#also the selling points

[the-hwaelweg]

I used to copyedit 120,000 word super dense PhD manuscripts for 8 hours a day, five days a week, and now I'm like "what do mean you want me to copyedit 1200 sentences of catalog copy??? I'm gonna die probably"

[mummer]

rhaenyra outsourcing motherhood to rhaena and assigning her that passive feminine role was REALLY interesting….. rhaenyra as a character is at her most fascinating when she is forced to navigate and ultimately perpetuate the gendered structures she despises and wishes she could transcend— the seeds of her tragedy already sewn here. just great character work

[suntails]

hijo de la luna

[shroomerr]

Oh, help me God, this hellboy got me coming back for more

reblogs super appreciated !!! close-ups under the cut !

[fluentisonus]

working in a factory has you thinking so much about the insane chain of labor & transport that goes into making literally anything

[dreadfuldevotee]

I'd like to discuss the elephant in the room. Why did we get zero Loumand sex scenes? We got hints and implications, but season 1 was pretty explicit. Do we think that that's a creative choice or something else is happening?

I'm glad I ended up ruminating on this for about a week because episode 7 & 8 really solidified my opinion on it.

I do wanna start by saying that it's very clear to me that there was supposed to be more explicit scenes between them. There has been some thoughts tossed around that censorship happened with the 9 pm timeslot (as opposed to the 10 pm timeslot of S1). I believed this hearing Assad and Jacob talk about the BDSM dynamic between Louis and Armand, but what really sold me on this was Production Designer Mara LePere-Schloop talking about the bedroom set and more specifically about their beautifully carved custom headboard. (If you're a production nerd like me or just want to know more about the design philosophy of IWTV I recommend giving the entire thing a listen!).

I think there are several reasons I think as to why they decided to leave any more explicit scenes on the cutting room floor but above them all is: you cannot separate Armand's sexuality from his abuse. I am really against pulling a "well if you read the books" card but reading just the first couple chapters of "The Vampire Armand" makes me understand so much about not only Armand as a character, but the care being taken to his adaptation. It's clear to me that alongside Rolin & Co.'s commitment to not watering him down to a one-dimensional villain they are also trying to not fall into Anne Rice's tendency to romanticize his trauma.

Sex and sexuality is not the same pillar of Louis and Armand's relationship it was in Louis and Lestat's and so I don't believe their story suffers from the lack of on-screen sex. But I also firmly believe that maybe we don't need to be slutting out the character who we literally just watched talk about how he doesn't remember his life before being sex trafficked. And even when he was "freed" he was still being repeatedly assaulted at the hands of, and under the eye Marius de Romanus. Like it is extremely important to remember that Armand's craving for dominion in his relationships is a manifestation of trauma that deserves the same level of care and depth given to every other trauma portrayed in this show.

I think people have gotten too comfortable calling IWTV a romance when it has always been Gothic Horror. Romance and sex are pivotal to the story but I have found the demands for sex scenes this season a bit absurd and also? unfounded? Loustat share more kisses on screen but there are two sex scenes and both are very plot relevant. I truly figured we were all in agreement that the eroticism of this show is found in the various displays of power, and the dynamics it creates and not the actual clapping of ass-cheeks...which also wasn't happening in S1 either. S2 does not suffer because of the lack of sex-scenes, but the likelihood if it suffering trying to make one work is

[ryuuna]

my cute lil melinoe and frinos stickers came in!!

I'll be giving these out for free at AX this Thursday at the XPPen Booth if you can guess who my favorite hades character is 😉 (or even just ask for it lmao)

[lazylittledragon]

Not trying to be rude or anything but you shouldn't use the word 'manic' or 'manic period' etc. unless you actually have manic/depressive episodes because it downplays how severe those disorders can actually be. They're just words but unlearning harmful terminology like that can help destigmatise mental illness and I would hope youi would want to do that.

yeah it's almost like i used those words specifically because i DO understand how severe they are

[art-soboro]

my turn to draw cute contextless kemonomimis of despicable people

[mellohiizz]

MELLOHIIZZ!!! DRAW ANOTHER ODYSSEY DUO AND MY LIFE!!! IS YOURS!!! /REF anyways odyssey duo has me in a chokehold i love them so much oh my god

hello i am so ill about them

[dovalore]

did you know? he's the guy that sells houses

design thoughts under cut

he got hit by the kittification beam, i'm afraid it's terminal

another design! this means i get to share the song that inspired it

he's not wearing a suit because i wanted to have fun with his attire and the actual suit kinda bores me, he's got a retro futuristic suit now!

i did try and keep the colours and placements somewhat similar so it's not as different as it could be, plus the monochrome works out when the rest of him is super vibrant

speaking of, i'm not entirely sure what he looks like without his suit, probably just really green

glorp was like, the starting point, but another cat that came into play was mew because y'know, cute little space cat, best mythical pokemon in existence

his antennae glow in the dark, so do his irises. actually, a fair amount of him glows in the dark (green bits on gloves, star on chest, purple bits on his tail and boots)

eyelashes? whiskers? why not both? he's an alien after all, i added them in pretty early on in my initial sketch because i wanted his head area to have a little more visual interest and it kinda made sense since the eyes on his skin already kinda float off his head

smooth to the touch (though whether it's because you're making contact with fur or skin is up for debate because i don't know either)

not really pictured: quasar is tall as fuck because his body is so damn long

theoretical champion design thought: he'd have rocket boots! complete with boosters at the bottom to help with jumps

his design is meant to compliment peekaboo's! together, they are peesar (pronounced pizza)

that's not the reason i chose the name, it's the title of a song and i was like... sure that's spacey enough let's roll with it even though there's not much else that came from there for him

[commsroom]

cutter was born in the 20s, and he'd become "arthur keller" by the early 70s, so obviously pryce's story at the beginning of brave new world can't be taken literally - that's not even an old man, much less "older than anyone she had ever met." it's also inarguable she was an adult already working on her... ideas for the human body when cutter sought her out; "i want you to make a doll for me" and "i found people who had some very bold ideas about how to... tune up the human body [...] i funded their work, and provided them with a willing test subject" are pretty definitely referring to the same events. so, it's fairy tale language, but the question is: why? why frame it this way?

one part of it is the "fountain of youth" in connection to immortality, strength, and health. the implication isn't literally that cutter is very old and pryce is very young; it's that she represents this power, and that he wants her to bestow it upon him: "then you and i will fix the world. i will be young and you will be whole." cutter and pryce choose to look eternally 28, while referring to and conducting themselves as if they're very old: it's not just vanity, it's part of their self-mythology. simultaneously young and old, having overcome the natural order.

that mythology of "overcoming" natural limitations is especially significant for pryce: characterizing herself as a "little girl" within her own story is both self-victimizing and self-aggrandizing. pryce does not see herself as disabled so much as temporarily inconvenienced; even the usual limitations of the human body are something she hopes to transcend. "instead of being wretched or afraid, the little girl decided to be clever." she was put at a disadvantage, but overcame it all by herself because she was smarter and better than other people. by extension, anyone who can't do what she did just isn't good enough, even as she's closing doors behind her and making it harder for others like her. and at the same time: it's an underdog story that requires her to have been an underdog. she hasn't been in a very, very long time, but the power she holds over others remains justified in her self-perception by this image of a sick little girl who was hurt by the world. there's an implication of inherent worthiness, and even a sort of expected assumed innocence in characterizing it that way. the first thing people notice about pryce is her eyes, and... sure, maybe it's the technology, but if cutter can catch bullets without any visible signs, it seems likely to me that, like her age, this is at least in part an aesthetic choice. it intimidates people. she's turned this point of hurt and vulnerability into a power play, and remains attached to it.

and that's the other part of the mythologizing that's going on: presumably, pryce was not the only person who worked on all of this. cutter funded others. but the story retroactively simplifies it, in a childish fairy tale way, and paints an image of them as exceptional, uniquely capable and so uniquely deserving, people.

i think there's something interesting to consider here about pryce in contrast to hera: that pryce is a woman who self-justifies her cruelty via a mythologized girlhood, while hera is a woman who was never a girl, who was never considered innocent or even allowed the same recognition of the ways she's been a victim. pryce resents humanity and all it represents, resents her body and its limitations, feels that being human has only caused her suffering, but still clearly believes that she has more of a claim to humanity than hera does by nature of her biology and upbringing. pryce's "bootstraps" attitude re: disability and her own self-victimization are the crucial things here, but i think that is also particularly interesting if you read hera as a trans woman.

(incidentally, this is part of why i have a particular love for hera designs where she's just a regular woman, more angular, and maybe even older looking - a natural 30-something in contrast to an unnaturally maintained 28 - than pryce. they're both women who have chosen how they want to look, and it highlights something.)

[sarah-kings]

Giant: hey, has anyone seen the fun sized Halloween cand-

My tiny milky way deprived ass:

[sciderman]

do you think Peter is naturally drawn to wade because he’s the one person in his life who essentially can’t get hurt in any universe.

Mj has almost died multiple times while dating Peter, Spider-Man saves her a lot and publicly speaks to her, that made her a target.

Gwen did die. And Peter being him, still blames himself.

Harry either goes crazy or dies, sometimes both.

Norman goes crazy and dies, all the time.

Aunt May is old, she’s not gonna be around forever and often times, she isn’t.

But Wade isn’t them, Wade is gonna be around forever. He’s going to be with Peter until the day he dies and the day Wade has to watch Peter die. Maybe it gives him some comfort, Wade can handle himself and even if he gets hurt, he always comes back from it. Yknow until eventually he doesn’t.

just silly thoughts 😋😋

those thoughts aren't silly! those thoughts are SAD!

i see this take in my inbox a lot and it's kind of the first reaction anyone ever has when first encountering spideypool – this is almost baby's first spideypool take, sorry anon. and for me, it's broke. it's a broke take.

"this one can't die" is a horrible reason to date someone, sorry. and the durability of said partner has never been a factor in who peter parker chooses to date.

i like to think peter's drawn to wade for a reason almost entirely opposite to that - he's drawn to wade because he's dangerous, not because he's safe.

i like to think he's into wade for the same reason he's into putting on tights and getting into fights. for the excitement. not because "this one can't die." i don't think that even comes into consideration for peter. and i don't want it to come into consideration for peter. it's such a horrible, awful reason to date someone.

i don't think peter even takes any solace in wade's immortality at all. wade can still get hurt. and peter will still, instinctively, jump in the line of fire for wade. it doesn't even come as a consideration for him, to just, you know, let wade get hurt, oh, because he can heal. no!!

peter isn't smart enough for that.

he thinks with his heart, not his head.

and i don't think peter even truly believes wade is immortal. i think he's seen enough superhero bullshit in his time to know nobody is truly immortal. and i think peter having lost so many people close to him - it doesn't allow him to feel in any way secure that his lover is immortal. anyone feels immortal at the time. until they aren't.

peter worries about wade. worries how reckless wade can be - how wade doesn't seem to care about the damage he sustains because he thinks he can heal but peter - peter doesn't see it as that simple. and he knows some wounds can't heal.

i even think - just a little bit, that wade's immortality might be something that - miraculously, peter feels guilty about. i think peter feels more worried that something will happen to him – spider-man - and he'll leave wade a widow. i think that's something he'll feel bad about. it's honestly why i haven't touched the idea of peter finding out he died in civil war - he'll bug his own head so much - not about his own mortality, but how guilty he feels to have left wade with all that trauma.

so no. no! wade's immortality does not give peter solace. it keeps him up at night if he thinks about it too hard. peter can't not worry, it's chronic. and for all the reasons he should be relaxed that wade can't die, he worries about it all the more.

[urfavisananimegirl]

walter white from breaking bad

Walter Hartwell White (Breaking Bad) is an Anime Girl!

[bagadew]

I hate you loss of the headphone jack. I hate you loss of the home screen button. I hate you headphones I have to remember to charge. I hate you thin flimsy screens. I hate you phone that no longer fits in my hand. I hate you laptop too thin for a usb port. I hate you laptop without a disk drive. I hate you increasing array of dongles I need to keep using what I need. I hate you planned obsolescence. I hate you inescapable barrage of ‘improvements’ that brings more work and gives less joy. I guess it’s just easier this way.