#these are from the preview panels btw

[whisper-and-tangle]

ohhh god. oh no. tangle is CLEARLY super nervous here- she's sweating, and has no idea what to do- but she's making jokes and trying to smile and even laugh, because first of all, she wants to be a hero-

does trying to be witty to divert attention away from disastrous situations remind you of anyone. anyone with blue quills and pronouns.

-And she even did this during the metal virus arc, when she literally fucking died. Tangle is desperately trying to keep the team together- she doesn't want it to fall apart, and won't let that happen- she's trying to reassure everyone, but Lanolin's just done with it. Every mission they've ever been on- From the metal virus (Where a pissed-off Lanolin appeared in the background) to Surge,- they escaped by the skin of their teeth. They're barely scraping by- and Lanolin was on the sidelines then. She's now being referred to as boss, by Tangle, trying to cheer her up- basically Tangle's way of saying 'oh god. we're completely fucked. we need a plan or we're all fucking dead' (i mean. im exaggerating a bit but whatever) and Lanolin...just gave up.

She doesn't think she's cut out for it. She was desperate, needed help- maybe a distraction from life- or a way out of this place- or was done with all the destruction- I'm not sure yet, I don't exactly know her origin story, but either way, she joined the restoration and watched it crumble.

She watched leaders quit and falter, she watched the metal virus destroy their last 'bastion of hope', she watched the restoration that was supposed to rebuild, razed to the ground, forced to start all over again.

Tangle's terrified and she doesn't want to show it.

Lanolin's gave up and lost any hope.

Sonic's struggling, but trying to hide it.

And Blaze & Silver only just arrived-

And Whisper?

She's hurt. Not physically, atleast yet- but she's clearly emotionally hurt, her relationship with Tangle clearly strained at the moment-

But Tangle's struggling too, and she can't always be upbeat and cheery, but she can try, except the Whisper being upset with her isn't just painful for Whisper- it's painful for Tangle! She had no idea about Surge! She was trying to be nice- trying to honour their memory- and while it was a stupid, maybe even out of character decision- her intentions were pure, and she doesn't know why Whisper is so mad about it. Whisper has a right to be upset- but, for things to be fixed, they need to push past this and have a moment to talk about it.

The thing is, though?

Tangle already tried.

She tried talking to Whisper, but she's too mad to even want to talk.

Either they'll have a big argument, maybe eventually sorting things out, or Whisper will finally calm down- and they'll be able to talk things out.

But right now? The former seems more likely.

She just wants to fix things, but it seems like everyone else is too busy watching the flames burn it all down to try.

[clownprince]

Ooh good another image for my collection of Bats bridal carrying an injured/dead Joker <3

[lynn-tged-posting]

tged webtoon ep 157 spoilers and thoughts but also a good amount of panel dissection that might be overanalyzed but i couldn't stop thinking about it so just let me yap okay it plagued me all weekend

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i am so serious when i say this entire episode gave me like. so much worry and anxiety over the characters that i made myself upset thinking about it . the only thing saving me is everyone's fun expressions in this and specifically this panel of javier

HES SO SILLY CUTE PLAYING WITH THE SUMMONS THEYRE ADORABLE EEHEHEHEHE

anyway . to the brainrot

i think this panel of lloyd turning his back to javier, immediately after telling javier to go on break for a while, was the first little indicator of "oh no" for me

it really worried me that he said this, especially when they've been working together so much on their journey, so this was tiny little moment of "oh boy whats going on,,," for me,,, idk if anyone else felt the same but i had a feeling i would Not be ready for this ep. and i was right i was absolutely not ready

and then we hit the montage of javier going around the estate and observing how much the land has changed, and i really loved that!! it was really heartwarming seeing everyone, smiling and achieving dreams and stability in a way that the fronteras hadnt seen in a long time (hell i was convinced "oh everythings fine nvm" 😭)

some of my favorite panels in that sequence heehee bayern and his kids this was really really sweet WAAAHH

JAVIERS EXPRESSION HERE WAS SUPER FUNNY TOO absolutely gonna use this as a reaction image

ALSO THIS STATUE OF LLOYD ADHAHAHAHAHDFAHA IM PRETTY SURE IT IS RELATED TO IF NOT THE SAME AS THE STATUE IN CPSM they do have different poses so it mightve had to be rebuilt or something but either way . lloyd statue where he's near naked for some reason in the middle of frontera estate. a wonderful center piece good work team

AND MY BABY BOY SOLITAS he finally managed to create something im so proud of him GOOD JOB BUD!! THE CARVING IS BEAUTIFUL!!!

it just hit me as im typing this that they also say "[project name] complete" not sure if this is a translation thing or if it's something they picked up from lloyd saying "construction complete" but if its the latter thatd be REALLY CUTE

also that panel of tordes by the mines he looks genuinely . satisfied and happy?? the guy punished to work for the fronteras for over 100 years is having a great time LMAO

AND THIS PANEL OF JAVIER

THIS MADE ME SMILE SO WIDE

it's really really pretty, and javier can see that. he can see that the estate has grown and changed into a strong and capable place, and he echoed this in the last chapter but it's really worth celebrating this. so many accomplishments, in so little time, with so much efficiency. frontera estate has been raised from the ground up and seeing it all accumulated was so so beautiful,,,

so seeing this panel absolutely devastated me

the contrast is STRIKING. all of the brightness and light and warmth of the street javier is in is only seen in partial rays streaking in. lloyd is alone, surrounded by books and in a darker corner of the panel. isolated, facial features unreadable and working by himself,,, refusing to see or ignoring all of the accomplishments behind him.

it's like he's falling back into old habits. that workaholism that kept him alive when he was only kim suho in korea. in order to survive, to keep up, to stay afloat, to stay ALIVE, you must keep working. go to the next project, the next problem, the next assignment, and everything will be fine. only then will freedom be yours to have. only then will you be free of this responsibility you bear for those you love.

but he really doesn't need to do that anymore! he has a whole estate of people who will follow him to the ends of the earth, because he's proven himself to be capable of protecting them. he has parents who love him, despite his changes, despite his past, who have grown to believe in him.

he has his beloved knight, who is waiting for him to call for aid. who only needs a glance or a word to lend a hand. who is waiting for him to come outside and just SEE all that he's done. to celebrate, to have peace. to enjoy home. to simply be at home, together.

"when will you be able to come here...?"

javier, protagonist that he is, sees all this light around, and it's peeking into this library that lloyd is in, wondering where the engineer is, but his nose is to a book. because he is working. and that's,,, scary to see. there's a level of distance already taking shape because of old habits, and i don't know if either of them realize it

and like you look at the panel javier is in one more time and you can see, there's kids playing as javier and lloyd! they even have matching hair, and the dog is colored exactly like ppodong. super cute! but it worries me that they're on opposite sides of javier.

said this earlier; this is probably an overanalysis and this probably means nothing. it really is a cute lil cameo of some kids in town! but the fact that they are split like this is eating at me. ppodong-dog is on javier-kid's side, when ppodong is lloyd's summon? and again, they're on opposite sides of javier, will they join back together and keep playing? lloyd-kid is ahead of javier-kid, will he run on ahead without looking back? it's so cute and yet it's making me anxious!!! am i overthinking???

anyway, this split and the two panels contrasting each other like this filled me with so much nervousness that i had to close my eyes and just breathe for a little bit

then we see arcos and marbella talking about lloyd and it's clear they're worried about him, still unsure of where these changes in behavior came from and yet accepting it nonetheless because god dammit theyre good kind people

and when we see lloyd he looks,,,

tired, and disheveled, and still only thinking about working on the next thing. he keeps going on too, like there's nothing currently wrong with this; he's probably used to it, handling everything without a moments rest. the count and countess even mention it at the end of the episode

and when he treats the formal frontera attire lightly and scurries off again, it's like a final nail in this sinking coffin. honestly, i think early lloyd probably would have said similar things to try and skirt the count's attention, but this scene in combination with lloyd being depicted as separated from lloyd, appearing exhausted from continuous work, as well as the following panels of lloyd leaving,,, it fills me with anxiety and dread.

face shrouded in the darkness of the hall, so his features are unrecognizable, just like the library panel. who is that? is it suho or is it lloyd speaking right now? where are you going, into that darkness by yourself, shying away from the light you've brought to this estate? you don't have to do this alone.

and this long, looming distance stretching between him and arcos and marbella. stretching further as lloyd marches onward and alone, working by himself, away from the moments of peace and celebration that his family and his estate bring. into the dark. it's a little haunting to me.

these panels did a really, REALLY good job at solidifying this growing degree of isolation that lloyd is putting himself into, intentionally or not (for lloyd and for the artist lol). he's getting out of reach in his desire to protect everyone, to complete this responsibility he gave himself for the estate.

it's almost,,, backwards? in a way? in the early webtoon, there's a panel where suho is shown trying to reach for a light in the darkness. he believed that if he kept working towards that light, he'll find a way out of this hell he's found himself in, and so everything would be fine. here and now, it could be that he still thinks that this is the case, when it's in fact the opposite. he's brought this light to the estate, but he's putting himself in the dark (and alone, at that) in an effort to reach for the "next light". i don't think he realizes it. this makes me really, really sad. jesus christ well done artist/adaptor

what is it all for if you won't even rest? if you won't turn around and look at all these people who need you around? and not need you as in doing work for them, but need you as in wanting to be with you, and cherishing you, and spending time with you, and simply loving you. yes, time is short and yes, fate is looming, but all this effort to fight those things is still making him lose this connection he has with the estate. he doesn't have to do this alone,,, he doesn't have work endlessly. take a BREAK LLOYD

and by the end of the episode it's to the point that arcos and marbella have realized that that's not lloyd frontera. that's someone else. and gods their faces are DEVASTATING

eyes shadowed, irises blank and lost. they're not frowning deeply, but i can feel the upset layered in. is it disappointment or is it grief? i can't really say for sure, but man,,, man.

anyway yeah i hope u guys understand why this episode gave me anxiety LMFAO

i am so so so sorry for the overthinking/overdissection in this post but my brain started connecting things . whether or not they make sense or if it's just being nitpicky is impossible for me to see so. yeah take this however u will

i actually also briefly saw someone on twitter say that this wasn't in the novel? which is interesting and also a little scary i hope lloyd will turn out alright AHHH

i really hope next episode everyone will be alright ,,, please i cant take this much emotional twisting and turning im gonna lose my mind

see y'all next week or in the next shitpost,,, whichever comes first

[sonknuxadow]

i like how takashi iizuka talks like he knows shadow personally. maybe he does

[hydrangeapartridge]

Don't get me wrong, I was very happy to see dear Shinsou (almost missed him btw bc it was the post ending credit scene just before the preview!!), BUT, with how pretty the animation and other characters are, I feel like this little scene did him a bit dirty compared to the manga panel where there's more movement. Look at him all focused and sweaty from training!! In the anime he's just looking blazé...

Can't wait to see more of him still. I'm excited for this season!

[amageish]

From X-Men # 700

Okay, here's my almost 1AM thoughts on the one page of Exceptional X-Men preview we saw in X-Men # 35 (an issue I really enjoyed overall, BTW! FoX has been a very rushed event but they've stuck the landing for me).

Interesting that she is still called Kate by both Xavier's narration and her boss. I'm guessing that "Kate" will be the name the adults call her while "Kitty" will be what the new kids will call her, in an effort for her to seem approachable? Maybe? We'll see.

This page is mostly just two mythology jokes, both of which are funny to me. We get the "To me, my X-Men" joke and a visual gag about how "X" can also be read as "Cross" - and I believe "Cross of Swords" is an semi-official bonus "third option" for how to pronounce "X of Swords"...

I also spy some background gays! Clearly, Xavier praising Kitty's strength on the panel with two dudes holding hands means that she is finally actually-for-real coming to terms with her queerness, right? Please? Pretty please?

[birbwell]

A PILLARS OF THE EARTH GRAPHIC NOVEL IS OUT?

ft its gorgeous cover and a preview panel.

btw be warned that the preview contains a graphic depiction of animal death!

from the previews linked in the replies it seems like a very faithful retelling of the book. as of the time of writing they don't have any plans of translating it to other languages... i am very excited about this nonetheless !!

[sweeteaacakes]

I opened my phone and found a game I pre-registered months ago! It's called "Tokyo Debunker"!

Have you guys seen those creepy ads of a video game that looked like pkmn rip-offs called "Evertal*le"? This is one of their game and the ad caught me so I went for it. I was expecting a pixel-game but, uh, well, it's not TT-TT)... They tend to make misleading ads but this? I got caught by this...

It's more like a VN... BUUUUT it didn't disappointment me in and it served surprisingly well too!

THE PREMISE

Supernatural cases in Tokyo alongside devilish ghouls and quirky cats!

At the prestigious Darkwick Academy, your untily classmates have sold their souls to demons in exchange for a wish... and you'll have to find a way to make them work together to solve supernatural cases all over Tokyo. If you get stuck, you can always turn Darkwick's clever cat familiars for their supports!

It's comes with variety of gameplay modes!

Facilities building where your classmates can work and allows you to interact with them or read a conversation of your other classmates;

It have an "investigation" which is an... auto-turn-based battle mode. You just have to brainwork with their skills and equipments;

As bonus, it have a rhythm game! It's pretty easy since it's linear and you have to tap to allow the cat to turn around. You get 3 tries and is available for later!;

It also have co-op kode but I haven't tried yet!

Now let's start with opening!

As you can see on the imagine above, there are seven characters with each different uniform! Each of them are the leader of each "Houses".

Dark Blue: Frostheim || Yellow: Vagastrom

Orange: Jabberwock (and they have an axolotl in their emblem!!! ♡♡♡) || Dark red: Sinostra

Lilac: Hotarubi || Violet: Obscuary || Green: Mortkraken

The game will make you choose "who will you save"? It have a total of 7 houses with minimum 2 to 4 members. With Frostheim the with 4 members and Mortkraken with only 2! Obscuary is a particular one since it only shows one of its member! Once chosen a house, you will choose a character who will appear in the prolouge.

Aaaaand, yeah. The houses will be mentioned few chapters later :3

I won't spoil much but I can say that despite how lighthearted this this game is later... it knows how to jumpscare :)

And we go with Chapter 1

!!!UNDER THE CUT WILL BE A SLIGHT SPOILER TERRITORY!!!

!!!PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!

Aye! The MC here! They're female in illustration but I prefer calling them in GN! term and named them "Lucien"! We are in a train after a music concert. The chatroom with the people we went in left the chat and only us and another person, Mina, remain. Turns out we're both in the same train too so we decide to meet up!

A moment after the train arrived at the stop...but it's not ours...

Kisaragi Station? The creepypasta °0°)!?! (/j)

So, we're now in another stop... and found ourselves in an eerie place... And an unknown number calls us. Whether we pick it up or hang down, Mina will text us...

Mina makes her way in our car. We look at the number... 7... the door slides wide open but nothing's there other than darkness. Until someone whispers in our ears.

Gehehehe. I'm not gonna show you the whole thing in case you want to see it yourself!

I cut the spoiler of this chapter here but I'll give you preview of other shots because they are gorgeous!

Asgqhdhahs THE GALAXY ILLUSTRATION SOLD ME EVEN MORE WHAT FOLLOWED—

WE HAVE A CAT WITH A HAT FOR A CONDUCTOR 😭💕✨️

And this few panels! It's not much but I wanted to show how the writing and illustration doesn't shy away from showing blood and swearing! (Note: that guy used those mirror shards as the ammo for his gun btw... pretty rad.) So far, it's fully-voiced too!

Anyways, supernatural, eldritch beings, monsters? Check! They're very creative on it uwu). Good writing? Yaah! The art? Beautiful! Good humor? Nyah! (^=w=^)b

As said before, I'm not far in the story yet. I hope to see more creepy and cool stuffs but the daylight story isn't bad either! The characters have personality. Even MC had a good impression on me. They are down-to-earth and is quick at picking up to things happening around despite the sudden event in their life.

The only sad thing is... they all have body shapes... like... um... twink shaped in their 2-D.... and only one "dark-skinned" character 🥲... usgjqhsqj the Ad*nis Ot*gari of the game 🫠🫠🫠 I think he's cool and adorable tho! He went to the academy to search for his twin brother.

No romance, just classmates being sillies(/affectionate) going around to solve the supernatural in order to mantain the world's order.

The game is rated 16+ so I'm not sure if I'll post much about this here. I just wanted to show in case someone's interested!

The illustrations really do well at gorgeous scenes and at eerie scenes.

[sylviegunpla]

Plamo: Mega Man X3: Hawk Ride Armor (kitbash of Chimera Armor & accessories from Vile's Ride Armor / full paint job)

I Finally Finished It! Well, i finished it sometime around April 1st, 2024, based on the timestamps of my (older, mostly obsolete now) photos. I've definitely not been keeping up with this blog as much as i should.

These are the main angle views of it. There's some "errors" on this thing, but they're not gratuitous. The most annoying part for me is a spec of white on the left-thigh piece (his left not audience-left). Unfortunately due to the way i haphazardly mixed paints, i cannot recreate the exact shade of blue and thus can't properly touch it up. There's actually a few places you can see where i near-matched the shade of blue for some touchups, but im not sure how visible they are in the image. Also, the bolt holes on his-right upper arm are MEGA duplicated on the back. Those were custom panel lines and holes i made by gouging with an exacto knife and then filling in with gundam panel line marker.

I also did some extra special detailing on the leg greebles (which i plan to NOT recreate in my future ride armors): I glued thin plastic into the greebles so it could naturally create panel lines, then i used "Wave System Option: H-Eyes Red" to put jewels into the greebles (using double sided tape).

I will recreate the jewels in future builds, but not the panel line details

Here's some more (uglier) shots:

So there's still something i want to do with this build: I want to attach it to some kind of action/display base, so it looks like it's mid air, and find OR MAKE some sort of clear blue ring-shaped jet-blast effect part to put under the "hover pack", so it looks like it's hovering mid-air like it does in the game. I'm not gonna try to recreate the missiles though lmao. BTW, the Hawk Armor parts don't come with the base Chimera Armor So this was nearly all done using Mr Hobby Aqueous paints and an airbrush, with touchups by hand. Also some Gundam EX Marker Silver for some details, Mr. Super Clear Gloss so get a good surface for panel lining, then flat coated everything except for the red missile tips in the canons (those got a nice juicy gloss coat). I did a lot of masking using tamiya masking tape, which is a technique i'm also doing for the Kangaroo armor. BTW, the Kangaroo armor is also approaching a state of Completion. I'm still working on greebles and the arms (which were also the parts i put off til last on the Hawk armor lmao). But hopefully i'll post it in a more timely manner when that happens! I'm really happy to have finished this. When i first saw Bandai put out "official" kits for 3 of the 4 ride armors of this game, i absolutely knew i wanted to repaint the kit and make it look like the actual key art. I actually based the color choices on the sprite art, but otherwise mostly used the key art for reference with details and such. Well, Bandai did most of that work. I just followed it properly. However... i also have plans to do something absolutely ridiculous to try to recreate the Frog Armor... in time. I don't have full plans for it yet, but i have the ride armors and a dream. Anyway here's a preview of the Kangaroo Armor, a WIP shot:

[manthemoth]

Gaypaw…

redraw if one of the panels from the preview for the new graphic novel btw…

[hymnism]

well here is sunny's scuffed gif tutorial for anyone who wants to learn how to gif 🎉🎉

so first of all you're obviously going to need a clip of whatever you want to gif. you can either download full videos or use a screen recorder (like obs for example) to record the specific scene you want to gif

once you have your clip you go into photoshop and look for "file -> import -> video frames to layers" then choose your clip and you'll get a screen like this

you can use the two small arrows to trim the clip to just what you need then click ok and it will open the clip up into frames

(btw if you don't already have it on make sure to go to "window" and turn on timeline. that's where you will see the frames)

now personally my first step is cropping and resizing. cropping is kind of self explanatory but to resize the gif make sure you go to "image -> image size" (NOT canvas size. just wanted to say that since the options are kind of similar) (although you can still use canvas size for cropping) and here is a handy little chart that is helpful if you want to know what to resize gifs to (width is what's important here height can be whatever you want it to be)

now personally my next step is sharpening although you can probably also do this at the end. i use maizekeen's gif sharpening actions (if you don't know how to use actions in photoshop there are many tutorials online but very basically you download the actions then go into the actions menu (windows -> action if you don't have it open) and click on load actions) and then from there you just choose your action and click the play button

then after that is usually when i delete any extra unwanted frames in the timeline (it's not necessary to delete the frames from the layers panel)

NOW is the fun part and also where a lot of this becomes up to taste and personal style ✨

make sure you have your adjustment panel open (window -> adjustments)

the ones underlined are the main ones i use. i recommend playing around and seeing what does what and seeing what ends up looking cool to you

oh and when you use adjustment layers make sure they are above all the layers of the gif like this

i made some different edits of the same gif to show some of the different things you can do. like i said it's up to personal taste and style

here is the original unedited for comparison

and here are some different edits i did real quick to hopefully give you some ideas for what you can do

and if you want to change the speed of a gif make sure to select all frames and then use this little arrow

i tend to use either 0.05 or 0.04 since anything faster or slower tends to start looking wonky but you can try it out yourself and see what looks good to you

btw here is the difference between 0.05 (left) and 0.04 (right)

NOW FOR SAVING

when you feel like you're done you wanna go to "export -> save for web" (it might say legacy next to yours it still works the same) and you will get a window like this

the most important things here are the two options i circled. most of the time i just leave these at adaptive and pattern. perceptual and selective can be used in place of adaptive but i've found that adaptive tends to look best. diffusion instead of pattern can help lower the size of a file in some situations but it doesn't always work but for the love of god please don't set it to "no dither". also make sure the looping option is set to forever (unless you specifically wanna make a non looping gif)

and from this menu you can preview your gif (lower left corner). slightly above the preview button is where you can see your file size (in this case this gif is 7.8mb) tumblr says their gif limit is 10mb but in reality it's slightly less than that so if your gif is 9.7~9.8mb it's probably too big

now if everything looks good then just click on save and name your gif and you're done 👍

now i'm sure there are a lot of things i didn't explain well so if there are any question feel free to send me an ask or a dm and i'll try to explain things more in depth :)

[raedshadowlegends]

LO Ep 249 (MINOR FP SPOILERS)

TW for SA

Ok so here's the thing. I've had issues in the past with this kind of topic. I don't want to elaborate much upon it but I just need to preface all of this by saying it is something that has affected me.

However, I am not normally triggered by SA in media. It takes a lot to get me to that point and even more so with a comic like LO. I just need you all to keep that in mind.

This episode has a trigger warning. I genuinely didn't this RS was going to include one given the preview on Thursday (It was a Hera/Kronos one btw). Since she didn't put a warning in with the last Hera and Kronos episode, I was pretty damn surprised there was one here. However this warning only said "abusive relationship dynamics."

And yes that was very prevalent. The ENTIRE comic was nothing but uncomfortable moments and a lot of moments attempting to "humanize" Kronos or whatever the fuck. There's a line that says, "The Titan King Kronos was a tyrant. But the Titan King Kronos was still a man." And it's disgusting. He's a tyrant! Hera said it herself! He's an abuser and an implied r*pist. And that just gets worse and worse and WORSE through the episode.

There were three panels in the middle of this episode that genuinely terrified me for a moment. Lore Olympus has never made me PANIC before. Despite all of the disgusting, rage induced moments, I have never truly panicked with an episode.

I don't even really want to talk about it because it was just so unsettling for me.

And this brings me to the thing I really want to say;

Fuck you RS. This is one of the most upsetting and insensitive things I have read in my whole life. What kind of story is this? What is happening? It seems like every week it's another piece of rage bait to get people pissed! What else could be going on here?! This is genuinely disgusting and I'm pissed off!

This story is being consumed by teenagers! Most likely, very young girls! With the bright colors, stylized appearance, and twenty billion ads on Webtoon, OF COURSE KIDS ARE GOING TO READ IT. This comic has some of the most uncomfortable themes and it wears them like badges of honor. The age gap being one of them.

I am terrified for the people who are younger than me and who do not comprehend the messages here. I am genuinely terrified. This comic is normalizing age gaps, power gaps, and for some reason ROMANTICIZING THE GROSS ABUSE BETWEEN HERA AND KRONOS, and young girls are seeing it. And they are internalizing that this is ok because it wasn't shamed in the source material.

We know what has happened between Hera and Kronos. We have heard about it many many times at this point. Why are we actually seeing the awful things told to us? WHY? It is not ok.

I am very sure that this episode and its contents only exist because RS has no idea how to follow up with the last ep's cliffhanger. She spent all her time doing nothing and now she has to come up with a way to pad things out so she can come up with a plan. Y'know, a lot of writers plan things out before making a story. Just saying.

But this is just not ok in any way, shape, or form. My skin is actually crawling from those panels. I feel disgusting. I'm so tired of this comic. I need RS to stop trying to "own the haters" and reflect on what she's done. This is far from the feminist its acclaimed as. I am so sorry to anyone who read this fp. This is awful.

I apologize for the long winded, not-sober rant. I couldn't not say anything about this one. Anyways, that's all I got.

[darklightsworld]

I understand that press releases need to have impact to sell the book, especially if it’s something obscure that the general public will not take into their hands. But to blatantly lie and to spread misinformation by writing that shoujo manga, that did not exist before(!!!), was born in the 60s by Mizuno Hideko writing Fire! is so wrong on so many levels I can’t even 😡 Okay, they write it as “it is said that”, but that’s just decoration, nobody says that.

Shoujo manga did exist before. For convenience I’m going with postwar manga, for the media perspective everything published in a shoujo magazine was shoujo manga, so at least 50s. But even if you want to go with a very narrow-minded definition of thematics (romance, introspection) and visuals (big eyes, beautiful lines, breaking through panel borders, etc), that started already in the 60s before Fire!. Btw, Mizuno was there too, so what do they think to call her pre-Fire! works? 🙄

Fire! was not strictly categorized as shoujo manga that time. It was serialized in Weekly Seventeen, a general magazine (not yet fashion magazine) for an older age group than shoujo magazines. Mainly high school girls and maybe slightly older. It was literally advertised in Weekly Margaret, a shoujo magazine, with the phrase that readers should tell their big sisters about this new magazine (saw the ad, took a photo). This age group was referred to as “junior” in the 60s, and many older shoujo manga artists, who wanted to write about more mature themes and characters “graduated” to magazines aimed at them. This eventually developed into the josei/ladies manga genre. Retroactively you might lump it with shoujo manga, but it never "gave birth" shoujo manga.

I guess it’s easy to write whatever when the general public has zero idea, but this is how fals myths are born and histories get bent. Fire! was amazing, and it was something new, so it would have been better to praise it for its real achievements. Like, it was one of the first long(!) series for female readers with a male protagonist. There is some nudity, bed scene (it is said to be the first, but I wouldn’t bet on it, Friends did some edgy stuff in the late 60s, not to mention other junior manga), some nice imaginary, paneling, complex narrative, societal issues, coming of age and so on.

Anyway, I’m glad Fire! got a new edition and I hope many new readers will discover it. I’m kind of wondering if they used the original genga or scanned the previous editions - I can’t tell from the preview. I know at least some of Fire!’s genga exist, as they have been exhibited (maybe only frontispieces?), but I don’t know about how much is still there. I will get them later, because the price tag is quite steep, even if it’s four books in two… (And hardcover books are hard to read, who needs that?! 😩)

[lyraeon]

btw to the person who my phone failed to screenshot properly:

no no, my avatar is not a Homestuck *OC*

This is Langly/Georgia, a Pokémon anime character from the BW series. The first time she was in an episode preview, my bestie turned to me and said "why are you in the anime and why are you being mean to Iris?" because she just coincidentally has my color scheme, and I had a similar haircut and a different color hat in that style at the time. So it became a gag for people to "mistake" her for me in my group of friends, while I also was like heck yeah I love her, because god damn't BW had all the best rivals. so for years my avatar was whatever screenshot of her I liked best at the time.

anyway at some point I also fell in love with a specific Homestuck panel, which is essentially somewhere between burn it all elmo and smiling arson girl in mood. and that lead to Applecherry108 (who I am not tagging because she doesn't need this nonsense in her mentions) to end up making this redraw. and it's so good it's been my avatar ever since.

so you were close enough XD I'm just sharing to share.

[mrs-gauche]

At last, the synopsis of volume 4 of "The Missing" is out (the final volume!) and I have a few thoughts! (Do NOT read further if you haven't read the preview of volume 1 yet and don't want to get spoiled! 🙂)

(Here's my comment/speculations on the previous three synopses btw, of which a lot has actually already been answered/debunked by the first five pages of the first volume. lol)

Ok so, first things first: Hey, looks like Solas is apparently NOT at the White Spire after all! 😂 So much for people's speculations. lol What's kinda funny to me though, is how Varric and Harding, instead of (what we suspected) going further east, seem to go all way back to Tevinter now, to get to the capital. lol Let's hope the long journey wasn't completely for naught then. Though what's up with this seemingly never ending "cat-and-mouse" game here? 😂 You think that maybe Solas knows about them searching for him and has been purposefully leading them astray this whole time? lol

"After many close encounters and more signs of a Venatori stalking them (...)"

So, for anyone who has read the preview of volume 1, were you also instantly reminded of the shadowy person seen in the last panel? Especially with how it mentions "many close encounters", I think it's very likely that this could refer to whoever was already watching them while walking the Deep Roads? Hmm..

"This time, it seems they're hot on his heels"

(See, it's funny because Solas doesn't like wearing shoes lol)

So, after Varric and Harding couldn't track down Solas in neither the Deep Roads, Vyrantium OR the Arlathan Forest, he has now apparently hit the big city.

Remember how we kept joking about Solas just going to Tevinter and walking the streets of Minrathous completely unrecognized, when most of Tevinter doesn't actually know what he looks like (as far as we know)? lmao Well, joke’s on us? 😂 So, who in Minrathous, aside from maybe Dorian, would even be able to "spot" him then? lol Watch Solas pull another "Bard" on us and disguising himself as the most ridiculous Venatori Lord Anus McEvilus. lol So, what's Solas doing there? And who is this "trusted informant"? I think the most obvious answer here would be Dorian? Perhaps even Mae (we know her and Varric are super close! 👀👀)?

"The duo find they have a tough decision to make - and they'll need to make the right call fast."

Alright, so why the urgency now? And what does this "tough decision" entail? Seeing as this is the final volume of this comic that has been marketed to directly tie into the plot of DA4, what's interesting to note here is that, with Antoine and Evka now making an appearance in volume 1, it seems as though every faction shown in the 2020 teaser trailer and the concept art will feature in each volume now, meaning the Wardens (Evka and Antoine) in volume 1, the Crows (Teia and Viago?) in volume 2, the "Veil Jumpers" (Irelin and Strife?) in volume 3 and now, back in Minrathous, a Tevinter... Siccari in volume 4 then? Or maybe one of the guys in this short story? Seeing as the short stories from DA Day 2020 also all happen to perfectly line up with the four factions in the comic/teaser/concept art? 👀

It definitely raises the chances for these four factions to be potential "career paths" for our new protagonist and maybe the "tough decision" involves Varric having to choose which of these factions to contact in order to further pursue Solas or something (or what if that decision is then left to the players at the start of DA4 and we get to choose which of those four factions will be part of our "origin story"?)

And btw, can I just mention how my initial speculation over a year ago or so, was that one of those four factions would be part of an infiltration mission at the start of the game for our next protagonist (who is actually a Lord of Fortune) hired by Varric in order to obtain vital information about the red lyrium idol? 😂 If this turns out to be the case somehow, I'll eat my hat. lmao

Anyway, while I have read the preview of volume 1 (and I already have a ton of thoughts on this as well!), I would like to wait for the full volume to come out on the 25th to post a comment and cover the whole thing. That being said, I can't wait to read all of it, seems very promising so far! 😁

[abbzworld]

Here's a secret gift exchange I did on Discord and this is my present for @flowering-intestines!

It features their OC, Lindee Bitterapple, who deliberately provoked a Shy Weenyworm into attacking them by putting ketchup on it.

She doesn't mind though, even though Shelda is less than impressed. lol

I didn't do the backgrounds or the rock that Shelda is sitting on, btw.

I only drew the Weenyworm, Shelda and Lindee.

The backgrounds are from the following links:

The waterfall: https://png.pngtree.com/png-vector/20230808/ourmid/pngtree-waterfall-clipart-cartoon-waterfall-and-trees-isolated-on-white-vector-png-image_6827675.png

The sand: https://media.istockphoto.com/id/1390114846/vector/realistic-texture-of-beach-or-desert-sand.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=rCeX87Z28tis8NRtNZC5E1N2OMG9Mcaf4i8XzQ9q5pQ=

The rocky wall: https://static.vecteezy.com/system/resources/previews/006/331/974/original/stone-wall-from-bricks-rock-game-background-in-cartoon-style-seamless-textured-surface-ui-game-asset-road-or-floor-material-illustration-vector.jpg

The grass: https://media.istockphoto.com/id/486620678/vector/grass-background.jpg?s=170667a&w=0&k=20&c=m9Dkl7aTOI9PvY2ntcy3pNNYXlEDTBfId_SrLkveAO4=

And the rock Shelda is sitting on: https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2014/12/22/00/03/rock-576669_960_720.png

I also used a normal blue background for the sky in panel 3.

I hope you enjoy your present! :D