#especially the most recent one

[cactuupng]

I'm in love with how Mumbo has started showing us the FULL process of his builds (said it before already BUT it has to be said again), from concept to finished in just one episode

But not only that, he's full on starting to make STORIES for his builds, bro is making LORE more and more each season

First it was the Gold Shop that looks like a mine and all that, BUT LIKE?? A TECH SHOP FOR HIS REDSTONE STORAGE IS GREAT ALREADY, BUT GIVING IT A NAME AND A BUSINESS CARD AND EVERYTHING? he's going so extra but its SO cool and makes me even more immersed into the builds

[namisweatheria]

One Piece means a lot to me as a disabled person, which I think would be pretty surprising to anyone who only has a surface understanding of it. The supposed central theme of "follow your dreams" would be pretty alienating to someone like me, right? It really, really would be, if that's what it was actually about.

However, that ignores that Luffy's dream is to be the most free person in the world. And to attain that goal, the first thing he does is find friends to live life with. Over and over again, from the very beginning, he takes on their burdens, all in the name of being the most free.

Do you see what that would mean to me, as someone who needs more help to get by than is considered culturally normal, to the point that it puts me in a whole socially manufactured category of "other"? Not to mention, because of the infantilization of me due to that category, because of being forced so squarely into the "cared for" role, taking care of other people is deeply meaningful and empowering for me. However, the myths of independence and universal natural ability often make it emotionally difficult for my loved ones to accept that care.

The fear of asking for help, the guilt of being cared for, the weight of someone you loved who could not be as free as you, the insecurity of not contributing enough, the fear that you were born wrong, the self-hatred that says you are not worth the effort, Nami Sanji Zoro Usopp Robin Chopper Ace they all explore the painful obstacles to free connection. Through deeply impactful stories that weave beautifully into the larger one.

All centered around this one person who views loving them and living with them and carrying them as essential to his freedom. Who cannot, for countless reasons, live a normalized life of Structured Relations. Who views exploring and bickering and suffering and laughing with them as the ideal way to live. Who repeatedly puts his life and limbs on the line to do so.

To me, it is an ultimate privilege and freedom to carry other people's burdens. To care for them and live with them. This is central to my whole perspective, and is completely informed by my life experience as a disabled person. I rarely see it reflected back to me. Let alone as powerfully and beautifully as Luffy does.

Nor the other half of it, of wanting to create this life with people in ways that aren't socially normal or approved. Of creating many varied lifelong intimate relations among equals, rather than conforming to the expectation of choosing One Person to live life with and then Creating More.

The utter lack of roles and norms is just as integral and powerful to the exploration of freedom and connection! It is meaningful to me as a queer person, yes, but even this is deeply influenced by my disability. I could never be that One Person, despite everything I have to offer, there is logistically far too much that I cannot do to be someone's equal partner in this society that demands so much from all of us. However, even if I could, I wouldn't want to! It doesn't make any sense to me to only have two people navigate life together on such intimate terms. Can't the demands of society be more comfortably met in a group? Isn't life more fun that way?

We are taught that we can and must do everything ourselves, I just happen to be one of the people that never had a chance to buy into that lie. To learn very early not just the necessity of interdependence, but the joy in it. To learn that it is most comfortably lived with more people involved. To me, close relationships are, love is, a natural extension of that understanding. One Piece celebrates interdependence constantly from the start, while never pretending that it is always easy.

The obstacles to free connection that I mentioned before, they are interspersed throughout the story, and they are always met with "I do the things you can't do, and you do the things I can't do." With, "Of course I can't use swords you dumbass! And I can't cook either! I don't know a damn thing about navigation! And I can't lie!"

These are intentionally impactful moments, and they define the series. I found it very fitting that the Fan Letter focused on a character who was empowered by Nami to feel free and live adventurously despite not being the most physically capable. The character is able by our definition, but the story is very affirming in a disability way, and it was extremely One Piece. I loved how it acknowledged this deep connection between One Piece and the lived reality of disability and celebrated it as integral as it is.

I also believe that absolutely none of this is intentional. It is simply an earnest exploration of human relationships, emotions, and behavior, and it naturally arrives at a radical and disability-affirming viewpoint. Because we are the monkey wrench in the deeply unhealthy (lol) and dominant line of thinking that independence is all. So naturally anything that also disputes that thinking has a disabled-perspective feel to it. The best part is how much it doesn't give a fuck! One Piece is aggressively against conformity in human relationships, in a way that is hard to find in our new world of self-conscious authors.

It's also, you know, the worst part, in terms of all the outrageous bigotry and offensive character design, but god damn it if it doesn't elevate the good parts to unbearable heights. Even the bad character designs can sometimes be more impactful for their intentional "ugliness", when those characters are inevitably taken seriously despite their appearance and the stereotypes they play on, it hits hard every time. I do have a simple hatred for many choices, there is no pay-off for much of the awful problems in numerous character designs and dialogue. But no matter how upset I can be by those things, in the end they can't succeed in pulling me away from One Piece. It's just so crazy and unique and great and terrible and beautiful and I LOVE IT.

[stringwarmy]

beanie buddies :o)

[bluebedo]

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER ART DUMP!!!!!

Didn't have much these months and either way I forgot October so HERE WE GO

Jaykyle as this one episode thing I found and giggled at for an hour

More and more Jaykyle (got obsessed again recently and it won't go away)(I WILL learn to draw Kyle's mask)(I refuse to draw Jason's):

2/3 of the Gotham Sirens cos I can't get Harley to look right

2 pieces from a "Gotham Sirens adopt the batboys" AU

I actually need to go insane about this AU cos I can't keep holding this knowledge to myself I NEED to write Dick getting adopted by Harley

There is also the posted ones:

Stephanie Brown being an icon

My dancing Batfam series

[aroaceleovaldez]

i think the thing i'm most disappointed about with riordanverse fandom now versus like 2014 is not only has the fandom not gotten any less racist or queerphobic or ableist (in fact in some regards its gotten worse!) but now it's just boring too. like there's no fandom infrastructure anymore - the community these days is almost entirely source material-driven - and you deviate from canon even slightly people get weird about it. whatever happened to the post-HoO fanon boom. the fandom needs to get weirder again. and self-sufficient. and less offensive.

[datanazush]

I think the most clear example of You Are Not Immune to Propaganda is that there's a full subset of Americans who are loudly anti-nationalist right up until America gets a light criticism and then they turn around and start 'ironically' chest beating and americaposting.

[mylastmoleculeofserotonin]

I love how Kipo never really changed throughout the show. At the end she is just as upbeat and optimistic as she was in the beginning. There’s no unnecessary character growth because her love and confidence in herself is so strong it forces the people around her to grow and change instead, and honestly, I need more stories like that because, yeah, characters forging an identity for themselves through the trials and tribulations they face are cool, but not as cool as Kipo changing hearts and minds just by existing. Kipo is basically the stock kid’s show protagonist cranked up to 11, and by letting her embrace that not having her change, the show not only avoids the childhood=bad/adulthood=good messaging that a lot of kids shows and coming of age stories unintentionally contain, but completely reverses it by saying that the reason Kipo was able to save and change the world was because she was a kid. None of the adults could have ever done what Kipo did because they had already accepted that that’s how the world works.

[bmpmp3]

audiiiiiiiine

[thedreadvampy]

sometimes I forget that my experience has been. um. not 'your experiences are not universal' vibes but more like 'your experiences are EXTREMELY atypical'

[matryoshkalex]

ive been so disconnected from kpop so i only realized skz was coming back like. half an hour before the comeback but in celebration heres some old OLD realism pieces of felix, chris, and hyunjinnie :D i havent done realism in a whiiiiile since these but i started another piece a bit ago and really wanna get back into finishing it

these are kind of my pride and joy tbh

these are always the works people stop on when scrolling through my art folder, especially the felix one and it just fills me with this strange sort of pride i dont feel super often because. yeah. that took a Long Time and im really proud of it!! the one of chris was going to be my submission for an art competition my senior year of highschool but covid hit and sadly the comp was cancelled but still. i cant believe ive had these sitting in my folder for so long

[skittlesking]

Can your nightmare show us some spells and tricks he's learned during his 500-year journey through the Multiverse?

He also knows a bit of color magic : D

[bucketofcrows]

if balsamic vinegar were a guy i'd suck him off

[icewindandboringhorror]

recent things and such~

[pencap]

people still occasionally tag my poems as stucky / stucky-coded / etc and that amuses and delights me. i have been Seen and Identified accurately and i cannot deny my roots. even though i am no longer intentionally writing for or about them i still love the same kinds of archetypes and narratives and dynamics that drew me to them in the first place

[britneyshakespeare]

I think everyone wants to own a complete works of Shakespeare and I want to get everyone a complete works of Shakespeare that is right for them

[wildshadowtamer]

i think more fans need to revisit their source material sometimes. just. remind yourself of the actual character your talking about.