#It Was Literally Right There On The Screen My Bad

[harrysfolklore]

Hi, I had this idea about actress!reader getting arrested by Sabrina Carpenter instead of her husband!Charles Leclerc like she did to Margaret Qualley and Jack Antonoff

super small thing buut i needed to write something based on this! enjoyyy

After weeks of begging Charles to take you to Sabrina Carpenter's Short and Sweet Tour, here you were, his arm around your waist as you swayed to the music. You'd played the "but I sat through so many F1 races" card, and he'd finally caved, pretending he wasn't secretly excited about it too.

"See? Not so bad, right?" you tease him, and he responds by pulling you closer, pressing a kiss to your temple.

"Anything for you, mon coeur," he murmurs against your ear, making you shiver despite the warm arena.

"Oh my god, do I see some hotties in the crowd tonight?" Sabrina's voice rings through the arena as she grabs her pink handcuffs. The big screens start showing different sections of the crowd, and you can feel the excitement building.

You're nestled against Charles' side, his Ferrari jacket draped over your shoulders because you'd been "cold" (really, you just love wearing his things).

"Do I see a cute brunette in Ferrari red?" Sabrina's eyes lands on your section. "Wait… is that Charles Leclerc?" The big screen shows Charles, who gives that devastatingly charming smile of his. The crowd goes absolutely wild.

Charles is blushing now - that adorable pink tinge he gets when he's caught off guard - but he's grinning.

"I'm loving the view from here," you whisper to him, and he smirks, pulling you closer.

"Oh my god, wait! Is that YN?" Sabrina gasps dramatically. "You know what? Change of plans, we have an emergency situation here. Charles is cute but his wife is literally ILLEGAL levels of hot right now!"

The dancers make their way through the crowd, and one of them hands you the pink fuzzy handcuffs as the crowd cheers. Charles watches with amusement, that signature smirk playing on his lips - the one that still makes your knees weak after all this time.

He leans down, his breath tickling your ear. "Maybe we should keep these for later," he murmurs, voice low and teasing. "For… research purposes." His fingers trace lazy patterns on your back as he speaks, making you shiver despite the warm arena.

You feel your cheeks flush as you playfully smack his arm. "Charles!" But you can't help leaning further into his touch, your body naturally gravitating toward his like always.

Sabrina must have caught your reaction because she laughs into the mic. "Looks like someone's already got plans for those handcuffs!"

"She's the criminal here," Charles calls out, grinning. "I'm completely innocent!"

[tehkusogaki]

I'm seeing a lot of people in the comments disparaging this remake, but I do want to go into a few reasons why it doesn't look as strong as the original.

Now of course no one is immune to nostalgia goggles and it's very easy to have that "they changed it, now it sucks!" instinctive reaction, so I am going to try to critique specific things and go into why I think they don't work as well.

First, I want to point out the composition of these two shots and specifically where the focus is.

In our original Hiccup and Toothless literally meet in the middle. With both Toothless and Hiccup pushed off the edge of the screen.

In this version they kept Hiccup fully in scene, but look how the focus of the action is now off to the side. We aren't focusing on either character-- they're both still pushed off to the edges of the screen-- but it's no longer both of them coming together in the middle, but rather Hiccup taking up the scene with Toothless starting to invade it.

Now this bit may be a little nit-picky, but look how perfectly the curve of Hiccup's hand matches Toothless's snout in the original in a way they don't in second image. They are so close, running parallel to each other. That's a very powerful image, and the remake doesn't quite match it.

I see a lot of people in the notes saying the lighting sucks, but no one explaining why. Looking at the bottom pic, you can see it actually has a greater value scale. There are a lot more midtones. Why is this bad? Because the action disappears into the background.

In the first pic there is a clear line of action going from Hiccup's arm to Toothless. By having these the lightest areas in the shot your eye is drawn to them. Then the darkest parts are Toothless's body and Hiccup's vest and hair which make them pop from the background. The most visible part of Toothless is his eye. There's a little bit of highlight on his scales and there's lighter midtones around his body to help clarify his silhouette, but we are drawn to his eye because of the light on dark contrast.

In the lower pic there is some highlight on toothless's scales (look at all that Texture! Wowee! We sure can put our computers to good use adding in details), but why is that the part on Toothless that stands out? Why is that important? Hiccup's arm kind of disappears into the background, and I can see more detail in the background than in our main character. The light sandy beach wants to draw my eye down, but there's nothing important there.

Now I put these in black and white to better see the contrast, but back to the color version, the background is mostly cool tones with warm light settling on our characters: another way in which the first one makes the characters stand out.

The only thing really catching my eye in the second one is that the greens are maybe too green? I'm not getting the same delineation of foreground and background.

There are a few other things to be picky about.

Like Hiccup's costume. Now I don't know enough about costumes to confidently pick it apart detail by detail (and honestly can't make out enough details to do so anyway) but what is one of Hiccup's defining traits? His scrawniness, right?

Look at that skinny little arm reaching out for that dragon. Look how that thin strip of lighter colored fabric visible from under his vest accentuates how slender his trunk is. Look how clearly you can see how he leans away from Toothless even as he reaches out for him. You can see the hesitation in his arm through his slightly bent elbow.

I feel like the bulky, loose costume on the actor makes him look bigger than he should and obscures body language.

Now here's the part where I want to remind y'all that art is subjective. These are some of my thoughts on this, but are by no means the only way view this. Also, please be nice to this kid. He got a chance to play a favorite childhood character. I'm sure he thought it was pretty cool to be given the opportunity and is trying really hard to live up to the role. None of the things I've pointed out here are his fault. Don't be a dick! Actors are people too.

I don't like that this is a thing. But I'm sure many people really tried to put in their best effort into this. Don't let your ire with Universal/DreamWorks for making a cash grab of your childhood nostalgia turn into harassment of artists and actors. I've seen that happen too frequently.

And remember: animation isn't an inferior art form, sometimes it really is the best medium to tell a story in.

httyd got live actioned. trailer just dropped and its uh. hm

idk what i was expecting but what looks like a shot-for-shot remake except with ugly ass high definition cgi that detracts from rather than enhances the cinematography really is. well it's a choice.

[giirlblood]

( adult ) lottie caring for a teen regressor !!

requested by 🐦‍⬛ anon . eeeee my first anon !! ૮ > ﻌ < ა i spin around excitedly :3 .. i automatically did adult ! lottie hope that's okay ! yellowjackets masterlist here

lottie is very much focused on you being unplugged . you always talk back && act pissed off but it's kind of nice to have someone who cares . she's the type of cg to take your ds out of your hands after an hour && replace it with a book . she gives this look when you talk back because you know the rules && you pipe down immediately .

you call her "ma" or "mom" usually . you literally just call nat "bro" . you're usually "too old" to call lottie "mama" or "mommy" or hold her hand in public but if you're feeling sick all of that goes right out the window . while you're typically a bit snarky && moody , always talking back , when you're sick you're a clingy little bug .

you like to push her buttons a little . singing along to music that curses , doodling all over yourself even when she told you not to . you never do anything Bad , you're just at that age where it's fun to push back .

even though lottie limits your screen time she's buying you those games you mentioned wanting . you didn't even ask she just remembered && wanted to surprise you .

showing her tricks on your skateboard !! "ma watch this ." even though you try to act cool you break out in the BIGGEST grin when she tells you how awesome it was . even if you fall she still finds something she liked about it && will run to make sure you're okay — you may be a teenager but you're still her baby . it kind of embarrasses you but you secretly are grateful for it .

doodling on your shoes with nat . lottie finds you guys && pretends to be angry but later she asks to see && marvels at your art skills , asking if you could draw something for her sometime .

you're big on energy drinks and soda . lottie has to remind you to drink water , putting a limit on how many energy drinks / sodas you can have per day . you'll reach into the fridge for an extra one && all of a sudden she's right beside you scolding you && placing a glass of water in your hand .

[zabrak-show]

Palestine Fundraisers

I have held off doing something like this for far too long due to imposter syndrome and feeling like nothing i do is worth any monetary value, but i have nothing else to give. my husband has been unemployed since march and i'm barely making above min wage in 1 of the most expensive cities in the usa

i'm not saying any of this for you to feel bad for me, but just to give some context. I have been donating what little I can when I can to these campaigns. but i can't do it on my own.

So please, help me help these families. I have done my best to vet them as legit, but I'm not an expert and my process pretty much involves a few reverse google image searches and just talking to the folks involved. but use your own best judgment.

aid is not getting into gaza consistently or at all in some cases, israel has seen to that. these gofundmes are some of these families only chance right now. (still donate to orgs, it is still important, but rn these fundraisers are the most direct way to help)

so with all of that said, if you donate to any of these fundraisers and show me a screen shot, I will draw or write you something!

$10+ and I will sketch something for you in any of the fandoms I'm active in or if you just want like "flowers" or something

$20+ I will write you a ~1k fic of any fandom i'm in

$50+ I will send you some art and a personal note in the mail (this does require you to send me your mailing address)

I won't do anything for fandoms I'm not familiar with. I'm fine with any ship, but some characters I may not be as familiar with to write. (I'll let you know) I'm not really a porn artist yet but i can write smut. any other questions just let me know.

you can check out my ao3 for examples of my writing and fandoms i write for. my art can be found on here and on my side blog @zorak-show where all the non star wars related stuff goes.

even if only one or two of you does this it will mean the world to me and to the families you are helping it is literally life changing for them. thank you so much.

[archduchessofnowhere]

The tropification of Elisabeth of Austria and the perils of historical dramas without history: A review of Die Kaiserin season 1

Back in 2022 Netflix long awaited (by me at least) new historical drama about Empress Elisabeth of Austria premiered. And to my great disappointment, the series had little to nothing to do with history. Now, two years later, we are on the eve of the premiere of the series’ second season. Since I’d forgotten most of the story, I decided to do a rewatch of season 1, despite my deep dislike of it back in the day. I usually don’t do this, I truly believe that (unless you’re a paid reviewer and it’s your literal job) the only reason for watching a series should be that you like it. If it wasn’t because of my completionist drive to finish every piece of media relating to Elisabeth and analyze the hell out of it, I would’ve dropped it two episodes in. But I promised a review in 2022, and I still feel bad for not finishing writing it then. So at last, here is my review of Die Kaiserin.

Revisiting Die Kaiserin was an interesting experience, if just as frustrating as my first watch was. The character assassination of literally every real person depicted in this series is still infuriating, the costumes and hairstyles are dreadful, and the portrayal of the few historical events is so bad it makes any person with some knowledge of the time period roll their eyes and wish the series had gotten canceled in pre-production. And yet, looking at it from the outside, trying to watch it as if I were an spectator who doesn’t know nor cares about the time period and only wants to kill time with Netflix’s shine new period drama series, Die Kaiserin reveals itself exactly for what it is: a mediocre soap opera set in a half-assed court setting. Upon this rewatch I realized that the biggest crime of this series isn’t that it’s inaccurate, but how boringly predictable it truly is. It’s not that the characters are nothing like their historical counterparts, it’s that they are not characters at all. They are stereotypes, walking tropes crashed against each other like dolls in the hands of a child. And the entire plot of this series is built around serving these tropes.

Although we are not given a clear year at any point on-screen, the story begins in 1853 as it always does when it comes to Sisi media: with a young and rebellious Elisabeth learning that her elder sister Helene is going to be the emperor of Austria’s future bride. The first episode proceeds to re-imagine the fated encounter of the Duchesses in Bavaria with Franz Josef and his family, finishing with the climatic moment in which the emperor reveals that he will marry the younger Elisabeth instead of her sister, shocking everyone present (in fiction, for in real life the entire family realized right away that he had fallen in love with his cousin at first sight).

So far, the typical beginning of every piece of media about young Elisabeth under the sun. But then the series makes the bizarre choice of setting the entire season in an atemporal space in which nothing of note happens. The episodes usually take place during a brief period of time (from a couple of hours to a single day at most), yet it is uncertain how much time passes between them: days? months? Who even knows. The timeline is fuzzy, bending to the whims of the script.

You now may wonder: why does that matter? Plenty of good series don’t have clear timelines. And I agree, there are indeed good series which don’t need a clear timeline. I just don’t believe historical series about real people whose lives are well documented are one of them. Why am I tuning in the history based series and finding no history at all? Why can’t I even guess in which month are we supposed to be in?

In the later years there has been a boom of period dramas which are historical satires, historical fantasies and/or alternative history. These series take history and throw it out of the window for the sake of their plot (whether it’s romance or comedy or both). And I don’t hate them, in fact I thoroughly enjoyed plenty of them. But Die Kaiserin doesn’t belong to this genre. Die Kaiserin is supposed to be a serious historical drama. I still remember that before the series premiered the screenwriters talked about how they wanted to follow the steps of The Crown. Yet the quality of the script is far more reminiscent of the alternative history teen drama Reign. If Reign thought it was The Crown.

What is the point of taking these real people, ignoring the entire context in which they lived, and throwing them into completely fictional settings, while still claiming you’re adapting their lives? If Die Kaiserin had owned what it was, if it had not pretended to be a serious historical drama, I don’t think I would’ve been as upset as I was when the series was released. 

I realize this is a personal frustration since I know and care for the real history, and that someone who doesn’t probably didn’t notice the dozens of inaccuracies that plague this series. That’s okay. But I can’t help but feeling a deep disappointment in the fact that I’m not the target audience of a series about one of my favorite women from history. Which also makes me wonder: if not us, the people with a genuine interest in history, then who is the audience for this series?

I don’t have an answer. Not only “the general public” is as vague as it gets, time and time again “the general public” has shown they can and will love historical dramas more grounded in fact. I wholly disagree on this notion that you must “dumb down” history in order to make it more palatable. Again, audiences have shown they can enjoy complex writing - a memo I wish the screenwriters of Die Kaiserin had received. 

Because even putting the inaccuracies aside, I ultimately just don’t think the writing of this series is good. Going back to the beginning of the review, upon my rewatch I realized something: this series is almost entirely made up of well defined but poorly developed tropes. This series feels written as if it was one of those viral Tiktok books whose entire plot is just a list of popular tropes. “Love triangle with a villain”, “fierce FMC”, “betrayal”, “falls first/falls harder”; and I could go on. Any complexity is simplified in order to create an easy to watch story, every character is made into a one-dimensional caricature. It is also ironic that, despite the screenwriters’ clear attempts to distance their series from every previous portrayal of the empress - to the point of having Elisabeth disdain her nickname “Sisi”, which is never be used after the first episode - they fall into almost every already existing stereotype on Sisi media anyways. Elisabeth as a humble country girl deemed the “troublemaker” of the family? Check. Sophie as an evil mother-in-law who manipulates her son and daughter-in-law? Check. The empress reconciling the discontent masses of the empire with her kindness alone? Check check check. 

I highly doubt I’ll ever watch this season again. I simply do not like it, and I know it may not seem like it given how much I’ve been talking about this series lately, but I don’t enjoy being a hater. It’s just that I’ve been following this series since the project was first announced years ago, and I’m still mad about how much it missed the mark. Will there ever be an Elisabeth - or just 19th century Habsburg/Wittelsbach - historical series with actual history in it? As of now, sadly, it still feels like an impossible dream.

[sapphiresaphics]

Probably because those arguments are… wrong?

Like I mentioned already in another post, someone on here was complaining they didn’t understand why Victor was flying through space. And I had to explain to him he’s not LITERALLY flying through space. The space backgrounds are symbolic of him being ethereal and unteathered to reality. He’s not literally flying through space like a human space ship. And he blocked me for pointing that out.

Like that’s just someone being flat out WRONG in their interpretation of what’s happening. Viktor isn’t a space ship. He’s not literally flying through the cosmos.

My issue is less about people understanding the themes properly (it’s a work of art, and art is subjective most of the time) but rather this bizarre hypocritical attitude towards the show for being “too fast paced” while m the show is spending a lot of time focusing on the issues they seem to be missing. Like how did Vi and Jinx just flip back into sister mode? Gee I dunno.. wish there was a whole 40 min episode dedicated to seeing them work out their issues on screen… oh wait there was!

Also news flash, not all criticism is valid.

Some is just BAD. Bad criticism doesn’t deserve to be treated with the same respect as good faith criticism. If you say “X didn’t happen” and I point out in the episode where it very literally did happen… your original criticism is invalid.

I don’t think that the writers all always right. There are plenty of valid criticisms you can lobby against the show. Absolutely. But when you intentionally misunderstand the themes, or ignore them all together, or whine that character X serves no purpose because you’re ignoring half the plot.. that’s on YOU. Not the writers. If you willingly ignore what the show is telling you, you only have yourself to blame for that.

For example, calling Caitlyn a dictator. She’s not a dictator. The show doesn’t think she’s a dictator. She doesn’t say or do the things a dictator does. So when you criticize Caitlyn for being a dictator and get confused when she doesn’t do a dictator thing, that’s on YOU for using the wrong terminology to describe her actions and her character. And if you KEEP DOING IT, that’s again on you for not allowing yourself the ability to look at things from a different perspective.

As to the ideological stuff… that’s mostly because you WANT it to be about classism and oppression through power. And while that definitely is a running THEME of the show… I don’t think it’s the MAIN theme. I think the main theme is about family bonds and how all actions we take for them can have amazing and disastrous consequences. Viktor himself basically sums up the thesis of the show in his latest episode.

So when you look at the show from THAT perspective a lot of the weird hang ups you guys have start to make sense. Vi says Jinx is not her sister anymore and that Powder is gone. This is not true. Jinx says Jinx is gone, that is not true. Vander’s death broke the family apart. Vander being alive brings them back together. Caitlyn loves Vi. She’s done terrible terrible things out of the misguided attempt to protect the people around her, which sadly includes hurting Vi. Just like Vander and Silco did. Jayce and Viktor work towards saving humanity, but they are always on polar ends of the spectrum. Family is super important to Ambessa, which is why she’s working so hard to secure HexTech so she can protect her family (and Mel) from the Black Rose. And it causes her to do terrible terrible things. Every single plot point in this show is about FAMILY. And that’s going to matter when the Arcane rears its ugly head. The Arcane is going to try and break up the familiar bonds. It’s going to challenge and test those boundaries like it’s already doing with Jayce and Victor.

Class and oppression and systemic issues help explain WHY characters do what they do… but they’re not the main cause of things. Silco would’ve tried to kill Vander without Jayce’s Hex Tech interference after all. Jinx and Vi would’ve come to blows one way or another without the Arcane core going wild. The classism and systemic oppression is background noise. It’s there to set the scene. The REAL problem they have to face is the Arcane and what it’s going to do to try and separate everyone. To take away their individuality and choices (good and bad) that make them who they are.

So yeah, when you complain that you thought this show was about fixing Piltover and Zaun and you’re mad that “lore” is coming in… that’s why I think you’re wrong. Because the Arcane is going to challenge the bonds that unite everyone together. And the systemic issues are background dressing to set up the ultimate conflict of pure unchecked evil.

Happy?

I find it hilarious when the show called ARCANE starts talking about the ARCANE and the ARCANE starts having a more prominent role in the trajectory of the show named ARCANE that people are only now complaining about “lore” being added to the show.

Like, my dudes… the show was about the ARCANE. Now that it’s reacting and developing and becoming the big thing the whole show is heading towards… NOW you’re worried about the “lore” messing things up??!

Hahah

Sorry guys. I know we started with class inequality, and that’s definitely a theme of the show… but the TRUE star has ALWAYS been the ARCANE and how it reacts to the events around it.

They wouldn’t have named the show ARCANE if they weren’t going to address the ARCANE.

[bi-lil-guy]

This Made Me Cackle For No Fucking Reason.

Are You Telling Me Gehenna's Devils Are Caked Up As A Defense Mechanism???

Built In Kick Protection???

[team-118]

eddie diaz is free now <3

[coern-art-very-cool-and-nice]

try again?

[fujii-draws]

OKAY! Chatot rant in tags below! Read at your own discretion.

[angel---eater]

i truly have no tolerance for this fandom shittin on random fans personal trans headcanons. someone saw themselves and their experience in this character, isnt that beautiful? why dont you mind your business and focus on your own fan stuff? wouldnt that make you happier? someones headcanon doesnt negate yours. what the fuck is wrong with yall. its playing make believe x2. its just a headcanon. real life trans folks are in active danger right now and some of yall are wasting all your energy abusing others over which pronoun set figments of someone elses imagination 'should' be using

[grossillygirl]

:(

[james-spooky]

this is a test

[bleaksqueak]

Insomnia is letting up off and on, but I'm still super jelly brained from it case in point, I want to continue back with posting WIPs for the aired pages, but I can't remember what page I left off on now lmao (guess I'll have to dig through my blog to check... eesh. at least it's decently organized by tags?) Not a result of goo brain, really, but equally "AUGH" is that I let my screen protector go for too long without replacing it and now it's slick as snot and I don't have a replacement handy to put on it. This isn't a resulting consequence of goo brain but it does mean I'm going to be trying to draw without any traction while I'm already loopy. Good times ahead!

[triglycercule]

ok ok you dont need to threaten me here's some art ☹️☹️☹️

appreciate now while you have it because doodles are rare coming from me (only tri-yearly. i cannot doodle for the life of me its hard 🙁)

[rackartyg]

in therapy today i just talked about the dark urge and astarion and my therapist was elated about it. it was fantastic. “wow you’ve really been using this story and those characters to process things. that’s amazing!”

the era of being ashamed of my interests is over. it’s apparently Cool and Healthy to use fiction to cope. i wish i could tell fifteen year old me about this it would blow her mind