resplendent-fish-machine-blog - Tumblr blog

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Artwork of Waluigi in Super Mario Strikers.

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apparently the only thing that brings me back to tumblr these days is when a piece of media frustrates me enough that i just have to rant about it whoops

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Thoughts on Ilvermorny (spoiler: nothing about it makes any sense)

I read JKR's latest Pottermore writings about Ilvermorny today, and spent the whole time going "whaaaaa?" in my head. Some thoughts:

1) Okay, so the in-universe reason that Ilvermorny is so much like Hogwarts is because the characters were deliberately emulating Hogwarts. But from an out-of-universe perspective, WHY did JKR choose to write it that way? The American wizarding school could (and IMO should) have been a uniquely American institution, informed by American culture(s). But nope, instead they just copied the British school wholesale, down to being a fucking castle for some reason. Do you know how many castles we have in America, JKR? Not very fucking many, that's how many.

It's just so contrived and makes zero sense. I honestly feel like JKR wrote it this way just because she knows that people ADORE sorting (me included lmao, this is not meant to be a put-down) and wanted to drum up interest by making sure Ilvermorny also had houses for fans to sort themselves into. Still doesn't explain why it had to be a goddamn castle, though.

2) I'm not really qualified to talk about the problems with JKR's representation of native cultures (and if I say something wrong here, please feel free to correct me). But WOW is there some blatant cultural appropriation going on here. Even in-universe! Like, this British kid saw a Thunderbird once and thought it was cool so he named a house after it. Wow, what great representation of native cultures! Surely this makes up for the fact that there are no native American people in the story who are important enough to be named. Or not.

It also weirds me out that this white woman who only knows whatever magic her dark-arts-obsessed abuser saw fit to teach her somehow becomes enough of an authority that the local tribes start sending their kids to her to teach them and graciously provide them with wands. (But never wands made out of Horned Serpent horn, because that's a super special core that's just for her family!) And, I must stress, the person they're sending their children to to learn wand skills is someone who was never allowed to have a wand. How does Isolt even know anything beyond the most basic wand skills herself?

3) Relatedly: making a wand is apparently so easy that someone with zero training in wandmaking can easily figure out how to make not just some crappy makeshift wand, but rather a wand of "exceptional power", out of pieces of creatures she has no familiarity with. But it's also so difficult that no one from a non-European culture EVER figured out that sticks made out of substances with magical properties are a good way to channel and enhance magical abilities.

4) The Pukwudgies remind me uncomfortably of House Elves. I guess we're supposed to find their servitude less unsavory because they actually get paid for their services? But they're still a nonhuman race that willingly become servants to humans, even though it's against their beliefs to help humans?? I mean, William wasn't even willing to help a dying child until Isolt invoked his life debt to her, but then somehow a whole community of Pukwudgies decides that cleaning up after human children is totally their calling?

5) Ilvermorny is supposed to be the "most democratic" and "least elitist" of wizarding schools. But it's also located in the country with the absolute strictest laws against magical folk associating with muggles. This continues the problem from "History of Magic in North America" where the North American magical community is supposed to be both the most accepting of muggleborns but also the most divided from muggles. It's just a total world-building fail.

Other small notes:

"Isolt Sayre" and "Elias Story" lmao looks like an obsession with anagrams runs in the Gaunt family

Even in supposedly-accepting North America, a Squib can't be part of magical culture.

Gormlaith is said to be "unstable" and "half-insane". Thanks for the ableism, JKR...

If a woman never marries, it's obviously because she's too afraid of passing on her dangerous and "unstable" bloodline. I mean, naturally. I really can't imagine any other reason not to pair off into a neat heterosexual marriage, can you?

Is Gormlaith's death by arrow a response to the "why didn't someone just shoot Voldemort" line of questioning? Anyway, I actually kind of like this detail.

That said, it's a little unfortunate that, when it comes time for Isolt to face her nemesis, her wand gets taken out of commission and she has to rely on her sons and (male) servant to save her.

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wow, i HATED the good wife series finale. what a disappointment

and i watched the video where the creators explain it and i just so fundamentally disagree with them. the show that they thought they were writing was not the show that i thought i was watching, apparently

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DONE!!

Will be available as miniprints (4x6 in) at Anime Boston.

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A collection of ghosts

P.s. Just a heads up, today is the last day to order from my online store! I will be closing the shop for 1.5 months. Will be going to China to visit grandparents!

http://koyamori.tictail.com/

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Daily Paint #1232. Seals of Approval by Cryptid-Creations

Time-lapse, high-res and WIP sketches of my art available on Patreon (:

Twitter  •  Facebook  •  Instagram  •  DeviantART  

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Ghost Type Pokemon

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Understanding The Spectrum

I hear alot of people misinterpreting or misusing the term ‘autism spectrum’. So for Autism Acceptance week, I decided to make a comic to help explain the term and how it affects things. Archie is one of the reasons I became so interested/knowledgeable in autism (I like to go all out in research when I write characters for comics n such) so he’s the one presenting everything! The rest of the comic is under the cut, because I don’t want to spam ^^;

Keep reading

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Medic!

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oh my goddddd i just realized that in october the lyric opera will be doing das rheingold! and eric owens will be singing wotan????? my favorite singer singing my favorite* character at my local-ish opera house?????? afkgjdlgkjdkfjldfkj HYPE LEVELS ARE OFF THE CHARTS okay, new goal: i MUST get a job by october so i can afford tickets!!!!! this is good motivation yes *and most hated, my feelings towards wotan are Complicated

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A spoooky skeleton oooooo

Mori Skele.

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Eat your heart out, paper.

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While Paper Mario is meant to instill the sense of a staged diorama or storybook in terms of its visuals, the game still provides a mix of 2D and 3D elements. In order to provide an even mix of these without clashing, the general rule applied to the game’s visuals were that organic characters and pieces of the environment that weren’t too large would always be 2D, with inorganic and larger objects typically being presented in 3D.

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Starters as their final evolutions.

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Been in kinda a Paper Mario-y mood lately, so I doodled my two fav partner characters from the first game~