#i know this is long

[entrop-y]

**click for better quality!**

BY THE NUMBERS: CRIMINAL MINDS

a brief analysis of ratings, complacency, and the future of the police procedural

THE TRENDS

looking at general trends across the seasons 1-15, airing in Criminal Minds initial 2005-2020 run, the trends in ratings*, while not drastic, do reflect a decline in quality as the seasons progressed.

In the earlier seasons, most episodes were generally well received, with 2-4 “stand out” episodes—typically multi part episodes or season finales—per season. Notably, the stand out episodes often strayed from the constraints of the procedural format that structures the majority of episodes of Criminal Minds.

As the seasons progress, the majority of episodes in a season are mediocre in the eyes of the audience, with a few episodes being received quite poorly (ratings below 7.0). This is especially obvious in seasons 10-14. When thinking about the future of Criminal Minds: Evolution, it’s important (and fun!) to think about what was successful and unsuccessful in the shows original run.

WHY THIS IS

After season 5, but unequivocally after season 7, there was a noticeable decline in the quality of the writing, directing, and cinematography of Criminal Minds. The episodes felt increasingly fantastical—with storylines like evil twins, prince charming, and reid’s prison arc—making it difficult for audiences to suspend their disbelief. The early seasons focused on the profiling aspect of Criminal Minds, setting apart from other network police procedurals at the time. Criminal Minds felt smart and engaging, playing on real life cases and giving the viewer an insight into the unsub’s mind and the science* of profiling. In its infancy, the show did not rely on the gratuitous violence or drawn out take down scenes of the later seasons to keep viewers attention. Instead, Criminal Minds assumes its viewer is smart, immersing them in the word of profiling and building suspense by revealing the unsub to the viewer as the BAU identifies them.

As the show lost the elements that set it apart from similarly successful procedurals like NCIS or Law and Order, the episodes felt stale and unoriginal. This departure from its earlier premises created a bit of an identity crisis in the type of show Criminal Minds was.

There was also a notable decline in the direction and cinematography of the show. While the early seasons were admittedly rife with continuity errors and now dated editing, it was creative and ultimately, showed a degree of care and forethought that became lost in the later seasons. The yellow-grey color grading and uninteresting shots make the show less enjoyable. They are the opposite of inventive. The creativity and trials of the early seasons somewhere diminished, being replaced with an over reliance on the procedural format, becoming very formulaic.

This is particularly evident in season 10, which has generally low ratings and unmemorable episode, aside from “Mr. Scratch” dir. Matthew Grey Gubler. “Mr. Scratch” was so wildly different from all of the episodes of season ten, with writing and direction reminiscent of a full length horror film, it performed significantly better than the other episodes in its season. It demonstrated that criminal minds could still balance a fantastical premise with a genuinely terrifying unsub. Like earlier seasons, it also did not spell out the entire story for the audience from the beginning, instead highlighting Hotch as an unreliable narrator who under the influence of Scratch’s deliriant cannot decipher what is real.

FAN SERVICE, FINALES, AND THE FUTURE

As ratings slipped in seasons 13-15, the writers tried everything to keep audience’s attention. This included bringing back old unsubs (Lucky Strikes, Date Night) and the fan service disaster that was “Truth or Dare”. “Truth or Dare” reflected Criminal Minds’ inability to even make the interpersonal relationships between team members feel natural and realistic. The team bonding scenes became more frequent, but they felt unnatural in comparison to similar scenes (for example the bar scene in “The Big Game”).

The finale was an unsatisfying yet long overdue end to the Everett Lynch storyline, with the teams actions being overshadowed by Reid’s umpteenth near death experience—a sequence that for the first time since like season 4, was terribly impacted by the lack of Mandy Patinkin—making the entire episode feel disjointed.

The bad finale left especially pre covid viewers of Criminal Minds apprehensive at the prospect of a reboot/revival. It awkwardly fell somewhere in between being another soulless money-grab hollywood reboot devoid of its original spark, and an overdue “revival” more akin to a pause in filming because of the pandemic. Audiences also had to navigate “the paramount+ of it all”, which was more accurately a reflection of the lack of faith cbs executives had in this project. It being exclusive to their own streaming service made it perfectly low stakes.

Nevertheless, Criminal Minds: Evolution, was a success among audiences. The freedom of a limited series, as opposed to a procedural, meant the show got to be more experimental in its direction, which was refreshing. It was renewed quickly, and despite its flaws, seems to signify the possibility of a positive reception and legacy of the show.

NOTES:

*throughout this post, “ratings” refers only to the rating of an episode as listed on IMDb, not taking into account viewership and any other metrics CBS used to determine audience reception

**the phrase “the science of profiling” is used only for simplicity and to align with the language of the show; criminal profiling is pseudoscientific and should not hold any weight in the criminal justice system.

END

I hope you all enjoyed this analysis, it got a little out of hand but also did not even scratch the surface of what I could say about Criminal Minds from a media studies point of view. I would love to hear any and all thoughts people have, even if you disagree with me!!

[shitpostingkats]

Hi yes I need you to know that your analysis on Jaden and Yusei (June 16, 2022, idk if you’ve done multiple on them but that’s the one I’m talking about) is the realest thing I have EVER read and you’re so right and you should say it MUCH louder that is the greatest take op it’s amazing and I’m screaming /pos

Jaden is my favorite character like,,,, ever, and you have nailed him I’m going bonkers

Another thing, I love your Groupchat AU but you have made me become aware that there is???? Another???? YGO show????? I was like who on God’s Green Earth is Yudias and then Google attacked me with information. I still remember. When Vrains was new. To me Vrains is still new. It came out 6 years ago. I feel old. I am not okay. I have yet to acknowledge the existence of Sevens and will continue to do so with Go Rush. Oh I got off-topic, whoops-

Anyways, love your Groupchat AU but I saw the one part with the Eldritch language that Jaden and Yuya are both fluent in and I humbly request more of their dynamic???

I had an epiphany last night, they’re so similar I’m actually losing my mind. All I can think about is that one audio of Batman and that girl on the swings and it’s like “They got their weapon, I got cheated out of my childhood” “I know what that’s like.” “You do don’t you?” Tell me that’s not them I am dying /pos

Much love <3

Oh my gosh, thank you! <3

Jaden and Yusei, my beloved blorbit. The painfully monstrous and the painfully human. The narrative foils of all time. Jaden Yuki, the creatchur autism boi of all time. <3 I need to write about them more.

I know what you mean about the new shows. I'm still a ways off from watching them, but I still want to remember they exist but keep forgetting. What do you means vrains is six years old??? (<- was not even a yugioh fan when vrains was airing) You're telling me there's probably going to be new one after that??? That the days start coming and they don't stop coming?????

Shoutouts to the sevens and go rush fans. They are the mightiest of soldiers. I know nothing about their shows but I'm hesitantly penciling them into the groupchat au anyways because I have seen maybe three clips but I know this funny little alien guy is near and dear to my heart.

Obviously there's a bit of a shift between Vrains and the Sevens era, being made for new audiences, a little tone shifting (which we LOVE, because any franchise that stays the same forever is no bueno.) and that makes it easy to group the first six shows into one group. But I also think there's a fascinating dialogue between shows 1-3 and shows 4-6. I didn't realize it until I was a good way into Arc-V, but each of the second trilogy protagonists sorta reflects the first three.

With Yuma and Yugi, it's very purposeful, a stated "return to form" with the chipper kid and his ghost companion who lives in his special necklace. And when I was gushing over Yusei in 5Ds, I got a lot of people saying "Man, you're going to love Yusaku." They're both the rbf hacker protags who fight the government. Lots to love.

But Jaden and Yuya????? Did not imagine I would come out of Arc-V going "omg they're foils. They're the same story through a different lens. They need to TALK to eachother and bond over their shared experiences."

Even leaving out my pet theory of "Zarc Was An Incarnation Of Jaden In The Original Timeline", they're just so. *clenches fist* The childhood trauma of being a weird kids and masking with an overly bubbly personality only to learn the great anger they've been trying to hide is powerful enough to rip apart reality and they're secretly harbingers of destruction.

By the end of GX, I think Jaden has wonderfully come to term with that. By the end of Arc-V, I think Yuya hasn't.

Their dynamic in the gc AU is very much to me Yuya is still struggling with Z-arc stuff, but not saying anything about it because that'd be weird, so he just kinda frets about it until he hits a breaking point and Jaden gets to offer his advice on dealing with all this.

I am so interested in exploring this that it actually got me started writing fic again,,, which I haven't done in like a year, so wish me luck. I'll keep y'all updated :)

Angst aside, they're also just. One braincell between them. Theatre kid and guy who has never once acted natural in his entire life. Kid making a scene at a Waffle House while his friend slowly eats the entire menu and offers suggestions. Jaden is a pokemon fan and Yuya is a kingdom hearts girlie, I've decided this, and they takes turns infodumping to each other. Jaden summons duel spirits so Yuya can ride around on Hiphippo even when he's not dueling. They trade funny things they've heard their dragons say. They're eldritch and inhuman and best friends, your honor.

[confessions-of-a-doormat]

i used to be a crew member on a ship. i still miss it. i met amazing people, had lots of fun, and felt a part of something important.

over the past year the ship sailed through a ton of rocky waters, with some vicious sea monsters popping up in the storm. and though i was scared, i knew we could make it through. i trusted my crew, and i trusted my captain.

throughout it all we left the monsters alone, the sharks and the giant squid, and focused on keeping the boat afloat, moving forward on our journey.

one crew member said how we needed to fight the monsters attacking us. he was worried we would be broken by them. the captain stood firm. and so the crew member took some weapons, and left the crew to fight on his own. the passengers watched in shock.

the captain was furious. the fight might anger the monsters more. the crew were all mixed on the idea of fighting the monsters, and tensions became as high as the waters were rocky. we still all tried to stick together.

arguments broke out. the captain has a temper, we know that, we’ve seen it. we understand what stress does to him, and we’ve all had a rocky year. we begged him to take a break from captaining.

instead, he completely disappeared. we searched the ship, all the nooks and crannies but could not find him anywhere. we were worried for his life.

the next day he was there again. we were so relieved he was ok. he said he wanted to be captain again. we thought it wasn’t a good idea. the stress of it was getting to him. he said he was fine now, that the first mate could help him command the boat and passengers and take over when he could not control himself. we still did not think it was a good idea. another crew member jumped ship in response.

nevertheless, i am a hopeful person when it comes to those i love. and so if i saw it, i said i would believe it. the captain, first mate, and another crew member had a meeting about how to fight the sea monsters, and how to address the first crew member leaving.

i listened outside the door. i did not hear everything, but i heard the captain scream, and refuse to listen to the first mate, and then the crew member stormed out. the first mate told them to come back. they said they could not, and jumped ship.

the captain couldn’t control himself, or listen to the first mate. that was clear. he still refused to recognize his own faults - his temper, his response to those who left, the private things he was told that he made public to the crew. i knew he could be better, and maybe return to captain or crew some day, but he definitely needed time away from the stress, perhaps to be just a passenger. and yet, he stayed captain.

i didn’t know what to do. i loved him. i loved all of them. my crew was my family. and yet the ship no longer felt safe. i wrote the captain a letter and jumped ship, into the cold waters. i bid the passengers farewell, but i did not tell them why.

soon after, two other crew members jumped ship. they told me how the letter had angered the captain in a way that made them realize they could not stay either.

there is one other crew member. she does not know what to do, but she stays, for the ship. i still talk to her. the first mate may be upset with the captain’s actions, but is still loyal to him, and so they are leading the ship. i no longer talk to the captain, though i miss him and still love him through all the heartbreak.

he pretends everything is fine now. he does not understand we left not because of the stress, but his reaction to it and refusal to step down. the passengers get to hear his side of the story.

and i do not viciously attack him; i do not want to become a giant sea monster. but i wish the passengers could see us, the ex-crew, all of us, here in our little boat. i wish they would question what happened, and if there is more than one side to the story he weaves.

i love the crew, and i love the passengers. i wish the cracks in our team could be repaired, but i know some never will. i still hold out small hope, that one day the captain will realize his wrongs, do the work to be better, and apologize to all he hurt. but i cannot sit around waiting for a day that may or may not come.

[wntrflln]

"  what  ?  ‘  riley  knew  they  could  be  abrasive  even  if  that  was  normally  reserved  for  their  brother  but  they  were  still  a  shelby  after  all  .  they  could  count  how  many  times  they  watched  their  phone  light  up ,  go  to  voice  mail ,  light  up ,  go  to  voice  mail .  maybe  they  should  have  ignored  it .  just  blocked  the  call  but  there  was  a  small  anxiety  there  that  maybe  it  was  someone  they  knew .  maybe  it  was  an  emergency  . maybe  it  was  an  annoying  spam  call .  

“  well ,  aren’t  you  a  ray  of  fucking  sunshine  .  ‘  riley  sighed  in  response  to  randy’s  voice  on  the  phone ,  hanging  their  head .  ‘  what  do  you  want  ,  randy ? ‘  they  spoke  into  the  phone  ,   walking  to  the  window  and  peeking  out ,  half  wondering  what  was  taking  jake  so  long  .  ‘  just  wanted  to  see  if  you  were  okay , ‘  randy  continued , ‘  kinda  figured  someone  would  gut  a  cow  in  this  town ,  not  a  person . ‘  riley  couldn’t  help  but  roll  her  eyes , ‘  you  have  no  tact , ‘  she  spoke ,  moving  away  from  the  window .  ‘  i’m  fine .  jake  is  gonna  come  over  and  we’re  probably  just  going  to  have  a  chill  night .   maybe  watch  a  movie .  ‘  randy  hummed , ‘  what  kind  of  movie ?  a  scary  movie ?  ‘  riley  almost  wanted  to  scoff , ‘  i  don’t  know .  maybe .  ‘  they  could  almost  hear  the  smile  in  randy’s  voice ,  ‘  you  know ,  riles ,  i  think  you’d  be  a  great  final  girl .  ‘

riley  didn’t   know  why  they  were  entertaining  this  conversation  with  randy . ‘  why’s  that ?  ‘  randy  hummed  again , ‘  i  mean ,  come  on  .  every  final  girl has  something  about  them .  now  a  days ,  throw  a  girl  in  a  horror  movie ,  she  always  has  daddy  issues  or  mommy  issues  and  ,  well ,  no  offense ,  but  you  got  both  of  them .  you  got  the  hot  but  dumbass  boyfriend .  actually  ,  you’re  a  little  different .  you  have  two  of  them .  a  little  thruple  action . ‘   riley  rolled  their  eyes  then  as  they  moved  into  the  living  room , ‘  you’re  disgusting  ,  you  know  that ? ‘

randy  almost  laughed  then , ‘  i  mean ,  the  big  question ,  if  you’re  the  final  girl  is ,  which  one  is  going  to  die  first ?  ‘  riley  stopped  walking  then .  they  noticed  the  change  in  randy’s  voice .  ‘  that’s  not  funny .  ‘   a  chuckle , ‘  whose  laughing ,  riley ?  it’s  a  simple  question .   who  dies  first  ? ‘  riley  didn’t  answer  as  she  moved  to  the  window ,  pushing  the  curtain  out  of  the  way .  there  was  nothing  to  see  other  than  darkness  and  trees ,  a  light  illuminating  the  farm  that  wasn’t  too  off  from  riley’s  home .  ‘  tick  tock  , ‘  he  breathed  into  the  phone  and  riley  moved  to  the  front  door ,  locking  it .  ‘  different  question , ‘  he  spoke ,  ‘  did  you  just  lock  me  in ?  or  out  .  ‘  

the  closet  door  swung  open .  riley  barely  had  time  to  drop  their   phone  and  lift  a  hand  ,  a  blade  slicing  against  their   skin .  riley  stumbled ,  the  blade  swiping  at  them  again ,  catching  them  in  the  side .  they  reached ,  fingers  grabbing  a  vase ,  throwing  it  in  the  person’s  direction  before  taking  off ,  not  bothering  to  look  to  see  if  their  weapon  of  choice  ever  made  contact .  

they  barely  made  it  to  the  back  door  before  a  strong  hand  caught  the  back  of  riley’s  shirt ,  pushing  her  forward  and  down .  riley  scrambled ,  managing  to  turn  over ,  kicking  the  person  back  before  getting  to  their  feet .  riley  swung  the  back  door  open ,  taking  off  down  the  porch  and  rounding  the  house .  they  didn’t  stop  until  they  reached  the  road ,  noticing  headlights .  riley  waved  a  hand  as  they  moved  into  the  road ,  attempting  to  flag  the  person  down .

[wanderingmind867]

Group 1 (Namorita, Andromeda, She-Hulk, Daimon Helstrom and Hellcat): Considering this group only set out to protect and save Atlantis, you'd think they'd have the most normal mission ahead of them. That becomes clearly untrue when they arrive to find atlantis has completely vanished. No traces of it anywhere. The invading armies are even missing. It's like there's nothing there.

They only begin to notice something is wrong they go in for a closer look. Something like a force field appears to keep stopping them in their tracks, although they barely notice due to the very lifelike illusions. By the time they finally realize something really weird is going on, they've been ambushed by a new super-villian and his giant mechanical killer whale.

This new villian is a sea captain whose grandfather died during a feud with atlantis over his immoral, unethical and downright strange methods of killing whales. He killed so many in such a short span of time, to the point where the atlanteans knew they had to do something to stop him. So they collectively lead an attack on his ship, and caused it to sink into the watery depths below.

Growing up hearing tales of his grandfather's death from his father (the only survivor of the attack), our vengeful young lad has spent ages planning this attack. He even had a giant killer whale robot built for just this purpose. But atlantis is already gone by the time he gets there. And as befitting a zealot with a temper and a prejudice towards atlanteans, he's outraged and doesn't take it well.

In a fit of rage (and possibly realizing that killing two atlanteans is better for him than killing none at all), he abducts Namorita and Andromeda and knows the other three heroes unconscious with his ships laser cannon. By the time She-Hulk, Helstrom and Hellcat wake up, he's gone. He's already bound for his headquarters: a deserted island off the coast of Africa.

This ends up leading to Black Panther somehow getting involved, as our intrepid set of 4 heroes head off to stop this madman from killing Namorita and Andromeda. I don't actually know how the rest of this little story would go, but I think this is a great start. I don't know how to resolve the atlantis storyline, though. I suppose that's a question for someone more versed in namor's comics, though.

The one thing I have to add: When this group of four (Black Panther leaves after the fight on the deserted island) finishes freeing atlantis from it's many enemies, Daimon Helstrom, She-Hulk and Hellcat head back to Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum (Andromeda and Namorita will stay back in Atlantis, for now). When they arrive at the Sanctum however, a very strange sight awaits their eyes: it's Nighthawk! Somehow (just like with all the dead new defenders) Kyle Richmond has come back from the dead!

[jikangairodo]

Handling transfigured humans is an arduous task, and framing it as an act of mercy doesn’t alleviate the difficulty. Kento believes it’s preferable for him to bear the burden of their execution rather than his junior colleagues. Adding one more scar to his soul seems like a small price to pay for theirs to be free of marks entirely. When news arrives that a veil has been cast over Satozakura High School, Kento lets out a weary sigh.

Ijichi is supposed to be with Itadori at the school, under strict instructions to wait for Kento’s arrival. However, he knows Itadori won’t adhere to orders. The same way he knows getting there in time to avert some kind of disaster is slim to none. Still, he begrudgingly leaves the rest to Ino, and without Ijichi to drive him; he hails a taxi, despite the notorious traffic during this time of day. Realising walking might be faster, he settles the taxi payment and starts on foot, eventually breaking into a run.

By the time he arrives at the school, he’s only slightly winded. The veil allows him entry, which, while concerning, is something he doesn’t think too hard about. He assumes it’s the patchwork curse’s doing—a coincidence too significant to be anything else. Following the echo of voices, he pushes open large double doors and pauses. There are bodies strewn across the floor, a man snivelling in a corner, and a curse user on the podium with another boy.

First things first, Kento lowers to the ground, pressing two fingers against a student’s pulse. It’s faint but present, indicating the situation isn’t as dire as initially assumed. This isn’t a massacre, not yet. Moving through the bodies, he ascends the stairs until he reaches the same level as the curse user—Yoshino Junpei, the boy they've been investigating. Didn’t Itadori have dinner at his house yesterday? Not the patchwork curse, then. It’s both a relief and not. Because now there’s an entirely different scenario involving a kid.

Kento deliberately keeps his weapon concealed on his back to avoid escalating the situation. There’s much to mull over and review, but he’s acutely aware of the limited time he has to diffuse the situation before it explodes in his face.

“Please step away from the boy, Yoshino-kun.” What went wrong between last night and now? “Everything you’ve done so far is reversible. You can walk away like it never happened. I will help you do that.” They’ll take him to Jujutsu Tech; there’s no other choice. “I’m Nanami Kento. I believe you’re already familiar with my student, Itadori Yuuji.”

@elysian-noctuary

[rumrumgoose]

I am fully aware that no one will probably read this but I really just needed to get this out so tumblr it is:

I will title this

My journey through fan fiction that spans 18 years and a sexuality crisis

I was a weird kid, I had gone to catholic school at the beginning of my elementary years and then moved to public school when my mom got a job as an elementary teacher. I didn’t know how to dress because I had worn a uniform before then and I didn’t know how to act in a not strict environment.

I found solace in books, we had a program at my school where you would read a book and then take a test on it and earn points for passing the test. The bigger the book, the more points you got. Naturally as this was 2004 Harry Potter was very popular, and they were the books that got you the most points as they were larger. I read the first one and was hooked, this world was amazing, I was at my bookstore the night the half blood prince and deathly hollows came out. I devoured the books, and then I devoured them again, and again.

Eventually in the summer between 5th and 6th grade (so 2006) I discovered fan fiction. I was HOOKED, now not only did I get to have basically unlimited access to my favorite characters, I got to read about them in different ways than JK put them. Fan fiction was…unhinged back then to say the least. I was more into the golden trio and I wasn’t really into romance stories as I was 12 but I can distinctly remember wolfstar (that’s not what they were called back then it was like SS something or other) being in the background of A LOT of stories I read and liking it but also not caring cause I just wanted the adventure as a 12 year old does.

I fell into this rabbit hole and would be reading fan fiction at an alarming rate for a person my age, but I was weird and being bullied and was DEFINITELY struggling with my sexuality so it was my way to escape. I stayed firmly in fan fics until I went to high school, at the end I was definitely reading “slash” fics and they were definitely not straight but I was riding the denial train hard.

When I went to high school it was 2009 and “hipster” was cool, my weirdness combined with becoming “hot” granted me way less bullying. I started to get friends so I dropped the “weird” Harry Potter obsession and let myself slowly combust with a sexuality crisis that spanned a good 12 years. I would dabble in fan fiction many times from the ages of 15-26 but I really got into a couple weeks after my 27th birthday.

I was, well, I was actively dying. I was so mentally ill I wasn’t really functioning. I was in a horrible marriage (to a man, if you haven’t caught my subtle hints I’m a lesbian) I had nothing of my own, no autonomy and I just didn’t want to be here anymore.

I fell into reading all the young dudes (I know, I know) because of a TikTok I had seen with someone saying they loved reading Marauders fics because it’s easy to take a step back from JK when reading them. To say I was hooked is an understatement.

When I started reading it I didn’t know about tags or even how to work AO3 so I didn’t realize it was a wolfstar fic, when they kissed on the mouth I was like 😱. Sometimes I wish I could relive that moment again because I was an idiot. I was hooked though and thus began an insane journey into discovering that queer love can actually be amazing, that I can leave my husband and survive, and taking your mental health meds is a super good idea.

I have been through a journey and am about to turn 29 on Saturday, so almost 2 years later I need to just thank everyone in the community for your words that saved me. I am now obsessed with wolfstar, I don’t know what I would do with out you guys. I’m trying to be more active in the fandom but I thought I would get my story into the world even if no one sees it! 💕

[waveofstars]

𝖔𝖕𝖊𝖓 : m/f/nb, 30+ 𝖕𝖑𝖔𝖙 : chey and your muse are childhood best friends/first loves and lost touch with one another. chey has come back to their hometown to help empty out her childhood home that is for sale. they reunite for the first time in many years. 𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖓𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓: childhood best friend/first love (could be neighbors or just walking by!) @indiestarter

It was strange to be home. Even stranger that this wasn't home anymore, nor would it be for the rest of her life. The house was half empty and lost its warm charm she remembered so fondly. Her childhood bedroom was untouched, old posters of bands on her walls, and random assortments of photos hung everywhere. It was frozen in time, back when she was just a teenager navigating the world the best she could.

Something came over her then. Seeing all of it was the tip of dominos she hadn't realized were there, and down she fell. Tears welled in her eyes and her throat begged for air. Chey went downstairs and walked out the front door. She considered getting in her car and driving far away, but she stayed put instead. She sat on the front porch steps and held her head in her hands. She hated crying. Wiping her face, she heard some rustling and looked up just in time to see someone on the sidewalk in front of the home. "Sorry," she mumbled knowing how crazy she must look and cracked a smile. But the smile faded into something else. Shock. She couldn't believe who was in front of her. "Hi..."

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Expertise can't help you here.

[pigswithwings]

the angel staying over at my house asked for a nightlight in their room and i told them buddy, don't you produce your own light? what're you gonna do with more? and they said they wanted to see why people like it so much. and also that the nightlight i own is blue and they've been trying to understand color. anyways i think they've stared at it for an hour now

[hoofpeet]

14 year old artists listen to me right now (gripping you by the shoulders) STOP caring about your "internet presence" right naow. Draw slower and stop trying to boil your art down to an acceptable marketable brand

[onefey]

you're going about your normal day when, suddenly, surprise! you've been pokémon mystery dungeon'd!

unfortunately, due to budget cuts, the pokémon assigning quiz has been canceled. instead, you must spin THE WHEEL, assigning you a random, unevolved, non-legendary and non-mythical pokémon. you must now go on some sort of world-saving adventure as this pokémon. good luck!

tell me in the tags what you rolled, and how you feel about it - for bonus points, you can spin the wheel again for (or just take your pick of) a pokémon to be your partner.

bonus rules:

you're not shiny unless the wheel tells you you're shiny

take your pick of regional forms and evolutions (for example, if you roll vulpix, it's up to you whether that means normal or alolan vulpix)

apply whatever logic you like with regards to gender

have fun and be yourself!

[christadeguchi]

"i would know her by reformed body alone... i would know her in death"

also... there's official art

[buzzrds]

here's my wonderful isopod child, handcrafted in leather

[annalyticall]

My new favorite excuse for not jumping on new trends or bandwagons is 'I'm 30.' No more explanation needed because anyone under 30 just thinks I'm old and everyone over 30 understands implicitly

[hamletthedane]

I was meeting a client at a famous museum’s lounge for lunch (fancy, I know) and had an hour to kill afterwards so I joined the first random docent tour I could find. The woman who took us around was a great-grandmother from the Bronx “back when that was nothing to brag about” and she was doing a talk on alternative mediums within art.

What I thought that meant: telling us about unique sculpture materials and paint mixtures.

What that actually meant: an 84yo woman gingerly holding a beautifully beaded and embroidered dress (apparently from Ukraine and at least 200 years old) and, with tears in her eyes, showing how each individual thread was spun by hand and weaved into place on a cottage floor loom, with bright blue silk embroidery thread and hand-blown beads intricately piercing the work of other labor for days upon days, as the labor of a dozen talented people came together to make something so beautiful for a village girl’s wedding day.

What it also meant: in 1948, a young girl lived in a cramped tenement-like third floor apartment in Manhattan, with a father who had just joined them after not having been allowed to escape through Poland with his pregnant wife nine years earlier. She sits in her father’s lap and watches with wide, quiet eyes as her mother’s deft hands fly across fabric with bright blue silk thread (echoing hands from over a century years earlier). Thread that her mother had salvaged from white embroidery scraps at the tailor’s shop where she worked and spent the last few days carefully dying in the kitchen sink and drying on the roof.

The dress is in the traditional Hungarian fashion and is folded across her mother’s lap: her mother doesn’t had a pattern, but she doesn’t need one to make her daughter’s dress for the fifth grade dance. The dress would end up differing significantly from the pure white, petticoated first communion dresses worn by her daughter’s majority-Catholic classmates, but the young girl would love it all the more for its uniqueness and bright blue thread.

And now, that same young girl (and maybe also the villager from 19th century Ukraine) stands in front of us, trying not to clutch the old fabric too hard as her voice shakes with the emotion of all the love and humanity that is poured into the labor of art. The village girl and the girl in the Bronx were very different people: different centuries, different religions, different ages, and different continents. But the love in the stitches and beads on their dresses was the same. And she tells us that when we look at the labor of art, we don’t just see the work to create that piece - we see the labor of our own creations and the creations of others for us, and the value in something so seemingly frivolous.

But, maybe more importantly, she says that we only admire this piece in a museum because it happened to survive the love of the wearer and those who owned it afterwards, but there have been quite literally billions of small, quiet works of art in billions of small, quiet homes all over the world, for millennia. That your grandmother’s quilt is used as a picnic blanket just as Van Gogh’s works hung in his poor friends’ hallways. That your father’s hand-painted model plane sets are displayed in your parents’ livingroom as Grecian vases are displayed in museums. That your older sister’s engineering drawings in a steady, fine-lined hand are akin to Da Vinci’s scribbles of flying machines.

I don’t think there’s any dramatic conclusions to be drawn from these thoughts - they’ve been echoed by thousands of other people across the centuries. However, if you ever feel bad for spending all of your time sewing, knitting, drawing, building lego sets, or whatever else - especially if you feel like you have to somehow monetize or show off your work online to justify your labor - please know that there’s an 84yo museum docent in the Bronx who would cry simply at the thought of you spending so much effort to quietly create something that’s beautiful to you.