#I'm sure I'm like 100% wrong

[hopeswriting]

was thinking about takeshi and how he's my favorite brand of unconditional devotion btw. the utter and absolute and all-consuming kind that runs so deep to the very core and is so intrinsic and fundamental to it, it can only express itself in the most casual and natural and certain way. without second thoughts, without any room for doubts or for any moral dilemma to be had over it, because of course he ought to always be breathing and living for his chosen person first and foremost. of course he ought to hang on their every word and make them true no matter what, no matter what he has to do to make it happen, no matter what he has to do to other people to make it happen, and no matter what it might turn him into in the process. because it's obviously the way the world should be for his chosen person. at their feet, ready to bend over backwards and break and build itself again to better answer to all their needs even if they don't ask it for it. it's the only right way it should be for them, and of course takeshi's going to do his utmost at all times to make it a reality as much as possible.

and his devotion comes out as naturally as breathing, comes out lighthearted and nonchalant like he might as well be talking about the weather, but it's not unaware of itself. it's not that takeshi doesn't know it's unhealthy and wrong and that he's willing to go entirely too far in its name for anyone's good. it's not that he wouldn't hear you out if you were to sit him down and explain to him just why he needs to tone it down a little (a lot). logically, he'd agree with you and know you're right. and then he'd tell you he's still not going to do anything whatsoever about it. that he's not bothered by it and doesn't feel the need to change anything to his attitude. makes it a point to never let anyone or anything sway him even an inch in the stand he took when it comes to that, no matter how many thousand of times you might go over the subject with him.

because the morality of his devotion isn't the point at all. is entirely irrelevant to it and doesn't affect the way he expresses it all. it's not the metric with which he draws a line in the sand to hold it accountable to. because the thing is, takeshi's entire world revolves around tsuna--tsuna is his entire world altogether, and it's just a matter of fact, that simple. to him it's a truth as unchanging as the sky being blue, and so being the way he is according to that truth is the only way he can imagine being that'd feel right to him. and so the actual and only metric that matters here is "would tsuna be happier if i were to do this?" and/or "is this something tsuna needs me to do?"

and like. i don't think takeshi ever stops being a kind person capable of compassion and understanding and mercy and forgiveness even ten years later once they became mafia through and through. and i don't think either he grows up to be feared and called a monster per se despite the things they inevitably had to do during those ten years (and the things they'll inevitably keep having to do as long as they keep being mafia), at least not in the way, for example, they'll never stop fearing and calling mukuro one. but i do think that among the tenth gen, he ends up being the one with the most ruthless, merciless and horrific blood on his hands of that particular and distinct loving kind. you know the one i mean, right? he comes to be the one most expected and the one first expected to be willing and to take it upon himself to go through with it when the need arises. and to think little of it after, if anything at all. all in the name of making tsuna's reign as easy on him as possible.

and it's to the point where it's the kind of blood that makes even mukuro pause at times. or, when takeshi is the one coming up with solutions himself during meetings, makes even reborn blink. not because it's unjustified or wouldn't be safe or efficient or anything of the sort, but because it is unwarrantedly thorough in its retaliation. and sometimes, at times like this, he's the one tsuna needs to step in for the most, because he's the only one who can reason with him that "yes, this would work in getting rid of our problem" but "no, please, don't do that takeshi". because if tsuna is the only thing that infers on just how much and in what ways he'll let himself be devoted to him, then of course, he's also the only one takeshi's willing to reign himself in for without second thoughts. because he'd hate to ever do something tsuna would disapprove of or wouldn't want him to do. or do something that'd make tsuna see him differently or love him back less even in the slightest.

and it's also like. his devotion isn't an undisciplined one. it's not one he doesn't have control over, the very opposite. it's a very purposeful and conscious choice he chooses to keep making over and over again every step of the way, and he taught himself to have control over it, to know when it's needed and/or wanted, and how much and in which ways it is when it happens, and to keep it down otherwise. and, yes, to also reign it back in at tsuna's request at times when it still slips past his control. because it's all about making tsuna's happiness easier and secure and long-lasting, and never about burdening him with just how committed he is to do that.

so it comes down to this: takeshi willing to go above and beyond and more for tsuna unless tsuna explicitly asks him not to. and to tsuna needing to ask him not to every now and then. and to other people pointing out to him how too many times tsuna's already needed to stop him, and that maybe there's a hint for him to take there. and to takeshi seeing the hint, looking it straight in the eye and recognizing it for what it is and just. deciding it doesn't apply to him because it's all perfectly normal behavior to him. because it's the only kind of behavior that makes sense to him and feels right.

and so—to circle back to my first point—he can only express his devotion as naturally as breathing, so casually, almost like it's something inconsequential and not worth talking about despite how unmistakably it couldn't be further away from being the truth. it's the only way he could have always known how to express it, because, after all, who has ever taken time to ponder about the details and the hows of the way they breathe?

and i, for one, absolutely eat that shit up every time, thanks for coming to my ted talk <3

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

"Imagine if a man posted this."

Imagine if I said the word nigga and people tried to hate on me because "imagine if a white person said this" �� the scenario is completely different.

I don't have male socialization. It's not my fault men have made sexual attraction towards women something dirty. Having a crush doesn't make me some creep.

[ambrosiagourmet]

When it comes to shipping or relationships in general in fic, if the characters are well defined and compelling in canon I don't care whether they actually have an established relationship dynamic or obvious reason to be hanging out. It's really fun to throw two guys together and think about how their neuroses would bounce of each other. What shared experiences they might connect over. What their mutual relationships might reveal.

Dunmeshi is this times 100 for me bc like even the smallest interactions characters do have are so rich and compelling. Almost every character has a backstory that could be a whole story unto itself. The layers of their histories and motivations are so rich and fascinating and fun to pick apart. I reread like 10 pages of one chapter and now my mind is spinning about Mithrun and Marcille and what they would think of each other at various points in the story and in post-canon. What they would do if thrown together in a crisis. How they could support each other or tear each other down.

Anyway this is part of why I think its so silly when I see people like complaining about certain ships bc characters don't interact much or don't interact romantically or whatever. The ingredients are here for a hundred different delicious feasts. What's wrong with getting a little silly with it.

[amburuthings]

– You summoned that demon! Except it was a spirit of wisdom at the time. – You made it kill. You twisted it against its purpose.

[whelpimnauthuman]

Spouse and I are fighting so I need your help

Please reblog for larger sample size and lemme know what you do in the notes!

[neunhofferart]

Not sure if there's anything official- based only on a vaguely similar shape and location and seemingly supported by the map pictures released by Dreamworks TV recently, would Yaz's island be Frank Island in Yellowstone National Park? Only for JWE2 building reference purposes 😁

It's possible it was used for some visual inspiration, but I think the EXACT location in Wyoming was probably meant to be a little vague, as a fictional location.

[zoobus]

I want you guys to know that for 20 years people have talked about jigsaw like this. For 20 years I've been under the impression Jigsaw was like a joker rationalist, a firm-but-fair-psychopath who was unethically derailed by a fake fan who totally missed the point or something and ruined the pure intentions of his enlightenment devices. Because of this shit, I assumed the trapees had committed some egregious crime against themselves that only awakening their primal fight or flight instincts could resolve. And then you watch it and he's just a dickhead. "Is jigsaw fair?" Why don't we ask the wife and child held at gunpoint for the dad's transgressions? Why don't we ask Zep.

[e-adlirez]

The art style of Cloud Castle is absolute ass bro why are their eyes so big

Idk man it just looks.... off

I wish they brought back the og art style like Blue Scarab Hunt because that was gorgeous

Well if you’re referring to the book's artstyle as a whole, then calm down buddy the illustrations as a whole are pretty good all things considered (believe me some of the illustrations in the later books are waaaaayyyyy iffier)

But if you are referring to Danilo Barozzi’s illustrations in the book then uhhhhh… yeah I don’t blame you, I didn’t like the big anime irises either, she didn’t cook with this one,,,

The interesting thing is Barozzi also did pieces for Secret of the Snow and those looked fine (she did well enough that I have to squint to determine which ones were done by her). My guess is either she did a lot of the illustrations for the latter half of SotS and we just got used to it, or it’s because the artstyle of special editions 2 and 3 were more… experimental? Books 4 onwards developed a very specific… look for the artstyle that adhered very closely to the main book illustrations of Spanish Dance Mission onwards, thus the illustrators had to follow suit, resulting in whatever looks off to look especially off.

(Even with this set of pictures, I’m only about 70% sure these are Barozzi’s because of how alike yet different the styles are from each other in the book. The first one could be Barozzi’s, but it could also be Giuseppe Facciotto’s, since he also did illustrations for SotS and his stylization means he sometimes puts the eyes really close to each other in a way that’s weird but still makes sense somehow.) On the contrary, books 2 and 3 (and I would probably even include book 1 there) had a more experimental look to the illustrations, which seems to be based more on (and this is just a theory of mine) Giuseppe Facciotto’s iconic work for the covers of Mouseford Academy books 2-12, 14, 15 and 17 in the English books (he did waaayyy more covers for the Italian Mouseford books— he was basically the cover guy for the Mouseford books for a WHILE) as well as the books from Spanish Dance Mission to Lost Letters. If you’re wondering why those covers go as hard as they do, then now you know why.

(These aren’t all of Facciotto’s works for the covers we know in English but you can see that he popped off <3)

But yeah as you can see with special editions 2 and 3, the art direction seems to be heavily inspired by Facciotto’s artstyle.

However, when Barbara Pellizzari’s works became the aesthetic poster child of the books’ brand, that was reflected in the illustrations and how their aesthetic changed, as seen in the main books and how they look currently, special editions 4-9, and the Treasure Seekers trilogy.

This new profile thing of the girls? This was done by Pellizzari (coloring was done by Flavio Ferron), and thus it became the main reference for how the girls look in the book’s illustrations.

And it’s not just in the general direction to the artists for how to draw the Thea Sisters, but also in the direction given to the colorists. Alessandro Muscillo was the colorist for the special edition books since book 1 and the Treasure Seekers trilogy, and you can see that the direction for the style varied through books 1-3, like maybe direction was experimenting with the mood the illustrations were to convey, beginning with the cartoony and bright colors of book 1, easing into the more grounded and layered palettes of books 2 and 3

Then book 4 was when they transitioned to using digital art /j

I jest, but seriously book 4 was the debut of the coloring style we end up keeping for the rest of the special editions and for all of Treasure Seekers, which is very… bright :D

(I would show more picture examples but I manually took pictures of my physical copies for the Cloud Castle and SotS illustrations and gwuh I’m too lazy to grab my entire collection just to take pictures,,)

Bright as in like… the colors are very defined and saturated. I dunno how to describe it, but when you see it, you get what I mean. It’s very bright and pretty and colorful and it stands out. There are still variations that happen on occasion (Star Fairies in particular uses a good dose of airbrush for the lighting and shadow effects, and Crystal Fairies looks like someone had a bit of fun using sparkle brushes), but other than that, it’s very bright. I don’t hate it, but I do acknowledge that yeah, if I was introduced to the series when it had fully transitioned to the new style, I never would’ve gotten into the series in the first place, because the older books had something that didn’t make it feel specifically catered to girls. The colors were bright, but not too bright. Colorful, but unified. They weren’t that complicated, and they didn’t have to be because the colorists (plural, there were at least 3 per book once upon a time) were popping the hell off with the colors they were given. But y’know, the newer books’ consistent style did give me a good spot to practice drawing mouse furries so I’m not complaining too much about the newer style, haha.

(Tiny baby E’s (it’s literally from 2020 what’re you on about mate) her first mouse Violet drawing using Barbara Pellizzari’s artstyle in Treasure Seekers 1 as an anatomy guide!!)

With that said tho, yeah I miss the old books -m- dunno if it’d fit the aesthetic of the special editions but m a n we could’ve had it and it probably would’ve looked cool

Also the illustrations go way harder in the older books, like Prince's Emerald? I've talked about Prince's Emerald and how it goes hard before, and I still stand by it and say that it does in fact still go hard

Maybe it won't fit the uh splash of color they gave the hardcovers, but imagine they grabbed Giulia Basile's coloring work for the graphic novels and used that as sort've a basis for the coloring style of the hardcovers. Not exactly the same-- would probably still add a touch of whimsical watercolor and/or paint to the very cel-shaded style, but we could've had something pretty dope -m-

Anyway that's my ramble simultaneously defending the hardcovers' artstyle and reminiscing on what could've been haha

[sovonight]

why is so much of sewing just tracing and cutting and tracing again q_q i see why people get projectors and use adobe illustrator now

[gender-trash]

oh yeah also if we're posting about pronoun circles i'm meh on them personally (one of my top ten least favorite interactions: i walk into the room and a well-meaning HR type lady picks up on My Vibe and cheerfully goes "oh let's all do a pronoun circle!!") and they're actively hostile to a variety of other trans-spectrum experiences, but the absolute worst pronoun-sharing experience i ever had was in a public speaking class i was forced to take in college as a graduation requirement. day 1 in my section we had an exercise where we split off in pairs, the other person asked you questions, you could ONLY answer the questions asked, and then the other person introduced you as if you were about to give a speech. i don't know what this was meant to prove about anything but in my case it resulted in the absolutely delightful experience of sitting there with clenched teeth while this normie frat guy asked me questions that were not the single question i wanted him to ask and then being Turbo Misgendered by him for thirty seconds. we then received an assignment to record a video self-introduction, in which i included my pronouns somewhat spitefully; after i submitted this to the TA in charge of my section she sent out an email asking us all to share our pronouns "if they're different from what i would assume by looking at you". the rest of the class did not significantly improve from this inauspicious beginning

[fooltofancy]

i like to go into a dungeon and perform Very Well on the first boss (shields when newfolk stand in things, i don't stand in things etc.) and then during the second boss stand in literally everything so they have no idea what to expect when the final one comes around.

[kyouka-supremacy]

--

[laufire]

clarke's lil' gay squad aka the leather float in this year's pride parade

[genspiel]

Ray Walker: is a bisexual Lakota man

me: oh, some bi and Indigenous rep! that's cool

also Ray Walker: has "never been a romantic" and "never expect[s] anything long-term" from relationships, feels like "romantic" is an inaccurate description of his relationship with his ex, and asks another character if they can be friends who have sex sometimes

me: oh wait holy shit, is he aroallo???

[willgrahamsbecoming]

oh god it's the 24th isnt it

happy birthday raúl esparza sorry for babygirlifying your character. it will happen again

[prismit]

oh yeah, dead cells immortalis thoughts now that i'm caught up

it's. kinda mid 😔 but it has its moments, so i'm not really upset about it. i'm just gonna try my best to enjoy it for what it is, and it's entertaining enough that that's not too hard for me to do.

(i mean ofc i'm upset about things regarding. yknow. the motion twin/evil empire stuff. but that's a different can of worms, i'm just talking about the show itself, meta stuff aside.)