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lillified · 2 years ago

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is there a name for the fan continuity you’re making? (ie transformers earthspark, transformers prime something like that) also you probably get tons of people telling you this constantly but i really like how you portray megastar in your work, they are so messy and i love it, it’s fresh and new compared to. well. tfp and idw as the main offenders cough cough

anyways also want you to know you’re super cool and i love your artstyle its like the feeling of running your hands on smooth metal if that makes sense

hi!! tbh im not sure if ive ever properly said it, but the working title is The Decepticons! might be subject to change, but it works for now lol

as for the art style thing--I'm glad you mentioned it, because that is kind of what I'm going for! I love the blocky and geometric angles of things like gundams, but the thing that got me interested in robots was transformers prime, and I'll always be a fan of the sleek, modern, and organic appearance of the characters in that... I wanted to bring those together for my own art, because I think both of those are true to the spirit of TF :)

as for your second point--you should know that i will never pass up an opportunity to talk about my thoughts on writing and characterization and stuff, so forgive me preemptively for the long post, lol

thank you for the kind words! I agree that there are a lot of issues with how certain characters have been portrayed... while the comics were great for fleshing out certain classic characters, they also seriously flattened many others. These characters have decades and series long histories of exploration and experimentation that feels like it's been completely restricted to one of only a few avenues lately, and that bothers me a little bit. like, when was the last time we've seen a piece of transformers media where they have inventive takes on character relationships in the same way as Animated? what's the point of rebooting and refreshing if nothing new happens??

Megatron and Starscream are a great indicator of that for me--their relationship in G1 is bombastic, but also complicated and interesting. they're the most important decepticons by far and their characteristics are integral to the functioning and philosophy of the entire group, to the point that, for example, removing Starscream from the equation of the Decepticons, I'd argue, makes Megatron an entirely different character. They're necessary to eachother, but it really feels like (with very few exceptions) their relationship has only gotten flatter and flatter over time. Even Prime, which I'd argue has the most textually interesting and deep take on their relationship, is, very obviously, held back by an overture of cheap, aesthetic violence. I firmly believe you could rewrite TFP without any of the violence and none of the character arcs would have to change at all, because, at the end of the day, it's purely superficial--it has nothing to say, and exists only as a way to bolster Megatron's dominant image, and to satisfy the audience's assumed disdain for Starscream.

while obviously it is transformers, and nobody is required to think that deeply about it, I'm a dork and it's always bothered me specifically, because, outside of that, there IS a lot of complexity to the stuff that happens!! I like this series specifically because there is so much variation and so many perspectives that have touched this franchise, and, in the best cases, we get the underlying character arc in Prime, where Megatron and Starscream's relationship is a case of two people who respect eachother more than anyone else and can't quite find equal footing about it.

going the IDW route and turning their interactions into constant hostility is the easy way out because it adds the aesthetic of "maturity" via shock value without having anything to say; however, the actual most thoughtful variations on the characters can communicate that both of them are inherently flawed without any of that, and that's what I want to do. this is my writing exercise, in essence... I'm not trying to make the decepticons "good" and just show them frolicking about all the time, I'm trying to make a properly "adult" spin on the formula that actually treats the audience like adults instead of trying to shock them. I'm a nerd about this already so I'm not going to shy away from the intense relationship these characters have because it's too complicated and messily homoerotic to unpack. if I've got the liberty to, why not?

anyway. thanks for reading once again! i can never make these short and succinct haha. i feel like i repeat myself all the time but also I never run out of things to say about them. as always, I'm really grateful that other people are interested in these things--I know none of it is really super important and it's probably something only I ever think about, but I feel like I owe it to the people who have contributed their perspectives and artistic ability to this thing to care at least a little, lol.

#transformers #ask #text post #long post #text #megatron #starscream #megastar #megatron x starscream

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a-casual-egg · 6 months ago

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Yay, happy take meme time! I know you have a lot of Oxventure aspec headcanons, do you have any that’s your favorite? Or just one that you wanna talk about right now? :D

I'm glad people know that I have a lot of Oxventure aspec headcanons. They mean a lot to me. I don't know if I have any favorites, but the ones I've been thinking a lot about currently are aroace Silas, aroace Garnet, and aroallo Prudence. I have a lot of thoughts about them. Edit: This kiiiiinda contains ship hate, but it's pretty much me being mad at fandoms for essentially throwing platonic stuff and friendships to the side because they think romance is more interesting (they're wrong).

For aroace Silas, I already like him a lot (he may be my favorite pc for oxventure deadlands) and find a lot of joy in the fact he really doesn't seem to be into any kind of romance. He really seems to enjoy Edie's presence, but it really feels like strictly platonic to me. I think he values friends a lot, like he seems lonely in the way that autistic people are lonely because he's bad at social interactions and also in an aroace way because I imagine he really doesn't want to his words to be misconstrued as flirting or his awkwardness having a crush. For example, he seems to really respect women (he's chugging that respect women juice) and he wants to be really nice to women but he doesn't want the women in his life to think that he's into them (that's why I wrote the first aspec oxventure one-shot in that one-shot compilation on ao3). I think he hates the idea of romance and pda as a whole. I think people often ask if he has a girlfriend, and he finds it annoying. Then, when he says he isn't interested in stuff like that, they think he's gay and asks if he has a boyfriend, and he says no to that, making the asker confused and him angry. He doesn't need a romantic partner, and he hates how people think he does. I think that makes it a bit difficult to be friends with Edie sometimes because she's just so romantic and loves romantic love. He loves her platonically, but he is not listening to her gush about her crush. He's an allo hater to me. He's so sick of their bs. Also, if you add blue to his character art, he's got aroace flag colors.

For aroace Garnet, I imagine she's chiller with romance. It's absolutely not for her, but she'll listen to Edie talk about her crush or romantic partner. Speaking as to why I headcanon her as aroace though, she's literally so fun and never seems to really be into anyone. She's just chilling as a powerful huckster that's snarky, and I think that's incredible. She seeks perfectly comfortable being alone and as an aroace person, I really enjoy that. She's never bringing up the idea of flirting with someone for the mission or thinking someone is cute. She's just...existing and living her best life. I know she seems to enjoy Edie's presence (and Edie enjoys hers) despite never doing a duo mission together, and I like to view that platonically. It's a girl thinking another girl is really cool, and that's not inherently romantic. Garnet wants to follow Edie because she's a fellow strong and independent woman. I think that's neat. I like to view them as having a sisterly relationship post-canon. They talk about Edie's crushes/partner(s) and Garnet's aroaceness and how aphobes are braindead and pathetic.

I find it a bit weird that both of those had stuff to do about Edie, but Edie's just so iconic, and both characters clearly care about her a lot. She's platonically loves both Silas and Garnet soooooo much, and they platonically love her back just as much. I love it when characters are so deeply fond of each other platonically.

Last aspec headcanon I've been thinking a lot about lately, aroallo Prudence. There's not much about it. She cares about power and evilness and not romance, and honestly, that's iconic. She's not ace to me because she shows sexual attraction to things (I'm thinking about when they did smth for a bachelor party or smth, and both Corazón and her found some monsters hot) and because the world needs more aroallo characters, headcanon and canon. Also, not to be someone who's like "it's literally canon! *shows a sentence a character says that can be viewed in a thousand different ways that doesn't confirm said character is [x]*" but like she literally says that romance is for the weak/for cowards. That mixed with her being vulnerable towards people she views as her close friends is really sweet. I choose to view it as her finding people who don't judge her for finding romance below her, and she feels safe with them. I love it when characters can feel safe and be sweet with their friends and it not viewed as romantic, and I wish that happened in oxventure because I think Prudence's arc of learning to trust and feel safe with the guild is farrrrr more interesting if it isn't just like "they're all in romantic loveeeee and having sexxxxx". I like her as a proud aroallo woman who will not hesitate to hate on aphobes, and honestly, we need more characters like that. She's absolutely proud of herself and will kill you if you're a hater/bigot, especially to the person she is and I love that.

#asks #ask games #officialgleamstar #this got sorta mean at the end but you caught me at a time where I'm really sick of allos #I hope this is happy enough #I just got really into my hcs

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thelemmallama · 2 years ago

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(crosspost from one of my Tapas comments; I feel like it's some good insight into the nature of entitlement)

___

As a fellow non-humble artist, I just had to click on that title and since you're open about your ego, I trust you won't be offended if I chime in from a different perspective, from one arrogant mofo to another:

People always say it's not good to compare yourself to others, that it's only going to make you upset. But I've always loved comparing myself to others. I figured this is because I have a big ego, so naturally when I compare myself to others and feel like I'm doing well in comparison, that makes me happy. Whereas people with a lower opinion of their skills are going to think they suck by comparison, which naturally makes them sad.

But then you come along, very confident in your abilities, having compared yourself to others yet you're upset, even though you feel your art is better that those other people's. And so I don't think it's comparison that's the problem. Rather, I think it's this:

[quote="kristynamaximova, post:1, topic:76096"] deserve [/quote]

Even a humble artist's comparison woes stem from this, I feel. They put in a lot of effort, so they 'deserve' to have a good product at the end of it[1], and that's why they're sad when they feel like the end product doesn't measure up to their expectations. When they see another artist put out (what they consider to be) a better piece for less effort, there's a hint of resentment there, much like how you felt seeing other comics get more subscribers for lower quality art.

However the humble artist is easy to sympathize with, because they're putting the blame not on other people, but on their own 'inadequate' skills. Their complaints about 'not getting what they deserve' is not an implicit attack on others.

I feel like that's the main reason people consider the arrogant to be jerks; if you're arrogant AND value the notion of 'deserving', then naturally you'll think you deserve a lot, and then resent people when they don't give you what you feel you deserve. This kind of being-upset-about-not-getting-what-you-deserve is inherently more accusatory than the run-of-the-mill variety, and is unique to arrogant people.

However, just because you think you're hot shit doesn't mean you have to believe you 'deserve' stuff! When I choose to do something, I never expect to be rewarded for it (unless someone explicitly promised me a reward, like a boss hiring me). I'm doing it with full acknowledgement of the risk that it might turn out crap, or that people might not care. Therefore I choose to do things only if I feel like it's worth doing anyway, regardless of the external outcomes. (e.g. if I'm bored, doing anything is an improvement over the alternative of doing nothing, and thus worth it for its own sake.)

I feel like this is the root of entitlement; doing things while expecting an outcome that will not necessarily happen. Being nice to others while expecting they'll like you. Raising a child while expecting they'll take care of you in turn when you get old. Drawing a dope comic with the expectation that lots of people will sub. Heck, just drawing, with the expectation that you'll end up with something dope.

Naturally when you have this expectation, you forget to consider the scenario where the expectation doesn't happen, and in particular if that scenario would still be a favorable one. So you choose to do things that you wouldn't have done if you knew your expectation wouldn't come true. And then when it doesn't come true, you feel like you wasted your time. Of course you'd be upset!

Me, I don't have that expectation. So when I look at my own work, and look at someone else's more popular work, I don't feel like I've been cheated out of popularity. All I feel is 'damn, my work is good; I'm glad such a good work exists in the world for people to access, and I'm the one who made it. And because it's so damn good, I can't help but feel like it will be discovered. Not gonna be upset if that doesn't happen within a fixed timeframe (e.g. my lifetime), but for as long as it exists in the world, it'll always be a possibility' :D And that's how I because that mythical individual who actually enjoys comparing themself to others XD

[1] And then the 'more skilled' artists feel the need to justify their skill by saying that they practiced for years to get to where they are; i.e. that they actually did 'earn' their 'right' to put out such masterpieces - they did put in the effort so they 'deserve' it. (And I HAAATE playing this game (I honestly don't care if people feel like I 'deserve' my skills or not) - but on the other hand if I'm honest and say 'actually I honestly didn't practice that much or push myself very hard to get to where I am today', people might feel like I'm rubbing my talent in their faces and taunting them or smth. This is why compliments are awkward AF -.-) (So I guess it's easy for me to say 'the concept of 'deserving' is a load of bull' when I'm the one getting more than I 'deserve')

#entitlement #deserving #art community #webcomics #my ip abolitionist is showing

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