#can't believe I only now noticed

[lizluzz]

Wait, the first thing Ed repaired on the ship was the cabin lock. A very wise man. Great foresight.

[riricitaa]

It's canon, Andy Barber has tattoos 🫣

[nyarlathesleeper]

The Llamas With Hats Epilogue

So like any normal Jason Steele mega fan (I'm calling us The Steelers (Copyright be damned)), I was present for the Llamas With Hats Epilogue, a 20 minute append to the 11 year old series about a mad scientist llama with a particular skill for horrific contraptions involving human meat. He also wears a hat. I'm hardly the only one to have caught onto this story as an allegory for abusive relationships, and the epilogue continues this idea wonderfully.

Carl, having killed himself after his creations destroyed the entire world, finds himself in the afterlife. He's still haunted by the voice of his only friend, fellow llama Paul (also behatted). The epilogue is almost entirely focused on Carl and his coming to understand his greatest crime. Not the global genocide, or all the horrific torture he put countless people through with his many meat monsters, but hurting his llama boyfriend, the one person he actually cared about. Kinda.

Carl is a fascinating character, and the epilogue I think does a great job at outlining precisely what he is. The series finale is perfectly somber. No jokes, no laughs, just misery. That's the state of the world, and it's the state of Carl. But the epilogue does something to recontextualize the finale, in a way some may not like. The finale leaves the impression that Carl is well and truly miserable. This remains intact. But it also leaves you with the impression that he genuinely cared about and missed Paul. And while it's certainly possible that Carl came to genuinely miss Paul over the course of time between their last meeting and the finale, I think the epilogue does a much better job outlining Carl's exact relationship with Paul.

Carl, in his own words, is a dangerous sociopath with a long history of violence. Throughout the series, it's shown that he and Paul spend a lot of time together. Vacations, time at home, walks through the park, there does seem to be a functioning relationship there on some level. But in the series itself, all we see is a version of Carl that is well and truly a horrific monster. A monster who seems to primarily appreciate Paul because he's someone who puts up with Carl and his antics. Carl seems to have fun antagonizing Paul with his many monstrosities. When Paul finally leaves, Carl is desperate to get him back. The epilogue makes it clear that this isn't out of genuine love, it's just possessiveness.

Carl is stated very clearly to be beyond redemption. And though I'm typically of a forgiving mentality, I'm comfortable saying that a llama who makes meat dragons out of orphan baby hands for fun probably isn't someone who can be redeemed. Carl is very resistant to this idea at first. He thinks that Paul will forgive him if he just never does anything wrong again. And even after he dedicates himself to this idea, he can't help but enact violence on the first thing he sees. It takes remembering that Paul is dead, and that he was the one responsible for Carl to realize that he isn't healthy for Paul. That for them both to move on, that he needs to let go. For both their sakes.

Carl is probably the most deplorable character in Filmcow's catalogue. Not even Jenny with her Pizza Hut is that evil. But he's allowed peace. He's not punished forever, it's unlikely it'd even do anything if he was. He's just left to make what was probably the hardest decision he possibly could. He became the acorn. He let go. He gave himself up so that something else could live and be free.

You can't even really describe this as a selfless act, though. Paul is dead, he'll never know what Carl did. He'll never know, and he probably doesn't care. There's something beautiful about that. Carl making a sacrificial decision for nobody but himself. Even the most evil, irredeemable monster is capable and deserving of inner peace. The destruction of the world and death of every living thing didn't make Carl happy. Getting everything he ever wanted just made him miserable. Letting go is the only way for Carl, and abusive people like him, to ever achieve peace.

This all being said, the toxic llama yaoi does go crazy hard, 10 "CAAAAAAARRRLLLLLLLLL"s out of 10. Stay hydrated, eat your tube meat, and keep an eye out for phantom impostors. No, not like amogus.

[chalkrub]

haven’t drawn this beast in a while....i love you mendel

[mokeonn]

Before I go to sleep I leave you all with this piece of advice: sometimes you don't actually have to answer big political questions, sometimes you can just say "I am not smart enough to know that, I just know the small things I do to help." Like you can often times completely avoid making a fool of yourself if you just say you don't know.

[eyestrain-addict]

As I said I'm watching s1 of IWTV again cus it's on netflix now. I'm on episode 6 now and I'm realizing Louis actually has several bite marks on him, obviously the one on his neck but also two more on his chest. Probably has more I just can't see in the frame.

[vickyvicarious]

I love the music this episode. So foreboding for the Demeter section, and then so light and charming for Mina.

Speaking of Mina, I love how she opens with Lucy "looking sweeter and lovelier than ever" - because obviously, Lucy looking sweet and lovely at all times is a given, she's just more so currently. ^_^ She has some lovely descriptions, reminiscent of Jonathan - she too is painting a word-picture for him to possibly read later. But it soon diverts into history and legend and spookiness, because of course it does, she enjoys that stuff. ...actually, graveyards being treated almost like public parks wasn't that uncommon at the time I think, but it's still fun and her interest in spooky stories is apparent elsewhere in the entry too. I love how Mina is planning to come back here and work often: it's that preparation for the future again. She's so eager to get started, and possibly in a little bit of the 'I'm going to get so much done this summer' phase, though I have way more faith in her ability to stick to the plan than my own. But she really is obviously excited to build up her skills (presumably working on typing and stenography) and I love how you can really feel her effort (and her enjoyment in the effort) to be like lady journalists here. All those descriptions and interviewing Mr. Swales...

Speaking of Mr. Swales, he sounds so sweet. Lovable grandpa acquired; well done Mina!

[hillerskalibrary]

Something hit me

-and with your permission, I would like to revisit the post I made the other day, about the future of YR fic and how fast it would or wouldn't die. And I'm making a new post for it cause I want more people to see.

Because as multiple people have pointed out, both on the original post and on their own blogs: interaction is what keeps fandom alive. It's the comments on their wips that keep writers going, it's those fics that inspire artists to make new gifsets, it's the never-noticed-before detail in those gifsets that inspire new headcanons, it's the headcanons that kick off a new fic trope, and so on and so on and so on. Fandom is a verb!

Now, this is nothing new; people have been saying this for a long time. But the thing is - I can prove it. With my stupid graph. I can prove it and I didn't even know it. Look!

Look at that bump in April. When I first saw it, I was a bit stumped. Why a peak in April, of all times? What happened? And then I remembered filming started that month, and I figured - sure, that'll be it. Fresh input, more excitement, more fic.

Except... there was absolutely no such effect when S2 filming started. Like. Nothing.

But still, there's a noticeable peak in April. If you compare March (124) and May (162), you'd expect April to have 140-150 fics, give or take. Instead it has 187, about 25% more than you'd expect*. So what happened in April, that caused a surplus of 40 fics to be published?

And then it hit me.

Oh right - that happened!

I did a poll, multiple anons asked about it, @andthatisnotfake gave me a crash course on organizing fandom events, et voila - extra fic, for your enjoyment.

So this is what we mean. Obviously I'm not saying you should start organizing fandom events every other week (although I'm not stopping you either, hit me up if you have ideas! ;) ), but this example does show very nicely that new content doesn't pop up in a vacuum. So talk about it, interact with authors, reblog gifsets, publish headcanons, ... in short: be active in fandom.

You don't want things to die down? Don't let them.

It's really that simple.

*I'm just ballparking things here, these are not Exact Statistics by any means.

[ai-higurashi]

Finally had the push to sit down and do an actual Caprikon ref!

I wanna try having the color palette figured out too by this week, but I'm struggling so much finding one that makes her fit well with the others. Also, I am not un unbiased observer, she looks great in everything I tried so far XD

Bonus sketches I've been doing this past months trying to get the design right under the cut!

Plus a little something I started working on recently that I hope I can finish on at some point:

[frankensteinmutual]

.

[wherevenusholdssomeofficespace]

When you think about it, the fact that Reginald is a daredevil who isn't easily fazed by anything kind of explains a lot about Ferb and Lawrence. He skateboards, tried to jump a gorge, and can fly a plane. He's really got a lot of tricks up his sleeves, so Ferb having a lot of random skills makes sense too.

Lawrence isn't really phased by anything including his sons making all sorts of implausible things. He spent his childhood letting his younger brother beat him in all sorts of absurd contests, so him having weird skills makes sense too. Especially if he was raised by his father who participated in these hobbies. While I don't think he's "capable" in the same way as Reginald and Ferb, coming across as more of an airhead, he's not unskilled per se. Lawrence may not be as technically savvy as Phineas and Ferb, but he isn't completely hopeless there either, as seen in the things he DOES build or show a capacity to built.

So of while Ferb is of course quite and doesn't emote as clearly as them, he still has the same nonchalant nature. The Fletchers are just fearless, a penchant for learning and mastering various obscure skills, and fun loving. Of course Lawrence wouldn't be fazed by Phineas and Ferb, maybe he didn't do anything quite as wild as a kid, but her probably got into some pretty wild situations.

Of course Phineas is also really hard to faze too, which is part of why he and Ferb are joined at the hip. Though this isn't JUST a Fletcher thing.

Clyde is also a bit eccentric, though he has Phineas's more cheerful, eccentric, obliviousness if that makes sense, and Candace has her grandmother's violent obsessiveness. Both Flynn grandparents are fun loving and passionate who are always up for shenanigans.

Tiana is an adventurer herself, doing all sorts of exciting things. Which makes sense if she grew up with her nature loving parents who enjoy shenanigans. There's thrill seekers on the Flynn and Fletcher sides of the family.

All this said, while Linda is supernaturally oblivious to her sons shenanigans she has her own wild past with being a pop star and a background in astrophysics.

I feel it's also worth mentioning that as an adult, Linda is still expanding her skill set by taking a cooking class and participating in a Jazz group. The parents once went spelunking just because. Lawrence gives lectures in addition to selling antiques. The parents don't do just one thing. So their children's diverse passionate interests match that.

The real question is why Linda would be fazed by her sons inventions but that's a whole other issue.

[medicinemane]

I don't know... horrible things happen all around the world and it's not a competition

Atrocities are committed against multiple groups in multiple parts of the world at the exact same moment, and none of them erase each other. They all matter, all the people in this world who are being brutalized matter. There shouldn't be any line you draw where one group doesn't actually matter as much as another

You're welcome to prioritize your energy towards helping one group or another, but what's not ok is invalidating or dismissing people who are actively being harmed

Same goes for trying to figure out which social group has things worst (and lets be honest, always using a US lens)

Like... maybe the important thing is to prop each other up and help everyone get on their own feet rather than trying to... pick fights about if physical disabilities or mental illness are less respected (I'm trying to pick a more absurd example but sadly I've seen exactly that argument happen before). Maybe it doesn't really matter and what matters is helping who we can when we can

I'm tired of it, I'm just fucking tired of it. Support people, champion them when the world is just brutalizing them, but you don't need to throw a single other person under the bus to do that

Which seems to be an absolutely impossible lesson for people to learn

[blackwaxidol]

Ru'thûn is no Osmium royal, she has no common blood with the Hive Gods. she comes from no extant Swarm known to the Vanguard, or even most Hive.

her armour is fluted steel, yet coarse like sharkskin. it is older than humanity, and is so deeply impacted into her chitin that tearing it away would flay her hide. within the fine, granulated crevices of her armour are the perfect growing conditions for fatal anaerobes.

(an old side portrait of Ru'thûn from February 2022. reuploaded from my twitter. feel free to click and zoom in.)

[sunbloomdew]

oh my god,,,,,,

so that's why i like toasty sm

[franeridan]

came to the conclusion that the reason why aventio has such a strong hold on me these days is that they're the highest purest greatest dumbest form of "I have feelings for you" (that feeling was friendship, but neither had ever experienced it before) and I find that stupidly compelling atm

[sealovinq]

i need friends /gen (slight rant in tags)