#instead of a multitude of people

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

Can’t stop thinking about the possibility of Jon potentially gaining the ability to raise people from the dead in the future. It’s kind of out there but I don’t think it’s totally baseless, especially if he ends up being brought back to life by Mel (basically R’hllor magic). So the thing with the Last Kiss is that is involves breathing the fire of life into a deceased person, thereby reviving them. Thoros attributes this to his being able to resurrect Beric? And Beric then uses this to resurrect Catelyn Stark. But it’s like there’s a difference since Beric passed his entire life flame to Catelyn whereas Thoros only breathed life into Beric; also the idea of breathing life into someone gives some serious Judeo-Christian “and God breathed life into man” type stuff.

So anyway, if Mel uses red god magic to bring Jon back then it seems Jon might be similar to Beric in that he can also breathe life flame into someone else. There’s already enough parallels between them and it’s also possible that Jon might replicate Beric and create his own flaming sword, but his will be more like the Lightbringer that was wielded by Azor Ahai. But, I wonder if Jon’s ability to do this will have a much greater effect since he, unlike Beric, is an inherently magical being. And I also have to wonder if ice magic could play a role since Jon has both ice and fire; we have wights and possibly Coldhands as people brought back through ice magic.

There’s also another bit that just screams Christ-like ability to resurrect

She is Azor Ahai returned … and her triumph over darkness will bring a summer that will never end … death itself will bend its knee, and all those who die fighting in her cause shall be reborn …”

- Tyrion VI, ADWD

So this is obviously about Dany being AA, but the part about death bending it’s knee and Azor Ahai resurrecting people who fight his cause screams Jesus and some of the stuff said about the resurrection of saints to fight in Jesus’ cause. I’m personally a ‘Jon is also AA’ believer but the thing is that this also gives me Odin and the Einherjar vibes - fallen warriors who reside in Odin’s hall Valhalla and are poised to be reborn to fight in the god’s name during Ragnarok. There are a lot of similarities between Judeo-Christian apocalyptic imagery and pagan apocalyptic imagery, so Odin’s Einherjar mirroring Jesus’ saints isn’t surprising. And then we have Jon who has parallels both Jesus and Odin.

There’s also another bit that makes me think that there’s something about Jon bringing people to life - or rather reanimating dead people - as seen with his Winterfell crypt dreams.

Last night he had dreamt the Winterfell dream again. He was wandering the empty castle, searching for his father, descending into the crypts. Only this time the dream had gone further than before. In the dark he’d heard the scrape of stone on stone. When he turned he saw that the vaults were opening, one after the other. As the dead kings came stumbling from their cold black graves, Jon had woken in pitch-dark, his heart hammering. Even when Ghost leapt up on the bed to nuzzle at his face, he could not shake his deep sense of terror.

- Jon VII, AGOT

The Kings of Winter are recurring persons in several other dreams (e.g., Ned’s and Theon’s), but it’s only in Jon’s dreams where they actually come to life and leave their tombs. Jon even converses with them (and we don’t hear of that in either Ned’s or Theon’s inner narratives. It’s hard to tell if Jon is the one bringing them back from the dead, or if it’s something about him that causes them to rise. The interesting thing is that the Kings of Winter should have iron swords in their laps (possibly to keep their spirits at bay) but that doesn’t seem to work with Jon since they are reanimated anyway.

So considering all the evidence, I think it’s pretty likely that Jon could probably bring people to life, though it’s hard to tell how and with what magic (since he has a lot going on). Beric, who purposefully serves as foreshadowing for what mint happen to Jon is a good starting point. Anyway, both Jon and Beric for sure are like Christ-like figures. And Jesus has several instances of bringing people back from the dead which foreshadowed his own death and resurrection, most notably with his cousin Lazarus. Which leads me to the question, who’s going to be Jon’s Lazarus?

[papermonkeyism]

Been pondering the Arcanth setting, and turns out keeping fantasy races... well, existing, is surprisingly hard if you remove "Wizard Did It" method of worldbuilding.

I'm trying to steer away from DnD style worldbuilding. While magic is a thing in the setting, in a way, it's more of a force of nature, and less a flashy effect show one performs by casting spells, and I refuse to have any sort of One True Religion in any of my settings (hate it. So bad.) so there won't be a "these gods created these races" excuse to it either, and it's proving surprisingly hard to justify keeping different races distinct considering people tend to people.

Considering real life people and our history of interbreeding (I know I have few percent Neanderthal in me courtesy of being European). Like how do you prevent love stories from happening enough to keep things separate?

Arcanth's people and goblins can stay separate by being very distinctly different species far enough removed to not belong to same clades as hominids. Well and good enough...

(Arcanth's people come in three different flavours, one of which got separated enough to be a distinct species in another continent and the other two being separated by basically humans into different ends of a larger continent, though still with enough gene flow between to keep them technically same species. Goblins used to come in myriad of different localised flavours, but they travel a lot and have no issues with mingling with each other so goblins can be basically whatever within the goblin parameters wherever they happen to pop up in.)

Dwarves I guess just have hard time crossing with the other people. Like dwarf/elf crosses CAN happen, but it's more like horse/donkey kind of deal. I can see dwarf/human setup being more likely to function beyond the first generation.

Orcs are technically just human/elf mix people with some magical background radiation enhancement to give them distinct flavour. (They are a people with relatively recent history of basically a bunch of human and elf sailors discovering an uninhabited Iceland island, habiting it for a millenium or few and several generations later are now their own thing.)

But I didn't make my elves eternal and immortal, and they're more distinct from humans by being naturally nocturnal and having harder time tolerating extreme cold and extreme hot environments compared to humans, but they're still hominids. There's nothing really stopping them from mixing with humans wherever they coexist, and why wouldn't they coexist? I'm not really into having large scale eugenics programs in my headworlds either.

I guess 100% "pure" human and 100% "pure" elf are just extremely rare things to happen and most people are just varying degrees of mixed in between?

[cuteniaarts]

Small drawing collection of my latest creation Emran as a teenager/freshly minted Air Acolyte, for my dear partner in unhinged OC shenanigans @katkastrofa, as promised <3

[fizzingwizard]

dear internet stop throwing pictures of beautifully toasted bagels slathered in cream cheese at me i don't have a toaster i don't have room in my teeny kitchenette for a toaster a toaster is a luxury here in japan as are bagels as is cream cheese

bagel places here that ask me "do you want that heated up" make me want to cry tears of joy even though all they mean is they're gonna stick the bagel in the microwave for ten seconds so it's slightly warm-ish but not enough to crisp up or melt the cream cheese a little

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

cannot stop thinking about the old man I talked to a couple days ago who truly believes that global warming isn’t our fault because “the sun is getting hotter”

[simptasia]

mum and i were almost not able to buy our house because a real estate lawyer heard us casually say i'm autistic and alarm bells went off in her head, because she believed that meant i wasn't mentally capable of understanding what i was signing up for

[mielgf]

being a twenty something year old with little to no dating experience (heavy on the no), a debilitating fear of rejection and social anxiety is so weird bc i’ll tell my friends that i find someone cute and they’re like “omg talk to them :D just be yourself, ask them questions, be casual” and like… bestie you Don’t Get It I Literally Can’t Do That

[woolandcoffee]

I feel like perhaps the people who are concerned that the Japanese perspective is not included in a movie about the people who worked on the Manhattan Project could do with a gentle reminder that Japan has a thriving film industry with multiple movies literally about the Japanese perspective on the making and use of the atom bomb. Just in case they didn't know.

[noisytenant]

I feel like just telling people “consume less childrens media/YA fiction/etc” is missing the point.

A narrow, sheltered perspective on the world and its politics is what causes stupid discourse, and the simplified world of entertainment media attracts people with this mindset.

Having any kind of media as the dominant lens through which you socialize and interact with the world will leave you sidelined from reality, whether your energy is devoted to complex literature or a tv show for toddlers.

Children’s media and their fans make for easy targets because the disproportionate scale of discourse to depth is more visible, but focusing on the kind of media as the main problem seems to me similarly detached from reality. The problem is the attitude. And telling someone who clings to any kind of media as a tenuous connection to others that they’ve wasted their time isn’t really going to change their mind.

So, like, do you actually have any intention of challenging this kind of attitude, or are you just trying to feel superior to someone else?

[asthevermincrawls]

ugh

[itsthesinbin]

i love the vague blogging after i make fun of a shitty anime roleplay server that was caught posting swastikas all over the place and roleplaying scat porn in the general chat after your previous server was nuked cause you were rude to autistic people and had a power trip

[furryprovocateur]

alcoholism is a problem in the lgbt community yes but there's something weird and mentally disconnecting about trying to say that's because there's too many gay nightclubs or whatever instead of the reality that being lgbt is just genuinely oppressive and will push people to maladaptive coping mechanisms. like did we forget that people become alcoholics for a multitude of more reasons than because they went to a club once

[seeyouspacecoyote]

People who demand more lgbt representation and then complain about ships with a two year age gap or a character being revealed to have said something problematic 10 years before canon or a bisexual woman dating a man at some point are part of the reason why there's not enough lgbt representation out there to satisfy the people who want to see it.

[nunap]

Felix is as unhinged on bubble as chris and as weird as lino and yet it goes unnoticed most of the times bc he's the innocent fandom's sunshine smh

[lackadaisycats]

I hope you know that literally nobody is going to be able to live up to the standard you, V*v, and Glitch have set and your arrogance and exploitation of your fanbase and connections has screwed millions of creatives out of their dreams because Hollywood is a joke that isn't worth telling and wealthy e-celebs like yourself have claimed the indie scene all to yourselves and moved the goalposts into the stratosphere.

Nope. This isn't a zero sum game. There is not some limited, prescribed number of indie trophy slots that a few studios greedily filled up, blocking everyone else out. That is not how it works. Nothing any other creator is doing - short of personally sending hired goons to your doorstep or stealing your credit cards - is taking anything away from you or preventing your success. In fact if an indie creator can manage to demonstrate that they've got something viable going, it may help to map out a pathway for others.

I think I'm not going to bother trying to address whether or not cartoons in return for support from fans - an entirely voluntary exchange - constitutes exploitation. And I'm living in the Midwest driving a 2007 economy car with 200k+ miles on it, but let's just skip past the assumptions that I'm wealthy and connected too.

Instead, let's get to the weirdly myopic notion that the indie scene is held captive by three studios. Maybe YouTube algorithms or Twitter bubbles are somewhat to blame, but in actuality there are so, so many individual people, friend groups, and small production houses out there making independent animation, I cannot possibly name them all.

Here are some anyway:

Far-Fetched Worthikids Satina | Scumhouse Noodle and Bun Punch Punch Forever Ramshackle Noodle Papajoolia | Pipi Angel Hare | The East Patch Jonni Peppers Salad Fingers Monkey Wrench Studio Heartbreak Felix Colgrave JelloApocalypse Odd1sout (started indie, got picked up by Netflix) Allie Mehner JaidenAnimations Lumi and the Great Big Galaxy Cloudrise | The Worlds Divide Telepurte RubberRoss James Lee ENA Godspeed | Olan Rogers Ollie and Scoops Meat Canyon Port by the Sea Kekeflipnote Boxtown Kevin Temmer Weebl Joel Haver CircleToons Long Gone Gulch Atlas and the Stars Animist Skibidi Toilet A Fox in Space Alex Henderson Talon Toniko Pantoja Sr. Pelo Hullabaloo Kane Pixels (started indie, picked up by A24) Homestar Runner Fennah Gods' School Alan Becker Dungeon Flippers JazLyte Psychicpebbles (started indie, Smiling Friends picked up by AS) Piemations vewn Metal Family Dead Sound chluaid Jacknjellify Betsy Lee | No Evil My Pride Cranbersher GeoExe | Gwain Saga Horatio the Vampire Mech West Playground | Rodrigo Sousa The Brave Locomotive Finchwing (+ many other Warrior Cats animators) Quazies SamBakZa Kamikaze: Trial by Fire

By no means a full list. That's just YouTube, and mostly just English language stuff, and I didn't even get to the multitudes of Warrior Cats animation collabs.

The point is, the indie landscape is vast and populated by creators new and old, making all kinds of animated media from skits, to shows, to ARGs, to films. Audience sizes vary as much as the content, stylistic approaches, subject matter, and budgets do. There are no compliance standards, no gateways to entry, no goalposts. There's not even any preset definition of success except what you decide for yourself.

Anyway, instead of nurturing your resentments, consider making something. I assure you, it's a far more rewarding use of your time and energy, and pretty much no one can stop you. ------------- EDIT- Made some additions to the list based on comments. Thanks!

[pellucid-constellations]

Azriel with single mom reader? I feel like being a single mom in ACOTAR would be tricky as hell... reader comes from autumn court and flees to night court because she got pregnant out of marriage? 😯 the shame

Pairing: Azriel x Reader

Word count: ~950

Warnings: Nothing yet, maybe just a little angst

a/n: Okay I know this is a drabble but this is definitely getting more parts like I am attached to this storyline now and LOVE that you requested it 🤗

Read part two here

____________________________________________

You leaned against a pillar just outside the school, a twitch creeping up your hands until your fingers spasmed. You shoved them under the bend of your elbows, crossing your arms and biting into your lip. 

She was fine. 

She was more than fine—Velaris was safe. 

Anything would have been safer than facing your father’s wrath back in Autumn, but you had gotten extremely lucky with the timing of your escape. Falling pregnant with your daughter had not been in the cards, especially not after a single night of rebellion, but with Velaris’s doors opening up just days after your healer broke the news, something seemed to be written in the stars. 

But every day was still a gamble; your father could find you at any time. 

The past five years had been a miracle, if you were being honest. 

School was supposed to end two minutes ago. 

Your foot began to shake, popping your knee up and down and making your body vibrate with the anxiety that consumed you. 

You shouldn’t have let her go to school. 

Melanie only had a few friends—neighbor kids whose parents you had vetted extensively—but that had been enough for her to get the idea into her head. You had planned on homeschooling her, or at least waiting until she was a few years older before letting her out into the world. Unfortunately, that had not been Melanie’s plan, and Melanie had so many wonderful plans. As most five-year-olds did. 

Gods, what if—

“First day?” a rumbling voice made you pause your nervous fidgeting. The man spoke again. “If you’re worried, don’t be. The teacher is great. Just forgetful when it comes to time. They are typically a few minutes late every day.” 

You swallowed and turned around despite every voice in your head telling you not to. But those voices in your head were completely and utterly wrong about a multitude of things. Behind you, you found a man—an Illyrian—with wings an ungodly size and shadows swirling down his legs and onto a uniform pool along the ground. And he was gorgeous—unabashedly gorgeous in the most devastating way. 

You looked up from your blatant investigation of him, meeting his eye and stuttering out, “Oh. That’s… that’s good to know. Thank you.” 

If he noticed your stutter, he didn’t make any sign of it. Instead, the man with the wings and the shadows blinked several times, furrowed his brows, and took a step back as if to steady himself. Perhaps, if you weren’t a bundle of unreasonable nervous energy, you would have found his actions strange, but you were. So you simply offered him a superficial, airy laugh and uncrossed your arms. 

“I—” the man began, but he seemed to lose his train of thought, a heat traveling up his cheeks in a way that looked foreign. “I’m Azriel.” 

Oh, wonderful. Introductions. 

You tried your hardest to stay very far away from very many people. It was the best way to keep yourself hidden. You couldn’t avoid the neighbors, and you supposed you couldn’t avoid fae like Melanie’s teacher, but this was different. 

Shit. 

You offered your name, anyway, afraid of appearing too outlandish in an otherwise casual setting. 

It would be fine. 

This was fine. 

Azriel repeated it in a breathless way, but then the school bell rang and something seemed to click in his brain. The small smile that had curled up the corner of his mouth became hard and he shot his eyes quickly one way and then the other, inspecting your surroundings. 

Maybe this wasn’t fine. 

“Are you a new mom in the area?” Azriel asked. 

All of your nerves shifted to guarded unease. “I am,” you offered, not caring if it was almost a lie. 

“The moms here don’t usually do the pick ups alone.” 

“You’re doing a pick up alone, it seems.” 

“I’m picking up my nephew,” Azriel explained, relaxing his posture, making himself smaller, seemingly gauging the building tension. “I didn’t mean to come across—I just asked because the mothers here typically have help. From their mates or partners. From the father.” 

You bit the inside of your cheek, your next words tumbling out before you could catch them. “Well, I’m alone.” 

Double shit. 

Azriel seemed to let out a breath, his shadows whipping around along the ground. 

You braced yourself for further questioning, for the judgments that would surely follow, but then you were attacked from behind by a pair of arms wrapping around your knees. You turned quickly, scooping your daughter into a hug and promptly dismissing any further conversation with the stranger. 

“Hi, Mel,” you smiled, tucking her hair back as you subtly looked her over. “How was school? Did you like it?” 

“I loved it!” she excitedly replied. She rambled on a bit more after that, retelling her day by the minute. 

You felt eyes on you the entire time. A small boy had run and jumped into Azriel’s arms in your peripheral, but even as the boy talked and talked just as Melanie did, you felt the occasional glance your way. And some of Azriel’s shadows had to be reigned in multiple times, the small wisps licking at your ankles. 

The teacher suddenly spoke up and you were eavesdropping, straining your ears to listen in on her greeting towards the Illyrian.

“Oh, Azriel, lovely to see you. We were hoping the High Lady would be picking Nyx up, but this is even better. There is a showcase in a few weeks that—” 

You felt your world freeze. 

High Lady. 

You had been speaking to someone in close relation to the Night Court. You let someone know your name, told them you were alone with a child, and they had direct access to the High Lord and Lady. 

You whisked Melanie into your arms despite her protests and beelined it home. 

Shit. 

part two