" to change is the colors I'm using for each pup because these are the very Tumblr text editor colors, so I need to adapt everything else to make these readable enough. ))

[charmixpower]

Musa ia the only one (i think) who changed her hairstyle thoughout the show. What is your opinion about the other winx what hairstyle will suit them best.

Uhh?? Like which hairstyles look best and how I'd like to see their hair develop through the seasons? Sure

WOW making Bloom's hair wavy is objectively correct

That aside, high low styles and braids. That's what Bloom really vibes in. Something about Bloom and braids I cannot explain it but it looks beautiful and the high low styles just may h Bloom's vibes

Leaving Bloom's bangs letting them be weird is 20/20 Bloom. Yes Bloom cuts her own bangs, how could you tell. She loves her insane bangs

Bloom just rocks braids too. Small decorative braids that wrap around her head and the full on braids. Both look amazing on her

Messy buns are also perfect for Bloom. Matches her art kid vibes perfectly, real buns are great for when she's trying to be fancy. Fancy Bloom with a small bun is always super cute. Nothing can contain her weird girl energy

I wish WOW Bloom had her weird ass bangs, then we could have wavy hair classic Bloomy hair

Stellas classic bangs look like she has normal straight bangs with hella frayed edges in a vampire cut at best and I hate them. I refuse to believe that Stella has vampire cut bangs, I simply close my eyes when I see it

I am VERY biased to any hairstyle that gets rid of them, and also curtain bangs Stella supremacy

I also think Stella looks better without those two super long stands of hair hanging over her shoulders, I like the s5 ones a lot

Aside from that Stella's hair looks best when it's down, but because that's boring this is mostly a complication of bang styles I like on her with one example of Stella nomral hair

Also mixed kid Stella, her hair is naturally curly or has the ability to curl naturally. I am biased and I like to see her hair with some volume yess

The s4 Stella look is mostly there because it's just a beautiful way to put her hair up for like sleep and stuff where she'd want her hair out of the way and it's one the Stella hairstyles of all time

The beach look is here because it actually made me forget how much I hate her pointy bangs. Her hair is windswept 💕💕💕 beautiful, the bun is a cute touch as well

That's all. Stella loves her long hair and gets p fuckin upset whenever someone fucks with it and does like everything to maintain it. Stella literally would only cut her hair under threat of death, and she likes having it down. Her hair says down XD the only thing that would change is her bangs

When they get weird with Flora's bangs it's always a win. Like yes bitch let her bangs do as they please, mix them up yesssss. Also big yes to any hairstyle that draws attention to her bangs, like hair decorations, and while I'm not sold on that headband it does make her bangs stand out more so ig it can stay

Flora looks best when her hair is left to roam wild or tied up tight. It's either giving boho queen letting her hair be all flowy and gorgeous, or "I'm gardening and I'm not getting dirt in my hair" and both fit her amazingly

The Sirenix low ponytail is just so slay. It's so messy and flowy and free and it gives a casual nature lady energy. It's such a chill beautiful look that really should have been in a civilian form instead but like whatever

I'm usually against high ponytail Flora, but the flowers and pearls in her hair save that look and help it ascend. Gorgeous. We love it

The s4 and s6 buns are so cute. Gardening hair and date hair respectively

Flora's Believix hair is THEE Flora hair. I'm sorry but it is. Superior to Flora's Enchantix hair. The flowers fit her so much better than pearls and gems and I don't think Flora would get super fancy with her hair in the first place. This is just Flora

Flora also should have cut her hair in s4. It would be cute

Dyed hair, choppy bangs, messy hair, slicked back hair, weird HUGE bangs, keep it weird, keep it short, keep it Tecna baybeeee

Also hats. Hats also fuck but I can't see them being a every day thing for her

It would be really fun if she cut and shaved her hair in different styles as hair evolution but I'd accept her dying her hair differently every season

Musa looks best with her hair up. Especially with her long hair because it makes it look like her hair is shorter while also giving her hair more options. I especially like her s5 hair of the bun with the hair down and the sleep hair loopys. While I wouldn't make the sleep hair loopies her civilian look it is a natural evolution of her pigtails into a new long hair style while still keeping the original style (tho it needs to lose the side strands, the shorter strands work better when her hair is visibility long and this makes them look short so axe em)

Hats as well, Musa looks good in hats. Musa only got to wear one hat in the original series, and she wore it over her pigtails because she's very silly, but more hats and a hat in her civilian design would absolutely be a win to me

Okay now stuff that only applies to her long hair:

The long low pigtails are slightly more tomboish than the long high pigtails but if you have her an undercut that would fix that

The s4 long hair looks like shit, that isn't Musa, yada yada yada, if your going to do long hair down Musa do it like S7. Would Musa ever wear any of that, especially the earrings? God no. Does it at least look like something an older Musa might wear? Replace the head band with headphones, and yeah maybe

WOW Musa got the memo. Also that hairstyle is like her s5 one except the bun doesn't lead into a pointy tail, instead it's a half up half down style. It's cute, but it's mostly there to show how headphones can replace a headband

There are a lot of examples of how to make long hair Musa look less bad and that's because there are no images of short hair Musa in anything but her pigtails and I'm cranky about it

Messy bangs, high ponytails, and fashion only hats

S6 is a crime against humanity but look at her hair godblessss. The s5 and s3 hats are cute and yes Aisha only wears hats for fashion unlike Tecna who wears them for a purpose, and Musa who wears them for both

Messy bangs just work with Aisha. Her whole thing is that she was overly stifled and expected to act in a very particular way and as soon she got away she refused to control her flyaways and bangs. She will not, fuck y'all, she got shit to do that isn't worrying about her hair

High ponytails also work like hell. High ponytails are just yess. They have a very "I got shit to do, and I need to do it yesterday." Vibes that fit Aisha's dedication and drive perfectly

Mixing the two gives this very amazing vibe. They tried to accomplish this in s4, but did not but they did manage to get it in s6 which is hilarious. It gives the vibes that she needs to do something but not as urgent, shes still having fun

I also love how her Royal hairstyles are the high pointytail too, it shows how the main thing she got from all those classes is how to be goal oriented. I love that for her, she threw away all the sexist nonsense and kept the work ethic, she's so awesome. In reverse it also shows how dedicated she is to her people, how keeping them safe and happy is her goal, love thattt

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

What's this? Another Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow post?? But it's 2024! Surely, there's nothing new to uncover with regards to this seminal work of sequential storytelling...right?!?!?

Well...kinda. XD

BEHOLD! Another Tom King podcast interview, wherein he discusses Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, and mostly confirms stuff we already knew, but! BUT! He does drop some new bits of info!

Right then. LET'S GO!

My usual disclaimer applies, recommend listening to the interview firsthand to get a more objective perspective.

But if you're cool with my (INCREDIBLY BIASED! ALWAYS! ALWAYS BIASED WITH THIS BOOK!) summary, then ONWARDS WE GO.

(And when I say 'biased summary' what I mean is that I will be including the bits that make me want to run a victory lap because my readings were SPOT HECKIN' ON, ALL YE NAYSAYERS!*)

Ahem. Anyways.

So I'm going to start off with some new-ish info (at least, it's new-ish to me. XD) The interviewers had asked about the title, specifically in regards to Zor-El's dialogue in issue six (I believe it's the portion where Zor is explaining to Kara why he's going to save her, and says something like, "tomorrow will come soon enough...and you will be a woman looking back on the many decades of your life..." hence 'Woman of Tomorrow') and whether that was planned from the outset, or if that part came about organically as he was writing it.

King said he'd originally written a completely different script for issue six (which we did know) but FUN NEW FACTOID TIME: Zor-El/Kara's origin (initially) weren't included in issue six like, at all. It therefore would not have come up at any point within the mini-series, had they gone with that first script.

But editorial hated it (King agreed with their conclusion, and another fun fact, we'll get to see said script in the backmatter for the new deluxe edition, YAY) and when King asked if there was anything in it that they liked, they said the tiny flashback to Kara's time on Argo was good.

SO. King then decided to expand that/incorporate her origin, because that would be 'easy', and this was back during his crazy COVID writing schedule.

(Folks will perhaps recall that he wrote issue seven in like...a day. What we did not know was that he rewrote issue six in that same week.)

And then it ended up being everyone's favorite issue so yaaaaay for editors! Unsung heroes of comics!

They are also comics' greatest villains but that's a discussion for another day!

Evely's art was mentioned at this point and King was like, 'I had to go back and make the writing more beautiful/esoteric to match what she was putting out.'

Also we stan a comic writer who lets his artists take as long as they need on art. (Though as he's mentioned before, Evely was able to turn in the art quickly on this book, which is heckin' WILD to me, have you SEEN that woman's pencils and inkwork??!??!?!??!?!)

They touched on the True Grit comparisons, only relevant/new bits there are that King feels it's the perfect novel (agree) and that the John Wayne version is terrible (also correct) and the Cohen Brothers' version is great (right again.)

Another bit we already knew: It was an editor who was responsible for the suggestion that Kara should be Rooster, not Mattie. (I think in the past he credited this to Jamie Rich, but this time he said he couldn't remember if it was Rich or Brittany Holzherr, and said they could fight over the credit if they want. XD)

Either way, THANK YOU, WHOEVER YOU ARE, b/c the alternative pitch, with Kara as Mattie and Lobo as Rooster, sounded awful.

Instead King went with, 'Kara will learn from the young naïf, and teach the young naïf.'

(Much better.)

MORE NEW, FUN TRIVIA!!!!

King said they had the first issue completely drawn, colored, and lettered--basically ready to go, and DC said, 'we can't publish this because Supergirl doesn't drink.'

King called Jim Lee, trying to make his case, that she was twenty-one, it was legal, it was a totally normal/human thing to do, and Lee was like, 'but we can't.'

King: Could I do it with Superman? Lee: Yeah.

Essentially it was a lot of tiptoeing around stuff like, 'girls can't get drunk and whatnot' coupled with 'Supergirl can't do that because she's perfect and pure.'

But! Lee ultimately was like, 'okay, you can leave the scene in, but you can't say she's drunk.'

So if you go back and read the actual dialogue/narration, there's no explicit language confirming that kara is three sheets to the wind.

(Which is so, so ridiculous to me because the art makes it very, very clear that she is. XD LOOPHOLES!)

King and the interviewers pointed out that this real world editorial incident ironically tied into one of the metanarratives of the character, that being the pressure placed on Kara, which Clark doesn't have to deal with.

Art imitating life etc. etc. XD

Feel like I've heard this bit in other interviews but it's sweet so it bears repeating: the green sun planet's name is based on King's nickname for his daughter, and she was the one who came up with the idea of a 'green sun planet' during a discussion at dinner one night.

So shifting gears a bit, the rest of the podcast focused specifically on various plot points that the interviewers wanted to discuss/had questions about; it's basically King offering his insights as the writer. And I really, really appreciate this, for reasons I'll get to further down. Now then, more summarizing!

One of the interviewers brought up a sticking point he had with the book: the execution of the Brigand in issue four. Ruthye says to Supergirl that she thought she would save him. To which Supergirl replies: Did you?

King explained that Ruthye and Kara are on opposite journeys in this book. In issue one, Kara is on the side of 'I don't kill, heroes never kill' and Ruthye is on the opposite side, 'Krem killed my father, I have to kill him.' At the end of the book, they are once again on opposite sides, but they've switched.

(I love the way King described it, that Ruthye becomes Supergirl, and saves Supergirl. More on this later.)

But specifically that part in issue four, where Kara doesn't step in, King confirmed that she's on that journey, she's going through that transition, but she hasn't crossed the line of, 'I'll kill him myself.' Rather, she's allowing the system to do what it will.

King also mentioned that this theme isn't especially new and has been examined in comics time and time again, of superheroes asserting their morality over governments, and how that spirals into fascism. He cited Kingdom Come, etc.

Further comments from King on Kara's character: she's conflicted, unlike Clark. Clark's soul and ideals are aligned one to one; Kara wants that. She loves those ideals and wants to uphold them, but she's not fully aligned like that because of what she's been through (read: She's Seen Some Things)

Loved this bit from King: "Supergirl's a little more human than Clark, in spite of being more alien."

King said DC probably would've let him have Supergirl kill Krem in the end, BUT (and it's a good 'but' tying into that earlier bit about Ruthye becoming Supergirl) he said that the theme of this book was 'what makes Supergirl awesome' (he admits this is kind of a dumb theme, but hard disagree, sir) and he liked that Kara's lessons to Ruthye are ultimately what saves her. Kara saves herself.

(STICK A PIN IN THAT ONE, FOLKS)

King once again stated, for the record, that Krem does not die in the end!

The two interviewers had differing interpretations, hence King needing to confirm. XD He even pulled out his script for issue eight, and the description does indeed say that Krem is unconscious, not dead.

And, AND, Evely even made this clearer in the art; the script didn't have Krem moving after Ruthye hit him, but Evely added Krem placing his hand on his head.

Another point the interviewers wanted to discuss: Ruthye writing that Supergirl had killed Krem.

King confirmed that this was to prevent the Brigands from retaliating against Ruthye, and instead focus on going after Supergirl.

In King's mind, Kara feels immense guilt that her father saved her over literally anyone else, so she spends her life taking on other people's pain, to make up for what she sees as taking someone else's spot on that ship.

The scene in issue seven, where Kara's falling through the atmosphere and pushes through in order to preserve the memories that she carries with her was inspired by events from King's life; his mother died unexpectedly, and when going through her things, realized that he was one of the only people who carried certain memories of his mother and grandparents; he described it as a kind of burden.

Last question from the interviewers: Why make Ruthye and unreliable narrator? Do we believe anything in this book, now?

King started off his answer by noting that he fought against using captions in his books for his entire career; by the time he started writing comics, caption boxes had sort of lost their vitality and had become the equivalent of thought balloons, which had long since fallen out of style.

But when he returned to them with Supergirl, he said, (and I have the full quote below)

King: "What I love about [captions] is that you can write things that contrast what's in the pictures, so that the captions can tell you a little bit of a different story than what you're seeing, and thereby enhance it--it's that idea of Ruthye being, she's narrating the story but we're seeing pictures of what's actually happening, creates an excellent sort of tension I think." (Bold mine)

And so, some THOUGHTS!

As always, I love learning new things about this comic. I wish this comic had a commentary track, with King (and Evely, Lopes, and Cowles!) talking about the creation/processes behind the book.

Next best thing is podcasts, I guess! XD

But IN ADDITION to fun, new information, as I mentioned at the outset, King has basically confirmed a bunch of stuff I mentioned in my deep dive posts.

To quote one of the interviews: "I was validated by Tom King!"

XD

This also debunks like. Every bad-faith criticism lobbed at the book. It's almost like a checklist of the month-to-month stuff I was seeing from those aforementioned naysayers, complaining on twitter that King had ruined Kara beyond repair.

They'll likely never listen to this podcast, but I wish they would! I think it would make them feel better. XD Like, hearing the insights on Kara/Ruthye/etc has just reminded me once again how good this book is, and how emotionally moving.

Like, again, I love the way King sums up how Kara and Ruthye work together in this book to shine a spotlight on Supergirl; Kara teaches Ruthye lessons, Ruthye becomes Supergirl thanks to those lessons, Ruthye then saves Kara, thus Kara saves herself.

(Which hey, I touched on in my issue eight post, way back when.)

(I'm also beyond thrilled that my assumption that the art is the true account while the narration boxes are Ruthye's recounting was CORRECT.)

(Which isn't to suggest this is a terribly deep, difficult to decipher text. I mean. It's a monthly comic book intended for mass consumption, starring popular IP--the writing isn't inaccessible by any means. XD But I just remember seeing SO MANY PEOPLE deliberately misreading these specific points as a way to Stay Mad, so I'm relieved that my glass half full interpretations wasn't just the result of desperate Evely Stan goggles, you know? XD)

TL;DR: I cannot heckin' WAIT for that big, beautiful hardcover coming out in July (IDK if I've posted about it here yet but Lopes said he recolored some stuff so you BETTER BELIEVE I'll be back on my Woman of Tomorrow nonsense this summer) and I'm also thrilled that this entire creative team has returned with a new creator owned title (EXPECT A POST ON THAT...AT SOME POINT???)

[kaistrashbin]

Hi Kai, it's me again!

While I agree that Donna is No1 forever and always I'm also excited to see the others in the AU! Are they all professors or do they habe different roles?

- Valentines anon

Hello again Valentine! It's good to see you :D

Ah yes, our beloved Donnie <3 Always and forever our Queen

I'm honestly extremely excited to further develop this AU! Progress is slow-especially cause i'm mostly focusing on Donna rn and i've just started college-but I really wanna turn this into smth cool and make as much content as I can for it! I'd hope to some day make lil comics for it and at least have some sort of fic written for the AU. Though i'd be just as happy if I only ever get asks XD Anything that gets me to at least talk about it, doodle, and further develop ideas XDD The motivation and joy that come from knowing other people like the idea is great fuel (aside from my own enjoyment and obsession with it PFFT)

As for the others!!!- More info on them under the cut!!!(I wrote way more than intended LOL i'm figuring things out as i'm writing pfft-)

I see all of them as like board members for the school. Leading and managing it at the highest level right under Miranda who ofc is the headmistress(might come up with a different title, still in development). Let's get into a few quick details about the other Lords though! Do note that not much worldbuilding has gone on so types of magic and what is taught at the school is still in the works. Quite literally everything is still in VERY early development so expect changes

Alcina Dimitrescu

Definitely a professor! Of what..? Well uh....i'm still working on it! XD Perhaps of a music related magic? (Resident Lover shows Alcina as the art professor and while I think it's a great choice for her, I don't want to just hop onto the same idea.) I don't really see much about Alcina's relationship with music so perhaps I can do something for it through this AU :) Either that or a "dark arts" type thing? Necromancy and shadow related things? I'll be honest i'm slightly leaning towards darker arts...especially for plot reasons...

A vampire- ofc she is PFFT, the Dimi Daughters are also vampires(whether they're her biological children or were willingly converted is still in development)

She's every teacher that complains about other teacher's methods and classrooms

Karl Heisenberg

In charge of school security! He's technically supposed to be teaching students about combat and taking in certain students for a guard internships but he has an assistant who does the actual teaching for him LOL He's just there to occasionally be the face and the muscle of the program XD Though he does do some actual teaching for that program, he's more about demonstrating and correcting students he observes(he also just mostly is interested in the security interns)

Now because his assistant handles most things related to the combat courses/guard internships he actually teaches a second class with a different assistant. It's metal/machine based and as it's more a deep passion of his he actually takes it more seriously and prefers to do more of the teaching himself. All his assistants and deputies just make it more manageable for him to be taking care of multiple things like this. He actually spends the most time and effort on this class.

Is a Lycan! They can't turn into wolves or convert others though (a good portion of the school's security is actually lycans)

His magic is also a work in progress, though in this AU in general I want to have some who mostly just focus on mastering one form of magic and those who are experienced in multiple. Obviously the more types you focus on (that aren't considered more basic/general stuff ex. lighting a candle with a snap, animating an object to do a simple task, ect.) the less you master each. I would like him to possible specialize in more than one but we'll see how things go!

Salvatore Moreau

I actually imagine he'd be a professor of healing related magic or a beastmaster, and also supervising a program about experimental magic

Handsome fish man. You know classyfruit's gorgeous genderbent Moreau? Yeah, but handsome fish man. A triton but more fish-like

Wow this was short and he needs more love

Extra love for handsome fish boi Moreau

[merge-conflict]

5 (it's wonc isn't it 😞) 16, 20, 21, and 22

ty for the ask :3 questions are here

5. worst discord server and why

idk the modding one? because it has a billion channels and as soon as I joined I got overwhelmed, muted it and haven't opened it again. you say wonc like I'm not logging on every day and going into a brainrot thread to play ocs. sammy and I are deep in a brain cancer arc right now. xD

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

getting Johnny back his original body. I don't hate it, but it seems like such an easy fix given how the original relic trials went and that it's not just growing a new limb but a whole body including the brain. saburo doesn't even do that with all his money in the DE, which tells me it probably would take a while to grow a clone like that, if it's even possible (if it was, why would they have tested on random bodies and know that that process works best with relatives?). and it's not like johnny was ever a well-adjusted guy in his original body.

I know the answer is fix-it fic. But I'm surprised more people don't want to explore the inherent body issues/compromises in the genre. But! I do think it's interesting if people do or do not write Johnny getting a cybernetic arm again -> something that both fucked him up and defined him. what a choice between honoring what was and trying to get a truly clean slate. anyway it's something like the happy ending with children thing where I don't personally see the appeal, and that's okay. I was just honestly surprised it was so popular!

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

I already complained about tech and the blackwall in a previous post. I guess on replays I really get bored playing Johnny's sequences or doing the BD stuff because once you know what happens it's just a slog to get through.

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

overhyped would mean that I hear about it a lot? and I so rarely hear meta discussions that I'm kinda starved for it. I guess I'm disappointed to hear the sequel in planning has a big AI component because I wasn't a fan of how the story seems to be going in the original game (i.e. I think they're going with a straight forward apocalypse monster angle which doesn't serve the underlying themes the way I personally want it to, which as we all know is what would be objectively correct).

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

this is a hard one because again I don't see a lot of discussion about it but again I see very little lore discussion so I could pick anything.

I think it's fascinating Johnny never once discusses where he gets the bomb (it's a Militech bomb) or the fact that bombing Arasaka tower is as good for Militech as it is for him. I thought maybe it'd come up in PL but nope! in game there's a shard that describes a Militech convoy being robbed by nomads, implied to be the one that was carrying nuclear armaments. was it a setup by Militech? or did they not want it stolen but get what they wanted anyway when they got Arasaka thrown out of NC? How did that contribute to the war later where NUSA tried to grab NC and failed and resulted in Dogtown's creation and Arasaka being let in? When Johnny signed up as a corpo soldier who was it that he joined? Was it Militech or some other corp that broke him by sending him into battle? Why can't you even discuss the fallout of Johnny's actions? Especially in that dream of his where he apologizes to the netrunner whose husband got killed in the blast? (does anyone else think it's spooky you can find that NPC selling vinyls on the street?)

Anyway besides Johnny's enormous hate-on for Arasaka I want to know what his opinions are on the other major corpo players beyond the simple fact he thinks they suck. But not even canon delivers on that sadly.

[retracexcviii]

I'm really confused about Lady archiviste because she looked pretty interesting about granatum tragedy, why? Giano looks more interesting because why is he with charlatan? Money isn't answer. Maybe revenge agaist yhe church?Despite what astolfo did this people, I think in fact he saved yo doctor moreu. I don't trust marco, I think he's hiding something very important about tragedy, for that he accept such abuse from Astolfo

Hi there, sorry for the late reply (my phone sometimes just doesn't work XD)

There is a lot to talk about here so I will go in order.

About Lady Archiviste I agree, she is really mysterious and her behaviour doesn't make sense yet. But I think her interest in this part of the human world (Paladins) can be justified in that they are important people that were able to face vampires during the war, so it's always correct to keep an eye in them.

Gano it's clearly centered in eradicate vampires, so working with Naenia (known for being able to kill in a cruel way vampires) is a good way to accomplish his objective. His reasons are a mystery yet tho, I like the theory that it's for revenge, but it can perfectly be only him being a bad person.

About Astolfo I understand you mean he saved those children from being used by Moreau(?) If it is so yeah, maybe. I understand why Astolfo went so far and was so reckless but tbh I don't think it is justified in anyway.

And finally, about Marco. We really don't know a thing about him or his past. Maybe he did sell/was tricked to tell some important information about Granatum family to those vampires, but I think most of the info came from Chasseurs and Astolfo.

I see Marco as other victim of survivor guilt. He literally told Astolfo this chapter that he survived because he fled, he literally abandoned his master, his wife and his two poor children to what he knew was a horrible death. And that's a very big stone to carry and to accept a beating from the one you were supposed to protect.

I think that's all. Again sorry for the late reply, dear Sifya. This chapter was full of new interesting info and I hope next arc can answer some mysteries about the story.

[midnight197]

I recently took a deepdive into Rainworld and it's Lore, so I got a bit obsessed over it xD As a Result, I created my own Slugcat-OC I named The Glacier or just Glacier.

They sit a bit before Saint in the Timeline, so when the world is already an IceAge.

- Their Fur is covered with lots of tiny Icecrystals to make them immune agains the Cold and the Blizzards. So they're able to stay outside a lot longer than Saint (In Saints Campain are enemies that can withstand the cold and not get affected by it) - They can use their Icecrystals as Spear-like weapons similar to Spearmaster; their Damage is also increased - They're very weak agains explosions and can get instant killed by them, which prevents Glacier from using them directly - If around warm Objects or Creatures for to long they can get a heatstroke which weakens them - In a weakend state, they act similar when being in a Starve Circle and they can't use their Ice Spears anymore until recovery - Their lung capacity is bigger than the Standart, but not as big as of Rivulet - Swimming and staying in the Water helps recovering from a heatstroke faster  - Staying in a Shelter and Hibernating doesn't affect their temperature - The previous Drainage System now Undergrowth Area also can cause a heatstroke if staying in there for to long - Glacier needs as many Food Pipes as Rivulet and Spearmaster (5) with being able to store three more for the next Circle. - Any dead creature can be eaten for food, however smaller creatures and plants only fill 1/4th of a food pip. - During a Blizzard, Glacier is less visible to creatures, quieter and gets a larger stealth bonus when crouching

Stats: Lung Capacity: 1.25 Throwing Skill: 2 Spear Damage: 1.25 Speed: 1.2 Mass: Standart Loudness: 0.75 Visibility Bonus: -0.1 Crawling Stealth: 0.6 

I hope I haven't forgotten something! If you have any ideas of removing and/or changing some things, I'm open for them! I'm not to knowledgeable about the World of Rainworld, so don't hesitate to correct me with some things of give me some suggestions!

Hope you guys like it!