#i dont think i worded this great but

[sillygrossgirl]

It's insane that I'm 19 and haven't had my first kiss. It's crazier that I've been groped, and actually cum on in my sleep before having my first kiss???

[nordidia]

having a very rough night so raph doodles needed to be made

when in need, mash two interests together

[bacchuschucklefuck]

okay unironically I love so much that porter is like this world SUCKS its BAD here and it HURTS you why do you care abt it!!! and literally every single bad kid is like ngl we just hate ur ass it does not matter what ur philosophy is

[mintypsii]

guys who don't know how to handle overwhelming emotions (+ random zolu doodle)

[fatedroses]

Tank-on-Tank violence.

[aroaceleovaldez]

just realized no BoO graphic novel means no Nico in his silly little dog harness for the Athena Parthenos this is TRAGIC

[casualavocados]

What are you proud of?

KISEKI: DEAR TO ME Ep. 03 / Ep. 06

Bonus:

[artsy-1diot]

its still very scuffed rn but GUYSSSS

[froschli96]

You know what, fuck it, I have to speak my truth! (this is gonna be a rant, so anyone who actually likes assassin's creed revelations and/or the secret crusade, be warned or maybe don't read this at all)

remember how altaïr talks to king richard at the end of ac1, and richard is like "[humans] come into the world kicking and screaming, violent and unstable. it is what we are. we cannot help ourselves."? and how altaïr answers "no. we are what we choose to be." and how that ACTUALLY has meaning bc he himself was "violent and unstable" at the beginning of the game but he has learned and is now CHOOSING to be a better person who cares about others and humanity at large? remember how his calmness and gentleness was something that he ACQUIRED over the course of the story?

and remember how in revelations they then suddenly had a PRE-AC1 altaïr say about the first of his targets "no man should pass from this world without knowing some kindness." and be all wise and calm and collected during a nice little chat with al mualim, who suddenly acts all fatherly? (like, this is suddenly supposed to be a positive relationship? what??)

also, during the confession the target says to altair: "you put too much faith in the hearts of men, altaïr. [...] humans are weak, base, and petty." and altaïr answers: "no. our creed is evidence to the contrary." KJASJFJDKL???? like, it’s almost insulting how close this exchange is to the one with richard. you know, the one that was actually earned after a whole game of character development. like WTF??? cool congrats now that development means nothing. like, apparently that was just altaïr reverting BACK to being the exemplary assassin who understands and believes in the creed that he was apparently just born as. (i also hate how having a young inexperienced altaïr saying this implies that altaïr's faith in humanity is a sign of naivete instead of a sign of the wisdom he has gained after being confronted with counter arguments for a whole game, and also something that distinguishes the assassins from the templars who use humanity's supposed wickedness to justify controlling them like in AC1, but whatever)

altaïr’s development in AC1 mattered BECAUSE he is not NATURALLY a good person, it actually said something about humanity's capacity for both bad AND good and how humans don't have to be forced to be good through mind control bc they can by their own free will choose to be better when taught how and when allowed the freedom to grow. but no. apparently altaïr has just always been calm, wise and gentle. and he just sort of forgot about that during AC1 bc…. ? bc of adha?? bc of abbas???

oh don’t get me started on the whole abbas thing. (it doesnt even make sense that abbas is so hung up about his father and "his family’s honor", like what about the whole point of al mualim not allowing parents to be close to their children bc it would make them weak? like, my dude, you’re not supposed to HAVE any family aside from the brotherhood)

they used the throwaway character that had like 5 lines and made him into altaïr’s main antagonist in revelations… like, abbas wasn’t supposed to be this ONE dude who had personal beef with altaïr, he was just supposed to show how while altaïr’s revered by many, a lot of his brothers also hate him, bc 1) altaïr is a shitty person at this point and 2) bc there’s no real feeling of community and family in this version of the brotherhood, but just a pervasive sense of competition and jealousy — these assassins don’t care about their goal of safeguarding humanity bc they’re too hung up on petty squabbles and divided by rivalries (you know, the things that made malik hate altaïr even before solomon’s temple and that he overcomes in the end which enables him to forgive and to reconcile with altaïr so they can work together and stop al mualim? (you ever just think about "we are one. as we share the glory of our victories, so too should we share the pain of our defeat. in this way we grow closer. we grow stronger." and cry? bc i do. all the time. malik, the man that you are))

and now abbas is altaïr’s childhood best friend turned lifelong enemy?? like, bowden bent over backwards to come up with an explanation for why altaïr is an arrogant ass at the beginning of AC1, when the explanation is right there: he was raised to kill without asking questions and was constantly praised for how good he is at murder, which resulted in him becoming arrogant and disregarding human life. like, it doesn’t have to be some shakespearean family feud type shit. and guess what, this "simple" explanation actually plays into the story’s themes, who’da thunk!

(like, abbas might not have been a "fleshed out" character in AC1, but he had a specific function and now that function is gone. mr bowden, mr mcdevitt, you know characters are allowed to simply exist to tell us something about their worlds and the systems they live in and sometimes that’s more important and also more interesting than having every single character have a detailed backstory to explain all their behaviors, right?)

with all of this revelations loses all nuance in regards to the levantine brotherhood and also the creed in general. like, altaïr being a master assassin at the beginning despite being a terrible person and not actually understanding the creed is a criticism of the brotherhood and the creed itself. like, it said something about the order that someone like altaïr was able to get that high in rank, simply bc he's good at killing, which also tells us what is considered important in the al mualim era assassin order. when you make altaïr’s arrogance the result of his personal conflicts instead of how we was raised by a brotherhood that only valued one's ability to kill, you lose that characterization of the assassin order itself!

and by suddenly making al mualim a semi good "father figure" you also downplay his manipulation of not only altaïr but all those under his care. (altaïr says something about al mualim being "as a father" to him exactly twice in the codex, but he doesn’t mean by that that he WAS a father to him, what he means is that he was the CLOSEST THING he had bc HE DID NOT HAVE PARENTS, not because his mother died in childbirth and his father was executed when he was young btw, BUT BECAUSE IT WASN’T ALLOWED, like his parents actually lived but weren’t allowed to be close to him, he says he came to view al mualim’s "weak and dishonest" love as enough and even better BECAUSE HE HAD NOTHING ELSE, BECAUSE AL MUALIM ISOLATED HIS ASSASSINS FROM THEIR FAMILIES. al mualim "loved" him bc he was good at killing people for him! hm, i wonder if this could be trying to say anything about cults and indoctrination and the inherent contradiction in fighting for peace and free will by taking children away from their parents and raising them to become killers?? like, altaïr wasn't ~the special orphan boy~ taken in by al mualim bc his father died a hero's death, it was "the way of the order" to have al mualim be the closest thing to a parental figure for everyone to ensure absolute loyalty! altaïr saying al mualim was like his father is not supposed to make you go "oh, he must have actually been a good guy for altaïr to consider him a father", it should make you go "oh that's kinda fucked up that he considers the dude who made him into a killing machine and who manipulated him a sort of father figure"!)

and then in revelations they suddenly portray that relationship as positive and healthy??? like, it would be one thing to give it some nuance by delving into the psychology behind al mualim’s "love" and maybe showing how al mualim did care about altair in a complicated, fraught sort of way (like, you know, there’s a lot of interesting things you could say about al mualim at several points addressing altaïr as "my child" in AC1 and how that parallels Garnier referring to the people he drugged and abused as his "children", and what that says about how the templars view the people who they say they want to save and in whose best interests they supposedly act (in any case, al mualim doesn’t use that phrase because he has any real parental feelings but rather to patronize and to invalidate any objections, like in a "mother knows best" way))

but they even fucking DARE to parallel that relationship with that of altaïr and darim in revelations, by having the reflection in the puddle of darim hugging altaïr showing altaïr hugging al mualim…. like their relationship wasn’t inherently abusive but just tragically cut short because al mualim was just "corrupted by the apple"… like WHAT???? so it’s not the very real problems like grooming, manipulation and indoctrination and the hierarchical structure of the brotherhood itself (all of which are antithetical to the assassin ideology), it was just the evil apple all along. great. that’s DEFINITELY a lot more interesting.

god im sorry i really dont want to spread negativity but this is driving me INSANE. like, somebody please tell me im not crazy bc i feel like somehow most of the fandom is in agreement that revelations and the secret crusade have better storytelling and characterization than ac1.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, can we talk about how, even IF we completely ignore AC1 and treat revelations altaïr as his own character…. the narrative still doesn’t really work?

basically, the whole point of his story in rev is that "he gave his whole life to the brotherhood", this obsession led to him not using his time with his family which has him ending up dying alone in a dark library and this in turn makes ezio reevaluate his life choices…. except. he doesn’t? neglect? his family? or whatever? like, his devotion to the assassins is sort of painted as this tragic flaw that leads to a lonely death bc it supposedly comes at the cost of his family, but… his wife has joined the assassins, (at least) one of his sons is in the brotherhood and even when he goes to protect the assassins against the mongols, he takes his family with him (except for the son who stays behind bc he has a family of his own and who, ironically, ends up dying bc of that)… like, you can’t describe altaïr as a good husband and father in the database and have his son tell him that "everything that is good in me began with you, father" when they say goodbye, and then want to make us believe that he put his family behind the brotherhood and that that is a character flaw that leads to his tragedy.

because you HAVE to have a character’s tragedy be the result of a character flaw. like. that is how tragedies work. otherwise it just becomes tragedy for the sake of tragedy which is… boring bc it has no purpose. and we know it is SUPPOSED to have purpose bc ezIO FUCKING QUITS BEING AN ASSASSIN AFTER WITNESSING IT!

it’s like they want to have their cake and eat it, too — they didn’t want to actually make altaïr a bad husband/father, but still wanted to make his life a tragedy where he loses his family which is why instead they outsource all responsibility to abbas who now has to be the reason for ALL the deaths.

like, they try to make at least maria’s death kind of sort of the result of altaïr’s rashness or whatever but like… these guys KILLED THEIR SON and TOLD HIM THAT ALTAÏR HAD ORDERED HIS DEATH. like, altaïr losing it in response to that is not rash, it’s fucking logical and justified! if anything the scene made me angry at maria for trying to stop him. like, GIRL, he was YOUR son too??? but god forbid we give female characters actual real emotions, she has to fill the role of "voice of reason who dies for altaïr’s man pain" i fucking guess.

like, it’s this weird mix where his tragedy is simultaneously painted as his own fault but also not really bc abbas is the one responsible for all the shit that happens. it just… it just doesn’t really go together.

the only way to make his story make sense narratively and to give it actual purpose is by looking at it in the context of ezio’s story, bc the things he sees in altaïr’s memories are supposed to be a revelation (ha!) to ezio specifically. and i guess that’s maybe the crux of it all — altaïr’s story in revelations was conceived of first and foremost to support ezio’s story and development. which is probably also why many people maybe don’t notice bc, having skipped ac1 and started with ac2, the majority of people mostly care only about ezio and only really appreciate altaïr’s story in as far as it serves to push ezio forward. (tho i’ve also seen a few people say that ezio is also written kind of weird in rev, but i’ve never really been an ezio girly myself so i can’t speak to the truth of that)

like, altaïr dying alone in the library doesn’t really have to make sense for his character, i guess, bc it’s only really supposed to be a cautionary tale for ezio.

so, i guess, for once, they actually had a MAN dying for another man’s character development, which is pretty woke actually. ubisoft, i take everything back jksdsfjhgdsahfhsdhfghfdsgjhsdgjh

[skunkes]

my trio version(s) of "he would not fucking say that" wrt people writing characters from existing media are he would not be a good or willing father, he would not call anyone darling or similar, and he would not be good at sex

[lucabyte]

transfem loop + siffrin... you agree

i does agree.... i does in fact ... write a 7k word essay on the subject..... if you would like to perhaps click that link and read it if you were not already aware...... kisses u on the forehead......... sorry its that long but i had to cover all of my bases you know how it is with textual analysis when you're trying to draw a distinction between "headcanon" and "reading of the text" because those are different things.... to meeeeeeee.......

[b4kuch1n]

making of a feathered thing

[steeltwigz]

Ok I've been getting a lot more Taco II discourse on my timeline recently. NOW I see what you all mean.... I gotta be honest, a lot of the posts to me still read as fans making up things to be mad about fhdjf what do you MEAN "Taco is irredeemable and doesn't Want to be redeemed and forcing her down a traditional redemption arc is Impossible AND you're a misogynist for misinterpreting her character" OKAYYY. Sit down buddy, Cool IT. What in the WORLD are you talking about. Did you miss the last minute of the episode where she says "no more running" and decides to face her fears head on, with the support of MePad. Did you miss all those letters she sent to Pickle, or her reaching for the portal for "another chance" at season 1, so she could fix her mistakes and wouldn't have hurt her friend? "But she wanted to kill Balloon that one time!" ONE she wanted to taze him, relax. I mean like if he pops he pops, but that's pretty Par For The Course for an object show, ESPECIALLY when II2 was still developing its more serious, less hyper-violent slapstick tone. TWO part of her problem is that she doesn't change w the game, she's still running (at least partially) on season 1 rules and in season 1 killing people was pretty normal, sorryy. Like a HUUUUGE point of her narrative arc is how she's still making a lot of the same mistakes she made with Pickle, but she doesn't realize until it's too late bcuz she's still too focused on the game (until it all comes crashing down a second time and she hates herself about it, and tries to End The Whole Show (THROUGH NONVIOLENCE MIGHT I ADD)). The whole show, she's wanted nothing more than to be redeemed and to undo her mistakes becuz she REGRETS HURTING PEOPLE AND she doesn't fully believe she can or that she deserves to, until MePad begins to help her out. These two things can both be true!!

Also, come On man. Sooooo many characters in this show are "bad people" or can be mean or hurtful. (Honestly, Id argue that a huge theme of the show is realizing people are multi-faceted and that people aren't only their worst traits, or their stereotype personalities but are in fact just as complex and personable as anyone else. That the show and the game and the challenge bring out the worst in people for Drama or Views or Money, but that doesn't mean that's all there IS to the competitors, and even the hosts, and you can't judge them based solely on their worst traits, which are getting exacerbated and unnaturally worsened due to the harmful exploitative nature of reality TV). That doesn't make ANY of them "irredeemable". Taco can have a redemption arc just as much as MePhone or Knife or Nickel can, who IN MY OPINION have done similar, and also Way Worse Things than she did, that no one ever brings up in these conversations. And NO that doesn't make you a misogynist for misinterpreting Taco or for thinking Knife is fine and she isn't, it just makes you have poor plot comprehension skills and you're predisposed to hold bias against the antagonist character becuz she's the antagonist. It's Whatever.

[jinxedshapeshifter]

the promised Ryulock/Homumiko essay

So a few days ago, I made this post as a joke about the fact that there's just as much evidence for Ryulock as there is for Homumiko and left it on "In this essay, I will" because I thought it would be funny. I have decided to follow up on that joking comment because I feel like it (but also I'm with everyone who questions how/why Ryulock isn't more popular, you have two games' worth of content. I also mentioned at some point that I wanted to analyze the similarities between Sholmes's dynamic with Ryunosuke and his dynamic with Mikotoba). So, here's a Ryulock and Homumiko essay. Spoilers for both The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures and The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve will be present here, you have been warned.

Part 1: Ryunosuke's Role in Sholmes's Life

From their first meeting in The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band, Ryunosuke has fulfilled a specific role in Sholmes's life. The role of John H. Watson. This isn't as obvious as Mikotoba's dynamic with Sholmes (in fact, I never really acknowledged that Ryunosuke was fulfilling the role of Waston until after I finished the duology, and posted about Sholmes and Mikotoba's dynamic reminding me of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson), but it's still notable enough that The Watson is a trope under Ryunosuke's tropes on the TVTropes page for The Great Ace Attorney's main cast.

We can go even further and compare the third Dance of Deduction in The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band to the last Dance of Deduction in the duology (the former involving Ryu and Sholmes and the latter involving Sholmes and Mikotoba). In both, Sholmes is taking the situation seriously; he just found out that Kazuma was Ryunosuke's best friend in Speckled Band and so wanted to find the truth about what happened so Ryunosuke couldn't be incriminated anymore, and he was on a time crunch to find Jigoku in The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo because Jigoku was on his way out of Europe. Both have Sholmes taking the deduction incredibly seriously compared to his other deductions, and they involve Ryunosuke and Mikotoba essentially filling in the blanks for Sholmes, instead of correcting him like the other deductions in the duology.

Ryunouke keeps this role throughout the rest of the duology. Sholmes shows up at the scene of a crime Ryu's client is accused of, they investigate the crime together and do a dance of deduction, and they figure out what happened; this usually (always) seems unrelated to the case, before it gets revealed that it is related to the case. The primary difference between Sholmes's dynamic with Miktoba and his dynamic with Ryunosuke here is that Sholmes's dances of deduction always benefit Ryunosuke in more ways than one, and they're usually important to his case. Basically, Ryunosuke being a lawyer slightly changes his dynamic with Sholmes, because one of the purposes of Ryu and Sholmes's dances of deduction is for Ryu to develop his abductive reasoning skills, which helps him in court.

Ryunosuke and Mikotoba effectively serve the same role in Sholmes's life (that being, they're both his investigative partners at different points in time) but they have different benefits from doing so.

Part 2: Sherlock Holmes and John Watson Dynamics Are Always Gay

This is one of the most iconic parts of Sherlock Holmes. To be clear, I haven't read the original Sherlock Holmes stories. However, I am 100% comfortable saying that, based on the excerpts I have read, Watson and Sholmes have one of the most homoerotic dynamics in fiction. This always carries over into adaptations, and The Great Ace Attorney is no exception with Mikotoba or Ryunosuke (although I would argue that the dynamics are still a little different).

On Mikotoba's end, it's both confirmed in official art and implied in dialogue that between Mikotoba helping deliver Iris and him going back to Japan, Mikotoba and Sholmes were raising Iris together, and he says that he left Iris with Sholmes because he couldn't take her back to Japan. This can be read a few ways, but I thought it was worth mentioning here.

Outside of what's mentioned/referenced, we also have what is seen in real time in the last two cases of Resolve. Sholmes and Mikotoba have kept in contact via telegram for a decade, Sholmes tells Mikotoba that the sight of him is "making his mouth water" (which I'm convinced is a reference to Ryunosuke saying "So you'd eat your friends. I'll remember that." but it also definitely comes off as very gay). Mikotoba also refers to 221B as "our home", referring to himself and Sholmes. I also think it's notable that Mikotoba regains consciousness and is immediately dragged off by Sholmes to do an investigation.

On Ryunosuke's end, dear god there's a lot (to be clear, there's more on Ryunosuke's end because he spends more time with Sholmes on-screen than Mikotoba does, not because one is inherently more canon than the other or anything). Let's go through a non-comprehensive list (because I'm thinking of most of these off the top of my head), in no particular order:

Sholmes claims Ryunosuke not being in handcuffs throws the balance off, because he'll always imagine Ryunosuke with handcuffs (The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band)

Susato teases Ryunosuke about being excited to dance around with Sholmes during the first dance of deduction, and Ryunosuke looks happy with himself from the beginning of the first dance of deduction (The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band)

Ryunosuke seems only slightly less excited to be seeing Sholmes again than Susato (The Adventure of the Clouded Kokoro)

This entire conversation that is implied to have happened right after Ryunosuke got out of bed and downstairs (The Memoirs of the Clouded Kokoro)

Sholmes putting all his weight on Ryunosuke in that commemorative photograph that was taken before Susato left England (first shows up in The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story, shows up on Ryunosuke's shelf later)

Sholmes putting his hands on Ryunosuke's neck because "Blood loss has made my hands cold, Mr. Naruhodo! Have a feel!" (The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story)

Ryunosuke calling Sholmes in drag "stunning" (The Adventure of the Unspeakable Story)

Sholmes referring to Ryunosuke as "something of a manservant around here" because he hasn't been doing much other than helping around the flat since being disbarred (The Return of the Great Departed Soul)

Ryunosuke referring to Sholmes being knocked out during a dance of deduction as Sholmes "leaving him alone on the ballroom floor" (Twisted Karma and his Last Bow)

And that's not even all of it, I can guarantee it. Those are just the ones I remember best because they stand out to me. Sholmes's dynamic with both Mikotoba and Ryunosuke are incredibly gay.

Part 3: Sholmes's Relationship to Dances of Deduction

This is an interesting topic to cover, and this topic is going to be more an analysis of Sholmes than statement of canon fact. We know Sholmes is perfectly adept at accurate deductions, and it's indicated as early as The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band that he's purposely making bad deductions. We see how his deductions usually work when he's not goofing off in The Unbreakable Speckled Band, in fact. So that then begs the question, why is he so adamant about pretending to be bad at deduction, even when Ryu proves his own ability to make accurate deductions? Sure, helping Sholmes allows him to practice those abilities, but the more serious dances of deduction where Sholmes's "dance" partner is filling in the blanks would serve the same purpose, and it's something literally anyone could do.

I'd also like to clarify something here: Susato doesn't get directly involved in a dance of deduction until Sholmes is unavailable, and even then Ryunosuke treats it like a solo act (specifically stating "He's left me alone on the ballroom floor, so I'm going to have to do this next part solo"). Susato assists Ryunosuke during dances of deduction, sure, but her involvement doesn't go beyond that with the exception of when Sholmes gets knocked unconscious.

So back to the question at hand, why does Sholmes do dances of deduction seemingly exclusively with Ryu and Mikotoba? I don't think it's a coincidence. I do think it's because dances of deduction aren't platonic for him. Sholmes and Ryunosuke's especially come off as a couple's dance to me, although part of it does come from Ryunosuke indirectly comparing it to a ballroom dance, the most popular of which for pairs in the Victorian era was the waltz (which is traditionally a couple's dance). So I do think that, for Sholmes and very probably Ryu at the very least, dances of deduction are either romantic, erotic, or both.

This leads back around to the original question. I've already established that Sholmes's dynamics with Ryunosuke and Mikotoba are both incredibly gay. I also just established that Ryunosuke indirectly compares dances of deduction to a ballroom dance, in this case a waltz. Dances of deduction are always a partnered thing, and Sholmes is only ever seen doing them with Mikotoba and Ryunosuke. I don't think it'd be a stretch to claim that Sholmes makes them gay on purpose. For what purpose you ask? Male companionship, obviously.

I'm kidding about that but I do think Sholmes does it to have another companion that isn't Iris, at least in Ryunosuke's case. In Mikotoba's case, it likely came from wanting companionship at all. We know Sholmes is an attention whore, and I feel like being as important a part of someone's life as he was to Mikotoba while Mikotoba was studying in England strooked that a bit. I also wouldn't be surprised if Ryu reminded Sholmes of Mikotoba on some level (both are Japanese students studying in Britain for the time Sholmes lives with them).

Part 4: Conclusion (AKA I'm tired so I'm stopping myself before I pass out on my keyboard)

In conclusion, there are so many similarities between the Ryulock and Homumiko dynamics that I feel go unacknowledged. It is not a coincidence that Sholmes's dynamics with these two specifically is so fucking gay. Like I don't know if it's just me but playing as Mikotoba in the last dance of deduction didn't feel much different than playing as Ryunosuke, besides slight differences in dynamics because Mikotoba's known Sholmes longer than Ryunosuke has. Aside from that detail, if Mikotoba hadn't been clearly who Sholmes was with, I would've absolutely thought he was with Ryunosuke. Sholmes has a type and that type is quirky guys who are fun to tease.

[sadkachow]

THE (CATHOLIC) SCHOOL I (UNWILLINGLY) GO TO HAD AN ASSEMBLY ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH TODAY AND??? THEY SHOWED A VIDEO OF MARKIPLIER???

THE SPEAKER DOING THE PRESENTATION CLICKED TO THE SLIDE WITH THE VIDEO ON IT AND MY BRAIN JUST BUFFERED

SHE WAS LIKE "Have any of you ever heard of Markiplier before?" AND I WAS LIKE ???????????

[soranker]

Hiiii not sure if anyone's asked this yet but any advice on how to improve on art & anatomy? I use to draw a lot wayyyy back in high school but then stopped because of life getting in the way but now I really wanted to get back into art but realized my art isn't as good as it use to be & I never really cared too much about studying anatomy so all my anatomy/proportions are really wack & I'd like to get better at it. Hope you're having a good day!!! 💞💞💞

HI!!! i dont have any formal training in anatomy nor have i really done any studies, so unfortunately i think i can only offer general advice, but hopefully you can still find it helpful! here's what i'd recommend based on my own experience...

focus on proportions BEFORE anatomy! nailing down the size/length of each body part in relation to each other will give you a good foundation before getting into the specifics of anatomy, since you can practice this with simple shapes (circles, boxes, tubes, etc.). then practice anatomy/build on top of that, rather than trying to figure them out in parallel

practice from real life observation/references (ex. figure drawing)! even if you want to draw stylized, it'll be much more helpful in the long run if you study from real life. you'll be a lot more informed in how body parts actually connect to each other or how they move. observe observe observe! take pics of yourself/watch how your body moves--you can be your own most accessible resource, and a mirror and camera can be your best friends

find a way to keep yourself motivated to practice anatomy! everyone says that you only get better with practice and time... and it's true! but i can understand that sometimes it's hard to motivate yourself. if you ask me, draw your favorite characters :) it's literally all i do HAHA. my mentality is that... if i'm drawing something that i like then the practice feels less of a chore lol