#to learn that things dont have to be the way they are?

[bunnyboy-juice]

my lovely mutuals and followers and circle of dykes. i am BEGGING YOU to stop reblogging that "NSAIDS while on spiro damages your liver" post. there have been MANY additions in the comments expanding on the risk factors of mixing these medications (and i HIGHLY recommend looking in the comments. @/boringkate assesses the risk beautifully in there, and many others are in the reblogs expanding on the interactions and risks as well). all those aside - the major risk of mixing NSAIDs and any diuretic (not limited to, but including ibuprofen snd spiro) is RENAL (KIDNEY) PROBLEMS!!! NOT LIVER!!! and the most frequent version ive seen to that post does Not do a good enough job clarifying that "renal function" is related to your kidneys, not your liver. there are some effects that will happen on the liver eventually of course, but the premise of the interactions is wrong in and of itself and this kind of misinformation is kind of dangerous to just take at face value/without curiousity

i encourage you to read the actual drugs.com summary on the interactions between NSAIDs and spiro that keeps being referenced in that post (more on this under the cut). it is a moderate interaction manageable with increased hydration (your kidneys love water!) and, if you're taking spiro under the supervision of a doctor, monitoring of your renal function via blood tests. and i understand feeling betrayed learning there are potential interactions between all NSAIDs and diuretics because these risks are often not clearly communicated by doctors themselves, but in the pharmacy and usually in that packet that comes with your meds that most people are more likely to toss than read - but please do not make sudden rapid changes to your healthcare plans or work yourself into a panic on ever taking a pain med ever again based on that post and PLEASE fact check things you read on the internet before spreading it as Health Facts, even if its just looking up what different words mean to understand more of what you're reading. i also really do encourage y'all to read on how kidneys work and this is a really nice overview

the risk of kidney problems mostly occurs if you are (1) taking regular doses of both medications (2) NOT drinking enough fluids (3) not communicating with your doctor about all the medications you are taking. if you are taking spiro as a treatment provided by a doctor and are worried about kidney problems after that post, by all means talk to them and ask about getting a blood test to check your kidneys function/health!! im not discouraging this!! your doctor likely isnt bringing this up in the first place though because (in my cursory glance over the sources) many of these studies cited even in the drugs.com article "specific" to ibuprofen and spiro are about a variety of diuretics interactions with a variety of NSAIDs. the ones that arent paywalled are also either acute case studies about elderly patients on diuretics (so who Already have kidney problems/elimination issues) who developed heart issues after diuretics treatement or observational studies specifically on men in good health ages 20-38 to specifically look at drug interactions in the body. in the more acute cases, with proper management/alternative medications almost every single case was reversible and resolvable. many of these medications in these papers also are ones I have not heard of or taken, so i did look up every single drug i didnt recognize by name references to confirm my initial assumption that the reason this is labeled a Moderate instead of low risk interaction is because All NSAIDS and diuretics have potential interactions (confirmed also that the major effect is that NSAIDS have the potential to reduce the efficacy of diuretics, which leads to fluid and salt retention, which can lead to other issues - namely heart issues in the most extreme cases) with variable effects based on specific combination of the drugs used, the patients specific health, and the dosage (not just the size of dose, but the timing as well).

as an aside: if you habitually are taking frequent (read: daily/scheduled, not a one off for a headache or other body pains) doses of OTC NSAIDs, Regardless of taking diuretics, you NEED to tell your doctor because even though its available over the counter (at least in the US) it is still a major medication in your life/relevant to your physiochemistry!! OTC medications are often overlooked by doctors and people alike because they are seen as ubiquitous and to many doctors OTC pain meds, like NSAIDS, are assumed be used in acute pain situations where the dosage is minimal/infrequent enough it will likely have little to no long term effect with other medications.

[raevenlywrites]

There is one instance of my parents striking me that left any kind of "good parenting" impression, and it fits none of the standard "spanking as punishment" situations (which I did also experience before someone tries to say I just dont get it).

The first time I got in trouble for hitting a fellow child (i dont even remember anymore if it was a sibling or classmate), my dad knocked me flat on my ass. I dont even think he actually hit me, thats not what left the impression. The impression- and indeed the lesson he was aiming for- was the terror of someone looming over me, the knowledge of the physical advantage he had over me.

"Youre gonna grow up to be bigger than everyone around you," he said (and I did, my whole family is around 6' or over). "You will always have to be careful of your body and your emotions, and how you use both. Dont hit; it sucks."

I did not grow up to not hit. Other lessons of violence were too common for me not to reach for violence when emotions were high. But I did grow up to always pause before violence, to try other options first, and only every reached for violence when other options failed.

I cant think of less than a dozen times I reached for violence. I am not particularly proud of any of them.

But I am proud of my dad for trying to break the cycle of egregious physical abuse his parents heaped upon him (too numerous to recount, but full on horror stories, I assure). I dont think his lesson was the best way, but I do think it was the best he could come up with at the time. And I do think it was that desire to help me break out of the cycle, not the hitting itself, that made the impact (pardon the pun).

I remember doing the same thing to my little brother the first time he got physical with the siblings. "We dont hit. I hit you and it sucked, right? Don't do that." I caught him copying me one day, smacking his sister upside the head and saying "hitting sucks dont do it". Now I watch him with his own children, patiently parenting and explaining emotions to his children who are almost too small to speak. I like his way better. I know my dad would too.

I dont have a tidy thesis for my thoughts. I seldom do. But that moment is one that stuck with me and I always think of it when spanking comes up. The stark difference of how calm and teacherly my father was in that moment, compared to all the anger and frustration that came with every other time I was ever physically "punished". I learned that when my parents couldnt control me, they lashed out. I learned that my father didnt want to, didnt think it was the right way to be. Learned that sometimes the emotions overtook him anyways. Learned that he wanted to be better that, and wanted me to be better than that.

When people get pregnant, they will give up smoking, give up alcohol, give up coffee and soda, give up fondue and raw cheese, give up cold cuts and sushi, all because they have heard somewhere, from someone, that these things can be bad for the baby. They don’t know the research, haven’t looked at the studies, can’t talk about sample sizes and control groups. But their dedication to their future child’s safety is so strong, their caution is so overpowering, that they give up these things just in case. 

So it baffles me when those same people will insist on spanking their kids. 

Even when they are shown the research.

 Regardless of what the experts in the field say. 

No matter who says it. 

Or how it is said. 

People are so invested in this ability to hit their kids without judgement or consequence, that it absolutely confounds me. 

[nestaians]

let me get this straight, in the meeting at dawn other HLs can listen to rhysand and feyre words and try to believe them despite;

for 50 years rhysand was standing against them and help in kill people from their courts

afterwards has lied to other courts for various reasons and now wants to be honest

rhysand’s council member took feyre at the time tamlin’s lover from spring without permission

feyre destroyed a court which made people of the court refugees bc it allowed hybern a way in -btw it pushed tamlin into the corner more

feysand lied and stole from summer court and are still in possession of it doing gods know what what it

feysand offered no real remorse of what they did to spring court and summer court

feyre has powers of all courts and is rhysand’s mate making night court a threat bc she and rhysand can take over other courts and rule over all of them

has no idea if feyre is not being manipulated by rhysand who they don’t like nor trust

rhysand made feyre a high lady even though its magic that makes that choice

they have no idea if feysand version of events after the mountain are true

oh night court has 2 recently cauldron made high fae with gods know what powers

probably missing a few more but other HLs are choosing to give time the benefit of doubt after one tense exchange but arent willing to do that with tamlin who;

tried to break the curse, got feyre who did and was the one who killed amarantha

saved lucien life UtM

when he shows his angry for what feyre did to his people and how she lied to him others see it as a “lovers quarrel” -basically letting feyre get away with her crimes bc if other HLs wont hold her accountable as well and want her to be punished for it then who will

tamlin does not start war against night court for their trespassing and bc feyre came in his court as a high lady of night court under disguise so she can destroy it for revenge

and when tamlin provides proof of what he has learned they still dont believe him bc why should they?

look tamlin did step out of the line in that meeting and made some comments but the attitude he got vs rhysand and feyre got from other high lords had me kinda baffled

rhysand can control minds! ffs

there is very little reason for other HLs to even listen to NC but they do?? these people should not be in charge, not a single brain cell or a backbone in that group aside from tamlin

the fact not once there was ever a talk of feyre being punished for what she did to spring court, these people are dumb as hell bc she can do what she wants and rhysand will back her up & she proves it in the same meeting when she attacks beron with fire and hurts lady of autumn and even then not once someone says feyre you cant do that

azriel attacks eris, heir of autumn court and nothing happens. rhysand attacks tamlin, high lord of spring and nothing happens.

ridiculous. the whole meeting was biased and feysand sucking

its not lost on me the things rhysand did UtM being revealed in the meeting are never brought up again within ic, so much for a group that dream about a better world and acts superior in morals

[bogor-o]

i don't think I've ever heard you talk about aym and baal in your mother au, do they exist? if so what's their relationship with ovidia and narinder?

OOOH im actually so glad you asked bc i have drafts on drafts of thoughts of the brothers,,, because i actually feel like theyd very present around!! sorry if this seems really fragmented im kind of mentally patching them together

i feel like i also have to explain the relationship between Mother and the mystic seller a little bit, once they meet Mother almost idolizes them and is excited to take their words to heart, and as theyre working towards recruiting the bishops theyre "rewarded" for their progress, they see it as a blessing, to mm it's the way of things

they receive baals necklace first, and shortly after leshys got, the ritual to bring baal back is successful and hes incredibly skeptical about everything thats going on because he cant fathom narinder being a mortal buthe takes it better than his brother who holds hard onto the belief that this is all unfair far longer than his brother does

theres a LOT of things that happen between baals resurrection and ayms, during which baal learns about what it is to be a person and individual, but he'll still struggle with this feeling of being loyal to narinder, possibly even more so now that he sees him as an equal with flaws

he has to help his brother adjust and learn but it takes aym tattling to narinder that forces nari to tell him that by that point (its probably been a couple years) that hes grown fond of their insistence to follow him around even now so loyally, that he considers them equals(his way of saying friends without actually acknowledging it in words yet)

he of course tells him he can never repeat this to his brother(bc baal and narinder are kind of on the same page and it can be left unsaid)

they both have their own ways of adjusting and they are reunited with forneus(tho it takes a while). they do stick around the cult because while they've learned more about themselves and each other, following narinder has been all theyve known, and this brings up a lot of complicated emotions the three will eventually touch on whether they want to or not, it will reach a point it has to be talked about

as far as their relationship with ovidia/mother goes? as Mother, they show a very genuine(and skewed) form of love to their followers and its extended to them without question and without judgement, and its initially what eventually gets baal to even allow them to speak with him and convince him to place enough trust in them(thats how they got him to forneus in the first place) and thru that, aym would come to. not trust. but at least respect them enough not to cause trouble or give Mothers followers a reason to doubt them(even if he will always believe their power belongs to narinder) they are gifted necklaces because in a selfish way, Mother wants them around for narinders sake(his only friends)

as ovidia? it becomes very complicated again, because ovidia still does things as Mother, but their actions dont feel like they come from a genuine place more than "its what i have to do because only i can do this" and after the brothers have had a long life to develop on their own and together, its upsetting. even after ovidia and narinder get together their feelings about ovidia stay complicated but they think it will work itself out, its not as though they can do anything about it!

:^)

anyway heres a doodle of the boys i did on my new years stream

[nadianova]

hey nadia! i was wondering if you had any advice for someone whos learning to draw. i just really love your art, specially the way you do color and anatomy and i thought you might have some useful tips or suggestions. sorry if im bothering you with this. but in any case, i hope you have/had a nice day!

if you like how someone else draws a thing copy it. learning to draw takes a while and its all about managing your motivation and its normal to go back and forth between your eye to spot mistakes and your hand/mind being able to correct it, being aware of that helps to not blame yourself. being antagonistic towards your own art is the biggest hindurance for learning. i dont think im capaxble of giving more specific advice outside of that so i can just list random things i do but i have no idea if this is beneficial or not unless you are me

idont particularly care about anatomy or detail and am happy with cartoony shapes that are close enough and tht makes my life a lot easier. i feel like i only started shading my flat colors very recently too cause i dont care about rendering. i thiki doing lineart is boring as hell so i just clean up my sketches a little bit. nobody really gets stuck on details and what matters more is the general idea. to me art is about taking the easy route and every shortcut i have available even more so given my daily chronic pains

also like im always looking up references from gelbooru since looking at real people is boring to me. if i get stuck i do a lot of tracing of the hard parts like hands or head shape proportions. (i have aphantasia so i have no mental images so i will literally forget what my own characters look like unless im looking at the directly)

idk keep drawing and internalize that mimicking artists you like is the way to get towards your goals cause reinventing the wheel is entirely optional and be nice to your past self who drew the thing youre currently looking at on your canvas

[renthony]

#this for real. 2 things to add.#1: as someone who is autistic about the animation pipeline (and now gets to work in it!) this is a really stupid and disrespectful way to#view the production houses/teams that make 'kids shows'.#like people still labor on this and for the most part theyre making conscious choices and telling the best story they can#within the confines of the network and medium and budget!#like fuck dude! art you dont like is still art. a labor of love you dont love was still a labor. theres skill and time in this#2: i dont watch this shit cause im childish and juvenile. i love media analysis. i know what more complex media is#i watch 'kids shows' because like. on god? its the only form of an art i love that wont reliably trigger me#like even mixed in with all the autism that makes live action difficult for me to decipher and animation so so so intriguing to me....#the list of “adult media” i can watch without a doesthedogdie visit is insanely small.#but theyre not gonna randomly put a suicide joke into Phineas and Ferb now are they#ALSO ALSO: straight up ive seen anim/kids media that really IS that illuminating if you pull your head out of your ass#sry i dont like ops slight implication that the 'kids show watchers' are all just kind of like. disabled/stupid/inexperienced. anyway

This was an off-the-cuff post made in frustration after seeing a take that irritated me, so I apologize if it wasn't clear, but my point is not "people who like kids' shows are disabled/stupid/inexperienced," my point is that if you're trying to encourage people to expand their media horizons, making fun of the things they like is counterproductive.

I think it's important to encourage people to explore new media that challenges them and explores new topics they've never thought about before. My point is that derisively telling people to "watch something for adults" is counterproductive to that goal, in addition to being disrespectful to the art. Children's media is incredibly important and worth analysis in its own right, and I have profound love for the people who create it. I am writing from the perspective of someone who has volunteered in schools and is actively working with someone on lesson plans for a media studies class for kids.

I adore animation. I enjoy a lot of kids' media, which I said in the original post. I am a media analyst. I write essays about media and pop culture and get paid for it. I talk at great length about, and share many articles about, labor rights and the animation industry. I am working toward learning traditional animation techniques. Obviously you wouldn't know this if you don't follow my blog, but I want to be crystal clear that I am not coming from the perspective that "only disabled/stupid/inexperienced people watch cartoons."

I really have no patience for posts talking about "adults who only watch kids' cartoons," because, like...people accuse me of "only watching kids' cartoons," despite all evidence to the contrary. It doesn't matter how much I talk about other adult media I like, if I post too many things in a row about Steven Universe or The Dragon Prince or The Owl House, people come out of the goddamn woodwork to accuse me of "only watching kids' shows."

So I really can't take people seriously when they start talking about the supposed "problem" of "adults who only watch kids' shows." Are the "adults who only watch kids' cartoons" in the room with us right now, or are you basing your entire opinion of people solely on their fandom blog? Like, come on.

It makes me think of the couple years I spent volunteering in a school library. The librarian talked a lot about how it's hurtful to enforce "reading at grade-level" on every student with no nuance. Teachers would try to force their students to check out books "at proper grade-level," instead of letting students pick out whatever they wanted (even if it was "too easy"), and it resulted in a lot of students deciding books were boring, too hard, and only good for making them feel stupid. They started to hate reading entirely, because people constantly shut them down and told them they were stupid for not reading the right things. This was especially brutal on disabled students.

I personally apply the same philosophy to adults. You don't know what someone might struggle with, you don't know what someone's history is. You might think a piece of media is "too simple," but that's your experience and your opinion. People learn and grow and experience the world at different paces, and what seems to you like a "simplistic" piece of media may be the most complex, illuminating piece of media someone else has ever had the opportunity to experience. It doesn't make them "stupid" or "childish," and believing that it does is cruel and counterproductive. You cannot wield shame as a fucking cudgel if your goal is education, support, and helping people expand their horizons.

I don't think a culture of shame is helpful. I don't think a culture of "if you like 'childish' things, it means you're too stupid for anything else" is helpful. I don't think constantly making fun of children's media does anything other than demean people--and not just the people who enjoy it, but the people who make it, too.

[panlight]

also continuing off the Informed Traits discussion, just how much of Caslisle's compassion/kindness is informed? Bella and Edward both make it seem like he's this saintly figure and pillar of goodness, but then there's moments where he does things that make you wonder if the view on him is just really rose-tinted.

Again, going back on BD where he invites his friends to witness and doesn't seem to care that they're hunting humans just outside forks/la push and let's them stay even after already knowing what their presence triggers the tribe to phase, the book also reveals that he took Jacob's blood sample to study without his consent?? Like a lab experiment???? (I learned this through a post showcasing that part in the book) Also in a podcast I listen to that discusses the plot of MS, he apparently fakes being Billy's distant relative (impersonating an indigenous person uhhmmm 😬) and, well,,,, lets just say I can see why some people think that entire phone call just gave colonizer vibes. AND!!! didn't he drug a woman to steal their car and kinda doesn't react much when they caused a massive car pileup??

On the one hand i dont mind if it's meant to show us that even Carlisle's sense of morality is flawed, but between Bella's "the Cullens are good to the core" and every time Edward talks about him in MS, it's feels more to me like another unreliable narrator trope.

This one is harder for me because, see, I want the compassion to be real because I think the concept of a vampire blessed/cursed with Super Compassion is legit fascinating! As I've said about 23470234 times, my favorite aspect of vampire stories is how they become a vampire, how you cope, the choices you make, what you accept and what you deny about your new reality. The idea that for this one guy, becoming a vampire made him even more compassionate is just the kind of twist on it that I've never seen anywhere else and I think it's really interesting, actually. A dud of a superpower, sure, but the innate push-pull of vampire instincts vs super compassion compels me, though.

But obviously I can see where it comes from that it could be an unreliable narrator thing or outright lie. Or at least a show vs tell problem where we're told he's compassionate but actions suggests otherwise.

I think it falls apart in two major ways:

The protagonist-centered morality. Everything in the story is about facilitating the E/B romance. Carlisle's alleged compassion can only help that, he can't hinder it. They HAVE to move back to Forks so the story can happen, he can't say "huh maybe it's NOT compassionate to move back to a place where people know what we are and are terrified of us." He can't refuse to drug the soccer mom because they have to save Bella! He can't object to having witnesses gather in Forks and force more teenage boys to phase and put humans at risk of being eaten because we have to save Renesmee! He can compassionately offer Bree surrender, but neither he nor Esme can do any more than that to try and save her, because that would complicate Bella's upcoming wedding. The Bella-centricity of it all sits like a supermassive black hole in the middle of the story, disrupting the orbits and bending the light of the other characters.

Carlisle can't be any more compassionate than his author, and that limits him. We had a fandom discussion about this a few years ago, but basically because SM doesn't see the problems with how the Quileute characters are treated in the story, none of the characters can, either. I remember calling it the moral version of how Alice is supposed to be a fashionista, but because SM doesn't really know anything about high fashion, there's a lot of 'tell' about her being this fashion icon but the actual show of clothes in the story doesn't live up to it. Or Carlisle himself -- he's supposed to be this genius doctor who has studied medicine and science for centuries, but SM isn't a doctor or a scientist, so some of the stuff she makes him say doesn't live up to the idea she planted. SM totally missed the settler-colonial stuff, the dehumanizing language, etc etc, so none of the characters, not even Compassionate Carlisle or Power-of-Heart Esme can.

tl;dr I like to think the compassion is real but hindered by the narrative insisting on prioritizing the love story AND Carlisle being unable to be more compassionate than his author. But that's because I WANT it to be real because I think the concept is really interesting, even if the execution is lacking. I don't need or want him to be Perfect or a Saint, and I'm sure existing as a VAMPIRE of all things would naturally come into conflict with compassion all the time (examples in the book is him not wanting to kill James and it leading to the extended hunt instead; offering surrender to Bree but knowing if he goes against the Volturi they could kill the whole family; telling Sam in BD that this isn't his fight and 'don't get your family slaughtered for pride,' even as Sam insists they have to be there for Jacob and Jacob has to be there for Nessie [blargh].) and that struggle and how he deals with it when he's in a situation with no Compassionate choice is available would be great. Even that car chase in Midnight Sun could maybe work if the story gave Carlisle any room to protest until Alice insists it's the Only Way!!!! or whatever, and some follow up where like oh huh weird some random charity swooped in to pay all the medical bills of everyone involved in the pile-up and bought them all new cars. If Edward, Jasper, etc can't turn off their gifts, Carlisle shouldn't be able to either, even when being forced into uncompassionate actions. But SM doesn't care. She only cares about Carlisle, let alone his compassion, inasmuch as she needed a kindly father figure to set up the vegetarian vampire thing and for Bella to have a convenient doctor.

[skunkes]

for me, the loveliest parts of your drawings are the construction. like veryyy inspired and true to anatomy but very clearly your own flavor. your pdf has really really put that "spark" for me in drawing again 💖 especially since I also draw doodley & small. unfortunately, with my ADHD/current workflow it's a real uphill battle to not give up a study despite desperately wanting to get better at construction. :(

if you use studies a lot, do you have any tips on how to keep studies fun? What sources have worked for you in the past? (especially for fat/wrinkles/clothes)?

This is getting to be a pretty specific ask haha sorry if it's a lot. I hope some of it made sense tho :)

hi hi so idk that i'd endorse it per se but what worked for me was only focusing on stuff i was interested in for years LOL

so in high school i loved drawing hands and arms... so i only ever focused on hands and arms...

i literally did not start fully focusing on/trying to learn Legs (for example) until the last 2 years. you can see even now that idk how to draw shoes (and idk that ill ever learn because ive never cared about em irl and only really use one pair LMFAO but that could change!) and then its slowly come together like puzzle pieces.

All of this came from personal interest....i was fascinated with hands and arms at first, the shapes the forms. then u can combine it with other things. i became determined to draw all sorts of bodies well so i could depict my ocs accurately. i had a focus on noses because i love noses and wanted to have ocs with their own unique noses, so i had an excuse to draw said ocs more to learn. (and then becoming enamored with all the ways skin and flesh can sit and squish helped with wanting to draw bodies more).

stuff like that helps keep it fun. sometimes when i do body studies now i dont draw the heads/faces because its less fun (TO ME) to do that and i know ill end up focusing more on that than the learning of the body.

sometimes i draw the bodies with my ocs heads so i have more fun. when i first started learning legs i only drew disembodied ones.

im not saying to do dis and yes you have to leave your comfort zone to get better sometimes but you have to find what works for YOU... bc if you get too "uncomfortable" then u wont wanna do it at all (see again: i could force myself to draw a page of shoes but i genuinely just dont want to adn i dont care. maybe in a few years ill be obsessed with them. im king of not leaving my comfort zone. i love being comfortable. but i make it work)

however you Learn you can always expand upon it once u have the foundation! like how over the years ive added more little details to some forms (because i like seeing them!)

idk how i learned to get better at drawing fat but i recommend sources like fatphotoref, morpho's book on fat and skin folds, and (18+ recommendation) subreddits for nudes, especially if they're focused on fat people. i like this last one bc you can truly see a range of difference in body proportions and fat distribution etc as well as seeing how other people stylize such things

im going to be real with u and say i SUPER dont know how i learned folds. im actually still learning now that im exploring more fashion in the real world, but even now i kind of just guess from what i know theyre meant to look like. if i REALLY want it to look accurate ill wear a similar garment and use that as a ref and then keep that in my mental library. here's 2 examples i can think of where i really had to take a pic because my imagination wasn't cutting it (and even then the 2nd was exaggerated of course.) this seems like a "leaving the comfort zone" moment but it was truly fueled by curiosity and fascination more than anything, which is good. (but AGAIN. you could not get me to care this much about drawing shoes. so it really depends on You and your interests in order to make it fun.)

otherwise i kinda just guess 😭 this is where i excel at focusing on making something look Good instead of right. i just see what shapes look fun, sculpt them around the body...

morpho also has a clothing + folds book though, so i wld look there ^_^ perhaps try putting a subject you really enjoy into your favorite outfit for practice? stuff like that... that post about how improvement comes from being insanely obsessed with something is real u just gotta find and latch onto whatever that may be

[nebulanewts]

i am curious, what do you think of the whole sifas lanzhu thing that some people seem to not be able to get over -- with her forcibly disbanding the idol club and such to make her association? ill be honest and say i last watched those stories when i was like. 14/15, so my memory of it might be a bit off, but i dont think it was as awful as people seem to think. it was just love live taking their steps to having a more proper antagonist, and people simply werent used to that (honestly, i cant think of the lanzhu thing negatively, as shes probably the reason im still into love live) also, from what ive heard of liella s3 and such (still havent watched it... bad at motivating myself to do things even when i wanna do them), i feel like if anyone enjoys the modern love live groups, they have to thank niji (well, mainly shioriko/lanzhu, i think) for doing the experimentation that allowed the franchise to do what its currently doing

Hey,I hope you know this is something I think about often bc to this day it’s still confusing to me like yeah not everyone is gonna like Lanzhu and that’s okay but the way ppl acted like she was the absolute worst for… *checks notes* wanting friends?? Still baffles me like yeah she could’ve handled it a lot differently but it’s not like she knew better at the time 🤷‍♀️ showing off how cool and perfect she is is all she knows,so that’s what she did!! But guess what? She eventually learns that that doesn’t always work and slowly becomes friends w/ the Niji girls! She changes!! Again I can see why one wouldn’t like her but the initial reaction WAS kind of a lot

TL:DR: Zhong Lanzhu was not evil,just misguided and ppl’s reaction also confused me (also without giving any spoilers,Superstar s3 is very good ^^)

[adelidae]

If you had to pick which one social media to use for the rest of your life which would it be?

they all kind of suck LOL but id probably end up saying like discord (until a better alternative comes along ofc) or something because thats where all my dms with my friends are :] i wouldnt say i have a particular loyalty to any social media site though, not like i used to when i was younger

2. What game would u never get tired of playing?

hm. im not sure actually. i tend to rotate through games and if ive played them once i find it hard to replay. so maybe none?

3. kiss marry kill: the grinch, dr robotnik and the lorax

i said this before but i would feel bad killing any of them :[ maybe id kiss the lorax and marry robotnik.

4. which one of your ocs has the most of your personal characteristics?

difficult question because i think that would be easier for someone else to answer rather than me. maybe teo? but not in the ways you would think given what you know about him

5. which oc or fictional character would u pick to exist in real life?

ummmm um ummmmm. let me think. how about scorpia she ra. i think she'd have fun in real life.

6. What song would you pick to play in your funeral?

fuckk idk. maybe take care by sasami. thats a very comforting song for me

7. What's your first impression of me :3c

THATS MY FRAND!!!! hi :]

8. What media fuels your creativity the most?

hmm. reading a good book or webcomic will always inspire me i think. i really dont do that enough <- guy who reads slop to pass the time

9. If we were to hang out irl what would ideally be the best environment or activity for it?

good question. im really bad at figuring out that kind of stuff. probably just hanging out i think. with some snacks :] just chilling at a house

10. Name your five favourite things about meeeeeeeeee :3333

ok (taps chin) let me pick just 5 - you are very knowledgeable about things i have never heard of so i feel like i learn new stuff whenevr we chat

you come across as very confident in the things you enjoy and talk about which inspires me to be more like that about the things i like

your art is so lovely and has so much effort and care put into it, i always enjoy seeing it

i like your ocs!! they're still fairly new but i look forward to hearing more about them and learning about their personalities/dynamics :] i also just think they're cool in general hehe

and my final favourite thing is that you're my friend!! yayyy :] it makes me happy to remember this

thank u for the tag!

Ten questions to ask a mutual

Instructions: prev asks ten questions and you answer them, then ask ten new ones and tag ten people to keep the chain going! I’ll go first

What is the weirdest thing you’ve eaten? (For me it’s the time I accidentally drank ants)

do you like purple or green more? (For me it’s a 50/50 I love them both)

what is your favorite two color color combo? (For me it’s purple and gold)

are you a cat or dog person? (Dogs 100%)

what is your favorite painting (Miranda by John William Waterhouse)

Mountains or beaches? (Mountains)

what’s your favorite dessert? (Lemon bars)

are you right or left handed? (Right but I used to be left handed)

salty or sweet? (Sweet)

summer or winter? (Winter)

I’m tagging 11 people but it’s whatever

@wra1th-k1ng

@bladevoyager

@tragedyanddust

@kindred-spirit-93

@urfavgreekmythnerd

@sickneurotic

@ry-diggity

@we-are-but-dead-stars

@thestarryfalls

@tamaruaart

@hermesmoly

[ilikekidsshows]

Let's be real, what weight does being called a salter by most Marinette stans even hold anymore? I'm not trying to be a bitch, I'm serious. What does that even mean anymore?

Marinette stans are more often than not very transparent with their priority being defending their made up version of Marinette. So their arguments barely ever hold up when put to the test because they don't care for what actually happens in Canon.

So why should I be offended by being called a salter and awful person by people who switch the moral approach of their argument on a dime flip every time a new episode drops? One day prior they chew you out for saying that Marinette will act jealous and sabotaging again because she never learned shit, and next day with the new information they turn around bending over backwards to justify why Marinette still acting that way is actually totally realistic and no problem at all.

Excuse me? How am I supposed to take you serious after that?

Or the way Marinette stans before Kwamis Choice swore and yelled from their self claimed moral high horse that Ladynoir will totally get fixed in season 5 and that Cat Noir was only sidelined so much because now season 5 will have Marinette dedicated to making it up to him and returning the partnership to one of equals again as Ladynoir becomes canon as pay off. Only for that to NOT have happened at all, so suddenly Marinette stans pulled a 180° and suddenly go on bout how there was nothing to fix anyway, and that accountability shouldn't always require immediate communication and effort to fix the unfair treatment. It's fine if that only happens in season 8 or 9, that's "realistic" and its what makes Adrien's support so "great". Because he understands that redeeming oneself shouldn't need to include... accountability... though of course only when it MARINETTE. Everyone else and Adrien in particular taking all accountability is just him being mature and fair to her uniquely stressful and soul crushing circumstances that make it unbearable for her to do the same in return.

She cries about being awful once or twice so no need for her to apologise or acknowledge or fix what she did wrong if she isn't comfortable with it yet. Don't you see how awful and cruel you are for saying that redeeming yourself needs of you to redeem yourself now? Dont you see that Adrien understands that Ladybug can't give anything right now and that his love language is selflessly serving her and wants nothing in return because that's the right thing to do in his position? She still loves and respects him so much, he just understands that she shouldn't need to show it if she needs to heal first through Adrien taking care of her.

Do you even understand the beautiful DEPTHS of redemption? And how long it takes sometimes to do so for a broken complex individual like Marinette? Seriously, in my made up season 10 all of that will have played out in a way where non of that will ever have been a problem, just stfu you don't GET it like I do 😒

This is an actual paraphrased conversation I had with a person who's opinion I once respected a lot and I wished my paraphrasing made it worse but honestly, that's exactly what they said. And I'm still taken aback that they said that. But they sure weren't the only Marinette stan I found saying things like that.

What the FUCK am I supposed to take from that besides the revelation that they just do not apply any kind of moral baseline to Marinette's character? What is there for me to respect?

Marinette stans say they are against bullying until Marinette does it or benefits from it. Then they openly romanticise and defend it with the only argument being "that wasn't bullying, Marinette wouldn't do that!" as if that changed what happened on screen. All it reveals is that Marinette stans' words don't mean anything, their moral standards are entirely dependent on who is doing it and benefiting from it. Thats not a moral standard, that's a biase you don't owe up to.

Marinette stans say they are against violence and abuse of power until Marinette does it or benefits from it. Then they will defend hypocrisy with whatever random excuse they come up with in that moment that more often than not is either "that doesn't count cuz I said so" or "it's fine that Marinette benefits from sexist double standards and a clear main character biase bc it is her show". Once again showing that they don't actually draw any kind of line moral wise for Marinette's actions and the writing, their opinion of said morality entirely depends on what works best for Marinette. And then they get angry when that gets called out.

I won't lie, I do think that some people in this collective therapy group here ARE to harsh sometime, but I can definitely respect that alot of them make it clear where they simply draw the morality line and they won't budge on their core beliefs the show is shitting on.

There is a massive difference between simply salting Marinette and angrily speaking up against something you think is genuinely morally wrong or harmful in a kid's show like this.

Alot of people I see around here say that they wished they could go back to liking the show, Marinette (or whatever character) the way they were once used to but simply can't because the show keeps on making whatever problems they had worse.

I don't necessarily always share the points of no return but I can fuck with the reasoning because it's a consistent angle they always stand by that goes beyond the complaint that their fav is simply not getting the special treatment or has hurt feelings. I can trust most Adrien stans I see who dislike or salt on Marinette to form a proper argument and a whole pov that stays consistent when you bring up other parts of the show.

I can't say that I've had the same experience with Marinette stans and for me it's obvious why. Marinette stans were never forced by the show to take a step back and lay down their core principles they won't budge on because Marinette always gets put first and that's what they care about the most.

They can say however they like that they don't support bullying, ableism and abuse, they are absolutely doing so with full chest voice for their Marinette biase, they are just not willing to reflect on that bc that would reveal to them that their made up Marinette isn't real.

They have no coherent moral baseline in their arguments, they're proudly hypocritical, and then get angry when you call them out for going back and forth on their moral "standards" in a discussion about moral principles.

What is there to respect anymore? Being called a salter by them has long started feeling like a compliment because for me it became synonymous with "isn't changing their option on a fucking whim the second a new episode dropped". And if that makes me a salter, then so be it. I'm not throwing my moral principles out of the window for a cuddled protagonist who's became the poster girl for harmful white feminism on kids tv.

---

The irony, when I went to my inbox to read this message I saw that a Marinette stan had also sent me an ableist insult. Some Marinette stans have no convictions or moral standards even for their own behavior, and the extreme individuals in the Marinette fandom never fail to prove the criticisms of them correct in a single harassing message. Like, of course they’re gonna excuse Marinette bullying people, they themselves would most likely do the same for petty reasons. I can be petty too, but my pettiness takes the form of me feeling immense moral superiority whenever I delete one of these little hate messages. Like, I might be a jerk about a fictional character, but at least I’m not a pathetic anonymous troll in someone’s inbox.

Marinette stans lie when they say they don't support bullying, because they excuse it when Marinette does it as well as when they themselves do it. Like, I’m not saying they’re all like this, I get these messages so rarely that there’s no way the entire Marinette fandom is full of assholes. Still, this isn’t the first time I got an anonymous message from some random hater right after I posted something spicy about Marinette and it isn’t the first time such a message included at least one example of ableism. It's just a fact that a lot of Marinette stans are hateful liars who spout ableism as soon as they can do it anonymously, so, like, why should we take anything they have to say seriously anyway? Every time a Marinette stan says: “I don't support bullying or harassment” there’s a high chance they actually mean: “until someone says something spicy about the flawless queen Marinette, then I’ll use bullying and harassment without hesitation”. We really shouldn’t care one bit what these people have to say, because they’ll say whatever suits their agenda of the day.

When I say I don’t support bullying or harassment, I mean it and I live by it. I don’t do it, because I don’t think anything can be solved by sending people hate mail, nor would I get any satisfaction from it. I don’t even want to encourage anyone else to do so. That’s part of the reason I invite people to send their gripes to me; this blog is already a Miraculous-negative space, so here people can put their grievances into words without anyone who’s just minding their business getting harassing messages, even when people send me stuff clearly inspired by a specific person or group. Like, Marinette stans can make a fuss about how we’re terrible people for discussing our gripes amongst ourselves, but we aren’t the ones harassing other people here.

Although, since I’m being honest here, I have to say I do agree on the harshness. I don't always agree with everything the anons who message me say 100%, but I try to focus on the parts I do agree with or have something to add to. I’ll even admit I sometimes look over a response draft and wonder if I’m being too harsh, but often I’m just not motivated to watch my tone. I know from past experiences that Marinette stans don’t care how you’re wording your criticisms, just the act of criticising Marinette makes you the bad guy.

[alchemicourtesy]

HEYEY! glad to see more people into vat7k!!! Would you mind sharing more of the insight n what your perceptions of the characters are? I saw your post about Hugo n Var as well as the involvement with Nuru in the tags and was wondering!!! No pressure ofc <3 also love your art it's REALLY AWESOME !

hi! thank you so much :] im rlly glad ur interested... as new as i am to this story and world i'm still ironing out my own opinions and headcanons and ideas so everything is in a rough place atm but i'd love to talk about what i Do have right now ^^

i'm sort of operating under the idea of what this would look like if it were a tv show rather than a comic only for the sake of structure and me being able to visualize it haha. doesnt mean anything beyond that.

i love the idea of there being 7 kingdoms, 7 alchemic laws, and 7 "lessons" for the characters to learn and id probably divide it through 3 seasons with the last season focusing on either 2 or 1 (heavy emphasis on what would be the "library arc") and allocating the extra "arcs" to s1. but anyways

mainly i like the idea of like. each of the group getting a chance to shine an equal amount. obviously they'd all have something to gain from every lesson but imo id put a particular emphasis on them all getting 2 each to hammer home their development and experiences. i havent ironed out who learns what and its not like...an exact science rn so thats a work in progress

nuru is interesting to me in particular bc i think theres a notable position she is in being a princess and wanting to be hands on. for her character particularly i feel like its important she be able to learn how to care for her subjects and hone the skills she needs for the responsibility she has but also allowing herself to understand herself as a person and an individual without having to sacrifice her duty to her people and her community. too many times i see in media where a character has this huge responsibility and they have to learn to care about and understand Themselves first and while thats important i feel like its not always possible or feasible and also it's hard. it's rlly hard to grapple with both of those things at the same time. and nuru being a princess she Wants to help her people. she Wants to have the responsibility to care for them but she still must learn what that will look like for her specifically and how she can be that person she wants to be without phoning it in or anything.

with yong i saw it was mentioned he has a huge loving family that supports him and wants to see him succeed, but he's just sort of wild and unpredictable in ways i think varian can relate to from when he was younger. there's nothing really "wrong" with yong, but he has to understand and learn balance and control where he struggles with it and that he can be the person he wants to be but there has to be instances where he takes his time and understands that progress isnt linear. which gives varian a good place to act as an older brother figure obviously bc thats shit he himself learned in tts lol

varian's arc Kind of began and ended in tts so i just see vat7k as a way of expanding on stuff he already has learned yet not rlly like. rehashing stuff he should already know

hugo is a little trickier for me bc i think there are a Lot of similarities he shares narratively with eugene (which makes sense given that he was said to have been acquainted with eugene in the past, at least somewhat). they're similar but they're not the Same, so i wouldnt want hugo to just be repeating the same beats that eugene already learned. in my opinion hugo is smug and he thinks somewhat highly of himself, but hes not a bragger. hes not snarky nor will he actively antagonize the group. what reason would he have to? he wants them to like and trust him and i dont rlly see that happening if hes always being a jerk to them haha.

thats all i got for now i think but feel free to ask me abt more stuff if ur interested : )

[genderqueerdykes]

Hi! I just wanted to reach out and say I followed a while ago and will probably follow till the end of time. I'm a trans woman who's not super in-tune with the broader community, so being able to hear and understand struggles that tansfems and transmascs face in a broader context than myself is incredibly valuable. Thank you for everything you do 💖💖💖

hey, i really appreciate you, this is such a sweet ask!!

i'm glad i can help with that! we're all struggling right now and listening to each other is the only thing that will help us move forward. we all have it way, way too hard. transfems dont need to have it this hard, if the world were kinder to transfem people and trans women, we would not be seeing what we're seeing right now. a lot of trans women are in great pain right now, and it's very valid pain. we need to break down our walls and barriers so we can provide trans women and transfems with the support we need to thrive and experience joy and move beyond our suffering

transmascs are struggling all the same, no lesser, no greater. the struggles of transmascs go overlooked, but that doesn't mean they're not real. those struggles do not mock anyone else, but rather reflect the ways in which cisheteronormative patriarchy hates transness as a concept. we have so much to share and learn. we have so much in common, for how different our experiences can be. coming together and helping each other feel seen and heard is what's important right now. all of us, at once

take care of yourself, stay safe out there! thanks for your kindness :)

[absinthemindedly]

Just kinda the vibe lately ~

[ryssbelle]

Drew a bunch of Marinettes in a bunch of different artists styles it was a lot of fun!!

Artists who's styles I mimicked: @buggachat @hamsternamedmarinette @ladybeug @sabertoothwalrus and @anna-scribbles all epic artists 🤟😎

[dear-omen]

love this and would like to add (based on my experiences with Indonesian and Japanese):

-more like 70k+ glyphs imo (I think Japanese has like 100,000 ish kanji that are still considered in use? and the modern Japanese adult knows like 10k+ iirc.)

-a la the Japanese adopting Kanji from China, there is a period of history (probably during the language unification?) where the spelling is buck fucking wild because the glyphic system came first, and while individual glyphs have specific meanings they also have several associated phonemes (for alternate readings, compound words, etc). So when everyone was adopting the glyphic system they just spelled things out phonetically using the phonemes. And now 60+ million years later you gotta guess whether 紗霊鳩 and 佐例薬 are the same dynasties or different or like, different branches of the same dynasty orrrr

-and on that note, necrontyr historically had like, eight different names and a tendency to adopt new names upon reaching (sometimes arbitrary) milestones in life--for example, a childhood name, an "adult" name received upon coming of age, a courtesy name (for family/close companions), a nomme de plume bestowed by their teacher upon mastery of their chosen field, a formal name for when they're reigning patriarch/matriarch of their dynasty, a name for when they've retired from being patriarch/matriarch...

-10000% on the compound words. A cool/awful thing about Necron writing is if a word doesn't exist you can just...make one up.

-the phonetic writing system was invented way later, and for long periods of Necrontyr history was considered less refined/intelligent than the glyphic system

-the linguistic social stratification is real. Necron absolutely has keigo/son-keigo (basically, very formal polite speech where the speaker makes themself more humble while also elevating the listener/recipient).

-in formal speech, it takes f o r e v e r to say anything, especially if its a "no"

-generally, less formal = shorter verb forms, more contractions, etc

-re linguistic differences, drawing on Indonesia and its 700+ regional languages: definitely they are pretty much mutually unintelligible, especially if its two dynasties that were not literally next door to each other

-the unified language the Necrons eventually adopt was probably originally a lingua franca for trade with simplified grammar to make it easy to learn. Probably based off the Szarekhan language if the unification happened as the Silent King ascended to power

-there are definitely Feelings among the other dynasties about speaking "Necron" given its Szarekhan Depending on dynastic temperment, some did/do still primarily use their own dynastic language; others have switched almost entirely to Necron and the dynastic language is basically a relic

-that said, Necron very intentionally includes bits from other languages in an effort to make it more pan-dynastic (interesting anecdote: modern Indonesian is actually based on a language not native to Indonesia, and was specifically chosen during the country's independence movement to avoid favoring one ethnic group over others. I think Szarekh was trying a similar idea, but it ended up more like modern Filipino, which isn't technically Tagalog bc it has loan words and other changes, but also is like...95% Tagalog) ((I dont speak Tagalog so I may be wrong about this))

this is all to say nothing of linguistic evolution over the literal millions of years the Necrons have been kicking around. I will die on the hill that there is a huge gulf between the speech of Necrons who awakened early and those who are only just now waking up in the 40k verse.

...And now I want Awakened necrons desperately trying to remember how to speak Ye Olde Necron so they can read the notes about how to troubleshoot the goddamn canoptek scarabs when they start acting wonky

Linguistic Features I Think Would Be Rad/Horrible for the Necrontyr to Have

- Korean honorific system (bake respect into everything including verb conjugation)

- Formality is also shown often through word choice (e.g. "thing" vs. "item")

- And through codified body language - bows, salutes, gestures. And by where your eyes are pointing. And now by the intensity and pattern of your body's node lights. If you screw any of this up, you will start a five hundred year long blood feud, good luck

- Egyptian determinatives (tone tags and emojis all in one)

- Glyphic writing and character-by-character writing are completely different systems that have no correlation

- Glyphic and calligraphic styles are also completely different systems with no correlation. If you know both, you're either a nerd or a cryptek

- Highly polysynthetic. Big compound words. The proper translation of "gauss cannon" would be closer to "carryable straight distance middle spectrum magnetic anti stability beam launching weapon," to use the cryptek terminology. Which the Immortals abbreviated to "qo-ess," "green light." Which the Imperials transliterated as "gauss."

- Linguistic unification just before biotransference would not fix the accent differences born from languages split across an entire galaxy. Zultanekh should be nearly incomprehensible to Szarekh.

- Linguistic unification did zilch to fix their societal stratification. Imotekh should be nearly incomprehensible to his own court due to speaking with a soldier's dialect. Sure, he can train out of it, but the battlefield doesn't leave time for flowery language.

- Linguistic unification did zilch to fix the kind of person Trazyn is. If the language was supposed to be some reconstructed "common ancestral tongue," you can bet he'd speak the reconstruction version he personally finds the most accurate.

- Imperial humans who try learning the language from tomb carvings sound incredibly stilted and, somehow, too formal to a natural speaker. This is sometimes itself taken as mockery. Five hundred years blood feud upon ye.

- Nearly 200 phonemes. All the Egyptian, all the English, add Welsh and Nahuatl in there to cover Llandu'gor and Khatlan. Add space noises and robot buzzing now for good measure.

- The character writing system has 31 characters to cover these nearly 200 phonemes. Welcome to English, hope you like the taste of ghoti.

- The glyphic writing system has over 3000 characters to memorize. Not including diacritics.

- The calligraphic writing system is supposedly so graceful that a skilled poet can write an entire stanza with one figure. Zahndrekh is not a skilled poet. His works aren't just bad poetry, they're sprawling spaghetti that occasionally scribbles off into neighboring pages.

- Informal singing is done in whatever tongue you like. Formal singing, things like religious or fine art performances, are done in a melismatic language specifically reserved for the arts. This language is nearly dead in the 41st millennium except for, once again, Trazyn being a knowledge-hoarding freak.