#i'm talking avatars and icons only

[set-wingedwarrior]

My most important sapphic ships post before Pride Month ends

What the title says, studying kept (and still keeps me) busy so we gotta go fast lol

Bumbleby (RWBY)

to the surprise of absolutely no one, they get first place (despite me not going in a particular order) because of reasons. They're perfect. Soulmates. Slowburn of all time. Yin and Yang. Eyes the color of each other's souls. Truest OTP to ever OTP in my book. ∞/10

Konosetsu (Negima!)

I already talked about them in their own post, this scene changed my life leading to my self-discovery and it still lives rent-free in my mind.

Kyosaya (Madoka Magica)

I'd also add MadoHomu but I'm trying to keep it to just one for each fandom. That said, they still make me mentally unwell. I love them, and I did for a long time now. I can't wait for the next movie to come out and suffer.

Ruby and Sapphire (Steven Universe)

These bitches had the first cartoon gay wedding and kiss DO I NEED TO SAY MORE???

Korrsami (Avatar)

Still down the queer cartoons making history path, these two made me insane back in the day because I still didn't understand I was queer and lots of sapphic couple were starting to appear in media, and I remember jokingly say how "lesbian ships were hauting me". All I can say now is "Thank you" lol. Anyway, they were incredibly important and all the people criticizing how little queerness there's in the show will never understand just how massive this scene was.

Catradora (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

Friends to Enemies to back to Friends to Lovers. Iconic. I still want a movie with their adventures bringing magic back to the universe.

Hollstein (Carmilla)

My third beloved blonde with a cat gf ship. I miss this web-series every day. Also, Natasha Negovanlis played an immense role in my gay awakening.

Ellie and Riley (The Last of Us: Left Behind)

Ellie and Dina are adorable and I love them, BUT I just will never get over these two. That dlc fucked me up. (also, they're in the same category with Korrasami as "gay ships that hauted me before I realized I was queer" lol)

Lumity (The Owl House)

I remember starting this show feeling it as the successor of Steven Universe, at least to me. We could say that at level of mistreatment from its parent company, it defenitely surpassed it, but at least I'm glad I was right and we got Luz and Amity becoming canon. I love these two and not a day passes without me yelling at Disney for what it did to them.

Bubbline (Adventure Time)

I actually watched Adventure Time fully only recently, but I always loved them even when I watched the show randomly when it appeared in tv back in the day. Getting to see the progression properly just made me love them even more.

Yasammy (Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous/Chaos Theory)

Incredibly recent addition, but I am so glad that I checked out Camp Cretaceous and got into it. It's a nice show and these two are a really cute couple, their confession and especially Yaz's internal turmoil were just so on point. I was really happy to see them go still strong in Chaos Theory, and I can't wait for next season.

Pricefield (Life is Strange)

These two caused me pain in the best possible way. I felt literal heartbreak at the Bay Ending, and I was just as emotional at the Bae one (Bae > Bay Forever) I hope the new game will respect their relationship OR ELSE.

Wow, this is quite the list. I do have an amazing taste, if I do say so myself, ahah!

Well, I guess this is it for now, glad I could make it before Pride Month was over! Knowing myself I might have actually forgotten some though, so keep an eye out for possible updates (what makes me even think that you'd care? lol).

That would be all, be gay and do crimes! Bye!

[likealittleheartbeat]

talk to me about the theme of emotional isolation for zuko and aang

It's the main reason I'm obsessed with the show tbh.

Can we overstate Aang's isolation within the show. He's not only a survivor--a sole survivor--of a genocide, he's also knocked out of time and history. These are the facts of his physical isolation. But his emotional isolation is such a different beast. It began before any deaths did. He is set apart by the monks and by the whole world as a savior. Shortly after his status as the avatar is made known, his peers exclude him, his power too great. His humanity is denied because he's too divine. Only Gyatso seems to still regard him for who he is rather than his gifts. Of course, that's why the council decides Aang needs to be further separated from worldly relations like that, and vote to send him off. For Aang, it's the last straw. He can't bear further exile from others. To regain some sense of control, he tries to run away from the heavy burden and those who have put it on him. At least this time, he's the one choosing his loneliness. It has become so clear that no one can understand his feelings about the Avatar State.

This is the emotional state he enters the series with, icon rather than human. He starts off concealing his revered identity in an attempt to indulge in simple pleasures, penguin sledding, coy fish riding, etc. But the shame is secretly right there at the surface. He's lovable but mercurial. Friendly and animated with everyone when he first meets them but in a way that's fleeting. The knowledge that he will have to leave the village, in an episodic fashion, having helped the members of the town, even having sacrificed himself for their well-being, is an understood fact of the plot and his life. At most he sheds some of his grief by putting it into words with Katara's encouragement. But despite the whole world fighting through their own grief from the fire nation and Katara's sole-survival of her own culture's genocide, they each have people in their families and cultures who, however bitterly, hold them and hold the broken memories together with one another. No one is as physically isolated as Aang, but, more importantly for his character development, no one is as isolated by their significance to the world.

No one, except Zuko. Zuko, the banished prince. Isn't that what Aang as the Avatar is in many ways: a spiritual prince, an heir by birth to power and legacy, who has been banished from his inheritance. Only, Aang's inheritance would be peace. Zuko's would be the Fire Nation, but because of his humanity, Zuko, like Aang, is without a nation. This is one reason Zuko and Aang are such incredible narrative foils. Aang is rejected from humanity's compassion because of his divine status while Zuko is rejected from divine rule because of his human compassion and failures to demonstrate perfection. (If you're interested in this dynamic in media, Fruits Basket has fantastic explorations of these themes with Kyo vs. Yuki and Tohru vs. Akito.)

How early did Zuko start to notice the disappointment he brought to his father and grandfather? As early as we can see, Zuko seems alone. The episode with that phrase in the title reflects back on his childhood, which, noticeably, lacks the friends Azula manages to keep. He mimics and mocks her cruelty, as well, in an attempt to impress his mother. His insecurity seems already set, a sense that no one can understand. While Aang recognizes that everyone thinks he's too good to belong, Zuko lives in an environment in which he's not good enough to belong.

The reactions to their rejections correspond, too. Zuko's reaction of antagonistic pursuit of anyone and everyone--like Aang's reaction to run away (literally and sometimes emotionally with a smile or joke)--helps keep others in a framework of enemies so he can control his exile rather than the other way around. Yet these behaviors put them in dynamic relation to one another--Zuko is drawn to the endless pursuit of the strangely kind Aang, whose instinct is to behold others while remaining untouchable, while Aang becomes clearly intrigued by the person who refuses to treat him like an untouchable hero, the person who refuses to give up on the possibility that the Avatar can be flawed and fail, no matter how many times he slips away proving his divine destiny.

It's obvious that Zuko is supposed to hate Aang, as the Avatar. "The Headband" illustrates how education in the Fire Nation portrays him if the fact that Zuko's only possibility for regaining his title under his father is bringing the Avatar back isn't enough evidence for you. But Aang ought to hate Zuko just as much, if not more. Instead, they are drawn toward one another with an remarkable intensity, established within the first half of the first season, "The Storm" x "Blue Spirit" combo punch! In fact, the blue spirit episode really reveals what they can mean to each other. Not only in Aang's question at the end that invites Zuko back into the past with him, but in the way that Zuko is made to be the divine entity for a brief period while Aang is helpless in the fort. Then, that question at the end: "Do you think we could have been friends?" Isn't that the opposite of the isolation they feel. In the woods, without a nation or an allegiance, Aang, remembering the people and time that he was forced to leave asks Zuko, who has just betrayed the people who banished him, in another version of life where they were both simple people rather heirs of vast power, if they could have formed a kind of union that would have dissolved the loneliness that consumes both of them. But it's momentary and they have to return to the world that defines them as the Avatar and the Banished Fire Prince.

This becomes one of the cores of the show, as echoed in the finale, where Zuko and Aang consummate their friendship, but by then, through traveling the winding road toward one another and aiming to take on a part of what the other person represents, they have found a balance that refused the binaries of divinity and fallibility that had previously separated and defined their lives, binaries that exiled them from connecting with others, binaries that built towers to isolate them from the world. The victims and survivors of genocide, the subjects of colonial violence, nor the sufferers of abuse need be pure to claim their pain, nor must the people who want and work towards justice be saints to do that work. Harder for many audience members to absorb, despite their love for Zuko who's arc is meant to emphasize the point, there is a spark of divinity in everyone, from the most unloved to the most violent and tyrannical. This second fact must exist alongside the first, or else the premise won't hold. How you choose to act and engage with that spark of divinity is a human choice we each make on our own, but that does not deny it's existence. The divine ideals must be allowed to fall apart into comedy and tragedy, while the mundane, the profane, and the cruels horrors of life must be allowed to be seen as something that hold the possibility to become beautiful and part of a grander design. The Avatar must be allowed to be Aang and Zuko must be allowed to be the Firelord so that we can have Avatar Aang (the last title of the series) and Firelord Zuko (the most celebrated character arc of the series). They need one another to assuage the fear, isolation, and dread that black-and-white perfectionist thinking boxes us into.

[aangarchy]

Alright. I've rewatched the trailer like 20 times by now and i've been processing it.

First things first: anyone that's gonna talk shit about Gordon Cormier is gonna have to go through me first. I've only had Gordon!Aang for a day and a half and if anything happens to him i'll kill everyone here and then myself got it?

Just look at him! This is the exact big eared cute little kid i wanted them to cast for Aang. He looks adorable and honestly his outfit is growing on me.

The glowing arrow looked cool as hell. I like that the light spread through his tattoo almost like veins. I'm still curious on how the full avatar state is gonna look, how they're gonna get the glowing eye effect. Please don't let it look goofy.

Y'know what does look goofy?

Is it better than the m night shyamalan appa? I guess. Does that mean it looks good? Well.... at least momo sort of looks cute instead of some folklore nightmare like in shyamalan's version. But also you can tell in this shot in particular that it's very green screen-y

Then we go over to the bending, the limited shots we have of it. Mainly firebending was shown (a little airbending too but kinda hard to get a stillframe for that one)

Idk how to feel about it. In screenshots it looks alright but the shots while they were moving looked a bit off, especially the one where zuko's kicking. We only got very limited shots and that's intentional. I feel like the bigger cgi fails are gonna show up once we get the full show. If the bending looked good all the time i feel like they'd be showing it off by now.

What i don't like, is how apparently they're gonna SHOW Zuko getting burned. Like sure in atla they didn't bc kids show and Nickelodeon wouldn't allow it, and netflix can take darker turns if they so please. But i personally always felt that scene made so much impact because we didn't see it. Iroh is telling it from his memory and he didn't look when it happened, so we don't see it either. It's like a courtesy the show extends to both Zuko and the audience. We just hear the harrowing scream, and that's enough to know how devastating it is. I don't need a dramatic overlook so we can see the whole thing in detail, netflix.

Another thing is the hair in some scenes.

Daniel dae kim looked better in that promo photo, bc here you can just see how the bulky goatie was glued on. And then Sokka's hair..... where's the ponytail? It's laying completely flat against his head... why? Is it bc that's Ian's hair and they didn't know what to do with it? Literally get a comb and tease that bitch. This is like the complete opposite of Jackson Rathbone's hair in the shyamalan version, and somehow that full maybelline ponytail makes more sense than this sad excuse of a tail. Either way at least Suki looked dope.

Another thing i found weird about the trailer is the narration. I think it's either Iroh's voice or maybe Gyatso's? (I haven't heard Iroh's actor talk yet so idk, but it felt like it was being said TO either Aang or Zuko) but the lines they gave him... it felt like some weird mumbo jumbo tbh. Something something about the past and present being the same and it's up to us to know the difference and be the difference? It's saying everything and nothing at the same time and it felt kind of out of place. They're probably saving the iconic opening narration done by Katara for the full trailer (i hope???) but still they could have just gone with music, or maybe just a few iconic existing lines?

The music? Fire. Nothing needs to be added there. Was i kind of hoping for a different soundtrack? Maybe a bit. But am i mad? Not at all. They clearly took the nostalgia route with the more epic version of the avatar theme, and i can only respect them for that.

So far, very mixed reviews for me. I'm morbidly curious and very nosy by nature though, so i'm absolutely watching.

[herotome]

Devlog #147

Hi-ho, Wudge here. Early devlog because I postponed last week!

Here's a wip of Myster's hero outfit:

I haven't quite narrowed down a color scheme yet, and his helmet tassel should probably billow out a bit more...

..... I'm really doing everything in my power to delay a proper face reveal as long as possible l o l, since he takes a while before he shows up in-person in-game.

Because the first time you meet him, you might see something like--!

DUNDUN!!!

I coded my first chatroom scene using Nighten's renpy phone asset!

It's technically a placeholder, because the end result should look and function more like this concept art -

But having the chat conversation be functional and on screen, even if it doesn't encapsulate the full scope of what I envisioned, helped me make some progress in small areas such as...

Drawing custom emotes for Griffin (and only Griffin):

(... I wanna draw more emotes for the other characters but I dont have any good ideas yet lol)

And character profile pictures!!!

I'm gonna take an extra moment to talk about how I DREW GRIFFIN IN A PICREW STYLE... I didn't just make an avatar on picrew, okay?!! I drew it by hand!!!!! Behold:

All the layers! You can see where I took some shortcuts like, not fully drawing out the cup bc most of it was gonna be covered by the hand haha.

I also coded in a function to resize and crop the MC's picture in-engine so -

I don't have to waste time manually making lil pfps for the base MC set (or for any future MC designs)

YOUR custom uploaded MC image will be automatically resized for you!!! (Though you might have to reposition your image if it's not centered... Or maybe it wont make a difference bc you used a picture of fried chicken or potatoes for your MC.)

It's been a blast to work on this, I really enjoyed making images for it. Each icon is about 100x100 pixels or smaller, so it feels really low pressure, fast, and fun.

... Oh, right.

I also did some writing and editing!

And I got to a point where MC can see Gemini, the former leader/Ms Hiatus herself, in an online video.

... I've gotta put her in a square and customize the textbox to make it clearer, though, that she hasn't shown up in person or anything. Haha.

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

[mostly-mundane-atla]

Hello. I was very inspired by your posts! Now I'm working on some Avatar-related drawing, I'm going to draw kuspuk and I want to ask you a few questions about it if you don't mind.

1 – can Yue wear a white kuspuk as an everyday outfit? I though it could reflect her Moon Spirit dress. But you said it is traditional for men as hunting clothes and is a formal wear now, so I am not so sure about this idea anymore. 2 – I remember that kuspuk was worn over parka but is it possible in Avatar-universe to wear it in a modern fashion, as a tunik? And make it a bit narrower, to fit the body more? It's just easier to animate this way. 3 – could Yue wear Sokka's kuspuk or is it allowed only on special events like the holyday you talked about?

I would really like to draw it as respectful as possible. Thank you very much.

Hey, sorry this took so long. I appreciate how organized and formatted this is, it makes it very easy to thoroughly answer!

1. There are two parts to this question; whether kuspuks can be worn as everyday wear and whether Yue can wear a white one. If this helps, you can think of kuspuks in the same way you think of aprons. The purpose of an apron is to be easily washable and protect the clothes under it, and with advances in the garment industry and laundering, there is much less need for them. That being said they remain an iconic part of folkwear that can be lovingly decorated or, on the other hand, a sensible option for any number of chores or lifestyles. A white kuspuk is traditionally for men who hunt big game, as they make for good camouflage in the snow, but why does this mean Yue couldn't wear one? She is associated in canon with the masculine yang of the yin and yang and the moon which, in most Inuit and Eskimo cultures, is considered masculine as well. While white kuspuks are associated with men and specifically family patriarchs, a feminine kuspuk in white makes plenty of sense for Yue's character

2. A kuspuk is baggy. Otherwise it's just a shirt/dress with a hood and pockets. There's nothing wrong with drawing Avatar characters in kuspuk-inspired garments, but a kuspuk is not fitted to the body. There are contemporary novelty kuspuks that are sideless for indoors and warmer months, but that's the closest i can think of.

3. There's nothing really against wearing someone else's kuspuk, but you typically wear your own. While there are shops and makers that sell them, a kuspuk is often made by or for you and shopping for the fabric and and trims is a treasured part of the process so there is some intention to the garment being yours. Not impossible, but not typical. That said, there is the traditional Competition Dance of King Island that involved men dressing as women and women dressing as men. That would be a good opportunity for the two of them to swap clothes if that's what you'd like to do.

[gryficowa]

Boycott!

Tia… Apparently "Beetlejuice 2" came out (Now there's a wave of it like with everything else), but I don't care, sorry, I'm not a Burton fanatic, a few good jokes and nice shots are never enough for me (That's why I was never fan of the movie "Avatar", for me its hype is too inflated, because the only thing that shows good computer graphics, but the story is meh)

And yes, I grew up watching Tim Burton's Willy Wonka, but even that didn't make me like his work, hello, I didn't even watch "Wendstey" and then everyone was talking about it and making memes out of it…

My taste is specific, I often like things that others don't like (Reboot "Ben 10" and "Be Cool Scooby Doo") and I don't like things that others love ("Rick and Morty" as it was popular, actually, I'm still not a fan of this, sorry, not enough moments that I liked, or "Violetta", someone explain to me why this shit was popular? It was boring and characters as dimensional as Bill Cipher's…)

My taste is simply too different (Maybe because of my origins, but still, it doesn't matter that something is cult if I don't like it…)

And yes, my memories of the movie BJ are so meh, and the end of the movie left me with a bad taste… I don't know, it's just a typical problem with Burton's work, I have the impression that as a director and creator he is overrated (I don't know what word put it here, ok?)

And yes, I have ASD (Before someone with Ableism gets away from me, I'm a person with ASD, so I can say that I don't like his work, I'm a weirdo myself and I have strange taste, but it doesn't change the fact that I have problems with his work, I'm sorry, but I won't change it, I can't fully describe what I don't like, because because of ASD I have problems with describing my feelings, so, as I mentioned, I appreciate the look of the shots and a few gags, but even that won't make me love something, I can't be bought that easily, I need honest character dynamics, and this is something what bothers me about his work, I know, We, people with ASD, have a problem with showing emotions in some cases, or with describing them, but something just doesn't feel right to me and I really can't describe it, the only way I can describe it is that it's quite… Stiff? I know, maybe it doesn't fit to describe what I feel, but I don't feel that the characters reflect each other or have any relationship with each other, the only thing they have in common is the script and dialogues… I'm also tired of the fact that sometimes there is a forced romance, I know, a typical problem with hetero relationships in productions, but it just looks like "Hey, he's straight, so don't worry "that he's a hidden gay or something," but okay, it's a common problem, especially in the last century and at the beginning of this one, which doesn't change the fact that I have my problems with Burton, so yes, even reboots that are hated, at least give something in return, i.e. character dynamics, so you understand, it's a problem that is difficult for me to describe as a person with ASD, but even I have something that doesn't suit me…)

I guess the fandom will hate me for having the nerve to talk about the problems I have with something that's iconic in the USA… But I just can't convince myself that I like something because it's iconic, sorry I have different tastes , but it's not my fault, there's nothing wrong with liking something and there's nothing wrong with not liking something, if it makes you happy and helped you get through a difficult period (GF, vocaloid and musical BJ, that happened to me…), then it's ok if they harass you for liking it (Because they consider it immature or cringe) then that's fine it's their problem, not you, it's the same if you don't like something (Sorry, I'm not a Lydia X Beetlejuice fanatic, I don't like a ship based on a long-time demon and a minor character… Relationship? Okay, lovers? sus)

Now that I have your attention:

--------------------------------------------------------------

I'm writing again, it irritates me, I often don't know what to write, which is why I often see the text "Boycott" and a GIF, or I write and I start to worry that the collections won't reach people because they won't read it to the end…

My feelings towards the Beetlejuice/Tim Burton movie will probably also cause a lot of controversy… Eh… It's less of a worry than the fact that the collections don't arrive…

I'm just tired of the fact that many great artists are underrated, and those who often create something bland are the most overrated, we have so many great creators, but they can't stand out and that's something that really depresses me, I want more artists with ASD and they can prove it even to Burton that they know the dynamics of characters, I just want more creators with ASD, give them a fucking chance, why do they have to not have a diagnosis to achieve anything? This sucks…

[distort-opia]

are there any examples of batjokes being gentle? i guess? with each other? other than bruce carrying joker bridal style or in TBWL when he held joker after he shot himself

Depends on your definition of "gentle", I suppose. If that includes Bruce saving Joker's life, often in dramatic ways and holding/carrying Joker bridal-style, he's done that a lot-- not just in Batman Who Laughs. But besides that... they do have quieter moments. They're rarer and not necessarily divorced from violence, because (to quote a line from Hannibal), violence is the language they best understand. But they're there.

The most obvious one is the ending of The Killing Joke, Bruce offering Joker his help and telling him he isn't alone, and then them laughing together while clinging to each other:

-- Batman: The Killing Joke

Another underrated moment that I'm personally very fond of comes from Legends of the Dark Knight (2012), and an arc called "Haunted Arkham". In it, the ghost of a little girl who was killed by the current head psychiatrist at Arkham begins to take over the residents, invoked by the head psychiatrist himself. Bruce realizes what must've happened to the little girl, who (of course) possesses Joker as her main avatar of revenge. She uses Joker to kill her tormentor, and after it happens, Bruce and Joker have this poignant scene:

-- Legends of the Dark Knight (2012) #21

That sock puppet Joker gives Bruce is the shape the little girl had taken to talk to Joker in previous issues, and he just accepts it. Bruce doesn't attack Joker either for killing the guy. They both clearly... felt for the child. (And don't even get me started on the meta aspect of it all, because what Joker's describing here is in many ways his own approach to loving Batman, hurting him so that he'd always pay attention to him and never forget him; which is why the little girl latches onto Batman too, and waits for him through Joker after the murder, because of the implied understanding.)

I'd also count Fool's Errand as a gentler moment. It's the anniversary of Jason Todd's death, and a child is missing (with only Joker having the information needed to save her, because he caused her kidnapping to happen), so you can imagine the kind of projection and grief that Bruce has got going on.

Joker covers it up as another ploy to get under Bruce's skin, but it doesn't entirely read like that. It reads like part of Joker compensates for Jason's death and lets Bruce have this win, this moment where he does manage to get there in time and save the child. ("Why? Just... because." And then he comes up with a reason Bruce would believe.)

-- Detective Comics (1937) #726

Though, maybe one of their most gentle moments is during their amnesiac time. After Batman: Endgame... and does dying together the way they did count as gentle? Either way, the implication of Capullo's unused cover for that last issue is striking:

-- Batman: Endgame

So they die, likely in each other's arms, but are brought back to life without their memories by the dionesium. And then (because the Universe apparently always brings these two together) amnesiac Bruce and Joker meet on a bench and have this iconic moment, in which Joker pretty much asks Bruce not to become Batman again and let them both rest:

-- Batman (2011) #48

The whole issue is beautiful, but my favorite is Joker (the champion of "nothing matters") telling Bruce (the champion of "everything matters") that it's okay for things to not have a point, that being alive and present is enough. Truly tragic that Bruce doesn't remember this.

Then there's a moment during the Rebirth Wedding arc, when Joker finds out about Bruce and Selina being engaged, and goes after them:

-- Batman (2016) #48

It's another instance of a deep understanding between them, an island of quiet within a river of violence.

Man, this got way longer than I thought! I'm sure there's other examples that might qualify, but I'll leave it as it is. Hope this scratched the itch, Anon.

[saltminerising]

Okay, I need to talk about this. A blacklist system in the form that people are requesting it is not simple. At all.

First off the blacklist system for just site images would only realistically extend to just to items in your hoard (or lairs for dragon images) or in the database. What about the items showing in coli/bios/forums/tab info? As far as I'm aware those don't pull info from personal player settings, just their main database. There would need to be a system that checks all of those for your supposed blacklisted items. There is no 'it just blurs the image' here. There's a 'we would need to make an entire extra triple layer cake of code to check everything' or 'the basic blacklist blurring exists but only on these three areas and is visible everywhere else.'

And suppose they do all that, every bit of it and all that effort. It still won't matter. Forums, clan pages, dragon bios, all these allow for custom images. I could save a photo of my dragon that falls under someone's blacklist, slap that into imgur, and put it in the bio. Maybe I wanted to photoshop my hatchling into a silly hat? Dragon picture in bio. Artwork depicting a seemingly 'safe' dragon not on someone's blacklist with a feature that upsets them? Well it wasn't blurred so clicking it should have been okay. Saving someone's avatar dragon image to use as forum decoration? Not linked to any actual player icon and therefore exists outside of any blanket blacklist. Someone just buys a dragon off the auction house and finds it has a hatchery banner in the bio with an image they don't like? At least the code doesn't show image previews, but you're still going to wind up seeing the image.

The only way around the above issue is heavier moderation on what people can post and do with their custom spaces, which goes against the primary argument of a blacklist only affecting the person who sets it. Even then I can see such toxic hostility sprouting up when someone does something as simple as showing off a silly dragon edit because 'well some people would have that dragon blocked!' It already happens, even in spaces where it is perfectly clear spoilers aren't required.

I understand not wanting to see things. I understand things making you uncomfortable. But please stop saying this is 'simple accessibility' because it isn't. This is so heavily multi-layered from not only a basic gameplay stance but from a social gameplay stance.

[felldragon]

seofon and the big dipper 🌠

let's talk about seofon and the big dipper, because there's some really neat symbolism tucked away!!!

starting with some basics. what's the big dipper? it's an asterism, which is basically a group of stars that are NOT a constellation. however, the big dipper is inside of a constellation, aka the ursa major!!!

there are technically eight stars inside of it, but only seven are relevant for seofon, since his whole deal is the number seven. the seven brightest stars correspond to his seven-star avatars. they are as follows: dubhe, merak, phecda, megrez, alioth, mizar, and alkaid.

a neat tie in is that the avatars recite the greek letter that refers to their bayer designation (the order of which stars appear!).

this is usually from brightest to least brightest, although funnily enough, the big dipper does not follow this rule! for example, dubhe comes first, but it's actually the second brighest. the rule it follows is based off of visual order instead, bowl -> handle)

now, i said there were eight stars, but only seven are mentioned in seofon's lore. this is because alcor is a binary star system with mizar. it's fainter and thus does not get a bayer designation.

it does however, have a flamsteed designation! this involves numbers instead of greek letters, but it's pretty similar otherwise!

seofon uses an attack called carro magnifico, with carro being chariot. magnifico is magnificent, or in other words, grand. grand chariot is the name of his raid theme!

from the top of my head, i can say that the big dipper is referred to as a chariot in french, spanish, norwegian, and chinese.

taosim and buddhism also have personified versions of the big dipper, which have associations with chariots.

the chariot is controlled by an emperor, or leader (although depending on the culture sometimes it's a god instead). it's said that the big dipper is known for guiding people, does that ring any bells? reminds me of a certain sword guy…

the big dipper is also commonly associated with death, believe it or not! the handle can be interpreted as mourning maidens, while the bowl is a bier. alkaid's name ties in with this.

alkaid is the apparent leader of the seven-star avatars, and alkaid's name derives from a phrase that boils down to "the leader of the daughters of the mourners", which adds up to its role!

a little disclaimer, i'm not an expert on chinese mythos, so apologies if this next part is rough!!

the big dipper is also known as beidou, and you can find engravings or decorations relating to it on swords, who would've thought! they're even called "seven stars jian", aka the straightsword.

the dipper is known to represent both good and evil. this relates to how life is more tied to the southern dipper (located in sagittarius), and death of course to the northern dipper, aka the big dipper.

in a way, this reminds me of seofon and his other self. they're made of the same cloth, but they also are complete opposites. crazy isn't it?

i feel like you could also make connections with the big dipper's associations with safe passage + heaven to estalucia aka the boundary. but unfortunately there's still too little that we actually know about estalucia… oh well! still food for thought.

i will also note that the saptarshi (seven sages from hinduism) are closely tied to the asterism as well! each star represents one of the sages, and to me, that really fits the vibes of the seven-star avatars being the deities of the blade and whatnot.

the big dipper is the most iconic constellation in the northern hemisphere. seofon even talks about how everyone loves the big dipper when he uses his fourth skill, seven star's brilliance (take a guess what is pictured as the skill icon).

there's probably more i could say, but i don't want to overwhelm or bore anyone. hope you learnt something new! thanks for reading! 🌟

[anghraine]

your blog is great, and you talk about your interests in such a compelling way! out of curiosity, who would you say are your top 10 fictional characters of all time? also, do you use twitter?

Thank you very much! It's hard to be entirely accurate about my personal top ten, but I still enjoyed thinking about it rather than about being sick and miserable, lol, so here's my attempt to come up with a Faves of Ultimate Destiny list.

(This isn't necessarily about evaluating their worth as characters or even as people, but just how much raw affection I feel. It's also not ranked, just the order in which I thought of them!)

Fitzwilliam Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (the book character specifically) — I know, nobody is surprised. He actually is my #1 choice.

Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars original trilogy — it's always hard for me to choose between him, his father, and his sister, but ultimately, I feel the most powerfully about Luke. I'm not here for soft, sunshiny fanon Luke, but I am super here for a Luke whose personal kindness, strength, and powerful loyalties mingle with his struggle against rage, fear, even hatred, and an inclination to idealize martial violence and solve his problems with it, yet who comes out the other side as the kind of Jedi that Anakin might have been rather than the authorities around Luke succeeding in forging him into something alien to his true nature.

Faramir from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (very definitely the book character specifically) — again, I'm not super into soft and accommodating mundane guy Faramir, but very into the interplay of his basic compassion and gentleness with the repeated descriptions of him as stern, commanding, willful, and just really fucking strange. I love others a lot but no one can take his crown. (He may be uncrowned in canon but not in my heart!)

Gwen Thackeray from Guild Wars: Prophecies and Guild Wars: Eye of the North, games which most of you haven't played and I suspect would not enjoy for dated mechanics reasons, but which won my heart in the original tutorial zone. I have an explanation about Gwen's greatness here.

Attolia Irene from Megan Whalen Turner's The Queen's Thief books, but especially The Queen of Attolia. She's so precisely tailored to my tastes in female characters that I was kind of astounded, even though I read the books specifically for her based on my friends' TQT blogging. I mostly don't talk about her on this blog, but my feelings are really strong!

Aravis Tarkheena from CS Lewis's The Horse and His Boy. I know everything wrong with Narnia and specifically with THHB, but Aravis, what an icon.

Tarrlok from Avatar: The Legend of Korra. This is another close competition (with his brother Noatak/Amon along with both members of my beloved OTP, Korra/Kuvira), but if I'm being honest, he's the one who scrapes into the fave Avatar character slot. I've loved a lot of tragic villains, but he's really top tier.

Annabella from John Ford's seventeenth-century revenge tragedy 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. The title is quasi-ironic; it comes from a dismissive description of her by a super corrupt Catholic cardinal. Both the title and subject matter (murder, consensual sibling incest, a ton of misogyny) can make it a difficult play for some. But for me, Annabella is really what makes the play succeed on its own terms and outshine its Shakespearean inspiration.

Cesare Borgia from Showtime's The Borgias. In my heart this slot goes to both him and his sister Lucrezia (where #8 is definitely Annabella's alone, although I like Giovanni; if only S1 existed this slot would be rightfully Lucrezia's). But if I have to choose between them in the context of the show, I felt his arc was smoother and more coherent and satisfying throughout the show as a whole, so my love for him is less impeded by frustration.

I wasn't actively trying to only choose one character per canon, though it's wound out that way, but here's the exception: Cassian Andor from the 2016 Star Wars film Rogue One (and only that film—I'm not here for the novelization or other EU depictions or Andor or anything except what's in the movie). He's a gift of a character I never expected Star Wars to provide, and half of the only romance in SW that seriously matters to me.

Honorable "rewired my brain" mentions: Moiraine Damodred from Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time (also in the show!), Sandrilene fa Toren from Tamora Pierce's Emelan books, and Lessa from Anne McCaffrey's Pern books were all deeply formative.

As for Twitter:

I definitely don't use it any more. I used to have multiple accounts, though I wasn't super active outside of academia/chatting with RL friends and the occasional random scholar who deigned to notice me. Twitter wasn't really the natural platform for my preferred "LJ fandom expat" style of online writing, and was mostly stuff like this:

[Damn, I had no idea what was coming with "AI" ... anyway.]

I was deciding whether to keep using Twitter as the Elon purchase was going down, and then he immediately did an antisemitism and I immediately cut all use of it. I later got around to locking down all three accounts; I only maintain them to control the usernames. Most of the people I knew on Twitter joined Bluesky around the same time as me, or can be more easily reached on Discord now. I mostly use Bluesky when I feel like microblogging, but it's not a feeling that often besets me.

[generalallxsanjishipper]

Icon made by: me

Hi! Welcome.

This is Generalallxsanjishipper's blog

(A long ass nick, I know.)

*stares at the (not many) but 100% "Yes" votes that was in the poll* (How the hell am I supposed to introduce myself? I have no idea, but okay, whatever—)

Killian here! It's not my real name, but it's my art name. I can be called Isa or Bibi as well. My real name is Barbara.

I'm from Italy and I'm a 2001 girl, She/her pronouns, bisexual, introverted, Virgo (too much of a perfectionist sometimes. Ops)

I am a Writer, a Screenwriter and an Artist. I even went to an art school, but the only thing that I learned there is anxiety. Yey.

I love reading. Like tons of books, but for whatever reason I stopped entirely reading books written in Italian and now I'm constantly binge-reading english stuff.

As a Writer, I create tons of Own Characters, yes. I have honestly so many OCs that it's hard to keep track of them between Original Works and Fanfiction. I have to admit that I never wrote as much fanfiction as I'm doing during those last years, mostly for bad experience with criticism in my first fics. But apparently I got over it after randomly starting to write little One Shots of a few different fandoms. It excalated, now.

To read my stuff, you can find me in AO3, Efp and Wattpad under Killian44peeta's nickname. Even as an Artist, you can find me with that nickname on Instagram. I DO NOT have TikTok and I DO NOT intend to have it. If I change my mind, it's gonna rain for months lol.

I have many, many fandoms.

Listing them all is impossible, but my obsessions usually stuck the most when I have a "main crush" in said fandom. If not, they are fleeting at best... And usually the same main crush is the one that I ship with most people (Not always though).

Yep. I'm a multishipper, pro LGBTQ+ and I love polyamorous relationships.

When I hate a ship, I just hate it. No matter how hard you try to change my mind. Still, I'm of the "live and let live policy" because, damn, ship wars are boring and if you dislike something, YOU BLOODY IGNORE IT.

YOU DO NOT STUPIDLY FIGHT SOMEONE AND SAY TO THEM TO K*LL THEMSELVES BECAUSE THEY DO NOT SHIP YOUR PAIRING. THOSE PEOPLE YOU SHIP DO NOT EXIST. THEY ARE JUST A WRITER'S FANTASY. NO NEED TO BE SO STUPIDLY CHILDISH. JUST CALM DOWN.

*takes a deep breath*

Thanks.

A few examples of my main crushes:

Animated ones first.

Sanji, Corazon, Reiju and Vivi (One Piece), Douxie (Tales of Arcadia), Zuko (Avatar), Mika (Owari No Seraph), Levi, Jean and Yelena (Shingeki no Kyojin), Akashi and Kise(Kuroko no basket), Gwen (Total Drama), Megara (Hercules), Dark Bloom (Winx Club), Hijikata (Gintama), Hyoga, Eden, every Virgo Saint ever except Shun (Saint Seiya+), Shiro and Pidge (Voltron), Lust and Roy(Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood)

Not animated crushes (directly the person, not the role, because if not the list would be sooo much longer, ok)

Daniel Sharman, Danielle Campbell, Colin O'donoghue, Richard Armitage, Ian Somerhalder, Josh Hutcherson, Zoe Kravitz, Tom Ellis, Hayden Christensen, Bridgette Mendler

(am I forgetting someone? Probably. Sorry)

Welp. I dunno what else to say. Hope you have fun inside my blog? If you wanna be friends (chat here, on Discord, WhatsApp... ) and ask questions I'm okay with it? If you wanna talk with me about (my, yours) stories, I'm DEFINITELY okay with it.

:D I love to rant about fanfictions and original works. I love ranting about ocs and headcanon about characters. Yes.

(do not kill me if I don’t answer immediately, I have a life/I need time to draw/I need time to write)

Bye.

-Killian

[tornioduva]

Avatar the last airbender - a small thought on Aang design

....Ok, so, all the talking about avatar these past days made extremely inclined to rewatch clips and episode from theoriginal. and with that, i developed a particular opinion o a specific things: Aang's tatoos.

Now, we all like the lore and worldbuilding of this world; it has its issues, but it functions really smoothly (not considering Korra). I do think one thing we can all agree too: Aang's tatoos are how they are because they look cool by themselves more than for cultural reasons, but they do even more in his avatar state:

Aang is visually really cool and iconic in both forms, and that is in gran part thanks to the tatoos.

What i want to say with this is: why only Aang has them? or to be precise, why the avatar state interacts with a visual component of the body other than the eyes only with the Air nomads tatoos? other air avatars have them, so it seems to be a peculiarity exclusive to his people. why is that?

And why is that a "problem" with me.

I'll be short with this: i just think all the other avatars should have visually highlighted elements other than just the eyes like aang does.

I just see it as a wasted opportunity, both to add cool properties to the avatar state and to add cultural details to the avatars and their people.

Like, i don't know if it's explained somewhere, i don't remember all of the show by memory, but it don't remember to any explanations as to why. One could sayis because the air temple are the most spiritual one. are you sure? that in the whole world only them have figured out tatoos that connect to the spirit? come on.

it's shown multiple times that spirituality is something possesed by all nations, and each with their own interpretation and local declination, this is just the one of the air nomads. Yeah, maybe adding to the others would leessen the specialness of the air nomads, but i think we would only gain by more visually diverse avatar states.

Like, tell me to my face that it wouldn't be cool to have fire avatar with glowing flames pattern on their fists and feet (maybe face even), water avatars with flowing waves all over their body, and maybe earth avatars with patterns all over their chest and back.

also, one, could say that the tatoos are important to aang, and so maybe this is a uniquely his thing for some reason. well, this opens even more possibilities!

if the avatar state does make things on the avatar's body glow based on their history and feelings, we could have things like hair, fingernails, only hands or feet, the mouth, and stuff like that. something like Anne from amphibia.

Listen, i just want something as badass as this for tthe other avatars too.

This all train of thought started mainly after i rewatched some TloK clips, where i realized how plain she looks if compared to Aang.

Like, she does go hard visually many times (especially here), but Aang just sticks to you.

i'm not sure what i could give to korra that does not clash too much with her design; again, maybe some arm tatoos would do the trick, but, given how her story goes, i think it would be cool if she had something like glowing cracks in her skin, giving a hint on her depowered/unstable character state, overflowing from her.

or maybe even just a glowing shade on the end of her hair.

don't know, i just think this was kind of a waste of good design, there to look cool but to not expand this privilege to others as well.

[soleminisanction]

There are very few ""headcanons"" out there that get a bigger side-eye from me than people who try to make Stephanie Brown into a Black girl.

Firstly because that is not a headcanon. That's just a whole-ass retcon created out of thin air. A headcanon would be saying she's a natural redhead like how Morgan Kohan played her on Batwoman, or that she's mixed-race because of the curly way some artist draw her hair. There's definitely flexibility in race interpretations for comics but looking at the blue-eyed blonde-hair white girl and declaring her "actually Black" is not one of them.

Secondly, because I have seen (and sometimes gotten) a lot of harassment from Steph fans aimed specifically at Tim's actual, canon Black love interests and teammates. I still seethe at the memory of this one CBR interview I read back when YJ2019 was running, where Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker were clearly there to talk up Naomi and Teen Lantern, and in the middle of their heart-felt conversation about the importance of representation for young Black girls, the interviewer butted in to interject, "But you know who I want to see more of?? Stephanie!!!" This going on while Steph fans on Twitter were going on racist tirades because the book dared to highlight the history of Teen Lantern, a character who was actually advertised to be a part of the book and a new member of the team, instead of giving them more of their white-blonde fav who had never been affiliated with YJ and was never part of the advertising.

Thirdly, she was created and so often written by Chuck Dixon, a blatant racist, and as a result there are so many little scenes of her that have uncomfortable racial elements to them. Like the one where he created a pair of Black girls just so Stephanie could call them "raging morons" to their faces and then later talk about how stupid and immature they are compared to her. (Which I am still convinced was Dixon directly criticizing the much better teen pregnancy subplot from Icon & Rocket). Or the borderline-blackface white savior ""demon"" where she wears a dead gnu and maybe accidentally calls herself a bitch in Swahili. (Disclaimer: I do not speak Swahili, and thus do not know how a sentence structure that should read "I am thorn" turns into "I'm a bitch" or "I'm crazy," but I checked that translation with three different robo-translators and got the same results so, shrug.)

And finally -- god, Steph is just, such a walking avatar of white women's privilege. Her entire thing is demanding that she get her way, never letting anyone tell her no, and still being treated by the narrative as a pure-hearted ""beacon of hope"" that everybody needs to protect and nurture at all times.

The inciting incident of War Games can be boiled down to, "A white girl got told no, and made it everybody else's problem." The first attempted Black member of the Batfamly fucking died during that event and got almost entirely forgotten because people only went to bat for the white girl who caused the whole mess and the white woman who got character assassinated to kill her off.

If Stephanie were Black, she wouldn't exist anymore. Fuck, if she were a brunette or just as butch as Carrie Kelly, she probably wouldn't exist anymore. She certainly wouldn't be Batgirl, I can't imagine Dan Didio replacing Cass with another woman of color.

And it's not even just her? Her father is also a very white character. It is incredibly easy to summarize Arthur Brown as a mediocre white man lashing out at the world for not handing him the success he felt entitled to. Take that petulant entitlement away from him and you lose his entire character.

I'm ranting about it on my own blog instead of picking a fight because everybody's entitled to their own fandom experience and blah blah, but this is just. Yeah. Ugh.

[tobiasdrake]

I just got done reading a series of posts from a few other users about how Tears of the Kingdom is actually full of imperialist propaganda, and I am currently having an existential breakdown.

Do you think there is any merit to that assertion? And even if there isn't, is it not still kinda racist based on the ethnic coding given to Hyrule and the Gerudo?

The users I saw talking about this were gay-jesus-probably and rawliverandgoronspice, so feel free to take a look if you don't know what I'm talking about.

The Gerudo have been a sore spot for Legend of Zelda for a long time, ever since their introduction in Ocarina of Time. Like. They were originally conceived as a race of thieves who kidnap light-skinned Hylian men to use as breeding stock. That's a pretty gross thing to write about your only dark-skinned characters.

The Gerudo of BOTW/TOTK are certainly a much more fair depiction than the Gerudo of OOT. They've come a ways.

But improved doesn't mean the same thing as good. They're still a mono-gendered race of exotic women whose interaction with other races is strictly sexual. They're no longer kidnapping white men to use as breeding stock; Now their job is look sexy and attract white men who will breed with them of their own accord!

They've gone from "Insert Minority Race is all thieves" to "Exotic Savages".

And just about every Gerudo you meet is more than happy to remind you of this. It's not just a minor detail in the background; It's practically all they ever talk about. Their whole culture seems to revolve around their relationship with "voe".

It's also not great that, at the end of the day, no matter how much the Gerudo might be improved as a concept, their main representation will always be main franchise villain Ganondorf. A wicked black man trying to steal the kingdom of Hyrule from the light-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed Zelda and Link is baked into the franchise.

So. Like. What we have now is less offensive. But there's still a ways to go.

Personally, I think they could alleviate a lot of problems by letting go of Link's iconic design. Link isn't really supposed to be a significant entity within the world of LOZ. He's just the player avatar. It's only in recent years, as people have started to get upset about right-handed Link and as people have started asking for a female Link, that Nintendo's gone hard on "No, Link's identity is super important and he HAS to be this one specific character design because his race and gender and handedness are all CRITICAL PLOT DETAILS FOR HIS COMPLEX ROLE IN THE STORY!"

But he doesn't have a complex role in the story. Even to this day, it doesn't really matter who he is, only that he is. So I think Nintendo could alleviate a lot of growing frustrations with this character and his franchise by introducing a character creator.

Let people pick which hand he uses. Let them pick his skin tone, his hair color, etc. Let them decide if he's even a "him"; There is absolutely no reason Link can't be a woman. Hell, go crazy. Why can't there be a Gerudo Link? Or a Goron Link? Or a Zora Link? Why should Courage be a virtue exclusive to Hylians?

I think giving up on the idea that Link needs to have an iconic design and just letting each player decide what their link to the game should be would be a huge step forward. It wouldn't solve everything. But it would offset a lot of the frustration.

[witch128chick]

Okay toh rewatch Thursday let's go

Back with the meme faces

Luz fr you're THE icon i love you

No bc they were READY to throw hands lol (that b deserves it good thing it happened in the end xd)

I'm talking to Luz and Luz only

Luz, darling, are you sure you're ready for trauma? I have bad news for ya... BUT! we have more than a season to get there so! Everything's fine

King... i feel you

Willow is the new Avatar from the Earth Kingdom 😍

But fr she's so POWERFUL

Another Owlbert appreciation!!

He's so adorably stepping on that giraffe 🥰

I'm not done yet!!! Come back for the reblog :*