#sometimes i am here for discourse and sometimes I'm here to look at pretty moving pictures

[littlefingies]

Just thinking about and loving this little parallel. He can't look at Stede until he's finished getting his words out.

Gifs from @cobbbvanth

(I know I'm not the first person to point this out. It's just so lovely.)

And then to make it even sweeter I like comparing it to this:

Look at that eye contact I'm so proud of you

[olderthannetfic]

I hate to revive DNI discourse when it just ended on this blog but I often don’t think it’s as deep as people make it out to be and there’s a lot of, for lack of a better word, ~valid~ reasons someone may have a DNI. Like there’s absolutely contexts of “Kink Blogs DNI” disclaimers having an anti, swerf, etc undertone but sometimes I get it — for example I follow a couple of disability activists who post A LOT about incontinence, needing a caregiver, ETC who have stuff like “ABDL/DDLG/Devotee Blogs DNI.” Oftentimes that is not an indicator on their moral stance of those kinks, but rather them just being like “hey this is an activism-based journal where I post about incredibly personal things in regards to my own life, and while anyone has the right to read or reblog from me, if you’re clearly getting off to my medical needs or even if I get the vague impression you are, you WILL be blocked.”

Obviously that is an incredibly extreme and personal example, but I don’t think having a DNI boundary in your bio is ALWAYS a morality/discourse stance. On a much lighter note, I’m pretty active on Kpop Twitter, and there’s a lot of “RPF DNI” accounts there, and I think that’s more of a “I just want to post about my favorite band without shippers quote retweeting/replying to make it about their ship, and if you do so, I’ll block you. They’ve made public statements against these ships or about their real relationships and I am uncomfortable with people trying to dispute that.”

Oh yes there’s absolutely antis who hate RPF communities and all they stand for. But there’s also people who just straight up don’t want that on their account.

And like. As someone casually involved with RPF (i gossip about potential relationships with close friends and will reblog joke posts about it and will read it, but I’m not a writer for it and I’m definitely not someone who actually tries to speculate just how heavy the “fiction” part of an RPF ship might be), whether or not I choose to follow a person with such DNI depends on context. I keep my RPF ships/opinions off my main account, and even if I DO see a post that I would otherwise interpret as possibly shippy, I just won’t bring it up on said person’s posts, you know?

Damn this made me remember I have a DNI myself on one my accounts, 🤣 I have a minors DNI on one of my sideblogs. But I know I can’t prevent minors from seeing my posts or lying about their age or reblogging to a private sideblog or doing anything else that would go unnoticed. But once I do notice you interacting, if you’re clearly underage I’ll block you, just cuz I don’t feel comfortable with minors following my smutty fanart account even if I know minors look at smutty fanart, as someone who did look at smutty fanart as a minor. . .🎶Maybe I’m the problem it’s me. 🎶

--

No.

It's a stupid phrasing and no amount of validity in the criteria will make it less stupid.

No one here thinks they're always deep and meaningful. What we all say every time this comes up is that it's bad to conflate "I will block you if..." and "It is your job to research my boundaries ahead of time".

I'm not interested in people crying about how they like using an inaccurate term and everyone is supposed to understand what they mean. In practice, many people do mean that it's other people's job to enforce their boundaries for them. Validating this garbage terminology just encourages them.

It's a stupid, shitty term and we should move away from it.

[gossippool]

just a personal rant but god im looking through my old good omens stuff rn and i wish i still had the motivation to write the ideas i had because i really do still love them sm

like i think i've talked about my house of leaves x piranesi idea before of heaven as a sentient body and aziraphale not being able to escape (then it's revealed that heaven is god herself)

but i also carried over my hanahaki idea for logan from good omens where it's a curse put on demons who let themselves love someone else and i had whole stages of infection where the final stage was crowley just fully turning into a tree. and aziraphale lets himself get absorbed into it willingly bc he doesn't want to live without crowley and then they become the new tree of knowledge that can't be touched

and also i had a halloween idea that i was halfway through that i actually haven't even told anyone about except my gc 😭 where crowley and aziraphale are elders of a small town where pretty much no one leaves, ever. and the town has a phenomenon where there's this skeleton in the graveyard that leans against an unmarked grave and for some reason cannot be moved. it bevomes a popular halloween attraction and anathema visits one day to try and solve it, and then it turns out that crowley and aziraphale are actually ghosts and THEY are the unmarked grave and the skeleton--their parents actually built the town and they'd loved each other since they were kids but weren't allowed to, so when they got older they carried out a spell to keep them together forever which resulted in basically an invisible string that tied them both together (so when aziraphale died crowley could not physically leave the cemetary) and also wrapped around the whole town and kept people in. idk it was a whole thing they didn't even know they were dead

but like my godddd i do miss it sometimes. is good omens an objectively good show? no not really. did i like all the characters? FUCK no. now i'm thinking i may only really actually like crowley. i love love lovee ppolverine and ultimately i AM having more fun here as a whole bc i love the characters and marvel and i care about it all a lot more. and i do think it is better for my.... mental.... health...or whatever as a religious person to not have to constanrly engage in implicit religious discourse and also just not play around with the concept so much myself. which i did. A lot. peek my crowley and jesus fic 😭😭😭😭

but i loved gomens (and some parts of the fandom culture so much) and the thing i loved the most was that you really could just do literally anything because of the nature of the characters. like i had the most batshit angsty ideas and my good omens mutuals could probably attest lmao

likee you could technically say that it's true for any fandom, that you could make any scenario or au believable if you tried hard enough. but the thing with good omens is that you DIDN'T have to try hard to make it believable. like i do intend to incorporate my house of leaves idea into poolverine but it will never be as good as my original idea because i really could make it SO surrealistic

[crystalelemental]

Okay guys, we're on the honor system not to reblog this one, it's a vent post about fandom stuff, sort of Pokemon specific due to the catalyst but also it's broad, just move along unless you want to hear me complain for forever.

I feel like Geeta Pokemon is like...the perfect encapsulation of why I don't engage with fandom spaces pretty much ever.

On the mild end, it's just how much is shipping stuff that I don't like. I know I will sometimes click with a pairing, but generally I'm just not that interested in shipping stuff. This is entirely personal and not really a problem, but it's such a huge chunk of general discussion that it's hard to feel like there's a clean entry point when that tends to be where people start. And yes, I'm sorry, this does mean I don't care for Geeta/Larry or Geeta/Rika, I don't really ship Geeta with anyone, it's just not a thing I gravitate toward.

But on the worse end it's just...okay I'm finding out how to turn off reblogs, honor system over.

Geeta discourse is just insane. We're still on about how her fight is bad, or she's a bad boss for (insert innocuous thing about having a job here), or some other character or design flaw that's just asinine or trivial. And the most recent catalyst was someone complaining that there was obvious foreshadowing for Evil Geeta, but the DLC didn't capitalize, which is just...you are in another world. Like you want to vilify her so bad, and for what?

And like, I realized I have never really seen any proper dissection of Geeta as a character, really. It always seems to be these sort of weird accusationally toned posts, then the defensively toned posts about "nuh uh" and little else, or like...fanart that seem disproportionally suggestive of her specifically for some mysterious reason. And not really any actual analysis of her character. Like the most I've seen recently is one post just making the fandom standard assertion of "X character is autistic/(insert sexuality or gender presentation here)," but also stating "don't ask me how it's just vibes."

And maybe this is also a me problem. It's an innocent enough headcanon, people can generate that interpretation for the representation they want however they please, but like. Has anyone ever really noticed there's never an explanation to these? Like I'm not asking for much, but what in their presentation rung true to you that you made this interpretation? Was there anything, or are you conjuring it from thin air? I personally don't care for the readings people do with Red, but there's at least stuff they will point to and go "that," but it feels like there's never anything substantive to these posts. It's just words. You don't even need to engage with the actual character at all, you just say whatever you want and either it doesn't need an explanation because it's just a headcanon or what's used as evidence is just...wrong. That's why we have takes like Geeta being a bad boss or a weak champion, because people took a general gut feeling, examined nothing, and made an assertion based on made up nonsense. And it makes the experience of just looking in a fandom's direction frustrating, because it's not that there's nothing, it's that there's negative value; you took away the parts that were good to just...fuck, I don't even know half the time. To try really hard to vilify a woman of color? Because her vibes were off or something? And this is just Pokemon! This is narrative Easy Mode because there's barely shit there! I cannot imagine what it would be like if I took to the fandom fields of something denser and more thematically salient in earnest. I see occasional Dungeon Meshi posts float by that make me think I am so blessed for not talking to fucking anyone outside of my followers about this one.

I know none of this is new. I know others make these complaints too. I even know that at least some of this feeling is a bit of arrogance as far as "my interpretation is the correct one." But also I've been feeling sick for days and am coated in sweat despite feeling freezing cold and am very cranky over it so I need to bitch about something else for a minute. Vent over.

[infintasmal]

mun meme

𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐍!

★  NAME:  Chai ! KC is also acceptable

★  PRONOUNS:  she/they/unbothered

★  BEST EXPERIENCE: Def the relationships I've managed to forge. I've had some partners for years, those that I've become great friends with, with whom I owe much of my development as a creative toward. I've found a sense of community in rp spaces that I otherwise wouldn't have had access to.

★  PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: Any DMs are fine, discord or otherwise. I am notably bad at initiating or maintaining conversation, I struggle a lot in social settings even online so I am appreciative of those that have been patient with me. I'm trying to be better about it but I know it can be frustrating.

★  MOST ACTIVE MUSE: Botan on DeathBlossomed is at the forefront rn which is why I've been low activity here. However Ja'far is nearly always active and has remained a steady muse for several years.

★  EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS: I started in middle school (I'm turning 30 next month, so 2007/8) on Gaiaonline, writing real cringy stuff but it sparked a long standing passion. I moved onto tumblr in 2012/3 my freshman year of college. You can do the math bc it makes me feel old

★  RP PET PEEVES:  

I tend to be pretty unbothered by most things, I've been here too long however I'll never like the active policing of other people's blog content that seems to have intensified in the recent years with the 'puriteen' wave. I think people really forgot fandoms roots with the "Don't like, don't read. Dead Dove Do Not Eat." disclaimers and could use a lesson in it. The whole 'proshipper' discourse is just exhausting and I'm simply too old to be bothered, y'know. I don't mean to be like 'you shoulda seen what was going on back in my day *shakes cane*' bc some of it was skeezy for sure and we had our fair share of problems, but I felt like most people were at least staying in their own lane.

I also take issue with people who repeatedly, publicly complain about not having 'any' rp partners or not enough interactions while simultaneously making no effort to reach out to others and show interest in anything beyond their own self satisfaction. It shows that you don't appreciate the current rp partners you have or have had by stating that they're 'not enough' and that you're only looking to satisfy your own needs rather than acting as part of a community. It sucks to feel left out but at some point you've gotta start taking initiative. If we all sat around waiting for someone to come to us, no one would ever communicate.

★   PLOTS OR MEMES: I find that memes are good way to initiate a first interaction, it kinda gives me a sense of who you wanna write with, what kinda things you're interested in, and sets up the relationship nicely. But I do like plotting out threads, but only as an outline or a starter point. Sometimes, we end up plotting a little too specifically and it's like, what's the point of writing it if I already know what's gonna happen, y'know? Like, tell me where I'm going but don't tell me what I'm gonna see along the way. I like to have a solid starting point and then go with the flow from there with discussions being mainly about major plot points.

★  ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S)?: Ahh, I'm sure if you look closely enough you can find some overlapping traits with some of my muses (like dumb & gay LMAO) but I don't think there's any one muse that I would say is really like me. I think I'd be a really boring character to rp as so I'll leave it for memoir writing x3

Tagged by: @quickdeaths (Ty !! I appreciate it ~)

Tagging: I've seen a lot of my dash do this so if you haven't had the chance yet, go for it bbs

[blaiddfailcam]

New pinned who dis

My name is Mike, and I'm a longtime Souls fan. This is a personal blog, but I mostly ramble about video games, while occasionally posting GIFs I make of them. As you've probably guessed, my favorite character is Blaidd, so expect to see disproportionate fixation especially on him.

He's like a son to me. A very tall, hairy, stupid son.

Anyway, I've included below a general breakdown of navigation, as well as some warnings about what content I do not like to engage with.

Navigation

I use a pretty basic tagging system, but here's the bulk of what you'll find here:

my ramblings: Lore theories about video games, mostly Souls/etc. I don't insist my interpretations are "correct," so take them with a grain of salt.

my gifs: GIF images I made of video games, sometimes pretty, other times silly. (I record all of my material on console, so they might look a bit wonky, but this allows me to get a bit more cinematic with them.)

my screenshots: Like the above, except not moving. Less common, though, since GIFs are a bit more attractive.

my art: Drawings by me, often fan art. Sometimes pretty, other times stupid. I kind of fell out of practice, but eventually I'll get back into it...

blaidd: Posts pertaining to Blaidd the Half-Wolf from Elden Ring. Mostly stupid jokes, but also speculation and GIFs/artwork.

Warnings/boundaries

I wouldn't call this a "DNI," as I don't really care what people are into, but I do take issue with certain topics being addressed at me or cropping up in my notifications. I'm not going to tell anyone to stop, I just block anything I don't like and move on. Don't take it personally (unless you're a cunt).

Explicit content: My blog is SFW (I think? my likes might have dirty jokes), but moreover, I just don't care to hear about strangers' kinks or general horniness. Basically, if it gives me psychic damage, I block on site.

Being a dick: I don't care to hear any argument about anything, so if you get weirdly hostile toward me or anyone else under my shit, I will block you. I'm too old for "discourse," lol.

Being a bigot: Goes without saying.

Exotic pet content: Less commonly a forethought to most, I am an animal lover, to the degree that I vehemently oppose any media depicting unethical interaction between humans and wildlife. This goes for cutesy photos of foxes and possums in domestic settings or in clothing, and any other wild species. If I see it, I will block you and lay a curse upon your family.

[Disclaimer: though my favorite character is a wolf-headed idiot, I am not a furry and don't post/share any furry art. Sorry to disappoint.]

All said and done...

That's the long and short of it. Feel free to linger, don't feel obligated to reblog, whatever. Hell, you can even save my GIFs onto your personal device, I don't care! Just remember to be respectful to me and others. :)

Ohhhmihlird he looks positively hidiuose 🌈🌟🐺🌸🪳

[likeabxrdinflight]

Hello! I recently came across your blog because of your ATLA posts and I love it! Tho I have a conflict and I'm very...confused.

So, I saw a video arguing that Azula is not a victim of the Fire Nation, and stating that thinking so is insulting the great job the writers did with her. Mainly citing that even before the war, she had a perverse nature and never took responsibility for her acts. (And even closed that all she got was the frustration of not accomplishing her ambition, closing that in layman's terms she had it coming)

I even saw a take state that Azula's past doesn't exempt her from having a (and I quote) shitty personality, and thus that she shouldn't get away scot-free from what she did to Zuko, Mai and Ty Lee without any sort of punishment, even comparing her to characters like Vegeta who did get his just desserts before changing. (Who ironically is a lot like Azula, they even her stated her past is not nearly as traumatic or as painful as other characters like him)

What I found uncomfortable about this is how Azula's age doesn't matter at all nor her treatment from Ozai, which is merely treated as spoiling her too much (and I think demonizing her kinda undermines the tragedy of her Agni Kai with Zuko). I fully agree Azula deserved karma for her actions, but I don't like the idea that she is fully to blame for how she is...nor the implication that she hasn't suffered enough to deserve a redemption (or in the former guy's words, she hasn't been humilliated enough to hit rock-bottom and feel true remorse for her actions)

I'm genuinely confused over whether I romanticise the character too much or not for feeling sympathy for her...

First of all, don't let stupid internet discourse dictate to you how you should or should not feel about a fictional character. ATLA isn't real. Azula isn't real. There are no real consequences to whether you do or do not feel sympathy for a drawing of a storybook character. We all get caught up in discourse, I do it too, but at the end of the day, none of this is real, and if it's causing you distress or confusion about your own sense of morality in some way, then it's time to step back from that discourse.

But, obviously I disagree with the takes you're citing here, with the caveat that I haven't seen these specific sources myself. Frankly I don't believe in the concept of a "perverse nature" or inherently "shitty personality." Human psychology is far too complex for such a reductionistic, simplistic view of things, and I am too close to a PhD for that. In fact, personality by itself is so complex that there's an entire subsection of psychology devoted to the study of it. I have also never agreed with the concept that anyone can "deserve" redemption, and I've talked about that at length- link to a post about that here.

And of course I think it's ridiculous to act as though a character like Azula is some kind of evil monster with no path to change or growth when she's like, fourteen. I definitely think it's pretty asinine to not consider her age and the influences surrounding her when looking at the things she does and the reasons why. But look, if some guy in a youtube video wants to rant about how terrible and irredeemable of a person a cartoon teenager is, well...that's just none of my business, frankly. I don't have anything to prove to that guy. I can sit in my little corner and enjoy my little cartoon blorbo and feel secure in that. And while I think it's important to listen to other perspectives and consider others' opinions (when they're presented in good faith), it's also important to know when to shake your head and move on. Sometimes fandom discourse is the place to do that. Say to yourself "wow what a terrible take" and don't worry about it. It's not worth engaging with fandom nonsense that's upsetting you, and it's definitely not worth engaging with any content that has you questioning your morals because you think a cartoon character is sympathetic.

[imminentinertia]

Thank you for your cooler heads prevail addition to the The Sign discourse. I live in the US and I know everyone here pays for streaming or cable to enjoy their shows. And we can view them as long as we continue to subscribe but we don't get to keep them either. At least The Sign has been free up until now so I see no problem paying the cost of 1 month US dollars of a streaming service. It is kind of like paying for the whole experience so far in my opinion. I too am holding out though until I know about the English subtitles availability. I just wanted to thank you for being practical, it seems like everyone has been upset at this show lately and I am getting frustrated at the negativity of social media lately. I am excited to see what Phaya and Tharn do to get their Happy Ending!

Hello anon! Thank you for this ask <3

It does my head in a bit that of all things where we run into a culture clash it's ... cinema streaming? I watch films/shorts/documentaries like this from home cinema services pretty often - the viewing window is usually 24 or 48 hours, you don't keep the file, it's nearly the same transaction as going to a physical cinema. And we certainly don't get to keep shit from any non-time limited streaming services, as you say.

I've also seen mistrust in Thai Ticket Major and I don't get it. I have a few stories about buying concert tickets abroad from actually seedy sites, TTM isn't one. They've been in business for many years and TTM is a Ticketmaster company now, finding out about them only takes about ten seconds of looking for the information. Which I did, the first time I bought a ticket from them.

I don't really get being upset with the show either, but I rarely get upset, mostly I meh and move on when something isn't pleasing me anymore. Granted, episode 11 wasn't brimming with action and emotion like the previous ones, but there was some splendid tension and action even when it was less than it usually is (oh and who else is curious about how Chalothon seems unable to shift into naga form now?). Also they gave us the truly amazing artist episode. And and and... So I'd like discussion of what the stronger/weaker points in it are once it's finished and why one sees them as stronger or weaker, but I think I'll stick to chats for that.

I suppose I'll do what I always do when people get disgruntled and I can't see how we're watching the same show, filter the tags. It would be great if non-fans could stop using fan tags, generally speaking, which is one reason why I prefer following Good People (who I sometimes disagree with) instead of trawling tags.

By the way, I want to give Idol Factory my money. I think they make somewhat uneven but very watch-worthy shows, mostly, and I very much like to pay for the creative works I get to enjoy.

If you want a natter about The Sign, by all means come off anon and DM me, I'm mostly friendly :)

ETA a day later after I'd checked TTM again because I started doubting myself: I can get annoyance with a narrow viewing window, though. That's a notch closer to physical cinema experience than cinema streaming usually offers.

[inmyarmswrappedin]

Yeah because systemic oppression of queer communities for millennia means it’s understandable when members of those communities sometimes act out/react badly. Mailin has every privilege in the bag so of course flaws aren’t so easily forgiven

Hi anon! 🧇 Ngl I thought this ask was going to go in a different direction, one that was going to make me complain a lot more lmao.

I was talking about badly written seasons specifically. I'm not talking about queer characters (or any kind of minority characters actually) behaving badly. I love Isak and he was an asshole to like 95% of people he came across. Cris was also an asshole. Kieu My was a bystander to bullying and pulled some dick moves in s5 and s6. I hate to even put Ava in this paragraph, but when she had a personality, she didn't just exist to be Mailin's hypewoman, she had her own motives and pain that meant she didn't say "you go gurl!" to every stunt Mailin pulled. Lol of course members of oppressed communities aren't always precious angels, but we as a fandom give wayyyyyyyyy more leeway to white/light-skinned queer characters than we give cishet (or otherwise) characters of color.

We also give more leeway as a fandom to ASSUMED queer white characters, as we saw during s6 when the Druck social media team had to DEFEND Ava in youtube comments because commenters were massively siding with Mailin. And it wasn't just on youtube. Here on tumblr many people gave Mailin every benefit of the doubt even when Druck kept showing that she was more focused on coming across as the wokest person in the room, than on actually being a good friend to Ava and Fatou. And that was because even in s6, Mailin was assumed ace or sapphic or both. Same with pretty much every Sana/Vilde conflict. Vilde and remakes were given a lot of leeway because people thought she was sapphic. (And to be clear, I think a queer reading of Vilde makes a lot of sense. I'm not saying people are wrong for thinking Vilde is gay. I'm saying that because we/people think Vilde is gay, Vilde enjoyed a loyal fandom who defended her in fandom discourse.)

So if I'm fine with some queer characters behaving badly, why am I not okay with baby Robbe and Isi and whoever else? Well, because they're fictional characters first of all. Ideally, the character arc of a Skams main will be about ("you know what that is?") GROWTH. Isak was taken to task for pretty much every shitty thing he did, and eventually he learns to be more patient and generous (in his season anyway lol, s4 is a bit more complicated) as shown in week 10 when he's a completely different person to Vilde, and lets bygones be bygones with Emma. Likewise Cris was slapped across the face with the consequences of her actions until she made more efforts to understand the people around her and focused on giving them what they needed. Nora G realized that she'd been going through life thinking she had it all figured out, when abusive relationships are more complex than she thought looking at them from the outside. I do not think Robbe was given a character arc that addressed the bits the writers decided to add for funsies, like accusing Sander of abuse or the hate crime. Isi's redemption arc after bullying their childhood friend is, lmao, nonexistent. The love story with Sascha is perfunctory, Sascha and Lou were included because the season had too many poc as leading characters, and Sascha really only exists to make sad faces when Isi once again mistreats him. Then they're given a happy ending as well as the compulsory sex scene.

So you said Mailin's flaws aren't so easily forgiven, and I will say, depends on the viewer. If Mailin has every privilege in the bag, then Sporty Spice has one more. And yet I had to see on the tag a post about how op actually prefers Sporty to Mailin and thinks he's a more compelling character and his season would've been better. The thing is though, with this writing, Sporty would've been just as flat of a character and any storylines just as "how do you do fellow kids". But people like op would've loved it anyway because the actor is so cute. And there are plenty of people (see: youtube commenters circa s6) who still think Mailin is fucking great and think those that attack her are misogynists and "reverse racists" and "fake woke" and "looking for something to hate".

My conclusion being that of the post I already made. Eva Mohn also had pretty much every privilege in the bag, but her season was well written, her character arc made sense, her flaws were addressed, and the character (and by extension, the teens who Eva represented) were validated wherever she was right. And if Druck absolutely had to rob Ava of her well deserved season, the least they could've done was deliver a good Mailin season. And they didn't.

Edit: Also like I said on the tags to a reblog, I don't even place most of the blame on the writers. Q3 were also criticized for a bunch of issues in s3 and s4, but they decided to get educated, invite a diverse film's collective (Jünglinge) onboard and try to improve. And they weren't given the chance to complete this gen as they envisioned. If this bunch of writers, who are after all inexperienced, decide to improve and incorporate fan feedback, ZDF will likely get rid of them too. The problem is ZDF, and the writers are perhaps even more expendable than the cast at this point.

[lovebecomeshim]

hello! your zutara posting today has finally motivated me to ask this question because I came to atla very late(last year, to be specific) and I Love It Very Much but am 1000% out of the loop as far as why what remains of fandom (at least that I've seen among my friends) is so very strongly zutara. I'm not opposed to it per se I just don't really know what has driven it to apparently be such a popular ship? can you help me understand and maybe convert me a little bit?

Hey!! Your ICON! :D I can try but I’m not sure how coherent I’ll be; however I AM sure someone a lot more competent will be willing to add to this. Either way, I’m glad you asked because my plan was to drag down as many people as possible with me.

*smacks the hood of zutara* this baby can fit so much mutual love and support!

This got so long, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to put it under a cut on mobile and it already got deleted once so I’m scared to mess with it lol. Moving on.

I’m gonna start this with a disclaimer that im on mobile so formatting is tricky and I’m also really new to atla in that I only completed my first watch through in like 2019??? So some of my info is all just based on what I’ve picked up from Discourse 👀 so anyway the sparknotes version: zutara was wildly popular from the beginning. To the point where the atla crew internally disagreed on which ship should be endgame. (Ex. Bryke [showrunners] asked the writers to rewrite The Southern Raiders to make Zuko seem less ideal for Katara than Aang [which failed, depending on who you ask]; the animation team purposefully created a visual parrallel between Oma and Shu in the Cave of Two Lovers and Zuko and Katara in the catacombs under Ba Sing Se in the Crossroads of Destiny; etc.)

The ship was popular enough that Bryke actually chose to display zk fanart at a con for the sole purpose of mocking the fans, but that’s neither here nor there. The entire episode Ember Island Players, while a love letter to/parody of the whole show, was an opportunity to address zutara’s viability as a canon pairing (while, again, mocking zutaras for romanticizing that catacombs scene). Point is! It’s always been popular but with it not being endgame, there’s got to be something that’s given it staying power.

And that’s honestly got to do with three things: their dynamic, thematic cohesion, and potential.

(You know what... you know what, it’s four things. The fourth is they’re so aesthetically pleasing together and individually. Like, they’re just good looking people [specifically when they’re grown but they’re also cute kids] and that absolutely doesn’t hurt) (but it’s not the Point, it’s just nice to point out sometimes)

The dynamic is hard to get into without also looking at the canon pairings, but I think I can do that without unnecessary bashing. It’s just that part of the magic of zutara is really highlighted by what they give to each other that their other relationships don’t.

First off, it’s classic enemies to (would be) lovers. The absolute truest form of it. It’s not too different from how CS started out: a rogue antagonist with a job to do—but no personal vendetta against the future love interest—who is deeply and emotionally invested in his personal storyline (revenge/redemption) with little regard for how it effects other people after his entire life and genuine good nature are marred by suffering, and a fierce warrior girl with a strong moral compass and her own personal investment in stopping him (protect her family and save the world doing it). Obviously frustration and animosity grew between them by the nature of them being on opposing sides, but that just lends itself to the sweetness of their later reconciliation.

The thing is that while they’re wildly different on the surface (he’s a hot-headed prince of a fascist regime who is trying to capture the Avatar to please his father; she’s a nurturing daughter of the chief who is trying to protect and train the Avatar in order to topple his father’s throne) they find out that they have so much more in common both in their experiences and their personalities.

(What follows is an excessive use of the word “both” and I’m sorry about that)(I can edit it. I can do that. That IS an option............)

They both have an innate sense of justice that they are determined to see done (zuko, at the war meeting, sticking up for the Earth Kingdom kid when the guards torment his family, choosing not to steal from the pregnant couple despite his circumstances, abiding by his word to leave the SWT should Aang come willingly, etc.; katara, literally.... at any point). They both have pretty one-track minds at accomplishing certain goals once they’ve put their mind to it, regardless of a lack of support in that endeavor (it goes without saying I guess, but zuko’s entire hunt; katara’s determination to get the earth benders to fight back, her determination to absolutely destroy Pakku until he agrees to teach her, etc.). They both lost their mothers at young ages. Their worlds are war-torn and traumatizing to them both, if in different ways, but that ultimately forces them to grow up too quickly to be wholly independent individuals. They both have issues with their fathers (for WILDLY different reasons, but). They both hold extreme prejudices that they need to learn to overcome (which ties into thematic cohesion)(bit like Lizzie and Darcy in that way but magnified by a million). They’re both extremely emotional and empathetic—which can and often does result in loud outbursts. Katara’s a bit better adjusted and can temper her anger for longer than S1 Zuko can, but they both feel that anger deeply and have no compunctions expressing it (Katara is, usually, more justified, particularly in S1. Again, S1 Zuko is severely maladjusted but at the point when they could’ve feasibly become a couple, he’s so much better off with the way he carries himself). They both struggle with feelings of inferiority in their bending abilities when confronted with prodigal benders like Aang and Azula, but have the work ethic required to double down and become two of the most powerful benders in the three remaining nations. This is a little more minor but it is a parrallel that appeals to some shippers that they both have these alter egos in the Painted Lady (notably fire nation coded) and the Blue Spirit (water tribe coded) that are pretty different from who they are day-to-day and are useful in accomplishing a purpose that they as themselves cannot.

(I’m.... I just realized that this could potentially get very long. Should I have made a slide show with bullet points??????)

Anyway, similar. I know there’s more but there’s literally so much to love about zutara that I’ll drive myself a little crazy trying to compile all the ways they’re similar. (Just gonna say that at this exact moment I went back to add more similarities.... so okay then)

Once they’ve reconciled, we see how all of these things only lend themselves to a deeper intimacy together than they share with literally anyone else. There’s a steady partnership that positions them as the mom/dad of the gaang, while also providing the support necessary to allow the other to not have to carry so much responsibility. A lot of zutaras will point out how zuko is actually depicted doing the more domestic chores that are normally relegated to Katara once he joins the gaang, since the others in the group are two 12-year-olds and sokka. The one that sticks out the most is how he makes tea for the group and then serves them, while Katara is able to just relax with her friends around the fire. Fanon expands upon this a lot to Zuko helping with the laundry or the cooking or whatever else needs doing since he, as a once-refugee, is used to doing his own domestic tasks. Before Zuko joined, Katara was the one mothering everyone, sewing for them, cooking for them, etc. She’s always tending to the needs of the group, and that includes emotionally. She does the emotional labor for the gaang 99% of the time, but when she’s the one falling apart, she’s usually doing it alone and without the comfort that she normally provides for others. Until Zuko. And that’s before they’re even friends.

Which is WHY people romanticize the catacombs of Ba Sing Se so much. Katara is verbally attacking Zuko out of her own righteous anger but also her own prejudice when Zuko, surprisingly, chooses to be vulnerable with her. He’s been on a journey that’s opened his eyes a bit, but he’s never actively chosen to expose the rawest parts of his past to anyone. But for some reason he chooses to do that with Katara of all people. While she’s yelling at him. He sees her humanity, and for once can look past his prejudice and empathize with her. And this time, when she breaks down, she gets to be comforted. Katara normally talks about her mother when she’s trying to explain to someone else that she sees and understands they’re pain, as a form of comfort to them. Here, Zuko uses the exact same tactic. He sees her and he understands. And for zuko? He’s not being shut down. He’s allowed to articulate his pain regarding his mother without being ignored and made to internalize it, and he’s allowed to process how he feels about his scar out loud without being told that he deserved it. And then he lets her touch his scar, something we’ve seen him actively avoid before. He’s completely open to her and she’s completely open to him and all it took was one five minute conversation. She was about to use the little bit of Spirit water that she had, that she was saving for something Important, to heal the scar that still daily causes him pain just because they had, somehow, connected.

Plus there’s the whole parallel to the star-crossed lovers forbidden from one another, a war divides their people—

And then zuko messes up, he regresses, he gets what he wants and he HATES it. And the sense of justice he had as a child has been restored to him against his will and he can’t think of anything he wants to do more than the Right Thing, so he joins team avatar. Before he does that though, we get to see his relationship with Mai, which is where comparison really comes in. And what we see is Zuko, fresh off of his encounter with Katara in the catacombs, trying to be emotionally honest with Mai... and getting shut down and dismissed. Which is just how Mai is and it’s fine, but not for Zuko. Still, he keeps trying, and he keeps getting ignored or scoffed at or yelled at. Which is really a larger symbol for how he doesn’t fit in his old life anymore, but again that’s about thematic cohesion. He tries to articulate his anxieties about returning home, he tries to make romantic gestures, he tries to explain how morally conflicted he’s feeling—and Mai diverts to some kind of physical affection to shut him up and a parting comment that is pretty much always, in essence, “I don’t wanna talk about this.” So they don’t. On the other hand, once zuko and Katara are friends, we see him again emotionally distraught and caught up in his anxieties about facing Iroh, and it’s Katara who comes to him and listens to him and comforts and encourages him.

Similarly, we have Aang clamming up and getting uncomfortable whenever Katara shows any negative emotion, usually resulting in him making excuses or running away. Or, in the case of the Southern Raiders, lecturing her on how she needs to just let go of her anger about her mother’s murder. People have talked this episode to death and usually better than I ever could, so imma... keep it brief. There’s a serious disconnect between Aang and Katara in his ability to empathize with Katara and her needs that has her tamping down her vulnerability and amping up her anger. He tells her that he was able to forgive his people’s genocide and appa’s kidnapping (petnapping? Theft??), which is blatantly not true but also not an entirely equal parrallel to Katara’s situation, and continues making these little remarks throughout the episode. But it’s Zuko that Katara opens up to. It’s with him that she’s able to talk about the most traumatic day of her life, and it’s with him that she’s able to get the closure she needs, cementing their bond as friends and partners. This disagreement between Aang and Katara is then... never resolved. They just never bring it up and hear what the other is saying.

There’s a fic called The Portraits of Ember Island that has a line that so completely sums up the heart of the matter for why people love their dynamic. For context, zuko has woken up early to help Katara with the cooking and they spend the whole time just letting one another talk, and zuko stops to ask why she always just lets him talk. And so she stops to ask why he’s always helping, and it goes as follows:

There’s just... so much mutual support! Trust! Intimacy!! And it just continues like that from the Southern Raiders on, listening to each other, advising each other, watching each other’s backs! And then! Literally saving each other’s lives!! I will never be over the last Agni kai. Not ever. Zuko may have been willing to jump in front of lightning for anyone, but he actually did it for Katara. And in a show, that’s the thing that really matters. It’s a fulfilled trope usually exclusively applied to romantic pairings, and it ended up applying to Zuko and Katara. And then she ran out into the middle of a fight with tunnel vision just to get to him.

Also!! Also Zuko pushing Katara out of the way of the falling rocks at the Western Air Temple!! And Katara catching him as he fell from the war balloon that he fought Azula on!! Before they’re even getting along, they’re the ones reaching for each other. They come to this place of equal ground, as partners, who watch each other’s backs, call each other out but still listen attentively and understand, and provide the support that the other has been sorely lacking up until they knew each other (whether that be from lack of effort or lack of understanding from others, or an unwillingness to accept it for themselves).

Then, trailing along under the surface of this, we see the themes of the show totally embodied by Zuko and Katara as individuals and in their relationship to one another. There’s a YouTuber, sneezyreviews, who has a, like, 2-hour explanation on why she not only loves zutara but also believes that their endgame would’ve actually elevated the writing of atla to new levels particularly because of thematic cohesion and resolved character arcs. It’s the zutara dissertation I never knew I needed, and it’s funny and eloquent and effective, so I’m just going to sum up her section on thematic cohesion to the best of my abilities and then link it for whenever you have the time. And I HIGHLY recommend it, especially if you want a full understanding of what makes zutara so great and gives it such longevity.

Guru pathik has a line that goes something like this: separation is an illusion; things that seem different are just two parts of the same whole. Iroh also tells Zuko something similar: balance and strength are achieved when the different nations come together and influence one another and celebrate what makes them each unique. And this lesson is a massive central arc that both Zuko and Katara go through, moving past a black-and-white, good guys-vs-bad guys, us-vs-them mentality and into a greyer, more nuanced view of the world. Zuko sees the fire nation from an entirely new perspective and while he still loves and hopes for his nations future, he surrenders his blind loyalty to them in exchange for an unflinching loyalty to peace and love. Katara too had to come to terms with the fact that cruel people exist in the earth kingdom and water tribes, while some fire nation citizens are just regular, kind people who also need and deserve to have someone speak on their behalf. And this is honed in directly on how they view each other. They grow in their individual journeys to be open to the humanity in the other and then, once they’ve found that, they’re able to grow more in compassion for others in a beautiful feedback loop. And this is all matched in the symbolism repeatedly and intentionally associated with them in canon: sun and moon, fire and water, yin and yang, Oma and Shu who found love despite their warring nations. Their individual arcs are completed in each other and complement the themes of atla beautifully.

The canon pairs... just don’t. Which, again, is fine. But the very things that give atla longevity and popularity are anchored in zutara. Kat@ang doesn’t accomplish this. They’re... nice. Sweet. Especially when you erase a good portion of their interactions in S3. It could’ve been just a sweet love story. (Personally, the dynamic between toph and aang accomplish the same thing that zutara does, with complementary personalities that fulfill the theme of opposites blending in harmony) M@iko, on the other hand, is less sweet but I think wasn’t even supposed to last. Zuko’s relationship with Mai seems to represent his relationship with his old life as a whole. He can’t be emotionally vulnerable, he’s goaded into abusing his privileges, his agency and opinions aren’t respected. They just don’t have common ground with which to discuss anything that matters, so they don’t. As far as themes, the relationship doesn’t fit with atla. It’s zuko returning to and sticking with what is (on the surface) like him, what’s expected. Fire nation with fire nation. Fluid water bender with the flexible air bender. Like with like, separated from what is different and challenging and complementary.

And all of these things combined of course lead to the potential for the ship. I don’t know how familiar you are with the post-atla canon but... well, miss “I will never turn my back on people who need me”, miss “I don’t want to heal! I want to fight!” ends up living quietly in the SWT as a designated healer who turns a blind eye to the water tribe civil war happening right outside her front door. Which can be fine! People change! Some people just wanna stay inside. I just wanna stay inside! But the potential future for zutara is so much more satisfying, with Katara becoming the most unconventional Fire Lady the uppity old cads who are stuck on the old ways have ever seen. Fanon has her serving as a voice for the other nations within a kingdom at the point of its biggest political upheaval, as a confidante to Zuko who can actually help him while he’s trying to figure out how to move forward and make reparations. They have the opportunity, together, to accomplish what they both have set on their hearts to fight for: positive change that lends itself to harmony and balance. And the steambabies! A popular headcanon is that their firstborn daughter, the crown princess, is actually a waterbender, which causes such an uproar among the people who are adamantly clinging to the old ways. It’s just a future full of potential to be forces for good together, full of trust, intimacy, joy. The exact era of peace and love and balance that zuko announces that he intends to ring in with the start of his reign as Fire Lord is, again, magnified by the very personal zutara relationship. And we love to see it.

tl;dr zutara isn’t for everyone. Some people just don’t vibe with it. Some are nostalgic. Some love the canon they grew up with. Some have been disappointed for years. Some just see themselves in other characters and want their happiness instead. Whatever the reason, that’s fine. But for me, I love the way these two, from the moment they give each other a fair chance, are able to lower their walls and prejudices to see the other for the kindred spirits they are. They see each other’s humanity, and their response is to pour out love and support and compassion. I love that they’re a power couple in battle. I love the symbolism and, honestly, soulmatism that colors their every interaction. I love that they embody the whole storyline of atla in their relationship and how it develops, which is notably why their seasonal arcs always culminate in each finale with how they relate to one another. I love that zuko adopting a waterbending move is what actually saves his life and then katara’s. I love the chemistry! And I love the future they could’ve had, instead of the ones they were given.

So, in conclusion: I just think they’re neat and I hope you do too, at least a little bit. Even if it’s just respectfully from a disinterested distance cause you do you. And now here is the video I mentioned. I’m sorry this post got so long and then I gave you an even longer homework assignment, but I can’t recommend it enough. She says it all better than I can.

[ranboo5]

why is it that every time you dislike a take you turn it into something about bigotry? sometimes people aren't being classist theyre talking about the media literacy that most of the target age of this fandom is in should. start to have. idk it seems concerning to me that you feel the need to dig for points of potential bigotry whenever you don't like something! xoxo please fucking touch grass ^_^

I am going to engage w/ this in good faith bc I have already yelled for a bit and I'm not in the worst mood yay! Unfortunately this means this got, ofc, stupid fucking long. Srry jhfdskjf tl;dr at the bottom

This is not true actually! I talk abt takes I dislike All the time that have nothing to do with bigotry jhfsajhjhkdfhsgf like. I think it might be skewed on here bc I will often keep it in the Discord if I think it's unimportant, but I guarantee to you there are so many takes I do not like that are not bigotry related lmao

If you'd like to address my points further I gen would like to hear it but I've already explained here and here why specifically I think the topic du jour of the night is classist. I very much appreciate the problem you're bringing up of trying to justify dislike via bigotry, and of using accusations of bigotry in places they don't belong. This is why I make sure to support my claims when I make them, like I do in the linked posts

If you would like to address and contest those points/prove my reading is wrong go ahead. I'm open to being proven wrong here. Unfortunately what I am getting (in, hysterically, an exact redux of the knftrck discourse) is "this isn't [x]." "Okay but it is; here is where it functions as [x] here, here, and here, regardless of claimed intent" "Weren't you listening it isn't [x]"

I understand this may also be referring to here? Which is a musing on prescriptivism in general, which. Yeah is a product of bigotry. We live in bigoted societies. While it's true calling bigotry isn't always productive it is naive to assume that because a situation is suitably lighthearted bigotry doesn't exist in it I think this reaction is partially bc of the Immediate reaction to prove that OP of the post I responded to Could Never Be A Classist because my reply implied more condemnation than perhaps would've been productive and that was probably a mistake on my part. Honestly I should've probably opened with a brief explanation instead of just the snap

However. I saw and responded bc this was an evident point and people I know were hurt. People to whom academia is not accessible Read Posts Sometimes. I have yet to see a compelling counterargument for why this was not prescriptivism, which is a trapping of bigotry, as it is a symptom and a tool of enforcement of social hierarchy

When you live in a fucked up society your opinions are gonna be fucked up dude and even if you don't mean your posts that way if they get seen without context and can be interpretable without context as cringe you are still responsible for that fallout

Example w/ myself (including Subtle Societal Bigotry): back when the beeduo meetup first happened and we got 2 see Ranboo play Wii sports on irl stream I was one of the people who got unreasonably hype to see a streamer I frequently relate to /parasocial get to move around with enthusiasm and vibe. At the time I rbed and partook in several posts/jokes/comparisons about it, largely bc I saw myself/my ideal self in that and was pretty delighted

However, people I knew with things like joint conditions and also wiggles pointed out that several of those posts/that genre were tokenizing and sometimes straight up dehumanizing. It wasn't something I'd realized before and certainly not my intent (even in like, the didn't-realize-I-was-thinking-it way (which has also happened)); however, that didn't change the fact that my blogging that day had been alienating and functionally ableist (yes, ableist! Bigoted!). Recontextualized and looking at them more critically, I saw the point, deleted the relevant posts, and apologized. (I think the apology is still on my blog tho I can't remember the keywords to look for it so)

Like idk I probably was not clear (especially bc I was mad about other things too lmao) but the point when I call shit is not and never has been to #Cancel The Person Forever. When I call shit, and/or endorse calling shit, it's a call for something to be rectified

Both on this issue in particular and with the above point in general I try to make my intent and statement violently clear every time, though apparently I have not succeeded; I would be open to feedback here I'm kind of at a loss. Genuinely where am I unclear because evidently I am losing people somewhere

TL;DR: - I don't do that actually tho I do appreciate why you may think this - I do talk abt bigotry a nonzero amount and that's because bigotry is pervasive - We all live in a society no one is immune to it - When I call shit/when I made this response in particular it is because I see a legitimate problem and I think it needs to be corrected - In this case and in a lot tbh the issue is prescriptivism - I appreciate that intent and impact aren't the same thing but impact cannot be handwaved away by intent

[beiplaysffxiv]

I dunno why I am writing this, honestly. Probably because the wisdom tooth eruption has been ruining my week and I am just fucking annoyed at the discourse. I don't really have a following here yet, so I essentially risk nothing.

---

There's an on-going discourse on Twitter dot com, about whether or not Lalafell are kids and should they be allowed into NSFW content. This came up after Lalafell players started speaking up about the unnecessary hate and harassment they receive from others, simply for choosing to play the potato-shaped gnome race.

Lalafell are NOT children. They are NOT child-coded and regardless of what some of you think, they were NOT based on human toddlers. I don't know how many times it has to be said at this point. Pretty much all of the Lalafell we meet in game (including our WoL) are adults. The only exceptions are maybe 1-2 vague NPCs, that appear in a seasonal quest of some sort and only exist, because the Devs don't bother making child models for every existing in-game race.

All of the Lalafell/Dwarves we meet in sidequests and MSQ are adults. Some of them are middle-aged. There are in-game mentions of them being in romantic/sexual relationships - interracial as well. There are married Lalafell. There's a pregnant Dwarf in the Nier questline as well. Hell, everyone's "favourite" Lalafell villains in pre-Heavensward story are adult men.

---

The general argument against Lalafell being adults are their "child-like movements and high-pitch voice" along with some piece of Lalafell description, mentioning how "difficult it is to tell their age". I'm going to go into realism right now, but do you know who else fits under this description? People with Achondroplasia.

They exist. Due to their bone development their movement is obviously different from your regular person, which is sometimes compared to how a child moves. They often have a high-pitched voice as well and in many cases it is difficult to tell their exact age until they grow much older (look up Quaden Bayles and the whole drama surrounding his age). These people are the actual closest irl example of what Lalafell would be. Not literal fucking children.

---

Does that make Lalafell fitting for NSFW content? I'd say that depends on your approach. Canonically Lalafell do have sex and nothing you do or say is going to change that. I sincerely do not see any issue with people who portray their very obviously adult Lalafell in mature situations (sex, drinking, smoking etc.). They do not hurt anyone by doing so and they make it clear they do not infantilize their characters. Hell, I see a lot of people wishing they could at least modify their Lalafell to have more mature features. Which is somehow ALSO frowned upon?? and pretty much all Lalafell modders have been shunned by the community at this point.

That being said, people who sexualize Lalafell while also purposefully infantilizing them are still creeps. They do not represent the Lalafell community. Just like people modding their catgirls to wear diapers do not represent Miqo'te players.

---

tl;dr - My stance on Lalafell is that they are absolutely NOT children and shouldn't be seen as such, unless the player very clearly and specifically makes it known their character is underage. Lalafell should also be allowed in NSFW content without being ostracised as long as they're not purposefully infantilized.

[bluebellravenbooks]

It's January and winter blues is real, people! I've been trying to do more stuff that I love to keep the spirits up, and this includes studying animation. I've admired it for a long time, but mostly by just staring at concept art and reading on how really advanced stuff is made; however, after catching up on some cartoons during the lockdowns (such as Avatar, Over the Garden Wall, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe) I realized that I'm much more interested in the character animation and storyboard/storytelling part, which very nicely intersects with my other interests in writing and drawing - and I decided to study it all a bit more!

So these are my

complete beginner's notes on learning character animation that no one asked for, by someone who is definitely not qualified to talk about it

Figure drawing. This is the first thing that will hit you like a ton of bricks if you as much as glance in this direction. I'm in two minds about this: on the one hand, some practice in this area is obviously essential (duh!); on the other, this sometimes becomes a genre in itself, a specifically stylized drawing just for the sake of, well, pretty drawing. Which isn't helpful if you're doing it for practice. Also, if you thought that art of naked women in ridiculous poses is about two centuries dead... well, yeah you're wrong. (Seriously, what's up with that? There are some things in the art world that I just don't get.) As for how to learn it, there are plenty of classical books on the subject and apparently a lot of Discourse on which method is The Best; I'm trying not to get too deep into that and currently am just learning by practice and trying out different techniques.

The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams. This book was quickly pointed out to me as A Classic, and I'm having a lot of fun doing some basics with it in Pencil2D, but oh my God a good portion of this book really did not age well. It's full of reverence towards the Golden Age of animation, blatant misogyny and the ever-present incompetent "in-betweener" (animation assistant), whose problems seem to stem from the fact that he's always "plugged in" listening to music (because I'm sure that's the only reason the lowest link in the famously underpaid industry would not produce a masterpiece in every drawing). Basically, animation basics are covered really well, but there are tons of animation industry (and just life) details that are decades out of date (or at least no longer relevant for most western studios from what I know about their workflow). I didn't know that an animation handbook could be so annoying.

Perspective! For Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea. I picked this one up because of Rebecca Sugar's recommendation and all the interesting stuff she talks about in interviews about perspective. I can't comment on the book much yet since I've barely started it, but it looks fun, and perspective is definitely an important aspect that I hadn't been paying enough attention to; also interesting to try and tanslate some of these concepts to perspective in writing (reminds me about what Philip Pullman said about "camerawork").

Art books (featured here WolfWalkers and Steven Universe). I have a few more back at home - have always enjoyed them, and one can learn much from them as well. However they are heavy and expensive, so that's something to consider - for example if you're a student like me, who doesn't have tons of free cash and will probably have to move a lot. But hey, times are dark, so sometimes I do threat myself...

Software. I like doing doodles digitally, especially when learning - spoiling a lot of paper makes me feel bad, while digital drawing allows me to relax a bit more, since every bad drawing is just one click away from oblivion. The conventional choice for drawing is Photoshop, but there are definitely decent free alternatives out there. For animation tests I'm using Pencil2D - it's free and perfect for a beginner. However, one thing that you'll need if you want to try out digital art is a graphic tablet - I'm afraid computer drawing isn't really feasible without one, unless you're into VERY specific art styles. But in good news, there's not much difference between super advanced and very basic ones, so a simple one will serve you just fine! I'm using my old trusty Wacom, purchased many years ago for saved-up pocket money, and it's working great.

Well, there we are - no idea whether this is useful for anyone, but I hope it is. My take-home message here is that learning art is fun, and there are many different types of "art" that you can learn and do on your own - it's not just oils and pastels :) And of course it's not really feasible to get as good as actual art school students on your own - but there's still plenty of interesting stuff you can do!

If there are any actual art/animation people reading this - I apologize for my amateur dabbling, and would be interested to hear if you have any tips!

[aroaceacacia]

Man, all these asks really do bring up some memories huh! I was especially involved in all the discourse (which was absolutely not healthy for me but eh, I was a kid who romanticised the whole thing like it was some cinematic war) and I definetly recall some notable details that I might be the only active hermitblr to remember at this point

For example, I personally knew the person who wrote the fanfic people cancelled Cleo over, and they actually wrote it as a vent because they were trans themselves and feared the stuff they wrote about happening to them

And there was a talk with M on a private server, idk Coffee might remember it if I recall correctly?? Or maybe not? But it was when me and a bunch of related people actually sat down and talked to M about how what he has done was hurtful. And he actually was really nice about the whole thing and gave us a heartfelt apology, and explained some details that... really made it feel like his relationship with H wasn't very healthy at all. But it's not my place to be the judge of that.

And then he posted an apology on his blog as well, which was worded less than addmitting his mistakes and actually apologizing, and more like shifting the blame away from himself. Even more, ironically, he posted a drawing of his friend group, most of which were exactly the people that did the most harm in the fandom, on the next day after the convo. On the same server we used to confront him JSGHSDLSDGHJG but yeah maybe the excessive hate on M was not deserved, but he still leaves a bitter feeling when I see him.

I also was very active in hermitshipping circles at the time, so I know some details from there, but idk if you would be alright or even want to talk that much about the shipping itself. But I guess a fun detail was how the whole disaster started with me an my friends deciding that we're going to make shipping sideblogs that haters could block if they wanted and where we could post freely, and also allowed ourselves to use the main tag because we felt it was unfair that no other fandom had a problem with shipping in the main tag and it was just regular content like anything else.

I think my "favorite" (/neg) story that I sometimes tell like both a horror story and a funny incident is the whole pisszloy thing, where the same blog that drew piss all over minor's shipart... called out Zloy. For liking a post on Twitter. Needless to say, ironic. Pretty sure it's the same person that told Scar that Zloy wanted him dead.

I also remember very clearly how, at least in my circles, there was A LOT of hate directed at RST, which I actually haven't seen mentioned here yet (maybe it's because they/[whatever pronouns RST uses these days] have since decided to disengage with the discourse, which, good for them). Basically RST made tons of callouts for shippers, outing those that did not want to be known as shippers. And that landed them into getting doxxed, which was absolutely not deserved and way too extreme, so much that the entire hermitshipblr started posting about how they did not support this, but it remains a fact).

A lot of this stuff ended up leaving a mark, so much that for a while I could not look at anything related to SMPL/LC, Schlatt, even some meme formats, and certain artstyles still cause me to be wary, but these days I feel like not only am I healing myself, but the entire fandom has moved on and has become a very chill and stable place :D All these years, even in the worst of moments, I still had friends that supported me (Hippiecraft, Doomcraft, Zloy gang, etc., I love you all so much) and I think the good times alone were worth it :')

By the way, please take care of your own mental health! You've been getting a lot of very heavy asks lately, including this one that you don't have to asnwer, so if you need to take a break, this is your reminder that it's okay to do that! <3

thank you for the kind words, and for sharing your perspective! I'm glad you're doing well, and that you can still find the positives in the entire situation.

oh god dont remind me of the zloy-scar incident that was SO out of line NotLikeThis

[marnie-mouse]

Hey this is random and I don't want to bother you but I'm kinda new to the nhl fandom and I really like your blog! I was hoping to get some pointers on how to get more into the fandom, learn the basics/history, etc and you seem to know a lot :)

Hello, absolutely no problem, and thank you!

Welcome to the NHL and NHL Tumblr! It's kind of hectic around here, especially during the playoffs, expansion drafts, and trade season, but I'm so glad that you're here!

So when I started liking hockey and getting into the NHL fandom, it was really important for me to find like-minded blogs because there can be discourse that feels a bit discouraging if you don't have places that you can find comfort in. If you've found a few blogs of your team(s) that you like, I would for sure go into their search and make sure that they don't have anything from previous posts that feel off to you. It's never fun to get the surprise of liking a blog and suddenly having vitriol on your feed that you weren't prepared for.

The first thing I did when joining the fandom was to learn everything I could about hockey, if you already have that under your belt, great! It's super helpful when talking to other fans to be accurate because a lot of people who are into sports are very particular about sports knowledge. For the most part, and I'm generalizing, it really doesn't matter, and they won't gatekeep you from having an enjoyable time because we all just really want to talk about how much we love our favs, but sometimes it sucks because people ask you to prove yourself. I usually just ignore those people, because like I said the vast majority don't care, but it's also good to have confidence in your opinions and knowing what you're talking about so no misinformation is happening. If you don't know a lot about hockey, I would look up the rules and watch a few games to immerse yourself, and it also helps to follow the hockey journalist and team accounts on Twitter for updates on players, trades, and anything happening in the NHL world.

Depending on which team or teams or individual players that you like, there are literally endless blogs that you can find on Tumblr to cater to you. I'm mainly a Hawks blog, so my favs, and the least dramatic blogs that I follow are @kikiskeysgame who has info about players and does breakdowns before and after games and @allthebros who has a lot of Toews/Kane posts and awesome GIFS from games and events. Every team has some incredible people like this who are really fun to follow, so just check out the team and player tags and you should be able to find some people to watch. A lot of blogs also do live blogging for games, so watch out for those too!

Like I said before, it might feel like a ton of people are gatekeeping if you are new to the blog scene, but it's really just a small percentage that are really loud. So if you like multiple teams/players on different teams, please do not be afraid to post about anything and everything that you love! I guarantee there are other blogs on here that share your passion.

As for the history of the fandom, I would say it doesn't really matter if you know what has gone on because, as you probably know, the rivalries on the teams usually carry over. So Philly/Pitts has beef, Van/Chi has beef, Pitts/Wash has beef, etc. and usually so do their fans. Sometimes that's not true, and that should totally not stop you from liking both sides. You're allowed to like what and whoever you like, and screw anyone who says you can't. Also if there's a reference to anything from a blog that doesn't make any sense, don't be afraid to ask, we are all more than happy to have asks to answer!

What else... Um, drama is usually over pretty quick, if someone says that a player is problematic do your own research because people can be bias, if your team is out of the playoffs or doesn't make it in that year people will post sad things that make it seem like they'll never get in again, but that isn't true, and even though players move teams, especially if they move to teams that your mutuals don't like, that doesn't mean you have to stop liking them, they're just being dramatic. The All Star games don't matter, but everyone seems to have fun. Everyone 'boos' Gary Bettmen at the draft, the cup presentation, and pretty much anytime we see him. You can usually find someone on here that has a link to stream the games if you don't have access. And truly, off-season on Tumblr is just a bunch of players looking dumb and having fun, and everyone goes crazy for summer pics, stories, babies, and weddings.

Also, it costs nothing to be nice, and I feel like that's something a lot of people forget when they're in a blog space, but it's important to remember that.

I think my final and most important piece of advice is love the time that you have, the teams that you love, and the players that you can because they don't stay there forever. The players leave consistently, the teams change all the time, and time seems to speed up without you noticing because truly it is incredibly fun, and that always seems to make time go faster.

If I didn't answer any of the questions that you have, in this novel-esque answer, or you would like to chat or know more, please do not hesitate to ask, I am always available, and I love to talk about hockey!

Thank you again, and welcome home!

[thedreadvampy]

Like idk what you want from me here. If you want to engage me in a specific question about ace/aro identities, as I've said several times and nobody has ever actually done, then ask me the specific question. Don't fuck around with vague gestures at Points of Discourse and then get cross with me because I haven't answered the Exact Question you Didn't Ask But Expected Me To Intuit.

Preface: If you don't want to answer any of these because you are allo/allo and don't have a say because its not your place, say that. In fact, I'm asking these because you seem to do have opinions on things you shouldn't based off things you have said in the past.

I also want to state that I agree fully with your points about Martin- minus the blatant aphobia. Not just acephobia, arophobia as well.

1. Do you think qprs are problematic? I believe you once made a post saying roughly that qprs are just normal friendships, or something like that, that has since been deleted. What is your current opinion?

2. Are het aros lgbt?

3. Are het aces lgbt?

4. Cis aro/aces lgbt?

5. Cishet aro/aces?

6. Do the spectrums and micro identities exist? You've implied in the past they don't, in the post about how they were supposedly created from sex positivity

7. Can aros be in or desire romantic relationships?

8. Can aces have or desire sex?

9. Does the split attraction model exist and does it benefit people?

10. Can teenagers identify as aro/ace or do you think they're too young?

11. Can you be, say, an aroace lesbian, or an aroace gay, aroace bi, etc. Idk how to phrase this one but like can you be aroace and still id with another orientation?

I could send another anon detailing the aphobia in the post, because I at least am certainly not upset about Martin being sexual, rather it was the very blatant aphobia. It could have stemmed from ignorance, and if that's the case I don't mind explaining it.

Ok this is a lot of questions, some with quite involved answers, so I'm gonna answer them chunk by chunk so it's a bit more manageable, and then I might come back to some of the surrounding message. This isn't gonna be an immediate bang bang bang, but I'll try and work through them over the next couple of days.

Question 1

1. No, I don't think qprs are problematic. I don't necessarily understand them but I don't need to understand them to understand and respect that they're a thing that's important to a lot of people. I don't know what post you're referring to, but I'm surprised that you say it was deleted, because I very rarely delete posts except, occasionally, reblogs where people have flagged up misinformation or dogwhistles or which I reblogged by accident. tbh I'm the messiest online presence I'm way too lazy to delete past posts or block people even when I probably should bc I don't like to feel like I'm ~hiding evidence~. So I'm not saying you're wrong, you're probably totally right, but I'm surprised.

I'm thinking about what posts I've made that you could be thinking of, and obviously I don't remember everything I say on here bc I say A Lot and I actively post to get things out of my head so 🤷‍♀️ but I do remember making a post a while ago where I said that it was a normal expectation of friendship to have some friends close enough that you'll live with them, raise kids with them, etc, and I'm wondering if that was the post you're thinking of? I did have qprs in mind while writing that to a degree, but only because I think 'you wouldn't do this with your friends' is a very common argument people put forward about qprs and I think it's a weak argument, because many people have different definitions of friendship, and the only argument I think is needed for any sort of I Have X Emotional Relationship To This Thing is...I Have X Emotional Relationship To This Thing. Like you can't offer a universal materialist definition of the differences between romantic, queerplatonic, sexual and platonic relationships, because the boundaries are very personal and it's really an emotional and experiential difference. so if that is the post you're thinking of, I wasn't criticising The Concept Of QPRs as much as saying that I thought trying to put hard lines around What Friends Do Vs What QPPs Do was a) counterproductive when arguing with someone who thinks QPR is Just Normal Friendships bc. if they do those things with their friends then saying NO THIS IS A QPR THING just reinforces their existing belief that you're talking about the same thing as they mean by friendships and b) to me seems to set a painful expectation to young people that you can only get these kinds of close friendships occasionally and in the form of a QPR and it will be stigmatised and misunderstood (and depending on how people talk about it, is only accessible to aspec people and allo people should only expect it to come through romantic/sexual relationships), when in fact most people of most ages I know have friends with whom they can share things like housing, deep feelings, futures, finances, who they miss if they don't see for a few days, who are mutually supportive and vital to their wellbeing. I don't think that's mutually exclusive with the existence of QPRs though - like I personally don't know what the difference is between a QPR and a close friendship, but I also don't know what the difference is between a romantic relationship and a close friendship but I know there is one and I know it's not a question of What You Do but a question of How You Feel And Interact, and that's pretty hard to define in unambiguous terms.

Like generally I don't Not Think QPRs exist, and I think it's a dick move to try and tell people they're wrong about how they experience and define their relationships because???? how are you meant to know that better than the person whose relationship it is??? but I do think the way people talk about QPRs (both from the perspective of defending them and from the perspective of attacking them) is pretty rife with problems and I don't think it's invalidating the reality of QPRs to talk about where the arguments and language around them potentially falls down or has unexpected consequences.

On the other hand, I don't know if that actually is the post you're referring to - the reason I'm calling back to that is that that and a few resultant asks are the only time I remember talking about QPRs on here in the last year or so. So like, several of these questions reference past posts, which is very fair, but I do need it to be clear that, since I don't really tag anything and I don't have a great memory, I can only really speak to What I Think Now In This Context, not to what I posted in the past and what I was thinking when I posted it. Like, this isn't too deny responsibility - I reckon I'm responsible for what I post even if I don't still agree with it, which is why I don't tend to delete my own posts on purpose - but just to deny capacity, I guess? I don't really KNOW what I've posted so if you talk about it in vague terms (and I do understand that if it's been deleted there's not a lot you can do but that) I may not necessarily be responding to the part of it that's worried you, so if I'm not speaking to something specific I've said or done, it's not because I Don't Want To, I just don't necessarily know to.

I'm waffling about this because looking through your messages there's a lot of "you said X" and like. given that the intended message of the post that's kicked this off was very different to the message people have taken from it, it feels important to me to know whether if I looked at the posts you're referencing I'd be like "ah yeah I did believe that but now I believe X" or if it's more a situation of "oh right I can see how you took X from that but my thinking was more Y".

(also sometimes when people say "you made a post" they mean "you reblogged a post" and I am a compulsive discourse scroller so sometimes I reblog a random post to bookmark my place on someone's discourse blog or I accidentally longpress the reblog button while scrolling - I try to delete reblogs that I don't agree with but sometimes I miss some, all of which to say if there's a post on my blog that doesn't seem to reflect what I say in my original posts then it doesn't necessarily mean I'm a crypto-whatever so much as I'm very lazy and messy with my blog. Doesn't mean I shouldn't be held accountable for reblogs but it's useful to know if we're talking original content or reblogs bc I'm unlikely to fully accidentally make a post. but I quite often accidentally reblog stuff. I doubt this is the case with this sitch just bc of your phrasing but I want to cover my bases)

anyway tl;dr: no I don't believe that QPRs themselves are inherently problematic, nor do I think I have at any point believed that, but I do think that a lot of the language and ideas used to talk about them are based in miscommunication or absolutist ideas about relationships and can have damaging knock on effects.