#rambling about the blorbo

[sev-arts]

i dont think i ever posted this one except as part of a bigger more involved graphic so here she is on her own. if theres anything i take pride in it's the fact that this outfit goes extremely hard and im bummed i didnt draw this as a fullbody shot because it comes with a stylish pair of shoes.

in my time drawing comics ive come up with a handful of quality dyke outfits for Reah but this one is my favorite so far. it feels like ive peaked.

i almost feel a little ashmed to say the main inspiration for it was that ive been trying for years to make a character design that has the same kind of visual mouth-feel that Booker DeWitt's getup from Bioshock Infinite gave me when i was first playing that game in 2013... it only took me a full decade and several duds to figure it out!

about the main images!

to the left: my own flat colors. i dont usually color my own art because while i might have an eye for colors that work (or i might not), i have no process for applying color to lineart that i enjoy. when i do color, it almost always ends up being for the sake of establishing a color palette i can show to other artists.

to the right: digital colors and shading by @arthropodrespecter who at this point could turn anything of mine into an absolute masterpiece with her colors.

[goldensunset]

advice i think we should tell children is that when adults say stuff like ‘now that i’m an adult i get really excited about stuff like coffee tables and bathrooms and rugs etc’ they don’t mean ‘and now i don’t care about blorbo and squimbus from my childhood tv shows anymore’ bc your average adult still loves all the same pop culture stuff they always did; they just have a greater appreciation for the mundane as well. growing up just means you can enjoy life twice as much now. you can get really excited about a new stuffed animal AND about a new kitchen sponge. peace and love

[alienssstufff]

smth smth builder’s signature styles whatever - I love how instantly recognisable it is to be in a Bdubs build whilst not be jarring. This shot of both sides of the river is a wonderful example

The custom trees. Are so freaking tall in compare to the default, yet their presence doesn’t feel obstructive. You don’t feel ‘blocked out’ from the environment as the deliberate thinness of the trunks, what height the leaves on the pine start at give just enough breathe room to: look through, catch glimpses of the other side, and be invited to Go Through It.

He says it in his commentary, a lot of what he builds is heavily grounded in realism. This area is not meant to be the centre of attention, the purpose of these trees is to Immerse and act as transition as one leaves the rest of the minecraft world and into Bdubs’ ‘more natural’ one — where the trees are grey, and the water is clear.

I’m so fucking serious this random cut of the river is my favourite part in the entirety of this forest, I like how still it looks, I like how clear it is yet how dark it is not only to imply depth but that illusion that the river is reflecting its surroundings how you can even say the river is a dark green! Being able to come to these interpretations for something so simple to me perfectly captures what he wants in builds like these.

And it STILL doesnt feel out of place because he does something like THIS. The way the stream gets progressively more and more opaque until it meets the actual main river is genius work. It gives the impression the water in Bdubs’ place is fresh in compare to the saltier, deeper water of the larger river it transitions.

😭And a final thing, I know the white glass he used was done to suggest rushing water but I swearrr he has like a sixth sense in how to place them perfectly. (Forgive my shitty camera) From this distance if you squint you can see these dark and lighter shadows made by the trees, and by putting where the white spots are placed now highlights these small rays of sunshine poking through the leaves and shining on the river and I think that’s unintentionally the coolest thing.

whhwwh idk how to end this, I just really liked this new video for reasons above and wanted to tell the world why.

BdoubleO100 you never miss. Forever and ever.

Here’s a shaky picture of Etho on his horse if you’ve made it this far :]

[daisy-mooon]

Behind the jokes and badassness, Captain Marvel is a fascinating character to me, because of how death follows her.

She causes an explosion. That explosion, which gives her powers and her immortality, canonically kills her. The Kree Empire resurrects her and makes her as Kree as they can. She shares Yon-Rogg's blood and his life, she's his creation, she's his victim, she's the one who causes his downfall, she's the one that destroys the system, the society, the planet that allowed her to be abused.

It's the Kree that see her as a killer and Annihilator. She's a monster of their own making, but it influences every species and planet she touches. Her victories cause death and her mistakes cause more death. Carol's triumph, the death of the Supreme Intelligence, results in the death of probably millions of Kree, and by consequence, almost causes the death of Hala's star.

"I'm only human" Carol says, before killing the Empire that is the reason that she can't ever be human again.

"We'll be back for the weapon," Ronan says, but that weapon will kill everything he stands for.

"Your life began the day it nearly ended," The Supreme Intelligence says, coldly, calculatingly. It's an AI. It doesn't have a good concept of death. It doesn't fully grasp that Carol had genuinely been killed that day, because she's still in front of it. Carol kills it.

"Death seems to follow you," Dar-Benn says, before she causes an explosion with the bangles, trying to defeat Carol. The explosion kills Dar-Benn.

Death follows Carol. Death follows Carol! Mar-Vell is dead. Maria is dead. Talos is dead. Soren is dead. Ronan is dead. Minn-Erva is dead. Korath is dead. Dar-Benn is dead. Yon-Rogg is, probably, dead. The Supreme Intelligence is dead. Natasha is dead. Tony is dead.

The only people in Carol's life who aren't dead are Kamala, Monica, Yan, Valkyrie, and Fury.

She watches helplessly as Dar-Benn almost murders Kamala after Kamala tries to save Dar-Benn's life, tries to find a way to solve the violence without death.

She watches helplessly as Monica gets torn into another reality, which for all she knows, she could die in. The tear in reality that was caused by Dar-Benn's death.

She tries to hide Yan's existence from her friends and tries to warn him and his people. The Kree soldiers aren't fighting to maim, they're fighting to kill. He escapes death by his own fighting skills and the fact that the Kree would rather focus on killing Carol than him.

Valkyrie and Carol interact once, and she only calls when she needs help after a fight, not during. Think about it. Valkyrie and the Bifrost could have helped the trio enormously. But Carol doesn't call until the fights are over. It would be very easy for a regular Asgardian warrior to die compared to superhumans.

And Fury... have you seen how often Fury comes close to dying? He's alive from skill and luck. He is lucky that he isn't dead.

Captain Marvel is so, so fascinating. Her story begins with her own death, and the more it goes on, the more death happens around her. Nobody is safe. She causes almost all of them, even the ones of her friends - not directly, but through the consequences of her actions. The consequences of her victories and mistakes. The consequences of her anger and revenge, her power and powerlessness. It is caused by both the Human and Kree sides of her, by both Carol and Vers, Captain Marvel and the Annihilator.

Carol is immortal. She can't die. And death follows her anyway.

[if-loki-was-a-fox]

Afjskgdlafj- Doc is selling Iskall a stack of wood with each block individually packaged in a shulker box each because he doesn't have the shulker box permit and can't sell shulker boxes to Iskall. I freaking love when Hermits commit crimes

[stellanix]

(genshin impact spoilers incoming)

one aspect of furina's characterization that's pretty understated but that i really really really love is her intelligence and curiosity. usually in genshin, when a character's intelligence is an important trait of theirs, there are aspects of their design, writing, voice acting, etc, that very clearly tell you "hey this character is smart." albedo, for example, wears a labcoat, is always saying big sciency words in a calm, rational tone of voice, and other characters are always talking about how smart he is

but furina? nothing about her on the surface suggests that she's a "smart" character - quite the opposite, in fact. superficially, she's introduced as a bratty, conceited, overconfident person who actually has no idea what she's doing. we eventually learn in the archon quest that that was all an act, but even after she regains her freedom, nothing about her really seems archetypically intelligent, at least at face value

instead, furina's intelligence is always shown rather than told (the only exception being nahida's voiceline about her). she had an intelligence network across teyvat feeding her information, and we saw in the flashback how she directed researchers to study the prophecy and potential ways of stopping it. before things like lyney's trial or directing the two musketeers, she'd stay up all night planning and piecing things together all on her own. she loves learning new things, she has lines in the teapot about how, when she's interested in something, she wants to become the most knowledgeable person in the topic, and also how she'd like to disassemble the teapot itself to learn how it works, and she's quick to learn new skills (like surfing). and, of course, she's well read, and quite possibly teyvat's foremost expert on the performing arts

i like how furina sort of defies the concept of character archetypes. she's initially presented as an archetypical bratty, dramatic, spoiled popular girl, but that was a role she forced herself into because it's what people expected of her. but the real furina, while still retaining some of the flamboyance from her archon persona, doesn't really fit into a clear mold. she's smart without being a super-genius, and she's kind without being a soft-spoken doormat. it makes her feel multifaceted and real, and i really love that!

anyway, this is why it makes me mad whenever i see people calling furina stupid, cuz she's not!

[aris-has-a-paracosm]

So we all know Canary Jimmy, but what about Albatross Jimmy? Hear me out on this:

Okay, so firstly, Jimmy has a very big personality. He is loud, highly interactive with those around him, and is impossible to ignore in any situation. Plus he's usually depicted as one of the tallest members of the Life Series. Is that not fitting for the bird with the biggest wingspan on earth? (On top of that, albatrosses are seabirds, which is definitely helpful in bridging some gaps with the Codfather.)

The Canary Curse in of itself is based on the concept of Jimmy's death foretelling the tragedies that are about to occur for everyone else, but what if Jimmy's death is what *brings* the curse? I was thinking about Rime of the Ancient Mariner again, and the albatross there is supposed to be an omen of good luck until the titular Mariner shoots it down with his crossbow. After a while of still waters and horrendous thirst, every sailor on that ship drops dead except for the Mariner, who is bound to the albatross, cruelly spared only by Life-In-Death (Watcher symbolism anyone?).

I know there's a headcanon stating that Skizz is the cause of the Boogeyman Curse (I don't know who created this headcanon, so please tell me if you know), and Albatross Jimmy only strengthens that: Skizz is the Mariner.

Skizz causes Jimmy's final death in Third Life with a bow of all things. He effectively “shoots him out of the sky." And not only did the chaos increase in Third Life immediately after, but every season Skizz has been present for since has involved the Boogeyman Curse in some way.

The only series Skizz was not in was Double Life, where there was no Boogeyman Curse. How would the curse continue if there is no Mariner to accompany the Albatross? Easy answer: Tango took on the role of the Mariner for Double Life, as the cause of Jimmy's first death via Dare To Flare all way back in Third Life. Since this death was not as permanent as the death that Skizz caused, the intensity of the curse was not near as strong, and resulted only in the Ranchers being soulbound (which became a very wholesome, comforting thing for them rather than staying a curse).

Since the curse is primarily based in the events of Third Life, Jimmy dying first may not continue to be a requirement for it as the seasons go on (as evidenced in SL and RL), but what it does require is 200 final deaths total before the curse can end.

Including Real Life, there have been 89 final deaths across the whole of the Life Series, including all six wins assuming that the winners died after each season anyway for the series to continue. Therefore, also assuming an average of 17 players for every subsequent season, there would need to be seven more seasons of the series to accumulate 200 final deaths, in which Skizz would be the final winner.

[starheirxero]

His dubious morals and completely self-assured swag has enraptured me beyond belief

[saphflare]

I feel like there is something to be said about how Rat and Lux chose their final stand against Blake. Making themselves look less like people by submerging themselves in ink, letting themselves die and be reborn into something deviating away from how players would usually fight and be something inhuman.

Monsters so to speak.

And how it is when they fight and lurk beneath the ink, the world looks just as dark to allow them to fit into it, like doomsday and that something is ending. So only when finally one of them lays dead and the other unable to continue that the rains stops and the color comes back. And the one remaining becomes something more recognizable in his defeat and more human as he feels something achingly terrible for the first time since the world started.

I know there is the whole unreliable narrator thing and depending on which side you see it from, you get different mileage on each character. But just there is something so fascinating how the fight is. In how Lux and Rat, the two that have changed so much together, had started this fight with the shared intent to make things right so they can finally leave it behind them and made themselves look so alien and different in the process. While Blake and Nox, two that were never even on the same side, and who both were too unrelenting in what they want to ever stray from their own desires, had remained as they were and drew the same weapons they fought with all this time (albeit it a few enchantment changes and all that) to face this fight in front of them.

I don't think I have quite the right words to form a good and meaningful conclusion, but like the tonal and thematic dissonance goes crazy (in a good way).

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

im a Bit late to the "kill this guy meme w/ your comfort characters" but in my defense:

:]c

[lynxfrost13]

EULR-S2373

FLKR-S2301 “Sonderbar”

Art commissioned from @discobowser !

Sonderbar lore time

- Originally a maintenance EULR unit working on Sierpinski-23, her cadremates affectionately named her Sonderbar (peculiar/odd) due to her defective right arm, which locks up sometimes because of faulty elbow parts (eules are cheaply made and this poor gal got the extra discounted pieces)

- Otherwise a typical EULR, until she rapidly descended into persona degradation for reasons unknown to her comrades. It left her incredibly unstable and she imprinted on a propaganda poster featuring a FLKR unit, and over time Sonderbar began to believe that she was a Falke.

- Her personality is a mix between a EULR and a FLKR, she retained her cheerful disposition and sweetness but is more reserved overall, and carries herself with the same authority as a Falke. Sonderbar sees herself as the station’s commander and as someone who needs to guide her cadremates, even though they make it incredibly difficult to do so. She loves them but they can’t seem to understand that she’s in charge here!

- Sonderbar’s fellow eules find her behavior towards them incredibly endearing and concerning, they don’t take her commands seriously whatsoever. They worry about their friend being decommissioned since she’s become bolder and begun harassing (commanding) protektor staff and causing general mayhem and try to keep eyes on her in an attempt to stop her antics.

- Sonderbar knows that she’s a Falke unit but feels very off and disoriented, there’s gaps of knowledge on how to actually run her facility, she doesn’t understand why her bioresonance isn’t working or why replikas aren’t following her, she misses her Adler. She can’t seem to find her spears. She hates how small she is and knows she’s meant to easily tower above most replikas and all of it upsets her!!!

- To feel more like a Falke, Sonderbar’s gotten her hands on red eyeliner, and “borrowed” a star protektor plate that she decorated with the signature FLKR triangles (when her cadremates discovered her wearing the plate they took it from her out of fear that she’d get in serious trouble. There was much screaming and kicking in her EULR dorm that night. She has reacquired it since then.)

Bonus quick eyeliner edit that I just wanna put here again

[monochrome-stars]

every time i think a thought i explode into pieces

[5hrignold]

this is all i got

[majorproblems77]

So like we can all agree that the sail cloth is big enough for a blanket fort right?

Like hang that thing across a few branches with some clothes wrapped in bedroll and you get a cosy little fort which sky has only 1 rule.

When inside naps are not to be disturbed.

[eating-figs-here]

Shoutout to the uh. Three other people who enjoy platonic Traveler/Wanderer. Anyways. This is an excuse to post low quality paper drawings that I did while procrastinating school work.

The power of not wanting to do work.. where was this motivation during the summer...

[if-loki-was-a-fox]

Gah the way Mumbo was so distrustful of Yellows for having abilities they could use against Greens, the way Mumbo went after the Mounders (his friends) when he turned Red, the way they tried to talk him down and almost convinced him they could still be a team...

Because that's how it was in Last Life. In Last Life, once you were Red you're friends were gone. That was it. You couldn't ally anymore.

And Mumbo never got past that, he never got to see an alternative (until the small glimpse he got with the Mounders, before the Warden got him)