#im normal. about this topic

[spinchs-field]

hang on wait before i hop off the train of talking about kink shit. I FUCKING HATE LOOKING AT ART OF SHIBARI SOMETIMES. literally my stupidest pet peeve but WHY ARE THE ROPES NOT PRESSING INTO THE SOFT PARTS OF THE BODY IM GONNA THROW SOMETHING

im sorry but if ur drawing someone actually truly restrained the ropes arent just gonna fuckin sit on top of their skin!!!!!!! the body is soft and squishy!!!! ropes press into skin when they’re properly tight!!!!!!!!! if the rope is just on top of their skin with no imprint lines that rope is loose as hell!!!!!!!!!!! anyway.

[mythosphere]

"Fanfic titles from hozier songs" this "tattoos inspired by hozier songs" that. you know what. I'm going to title my undergrad thesis on Cree code-talkers and Canadian language laws in the Second World War after a hozier song. If Hozier didn't want me to do that he wouldn't have written Butchered Tongue

[abd-illustrates]

I might’ve spoiled the plot of Natlan | Genshin Impact THEORY

In which I read so much lore that I gained the power to see the future (maybe) This ended up being a real challenge to make - but it was also really fun! Please do lemme know what you reckon of these ideas, and whether y’all wanna see me pattern-recognition my way into several corkboards worth of theories about any other topics sometime down the line! (^^)/

(also: HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🥳🎉 Here's wishing y'all every good thing for 2024)

[suntails]

⚔️♣️

[raineedayss]

when the new upload has the streamer acting terrified for his life and speaking in a hushed whisper only to immediately manically scream insults at the Thing that was chasing them once they realize that, for now, they’re safe and also has them slowly getting more and more irritated and fearful and very clearly insane from getting torn apart again and again but yet not being allowed to die only escaping with his body not his soul>>

[babyloniastreasure]

something that kind of bothers me about modern feelings toward the epic of gilgamesh is how it's been COMPLETELY watered down to being "gay". Bear with me as I explain.

this is more of an extreme example, but I see this take all the time (not the yaoi part. the gay lover part). it's boiled down to the fact that it's gay over literally anything else in the epic. Gilgamesh's lament to Urshanabi about Enkidu's loss is overshadowed by the fact that Gilgamesh is mourning his gay lover. Gilgamesh is on a journey because he lost his gay lover. Gilgamesh and Enkidu were gay.

Now I understand that with a modern lens, people tend to lock on to how unabashedly Gilgamesh mourns Enkidu, because it's gay and because it's the oldest written epic in human history. People feel deeply connected to the idea that people like them have been around since the dawn of literature. But placing exclusive focus on the nature of the relationship as gay, rather than why the relationship or its loss was important, erases the story the epic is trying to tell.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is a story about love, yes, but it is not a love story. It's about the fear of death, coping with loss, and desperation to stave off the inevitable. It's about the bonds of friendship, about hardship, coming to terms personal change and losing pieces of yourself as you learn and grow. It is about consequences, arrogance, death, second chances, mourning, yearning, loving and LIVING. The Epic of Gilgamesh is about the entire human experience and one man's struggle to accept it. What does it mean to have lived? What does it mean to have loved, and lost? What does it mean to die, and to be remembered? What does it mean to be human?

It is perfectly okay to find appreciation for the Epic because of Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship. But also understand that the world's oldest story is not about two gay men who loved each other. It is a story about being alive.

TLDR;

[saltyb0ba]

the wrath of the waves must not be underestimated.

[aroaceleovaldez]

in your most recent tyson post, you said something about leo being distinctly autistic-coded and I was wondering if you could elaborate on that? it sounds really interesting (sorry if you've already posted something on this, I couldn't find anything though)

Of course! I do have a specific tag for talking about Leo's autistic-coding/traits - [here], and [one for Nico as well].

The main aspects with Leo being autistic-coded actually have a lot to do with Nico being autistic-coded, because it's the comparisons between the two that most clearly indicate Leo is autistic-coded rather than it just being his ADHD or etc.

So with Nico being autistic-coded, it's very clear in the Titan's Curse that he's intended to be autistic. First, the first series has a repeating pattern of secondary characters being very distinctly neurodivergent-coded in different ways (Annabeth's adhd/dyslexia, Tyson's down syndrome-coding, Nico's autism-coding). With Nico's introduction, he's pretty stereotypically autistic and we're given a lot of descriptors about him that are notably not attributed to him being ADHD, like it would be for other demigod characters. He doesn't register social cues such as people getting annoyed at him, he's asking/making inappropriate or impolite questions/comments, he gets particularly upset about change (such as Bianca joining the Hunt) and generally gets emotional, and one of his most notable traits he's introduced with is the fact that he has a special interest (MythoMagic) - and we're shown that this special interest particularly colors how Nico navigates the world. While ADHD has hyperfixations, we don't really get much acknowledgement of hyperfixations with demigods usually - Annabeth gets a little, but most others don't and it's not nearly as focused-in on as Nico's is.

Then as the series continues we see these traits stick with him and him start to show or voice more traits that similarly indicate he's autistic: He regularly mentions how he doesn't understand living people and prefers the company of the dead (social issues). He has more notable stims than other demigods (twisting his ring, fiddling with bones, etc). He's indicated to have strong sensory preferences (usually wearing mostly black/aversion to bright colors, usually wearing layers/his coat, multiple times he's described as wearing loose/baggy clothing or clothes too big for him). He has specific comfort items (his ring, likely his jacket(s) as well). We later get even more information about his special interests (Mythomagic/mythology/history and an older interest in pirates - the latter he specifically notes likely heavily influenced his feelings towards Percy). He struggles with emotions and facial expressions and tone. He struggles particularly with ostracism and feeling like he doesn't fit in and has something distinctly different about him from the people around him (who notably, all have ADHD, which indicates it isn't the ADHD that's making him feel that way), and other characters regularly describe him as being off-putting because of his strange behaviors - again, different from specific ADHD traits they recognize. And that last point is kind of notable because we have Hazel and Bianca for comparison - we know people are off-put by both Nico and Hazel because of being children of Hades/Pluto and their powers/aura, but other characters get past that general feeling of discomfort way faster with Hazel. And even after characters get past the death stuff with Nico, there's a second thing that they aren't moving past that isn't a factor with Hazel (Nico's autism).

So that brings us to Leo - Leo is paralleled to Nico a lot. And there's some very specific traits about him that we know are autistic-coding because of how they're used with Nico: He similarly struggles with social cues/etc, and in a very similar parallel to Nico describes how he prefers the company of machines to people because machines make more sense to him. He has similar types of clothing/sensory preferences (again some stuff with layers but also - pockets! He likes having pockets and things to put stuff in! He's even introduced as having a jacket with lots of pockets), and he has a distinct special interest (machinery) that we specifically know heavily influences how he views and navigates the world (constantly comparing things to machinery, describing things with machinery metaphors/terminology, etc etc). He even describes his entire general worldview to Hazel and it's a machine metaphor. He also similarly struggles with ostracization like Nico does, the only difference being that Leo specifically puts on a persona to compensate for areas he knows he's lacking in and very explicitly describes it as a means to make people like him, because without it he normally struggles to fit in (He's masking!). We also see notes of characters describing that similar discomfort with Leo's behaviors that they do with Nico, except without the aura of death this time. And when we're in Leo's POVs we see a very stark difference between his masking and his actual personality/behaviors such as his internal dialogues or how he behaves when he's alone. Also, like Nico, he stims more than other demigods, though for Leo it's more attributed to his ADHD. Leo also, more often than most, similarly struggles with tone and reading the room, such as making misplaced jokes/comments or etc.

But yeah! It's really interesting. Also it's just a fun thing that ADHD/dyslexia and autism have comorbidity, so it makes sense that we see demigods who are also autistic. It's also really fun to look at how other characters are coded in the series, what coding looks like in the riordanverse specifically (usually it's tied into the mythological stuff - like Chiron being in a wheelchair but he's actually a centaur, Grover being introduced as having a muscular disease but he's actually a satyr, demigods having adhd/dyslexia, Tyson being coded as having down syndrome but he's a cyclops, etc etc - it's a lot of specific metaphor stuff that I've talked about a bit before), and to look at how characters are compared to one another.

[marblejack]

I know this topic was somewhat touched in the manga, but sometimes I wonder to which extent Kabru's PTSD and general repulsion towards monsters shaped his first impression and interactions arriving to the island.

Call it cultural shock, but did he feel resentment? Has he despised how nonchalantly people regarded the threat that scarred him for life? Has he envied people for the freedom to think about monsters without it reawakening the horrifying scenes he will never escape from right before his eyes? Was he mortified by the audacity to boil down these horrifying things to mere toys kids play with? To consider this a fucking get-rich-quick scheme?

And knowing that he will probably never be like them in this regard? That he is... permanently broken by something out of his control? Paradoxically, despite attracting all kind of people, island is horribly lonely for those who fall out of the line. Kabru really reminds me of Laios in this sense.

Of course, he understood perfectly the absurdity of those thoughts in vacuum. It's not the thing you actively think about -- just something that lurks somewhere in the background of your mind. Hell, most of the time you don't even acknowledge it. But Kabru is the kind of person to keep himself and his thought process under strict grip; has he ever found himself going down this spiral?

I want to get nitty gritty with this funny man's mind, I wanna put him in test tube and shake violently. Kabru is one of the most complex and interesting characters in the whole series, and I really want to dive more into his past, how he heals after his trauma, coping and learning to live into this society that is quite literally built around dungeon culture and milking all it's worth.

(also pushing my kabumisu learning to live outside of constant trauma induced fight-or-flight state agenda, idfc get some rest.)

[starlit-roses-ships]

Oh, your f/os are so in love with how you look. You don’t even have to do anything special! No amount of makeup, specific clothes or hairstyles are needed for them to view you as the most attractive person they’ve laid eyes on. The way you captivate them so effortlessly never fails to make them feel butterflies, and it’s all simply because you are just the way you are 💖

[agenderedmoss]

See, I'm not surprised Vast has killed and will probably continue to kill. The whole Avicane thing sounds like a cult, so like logically that would entail some not so fun times with our fav birb.

But what I was not expecting as for the obelisks to just- NEED HUMAN SACRIFICES????? What???? /Pos

Okay then, damn, welp this is gonna be insane. I now understand the whole "skybound is gonna be cruel" storyline. Like fair enough, can't wait to cry /vvpos

[ceofcatgirls]

Sergio Leone really loves to write his characters in subtle ways. I think really well shown with how the trio is named. Tuco is the only one who actually uses his real name, even the complete version at times. He doesn't hide his identity like Blondie nor does he let his work persona overtake him like Angel Eyes. It certainly makes him feel more authentic, and most importantly, more human, which is a theme surrounding his character. He isn't ashamed of his origins and who he is, which sure it can be a bad thing due to what he's done, but I think it adds to his character, and makes key scenes like the confrontation with his brother all the more emotional and poignant (especially specific lines in that scene, like when he said he had no option to 'opt out' like his brother did, and enforces the suggestion that his brother makes that their parents actually quite liked Tuco; itd thereby follow-up that Tuco has pride in his origins and thereby the names given by his parents. Perhaps they only had a strained relationship due to poverty? Or do I just want to find more socialist ideals in media I like??). And all that messaging is conveyed just through his name!

I think smth similar can be said with Blondie and Angel Eyes, just as a contrast. Which makes sense because they're meant to be more mysterious and supernatural. But the naming of these characters is also quite smart. Blondie is a name given by Tuco, which makes their partnership all the more intimate, especially since Blondie is only 'Blondie' when he's with Tuco. But ofc that indicates he didn't start out as Blondie, so despite the intimacy there's also a sense of mystery. Angel Eyes most likely got his name from his job since that's what outsiders, and people that hire him, call him by. It really goes to suggest how as mentioned above, Angel Eyes most likely stopped blurring the lines between his real persona and work persona. Which adds imo adds to the eerie vibe he has going on. Idk, there's a certain type of horror to a guy who doesn't let himself have no limits to what he's willing to do, to the point that it fundamentally changes him as a person. Which is shown by his actions, and supported by his choice of name.

Hopefully I made sense, idk how else to describe it. Unique names that tell a story aren't uncommon in fiction, but I think the naming choices in GBU are particularly interesting, and indicate what the character and their arcs will end up like.

There's definitely more that can be said (ie, Angel Eyes being called 'Angel' Eyes despite unambiguously representing a darker side of morality, how his alternative name Senteza also adds onto the "force of nature" theme Angel Eyes has going on, how it makes him seem less "bad" and more "neutral" in the sense that he's only acting how people deserve to be treated, and how that alt name can even be stretched to have divine meaning as God is often known as a "judge" that will bring judgment to mankind in the future, etc etc etc) but this is already far too long and it was meant to be a quick post

What's the tldr?....... its that I keep finding more and more reasons to have Leone as one of my fav directors. Will anyone ever cook as hard as he did?

[maespri]

my friend once described makoto as somebody “trying to get a good grade in social interactions, which is both normal and attainable” and it’s stuck with me ever since because. Yeah

[artsycooky13]

top 3 fave bbys in the burrito show (bonus SUPER LONG tags on how i feel bout the characters)

[fffanii]

09.07.24

hello, you have reached the point in which the queue point has passed the date of ii16 coming out. now you will have to listen to me lose my mind and experience the stages of grief in the tags.

alt ver. ↓

[rukafais]

love the people who call people who dont like AI art luddites who are afraid of change btw. Like yeah man, a generator that exists to cut corners to the point that large corporations are using it to make good-enough-to-them promotional material instead of hiring people to draw their promotional material is embracing the public domain and sticking it to ip law and capitalism.

You are also a sucker, just in a different direction