#tlu

[macksting]

I've met him in person btw and he's a fucking sweetheart

[ID: Text-intensive Twitter thread from the Shapeshifters chest binders Twitter account in reply to a post by artist and author Ursula Vernon. Vernon says, A non-zero number of you apparently did not know that The Last Unicorn was a book before it was a movie. It is by Peter S. Beagle. It is made of spun glass and fairytales and iron knives and there are individual lines that I would give my lungs to have written. Shapechangers replies, I saw him every year at NYCC for several years straight, bought something at his table, asked him to sign it, and we spoke. He remembered me from year to year, no small feat at that con. He remembered which stories he'd told me. One year I came back with a different gender on. He squinted at me a bit and said thoughtfully, "I've seen you before in this place." All I had to say was, "last year you told me the story about the inoshishi." And his face cleared, and he leaned in with a grin and told me about a German guitarist who he traveled with, twice. Who transitioned between the first and second time, so he'd gotten to meet this person all over again on the second round. It was a wonderfully kind way to let me know that everything was fine. I was fresh out of the closet and I needed that, and maybe he could see it. The Last Unicorn is the best book in the world and I will defend it and its author til I die. the end. /end ID]

I don't usually talk about celebrities; artists, when I do, and I'm keenly aware that one needn't be a good person to be a hell of a heartwrenching artist. But Peter S. Beagle has written a few of my favorite things in the world, he's an excellent singer and filker, and this Twitter thread was dreadfully important to me. I don't want it going away as Twitter becomes Shitter, because it's so often bad news, isn't it? It's important to me to share trans joy.

[giantkillerjack]

Me: hm, I want something to put on the TV as background noise... Huh. Looks like YouTube is recommending something called The Last Unicorn. That's perfect, it's probably some old shitty animation that has aged poorly! I can watch it ironically!

Me, 2 hours later as the credits roll: *crying, cheering, buying the book, composing the songs*

Me, 2 weeks later: So I have compiled all of the quotes from the book that I think could make good tattoos, and also, HOW HAVE I NEVER LEARNED ABOUT HOW THE LAST UNICORN FUCKING SLAPS??? This gay-ass little fairytale fed my soul! Watered my crops! Transed my gender! Can't believe I heard of this story from youtube recommendations, of all places!!

[art-sicordial]

Dance of the Last Unicorn

Birthentine's day art for @lizwyrm, in person it shimmers from the iridescent watercolor

[albanianpsycho]

favorite movie ever

[liliumaa]

some molly and schmendrick dancing for fun

[swollenbabyfat]

Tattoo comm ✨

[shellsnroses]

“I don’t understand. I see nothing at all in the water.”

[nerdyfoxx]

I've always loved The Last Unicorn. I'm pretty sure I had my mom rent it any time I could from Blockbuster (that and Shadowgate.)

I don't know what inspired me to create this, but I'm rather happy I did. I'm also playing with a version in watercolor...but sometimes painting can be like pulling teeth for me, so...we'll see how that goes.

[aquicat]

[emirrart]

10,09,2024

[faun-buns]

the last unicorn

[emmieaster]

☾ This Could Be A Dream ☽

⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆

I had this sketch of Lady Amalthea sitting in my WIPS folder for a while and finally got to finish her up EHEHEH and ofc this illustration was inspired by many of Meyoco artworks ✨

She’s now available to download as an IPhone wallpaper over on my Ko-Fi for just $1!

Please consider checking it out plus all my other wallpapers !!

[thelastunicornflipouts]

Even if plot-wise - and logically speaking - the transformation was the only viable option for the group to move forward into the story, it still is an incredibly anguishing moment for the unicorn/Amalthea. She is understandably dreading her new form and her now impending mortality, which she feels and fears. Schmendrick however acts weirdly dismissive, defensive, almost annoyed when Molly and Amalthea express their horror at what he has done. He is boasting about having done true magic, while stating at the same time that he had no control over it. In the book, he tries to offer Amalthea his point of view as a mortal turned immortal, as if he is trying to condone what he has done masking it as a sort of favour.

Upon my first reading, it flew over my head. Book-Schmendrick is more mean-spirited than his movie counterpart (justifyably so, since keeping the same personality for movie-Schmendrick without book-Schmendrick's backstory would have made him an unapologetic jerk) but his reactions and his excuses did sound a bit off. Further readings and reflecting between the lines made me think that Schmendrick (at least book-Schmendrick) is essentially trying to normalize trauma.

He has done to the unicorn - in reverse - what Nikos has done to him. Schmendrick was a mortal man who had been turned immortal. The unicorn has previously expressed her contempt to the story of Nikos turning another unicorn into a mortal man, stating that he might as well have trapped the creature into a burning building. Still, what Nikos did to Schmendrick, as well-meaning it could have been, was no better at all. Aside from being an incompetent immortal, trying and failing endlessly, Schmendrick has zero chances for connections and relationships. If he is doomed to stay immortal, he is doomed to be alone, to see people around him grow old and die while he remains a bumbling young man forever. Just as the unicorn is not supposed to be mortal, Schmendrick was not supposed to be immortal.

When he tells Amalthea his story, he is curt and to the point, telling Nikos' speech word for word. His dry way of talking contrast with the visceral response of Amalthea. From "Schmendrick Alone", the novellette about Schmendrick leaving Nikos to begin his solo journey, the reader learns that Schmendrick seems to not be right away aware of his curse. Unlike the unicorn, his must have been a slow, painful realization and hell knows what he must have felt when he has fully understood its implications.

After his self-congratulatory speech, Schmendrick shows signs that he, on an emotional level, has grasped how much he has fucked up. Still he refuses to admit so. Acknowledging it entails acknowledging how Nikos has fucked up, how his master has screwed his life under the pretension of giving Schmendrick the possibility to come into his full power. That is not feasible for Schmendrick, so he comes up with excuses, justifying his act with good intentions. Most interestingly, he shifts responsibility on magic itself, claiming he has not control over it. I don't know how magic exactly works in TLU universe, but it seems to have ties with the subconscious of those who employ it. Schmendrick had no control when Nikos cursed him, now he is in control by lacking control. Sounds weird? Then why, of every creature possible - and Schmendrick himself quips about it in the book - was the unicorn turned into a mortal woman?

Schmendrick's arc in the story does not end when he comes into his full power, but when he acknowledges what he has done to the unicorn, expressing his regret and taking full accountability. Schmendrick's apology to the unicorn is the moment were the trauma-cycle is broken. He has come to terms with his own traumatic event, has accepted it, and is aware that he cannot do anything about it. He - and the unicorn - can only move forward; they are now again what they were meant to be, with additional awareness and knowledge.

[phantom-fantasia]

𝑻𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒍𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒔, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒍𝒖𝒄𝒌, 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘𝒏. 𝑻𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖

[liliumaa]

My Schmendrick cosplay I made for my Halloween costume this year 😁