#SORRY FOR THE RANT LMFAO

[stiffyck]

I WISH ARO HEADCANONS WERE MORE POPULAR IN FANDOMS

[sweetheartmotives]

The girl I like keeps rejecting me

That sucks Anon :( but sometimes some things aren't meant to be and it's always better to move on from a certain thing that failed rather than to stay stuck trying to accomplish a goal that's not possible to accomplish. But that's just me. Good luck to you Anon, hopefully your crush accepts you one day! :]

[toxifoxx]

college is fucking stupid. what do you mean i just finished the worst years of education hell just to go into four more

[knightingale]

The "Sansa reminds Sandor of his sister" motive that some people try to hitch to his character really just flies in the face of his actual attachments to her, doesn't it? Sansa reminds Sandor of himself. He sees the little boy who used to love knights in this girl who's been swept up by the same romanticism. He sees his abuser in her abusers, the much larger knight(s) beating on the helpless child. He sees how she is betrayed by every level of authority that should have saved her and remembers his father's neglect and Tywin and Robert's apathy for Gregor's crimes. He's protective of Sansa because he was Sansa.

And GRRM's design, that one of the strongest warriors in the series, a fearsome and cynical 6'8" guy who's "muscled like a bull" and has the face of death itself, sees himself in this soft and effeminate teen girl, and empathizes with her because he was an abuse victim too, is INFINITELY more compelling than "Oh yeah I bet she just reminds him of his sister," who he's never mentioned and who we know literally nothing about. Way to unnecessarily water down a character, you couldn't have ignored the black and white text more efficiently if you tried.

[soapyellas]

the people who don’t understand jackienat’s dynamic make me so MADDDD like do yall watch the show with your eyes closed or???

“nat mocked jackie in early season three!” “she literally ate jackie!”

nat literally DIDN’T mock jackie in early season three when she and tai were talking about lining the girls up and making them say one nice thing about each other — it was supposed to be a reference to jackie as a leader and show how natalie tries her best to mimic the way she would lead.

people always seem to forget that it’s literally CANON that jackie and nat had an underlying respect and admiration for each other outside of their spats (which mean nothing, they’re both teenage girls, and obviously teenage girls are gonna be bitchy).

jackie literally tells nat TO HER FACE that she admired how she’s always completely herself, and in return nat lays jackie’s bones to rest and eulogizes her.

people say that nat isn’t the only person who still has some semblance of respect for jackie, when she was the only one who wrapped up jackie’s bones, stowed them away on the plane, and apologized during her eulogy for her.

not even shauna, jackie’s supposed BEST FRIEND, did that.

outside of shauna, nat is the one we see grieve jackie the most. outside of shauna, nat is the one who brings her up the most.

nat is the only one who still sees jackie as their leader after almost an entire year (and two seasons for us viewers) after jackie died, while all of the other girls have moved on and have tried to fill jackie’s role.

so no, jackie and nat don’t hate each other. not really, anyway. they were just two teenage girls who got into bitchy, petty spats that truly didn’t mean anything.

if jackie was still alive, she and nat would’ve had the most interesting dynamic in the show, because even in jackie’s death, they do now.

[pinkcheesecake7]

I can’t take criticism on Mel seriously because most of it is done by jayviks who say she’s pretty and call it a day then act like they love her😭. Like sorry, I’m not taking you seriously when your account is filled with only jayvik and you only talk about Mel to objectify her and seem like you don’t hate “the female character that gets in the way” that’s simply not enough. A lot of these hardcore “Mel is a manipulator” people are very obviously biased lmfao. “Jayce dumped her” except that never happened? They talked and then he left and fucking died lol, one important thing to remember is that these are CHARACTERS and there is writing behind them. What I’m saying is that they were handled poorly by the writers and they never actually “broke up” or should I say he never “dumped her🤓” they just.. had a thoughtful conversation and it was never brought up again. I feel like yall only say he “dumped her” so it fits the shitty narrative that Jayce dumped Mel for Viktor which is NOT true and literally never will be. You guys literally call her an “independent black woman who doesn’t need a man” except in different wording to make her seem unlovable. Yes, she doesn’t need a man but she WANTS a man. Stop acting like you actually want her to be independent, you just want to get her out of the way but also still seem like you’re an “”ally””.

[dreamingamongthestars]

Conclave (2024)

[crythartic]

I have been staring and admiring your piece of the holiday/dreemurr kids at the piano, and it’s so beautiful. The rendering is honestly the nicest/ most appealing rendering that i’ve seen in my opinion, i was wondering if you would share your process or a tutorial of sorts? No pressure, your art is so lovely and i strive to achieve a similar look someday :)

oh my goodness thank you!! 😭😭😭😭 thats such high praise.. and of course i can share!

so basically how i went about this is, this drawing came second to the first one, it literally ocurred to me in the middle of rendering the dark world kris and a lot of the composition choices came from the contrast between them. the timelapse starts with an already-laid-out piano sketch cuz i had to correct the perspective on the first one so many times that i took this shortcut for more accuracy, afterwards i did a quick sketch of the poses i imagined and very loosely arranged the background... i shouldve honestly used perspective lines but im too stubborn about them. anyways speaking of perspective, in the first one not only did i want to give it depth but also incline it somewhat, you will see its not exactly on a horizontal axis but tilted slightly, this is because i wanted to evoke a sense of instability/of being pulled in. so with the second canvas you can see me tilting it as i go to be a proper mirror to the first one.

enough talk on perspective (esp considering u asked for rendering particularly)... lets talk colors! so particularly for this canvas ill say.... the holiday kitchen was a bit nightmareish in terms of color palette bro its SO WHITE. you will see i went back and forth a few times about what tone to make the piano, the background, etc, so as to not be too bright next to the characters. speaking of which, i colored them first under the sketch and immediately started shifting hues, values, trying to find the vibe i wanted, because of the way i render, which is by merging the lineart with the color layer, this is because i like rendering to feel like im "sculpting" out my drawing, its easier to control shapes and textures this way (for me), i do understand it's not the most efficient one tho! sometimes i do make separate layers for complicated details that i dont want compromising the whole layer. i primarily use lasso fill after merging the layers because it gives off a cleaner look, and its much faster to manipulate the shapes and silhouettes with it (this is a core thing in my recent art cuz,, i used to spend waaaaay too much time doing everything by brush and at some point it started not only limiting me but putting me off from rendering altogether). then i used some textured brushes here and there to blend some colors and to deliberately place lineart where i want.

this piece in particular had a looot of back and forth of switching the character's palettes and outfits so that they could bounce off of each other better and make the viewer's eye navigate through more than one focal point. i wasnt planning on anything more than a subtle shadow here and there but i felt like the characters lacked a bit of depth, so i added shadows and highlights appropriately (always playing off from the base color of the thing im rendering, be it skin, clothes, i work the colors individually so that it feels less predictable). afterwards you just have to adjust the lighting on the background, figure out which details you want to make stand out (as u can see im not too overly detailed on background elements, just enough to properly suggest the room), and .. you're done!!

[alyimoss]

i cant fall asleep so you get a thought

ive always been bothered by dream's belt in his design. it has the letters "ds" engraved on it, standing for dream sans. and this has always kinda pissed me off because he is a sans by pure technicality.

he has the body of a sans, but he is someone entirely different, sharing basically nothing with a sans except appearance. hes still a sans in the context of like- the fact that hes an au character, sure, but, again, he is an entirely different character wearing the proverbial skin of sans undertale.

so, more to the point: it makes no fucking sense to me that the name "dream sans" would be used for him in his canon.

hes not a sans. he never was a sans. he never bore that name. so why the actual fuck is it on his belt. who is calling him that.

and i think the answer might be as simple as mirroring nightmare—since his name is a two syllable word, it can be pretty easily broken into a pair of initials. the same cant be done for dream. so he gets a second word, and now hes dream sans. ds.

jokus decisions with those two never fail to baffle me.

anyway if we wanna give him a two syllable name we should call him "daydream". put "dd" on the belt.

or say fuck it and draw a little sun.

god the "ds" pisses me off. makes no god damn sense.

ok good night everyone that will be all

[justmossyall]

i’m starting to think some of yall don’t actually like the series

[johnnyvalance]

uhh scared to say this but i want to remind everyone to take care of themselves. its natural to be upset that actors are leaving the show but at the end of the day you don’t know these people and you should not be so upset affects you physically or affects your mental health, makes you anxious or stressed etc this should not consume your life it is actually not good for you at all and it might be a sign you need to take a step back and prioritize yourself

[sunlitlemonade]

we as a society must move past the need for ship polls

[losver07]

im gonna sound dumb as fuck here but i want my writing to be screenshoted and posted to pinterest. i want my stupid drawings to be showcased in a museum after i die. i want people memorising facts about me like they're trivia. i want reddit threads explaining all the easter eggs i put into my art, i want lit teachers overcomplicating things just because i was tired and placed a comma wrong. i want my wins to be recognised and my failures to be considered art, because learning and growing and experimenting has always been the real thing.

now seriously i wish i could publish a book someday sjjfksjs

[torao-chan]

here's leo's lil ramble on the touchstarved demo update (from what we've been able to put time into so far) for anyone who wants ittttttt

I've spent a fair bit of time ruminating on the updated demo for touchstarved. haven't played it extensively yet (aka focused on leander [no one is surprised] and played the new background while doing so) because of real life restrictions, but i have played leander's section through and fiddled with his dialogue options at the latter half.

and my conclusion on the changes is that it's going to be hard for me to give solid feedback on it.

it feels, to me, as if they're attempting to shift what one's first impression of leander is.

they've changed his speech patterns- his lexicon, his boldness in giving opinions and taking a stance, his demeaner- in his introduction scene. There is, I think, only one line I can recall (off the top of my head) that I know hasn't changed in this demo...

(and it stand out to me because of that; the magical flower quote, about how they fade so quickly under closer inspection is the general gist. a line that feels quintessential to how leander's route will play out, based on my interpretation of everything redspring has put out so far.)

The mood has shifted in this whole introduction scene; Leander comes off as more obviously well educated, his 'business student bullshit' talk levels are higher, and in the scenes involving the other adderstones, he commands more more obvious level of respect (and, as a result, a less 'buddy-buddy we're all equals here' vibe). even his connection with the senobium is outright stated, though the degrees to which are not. i remember when that was just theory.

the change from bloodhounds to adderstones i'll address in a sec, but also i think the person who addressed the removal of dog/wolf references from both the player and leander's sections, but the way it remained in ais's was onto smth too

past the introduction scene (which, as I've said before; first impressions are essential, and character introduction scenes even more so as a result), the impression we get of leander... is both the same, and very different.

I feel like, if I were less 'me', I would pick up the vibes I got from the first version of the demo- which is good, because when play testing with my friend who is less uh. media literate??? media analysis brained??? than I am, she dismissed him as 'boring guy with nothing dangerous or interesting about him'. which is to say, in this demo, it feels more 'obvious' that he's a lil' sly, a fair bit yandere, and absolutely attempting to promise intimacy and 'love', but that it's empty-ish and self-motivated to an unknown degree.

however, because I am me, Leander in this demo- feels less dangerous to me. less competent, actually, might be a better word. this may be intentional, it may not, but its through the exact 'slip ups' that happen to clue in 'not-me' into Leander's 'wait... something funky is going on here' that make 'me' me go 'oh. he's not that good at this, huh? it's... really obvious what he's trying to do here.

to elaborate on these slightly....

during the intro scene, he doesn't turn to greet us until we go 'kuras sent us'. it feels intentional to me me, and heavy handed- but to not-me, it feels frustrating and forces us to be aware of 'other things' going on. (other things being the group dynamics internally and to outsiders, the weight of kuras' name, the power and sway leander holds, ect)

post group meet up, he pulls us out of the crowded pub for our lil one on one bonding session. this is nice, sure, because leander was previously the only person never really alone with the player in the post section. but it's in this section that he slips up- becomes more comfortable in the room too fast, self-corrects, and then forces intimacy too intentionally after.

his dialogue on the other characters is more flirty for all except kuras in my interpretation- and if I hadn't been looking directly at this prior to the demo update coming out, I may not have caught it- but there we have it.

lastly, not a slip up, but- the change to adderstone feels heavy handed, as someone who looks up symbolism and already has A Thousand And One Theories on leanders backstory, his other symbols, and the like. h o w e v e r to not-me who hasn't looked into these, and doesn't do so, however, the name is merely a "huh. that's a word" situation.

all this, as i've said, has lead me to the conclusion i've already stated-

the changes made to leander feel like changes i am ill-suited to give proper feedback on- because i already have a very solid opinion on leander, and have already experienced my 'first impression' of him.

that means I feel they're going to struggle to find proper feedback on the changes because it feels like it's trying to target that-- though i've tried my best to do so through this with my me/not-me versions.

me, as i am, would find him less intruiging at a glance- because, as an intro, it makes what he's doing feels so obvious to me that it's not worth a deeper look.

not-me, however, still likes these character tropes and would know what i was getting into, and would want to pursue it further.

overall, my conclusion is, I think the changes made are not made lightheartedly, and are a good change for previewing what Leander's route will involve to a wider audience. However, I solidly feel that they are changes that the longstanding fans are possibly ill-suited to review, and it would require newcomers to properly make that evaluation, simply because the change impacts first impression so much.

with that said.

there is one change however, that i noted, that gives me hope that when i have some more goddamned time and energy more of a chance to examine the demo update as i want to do so, i'll find that the 'less competent about what he's doing' is simply another deception.

Leander's dialogue tree, at the end of the demo, feels infamous to me. Well known for it's 'positive/negative' flip-flopping, but perhaps I'm biased. But it was the section I was studying right before the demo came out--and Leander's lines that caught my eye right before have changed.

Leander presses sexual passes into comments on all the other LIs one way or another- besides Kuras. We know Kuras has been a constant in Leander's life "since he was young", and that their relationship is "admires him professionally" from Leander and feels very parental from Kuras.

Which is why, in the prior demo, Leander slipping up and forgetting to comment negatively on Kuras when the player was positive about him up until the player reminds him that Kuras is a threat to Leander's grip over them was both in character and hilarious a chance to see the mask slip slightly.

he doesn't do that in the update.

I can't remember the exact new line- Imma gonna have to go through and compare all of them when I can (and I did take screenshots but have since had to get a whole ass new computer for Reasons™️) but he doesn't do that now.

and I find that a fascinating development.

But my fascination aside, that gives me hope that despite the 'dumbing down' of Leander's intro (so to speak; i can't find a better term atm pls forgive my tired brain) and the hints it gives to his path, the team haven't actually dumbed down Leander.

They've just more heavily sprinkled the chances for the player to learn more about what his route may contain.

And that, I can appreciate, is a smart move.

That's about as concise as my thoughts have gotten, with what I've gotten to play so far, and what I've been seeing floating around my dash.

I don't have much more to say about the update yet- simply due to a lack of chance to thoroughly explore it all- but I will comment that!! I do like the new background option!!

I didn't appreciate how all the prior backgrounds had to have the 'you have been betrayed and bitter by it' running in the background, and I also felt that they were??? Mildly unbalanced???

Not in the 'there's no option that Fits Me Better' way (though the new one, the Exile, has rung closest for me yet [it was the Unnamed prior]). But in the 'pick a skillset' way.

It was 'sixth sense' OR 'street smarts' OR 'bookworm smart'. You couldn't pick a 'moderate' options, there was no 'in between', and all of them felt very strongly like you were assigning a weak point/strong point that may cause a dissonence clash between you and the player character if you were, per say, a more balanced and moderate individual.

which is, in and of itself, a weak point, but like- there was no 'jack of all trades, master of none' option.

The Exile taking the hound slot, and being described not as 'STREET SMARTS', but as 'experienced with multiple cultures and experiences, so good sense and wide general knowledge, but not Trained In Anything' feels like a very good sub in for me.

I like that it was added, and where it was put.

But again, perhaps I'm biased, because I saw it and immediately went 'oh!! that!!! thats me!!! thats me right there!!!!!!!'. and, as anyone who knows me irl will tell you, 'well traveled hermit' is almost exactly how most would describe me OTL

I didn't want to leave that unsaid, cause I've seen a lot of differing opinions on the new background add in, but also. it's less 'analytical' compared to my leander commentary so.

mildly different section but!!!

had to be said.

overall, from what I've seen!

love the update, love the changes made, and can appreciate what the changes were going for. super geared up and excited to see the game when it's finished, and I'm loving all the lil breadcrumbs we're getting in the meantime!!

and last but not least!!

love this stupid lil mf and his lil stupid mf puppy eyes.

15/10 i am consuming him whole.

thank you for coming to my ted talk uwu

EDIT: OH AND ALSO! I like the blinks that were added in. and I like that they were tied to Specific Points In Dialogue.

[lilllithdraagon]

ON A COMPLETELY UNRELATED NOTE

John Epler is a shit writer and can suck Dread Wolf Dick. Fenedhis lasa. Dirthara ma. Fen’Harel ver ma, Felasil. From what we saw on DA day we’ll be disregarding anything he says going forward. :)

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

In my demented little head Sir Pentious is getting so many bitches lmao