#The 100 commentary

[chronurgy]

Gortash designs and builds mechanisms so I imagine he has to be able to sketch fairly decently in order to sketch his projects and designs. And I'm imagining a pile of charcoal sketches of Durge, done over their entire acquaintance, starting out with sketches of them in battle and then slowly becoming more detailed and intimate and as they do, the titles changing from things like "The Bhaalspawn" and "Bhaal's Chosen at Their Bloody Work" to "The Chosen in Contemplation" and finally just Durge's name

[hajihiko]

look on the bright side!

[disney-is-mylife]

I don’t understand why people hate Snow White’s husband so much?!?!? It’s not like he’s a creep or anything.

There are two main reasons: Number 1, compared to the other princes, he's the most boring. The film was made in 1937, it pioneered film animation, so it's bound to not exactly be chock full of Complicated Characters, that's just the way it is. He's a product of his time.

The other is because ....... *sigh* the annoying online spread of misinformation that he's supposedly 28 or 30 or some BS and she's only 14 🙄

(Note: ahead, I'll be ranting at the Haters, not at you @cleverqueencommander ^^")

Here's the CANONICAL truth, peeps: NO AGES ARE EVER MENTIONED IN THE MOVIE. EVER. NOT ONCE. If it's not in the text, it's not Canon. We can only assume based off of visual hints.

Now, that said, is Snow White probably one of the youngest princesses? I'd say so, but only because she has that "baby face" and chubbier cheeks. Let's say she's 15-16. Okay. Have you SEEN Princey Boy's face??

LOOK AT THIS DORK. That is NOT a 30 year old creep, that is a BABY! He cannot POSSIBLY be older than 19!! I'd say he's 17-18, max, but he's most likely ALSO 15-16 like Snow!

Snow White and her Prince embody YOUTH and YOUNG LOVE. The spell literally calls for "Love's FIRST Kiss" to awaken Snow White. Not "True Love's Kiss." FIRST KISS. That goes BOTH WAYS, it's THEIR FIRST KISS.

They are precious babies who are each other's first love and I refuse to hear any more slander claiming "isn't he supposed to be 28??" when that was pulled out of someone's ass to make Disney Look Bad >.<

[serizawasgamecube]

mom said its my turn to fix serizawas waistline

[masonjarsmoments]

Petko would have such a great time on tennisblr

[xoxoemynn]

Zaslav: I AM BIG MAD SUCCESSION LEFT MONEY ON THE TABLE. 😠 I AM AXING OFMD RIGHT NOW BECAUSE THEY STUPIDLY ONLY WANT ONE MORE SEASON. HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF THAT?!

Also Zaslav: never bothers to release DVDs or more than a smattering of merch despite the fact the show has a rabid fan base and would buy literally ANYTHING if it was actually FUCKING AVAILABLE

[littlehenrikehd]

LOVE when the detective reveals who the murderer is in the most extravagant and dramatic ways possible it keeps me going tbh

[toffeebrew]

All my writer moots are cooking today I'm being so well fed. I love my fic writer moots.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Ganondorf discovers his greatest enemy

Ganondorf took a sleepy breath as he shifted a little to get more comfortable. Link had been groggy at best and downright unresponsive at worst, but the healer had said it was likely due to the amount of blood he’d lost and the medicine Ganondorf had been instructed to give him. In either case, it delayed the inevitable conversations that would come, that had to come. Ganondorf would gladly take this time to just hold the sweet boy and not think about how much pain and potential hatred Link held for him, because of him.

The look in the boy’s face when he’d turned to see Ganondorf, neck pouring blood like a faucet, eyes terrified, had yet to be wiped from the Gerudo’s mind.

He really didn’t want to address any of it. It was a cowardly sentiment, and he despised that he felt it, but for just a little while longer, all he wanted was to hold Link and protect him from everything, including himself.

Link sniffled sleepily, tucked between Ganondorf’s arm and his chest. He’d hardly moved, and the peaceful look on his face quieted the anxieties in his guardian’s mind.

The door to the bedroom opened slowly, catching Ganondorf’s attention. He saw his other child of destiny peeking in, green hat missing from his golden head. He must have been out riding, given how his usually perfectly quaffed hair was windswept and messy.

“How’s he doing?” the captain asked, approaching with soft footsteps.

“He’s sleeping well, at least,” Ganondorf answered. The little king in his arm scrunched his nose a bit at the sound before rubbing his cheek further into Ganondorf’s tunic to get comfortable.

The elder Link hummed thoughtfully, observing his predecessor, before holding out a booklet. “I found this in the market. It’s quite popular among the—well, it was recommended to me for someone who might be homebound caring for family. Good way to pass the time and all.”

Ganondorf looked at the booklet curiously. He wasn’t much of a reader, honestly, but he supposed he could be kept entertained for a little while. He could just leave the captain to watch the younger Link, but he didn’t want to let the child go.

Child. He’s far from that. But he really wasn’t. Not in Ganondorf’s mind, at least. In either case, he didn’t want to leave him, so this would be a nice distraction while the younger one slept.

When Ganondorf glanced at the booklet, his eyes widened a little. He glanced at the captain. “The Secrets of the Imprisoning War? Who would have such information?”

Link just smiled sweetly. “I heard it’s an engaging read. Perhaps there are some truths in there that even you do not know, old man.”

Ganondorf squinted. There was something mischievous in that smile. He knew this boy well enough by now, loved him and cherished him and simultaneously wanted to knock his head into a wall. While his younger hero was quiet and seemingly passive off the battlefield, his older one was brazen, charismatic, and cheeky. The captain could be as cold as ice and serious when he needed to be, but when he didn’t…

He’d give him the benefit of the doubt. For now. “We’ll see.”

The older hero nodded a little, opening the curtains a bit more so there was better lighting on the bed. The room in which they were staying was a large one with a balcony, so perhaps Ganondorf could just carry his charge outside and they could relax and read there. He’d just stay here for now - it was only late morning. He opened the booklet and began reading.

The Imprisoning War: An epic time in Hyrule’s history, from ages so long past that scarcely a fact is known about it, filled to the brim with fantastical legends that all come to the same conclusion: the Hero victorious, evil banished away for the rest of eternity, a primordial curse shattered into pieces. But what do we know of the players in this epic quest? What if their struggles, their losses, their secrets and loves? This is their story, ranging from the Hero’s steamy relationship with the Sacred Diplomat to the secret love life of the incarnation of evil himself.

Ganondorf choked on his spit. The—the secret—WHAT?

What did that boy—what was—

Din’s Fire this was—now he had to read it to figure out what the hell this was all about!

Naturally, Captain Link was still lingering outside the room with his friend, cackling when the former terror of Hyrule exclaimed, “I DID NOT HAVE AN AFFAIR WITH A—WHO WROTE THIS??”

“Okay, okay, wait,” Lana wheezed. “Do you think he got to the part where he had a steamy moment with the dragon queen or was it the unsuspecting perfectly beautiful peasant woman?”

“With that much insult in his tone? Definitely the peasant,” the captain answered between laughs.

“I CAN HEAR YOU TWO!”

With that singular warning, Lana and Link fled the area, breathless with amusement.

[emblazons]

Thinking about how people who only (or primarily) understand Mike’s arc through a “hes queer and coming to accept it / struggling with heteronormativity/will get his happy ending when he gets with Will” lens are missing at least half of what defines his arc in the wider context / themes of the show.

Forewarning: long post (& also maybe an unpopular opinion)

Even as a queer person myself, I know that his arc isn’t solely about embracing his queerness (though it’s inherently interlinked). In Mike, you have a character who is being radically challenged by both external circumstances and his own decisions through a journey away from all kinds of forced conformity (social, familial, romantic & heteronormative) and into someone self actualized enough to live how they want…while also being strong enough to accept that they made mistakes along the way. Someone who is learning to be brave enough to say “this is who I am, what I enjoy, and what/who I love…and while it took me a lot of time to figure it out, now I can exist in the world embracing that even though it will take consistently resisting the tendency to accommodate people who think it’s unacceptable.”

Like. Even from a time before puberty (see: S3) Mike wants a life that stands apart from what’s expected of him in every area, not just in choosing a romantic relationship with another guy. He wants to continue to be a nerd and “child at heart” even though something else is repeatedly demanded of him by everyone from his parents to El in his romantic relationship. He wants to be a writer and someone who takes those nerdy interests into his adult life (cue aggressive gesturing toward the duffers themselves) and grates against all that’s been constructed for him even when he’s not (yet) brave enough to challenge it directly. Mike liking boys/loving Will is just “the final nail in the coffin” of his social and societal nonconformity—not the first (or the last) aspect of what makes him different from Hawkins or the life he was made to believe would suit him best.

Even the fact that Mike has a desire to be “normal” comes from an insecurity and fear that choosing what he truly wants will lead to him being outcasted and losing the people he cares for entirely—which is partially motivated by his queerness yes, but that also has a basis in his general interests and personality…which becomes especially obvious when you realize we are repeatedly shown that he is punished/has his wishes ignored in all areas he doesn’t conform, even long before we get into a plot where it’s clearer he likes boys.

We see it in how his parents have already started to demand he put boundaries on the time he spends playing his “childhood games” the very first scene of season one, how they demand social acceptable emotions from him when Will is missing, and how Karen & Ted want him to give up toys in S2 when he’s showing signs of depression (because they think the issue is him growing up, not that he’s struggling with loss or guilt for what happened to El).

We see it in how his own father comments about taking his CA trip away from him after calling Hellfire being a group for “dropouts” in S4 (implying that he is failing on an academic and social level that matters to wheelers—and that Nancy is good at).

We even see it in the way everyone from his bullies to his own girlfriend threaten and take things away from him when he doesn’t conform to social expectations...from Troy telling him to jump off the cliff to save Dustin in S1 (as punishment for the one time Mike stands up for himself in the gymnasium) to El jumping straight into breaking up with him and spying on him when he doesn’t do exactly what she wants him to in Season 3.

All of these moments are critical to understanding Mike as a person because they show us that, even without addressing his queerness, Mike’s desire to conform to socialized expectations involves but is not solely about him moving out of heteronormativity—it’s about him moving against everything that WASP, patriarchal, heteronormative and capitalistic and performative “wholesome American” values…and how he is learning to move past the fear of what will happen if he steps outside the lines in general, even though he already knows he hates those standards.

Mike’s “coming of age” arc is about finding the strength to choose the “path less traveled” in all areas of his life—even when it means (potentially) losing the support of the people he cares about. It’s about starting from a place of privilege and becoming okay with being outcasted from it in a way your insecurities never let you be before (which is inherently different than Will, who has always been shown to have some kind of support not just for his queerness but his artistic endeavors as well). Mike’s lack of support is why he starts from a place of deep insecurity, yes—but it’s also why him learning power of choosing to be himself, even if it means “losing” people when he’s honest about who (& what) he is will be universally powerful.

You don’t need to be queer to understand the power of what it means to know you will be okay even if people leave you. You don’t need to be queer to understand the power of stepping outside social expectations or your family’s way of raising you. You don’t even need to be queer to understand the weight of breaking up with someone you were only with to satisfy what you thought you should do, rather than be with who you want to.

The power of being strong enough to overcome your insecurities in order to “step out of line” and live and love as you want to is universal, and a stunningly brave choice no matter what or why you chose to do so. The fact that Will will be there waiting to love him in that honesty with himself is beautiful, yes—but it’s not the only lesson to be learned for Mike’s character.

Mike starting out with everything the world (or, at least America) tells would make you happy, realizing he is not happy with those things and rejecting them knowing it might have consequences is what makes his arc powerful, because he is learning (exactly like his sister Nancy) to be brave enough to accept those consequences (which for him are getting dumped, and feeling like he’s being left behind by some of his friends) to follow his own heart.

Even though The Duffers aren’t writing this into a tragic ending (aka: he’s not going to die or be left alone, because the duffers writing is inherently designed ro champion the outcast), these are the things that have (and will) make him relatable even to an audience that doesn’t know queerness. Erasing the fact that his lesson is the bravery it takes to follow your heart solely to talk about him liking guys (even Will) is to undermine his humanity, and the lessons to be learned from him by even the most general an audience.

TL:DR - the heteronormative aspect of Mike’s character is not the sole or even inherent issue within Mike, though heteronormativity is inherently built into his struggle.

There are deep dives on how his arc is also about a war against toxic patriarchy, toxic masculinity, emphasis on capitalistic and academic accomplishments over artistic ones, and even conformist relationships (whether they’re queer or not) that should be explored for his character—and I for one like him too much not to move out of just “this boy is queer because xyz” and into “let’s talk about Mike in terms of the wider scope of his cultural context and upbringing.” 🤷🏽‍♀️😂

[are-they-plural]

Reasoning: During the final arc, there are two halves of Mob shown. Each half has a different outlook on who Mob is and the world around him. He only calms down once both parts accept each other.

[o0o0thorn0o0o]

It’s that time of year again!!!

The amount of times Ibis crashed on me ;~; (still sorting out the storage issues—at a slug’s pace, ‘cause other things be preoccupying my mind), but it was worth it!! I’m very much proud, very much pleased, with how it came out this year if I do say so myself! Ahhh, all that struggling with and “refinding” my art style this year was not for naught!!

I think of my previous years, 2021 is my favorite, but it’s officially been replaced now 😌 I feel so content rn (please don’t let this be a short moodlet, eheh)

That said, I do think I prefer last year’s hands. They were also a pain this time—primarily Yukiko’s right hand…

Anywho, previous versions (+ “base-color” version + a close-up ‘cause why not) under the cut (after some more rambling, eheh):

I was really struggling to start this—I restarted it 3 times essentially—so I’m also really happy with how it came out in that regard. As such (plus the crashes), I’m a wee bit late this year, but only by a few days; I really don’t mind it for once, haha.

I noticed I was going in a certain direction over the years with Yukiko’s hairstyle and the light source, and not the one I intended. Realized that this year, so I fixed those trends:

Tried to make the light source more behind and adjusted it’s position to match with the scene in my head more (though, if I really wanted to be truthful to that, she’d be in one of the other ballgowns I designed for her since she wears this specific one for her first meeting with Gakushuu in this AU, whereas the idea for this scene is supposed to be from when they’re much more familiar with each other later on. But, uh, I like this dress wayyy too much, so let’s just ignore that, haha). I was actually thinking of finally implementing a proper bg this year—even sketched it (mainly for perspective, though)—but I really wanted to just get this done, haha, but also… I didn’t want to deal with more crashes… Perhaps next year… but don’t quote me on that, haha.

As for the hair, the strands that bunch up the rest of Yukiko’s hair—I noticed I was placing them too low. How I imagine her hairstyle to be is that they eventually connect up to her bun (I should definitely sketch a back view concept of this design, mainly so I don’t forget stuff like these, eheh, and to visualize just what in the world is going on… but that’s something distant future me will worry about… if she remembers, of course ^^;). But they’re also supposed the same length as the rest of her hair, so… yeah… I thought this would make her hair less fluffier, which would’ve saddened me, haha, but it didn’t! That said, I have a feeling I’ll possibly make it less voluminous next year… Seems a bit too thick… but idk. I like drawing thick hair, haha.

Oh, also, if you’ll notice: I decided to simplify her underskirt design last year, and… yeah, no, I reverted that change, haha.

Mannn, I am in such a mood to draw more “A Brothers’ Quarrel” stuff/AC Kingdom AU stuff in general (like designing some proper outfits for Gakushuu and Karma finally (they’re the main characters, and Yukiko only appears for a specific part of the AU, yet who do I draw the most…? XD), drawing her horse, Camellia, drawing her in her other dresses, finally getting around to drawing her ladies-in-waiting designs in that other Kingdom AU (just how long ago did I post the traditional sketches of them? Yikes…), etc, etc), but I’ve got too much stuff to get finished before the end of the year. I really need to pick up the pace, eheh.

[hilacopter]

no babe you can form your own opinions you've just learned to automatically check what other people think and form them in accordance in fear of having the "wrong" ones and have hindered your own critical thinking as a result

[ariszed]

Delirious with a fever all weekend thinking about Nigel McGuinness

[peppermint-jade]

not at all what I normally post, but I just have to talk about this book. As an amateur Arthurian nerd who is slightly out of practice, this book was amazing. Now granted, the King Arthur Brainrot has been on the downlow for a bit for me, but safe to say I'm back into it. I picked it up on a whim and finished it in record time (I don't have the time/energy to read like I used to) so I know it's good. It's so refreshing to read something Arthurian by someone who gets it??? Like.... so much good stuff here. we have:

Kay centric narrative (!!!)

Historical accuracy for the 6th century! (mentions of no plate armor, accurate weapons, place names, romans, saxons, etc)

Galehaut (who I didn't even know existed but am now obsessed with. what do you mean he acted like a romantic rival to Gwenhwyfar??? (as her name is spelled in the book))

on that subject, queer Lancelot

Warrior King Arthur (who swears like a sailor and is depicted in a unique, almost negative light)

Glastonbury Tor as a central location (yes I know he was "buried" at the abbey but the tor is so iconic)

calling the sword from the lake Caliburn rather than Excalibur

Neutral Morgan le Fey/Morgana figure (sorta net positive I guess)

Christopher Marlowe is here

probably more stuff I'm forgetting tbh

anyways please someone go read this book. It's very good I promise. Especially if you're an Arthurian nerd. You can tell the author had all of this knowledge and decided to write about it, rather than an author who decided to write about an Arthurian topic then researched it if that makes sense.

[borntodrawforcedtowork]

mob psycho 100 is about a kid with psychic powers who is trying to be as normal as possible while the world around him is in shambles and he’s the only one qualified to save it

the disastrous life of saiki k is about a kid with psychic powers who is trying to be as normal as possible while the world around him is in shambles and he’s the only one qualified to save it