#genuinely thanks for this

[vi-is-badass]

No worries. I get that we're both writing essays while still having life responsibilities haha. I don't expect an immediate response.

I think everything you said about what you would have wanted makes a lot of sense and echoes many sentiments I've seen floating around online.

I enjoyed reading the hypotheticals presented. It's broad strokes but it makes it no less interesting and I think it points to just how at odds Viktor, Jayce, and Mel's storylines in season 2 felt with the momentum that season 1 built towards certain "inevitable" conflicts.

I actually think Ambessa is easier to tie into the conflict between Piltover and Zaun and Jinx and Caitlyn than the Viktor, Jayce, and Mel storylines. Jinx knows how to create hextech weapons and can be the key to what Ambessa wants, so in helping Caitlyn she helps herself. I was shocked that never became a plot point.

I would definitely have to think longer and harder to give my perspective on these what-ifs you presented, but you've given me a lot to think on and I find what you presented to be fascinating.

On a little side note: I will admit I'm a sucker for the Act 2 storyline between Jinx, Vi, and Vander-- like it's easily my favorite part of season 2-- because it's so intensely focused on what I love most about Arcane; The Vi and Jinx dynamic, the tragedy of their past, and how much "what could have been" hangs over them. It really takes a look at who they were before they lost their parents-- the core of their characters-- and how it informs who they are now. How trauma and hardship shaped the two of them and who they want to be vs who they were forced to become. It does a lot of heavy lifting to explore their characters and trauma in a quiet and subtle way that the rest of season 2 lacked, especially for Vi. So, I have a personal bias toward keeping it haha, but your presented structure makes sense.

I would definitely be up to beta read. I'll shoot you a message tomorrow about the possibility.

Back to Caitlyn again! (wow, we both have a lot to say about Caitlyn haha)

Yeah... there's a lot that just doesn't work with Caitlyn's arc. Again, it's a compelling arc on its face with a fantastic build-up (seriously the character writing for her in Act 1 might be the strongest in the season for me), but I think we both agree on where it fell short.

Now that you've mentioned Maddie I have a lot to say about her.

I definitely agree with the strange framing of their relationship. When I first saw Maddie with Caitlyn I had the same thought that you did about the nature of Caitlyn sleeping with a younger subordinate. That's something that I just knew wasn't actually going to be addressed due to time, but that actually brings me to a point about the relationship I learned later from interviews with Amanda Overton about why they chose to have Caitlyn have this relationship with Maddie: Caitlyn "dating" Maddie was supposed to be an extension of her desire to try and be the "perfect Kiramman heir" after her mother's death. Maddie is supposed to be the type of person her mother would have approved of her dating.

Again, this is an idea that on its face is very interesting. Caitlyn spent the entirety of season 1 chafing against her role in life. She didn't want to solely be the Kiramman heir and wanted to make a name for herself. It's part of what got her to fall for Vi. Vi treated her like any other person-- she didn't see her for her name-- and showed her a side of life everyone else protected her from. And Vi is the exact opposite type of person that Caitlyn would have likely been expected to date and eventually marry.

Now that her mother is gone she would embrace the Kiramman name and try to be the perfect heir she knows her mother wanted her to be, including dating someone closer to what her mother would have wanted.

I think this base idea could have been fascinating for act 2. Show Caitlyn trying to be a perfect leader, a perfect heir, a perfect daughter, while on the inside it's making her miserable. This isn't what she wants. It's not what makes her happy. That time with Vi did.

As an idea, this is incredibly interesting for Caitlyn's character and her relationship with Vi, but it absolutely does not come through in the finished product. Caitlyn's side of the story in Act 2 does not get across that this is what she's trying to do. It doesn't lead to a contrast between Maddie and Vi or some self-reflection on Caitlyn's part that would adequately convey this. That idea is clearly a victim of what was left on the cutting room floor and as a result it ended up being messy in its presentation and execution. (now was watching the reaction to Maddie's death at the LA premiere really fun despite this? Absolutely.)

I do think this idea is also muddled by the fact that she's a dictator, which is clearly not what her mother would have wanted if the "they deserve to breathe" line is anything to go by, and the fact that the relationship is (like you said) with her younger subordinate. It feels like they ultimately tried to stretch Cailtyn's story in too many directions for the time they allotted to it.

I wanted to note that I really like the suggestion you made about Vi playing a bigger role in Caitlyn's shift and having it happen over a prolonged period of time and I wholeheartedly agree with this idea.

I think that's what the confrontation between Vi and Caitlyn is supposed to be. Vi asks Caitlyn an armor-piercing question "Who decides who gets a second chance" and this forces Caitlyn to confront her actions and reevaluate how she's been seeing Jinx this whole time (an irredeemable monster). This is what's supposed to spur her change of heart and, at least in part, motivate her decision to let Vi free Jinx. Vi is meant to be a moral center, her good heart changing the people around her in Act 3, but it doesn't get the focus it needed for that to have the effect I think was intended. Again, it's a victim of time.

You definitely hit the nail on the head with your statements about Caitlyn’s arc and her relationship with Vi having an incredibly compelling backbone that was ultimately hampered by time constraints.

I think my issue with Vi not running after Jinx has more to do with the way it's framed. What she tells Caitlyn makes it sound like she believes that Jinx has gone back to her old ways and she was a fool to believe she'd changed and... I just don't get how she came to that conclusion after their interaction in the cell, especially when the end of that interaction is her asking Jinx what she's going to do (clearly concerned for Jinx) and Jinx responds "Break the cycle". I felt like there needed to be a scene or moment of Vi in the cell alone to get this change in perspective across to me. I can see what they were trying to do, I just think Vi was the biggest victim of the limited time in Act 3. I think the way you presented your point of view on the moment was what was intended, it just didn’t work for me and I acknowledge that’s a personal problem.

We both clearly had a lot of thoughts on season 2 that we needed to get out. I know this has helped me a lot. So many of these thoughts were stewing in my head with nowhere to go and getting them out has made it so I can focus on what I love about Arcane a lot more! So thanks for this! Hopefully, this was helpful for you too.

I actually think this video is really interesting. Not because I fully agree with it (there are a lot of points in the video I don't agree with and a lot that I do), but because I appreciate its intent.

I also fall in the same boat where I really liked the second season, but I didn't love it like I did the first and I appreciate that this is a video that wants to start a conversation. He wants to talk about why things didn't necessarily work for him, why it didn't seem to have the same impact as the first, and about how he wants to hear why those things might have worked for others.

So much discourse about this season has framed it as either the best thing ever, above any criticism, or the worst thing ever with no redeeming qualities and it's made it very frustrating and demoralizing to try and talk about it online.

I want to talk about how I loved aspects of this show and that I was also let down by certain aspects of the show as well, but anytime I try and talk about criticism it's rarely met with a genuine conversation.

I would love to hear how people interpreted things differently from me, why they felt that way, how it connected with them, because I feel like that's the purpose of stories. It's never going to resonate with anyone the same way and there may have been things I missed.

I also know I haven't always worded what I've wanted to say and my criticisms the way I want to get across what I mean. It has never been my intent to sound like I wasn't open to discussion, different interpretations, or counterpoints. I would like to actually talk more about this season and hear other people's thoughts as well.

[idontmindifuforgetme]

I could get over anything as long as I have something new to be obsessed with

[redpapercraness]

all four of my sonic 3 movie trailer redraws in one spot 🫡

[bluegiragi]

left on read.

--

last year i finally read "all that's said in the low light" by headlocket which i feel like has developed its own reputation by now, but just in case you don't know - it's kind of known in the fandom as a massive tearjerker. As promised, I cried buckets over it and it left an enormous impact on me.

I drew this comic (after getting permission from headlocket) as a what if on a situation in chapter 12, where Simon goes through a period of radio silence from Johnny after essentially giving him his blessing to date other people, the utter clown. We only see it from Johnny's side, who is really going through it, but the mental image of Simon staring at a slew of his own unread messages really stuck with me...did he think this was it? That that shitshow of a conversation he had with Johnny might've been the last they ever had? What if Johnny just never responded to him again? Did he regret giving him permission?

bonus - simon's forlorn and temporarily one-sided conversation:

[hollis-art]

they can be best friends. they can be lovers. whatever they are, i am rooting for them

[thebibliosphere]

I don't want to post it because the person was trying to be mean, and I don't want them getting dog piled, but telling me I have "the most Tumblr accent in your writing" is so fucking funny because worstie, of course, I have a Tumblr accent. I've been here since the beginning.

I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Vanny finally meets FNAF tape girl in person...

[umblrspectrum]

so like is it specifically planets the solver craves or can it get by with just eating dirt off the ground

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

You're just not toxic enough.

[magicicephoenix]

Sun you wont believe it something crazy just happen wait crazy i was crazy once-

driving sun crazy insane!! ft. everyone’s lovely reactions 💕

(context)

[jaxihammer]

I want to take a moment to appreciate the absolute love and attention to detail that went into Sam Black/Britain/Butler's art for Season 2

Obviously Sam is insanely beautiful and the fit is EVERYTHING.

But specifically? Look at her knees. The way her thigh fat kind of rolls over her kneecap.

Look at the way her thighs are rendered so they look like cellulite instead of being perfectly smooth.

Look at her double chin.

Sam Butler isn't just big and beautiful. She is FAT. And beautiful. She's fashionable, she's famous, she's stunning, and she's allowed to be Capital F Fat at the same time.

Not to mention, she's a TTRPG character. Danielle could have made her look like anything, and she CHOSE to let Sam be fat. In a fantasy world where you can be anything and anyone you want, Danielle Radford chose to play a fat character.

As a fat guy, Sam holds such a special place in my heart. The level of respect and love for her, both from the players at the table and the fandom at large, is such an incredible feeling.

[zorangezest]

1/3

here we go! the longest comic i've ever drawn and one of my favourite things i've ever made! and it's. for this crack transformers au. what have i done. ive spent so long on this

next

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[villainsheroes]

“i can fix her” final boss

[hellsitegenetics]

HEY CONGRATS??? ON BEATING ONE-TIME-I-DREAMT??? YOU DID IT???

i was asleep when this went down so you cannot imagine my surprise when i looked and found that we won by a margin of less than 1%

[thatonefishfriend]

some of y'all wanted to hug him, so i obliged <3