#just for fun etc but yeah

[ace-malarky]

so I like really dislike leaving things unfinished, y'know? sometimes a first draft is just enough to let it rest and sometimes things never get written and that's all fine 'n' that but like

idk i was just looking through my folders and found all the fanfic I used to write and had to stop/pull away from for my own sake and like. some of this is p dang good, y'know? ok one of the docs is dated as fckn 2017 but like I was onto something there

and I would still like to finish it I think and I still have the plans for most of this but also jesus christ there are not enough hours in the day and focusing is harddd

anyway I've dumped some of it into ellipsus so it may hit the "i work on this at work" style of things lmao

[remcadll]

Gen obsessed with how.. *dead* your Jason's color pallete is. Like, that's corpse pale right there. Not a spec of blood left flowing in there (also father Todd's skin being full of color in comparison is a nice touch)

THANK YOU I love making him look a bit ghoulish. Guy who's not supposed to be alive but yes he is. no he isn't <3

[leafspiritz]

III; three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile

[queeniehostapasta]

(Scuttles from my cave and slaps your dashboard with this) Bloody Raditz appreciation day!!! 😋 (not his blood lmao)

Just imagine the sound of a loud af and messy cleaning/grooming session in the back of your mind, he’s not finesse for it at all

[blackkatdraws2]

There are more things in the Parable than Stanley knows about. [Blank Scripts AU]

[gammija]

ig another annoying thing about the 'this transcends language 😲😱' comments about the most obvious of cognates and literal english loanwords, is that it's another example of how native english speakers (and, by virtue of their population size, mostly USamericans) are the arbiters of what gets seen as 'universal' vs what's weird and foreign on the anglophone internet. cause to me as a dutch speaker, a lot of german compound words would '''transcend language''' - but the tweets that go viral about those kinds of words are about how they're silly little nonsense words to laugh at, can't be a real language, can you believe anyone speaks that!

[aurieeeeeenyx]

while it's still pride month, here are my thoughts on a potential queer interpretation of kpop demon hunters in no particular order

before anyone starts getting mad, i just want to remind you that this is all in good fun and if you disagree, that's totally fine. however, as a queer person, i see a lot of parallels in this movie that resonate with my own experiences and those that i've seen from others in the queer community.

first of all, kpdh and rumi's character arc in particular focus a lot on resisting expectations in order to be authentically yourself. while this is not an exclusively queer experience, and is in fact one that real life idols must contend with, i think any queer person can relate to hiding your true self in order to conform to the "image" other people hold you to.

the song "Golden" really feels like a queer anthem in this sense; while i definitely relate to the bicultural experience zoey alludes to in her lines, "i lived two lives / tried to play both sides / but i couldn't find my own place", i think it also is a feeling many closeted people know well, especially bi, aro/ace, and nonbinary people. mira's follow-up line, "called a problem child / 'cause i got too wild" can be interpreted as a reference to the scorn and ostracization many queer people face when they are too "loud" about their own identity. and rumi's quiet, "waited so long to break these walls down / to wake up, and feel like me" ? ohhh man...especially considering she was looking at herself in the mirror. trans vibe, anyone?

the pre-chorus through post-chorus of "Golden" feel so freeing after all that, as the unapologetic authenticity shines through. i think "What It Sounds Like" also reflects this theme, so i'm not going to dissect it because it'd be more of the same, but my thoughts on it essentially boil down to that song feeling like a coming out.

on the flip side, we have the shame that seems to power the demons (or at least gwi-ma) in this world. it's quite easy to say that the demons represent internal demons as well as physical ones (see the lyrics of "Free" and "What It Sounds Like"), but in the context of a queer interpretation this tie to shame specifically—rather than rage, jealousy, etc.—struck me as rather fitting. many queer people experience shame, self-loathing, and so on for being queer in a world that refuses to accept us. in the movie, the huntrix girls initially follow the age-old formula of "our faults and fears must never be seen," which also contributed to the shame that split them apart and let gwi-ma take advantage of mira and zoey. rumi herself is told over and over by celine—her own pseudo-mother—that she must shed her own identity in order to be accepted, and nearly convinces jinu of the same. internalized homophobia, who?

but again, the movie insists that shame must be overcome (i.e., the old honmoon being destroyed and replaced with a new one when "What It Sounds Like" plays, rumi showing her patterns proudly at the end of the movie, etc.) so that one can really shine. yup, the coming out vibes are strong in these scenes.

as a random side note, i thought that moment when the saja boys transform back into their demon forms after returning to the demon realm and a demon happily tells their friend, "they're just like us," was an interesting nod to the desire for representation.

now: moving on to the fact that this movie is built around kpop. while i would consider myself at most a casual kpop enjoyer, i think the reaches of kpop's "queerification" extends even beyond kpop fandom. if you're reading this post, chances are you've at least heard of the kpop fandoms on ao3, youtube, twitter, tiktok, etc. and the ships that dominate them, but even if you haven't, queer fanservice has become ever more present in the kpop sphere. plus, many fans of kpop are queer, and find community with those like them who also have the same interests. coincidence or not, the fact that kpdh is about kpop idols definitely leaves space for queerness to permeate its themes of expressing oneself freely and connecting to others with your genuine, raw self rather than a carefully constructed version of yourself.

and finally, the most important piece of evidence for this whole interpretation:

rumi's bisexual eyeliner. what an icon.

[lelianasbong]

i DO think it's going to be funny to watch the dragon age fandom explode when people finally get their hands on veilguard. and realize all of the companions have Opinions

[rmbunnie]

Swinging a bat at a hornet’s nest, but some Suselle fans will be all “At first haters were saying Suselle was toxic, now they’re saying it’s boring! Pick a lane and just admit you hate lesbian rep!” and like. I think Suselle will be endgame, and I don’t think Suselle is toxic in the sense that it’s problematic or abusive or anything like that, but please be honest. Those things are not mutually exclusive, and furthermore, as of right now most of the Suselle interactions are pretty one-note (although the scenes in Noelle’s house were pretty sweet, I like them in Chapter 3 a lot) and Noelle’s interest is canonically based on finding Susie scary and being captivated by things she’s afraid of, while Susie has canon issues around being perceived as a threat, something that’s been a consistent source of strife in her life.

It doesn’t have to be boring. I have faith that it won’t! But the way to make stories interesting is through conflict and plot developments, which would mean addressing the fact that the thing attracting Noelle to Susie is a false perception that happens to be Susie’s biggest insecurity. If endgame Suselle was “Noelle starts dating Susie and loves how scary and monstrous her girlfriend is while Susie doesn’t really have many thoughts on Suselle in any direction” and nothing changes at all from their Chapter 1+2 dynamic, that would be both monotonous and somewhat unhealthy. And a waste of a really interesting situation.

[ricky-mortis]

Curtwen Week Day 6: Happy Ending

[mamawasatesttube]

wish more ppl in the timkon tag understood the concept of "best friends to lovers" 😩 where's my "years' worth of stupid inside jokes referenced at the worst moments just to make each other giggle" nonsense. where's the bone-deep understanding and knowing of each other. the ease and relaxation in each other's presence. the "i know how your head works without you having to tell me" of it all. where's the "no one knows me better than you. how could it be anyone but you" of it all!!!

[kwillow]

I ask this as an Ambroys appreciator, but I genuinely need to know: Does our boy have any redeeming qualities?

...Yeah. Not really.

Ambroys is, for me, a fun exercise in making a character who is basically nothing but flaws. And they aren't even the "good" flaws.

He's not one of those "hates the world but fights to the death for his loved ones" types; he will throw his loved ones under bus to look good for strangers, who he also doesn't respect. He's not "an asshole but he owns it" because he will bend to other people's wills to try to appease them while continuing to be an asshole behind their backs. He's manipulative but not because he's a clever chess-master, he's just audacious and shameless enough to lie and guilt-trip people without remorse. He's too ignorant to be sophisticated but too educated to be naive. He can fight well enough, but he doesn't seek out worthy foes, only weaker enemies he can easily grind into the dirt for a cheap thrill. He's a coward. He's lazy. He doesn't "get" art. He has no convictions. He sucks!

But I think the fun with Ambroys is that he's such a worthless person, but he so, so desperately wants to be admired and praised and just liked. So he has to engage in this dance of maintaining a good public face over the void of his personality, where he tries to appeal to people while also being able to indulge his vices, because he doesn't believe anything he does or thinks is wrong... just unpopular. But being unpopular is worse than being wrong.

[percycantspell]

this is my call for all writers out there:

CARE ABOUT YOUR ANTAGONISTS.

when i say this, i don’t mean that you need to make your antagonist just a misguided soul trying to do the right thing. i don’t even mean you need to make your antagonist complex or likeable. there is a place for every type of antagonist character — from complex ones with their heart in the right place to evil and irredeemable scumbags who soley exist to oppose your protagonist. but i beseech you, CARE ABOUT THEM.

it might seem like a strange sentiment to have, and it’s one in the past that i myself thought was foolish. if a character is meant to be bad, meant to be hated, then why should i care?

the answer is because if you don’t care, your audience won’t either. if there’s no substance behind what you’re writing, then why will your readers care about it? i know this is common writing advice, but it’s really true. i can’t tell you the amount of times i’ve read something with a lackluster antagonist and just not cared. it’s not a fun reading experience.

but if you care about your antagonist, then the reader is more likely to be engaged. make the reason the audience is meant to root against your antagonist clear. if you’ve got a complex antagonist, really dig in to why they’ve chosen to do what they do. as a bonus, caring about your antagonist makes it more engaging to write about them — trust me.

as an anecdotal example, let me tell you about two of my antagonistic characters. when i started my writing project, i dreaded having to visit my antagonists and develop their aspects of my story. both characters were entirely one-dimensional, and their only purpose in the story were to be an active threat to my protagonist and an unpleasant reminder of his past. but i found that writing these characters was an unpleasant experience — not just in the sense that they were unpleasant characters, but that they weren’t engaging to write. so, i pivoted. i began developing the first antagonist, making her a more nuanced character and giving her a backstory and motivation as to why she would behave that way. it made writing scenes with her and thinking about her in relation to the protagonist a much more engaging experience.

for the other antagonist, it wasn’t so simple. his antagonism was much less complicated than the first character — he’s just not a good person, raised by people who didn’t see the value in being kind or respectful. i didn’t feel the need to flesh out his backstory in the same way that i did for my other antagonist. so, instead of that, i focused my energy on making him a character i would enjoy writing — not a person i would ever enjoy talking to in real life, but a character that is entertainingly insufferable to write. by allowing myself to be engaged with the character, i could appreciate his antagonism and not dread having to write scenes with him in them.

the point of caring about your antagonist isn’t to redeem them or to love them even despite their actions. after all, if you want your audience to feel something about what you’ve written, then you should be feeling something about it to. but when your antagonist is something you dread to write, you should consider switching gears. let yourself love the process of creating a hateable character, whether it be catharsis or rereading an antagonist’s dialogue and enjoying how scummy you made them sound.

so let yourself care about your antagonists. it makes writing AND reading a more engaging experience.

[doggytail-duck]

Fifteen: I'm fine! I'm doing so well! Poster boy of mental wellness!

Also Fifteen, to himself: This is why everyone leaves you! Nobody likes you! You're so pathetically lonely!

[corvidus-fr]

super quick musings on Fathoms. i like a lot about the pose + design, but i feel like they kinda suffer from Undel Sameface when everything about their lore is pointing towards "friendly gentle ocean giants". wanted to roughly sketch Merrigan for a side-by-side comparison, and then some rough doodles of how i might push the design in a chunkier, more cetacean-inspired direction - 3 is swapping the features but keeping the overall proportions/layout mostly the same, and 4 is pushing the proportions even further

[splatoon-confession-box]

Something that really disappoints me from the community is the lack of good youtube content nowadays. The golden era of "splatoobers" (Octoboy , Viantastic , Jaymoji , GG Gabriel Gaming , you name them) ended too early. Now most of the good content creators either don't post splatoon as often, they DO post but it's not as good/doesn't get enough recognition, or they just quit from the community.