#2020 resolutions

[une-sanz-pluis]

As many of you probably know, my favourite contemporary image of Henry V is the portrait of him either presenting or receiving Thomas Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes in BL Arundel MS 38. This one:

Well, yesterday @shredsandpatches pointed out to me a fun detail to the right of the illumination. Someone, probably a later reader, sketched Henry's head in the blank space to the right of the portrait.

Can't believe we never noticed that before!🤯

[scribefindegil]

2024 Recap: It was bad! 👍

[idle-compy]

@yasammyweek (late) day 3 - prom

full outfits under the cut

[wildernezz]

i love how the stuff about bringing back 2020 things isn't even about nostalgia people are just already sick of 2025 after 2 days.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

reminded i have some marble hornets gmx pics saved where, if i didn't already, i'd have no idea how to find them again

pre live s1 dvd commentary ^

ft. ellen mclain! and john patrick lowrie

[imreallyloveleee]

the season 2 finale of the americans is WILD

[twodiamondhoes]

OKAY is it better to be in a big fandom and shipping a rarepair or a tiny fandom and shipping the second popular pairing? (I'D SPECIFY ONE FOR THE FIRST ONE but we like our rarepairs and our us-driven crackships and also the two of us could singlehandedly take over the entire Bonekey AO3)

There's a Bone Key AO3?? /j

(In a perfect world I would write an entire novel that's just Ratty and Booth saving the world and falling in love. But this is not a perfect world and Sarah Monette wants me to suffer.)

Tbh?? I would say I have more fun carving out niches with the "smaller" pairings and meeting other like minded folks! Like. Babe. We met because of nightsilver like you can't ask me this question and not expect bias lmao

I genuinely think the most popular pairing I've written things for IS Ranchers and/or Scarian and that's because this fandom has infected me in a very specific way. they put something in the minecraft rp and I'm addicted to it

The best part of this fandom is the way I've been able to make connections with folks even despite how big it is! <3 ily all

[blue-hi]

well! i got every monthly badge this year and i just hit a 1650 day streak on duolingo, so i think i'm going to bow out and let my streak die

[tricksterlatte]

I saw someone on the bird website point out that just because people disagree with a fellow fan doesn't give them the right to bully or harass said fan, especially in such cruel ways (they were body shaming a well known Overwatch person because she shared a selfie, and the hate originated from her opinions on the character).

It's been driving me crazy how people somehow forgot you can disagree with someone's opinions without being an asshole. Why do we condemn bigotry or cruelty when it's directed at our friends, but hurl it out ourselves when opportunity arises to bash someone we dislike? It just makes me so sad.

This isn't about a specific situation but it's a problem i've noticed over the years. I have been both a perpetrator and a victim of this (if I said otherwise, I'd be a liar. I've been on the internet since I was 10 and have been active in multiple fandoms), but I don't want to contribute whatsoever to that type of environment anymore. We have to talk the talk and walk the walk with this one, or we will continue to be miserable. If you dislike something or someone, either communicate if this person is supposed to matter to you or vice versa, or just block them, mute them, unfollow them. Whichever suits your comfort level for whatever the situation may be. If you hate something or someone but still proceed to follow them, check their profile, and grab screenshots or QRTs to make fun of them, whether with petty jabs or actual bigotry and cruelty, you are not only making other people into targets. You are sending yourself into a spiral that will only harm you in the long run.

I know how addicting social media can be. I know how the instant gratuitous relief can feel when you vent about something within an echo chamber. And I don't think the answer is just don't vent, don't misconstrue my words. I think the answer is does this make you happy? I don't think this type of habit makes anyone happy. I know sometimes people change, and I really hope people can and do.

I don't say this as an accusation or to be mean myself, I say this as someone who suffered on my own end, not only from taking the brunt of harassment but also from indulging it on occasion. I used to be horrible about this type of fixation on things I hated within fandom during my prime days in my earliest tumblr fandoms, and I nearly fell into this trap again over the past few years. My irl situation was entering a state of despair, and during those times, without anyone trustworthy that shared these spaces with me and that knew me well in return, fandom felt like the one place where I had a semblance of control. That doesn't excuse belittling people. It never does. A reason is not justification.

It's a special type of hell, for example from my personal experience, to receive dozens of suibait anons about fanfic you published, whether it was from things I left blatantly tagged and easily avoidable, over my writing not being as good as others' within these spaces, or because people admitted they were envious of something outside of my control. Or people making fun of my cosplay photos or treating me as an object to be sexualized, no matter who they were or how they identified. I had old Retrospring anons sent that exploited my vulnerability regarding events only certain groups knew about, trying me during my worst of times. When I vaguely discussed them on other websites, without sharing things being said to protect myself and to not spread drama, I was largely told I was overreacting and to just delete them. Which I did, but they kept coming. I deleted anonymous ways of contacting me and closed off most forms of contact with fandoms other than a few long running places I've known for years (thank you WWD crew you guys are the GOAT). But even so. If I didn't have the person who is now my wife there for me at the right time, I probably wouldn't be here right now. Not everyone experiencing this type of thing has anyone there for them at all.

I have a tendency to ramble, so I'll summarize here: the only type of toxicity that will ever bring people joy is toxic yaoi, toxic yuri, Toxic by Britney Spears, and the Toxic TM from Pokemon. I want to get better myself, and I'm posting this because I hope for the best for anyone who read this. If you disagree with me for this, that's okay too. If you don't think this applies to you, it might not! I don't know you. None of us know each other, which I think should be further incentive to be kind, instead of ample opportunity to be mean. If you have the choice, strive to be kind over the escapism that brings us joy. For some of us, this will be the only kindness we may ever know.

[artbyeloquent]

I saw a lil comic in my archive about not deleting old art, or you won't be able to see how far you've come. I decided to take it a step further and make myself a lil timeline of all the art I've posted on this blog!

ID below the cut.

[ID: A timeline of my art from 2020, with deep purple headers and dark green text on an off-white/sage background.

Title: Eloquent's Improvement Series: 2020 Timeline

May 2020: One of my first paintings of which I remember thoroughly enjoying its process. Even though my style has changed and my grasp on anatomy has improved, the rendering holds up. I'm proud of younger me for this.

The art is of a tan, freckled witch with a golden palette floating in a swirl of golden light. She's wearing a floral sundress and golden platform heels. She's holding onto her sunhat to prevent it from flying off. She is contrasted by a dark navy background.

July 2020: An ArtFight attack. ArtFight always pushes me to innovate in as little time as possible, but it often leaves me feeling that melancholy of "the execution does not match what was in my head." I never draw the left (my OC) in MY [capitalized emphasis] style, always her original designer's, and I'd love to challenge myself to adapt her sometime.

The image is of two pastel goth, white women posing against a chainlink fence. They are blowing bubblegum. Both of their palettes are mainly pink, blue, and black. The first girl is wearing a black halter crop top, pastel miniskirt, mesh leggings, and black combat boots. Her hair is shaved close with only the front bangs fluffy. The second girl has long, blue hair up in a ponytail held back with a baseball cap. Her clothes are baseball uniform-inspired, with a bisected black-pink track jacket, white baseball pants, and black-and-white baseball cleats.

September 2020: Wow I really didn't draw much in 2020. Y'know [gestures at the state of the world and also my life]. But I also had a crippling fear of posting anything that isn't perfectly [sparkles] polished [sparkles], so I'm proud of Past Me for posting it anyway.

The sketch is a monochrome red piece with a flat background. In the foreground, a pointy-eared monster smiles at the viewer, leaning against a railing. He has veins and crystals of garnet sprouting from his eye, neck, and shoulders.

/end ID]

[arabian-batboy]

Rewatching old Pokémon movies and I came to this conclusion:

[theirloveisgross]

.

[canadiansox]

Happy New Year!

2025, here we go!!!

[cleolinda]

AITA for banning my husband and father in law from the delivery room due to their intensely stressful/creepy behavior during my pregnancy?

There’s a famous Reddit post from 2020 where a pregnant woman wrote that her husband and father-in-law were a little too comfortable with their certainty that she was absolutely going to die in childbirth just like her husband’s late mother. It was to the point where her FIL was insisting that she go ahead and put all her clothes into storage, because she was obviously going to die in the hospital and it would save them the grief of packing up her things afterwards. Like. It was WILD.

When I tell my husband [that she feels suspicious of her FIL], he calls me paranoid, but I feel like my FIL WANTS me to die; his whole life identity for the past 35 years has been “amazing single dad” (never dated or had close friends or even hobbies really), and it seems like he’s looking forward to being able to guide my husband through what he went through. At this point, I’d honestly be happy to never see my FIL again, and I certainly don’t want him in the delivery room, especially since he told me he was “putting [his] foot down” about me not being “allowed” to have an epidural…. My husband, in addition to backing his dad on everything, acts like my due date is my death date, and has completely pulled away from me.

The commenters (and me, honestly) were convinced that the husband and FIL were either going to kill her outright to fulfill this expectation, or just make decisions about her care that might conveniently let her die.

And then she never posted again.

Over the last four years, people have frequently mentioned that post, always leading to a thread of people saying, “Oh god, I still worry about that woman.” I did too. It became one of those famous unresolved posts that people always wondered about.

Until yesterday, when someone on r/BestOfRedditorUpdates dug up a 2022 update she had posted on a different account:

TLDR; I had a beautiful and healthy baby girl, and I divorced my ex-husband. I lived, obviously.

She writes that she put her foot down about having her own mother in the delivery room rather than her FIL (!), and she WOULD be getting an epidural. Her husband lost his shit. And in his outburst, he let slip--

I admittedly lost my temper, and told him that I wasn’t going to die- it wasn’t my fault his father’s trauma wormed it’s way into his head, and that he needed to fix it without taking it out on me. He yelled at me that he didn’t need therapy. That caught me a little off guard; I asked him why he went to his therapist and was given advice about my death if he felt he didn’t need it. His expression gave it away, and he caved not long after. It turns out there was no therapist. It was just his dad. During the times he was supposed to be at therapy, he was with his dad. I’m still fuming.

And that was when she got the fuck out.

I’ll wrap this up- I’ve got an adorable little toddler tugging at my leg atm. I’m alive, I’m happy, and I’ve got my baby in my arms. Life is good.

I truly never thought we'd see a resolution to this, and I feel like there's probably a good number of people who remember it, so I thought you might want to know.

ETA: Brilliantly, I put the link in at the top; here it is again for convenience.

[queerb]

God not only do i get to see ADTR, Stand Atlantic, and August Burns Red tonight, I'm less than a month away from seeing two of my literal FAVORITE bands (and a third that i really like) I wish 2020 me could see me now