#not directed at the original reblogs

[marciaillust]

an Angel

[bamsara]

I think that one thing people fail to understand is that unsolicited literary criticism coming from an online stranger who is reading with no knowledge of what the authors intended goal is, is not going to be received the same as say: the authors beta reader or friends who know what the authors intended goal and has the sufficient knowledge and input to help the author reach that desired outcome.

"But I'm only trying to be helpful" How do I know you have the knowledge and literary skill for you to be able to actaully do that when we don't know each other and you are essentially a stranger to me? Are you applying this criticism based out of personal biased experience and desire to see the story or characterization be driven in another direction or tweaked, or do you know the author's intentions for the character? If the story is incomplete, are you basing your criticism of a character on the incomplete narration with only partial information available of them or are you building up a report until the story's completion? Did the author provide you with the information needed to make a fully informed criticism?

Have you discussed with the author what their plans are or are you assuming them based off the narration, especially if the narration is proven or implied to be unreliable or missing key points of the plot? Are you unbiased enough to help them reach their desired outcome for the characters and story regardless of your personal feelings towards the characters/antagonists and setting? Can you handle being told your specific input isn't wanted because you're a reader and/or have no written anything relating to their genre or topic? Do you understand and respect that the author's personal experiences might influence their writing and make it different than how you would have done it personally? Do you understand if an author only wants input from a specific demographic relating to their story?

If it's for fanfiction or other hobby media, are you holding a free hobby to a professional standard? Are you trying to give criticism because you feel like the author has produced 'subpar job performance' of their fic? Are you viewing their work as a personal intimate outlet or something that must conform with mass media? Are you applying rules and guidelines when the fic is shared for simple sharing sake? Is your criticism worded appropriately and focused on the parts where the author has requested input on rather than a general dismissal and or disapproval?

Have you put yourself in a place where you assumed you have the input needed for the story to evolve better, or have you asked what the author needs and what they're having trouble with? Can you handle having your criticism rejected if the author decides their story doesn't need the change and not take it as a personal offense against your character? Are you crossing that boundary because you think you are doing the author a favor? Are you trying to be helpful, or do you just want to be?

I think sometimes when people hear authors go 'please don't give me unsolicited writing advice or criticism' they automatically chalk it up to 'this author doesn't want ANY constructive feedback on their stuff at all' and not "i already have trusted individuals who will help me with my writing goals and- hey i don't know you like that, please stop acting so overly familiar with me'

[javussyannihilator]

javert in the musical so enamored with the reliability and constancy of the stars because no matter where he is, no matter how much time passes, the stars at least will never leave him

[yzafre]

I've decideeeed to do a "draw fast" experiment this week. Basically: given a sketch I already have on hand, I have to get to "finish" (new line art, flats, & shading) in under two hours - the closer to 1hr, the better.

The idea with this is that, like... trying to get a fast time will keep me from sitting and overthinking things, then fidgeting with it. I just gotta get stuff on the page. Don't know how, if at all, it'll help my art, but I think it'll be fun.

I figured my "three iteration" sketches I did last week were good ones to use, so have some Leo's for today. This one was at 1hr 32min.

[ravangie]

now if that's not me

[phail]

Second to last One Direction concert ever for the ORTA tour: October 30, 2015

[heart-0f-a-rebel16]

ah beans I think in need to bake a pie and eat a chalupa again

[hl-obsessed]

✨ closer ✨

[click for better quality]

[dark-orca-dynasty]

3am thoughts because I woke up way too hot:

I think of Kathryn Nekton as being indigenous Australian, and she met Jacques when he came to Australia to see if there was any mention of anything that could be linked to Lemuria could be found in an oral history that goes back over 10,000 years.

[littleapocalypsekitten]

So, I full-out re-read one of my old Fire Emblem fanfictions last night after running into someone here on tumblr who said they'd loved that specific old fic. @litlunacy Said same fic is on Ao3. I re-read reviews on both sites. (ff was 2 idiots, Ao3 gave me actual smart reviews). And...I sort of realized something about me and media in general... (Getting long, so read-cut).

One of the reviews there (Ao3) I'd forgotten about got my attention, a guest review by someone I'm sure I actually know, by the style of the review, they are definitely someone who flagged me down on tumblr and who became a mutual and who has PM-chatted with me. They're pretty interesting to talk to. Fire Emblem (all games) is apparently a special interest / core fandom of theirs and they've told me a lot about the lore across the franchise and the mechanics I didn't know. Appreciated, even as I've told them that I've only played a few of the games, and am really only fandom-focused on Awakening. (Fates failed to enchant me. Haven't played enough Three Houses yet. Nada on older games yet). In other words, I treat/have treated my Fire Emblem: Awakening fandom the same way as I treat my Elder Scrolls fandom (I've only played Skyrim). Anything I do creative fanwise will be centered "pretty much on the characters and setting of that game ONLY despite there being a bunch of lore." This is very different from when I do Legend of Zelda fandom work, since I've been a player of that series since I was a pup. Or with Trigun, oh, GOD, Trigun! (Two different animes for that one so far and the core-manga). Trigun owns my soul and if @litlunacy - who loves them some Libra from FE: wants more in the ways of gentle but fighting-capable traumatized blond men, may I offer you a Vash the Stampede in this trying time? Or, if traumatized priests in general are more your thing, may I offer you a Nicholas D. Wolfwood? Anyway, Guest Reviewer talked about the original Japanese iteration of Awakening and how there was transphobia in the story / Chrom being a jerk that was cut out of the English / American localization in a big way (and guessing who they are, they've talked with me a LOT about this). Libra was not trans in my fic, but faces similar social difficulties for reasons obvious to the character. I've kind of realized "I do not care as it is not relative to what I am doing" - in the way of "I go by the localization." If the English-language version (cleaned up of some of the original problematic stuff) is what I am "using" as my fan-base, THAT is the thing I am enjoying. I will readily consider the original a different story and ignore it! It's like, "maybe the original was problematic, but the thing localizers made of it is not or less so" so I'm enjoying the story that I know. (This is very different to how I approach Trigun, for instance, in which I MUST know all lore and translations back, forth and sideways, but that's only because it's my soul-core fandom). Fire Emblem? Less so. I love Awakening's characters, but I choose to love their English-language versions. If Chrom is a better man in English, so be it! It's like... I don't know, how "Samurai Pizza Cats" purposefully went off the rails in English localization and is, quite deliberately, a different show than the Japanese original (and the original creators freaking LOVE it)!

[pjowasmy1stfandom]

So I was thinking about the Argo II (making yet another fullsize[?] version of it in Minecraft, this time based off the End Ships instead of this random merchant ship I found in an Ancient Greece add-on) and that got me wondering just how large the Argo II would have to be in order to fit the Athena Parthenos. So, I did some basic googling. The Athena Parthenos, as stated in the PJO wiki, is 40 feet tall. Okay, but it's basically laying down. And I found the actual part where Leo's describing what's going on, and the statue basically just barely fits in the corridor.

Anyway, I went down a bunch of rabbit holes trying to figure out the actual dimensions of the statue beyond just height, and so far I'm thinking that the only way that she would actually fit in the lower level is if it was approximately the height of a short two-story building. I could be entirely wrong, and my math could be all wrong, but so far that's what I'm thinking

The wiki says the Argo II was 200 feet long, but it says nothing about how tall it was and that's driving me crazy.

Whoops, went down a rabbit hole on how actual Greek triremes were designed. Fascinating thing, especially considering how there weren't actually three separate levels, they just had two levels, but from what I can tell, one of the two sets on top had benches or something, so they were higher up than the other one. That's actually pretty smart. Also apparently they'd mainly sail during the day, and at night they'd actually pull the ship out of the water and the crew would sleep on land. They weren't designed for long stretches at sea

[thedovahcat]

@ the every sex scene in a movie is necessary post stop being a cringe whiney baby about it

That's all well and good. I don't go seeking out the stuff for sure, and if it just ends up shoved in my face I just mute or skip it till its over. no big deal.

But can we acknowledge the fact that so many of those shoved in (hah) sex scenes in movies or tv shows that aren't about sexual escapades are like.... so cringe?

It's done in poor taste? It serves no narrative purpose other than to show main cis man/woman chara horny hound dog wigglebrow they sure love gettin it its-so-integral-to-their-chara-and-then-we-never-see-this-brought-up-again?

Like you can have that kind of stuff just to have it, sure. Don't let people like me ruin your fun. But ONLY personally speaking, I would prefer a bit more tact and build up, and maybe a bit more artistry or purposefully well-done shots than a random wannabe porn shoot lol

[bonni]

if you believe that just because a person has done some objectively good things in the name of communism, that that exempts them from criticism when they speak on issues that they do not have any experience in, i.e. antiblackness, you are contributing to a pattern in marxist spaces in which (white) communists are uplifted and deified and treated as flawless, and the black people (primarily black women) who criticize their tone-deaf and ignorant words are treated as the scum of the earth. this is a pattern not just on this website but all throughout communist and leftist history. it's why black marxism is a thing. so posts like this:

are ridiculous. they're deflections. nobody is saying that maia has not done good things. but her post was tone-deaf at best; it misappropriated the language of a black leftist movement to drive home a point that was already disorganized and weirdly equated anti-kink sentiment and mistreatment of sex workers with... wanting pedophiles to die? i'm not even saying that her main point, that we should be against any and all government-sanctioned death, was wrong, i agree with that position; but her post was not well-formulated. the op should have been two separate posts in the first place, because the comparison was nonsensical; and bringing "acab means killing the cop in your head" into the picture, when i've seen Black people on this website talking for years about how white people saying shit like that really waters down the meaning of acab, was also not okay. white communists are still white, white trans women are still white, and they are not exempt from criticism when they say something antiblack!

[unopenablebox]

.

[clarabosswald]

can you imagine can you IMAGINE taking someone's suicide story and using it to promote your conspiracy theories like the lowliest of anti-vaxxers

newsflash, o warrior of truth: states don't neglect mental health patients and disaster survivors to "silence the truthers", states do so because they're capitalistic and bureaucratic hellholes, especially when run by corrupt, criminal, and useless governments and if you had bothered to read EVERYTHING about this case and not just cherrypick quotes and twist them to fit your own agenda, then you'd have seen just that

don't pretend you give a shit about her or her family when you claim in the same breath that her story is fake and is just coverup for wHaT rEaLlY hApPeNed

don't pretend you give a shit about the survivors of october 7th when you absolve hamas of any responsibility in the same breath

don't pretend you respect her fucking memory

[rustbeltjessie]

Just in the nick of time, before the end of International Zine Month 2023, I finished my newest zine—Ransom Notes. All of it was composed and collaged during IZM. It’s twelve pages, 1/2 letter size, with six poems—five collage poems, one blackout poem; two wistful poems, one wistful yet silly, two straight-up silly, and one sexy. (One of the silly poems is the Doctor Who poem above.) It’s $2+$1 shipping (w/in the U.S.). You can buy it at ko-fi[dot]com[slash]rustbeltjessie but if you prefer to pay a different way, or wanna set up a trade, or live outside the U.S., please DM me and we’ll work something out!