#in the networks that i'm in now

[unforth]

Gentle reminder that very little fandom labor is automated, because I think people forget that a lot.

That blog with a tagging system you love? A person curates those tags by hand.

That rec blog with a great organization scheme and pretty graphics? Someone designed and implemented that organization scheme and made those graphics.

That network that posts a cool variety of stuff? People track down all that variety and queue it by hand, and other people made all the individual pieces.

That post with umpteen links to helpful resources, and information about them? Someone gathered those links, researched the sources, wrote up the information about them.

That graphic about fandom statistics? Someone compiled those statistics, analyzed them, organized them, figured out a useful way to convey the information to others, and made the post.

That event that you think looks neat? Someone wrote the rules, created the blogs and Discords, designed the graphics, did their best to promo the event so it'd succeed.

None of this was done automatically. None of it just appears whole out of the internet ether.

I think everyone realizes that fic writing and fanart creation are work, and at least some folks have got it through their heads that gif creation and graphics and moodboards take effort, and meta is usually respected for the effort that goes into it, at least as far as I've seen, but I feel like a lot of people don't really get how much labor goes into curation, too.

If people are creating resources, curating content, organizing the creations of others, gathering information, and doing other fandom activities that aren't necessarily the direct action of creation, they're doing a lot of fandom labor, and it's often largely unrecognized.

Celebrate fan work!

To folks doing this kind of labor: I see you, and I thank you. You are the backbones of our fandoms and I love you.

[icewindandboringhorror]

On average, what is the total MONTHLY amount that you spend on dining out*?

*(This doesn't only count going out to restaurants, but also stuff like picking up fast food to bring home, getting a coffee on the way to work, getting a premade sandwich from a grocery store deli during lunch, buying a quick snack from a convenience store or food cart whilst walking somewhere, ordering a pizza or any other food to be delivered to your home, etc.)

*(If you often dine out in groups/as a household: calculate and divide the costs so that you get a Per Person average. This is for YOU individually, NOT the total household/group costs)

(I'm sure polls similar to this have been made before (very common topic), I just haven't personally seen one that I can remember, so, I was curious to do my own! I was discussing this with a group of people today and it was very interesting to see how widely the number varied between individuals. :0c )

(Reblog for bigger sample size if you can, and feel free to explain your answer in tags if there's anything extra to add!)

[lovealwayssay]

I can't believe that in the year 2024, I spent 20 minutes of my therapy session trying to explain the Destiel confession followed by immediately getting sent to super gay Hell so I could tell my therapist that I received the news that Trump had been shot through that meme.

[frootbyethefoot]

you're not an asshole, mark. you're just trying so hard to be.

[essektheylyss]

it is not only the years that start coming and don't stop coming, but also pretty much everything else as well, and not least, Tasks

[descendant-of-truth]

What I like about this scene is how it tricks you into thinking it's just here for a quick laugh when it's actually the beginning of a surprisingly deep look into part of Rockman's character - specifically, how he handles lying.

See, Rockman's never really... lied in this show before, I don't think. He doesn't usually have a reason to, but even then I would describe him as being honest to a fault.

But when put under the pressure to seem cool to Trill, a young child who idolizes him, he cracks and tells probably the most bold-faced lie of his life: that he was totally not scared by a monster movie. He's never been scared of anything! Hasn't even screamed once!

And it's. such a goofy lie to tell?? It works on Trill because he's like five years old, but to the viewer who knows him better than that, it just comes off as a funny, harmless thing to say.

Rockman does not see it as either of those things.

To him, it's not cute that Trill takes him at his word by virtue of being a young child who doesn't know any better. If anything, that's part of the problem; maybe if Trill didn't believe him and just teased him about it instead, he wouldn't have to worry about lying so much. But as it stands, Trill is believing a lie, and it eats at Rockman throughout the episode.

And at this point you kinda start to guess how the rest of it is going to go down. Rockman will eventually come clean to Trill, who's gonna say that Rockman is still cool even if he screams at scary movies, and they'll all have a big laugh and move on.

This is not what happens.

Instead, Rockman digs his heels into the lie further, stopping himself from screaming every time Trill tries to scare him (which is a realistic toddler thing to do if I've ever seen one), until he eventually loses his trademark patience and yells at him to cut it out.

And in a move that defies the usual expectation of setup and payoff, Rockman never actually. tells Trill that he lied. and there's a part of me that's bothered by that, but what we get in exchange is so interesting to me that I can't help but feel it makes up for it.

Something to note is that, throughout this episode, it's stated that Trill likely sees Rockman as an older brother, and so he's affectionately referred to as "big brother" by Roll a few times in a teasing sort of way.

It's all fun and sweet and par for the course; I think everyone knew that Trill was going to act as a younger brother to Rockman as soon as he was introduced, so having characters bring attention to it isn't unusual. And Rockman doesn't really comment on it either way... until Netto calls him that at the end of the episode.

This. this is the scene that really makes me go insane. just absolutely bonkers

Because like, okay. listen. this is only episode four of the season. it's not at all surprising that Rockman doesn't consider himself to be Trill's brother, because he's known him for all of three days and he's only been talking for one of them.

But that phrasing.

If he had just left it at "I'm not his big brother," we'd all have a nice chuckle and go "sure buddy, I'd like to see you say that by the end of this season." But he has a qualifier for WHY he's not Trill's brother, and it's because he lied to him. about not being scared of a movie.

And notice how matter-of-factly he says this, too. Remember how troubled he was earlier by the fact he had lied at all? Well it seems that, after perpetuating that lie for the rest of the episode, he's gotten past those doubts and reached acceptance in the idea that... he's lost his brother privileges.

Suddenly we've learned something very interesting about how Rockman handles lying, and it's that, while he's surprisingly capable of keeping a lie up, he finds that even one as innocent as this makes him disqualified from being Trill's family.

Which is Totally Normal and Not at All Concerning Behavior

But you know what. we can make it worse.

Imagine with me, for a moment, that all of the Saito Lore from the games remains true in the anime. If that was the case, then Netto still hasn't been told about it this many seasons in, making it a secret that Rockman keeps every day - a lie of omission.

What if the reason Netto hasn't been told about it for this long, the reason it seems so easy for Rockman to never bring it up, is because he's long since decided that he's not Netto's brother anymore.

"After all, I did lie to him."

And it just keeps going because if we decide to take that angle with it, then it suddenly becomes a lot more pointed that Yuuichiro is the one to assure Rockman that lying to your little brother is Sometimes Okay, Actually

Like of course he would say this, the guy who encouraged Rockman to lie to Netto in the first place in order to keep up the image of being a Reliable NetNavi

Don't get me wrong, it's a really interesting character trait for Rockman to have even without adding game context to it, but using Trill as a parallel to Netto in this scenario adds a special something to the whole thing that I'm never going to be able to stop thinking about

[gus-dix]

totally spies redesign which is also a redraw. this show was weird but i remember being fascinated with them changing clothes every ep, wondering why other shows didn't do that as well

do not erase the caption, use or rePOST my art (reblog ok)

[elllteo]

Creators I love you but it's time to wake up

Among rumors about our tumblr user data being sold off to Midjourney/Generative AI, recent Extremely transphobic events (that have been ongoing) coming to a head, another extremely concerning internet censorship bill being pushed in upper levels of government, and a general air of frustration over how the site belongs to and is operated by perhaps the second stupidest CEO (second only to twitters own) of our age, I'm very done with the last few vestiges of what the old internet held for artists.

And if you're reading this, you probably are too.

I know we're tired. We are all tired. It is not always viable to pack up shop and move, again and again and again.

From tumblr to twitter to anywhere else we've ever grown up posting, things no longer work. Our audiences are kneecapped by aggressive and hostile algorithms, our reach is abysmal - if we aren't shadow-banned or silenced for one (transphobic) reason or another, we're thrust into an ever growing pit of hostility where the only thing that drives clicks is fighting and contention.

We're tired. We're so fucking tired. We aren't businesses, we aren't content mills, we cannot keep this pace that modern social media has set for us, to wring every ounce of creativity out of us to profit from and leave us rotting.

The key to staying afloat here, and I cannot stress this enough, is to stay connected to your peers.

Pack up and move as units if you must. Exodus from the sites that are killing us. Push your entire friend group of artists to move from one site to the next that promises you a kinder experience.

Art drives movements, it drives change, it is all that encompasses being human. If you take that away from the shitty places, they will be left with nothing but a cesspit of inhumanity and the people who follow you will be more incentivized than ever to move with you.

Yes, this is terrifying. There are no guarantees. There never was, and never are, and never will be.

But stay connected. Stay human.

Support each other and be willing to hold hands and jump when we all - as a group - need to jump from the flames we're all trying to convince ourselves wont kill us before rescue comes.

Rescue isn't coming, rescue will be found hand in hand with each other. I'm offering you my hand, please take it. There's always a new start, there are always helping hands reaching for you. You have to look up from the doom-scroll long enough to see and take them.

[goddamnshinyrock]

that TV post, man.... I whined about us not having cable (or satellite? I'm kinda fuzzy on the difference in content tbh) SO often when I was growing up but I unironically think one of the greatest gifts my crunchy hippie parents gave to me was protecting my developing brain from as much advertising as they possibly could.

We didn't have cable, we never listened to commercial radio, we didn't subscribe to any pop culture type magazines, the internet was dial-up and also WAY less full of ads, so literally my only exposure to ads was in the local newspaper or in national geographic (or roadside billboards, lol), and it was GREAT.

people in the notes are talking about how TVs are sooo cheap and so there's no economic reason for most people not to have a bedroom TV for each family member but like... my objection is philosophical, not monetary. Your kid doesn't need an ipad, they don't need an iphone, and they definitely don't need a bedroom TV so corporations can stream advertising directly into their little eyeballs at all hours of the day and night.

[probablyemery]

Here’s my final for my motion graphics class, my genuine pride and joy from the entirety of last year, the title sequence I made inspired by Skyjacks! This project took ages but it was so much fun and I really enjoyed the entire process of making it so… yeah!

[laylawatermelon]

I'm currently watching the acolyte (anyone who knows my account knows exactly why I'm suddenly watching Star Wars 👀)

But I have one thing to say about Sol and the whole nosy lying thing.

Literally wtf did they think the outcome was going to be.

You tell her the truth as a kid they DON'T take her but now you got a:

strong ass force user kid who hates you and the Jedi order.

Vs.

You DO lie then TRAIN her!

She finds out killed her mama now you got a:

*checks notes*

Strong ass trained ADULT force user who hates you and the Jedi Order

There was literally no winning.

[cephaliarch]

Was skimming through Network Effect looking for something for another post I wanted to make, and came across this part again:

Ahead I saw more light and a foyer for a stairwell. I lurched into the foyer just as an armored SecUnit dropped down onto the landing.

I almost triggered both my energy weapons but just in time I saw the sticker on its helmet. In compressed machine language, somebody had used marker paint to write “ART sent me.” This was 2.0′s SecUnit 3.

The opaque helmet focused on me. It said, “I’ve never retrieved another SecUnit before. There is no protocol for this.”

And I was just so immediately endeared by Three all over again. Imagine being in Murderbot’s situation through that whole scene. You’re having the worst fucking day of your life. You’re either going to die horribly or worse, get your brain taken over. You’re running for your life but you know it’s pretty hopeless.

AND THEN some stranger just drops down out of a stairwell with a note that it's here to save you plastered on its forehead, says, “I don’t know what the fuck I’m doing,” then proceeds to leap past you to blast the ceiling down like a badass to block an incoming enemy and grabs you and runs.

Incredible. Three is so good and it’s doing SUCH (genuinely) a good job. There is no protocol for this but damn it it’s gonna get it done.

[omumu]

⭐ STAY YOUNG ⭐

[capn-twitchery]

tagging some art reminded me. i think it's the animator in me but it's my favourite thing in the world to see artists draw their oc simplified down to their barest shapes & details

i love it when people draw their ocs like this. like yes!!! tell me what features define them, hand over their basic shapes, give me the tools to make them a more animation friendly design Immediately in my brain!!!

it's so fun to me. i'm half a step away from making a flondon oc cartoon in my brain i swear

[horsemeatluvr23]

cubfan w markers in my sketchbook !!!!!!! this drawing is NOT finished but i wanted to share it on time... i may or may not have spent £30 on a new pack of markers just to draw the sculk (and you can't even rly tell it's sculk yet because its unfinished.. also i rly should have saved that money for groceries but..)

[whiskeyswifty]

i'm gonna say something that's going to make lots of people mad at me....... but i'm going to say it because i feel right in saying it..... when i think about sweet nothing potentially being taylor singing about her mother.... i wanna cry a whole lot cuz "I found myself a-running home" the one person her whole life who she's been able to run away to and "you're in the kitchen humming" as nothing is more comforting than hearing the familiarity of your mom in the kitchen making you a home cooked meal and "On the way home. I wrote a poem. You say, "What a mind" This happens all the time." like her mom was always her number one supporter, her first fan even and the wistful pause in the lyrics thinking back and that despite all the years, her mom is still amazed to this day at what her daughter can do and then "to you i can admit i'm too soft for all of it" as your mom is always the person you can be weak and vulnerable with, no matter what, and she'll let you and protect you. i just... yeah i think that makes the song soooooooooooooo much more beautiful. excuse me for a second i gotta go call my mom before i cry.