#almost without question

[persona-brainrot-real]

Sae Niijima is such a good character it drives me insane a little. She's not a mother nor a maternal or doting older sister but instead a twenty four year old who was thrown into a position of responsibility that she never asked for. She loves Makoto just as much as she resents her and its so apparent every time they talk up until November. "Are you studying?" (I want you to do well) (I need you to get a job and stop making my life harder) "I'll use any method necessary to get this promotion" (Life will be easier for us) (So stop distracting me with your problems) "Focus on your future" (I know that you're capable) (I can't afford to waste my time on you, so stop wasting time on others)

Makoto is not only the sole reason she pushes as hard as she does for a promotion, for success, and the reason that she loses herself in her animosity over her fathers death, but also someone she can't stand for so long. Makoto was 14-15 when their father died. Sae was 21. As soon as she got the career she wanted and things started to look up, her stability was robbed from her and she was disillusioned with the system that her father had taught her to rely on and completely adhere to. How do you manage, the daughter of a cop, following his footsteps towards law enforcement, when you're suddenly reminded of how unfair it is? You can't quit, your little sister relies on you and she's so young and struggling just as badly with this grief. So you pick yourself up and you get moving again. You push harder, press further. You abandon your morals and your ethics because punishing criminals (guilty or not) is almost like punishing the man who killed your father.

And the whole time she's fighting for promotions, going for drinks with the SIU Director to make herself more favourable for promotions, trying to navigate being a woman in a competitive, suffocating, male-dominated field, falling behind despite doing so much where others are promoted for doing so little - all the while your little sister comes back from school and her biggest issues are so small compared to yours.

Persona 5 revolves so heavily around grief and loss and change and Sae embodies all of that so well, all of the sharp and unpleasant and jagged parts of grief.

[captain-astors]

The Crown Prince

[yappacadaver]

Crazy wild shit man

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

rough art tips to learn and then break at your leisure.

the distance between your eyes is roughly one eye. the corners of your mouth dont extend past the middle of each eye. ears are roughly in the middle of the tip of the nose and the eyebrow. the eyes are in the very centre of the head. the neck is just a Little slimmer than the width of the head (varies with fat distribution, but fat tends to build up under the chin). hair is easier to draw when you plot out the hairline and then where it parts. leaving appropriate distance on the side of the face (cheekbone area and back to ear) contributes to making characters look more realistic/hot as hell. i dont know specific tips for that so use reference. an amazing reference/study site is lineofaction.com . if you think of the face in planes it makes it easier to construct (look up tutorials). if you draw a spiral like a tornado it can help you figure out awkward perspective for extended limbs (look up foreshortening coil technique). tangent lines are when two lines intersect and cause visual confusion (when it looks like a line that defines an arm is part of the line that defines a building, for example) and avoiding them makes your art way easier to comprehend. quick trick to good composition: choose a focal point (where you want your viewer to focus), detail that area the most, and make sure various elements of the piece are pointing to that focal point. you can use colours to contrast hue, saturation, and brightness and make certain elements of your drawing stand out. drawing in greyscale can help you figure out values. using black in a piece isn't illegal but you should know what you're doing when you do use it- it desaturates a piece and if used as a shading colour can desaturate and dull whatever youre shading too. if you use almost-black lineart and then add black to darken the very darkest areas it will do a lot to add some nice depth. the tip of your thumb ends just above the start of your index finger- your thumb also has two knuckles and all your other fingers have three. if you see an artist doing something you like (the way they draw noses or eyes or hair or anything else) you can try to copy that and see if you want to incorporate it in your style <- this is ENCOURAGED and how a lot of us learned and developed our styles. there are ways to add wrinkles to faces and bodies without making the character look a million years old, you just have to keep experimenting with it. The smile wrinkles around your muzzle dont connect to your mouth or to your nose; there should be a small space in between smile or nose and the wrinkle line. eyes when viewed in profile are like < aka a little triangle shape. think of the pupil like a disk and apply foreshortening to it (it looks like a line when seen from the side instead of a full round dot). subtle gradients can add a LOT to a piece. texture can also add a LOT. look up Tommy Arnold's work (his murderbot pieces are some of my FAVOURITE) and zoom in. find those random little circles he added and try to figure out why he added them there. light bounces. there's lots of way light bounces. sometimes it even spreads through the skin. i do not know these light tricks yet but i want you to know that they exist. draw a circle to indicate hand placement, draw a straight line between that circle and the shoulder, and then (normally at a right angle) draw a straight line on top of that line to find the placement of the elbow. elbows are normally placed Just above the hip when standing and your arm is at rest. there are no bad colour combos if you're brave enough about it, just fuck with the saturation and brightness until it works. keep playing. try new things. add your own tips to this post if you want or even expand on some ive mentioned here. good luck go ham etc

[alongtidesoflight]

i swear my stepdad is so illogical AND stubborn it hurts

[transillusionisms]

i would like to introduce antis to the concept of: genuinely asking questions instead of pretending to be part of the community and then squishing yourself away from it really hard because you jumped in both feet and got a shock from it

[i-may-be-an-emu]

Honestly I think more people know me as emu than my deadname and that makes me so happy

[kemendin]

They're besties

[pralinesims]

Here are some of the dramatic ass outtakes from my arsonist Aaron photoshoot 🔥

Also, here's a B4/A comparison of one of the pics. Raw screenshot -> plus Gshade -> with extra editing.

Viva la Reshade/Gshade (and editing ofc!)

[adrift-in-thyme]

Hmm Twilight is being very touchy methinks

[nicomrade]

2024 was full of disappointing reads, we will of course remember everyone yelling at me to just stop reading [insert title] if i dislike it so much and well! i finished all the ones everyone wanted me to stop blogging about. and im not even going to talk about them now cause no way in hell they even crack the top 10 of what i read this year. 2024 is not the year of the flop shounen. it was the year of 5 timeless bangers. lets never forget this.

Ashita No Joe - Kajiwara Ikki, Takamori Asao, Chiba Tetsuya (1968-1973)

ashita no joe is the crown jewel of the sports manga. thats the entire review like seriously i read it super early in the year and i immediately knew it was going to be the very first title in the years retrospective and nothing i read afterwards changed this. deeply haunting story that has not left me, probably never will. genuinely no one else had me on my ass, dropped jaw like ANJ. what if the only thing that could save you would also ruin your entire life? what if the only thing that mattered in this whole world, sucked so deeply and entirely? but you love it so much. and you cant live without it. and everyone can see its burning you alive.

No Home - Wanan (2018-2024)

another one that i just knew would make this list immediately after finishing it. no home looks into what it means to not have a home/that you shouldnt live at home. it deals with being parentless, with abusive parents, with healthy parents that you still shouldnt live with, family and home in all that it means. its also a deeply optimistic story despite its evil and twisted ways. story thats equally convinced that relapses + harm are never-ending and everywhere, and that people still grow and change despite it all. read no home and remember what it means to be someone's child

Ajin: Demi-Human - Sakurai Gamon, Miura Tsuina (2012-2021)

ajin is deeply interested in the actual ramifications of immortality through body regeneration and has one of my favorite #idgafer protagonists which is always a plus. i liked what it does with the human instinct to game-ify things, i liked when it denies the catharsis of death to characters, i liked what it does with its terrorism plot. i liked its allegories and i liked its metaphors. and it was a story told masterfully from start to finish, deeply engaging, deeply enjoyable, awesome art. the kinda work that made me turn off the analysis brain and instead just enjoy the things happening !!! i just frankly really liked this one nothing more nothing less

National Quiz - Sugimoto Reiichi, Katou Shinkichi (1993-1995)

surely youve heard this one before, a dystopic government puts on a game show where the winner will have any wish granted but all the losers will have their lives ruined. the national quiz is not only really funny about it with awesome art its also actually interested in what it means to dismantle a “death game” (and what that death game existing might mean for the society its part of!) read the national quiz for a look into imperialism and how foreign nations profit from intervening in other countries and read the national quiz for fun. but mostly, read the national quiz for my best friend K-I K-Ichi

Let's Go to Karaoke! - Wayama Yama (2019)

and finally of course this was also the year of wayama yama!... i reread the ones i knew and read the ones i hadnt gotten to yet and well, lets go karaoke is the only one thats completed AND i read for the 1st time so. for my purposes its also the only one i CAN put on this list. do not let me imply its not worthwhile on its own, though. its stupid easy to pinpoint the specific afternoons i read it both time cause i Cannot not post about lets go karaoke when i read lets go karaoke. its hilarious and scary and it has a powerful hold over me. lets go karaoke is the story of a middle schooler having the worlds worst gay awakening- orrrr i mean its a story about change, how scary it is to grow out of the things you once liked and finding yourself liking different new things instead. its about not getting into strangers' cars. its about what if a terrifying guy imprinted on you. and its about going to freaking karaoke !!

AND the bonus mention, Touhou - The Tiles That I Cannot Cut Are Next to None! - Uki Hayahiro (2020-2024)

finally some good fucking mahjong with superpowered girls manga… no more saki, please i beg you lets just stop reading saki. what if we forgot all the bad, awful, stupid, mahjong mangas weve all read and that left a bad taste in our mouths. lets all read the touhou mahjong doujin. on my hands and knees. its actually good mahjong manga except for that one drawing mistake that one time. who cares. its smart about its superpowers usage, its got plenty of hot mahjong action, the problem solving feels fun, the jokes are funny, only time ive seen local yakus spotlighted w such love, what more can you possibly ask from me? remember what made you fall in love with mahjong in the first place and read the touhou mahjong doujin today.

[salamanderallan]

2nd batch of minecraft server stuff bleh

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

There are two versions of Doctor Who. There's the one that is produced and aired by the BBC and there's the fandom one made up of distorted half remembered scenes by people who haven't watched the show in years and can no longer tell the difference between canon and headcanon.

[isdalinarhot]

If Adolin dies but Dalinar lives I’m going to feel bad (sympathy) and if Adolin lives but Dalinar dies I’m going to feel bad (on government watchlist). If they both die then it’s like well at least we’re all in this together

[vyunok-obyknovenniy]

Did the Trojan horse not have any legs?

Or were the legs really short?? Because Helen goes around knocking on it and imitating the voices of the wives of the Achaeans; that bit makes it feel like she's knocking on the horse's body, but that thing is giant, so if it had at least somewhat proportionately correct legs, Helen's wouldn't have been able to reach the body and the Achaeans probably wouldn't have heard her...

I don't think it was ever described in any more detail than just"a giant wooden horse", so people just automatically started drawing it with legs???

This has bugged me for a really long time: the horse was built in a limited time and with limited materials, there was a good chance the legs just wouldn't withstand all that weight and the whole thing would just collapse (considering there's a ton of people with heavy armour and weapons inside). I don't think the Achaeans had the time to make all the necessary calculations and construction work, even if they had all the necessary materials (and they, possibly, lacked the skills? Professional builders and architects would've managed, but how many of those were in that army?). Not to mention how inconvenient it would've been to climb in and out of it, if it was basically a treehouse of a horse 🤔

Maybe they made the horse look like it was lying down? Or did they just build the body with the head and that's it????

[uchiha-gaeshi]

I would never wish growing up in a hyper religious African house on my worst enemy. The cognitive dissonance is insane especially if you grow up in the West yet your family (and other African families around you) insist on clinging on to asinine “traditions” that are really just covers for abuse.