#nimona is just so important to me and the world

[mayhasopinions]

this line fucking hit. but it's true.

queer people for years, centuries, have been oppressed for being their most authentic selves, by the people who call themselves heroes and us the monsters, even nowadays with the most recent law for allowing discrimination against queer people in America. They call themselves the good guys, the saviours, the ones completely in the right and justified for hating against people just trying to live their lives. And apparently we're supposed to be the bad guys in this story.

i'm so glad that this movie came out when it did, the world really needs it.

[ech-e-sketch]

NIMONA ‼️‼️

[crazypossumman]

There is something incredibly charming about the bitchy-older-man-who-hates-kids-develops-a-meaningful-healthy-relationship-with-a-parentless-child trope. Especially in a world where nearly every movie/novel/whatever has to have a romantic plot/subplot when there are a plethora of other options. It’s a trope that carries great weights of love, caring, and understanding without being romantic; it expresses a different kind of love that is equally important in this world. To open your heart to a child and become the friend or parental figure they not only need but deserve is such a beautiful thing, and to watch a child help an adult learn something new about the world and the way they see it is a constant reminder that people will always have room to grow and change. To see an adult learn as much from a child as the child learns from them, sometimes even more so, is the reminder that so many people need that wisdom often comes in the form of a fresh perspective.

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

please tell me this manga/comic/show exists i do not wanna have to make it

okok I've posted about this before but I'm watching animation content on youtube again while getting work done and by GOD I WANNA TALK ABOUT THIS AGAIN

There's a specific concept I want to consume as content/art so badly but it came to me in a stupid dream. BUT. Sometimes, a dream means I DID see a hint of it somewhere and my brain accidentally plagiarized it which provides me with the teensiest sliver of hope that exists already and I don't have to work on it

It's a kind of a reverse isekai, right? But instead of an instant portal, it's time passing. And what I mean by that is that it's a Sun Wukong story, but the branch off is that after the main events of Journey to the West he gets either water temple'd or trapped in magic sleep again, not for a few hundred years but a few THOUSAND.

He wakes up to an incredibly far-flung China that remembers his myth and only his myth.

The art style that operated in this dream was sort of. Textured but 3D? Think nimona's buttery lighting but instead of emphasis on light and shapes to operate with the stained glass and solarpunk-medieval style the models are textured in a way that just invokes traditional brushwork and colour bleed even in a more cyberpunkish setting. Think like. Whenever there's a night scene the astigmatism glow of lamplight bleeds a little, like ink feathering on paper.

It's a little bit of a Steve Rogers treatment in a way, the world has moved past him, but also completely mythologized and capitalized on that mythology. Rather than treat that man out of time narrative as an aspect of backstory, it's the MAIN character narrative, because this ISN'T a world that needs him. This world is doing pretty okay, actually.

This a story about him.

Not about his feats or how cool his powers are or the 8 gajillion things the magic staff can do but just.

How ya doing, bud?

From the vaguely coherent notes that I could garner from my sleepily typed googledoc, it seems that I wanted this to be a love letter of sorts to the Asian diaspora experience? A specific sort of loneliness? Where the world you experience has a sort of disconnect in that it makes plain you belong there but you also don't, you never have, and there's no way to go "back" but going forward feels like groping blind through the muck. How much right to the past does he feel like he has? When it's been built into something he can't recognize and is clearly important to other people.

I want the pickup of the plot to gain him friends, family, maybe even a conflict or two but the stakes should never elevate vis a vis physical enemies to battle.

It'd be about 2/3 of this sort of narrative drawn story and the other 1/3 just hogwild worldbuilding and design

I've looked at a few other journey to the west adaptations but they mainly just use him as a funky lil action figure hero that's there to be cool as hell and save the day

99% likely this is just a thing my brain is made up and I'd need a several million budget and about 25 additional skills to start the ball rolling but hey, worth it to ask yall again

[kookygobbledygook]

Some people have been saying this, but I don't think it's been said enough and I'm just going to add my voice to the mix.

Nimona's nomination is being framed as an example of "Look at what Disney missed out on!" and I get it. It's a nice, tasty schadenfreude situation and we all like to see The Mouse get taken down a peg.

But I think we need to be very clear; Disney did not miss out on anything because they were never going to take that sort of risk.

Disney was never going to release anything close to the Nimona we got. It would have been sanded down until anything obviously queer or controversial was as faint and unnoticeable as possible by the casual viewer. And then they would still be too scared of any potential backlash. So they would have given the film a limited release at theatres, with no advertising, or social media or support.

Like what happened with Strange World.

You remember Strange World, right?

No?

That's because no one does.

And I believe that was deliberate, because that way Disney can go "Weeellll... obviously we would LOVEto take more risks and have more inclusive stories but that's clearly not what the public wants!"

Look at the original concepts for Wish. The evil royal couple? The peter-panesque star boy that would have made the gen zers go feral the same way millenials went feral for Jack Frost? These could have been the best things about the movie, and even they were scrapped, and replaced with something more homogenised. And those ideas are nowhere near the level of the concepts and discussions Nimona brought to the table.

Disney can barely have explicit gay people. Nimona has a gay south Asian man in a relationship with an east Asian man. As a protagonist! But more than that, you think Disney could ever come up with a relationship as complicated and difficult as Boldheart and Goldenloin's? They would never have the guts to show one love interest cutting off the other's arm in a straight relationship. Let alone a gay one! And then for them to be on opposite sides of the conflict, shifting between feelings of betrayal, and questioning each other motives? That's some adult dark shit for a kids film.

Asha as a character was forced into the quirky girl role that Disney has already flogged to death with Anna and Rapunzel. You ever think they would allow a Disney princess to be as dark and violent and nuanced as Nimona? You ever picture the titial character of a Disney film AS the third act conflict, rampaging through a city in a self destructive rage? Nimona is anti authoritarian, vengeful, bloodthirsty, a pretty explicit trans allegory, and even, by the climax, openly suicidal. You KNOW that terrified Disney.

I had a thing about the Director here too but I was shocked by how long that got so I'll have to save her for a different post.

My point is the things that make Nimona art, that make Nimona a great story, that make the film important and Oscar worthy, are all things that Disney has become too chicken shit to produce. If Disney had released a film called Nimona it wouldn't have been Nimona. I fully believe that if the film hadn't had been 90% finished it wouldn't have been shelved. It would have been lobotomised and vivisected. Everything special and vital about the movie and its message would have been removed, and no one would have known what could have been. Once again we would have gotten scraps and been thankful for them.

It makes me think about films like Wish (and others we don't know the name of, and never will) and think of what they could have been if studio's like Disney were braver and let their artists make art, instead of content.

tl;dr Disney didn't miss out on Nimona because they are incapable of making Nimona. If they had produced it the real Nimona wouldn't exist. We didn't miss out on Nimona. And that's purely by luck.

[cosmicbucket]

hey hi. about nimona. yes it's 100% about being trans. but as a nonbinary autistic person? this movie was really touching in ways I didn't even realise were possible.

the entire train scene actually killed me.

"Can you please just be normal for a second? I just think it’d be ... easier if you look human."

"Easier for who?"

"For you. A lot of people aren’t as accepting as me."

then, when Ballister asks what shapeshifting feels like - if it hurts - the way Nimona responds hits very close to home on my experience with stimming.

"Honestly? I feel worse when I don’t do it. Like my insides are itchy. You know that second right before you sneeze? That’s close to it. Then I shapeshift, and I’m free."

And then. "What if you held it in?"

"... I just... sure wouldn’t be living."

not to mention in the original comic, Nimona's parents believe that she's something synonymous to a changeling - that she's something that replaced their "real child". this myth was likely born as an "explanation" for neurodivergent or developmentally disabled children. the townsfolk talk about her getting "better" in the comic. as if there's a cure for the way she is. which is something autistic people deal with all the fucking time.

to end on a more lighthearted note, "I'm not a girl. I'm a shark." was so real of Nimona. I'm so happy they kept that in from the comic, because it was real when I was younger and it's even more real to me now.

this story is a trans allegory loud and proud. I do not want to discredit that with this post. but this story also makes me, an autistic person, feel seen. and that's so fucking important in today's world.

I love this movie to pieces. Please go watch it, and remember to be kind. You will change someone's life for the better.

[calliecwrites]

Shifter HRT, part 1 – Egg, Cracked

So you want to be a shifter? You’ve read about humanity replacement therapy, or species HRT, but can’t find anything about the shifter version? You’re scared, you’re worried this isn’t the path for you, but part of you wants it more than anything?

You’re not alone. I’ve been there. I’m still there. And I’ve taken the first steps. Tomorrow I have my first appointment, though not with a doctor, and if all goes well, by this time tomorrow, I’ll have taken my first dose.

I’m writing this so you’ll have it easier than I did. Also, I want there to be a record, in case something happens to me. I’m not exactly doing this the traditional way.

* * *

I’ve known what I wanted to be since I knew shifters existed. Everything I heard about them – being fluid, shapeshifting – felt right. I started imagining myself as one. If you’re reading this, you probably know how that feels.

I hid it. Even as a kid, I knew people wouldn’t react well to what went on in my head. You’re not supposed to relate to monsters.

Then things got complicated when I realised I was trans. I told myself that wanting to be a shifter was all about wanting to fix my body, since being able to shapeshift would make that easy. I certainly did want that – but I’d imagined myself as a shifter since long before then. I’d imagined being able to change myself in many other ways, before transition became the most important thing. And after transition, so much was better, but that longing didn’t go away.

This isn’t a contradiction. Fixing one thing, even the most urgent thing, like I did, doesn’t automatically fix everything. But I was in denial. I’d transitioned (once); everything was supposed to be fine, now. I told myself the rest was a fantasy.

Then I heard about species HRT. I read about someone becoming a slime – and that did something to me. Slimes are fluid, and so are shifters. Shifters are slime-adjacent, for sure. Maybe this wasn’t just a fantasy. Maybe it could be real.

I’m not in denial anymore. Egg cracked. Time to transition again.

* * *

Were there signs? Oh yes, there were signs.

Nimona. Mystique. Slime girls. The Changelings. And when a character says no solid could ever understand, feeling it like a punch to the gut. Wanting to understand.

Wanting to fly, wanting to swim. Wondering what it’s like to be huge, or tiny, or a tree, or a rock. Wanting to be everything. Fluidity. Freedom. Flowing and pooling, wanting to be a blob of goo with no form at all.

Learning to phantom-sense extra limbs. Being a shifter in daydreams. Learning to lucid dream so I could learn to shapeshift in there. Still being sad because it could only ever be an approximation.

Sitting by the lake, longing to merge with the water and lose myself for a while. Wishing it wasn’t water, but other shifters, welcoming.

Sometimes want isn’t the word at all, but need.

And there are people who can actually do these things, and I can’t? How is that fair? What sort of world has shifters in it and I’m not one?

Sound familiar?

I read everything I can find about them. Not stories written by humans – those aren’t accurate. Most are just sex, or all about fear and hunger and absorption. Shifters don’t absorb people! – it’s their biggest taboo. I read stories shifters write for themselves – and I can’t get enough. Just don’t look in the comments: you’ve got humans calling them monsters, telling them what they should go do to themselves – and a few brave shifters saying how much the stories mean to them. Sometimes the stories disappear, but they always come back.

‘Fluid as the ocean, wild as the wind, and cannot be contained.’ That’s a thing they say about themselves. That should be me.

I don’t comment, don’t interact – hiding, remember? But the stories mean so much to me, too. They’re a window onto how my life could be. I tried to tell myself this was just a sex thing for a while – more denial. There are plenty other stories I could read, if that was all I wanted. But that isn’t what I imagine when I imagine shifters, or even shifter sex. I imagine being one.

Haters would call me a traitor to my own species. They’d call me sick, mentally ill, monsterfucker, monster. Like I haven’t heard all that before for being trans. I want to tell them I’m nothing like them, that they can keep their precious humanity if this is what it looks like – but I don’t dare. I’m too afraid: what if they’re right? I know what I want to be, I know what I should be, but I look at my body and think: this is what I am, fixed, solid, human. I can’t do anything about it, no matter what I am on the inside, no matter how much I hate it. And this is familiar, too – I felt the same way before my first transition. Trapped as something I hated being. Powerless.

* * *

Except, now, there is something I can do about it.

No doctors prescribe shifter HRT – unlike for other species. The only source is the few shifters who figured out how to make it. They keep it tightly controlled, so they can control who gets it. They want to make sure we meet their standards – that we’re shifter enough. I don’t like that. But other people, who want to make it freely available, haven’t figured out how to make it yet.

I’m not waiting for them, not now that I’ve decided. I couldn’t. I could die – accidents happen, after all. How would I feel, knowing I was dying human, still wondering what it would have been like? Never really having been me? No. I’m not waiting.

So I got in touch, and I spoke to one of them online. She arranged the appointment, and now she’s flying in – and I’m pretty sure that means as a bird, not on a plane. All I have to do is convince her. Tomorrow determines everything. If it goes well, I’ll be starting right away.

I still can’t quite believe it. It feels too good to be true. But it is. It really is. It was the same before – I couldn’t believe anything would change till I took my first dose of estrogen. Sometimes reason isn’t enough, planning isn’t enough, sometimes it takes direct contradiction to break the hold a belief like that can have on me. I’ll never take hormones, meet I am now taking hormones. Suddenly I see I was wrong, and there is hope again.

And tomorrow it’s going to happen again. Hopefully. Finally.

And then I really won’t be human.

Next

I'm doing one of these now too! Inspired by the many other animal HRT stories, especially the two slime HRT series by @sandyca5tle and @scrubbinn. In the beginning it's drawing a lot on my own transition, but will be going very different places.

If you want to read more without waiting for the rest of the series, take a look at my other stories – shifters turn up in lots of them.

Oh and that list of signs? They're all real :)

Tag list (tell me if you want to be added):

@leahnardo-da-veggie @sandyca5tle @scrubbinn

[thefrogsthewaterturnedgay]

When I was around eight or nine my dad gave me a book.

In it, there was a gender non-conforming character but I didn’t know that yet. I just knew that I loved that little monster girl, and I wanted to be her so so bad. I wanted to shapeshift, and be in a medieval world that had cool tech, and have bright pink hair and everything. I loved her.

There were two other people in that book too, two guys. And though it was never said, I knew those two were in love. I was so rooting for them to get together, to accept that they loved one another. I remember being so happy that it was implied they were in love.

I don’t know how many times I reread that book.

That book was Nimona.

Recently I watched the movie version as a queer person and I refelt all those same emotions as I had the first time I read that book.

The chaos, the sadness, the love, and the comedy.

I saw the kid I was in Nimona. Younger me being obsessed with chaos and violence and fire. Just a chaotic mass in a little kids body.

I saw my friends in Ballister and Ambrosius. I saw part of myself in them too.

I can imagine how eight year old me, having read Nimona, would react seeing that movie.

Seeing two guys kiss on screen for the first time.

This movie was a relive of my childhood and it was the sweetest one I’ve had in a while.

Movies and books like this are so important for young queer people, and just people in general.

I love Nimona, she was instrumental in who I am as a person and who I was as a kid.

So to the director, the actors, to ND Stevenson and everyone who worked on this movie, thank you so much for this. It was more than I could ever ask for in a movie version of Nimona.

And I do love a happy ending so thanks for that too.

(Sorry about the whole speech but it just meant a lot to me.)

[tossawary]

I think SVSSS as a 2D cartoon would be the best moving medium for it imo.

I mean, personally, yeah, that's how I'd enjoy seeing it as well! My ideal slightly pretentiously artsy SVSSS screen adaptation would probably look only a little more detailed than linograph prints (2D or shaded 3D?) (someone hit me up in like two weeks to draw an example of what I mean, if I don't remember on my own, I don't have access to art stuff right now), very stylized and vibrantly colorful, because that's one of the art styles that I particularly enjoy.

I'm not a personally a fan of the 3D SVSSS show because I find the characters a little too doll-like and same-facey for my tastes? It's fine! It works! It's serviceable! It's just all, backgrounds included, a little... safe? I tend to like over-the-top bright colors and intricate details and impractically weird shapes and yet also coherent world production design in my fantasy, which is a lot to demand of any production, perhaps especially with animation productions, which are always squeezed for time and money.

(EDIT: I know the SVSSS show was under heavy constraints and the results are impressive considering their resources; it doesn't change the fact that I just don't like the art style and nevertheless find the results underwhelming. I don't like a lot of "realistic" modeling / rendering styles, not just "anime" ones, even if they are extremely technically impressive. Believe me when I say that I know the vast majority of the entertainment industry is overworked and underpaid and creatively restrained.)

Slightly tangential general note: I don't think 2D is inherently superior to 3D (EDIT: NOT trying to imply asker is saying this, just having some general thoughts), especially because, with the realities of production, each have their advantages. 2D has a lot of stylistic advantages still, but 3D shaders are catching up and doing some incredible things these days! More advanced puppet controls and particle effects and such are doing some beautiful things for 2D shows as well these days. A lot of stuff has been subtly mixed media as soon as 3D became possible. It is potentially possible (note: not saying any studio would actually greenlight this) to do an equally slightly weird and artistically stunning 3D SVSSS show, given the freedom to work. (Good boarding and writing is also sooooo important in both mediums, obviously, it's not just about the art design. You can get away with incredibly limited animation with good boarding, writing, and art design.)

Another slightly tangential ramble: both 2D and 3D have the potential for stiff animation and poor character acting, which also comes down to production limits and animator skills? (I often think of character animators as a type of actor!) There are a lot of 2D shows that I don't really like because I find the animation incredibly stiff, both puppet and handdrawn (there's great 2D puppet stuff out there these days), which pretty much always comes down to production limits (deadlines and budget and software, saving up their animation for the coolest scenes). One of my favorite things about Studio Ghibli films (which as features get a lot more space to focus on art compared to the demands and restraint of television) has always been the squash and stretch in otherwise relatively realistic action, making things like hugs look SO nice for example. But 3D stuff is getting better at that these days! The ways characters slumped into each other in "Nimona" for example was great. And it's just fascinating to look at the elasticity / stylized sculpt of expressions in "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" compared to the technical limits of the models / rigs in "Shrek" or "Shrek 2".

Adding these side notes because I want to be clear about my respect for both 2D and 3D artistically! A lot of video games are doing cool stuff in 3D that looks very close to 2D with stylized shaders, which you can sometimes spot by the large or small rotations in character action / acting, which is difficult (and therefore often expensive) to do in 2D with all of those extra drawings / angle poses. Also, I think the current push towards funky shaders in 3D is so cool and it's hard not to gush about them!!!

[intothefandomverse]

Nimona headcanons I came up with while in line at Disney World

When goldheart was first starting wedding planning, they were told by one of the fancy elitist wedding planners that if nimona was going to be in the wedding, that they should change their hair to a natural color so it matched the (frankly quite boring) themeing that was recommended. Ambrosius was so mad about this that that night, he had nimona dye his hair bright pink to match hers. They went in the next day, and after the planner had a heart attack, they got fired.

Sometimes, Bal and Ambrosius will forget that Nimona can shapeshift when they haven't seen her in a while in any form other than human in a while and/or are really stressed and distracted, so when she just spontaneously turns into a shark (or other animal) they'll get startled for a second, then remember it's just Nimona

When Nimona gets tired of walking, they'll turn into a small animal and climb on one of the boys and make them carry him around

Nimona will turn into a cat when they don't get enough attention and start smacking things off the counters. It starts with the least breakable stuff and slowly accelerates to become actual breakable things, like cups, and even threatens to knock down important things (but never actually would)

Nimona loves learning about different cultures, especially ones that may go out of existence soon, because she feels it can help preserve the traditions and languages, even if he's the only one who knows them. They have a scrapbook of all the cultures they've learned about over the years, and a lot of it is drawn due to a combination of not being able to sit down long enough to write them all out, and not being able to write long sentences in most of the languages (they try to keep the pages with the languages to match them, even if it only ends up being a few words)

Bal's love language is infodumping. You can't tell me that man wouldn't rant about anything and everything sciencey/how things work at any chance he gets just because he loves it and wants to share that love with others. Ambrosius loves when he infodumps. He thinks Bal is cute when he does it. Nimona also infodumps as a love language. So does Otter Infodump Guy. Nimona and Otter Infodump Guy love dropping random facts about animals. And nimona loves listening to Bal's "how it works" dumps. Nimona will also infodump about their latest craft because they love crafting, and Ambrosius even taught her how to use a machine to sew (she never got to learn despite being around since they were created, his mom taught him how to sew when he was a child)

[mysticdragon3art]

MerMay 2024 day 15. Ballister and Nimona mers.

Movie version Ballister Boldheart and Nimona.

I honestly don't know if my chibi are chibi anymore. This keeps happening lately. Is this what they call "your art style finding you"?

5/16/2024. Drawn in Platinum Preppy fountain pen, using Noodler’s Ink. No pencil underdrawings, so mistakes cleaned up digitally, in Krita. Colored with Copic markers and ShinHanArt Touch markers. Digitally added bubbles from a previous drawing. Assembled some elements in Krita.

Please forgive me. The math in the thought bubble is nonsense. I don't remember any math. So the thought bubble is a collage of things I transcribed from Google searching math equations.

I've been feeling a little bad that I haven't been drawing Ballister's robot arm (during Faebruary, and so far during MerMay), when his robot arm is such a big part of his character. During February's drawing challenge, I couldn't figure out how to make a robot arm make sense in a fairy AU's worldbuilding. During this month's May drawing challenge, I initially didn't know how to make a robot arm make sense in a world of mermaids either. But honestly, it was also just easier not to draw his robot arm. And MerMay usually inclines me towards being lazy, since I don't have to draw legs or clothes, so skipping the robot arm again was too tempting for my laziness. But, no. HIs robot arm is important. I should learn to draw it from memory. And I'm sure someone else can think of a reason for how a merman (or tiny fairy-Bal) could get a robot arm. Someone else will figure it out. I just need to draw it. It's an important part of his character, that I should practice. I was almost tempted to go back and draw a robot arm on top of my Bal-mers from MerMay 2024 days 13-14. But I'm reluctant to risk messing up some perfectly fine drawn chibi arms. So I started drawing mer-Bal with a robot arm, with this drawing of him with Nimona, since he canonically has his arm by the time they meet. I can just pretend my previous mer-Bal drawings took place before his arm was cut off, since those were drawings with him happily beside mer-Ambrosius, as if they didn't have any kind of falling-out yet.

[little-cereal-draws]

A ramble abt Dr. Blitzmeyer's clothes (pt 3)

Hello, I'm back on my bullshit >:) as if I was ever off

There is no point that I'm trying to make with this, I've just been staring at pictures of her for so long I thought of this

These are all different outfits but I'm grouping them together. This is concept art by Aidan Sugano from the art book. These were for the idea where Blitzmeyer worked at the Silver Society, a secret organization of scientists and other magical creatures who were against the Institute. In this idea, she also had a bunch of tattoos that glowed when she used magic. I think this idea is sick as fuck. Literally the coolest thing in the world. But in terms of her clothes, it's very asymmetrical and mimics a lot of Nimona's motifs. The hems in the clothes are on the organic grid that Nimona uses instead of the rigid, geometric grid of the Institute (they talk abt this earlier in the art book) and because her bottom half, whether it's a skirt or pants, is so baggy, it gives her that pear shape that Nimona has. She literally has the same highlights on her goggles as Nimona has in her eyes. They are using her clothes to characterize her as someone against the Institute, someone who has magical qualities, someone on Nimona's side. (Side note that's not abt clothes: Blitzmeyer also uses the organic S-curves that Nimona does instead of the Institute's geometric shapes - Ballister's a rectangle, Ambrosius' a triangle, and the Director's a diamond.)

In the second, third, and fifth sketches here, she's wearing harem pants. I think that these are too baggy for her experiments and would be a safety hazard so she probably wouldn't wear them to the lab; she takes her work too seriously for that. The designs on the fabric of the first two sketches reminded me of the patterns in African and Japanese textiles. (The first image below is a Zulu pattern from South Africa and the second image is from a Japanese kimono.) The pattern on the pants in the third sketch reminded me for the geometric patterns in Islamic art (third image below). The sash on the right in the fifth sketch, reminds me of ancient petroglyphs. (Forth image below, from the United States; it's so old, I couldn't find a specific culture to go with it.)

--

Drawn by Minkyu Lee. These are probably the most comic accurate outfits in the art book. Out of the two of them, I prefer the one on the right because the one on the left's hair reminds me of ice cream lol

Drawn by Minkyu Lee. I think besides the tattoo idea, these are my favorites. It still incorporates the punk-ness that would associate her with Nimona as well as staying true to the eccentric but smart nature of her comic character. I think these designs also do a good job of making something new but still being based in her comic outfit. Her lab coat here has the same collar and baggy sleeves as her casual outfit in the comic as well as the same black undershirt. The one on the right is a bit baggy for lab work but the one on the left is good. But I think the most important thing about this design is the goggles. The other designs have been missing it, I think bc it's hard to make her expressive that way, but it works so well here. It's an integral part of her comic design and you can't really have her character without them. I would love if they went with this design because I think it has everything it needs to read as her while still being new. Also I love how her hair looks here.

Drawn by Minkyu Lee. This one seems evil, cunning, and not science-y at all. It's giving Lady McBeth vibes lol

part one part two

[achillesmonochrome]

What really drives me insane about the ATLA Live ACTION

Is this change.

Here is the funny thing, this really didn't bother me until much later in the series; granted at first I thought having Aand wanting to get some air rather than running away from his responsibilities was throwing away an important part of his characterization, but I thought maybe they wanted to explore a new angle about him so it was okay.

That's not what happened.

I decided to not get the screenshots because I don't want to comb through so many episodes, but my problem is that the show REPEATEDLY, CONSTANTLY doesn't stop to tell Aang how he failed the world, how because he wasn't there people died and he needs to take responsibility.

And this went from a situation who had people sometimes being harsh to Aang but from a situation where you could understand where they were coming from; to people being EXTREMELY mean to a kid.

Aang went to fly for a bit in order to clear his head, got caught in a storm and acted on instinct, got trapped for 100 years, and then spent the entire show with him and multiple people telling him how much he messed up.

Sure, in the animated series Aang didn't intent to disappear for as long as he did, but he did decided to run away of his responsibilities, is because of this that he ends up caught in a storm and frozen 100 years. As much as anyone can understand his reaction, you can see why he would feel guilty and responsible about the situation, because if he hasn't wanted to run away from his responsibilities this wouldn't had happened.

But in the live action show is just a freak accident.

The thing that really bothers me about this change, is that why? Why even do it?

All the people being angry at Aang, Aang feeling bad and being moody about what happened, all of that would have much more impact if it was because Aang decided to run away.

Instead, I end up feeling frustrated both with Aang and the other characters because DUDE, IT WAS AN ACCIDENT, A HORRIBLE ACCIDENT, YOU REALLY SHOULDN'T BE FEELING THIS GUILTY, AND YOU PEOPLE YELLING AT HIM SHOULD LEAVE HIM ALONE.

I don't even think he tells anyone that it was an accident, heck I almost feel than the writers in the show somehow forgot that they did it that way, even I feel the audience forgets because it was different in the animated show and is not like the live action show acts as if it was an accident.

I don't know if is my memory or what, but I even feel people are being harsher in the live action show than they were in the animated, which feels SO much worse with this new context.

Look, I don't think an adaptation has to be identical in order to be great; I really liked the Percy Jackson show, I LOVE Nimona; but I feel if you are going to do changes, you better do something good or interesting with it.

Not do a change and then act for the rest of the show like you didn't.

[talenlee]

June 2024 Wrapup!

That’s it, Pride’s over. We’re done with any need to be queer because we obviously defeated the forces of not queer.

Hey how do all those dudes who are convinced they’re straight think their sexuality handles being attracted to nonbinary people? Like, nonbinary people can look like anything, presentation is a performance and everything, but if you believe in inherent qualities of genders, seeing a nonbinary person who’s hot has to be a problem right?

(oh who are we kidding, they pretend nonbinary people don’t exist. But if you do accept nonbinary people exist, you might be less straight than you think.)

Alright, let’s look at what articles came up in the Game Pile this month!

Gay Sauna: The Board Game, where we talked about the acceptable boundaries of genre mechanisms.

Arcade Spirits, where I made a video retelling my experiences of dealing with a game that I shouldn’t call a visual novel, because someone out there will get annoyed at an imperfect cladistic categorisation of game genres

Signalis, a game that oozes style but also told me to stop playing it, so I did

3 Indie TTRPGs, with Feathers, For the Dungeon and We Saved The World Once in a video

If you think the video on Feathers, For The Dungeon and We Saved The World Once was a bit ropy, yep! It got made very quick and close to the deadline because it was very difficult to make. Cooking these games down to entirely positive feedback without talking more about things I find personally interesting was hard enough, which is why the first seven minutes of the video are about problems with how we talk about indie TTRPGs.

Also, a thing I was really delighted by was getting to play Loom with Fox for the first time (part 1, part 2)!

Then there was this month’s Story Pile, about which I was way more enthusiastic!

Nimona, which is a great movie for kids,

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, which is a great anime, for slightly older kids!

Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess And The Genius Young Lady, which is a mid anime, for slightly older kids still!

Bound, which is, uh, it’s not for kids

What else happened this month that I’m proud of?

Hm.

Hmmm.

This is a surprising one to say because normally I can think of articles that I want you to read in a sort of ‘well why haven’t you looked at this.’ But I’m in a bad mood right now and it’s colouring things about how I look at my own writing. My article on LIGMA is tainted by knowing how little of the greater context of the area I can communicate. My article about What Disgusts Jod got a response from a Locked Tomb fan that seemed to imply that actually, Jod wasn’t bi or pansexual, because a guy can have a threesome with a man and a woman and people will still try and pretend bisexuality doesn’t exist. My article about Tieflings was probably the thing I’m the most proud of this month, in the idea of the kind of writing I like doing, and I think my article on Faces For Skins is important? At least I avoided another breakdown article about how badly I feel Pride culture connects to or relates to me, though maybe that just shows up in the work in general.

There’s this month’s shirt design:

How hard is the Barbie aesthetic to replicate? With lookalike fonts it’s shockingly easy. I note that this one specifically is a drop shadow and not a 3d semblance, as you can see on the bottoms of the ls. Hey, do you want this on a sticker? Go for it!

In terms of real world events, June is jam packed. It’s the end of the Autumn Semester for me, as a tutor for one. This semester, I took on a lot of marking work, which I like to do, but which also meant that I looked at 118 asignments this month, and 60 of them had a 5 minute audio visual component. That’s five hours of student material to just watch. It ain’t nothing, and it adds up over time.

It’s also a time with four major family birthdays in them, which means I have to find ways and times to attend to physical events. This is not a problem, because I love my family but it sure makes me mindful of just how long it takes me to recover from that to do, y’know, things with myself like write for the blog. Marking periods take time out of the blog work.

The subject matter of the month is also less of a freebie than you might think because I feel like some things are too repetitive – I don’t imagine I’m going to find a third Transformers character to write about next year, for example. There’s also the way that February and June kinda blur together – I’m very fond of talking about queer media in February since that’s one of the most fun kinds of smoochy media I like.

I aim to keep the queued posts for this blog up to 50, so every day if I add a post, it goes to 51 and dips back down to 50. I also try to make sure I’m four weeks ahead on the video channels. This month, as I write this, I am one week ahead on the video, and the queue is down to 45. I am frustrated! But I am doing things to overcome that, and in the coming weeks, I don’t have to grapple with a theme!

I haven’t been getting to bed at good times. This month has featured multiple days where I get to bed at 4 in the morning, one even at 5. This is bad and I hate it. I hate it especially because it takes a long time to recover from it, to get back to sleeping at even the modestly more sensible time of midnight to one AM. I also haven’t been cooking as much as I want to — even modest resistance means that suddenly dinner is some microwaved oats and sultanas, with a splash of milk.

I think I may even be missing one of my June goals for Magic The Gathering: Arena, which isn’t exactly important, but it is a bit of a pisser. The aim was to hit gold tier in limited, which at this point I have… a few hours to do, and I’m still in Silver Tier. That’s not a big deal but it is a bummer.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[skyeknight-oneshots]

So, not Nemesis

"Bal, I'm here." Ambrosius announced as he entered the not-so-secret hideout.

The knight couldn't see where Ballister was, but he knew his lover was around. It was him who sent a message to come over quickly, when they barely left each other's side for more than an hour. All he knew was that there was something important he needed to tell him and it couldn't wait. Well, the exact words he heard Ballister telling him was that he couldn't wait to show it to him.

Ambrosius blushed, wondering if Ballister was up to something. He's pretty sure it wasn't there monthsary yet.

Or was it?

Ambrosius looked for a calendar to check the date, only to finally find Ballister sitting on a chair but looking rather listless.

"Bal?" Ambrosius frowned, reaching out to him. "Is everything okay?"

Ballister lets out a sigh, before looking at the man. "Hey," he said. "I think... We need to break up."

Ambrosius widened his eyes as he felt his whole world crash down before him.

A muffled sound was heard, followed by sounds a crashes as if another person was fumbling around. Another Ballister comes appeared and rushed into the room. "Damn it, Nimona!"

"Aw," The 'Ballister' that just broke up with him morphed into a young girl. Not just any girl. Nimona. "You couldn't wait another five minutes or so to break out of the ropes?"

Ballister face palmed, and went to Ambrosius who was sporting a jaw-dropping expression. He closed the mouth before pressing a kiss to his temple. "We're not breaking up." Then, he breaks into a grin and gestures to Nimona. "Also, look who's back! She suggested this whole prank to announce it to you, I said no then she tied me up."

Ambrosius gaped again, because Nimona had been reenacting the scene by morphing into Ballister and herself tying him up in succession as Ballister had been explaining things.

"You gotta admit," Nimona shrugged, while looking like Ballister. "he kinda deserved it."

"Ballister rolled his eyes, "You'll get used to it." he patted his lover's back.

Nimona circled around Ambrosius, "So, Nemesis..."

"Nimona, we talked about that."

"Fine, fine." Nimona waved her hand dismissively, "I'll play nice with Mr. Golden Loins, except later because I'm totally gonna wreck him and take everything he knows and loves!"

"What?!" Ambrosius looked at Ballister incredulously.

Ballister sighed, looking at both of them fondly. "She means your properties... She's talking about a board game."

Ambrosius didn't really have any expectations when he walked in here, but even if he did, he would've never expected this.

[albaqae]

NIMONA SPOILER RANT!!!

Soooooo I watched it a bit ago and OH MY GOD???????

The way they gave nimona a more pear shaped body as a kid really meant a lot to me, u don’t see that many kids like that in media, and as a child it felt like because I wasn’t like kids on tv i took up more space than I was supposed to (the good old “why do my thighs look like that when I sit” and “why are my shoulders wider” and ofc! The “why isn’t my face as thin as them?”) IDK I HAVENT SEEN LOTS OF PPL POINT IT OUT BUT IT MEANT THE WORLD TO ME??????

Altho Merida rlly helped me out w that but kids are still rude!

Bal also put out so many questions, like why do we feel we need to prove ourselves to other people? And why does it tend to take up a bigger seat than our morale? And the way it started to erode off his character was so realistic I feel also because they were so throughout with it, they didn’t just show the viewer “love urself” they actually DEMONSTRATED how that position FEELS

It felt like it was happening to YOU

And I really love they made a character gay without making it a CONFLICT, it feels like whenever people try to make movies about queerness, they can get lost in the homophobia and conflicting gay identity, and it can sometimes overshadow over the characters themselves (their intentions, feelings, etc replaced by labels and social customs so much that the character is just lost), and in the end of it, it leaves me super unsatisfied because I never KNEW who this was even about!!!

But here yes it was a plot point, but the characters felt real, like they actually loved each other, it made this conflict between feeling like one has to choose just a million times more important

I CARED about what happened to these characters

I feel that a part of that is how they made goldenloin the screentime of him regretting what he was going to bal, like u saw the raw, unresolved conflicts in his eyes every time he cornered him and ofc the “im fine, commander” scene REALLY just completes it all

If this movie was around when I was a child, I think it would’ve saved me a lot of heartache and maybe would’ve made me feel a bit better about being “too much”

And a lot more if I saw it when I didn’t know what my identity was (fun fact- I still dunno!)

And THE ANIMATION. THE ANIMATION. THE ANIMATION.

Ima just say- I’ve never seen characters melt onto each other that well, and even LESS in 3D ANIMATION??????

Also nimona’s unapologetic feral energy and how it both brings her up and throws her down- I just discovered a lot of myself in her and idk i guess I’m trying to be kinder to myself and ruder to those who aren’t kind to me (??)

I’m still figuring it out lol