#learning through pain

[unholy-cvlt]

LEARNING THROUGH PAIN

"Hardships make us strong. Problems give birth to wisdom. Sorrows cultivate compassion. Those who have suffered the most will become the happiest."

[principiumindividuationis777]

"I overcame myself, the sufferer; I carried my own ashes to the mountains; I invented a brighter flame for myself."- Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Learning to celebrate the little wins!

[xxplastic-cubexx]

crusty evolution redraw. in theory.

[sethisonendgame]

It pains me to realize how much Jean wants but will not, under most circumstances, let himself have

[puppppppppy]

obsessive

[equill]

The Warden

Panel: No escape.

Ok, now just some silly ideas to share (playing around with the au)

Comic 1: Invading dreams

Extra: no thanks.

Comic 2: Unwanted attention

[s0fter-sin]

one of my favourite aspects of supernatural that you very rarely see in paranormal shows is that sam and dean are already versed in the world they live in. there’s no sudden discovery of ghosts and demons and now they have to learn about them along with the audience; they are born into it and already know all about it. it allows the audience to follow their personal story instead of also trying to figure out this new world and its rules

the first season is full of knowledge we never see them learn; “w*ndigoes are in the minnesota woods or- or northern michigan. i’ve never even heard of one this far west.” […] “great. well then this [his gun] is useless.” (1x02), “you don’t break a curse. you get the hell out of its way.” (1x08), d: “it’s a god. a pagan god, anyway.” […] “the annual cycle of its killings? and the fact that the victims are always a man and a woman. like some kind of fertility right.” […] s: “the last meal. given to sacrificial victims. d: “yeah, i’m thinking a ritual sacrifice to appease some pagan god.” (1x11)

almost every episode in the first season is a monster they’ve faced before that they then explain to the audience in a way that should feel patronising; like it’s the same speech given over and over again but instead, the audience almost feels included in the knowledge. it’s stated with such an innate confidence and comfort in said knowledge that it feels like we already knew it too; “spirits and demons don't have to unlock doors. if they want inside, they just go through the walls.” […] “the claws, the speed that it moves; could be a skinwalker, maybe a black dog.” (1x02), “it's biblical numerology. you know noah's ark, it rained for forty days. the number means death.” (1x04), “no no no, not the reaper, a reaper. there's reaper lore in pretty much every culture on earth, it goes by 100 different names.” […] “you said it yourself that the clock stopped, right? reapers stop time. and you can only see 'em when they're coming at you which is why i could see it and you couldn't.” (1x12)

they already know and, at least in the first season, already have what they need to kill whatever they’re hunting; already know to salt and burn bones for spirits, fire for a w*ndigo, exorcisms for demons, a silver bullet to the heart for shapeshifters. there’s only three times in the entire first season that they run into something new to them; 1x14 when sam gets his first vision that leads him to another psychic, 1x16 when dean calls caleb for help on the sigil he put together and he tells him about daevas, and 1x20 when they find out vampires are real- and they only don’t know that bc john thought they were hunted to extinction and not worth mentioning

(there’s also technically two half instances if you count one of them knowing something the other doesn’t - sam figuring out the tulpa in 1x17 and dean already knowing about the shtriga in 1x18 - but those still rely on sam and dean having prior knowledge)

even when they’re uncertain about facing something, it’s not bc they don’t know what it is; it’s precisely bc they know what it is and acknowledge that it’ll be a difficult hunt (“i don't know, man. this isn't our normal gig. i mean, demons, they don't want anything, just death and destruction for its own sake. this is big. and i wish dad was here.” 1x04)

so much of the tension in paranormal shows typically comes from the main character(s) not knowing what is happening to them/the people around them and having to find out how to resolve it. supernatural is unique in that it operates more like a police procedural. the tension comes from solving the clues and identifying patterns to figure out who (what) the killer is and intercepting before they can take another victim

it’s such a different tone to go for when compared to other shows that came both before, during, and after its run. it sets sam and dean on even footing with each other since they both have the same knowledge going in, and it puts them in a place of authority usually reserved for an outside character

the shows i compare spn to most is charmed, buffy and teen wolf; every main character in those shows are brought into the paranormal world knowing nothing, putting them on the same level as the audience, and they have their mc interact with others already knowledgeable about that world in order to overcome their problem/monster of the week. the audience organically learns about this new world as the characters learn about it. it’s a sound writing strategy that prevents “as we already know”-style exposition but something that complicates it is if your world building isn’t unique or intriguing enough, this slow introduction can become boring

we’ve seen shows like these before; sitting through the same tropes of characters learning to use their powers, struggling with no longer feeling normal/relating to the regular world around them, and not knowing how much they can trust the people already involved in this new world gets repetitive. all three shows eventually reach the same level of comfort with their new world that spn starts with but if the characters aren’t enough to draw you in, you can end up dropping it before they reach that point (and often, before the overarching plot can really kick in and evolve the show beyond the villain of the week format)

it’s the superhero origin movie in tv format; dragged out and overplayed. dropping the audience into an established world of course comes with its own problems but you also have the benefit of pre-existing established character dynamics that let the audience slot in like they’ve always been there instead of just getting to know all the characters while the characters also get to know each other

sam and dean already knowing about the supernatural lets the audience immediately get to the core of the story; the conflict between sam and dean, the search for their father, and the mystery of what killed their mother

[casualavocados]

I asked myself why I failed to notice. It was the first time we'd been apart that long. I found the birthday gifts you prepared for me in my room, from my 18th to my 21st. ...Shut up. I started to think about what you were doing back then. Were you celebrating my birthday all by yourself?

KISEKI: DEAR TO ME Ep. 12

[jackass-jones]

Mizuki and Date though like. Imagine being 8 and your parents are filthy rich and going through a bad divorce. Your mom treats you like shit, lashing out at you, hitting you, saying she wishes you were never born all because you were behaving like a child. Your dad is more comforting, but he doesn’t do anything to stop the abuse and he spends his time invested in a completely different family, a girl who you love and look up to but he loves her more than you and it fucking shows. Then your dads new friend, some fucking bachelor in his late 20s, is just like "wow you guys are the worst fucking parents ive ever seen" and next thing you know your dad is sending you off to live with him. And it’s just a massive kick in the head cuz you go from a rich lifestyle to living in some really shitty tiny ass apartment with this guy who’s clearly never been around a child in his entire life and he doesn’t know how to behave and does a really bad job of censoring himself like he has a bunch of dirty magazines that he can’t hide very well cuz it’s literally a studio apartment and also he talks to himself sometimes, it’s really weird. He doesn’t even have the slightest clue what he’s doing

And he’s the best parent you’ve ever had

Because fuck, it all really hurts. You have to cope with having never received any love from anyone, and with the fact that your parents clearly don’t want you and can’t even be bothered to send you with anyone even kinda responsible. And this guy has a scary job with crazy hours and you don’t know anything about him and neither does he. But still, he never once hits you or tells you you’re not allowed to cry. He just gives you space and doesn’t push you to feel any sort of way about him. And sometimes, he’s even kind. He makes you some stew, even though it’s a bit chunky. He lets you sleep in the bed and takes the couch for himself, even though he complains about the massive back pain he’d never trade his spot for a second. He pays attention to events at your school and gives you your favorite stuffed animal when you make good grades, even though you called it ugly. He gets worried sick when you come home with bruises and puts on a goofy voice and trains you to defend yourself and you develop some highly deadly skills and even though it’s really abnormal, he buys you a bench press so you can get stronger. There’s this distance there, and you feel really weird caring about someone who you aren’t related to, but you find yourself wishing it was meant to be like this all along, that maybe, he’s secretly your real dad and he loves you like his real daughter

And when you say "I’m back" he says "welcome home"

[made-my-peace-with-all-the-bad]

No one and I mean NO ONE understands how much I think about this photo

[boughclan-clangen]

moon 0, page 7

>air thick with dread.

PREVIOUS || NEXT FIRST

[rewritingcanon]

no because the snily dynamic has so much untapped angst because everyone always chalks it up to “snape called her a slur” when that was only the breaking point. for years snape was betraying lily with the friends he was making in school and for years she stood by him because she loved him the most. she still saw him as the know-it-all, sensitive, momma’s boy she befriended before hogwarts ruined him and wanted to believe in his goodness. and on the flip side snape could see that lily was trying not to like james and his charisma for his sake but that wasn’t enough!! she shouldn’t have to try not to like him because james was a monster! her flaws were that she was trying to be a better person than she was, but he wanted to believe in her too until the point where he realised his friendship with her wasn’t going to save him!! the only ones that could were the people that stood against her entire existence and in that moment he committed the ultimate betrayal and spent the rest of his life regretting it!!! ughhhhhh aghhhh uhhhhh

[maguskaito]

Happy Anniversary and april fools!!!

Thought i'd post this here too for encounter day❤️

[enrapture]

[anbaisai]

Do you do speedpaints? Your artstyle is so lovely, I honestly just want to see your process ♡

Thank you! I... actually haven't ever recorded my progress because I'm rather embarrassed about it (including how long it takes me to complete stuff that seem simple at a glance 😭), if you ever watch me draw I think it'd be very frustrating because it's almost never a linear process of sketch -> line art -> colours 💦. This is because I always notice problems I didn't notice at first in my sketch and have to frequently make up for it by re-sketching (and finding refs) in the middle of lining, or do a loooot of adjusting and fixing near the end. So it looks a bit more like sketch -> start line art -> several hours of fixing my mistakes and redoing parts -> FINALLY finish the lines -> colour -> possibly more fixing.

Redoing things in the middle results in the sketch usually looking quite different from the one I initially started with, so I can't even make a proper progress post unless I saved screenshots from earlier stages. HOWEVER. I do have one example I can share because I did send friends screenshots, so here's a rough idea of how I made this piece!

This was the sketch I started out with:

And then this is after I very obviously went to the bathroom mirror to get better refs:

I care a lot about getting anatomy correct even if parts are covered in the final product, so I usually can't avoid sketching the body before I add clothes, hence the different colours just to help myself understand the pose/anatomy better. It wouldn't be this much of a struggle if I sat down and did some more drills practicing anatomy properly via figure drawing or something, but well... I'm lazy... so I always just study the pose or anatomy I need for the piece on the spot.

Line art, which is usually the stage I put the most work into:

Colours + any special effects or final adjustments:

All in all, I'd say my steps are pretty straightforward and nothing special, but hopefully this was somewhat helpful!