#but it's more because I think you're awesome

[mtkmsp]

THE RETURN OF COVID Horror/thriller movie style!! I don't think I could find enough words to express how much I love doing those posters............ For this one, I felt like the cast of "antagonists" of the movie would make for a pretty awesome composition and mood, and paired with the church setting I think I got something pretty interesting, haha. More below!

As it happens, a fandom friend asked if I could maybe some day record my process, and therefore I did! (and went the extra mile adding goofy horror songs to it...) Check it out if you're interested :)

I've detailed it in the YT vid description as well, but my process is rather straightforward. I tend to be a "lazy person" in that I like to, ideally, spend the least time possible on anything, and so far this process is how I've best achieved that while still managing some rather complex pieces. I like to be extremely rough with my sketches and prioritize dynamism and composition, and I usually take my time repositioning the characters until I'm satisfied before I go any further. I don't have the best mental visualization so I usually try to have a very rough idea of what I want before I directly jump to sketching and mostly ideate there. The lineart is very straightforward as well. I come back later to adjust line thickness here and there but otherwise I just "trust my brush". The fake fisheye perspective is entirely wrong and made up so I needed some custom perspective lines to know roughly how to position the background elements.

I do come back with composition guides after I'm done with the lineart, just to check how the illustration is doing. I prefer not to use them at first because it tends to "constrain" me a bit too much, and I like to remain very free as to maintain a feeling of spontaneity, which is why I will only fix the composition afterwards (when I do). Coloring is then fairly streamlined, with background colors/atmosphere guiding the overall color scheme followed by character coloring and additional details. The most fun part comes with the post-processing, where I go wild with additional fog and light shaft layers to add depth to the entire thing. I use a bunch of additional tone curve layers to adjust the colors and make it more uniform, as well as one blurred, flattened copy of the illustration with strengthened contrasts, in overlay mode, to add some vibrance, and a noise layer for texture. That's it! Thanks for watching, for those interested :))

[mkpersephone]

I saw this on Qura about Professor X's character assassination in modern days comics and it fits perfectly:

it's pure character assassination. They've played with this idea before where Xavier's suppressed desires run amok for a while making him evil, or like Onslaught, the writers use the first excuse to make him an outright villain and plot device for "Heroes Reborn". Even Wolverine renaming the school the "Jean Grey School for Higher Learning" is one of the methods of trying to replace Xavier or rewrite his place in the hierarchy or question who is more 'saintly'. But when push came to shove the wheel would turn back because what actually sells (and is popular) is the classic, wheelchair-bound, parental, wise, and caring Professor Charles Xavier. I think they do this in these comics now because comics are dying, and the current writer wants these classic characters parroting their own thoughts and beliefs... even if it becomes the character's epitaph.

Honestly, modern writers DO NOT know how to try to build up a character or idea without tearing something down. And Xavier is always an awesome target because the ideal he stood for when originally created, (just like you pointed out in your answer) is one that ideologically is being opposed by today's progressives. There is no fight for equality, there is only ever varying levels of power and the struggle to have more. Having a straight white male who is a benevolent father figure to the wayward lost souls and moral center to an adoptive family unit is out of the question for modern writers. If you want to destabilize and re-write something in your own image, you attack the root, and Professor Charles Xavier is the root of the X-Men.

This whole story is WAY out of character for Xavier, but in their defense, I would say ever since Krakoa, each writer writes the characters as how they want to interpret the character. And this isn't the first character they've assassinated, including Moira McTaggert. Today, there is no Jim Shooter anymore trying to wrangle the whole bullpen and fighting the writers on bad ideas. (And to be fair, not all of his ideas were good and the writers fought him plenty, but the writers at the time were outstanding pros with long track records of great stories, not twitter account holders on their first comic who were given a job based on their race or sexuality).

When you stop knowing how to make great new characters, (heroes and villains alike), then you're stuck trying to reinvent the characters you have. That's been X-Men's problem for almost the last 20 years; when they make new characters, they're not really good and no one really cares. That leaves using the current stable... over and over and over again.

[elumish]

I talk about what writers should do a lot, so now I'm going to take a break and talk about some reforms that I think agents should make.

A caveat: I am not an agent! Unlike when I talk about writing, I am just talking about this as an author who happens to be in the midst of querying. If I have an followers who are agents who think I'm getting something wrong, please let me know!

That said, here I go:

Trad publishing is, fundamentally, about getting past a whole bunch of layers of gatekeepers, and agents are the first gatekeepers. With some very limited exceptions, you can't be trad published without having an agent. From what I can tell, being an agent is a bit of a thankless job--it's based on commission, so an agent only gets money if they are selling their clients' books. (Remember: the money flows towards the writer. If someone claiming to be an agent is telling you that you need to pay them to represent you, run.)

Because of this structure, agents have a massive amount of power over unagented authors, particularly because unagented authors simply do not have another option if they want to trad publish. It is my opinion that that power dynamic is part of the reason why querying actually sucks so unbelievably much for authors.

Now, part of why querying sucks is that it's a numbers game, which means that most of us will lose. Every writer is competing against a gazillion other writers, some of whom are better or writing things that are seen as more sellable or happen to be eariler or whatever. You are going to get a bunch of rejections, and that's not the fault of agents.

But here's the other problem:

There are, from what I can tell, no true industry standards and somewhat limited professional expectations for agents when it comes to how to deal with querying. Again, this is what it looks like from the outside--agents, if I'm getting this wrong, please let me know.

For example, many agencies and many agents will have different rules about what you can submit to them and how, and in many cases those rules are in somewhat arbitrary places, which means that querying authors have to hunt for them, and it's easy to run afoul of them even when you're trying. It's common for some agencies to say that you can't query two agents from the same agency at the same time, but some say that you can't query two agents from them ever--a rejection from one is a rejection from all.

But most agents' Twitter bios/MSWL pages/personal pages/etc. don't say that--which means that authors need to hunt through every individual agency's webpage and then cross-reference against every agent that they have ever queried previously, which can be arduous when many people are querying dozens or hundreds of agents. It also means needing to keep track of things like when agents switch agencies.

There are also no standard expectations for agents to actually respond to queries in any sort of time span, or at all, which complicates the above issue even more. But it also is just (imho) kind of unprofessional to ghost people who are seeking a professional relationship with you, when you have explicitly asked them to reach out to you seeking that professional relationship.

And to make that worse, many agents don't say whether or not they respond to all queries, meaning that authors are often left wondering if a 6-month or longer wait is a "no" or an "I haven't gotten to this yet but will definitely respond to you."

There are more issues that I could cite, but my overall point in this is that authors have no recourse here. There's not authors' union, no way to go on strike until agents change what they're doing.

And some agents are really awesome about this! But enough are not, and authors don't really know what they're going to get when they query someone.

So all of this is to say that, if you are an agent, here are some fairly easy changes I would love for you to make to your own behavior to make querying a little bit less of a nightmarish hellscape for authors (and thank you so much if you already do some or all of these):

Respond to every query that you receive

Tell people your general response times and be communicative if that changes. It's okay if it regularly takes you six months! Just tell us it regularly takes you six months, so we're not left wondering if we've been ghosted at four months

Outline all submission guidelines on Query Manager or where you accept queries, including things like a) rules about whether a rejection from one is a rejection from all, b) length expectations for things like synopses (I've seen a range), and c) any other expectations you have (e.g., you require trigger warnings). Don't make people hunt through 2-4 websites to find what you want

Stop asking or at least strongly rethink how you ask about Own Voices or why an author feels like they are qualified to write about a marginalized identity--I understand the impulse, but nobody should be expected to disclose medical or other personal information like that in a professional setting

Also, just to say (other than please don't reject my query because of this post), agents: authors really do appreciate the work you all do. I want someone to work with to get published, because I am very well aware that I am not the expert in this situation.

And again, please tell me if I got anything wrong or misrepresented anything.

[fanfic-writer-and-rambler]

How Jason and Roy became friends at a Burger King

Jason Todd: You seem familiar, have I threatened you in the past?

Roy Harper: Did you sell me China cat when I was addicted to heroin?

Jason Todd sits down at the table.

Jason: I'm sorry, I need to know more because we might be friends now. Oh shoot I think I do know you.

Roy: Are you selling me drugs?

Jason: Nope. Hey... did you shoot arrows and dress like peter pan?

Roy: It... it was more robin hood inspired.

Jason: Red hair... arrows... robin hood... Oh you're that moron's, Arrow, sidekick! Oh my God, it's so good to see you again! How you been?

Roy: On... heroin, falling out with Arrow, got married, had a daughter, lost custody, was on heroin and recovering.

Jason: Awesome, you are comfortable to tell me all of this. I like that.

Roy: I ain't got nothing left to lose. How do you know who I am?

Jason: I'll go with my trauma, okay, I was the second robin, died by the joker, was revived from the lazarus pit, went insane, worked with the ghuls for a few years, found Batman, tried to kill him, failed, crazy times man.

Jason laughs and then sighs. Roy stares at him confused.

Jason: I am not making up a single thing I said... My name is Jason Todd, you met me before when I was a kid, oh and I fought my brother Nightwing and this annoying spoiled brat named Tim.

Roy: Oh my God, you're not lying. I was there when you made fun of his dead mom.

Jason: That's me!

Roy Harper: You're Jason Todd... Didn't you die?

Jason Todd: Yes, for 5 years actually, but then I wasn't... then I went insane... I'm kind of insane at the moment and I murder horrible people for money... And vengeance, but the money helps.

Jason pours salt in his glass of water and chugs it. Roy looks around confused.

Roy (worried): Are you selling me drugs? Is this a test? Where's Green Arrow? I promised I wouldn't do them again.

Jason (concerned): No. I'm not selling drugs... I have cigarettes but I don't want that for a former drug addict. I just want to be friends with you... I want to... help you. I never got to do that with other drug addicts, and you look cool. I remember you were... the only guy nice to me.

Roy: I don't... I mean it was common human decency. When you died I was sad, on china cat, but sad.

Jason: Can we hang out then? Can I be your friend? Please.

Roy: Um, sure... I'm kind of friends with Nightwing at times.

Jason: Not anymore, you're my friend! We are friends! Nobody will take that from us! I will buy us bracelets. I heard a lot about you after I died and you are the perfect guy friend I could EVER have.

Roy (sincere): That was the nicest thing anyone has said to me.

Jason: I mean it too! I have not had friends in a while.

Roy: I can tell, but we're in a burger king so... this isn't the oddest thing that has happened in here.

Jason: This is great. What do you want to do? Go to a movie, a mission, a mission and a movie?

Roy: Okay, um, a mission if I can get paid.

Jason: Bitchin' let's go!

Jason stands up and yanks Roy out of his chair and they run out of the burger king.

[greenerteacups]

Hi GT,

Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I absolutely love the recs you've given (you've introduced me to tomione, and I love it!) and I was wondering if it's possible to give you some recs in return? There are some books and fics that definitely have dramione / got vibes, and I was wondering if I could share them with you!

So glad you've enjoyed them! Feel free to rec me anything you want. I've read most of the classic recs in terms of fic and adjacent content (Cruel Prince et al), but I'll try anything that's well-written. My tastes run towards weird and/or audaciously creative stuff, and I can forgive a lot of weaknesses in plot on the grounds of (1) ambition or (2) character work. My turnoffs are instalove, protagonists who can't fail, and most Y/A (I'm not a hater, I swear, I just need characters who can say "fuck" when their leg gets chopped off.)

I'm also a fan of weird and fucked-up dynamics.(Wuthering Heights was my favorite book for a while, and as a teenager I wrote an AU in which the book ends on a long sex scene where Heathcliff fucks Cathy's ghost and then immediately gets murdered by Catherine 2.) Obviously, I am very normal.

[tooies]

i think we should bring back coins being able to actually be a reasonable method of buying things because there is just this inherent swag to coins that paper bills just don't have. come to think of it this is not a surprising opinion at all coming from a dragon but like still

[fraudulent-cheese]

You know what? Here are some Katie and Sadie headcanons!

they've made a ton of kandi for eachother and in general (you can recongnise Sadie's ones thanks to their heavy use of blacks and whites, Katie's use yellows and a bunch of different shades of pink)

they're ravers in their free time (Henke Penke was right)

Sadie is good at DJ'ing and has made a couple songs in her free time, Katie's a great dancer (especially in breakdance) and is a great singer

Katie's great at decorating parties

Sadie's great at spotting the kind of people who will be trouble at parties and Katie's great at helping the kind of people that dragged themselves at a party/are getting overwhelmed at one

Katie's slightly better than Sadie at mario kart, which is balanced out by Sadie being a little luckier than her

They usually wear matching outfits but in working on being less codependant have also started wearing different clothing. They're still wearing the same color palettes with some exceptions.

They're in a QPR :p

They absolutely have a similar type in girls. While Sadie had some male celebrity crushes Katie felt she had to share while they were growing up, their crushes on female celebrities are actually shared.

Katie figured out she was a girl very early thanks to Sadie. Her parents also told her about her being intersex around that time.

They looooove romcoms. Love watching them, talking about them, their tropes, ect... Sadie generally has higher standards regarding the writing but Katie has a soft spot for the more melodramatic ones. To a degree.

They watched one in theaters once together and they thought it was so awful they spent the next hour afterwards at a cafe fucking TRASHING it.

I insist on them basically being the reference point for romcom movies. If Harold or Cody has a shitty youtube channel reviewing movies and they talk about a romcom, they'll get Katie and/or Sadie in it and the videos with them in it get 50k more views.

Katie's youtube channel is mostly Kandi tutorials and dance choreography stuff, Sadie's youtube channel is movie discussion and occasionally her songs. She posts about her music way more on her tumblr blog.

[batfamfucker]

Appreciation post for 'girly girl' characters and/or shows that celebrate traditionally feminine things that girls and women are shamed for.

Characters on this list that love makeup, fashion, hair, etc. Characters that are still written as strong, intelligent, brave, etc. That told young girls that these interests are valid, they are not lesser interests. Being feminine and liking traditionally feminine things does not make them weak.

[avephelis]

MUTANT MAYHEM THOUGHTS IT WAS SUPER AWESOME LET'S FUCKING GOO

BANGER BANGER BANGER FILM. definitely the thing i liked most was the visuals - the style is SO UNIQUE (with the deliberately misshapen designs and grungy colours with harsh neon contrast and the FUCKING !! SKETCH/SCRATCH LINES DUUDE), and the animation was just so full of personality and an absolute joy to watch.

AND SHOUT OUT TO THE EFFECTS AND LIGHTING ANIMATION ESPECIALLY HOLY SHIT ??? every time they had the scratched on light rays or scribbled smoke and dust i started like DROOLING dude.

the cinematography was also just absolutely amazing - incredible use of the medium to do these fantastic running shots with complex angles. favourite sequence was definitely the side shots of the boys fighting and interrogating people (SO smooth and the fighting choreography was incredible and showcased their styles and personalities so well, and the intercut sense of MOTION. dude. banger.)

AND !! THE FUCKING SOUND DESIGN!! especially the score dude MY GOD i loved the use of pitchy and unconventional instruments it fit the movie to a tee.

LOVED THE CHARACTERS! particularly the boys and the other mutants (mondo wingnut and leatherhead especially). all the interactions were super sweet and well-written and i just LOVED the VA performances - played off each other immaculately. i love how cringe and unapologetically TEEN the turtles are. and adored splinter too.

i think i'm glad they focused more on developing their relationship as a family than individual character arcs, because it helped reduce any bias or favouritism for specific turtles (COUGH leo and raph ahem), and also worked best with the super fast pacing, i think. didn't feel too cramped in all the busyness.

that said, i did struggle with the comedy a bit? particularly the reference humour. NOT THAT IT WAS ALL BAD! quite a few got a laugh out of me, but there were so many packed into such a small amount of time that it ended up getting a bit distracting. felt a bit like "let's wave all our properties in your face" and kind of out of place at times (i would've preferred for them to be less frequent, or for the references to be knock-offs)

i don't think the plot was the MOST compelling, either, but really that's fine, because it wasn't trying to be. the focus was on the art and action and dynamics and it is completely fine for it to focus more on that than thematic and emotional beats.

oh also i can't decide whether i love or hate the milking joke. funny at times but the more they retreaded it the more uncomfortable it felt lmao.

overall i think it is the most technically impressive tmnt movie, that i've seen at least, and from a cinematography point of view? ABSOLUTELY MIND-BLOWING. but it isn't necessarily the most emotionally compelling tmnt movie, and you know what? that's okay! because is wasn't trying to be, and it absolutely excels at what it aims itself towards.

[c0smiccom3t]

Silly Bandicoot Doodle Batch !!!

(Turns out i can draw the bandicoots in the same exact artstyle as in the "It's about time" game... Well, except for Aku Aku, kind of.... idk.)

(OK thats all the fanart i can make. time to work more on my webcomic until its time to draw more fanart!!)

[serendipitous-mage]

......... who's gonna tell him ... .. ill do it @markiplier

[vanishingmoments]

What exactly was it about the late 70s thru early 80s that compelled directors to make their movies as intensely violently misogynistic as they could

[crescentfool]

i think something that is important to me to remember is that there are small ways i can do things to spark joy for myself and others without waiting for someone else to do it... (conjures up little sparklies from my hands) life is so whimsical!!!

[thecoolerliauditore]

hey why does third life Cleo need to be put in the shredder ?

genuine question by the way, I don't think I have seriously thought about third life Cledubs ever

girl help I forgot I made that post so I was just staring at that first sentence for way too long like. does she.

but uh yeah disclaimer or whatever that on this blog specifically I tend to speak more hyperbolic and don't care to fact check myself because like 99% of the time I just write words and leave. I haven't necessarily like. looked back at any of my own posts a day or so later and gone "wow okay that's just incorrect" but I do acknowledge that like. I'm really letting the interpretation/headcanon lines blur over here at times and sometimes I'll just say shit. so yeah blah blah blah none of this is gospel everything with a grain of salt etc etc

anyway cleo in the life series in general drives me a bit insane because like 85% of the time they are really cool and awesome and funny and my favourite guy but then there's the 15% of time she shares onscreen in an extended conversation with scott smahor and she suddenly becomes like. genuinely the worst person alive to me I want her prosecuted jailed death penalty'd.

In third life specifically she makes an alliance with scott behind bdubs' back called the "widows alliance" which was based on a promised partnership after their respective partners (bdubs and jimmy) died before they did. Which is like. One of the things I am mad forever about people suddenly deciding everything is Silly when it comes to the guys doing horrible shit because what the fuck, man.

I guess there is an argument to be made for the level of seriousness on Cleo's side because unlike Scott we don't get any indication that she like. genuinely expects to outlive bdubs. And she could very much just be saying words for the sake of it or have yet to completely grasp the concept of "permadeath" (like many others) but I'm still mad. Very happy she ate shit and died right after Jimmy. I'm sorry women.

I would have to rewatch 3L from cleo's POV to say this with confidence but I would also like to add that from what I recall she was also somewhat? dismissive of bdubs the whole time even though a lot of the heavy lifting in their partnership was done by him. BUT in cleo's defense she was distrusting of essentially everyone in 3L and kept everybody at arm's length ++ I'm willing to attribute this more reflective of Cleo's running theme of being insecure in her own abilities than any sign that she thinks lesser of Bdubs specifically.

Post-3L Cleo is epic and awesome in Last Life as byproduct of the fairy fort being epic and awesome and even when she eventually joins GGG it's fine because LL!Scott is the only instance of Scott feeling human emotions in this series but ohhh my god DL Cleo is a whole beast of her own I could write essays upon essays on how DL Cleo is the worst guy ever this mf sets a little puppy dog on FIRE and no one ever mentions it I'm angry forever about it.

Everything limited life onwards is fine she chills out super hard about the not trusting people thing and limlife cleo specifically is really really funny even if she would still stab bigb to death with a kitchen fork if given the opportunity. Her relationship with Bdubs is pretty much un-weirded in my head I don't think they were like. Awful in 3L even I just think that Cleo has issues with relationships in general and self-sabotages alot due to her own insecurities and so she ends up doing alot of fucked up insane person things despite not really being. Bad herself if that makes sense?

Very very shy little endnote it's also like. Interesting to me that Cleo and only Cleo refers to the 3L Cledubs partnership as like. Romantic in any sense. Cleo uses terms like "husband" very generously so I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt here and say it means fuck all but idk idk something about the way Bdubs never reciprocates and instead assigns himself her son the next time they end up together is really funny to me.

Anyway yeah whatever. the shredder.

[delicatetaysversion]

so I was thinking this since yesterday because of these tags on the webweave

and this one came after that

and it made me think like what if. what if. it's actually not that deep it's just me who's so emotionally attached to this piece of media because i have known it for this long and it's my coping mechanism.like what if that second person watches jjk and doesn't connect with them like this and they end up hating it because i gave them hope and i made it deeper than it is💀

i am so mad at your brain for spiralling down this road because all i can think is OMG!!!!!! YOUR WEBWEAVE IS SO AWESOME PEOPLE WANT TO WATCH THE SHOW JUST BECAUSE OF SOME PICS AND QUOTES GLUED TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!! also pls i love the first tags so cute with DO ANOTHER!!!!

[tuhbanbuv]

Welcome Home did more for autism than A*tism Speaks ever could