#my fighter girlies!!!

[jessicatredes]

i was tagged by @chuckhansen & @shadowglens to do this picrew - thanks!!!

permela (d&d) | clarissa (d&d) warden (rimworld) | hollan (skyrim)

tagging @gwynbleidd @izzyfag @queennymeria @chloefrazer @nadineross @malefiicarum & anyone else who wants to :-)

[sillyfairygarden]

traffic series designs of the world’s most beautiful man 🫶 (1/2)

[laugtherhyena]

I hate them (massive lie)

[hetagrammy]

Dungeon Meshi is making me want to draw that D&D/Fantasy AU with the Immigrant Squad again and make coherent honest lore for it, I can't do this!!

[lacefuneral]

iirc i never posted about this but. it's on my mind rn.

okay so. i'm FTM, yeah? and by some metrics i am a "late bloomer" in that i didn't begin my transition until i was an adult. and also, i am effeminate. i've never really been a Masculine person.

growing up, i had access to my older siblings video games. and then whatever my parents got me for birthdays and holidays. which tended to be games that were marketed towards girls. i'm talking your barbie games, your horse games, your nintendogs.

and when the internet began to develop central hubs for flashgames that weren't just insensitive jokes and pro iraq war propaganda, i always gravitated towards the "girly games." usually dress ups.

and as i kid i never wanted, say, nerf guns or toy soldiers. i think the most masc interest i had was rewatching the same power rangers episode on VHS over and over.

so i never got into War Games. i never got into Male Power Fantasy. i was playing harvest moon. i was playing pokemon for the cute critters. i played TF2 i guess? but that was about it.

and i feel like. my experiences as a Man Who Plays Video Games is very different from other Men Who Play Video Games. i will watch streamers on twitch and they'll gleefully reference something from their childhood that i have no frame of reference for.

there's a disconnect there. what feels like, to me, a Central Lore that i am missing. and it can be very alienating sometimes. like i'm not Allowed into the Boys Club because i was playing with virtual dolls instead of virtual guns

and that, as an adult, i still tend to skew in the direction of cute games/dress up games instead of like. fighting games and FPS and RTS

so.... ya. this is a post for Girly Gamers. love u

[mlady-magnolia]

My lovely Tavs because I can’t stop messing around with this damn character creator

[akivrse]

• the female fighters had their own gc (they named it world dominion or domination or something like that)

• yes benedetta is part of their gc,, yes 'cuz she's still a fighter idc

• yes LITTLE AILEE is part of it!!

• once upon a time jawhead all hell break loose on the poor device 'cuz the robot read too much unnecessary amount of curse words for a little girl (heavy side eye to ruby & masha)

• after that silvanna & freya tried, keyword: tried, to prevent them saying anymore curse word

[tessenwarrior]

bg3 verse suki, tho........

[futurecentury]

falmelbridge —> futurecentury

THIS URL WAS OPEN?????? OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY

[triflingshadows]

poor woljif lives under constant threat of noogie-ing by a 6'10" barbarian with venomous spikes

[silver-horse]

so the body customisation in BG3 is basically just a choice between 2 bodies. the default one and an even more muscular/buff body. they only added a muscular body, they didn’t add a skinny one, right? 

[touhouweed]

Makoto street fighter

[vulpixelates]

thinking about how the first time i met my now-wife was to play at her d&d table so i obviously made a character that i thought would a) be useful for the incredibly squishy group, AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, B) would make her swoon a little bc even tho we weren't like romantically together and i was convinced that she "just flirted with everyone," i still had a HUGE crush on her

for those of y'all who do not know: my wife is an incredible poet. like. top tier. immensely talented. her words bring me to tears. so obviously my character was a hopelessly romantic failed (and uh, incredibly haunted by eldritch entities bc that's also something i knew she'd love to dm) poet. i printed out pages and pages of poetry from her favorites and some of mines that i was planning to read dramatically as the group traveled from place to place.

Y'ALL. WHY DID I THINK I WAS GOING TO DO THAT. did i forget that i have intense social anxiety? not only that, but that group wasn't really huge on roleplaying so it was just like. not something that would have fit AT ALL.

anyway, now i have a d&d binder somewhere that has a half-inch thick stack of printed out bits of poetry, TRIPLE COLUMN EVEN to have saved space, and have not played rhialla since

[kittenspill]

oc stuff .. my buff magical girl

[silkentine]

Me when they are the sisters ever: 😭😭😭 They came out soooo freaking well. I won’t lie, they took me a thousand years to finish but through the constant support from all of my buds (and my latent bisexuality), we made it 😤

Hopefully you guys know the deal by now: design choices, easter eggs, and (NEW!) closeup shots below the read more. ⬇️

I wanted Ace to have a very down-to-earth vibe and looked at Aussie beach-girls, coastal cowgirls, and vaqueras for reference. (IDK, I’ve just always envisioned Ace as part-Australian🌺 and Mexican 🏴‍☠️) Her clothing choices are mostly natural or utilitarian materials like the painted wooden beads on her top, her woven fabric and leather belts, and her denim jumpsuit. I gave her bikini top a zen-garden kind of feel because I read the first Ace’s Story Novel and I loved how idyllic and peaceful they made Sixis Island sound so I wanted to invoke that in some way.

Speaking of her painted wooden beads, they hang off the back of her top and represent her connection to Sabo and Luffy. They watch her back once she sets sail. She only wears one red glass bead earring because the other one got ripped out of her ear when a child, leaving her earlobe torn (don’t think about it too much 😢). Also, YES! she does wear a hibiscus flower just like Rouge (because I hate you and I want to make you cry, muhwahahahaha).

Also, I really wanted her to have super textured curly hair that licks behind her like flames. I am always considering whether or not a character should have long hair or not because I don’t want it to be a hindrance if they’re in a fight (or if they ARE a fighter with long hair, how to they avoid an enemy making use of that?). Ace is, of course, a Logia-type Devil Fruit User so I think she wouldn’t have trouble with people grabbing it LOL I get the feeling that she doesn’t take very good care of it even though it looks amazing. Like you’d think it would be soft and bouncy just by looking at it but if you ever get the chance to run your fingers through it, it’s a total rat’s nest and there’s sand and food all up in it. She still falls asleep while eating 😂 but she tries her best to only do it around people she can trust (woman moment 😔).

Honestly, her design is not that different from Ace’s canon look. It feels really vital to Ace’s character to have a lot of skin showing. And he’s always hanging all over himself with his hips all cocked like the weight of the world is too much to stand up straight. It is certainly not my OWN preference to make her an absolute smoke show. That’s just the character, okay? (I’m partially lying and the proof is that I turned the emblem on Ace’s hat strap into a sternum tattoo for no other reason than that it is sexy af.)

Here are some closeups of Ace:

Now for Sabo, I’ve made her very girly. I tried putting her in pants or something more militant but she told me that she’d wear the big poofy sleeves and hiked-up ruffled skirt. I think Sabo has always had a strong grasp on his fashion sense and individual flair and I truly believe that his personal style is one of the major influences for the rest of the Revolutionary Army resulting in the very flashy, queer, steampunk aesthetic (aside from Dragon’s plain-ass cloak). So of course I had to implement her nonconformist look when reimagining her as a woman and dress her up to the nines.

I’ve given her very ornate jewelry that is there to tell a story, even if she herself doesn’t know it. I like to think she picks up stuff from her travels that resonate with her, such as a damaged set of earrings with one stone missing or red cup-shaped shells featuring three nestled pearls. Another accessory that cannot go unmentioned is her dragon claw hat pin that keeps her top hat resting on top of her hair (and is definitely used as a weapon when the situation simply doesn’t call for trusty metal pipe). She also has a veil that obscures her prominent facial scar. I imagine she’s not very keen on the reminder of the incident from her childhood that took away her memories. I also kept her chipped toothed because 1) it’s fucking adorable and 2) is a visual reminder that she no longer aligns herself with the nobility who would have gotten such a thing fixed. She is so poised in almost every outward facet of her life from her dignified role as the Chief of Staff to the elegant materials in her clothing that it can be easy to forget she was also a rough and tumble forest dweller. Every time Koala remembers this, he lets out the biggest sigh.

Her hair is inspired by Gibson Girls and Elizabeth Swann from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I wanted it to be fussy and tidy but fall apart when she’s in moments of distress. For example, when she remembers her sisters, her hair starts to look like Ace’s flaming mane. I’m so in love with her, I think she looks like an adorable little porcelain doll that would fuck you up. I made an effort to keep her eyes a little bit manic. I get lost in her steely black orbs (and also Ace’s warm brown ones, but we’re talking about Sabo rn).

Here are her close-ups:

Plot notes for this AU:

For this series of character designs, I wanted the expressions and outfits to be aligned with the canon plot but I don’t know if I have the heart to kill fem!Ace in my AU. I’m too attached and ASL has suffered enough!!!!! But Ace’s death is also a major defining moment for Luffy so it feels disingenuous to completely avoid it. Also a huge aspect of Sabo’s character is carrying on Ace’s will and I have so many thoughts about how the Dressrosa Colosseum scene would play out if they were all women. Oh well, I’ll cross that tragic bridge when I get to it. I’m definitely going to draw some Modern AU Girl Piece ASL though. They deserve to hang out with no stakes 😭 They are sisters!!!

Check out the tag “girl piece” on my blog for my other One Piece genderbends! 🥰

[bookdragonideas]

Here's the thing. I'm a girl, and as a girl, I really like it when girls are portrayed in fiction. Especially fantasy.

But so much fiction/fantasy mixes up 'girls' with 'unstoppable forces of female badass' and there's not necessarily anything wrong with having a character who is an 'unstoppable forces of female badass'. But it gets old real quick. And it is not the same as portraying normal girls, or having good female characters.

And that's one of the many reasons I love Avatar the Last Airbender.

Because all the girl characters have flaws and weaknesses and sometimes act like idiots or jerks. They get emotional and make mistakes. They lose fights or arguments or are just wrong sometimes. Some of them are amazing warriors, and some aren't. Some are powerful or special and some are normal, with nothing special about them.

And I Love that.

I was around the same age as Katara when I first watched Atla. And I instantly connected with her as a character. I loved her optimistic attitude and her fighting spirit. And I could relate with her anger, and with her maternal instinct. I admired her fighting skills of course, but I loved how the show portrayed her compassion and kindness, the way she could both beat up a bunch of bullies AND enjoy a relaxing day at the spa. She was a baddass warrior that should never be crossed. But she was also a normal teenage girl who had a lot of the same internal struggles and problems that I did.

(I never connected to Toph on the same level, but I did relate to her on a few things. She's an adorable trash gremlin who would commit any crime for fun and I love that. But she struggles with being both independent and letting people help her, and I still struggle with that sometimes. I've learned that sometimes, you can help others by letting them help you.)

Yue is, in my opinion, a perfect example of a type of hero that seems to be disappearing. She is not a warrior. She is not a fighter. She's not even a bender.

Yue is a perfect princess, a perfect daughter. She is extremely feminine in a rather older sense.

And she was the only one who could save the world. She gave up everything for her people. She saved everything, everyone, the entire world. Without ever becoming a fighter.

Yue is a perfect example of a girl who was never more than a girl, and how that's okay. Not every girl has to be rough and tumble and fight for her rights in order to change everything. Sometimes it's okay to just be a quiet obedient girly girl. Sometimes that's all it takes to be a hero.

And I love that. Yue is strong in her own way. She is unique and interesting. She appears in only a few episodes and yet manages to be one of my favorite characters.

Song is another great example of this. Song is a healer in a small town. We don't see much of her but we see her compassion and empathy. She is gentle and generous. A healer not a fighter.

She watches Zuko steal her ostrich horse and does nothing.

Is that because she's kind and generous and knows he needs it more? Or is it because she's a healer girl who knows she can't actually stop those two from taking the horse? Maybe neither, maybe both. I have always thought that the scene where Zuko steals the horse and only the audience knows she saw it is one of the most thought-provoking in the series.

Suki is a badass warrior woman who is an awesome fighter and good leader. She is one of the best non bender fighter we see in the entire show. She was one of the smartest, most efficient, and powerful characters we ever saw.

She kissed a boy she had just met because she thought he was cute.

Now don't get me wrong I love SokkaxSuki. Its one of the best couples in the show.

But Suki totally did the old 'love at first sight' thing. And that is awesome. Because when she kisses him she delivers one of the best lines, not only from her, but, I think, in the entire show.

"I AM a warrior, but I'm a girl too."

Being a warrior doesn't mean that she isn't also a teenage girl. She might be a fighter, but she still gets crushes and likes to flirt with cute boys. And hey, she picked a good one. Not every boy is going to come break you out of prison.

Anyways, let's have more realistic girls in fiction. And please enjoy the next 24 hours.