#bit related to the topic in the post but like

[ssruis]

love seeing you hate on the showtime ruler set . keep up the good work

I appreciate it! but I don’t think it’s something praise worthy. I think speaking up about the issues with RMD should be the norm and it’s disappointing that it isn’t. You would think that “I don’t think the cultures of historically marginalized and oppressed groups should be used as costumes” wouldn’t be a hot take. but apparently it is.

On the subject of that: I’ve heard a lot of people say “it’s not really based on native Americans” and “they didn’t know any better.”

To the first point: that is probably correct. It most likely draws inspiration from the colonist idea of indigenous people in general, but more specifically the Ainu (indigenous people to Japan).

Which brings me to the second point - they absolutely should have known better (and saying otherwise warrants a discussion on the infantilization of East Asians as well as Japan apologism in general. but that’s off topic).

The Ainu have historically been subjected to absolutely horrific violence and oppression by the Japanese government, on par with how the US has treated Native Americans. They were viewed as primitive and barbaric. Their land was taken, Ainu women were sexually assaulted, they were forbidden from practicing their religion, they were put into Japanese speaking schools and forbidden to speak their own language. They were forced to assimilate by law. In 2008 there were ~100 native Ainu speakers. The Ainu weren’t recognized as an ethnically distinct group by the Japanese government until 2019, but they are still continually erased by the push for a homogenous national identity.

Portraying the colonization of indigenous people as a simple “well both sides were prejudiced against each other they just needed to hold hands and get along :)” erases the very real history of oppression against indigenous groups. It allows people to ignore the atrocities committed and their lasting impact. Native Americans and the Ainu (as well as other indigenous people) are still feeling the effects of colonization. It’s not an issue that can or should be viewed as a thing of the past.

Portraying indigenous people as a vague fantasy race/group or as a costume contributes to their continued erasure. It leads to people believing indigenous people and their culture no longer exist. The reality is replaced by the fictional representation.

Phrased more eloquently by Gerald Vizenor (and the person he is quoting) in Mannifest Manners:

“… other masters of manifest manners in the nineteenth century, and earlier, represented tribal cultures as the other; to them ‘language did the capturing, binding Indian society to a future of certain extinction,’ wrote Larzer Ziff in Writing in the New Nation. ‘Treating living Indians as sources for a literary construction of a vanished way of life rather than as members of a vital continuing culture, such writers used words to replace rather than to represent Indian reality.’

[…]

“Those who ‘memorialized rather than perpetuated’ a tribal presence and wrote ‘Indian history as obituary’ were unconsciously collaborating ‘with those bent on physical extermination’ argued Ziff.”

(P.8, emphasis mine)

Vizenor is speaking about Native Americans here, but I think it’s applicable to this situation as well.

This post goes into it a bit more, in terms of harmful tropes present in the RMD story itself.

There’s definitely character related reasons to dislike the RMD story, but I think it cheapens the discussion to center it around “why rui wouldn’t write that” because that is not the important issue and defending a fictional character from the colonization apologist allegations is like. A non issue. Considering everything else.

[stiwnty]

THEORY TIME :)))))))) (yaay it's back)

It's said: I will make the post tomorrow (3 posts actually, each with different topics)

but before, just a thing... Man that looks realistic... But TOO realistic... Where did he get that from??

We usually think that some things from the PC are drawn by Orange. At first, these were just theories... Like with the Gunslinger short. There were a lot of "drawn" things there; like the hat, the shoes, the stick-circle-thing...

But the Green's Channel 1st ep actually kind of confirmed this. Cuz we can see Orange drawing the basketball hoop with an art-style similar to the before mentioned thing. And also with colors other than the black-white we see him drawing with.

So I don't think these were drawn by Orange. The main difference I see is that Orange's style when drawing objects is more cartoonish… And Green's stuff in the ig pic is nothing of that...

There before I have two theories:

Google: We've seen that the sticks can pick up things from google images (Lightsaber Duel short). But this theory can be debunked by two facts: The first one being that (as shown in the image) the objects they pick have a cartoonish looking appearance. And the second one being that Green's laptop has a weird looking logo that I don't think is real…

2. Outernet: We know that the Green's arc happens after AvA s3. There is evidence like:

-Green's videos are being posted now and AvA s3 canonically happened in 2023 (PC dates)

-The modified comment where a person calls Orange by the TSC name and Green first doesn't recognizes it. But then that comment was deleted and they modified his response to recognizing it but still calling him Orange… This means that they either found out about the name in AvA s3 or before in AvLol (welp I'm getting of topic, whatever) (coudln't find it but trust me!!)

So, maybe after AvA s3 they get more ways to go to stick city…

+. Or here is the other path: Purple (aaaaaaaaaaaaa) Welp it's obvious what I'm about to say. Purple is friends with Green and he has a portal connecting to the Outernet. sooooo Purple may be in the Green's arc.

This also makes sense cuz we know that the relation with the CG and Green has been "breaking" a bit (for reasons I will mention in tomorrow's posts after I finish my homework. And cuz of their lower and lower appearances in the vids.) and Purple hasn't been on the problem so far.... Here a pic of Outernet tech

~~~~~

Now some personal ranting: I like Purple, and even if I don't like him that much cuz yes. I don't know how to feel about him being in the arc cuz I was kind of hopping the CG would resolve the conflict together and with love and with their 10 years friendship they have and with their deepened care they have to eachother (which was, btw, more focused on in the Green's Channel 1st ep)… Sooo yeah, idk,

[horizonandstar]

Hiya star! Just wanted to say that I am loving your story so far along with all your ideas.

I have but one question: What do you mean Celestial Leviathans are Critically Endangered? I love lore but this hurts my heart. Is it something to do how the species live or an outside force? I'm genuinely curious to hear things like this.

Hope you have a wonderful day/night dear! Take Care!

...wouldve been a funny one-liner to leave on, but i love talking about my lore and also the amount of joy i got from seeing this in my inbox was a lot

i want to clear things up juuust a little bit. there are several criteria to categorize a species as critically endangered, and you only need to fulfill 1 criteria. here are at least 2 that their species fulfills:

(note: MI means mature individuals, 3G/10Y means 3 generations/10 years. the last sentence means that if there's a 50% chance the species goes extinct in the wild within 3 generations or 10 years, whichever comes later)

now that you have these criteria in mind, i want you to think: how many celestial leviathans have i mentioned so far? their numbers don't get much better than that

and to answer your question: they're facing extinction due to an outside force!

[todayisafridaynight]

Remembering that the black parade’s 18th anniversary is oct 24th and then the rgg drama and sonic x shadow generations is coming out the 25th and then halloween’s the 31st means im imploding at the end of october this year

[karouvas]

remembering on my circa 2017 booklr I used to tell people to read Gemma Doyle by describing it as trc but with an all girls boarding school / all girl group in a historical setting… I was trying to do the lord’s work she deserved tumblr fame

[puffins-studio]

Anna🚀

I love this movie, it broke me but it's just !! I probably also shouldn't have  watched it two times in a role but i can't help it

Just saying I didn't know how sad it was going to be. It also didn’t help that I am also a twin and I watched this on my birthday. I just wanted to watch a movie with Jodie whittaker as the lead okay

I made her for Jodie as I was I went to Gally one and I was making some of the actors two dolls (mainly the actors who doctors have passed) but I wanted to do something extra and i couldn’t pick favorite with the fam so I thought of doing anna instead as this movie have stuck with me. I also want to post something for her birthday just because. And I think am out of 13th doctor ideas at the moment.

This doll was also one I give to the actually actor, if you want to read about that I wrote it in this post

[ID: picture is a felt doll that is the shape of a gingerbread man with a big circle head, they are supposed to be anna from adult life skills. She has light skin, long brown hair, she is wearing light blue jeans and navy shoes. A red button shirt with some patches under a navy and red zipper up that have pink sleeves under a purple puffer vest. She has a little smiley face sewn on her hands, and she has a red knit hat that has a cable stitch and a pom pom on top. The 2nd picture is her without the hat:ID]

[kjzx]

An important thing to remember as an artist that started out drawing characters crudely and then started learning the fundamentals, at first your art will not look nice.

At first, drawing faces and bodies in different positions will make your characters look weird, then poor perspective will make your characters look weird, and finally when all the kinda things I mentioned above will be dealt with, just the hype of finally knowing how to draw anatomy will bite you in the ass because you can do all these things, you can draw them correctly or close to that, but whether that's figure drawing knowledge gaps, or awkwards poses/composition, or just not a very harmonious combination of realism and stylization in facial features or in general, but your before and after pictures might get this look of "clear objective technical improvement but many would consider it a downgrade"

That's a very common thing. I used to be in this before/after art community, and it was so toxic it was a meme within the community that no matter how much you've improved there will be people that will say that the before is better. There's a seed of truth to these words though, what they fundamentally get wrong is this implication that you "ruined your art"

That's a big example of why you shouldn't listen to non-art people for art advice. Keep going. You're closer to your art dreams than you ever were, you just need to look into all these things like the remaining knowledge gaps or personality to your art you might've lost as you were on your anatomy grind.

Keep creating, keep looking at art that inspires you and try to think of how to make yourself like your art better. Don't get stuck on it, if it begins being unfun, please do take a breather. Also, none of that is objective, people will still prefer things different to what you find beautiful. It's alright, create what you like, that's what this post is about. If you don't wanna, don't focus on aesthetics, just the process of creating art is fun and will eventually get you in the right place, that's what I do, I just occasionally throw in things I like and sometimes they work. Take care.

These are my current thoughts on the topic. I wouldn't take them too close to heart, this is just a blogging site and I'm blogin 👍

[st4rstudent]

on our way down to the school basement to test out a hypothesis and some theories-!! 🔨🔨 (Totally safe, nothing could possibly go wrong ✨) /lh/j but thank you-!! I wish I coulda explained it better and I probably can once I get the time (and the courage to ever like . make any kinds of post for once shchsdhs) but you-!! You get the idea-!! That man has a dome filled with a brain that's a motherboard or wires/neurons covered by silicone and personally I think it would be silly to shake him like a snowglobe to see what would happen-! (/lh/j)

^ on our way to the basement

but YESS absolutely. if you shake him hard enough maybe you can get the silicone cover off and then rattle all the little microchips around

[andie-cake]

thinking back on like, that period of time between watcher world and perky's buds where we didn't know anything abt ziggs aside from them being a cool nonbinary kid that deb used to have a crush on, so we were just kinda left to speculate on what they looked like and stuff. and y'all, i just remembered. the mental image i had of ziggs pre-perky's buds was like. a dead-ringer for kale's design. at least outfit-wise, with like the dark clothes and makeup and the sleeveless jacket. i wasn't directly hit with apollo's dodgeball, but it did graze me for sure.

[m-o-n-o-c-h-r-o-m-e]

"yandere!character x reader" this "lovesick!character x reader" that.

how about a fic where the reader is the yandere

a fic where the reader is the one who stalks

a fic where im the one doing the kidnaping

i want a fic where im the threat who is obsesed over the other character and not the innocent helpless prey

[todayisafridaynight]

HAVE BEEN ROTATING Y7 ARAKAWA IN RGGO ARAKAWA'S DRIP IN MY MIND FOR AEONS YOU SEE THE VISION....................

Listen. I think. I think it would work. I think we could've still won. The physics probably would've been a pain, but if I think about it as an echo of the red iin his costuming in the play at the start, and link it back to how the plot of the play comes to represent part of his life, it would [unintelligible]

But no for real, the sliver you can see of the snakeskin on Jo and the fact it's the lightest thing you can see on his whole outfit feels purposeful. It's still incredibly funny to me that whole thing was treated as a twist at all. But.

And the progression on account of the timeskip is sick too from a symbolic perspective. It's things like the 2019 tie having the exact same pattern as in 2000, but it's also now the only real color in his entire ensemble, the purple from his shirt relegated to the tie and the pink completely gone. Hanging on to the past (although I guess this is more RGGJo's thing), forcing his "self" into a smaller and smaller space, that kind of thing. If we go with Sololiquy for a moment, maybe there's also something there about things being livelier when Ichi was around, for better or worse.

All the leather is ostensibly much more luxurious, befitting of his rise in status, but it's also burying him further in these additional layers of security. The gloves DO pull it together, and they also leave him basically completely covered-up from head to toe, which I can't help find fascinating.

So, you know, he looks sick with the gloves on, but there's also a different Flavor when recognizing he had them on the first battle when he was hiding so much from Ichi, but in the second battle, where he hopes to come clean, he's bare-handed ("Ichi-vision" notwithstanding).

And I think it's also worth recognizing that the gloves would've offered some protection when he went to grab the blade, but he grabs it anyway in his bare hand. With the amount of force you apply when you swing a blade and it actually connects, that'd hurt him just as bad, but it shows he's past the point of caring about what happens to him even before he says so. (I still think we should've probably seen his hand cut and bleeding when out of Ichi-vision, but y'know.)

Much to think about...

NO I SEE YOUR VISION I SEE WHERE YOU'RE GOING they could've done that.... true the physics would've been a pain but I think we can trade some of the effort that went into The Bread and put it towards the scarf and coat.....

The evolution of Jo's outfit in conjunction with the surrounding environment and circumstances really is mad interesting, and as someone who really enjoys 'storytelling' (idk if that's the exact word rn but i aint ever been good with words in the first place) through character design/wardrobe. Any note I coulda said you've already said for me, yet I still wish I had some more words to express how much I love the changes in his outfit and how it reflects himself and the story at that particular point 😷

[popcorn-plots]

I have to conduct young woman's today in church but I don't want to.... I never fit in with any of the girls and I feel like most of them don't like me. it doesn't help that I moved here at the beginning of junior high when everyone already had their cliques and I was the "weird kid" (always was and always will be). My interests are so different from theirs that it's really hard to find common ground between us to talk about. Most of the girls are into sports and boys and talk about nothing else, meanwhile I'm into cosplay and writing (also boys, but I like girls, too and bringing that up with the church is not a great idea). The one other girl who no one was really friends with is my best friend in this neighborhood and she's in relief society and leaving for a mission in a few years

[boy-armageddon]

Ignooooore. This I’m just rambling under the cut

as much of a Weird Gay Guy as i tend to be. tbh in a lot of art the characters I’ve connected with the most, without fail, have been women. this even goes for the stuff i make!!!!! ive talked about tons about how cecilia’s my fave out of all the characters ive written, of course partly cause she’s one big fat excuse to shove tons of blood brothers references into entity affairs, but mostly cause like. in a way i cant describe too well, even though i don’t think she’s a “literally me insert” (jeong takes that spot on accident lol, i suppose cause he’s the one ive had the longest that ive put a lot of my interests and issues into him without really realizing), i just. connect with how ive written her a lot? would explain but 1, that’d get too personal way too fast, and I don’t intend this to be a vent post, and 2, im trying to be a biiiit more secretive about it even though my little webcomic passion project will vv likely not come to fruition. this was supposed to be a quick post about how the women in things appeal more to me and i honestly tend to be a lot more fond of them than the male characters, despite yknow. being an aforementioned gay guy. and how i truly dont get how some guys just don’t care at All about the women in art like not even one bit, even disregarding my personal biases. but here ramble post

[caluupin]

[DGS/TGAA 2 SPOILERS]

⚠️Work in progress, this will be the last doodle page then I'LL POST THEM ALL!!!!!!

[mazekingdom]

I took ONE javascript class in college and I feel like I know more about information technology than everyone who is writing a tech thriller

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Folk were really into the post I made about Tandie, the zoo lion with a (then) undergrown mane due a period of time on testosterone blockers. He's having quite the glow up this summer.

But!

Did you know that manes are hormone dependent in both sexes of lion?

Let's talk about maned lionesses!

To recap the previous post quickly: the existence of a mane, and it's color, appear to be pretty heavily androgen-dependent. Neutered males or males put on testosterone blockers, like Tandie was, will drop their manes - but like Tandie, if taken off the meds, it will generally grow it back. Darker manes are indicative of higher testosterone levels, and long/lush manes are generally a good signal of a male's fitness and mate quality. Females seem to show a preference for males with longer, darker manes and other males will preferentially avoid scuffles with them. (Yes, as many comments have pointed out, that means Scar was actually a hunk. Do with that as you will.)

The fascinating thing about androgens being linked to manes in lions is that it goes both ways - females with higher levels will also grow manes!

Mane growth in females lions is most commonly seen with elderly animals who have stopped cycling and are basically in lion menopause. And they have to get pretty old for it to happen - captive lions generally only live into their late teens and early second decade, and most of the maned ladies I know about started growing manes around like, seventeen.

Not all old female lions grow manes, but some of the career cat people I've talked to said it happened to about a quarter of the females they've worked with over the years. Which... is an interesting contrast to the news articles about Zuri, who we'll meet in a bit, that breathlessly reported in 2022 that her mane growth "left scientists baffled."

Old lady lion manes are just... precious. They grow in first at the chest and then around the sides or on the back of the head, but they don’t normally get the length, density, and connectivity seen in the mane of an adult male. It leaves the lionesses manes kind of awkward, in the way I associate with very young males, and they're absolutely adorable. Prepare yourself for the photo spam.

I have to start with Daisy, because she's the only maned lioness I've had the privilege to meet in person.

I don't know exactly when she started growing her mane, but she was over 20 years old when she passed in 2019 with these luscious locks.

Here's another female at the same facility, named Adeena. On the left is a photo of her from 2021, on the right is from this spring (I think she's mid-sneeze in the photo). She turns 20 in October.

If you've heard about maned lionesses before, it’s probably because of Zuri, at Topeka. She’s the most recent one to get media coverage and she went a little viral.

(Just a side note here, but I have some strong feelings about knowledge loss in the exotic animal management world due to political/philosophical schisms. This is one of those topics where it's clear: Topeka told a reporter that the zoo had “never" heard of this happening before, but it's common enough to be well known as a thing in other sectors of the exotic cat world. There's so much expertise and knowledge being lost due to infighting between accrediting groups, and it drives me up a wall).

Anyway. Zuri had one of the best manes I've seen on an elderly lioness. It grew long and lush and she totally could have done shampoo commercials. I mean, look at this.

Zuri lived with her sister, who didn't grow a mane in her old age. Here's the two of them together, Zuri on the left, Asante on the right.

We don't completely know what's going on with these golden girls to cause them to grow manes. It's theorized to be related to the end of estrus and higher levels of androgenic hormones, although it's not clear if that's just due to lower levels of other hormones during "meownopause" or if there's something else also going on.

There was some speculation with Zuri's mane growth that it was caused by the death of the male she lived with, in some biological need to "take over the role." The zoo dismissed that idea pretty quickly, and it makes sense, although there is one other instance where I've heard of that happening before.

The cat people I've talked to say that older lionesses who grow manes don't tend to act differently - they're not taking over new social roles in their prides or anything. Sometimes they can be less active, or be a little more nervous around males, and want to be left alone more, but it was emphasized to me that those behaviors could also just be associated with the fact that manes tends to develop in elderly lionesses.

The mane growth can happen pretty quickly, as we saw in the photos I've posted of Tandie over the last year. Here's Bridget, from the Oklahoma Zoo. The left photo was taken in March of 2017 and the right in November - look how much hair she gained over six months!

The zoo did some research into what might have cause Bridget's mane growth, and found that she had elevated levels of androstenedione, which is a hormone that can be converted by the body into either testosterone or estrogen, depending. In AFAB people, it's known to have a masculinizing effect. The zoo theorized that this was the cause of her mane growth, and that the elevated levels might have been caused by a benign tumor. Fascinatingly, though, blood draws revealed that her testosterone levels were the same as her mane-less sister, Tia.

Tia is on the left in the photo below, Bridget and the beginnings of her mane are on the right. Bridget was 17 when her mane started growing in.

I don't think there's any formal hypothesis that there might be a genetic component to lionesses growing manes in old age, but it's interesting to note that one of Tia's daughters, Zari, also grew a mane. (And she grew it young! It started around age 13, interestingly, also right after their male died). She's on the left in the photo below.

And to circle back around to where we began: Tandie is related to a number of maned ladies! His father, Xerxes, was Bridget's son; Zari was Xerxes' half-sister.

Here's a few more beautiful maned ladies to leave you with. In order, Ngala, Pepper, Skye, and Dandy Lion.

Next up, and last in this lion mane series, is the story of five younger lionesses in Botswana who not only have manes but also express a range of masculine behaviors.

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A huge thanks to all the folk who shared photos of and stories about their golden girls for this post: M. Townsen, S.W. Simpson, E. Day, S. Cook, M. Stinner, M. Paul, K. Vanaman, D. O'Halloran, R. Simpson, D. Souffrant.