#the tags turned into

[holysheithyall]

i rewatched voltron today peak productivity fr fr

[kvothes]

so true

[lotrmusical]

never let anyone tell you that trawling through mediocre victorian poetry isn't worth it. we just happened upon an absolute BANGER of a worm poem. go read it or else 🪱🪱🪱

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

License to Kitty.

[reblogforsamplesize]

🐛 caterpillar - the returning champion of the 2023 race at 41.6% of the votes

🐌 snail - runner up of the 2023 race at 38.3%, only 3.3% behind the caterpillar.

🪱 worm - placed last in 2023, with only 20.1% of votes

🪲 beetle, 🐞 ladybug, and 🐝 bee are new competitors!

[planefood]

rules for thee and not for me

[crustaceousfaggot]

No nuance allowed. Put your nuance in the tags, I just want a yes or no answer

[yourfavoritehouseplant]

"Culinary students will literally have a spaghetti due at 8" "Art students will literally turn in some shapes at the end of the week" Well I have 40 insects due next month. If you even care.

[girpgorp]

decided my fetal kwamis deserved a little lore

[tendermiasma]

The bigger they are the harder they fall 🥹🐟

[ciearcab]

gouache falin

[harboretum]

It's Make a Terrible Comic Day

[tossawary]

This is petty fandom salt, BUT... I've been chewing on this phenomenon that I've been calling "Fandom's Darling". It is related to things like "Author's Darling" and "Mary Sue / Gary Stu" and "Protagonist Halo" and all that jazz, where one character gains a peculiar narrative weight in a story.

"Author's Darling" is when a writer has a favorite character, and the world and all other characters sort of get... warped to put the Darling in the spotlight. It's most noticeable in TV shows with multiple writers, when a character you personally like suddenly has their previous characterization destroyed to make another character look good somehow. Every other character might become weirdly incompetent. The Darling's feelings are treated as The Most Important Feelings in any given situation. The logic of the fictional world seems broken past suspension of disbelief in order to validate this one character's beliefs or skillset or some other fantasy. And so on.

"Fandom's Darling" is what I've been calling the pattern where a fandom essentially crowns a New Protagonist for their fanfiction stories (it's often a side character rather than the original protagonist, but it can also happen to protagonists). This character becomes the self-insert for all sorts of indulgent fantasies, gaining special powers or backstories, and/or becoming the focus of extreme whump, and/or hooking up with all the various hotties, starring in all sorts of tropey AUs, and so on. They're not always an obvious Mary Sue version of themselves, but the character's original personality and interpersonal relationships tend to get warped or dropped completely, and other characters tend to become a little flat around them. I call it "Fandom's Darling" because it's not just one self-indulgent fantasy fic (you do you! Have fun!) with characterization choices that I don't vibe with (I have neither the time nor the desire nor the authority to police anything, I am just venting), but rather a prolific mini-fandom of sorts revolving around this empty doll / fanon version of the chosen vessel character, so it becomes a little unavoidable.

I am salty about this (mildly frustrated) (imagine a soft sigh of disappointment before I just go do something else) because you are FUCKED if you actually liked the canonical version of this character and their interpersonal relationships. It's almost worse than liking an obscure character that no one cares about. There's about a thousand fics starring your fave, but maybe only about a dozen of them are actually rooted in any kind of recognisable canon.

[ot3]

like truly there is nothing more heartbreaking than watching game franchises go from 2d art that's filled to the brim with personality and near flawlessly executed to middling 3d models.

[spaceistheplaceart]

was gonna use terrible comic day to post this but its an idea thats been bonking around in my head for a min. if i knew how to program and the songs wouldnt all be copyrighted i would totally make this game.

ID UNDER CUT

BEGIN ID:

A grayscale sketchy comic.

Caption at the top: "A video game wherein you're driving alone and have to listen to the radio's clues to survive"

POV from the driver, hands on wheel with the radio to the right. It's night in a forest on a dirt road. The driver is approaching a fork in the road, indicated by a sign that points right and left. The radio plays the lyrics: "you better run, better leave this place- get lost and go a different way! go left! go left! go left! go, go!

The next panel we see the driver, who has long hair tied messily up in a bun, wearing a hoodie, a collared shirt, glasses, and has black nails. Two realistic hands reach from the darkness of the car behind them- one grabbing their arm. The radio plays: "Don't turn around 'cause you're gonna see my heart breaking-- don't turn around i don't want you seeing me cry--"

Underneath the panels are song credit. the first song is Radiant Children's "Go Left" and the second is Ace of Base's "Don't turn around"

END ID

[corgiteatime]

Congratulations, game. You really did subvert my initial expectations with the really-not-all-that-horny vampire and the totally sensible weed Dad figure and Mr. Gale "I'm totally into the fact you haven't taken a bath in 2 weeks and I read a book about about being turned on by deadly danger and let's have astral projection 4-way sex with only 2 people in outer space and you look good jogging around the city in strappy bondage gear" Dekarios.

Not complaining. I was just surprised, that's all. I love having my expectations subverted.