explorers-central

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Also the fact his dad actually DID go on expedition without him. Like he finally gave up on making Ethan an ocean explorer 😭 go fuckin make snow angels idc

"he won't even notice I'm gone" is crazy work I mean I know it's TRUE but like. Son are you okay. Will anyone be like "where'd he go"??? You have LEFT your area this is over a days travel. Should I call someone???

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"he won't even notice I'm gone" is crazy work I mean I know it's TRUE but like. Son are you okay. Will anyone be like "where'd he go"??? You have LEFT your area this is over a days travel. Should I call someone???

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Stella girl you get worse every day and I love you for that

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"Fandom so small we can all fit on a bus" "Fandom so small we can all fit on a tandem bike" SHUT UP! Fandom so small we can cross an ice bridge in a sled

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Ehehehee... heheee..

Psst... Guys.. TPBEC time..

I may or may not have been working on a PBEC AU for many months but I was like.. I can't post this.. This is so cringe but girl this is Tumblr!!! Ummm it does aactually mess with the mcs but it also kinda just expanding on the universe so this is younger Pearl's stuff because JUSTICE FOR AGATHA

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I started a sort of book club /swap with the kid I babysit and my second book from him was The Polar Bear Explorers' Club by Alex Bell. I gave it 4/5 ☆ !

The book was so fun, I loved the magical world building filled with dinosaurs, unicorns, Bagel trees, wolf whisperer and many other things. I don't have the rights words to explain but there was something nostalgic about this book, as if it could have been something I would have read twenty years ago. But I didn't expect the story to be so dark sometimes

I could go on, but all I want to say is that it was a lovely surprised and i can't wait to read the rest of the series

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i dont “have ptsd” that’s all just the wizard’s curse

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lalalalaaa 3ds themes forever and not thinking about my exams

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Im trying to make an animatic of Stella's villain arc with a song but I can't decide what song I want for her😭

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Me reading the original brothers' grim version of snow white and realising that Alex Bell most likely got the idea of Stella's parents' using hot iron shoes to make people dance to death was inspired by snow white

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Alex Bell update: She is still not writing the next explorers series! See you next year!

These designs aren't final ^^

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VOLUME WARNING!!

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The idea that characters don't know what genre they're in is one I enjoy. I bet Shay thinks he's in a psychological horror.

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I swear I am cooking up bangers you just gotta wait a while

I literally draw them every day but it's just special interest slop 😭

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Hey everybody I know it's been a bit, forgive me!!!

Lately I've been thinking about the internalized sexism in The Polar Bear Explorers' Club, specifically in Stella. So here's an absolute ramble for all 8 of u:

I mean, obviously Stella thinks women can be explorers, but she doesn't fail to make fun of and absolutely hate on her Aunt, Agatha, who would apparently represent the norm for women at the time. She resents her, in fact, for not being a total hippie like Felix is. But Felix has freedom as a man that Agatha doesn't!! Stuff like Stella pointing out her nostril hair (everyone has nostril hair???) and how she dresses just feels so odd. It's like she's saying "you're not even doing gender roles right".

Stella's written as an odd-girl-out and it can make her a little unlikeable at times. The "not like the other girls" approach to her character makes it so almost every other woman in the book is belittled or negatively portrayed.

The least feminine woman in the series would probably be Scarlett, and she's quite literally the antagonist. Cadi I would say is a close second, and while she is liked by Stella it's because she's cool and still girly, to an extent. I can't even really recall other women in the story, because they're all so bleh. The decrepit old witch? Evil for like half the series, then a plot device, then written out. What I'm trying to get at here is that Stella has no meaningful female connections, not really. She doesn't identify with them, or the image of women at the time. Still, she wants to be pretty.

Listen, I'm all for the "WOMEN CAN KICK ASS IN DRESSES!!!" thing, and I appreciate that Stella does wear trousers and stuff on the expedition. But the level of pretty sparkly unicorn dress seems like a last ditch effort to say STELLA STILL LIKES GIRLY THINGS! SHE LIKES WOMEN!

I think we have to blame Felix for Stella's mindset here, a little! I love Felix, you love Felix. But he's a rich, white, man (I know he's gay but like woowww a privileged gay man who's written to be loved the challenges the representation!) that despite his best efforts to project his borderline toxic positivity onto Stella, he still let his distaste for his sister seep into Stella.

Obviously, women in this society are basically raised to hate on each other, and themselves. It's not all Felix's fault, and he's doing pretty well considering.

I think Stella could've done with having some sort of female role models, there can't have only been her, Cadi and Scarlett defying the norm out there. I also think Felix should've made more of an effort to expose her to stuff like that. He is very "women can't be explorers" until he's like "let me use my man money power to let you be an explorer" instead of actually like... Helping to change things himself, he basically puts all the pressure on his 12 year old daughter with no experience exploring or representing women as a group at all into the position of being "the first woman to be an explorer". It just feels like bad parenting, to me.

Anyway, Stella ur my queen 🫶

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Whhhaats up guys I'm still here I just don't have any coherent thoughts to post </3 Hope you're all doing well!

Oh also I redesigned my Stella a little..

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I totally agree! I love PBEC, it's my favorite piece of media ever, but we can all acknowledge it's flaws. I've slowly been working on a Beanie redesign because, while I love him, we really don't see much of him because his time is usually spent being an autistic stereotype. I would've liked it if they discussed him and his experiences more. I also wish they gave Shay a more detrimental effect from the witch wolf bite. In my redesign, he ends up with frequent migraines and nose bleeds. I've also designed some explorer OCs with physical disabilities that I might redraw and share here, eventually. But yeah, 100% agree, diversity is key! Explorers made me feel seen as a younger kid, and I want that for everyone.

As much as I love the polar bear explorers' club, I feel like it needs more visible disabilities cuz it seems to be lacking that, I know Jai only has one arm but that's about it. I'll probably draw them later tbh...and possibly do some redesigns as well :D