#i understand what some ppl mean when they say 'tools' but some people take that entirely too literally and end up making characters that

[majormeilani]

never been the biggest fan of people who subscribe solely to the writing advice "your characters are only tools to tell your story" and then make the most flat and least compelling characters you've ever seen. like rip to you if you're so detached from your own characters but i'm over here crafting characters for my audience to actually care about and have an impact on my audience and not making characters who are just solely Plot Device The Character

[im-a-hoping-beetch]

Many people genuinely get confused when we, native people, get uncomfortable when Katara, a native character, is reduced to a mom and her canon relationships with characters are put down in favour for a boy who lived in a society that benefitted from her oppression, antagonised her and her friends for most of the series and was even racist at times. But because he's hot and had an episode with katara, everything should be forgiven, because god forbid a native girl gets with anyone who isn't from a group of people who aided the genocide of her people. God forbid two characters who experienced genocide have a relationship and connect over this shared trauma, in favour for boy who also has mom trauma

Look, while I can understand your feelings of discomfort towards the ship, I’d still like to put certain things into perspective.

Now, I don’t really know what you meant by her being “reduced” to a mom. Do you mean that her relationship with Zuko would confine her to such a role? Which, by the way, is absolutely laughable, since one of the main reasons why so many ppl ship these two is bcz unlike every member of the gaang (aside from Suki), Zuko is the only one with who she doesn’t have to act like a surrogate mother. Katara is allowed to be angry and be vulnerable with him. All things that we rarely see her be able to do with the rest of the bunch, let alone her own brother.

Actually, one of the main appeal of the two is bcz, both have the same level of of maturity and similar way of interacting with the members of the gaang. Which is why so many ppl label the two as “parents of the group”.

But, if you’re talking about how, we zutarians usually talk abt the intricacies that come with her being a motherly person, I’ve got some news for ya. Most of us, usually, never fail to highlight how much of a tragedy, her being pushed into a role of adulthood at such a young age is. Also, on how, ironically, her canonical partner (Aang) has never really helped with that phenomenon, actually he perpetuated it even further.

Besides, wanna talk abt canon relationships being put down for a boy, well, look no further than canon itself, anon. I’m guessing that you’ve probably read this post, due to the phrasing at the beginning of your ask. One thing I specifically touched on, was how much of Katara’s existence seems to revolve around Aang, the biggest example being, the comics. In them, we do see the creators ready to strain Katara’s established relationships with the gaang (aside from her brother) in order to shove kataang down our throats. Cuz if you think abt it, Toph and Katara’s interactions are heavily reduced, let alone meaningful ones and do not even get me started on Zuko or Suki.

Yes, Zuko lived in a society that benefited from her oppression. He has antagonized her and her friends. But Zuko is also made to recognize the harm his actions have caused. Additionally, at no point is he not faced with the consequences of what he has done towards the gaang. Every single member gets to express anger or/and resentment over what he’s done in the past, Katara is no exception. Actually, she’s the one who’s given the most leeway in terms of doing so. Even for things he had no control over such as her mother’s death and the fire nation raids. However, instead of whining about how he’s not responsible for all of this taking place, something he could’ve easily done, he makes it up to her. He helps her seek justice for her mother while her canonical future boyfriend is out here reducing her righteous anger to blindsided revenge.

I don’t know what you mean by “Because He’s hot and had an episode with her, everything should be forgiven.” To me, that last part owed to make me scratch all the dandruff off my braids. Language is a powerful tool, but often than not, people don’t really know how to use it nor seem to understand the ramifications of their use. When you say “everything should be forgiven”, you are framing forgiveness as something passive, when, here, it is active. Someone does the action of forgiving Zuko, Katara does. Katara forgives him, because he earned it.

Right now, I’m assuming that you thought you were in defence of Katara, but the truth is that you are actually perpetuating an habit that many have had when it comes to the Southern Raiders. Which is to perpetually strip any agency Katara has in an episode literally centered around her character!?!

Nobody forbid anyone from anything. If people don’t feel comfortable shipping these two, so be it. However, to act as if Zuko hasn’t actively fought against the system that has led to those atrocities being done or like he hasn’t used his position of power in order to make actual change or/and retributions, is simply disingenuous.

Aang and Katara did have a relationship, but have never connected over their shared trauma. More specifically, Aang failed to connect over their shared trauma, when he should have and instead used as a way to silence hers. @sokkastyles makes a very good point about it in this post.

[marsprincess889]

Why I don't use nakshatras in D9 (navamsa)

And why you should not either.

We all know the basic traits of zodiac signs, their archetypes and how symmetrical and cool they look. Nakshatras are constellations(lunar mansions) WITHIN the zodiac signs, actual points/stars in the sky that have mythologies and associations attributed to them, affirmed by the observable patterns of their natives.

D9/navamsa is chart that shows in which division each planet falls in, and those divisions are each sign divided by nine, making each nakshatra consist of 4 those(known as padas).

Now, each pada has a zodiac sign attributed to it. So, planets in in the same nakshatra but in different padas have different(minor, but still different) effects. For example, my venus is in Gemini(punarvasu) in the Gemini pada, making it vargottama(same sign and pada), thus strengthening it.

So, the placements of the planets in signs of D9 aren't their placements in the actual conatellations in which they sit, and in no way hold the same weight. Nakshatras are already divions within signs, which are larger than padas. There are no nakshatras in D9 because you cannot pretend that 4 degrees(approx.) Are 30 and divide the divisions further 😭

Obviously, I have not said that padas/D9 have no effect, they do, but signs in D9 are not the same as signs in D1. Signs in D9 are more hypothetical and cannot be interpreted the same way that signs in D1 can.

Hope I explainted it clearly and in a way that helps you understand.

If you guys use nakshatras in D9 I genuinely need to know why and hear your reasons. So, please interact.

PS: I've noticed there's an unnecessarily big emphasis being placed on navamsa online. I assume it's because some sources say it's the chart of your "future spouse"(as in, you can know all about them from it). I think another reason is that people(young people esp.) look at astrology as an entertainment and a tool, while still taking it VERY seriously. Guys, it's not that serious. These are just patterns that yes, you should have fun with but don't you think we(not me, lol) put a lot of pressure on ourselves and others by overanalyzing? We don't need to complicate things or try to fit our lives to what our charts/astrologers say. Astrology should fit YOU, not the other way around.

And if you feel like what popular astrologers say about nakshatras/placements/aspects does not resonate with you, there's no need to look for divisional charts or additional information to justify this or that in a person's life. Look at what's obvious, simple and important, like a moon nakshatra, and know that you've discovered/observed something new about it. We all need originality 🙂

I have not seen anyone associate Bharani with Rapunzel, but it felt so real and true to me and I knew it in my heart that there was a connection. When I posted that article other Bharani natives(and ppl with important points in Bharani) told me how they too relate to that story and how much it means to them. Thaf made me so happy. That's what astrology and observations should be about 🤍

[strongestrat]

HIIIII HI HELLO ENTROPY ZERO PEOPLE IT IS I AND I HAVE COME TO DEFEND AIDEN WALKER/BAD COP AND IF U THINK HES ANNOYING UR WRONG AND SHOULD FEEL BAD /j

Bad cop in entropy zero 1 wasn't exactly the blank slate people expect from half life games/mods, but he didn't have much depth-- all we really knew back then was that he was quippy and very good at his job. He doesn't like people at all and is loyal to the combine to a fault, but we don't know his past, what his motivations are, and we kind of don't need to. EZ1 is about survival in a harsh environment where everything and anything is trying to kill u and u just sort of stop a gigantic rebel plot by accident and u get a shiny (mandatory) promotion out of all of it.

Entropy zero 2's writing is really fucking underappreciated because it takes that basic framework and elaborates on it ingeniously. When he insults people he kills or says "people suck" its not because he's quirky or some kind of generic marvel character it's because people do genuinely fucking SUCK. They used a mentally ill man as a scapegoat for a crime he was a victim of that cost him his family, locked him in a prison/care facility and tried to "change" him. Because he wasn't "normal" to their standards. They stripped him of every single comfort and right he had, every reason he ever had to care about a human being, not just the justice system and prosecutors who failed him and the caretakers who likely neglected or mistreated him but the people who hurt his family and took his daughter and the people who likely discriminated against him simply for existing in a neurotypical society.

This also gives Aiden a degree of separation from loyalty to the combine. He's not just evil for the sake of it he wants to find his daughter Ava and the combine's family cohesion perks are the only chance he has. He's loyal but only because he has an incentive to, and he won't hesitate to kill anyone, and I do mean *anyone*, including his coworkers and a fucking COMBINE ADVISOR if he thinks they can't help him or are trying to stop him from finding Ava. He's good at his job but gets in trouble for killing other cops in a rage induced stupor (not unlike victor-sixty) and of course because these are cops and his boss likes him the chief lets him go with a slap on the wrist and "outland duty" because he is "worth 10 of those guys", and he fucking IS. And Aiden takes it like a champ bc he will do fucking anything to find Ava. His Humor doesn't resonate with everyone and that is understandable (some ppl find him annoying and hes not for everyone), but he's not trying to be funny for funny's sake! He's using it as a coping mechanism for the fact that he has nothing else left and he's being lead along in the hope that he can regain atleast SOMETHING from his old life.

And of course, there is the master template (clone cop) and wilson. I love u wilson and u are definitely the canon ending but i wish i didnt have to babysit u without feeling bad I am getting sidetracked

A clone plot is hard to pull off and in most cases fails spectacularly but in Entropy Zero 2 it just fucking works. Clone cop/master is just the older clone of Aiden but fucking UNHINGED. His loyalty to the combine is gone because he realized they're just using him as an effective tool, and the moment he gets Ava he has no reason to fight for them anymore. So naturally he RIPS OUT A PART OF HIS FUCKING SKULL AND SUSTAINS HIMSELF WITH BOOTLEG CYBERNETICS (I am not joking EZ2 is good at environmental storytelling u can find his fucking skullcap in his little laboratory just before plan B) there are so many little details I noticed on clone cop just before escorting judith on how he butchered himself just to stay independent and have a better chance at finding Ava. His will is fuckign unbreakable which feeds directly into his relationship with the player character Aiden. Clone cop is less of a clone then the Aiden u play as is!!! He even has the prototype AR2! In contrast, the Aiden u play as is clearly modified-- He's much more loyal to the combine but his will isn't unbreakable, and while Wilson doesn't directly factor into whether or not he chooses to fight the Advisor Wilson is CRUCIAL. Clone cop is methodical, using the survival skills from the events of the first game to subvert the rebels, the wildlife, even the combine-- The player character Aiden in turn is (arguably) less badass then Clone cop precisely because they modified him to be more loyal, taking away some of that incredible will and tenacity to try and keep him under wraps. This is proven in the there will be darkness ending where Aiden is mowed down like a standard grunt as soon as his memories/what makes him himself are taken from him.

THE WILSON ENDING IS THE CANON ENDING. THIS IS NOT UP FOR DEBATE.

Wilson is such a fucking important support friend for Aiden because he actually gets the chance to talk with something that isn't a human and is very sympathetic. Aiden goes from being fed up with him and using him as a survival tool to being genuinely concerned for him over the course of the game, Wilson is at first just a way for Bad cop to escape the lab beneath arbiet and maybe pick up supply caches scattered across the other arbiet facilities and sure MAYBE that's the only reason that Aiden brings him along at first but Wilson is very nice and sympathetic and he doesn't judge Aiden and it just. Gives Aiden a chance to rant about his feelings and open up and remember things instead of taking medication and bottling all of his emotions up. Wilson in turn is just thankful to escape the labs beneath arbiet and maybe have a chance at becoming an administrator AI one day if Aiden uploads him into the arbiet AI mainframe!!!! And the coolest part out of all of this is that clone cop only used Wilson as a tool and didn't really care about him but someone like Wilson is exactly what he needed to start healing!!! And the fact that Wilson is able to infiltrate the combine network undetected and free Aiden from the Combine when he's captured out of unconditional love and the fact that "hes da boss" is fucking GREATI am just fucking! Going insane!!! Its so well written!

In entropy zero 3 wilson and aiden will destroy the combine forever and victor sixty will also be there and he and Aiden will get married (real)

[detectivehole]

hey man the anti-AI stuff you reblog is rly. Reactionary idk how else to put it. It’s a mixed bag. AI has been used in art for a LONG time, it’s not as new as ppl think it is. It’s used a lot in animation especially. Obviously there is a difference between AI as a tool and AI as a replacement for artists/writers, but nearly every single instance of them attempting this has been catastrophically bad. (Doesnt stop the dumbass studios like Disney and Pixar to keep trying it tho, bc they value short term profit over any actual value) For AI being used in a professional setting, it’s imperative the distinction be made between tool or replacement. Machines, despite how efficient they have become, are managed by humans. Letting them run without a person actually operating it that knows what they’re trying to do is always a bad idea.

However, using AI generated pics for like. Personal use? Let’s say you aren’t a good artist, or as many have pointed out, can’t be an artist due to disability (none of that inspiration porn abt painting w your mouth some ppl can’t do that either.) and you’d like a picture of your Tabletop game character or OC or something, and you do not have the money to spare for a commission from the artist you like. Doesn’t mean you can’t pay for one later on, as a human will take the finer details you want and bring them to life, but if you’re looking for like. A placeholder? And you aren’t planning on selling it or some shit, then ppl shouldnt get on your case. Except every anti-AI bro now hears “AI” and flies into a frothing rage, saying it’s “never ok”. Nobody should care of somebody made a meme using AI or tried to make something just for themselves or friends. It becomes an issue when it’s being marketed as a “replacement” for artists.

Tldr: AI is a useful tool, the tech bros that got a hold of ot do not represent the entire scope of it. If it is used as a tool or personal use, it’s not an issue. It only becomes one when it is used as an explicit replacement for writers/artists.

i agree with the first paragraph, though im a little insulted you'd assume my knowledge and opinions on AI image generation were so shallow and uninformed as to have to explain it to me- but you lost me after that

first off, i wanna make it clear that basically no one thinks you're some sort of amoral monster for having used or even enjoyed what AI image generation and art can give you. most people genuinely don't understand the intricacies of its ethics and effects, and while ignorance like that is annoying, it's something most people who do get it understand and forgive with a sorta... exasperation. most of the time. now, maybe you're not coming from a place of good faith, i can't say, but i choose to think you are

i don't have the chops, time, or particular desire to explain what exactly is wrong with AI art generation (there's a lot in way too many directions), so i'll just give you a link to get you started (it's not a long read, just some basic critiques to jump from) and some admittedly harsh sounding (but well meant) advice that pertains to your particular use of AI:

you dont always get what you want. you're not entitled, for any reason, to the fruits of stolen (and popular AI datasets have been proven to unequivocally be stolen) artistic labor, especially if that theft is impacting the livelihoods of independent artists. (and don't give me "what about other generic media piracy" because that's its own can of worms and you know it. i won't hear it). it's not the end of the world that you have, but it's just not ethical to generate that art knowing it's based off stolen work- if it was all consensually given data it'd be different- and sometimes behaving ethically means you dont get what you want. tough shit. plenty of people can't or won't draw for all sorts of reasons, and none of those reasons suddenly make it ok for them to take other people's art

to be clear, if all the datasets used to train AI were ethically sourced- bought, donated, or taken from free use material- this wouldn't be an issue. i mean there would still totally be issues with casual generative AI, but this particular issue would be moot. the issue with AI art isn't the AI, it's what the AI's being fed. every time you engage with it gets smarter, and better, and more efficient at chewing up its stolen foods and spitting out a knockoff. the issue is what it's being fed and you are putting tokens in the little treat machine at its petting zoo enclosure

you want a placeholder? you got picrew. doll dress up games. hell, pester your friends for doodles. save up. or even just learn to handle not getting it at all- just pick something else

[broodsys]

been on the fence about saying this. don't really want to become a politicized blog, but still, i think it's worth mentioning

but over the last few years, i've been noticing a trend - just personally noticing, i'm not saying it's exclusive to the last few years bc i doubt it is - about leftist people becoming radicalized in ways rooted in exclusivity

and the thing is, this happens. propaganda works. exposure to ideas works. and then, once the beliefs begin to take root, there's a reactiveness there, a defensiveness, that becomes harder and harder to get around. i say this as someone who's been there, and is really determined to never return. but it takes intention

so, one thing i've been seeing a lot of since the election is a wave of hating all men. i get it. really, i do. but i am here to gently, compassionately remind ppl that this is the exact opening te/rfs look for. this is their in. they'll like your posts about hating men. they'll establish a connection, a rapport

some other points about the All Men Are Awful Monsters discourse:

harms trans men, like myself. contributes to us feeling like accepting the gender we are is harmful, damaging, etc. makes us more likely to stay in the closet. also works to exclude trans men - especially those who pass - from queer spaces

speaking personally, when ppl seem to accept the fact that i'm a man but turn around and disparage all men, i feel like they view me as a woman-turned-man, or a Man Lite, or something else along those lines. i'm not! i'm just a guy.

harms trans women. whether through arguments of "male socialization," or considering the penis to be a tool of violence rather than just genitalia, or through only accepting them provisionally, if they're feminine enough, if they pass enough, etc

harms all trans people, including nonbinary people, because it demonizes the role of masculinity; whether that's a past role for them, or a present role, or a partial/sometimes role, or something else entirely

harms disabled men, neurodivergent men, queer men, POC men, etc.

specifically works to support some really heinous stereotypes about certain groups of men, like Black men

and also

makes men - including cishet, white, able-bodied men, privileged men - less likely to escape their own radicalization. i don't expect this point to matter to everyone, but if any of your personal activism work revolves around deradicalization, i think this has to be one of your tenets

and none of this is to say:

that you have to admire or forgive men who do bad things

that you have to forgive men who have abused you or others

that you have to accept patriarchy

that you cannot speak of your own abuse or struggles

that you must, personally, guide every man to what is "right"

that you cannot point out things like how western men have voted in the recent election

it's really just about questioning the "all men" phrasing. i understand where it's coming from. i get the pushback against the "not all men" argument, i really do. i sympathize with the frustrations. but anytime you take a whole entire demographic and label them in one way, you are limiting your own perspective, whether that's your intent or not

the language we use matters. that includes the language we use in our own thoughts. repetition creates pathways, pathways become familiar routes, familiar routes become ingrained, and ingrained routes become very, very difficult to question. yes, you know that your "all men" is really just saying "all men who do bad things," but brains are silly. all men can eventually come to mean all men. all of them. forever. and even if that wasn't true, your "all men" might mean "all men who do bad things," but you'll draw in people who think you literally mean every single man

i'm not trying to shame anyone. i'm not trying to start an argument. i'm just saying, from experience, that this is something to be aware of. and even if the potential harm to men and trans people doesn't really matter to you, i'd hope that most of the people following me don't want to be sought after for recruitment by te/rfs, so that's something to keep in mind

[navree]

lol yeah, it was on Twitter. it was brought up today when someone made a post on how aegon was/is alicent’s favorite. ppl jumped in questioning how alicent can truly love and choose her son when he’s a rapist and then things devolved from there. 🥲

anyways, i don’t want to bother you with my pre-baked thoughts and opinions so feel free to ignore but i feel like the writers are trying to tell two different, somewhat conflicting narratives - one, how it was only the patriarchy that stole the chosen one’s throne, and two, how the throne devours anyone and everyone who seeks it, causing characterization and storylines to clash.

imo the show lacks intersectionality. there are three main-ish characters they could use to explore this: cole, an ethnic minority and low-born (we know he’s not from some high noble home) who holds his knighthood, the epitome of a noble man, in high regard when in actuality they’re all protecting a corrupt system, Larys, who I remember during the hunt episode said he can’t partake in “things of men” or something like that due to his disability, and aegon, who inherited a birthright and role just because he was born male yet he doesn’t want it and doesn’t want what comes with being a targaryen son.

idk, these are just some thoughts. the patriarchy is a tool used to protect power and it affects women and men. all this to say, maybe they should have thought twice about making aegon a rapist (not every “bad” guy has to be a rapist).

First things first, sorry that Alicent feels a deep and unabiding love for her kids even when they do bad things, idk who hurt y'all but my mom once flat out told me that if I killed someone in cold blood she'd still love me even if was also disappointed.

(and also there's something about aegon being alicent's first kid and what he represented in a very lonely time in her life and all the complexities around their relationship and how they'll draw closer but i've discussed that a fair amount already in other posts)

I think you're hitting onto something when it's come to conflicting narratives within the show. I've mentioned this before, but this show has a significantly larger writing room than GOT and nearly every episode has a different writer, which means we've got ten different people telling their own stories in the midst of the overall story and eventually all coming into conflict. There's also just a lot of missed opportunities, like how Criston and Larys have interesting stories (one is an ethnic minority from a place that isn't even a part of the Seven Kingdoms and is at frequent odds with them as well as being lowborn, one is physically disabled and clearly discriminated against in his patriarchal culture due to that) that just aren't being explored, which I think is also due to how they rushed the timeline in this season. It does make the writing disjointed, and you get Rhaenys still bitter about being passed over one episode and then telling Corlys to let it go because she has the next, Aegon the irreverent rapist in one episode and then the guy who is willing to protect his mother from a dragon before she stops him in the next, etc. People can clash with themselves on occasion, that's called character growth, but when it just happens out of the blue because one guy wrote one thing and then the next guy wrote the other, it's just weird.

I'm always a bit leery of "the patriarchy affects men too" takes because, I mean yeah but that's realllllly not the main issue, that's a several rungs down the ladder sort of issue, but the show does have a problem in that it has a very surface level understanding of things like the patriarchy and sexism and how misogyny comes into play with other issues like class divide and rigid social structures and caste systems. That's why there's this odd thing they're doing with the idea that Rhaenya "Chosen By The White Hart Like This Is Actually The Last Unicorn" Targaryen is going to solve sexism just by being a woman on the throne and not delving deeper into that and the complex political power structures that rely on misogyny in Westeros. It's a very shallow understanding and it can make for a shallow story.

Aegon being a rapist meanwhile is just such an incredibly stupid and inconsequential choice that I hate for such a myriad of reasons that honestly? Unless they do something more substantial with that in upcoming seasons I'm gonna start ignoring it the way Viserys ignores his children because it is giving nothing. It's an especially galling choice because a) Aegon should not be "the bad guy", he is the leader of the other major faction in a full civil war, we should be getting his point of view and understanding his point of view and as TGC said, introducing him first thing as a predator turns a lot of people immediately off with no hope of getting them back and b) everything else they've done with Aegon is stuff I've really liked. Aegon wanting love so desperately but feeling like he's never gotten it and how that permeates his every interaction with the world, Aegon needing to be drunk constantly to cope with daily life because of how pained he feels (and specifically apparently needing to get blackout drunk before he engages in any sexual act, as told to us by Helaena, which is just such a wonderfully horrible bit of character information I don't see anyone discussing), Aegon being by and large a bit of a shit person but still feeling his affections deep down, like giving Helaena a present after "cheating" on her and immediately defending Aemond against Luke after he couldn't before and choosing to go along with Aemond and lie for Alicent even when his dad was screaming at him because for whatever else, even beyond bullying and forced incest marriages and feeling like his mom doesn't love him that's still his family and he does love them even if he thinks they don't love him back, his genre awareness, the way he, like Alicent, is doing his duty by becoming king even though he doesn't want it and hates everything about it and is terrififed of his fate. There's genuinely so much they've done with Aegon that's made him such a brilliant character to me, and one that I want to see more of (TGC I wanna see the Emmy winning acting in season 2, I know you can do it). So having this one stupid choice mucking it all up is incredibly annoying and so futile to the story at large, I hate it, I wanna kill it with dragonfire.

[hometownrockstar]

VERY simplistic guide on setting up world info, author's notes and memory for AI Dungeon

This is to get the AI to remember the max amount of detail and go more in-depth and behave less randomly, helpful if you want to make it act out specific scenes and characters, and its fun :-) again, this is much simplified to hopefully help ppl who don't know anything abt AI Dungeon, if you want more in-depth info check this whole sheet

This will get kinda long, so i will put it under a cut :-)

Now: setting up your adventure. Make a new one, and use a custom setting. I also recommend clicking on the "Do" button in the text box to make it "Story", this way you can write in pure prose and storytelling, the AI will also pick up on this style as you continue to write in it. You should also switch to 3rd Person, which you can do by going to the cog menu > 3 dots > Edit Adventure

Now to set up your World Info for this story: go to the cog menu, scroll down until you see World Info, then you'll be on the world info screen. There's these category tabs you can click on to put your world info into, to keep it organized.

click on Create New World Info, ignore all the stuff that just opened, and click on Manual Entry.

Here's where it gets complicated, BUT! I have tools that can format the complicated parts for you! I'm just gonna summarize what it all means.

This is called Zaltys formatting, its meant to minimize text to fit the word limit and maximize understanding for the AI. Now if this looks daunting to write yourself, don't worry: Go to this site and fill out the categories, hit refresh, then copy that text and paste it into the entry. it automatically formats it in this style for you :-)

How to use the site: Category is the all caps sections (ex. APPEAR), Attribute is the trait you're putting into it (ex. hair), and clicking the plus sign next to the attribute adds a Refinement which are the details about that trait (ex. brown/ponytail)

Not all of the sections have to be filled out, just put whatever info you think is most important. I have read about some people making separate World Info entries where they put in the keywords for characters and put info like hobbies and stuff which would only be important to load in the story in certain circumstances (for example, having a character who plays piano, but making a separate entry so this info only loads when they are in a room with a piano)

Extra details or summarization of backstories or anything else should go in SUMMARY, if you want to make a character with they/them pronouns i recommend stating it here and ALSO in the Story memory. It is much more consistent than trying to say theyre genderless or nonbinary, though it does often pluralize things in sentences. Neopronouns haven't worked that well when i experimented but hypothetically if you keep editing the results and continued to use them, the AI could get the hang of it. I have not tested this with characters who use multiple pronouns.

The keys section is where you put any words that will come up in the story that signify this character, most common being their name, but you can also do titles like "doctor" or "knight" or "bookworm", AS LONG AS they are the only character associated with these words. if you have multiple characters who's info is triggered by the word "doctor", the AI won't know who to associate with it.

This format is obviously useful for characters but you can also use it for locations, there are specific category words best used for locations but i have not played around with it myself yet, i recommend looking at the guide i linked at the start for info on that. Below is a chart from that guide that explains the categories a bit better

Other things about World Info: I suggest also adding entries that are relevant to the story, like places or groups the story and characters take place in. Like if you have a character who works at an evil science company, you should make a faction world info entry that describes the company. it can be simple, just saying it has highly advanced technology and is very powerful. you should also mention it by name, either putting in the faction's info that the Character is a high-ranking official of the company or mentioning the company in the Character's SUMMARY info.

About Memory and Author's Note in the cog menu

This instructs the AI on how to respond and write. I'll try to keep it brief but Memory is like World Info that is always active to the AI (unlike World Info which is only active when triggered with a key word), and Author's Note is instructing the AI how to write the story (literally formatted like an invisible A/N inserted between sentences only the AI sees)

Here's an example of a Memory and A/N setup:

The difference can be subtle sometimes but i think of Memory as more tangible things like the environment, scene, and character relations, and Author's Note as the prose and themeing of the story. Here is a site with words to use for the writing style/genre/ect. Examples of good category words to use in the Author's Note: author, writing style, genre, theme, setting, scene, format, goal, situation, storyline

[eyesofmyers]

actually now that i'm thinking abt it again (bc of my prev rb'd post) I wanna blast some words into the void about BPD. as someone who is diagnosed and obsessed (and i mean OBSESSED) with self improvement.

self awareness does not always equal work/change. not everyone who is aware of their behaviours is working on them. most of the time (imo) this is because the issue is more comfortable for the borderline to sit in and the possibility of change is uncomfortable.

having a bpd diagnosis does not mean the person is automatically an abuser/abusive. this goes for any cluster b! or any disorder really! that being said, not all of us are innocent, either. it shouldnt be romanticized. just use critical thinking skillz when interacting with people.

a LOT of media demonizes bpd, and makes it harder for ppl w bpd to actually find meaningful resources and representation. when every article is about how evil we are, there comes a tendency to stay quiet and hide ourselves.

the best way to navigate a relationship with someone who has bpd is to communicate, and encourage communication!!! obviously, if they are hurting you and are NOT receptive to communicating, you should take the steps to getting them out of your life. But, that can be said about anybody.

some things are not your responsibility as a person in their (the diagnosed persons) life. some things are, but they are, quite frankly, optional. yes, it would be nice if people in my life took it upon themselves to do more or less of certain things to "accomodate" me. but sometimes being "accomodating" is harmful, too, because some people mix up what is accomodating and what is enabling.

for example, I need to relearn attachment. I have unhealthy attachment styles that comes with learned helplessness. One part of this is expecting a lot of things to be done for me instead of by me. I had a friend who would "accomodate" by doing things for me. Neither of us knew it in the moment, but that was actually enabling my unhealthy attachment style and learned helplessness. Accomodating me would have actually looked like giving me the tools to do the Thing on my own, showing me that it is safe to do so.

Honestly I have a lot to say but I want to wrap this post up with simply saying: use ur brainz. On both ends of these relationships. Think about it. Communicate about it. Be candid, be honest and specific. Werking together for greater understanding is the ultimate achievement. And REMEMBER: Nobody will always assume your needs. Speak up!

[yrbshay]

Think of law of assumption like everything is already written out for you. You’re gonna get good grades, or the car you want or financial freedom etc bc it’s already written and it’s done. Affirmations and scripting are just ways to REMIND yourself what IS true. Affirmations change nothing bc it is already done!! It’s already written out. Your mind knows before you even speak that that’s what is true. It’s having faith. Be consistent and dedicated and disciplined.

Mental diet is LITERALLY what it means. You know that if you are going on a proper diet it helps you become healthier and lose weight. It’s guaranteed. People struggle with dicipline when they don’t see the results they want immediately. I personally can speak because I used to give up on diets so quick. Once I started being diciplined and consistent I lose a ton of weight and it felt like all at once. Well mental diet is no different. And it actually works faster than a regular diet but you need to shift your focus to HOW you think and perceive things and less on the manifesting part. Your desires will come with a strong mental diet.

Law of assumption takes literlaly REWIRING your brain and training it do do something different than what’s it’s used to. We are used to speaking negatively and having negative beliefs bc that’s just how society taught us. Unlearn bad habits and replace them with good ones. It is a complete lifestyle and it makes you view your whole life differently. The scripting, affirmations, stats etc. are literally just tools to help you. They aren’t the cause of why you got what you want. YOU we’re the cause. Your mindset and thoughts about yourself. It’s how you essentially view how your life is written out.

Also Law of assumption is just a term. It is a real thing. I am getting my degree in psychology and it has been proven to me multiple times that your perception and beliefs of life is literally what you see in your reality it literally molds and shapes it.

The Bible also has so much more on these same exact concepts but I feel like in more depth. I would love to speak on it more because I’m tried and true to my faith and in god but I know people hold negative assumptions toward that… but all I’m saying is wisdom is a powerful thing. So I will leave you with these simple basic concepts and hopefully you can understand more about “law of assumption” or basically just how life works lmaooo.

It’s not hard girlies(and men). Like at all. You don’t need coaching. (ThAts why I don’t offer it anymore and I just answer questions at no cost bc this shit is so easy and it doesn’t have to cost money. Id only be robbing you bc that is a just a crutch to lean on. Oh I need coaching. You DONT need coaching. I get people need to make a living but it’s completely unnecessary. There’s no secret behind coaching at all and it is very much a crutch. I have a tip jar but it isn’t required at all and yes most ppl don’t tip but that’s okay bc I love teaching.) You don’t need new affirmations. You guys rely on that shit too much and tbh you will never get it if you don’t realize it’s not affirming its literllay your whole mindset. Affirmations just help your confidence but aren’t the sole reason behind why you can manifest. I gonna write down some success stores so hopefully you guys will be motivated bc I was after I heard them from my friends, husband, people I’ve helped.

I’m not saying affirmations don’t help at all or stats bc they for sure help so much bc you don’t give time for your mind to think negatively. BUT what I am saying is people hold the belief that what they are doing wrong is not saying affirmations enough of they are saying it wrong. IT IS LITERALLY YOUR MINDSET that you need to fix . Not affirmations. They are just tools. Like I said you have to view life like this is already written out & this is how it’s gonna go. It literally can’t go any other way because that’s just the law and there’s no changing it. But there is changing your mindset to match how your life is gonna go. The reason it goes differently is because you believe that that’s how your life is.

Imma wrap it up. Happy manifesting because this isn’t hard and stop capping like you don’t know you will literally receive your desires immediately because that’s just how your life is written out.

Reminder: DMS are open where you can ask questions for FREE.

[sofipitch]

☕️ intelligence/emotional capacity of animals (do you think our current understanding over or underestimates which creatures are capable of complex thought, self awareness, etc)

Okay this is something I am super passionate about. So for a long time researchers were in the underestimating category. However I also think some people, like the ppl with the talking buttons are in the overestimating category.

So for the first one science wasn't interested in animal intelligence for a long time bc it didn't seem like something worth studying. Many religions and philosophies will say humans are distinctly special from animals, and I have heard ppl say this a fair amount in biology and psychology classes. Which is just something that annoys me because it is a statement with no backing, and often times the line in the sand of what separates humans from animals will be surpassed by some animal and then ppl will come up with a new one (we've been "beholding a man" for a lot of human history now 🥱). One famous example is when Jane Goodall recorded Chimpanzees using sticks to fish for termites, which was evidence of tool use (considered at the time a unique and defining trait of humans), her mentor, paleontologist Louis Leaky said, “Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as human.”

However the beginning of a lot of animal intelligence research still involved testing animal's ability to act like humans, such as trying to get chimps to talk and act like humans. The most horrifying example being Gua who was a baby chimp raised by the Kelloggs at the same time as their own human child, to see if they could essentially raise a chimp into a human. I think a lot of studies about whether animals can talk have this issue. Even beloved ones like Koko the Gorilla, her signing is about as scientific as a Rorschach inkblot test, it often requires a lot of interpretation that cannot be confirmed in an experiment. We decided that something we do is the marker for intelligence, but just bc other animals don't communicate like we do or even think like we do does not mean that they aren't intelligent. Some people discount certain displays of animal intelligence as not intelligent bc they are seen as "intrinsic behavior", but we are social animals and count emotional intelligence as a type of intelligence. Is recognizing the emotions of others not intrinsic to social animals?

Each species has their own umwelt, which is the way they experience the world. We can't do some things such as sense electrical activity or see in infrared, inversely animals aren't going to talk or even display intelligence like we do. So researchers will have to get a little creative with their experiments of testing what animals do and don't know by taking a species' umwelt into account. Also somethings are just hard to define, like what is the line in the sand for complex thought? Self awareness also has that same issue. We inherently trust that other humans have self awareness and thoughts because we do. Behaviorists, scientists from a specific field of psychology will say that other people having thoughts or a mind is not something you can test in an experiment so we should not believe in it. You can't say other ppl have a mind bc you do, what if you are the ONLY person who has one (I'm not making this shit up my mentor in grad school was one of these ppl and this shit was unit one of the learning class). Cognitive psychology is the science of uncovering thought processes and while psychology has shifted in their direction, behaviorists still argue it's dumb. So yeah if ppl say that shit about humans you can imagine how hard it is to test in animals.

Anyways, some cool examples of potential complex thought are:

Moray Eels and Groupers working together to hunt: video of moray eel and grouper communicating and hunting together

Ravens can use water displacement to get something they can't reach: video

Irene Pepperberg's studies with African Grey Parrots are basically the best I've seen in terms of using human language to understand animal intelligence. Alex was taught various colors, shapes, material types, and count small thing and can then tell you about certain objects when prompted. What makes her interesting is the method for teaching the parrots was based not on humans but what parrot's umwelt and social behaviors. It was not recorded on camera but Pepperberg says one evening Alex asked her what color he was, implying self awareness: a long video on Pepperberg's experiments experiment comparing parrots to small children

There are also other phenomena observed in the wild such as animals such as apes, elephants, and cetaceans displaying mourning/funerary behavior over deceased animals they knew.

Another thing that people used to say is that humans were the only animals that had culture. Also, now being proven not to be true. I taught an animal behavior class and the textbook had an entire chapter on cultural transmission. Here's a cool video on one form of cultural transmission, whale songs

So, I don't think humans will ever sit down and have a conversation with a chimpanzee like a human, or they'll invent a way for dogs to speak to us in full sentences like the movie Up. However animals are more intelligent than they are often given credit for, there isn't a lot of evidence for animals being stimulus response machines as (especially behaviorists) previously thought.

Some good books if you are interested in the subject:

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are and Mama's Last Hug by Frans de Waal (he has more books that are probably good but those are the two I've read)

Through A Window by Jane Goodall

Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin

What a Fish Knows by Jonathan Balcombe

Beyond Words by Carl Safina

Inside a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz

The Emotional Lives of Animals by Marc Bekoff

[masterkirby]

group therapy week 3

we got to sit on the floor (mattress like pillows) today and the talking finally flowed more

the first "segment" was about work life after Al's question to Ja

Ja finished ethnography and did work in that field for state institutions where the money is dogshit even if the work is good and what you're passionate about...

Pi's words annoyed me a bit here cause while they were trying to be helpful, it was like basic annoying coaching stuff -- telling Ja to use their management skills (so the thing Ja didn't seem to enjoy and why they quit their job in the end...) beyond the world of ethnography where it sounded like that's the stuff that Ja wants to do and maybe they can't find a job precisely because some NGO corpo shit doesn't cut it

Pi annoyed me on another occasion today when I had my say on how, ok, it's cool that we can say that sth annoyed us in therapy (if we can, I wasn't able to tell Pi), but we can either escalate and that usually ends badly or we can take the responsibility for our anger because usually sth annoys us cause we're hungry or slept badly and im like... Yeah, ofc. But what about when sb is actually doing sth shitty and hurtful. Oh well.

Anyway, jobs. Ja also voiced how they hoped there would be more people their age to share similar problems or stop hearing about endless possibilities when it seems like they want to settle down or at least have a job contract type of job to start gathering benefits... And they seem the "free" type of person, they didn't want to get into academia cause it's too... hermetic & doesn't actually have much to do with real people hah

Hmm

So M told Ja later that they were angry for a bit that Ja voiced their age concerns that that means some kind of disregard and treating the group like test subjects or tools to find a job but they thought that over and reached the conclusion that that was an overreach -- but M said it out loud and to Ja so that was interesting because they were the most closed in themselves but say some of the most personal things; I caught them looking at me a few times even when I wasn't saying anything? I started worrying I might be hostile to them.

Generally I feel like part of a social experiment but that's ok. At least it's interesting but I don't feel able to open up for now.

Pa annoys me due to their similarity to types of ppl I dislike. The "I'm so empathetic and I just want to keep giving" types, and Pa even said today on one occasion that when they wanted to share a "they" story as a follow-up to what Ja was still in the process of saying, that when R cut them off, they felt that their good will wasn't acknowledged where they just wanted to GIVE. And I guess I want to get to know their psyche better to understand Ki who also seems so egotistic in their narration of "I just want to give my all to others"

Hnmn

K didn't say much. But they said to the work thing that nowadays we change jobs all the time and mostly we have to be good with people which just

Hurt so much

Just like what Pi was saying

Because us autists(?) don't get that in life, not easily at least. And I *need* to do sth I'm at least a bit passionate about. I can't be a lawyer firm marketing person like K.

Ad had a few personal stories to share and seems a bit neuroatypical as well? They were stressed over emails to the professor they have an internship with, cause the prof is chaotic and seems to have frequent mood changes and generally a chaotic and hard to read way of being. Ad also low-key threw in that they're queer which got no reaction which, well, if I felt I could ask, did they feel relieved that it was just accepted like that or if they wanted to talk more about it, get more reassurance.

Rite

Pi talked at the very end of the session about their feelings about their breakup, that they've eased into work so are feeling the breakup more now. And that they feel the asshole. But also that they're looking for the reasons why they look for romantic relationships in the first place. So they felt compelled to tinder but didn't , because they didn't want that way of gratification and perhaps falling into another thing.

This is where Ad talked about their own feelings and anxieties to do with that app. That they try their best masks as a cure for loneliness but, well, it doesn't work.

Also Pi, ever playing the group coach, casually threw in that they did a PhD in chemistry during COVID cause why not, secure money and then they wanted to quit but the institute didn't want to let them, cause money, so for the next two years they were only formally doing that PhD and just had to write their thesis and boom. They have my dream of YEARS just like that. Amazing how life is. Miej wyjebane a będzie Ci dane?

Disclosure: I like Pi tho, they seem authentically kind.

I feel some affection for Ja, Al, Pi and Ad

Pa, M, and K make me feel uneasy

Jo is soft but I worry for them in their softness

[thefinalwitness]

it's time for my monthly rant about ppl who disparrage humans in fantasy and how Nonsensical that whole idea even is :)

i always hate seeing "humans are boring/i hate fantasy stories that focus on human characters" takes bc it's like bruh YOU'RE human???? what do you mean you hate the simplest narrative tool to creative a frame of reference and familiarity in an otherwise alien setting, you NEED that if you want humans in the real world to be able to read and follow your story???? if you just throw 100% fantasy with no obvious "reader perspective" tool you just create a completely inaccessible pile of words or pictures that have no gripping power because it's completely alien.

and this doesn't have to be "human main character"! there are a billion ways to create a frame of reader perspective, but all of them pretty much REQUIRE humanity because that's what readers ARE. you can't make a story 100% about elves or dragons without APPLYING humanity overtop them, because the story would be unintelligible! the only way you can make elves and dragons truly unique, non-human races is by putting humanity SOMEWHERE, be that in literally human characters or another culture that serves as humanity's stand-in.

it's just so mind boggling to me bc every person i've ever talked to about this explicitly DOES use humanity in all their non-human ocs they claim are more interesting to them. the thing that interests you IS THE HUMANITY!!!!! your character having complex emotions and intelligence and morality IS HUMANITY!!!!!!!!! THERE IS NOTHING ELSE YOU CAN PULL THIS CONCEPT FROM IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE!!!!!! THE COMPLEXITY YOU'RE USING IS HUMAN!!!!!!! ELVES AND DRAGONS AND FANTASY DOESN'T EXIST WITHOUT HUMANITY BC HUMANS MADE IT!!!!!!!!!

the reason there are so many humans and so much humanity in fantasy is literally because fantasy was made BY humans FOR humans. you literally cannot separate the two. you NEED humanity in some form in your story or the story is Literally Unintelligible. you anthropomorphize every non-human thing you touch or create because you are Human and that's How You Understand Things. if we meet real honest to fuck aliens someday you will NEVER understand them EXCEPT through your lens of humanity, i know this because the same is true for the animals we've already been sharing the earth with for millions of years.

dogs understand everything through the lens of being a dog. they can understand you are Not A Dog but they can still only understand you AS a dog because we cannot separate our literal existence from what we absorb or create. fantasy IS humanity, we are the only known creatures capable of it, and we are THE only creatures that can do it the way we do it because we do it humanly, you cannot remove humanity from fantasy. and i just think trying to deny or "ok but" your way around this fact is doing a weird disservice to how much humanity SERVES your creativity? you are disparraging the thing that makes your fantasy POSSIBLE. you are praising warm walls and cooked food and saying "fire is boring, i don't want fire in my warmth". it handicaps you because you DENY yourself the opportunity and ABILITY to understand HOW you create what you love, especially when you lean into the idea that humans TAKR AWAY from fantasy. humans are the only reason fantasy EXISTS my dude!!!!!!

i think the trapping a ton of these people fall into is, in one way or another, failing to understand that making a story or narrative or character is A Skill that requires Tools And Knowledge. you cannot make a meaningful, interesting story by vibing your way through it, you have to understand the Rules and Tools you're using. humanity is one of these tools; it makes your story, and i keep using this word because it's accurate, LEGIBLE. humans cannot read your story if it has no humanity in it because we understand information THROUGH our humanity. that's WHY anthropomorphism exists, that is us taking an objectively non-human thing and humanizing it because we CANNOT understand it otherwise. we cannot understand dogs as dogs because we are not dogs, but we CAN understand a FRACTION of them if we apply humanity to them.

that's the way it is in science because science is a completely different form of coherency and understanding than fictional writing. first of all, your story CAN'T be non-human because you, a human, made it. but the harder you deny the presence of humanity—be it literal humans or anthropomorphized fantasy races—the more you kneecap your own story and creativity. fiction writing requires an incredible amount of study and research to do it well, and that includes HOW humanity manifests in your story. even if your story is 100% about dragons and no other races or creatures, you HAVE to apply humanity to them, or it's, at BEST, boring nonsense, and at worst, literally illegible. you cannot write a story about dragons or even dogs; you WILL write a story about anthropomorphized dragons or dogs, and the harder you deny this or the harder you distance yourself from humanity in your story, the more your story WILL suffer.

l'aiha is human. perhaps not in make believe biological makeup, but EVERYTHING you and i like about her is DROWNING in humanity and readable by humans. it has to be; the humanity HAS to be somewhere. a story with the shape of water monster as THE ONLY CREATURE any of the characters are, without the humanity perspective to GIVE US, AS HUMANS, the avenue to appreciate the unhumanity, is just a bunch of incomprehensible entities doing nonsense for two hours. sure, it might be interesting in the same way watching birds at a bird feeder is interesting, but that's not a STORY, that's not a NARRATIVE. you can't just apply that over a story and expect it to be readable AS a story; curiosity about creatures unlike us isn't exclusively human, but creating narratives and characters and themes IS. it is a VITAL, NON-NEGOTIABLE PIECE of creativity, and denying or disparraging or avoiding it HURTS your story or character no matter HOW you justify it. it's IN your thing regardless, but struggling to create as if it isn't is just dumping water on the fire and being surprised when you're not warm anymore. fiction CANNOT exist without humanity, and you will excel so much more in every way if you stop tackling creativity with the motivation of "i want LESS humanity in stuff".

[xuune]

@lily-claw ima reply to ur comments thru this reblog for anyone else that wants this info bc idt ppl check comments. also bc my response is long again:

i didnt have extensive formal art courses specifically for painting illustrations either. i only had 3 semesters of painting (gouache, acrylic, digital), so a lot of what i know is personal learning and trial and error through studying other artists. giving yourself exposure to other artworks and deconstructing, analyzing, and studying why pieces work and speak out to you helps you understand a lot how you want to create your own art and what you want to see in it! its incredibly valuable.

tbh, idk how common it is for people to teach stuff like layer modes in digital art courses in formal schooling. in my digital painting course, my professor rarely explained that. it was more that we should learn how to paint without relying on tools like layer modes so we first understand technicalities and thought process behind how you use color and how to think when you paint. i understood how to use layer modes better by fucking around in my own art, so there really is no "right" way to go about learning this stuff.

(btw my pronouns are they/them 😅 alg tho)

this answer has two parts: 1) lighting affects color choices and 2) you have creative freedom to fuck around

1. LIGHTING AFFECTING COLOR CHOICES: you're on the right track when you say "adapt it to the place," which in this case, its lighting. specifically and especially lighting affects what colors are used in your piece. lighting will influence what skin tones will look like in it and everything else. the time of day, what your light sources are, whether its cool/warm tone lighting, determines this (but there is always creative liberties to push your colors, it really depends on what you want). my biggest recommendation for this and putting it into practice is to do color studies. color studies can either be: a) MASTERCOPIES of existing artworks (take whatever existing illustration exists, and do your own copy of it to study it). we do this in school all the time, its great practice especially when you want to understand how other artists choose their colors. obviously if you're gonna do this, either keep these mastercopies to yourself or if you want to share online, post with credit to the original artist (but first and foremost ask for permission to do a mastercopy, especially if the artist is someone you can contact and ask lol. i'd feel weird if i randomly came across someone doing a mastercopy of my work posted online. i'd feel flattered that someone wanted to study my work, but still. you get what i mean?)

b) PHOTO REFERENCE STUDIES. straightforward enough. you take a picture and do a painting of it. can be some photo/video/film you found online, or from your own photos. equally as valuable as mastercopies since you're still practicing observation skills and looking at how lighting works and how colors are affected by it. free real estate for you to experiment and push the colors too.

this leans more towards your concern of getting skin tones right when characters are in dark places. what makes it a dark place? is there straight up no light? is it dim lighting? whats the tone of the light source? is it cool/warm? are there multiple light sources? is there rim, split, rembrandt, fill lighting? ideally, if you know these answers and you can replicate it yourself in person, then you should take your own reference photo. but again, dont forget that you can push your colors in your own art! dont be a slave to your reference.

2. YOU HAVE CREATIVE FREEDOM TO FUCK AROUND:

aside from lighting, color palettes/schemes can influence what colors are used on things like skin tones. if you're making your own palette, you make rules for what gets to be what color. its one way of learning to limit the amount of colors you use and be more decisive about your color choices. this also goes back to general color theory stuff, like monochrome, analogous, complementary, etc.

stylistic/experimental palettes work greatly too. here's an example of this artist's artwork. main takeaway from these artworks is that they intentionally limit extreme uses of pure black and white and predominantly keep their colors in its strongest hue. ima be fr, nothing about this makes sense to me on what their exact process is. certain segments seem like its using a triadic scheme, but other areas they're basically using the entire color wheel. in one section, skin tones are blue and purple, but in the next its orange and red. i have no clue. but the illustrations work, are readable, and are appealing. sometimes certain colors surprisingly work out in your favor, so allow yourself to play with it when you can.

hope this helped!

Hii first of all, I FUCKIN LOVE YOUR ART! ITS GORGEOUS AND IM SURE EVERYONE CAN UNDERSTAND YOU REALLY GIVE YOUR SOUL INTO THAT🤧 Your color palette looks so good, What do you pay attention to when painting? (Like when do you think its better to use multiply or something like that and etc.)

first off, I'M HAPPY YOU CAN TELL THAT I PUT MY SOUL INTO MY ART!!! im genuinely in love with drawing and am always finding ways to make creating art enjoyable and impress myself with what i can achieve and learn :D

second, thanks for asking your question!! i dont mind answering it, but my response is quite long. here's my thinking process:

(you specified layer modes like multiply, so im gonna gear my answer towards that a bit) 1. REFERENCE SEARCHING IS KING. color is actually extremely hard for me, so i search around for artworks with palettes i'd like to use and study how an artist uses it. some situations i have a clear idea of what i want, but usually the images in my head are extremely vague, so i borrow palettes from various other artworks that fit the vibe of what i want. an example is this one. my main palette reference were from these artworks. im looking at this artist's use of high saturates and how drawings are overlayed on top of each other. while looking at references, im asking myself how is this artist using warm/cools, where are these warm/cools placed, if their illustration used any form of texturing (like halftones, hatching), how do they use their palette to render form/shape/gradient, when/where do they saturate/desaturate their colors. those questions inform my decisions when using colors too.

2. USING LAYER MODES WHEN NECESSARY. i used to be reliant on multiply for everything, which atp i dont do since i can definitely push colors more first before using layer modes. only when i feel like my current colors are lacking do i start tinkering with tone curves and/or brightness/contrast/hue/saturation/luminosity settings. and if that doesn't work, then i start using layer modes. using layer modes do help with achieving certain effects, color corrections, or when i want to fuck around and find out. i think having a better understanding of what these modes can do makes you more decisive on how you can properly utilize them and to achieve a particular look (like using multiply for a cel shaded style). here's an example:

this leads into my next point:

3. BALANCING OUT VALUES. big thing that makes an illustration hard to read is if values blend together which affects the hues and contrast. i check for what elements need to be distinguished from one another and if it can be read clearly. using layer modes can either help with this or not help at all. it's very dependent on the type of layer mode. here's this example where i applied pin light:

back to #2, there are various instances where i'm using layer modes for quick color corrections and/or to help with readability:

other times, i start off having my entire subject in gray and to figure out main shadow/lights (similar to the multiply cel shaded process i linked ealier). im thinking about what this should look like if i only used 2 value tones:

when in doubt though, i check my artwork in grayscale to ensure values aren't overly blended into each other, especially if i didnt start with grayscale like this one:

painting for me takes into consideration a lot of different aspects. im thinking about how colors should interact, where/when to give contrast, checking/balancing out values, etc, but im also making it a time to study off of how other artists use their colors through the references i collected.

hope this answered your question! lmk if there's more :]

[thedreadvampy]

god I'm so mad about PE ALL THE TIME

for a long time I felt bad about being mad about PE bc I was like. oh it's just that as an overachiever academically I Could Not Cope with not being good at a subject. how silly. this is probably how maths class feels for people who are bad at maths etc.

but I really don't think it is. because the goal of a maths teacher is to teach you maths. the standard they're being held to is to give you the tools to get better at it. if they don't we understand that as a failure of teaching, at least conceptually.

PE/gym teachers do not seem to be held to the same standard. the main role of PE teachers seems to be to Force Children To Exercise rather than to Teach Them How. it's like if the full extent of maths class was just giving you pages of equations and saying 'do these until you know how to' and if you say 'I don't understand this' they say 'try harder' and at no point do they even briefly explain what an equation is, the basic idea of how to do it, or what success would look like. and when they do a test they don't mark your answers individually or tell you where you went wrong or the right answer, you just get told 'you're bad at this.' (tbh not even 'you're bad at this do better' honestly just 'you're bad at this and will never be good at it')

I've talked to so many ppl from so many different school settings who are like 'I was awful at sports and then after I left school someone pointed out one very simple and obvious thing I was doing wrong and suddenly I found it super easy'.

if somebody can't do a pushup, teaching doesn't mean yelling at them to try harder, it means taking them through the process of building up to a pushup. if someone sucks at running, teaching means saying 'you're wasting all your energy on kicking your heels up, you need to be pushing down into the ground' not 'haha this guy sucks at running everyone look how slow they are'. if somebody has an asthma attack every time they play football, teaching probably looks more like 'here are some lower-impact exercises you can do on the side of the pitch while we play' not 'ugh fine sit out'

the point of PE being a compulsory subject is a) to keep kids active and b) to instill habits of exercise they can take into adult life. possibly c) to play Team Sports and develop socially from that.

but almost everyone I know who is afraid of or doesn't think they can do exercise learnt that at school. because the way PE tends to be taught consistently prioritises people who are already good at sports, and tells everyone who isn't that that's something inherent to them.

I tell this anecdote a lot but my mum was a world class athlete in the 70s and 80s. literally she has 3 world championships in women's rowing under her belt. she was invited to compete at the Olympics. she's good. but she spent her whole school career being told she couldn't do sports, couldn't run, was only good in hockey for standing at the back looking threatening etc. she found PE miserable and she was fully convinced sports just wasn't it for her. then she discovered archery and slapped at it. then she went to uni, joined the rowing team and within her first term learnt from other rowers how to fix her running, how to do pushups and situps in a way that worked for her, how to get to a place where she could comfortably do weights - because her teammates were working with her, not getting mad that she didn't fit the PE box made for her.

it's just fucked imo how much of a site of misery PE is for so many of us. and we're made to feel like that's a reflection on us being Unfit Lazy Sloths who Don't Want To Exercise and not a reflection on how it's taught. most kids want to exercise if you help them find an exercise that's fun for them and a way to do it that meets their needs. most of us like to be active. it feels good.

but PE teachers en masse, and I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions but in general, aren't interested in fitting the exercise to the child but in fitting the child to the exercise. and so exercise becomes this site of shame and inadequacy and anxiety.

I'M NEARLY 30 AND I KEEP DISCOVERING EXERCISE I LIKE! stuff that I have done before and hated! but in a setting where I'm being encouraged and guided towards succeeding instead of shamed for failing I'm having a whale of a time! I've learnt to like swimming again, dancing, climbing, running (still bad at it though), straight up working out (situps and pushups still injure me so I talked to a PT and they helped me design around that instead of telling me to do it more)

it is fucking insane. that the vast majority of us found specifically PE this immense site of trauma and distress and overwhelming negativity and yet. we're just fine with that as a society? we're like hmmm yes sounds like it's the kids' fault for being lazy and unfit and not instinctual athletes. all of them, including ones who are very fit out of school or later in life, and despite the fact that this is so much more across the board than hatred of literally any other single subject. yes. it's the children who are wrong.

[cosmicjoke]

I'm recently trying to catch on to your analysis posts. They're truly great! Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. I remember you once (or maybe even more than once) went specifically into details about the reason why didn't become a diplomatic ambassador post-war aside from the reason he was no longer capable of fighting like before, where some ppl did expect him to at least monitor the 104th + Reiner + Pieck as an adult leader of peace. Do you see any fault in this? Like some kind of disregard on Levi's part towards what would the world become or how far the peace would go from then on? Of course, this is absolutely not what I believe. He deserves peace and a normal life after everything he went through, but I've sure seen some part of the fandom being disappointed that he was no longer participating in the group as a representative and that's why they ended up saying "he only fought in the battle of heaven and earth to rid the world of titans for the promise he'd made to his fallen comrades, ot anything else." Or shit like "he never dedicated his heart to humanity". I feel even disgusted by repeating their words bcz these ppl are either just too blind or narrow-minded to understand Levi. Anyways, this turned into a long ask, but please know that I'm only asking cuz I'm really interested in what you think about it all. Thanks in advance and sorry for the long ass ask!

Hi there, and thank you so much for your kind words. I hope you continue to enjoy my analysis. I know they can get a bit long winded, shall we say, haha.

Anyway, yes, I've answered this question before. It's absurd to criticize Levi for this. What do people expect from him exactly? He literally lost EVERYTHING fighting for humanity, including his body. He lost all of his friends, everyone he ever truly loved and was close to, and by the end, I don't know if these people need to be reminded, but the last panel we see of Levi, he's in a wheelchair. He broke his whole body , fighting for humanity. To ask anything more of him, or to criticize him and somehow accuse him of not caring, or having never cared about humanity because he decided to finally retire after giving everything to the Survey Corps' dream strikes me as both sickeningly cruel, almost sociopathic in its cruelty, and also supremely ignorant. That’s like telling a soldier who comes back crippled from fighting in a war that they didn’t do enough, and they now need to join a diplomatic council and try to work out peace with the nation he was just fighting against.  Absurd and disgusting.  What these people don't understand is that Levi fought to free humanity, to create a better world for the next generation, meaning Armin, Mikasa, Connie, Jean, all of them, and that's exactly what he did. He gave everything he had to give them that fresh start, and what they did with it from there on was their choice, was up to them. He no longer had a part to play in that going forward. It was their world now, and Levi earned his rest a thousand times over.

What's more, just from the standpoint of accessing what Levi might bring to the table in a negotiation or peace talks, compared to Armin, there's really not much else Levi could have done. Levi is famously bad at expressing himself in words, while Armin has a mind like a steel trap when it comes to knowing how to talk to people and negotiate with them. That's literally the role he was always cast in from the beginning. The negotiator. Saying the 104th needed Levi at that point to act as the "adult" in the room is absurd, and is nothing but another attempt on the haters part to tear him down. These people are deluded and pathetic. The 104th were all adults by that time. 19 when the war ended, 22 by the end of the story, all of them extremely experienced. They were all more than capable of taking care of business themselves.

Levi isn't a negotiator. He always saw himself and was treated within the military like a weapon. A tool to be used to fight the enemy, whoever or whatever that might be, towards the noble goal of a better world, able and willing to do the dirty work required to create peace and freedom. Levi was built for fighting, not for talking. Once the fighting was over, he'd served his purpose, and that was that.