#meta repost

[chessb0r3d]

AUGH

[lurukifennecfox]

Gotham was welcoming of Amity Parkers.

not as loving as with her own but she was way more patient with the people of her friend that any other outsiders.

so the people of Amity those Liminal and aware of her tried to pay her kindness back, to a reasonable degree of course but they could help and she let them stay so they did.

Paulina took it upon herself to make a nice place in the fashion district, she sold some charms to help with the curses as much as she could.

Sam being Sam opened a surprisingly Ivy Approved community garden and was very hard to convince not to join the Eco-terrorist but they managed to, thankfully.

the Fentons designed filters to help the 'Parkers but it was good for the city too if too little to do much.

Val hadn't moved here (yet) but she visited often enough and each visit volunteered somewhere.

Gotham grown to adore them almost as their own, she even hid them from the bats for a while to let them settle (and maybe help her more before her Knight inevitably got paranoid)

Gotham laughed when her King stumbled into her Red Knight, you could hear it in subtle ways the sounds of the night flowed just a little too much like a giggle.

Hood did deserve more good things she's proud of herself!

[simply-ivanka]

INVESTIGATE. INDICT. PROSECUTE. INCARCERATE.

Media manipulation should be illegal. Zuckerburg's statement is an admission and he should be prosecuted for election interference.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted Monday that the Biden administration pressured Facebook to censor COVID-19 content and acknowledged it was wrong to stifle The Post’s coverage of Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop.

In an explosive letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Zuckerberg wrote that “senior Biden administration officials, including the White House, repeatedly pressured” Meta to “censor” content related to the coronavirus pandemic in 2021. 

The content the Biden administration requested that Meta take down included “humor and satire,” according to the Facebook founder, and he said he regrets complying with certain demands.  

[willgrahamscock]

I think about their second kiss all the time, how it'll be the opposite of the fast and desperate kiss we got. The second one will be soft and slow, Crowley placing little kisses along Aziraphale's bottom lip and taking his time. Worrying about going too fast in the back of his head, and Aziraphale completely getting lost in the new sensations, until they both feel a ZAP!

Crowley gets too excited and keeps accidentally shocking them both while kissing.

[kalinara]

The day I stop posting this and making terrible penetration jokes is the day I'll be dead.

(I do wonder why more writers don't do more with the idea of one of the Wolverines using their claws for emergency medical purposes. The idea of a normally violent character using their inborn weapons as instruments of healing always hits pretty hard. And I think Laura, in particular, could really benefit from that kind of experience.)

But mostly I'm here for the fact that the moon was not the first time that a part of Wolverine was inserted into Cyclops.

(X-Men #70)

[microclown]

Crowley and Aziraphale's communication in the final 15 is bad, but going back through the season I've realized it's even more prevalent than I thought…

not all of these miscommunications are a problem, but they barely have one interaction that doesn't include some form of lack of communication, so I thought it was worth highlighting the pattern

List under the cut, analysis at the end

Aziraphale doesn't tell Crowley about the naked man, Nina does

Aziraphale doesn't tell him it's Gabriel, he tell him it's Jim, Crowley sees it's Gabriel

"I feel like your exactly and my exactly are different exactlys" (aka miscommunication- assuming they're on the same page when they're not)

Cowley doesn't tell Aziraphale the stakes, that he could be erased from the book of life for helping Gabriel

The Apology dance is literally dancing around the issue. He doesn't want to apologize because he doesn't believe he is in the wrong, but they never talk through it, they just move forward

"Ah, we're going to the pub!" As they're walking in the door. so Aziraphale didn't tell him where they were going, he just lead him there??

Aziraphale and Crowley don't agree on how to get Nina and Maggie together, but they go ahead and execute their own plans without discussing it further. Crowley does ask "I'm lost, am I doing a rainstorm?" but Aziraphale has already moved on and doesn't answer him. He's already decided the ball is the better option, but he doesn't communicate that. Later, Crowley tries to tell Aziraphale about his plan with the rainstorm, but Aziraphale ignores him. "You don't want to hear about my plan?" Then when Crowley tells him the rainstorm plan was a bust, Aziraphale has no idea what he's talking about.

After telling Crowley about the Clue, Aziraphle doesn't let them discuss it at all. He literally cuts Crowley off from asking any questions about it "no! not another word."

When Aziraphale asks to take the Bentley, he doesn't really ask, he's telling Crowley he's going to take it. Crowley says no indirectly "You can't drive my Bentley." Aziraphale explains that he can drive because he has a license. So Crowley says "No" plainly. Aziraphale ignores him. Crowley says "No" again, louder, clearer, slaps Aziraphale's hand away, but Aziraphale still ignores him.

When Aziraphale tells Crowley what he learned about Gabriel in Edinburgh, they never discuss it fully because Crowley cuts him off to execute his rainstorm that they've also never fully discussed.

Neither Aziraphale or Crowley tell the other that Shax confronted them. More importantly, Aziraphale doesn't tell Crowley that Shax tricked him into revealing that Gabriel is in the bookshop.

Aziraphale is very coy with Crowley while planning the ball "wait and see!" He never actually tells Crowley his plan.

When Aziraphale suggests "just talking" to Gabriel, he looks pleased when Crowley says "Actually, I will." He doesn't seems to read Crowley's tone. Crowley then proceeded to yell at Gabriel and tells him to jump out a window. Probably not what Aziraphale had in mind.

Of course, the whole scene in the ball. Crowley doesn't tell Aziraphale about the demons straight away, he leads with a seemingly less urgent "somethings wrong". Aziraphale is barely listening anyway. He's too in his own world, too caught up in psyching himself up to ask Crowley to dance.

After the demons storm the ball, Aziraphale tells Crowley he's got a suggestion, but Crowley cuts him off "I've got it."

Crowley doesn't tell Aziraphale what he learned in Heaven. He doesn't tell him about Armageddon part 2, or that Gabriel was fired for not wanting to go ahead with it. He doesn't even tell him this during their big fight at the end, when you would think it would be a convincing point towards Aziraphel staying.

Neil has revealed that Crowley never told Aziraphale that he was living in his car

And then their final argument is laden with miscommunication, (people have gone into great depths analyzing this already, but I’ll just sum it up so it’s included) - Aziraphale assumes Crowley would want to be an angel again, but they’ve clearly never discussed this. Crowley assumes Aziraphale is on the same page with why heaven is so bad, but they’ve clearly not fully discussed this either.  Crowley can barely look at Aziraphale when he’s confessing. He can’t get out the word “partner.” He can’t finish his sentence “I would like to spend…” Then there’s “nothing lasts forever” which Crowley interprets entirely differently from Aziraphale’s intention. “I don’t think you understand what I’m offering you” “I understand, and I think I understand a whole lot better than you.” And then, when Crowley has given up on trying to communicate verbally, he kisses Aziraphale as a last “Hail Mary” to get him to understand. But of course he doesn’t. That’s not communication. 

So.

If you’re still with me, what’s the point of laying all this out? Well, a couple of things. I’ll try to organize my thoughts coherently. 

 _

Crowley and Aziraphale’s communication is beyond a simple fix

It is so much worse than I originally thought. What they need is couples therapy. They both need to become aware of the broken way they relate to each other, and they need to do a lot of work on listening to each other, giving each other space to talk, and being honest with what they know and how they are feeling. We needed someone to call them out, make them aware of this, but Nina and Maggie TRIED this season, and it was not enough. Unfortunately, I’m fairly confident season 3 will not just be six hour long couples therapy sessions. I’m not sure how much room for working on communication skills there will be at all. Neil has described season three as big, loud, and action packed. I have no idea how this issue will be resolved in that context. 

_

Something horrible I realized when making this list. Crowley’s relationship with Aziraphale is beginning to mirror his toxic relationship with heaven. Aziraphale develops a plan- taking care of Gabriel, investigating the clue, organizing the ball. He wants things to go just the way he has in mind. He does not let Crowley say no. He does not let Crowley ask questions!!! And now Aziraphale is running heaven? What makes us think he would treat Crowley any differently in a real position of power? It would have been so. bad. if Crowley accepted Aziraphale’s offer. Yes, Aziraphale and Crowley are on the same page on preserving the world and humanity, and yes they love each other and want to be with each other, but when it comes to what to do about it, they don’t see eye to eye. And neither of them know how to properly collaborate or communicate. 

_

Finally, why do Aziraphale and Crowleyhide things from one another? Simply, they don’t really trust each other. I mean they do, sort of, but not entirely. They have a deeper trust. They trust that the other cares about them, and won't harm them intentionally, but they have so many deep rooted issues with trust from their past with heaven and hell that it overflows into their relationship. People have said Crowley keeps information from Aziraphale to protect him, but that also comes from a place of mistrust. He doesn’t trust Aziraphale to protect himself. He doesn’t trust him to do what he would do with that information. Similarly, Aziraphale doesn’t trust Crowley to let him do things his way. They don’t know how to collaborate! Not really. It's something they want, but were never taught. Collaboration was never encouraged in Heaven or hell.

[extraaa-30]

HI CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW THE METATRON IS THE DEMON ON AZIRAPHALE'S SHOULDER IN THIS SHOT

literally has anyone done a full analysis of the shoulder symbolism in this show yet it's so- 😭

like, s1 we have

And of course my beloved

and now in s2 we have this

and this

does this count?

also THIS from the edinburgh minisode (crowley is the angel on aziraphale's shoulder here)

what does it all MEANNNN

[peanutbutterandbananasandwichs]

Sam and Dean are always withholding information from and lying to each other, constantly. That’s literally the plot of the show every season.

There are important differences between the types of "lying and withholding information" (I'm going to use the word lying primarily here going forward for simplicity but it is referring to several different types of behaviours and is not being used intrinsically as a value judgement) Dean vs Sam does, and these are fundamentally tied to their positions within their abuse dynamic (and more broadly within their roles within the larger Winchester family abuse dynamic).

Lies abusers tell, and their motivations for doing so are distinct from the types of lies told by abuse victims in an effort to manage their situation and avoid conflict (within the abuse dynamic this isn't to say that abuse victims cannot lie more generally).

Dean does sometimes tell some of the same types of defensive "lies" as abuse victims, and this shouldn't be surprising as Dean is a victim of childhood abuse. ("I'm fine" for instance, something they both frequently say when they clearly are not, and something that whilst not exactly healthy for themselves is a defence mechanism and not - generally speaking - fundamentally a harmful action to the other).

The clearest distinction between Dean's abusive lying and Sam's defensive lying: Dean lies and withholds information about Sam from Sam. Sam withholds information primarily about himself from Dean.

Dean lying to Sam about Sam or things that have happened to him, or things that Dean has done to him is a frequent and repeated pattern. Instances include, but are not limited to: lying about Sam's resurrection in "All Hell Breaks Loose", not telling Sam when he finds out about Azazel feeding Sam the demon blood as a child ("Metamorphosis"), lying about Sam having been soulless and of course the big one, lying for months on end about the Gadreel possession, both in order to obtain the 'yes' needed for possession in the first place and then in for the subsequent time during which Sam was unknowingly possessed. Dean's lies allow him to maintain a position of power and control over Sam and Sam's body.

By contrast when Sam withholds information about himself he's usually seeking to maintain control over his own self, his body, his personhood, and his agency. And to avoid negative reactions from Dean that often lead to him being hit, shouted at, or otherwise punished.

The most stark example of this contrast for me is the situation regarding the demon blood administered by Azazel.

Sam finds out about this in "All Hell Breaks Loose", he chooses not to tell Dean, this is well within Sam's rights, this is an issue that affects Sam and Sam's body and nobody else, he is under absolutely no obligation to tell Dean and he has every reason to believe, given Dean's reaction to previous examples of Sam's "otherness" that telling Dean would not have elicited a positive or supportive response.

Dean finds out about the demon blood in "In the Beginning", he proceeds to keep this from Sam and it is only brought up because Sam accidentally reveals that he already knew, its pretty clear that Dean had no immediate intention of telling Sam himself. This was not Dean's right, he has no right whatsoever to withhold information about Sam and Sam's body from him.

[madsmadart]

(Repost from 2023)

Meta knights 30th was last year but fuck it ill celebrate it again. HAPPY BDAY TO ONE OF MY ALL TIME FAV CHARACTERS!!!

[theotterpenguin]

Katara's Legacy in LOK: "Healer Wife of the Avatar" (part I)

I only recently finished watching all of The Legend of Korra from start to finish. Based on the analyses I’ve read from the time the show was airing, there seemed to be a decent amount of backlash against how the adult gaang was portrayed - particularly Katara. LOK’s fanbase has grown since then, though, especially during the 2020 renaissance, and I was surprised by how many recent positive comments I’ve seen from fans on Katara’s role.

Because if you paid attention at all to Katara’s characterization compared to Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko, it’s clear just how much Legend of Korra has tarnished her “legacy” or lack thereof.

I will be splitting this analysis of lok!Katara into two parts:

First, I will break down her portrayal in the show compared to the other members of the gaang to demonstrate how Katara received the worst treatment from the writers. Though I did have problems with the other characters’ portrayals as well, I don't have time to discuss them in-depth in this post. Then, I will counter common arguments used in defense of lok!Katara’s portrayal on the grounds that they do not provide an adequate in-universe explanation for her character’s drastic change from ATLA.

For part 1, I decided to examine everything we know about the gaang after the original series only based on the information provided via Legend of Korra (excluding poor Suki, who is never mentioned at all). For each character, I will answer the question “What do we know about [character] based solely on their role in Legend of Korra?”

Sokka

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Sokka based on LOK?

Well-respected for his wisdom and leadership, as he was Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, a councilman in Republic City (Representative of the Southern Water Tribe), and the chairman of the United Republic Council

Played a significant role in Yakone’s bloodbending trial - moderated the Council’s deliberations and announced their decision to find Yakone guilty

Worked together with other political/military leaders - Zuko, Tenzin, and Tonraq - to protect Avatar Korra by designing prisons for Red Lotus members that would be impervious to their bending

Toph mentioned they were friends in their youth, describing a time he was stuck in a hole when she was trying to teach Aang earthbending

Sokka, Toph, and Aang seemed to have remained friends into adulthood as they all worked together to defeat Yakone

Fond of his trusty boomerang, which he claimed to have used to win a fight against a man with combustion abilities

Due to his achievements, has a statue built in his honor in front of the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center in Republic City

Zuko

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Zuko based on LOK?

Former Fire Lord and co-founder of the United Republic, who worked with Avatar Aang after the 100 years war to transform the Fire Nation colonies into the United Republic of Nations

Zuko and Avatar Aang had a rocky start, as Zuko described a time when he once hired a man with combustion abilities to kill Aang in his youth, but they eventually became close friends

Acted as Aang’s counsel and was described as being the person who knew Aang better than everyone else, leading Korra to turn to him for advice

Good friends with the Southern Water Tribe - worked with Sokka, Tonraq, and Tenzin to imprison Red Lotus members that wanted to kidnap Korra, specifically working with Unalaq and Tonraq to build a prison to hold P’Li

Years later, continued to work against the Red Lotus when they broke out of prison

Investigated the prison break of Ming-Hua, sent word to Lin Beifong to protect Korra, then flew off on his dragon to stop the Red Lotus from breaking P’Li out of prison

Fought Ghazan using his firebending during the Red Lotus break-in

Discussed the Red Lotus situation with Lin, Korra, and the others, before leaving early on Druk (his dragon) to return to the Fire Nation and protect his family

Despite being in “retirement,” remains an active participant in international relations - makes appearances as Prince Wu’s coronation and Jinora’s airbending master ceremony, along with engaging in discussions with President Raiko, Tenzin, and Tonraq about the future of the Red Lotus after Zaheer was imprisoned again

Highly respected and honored for his achievements - Bolin and Mako were impressed to meet him, statue was built in his honor in Republic City

Had a close relationship with his Uncle and his surviving family include his daughter, Fire Lord Izumi, and his grandson, General Iroh II

Toph

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Toph based on LOK?

Previous Chief of Police in Republic City, founder of the first metalbending police force, founder of the first metalbending academy

Renowned for inventing metalbending, which is utilized for the development of modern technology and innovation in Republic City and the Earth Kingdom (particularly, Zaofu, is regarded as the safest city in the world due to it being made entirely out of metal)

To honor her metalbending achievements, there are several statues of her in Zaofu

Good friends with Avatar Aang, whom she affectionately named Twinkletoes, and was his earthbending teacher

Worked with Aang to arrest Yakone and was present at Yakone’s trial

Acted as a mentor to Korra, helping Korra face her fears and trained with her

Despite her old age and grumpy personality, Toph remained a strong fighter - easily able to beat Korra during training sessions, take down Kuvira’s sentries, and successfully break into Kuvira’s prison using her earthbending and metalbending abilities

States that her fighting days are over due to her old age, but has no problem fighting to save her family when they are captured by Kuvira (twice)

No interest in involving herself in current political problems in the Earth Kingdom, but will defend her family from political forces that threaten them

Strained relationship with her daughters (Suyin and Lin) because of how busy she was with her job, giving them too much freedom as she didn’t want to be as strict as her own parents

Covered up for Suyin’s crimes to save her reputation, leading her to retire early from guilt

Eventually repairs her relationship with her daughters - admitting she wasn’t a great mother but had great kids

Spent rest of her life living alone in a swamp, mentioning she has previous experiences with the visions it produces

High reputation in Republic City - has a statue of her built in front of police headquarters, Asami is impressed by her, Bolin calls her his hero

Aang

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Aang based on LOK?

Previous Avatar before Korra, negotiated relations between people of all nations to keep peace and balance and served as the bridge between the Spirit World and natural world

Worked with his closest friend Zuko to transform the Fire Nation Colonies into the United Republic of Nations after the war

Lost his entire culture of Air Nomads to genocide during the hundred year war and was devastated - his greatest dream was frequently described as rebuilding the Air Nation and reviving Air Nomad culture

He began to do this by founding the Air Acolytes, who preserved the culture, practices, and teachings of the Air Nomads passed on from Aang

Placed all of his hopes and dreams for the future on Tenzin's shoulders, his only airbender son

Deeply connected to the Spirit World and was an esteemed spiritual leader, hoping his son would one day experience the same

Traveled the world with Tenzin so he could learn as much as possible, but was so focused on doing his duty to the world that he never had time for his other kids, Kya and Bumi, whom he had with his wife, Katara

Kya and Bumi felt like a disappointment to their father for not being airbenders and Bumi never felt connected to his father’s culture until he became an airbender later in life

Aang’s acolytes did not even know Aang had other children besides Tenzin

All of this seems to indicate Aang valued the ability to airbend the most in his children, leading to his waterbending/nonbending kids being neglected

Greatest flaw mentioned as his tendency to cut and run when things get tough

Despite all this, he was highly respected and admired by most characters in the show for all his achievements as Avatar and his wisdom

Assisted in the arrest of Yakone with Toph, a friend of his, and used energybending to remove Yakone’s bending

Gave Korra advice along with restoring her bending and bestowed upon her the ability to energybend

His grandkids (Meelo, Jinora, and Ikki) enjoyed hearing stories about his youth, such as his visit to Wan Shi Tong’s spirit library and his time with Guru Pathik at the Eastern Air Temple

Described as natural leader by Tenzin, sweet-tempered by Lin, and was good friends with Iroh

He built the air temple on Air Temple Island and in his honor, Aang Memorial Island was named after him and a statue of him was built

He’s so well-known and respected that there are even Aang-themed carnival games at the South Pole

Katara

Assuming we have never watched ATLA before, what do we know about Katara based on LOK?

Described as the best healer in the world, responsible for teaching Korra how to heal, and mentioned to be a waterbending master

Monitored Korra’s avatar training and spoke to the Order of the White Lotus when Korra was ready to begin airbending training

Declared bloodbending illegal, but was not present for Yakone’s capture or trial

Attempted to restore Korra’s bending after Amon took it, but failed

Failed to heal Jinora when she was trapped in the Spirit World

Tries to guide Korra’s healing process after she is poisoned, but is unable to heal her on her own

Worked to heal the injured after Unalaq’s attack

According to Toph, Katara didn’t get involved in the civil war taking place in her homeland because of her old age

Mentions to Korra she knows what it’s like to go through a traumatic experience but doesn’t elaborate, instead describing Aang’s trauma

Married to Avatar Aang and had three kids - Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi - and three grandchildren - Ikki, Jinora, and Meelo

After Aang and her brother died, she was incredibly lonely, prompting Kya to move to the south pole to be with her. Misses her family that has passed away.

Her kids don’t visit her much, Meelo doesn’t even recognize his grandmother. She cries when Tenzin and his family leave.

Never speaks about her own life, but Jinora asks her once about what happened to Zuko’s mom, indicating they may have known each other.

By reading those summaries, it should be obvious just how differently Katara’s character was treated by the writers compared to the others. Katara’s legacy is reduced to simply being the “healer wife of the Avatar.”

And before anyone tries to twist my words: The problem is not that she is a mother, a wife, and a healer. The problem that is all she is ever allowed to be. Her entire identity revolves around:

Trying to heal people

Being the Avatar’s wife and occasionally offering random pieces of advice about what Aang would do (instead of, you know, giving advice based on her own experiences)

Missing her family

Again, none of these characteristics are inherently negative - the problem is how poorly they are written for Katara’s character. We are told things about her that just don't match up with what is shown in LOK canon. We're told that she’s a world renowned healer, but every time we see her use these abilities, she fails. We’re told that she’s the Avatar’s wife, but he was closest to his friend, Zuko. We’re told that she’s a mother who cares about her family, but we don’t know anything about her relationship with her children (and in fact, we know far more about her children's relationship with Aang).

Katara has no characteristics, no personality outside of her relationship to others - whether she’s acting as a healer, a mother, or a wife (this is some textbook misogynistic writing). She never speaks about herself, never mentions having any friends - only ever speaking about her husband, never describes her life before being a mother or a wife, is never shown to be honored or respected in the way the rest of the gaang is, has no political titles, and has only one post-atla accomplishment to her name. This is in contrast to Aang, Zuko, and Toph - all of whom have children but are never reduced solely to being a parent, all of whom are implied to be close friends, and all of whom have made multiple important contributions to the world of LOK. Even Sokka - who is barely in the show - is shown as having more achievements than Katara. I’m not sure how anyone could see this as doing Katara’s character justice.

I want to end with this excerpt from the book Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy - while not from Legend of Korra, this letter written by Katara to her and Aang's son, Tenzin, is a perfect demonstration of Katara's poor characterization post-ATLA. Despite being written by Katara, this entire letter is about Aang. I'm honestly not sure why the writers didn't just have this letter written by Aang himself because there are no insights that Katara adds to it.

The letter starts with Katara saying that she hopes this letter will help Tenzin "feel the pride of [his] heritage and gain a deeper understanding of who [he is]." And yet this letter never discusses the fact that Tenzin is the son of a waterbender and an airbender, never discusses any of the lessons Katara has learned in her life or the hardships she's overcome, never mentions any part of water tribe culture, never even mentions her own brother or father or mother (family is important to Katara, but apparently the writers only think that her family with Aang matters). The letter is entirely about Aang's struggles and triumphs because post-ATLA Katara doesn't matter outside of her relationship to her husband and kids.

Part 2

[miaoqing]

i have been trying to figure out why i'm allergic to the idea of shipping shen yuan with anyone other than binghe but i think this post edited by @aphel1on explains it perfectly:

like. who else is going to lovingly feed binghe antipsychotics and who else is going to be shen yuan's housewife from hell ??? also you saw what happened when they were Pining . Bonded Pair Do Not Separate

[fulltacs]

[jesncin]

Lil' musing about Public Domain, AI theft and Transformative creativity

Old essay originally written on Cohost in February 2024. With additions.

I'm putting my thoughts here because I don't want to risk going viral for subtweeting discourse again, here we go! So with the Steamboat Willie Variant of Mickey Mouse going to public domain I've seen the usual cynical pushback over transformative art. Particularly in response to overplayed EDGY DARK WINNIE THE POOH and EDGY DARK STEAMBOAT MICKEY and YOUR CHILDHOOD THING DARK NOW that inevitably happens around this time.

But to group all transformative art as derivative, soul-less, profit-driven, lazy and "reliant on past successes" is frankly just...really silly? I saw a notable concept artist making this over-simplified talking point, and I find it odd that someone can look at the most visible (by being formulaic, provocative and made by rich people) examples of public domain adaptations and just generalize all art ever inspired by a thing as uninventive and compare artists who do that to being "ai-like". It feels like the false dichotomy constantly set between "real books" and fanfiction.

We've seen marginalized people reclaim cosmic horror from Lovecraftian fiction. I've seen queer people reckon with and reclaim the queer history of Peter Pan. There's something special about taking a familiar thing and informing it with a perspective that wasn't present in its original iteration. It takes a whole other part of your creative brain muscles to adapt and reimagine something that already exists. And it can be just as creatively fulfilling as making original stuff.

While it's important to recognize and remember the origin of archetypes in stories or movements in art, I think there's sometimes a misplaced reverence put towards the original version of something. Whenever I talk about how Asian writers like Gene Yang and Sarah Kuhn have more thoroughly integrated Superman's immigrant themes in their re-imaginings of his mythos than their white peers have, I get hit with the constant "hey remember Superman's creators were the sons of Jewish immigrants (who made racist jokes about Chinese people)" and "hey remember, Gene Yang and Gurihiru's Superman Smashes the Klan was based on a radio show arc made by WHITE people first (who made the story about a binary of Good white people vs Bad white people, along with centering how white people feel about racism)".

Especially if it's a means of centering white creatives, people love to dismiss the transformative contributions of marginalized people, but especially that of people of color. It took until 2016 for the World Fantasy Award to change their statuette to not be based after the face of renown racist H.P Lovecraft, after all.

Last year I gave myself the goal to do something "unnecessarily ambitious" with no plan of pitching/printing/selling it. Just "art for art's sake", something really not-algorithm-friendly. And yeah, that ended up being a fully rendered, 40-page martian manhunter fan comic. I did it for no other reason than being a huge fan of a severely unpopular character and feeling like there was a new story I really wanted to tell about the character that would never happen in canon with how little there's been written about him. I don't think it's fair to call writing 40 pages of a new origin story, drawing fully colored pages with unique re-designs, reading hours of martian manhunter comics to tie different aspects of his lore into coherent worldbuilding, putting that comic up for free for the few other Green Justice League Guy fans to read, as lazy, profit-driven, and soul-less.

There's tons of artists who do stuff like this all the time. It just comes off as being very out of touch to view true creativity as only existing one way. That transformative media must inherently be "less". One time a white guy pitched to me some ideas he had for Superman if he ever had a chance to write him, and I said "that sounds cool, you should write a fanfic about it" and another white guy (who felt the need to come to the first one's defense), viewed what I said as an insult. There's something about doing fanart because you enjoy it and don't need to profit out of everything you make that's seen as lesser than having the seal of canonicity from a company.

My motto with making needlessly ambitious fancomics is "You don't need to work for DC Comics to make DC comics". Because canonicity has nothing to do with what makes art special.

To bring this back to edgy Mickey Mouse spin offs, even if you do just want to make cliche mascot-horrified stuff because you enjoy it, then by all means go ahead! I always go back to this video Sagan Hawkes did about petscop-inspired video series. There's a running theme about grappling with the concept of Originality in Art in relation to youtube horror projects (the thesis comes around at 2:04:10), and some valuable words are shared in the collected interviews with web series creatives (2:18:47) in the end. SeireaSong (creator behind Diminish) talks about how misguided conversations surrounding "originality" can be (2:29:43). It's so worth it to watch when you have the time.

Anyway happy 2024! Be good to each other.

[zykamiliah]

svsss and the cycle of abuse

so in the three iterations of the cycle of abuse, there's always four parties at play:

-the abuser who is also a figure of authority, and is therefore abusing their power

-the abused and/or unwanted child

-and the naive party/favored child, who is doted on by the abuser and who is blind to the abuser's abusive behaviour

-the abused child draws comfort and protection from the favored child, while the latter seems to love them. this love will worsen the abuse since the abuser doesn't like that the abused child gets on well with the favored child.

-there's also a passive party who knowingly allows the abuse, thus being passively complicit to it

not featured in the diagram: the environment and people in the abuser's cycle also exhibit abusive tendencies, since they emulate the authority figure (in each iteration, those are the men at Qiu Manor, Ming Fan and the other Qing Jing Peak disciples, and Bingge's followers, respectively).

as to the question of who is worse, who did the most damage: it's complicated. in my opinion, they were equally awful in their own, personal ways. the scope of the power the abuser holds is important here. bingge is a heir of qjl's and sj's abuse cycles, thus he looks to be the more evil. in reality, one couldn't exist without the other and if the roles were swapped, they would do as much damage as bingge.

adding @treasurewoodbox's tags from another post because I feel they summarize the topic beautifully:

[theomniplayer]

Deltarune Players (repost)

Now I have my own player design finished I had a go at drawing some of the other cool Deltarune players I've been seeing on this site.

It's not the most interesting composition but l'm quite pleased with it and how I managed to translate the various designs to my art style.

Player designs from left top to right bottom: @jazminthegamer , my player design (Alice), @ultrabean player from the redeemers path comic and angel from @angelsgame-au

(Reposting because tumblr glitched and tagged the post as mature and it stressed me out enough that I just decided to delete the original and repost it)

[kalinara]

The danger of marrying a massive service sub is that sometimes he'll get his wires crossed.

But Jean's got things well managed.