#mouth of a lion

[christinareedy-love]

Hey, christians. ⬇️ 👀

For those who believe in christianity, this should concern you.

Maybe don't endorse christian nationalism with the enemy of christ?

[screwpinecaprice]

I was trying to eat noodles neatly and for some reason I got sad midway. So I drew them messy eating a biscuit and a strawberry to combat sad noodle blues.

[cinderoo]

survive

[montereybayaquarium]

Life’s a beach

At least that’s true for northern elephant seals along the central coast of California during breeding season.

Between December and March, pregnant moms give birth to and raise adorable little pups, while the bulls are busy battling and honking for territory and harems. All the hus-seal and bus-seal makes for a busy beach… and LOTS of napping!

Don't get us wrong, crowded beaches are a good thing! Thanks to protections in Mexico and the United States, a species once on the brink of extinction is thriving today. That seartainly gets our seal of approval!

[catwyk]

vacation sketches!! i HAVE been working on digital stuff, but its gonna be a while before any of it is posted bc its mostly Big Projects!!

the silt verses sketches were partly drawn on early morning walks to the beach (listening to tsv of course), and the others are observational sketches of taxidermy/model animals in a museum, drawn while listening to the podcast travelling light as a balm to the damaged psyche tsv left me with <3

[zephyrine-gale]

Hello, I don't really have a question, i just wanted to say that I really liked your most recent drawing of Gaming and Chongyun! It made me immediately check out your blog and follow you^^

(I also only really recently learned about lion dancing apart from the fact that it exists and i think it's really cool! I'm happy to see people starting to get excited about it getting representation^^)

aww thank you!!

I hope they do more with his character too, he's one of the few chars I'd consider an auto fav because of the lion dancing hahah

If you're able to watch any lion dancing performances, they're really fun!! and loud!! and they're so insanely skilled!!! I love the way some duos portray their lions too, they're very cute, lots of personality :>

here's a link to one I remember seeing on here, there's the performance link at the bottom too!

[bonefall]

So, your Clear Sky post is absolutely horrifying, but it was very needed, so thank you. What are your general thoughts on tackling his abuse for the AU? Like you've said, pretending he's a good guy is not the way to go, but are you planning on toning down *some* of the situations, just to give some of the cats a break? Clear Sky is a very realistic depiction of abusers, but that seems to come across even without victim number 25, yknow? I'm very curious about how you'd like to go about this.

My most recent big change was bringing Slash back into the fold, because I realized that it was actually a disservice to not address where DOTC's themes dip into Colonialism. It's a hard topic, and I'm still trying to work out the details, but I realized it was important.

With how BB!DOTC is such a MASSIVE overhaul, to properly address abuse and the ways it impacts you, ableism and its violence, and xenophobia broadly, a huge reworking of Slash belonged here too. He's one of the greatest examples of how badly WC demonizes non-Clanborn cats. I shouldn't dance around it.

That's what I need to do with Skystar.

MANY of his victims have happier endings than canon, though. Bumble is one of the most famous, bumped up into a major character and directly responsible for the formation of ThunderClan. Bright Storm is taking most of Gray Wing's roles. Birch and Alder are getting examined, with either a father who wants his kids back or Milkweed as the mate of Misty.

A lot of people will die because of him, even more will be hurt, but I see BB!DOTC as a story about victims and survivors.

Others might grab POVs here and there, but as a response to canon which I feel is Clear Sky's story told in many parts, I center this rewrite around Thunder Storm. The path of kindness he marches down, with love and with anger, and the people he helps.

So BB!Star Flower...

Previously I was playing her as ENTIRELY just manipulating Clear Sky. She was loyal to One Eye and trying to get at Skystar to bleed him dry for 8 lives to sacrifice; but connected to Thunderstar over recognizing him as a victim who deserves her idea of justice. So, she offers Thunderstar the final kill, so her father will be grateful to him and he'll get power AND the death of his abuser.

(When Thunderstar looks upon Skystar, pathetic and neutralized down to one life, he thinks about the collateral damage that will descend upon the forest if he accepts the deal. He decides that he has found the line between Justice and Justification. Of course he wants the power to make his enemies cower, protect his people, and eliminate Clear Sky so he never threatens them again; that's not the problem.

He can still do these things. He wouldn't NEED the power of a war god to do so.

But if One Eye returns, he will be endlessly hungry, ruthlessly dedicated to revenge, and set out to devour the whole forest. Everything would get worse, and even more people he loves would die. It's where his desire to destroy a monster would lead to him BECOMING one.)

Even on its face, it was previously missing an element. There's a step between "Starf decides to bring One Eye back" and "Starf offers Thunderstar the final kill" that was bare. This is the piece that was missing-- That she, herself, is trying to reach out to the only person who's ever really understood her.

But more importantly... I do feel this topic belongs here, in BB!DOTC. Abuse is a MAJOR theme. SKYSTAR is a monster already. He's harmed two wives in BB (Bright Storm and Falling Cry) and played toxic games with all three kits (Thunder Storm, Pale Sky, Tiger Sky).

And I'd avoid Star Flower being abused... why? Because it's uncomfortable to confront the pattern that Clear Sky displays? That in-canon, he tries to cut all his victims into the same ideal shape, from Storm to Thunder to Star Flower? ...it should be uncomfortable. Everything that I described in Clear Sky Is A Monster is rooted in the same desire for control, power, and punishment most abusive people share, he just happens to be a severe example.

Yes. That includes how he treats his child and romantic partners. The parallels that are drawn between Starf and Thunder are there because he wants power in the form of obedience. Starf replaces the son as a narrative award for his "growth" of not killing random people anymore for a while.

A cookie cutter is an effective tool because IT ONLY MAKES ONE SHAPE.

You know what's more uncomfortable? Reading canon!DOTC and seeing someone who hurt you reflected almost perfectly in the character the writers think did nothing wrong. Because of "good intentions" that were not there.

I will say though, just to be clear; I don't see a purpose in being more than PG-13 about serious topics for this project. I promise none of my intentions have changed. Nothing will be more graphic or gorey than canon WC-- just more intentional.

I'm keeping the sacrifice because it's dope. No one is taking this from me. Girl Moment: Killed her awful husband 8 times to count as 8 sacrifices and offered the last life to her buddy as a show of good will. How else do you make friends outside of high school

But I know now that Star Flower NEEDS to keep the canon fact she has very little agency, UNTIL that moment she snaps.

She's sacrificing one abuser to try and bring back a bigger, badder one, because in spite of everything, her father One Eye always made her feel safe. Even though he promised her off to Skystar, and expected her to be willing to die for him. She's followed every command, every order, past the death of his mortal vessel.

The first, and only, selfish choice she's ever made was in reaching out to Thunderstar to offer him the power of her father.

Thunderstar's Justice is a story about a Thunder Storm at the pinnacle of his arc, how the survivors of his Clan are settling into the new normal after the carnage of The First Battle, how Skystar's arrogance brings a violent god to the Forest... and the connection Thunderstar makes with the daughter of a monster.

[maviacomic]

#tolkientober 3. Creatures/Poetry

Finrod the poet, having failed to out-sing Sauron, gets thrown into a werewolf pit and bites a werewolf to death to save Beren

[druidonity2]

King

[thatsbelievable]

[i-am-trans-gwender]

Random trope I like

When a character is inspired by another character but is more heroic or at the very least less evil than them.

Examples:

Caine (Digital Circus) to AM (I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream)

Collector (The Owl House) to Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls)

Deadpool (Marvel) to Deathstroke (DC)

Dr Evil (Austin Powers) to Blofeld (James Bond)

Edward Scissorhands to Frankenstein's Monster

Luke Skywalker (Star Wars) to Paul Atreides (Dune)

Megamind to Lex Luthor and Brainiac (DC)

Peridot (Steven Universe) to Invader Zim

Simba (The Lion King) to Hamlet

[mysterycubes]

[33]

When i first saw the nomai space suits, their bulky frame and colorful appearance reminded me of lion dance costumes. So, i wanted to try making a lion dance costume that's nomai themed.

The mirror in the center of a lion dancer's head (right where the third eye would be) is supposed to scare evil spirits off by showing them their own reflection. Also, the green lions symbolize friendship! Those facts are coincidental, but i think they suit the nomai very well. The back set of horns also kind of fit in, because if you look at an actual lion dance costume, there's a circle on each side right where i have the back horns connect in this design.

Thatch is there because they were the festival envoy for Escall's clan - i couldn't think of any better candidate for a festival dancer ::]

[ims0vain]

[devilsrecreation]

I love how the TLG fandom has collectively agreed that Kiburi secretly cares about his float even though he never showed it in canon. Like I know my pal, Spinny, and I have our respective headcanons BUT….

In A Crocodile’s Journey, Kiburi tells Makuu that he’s always cared about his float and that without his true friends, he has nothing to live for. There’s also another moment where Kiburi’s looking at an oasis and he’s internally like “I wouldn’t mind living here if my float were still alive” BC THEY MAKE EVERYTHING BETTER FOR HIM

In The Northern Crocodile, there’s this one scene where Kiburi’s tells his float that he’s joining another crocodile float bc he doesn’t want them getting killed and he doesn’t want to lose them

And finally, I was reading a fic called Lion Guard: The Darkness of the Ring and YA’LL HAVE TO READ THIS:

LOOK AT HIM DEFENDING THEM. I love how only he’s allowed to call his henchmen idiots, it shows you how much he really cares, even though he doesn’t show it

[paradoxpig]

Remember those character bingo charts that were super popular on here like 5 years ago? I'm redoing mine.

My types are "sad animal doomed by the narrative" or "just a silly guy."

[ebonytails]

I wanted to draw in CMYK for once…