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mdzsartreblogs · 2 years

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Recognizing AI Generated Images, Danmei Edition

Heyo, @unforth here! I run some danmei art blogs (@mdzsartreblogs, @tgcfartreblogs, @svsssartreblogs, @zhenhunartreblogs, @erhaartreblogs, @dmbjartreblogs, @tykartreblogs, and @cnovelartreblogs) which means I see a LOT of danmei art, and I go through the main fandom tags more-or-less every day.

Today, for the first time, I spotted someone posting AI-generated images (I refuse to call them AI "art" - and to be clear, that's correct of me, because at least in the US it literally LEGALLY isn't art) without any label indicating they were AI generated. I am not necessarily against the existence of AI-generated images (though really...considering all the legal issues and the risks of misuse, I'm basically against them); I think they potentially have uses in certain contexts (such as for making references) and I also think that regardless of our opinions, we're stuck with them, but they're also clearly not art and I don't reblog them to the art side blogs.

The images I spotted today had multiple "tells," but they were still accumulating notes, and I thought it might be a good moment to step back and point out some of the more obvious tells because my sense is that a LOT of people are against AI-generated images being treated as art, and that these people wouldn't want to support an AI-generator user who tried to foist off their work as actual artwork, but that people don't actually necessarily know how to IDENTIFY those works and therefore can inadvertently reblog works that they'd never support if they were correctly identified. (Similar to how the person who reposts and says "credit to the artist" is an asshole but they're not the same as someone who reposts without any credit at all and goes out of their way to make it look like they ARE the artist when they're not).

Toward that end, I've downloaded all the images I spotted on this person's account and I'm going to use them to highlight the things that led me to think they were AI art - they posted a total of 5 images to a few major danmei tags the last couple days, and several other images not to specific fandoms (I examined 8 images total). The first couple I was suspicious, but it wasn't til this morning that I spotted one so obvious that it couldn't be anything BUT AI art. I am NOT going to name the person who did this. The purpose of this post is purely educational. I have no interest whatsoever in bullying one rando. Please don't try to identify them; who they are is genuinely irrelevant, what matters is learning how to recognize AI art in general and not spreading it around, just like the goal of education about reposting is to help make sure that people who repost don't get notes on their theft, to help people recognize the signs so that the incentive to be dishonest about this stuff is removed.

But first: Why is treating AI-generated images as art bad?

I'm no expert and this won't be exhaustive, but I do think it's important to first discuss why this matters.

On the surface, it's PERHAPS harmless for someone to post AI-generated images provided that the image is clearly labeled as AI-generated. I say "perhaps" because in the end, as far as I'm aware, there isn't a single AI-generation engine that's built on legally-sourced artwork. Every AI (again, to the best of my knowledge) has been trained using copyrighted images usually without the permission of the artists. Indeed, this is the source of multiple current lawsuits. (and another)

But putting that aside (as if it can be put aside that AI image generators are literally unethically built), it's still problematic to support the images being treated as art. Artists spend thousands of hours learning their craft, honing it, sharing their creations, building their audiences. This is what they sell when they offer commissions, prints, etc. This can never be replicated by a computer, and to treat an AI-generated image as in any way equivalent is honestly rude, inappropriate, disgusting imo. This isn't "harmless"; supporting AI image creation engines is damaging to real people and their actual livelihoods. Like, the images might be beautiful, but they're not art. I'm honestly dreading someone managing to convince fandom that their AI-generated works are actual art, and then cashing in on commissions, prints, etc., because people can't be fussed to learn the difference. We really can't let this happen, guys. Fanartists are one of the most vibrant, important, prominent groups in all our fandoms, and we have to support them and do our part to protect them.

As if those two points aren't enough, there's already growing evidence that AI-generated works are being used to further propagandists. There are false images circulating of violence at protests, deep-fakes of various kinds that are helping the worst elements of society to push their horrid agendas. As long as that's a facet of AI-generated works, they'll always be dangerous.

I could go on, but really this isn't the main point of my post and I don't want to get bogged down. Other people have said more eloquently than I why AI-generated images are bad. Read those. (I tried to find a good one to link but sadly failed; if anyone knows a good post, feel free to send it and I'll add the link to the post).

Basically: I think a legally trained AI-image generator that had built-in clear watermarks could be a fun toy for people who want reference images or just to play with making pseudo-art. But...that's not what we have, and what we do have is built on theft and supports dystopia so, uh. Yeah fuck AI-generated images.

How to recognize AI-Generated Images Made in an Eastern Danmei Art Style

NOTE: I LEARNED ALL THE BASIC ON SPOTTING AI-GENERATED IMAGES FROM THIS POST. I'll own I still kinda had the wool over my eyes until I read that post - I knew AI stuff was out there but I hadn't really looked closely enough to have my eyes open for specific signs. Reading that entire post taught me a lot, and what I learned is the foundation of this post.

This post shouldn't be treated as a universal guide. I'm specifically looking at the tells on the kind of art that people in danmei fandoms often see coming from Weibo and other Chinese, Japanese, and Korean platforms, works made by real artists. For example, the work of Foxking (狐狸大王a), kokirapsd, and Changyang (who is an official artist for MDZS, TGCF, and other danmei works). This work shares a smooth use of color, an aim toward a certain flavor of realism, an ethereal quality to the lighting, and many other features. (Disclaimer: I am not an artist. Putting things in arty terms is really not my forte. Sorry.)

So, that's what these AI-generated images are emulating. And on the surface, they look good! Like...

...that's uncontestably a pretty picture (the white box is covering the "artist's" watermark.) And on a glance, it doesn't necessarily scream "AI generated"! But the devil is in the details, and the details are what this post is about. And that picture? Is definitely AI generated.

This post is based on 8 works I grabbed from a single person's account, all posted as their own work and watermarked as such. Some of the things that are giveaways only really show when looking at multiple pieces. I'm gonna start with those, and then I'll highlight some of the specifics I spotted that caused me to go from "suspicious" to "oh yeah no these are definitely not art."

Sign 1: all the images are the exact same size. I mean, to the pixel: 512 x 682 pixels (or 682 x 512, depending on landscape or portrait orientation). This makes zero sense. Why would an artist trim all their pieces to that size? It's not the ideal Tumblr display size (that's 500 x 750 pixels). If you check any actual artist's page and look at the full-size of several of their images, they'll all be different sizes as they trimmed, refined, and otherwise targeted around their original canvas size to get the results they wanted.

Sign 2: pixelated. At the shrunken size displayed on, say, a mobile Tumblr feed, the image looks fine, but even just opening the full size upload, the whole thing is pixelated. Now, this is probably the least useful sign; a lot of artists reduce the resolution/dpi/etc. on their uploaded works so that people don't steal them. But, taken in conjunction with everything else, it's definitely a sign.

Those are the two most obvious overall things - the things I didn't notice until I looked at all the uploads. The specifics are really what tells, though. Which leads to...

Sign 3: the overall work appears to have a very high degree of polish, as if it were made by an artist who really really knows what they're doing, but on inspection - sometimes even on really, REALLY cursory inspect - the details make zero sense and reflect the kinds of mistakes that a real artist would never make.

So, here's the image that I saw that "gave it away" to me, and caused me to re-examine the images that had first struck me as off but that I hadn't been able to immediately put my finger on the problem. I've circled some of the spots that are flagrant.

Do you see yet? Yes? Awesome, you're getting it. No? Okay, let's go point by point, with close ups.

Sign 4: HANDS. Hands are currently AI's biggest weakness, though they've been getting better quickly and honestly that's terrifying. But whatever AI generated this picture clearly doesn't get hands yet, because that hand is truly an eldritch horror. Look at this thing:

It has two palms. It has seven fingers. It's basically two hands overlaid over each other, except one of those hands only has four fingers and the other has three. Seeing this hand was how I went from "umm...maybe they're fake? Maybe they're not???" to "oh god why is ANYONE reblogging this when it's this obvious?" WATCH THE HANDS. (Go back up to that first one posted and look at the hand, you'll see. Or just look right below at this crop.) Here's some other hands:

Sign 5: Hair and shadows. Once I started inspecting these images, the shadows of the hair on the face was one of the things that was most consistently fucked up across all the uploaded pictures. Take a look:

There's shadows of tendrils on the forehead, but there's no corresponding hair that could possibly have made those shadows. Likewise there's a whole bunch of shadows on the cheeks. Where are those coming from? There's no possible source in the rest of the image. Here's some other hair with unrelated wonky shadows:

Sign 6: Decorative motifs that are really just meaningless squiggles. Like, artists, especially those who make fanart, put actual thought into what the small motifs are on their works. Like, in TGCF, an artist will often use a butterfly motif or a flower petal motif to reflect things about the characters. An AI, though, can only approximate a pattern and it can't imbue those with meanings. So you end up with this:

What is that? It's nothing, that's what. It's a bunch of squiggles. Here's some other meaningless squiggle motifs (and a more zoomed-in version of the one just above):

Sign 7: closely related to meaningless squiggle motifs is motifs that DO look like something, but aren't followed through in any way that makes sense. For example, an outer garment where the motifs on the left and the right shoulder/chest are completely different, or a piece of cloth that's supposed to be all one piece but that that has different patterns on different sections of it. Both of these happen in the example piece, see?

The first images on the top left is the left and right shoulder side by side. The right side has a scalloped edge; the left doesn't. Likewise, in the right top picture, you can see the two under-robe lapels; one has a gold decoration and the other doesn't. And then the third/bottom image shows three sections of the veil. One (on the left) has that kind of blue arcy decoration, which doesn't follow the folds of the cloth very well and looks weird and appears at one point to be OVER the hair instead of behind it. The second, on top of the bottom images, shows a similar motif, except now it's gold, and it looks more like a hair decoration than like part of the veil. The third is also part of the same veil but it has no decorations at all. Nothing about this makes any sense whatsoever. Why would any artist intentionally do it that way? Or, more specifically, why would any artist who has this apparent level of technical skill ever make a mistake like this?

They wouldn't.

Some more nonsensical patterns, bad mirrors, etc. (I often put left/right shoulders side by side so that it'd be clearer, sorry if it's weird):

Sign 8: bizarre architecture, weird furniture, etc. Most of the images I'm examining for this post have only partial backgrounds, so it's hard to really focus on this, but it's something that the post I linked (this one) talks about a lot. So, like, an artist will put actual thought into how their construction works, but an AI won't because an AI can't. There's no background in my main example image, but take a look at this from another of my images:

On a glance it's beautiful. On a few seconds actually staring it's just fucking bizarre. The part of the ceiling on the right appears to be domed maybe? But then there's a hard angle, then another. The windows on the right have lots of panes, but then the one on the middle-left is just a single panel, and the ones on the far left have a complete different pane model. Meanwhile, also on the left side at the middle, there's that dark gray...something...with an arch that mimics the background arches except it goes no where, connects to nothing, and has no apparent relationship to anything else going on architecturally. And, while the ceiling curves, the back wall is straight AND shows more arches in the background even though the ceiling looks to end. And yes, some of this is possible architecture, but taken as a whole, it's just gibberish. Why would anyone who paints THAT WELL paint a building to look like THAT? They wouldn't. It's nonsense. It's the art equivalent of word salad. When we look at a sentence and it's like "dog makes a rhythmical salad to betray on the frame time plot" it almost resembles something that might mean something but it's clearly nonsense. This background is that sentence, as art.

Sign 9: all kinds of little things that make zero sense. In the example image, I circled where a section of the hair goes BELOW the inner robe. That's not impossible but it just makes zero sense. As with many of these, it's the kind of thing that taken alone, I'd probably just think "well, that was A Choice," but combined with all the other weird things it stands out as another sign that something here is really, really off. Here's a collection of similar "wtf?" moments I spotted across the images I looked at (I'm worried I'm gonna hit the Tumblr image cap, hence throwing these all in one, lol.)

You have to remember that an actual artist will do things for a reason. And we, as viewers, are so used to viewing art with that in mind that we often fill in reasons even when there aren't. Like, in the image just about this, I said, "what the heck are these flowers growing on?" And honestly, I COULD come up with explanations. But that doesn't mean it actually makes sense, and there's no REASON for it whatsoever. The theoretical same flowers are, in a different shot, growing unsupported! So...what gives??? The answer is nothing gives. Because these pieces are nothing. The AI has no reason, it's just tossing in random aesthetic pieces together in a mishmash, and the person who generated them is just re-generating and refining until they get something that looks "close enough" to what they wanted. It never was supposed to make sense, so of course it doesn't.

In conclusion...

After years of effort, artists have gotten across to most of fandom that reposts are bad, and helped us learn strategies for helping us recognize reposts, and given us an idea of what to do when we find one.

Fandom is just at the beginning of this process as it applies to AI-generated images. There's a LOT of education that has to be done - about why AI-generated images are bad (the unethical training using copyrighted images without permission is, imo, critical to understanding this), and about how to spot them, and then finally about what to do when you DO find them.

With reposts, we know "tell original artist, DCMA takedowns, etc." That's not the same with these AI-images. There's no original owner. There's no owner at all - in the US, at least, they literally cannot be copyrighted. Which is why I'm not even worrying about "credit" on this post - there's nothing stolen, cause there's nothing made. So what should you do?

Nothing. The answer is, just as the creator has essentially done nothing, you should also do nothing. Don't engage. Don't reblog. Don't commission the creator or buy their art prints. If they do it persistently and it bothers you, block them. If you see one you really like, and decide to reblog it, fine, go for it, but mark it clearly - put in the ACTUAL COMMENTS (not just in the tags!) that it's AI art, and that you thought it was pretty anyway. But honestly, it'd be better to not engage, especially since as this grows it's inevitable that some actual artists are going to start getting accused of posting AI-generated images by over-zealous people. Everyone who gets a shadow wrong isn't posting AI-generated images. A lot of these details are insanely difficult to get correct, and lots of even very skilled, accomplished artists, if you go over their work with a magnifying glass you're going to find at least some of these things, some weirdnesses that make no sense, some shadows that are off, some fingers that are just ugh (really, getting hands wrong is so relatable. hands are the fucking worst). It's not about "this is bad art/not art because the hand is wrong," it's specifically about the ways that it's wrong, the way a computer randomly throws pieces together versus how actual people make actual mistakes. It's all of the little signs taken as a whole to say "no one who could produce a piece that, on the surface, looks this nice, could possibly make THIS MANY small 'mistakes.'"

The absolute best thing you can do if you see AI-generated images being treated as real art is just nothing. Support actual artists you love, and don't spread the fakes.

Thanks for your time, everyone. Good luck avoiding AI-generated pieces in the future, please signal boost this, and feel free to get in touch if you think I can help you with anything related to this.

#resources

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cheydlerarts · 1 month

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OC x Canon Instagram art contest ~✧

Thank you all for the love and support!! I've been in the creepypasta fandom for a decade now, and ever since I "officially" came back a year ago, I've been welcomed with open arms and it feels like im back in the 2010's again in the best way 😭🖤

RULES !!: - Draw your oc x canon creepypasta ship! Self inserts are allowed and encouraged! - NO AI !! - NO tracing! (free to use bases are fine) - No NSFW! - Tag your entry as #creepypasta and #ocxcanon - Tag and @ me so I can see your entry! - You can use other's ocs, as long as you get their permission ! - You can treat this as a DTIYS if you want (this will not effect your score) - If you use my oc Chev, pls also tag it #chevonnerojas and #chainbridgecrawler 👉👈

PRIZES !!: - 1st place: Fully rendered drawing, up to 3 characters - 2nd place: Clean sketch, toon shaded drawing, up to 2 characters - 3rd place: Flat colored sketch, up to 2 characters

Winners will be picked September 27th! (will be extended if need be)

All entries will be added to a highlight!

I mainly wanted to host this contest because too many people these days are too afraid to be "cringe". A lot of people DM me asking how I have the courage to ship my oc with canon characters, and I always tell them that I don't care what people think about my harmless drawings! I just post em, and people seem to like them 🖤

There are so much more supporters than haters out there, and you'd be surprised by how much support you'd get by posting oc x canon! Including me! I LOVE when people ship their ocs or themselves with fictional characters! It makes me happy c:

I honestly think it's cringe when people hate on these things. As long as the ships are appropriately aged and not problematic, literally who gives a fuck? I think YOU should go outside and touch grass, weirdo.

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myketheartista · 2 months

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Hi everyone!

It’s commission time! I’ve been unable to do commissions for a few years due to college, but I’m trying my hand at them again with some updated prices and information since I’ve graduated :3c

There are 3 slots available. When these fill up, a waiting list will be created and you will be notified of your position until you move into a slot. The average completion time for each commission will be 2-3 weeks! Please DM or email me at [email protected] if you’re interested!!

I will be offering two primary options: Flat colored work and rendered work. Both options have backgrounds/scenes available upon request for an extra cost determined by the complexity. Examples such as the collage of characters on the flats section can be requested for a separate estimated price—I’m willing to work with you if you’ve got a fun idea in mind! Please feel free to run an idea by me if you’re unsure if it fits into my comfort zone. I’m still feeling the waters out myself!

The third option I am offering are chibis! These are minimally rendered little guys that are best paired with a prop and some fancy accessories, all included in the price listed! These characters will be delivered as a transparent file and on a plain background, typically grey since that is what I work on, but a different color can be requested before or after the commission is finished. Very simple, graphic backgrounds can be requested as well for free! This would include single-colored, non-detailed floral elements, shapes and patterns, and any symbols that may compliment the character(s).

*For four chibis or more, I will offer a discounted price :D

I have the right to decline any commission.

I accept payment in USD with Venmo, Square, and Cashapp.

Payment is upfront for commissions $50 and lower. Anything higher can be split, half upfront and half before the final product is sent.

Updates will be sent throughout the process. Edits to the sketch are free. When the product is completed, two free edits are allowed. After that, each edit will cost $10.

Visual references are a must.

Commissions will take 2-3 weeks. Please inform me if there is a deadline.

The product is for personal use only. Do not use my art for AI, NFTs, or commercial use. Do not resell, copy, or trace my work.

I do not offer refunds unless I am unable to complete the commission.

WILL DRAW: Fanart, OCs, Mild violence, Ships, Anthro/Feral, and Stylized work upon request.

WON’T DRAW: NSFW/Fetish/Gore, Mecha, Realism, Complex Backgrounds, Problematic Content.

Thank you for reading, and please spread the word! I appreciate any and all support <3

#enthusiasm at its best #commissions #commissions open #art commissions #dnd commissions #chibi commissions #myke's comms #official tag mayhaps #very excited to start these up again :D ive been a little disheartened everytime i go to set them up #but alas the art world will always be daunting #i emphasize heavily pleasepleaspelpasleepslae ask questions!!! do not hesitate to reach out if you wanna comm but think the idea is too muc #long post

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tmbgareok · 7 months

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What's your guys' opinion on artificial intelligence? I wanna know because I have strong opinions on it and I need to hear your opinions too 👻

JF: at first it was equal parts fascination and annoyance, and it hasn't changed too much. Of course this is early days, and ultimately they will probably replace our relatives with Ai, but right now it seems very useful for coders, problematic for scholarship, and--based on some clearly Ai-generated articles I've tripped over in recent days--capable of the dullest, most anodyne prose writing imaginable.

Like everyone else, I am very curious what AI-generated art or music could be. While I don't think very much about plagiarism in general, I have noticed that the best examples seem to be generated out of the most narrow prompts (veering closest to simply reshuffling the quite specific creative decisions found in pre-existing artists work) Just seems a little weak as an artistic statement. But right here is where some folk--and folks I know--have a very negative response, because they recognize how directly derivative the output is, and feel like its just an escalation of the wholesale theft of material introduced by the internet so long ago (and that is another too-long conversation)

On a personal level--I have experienced with inputting short bits of lyrics into these free "song-generating" sites, and found that no matter what prompts were given for the style of song, if the lyrics inputted have an additional or contrary point of view (like, say, a uptempo disco song with a "I'm falling asleep" lyric) the Ai really can't navigate the difference, and uses the lyric as a guide as if you need to unify all the idea in a song. In this way it's hard for me not to think the driving "idea" the Ai has is to make an object in the (preexisting) shape of a song, where human writers ideas for songs are to make things that are in new shapes.

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pippin-katz · 1 year

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Alright before anyone asks me:

yes I’m aware Taylor used an AI app/filter thing

no I don’t like that he used it

yes it’s a little problematic that he used it

no he did not violate the strike by using it

yes I have seen the tiktok of those two white bitches demanding queer roles only be played by queer characters

yes they are completely fucking stupid and hypocritical

The SAG strike is fighting against the use of AI to write scripts, create footage, recreate their likeness and voice to steal their identity, and all that fantastic bullshit.

The AI app Taylor used has nothing to do with that.

If the app’s algorithm was trained by photos and artwork that the developers had permission and consent to use, it would be completely fine.

However, 99.9% of them do not have permission. That is also an important AI issue, but it is not the same as what the SAG strike is about. It’s not great that he used it, but he did not do anything wrong regarding the strike.

Also, I’d like to point out that most people are unaware of the theft that goes on behind the scenes. It may seem obvious to people like me, an artist, or people who spend a lot of time on the internet looking at art, but most ordinary people who hop on something like TikTok and use an AI filter are not aware of the thievery that is taking place.

It is not impossible that he isn’t familiar with this issue either, especially given how much he seems to travel, and his attention being on sustainability, specifically in the fashion/clothing industry. He’s busy doing stuff in real life. He’s also a bit of a bookworm, so he’s probably not on the internet nearly as much as people like us.

Is it still bad that he used it? Yes, but it is not something to freak out over. Inform him of the problem and move on.

As for the bitches, I would probably punch the one with braces in the face if I was put in a room with them. They had the gall to complain about Love, Simon being “too happy”, citing how miserable queer people are and how we’re scared to come out of the closet, right after demanding all queer characters be played by queer actors.

Please let this idea DIE. It does far more harm than the good people have in mind.

The idea is that it would get more queer actors hired and more representation overall and whatnot, but if you actually stop to fucking think about it, it is completely stupid.

1. Sexuality is an invisible trait. Anyone can identify as anything simply by saying it.

2. Any queer actor would have to out themselves just to play a queer character on a screen.

3. Actors do not owe the public details about their personal life and identity.

4. Stop assuming everyone is straight until said otherwise. It’s heteronormative and harmful.

One of the best lines in the entirety of Red, White & Royal Blue is this one from Alex’s speech:

“The forced conformity of the closet cannot be answered with forced conformity in coming out of it.”

There are far too many queer people who are failing to understand this. By pressuring people to come out, you are harming them. There are a bunch of different reasons for why they haven’t, with the most important one being that they simply don’t want to. It is their decision, and your opinion is unwanted and irrelevant.

Alright there, I addressed the stuff. Moving on!

#red white and royal blue #rwrb #rwrb movie #taylor zakhar perez

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catsconflictscopicsandchamomile · 25 days

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It’s not been a good summer to be a Beowulf scholar, let alone one focusing on Grendel’s Mother

Mariah Dahvana Headley’s “feminist” translation, and later full retelling of, Beowulf are at their best consistently cringeworthy (“Cheugy” being an extremely accurate term here) and at their worst stroll all-too-comfortably into racialized narratives that a white woman (or in at least one especially egregious case, any decent person) should not be writing at all. However, she brought progress to the field, centering the narrative on feminist voices. I myself am white, and having seen BIPOC reviewers adore her books, I previously felt able, if not obliged, to put my personal misgivings aside and appreciate imperfect progress.

Headley, who also published several other successful “feminist re-interpretations” of classical works, has worked closely with Neil Gaiman often over the past year, including co-leading writing classes with him and having him as the lead voice in a mid-quarantine celebrity performance of her Beowulf translation.

She has been silent.

Comic artist and amateur-yet-devoted Beowulf Scholar Zach Weinersmith (he taught his then eight year old daughter to read the original text in Old English) wrote Bea Wolf, a take on Beowulf that was re-imagined for and about modern children, replacing 5th c. mead hall culture with tree houses and nerf battles, Grendel with an angry, rule-obsessed adult neighbor, and most interestingly, death with the inevitable transition out of childhood. In addition, Weinersmith took advantage of the (obviously) non-exact and non-culturally-accurate translation to perfectly preserve the original Old English poetic meter present in the piece. Bea Wolf is a masterclass in creative adaptation, that I recommend to friends and fellow academics alike. At some point within the next year, Weinersmith will publish Bea Wolf’s next installment, continuing the adaptation to cover the conflict with Grendel’s Mother.

Weinersmith also works in speculative sci-fi and futurism. A vocal proponent for the (at the very least) cautious acceptance of AI “as a creative tool”, this summer he shared on social media that he was using AI to “help him” write Bea Wolf pt. 2 - generating lists of alliterations and synonyms when adapting a certain passage of Old English was “too hard”. “To speed things up”, he said. I don’t mean to self-promo here but I gladly would have dropped everything to help. I’m confident in my abilities there. He showed a sample passage that AI “helped” with. It’s bad.

Beowulf studies is a small field. Grendel studies is smaller. Grendel’s Mother studies is, without Headley, virtually nonexistent in terms of published, easily accessible media. Losing two authors, to hypocrisy of values and hypocrisy of art, is devastating. I genuinely do not want to be the only person willing to get creative with this story without bowing to AI, problematic stereotypes and Creepy Old White Men In Power. I know these authors made their own choices, and those choices weren’t good. But this field is too small, too closed-off and non diverse, and too hemmed in by lack of historical context on one side and the alt-right on the other, to afford “bad choices”. This field is starving for young, creative minds, new approaches and diversity of experience. What these authors have done will only isolate us further.

What I feel from this is grief.

#Beowulf studies #Beowulf #Grendel #Grendel’s mother #academia #rant #vent #academic grief #old English #fuck Neil Gaiman #fuck ai #maria dahvana headley #the mere wife #long post

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paletteprimary · 4 months

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☽. MASTERPOST | INTRO

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺ ╭────────── ♱ · 𓆩🤍𓆪 · ♱ ─╮ Howdy <33 ,, Strings is my name, being silly is my game. I go by multiple names, but Strings is a heavily preferred one ! Single man :3 ILY MY BEST FRIENDS (Punky my pookie /p) There's more underneath! I think you should keep reading <3 ╰─ ♱ · 𓆩🤍𓆪 · ♱ ──────────╯ ≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

𓆩♡𓆪 About me ,, :^

Here's some basic info bout me ! vvv

my main interests are spooky month, pico's school, and mainly ocs (including fankids)

Lover of an indie games !! BATIM/BATDR, Smile For Me, Indigo Park, and more

i have more than three sonas !! I might post them all, I don't know,

some of my favorite music artists are: will wood, kmfdm, cg5, hozier, miracle musical, the living tombstone, etc etc <3

some of my songs are: too sweet, against the kitchen floor, megalomaniac, love me normally, pork soda, etc.

i have a ton of comfort characters, some are: ronbo, kevin, robert, alucard, etc

𓆩♡𓆪 tag info ,, :^

#pri art - my art specifically !

#pri reply - replies to asks/questions !

#pri fankid - fankids I made for ships I like!

#pri shipping - ship doodles, often paired with my art tag!

#pri yammer - my yammering :]

𓆩♡𓆪 dni ,, :^

basic dni criteria

ists & phobes

dark/pro/comship (WEIRDOS!!!)

certain irl doubles (unless i know you beforehand) (i'm irls of thomas connor, rick hedony & alucard)

ship slander (unless it's obviously problematic)

slander of my interests

unwanted criticism of any kind, especially if not asked

ANY person i had drama with, including exes

homestuck, hazbin/helluva, dsmp, object shows (im not okay with these, dont talk about them in front of me please. If you interact w/ me short term, I'll probably be fine)

ai "art" users, fuck off my stuff pal

people who use femboy. i hate that goddamn word

𓆩♡𓆪 byi + boundaries ,, :^

I would HEAVILY perfer if you use tonetags around me, you don't have to, but i'd like you to,

i ramble, yap, and yammer a TON, say outta pocket things, make inappropriate jokes, volume control/all caps issues, flirt/tease super close friends. If I EVER do a thing that makes you/someone uncomfortable, please inform me and don't tone switch with me.

sexual jokes are ONLY for close friends, not for people I just met, please refrain.

i dont like a lot of popular ships in the medias im into, don't get mad at me for not liking them. I am a BIG rarepair fan.

im a-okay with interaction, but I might not reply immediately because I am very anxious

i have some strong opinions, but i try to keep an open mind

don't question my art style (some doodles will just be a head and hands, my style in general is REALLY sketchy anyway)

my blog, my rules

☽. LAST UPDATED: 9/5/24

#pri yammer #updates will be at anytime :p #the intro is inspired by my best friend punk's #ily punky #spooky month #picos school #oc art #masterpost #artist intro #pri art

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colorcometts · 1 year

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Well what have we learned today in the MCR/ LS Dunes fanbase :

- Ai is harmful to the art community and maybe just maybe listen to your fans, who are mostly younger fans who do art for hobbies/ jobs and would know how harmful it is to the music/ art industry and educate yourself on the topic before you commission someone to do a music video for your band.

-Making a “joke” wether you deemed it to be a certain way can ultimately backfire on you, and given the fact you are not chronically online, it is best you educate yourself or know context of it before you say it openly on a public domain.

-this goes for fans of the bands, do not have the mentality that your idols are perfect people, because they are not. Do not be afraid to call them out when they do something problematic.

-fans need to know how harmful parasocial relationships are with a public figure or celebrity. Parasocial relationships can ruin your physical and mental health if you are not careful.

-another thing, do not threaten anyone to “off themselves” this does go for anyone fan wise or band wise.

Ive said my thoughts on this.

#my chemical romance #ls dunes #frank iero

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brofisting · 2 years

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Brief thoughts on AI writing/art data-scraping and subsequent content production, & the conclusion I've come to.

Thought #1: There has been a lot of discussion about how AI is or is not art theft (or writing theft); from my understanding every model works slightly differently. What isn't up for debate, though, is that all AI models require data to function, and that data has to come from somewhere. The companies developing AI have a strong incentive to get data by any means possible; the internet is the easiest place to start, but there's no way to get permission from every single person who has ever put something on the internet for the use of that thing to develop the AI, even if every single person were inclined to give it.

Conclusion #1: Doesn't matter if the AI's output is a copyright violation; instead, it was a violation of copyright to feed that data to the AI in the first place, making the AI itself inherently legally problematic.

("BRIEF" DO NOT @ ME OKAY. SEE BELOW FOR THE REST OF MY BIG ASS ESSAY. I WILL REBLOG WITH THE SHORTEST TL;DR I CAN MANAGE.)

Thoughts #2&3: Due to how easy it is to scrape data online, and the way technology is currently progressing (silicon valley motto of Never Ask "Should" I Do It, Just "Can" I Do It), there is almost no way to prevent these AI from being developed with stolen data, and there's enough out there to make these very, very good. They've gotten immeasurably better in just the past few years. Also, preventing them from scraping one thing (ie archive-locking fic) is probably not going to do anything about the problem as a whole, even if it stops that one thing from getting used (and if it even does prevent that thing from being used; I am not sure there's not ways to get around that kind of obstacle).

Conclusions #2&3: Can't stop the technology from developing, and trying to prevent your data from being accessed through technological barriers is at best small potatoes and at worst futile.

Thought #4: What is the incentive for people to do this? Money. These AI are being developed in hopes that they can be used to do things humans can currently do, for cheaper, so they can sell them to companies who will then use them to replace human labor. Will it produce results as good as human labor? No. Will that matter? Not enough, and not in all circumstances.

Conclusion #4: How to prevent this from happening in a way that loses people jobs (or loses the least jobs, or at least protects creative work, or does the whole thing slowly enough to save your job and my job)? Make it so companies cannot legally make money by using the output of these AIs.

WHICH... takes us back to Conclusion #1 -- due to the copyright violation inherent in these programs, it is important to make sure the output can't be copyrighted. Which, at the moment, legal precedent says it can't be. But that's something that companies which stand to make money off AI-generated work are going to try to change.

THEREFORE... we gotta fight those fuckers every step of the way to make sure that AI generated work can't be copyrighted. Which, IMO, means:

educating people about how these models are developed using data theft

make the connection between AI development and potential harms clear (both things like face recognition tech and hurting creatives by replacing them in jobs)

encourage people to fight legally instead of technologically; ie instead of archive-locking work on AO3, continue to throw a fit at the AI company, file legal copyright complaints, etc (any useful suggestions here would be great!)

And then, bonus, if your company is considering using this kind of technology to replace artists or writers, throw a giant fucking shit-fit. Bring up possible legal ramifications. Bring up possible public backlash ramifications. Bring up ramifications of you personally quitting and being a huge bitch about it the whole time. Whatever you can safely do!

I don't think we can prevent AIs, nor do I necessarily think they're inherently evil; I DO think they are being made by people who do not care if they are being used or made in an evil way or not. I'm not sure we can prevent their usage to replace creative jobs entirely, but I think we should try. And I am willing to put my money where my mouth is on that. Which is all I can say about it!

NOTE: I am not a technical expert or legal expert on AI; I am some guy online, but I have a vested interest in this both as someone who pays to have art made and who makes art themselves. I have recently done a fair amount of research into this, and this is what I came to personally. If you have more information from a legal or technical perspective that contradicts this, I'd love to hear it!

#ai #ai art #ai art generator #ai content #content generation #copyright

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shinsources-archived · 7 months

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Visibility Features + Preventing Third-Parties Sharing Our Info.

So I was in the process of making my new blog strictly for advertising my fanfics, original fiction, worldbuilding, and what have you. Now because of the recent events that came about with Tumblr being Stupidr and giving out everybody's shenanigans "to train AI models" as they claim, I wanted to go ahead and go out of my way to Enable it (something I strongly encourage literally everybody to do btw).

Hide <username> from people without an account. This blog will only be viewable to people that are logged into Tumblr and its submission form will only be available on mobile apps. Learn more.

Discourage external searching of <username>. External search engines like Google or Yahoo will be discouraged from indexing your blog and showing it in search results. It is ultimately up to them to honor your request. Learn more.

Exclude <username> from Tumblr Search. Your blog will be hidden from Tumblr search results, and the in-blog search function will be disabled for everyone, including you. Learn more.

Prevent third-party sharing for <username>. Prevent this blog's content—even in reblogs—from being shaerd with our licensed network of content and research partners, including those that train AI models. Learn more.

Three of the four things listed above are, in my opinion, strictly optional (for the most part) whereas one of them is obligatory. And that, once again, happens to be the Prevent third-party sharing for <username> option.

Now using programs such as DeepL, Grammarly, Hemmingway, ProWritingAid, and what have you are fine since they're writing assistants. What that means is that they're used for improving our grammar, punctuation, phrasing, etc. But using AI Programs to "create" fanfics or original stories or fanart or adoptables to sell?? No. That's not okay.

It's one thing to trace over things to learn how to make body parts proportionate in various angles. In fact, it's encouraged for young artists to start out by tracing and then watching/reading/viewing tutorials on how to draw things via freestyle and by merely looking at them. And when it comes to improving our writing styles it's best to read a lot of books, poetry, scripts, articles, songs, etc. because this helps us learn a wide variety of different literary devices and point of views and writing styles. Not only that but it also broadens our vocabulary. The same is equally true for constantly writing. The more we write the better our writing, style, vocabulary, and what have you improve.

This is why so many of us are anti-AI. There are so many people who pour their hearts and souls into their art (be it writing, gfx, drawing, or whatever) and these AI Bots are taking all of these away from us. They're also very privacy invasive (in which the internet is already hella problematic when it comes to being invasive and not caring about our privacy so there's that to consider).

#visibility feature #visibility features #feature #features #anti ai #tumblr update #tumblr updates #artificial intelligence #third party sharing #psa #public service announcements #public service announcement

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yourlocalxenomorph3 · 6 months

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hi! welcome to my blog :)

al / xeno | they/them | 21+ | agender

[icon credit ; kMIKEj on deviantart] previous blogs were @yourlocalxenomorph (2014-2023) and @yourlocalxenomorph2 (2023-2024). the first one was terminated for a misunderstanding that staff never properly or respectfully addressed, and the second was terminated because i spoke up about the transmisogynistic moderation and ownership on this website.

if we are mutuals please tag #parent death or #parental death

•⚧───✧☠︎︎✧───⚧•

i don't block minors; this blog is more or less sfw and i don't post or reblog anything explicit. anything regarding sex is typically tagged with #sex talk or #suggestive.

if you'd like me to tag certain subjects, please shoot me an ask or a DM and i will do my best to tag it :)

•⚧───✧☠︎︎✧───⚧•

DNI - zionists, antisemites, TERFs/SWERFs/radfems, nazis, proship/pedo/zoo/"radqueers", ace/aro exclusionists, or any other variety of bigot. fuck off

arthropod/invertebrate/bug haters also dni. we love and respect bugs here. yes, even the annoying ones. even the scary ones. even the ones that inadvertently carry diseases. nature is morally neutral.

if you unironically, genuinely, and/or proudly call yourself "problematic", go away. and seek professional help, perhaps.

pro-ai / ai users / ai engineers and crypto/nft enthusiasts can go rot in a grave. [specifically generative ai, the kind used for generating images and text] you are contributing to the enshittification of the internet aond the exploitation of artists, not to mention the environmental impacts of what you're doing.

•⚧───✧☠︎︎✧───⚧•

#xenospeak - personal / original posts

#xenostuff - original works / my art / other creative endeavors

#boo kitty - pictures of and posts about my cat

•⚧───✧☠︎︎✧───⚧•

@localxenospores - sideblog dedicated to Spore (2008). mostly original spore creations, please check it out :)

@yourlocalxenocs - sideblog dedicated to my OCs (wip)

@/notpublicyet - sideblog for speculative biology and worldbuilding

•⚧───✧☠︎︎✧───⚧•

one last DNI (tw / nsfw)

people with rape/"""cnc""", incest, and ageplay "kinks": the world would be a better and safer place without you in it and your willingness to commit that kind of violence against your partner(s) is an enormous red flag. it is not safe, sane, or consensual. get help.

additionally, if you refer to rape as "noncon" or "nonconsensual sex", you're a walking box of red flags. call it what it is and stop trying to sugarcoat it.

if you defend people with these "kinks", also fuck off. zero tolerance policy. go rot.

people who engage in raceplay: you're just a racist. getting off to it sexually doesn't somehow make it any better. go fuck yourselves.

feeders/feedees/weight gain fetishists/people who otherwise get off to disordered eating: block me. go away.

objectum: don't take it personally but i will probably softblock you because the whole thing makes me insanely uncomfortable

#tags for navigation ->#xenospeak #xenostuff #xenovibes #boo kitty #artworks #azurion #paleo #inspiration refs and such

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akanothere · 1 year

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About me

Part time fandom artist, full time clown.

20+, she/her.

DO NOT REPOST, EDIT, PRINT FOR COMMERCIAL USE OR BULK PRINTING

DO NOT FEED MY ART TO AI PLEASE

AI IMAGE GENERATOR USERS DO NOT INTERACT

TRACING& COPYING ARE FORBIDDEN AND BLOCKED. IF YOU ARE TOO AN ARTIST PLEASE RESPECT THIS UNIVERSAL RULE (UNLESS MEME/PARODY). “HIGHLY INSPIRED” WITHOUT CREDIT WILL BE BLOCKED AS WELL. MY HOURS OF HARDWORK AND BRAIN JUICE ARE NOT FOR YOU TO USE IN THIS WAY. I APPRECIATE THE LIKE BUT PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT, DO NOT FOLLOW.

THIS IS A MATURE BLOG OFTEN ENGAGING WITH DARK CONTENT, HOWEVER I STILL HAVE DNIs.

THIS BLOG CONTAINS NSFW, BLOOD AND GORE DRAWINGS, TONS OF TOXIC RELATIONSHIP AND OTHER TW (ALL PROPERLY TAGGED UNLESS I FORGOT ONE OR TWO. IF I DO PLEASE TELL ME!!!)

FULL DNI, DOS AND DON’T, FANDOM CONTENT WARNINGS BELOW. I AM BAD AT EXPRESSING SO IT GETS LENGTHY BUT UM HOPE IT CLEARS UP EVERYTHING

THIS USER DOES NOT ACCEPT INSULTS, VIOLENCE, ABUSE, SLURS, AND DEATH THREATS TOWARDS HUMAN IN REAL LIFE.

What to expect or not here:

⚠️VERY IMPORTANT

I can tolerate/will create darker themed content when it comes to slashers or mature fandoms and villains. I would say this is NOT a safe blog (I mean come on those are bad guys what do you expect! Don’t be too delulu to a point you gonna make them a good guy). However I do not tolerate any form of violence, abuse and discrimination in real life. Seriously, get help if you come across to any of these.

All my darker artworks are NOT for you to follow irl (can’t believe I still have to say this in 2020s do people use their brains nowadays)— It is for me to explore darker concepts, trying to figure out how, for example, how people attracted by psycho criminals, WITHOUT using an existing criminal and hurting anyone irl. Bc everyone is FAKE, they don’t exist, it’s FICTIONAL. Also, to explore my own/seen traumas. I turn personal issues into NSFW kinks or simply dark shit etc, and cope with it as a fictional content. Not exactly the best idea I know but this keeps me sane and overthinking about the past irl. I do not tolerate death/abuse threats and insults towards human in real life, it’s stupid. And all of you should also keep every dark shit fictional content in fictional world. We do not need anymore crime irl thank you very much. Think before you act or talk. Fandom is not that serious to a point you wish death and suggesting violence upon someone.

For my Haikyuu or Naruto art those are mostly safe as hell (my opinion) just loving caring and tons of smooch smooch!😭💖 OMFG I MEAN BOKUAKA HOW YOU GONNA LOOK AT THEM AND THINK OF ANYTHING DARK HELLO EXCUSE ME

Generally I’m open-minded to all ships and kinks (even with complicated relationships where abuse are mentioned for plot reasons, or larger age difference), I’ll simply not interact with contents I’m not interested with… so it would be nice to not recommend any ships or contents through ask, because I mayyyyyyyy ignore it if I don’t like it lmao.

⚠️I draw fictional slashers/villains, g0re and blo0d and other dead dove/ abusive relationships shit, you are warned again!!! However irl crimes/ criminals supporters please do us all a favour go fuck yourself. People who can’t distinguish fictions from real life are not welcomed here.

I DO NOT accept any NSFW commission. Also again and again, MINORS DO NOT INTERACT. This is NOT a minors safe space.

I create art for my inner peace and needs. I cannot babysit and accommodate everyone, so, if you don’t like, don’t engage. The definition of “problematic ships” differs from person to person coz fk me people nowadays overuse this too much to a point idk what is & what is not…

Fandoms and ships

Dead by Daylight

Ghostface centric, Ghostface x OC/ x reader, sometimes GhostFrank, GhostMeg and GhostFrankMeg-the-daddy-issue-trio-poly

⚠️IMPORTANT: It’s totally okay to consume my version of Jed Olsen X OC content and imagining in your brain it’s you or whoever his S/O is, but I block people who draw my version of Jed with themselves/self-inserts/OCs, or generally drawing him. It’s a culture here: impolite to draw someone’s design without permission😭💦 So please don’t take it personally, it’s just me not comfortable with sharing my design of Jed with other people’s self insert/OC. Also I have many plans for him so when people draws him (even not a ship art), it might actually interfere with my WIP sketches and ideas which makes me so awkward like “should I continue when someone drew it already???” However I am glad many people like him! Thank you for giving him love he really doesn’t deserve it he belongs in the trash💥

PS. There are some designs out here alike which of course is fine, I do not own the character himself, but I‘ll stay away or block if it’s too alike/ overly referenced. I stay quiet about things I don’t like so unless shoving it in my face, I will just walk away🧍‍♀️💦Need not worry!

Haikyuu!!

BokuAka, sometimes Tsukishima centric and SunaKita

Harry Potter (Wizarding World)

Tom Riddle centric, Tomione. Casual: Tomarry, Drarry/Harco, Voldantonin, Antonmione, GGAD, SebOmi/OmiSeb, Sebastian Sallow x MC, Ominis Gaunt x MC, Seb+Omi+MC trio friendship.

⚠️I DO NOT SUPPORT JK ROWLING’S TRANSPHOBIC SPEECH. TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN. IF YOU CAN’T ACCEPT OTHERS HAPPINESS AND RIGHTS, THIS IS NOT A PLACE FOR YOU. FK OFF.

ALSO THAT ONE TOMIONE ANON WHO KEEPS ANNOYING WRITERS WHEN THEY WRITE FOR OTHER PAIR— DO NOT INTERACT.

Don’t follow me for ships. See me as a cheap ass £10 all you can eat cushion buffet please. No quality of art here. Just pure delulu and bad drawing skills.

Naruto

KakaSaku, ObiRin, ObiKaka and InoSaku.

⚠️Note that my main ship in this fandom is KakaSaku, but only when Sakura is of age and usually I ship them in same age/ sort of colleague AU

Other games, films and anime

Who’s Lila?, Cube Escape & Rusty Lake series, Year Walk, Disco Elysiumc, Good Omens, Hotline Miami, Chainsaw Man, Golden Kamuy, Dorohedoro, any Kon Satoshi/ Ito Junji/ Wong Ka Wai’s creations, Horror and thrillers, Sci-fics

Fic recommendation lists

(Most of them are dark, dead doves and NSFW. Some are light and cracks! Read TW and tags. Read at your own risk.)

Danny x You/OC/SO

Tomione

#about my blog #about my art #not a safe blog for minors #but I can’t tag minors dni or else they can’t see this post and thought they can interact lmao #seriously minors dni

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synergysilhouette · 8 months

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"Strange World" (2022) overhaul rewrite

I never expected to do a rewrite of this, despite my issues with it. But then I decided I should just do an overhaul of it. Be forewarned: I'm taking this in a VERY different direction--like, almost unrecognizeable; how do you feel about an Arthurian epic with aliens? As always, be kind--but if you have critiques/questions, I'd be happy to hear them!

Plot:

On a planet far away, there was once the mystical alien planet of Siyned. Twenty-five years ago, King Ursam of Lonava, a prosperous and mystical country on Siyned, disappeared without a trace, leaving his young son Taurus in charge of running a kingdom. For a time, all was prosperous, but now, a powerful sorceress named Niobe has come to battle for the throne, and threatens to engulf the kingdom in darkness and horrors unlike the world has ever seen. Together with his wife Iopeia, son Boralis and their band of allies, Taurus must navigate being a king as well as sorting out the secrets that come out with Niobe's arrival.

Important story/world details

As you may see, the storyline is inspired by the tale of King Arthur, inspired by the fact that Searcher Clade is from a land known as Avalonia, and my first thought was: "Man, a King Arthur-inspired story would've been so much better than what we got." This comes with certain important story/world details:

The cast is made up of aliens. Given the pulp magazine inspiration the original SW film takes from, I'd enjoy seeing a comicbook inspiration for the alien races here, as well as video game inspiration from the fantasy side of things. In the best case scenario, this would be a spiritual successor to "Atlantis." I'd enjoy seeing different races of aliens, though I personally do like the idea that Taurus looks human (though since his wife and son are POC in the OG story, making them appear inhuman might be a bad call if he still appears white). And excuse the use of AI art here; I just liked the video for it's use of 80s dark fantasy inspirations, which I'd also want to be the inspiration for the fantasy aspects of "Strange World."

2. The culture is more medieval/ancient--except for the technology (and maybe fashion). I like the idea that it takes inspiration from various world cultures similar to how "Atlantis" does.

3. The cast is obviously different.

King Taurus--A kind and intelligent king, albeit sensitive and sometimes overcome with his emotions due to unresolved feelings with his father (I thought that'd be a good thing to keep). He's a gifted mage, and I'm definitely getting Gale of Waterdeep vibes from him--albeit less problematic. He's also in his 30s, so slightly younger than Searcher Clade. Still, he's older than most Disney protagonists, which I think makes the film more accessible for an older crowd, and an established Disney romance between a husband and wife rather than two people about to get married or just getting to know each other carries nuances that you can't get with many "kid films."

Queen Iopeia--A scholar and trained warrior who managed to capture the king's heart, and they fell in love. While she doesn't have any magic per se, her physical abilities make her a threat to all who wish to harm her loved ones. She often serves as the emotional anchor when Taurus is frazzled, and on rare occasions, their roles are reversed.

Prince Boralis--The young man who dreams of adventure, a Hercules-type protagonist who has self-esteem issues given his family's legacy. Of course, his crush on Castelon, Niobe's lead soldier, weighs on his heart heavily, since they grew up together before he disappeared and decided to side with her, seemingly with no explanation a year ago. His conflicting feelings make it difficult for him to use his powers (either alien or magical) to full potential. Definitely think his style is more akin to Ekko's from "League of Legends."

Niobe--Vicious but sad, she is the powerful sorceress from the Lands Beyond, a realm of darkness that engulfed the lands west of Lonava. She is much more powerful than Taurus, but wants to destroy him emotionally before killing him, hoping to break him and make him give her the crown that is rightfully hers. She sees him as living the life she always wanted, and despises Taurus for "taking" it from him. She has an affinity for petrifying her enemies--and keeping their consciousness intact. It's later revealed that when Ursam discovered a prophecy that Niobe would bring about the kingdom's destruction, he left her in the Lands Beyond as a toddler. It's somewhat akin to how Cora abandoned Zelena in Once Upon a Time ("I have to leave you to give me MY best at life"). That said, given that many Disney fans want an unapologetic villain, I'd make her too bitter and angry to be swayed by Taurus' pleas, but at her defeat, it's brought to light that despite being a good king, Ursam was NOT a good person.

Serioph--A wise mage (our Merlin figure) who serves as a parental figure to Taurus and a mystical guide. He has the ability to change his form at will, and ocassionally takes on a female form following Taurus' mother's passing and seeing that he needed a mother figure as well as a father figure. However, despite his power, he is tied to the laws of neutrality: if he was to battle someone of great good or great evil, his magic would cease to exist--which includes his power of longevity, and he would cease to exist. He knows this, but uses his powers to harm Niobe and prevent her from killing Taurus, killing himself in the process.

Ienvy--Serioph's daughter, inheriting his magic by lineage, and thus not tied to the Laws of Neutrality like he is. Niobe is drawn to her and attempts to persuade her to join her side, but when Serioph is killed, Serioph curses Niobe to become undone, giving her a sense of insanity that makes it possible for Taurus and the group to defeat her. Despite her help, Ienvy feels guilt for what she's done after learning about Niobe's past, and imposes a self-exile upon herself after the battle is over.

Castelon--Boralis' crush and childhood best friend. He eventually left and joined Niobe due to being tricked into joining her service by failing to prove his selflessness (similar to the tale of Gawain and the Green Knight). As such, he has become warped, becoming a smug Namaari-type villain, so there's a lot of tension between him and Boralis. (Note: This goes without saying, but he'd get a major design overhaul. Some people say he looks like Frankie Grande, but he gives me Jay Manuel vibes from "America's Next Top Model" and I CAN'T STAND IT. I'd rather he looked akin to Lucio from "The Arcana.")

Different Design style FOR SURE

Part of me finds the looks to be too normal; the characters don't grab my attention because they look either too realistic or too cartoony. Even if they weren't aliens, I'd want new looks for their clothes, at the very least. And the non-human-looking aliens felt way too cartoony here, not really ethereal or interesting in the slightest. Honestly, THIS deserved to be a hybrid film, tbh; it'd help to sell the alien vibes, as well as the fantasy aspect. And in particular, if we're going for a more mature look.

Lemme know what you think! I may come back and tinker this a bit.

#disney #disney animation #strange world #league of legends #arcane #atla #avatar the last airbender #iroh #black panther #okoye

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