#such a...passionate group...

[aeternallis]

.

[secondbeatsongs]

as a bi person, the bisexual flag brings me infinite joy and always puts a smile on my face, however as a person who has a Passion for Graphic Design, that undersaturated shade of purple infuriates me when it's used digitally

like, on an actual flag - which was its original purpose - it looks great!

those look fine! lovely, even! with the semi-transparent fabric, the way it catches the sunlight, it looks beautiful!

but now look at how it looks digitally

the pink and blue are so vibrant compared to the sad, lonely lavender!

and let's look at this statement from Michael Page, the creator of the bi flag:

(sidenote: he created this flag in 1998, so if his takes on bisexuality is different from yours, it's okay to notice that! a lot has changed since the 90s when it comes to lived experiences and the way we describe them. but, it's also important to respect his thoughts about this and the way he presented them, even if today, we'd probably not say that bi people "blend unnoticeably into both the gay/lesbian and straight communities.")

so in pantone colors, the pink is 226 C, the blue is 286 C, and the purple of the flag is 258 C.

but...here's the deal

Michael talks here about how the key to understanding the symbolism is to know that the purple blends into both the pink and blue. and on a physical flag, I think you can see that!

but digitally, it absolutely does not blend. it clashes badly, and looks oddly separate from the other two colors.

which got me wondering...what purple do you get if you actually blend 226 C and 286 C?

oh! oh, my god.

look at that! look at how nicely it fits between those colors!

look at it next to the original color scheme! look at how much more vibrant the purple is!

and friends. this is just blending through rgb! you get even more purple variations when you use other color spaces!

let's compare all of them:

(top: original, lab. middle: lrgb, lch. bottom: rgb, hsl)

look at all of the different purple options you can get just by combining these two colors!

if you want almost too-vibrant saturation, you can go hsl, if you want something more relaxed that's closer to the original, you can go lab or lrgb. and if you want to split the difference, lch is bright and violet, while rgb is there with its saturated but darker purple.

anyway, I guess I don't really have a point here? this isn't so much an informational post as it is Me Getting Weird About Colors, but I think it is a useful lesson about how colors look very different on screens compared to how they look on objects in real life.

and sometimes, I think it's okay to compensate for that.

out of all of these, this is my favorite bi flag:

it's the one where the colors were blended in lab color space. for me, the lighter, softer purple is close enough to the original bi flag purple, while also feeling like a smoother blend of the blue and pink

but that's just me! and it might not even look the same to you, since every screen is different, because technology is a nightmare!

anyway, thank you for coming with me on this colorful journey! I will now retreat back to inkscape and make pained sounds about inkstitch gradients until something tangible pulls me back into reality

[bacchuschucklefuck]

space sweepers but they're delivery people and are at no point on screen through the entire movie

[alexuncut]

Do you wanna see what's down there?👋🏳️‍🌈😜

[lokh]

mom avoids dead anime mom curse because he transitions. he’s always had a complicated relationship with pregnancy because of how woefully little people are told about potential complications and aftercare, and also because of how gendered it is, so after the birth of his second child he’s finally had it and decides to transition

he joins a local community group for mothers and at first it’s played for laughs how often they fall to the dead mom curse, but soon we find out more about how society has failed mothers and people who give birth, from information being withheld, procedures being carried out without consent, lack of accommodations and maternal and paternal leave, racism…

it also turns out that becoming a man doesn’t help with this, not really, because being a pregnant trans man brings its own problems. follow along as he learns more about being a parent and a mother, and maybe even… finding love???

coming to you never because I can’t write!

[twisting-roads]

headshots + broadcast colors of all my iterator ocs (with finalized designs anyways. oh and sorry fester isn't here either I really didn't feel likeit)

you can tell I did the last row way after I did the other rows because its inconsistent :sob:

[stigblomqvists]

updated room tour 💐

[nachosncheezies]

In defense of late-canon x files (including the revivals)

I was thinking about this poll after I commented on it, and I kinda want to be brave and say more.

Short answer to the poll's question before I go any further: If you're a new fan and a sensitive sort who thinks you'll struggle with your blorbos Really Going Through It and you really need a happy ending, I suggest you stop at the end of season 8. Do not pass go, do not look at spoilers. Disregard this post entirely, close the internet, and go look at something that makes you happy. (Also fuck every part of society that characterizes sensitivity as inherently weak and bad and some kind of personal failing, you are valid.)

That said, "quality" as a concept is entirely subjective, and the question of whether or not there's a decline in quality for any story is wholly subjective, too. In the case of x files? I'm not convinced there is a decline. I am going to be upfront that I haven't yet watched past season 8, though I am almost completely spoiled on events after that - and the reason I haven't watched yet is not because of how I know events are going to unfold, but simply because I don't want it to end!!! Ohh, the tension between "I CAN'T WAIT!!!" and "Nooo don't be over D:"

When I first came to txf fandom on tumblr and gradually became spoiled about what happens in late canon though, I was often left uncomfortable and tbh kinda queasy about it. As I said in my comment on the poll, the hate for especially the revival and IWTB, or to a lesser extent even seasons 8 & 9, is very well documented. But! There are other takes to be found here on tumblr if you figure out where to look, and my feelings have changed!

The thing is, I have yet to find myself in any fandom where there isn't a vocal subset of fans who dislike the story after a certain point. I am not joking when I say that no one hates the things they love as passionately as sci-fi and fantasy fans. In my experience, it often hinges on the extent to which a viewer has strong notions on where they would like the characters to end up. In particular with series where shipping is a dominant component for the bulk of a fandom, I have almost universally found that there comes some turning point in the story where "let them be happy you cowards" is the dominant view, and things that compromise the attainment of a degree of romantic stability and/or domesticity are, to many fans, annoying at best and despicable at worst. But! As one tagset on the linked poll said:

and I think for any fandom, that last tag especially is so so so important. (I think that's harder for people watching a weekly series live, bc you have so much time to analyze and speculate and dream before the next breadcrumb drops, but I digress.)

So why am I saying this and how do I apply it to x files? Well, I eventually found that there are also a subset of fans who find redeeming things right up to the very end and actually quite like the whole thing! The things that I had seen people rage and ventpost so much about honestly never quite sounded to me as "out of character" or "untrue to the story" etc as those same ventposts made them sound. And I've discovered I'm not the only one who felt that way. Do I love that the spooky squad had to go through all of those things? No, those poor guys D: Life is hard and they have been through so much trauma. But do those events and their choices make sense to me in light of everything that came before? Yes! And I honestly can't wait to see them fight to overcome those things, breaking, healing, always learning, always growing, always getting better.

So if you're wondering "where does it go wrong"... well, I'm a completionist, as many people who've answered that post are, but also my personal opinion is that I don't think it does go wrong. If you're new and interested in exploring why I've gone from "vaguely queasy" to "excited" about the whole thing, or want to maybe balance out the impressions you're getting about the later seasons before deciding whether or not you want to see the whole thing, I'll put a few blog names in the comments.

Final admission: even once I started feeling a little more confident in the possibility that "actually ok maybe I'm not crazy, maybe this all kind of is in character and does make sense", there was one big plot point that I was NOT looking forward to and I thought I would never be comfortable about. In hindsight, I think my discomfort came from the negative responses being SO seemingly universal that I hadn't stopped to let myself truly consider other possible interpretations on that point. (I mean my initial instinct when I first read about it was, why are we mad about this?? CSM is literally the most unreliable narrator in history???? it's obviously fake news?????? this must be either a fever dream someone's having or it's a misdirection ploy against whatever shadowy forces might still be lurking?????????????? but for whatever reason I guess I had halfway written that off.) Happily, just last month there's a new post-s11 novel out, and although reviews for the book as a whole are mixed, it seems to have laid the groundwork for resolving that plot issue in a way I think most fans would be broadly happy with. If you're interested in being spoiled about that and seeing how, I recommend searching #perihelion on @agent-troi who liveblogged reading it with receipts, scroll back chronological-style to the first post on the subject and see how it unfolded. (And never forget that Dana Katherine Scully is the queen of denial as a coping mechanism lol)

Everyone's mileage will vary. Each person can feel however they want! But for anyone new, I wanted you to know that the very many ventposts you might be seeing are not all there is to this show or its fandom. Some of us love it despite - or even because of - all the things that went "wrong". I think we just don't talk about it as much.

[royaltea000]

Guys here’s a link list of that old Hetalia Nordics cosplay series that I was reminiscing about a while back ago - a classic from my time… 🚬_(TwT ) original cosplays by FabrorEstersPojkar - we salute our soldiers o7

It’s my favorite cosplay series ever and you can really feel the passion and care put into this project - they got translators so every country spoke their own language throughout and everythin dude, that’s effort! If you do check it out lemme know how you liked it! :)

Intro/world meeting parody- 【[APH] [COS] Hetalia 北 區欠 1-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/jkOFrN3

Starts getting into history- 【 [APH][COS]Hetalia的北區欠2維/京/海/盜時代 part 1-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/jpuNeTR

【[APH][COS]Hetalia的北區欠維/京/海/盜時代2-part 2-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/Yc1CDMd

【 [APH][COS] Hetalia北區欠3 -卡/爾/馬/聯/盟part 1-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/IBytvwu

【[APH][COS] Hetalia北區欠3 -卡/爾/馬/聯/盟part 2-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/TgREPxM

【 [APH][COS]Hetalia北區欠4波/羅/的/海/戰/役part 1-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/5F5EK3n

【[APH][COS]Hetalia北區欠4波/羅/的/海/戰/役part 2-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/wU84HYl

Bloopers/BTS:

【 [APH][COS] Hetalia北區欠系列作品的花���-哔哩哔哩】 https://b23.tv/Ie1HBr4

(Bloopers 1,2,3 included in a row in description)

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

How do the girls get along

Pretty great actually!

Jenny and Kim are very good/close friends, since they met relatively early compared to others (they actually met each other first out of everyone, then others at one point and another) and had a shared adventure sometime after the ends of their respective shows (wink wonk).

But, their first meeting was not actually very um, positive. There was some conflict, but after it was resolved both of them gained a very solid friend for life!

Jenny, was glad to meet someone else (beside Brad) who treated her like a person/normal teenager (instead of an 8th wonder of the world or a freaky robot) and not to mention she got a fellow superheroine girl friend! After Misty, she kind of missed having someone like that to kick butt with (considering that like, 70% of her friends are dudes) or just hang out.

Kim was fascinated by Jenny, not because she is a robot (tho she does think its pretty cool) but because it kind of gave her a contrast to her own life in a weird way? Like, Kim was a normal teenager who got into superheroing on accident and just went with it, while Jenny was created with a goal of being Earth's defender but rebeled to have some sort of normal life. And now they both live those weird semi-normal lives, that led them to meeting each other.

Jun is around 5-6 years their junior and while they met each other much later on, when Jun was a little older (like not 11-12 age of the show), she still kind of looked up to them and both Jenny and Kim felt an instant kinship with the girl.

Before she met Jenny and Kim, Jun only knew a couple other guys as fellow heroes/magical protectors (guess who ;D lol), and while she had plenty of female role models (Ama/Jasmine being the most prominent) and friends, she kind of enjoyed meeting some cool older superheroines to bond with! It also helped that despite the age difference, both Jenny and Kim never looked down at her when it came to superheroing/fighting, but respected her abilities and expertise (considering that Jun was practically an apprentice to her Ama since at least 8-9ish of age, when her powers first awakened, she has a lot of experience).

They both are kind of like cool older cousins to her, who travel a lot for their work and come visit to hang out often and tell/share stories about their adventures. Their and her lines of work while similar, also run in completely different circles (human/interplanetary vs magical/supernatural), so its always a treat to hear about the things they do.

(And yes sometimes she feels jealous about the fact that both of them get to travel all over the world, and despite the developments, more often than not she has to stay town locked and limit her excursions to magical realms.)

Silly thing, but Jun absolutely adores Jenny, for one simple fact that she can travel to space just like that (she and Danny, fellow astronaut/space fans, share that, despite the fact that Danny kinda can travel to space just like that too.)

[notbecauseofvictories]

I'm still thinking about it, so---if you're a local, I highly encourage Rough House Theater's "House of the Exquisite Corpse". It's lovely, arresting, from the performances down to the smallest touches. I still can't get over the ripped umbrellas hanging upside down in dreamlike suspension from the ceiling; the way each "station" is wrapped in plywood and decorated in its own meaningful pattern and design.

But first, let me step back. "House of the Exquisite Corpse" takes its name from the old Surrealist parlor game, at the heart of which is the idea that you can collect a disparate group, then smash their ideas together and create something from the smithereens. This is something like what Rough House has done, which is pick a theme ("Superstition") and then let the artistic groups loose to create short scenes built around that theme.

(I want to call them tableaux, because watching the performances I was struck by how it felt like something out of time---as though we were 17th century courtiers in Paris ushered into a candlelit ballroom, or early 20th century farmers in Minnesota, paying our penny to see what the circus brought to town.)

The set-up itself does a wonderful job ushering you into a time-outside-of-time---you step into a space divided from the rest of the space by black sheets, chunky headsets dangling from wooden ladders suspended just over your head. The emcee is carrying a clipboard and speaks into an old-school broadcasting mic---which you can only hear if you're wearing the headsets.

It is, you'll discover, the central conceit of the performance. From there, you're directed from station to station by silent ushers, carrying flashlights so they can point you forward. Unless you are wearing the headphones at each station, you can only listen to the absent, ambient music echoing around the room.

Not only are the stations set up to wrap you in a specific soundscape, but they play with your vision too---most stations have you peer through holes or cracks in the wall, though one station had us line up in front of mirrors and watch the reflection of the performance, while another station placed shards of glass at every peephole, so you watched the scene and the character's experience of the scene in a strange double-vision. A couple of the stations used tricks of the light---strobe effects that made the puppets' movements seem even more uncanny or imply violence; a haze of smoke or fabric to disguise the human "prowling" in the puppet-shape of a tiger.

(I always like when I can tell an artist is reacting to something I've seen before, and the Rousseau "The Dream" vibes in that scene were exquisite.)

I will say that “A White Bird in the House is an Omen of Death” was my favorite, not in the least because it featured a whole choreographed song (feat. a lovely articulated owl puppet, plus some very effective shadowplay work). However, “Through the Looking Glass” was beautifully up my alley, from the unique staging---this was the station where you watched the performance in a mirror---to the creative puppetry, and a meditation on loveliness that had some bite to it. “Broken Mirror” was more traditional in its puppet work, but it also had the most elaborate staging, a fully-realized world in miniature.

I keep going back to how enormously creative so many of these artists were, in ways I simply can't ignore. “Step on a Crack” didn't necessarily work for me, but I can't stop thinking about it---its trippy setup, the inhuman knit masks the creator used; the spines dangling, neon-colored, from the nearest tree as the protagonist recited lines about loving his mother with increasing, feverish and horrible energy. The glimpses I got during “An ill fate befalls those who pluck from fruit in their dreams” of the puppeteer's face---how she shut her eyes and turned away, as though she too was affected by the puppet's horror.

[dubylou-draws]

Preview of a gigantic Japanese woodblock print- style KNY fanart I'm currently working on.

This is going to take an unholy amount of time to colour in, so... here's a WIP for now 😅

Expect to see the finished piece posted here at some point- and the backstory/ historical inspiration that goes with it, too!

[atalienart]

I don't know what I'm doing with my life, don't mind me. I guess I'm procrastinating writing another chapter. Do you know any similar memes for procrastination purposes?

[trans-androgyne]

“It’s not about demographics but about the current way the trans community functions.”

I’m so tired. We’re just supposed deal with being the community’s punching bag until it gets bored and picks a different target? A community I can supposedly claim as mine? At this point I don’t know if I want to continue interacting with it.

Coming out was supposed to be a joyous thing. It was supposed to make things better. Instead it’s just this garbage. Forget people adjacent to me, if I can’t even count on my fellow trans men to have my back then what’s the fucking point? Might as well go back into closet. It’d be awful but I don’t see how this is any better.

I've been exactly where you are, and I'm so, so sorry. Encountering all this discourse and feeling hated, rejected, and invisible in my own community very very nearly caused me to detransition.

But I thoroughly believe I can promise you it will not be like this forever. And I don't think it will be a matter of getting bored and things going back to the way things were a few years ago. As painful as all this infighting is right now, it is stirring real, necessary conversation about transphobia. People who hold ideas like "manhood isn't an intersection" and "trans men don't experience misogyny" and "oppression only affects the primary targeted demographic" are being challenged. I didn't feel this way a year ago, but now I firmly believe that transandrophobia theory or at least something resembling it will be integrated into mainstream transfeminism, and the gendered oppression of trans men and mascs will be acknowledged. It will mean something to say someone is being transandrophobic, and it won't be okay to talk over and stereotype and make fun of/"punch up at" us.

I love the trans community, and I do it by choice. It doesn't feel like home for me right now the way I expected it to be when I came out. But I will make it a home, for me and for every single trans man and transmasc out there. We deserve recognition, we deserve space, we deserve a voice, we deserve resources, and we are going to get them. It's okay to disengage with the community for now if that's what you need. But I hope folks like myself will help make it somewhere folks like you feel comfortable and celebrated. Because trans manhood and transmasculinity should be celebrated; our identities are just as wonderful and radical as other trans people's. One day, likely sooner than you might think, other folks will recognize that too.

[sandinthepipes]

Please somebody explain to me like I'm 5yo, how is it possible that there are 5000 characters in ofmd, and yet all of them have a great characterization in such few episodes?

Like, how do you do that? It always ends up with a lot of people who you don't even remember who they are, or what they do, or the "nothing new" characters. Yet I can name you every single one of ofmd and they're all somewhat of a main character????

[atthebell]

i am very happy about all the posts circulating about being aware of cultural differences and i think it makes a lot of sense considering none of these streamers will speak english and will have very different cultural touchstones but it is kind of funny to me how little people discussed this previously when we already did have incredibly different cultural communication styles and contexts on the server like. the amount of times things have had to be explained or people have gotten pissed off because someone was "too loud"/"too aggressive"/"too indirect" or whatever is kind of ridiculous.

like again im very glad and i hope this means they're continuing to learn and see what does and doesn't work however from the fandom side of things im seeing people rb things and im like okay so when it's east vs. west that's easy for you to understand that there's differences but when it's europe vs. latam it's not. interesting. wonder if rampant orientalism has anything to do with that.

anyway im not trying to be like a self-righteous dick about this and i want people to be kind and think the best of people without leaping to conclusions i just wish people had given more grace in previous situations of conflicting cultural elements and i hope everyone is better going forward