#Man do I love this archetype's art

[zan0tix]

Hi tumblr user Zan0tix, I have to say that I love that you draw Jake as big and hairy AND fem. It's such a rare combination outside of mean-spirited caricatures, every time I see your Jake I get a big smile on my face. :)

Hi tumblr user HermitCyclop ^u^ here is a jake drawing for you 🫶

The transmisogynistic demonisation of these features is so maddening!!! I agree! Im glad that the intent (appreciating these features) of my jake design reaches you c:

GOING TO PUT IT UNDER THE CUT BECAUSE I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY. But jake english gender meta because i think about it Too Much and am taking this as an excuse to infodump abt it. 😁

The alpha kids and their specific defiance of both homestucks gendered narrative AND real life societal expectations are so fun to think about to me!! but since we are talking about jake, his specific defiance of both homestucks models of masculinity and femininity in the context of his queerness is like the reason he is my fav character.

He props himself up that he wants to be the adventure "hero" in the homestuck sense (the hardheaded blue femme fatale) and the western media sense (the hardheaded action man) yet whenever pressed to actually act on what he says he always refuses or obfuscates. Because really what he wants is to just be himself! I really love the alpha kids because they all just want to be Themselves, not be restricted and defined by what is expected of them, (all the characters have this but the alphas particularly really hammer this home for me)

The heavy emphasis on their beta selves, the heteronormative archetypes they embodied and what went wrong in their lives that manifest as fears in their alpha selves... im always thinking about it. How differently society affects queer ppls choices in life and then the fact that they all get a second chance and getting to watch them live out that second chance and realize their queerness and them all caring so much abt eachother and wanting to aspire to be better FOR the ones they love!!!!!! it always tugs at my heart strings to ponder😢😢

IM SO GOOD AT GOING ON TANGENTS MY BAD but basically. The alpha kids explicit queerness and how despite the comic itself protesting, they are all shown to be deserving of love (of all kinds) And as a person who super heavily relates to jake, his experience with his own identity (and dirks unending adoration and love for him and likewise jakes belief and admiration of dirk) serves to me as a reminder that yknow! We are all worthy of love!! Even if we dont think ourselves to be (this is just the message of shrek.) and there is always hope to be found in things improving!!!!

But in a text thats explicitly queer and not shy about letting its queer characters do wrong in realistic ways i think this message is incredibly powerful and certainly one of the best things about the comic in my eyes. And i love embracing that in my art of the characters! Drawing queer (but here specifically trans) characters all getting to be proud of themselves and their appearances makes me feel proud of myself alongside them and I think its wonderful to be able appreciate other trans peoples experiences and looks through it too!!

I specifically in homestuck fandom dont really see anybody but twinks (usually dirk or eridan LMFAO) portrayed to be fem in any manner 😢 when jake is the most explicitly feminine man in the comic. (I think the transmisogyny thats kind of rampant in this fandom means people dont want to consider those outside conventional attractiveness being feminine or transfem identities outside binary transwomen if even that😭😭) I am being the change i wana see in the world 🙏 The amount of transfem fat gay bear jake in the world increases by one every time i post

[shootingstarpilot]

Do you have any advice for writing Mace Windu?

Hello friend! I've been sitting on this for a while, because everyone's got their own interpretations, but mine is based on an idea I was struggling to put words to.

(Caveat that I have not read Legends material, that people can write what they like, etc. etc.)

The way I see it, Lucas specializes in writing stories in terms of themes and archetypes. This is why certain dialogue choices or the development of certain relationships can be... clunky, let's go with that. Characters (Obi-Wan and Anakin fall into their own category, sure) are written primarily as archetypes. You have Yoda as the wise old sage, Sidious as the ultimate evil-

And Mace Windu as the ultimate good.

We see this in the Chancellor's office, right? During the final showdown. This is the moment where Anakin makes his choice- stay in the Light or Fall- and the characters visually representing that choice are Palpatine and Mace. He's the Master of the Order. He's raised a Padawan who sits on the Council with him. He's an incredibly skilled swordsman- hell, his fighting style of choice (Vaapad) epitomizes how clearly he's mastered the art of internal balance!

All of that to say- his whole character is built around the idea that he is the Good Guy. That would be the one piece of writing advice I would give. If you're wondering how to write him, start with that idea- that he is written to represent the absolute opposite of Sidious. He's the ultimate good. He is the illuminating Light to Sidious' corrupting Dark. This is why antagonistic portrayals of him never ring true to me- they're coming from a foundational understanding that I simply do not subscribe to. It reeks of a fundamental misunderstanding of his character and of the whole saga's themes.

(And also racism. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the racism that too often plays a significant role.)

All of that being said, what might it look like to write from the foundation of Mace being the representation of ultimate good? The good thing about characters being written as archetypes is that it gives us fans a significant amount of freedom in determining what those characters look like when they're written as characters. Different people will have different takes, but for me:

Well, first off- he's the epitome of a Jedi. So all of what that entails- he is fundamentally kind, fundamentally compassionate, and fundamentally in control of himself.

He's funny. I think he has a very dry sense of humor, and that he finds joy in the smallest things.

He loves so much. He loves his Padawan, he loves his friends, he loves his family, he loves the Republic- he loves the galaxy enough to go to war for it, and he loves the men who'll kill his people.

There will never be a situation where he has the capacity to help and chooses not to.

And last but not least, I choose to believe that this man can bake pastries with the best of them. In my heart of hearts, he's a stress baker, and he mends his socks with purple thread.

Hope this helps!

[mykingdomforapen]

Absolutely gobsmacked by the way s2 finale of Link Click humanizes Lu Guang and shatters the 'ice prince' archetype in one fell swoop. Granted, I started Link Click when both seasons were completed so I do not have the more prolonged watching journey as other fans but it just is so interesting to me. Lu Guang for most of the show is so aloof and so unflappable, capable if not seemingly OPed in that his powers have little drawbacks or places to mess up like CXS'. The classic ice prince. Intriguing but altogether an enigma more than a man, dare I say more an archetype than a person.

Cheng Xiaoshi's motivations, tender heartaches, and contraries are revealed plainly in the story. You knew what he wants as a character, why, what would scare him, what would anger him, what mistakes he would make, etc. etc. Lu Guang was such a contrast. He seemed so untouchable. Not shaken by anything. Even when he was stabbed (and rightly shocked by it lol), he was so quickly accepting of it.

Then S2 finale rolls around and SUDDENLY. He is so painfully human. He's in denial. He's terrified. He's grieving. He's selfish. He's desperate. He's isolated. He's so full of love. He is a sobbing wreck and we know that it is true even if we never fully see it (except in those high-res nano-second shots which are such UTTER BRILLIANCE on the art director's part). He is so scared of losing someone he loves that he will do anything to never have it become true, despite being ultimately so powerless to actually have any say in it. We might not all have Cheng Xiaoshi's impulsiveness or sorrows or determination, but how many of us do not have Lu Guang's fear?

Just...the utter genius of making Lu Guang from the ice prince archetype to the most human and relatable character in Link Click in just the last 90 seconds of S2.

[cy-lindric]

I wanted to vent, but also ask an honest question. Since I was a teenager, I always wanted to work on character design. And one thing that always caught my attention was how I always preferred male character designs over female ones. My first thought was that I was always more into androgynous fashion and more masculine styles. But time passed and I came to the conclusion that it wasn't just that, and it seems that male characters can always be different things: fat, thin, handsome, ugly, short, tall, young, old, etc. and female characters, for the most part, fall into two categories: cute or sexy. I wanted some tips on how I can make female characters with more interesting designs, without having to fall into those two categories. I love your work and you managed to make someone else like the three musketeers <3<3

Hello ! That's definitely a good question and something I think about a lot. The bias towards beauty is very strong in character design and it takes a conscious effort to diversify output in that regard.

That sort of advice might be a bit obvious, but one habit I picked up from the director on my first feature film gig was to actually "cast" characters. Without reference, we tend to go for the kind of symmetrical face and "average" features mostly out of stylistic habit. I like to look at character actors with distinct faces (I like this pinterest page that has a lot of faces in one place) but also just acquaintances or pictures of random crowds.

When designing a character, at first I'm always building a big reference board trying to decide what Type of Guy (gender neutral) I'm going for, trying use photos rather than other people's art, because I want to rely on automatics and graphic symbols as little as possible. Whether I'm designing a man or a woman or other, I use references of fashion styles and people across the board in terms of gender so I keep the scope open. Sometimes a character ref board for me will be a picture of one of my aunts next to a bunch of screenshots of Columbo. In my experience, a lot of the times, it's mostly about going with styles and archetypes the same way you would for a male character, and switching it up somewhere along the way by looking at real women in your life and beyond as a grounding mechanism. Sometimes that will mean changing almost nothing, because the borders between genders and how you characterize them is blurry and fluid, and sometimes it will mean using features that are uniquely tied to some sort of female experience.

I enjoy realism and I think getting more proficient at it did help me diversify my designs (I find that more difficult to do with more minimalistic styles). Still, I am mostly a fantasy artist and in my case that comes with some amount of stylization and idealization of shapes and looks. I'm far from perfect in my biases and I'm not going out of my way to draw "ugly" characters because that doesn't mean much to me ; I try to draw inspiration from the faces of every day people and I associate it with my love for fashion. It's also worth noting the work I post here for fun is a lot more hash tag aesthetic than the stuff I do professionally where diversity is much more important.

I don't know if any of that is relevant but that's definitely an interesting topic ! I'd love to know others' perspective and tips on the matter.

[h3k3t]

hi,

i literally need gwayne so badly i never thought that i would really fall in love with a side character (esp in hotd) but like…here we go. there’s just something so…dreamy about him. like he’s that stereotypical knight in shining armor character that’s going to save the princess like… omds i just…ahhhhhhhhhhh!!! i’d literally do anything for him like you don’t understand! i need this man like a fish needs water!

🐈‍⬛

This! Exactly dear 🐈‍⬛-anon, you find me on the same opinion as you!

In my strange mind Gwayne reminds me a lot of lana del rey's songs, like: Art deco, Dark Paradise, Young and Beautiful, Videogames. He is literally the archetype of that good knight, the knight who gives his life for his lady/princess/queen/wife and respects her (but also for his people). What drives his actions are not selfish reasons I think, but what he simply thinks it is right to do; that's why I think Gwayne would have been interesting if he was a more gray character (who would have probably jumped from the green side to the black side, or better yet, withdraw from the war since now the ideals that move both sides have taken a back seat and the general context seems more like a massacre of innocents)

Honestly, Gwayne is a good character, albeit secondary and in the Got/Hotd universe there is a real need for characters like him. Suffice it to say that Daeron also grew up "kind" thanks and above all to his uncle, and Gwayne himself seems proud of it.

—H3k3t

[jade-len]

i adore how mxtx sorta flipped the idea on the whole top/bottom thing with svsss, and just BL relationships in general.

making bingqiu very open to switching, not making the "bottom" super feminine and actually leaning more to the handsome side compared to the "top", how luo binghe is manipulative sensitive and cries easily, etc. one of the main themes in svsss is literally about sexuality (and possibly even about gender roles).

as a queer asian man myself, i absolutely despise the "yaoi archetype" and it was one of the reasons why i avoided consuming BL media. hell, years ago when i first saw heavens official blessing, i mentally groaned and went, "ugh, let me guess, the bottom is super feminine and innocent, while the top is masculine and experienced." of course, that's not the case now, but it's disappointing how that thought was there purely because of the god awful way fetish-y media portrays homosexual people and couples. because, believe it or not, we are not assigned male/female typical gender roles just because one likes to top/bottom (and even then, it's not even like that! some people have preferences, sure, but it's not so strictly "i'm top/bottom")

so, while i absolutely LOVE the english novel designs (especially luo binghe's cute curly hair, gongyi xiao, etc, and personally believe a lot of the takes from the western artist on the designs are an improvement), i am greatly saddened by people subconsciously assigning shen qingqiu as someone more delicate and feminine and luo binghe as someone super masculine and muscly. like, if you're going to have luo binghe depicted as the western design (i believe this stems from binghe being applied to more western ideals for men, and, admittedly, i actually really love his design), at least don't make shen qingqiu feminine and delicate? don't have his appearance play into the stupid yaoi thing?

i get that people have different takes on svsss, especially how the western version depicts it. but, people just... seem to very over exaggerate the top/bottom roles when it comes to bingqiu (again, these two are, canonically, VERY open to switching).

it's weird, it's uncomfortable, and it comes across as, "so, who wears the pants in the relationship?"

so, can we please have more canonically handsome shen qingqiu? canonically beautiful and pretty boy luo binghe (they literallly state that binghe looks EXACTLY like his mom, su xiyan! while a more handsome woman, is still very beautiful!! plus it is stated several times that binghe is slim, and that shang qinghua made him that way!) or at the very least, a BL couple who actually look like normal people (ok thats a little hard considering binghe is literally supposed to be perfect) and not just a stupid fetishized version of themselves.

and no, i'm not saying that queer men shouldn't be feminine or men who are feminine shouldn't be in a relationship with guys who are masculine, etc.

TLDR: please stop twinkifying shen qingqiu and going against what mxtx defied for us queer men (the stupid yaoi roles). and for the love of whoever you believe in, do NOT think that i hate the english design or people's personal interpretation of characters, i just hate the subconscious assigning of gender roles to bingqiu and how media portrays and fetishizes LGBTQ+ relationships in general.

edit: also i love teardrew's (check them out on twitter!) interpretation of shang qinghua. while i do really like the the eng novel design's tiny scared hamster vibes, teardrew's version just radiates "up to no good, paranoid but suspicious looking bitch" rat man and i love it so so so much. i'm not gonna repost their art bc i don't know how they feel about that but perhaps you can search up "svsss designs" on here, you'll see it pop up eventually lol.

edit 2 (1/16): i just saw someone reblog a post (that im pretty sure was referring to this one because, well, if you saw it i think it'd be a little clear kahxj) that was about how bingqiu switching and completely eschewing traditional top/bottom dynamics was a fandom idea or smth? so now i'm wondering, since i swear i remember that they were open to switching, but it's just that sqq preferred to bottom and/or was just a little too lazy to top. plus, sqq is a pretty unreliable narrator who says he doesn't want something one moment and then he does. how could he say no to bingbing? esp if he seems to wanna try bottoming too. perhaps i'm mixing things up though, idk? so if anyone can find that passage that says he only and strictly wants to bottom or whatever please show me! but i think the point of this post still stands haha (i wanted to ask about it, actually, but when i clicked on the og post's user it turned out that they blocked me ? so that was a little surprising oops. hey if ur somehow reading this, im... sorry for making you want to block me bc of this post? akdhxjj)

[whenmemorydies]

90s alternative rock, masculinity and The Bear

This post by @bbythurs got me thinking about The Bear's soundtrack, specifically its use of 90s alternative rock. Some thoughts below.

Chris Storer and I are very close in age, and going by the soundtrack choices for The Bear, grew up listening to very similar music. I came to grunge a few years after its heyday but when I did, I quickly became obsessed with these (mostly) white boys singing frankly about things like domestic violence, sexual assault, drug use, and mental health issues, and who seemed to revel in challenging traditional masculinity. Their hair was often long but usually not overly styled (or washed for that matter), they sometimes wore dresses, lipstick and eyeliner on stage (but were decidedly unglam about it), and they scribbled "PRO CHOICE" on their bare arms during prime time television performances (shout out to Eddie Vedder).

Kurt Cobain on the cover of The Face, September 1993.

Michael Stipe, who often played with gender in R.E.M.'s live shows, had also recently come out as queer (his words were, an "equal opportunity lech") during the promotional cycle for REM's Monster (the album featuring Sydcarmy's infamous "Strange Currencies"). Alternative rock in the 90s was full of folks who were challenging convention, including the necessity of traditional masculinity.

The irony is that so many of the people who listened to grunge were white guys who had no problem with traditional masculinity. These were the same guys who head-banged and dove in mosh pits to these songs but went home and beat on their partners, or perpetrated sexual assault while singing the lyrics to these songs. No one can control who consumes your art, even if some artists did try to (see Kurt Cobain's liner notes from Nirvana's Insecticide):

In contrast, it seems like Chris Storer (thankfully) got the correct memo.

Ever since watching the first episode of The Bear, it was clear to me that this show has plenty to say about masculinity: how its performed and weaponised (2x06 Fishes is a master class in depicting this on film), how its subverted (think: Emmanuel and Pete but also Marcus and Chester), how those who don't conform to traditional masculine archetypes - in even the most innocuous way, like being artistic - can be isolated and picked off, including by those who might love them the most (see: Carmy's treatment by many in his family), and how those who do perform traditional masculinity to a T, can still be decimated in its wake (see: alpha-male Mikey).

Hearing tracks like Pearl Jam's "Animal" and "Come Back", REM's "Strange Currencies" and "Oh My Heart", Radiohead's "Let Down", and Nine Inch Nail's "The Day The World Went Away" used in The Bear is incredibly nostalgic for those of us who grew up with these artists. Their inclusion in the soundtrack is also incredibly intentional (like everything to do with this show). This is the music that Mikey was likely listening to growing up and that Carmy would have heard his brother playing. This is also undoubtedly the music that Storer grew up listening to as well.

I love that in a show about a man who is coming into his own after years of toxicity and abuse - much of which was targeted at Carmy because of how he performed (or didn't perform) masculinity - that reference is being paid to this genre. And if it was the case that this was the music Mikey was listening to and, perhaps even playing for Carmy when they were kids, that Carmy would be able to go back and re-listen to these artists now and know, that despite Mikey's demons and his own relationship with masculinity, that his brother always loved Carm, just as he was.

Author's note:

Also if there is a temporary (because it has to be fucking temporary, you hear me lol) Sydcarmy break up/parting of ways, I'm gonna need Storer and Calo to soundtrack it with Pearl Jam's "Black" (the MTV Unplugged performance). I'll need Eddie Vedder growling/screaming "WE BELONG TOGETHER" over a close up of Carmy's distraught face as Syd walks away. I'm going to need to hear,

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life/I know you will be a star/In somebody else's sky/But why, why, why can't it be/Can't it be mine?,

over the end credits please.

[angermango]

"I'm not cooking or anything, this is just a silly idea- (looks down at canvas) ffffuuuu--"

...

so, first I only wanted to draw Professor Layton with a Reiterpallasch from Bloodborne because haha funny hat man with gun-sword, but then i ended up drafting concept art for "Laytonborne", apparently.

"Puzzles all over the shop... You'll be stuck on one of them, sooner or later."

extra artist commentary:

Layton

yes, this really did just start with me wanting to give Layton a Reiterpallasch because he's a canonical fencer and Bloodborne trick weapons absolutely slap. The Reiterpallasch is literally a rapier with a pistol attached that can mechanically switch to prime either the blade first or the gun first so you can stab and shoot someone at the same time.

Giving Hershel the Bloodborne makeover was kind of funny because he wears such a simple look in canon it was hard striking the right balance between his recognisable look and BB aestheic since Bloodborne loves embellishment especially via lots of belts/buckles and those weird shoulder-cape things. I tried to keep it simple enough though because as much as i think he could pull off a hunter ensemble i don't want to have to keep track of all the funky bits. the Top Hat Stays, of course.

Aurora

Aurora is eerily good a fit in a Soulsborne-esque setting considering she fits the criteria for a "Soulsborne maiden" classic archetype sort of character: After all she's a mysterious pale-haired young woman with mystical origins/powers and a foreign-sounding accent and may or may not have some connection to the wider lore and powers that be of the setting. hell even her whole thing being a golem works in a way as even Bloodborne has artificial humans existing as a concept.

i got a little lazy with changing up her dress for both time and lack of inspiration. I thought maybe i'd really do her up but then I chickened out that her costume wouldn't be recognisable any more so just slapped a belt and some patterns on the shawl bit and called it a night :P (if i'd been braver/more motivated she'd probably look good in an approximation of the White Church set, something like that)

and yeah so as the sketches off to the side are like, no real clue how/why it might be triggered but imagine her having the potential to be an optional boss or something (and she'd whoop your ass)

Flora

idk tho Flora also seems like she could be a good contender for the "Soulsborne maiden" position too in a way, or even if not her whole character and story fits into the world quite well. especially with Bloodborne having the Plain Doll who is a sentient doll made in the image of someone her creator loved/was obsessed with and Flora living in a village of human-like robots which started after her father tried to build a replacement for her dead mother.

Her dress is a combination of all her canon costumes across the games. The fur-trim shoulder cape is from one official art of her, the short shawl and white sleeves and bit around her waist is based on her first dress, and the rest of the dress design is based on her second and third game appearance.

The 'Doll Flora' concept there at the end is just some idea of a false/clone Flora running around as well. She's got some little differences including elements of other parts of Flora's designs over the years that aren't on OG Flora, such as the sash and shoes.

Anton

Anton fits in scarily well to the Bloodborne-y setting, perhaps not too surprisingly given the whole 'vampire' thingy. I sort of envision Folsense and Herzen Castle being a bit like the Castle Cainhurst area of Bloodborne which leans more into the classic gothic horror of a remote and looming haunted castle occupied by a sinister enigmatic character.

And yes, that is a reference to the infamous "LAYTOOON" scream from his canon 'boss fight' in the second game - imagine the whole steaming up and screaming thing being like his boss phase transition animation.

The whole 'withers to an old man/husk' concept seems so very Soulsborne-y it really just fits yknow. like if you defeat him he shrivels up/ages to dust or whatever. RIP gassed-up grandpa.

I partly rizzed up his suit using inspiration of the Cainhurst Knight set because like. come on. it's too good to pass up the chance to pretty up with and looks a lot like his canon suit in parts.

Did I trace the foyer background art for Herzen Castle for the mockup just for laffs, only to realise partway that 1) Layton and Anton actually fought in the ballroom, and 2) the ballroom would actually make a much better boss arena setting because it's wide open and the arch from the front room leading into the ballroom could totally be the 'boss fog door' part better than the front room?

...so yeah I then drew the ballroom background without tracing this time like a true madman and had a hell of a time with perspective but the plus side is we also get the sword collection from the game there as a cameo because in Laytonborne the good professor brought his own already.

The Masked Gentleman / Randall

Had a bit of a time deciding how to Bloodborne-ify this guy because his suit in canon is actually really. really boring. it's just a white suit like cmon. so to give it that Bloodborne makeover I fell back on the classic shoulder-cape thing that almost all Bloodborne characters have, added some patterns and accessories based on the Mask of Chaos' patterns and the Decorative Old Hunter's set from the Old Hunters DLC (in the leg brace, forearm guard and the hints of gold chains around the upper arms).

He also gets a Threaded Cane, another trick weapon of Bloodborne fame which is as it suggests: A cane weapon that works a bit like a baton/sword combo but in its alternate form it's a whip covered in serrated metal blades which form the cane itself when locked together.

It seems very appropriate for Randall to be like a boss who starts out as the Masked Gentleman and then at half-or-less health you break his mask, reveal Randall and then wings burst out of his back as he enters his second phase rage mode. This concept part felt more DSouls-y than Bloodborne-y to me i think since Bloodborne is less fantastical and leans more into the body horror/monstrous kind of boss transitions? But at the same time it was too good an opportunity to pass on at least sketching out, plus get you some sick fallen angel imagery out of it.

Also the hanging arm pose miiight be a bit inspired by Artorias of the Abyss. just a bit.

Descole

i recall seeing a post somewhere once with this very low-res rare art of Descole sitting in a throne from somewhere i have no idea what it was for. and I remember it kinda reminded me of Lady Maria's promotional art for the Old Hunters DLC so that's why the last picture of Descole exists.

mf already dresses so extra i legit could think of nothing to add to make him more Bloodborne-y unlike the others. I also used his canon sword's design from the games with a custom sheath because again couldn't really think of anything more to do to make him fit more when he's already got a cool signature weapon to show off.

[coralcatsea]

Brief Thoughts on Some Ships Part 2

Engmano: Since they both speak such a similar "tsundere" language, they see right through the other. So if one of them says, "I didn't make these for you, I just had leftovers!" the other will know it's just a defence mechanism and not at all believe that lie. Knowing how the other works so well would lead to a lot of teasing as well. One of their bonding activities is trash talking other people. Also, Lovino does his best to help Arthur improve his cooking.

RusFra: Ivan greatly admires Francis, whom he finds sociable, fashionable, and loving. Francis, despite being a bit intimidated, sees the good in Ivan and reaches out to him when others won't, and is flattered when Ivan makes attempts to impress and do nice things for him – although he often makes mistakes, but that just endears Francis to him more.

GerAme: Ludwig loves dogs and Alfred is an absolute golden retriever of a man. Ludwig finds him way too cute and definitely wants to do pet play with him.

Ameripan: I think Kiku should give Alfred to a tentacle monster and watch.

RusEng: Seems intriguing. They both know some magic. I like the art where people depict Russia thinking Arthur looks like a sunflower with his green outfit and blond hair.

AmeChu: Alfred is Yao's bratty boy toy.

Prumano: As the older brothers who have to work harder for approval, I think they would understand each other. That canon scene of Prussia reaching out to Romano after he didn't get a part for a movie and encouraging him was super sweet.

AsaKiku: Arthur seems to fit a lot of popular love interest archetypes in anime. The gentleman/princely type, the tsundere, the lonesome bad boy... Perhaps that means he's very much Kiku's type? 😆 The ship seems cute and pleasant, though I would like to see a little more spice in the depictions.

USUKCan: Alfred and Matthew both crave validation from Arthur, so they compete for his attention and approval. Arthur definitely enjoys watching them both suck him off.

EngPort: Friends to lovers to friends. I think they experimented a lot with each other and are pretty close and comfortable regardless of their relationship.

AusHun: Girlboss x malewife. Team Rocket vibes.

Part 1

[spurious]

what was the moment where you said yes to McShep?

OKAY SO.

Obviously you, audioletter my beloved wife know all this but. I’m not sure I’ve talked about how I got into SGA/mcshep on my tumblr so.

After finishing the x-files in 2022, my wife’s Zaddy Husband Mitch Pileggi beckoned us to watch Stargate Atlantis (because we couldn’t stomach Walker Texas Ranger). We’ve both been in fandom for a Long Time and thus remembered the years that McShep reigned supreme, and starting the show we said to each other “haha wouldn’t it be funny if we became ride-or-die mcshep shippers?”

……..yeah.

From the very start of the show, basically every single time John and Rodney were on screen together we’d go “haha mcshep lol”

So now I’m like. trying to excavate my memories to figure out when it Became Real for me.

I do tend to love buddy slash pairings and ships where one person is shrill while the other is chill so it’s not, like, surprising to me in hindsight that I did end up shipping mcshep? And then the SGA fandom being so friendly and active just…allowed my fixation the space to flourish.

But anyway, let’s see what the first McShep thing I saved to my camera roll was!

*drumroll*

It’s this art by the amazing @luluxa:

So at this point I think I was still at the “no no, I’m saving this fanart to my phone ironically” stage.

Now, this was October 30th. By November 3rd, I have photos of a trip to mandarake where I was really hoping to find SGA doujinshi cause I SWEAR I’d seen it before (I’ve not managed to find it yet. Japanese fans why. You guys love generic white guys mcshep should be massive here)

The first fic I have bookmarked is from November 2nd with the note “oh no I have feelings about McShep now” and it is Counting Down by @alienfuckeronmain, which is a post-trinity fic.

HOWEVER. I also have a Grace Under Pressure coda bookmarked from a day or so later, and this tracks with my impressions: this is the episode that most intensely sticks out in my mind as being emotionally memorable and something I needed to be reading fic about. Soooooo I guess it was Rodney that got me, and the need to process my emotions about episodes by reading other people’s processing, and, uh, now here I am almost two years later!

SO. To get to the actual question, several paragraphs and approximately a day later, I don’t know that there really was a single moment that put me there, as opposed to a series of moments enacted onto an already-primed pump? Because truly I should know by now that the danger of doing something ironically is that you end up doing it ronically, but. I remember devouring the fic I could find that was non-spoilery as we were watching (lots of episode tags) and it definitely shaped my perspective on John and Rodney’s interactions.

But essentially, this is a ship archetype I tend to like, and Rodney McKay is absolutely the type of horrible little gremlin man I tend to like, and the fic was good, and. Here we are lmao

[utilitycaster]

Hope I can phrase this in a way that makes sense but—

What well-known actual-play cast member is your favorite for each of the core D&D class? Not necessarily a specific characters, but I’m interested in which players you think brings the most to each class.

This is a very interesting question! It's a hard one to answer for some classes and very easy for others so bear with me; also there are a couple where I could not pick just one.

I'm sticking to the PHB 12 for, as you said, core classes:

Barbarian: While Travis did give us "I would like to rage," I think Ashley and Taliesin get to share this one for me. I think they both really explore what rage means to someone and while I love a good "I'm a tank because I can take the hits and that's what I do and what I'm good at" story, I also think Yasha's messy relationship with her feelings of guilt and grief, and Ashton's chronic pain, are both incredible ways to play with the barbarian archetype.

Bard: much easier. Sam Riegel and Krystina Arielle. I'm a sucker for someone who actually sings even as I don't think you have to (and have played bard without doing so). It's both clearly a class they each love dearly and it shows, and they're incredibly musically talented performers to boot.

Cleric: Lou Wilson. Especially since I didn't like Fantasy High season 1 Fabian until the end of the season Kingston blew me away. I would love to see him explore cleric again, though it's exciting to see him as a paladin on WBN.

Druid: Emily Axford as Moonshine. Emily as a rule understands D&D classes very well anyway, but I think the culture of the crick and the ways that Moonshine must grow as a character while being a druid take it to the next level. (Also I prefer a caster-heavy druid to a shapechanger-heavy one; that's just me).

Fighter: Back to NADDPod because literally who could I say other than Jake Hurwitz, the man who only plays fighters. People who are new to D&D when they start actual play can be hit or miss imo; some pick it up and some lean harder on being showy to make up for it and it doesn't play well for me personally, but Jake is the greatest hit.

Monk: Marisha Ray; Beau is just generally a great character, and I think Marisha's own experience with martial arts informs the way she plays her; monks can be kind of repetitive in combat even with strong players and she manages to avoid this through her description.

Paladin: This is actually super hard because people don't play straight paladin a lot. This is incorrect of them, but it is an intense class. I think Luis Carazo and Zac Oyama are like...the duality of paladin (and indeed, redemption paladin). The tragedy and the comedy.

Ranger: Laura Bailey, natch; it's funny because Vex is in many ways not the archetypal ranger due to having high charisma, but she is simply my favorite and that's that on that. Sorry the mechanics were so bad; I would love to see more rangers in D&D even though Vex will be hard to dethrone. I promise Tasha's fixed them!

Rogue: I think I'm actually going Murph on this one. I like when rogues are more of the detective/spy type than the assassin/criminal type [obligatory "of course that's what you'd say you stupid paladin stan"] and inquisitive and arcane trickster are probably my two top rogue classes so Riz it is.

Sorcerer: I do consider PF1e cheating here because it's technically a different system that also imo addresses a lot of the weaknesses of sorcerer/makes it way better, but Bryn Monroe of RQG did play a great sorcerer. In D&D? Giving Emily Axford a second spot here for Saccharina. I'm going to talk about this for warlock, but I think sorcerer is a class you don't have to justify but if you don't it's a little unsatisfying. Sorcerer really shines in the Crown of Candy setting, and metamagic often doesn't live up to its reputation but Emily makes it work for her.

Warlock: Travis Willingham. I think there are classes that are kind of self-explanatory, for lack of a better term; you can play a fighter or rogue or even a bard or druid without going super deep into why the character is this class and still be an incredible character (though a good backstory never hurts). But there are others where you really need to be engaging with the class at all times to make it work, and warlock is one of them, and Fjord explores the warlock pact and what it means like few others.

Wizard: Aabria Iyengar. NO ONE gets wizard hubris as a player like Aabria. Knowledge is power and boy do wizards love knowledge. I especially like that most people in 5e play wizards as genuine adventurers because it feels very easy to play them as old guy in robes swept up in events beyond them; Aabria plays wizards who are combat ready with the humanity and backstory to make the difficult decisions sympathetic and meaningful, and I think that's how you have to play it.

Note: I want to specifically call out Liam O'Brien and Siobhan Thompson as "people I trust in basically any class or system and just didn't happen to hit a favorite here due to sky-high competition/personal preferences". They are both very close seconds for wizard.

[peppershark]

Nicholas Galitzine as Tom Riddle

I will die on the #thicklipsTomRiddle hill, and it’s why I think Nick G is an ideal choice to play Tom Riddle.

Here is why:

A lot of TMR art and fandom face claims have Tom looking nearly like a villain already with over-the-top sharpness to his features and a shadowy, shifty look. I love it, honestly. So hot.

But there’s also a solid argument to be made that Head Boy Tom Riddle would have to have the golden retriever innocence of someone like Nicholas Galitzine. Allow me to explain.

Based on the description in The Chamber of Secrets of the Ministry of Magic’s inquiry into Moaning Myrtle’s death, Tom wasn’t even noticed as a suspicious character (except by Dumbledore) because he was held in such high esteem by his teachers and classmates. To have this level of automatic deniability, Tom needed a top-ranking academic record, an irreproachable reputation, plus—and this is my argument—an innocent face.

I find David Kibbe’s 1987 body categorization scheme problematic in general, but for the sake of this conversation, describing “sharpness” (yang) in features, and “softness” (yin) can help us explain how some faces might have a certain level of ‘innocence privilege’.

Kibbe associates certain “soft” features like bigger lips, bigger cheeks (regardless of weight) and other more “romantic” body dimensions with “yin” energy, the “light”, gentle and feminine side, or white on the Chinese yinyang symbol. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kibbe associates sharp, prominent-boned features with “yang” energy, the “dramatic”, intense, masculine side.

According to Kibbe, everyone has a combination of these features. I know, it’s very reductive, and an overly-simplistic reduction of the Chinese yinyang model. I bring this up, though, because Kibbe’s presuppositions likely overlap with how Hollywood has conditioned us to interpret these facial archetypes; for example, we see lots of representations of young TMR with very angular cheekbones, gaunt cheeks and dramatic features. He’s often interpreted as a “dramatic” Kibbe type, the side with the highest concentration of “yang”.

Considering Tom’s situation, however, it makes more sense to cast him as a young man as someone with a lot more “yin” in his features. Snakeface Voldemort is his villain era and that’s pure yang: dramatic, angular, sharp, and snakey.

So as a younger man, I imagine he would have to employ more “innocent” features. When you consider that Tom was viewed as more innocent than Hagrid—who is the *actual* golden retriever of the Harry Potter series—you have to assume that Tom not only seemed less shady in a circumstantial evidence stance, but he actually must have outperformed Hagrid in some of his genial, “yin” features.

This is why I love Nick Galitzine’s look for Tom. My eye types Nick as a “soft dramatic” Kibbe Type which underneath is a dramatic body frame of very sharp angles, but covered in softer contours of body shape and more “yin” features like big eyes and big lips. It’s a metaphor for Tom’s dark, ambitious energy covered in a winsome, innocent-looking softness.

Nick serves a lot of shady, mysterious energy in his expressions, but the lovely fullness in his lips, big eyes and slightly-soft cheeks counters his darkness.

Nick looks like a prince, like his role in RW&RB (2022) or the high school quarterback like his role in Bottoms (2023) or the gorgeous Jacobean fuckboy for King James in George and Mary (2024). All archetypes I think TMR employs to get ahead in a wizarding world where he’s the half-blood Heir of Slytherin who grew up in an orphanage but clawed his way to the top. Nick G’s look in general is a great example of how I imagine TMR would combine features, displaying the dynamic of his character.

Do you think Nick G makes a convincing Tom Riddle?

[arkus-rhapsode]

Manga Recommendation: Tower Dungeon

So looks like Arkus Rhapsode is here to recommend another fantasy manga after the last one. So this time we're going for a bit of a different flavor with the series Tower Dungeon by by Tsutomu Nihei who you may know as the creator of Blame! and Knights of Sidonia.

Now I've known about this series for a bit even though it is relatively new. Having only started last year in Monthly Shonen Sirius. But I remember its announcement from people like Manga Mogul and hearing Makoto Yukimura (Author of the incredible Vinland Saga) recommending it. Now I always loved Sword and sorcery so I was gonna read it eventually, but it just wasn't translated. However, now being able to read the available chapters, I can say this is a very different type of fantasy series.

The premise is very basic: An evil sorcerer has killed a nation's king and kidnapped a Princess and now the royal knights need to ascend the "Dragon Tower" to save her. One battalion has conscripted a young man named Yuva for assisting troops medically has found he has impressive strength. Now Yuva must strengthen himself for the journey ahead as they explore the deadly tower.

Now like all simple premise stories, the real strength is in execution. And unlike the other fantasy series I've talked about before which have bucked the trend of "RPG fantasy" be leaning more into a traditionalist fantasy stories a la Tolkien, this goes for the more realist fantasy of something like Berserk or Dark Souls.

The world of Tower Dungeon may have things like magic and dragons, but it is a dingy, dirty, and lacks any frills. Knights wear heavy armor and people are covered in blood and scars from their adventures.

The mighty Dragon Tower itself? The most iconic thing about this series and the basis of the adventure? Looks like this. This isn't an opulent tower, this is a massive imposing structure where monsters dwell.

However, unlike some grim dark or edgy fantasies, this world isn't indulgent in its darkness. The violence and death are never cool or cheap. They are simply the way the world is. Even when magic exists, the world is still like Medieval Europe and all the "joys" that come from it.

The people as well are similar. These aren't romanticized or polished fantasy archetypes that often come with the idea of a Dungeons and Dragons style adventure, these feel like average joes plucked off the streets having to do a job. If you are say a fan of something like Chainsaw Man, this sort of post modern emphasis on people acting like regular weirdos and not some "anime characters." And I think that is something quite nice that even in a fantastical world, we can see our regular selves in them.

But that's just the story, what about the art? Well if you've noticed this series does have a very minimalist style. Something similar to that of Land of the Lustrous or Chainsaw Man. These almost scratchy and not the most detailed designs that make use of their simplicity to create this very unique atmosphere.

Creature designs themselves are less fantastical and more grody. Feeling as if they come from an off shoot of man rather than some majestic beast. Right down to the cat people.

This series is still new and sadly hasn't been officially translated yet. I've had to use mangadex to read this, so my heart goes out to the translator team. I can understand that this may be a niche that's not for everyone, but its something that feels like such a good sign for fantasy as a genre. A genre that I think has somewhat been stagnated in popular belief with the greater emphasis on Urban Action manga and the reliance on escapist fantasy anime like isekai. To see a more dirty but down to earth take on the premise, I highly recommend it.

[lol-jackles]

Hello! I read a great deal of your posts and found all of them interesting. The ones analysing spn, Walker, The Boys, etc. Some about Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki caught my attention, as you talked about being a character actor or a personality actor (did I get it right?)

Could you please expand a little more about these kind of actors and their features?

Thank You so much!

A character actor turns himself into the character. 

A personality actor turns the character into himself. 

Think of the difference between Daniel Day Lewis and Tom Cruise.   Daniel Day Lewis has created a diverse range of distinct characters.  Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise in most of his movie roles.

I've said Jared is a character actor trapped in a leading man role because traditionally "character actor" and "supporting actor" were seen as interchangeable.  A leading man is supported by a cast of colorful characters often performed by character actors who have skills to play almost any role due to their ability to transform into variety of characters.  It's the character in each film or tv show that predominates, not the actor or the actor's own personality. That's why audiences often recognize character actors without being able to name them.

Personality actors are usually (not always but usually) the leading man because they are playing to a type that has been established as the thing that they can do and only they can do in their way.    While it may or may not be like their private personality, that's what it appears to be to the general audience and why they get labeled as “personality actors" or "typecasted".  None of us expect Dwayne the Rock Johnson to do any character acting, we just pay to watch him to do stuff that's exciting or funny.   At the same time Dwayne has a compelling personal style that audiences love to watch on screen. It’s one of the reasons why people tend to enjoy personality actors because they’re not subtle.  Tom Cruise’s characters’ meltdowns arem,always just as enjoyable as the film itself.  Jensen’s acting is not subtle and that’s okay.

In contrast the character actors are creating a personality for the role rather than slotting their own personality into a role.  It's why Jared was usually tasked with playing not!Sam characters on Supernatural because he can excise his own and Sam's personality out of Meg, Lucifer, Soulless, Ezekiel, Gadreel, and Justin and give them different personalities.  For example, in the beginning of season 6, Jared wasn't just acting as a Soulless Sam, he's acting as Soulless Sam faking being the real Sam for Dean and there were several times when Soulless Sam almost, but not quite convincingly pulled it off for Dean and the audience.  As someone who did theater arts during my misspent youth, I don't even know how I would approach that kind role.

Jensen is a personality actor, he's been successfully playing Dean Winchester since Days of Our Lives and it made him a multimillionaire in his 30s, so I never begrudge him for sticking to the archetype.  Nonetheless this style of acting was meant for lead roles and I believe this was the main reason why his fans are such unmitigated assholes for 20 years because he was stuck in supporting roles (even on Supernatural) until The Countdown, which they celebrated as Jensen's “employment era" at age 46.

You can read more about the acting stuff here and here.

[crowroboros]

!!! Opinions on: Flynn

Flynn Moore oh boy. What a complex character to talk about. (Spoilers will be mentioned)

Okay, let's start with my general thoughts; Flynn is one hell of an interesting character and I don't think that the VN would work as well as it does without him. Which is something that I think the team realized as well considering that there is no Flynn (or Flynn-adjacent character) in the initial pitch for Echo.

I went into Echo VN completely blind. Didn't know the plot, didn't know the characters, didn't even realize it was horror until I went to the itch.io page to download the game. I just saw art of the main character and was intrigued enough to check it out.

When first meeting the group, it seemed like you could fit each of them into a standard character archetype: Jenna was "the smart responsible one", Leo was "the group jock", Carl was "the laid-back gamer", and TJ was "the sensitive youngest one". But Flynn stood out. There wasn't anything that quite fit. Now, after reading the entire vn, it's easy to see that all of these characters are much more complex and interesting than they initially seem. But based on first impressions alone, Flynn especially seemed so multi-faceted and intricate. And he immediately became a big point of interest for me.

I was not disappointed.

I get how people wouldn't like him due to his abrasiveness, but I just can't get behind the dislike of Flynn. He's so interesting to me. It's a damn tragedy the way he's punished for just wanting to know more about what happened to his best friend. Flynn is doomed by the narrative and it is fascinating and heartbreaking to see. He can be a dick but Flynn does care about his friends, most obviously shown with Carl. He expresses remorse for his outburst at the river in the prologue and tries to apologize to TJ in the lynx's route. In Flynn's route when it's revealed that Chase had some part in Sydney's drowning, Flynn still goes out of his way to protect Chase from the mob of townspeople at the town hall despite hating the guy and fully believing that Chase killed Sydney. Hell, even as the Socket Man he never intentionally hurts or injures the group (do remember he can and does kill as the Socket Man). He watches over Jenna when she's a child, and I'm a believer of the idea that when Carl crashed his car on acid that the Socket Man was protecting Carl from the Embrace when he manifested in Carl's car. To say that he doesn't care about the group is just objectively wrong. He just wants answers and is frustrated that no one is giving them and seemingly actively getting in his way of finding said answers.

And his relationship with the paranormal eats away at my mind whenever I think about that aspect of the VN. He is aware that something is not quite right with Chase (that being that Chase is possessed and his decisions are influenced by the Samulation. though Flynn doesn't know the specifics), the Samulation was adamant on fusing with Flynn specifically, the fact that Flynn is the Socket Man and as the entity is unbound by time and space, and much more.

He's so well written and so interesting to think about. Plus he can cook? Fucking love Flynn. I'd hang out with him.

[maegorsbignaturals]

hey the maegor big hairy tiddy art happened to end up on my dash and after going through the reblogs I think you're the one most suited to fulfill the following genuine and heartfelt request

please explain the maegor fandom to me

Hey, no worries! I Know how strange it might be to see a fandom specifically to this character that is rightfully an AH.

So, the Maegor fandom can be break in three archetypes of people:

The first one is the ones who think of Maegor as a Chad-sigma type of character who is just villanified but he was actually so cool and it was a misunderstood hero on a bad tell story. They see him as a hero for ending the faith's armament and pushing Ceryse aside for being a EvIL HiGhTowEr (SOMETIMES this people mix with the team black fans) and that with their whole chest think Maegor's children were poisoned by Tyanna because he was a stud that bedded two women in the same night and had six wives and that he was some kind of sex-god. They Ignore that even if the disarmament of the faith was something good to westeros, it was more of a "even a broken clock gets the hour right twice a day" type of movement of his part, or an opportunist thing to do given how many problems the faith was giving him. Plus they also ignore that some of the edicts he made against the faith took down some innocent people with them. Rememeber when Maegor paid money to anyone that bringed him the scalp of a Warrior's son but most of it was of innocent people? or his severed heads that were said to be of poor fellows but most of it was of innocent smallfolk? Yeah, me too. Most of this type can be found on reddit, FB or even twitter

2. The second type is the x reader type of ficker. Most of them could be Dark romance readers and attracted to Maegor's looks (not blaming them tough) decide to insert themselves into the texts and make their relationships with Maegor the type of "Cold and dangerous guy who hates everyone but this one particular girl". This type may vary between each other because some get this really romanticized version of Maegor and others don't, so you get a lot of interpretations of this man. Once i readed a x reader post about a Yandere Maegor with a Pregnant special one that after she gave birth he did not gave a fuck about her and only had her as a baby machine an i was like...yeah, i suppose this gets really close to the cannon. Other's doesn't really vibe with being x reader but still like Maegor as a dark romance kind of guy and so they pair him with Rhaena making them a Daemon/Rhaenyra kind of relationship. You can find them here in tumblr, twitter, fb and wattpad and AO3.

3. And the third one is the ones who do not vibe with Maegor's disney-like evilness. They aknowledge he did evil things (Rhaena's character arc will never stop hurting) and they think hey, yeah, Maegor was a deeply fucked up guy but WHY was he an evil fucked up guy? They enjoy nothing more than examining him under a magnifying glass, if they could disect him and do a vivisection at him, they would do it.

Now, here is the thing, you can AND WILL find this specimen mixed because humans are not only one thing but multiple things at once. Take me as the example, i like to think Maegor was not born to usurp Aenys as most may think, but as a SUPPORT to him. but i also have an oc to do selfshipp with Maegor (Kudos to Beqqo the jester to living rent free on my mind). You can find an X reader ficker that knows Maegor was a BAD person but still enjoys him. It may vary in what spaces you are, yet, the thing that unites us is THE LOVE we have for Maegor as a character. And you may think, why do you love a character that made such horrible things? And that is a secret weapon called "Characters are tools not stances of who you are as a person", when reading Fire and Blood i don't think "DAMN George must really hate women" but as a "Well, this bad things that happen to women it is to show that feudalism and monarchy are systems where women are treated as ultimate tools to keep power and have not real power other that the one lent from men to them"