#i love this supportive loving figure

[gatorsnot]

"Oh, Crookedstar. You've had to walk a dark and terrible path alone. None of these deaths are your fault. I doubt if they're Mapleshade's fault, either. Sometimes bad things happen for no reason, or for reasons we can't understand. Please never feel like you need to suffer alone again. I will always be on your side. I'm your medicine cat. You can trust me with anything."

~~~

darling, dearest, sweetest heart, don't ever change.

[cor-lapis]

If I had a nickel for every time a father in genshin was (suspected to be) involved in child human experimentation

Links below cut:

Candace redesign: eternal-moss (tumblr)

Dehya redesign: ohhnorr (tumblr)

Cyno, Tighnari, and Collei: mine :)

Quest summary masterpost (needs updating)

[paperglader]

they really put alicent in bridgerton blue on the reunion and genuinely expected me to think that she didn’t in fact march all the way to dragonstone to get wifed up? bfr

[lulu-draws-stuff]

Very self indulgent post that is for basically no one except myself but. my transfem Raz posting :]

[lazylittledragon]

i got to practice my textures on my favourite man :3

[s0fter-sin]

one of my favourite aspects of supernatural that you very rarely see in paranormal shows is that sam and dean are already versed in the world they live in. there’s no sudden discovery of ghosts and demons and now they have to learn about them along with the audience; they are born into it and already know all about it. it allows the audience to follow their personal story instead of also trying to figure out this new world and its rules

the first season is full of knowledge we never see them learn; “w*ndigoes are in the minnesota woods or- or northern michigan. i’ve never even heard of one this far west.” […] “great. well then this [his gun] is useless.” (1x02), “you don’t break a curse. you get the hell out of its way.” (1x08), d: “it’s a god. a pagan god, anyway.” […] “the annual cycle of its killings? and the fact that the victims are always a man and a woman. like some kind of fertility right.” […] s: “the last meal. given to sacrificial victims. d: “yeah, i’m thinking a ritual sacrifice to appease some pagan god.” (1x11)

almost every episode in the first season is a monster they’ve faced before that they then explain to the audience in a way that should feel patronising; like it’s the same speech given over and over again but instead, the audience almost feels included in the knowledge. it’s stated with such an innate confidence and comfort in said knowledge that it feels like we already knew it too; “spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. if they want inside, they just go through the walls.” […] “the claws, the speed that it moves; could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog.” (1x02), “it's biblical numerology. you know noah's ark, it rained for forty days. the number means death.” (1x04), “no no no, not the reaper, a reaper. there's reaper lore in pretty much every culture on earth, it goes by 100 different names.” […] “you said it yourself that the clock stopped, right? reapers stop time. and you can only see 'em when they're coming at you which is why i could see it and you couldn't.” (1x12)

they already know and, at least in the first season, already have what they need to kill whatever they’re hunting; already know to salt and burn bones for spirits, fire for a w*ndigo, exorcisms for demons, a silver bullet to the heart for shapeshifters. there’s only three times in the entire first season that they run into something new to them; 1x14 when sam gets his first vision that leads him to another psychic, 1x16 when dean calls caleb for help on the sigil he put together and he tells him about daevas, and 1x20 when they find out vampires are real- and they only don’t know that bc john thought they were hunted to extinction and not worth mentioning

(there’s also technically two half instances if you count one of them knowing something the other doesn’t - sam figuring out the tulpa in 1x17 and dean already knowing about the shtriga in 1x18 - but those still rely on sam and dean having prior knowledge)

even when they’re uncertain about facing something, it’s not bc they don’t know what it is; it’s precisely bc they know what it is and acknowledge that it’ll be a difficult hunt (“i don't know, man. this isn't our normal gig. i mean, demons, they don't want anything, just death and destruction for its own sake. this is big. and i wish dad was here.” 1x04)

so much of the tension in paranormal shows typically comes from the main character(s) not knowing what is happening to them/the people around them and having to find out how to resolve it. supernatural is unique in that it operates more like a police procedural. the tension comes from solving the clues and identifying patterns to figure out who (what) the killer is and intercepting before they can take another victim

it’s such a different tone to go for when compared to other shows that came both before, during, and after its run. it sets sam and dean on even footing with each other since they both have the same knowledge going in, and it puts them in a place of authority usually reserved for an outside character

the shows i compare spn to most is charmed, buffy and teen wolf; every main character in those shows are brought into the paranormal world knowing nothing, putting them on the same level as the audience, and they have their mc interact with others already knowledgeable about that world in order to overcome their problem/monster of the week. the audience organically learns about this new world as the characters learn about it. it’s a sound writing strategy that prevents “as we already know”-style exposition but something that complicates it is if your world building isn’t unique or intriguing enough, this slow introduction can become boring

we’ve seen shows like these before; sitting through the same tropes of characters learning to use their powers, struggling with no longer feeling normal/relating to the regular world around them, and not knowing how much they can trust the people already involved in this new world gets repetitive. all three shows eventually reach the same level of comfort with their new world that spn starts with but if the characters aren’t enough to draw you in, you can end up dropping it before they reach that point (and often, before the overarching plot can really kick in and evolve the show beyond the villain of the week format)

it’s the superhero origin movie in tv format; dragged out and overplayed. dropping the audience into an established world of course comes with its own problems but you also have the benefit of pre-existing established character dynamics that let the audience slot in like they’ve always been there instead of just getting to know all the characters while the characters also get to know each other

sam and dean already knowing about the supernatural lets the audience immediately get to the core of the story; the conflict between sam and dean, the search for their father, and the mystery of what killed their mother

[doveywovy]

tobiizu au where both of their brothers are posting about them on reddit for advice, but their viewpoints on the situation are so different it takes months for anyone to figure out its the same situation.

madara is asking for advice because he's terrified his brother is in an abusive relationship....the new boyfriend is cruel and meanspirited and RUDE!!! and unresponsive to, uh, "Weasel"'s affections. madara knows weasel is a little spoiled but he's ultimately a wonderful brother who always tries his best, he really doesn't want his sparkle to get dulled by this insufferable man :( would he be the asshole if he claimed he saw the piece of shit so-called-boyfriend cheating (he hasn't, but he's SURE the guy is) so he could force them to break up?

hashirama, meanwhile, is posting about how his sweet little brother just entered his first relationship and is worried it'll turn....uh.....well....bad.....because the guy is....really intense. like hashirama is SURE he means well but he's pushing for tattoos on the second date and thats kind of fast, right? his little brother has said no so far but he's really prone to doting on his new boyfriend in his own way, and will probably give in....should he be worried? is there any way he can give some good advice? could he suggest a therapist to this guy to maybe get him to calm down?

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Happy Valentine's Day! (and this blog's first post anniversary!)

[clownakai]

You will stop for three seconds and appreciate Suzuki Sonoko. Thank you

[buildoblivion]

i think the reason why thunderbolts works so well is that the team is like 80% legacy heroes/ knock off avengers but they’re all old enough to remember when princess diana died

[toaster-fire-art]

Hi! I got supper busy! and by busy I mean injured.

I'm fine but hey happy trans visiblity day!

totally unrelated but I have just been laying around distracting myself so now I have decided to once again draw a cast line up. All the martial gods for now, since I got to tweaking up the QYZ and YY one I'd already done and redoing my awfully huge poster thing I started like 4 years ago now. Doing it this way is more fulfilling to me, maybe one day I'll return to it but not now.

[vaguely-concerned]

fucking crying real tears of laughter at the idea of lucanis letting out a sigh of relief at finally leaving the endless wind-whipped halls of the grand necropolis behind only to find that rook has brought the cursed giant skeleton statues back home with them. and turning to look directly into the camera as only a man who has slept six hours altogether in the last week and is animated only by coffee and spite at this point could. the nevarran lighthouse decor my beloved.

[soybean-official]

The parts of you that support me

[somegrumpynerd]

AU where Cross isn't part of the stars or Nightmare's team, but after they establish a truce Dream encourages Nightmare to take him in like when you give an animal that's getting broody a baby that was abandoned to look after

[mirellapryce]

I have one serious thought before I subject you all to my dumb thoughts. In a second season I would have liked for The Cat King to have taken on a Queer Elder role for Edwin. I would have liked for him to see Edwin PROPERLY as a newly out/realised gay kid, and for him to take it upon himself to show Edwin their community, and all the places and people who will love him for him.

[robinasnyder]

Ya know, Jay’s going to therapy. Jon mentions as much in Shazam, and there’s still like suggestions about it in Secret Six. But is Jon going to therapy? Imma bet no. I bet you the answer is no.

Jon has a very real problem, which boils down to this: in trying desperately to avoid dealing with his own trauma, he’s trying to force himself and the people around him back into the past, rather than moving forward and trying to deal with the present situation post trauma. He says multiple times that he wants things to go back to the way they were before. Back before everything happened, back when Jon could say he was good and not feel like it might be a lie.

I think that if Jon hadn’t been kidnapped and mind controlled that Jon never would have been so forgiving of Nia. Even if Nia had died and helped to save him twice, I don’t think he would feel so strongly about wanting Jay to forgive her and let it go.

His problem with Jay hating Nia isn’t that Nia saved Jon, or that Jon’s worrying about Jay wanting revenge. Jon is heavily projecting what happened to him onto Nia. Nia was blackmailed. Jon was brainwashed. Jon was forced to be a back seat driver to his own body. And he watched himself devastate the community he’d grown up in, the heroes he thought were so good and the people who would look up to him. And despite the fact that his body and powers were used like a weapon he wasn’t even party to using, he’s terrified that what happened makes him unforgivable.

When Jon gets upset about Jay not forgiving Nia, it’s because Jon seems to believe on some subconscious level that if Nia can still be a good person, if she can be forgiven, then Jon’s sins aren’t unforgiveable.

For Jon, Nia’s his mirror. For Jay, she’s the enemy.

Unfortunately, if Jon doesn’t figure this out fast, he’s going to lose his boyfriend. Yes, Nia did save Jon, but she was also part of why Jay lost so much. Jay’s living very much in the present, in what’s happened, in what to do next. I think that’s a function of everything Jay’s suffered before now too. He doesn’t have the privilege to not be aware and present in what’s going on. The slightest misstep and he can lose even more. I bet keeping his eyes wide open is how he escaped, and how he’s made it this far. I bet he probably has problems letting go and not constantly keeping an eye on threats. Like him watching Waller in her cell. The fact that he’s not as paranoid as Batman at this point is an actual miracle.

So, Jay’s got both eyes open, looking forward, while Jon’s looking behind them. They’re walking down the road together, hands clasped tight, but Jon keeps bumping into and stepping on Jay because he’s not looking forward.

I wanna add, the part where Jon is trying to argue with the guard about letting them in really stands out to me. He’s clinging so hard to the concept of being good, of being Superman’s son, of being someone who can hold that mantel. There’s a heavy instability in the guilt, and he’s drowning in it. If he can’t figure out his problem, he’s going to take multiple people down with him.

That being said, I believe that if Jon can identify his issue and put it into words and admit it that he’ll actually fix it. Right now, he’s focused so much on Jay, how Jay’s doing, how he’s healing, that Jon isn’t working on his own problems. Almost like he doesn’t think he deserves to heal, or feel better, or anything but suffer. But that type of mentality will straight up kill relationships.