#thinkin my thoughts

[liloinkoink]

one thing i think people get wrong about Martyn in the life series is he really isn’t loyal

like yeah, we all know him as the Hand, following the Red King as far as their shared grave, but that is… truly the outlier and not the norm with him

i mean, let’s take a brief look at other seasons. i can’t speak to Secret Life, as it came out when i was incredibly busy and i haven’t yet had time to watch it, but what about the others?

he won Limited Life because he’s a chronic traitor! he betrayed Scott, his ally for the whole season, so that he could win, and said he’d been planning it / wanting to do it the whole session. spent a whole season protecting and helping Scott, and laughed in his face to betray as soon as he saw a shot to do so

Double Life was a whole mess of Martyn and weird loyalties. just one example: he spent all of the first session hanging out with Pearl in favor of even looking for either of their soulmates, with no regard for how he’d been putting his soulmate in danger. when their soulmates dumped them due to being ignored all session and stormed off, he dumped Pearl just because. one session in and he’s betrayed both his soulmate and his day one alliance!

Last Life he teamed with the Southlanders and then made the Shadow Alliance in secret, so he was on two teams and never truly committed to either. he tried to kill Grian basically immediately when he got boogeyman, for example, and in the final fight he tried to lure Ren to himself by offering to team and then tried to blow Ren up

of course, i’m simplifying and ignoring a lot. he doesn’t earn the loyal reputation for nothing. he does a lot of things to help his teammates, like giving a life to Ren in Last Life, trying all season to win Cleo over for all of Double Life, or working to protect Scott for all of Limited Life. it’s not like Martyn doesn’t play the part of a loyal friend well, but, well.

the thing about Martyn is that he’s selfish. he’s basically always going to prioritize his own survival over anything else. he’s never going to roll over and die, especially not for another person. he’s good at looking loyal, because having allies will help you survive, and he knows making outright enemies is a bad idea. he knows he can’t make it obvious he’s a traitor, because then he’ll certainly be killed. but, when it comes down to the wire, he will generally bail at the last minute to save his own skin rather than protecting the people around him. when his loyalty is tested, nine times out of ten, he will not only fail, but do so completely without remorse

it doesnt take a lot to become Martyn’s ally, and once you’ve got a foot in the door, he will take his allegiances seriously (at least, to a point). but it takes effort to really earn Martyn’s trust. and, even when it looks like you have, there’s no guarantee he won’t yank the rug out from under you if he decides having you alive is more detrimental to his survival than seeing you dead

and yes, you can especially see all of this in Third Life. Martyn was absolutely not instantly ride or die for Ren—for a lot of the earlier episodes, he won’t say he’s on Ren’s team or that he lives at Ren’s base, and often tells other players he’s simply Ren’s employee rather than teammate and that he’s wandering or homeless. he trusts Ren so little due to Ren’s inability to keep a secret or stand up for himself that even Ren acknowledges in the third session that Martyn is probably going to leave him and find someone else. Martyn’s loyalty had to be earned, and it very nearly wasn’t. if Ren had taken a session more to grow a spine, Martyn probably would have left

but Ren became an ally that Martyn could rely on, who could stand up for himself and keep secrets. it became more beneficial to Martyn’s survival to have Ren around, so he stayed with Ren for the rest of the season, and committed hard to their kingdom. Ren earns Martyn’s trust by becoming a more dependable ally, and because of that, Ren earns Martyn’s loyalty…. probably

(half related, bc i want it in the post and i don’t know where to put it: after the execution, two sessions after Ren officially earns Martyn’s loyalty, Ren admits to being genuinely convinced Martyn was going to take him out of the series as soon as Ren gave him the chance!)

because yes, even here, even after Ren earns his trust and Ren trusts Martyn to execute him and they become King and Hand, Martyn was okay with killing Ren to save himself. Martyn has said he was going to betray Ren in the final session of Third Life. his entire plan was that when he and Ren hit the final 5, he was going to kill Ren. end Red Winter, usher in Red Spring. even the most loyal version of Martyn was a traitor!

now, you can decide for yourself if you believe he could have actually gone through with this—he and Ren were 6th and 7th out of the game, after all. maybe he wouldn’t have been able to steel himself. maybe his loyalty would have, for once, been too strong to kill Ren.

but it’s very possible that even the most loyal version of Martyn—the version of Martyn who has created this “loyal” image of Martyn in fanon—was only loyal because he died too soon to show his true colors

[cheddar-baby]

gregory crewdson really embodies what i love about photography. He makes everything he does look so seamless and unassuming. These huge elaborate movie set levels of detail and care put into a quiet image of a girl on a swing on an overcast rainy day.

Its taking the misconception of the photograph as a document of real life and using that as a perfect storytelling vehicle. But heightening it to an absurd level, everything is beautifully meticulously and intentionally fabricated to look like a scene you could just stumble upon on the street. Taking an ordinary moment in life and making it monolithic. I think its what photography does best. Its what brings me the most joy to work on personally. Its like an act of love to take something and give it that amount of importance to carefully light it perfectly even if that requires 15 lights all doing one hyper specific thing. Its what art making is all about, pouring yourself into something because its so important that you need to get it right even if that thing is a muggy gray overcast day. Theres a beauty in things like that, its something worth cherishing.

[marinamakesart]

I've been using tumblr for years, but i never used it for craft help like i did with reddit. I just started sewing again, and i made a crochet hook case, and I wanted criticism and advice on it, but since we aren't using reddit anymore, Idk if i can ask tumblr for help?? Like, does the sewing community do that here? I could go to Discord, but idk the sewing discord for one, and for two, i forgot to check Discord a lot

[asexualzoro]

i was thinking abt the opla today and how occasionally i’ve seen ppl posting about other series and their various adaptions and how the same characters are characterized slightly differently. like. people posting abt gomens characters and how they act slightly different in the book v show, or how there’s slight changes in how every version of trigun portrays vash, or what have you

i assume that opla will have a new take on Luffy that’s gonna be different from other Luffys—“i’m sensing a bit of tension amongst the crew” mostly comes to mind, since it’s a funny line but not very Luffy. i think iñaki is super charming and he seems like he’s going to do a good job! but he’ll be a slightly different Luffy than we’re used to

tho. it has been making me wonder about the Luffy we ARE used to. i don’t watch the anime, but i’ve been caught up the manga for like, a decade or smth. i’ve never seen anyone rlly talk about it, so now i’m curious…

is there any notable difference between manga Luffy and anime Luffy?

does he change between those adaptions? or does the anime follow the manga close enough that he’s basically the same? are there any characters who DO have any notable differences?

[lucalamante]

Mid key wanna start featuring other artists here

Not just cool photos that I wanna redraw/study

I do see a lot of cool art on the daily so I think I might just queue it up and add a bit about why I love the art/artist

[lylahammar]

the way that this page in particular was adapted just OOZES studio trigger tbh. like I know everyone likes to joke about studio trigger being the horny studio, but the quick jerky animation direction is what truly makes their work recognizable to me. I can practically see Lio Fotia bleeding through the pixels in that 5 frame animation of Falin peeking through her fingers

[xxplastic-cubexx]

welcome back to my accidental newfound journey to redraw every frame from this movie i GUESS

[bigfatbreak]

warmup of the day is: here's to hoping for another year

[liloinkoink]

talking in lamplight server abt Martyn in 3L vs LimL and his choice to betray or not betray his allies—namely, Martyn choosing to kill Scott in LimL, and choosing to stay loyal to Ren in 3L. it made me realize i’ve never made a post abt one bit of how i understand the way Martyn operated toward the end of third life, so im copy pasting what i said over there

i’ve always taken Martyn’s refusal to kill/betray Ren in 3L as the opposite of choice—3L Martyn could never choose, and that’s why he stuck with Ren

LimL Martyn made a choice. he decided to betray scott, and he won. but he waited till the last second to do it, stalling until they were final 3 to drop lava on the other two and steal the win (which. iconic)

but 3L…. ooc, in a stream after the fact, Martyn said he wanted to kill Ren when they were final five. they died seventh and sixth, right outside the cutoff

i’ve always taken that to imply, like… moving goal posts

Martyn telling himself he’ll kill Ren… but not yet. sitting there on yellow, telling himself he’ll kill Ren on red. singing the song of spring on red, but telling himself he’ll need an ally for now to go after the crastle and the desert, and that he’ll kill Ren once they’re dealt with. he needed Ren to kill Joel and kill Scott, he needed Ren to defend Dogwarts. fighting their enemies would be easier with someone at his back. he needed to wait. Ren took off his armor in front of Martyn, Etho, and BigB, and Martyn had the perfect opportunity…. but he reminds Ren to put it back on. can’t kill Ren in front of their friends, after all, they’d just jump him. later, later, the moment will come. after this fight, after that battle, he’s still better alive than dead, there’s still a good reason, Ren can live just a little longer….

but he’ll do it soon, he swears

he cares for Ren, but not more than he cares for himself. he’s selfish, a survivor. Martyn will never make a choice that will put his own survival at risk. but didn’t you hear me? he’s selfish. he likes Ren. he wants to keep him around. he doesn’t want to let go of him. but he will. after this. just one more minute

i don’t think he ever chose. to me, he kept putting off that moment he would have to, and then that choice was taken from him

[stedebonnit]

One thing I haven't stopped thinking about is that scene where Ed and Stede dine and dash and we get that glimpse as they run off giggling. Because really, more than the hopeful reunion, the soft confessions, more than the anger and bitter jabs, that moment was a glimpse into who they'll be as a couple.

Just a couple of chaos gremlins doing whatever the fuck they want and giggling the whole time, because when they're together the rest of the world fades away, its just them and their silly little whims.

[marinamakesart]

I just finished my first job application as an adult for a publisher in my city. Will i get it? Probably not, but im proud of myself for doing it even if i did it scared

[asexualzoro]

i wonder, with the crew meeting Vegapunk on the tail of encountering dysfunctional smile fruits, will we see the reversal of DF powers?

i feel like it’s only a matter of time until Vegapunk is asked to deal with the effects of the smile fruits on those who didn’t receive the benefits of an artificial fruit and thus are stuck unable to express anything but extreme joy. i can see Kidd asking/demanding a fix on Killer’s behalf, for one, if we see Kidd again while Vegapunk is on board the Thousand Sunny (if and when the lot of them escape this siege on the egghead laboratory and make it to the sea)

i suppose whether or not Vegapunk actually does anything about Killer and/or anyone else afflicted is one thing, but we’ll assume he does. how similar are smile fruits to actual devil fruits? if someone is able to be cured of the side effects of a fake fruit, how difficult would it be to take a leap to removing the powers of a fake fruit? and, if and when we see the reversal of smile fruit powers, how long until we start seeing the removal of genuine devil fruits?

i’m not necessarily betting on this or anything, but i’ve been thinking ever since tonyasu’s execution that a “cure” for devil fruits might be on the horizon, and i’m doubly sure it’s a possibility with the on-panel introduction of Vegapunk

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

all this to say: i think it'd be cute if Barnaby literally howls with laughter

[rystiel]

do y’all think logan and wade will eventually meet thor and wade will absolutely fangirl over him. and logan would remember him mumbling about thor in his sleep while they were tied up in the void. and while wade fangirls it becomes clear that The Wolverine isn’t the only hero he’s excited to finally know. do u think logan would get a bit standoffish with thor and wade would hit him with the “if i didn’t know any better i’d think you were jealous, peanut ;)”

[front-facing-pokemon]

[angryaromantics]

@mossy-aro made an excellent post, that can be found HERE, on the subversive nature of aromantic positivity, and how negativity can damage the community and “we should focus on building, improving, and nurturing ourselves and each other (construction) as opposed to destruction.” 

I wholeheartedly agree, but I wanted to talk about ‘negative’ feelings a bit more. The type of negativity Mossy was largely discussing seemed to be the ones that stemmed from self-hatred. “I hate being aro.” “This is so hard, I wish I was normal,” etc., etc. This negativity, no matter what personal place it comes from, can and does damage the aromantic community. 

Negativity spreads, we’ve seen it in online spaces before, and we’re seeing it now. Being aromantic can be hard, so it’s frankly easy and understandable, that the bombardment of negativity would harm individual aromantic people and the community as a whole. Being an online community, we’re pretty insular, which can make the negativity feel particularly inescapable. 

I would argue, however, that the negative feelings themselves aren’t an issue that needs to be corrected. There’s a reason you feel that way, and it’s likely rooted in some real-life issues either on a personal level or on a societal way. It’s not your fault, and you shouldn’t feel bad about it. 

The  issue arises when you share those feelings without examining the root cause of the feeling. You hate being aro. Okay, but why? Is it a sense of isolation from your peers? Is it the cost of living for a single person in your area? What is it about being aro that you find difficult enough that you hate it?

A post that reads “I hate being aro” is always going to have a negative impact, whereas a post like, “I find being an aromantic person isolating,” opens up the start of a conversation. You’ve made progress, but even going from Point A to Point B, I think Point C would be an even more useful place to be. 

You find being an aromantic person isolating, but why? What specific thing do you find isolating? Is it the lack of real-life connections you have with aromantic people? With Point C, the conversation becomes the start of an interrogation with an intra-community issue. 

We have now gone from “I hate being aro,” to, “I find the lack of aromantic community outside of online spaces isolating.” Besides the harm reduction that interrogating these negative thoughts clearly performs, the biggest difference between Point A and Point C is that Point C is actionable. You can take real, actionable steps in forming in-person communities, both on a personal level, and as a community. 

“I hate being aro,” gives you no actionable steps, even in the figurative sense. It only serves to spread your negative feelings. Negative feelings, sadness, fear, rage, all have their place both internally and within your community. But, you need to think critically about what you’re putting into the community, and interrogate where that feeling is coming from in the first place. 

All aromantic feelings have the potential to be fulfilling on a personal level and even, as Mossy said, be harnessed “as a form of protest and political power.” We can use these negative feelings to improve ourselves, and our communities. They can be just as fruitful building blocks as aromantic joy.

You’ve just got to interrogate your own feelings or you risk doing detrimental harm to the aro community, and none of us want that. This is where we live.