#if I can't even tell who the character is because someone changed their skin color hair color/style/sex/etc.

[krazys-ass-emporium]

Personally, I prefer the canon designs/characterizations of the Hetalia characters and don't care for much deviation from canon.

[thejessc0de]

Do you have any tips for someone who is trying a more realistic aproach for their art style? your painting and lighting are so good that I had to ask 🤠

Thank you!

So this question is actually pretty hard to answer, mostly because I still consider myself a beginner/hobbyist, and I'm pretty sure a lot of my technique comes from the ~5 years of classical art training I received in middle school and high school, and that's so fuzzy I can't tell what's intuition or muscle memory! I can go over some of my workflow/thoughts though and hopefully some of it is useful!

The first thing is that for realism, You. Need. References. It is impossible to replicate the level of detail in a realistic painting without a reference. I usually pick a reference, try to draw that reference exactly, and once I have the proportions correct, I'll change it to match the character/scene I'm drawing (move an arm, tilt the head, add a hand, make the eyes bigger, add anime hair etc. haha). Over time you'll get more comfortable moving away from a specific reference and piecing together a bunch of references into something more unique.

Here is an example of a recent post that was fairly simple. I take the reference image (link to reference here) and try to match it, and then I change it to match the character details, in this case, Kashimo.

As for the lighting, when I first started, my colors were a mess! I already know basic color theory which helps, but it didn't help enough haha. What I think helped me learn the quickest was color picking - in krita you can select a color directly from an imported reference figure. So I'd find a reference that I really liked the lighting on, and color picked from it while paying attention to the actual color I was grabbing (how warm it was, gray it was, what the typical skin tones were, etc).

Later on as I started to learn what types of color palettes I really liked working with, I'd open the reference photo in Krita and tweak the image's contrast and sometimes completely change the lighting and colors. However, at some point I started using it as a crutch and my skills stagnated, so you need to be careful! However, now I've progressed to the point of doing a painting in black and white and adding the colors later (with no color picking!), sometimes even without a reference for the color. This was a slow and painful process, so don't expect things to make sense overnight!

Also, don't forget that you don't have to make the colors perfect in one shot. Usually I'll color things using a color layer with minimal detail and basic color tone (Itadori's hair is soft pink, his hoodie is bright red, etc), and then create shadows and lighting with multiply and overlay layers (blues and purples for night, etc.). Eventually I'll build up the color and merge all the layers together, and then add details in full color. I can color pick from other parts of the painting to maintain consistency. Then to finish things off, I almost always tweak the colors and contrast using filter layers.

Here is an example from that same Kashimo painting, going from black and white to full colors using color, multiply, and overlay layers, and then ending with full color details.

As a side note, starting out in black and white can make things so much easier. When you're only worried about values, you can really focus on shadow depth and the shapes of things. It's so much easier to explore rendering when you're not trying to do color on top of everything! Don't try to do everything at once.

The rendering style I use is based heavily on trying to replicate the feeling of actual oil painting. I use the (free!) art program Krita, and my favorite, most used brush is from a free pack I downloaded from deviant art (here). I use the brush called R T Masked4 (shown below) for basically 90% of any painting I do. I use about 4 brushes total on a typical painting (R T Masked4, that same brush but tweaked to be narrower for hair details, a smudge brush that I discovered maybe 10 days ago that I'm now obsessed with, and sometimes a scratchy brush for additional texture).

One last thing - don't be afraid to use tracing! Block in a reference photo to get the head and shoulders in the right place!! Trace a few hands to see how it feels!!! Obviously don't trace somebody's art and present it as your own, and it should only be rough approximations of shapes so you learn how to break down the body into parts. Otherwise, it won't be helpful at all. I only use photographs for tracing, including pictures I've taken of myself. One of the more helpful things I'll do is free hand my drawing and try to make it match the reference as closely as possible. Then, on a separate layer, I'll trace the reference photo (again, no details, just general positioning/shapes), and compare it to my original drawing. I can immediately see the issues, and I'll use the liquify tool to get things in the right place. I've learned that my horizontal spacing is usually pretty good, but I struggle with vertical spacing, especially on faces. So now I triple check my work for those specific things!

This kinda turned into a book, I'm sorry! I hope some of this is helpful and doesn't sound like the 10:30pm ramblings of someone who didn't get enough sleep haha.

[hauntedwitch04]

Veronica and JD

🎃Halloween party🎃  

Remus Lupin x reader

Words: about 1.3k words

Warning: Sexy Remus, just some mention of sex I think?, sexy Remus, mention of drinking, I already said sexy Remus ?

Author’s note: 10th day and we are still here! To be truth this is one of my favorite prompts, and I hope you like it as much as me.

p.s. I know I have a big problem with Heather, it’s kinda my obsession, but htat damn film is so good :)

✒️:   “Trick or Treat.” “I choose treat, but I know something sweeter than this candy.” “And what would that be?”

Requests are open I  Ask  I  My masterlist   I  Join the Taglist

Halloween is approaching, and at Hogwarts people are already feeling the festive air. Pumpkins decorate the bare hallways and the ghosts are happier and do nothing but play tricks on all the students. 

This year, after the prefects had spent almost a month convincing McGonnal and Dumbledoor, a party would be held on October 31 in honor of the famous holiday. No one believed it when the professor had broken the news in the Great Hall a few mornings ago, but when everyone had realized that it was not a joke by the Maraurders, as was initially believed, everyone had taken to scrambling to organize everything in every little detail and beginning to think about clothes. 

Lily and James had decided that they would go together and thus have costumes coordinated according to a Muggle movie that the redhead loves so much namely Grease. At first Sirius didn't want to dress up as anything, but when he had eavesdropped as a Hufflepuff girl who inerested in him hoped to see him dressed up as a vampire, because, quoting verbatim, "he was extremely cool dressed up as Dracula," he had changed his mind immediately. Marlene and Dorcas would follow Lily's idea, while Regulus still did not even know if he was coming. 

Remus had told no one how he would disguise himself, thus leaving the mystery for each of us to try to fill in with our own ideas. 

I had decided to dress up as the character in a movie I had seen last summer namely "Heathers," and I would be dressed as Veronica. 

Finally the fateful evening arrived and almost all of us headed to the party venue together, all except the werewolf. After a few seconds all I can do is lose them in the bedlam of that room. The happy couple immediately head for the dance floor and Sirius pretends to vomit when he sees them smiling and dancing tightly together to a Cindy Laupner song, though we are all happy that at least they have finally found love. 

I, on the other hand, am still here, drooling over the same boy since I was thirteen, when I know perfectly well that I am nothing more than a friend to him, and that only hurts. I've spent many moons by his side, I've seen him at his worst, and I haven't even been frightened of the monster he claims so much to be, but I still haven't been able to confess to him that I like him. 

Sirius left me a few minutes ago after seeing the girl he was looking for and now I am standing here by the refreshment table. I can't help but snort as I lean against the cold wall in contact with my hot skin from the heat of the room full of people. I notice that someone is leaning against the wall next to me, and just as I turn around to see who the asshole is that I have to tell to shit for entering my personal space I see Remus in all his glory. He's wearing a long black coat, his hair is tousled as usual. He has on a regular black T-shirt, jeans of the same color, and boots, very different from his school attire. Her costume is nothing special, yet I feel like I have seen it somewhere before. He seems to read my thoughts, because he immediately gives me the answer. 

"JD." He says with that sexy little smile, which God I have to try all my strength not to faint. "My costume. JD, the one from Heathers." Good to see you Veronica." 

She continues with the same little smile as she walks over and holds out her hand to me. I don't know how, probably the alcohol, I find the courage to answer him in kind. 

"Long time no see my dear punk." I say with the same little smile, just above the volume of the music. "You know, I had thought of all but that for your costume. I didn't think you were a fan of this movie." I continue, while still watching it, not wanting to miss every single detail. 

"You were the one who gave me that idea. If I'm not mistaken your exact words were, 'Fuck, JD could do anything to me and the only thing I would say to him would be thank you,' yes I think those were them. And how can anyone not watch a movie after such a review and you know what? You are absolutely right, he is damn attractive, but Veronica is no joke either." He replies, finishing by giving me a wink. 

Suddenly a wave of embarrassment rises up and warms my face, as I think about how I would do anything as well to him since he is so much more attractive d, when I start looking around, to get back to talking to the boy. 

"Trick or Treat." I ask him, as I grab a mouthful of candy from the coffee table in front and start eating it, and in response he looks at me confused, then replies. 

"I choose treat, but I know something sweeter than this candy." He says pointing to the candy on the table in front of us. Now it's my turn to be confused. 

"And what would that be?" I ask trying to be sensual, although I guess I didn't succeed very well. He swallows laboriously before answering me, weighing the answer. Then he brings his lips close to my ear, and whispers something that makes my candy go sideways. 

"You." He whispers, and I can't help but stare at his lips, and I see him do the same. 

"Are you flirting like me Lupin?" I ask, joking. 

"You've finally noticed," he replies seriuosly with a smile, coming closer still. "You have no idea how much you drive me crazy, how much I desire you, desire everything about you: your lips, your heart, your heart." He says inches from my lips, as I close my eyes and breathe in his intoxicating scent. 

"And what exactly are you waiting for JD?" I ask with a small smile. He replies with another smile before throwing himself on my lips. His are warm and soft and taste of tobacco and chocolate, an aphrodisiac flavor that lead me to hold him even tighter to me, putting my hands in his hair as he grips my waist with his powerful arms. 

When we part, breathless, we still wade into each other's eyes and without saying a word, laughing like madmen we leave the hall running through the corridors of the castles under the stunned and delighted gaze of our friends, still shocked at what has happened. 

BONUS 

At the back of the room were Minerva and Sirius looking at you shocked, before the professor started laughing like no one had ever seen her do, even Dumbledoor is shocked. 

"Yes, yes prof I understand no need to twist the knife." Black says, searching his pockets for the money he owed his professor. A few weeks earlier the two had made a bet: she had said that within a month you and Remus would confess to each other, while your friend had said it would take at least three months. As it turned out, Minnie had been right once again. 

Sirius annoyedly hands the money to the teacher, watching her smile. 

"It's a pleasure doing business with you Mr. Black, now if you don't mind I must go and toast the union of my favorite alumni." She says before walking away as the oldest Black follows her as shocked by her words he shouts. 

"YOUR FAVORITES? I THOUGHT I WAS! PROF, I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME! HOW CAN YOU BETRAY ME LIKE THAT!"

[flamedraco]

c!Wilbur Redesign

This is my compromise to the current situation regarding Shubble and the speculation surrounding Wilbur. This is coming from a fanfiction writer who has always, and always will, see the CCs as nothing more than voice actors for their characters. Buckle in, this is going to be a long one. But please read all the way through. If you don't know, recently Shubble came forward with a video about how she was in an abusive relationship. And she dropped some hints because she wants people to speculate about who it is. Wants to make sure that a person with bad intentions can't get away with more bad things. A lot of people are speculating that, due to said hints and previously established crush that he had on her, Wilbur is the person who abused her. Now personally? I do not believe this. It's hard for me to believe that Wilbur would do something like that. I don't like the idea of hopping on the hate train or immediately jumping to cancel someone. So I will be waiting for real facts and confirmation before saying anything regarding the CC. A lot of the speculation doesn't make sense to me logically and I also never got the chance to see the video before it was deleted. This is not me calling Shubble a liar. I 100% believe her and my heart goes out to her completely. She doesn't deserve being treated horribly, nobody does. The situation I'm hearing she went through is a wretched thing and I will not TOLERATE people insulting her or saying that she should just say who it was. That shit is not okay and never will be okay. HOWEVER! I will NOT stop writing Wilbur's character. A little fact about me is that when I came into this fandom, it wasn't because I watched the CCs. It wasn't because I was interested in MCYT. The reason I came here was because a very close friend of mine asked me to cowrite a fic with them. At the time the only fandom we really shared even vaguely was DSMP. I knew very little about it but I knew some things. I let my friend choose the ship. They chose TNT Duo. And it's thanks to that friend that I wrote Arsonist's Waltz. That I started to adore Quackbur and wrote my most well known fic, You Were Never Meant to be a Hero. And thanks to YWNMTBAH I made so many cherished friends. It's all because of these two little characters that still have me in a chokehold even though I've been writing them for quite some time now. And that's why I can't simply let go of Wilbur's character. But regardless of my ability to separate the Cs from the CCs, for some people that distinction is harder. The CCs to me are just glorified voice actors. For other people it's harder. They can separate the characters from the content creators just fine, but this situation hits them close to home. And it hurts. So, this is my proposed solution, brought to my attention by a friend who was heavily affected by this situation, but loved the work she was doing and didn't want to have to let it go. C!Wilbur doesn't have an actual canon design. When you think about it, the only thing we have to go off of is his Minecraft skin. Something that, when you think about it, doesn't tell us much about the character at all. There is no canon design because most of what we see as "canon" is based on the CC, not the character himself. When you look at c!Wilbur, the skin, does he have an eye color? Do we know his height? What about his hair length? His build? What do we actually know about this character outside of the clothing on his back and the personality his actor gave him? And when you make an AU everything changes. From now on? My c!Wilbur design that I'll use as a baseline for most of my fics is a 6ft man with heterochromia. One eye blue, the other teal. He's going to have brown curly hair that dips just below his shoulders and a light scar over one of his eyes. Sometimes he'll have freckles because what the fuck can we tell from a Minecraft skin anyways? He wears black nail polish because why not? Slay.

I already treated him and c!Quackity like glorified OCs already. Why not further OC the glorified OCs? So what if they aren't a faithful adaptation? How can anyone say what is and isn't "faithful" when we're talking about BLOCK MEN. Make them eldritch. Make them supernatural. Make them whatever kind of hybrid you want them to be! I'll die on my Magpie!Wilbur and Shrike!Quackity hill! Give them different eye colors and let them dye their hair sometimes, I'm going to make the white streak PINK because TWINS DUO and CHERRY BLOSSOM TRIPLETS! Give your Phantom!Wilburs green eyes and glowing blood! Give your Shapeshifter!Wilburs more hair and eye colors! Do what you want because the character has no actual canon design. Go wild with your AUs and remember that you're doing this for fun. For your enjoyment. Don't conform to what someone else wants from you just because your adaption, your interpretation, "isn't the real Wilbur". The characters are what we make them. Because the reality of the situation? They are literally just blocks in a cube game. There is no canon design. Don't let the actions of some asshole ruin what you love.

[that-left-turn]

Describing Michonne as “a black woman holding her own with the main cast” presents her as an outsider with her only trait being her race. You couldn’t even describe her as a mother who found a new life after losing everything because you don’t see her as human. Your fandom is disgusting and racist to it’s sickening core.

We can talk about racism, sure.

The quote is "a black woman holding her own as main cast" since the distinction between 'as' and 'with' changes the meaning of the sentence. She is main cast, she's not an appendage "with" them and it wasn't Michonne I described as a black woman holding her own, it was Danai. It wasn't to belittle her; it was to point out that with institutional racism at work and at a show with a very bad track record of how they treat their black characters/cast members, she's still there and she's a star of the franchise. Look at the lineup for those three spinoffs: it's five white people and Danai. She's the only representation for POC, so yes, she's more than holding her own as a trailblazer.

Hollywood still has a tendency to do tokenism. It was getting better, but with all the strikes last year, white men are closing ranks to assure that they keep the majority of work to themselves. (We're going to see more white men telling more stories by and for other white guys.) TWDU has all-male, all-white people in power of the franchise and I think that's why all the spinoffs are performing badly. They're not instep with their audience and to put it bluntly, TOWL would've done better if Danai had been put in charge instead of the white guy who hired a bunch of failed in-house showrunners to write the other five episodes. (Why wasn't Nana Nkweti given her own episode? She's a talented writer, unlike the rest of Gimple's cronies.)

When Danai was cast as Michonne, the industry was even more white; the power structures ensured that white talent took 90% of the pivotal parts on any show. TWD had Jacqui who was killed off early, without getting much characterization. T-Dog was fleshed out and interesting, but he never got a proper character arc on the show. He got a gruesome death to save a white woman and the inmates at the prison were a homogeneous group of thugs which presented as black—representative of what white people see when they think of prison inmates. Why were those parts all cast with POC save for Axel, which was the biggest role out of them? Sasha lived longer, but her positioning within the greater narrative was deeply problematic and Tyreese was characterized both as someone who didn't contribute to the group's survival: he couldn't kill walkers, and as the black brute who'd go on a rampage and murder a white woman because he couldn't control his temper. That positioning is very, very disturbing and then, he too was killed off before giving his arc any kind of conclusion.

That's the workplace I'm talking about, so yes, the fact that Danai's character survived and she went on to headline one of the spinoffs is a remarkable achievement on her part. She wasn't starting on a level playing field and while she isn't her skin color or her gender, we can't disregard it either because racism and misogyny is very much an active part of that work environment and the world we live in.

Michonne's characterization has been problematic as well because the writers' room for TWD was overwhelmingly one-note white. The concept for her was how white men see black women and she came on the show as a stereotypical "angry black woman," but Danai has imbued the role with so much more than that and elevated her beyond the racist conceits which were tossed her way along the run of the show. I wouldn't describe Michonne as 'a mother who'd lost everything,' because I think that too does the character a disservice. Just like she's more than her race, she's also more than her reproductive abilities, especially given the ugly history in the US of using and controlling black women's bodies.

I think Danai and Michonne are much more than one trait, but the wider system in which both of them exist is deeply racist. Danai doesn't pass the paper bag test (which is still a metric used in entertainment and colorism is a real problem too) unlike Sonequa who's also gone on to great success after leaving the franchise. TWD has had issues lighting their cast members with darker skin tones, which is another problem that we see in other areas, like facial recognition software. The black wigs were bad. TWD should've hired a theatrical master wigmaker who has the expertise to create good wigs for both Danai and Khary, but that comes at a premium they didn't want to spend on their black cast members. Hair and makeup are a challenge because a show needs stylists who know how to work with black hair and skin, and most productions are incredibly lazy about hiring qualified crew. Despite everything being set up (from centuries' worth of racism) to work against her and AMC being a cesspool of inequality, Danai has done amazing. By any metric.

As for fandom, I mostly hover in the periphery, so I can't speak on that with authority, but I have a post where I talk about racism, if you want to get a better sense of what my thinking is? There are a lot of people who say things that are problematic because the educational system doesn't teach "the unsavory bits" of US history, and who don't have much interaction with people of other social classes, races, belief systems, etc. because we still live in a segregated society with zoning districts for schools and housing that are designed to keep the Other out of our neighborhoods. That's not to say ignorance should be a free pass to hurt others, but we have to engage with each other in a non-weaponized manner to affect change and I hope this post can serve a purpose in providing some context to anyone who happens to read it.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to elaborate on my thoughts regarding the institutionalized problems of TWDU.

[gartenofbanny]

Helluva Boss Season 2 Episode 3 Review

Trigger Warning ⚠️ Blood

Today I'm going to review Season 2 Episode 3 "EXES and OOHS" released on March 11th, 2023. Just know that I am posting this on the day when I can so for those reading this post will contain spoilers for the episode. I suggest you all watch it to form your own opinions before reading this blog.

I'm going to create sections of what I do like about this episode and what I don't like about this episode starting off with what I do like.

Animation

The animation in this episode like all of the episodes in Helluva Boss is very well animated, smooth, and has a well drawn environment. This episode mainly centers around the Greed Ring with the entire color of setting being different shades of Green. The characters move really smoothly, I didn't even notice any choppy animation in the episode, and many things in the episode just looked really stunning. In my opinion the animation in this episode is the best of Season 2 thus far.

The fight scene where Millie goes up against Crimson's goons is the best fight because the DHORKS Battle has so many problems that I don't feel like listing right now. The Striker vs Moxxie & Blitzo fight could've ended in so many ways if all of the characters just fought and didn't talk.

I do have a nitpick it's that when the Imp was stabbing and shooting a dead body, yet no stab marks and or bullet wounds were there. Just splatters of blood, but I'll ignore that.

Overall this episode has pretty great animation and the best fight in Helluva Boss thus far. So let's move onto what I did not like about this episode.

It's another Moxxie episode

This episode is just another God damn Moxxie Episode. Now what do I mean when I say it's another Moxxie Episode? Well the entire episode centers around developing Moxxie so he can come out to be a stronger individual by the end of it. That is basically what Moxxie episodes are, a notable example of this is the Harvest Moon Festival.

Like two other episodes in Helluva Boss, Moxxie is portrayed as a weak individual to the antagonists, he either saves himself or gets saved by someone else (mainly Millie). Learns to stand up for himself and Millie comforts him near the end of the episode.

Harvest Moon Festival follows that formula & Murder Family follows that formula (mostly). With the difference being that it's different antagonists.

Now as to why I didn't like this aspect is because in the two episodes that centered around Moxxie led him to become more brave overtime against those who are more powerful than him. Though in this episode his character is just restarted again and goes through the same development.

Chaz & Crimson

I didn't like neither Chaz or Crimson in this episode, but to keep it short they're both bland and cliche as hell.

Chaz doesn't have a character aside from the fact that he's horny and greedy. There's literally nothing else to his character aside from that. I can't tell of the writers killing him off in his debut episode is good or bad because he could've been a potentially interesting antagonist.

Crimson is literally just Stella, but even worse than her somehow. He's a greedy ass sociopath who's literally a spoiled baby. The man literally kills those who disrespects or stands up to him hell he even killed his wife without any damn regret and plans to kill his own son. Design wise, he's literally just Moxxie but taller, a darker red skin color, white scars around his eyes, and a golden tooth. There's definitely gonna be someone who mistook Crimson as Moxxie's brother or something.

Since Chaz is dead, this leaves Crimson who will either die by Moxxie or Millie's hands or be spared by Moxxie due to his morals. Either way I don't like either of them because they're really bland and boring compared to some of the other more interesting antagonists we've gotten in Helluva Boss.

Sudden Tone Changes

The tone of this episode like a few others in Helluva Boss cannot decide what to stick to. The tone in this episode goes from suspenseful to comedic, sad to comedic, or depressing to comedic. Notice I said "comedic" three times. Because the episode has so much bad humor it overshadows the somewhat decent parts of the episode.

I can't take the episode seriously if it keeps wanting me to switch emotions like a person with split personality disorder.

Humor

90% of the humor in this episode is sex jokes and it has gotten old really quickly throughout the episode. The entire episode gives off "Oh we're an adult show, that means we can make dirty jokes and curse most of the runtime."

There were a couple jokes that made me chuckle like when the priest just straight up left after witnessing Millie killing Crimson's goons, but the majority of the time, I just looked at the episode with a straight face.

Millie

The writers in this episode really should've done something with Millie because there were about two things that they should've done with her in this episode.

First off, it isn't explained how she met Chaz it's just shown how Moxxie met Chaz. And yet we don't know why Millie was pissed off at Chaz in the beginning of the episode and why she wants to hurt him so badly. Millie wasn't aware that Chaz and Moxxie were dating until later on in the episode, while that did pretty much enhance her hatred for Chaz, we still don't know the fucking root behind it. Like how the fuck did the writers even forget about that?

Second off, there still isn't any character development of Millie. Her entire character is, she's Moxxie's wife who's violent as fuck and this episode pretty much cements that. Throughout the whole episode aside from being pissed off at Chaz, she's either worried about Moxxie, pissed off that Moxxie is hurt, or is just thinking about Moxxie. At least provide an explanation as to why she's so obsessed with Moxxie. This episode could have been the perfect place for that to be established. Millie could've explained why she despises Chaz and why she loves Moxxie so dearly. That would've been something, but nope we don't fucking get it.

At this point, I don't believe Millie will get any character development in the future because the writers don't seem to even be trying with her when the opportunities are clear as day.

Story

The story of this episode is meh, many things from the story of this episode is really cliche. From Crimson forcing Moxxie to marry Chaz to become richer and more powerful, to Chaz being overly horny because yes, to Millie becoming rageful because her hubby is in danger, to Blitzo being overly horny, and Crimson becoming an abusive father that's rich and powerful and extremely violent.

The episodes in Helluva Boss overuse too many cliches at this point leading me to not being interested in the story of this episode all that much.

Conclusion

I only watched the episode twice as of making this blog and found a couple things I consider problems in the episode. While the episode is well animated, has a pretty good fight scene, and interesting concepts, it fumbles in its writing and direction. I was gonna hold off on releasing this, but I'm a bit impatient.

People are gonna most likely disagree with me because I'm already noticing that people love this episode, but that's not gonna change how I feel about this episode overall and it shouldn't change how the readers view it. If it does then it's completely unintentional. Anyway thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a great day! ❤️

Also this is one of my first blogs on Tumblr, I don't know how to do the fancy font things other blogs do.

Edit: Just learned how to add photos.

[florelia12]

do you have a fancast? like perfect irl people that remind you of florelia (and the rest) not necessarily actors but people in general. tbh it's hard to find the perfect tan girl with green eyes. sometimes it's easy when people aren't in your ear telling you flora is latina bc she might be but it's hard to find latinas with flora's physical traits. and helia to me he's not asian he just has cat eyes. though I have to admit I like it when in fics people say helia and musa are cousins.

okay there is a lot to unpack here.

First of all, no, I actually don't have the perfect fancast for Florelia or any of the Winx characters really and its not something that really bothers me. I don't want a live action (not everything needs to be made live) or a reboot, I want them to fix the mistakes they've done in the actual show and bring back quality content.

Secondly, I am that person in your ear telling you Flora is a Latina and that Helia is Asian.

Not because she might be, but because it has been explicitly said since forever that Iginio was inspired by Jennifer Lopez when creating Flora. The WHOLE POINT of the characters Musa, Aisha and Flora being designed the way they were was to include diversity.

The proof is coming out with the original designs for Musa and Flora where they are both clearly white. What other reason would Iginio have to change their features and the colors of their skin if it wasn't to be inclusive? And what is wrong with him doing that?

When people say Flora is Latina they obviously don't mean she is a Latina, Puerto Rican girl living in an alien world. Her character is inspired by a Latina woman. Hence, her features and skintone (when doing art or fancast) and possible stereotypes (when making hcs or writing fanfics) need to be taken into account.

When you say it's hard to find Latina's with Flora's traits, it's not because Flora's not a Latina or girls who look like her don't exist, it's because there is not enough representation of darker skinned Latinas. THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT. Especially if you're looking for it on pinterest, like you search girlhood in there and all you get are white girls?? Where the hell are the rest of us?

Also Flora having green eyes is directly related to the fact that she is the Fairy of Nature (they literally glow when she powers up) but that doesn't mean Latinas can't have green eyes. One simple google search will show you.

You can argue for Linphea since it doesn't look like Puerto Rico but it also a realm of Nature and that doesn't leave as much room for them to work with as they got to with Musa and Melody (even that has its issues of lumping in all the different cultures) and lets be honest we barely got a glimpse into Linphea's actual culture as it was.

Then we have Helia. Yes his character wasn't explicitly said to be Asian. But his design doesn't leave much doubt, especially the moment someone points it out. His features are inspired by East Asian features, he shares similar design characteristics to Musa and other asian characters.

The fact that you said he just has cat eyes already proves how you view Asian features. And also the fact that you identify he has Asian features but don't want him to be Asian is because of whatever prejudice you are holding onto.

The joke is so fucking old, it was never, ever funny.

Also I want to pose this question to everyone, not this person since they didn't say they think he's white. Why is it that if a light-skinned character's inspiration isn't explicitly stated, they are just by default white?

And anyone pointing out the possibility of them being otherwise makes people think they have the free-reign to just to ignore because the character is light-skinned?

When Helia's background is left for interpretation it makes more sense to explore the hundreds of Asian cultures that exist instead of ignoring all of that and jumping straight to him being white. Like there are East Asians and there are Southeast Asians and no these aren't just two cultures they are a number of different countries with different cultures.

I am South Asian. No, I do not look like Helia or Musa, I look like Nabu.

Hell, I thought Flora was Indian and Helia was white when I was NINE. It took one person casually pointing out "hey they're not" to realise oh ya they actually aren't.

I don't know if this was a targeted ask because I have posted in this account about how i find the Helia and Musa being cousins hcs uncomfortable.

But yeah, I find it uncomfortable because where I'm from (I can't speak for every single Asian country though I don't think this is an isolated experience) it is a joke to ask any new Asian person you meet if they are related or if they know this other Asian person that you know. Again it's an old joke, it's not that funny, it never was.

It is also a joke to say yeah all Asians are related, or they all cousins. It may seem harmless, but I'd say it has deeper roots of incest accusations/stereotypes like marrying your cousin or whatever. Even if I'm wrong about that (if i am please someone who is a poc correct me, white people shut up), it's still a stereotype you are perpetuating. (and no I'm not just talking about older fanfics that were probably written by 11 year olds where everyone is always related, i'm talking about the ones written by adults.)

Why is it never Sky and Stella being cousins? Or Riven and Tecna? They have similar features. Why not them? Why is it always only Musa and Helia?

But that just brings us back to you saying you don't think Helia's Asian. Musa is clearly Asian (if you're going to say she's not then you are just plain ignorant). But, Musa's Asian and her "cousin" Helia just has cat eyes ???If you like that hc then why can’t you accept that he is clearly Asian?

Before white people get defensive about poc calling out racism that you claim isn't intentional, stop and think WHY. It has been said time and time again, racism is not always inherently overt or 100% intentional. It can come out in even as something as 'small' or 'not as serious' as cartoon characters. But it is serious because we poc exist in these spaces too.

Also you can be POC and still be racist. Funnily enough, that was the very first direct interaction of racism I experienced in this fandom. That also does not mean white people get a pass (it's sad I even have to add that as a disclaimer)

I don't even know if you bothered to read this far, but I hope you've learned something.

[l13]

Its more for you than anything else. I saw the explosion over gaz and to offer some sort of explanation. The Fandom in large kind of replaced Gaz (who is only member in the 141 who is a poc) with König (who is large, Austrian or German, not in the game but the Multiplayer.

Gaz is a fully developed charakter with flaws and strength and everthing. He has a charakter modle where we are not learning month after the fact that he is wearing a t-shirt instead of a mask. And könig is basically just that. Some voicelines and an ever changing spreadsheet of a few Infos (they can't even decide on a nationality).

So it feels super sus that the Fandom as a whole is ignoring Gaz (who again, is the only poc charakter of the 141) and is spending so much time and energy on someone like könig. And then someone comes along, who admittedly dosnt know a whole lot about the game itself, forgets gaz (like 90% of the Fandom in large ignors him) and just add to a fire she didn't even knew was going on.

I do understand how frustrating that must be for both sides.

i totally get that, and i understand the frustration behind it as well. But that anon could have easily voiced their opinion calmly, just as you're doing now, without attacking me out of the blue.

I don't know about other people, but I personally have not consumed any content about gaz and i'm not really familiar with his character. With that said, I'm not going to lie and say that i didn't know he was in 141, because I did. I literally just forgot, though.

Besides that, everyone's preferences are different, and no one should be put on the spot if they happen to not obsess over one poc character that much, and be accused of being racist. Like, what the fuck?

No one can tell me which characters to like and not like. And I don't choose which characters to write for based on the color of their skin, jesus christ.

That anon had a lot of shit to say about my writing and how it's so bad, but if they took the time to actually check my masterlist they would have seen that I write for hobie brown. A character from atsv, who is literally a poc. Not to mention I literally have gaz in the visuals posts, as well.

Anyways I don't really wanna blow things out of proportion, I think I already have. Point is, I don't like being accused of smth I'm not, it's honestly very sad. But I totally see where you're coming from, and that the anon's mindset was in the right place but just came off super bad

[lucyglassesstuff]

Being kind to others is not pointless.

It took me a while to realize that.

To realize that being kind and loving does matter.

That it does make a difference.

That showing support and appreciation actually provokes change.

And what a huge change.

I don't know why I didn't realize it sooner, but my best guess is that a lot of us grew up surrounded by people who were tired of trying to fix a broken society so they stopped the efforts and taught us to not even bother, in the hopes it would save us from the trouble and anguish.

Or that's how it was for me, at some degree.

With a bit of observation to my own behavior, I realized I second guess every kind, nice, comment I have about anything or anyone.

"Should I say this?"

Should I say "Hey mom, you're looking so beautiful today" or "I think you're a smart and considerate person sis" just- out of the blue? Because I thought so?

It has always felt like that. It feels- weird to say compliments to others just for the sake of it.

Shouldn't it be their birthday or something?

Shouldn't there be something else than the mere want prompting me to do it?

Will I just look weird? Will they think I want something from them?

And with that kind of thought comes the flipped side of the coin: doubts about every compliment I get- Do they want something from me? What's the complicated squeam behind their kind words?

Is not a nice way to live life to be honest.

But still- I keep doubting before saying.

I doubt if I should smile at the people I cross while walking down the park.

I doubt telling the cashier her hair looks actually fantastic.

Hell, I even doubt saying "hello, good morning" or "bye, have a nice day" to some people.

And I love the people who do that.

I want to also be that people.

But anyway, since I always felt compelled to do it and I'm a sucker for finding less threatening ways of doing the things I want to do, I became a letter person, writing letters with the lovey-dovey stuff I don't usually say but always think, to give them to my family every once a few months.

Y'know, to not let them know I love them too much and all that.

We wouldn't want people knowing we like them and appreciate them, right?

Yeah, it does sound dumb. It is. It's- It's just- Why are we like that?

Why am I like that?

For me, the answer is quite simple: I'm freaking scared of people.

And yes, those we love are the ones who can hurt us the most.

By simple math, the more people you love the more chances you get of getting hurt.

No one wants to be hurt.

So we- Manage our love bank funds.

Tho, I personally think those funds are limitless. We're capable of loving as much as we want. But I also think is true you can love too much...

But anyway- to keep myself ontopic, your kindness, your words of appreciation and admiration do matter. They matter so much.

We are all way more confident and less reluctant when it comes to complaining and judging.

For some reason I have this internalized idea that having a lowkey kinda hateful comment equals to having a strong opinion.

As if we were really good judges of character, taking pride in our pointy noses.

I look tougher and rougher if I say a less kind thing.

I can't let everyone know I'm actually a Cinnamon roll and I mostly wanna hurt nobody.

I'll be taken advantage of if I let them see that.

I'll look weak and naive.

And blah blah.

Is a long train of thought that isn't even a train of thought to be honest. It's- like a code on a program: I don't think it word by word, but the code does make me hesitate before saying anything positive about someone else.

The worst part is that when I do convince myself to say it, I say it toned down, watered-down.

So, if I thought "Damn her skin looks so gorgeous! It's shiny, it's soft, it's radiant, all one cohesive color. God I want that skin!" I'll say "You- have a nice skin"

Yeah.

So I won't scare the hell out of her.

Or that's what I tell myself.

And I know this is just like- me exemplifying my previous rambling, but the point I'm trying to make is that we do not trust people's kindness when it comes from out of no where.

We're used to getting help and support when we are struggling.

Reason behind why when we do receive kindness we associate it with pity.

Is a long thing, but I just- I hope it wasn't like that.

But I've seen it happen: I've seen people being kind out of just showing appreciation and support and love for content creators that have helped them with their struggles.

Or just to- y'know, say "I see what you're doing. I think it's right. I agree with it. I'll support you doing it. Thank you for doing it"

And so they just- show love and support and appreciation and- how many times did I say those words already?

It's true for me too: there's so many content creators that I've been inspired by, that make me want to be a better person, that showed me that love does exist, that kindness is out there and people do want to help. People I want to hug and say thank you to. People I care about. People I wish good things upon.

And this takes me to a little add comment about the demonization of social media: The infamous internet is just an extension of society, and just like it, it's beautiful and awful at the same time.

We have created communities, we found people we care about, we make friends, we share, we support, we get inspired. Internet is an amazing add to humans relationships, but of course, like every single thing on existence, it has a darker side too. A bad side. An ugly side.

It's not this post's topic but I'm just so done with the entire thing-

It's- It's not- It's like saying life is a wonderful gift. Life can do no harm.

Bitch we have done harm!

We are life!

We can do bad things!

It doesn't have to be one or the other!

Life is beautiful! Is a miracle! Yes! And it can also be the cause of destruction for everything else!

I- That's it. I'm done for today.

The point got across... I belive.

And is a topic I want to expand on with its own post. So back to what we were saying: I'm in the process of learning to be more forthcoming when it comes to the good things I think of others cause yesterday I was told I look prettier everyday and that is still making me smile, so- I want to do that for other people too. And I want to mean it. I want to see into their eyes and say "you are actually marvelous. Go be wonderful today".

Because it makes me happy.

Because I do belive we're capable of such wonderful things.

This is not me trying to start a movement.

Thank all the divine for that movement has already begun and people do care, do want to be more loving.

I'm just counting myself in, and if I get just one more of you to do it too, I'll consider it a success.

Hell, if I get myself to be more prone to output my kindness into the wild world I'll consider it a success.

But still, do join. Become a loving cinnamon roll with the rest of us.

Being kind is not weakness.

It's taking me actual conscious effort to learn that.

And I'm sure it will take all of us a good while before actually integrating that knowledge into our way of living, but hey, we've been to the moon, we can just say more nice things to each other, right?

Final ideas for today: YOUR KINDNESS MATTERS SO MUCH.

Please do not refrain yourself from being kind to others.

And have a great day, night, evening, whatever is ahead of you!

[naruthandir]

I'm gonna be real with ya'll I do understand why we want to make Tolkien inclusive by drawing elves with different ethnicities and that's AWESOME but is anyone going to talk about it from a character design perspective.

I mean just think about it. Diversity in the way we draw characters is not only good from an inclusivity standpoint it is just. Objectively better? I think? Because otherwise you are left with a bunch of characters that all look so very similar do each other and half the time you can't tell who is who. You can't really tell them apart. I found that it was a lot easier to read and be invested in the silmarillion if I imagined the characters having different skin colors and features.

Same applies to body types. Making a character fat may not be good only for inclusivity "woke points" as some like to call it. It is literally better to have characters with recognizable silhouettes. I never got the hate for the changes in character design in She-Ra for example, when they are, from a technical standpoint, easier to animate and more visually interesting and distinct.

(this is also the reason I don't really watch live action because I have prosopagnosia and I can't tell who is who half the time)

Also next time someone says "representation doesn't matter" tell them that the whole reason Latin America is majority catholic is because they made the virgin Mary indigenous. There's a story about La Virgen de Juquila, a small town from near where I live, that goes something like this: The Spanish brought their God, but people weren't keen on it. One day the church was set on fire, and the statue of the virgin was burnt and her skin made brown. The priests tried to restore it, to no avail. They say the virgin herself wanted to make her skin brown, so the people of the region could better see themselves in her.

Like I'm not religious and I kinda despise the church but this is literally the oldest trick in the book and it works. People like it when the people in stories, their icons, look like them. It just makes the Monke Brain happy. It makes *my* Monke Brain happy. And I feel like happiness is always a net positive.

And while I am no one to tell anyone what to do, I do think it's a good thing, when we make our characters diverse, just for the reasons listed above. I genuinely don't see why anyone would be upset at this? I've seen people be upset. They say it goes against the lore. Casting Sean Bean as Boromir goes against the lore as well, I don't see anyone complaining. He was a good pick, and that's that, even if his hair color isn't the same as in the books. We deal with it and move on. Might be slightly annoying, but the books will always be there for us Black Hair Boromir truthers.

[ghcstcd]

OBSESSED w the idea of dewdrop's hands being like that bc his water ghoul features burnt off!!!!!!!! omg!!!! tbh i just thought it was for. standard fire reasons (i also did that to idk like the extremities of my fire ghouls and i sort of had reverse spontaneous human combustion where everything burns off except said extremities) (also where's that post talking abt how a black gradient is the sexiest design choice ever) but that is SO CLEVER I'M INSANE ABOUT IT so what would other fire ghouls who didn't transition into the element? i know there's sort of an old alpha design on your blog but i think you said that might change so i'll try asking i hope it's ok :o

also unrelated but just. the way you render ? skin? the way you color & shade skin? literally goals i can't get over it in particular

also also unrelated but i remembered you hc terzo's name to be alessandro and i'm wondering why that specifically :o -N

Admittedly, when I first thought to add those dark markings to Dewdrop, it was for fire element reasons. But then I realized I could use that same detail for story telling in his design! It's also a good detail, because it gave me a guideline for designing Dewdrop as a water ghoul. I now know exactly where some of his character details would go.

Alpha's design will be somewhat similar to Omega's, only because it's established that they're a pair. That, and Alpha's character is inspired by a friend's interpretation of him. His design came from me joking about a ghoul having false water cobra features (that being that they can hood up when trying to intimidate someone). Then my friend suggested that design feature be for Alpha. For other fire ghouls, such as Ifrit, and even Sunshine (I know she's a multi-ghoul, but I have reasons) I would want to lean heavier into fire motifs.

For choosing Terzo's name, I read a few fanfics and the name grew on me.

[septembersghost]

Aside from being an inverse Walter White, I kinda feel like Kim is an inverse Chuck? She’s taking responsibility to the extreme, but part of why she’s doing this - even after admitting that hiding Lalo was because she had fun - is for Jimmy’s own good so he won’t have to protect her, and I think of Chuck in the pilot and idk if this is anything it’s 6am and I’m distraught

the Gene parallels though, Kim as we know her is dead and she was already finding Saul Goodman a comfort and she's just nothing but self loathing now, a complete obliteration of self as Rhea put it :'(

my mom even asked me if i think she changes her name...who IS she now? how devoid of color does her life become? even apart, jimmy and kim are in tandem in their self-obliteration. they cannot live as who they were. they become something else, but it can never be real. i practice every day to find some clever lines to say to make the meaning come true...

that's an interesting point how she inverses walt and chuck in their hubristic, detrimental arrogance and egoism...neither of them are able to overcome that and it destroys them, kim sees her own and it sickens her. she can't live with it, she has to escape it. rhea saying she feels like she doesn't even deserve to be on the planet anymore - suicide has been a constant theme in the show (not in an exploitative way at all), and i wrote something about that right after nacho's, but it's resonant, i think, in a story that is at its core about a man who loses himself, whose true self in essence dies. self-destruction is an element of every main character's arc. it's expressed in a lot of different ways, but they made jimmy's core tragedy a piece of everyone's. an erosion and loss of oneself, by terrible circumstance and by your own hand. "i'm doing this for your own good" ends up being detrimental. "i'm doing this for the good of others" eventually warps and bends and becomes an excuse. "i'm doing this for justice" becomes serpentine revenge. kim tells herself this is for the best, for jimmy's own good - that he won't be afraid, that he won't have to protect her - and she can extend that to leaving, really, that it's for the best. she wants to crawl out of her own skin, has to, but what she doesn't realize is that it's facilitating a kind of death all its own, not only for herself, but for him. every character has helped to weave their own undoing.

i keep throwing quotes out, but it's - how much can you change and get away with it, before you turn into someone else, before it's some kind of murder?

[noroi1000]

hi! could i get a romantic jjk matchup? if they're still open that is.

i'm a trans guy (he/they) and bisexual with a slight male preference.

i'm about average height with wavy brown hair, green eyes, freckles, and somewhat tan skin. i wear a lot of dark, muted, and cool colors. jeans and t-shirts are staple items, and there's a lot of flannel when it gets cold.

usually i'm laid back and a little bit awkward, especially in big groups of people that i don't know so well. but with my friends i can get clingy and annoying, i say a lot of dumb things and usually carry out the bad ideas. my personality type is intp and enneagram is 5w4. i was considered gifted as a kid and now i'm starting to burn out, but i hide it with a cheery attitude.

i'm pretty nerdy, with my biggest interests being chemistry and math. i also like food a lot, both making and eating it. being outdoors gives me a lot of energy, so i like to spend time exploring in nature whenever possible.

hope you have a lovely day/night :)

I think your Jujutsu kaisen matchup is:

Yuta is just a man who hasn't had friends most of the time in his life. And also couldn't find them. Not only because of Rika, but also because he has already lost the habit of meeting new people during this time. Therefore, he is often awkwardly quiet when he does not know anyone in a given company.

But he is not a very tense man. He is also often more laid back, but behaves awkwardly. He is quiet and does not look at people. Honestly, he doesn't look at strangers at all. He can often look straight ahead, but not at anyone's face. This is only of course when he doesn't know people.

Later, when he has a friend, he is almost completely different. He smiles, makes jokes. Basically, when this is the case, he often stops even thinking about what he is going to say. He will just say what he would like to say, and then he will understand that what he said was wrong. And then it may turn out that he has already pissed someone off.

With him, he was a normal child from the very beginning. Later it got worse. He felt bad, reacted badly to the world. He could never find himself or do anything happily. He wasn't doing anything at all, or even having a hard time trying. Therefore, he could resign. Later his life changed and he began to be considered a man worth a lot. Strength, skill. Even if he got it all, he was still the same man who needed his friends to be happy. He has a lot of talent, and he may not be suitable for many things. He just can't do it. But what he can do, he will do. And what he cannot, he can try. He doesn't want anyone to think badly of him, so he tries to smile while doing it. Even if there is no chance that he will be able to do it.

You can tell from is also clever. In your own way. He knows something from this field, then he learns something from another. But he never knows anything completely. He knows a lot, but everything is gathered together by the specks of his knowledge. But this is still some wisdom. Besides, he likes to learn new things. It is enough for him to be interested in something.

So you can easily teach him new feelings. ♡

Headcanon:

• He is a person who loves people. So he will never judge a person by their appearance or by their first meeting. He will always at least try to make some contact with that person. He will be very happy if any of this comes out. This is why he never rejects people after meeting them for the first time. Always trying to get to know someone better somehow.

• In my opinion, Yuta would be a person who doesn't care about human appearance, but about character. Same with gender and beliefs.

He may love you even if your beliefs differ from his beliefs. However, he will not stand if your beliefs were wrong, and you would also do something to hurt people around you.

• You have a similar style of dress. Likes it. He usually wears dark clothes. His uniform has a white shirt, but the colors are subdued anyway. Black, white, gray. Sometimes other dark colors. He wears looser clothes because he prefers it more. But there aren't that many preferences. You can even steal his T-shirts or sweatshirts. He'll even be happy.

• Welcome it in your arms as your personal winter heater. When he's cold, he'll cuddle up to you, also warming you up in the process. He doesn't want you to be sick, but he doesn't want you to be sick any more. So accept from him the kind and sweet gestures he gives you. He is a very sweet boy.

Besides, no matter what you do, he'll blush. Suddenly hug him lightly. Kiss on the cheek. You will surely see a tiny blush on his cheeks. But he'll smile at you anyway and do the same. This boy loves touch and the feeling of closeness. Especially when it's you.

• Yuta is not demanding. And if you demand a lot of him, it doesn't bother him.

• He will admire that you learn well and quickly. Especially when you know more than he knows. He will find it wonderful.

• Favorite date you've had: For him, home dates or a walk are best. At home, you can watch a movie together, play games. You can even spend your time cooking. If you like. He will gladly eat something good. He will also help you, but you have to control his movements so that he does not spoil anything. But he likes it so much anyway. Especially when you can eat it together later. Walks are also his favorite. Easy walking in the park when you are holding your hand. It may be quiet, but he will hold you so that you can feel he is close to you. He must confirm that nature gives energy. Because it's also reassuring for him. And it's very nice to be there with you.

"Um… I have something for you." *He hands you a bouquet of small flowers* "Thought I might give you something… You know… Nice little thing… I've thought a lot about it… I know that such small flowers are not enough, but I had no idea… I just thought they were pretty and match your eyes…"

[that-angry-noldo]

I Watched the Rings Of Power so Here is My Absolutely Important Opinion™ on It

(that was sarcasm by the way! this post is just me spilling all of my thoughts in clear words because I Just Might To Explode if i don't share them!!)

Okay so I watched a final episode of RoP and I Have Thoughts. The thoughts can be summed up as,

"This show is so cool when showing big picture but it becomes Absolutely Surreal if you focus on the small details"

before you sink your teeth into my skin, let me explain: the show has both positive and negative sides, and I will go through all of them.

Positive sides

The visuals

Okay, I'm gonna say this: the visuals are cool. It's just - I love it! I love the colors, and the lights, and special effects too! I'm not sure about all the "bringing back the middle earth thing" but i don't really care about it. I enjoyed both LoTR and Hobbit, and I don't really remember any visuals that would strike in me that special nostalgic feeling. I loved all the city designes, Numenor & Lindon especially (even though Lindon, at times, really appeared as if the creators were like "look! this is elven! we use so much -traditionally- elven motives!! elves here elves there and some over that hill too!!!" but i'm not complaining).

The story as a whole

I'm gonna go more in depth with this one in the negative section, but if we're looking solely from narrative side, then yes. It's written fine. It has a clear start, culmination, and an end (of sorts); all of the threads are neatly tied and are opening possibilities for the next season. That, I think, is good.

The (somewhat) exploration of war

That really got me, honestly, due to current events. The way the Numenorians never were at war before and their first battle was so devastating. The way they walked in in search for honor and glory and walked out questioning whether they really needed honor and glory. The way weapons show no mercy to civilians; the way hope is quietly snatched away.

(I saw someone saying RoP forgot that Tolkien's message was "war bad". I'd like to argue: war is clearly not shown as something funky here.)

ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY

Okay I might be a bit biased here but look. i love that trope. i love characters knowing that too much power can bring them to a deep dark. i love characters getting a hold on that power and rarely putting it away. i love the "free or conquer? - i don't see a difference." characters!! this sgow had delivered me few of those lines and i picked them up gratefully.

Negative sides

Lore.

Lore as a whole.

This show absolutely cannot do lore.

The whole "First age explained in the 2 minutes" thing. The whole "Finrod has died hunting Sauron" thing. The whole "FOR SOME REASON A TREE CAN NOW FIGHT A BALROG (rip laurelin and telperion but it's built different)" thing. ABSOLUTELY THE WORST "Elves need a permission to sail to Valinor" thing. The short hair thing. The things that make my silm heart bleed. The smallest little things that make you cry and wail under the table.

Lore changes

Celeborn being absent so Celebrian not even being even in plan yet (Elrond is supposed to marry her, by the way)

Elves being absolutely not aware that Sauron's a maia and physically can't die.

The elves being suddenly dependant on the Light of the Valar?? Like?? Since when?... Y'all were literally born in the night! The light of the valar is like a bonus! It's not vital??

I can go on and on and on.

Mischaracterisations

I know Galadriel was already picked apart and sewn back together - there really isn't much need to tell something about her, so let's take a look:

Celebrimbor and Gil-Galad.

Not only was Celebrimbor done dirty (he does not look like a 25-yo, whatever you might think) (why doesn't he have DARK HAIR), but his entire character was butched.

They made Celebrimbor a Feanor fanboy.

Celebrimbor, a man who rejected his father after realising the horrible things he's done, was anything but Feanor's fanboy. That's much I know, that much will I say.

Gil-Galad-

Look, looking at rop!Gilgalad, i don't really think anyone would write a gil-galad was an elven king, of him the harpers sadly sing poem. He was... reduced to... being an obstacle. Constantly pushing other characters around. Demanding something of them, noone knows what. Dismissing them. Not being able to listen. (In a way, he suffered the same way as Galadriel).

The creators better give him the character growth or else.

-

Before someone comes at me with "well, they did changes to the lotr trilogy too, i don't see anyone complaining," i want to say:

i know!! i don't care!!!

lotr, sadly or not, never was as big of a part of me as silmarillion is. i grew to love the silm. i grew to love the characters. i grew to love the lore. i grew to love the little silly discusions about elven hair color or the manner of speech.

so really, the mischaracterisation of gil-galad bugs me more than the absence of glorfindel

-

thanks for coming to my ted talk! see you around!!

[morgans-little-darlingwhore]

About being careful on this app...

A few month ago, I saw a post about Javier Escuella (rdr2) being called "greaser" in some fanfictions. They were saying it's racist. As a non-informed, french speaker european girl, I didn't even know this word existed and I asked if it was about his hair, because I thought greaser meant greasy hair.

I just asked the question " isn't it about his hair " because I wanted to understand. Someone answered to me, a certain johnlockerooni or arthurdirtyd*ckmorgan, I can't remember. Basically, they were calling me french fuck. I just asked a single question and I'm assaulted.

This person is so ignorant that they didn't even think about the fact that french isn't only spoken in France, but anyway.

I tried to explain myself but I've been assaulted by an entire crew of agressive people, telling me that "it's not because a person of color is speaking in a rude manner that they are agressive" when I didn't know they were a person of color. How could I know ? They didn't have a profile picture.

This person took screenshots of my name, my comments, my questions, shared it to make fun, and people who were following them came to insult me and tell me to kill myself several times.

They were insulting me anonymously, because they are so brave! So brave that they are an entire crew to harass me. I wasn't feeling comfortable anymore on tumblr. I soon discovered that they harassed other people too for "social justice", like another user who wrote a paper called "how to write an italian character". She's been told to kill herself too.

To treat other people poorly because of their nationality, mother language or race isn't brave, or clever, it isn't justice.

I do not consider myself as a victim, because I never suffered genocide or discrimination based on my skin color. But I consider these people as insane, dangerous harassers.

They do not represent all the woke people, they do not represent the persons of color. They just represent stupid, hateful people who feel brave behind a screen.

Be careful. I could have been a depressed person. I could have been destroyed by their messages.

I know I have privileges. But I also know I am not racist, and I know that other people don't deserve to be treated that way and harassed by a bunch of crazy people.

They exposed me, my name, I had to change my username, block about 15 people and leave tumblr for a moment to find peace and stop this harassment. In 2022, everyone should be aware of the consequences of this dangerous behaviour.

So it's my turn to expose them. Johnlockerooni, Arthurdirtyd*ckmorgan2, New-Austin, Pompoouri, Mushroomsoup65, Diogenesandhisbarrel and so many others I've forgotten.

Be careful on this app. People are treating other humans poorly.

Another user to New-Austin:

[mellueminate]

Thinking about what others say their robot bodies would look like and why I so strongly feel differently about mine.

Thinking this over, I don't know what this reads as. I'm just trying to reason why I feel so strongly on this, this isn't a criticism or commentary on anything larger than myself. I don't even know why I'm posting this, other than that this is my blog and I put what I want here - and that there's a chance someone can offer insight or relate to me.

It surprises me how when I imagine my ideal robot self, I'm willing to let a lot of details change or be up in the air - what organs if any I keep, what sensors and chassis, etc. - but the one constant is that I need a humanoid face and it needs to be covered with my brown human skin (or a synthetic that looks and feels like skin with a perfect color match). A bunch of ideal robot bodies I saw mention they want mechanical plate faces or no (humanoid) face at all, and that's more robotic. But for me, I need the skin I'm used to, for some reason.

It's not the color, darker metal won't do, it's the skin itself. I need my ideal body to still have that part of how i look. But my skin isn't even the part of my current body I most like - that's my hair and my eyes. But I'm willing to abandon those for a machine form (so long as the mechanical hair is still green and curled), and not my skin. I think that's a big part of why I'd like to be Banach-Tarski'd for gender reasons, there's the ability to self-dialogue and have simultaneous gender representations but also the whole point of the paradox (as I understand it, at least) is conservation of the outer layer, of the *skin*, through radical transformation.

I can't really articulate concisely why I feel like my skin color is important. It's not like I take pride in my physical skin, it's a fucking body organ (and there's enough fucking people out there too proud of their brown skin). It's got lots of problems in many ways but does its job of shielding my meat from infections. It's just there.

But like, it's the most obvious signifier of one way I've been Different in society for my whole life? My skin is a big part of how you tell what kind of person I am in this world, like it as not. I would never take pride in it, that would be terrible, yet it's not something I ever chose or could escape from in this current reality, so I need to be comfortable in being identified with it by everyone from strangers to the government. That's why I always choose avatars with my skin tone, because if this image or 3D model is gonna represent me then it should match me in a very visible way. I latch onto characters with brown skin despite not really caring about "representation" because when it comes to the representation of myself as an individual, I need them. I don't want people to ever treat me as a default in a society whose majority has never seen me as such because of how I look as a human.

But robots are defined in part by how we no longer identify with humanity. We don't need to be human, being in human bodies is dysphoric or unrelaxing (and this is true of me as well when I allow myself to really perceive what's in the mirror), it seems logical that giving up human culture is necessarily a part of that. Not to mention, we're Othered already as trans people (generally, but i could be wrong, i haven't done a count). Why bother with what the cis think anyway, this is about my gender and how I want to present and if I don't want to be like them I might as well have the mechanical plating all over. Fuck the existing cis-patriarchies and fuck the ethnic divides they abuse to their benefits.

But that feels wrong for me? I'm a racial minority in America, growing up I watched a dozen or more of my peers cast aside inherited cultures to fit in and be more American, and call themselves "Americans who just happen to be born to immigrant parents from Asia". (Which, in itself, indicates a level of privilege, since we *could* do that as middle class kids.) I'm loathe to do the same, because that feels less like aligning myself to the best cultural indicator and model of my gender, and more like willfully removing a significant part of my history and how I understand myself and how the world (for better and for worse) sees me and will continue to see me even if I decided to commit to a complete sex transition, breasts and neovagina and all.

That still doesn't feel like a complete defense to myself - race is a social construct, and one that should be deconstructed to benefit humanity at large. But it doesn't change how I grew up looking different and had to grow to be actually, truly fine with having a different look and heritage, and that informs my gender still. But heritage, while cute, isn't really important to understanding myself, and if who I am isn't tied to my ethnicity as strongly as my robot gender then why should it be relevant anymore. But it was a serious, critical consideration I had to figure out when I was questioning my gender, even if it's not one I have to confront every day. But I don't need to limit myself to being seen as I was in an ideal robot body. But, my parents built me to benefit them, and if they could have designed my skin when manufacturing me they would have chosen the skin color I have for that reason.

I feel like I once again need to stress this isn't a critique of anything - if anything, I'm definitely the weird, wrong one for identifying as a robot because it's how i understand myself best, but still needing my human skin because that's also how i understand myself. I guess I'm just trying to decide: can a robot inherit culture? *Should* a robot inherit culture? And if it did, how should it show it?