#but like a really old one

[planefood]

rules for thee and not for me

[hinamie]

10 years later

[quickdeaths]

I've had this meme sitting in my drafts in various partially-finished capacities for almost a year, since I wanted to write a lot. Shinobu is the character with the most inspirations, both individually and archetype-wise, and some of those inspirations are "what I didn't want to do," so there's a lot to say/explain. I've left them all under the cut, along with the template (I expanded it because I wanted to talk about trends and archetypes in addition to specific characters.)

Stolen from: @more-than-a-princess from like almost a year ago Tagging: A dash meme... you'll steal it! No one will ever know!

Anyway here is the blank template feel free to take it and skip All This Yapping if you want

If you're still here for the yapping, to begin, I wanted to talk about my approach to OCs, especially gender/sexual minority OCs, 'cause that informed a lot of Shinobu's characterization. I try to put a degree of "realism" into things, though I'm definitely not against smoothing things over a bit compared to what is "realistic." At the same time, my characters cover a spectrum of "how much does being queer affect their life," so that there's a diversity of experience, and also a diversity of tone. Some characters are a bit more escapist than others, in terms of "are there themes of homo/transphobia in their stories", and some are more "this character is partially a vehicle to explore those themes and the experiences that come with them". Shinobu is very much the latter, which is why so much of this is gonna be about Gender. Order of boxes will go left to right, top to bottom. 1. "Girl Prince" characters (Haruka Tenoh/Sailor Uranus, Yuu Kashima, Kaoru Seta, Utena Tenjou). I love these characters, and I genuinely love this archetype. You can trace the influence back to Princess Knight and Rose of Versailles, and then back to Takarazuka Revue, and there are a lot of examples in Takarazuka history of female fans getting REALLY into the otokoyaku actresses, including actually having romances with them. That said, I've often felt that it's an archetype that is so "aggressively anime" in how it's portrayed. Masculinity in women, especially teenage girls, is not typically celebrated by society. "All the girls have a crush on the cool lesbian (or lesbian-seeming girl)" is not really something that lines up much with what I have experienced, what I have seen, and what I have heard from others. So, it's hard for me to see this archetype as sort of "honest queer representation" (which is fine, not everything has to clear that bar.) I think Utena is my favorite example, because it is more realistic, at least, in the fact that the anime is consciously engaging with the conversation about gender and dynamics. Utena's more masculine presentation does not endear her to everyone, and some people certainly think she should abandon it. With Shinobu, then, what I wanted to do was present a girl who fits into that general archetype of "handsome lesbian prince," in a way that felt genuinely engaged with the sexualities and genders involved (while still keeping some of the silly anime vibes). By having her as a masculine trans woman whose identity is policed by her family/certain institutions, it felt more honest to me in both presenting her as someone with a large female fanbase, and also showing the internal harm that comes with that kind of treatment. A lot of her fans don't see her as she sees herself, and it's that incongruence that allows her to exist in the trope space of a "handsome prince," with all that comes with it, without pretending that every single teen girl in the world is a closet lesbian, and that being a gay teen is like a massive popularity buff.

2. Still, I wanted to steer clear from the typical characterization of a princely girl as this kind of effortlessly charming, generally positive, somewhat womanizing type, and rather go for a different kind of "prince" romantic archetype. This could also be a catchall placement for a few characters, but I only had so much room. Chevalier from Ikemen Prince is exactly the kind of "cold-hearted, ruthless, beastly" prince that I wanted to model Shinobu's persona on. It's a popular romantic archetype, so it fits with the idea of having a big fanbase, and also it's codified in such a way that it would be something people might put onto Shinobu, as an expectation, rather than something inherent to her personality. Over time, of course, one shifts to embody the expectations of others more and more, especially in Shinobu's case, where her sense of self is weak in a lot of places.

3. I have been writing OCs for a long time, but my girlfriend was only a canon RPer for a long time. Eventually, though, once she'd left tumblr, she started making OCs for Killing Game RPs in discord groups, and those characters migrated out into our personal discord RPs over time. Frankly, my girlfriend is the reason that I have any DR OCs at all (and also is the reason I originally got into DR), so it could be said that all of them are the inspiration, but the clearest one is Rui, The Ultimate Host. She's another version of the "Girl Prince" archetype, and more typically so in her personality. Similarly to the Takarazuka Revue actresses, being a host puts her in a kind of liminal space where breaking those gendered expectations is a little more acceptable, so I think she's also in conversation with the archetype from another angle.

Rui came first, and Shinobu was at least partially a conscious foil to her of "these characters will have a lot to say to each other," and their relationship has gone, at varying points, from a rivalry, to a one-sided rivalry, to begrudging teammates, to actually being a romantic couple. For example, they both date around, but in very different ways - Rui dates a lot of girls at once, but doesn't like drama or tears, so rather than breaking up, she just sort of slowly ghosts them when she gets bored. In Shinobu's case, she only dates one girl at a time (and usually a short time) but she is very clear and purposefully cruel in how she attempts to break hearts. Defining Rui and Shinobu in opposition to each other in these kinds of ways was a big part in me figuring out the specifics of who Shinobu was and how she acted. Rui's great, and it's a shame that all of you only get to experience my girlfriend's OCs through the cameos they make here.

4. Personality wise, maybe less so, but Quanxi is a big aesthetic inspiration. Big anime lesbian, wears suits, has sex with lots of women, somewhat emotionally reserved, has an affinity for bows and arrows, etc. TalentSwap Shinobu (who is not someone I have formally codified with a page or anything, but she exists, she's out there, I promise) has an eyepatch basically as a direct reference to Quanxi's appearance. She's just a character I think is neat. Shinobu's design was harder for me to pin down, at first, compared to a lot of my OCs. I settled on the glasses, red hair, black clothes, pretty early, but there are multiple "beta shinobu" designs that don't have the same fashion sense or overall aesthetic. Quanxi (and Makima, to be fair) helped me zero in on the specific look.

5. This is kind of a joke, but also kind of not hahaha. I do have a habit of referring to any edgy characters as like, a "little Sasuke" but also it weirdly does line up? It wasn't really intentional, but she's the second child of a famous family, with a genius prodigy older brother who abandoned the family and thus ruined her entire life, and now she wants to murder him. She's pretty Sasuke, not gonna lie. I think a lot of characters, not even just OCs, but canon characters too, sometimes exist in this kind of void space where they don't seem to have much going on outside of the direct canon - no family relationships, no hobbies outside of what they do on-camera, etc. I wanted to have all of my OCs have that surrounding scaffolding, and so for Shinobu, it was this very fractured and messy family situation with an absent mother, a cruel father, and a brother who doesn't actually deserve her hatred, but who is this target/outlet for the rage at her own mistreatment that almost overwrites all her other instincts when he is around.

6. This is another "grouping of characters / trope analysis" thing. I almost see it as a companion piece to the other one. Whereas the prince girls are an archetype of "celebrated masculinity in young girls," I would say these characters (Naoto Shirogane, Ryunosuke Fujinami, Rin Hoshizora, Tomo Aizawa) are an archetype of... "distant aspirational femininity," maybe, in that same demographic. I don't have a problem with these characters (I like most of them!) but aspects of their stories play with this idea that these more masculine girls would be happier or more authentic if they discarded those elements in favor of more conventional femininity.

I think this is maybe a complicated topic, because femininity is policed in a way that's kind of "damned if you do, damned if you don't," in my opinion, and in specific, all of these characters are potentially justified in their feelings on an individual level. There's nothing wrong with presenting in a certain way, and it's not "masculine girl good, feminine girl bad," but I do think it's worth talking about that, firstly, in some cases, these stories frame these desires for feminine presentation as liberatory or radically individualistic in spite of society, which is just not usually accurate - society wants women to be feminine, it is not a radical position or one that is deeply challenging dominant narratives, so it's weird to frame it that way. Secondly, there is almost never the alternative - there are so few female characters who present femininely, and who have character beats that involve accepting and desiring a more masculine presentation.

I think a lot about gender and sexuality, so these things get under my skin a little bit. It's not anime-exclusive, either. The amount of teen movies that involve a female character going from like, unisex clothing to more femme presentation in order to be pretty for the boy, or whatever, is too damn high. Justice for Ally Sheedy, basically. I do think it's fine to present however, and obviously fictional characters are fiction, so go wild. For me, though, it's a trope I find kind of tiresome and frustrating, especially when they're attached to romance options or female characters in majority male-audience works.

So, for Shinobu, I had the thinking of like, maybe being able to thread some (nonexistent) needle with her presentation. On the one hand, asserting her gender as a woman despite her androgynous appearance and more masculine presentation, and not treating that as somehow disqualifying of womanhood. On the other hand, allowing for the possibility of increased femininity over time in a way that feels a little bit more genuine in that kind of "radically self-affirming kind of way." Unlike a cis woman character, who society wants to be feminine, as a trans woman, society's "desire" for someone like Shinobu is not, in fact, feminine, but rather than she not be any kind of woman. To me that felt like a way to engage with that trope in a way that felt more interesting to me.

[benisasoftboi]

Best thing about Doctor Who, and I mean this so genuinely, is the way it goes from ‘haunting Celtic folk mystery about death and penitence’ to ‘what if your group chat banter was so dire that your phone developed sentience and tried to kill you’

[lunarwednesday]

Kindly Miquella... I see you've thrown away... Something you should not have... Under any circumstances.

[oifaaa]

It's funny how opinions can change over time for instance I used to want Bruce to be a good parent but then I realised how fucking boring that is to read at the end of the day comics are soap operas and I'm here for the drama

[cup-o-stars]

Happy B-Day to the Corasante!! ❤🕯🎂🕯❤

(Featuring way too many drawings)

[newttxt]

crisis of disbelief

[frenchublog]

Steal their look 👗

[paintedcrows]

they make me feel unwell

(continued: Stan & Young Ford)

[technovillain]

~the haircut~

[a redraw of one of my post popular and beloved posts, for the 3rd anniversary of pn2!]

[knightofleo]

Angela Orosco Silent Hill 2

[heartorbit]

figure skating set right now please. thanks

[illusioncanthurtme--art]

She got em 😔

This is very old. But life has been repeatedly kicking me while I'm down, and I want to share something because sharing these stupid drawings and seeing how people react brings me some joy :')

I'll admit I did plan on finishing this at some point, but it's gotten too old to the point where... it's just too old. I don't want to touch it.

Also YES dib is catfishing zim 1000000000000%

[kensatou]

you think YOU had a bad day at work?

bonus: sid shrieking "no!!!! NO!!!!!" loud enough to be heard in the stands and on camera

[gingermaple]

found ur blog thru cuteguy art, went to ur tags to look for more cuteguy art, SAW SANDERS SIDES MY DAY IS ABSOLUTELY MADE.

I love finding more sanders sides artists even if they dont draw for it anymore!! its such a nice surprise always :DDD

did a little virgil for my warmup, i'm glad my art made your day cause this ask made mine :D