#or creating something is different but

[staytrueblue]

you shouldn’t have to pay money to learn about spirituality and faith

[nocek]

Damn, I'm rusty but better done than perfect >.<

It's not the one I planned for valentines but hey, new stupid idea is always more appealing than older stupid idea :D It's old after all, it's almost like done anyway.

Anyway, this comic was sponsored by my problem with Deadpool like general size? Because rn I'm violently bouncing between comic beefy Wade with tinier Spiderman and well, more twinky one, especially compared with Miguel, inspired by movie.

But hey, who cares about consistency when there is silliness to draw ;P

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

With the end of season two comes a second redraw!

[Nov 2022] [June 2023] [June 2024]

[rcbertleckie]

— letter to ambrose from speirs, 1991 hbo war secret santa · for @softspeirs

[babyjaans]

Research question: I can’t seem to remember anytime jared interfered with sam’s storyline or made specific acting choices. Are there any such instances that I’m unaware of?

[mask131]

I am re-reading the Silmarillion, and something strikes me. The women of Tolkien's world have been talked about TO DEATH especially with all the recurring debates surrounding the Rings of Power series.

As we all know, Tolkien was not a "feminist" in the modern sense of the word. He had a very male-centric point of view and appreciation of the world, he had male-driven and male-centered stories, and actual women characters were sparse and rare. There are only five really big female characters in "The Lord of the Rings" - the quintet of Galadriel, Eowyn, Goldberry, Lobelia and Shelob. [No, don't talk to me about Arwen, she only really was a character in the movies, in the book she's just there in the appendix and she was literaly an afterthought of Tolkien to act as Eowyn's romantic double...]

Consider this. Galadriel, Eowyn, Goldberry, Lobelia and Shelob. This tells you everything you need to know about Tolkien's women, in good and bad.

The Silmarillion has the same motif of having a lot of female characters, only for most of them to be just footnotes, secondary characters with no lines, under-developped one-liners... with in a contrast a handful of super-cool, super-badass, complex and developed heroines at the center of the plot.

Aka, on the bad side, when listing the Valar, while Tolkien gives an interesting personality, great domains and cool attributes to all the male ones, half of the female ones are just... there. And do one stuff. And never appear again. I mean come on... Vana and Nessa? Estë and Vairë were done dirty... That's the actual type of "non-feminism" Tolkien has. It isn't about him hating women or trying to be offensive in his depictions - it is about him just, not putting as much thought, effort and care into his female characters as his male ones, a bit the same way he creates the vast expanses of the East and South of Middle-Earth and then never bothers actually developing more of it or seeking to tell tales of it - but that's for another discussion about Tolkien's "racism". Here we talk about women.

But here's the thing, aka the good side... When Tolkien does find the time and care to develop and flesh out a female character, by Iluvatar he goes all out! Again, we are back on what I said earlier: the women of Lord of the Rings can be counted on one hand... but these fingers are Galadriel, Eowyn and Shelob, so you can't claim he isnt writing powerful, important or uninterestng female characters. Which leads me to my original remark - as usual I get driven away in digressions of all sorts and kinds.

Have you ever noticed that Melkor's greatest enemies, the ones he fears the most, and his most effective foes... are women? Tolkien might not like to put them front and center of his tales, and he might have been a man of the early 20th century England in culture and mind, but boy does he has something to say about how women are actually the first enemies of the literal embodiment of evil and destruction! I mean think about it. Varda of the Stars, and Yavanna of the trees. Nienna has her ambiguous relationship to him - her tears work against him, and yet without her plea for him he likely would not have been released from the dungeons of Mandos. You have Melian with her Girdle, and Luthien with her Hound. And of course most of all Arien, guardian of the Sun, not only one of the rare fire spirits that Melkor couldn't corrupt (despite him basically ruling over all fire), but that frightens him so much he keeps hiding away and doesn't even dare to attack her... [I also reblogged some times ago a post praising the brilliance of Tolkien keeping the old European sun-moon motifs but switching the genders. The weaker, inconsistant, lustful, whimsical, disorderly, untrustworthy Moon is now a male principle, while the steady, dangerous, strong, powerful and beautiful Sun is a woman.]

It is actually REALLY easy to do a feminist retelling of Tolkien's work. Melkor doesn't fear Manwë as much as Varda. Aulë's works and servants get corrupted by Melkor, while Yavanna's do not. Melian and Luthien actively works against him. He friggin' pisses himself when the Woman of the Sun shows up. Sure, there are some evil female characters that serve him down the line and are relegated to the "obscure footnotes and undescribed secondary characters" zone - Thuringwethil the vampire or queen Beruthiel. I coul also dropped deleted characters from early drafts, like the ogress Fluithuin. But among them stands Ungoliant... THE only true female big bad on the dark side of Arda. THE badass, nightmarish, creepy eldritch abomination. And who ends up double-crossing Melkor, almost KILLING him, and again making him basically shit in his pants - as Varda and Arien do.

The first enemies of Morgoth are not the Valar, or the Maiar, or the Elves... It's women.

[cradle-of-darkness]

What have you done?

based on an idea @username8746489 had where sylvie discovered nightmare fuel for the first time on accident while getting bullied by some older kids (and pushing him further into social isolation now that he's known as "that scary kid who could summon someone's worst fear")

[storytellering]

Torn apart. Inspired by Romeo and Juliet by Sergio Cupido

[cupidgnome]

i need someone to crack the fuck out of this inzoi demo so i can keep looking at my babies.

[isabelguerra]

I always make an effort to look at paranatural through the ~2013 era lens it was conceptualized from, back when it was at it’s most subversive, in tandem alongside its contemporary lens. Because thats what Paranatural was, for those who aren’t aware — paranatural played off of & against the common shonen & cartoon tropes and character expectations that were prevalent in that age: the wise and just mentor, the prejudiced bully, the action girl implemented to pushback against sexism + the subversion of the action girl, the excited rare skilled selfless battleprone protagonist, etc.

most new fans will likely see the comic and take it at face value — why shouldn’t they? — when in reality there’s so much more of a dialogue happening underneath the hood. There is so much underlying, forgotten context that makes paranatural, paranatural

[longlivetv]

The culture around creation right now is fascinating to me, because whether we’re talking a blogger with a couple hundred followers on a dying website or the biggest artist in a generation, huge groups of people seem to think that creators should mold their creations to suit the consumer and get angry when they do not. When in reality, the creator gets to decide the direction and it is on the consumer to let it go and find something else to consume if it isn’t what they want.

[sherlockggrian]

why does grian from fucking minecraft youtube have a better character, backstory, and layers and layers of nuance than most actual production team based characters in movies and tv shows

[demigods-posts]

i think it's incredibly interesting to see how easy it would have been to recruit percy. if luke omitted the shoes from his initial plan. then percy would've returned to camp angry at zeus for being a neglectful parent and king. angry at hades for encasing his mother in gold and trapping her near-dying soul in the underworld. angry at hephaestus for designing a trap to encase other demigods in gold as a test of faith. and angry at athena for leaving annabeth to die over something that was his fault alone. not to mention that hermes and poseidon are the only gods percy would tolerate because they've expressed remorse and longing for their mortal family. and i think that is where percy and luke would have clashed had luke been successful in recruiting him. luke insisting the gods will never change. and percy over the years learning that maybe they can. and then annabeth telling percy about the great prophecy. and he has to decide if he wants to follow destiny or create his own.

[wardensantoineandevka]

on some level, the continuing "the constant circular arguments and conversations in Campaign 3 were good actually and they were interesting and narratively strong because they're realistic" are starting to feel juvenile not only because it feels like a form of "I think a work is good when I can personally relate to it" but also because it makes a sophomoric assumption that "realistic" is inherently and by default interesting or desirable or effective in a narrative. generally also misunderstands the difference between "realistic" and "realism" but that's getting a little beyond this conversation's ken and is a tangent.

"it's realistic" is just a truly boring defense of any creative choice (and improv also requires choices) or structure because that doesn't tell us anything meaningful about the narrative, the characters, themes, dilemmas. fine, sure, whatever, it's realistic. what does this mean for the story? what story is being told other than "this is how it happens in real life"? does this actually say anything about the character's beliefs and ideals and ethical prespectives that they're having this debate that results in no clear path forward — or are they just arguing because it's realistic?

is it interesting? is it compelling? or is it just slowing down the pacing to the speed of molasses on a winter's day at the south pole just for the sake of having shallow debates that don't provide further illumination on the characters, the moral worldbuilding of Exandria, or the thematic arc? if it's a strong creative choice, then what is this doing for the aesthetic construction of this narrative? "well, it's realistic" absolutely anodyne.

[claypigeonpottery]

ahhhh 😌

the relief of getting to build pottery again after… like three weeks 😬

finally starting on some commissions I’ve had on my whiteboard since 2024! feels good

[sengenism]

MY BABY BOY'S BIRTHDAY!!!

Now after Yuzuriha and Gen, we only have Taizu left!

I wonder what Senku gifted them^^

(I am never going to get over how Gen squeezes right in the middle of Senku's best friends or how their birthdays are mirrored)

- 🧅

it's like yuzuriha and taiju are both squeezing gen into this one big hug and IT'S MY FAVOURITE THING EVER

i believe inagaki sensei when he says that senku and gen's birthdays being inverted was merely a coincidence

but then there's the fact that gen's birthday was senku's revival day and seeing that date on the tree was what made him change sides from the very beginning

and gen's birthday being in between senku's two favourite people

senku might not give credit to such things, but if all these coincidences weren't planned and they couldn't have been stopped either... what can i say? it might've been fate after all~