#my main problem is that i've literally never had a job and thus have no experience doing anything at all

[stabbyfoxandrew]

I was going to send message but re job: try health insurance agencies. The one I work for rn sells Medicare and my job is basically to screen the calls and make sure they're compliant with Medicare rules and grade the agent selling it. It's stupid easy and let's me work from home while keeping my bills paid

sorry i'm answering this so late dude i so appreciate this ask. if you feel like it, could you message me more details sometime? like what the position/role is called and stuff?

[mhsdatgo]

do you like Aemond ?

Henlo anon <3

Depends which Aemond we're talking about 😭😭😭 Book!Aemond had me clutching my pearls like how can someone be so infuriatingly bad at the job he was nearly at his bro's throat for is so over me like I wanted to curbstomp him so bad. No you don't get it I was tweaking every time that bitch boy's name popped up.

Show!Aemond?? Much better. He's interesting and intriguing, there is so much to his character that despite being left unexplored can be filled in if you're creative enough. His dynamic with every character is worth analysing, he steals the spot in almost every scene he's in (if this was the showrunners' goal then I'd say they succeeded) he's one of the characters I'm the least disappointed in.

I DO feel like he's about to fall into the unnecessary shock value hole like many characters before him and it feels like a slap to the face to be honest 😭 I've got quite mixed feelings about shock value as a whole like there are some instances where I praise it but you'll never see me doing so with shock value in HOTD specifically. It is all linked to sexual traumas somehow and either don't make sense or look more like rage (and problematic fans) bait than shock value.

For example since we're talking about Aemond, we could talk about how he seems to have developed this morbid Oedipus complex (a child's unconscious attraction towards the mother) towards Alicent. Literally the only thing that's missing is the hostility towards the father who is cold in his grave by this point and he's not even worth bringing up. It (supposedly) manifests through Aemond's feeling of entitlement to Alicent's forgiveness, which he doesn't get and thus takes to calling her BY NAME and a fool. Apparently guilt is something Aemond feels only when he's sure Alicent is willing to forgive him, love him and cherish him no matter what he's done. This is a version of Aemond that is so out of touch with reality that he cannot for the life of him comprehend when he's gone too far. (or better, HE DOES, he's absolutely sure the answer to his "I messed up" will always be "I forgive you and I'll move on". When that doesn't happen and Alicent is indeed chilly because he indeed went too far, his guilt turns to bitterness.)

Do we even know what brought him to develop such a mentality?? Is it because, in his eyes, Alicent has always been the one to defend him from whoever? Because we as viewers know for a fact that is NOT TRUE. Like I'm sorry I'm saying this as an Alicent lover but I heard her say the following phrase with my own ears:

"You may cuff him about as you wish at home, but in the world, we must defend our own."

There are A LOT of implications here. The main one being that image is the most important thing to her and should something like Aegon becoming the ringleader of a pack that is SET on treating Aemond like shit come out, it would soil the family's image. Doesn't mean this cannot continue as long as it isn't known. One could argue that it's not like Alicent could know how much of a toll the bullying was taking on Aemond but the way the whole instance of him going to his mother was treated tells me it wasn't the first time, and that therefore, she pretty much knew.

Moreover, that's her child covered in dirt and ash crying about how he was humiliated before the whole Dragonpit, there are no subtleties, there is no way to be mistaken. But that's beyond the point.

What kind of sick fuck came up with this jealousy? Entitlement? How to call it? That Aemond feels towards Alicent and what good/efficient does it do to either of their characters. That's the question, and the answer is NONE THAT'S RIGHT. Doesn't make sense, and was added in because they just wanted more sick fuckery in the show. (because Dyana's rape and future arc isn't enough)

Moving on to the other greatest problem I have with Aemond's characterization: THE INFAMOUS BROTHEL SCENE. COMING UP ON YOUR SCREENS IN A FEW HOURS. ASKERS: NONE.

OOOOUFFFHHHHHHH I've got so many problems with this scene. First of all, what kind of coping mechanism is that? I'm fully convinced this scene is made for nothing else other than fanservice because the implications are nasty. He likes older women, that's fine, valid, relatable and all, but WHY make it the consequence of yet another sexual trauma?

If the streets are right the woman that is cradling him as he lies in her lap naked is the brothel madam that is seen in ep. 8 "The Green Council" (Michelle Bonnard)

Which may or may not be woman he was brought to by his brother at the age 13 to be sexually assaulted by. Look, having Aegon bring his 13 year old brother to engage in sex he's clearly not an enthusiastic party in was already a bad choice, it felt like another bad quality given to Aegon the showrunners didn't know what to do with. But their ADAMANCE on making some kind of subplot out of this because you added it, why the fuck would you forget it? Feels so forced and makes me feel the topic should've stayed that way, unexplored.

Now his relationship with Alys is going to feel like a trauma response too! And that's if they don't go with the "Alys bewitched Aemond and brought him to his death" storyline. (Honestly would be better at this point)

When Aemond and Madam first meet on screen (supposedly for the first time since that nightmare of a birthday) Aemond is clearly CLEARLY uneasy. So fucking uneasy. And it's in the script too:

[creds: @darksvster]

It's something neither her or him have forgotten, and clearly a weak point for Aemond (understandably so.) Yet apparently, in season 2, we'll see him in the arms of the same woman AGAIN! CUDDLED UP LIKE A BABY EVEN!!!

I'm projectile vomiting so hard the recoil throws me out the window and rolling on the road below. There are problems here. A LOT of problems. Who decided it would be good? WHO?

So basically yep. Aemond's characterization appeared solid up until this new season, it seems. There's much more to cover up and I'm ready to RANT about everything I will be seeing on screen but things are looking grim. I just hope I won't have to watch Aemond come back to the woman that traumatized him for more than five minutes at best.

Thanks for the ask anon <3

[thewebcomicsreview]

Anonymous said:

do you have any advice on writing character motives and backstories? all of my characters either have motivations that are too extreme when their stories are taken into view, or their backstories feel laughable and it makes their motives look ridiculous

My snap answer is “Lean into the extreme-ness and have it be part of the character”. My more detailed answer is thus:

A character’s motivation is the most important aspect about them, because a character that is not motivated is a character that doesn't want to do anything and it's hard to write a character who doesn't want to do anything.

Making Comics, by Scott McCloud

So, while I suppose it's possible there are excesses, I would say that giving your character a strong motivation is worth giving them an outsized backstory to fit. If you're writing a series about solving mysteries and your main character doesn't want to solve mysteries, then you'll have to keep coming up with excuses to make the plot happen. So, one way of writing character motivations is "I want the character to do X and if the character also wants to do X it'll be easier to write".

When I wrote Legend of the Hare, the idea was that Jill would join up with the rabbits right away and we'd be off into Magical Girl Adventures, but when I was actually writing the pages (which I was doing as the chapter was being written, which is a terrible habit), I realized that I couldn't come up with a good reason for Jill to agree to join the rabbit war, so....she didn't. I got her super drunk and sent her home with a weird new tattoo and basically had to start the comic over until she had a reason to sign up and we could start the plot. I think I did an okay job of making it all look planned, but I basically threw out my entire outline for the entire comic because my protagonist wouldn't go along with it.

In Saffron and Sage, which is in many ways a reaction to Legend of the Hare, Saffron's motivation is clear from literally the first panel of the first page. I have thus never, in nearly 200 pages, sat around trying to figure out what Saffron would do. But this created its own problems, which is that Saffron's entire motivation wasn't really "established" so much as "thrown out offhandedly" for the sake of having a cool in media res opening chapter. It wasn't clear why Saffron was so invested in rescuing Faunus, and I got enough feedback that I eventually did a flashback chapter that I'm not super happy with but c'est la vie.

So those are the two lessons I've learned. Your character should want to do the thing you want them to be doing, and there should be some definition for why they want that. Sometimes the "why" is pretty obvious

And sometimes it needs a bit more meat.

(Another aspect that's important, though, is that motivations often drift over the course of a character's arc. Indeed, the most famous kind of character arc out there is the Pixar "want vs need" style, where a character's initial motivation is "bad" and they get a "better" one after they grow as a person, but the initial motivation is the one driving most of the plot)

And it's sort of difficult for me to answer your question of "how to establish backstories for motivations" when I don't know what your characters' motivations are meant to be, but lets use the example of a high school romantic love quadrangle, since those are often kind of silly. Here's a basic setup

Sweet Dear Innocent Melody, the protagonist, is in love with Chad Footbalman, the quarterback. But Chad is in a somewhat dramatic and troubled relationship with That Skank Felicity, who is way hotter than Melody and also the villain. Meanwhile, local nerd The Virgin Simp keeps flirting with Melody, who rejects him. Melody will do the generic teen movie makeover thing to get Chad's attention but eventually he'll realize he loves her for who she is. Our planned endgame is that Melody and Chad get together, and Simp improbably hooks up with Felicity, so everyone ends up happy. Very generic teen movie plot. (It's also a very straight one, but shh)

Just from this setup of point A to point B, some potential motivations start to come out of the void. Felicity is hotter than Melody, and we know that Simp's happy ending is getting with Felicity. So Simp's motivation can be "wants to touch boobs". He's kind of a creep and a big part of why he's harassing Melody is that he thinks she's "achievable". We want him to be unlikable (so that Melody doesn't look bad for rejecting his advances), but not so much that the audience wants him dead or anything. We don't wanna go full Mineta here. He can also be the one who gives Melody the fashion tips to get a proper makeover, since he's been studying hot girls enthusiastically.

....Actually, having the dude who's super about wanting to have sex with women also inexplicably being an expert in women's fashion is a very stereotypical "closeted gay dude pair" of traits, which is a possible different ending. Hm. Lets table that thought for a minute.

So Melody wants Chad. That's easy enough, you don't even necessarily need to explain it in more detail than that. Why does Melody want Chad? Is it because he's a handsome jock and she has more in common with Simp that she wants to admit? Well, the story is "She tries to get a makeover and Chad loves her as she is", so Melody's character arc is learning to believe in herself. It's not a story about learning to see the inner beauty of other people. She knows that Chad's actually a cool dude and not just a handsome jock, she sees the real Chad etc. She saw Chad, like, pet a bird or something and now she's head-over-heels for him. We don't need an elaborate backstory here.

Chad wants Melody but he doesn't know it yet, so he starts off wishing his girlfriend was [character trait here], which just so happens to describe Melody. He really wants to start a ska band and wishes he knew a trumpet player who shared his love of ska, which just so happens to describe Melody, sure. The ska obsession doesn't have to be revealed early on, it can be a twist that's revealed around the point he and Melody start connecting.

Chad's basically just Sami Zayn

So, when I started writing this, my idea was that That Skank Felicity wanted someone to wait on her hand and foot, which is an "evil" motivation that'd make Simp the perfect boyfriend for her in a Meghan Trainor's "Dear Future Husband" kind of way, but then I decided that Simp's aggressively horny because he doesn't want to admit something about himself, so the planned ending doesn't fit the motivation I came up with. I could change Simp's motivation to have him be straight, or change the planned ending, but let's see if we can't come up with a way to square the two ideas...hm...

Okay, got it. Felicity is super into the tradwife aesthetic. She wants to look and live a certain way, and she doesn't care about Chad as a person at all, she just wants to have a quarterback boyfriend because it's part of The Aesthetic and she cares about The Aesthetic to an extreme degree. She's the villain in a cheesy rom-com, she's allowed to be kind of ludicrous like that. Plus it fits into our theme of "looks aren't important it's what's inside that counts" to have a villain who's obsessed with looking a certain way. And then she can be catty about the makeover outfit Simp made for Melody, and Simp and Felicity can have like an entire enemies-to-lovers arc in five minutes. Boom. Okay. And then Simp realizes she's trans and Felicity's all "The only thing better than ONE hot 1950s housewife..." and they start dating.

Now we have our motivations:

Melody wants Chad (and needs to learn the self-confidence to get him) Chad wants a ska enthusiast Felicity wants to live the aesthetic of a stereotypical hot girl So does Simp, who is a trans girl spending most of the story as an in-denial egg, which is a bit of representation I wasn't actually planning to put into this story (Maybe, um, we change the name) but it fits all the needs of what the character has to do.

And that very long tangent is kind of how the thought process works. What needs to happen in the story? What motivations get me there? Are there any unexpected details of the motivations and do I like them enough to put them in the story? Those kinds of questions can be really helpful, especially early on when all you've got is a doodle of your OC and a dream.

Off to visit their girlfriends

[raviosprovidence]

I'm sure this is a struggle many writers can relate to so im just here to get my feelings out

So for background, I want to be a screenwriter. I've always been fascinated by stories blah blah blah you know the drill. When I was about 15/16, I created my own urban fantasy universe that i now dub the MTU (mythic telivised universe). Over the years, many stories within this universe came and went, and as of right now, I have 3 *solid, defined shows that are very fleshed out*. One story has been around for almost 7 years, one has been around for almost 5 years, and one has been around coming up on a year. Two of them have at least one spin offs that are developed as well.

Around the time of last year, I was wanting to do more. I realized i did not want to be beholden to this universe as my only way to tell stories. I needed more. Thus, started my journey to try and make something new.

My first attempt was a rewrite of hades/persephone, but in my own lore and actually making it make sense. I got pretty far into development, actually making a world and developing a fair few of plotlines. In the end, due to a lot of different things going on in my life, i ended up dropping it. After that, i created the last of my MTU main series, and sort of forgot about making something else.

Throughout the next few months, I cycled through many, many different universes outside the MTU. A story re-imagining hyrule. A pirates story. A story about 7 different chosen ones that was about finding yourself and your family. A story about mermaids (which some of y'all know as Current) that was gonna be about working together and rebuilding. A monster collector story critiquing the genre. A story about bird people trying to find peace in their land. There were probably many, many more nuggets that were dropped.

I eventually realized i had a problem. I had so many ideas that *could* be true fleshed out stories. But I couldn't commit no matter how hard I tried. And it was especially infuriating (and I'm sure funny) to my irl friends who i rambled to about these stories. I was so desperate to show I wasn't a one trick pony and that I absolutely could make something different, that I never sat down and actually, well, thought about the idea beyond a few weeks. It's incredibly frustrating to be known as a creative and be "too creative for your own good." Never settling on anything because you're always chasing after the high of starting something new. I was comparing myself to...well, myself. The past me who was in high school/college and had way more patience to actually sit down and develop something. For some reason, I felt like i was running out of time. As of right now, I am about to enter the last year of my educational career. And chances are, I probably won't go back to just Going To School ever again (if i do, i'll probably be working too). And yeah, maybe I do feel like i have something to prove. It's scary, going into the creative world up against so many other talented people. Against a career field that is failing its employees. Against literal robots who are trying to steal my job.

But i realize...I can't do anything about that. one day, I'll get some of my work out there. I'll just keep on creative and writing and excitedly telling my friends about my work. And as of right now, I actually made something outside the MTU that has a coherent storyline! And I'm proud of it!

If you guys want to ask me anything about my projects, past of pressent, or want to vent about creation. Go ahead. My asks are open. I'm here for y'all

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

With the theme of Sandman being "change" it also makes me pity Death, since, by her very nature, she cannot change in the way that Delirium, Dream, or Despair can: hell, being "death", she's actually the catalyst for change (the transition from one life to another), but it is an experience that will personally always be walled off for her until the end of the universe (and even that's up for debate, given destruction and delirium theory that she will outlast everybody). The scene from "Books of Magic" where she comes to take Destiny and she's still the perky goth we knew from her first appearance, even at the end of literally everything, always sends a chill down my spine, in a weird sort of "I must scream" sort of way, how she's eternally locked into her role with no hope of changing.

are the endless not all, in their own way, a catalyst for change? it's kind of a bleak view of the universe (and missing the point of change or die) if death is the only avenue for that - i'd argue that the main theme of sandman is to change you have to live

and death has changed

i haven't read books of magic, but i have read winter's tale (and high cost of living/time of your life), and she wasn't always the perky goth

she struggled a lot with her role, early on, she felt detached from people and extremely bitter about how everyone always feared her, when she couldn't help what she was

it's the issue that her speech to dream in the show was copying, but one thing the comic has that the show doesn't is she straight up stopped

there was a time where nothing died, because she refused to take them anymore

but then she came to realise that that was hurting people more than when she did her job. and that it's normal to feel fear when you're dying, so she needed to be friendly and kind to them, help them through that transition, rather than resent them for being afraid of her

and she resolved that every hundred years she'd spend one day in mortal form, so she could never forget their perspective

every time she has that day, she experiences the world differently, she learns, she changes

she keeps the personality we see her with because that's the one she's made for herself, the one best equipped to deal with the massive stress of her job, fluid enough to cope with those changes and not be broken by them

but the reason she tries so hard to get through to dream is she's the one endless who's been where he is and come out the other side of it, better for it

but dream couldn't quite manage that

i don't think you're totally wrong here, there is a level of horror to it, but i don't think death is unique in that - every single one of the endless is a vehicle for change, and thus they all struggle to do it themselves

i've talked about this before but like. that is the inherent tragedy of the endless. they live for so long, and few of them even see their own existence as living, rather than just fulfilling their purpose. all of them are either close to their breaking point or have already passed it (except maybe destiny but given how the other six all have Problems i'm assuming we just don't get to see most of his struggle). and it's because they don't really experience their own aspect, they can't, because they are that thing. they're all missing a vital piece of being human. and death's one of maybe three (delirium and destruction) who've realised that the way to cope with that is to be more human, to live, and therefore change

(the reason she didn't leave like destruction did is she found a way to be human and do her job, and so far she's the only one who's been able to do both)

(but yeah when one sibling had to leave the family in order to change and another had to die because he just couldn't see how to - death's one of the more emotionally healthy people in this family)

[marshmallowloves]

Zelda OC #1 - Kamia + Serachiiya

>> (list of posts for other OCs)

I was never into Zelda much as a child, despite owning both Oracle games as well as LttP+FSA (but not playing the latter as much since I had no friends with which to play kdjfhg). But during sixth grade (around 2008), my friend showed me her drawings of a character she made for the series - a silver dragon who was created to be a guardian for Link - as well as a series of silly random stick-figure comics about the Triforce trio she drew in her notebook. She told me about the games she owned, and related to my minimal knowledge that I only obtained via old flash animations and playing Smash Bros Melee. I knew Zelda and Link were the good guys, Zelda and Sheik were the same person, and Ganondorf was evil, but that was about all I knew.

And so I was like “wow, I wanna get in on this!” So I started drawing little comics too, and eventually came up with a character of my own. The idea for this character came purely from watching the aforementioned flash animations, one of which featured Saria. I had no idea who she was, but she was cute and green and that was enough for me to look up pics of her and draw my inspiration from there. And thus, Kamia and her fairy Serachiiya were born.

(cringe placed under the cut for your safety)

Kamia was Discount Saria. Actually, maybe more like Bad Bootleg Saria. Her name was Saria’s but with two letters changed. Her outfit was almost identical to other Kokiri girls’ (though I never specified what race she was). She had her own fairy with a name that is so ungodly Japanese-sounding but is absolutely not Japanese. And because I was an 11-year-old in 2008, which meant I was not anywhere near as well-read and oddly mature as some 11-year-olds I've seen today are, Kamia had zero characterization and her only personality trait was "nice and polite, until you piss her off." Which is true of many preteens' OCs across just about every fandom. Very cookie-cutter.

Serachiiya, on the other hand, was a bitch. That's it. Her personality was laced with sarcasm, a short fuse, and the worst cuss word I could get away with at 11 (hell). I think the main reason I made her was to give Kamia a problem to continuously interact with, which is usually not a good reason to create a character kskjdfg. In fact, in this comic, Kamia reacts to one of Serachiiya's nasty quips by... throwing a rock at her. Because when you have a fairy whose canonical job is to protect you, your first instinct should always be to physically assault them when they are sassy. (To be fair, I did not know that fairies were guardians in canon. I only saw them as like... funny little friends. and you're totally allowed to have funny little friends throw stuff at each other for comedic effect.)

In addition, because I knew nothing of the series proper, any time I had these two interact with canon characters, they were naturally incredibly OOC. The person who says "Excuse me!" in this image right here is actually Princess Zelda herself, but because I am incredibly ashamed of how poorly I butchered her appearance (and character) in this comic, I will spare your eyes and not show her. Zelda, for some reason, asks the two of them for "directions to Hyrule." You know. The entire country that they're in already. That Zelda literally runs. Because that makes sense. (And I know exactly why I wrote that, too - at the time, Hyrule was the only location in the Zeldaverse that I knew by name, so I used it liberally 😂)

Surprisingly, I did not ship her with Link like any OOT-era fangirl would do. I did think he was cute, but I don't ever remember having plans for her and Link to interact. Even more surprisingly, this comic is literally the only thing I have in my possession that shows Kamia and Serachiiya when I originally made them. I've redrawn them several times since then, both for nostalgia purposes and to show how bland and bad they were as characters. But 11-year-old Marshy, as far as I know, did not write or draw anything else about these two beyond this singular comic. I wish she did, because I would have loved more adorable and cringe material, but alas, that's all she wrote.

Despite never coloring the two of them, nor drawing Kamia below the waist, I do very much remember what the clothes and colors were in my head - and given who she's ripped off of, I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

And there you have it! Baby Marshy's first two Zelda OCs (who I count as one kdfjhg)

(Fun fact! That comic was drawn in the notebook that was sold with the FLY pentop computer! Does anyone even remember those?!)

[nnon-but-cwnancydrew]

Tell me about the 5 things that make you happy and then ask the same thing to at least 10 people who have reblogged your posts before!

Thank you for the ask!

Alright here we go (in no particular order)

1) FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT! My mom is pretty much always busy with her job and my sister is always chasing the latest c-dramas so when we have the time to sit down and watch a movie without any outside distractions? Best feeling ever. (Also I don't trust them and always confiscate their phones.)

Close second and it's related to family so I'll just put it here. On most Saturdays my mother's younger brother and his family will come back for dinner and I always love interacting with my cousins. Especially my younger cousin brother! He's 9 and a total Rockhead he always used to bang his head against the rest of ours and giggle himself mad while we groan in pain. My sister and my cousin sister are closer both in age and relationship and it's always so funny to see them interacting bc they're the personification of this image:

(I don't watch The Simpsons btw so if this image has an underlying meaning I don't know it)

2) Validation. This comes in many forms. When I cook dinner on Sundays, when I fix a problem for my technological stumped older relatives or even a single like and reblog from Tumblr users. Ma'am your asks literally made my day I don't usually get asks

3) Singing! Music in general honestly. I hear a new song that I like and my soul is healed for that brief moment in time. Some of my earliest memories involve music. And my father. My father loved music. He taught me how to ride a bike with the Beatles' Let it Be playing in the background. We celebrated my first birthday at a hotel and the live band sang Happy Birthday to me. My mom still has the video and photos.

I'm in a choir and my teacher always chooses amazing SATB pieces. And while I might groan and moan over learning those old songs (mostly cus I don't learn any musical instruments and thus have the best worst knowledge of key signatures a person whose been learning scores since she was 10 could possibly have), those end results are always amazing and I never miss a performance if I can help it.

Side note I joined my current choir company bc my school choir kicked me out for being too hyperactive. Thanks guys

However, the silver lining is that I've made so many friends for life and I know for a fact that my current choir has offered me so much more than my school choir possibly could. For example, I've never flown in an airplane until we went to Hong Kong to compete in its International Music Competition (we won gold btw) and I've been to Kuching to perform for a weekend music festival.

Ahem. I got sidetracked

4) Books! Been escaping reality via those funky words engraved on dead trees circa 2009 baby! (Literally still remember the first novel I read. The Mystery of the Disappearing Cat by Enid Blyton. I didn't read the first book of the series until I was 15 bc the Mystery of the Disappearing Cat was my mom's and she had every single book in the series except for the first one.)

5) Creating in general. Mayhem. Confusion. Dinner. Sometimes I switch things up and stir all 3 together and serve them in a pot.

Okay seriously I love putting things together. IKEA furniture. Powerpoints. Meals. Puzzles. Young me would tire of the same old picture and put the puzzle together backward, with the picture lying on the table surface and a blank slate for me to piece together. (I think that's partly why you'll hardly see me write a fic here. I'm more for analyzing the details than anything.)

Probably gonna pursue a career in interior designing but I also said that about singing, a theatre career, and who knows what else so we'll see

Tagging: @voidsteffy @platanchorsociety @acenancy @the-magnificunt @bess-turani-marvin @sargentsblu @acehardy @naancypants @nancydrew428 @naceistruelove

(I really hope I didn't tag someone's main blog and side blog)

[shinahbee]

November Favorites 2020!

 Hello!

So as you may have seen I have been uploading a bunch of art all of November, not every week because of my crippling job at the moment taking away my sanity.lol. But i did try my best to update whenever I can. I do have so much more to complete so please look out this December for more digital art being pumped out

How are you all doing?  I'm holding up decently, I'm trying to avoid talking about covid since that's all i've been hearing from work and home and it's really making me anxious since i'm not able to work from home due to the nature of my job. I hope you all are holding up hope and taking care of your selves, let's all remember that there is a time after this and we will get through this.

with that being said I will have a lot more time to spend on my art after January since my work term is going to end and I don't plan to stay for an extension, so maybe then I'll catch up on all of my previous art that I was supposed to upload, a.k.a my hero academia ones.lol

also I'm still chugging along reading more manhwa (web toons ) from korean and chinese artists, i'm so disappointed in myself for not discovering these sooner, these stories are really good and so much effort was put into the art panels, as I have said all I've read was manga so i'm used to just seeing black and white panels, so i never really dove into web toons though I have appreciated the work put into it, now that I'm down the rabbit hole I am discovering really good story lines that are different from the manga I've read thus far and I'm really enjoying it!

so i'm excited to share my thoughts on everything I've been liking

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                           Manhwa/Manga/Webtoon

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so previously in last months recommendations I have talked about a few of the manhwa I've been reading so I'll briefly list those below since they are all still ongoing

1) who's baby is it

2) to be or no to be

3) social temperature

4) salad days

all of them are still ongoing and i'm still in the process of reading them so I can't give a full review till it's completed but so far I am still enjoying them, that's definitely a good sign since i tend to just drop something after I don''t find it interesting anymore at some point in the story. If you have not read my October favorites journal please do so for my initial thoughts on these manhwas. Now i'm actually going to talk about some of the ones that are completed   , so you can definitely read all of them without waiting for the an update from translators, lol

this is in no particular order, just fyi

1) Path to you

"When almost college dropout Jensen attempts to drink away his problems, unemployed Nathaniel( Neil ) suddenly pukes on him and ruins his night. As an apology, Nathaniel offers to help Jensen with his studies. Despite Jensen's difficulties in getting along with people, the two become friends and something deeper begins to grow between them...”

this is the summary from one of the manga websites I was able to find, it does not even describes the emotional plot line that goes along with this later, this is ones of my absolute favorites! I love this manhwa so much, its a great depiction of a coming of age story for collage students going through their life journey and slowly getting though life's difficulties  and challenges, one character is going though emotional trauma and trying to over come it for years and another character is going through anti social disorder and discovering his sexuality, it's a plot line that portrayed human aspects in life quite well. I love the relationship between the two main character and how their relationship developed over time from being friends to being a couple. there is a lot of relationship building and minimal drama, which is really refreshing from mangas that I've read, so if you are just starting to delve into BL webtoons, please read this first! you will not be disappointed

with that being said, I love Neil, so much.... you don't even know. lol. He's so precious, literally like an actual cinnamon roll. LOL. i'm exposing myself ...so i'll leave it at that, i’m also wondering why his name is neil instead of nathan or nate...? lol.

2) Here U Are

"Orientation of  the newcomers is a task for YuYang, and he ends up helping the unsociable and towering LiHuan, the kind of person that does everything to be disliked. But after better knowing each other, he discovers that the giant isn’t that bad of a person at all...”

I really wish I could find better summaries, lol. but it's to the point without giving away too much so i'll take it. This is one of the most popular series and I can totally see why after reading it, this story has every possible human aspect and relationship building  between the two main leads, I actually teared in some parts of this manhwa and I've never done that before! such a good story and plot line, if I were to pick any series in a web toon to be animated then I would choose this series hands down. There's also sub plots between different characters as well and how they deal with their interpersonal relationships and relationships between the two main leads, I love it! This is everything I want in a story, so please check this one out

also yuyang looks a lot like miyuki Kazuya from Daiya no ace and that just made me drawn to him.I really liked his personality and in the manhwa he has girls and guys in love with him and dude...I get it.

3) BJ Alex

"Every night at 10, Dong-gyun locks himself up in his room, grabs a box of tissues, and watches a live cam boy show hosted by Alex, a BJ (broadcast jockey). Timid Dong-gyun admires not only Alex’s ripped body, but his candor in sharing his sexual experiences with viewers. One night, Dong-gyun downs too many drinks at a school networking event and passes out. When he wakes up, he’s in bed staring up at a shirtless hunk. A hunk who looks an awful lot like...Alex.”

so um...this is more yaoi than shounen ai cause of all the graphic scenes in the manhwa, if you are veteran you may have already read this one cause its really popular. It also has a lot of comedic elements to it too so it's not too serious, but the relationship developed between the two characters later on is really sweet despite the infinite amount of sex scenes. Not much else to say about this story, it's easy to follow and the only abuse in here is the emotional kind

I'm not really entirely sure how i felt about it in the beginning but the end is really good

4) No way, vampires don't exist

"Four college housemates — Juwon, Eunho, Seongjae, and Gyumin — are in desperate need of a fifth person to fill a vacant room in their place. But their main concern isn’t about paying rent: they’re ravenous vampires, dying to sink their teeth into a fresh, live human! So they can’t believe their luck when Dongha, who grew up isolated from society, eagerly moves in with no idea of what awaits him. To the vampires’ dismay, however, Dongha doesn’t weigh enough for them to suck his blood! As they shower their unsuspecting new housemate with food and attention to fatten him up, have they gotten too attached to their would-be prey? And is there more to sweet, naive Dongha than meets the hungry vampires’ eyes?”

I have to preface by saying that ever since my twilight phase, I didn't consume anything that had to do with vampires for a very long time, for obvious reasons, but this one I just came across after reading path to you and thought I would at least check it out. It started off really comedic and I was like...what am i reading?  but it gets really light hearted and wholesome later on in the story. What I like about this is the character juwon, If you look at him he's that type of character that would look like the stoic a-hole of the story and those characters never appeal to me. But turns out he's the sweetest person most decent person of this story, it makes you want to route for him  and another thing I like about this story is that it looks like a harem but you can tell that there’s only one person the main character doungha treats differently from the rest and how the two are compatible with one another.  in these kind of stories, it’s always treated as every character is a possible route that leads to their own story but in here....there's only one...let's be real. This is one that is an odd ball cause it's technically completed but the translations are not...so i had to read the rest in korean, which makes it a good practice for me since i'm learning korean at the moment, it’s a good exercise...lol

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                             Anime/ Drama

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Not going to lie this department is lacking...lol. I have only been watching Heavens official blessing as mentioned in the last journal

but I have just found out that there is a remake of Shaman king in the making....and my little girl heart is screaming cause I loved shaman king when i was younger...so I can't wait for that

as for dramas, I've tried watching Start Up but I didn't like it so I dropped it, I might try watching crash landing on you since my best friend was obsessed with it, I watched a little of it but I left it since I was busy so i may get back to watching it from the beginning

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                             Music

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i'll put together a play list for you when you read these manga/manhwa...lol. cause that's what i've been doing

Playlist

Crush- No words

Sam kim - Breathe

Crush - let us go

Kim feel - falling

Paul kim - Dream

Kim feel - Hallelujah

Davichi - please don't cry

Yoo mirae - say

taeyeon - a poem called you

baek yerin- Here I am again

I wish tumblr has a way to play music on your page, without copy right..lol. I would share all of these songs cause they are so good

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so that's it for the month of November, lets' see what i get up to for December, I will be updating as frequently as possible so please look out for more art from me and follow me on my social media , I will see you all next time

bye!

Sheena

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     Social media      

Devianatart: she-be.deviantart.com

Instagram: shinb_art

Tumblr: shinahbee

[pamiedrawnic-acid]

Re:Zero Review

Borrowed photo

Ola! It's been a while since I made a review and I think this is the 4th time that I'll be reviewing an anime. Oh well, me reviewing something means this show is really amazing cause I got a lot of beautiful things to say about it. Yes, I only want to review things I've found beautiful because it's really not in my nature to rant about something since it's really tiring and I hate negative thoughts! 😆

Well, let's get down to the business, first things first, what's with Re:zero?

Re:zero or starting life in another world is what exactly the title tells us about. It's a story of a typical shut in guy who suddenly got into another world, with this story a game-like world, set in a medieval era, where magics were not a very unusual thing and where humans and humanoids live together. Fortunately, our protagonist, Subaru, was very fond of playing games so he had already an idea on how to start or how to literally "play the game." Such a generic story isn't it? It's supposed to be but it's actually not.

Normally, in such stories, the protagonist is supposed to have an unknown ability that will only be released when the situation calls for it. Most of the time it would later on revealed that the protagonist in an important part of the world, either a part of the royal blood, a saviour, a god etc. Also in some stories, there would even have a character who would appear in front of the protagonist and explain whatever is happening. Likewise with how Subaru expected it, I was also expecting for the same thing. However, what happened was really unexpected.

[SPOILERS ALERT] He died but then he was reset to his last save point; literally like a game. The difference was, he would not know where or when was his save point unless he would die and be reset. Also, this ability of him do not allow him to have any choice. Once he died, he would automatically go back and complete his mission, which he still needed to figure out. The only rule is that, he would die over and over unless he could solve the mystery or found the "happy ending." Thus, "quitting" was not an option.

At first I thought that it was such a very convenient ability. At least you'll have another chance, not just once but as many as you want until you find the happy ending. But as I moved to each episodes and as the story goes deeper I've realized that NO it's not very convenient.

Subaru can reset from death thus, if there was something not good happening with his life, with his friends or even with the kingdom, which would result to their deaths, then he was the only one who could change it. Imagine the pressure and the burden that he was carrying?!

Subaru did not have any choice but to go over and over into an ugly situation not until he could find the solution

Have you tried solving a math problem that needed you to go over from the scratch because you know somehere in between you made a mistake but can't find it so you have to do it again? Or a science experiment that ended in a bad result so you need to go back to procedure 1? A project, a drawing, or anything~ anything that you were doing but did not go well so you have no other choice but to do it again, over and over, not to mention that your only option was to finish it. Frustrating isn't it? Imagine how frustrated, irritated, desperate and tired Subaru was? Not to mention all the time he needed to go back just to witness the death/s of the people around him.

Lastly, [SPOILERS ALERT] Subaru's ability was actually a cursed from some witch, which he couldn't tell to anyone because everytime he tried to, the witch would squeezed his heart to the point that he could almost die. Out of desperation, he actually tried to tell it to someone but that someone died. Imagine how difficult it was for Subaru to face everything alone? No one could understand him not because he didn't want them to but because he COULDN'T. (cursed that witch I definitely wanted to tear her apart! 👹)

I've read a lot of comments from somewhere on how people disliked Subaru because he was a helpless, hopeless, useless boy. Because he did not have any special power or because he was weak. Well, after all he had been through, is he still useless?

Yes, he showed us the time when he almost quit even resorting into running away because he had failed so many times and thought that there was no other choice but to leave. He showed us his frustrations, desperations, helplesness and weaknesses, that he actually admitted and you hated. Well, on the other side of the note, I commend the writer for doing a great job because I believed that, that really what he wanted you to feel. Congratulations! You've been his victim! 🙊 Going back, Subaru really became a hateful character those times but if you are going to watch the anime and try to put your feet into Subaru's you will understand me or perhaps him.

He was disheartened for who knows how many times. He was fighting all by himself. Despite of having his friends and allies who supported him with his actions and especially to those who gave him courage and moral supports, no one really knows what he was going through. He was all ALONE. But still at the end of the day he would always proved to us how strong he was; mentally and emotionally, and that, stories only ends once you've reached the happy ending so life's goes on until you became happy! Quitting was never an option!

The only downside I've seen with him is that [MAJOR SPOILER] when he did not choose Rem despite of all the things she had done for him and even asked her to help her save Emilia, the woman he trully love. He was such a cruel man, a fact that actually Rem accepted and even told him outloud which he actually agreed with. However, despite of that, I still believed that he only showed how faithful he was to the woman he love. For me he was a man of word who knows how to fulfill his promises.

I'm sorry for defending Subaru so much but I really like how his character was made in this story. Everything, including his downsides, just fell rightly into the plot and that was something you wouldn't find mostly in the animes now a days. Another thing is that, I really liked how he could accept his own flaws but would still do something to compensate with it and not to be a burden to all the powerful people around him. He was the weakest but he was also the embodiment of willpower and unending hope which made him the strongest!

Story wise, as I've said, it was a very typical but was also different at the same time. It actually gave me the feeling that it was something that I've seen before but actually I haven't. I think it's because of how the story was narrated by using the main character. The writer was actually succesful in making me experience what the main character is going through, as if I am Subaru himself. Both of us learned things about the realm at the same time. Both of us believed that some things will happen, like on a typical story, but then will hit us the least that we have expected, as if both Subaru and I were played by fate. For example is what I have said from above, when Subaru first arrived on the kingdom and he thought that since he was summoned in a different world he would definitely have a super power, which made me believed also, but he actually never had. He also remained as an outsider, someone who do not hold so much of a power, a weak human with no special fighting ability except for his naturally strong body and an incredible amount of willpower. He was not revealed as a saviour but he made himself as the saviour of the kingdom. In the end, his journey to the other world actually made him a better man; wiser and stronger mentally and emotionally.

Overall, this story was very unique on its own way. Every seconds of each 25 episodes was worth watching as you wouldn't want to missed any sudden heart attack moments and important information that will be necessary for the future. It was actually a dark story that gets a little bit of depressing but would lighten up in the end. It's a complete pack of action, drama, suspense, mystery, romance and comedy with a bonus of life lessons and words of encouragement. YOU DON'T QUIT, YOU ONLY CHANGE YOUR PLAN and STORIES ALWAYS ENDS WITH HAPPY ENDING; It's not yet the end if it's not happy.

I can actually give this series a 10/10 score if not because of the hanging questions they left after the last episode. I hope this would be answered on the next season (if there will be!). I've heard that there will be an OVA but I don't think it will be enough to tackle everything and give the story a solid conclusion. This is the kind of anime that worth having more season! Anyway whether they'll decide to give it a season 2 or not I will still recognize this anime as one of the best I've watch for being unique and unpredictable as well as for having a well constructed story and characters.

Rating: 9/10 - highly recommended