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firstagent · 4 years ago

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Since it popped up on the Podcast, how would you rank the sibling dynamics from healthy to trainwreck?

This is an innocent-sounding question until you go over the franchise and realize just how many sibling relationships there are in Digimon and that all but like three of them have elements that might raise eyebrows. In the interest of being comprehensive, this includes all named characters in any anime, manga, and game I’m familiar with, treating the reboot separately and including Survive because... (looks at Kaito and Miu’s bios) ...holy crap.

Sibling Relationship Rankings! (Healthy is Higher)

Joe & Shin Kido (Adventure): Shin understands Joe’s hang-ups and offers support to make his own choices without steering him in any specific direction, for or against the family. And Shuu exists too (depending on the language you’re watching in)

Juri & Masahiko Kato (Tamers): For all of the awkwardness and potential points of fracture in the family, Juri and Masahiko are very close. Fun Fact: She started carrying around her iconic hand puppet to amuse and entertain him!

Keito & Nozomi Tamada (Re:Arise): Even with very different personalities, Keito and Nozomi have a lot of respect for each other. Unlike some big brothers, he comes to a mature conclusion when he realizes she’ll be just fine with Pumpmon at her side.

Yamato Ishida & Takeru Takaishi (Adventure 2020): Yamato’s worry over Takeru only affects his reluctance to take on time-consuming side quests when he might be in danger. Far more chill about trusting Takeru with the rest of the team, he’s a motivation rather than a mental handicap.

Masaru & Chika Daimon (Savers): Perhaps a more controversial pick for the healthier side, but Masaru and Chika have a playful relationship that proves that Chika dishes out as much as anyone in the family. Given how much harm DATS and Digimon have done to the family, Masaru risks her love to keep them away from her.

Joe & Shin Kido (Adventure 2020): Shin’s still supportive and still encourages Joe to make choices for himself, but having that bugout bag ready to go raises some serious questions about that family and which side Shin’s really on.

Ai & Makoto (Tamers): Toddlers fight. It’s okay. They come together for Impmon’s sake and the fact that they’re the only duo in the franchise with mutual custody over a digivice has to say something about the strength of their relationship.

Nene & Kotone Amano (Xros Wars Manga): Nene’s tactics are still desperate but not quite as extreme as the anime, and it counts for so much that Kotone fights so hard for Nene once the tables are turned. And good lord that backstory...

Takuya & Shinya Kanbara (Frontier): There’s definitely a sense of Takuya lapsing into thinking Shinya encapsulates everything frustrating about having an older brother, but he gets over it.

Miyako Inoue + Three (Zero Two): Perfectly normal large household. And while wondering what it would be like to be an only child is something every youngest does... top of mind fantasy, Miyako? Really?

Jianliang & Shaochung Lee (Tamers): Speaking of four-packs... there’s no doubting how much they care about each other, but Jian’s occasional short fuse with Shaochung betrays his usual calm demeanor, and we never get a picture of the full family dynamic once Rinchei and Jaarin are included.

Daisuke & Jun Motomiya (Zero Two): Everyone likes to paint Jun and Daisuke as something uglier than it really is. As much as they annoy each other, it’s still a pretty conventional sibling dynamic and they’d still fight hard for the other... even if the feeling’s closer to obligation.

Koji Minamoto & Koichi Kimura (Frontier): There’s no questioning the bond they develop, but there’s no way Koji and Koichi go from “don’t know the other exists” to “ZOMG Twinzies!” without a ton of awkwardness and feeling each other out. They’ll get better, but from our standpoint this is where we start to drift into trainwreck territory.

Tomoki & Yutaka Himi (Frontier): Tomoki can spin it all he wants but Yutaka comes off as a real jerk. Not that some resentment isn’t a little justified given how much Tomoki is coddled, but taking it upon himself to be the bearer of tough love is still not cool.

Taichi & Hikari Yagami (Adventure 2020): Hikari has a blind faith that Taichi can save the day in any circumstance, up to and including international shipping crisis. Meanwhile Taichi sees Hikari lapsing between typical friendly eight year old to brainwashed robot and doesn’t find any problem with it.

Yamato Ishida & Takeru Takaishi (Adventure): Lessons in how not to be an overprotective big brother. Yamato freaks out at the slightest notion that Takeru might be exposed to danger, including his very presence in the Digital World. When you have a complete nervous breakdown realizing that little bro’s actually pretty capable on his own, it’s not about your relationship with him anymore.

Touma & Relena Norstein (Savers): There’s caring about a little sister, making her plight a central cause in your life, and then involving her in a chess match with a madman. There’s a lot to forgive here (they are raised in a family where your kneejerk reaction to Grandma is “I bet she supported the Nazis in World War II”), but everything about their relationship just makes you uncomfortable.

Kaito & Miu Shinonome (Survive): Maybe it’s not fair since their game is the franchise’s unicorn, but their bios have warning flags all over it. He’s overprotective, ready to fight at the slightest hardship, and she repays this attitude by being rebellious and weird and eager to pursue trouble. May end up being worse once the game actually comes out.

Rei & Hajime Katsura (Appmon): Another one where their backstory makes you sympathize with the lengths they go to in order to stay together, but risking the security of actual guardians to go it alone? Jesus. Even with their ride or die attitude, you still sense a bit of friction in their relationship, and so many of their hardships are their own doing.

Nene & Yuu Amano (Xros Wars): There’s nothing seemingly wrong on the surface between Nene and Yuu, but that’s why their actions are so extreme. Yuu’s more than happy to treat her as an enemy general in his game, while Nene’s aligning herself with dark forces and causing real trouble to get him back. It’s all very loud and intense for a relationship that, without external influences, is just nice and cordial.

Yuuko & Yuugo Kamishiro (Cyber Sleuth): You can be anything you want on the internet! So why not take the identify of your big brother who was stricken with a mystery illness at a young age and lead a legion of hackers? And if you’re Yuugo, use your digital body to take control of that avatar! Nothing weird about any of this!

Ken & Osamu Ichijouji (Zero Two): Like Tomoki, Ken can come up with whatever rationale for Osamu’s abuse he wants, and Osamu at least had some kind moments, but there’s no denying that this family was a mess. And of course Ken’s reaction to Osamu’s death... could have been better.

Taichi & Hikari Yagami (Adventure): Hikari’s introduction to the series was intended to be a little creepy, and that just sets the tone. Her blind loyalty to Taichi is a primary point of emphasis through three series, and Taichi sometimes goes ballistic worrying about her... when not accidentally endangering her life. And that’s before she unleashes a world-destroying abomination at the mere suggestion that Taichi’s dead, and why telling him “what you’re doing is wrong and I kind of hate you for it” is a big moment for her, even though she’s wrong.

Neo & Rei Saiba (V-Tamer): There’s going a little overboard to keep your family together or save a sibling’s life, and then there’s aligning yourself with evil forces to avoid having to deal with your sister’s manageable disability. Call it being jaded or delusional, but when it drives your sister to attempt suicide there are definitely issues you two need to work through.

Erika & Ryuji Mishima (Cyber Sleuth Hackers Memory): Because aligning oneself with Arkadimon is always a fantastic idea. He’s overprotective, she manipulates him because of it, there’s resentment, there’s anger, and basically the entire game is spent watching these two outdo each other in terms of causing wanton destruction throughout the city and cyberspace.

Honorable Mention: Bagramon & DarkKnightmon (Xros Wars): The battle of who can stab the other in the back last.

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#digimon #digiarticle

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safarigirlsp · 5 years ago

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ZOMG SPOOKIE SHIPS?! HOW FUN!! 👻 I’m also firmly of the belief that October alone is faaar too short a time period to pack in all the creepy horror goodness, and Spooky Szn ought to continue well into November.

Okee! I never fuck with it, but for some reason I’m SO enamored with the occult 🔮 I love French/Korean/Spanish horror films and a handful of American goodies like The VVitch, Suspiria, and The Thing (‘72)! I don’t dig much blood/gore in film and... strangely hate zombies? Surprise! I go camping alone. I’m sharp, love a good bitter cocktail/aperitif and old vinyl records, and wear dark red lipstick and even in the summer. Black is the new black.

Ronnie was a self-admitted movie nerd. He found no shame in owning that he had the extended editions of every Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies memorized. And don’t even get him started on Star Wars. That conversation could continue for hours, even if it was largely one sided.

He particularly enjoyed finding hidden gems. Movies that were rare and unique. Even better if they were banned for some reason. When he learned of your penchant for foreign horror films, he delved in head first. He took it as a personal quest to find the most obscure and the scariest movies he could.

Friday nights were taken to another level when Ronnie would pop his most recent horror find into his old school VHS player and curl up with you on the couch. Whether they were genuinely spine tingling or comical flops, you would both always be much more focused on each other than the movie itself before the credits rolled.

Tonight, Ronnie had dredged up a movie that had been banned throughout Asia. You had no idea how he found these things. You hadn’t even been able to google this one.

But, it was a good one. You had goosebumps only minutes in. Something about it seemed so real. Almost as if something from the tv screen was looking back out at you both as you watched.

Ronnie didn’t mind. He internally applauded himself for finding a flick that would have you holding onto him for dear life within the first few minutes.

It was entrancing how the atmosphere of the room seemed to change along with the tone of the movie. As if the air itself was growing more sinister with each passing minute.

Chuckling at you fondly the third time you buried your face against his chest, Ronnie stroked his warm hand along your back. He used the opportunity to push your back down onto the couch, settling over you to kiss you deeply as his hands smoothed gently along your body.

Ronnie was so consumed by the feeling of your lovely lips on his, by the feeling of your soft skin under his hands, that he didn’t notice when the video started to skip. Not that he would have cared.

When the air in the room cooled to a frosty chill, it didn’t faze him. He was heated enough for both of you.

Finally, an eerie sigh drew Ronnie’s attention and yours back to the screen.

It was with a sigh of great reluctance that Ronnie lifted himself from your body to search for his machete when the dark haired girl began crawling out of the screen, lurching toward you in a sickening grasping crawl.

#halloween ships #halloween #jyn-z-solo #my stuff!#my writing

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angelheart-ftw · 5 years ago

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hey is anyone talking about that uhhh trope maybe? but anyway it feels like often girls in fiction have their mental state in general almost always correspond to how they feel about their body, like

a girl who’s self loathing in other ways also hates her body and thinks she’s ugly (even though she totally isn’t and needs to learn that she’s really beautiful zomg!) , while girls who are confident in other ways are also confident in (and somethimes *gasp* flaunting) their body.

i think we can all guess why this happens (taught that their worth is correlated with how well they fit beauty standards) but i feel like calling attention to this specifically because as a kid i didn’t hate my body but hated myself in other ways, but felt like it wasn’t “really” self loathing because I still thought I was pretty.

that affected me in a bunch of other ways i won’t unpack right now but the point is self loathing comes in all shapes, sizes, and packages! it’s entirely possible to like certain things about yourself but hate others but it’s still self loathing and should be taken seriously as a mental health issue!

wanted to end this by reminding y’all to practice some self care, eat if you need to, drink some water if you’ve forgotten to, and remember that I think you, yes you, the person reading this, deserve to be happy. repeat it to yourself if you gotta, “I deserve to be happy.”

have a great evening

#self loathing #mental health

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thecorteztwins · 5 years ago

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🔥 villains. 🔥 the hellfire club 🔥the difference between naive and unintelligent characters

Welp, this all got STUPIDLY LONG and I’m really sorry. Under a cut because HUUUUUGE.

🔥 villains.There’s just been a robbery! All the jewels in the museum’s vault have been stolen! The culprits are….Sabretooth and Magneto!Yeah, that doesn’t sound right, does it? Thievery isn’t really something either of them do, they’re not bank robber or cat burglar types at all. And Magneto’s not a fan of Sabes to my memory, it’s unlikely he’d work with him unless it was essential to his ACTUAL goals…which this isn’t. But hey, they’re both bad guys, so they must do ALL the bad things! No matter what it is, it’s in-character if it’s evil or unlawful, right?This is the logic that I see running both often in fandom, and also sometimes with canon writers. There’s a mentality that if someone is villainous or bad in ONE way, then they must be villainous or bad in ALL ways. I think there’s always been this misunderstanding, as people do tend to think in black and white a lot, but I think it’s also increased with the rise of purity culture in Tumblr, where people/characters/works are All Good or All Bad, and if the bad guys aren’t depicted as 1000% heinously evil then it’s APOLOGISM. An example in RP would be that more than once I’d had people expect Fabian to be a racist. I can see why, given that he expresses sexism, classism, a bit of ableism, and disgust with physical mutations. But not only does he never express racism, he never expresses racism DESPITE AMPLE OPPORTUNITY. Think about it—his main antagonists are Magneto (Jewish) and Quicksilver (Jewish and Romani), he once personally fights Bishop (Black and Indigenous Australian) one on one, he’s on one team with Shinobi (half white, half Japanese), and his allies/underlings in the second-gen Acolytes included people who are African American, Moroccan (and Muslim-coded), and Inuit. And he never, ever, EVER even THOUGHT anything related to race (or religions that are usually implicitly tied to race) about ANY of them. Given how blatant his other prejudices are, I think he would very much let the reader KNOW if he were racist, anti-Semitic, etc. An example in canon…look, I’m sorry to bring up this dead horse again, but it is the best example that I presently have—Sebastian Shaw making the “women’s work” comment. As with Fabian, I get why it makes sense on the surface. He’s a powerful man, the proverbial rich old white guy, and he’s part of an organization where women walk around in lingerie as a general rule. It seems like it makes sense, it does, I grant that. But then if you actually look at his history…for 40 years of canon, he’s been allies and enemies with many powerful women, and never made a remark about their gender, never relegated lesser or menial tasks to them, never treated any of them differently as partners or foes, he actually never even flirts with any of them, be they opponents or partners in crime (except that ONE issue when Emma is in Storm’s body and he kisses her…yeah that was a weird issue, why does a telepath need a gun to switch bodies?) Which is pretty unusual for a male Claremont villain. And he actually reacts with “I…see.” the one time a comrade makes a genuinely sexist remark. He doesn’t agree with him, he’s more like “wow ok I can’t believe he said that but I guess I’ll let it go since I want to recruit him” So, it’s actually VERY odd for him to suddenly say something like that, once you know the character. Especially since, like Fabian, he had TONS of opportunity in the past and he’s also not a character that most writers want to seem sympathetic or likeable. So it’s unlikely the writers were just trying to make him look good by playing down some secret sexist tendencies all this time or something. It’s more likely he just doesn’t have them BUT IS STILL A HORRIBLE PERSON! He just doesn’t need to be horrible in every way! Most people, even the MOST terrible, aren’t horrible in EVERY WAY POSSIBLE.That’s also why I try to avoid having Fabian being too homophobic (beyond “I can convert lesbians”) or transphobic, despite the fact that I *could* justify it (since those things are very intertwined with sexism)—because he’s awful enough. Giving him additional bigotries just seems stupidly redundant and cheap. Especially since I think people actually hate a bigoted character more than they hate a murderer; like I feel like if Duggan ever graduates to Shaw making a racist or homophobic remark, I might have to close his blog, but it’s fine to have blogs for fictional serial killers. By the same token, a villain having good traits doesn’t somehow eliminate their bad ones, especially if the good and bad traits are unrelated to each other. A mass murderer supervillain is not “actually a good guy deep down” because he loves his family; it’s actually VERY common for even genocidal dictators to care for their own. Hell, not to go all Godwin, but Hitler was an animal-lover and had a beloved dog. You can certainly point to good traits to show that a villain isn’t ALL bad (which as I just said, I support) but not being “all bad” isn’t the same as “actually a good person and just misunderstood!” Like, Shaw being an egalitarian in a lot of regards or was good to Madelyne Pryor or loved his father, doesn’t change he’s a heartless, morally bankrupt monster who abused his son and sold out an entire oppressed species (his own, no less) for his own financial gain. Mystique is an incredibly complex character, far more so than Shaw, but her love for Destiny and Rogue and many of her other good points don’t change that she hunted down other mutants for the government, abused her human son for not being a mutant, has committed rape by deception numerous times (though I think that’s due to the writers not realizing that’s a thing), constantly tries to manipulate her daughter’s life and choices, and I’m pretty sure I recall an issue where she framed a guy for domestic abuse just for funsies?Basically, villains are people. They have individual different traits and beliefs and motives, and those things will drive them towards individual different types of villainy. One villain probably won’t do the same kind of villainy that another does. Likewise, someone being a shitty person in one way, or many ways, doesn’t mean they will be in ALL ways. Pointing this out isn’t the same thing as denying their flaws or defending them, but some people do do this and that’s wrong too. Nuance needs to be allowed for. Pointing out Shaw isn’t awful in every way doesn’t mean I think he’s a misunderstood woobie whose crimes should all be forgiven. Pointing out Mystique has done awful shit doesn’t mean I think she’s pure evil and all her complex points should be ignored. It just means I don’t think characters should be strawmanned by fans OR writers as paragons or demons, especially when it contradicts what canon has actually established (with the caveat that canon is dumb sometimes too, and also some characters canonically ARE one extreme or the other, but I’m talking about ones who AREN’T)🔥 the hellfire clubI’ll give two on this! One is “unpopular” just in the sense it’s not something I’ve ever heard anyone express, but I’ve never heard an opinion in opposition to it either. The other is “unpopular” in that it does directly contradict a popularly held opinion.The first is that I think it’s stupid that Grant Morrisson made The Hellfire Club into a strip club, and it’s stupid that writers since depicted it this way. The Hellfire Club is shown in the 80s and 90s as being, first and foremost, an elite social club for the wealthiest and most powerful people in society. It’s basically a big posh country club, and most of its members are just regular people. Super duper rich people, but still normal people, lots of old money and new money and big business owners and politicians and probably royalty/nobility. Most of what they’re doing is big fancy, stuffy galas and balls, that kind of thing. But under the surface, it’s hinted that there is indeed a much more sexual underside to it. The female staff wear very fetishy maid costumes, the female Inner Circles literally have dominatrix lingerie as their getups, and while we actually never see what goes on beyond the closed doors in the 80s, nor was anything directly stated, the hints are definitely there that it’s as libertine in the private rooms as they are prim and proper in the ballrooms. We don’t know WHAT exactly is happening, only that it’s dark and decadent and surely sexual in some kind of “abnormal” (read: kink shaming) way.And then it turns out it’s just a strip club where the dancers wear corsets? Really? REALLY? I’m sorry, you expect me to belief that these oh-so-forbidden and secretive sexual delights that are available only to the richest and most powerful people in the world are…a TITTY BAR WITH NO ACTUAL TITTIES EVEN OUT???? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! It’s so fucking juvenile! It feels like something a 13 year old made up while trying to come up with the mos edgy, shocking, “sexy” thing he could. It just…doesn’t work. It doesn’t work firstly because it completely took away the whole “upper class veneer” that is as much an essential part of the HFC as the sex. In fact, I think more so. Writers, artists, and fans all like to focus on ZOMG THE SEXY COSTUMES but thematically speaking, I think the fact it’s an elite organization exclusive to the super-wealthy is much more important; that should be what they’re really about as villains, but writers end up focusing way too much on the shock value of the kink, and that’s how you wind up with stuff like this. The second reason it doesn’t work is that…it isn’t even shocking. When what they were doing was kept hidden, the reader could imagine no limit of decadence and depravity. When it’s revealed, and revealed as something that’s frankly super and common and TAME (seriously, strip clubs aren’t edgy these days) that you can get anywhere else, you’re left wondering why exactly anyone gives a shit about being in the HFC if this is all it really is? We should NEVER get to see what the HFC patrons truly do in private, and we should definitely never get shown that it’s just watching a woman pole dance with Victorian underwear on. That doesn’t make the HFC look sexual, it makes them look like PRUDES!Honestly, I do actually love the sexy sinful decadent aspect, but it’s overtaken the “extremely rich and powerful people trying to rule the world from behind the scenes through political and economic manipulation” aspect (which is far more interesting and villainous) that I kind of wish sometimes they had been created without the kink or colonial cosplay aspects, and instead had just worn some 80s powersuits.Now, here’s the “unpopular as in contradicts the popular” opinion. I see the Hellfire Club described a lot, in canon and fandom, as an organization of powerful MEN, as a bunch of MEN who just want to control others, as a BOY’S club…but aside from Sebastian Shaw, all the most prominent and effective members of the Club have been women? I mean, think about it. The names most synonymous with “Hellfire Club” in fandom are Emma Frost, Selene, Jean Grey as Dark Phoenix, and Sebastian Shaw. Shaw’s the ONLY dude that really gets any focus from writers OR fans; the women are almost always utilized more by writers and remembered more by fans. Heck, in the London Branch of the Hellfire Club, NONE of the male members of the Inner Circle even got NAMES, while ALL the women did. Now, of course, individual women in an organization being successful in said organization and beloved by fans/writers, doesn’t mean the organization itself can’t also be sexist. And like most people, the disparity between the costumes of both the Inner Circle and the mere staff does lead me to believe that it was probably founded and run only by men originally, and I bet women probably weren’t even allowed in for a long time (especially given that it was established in the 1700s) But that’s my HEADCANON. That’s what I EXTRAPOLATE. But what’s actually on the page IN THE PRESENT is women that are on equal footing with men, or superior to them. They’re not just simply ALLOWED in the Inner Circle, they’ve been dominating it from the first appearance with Emma ruling it alongside Shaw over Leland and Pierce, and then Selene coming in to challenge Shaw and Emma (with Shaw being terrified of her) in a way that none of the other members (all male—Leland, Pierce, Von Roehm) could. Gender is never brought up by anyone, even the most despicable male HFC members like Donald Pierce. So while I believe it was founded by sexist men, the Inner Circle seems pretty egalitarian now.But of course, there’s the costumes. I absolutely think it’s a sexist setup that the men get to wear (super ugly) period cosplay while the women are in fetish lingerie. It seems to be the standard uniform, and the fact that they haven’t CHANGED it shows that there’s definitely still some sexism.Except…it doesn’t seem to be a rule in-universe that the women HAVE to wear them? We actually see female members of the HFC, such as Selene, wearing clothing other than that while hanging out there; there’s actually a scene wear Selene is wearing pants and a sleeveless turtleneck with gloves. Maddy also wears a lot of black leather when she’s a member, but it doesn’t look like the Hellfire Club ladies getup, it looks like all the other stuff she was wearing in the 90s. And when Selene, Emma, etc., AREN’T in the Hellfire Club…they often still dress exactly like that, or in a similiar manner. I think it’s pretty clear that no one is MAKING them wear the uniforms, they just LIKE them, they’re probably “encouraged but optional” or something like that. And Emma even has that WHOLE DAMN SPEECH about how this is her armor, how it empowers her, etc. That said, while I don’t think any other CHARACTERS are making these women dress like that, I do think the writers/artists are. If a real woman made the speech that Emma did, I’d be like “ok sure, you go girl, do what feels empowering for you”. But Emma ISN’T a real woman. Every word in her mouth in that panel is being put there by Chris Claremont, a horny man with a dominatrix fetish who is trying to justify it by selling it as feminist. That is what it is. But just because that’s the case on a meta level…on an in-universe level, no one makes these women dress like this, and that’s very evident, and while the way they’re treated by writers/artists is definitely affected by them being women, the way other characters, including the Hellfire Club men, treats them, isn’t. At least not til shitty recent stuff. (I’ve seen some people think SHAW made the women dress like that….yeah, sure, like he could make SELENE do anything? He’s completely afraid of her but somehow can make her wear something she doesn’t want? Emma and Selene dress like that no matter where they are and whether they’re presently HFC members or not, but somehow he’s making them do that? HOW DOES ANYONE GIVE THIS GUY THAT MUCH CREDIT?)Basically, I think people are TRYING to be feminist, but it often ends up feeling like SEXISM to me? Because it’s totally ignoring and erasing the power and agency that these women exert in this organization, and often even claiming that it’s actually the men who have all the control, when aside from Shaw it’s usually the ladies running the show. It just seems disrespectful to me. It’s like, as much as people are claiming to hate a lack of agency for female characters, they seem more comfortable with that idea than a situation where women actually HAD it. Maybe it’s because they’re villains, maybe it’s because the costumes really are distracting and unequal no matter how the writers try to justify it (again, I wish they’d just gone with business suits), but there seems to be an overall fandom determination to insist on women like Emma Frost and Selene as victims or simply accomplices to a greater (male) villain, rather than embracing them as the Top Tier Bad Bitches they were/are, and, again, that seems more sexist to me than not. But I worry people will think I’m sexist if I say that. But you know me, you know I LOVE agency for female characters, and how I rail against it when see them ACTUALLY lacking it in comics, so you know it’s not that. I think it’s just a part of the rise in purity culture that even “progressive” people would rather see a woman forced or coerced to be a victim than choose of her own volition to be a villain and be GOOD at it :/🔥the difference between naive and unintelligent charactersWell, firstly, obviously there IS a difference. Naivete is just a lack of experience or learned knowledge, neither of which has anything to do with intelligence. A naive character may make mistakes in a new situation based on their lack of knowledge about it, and that may LOOK stupid to those who have this knowledge, but it’s not the same thing. I think we can agree that, say, Tony Stark isn’t stupid, but if he had to navigate in the wilderness, he might do things that experienced hikers and campers and outdoors people know are SUPER BAD IDEAS. Because this isn’t something he knows about or has experience with.So, I think considering characters who are new to this world (as is common in comics—lots of people from other dimensions, planets, and times) as stupid because they don’t know a lot of things we take as a given, is erroneous. I think it’s pretty common for fandom to look at, say, Longshot or Thor, and deem them as basically being idiots because they’re not familiar with their new environments…when in fact, we’d all be acting the same if we wound up in Asgard or Mojoworld. Not that there’s not other reasons they can’t be idiots, but not knowing what a toaster is isn’t one of them.The big difference is that naivete is a temporary state, and I think both writers and fans forget that. The character’s naivete will gradually decrease as they learn more and more. So if you’re writing an Avengers fic where Thor has been on Earth for five years so far, he probably knows what a toaster is, can order normally at a restaurant, isn’t confused by normal sights like cars or traffic lights or computers, etc., but could still be confused if he went to a Midgardian country with very different cultural norms than the ones he’s learned in the United States. Likewise, I can keep Malcolm perpetually baffled by new worlds in RP since time is kinda wobbly here and can be static or move forward or back as we like, but if I were writing him in a linear story, he would have to learn along the way about the technology and norms of other worlds as he experiences them; if he didn’t learn, THEN he would be unintelligent, not just naive. If he touches a hot stove once because he didn’t know what it was, and it burns him, that’s naive. If he touches it twice to test if it does the same thing again, that’s curious and maybe even smart, despite looking stupid to others. If he keeps doing it every day by accident, then THAT’S an idiot. Also, even a naive character may still be able to deduce that certain things are bad ideas, dangerous, etc. For instance, let’s say my character is a normal everyday girl sucked into a fantasy realm. She doesn’t understand the language, and the people around her don’t look like anything humanoid, but when all of them go quiet and still when a larger, more decorated one enters, and they all give it a lot of space, she can probably deduce that this is someone of great importance, and she probably should do what the others are doing and not risk pissing it off. She may know nothing about these beings or their customs, but she still can use her powers of observation and common sense. It may end up being a TOTALLY wrong move—for instance, maybe newcomers are meant to come introduce themselves to the leader by touching them–but it was a good, sensible guess. Whereas if she’d just walked up to the being and given it a good swift kick, that’d be unintelligent to an almost unbelievable point, and no amount of “she’s just naive!” could excuse it.Oh yeah, and optimism doesn’t automatically equate to naivete either. To be honest, I think that extreme cynicism is just as naive in its own way as thinking everything is sunshine and daisies, and I’d like to see this explored more in fiction rather than the perpetual “happy positive people are dumb and naive and just don’t know better, whereas the grumpy cynics are always smarter and more experienced” that media is so fond of.TL;DR Not only is naivete not unintelligence, it also should be a temporary state. It’s definitely cute to watch a naive character stumble around their new experiences, but in gaining those experiences, they’re going to become less naive, and make few mistakes. Naive characters should also still be capable of acting in ways that are sensible, even if they end up being wrong for the new situation. And being positive doesn’t automatically equate naivete either, nor does negativity equate to the reverse (and can be naive in itself)

#unpopular opinion #salt #meta #badmusesdoitwell

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ah-maa-zing · 6 years ago

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Unmasked (Arrow 7.08)

Hmmm. I had to reflect for a while on what I think of this episode.

On the one hand, my expectations were sky-high in anticipation of Oliver and Felicity’s reunion, after 7 episodes and 7 months apart, and there was no way the show would ever be able to live up to those expectations (Unless it gave us 40 solid minutes of Oliver and Felicity of getting reacquainted with each other, obviously). So any disappointment is clearly of my own making, in part at least.

On the other hand, after 7 episodes and 7 months apart, you’d have thought they could dedicate at least one episode – one episode! – to fully unravelling the fallout of Oliver’s imprisonment, and dealing with how it affected both him and his wife, rather than just rushing headlong into the next thing.

I’m fully cognisant that most of my ire is directed towards the fact that this doesn’t get picked back up next week – thanks a lot, crossover literally no one asked for – and then we head off into hiatus, effectively making this episode our mid-season finale. That’s unsatisfying, especially because the Oliver and Felicity storyline seems to hang on a dramatic cliffhanger (ZOMG WILL THEIR MARRIAGE SURVIVE?!?!?) in a way it wouldn’t have done if the next episode actually followed through on this. It’s the television equivalent of clickbait.

Side rant – generally speaking, I don’t have as much hate for the crossovers as a lot of people; I find them fun diversions for the most part. But I do resent the formulaic structure we’ve developed around them – they’re always at mid-season, they mostly ignore the main SLs of the individual shows (last year was probably the exception), they usually involve alternate earths or magic or shapeshifting or body swapping or whatever the heck is going on this year, and given that this year, Arrow gets one less episode overall than usual anyway, I do feel short changed and quite irked by the whole crossover shebang. Imagine if we could have allowed the events of this episode to percolate and develop in the next one, so that the storylines would have some time to breathe.

I think that’s my general disposition regarding the episode – there’s so much happening and not a lot of it is given time to breathe. One of the great things about the prison arc was that there were two arcs running in parallel – Oliver in prison, and Felicity trying to get Oliver out of prison. There were C and D and E storylines too, of course, but those two were the primary thrust that moved the story forward. Each episode advanced those SLs forward in a way that brought progress.

It's a bit like the weapon the Silencer uses – 701-707 felt a little like when the device is on, and all extraneous sound is extinguished. There is only the fight, the main purpose, and everything else is muted. Episode 8, then, feels a bit like that moment when the Silencer’s device is switched off, and all sound comes rushing back in, and everything is muddled and chaotic and you have no idea how many people have entered the room, limbs flying everywhere.

‘Unmasked’ feels like a transition episode, and for that, I can’t fault it. It gets most people to where they need to be, or at least somewhere along that path. It seems to want to draw a direct line from the events in the present to what happens and is happening in the future. It’s just that, for all that it is a place-setting episode, it loses a bit of the focus and quiet intensity of the episodes that came before it.

In true Arrow fashion, the party was fun for approximately 30 seconds before it all went to shit. Can I just say, I cannot believe that of all people, Laurel was the only one who acknowledged that Felicity was the one who did everything she could to bring Oliver home; nobody else in that group of people seems to have that awareness, to the point that Rene is actually complaining that no one threw him a party when “we” captured Diaz? Sorry, Rene, but as I remember it, Felicity had to fight you all tooth and nail to get you to help her even one step of the way. If anyone deserves credit for taking Diaz it’s not you and it’s certainly not the others. This lack of self-awareness from the former team really bugs me, but what bugs me more is that I don’t think the writers see it that way, which means we won’t ever get a resolution to this.

The Oliver and Felicity storyline was, unsurprisingly, my favourite and also the most affecting. They have spent so much of the first year of their marriage apart – the fact that Felicity is surprised he even remembers is testament to how much shit they’ve had overtake their lives over the course of the year. So their reunion felt a little bit muted – not because they suddenly don’t love each other, but because they both appeared to be so drained by what has happened to them. Felicity softly telling Oliver that she’s missed him, or Oliver talking about how he thought of her and William every day in prison – both show us in quiet ways how much of a toll this ordeal has taken on them. Oliver’s hesitation to join the world, to talk to people, to put the hood back on again (not wanting to risk being separated from his family again, as he tells Rene) was an interesting way to show his anxiety about being back in the world manifesting, and I liked that Felicity ran interference for him on that aspect, coaxing him to go to the party, dealing with the media and fobbing off Max Fuller, who was a joy to see returned. I had hoped that Max would meet Felicity and that he would bring up Oliver sleeping with his fiancée (then wife, then ex-wife), and both of these things happened and it was glorious. Then Felicity essentially rolled her eyes at him and waltzed past with her husband, and I appreciated that also.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I loved the scene in their apartment where Felicity pulls out a gun – when she’s had time to practise her shooting skills I don’t know – and the disbelief on Oliver’s face that she would a) have a gun and b) actually use it really tickled me for some reason. I recognise that Oliver not believing Felicity would go as far as she has seems a little inconsistent with what we know of their relationship – Felicity has crossed lines in the past and Oliver has been there to witness it – but I do think it is in character for him to be shocked by that particular moment. Every time he’s seen her with a gun, which is very rarely, he’s been shocked by it; in the past she’s also declared her distaste for them. So the idea that she now not only carries a weapon but is willing to use it is, of course, surprising to him. He also hasn’t seen her the way we have the past few episodes, and he doesn’t know what she’s had to go through to get to here, and how little support she’s had from her so-called friends.

Oliver has also been influenced by all that “circle of violence” talk that was drummed into him by the Level Two doctor. He’d been worried about passing it on to William and hadn’t even considered that it would be Felicity who would be most affected by it. To me, part of this feels like Oliver, in the past 7 months, has put her on a bit of a pedestal; he’s stared at a picture of her every day since his imprisonment, but a picture is not a person, and I think he’s lost sight of how his imprisonment has also been her imprisonment. This is highlighted when he tells her that he’s apologised endlessly for his decision at the end of S6, and she (thankfully, rightly) tells him that she can’t do anything with apologies. When she tells him what she’s had to go through in the last few months his instinct is to cringe and apologise – that’s what he’s always done, he’s always blamed himself for the actions others have been forced to take in his name – and she tells him that it’s not on him. It’s just a fact that her life has been upended because of this, and she’s had to re-form the person she is out of the debris.

I also believe that, in the heat of that conversation, they misunderstand each other – she calls her old self weak, and Oliver is horrified, telling her that he fell in love with that person. Felicity sees this as him re-affirming her claim that she used to be weak and judging who she is now, whereas I think Oliver was trying to say that he never saw her that way, and that in fact he fell in love with a woman who was already strong. We know that he believes this – he’s said it countless times over the years. In many ways she’s stronger than he is, and perhaps his dismay is that she suddenly doesn’t see it. Felicity, to my mind, seems to have lost sight of herself. I don’t think she is particularly “dark”, like the show is trying to present (in order to link it to the future where she’s apparently evil), or no more so than Oliver has been at various points over the years – but given that everyone around her has been telling her she’s “losing herself” or is on the path to not being a hero anymore (thanks, Diggle), she’s started to believe it. Felicity has always had a little bit of grey within her, from her days as a hacktivist to her dealings with Helix. Just because she’s chosen over the years to “find another way” does not mean she’s not capable of making the difficult choices.

But right now, Felicity is starting to believe that, so perhaps she sees Oliver’s incredulity as him also telling her that she’s losing her way, so she becomes defensive and tells him that version of her is gone for good. To their credit, they both do talk about this in a mature way later, by recognising that they’ve grown in ways the other hasn’t yet seen or had time to reconcile with. That reconciliation of their new selves is key to their relationship and it will be hard work they have to do as a couple. I have no doubts they’ll do it, and I’m excited to see them do it; I just wish it didn’t have to be presented in this shock-horror kind of way. FYI I don’t think Felicity is suggesting a separation and I don’t think they’re going to get divorced, but like I say, the clickbaity nature of it all bugs me.

As for the rest of the episode –

I’m not sure why John and Lyla “need” Diaz to help them with whatever the heck Dante is, other than the fact that it plays into an already widening separation between Diggle and Oliver/Felicity. It’s the kind of action that is pretty much a betrayal of everything the latter have been through, and though John acknowledges that he hates lying to them, it’s not clear why he does. Perhaps if he’d told them what was going on, they might even be okay with it. It feels like John’s arc is leading somewhere, and perhaps he has to walk this path before he can come back to the man we know and love; they’ve told us time and time again that the theme of the season is redemption, for everyone, so maybe this is part of it. Either way, that storyline is still not interesting enough to me.

I liked the brief moment between him and Oliver in the old bunker, but really only because of what Oliver says about accountability – it was a truly heroic moment for Oliver to accept that if the city wants to hate the Green Arrow, they also have to hate him; the “new Green Arrow” may be borrowing his name and hood, but Oliver was the “OG”, and it’s him the city has loved and loathed over the years. It’s his legacy, so the accountability is his. Seeing him in the suit without the mask is weird, and him working for the SCPD is even weirder. I’m not sure who the Green Arrow is without Overwatch, but I guess we’ll find out.

I haven’t even touched on the flashforwards (and this is already overlong) -- to be honest, I don’t know what to make of them at this point. The introduction of Blackstar (Maya?) was great -- she seems to be an intriguing character and clearly has a lot of secrets yet to be discovered. It was interesting that her base seems to be Max Fuller’s new club, but what it means, I don’t know. Also interesting that Roy didn’t go along to see her -- is this because he knows her? I’m not sure what to make of her involvement in the bomb plot, or why Zoe is so apprehensive about going to see her father in the Glades. The mention of Oliver was nice although it did seem like they were implying that he, too, is long gone. Interesting to find out about the Mark of Four -- that Oliver created it as some kind of vigilante call to action -- I wonder how many people it applies to. I also wonder how William has no idea about it -- when exactly did Oliver and Felicity leave him?

I also have to say this -- lately I’ve been beginning to see Dinah as a bit of a personality black hole. She’s just so dour all the time, both in the present day and future, and it’s really becoming tiresome. Her scenes just aren’t that interesting to me at the moment, which doesn’t bode well considering Oliver’s just started working at the SCPD. I don’t know -- I feel like Dinah’s become a bit lost as a character since 6B, and hasn’t recovered as well as perhaps Rene has. Who, incidentally, hasn’t used the word hoss even once this season. Miracle.

Finally -- new Green Arrow. Emiko, I assume. She wasn’t as much of a presence as I was expecting her to be considering the title of the episode, but I enjoyed her two bookend scenes. She clearly knows who Robert is, so I want to know a) how, b) who her mother is, c) how long she’s known, d) why she’s in town dressed like Oliver, e) does she have a list too?, f) is she technically working against Oliver?, g) why? So...basically everything.

The addition of Maya and Emiko to the roster, as great as they were this ep, is yet more proof at how bloated this cast has become. We don’t need 90 million members of Former Team Arrow hanging around doing nothing (seriously, was it necessary to have Curtis dress up and come in for one line that could have been delivered by someone else?). I can only hope that 7B takes a lean approach to their character roster -- between the present day and the future, I’m beginning to get lost in the noise.

I don’t expect the crossover to address any of the SLs brought up in this episode, so I suppose the next time we find out anything more on Emiko, Maya or how Oliver and Felicity reconcile will be after the new year, which...is a depressing thought, but c’est la vie.

I enjoyed Oliver and Felicity’s scene at the top of the ep, but really, I need more. These are two super hot people in their first year of marriage who’ve been separated for 7 months -- give them some happiness!

That said, I laughed out loud at Oliver’s face when Curtis asked what his first meal as a free man had been. I don’t think you want to know the answer to that, Curtis, so good on Felicity for jumping in.

I love Oliver’s reaction every time Felicity tells him she loves him. His face just lights up.

Oh, and the red pen callback! Ohhhh that one hurt.

Oliver’s reticence to re-enter the world was really well done.

Good to see that finally Oliver and Felicity’s place has a proper security system even if it was breached. But it does seem like the new flat is just the old flat re-dressed up. Sigh. I wish they would refurbish the Queen Mansion, especially since apparently nobody’s bothered clearing all that debris away from the fire???

Wasn’t it odd how Curtis asked Felicity “what will you do now?” as if he’s totally forgotten they had planned a start-up together and even had angel investors at one point. It looks like the writers have abandoned Helix Dynamics in favour of Smoak Tech, so I’ll take that and run.

I don’t care for the new mayor.

Wasn’t there supposed to be another party, one Oliver and Felicity don’t make it to?

I guess they’ve decided to keep William in boarding school. Which means it’s unlikely we’ll see him for a while (boo), seeing as we’ll bypass Christmas on the show thanks to certain other events.

Speaking of, ughhhh crossover.

#Olicity #Oliver x Felicity #Oliver Queen #Felicity Smoak #Arrow reviews #my reviews #ah-maa-zing reviews #Arrow #Arrow: Unmasked

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borisbubbles · 7 years ago

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EUROVISION 2018 #5 & #4

05. SWITZERLAND ZiBBZ - “Stones” 32nd place

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~*Wild Jokah On A Gole Froam*~

Yanking away the top NQ slot in this year’s ranking is, of course, everybody’s favourite Sibling alliance, ZiBZZ!!

As you know, I looooooooove mental health awareness songs, and I particularly love those with approaches that work (*cough* NOT “Goodbye” *cough*). While most of these songs are doused in motherly, cloddlesome tones, “Stones” doesn’t beat around the bush and argues that one must confront their fears HEAD-ON.

To transliterate the (ridic, amusing) lyrics into Common English:

“People have always been shitbags and have treated others like crap for aeons and there’s nothing I can do about it because people won’t fucking change.. SO fucking WHAT? Why would let those assholes affect my present and future the same way they’ve influenced my past? Fuck that noise. It’s time to let the inner demons rest, grow as a person AND help others get out of the deep end while doing so.”.

Holy fuck what an epic Truth BOMB, I can relate to all of that scalding hot tea. The best way to get around depression, anger and frustration *is* to 1) remove you from the toxic environment 2) find kindred spirits and support each other 3) find the courage to leave your past behind and build a future for yourself. Mental health is a BATTLEFIELD that HITS YOU with its best shots (did I just ref Pat Benatar twice? 🤭) while you’re struggling and “Stones” acklowedges this reality so hard. About fucking time someone lit the flares of ferocity to stand up against BULLYING and HATE. ALL HAIL COCO the ZiBB, FIRST OF HER NAME, THE UNDUN, MOTHER OF FLARES, KHALEESI OF THE DOWNTRODDEN, NON-THROWER OF STONES, BREAKER OF TABOOS, QUEEN OF THE HURT, TORMENTED AND BROWBEATEN.

Ain’t the only one who don’t wanna throw stooooooooooones

But of course, message alone isn’t enough to get such a high ranking, but fortunately ZiBBZ delivered musically as well. “Stones” has the perfect type of melody for Eurovision: catchy, repetitive and accessible, but never boring or tiresome because the arrangement was spot.fucking.on. The horns and tuba’s give the music so much gravitas, the backing AHEMs are excellent and CoCo’s five-packs-a-day type of gravelly voice adds so much realness to the song. "Stones” as a whole is jarring and complex and succeeds at elliciting the emotional response it aims for. This is my favourite song of the 42, by no small margin.

And then there’s the staging, which... I have mixed feelings about, not gonnal ie. It saddens me that even at this high a rank I must again resort to critique. I mean, the ACT was great. That motherfuckin’ flare is one of the few goosebump moments I got from this year, Coco is Minerva in a hipster body, Stee is a lovable goof, but... you have this amazing, dynamic song that is capable BLOWING EVERYONE AWAY and it kinda... doesn’t?

I would say that “Stones” was mostly hampered by its camerawork, which was mostly AWFUL. Which idiot [Hans Pancake 🙄] is responsible for framing such a powerful, uptempo song with slow, drawn-out shots?

I mean, shots such as this one:

(why didn’t they just focus on Stee??? or the audience?)

and that one:

(You can clearly see Coco throwing away a drumstick at the start of the preformance... Why the faraway shots?? Why no close-ups when she’s drumming happening???? NO ONE CARED ABOUT SANNA’S LIGHT CAGE SO WHY WOULD THEY START CARING NOW??? (seriously, fuck you Hans Culpepper))

This is the reason why “Stones” failed to ensnare the audience’s attention. Wrong people with the right to stage and ZiBBZ can’t do anything about it. I chose to not take it into account when I decided on their final ranking, but it’s sooooo frustrating to see Switzerland FINALLY strike the motherload and fall flat because of some moronic cinematographic decisions. Now watch Switz pick something mediocre and be overrated by the Basics/NQ once again (lol I say this without having listened to the Swiss songs, but can you blame me?). Oh well, ZiBBZ have since moved on to better things -

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- and so should we :). Still praying they pull a Poli in five years or so. THE WORLD NEEDS IT

04. SLOVENIA Lea Sirk - “Hvala, ne!” 22nd place

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Damn’ this is such a tough decision. Cutting entries loose at this point really hurts y’all.

So as you know, I really, REALLY fucking love Lea Sirk and even said that, in the unlikely event that she qualified, she’d WIN the ranking. However, while I am probably obliged by contract to grant her the first place, I can honestly say that... I like my top three more? Lea could have easily won this ranking, had my opinions on Elina, DoReDos and Ieva stayed the same; but they didn’t (they went up obvi), so here we are. The above paragraph is just a disclaimer to explain why Slovenia don’t rank higher than they do, because holy fuck this "Hvala, ne!” was awesoooooooooome. Anti-establishmentarian trap-pop that was a shock qualifier and made a flashy gimmick work TWICE <3 There’s a reason why the Good Gays Fanbase (do I include myself in that? hmmm 🤔) have nicknamed it “Hvala Slay!”.

But first, (-- Julie Chen-Moonves) let’s discuss the PHENOMENON that is Lea Sirk. My love for her predates this contest by several years, from the time when I only knew her as the botty cyborg sidekick to the heiress of the Ravenclaw Empire herself, Tinkara Kovac.

“KEN U BEE-LIEF ET???”

who happens to be *my* fave of Outstanding Eurovision Year 2014 (Yes, over Conchita, go cry) and is a contender for fave entry of the decade. The Summer of 2014 was a fantastic experience, partly thanks to Lea and I will forever cherish her for that reason. So when this beautiful dubstep fae was selected to rep Slovenia, now sporting a lilac killer braid, a trashbag jumpsuit and a cabal of slut-dropping dance devas of destruction... like *instantly* fanning my proverbial clit right there. It only got better during Lea’s pre-show content, proving her not only cool chick onstage, but off the stage as well. Having a teenage girl crush on Waylon <3 (Confessing this IN FRONT OF A LIVE AUDIENCE WHICH INCLUDED BOTH WAYLON AND HER HUSBAND lmao bless <3). Impersonating Salvador on some Slovene version of the Soundmix Show <3 There’s no way Lea couldn’t deliver in Lisbon.

And “deliver” is underselling what Lea did, holy fucking hell that live was EVERYTHING. It’s hard to even name what the brightest shining star of their performance was, since Slovenia brought an entire fucking galaxy of them. I’d say the best thing was probably the choreography, which managed to be spellbinding, professional and hilarious all at once. Lea and her dancers-in-crime put on an amazing, electrifying show, aided by dynamic camerawork and lighting (Take note, Hans Pancake 🙄).

My personal fave thing about “Hvala ne!” however was that it QUALIFIED BY A COMFORTABLE MARGIN AND WOULD HAVE UNDER ANY POINTS SYSTEM <345871 I love a deserving shock qualifier (see: Albania), but when it happens to a preshow fave of mine that I considered all but doomed (and a contender for last in the semi). . . There are no superlatives in my glossary that can describe the state of elation I felt when Lea was announced as a finalist. Netta might as well cede her trophy because the Eurogaes were the actual winners of this year 💗🧡💛💚💙💜 “Hvala, ne!” more like “HVALA motherfucking SLAYS HATERS” amirite???

Granted “Hvala, ne!” was the same in Lisbon as during the preshow, with only two marked exceptions. One was Lea had added a chorus in shabby Portuguese (”OBRIGADA NAO NAO!!!” <3) which was hilar, and the other was... the break!

Granted the semi break was kinda *blah* to me. “Zomg the music dies riiiiiiight before the bridge how coincidental”. Sure, Jan. Either way, I found it moderately funny, mostly because of the random extras that were clearly being paid by production to oversell it <3

But the best thing was that it WORKED and brought Lea to the finale where she performed a SECOND break and this one was downright epic. The audience actually sang along with her <3 <3 <3 <3 Two different instances of the same gimmick and making it work BOTH times <3 When will YOUR faves???

I suppose that, at the end of the day, “Hvala, ne!” was an experimental song that you either love or hate. Why anyone would ever hate this radiant nymph is beyond me, but whatever. My ranking, my rules, ya shallow fools. I *loved* this bizarre mix of K-Pop and Hip-Hop, sung in Slovene and Portuguese, (which is the most unique combination of languages ever featured in a Eurovision entry, I’m sure <3), with badass self-referential lyrics that SLAM DOWN musical conformity in a year that was all about rewarding it. In other words PRECISELY WHAT THIS CONTEST NEEDED. You know, there are plenty of countries out there that have never scored a top five in Eurovision and probably never will until they find their monster runaway winner (Lordi, Salvador). I *hope* the next one is from Slovenia. Raiven performing a song by Maraaya, with Lea and BQL as the back-up singers. Come on y’all, let’s make Eurovision Great Again. Hvala, slay, slay, slay, slay

RANKING SO FAR

04. Slovenia (Lea Sirk - “Hvala, ne!”)

05. Switzerland (ZiBBZ - “Stones”)

06. Germany (Michael Schulte - “You let me walk alone”)

07. Albania (Eugent Bushpepa - “Mall”)

08. France (Madame Monsieur - “Mercy”)

09. Hungary (AWS - “Viszlát nyár”)

10. Finland (Saara Aalto - “Monsters”)

11. Bulgaria (EQUINOX - “Bones”)

12. Denmark (Rasmussen - “Higher ground”)

13. Malta (Christabelle - “Taboo”)

14. Cyprus (Eleni Foureira - “Fuego”)

15. United Kingdom (SuRie - “Storm”)

16. Serbia (Balkanika - “Nova Deca”)

17. Portugal (Cláudia Pascoal - “O jardim”)

18. The Netherlands (Waylon - “Outlaw in ‘em”)

19. Ukraine (MÉLOVIN - “Under the ladder”)

20. Macedonia (Eye Cue - “Lost and Found”)

21. San Marino (Jessika ft. Jenifer Brening - “Who We Are”)

22. Sweden (Benjamin Ingrosso - “Dance You Off”)

23. Austria (Cesár Sampson - “Nobody but you”)

24. Latvia (Laura Rizzotto - “Funny girl”)

25. Azerbaijan (AISEL - “X my heart”)

26. Israel (Netta - “Toy”)

27. Norway (Alexander Rybak - “That’s how you write a song”)

28. Montenegro (Vanja Radovanovic - “Inje”)

29. Armenia (Sevak Khanagyan - “Qami”)

30. Poland (Gromee ft. Lukas Meijer - “Light me up”)

31. Greece (Yianna Terzi - “Oniro mou”)

32. Georgia (Iriao - “For you”)

33. Belgium (Sennek - “A matter of time”)

34. Italy (Ermal Meta & Fabrizio Moro - “Non mi avete fatto niente”)

35. Romania (The Humans - “Goodbye”)

36. Ireland (Ryan O'Shaughnessy - “Together”)

37. Croatia (Franka - “Crazy”)

38. Belarus (ALEKSEEV - “Forever”)

39. Russia (Julia Samoylova - “I Won’t Break”)

40. Spain (Amaia & Alfred - “Tu canción”)

41. Iceland (Ari Ólafsson - “Our choice”)

42. Australia (Jessica Mauboy - “We got love”)

43. Czech Republic (Mikolas Jozef - “Lie to me”)

#eurovision #Eurovision Song Contest #Eurovision 2018 #Switzerland #ZiBBZ #Stones #Slovenia #Lea Sirk #Hvala Ne!

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bitter-limelight · 6 years ago

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angsting ptsd self esteem bullshit under cut. remember if you know me irl what happens on tumblr stays on tumblr

So for like, 6 years I’ve been slowly working on a graphic novel idea, completely unrelated to BNB, and for the last few months, between editing the second volume of BNB, I’ve been working on character sketches, posing, lineart, all the good shit you need for a graphic novel which I’m not super good at. And for once, I actually have a character who has a fair bit if myself in them. I grew up in the ZOMG MARY SUE SELF INSERT HOW DARE YOU DIIIIIEEEEE age of writing, where any small resemblance to the author was equal to writing absolute garbage, to the point where I don’t even like having a character who draws or writes casually because it’s obviously way too close to me. But i finally have a guy who I’ve put more than a couple drops of my own personality in, to try and find an outlet for some of All Dem Issues. But, as usual, any time i try to push it any further i absolutely balk and want to throw up. I just can’t see myself in a character. No matter how much I support representation of all bodies, races, colors, abilities and looks in media, no matter how much I see others supporting the same thing, it just will never include me. Sure, freckles and gap teeth and fat thighs and prosthetics are all being championed as just different aspects of beauty, and they are, but the same people who reblog that shit turn around and call some man they don’t like a lazy-eyed creep, or make fun of bad teeth on a non American actor. and as stupid as it sounds, and like such an emo teenager thing but god i want to just rip my whole fucking face off sometimes?? like, i can’t count how many times i’ve googled facial fillers, radiesse, cheek fillers, juvaderm, cosmetic surgery. how long i spend in the miror every time i wash my face pulling back all my fat, sagging skin, smoothing out my lumpy ass chin, forcing my eyes to go the same direction for ten seconds And you can’t fucking tell me it’s all in my head. I’ve had children ask me whats wrong with me, i’ve had kids ask their parents why i look wrong, i’ve had two coworkers in the past who 100% thought i had down syndrome or some other mental delay because of how i look. crooked eyes and crooked teeth are top tier short hand for mentally handicap and stupid, respectivly. and I just look at the dosens of characters i’ve made and i’m just like, i can’t be the main character in my own life story, i’m too much a fucked up, ugly, lumpy, saggy, crackbaby mess. i literally feel like I’m a public health hazard and i feel ashamed of myself nd sorry for the people who have to work around me and look at me every day. i’ve been seeing a shrink for almost a year now and i just feel like it’s a fucking waste because no matter how many hours i’ve spent there, the concept of not hateing myself doesn’t even seem like it’s in the realm of things that are allowed, let alone possible. you might as well ask me to sprout wings and fly to venus

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lightholme · 4 years ago

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So I've done political/marketing work in both the US and UK, and I actually looked into this for a friend who had similar questions.

Two things: first, there's a bigger market for it.

11% of the UK population are strict vegans or vegetarians.

Second, that's because UK vegans are better at being vegan and spreading their ideas than US Vegans. Who are very, very, very bad at it.

That's for a number of reasons. Mainly, there's far less of the confrontative PETA-style proselytizing and protesting that makes the protester feel better but pisses everyone else off. They also spread propaganda, those awful slaughterhouse videos, which rather than having the intended effect of convincing people to go vegan and care about animals, makes them really emotional, which is a great way to get people to shut down and go into self defense mode.

Vegans in the UK have the same emotions and feelings as US vegans, but what they've chosen to do about that is be far more effective in their activism. Kill em with kindness has been the core of UK vegan activism.

They set up community gardens, go to food deserts and try to cook for people, they're big into the food banks now, and before the pandemic they had a long tradition of just straight up offering to help people: "Alright, I will buy you groceries for a week and teach you how to cook if you ever want to try it." I have several UK friends that took that offer, or who went over to Vegans' homes for dinner. Some went vegan, others started doing meatless mondays. Which is an effective thing being pushed by some folks in the US. By being kind and loving and basing their activism on love, they were able to help convince even Scottish people whose subreddit bans salad to start eating less meat or go vegan. Glasgow is now a major hub for Vegan foodies.

In contrast, in the US, in the state I currently live in in Virginia, we had to pass regulations to protect animals from PETA, and regulate the shelter industry because PETA was just killing strays in vans and dumping their bodies in dumpsters.

There has been the same negative press in the UK, possibly worse thanks to tabloids, about "ZOMG THE VEGOONS ARE AT IT AGAIN" but UK activists have focused very effectively on ignoring that noise and convincing people with love and kindness and not on angering people with really stupid campaigns.

This has created a huge market. Beyond that, Vegan chefs and foodies have created a bunch of stuff that respects local traditional foodways and new traditional foodways from the Asian community.

The large Asian community has included people from backgrounds that historically eat less meat, for both cultural and religious reasons, and that has generally helped as well. The US also has a large Asian community. Embracing other cultures within what tends to be a very rich, white movement will be helpful.

In the US there's a negative feedback loop. We have a ton of people like that "Vegan Teacher" character, and then ordinary vegans do this whole "Well I'm not like them" thing, and make a show of not being pushy, which robs them of any effective activism.

So you've got malactivism from the assholes that even targets vegan creators.

I was going to make a "Can We Veganize It" cooking show with a vegan friend, and she shut it down after doing market research because I am not a vegan, and won't become one (for reasons best left undiscussed here, because I'm not trying to debate the topic of veganism right now.) My job was envisioned to help with the cooking and compare the two techniques to get something as close to the other dish as possible.

She shut it down before we filmed the first episode because of the online hate mob shit that rolls through American vegan spaces. She happened to suggest the idea in an online space and got fucking hosed with negative comments for even daring to work with someone who wasn't a vegan.

Basically what I'm saying is that the UK has more vegans because Brit Vegans are much better at containing any assholery in their movement and shutting that shit down so that effective activism can take place. As a result, more than one in ten brits is vegan or vegetarian.

And then, once there's that critical level of demand, market forces will drive those changes in the US. And once restaurants all have those options, more people will try it, it will snowball, and you'll have people either going full vegan or partially committing.

For an example of some American vegans who are doing this right? Check out Slutty Vegan:

https://youtu.be/h1Ks7kRRtLg

They're unapologetic in their beliefs, but they drive themselves with love, not anger. And if American vegans would follow that model and flip to unapologetic love and "Just try the food," while investing in local and traditional foodways just like the UK vegans have historically done, and like Slutty Vegan is doing, they'd have a ton of success in pushing similar changes here.

Basically the situation in the US is that the only Vegans most Americans will interact with either won't talk about it because they're afraid of being seen as assholes or attacked by assholes, OR they're being yelled at by the Seitan Taliban, and do what Americans always do when someone pisses them off, which is say "Go fuck yourself" and dig in their heels.

A change can happen in the US, it would be great if it happened in the US for climate and health reasons, but it would require shutting up the keyboard warriors and recognizing that the majority of vegan activism in the US has been totally ineffective, and new tactics are needed.

The best way to do that? Go to colleges and hold vegan barbecues. Make good food, feed people, and then offer to help them if they want.

Currently going to colleges and waving signs around hasn't been working and that's been the tactic since the 1970s. Telling people to just watch a youtube video doesn't work. So look into the tactics that vegans have used in the UK.

Again, teaching people to cook at free events, getting hooked up with anti-hunger movements, invading food deserts with vegetables and setting up community gardens, holding free barbecues at colleges, setting up "Try Vegan" stands at farmers markets and festivals, doing all that actually-effective activism and finding ways to just laugh off the keyboard warriors and deal with stupid comments with jokes and banter while still being proud and unapologetic. Support folks like Slutty Vegan who are making progress, and who aren't super white, and look for more folks from various communities in the US.

And throw PETA under the bus while you're at it because that will help people think "Huh, maybe I'm wrong about these folks." They're grifters who've done more damage to the image Americans have of Vegans and Vegetarians than anyone else, and if I believed in conspiracy theories, I'd think that they're so bad at their job they've got to be funded by Big Ag and the meat industry.

Change the tactics, get more vegans, build the market, and all else will follow.

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scarlett-carson · 7 years ago

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Towels

This has been kicking around in my head since the first bath I took at the hotel in Denver, and realized that I had not packed my own towel. I did however pack a journal and a pen and managed to not write it down “because it doesn’t really fall into the scope of that particular project”. I may have several problems.

**********

Hotel towels are weird.

I mean, the ones they give you for the bath are BARELY large enough to wrap around your head and are definitely passable for use as a mat next to the tub...but the POOL towels are properly sized and can wrap around your whole wet body; tits and all.

Which.

I am presently having a very weird relationship with lately

Not the towels.

Also not exactly the tits

My body.

This...isn’t about the towels

Except that it totally is actually about the towels. Just stay with me for a minute, ok?

I promise there is a point to this.

At the beginning of the year i did keto for a bit. It seemed to be going ok. I lost like 20 pounds or whatever. I have since stopped doing keto and am pretty sure I managed to put all 20 of said pounds back on. I am essentially pregnant with Insomnia Cookies, thanks to a show I did being at the Greenhouse...and also to my shitty impulse control and bad habits during tech.

Its whatever.

DESPITE THIS HOWEVER

I recently spent most of an entire 24 hour period in bed with a partnery person and during a good deal of that time, I was *GaspPearlClutch* NAKED. Like in view of another person’s whole (presumably human) eyes.

Y’all remember when that would have NEVER happened?

I am starting to figure out that just because I hate my body...that doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone else will. Like, individually. At large, yes I am still fat and therefore people will hate that and they will hate even more that I sometimes DON’T hate it because YoU’rE GlOrIfYIng ObEsItY.

No, Sharon, I am living my best life there is a fucking nuanced difference do please try to keep up.

I should probably go back on keto, though.

Like for all of the reasons I had started it. Not because of the numbers or the sizes--because as per usual the sizes didn’t change -that- much. Like I kind of felt better overall for a while. Not to say that I feel terribly now, but I don’t feel as good.

(Sup, tangent)

So yeah. Bein nekkid with other humans.

That was not the first time.

I’ve kind of noticed it happening a bit more.

With other people, too.

And a general...hiding less overall.

I don’t know how related all of the factors are. I am noting them as Data Points(™) right now and trying to focus on staying present and not getting super caught up in the ZOMG of it all.

I think, on some level, it’s a trust thing? But the trust I have is in myself?

That...sounds insane.

Or maybe it doesn’t.

I think it absolutely ties into a few other things, though. Changes I have noticed, progress that has been made. It’s like...there are finally some tangible markers to a few of the abstract concepts we have been working on but they aren’t the ones I was expecting?

Based on a conversation I was having--for the sake of argument, let’s call it a “negotiation”--I remembered about a thing I had written and “published” on the internets called COIN OPERATED GIRL ANACHRONISM like...five years ago. It’s most recent update to this point was from 2014. So, after realizing a lot of the things that I would normally have to share or explain or disclose or whatever were no longer either relevant or necessary, I decided to take a stab at updating the post.

Now, what I should have done was pull it down completely and rework the entire piece with the previous as an outline. What I did instead was just delete the things that don’t matter as much anymore and added a few hilarious quips and updated my current testing status and whatnot.

Things that I noticed::

A bunch of things that were on the “absolutely not” list...fucking aren’t anymore

A bunch of stuff that was on the “I would like to” list...have happened

Almost ALL of the shit that is like “idk man I am really indecisive and don’t really ask for things and don’t usually initiate anything”...is gone. Because fuck that shit. WHY?

(I don’t know when I grew a spine but I think it was somewhere between “not giving a fuck what anyone thought of what I was doing anymore” and “having to be in charge of all of the things all of the time, all day no breaks”. This is not what I meant when I said I wanted to find a good work/life balance and YET)

I don’t really have anything to add right now. It’s not that I suddenly have everything I want or need--I sure as shit do not--but what I DO have is a good strong foundation to build on and good people around to help facilitate those things. That growth, those experiences, the adventures...and I have a bunch of shiny new tools to be able to build much of those things myself.

I think maybe “spend more time in bed naked with this list of humans” could be an addition. For a couple of reasons.

WAIT ARE ALL OF THESE “I”s FUCKING CAPITALIZED WHAT IS THAT SHIT? I BLAME GOOGLE FOR THAT ONE.

The things I had written four years ago were nearly unrecognizable

Actually...nearly may not even be an appropriate word choice. That shit was written by a whole ass different person.

I think

Ultimately

There are different things for different reasons

Sometimes, those reasons shape who and what we are.

We adjust and adapt.

And maybe there is a REASON the pool towels and the bathroom towels are such stupid sizes.

Maybe they have to adapt because of their respective purposes.

I mean..in all fairness, kitchen towels and beach towels aren’t the same size either. So this totally tracks.

Or maybe people are less likely to steal tit washcloths from the room.

I don’t know.

But I DO know

Hotel towels are weird.

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moonraccoon-exe · 7 years ago

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HEY COON! SO I am trying to get back into art more after being super dead for almost 2 years after artschool. BUT now I just can't find the inspiration and/or motivation to do anything, plus whenever I manage to finish something (after millions of trashed sketches) I hate it half of the time. Any tips for a sad artist?

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASPS

BUUUUUUUUUUUUDDDYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY (ノ*°▽°*)

HEWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

*PETS YOU*

Buddy, hello!! It’s been a while since I last heard about you, I’m happy to see you around!! (ノ*°▽°*) I mean, sometimes I see you in my activity, but we hadn’t properly talked in quite a while, and it’s great to hear from you again!! Seeing your icon made me happy. :3

Anyways, let’s see…

Tips for a sad artist, huh.(。。 )ゝ

Wh- waIT

WHAAAAAAAAAAAT

YOU!?!?!?! NOT LIKING YOUR ART!?!??! AHDAWBHFPASD BUDDY WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOOOOOOOOOOOUT!?!?!?

Ohmy GAWD, I’m thinking about that Gladio art that you made, with the super detailed and amazingly designed braids and the badass and cool artstyle and this super awesome art aND THEN I THINK YOU’RE NOT LIKING THE THINGS YOU MAKE AND I’M SITTING HERE LIKE WUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT ASJDHJGHDA FHA NO WAAAAAAAAAY!!

WHY WOULD AN AMAZING ARTIST LIKE YOU NOT LIKE WHAT THEY’RE MAKING AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH, I admit I haven’t seen more of your art, but the piece I saw is INCREDIBLE and I goddamn LOVE every inch of it WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT OH MY GAWD ASDHDGKLA KJF DKLGALKDJ

*UNCONTROLLABLY FLAILS LIKE A DESPERATE TURTLE ON ITS BACK*

Okay, BUT that’s actually understandable. I don’t know WHY but it happens sometimes that INCREDIBLE artists don’t like what they do. And you know what I think? I think that some of the most commons reasons is, either they were bullied in the past about their works, OR even more dangerous, artist is a PERFECTIONIST. And it’s USUALLY THAT LAST CASE ZOMG ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ

Okay, buddy, Imma gonna answer this the best that I can, okay?

For anyone interested, Coon talks under the cut about how artists can find inspiration and/or motivation, perfectionism, and what to do when you hate your art.

Tips for a sad artist! ヽ(・ω・)ﾉ

First of all, and as I always think is necessary to clarify, I’d like to keep it clear that I’m neither an artist nor a professional counselor. I’m a raccoonie with no more than its personal philosophies and a lot of positivity and kindness to offer.

I’m not telling you what to do, or how to do it. I’m offering some personal experiences or thoughts, and suggestions, but in the end it’s always in your hands to do as you consider wisest. Alright, buddy?

*pets you*

Said, that, off to try to answer this! /o/

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS!!! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ

Going back to art is something not everyone takes. I think that you love making art, so going back to it is really a wonderful and brave move. It would be so easy to stay in your comfort zone and not go back to it, because it takes so much effort and time, and you’d rather just eat cheetos and rot in boredom, am I right? How easy it would be, to not go back. But you did!!! And that is AMAZING!

Buddy, I’m proud of you just by the fact that you’re trying to get back to art. It’s something not anyone does, especially dealing with the struggles you’re going through as you’re making your way back into art, so it really, really takes something and I think that’s AMAZING and so AWESOME!!

LOUD CHEERS AND HOORAYS FOR YOU, MY FRIEND, I’M SO PROUD OF YOU AND SO HAPPY FOR YOU!!! ٩(◕‿◕)۶

Congratulations on having the courage and the firmness of going back and fight those struggles to do what you love to do!!!

Also, buddy, know that by just having the intention of going back to art after 2 years, you’ve already given the first step.

Really, I don’t know how to say it enough. Staying in your comfort zone is what most do, and having the courage and daring to go back to something that takes time and effort and a lot of struggle talks about someone determined to do it. Letting go of the fear of the water and going into the pool is the hardest part; learning to float and swim takes longer, yes, but you’re already in the water, which is the most important and vital of steps. You’ve gotten over the hardest part, so know that you can do the rest even if it takes a bit of effort.

Now, I don’t know where to go. We have lack of motivation/inspiration, lots of trashed sketches before choosing a final piece, and hating it half of the time. Hm.

Lack of motivation/inspiration.

I think it’s important to mark the difference between Motivation and Inspiration

Motivation: I feel/don’t feel like drawing.

Inspiration: I feel like drawing and I know what I will and I have this idea and that idea and I know how I’ll do this and that and then I’ll make this and-

You can have one without the other. It’s rare to have inspiration and not motivation, because insspiration usually brings forth the motivation. But it’s very, very, VERY common to have the motivation and not the inspiration. What do you do when you want to draw and lack the inspiration?

There’s this saying, you know, I always forget who said it. But it says something like “Of course inspiration exists. But you must make sure that when it finds you, it finds you working”.

Let’s be real; when we say we’re “waiting for inspiration” we’re just not trying. Art is not sitting in a corner alone doing nothing but eat popcorn and waste our lives away waiting for the moment that Lady Inspiration decides to come in and do the work for us. No; consider inspiration as a very loving but difficult lover. Love it, let it take you, let it do wonders with you, but when it gets moody, don’t give it the pleasure of seeing you struggle. Don’t depend on it; just because lady inspiration is not showing up doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time or do stuff alone. She was late to the date? What a shame, but not because you’re waiting for her you’re going to let that extra expensive extra delicious hot coffee get cool, right?

Don’t depend on the presence of lady inspiration. Let her know you don’t need it; that if she appears you two can have fun together, but that she’s not a necessity. Show her you will drink that hot coffee and enjoy it whether she arrives or not; that you can work alone whether she’s present or not.

This means DRAW. Draw and draw and draw when you feel like drawing or want to draw whether lady inspiration is here or not. Now, this doesn’t mean you have to FORCE yourself to draw. Anything that’s made by force is useless. It’s like a fart; if you have to force it, it’s most likely it will come out as shit. It’s not about forcing yourself to do it, it’s just about not depending on inspiration; you feel like drawing but there’s no inspiration? Draw anyway. You don’t feel like drawing? Don’t draw. Even if there’s inspiration, because it CAN happen. It’s rare, but it can happen that there’s inspiration but not motivation, and that’s okay. Don’t draw. Your body and mind know what they want and need, and if they’re rejecting the idea of drawing, listen to them. Don’t force yourself to something you don’t want to do. Think of yourself as a friend; you would get upset at a friend that was trying to force you to draw for them, even if they’re your friend, right? So why don’t you get upset when You are trying to force you to draw too? It’s the same. Ignore that bad You and listen to good, real You and what they need.

Summarizing, don’t force yourself to draw if you don’t want to, but if you feel like it, do, whether there’s inspiration or not. Inspiration exists but it has to find you working; don’t let your art depend on inspiration or inspiration will notice and take cantage of it and will abuse of your dependence on it. Don’t let it. Draw alone, for yourself, show that bitch of a muse that you don’t need her. Ironically, it’s the fact that you’ll show her that you don’t need her what will make it impossible for her to abuse of you, because you don’t depend on her and hence she doesn’t have you in her grasp, and what will make the relationship healthy and useful; showing her you won’t die without her will make her see you’re good as you are and lend you a hand in a good way.

Not having motivation is okay, and you should listen to yourself. I don’t know if it’s the same, but I take my writing as example; sometimes I sit here and I think “I should write for this fic”, but I just don’t want to. No matter how much I force myself to, I don’t want to. So I close it and I think “I think that even though it’s been longer since i updated fic 1, I really feel like writing fic 2 instead”.

And you know? That’s fine.

What I mean to say is, something it’s not that you’re not motivated. Sometimes it’s that you want to force yourself to be motivated for a certain thing, when in reality you’re motivated to do something else. Explore what you want and listen to yourself and what the inner you is asking from you; not because you think you want to draw Drawing 1 means you WANT to do it. Sometimes we THINK WE WANT something or WANT TO WANT something, but that is entirely different to WANTING something.

Listen to yourself, the inner you, what it has to say. Listen to what you really, really want to draw or do. And even if it’s not what you wanted to want, when you figure what it is that you really want to draw, you’ll find that it’s easy to get on it, and, sometimes, that even makes inspiration come too.

Now, what if there is NO motivation though? What if it’s not that you don’t want to draw Drawing 1 and instead draw Drawing 2, but you’d rather not draw any of them?

That’s fine. It’s as I said, don’t force yourself to draw. Wanting to want to draw is very different to wanting to draw. I hope I’m not confusing you too much. What I mean to say is, it’s phenomenal that you want to get back to art, but that doesn’t mean you have to force yourself to. The wish is there, so the motivation will be there; if it’s not here today, it doesn’t mean you’re doing wrong or that you’re not progressing. You just don’t want to draw today, and that’s okay.

If you sit to draw and find you don’t want to, explore if maybe you’d rather draw something else, and so on and on until you run out of ideas. If it turns that you don’t feel like drawing anything, that’s okay!! Art is not born from drawing every minute every day every week. Art is born when an artist wants to draw, not when they force themselves to draw. Art is more than just sitting to draw; it’s getting up to go for a walk, breathe in the air of the park, watch TV or a movie, play a game, go do something and literally anything else.

Recently I hit a point where I really didn’t feel like writing anything. So I went to play FFXV Comrades for the first time, and spent most my evenings gaming instead of writing. And you know? It’s made wonders to me. It took from me the pressure of thinking I MUST have this or that for tomorrow, and while it did slow me a lot, it improved my writing. Because the more you force yourself to do it, the more you mine your skills instead of letting them grow, and when you rest you’re just recharging energy.

Think of it like your muscles. Exercise is good, but over-exercising is not, and it will reach a point where your muscles can’t take more. If you keep going, you’ll just end up hurting your muscles and actually tearing them apart and not only will all the progress you made go to waste, but you’ll also be unable to walk for a good couple days. In exhange, though, if you stop over-doing it, and if you take a couple days of rest, it’s not harming your progress, you’re just letting your muscles relax and be back in shape so you can go back to your usual exercise routine. You’re not “skipping one day” or “lowering your level”, you’re balancing yourself to not explode.

Summary; draw when you want, don’t force yourself to do it, but don’t wait for inspiration either, work with or without it.

Now, what if you really do want inspiration, though?

That’s a tricky question. I guess it depends on what you want to draw.

I guess I’ll tell you what everyone else would say; music. It’s no secret that like 99% of creatores play music to gather some inspiration for what they do. There are many playlists of 4 hours or such of “inspirational” music; you can even search for more specific things, as there are playlists made for specific sort of inspirations (sad playlists for those making something sad, cheerful ones, suspense ones, even fantasy music playlists, etc).

On my humble and subjective opinion, I dare say that music is perhaps one of the best tools for a creator’s source of inspiration. I think that music is the most beautiful of arts because it’s the most abstract; we don’t see it, or can touch it, it’s temporary because it exists only as long as it’s playing, it’s not material. It’s only the air around us vibrating and making the air shake at certain frequences. And it’s because it’s the most abstract of arts why it’s the less…how do I say it, influenced one??? Like, because it’s so abstract, your brain will interpret it the way it wants. A piano piece that can be calm to me may be sad to someone else, for example.

A ballet or a play or a painting, we see what the artist made and nothing more. But music? While it of course influences a lot whether it’s a happy or sad melody, you can still interpret it the way you want. We rely too much on our eyes for dance, theatre, and visuals, but music will go straight to your brain and give you images that no one else has; even if alike and very similar, no one will have the same mental image than you unless it’s made as something physical.

So yes, I would suggest music. If you feel like drawing something sad, go play something sad; if you feel like drawing a dragon, maybe fantasy music will do; if you want to draw this or that, there will be something that fits.

For example, I’m writing a beauty and the beast AU fanfic. The chapters are usually 14k words each. You can easily tell that the way I get lazy at times, or with the pressure of how long it is, and hence that I easily drop it if I’m not inspired. But I want to go on, I want to write it, but have no inspiration. So what do I do? I go look for that piano album of the film’s soundtrack. I can write 7k in one day thanks to that. What I can’t do in 2 weeks, 1 playlist makes me do it in one evening.

That’s why I personally suggest music (lyric-less, preferably), but it may not work for everyone.

So what if music is not your jam for inspiration?

Then go for a walk, free your head. Look at other artworks; watch a cool video or cartoon. Look at book covers, read a book or a fanfic, get excited over something, read, watch, listen to, or look at something that makes you get excited, that gives you mental images, that makes you want to be that hero or protagonist, and let that excitement build up more and more and let it take over and make it inspire you and make it make you grab that pencil and start sketching, and if your hype starts dying, listen to that game’s OST, look at that book’s cover again, re-read that passage, anything. Keep the hype up. Get excited.

I’m sorry for the length of this aaah, I’m gonna try to keep it short now hndnghgfh

Now, about your thousands of trashed sketches and hating half the finished things you make, you know what I think? I think you’re just being harsh on yourself.

There’s not a worse critic for a creator than themselves. We look at what we made and it’s never 100% exactly like we saw it in our heads, it’s not good enough, it can be better, it turned out so bad, I don’t have the skill to make it as I imagine it, this this this THIS THIS THIS STOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!

I know the thinking because sometimes I’m the same with my writing, and I know lots of artists that are like that, and a lot of musicians, etc. It took me years to understand, and evne understanding it doesn’t get rid of the problem, but understanding it at least makes me stop to realize what I’m doing and know I’m wrong and it’s fine.

No. It’s not not good enough; it didn’t turn out bad; you don’t not have the skill. No, no, NO. It’s NOT that way, buddy, no!!

The problem is called perfectionism and self-criticism. We’re made thought by people and society and the world and even our teachers themselves that we have to be EXCELLENT at what we do; that we have to be the best, and if not the best, at least EXCELLENT and perfect at what we do it we want it to be acceptable or god. And it’s not true; this is bullshit. Utter, magnificent bullshit.

It’s okay to want to be number 1, and it’s okay to want to get better and do better things. But there’s a difference between “I want to get better” to “fuck, I’m useless and must be better”. No! There are so many things to say about this I don’t even know where to begin. But the most valuable advice on this is

Love what you’re doing. Sounds easy. But I don’t mean that you must love drawing as the act itself; love what you draw. Even if it’s bad; even if you don’t like it, even if people hate it, even if it’s trash. Love it. Take that piece of paper in your hands and look at it. And even if it’s trash, even if it’s horrible know that it came from you.From your time and effort. From your passion and your skills. This was born from you. A mother doesn’t hate her child because it’s ugly or with no talent. So why would you hate anything you make?

A lot of the problem with perfectionism and self-criticism is the way we look at things, the perspective. And I’m going to gift you the best perspective that will fix your problem; love what you make. Take it with a positivity so positive it makes you feel stupid. Be like Kuzco; over-love yourself and what you do. Imagine that the place where you just stepped is glittering because you’re FABULOUS, imagine every thing you do is as fabulous and amazing. You fell in public? You look RADIANT doing it. You chocked on a grape? You’re FABULOUS on it.

Your drawing sucks? It’s trash and you hate it and it’s ugly and anatomy is horrible and the perspective is bad? WHAT A DRAWING. IT’S HORRIBLE AND UGLY AND YOU LOVE IT LIKE THAT.

It’s honestly an advice for anything in life. With that philosophy I defeated my problems of lack of confidence, and it’s thanks to that philosophy that I’m the hyper positive and kind creature that I am today, and the reason you’re asking me for advice.Because if you asked, you think even if just on a 1% that I’m capable of replying, right? And that’s because of how positive I am most of the time.

It’s thanks to that Kuzco philosophy. It’s not egocentric; so long you’re not harming anyone, yourself included, exaggerate that love, even if you’re lying. Because a lie said a thousand times turns into a truth. But I’m digressing; what I mean is, apply that to your drawings.

It’s ugly. It’s horrible. ACKNOWLEDGE THAT. Don’t lie to yourself and tell you that’s the best you can do because it’s not. Do encourage yourself to do better. But LOVE what you made as ugly as it is. LOVE it. Love its ugliness. Love how bad it is. It’s a drawing you made, it comes from you, it’s something no one else can do, and it’s ugly? Yes, but it’s YOURS. So you will LOVE it. You will look at it, smile, love it, and then move on to try again and better.

Next time you hate a drawing, and listen to me, and OBEY ME; next time you hate a drawing, you will look at it, and you WILL NOT THINK, WILL NOT THINK “it’s so horrible, I must do better”. You will think “It’s not the best I can do, I can do better”. There is a HUGE difference between “I hate what I’m doing and need to get better!” and “I don’t like what I do but it’s part of my progress, and I’m on my way to be better”.

Really, buddy, it’s like physical appearances. If you’re overweight and trying to lose weight, you don’t hate yourself for being fat. You take the fact that you’re fat, you acknowledge it, but you don’t hate it. You don’t tell to yourself it’s fine and you will stay there and do nothing about it; you take it, accept it, and work on it WITHOUT hating yourself. It’s unnecessary, and really only does harm. It’s not about hating yourself until you get the results you wanted, it’s about loving yourself in whatever state you are, while still seeking to improve.

Art like life is not a goal but a process. You’re not supposed to love your art only when it’s as you want it. You’re supposed to love your art from the beginning to the end, from the first terrible sketch you ever made to the most amazing painting you’ll ever make. There is really a huge difference between doing something and hating it and forcing yourself to be better, to acknowledge what you’re doing is not the best you can do, but accepting it and loving it nonetheless.

Buddy.

If you want me to hyper summarize it, I’ll just say

Don’t be so harsh on yourself.

Buddy…life makes you think you have to bully yourself. That if you don’t leash yourself, you’re not making any progress. We were raised by being hit instead of encouraged; instead of talking to us about why doing our homework is important, they would hit us until we made it and got higher grades. And that develops into how we treat ourselves; instead of encouraging yourself to get better, you’re hitting ourself because you’re “not good enough”. So what? No one is born a Michaelangelo. Not even Michaelangelo was born doing what he did. He learned. He made a first doodle, once. Painted when he wanted, what he wanted, regardless of how bad it was. Progressed eventually. No one is born knowing how to run; that other kids do it before you, yes. But you’re not other kids, you’re you. We all work at our pace, we all have our time of doing things.

Even the kids that learned to run sooner than you did first had to learn to walk, and before walking they had to learn to crawl. The fact that someone learned to run before you doesn’t mean you’re out of time, or too old to learn, or that you will never learn. In this metaphor, you’re literally a toddler. You HAVE time. You WILL learn. Just stop looking at other kids running, look at the floor, and push it with those little legs. You won’t learn to run if you spend all your time watching other kids run instead of trying yourself. Right?

You know, I loved my own vision of “they taught us by hitting us so that stays with us”. And I think I can’t explain or use it enough.

What I think you’re doing is exactly that. Because you’re not getting the results you want, you’re lashing yourself and tortuing and punishing, when it’s not about that. It’s not about punishing yourself because you didn’t get what you wanted; it’s about sighing, petting yourself on the head, and say “It’s fine. I will try again”. No need to punish yourself, why would you do that?

So you lower that arm, and let go of that lash. And you stop hitting yourself. Okay? From now on, I don’t want you to punish yourself; every time you make something you didn’t like, you will calmly talk with yourself about what you did wrong and about how you can do better, but no more hitting or nagging, okay, buddy?

Art is…the way for humans to vent things out. Be it positive or negative emotions, art is a way to take what we have inside and put it out before it rots inside us. Art is meant to clean the soul and ease the heart. Art is meant to be good, to be kind to us, to be gentle. Don’t use it as a weapon against yourself. Don’t weaponize it. Why would you take the most beautiful thing humankind has ever made and make it a weapon? Why would you take the tool that serves to clean and heal your soul and use it to harm yourself?

Enjoy what you do. Even if it’s horrible. Sing out of tune, draw with no anatomy, dance without grace. It’s not about how perfect it is, about how good you are at it; it’s that you have the courage to make it anyway, regardless of its quality. Quality comes with practice; getting better is just a matter of constant practice. But the passion for what you do, the love for what you do, that’s not something you make; it’s something that’s born on its own.

Do what you love, that’s clear, but we forget to love what we do. You draw because you love it, don’t you? Then love what you draw, too. It’s about balance; don’t focus your love in the action of drawing alone, balance it between doing what you love and loving what you do. That’s the only and true recipe for success. Do what you love, and love what you do. Don’t forget.

There’s another saying that says that those that look for perfection will die unsatisfied. Perfection is not real, buddy. Perfection is in the eye of the (I forgot the word). It’s subjective. You can make something that a great majority of people will enjoy,, but never something that everyone will enjoy, and never something perfect. Perfect is, to me, just a compliment. Not a fact; not something real. Perfect is fake; perfect is not real.

So why try to achieve it? It’s fine to want to be excellent at what you do. But if you ALWAYS think you can do better, and if you’re never satisfied, you’ll be miserable. Doesn’t it make sense? If you go all your art life saying “I can do better” and never be satisfied with what you do, you’ll surely die without ever being satisfied. It’s great and healthy to want to get better, but, agian, there’s a difference between being satisfied with what you do and aspire to do better next time, than never like what you do, never be satisfied, and thinking you’ll like the next, and repeat, and repeat.

So change that philosophy, okay? From now on, think positive. It’s as simple as loving what you make, even if it’s ugly. You’re making what you love, so now love what you’re making.

Also, I would suggest posting even if you don’t think it’s perfect.

You don’t need to post and share EVERYTHING if you’re not comfortable with it. But even the things you don’t share, love them. Post what you’re comfortable with posting, share what you want to share, never force yourself to post if you don’t want to. But also know that many times you don’t see your work as the public does, and what may be trash for you may truly be beautiful to everyone. Sometimes, I’m not confident on my writing, and I think it’s trash, but I post it anyway, becuase I already know that there’s 90% of chances that it’s not trash and it’s just me being perfectionist and too harsh on myself.

And you know? Not once have I ever regretted it. Most times, the things I think are more garbage are my most popular stuff. One time, for example, I posted this rushed draft of a story that I wasn’t comfortable with. It’s one of my most popular stories nowadays, and one of those that have received the most comments and love. I have two, three, many cases like that, of things I think are trash and I share anyway, and turn out to be brilliant to everyone else.

And it’s not that people love garbage. IT’s that it’s NOT garbage. You’re just hard on yourself.

Buddy. What you’re making is good enough. It’s 100 times better than what you can see. You saw it when it was but a blank page, you saw it when it was blurry lines, so you can’t see the final result. Your brain saves the pictures from when it was a mess of blurry sketched lines, so your brain thinks it’s still incomplete. When truth is, it’s perfect as it is. It doesn’t need to be perfect to be perfect. And what’s better, it doesn’t need to be perfect to be beautiful.

Wouldn’t you prefer making something beautiful to something perfect? Because I do. :)

But yes. What I mean is, I would suggest you share some of the things you’re happier with even if you’re not 100% confident on it, because 99 of the times you’re just blinded by your perfectionism. But we the public are not. We see what you can’t. What you make may be absolutely beautiful, but how will you know if you don’t show anyone else but yourself?

So go ahead, tiger, lazy neon chocobo. Draw without inspiration; make inspiration come to you; love what you draw, even if it’s ugly; share.

If I had to summarize it all in as few words as I could, I would say what I’ve been saying all this time.

Love what you make.

That is, I guess, the final advice. As in the ULTIMATE WEAPON. REally, it all revolves about loving what you make regardless of how “beautiful” it is or not. If you love what you’re making, you will reduce the lack of motivation. If you love what you’re making, you will attract more inspiration. If you love what you’re making, there will be less trashed sketched, and you will reduce the times that you hate the results.

There’s a reason they say love is the most powerful thing in the world. We think it’s about loving someone else, but it’s not just that. It’s about loving ourselves. Loving what we do. When you love yourself and what you do regardless of what it looks like, you’ve already won.

And take it as a personal advice. I can tell you I hated both myself and everything I made until I started loving it, but I didn’t start loving me only when I saw I was close to what I wanted to be; I got close to what I wanted to be because I started loving myself. You don’t…really, you don’t love yourself only when you’re a champion. You love yourself when you’re a loser, when you’re in the way, and when you’re a champion. You love yourself and all that you make all through the process, not just at the end. You don’t love your art only when it’s as you want it to be; you love your art because it’s yours.

Think of your art as someone else. You see what you’re doing? You’re hating this person and hitting them and being aggressive with them only because they’re not “good enough” and not what you want them to be. And you will love them only when they’re a champion. See how it doesn’t work that way? You love this peerson because of who they are, not because of who they will be. You don’t hit them whent hey fail, you encourage them to do better. You don’t hate this person as they progress and love them when they’re a champion, you love themfrom the beginning regardless of what they are or how far they’ll go.

You won’t love your art when it’s a champion; your art will be a champion when you love it.

I think that’s it? Knowing myself, I probably forgot to say many things But in all honesty I feel like this has gotten too long and I don’t want to bore you or make it a heavy read, aah. I’m so sorry I got so carried away. ^^;

I just really want to help.

Also, I’m sorry it took me a bit to reply; you can see it took me a while to write this, and I was not in my brightest moments the past days, so I didn’t want to answer when I was a grey cloud of negativity. It would have been hypocrite and everything would have been empty. So I waited until what I said really came from my heart. I hope that you can feel it!

ANYWAYS BUDDY, THAT’S WHAT I THINK!! ヽ(・ω・)ﾉ

I hope I could help even if just to lift your spirits a bit, buddy! I’m sorry if anything I said rubbed you the wrong way, I didn’t mean it like that! And I hope that you can find soon whatever it is that you need to love what you’re making and grab that confidence you need for your art. In a personal opinion, I think you’re GREAT! So I hope you can see that soon, too :)

Again, buddy, it made me sooooooooooooooo, so, so very happy to see from you again!!! I’m sorry I say bye in such a quiet way as compared to my usual bubbliness but, wow,am I tired now, haha!! But trust me, I’m very sincere when I tell you that it’s made me so, so, SO VERY HAPPY to see you around, buddy!!! Thank you so much for brightening my day with your presence in my inbox, and thank you for giving me that bit of trust to share your problems, and that bit of trust to ask me for advice!!!

It means a lot to me. It feels like you think I’m worthy of a bit of your trust and that’s beautiful. Thanks a lot for sharing this with me, and for thinking about me when you were/are in need of some aid, even if it’s just to cheer you up. ٩(◕‿◕)۶

I hope you find your ninja way in art soon, my dear fella mate! I hope I could be of help!

And I hope you’re having a MOST FANTASTIC day!! (ﾉ´ヮ`)ﾉ

#coonreplies #coonadvice #hoh! a new tag :3

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