#free vs work

[thepopoptic]

One cannot be the other.

[seashoes]

Let’s (not) get married

[caemidraws]

---

[turtleblogatlast]

One of the earliest examples of Leo’s “I’ll do my own thing to accomplish our goal without discussing it with my team first” is in episode one. It’s super, super quick, and ultimately inconsequential, but it subtly sets up a great precedent that I think is very interesting.

When the boys need to grab the medallion from Splinter without Splinter noticing, Raph, Mikey, and Donnie huddle together with Raph taking the lead in trying to devise a plan to get the mystic device. Meanwhile, Leo slinks away and grabs the device by clocking the situation (by knowing his father well enough to predict his actions - something he does with each family member multiple times in the series) and making a move on his own.

It works out perfectly fine, and is ultimately the best move, and it’s honestly okay that he didn’t consult everyone for something so small when it’s such a non issue to get it, but it nicely sets up how this tends to go in the series, including how it goes in the movie.

To be honest episode one is actually really good at setting up a lot of things for each character in the long run, this is just one example that caught my attention, as small and unassuming as it is.

[justaz]

arthur (prince of camelot) still has to study under a tutor bc yknow uther wants him to be very intelligent before becoming king or something bc its super important idk idc anyways merlin is doing chores in his chambers while arthur is squinting at a book and merlin eventually caves and asks him what he’s reading and arthur gruffly explains that its a collection of stories from greece that make absolutely no sense so merlin asks him to read them outloud to him. arthur of course teases him and calls him an idiot and asks how he could possibly help but does as he’s asked and reads the stories to merlin as he does his chores. merlin (being crushed under the weight of destiny and tormented by the prophecies that kilgharrah spews) understands the stories almost immediately and gets all excited and starts rambling about them with arthur. arthur is glad to have someone who understands so he can give something that reflects a hint of understanding to his tutor who accepts it and moves onto the next unit of education.

the thing is, arthur finds more stories in camelot’s library and brings them up to his room to read them aloud to merlin under the guise of completing his studies but really he just wants to watch as merlin’s eyes gleam when he understands whats happening and listen to him ramble on and on about them bc he’s gay. the stories stick with merlin though and he realizes that they’re cautionary tales, that the heroes who were told too much of their future doomed themself to fulfill them - that them fighting the prophecies led to their completion. merlin takes it to heart and gives a big “fuck you” to kilgharrah before forging his own fate and helping morgana with her magic and handing out an olive branch to mordred and now everyone can live happily and peacefully in an albion teeming with magic.

[doubletroubletag]

i got almost all the next month's updates sketched! i'm not doing the last one simply because i am feeling the burn out of composing these pages. (each have at least 6 pages, a good amount have the max 12!)

that said, these are all just sketched. i want to do it in this order: backgrounds -> lineart -> transcript. i got other projects i need to work on (winning hat and NightFell) so I can't really guarantee when Tag will start to update again.

[sardonycal]

been using tsc (my muse<33) as the subject in making studies of various historical paintings/portraits :)

ive done vermeer and rembrandt so far with 'girl with a pearl earring' and 'self-portrait with dishevelled hair' respectively. its been quite fun!

[xxcrystalinerose]

little funny art idea in my head of megzagthan getting along swimmingly being all romantic and giggly captioned "love wins" vs. mel and nemesis fighting while moros is in the background trying and failing to defuse the situation captioned "love loses"

[humans-are-tasty]

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

[mourning-at-night]

IF IT (the fabricated nature of the reality you’ve been sucked into/the creeping realization you should be somewhere and someone much worse) SUCKS, HIT DA BRICKS!!

[nautical-wreck]

“fly icarus, but beware the falling wax ubove you”

[ Waiting room - Pheobe Bridgers // I love you - Fontaines DC // The other woman - Lana Del Rey // Lacy - Olivia Rodrigo x Liam Lawson vs Yuki Tsunoda ]

[vitreouspositive]

part three of me losing my mind over the tfone storyboards because i somehow completely missed the ones zhi kang posted for optimus vs megatron and the one where the quartet were friends from the start (guest appearance ASTROTRAINNNN THE GOATTTT) and buddy i have two things to say about these storyboards: OW, FUCK? and ohhhh my god of course orion's a little bit of a geeky nerd.

i mean come on, frat boy coded though he be, it takes a certain mettle to consistently risk your life for some data records—a mettle i dub the unquenchable thirst of history nerds. he definitely knows there's a constellation out there with his name.

but back to the angsty one (obviously). MOTHERFUCKER I DID A REDRAW FOR A SCREENCAP OF MEGATRON'S EXPRESSION WHEN OPTIMUS CAME BACK WITH THE THOUGHT IN MIND OF "i wonder if megatron was briefly happy his friend returned under all those conflicted emotions before he realised that what came back was a prime" and youre telling me he was gonna call him by his fucking name? dawg. dawg im done. dawg i cant do this no more.

AND THEN TO MAKE MATTERS WORSE, IN THIS STORYBOARD, AFTER MEGATRON'S DEFEAT OPTIMUS STILL OFFERS MEGATRON A HAND? OF FRIENDSHIP? OF REDEMPTION? OF A FUTURE TOGETHER? yeah that's the "i can fix him" mf i know. which hurts EVEN MORE knowing that what ended up in the final cut was optimus resigning himself to the fact he's already too far gone. daaaaaaWWWWWGGGGGGHHHHHHH.

i also REALLY LIKED the idea of the scene where megatron speaking to the people was with optimus PRESENT as opposed to when he's dead because in showing that optimus ALLOWS megatron to speak to the people and ALLOWS the people the decision of following another leader or remaining in iacon is just. so optimus ykwim. he may disagree but he won't silence it and i feel like that's the important differing factor he has as a leader compared to sentinel which megatron fails to see because he's too blinded by the title of "prime" affixed to what used to be his friend. he probably just sees optimus as just another false prime despite him literally carrying the matrix, chosen by primus himself, maybe because optimus could never live up to the expectations of what megatron once believed the core of a prime. a prime that now belongs to a past which was torn to shreds by sentinel

[harbingersecho]

[speaking-riddlish]

I think the dynamic in Briar and Faybelle's friendship could have been a great foil for Apple and Raven's dynamic. Both of their stories have a villain/victim dichotomy, with the villain poisoning/cursing the victim, resulting in an enchanted sleep that can only be awoken by true loves kiss. Both pairs also include one person who wants to follow that story, and one who doesn't.

With Raven and Apple, the one who wants to rebel is the destined villain, while the one who wants to follow the story is the destined victim. The worse this effects their friendship is lots of arguments, "why won't you listen", "you'll come around".

But with Faybelle and Briar, the destined villain is the one who wants to follow the story and the one who wants to rebel is the destined victim. This should change their dynamic.

Just as Apple can't follow her destiny unless Raven follows hers, Briar can't actually rebel against her destiny unless Faybelle also rebels against hers. If Faybelle curses Briar, there's not much Briar can do to stop it.

Apple wants her destiny, but can't have it unless Raven complies, a source of tension, yes. But Apple wanting her destiny isn't going to actively harm Raven, because Apple can't make her destiny happen. Briar doesn't want her destiny, but so long as Faybelle still plans on following hers, it'll happen anyway. This does actively harm Briar. The 100 year sleep might as well be death to her – she's afraid to die. And this person, who is supposedly her friend, is still intent on basically killing her.

I think it'd be great if, as we saw Briar realize how messed up her destiny is and decide she wants no part in it, we also saw her friendship with Faybelle deteriorate, as she realizes how messed up her friendship with Faybelle is, and becomes afraid of her. Maybe they also have frequent arguments about destiny the way Apple and Raven do, but where Apple and Raven's fights end with them frustrated with each other's stubbornness, but still friends, Briar and Faybelle's fights end with Briar being little bit by little bit instilled with terror, as she realizes that Faybelle is fully set on cursing her to that 100 year sleep, with no hesitation, no remorse, and there's nothing she can do about it. She stops feeling safe around Faybelle. When the destined villain wants to follow the story and the destined victim doesn't, they're no longer just destined villain and destined victim, they become actual villain and actual victim.

Faybelle probably doesn't see what's wrong with this dynamic. It's just destiny after all. Yeah she wants to be evil, that's her destiny. Briar was fine with it before, why can't she be now? She thinks Briar is making a bigger deal out of this than it really is, especially as Briar starts to become afraid of her and their friendship fizzles out. She's upset that Briar doesn't want to follow their stories, but she thinks Briar should just get over it. She doesn't see how their situation is different than that of Apple and Raven. If Apple and Raven are somehow still friends despite everything, why can't they be?

Of course, Grimm isn't any help to Briar in her distress. He's quite happy with Faybelle for wanting to follow her story, and quite disappointed in Briar for turning against her story, just like he is with Apple and Raven.

By highlighting the differences between the dynamic between Raven and Apple and the dynamic between Faybelle and Briar, and how these differences lead to the deterioration of Faybelle and Briar's friendship, it could help the audience better understand how Apple and Raven's friendship is still standing despite everything. Yes, they disagree about destiny and fight a lot, but neither is an actual danger to the other, and they both still care about each other.

This could also be used to further show how messed up the destiny system is, how it's encouraging this predatory relationship that Briar and Faybelle's friendship has become. It could highlight how damaging the "evil things you do because your destiny told you to don't count as bad" mindset is. In Raven's rejection of that mindset we see how evil should not be excused by simply being your destiny, and how if you have any moral compass or care for people at all you won't want to go through with it. And in Faybelle's embracing and being fully indoctrinated into that mindset we see the horrors of what someone can become when they're willing to do anything for the sake of destiny, what they're willing to do to people when "it doesn't count".

[nozomijoestar]

i really like the dichotomy of everyone respecting Nana as their friend off stage (and the darker feeling she has that they All take from her in one way or another except Karen) but inside the stage duels as performers with her as their ultimate test, they're all still prideful enough to treat it as every man's glory for themselves, making it so they can't hold a grudge against Nana outside the Revues because to everyone the Revues are Just Business and a space for words that don't belong outside it- which plays into the repression that's hurting all their relationships, they really thought of everything making this series