#for all intents and purposes this meme is a joke

[ankle-beez]

[7silvermoons]

sorry i had to

[heiseisherlockholmes]

[glitcheslikeslego]

OMG GOOGLE MAPS I AM ON MY WAY

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

That new Chao manga is really very good, but when I saw this shot I really couldn't help myself...

[margindoodles2407]

i was possessed

[weather-phenomenon]

my gender is a bad grade bc it's what i have in my pants (D)

[dawn-of-tomorrow]

Gepard during Jarilo-VI arc:

[cochaeryoung]

good evening, let's discuss

[middleschoolfursona]

i like your art style a lot–have you always drawn this way, or is it something u developed over time? do u have any tips for drawing in the general sparklecat/old internet art style or similar?

1. Thank uuuuu <3

2. Under cut ⬇️

It's a mix of both- my current sort of diary art/stress relief/ wholesome style is a replication of my elementary school art style! (Like 5th grade, not 2nd lol. I was still drawing stick guys blowing up zombies with tanks and crap back then)

Otherwise, my other styles are style emulations, essentally!

I'll break it down rq:

Mostly based off my own childhood art:

Natural progression of my art as I grew up:

Style "emulation" (le me making an amalgamation of liek 20000 old deviantart artists into one image)

Most of the sparklecat and scenedog art I draw like the above, is inspired by the works I stockpile from deviantart deep dives, and archive blogs. They're not emulations of one style, but multiple styles, taking parts I like or think are the most 'authentic'- essentially, I do what your young brain would have done without thinking, but I have to do it on purpose haha

My tip: while practicing, I'd say absolutely do studies of peoples entire DA galleries and figure out what works best for you.

Above all else I can't say anything else but like. Age regress lmao. If you can't do that, just do everything you can otherwise to put yourself in the headspace of the art you're emulating.

Put on old Amnesia playthroughs on YouTube, listen to Yaoi Nightcore playlists, edgy scourge AMVs, Naruto YTP, the whole Twilight movie- really whatever you listened to back in the day. Put that back on in the BG. Open current MsPaint or your preferred emulation of old MsPaint, or a free art software like medibang. (Don't download cool brushes. Work with Pen 1 and Airbrush or whatever.)

Use references of the era you want to emulate and use only those. Take all your current knowledge of art and BIN IT. The #1 problem in most emulation art even I have a really, really hard time with- is your stuff looking too modern because your art style is modern. Your tools are modern. Your mindset is modern. It will make your art look uncanny.

Don't try hard. It's really temping to draw the most rawrxd scenecore webcore hot topic revival 100 gecs whatever, I get that I guess- but it won't look like it's from the era. It's really hard to get x3randum ☆~ iTs rAinIng TACOOZZZZZZ ~☆ humor right, so don't try it for your first and submerge yourself in the era first. Tryhard sparkles are a real issue and you risk making your art look like it's snark.

Small canvases and or destroy your image quality. I don't do this as much as I should but it definitely adds to the look LULs

I will say, I have no idea otherwise because I come from a very privileged background when it comes to style emulation which is that I grew up planning to be an animator and thus, in my critical years, I was basically 100% drive on the ability to draw characters in many styles, on model. If you don't have this skill, it'll be a lot harder I'm sure.

Use your non dominant hand for especially young looking art. (If you have one. If not... uh... try your mouth?) (~that's what she said~)

(I mean. If you're *going for* the look of 'yes it's 2023 yes I'm bringing back this' go ahead, it just won't look genuine in the slightest and I am someone who's art journey is about doing all I can to emulate authenticity. Just adding this because I know a lot of people are! Go make that modern sparkledog eyeburner mary sue antisnark! It's just not my cup of tea. And I can't really give any pointers kthxbai)

[timelapsequeen]

me if someone ever asks why I kill a character in the book I’m writing

[devoutvesta]

my opinion on the domesticated ford au and how critiques have been addressed by the creator:

there is an existing issue in the fandom with them not taking the canon abuse that ford faced seriously, e.g consistently victim blaming him, etc. this au has only fed into the downplaying of his abuse, under the guise of trying to portray the reality of abuse.

now this is the biggest issue i have with it:

they may not be ill intentioned, but they are intentionally pandering to the audience by making light of this abuse (through silly memes of ford in degrading situations) for comedic purposes whenever the audience asks. they play into the jokes and will then defend it by pretending they want to show the “dark reality” of abuse, but meanwhile they’re drawing ford on a hamster wheel and engaging in discussions like this (media below the cut). it is the audience that treats this character like a pet, the artist feeds into that. this pet aspect wasn’t always a part of it.

secondly, i don’t think the quality of an au relies on how well it sticks to the source material, but i will be using canon billford as a reference point. their relationship has been praised for it’s nuance and how relatable it is to survivors of abuse. it actually helped many put their own experiences into perspective. bill and ford had a mutual, purer love and respect for one another, despite what bill did, as well as a mutual obsession. this integral part of their dynamic is surely what adds to how well written this abusive relationship was.

the au does remove this nuance, reducing their dynamic to that of a pet/nuisance and it’s apathetic owner. i do not think this is a bad thing to do, it is an au after all. but it is worth noting and it is something i dislike about it. it removes what makes it so realistic in the first place, ironically, as that was the opposite intention.

to each their own i suppose, i just think this relates to a bigger issue in the fandom itself. how they angrily react upon seeing an imperfect victim vs. the degrading manner with which they choose to discuss a less realistic but somehow more “sympathetic” portrayal.

[polliwoggers]

been struggling to draw lately so i went through some older stuff of mine and found this, only to realize i never posted it. i don't imagine anybody's still doing stuff for this weird social media-clan au thingy anymore, now that the meme of it has died down, but anybody's free to these names for whatever uses they want, if they want them :)

bonus lore to get it out of my head:

Yarrow-whisker was the previous medic before Quarrypaw, who has yet to gain their full status as a medicine cat in their absence

Geckopaw and Prairiepaw are siblings. Yewtail is only a so-so mentor at the best of times, so Foxfire effectively mentors them both. However, Prairiepaw has swooped in to support Yewtail when they decide to do something stupid and unsustainable on multiple occasions. they really shouldn't have been granted an apprentice tbh. i recently re-read Fire and Ice in the original warriors series so the parallels to Graystripe being a poor mentor to Brackenpaw are intentional

Skypelt came out of retirement to mentor Duskpaw, since they serve such similar real-life purposes. Skypelt doesn't understand everything their apprentice says or does but is generally supportive of such a similar application

Marsh-singer, Whitestep, and Thymeface are all siblings, and are collectively the youngest of the warriors (not accurate to the actual ages of the applications, but eh). to say they are all total gossips would be an understatement. they're also really interchangeable and forgettable. like the Runningwinds of apps.

depending on how positively you want to view the whole "reincarnation" trope some of the canon warriors books have, you could say that Tickpaw is a reincarnation of Musiclight. Otherwise, they just look really similar.

all of the "Cats Outside of Clans" cats are kittypets, with the notable exception of Furzebark, who is a banished rogue with a concerning amount of influence on the Clan(s?). maybe there's a whole band of rogues who are based on insidiously/surprisingly influential applications or online entities! various appstore/playsotre applications could fall under this category, as well as like. roblox, apparently. which is beyond weird to me since that's a game and not a wider application, but it got scarily profitable during lockdown, so...

Redpaw was Yewtail's sibling, but died during their apprenticeship. Probably to the same thing that killed Gravelpounce, but i have no idea what that would be

Flaxflower is generally considered WAY too old to still be alive (since the real internet explorer died a bit ago by now), but since he'd "find a way to be late to his own funeral", he has yet to kick the bucket.

the whole twittypet drama is EASILY the juiciest gossip the clan has had in ages, ESPECIALLY the half-clan checkmark-kits. in-universe, im interpreting the poor management of twitter that's been driving it into the ground irl as a negligent cat owner unintentionally driving their pet to spend more time outdoors with other cats (namely, dashclaw) to get away from them, which resulted in kittens. drummed-up anti-kittypet sentiment aside, many clan cats looking in on the situation just feel bad for her.

Vinewatcher is the most consistently "present" of the StarClan spirits, but is also the most consistently unhelpful. numerous potential prophecies later turned out to just be inside jokes of theirs they decided to continue rehashing into the afterlife. Quarrypaw, having not gotten much experience identifying what makes a legitimate prophecy yet, finds this exceptionally annoying behavior, and would like them to stop. They do not.

[willothewispwisteriadawn]

Charles is both an abuser and a victim, and I think this is important for reading the other characters.

I think sometimes when I talk about Francis and Charles as characters it comes across like I think Francis was the worst one and that Charles did nothing wrong, and that’s really not the case. It’s more that I feel that fandom tendencies make the discussions about them just inaccurate? And my thoughts here are not about memes and silly posts purposely woobifying characters. It’s like based on… legit theories and fanfics that weirdly depict the characters.

I think my issue with the Charles discourse is how much Charles is seemingly held up as a scapegoat so people can safely adore other characters in the book. And it’s all just inaccurate to what happened. For example, the concept that Henry was benevolently trying to swoop in to rescue Camilla from Charles is something I see framed a lot. And that phrasing of it seems more intended to be ship fodder than anything because that’s honestly a really watered concept of what happened, in my reading. Charles did wrong, but that doesn’t mean Henry was just the good guy in the situation. He definitely had selfish motives; he wanted Camilla, and it wasn’t pure saviorhood. If it were, he wouldn’t have antagonized/pressured Charles into insanity and kept him drunk on purpose. Camilla wanted Charles to get better— she said so. But Henry convinced Francis and Richard to keep Charles intoxicated. And he didn’t tell Camilla that Charles was still drinking.

(Side thing, this also indicates Francis could be wrong that Charles is faking memory loss— either by genuine mistake or because he’s wants Richard to feel sorry for him. I guess we can’t know for sure, but we have it presented as valid by Camilla and not by Francis).

Anyway, this isn’t exactly honest, helpful behavior on Henry’s part. And Camilla definitely wasn’t ok with everything he was doing. He lied, at least by omission, to her.

It’s very likely Henry intimidated Francis when he visited Camilla (Francis seemed rattled and said Henry wouldn’t leave the room), and I suspect he said things to Francis when they were alone before Richard called about finding Charles in the snail. This is why Francis echoed Henry’s bullshittery about detoxing being bad. I do think Camilla wanted to date Henry and that she asked him for help— their relationship had been going on the whole book— but it’s also highly implied she was wary of some of his behaviors and that she wouldn’t have wanted her brother to get murdered. I think Henry did help Camilla. But I also think his manipulative actions show that his motives were self-serving and that, by the end of the book, he’s using violence as his modus operandi. Henry is a pretty horrible guy. He has a sort of joking coldness about Bunny’s death as well as the death of the dog he killed, and he openly admits to not caring much for others. He’s a super incredible character, and I do find him charming and fascinating. But I feel like I’ve seen this whole situation with Charles become about how Henry just adored Camilla so much and was willing to protect her from evil. I’ve even seen it insinuated that everything Henry did from the start of the novel was really just to liberate Camilla. As if he isn’t a selfish bastard who did the bacchanal as means to rid himself of his conscience so he can do what he wants (again, from his own mouth).

Henry himself was clearly— and by his own intention, I argue— a factor in Charles’s insanity and using Charles’s sins to his advantage. Just because Charles was rotten doesn’t mean he’s at fault for the entirety of what happened. It doesn’t mean that he wasn’t used too. He was bad but also really sick. Henry and Francis both knew this and manipulated it. Again, it’s not that he’s innocent, it’s more that the conversation around him often becomes about acquitting other, more beloved characters by invoking the name of Charles for everything. But Henry’s motives for the bacchanal were selfish and Francis was a spineless manipulator at points.

(Hopefully I’m not strawmanning people here!!! I think it’s easy to find fake groups of people to argue with in posts like these. And I admit fault if I’ve been taking theories and posts I see too seriously, but this is my issue with a few specific theories I have seen that seem to depict Francis as too inculpable and Henry as too selflessly in love)

[the-autistic-vulcan]

The Loli Type: The Differences of How the Loli Archetype in Anime is used

TW//: Inappropriate themes, pedophillia themes, fetish content discussed

The Loli Archetype:

"The general idea is that these characters come off as really innocent, mainly because of their youthful appearance." (Majitora Wiki)

I recently came upon some discourse on Tiktok (of all places), specifically on Dungeon Meshi, when discussing the appropriateness of people having their fictional crush being Chilchuck Tims, the half-foot lockpick of the party. One particular post caught my attention where an art account depicted Chilchuck in spicy content, nothing too nsfw, but still spicy. The comments were pretty much at war as to how the reactions of other commentors and even the artist viewed the character, calling out the double standard as to how male loli-types are reacted to differently than female-loli types. And much of this point of view has to do with the context of the story (whether anime or manga) and the original intent of the mangaka (creator). A few examples will go into detail about the handling of this archetype - reader discretion is advised.

KINUE HAYASE - MASAMUNE-KUN NO REVENGE

(couldn't find a gif. GOOD)

Arguably one of the most infamous of examples of the Loli-Type in female characters, according to the character description, she is "a positive mother who is always doting on her children and she shows special attention to Masamune Makabe where she is always trying to do things that will make him happy" (Wiki). And, according to sources, she is reportedly a 40 year old, as well. Due to fairly obvious reasons, it is understandable why people are deterred by her, however some are not - she is a plot device in the sense that she was created for fetish content, particularly on her constant doting on her son, clearly meant to be a play on a young girl willing to please a man. Is it reading too much into it? Sure. But it is still worth noting. In recent years, she is a heavily memed-on character and has become a fairly niche inside joke in the anime community - although not explicitly an nsfw character, but the projection of such an agenda is incredibly evident.

ELAINE - SEVEN DEADLY SINS

This is where it gets slightly complicated. Having only seen the first season of this show and dropped it, I came to the conclusion that Elaine was clearly not a character geared towards me, but more so to men - here is my explanation. Elaine, in the context of this world, is thousands of years old, and fairies in this world do not age the same way as humans do. But my problem with her isn't necessarily her character, because I think she had potential, it was just her very childish appearance and somewhat childish behavior (at least in season one), that easily puts people off. However, this particular behavior is common for mangakas and television companies to hone in on - amping up the childishness to fit the loli-type behavior. Her love interest is Ban, who looks significantly older to the non-fan viewer or reader, and the relationship without much context can come off as incredibly predatory - but even with the context, it still comes off as creepy considering Ban is incredibly obsessed with her, and hooked on trying to get her back. She was a character clearly meant for the male audience of Seven Deadly Sins, as were pretty much the entire female cast, but I'll end it here for now.

MITSKUNI 'HONEY' HANINOZUKA - OURAN HIGHSCHOOL HOST CLUB

The male loli-archetype is a more difficult one to dissect as it isn't as common as the female loli. But Honey-Senpai is a very good example to discuss this particular subject. The purpose of Honey wasn't to inherently fetishized the loli-type or young-looking people, but to make fun of the loli-archetype and how audiences fawn over cute things - which include people. Honey is incredibly childish, considering he is a third year at Ouran Academy, making him approximately 18 years old in canon. He doesn't have typical 18 year old interests, and instead indulges in sweets, cake, Usa-chan (his bunny plush), and is often depicted as easily over-emotional, all of this is also a part of his marketing in the host club, according to Kyoya Ootori. However, it is easy for people to see why Honey's character is so over the top childish, but it does leave a certain gateway open for Honey being fetishized.

CHILCHUCK TIMS - DELICIOUS IN DUNGEON

And now, our eponymous subject - the one that inspired this post. Chilchuck Tims is a character I genuinely adore and to a certain extent, I understand why people were turned off from him - his unbelievable youthfulness. Chilchuck in the story is a half-foot (or halfling for any D&D fans out there). In this universe, Half-foot people naturally look very young and only live until a certain age, hence why they mature quite young (around 13 years old). The character is 29 years old, a divorcee father of three and...doesn't act like a child. That singular factor separates him from the likes of the previous three examples. Yes, you could make a case for Elaine that she also come from a fantasy world, but both character's behavior are very different. Chilchuck has adult interests, he has adult occupations and acts like a brash, emotionally stunted dad to the rest of the party, and aside from Senshi, is the oldest of the group.

Do I personally think Chilchuck could be candidate for the Loli-type like Honey-Senpai or Kinue? No.

Is the aging typically canonized to the fantasy world like Elaine? Yes.

Does he act like a child? No.

Is he perceived as a child? Yes, but mangaka Ryoko Kui wrote Chilchuck's character to be complex and not some form of fetish fodder for readers and viewers

In conclusion: Chilchuck Tims is not a Loli-Type character as he does not fit the personality criteria - childish, whiny and overall acts like a child.

I think the discourse on Chilchuck as a character is somewhat unnecessary and heavily taken out of the context of the series. Unlike the other examples used, Chilchuck is not used for fetishization and rather is just a little joke that he looks young despite his adult-reared interests.

(idk how to end this)

Hopefully this cleared some things up and I would like to hear other's opinions on this.

[rad-hound]

Gatekeepy about any fandom?

I don't believe I'm particularly stingy about any fandom in particular, as I've grounded myself in the belief that every fandom has its... quirks.

But one fandom I find myself particularly irked by would be—predictably enough—the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance fandom. Not enough to the point of dejection, or to the point where I am compelled to leave it behind, moreso just nit-picky business. As most of my contempt comes from the "Max0r" side of the fanbase, with no disrespect to Max0r himself, a comedy genius. Particularly those who mischaracterize the main villains and water them down to a singular personality trait, painting them as impossibly, comically shallow. And I understand they are no more than simple one-off villains, but I digress.

(For example: the bastardization of Monsoon as not only a villain, but as a believable, realistic individual. The inability of people to separate the man from his fandom-coined phrase, "Memes, the DNA of the soul," for even five minutes, when he's got an entire Wikia page of information outside of what fans believe him to be. Not as an overgrown magnet of a zoomer, but as a hateful, spiteful killer and a man, whose childhood was tainted just as Raiden's was.)

And, don't get me wrong: the memes and jokes can be quite funny, but when it becomes the figurehead staple of his character to an entire fanbase, to the extent where it completely overshadows his true character—or, rather, how he was intended to be perceived within the game's own respective canon—that becomes a problem to me. As it not only defeats the purpose of his entire fight, his encounter with Raiden, and Raiden's own breaking point, but it warps what could have been the defining character—one of several—in MGR:R to a glaggling shitfest.

Anyways, not to get too far off topic, but to summarize; most of my contempt comes from those who disregard the pre-existing, deeper intent of some characters, all just to create or re-create some already-overused meme that was likely already executed way better by someone else with greater respect to the source material.