oliverthewisest - Tumblr blog

[oliverthewisest]

are you in a good headspace to receive my triple barrage hell nightmare skeleton attack right now.

[oliverthewisest]

a little informational guide on trying to find skintones from 3d refs :)

i know that finding skintones from 3d characters is tricky and can result in accidental whitewashing and this isnt to make fun of those ppl! this is simply to inform and help other artists out :)

[oliverthewisest]

Late but this is me when I hear about an eclipse

[oliverthewisest]

So—got to thinking (and talking with @magentamee) about the “it doesn’t have to be a one way” line that @chirpsythismorning posted about and realized that yes, it’s likely an implicit ref to Mike’s queerness…but perhaps less as a comment on the specifics of Mike’s sexuality (gay, bi, etc), and more on Jonathan’s inability to figure out what Mike’s sexuality is given his actions.

I already pointed out in that post that the “one way” alludes to the one way sign into Mike’s closet (aka his hidden queerness), but: given it’s Jonathan who says the line, I think it’s more important to look at his experience with Mike + queerness across the season at that point...namely how (at the time he says this) he’s officially the only witness to the convo where his brother all but confesses to his feelings for Mike—

—aka something which Jonathan is clearly perceptive to the subtextual queerness of, and that we see him respond to (at least in the case of his brother) with gentleness and openness:

Now, given that he sees Will’s queerness so plainly, it would be naive to write him off as not being suspicious of Mike’s sexuality as well (both having seen their relationship up close / wanting to protect his brother, on top of just knowing Mike)—and the subtext makes clear that he is suspious, which we can glean from the repeat “dual meaning” lines from him when talking to and referencing Mike (not Will) after the van scene:

It’s Jonathan who comes at us with the “straight? It doesn’t make sense” and this “it doesn’t have to be one way” lines, both clearly referring to Mike (subtextually, though Mike is in frame/convo both times), rather than Will—intimating that it’s Jonathan, not Mike, who is (at least in these scenes) struggling to understand why Mike is acting the way he is, esp in regards to the way he behaves around his all but confirmed gay brother.

Basically: I think this line refers not to Mike’s experience with his own queerness (liking girls or not) and a lot more to Jonathan’s attempts to make sense of the Mike he's seeing (dating El but flirting with his brother)—

—especially given that Jonathan “people don’t always say what they’re really thinking but when you capture the right moment, is says more” Byers has an open (minded) sign over his head in the infamous boys "on el's mind" shot not seconds after this line is said.

TL;DR: the “one way” line is talking about Mike’s queerness yes—but likely from Jonathan’s “wtf is going on” perspective. The wider context shows the “but what about his attraction to girls” aspect of it all is likely Jonathan’s line of questioning, rather than Mike’s own.

[oliverthewisest]

It’s “realizing that Will’s struggle in S2 with being infected with a virus that spreads and will kill him quickly (but doctors don’t care) is a metaphor for how gay men were treated during the aids crisis” hours

—right alongside Mike (who comes from a family with a Reagan sign in their front yard + a mom who outwardly supported Margret Thatcher), who sat at his now confirmed gay best friend’s side the entire time he was sick and watched as people were willing to let him die because he was viewed as expendable……and now has an ongoing storyline where

1) his relationship with his girlfriend is falling apart because he doesn’t love her romantically

2) he’s staring longingly and pushing toward the freedom his gay best friend embodies for him, and

3) he cannot bring himself to tell anyone around him something because “what if they don’t like it” + dehumanize him for telling the secret truth he cannot bring himself to externalize, despite now knowing something that scares him about about himself:

(Bonus points for the fact that the first time we see Mike push Will and himself toward a girl is after he watches how people were willing to let his gay best friend (and him, by extension) die should they not confirm to expectations)

[oliverthewisest]

whats your opinion on the UD being frozen as a metaphor for will's childhood and so when it's all released, he'll be free of it and therefore maybe his love for mike is still chaste and childish and that when it's all over he'll have released that love too?

with neither mike nor el or will ending up in a romantic pair at all.

Hi anon, thanks for the ask!

I'm a subscriber to the theory that the Upside Down is frozen because of Will's immaturity, but I don't agree that letting go of his love for Mike is how he solves it.

The thing about the Upside Down is that while it works well as a metaphor for Will's immaturity, it's also seething with, um... maturity. Penetrating vines, monsters with engulfing holes for faces, yonic gashes in the walls; Will's encounter with the place abounds with references to Alien, a franchise famous for its male sexual anxiety metaphors.

Pretty heavy stuff for a 12 year-old.

But unsurprising: Will has been exposed to extreme homophobia all his life, and his future as a sexually mature gay man who "deserves" that treatment scares the shit out of him. The horrors Will faces aren't a metaphor for any old trauma; they're specifically about the trauma of growing up gay in the 80s.

And I'm not making this claim on the strength of a few Alien references. Throughout the show, Will's feelings for Mike have been deeply entwined with The Horrors -- I won't rehash the specifics here, but you can check out this post for examples and this post for a discussion of queer romance in horror.

Ultimately, what it boils down to is that Will's love isn't chaste because he's a late bloomer, but because he's too frightened and ashamed to fully embrace his sexuality. And so long as he holds on to that fear, the horrors will keep coming back.

So, given all this... which do you suppose would be the mature version of Will best suited to cleansing the Upside Down?

One who's swallowed the pain of being queer and alone?

Or one who's bold and unashamed about being in love with a boy?

[oliverthewisest]

S2 shed scene -- Will/Vecna POV -- part 2 of 2.

[Finally finished the Bylerween comic! And only *checks watch* six months late!]

[oliverthewisest]

@jonmartinweek

Day 9: free day/au

Cowboy au because cowboys are cool

That's it. That's the idea

[oliverthewisest]

Brotherhood AU

Delta's design by @ChillinAndToxic

Dreaming too much

[oliverthewisest]

This is canon now.

[oliverthewisest]

this is part 1 [part 2] Happy TMAnniversary haha the song is  A Complete List of Fears Ages 5-28 (Aprox) by The Yellow Dress I really love this podcast so so much. I just finished it like a month ago and it still lives in my brain so i just had to do a little tribute

[oliverthewisest]

mlp in a nutshell

[oliverthewisest]

Daisy and Jon are best friends, to me

(original under the cut)

[oliverthewisest]

hot artists don't gatekeep

I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard

Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.

Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.

Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.

Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.

SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.

SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.

Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.

Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.

Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.

Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.

Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.

[oliverthewisest]

Tumblr feels so different without the boops

[oliverthewisest]

Reblog if you think Gerry has even shittier hair dye in tmagp and it doesn’t speak anything at all about his character or overall happiness as a person

[oliverthewisest]

An average Friday night for Nigel