#and i really hated that book

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.

[flipflopmaster]

Them

[modmad]

hey I really hate doing self publicity bUT. FOLKS WE NEED TO MOVE THESE BOOKS or there won't be room in the Topatoco warehouse for TPoH volume 4, which we plan to kickstart later this year- so yeah!

THE PRINCESS AND THE JESTER BOOKS ON SALE NOW!

don't miss the opportunity, there's only a limited number left and they're really gorgeous guys seriously ya gotta get in on this

Want to try before you buy? You can read the Princess and the Jester FOR FREE right here! Go enjoy a free fairy tale! You earned it.

[iateabunchofsmartiesandnowimdumb]

If rebecca by daphne du maurier has a million haters, then I am one of them. If rebecca by daphne du maurier has ten haters, then I am one of them. If rebecca by daphne du maurier has only one hater then that is me. If rebecca by daphne du maurier has no haters, then that means I am no longer on earth. If the world is against hating rebecca by daphne du maurier, then I am against the world.

[shinynewmemories]

Listen to me Suzanne Collins did not have to give Katniss and Peeta a history before the games. She did NOT have to do that. She could have just had their story begin when Peeta's name was called. She could have had them be total strangers until the moment of the reaping.

Like: "And the boy tribute is... Peeta Mellark!" Katniss: Who's that? Or she could have made them vaguely familiar with each other! Peeta's name is called and Katniss just thinks, Oh, I know that name! He's in my class, actually. Poor boy... Anyway!

Either way, SC could have written the rest of the story exactly the same! I think many authors would have done that! Because if Peeta's purpose in the book was to be Gale's competition, to be one of the 3 corners of a love triangle, THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN THE WAY TO DO IT!! But that's NOT how she did it because that's NOT what Peeta is.

And what is he? To Katniss, Peeta's someone who saved her and her family and received nothing in return except a beating. Peeta's someone she has had her eye on but has never worked up the courage to talk to. Peeta's someone she associates with kindness and hope. And all this before the start of the events of the book! Just because WE, the READERS, met Gale before Peeta and immediately felt a connection with him does NOT mean that was Katniss's experience! And that's what SC is trying to tell us!

To dismiss Katniss and Peeta's past as unimportant or inconsequential compared to whatever Katniss and Gale have in the present is to fundamentally misunderstand Katniss as a character and, as a result, condemn oneself to never fully understand the choices she makes in the future.

Suzanne Collins wrote it that way on purpose because she had something to say. And no one will ever be able to convince me that something wasn't "It was always going to be Peeta".

[nokkiart]

As a long time httyd fan who has been heavily involved in the fandom since the first movie and who has spent years working in the animation industry, I’d like to share my thoughts on the new httyd movie. Keep in mind, this is just my personal opinion and it's completely fine if you disagree with me. I just want to say a little something about all this that really bothers me.

The core reason that Dreamworks and Universal made this film is that it’s a quick and easy cash grab for them. Thats it. They don’t care about telling a good story or making a “better” version of the original movie for fans or even having an accurate portrayal of the characters/story. It’s purely about money. They know that fans of the original film will go see this movie, whether it’s good or bad. And those guaranteed ticket sales are all that matter to the studios. And with Universal, it has the added bonus of being a cheap promotional and merchandising opportunity for the new HTTYD land in Orlando that opens around the same time that the film is premiering in theaters.

And to help the studios make even more money out of this, they are using non-unionized VFX companies around the world to make this film, so that they can get cheaper labor and push the artists to do more that would be against American union standards. The same thing has probably happened with the costuming and fabrication for the filming, hence why the costumes look un-weathered and the sets look cheap. They don’t want to pay for the extra time and effort that it would take to make the practical bits of the production look good.

On top of all this, Dreamworks has already announced that they’re shutting down all their in-house animation projects in favor of using AI and outsourcing projects to cheaper international non-union studios.

With all this in mind, I just can’t support this film and I will not be seeing it in theaters. And I hope that others will do the same.

The only way to stop all these horrible “live action” remakes (which are actually just realistically animated remakes) is to not buy tickets to see them. Money is all that matters to these studios, and if they don’t make any money off of it, then they will stop and try something different. Maybe they'll even go back to focusing on original stories!

That’s the power that we hold as audiences. Our wallets help drive the decisions that the executives make. So support unique storytelling and gorgeous cinematography in movies. Support indie films. Support animators as they're fighting for fair pay and better contracts. But don't support a mediocre shot-for-shot remake riding on the coattails of an already successful film.

And I just want to wrap all this up by saying I have absolutely no hate towards anyone that has worked on the new film. Toothless looks incredible and I know the artists and creatives involved in this project did the best they could with what they were given.

But I also know that those same artists have so many more brilliant ideas that they would’ve loved to be given the creative freedom to do. I just wish hollywood would be willing to take a chance and let them do it.

[lizardson]

I understand people who hate lirin (he is a very frustrating character) but I also think they tend to ignore that he spent years believing he killed both his sons because he refused to give in to roshone. The way he treats kaladin is awful, but it comes from a place of intense shame and regret, not a place of judgement. When he tells kal that he should've obeyed and proven himself to his masters instead of fighting against them, he says it because that's what he wished he had done. Lirin in RoW is not the same person from the WoK flashbacks and his extreme and irrational moral rigidity is the result of trauma and grief, not just "he's a surgeon so he thinks killing is bad."

TLDR lirin is more complex than people give him credit for and also your son miraculously returning from the dead doesn't negate believing for years that you killed him by having the audacity to fight against your oppressors. thank you for coming to my ted talk

[knockknockwhosthereartistism]

Homewrecker Halloween

[angstflavoured]

i never realized, in the beginning of weirdmaggedon 1, bill says that he's "been trapped inside my own decaying dimension." Ik a lot of people depict him like going other places after destroying his universe, but I guess that he really couldn't. that was the whole point of him trying to get ford to build the portal for him, so he WOULDN'T be stuck in the 2d dimension. everyone he met, he met through traveling through the nightmare dimension and the dreamscape. He'd never seen any of them in person.... which would mean that his physical self had to be stuck on euclydia, right??? that means every time he wasn't invading people's dreams, every time he woke up, he was right back at his home dimension where he killed everyone. Just kinda... i dunno, floating in space? like oh my fucking god, no wonder he was never able to get over it for millions of years. jesus christ yeah the guy needs therapy, every single one of his wounds are scabs that never got to even start the healing process.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

Marvel Meow (2021), Nao Fuji | Professor X and Magneto

Bonus:

[egophiliac]

I have never been more concerned for a JP update from your art than I am seeing a Cheka knowing the context of Leona’s dream.

My bois ok right?????? My sweet nephews ok right??????

well

uhhhh

I'm sure the real one is fine :)

[ninicaise]

what's so refreshing about will as a character is that he doesn't throw a denial tantrum about it at any point like most characters with Darkness Within Them do. he's not a moral paragon, his angst and secretkeeping don't get annoying at any point. and i think it's because there's no contrast between who will Really Is, which is Good and True, and the dark king as his shadow or his dark self.

will is the dark king. he behaves like the dark king. he lies and he manipulates and he's a "sneak" and he's scaringly charming and he's possessive over james and a ton of other messed up shit and he tells himself it's for a good reason, and maybe it is!! and will is clearly you know. a Good Person. while his methods are sneaky, he does not actually do anything wrong. but those are his methods still, and they are cool moments and badass and also kind of eerie.

with the way he's written, i would argue will doesn't have or even need a corruption arc, he's just like that from the get-go and he's not gonna change. and i don't mean he was born evil or whatever other bullshit i mean that he was born a full person, including the dark king and will both, and there's complexity, but no clear line separates them.

[souvenir116]

Max blind ranking his favorite movie genres:

[bonefall]

I'm powering through most of ASC: Star to get it over with (and planning to summarize all my thoughts in one big post instead of a liveread), but this part of the Curlfeather/Frostpaw interaction sticks out like a thorn to the point where I need to comment on it alone.

For context, Frostpaw is on her deathbed and this is the moment where she's having a very important, culminating argument with her mother about her motivations.

The writers decided that their thesis is that StarClan itself is what really makes the Clan cats warriors-- not necessarily an unchanging Warrior Code. The law might change, but unwavering faith in their religion will keep their morality straight through such times. Through Frostpaw and Curlfeather, this is is the point in the story where the narrative has to prove this. Or at least make a compelling argument in its case.

Problem is...

Frostpaw's sentiment here, that Curlfeather wouldn't have been able to get legitimacy as a leader, is just factually wrong.

StarClan has been shown to have absolutely no power to deny cats lives. They're also completely incapable of pointing out "illegitimate leaders" to the living cats.

Brokenstar and Tigerstar were already murderers who had eliminated political rivals when StarClan gave them "their blessing." They also completely refused to give Nightstar any lives, when they're shown to be capable of "life-splitting" in the case of Pinestar's successor, Sunstar. It goes back and forth between being "unable" and "unwilling" to influence the mortal plane, but the bottom line is consistently that they can't do shit.

This whoooooole book was also about how Splashstar, who also didn't accept the extra lives, was able to keep control over a frustratingly compliant RiverClan. You sit through entire chapters of RiverClan cats whining about Just Following Orders and the main characters being washed in pity at how hard of a situation they must be in. Curlfeather is demonstrated to be a hypocrite; but if RiverClan HAD followed the Warrior Code and killed Splashstar in "self-defense" like it stipulates, or moved to prevent the kits from suffering at his hands like it says, then she's correct.

The Warrior Code, as a system of laws, IS actually what makes them a proper society... at least, in this atomized fantasy where Clans aren't communities with a sense of interpersonal duty towards one another, but instead dedicated to process and pride.

Don't misunderstand me; Curlfeather herself as a character claims that what was bad about RiverClan, and needed to "change," was that they'd started caring about other Clans under Mistystar. This is nonsensical and clearly wrong; Mistystar was only slightly less isolationist than Onestar, and every time she'd helped another Clan was a good thing. It did not make them "weak," being a more "traditionalist" leader wouldn't make them "strong."

What I'm getting at is that her wider point, in the debate about Law vs Faith and which one truly makes a cat a Warrior, is supported by the entire arc. Faith in StarClan didn't stop any of this from happening, but a better sense of honor sure as hell would have.

I didn't think it was possible for them to make me more anti-StarClan after they enabled Ashfur's hostile takeover of ThunderClan in the last arc, but here we are.

[thelaurenshippen]

911 really is such a good reminder of the particularly kind of joy that is weekly, seasons-long shows with many episodes per season. every character gets a moment to shine even in a truncated season. the satisfaction of seeing characters grapple with stuff that happened YEARS ago. having multi-episode arcs and one-off arcs that are equally enjoyable. beach episodes (metaphorical). I know we're all saying this all the time but why can't more tv be like this

[mirensiart]

I don't think I ever shared my embroidery here, but I do embroidery as a way to relax, like drawing & embroidery are how I unwind

Anyway here are some of my fave pieces

The last one above is a pillow case I'm currently working on and this one is a bird I just started cause obviously my ADHD brain needs to start new things constantly