#those are my two cents

[phantomuheist]

A random thought, but I hope no one is annoyed by the fact that this blog has been running on a queue lately because I'm either too lazy or tired to write or post something or my mind is on my main blog/gaming.

Joker still exists in my mind, I promise. But we don't talk about his appearance in the Answer. I do not perceive it. I ignore it.

[sunday-arch]

perona doesn't need scary dog privilege. she is the scary dog.

[the-ships-to-rule-them-all]

It’s late so I have no real positive inkling about how coherent this will be.

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts engaging with the concept of “don’t look away, bare witness” and how anyone looking away by not reblogging or engaging is privileged and therefore a bad person. I reject this premise wholeheartedly for one very critical reason: the world will not get better if the only emotions we have are anger, exhaustion and trauma. None of those truly lead to anything productive in the long run.

This is not to say don’t engage with different perspectives, unlearn things or simply sit in the uncomfortable nature that comes from our global society. But learn to take breaks.

There is massive difference between “looking away” and “hitting pause”. It needs to be more acceptable on the internet to hit pause. To seek joy, to sleep and wake up rested. There is also the fact that our brains are not able to process the 24/7 news cycle - if we try, we end up making the nuanced into simple paradigms.

[my-past-disgusts-me]

I haven't seen anyone talk about this (I might be wrong though, I haven't been in the fandom long) but

Hunter's eyes changing color after Flapjack died?

I think that means he's not a grimwalker anymore.

So, we know that the fuchsia eyes are a grimwalker thing from the page of Belos's book. We don't know if it was a Caleb thing, in fact, I'm pretty darn certain it was not. He would have been killed as a child if it was, quite frankly. Ergo: no fuchsia eyes, not a grimwalker. Flapjack fuckin Pinocchio'd this boy. That's my theory.

Side note: maybe this means he can do magic now? Because being a grimwalker, he didn't have a bile sac. But if he's a witchling now..? Dunno. It could go either way, and frankly, I like the idea of him not being able to do magic and learning glyphs from Luz, but if I'm correct then it's possible he'll be able to learn other types of magic as well.

[symphonyofsilence]

Let the poor man rest.

[just-null]

CAT BOYS CAT BOYS

[cairoscene]

Brian David Gilbert on Sad Boyz

feels fandom relevant.

[ID: A series of screen captures of Brian David Gilbert speaking on a podcast: "The thing that you invest your time in can feel so important to your identity that occasionally you feel, like, you need to close it off from other people in order to keep it safe. And I think that's where a lot of nerd culture, all that gatekeeping stuff, all of the toxicity stems from that thing where it's like, "In high school I didn't have a lot of friends or connect with a lot of people, but I did have this comic book, and now this comic book is super popular, but these people don't like me. That must be because they're not real fans."" End ID]

[thewriter2016]

I watched a YT review of someone who read the comic *after* watching the movie (just as I did) and they said something interesting that I took in consideration the next times I rewatch the movie:

Ballister says something along the lines "I hope the next time we see each other she can see me as a friend".

The comic ends. Years pass. The movie is announced. Something, something something, the movie is released!!!

Then the next time Nimona sees Ballister is in the movie. And the first thing she says after hearing the news of him being portrayed as the "queen killer" and as "a monster", they say "He's perfect".

And during the whole movie we see them develop as friends and confidants.

*The next time they meet, Nimona actually sees Ballister as a friend.*

Nimona helps him clear his name.

Nimona stays with him as a support.

Nimona calls the hideout *home*.

Also this is the comic's review:

Thank you for finally giving them a happy ending 

[aceforwhatevenisthis]

inspired by @trashworldblog’s post

i think people put art on this moral high ground that has to be above the forces of capitalism or some of other hyperbole and that’s just not?? true??

people forget watcher is a business, it’s the livelihood of PEOPLE, this is something they’re gonna explore, see if it works out, and adjust

should they try to do regional pricing for international fans? absolutely

but too many people seem to be up in arms about the streaming platform in a way that is simply just not healthy and is reflective of the way a lot of people seem to consume media now

i understand being sad but swearing off everything watcher because you’ve created this strange idolization of the company is just. not good for you.

[once-upon-the-earth]

this fandom talks so much about how hard the final fifteen and its aftermath was/is for crowley and im not gonna deny that it was but. try seeing the whole thing from aziraphales perspective for a sec. Because it is so so so heartbreaking. i know its hard bc we dont really know whats going on there with the metatron and threats and things that were cut out but lets take it at face value and try to imagine what hes feeling.

He knows another apocalypse is coming. He wants himself and Crowley to be safe; he's always wanted them to be safe from the very beginning. Its why he's so unsure of the arrangement for so long ("If Hell finds out they wont just be angry. they'll destroy you!"). Even when he and Crowley are finally "safe", they know theres more coming and theyre just waiting, anticipating, until Jim happens. They panick, everything gets very chaotic but clears up without either of them seriously hurt, luckily. Aziraphale is still reeling with adrenaline when the Metatron takes him outside. He's definitely thinking "alright, just this, get him off my back and then I can get back to ignoring them until the next apocalypse." But suddenly, Heaven is offering him a way to stop that next apocalypse NOW - and even better, Crowley will be safe the entire way through! They'll both be angels, safe, on the same side and save the world!

(also the fact that heaven, whove been talking down to him his entire life, are now acting like they respect him. I dont think he entirely falls for it but that would feel good to anybody, whether he suspects its fake or not.)

Crowley says no. Crowley refuses, angrily, confesses, in the worst moment while theres thousands of other things running through Aziraphale's mind and now he has to deal with this too, years, millennia of unspoken things slapping him in the face in an already incredibly vulnerable moment. Crowley talks of running away again and leaving the world behind. Aziraphale tries again - he needs Crowley for this, he cant do this alone, neither the entire task of saving the world nor the simple act of going back there. Crowley kisses him, doesnt even want to accept Aziraphale's forgiveness for not helping him - leaves.

Aziraphale definitely has some sort of plan, going up there. But he will also be arriving in Heaven, cold white lights, cold faces over pale clothing judging his every move and have to juggle both responsibilities and his own, undercover plans, all this without any help and nobody to talk to. You remember how he ate an entire ox the first time he tasted food? He's still got Crowley's taste on his lips and an empty stomach. And he doesn't even entirely understand why Crowley rejected him because Crowley's always helped him before. It's their game. He gets himself into situations, Crowley rescues him and they never say a word about how theyre feeling. And now Crowley broke the rules, refused, and kissed him and Aziraphale cant even talk to anyone about it because who would listen and anyways, he needs to get to a meeting about killing everything on the world he was put on to protect.

[yardsards]

i needed to express a sentiment in the creative stylings of @dunmeshiminimumwage

[galacticlamps]

ok I have A Lot of thoughts about the staircase confession (well really about Edwin's whole character arc, but all roads lead to rome) but for now I just wanna say that, yes, I was bracing myself for something to go terribly wrong when I first watched it, and yes, part of me was initially worried its placement might be an uncharacteristically foolish choice made in the name of Drama or Pacing or Making a Compelling Episode of Television but at the expense of narrative sense--

But I wanna say that having taken all that into account, and watched it play out, and sat with it - and honestly become rather transfixed by it - I really think it's a beautifully crafted moment and truly the only way that arc could've arrived at such a satisfying conclusion.

And if I had to pinpoint why I not only buy it but also have come to really treasure it, I'd have to put it down to the fact that it genuinely is a confession, and nothing else.

That moment is an announcement of what Edwin has come to understand about himself, but because it takes the form of a character admitting romantic feelings for such a close friend, I think it can be very easy, when writing that kind of thing, to imbue it with other elements like a plea or a request or even the start of a new relationship that, intentionally or not, would change the shape of the moment and can quickly overshadow what a huge deal the telling is all on its own. But that's not the case here. Since it is only a confession, unaccompanied by anything else, and since we see afterward how it was enough, evidently, to fix the strangeness that had grown between him & Charles, we're forced to understand that it was never Edwin's feelings that were actually making things difficult for him - it was not being able to tell Charles about them. 'Terrified' as he's been of this, Edwin learns that his feelings don't need to either disappear completely or be totally reciprocated in order for him to be able to return to the peace, stability, and security of the relationship with which he defines his existence - and the scale of that relief a) tells us a hell of a lot about Edwin as a character and b) totally justifies the way his declaration just bursts out of him at what would otherwise be such a poorly chosen moment, in my opinion.

Whether or not they are or ever could be reciprocated, Edwin's feelings are definitively proven not to be the problem here - only his potential choice to bottle it up - his repression - is. And where that repression had once been mainly involuntary, a product of what he'd been through, now that he's got this new awareness of himself, if he still fails to admit what he's found either to himself or to the one person he's so unambiguously close with, then that repression will be by his own choice and actions.

And he won't do that. Among other things, he's coming into this scene having just (unknowingly) absolved the soul of his own school bully and accidental killer by pointing out a fact that is every bit as central to his self-discovery as anything about his sexuality or his attraction to Charles is: the idea that "If you punish yourself, everywhere becomes Hell"

So narratively speaking, of course it makes sense that Edwin literally cannot get out of Hell until he stops punishing himself - and right now, the thing that's torturing him is something he has control over. It's not who he is or what he feels, but what he chooses to do with those feelings that's hurting him, and he's even already made the conscious choice to tell Charles about them, he was just interrupted. But now that they're back together and he's literally in the middle of an attempt to escape Hell, there is absolutely no way he can so much as stop for breath without telling Charles the truth. Even the stopping for breath is so loaded - because they're ghosts, they don't need to breathe, but also they're in Hell, so the one thing they can feel is pain, however nonsensical. And Edwin certainly is in pain. But whether he knows what he's about to do or not when he says he 'just needs a tick,' a breather is absolutely not what's gonna give him enough relief to keep climbing - it's fixing that other hurt, though, that will.

Like everything else in that scene, there's a lot of layers to him promising Charles "You don't have to feel the same way, I just needed you to know" - but I don't think that means it isn't also true on a surface level. It's the act of telling Charles that matters so much more than whatever follows it, and while that might have gone unnoticed if anything else major had happened in the same conversation, now we're forced to acknowledge its staggering and singular importance for what it is. The moment is well-earned and properly built up to, but until we see it happen in all its wonderful simplicity, and we see the aftermath (or lack thereof, even), we couldn't properly anticipate how much of a weight off Edwin's shoulders merely getting to share the truth with Charles was going to be, why he couldn't wait for a better, safer opportunity before giving in to that desire, or how badly he needed to say it and nothing else - and I really, really love the weight that act of just being honest, seen, and known is given in their story/relationship.

[roukabi]

I feel like when it comes to the Dusthide debate, a lot of people seem to misinterpret the main point of Ancients as both a game element and a product.

A big part of Flight Rising is dress-up. While users can argue on what the sole draw of FR is (dragons themselves, breeding, the Dominance system, etc), it's generally agreed that the dress-up aspect is one with a lot of care and resources put into it, and is therefore very important to site gameplay. Dress-up keeps getting updated with new apparel, and if there is to be a new dragon breed, it needs every piece of apparel re-drawn on it. This takes time. A lot of time. Gaps between dragons (now known as Moderns) stretch for years at a time.

Ancients were initially created as a way to fill in these time gaps between Moderns, and the easiest way to do that was to release dragons without apparel. However, this is a game that puts a lot of emphasis on dragon dress-up. Imagine if Obelisks were released without any coded apparel. You'd just have a naked dragon missing a huge element of the game, and for most players, there's no fun in that.

This is where the second point of Ancients comes in: because the appeal of clothing is gone, there has to be some kind of compromise. So... if Ancients can't wear apparel, then they are no longer restrained by the requirements for apparel (1 head/4 legs/2 wings)...

which means that they can break the modern mold freely! You can have a dragon with no legs, or six. Or with two heads, or no head. And now that you don't have to worry about apparel clipping, the tertiary genes can go wild! There is room for customization that apparel can't fulfill - you could give it extra wings, or a jellyfish head, or giant tree horns, or you could give it nothing at all as tertiary genes are optional, and it wouldn't matter because there's no apparel to be drawn around it!

Ancients are supposed to be a trade-off. There's no selling point to a dragon without clothing on the Dragons With Clothing Game, but there is a selling point to a dragon with, say, 13 legs, no wings and no tail. It doesn't wear apparel, because it physically can't, and it makes use of this function in creative ways. The inability to wear apparel is justified by the Ancient's unique proportions.

And this is where the criticisms for Dusthides and other 'basic' Ancients stems from: if your Ancient dragon is just the 1 head/4 legs/2 wings setup, then is it really an Ancient or a Modern you can't dress up? You could have the wildest, gaudiest, 15-limb tertiary gene on a Dusthide and it wouldn't matter, because tertiaries are optional and aren't a permanent part of the dragon that would inhibit the usage of apparel.

If a dragon doesn't have a justifiable reason to not wear apparel, then there's no reason for it being an Ancient.

No amount of linebreaking tertiaries will be able to hide the fact that some dragons seem to be created only for the first, initial purpose: just to tide people over until a better, 'real' dragon is created.

And that's just disappointing.

[loserboyfriendrjl]

sirius is the only marauder who regularly smokes by the way. remus only smokes when stressed (before exams and during the war) and after sex

[scarewulf]

I think one of the biggest sort-of unpopular opinions I have when it comes to being an artist is that, unless they are used in moderation, using things like references, tracing, and other little tips and tricks to help you will actually hinder you at some point if you use them too much

If you rely too much on these tools you will eventually lose the confidence and the ability to use your artistic know-how to fill in the gaps yourself....and those "gaps" could be anything from proportions and anatomy to things like dynamics and even coming up with an idea for a drawing in the first place

Using too many pinterest images for your poses will at some point result in stiff art, and unless you already know how to manipulate it in your own style (the ones who do this already know how to fill in the gaps when it comes to anatomy), drawing 1:1 from a reference pose will just make your stuff look a bit boring most of the time. If you use 3D poser programs and you trace those poses all the time so you feel more comfortable with them, then at some point, again, your stuff is just going to feel stiff and a bit boring

At some point an artist has to know how to draw a hand without a reference. At some point an artist has to learn how to draw an arm without a reference. The same goes with the rest of the body, and the same goes with posing as well

[rfsmith]

You know, design wise, I think when Branch becomes King he’ll have to wear a crown everyday similar to Poppy’s. It’ll be more minimal and nature based to fit his vibe and personality, plus to not show up Poppy’s crown since she’s blood royalty and he’s marriage royalty.

I think he’ll try to get away with not wearing a crown in the early days of their marriage, but the whole village FREAKS OUT, thinking their new king is not pleased with him or that Branch thinks he’s too good for a crown. In other words, they’re not happy with him until he puts on the crown which Poppy tries to explain but Branch is all “you’re exaggerating, it’s MEEEE everyone in the village knows how much I hate things sometimes.”

Then the whole village is flipping tables and burning shit because Branch won’t put on some crown.