#just random stuff i guess

[amelia-yap]

an idea that came to me this afternoon lol

[aroaceleovaldez]

I was reading a post about CoTG and I realized: Rick has seemingly started to write every character pairing with the exact same dynamic, and he's not good at writing that dynamic and it doesn't make sense for 90% of the characters he writes it for.

It's that very specific dynamic of one half of the pair who is almost aggressive to the other party - "teasing" them constantly/insulting them, affectionately punching/judo flipping/maiming/etc, seemingly almost always exasperated with the other - and said other party usually just accepts this treatment or blanketly views it fondly, and may generally be framed as more incompetent than their partner and a little bit of a doormat (particularly relating to being insulted/teased/etc by their partner).

We start seeing this dynamic in HoO with Percy and Annabeth, as a sort of semi-inconsistent twist on their rivals-to-friends-to-lovers dynamic from the first series. Then the dynamic pattern develops further with Leo and Calypso. Then Magnus and Alex. Then Nico and Will, particularly in TSATS. And now in CoTG, it's Percy and Annabeth again but even more in this direction.

I know people have talked about Nico and Will's relationship over the series rapidly being shoehorned into Percabeth Two™, and it's extremely apparent in TSATS that Rick's doing it on purpose (including directly quoting Percabeth scenes but minorly tweaking them to be Solangelo). But recognizing it as an overarching trend in Rick's later books honestly reminds me a lot of how Rick started trying to apply the "Percy Formula" so-to-speak to nearly every protagonist in HoO (and then try to replicate similar character archetypes with Magnus and Apollo's narrations - moreso Magnus in being jaded and sarcastic, very much trying to be first series Percy. He only sounds unique because Rick failed at making him Percy 2. Apollo is more akin to later-series Percy characterization of being goofy and incompetent. Apollo [and Zeus] even got retconned to give Apollo a more similar backstory to Percy's). Rick seems to have decided that he thinks the audience wants this specific dynamic but 10 times over, except he's not good at writing it the first time because it's a bastardization of the time he did a different thing okay.

And Rick also seems aware of that too! Because he retconned Calypso and Leo at the end of TOA, probably because he realized how absolutely awful it was reading when they were written with that dynamic of Calypso just functionally hating Leo and constantly being aggressive towards him! The only time Rick's actually made the dynamic even semi-successful was with Magnus and Alex, because it actually fits within their characters, their dynamics with each other, and their environment. Alex beheading Magnus on the regular works out fine because there are no repercussions to that in Valhalla, Magnus will be fine, so it does genuinely come off as humorous. And Alex has been effectively established to be abrasive at times but have her genuine feelings shine through regularly, and that meshes well with Magnus' jaded-and-aloof-but-quietly-very-empathetic character. And Magnus has been established to, yes, not be great at combat, particularly compared to Alex. They are the only time that flavor of dynamic in that form was effective and cohesive.

Percabeth is no longer rivals-to-friends-to-lovers badasses on equal levels with shaky pasts who finally found some form of permanence with one another. Now it's super smart doting and affectionately aggressive girlfriend and her silly goofy 50%-of-the-time incompetent boyfriend who she judo flips/pushes off cliffs/etc - but affectionately~! Solangelo is trying to riff off of the early series "Poseidon & Athena are enemies" dynamic that Percabeth had but with Apollo & Hades being "opposites" but learning to accept each other, except it ends up with Will just coming off as a huge asshole and Nico being retconned to a complete doormat about it - when prior to that those characterizations would be completely contrary to their established characters (even just from TOA!). Calypso in HoO gets retconned from her PJO characterization to being snooty and aggressive, and Leo's false persona gets merged into his just normal personality except he just also becomes a doormat but more goofy than Nico with occasional haha-dark/depression-humor! Which Nico also got. Which was also a bastardized Percy trait that got redistributed.

It's exhausting. Rick write more than one relationship dynamic you can do it I promise

[secretagentspydetectiveninja]

more v3 doodles (it's all just maki)

[likesdoodling]

More stuff from stage play photos I have saved! This scene was definitely one of my favourites, XD

[iamhereinthebg]

I need more of these two interacting AidaIro

[sparklingpax]

guys you know what wouldve been interesting to have....scenes of Optimus gradually getting used to his new body in s3.....

-instances like when he peered into that cave and realized he wouldn't fit so he had to transform, except it looks like even transforming to vehicle mode won't help so he just stands there looking kinda sad. feat. ratchet coming up to him to pat his arm sympathetically

-everyones so small now

-by the allspark wait the humans are small

-accidently hitting things....and people, when turning or gesturing towards stuff and like no one is upset by it at all really. he immediately apologizes and they're usually like "youre fine all good op :)" but he feels bad and tbh a bit embarrassed about it so he just. ; - ;

-realizing many times over he can't just. easily look down at stuff below him anymore because his giant boobs chestplates are in the way now....

-finding out the hard way (literally during fights) the levels of mobility he has retained and which he has not....trying to use a move he can no longer execute properly because hes so bulky now....on the flip side though, him realizing how much brute strength he can use in a fight with this new body

-having an even easier time picking up his small cranky medic bf to give him hugs. he is pleased with this development 🥰 ratchet is not

-secret and self-imposed jetpack/flight training sessions. with ratchet (and his medical kit) overseeing, because...he keeps flying at full speed into trees and cliffsides. (Imagining that what we see on screen is the result of those hours of learning to navigate flight and balance and stuff makes it more interesting to me idk)

-just occurred to me that of all of them, bulkhead has the closest physique to Optimus now, and could probably give him some useful tips and advice...stuff like how to best use that strength, balance in certain situations, navigating smaller enclosed spaces...picturing all those exchanges :))

-miko gives him a new drawing she made of him, and he stares at it every so often, as it sits next to the one she made of him all those months ago, before all this happened. smiles fondly. he's glad he's still alive to experience a moment like this :)))

[icewindandboringhorror]

Pages from trying to keep a little sketchbook-scrapbook type thing going for two weeks lol. I gave myself specific rules in hopes they might all end up more cohesive/consistent seeming, but alas, scribbly chaos reigns, it seems

[coldarena]

mota uniform studies + a very good boy

[randomminty]

Enchanted by akatsukis princess carryisms

[starrysharks]

i like my trad stuff more

[quietwingsinthesky]

the thing is, i don’t disagree that what and how you choose to write about things is a reflection of you, the writer, and cannot be divorced from your beliefs and biases. but to assume that anyone can perfectly pick out your beliefs from a piece of fiction you’ve written is an extremely weird and paranoid thing to claim, especially if you’re positing that the secret truth is that the writer is a dangerous person and they’re “revealing” that through fiction that upsets you, personally. at the end of the day, the artist is not the art, and no matter how upsetting, no matter how much you dislike it, no matter how much it disgusts you, you don’t know the person who made it and you can only guess how who they are shaped what they made.

like, really, is it more likely that the secret “belief” that’s being revealed when you’re reading something that is really upsetting to you is that the author is a secret Bad Person™️ who wants all of this fantasy to happen in real life, or that the author knows it’s a safe and normal thing to create upsetting works of fiction and so did that.

[fireyartccoon]

ok so I might’ve forgotten to get something ready for Wednesday BUT-

you can have Nine and Chaos Sonic from my Sonic Prime AU being siblings instead

[gods-perfect-idiots]

something something blood-soaked hands cradling your face something something

anyway here's the post btw

[the---hermit]

Not my mom coming up to me randomly asking "how did the roman empire fall" out of nowhere hoping for a quick answer. Mother people have been talking about this for over a thousand years how am i supposed to give you a one sentence answer jfkfllddk

[elyhearts]

Akane photo dump… i ahve so many doodles of her

strawpage thingy + misc

[splickedylit]

Long overdue sketchbook scanning session: original concepts only edition haha. Noting some common themes I didn't notice while I was drawing: Hottie with their tits out. Skeletons. "Oh this person grew up religious huh 😐" vibes. Putting extra arms on things for no reason. TBH? Excellent. I have no regrets and will continue.