#ok. in a moment. i'll go post some art first

[steampoweredlovemachine]

you guys will never guess who im focusing on again

[wileycap]

So, uh, Netflix Avatar, huh? Yeah. I guess I'll make a really long post about it because ATLA brainrot has is a cornerstone of my personality at this point.

So.

It's okay. B, maybe a C+.

That's it.

Now for the spoilers:

The biggest issue with the Netflix version is the pacing. Scenes come out of nowhere and many of the episodes are disjointed. Example: Aang escaping from Zuko's ship. We see him getting the key and going "aha!", and in the next scene he's in Zuko's room. And then he just runs out, no fun acrobatics or fights, and immediately they go to the Southern Air Temple where he sees Gyatso's corpse, goes into the Avatar state, and then sees Gyatso being really cheesy, comes out of it, and resolves that conflict. Nothing seems to lead into anything. The characters don't get to breathe.

The show's worst mistake (aside from Iroh fucking murdering Zhao) is its' first one: they start in the past. Instead of immediately introducing us to our main characters and dropping us into a world where we have a perfect dynamic where Aang doesn't know the current state of the world and Katara and Sokka don't know about the past, thus allowing for seamless and organic worldbuilding and exposition, they just... tell us. "Hey, this is what happened, ok, time for Aang!" There's no mystery, no intrigue, just a stream of information being shoved down the audience's throats and then onto the next set piece.

The visuals are for the most part great, but like with most Netflix productions, they just don't have great art direction. It feels like a video game cinematic, where everything is meant to be Maximum Cool - and none of the environments get to breathe. It's like they have tight indoor sets (with some great set design) and then they have a bunch of trailer shots. It's oozing with a kind of very superficial love.

Netflix still doesn't know how to do lighting, and with how disjointed the scenes are, the locations end up feeling like a parade of sets rather than actual cities or forests or temples. As for the costumes, Netflix still doesn't know how to do costumes that look like they're meant to be actually worn, so many of the characters seem weirdly uncomfortable, like they're afraid of creasing their pristine costumes.

The acting is decent to good, for the most part. I can't tell if the weaker moments come down to the actors or the direction and editing, but if I had to guess, I'd say the latter. Iroh and Katara are the weakest, Sokka is the most consistent, Zuko hits the mark most of the time, and Aang is okay. I liked Suki (though... she was weirdly horny? Like?) but Yue just fell kind of flat.

The tight fight choreography of the original is replaced with a bunch of spinny moves and Marvel fighting, though there are some moments of good choreography, like the Agni Kai between Ozai and Zuko (there's a million things I could say about how bad it was thematically, but this post is overly long already.) There's an actually hilarious moment in the first episode when Zuko is shooting down Aang, and he does jazz hands to charge up his attack.

Then there's the characters. Everybody feels very static - Zuko especially gets to have very little agency. A great example of that is the scene in which Iroh tells Lieutenant Jee the story of Zuko's scar.

In the original, it's a very intimate affair, and he doesn't lead the crew into any conclusions. Here, Iroh straight up tells the crew "you are the 41st, he saved your lives" and then the crew shows Zuko some love. A nice moment, but it feels unearned, when contrasted with the perfection of The Storm. In The Storm, Zuko's words and actions directly contradict each other, and Iroh's story gives the crew (and the audience) context as to why, which makes Zuko a compelling character. We get to piece it out along with them. Here - Iroh just flat out says it. He just says it, multiple times, to hammer in the point that hey, Zuko is Good Actually.

And then there's Iroh. You remember the kindly but powerful man who you can see gently nudging Zuko to his own conclusions? No, he's a pretty insecure dude who just tells Zuko that his daddy doesn't love him a lot and then he kills Zhao. Yeah. Iroh just plain kills Zhao dead. Why?

Iroh's characterization also makes Zuko come off as dumb - not just clueless and deluded, no, actually stupid. He constantly gets told that Iroh loves him and his dad doesn't, and he doesn't have any good answers for that, so he just... keeps on keeping on, I guess? This version of Zuko isn't conflicted and willfully ignorant like the OG, he's just... kind of stupid. He's not very compelling.

In the original, Zuko is well aware of Azula's status as the golden child. It motivates him - he twists it around to mean that he, through constant struggle, can become even stronger than her, than anyone. Here, Zhao tells him that "no, ur dad likes her better tee hee" and it's presented as some kind of a revelation. And then Iroh kills Zhao. I'm sorry I keep bringing that up, but it's just such an unforgiveable thematic fuckup that I have to. In the original, Zhao falls victim to his hubris, and Zuko gets to demonstrate his underlying compassion and nobility when he offers his hand to Zhao. Then we get some ambiguity in Zhao: does he refuse Zuko's hand because of his pride, or is it his final honorable action to not drag Zuko down with him? A mix of both? It's a great ending to his character. Here, he tries to backstab Zuko and then Iroh, who just sort of stood off to the side for five minutes, goes "oh well, it's murderin' time :)"

They mess with the worldbuilding in ways that didn't really need to be messed with. The Ice Moon "brings the spirit world and the mortal world closer together"? Give me a break. That's something you made up, as opposed to the millenia of cultural relevance that the Solstice has. That's bad, guys. You replaced something real with something you just hastily made up. There's a lot of that. We DID NOT need any backstory for Koh, for one. And Katara and Sokka certainly didn't need to be captured by Koh. I could go on and on, but again, this post is already way too long.

It's, um, very disappointing. A lot of telling and not very much showing, and I feel like all of the characters just... sort of end up in the same place they started out in. I feel like we don't see any of the characters grow: they're just told over and over again how they need to grow and what they need to do.

To sum it up: Netflix Avatar is a mile wide, but an inch deep.

[labryveinth]

HELLO TUMBLR!!! LONG TIME NO SEE ... sowwy 4 not posting. been up 2 some MISCHIEF!!! anyway. this is my first oc post EVR.... his name is ethernet! he's an epic sans-turned-error variant.... :3 this is his official ref!!! me & my friend (@tearcynical) created an ask blog 4 ethernet & 4 his oc, crosswise, since they both play important roles in each other's stories. there, i'll reveal more about him as a character!!! the ask blog is named @wirenet (still a wip however...)

for now, you can have a short summary of his personality ( that is quite old but nonetheless... still an ok summary... ) — since an epic without whimsiness isn’t an actual epic, ethernet continues to be just as dorky as his original self, only to a certain extent. due to the multiple malfunctions and distortions of his code, his personality underwent a dramatic transformation. the once patient and calm demeanor he displayed gave way to a volatile and explosive temperament as if he were a time bomb ready to go off at any moment. years of depravation and sleepless nights have contributed to his short-fuse and paranoia, as even the smallest of irritations could ignite his anger, sending him into a tirade. and if you don’t play into his games or entertain him in any way — you may as well dig your own grave. as for his role, from an outsider's perspective, ethernet is considered a digital "destroyer", a threat to the multiverse. however, if you were to ask ethernet himself - he would not identify with any of these terms. due to the destructive nature of his abilities (and his fucked up code), he ends up destroying most things he touches. him "destroying" aus is him desperately searching for a part of himself that he's lost. his ultimate goal!! the reason why he's even touching other aus in the first place. what that "part of himself" is??? I'M NOT TELLING YOU!!! I'M LEAVING YOU ON A CLIFFHANGER!!! (until next episode) his main ability is his cables. it has two uses. first is "extraction", which allows him to extract information from any au by ripping an orifice in the fabric of the timeline & plugging his cables in (praying this made sense). the consequence of this ability is that, upon finishing extraction, the au becomes distorted (and on most occasions, self destructs). the second, replication, allows ethernet to copy an au’s extracted code and temporarily apply it to his own before it malfunctions. here is an example of how extraction would look like.... </3 vvv

here is what (half of) his skeleton looks like ! scandalous, i knoiw... :/

AND FINALLY.... HERE ARE SOME DOODLES I MADE OF CROSSWIRE & ETHERNET. they r canonically doomed yaoi crepic. their ship name is called wirenet how cool is that.!

CROSSWIRE BELONGS TO TEARCYNICAL!!! ok sorry 4 the massive art dump & yap. goodbye,.....

[catinasockinsideabox]

The Dickkory and Dickbabs subreddits are... LONG POST

After reading a comment under one of my posts from a moderator of a Dick and Barbara subreddit, i decided to open reddit and check the subreddit, seeing if making an account on reddit was worthy or not. While searching Nightwing, i found a subreddit about Dick and Kory too. For the new people who haven't read many of my posts: I don't mind Dick and Kory together and i enjoy the fan arts, i got beef with some toxic shippers, that's it.

I don't have words to describe my short experience. I have A LOT of questions.

Is the subreddit about Dick and Kory or about bashing Dick and Barbara, Barbara and the shippers of the other ship?

I got addicted to the Dick x Barbara subreddit and been spending almost an hour scrolling on it to see and read posts. I think the last 'Rant' They have a flair for rant posts. 10 points for whoever made it post i've seen is from 6/7 months ago.

On the Dick x Kory subreddit, the moment i got on it, the first post i saw was a 'mocking' one. Keeping scrolling, buried by the fan arts posts you're gonna find a lot of posts mocking the other ship or talking badly of Barbara and the Dickbabs shippers, commenting everything they say and 'insulting' them. Is that all there is to talk about on there if not enjoying fan arts? On the DxB subreddit i've seen some posts asking questions, on this one there are more bad posts. When there is a post asking a question, it's still gonna mock the other shippers.

Now i wonder, the moderators do something about this? I'm sorry if there's one moderator who have tumblr and is reading this but i have to say this. This is toxic behavior. For the shippers of Dick and Kory who complain about the Dick x Barbara shippers talking bad about them, this is not helping their case.

In the recent post i saw on the subreddit, someone in the comments said they found the post disrespectful, the op replied explaining how the other shippers of the other ship and dc writers do the same. The person who made the comment answered op saying that they shouldn't do the same.

If this person is reading this post, i'm sending you a kiss. That must take a lot of courage to say there. This person is getting dislikes for saying both girls should be respected. I was relieved to see few others disagreeing with the post.

I would have said it myself but it's not my place ON their subreddit and i didn't want to make an account for now.

That comment reminded me how i was called out once by a DxK shipper for something like this. I said something, they had called me out and i told them that other shippers of the DxK do the same, so why shouldn't i. That person told me that just because they do, it doesn't mean i should do the same.

So if a DxB shipper do it it's wrong but if a DxK does it it's alright? Sure, fine, ok, i understand.

I once again apologize if a moderator of that subreddit is reading this but let me give you an advice i know this sentence sounds mean but it's not, i want to believe that whoever you are you're a good person who's trying their best to be a good moderator but it's hard on a big subreddit there's an important need of better moderation. I don't know anything about reddit, don't know if i want to know more but i know that for how the things are going, not many people shippers or not are gonna view the DxK shippers. I'm not saying there should never be a rant post, i'm saying those rant and mock posts should be lessened and more civil. Outside all this, i'll let you know i really enjoyed the fan arts!

On the other side, for the moderators of the DxB subreddit...I don't know if you guys did something but the posts surely changed a lot in months. As i said from the start, the rant posts are all old. While i don't agree with some things that were said in those i'm relieved to see how old those are and how there aren't many anymore.

If those subreddits should be a safe place for shippers, it doesn't mean they should be places where people are free to insult and attack others. If you can't see the problem and get mad about this post, i don't know what to tell you.

You want DxB shippers to shut up and stop bad mouthing your ship and Kory? This isn't the way. This way, you're just ruining the reputation of your favorite ship. I get you're angry at how even writers bury and erase DxK but it doesn't mean you should bad mouth the other ship too because others do.

Also i'd like to apologize again to any moderator from both subreddits if they're reading this and feel somewhat attacked, this isn't the meaning of this post. Sending a virtual friendly forehead kiss to you guys.

Now i'd like to say something about the tags on this post.

Since when i'm trying to get good replies to have a discussion or finally someone bringing up a nice come back that makes sense but people just comment about how i shouldn't tag Dickkory in this and ignore the post, i'm making it clear here so you don't need to waste time leaving a comment :

Tumblr works through tags. It's true that you don't want to see the boring rare Dickkory critique post in the Dickkory tag but it works like this.

When i scroll through the Damian Wayne tag i also don't want to see the bad posts and i am just looking for fics or art but if it's about Damian Wayne what is that person supposed to tag the post as if they want people to see it and maybe have discussions or read about people's opinions?

This said, useless comments about the tags that aren't bringing up a good discussion and criticize the tag choice are gonna get deleted. You can say anything about the post and i won't touch your comment if not replying but if all you have to say is whine about the tags don't even bother to leave a comment.

Edit for people who clearly didn't understand what i said : No matter who attacked who first, you're still both wrong. If the DxB shippers attacked you first then they're wrong, i don't approve it. It doesn't mean you should attack them back. Yea the guy attacked that bully so i should attack them too, is what you guys in the comments are saying. Does it sound right to you? You answer violence with more violence? Also i'd like to specify that yea i'm doing the same but this is a blog dedicated to it. And others have one too so, thanks to your logic, i can have one too because the others do so too. The subreddit is not about attacking others, it's about the ship, sharing arts and content about it but yea i'm new so how should i know right. Call it 'hate dickbabs club' at this point and nothing change.

[silverlining-ships]

Music comms are CLOSED!! Check out the waitlist here!!

Ok y'know what, screw it. My brain seems to require three-four pieces at one time (genuinely cannot figure out why that is), and with the fact I only have two queued up right now and the game I'm composing for doesn't need any tracks at the moment, I'm getting composer's block again. So we're OPENING my music requests!!

I'm actually stunned at how many people seemed interested in getting a piece of soundtrack music for their f/o. I'm opening it to non-mutuals, and it's totally free! If you're concerned about paying/tipping for work, I'm always happy to receive content for my selfship, but I will not accept any money, and there's no pressure to tip content anyway. Again, this is for fun!

This is how it works:

Fill out this google form with the title of your ship, some songs you like, instruments, etc etc.

You can message on Tumblr or Discord (@/slipperson on Discord) on top of submitting the form too! I'll reach out myself once I get started on your piece.

I'll sketch out a draft, which is exactly like sketching out a basic pose for art - it'll typically only use piano/minor percussion. Sometimes I'll even give a simple concept before I flesh out a draft. I'll send it to you for approval.

If changes are needed, I'll refine the draft and re-update. If not, I'll go on to fleshing out the instrumental - this means adding instruments, changing volume (for example, in my first example, I used a lot of "dynamics"/volume changes to simulate the swelling of instruments). This is like adding the flat colors in a piece of art!

I'll send it to you again - I'll make changes upon your request, but if approved, I'll finally go ahead and mix the final draft. This means putting it through an audio program (audacity if you're curious!) and polishing the sound. This is like rendering the lighting!

After it's done, I'll send it to you for once last listen. Upon approval, I'll post it to Soundcloud, link it on Tumblr, and tag you in the post!

Important bits:

No comship/proship/aged up-or-down/RPF ships. Live action characters are fine as long as it's not the actual person. Familial/platonic ships are totally okay!

If you are a minor/ageless blog, I'm willing to write a piece for familial/platonic content, but not QPR/romantic.

Downtime is 1-2 months after I first open your request. I may finish it sooner, but no later than 2 months. This is because music generally takes awhile--30 seconds of music can take me 4-5 hours to concept! I also tend to work on 3-4 pieces of music at a time.

I will give frequent updates. Don't be afraid to reach out if you're curious on the status!

My work is never cleared to be used commercially or in AI programs. We're a bunch of selfshippers on Tumblr, so I know we all hate AI, but it's worth the mention. I tend to be strict on copywrite - it'll stay under my name, all rights reserved - however, you are free to use your piece wherever you'd like as long as it's not commercial use, used in a monetized campaign/video/form of media, and not used in AI.

I may put these tracks on a streaming service at a later date - not on Spotify, as the service is TERRIBLE with allowing their work to be remixed into AI. Something like Bandcamp or Soundcloud for Artists. If you are uncomfortable with this, please let me know.

Examples:

I will have my queue/completed list on my carrd here.

Thank you so much for your interest!! I'm actually so stunned I got so much love for this, and I'm excited to celebrate your ships with you!

heart border

[darqx]

Nope!

I like that I've had people say they can relate to my characs and/or that my characs feel real 🥰 That really makes my day cos it means I'm doing ok with my characteristation then haha. In terms of Rire in particular, one of my fave things is when people can't decide whether they like him or hate him and end up settling on a weird mixture of both and squaggling about it. I find this extremely gratifying.

Hello! Thanks I am doing good (now that I'm having a break from work ahah) :D I'm gonna be real and say I'm not sure if I'm the best person to ask considering I was only involved in like...one and a bit horrorporn projects |D - Gato would prob be the MVP at the moment - but I'll give you some gen advice that hopefully you can find useful :)

Plan your project. Most people are NOT good pantsers and it's not easy to get a cohesive plot/project if you don't have SOME idea of what you are doing. Whether you are doing a VN or a comic or whatever, make sure you have an outline of what is going to happen for your own reference.

Find an audience. If you're lucky then an audience who will enjoy your project will find you (which was the case with BTD and some throwing it out there.) Most of the time though you will need to advertise your project to like-minded people first. Put your characters, art, teasers out there! If you want people to care about your project you have to give them a reason to care about/get excited about it.

Be prepared to be disliked. This is true for any project because everyone doesn't like everything, but if you are going for horrorporn (or really, anything that could be considered weird i guess) there's a much higher chance of people looking at your stuff and going what the ever loving fuck. Anyway the point is you will need to just do your own thing and try not take certain things personally even if they seem aimed at you personally. Or just be like:

4. ✔️ Just do it. Self explanatory, dont let your dreams be dreams lol.

Thanks very much for asking first! I'm flattered that you want to create fangames like that with my BP characs, but I'm unfortunately going to have to say no at the moment. This is mainly because I haven't got my own project with them out yet and I don't want people to potentially get confused with the origins. Maybe after I start posting and establish the comic more, we can revisit this question :)

Thank you (and to all the other lovely asks like this)! Psh don't worry about being new to being an artist, everyone has to start somewhere!

[crystallizedtwilight]

I really like how you draw what you love in the moment. I am making a shift in my drawing interests as well, but I'm starting to feel guilty. My friends and followers know me as the (insert fandom) artist. Deep down I know what I am feeling is silly. Draw what you love! Who cares! I know that is the truth. So my question to you is, what do you do when those thoughts come to your head (if it does)?

What a thoughtful question! Below the cut:

Thank you! I've been on tumblr for 10 years and I have come to accept that I will always receive certain messages when I begin drawing a new interest:

"Guess you don't draw X anymore" / "Why did you stop drawing X?" / "Are you ever going to draw X again?" / "I want more X" / "When can we expect more X?" / "We're never going to see X again, are we?"

Though I've emphasized many times that this is my blog for all of my art and all my fandoms, every time I switch interests I am swamped with messages like this 3-4 months afterwards. It's an inevitability, because new folks may have missed that this is a "my current interest" blog, and old folks may not like the new content you're interested in.

At first it really bothered me, because I'd draw like 150 pieces of art for a fandom for 6 months straight, need a break, and the next day people will be like "guess you don't care anymore" like all the art I did wasn't enough.

The reality is: I like the idea of managing one blog for all of my artwork. I like how low-stress it is to have one, singular place I can still use a playground for my interests. I think it's a concept some people have forgotten is an option. Dare we call it a portfolio.

I am aware that the more "modern" way to conduct things, if you want to build an audience, is to have several blogs, each dedicated to one of your interests. But the very thought of managing 100 blogs every time I got a new interest makes my skin crawl and I know it would instantly suck the fun out of it for me.

I don't want to do that. I don't want to "build an audience", I just want to have a fun space for me. There are already so many social media sites out there besides tumblr, and if you're an artist that uploads to more than one, multiplying those by each of your fandoms? Sounds like more work than I want to do.

I can't remember the name of the artist, but I recall a few years ago one of the artists for the show Korra was bombarded with these sorts of messages when they started posting art that wasn't Avatar-related. And they said something to the effect of "I gave 2 years of my life to this show. Let me explore something new." And I'll never forget that. I feel the same way.

The theme of this blog is "my art". That's it. My interests change, sometimes circle back, and change again. And that's ok—that's how artists keep art fun for themselves. Every artist deserves a playground where they can share and connect with other people who are also just as excited about their newest thing. That's the joy of it.

Keeping yourself in a box just because that's what people want or expect you to do is the death of creativity. I am at peace with people unfollowing if our interests don't align anymore. This was never a blog for catering to anyone but myself, and that is ok.

So those messages don't bother me anymore. I know they're coming. I know they will always be there. And, every time, I will find new folks who do want to share in my new interest. I think in many ways I like starting over again. It feels refreshing.

But more than that, I know the importance of keep a space for myself online where I can be as creative and fun and silly as I like, chasing after the latest thing that is making me smile.

[1driedpersimmon]

Do you have any advice for people who might want to get into making comics like yours? I'm always pleasantly surprised by how fast you pump them out and even have other little projects/doodles on the side. How do you keep the quality consistent?

(sorry if this sounds a lil cold (?) i rlly love your peppercakes they r so skrunkly)

First off - Thank you !! I'm honored you like my lil guys and comics hehe! (and no worries on the tone !! I didn't think it sounded cold at all!)

Alright secondly lets see...

Short answer: You really just gotta start and keep going!! Once you start you get the momentum and it gets much easier (like riding a bike, which people like to use as comparison often).

Long answer:

Alright I thought about how to answer for this for a bit and I think I'll break it down to the main aspects.

So timing ! Basically I'm drawing 24/7 (and I'm currently not working as it's an off time for me, but I shall in a week and you will see that my posting frequency will decrease substantially). Ok maybe not 24/7 but I essentially am drawing from the moment I wake up to when I sleep (minus eating, restroom, working out, some errands) and while I do not say this is the key to being better, I'm just realistically displaying how much time I'm spending on drawing. (... one of my new years resolution is to not in fact do that and go out more because I feel like I'm being cooped up in my room a lot haha). But minus the amount of time I spend itself a lot of it has to do with the importance I take in speed drawing. And when I say that I mean quite literally how fast I can draw. AND I think a large part of where that speed comes from is how I like to generalize designs and just my overall process of drawing. (Which, I will not go over now but if you'd like I could make a separate post on how I go about doing my usual sketch, lines, colors, etc) Like, I love ff and all of it's crazy designs but it's so complicated I simplify everything till it's juussstt recognizable, and that's something I feel like really adds to the speed of things.

Also that's sweet of you to say for the quality haha (I always am thinking stuff like ah man this aint it... not my finest work, and then just post anyways cuz who cares I already made it heh)! That being said my quality wasn't alwaysss consistent! Here's an example of my very first "comic" I made for my characters:

And here's the same 4 panels I redrew just about 2 years later:

So I've been basically drawing comics for this for just about 2 years now (will be 2 years officially in a few months) and I most certainly did not get here in one night. I think, as I've mentioned, it's really important to keep up with the comic making (or drawing in general) so that, yes, you can get better, but the way you get better is that it becomes familiar to you. So you can approach concepts and ideas with a more experience. And I think a large part of what holds alot of people back is the idea that "ah I can't do this idea I'm not good enough." So what !! Still do it, I most certainly did it a couple years ago when I barely scribbled my ideas. And then you can totally go back and redraw it ! no "Rule" saying you can't go back and revisit your ideas, like hell even professional artists go back and republish their works with their improved art styles ! (ex. Tokyo Ghoul... even though I don't care for the story, it's still pretty cool! I think he even added more scenes? Anyways..). I think there was that one post going around where it was something like do it scared and that's really REALLY what you gotta do.

And that leads to my final point. You gotta love doing it. I like to make comics because I LOVE my characters, their story, and actually the act of putting it all together into a story, drawn comic, visuals, etc. And, I found my method of loving them. For me, what held me back was the "structure" of comics. I mean you can p much see that the way I like to do things is def not the "traditional" manga/western comic book style right? I won't go as far to say that I "made up this way" of comic making where it's one panel at a time but it certainly worked for me. (I have no idea how many comic wips I have collecting dust in my folders from my earilier days of making this comic where I just gave up 20% of the way in because I really could not vibe with the formatting, but then I figured out I really like to "thumbnail" comics (a result of when I was studying storyboards alot imo) and I went on from there).

This is where I feel like alot of people get stuck too. Where they really do like their ideas, their character, their stories and such, but as soon as they try and go through the process of creating in a certain way... the wind is just instantly taken out of their sails. And while I do believe sometimes you just gotta push through and do it anyways, sometimes that's not the right method to go about it. So instead of brute forcing a method of creation and eventually forming a bad relationship with the process, find a method that works for you. And maybe it doesn't look all that great or good compared to others, but that comes in time and as long as you like doing it, that's what really matters at the end of the day.

Tl;dr: be a lil freak, and lil weird about what you do (this applies to everything, not only art :3)

Alright so I think that's all the points? idk if you still want to ask me stuff, feel free to anytime :) Always happy to share my thoughts!

[tchai-castor]

These are my designs for Athena in my future webcomic Athena's Champions. It's a bit messy and not completely finished, but it would be ok to post it.

The first image is my original design, I made it a few months ago. I wanted the gods to have something different so I based their facial characteristics on Mycenaean and Minoan goddess figurines, they often have facial decoration. Some just have a brow that is connected, others have suns painted on their cheeks, and one had the entire nose and part of the forehead painted, I thought it would fit nicely for my desing of Athena.

The last image was an attempt at making a more updated version of the design, but it ended up being a bit messy. It also got to a point where I have so many layers open, that I have no clue where what part of the drawing is. I actually wanted to make a first cover art for my webcomic, with Athena in the back, Odysseus and Diomedes in the front. I might finish it in the future, but at the moment I'm too frustrated with it, so I'm just going to let it go for a while.

I'll share my other designs maybe tomorrow. I've been working on this webcomic for about 3 years now and everytime I get stuck, so the final designs are only now being put together. But at the very least I now have a sort of outline for the chapters and a few of them have been written already, so it has some evolution.

[aresmarked]

hi! throwing this prompt here in case it may speak to you: future mzen at the furniture store scouting out pieces to fill their newly-bought home with

Mizuena deciding on what bed to share is good... but lemme try to go past the first thought here.

post-fic comment: some v light suggestiveness.

-

When Ena says she wants their table to have enough room for her to draw, and still take care of other chores as needed, Mizuki puts her foot down. "I'm ok with a big table." She waggles a finger, the other hand planted for effect against her hip. "But you can't bring Work Art to the Us table, ok? Doodles, that's fine. You could invoke your inner junior high student and draw dicks on everything if you wanted! Or just draw me. But work stuff stays at your work desk."

Ena blinks owlishly, at first. "You know I could still be thinking about it, right? If anything I probably would be."

"Well, yea, I know art bleeds everywhere for you. But we gotta have a space where it's fully break mode, eh? At the very least..." Mizuki reaches, to tap Ena's nose, then lips. "I demand wife privileges at this table."

"...Pfft. Alright, fair enough." Ena leans in, in the mood to kiss her cheek. "I'll be sure to give you your dues at the table."

The moment the words leave her lips she sees Mizuki's expression morph into devilish delight. "And hopefully on—owowow! Enanaaan!"

[hestzhyen]

Chapter 68 Something Posting

A fight, a yap, and a wavering heart. Let's get on with it, dear void.

Rough TL of editor's notes:

First page: 毘灼-昼彦現る!! [Hishaku - Hiruhiko arawaru!!] Hiruhiko of the Hishaku appears!! Last page: 少女は決断する... [shoujo ha ketsudan suru...] The girl decides...

I've been doing full TLs of the Japanese chapters lately so there's going to be more yap from me about some differences between the EN and JP versions from now on- the ones I'm confident in, at least. Practicing for hours every day is starting to pay off.

So, About Hiruhiko...

First off, a TL note because I don't think this will be carried over in English. I'll be very impressed if it is, honestly (spoiler: it wasn't).

Such an easy to hate face.

What Hiruhiko says here in the last panel in Japanese: "Thank you for being born..." "...Samura's daughter (weakness)."

The last bubble says 座村の弱点 [samura no jakuten] "Samura's weakness." But the Ruby over jakuten reads "むすめ [musume]", or "daughter". It's a little trick specific to Japanese that's hard to translate into English, but essentially, Hiruhiko is saying "Samura's daughter" (that's what Iori and Chihiro would hear), while the kanji for "weakness" is there for the audience's benefit so we know what he really means. Not great for Iori either way though. She's truly just a pawn to Hiruhiko and the Hishaku as a whole.

OK. With that out of the way... I'm gonna be honest. It's hard for me to be objective about a character I dislike so much even under ideal conditions. And what we got this chapter was cool but it was also, uh...

Clown doing clown things and getting treated seriously.

Yeah. What the hell?

So, it's not completely unheard of for an amateur to win a duel against an experienced fighter just because they're unpredictable and a little lucky. Shit happens, you know? Sengoku (hotel manager dude) dying to Hiruhiko was kind of lame, but I was willing to let it slide. Until Hokazono-sensei did the thing you're not supposed to do with offscreen fights- he explained how Hiruhiko won in such a lame way that I'm now completely fed up with this character, the whole Escort Iori subplot, and want this sidequest to end ASAP so we can move on with the larger story.

Swapping the hand the sword is held in behind his back then doing a quick running slash isn't really an unbeatable display of swordsmanship in my opinion. It's more like a carnival or sword dancer trick; something for the aesthetic wow rather than actually being effective in combat. It's not convincing. And Chihiro being able to detect the trick while a master of a sword style couldn't doesn't hold water with me. I think this is genuinely the first time I was disappointed by getting context in Kagurabachi! That's alright though, no manga's perfect and it doesn't take away from the awesome perspective shots this chapter.

There's something I do like despite being thoroughly fed up with Hiruhiko and his bullshit:

An "aura farming" moment, as the dudebros would say. I agree.

Chihiro still isn't there with his swordsmanship, but this situation should look familiar:

Early art style jumpscare.

Chihiro learned from Sojo and forced Hiruhiko to call his bluff or risk both of them being decapitated. The momentum from Hiruhiko's swing probably would have meant Chihiro got hit and died too- but he counted on Hiruhiko backing off and won the bet. I love seeing this kind of shit man. Chihiro! You're always so cool! Always happy to see a protagonist that learns more than moral lessons from their enemies.

Also just for funny...

[Nathan Explosion voice] Brutal

This is the third time Chihiro's gotten blood in his eyes. He better be careful or he's gonna get hepatitis or some other nasty illness soon.

Iori and the Masumi

I wanna hug the Masumi so bad. We don't know anything about how they were raised but they're so clearly parallels to Hakuri with being raised as tools to value the mission over their lives. Please, please, please let nothing horrible happen to them. Toto's still hanging around and Kuguri's whereabouts are unknown so... please. Chihiro needs them so badly- they're the only people so far who have been able to force him to chill at all.

"Putting a timer on this fight for everyone's sake"- the editor, possibly (but not likely).

Did we need a key to add more tension? Well, we got it anyway. Cultural context: Given the appearance shown in this chapter, the lantern almost certainly an 石灯籠 [ishidourou]- the type of guardian lantern usually made out of stone and commonly found in Shintoist temples or as traditional garden decorations. They don't have any particular religious significance nowadays but they look nice when lights are placed inside for special occasions.

After the last "timer" (recovering Hakuri's sorcery) was thrown out the window, I'm not going to have any expectations on how this plays out. Instead I choose to hope that this delivery subquest being added means we'll hit the climax for this escort mission next chapter or the week after that. Between Chihiro reminding us of the countdown timer for Samura to move, the need for the key, and Kuguri's whereabouts being unknown, I think we'll get a cliffhanger on the issue of Iori's memories and/or Chihiro's fight with Hiruhiko next chapter then the resolutions the week after. Please. Normally I'm content to let authors cook but I'm genuinely getting more than a little frustrated with how all this is playing out.

"The only one" bearing the pain of a burden, hmm...

Iori's wavering and Chihiro's words about it being better to live with the truth seem to be eating at her. Everyone wants her to feels safe as an ordinary girl, but she's clearly not so sure about her decision to go back to normal life. She's keeping those memories now or I'm busting out the clown suit with the wig and everything.

I wonder if Iori will also parallel Chihiro's desire to go it alone. She has every right to confront Samura for leaving her behind, and I can see her wanting to bear the pain of their experience together as father and daughter. I'm looking forward to her development and where she goes- my heart will shatter if she becomes what Chihiro wanted to be with Kunishige. Parent and child, facing the guilt and life's challenges together. Willfully inheriting the legacy that Samura tried to spare her from.

Of course, Samura probably will refuse to let her, but shouldn't she have the choice? Iori's old enough now to understand what happened and decide for herself. Samura doesn't have to do this alone if his daughter wants to bear his sins with him. He doesn't have to do it at all if she's willing to help him find another way or absolve him! But he's so mired in guilt that he might be beyond all saving...

Ignorant bliss seems to be a kindness from Samura's point of view.

Iori knows what happened when she was a child, but she doesn't know the real reason why. And I feel like Samura won't tell her because he wants to spare her that much- he wants his little girl to live free from his burden. So she'll have to find out with Chihiro from Shiba or another adult who witnessed The Incident. Man, I hope we get back to this main plot thread soon. There's so much to uncover that the fight with Hiruhiko feels like a sideshow (as cool as the action shots are).

New vs. Old

If only he'd been correct about Hiruhiko's fighting "style" being dogshit.

What a nice master. Too bad his 150 year old technique was no match for a dumb pink frog holding a sword for the first time.

I was chatting with an acquaintance and he brought up an excellent point about our favourite Genius trio- each one of them has a different approach to legacy and tradition based on what they experienced.

"Legacy" and how it affects the younger generations is the core idea of Kagurabachi. Chihiro's dealing with his father's and his key foils each have had some exploration into the theme themselves.

Chihiro: raised with love and care -> respects tradition -> using the White Purity style to defend his dad's legacy and forge a new path for himself

Hakuri: abused and neglected -> hates tradition -> used the holy grail of his family's ethos (storehouse + isou) to destroy their legacy and forge a new path for them all

Hiruhiko: ??? -> doesn't care about tradition -> completely disregards it for the Hishaku's ambition and forges his own path

The only missing piece right now is Hiruhiko's full backstory- what did he experience (besides John spoiling him) that led him to care not a whit for tradition and ignore it completely? He's in the middle of Chihiro and Hakuri's approaches in how and why they fight. Chihiro is building off of tradition to do something new, Hakuri completely demolished his family's, and Hiruhiko... exists.

All three of them are going to be figuring out how to maximise their own strengths by themselves for the most part, but how closely they cleave to tradition while doing it says a lot about their characters and what they experienced. I'm not exactly dying to know Hiruhiko's backstory but if we're gonna have to get it at some point, may as well complete this little trio of contrasts.

Iori can absolutely be added to this comparison list too even if she's not a genius, we just have to see where she goes from here. I love all these deliberately constructed contrasts!

Small Complaint

Missing: my wife, Azami. Last seen: two months ago. Reward offered for information that leads to location.

...Alright. I know I'm getting frustrated in large part because I hate Hiruhiko. The faster he gets offscreen again, the happier I'll be.

I'm also champing at the bit to get to the Kamunabi's nonsense. Azami, Shiba, all those council people whose names we still don't have- what are they up to? Where the hell have Hiyuki and Tafuku been? And we seriously can't even get a single half-page checking in on Hakuri or the folks at Kamunabi HQ before going back to Chihiro? Come on, man...

So I guess the faster we're done with Samurabachi, the better. I don't want it to rush but I hope we don't go on any more sidequests to rescue surprise MacGuffins. It's a bit uncharitable to say that, I know, but those are my honest feelings. I like most of the characters we're dealing with right now but I'm tired of wondering when we'll get to the million other things that have been set up and teased since the first arc. The new guys seem preoccupied with just the immediate development stuff so where are the other folks at?! I need lingering questions answered or I'm going to get too frustrated to continue each week before long...

A lot of it is I need a break too. The action is cool and it's been hype but there's seriously not enough time spent giving catharsis. The point about Chihiro pushing himself too hard is getting me exhausted as a reader, too. I get it. He's tired and going to break sooner or later. But when? How many more times are we gonna be bonked over the head with how bad his condition is before the watershed moment?

We've been edged about so many things that keep piling up and I'm truly numb at this point. I'm waiting for this fight to finish and praying that we get a full yap chapter for information I'm in that bad of a state. No teasing, just some fucking answers that don't raise a million more questions. Even learning what Azami's sorcery is would be a relief at this point.

Okay. More fight next week, and maybe some hope of moving on. Give yourself a treat today, dear void, and I'll see you next time.

[ramblingoak]

Mini Golf and Kisses

Mushy May in Lucifer's Hollow: Day 7 - First Kiss

Mountain x Rain

This fic is set in an alternate universe in a town called Lucifer's Hollow. For Mushy May I'll be using the prompts to post little snippets of life for the humans and ghouls that live there 💙 Thank you to @forlorn-crows for putting Mushy May together!

~ In Lucifer's Hollow Mountain has a little farm and sells flowers at the local farmer's market. Rain meets him there while selling his art. ~

Warnings: none, sfw, 700 words and thank you to @ghuleh-recs for the dividers!

Mountain didn’t want the night to end.

He drove back to Rain’s as slow as he thought he could get away with.  Taking his time at each stop sign and skipping the main road through town to take the long way.  When he snuck a glance over at Rain the water ghoul had a little smile on his face so Mountain didn’t think he minded.  When they’d finally pulled into Rain’s driveway, Mountain couldn’t bring himself to speak.  He didn’t want to do anything to break the spell of the night.

It was Rain that finally ended up being the brave one to speak first.   

“I had a really great time tonight Mountain.”

He resisted the urge to pump his fist in the air but barely, instead he kept his hands on the steering wheel.  Mountain was afraid if he took them off Rain would see how badly they were shaking from his nerves.

“I did too.”  He turned to give Rain a soft smile, appreciating once again how good he looked in Mountain��s sweater.  After a moment the smile turned into a smirk and he couldn’t help but tease him.  “Despite you cheating.”

“I’m never going to live that down am I?”  

Rain was looking at him with such fondness it made Mountain’s heart ache.  He’d give anything to be able to see that look every day from here on out.

“Cheating at mini golf is a shameful thing.  I’ll need to put a notice out in the paper about it.  Warn everyone in town.”  Mountain couldn’t help but grin when Rain rolled his eyes.  “No one will ever want to take you on a date there.”

For a second something sad seemed to flit across Rain’s face but it was gone before Mountain blinked.  He muttered an old Ghoulish curse under his breath while he reached over and took one of Rain’s hands.  Mountain marveled again at how soft they were, at how delicate.  They were just as lovely as the rest of him.

“I need to apologize for a couple of things.”

Mountain raised an eyebrow at Rain’s words, squeezing the ghoul’s fingers to try and reassure him.

“Apologize for what?  You haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Well, only one apology is for you.  Technically.”  Rain took a deep breath and Mountain squeezed his hand again.  “I’m afraid you won’t be getting your sweater back.  Ever.”

Mountain couldn’t stop the pleased grin from forming on his face even if he tried.  He also couldn’t stop the rumbling deep in his chest, something old and primal coming to life at the thought of Rain keeping something of his.  Something he made with his own hands.

“I’d be ok with that.”

“Good, because it’s very soft and warm.  And it smells like you.”

Their eyes connected in the dark, the only light that illuminated them was from some fairy lights Rain had dangling along his front porch.  

“What was the other apology?”

“That one isn’t for you, it’s for my mom.”  Mountain raised an eyebrow, curious as to why the water ghoul was bringing his mom up right now of all times.  Rain turned towards him, scooting a little closer on the bench seat.  His eyes were bright and so blue as he looked up into Mountain’s, his next words whispered like a dark confession.  “I always promised her I’d never put out on a first date.”

That rumbling was back, louder this time and Mountain found himself tugging on the hand he was still holding.  Tugging until Rain was practically in his lap.  He reached up and cupped Rain’s face, gently stroking a thumb along his cheekbone.  

“I’m sure she’ll forgive you.”

“I think so too.”  Rain leaned closer until there was barely any room between them.  “Mountain?”

“Yes?”

“I need you to kiss me now.”

Mountain didn’t even hesitate, he cradled Rain’s head in his hands and brought their lips together.  The kiss was perfect just like Rain, just like their date had been, just like all the times they had spent together so far…

And just like the rest of their lives together would be.

If you'd like to be added/removed from the tag list (or if I accidentally left your name off) of this fic or any of my others please leave a comment or send me a dm! Thank you 💙

My Masterlist ~ My Archive of our Own ~ My Ko-Fi Tip Jar

More fics in the Tales From Lucifer's Hollow masterpost

[smoshidiot]

vidcon 2024 !

hi guys this is my rambly post abt my experience at vidcon this year if anyone wants to read abt it! overall i wanna say that it was absolutely incredible and i def wanna go back next yearr

DAY 1: check in! literally nothing youtube related happened this day but it was fun as hell to check out the venue and meet up with my friends

DAY 2: smosh meet and greet day. holy shit. in the morning was anthony's ISADW matpat panel and besties when i tell you i was worried he wouldn't be there until I SAW HIM WITH MY TWO EYES. but incredibly he does exist? and he DID show up to vidcon? the panel was such a blast and it was interesting to hear about how the past few months have been for matpat. it was also just cool as hell knowing the rest of smosh was waiting right behind the curtain 🥹 and we could see nicole off to the side enjoying the panel. also shout out to @smoshkidtv who i got to meet before the panel and is legit the greatest i love them sm ok ty

then, almost right after, there's a post on socials that's like "get to the M&G early if you want free essentials merch!" so ofc me and a few friends BOOK it up to the M&G line and are prepared to sit and wait for like 4h lmao. we pass the time by watching smosh the movie and it goes by surprisingly quickly. after being moved into the official queue it's really not that long before smosh shows up and the nerves HIT. luckily we did show up early enough for the merch (smh for 4h we better have lmaoo) and it was so cool to talk to some of the crew (kiana/erica) passing it out. then the whole smosh cast comes out. weirdly the FIRST person i saw was marcus lmao but it was great to see him (and his eyebrows) in person.

i was near the very front of the line so i really didn't even have that much time to prep before i went up with my bestie of all time @smoshmonker! but waaaa ok so we go up and anthony calls out the shirt i'm wearing bc it's a recreation of my fave 2006 catch em all shirt

he asks if i bought it from smosh.com and i go "i made it actually!" and he's like :000 and thinks it's really cool until spencer yells "DUPE" and they all get fake mad at me LMAO. i remember ian going "we're gonna sue your ass" and i'll cherish that forever. anyways then i introduce myself and say that i do art n shit and nearly forget to say my name. but holy shit guys... the second i go "my name is ana", i see ian and anthony LIGHT up 🥺 they immediately recognized me and seemed excited to see me, it was genuinely so surreal. i didn't get to talk to anthony much directly bc he was standing in the back but it looked like he WANTED to say smth to me and even that was wild. and ian was so fuckin sweet and complimentary abt my art. then i ask if we can do a friendship always wins highfive pose. ofc i ask if ian and anthony can reach each other even tho they're not standing right next to each other. bc quite frankly, what's the point of doing this pose if the besties aren't highfiving?

then the second pose was more of a surprise for @yourinterestisnotcringe hehe. we brought out a potato plush for ian to hold and he was too fuckin cute about it. he was absolutely charmed by the idea of the lil potato plush and i love this pose that he went for lmao

then as we're about to leave, ian surprises my by going "thank you for all of the cool art that you make!" and i'm just .. on fucking cloud 9. i go absolutely breathless for a moment when ian hecox, standing right in front of me, thanks me for the stuff that i make. i stutter out smth like "sorry but can i hug you?" and him being the sweetest man ever goes "absolutely!" and goes in for the hug 😭💕 it was the perfect hug and i'll forever have the mental image of his lil gold chain sparkling in the light.

then we go off to the side and @squig-s is there talking to erica and kiana again and ?? they introduce me to alé? who was so freakin cool and lovely and reached out to shake my hand. then to be quite honest we all leave the meet and greet and have a good fuckin cry bc we JUST MET SMOSH

DAY 3: panel day! we get there early as FUCK bc we have a Plan(tm) and need to be in the front row to execute it lmao. like 10 months ago we had the plan for a bunch of us to dress as that damn neighbor at vidcon and damn it, we WENT for it.

also here's ian and anthony (and damien lol) shouting us out at the beginning of the panel

the panel itself was a ton of fun! it was a live reading of reddit stories and one of them was NUTS. it was such a blast to receive a live update tbh. then RIGHT after the reddit panel ended, we had to book it upstairs to get seats for the smosh mouth panel.

I don't remember a ton from this one other than them talking about boobs for most of it. also !! krungle is returning!! i'm so fuckin excited i'd die for krungle i can't wait to have her back. also anthony was sitting on the ground off to the side of the panel and i made awkward eye contact w him a few times lol. i am also honestly bummed that ian wasn't the guest for this one, but spencer and angela were great and they really just goofed off for an hour, it was a fun time.

DAY 4: the last day of vidcon </3 there wasn't a ton on the schedule today regarding smosh, but i DID have a slot for the mari meet and greet so i made sure to go check that out and ?? holy shit ALL of OGSoG was there 🥺 i had actually met them before at a con years ago and it was so wild to see them again, i really didn't think i'd be able to. this meet and greet was SO much more chill than smosh just based on nerves. these 4 were honestly so sweet and the vibes were so fuckin goofy it was lovely ♡ also who's gonna tell joven that this isn't a heart

then we had the mythical kitchen panel! it was a lot of fun even tho i only rly knew trevor and josh oop. trevor was such a sweetheart and stayed after at the end to take some pics and i got one with him on my fuckin 3DS lmao. i love the crunch of this pic, it's one of my faves from the weekend tbh. also i pray to GOD that he wears this hoodie again. he looks so good in pink

but that's pretty much it! idk if anyone is even reading this so hi if u did ♡ it was such a magical week and i'm so so so fuckin grateful for it all

[teddie-bear420]

tier list

OPINONS UNDER THE CUT

warning this is super long and ranty but does have some silly doodles ill post else where :)

-teddie bear 420

I have had several dreams about vaggie and lute and alastor, they plage my every waking moment. one was me going to smooch city with alastor (very scary that man does not wash his teeth). the others vaggie just shows up sometimes

really liked vaggie in her angel flash back, her hair cut was so cute, not a fan she still has pink eye but what eves. I LOVE HER PONY TAIL THO, give my girl better hair styles!!!

do you think theyve explored each others bodies?

I hated lute at first cuz, just look at her. you could get snow blindness with how white that woman is oh my lord. but once the 8th episode rolled around with hot women fighting my brain kinda clicked on for our old second in command. i keep going back to her in my brain and slowly morphing her into a heart broken lesbian who has a superiority complex and bullies her crush and then moves on to having a sugar mama situation ship with Lilith.

alastor is just so fun and silly, and there's this one x reader fic that ive made fan art of, you've all seen it. i just love this guy but i like to imagine he's a woman just for me :)

i understand why he is a fan favorite

i love charlies look but i hate how childish she is, like girl you are like 24 kill your friends pimp. nifty molly emily are all so cute and i enjoy looking at them. cant wait for the nifty episode (delusional)

i do love nifty more than the rest of these ones tho. i see lots of folks talking about how nifty is alastors daughter or angel dusts little baby daughter SHUT UP

SHES 25 YEARS OLD AND MURDERED HER HUSBAND IN HER SLEEP. NIFTY CALLED ALASTOR OVER TO HAVE THEIR LUNCH DATE AND HIDE THE BODY!!!

OK maybe nifty lives in my dreams too

do you think theyve explored each others bodies?

mimzy makes me mad cuz the show hated having her there clearly, like why is she the only fat person in hell. dont worry girl, I'll appreciate you once again i have to make alastor a dyke for my own sanity

do you think they-

lilith and rosie are good to look at, i like how rosie talks and her showtunes, god i love her show tunes. pentious is the only yellow dude in hell. velvete looks like ass most of the time but I LOVE A BAD BITCH

like i said, no strong feelings

ok most of these dudes are too ugly or too annoying and i hate when they are on screen, lucifers pants are his skin, angel dust has the worst fashoin sense ever UGHS I HATE HIM WHERE ARE HIS TITS WAAAAAA

also i love that her name is sarah, thats such a basic name, like i can type alastor x reader and theres a bunch of results but if i typed sarah x reader, shes no where :(

also shes got that mlp horse face going on i love it

i despise carmilla carmine, i hate her dumb horns, i hate her unnamed daughters, i hate her skirt, i hate her song, i hate her blazed ass eyes, i hate her long hair

vox just looks bad i cant lie

OK ADUM MAKES ME SO MAD HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN JACK BLACK WE SHOULD HAVE SEEN HIM BEING A FAT BASTARD CUZ I WAS CONVINCED HE WAS ANOTHER SKINNY TWINK also i am an anti shipper when it comes to adum x lute cuz that shit is weaaaak. he is so mean to her and not in a hot way, adum is some incel and lute is a goddess

yeah, #adumisoverparty 2024 the most divorced man in heaven

i can not wait for season two dude, im so pumped

[ccmatta]

please, enlighten me of some more Linda headcanons 👁️👁️ (if you’d like to)

Ok, wow, so... I'm still building her, I don't know if I have that many (edit: I do, lol). I don't even have her last name yet lol. I just started liking her a lot after she ended up having a big role in my m2 longfic. But her real name is Lile (like Lily, but... different lmao). She's still a work in progress and I guess I'll have something more solid after writing more about her. that said, ok, the things I have for now (edit: and I'll put under the cut because it's getting too long lmao):

She's around 1 year older than Matt and Mello.

She's extremelly grounded, practical and knows what she wants. I can quote a scene where Matt asked her why she wore pigtails ("childish hair style" he said) being 16, she was like "I like it" -- and she's like that with pretty much everything. At the same time, she gets excited with silly things, is pretty lively and doesn't care too much about what others think. In my longfic, Matt describes her as something like "she can turn from a grown up to a child in a blink".

Which brings us to the fact that she meddles too much into people's lives. She has that mentality that people are a good source to create things and this makes her want to really get to know people, as if they're the art itself. It's her reason to get closer to Near (as much as she can because that boy is difficult lol), and even Matt (and I think Mello scares her lmao so she doesn't even try). People fascinate her. But that made her be seen as annoying growing up at Wammy's. And that leads us to something i'm not 100% set yet (but maybe 90% xD): all this makes her decide to study neuroaesthetics when she's at/after university.

She had a small crush on Matt for a while. And when she finally got closer to him (after Mello's left), it grew way stronger than she was confortable with.

A little quote that serves as an exemple of how I write her:

Linda: You look awful. Matt: I know. Linda: Want to talk? Matt: Not really. Linda: Okay, I’ll just sit at your desk and draw, then.

And this one from another thing i've just finished, when asked what she'll do after Wammy's:

“Well, following in L’s footsteps? Probably not. Near’s already gearing up for that. And even without–“, she nearly let something slip about Mello again, so she stifled the words before they escaped. “…without Near doing it, I’m just third in line, no chance. I’ll live my life. Go to college. Grow as an artist. There are some research fields I’m pretty interested in.“

Now, backstory that I'm still trying to figure out, so don't take it as a 100% done:

Before Wammy's House, she basically took care of her sick parent (maybe mental illness, maybe physical, who knows). And maybe that's why she's quite centered. She only had one living parent (either mother or father, idk yet), so when they died, the path was like random orphanage -> oh look she's so smart -> watari comes -> she arrives at wammy's. Or something like that. I don't remember how old she was when she appeared in my fic for the first time, maybe 12~13, and I don't think she got there too young either, so maybe around 10~11.

I thiiiiiiiiiink she's from Ireland? asfdhuasofhasoihd

I'm inclined to make her parent having some kind of mental illness because I write Matt pretty depressed after Mello's gone, and she knows how to deal with him.

Now random stuff. I'll repeat myself from the last post: oh she totally listened to Jonas Brothers and McFly. Any boyband, actually. Backstreet Boys? Oh hell yeah. If she could, her room'd be filled with posters. She liked manga too, mainly because of the art style -- and she read shoujo the most. She kinda dated some random guy at Wammy's.

aaaaaaaaand done :D ashdoasidh that's what my version of Linda is becoming. At the moment I'm pretty obsessed about her. I know she's basically an OC but I don't care, I love her and she's canon 😡 And I liked the way I wrote her and Matt interacting. How she grounds him and yet they can be completely silly together. And how she's the oposite of Mello; she's something stable. Something I believe Matt'd need after his boyfriend best friend left. And, by what I've wrote, she brings back something Matt thought he had lost inside him. (yeah, she was made initially to support Matt, but who caaaaaaaareeeesssss)

And the first drawing I made of her, to make my post pretty:

[koheletgirl]

would you have the time/energy/interest to post a review of the wicked movie? i would be very interested to hear your thoughts! i wasn't thinking i wanted to see it but a lot of people are gushing about it now. . .so im open to being persuaded

yes absolutely!!!

this got long. take a shot every time i say musical

ok the first thing you need to know is i hate movie adaptations of musicals as a concept. i think a piece of media is created within a medium for a reason, and there have been so few occasions where adapting it into a different medium has not only been a good idea but also had some sort of value to add to the art itself. and with musicals it's more evident to me than with anything else, because to me an essential part of any musical is some fucking whimsy. musicals are at least somewhat camp, by virtue of being musicals. and with stuff like the les mis musical—which is very serious in every way except the fact that it is a musical—you can't really adapt it into a movie without either making it seem ridiculous or stripping it off of it's fucking whimsy. aaaand movie directors simply don't seem to get that musicals are the way they are because they're *supposed* to be that way, so the result is usually a movie that feels like it's ashamed of being a musical. the les mis musical is a musical because it *wants* to he a musical, otherwise it would have been something else. and tom hooper my bestie tom hooper. you could have just made a movie adaptation of the book.

ANYWAY. bringing us back to wicked, i think it's so rare to see a movie adaptation of a musical that doesn't seem to want to distract you from the fact that it's a musical. that doesn't seem like it's ashamed of it. that *loves* being a musical.

(in the heights is a good example, but they for some reason felt the need to change the entire plot. chicago is another good one imo)

wicked is THAT. it feels like it was created by people who genuinely love musical theater, and who genuinely love wicked. (and the wizard of oz, and cinema as a medium, and music as a medium). wicked has a heart. almost no movies have hearts nowadays. it leans into being a musical, it leans into being a movie musical, it leans into being an adaptation, and has so much love and respect for every piece of art it builds on. it changes almost nothing about the musical, because it knows that's not its place; it exists to bring this piece that already exists into a new medium, and to examine what that new medium can add to it in a meaningful way.

which is why, as far as i could tell, what makes the movie so much longer than the play is simply the introduction of cinema into the existing material. close ups, interesting angles, establishing shots—things you can do because you're making a movie, rather than meaningless attempts to add material to an already existing narrative. the only new song the film introduces is an addition they wrote into an existing song, and it's not there under the pretense of "adding" anything—it's there as a nod to the original play and a fun moment for the audience.

the acting is good. the singing is mostly good, and i can forgive michelle yeoh because she's a goddess. people say the casting was perfect, and i agree to an extent, but where i think this movie truly excels is the directing. ariana was great, but what made her so great imo is how *glinda* she was, and i think that credit goes to the director. she has clearly done her research on this character, but so has jon m. chu and that is *noticeable*. cynthia erivo is perfection i have nothing to say.

to put it simply, jon m. chu put his whole pussy into wicked. he understood the assignment, and he executed it nearly perfectly. and i do have more to say but i don't want this to get too long and spoilery so i'll leave it at that.

wicked is good because it feels like everyone who made it loves musical theater, and more importantly, they love wicked. go see it