#so it can continue improving

[hiccuppop]

redraw of that stupid doodle i did of chara from last year

[fatedroses]

Two tanks without their emotional support healers.

[starflungwaddledee]

Have you noticed that Red Butterfly is keep following you?

And no, most of the butterflies don't follow anyone but scents of nectar.

starstruck regained +5 points of emotional health! she remembered this is meant to be an adventure, and looks forward to seeing some exciting things! just not this particular butterfly, it seems.

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[depressedhatakekakashi]

People can’t understand how sensei’s work in the naruto fandom and it’s so frustrating

Like if you look at any other anime you will see that the main character how multipule sensei’s, not because any past sensei is bad but because what they could teach them is limited

Iruka is there to teach Naruto he’s allowed to be loved and cared for

Kakashi taught Naruto the basics and the teamwork and connection he needed

Jiraiya helped Naruto improve his skills and protected him during a dangerous tume when the akatsuki was hunting him and he could not yet defend himself

Kakashi then came back in and helped Naruto create his own jutsu which official helped him surpass Kakashi (we see Kakashi say this)

To improve more Naruto obv needs another sensei/master, so Fukasaku comes in to teach him the Sage technique which he needs to defeat Pein

And then when it comes to Bijuu training/connection, Bee is the only one who can teach Naruto that. He’s the only Jinchuriki who 1) still has his binuu 2) has a connection with said bijuu that naruto can learn from (Gaara and Shukaku never had a similar connection). Kakashi, Jiraiya, Fukasaku, Iruka. None of them could teach Naruto about connecting with Kurema in any way close to Bee because they didn’t understand the connection between a jinchuuriki and Bijuu like Bee did

Each of Naruto’s Sensei’s serve a purpose. They help him grow in the ways he needs to grow, and actively only one is super shitty toward him at any point in time (stealing his money, telling him to stay in his sexy no jutsu form)

Instead of fighting over ‘who taught him best’ how about fandom learn the point of the story progression and Naruto’s specific needs with each sensei/master

Edit: i forgot one thing

Even after becoming the strongest shinobi in the world, Naruto still has things to learn and he goes back to learning from Kakashi

It’s Kakashi who preppared him for the day when he’ll take over as Hokage, and Iruka who is tasked with helping Naruto study to become a jonin.

So even after everything Naruto goes back to his original two sensei’s again and continues to learn from them, just not as a shinobi trying to become more powerful, but as a leader preparing to take on more responsibilities

[redkelpfish]

I know we all clown on Tim Drake for having a moral code that’s just “whatever the opposite of what I think will make me evil gun batman” but have you considered Tim Drake is absolutely the kind of feral bastard to carefully design and create an entire illusion of inevitability just to manipulate his younger self into not becoming a supervillain.

Like do you think Future Tim just set aside some really crazy weekends. Do you think he was the worst drill sergeant ever when making his friends practice their lines and backstories over and over until they locked him in a closet with no electronics

[astriiformes]

One thing that becomes a little funny if you're thinking about the ways a trans reading of Marty interacts with canon is the fact that Doc is definitely guilty of some frustrating attitudes towards women over the course of the movies (particularly Part II), suggesting that he has so fully accepted the idea that Marty is a boy that he considers him exempt. Gender-affirming, trans-inclusive sexism.

[ministarfruit]

I saw them with their little hoods on and I had to draw them immediately. shady little guys

[skunkes]

question for any artists who are employed full time: is the work/life (art) balance rly possible... (for You since i know it depends on the job/position/career etc)

[bonefall]

Is there a cat in cannon who got a good death who you think didn't deserve it? Especially if they committed crimes?

Tom the Wifebeater and his redemption death. No question. It's not even close.

Not only do I reject to the "redemption death" on the grounds of it being Tom the Wifebeater who is bullying others until his dying breath, even taunting Thunder about Turtle Tail is dead and the kits must be very torn up about it, but I reject "redemption through death" entirely. I don't like it in stories. It's a theme I deeply object to.

And again it's fucking wild that every time a character is a father, even if they are a wifebeater or a child abuser, the writers think that it bestows a glimmer of goodness into them which every abused child is forced to appreciate and cry about. Breezepelt, Thunder, Tallstar, Tom's children, all of them forced to reconcile and admit how much they wuv their papa.

Abusive dads in WC regularly get redemption deaths, too. Clear Sky dies saving his grandchild, Sandgorse died saving a rando in a tunnel, Tom the Wifebeater saving his daughter.

But Tom the Wifebeater is the worst example of it. Hands down.

[lord-squiggletits]

Y'know the thing about writing feral/unhinged versions of Orion/Optimus, is that you can't go too far into the feral/unhinged direction to a point where OP's core character traits are lost or become too diminished. After all, in a multiple-continuity franchise like TF, part of what makes the stories make sense is that even if details change (sometimes major details), the characters are still recognizably themselves to one degree or another. (Although this isn't always the case due to executive meddling or some characters being such blank slates from their initial G1 appearances that there's basically nothing to model them off of, but I digress.)

It's pretty much another reason why I love IDW1 Optimus, bc he literally is a canonical feral/unhinged Optimus who's unhinged as a direct consequence of who he is as a person and what he's been through. Like, he still has those fundamental character traits of trying his best to be moral and make good choices, trying to be a role model, etc, except after 4 million years of war and untreated depression he's basically holding onto his sense of self by his fingertips. So when he "goes feral" e.g. losing his temper and beating up/killing people or saying hurtful things, he's feral in a way that's directly tied to his normal personality and not just as a random quirk he has.

IDW OP's feral moments arise from the gaps between "Optimus' attempts to be who he thinks he needs to be" and "the reality of the world that he can't fix/seems to only make worse" that cause him to lose hope, or become cynical, or lose his temper. But in this case, the unhinged-ness makes perfect sense because it arises out of Optimus trying and failing to be the best person or to make the most morally good choices he's trying to make. Basically, the "feral/unhinged" label is just another way of me trying to say that he's not just unhinged because he's weird or because he's a bad person, but because it's an emotional reaction (more like an emotional explosion due to pent-up emotions) to the context he exists in.

I'd also say that IDW OP's personality being generally reserved/stoic and (trying to be) noble works in tandem with those moments he has of going feral because it makes him more realistic. His psyche is treated in a way where the writers are like, "Hey what if the pressure of having to be everyone's idol and be the best person in the galaxy at all times actually broke Optimus down mentally and emotionally?" It makes IDW OP far more relatable. Instead of naturally being a perfect Christ-like figure who never wavers in his morals or convictions and is just naturally a nice person who always has the wisest and best answer, being a good person is something that IDW OP has to consciously strive to be. Even when he feels like it's useless, or the cycle of violence will never stop, or any attempts he makes to help only ends up with things becoming worse.

And I feel like this does a service not only to IDW Optimus as a character, but also as a sort of moral/philosophical perspective for the reader to ponder upon? I feel like culture at large (or at least my experience of it) tends to believe that "goodness" in a person is simply an innate feature that people are born/not born with, and that being "good" means that you must be good at all times, both in your actions as well as the way you feel emotionally about yourself and the world. Like, there's a tendency for our vision of "a good person" to be good in every aspect at all times without having to try to be a good person. So I think IDW Optimus' character stands as a good example of how someone can be good at heart but still struggle to maintain those feelings of optimism and hope and justice. It's a good idea to have such a paragon of a character (in-universe and out-of-universe) be so conflicted and to even be mistaken, misguided, or make things worse because it shows that goodness is as much about "trying to behave/act in a way that is good" and not just "existing as an innately good person."

It's way more realistic for a person to want to be good, try to be good, and sometimes/often fail than it is for them to just be a good person. I enjoy the fact that IDW Optimus is both a good person at heart, but also has to strive to be a good person and live up to other people's expectations of what they see in him. I like how he wants to be a good person and change society for the better, but he also spends a good amount of time either feeling hopeless and alone or being angry at/detached from other people because of how frustrated they make him. He's realistically portrayed as someone who wants to be good and hopeful and change things for the better, but is also mentally and emotionally broken by that burden because of how impossible it is for him to Fix Everything and be the Perfect Prime/Leader/Autobot that people see him as. It's this fascinating mixture of "yes, this is who he is as a person" but also "there are things he desires to be that he could never possibly become or live up to."

This got really far off based from feral/unhinged Optimus sdklfjaslkdlfkas. The TLDR is that if people want unhinged OP, I feel like they should give IDW OP a chance because he IS unhinged but he's unhinged in a way that's a realistic/thematic representation of how being an Absolute Good is impossible. And how being a good person isn't just about Existing And You Are A Good Person, but rather goodness is a constant state of flux in which you adjust, you make mistakes, you lose your temper and feel hopeless, but then you pick yourself up and try again.

Also IDW OP really likes climbing in dangerous wilderness and jumping out of flying vehicles which I think is very feral and sexy of him to do.

[goozeghost]

To celebrate 10 years in this god forsaken fandom, I redrew the og art of my fave paranormal investigators !

Singles and small rant below cut :P

Cannot believe it’s been a damn decade. This fandom and these characters have done so much to shape me and help me turn into the person- and artist!!- I am today, and I am forever grateful for the friends I’ve made along the way. (You know who you are 😉)

I cannot believe young Gooze looked at Johnny Ghost and said Yeah, that’s my entire personality now, and then it WAS. Now I’m an inducted thespian with a love for dramatizing everything, and for doing stupid voices, and a buncha other stuff. I even took his name, Johnny/Ghost. Which I suppose a lot of us have, huh?

Anyway if you’re looking down here, hi, here’s the first ever piece of fanart young Gooze did (that I can find)

(Yes, that’s Ghost and Jimmy. And yeah it’s bad, but I was a very young child. Let’s appreciate how far I’ve come, yeah?)

[rigelmejo]

Something that always annoys me is the idea only 1 language learning method works. Which is not true. While it may be possible that, for a particular individual, only a few out of many study methods may work well enough for That Individual to make progress and stay motivated... that doesn't mean all the other study methods won't work for anyone else out there, or that those few methods will work for every other given person.

Obviously if you've been studying a while, then you already figured out what kinds of things work for you and don't. If you're a beginner, just wading into studying?

I would suggest you simply look for study methods that: 1. Teach you new things regularly, 2. Review and practice things you've learned, 3. Include studying things you need for your particular goals (for example if your goal is to read X book then the study materials at some point should involve reading practice and some words the book contains, if your goal is to talk about Y then the study materials should include some information about pronunciation and words you'll need to be able to say).

As you can imagine, a TON of study materials will meet these requirements. And you can study a given skill in a LOT of ways.

(Reading is my focus lol so just for reading, a beginner might: do vocabulary study with lists or conversations with native speakers or watching shows and looking words up or listening to dialogues with a transcript like in a textbook or graded readers or a picture book with word labels in the target language or a video game with labelled objects in target language, all of those things as long as your vocabulary is improving or reading practice is happening would help you make progress). So to improve reading skill as a beginner: you could study with a textbook, a podcast with transcript, a classroom or tutor with words written down in target language (like TPRS), a video game, a TV show and a translate app on your phone, a friend you talk with (who either writes words down or you look up words you hear with a translate app), a friend you text with, srs flashcards like anki (provided there's text) etc. As long as there's new words, and/or you're practicing reading, the study method may work. If it works will come down to if you can stay motivated doing it regularly, and make sure you regularly learn some new things and review/practice things you've already studied.

So consider those things when you see people selling a study method as a product (especially when it's costing you money). Consider if it teaches you NEW things, and are those new things related to your goals, and how MUCH new stuff will it teach you before you finish it? Consider if it provides review or practice, or if you can use it's materials to review on your own making up your own method, or if you'll need to do separate review/practice.

So examples:

LingQ. Can it teach you many new words? Yes, thousands, since you can import any texts you want when you get done with their provided material (I have no idea how much their beginner material covers though in terms of words... I would hope 1000-3000 words but that can be researched). Is your goal reading? It's suited to reading, so you will practice and review often with it. Cost? I think it was $12 a month when I last had it, and the price may have increased. Is it worth it? Depends on a learner's needs. I found it was wasting my money, so I chose to use free tools like Pleco and Readibu apps - since those apps are suited for Chinese learners and have better translations, Pleco has better paid graded reader material if I was going to spend money, and both Pleco and Readibu let me import texts so I can learn thousands of new words just like LingQ but free. Now that I'm not a beginner, I often use Microsoft Edge to read chinese... since I can still click-translate words easily (all my web browsers have that tool free), and Edge's TTS voice is helpful for pronunciation and sounds quite good. I read webnovels online so Edge works well. But it's translations aren't as good as Pleco or Readibu, so if I still needed translations more I would use them. So... is LingQ a good study method? Its certainly a study method marketed to buy. Well... the method is suited to improving reading skill, at least. It costs money, which is a negative, but it does offer a lot. However: everything it does regarding reading can be done free with other apps or sites or web browsers on their own. So if paying money motivates you to read... sure. LingQ does have a few word tracking features a learner may find worth the money, keeping in mind the actual read-to-learn method can be done free without lingq. (Also... while LingQ is a valid option for improving reading, if the learners goal is speaking then it would be important to think of what study activities the learner will do OUTSIDE of LingQ to improve speaking... because I've seen how LingQ is marketed as "how to learn a language" but it's only focused on some skills. It has vocabulary and grammar in some sense, since you'll read a lot and encounter new words and structures. But it doesnt have speaking or writing practice at least last time I was on it. Those activities would need to be worked on, on your own).

You can do that kind of cost/benefit contemplating with any study method material you see being sold. Amother example: there's a beginner Mandarin course called Mandarin Blueprint. It teaches like 800 words. Thats all. It may be worthwhile for a beginner... who still needs to learn 800 common words. But if you already know a few hundred words, the benefit of the course is less, you'll need to find a new material to teach you more new stuff soon. And the price was like a few hundred for the course... which for me personally was too much to spend, when I had already learned 800 hanzi from a book that cost me 12 dollars and 2000 words from a free user made memrise deck. The course claimed to get a person speaking, competent, but anyone not a beginner would say speaking basically with 800 words is nowhere near the level of working in Chinese or just doing a lot of daily life stuff, or reading/listening to media. (Although for the motivated beginner if you're learning 800 words on your own like I was, its definitely close to the point of jumping to learn more words and start reading kids and teenager books, and watching easier shows if you're willing to look new words up). So to me... Mandarin Blueprint felt like overselling some basic beginner materials. (Again when I know several other things that teach beginner stuff either more in depth so HSK test prep classes, and college courses, or that teach beginner stuff to the same depth as Mandarin Blueprint but free).

Some study materials aren't going to act like they teach everything. I've seen chinese courses just for learning to speak tones better and general pronunciation - probably worthwhile if your goal is to improve speaking and a teacher could help improve the issues your having. But a learner needs to be aware for that course that they'll need to study vocabulary on their own, its JUST a pronunciation improvement course.

[mostlikelytofangirl]

You know what would be neat

In an AU where JGY grows up in the Jin (JGS being forced to accept him early in some way or another) and there are vampires

JGS is a vampire and so is Meng Shi. Madam Jin is human. As a result, JGY is a fullblooded born vampire while JZX is a dhampir

It would be really funny if people within the very vampire-heavy/vampire-as-aristocracy society look at JZX and JGY together and immidiactly choose to adress their woes to JGY.

Because JGY is all vampire, pointy ears and greyish skin and gaunt face and all, while JZX looks utterly out of place among the vampires because he looks like a normal human with fangs

And this infuriates JGS because JZX is his heir and JGY is a bastard lmao

Lol ok, idk if you meant for this to be hilarious, but it's just so funny to me to think that JGY finally could be considered of better "pedigree" than this brother for their society's standards and it's pissing JGS off so badly XD.

I can imagine this as a world where vampires are very few but very elite ala Vampire Hunter D, so JGS married Madam Jin as a sort of social or political move, like an alliance with a powerful human family idk, but also got MS pregnant, and despite her being very low in their hierarchy, she was still a full vampire and thus, the rules demand that their son be acknowledged since full blooded vampires are rare/hard to conceive/not very fertile/etc.

Except a bastard is very much NOT part of his agreement with the powerful human family he is supposed to be an ally to now (and whose fortune/political standing he now shares lol), so it's all very tense in his household now bc, as a son of a lawful marriage, JZX should be the sole heir... only he's a dhampir and, while not looked down upon bc they are still better than full mortals, someone like him would normally be considered lesser than his full blooded vampire brother.

It's so goddamned ironic that here is where JGY would finally be seen as the "right" Jin and the one the gentry would consider one of them :'D.

Now, it'd be interesting to see why JGS is upset at this development. It could be bc he legit loves JZX and not JGY and thus it's all a matter of his favorite son being given his rightful place despite of his half-blood nature. Or bc it endangers his alliance with the humans and he has to remind everybody of who his heir is every time there's the slightest insinuation that both his sons would inherit, or worse-- that of course his pure blooded son should be the one inheriting, how lucky he was to still have a vampire son despite marrying a human, surely he wouldn't defy tradition and taint his noble family by having a dhampir as head of the next generation when a perfect fully vampire Jin son is right there :')))))

It'd also be interesting to see how the brothers' dynamics would be, bc while things behind closed doors could go very much like canon (probably with MS being a concubine or something), when in public, it's clear that they would not be treated equally, if not having JGY be privileged in their social circle. How would that the boys' perception of themselves and each other be? Sorta like "no matter what ppl say, I am dad's heir and favorite son" or "dad may love you more, but everybody knows who is the weird one here"... or maybe they actually find solace in each other, one being there for the other when their family/society reminds them that they are inherently different and should be treated as such, only feeling like they can truly be equals when they are alone with each other.

It's a very fascinating scenario, let me tell you! I love me some vampires and I love me some Jin bros feels, so I'm so in with this :D

[wavywhiskers]

It coincided we are also +900 people here on Tumblr so !!!

[bansenshukai]

While perusing the naruto timeline I discovered that the Academy was formed ~30 years after Konoha was founded. The Chunin exams, being a part of the formalized shinobi education system, were formed after the Academy as well.

And at the time of the Academy's Founding, Hiruzen and the rest of his generation (Danzo, Biwako, Koharu, Homura) are approximately age 20~21 . They didn't grow up with the Academy or the Chunin Exams! They became, presumably, fully fledged shinobi, purely through individual mentorship and field experience.

So: no Academy also means no age limit.

This had me start thinking about the kind of childhood Hiruzen led, and what he would have considered normal. People love to criticize his decision to neglect Naruto (and rightfully so), but it's also clear that Hiruzen does regard Naruto with affection. It's entirely possible he saw Naruto's childhood as sheltered compared to what he experienced growing up without the safeguards of a formalized shinobi education.

[tricitymonsters]

https://www.tumblr.com/tricitymonsters/765332131714138112/i-always-forget-that-moris-full-first-name-isnt?source=share

Using this ask as an example, because I don't want to scroll for more... but I feel like with asks like this you should rather educate your audience on the cultural significance of why Mori doesn't use his first name and how it makes him feel as a Asian American immigrant instead of just going along with anons joke, which was in poor taste btw

Oh yeah, that's fair. Chalk it up to me having written about the cultural impact of the name thing a couple times and my concept of time between ask topics can be a little bit hard to keep accurate. But yeah, I can definitely be more cognizant of maximizing opportunities to explain the cultural details of the characters, especially as more new people join us here. It's important to me that I do right by my characters' cultures and backgrounds so I totally understand that was a mishandle on my part- sorry!

And since this is a pretty good opportunity in and of itself to clarify: Mori was born in Japan and one of the cultural norms there is a deep relationship between names and intimacy. By and large, people refer to each other by their surnames/family names- in Mori's case it would be Takamori (+ appropriate honorific for whatever social situation). Even best friends will typically still use a surname when talking about each other, or occasionally a nickname based on it (how Takamori becomes Mori). Using someone's given name (in Mori's case Kaito) is suuuper familiar, like overly, uncomfortably familiar in most cases.

For Mori specifically, only his direct family call him Kaito and as he's separated from them and living in America, he's got some complex feelings about the name that goes even above and beyond the typical Japanese norm and association. As an immigrant (he moved as a young kid too so he's still got a lot of memories of living in Japan + a ton of experience growing up in urban American society), Mori has kind of a difficult relationship with his culture to navigate and the name thing is especially complex and nuanced. Essentially, for him it's a family thing-- ESPECIALLY a thing he associates with his father (who he's very close to) so breaching the boundary of that too early or too forcefully is a no-go. For now, he goes by just Mori stateside and will actively discourage using other variants.

Some additional thoughts I have on the topic:

This will be in-game, I'm just trying to pace the evolution of the conversation naturally as chapters come out and Mori's story develops. At some point, Mori will tell the MC not to call him another name and briefly explain why.

I'm also not planning on giving the player a choice on whether they oblige him or not because while I want players to have a strong impact on the story, I think letting people essentially say lol fuck you would open the door to the kind of relational deterioration I didn't intend to include in TCM.

Mori will also go into more detail about his experience being away from his family (there's good and bad going on) and talk about his relationship with his dad.

I think that's everything??? (For now, at least)