#especially when. again. THEY'RE EFFING BEARS

[ruelpsen]

One of the biggest gripes I have with some furry art is that for whatever reason lately I've been seeing more characters that are meant to be bears (the animal) drawn skinny. Maybe it's that I'm so accustomed to body-positive furry art here, maybe it's the algorithms on other sites thinking that skinny or buff characters is what furries must all like, maybe it's the former while personally managing to miss out on that kind of stuff on this site but regardless of reason it rubs me the wrong way. The #1 trait associated with bears in a lot of people's minds is often that they're big and 'friend shaped' (fat) and it's like idk. Weird to me when that top trait is ignored. Half the time when I see bear characters drawn skinny I mistake them for dogs at first glance because their literal big defining trait just isn't there. It's like drawing an elephant character without a trunk or an axolotl without external gills, it reads as uncanny to me!

Inb4 'artists can draw what they want': yeah no shit, I know that and this isn't meant to shit on any specific person's art OR generally discourage furry artists from drawing characters how they want. This is simply something I've observed and I think is worth analyzing/discussing, in part because it does say a lot about the pervasiveness of fatphobia. Why is it that when translating defining animal traits to anthro characters, fatness is something some see as worthy of ignoring? Maybe it's explicit fatphobia, maybe it's implicit biases that have yet to be realized. Or maybe it's not knowing how to draw fat characters, in which case you'll never get better at drawing them unless you try. Regardless of reason, it definitely speaks to the power that sociopolitical notions of fatness have in a lot of modern culture, even within spaces by and for people who are different from the norm.

Also inb4 'but isn't making a character skinny just adding a trait': idgaf what EXTRA wild features people give their furry characters. Wings, crazy colors, mixes of features that would never be found in nature, I'm all for it, you go add arms and legs to armless and legless species too. Adding stuff is cool. Conversely though, making a character skinny from a species that is not that IS removing a trait of that species, not adding something extra. Again, consider the examples of the trunkless elephant and gillless axolotl. It just looks weird to remove a core part of what helps define a species' look. Also, much love to the people who draw their characters fat regardless of species, you do so much for furries and furry art enjoyers. <3

[alizaphale]

Now go back to where I parked you!

Right. Again another unfinished thought, but hear me out.

When Aziraphale comes back from Edinburgh, he parks the Bentley not quite in the right parking spot but just a bit off. When Nina comes around the corner on her bike, the Bentley rolls forward, parking 100% in the lines. Nina sees the rolling car and points out "oi, you need to put your brakes on."

Two things I can't get out of my head:

Firstly, I think Aziraphale would always park within the allocated parking spaces. He wouldn't park even a tiny bit outside the lines. So I'm thinking he did that for Crowley's benefit. He had clear instructions: Don't go under the speed limit. So he probably assumed, parking correctly wasn't allowed either. I think this is a wee everyday moment where we see how much Aziraphale cares, and I think people need to be aware of that - especially with the way some people are talking about our angel after episode 6...

Second thought is a bit more discombobulated, but bear with me.

We know the Bentley is sentient, and quite likes Aziraphale. The Bentley speeds up the moment Crowley threatens Aziraphale with selling books, clearly understanding the angel's priorities. So in this scene with Nina, there's probably a part of the car that goes "Oh, but my dad doesn't like to park outside the lines" and corrects Aziraphale's "bad" parking for his angel-dad's sake (unaware that Aziraphale was trying to accomodate Crowley's preferences).

Then there is Nina's "Oi, you need to put your breaks on". Part of me wonders, if the Bentley was waiting for a human to come and point that out, because Aziraphale really effing needed to hear that (though he didn't get it on the level he needed to hear it, obviously). I mean he's all busy planning the ball for Nina and Maggie (and - let's be honest - Crowley), but never stopping a second to think about what he's doing and what he should be doing instead. Plus this scene is followed up by Aziraphale lying to Crowley about "nothing special on the journey", even though he told Shax about Gabriel (sort of). And he really should have told his demon, but he was so focused on that ball, that he never put the bloody breaks on and thought things through!

I mean, I don't really care if it was written that way as "the Bentley knows that Aziraphale needs to slow down" or if it was Neil telling us through this scene that there was something fishy, but as I watched that scene today, it just really hit me. Aziraphale has to stop and think. I hope he gets time to do that during his time in heaven. And then they both need to sit down and talk. I need this!

Until then, I might try yelling "Go back to where I parked you" imagining our two idiots parked in the bookshop, sharing that armchair while they're playing hosts for Muriel. That's where I parked them, so that's where they are.

Right?

RIGHT?!