#i genuinely know of no other examples

[whathappeninglestappen]

I have a question. When the drivers do the fan stages before a race, F1 usually has two teams go at the same time (for example, I’ve seen Alpine and Ferrari go together before). Why don’t Ferrari and Red Bull ever go together?

Can you imagine Charles and Max on the stage together. Laughing when asked silly questions or blushing when they look at each other.

Lestappen interacting during a fan stage would be simply lovely. 😊

[egophiliac]

I was wanting to try doing an art piece in the style of the signature spell poster art pieces you create. But I’m not really the best at coming up with a composition for such a thing.

Do you have a process for how you come up with the compositions for them?

oh, awesome! it is an INCREDIBLY enjoyable style to work in; I hope you have fun with it! :D

I'm not great at putting my thought/art process into words, so my apologies if this doesn't make a lot of sense, but I'll try! my first step is always to do a LOT of thumbnails to figure out both the idea and how I want to show it; not trying to do a real sketch or anything, just little doodles to figure out what exactly I'm trying to portray. (I also call these "garbage passes" because they're not meant to be any good, they're just there to throw things out. aha. ha. ...anyway.) I think it's important during that first stage to really focus on the idea and the layout and not to get too bogged down in the actual drawing yet!

I tend to save my final thumbnails, so I'll use 'em as examples (I posted the ones up through episode 5 here if you're interested!) (and, uhhh, spoilers through episode 5 also in this post, hopefully that won't be an issue!)

the main thing I try to think about in composition is balance -- not necessarily in terms of symmetry, but in where each element is placed and how much space it's taking up. remember, empty space is still space! it's also really important to think about the parts that don't have anything in them, as much as the parts that do!

personally, I like to divide things up roughly by both halves and by thirds -- there's a lot more in-depth info out there on why the "rule of thirds" in particular works well visually, but in short, our brains tend to focus on things that are placed closer to imaginary division lines, instead of in the exact center of an image. so even when I'm doing something that is very centered and symmetrical, I try to keep that in mind and generally aim around those for landmarks like faces/eyes (or...where they would be, anyway) and other focal points.

it's not a formula of "the character's face should be in this division of this grid" or anything, more like "our minds like to focus on these areas, let's think about how to use that", if that makes sense! and of course rules are made to be broken, art is lawless anarchy, and so on. but it can be a good starting place for deciding where you want to put things!

(blue - thirds, red - half)

and against the finished versions, because they do usually end up changing a lot (including the empty space of the border):

(...these actually lined up a lot better than I thought they would. :') it makes me look like I do things way more intentionally than I do.)

other stuff I just try to keep in mind is that our eyes like following arcs and paths, which can be a good way to guide the eye:

and frame and control the focus:

honestly, composition is one of those things I feel like I struggle with a lot, so I'm not sure how much of this is helpful or actually makes sense outside of my head. but hopefully it helps a little! it's all just stuff to think about while drawing and not anything hard-and-fast, so don't, like, stress out about making sure things are lining up exactly on the thirds or anything. again, it's more "our brains think these are the dopest parts of the rectangle" than anything else! take advantage of the cool parts of the rectangle!

NOW GO HAVE FUN DRAWING seriously though, it is always super cool that other people like this idea and style enough to want to do it themselves and for other/their own characters! thank you! ❤️❤️❤️

[wackywatchdotcom]

something i genuinely adore about tadc is how painfully flawed everyone in the circus is. and not in a small way

everyone does SOMETHING that negatively impacts the others. but it makes the fact that you are supposed to sympathize with and really connect with them all the more potent. because its easy to want to put a bunch of characters in a bad situation together and to just have them all be nice to each other and everyone and never make mistakes because theres no reason to hurt each other, and most of them dont TRY to, but the way they cope is so, so realistic for each of their personalities, and it doesnt always mesh with the others, and sometimes it exceeds self destructive and Just Hurts Others, Too

they still generally care about each other and the mistakes they make and the ways they end up hurting each other dont lose their weight but like. it doesnt take away from their humanity and the fact that they are all trying so hard to manage in an awful situation

and the characters seem to have sooome sort of understanding of this too. not fully, because the characters dont tend to be 100% communicative, but when they hurt each other, it often makes EVERYONE uncomfortable. because these are the only people they have. these are their friends. and theyre all coping. but it doesnt change how much it affects them (best illustrated by ragathas lines at the start of ep 2 or gangles 'i love her, but after a while it gets kinda hard to tell how genuine shes actually being'). its not all like this, theres a good amnt of variety, but characters knowing this but not really knowing what to do about it is very painful in an effective way

(i think a subtle example of this is how zooble handles gangles situation in ep 4- they were so genuinely trying to help her because they care. but could tell as the day went on that oh, this is not working at all and its making things worse, and they leave gangle alone- something that very genuinely couldve been the moment she abstracted, because of the mask zooble gave her- and we dont get to have a super blatant explanation of zoobles thoughts on it, but they reach a fairly healthy conclusion about it that helps both of them, and i like that a lot, because on paper zooble could be placed at fault but the narrative doesnt dwell on it excessively, because thats not the point. i dont know if that tangent makes sense but i think about it sometimes. i think zooble wasnt 'to blame' but it was still a mistake, which is a hard balance to strike, and having them help at the end feels extremely effective at rounding it off!!!)

but like. in general its complicated balancing making characters in a bad situation act flawed because it can run the risk of seeming like the story is scolding them or blaming them for the situation theyre in, or like youre expected to not sympathize with them despite it (though the inverse also has complications- if characters in a bad situation never mess up, it feels unrealistic and hard to relate to, and can imply that their innocence is why whats happening to them is bad at all), but the show handles it so well

even the characters who are genuinely trying all try in different ways- some of them have similar outlooks or attitudes towards these thing but theres vital differences for ALL of them- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. in fact some of the more painful mistakes characters have made in the show have come from them so genuinely trying (like the thing i mentioned w zooble, or basically Everything Ragatha Does, or pomnis first attempt at helping gangle, etc), which hits harder than if every mistake characters made had wholly selfish and cruel goals.

i mean, there is a selfishness to many of the characters' actions but imo not in a way thats not warranted. because all of them are in a horrible setting. its uncomfortable to watch characters be selfish. but it is a natural instinct to survive. its not the foundation of most of their actions, but when it is, its uncomfortable but hard to completely disparage them for in a way that makes you feel kinda conflicted

and like. it hurts to be doing your best and for that to make things worse, but its what happens often in the show. because no one in a bad situation is gonna handle it well. by the very nature of trying to survive something is gonna give, but it makes the themes of the show so much more powerful. that making sure the people around you dont feel unloved, cherishing them and finding meaning with others is no less important just because everyone is fucking up. it complicates things, for sure, but it doesnt make those characters exempt fromt this. theres a reason pomni tells gummigoo that she doesnt want "anyone" to feel like theyre nothing, and that kinger doesnt add ANY quallifiers to making sure people feel wanted and loved (not that i think either of them were thinking SUPER super hard, but it conveys smth from the perspective of the narrative

it gets complicated when you add in jax for sure, since i think on the surface he IS the exception to this concept- none of the characters like him, including pomni or kinger. but i think this is something thats gonna be examined further down the line, bc hes the main complicating factor in this reading of the show, but i feel like thats on purpose. hes universally disliked (and so is caine, in a different way) and his actions arent mistakes. they are him coping. the show has made it clear that he can be a complex person AND also a piece of shit. his actions dont detract from the fact that hes a person and the show reminds us of this. so it makes things so messy, but im genuinely super excited to see how the show examines that. where his character goes is, imo, going to be a massive piece of how this show fleshes out this concept

[historicallyaccuratecheese]

i’m never getting over how shovel knight decided to make a love story about a socially anxious mad scientist plague doctor bird guy trying to impress a hot goth girl by crafting a potion of unlimited power and then it ended up being the greatest romance ever conceived.

please play these games.

[vanityangel]

[jupitermelichios]

my favourite sexuality for comic book characters to be is "we made this other character canonically queer because of their relationship with them but for some reason they are still canonically straight"

like wade wilson? mostly canonically queer because of the period where he was married to cable. he was in a queer relationship, so we have to just make him canonically queer. (Yes I know it's not the only reason, I have read all his extremely camp early 00s comics, but lets be real they'd have kept insisting that was all just a joke if it wasn't for Cable and Deadpool).

cable? definitely straight. 100% straight. obviously cable is straight. his relationship with wade is only gay during the & Deadpool, in the Cable part of the book it's very straight. He stands next to a woman sometimes, that's how you can tell it's not gay.

Kitty has, finally, been allowed to come out, but for like a decade, Illyana was canon queer because she dated Kitty, but Kitty was definitely straight and would never date a woman, and no one at marvel thought there was anything weird about that.

[Image Description: a very straight character, interacting with another straight character, in a very believably straight way]

Marvel has way more of these, mostly by virtue of having more queer characters and also chris clairmont (you can never understate the impact of chris clairmont in these matters) but Tim Drake and Kon Kent spring to mind from DC.

I think you could even make a solid argument that 616 Tony and Steve are that, given Tony is out now and Steve, somehow, still isn't.

anyway you don't really get these in any other medium, because they require multiple writers who all wildly disagree with one another to all write the same characters to happen, but i love them, and as much as I want Cable and Kon to come out, I kind of hope this never stops happening in comics, it's just never not funny.

[ave-immaculata]

fellas we're once again wrestling with imperfect vs. perfect contrition and why imperfect contrition with a firm resolution to not sin again and promptly receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation doesn't save

[giddlygoat]

just vividly imagined all the kids clamoring for a chance to arm wrestle sportacus, and he’s like “uhh i don’t know, are you sureee?” and the kids are like “YES!!” so he wrestles them all one by one and goes just easy enough on them so that they ALMOST win except for like, ziggy, who he just lets win, so all the kids are completely blown away and sportacus just watches on proudly as ziggy soaks up his newfound fame. #sportadad

[theautismincarnate]

Some of my favorite hyperfixations are the ones that I’m clearly not in the target age demographic for anymore.

Like- it instills an inherent shame deep within me, but GOD DAMN do I enjoy myself with those fixations.

Love em’. I love enjoying wide ranges of media. :D

[so-bitya]

HATE when I'm reading romance and they have to pause and state the female lead is an ✨innocent virgin maiden✨whose eyes never laid on a man before until the male lead came into her life and he had soooo much sex 😜, he was sleeping with 15 women before he stumbled out of bed into the arms of the female lead whose a virgin btw, and he says he wants her but she just shivers and weeps because she doesn't know what to do because she's a virgin and the male lead loves it 😍 she's different from those other ~filthy~ women that intimidate him with their confidence SHES A VIRGIN BTW

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

The thing with the whole "he's just not that into you/if you don't want me then you're not the one"/situationship problem is that a man will put up with SO MUCH for a woman he is truly in love with. They, or at least some of them, are hard wired to Commit. Our society kind of trains them out of it but if you see it happen it's just about impossible to convince yourself to put up with anything less than that (by which I mean a man who is looking to feel that might be, maybe, right to keep looking until he does, and a woman who's not getting that is right to call it quits)

[angelnumber27]

violently forcing myself to have better days

[lunarrosette]

Liking someone who’s also autistic who has the same hyperfixations and special interests is silly bc I’m just “subtly” flirting when I’m making fake “cast list” of just assigning characters to my friends

Like omg I think u would eat up Martin (it’s true they would) and I mean I’m Jon bc Jon is literally me everyone agrees

Or trust u r Curt and I am Owen

I’m not slick BUT maybe someday it’ll get there

[oceantherat]

I’ve recently seen some people saying that Akitoya is queerbaiting and tbh I don’t think it is??

(Disclaimer: this turns into more of a rant about people calling everything romantic than Akitoya errm my bad lmao)

See, I get why people say that about anhane, cause they’re like suuuper affectionate and there’s been a bunch of things they do that are a little 🤨 and are you kidding me the Rekka card??

But I genuinely believe with my whole heart that Akitoya is supposed to be completely platonic. Like they never do anything further than their little wrist bump thing and a high five, they act pretty casually around each other, there’s no big indicator that they’re trying to lead to anything. (UNLIKE ANHANE like wdym you guys are going on a “date” what. Yes ik that word can be platonic but it’s still a weird word to use and I wouldn’t use it to describe my hangouts with any of my friends)

and like I can point and giggle and some of the things they say to each other all day and go “akitoya REALL” but it’s not like. Like they’re not “baiting” anything there’s no actual queerness going on they’re literally just close friends which some like to interpret as a romance

I think the problem with the term “queerbaiting” even outside of pjsk ships is that sooo many people use it for super close friendships that they personally interpret as romantic. It kinda pisses me off tbh like I’m a SUCKKERR for romance I absolutely love it but like. JUST because a character is displayed to deeply care about another but doesn’t kiss them doesn’t make it “queerbaiting”, it’s called literally having close friends

Like I have no problem with people interpreting friend characters as romantic like do what you wanna do, I’d be an absolute hypocrite if I said otherwise (it more annoys me when it’s characters that completely hate each other but I’m not gonna get into that topic rn) but it’s weird to see people like, expect romance. Writers don’t owe you romance, just because not every single gay ship you have is canon doesn’t mean they “baited” you into anything. Like do people not..have friends that they would die for?? That you want to be happy?? Are you romantically involved with every single person you care for even slightly?? Polyamory?? /j

I’m sure I’m not adding anything new, the topic of amatonormativity (is that how you spell it??) has been talked about a bunch but like yk

Anyways having all that said akitoya kissed its true I was there /silly

[everlastingday]

*

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I don't get why people hate the timeline so much, its not like you can't pretty much completely ignore it when you play the games. The only time it even approaches mattering to the story is when there is an explicit sequel like botw and totk or zelda and zelda 2

Hey sorry your ask got lost in the sauce of my broken tumblr, but: yeah!

I mean, I get why in some sense. It's been a heated point of debate and I think some people understandably resent the space it has taken not only in fandom discourse, but in how people began to understand the game and its narrative aesthetic choices. There is such a thing as over-rationalizing everything to hard logic, and sometimes it's just not the fandom for that --especially when you begin to forget it's all just fan theory and start to forget what the games are supposed to be like and evoke beyond just strict facts displayed in a linear way.

What I think bugs me with TotK in particular is that it both evokes and relies on continuity and the idea of a timeline, of archeology, of history itself, while being so loose and vacant with it that it both is doing Timeline Shit while also completely failing to understand why some parts of the fandom were invested in Timeline Shit to begin with.

But that's just my two cents of course!