#literally all of them seeing them so young and without all that character growth

[horrorfilmlesbian]

in my covid 3.0 haze I've decided I'm rewatching the whole of lower decks again bc I need to feel joy in a rather joyless time and you know what...It is actually bringing me joy

[dramalove247]

Going wild for Caged Again

Just because we love steak and wine doesn't mean we can't enjoy Doritos and Coke. We aren't interested in ripping apart Caged Again for not being steak, we knew we were eating Doritos. The flavor was a bit weird and unexpected with LOTS of cheese, but we hadn't realized how much we were craving this junk food watch and it hit the spot! We went back again and again and are highly satisfied.

Since the two of us have been talking nonstop about all the things we loved about this show, we decided to share with the class. And we want to hear about your favorite things!

Spoilers ahead... (warning, we used fast pass and watched all 10 episodes)

❤️We loved the unexpected layers to this show. The explorations of being human, connecting with others, learning to love and be loved. The gems about being yourself and found family. How life can be hard, scary and sad, but it's part of being human and to avoid it means losing the best parts of life as well.

❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 LOVED the Queer Love

We could go on about the queer representation and messaging in the show for days, but we won't. There's a lot there and this post is already going to be a novel. But we HAVE to talk about the AMAZING representation of queer relationships and family.

First, OMG! You had us at Porsch and Arm!!! That was already everything we needed, but then they showed them living a beautifully normal and domestic life together, plumbing included. For Junior and Sun to see this as an example of what they could be, to have this relationship as model, was eye opening for them and showed them they could be a family. This makes our queer hearts and mama selves so happy to see this. We want to see our children and the young people see these messages more often.

Plus the conversation around children... my heart!!! It was so precious to see their daughter in the last episode. We were obsessed with this couple and what they added to the show. This kind of representation is so important and refreshing.

❤️ Game over. We were 100% hooked when we saw Junior in these scenes. These were the moments when we realized we had needed a penguin boy in our life and had never known.

GIFS by @heretherebedork

❤️All the cute touches and explorations of their feelings and being human together 😍 They got us every time.

❤️Junior in a penguin suit... enough said.

We lied. We have things to say. This entire scene... realizing Sun is holding back his instincts to be around Junior... because he want's to eat him. Junior understanding clearly what that means and having no fear in exploring how to awaken those feelings. Plus there was a literal closet. And "babe". And roleplay clothes. We loved it all.

❤️OMG! They gave us CATNIP!!! We died the second we saw it.

Now... as hilarious as that scene was, and knowing that Junior was being thoughtful by giving Sun a gift he would love... did he just drug Sun? We're just going to ignore that so we can enjoy this scene without guilt.

❤️Sun talking about what it would be like if he could get Junior pregnant. DEAD. That was NOT in our bingo card for episode 10.

❤️We're obsessed with Mina "I'm even carrying the show now. Let's rescue our BL boys." "It's too late now. Only 3 episodes left." "Be boyfriends now!"

❤️Shout out to Jay Sorathon and his incredible facial expressions! He could have his own Junior emoji line. This show got so many instant replay moments because of those hilarious expressions and he deserves an award. And when Benjamin Greenwell started showing Sun's full smiles... melted. It was beyond precious and brought so much to Sun's character growth.

❤️The Jodd and Jeng confession was perfect! And hilarious.

💔Where is Junior's pebble??? That was a missed opportunity and we barely forgive you... but we do because you gave us catnip... and pregnant Junior musings.

What were your favorite things about the show???

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

I don't like complaining about S3 too much, it's kind of a bummer to focus on what I don't like when there's so much I love, but one thing that I can't help but feel disappointed by is how we never got to see the new Marcy.

We got to see the new Sasha all through S3, who is completely different from S1 and S2 Sasha, and she's such a wonderful and loveable person, you can't help but adore her. Peak girlfriend material. It makes her oddly homoerotic friendship with Anne so sweet! And Anne herself, as the literal star of the show, had her development front and center from day 1. All of S1 was about her growth, and while she still had some work to do in S2, by then she had already changed a lot. Much like Sasha, she goes from being a selfish little shit to becoming a noble, honorable young woman, driven by love and responsability, with the emotional intelligence necessary to face any challenges coming her way.

Marcy... doesn't get that chance. The content of her arc is fine - she realizes she was selfish and self-centered, she understands how that's wrong and she decides to be a better person. But when Sasha (and I'm comparing her to Sasha because Anne, as THE protagonist, is not a fair comparison) had like... all of season 2 to change and develop, and half of S3 to truly shine as her new, improved self, Marcy... well, she did get some development in S2, true - the First Temple and New Wartwood are important moments that come to mind, but...

Okay, so, we knew everything about Sasha's situation from the start. She's lying to the other characters but not to the audience, so everything she goes through in Toadcatches, Barrel's Warhammer, the Dinner, Battle of the Bands and True Colors is very visible to us. We see her going up and down and we always understand what's up with her. We get a very clear view into her mind. We know Sasha. Marcy, on the other hand, has been lying to the audience up until True Colors, so everything we knew about her prior to that has to be recontextualized given the new information, and what we inevitably conclude is that nothing she learned was enough to make her question her plan. She understood the concepts, but she didn't apply it to her particular situation. That's not a bad thing! She's just halfway through her arc - accepting the Truth without letting go of the Lie. But when so much of her arc is hidden from the audience and further recontextualized through more flashbacks near the finale, what we get is a very mysterious Marcy who tells us "everything you thought you knew is more complicated that it seemed", and given that this is the season finale, that set-up inevitably promises a deeper exploration of the REAL Marcy in S3. No more scheeming and lying and manipulating, just Marcy in real time, with no need for flashbacks to recontextualize things again.

But S3 gives us very few chances to see Marcy in Real Time. We see her in Olivia and Yunan, All In and The Hardest Thing. Three episodes. I'm not gonna complain about that because I think we all feel the same way. There's no need. But I will insist that a good solution would have been to have at least two or three episodes about Marcy inside the Core. The King and the Core should have been about Marcy uncovering that ancient information in Aldrich's memory without him noticing, for example. This would have been an improvement in several ways:

More Marcy screentime and development

More exploration on the nature of the Core

We have a present day character knowing all about the Box's lore, and it's not just Andrias randomly thinking about in with a vintage filter on.

Marcy having more agency inside the Core in general would have allowed her to fight back in some way, which would be necessary for another change I'd like to suggest below.

Other episodes could be about her "bonding" with Aldrich and slowly realizing he's delulu, her learning about some old Olm lore, and unlocking a secret that will help them later with like, Anne's powers or the Moon or something, and just... her thinking and realizing she fucked up. If the Core knows her memories, it could recreate a more prolongued scenario with Anne and Sasha, maybe a sleepover? In general, I think Marcy would need someone in there to bounce off of, whether it is a bad guy like Aldrich or lifeless projections of Anne and Sasha, or even someone in there that's actually on her side, sick of living forever in this fantasy, maybe.

She needs time to define her new, changed self after learning her lesson, just like Sasha got to do. Because we barely see who Marcy has become after the events of Amphibia. We got like... TWO scenes to tell us ANYTHING about it.

"No! Only a coward would hide away in this place! Well, I reject this sick fantasy, and I reject you!"

"Even if your friends win, your parents will still tear the three of you apart."

"I started this whole mess because I wanted to escape that reality, but I won't run away from it anymore!"

And later near the end:

"I came to this world thinking only of myself. It was wrong of me, and I wish I'd gotten to know you both better"

These are like... the only indicator of the person Marcy became in Amphibia. They're not worthless - she learned to be more aware of the people around her, and to be stronger in the face of change. Her final scene with Aldrich is her most confrontational scene in the show, and certainly her most angry one. Before, she'd only been like... mildly annoyed one time because Anne was being too overprotective, and she glared at Andrias for like two seconds during O&Y but didn't actually say anything. Marcy is not an angry person, and she does seem to be scared of conflict, so to slap Aldrich's hand away, call him a coward, and proudly raise her fist and declare she's done running makes her look much stronger, and I appreciate that. And she does pretty much declare she refuses to be a coward. But this isn't nearly enough. If I want to write fanfic about Marcy post-Amphibia, I shouldn't have to sit down to analyze these two moments to extrapolate what her characterization would have been like. It should be like with Sasha. We know exactly who the new Sasha is, but we never get to see the new Marcy shine. I think that's why her arc feels so rushed in comparison to Sasha, whose beginning of her arc arguably took up one 11 minutes episode, and the rest happened mostly off-screen: the new Sasha was radiant in S3B, even if we didn't see much of the transition.

I know that, due to structural reasons, Marcy wasn't going to have much screentime so they had to rush her arc quite a bit, and while my suggestion to give her more time inside the Core stands, I think that's not enough either. I think she needs time to interact with Anne and Sasha, and also King Andrias, her Amphibia friend. It's hard to think of a solution to this problem given the way the finale is structured, but my first idea is to make it longer: The Beginning of the End stays the same, All In stays the same except for the way Marcy is released: instead of just, cutting a cable, Sasha needs to reach her with the Power of Friendship. Think something like the Running Up That Hill scene from Stranger Things, or the Toothless Found scene from HTTYD2

Because we can't miss a chance to develop Sasha and Marcy's relationship here. AND since they both share the roles of the Betrayer, the Liar, the Manipulator, of Anne's toxic friend in the path of redemption, it's poetic that Sasha, who has held Marcy under her thumb for years, is the one to help her break free, not through brute force like in canon, but by actually putting into practice what she's learned. Kinda like how, in AtLA S3, Zuko is playing the role of group therapist to the rest of the Gaang. Sasha figured things out first, now she wants to help Marcy find redemption too. Make it a callback to Anne's little speech from TBOTE

"It's not easy. Forgiveness is hard, and it can take time. But believe me: it's worth it. I mean, just look at what you and I have now."

Because redemption isn't easy. It's hard, and it can take time. But you still need to show up, even when you think they don't want you, even when you think you ruined everything. Getting up to so the right thing is always worth it.

Of course, if we want Sasha to save Marcy, a little bit of previous development wouldn't hurt. What if we add a little episode in S3A about the girls all thinking about each other? Anne finding a copy of War of the Warlocks that Marcy forgot in her house, Sasha being reminded of Marcy while helping Maddie with curses for the resistance, and Marcy just... thinking about them, in general, while in the Core. A simple 11 minutes segment, 3 minutes and a half of screentime for each of them. You don't need much, just a moment for them to explore their conflicting feelings for each other.

But then... then, we still need to see Marcy - the new Marcy - interact with her friends, so let's add one or two more episodes to the finale, between All In and The Hardest Thing. Maybe we can shift the Olms storyline here? Would that mess with the pacing too much? Tbh the writers did put themselves in a predicament with Marcy, so it's hard to find a perfect solution. I guess we can keep the tension if the moon is falling veeeeeery slowly, giving our girls just enough time for one more quick adventure together while not making it feel like they're taking their sweet time. So we have one or two extra episodes, and what do we do here?

We challenge Marcy. Just like how Sasha was challenged in Commander Anne, Marcy has to prove she's changed too. Tempt her with her past self-centeredness, her possessive instincts, the easy way in which she lies to herself, her impulse to plan around Anne and Sasha and not with them, hiding important information. Her fear of change. She knows what she needs to do, and she's ready to sit with the uncomfortable feeling of change instead of rejecting it immediately. Maybe she has to let Joe Sparrow go, for example, to be with other sparrows or something, idk. Whatever it is, it needs to be an opportunity to show her newfound emotional maturity. Show how, just like Anne and Sasha before her, she became a more noble person, one who, from now on, is honest, selfless and brave. One who embraces change, and who may even seek it out, because she understands this is how you grow.

Anyway. Yeah, that. I guess I'm just disappointed we never got to see the person Marcy became, but at least it's not hard to extrapolate it from what little the show gave us. We're not 100% in the dark. Though it's not nearly enough. If they ever give us more Amphibia, it would be awesome to see more of this new Marcy, but until then, we have a beautiful community here of galaxy brained people to put the pieces together 🥰

[flower-boi16]

Debunking Critisicms of Deku's decision to give up being a hero and become a teacher.

Ah yes chapter 430. The "controversial" OG final chapter of MHA that garnered many negative reactions across the internet due to how to ultimately ended off Deku as a character and cemented him to many as a joke of a protagonist.

It also the most overhated piece of fiction I think I've read. These takes have bothered me for a long while , so, I'm just gonna go through the arguments against Chapter 430, specifically about Deku's character here, because, hooo boy, there are a lot of bad faith takes to cover.

"Deku not choosing to continue being a hero after loosing his quirk makes him look like he has little confidence in himself without it/he never changed since the first chapter"

I literally never got this argument. First off this argument willfully ignores the fact that the series itself has consistantly established and hammered in the fact that you can't be a hero without a quirk, that is a rule that MHA sets up and other characters have followed it, Deku is just doing the same and yet people shit on him for it?

Yes, I know Knuckledaster exists but he's in a spin-off series completely seperate from the main series, and he is seemingly never mentioned once within the main series leading me to believe that none of the main characters really seem to know about his existance, so Deku still has no real reason to believe that he can be a hero without a quirk. Deku also coulden't have gotten the suit earlier either since technology wasn't at a point yet where more suits like this could be developed, and thanks to technology advancing it allows the creation of a far stronger suit that has a higher amount of durability to be able to greater withstand quirks since Iron Might, the first time we were ever shown this technology, was still shown to be fairly fragile and broke down. (Whether that makes sense or not you can debate all you want, but that would end up being more of a world-building issue than a character issue since characters are supposed to work with whatever worldbuilding the series has no matter how broken it may be)

Sure he could've gotten a prototype but we don't really know if it would have been strong enough for basic hero work. But even if Deku could've become a hero without his quirk all this time...the argument that him choosing not to continue living out his dreams of being a hero after loosing his quirk falls flat because he does EXACTLY THAT AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER!!!

All Might gives Deku an Iron Might suit and, without question, he immediantly takes it, choosing to continue living out his dreams of becoming a hero. If Deku not choosing to become a hero after loosing his quirk supposedly meant he had "not confidence in himself" without his quirk, than he woulden't have taken this option. But he does, meaning that he can have confidence in his abilities without his quirk.

(also the fact that this decison does not at all nulify any of Deku's past growth arcs throughout the series lmao)

"Deku becoming a teacher is underwhelming/not set up properly"

A lot of people see Deku becoming a teacher as underwhelming, but, personally, I don't really see it that way. Deku says that he wants to help guide and inspire others, being a teacher allows him to do exactly that, hell it even parralels All Might's mentor dynamic with him.

He's mentoring young students helping them become heroes just like his own mentor did, it fits his character quite well. There's also the fact that, again, Deku is given a suit from All Might, allowing him to continue living out his dreams. People act as if 430 was just "Deku becomes a teacher, the end lol" when he literally was given the option to continue living out his dream with his friends at the end of the chapter.

"Deku was forgotten by his friends and, by extension, the world"

He was not. It was explicitly stated within the chapter 430 that after they became adults it was getting harder for them to get the same day offs to meet up most likely due to having seperate jobs (Deku is a teacher, the others are all heroes) meaning that they do still commuinicate from time to time.

Class A didn't just forget about Deku, they just coulden't hang out with him anymore due to having seperate jobs. The plate kid (I forget his name lmao) also clearly reconizes Deku immediantly from seeing him, implying he's become fairly well known after, ya know, saving the world. I think it's pretty clear at that point that Deku wasn't forgotten by anyone.

"dEKu PeAKeD iN hiGhSChOoL11!"

Holy shit this one annoys me SO much. I don't really know what to say to this one other than that it's just...disengeniouse? Like, he literally saved the entire world on a live stream, was able to live out his dream that he was ridiculed for having for YEARS and then was given the option to continue to able to live out that dream. He became the world's greatest hero or at least a very well known hero, and he was able to achieve all of that at the age of 16.

That's a level of popularity I'm pretty sure most heroes would only achieve in their adult years, and Deku achieved that when he was still in highschool. That's actually something quite impressive his age and him becoming a teacher doesn't invalidate that at all. And, again, he's literally able to indulging his dream by the end of the series, why does everyone ignore that?

Look I'm not gonna say that this ending was perfect or anything, looking back I don't think it's as awful as some people make it out to be but there are a lot of things about The Final Act Saga I would critique, but, of all the critiques the throw towards Final Act, this is just not one of them.

[dress-and-impress]

(cal if you see this pls dont read it has spoilers)

Now that The Dragon Prince Season 7 has been released and the processing has died down imma just share smth right her right now... the whole "Ezran vs Rayllum" thing did not affect me AT ALL while watching it. Was totally unfazed by it becasue I knew they were gonna all be friends again by the end of it... and have no opinion about who was right and who was wrong (That's not to say I didn't feel weird about it. I very much did). So, here is my presentive of each character in this situation:

(picture obviously from a poster of TDP promo)

Ezran:

As every Ez stan knows, he's a young king and has many difficult and challenging decisions to make. He was NEVER prepared to take the throne and when he did it was with such honesty, patience and love for EVERYONE, human, elf and even villain (as per talking to Aravos and Karim about their views and perspectives). BUT when the love he had got taken advantage of, he lost it. Like I would too if you spend all this time building a bridge (hypothetically and in a way literally) with people perceived as "the enemy". His perception of the world became a blur and the innocence he had was shattered in a million pieces. When Callum left he was undoubtably confused but MORE determined to put his fathers killer to justice instead of asking why (like he usually does).

Callum:

Now he's a very controversial side because you either love him or hate him. Very quickly though i find it really strange how he keeps saying that Rayla does everything for others and wants to do something "for her"; the quazar diamond scenario in season 6 and at the oddly adorable bridge scene at the end of season 7. To put it quite plainly, Callum has no idea how to make himself happy, so he makes other people happy. But you're probably thinking "Callum pissed off Ezran and ditched his brother for his gf". Yes. He did. Callum was a mediator in the situation (or tried to be) and once he knew both sides couldn't be happy he had to choose. Ezran, his half-brother and King who has kingdoms and allies that support him no matter what. Or the girl he loves and spent years thinking about and wants to make up as much time as possible with her AND who regretted running away without asking for any help from Callum.

Lets refer back to the moments before Rayla decided to leave (on Callums birthday). She was determined to find Viren and finish what they started and Callum didn't want her to so they made a compromise. BUT THEN Rayla left as we know. Alone. With nothing.

Rayla:

We have no idea what Rayla spent those 2 years doing trying to find Viren but lets list a few things we know (from when she breaks Runnan out of prison); She had to say goodbye to her birth parents who she thought she was going to bring back from Virens coin, is banished from her home and cannot go back and is basically determined to have some form of stability in her life. Quick note, Rayla and Callum are not concerned about Aravos because they think he's still in the pearly.

Rayla has made a lot of impulsive decisions throughout the show and it should be expected that she would betray Ezran's trust and make things difficult for Callum to prioritise the need to get AT LEAST ONE OF HER PARENTS HOME SAFELY. Her mind was an utter blur and filled with emotion she didn't know how to express. The only thing Rayla wanted to do was solve the problem. TAKE ACTION on the one thing that's making her feel that way. She's done it before and will continue to do it.

So to sum up watching that scene and processing it, you need to understand all sides. The emotion, the determination and challenges that came across the three of them. It gave their characters development and gave us an opportunity to explore WHY the characters feel the way they feel or make the choices they choose to make. It was never a "right or wrong" thing but more so gaining growth and maturity that decisions need to be made regardless of how painful it may be.

[most-datable-datable-bracket]

ROUND 4 MATCH 11

Claude propaganda:

"To say Claude has trust issues is an understatement—you have to spend half the game earning his. (Claude isn't even his real name!) Once you have it, though, he's absolutely ride or die for you until the stars go out. He is so full of heart and ambition: He wants both sides of his heritage to get along, he wants to open borders and eliminate xenophobia and promote equality between commonfolk, and deep down, I think he craves a partner to stand with him at that new dawn, or an equal who sees his vision for the future and will fight for it just as hard. Nobody believed in him when he was a kid, but if you put your faith in him, he'll return it tenfold. Some people don't like that he's calculating, or has to leave the player character at the end of the game to go back to his homeland, but both are necessary elements for his goals to change things. He will always come back, and everyone who bets against him and his love for his companions is wrong with a big fat W. #KhalidForMostDatablePrez"

"Claude is a fun little onion of facades. He calls himself the embodiment of distrust, he acts like he's carefree and without worries, an unscrupulous schemer--and so many in universe buy into that hook line and sinker. He's used to others viewing him with suspicion and uses it as armor to obscure his not-so-dark truth: that he cares immensely, that he values minimizing the loss of life, and that above all he has so much hope that people will fundamentally choose to do better given the choice.

His front guards a center that his conflict filled world would be happy to tear apart. As the child of people from two nations in constant conflict--one of which is explicitly isolationist and dehumanizes those outside its church's reach--he hasn't really had a place where he can be without his facade. As a child he thought he could run, but when confronted with the fact that this hatred existed no matter where he ran, he chose to instead try to create a more just and kind world.

His inability to let others in beyond his facade at first may lead to a sense of distance, but isn't it then all the more satisfying when you're allowed in? All he wants is a little trust, a little faith, and--like what he wants to give everyone--a chance to be better.

And like that you got a charming young lad with a fun personality that your grandma would be thrilled to have stay forever."

Fane propaganda:

“Okay yes he starts off as quite pompous, but he goes through SOOO much growth over the course of the game.  He discovers his people have formed a force of world-devouring monsters and even though he still loves and sympathizes with them he acknowledges that the world he is currently in, the world that is YOUR home, is worthwhile and worth saving.  He is literally stuck in a world that is alien and foreign to him and with your help he sees that it has value and beauty. Solas Dragon Age WISHES he had what Fane has. Get yourself a skeleton man who will forsake his dying world for you because you taught him to see the beauty and wonder in life.”

[sunsetcurve]

Can I ask you what do you think of all The Thundermans seasons? About Phoebe and Max's character development, especially. Because I think that season 2 feels overall weaker than the others, but still managed to make us know the characters better! Like, I still rewatch Change of Art, It's not what you link, Cheer and Present Danger and believe that it's so heartwarming to know the twins' hobbies and interests, especially without all the villain phase-stuff being involved, when talking about Max.

hi anon!! yes, absolutely, thanks for the ask! sorry this got so long-winded, i meant to just jot down a few things but i literally love talking about this show so much so once i get going i can’t stop. i wish i could like rank the seasons or something, but they’re all so good in their own ways that it’s so hard to pick. but here are my thoughts + my favorite and least favorite eps from each!

season 1: ohhh season one. baby phoebe and max. thundermans family introduction. i love this season so much. i honestly think it’s the perfect set up for the whole series; like right off the bat within the first couple of episodes, you learn so much about phoebe and max and what drives them—the pilot is great, and phoebe vs. max is obviously like, required reading for the thundertwins. season 2 and 3 both spend most of their time pitting the twins against each other, but a lot of this season is about making them work together to solve their problems. there’s a lot of “we fight but we still love each other/have each other’s backs,” and the family dynamics overall are especially strong, which definitely makes this show what it is. the cast is still really young and everyone is kind of finding their footing, so production wise i think it’s a bit weaker and often a little more corny, but it makes up for it by having a lot of genuinely heartwarming beats. favorite episodes are report card, ditch day, and paging dr. thunderman. i don’t know if there are any episodes i actually dislike this season, but ones that don’t particularly stand out to me are restaurant crashers and breaking dad.

season 2: i definitely agree with you that this is the weakest season as a whole; i think there’s kind of a tone shift this season towards slightly more slapstick/“random” humor which i like less, and there’s also a narrative shift away from the twins mostly solving problems together to max creating the majority of the conflicts for phoebe to resolve—i’ve said before that i kind of see it as like, s1 is focused on their development together, s2 is focused on phoebe’s growth, s3 is focused on max’s, and s4 has them coming together again. overall this season has a lot of my least favorite episodes, but on the flip side it also has a lot of reallyyy strong standouts: i’m also a big fan of cheer and present danger, the haunted thundermans is probably in my top 5 episodes total just because of the max portrayal, and call of lunch duty and the girl with the dragon snafu are more thundertwins required reading to me. there’s definitely less heartwarming and character development stuff on the whole, but i’m with you that it’s really cool to have them kind of build out phoebe and max’s lives outside of the family/superheroing, especially with link and cherry and max’s band and stuff. favorite episodes are the aforementioned, with probably an honorable mention to a hero is born. least favorite episodes are probably doubles trouble and blue detective, but there’s a lot in this season that i rarely rewatch.

season 3: season three, baby!! phoebe and max are still super at odds, but i think this season does a better job than s2 at putting them on more equal narrative footing. obviously most of this season is building up to the culmination of max’s villain arc which i love, and since i will always love episodic-with-greater-overarching-season-thread-style i’m a big fan of the dark mayhem stuff happening throughout. i also like that they get back to original max characterization this season, where he still frequently fucks up but now ends the episodes making amends for it, and i also really like the way they kind of develop phoebe as max’s conscience. there’s also more good family moments overall: like in stealing home you get some more insight into the parental dynamics with them, and doppel-gamers highlights them as older siblings, and aunt misbehavin’ is so good for sibling parallels. also chloe is here now and she is adorable. s3 also gets bonus points for max and allison, they are everything to me. overall i love this season; i’m still not sure i can pick a favorite, but i probably rewatch it the most. favorite episodes are date expectations, exit stage theft, and of course secret revealed. least favorite episodes are chutes and splatters and no country for old mentors.

season 4: last but definitely not least. i love the thundermans because it feels like the show progresses very naturally in terms of stakes and tone along with the characters, and s4 is where that really shines. phoebe and max are working together again, they have the end goal of the z-force, and this season has a lot of big moments for everyone. it all feels very full-circle. i love that phoebe and max are back on the same side of the conflicts, i love all the plots with their friend groups, i love that they still have fights and have their differences highlighted but in ways that make sense for both of them: episodes like smells like team spirit, looperheroes, and come what mayhem do a really great job of that. the thunder in paradise special is also one of my favorite episodes of the whole show, i love evil!phoebe and everything about that arc, especially the thundertwins dynamic, it’s just so good and one of the high points of the series imo. and then the finale of course is everything. i think it’s really hard to nail a final season, but the thundermans does it so well. favorite episodes are orange is the new max, thunder in paradise, and the thunder games. least favorites are 21 dump street and super dupers.

and that’s all!! thanks again for the ask and literally feel free to come talk to me about this show whenever, obviously i have thoughts and feelings about it all the time and loveeee hearing other peoples’ as well <3

[imperiuswrecked]

Sometimes I find it deeply and darkly hilarious about the moment magneto must have found that twins are his children. Like he must have thought -shit!!! They can't be mine, they won't likely accept me!!! Even he knows somewhere deep down, he majorly majorly screwed up and they won't accept him as their father. And I don't think he has majorly tried to repair relations from his side, he actually killed pietro!!?!! And when pietro was actually right and wanted to save wanda!

Like how can he expect their love when he was the one who abused his power to terrorize them in brotherhood Era. Even though he didn't know that wanda and pietro were his kids, he did, however deeply hurt them. I mean, the relationship between them was going to dysfunctional from start. Maybe that is why editorial is not showing magda as alive, and marya connected with twins- they both would have killed magneto several times over.

I can't believe people (and marvel editors) who want to see wanda as pure daddy's girl. Like atleast, show the growth how they patched up their relation, they could even start with the convo that how their children have been raised by other people-it can be a good introspective and bonding topic. And we need more pietro Lorna moments again, I feel she is at the moment more supportive than wanda. Poor Pietro is always the villain in Wanda's story. He also should be at x men related teams- I feel he gets more good character arc there.

Marvel doesn't do complex families well, I've said this before and will probably engrave it on my headstone. Marvel literally erases everything that makes people interested in the characters to have this generic take that's so bland and boring.

I don't think Erik ever really expected their acceptance or forgiveness, because the highlight of the issue where he reveals his connection to them isn't "I'm your father" it's "I'm Luna's grandfather"

Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1982) #4

Which again to me speaks volumes about how broken Erik's relationship between himself and his children are before he even knew them for who they were. And personally I feel that Erik tries harder to foster a relationship with his grandkids than his actual children because he's grandkids are still young enough for him to shape himself in their minds/lives but also they are a generation removed from him, there's space there for him to attempt an actual relationship without the constant reminder of his past, especially the loss of his first daughter.

This is why he viewed Luna as a fresh new step on his path towards redemption, at least in his grandkids eyes, and why marvel constantly cutting Luna out of the narrative only harms the family dynamic. Even Pietro thinks it's all a trick, that's his first thought when Erik reveals their connection, because of their tumultuous past with the Brotherhood. There could be so much interpersonal introspection and character dynamics if Marvel would JUST LET SOMEONE COMPETENT WRITE THEM.

Instead all we get is some half assed "Lorna and Wanda are his daddy's girls and pietro is the screw up" found family bullshit. Found family does not work with them. Their blood/biological connection was the only tie holding them together because of their past. There's no way the in character writing would any of them have anything to do with Erik if they weren't his bio kids.

We were actually discussing this in the Magnet Family discord the other week how close Pietro is with Lorna, and how good their dynamic is and how it differs from Wanda's. Also how the three of them never actually get good on panel time together. I definitely agree that Pietro is better off on the X-Men adjacent teams than on the Avengers.

[neonmetro]

KALYPTOOOOGSGDHEHSJDHRJSJFJYRHDJD

Wow.....kalypto......what a woma- *Gets hit by ongoing traffic*

Hey guys, so I know a lot of these characters make me look insane but I promise I am very normal ( totally ). It's just that......kalypto is just kalypto okay.....

THEY MAKE ME WANT TO DO BACKFLIPS WHAT. they are so awesome......I would say I would like to know so much more about them, but I'm not sure if you gave additional info, LMAO

I would, however, like to give Uly appreciation 💕💕💕💕 I know I don't talk about this guy often, but it's just so awesome, man. I'm gonna give it headpats, trust 🥰🥰🥰

ANYWAYS, now that I got that tiny rant out the way.....HAVE A GOOD DAY *winks and throws a rose at you

- paris anon

HEH... yeah... kalypto does that to people... smiles and winks

I CAN'T REMEMBER IF I DID GIVE ADDITIONAL INFO EITHER. but here's a basic run down

the founding is more like a mafia family than a biological family, but even then the direct children between members of the founding are considered highly. unless you fuck up your proof of value. i'm thinking both circe and kalypto failed these tests because they were just considered not special enough (mind you, still talented on normal people standards, but below average for the founding.) and so were exiled to aeaea and ogygia respectively. they're still apart of the founding so they deserve nothing less than luxury, but just distant members as not to draw too much embarrassment to the main family.

circe was able to brute force her way through learning magic through desperation and becoming a magical girl on her own, but kalypto remained powerless. the only power that they Do Have, is specifically tied to ogygia (at least that's what they think).

they have no idea whether or not their power is limited to just ogygia, they did try leaving the island at one point and traveled around the nearby islands and met circe at one point outside of the founding's gaze and had a good time for awhile. they got to socialize, they got to drink and feast, but they started seeing signs of aging, scars, wearing and tearing at their skin. all their life they didn't have to worry about the implications of being mortal, they were a lesser deity and was a failure in that regard, but at least they weren't mortal. all the worst, people were after their head for their careless nature apparently breaking a few local laws. so! they decided to retire from fishing and go running back home to ogygia.

in ogygia, they're able to stay young forever. all their scars and wrinkles disappear, and they look barely a year older than ulysses despite being much older than him. and all life on ogygia remains as it were, growing what it needs to, cycling through some brief change, but ultimately remaining the same.

they haven't had human contact in quite some time, so frankly it was a miracle for them that someone washed up their shores just for them! just for them only, it's only proof of their status, and they can be happy together in a state of constant.

and honestly? ulysses shared that sentiment, and that's why it worked for awhile. it literally took a deus ex machina for him to regain the willpower to move on and not be entirely halted in his own self growth (ofc he did this for the most self sabotaging reasons but the point is he does have the willpower to move on he just needs to break his bad habits.)

i do think after ulysses left kalypto just is. in a constant state of wallowing. they really miss it. to the point of becoming suicidal. but also it isn't worth stopping the cycle and hurting themselves. it isn't a good time for them :/

they do genuinely wish for the best for ulysses, hell even penelope, but what they believe is that they're the best ulysses can do now. they're as good as they get without being a straight up god, and ulysses shouldn't be chasing after a woman who couldn't even compare to kalypto. (kalypto is. incredibly insecure, even if they don't think they are. they constantly compare how much better they are against penelope and even circe and they don't realize how alone they are)

some notes for them...

i really like their flowers in their hair though... originally they had such a diff design all bc i was afraid to make them blonde?????? (brother ulysses is blonde idk what the problem here was) but also the color palette was giving me difficulty... but making them a orange was a good choice. imo

originally they were supposed to be a doctor-like character, but if anything they're more of a nurse than a doctor... the glasses were to give them more interest bc originally they didn't have the flowers? but now i just think they're charming so they get to keep them...

i do want to redesign their outfit again so ... back in the designing trenches i go

for some reason i really associate them with the sun even though they're a child of atlas not helios….????? but whatever close enough go my titan children.

obv i'm taking my own liberties w/ kalypto, i really do think they're interesting and i wish there was more done with them (i have to specify kalypto did not sa uly in novaturi)

[amitytaylor]

I still can’t get over the fact that Bakugo KNEW he KNEW that if Izuku tried out for the hero course at UA he would get accepted regardless of his quirk status. HE KNEW!!! that if Izuku tried out they would see how much of a hero he was even WITHOUT A QUIRK!!

He wasn’t shocked that Deku was trying out for UA. Bakugo EXPECTED IZUKU to ignore everything about society and his own threats and still chase after his dream of being a hero. Bakugo has ALWAYS seen Izuku as a hero - He’s always known that Izuku had everything it took even without a quirk. So much so - that when Izuku DID GET ACCEPTED BAKUGO WASNT EVEN SHOCKED!! He was angry yes but shocked?? surprised?? It’s more like he’s saying why couldn’t you have picked any other hero school than it is surprised that they thought he was good enough to be a hero. (do i think young 14 year old bakugo emotionally understood that or izuku for that matter? absolutely not)

His first real shocked expression was when Izuku threw the ball in their first class exercises - but before that he was literally constantly measuring himself up to Deku “What about Deku..?” when they were doing the sprints 😭

and listen i’m not one for the “boys are mean to the people they like” trope thing - it promote horrid things.

HOWEVER - in this universe where you are born with supernatural powers and those powers are interpersonally connected to you thus influencing your personality.. he has a literal explosion quirk and nitroglycerin courses through his veins constantly - i’m also under the assumption that part of Bakugo name meaning in Japan is literally explosion - PLUS PLUS - his mother who he looks IDENTICAL TOO behaves the SAME EXACT WAY.

Explosive personalities means explosive feelings and explosive feelings at any age is extremely difficult for the person and those around them (coming from experience here) to understand. its also a known psychology theory that anger is the most addictive emotion, and often referred to as a mask emotion. its easier to feel anger if its been an integral part of your life (as we’ve seen it has been for him) and anger can take over other emotions.

so for this - i fully feel like Kacchan has always felt for Deku in the way that deku has felt for him BUT bc of society/quirk status/inferiority like feelings - bullying.

He’s 16? now in the war arc and I truly think has one of the best growth arcs i’ve witnessed in my lifetime.

anyways i love his character and love you all for reading

[definitely-not-captain-america]

Spoilers for the first episode "Aang" of the live action ATLA under the cut. I'll always put spoilers under the cut so as to not ruin it for anyone who has a life and hasn't seen it yet

Content warning for depictions of fantasy violence and death.

I think the animated series starting with Katara and Sokka was a good choice, but I like this one starting with Aang in his original time. It's cool to see the air temples full of people, and Aang is better humanized beyond the "goofy 12 year old who never takes anything seriously," which is partly true but not fully accurate to his character.

The genocide happens so early on so it's impossible to not talk about that right away too. We literally watch firebenders burn airbenders alive, so there's that. I do have mixed feelings about the genocide. On the one hand, I think it's a little tasteless showing it, especially the amount of people who will watch it, sympathize with it, but then not do a thing to support the genocide in Palestine right now. At the same time, I think it's important to show it. It shouldn't be an easy topic, it's supposed to be devastating and horrifying and I think the scene was the right amount of graphic for that. Not to mention the allusion of Sozin killing those kids after he killed Gyatso.

Like others have said, I don't really agree with them cutting out Sokka's sexism. It was a major growth in character for him, and it's important to show young men growing up from things like sexism and maturing and apologizing after you're proven wrong. Still, the casting is incredible so far and all the actors definitely feel like their characters, so that's good too.

Onto Zuko and Iroh (I'm literally writing all this as I watch the episode). I see people say Zuko's scar should've been a lot uglier, for lack of a better word, and I agree. It's small, it doesn't look like it has much texture, and his eyebrow is still there. It's a burn scar, and burn scars never really look pretty in the nice, aesthetic way they made it in the live action. Of course, animated Zuko was always hot, but for the scar to be a point of shame that the audience can really understand, I think it should've looked worse. (Sorry for my brusque language. I don't mean to say that burn victims are ugly and horribly disfigured. Zuko's scar is just so far from a burn scar that it's mostly just aesthetic in the live action.)

Also, and it's so early in the show, but so far Iroh has a bit of a tough love thing going on and I kind of like it. We all love the gentle, tea-loving, proverb-using old man who probably-definitely committed war crimes but is now a big softie who regrets his actions, but I kinda like what may be happening here.

Their village in the South Pole is beautiful, and I'm glad they have more than just like 12 people living there. It's still obvious that all the men went off to war, and I always kinda hated how empty the village was. Plus, like I said, it's still really pretty, so we get to see how there was a culture there that's been somewhat lost.

I love Aang and Katara's conversation about them growing up fast. I think it's a little easy to forget how young everyone is in the animated series — everyone who's not Aang anyway, because even sixteen/seventeen is very young and we can forget that when everyone is drawn to be muscled and attractive and without any real baby fat.

I don't really like how Appa looks, but I typically hate all CGI animals because their fur always looks weird. He isn't terrible, it's just a serious case of uncanny valley for me so it's just not my thing.

I kinda like that Katara goes off to the ship on her own before Aang. We get her gentleness and a lot of her uncertainty, but we also see her conviction and the fact that she'll do whatever she wants if she believes it's for the right reason.

Right along those lines, I really love how evident Sokka's role as the child soldier/child leader is. Katara mentioned that he was told to watch the village since he was 13, and he's doing what he can. He has no idea what's right, he's just doing everything he can to hold things together and keep people safe. Aang calling him the bravest person he's ever met was so wonderful and exactly the validation Sokka needed to hear but probably never did. It also helped him come to his decision to help Aang, which was awesome.

I also love the reckless abandon we see with Zuko and the other firebenders. Sozin entered the Fire Nation into a world of divine right and basically the American Dream of conquering and doing whatever you want because they're in charge, they have the right, so they can. I also love the slight juxtaposition of Aang and Iroh's short encounter where Aang asks why the war was started. I just really like all the character interactions so far.

We also really get to see Zuko being young. His desperation when Aang escapes, the anger and fear he experiences. It's all very realistic and I'm glad we get more of that in this one.

I can't quite figure out if I like the costumes and the setting a lot. I don't like CGI heavy movies because they never look real or good to me, which is something I care about. I'm also not a good judge of whether CGI is good or not. I end up comparing everything to Narnia or Babe the Pig, both of which were pretty incredible, and nothing has been to those standards since.

In that same vein, I can't tell if I like the bending or not. It's not terrible, but the hand movements always look a little off to what ends up happening (which, I understand why, I just think it could been a little cleaner). Though that's probably just a byproduct of this being a live action, and the animated will always be better for bending. That earthbender in the beginning just took so long to earthbend, and I've always appreciated that earthbending is like, the heaviest and there's a lot more force that goes into it, but he was taking too long for me.

I 100% love this cast. So far they've all been very true to their characters while also being slightly new interpretations, which I like. I can't wait to see how they develop throughout the show, especially Katara, who I think goes through the most amount of growth in the show in a fairly short amount of time. Aang is still playful but also a bit more grown up, Sokka is still sarcastic but also focused on being a leader, Zuko is young and scared and angry and desperate to prove himself. I'm really happy with this actually, because it'll be easier for me to forgive the parts I don't like because these actors are so good.

That was very ramshackle and haphazardly thrown together. Oh well. This is starting out better than I expected and I'm excited for that.

[darkfeanix]

Feanix Reads Dragon Age Comics

#1: The Silent Grove

I'll be posting my thoughts on each series as a whole, rather then individual issues. Below the cut are all the thoughts I had while reading The Silent Grove.

WARNING: It does get a bit Alistair critical, as I feel like this series really brought out the worst in his character, which in turn brought out the worst in me.

Anyway, here they are, my thoughts:

The Silent Grove (I)

So, first thing's first, it's strange seeing young Varric here. It's a bit surprising how quickly I've gotten used to silver fox Varric in The Veilguard promotional materials, with the longer hair and a bit of beard growth. Younger, cleanshaven Varric just looks weird to me now. The art style also doesn't help. I'm pretty sure the art style was one of the things that turned me off the first time I tried to read them when they first came out.

I'll admit, as far as protagonists go, King Alistair wasn't a huge draw for me, and even when the comics were first releasing, I don't think I actually read them until after the final issue of Until We Sleep had been released. I was always more of a Morrigan boy, and even in the first game, there were times when Alistair grated on me. We'll return to that point later.

Now, Isabela on the other hand? Yeah, she's the reason I even started reading these comics. I do love my captain.

I'd forgotten that Zevran is mentioned by name in this story. Apparently he was meant to be in the comic in Varric's place, but was "cut due to concerns about party dynamics", which to me sounds like a skill issue. Zevran has a pre-existing relationship with both Alistair and Isabela, and it's well-established that Varric doesn't like going out (to the point that the entire party will roast him for it in Trespasser no matter who you have with you).

This is baseless speculation on my part, but I feel like they went with Varric because Varric is probably more popular than Zevran.

The Silent Grove (II)

Okay, I'd like to lodge a complaint: Isabela deserved a new outfit. Varric and Alistair both got spiffy new outfits. Isabella doesn't even get pants. And it's meant to be freezing cold. We open with a guard complaining about how cold it is (cold enough that we can see his breath). Then we cut to Isabela climbing out of the sea. Does she not feel the cold?

She obviously feels the cold; later in this very same issue we see Alistair putting his cloak on her. Why didn't Isabela get an outfit upgrade again? (Don't answer that, we all know why.)

I feel like Varric literally questioning what he's doing there proves my point; maybe it's fitting with his luck that he gets dragged into this sort of thing, but his role just as easily could have been filled by Zevran. Of course, that being said, I do enjoy it when he narrates his circumstances out loud. It's a fun character quirk.

I appreciate that we see a Vashoth (or possibly even Tal Vashoth) as a member of the Crows; it emphasises that the Crows really do take anyone into their number. A pity that all the others basically look like human men. Not elf or dwarf in sight, and no women.

I wonder if the intention was for the reader to believe the prisoner was Maric. He says it's too late, and Alistair's narration says that his quest has failed, but I'm trying to imagine reading this for the first time without having spoiled everything for myself. I feel like I would assume that the man Alistair finds is Maric.

The Silent Grove (III)

First shot of Yavana, flashback, from behind. No pants. Pretty sure she is only the second named female character in this series so far, and neither of them have been drawn with pants. I can literally see Yavana's butt cheeks. Ugh.

Lack of pants aside, she does have a really cool design, though.

This part felt like a lot of exposition, some pretty scenery, and Alistair saying that high dragons are worse than darkspawn. Really, Alistair? You fought during the Blight, and you think that high dragons are worse than darkspawn?

"In my life so far, I've taken the sword to three dragons. The big ones, I mean – not the ones that look like scaly, tooth dogs and love horse meat, but the high dragons that make the earth shake. Not even darkspawn are that savage. A dragon feed on anything. A dragon exists only to kill."

This reminds me way too much of Iron Bull's speech about dragons.

"Dragons are the embodiment of raw power. But it's all uncontrolled, savage… So they need to be destroyed."

Ugh. At least right after Alistair gives that speech in his narration, the dragon literally chooses not to kill him. He never gives any indication that he learns from his interactions with the dragon, though – at least, not that I remember. Maybe the next two issues will prove me wrong.

Anyway, we will come back to this later as well.

The Silent Grove (IV)

I love Yavana. No surprise, right? She's Morrigan's sister, and she's written almost like a mix of Morrigan and Flemeth. I do wish we could have gotten to know her more.

"In destroying what it does not understand, mankind would destroy itself."

But gosh, I really dislike the way Alistair is written… well, I was going to say here, but the truth is everything about his interactions with the dragon and Yavana makes him come across as narrow-minded and really unlikeable to me.

"Meaning you don't understand either, but it's what your mother told you."

Yeah, we'll come back to that later.

Claudio is… eh. He's a bit player. His connection to Isabela's past makes for some interesting plot developments, and he's obviously tied to the larger story involving Maric – though, as above, I'm not sure if I would have made that assumption if I hadn't been already spoiled the first time I read this. I probably would have assumed he was just planning on ransoming Alistair back to Ferelden or something. Or, heck, putting him in that prison like Maric was.

I appreciate Isabela deciding on the spot that she's not going to abandon Alistair. She's grown a lot from the women she was at the start of Dragon Age II.

The Silent Grove (V)

Isabela marching back into the Silent Grove and yelling Yavana's name is very funny to me.

I'd completely forgotten about Isabela and Varric making a deal with Yavana. That makes me even more annoyed about the ending of this arc. But we'll come back to that later.

"You wanted me alive. Now you have to try to keep me."

Okay, I'll admit, that's a good line. Some of that charming, funny Alistair shining through. A shame there's so little of him in these comics.

I do wish slut shaming Isabela wasn't something that the writer felt the need to carry over from the game. Even with Claudio being a bad guy, it comes across as really distasteful considering they've designed her character to show as much skin as possible.

Badass final page with Yavana standing over Claudio's body and talking about how getting the truth even with him being dead.

The Silent Grove (VI)

"You almost missed the fun. Evidently we're going to ask Claudio how it feels to be stabbed in the chest."

Oh Isabela, how I love thee.

Yavana's idea of a séance involves a lot more pyrotechnics than one might expect, but it is quite exciting. I am curious if she burned his corpse, or if it was some magic of Titus's to try to keep his name out of Claudio's mouth?

Yavana's explanation of the Hall of Sleepers, and what Maric's deal was, really convinces me that Alistair was wrong and that she does understand what she's talking about. In the same way that Morrigan prioritised sparing Urthemiel's soul from death even after Flemeth is killed. I don't think either one of them (certainly not Morrigan) does what they do simply because their mother told them to.

Which brings us to possibly my least favourite part of this entire eighteen issue series.

Fuck you, Chantry Boy.

It's later, so here we are. I hate this moment. It makes me hate Alistair, for doing exactly what Yavana says mankind has always done and killing what he doesn't understand. And yes, he says he does it because he blames her for everything that happened in Ferelden after Maric left, but here's the thing: Yavana didn't make the fucking deal with Maric! Flemeth did!

And the thing is, two issues ago he accused her of simply parroting what Flemeth told her. He accused her of not understanding what she was doing. Which is it, Alistair? Is she another pawn of Flemeth's, or is she the wicked witch who took your daddy away?

Except she didn't take him away, Maric made that choice on his own. He made a deal so that he would be able to save his country, and then he held up his end of the bargain by travelling to Yavana.

Uggghhh!

Issues ends with Alistair bemoaning his own status as a pawn and saying he's going to kill Titus.

And then his final narrative just feels so shoehorned because it's close to the kind of humour we're used to getting from Alistair in the game, but this isn't that Alistair.

"My name is Alistair Theirin, and I'm king of Ferelden. Long live the king, long may he reign! And so forth. Pray to the Maker he doesn't do something stupid…"

You just did! Seriously, fuck you, Chantry Boy.

Final Thoughts

Oof. It had some okay moments, but to be honest, the best part of this comic for me was Yavana and, well… Yeah.

The thing is, I don't feel like I'm familiar enough with Alistair's character to say whether or not he's acting out of character. Is all of this something that a hardened King Alistair would do? Or is it the writing emphasising all the worst parts of him without balancing it with what made Alistair so popular?

Anyway, not a great start to the re-read. I really hope I have more fun with Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep, but I'm done for the night.

[deoidesign]

Two things

Any tips for line work?

Any tips for drawing eyes?

You’ve got a killer style for that and I struggle for things like that, so was wondering what you do for that and have any advice for a young artist? Also Steve is gender goals and me and him have the same haircut which makes me happy. Comics with an older queer character are nice, makes me happy to see someone like me get to get older like that :]

This ended up really long, sorry...

"Style" is really just an amalgamation of every decision an artist makes. When you're starting to learn, your brain is processing a LOT on the technical and fundamental side. In time, these will become tools for you to use as you please.

Your style is in you already, I assure you. It's the clothes you love, your favorite color, the season that makes you comfy... Art is a form of communication, and the first person you have to learn to communicate with is yourself. It's a lifelong process of growth, self love, and personal expression. It's nothing to rush!

these are from 2011, 2016, and 2023!

(13, 18, and 25 years old)

You can see how my skills have evolved, but my tastes are rather much the same. I've still got an absolute ton to learn.

When it comes to lineart, if you find yourself regularly struggling with "losing energy from the sketch", then making your lineart thicker might be a solution; thicker lines are a lot more forgiving!

This is a common issue many artists struggle with. It happens because the sketch has multiple lines, so the brain gets to choose which one it likes most. When you do lineart that choice isn't up to the brain, so it's not tricking itself to seeing all its favorite lines anymore.

Lineart can also help you define depth. Generally speaking, thicker lines tend to be on closer objects, and further away objects have thinner lines. You'll also lose more and more detail (and sometimes edges) the further away an object gets.

It can also define light in your lines. solid blacks can block out entire sections of shadow. Another option is hatching, and another is stippling. It doesn't have to define light, though, many styles define their light through various other shading methods.

My biggest tip for lineart is to practice "line confidence." fill a sketchbook page with lines that span the entire length of the page, evenly distanced, as straight as you can, without lifting the pen. Do this every day. Fill a page with ellipses, fill a page with circles. Do this every day. Eventually, you'll learn to 1: draw with your entire arm, which will save you a lot of quite literal pain in the future, and 2: you'll be able to draw the right line the first time more often, which will save you time and frustration!

I didn't have an example offhand so I did this to show what I mean, but I highly suggest doing this on paper in ink and not on the computer, if you can.

When it comes to eyes, definitely look lots to real people, and also pay attention to how artists stylize them! There's generally 4 main things to keep in mind:

1: the top lid. This one is major for defining the expression, so it changes a lot depending on context.

2: the bottom lid! this one doesn't move nearly as much.

Each lid has a vertex, and changing where the relative high and low points are on them between characters can change a lot about what the eyes are saying.

3: the sclera (whites of the eyes), iris (color of the eyes), and pupil (the hole we see out of)! These change an absolute TON based on style.

4: the eyelid!

and here's me just moving each of the elements around! it changes a lot about what the eye is saying as you change each element, play around with them! try not to always go with your first choices.

There's a lot more to eyes than this, and a lot more to lineart as well... but I hope this is something of a starting point! Getting better about art is about learning to think and study everything you see. I genuinely see the world differently than I did 10 years ago, and I'm much happier for it (and a much better artist!)

And when it comes to writing stories about queer characters who get to be older and still happy, I hope to someday see you making stories that bring someone the same sense of comfort you had reading my work. I hope it someday becomes normalized, mundane even. And I know it starts with people like you deciding it's important! We're here, we've always been here, and we're not going anywhere.

Best of luck on your artistic journey, I wish you a long lifetime of growing closer to yourself through your art.

[fyeahmeddy]

sorry for bothering to cut in at all but i remember seeing a few remnants of what was probably teddys work while scrolling through very old blogs some time ago. i was trying to find adventure time fanart from around that era because i felt like the fandom seemed far warmer to be in, or at least, less claustrophobic, as a “new fan” who doesnt immediately catch white hot anger at the thought of finn being intimate with either marceline or pb. i was able to get that teddy was the cornerstone of finn/marcy content, but i think bottoms up was something i didnt immediately understand because i was never able to find a post that marked the start of it. i guess what im meaning to say here is it really correlates a lot to my bummer about the perception of finn to… i guess everyone else in the fandom, even some larger figures i still see around a lot.

hes not this stupid kid incapable of comprehending his friends greater issues despite his sympathy. the literal point of his character in the role of the series’ most important relationships is his emotional intelligence. living as a singular species in a place like ooo from youth can really fuck a guy up and speed up their growth and maturity and whatnot. he didnt really have anyone his age or size that he could be attached to, and that immediately shoved him into being part of his older companions’ responsibilities.

he does get to the bottom of it, if almost predictably for the type of power fantasy the show had tended to be in its super early days, but he does it because he genuinely understands where his friends are coming from. the reason why there were grounds for a fuller-developed relationship scenario between finn and either marcy or bonnie back in the day is because the show proves their mutualisms with each other. marcy was solaced by her friendship with him and showed more of her true self with every interaction. finn wasnt just a convenient accomplice to cleaning up bonnies messes, the literal first interaction of the show has them getting along with each other, and the final bit of closure thats at the end of the last episode, surprise, is between them.

which brings me back, it shouldnt have to be so hard to keep that viewpoint up when its as synonymous as it is with the shows progression. teddys work being so hard to find and being unacknowledged in the present, to me almost paints a greater picture of how the fandom, how ive examined it, blows over this interpretation in favor of portraying finn as this wide eyed, juvenile young boy… which cartoon network and its associates have been advertising him as for literally 15 years now. its like people dont want to take in the series without being spoonfed a few traits that fit what they little can handle about him

can't add much more to this, you explain it perfectly!

yeah, you can really tell the difference between the old fandom and today's. and not only with AT, but with most media these days. people love to be spoonfed standard tropes and portrayals of the characters or take them too much at face value. I remember the AT fandom being sooooo fucking creative and innovative because they actually tried to go deeper into the characters, to stretch them out and play with them.

Bottoms UP was probably one of the first works that really touched on Finn's capacity to be the mature one and take things seriously

[highfantasy-soul]

With all these 'you need to show not tell!' critiques, recently I'm getting the feeling people have forgotten what that actually means. Specifically with the Percy Jackson show, I've heard this complaint a lot - and how they're "leaving stuff out" that was explained (told) at the beginning of the book. There's this simultaneous critique that 'they're leaving stuff out' and 'they're telling too much exposition' which, watching the show, it makes it really seem like literally nothing will satisfy them.

Specifically, let's talk about Grover's desire to become a searcher:

I heard from a lot of people who read the books that they're doing Grover a disservice because they 'took away' his narrative goal. But how did we know this was his goal in the book? He point blank told Percy. In the show, we're seeing what he values, we're seeing his distress at the destruction of the natural world, and we're seeing why he might either have or grow to have the desire to become a searcher for Pan.

Showing vs telling can take time. Showing vs telling might make those who already know feel like it's been forgotten/the character (or world) isn't as fleshed out as they know they are after having read all 5+ books.

I think the show is doing a great job at showing when it comes to character development/goals while they relegate the cliffnotes of the world building to telling. They tell the stuff that, naturally, would be told to someone just walking into this new world of half-bloods. We don't exactly want Percy to be wandering around without people just telling him the basics of what he needs to know to survive. However, the bigger things, the things about the world that the adults think only they should know, that's being shown to us over the course of the show - not info dumped on us. That leads to some thinking stuff is left out or that they're relying on viewers to have read the books to understand the story. Neither of which is the case based on the show-only reactions I've seen.

You're supposed to feel like Percy isn't being told everything because this is a middle grade story and a massive point of many of them is adults not telling the kid protagonists things - you know, mimicking the real world and the frustrations many kids have growing up and having the 'important' info withheld from them because they're "too young to understand."

Showing vs telling the character motivations/growth helps us really connect to them because we see, over time, who they are. (Annabeth's 'telling' of her motivations makes sense in context because, like Grover being a failed protector, it's her starting point in the story - the place where she grows from - and gives the viewer a better understanding of why this random girl is so interested in Percy and the quest).

Telling vs showing sets up the base-line understanding of the world. Showing vs telling certain world building (usually related directly to plot development) details gives the feeling of shock or dawning/changing understanding of what one thought they knew of the world.

Showing and telling both have their place in narratives - it's important to know which one is needed where and what purpose they serve. And yeah, showing might take a lot longer than just telling, so if you're all about stories showing stuff, you're going to need a little patience and to just sit down, shut up, and you know, actually watch the show.

[therealpactcommander]

CHARACTER POST: THORNE VÆTKISSON

The Pact Commander

Thorne is… different. That’s obvious enough. He’s short, has weird ears, and a tail.

That’s what happens when you’re ’wrong,’ he guesses.

He doesn’t know what’s wrong with him exactly, he just knows that it’s ruined his entire life. He had been so proud when Snow Leopard came to him as a spirit guide when he was so young. Yet, the first time he had tried to ‘Become the Leopard,’ something had gone… wrong. Transforming had been described to him as a fast, enlightening experience- but why had it been so goddamn painful? He remembers little but the agony and his parents easing him through it, but it didn’t work. And then he was stuck, some half-cat abomination that stunted his growth and pushed him to the bottom of the totem pole. He had fought tooth and nail just to even be considered a good hunter- and at that point, that’s all he ever wanted to be.

Then he killed him.

His parents had been murdered the night his little brother was born. No clue who did it- just that it was the Sons of Svanir. Leaving him and his new family member with- to be frank- a horrible excuse for an uncle, only to hear that son of a bitch call Jormag ’Dragon,’ he realized all of it. He lost himself- he didn’t realize it until blood was on his hands.

But hey, participating in the Grand Hunt should take his mind off of it, right?

Thorne left for the Order of Whispers without telling anyone but his boyfriend about his real situation- he told his little brother that he was ‘going on a hunt up north’- when he never came back, it was assumed that he had been killed by the Sons of Svanir. This lead his little brother to start actively joining the fight against the cult on the assumption that they had killed his entire family, but that’s a different oc so a different story. Thorne, though he doesn’t like to admit it, didn’t think about his family for five years, only realizing he hadn’t seen either of them when he was about to be murdered by a rouge god. That, along with the fact that he had literally died by burning alive, he started spiraling into a depression that he tried to hide from the rest of Dragon’s Watch, and this goes on until the present in the story.

(It’s somewhat alleviated when he sees his brother and boyfriend in the Icebrood Saga, but the PTSD is not)

He was fairly “””fine””” up until The Departing, but after he was violently reminded that he was mortal, Tybalt, Eir, and Trahearne’s death started weighing even heavier on him. Every new death of an ally adds to this.

Around the end of Path of Fire after he successfully kills Balthazar, he starts dealing with chronic pain that he ALSO decides to hide (from everyone but Taimi, but he only tells her after Kralkatorik is killed.) Hiding this and forcing himself to continue functioning as normal is very debilitating and often leaves him extremely weak when resting at night. He also ‘makes up’ for it by throwing himself info anything, which only leads to him being downed often. (Lore reason to hide I’m ass at the game, but lets not talk about that)

The reason for most of his issues is actually caused by the ability to absorb magic like a dragon, which he is unaware of for the entire decade until it comes up in conversation with the Astral Ward exactly why he was considered a ‘magical anomaly’ outside of being a dragon champion. Of course when he does learn, it is a little obvious in hindsight- he’s able to summon aurene’s magic as wings (glider) before she was even born after getting her egg to the chamber. He also does the whole ‘commune’ thing despite having very little skill in spells. And of course, he was around for every time a magical deity released magic- and while the other dragons got most of it, he still got a little too much at once for his body to process, leaving him with the weakness and chronic pain. (This also allowed him to absorb some of Kralkatorik’s magic when his hip was branded, meaning it didn’t spread and he could remove the brand.)

He has a theory that it may have something to do with his (and his little brother’s) inability to shapeshift, though he doesn’t have anything to back that up.

This only makes him hate himself more, of course, because he literally can eat magic like a dragon and most dragon’s he’s met have been trying to destroy the world.

His father is from Hoelbrak, where he grew up, but his mother was from up north, where a select few words of the norn language had survived, (as opposed to the south 100% losing the language and the only surviving world LITERALLY being ‘Hoelbrak’) and Thorne was taught these few words as a kid and mostly uses them to curse. Once being around the Astral Ward, however, it’s only common sense that ancient Wizards and such would have dead languages around, and he took his mind off of everything by studying it and becoming fluent because besides hunting kryptis he had nothing to do. at all.