#i'm honestly thinking of rewriting it

[harukamitsuki]

man. spinner and shoji were two characters that i really enjoyed and wanted to see more of... until i did get to see more of them and horikoshi stomped on my dreams...

spinner goes from being one of the best characters to being ridiculously one-dimensional. the heroes don't do jack shit, until it's revealed at the last second that they did, meaning that everything the 'bad guys' did was ultimately useless. kurogiri being in a hospital made no sense; the guy is a high-ranking villain who is far too useful to the villains to give up, he should be in a highly secure location like tartarus. shoji goes from being someone who i really enjoyed to being someone with ignorant beliefs, despite him accusing his friends of being such people.

seriously, shoji's rant on how the 'people from the city' wouldn't understand because they 'had it easy'. NEWSFLASH: discrimination happens everywhere. yes, it's a lot more rampant outside of cities, but it still exists within a city. heck, i had someone scream racial slurs at me while i was walking home, and i live in a big city. to say that someone had it easy just because you had it worse is a horrible thing to say, especially when it's coming from someone who is supposed to be empathetic.

this is not shoji's beliefs. this is horikoshi's beliefs. he could have easily had shoji say something like 'you have had it hard. that being said, people are more willing to turn to extremes outside of the city'.

also, shoji's whole 'violence to get what you want never works out!!' is wrong. i'm not saying from a moral standpoint - that's perfectly fine. but it's historically wrong. yes, there are such a thing as peaceful protests, but they have never worked out as well as those that fight violence with violence. blm riots, for example, were the thing to force the government to take a closer look at why people were rioting and do things to prevent more property damage.

another thing i found troubling was how the mutants became enraged at a person of colour, specifically black, for trying to intervene and empathise with them, screaming that he could not understand. it's supposed to imply that racism wasn't a concern after quirks emerged, as people found other things to discriminate.

which is... very idealistic. if that were something people would really do, then racism wouldn't be a thing after sexism came to light. and neither of them would exist after the lgbt or the neurodivergent. but that's not what happened.

if someone else arises that people could discriminate upon, people would just add that to the list of things to discriminate on.

horikoshi could have drawn anyone for the mutants to yell at. he chose to use a person of colour. it comes off as very tone-deaf and it was just another sign that the mini-arc would screw up.

spinner losing his mind was bad. as in bad-bad. as in, there were so many ways to write this fight, and he chose this? instead of being a battle of ideaologies, it's shoji convincing the rest to step down, then trying to beat a mind-less spinner.

it could have been one of the best fights, with shoji's belief that using violence to solve your issues will only make it worse, and spinner arguing that using violence is the only way to do it with the state of their society.

no matter who won, in that case, it would be ultimately up to the readers to decide who truly won. who had the stronger argument, who made the more sense, all that jazz...

instead, shoji yells at a bunch of people about how 'destroying property isn't good' and 'violence is never the answer', all the while using violence to subdue him.

that could have been could, if it was commented on. if there were some sort of self-awareness.

but it's not and there is none. it went from being an arc i was really looking forward to reading, to something i can no longer stand.

shoji. spinner. you were both done so dirty

[gilgil-machine]

Like seriously, I'm so tired of people hating on Gil (even though sometimes it's quite justified and sometimes I hate him too) but also not accepting him outside fsn trilogy or treating him like completely different entity or treating his character development like something bad or saying that it was made just for profit. And yeah, sure, the last bit is technically true, because of his character popularity Nasu decided to give him a backstory, give him some depth and meaning instead of just leaving him the way he was, a shallow villain from eroge game, so why treating this development like it's a bad thing?

[front-facing-pokemon]

[your-ne1ghbor]

I think this comic strip really tells the state of the wishes of Rosas.

Btw the Stars sometimes HAVE to not tell the other stars about certain things in order to protect them from the dangers of the human realm, even if those said stars don't really understand why.

Oh, and none of them told star boy what happened a century ago where a star helped hurt thousands of people. Either because they are to prideful to admit a star did something wrong or because they don't want to bring attention to it so that other stars don't become afraid when it comes to guiding the user's.

I think I am getting there in terms of how the magic system works, but I do know how the wishes play into the magic system! Which is pretty nice tbh 😭

And yes im leaning into the: Star Boy = monster territory. I just think that concept is intresting itself since it can literally be interpreted in so many ways <3

I love traumatizing both of them 💕😝

Even of it makes me cry myself to sleep🧍

[felidform]

You've inspired me to make my own genetically accurate cat picrew, would you mind sharing how you made the tabby gradient? 👉👈

here's what the individual layers for tabby shading 2 & 3 look like, they're pretty much just orangey colour airbrushed onto the undersides with a more white colour around the toes, muzzle, around the eyes etc. the majority of it is something like 40-60% opacity

this is layered on top of the base colour to make the complete gradient, so make sure you test out how it looks on every colour

[spheciform]

Oops! Oh no! It looks like I tripped and accidentally dropped The First Chapter Of My ROTM rewrite thats been stewing since last November????? Oh no!!!! What will I ever do???

[the-unconquered-queen]

Because I'm seeing cakegate on my dash again, let's stir up some old drama

[super-who-locked-me-in-here]

I was unfortunately made aware today that a large part of my ability to recreate Hannibal Lecter's vaguely flirty, entirely serious, absolutely pretentious and philosophical manner of speaking in my writing now in my 20s is due in large part to a 44k Ouran High School Host Club fanfic I wrote in my teens where Benio Amakusa was a recurring character with a lot of dialogue

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

Something that makes me feel good about my writing is the fact that there are stories out there that I do not see the appeal of that do MASSIVELY well anyway. Like star wars. I have only ever had the vaguest interest in star wars. I watched the first movie about 4 years ago for the very first time and honestly don't remember anything about it now. Couldn't care less. Obviously star wars is still successful. Love it or hate it, 50 shades of Grey was a hit that left the author with loads of money. Do I see the appeal? No. That doesn't change the fact it was extremely popular. I tried MULTIPLE times to get into "the last of us" gameplay and could not hack it. I must have tried at least 4 times. I got extremely bored. But the last of us is so beloved that it even led to a beloved TV show (something notoriously hard for games-turned-shows to do). There are so many stories out there that do not catch my eye or that don't effect my heart in any way shape or form and yet people STILL love them to bits. So even if I think my stories are shit, clearly me classifying something as shit does not stop it from being loved by others. Even shitty stories can touch hearts and that's one of the few motivations that I keep recycling.

[glindyupland]

I just think it’s silly that so many people complain about Villain Amaya as “wasted potential” and that “we were robbed” like-

My pals, post canon fan fiction is right there. The desire to free her husband is right there. Either by touching an evil book while being too eager to remember the obsidian oil, or being possessed by contact (ie what she believes is true loves kiss) when trying to reason with him in the dungeon.

We don’t need a rewrite, we can have a continuation. Both can be true. Amaya is a complex character, she can handle it.

[leafy-m]

My stupid story is 20k now how I do make it stop 😵

[dootznbootz]

oooh yeahhhh. like. they must have heard about the things he'd done in troy. But have they heard all of it? Have they heard of Palamedes, the Thracians and the countless other people? Will they still see him as the same man? Do they still care about him? Are they still waiting for him? No, no - he is the same man,, he must be. he must be the same man. He needs to get to them. He is convincing himself that he is the same. He needs them.

We love self-doubt on a tuesday don't we

Heads up, I am probably the most off track I've ever been because I'm just all over the place right now :'D Hope you don't mind. I DO make a point but it takes a long time to get there. I was just... a LOT of thoughts and it's kind of all over the palce. I'm really sorry 😅

YESSS!! I mean Palamedes dad DOES try to convince her that "Odysseus is bringing home a new bride" where she's like "You're trying to tell me, that my husband, one of the biggest simps to ever simp, is replacing me?? when he knows damn well that I'm the best thing that's ever happened to him??? You and your son are both scum. Get the fuck outta my sight."

HE'S STILL THE SAME MAN!!! He's just so...shattered. This is still the man who deeply loves his wife and son. Still the man who would do anything and everything for them. If they said "I'm cold" he'd get gasoline and matches to light the world on fire if that's what was needed. (very much "Odyssey version" haha as Epic is...Nicer? definitely WOULD still "trade the world To see my Son and Wife" but Epic is more..."Selfless"?? idk how to describe but you know. not as much of a "rude asshole" like he is in the Iliad especially (rereading it now, literally basically the only person he wasn't an ass to at some point were simply dudes he didn't have a lot of moments WITH in the Iliad haha) if he had moments with a person, he was a dick to them at some point. )

Like this is very much the same man. The man who made the wedding bed (and palace!) that meant so much to them! like, from what I know grooms WERE supposed to decorate their houses for their brides but not build an entire NEW one! Not MAKE A BED OUT OF A LIVING TREE!!! (Odysseus is canonically a hopeless romantic! Wedding Music when they reunite? the language used when he talks about her speaks to her? their bed and palace? LIKE?!?!? you cannot tell me this fucker wouldn't be into romcoms and disney movies He would still be like "just kill the villain" but he'd be all over the "romance" This is the same man who proudly declares himself as "Telemachus' loving father". He's still the man who is proud and cunning and a bit of an ass.

He's just...incredibly SCARRED. He's still there. That's what he's HOPING. He KNOWS he still loves them and is still so devoted. That's the Odysseus that they know. That's what matters, right? Right?! He LOVES them! He's trying SO hard. That's what matters, right?!

Penelope sees and knows this. but he doesn't yet and for once in his life he cares SO badly about what someone thinks about him.

Agamemnon calls him a coward? Tell him that Telemachus' loving father's head would be ripped off its shoulders before he's a coward.

Penelope simply vagues that their marriage bed is possibly gone? DISASTER! SOBBIGN! He's been STABBED!

That's "her Joy". That's her husband. No matter HOW he comes back. She will love him regardless because that's HIM.

Small thing I'm adding because it kind of has to do with it: I'm kind of one who loves the idea of Penelope hating songs about him in the war because of "That's not my Odysseus" in a way. ( I mean it is. but it's a PART of him. That is his "war" side. haha. She knows this and is the same way.) And I think Telemachus telling her to not care is kind of showing how "Telemachus doesn't see the "father". He doesn't see the loving man he is capable of being. He just sees the "Warrior"" She KNOWS that Odysseus is so much more than that. But probably since Telemachus is surrounded by asshole men right now, he's probably clinging to "my dad was a hero and I can be too!" instead of "my dad pretended to be mad to not leave our side. My dad exposed his ruse simply to save ME. He made a bed out of a living tree for my mother out of love"

He's only hearing about his darkest parts and that's PART of the reason why this poor boy is hurting so much. So ANGRY.

[stardust-moth]

looking at some takes on characters or relationships or scenes in which things happen between them and just thinking,

How in the hell are people interpreting it this way??? But then i step back and realize that the story or character in question is fundamentally and extraordinarily different from the average person's life experience and I go,

ah,

you guys just... don't have a deep enough understanding of trauma responses...

[fuckmeyer]

I saw a post about racist Jasper stans bitching bc they’re not able to enjoy shitty J*sper content bc of tags or whatever lol and someone said: “What is there even to enjoy?”. I had to laugh and I thought if you bc it’s so true. Most Jasper content isn’t even that enjoyable. It’s mostly the same boring white-supremacist garbage that I’ve seen before; even the jalice stuff is played out.

The only J*sper content I enjoy is content where he is worshipping Maria, thinking about Maria, talking about Maria, loving Maria, doing anything for Maria tbh. Is that bad? XD I owe it to you and your writing! idk something about a 19/20 year old dumbass confederate falling madly in love with a native brown woman and literally seeing her as a god-like figure as she’s basically handing him his karma for his racist crimes sends me. Ppl act like he was this awesome person before Maria and that it’s her fault he’s gutter trash now with the C*llens but he was gutter trash BEFORE he met Maria. She honestly made him so much better, stronger and MUCH more interesting. She literally created the man these stans thirst over so much. She is the blueprint.

the thing anti-María Jalice stans don't get is, without María, you do not have Jasper. for everything Jasper is, María is the catalyst ❤️

canonically, all we know about Jasper Hale pre-change is 1) he was born in Texas, 2) faked his age to join the Confederate Army* where he became the youngest major in Texas, & 3) was persuasive

beyond that, María made Jasper into the man the fandom adores. you like that he's an empath? guess whose venom made him one. you like that he's a warmonger? guess whose war he fought for. you like that he has a troubled past? guess who put the trouble in it. you like that he's "soft" "empath" "baby" (tbh i don't see it but ok)? guess who made him want to be that way. you like that he's submissive to Alice? guess who broke him in first.

you want Jasper with Alice but wish the María era didn't exist? lol just say you want the hot faceless Confederate to get with the psychic Mississippian & go

as for me, MARÍA ALL DAY BAYBEEEEE

here we have a woman who has suffered all her life at the hands of colonizers. born "1800s or earlier," we can suppose she has firsthand experience with colonization (at least Napoleon's invasion) & lived through Mexico's War of Independence. i.e., she has a deep familiarity with what it means to have your way of life ripped from you by invaders. PLUS she was a victim of Benito's army in the Southern Vampire Wars; her entire coven including her mate was killed.

& despite her losses, she rallied to take back her land & drive out her oppressors. baseline, she is a strong, cunning, powerful indigenous woman with a deep love for her community and her people. HOT

now let's look at Jasper, a bright leader in the Civil War who suffered defeat at the hands of the Union army. yes, María changed him. but did she force him to stay? to go to war? the newborn vamp with the strength & speed to overcome a "grown" vamp chose not to do so. the empath with the power to make anyone disregard him chose not to use it. some say María was "abusive" & "manipulative," but few acknowledge that Jasper had a choice.

why didn't Jasper leave? because he's submissive to anyone more powerful than him. because he was a loser. because the Southern Vampire Wars gave him a second chance at victory. because "empath" or no, he wanted to play war & win.

that's what's compelling about Jasper/María. as wrong as Jasper was for fighting for the Confederacy, he believed he was fighting for the same thing as she. he saw his way of life destroyed by "invaders" & fought back. it's a sick & twisted parallel between oppressor & oppressed that becomes subverted as their relationship goes on... & one that can heal them both.

María's experience with colonizers gives her a visceral picture of what it means to be oppressed... but her relationship with Jasper gives her the victory & emotional reflection she needs to move on. Jasper's military training gives him the hunger & knowledge for war... but his "curse" of empathy provides him with the tools he needs to recognize & address the horrors of his problematic past & move on.

tbh, i find Jasper & María are perfectly suited for a delicious character-driven narrative. Maria's story is that of a traumatized indigenous woman on a path from colonization to decolonization, & the sacrifices & destruction she endures realize that vision. Jasper's story is that of a troubled man on the path from self-hate to self-love, & what it means to undo the societal teachings/traumas & forge a life of empathy & forgiveness.

& that is something Alice alone can never give Jasper.

tl;dr all hail Queen María

[vaultlink]

With the Bocchi Recap movie coming to the US in 2 weeks I thought it'd be fun to put together an outfit for it... maybe a simple cosplay.

There's 2 Bocchi characters I've been thinking of doing cosplays for in the future specifically, but I'm waaaaaay too self conscious to be going around in a dress quite yet so Kikuri is off the table for now so I guess I'm going with Bocchi's pink tracksuit and skirt.

(Time to info dump about costume search suffering woooooo)

This week after work I've been staying out to go shopping, seeing if I can possibly get some things locally. I was able to find the prefect shoes almost instantly so I have the price of those stored on the back of my head for later.

I havn't seen any places that have tracksuits let alone pink ones with a stripe down the sleeve. Part of me expected this so I did do some looking online and was able to find that Adidas has some tracksuits that look close enough, 3 sticking out in particular.

What's been a real issue tho, but not for the reason I'd expected, is the skirt. Of the 5 places I've gone browsing threw 3 of them didn't have any skirts for some reason? The 2 that did only had incredibly short denim ones.

2 of them have the tall collar but the colors are either so vibrant that it's basically magenta or so light that it's hard to tell that it's pink (which I just realized doesn't even have a matching set of pants like the others?)

The last one has the closest shade but it's collar is so short, I just don't like it (I want to be able to hide my face in that big dumb jacket collar)

The positive is they're all in my size, I just need to pick which one to go with.

I've periodically been trying to look for stuff online too but I'm so fucking lost, idk what I'm doing! I have never gone shopping for outfits proper.

All I ever wear is blue jeans I replace every 4-5 years, merch tshirts I get online from the media I like, and this cute vest thing I just stumbled upon while looking for thermals 2 winters ago.

And when it comes to costumes I've only ever sewn medieval/fantasy style costumes, I've never tried to put together anything contemporary, I'm so lost.

I don't know how to find fem outfits, all i need is a long navy blue pleated skirt T-T

Honestly, it is just a simple pleated skirt so I could totally just get the materials and a pattern at the local sewing shop and sew it myself, I could even hide pockets in the pleating.

I just don't have the energy to do that right now, I don't even have a proper sewing table in my office. I'd be sewing with my machine on the floor and I just don't want to do that.

If anyone's got advice or wants to hype me up to drag my sewing machine out please help

[keeps-ache]

got described as looking like a 'canadian lumberjack physicist' by my brother so. does anybody need an artist