#i often feel like I don’t make progress with my art but honestly just looking back to 2021 it’s been a big difference within that time

[alyona11]

Looking back at my old Hadestown art I can say 2 things:

1) I was so funny and I forgot most of the memes I’ve made

2) people who followed me for my 2021 hadestown art really witnessed some progress going on here. It’s was so incomparably worse lol. One thing that proves that if you are obsessed enough people will start trusting that you can draw stuff

[anime-grimmy-art]

It’s this time of the year again, folks. Time to wrap up the art Ive made in the last 12 months in another Year in Review! I’ve noticed that this is my fifth Year in Review in a row, so I’ll be making an extra post looking back on the progress in those last 5 years!

I've got a lot to say about this year, but purely art wise, I've gone all when it comes to comics, damn! I've kinda found a format that is messy, and therefore more time efficient, yet still looks good. I even made 2 animatics and lotsa shorts/reels! All that on top of opening coms twice, and, oh yeah, MAKING A WHOLE ASS 4MIN ANIMATION ON MY OWN.

How is my hand still alive.

2023 has been….interesting, to say the least. The first half year I was working on my thesis project, aka making an animated short all on my own (in the art department), which makes it honestly surprising how much I managed to churn out between animating. Trigun rly did have me in a choke hold.

Summer was a bit more spotty, esp. with me not being able to draw anything during August as I was writing my thesis (and doing commissions). And towards the end of the year, Kingdom Hearts tried to save me, but alas, Genshin Impact has finally sunk its teeth into me and dragged me to the bottom of the rabbit hole. It all started with me watching a story summary and lore videos while I was sick after my thesis and I was too intrigued to not dig deeper and well, first I fell in love with Kaeya and then the ships started dropping in left and right.

I’m not gonna lie, the last few months have been weird. I finished my masters in October, and have been on job hunt since, sadly without success so far. I’m existing in this weird limbo of still not grasping I’m not a student anymore after 18 years in education, not really being able to accept I’m an adult, yet desperately trying to find something so I can make a routine, cos rn Im too scared to build a rhythm as I know I’ll have a so much harder time readjusting again. It’s left me in a weird emotional state, where most of the time I feel fine, but when it counts, there’s just, nothing. No joy at getting my diploma, no anticipation to finally go to a convention again, neither any sadness hearing my grandfather died. It frustrates me that it extends to my art as well, there’s excitement over ideas and concepts, but no motivation to pick up the pencil, which makes me either not finish art at all or making so many shortcuts and just ending up with sth not satisfactory to me since it’s not the idea I sought after.

Tho, not everything is doom and gloom. I DID finish a whole ass short animation and got my masters degree, that IS sth to be proud of. Also, while Im struggling at drawing, I’ve also kinda started integrating my shortcuts into my style and some stuff I’ve thrown together actually turns out real good nowadays. Also, and this might be a bit of a weird one, I’m so fucking happy to know I can still enjoy gay ships. I’ve been a bit uncertain over the last few years because when I was around 16-18, I had a real big yaoi phase, which mostly came from the fact so much stuff came out that tickled my brain in the right way (Free, Haikyuu, etc.). But over the years, my enthusiasm died down, and I even started to resent some ships because it’s all some fandoms produced. I often found myself liking a hetero ship more than the popular gay ship, which really made me not wanna stick around because I did not care for most fanart and you can only go through a tag with art you don’t care about so long before you lose interest. I think in retrospect that it rly had nothing to do with the ships being gay ships but rather cos the fans just shoved it in your face when you didn’t care (and shipping culture nowadays also can get real scary). But I’m so happy to see I can still get obsessed with a ship and it’s all thanks to Haikaveh/Kavetham. It really just needed the right flavour for me to dig in again. And oh my god, I FINALLY like a ship with a SHIT TON of art and fanfictions, no more scrounging the crumbs from the bottom of the barrel. 

Anyways, enough lamenting. Here’s to hoping I can bite my tongue and get shit started properly in 2024, and that my brainrots may make me obsessed enough to churn out an obscene amount of fanart again.

[spookymystery67]

I Wish I Could Walk In Heels

AN: Another chapter! This one is kind of filler. A bit of a time skip and also a way for you all to get a feel of how the reader and Ada's relationship has progressed. Still don't have a set in stone plan as to how this will go but hopefully you all enjoy!

— 2001 (Three years after Raccoon City)

Chapter 15:

You staying and working with Ada turned out to be a more permanent situation than you both had expected. You had both grown fond of each other over the years and came to realize that you two working together benefited you both. She would keep you safe and away from people looking to kill you, and you would keep her from being somewhat lonely. It was a win-win.

The both of you, surprisingly, made a wonderful team. A very efficient one. Especially after the lessons Ada had given you, teaching you how to be a good spy. Funnily enough, Ada sort of hated being called a spy. But you felt it fit with certain aspects of the job she has. Sneaking around, pretending to be someone high up to get into places you should not be in, the outfits. 

Oh god, the outfits.

High heels have become more of a constant in your life than you would like, thanks to Ada. Despite your insistence that you will be perfectly okay, and better off, without them. She still insisted. She would be more lenient about your choice of footwear if it was a normal field mission. One involving more running and physical activity than the heels would allow for you and your weak legs. But if the mission involved, say, a fancy party with fancy attire, then she will physically force the shoes onto your feet if she had to.

It happened once or twice. She has trained in combat way more than you have. Has years of experience.

You never stood a chance.

Honestly, after a couple years of it you were fed up. Your feet hurt. No matter how much you break the shoes in and walk in the damn things, they always hurt. You still don’t know how Ada does it. She walked in heels with the grace of a ballerina and never tripped like you did. At this point, you were convinced she made you wear heels just to make herself look better. 

You huffed in annoyance as you stumbled and tripped over your own two feet for the tenth time that night as you attempted to catch up to the long legged woman ahead of you.

"I still don't get it. How can you walk in those so effortlessly? Let alone run around?” You asked her, having to refrain from taking your own shoes off and just run around the property barefoot.

It was tempting. Really tempting. Who cares what the rich people back at the party might think?

"Walk in what?" She turned to look up at you from the device in your hand. You frankly had no idea what it did. She usually handled the more complex tech. You can work a normal computer, not those state of the art spy gadgets.

"The heels. You always wear the most impractical shoes, and yet you act like you're just wearing sneakers. Meanwhile, I’m like Bambi on ice." You huffed. You are not pouting. 

Definitely not pouting.

“Wow, you managed to go a whole three years without bringing up my shoes again. I'm impressed.” She joked. You glared at her while she laughed in return.

"Practice. And a lot of natural skill." Ada said. She had a slight smile of amusement, a smile that she tended to have with you more often as of late, as she looked from her high heeled feet to yours. 

"I think you're nuts. Walking around in red dresses and high heels in all these dangerous situations. It is not comfortable." You complained.

"I'm used to it. Plus, you can really cause some damage with these bad boys." She jokingly high kicked in your direction, a sharp, high heeled foot a few inches away from your face. You lightly swat her foot away.

"Yeah, by potentially breaking an ankle." You joked back, lightly kicking at her other leg in response. The action nearly caused your ankle to roll and make you fall flat on your ass. She quickly reached out to steady you.

You stumbled and huffed once more. “I get it’s your thing, but why make me suffer with you?”

Ada smirked as she let go of your arms once she knew you were balanced. “Flats are a crime against fashion. I’m doing you a favor. Plus, you need more practice.” She went back to studying the small device in her hand as she looked at her surroundings, searching for something.

You raised a brow with arms crossed and grumbled. “You and your stupid fashion sense.” 

"Ha! Like you don't like my style." Ada did a little turn as she teased, smirking as your face flushed in response.

You will forever continue to deny that she makes you blush. No matter how obvious it was to her.

You hummed, acting indifferent. "Oh, I love your style. Very femme fatale. Total badass. And you manage to defy the laws of physics while doing it." 

"What do you mean?" She tilted her head in confusion, looking at you from the corner of her eye as she still fiddled with the device.

"For one, you somehow manage to sneak around in those shoes without alerting anyone you don't want to of your presence. That alone should be damn near impossible. Yet you still manage to do so without fail and continue to amaze me every single time." You admitted.

"Hmm, flattery. Do go on." She practically purred, slowly walking into your personal space.

You clear your throat, turning to glance away slightly to avoid eye contact. "And that little grappling hook you have should not physically be able to pull you off the ground, let alone let you swing and flip off from it.”

The grappling hook did confuse you. You used to think grappling hooks only worked in comic books. Yet she somehow still made it work. She had let you try it out once for the hell of it. Let’s just say that you nearly landed yourself, and Ada, in the hospital. 

She had actually thought that it was absolutely hilarious.

"Are you calling me fat?" She joked, bringing your attention back to the current conversation.

"Pfft, no. Just  that you’re out of this world in more ways than one." You lamely attempted to flirt,  before rolling your eyes and slapping your palm to your face in regret. 

Smooth. Real smooth.

She laughed as she stuck the small device shaped like a bracelet around her wrist. "That was so bad. Cute. But bad."

"I aim to please." You laughed off, masking your embarrassment. She could see right through you, of course.

"You would think with all the time you spend with me you would be better at flirting, Y/n." She teased.

"Now you're just being rude." You crossed your arms in mock offense.

"Awe, don't pout. Being bad at flirting is part of your charm. It's adorable, and oddly flattering." Ada smirked as you felt your cheeks flush once again at her compliment.

"Thanks." Was all you could think to say. Strangely enough, you were only bad at flirting with her. You could fake flirt like a boss to distract all your targets. She and you both knew this, but never chose to comment on it.

“You’re welcome. Now, the goods should be that way. Let’s get it and get out quickly. I’d rather not stick around here much longer.” Ada told you as she began to guide you in the direction she pointed.

“Here” was some sort of charity event being thrown by some rich guy, that you didn’t bother learning the name of, who was loved by most in the media due to his very generous donations to the unfortunate and the poor. That also included donations to those few who survived the Raccoon City incident. On paper, he sounded like a nice man. But of course, said rich man was corrupted and making deals with and against Umbrella behind closed doors. You weren’t even surprised at this point. Over the three years you and Ada have been working together, you found that pretty much everyone with money and power were involved under Umbrella’s very large, well, umbrella. So to speak.

“What did that thing even do?” You asked her, gesturing to the device around her wrist.

“It’s a tracker. A map, sort of. It helps tell me where the files are.” She explained as plainly as she could. You don’t even know if she could give you a more complex, scientific, explanation on how it works. You wouldn’t be surprised if she could.

Even after three years, you didn’t know much about her past before she had started her mercenary work. She claimed that it didn’t matter when you had asked. In her books, the girl before Ada Wong does not exist any longer. Why bring it up again?

You didn’t push for answers. If she didn’t want to talk about it or remember it, then that was her choice. You have no right to force it out of her. You could only theorize that she didn’t have a great childhood. You could relate to a certain degree. With parents that were overbearing yet somehow neglectful at the same time when it came to your choices and feelings on certain topics. Future career? Their choice. Hobbies? Their choice. Clothes you wear? Their choice. You felt more like a puppet to them than a child with the way they ignored your thoughts and feelings throughout your entire childhood.

But you didn’t want to think about it either. Nor did you want to think about all that you lost when Raccoon City went out with a boom. So you understood Ada to a certain extent. Why bring up painful memories? Just makes it all the more difficult to move on from them.

“Have you decided where you want these files to go?” You questioned. She had taken the job from an employee of Umbrella. Not Wesker, someone else.

Wesker had been MIA for three years now and neither you or Ada had heard from the man. None of you were complaining. Especially you. You were not eager to meet the man that had wanted you dead. But not hearing anything from Wesker in so long made you anxious. You knew he was plotting something. What? You didn’t know. Something evil, no doubt.

“Not yet. We can figure that out after we finish this mission.” Ada said. You nodded in agreement.

You took off your heels to make it easier to sneak as you were led back into the building and down the maze of halls, dodging and avoiding any security cameras that were in sight. As you walked deeper into the large building, you noticed that the halls were becoming more heavily secured. Ada quickly dragged you into an office room to avoid the person walking down the hall you were in.

“Alright, looks like the vents are the best way to go.” Ada said as she quickly got to work on opening the vent. As she did so, you moved the office chair to angle under the door handle to keep anybody from getting in. 

Ada got the vent unscrewed and quietly placed the cover on the ground and out of the way. She looked back at you as you kept an ear to the door to hear for any oncoming footsteps.

“Y/n. Come on.” Ada gestured you over. She climbed into the vent and you quickly ran across the room, put your shoes back on and climbed in behind her.

“It’s weirdly fun to climb through vents. I thought I’d hate it because it’s such a tight space, but it’s not as bad as I thought.” You muttered to Ada.

“Hmm, sure it’s not because of the view you always get?” Ada hummed as she briefly looked over her shoulder at you. 

You scoffed, blushing slightly at the implication. “Bold of you to assume I’m staring at your ass, Ada.”

Ada hummed innocently. “Never said you were staring at my ass. I thought you were staring at my shoes.” She smirked.

You huffed a short laugh. “Bullshit. I know what you were implying.”

“Are you saying I don’t look good from behind?” Ada questioned in mock offense, continuing to lead you forward.

“You fishing for compliments? I don’t think your ego needs it.” You joked.

“Humor me.”

You rolled your eyes. “Yes, Ada, you have a nice backside.”

“Thank you. See, was that so hard?” Ada purred.

“Extremely.” You drawed sarcastically.

You both eventually made it out of the vents and into another room. You glanced around the room and realized it was another office. 

“Is this where the files are?” You asked Ada. You expected the office full of confidential Umbrella files to be more secured.

“Of course it is. You still doubt me after all these years?” Ada asked as she walked to one of the file storages.

“No. Not at all. Just thought this mission would be more difficult.”

“Shh, don’t talk like that. We don’t want this mission to be more difficult.” Ada hushed you as she rifled through the files.

“I thought you hated boring missions?” You asked.

Ada goes to respond when the door flew open and you jumped, reaching for the gun held on your thigh holder. You made eye contact with the intruder and your eyes widened in shock.

“Jill?”

[javierduffy]

Hellooooo !! You mentioned in the tags of your latest post that you were willing to talk about your process if anyone asked and I am asking!!

It looks so good so I'd love to hear the process and thoughts behind it as someone who hasn't really touched digital painting before :3:3

- Oizys-Mutt

hi oizy :] sory for taking so long to get to this i honestly posted it and then i was like *windows shut down sfx* LOL so i never really felt prepared to answer until neow … not that i super feel like it now since its been so long since o posted the piece ;__; anyway !!! tjank u for asking about it first of all that’s so sweet ure always my biggest supporter </3 thank u ure so darling.

as for the idea behind the piece, i often like to think about how javier and kieran interact when they’re away from prying eyes. of course, i think that they leave camp together as often as they can (as unsuspiciously as possible .. if that’s possible at all) and progressively more and more as the gang falls apart and they know in their hearts that they’re about to lose each other, but because kieran and javier are both desperate lovers, i think they’re always finding romance the moment they think god is so merciful as to look the other way. this is to say, once javier feels as though there are enough leaves, brush, wildlife between he and his family, he rushes to yank kieran’s hand from branwen’s reins to hold. javier loves like a starved man, a one who has formerly been fed grapes and steak from the soft, gentle hands of a house servant, so a one whom knows what it is like to be full— it’s like it’s killing him to live with the grief of lovelessness. and kieran is a man who loves like a starved man who has never had a full meal in his life— he has no idea what it’s like to have a full belly, and he yearns in a way that hollows his chest out as though his heart has never beat once in his life. you put these two together and it’s almost as if lust and gluttony were the same, as if their clothed bodies, separated by the birdth of an entire foot, were forever eloped, connected, full, satisfied. like to merely touch one another is the same as to make love. so when they feel free, finally, away from the shackle of known perception- to be known, to be seen, to be rejected- they CANNOT be apart. it’s like javier can’t breathe if his atoms are not warmed by any of kieran’s that are adjacent. as i said, the moment the sun feels warmer on their skin than curious eyes, they’re intertwined. as simply as possible. every horse ride, trip to town, walk down the riverbank, every breath they take, it’s theirs. plural. so … uhhhmmm … at length, i think they’re always touching :] ! uhm. in not so many words. so it’s often that they will be seen on the road, in the woods, the creaks of their saddles speaking wordless ‘i love you’s as their intertwined hands next to the revolvers in their holsters convince strangers that the tree line opposite the lovers is suddenly quite worth watching instead. sorry. i just wrote a novel. thank you so much for indulging me i have so many feelings about them ;__;

hooonestly i don’t ever have much commentary on the process of the art itself, its moreso my thots behind the horse riding date LOL uhhhmm but since ure curious abt the art i can ramble abt that a bit :] for that piece specifically i really felt like painting for no reason in particular, but ive really felt burnt out on colouring, so i went with the process of .. reverse rendering ? if we want to call it that ? where u render the shadows in monochrome and then use white space as ur lighting and fiddle with the colours after the fact. i’m still not good at this process … at all ! it’s confusing to me ! but i’m more likely to do what i want with the piece, or at least a little more than i would otherwise, because im simply skipping the step that i Don’t want to do. it’s a long story as to why art, and certain aspects of it, is SO hard for me to do, but in short, i’m relearning how to enjoy it as an act after severely burning myself out on it due to setting absurd expectations for myself :] so im just going with my gut ! which … unfortunately does not leave much room for me to explain my process to you ! i’m sorry !!!!

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group F Round 3: #F5 vs #F6

#F5: Tiny princess torments an entire castle of demons for sleep

#F6: Normal school until stuff happens

Details and poll under the cut!

#F5: Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle (Maoujou de Oyasumi)

Summary:

The Demon Lord Tasogare’s castle is a dark and frightening place, filled to the brim with various monsters. Any soul unfortunate enough to be imprisoned here is sure to be terrified by the horrors within. However, the human princess Aurora Suya Rhys “Syalis” Kaymin is a different case. Rather indifferent to her situation, Syalis worries about one thing and one thing only—sleep. Ever since the demon lord kidnapped her from her kingdom, she has not had a single good night’s rest.

To alleviate her dozen dozing issues, the princess makes do with what she can find in the castle. Whether it be the fur of fluffy demonic teddy bears or the silky, blanket-like bodies of ghost shrouds, everything is but a means to ensure a peaceful slumber. With so many potential materials to craft items that can help her sleep at her disposal, nothing will stop the sleepy princess—not even death.

Propaganda 1:

This show is probably the single most charming parody of a fantasy RPG setting I’ve ever seen. It takes an extremely generic premise and flips it on its head with a simple shift in protagonist. The characters are all fun in their own right, but Princess Suya steals the show through extreme slapstick violence against her captors and a nonchalant attitude towards literally everything that isn’t immediately related to sleep. While it’s easy for a plot like this to quickly become comedically stale, the show is careful to avoid exhausting its premise by introducing new characters that serve as unique obstacles to Suya’s goals as well as by ramping up the audacity of her actions. Additionally, we get occasional glimpses at the hero’s party as they quest to ‘rescue’ the princess, scenes that serve both as story progression as well as a nice change of pace from the princesses antics. While the premise may not be for everyone, this show executes on its concept flawlessly for anyone who finds the premise amusing.

Propaganda 2:

The art style is cute and the character designs are quite pleasant and even the side characters are entertaining. the main character is tiny princess with purple hair and pronouns who’s actually glad to have been kidnapped by the demon king because she gets sleep but oh no, the bedsheets suck and the pillow feels cheap. she goes to find material for new bedding and pillow and ends up tormenting several demons.

Trigger Warnings: None.

#F6: Talentless Nana (Munou na Nana)

Summary:

Fifty years ago, horrific creatures dubbed as the “enemies of humanity” suddenly appeared around the world. To combat these threats, teenagers gifted with supernatural abilities called “Talents”—such as pyrokinesis and time travel—hone their powers at an academy on a secluded island.

Nanao Nakajima, however, is quite different from the others on the island: he has no Talent. With many “Talented” teenagers around him, Nanao is often a target for bullying, but even so, he still strives to complete his training. Soon after, two transfer students, the mysterious Kyouya Onodera and the mind-reading Nana Hiiragi, join the class. But just as everyone starts blending as comrades-in-arms, mysterious disappearances begin to threaten the class’s entire foundation.

Propaganda:

I’d like to start off by saying that this is NOT a copy of My Hero Academia, even though it sounds as such. It’s kinda hard to explain the show without spoiling a major plot point, but it’s pretty much as the summary says. Honestly, if you want to watch this, don’t look up anything about it—you will get spoiled right away, and it does ruin the experience. I started this without knowing anything about it and I think that’s for the best because it’s plot twist after plot twis,t and you’re not sure what to expect next. That’s honestly something I really liked about it because you don’t know where the story will take you. Anyways, highly recommend because more people should know about this series.

Trigger Warnings:

Child Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore

There’s a Nazi-coded character who does eugenics, and he’s also the reason for the child abuse tw

Sexual assault attempt on main character

Necrophilia (there’s a character who controls another person’s corpse and act like they’re dating)

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

[marinas-drafts]

Hi! First off, I would like to applaud you for your writing. I very often do read fics, but I very rarely find myself being enamored by all the fics written by one author. Your writing style is immensely captivating, and really the gift that keeps on giving? It really is. I love how with each fic you write, the reader can't help but find themselves mentally sketching out the character's personality in their head. I don't know if I've explained it clearly, but like basically you write your characters in a way that makes them feel so real? Which I know sounds insanely cliche to say, but nonetheless, it's true. Each character is so wonderfully distinctive. Different characters, and different storylines, but somehow your writing is both so persistently enchanting and unique in all of them. It's kinda like when someone you know has a signature perfume that they wear, so they have that scent that just automatically makes it known that it's them. Or when one sees a painting in an art gallery, and can quickly distinguish which one is a Van Gogh and which one is a Claude Monet - without, or before ever looking at the signature.

I feel like this has been asked before, so feel free to correct if you've answered this question... How do you work out how to write distinctive dialogue for each character that you write? and how do you make them sound not flat or scripted, to sound realistic? Because I always find myself running into a brick wall. There is that risk of sounding too cliche, too unrealistic, too much, or too less.

Do you ever listen to music when you write?

I apologize for this very long Ask!

Kisses,

anon.

This is the kindest, most relieving and uplifting note to read. I can’t thank you enough for your kind words, and I’m really humbled that you find that talent in my writing. I feel like I’ve grown so much just in the past year, and it’s been a delight to do it with people giving their feedback instantly. It’s a special little thing we’ve got on this platform.

I was literally just discussing the dangers and delights of dialogue with my writing friend yesterday. I feel like just in the past few months I’ve gotten to a new level of comfort in writing it -because I used to find it terrifying -but still there’s so much doubt creeping in at times. That’s one thing I adore about writing, if you keep after it you can be sure to progress no matter how veteran you are at it.

How do I manage it? I’m relieved that you think I do manage it, ha. But honestly I think much of it comes from studying other people’s works. Any movie or book or fic that strikes you as effortlessly natural, copy the hell out of it. Not word for word although that’s a place to start just to get the feel, replace it with your own words but notice how they structured it.

Humans don’t perfectly abide by grammar when speaking, or if they do it sets a tone for that person. Most of us start a sentence halfway through, nixing the starting place that a novel would chose and go straight to the point, sometimes having to tack on specifics at the end but never the beginning.

“Where’d that cheese grater go?” He asked and you were confused by what was wrong with the one he now held, “The one with the rust on it,” he elaborated, “I like the tinge it gives the cheese…”

😜 anyways…so study the heck out of how real people talk, and that varies drastically from person to person in the ring details, study the movies that feel least scripted (so often it’s not the actors fault it’s the script feels false) and mumble to yourself. I’m not kidding, have conversations in character, in your head.

Often if I have someone to base a character on in my head (say Elvis or Ann-Margret) I’m going to study their vocabulary, I’ll plop a interview on before writing and just listen to cadence and word choice. What words they tend to use and which they don’t. Anything culturally distinct about their sentence structures? Does one say “alright” more than “okey?” So often I’ll just write sentences that come to me then go back and weed out words that strike me as “too Elaine” for Gigi or “too Rosey” for Elaine. It’s a vibe you’re trying to maintain with a paper person’s aura, and much of that is how little or how much they say, wether they plead it or joke it or demand it.

And when you write the dialogue correctly you find that you don’t always need the dialogue tags to tell people whether they’re demanding or begging, etc. it’s really a thing no one can show it’s just felt, and I know that’s an obnoxious bit of advice but truly my last suggestion is also my first -go practice, and keep it messy!

Also, not always do I listen to music, but often! That’s another thing I don’t worry about words I worry about atmosphere with my playlists so I’ve had folks laugh about how some songs don’t fit lyrically, and that’s true, but the vibe is right sonically, it puts me in the right headspace so it keep it in the queue.

Thank you for such a delicious ask! Xoxo 💋 Marina

[lilbitofmac]

// question for you, dear mac, if you're up for it. i've been thinking about getting back into drawing. it's been *years*, and i was curious if you had any advice for wading back in, especially as it comes to warm up exercises and just getting started? i know that there's a degree of 'you just have to do it'; it's always what i tell writers. but i've been so stuck on how to do some of this on *easy mode* so i don't overwhelm myself. if you're up for sharing your thoughts with all of us! ^_^ love you bunches!

Oh man, I honestly might not be the best to ask for advice LMAO but I can certainly try to help!

More often than not what stirs me to draw is whatever is at the forefront of my attention span. Any hyperfixation I latch onto is the driving force behind not only my ability to draw, but my motivation to do so. So, genuinely, just draw what you’re most passionate about at any given time! It’s perfectly okay if you want to do studies with different aspects of art like anatomy, color theory, etc. but if you’re just dusting off the old drawing tools, I’d recommend centering it around something that gets your hand itching to create. Probably bad advice recommending skipping the basics, but it usually discourages me from creating art, so I hate recommending that as a first step.

Creating is a lot easier said than done when jumping back into drawing, though. So, seriously, I recommend finding some of your favorite art pieces and tracing over them to get back in the groove. People always always look down on tracing, but it’s seriously so helpful as an exercise as long as you’re not posting it and claiming it as your own. That’s what I did when I was a kid, and it helped me find my own style and art process. Tracing can also be beneficial in helping you find the specific look you want for your art. Try different pens, colors, shading to find what you’re comfortable with without having to worry about WHAT you’re creating. That’s where a lot of people get hung up on.

That advice is mostly targeted at digital art, so if you’re working with traditional media, start practicing finding ✨shapes✨ in those art pieces you love. If you need a visual for what I mean, just ask and I can either make something or find some links for you— I know that’s kind of vague =w=;; Anyway, pull the art up on your phone or computer and try and copy it down onto paper. Focus on visualizing the shapes that make up a piece to make it easier to mimic. I always fall back onto traditional art when I’m trying to adjust my style since digital art has its own pressures that get in the way for me.

After you get a bit more comfortable, start finding some references for ideas that are rattling around in your head! Start simple since you don’t want to burn yourself out too much. Do you like drawing character’s faces? Expressions? Environment? Clothing? Hands? Feet??? Little sus but who am I to judge… Tackle your favorites first and slowly start branching out into more complicated pieces! If things aren’t looking right to you, watch some speedpaints or tutorials for your specific hang ups. Also, START COLLECTING ART!!! My phone storage is 99% of art that makes me go “OH WOW.” Figure out WHY a specific art piece calls to you and practice implementing it into your own pieces!

Mainly, don’t stress about your work and just have fun with it! It’s very very easy to start comparing your work to others, but if you’re wanting to create, focus on that feeling: of that joy from putting an idea onto paper and bringing it to life!! If you’re still facing hang ups, more than likely you just have to power through it until you reach a break through. That’s where the “practice makes progress” comes in, sadly 😮‍💨

[cannolicorgi]

2022 Art Recap

 base by @/sabattons on twitter

more under!

My favorite recent character desgins

my outfit designs for my persona

original design for my cat demon oc, Amalthea

wanderer’s troupe outfit for tighnari

my wonderland x teyvat designs so far! I especially love Paimon’s, Scaramouche’s, Kaeya’s, and Venti’s! Honestly just crop off the last line and they’d all be bangers (I don’t hate the last line, it just needs work to be how I envision)

an idol MC character

designs for a manga project

an ocean goddess design for a possible future project (I literally dreamed her and then like 3 weeks later Columbina’s outfit was revealed it was so hard not to scream)

a one off sea monster design!!

Genshin adeptus oc! (the topmost is her most recent changes, though I’m still working on her)

a school/work uniform wip for an old oc

What do I want to improve on?

I want to work harder on my comic ideas! I want to finish my scripts and start drawing right away. I’ve been working on concepts for so long, but haven’t really put my heart into actually getting the hard parts done. I want to work hard so “ Himeko-chan is Haunted by 100,000 spirits  = I . I = “ and possibly even “Aether in Wonderland” will be out during 2023.

I want to spend more time with my ocs. I really do love genshin, but I miss drawing my ocs. Leaving my ocs behind has also left me with less friends, and I want to reconnect with my fellow oc designers and writers. I love my ocs, and as silly as it sounds, those characters have helped me through a lot.

I want to get better at drawing full compositions. I have so many ideas that I feel like I cannot express correctly because my background skills are lacking compared to my character skills. I also want to get better at posing. While I am much better at posing then I am backgrounds, I feel I often do not apply what I know to my for funsies portrait paintings and have a hard time with adding a natural background to my poses.

I want to get better at colors and lighting. I love Yoontrsh’s art so much! Her gradients and color combinations in lighting are so beautiful, and it makes even her sketches look so much better. I think I’m pretty good at this, but I want to be even better!

What am I working on right now?

Sumeru x Caracal oc

A sumeru alchemist oc

Thoma x Amber. I love them so much but I paused this drawing because it was just getting so frustrating. My thumbnail just looks so good but I’m not at all happy with my skin rendering or the entirety of Thoma. It drives me mad

The Balance Between Who I Was Before. I started this the day Scaramouche’s redesign came out, but I got so frustrated with the poses. Which sucks because everything I am happy with is killer!

nothing much to say about this one. I don’t actually think I’ll finish it since it was more about just getting the pose, skin, and hair on paper, which I’ve already accomplished.

a complex Ningguang painting, she exudes so much elegance I always use her as my subject when I want to draw elegant China.

I’ve really been working on my music a lot this December, but I still have so many plans for my visual arts. Haha, I wrote these 2 days ago and I’ve already made so much progress I had to update it.

Thank you for your support. I’m so happy I can share what I love doing with other people, and that I have this space to record my progress and ramble about my art goals.

[regressionworldz]

Official Introduction/FAQ!

Hey everyone! Since my account has been gaining more followers and attention lately, I've decided to make a quick introduction about myself and the content I'll be providing on this account.

First things first, my names Kiki! I've been on Tumblr for a LONG time, so I have a lot of experience interacting with different communities. I'm 18+, I won't be stating my exact age since I'm not comfortable with it, but I am not a minor. I am female and I prefer going by she/her pronouns and occasionally, they/them. I am pansexual and a black POC!

As you probably expected, I am an artist and I LOVE drawing agere content. It's the whole reason that I decided to put this account together. Honestly, when I first started off, I didn't think this account would get a lot of attention, but I'm so happy that you guys enjoy my content! I'm part of a LOT of fandoms that I probably couldn't even list all of them in a single post, but I'll try putting together a list of some of them below!

-ˋˏ FANDOM LIST : Genshin Impact, Demon Slayer, Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, Stranger Things, Ouran Host Club, Attack On Titan, DC/Marvel, Overwatch, Voltron, Legend of Zelda, Detroit:Become Human, BNHA, Banana Fish, The Umbrella Academy, Teen Wolf, Supernatural, Lucifer, FNAF, Poppy's Playtime, Stardew Valley, Inuyasha, Howl's Moving Castle (and many more!)

Obviously, these aren't all my fandoms, but these are the one's I've been most active in. If you're curious about what other fandoms I'm interested in, feel free to message me about it. Now, I'll be compiling a list of some of the most frequent questions people have been asking me on this account for future reference.

-ˋˏ FAQ :

Do you accept commissions? A: Yes, I do! Just message me about it and I'd be happy to accept your commissions. I've actually been putting together an age regression commission page, but It's still in progress. I use Paypal and Cashapp!

Will you draw (blank) fandom? A: Yes. I'm never picky about what my followers might want me to draw (unless it's generally problematic/gross) but otherwise, I won't object! Just tell me what fandom and character you'd like me to draw and I'll do it.

Will you make me free art? A: The most that I tend to do on this account is that occasionally, I might do drawing requests! Just silly doodles of what people want depending on my mood, but to answer this question more directly, no. I don't do free art requests, but my commissions are always open.

Do you draw NSFW? A: No, absolutely not! This account is strictly SFW. I won't be dabbling in anything inherently sexual on this account. If you attempt to ask for anything NSFW, I'll likely delete our chat or block you from my account. Please just don't do it.

Do you accept art trades/collabs? A: No, unless we're mutuals, it's very unlikely I'll be accepting any offers like that. It's nothing personal, I'm just not comfortable doing it with strangers.

Can I repost your art? A: I'd prefer if you'd message me about it first before you decide to repost my work on any platform. Thank you!

Can we be friends? A: Yes!! Please don't be afraid to reach out or message me, I love interacting with my followers, especially if it involves agere, headcanons or just us gushing over characters. My DM's are always open to everyone!

Do you do writing prompts? A: Not often, the most I'm willing to write are age regression headcanons. Art is usually my forte!

Lastly, here's my DNI interact list. If this list applies to you and you still interact, you will be blocked.

-ˋˏ DNI : Kink (ex. ABDL, CGL, age play, DDLG) Maps Anti Age Regression NSFW/18+ blogs Negativity/Drama Sexualize Age Regression Anti LGBT+ Pro shipper

Thank you for reading my introduction, I look forward to meeting all you lovely people!

[hxhhasmysoul]

Is Jujutsu Kaisen feminism for 15yo boys?

The short answer is yes, so you can skip the rest of this ridiculously long post.

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Disclaimers:

If you haven’t read the manga up until chapter 204 you’ll see spoilers here, also you probably won’t know what/who I’m talking about at times.

I have adhd, this is rambly af, this post is actually for me to organise my thoughts and not a hot take I want to convince others to buy into. but anyone is welcome to read if they have the patience.

They/them pronouns for Akutami because if the cursed cat isn’t explicitly assigning a gender to themself, hell if I will. 

They/them pronouns for Kenny. 

Now let’s watch this post age like dairy. I so hope it won’t, Gege please don’t disappoint me.

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Let’s go. 

There are a few things that make me obsessed with juju. 

1. The fact that its plot and story structure are my wet dream - all these factions and individuals who are doing their own thing. All of these plots intertwining and coming together.

2. My sweet child Yuuji. *coughs* I mean, juju’s focus on characters. I’m very normal about Yuuji, I fucking swear. 

3. The art, it’s simply beautiful but I also have thoughts.

4. The bs power system, I live for that stuff.

5. It’s aggressively progressive. 

So lets focus on point 5.

Is juju as politically left as I am? Fuck no, not even close. There are things I wish it was braver on, like for instance the queerness. Fuck, braver on its leftism and feminism too. Is it very current and openly and aggressively progressive? Very much so.

If we look at the biggest antagonists of juju we get:

1. Toxic masculinity personified. A hyper-individualist. A 1000yo manosphere youtuber. A guy who thinks that strength should dictate hierarchy. A man who thinks he can hurt whomever he wants for his own pleasure and amusement because everyone is beneath him. A man who doesn’t care for anyone else but himself. A mass murderer and nihilist. 

2. A 1000yo person of unknown gender who presents most often as a man. An eugenicist. Someone entitled to women’s bodies and their reproductive rights. Someone who thinks their own children are only as valuable as they fulfil their ambitions. Someone who thinks they can hurt anyone because their goals are superior, because people are instrumental to them. And also a fucking classist piece of shit. (honestly idk why half of the fandom reacted surprised to the hyper capitalist moment in the recent chapters, as if in their first scene in the entire manga they didn’t say: this is a nuisance but at least it’s the poors that are being burnt to death before my eyes. - Gege didn’t need to add this line there, it’s not relevant to the conversation that is happening then but the line is there anyway.)

3. Two awfully sexist clans which have huge superiority complexes and are built on bloodlines and traditions and breeding for power. 

4. A bunch of mostly faceless old people who pull the strings from the shadows and do everything in the name of the status quo, constantly using tradition as an excuse. Who are afraid of the new, of the changes in society of new technologies. They won’t even accept them when they create powerful sorcerers. 

5. A male presenting personification of human hate and fear of one another. Who again, feels entitled to the bodies of others and doesn’t respect the bodily autonomy of others. Who’s a destructive and cruel nihilist. 

6. A young man who got radicalised into fascism because he was faced with the horrors of the status quo, of toxic tradition and backwater thinking and drew the wrong conclusions as to how to fix it.

On the other side we get kids and tired and/or silly millennials. And isn’t that just like real life, where the inaction and misdeeds of the previous generations blows up in the faces of today’s teens.

1. Teenagers. Teenagers who either don’t have family connections and come from lower classes. Or outcasts from their rich and powerful families. Children betrayed by traditions and the status quo. Children used or targeted by old people, ostracised, disrespected and violated. Children who have to suffer and die because the old people are only concentrating on maintaining the status quo. 

2. Gojou, this ex edgy teen who saw his bf (I won’t police how you read that) get redpilled and radicalised into fascism. It was all fun and games, stanning the joker and tyler durden until Getou decided to seriously go full on fasc with it and Gojou was like: man for real? I thought we were memeing here. So then Gojou turned into one of those “this is how I got off the far right pipeline” videos. Gojou is actually this rich privileged boy but he’s trying, he really is taking his best shot at progressivism. (sealed)

3. A feminist who’s calling out and fighting worthless old farts who feel entitled to women’s bodies. And who wants to change the world to make life better for everyone. 

4. A socially conscious man disillusioned with capitalism who takes a lot of responsibility for other people. (deceased)

5. A victim of eugenics who tries to be a good older brother to his brothers, also victims of eugenics. (the only one here who’s actually over 30)

6. Some other, less important, decent people in their twenties.

There are few people over 30 in juju that deserve any respect.

1. Headmaster Yaga, single dad. Does felting as a hobby. (deceased)

2. Yoshino Nagi, good single mum. (deceased)

3. Iori Utahime, a woman trying her best to do right by the teens despite having to work with Gojou.

4. Higuruma Hiromi, an idealist, mentally broken by the realities of the criminal justice system. Hobby: 5 min therapy sessions. 

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Juju isn’t in any way shy about the fact that we should not respect elders when they fucking destroy everything. It’s established very early on that regressive traditionalists suck. That passive adults suck. That the status quo sux. That it should be the duty of adults to protect the children and not to make the world worse for everyone. That educating the youth and instilling different values in them is what can save us all, if we’re not beyond saving. That we need social change. We even get teen Noritoshi’s story, a cautionary tale about respectability, about trying to satisfy the requirements of the system to protect your own and how that is doomed to fail. And my leftist soul resonates with all that. 

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So in this clear leftist propaganda there is also feminism.

And Gege does their best feminism when they aren’t trying, especially when they aren’t trying to verbalise it. My suspicion is that with this much internalised leftism Gege has internalised a lot of feminism but at a  conscious level the fact that Gege was most likely socialised male takes its toll. 

What I mean by that is that Nobara’s girlboss rant at Momo is weak. But I will give it a pass because Nobara is 16 and nothing about her screams discourse junkie so you know, it fits her character. Because even at it its least inspired the feminism in juju deserves a passing grade. Gege is trying.

There’s also the sad truth of shounen that women just aren’t meant to be prioritised in it, that it’s not the genre expectation. The fact that Maki gets so much focus and page time, that she has her own fucking arc, it’s already a lot for shounen. The fact that she’s built and now also permanently disfigured and the dudebros and weebs still worship the ground she walks on is a fucking achievement in itself. Proof that if you write a female character well you can take away her standard beauty and not tank her popularity. It’d be still much harder to make her not typically pretty from the start and achieve this but culture changes one step at a time. I wish we were there but we aren’t so I’m going to appreciate what I can get.

Maki is both verbalised and implicit feminism. Verbalised because she fucking slaughters a whole fucking clan of misogynists. It’s not subtle. Implicit because of her appearance and personality. She’s written like a male character but not meaning that she’s masculine or that she could be replaced in the narrative by a man. No, she has a narrative arc of her own, she’s written with agency and with no regard for making her personality be pleasing or oriented towards others. And her story is specifically a story of a woman in the world of jujutsu. 

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Generally, in most cases, if you try to apply the feminist lens to a shounen manga you’ll just make yourself sad. You can do it for some shounen characters or plotlines and get something nice but you need to be very careful not to try to generalise that onto the whole work. My enjoyment of a lot of titles is dependant on my very conscious choice to rein in my feminism and leftism. 

With juju, though, with juju you’re safe. You can do it. You can go for it. It’s not going to be the most radical and mind-blowing experience ever but it’s possible.

Because the female characters aren’t where the most of the feminism is. They can’t be, it’s a shounen and they don’t get enough pagetime. The verbalised feminism is very clear in how the villains are framed, how much misogyny you can find among the evil characters. The implicit feminism, the better one, is very strong in the young male characters. 

Unlike in a lot of hyper violent media targeted at boys, in juju you never have these lines about what a man should be. Or what it means to be a man, especially a true man. What is most important is that nothing like that is ever said to a teenage boy. On the side we’re meant to root for we get a lot of different men and none of them are labelled as “true”. They are there for readers to identify with, to model behaviour after. And because no teen in the manga has his masculinity questioned then no reader will have to question his. Juju won’t contribute to such insecurity for anyone, an insecurity that can turn violent irl. 

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Girls in juju are people.

What’s more, all the teen guys in juju have extremely normal relationships with the girls around them. They just interact with them without any exaggerated awkwardness or this “girls are strange, we can’t bond with them unless we want to date them”. Among the teens, the new generation, the hope for the future, there’s no separation built between men and women. Not through words and not through actions.  

The nonsexual, organic friendship, built on idiot to idiot communication, Yuuji and Nobara have, gives me life. And it happens despite Yuuji not understanding Nobara at first. Because it doesn’t matter that she’s different from him, they don’t dwell on it, they don’t try to make the differences into a big thing, into a rift. There’s no big arc of them working out their differences because these differences aren’t artificially blown up to underline some core differences between men and women. They can fail to understand each other totally but they can still be friends, they can still vibe with one another, care for one another. Femininity and masculinity don’t need to be some issues to deal with while forming a friendship between a guy and a girl. 

It’s fascinating how Yuuji fighting together with Megumi isn’t half as exciting and organic as when he fights together with Nobara. Their strengths and powers compliment each other so well. I’m actually angry that Gege didn’t let them fight Mahito together longer. Even if they would’ve done to Nobara the same thing they did. Why not let them be epic together again? (I’m also super angry at what they did to Nobara, she better come back, fucking hell)

And it’s a pattern too. Despite Yuuji being very much socialised as a guy in a very patriarchal and sexist society, so much so that he has a type at 15 and hangs bikini posters on his walls, he hasn't turned girls into aliens in his mind. They are still just people in his head. When Yuuji interacts with a real woman the male socialisation isn’t deeply rooted enough to hinder him. It’s never an issue.

____________________

Toudou

Toudou tries to do this very masculine bonding thing with Yuuji and Yuuji is super confused by it. Because Yuuji’s relationships aren’t built on the concept of masculinity. And I mean Yuuji bonds with Toudou eventually because it’s Yuuji but we are shown the struggle when with Nobara or Megumi or Junpei it just happens. Also Yuuji is the only one who bonds with Toudou but that’s because Yuuji is compassion. 

Toudou is generally disliked and his dumb male posturing contributes to that. Also in the Japanese context it’s very clear that Toudou is an unserious person and that’s how he’s meant to be perceived. If you have any doubt about that, the juju fanbook is there for you where Gege is very clear about that. Basically the idol thing is there to paint Toudou as immature. The whole conversation Megumi has with Toudou is a very clear lesson for teen boys. Be like Megumi and girls will like you, if you are a Toudou you’re a joke. You can be built and powerful and clever and still be a joke and girls won’t like you.

I like Toudou a lot btw, I actually think it’s funny that an 18yo boy thinks he reached some deeper truth about people because he knows what a fetish or kink is and he’s tactless enough to ask openly about it. It’s fucking hilarious but also some teen boys just be like that unironically. But I also like him because of how his character is framed and how he functions in the story. Because Toudou gives another important lesson to teen boys. A lesson about rejection. In the story he makes up in his head we see him confessing his feelings to Takada and she turns him down. And he just takes it. This is such an important message. In Japan stalking is a huge problem, stalkers murdering their victims is a problem. Men who feel entitled to women in such a violent way. And here we have a guy who gets rejected and takes the L with grace. And all he wants is for his best friend to console him. 

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I’m very normal about Yuuji.

So the balls on Gege to name their typically shounen protag “calm compassion”, or maybe “endless humanity”, “endless compassion”, “quiet humanity”, all of the above? More?

Gojou says that to be a sorcerer one needs to be crazy. And he says that Yuuji has a few screws loose from the start. The thing is that yes, Yuuji is odd but not in the way the rest of the sorcerers are. So far in the manga Yuuji has never entered the state of mind that to my understanding Gojou is thinking about when he talks about being crazy. What I think Gojou means is this state of unhinged glee during the fight. And the ability to compartmentalise the fights and the kills. 

So far in his fights Yuuji has been neutral, proud of himself when he was doing well, hyper focused, frustrated, desperate, depressed and filled with all-consuming rage. Never filled with unhinged glee. And he hasn’t compartmentalised any fight, any failure or any kill, not one, they all seep into a huge ball of guilt inside him. And it’s his kills and Sukuna’s together. Yuuji’s compassion is actively destroying him from the inside. Yuuji can’t disconnect from his humanity and that’s a basic job requirement for a sorcerer. 

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Yuuji constantly shows how much emotional intelligence he has. When he defuses the situation with Junpei at the school. When Megumi finds out about Tsumiki going under the bridge. When he’s with Chousou. When he puts his depression on hold to help Megumi during the culling game. He shows understanding, emotional support, physical contact and prioritises the emotions of others over his own. 

Compassion, empathy, responsiveness towards others, willingness to adjust and accommodate aren’t stereotypically masculine traits. No, they are culturally feminine in many places around the world, including Japan. 

Yuuji is also passive and reactive despite being stronger than normal people, and that too is culturally more feminine than masculine. Yuuji doesn’t really have much of the shounen protag drive. It can be lit in him in the form of resilience or determination or rage but it’s not self-sustaining, reactive not proactive

And speaking of Japan and East Asia, what Yuuji is displaying can’t be written off as collectivism either. Because these reactions are personal, they aren’t towards the society at large. They aren’t giri aka a specifically culturally Japanese sense of duty, or any other of several similar concepts. There is no sense of duty or obligation in what Yuuji does, not on a group level. Yuuji says that he wouldn't be able to forgive himself if people got hurt because he didn’t try to get rid of Sukuna. For him it’s not because it’s the moral thing to do, or the right thing to do but because he’s concerned about the suffering of those people on this very empathetic level. As Nanami says: he genuinely gets upset on behalf of others. 

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That might be why Yuuji isn’t really that popular as a character. Maybe that’s why people prefer Megumi who’s more typically masculine, stoic, distant, intellectual but also proactive and not reactive in his violence and values.

A lot of people consider Yuuji weak. They complain about how much he loses and how in most of his fights he gets carried by other characters, how they are actually the winning factor and not him. 

I actually like that a lot. I think it makes the story interesting, it makes Yuuji interesting that he’s at his best when he’s not alone, that he’s actually doing best when he’s support. That his strength is in how he compliments others. I honestly don’t want him to change into a more typical shounen protagonist. Thematically the way his fights go suits him perfectly because humans are a social species, we thrive on cooperation. And if Yuuji is boundless humanity he shouldn’t stand alone. 

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I’m very normal about Yuuji so it turned into a post about him. I swear this wasn’t the plan. The plan was to write about leftist propaganda. The other guys in juju are actually really cool too. Like Megumi, him constantly trying to figure out his values and reconcile what’s happening around him with them is great. Yuuta with his need to belong and justify himself is amazing. Chousou the family oriented sap (please survive baby). Hakari who said fuck you to the conservatives even though he wasn’t so well positioned as Gojou and it resulted in him getting ostracised. I’m not going to shout out everyone or go deeper into these characters but I really like how there isn’t one type of masculinity in juju. 

I don’t know how much these are conscious choices by Gege, or how much it’s just their internalised leftism seeping through. But it’s nice. It feels good to read. And I hope that because the messaging isn’t always as didactic as with the Zen’in or the Kamo clans, that it’ll go down well and actually be this tiny crumb of feminism in the minds of 15yo boys who read it. And with how hype juju is atm, I hope that overt leftism will strengthen in the pop cultural mainstream directed at boys. And with it feminism.  

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Could juju be better?

Of course, there’s no perfect work of art. No author is perfect and perfectly enlightened. No work is ever going to 100% match with anyone’s politics, sensibilities or expectations. etc etc. But I really think juju already does a lot. The fact that it’s open to a feminist reading is a lot. And I appreciate it for it.

I really wish juju was better on the queer stuff but I’m wary of assigning blame here. Idk if it’s Gege who misunderstands stuff and is uninformed and crude. Or is it because they write a shounen series for Shounen Jump a corporation which is averse to risk. 

I really wish Kirara had a canon gender and identity. I wish Gege made an official call on Kenny’s gender as they did with Tengen. I wish Gege also clearly stated that Kenny is Yuuji’s mum because the fandom cishets are really twisting themselves into pretzels trying to come up with theories that the mum is actually some woman controlled by Kenny and not Kenny. I wish Gege made NobaMaki canon instead of drawing fanart of the ship and pretending it’s not what it looks like. And even though ItaFushi leaves me mostly cold I wish Megumi’s answer proved to be what all the itafushis headcanon it to be, even if it was to prove to be one sided. I wish I wish I wish.

[simply-wins-little-sis]

The Conference of Hidden Genius

Request:  I had an idea for a Winchester sister thing where the brothers go to a parent/teacher night expecting to hear you are average &keep your head down but your teacher goes on about your good grades and societies you're in (arts/sports/science/whatever) and how you won a funded place at a summer school at a (random) college and will they reconsider letting you go. They ask you about why you don't talk about school and you didn't think they'd care as its not hunting and that's all they care about xx

Tags: @winchesters-favorite-girl​ @percussiongirl2017  @the-third-winchester-warrior  @hellhoundlover @emmazach @sisterwinchesterwriter  @fandom-queen-of-wonderland @staticweekes @hi-my-name-is-riley @a-paranoid-bastard @because-you-never-know-when @enchantingempathhumanoidturtle @alexwinchester23 @winchesterhound

A/N: Not sure if this will be one imagine for awhile or if this means I’ll be back regularly. Love you all xx Also this is a tad different if you want it rewritten lemme know!

An average Tuesday night. That’s all it was to any normal family attending the local high school’s parent night. Each time slot filled with the expectation of a progress report and comments on student behavior. It was the average American system of pining parents and children against teachers, or sometimes the other way around. 

You had been nervous all week, walking on thin ice around your brothers, forgetting to remind them. That’s why when they both knocked on your door and told you they were going to go you shot up like a rocket. 

“No guys, it’s really okay!” you protested, without doing much to make it seem suspicious. 

“Nah babygirl, Dad would miss this stuff for us and we’d miss out on some decent extra credit, plus I heard they’re supposed to have a dessert spread” Dean smirked as he left the room. 

“It’ll be good to know where you stand amongst your classmates Y/N” Sam gave a small smile and followed him. You groaned, throwing a pillow over your head. Falling out of the pillowcase was the brochure to an expensive summer program, one you’d secretly prayed to Castiel on, even though he was nowhere to be found.

When the boys arrived at the school they were shocked to find they were the last guardians to be scheduled. It seemed as though they were thrown on last minute, almost as if your marks had been forgotten. 

Dean was disappointed to find that the dessert spread had been long demolished. 

Entering your homeroom a cheery red head with matching lipstick greeted them. 

“Oh I had no idea Y/N had two fathers! How lovely!”

The boys choked, holding back vile, “Actually we’re her older brothers,” Sam greeted, “But lovely to meet you.” 

“Lovely indeed,” Dean winked. 

With a grin she took the boys to her desk, sitting on the other side. 

“Well, to be honest I don’t really know why you two are here.” She began. 

Both boys cocked their heads to the side. 

“Y/N is a great student, so smart and kind. Quite the little leader. She has perfect scores in all of her classes and is honestly on track to becoming top student,”

The boys looked to each other. 

“Are you sure you’re talking about the right Y/N?” Dean asked. 

“Y/N Winchester, you know, quiet, keeps to herself,” Sam started. 

“Isn’t really good at turning things in on time, often sleeps in class?” Dean recalled his own experience being a hunter in training while doubling as an adolescent student. 

“I fear as though you aren’t hearing what I am saying. Your little sister is really great. One of the best actually. Always turns everything in on time, never sleeps in class, and is charming and kind to everyone she meets or works with. She’s quite the class discussion starter too. In fact, she’s been offered a full scholarship to the Eastern Scholars Summer Program. I know how you both feel she shouldn’t go, but I have to say, you have a bright young person on your hands and not letting her go is the biggest mistake I’ve ever seen guardians make.” 

The two looked at each other again. “The what now?”

“Y/N said you two won’t let her go. But I’m begging you, the girl we have here is different then the one you’re describing, and if you just give her the chance she’ll prove you wrong. I promise.”

When the boys got home you were in the library, reading. 

“Y/N” Dean called. 

“In here!” You yelled back. 

“Why wouldn’t you tell us about the Summer program?” Sam asked. He leaned against the doorframe as Dean leaned on a bookcase. 

You pushed your hair back from your face. “It’s really not that important. It’d just get in the way.”

“Y/N according to your grades you’re smarter then Sam. And Sam is Sam.”

Sam rolled his eyes, “What he’s trying to say is that you’re not telling us about how good you’re actually doing in school. Not to mention you have the opportunity for something really-” he started. 

“No stop,” you interupt him, “This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you. You guys expect me to be one thing. To live this life or get out completely and to be honest I don’t know what I want. I won’t lose you for a picket fence future, but I also don’t know if I can keep looking death in the eyes, literally.

“The summer program would be the first time I’ve ever gone away. Alone. I don’t know if I’m smart enough let alone ready to face that without you guys. “

They both looked at you. “Well at least talk to us next time, don’t just keep us in the dark, okay?” Sam asked. 

You nodded. 

“I think you should go though,” Dean whispered. 

You looked at him, tears spilling over your bottom eyelids. 

“Okay.”

“But this report card is going on the fridge regardless of what you say,” Sam laughed. 

“The teacher’s phone number on that?” Dean asks. 

“DEAN!” both you and Sam chirp.

[shewhotellsstories]

i really dont wanna annoy you but you post about racism in fandom sometimes so i thought you'd be the right person to ask. i hope this doesnt come off as expecting u to be my teacher. yesterday someone said they didnt trust white zk shippers and i thought it was mean but then people started sending the them all these nasty messages and i started to worry maybe op was right. honestly a lot of this stuff is pretty new for me. i think our fandom is inclusive & unlike the rest of the atla fandom we actually like katara. but i'm trying to learn.

why would it be a problem that a lot of zk fics have katara looking after zuko? i always just felt like he needed it more bc he was abused and kataras better at dealing with feelings and she's good at taking care of people. is fire lady katara still ok? is there racism in our fandom? there are a lot of woc zks and i've seen them get hate for it. but the messages op got were pretty bad too. i know i'm asking a lot of questions i just hate the thinking that we might be as bad as the z*kka stans have been saying all year.

This is gonna get long so I’m just gonna jump right in. When I listened to fansplaining’s episode on fandom racism one of the guests said white fans who can acknowledge that fandom racism exists tend to frame it as “just a few bad apples” and get caught up in worrying about not looking like a “bad apple” instead of making fandoms spaces that aren’t hostile for BIPOC. Jag offs hiding behind anon to tell women of color who ship zutara that we have a creepy fetish for imperialism and colonialism suck, but your biggest concern really shouldn’t be the optics or if you can claim superiority over zukka stans.

Yeah the “katara’s a homophobe” nonsense didn’t come from our end of the fandom, but it feels naive at best or dishonest at worst to act like the zutara fandom is uniquely immune to fandom racism. A creator I follow made the excellent point that allyship conditional upon if a poc talks "nicely" about racism is still white supremacy. I believe poc need to be allowed to vent and be salty or angry without being tone-policed. I definitely have my days where I’m like “ugh white people,” or "why must white fans be like this," so I get where the OP was coming from. Ironically the folks that sent them anon hate proved their point. You can always count on hit dogs to hollar.

Fandom is only escapist for some people. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum so you’ll find racism in fandom because there’s racism in the world. Navigating that gets exhausting. There are certain things I enjoy, but for the sake of my sanity I'll only talk about it with friends in real life or only follow fans of color. Before I follow white fans I need to see first that they’re not the kind of person who inspires posts about fandom racism. A good friend of mine loves Star Wars, Kpop, and gaming but after years of attempts at calling in she decided that she’d only interact with woc in those spaces. Again, you get tired.

ATLA wasn’t on my radar until last year so I definitely haven’t read every zutara fic out there but I have noticed a lot of fics do tend to have Katara being the one comforting and supporting Zuko. It’s not inherently wrong of course, it’s just in the grand scheme of things in fiction woc are often cast as eternal caretakers and confidants in fiction:

“How characters of color are portrayed in fanworks, especially fanfiction, is worse than the actual films. They are portrayed as supportive, almost invisible understudies. Any characteristics which they possess in the [MCU] films are stripped and given to other white characters. It is not only erasure. It’s a theft of identity.

Characters of color are positioned within storylines to support the main, white characters. Even within the slash biracial pairings, the character of color is underdeveloped and in a position of servitude within the relationship.”

TheNavyLanguage, Fansplaining

As the quote above points out this honestly happens in a lot of fandoms. I’ve read fanfic for books, movies, tv shows, and comics and I can’t help but notice that in fics the writers often have the non-white character or-- if neither character is white--the darker skinned character being the care-taker, the bodyguard, or the person who is performing all the emotional labor. It’s not inherently wrong to have a character of color have a nurturing personality, you just have to remember that since Black and brown folks have been saddled with narrative after narrative where we exist to serve leaning into dynamics where the non-white or darker skinned character is providing all the emotional support and getting very little in return has some unfortunate implications.

It’s not better if instead of being defined as the avatar’s girl, Katara’s the fire lord’s girl. Part of the appeal of zutara for me is the idea that Katara could lay down some of her burdens and get some much needed support. I always imagine she’d have some major issues after the war.

"i always just felt like he needed it more bc he was abused and kataras better at dealing with feelings and she's good at taking care of people."

I’m going to push back against that statement. Yes, Katara didn't grow up in an abusive household but she has pain and trauma of her own. In fact I’d argue that her believing it’s her job to take care of everyone is rooted in her trauma. Katara needs support and care just as much as anyone else does.

Having read a lot of fics revolving around abuse victims in different fandoms I’ve observed that if fans feel a character’s trauma wasn’t properly addressed in canon, they’ll give them a lot of TLC in fics. But again, reducing the non-white or darker-skinned character to a glorified therapist has some implications.

I feel like the Fire Lady Katara headcanon's been talked to death so long-story short, it’s not inherently racist but it can problematic if it's not clear that Katara is Katara of the Water Tribe wherever she lives. Fics and art where her crown has a crescent moon, she wears blue, or Zuko wears blue when she's in red are the executions I'm fondest of.

When in doubt just listen when poc talk about uncomfortable trends in the fandom. Give fansplaining’s episodes on fandom racism a listen here, here, and here. And very loosely quoting my favorite professor just remember that if a marginalized person says they’re distrustful of a group of people or institution it usually happens after a lot of bad experiences. Don’t center your own comfort and hurt feelings.

“If we truly believe in fandom’s progressive credentials, then perhaps it is necessary for us to listen to critiques that make us uncomfortable rather than those that keep arguing that the status quo is perfectly acceptable—even as there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. Perhaps then we will be able to come at these, yes, these very complex and nuanced discussions with the type of openness and good faith that is required for them to succeed, rather than approaching them with hostility.”

-Rukmini Pande, Fansplaining

[spookyhalloweennights]

Monster Matchup: Thravar (Shapeshifter: SFW)

Hello! I have a couple of works in progress that I am currently trudging through, this job has been a bit of a killer lately, but! Here’s a monster matchup that was requested awhile ago featuring a shape shifter! As always, REQUESTS ARE OPEN! MONSTER MATCHUPS ARE OPEN! If you like my work and want to read more, check out my masterlist! *Disclaimer: None of the pics are mine, all credit goes to the original artist!

- Thravar is a shapeshifter that honestly has a lot of patience, he doesn’t mind having to repeat himself or explain things to you when you don’t understand something. He actually finds it endearing in a way and it makes him feel helpful. 

-  He loves the times that you slip up and let out a joke that is a bit more on the dirtier side, it always has him chuckling to himself as he knows it doesn’t happen often and he keeps those moments close to him when he can see you just being… You.

-  He will absolutely give you his oversized sweatshirts if you ask him, he loves how they look on you and will purposely buy extra just to make sure you have enough. 

- While he may seem quiet, he’s pretty straightforward, he doesn’t believe in beating around the bush, that much he told you on your second date with him. Which has proven itself true time and time again. 

-  Did I mention he loves hugs? If he doesn’t get a hug he may just turn into an overdramatic mess of a puddle. He’ll practically cling to you and whine until you give him a proper hug, and make sure it’s a long one to make up for all the whining he had to do. Which honestly, it sounds like he wouldn’t have to do much to get a hug from you.

- He’s rather needy in terms of affection which balances out nicely considering he’s just as touch starved. He needs affection 24/7. Even when you’re snuggling he’s making sure you’re wrapped up in his arms as tight as possible as you two watch one of your favorite animes. 

-  He takes interest in your drawings, he loves them and he always gives you the newest art supplies when he comes across them. He will gladly sit and watch you draw for hours, loving the way that each piece of work comes out.

- He knows you don’t believe in compliments, but he still showers you in them anyway, he wants you to see the good in yourself, he knows it’s hard, he’s been down that road before but he wants to make sure you know that you are loved by him. 

-  Since he’s a shapeshifter, he’ll gladly change into whatever you want that day! You want feathers? He’ll make sure he’s the fluffiest feathered thing around. You want scales? You got it. Whatever you want, he’ll change to. He loves being able to change into whatever you want!

He hummed softly as he made his way into your shared home, his tail wagging behind him slightly as he clutched a small bag in his hands. His own little way of showing you he cared was always by gifting you things that made him think of you, this time it was a new set of high quality colored pencils for your drawings. He found you in the small studio he had gotten set up for you, wearing one of his oversized hoodies that he found had always made you so beautiful in his eyes. 

“I brought you something.” He murmured, causing you to look up at him with a questioning gaze, he held the bag out towards you and watched as your features lit up as you opened it to the new colored pencils. 

“I hope you like them.” He admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “I saw they were really good and a lot of artists recommended them so… I figured you would like them too.” He stated simply as he pulled the stool up beside your chair that he used to sit in when you were drawing. 

“I do, thank you.” You responded with a smile, leaning over to hug him for a long moment before pulling away and beginning to set to work on testing out your new colored pencils. Your shapeshifter sitting in the stool beside you watching in fascination as you drew.  

[transformers-fan-continuities]

Spotlight: Ties That Bind

This one’s a doozy folks! If you missed the last spotlight you can go read it here, but strap in for The Ties That Bind, an absolutely brilliant take on humanformers. It’s hosted here at @tiesthatbind-tf​ created by @artsy-hobbitses​!

Q) Give us a run down of your cont! What's it about, what's it called, what's it like?

Ties That Bind is a humanformers-based original continuity which is part Science Fiction and part Alternate History where the invasion of Quintessons and introduction of their technology to Earth in 1920 sets the world and humankind on a completely different trajectory. The active narrative spans a period from 1920 to 2070, covering the First and Second Quintesson Wars, the interplanetary Antillan War (leading to the creation of Unicron on Mars) and the Great War which involves the Autobots, Decepticons and Functionist stalwarts, and how it affects the characters.

The cast is pretty sprawling and the narrative is mostly centred around human drama with bits of humor interspaced and a dash of horror (mostly centred around how the previous government often chose to utilize the technology left behind from the Quintesson Wars to create new systems of oppression, which affected many of the characters, in the name of worldwide rebuilding efforts).

Q) What characters take the lead here? Any personal favorites?

I will admit to this continuity being very much heavy on the relationship between Old Bastards  Optimus Prime and Megatron, which is given considerable weight as they were best friends who had known each other since childhood and were deeply intrinsic to each other’s growths as individuals, which makes it all the worse when guilt and betrayal enter the party. Despite being captains in two corners of this battle, there’s a part of them that just cannot let go of their pasts together and they need to reconcile with how this will affect their agenda (Megatron) and how they lead their team (Optimus) who don’t necessarily share their history.

Other characters with significant development include:

Starscream, a Cold Construct in a toxic working relationship with Megatron with whom he is hiding a dark secret, who struggles to balance the underhanded viciousness he believes he needs to gain power and his innate desire from his Senate days to make the world a better place. 

Windblade, a Camien native who fights her government’s apathy concerning the situation on Earth which they see as unsalvageable compared to their more Utopian society. 

Prowl, a Cold Construct raised from childhood to be a cop in a police state, who finds out that he was brainwashed several times  to ensure his obedience and efficacy as a government asset and is now working to reclaim some semblance of the humanity he was never allowed to feel and figure out how much of him is who he really is and how much is programming.

Hound, a sheltered Beastman who joined the fight to ensure that Beastmen the world over would have the same rights he did in his homeland of Shetland Isle, but is forcefully stripped of his humanity and faced with his animal side during the war and has to relearn what personhood means amid his trauma.

Q) Is there a bigger point to this, like a theme or some catharsis? Or is it just fluffy fun?

God with the amount of time I spent sleepless trying to figure out how the logistics of this or the semantics of that were supposed to work in universe, I cannot for the life of me say it’s fluffy fun, but I can’t exactly say it hasn’t been pretty engaging either!

There’s elements of war being messy for everyone involved where there doesn’t seem to be a clear line between friend and foe at times, but I think for most part it prescribes to  Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s belief that people are inherently good, but are corrupted by the evils of society. Despite its dark themes (Including but not limited to child abuse, torture, illegal experimenation  and brainwashing), love and friendships do prevail, kindness does beget kindness, found families are made, even the smallest actions matter, and things do get better because there are people on both sides who genuinely want to, and strive to make it better.

With Cold Constructs and Beastmen, it also delves heavily into what it means to be human; to have agency and personhood.

There’s also a strong undercurrent of taking responsibility for one’s actions, even if they were made with the best of intentions (Avoidance of this is what eats up Starscream and Megatron from the inside, and what Starscream eventually embraces).

Q) How long have you been working on it?

There’s two answers to this!

I’ve had a Humanformers-related universe going all the way back to 2007 around the time the first Bayformers came out---basically I had a choice between learning to draw cars or draw people (I was an anthro artist back then) and I immediately chose people.

The 2007 draft however had no worldbuilding or connective storylines and was mostly a fun little venture into character design and practice which were actually instrumental to me experimenting and learning how to draw humans properly.

I left the fandom for about a decade and when I came back to it in late 2020 around September via the War for Cybertron series on Netflix, I immediately got hooked on the 2005 IDW comics I missed out on and wanted to get around to updating my old designs as well find a way to translate several of the concepts I wanted to explore in a human sense, so the 2020 update became its own full-fledged original continuity with detailed worldbuilding and history.

You can see the artistic evolution of several characters from their original incarnation below!

Q) It’s incredible to see your artistic improvement too! Give us a behind-the-scenes look! Show us a secret ;))

Say hello to my workspace! I’ve been working exclusively on the Ipad Pro since late 2016, which is fantastic because I can basically whip up concepts and sketches on the go anywhere. Nowhere is too out of bounds to work on TTB!

Also, do enjoy this sneak peek at true!form Rung, whose synthezoid human body took years to perfect.

Q) YESSSSS alright I must admit this is one of my favorite Rungs, and certainly my fave within TTB. Amazing. Phew, anyway. Where did you draw inspiration from? What canons, what other fiction, what parts of real life?

TTB was initially conceived as a faithful retelling of the IDW 2005 narrative before it was transformed into its own continuity and as such, it borrows heavily from concepts and mirrored plot lines introduced in that run! I chose to have the series inspired off it specifically for the amount of history and worldbuilding it introduced to the franchise.

Anime like Gunslinger Girl and Beastars inspired the depictions of Cold Constructs, especially the more harrowing aspects of their upbringing as government assets instead of children, and Beastmen (Beastformers) in TTB.

I haven’t depicted the world itself in my art all too much, but the architecture from Tiger and Bunny, which has sort of a futuristic Art Deco feel to it, is what you’d usually see in major cities. There is an in-universe reason for that---with a Point Of Divergence set in 1920 followed by 25 years (an entire generation) of progress basically being kicked to the curb due to the Quintesson wars, mankind was basically in a time-locked bubble until the end of the wars, and by then their heroes were 1920s-style rebellion leaders, which lead to 1920s fashion (especially among the Manual Working Class---Megatron, Jazz and Optimus all rock 1920s fashion at some point of their lives) and architecture being celebrated and retained as sort of a reminder of how things were before The Invasion. This anime’s background design is also where I adopted the tiered system TTB’s major metropolises are often built on (with each tier being designated to a different working class) from.

The main artistic style itself is a love letter to 90s cartoons, in particular Gargoyles’ deep and drama-driven character narratives and designs as well as The Centurions’ take on body armor logistics.

I also take inspiration, especially armor-wise, from the characters’ given heritage and background. As an example, Hotrod who is depicted as Irish has the flames on his armor done up with Celtic knots. Welsh aristocrat Mirage’s armor bears olden knight-style filigree and has his Autobot logo designed as a coat of arms. Indonesian Soundwave’s armor and Decepticon logo takes cues from Batik and Wayang Kulit while their mask is based off the Barong.

Q) They are absolutely gorgeous! Show off something you're really proud of, a particular favorite part of your cont.

The worldbuilding in general! Most Humanformers I’ve seen tend to treat it like a fun exercise which it is and is definitely valid, but I found myself wanting a full-fledged world to lose myself in and I sought to try and make that world myself by drafting a detailed history and timeline of events which would affect ongoing narratives, having indepth worldbuilding to include almost all societal aspects of the universe and  expanding on the concept of Beastmen and Cold Constructs existing in a human setting.

I’m not so secretly proud of the research and diversity included to make the cast look like the multicultural, globally-based team that they were meant to be instead of being locked to a single region! My original draft from 2007 was, to put it simply, quite culturally monolithic and I wanted to improve on that aspect with TTB.

I’m also proud that I’ve kept to it this far! I’m a notoriously flaky person jumping from one idea/fandom to another and to have kept at this continuity for the better part of ten months is honestly a personal feat.

Art-wise, this scene depicting a young Megatron working alongside Terminus and Impactor (cameo by @weapon-up-wallflower​‘s OC Missit!)  is definitely one of my favorites since it helps build up the world they live in and plays to familial bonds and comfort found in one another despite their less than ideal circumstances.

Q) Everything has come together so beautifully, you absolutely should be proud. What other fan canons do you love and why? Would you like to see them interviewed?

I am dying to hear more from @iscaredspider​’s Sparkpulse continuity! Her designs are MIND-BLOWINGLY GORGEOUS and I want to hear more about what inspired her to work on it!

Also YOU. Yes YOU BLURRITO. LET ME HEAR MORE ABOUT SNAP.

Q) [wails and squirms away in the mortifying ordeal of being known but in a very flattered way] I WILL SOMEDAY I PROMISE aflghsdjg thank you QwQ

Well that was fantastic, Oni, thank you muchly! A magnificent continuity with so much to look forward to! Coming up next is another personal fave of mine, the first inspiration for SNAP, so stick around...

[cyndavilachase]

I’m Looking Forward Now 💖Thank you and good bye

So, it’s been a little over a week since Steven Universe Future ended… 

I’ve been hesitant to write this, honestly, but I’m tired of holding myself back from properly expressing myself in fear of appearing overly invested in the media I consume, even in private. Writing helps me organize my thoughts and feelings, and I feel like these thoughts in particular may resonate with many, so I want to share them. I want to talk about what Steven Universe has done for me personally, both as an artist, and as a person.

I’ve been around since the day the first episode of the original series aired. I actually remember when Steven Universe was just a logo on Wikipedia’s “List of Upcoming Cartoon Network Shows” list, back when I was a freshman in high school. It piqued my interest, but when commercials finally dropped for it, I thought it was going to be bad because of the way marketing handled introducing Steven as a likeable character. There was still something about it that made me want to give it a chance though, so I went online and watched the pilot before the first episode's release. I was hooked immediately. I knew I was going to love it, and I did. I fell so absolutely in love with Steven as a character, and the world that he and the gems lived in. I became obsessed. I was always so excited for new episodes to come out. Little did I know what else it would do for me as I went through my adolescence alongside it.

As the show progressed, it was evident that what I wanted out of a western animated childrens’ cartoon was finally coming into fruition: this show was becoming serialized. There was continuity, there was plot, there was character development-- it was getting deep. It was pushing the groundwork that Adventure Time laid out even further (thank you, Adventure Time).  

I will give credit where credit is due: earlier western childrens’ cartoons I grew up with like Hey Arnold, and Rugrats, among others, also touched on heavy topics, but Steven Universe was able to take similar ideas (and even more complex ones, concerning mental health and relationships) and expand on them outside of contained episodes and/or short arcs. These themes, which were a part of the show’s overarching story, spanned across its entirety. Continuity was rampant. 

What did this mean? It meant kids cartoons didn’t have to be silly and fun all the time and characters weren’t just actors playing a part in 11-minute skits. Steven and the gems would remember things that happened to them, and it affected them and how they would function and play a part in their story. This was a huge deal to me as a teenager. I always wanted the cartoons I grew up with featuring kid characters to feel more. In my own work, I often felt discouraged when combining a fun, cutesy western art style with themes as dark or layered as anime would cover. I always thought it had to be one or the other because an audience wouldn’t take a combination of the two seriously enough, based on discussions I had with classmates, friends, and online analysis I read at the time. Steven Universe proved to me otherwise. This show was opening the door for future cartoons exploring in-depth, adult concepts. I felt so seen as a kid, and was inspired to stick with what I love doing.

I was actually very worried about the show’s survival. It was in fact immensely underrated and the fandom was miniscule. Then in 2014, JailBreak dropped, and it’s popularity exploded. Part of it was because of the complex plot and the themes it was covering like I mentioned, but also because of its representation. 

I remember when fandom theorized that Garnet was a fusion due to grand, tragic reasons. Turns out, she’s simply a metaphor for a very loving w|w relationship. This was huge. I cannot stress how important it is that we continue to normalize healthy canon queer relationships in childens’ media, and Steven Universe finally was the first to do that proper. Introducing these themes offers the chance for a kid to sit there and ask themselves, “Why is this demonized by so many people?” I asked myself exactly that. Ruby and Sapphire were my cartoon LGBT rep. They were the first LGBT couple I ever ecstatically drew fanart of. I was dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia at the time, and they showed me that I was allowed to love women and feel normal about it. The process of overcoming this was a long one, but they played a part in my very first steps into becoming comfortable with my sexuality. I could go on and on about it’s representation in general-- how it breaks the mold when it comes to showcasing a diverse set of characters in design, in casting, and in breaking gender roles. It’s focus on love and empathy. Steven himself is a big boy, but he's the protagonist, and the show never once makes fun of his weight, or any other bigger characters for that matter. It wasn’t hard to see why the fandom had grown so large.

Fandom was always a joy for me. It was a hobby I picked up when I was in middle school, like many of us here did. I would always cater my experience to fun, and fun only. I only started getting more deeply involved in SU’s fandom when I had just turned into an adult. During the summer of 2016, between my first and second year of college, I drew for the show almost every day non-stop when the Summer of Steven event was going on and posted them online. This was a form of practice for me in order to become not just more comfortable with experimenting with my art, but also to meet new artists, make new friends, and learn to interact with strangers without fear. I dealt with a ton of anxiety when I was in high school. When I was a senior applying to art school for animation, I decided I was going to overcome that anxiety. I made plans to take baby steps to improve myself over the course of my 4 years of college. Joining the fandom, while unforeseen, was definitely a part of that process. I started feeling more confident in sharing my ideas, even if they were fan-made. I fell in love with storyboarding after that summer, when I took my first storyboarding class, and genuinely felt like I was actually getting somewhere with all of this. I remember finally coming to a point in my classes where I could pitch and not feel hopelessly insecure about it. I was opening up more to my friends and peers. 

But this process, unfortunately, came to a screeching halt. 

My life completely, utterly crumbled under me in the Fall of 2017 due to a series of blows in my personal life that happened in the span of just a couple weeks. My mental health and sense of identity were completely destroyed. All of that confidence I had worked for-- completely ruined. I was alone. I nearly died. My stay at college was extended to 4 and half years, instead of the 4 I had intended. I lost my love for animation-- making it, and watching it. I could no longer watch Steven Universe with the same love I had for it beforehand. It’s a terrible thing, trying to give your attention to something you don’t love anymore, and wanting so desperately to love again. I dropped so many things I loved in my life, including the fandom.

Healing was a long and complicated road. I continued to watch the show all the way up until Change Your Mind aired in the beginning of 2019, and while I still felt empty, that was definitely a turning point for me with it’s encapsulation of self-love. I was hoping James Baxter would get to work on Steven Universe since he guest-animated on Adventure Time, and it was incredible seeing that wish actually come true. The movie came out and while I enjoyed it and thought highly of it, I was still having issues letting myself genuinely love things again, old and new. It was especially difficult because cartoons were my solace as a kid, when things got rough at home. I remember feeling sad because the show ended, and not getting the chance to love it again like I used to while it was still going.

By the time Steven Universe Future was announced, I was finally coming around. I was genuinely starting to feel excitement for art and animation again. I wasn’t expecting there to be a whole new epilogue series, but happily ever after, there we were! Prickly Pear aired, and the implications it left in terms of where the story was going did it. I was finally ready to let myself take the dive back into fandom in January of this year. My art blew up, something I wasn’t expecting considering my 2-year hiatus. Following this, I was invited into a discord server containing some of the biggest writers, artists, editors, and analysts in the fandom. I had no idea there were so many talented people in the fandom, some already with degrees, some getting their degrees-- creating stuff for it on the side just for fun. The amount of passion and productivity level here is insane, and so is the amount of discussion that has come out of it.

I didn’t realize it at first, but it was actually helping me gain back the courage to share ideas. I lost my confidence in pitching while I was taking the time to heal, and graduating meant there would no longer be a classroom setting I could practice in. This group helped immensely. 

I have made so many friends through this wonderful series, and I have so many fond memories talking to like-minded creatives, getting feedback and a myriad of sources for inspiration, as well as all of the memes and jokes and weekly theorizations that came about as we all waited on the edges of our seats for episodes to air. I needed this so badly, I needed to get back in touch with my roots, when I would go absolutely hog-wild over a cartoon I loved with people who loved it as much I did. Future has been a blessing for me in this way. I graduated feeling like I was back at square-one, but now I feel like I’m on my way again.

It’s 2020 and while I’m doing great right now, I am honestly still recovering from the total exhaustion that followed after graduating a few months ago, and finally leaving the campus where my life fell apart behind. Needless to say, watching Future was like looking into a mirror. Watching one of my favorite characters of all time-- one that grew up with me-- go through so many of the same things I went through not too long ago was absolutely insane to watch unfold. It’s such an important thing too, to show a character go through the process of breaking down over trauma and all the nasty things that come with it, and to have them go on the road to healing. Steven got that therapy. He wasn’t blamed. The gems were called out. The finale was everything I could have ever hoped for. The catharsis I experienced watching it was out of this world.

As I continue my own healing journey, I will always look up to the storyboard artists, revisionists, and designers that I have been following over these past 7 years, as well as the new ones introduced in Future. It's been such a joy watching these artists release their promo art for episodes, talk about their experiences working on the show, and post the work they've done for it alongside episodes airing.

Thank you Rebecca Sugar, the Crewniverse, and the fans, for making this such a truly wonderful and unique experience. Thank you for reminding me that I am, and always will be, an artist, a cartoonist, and a fan. Thank you, my followers, for the overwhelmingly positive response to my artwork. I have had so much fun interacting and discussing the show with you all again over these past few months. Steven Universe and it’s fandom will always have a special place in my heart, and it will always be a classic that I will return to for comfort and inspiration for decades to come. I am sad that the cartoon renaissance is over, but so many doors have been opened thanks to this show. I am so, so excited to see what this show will inspire in the future, and I hope one day I get the opportunity to be a part of that. 

Goodbye Steven, thank you for everything. I wish you healing, and I wish Rebecca and the team a well-deserved rest. ♥️

-Cynthia D.

[hiddennerdworld]

MHA Couples Dynamics with art by @leecheedoodles| two bros chillin in a hot tub 5 ft apart cuz they won’t confess their undying love for one another (Shinsou x Reader)

Masterlist

Warnings: just fluffy stuff; sappy crap that’s so sweet it will rot your teeth; probably rushed ending

A/N: idk how to feel about this. Well I never do lmao, but I love Shinsou and hope I did him justice. Most of my info about him is from tumblr tho so he’s probably OOC. Again, pls check out the amazing artist’s other work if you like the drawing!

You guys have always been destined to be close forever. Whether you met in kindergarten or high school, ever since you’ve entered each other’s lives there’s no leaving them

It’ll be difficult at first bc either both of you or just Shinsou will have a hard time opening up

It mainly lasts bc you guys realize that the other is way more tolerable than other people

You’ll just hang out more and more until you guys aren’t ever apart

Somehow you guys don’t distract each other from becoming heroes, but actually make it easier for one another

Even after high school. Your whole class stays close, but none as close as you and Shinsou. Though you rarely had free time, it would almost always be spent together

People often catch one of you giving heart eyes to the other while they aren’t looking. Or sometimes you guys will cuddle while watching a movie. But nothing more than that bc you guys are just friends right?

You guys even accidentally flirt with each other without even knowing

For the longest time others will think you’re dating, and you’ll have to correct them

It isn’t until you are hanging out with another one of your best friends, Mina, and she has to tell you that you are in love with him

You keep resisting as they give you more and more evidence and then it’ll just hit you

“oh shit, I’m in love with Toshi” you mumble as you stare into space

From then on you start to act weirder when you guys are together and he takes notice

He tells another one of his friends about it and they go through the same talk you did with Mina

“They’ve been acting really weird lately. Like not looking me in the eye and stumbling over their words and shit. Do you think I finally scared them away?”

“No, they like you, dumbass. And you like them back”

After 10 minutes of debate, “fuck I’m in love with my best friend.”

After all that, YOU GUYS STILL DONT TALK ABOUT IT!! Afraid of messing up the relationship, still oblivious to the fact the other person feels the same

You are honestly content just being together so the possibility of messing it all up wasn’t worth it

The only thing that has changed is that every so often one of you will attempt flirting, which makes the other flustered, which makes the flirter flustered too

It’s an awkward train wreck to everyone who witnessed it. Almost painful to watch.

On the other hand you guys are like “yay, progress”. Really are made for each other

Once you have to pair up with Mina for a mission and she has to see you two interact everyday, then she decides to meddle

“LETS PLAY SEVEN MINUTES IN HEAVEN!!!” Mina suggests even though you guys aren’t 16 anymore. You guys are at a kind of reunion with your former classmates that Mina is hosting at her apartment. No one is really opposed to the idea, but they aren’t fond of it either. You and Shinsou just give each other a worried glance.

“Since it was my idea, and this is my place, I choose Shinsou and Y/N to go in!” Mina yells dragging you two into her closet.

“Yea, not sure that’s how that works, Pinky.” Shinsou quipped while trying to get out of this.

“It is how that works because I say so. Time starts now! Have fun!” She slammed the door and started her timer excited to see the results of her master plan. She sat on the couch closest to the closet trying to hear what was going on. It had been at least halfway done and she still heard nothing. At this point the other few partygoers were making conversation, not nearly as invested as Mina. They knew you guys were into each other too, but they hadn’t had the chance to be around you guys much since graduating, and they know how to mind their business.

Mina basically has her ear on the door at this point (she’s not a perv, she just wants to say that she told you so). All of a sudden, her timer went off on her phone. Hearing the ringtone, you and Shinsou exit the closet. And to Mina’s surprise, you both look exactly the same as when you entered. No messy hair, no puffy lips, no embarrassed faces, NOTHING.

“Alright, lovebirds, how was the game?” She said moving her eyebrows.

“Fine, I guess. We just hung out in a closet,” Shinsou shrugged.

“Yea, we did get a quick game of 20 questions in there though.”

“WHAT THE HEEEEECCKKKK?!!!!” Mina whined. “Do you two knuckleheads not know the purpose of the game?! You’re in ‘heaven’! You’re supposed express your feelings for one another. At least kiss the other person! It would be one thing if you two were unfamiliar with one another, that’s fine if you don’t wanna play, BUT you two are unbelievably, obnoxiously into each other. You have been for years! Neither of you thought about making a move while you were in there?!”

You and Shinsou both look over at each other with wide eyes. At the same time you mutter, “…wait what?” Mina just face palms and walks away to get a drink. After her walking away, Shinsou was able to sneak you guys out to the balcony.

“Was what she was saying true? Is it that obvious I’m in love with you? Do you feel the same even?”

“Of course, Toshi. How could I not? You’re my ride or die. I love you even though you’re a stubborn idiot who couldn’t tell I’ve loved you since high school.”

“It’s not like you knew either. Also you didn’t have any plans of telling me anytime soon, now I see why seeing as you’re so great at romance.”

You stepped closer and put your arms on his shoulders, “oh you know I love you though, idiot.”

He wrapped his arms around your waist, rubbing gentle circles on your hip with his thumb, “Yea, you mentioned that.” He chuckles and you playfully hit him on the shoulder. After he’s done laughing he sees your pout and leans closer and closer. “I’ll never get tired of hearing it though. By the way, if you didn’t get the memo, I love you too, Y/N.” You can feel his warm breath on your face contrast with the cool breeze, but before you even notice he closes the gap between you. The kiss is so gentle and loving. Shinsou has wanted this for a while and doesn’t wanna fuck it up. When you start kissing him back though none of that matters. You’re both feel warm inside, yet still get goosebumps on your skin. You’re just happy. Shinsou puts his hand on the small of your back to pull you closer and your hands move up to run through his tousled hair.

There’s no telling how much time had passed, but you eventually let go. Shinsou pressed a few small pecks on your lips and then separated, putting his forehead against yours. You couldn’t keep your smiles off your faces. They stayed on your faces as you walked back inside just to leave again, secretly both heading back to your place. You thought you were being discreet, but a grin grew on Mina’s face as you guys said goodbye. She saw Shinsou’s blushed face and how you couldn’t look anyone in the eyes, so she assumed what had happened. She’ll rub it in your face later on how she right she was. Tonight you guys had a lot of catching up to do.