#but that’s not the same thing as hating that every character in the book is morally corrupt

[cacw]

Truly nothing has ever pissed me off so much as this animal. An abomination is what this is. And I'll never be free of it. He has haunted me for years. Remember back in 2021 when we all had some hope for arc 9? Maybe not much, but some. Flamepaw, they called him. And then it was 2022. The excerpt was released. And I knew it was over. Because they gave him mommy issues. But already he was garnering fans. Already, people were buying into his lies. And then the book came out. It was April 2022. The world would never be the same. The Big Sparkpelt Retcon. The name change. Stealing his new prefix from yet another woman continuously wronged by the narrative. He didn't even pick his own name but he pretends he did and thus the fanbase believes this to be true. Never in my life have I felt so hateful towards a creature such as this. I cannot stand him. I can hardly bear to look at his sprite. What a joke. His chapters were grueling and aggravated me to no end. I've never read from a POV this painful. Every word that leaves his mouth is worthless. What a joke. I hope he burns in the deepest and darkest pits of hell. I like to imagine this often, because I hate him terribly. His screams would be the greatest sounds to ever escape his throat, and the flames that lick his skin would be as bright as his horrible amber eyes. They're not even bright in this photo. I bet he changed them just to make me look bad. He's good at changing things when he so wishes it. I can't stand him and I can't take it. He is the worst character. His existence shouldn't matter, yet he is somehow the most important character in the series, and so I could never get myself to really believe they might kill him off. But I wanted it more than anything. Opening each new PDF on release day I would pray that he would be flayed alive. Just brutally eviscerated. This did not come to pass, because I never get anything I want. My heart is as black as his sleek, self-righteous coat. I am so angry.

[youareatragedy]

As much as I hate Feyre, I genuinely sometimes feel bad for how SJM uses her. SJM never seems to take mental health issues seriously in her books, and I think she made Feyre’s character worse in ACOMAF by making her look even more foolish. I can’t believe someone who went to all that effort for Tamlin would just trust and believe Rhysand to that degree in such a short time. And yeah yeah people heal from trauma differently, but this is the same guy who literally degraded her in front of all of Prythian, humiliated her, and taunted the person she thought was the love of her life for months.

SJM made Feyre seem so easily manipulated and childish—not even naive, just childish. And then, the moment she becomes fake 'High Lady' she’s somehow both self righteous and constantly bragging about her "powerful family” at every opportunity like she’s above everyone and everyone should bow to her husband. After the war, she opens a painting studio but still doesn’t care about the lives of the females in her court outside of Velaris. This.. all of this while being mad at Tamlin for doing something basic like collecting taxes—something a functioning government has to do.

I honestly don’t get what SJM is trying to do with Feyre. Time and time again, she clearly makes Feyre her self-insert. Is she admitting that the only feminism that matters is white feminism? That the moment SJM married her husband (who she claims is Rhys), she lost her agency and he became her handler? Is this a cry for help? I just don’t get it.

So yeah, sometimes I feel bad for Feyre. She’s so SO young, and her husband is 500 years older than her—we should hold him waaayyy more accountable for every shitty thing Feysand does. But the mystery of Feyre’s bad character progression always makes me wonder: did SJM do it on purpose, or does she truly just not see the problem? (I’m leaning towards the latter because her fans—a lot of them—also can’t see what the problem is with Feysand and the IC.)

[starrysharks]

STARRYSHARKS FAQ: 2!

this FAQ will go over some of the questions about my process that i get in my askbox. some disclaimers:

ANYONE who asks any questions that have been answered in either FAQ will be ignored.

PLEASE don't take this FAQ as gospel or assume that it's viable art advice. it is not. i am not a professional, i am a teenager who draws in her free time and therefore many of these answers will involve things that break common "laws" of art, logic, and anatomy. this is just how i personally go about my illustrations. please also don't take me or any individual artist as your sole inspiration, you will not get anywhere believe me. art is like a balanced diet. if you eat sweets all the time, you'll get sick - but if you only eat veggies and healthy food, you'll get bored. try to take inspiration from a vast range of artists, even those you don't think you'd really enjoy. and most importantly, LEARN THE FUNDEMENTALS OF ART!!!! even just a little bit of knowledge can go a long way, regardless of how simple or realistic you want your artstyle to be. refusing to learn fundamentals had my art looking janky for years.

ok enough waffle let's get started!

Q: HOW DO YOU DRAW FACES?

A: it depends.

there's lots of things you can do to a face to make it unique. the starting point is the facial features themselves - eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth... if they're the same for every character with the only uniqueness being in eyecolor or something like that, you get same face syndrome.

so, take your characters and apply some diverse facial features. certain facial features have certain character connotations too. like downturned eyes implying a laid-back or tired character, or a 3-shaped mouth implying a catty character, something like that.

but, for me, facial diversity isn't enough. it's not like you go out and everyone has the same head shape. so, i tend to try and get creative with face shape, and depending on how thin or wide the shape is, you can move around the facial features too.

these examples are a little shitty but that's because i put them together in 10 minutes. you can see the effect in my actual characters, who have more effort put into them, and how no character looks alike.

other than that, i tend to try and give every character a different eye shape and pupil "type" - so while krankenstein and romèo might have simple black dot eyes, octavia and vivica have large multicolor anime esque eyes, onion has cartoony circle eyes, and so on. if you just switch things around enough, even characters with similar face shapes will look unique. and even if they don't, doppelgangers do exist in real life.

Q: HOW DO YOU DRAW HANDS?

A: once again it depends. some characters have regular shaped hands while some have really tiny hands that only have 3-4 fingers instead of 5. usually my larger characters will have smaller hands but that isn't always the case.

but for the standard hand, i tend to have a line between the palm/base and the fingers. and then i um...add the fingers i guess😭 there's usually a lot of abstraction when it comes to hands for me, because i'm not the best at drawing them. usually either the last three fingers or the middle two will be connected as well depending on the pose.

Q: HOW DO YOU DRAW FURRIES?

A: i don't really know myself. i still don't know how to draw most furry species especially canines, god i hate canines!!! well not really, i can just never draw their snouts. really i draw furries like i would human, just with larger thighs and further back lower legs. and fur too. i like to exaggerate the nails too. and of course add fur, usually at the joints.

Q: HOW DO YOU DO LINEART?

A: i draw over the sketch. i do the sketch in thin, low opacity lineart, and go over it in varying thickness based on the perspective/desired look to get that comic book varied thickness look. the eraser will be your best friend more than the pen here, cuz there's a lot of cleaning up with both the sketch and the final lineart to have everything looking sharp.

Q: CAN YOU GIVE A STEP BY STEP GUIDE OF HOW TO DO YOUR STYLE?

A: no and i will never be able to. there is no formula to my style, i break every rule i make for myself. i barely follow any of the answers i write in these QNAs. they are not rules or steps but rather just me explaining my habits in art. i never have a checklist when i draw, i just do these things intuitively based on years of drawing. this might sound like some stuck up "it comes naturally" thing but trust me IT DOES NOT COME NATURALLY!!! these habits are born from over a decade of drawing. and besides, like i said before, with how varied i try to make my character designs any step by step would never be universal to my style. i'm really sorry but that's the truth. either way i hope this QNA helps.

[tenojan-in-tevinter]

I'm not a solavellan person I just really like rotating Solas in my brain like a microwave. He is so interesting. He's something different to everyone who knows him. Your intentions shape his approach when interacting with you. He is wisdom and pride and hope and a pain and a friend and a villain and someone's love. He's been twisted against his purpose so many times by so many people I don't think he even knows what his "purpose" is anymore. He is so fucked up. He's such a fucked up little guy. The only part of him that's remained the same all this time is tangled up in the tightest knot of regret you could ever imagine.

Everyone talks about whether they hate or love him. But like... that's kind of the point of him isn't it? If you hate him he commits to pissing you off as much as possible and if you love him he tears himself to shreds and ties his regret knot tighter just for you. There is no winning in his rule book. There is just failure or success, and he's experienced so little of the latter that it's made him willing to tear the world apart just for one tiny success. Just the smallest barest of successes. And then he'd turn around and see the damage left in the wake and fall apart all over again. He can never let go of anything.

As a character i love how he is written. As a person i think I would despise him face to face. He's like anxiety personified. All the what ifs lumped together. Every "I wasn't good enough" that anyone has ever thought. He's also none of these things. He could choose to be whatever he wants but he's so attached to his past and origins and chained to his perception of himself that he'll never let himself change.

I hope that after an ending where he's persuaded to join the veil, that he manages to figure out how to just be a little guy again. Just some guy. He deserves that I think.

[lazycranberrydoodles]

english translation book 5 baby we are in the ‘people assuming kid form hua cheng is xie lian’s son’ era 🔥🔥🔥 / follow for more hualian silliness

[retconomics]

im gonna go to war with anyone and everyone who said att*llo needs more branching or choices like stfu fr .

[vicontheinternet]

You should’ve see my face when I read ‘feminine’. This is why you will never get me to join that fandom. Do they not know that Shonda Rhimes is a BLACK woman who has made it her mission to be the sole reason why loving v Virgina doesn’t get overturned that woman lovers her a swirl. You’re not going to get a same race relationship out of her for main character. Also Micheal is John’s cousin why would he be white.

And let me stick this one here talking shit about this fandom I’ll drop this screenshot here. Let’s not try to remember what twitter thread or tweet this was from it’s two years old. Saying that Simon was a dark skin lead is crazy and they knew that not what op meant by dark skin women

[gigantomachylesbian]

Guys. I did not know before now that writing could be painfully millennial in a full prose book but the pho*nix ke*per has proven me wrong and I have to complain about it in the tags

[ravewing]

easy books

war and peace was stressing me a little bit because the font they used in the book i bought is like size zero point seven or something ridiculous. and also even though its not as difficult to read as the historical biographies and whatnot that i normally read i was still having to go back and reread entire chapters because i kept getting the characters and events and words all mixed up right

so after i got 60 pages in or something i was saying to myself 'well im like. five percent done with this book now' so i deserved a reward and i was just going to reread JUST ONE wof book for fun (darkstalker legends. also it reminded me of how much i hate darkstalker and how much i absolutely love thoughtful and also indigo ps i also cried. maybe ill yap ab that book later)

but then after i finished that there were still a lot of hours left in the day and really what was i going to do, go back to war and peace after only two hours?? fuck no i needed a vacation you guys come on

so now im rereading arc two over again because its been like three or four years since the last time i did so. currently halfway through winter turning at the moment but you know what i earned this treat ok guys.

i havent sat down and read a silly easy book in so long (lie btw i reread the lost heir a few months ago but that doesnt count). like since last november i have been nonstop reading historical nonfiction grown up complex books so being able to relax and read a little kiddie small words book series like wof again is so oughh im literally cruising rn guys.

maybe ill buy the warrior cats book series because i only read the first arc of that and that was way back when i was in third grade. so like seven years ago jesus christ. easy books they could NEVER make me hate you

[13eyond13]

one of the lesser talked about fun things about intentionally reading more books is finding new stuff to be a bit of a hater about tbh

[moondal514]

I’ve been reading so many books lately with morally corrupt characters that it genuinely takes me aback to see a book review that starts with “every character here is an awful person” and the review thinks that’s a bad thing 😂

[artinandwritin]

live footage of mona plotting out niv's story:

[fishofthewoods]

just reread vespertine and GOD DAMN i forgot how good this book is. Go read it right now. 17 year old aromantic autistic nun gets posessed by centuries old incredibly powerful malevolent ghost who turns out to be a huge catty bitch and also teaches her how to do self care. And theyre best friends

[themyscirah]

New suicide squad is fucking horrible yet again (surprise, surprise). No shade specifically on Maines because she could be doing it worse (see anything TT has done w Waller & the squad) but her Waller and everything dc has done with the character the past few years makes me want to bash my head in. Also love how they changed Waller's origin to be exactly opposite to what it was before in a really major way

Absolutely no respect at all. Lovely

[sureuncertainty]

love reading an amazing book with some of the most fantastic aro/ace rep i have ever read, and then going on goodreads to see the most willfully misinterpreted acephobic garbage in the reviews, like allos literally die when something’s not about them for .5 seconds huh

[puppysdog]

trc fans are scared to follow me bc i hate their baby girl