#also her perspective on art in the pull quotes

[carcinogeneticiist]

Maya in The Guardian

[jimblejamblewritings]

Marauders Fanon vs Canon??? (I don't have a good title but hear me out)

So I'm writing a fic but I wanted to make it more in line with canon for some parts and was looking up some stuff and realized a lot of stuff we think is common knowledge is fanon mixed with canon or something wasn't stated in canon when it was. This isn't about Team Snape or Team Marauders. I went to pick up my copies of the books since I owned them and noticed these things:

Keep in mind, anything anyone says is biased. On both sides. Especially when they're talking to Harry or showing him something. They want to make themselves look the best. So there might be contradictions by characters

(Sidenote: James says "you-know-what" when telling Lily he can't be as bad as Snape because he'd never call her a mudblood like he just did. So, yes, that very much shows mudblood is meant to be a slur like the n-word. we can put that argument to rest)

Snape Invented Levicorpus:

There's a lot of maybe he did maybe he didn't on every side but in Half-Blood Prince Ch. 28 (pg.603-604) it states:

“Sectum— !” Snape flicked his wand and the curse was repelled yet again; but Harry was mere feet away now and he could see Snape’s face clearly at last [...] Mustering all his powers of concentration, Harry thought, Levi— “No, Potter!” screamed Snape. [...] You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them — I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you’d turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, would you? I don’t think so."

Snape reacts only after Harry is about to use Levicorpus. So it's confirmed on page that when Snape says spells, he means both Sectumsempra and Levicorpus. And we know from his worst memory that the only spell James uses on Severus that isn't taught in school is Levicorpus. So that could be the only witnessed spell of Severus' James would have turned on him.

Also in the Worst Memory, he definitely uses a form of sectumsempra on James:

“SECTUMSEMPRA!” bellowed Harry from the floor, waving his wand wildly. Blood spurted from Malfoy’s face and chest as though he had been slashed with an invisible sword. (Half-Blood Prince Ch. 24, p. 522)

Snape had directed his wand straight at James; there was a flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James’s face, spattering his robes with blood. (Order of the Phoenix Ch. 28, p. 647)

They both cause gashes although James' hex is obviously a lot less intense than Draco's hex. I don't know if this would imply Snape wasn't advanced enough yet in the spell but he seems very proficient even at the end of 5th year where this scene takes place. So maybe he used a different form of it? Either way the spells match up in the look of them, it's just the severity is different.

~~

Lily was NOT a bad friend to Severus. I've seen people say oh she didn't use her wand during Snape's Worst Memory therefore making her a bad friend and not that invested in him. She literally pulls out her wand and threatens James and Sirius if they don't let him go. Just because they listened to her threat so she didn't get to fire a hex doesn't mean she wasn't going to. She wanted to talk first and try to reason before resorting to violence. She was a good friend to Severus. Period.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Lily shouted. She had her own wand out now. James and Sirius eyed it warily. (Order of the Phoenix Ch. 28, p. 648)

~~

Sirius claims that James always hated Dark Arts. This could definitely be a skewed perspective but so far I've treated every quote as truth of the person who said it so I'll do the same here for now. If this is true, then James never hated Snape out of nowhere and happened to be proven right that he's a Death Eater. They knew.

James and Snape hated each other from the moment they set eyes on each other, it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can’t you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be — he was popular, he was good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts and James — whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry — always hated the Dark Arts. (Order of the Phoenix Ch. 29, p. 670)

The war started in 1970. The Marauders and Snape's first year at Hogwarts was 1971. So Death Eaters, Voldemort, and the war in general was their entire school career. Severus wasn't hanging out with pre-Death Eaters. They were always preparing to join the Death Eaters. They were called Death Eaters at the school. So whether that's his actual motivation or not, James and literally everyone else would know from first year if their fellow students were on Voldemort's side or believed in his cause or not.

You and your precious little Death Eater friends—you see, you don’t even deny it! You don’t even deny that’s what you’re all aiming to be! You can’t wait to join You-Know-Who, can you? (Deathly Hallows Ch. 33, p. 676)

To me that makes the use of mudblood constantly even worse. From the beginning students knew the implication of that and would call and honestly torment their fellow muggleborn students that slur anyway. Everyone at school was well aware of the war and their actions, even the first years.

“I don’t want to talk to you,” she said in a constricted voice. “Why not?” “Tuney h–hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore.” “So what?” She threw him a look of deep dislike. “So she’s my sister!” “She’s only a— ” He caught himself quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear him. “But we’re going!” he said, unable to suppress the exhilaration in his voice. “This is it! We’re off to Hogwarts!” She nodded, mopping her eyes, but in spite of herself, she half smiled. (Deathly Hallows Ch. 33, p. 670 - 671)

~~

James and Severus were at each other's throats. It wasn't one-sided bullying on either side. They both attacked each other. Literally starting on the train they both made petty enemies out of each other and it escalated each year. Now we never get to see on page who started the physical but whoever did the other side returned it just as much as they dished it.

“You’d better be in Slytherin." “Slytherin?” One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, looked around at the word, and Harry [...] saw his father. [...] “Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?” James asked [Sirius]. “My whole family have been in Slytherin,” he said. “Blimey,” said James, “and I thought you seemed all right!” Sirius grinned. “Maybe I’ll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you’ve got the choice?” "Gryffindor." Snape made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him. “Got a problem with that?” “No,” said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. “If you’d rather be brawny than brainy— ” “Where’re you hoping to go, seeing as you’re neither?” interjected Sirius. James roared with laughter. Lily sat up, rather flushed, and looked from James to Sirius in dislike. “Come on, Severus, let’s find another compartment.” “Oooooo . . . ” James and Sirius imitated her lofty voice; James tried to trip Snape as he passed. “See ya, Snivellus!” (Deathly Hallows Ch. 33, p. 671-672)

“She started going out with him in seventh year,” said Lupin. “Once James had deflated his head a bit,” said Sirius. “And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it,” said Lupin. “Even Snape?” said Harry. “Well,” said Lupin slowly, “Snape was a special case. I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James, so you couldn’t really expect James to take that lying down, could you?” (Order of the Phoenix Ch. 29, p. 670)

I'm also sure of this because of what Severus does to Petunia who has no magic. More than likely this was a back and forth but not one-sided bullying from the marauders or from Snape.

Then a small rustling noise behind Harry made him turn: Petunia, hiding behind a tree, had lost her footing. “Tuney!” said Lily, surprise and welcome in her voice, but Snape had jumped to his feet. “Who’s spying now?” he shouted. “What d’you want?” Petunia was breathless, alarmed at being caught. Harry could see her struggling for something hurtful to say. “What is that you’re wearing, anyway?” she said, pointing at Snape’s chest. “Your mum’s blouse?” There was a crack. A branch over Petunia’s head had fallen. Lily screamed. The branch caught Petunia on the shoulder, and she staggered backward and burst into tears. (Deathly Hallows Ch. 33, p. 668)

Like this is an overkill response and could have genuinely hurt Petunia just for her being a little shithead. So the notion that Severus dished it and took it probably isn't a lie from the characters but true. And I don't feel bad for adult Petunia. She was a horrible woman and abused Harry and should have been held accountable more for that.

But we have to be honest that child Petunia deserved better. She thought at strange neighbor was spying on her and her sister and then after he becomes friends with her baby sister, he either harms Petunia or convinces Lily to invade Petunia's privacy. And then she finds out she can't go be with her sister who is disappearing for months out of the year at what sounds like the best school ever. I mean baby Petunia didn't deserve this shit.

“You didn’t think it was such a freak’s school when you wrote to the headmaster and begged him to take you.” Petunia turned scarlet. “Beg? I didn’t beg!” “I saw his reply. It was very kind.” “You shouldn’t have read— ” whispered Petunia, “that was my private—how could you—?” Lily gave herself away by half-glancing toward where Snape stood nearby. Petunia gasped. “That boy found it! You and that boy have been sneaking in my room!” “No—not sneaking— ” Now Lily was on the defensive. “Severus saw the envelope, and he couldn’t believe a Muggle could have contacted Hogwarts, that’s all! (Deathly Hallows Ch. 33, p. 669-670)

The two wouldn't have known Dumbledore's reply was kind if they just saw the letter. They went into her room and then opened her mail. Also, me, I would have freaked out more if some boy I didn't really know or liked was just in my room. This point doesn't really matter in relation to canon or anything, I just thought I'd mention that child Petunia deserves a mention every now and then.

~~

The Marauders' pranks seem to all be hexes. Everyone considers them harmless and sometimes funny or annoying or pranks. So hexes even if not legal are seen as just pranking and stupid. This also kind of implies that James and Sirius did most of the pranks not really Peter or Remus but I don't think that was intentional and is just a book contradictory.

walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can — I’m surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. (Order of the Phoenix Ch. 28, p. 648)

“And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it,” said Lupin. (Order of the Phoenix Ch. 29, p. 670)

He pulled out a card from one of the topmost boxes with a flourish and read, “ ‘James Potter and Sirius Black. Apprehended using an illegal hex upon Bertram Aubrey. Aubrey’s head twice normal size. Double detention.’ ” Snape sneered. “It must be such a comfort to think that, though they are gone, a record of their great achievements remains [...] It was, as Harry had anticipated, useless, boring work, punctuated (as Snape had clearly planned) with the regular jolt in the stomach that meant he had just read his father or Sirius’s names, usually coupled together in various petty misdeeds, occasionally accompanied by those of Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. (Half-Blood Prince Ch. 24, p. 532)

~~

I don't think Snape was a loner. Even in his own memories, he doesn't present them as if he had no one once he got to Hogwarts. The text itself makes it seem like obviously Lily was his best friend but he hung out with the Death Eaters on a level of actually liking them.

"thought we were supposed to be friends?” Snape was saying, “Best friends?” “We are, Sev, but I don’t like some of the people you’re hanging round with! I’m sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he’s creepy! D’you know what he tried to do to Mary MacDonald the other day?” Lily had reached a pillar and leaned against it, looking up into the thin, sallow face. “That was nothing,” said Snape. “It was a laugh, that’s all— ” “It was Dark Magic, and if you think that’s funny— ” [...] "Mulciber's and Avery's idea of humor is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don't understand how you can be friends with them." (Deathly Hallows Ch. 33, p. 673 - 674)

Also we never find out what Mulciber does but in Goblet of Fire it's revealed that he's really good at the Imperius Curse. Now, he probably wasn't doing Unforgivables at school (although all the Crucio's thrown around even during Harry's time might prove otherwise). But it might have been something along the lines of that curse.

~~

People change and grow which is good but Hermione and Ron definitely had a prejudice of werewolves and threw that in Lupin's face during the Shrieking Shack. Like it wasn't about him helping Sirius, they were also appalled at the werewolf bit seperately. Also it was wrong of Snape to teach that and make a whole essay hoping students would pick up on the symptoms matching Remus' symptoms.

~~

Canon does confirm that Severus suspected Remus of being a werewolf before The Prank™. He wanted to know where Remus went every month. Severus had worked out the schedule exactly and knew it was once a month.

"Severus was very interested in where I went every month [...] We were in the same year, you know, and we — er — didn’t like each other very much. He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James’s talent on the Quidditch field . . . anyway Snape had seen me crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the Whomping Willow to transform. Sirius thought it would be — er — amusing, to tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot on the tree trunk with a long stick, and he’d be able to get in after me. Well, of course, Snape tried it — if he’d got as far as this house, he’d have met a fully grown werewolf — but your father, who’d heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life . . . Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He was forbidden by Dumbledore to tell anybody, but from that time on he knew what I was." (Prisoner of Azkaban Ch. 18, p. 356 - 357)

Also I think this shows that The Prank™ happened in 5th year a little before Snape's Worst Memory but it wasn't what made Severus drop hints to Lily about Remus being a werewolf. His suspicions were confirmed that night of the Shrieking Shack but they formed well beforehand. We don't know if this is what Severus actually saw that led him to start being suspicious because it doesn't seem likely that he and Remus ever talked about it but this is really the only in depth detail we ever get so it's what we've got to go off of.

The one thing that never gets explained is how Severus approached Sirius or what happened that would lead to them having any sort of conversation where Sirius would say if you want to go after Remus, here's how you get past the Whomping Willow. Which is a missed opportunity in my opinion. Clearly Sirius was aware that Snape wanted to go after Lupin and they both understand that. So what did Snape do or say to lead up to that. Because based on how his character is written in the rest of the books, unless Severus alluded to knowing Remus was a werewolf, it's out of character for him to risk his friend like that. We get this scene showing Sirius' character in the exact same scene after Remus tells the story:

“Two more for Azkaban tonight,” said Snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. “I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this. . . . He was quite convinced you were harmless, you know, Lupin . . . a tame werewolf —” “You fool,” said Lupin softly. “Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?” BANG! Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Snape’s wand and twisted themselves around Lupin’s mouth, wrists, and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. With a roar of rage, Black started toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black’s eyes. (Prisoner of Azkaban Ch. 18, p. 357)

If Snape had just said something like he was going to tell they were breaking curfew, I doubt Sirius would have just blurted that our so I wish it had been given a scene.

But this does show that even though Sirius was wrong to tell him how to get into the Whomping Willow, Severus suspected something was up and proceeded to go on a full moon anyway. If you suspected he's a werewolf, why take the chance?

Even though it makes no sense for fanfic purposes (or canon really but different convo) the timeline is: Snape is suspicious —> The Prank —> Snape's Worst Memory. And all in a matter of days or weeks in 5th year. Feel free to switch it up though because that's a lot crammed into a short time.

And personal opinion, but Dumbledore wasn't wrong in this moment. Remus can't control what he is and potentially getting expelled would make him a victim as well. We don't know if Sirius was punished by some made up excuse but I don't think forbidding Snape to tell was wrong when it doesn't affect Sirius but Remus.

Lily also knew about his theory. Even though this conversation is after the prank, this isn't new information. It's Severus reiterating what he suspected before, just with the added context that he has confirmation of Remus being a werewolf.

“He’s ill,” said Lily. “They say he’s ill— ” “Every month at the full moon?” said Snape. “I know your theory,” said Lily, and she sounded cold. “Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they’re doing at night?” “I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are.” The intensity of his gaze made her blush. (Deathly Hallow Ch. 33, p. 674)

Unfortunately, I think people were right that Severus was jealous of James over... Quidditch. It sounds like a cover up and so foolishly silly. There's definitely more things but being jealous over quidditch was true. It comes out of Snape's mouth in his own memories.

The words seemed wrenched from him against his will. “And he’s not . . . everyone thinks . . . big Quidditch hero— ” Snape’s bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily’s eyebrows were traveling farther and farther up her forehead. (Deathly Hallows Ch. 33, p. 674)

~~

This is more speculation than overt in text but I don't think James did take off Snape's underwear during the second Levicorpus in Snape's Worst Memory. The Deathly Hallows is a YA book not middle grade so it would be acceptable to put that in the book. The book has worse stuff in it. But the first time the memory appears, Harry is pulled out by Snape returning to his office before he can find out. The second time, it skips it. If the scene had finished playing out with Severus having his underwear forcibly removed, I think it would have been on page by this point in the last book. That doesn't make it right by any means, I'm not saying that. But I think it's not concrete that James ever did that.

Now what else isn't concrete is that "Snape never used Levicorpus the way the Marauders did". It lifts people up by their ankles. It's a spell Snape confirms was invented. It's a spell that became a popular jinx around Hogwarts. The Hogwarts uniforms are black robes and point hats. Those things are confirmed and canon by text. So if Snape or any other student was using Levicorpus, unless they were wearing something underneath their robes, they all would have been exposed like Severus was in his Worst Memory. That makes literally everyone look bad and is actually problematic of all the characters. And means Snape invented the spell knowing it would do this and did it to people. And then all the other students did. They'd all be shitty.

Of course this can be remedied by just stating that people wear clothes under their robes and Snape just happened to be in only underwear that day but the books seem to be wishy washy on if people are wearing clothes under the robes or not or even wearing the robes at all sometimes. This also does lend some credibility to people saying Snape's Worst Memory was the part where he called Lily a mudblood not the part about being Levicorpused. Because if everyone in school was doing that to each other and it's just seen as stupid jinxes then the Levicorpus wouldn't be the most horrifying thing. I used to not believe in this thought but seeing the text again, it's possible.

~~

This specific scene tackles a lot of what was said before but I want to address it as a whole instead of breaking the dialogue up:

“I only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here.” “I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just— ” “Slipped out?” There was no pity in Lily’s voice. “It’s too late. I’ve made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends—you see, you don’t even deny it! You don’t even deny that’s what you’re all aiming to be! You can’t wait to join You-Know-Who, can you?” He opened his mouth, but closed it without speaking. “I can’t pretend anymore. You’ve chosen your way, I’ve chosen mine.” “No—listen, I didn’t mean— ” “— to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?” (Deathly Hallows Ch. 33, p. 675 - 676)

There's something pretty traumatizing that Mary was the one around to hear Snape threaten to sleep in front of the Gryffindor Common Room. Like his friends assaulted you with Dark Magic and then he's there and threatening to sleep there. Mary dealt with a lot of trauma that we never talk about.

Severus never meant to call Lily a mudblood, once again confirming it is viewed as a slur in this world. It doesn't just slip out. He's comfortable using it. For years, he's been friends with people who want Lily and people like her harmed or dead. It's not just convenient to hang out with these people because he has to see them since they're all in Slytherin. It is Severus' ideology and belief.

And not to harp on her too much but Lily actively hung out with someone constantly calling people a slur and only gave up on him after he said it to her specifically. Like babes, stand up, please. She also says she made excuses for him for years implies he did in fact dish it out like he took it.

Snape calling every muggleborn a mudblood, hangs out with known Death Eaters, aims to be one officially, and wants to join You-Know-Who. All around the end of 5th year into early 6th year. The war had been raging and they all knew it so Severus wasn't a troubled teen who joined a bad cause. He actively participated in it. Troubled teens don't always join neo-Nazis simply because they're troubled. That claim robs Severus of the agency his character has. He made these decisions and has to contend with them. That's a more powerful character.

Even when he was alone though, Snape still used that word. Even when there was no part to play. He never changed his ideology. He only joined the right side because the woman he loved was killed by the other side.

And now Snape stood again in the headmaster’s study as Phineas Nigellus came hurrying into his portrait. “Headmaster! They are camping in the Forest of Dean! The Mudblood— ” “Do not use that word!” “— the Granger girl, then, mentioned the place as she opened her bag and I heard her!” “Good. Very good!” cried the portrait of Dumbledore behind the headmaster’s chair. (Deathly Hallows Ch. 33, p. 689)

He's still calling muggleborns a slur. Unprompted and Unprovoked.

(Side Note: Why does this feel like a retcon of Phineas Nigellus? He's not mentioned much but I think maybe fanon has me remembering him as being more awful but he's not that bad here or really does much in the series)

~~

No one from the marauders era saw Harry as a real person. There's way too many quotes to show it but I think we all know. Every last one of them saw Harry as James 2.0 or James reincarnate but they never saw him as just Harry.

Final Thoughts:

The look-back into actual canon was very helpful. A lot of unanswered questions are actually explained in other spots, we just tend to forget when they are never explicit or lingered on and the book series is as huge as it is.

I do have to say though that the re-read actually made me not like Snape more. Like, I don't remember half the quotes being like this but they were actually worse than I thought. Particularly the point where he's in Sirius' bedroom, takes a letter not addressed to him and then rips a photo in half to only keep the part of Lily and throw the rest of her photo that has her husband and CHILD on the floor. I hate to say it but canon actually made me not like this character, the opposite effect I was expecting.

It also did make me sympathetic to child Petunia and remember that they were two very different people. Shame she became awful.

[micamicster]

HII MICA i just wanted to ask your thoughts in the new season now that youve finished it, especially your favorite moments, episodes, and songs!!

Ok here are my long awaited (sorry babe!) season 2 thoughts! This really got away from me haha but long story short: I loved it ❤️

Long story medium: Nida Manzoor has done it again—beautiful, vibrant, funny, and poignant. A season 2 that succeeds in expanding the world and deepening our understanding of the characters. And the songs are great!

Long story LONG: under the cut <3 (and also I’ve reread this and i have managed to avoid any major spoilers so if you haven’t watched yet this post should be safe!)

I went into this season VERY apprehensive. I think the first season is a practically perfect season of television, and over the last few years I’ve had plenty of time to think of all the ways a second season could fail to deliver. But as the credits rolled on season 2 episode 1 my sister and I just sat there grinning at the screen like you guys we are SO back!!!!

Some thoughts, in no particular order:

The writing: Nida Manzoor has a knack for putting her finger right on the sore spot—right on the place where the show is most likely to receive criticism, and digging in. Not in a gotcha, bad faith sort of way, but by pulling those issues apart and showing how painful and complicated and nuanced these questions of representation and responsibility really are. Not to give too many spoilers but whew. Her episode fives! Other people can speak to this better than me but this seasons episode 5 was raw, painful, pointed… simultaneously a criticism of art and representation as political commentary, and like the only possible political commentary that could be made under these conditions. Fictional battles with censorship, identity, representation, and responsibility meet the very real world, where Nida Manzoor is producing a real show. To quote manzoor herself, “i don’t want to give the answer to the audience because i don’t have it—I don’t want to ever feel like I’m preaching or delivering a sermon about anything; instead, just posing the question.” It’s such a good show guys.

Character Arcs: The arcs given to the band members who were secondary characters in season one were executed beautifully. Getting more insight into Taz, Ayesha, and Bisma (and giving more to do to their incredible actresses!) was exactly what I’d hoped for from a season 2.

God I Wish The Show Was Longer part A: While I loved (and badly wanted!) more time with the other girls, I did miss the tight focus on saira and Amina as narrative foils and drivers of each others character development that season one had. Not just from a shipping perspective! (although we all know I’m guilty of shipping for sure lol). But I did miss their relationship, and a longer season would have given us more time to spare from the other important arcs going on to return to things I loved about season one.

Compared to season 1: One difference I noticed was how the surrealist elements aren’t only contained to Amina/her narration anymore, but that other characters have them or interact with them (Bisma pausing her arguments, Ahsan trying and failing to interrupt the spotlight on Amina and Billy). I thought it was a great way to show how much closer the characters have become (that Ahsan would even notice Amina’s little fantasy!) and also as a way to give narration over to different characters (Bisma being the clear pov in those fights as compared to Amina narrating things she’s only heard about in season 1). Another difference is how each episode of season 1 is so well-contained and precise, while I feel the show sprawls more in season 2 as a result of expanding the world and becoming more of a true ensemble show. This isn’t a criticism—shows need to expand in order to continue to grow! Just an observation, which leads us to:

God I Wish The Show Was Longer part 2: Around episode 4 and 5 I wondered if they were going to be able to tie everything up, given how many complex issues and conflicts had been raised. I had no reason to doubt—Nida Manzoor brought these conflicts and arcs to deeply satisfying conclusions, without feeling like these issues lost nuance or were reduced in complexity for the sake of a finale. It’s incredible what all she managed to achieve in 6 episodes! That said, I would have loved to have been able to see more of the characters journeys, and one or two more episodes would have given things more room to breathe. I would have loved to see more of Taz’s work with other artists, or Saira becoming more comfortable with the idea of herself as a mentor. Bisma’s arc in particular I thought could have used more time, although Faith Omole’s stunning performance of Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood does beautiful emotional work for her arc (and tbh for everyone else’s arcs—it’s a centerpiece of the episode and a great example of what a song can do for character, emotion, and arc in a musical narrative). Which brings us to!

The performances/songs: Putting these two together to say that every actress delivered an incredible award-worthy performance, juggling comedy and dramatic acting skillfully. And the songs! Villain Era is on fucking repeat in this house. Already said Misunderstood is amazing but it should be said again. Nina is pretty much the toughest act in the world to follow but Faith fucking does it. Stunning ❤️ Speaking of Faith her doing the voices in Oops I Did It Again was the happiest I’ve been all year oh my god this show is so much funnnnnnn everyone watch it it’s so! fun!

[ughscara]

UGH YOUR LATEST REBLOG HAS ME <333 it’s so funny to think about, because Kuni finally has a way to control you when you’re all whiny and pouty without his attention. just dishes out this new paper and all of a sudden you’ve dove into a new topic you may not have heard about but is now fascinated with (yes he has to listen to your quiet mumbles about it and look at your very focused face but it’s cute <3)

AND THE SECOND SCENARIO ANGST?? I WAS NOT EXPECTING THAT YAME. it makes me think a lot because in the official art, Wanderer expression is always so “😒” when he has to attend the Akademiya… but deep down he still tries pretty hard, even if he doesn’t show it 😭 And you just want to give your lover a hug for everything and tell him that you see how hard he’s trying, and that it’s okay for him to take a break.

Nahida probably has to pull out a book on how students should take care of themselves 😔

I imagine that when he’s writing his essays, there’s been times when his mind floats to you and he wonders what you’re doing. And when he looks down at what he’s written, he sees that he accidentally wrote your name on the paper right next to all this academic stuff. He erases it so quickly and is so glad you’re not here to see his blush.

(also eating up your various kuni interpretations… HE’S STILL KABU DEEP DOWN DON’T HURT ME LIKE THIS 💔) (but real) 

*sends you all my love* ❤️ 

PLEASE THAT'S SO HIM BEHAVIOR YK ?? it never ceases to amaze him just how easily you flow with what he gives you to quill your boredom, even if there's a high possibility it may not be quilled — a wanderer can hope, no? but much to his dismay; your boredom isn't one so easily quilled. not when his best bet is to just throw another essay some other scholar wrote and he gives you that look that especially says: here, read.

but despite how annoyed he may appear with your constant whining and pouting; he deep down loves how you, too, seek his affection. he perceives this whole ordeal as a good thing though, you've always been patient and rarely does he ever see you as the opposite so... maybe all he needs to do to test said patience is simply excuse himself by saying he has an essay to write which is a fucking lie 💀 but he likes to see you being a little annoyed. it's endearing to see many sides of you from his perspective.

more under the cut !!

as for the second scenario angst .. huhu 🤭 but in all seriousness it just lines up with how much of a perfectionist he tends to be whether he admits to it or not. it's obvious he's working hard, incredibly so, and that desire to perfect and fulfill doesn't stem from a “oh it's something i have to do” but more or so “i want to prove everyone wrong.” and that mindset tends to unfortunately eat at him to a point such a notion becomes intertwined with his previous beliefs — i will never be good enough. he'd think and manage to convince himself a little too easily. back then, whenever nahida would spot him in that state, she wouldn't even utter a word to reassure him because he knows what she'll say, and it's during those times he doesn't want to hear those words. it used to be incredibly difficult for nahida to get him off his chair and assure him that he's done enough, but in his eyes what he managed to finish was nowhere near enough.

and you're so right about nahida having to get a book on how students should take care of themselves ;; convincing to take a break takes both your and nahida's efforts combined. it's during such times nahida is reminded of how grateful she is for your presence because if there's another person wanderer is willing to listen to that isn't her; it's you.

i could go on and on about it but i think you already guessed this is already saved in my drafts and um, i am cooking both the fluff and angst in that one 🤭 but let's get into the fluff territory for a good minute — YES. ABSOLUTELY YES. darling already has two emotes both of which are named and i quote “zoned out.” it's practically second nature to him to just ( ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ ) ...

i like to imagine that it isn't limited to when he's writing, but that habit also seeps into the times he'd draw something in the midst of taking a break. at first, it starts with him doodling a random object, then something he's craving, and the moment he zones out while doodling to his heart's content... next thing he sees is that he drew something you like, something you usually tell him you crave, or even just draw you on autopilot. but in comparison to how he'd write your name on a research paper and immediately erase it; this empty page now filled with little things connected to you is one he keeps but never, ever let you know about.

and regarding my kuni interpretations — that's 3 am ayame for you lmao bestie wrote that in a daze 😭 and i may or may have not hyper analyzed that silly little thing i wrote back then lolol

*sends you all my love in return* (⁠/⁠^⁠-⁠^⁠(⁠^⁠ ⁠^⁠*⁠)⁠/🤍🤍

[nerves-nebula]

Hi you mentioned wanting complements on your art, so I assume this is the time to say that I actually love Maurino Badger with my heart and soul. You draw her so CUTE I love him, in spite and because of the violent tendencies. I would be the one bringing offerings from the village to the honey dadger saint/god if I could. What does Maurino's fur feel like or what do you imagine it feels like? I NEED to know. And Loose Stitches? I get so EXCITED when I see a new comic come out like omg I wish I could draw like you. I'm so invested. And it makes me honestly delighted that Atchkey kinda looks like me because I NEVER see characters that look like me. I wish I was confident enough to wear cute outfits like them though. I also love how all your characters are so cute in your style! And how the style juxtaposes their very uncute backstories is just ughhhh I love it!

Anyway, I really love hearing what you have to say and I think that you give a really interesting perspective on a lot of things. It really makes me think sometimes about things I wouldn't have even thought of before. You're an amazing artist but I think you probably could have been a famous philosopher in a different world. Like the kind they read about in history books. That post about art being nothing the other day blew my mind a little bit and low key pulled me out of art block.

I really love your art and your characters. I followed you for the turtle comics but now I'm far more interested in your original stories. Actually I have to remind myself that I can't just tell people "that sounds like Groe and Maurino" because they aren't actually characters that everyone knows. Like in my brain the two of them are just as famous as like Spiderman and the Ninja Turtles. Anyway, thank you! You're amazing!

omggg thank youu <3

I dunno what maurenos fur feels like i imagine like honey badger fur but idk what that feel like? it looks kinda short and coarse to me. obviously Maureno isn't exactly just a honey badger, so i think she can probably make it softer or harder at will. don't quote me on that.

I'm glad atchkie represents your body type!! that's what I wanted!

I once thought I could've been a philosopher HOWEVER it turns out i fucking hate philosophy i DETEST ITTT i cant STAND IT. my best friend will sometimes pose philosophical questions to me and I'll get so pissed if they don't have much of a real world application like i have a losers temperament i couldn't be a philosopher. but I am very good at thinking about things on occasion! tho to be fair most of that has been by listening to what other people have to say on the topic lol most of this aint anythin i came up with purely on my own.

but that doesnt matter what matters is I HAVE INFECTED YOU WITH MY OCS. Maureno and Groe are forever and everrrr. did u read the awful smut i wrote of them. they're so mean to each other <3 Maureno is so fun cuz she wants to be better but something about being around Groe just makes her revert sobbbb.

POINT IS: :DDDDD yayyyy

[erintoknow]

And what have i read this year?

a fuck ton of YA books to be frank - as a YA librarian, I kind of feel like it’s my job to focus my reading within my ‘field’ so to speak so I can try to provide better advisory to kids. It’s a fool’s errand of course, because like, the field is fucking huge as hell and anything i can read is a drop in the bucket but still!!

Of the YA titles I’ve read this year, I’d have to give a shout out to Andrew Joseph White’s Hell Followed With Us, a post-apocalyptic zombie survival story about a trans boy named Benji who may or may not be the foretold second coming that will finally end humankind’s existence on earth

Wendy Heard’s She’s Too Pretty to Burn is a fun sapphic thriller involving some avant garde activist art gone to far.

If you liked Malin Ryden’s Fallen Hero interactive fiction story, you might be down for Tess Sharpe’s The Girls I’ve Been, where the bisexual daughter of a serial con-artist is held up at a bank and forced to come clean about her past.

Special mention to Cristin Bishara’s Vial of Tears, Laura Sibson’s Edie In Between, and Mary McCoy’s Indestructible Object. All worth a look if you want something in the YA space to read.

I was able to fit in some quote unquote adult fiction as well. Robert Jackson Bennett’s Founders Trilogy staring a sapphic woman with the unique ability to ‘hear’ the spellwork writing that her world uses to do magic with was a fun read.

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donaghue deserves special mention here too. Set in Ireland during the Spanish flu, a young woman working as a nurse and caretaker for her brother who suffers severe PTSD from the war meets and falls in love with another woman who shows up at the hospital one day as a volunteer. Equal parts heartwarming and tragic book, the ending broke my heart into a thousand pieces, 5 stars.

I also finally got to get started on the Locked Tomb series after bouncing off the first book hard a year ago. I’ve only read the first two and found them both extremely engaging, at times funny, in other parts heartbreaking. These two poor girls. I can see why the caught on in Tumblr so hard. Extremely homestuckian movements going on in there.

And of course Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars, a tale of a transgender runaway violinst, the legendary teacher who needs her to sell her soul to the devil in order to get own back, and the alien refugee running the doughnut store down the way said violin teacher falls in love with remains by far my favorite thing I’ve read this year. Please go read this, I beg you.

Finally I want to mention two ongoing serial fiction works I’ve been reading, one is Unjust Depths by Madiha Santana. What if Gundum, but under the ocean and also they’re communists? I’ve only read through the first arc so far – Arc 3 is currently under way as I type, I believe. It’s been a fun read and I intend to get back to it soon.

The other is a bit more unconventional, and that would be Nora [LastNameHere]’s Blood in the Bosphorus Paradox Megacampign Let’s Play. Which started as a let’s play following the eastern roman empire through an increasingly alternate history and has transformed into some kind of amazing communism versus fascism war epic. Nora’s writing and approaching LP updates through various in and out of universe textual perspectives have been extremely enjoyable to follow with over the years with a creativity, humor, and humanity I don’t often see even in published books never mind a screenshot let’s play and I consider it something of a personal victory to have gotten my partner, who has never touched the something awful forms (probably for the better on the whole) into reading it now too.

[love-karens-style]

School of Style – Sexy Suit: 3 Fast Facts

(source: © pinterest.com)

“Nude nail polish wins hands down over intricate nail art.” –Ashley Madekwe

1. Neutral Nails – Ladies, I wish to begin today’s edition, by talking about the model’s nails, which, in my view, are clearly classy. As a general rule in the beauty business ladies, short nails look best with coloured nail polish, and long nails are complemented by nude or natural shades of nail polish. Nude nails, ladies, gives the impression of a clean and conservative image, making it ideal for business or boardroom meetings, as well as in the workplace. Ladies, I came across an infinitely important quote, in Carmen Electra’s brilliant book, How to Be Sexy, which is that you should “Never neglect your hygiene and grooming.” In my opinion ladies, there is no better feeling than having a fresh and feminine manicure, that will make you feel like you are ready to take on the world. I understand the positive impact that great grooming can have on your self-confidence, which is why I ventured into the beauty industry, in late 2009.

2. Belted Blazer – Secondly ladies, I’d like to move on to discuss the model’s brilliant belt. As you know, accessories rarely go out of style, making them a pretty much, safe investment, from my perspective. As you can see from the above image ladies, the belt pulls the model in at the waist, which creates the illusion of curves. I also believe that the belt adds a ‘fun factor’ to the outfit. Moreover, in her book, 365 Style, admirable author, Nicky Hilton rather rightly stated that, “By adding a few accessories to an outfit, you can transform, update or set apart from your look instantly.” Never underestimate the power of accessories, ladies. And the good news is, they needn’t necessarily cost you an arm and a leg.

3. Cleavage Clue – Lastly ladies, I’d like to close and conclude, by discussing the model’s décolleté area. Ladies, based on my fashion work experience, I can safely say that actually, cleavage acts as a subtle ‘accessory.’ Therefore, there is never really any need to over accessorise with say, a large statement necklace. Had the model’s stylist dressed her in a large necklace, this would likely have resulted in her décolleté being in competition with the larger necklace. So ladies, I’m definitely delighted to see that the necklace that the model is wearing, is dainty, and “fuss-free.” This is because, I’m almost certain that you’ll agree, that “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” Coco Chanel.

Love, KF X                                                                                            

Happy to help: karensworldofstyle@live.co.uk or karens_style on X (Twitter)

This article was researched, written, edited, produced & published by Karen, on 15th September 2024

[zorilleerrant]

DC's Heroes & Villains - a gacha game

(just using this picture because I loved it, and I wish the game had gone in for more full screen art like this)

don't play this game for the story. it doesn't even really feel like DC stories, more like very bland scripts written with no characters in mind, with DC heroes and villains slotted in at the last minute. it's not even that they're out of character; there's just no in character for them to be. no personalities whatsoever. anyone could've been saying those lines - and in some cases I think that's actually how the script works; whoever you have in slots 1-5 says lines 1-5, maybe with a little flavor by type. even as gacha games go, this story is bland, something that's kind of disappointing for such a story driven franchise. the events seem slightly higher quality, but if so, I think they should've spent a little more time on the main game.

the gameplay is like... fine. it's a match 3 game, and you certainly do. it's very unclear even within the story what your perspective is supposed to be? sometimes you're fighting heroes, or villains, or randoms. the rules of the game don't change but sometimes you're randomly going up against Nightwing. certain levels have you pick either the hero or the villain side, but the main levels seem to kind of throw you in at random. the dialogue, being pretty generic, doesn't help clarify things - essentially there are some bad guys who are so bad the heroes and villains have to join forces. normal fare, right? but who the villain is changes every few levels. for design reasons, i think, so it doesn't get boring to look at. there's no premise even.

it's also very buggy. I think it's new so they just haven't worked that out, but there are a lot of UI items shaped like links that are just not clickable, and the game freezes at random sometimes. also not always good at distinguishing when things are and aren't available. (it offered me a free pull for a while, but every time I tried to click it, it said I didn't have enough currency to use it.)

the art style here is kind of fun; it mostly uses familiar designs of characters rendered in a way that's recognizable as gacha genre, and I do like some of the designs, while having some serious problems with others. but the thing that really confused me about this was which characters are and aren't available.

there are multiple versions of Batman you can pull, which, okay, this is set in Gotham and branded as a Batman game, it makes sense that they'd load up Batfam members. except, wait. you can get Batman (multiple), Nightwing, and Robin (multiple, but both Damian)... but there's no Jason or Tim anywhere in here? Kate, yes, Selena, yes, Babs, yes, Harley Quinn, yes... not Steph or Cass, though. but! you can get Helena, for all you Helena fans.

another thing that's weird about it is. okay, so it's heroes and villains, but there's only like 100 options available at the moment. so obviously they haven't anywhere near run out of even very well known heroes and villains. so why are there so many randoms??? they don't even have names, they're just like "captain" "warrior" "royal guard" and certainly those exist within the wider DC universe but there are so many named characters I feel like you could've just gone for them? it wouldn't make a difference to the people gaming for high powered teams but it would be really enticing to people who just want to see Bao Pham their fave in a game.

especially with some of the designs. I mean, am I crazy or is this design based on Artemis? the hair seems oddly specific no?

and it's not even like they're worried people won't know because they put quotes up on screen attributed to all different characters (not all of them available at the moment, or possibly ever) including one from her. like honestly I feel like it would be more fun to name them even if they WERE supposed to be randoms unique to this game.

also I feel like if they'd had to name a character, they wouldn't have ended up with a final design like this...

it's pretty uncomfortable, right? like not giving them names is inherently dehumanizing but also I feel like someone should've been looking through the concept art. this one isn't as bad but I still think would've been caught if anyone was looking

and it's just kind of uncomfortable when there are named goons? every now and then someone writes a story about one and a lot of them are a lot of fun. and there's certainly no shortage of serial killers or other violent people. like you could've just used Zsazs. (Jackson, btw, is in here, but Garth isn't despite most of Dick's Teen Titans being represented... you could've just made any of the several Generic Atlantean designs Garth.)

I also object to so many cops on my team. like, yeah, I get it, the game wants to go with the genre fiction that cops are heroes and on our side... except it's set in Gotham, and it's well established that Gotham cops are corrupt, violent, and untrustworthy. even people who balk at the idea in real life accept it about Gotham! if you wanted cop characters anyway, I mean, there's several well known ones, and lots more to pick from. we could've had Detective Williams! we could've had individuals trying to fight the system! but no we get generic cop characters and also this line

I was lying when I said nothing was out of character. I just think the middle character might always say that no matter who's there. but still... Catwoman? the cat burglar????

like it's not all bad. we get some very cool designs for Joker Minions, which surprised me because usually they aren't interesting at all, even in the comics. the Joker isn't the main villain (or maybe he is? idk you fight a lot of things) but he's still there a bunch, I just really enjoyed looking at the designs of his goons. seem kind of Jokerz inspired, minus the cyberpunk tech

I did also really enjoy the Poison Ivy design. clearly from the movie, but changed to fit a mobile game. I don't feel like enough people incorporate plants into her design, so I really appreciated the fact that they took the time to give her bitey flowers. in the levels against her, she has even more plants as her minions! that was a nice touch. and I'm always a sucker for her costumes being made out of leaves and vines, which I think was done well here.

then of course, there's The Wall. now don't get me wrong she's my baby and I love it whenever she appears, and I do really enjoy this design. I feel like they managed to make her look both professional and like she's having fun with it - that expression is definitely plotting something. in line with my favorite Waller designs, anyway. but I'm also like... she's not that major of a character? I don't know why she'd get put in ahead of like. Booster. Static. Shazam. Steel? Black Canary??? Zatanna??????

I love that she's purple tho <3

in conclusion this game is bad and poorly planned out

[besiegedhunter]

Do you have any ideas about Lapplands BoC skin and her ties to Laterano? A few weeks ago there were official art of IL Siracusano and she was placed in some sort of ruins with beheaded statues again.

I don't have much confidence in any of them but I have had some thoughts.

Like, as of right now I don't think there's anything that particularly suggests that she has connections as of now with Laterano, it feels more thematic or foreshadowing a future plotline/beat.

It's safe to assume that they already had planned Siracusa's relationship with Laterano and Lappland's story with her Dad, seeing how CoB name dropped Signora Sicily and in the batch Lappland's skin came out with there were also Saria's and Executor's that reference Kristen and Arturia before their appearances in Records of Originium - Rhine Labs and Lingering Echoes.

And Lappland's Operator quote is: "Just pray. Pray that she'll listen to your orders."

But down to the skin itself, she wears it in Il Siracusano as opposed to her normal outfit and it very much feels like she wore it specifically because she's dealing with her Father. She didn't wear it for instance when dealing with Gambino and Capone on behalf of Signora Sicily, nor intended to meet her and has met Texas at Rhodes before. And I doubt she'd care what the other families would think either.

There's also that her Azione Solo, which highlights what her Father took from her, she's given a mission from him to collect a debt specifically.

Which is to say that it's likely him that she's gone to Laterano to deal with, which is odd as of now.

Signora Sicily has ties to Laterano. Suzuran's Mother could be explained to be hiding out in Laterano. Her Father however has the Saluzzo family, his reputation in Siracusa and as far as I know isn't the most devote person.

But then the skin's quote: "I told you, everything you took from me, I'll repay. In full." And what's the thing her files say she lost specifically? Her family.

So a random thought but I thought I'd look into the statues and one thing I came across was a practice the Romans had where they'd make a statue without a head, so that if the person the statue was made for lost their reputation, they could swap it out for someone else's head. You can imagine this for Roman Emperors for instance.

Through the perspective of Alberto, we know he had a reputation in Siracusa, a family, but for him to be in Laterano apart from his family it's probable he lost his reputation, perhaps due to Lappland's doing.

Like with Saria's BoC, maybe we'll see how this happened in Lappland's event. I do feel the connection between the skin and Alberto made in Il Siracusano is significant.

But on symbolism and themes, I think the connection between Lappland and Signora Sicily is interesting. Perhaps also Alberto's clear connection to the Godfather.

What I mean by this is Signora Sicily melded Laterano's customs with Siracusa. Agenir may be the strongest connecting point but she is the one who pulled the two together. And from To Be Continued and Il Siracusano, we see that Lappland has a very curious relationship with Signora Sicily, the one who brought Laterano into the picture.

And Lappland opposes Signora Sicily, the head of Siracusa and it's fiercest protector. But Laterano and Lateran faith may be another she's propped up to oppose in a way.

For instance, wolves have a lot of symbolism in Christianity, or in general as a threat to livestock. And while Il Siracusano does set the groundwork for themes pertaining to this, imo they don't do much more than that. The Lateran faith's significance is in it's Legal system. The violence contrasts civilization. That's the important notes for the story.

But! For Lappland to be this wolf, integrally tied to violence and savagery, who's opposed to Signora Sicily, herself a wolf but one using the Lateran faith to tame those parts of Siracusa. And for Alberto to end up in Laterano in Lappland's Bloodline of Combat skin which depicts her, sword bloody, two angels behind her, coins strewn across the floor at a Laterano building.

I can picture something being made from all of this. That imagine deciding to include those statues, again with the ties I believe they're making between the skin and Alberto, could be serving to remind us further of it.

But that's as much as I can pull out and they could go in other directions or reveal already existing connections. Hope this is suitable.

[amberduan-ual]

Art In Site Launch Presentation (16/2/23)

Notes

 “I hate those lonely, winding corridors–empty of people…”

 bring ppl back into the spaces with photography and color

> also integrated visual language into wayfinding

> includes experiences from actual child patients

colorcoding the floors

“NHS staff experience many cases of aggression”

develop visual language in wayfinding scheme so it can communicate universally

> many ppl who enter the hospital do not speak english as their first language

> simplify wayfinding language as well

testimonials from staff say that artwork helps contribute to reduction of violence and aggression

> patient flow increased, children’s trust in doctors increased, etc

children often don’t know what’s going to happen to them, which can be overwhelming and contribute to long-term phobias

> using storytelling (comics) to show what a hospital experience is like

making sure storytelling is also accessible to ppl with different abilities

“deprived of play, the child is a prisoner”

play can also help staff diagnose what may be wrong with a patient, what areas are in pain

transform a scary experience into something exciting!

glow in the dark designs, art on the ceiling, etc

 “above all what matters is to not lose the joy of living in the fear of dying”

maggie centres, incorporating beautiful interior design into spaces for cancer patients

bringing lighting into underground spaces where there’s no natural light

four categories: mental health, emergency, children’s, general/other

 mental health > space should inspire ppl to get better > enclosed spaces where patients can’t leave should feel homely and welcoming emergency > process things are happening all the time, etc children's general/other

things to consider: applications and art locations where to integrate art and design? > elevator, ceiling, doors? community > who are they, what do they need symbolism and narrative! > how does it tie into the local area, its culture and heritage > wildflowers in the Olympic Stadium area constraints of the environment > fire regulations, robustness, infection control

come up with a concept that pulls everything together in a simple idea

your deliverable: bring your creative concept to life in poster form (A2 size)

include some text, perhaps a couple paragraphs title (try for smth poetic, convincing) quote from someone related to the healthcare sector?

Actionable Items: look at the Art in Site website do some research into statistics and such choose a section to focus on

The launch presentation from Peter Shenai was really inspiring and I could feel how passionate he was about bringing human-centric art/design to hospital places. The brainstorm session afterwards was really helpful for generating ideas and widening my perspective on the possible scope of my direction. This project is definitely closest to my heart in comparison to the Handsome Frank and Chatty Feet briefs because I believe that art should be able to directly impact and benefit people. Using creativity to help others is something I think we as artists should always be thinking about and seeking opportunities for, in addition to our own artistic expression.

Personally, I don’t have much experience of being in hospitals myself (besides the time I was born) but I’ve had loved ones close to me stay in hospitals. In high school, I had a friend who was diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer that affects the bone marrow. When she was hospitalized at our local children’s hospital for long-term chemotherapy, I remember sending her daily drawings to try and cheer her up, to remind her that people outside the hospital were thinking about her and cared for her. She unfortunately passed away my second year of high school but I still think about her often, and this project made me think about how long she was in the hospital and whether or not she was comfortable in her environment there. Recently, my grandfather contracted Covid19 in China and was admitted to urgent care. Since my family lives in the United States, we were unable to visit him in the hospital ourselves. My uncle who was able to be by my grandfather’s side video-called my mother often while in the hospital, and the few glimpses I saw of the hospital environment were sterile and metallic, white and unfeeling. It seems like the area my grandfather was in was a temporary setup because of the overwhelming surge in Covid cases in China in the last few months. My grandfather passed away while in this environment and while I’m glad that my uncle was able to be with him, I wish that he could’ve spent his last moments somewhere with a little touch of humanity and love. If not at home, then at least in a space designed to comfort. If we can improve patients’ lives even a little bit with our art, then we should try to do so as best we can. 

I’m interested in how space and geography can influence our thoughts and behaviors, especially with the goal of comforting and enriching. When we step foot into a room we immediately make a judgment about the atmosphere and vibe of it. A room with “bad vibes” could be lit with harsh white lights or flickering bulbs, the furniture arranged haphazardly, given little to zero decoration or furnishing, furnished with echoey material, or a number of other factors that impact our experience of a space. We should consider the purpose and intention of a space, who and how people will be using/moving through it, and the opportunities it presents while designing. 

I quite like the idea of integrating the environment and community outside the hospital with its interior design, since patients can often feel like they’re being cut off from the external world during their stay. I think it could present opportunities to ground people while they’re going through a difficult time and remind them of their life outside of the experience. I’d like to do more research on the impacts of art in benefiting patients’ moods as well as lowering rates of aggressive behavior. On the flip side, I think medical staff could also stand to greatly benefit from well designed healthcare spaces. Our healthcare workers go through such demanding and often extended work hours, often experiencing high levels of stress as well. Doctors have such a high degree of burnout and rate of depression, so being able to help them as well would be a good factor to consider when approaching my project. 

There’s a lot of directions that I could go into with this project so I think I’ll follow a double-diamond sort of approach to find my solution. I’d like to do a large amount of research and consider my options before really narrowing in on the context and framing of my project so I don’t overlook anything. Also, I’m not a healthcare professional, so it’d be good just to get my bearings and inform myself on this topic instead of assuming anything. The brief that Peter sent seems really informative and has links to a lot of research which will definitely be a good start on where to look.

[wizzard890]

how do you deal with liking an author's work when you find out the author has done something shitty/harmful? i found out yesterday that hilary mantel made terf-y comments and i'm (what feels like) unreasonably devastated. thought you might have a good perspective on this, thx.

There are two questions here, as I perceive it. So I'll answer both, separately.

1.. You're basically asking how to separate the art from the artist. This is a question that has been litigated to death, but my thoughts are blessedly short: you decide it for yourself. If someone has done something or holds opinions that irrevocably color your opinion of their work, that can be all there is to it. How you choose to engage with art is your own business, and so are the things you think are a bridge too far. However, we all should appreciate that other people don't have the same cut off points as we do, and let them navigate their own feelings in peace.

2. A few things, right off the top. At this point, TERFs are a fascist hate movement. They're no longer exclusionists, or uncomfortable, or confused, or asking bigoted questions. They're like (and often allied with) Nazis: their goal is to suppress and destroy people in order to make the world fall into line with their politics. A seventy year old woman getting her dander slightly up about The (British media's largely fictional) Gender Wars is not the same thing as TERF apologism. I understand that it can be upsetting to see an author whose work you love espouse views you feel are self-evidently wrong, but at this point we need to be very very clear about what it means to be a TERF. What we could call "terf-y comments" in 2013 are a world away from what TERFs have become.

With that said, I'd like to take a look at the comments in question, which I'm quite familiar with. I've thought about them a lot.

(They're all from this interview in la Repubblica, a centrist Italian newspaper, if anyone wants to play along at home.)

The conversation is wide ranging, but eventually the questions begin to hone in on nationalism and the state of the country, and the interviewer asks Mantel about the future for women in the UK.

You are also a great example and symbol for all the women in this country and worldwide. Are you optimistic about the future of women’s equality? Mantel: "I would say, as I did above, that from where I stand, the world seems to be getting better. But I would hardly feel that if I were a young Afghan."

This response reaffirms Mantel's attitude in the larger piece: she approaches liberal ideas of progress with a grain of salt, and emphasizes that the world does not improve for all people at the same rate or through the same means.

The interviewer then pivots somewhat sharply into a question about JK Rowling.

From the point of view of a woman, what’s your opinion on the TERF-accusations against your colleague JK Rowling? I recently interviewed Margaret Atwood and she defended her. What’s your opinion about all this?

Mantel's answer is long, and has therefore been pull-quoted by all sorts of people in all sorts of different ways. So let's break it down a section at a time. First, her response to the direct query about Rowling:

Mantel: I have never met JK Rowling, but I know her to be a woman who has brought much pleasure and done much good. I think the attacks on her were unjustified and shameful. It is barbaric that a tiny minority should take command of public discourse and terrify those who disagree with them.

So here's the thing. JK Rowling has brought much pleasure and done much good. Does this uncouple her from the fascist shitheels she pals around with? Absolutely not. But we are on Tumblr, we all know how much joy people have taken from her books. It's also a matter of public record that Rowling has been very generous with her wealth.

She also has been viciously harassed online. This was happening long before she went full TERF, when she was circling the top of the radicalization funnel, liking gross tweets and "just asking questions." I understand why some people, especially trans and GNC people who have a fraction, a skerrick of the power JK Rowling has, lashed out at her when they saw her teetering at the top of that long drop. She was deluged with threats of murder, rape, and violence.

Two things are true at once.

One: JK Rowling's decision to loudly side with a hate movement is hers and hers alone. It is her responsibility and her inexcusable moral failing.

Two: a woman who has been a victim of domestic violence and sexual assault getting inundated with online harassment absolutely sucks. The fact that it happened at a delicate point in the radicalization process, and at the hands of people she associates with the entire trans rights movement, likely shut off some routes that might have been used to reach her.

What a shitty, ugly situation all around. But, returning to Mrs. Mantel, it is worth remembering: this is a shitty, ugly, very online situation all around.

The legacy media has covered Rowling's harassment. Beloved author devoured by her own fans! That's news. Online radicalization and the struggles of the trans community? Less so.

Mantel is famously analogue. She has no internet presence, and used a typewriter for comms with her editor at The London Review of Books until the mid-aughts. She presumably knows about JK Rowling what your grandma knows about JK Rowling: she wrote the Harry Potter books, and used that money to become a famous philanthropist. People on the internet are harassing her for -- vague reasons, reasons that those big articles in the Guardian never quite manage to explore in depth.

What does Hilary Mantel know about cancel culture? The same thing, again, that your grandma does, because that's the moment of moral panic we're in. This doesn't come from exclusively right wing sources, either. You know what The New York Times writes, you can find ten fuckin...coastal media listicles on this shit right now.

Cancel Culture, as a concept, is an amorphous blob of lies (trigger warnings are for kids who Just Can't Handle Shakespeare), actual infighting (the cultural elite just can't decide whether watching a movie about about rape makes you a rapist), and the complex rendered flatly as possible (someone said that abortion is in many ways a women's issue and now everyone is screaming at one another). And then this whole blob is just thrown, undifferentiated and sensationalized, into the opinion sections of every newspaper in Britain and the United States.

What a seventy year old woman is going to glean from this pearl clutching from the papers of record, rightly or wrongly, is that a small group is taking "command of public discourse and [terrifying] those who disagree with them."

Is that what happened with JK Rowling's harassment? It's more complicated than that. But you know what else is more complicated than that? An elderly woman's uncertainty as to whether gains that she fought for, struggles she lived with, will be elided by a fast moving world with no grace for nuance. I think you can see a genuinely confused and defensive human moment in the second part of Mantel's answer to the interviewer, something that makes me take her comments in much better faith:

"I recently found myself ‘misgendered.’ I received a university publication, with news items relating to alumni, where I was referred to as ‘they,’ not ‘she.’ My books were ‘their books.’ I wasn’t singled out – the other alumni were similarly treated. I thought, ‘Being a woman means a lot to me. My sense of it has been tested. I have thought deeply about it. I value it, even though it has meant struggle and pain. I do not want my womanhood confiscated in print. It is not right to deprive an individual of identity on a whim, and make him or her into something neuter, plural. I have not given my consent to become a grammatical error."

You see this sentiment a lot with older women. You see it with Gen X and Boomer lesbians. You see it with second wave feminists who have fought for reproductive justice. Women who have had to really fucking knock their heads against a brick wall in the mid-20th century, trying to establish themselves as creatives or career people or someone who wanted to have a fucking abortion, or a lesbian who didn't want to give dick a chance because who knows she might Change Her Mind. Being a woman means a lot to them. Accomplishing what they have, as women, means a lot to them.

I have empathy for her dismay at seeing herself misrepresented, especially in such a top-down way, from a university publication that was clearly covering its ass rather than reaching out to the authors in question to discern their pronouns.

Unfortunately this adds fuel to that Cancel Culture moral panic: you will not have a say in how you are understood or perceived, you will have something personal and intimate about yourself dictated to you by a group that does not know you and cares for you only insomuch as you acquiesce to their worldview.

(Note: this is what trans people go through at the hands of a cis-oriented culture every day.)

Older women have been through a lot, and I want us to remember that they can and should be our allies. Often all it takes is for someone to explain to them what the trans rights movement actually is. Away from splashy newspaper articles and the shit that they have swimming in our brains that we heard somewhere once and take as unconfirmed but emotionally urgent concerns. If a person is, overall, thoughtful and compassionate, I think it's best to extend a hand to them in good faith, and see what can be achieved with dialogue.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I was born fully formed with a nuanced and evolved and sensitive understanding of trans people or their struggles or the social aims of their justice movement. I'm not going to pretend I had one five years ago. Or even now. I'm just trying my best here, and I only can because people who knew more than I did gave me the benefit of the doubt when I said dumb shit.

So, in conclusion, how do I feel safe saying that Hilary Mantel is thoughtful and compassionate, and would hopefully respond well to a larger conversation about trans rights? Here is an answer she provided earlier in the interview, to a question about racial justice:

Do you think Britain and England are places of “systemic racism” as Black Lives Matter and other activists say? Is England more racist than in the past? Mantel: "To me – but what would I know? – it seems that we are going in the right direction, and most people aren’t as racist or misogynistic as they were  when I was growing up. But once sexual and racial discrimination are ‘baked in’ to a country’s opinions and institutions, it takes generations to scrub them out; language may be made over, but real-world change takes longer. I fully concede that the changes may be cosmetic, and I have great sympathy with those who say radical action is needed."

That seems to me like a promising person.

[percabeth4life]

An In Depth Analysis and Review of Heroines of Olympus: The Women of Greek Mythology By Dr. Ellie Mackin Roberts

Dr. Ellie Mackin Roberts Qualifications: Lecturer in Classics (Part-time) at King’s College London Research Associate (Contract) at Institute of Classical Studies, University of London Doctor of Philosophy-PhD, Classics: Thesis: Echoes of the Underworld: Manifestations of Death-related Gods in Early Greek Cult and Literature Master of Arts-MA, Classics, High Distinction: Thesis: The Initiation of Orestes in Aischylos’s Eumenides Bachelor of Arts with Honours- BA(Hons), Classics, First class Honours: Thesis: Colonisation as a Pretext for Ritual Purification [in Ancient Greece]

Obviously, Dr. Ellie Roberts is very qualified in her field, and well learned. But, I feel her piece Heroines of Olympus: The Women of Greek Mythology does not reflect this knowledge of hers.

From an overview standpoint, the book just doesn’t have the space to do what she’s aiming to do.

The book states it is

[providing] an indispensable contemporary perspective on these extraordinary women” (summary)

and yet each woman only has 4 pages dedicated to them. Of these 4 pages, 1 is an illustration (not always accurate to mythical descriptions re: Andromeda who is portrayed white when she is black and stated such in mythos).

The 1st page given in these individual sections are a blurb, commonly pulled from part of their mythos, but not an accurate one. Take the blurb on Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt). The myth itself gives a very serious feel to this piece, showcasing Artemis as a Goddess seeking to have her requests granted by Zeus, but the blurb the book gives has a very childish feel.

Artemis in the mythos focuses on the benefits of her requests, and assures her father she does not want too much

“Father, I ask thee not for a quiver or for a mighty bow: for the Kyklopes will straightway fashion arrows and fashion me a well-bent bow” Callimachus, Hymn 3

but the Artemis of the book does no such reassurance

“I want a bow and straight-shooting arrows” pg 32

In addition, in the mythos Artemis treats her duty to women as the patron of childbirth seriously

“I will visit only when women vexed by t he sharp pang of childbirth call me to their aid—even in the hour when I was born the Moiari ordained that I should be their helper” Callimachus, Hymn 3

but in the book she acts displeased and sulks

“Suddenly, a gloomy look came over the child’s face as she said ‘And also because the Moirai […] decided that I should be the one who has to look after childbirth” pg 32

Most of the blurbs in the 1st page are not so clearly pulled directly from paraphrasing the myths, some are more akin to summaries, but brief and missing many details (Athena, Cassandra, Echo, etc). Others are more akin to imagining what the person(s) may have thought or felt in particular moments (Echidna and Scylla, Erinyes, Hermione, etc). None of these pieces hold exact quotes or explanations for the meanings of them.

These blurbs are clearly meant to give more feeling to them, but the feeling given is one very different from the myth they are coming from, and I feel it gives an inaccurate portrayal of the beings spoken of.

The 2nd page of the 4 given pages is an illustration, done predominately in orange and black each illustration is simple and done in a simple line art style. While it is more than understandable for these to not be perfectly accurate representations, seeing how a full page of the 4 given to each woman is dedicated to it, I would wish for these to properly support the figure shown. And yet, at the very least Andromeda is inaccurately portrayed.

She is from Ethiopia and stated in her myths to have “dusky” skin (Ovid, Heroides 15.3), particularly noted to be in contrast to that of Perseus and compared to pigeons being with those of different colored feathers. But the artwork shown of her makes her feel fair skinned, in direct contrast to Atlanta who is given a black predominate appearance and appears as a POC (showing it is a purposeful choice to portray her as such).

It should be noted that while all the women have four pages dedicated to them, this holds the exception of Echo, who only holds the blurb and the illustration. There are no additional pages for her.

The 3rd and 4th pages are dedicated to a brief overview of their lives. For every single woman they have solely 2 pages to showcase their whole lives, this is understandably impossible.

Some of the women don’t have much information in mythology and ergo can be summarized quickly. Others, such as the major Goddesses mentioned… well they have a lot more to them than are portrayed.

As Dr. Roberts has written a thorough article on the Peplos and it’s purpose in the worship of Athena (Weaving for Athena: The Arrhephoroi, Panathenaia, and Mundane Acts of Religious Devotion) I will be using Athena’s article for this analysis (as she is clearly fairly informed on Athena and ergo should be able to put proper information here).  

Athena’s piece covers her birth in the blurb at the top of the 3rd page, and then quickly covered the realms she ruled over (though only the most predominate of them). It spoke then of her nature (calm and inclined to peace when possible) and her skills (a great fighter), along with what she had done for humanity (teaching men military tactics and mathematics, and teaching women to spin yarn, weave cloth, and to cook). It then covers her being a perpetual maiden, by choice, and here is where it drifts.

The stories are supposed to cover the women, to showcase their achievements and glory, and yet her piece turns to focusing on the child Erichthonius, the result of Hephaestus attempting to seduce her (and failing). The next half page (of 2 pages) covers the child resulting of this, and those that she entrusted the child too and the result of this. This is a gross waste of space that could be covering her mythos, victories, worship, or history.

After that is the myth of Arachne, though lacking in the context and calling Athena jealous of Arachne, when in actuality the Arachne myth covers how Arachne disrespected Athena several times, despite Athena attempting to give her a pass and a path to forgiveness.

Finally, it ends covering her olive tree in Athens, which is a neat closing. (pg. 42-43)

Overall, this piece just does not cover Athena as a whole. It is very very brief, covering one myth in more detail than the rest (and not one focusing on Athena herself) and then portrays Athena badly for actions that were done to one showing great hubris despite being given mercy. The portrayal does not properly showcase the Goddess Athena, and is akin to a quick wiki article, with all the innacuracies that come with it.

This style is repeated with other articles in the book, Artemis notable in how the myth of Callisto is treated as a great cruelty of Athena, rather than a complex tragedy (and the myth has many versions, none of which have Artemis knowing that Callisto unwillingly or through trickery gave up her virginity to Zeus).

And even on top of that, some of the claims in the summary pages are from obscure mythos, with little actually supporting it. Such as the claim that Amphitrite cursed Scylla to be what she is. This only has the support of a single Scholia of the Aeneid, with about 6 other sources claiming Scylla was born a monster, and another 2 claiming she was transformed by Circe.

Another issue of these pieces is that despite the purpose being to highlight the women’s accomplishments, many of them cover the men around the women just as much if not more so. In normal mythological pieces this is rather expected, as the myths are written in a fairly sexist time period and ergo the men have more victory (though this varies depending on the myth). But in a book supposed to highlight the women of the myths? It is a shame and undermines the purpose of the book.

Overall, I was disappointed by the book and wish that it was longer with more information, and in particular proper sourcing. It does not give women the spotlight expected, and has a habit of demonizing the Goddesses mentioned without consideration of the intent of the actions or the time period they were written in. On top of that, there is a lack of recognition of difference in terminology meaning, such as the term rape, which meant to have a sexual relation without permission of the Father in that time period. The woman’s consent mattered little to the definition, but she treats it as the modern term through her writing.

[framecaught]

Cataloguing Homestuck’s Art Styles

Hussie deploys a number of distinct art styles throughout Homestuck, each serving different purposes in the narrative. A number of these, especially those mentioned in the published book series’ author commentary, have been catalogued in the Homestuck wiki [1]. These officially named styles are well-known enough to appear in quora answers. However, Homestuck employs a much larger variety of stylistic manipulations than explicitly mentioned in the book commentary or wiki. While scanning through the comic again for this project, I wanted to catalogue the rest of them! 

This post constitutes a working list of all distinct art styles present in Homestuck. I’ve chosen not to include the distinct styles of the fanartists/outside artists who contributed to the comic; that will be a project for another day. As far as I know, this list only comprises the different styles Hussie develops throughout the comic. I have tried to bring a degree of specific formal analysis (also known as art-historical language) into my description of each style.

1. “Classic” Style

Page 1 of Homestuck

Page 1349 of Homestuck

Page 4227 of Homestuck

The “Classic” Homestuck style appears on the first page of the comic. Although not officially described by the wiki, it is widely understood as the comic’s typical graphic norm. Characters have simplified faces and clothes, and they frequently lack arms. Elements are often outlined in a black stroke, especially to differentiate them from other adjacent, similarly-colored elements. In more colorful panels, scenery may be made up of solid blocks with bright colors. Sprites (base character illustrations) and elements are repurposed from panel to panel in new combinations. Homestuck even takes up the repurposing of sprites as a gag, as in page 1349 above where the ability to flip one’s sprite allows Noir to regain his lost wrist barcode.

This style obviously shares characteristics with Hussie’s style in Problem Sleuth. General characteristics that frequently appear in Hussie’s art are present, such as circular faces and rounded edges on quadrilaterals. The Classic Style umbrella actually covers the broadest range of visuals out of any style catalogued here. The uber-simplistic sprites, such as John on page 1, have typically been lumped in with, for example, the illustration on the cover of Homestuck Book 1, or the two other examples I pulled for this post. So, in the Classic Style, characters can sometimes appear with arms, sometimes without, and in outfits of varying detail, but they retain the same facial features and simplistic quality. The circular facial shape is especially characteristic of this style, along with the lack of a neck. The neck-less quality, static poses, and simplistic detail chiefly differentiate some instances of Classic Style from Hero Mode, though there are still some grey areas.

2. Scribble Mode

Page 1931 of Homestuck

Page 1937 of Homestuck

Page 1798 of Homestuck

Page 3140 of Homestuck

This style is recognized by the Homestuck wiki, which describes it as emphasizing “a particularly silly/stupid moment in the story, particularly those to be imagined by a character.” That is to say, this style often denotes imagined scenarios which do not actually occur in the comic but instead in a character’s imagination, and especially those which form the butt of jokes. It is also employed simply to highlight silliness. This style is constructed to appear as if the author has “scribbled” rapidly between the outlines of forms to fill in color, creating gaps in those forms. Generally, strokes are made to seem more careless, and less detail is used. While the style is meant to mimic a scribbling motion, it does not always end up crude or parodic. For example, in this “charming vignette” (in Hussie’s words) depicting the Mayor’s dream, the scribble style actually illustrates a remarkably beautiful and almost impressionistic series of panels. Although the dream vignette has certain obvious scribbley elements and certainly depicts an imagined scenario, I would argue that it combines aspects of both Scribble Mode and Hussnasty Mode (#4 in this post) throughout.

I have also identified two distinct styles within the Scribble Mode umbrella. One always uses a thin, apparently single-pixel-wide black line to outline forms, while the other uses a thicker stroke for both its filling and outline. You can see the difference between these in the four examples I’ve pulled; they are sometimes even combined within one single Scribble Mode panel.

3. Hero Mode

Page 1815 of Homestuck

Page 2063 of Homestuck

Hero Mode was officially named as such by Hussie. The Homestuck wiki page describes it as cropping up to “emphasize a particularly epic moment in the story.” Hussie originally called the style “action panels” before hitting upon the current name, emphasizing the link to action scenes and dynamic poses. Along with dynamic posing, characters are drawn in greater detail and tend to have elongated limbs. Some crossover can be seen between Hero Mode and Hussnasty Mode. I would argue that characters in Hero Mode usually retain the original style’s characteristic lack of a neck, while Hussnasty Mode often adds one. Compared with the Classic style, Hero Mode always adds arms. The degree to which Hero Mode drawings include the “hatching-type effect” characteristic of Hussnasty Mode varies from panel to panel. The difference between Hero Mode and Classic Mode can be observed clearly on these two pages, where Damara shifts between the two styles at the behest of Scratch, who asks her to “render [herself] in a more symbolic manner.”

The wiki asserts that “Hero Mode dispenses with the black outline that typifies sprite-style animation and scribble mode,” but I don’t think it can actually be characterized as the only lineless style. Scribble Mode and Hussnasty Mode also sometimes feature a lineless graphic style depending on which part of a character is being depicted, or the need for a line to differentiate two features of a similar color. A willingness to move between lined and lineless blocks of color characterizes Hussie’s art as a whole.

4. Hussnasty Mode

Page 2805 of Homestuck

Page 2976 of Homestuck

This art style is also named by the author. In his commentary on page 2805, he writes: “Someone asked me what I called the style, and I replied by naming it "Hussnasty Mode" myself, because well… it's a bit nasty, isn't it? Kind of raw, a little over-illustrated, and making use of a lot of jagged aliased pixel edges for a hatching-type effect. It was sort of the point to make it a little nasty, kind of aggressively incongruous with the other styles previously established.” This quote sums up the style’s characteristics pretty well. Hussie also describes how this style is more naturalistic, or less symbolic, and was meant to work in direct contrast to the extremely symbolic RPG Sprite Mode. He writes that “drawings like this are introduced in contrast with this simple RPG sprite mode, which was also established very recently as something that Homestuck was "allowed" to use as a stylistic presentation of characters and settings… Every time HS does something like this, it's widening its own umbrella in terms of what it's allowed to do stylistically, which includes dramatically simplifying and abstracting its forms. Which implicitly asks another question: Can HS "allow" itself to go in the other direction? To render characters with higher degrees of definition, regardless of congruity, and freely navigate this full artistic palette at any time, resulting in sharp stylistic contrast and a certain amount of visual thrashing? The answer to that question, almost immediately after it's asked in the form of dropping RPG-sprite Rose into a standard panel shot, is yes, HS can do that, and clearly it WILL do that.”

5. RPG Sprite Mode

Page 2804 of Homestuck

Page 2824 of Homestuck

Despite being officially described by the author, RPG Sprite Mode hasn’t gained much representation as a distinct style (it does not have a wiki page, for example). This style appears after Homestuck’s first walk-around game, now incorporated as a style for static or gif panels. After their joint introduction, this style is juxtaposed against the Hussnasty style. The quotes pulled above in the section on Hussnasty Mode nicely describe the contrast between these two styles and their greater impact on Homestuck’s graphic norms. RPG Sprite Mode always shows characters from an aerial view, mimicking the style of the first walk-around game, which in turn mimics a wealth of RPG sprite games (such as the original Pokemon games). Sprites from these sorts of early games can be characterized by their almost pointillistic use of individual pixels to carefully construct forms.

6. Terezi’s Perspective

Page 2756 of Homestuck

Page 2128 of Homestuck

This style hasn’t been officially described yet. It only crops up as a representation of Terezi’s perspective, conveying some of her experience tasting and smelling colors. While it only appears a few times in the comic, I think it is uniquely visually interesting, and it includes “blurring” techniques which are only rarely employed in the rest of the comic. I’d guess that the effect is created by layering low-opacity strokes over one another and then sliding the different layers’ opacity up and down.

7. SBAHJ Style

Page 8 of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff

Page 3451 of Homestuck

The SBAHJ comic, featured both within Homestuck and as a spin-off, has its own recognizable style. In the first few pages it has a lot of commonalities with Homestuck’s two versions of Scribble Mode, but later takes on distinct characteristics. It can be characterized in part by its image clipping, an effect where an element is made to look like it has been selected within a square box (in MS Paint or Photoshop) and dragged around the page with little care for the size and accuracy of the selection box. Commenting on page 3451, Hussie describes this effect as follows: “In the SBaHJ comics, one of my cool tactics—which I'm almost positive I invented as a sequential artist—was to elaborately render someone ‘turning around’ by taking one shot of them and gradually altering the pose by crudely rectangle-selecting pieces of their face and nudging them around until they're facing the other way in a totally unconvincing and utterly hideous manner.” Different from Scribble Mode, the SBAHJ style also frequently features blocks of color that appear to be filled with the “paint bucket” tool. When the paint bucket tool is used to fill anti-aliased stokes, it creates a small transparent space between the filling and the original outline, visible in the SBAHJ graphics. Finally, SBAHJ comes to include image compression and glitching, created through “deep frying” compression techniques. Overall, the breadth of manipulative techniques made apparent to the viewer in SBAHJ is much greater than any other style. SBAHJ panels are reproduced wholesale or hyperlinked in Homestuck, but on these two pages Gamzee is also drawn in the SBAHJ style.

8. Caliborn’s Styles

Page 5075 of Homestuck (hyperlinked in pesterlog)

Page 6259 of Homestuck

Page 6929 of Homestuck

Page 6864 of Homestuck

While Calliope’s in-world art was contributed by Shelby Cragg, Hussie gives Caliborn has three styles of his own. The first is his “angular” style, which Calliope aptly characterizes on page 5109 as containing “inscrutable squiggles” and demonstrating a “penchant for arbitrary, completely baffling straight lines and right angles, almost as if trying unsuccessfully to begin constructing a grid.” The second is the style he uses in Homosuck, which retains elements of his original “baffling right angles” but generally takes on the black outlines characteristic of Homestuck’s Classic style, while employing even cruder detail. Finally, after reading a “How to Draw Manga” book, he develops his “manga” style which uses black strokes, somewhat messy coloring (usually with the paint-bucket tool), and shows an attempt at naturalistic representation despite a complete lack of understanding of human anatomy. This style is specifically meant to emulate manga styles, so it features the characteristic white dots as highlights in the eyes, among other features.

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As becomes apparent through Hussie’s commentary, the different art styles employed in Homestuck do more than just emphasize certain moments; they form part of the comic’s visual language and ask us to question our understanding of graphic representation. The scope of this post also illustrates the attention paid to Homestuck’s visual elements throughout the story’s production and within its readership, even if these visual distinctions have received less attention in scholarship. Despite the variety of styles, we can see Hussie’s characteristic artistic tools, techniques, and sensibilities reflected across the comic. 

If you find any styles recurring in the comic that I haven’t mentioned here, feel free to shoot me a message! Again, I haven’t included styles from other contributors; only those developed and drawn by Hussie.

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As we approach the close of the semester, I’ll probably be putting out one more post sometime soon! If you liked this post, you can follow the blog on tumblr for updates or, if you don’t frequent tumblr, sign up for the mailing list to receive an email whenever I publish a new mini-essay!

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[1] These include Hussnasty Mode, Scribble Mode, and Hero Mode.

[postmodernbeing]

Shingeki no Kyojin headcanons: 104th training corps (College AU)

Hello, Postmodernbeing here. This time I wanted to write about things that I actually know, since I’m a college student and I’m studing History and Social Sciences I found myself wondering about what would the 104th training corps focus their studies on if all of them had chosen humanities as their career. I hope you find this funny and at least a bit accurate.

IMPORTANT:  I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin, only these HCs are my own. // Might contain a few spoilers from the manga. // English is not my first language and I study uni at Latin America, so scientifical terms/words/concepts may vary. Anyhow, I thank you for reading and for your patience.

Eren Jaeger

He’s passionate about Military History, not to be confused with history of army. Eren’s rather focused in strategies, weapons and semiotics involved in military speech.

First started with books about great wars in modern era. The use of certain weapons took him by surprise due the technological development.

Then he took classes about discourse analysis, semiotics and such, and felt inspired by the discourse reflected in emblems, uniforms, flags, etc.

Eren doesn’t really have a preference between occidental or oriental, North or South, Modern or Ancient settings. He would simply devour all the books that deal with military strategy and warlike conflicts. Although he has more experience and information about great wars in modern era.

He’s fascinated with the inexhaustible human desire of freedom and the extent that it can reach. This fascination might not be very healthy, he concludes.

Also, finds a cruel beauty in violence when showed in freedom and ideals are protected over one’s own life. But he won’t tell his classmates or professors. He knows is a controversial opinion for he’s still aware the implications of massive conflicts and the abuse of power.

One thing led to another, Eren is now taking classes and reading about philosophy in war and anthropological perspectives about violence through time.

He’s so into social movements besides his main interest in college: “No one’s really free until all humanity is”, that’s his life motto pretty much.

Due his readings and researches he decided it was important to develop a political stance about the world’s problems. Eren strongly believes all lives worth the same, but systems and nations had imposed over others and vulnerated other human's lives.

Yes, Eren is anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist.

Mikasa Ackerman

Asian Studies Major / History Minor.

She thinks by studying these degrees, she pays honor to her heritage. Specially to her mother. Her family is the proudest for Mikasa is also the best student in her whole generation.

Mikasa received a scholarship thanks to Azumabito family, who are co-founders of an academic institution dedicated to Asian historical and cultural research. She might as well start working when she graduates.

Although she’s passionate about Japan’s history, she has written a few articles and essays about Asian Studies themselves and the importance of preserving but also divulging by means of art and sciences.

In her essays and research work, she likes to employ tools from many disciplines since she strongly believes all humanities and social sciences serve the very same purpose at scrutinize the social reality all the same. Might as well use demographics, ethnology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, archeology, and so on. For it proves to bring light into questions that history by itself could answer unsatisfactorily (in Mikasa’s opinion).

Even her professors wonder how she manages to organize that much information and pull it off successfully. She might as well be more brilliant than a few PhD’s students.

Armin Arlert

Prehistoric studies / Archeology

He’s so into the studies about the prehistoric humans and routes of migration.

Passionate about the ocean and natural wonders since kid, Armin believed his career would be environmentalist or geoscience related.

That was the agreement he had with his grandad since middleschool, until he read Paul Rivet’s “The Origins of the American Man” book and captured him thoroughly. The way the book explained logically the diverse theories about global migration and enlisted the challenges of modern archeology -for there are numerous mysteries- simply devoured his conscience.

He knew from the books he’d read that most evidence of the first settlements are deep under dirt or far away in the ocean whose level has risen over the centuries leaving primitive camps – and answers – unreachable. 

That’s the reason he is so eager to study and give his best to contribute both archeology and history disciplines. Also, he’ll forever love the ocean and nature, just leave him do all the fieldwork, please.

Jean Kirstein

History of industry / Industrial heritage / Historical materialism

Jean first started interested in capitalist industries and production development in first world countries. Kind of rejected other visions and explanations since he’d read about positivism studies.

His interest in such matters started when he was a just boy. He often found himself wondering how things were made and that question captured him ever since. As he grew up, he realized that machines and industrial processes were highly involved in the most mundane objects creation.

Nonetheless, he learnt that not always the best machinery was used, nor the best work conditions were available for mass production. From that moment he’d started to read about the First Industrial Revolution and his mind just took off with questions. Invariably, he learned about labour struggle and the transforming power due workforce.

Between his readings and university classes, he’d knew more about labour movements, unions. And in the theoretical aspect, he'd learned about historical materialism analysis.

One could say that Jean possesses a humanistic vision of the implications in mass production under capitalist system along history and nowadays.

Marco Bodt

Royalty's history / Medieval Studies 

I wanted to keep his canonical fascination to royalty and the best way to do that was including Medieval Studies.

Marco would study since the fall of Roman Empire until the latest gossip of royal families all across Europe.

Might get a bit of Eurocentric with his essays but in real life discussions he’s always open to debates about decolonization. He has even read Frantz Fanon books and possesses a critical thinking about colonial countries and their relations with the so named third world.

Nevertheless, Marco finds a strange beauty in the lives of monarchs and he’s interested in study from their education, hobbies, strategies, relationships, everything.

I’d say that his favorite historical period is probably the establishment of the descendants of the barbarian peoples in the new kingdoms such as the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Vandals, Huns, Saxons, Angles and Jutes (holy shit, they're a lot).

Because this would transcend as the beginning of his favorite matter of analysis.

Sasha Braus

History of gastronomy, development of cooking, antropology and archeological studies.

Sasha’s interested in the history that shows human development of food and cooking. She finds wonders when she inquires into cultural aspects from the first farming till modern artistic expressions that would involve food.

Such as gastronomy. But her attention got caught in literature’s food representation too, with its symbols and allegories, also in paintings that belong in still life movement, but also Sasha finds interest when food is used as rhetorical devices (for example: the apple in Adam and Eve’s myth).

She’s curious about primitive systems of irrigation, cultivation, food distribution, adaptation of wild species; as well as the domestication of animals, the diversification of the diet and its link with sedentary life, as well as the subsequent division of labor once the need for food was assured in humanity’ first cities.

Sasha’s convinced that alimentation is the pilar of civilization as we know it. For it involves cultural, artistic, economic, emotion and social aspects. Food is a microcosm of analysis of humanity.

Sasha hasn’t a favorite historical period or setting. But she definitely has a special fascination for first civilizations and their link with alimentation. Also, she likes to study the development gastronomy in occident world around different regions, social classes, and time.

Although, let’s be honest, Sasha would devour (lol, couldn’t help it) ANY book about agriculture, cattle raising, cooking or gastronomy. 

Connie Springer

Micro-history / History of everyday life.

Connie loves his hometown, has a deep respect to his family and traditions. That’s why he finds himself wondering about the most ordinary events that developed in his dear Ragako. 

The book “The Cheese and the Worms” by Carlo Ginzburg changed the way he used to understand history and capture him into meaningful discussions about what he learned was called micro-history.

His favorite quote from that book is: “As with language, culture offers to the individual a horizon of latent possibilities—a flexible and invisible cage in which he can exercise his own conditional liberty.”

Once deep into studying the Italian historians and their works, he decided to give it a try, and ever since he’s mesmerized with the mundane vestiges craftsmen that worked in his village left behind.

Connie’s parents are so proud of him and his achivements, but mostly because he became a passionate academic over human and simple matters, (so down to earth our big baby).

His attitude towards his essays and research works truly shows his great heart and humility. Connie is aware that academic works have no use if they are not meant to teach us about ourselves too and current times.

Empathy and hard work, that’s how one could describe the elements that integrate his recently started academic career.

Historia Reiss

Political History / Statistician

Her father’s family pressured Historia since she was a little girl into studying History just like his dad. For he’s a very famous historian that had made important researches and books about the greatest statesmen of Paradis.

She thought in numerous ways that she could sabotage her career or study any other career without her family’s consent and end with her linage of historians. But she ended up enrolling in tuition and so far, she is trying her best in her studies. Historia swears this is the right path for her.

But don’t let the appearances fool you, even thought she studies her father’s career and the very same branch of history’s discipline, she has her own critical sense and she’s so talented on her own, very meticulous with her research papers.

Definitely wants a PhD about women, power and politics. We stand a Gender Studies Queen.

Her complementary disciplines are Political Sciences. Historia also has a talent for philosophy and owns a diary with all her thoughts about them. She hopes one day she would write a book or a manifesto about an innovative methodology for research and teaching History of Politic Thinking.

Ymir 

Religion’s History / Theology

Just like Historia, Ymir was pressured into studying History. And if she’s totally honest, she still has some doubts about it. Even if she couldn’t imagine herself studying anything else.

Anyways, Ymir thought that she could build her career around topics that she enjoys. So, she finally chose theology for unusual reasons.

Her classmates had grown up in religious families or had experience studying the doctrines they practiced. But she, being an agnostic, found satisfaction in unraveling belief systems in different cultures and time periods.

Albeit she studies in Paradis’ University, she currently has the opportunity of taking an academic exchange at Marley’s University. This only made Ymir more conflicted about her future, for she wants to stay (near Historia) but she’s aware that Marley would offer her more academic opportunities for her specialization.

Nowadays she’s working in some collaborative research paper with some people from Mythological Studies from the Literature department. She’s nailing it, writing some historical studies about titans in Greek mythology and its impact in shaping neoclassical poetry. Her brains ugh, love her.

Reiner Braun

Official History / Biographies of heroes and great wars.

His mother convinced him with numerous books about great national heroes, but mostly because she knew that would mean sure job to her son. All political administration in every level requires of an official chronicler. 

When he started his college courses, Reiner felt motivated and he was actually convinced that he had the vocation. But the more he read the less sure he felt that the academic world was for him. He wondered if he made the right choice. If he did it for him or for his mother.

Stories and myths about heroes have always cheered him up. That gave him purpose and consoled him when feeling down. Or at least it was like that when younger. Reiner truly didn’t feel like himself when regretting his choices, but he couldn’t help it for he was changing in more than a way.

That’s why he decided to experiment with other disciplines and with time he would find joy in historical novels. He would analyze them just as good as a litterateur and research about historical context in the written story AND study the artwork’s context itself.

His favorites theorical books are: “Historical Text as Literary Artifact” by Hayden White and Michel de Certeau’ “The Writing of History”.·        

Heroes stories would always accompany him, just differently now.

Bertolt Hoover

History of mentalities / Les Annales

Intimate relationships, basic habits and attitudes. / Culture

Bertie has always been a much reticent and shy guy. As he grew up, he consolidated his sullen personality, but maintained a friendly attitude towards anyone who needed him. That’s why he thought that the priority in his studies was to be at the service of his classmates.

So, although he was passionate about research and was a fan of the French Les Annales current, he considered his mission to be in the Archive. As a cataloger, organizer and curator of ancient documents.

But the ways of History are always mysterious, and Doctor Magath showed him that other way of being was possible. Before Bertolt picked his specialty, he met Theo Magath, a professor who recently had finished writing a book: “The Idea of Death in Liberio’s Ghetto in Marley During its War Against Eldia (Paradis)” (long-ass titles are historians specialty btw). After Magath ended his book’ presentation, Bertolt reached him. They talked for hours and finally, he felt inspired into pursuing his true passion. Magath gifted him “The Historian’s Craft” by Marc Bloch as a way to reminding him his way.

By the time Bertolt took History of Mentalities as optional class, he already had some basic notions about Les Annales, Lucien Febvre, Marc Bloch, Fernand Braudel, Jacques Le Goff and such. 

Being the gentle giant he is, Bertolt finds joy in reading about different lifestyles in diverse cultures. He constantly wonders about the origin of social constructs and the way they shape thinking as much as identity.

This boy is a wonder, he might not be the best in oral presentations or  extracurricular activities but sure as hell he’ll graduate with honors.

Annie Leonhart

Oral history, about institutions. Particularly, police and justice system in early XXs.

Albeit she got into the same University than Bertolt and Reiner, even shared classes and hopes, Annie regularly felt disconnected from her studies. With time she realized it wasn't due her career itself but rather because of the currents that her professors had suggested her taking. Until now.

Talking with Hitch and Marlow about their doubts concerning subjects and departments it came up the topics of history and present time but also oral history. She’d never heard something like that before. So, that very same week, Annie started searching for information about that.

She ended up with more questions: is it all of this just academic journalism? Or maybe sociology? When we can talk about regular history and when it starts being present time? If she introduces interviews due oral history, then that makes it an interdisciplinary work? Which are the best systems for analyzing data? Definitely, she’ll need help from anthropology and sociology departments if she wants to keep going. 

Contrary to her initial prognostic, philosophy and history of historic writing became her new allies, and the text “Le temps présent et l'historiographie contemporaine” (Present Time and Contemporary Historiography) by Bédarida among others, provided Annie another perspective. 

Regarding her favorite topics, she wouldn’t say that she selected them freely. They were just practical preferences. For institutions own extensive archives and numerous functionaries. One way or another, she ended up tangled in judicial system and police issues.

With new tools and object for studying, one could find Annie having a blast as detective too. Even if her academic essays focus on institutions’ history and configuration, she’s also working in corruption and more. She doesn’t do it because she believes it’s the right thing, but besides, the thrill of the tea is spicy. Although she won’t admit it. 

[clotpole-art]

Retrospective: Illustrated Merlin Alphabet Challenge

Finally finished the Merlin Alphabet Challenge, so here's the artist notes no one asked for! See below the cut for comments on each piece by order of creation. Be warned folks, it's a long post.

Before we begin: credit to @merlin-gifs for the challenge, which can be found here. It's awesome, go do it.

First thing you should know is I did probably 80-90% of these while on phone calls or in Zoom meetings and that's reflected in the simplicity of most pieces -- the compositions aren't complicated, the lines aren't refined, the coloring is slapdash. If you noticed variation in quality of the pieces, that's why!

Second: I tried to focus on trying something new for each drawing. Didn't always happen, but this challenge did succeed in helping me push me out of my own comfort zone.

Without further ado...

A is for Arthur Pendragon

Textures, baby! Brushed metal of his armor, scratchy linen texture of his shirt, wispy softness of hair and skin. I'd recently gotten my tablet out of storage after a year of figuring out where the hell I was going to live and this was one of the first pieces of digital art I spent time on. Glad it was Arthur kicking us off!

B is for the Beginning of the End (1x08)

Fun fact, I did not draw this with my tablet. I drew it with my work computer's touchscreen. It was awful, would not recommend.

C is for Camelot

I wanted to get used to different brushes, so landscape of the castle it was! There are brushes that help with drawing grass; I did not use said brushes and my wrist hurt afterward. That being said, I really enjoyed working on this and it was one of the few pieces I didn't do while multitasking.

D is for Daegal

Also drawn on my work computer's touchscreen, not my tablet. I didn't learn my lesson from B and the experience was even worse. This is my least favorite piece which sucks because it's Daegal so I'm slated to redo this sometime in the near future. Gotta do our boy justice.

E is for Elyan

Oh, I adored drawing this. Elyan often gets shafted in terms of fandom appreciation so I made sure to choose Elyan for this prompt and to participate in the Elyan fest. Plus, I love a good ghost story and figuring out a way to include the druid spectre was fun. Didn't multitask on this piece because Elyan deserved my full attention.

F is for Freya

Ho boy. This piece. I have such mixed feelings on this drawing. Really really didn't like it after I'd decided it was done and very nearly scrapped the whole thing. I had a vision in my head that I just couldn't render into reality and it frustrated me SO MUCH. Looking back, I like it much better than I did when I first created it.

G is for Gwaine

What can I say, he's pretty when he's cold. I didn't stretch too much with this one -- it's my normal drawing style, I was just trying to find a brush that mimicked the softness of pencil.

H is for Hunith

Another one that didn't stray too far from my comfort zone. I was stupid sick and slammed at work, so a motherly Hunith manifested herself. I blame the bad brush choice on the cold medicine.

I is for Isolde

I woke up and chose violence! Tried to vary my figure drawing style a little in this piece but my brain resisted, resulting in... this. Not mad at it, but not happy with it either. Poor Isolde.

J is for Juggling

Ah, this lovely piece was drawn during a particularly vexing meeting at work. Fun fact, there's another version of this line art that's less about Merlin's stress and more about mine.

K is for Knights of Camelot

Continuing the theme of doodling through bad news and shit meetings. Like I said above, normally meeting doodles aren't complex because I'm concentrating on something else. This one was more involved because I didn't want to concentrate on the meeting. I have a few issues with this from a technical standpoint (perspective, my nemesis) but it's still one of my favorites. Tried some funky coloring technique, didn't hate it.

V is for Vibrant Colors

And here is where we said fuck the rules and started going out of alphabetical order! This one was really fun to do and I loved kicking off Albion Party with this as my first submission. The colors were a challenge (as I hoped they would be) and this is the first time I had to do some color tweaking midway though and after finishing the coloring process. Vibrant Arthur, my beloved. This started as a multitask doodle but took dedicated time to finish.

O is for Old Religion

The concept for this one was buzzing in my head for a bit before a quote-prompt solidified it. I adore the thought of more visible, tangible representations of Merlin as the son of the elements, of "magic itself" -- not just sun-gold eyes, but sea-water hair and sandstone-skin. A complement to the vibrant Arthur portrait.

S is for Sorcerers

When I said I wanted to challenge myself, I wasn't kidding. Ho boy, this was fun but frustrating. I wanted to completely illustrate a gif. So I did. Will I do something like this again? Maybe. A while from now.

M is for Morgause

See above -- same illustrated gif style so at least I was able to reuse some drawings. Poor Morgause ended up looking a little wretched here because I was mentally done with this when I was drawing her. Love the concept of tarot cards + Merlin but others are doing it so I won't continue this series.

Z is for Zzzz

This one was specifically done to test out some custom brushes I made in Krita to make abstract background drawing easier for me. I think they turned out well! Plus who doesn't love bb iridescent Aithusa.

L is for Leon, P is for Percival

Quick, minimal doodles of the boys! Mentally, I was going for a Brady's-style retro ensemble cast TV show credits feel. Not mad at it! Some boys look closer to their actors than others (I think my brain broke drawing Percy, my apologies to Tom Hopper).

T is for Tristan

It wasn't until after I posted this that I realized there was more than one Tristan in Merlin. Could have drawn Isolde's bf but I drew Ygraine's dumb jock undead brother instead. Had some fun with dark greys and blacks here regardless.

Q is for Queen Annis

Best royal in Albion, bar none. I tried a different coloring technique here and I kinda like it! may make it my go-to but we'll see. Old habits are hard to break. Also: our queen deserved more badass clothes.

X is for Arthur X Merlin

Oh, be still my shipper heart. Doodled and colored during a meeting. I had hoped to spend more time on it outside of multitasking but alas, work is a bitch. This one is slated for a rework sometime in the future; I adore the concept too much to let it go without creating another version of this that isn't an utter mess.

U is for Uther's Ward

And here's my attempt at forgoing line art. Not fun, do not like.

Y is for Young Warlock

Channeled some pain into this one. Those are the dead eyes of someone who had been told that he'd succeeded when his friend died. That the destiny he'd been expecting to carry on his shoulders into old age was done and dusted before he turned 30. Grief plus the existential dread of the aimless immortal. Oof. One of my favs.

N is for Nimueh, R is for Rising Sun, W is for Will

And we end on this sorry offering. I was away from home for a while without my tablet and I just got tired of waiting. So, pen doodles at the airport. This was a challenge in its own right because 1. pen only and 2. I wasn't able to pull Netflix up for a reference on the fly. Which is why Will's face is obscured and Nimueh looks.... not like Nimueh lol.

In summary: this was a goddamn joy to do. I finished 26 letter prompts in approximately 21 weeks, which exceeded my own unspoken goal of filling one letter per week. I found a good, happy corner of the Merlin fandom after a years-long hiatus away from being a fandom creator. If you did make it this far with me, thanks for reading my inane comments and giving this little project even a moment of your time -- I'm so grateful.

[whatiwillsay]

off topic - let’s talk about gaylena 👀

selena gomez is one of taylor’s oldest and bestest friends and given that she is in the 22 liner notes, a huge part of taylor’s life, and maybe fruity herself it seems like possibly we don’t talk about her here at the blog enough!

i don’t want to do a timeline of selena and taylor’s friendship - you can read more about that here, but they met back in the day when they were both dating jonas brothers and to me this idea of finding a real friendship in the midst of these contrived promances is pretty adorable.

ofc most of y’all think taylor is a fruit basket but i think there’s a good chance that selena is too!  i’m not saying she is for sure but y’all know me.  i’’m here to make a compelling case that everyone and their dog is gay so let’s gooooo! 

Part I - At least one fake rs!  

Selena “dated” Taylor Lautner in 2009 and he’s definitely gay.  Of course, that doesn’t mean she is, it could just be PR, but y’all know I gotta note everything!  We stan our fruity bffs dating the same gays 😍

Part II - Selena x cara delevingne

i feel like there’s a chance they met through taylor but everyone in that squad adjacent circle knows one another.  cara dated michelle rodriguez for the first half of 2014 and then got with annie clark in March 2015 but it feels like it’s possible something has gone on between her and Selena from summer 2014 - early 2015? ...maybe something casual on and off a bit?

August 2014 - Steamy pics surface in Saint-Tropez, France

Selena and and a freshly single Cara vacation together in part to celebrate Selena’s 22nd birthday.

They party together and look cozy!

Pictures such as this surface and spark rumors around the two:

Selena apparently loves the rumors and gushes about being shipped with Cara.

Quote:

You say Selena drag queens were the true measure of success for you. But isn’t it true that you’re not truly famous until you’ve been the subject of a gay rumor? And last year, the tabloids had a field day with photos of you and Cara Delevingne. I’ve made it!

How did you react to those rumors? Honestly, I loved it. I didn’t mind it. Especially because they weren’t talking about other people in my life for once, which was wonderful. Honestly, though, she’s incredible and very open and she just makes me open. She’s so fun and she’s just extremely adventurous, and sometimes I just want that in my life, so I didn’t mind it. I loved it.

Notice she doesn’t deny them?  Now of course she could just be being cool, if she freaked out about it that might be even weirder but hey, it’s still kind of interesting.

Then she admits to questioning her sexuality???

Have you ever questioned your sexuality? Oh, I think everybody does, no matter who they are. I do, yeah, of course. Absolutely. I think it’s healthy to gain a perspective on who you are deep down, question yourself and challenge yourself; it’s important to do that.

(Selena btw, this is cool and all, but not everybody questions their sexuality, maybe you’re just gay 👀)

November 1 - LACMA Art + Film Gala 

they even left the event together 👀

and they hung out earlier that day as well:

They were seen the next day partying for Kendall Jenner’s bday singing to her:

a few weeks later Cara tweets Selena’s lyrics!

In December 2014 they are travelling together in texas:

in january 2015 they get cozy at the golden globes together!

and they leave together again:

January 19th/20th a bunch of gay nonsense happens

They post this gay shit with matching shoes and linked fingers:

then they say this to one another:

Enty says they were hooking up!

then we don’t get any more content that i can find for about six months! perhaps they had a fling from summer 2014-jan 2015 and then it ends, Cara gets with Annie in March?  Then after half a year apart Selena and Cara resume a friendly relationship?  Perhaps!  Selena is seen with Justin a bit off and on during this time but this was in their Style/Heat Death Era imo (tbh i probably shouldn’t give a hetty pairing including Justin that designation 🤢but y’all get what I’m saying - it’s fully possible Selena was hooking up with both of them!

Now I’m not super familiar with Selena’s discography so y’all lmk if I’m missing anything major - lyric wise that point to her not being straight.

Selena’s album Revival that comes out after this relationship has a few songs with some vibes, even though I get the feeling a lot of it is probably about Justin, allow me to reach.  The title track could be translated as someone coming to terms with their sexuality (among other things):

I feel like I've awakened lately The chains around me are finally breaking I've been under self-restoration I've become my own salvation Showing up, no more hiding, hiding The light inside me is bursting, shining It's my, my, my time to butterfly

Good for you, imo, is too sexy to be about a man even if it’s not super queer lyrically it’s a vibe ok?

Me & My Girls might be a bestie anthem a la 22 (oh wait, no 22 was gay too) but I mean...could be about a girl gang of lesbians too!

And if we want it, we take it If we need money, we make it Nobody knows if we fake it You like to watch while we shake it I know we're making you thirsty You want us all in the worst way But you don't understand I don't need a man 

Quinn Fabray indeed!

Nobody feels probably like a retrospective on Justin 🙄but...there is a hint of sapphic craving in there!  Saying this particular lover loves them differently than everyone is a bit 👀 plus this stanza:

No oxygen, can barely breathe My darkest sin, you've raised release And it's all because of you, all because of you And I don't know what it is, but you've pulled me in No one compares, could ever begin To love me like you do And I wouldn't want them to

Is Perfect about some bitch Justin started dating?  Probably but bear with me here this song is actually pretty fucking gay.  Gay enough that I’m gonna add it to one of my gay playlists.  Could this song actually be about Cara moving on to Annie?

Ooh, and I bet she has it all Bet she's beautiful like you, like you And I bet she's got that touch Makes you fall in love, like you, like you

I can taste her lipstick and see her laying across your chest I can feel the distance every time you remember her fingertips Maybe I should be more like her Maybe I should be more like her I can taste her lipstick, it's like I'm kissing her, too And she's perfect And she's perfect

Part III - Selena x Julia Michaels

Julia Michaels is a singer/songwriter known for her song Issues.  I don’t know her sexuality but she at the least has gay vibes!  It seems they met around this time perhaps because Julia wrote on Revival.

They have a friendly enough friendship for a few years, liking one another’s posts on IG from time to time, posing for a photo a time or two and then they seem to get swept up into this very intense friendship in 2019.  They write some music together and Julia goes whole hog in promoting the shoe brand Selena is hawking this time 😭

2019 - The Superior Sapphic Jelena Timeline:

It starts, for some reason with a lot of shoe promotion:

chill, chill

more shoes

but more gayness?

this homo shit

ok...

Then we go into the REALLY GAY NOVEMBER OF 2019:

Then they perform together:

And...actually kiss...on the mouth on stage???

Sure it’s just a peck but still...if that were a guy people would say they were dating.  

Somehow kissing on the mouth isn’t the gayest thing these girls do over this period because these fucking dykes got matching tattoos.  I’ve read enough Larry blogs to know this actually means they’re secretly married.  All jokes aside this is fruity behavior. 

From their IG stories:

Selena gets Julia a very nice christmas gift:

Covid sets in and content drops off but god damn!  It’s possible they just had an intense friendship but if a man and a woman collabed on music together, kissed in public, and got matching tattoos everyone would say they were dating!

Selena, as far as I can find, didn’t have any public boyfriends around this time so who are some of these love songs about?

Rare comes out in January 2020 and perhaps has some gayish songs?

Don’t tell me why but boyfriend lowkey, has a gay vibe.  Don’t ask me to explain it but it’s just the musicality of it.

Crowded Room could be a love song for Julia?  (or by Julia for Selena, since they’re collaborators?)

Baby, it's just me and you Baby, it's just me and you Just us two Even in a crowded room Baby, it's just me and you, yeah

These are general gay vibes, our secret moments in a crowded room tease

It started polite, out on thin ice 'Til you came over to break it I threw you a line and you were mine

It would have started out polite between them, since they worked together for years before whatever 2019 was happened.  And throwing someone a line first of all makes Selena sound like the aggressor but also “throwing someone a line” could be a reference to writing songs together.

Yeah, I was afraid, but you made it safe I guess that is our combination Said you feel lost, well, so do I So won't you call me in the morning? I think that you should call me in the morning If you feel the same, 'cause

Lots of people are afraid at the beginning of a gay rs.  Treacherous tease 👀

In summation!

Selena does gay stuff like fantasizing ab kissing other women in her music, getting very touchy with famous dykes on vacay, hangs out with Taylor Swift, has chronic mental health issues, dated a jonas brother and a twilight gay, has admitted to questioning her sexuality, and loves being shipped with women.  Is she gay?  I don’t know!   But all she’s missing from her celesbian bingo card is a suspiciously intense friendship with a Glee Cast member! What do you guys think?  Selena fruity or just weird?

Edit to add: so apparently I missed an entire ship and Selena supposedly acted really gay all the time with her backup dancer Charity Baroni.  Exposing SMG has posted a lot about all that.

Also Selena has been cast in a gay role! edit to add: @bisluthq went and found this for me - julia is indeed a fruit queen