broadwaybalogna

[broadwaybalogna]

You need to move off of Google Docs!

I know some people have seen the news recently and may be doubtful of it. To the uninformed, Google Docs has started using AI to find "inappropriate" and "problematic" content, scraping your documents and deleting it. I know some people are unsure if this is real or think this is not going to affect them.

I regret to inform you that this is real.

As I was on a call with some writers and we were moving our documents as a precautionary measure, one person discovered entire pages missing that they did not delete themselves. This is happening to us, it's not a hoax or a rumor, it's happening right now. You need to move everything if you want to preserve it.

If you're a writer with writer mutuals, please reblog this so they know. I rarely write on Google Docs anymore, but I started my fanfics on there, and I would be devastated if I lost works more than ten years old because people decided marketing appeal is more important than creative freedom.

[broadwaybalogna]

One head canon that I’m unreasonably passionate about is Zuko MUST have help Katara with the domestic work like cooking and cleaning. You can’t tell me he didn’t, I will not listen to you.

[broadwaybalogna]

you aren't insane you just live with your parents

you aren't insane you just live with your parents

you aren't insane you just live with your parents

you aren't insane you just live with your parents

you aren't insane you just live with your parents

[broadwaybalogna]

A moment from Chapter 5 of my Zutara Role Reversal AU

Read it HERE!:

Summary:

Katara never really cared for the stories, but now, holding the Avatar’s heart in her hand, soaking herself in his blood, she wondered if anyone would notice if she made a few amendments.

First: The avatar is dead and everyone should run

Second: No one can save you

-

Alternatively: A role reversal AU wherein Katara and Sokka replace Zuko and Azula, respectively. A few changes are made, however. The largest being that the Avatar is dead. The next is that soon, all benders will meet the same fate, including the very one that killed him

[broadwaybalogna]

Pls send me asks I have no idea what to post on here right now I have both writers and artists block😭

[broadwaybalogna]

The thing about TSR that makes me feel so crazy that nobody talks about is how before the episode, Zuko and Katara both thought the other didn’t care as much as they did about what happened between them in Ba Sing Se. Katara thought he had been tricking her, and he never genuinely cared about her as a person. Zuko thought she was just an empathetic person who could’ve grown to care about him if he hadn’t ruined it, but the feelings weren’t that deep to begin with and she probably just wanted to get him to stop chasing them.

They were both wrong, of course. Zuko hadn’t ever spoken about how the Fire Nation wronged him personally, what his scar meant, or allowed anyone to touch it. Katara had never been on the receiving end of someone trying to empathize with her pain. She’d always been the one to reach out first to sympathize with someone. This time, she’d been yelling at Zuko and he still extended the first olive branch. She offered to heal him with water she’d been saving for something important because she sensed the pain he was in and wanted to alleviate it. But neither of them were able to confirm how much this meant to the other because they get interrupted and Zuko doesn’t see Katara looking back at him.

When Zuko joined the group and Katara threatens him, it confirms his thinking that her anger at him has to do with how his actions led to Aang’s death (and part of it is, but the larger part is about how it made her think that he didn’t actually care about her). He thinks that if he shows that he’s not a threat to Aang, that he is fully committed to fight for and protect the Avatar, she’ll trust him like everyone else.

From Katara’s perspective, Zuko showing up and being this great guy who’s teaching Aang firebending and protecting her brother and saving her dad from prison all while not doing anything to show that he personally wants to make amends with her proves that he really didn’t care about her in Ba Sing Se. He didn’t trick her, but it just didn’t matter to him as much as it did to her.

That’s what leads to TSR. On the edge of that cliff, when he asks her why she doesn’t trust him like everyone else (because if it was really about Aang’s safety, she would’ve been fine with him after he brought him back from the sun warriors), she turns around and tells him exactly why she’s still angry. It’s because she cared about him and he didn’t care about her.

And that’s why every line of dialogue out of Zuko’s mouth that episode is a variation of “I care about you”. Because he never wants her to feel like he doesn’t again.

[broadwaybalogna]

I really appreciate your post about how to spot ai art. Idk if you know that user @longing-for-rain has been sharing zutara ai art and even took part in zutara week.

https://www.tumblr.com/azula-brain/740712423865155584/psa-just-a-heads-up-that-longing-for-rain-has?source=share

I think it is important to warn about this so that no one else gets fooled like i did. I thought these were real watercolors and reposted it, and i still feel ashamed even though it wasnt my fault, these works were not tagged as ai. There are so many good real artists in the zutara community and i think it is a shame that people creating ai slop and fooling others by not tagging it properly and passing off it as their own art. I feel terrible about this because our community gets a lot of hate for "sharing ai" but a lot of people just dont recognize ai and dont expect to be fooled, it is not their fault. Real zutara artists deserve all our support and love!💗

I’m not gonna get too into this because it does always kind of pain me to see people I look up to use these kinds of things that I feel so passionate about.

While I wouldn’t say I’m close friends with Rain, we have chatted on occasion and I can say that I respect her as a person. But I don’t think that’ll ever excuse her use of AI and “lying” about it in my heart.

Below the “more” is a quick story I have regarding one of my experiences with AI as well as a final remark. You don’t have to read it, I think anon summed things up pretty well. But I suppose it’s why I consider myself still some kind of “friend” to Rain.

About a year ago, maybe more, I went on a vacation with my mom, stepdad, and sister to NYC. I had just started trying to take a new medication for my ADHD, so maybe that played a role, but my stepdad was sharing AI generated “art” with my mom with whom I was sitting beside on the bus ride to NYC. I saw the “art” and immediately texted my stepdad to request he not use it because it diminishes the art of real artists who work tooth and nail to perfect their craft. Someone like me, who creates, engages with, and loves true art; art with a soul.

I tried sharing with him how many AI sources had stolen art from unknowing artists to improve its own “art”, putting these artists work into a system that just.. generates. I shared with him articles about ethics, about what it does to real artists who will fight tooth and nail to even try to get a profession.

And he ignored me.

I mean, he read some of it, I think, but he didn’t care. He didn’t care that I myself was an artists who felt so much for everyone who was getting taken advantage of. That something I love is being stolen and used at the disadvantage of artists across the world.

I did a lot of crying in our hotel room. I felt so much and he couldn’t bring himself to understand why I did.

That moment sticks with me a lot. I was crying in our hotel room over something I cared so so much about. Something I was trying to share with my stepdad. And he didn’t listen. He kept pushing.

He’s google profile is an AI generated image of him.

Each time I see it, I remember trying to make him understand and he not even batting an eye.

I think the worst of it, though, besides him using it at all, was the fact that he didn’t stop because AI was bad or he was truly listening to me, it’s that he didn’t stop because of how I was behaving. I was crying in a hotel bed raising my voice at how much I worried about real artists. He couldn’t even bring himself to care because I was crying over it, over something that was so important.

I find it hard to look past these kinds of things, I think I tried convincing myself that Rain didn’t use AI because I couldn’t spot the common “AI red flags” that you see in most AI “art” and she never tagged it as AI. But one of or her most recent post kind of forced me to see it because Jesus, neither of the girls in that “art” have five fingers.

I’ll never understand why people use AI. It’ll never make sense to me. I may have commissions but if your next resort is AI then by god believe that I’m making your art for free. All AI “art” is harmful art.

But that’s why I’d say I’ve brought myself to look past the “AI art” stuff. Because while I hate the use of it, I still find myself sympathizing with Rain as a person and writer.

Anyways, I suppose this was kind of a vent about AI. Maybe an excuse for “putting up with it” I don’t know. I don’t really know what this is. It’s kind of a weird mix of hating AI but loving people. It’s all complicated. Life’s complicated. If it was black and white everything would still somehow be complicated but maybe a little easier.

That’s all, thanks for listening to me talk about how I was a weirdo one day and my extremely conflicting options on longing-for-rain.

[broadwaybalogna]

A guide to understanding AI “art”

For anyone who has trouble with understanding how to decipher AI “art” from real art, this is for you!

Recognizing AI “art styles”

AI is known to copy very specific art styles it has been able to gain a lot of data on. While recognizing the “style” AI uses is a great tool to deciphering it, we have to remember that the style was created by referencing real art that originated said style.

Here are some examples of art styles AI will use. From each of these, I will do a deep dive onto how to spot their inconsistencies that are most common in AI “art”:

Watercolor-

“Grainy”-

“Smooth”-

Anime-

Analysis on “Watercolor”

In this image you can see a lot of watercolor type aspects that can make the art piece feel more “real”. By incorporating more traditional art styles, the AI can better fool people since we associate such traditional techniques with traditional art- art that isn’t digitalized and therefore cannot be made using any sort of artificial intelligence generation.

1. AI not understanding Hair

Taking a closer look at the woman’s hair, we can see that the AI mixes up aspects of the background with the hair. For example, stands of hair that are supposed to fall in front of the woman’s face turn into film-type boxes.

2. Bodily proportions

The earring on the other side of the woman’s head is also far below where her ear is- which we know since the headphones on her clearly show where her ears are located.

3. Blending into the background

The more towards the edge of the frame her hair is, it begins to blend more into the background behind her as well. This is something that is extremely common in AI “art pieces” as many of the subjects of said pieces may begin to blend into the background in places where the human eye isn’t immediately drawn towards.

Also- the necklace she’s wearing doesn’t continue anywhere else.

Analysis on “Grainy”

An art style like this has been growing in popularity with AI “art”. It leaves a lot of ease when it comes to the squiggly looking line art because it comes across more “grainy” looking.

USE YOUR KNOWLEDGE!!!

This is a great example of recognizing AI in fanworks because one of the first things I clocked when I saw this was Katara’s famous BLUE necklace.

In this “artwork”, however, the necklace is more of a tan color, like it would be a part of Katara’s skin if she were lighter. The detail on the fabric of the necklace is also odd. It looks to be wider on one side and thinner on the other upon closer inspection.

2. Bodily proportions/blending into background

Katara’s leg is also odd. It appears that she has a third leg appearing beside her first that nearly blends into the background of the image.

3. Hands

The last thing in this “art piece” I’d like to bring to light is something you’ll once again see in many AI “artworks”. A lack of understanding of human hands.

Zuko’s left hand appears to sport a deformity you wouldn’t notice unless you squinted, but the more you look. The more you’re left to realize that a real artist wouldn’t make such a mistake.

His index finger is so much larger than the others.

While AI “art” has gotten a but better at understanding hands- the thing it always had the most trouble with -there are still many mistakes you can spot. I urge people to always look at the hands when trying to decipher whether or not something is AI.

Analysis on “Smooth”

This is probably the form of “art” that I personally have a lot of trouble deciphering. So many people love to use this art style, of course AI is going to do well using it.

The main subject of the “art piece” is pretty flawless. So I took to analyzing the background first instead. And of course, there were inconsistencies.

1. Flower type

It’s clear that the flower being showcased in the “artwork” are roses, but upon further inspection, not everything is actually a rose. For example, what is this doing here?

This flower appears the be the only one of its kind showcased in the “art piece”. A more hot pink color, as well as a yellow middle that isn’t covered up by the many petals on the flower.

This isn’t the only thing, however. Some of the flowers appear to look like tiny balls. This is something I doubt anyone would include in their art piece that features so many beautifully rendered flowers. A bunch of random balls?

Analysis of “Anime”

This is another art style you’ve probably seen a lot of. At first glance, it may look a little hard to figure out if it’s AI or not, but it becomes abundantly clear once you zoom in just a little.

1. Hands

Once again, the hands are the downfall of AI. I don’t even know what finger is which, here. And the thumb appears to be absolutely humongous.

2. Background

Why does the bridge(?) she’s on just keep on going? What’s up with that? And then it just continues into a random fog? F for effort on that front.

3. Eyebrows

If you take a close enough look and you can squint well enough, you’ll see that the left eyebrow on the girl uses the stylistic choice of being seen over the hair. The right eyebrow, however, is covered the by hair in front of it.

Also the watch on the girls left wrist doesn’t have an actual watch.

CHECK FOR ART PROGRESSION

All the things mentioned before can always be reduced to someone being a beginner or not so great at art, one thing that AI will usually fail to do is have a progression of their art style.

You can check a persons account that they posted it to and if they have

A. Many different art styles showcased with no correlation between other styles

B. There isn’t improvement of their “art” over a long period of time

C. “Art” that doesn’t change style whatsoever over an extremely long period of time.

D. The same mistakes that were mentioned above REPEATEDLY happening in their “artwork”

It’s probably AI!!

Conclusion/TL;DR:

If you ever find yourself trying to figure out whether or not something is AI, consider the following:

1. Is it in an art style AI normally steals from?

2. Does the hair turn into random objects?

3. Are the body proportions a bit too uncanny?

4. Does anything blend into the background/turn into the background?

5. Does something that is a “fan work” include an aspect of a character that isn’t actually a part of them (ie. Is the color of their necklace not what it usually is in the source material)

6. ARE THE HANDS WRONG?

7. Is the background inconsistent?

8. Are the stylistic choices not consistent?

9. Does their account feature other “artworks” of completely different styles

10. Does the person have no progression of an “art style”?

This obviously isn’t every piece of AI understanding that you should have, but it’s definitely a base knowledge for figuring out if something was created with AI.

Thank you for reading through all this!! If more people can tank the consumption of AI “art” and learn to decipher it from real art, the less AI “art” we will face in the future.

SUPPORT HUMAN ART!!!

[broadwaybalogna]

What they don't tell you about writing is that as you write, you discover scenes and entire plots that you hadn't accounted for that need to be written. So you can spend two hours writing and editing only to realise you're further away from the finish line than you thought you were when you started

[broadwaybalogna]

[broadwaybalogna]

Gonna be honest- although I usually avoid smut, this is so hilarious I love the fic so much. I urge the masses to read it

Friends, celebrate with me! After two decades, I finally, finally wrote the Zutara fic of my life! 🥹🥹

Please give it a try here: To Slay An Empire on Ao3

Summary:

The Avatar was nowhere to be found. The world was running out of time.

Katara was supposed to infiltrate the Fire Nation and assassinate Fire Lord Ozai. That had been the initial plan, anyway.

Funny, isn’t it? How plans always have the nasty tendency to fall apart.

First day on the job, instead of slithering into Ozai’s bed and introducing him to the delicate art of bloodbending, Katara experienced a slight… deviation. A rather significant, throbbing deviation, to be precise.

Through a series of unfortunate circumstances, she found herself quite thoroughly impaled on the Fire Prince’s cock, wondering with increasing hysteria where it had all gone wrong.

She was royally fucked. Both figuratively and oh-so literally.

He was her sin. And she wanted to drown in him.

[broadwaybalogna]

Finally someone says it!! It always irked me how people talk about how feministic A:tLA is when it so clearly has so many obvious flaws in THAT SPECIFIC regard!! Sure, it may have been a little ahead of its time by allowing Katara to, you know, actually express human emotions that can add depth to her, but it doesn’t take away the fact that there is still obvious misogyny rooted in the series.

If that makes any sense???

I love atla, but something that sticks in my craw (especially when it's constantly held up as like the pinnacle of western animation and is put on such a pedestal re: its female characters) is the fact that it has such a massive problem with 'there are a few notable women here and there, but for the most part every major position of authority and respect is held by a man'.

The Kyoshi Warriors are all teenage girls but they're led by an old man who is the island's patriarch. Every world leader is a man. The White Lotus are all men. Every mentor who teaches the gaang is a man, except for Hama, who turns out to be 'evil' and gets sent back to the Fire Nation prison that traumatized her. There are women in the FN military but every military leader/general we meet is a man. Katara is the only girl in the main cast until Toph and Azula (primary antagonist for the season) join in s2. Azula is only crown princess because of Zuko's exile and later because he gave it back up when he left again in s3, and when she is made Fire Lord it's basically In Name Only because Ozai made himself the Phoenix King so she's still not truly in charge of anything. (Except the palace staff who she fires in her ensuing fit of paranoia.)

LoK isn't much better in this regard--sure, look at all the female leaders and shit, but then look at how they're treated (and that includes the avatar) and things get significantly more bleak. Which makes sense when you consider that most of the original writing team did not follow onto the sequel, and Bryke's original plans for AtLA had significantly fewer female characters of importance (Toph and Azula were both originally going to be boys; incidentally, so was Izumi, according to the LoK show bible).

Anyway this has just been on my mind cause I've been pondering a rewatch and man. There's so much that doesn't hold up nearly as well as the fandom at large likes to pretend.

[broadwaybalogna]

I wish people would stop saying “It’s July. Well done for wasting half a year.” Did you make someone smile in the past six months? Did you stroke a cat or throw a stick for a dog? Did you learn a new fact or teach someone a new joke? Did you laugh, cry, scream or sing in the past six months? Because if so, congratulations for not wasting your time at all.

[broadwaybalogna]

I hate AI and you should too 💞

[broadwaybalogna]

Congratulations on the marriage guys!!!! It's about time honestly

[broadwaybalogna]

Chapter 5 of my Zutara role swap AU has been posted to ao3!!!

Read it HERE:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/67064758/chapters/174257291

Summary:

Katara never really cared for the stories, but now, holding the Avatar’s heart in her hand, soaking herself in his blood, she wondered if anyone would notice if she made a few amendments.

First: The avatar is dead and everyone should run

Second: No one can save you

-

Alternatively: A role reversal AU wherein Katara and Sokka replace Zuko and Azula, respectively. A few changes are made, however. The largest being that the Avatar is dead. The next is that soon, all benders will meet the same fate, including the very one that killed him.

[broadwaybalogna]

Maybe it's because I have a weakness for toxic female characters, but I wanted Rumi to crash out even harder and go full demon mode with Jinu

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