#or out of fear

[bluecornfrito]

Continuation/Last part of Team Tamlin rant. previous ^

acotar/acomaf/acowar spoilers (hella)

So Tamlin traps Feyra in him home, she has a panic attack and gets taken. When Feyra is taken to the Night Court that last time, it’s the last time we see Tamlin until the end of the book. There are several months where we go without seeing him. In this time, Feyra heals from her traumas and past. She learns to accept herself and starts the journey of loving herself. All while, Tamlin is now considered a villain. He’s talked about very poorly. There is not a single person who says anything good about him. (Except Lucien). Which, yes, is completely fair. Feyras experience was awful and her way of reacting and coping is justified. I love her.

We don’t know what’s going on with Tamlin, so let’s fast forward to the end of the book. At the end of the book, the Inner Circle and Feyra travel to the King of Hyberns castle. They break in and find the cauldron. They attempt to destroy it, that backfires (obviously), and then it’s revealed to be a trap (who coulda thought). Hybern does his lil villain rant. Then a big reveal plays out.

Tamlin and Lucien have made a deal with Mr. Hybern in order to get Feyra back (what! What! What!) . This makes absolutely No Sense. Tamlin, the High Lord of the Spring Court, making a deal with The Worst Fucking Person In This Series? A man who goes against ALL the morals that Tamlin had previously expressed he disagreed with? What? This doesn’t feel right. And then Hybern bring in Feyras SISTERS? This whole scene is fucking crazy and I could go on about it but that’s not why we’re here.

When Hybern states what he’s going to do to her sisters, Tamlin fights back. He tries to get him to stop. “This wasn’t part of our bargain”. Woah, alright. Basically Tamlin made a bargain with the King of Hybern to get Feyra back. Oh, and to break the bond between Feyra and Rhysand, the bargain that ties them together. In the beginning of this scene, Tamlin talks to Feyra roughly, likes he’s ordering her. He tries to grab to, to get to her.

Rhysand has made a name of himself, especially to Tamlin. High Lord of the Night Court. Ruthless and mean. Murderer, manipulator, liar. Rhysand is Not a good person and there’s No Way Feyra wasn’t being controlled by him in that moment. There’s no way that the High Lord hasn’t hurt her. Why wouldn’t he? Was it just to get at Tamlin? To steal the woman he loves, his bride? That doesn’t matter, because Feyra is being manipulated by him, there’s no doubt.

When Feyra was taken that last day, we stop seeing Tamlin. Tamlin becomes a different person when that happens. He kills the sentries that we’re on duty, even though they had nothing to do with it. He destroys his home, throws a giant tantrum. Because it Happened Again. This time, under his roof. Without him there. Even with the shield. He had Just Left. Did he believe Alis when she told him what happened? Did he truly believe that Feyra was having a panic attack, a severe trauma response to what He did? I don’t think he fully understands, but eventually he realizes that he Was driving her away. Bargain or no bargain. He was pushing her away, sheltering her from even himself.

He becomes a different person, someone who would do Anything to get back the woman he loves from the Villain of the story. Rhysand was his villain. That was his goal, to see Rhysands head on a stick for taking her. I could guess and guess about what had even DRAWN him to Hybern in the first place but, I don’t want to do that.

Tamlin would do anything, even making a deal with someone who was Evil, because that was the only person who could do it. Who could break that bond and free Feyra from Rhysands grasp.

Because that wasn’t her. Whoever had sent that note, it wasn’t Feyra. She was illiterate. And the Night Court definitely didn’t have any reading classes. She was in danger, she was being hurt and he couldn’t do anything. So he does something. Something that would bring her right to him, and he could grab her and save her. He was saving her.

Then he sees her. He doesn’t believe that’s her, not for a second. That wasn’t Feyra, that was someone with a shell of a mind being controlled by Rhysand. He tries to fight against the sisters being harmed. He tried to get to Feyra at every chance. And then light fills the room, coming from Her. Then it goes away and she’s looking at Him. Not at Hybern or her sisters or Rhysand, but at Tamlin. She looks so scared, lost and-

She says his name and there she was. The woman he loved. The woman who saved him, he had finally saved her. Then the bond was broken and they were free to go home. Home to the Spring Court. Where he wouldn’t push her away. Where he’d let her be involved and know what was happening. He wouldn’t isolate her like before.

… And then Feyra literally destroys the Spring Court and I have a Hefty amount of mixed feelings about that but, anyways. His court falls apart around him. His sentries are becoming hostile, Ianthes role was falling apart and she was becoming untrustworthy, and Feyra and Lucien’s relationship is different than before. The night he found them in Lucien’s room, after she had looked at Tamlin all night. The rumors of them sharing a tent while out at the wall. She was distant from him, even though he was trying. He was still doing the wrong things. He Hurt Her. He let his anger slip and the shield that had protected her before, wasn’t there. He hurt the woman he sought to protect.

Then, it comes crashing down. Hyberns soldiers were dead, Ianthe has a crushed hand, and Feyra and Lucien were gone. His sentries turned on him and they left. Feyra was gone. Ianthe gets her memories back, and he learns the truth of what happened. What She had said.

I think this is when he truly fully realizes that Feyras mind had always been her own. That she had told the truth. And he walked right into her trap. She snared him and now all he had was a broken Court to show his failures.

Hybern and his army enter. Tamlin can’t stop it. He can’t stop anything Hybern is doing. He had nothing, no one. No one was on his side. He hated Hybern. He hated everything the man was. But he had to work with him, where else would he go? He’s already viewed as a traitor, because of the bargain and that his home is now the base for Hybern.

He still had his morals. No matter how broken he was, how lost and confused, he knew that what Hybern was doing and planning for, was Wrong. That it Couldn’t Happen. So Tamlin takes a risk. A big risk.

The meeting scene was a lot and it just made me sad to see how Quick they all were to turn against him. He gave them valuable information, said he was on their side. How was it fair that the high lords seemed so quick to forgive and forget everything Rhysand did the past several centuries, but turn against Tamlin within the span of a year? He was Trying.

Okay, I’m rambling and losing my point so I’ll wrap this all up with my take away.

I think Tamlin is a Good Guy, with good intentions and goals and morals. Nothing he does throughout the series screams EVIL! He’s a guy with very bad coping skills who everyone is quick to draw as the villain. The way they describe him in Silver Flames, that he never leaves his beast form, that he stalks and prowls the Spring Court. It makes me sad that his character got misinterpreted so badly. We see his goodness when he gives over information, he see his goodness when he saves Feyra at the camp, we see it when he comes to help in the battle, when he revives Rhysand (who has been HIS villain the entire time) because he finally understands that Feyra has a different life and path. And he tells her to just be happy? And after all this he’s STILL labeled as an awful guy by Everyone.

I just desperately need a Tamlin redemption arc and I hope we see some of it in SJM next novel (which I have theories about AH)

Okay, these posts were a dumpster fire of ramblings about how I feel about Tamlin and what was going through his head. There’s more I can say but there’s other things I’d like to talk about.

[genericpuff]

Tbh at this point you should just make your own webcomic app/website because it would probably be 100 times better than whatever going on with webtoon right now.

hahaha it wouldn't tho, sorry 💀

Here's the fundamental issue with webcomic platforms that a lot of people just don't realize (and why they're so difficult to run successfully):

Storage costs are incredibly expensive, it's why so many sites have limitations on file sizes / page sizes / etc. because all of those images and site info have to be stored somewhere, which costs $$$.

Maintenance costs are expensive and get more so as you grow, you need people who are capable of fixing bugs ASAP and managing the servers and site itself

Financially speaking, webcomics are in a state of high supply, low demand. Loads of artists are willing to create their passion projects, but getting people to read them and pay for them is a whole other issue. Demand is high in the general sense that once people get attached to a webtoon they'll demand more, but many people aren't actually willing to go looking for new stuff to read and depend more on what sites feed them (and what they already like). There are a lot of comics to go around and thus a lot of competition with a limited audience of people willing to actually pay for them.

Trying to build a new platform from the ground up is incredibly difficult and a majority of sites fail within their first year. Not only do you have to convince artists to take a chance on your platform, you have to convince readers to come. Readers won't come if there isn't work on the platform to read, but artists won't come if they don't think the site will be worth it due to low traffic numbers. This is why the artists with large followings who are willing to take chances on the smaller sites are crucial, but that's only if you can convince them to use the site in favor of (or alongside) whatever platform they're using already where the majority of their audience lies. For many creators it's just not worth the time, energy, or risk.

Even if you find short-term success, in the long-term there are always going to be profit margins to maintain. The more users you pull in, the more storage is used by incoming artists, the more you have to spend on storage and server maintenance costs, and that means either taking the risk at crowdfunding (ex. ComicFury) or having to resort to outsider investments (ex. Tapas). Look at SmackJeeves, it used to be a titan in the independent webcomic hosting community, until it folded over to a buyout by NHN and then was pretty much immediately shuttered due to NHN basically turning it into a manwha scanlation site and driving away its entire userbase. And if you don't get bought out and try your hand at crowdfunding, you may just wind up living on a lifeline that could cut out at any moment, like what happened to Inkblazers (fun fact, the death of Inkblazers was what kicked off the cultural shift in Tapas around 2015-16 when all of IB's users migrated over and brought their work with them which was more aimed towards the BL and romancee drama community, rather than the comedy / gag-a-day culture that Tapas had made itself known for... now you deadass can't tell Tapas apart from a lot of scanlation sites because it got bought out by Kakao and kept putting all of its eggs into the isekai/romance drama basket.)

Right now the mindset in which artists and readers are operating is that they're trying way, way too hard to find a "one size fits all" site. Readers want a place where they can find all their favorite webtoons without much effort, artists wants a place where they can post to an audience of thousands, and both sides want a community that will feel tight-knit. But the reality is that you can't really have all three of those things, not on one site. Something always winds up having to be sacrificed - if a site grows big enough, it'll have to start seeking more funding while also cutting costs which will result in features becoming paywall'd, intrusive ads, creators losing their freedom, and/or outsider support which often results in the platform losing its core identity and alienating its tight-knit community.

If I had to describe what I'm talking about in a "pick one" graphic, it would look something like this:

(*note: this is mostly based on my own observations from using all of these sites at some point or another, they're not necessarily entirely accurate to the statistical performance of each site, I can only glean so much from experience and traffic trackers LMAO that said I did ask some comic pals for input and they were very helpful in helping me adjust it with their own takes <3).

The homogenization of the Internet has really whipped people into submission for the "big sites" that offer "everything", but that's never been the Internet, it relies on being multi-faceted and offering different spaces for different purposes. And we're seeing that ideology falter through the enshittification of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where users are at odds with the platforms because the platforms are gutting features in an attempt to satisfy shareholders whom without the platforms would not exist. Like, most of us aren't paying money to use social media sites / comic platform sites, so where else are they gonna make the necessary funds to keep these sites running? Selling ad space and locking features behind paywalls.

And this is especially true for a lot of budding sites that don't have the audience to support them via crowdfunding but also don't have the leverage to ask for investments - so unless they get really REALLY lucky in EITHER of those departments, they're gonna be operating at a loss, and even once they do achieve either of those things there are gonna be issues in the site's longevity, whether it be dying from lack of growing crowdfunding support or dying from shareholder meddling.

So what can we do?

We can learn how to take our independence back. We don't have to stop using these big platforms altogether as they do have things to offer in their own way, particularly their large audience sizes and dipping into other demographics that might not be reachable from certain sites - but we gotta learn that no single site is going to satisfy every wish we have and we have to be willing to learn the skills necessary to running our own spaces again. Pick up HTML/CSS, get to know other people who know HTML/CSS if you can't grasp it (it's me, I can't grasp it LOL), be willing to take a chance on those "smaller sites" and don't write them off entirely as spaces that can be beneficial to you just because they don't have large numbers or because they don't offer rewards programs. And if you have a really polished piece of work in your hands, look into agencies and publishing houses that specialize in indie comics / graphic novels, don't settle for the first Originals contract that gets sent your way.

For the last decade corporations have been convincing us that our worth is tied to the eyes we can bring to them. Instead of serving ourselves, we've begun serving the big guys, insisting that it has to be worth something eventually and that it'll "payoff" simply by the virtue of gambler's fallacy. Ask yourself what site is right for you and your work rather than asking yourself if your work is good enough for them. Most of us are broke trying to make it work on these sites anyways, may as well be broke and fulfilled by posting in places that actually suit us and our work if we can. Don't define your success by what sites like Webtoons are enforcing - that definition only benefits them, not you.

[chloesimaginationthings]

Vanessa TOTALLY got those Tapes for the FNAF lore..

[0104-vikita]

That was a great movie 🍿🎥

[mumigeonjo]

Inside cats,,🐱🐱

[sm-baby]

INSIDE OUT 2 - Anxiety and Fear

ko-fi🧬

They are married trust me I'm Anxiety's 23rd hair strand

[mintsuwu]

Thank you random Twitter user for providing the world with a way to watch the movie online 🙏

[ia-gnom]

[spiralling-spires]

Being jurgen leitner the day that gerry almost killed him was probably really surreal. Imagine you’re minding your business, collecting fucked up books, and out of nowhere this goth guy covered in eye tattoos shows up and beats you half to death, then stops, goes, “no you’re too pathetic to be jurgen leitner” and leaves without further elaboration. And you dont correct him, you like being alive after all, and after that you just… continue with your life. And then several years later you tell this to some random guy in the tunnels you’ve been hiding in, and he not only knows who the goth was, but seems somewhat fond of the goth. And then you get brutal pipe murdered by the random guy’s boss. Oops

[neo--queen--serenity]

Lena losing her patience and furiously berating Gwen for potentially endangering the staff members of the OAIR is quite literally the opposite of how Elias ran the Archives.

Elias used the Archival staff—as well as his Archivist—as pawns that can be readily replaced as needed. His patron offered them minimal protections at best (the Archivist’s privileges notwithstanding), and even then, he would never actually intervene to save any of them if they were in danger, much less take precautions to protect them at their headquarters. They are used as bait, as sacrifices, as currency, as objects. The listener knows, eventually, how easily he could discard them if his plans called for it.

But Lena. This episode showed us that Lena keeps her entire organization running through keeping her subordinates hidden, safe, and unnoticed by the Externals. It’s quite clear through her conversation with Gwen that such a safety risk has never happened before.

As far as we know, Lena has successfully kept all of her employees alive, watched them come and go, bemoaned the turnover rate, and then got them to look the other way while they documented and dutifully filed the horrors.

But most impressive of all, she’s kept her real work hidden from her subordinates, and her subordinates hidden from her real work—a feat Elias had no interest or desire to accomplish.

[mountainshroom]

Latest sketch bunch :) trying to practice poses

[wiltkingart]

a terrifying presence has entered the room

(bloody ver. under the cut)

[lesbiradshaw]

he’s like if a boy was a princess

[chloesimaginationthings]

Abby isn't scared of any FNAF animatronic..

[talisidekick]

If a transgender person asks you to deadname and misgender them in front of certain people. Misgender them and deadname them in front of those people. It doesn't matter how icky or gross it may feel, it doesn't matter you'd rather be honest. It doesn't matter if there's more of you there. Certain people aren't safe, and honesty IS NOT the best policy when honesty could put them at serious risk. It doesn't matter if there's a crowd, because when there isn't shit goes down.

Be an ally, do what they ask. Understand that the trans person knows more about their situation than you do, and this includes who's safe and who's not. Some one can be "trans friendly" to other people, but not to people they know or specific people. Do as the trans person asks, yes it's uncomfortable, but it's 10 times worse if the person we don't trust finds out. 100 times worse if they have access to us when you're not around.

Respect trans peoples safety. Misgender and deadname when asked.

[a-little-artsy]

hey fandom bursts through your door can i have drawing requests pls /nf

i want

i wanna contribute

to t he currently thriving fandom :3

why is my artstyle so inconsistent,,,

anyways j wonder how my last post wen

oH