#and I love amber so

[apricoctopus]

How to talk to short people: Faerun Edition

[eggplantgifs]

2024 Grand Prix Final: Women's Podium

Amber Glenn 🇺🇸 212.07

Mone Chiba 🇯🇵 208.85

Kaori Sakamoto 🇯🇵 201.13

[faunshiii]

max :33 bet i’ll have to repost this 10000 times because my posts aren’t showing up in tags… sorry

[bookishable]

it's always better to have loved.

philip pullman, the amber spyglass / guillermo del toro's pinocchio (2022) / fleabag (2016-2019) / andrew garfield / art by @catadromously / anne carson, euripides / markus zusak, the book thief / shannon barry / little women (2019) / the good place (2016-2020) / fyodor dostoevsky, crime and punishment / his dark materials (2019-2022) / @starpeace

[lilamausmaus]

[mellowthorn]

Fitz and Amber, a redraw of Ask Me No More by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

[spuirrelwiththeletterp]

oops my finger slipped... anyway

been going absolutely insane

I felt like I was collecting these fckrs like they're Pokémon or something lmao

I want to make art of them all

I WANT TO DRAW MORE

am absolutely fecking distraught I couldn't include more of them... mostly cuz I forgor most of them even existed lmfao

praying I tag everyone right 😰

from left to right, top to bottom:

Static Hue belongs to @ossiethegreat

Mimic belongs to @marshmall

Forest belongs to @julia-jck

Stitch (left) belongs to @stitchau

Stitch (right) belongs to @ezekrawr

yes I added two Stitchs right next to each other >:)

Forty-Six belongs to @starswirly

Buddy belongs to @a-silly-sys

Fluoride belongs to @mayandcheese

Async belongs to @fl00mie

Crosswire belongs to @tearcynical

Ethernet belongs to @labryveinth

Miscode belongs to @ask-miscode

Print Error belongs to me

Smiler belongs to @fetusbaconegg

Fossil belongs to @trashlate

Echo, Anx and Cavi belong to @hheisa

Psychology belongs to @thaltro

Peach belongs to @qin-qin16

Nym belongs to @artpepkin

Dot belongs to @yo-honne

Arz belongs to @danielave2001

Lucid belongs to @radicalrainbow

Bear, Dread, and Tomb belong to @brute-luvr

Pale and Template belong to @unu-nunu-art

Outcast belongs to @avianoutcast

[houseswife]

it answers questions…

[the-mighty-e]

Do you think that we’re soulmates in every universe? (Digital)

WHEW… REDID THIS ON MY IPAD BECAUSE I WAS VERY PROUD OF HOW IT CAME OUT

Putting the panels separated for a better quality, but if you want, here are the full images :)

Edit: lmao I'm killing twitter with this one

[artsypatience]

[themusicsweetly]

New Outlander 2x13 BTS of Caitriona + Sam at the stones

[orykorioart]

Putting my silly, grubby hands all over a stupid shirt I saw

[astral-herald]

arcane's depiction vs. endorsement and why it flopped

~ i think i'm finally ready to complain ~

My general opinion of season 2 is potential squandered. My recent post about Viktor's storyline as an intentional tragedy lets ya'll know that I did, for the most part, enjoy his arc (hot take, I know, and I know lots of people disagree with me, and I fully understand). If he'd gotten the screen time necessary to pull it off, it would have been legendary in my book. But the lack of screen time, even in the case of the season's eventual BBEG, speaks to my greatest issue with Arcane: no commitment.

(Critical) Discussion of Jinx, Ekko, Sevika, Vi, and Viktor below!

Arcane, as a tragedy (I've said this word too many times to count smh), asks the plot, "what is the worst thing that could possibly happen to this character?" and answers in kind. This is why we get Viktor's lost agency until the very end (and like I've said in the past, I completely understand and hold space for those who dislike this route).

If we ask this same question of the following characters, the scope of loss and despair innate to Arcane's final narrative is made very clear:

Sevika: a revolutionary forever devoted to the cause, not the individual, is nominated as an individual to represent the masses in a governmental body that has no interest in her class-conscious ideal.

Ekko: the people's hero in every sense of the word who never sees the fruits of his labor/sacrifice and who goes without the acknowledgement he deserves (more than any other Arcane character).

Vi: the ultimate victim of Piltover police brutality coerced, through grief, trauma, and loss, into working for the system that oppressed her. Even Caitlyn, for all her good intentions, seems incapable of ever understanding this.

Viktor: a genius hellbent on ending the same suffering he endured at the hands of Piltover's oppression has his agency revoked, driving him to inflict the same choicelessness he endured on Zaunite innocents.

On paper, these arcs are devastatingly sensical. And we don't always need happy endings in our stories (I'd sure like them, more often than not, of course). We can and should witness the harsh realities of class oppression if we don't experience them ourselves. The writing team painstakingly crafted and foreshadowed these worst-case scenarios throughout season 1. For example, in 1x07, Ekko being immediately shot at by Marcus at the bridge confirms our suspicions that Piltover Enforcers are a lost cause, not just full of bad apples but internally broken beyond repair. It felt that, despite all the hope, this struggle was doomed, and we were careening toward something dark - "In the pursuit of great, we failed to do good."

Had these arcs been successful, audiences would be confronted with the systemic issues we see today that implicate the physical and mental health of downtrodden individuals on account of lazy, prejudiced leadership. This actively happens. It is actively happening, sans the fantasy of it all. This is where Arcane should have shined: they depict the tragedy of these characters, but DO NOT endorse it.

But Arcane chickens out and the entire thing fails. Here are the Flop Era Spark Notes:

Maddie is the egregious bad apple stereotype that absolves all other agents of the regime. She clearly is not a stand-in for Enforcers at large because, all of a sudden, they're capable of coordinated artillery strikes that are necessary to the defense of Piltover, which the viewer must suddenly and abundantly care about. So glad she died. Also, Arcane, you cannot introduce abject warfare in the last 30 minutes of your show successfully.

Jinx's "revolutionary" plot was a red herring, and Sevika humbly vying for the spot was never delivered upon. They pay lip service to the Undercity organizing, but the scene is interrupted for larger (messier) plot concerns almost immediately. No commitment. No depiction to even refrain from endorsing.

Ekko and the Firelight Tree. Clearly this was set up as a means of showing how Piltover's mistakes were physically seeping into the only sanctuary left in Zaun. Yet this is just...never resolved? If someone has some insights into this, please let me know. No depiction. No discussion about endorsement.

What could Vi specifically gain by aligning with the Enforcers/Piltover? Human connection with Cait, sure, but why return to them in 2x06? Vi's character begged all season for development, but she kept returning to her nonsensical error of her ways (looking backwards) until the very end, and this is basically what "kills" Jinx. This is a nod to her lonesomeness post 1x03, sure, but to what end? Again, why the Enforcers?!? Oh, because now that Cait has been redeemed and Sevika is in Piltover to save the day, there are no systemic issues left to fix? Sure, Riot.

WHY DEVELOP VIKTOR'S ENTIRE HEXCORE ARC OFF SCREEN?I'M ADMITTEDLY BIASED ABOUT THIS, BUT THE AMOUNT OF DISCUSSIONS I'VE HAD WITH VIKTOR NATION ABOUT THE DEGREE TO WHICH HE WAS INFLUENCED/MANIPULATED BY THE HEXCORE (now that we know Sky was a manifestation of his humanity, not her Actual Self) IS DESPICABLE. HIS COMPROMISED AGENCY NEEDS TO BE FRONT AND CENTER AND OBVIOUS, OR ELSE IT SURE SEEMS LIKE RIOT IS ENDORSING THE LACK OF AGENCY IN VIKTOR'S STORY. I shouldn't have to make 1k word posts to explain this. I'll do it because I love him with my whole heart, but still.

I begged and pleaded for months for BBEG Viktor (I'm really proud of my predictions from October), but by introducing a villain/conflict beyond the Piltover/Zaun dichotomy, Riot severed all threads of class conflict that were so rife and exciting in season 1. The proletariat and the bourgeoise will never coalesce like they did by the end of 2x09 without systemic revolution. Sevika is just one individual. Ekko's people need him. Jinx and Viktor are gone. Vi is downtrodden, and we have SO LITTLE to show for it.

In summary, we just didn't get enough explicit explanation of any character development to make Arcane-As-Tragedy successful. They did not stick the landing. The finale leaves us all with various bad tastes in our mouth. Instead of lamenting the harsh reality of oppression, I'm confused about what Riot prioritizes and agrees with, what they aim to criticize, and what they condemn.

I'll die on the hill that revoking Viktor's agency has the potential to be one of the greatest tragic hero storylines I've ever seen, but it's a lonely hill because I'm fighting against the writing team's consistent flops. At least Balayage Viktor was so gorgeous.

shameless self plug for my earlier discussion about the innate political clashes in season 1 that were abandoned for flashy fantasy fights in season 2:

[cactfold]

I BLEED FOR YOU

I JUST WISH I COULD TELL YOU THAT

[myoldiaries]

Lorde’s Instagram story on the sixth anniversary of Melodrama

[brbarou]

nonsense dump of my pookie