#is a massive disservice to the art

[jewishbarbies]

lit agents telling authors how to write for publication:

[shinxeysartgallery]

Day 6: Sunset

The sunsets on Pirate Isle just hit different.

Unironically some of my best shading work and I'm super proud of this one! Still think Day 3's is my favorite overall, but this one is my favorite shading-wise so far!

[sh00kspeared]

Can we talk about Johnny's bi erasure in-game? Because really, it makes me kinda mad.

Now, I'm not the kind of person who shouts 'homophobia' at everything because it's just not my way of things... but the amount that Johnny's attraction to men has been completely shafted throughout the game is really a disservice to him and to all the people who ship their male characters with him. A few examples:

Cutting or making really hard to trigger the line where Johnny says he got a lap dance from a man at a gay strip club (I've seen some people claim they experienced it, which is why I think it may still be in the game)

Johnny saying he didn't sleep with Kerry because he had a dick despite the official, director-sanctioned game guide saying that he did.

Johnny telling female V that the two are arguing "like an old married couple", yet telling male V that they're arguing "like two geezers on a park bench." (Johnny's definitely not the kind of guy to change his language depending on the gender of person he's with).

Never, ever alluding to any of his flings with male characters outside of the strip club line despite him saying that he did swing both ways now and then.

Now, why do I care so much about this? Because it's really sparked more debate than necessary. This post got hate for making him "gay" Cyberpunk 2077 on X: "Johnny Silverhand 🎤 Art by: @painperdues https://t.co/ABiBzSCZvm" / X (twitter.com) and so did this one Cyberpunk 2077 on X: "V and Johnny, Johnny and V… By: @hanbyeo0526 https://t.co/JlGNBmRYJH" / X (twitter.com) (I believe some of the comments have been deleted since because I don't see a lot of the meanest ones there anymore). Mind you, after the latter was posted, a fem V x Johnny post was made not too long afterward and it got markedly fewer hate comments. Also, funny story, my old male V x Johnny post is the third most controversial post of all time on r/lowsodiumcyberpunk at the moment (please go downvote it if possible; I wanna be first again lmao /hj).

But, all this to say, much of the playerbase sees Johnny as an alpha straight manly man when he's... well... not. While many people including me assume that the choice to keep his bisexuality under wraps is due to his addled memory in Mikoshi misremembering the fact that he canonically slept with Kerry, I just think this is a really odd thing to use to demonstrate that. Of all the things the devs could've chosen to display this, they chose one of the things that is most likely to get male V x Johnny shippers belittled and seen as the 'lesser' version of the ship for just existing.

They chose to erase a massive part of Johnny's identity, either to prove the point of his memories being addled or because they were scared of backlash. I just don't see how it would've been so hard for him to allude to some of his male flings more often, make the dicky twister line easier to trigger, and just not have him say that he didn't sleep with kerry because he had a dick. Ffs CDPR, stop being so dodgy your bi characters' identities.

[tainbocuailnge]

As an art person yourself, what about Raita’s work do you find particularly interesting or noteworthy?

a lot of raita critics are turned off his work because he exaggerates proportions to the point of being grotesque but to me the appeal is exactly in how he exaggerates the shapes of the body to the point everyone looks kinda sickly and grotesque. raita very intentionally draws fleshy freaks as a stylistic choice, just look at his work for valkyria chronicles or even just some of the stuff he posts on his twitter to see it's not because he just doesn't know how to draw "better". a pretty common sentiment among experienced artists whether professional or not is that they really like drawing old people because old people have much more interesting and exaggerated shapes compared to young conventionally attractive people, this is pretty much the same thing if you ask me. I like how he gets funky with it. people point to his massive balloon tits the most but he applies the same kind of sickly exaggeration to men's bulging veiny muscles and bony hands

he's also very good with shapes especially when he gets to go nuts with big winding shapes. i mean just look at this shit. i think he's very good at playing into the shapes of the body with his designs and exaggerating them even further with the clothes, and with "extending" the body through these large winding shapes, in these examples through moriarty's butterfly collar, shuten's segmented sleeves, murasaki's spiral hair and dress frills, and ibuki's horns and cloud seating

i think it does raita's work a disservice to view it as the result of a guy being so horny he forgets what a real person looks like because he's not trying to draw real people he's drawing very intentional exaggerations. it does mean his best stuff is when he really leans into the sickly freak aspect and those tend to be the pics that self-proclaimed raita haters will sigh and admit look pretty cool (and conversely his worst work is when he applies his sickly freak beam to characters who are neither sickly nor freaks). i don't really care if people just don't like his work because it's a particular taste but it does bother me when people call him a bad artist for it because that's just plain not true. also here's some pieces from his fgo artbooks i like a lot

[shaniacsboogara]

i think a lot of things i agree with are already being said about watcher tv, so instead of focusing on those, i'm going to try to highlight things i think need to be reiterated or haven't been discussed enough.

first of all, i've been a fan of watcher's content for a long time. i followed shane and ryan over to the network after unsolved ended, and since then have made a TON of incredible friends and memories because of their shows. to anyone at watcher reading this, i really hope you're doing alright. thank you for everything you've done to foster this incredible community. and to anyone here in tumblr who's followed me for my watcher content or to any of my mutuals, i hope you're doing as well as you can. drink some water, get outside, and make sure you're getting enough sleep. this has been a rough time for a lot of us, and understandably so.

obviously, watcher tv is a massive change, and everyone who feels upset or disappointed is extremely valid in feeling that way. however, the calibre of hate being sent to the watcher crew is kind of horrific. yes, this could turn out to be a bad business decision for them, but that does make them evil morally bankrupt capitalists who never actually cared about their fanbase in the first place??? honestly, i think this type of commentary is doing a disservice to everyone who's trying to discuss this situation from a genuine analytical standpoint. not only that, but these are real people??? sure, they're on the internet and have probably had people send hate comments their way before, but as a community there are so many more productive things we could be doing instead of tearing down the folks over at watcher.

it is disheartening for content you've enjoyed to suddenly be locked behind a paywall, especially if it's not something you'll be able to afford. i've seen a lot of people emphasizing that artists should be compensated for their art, and i think that definitely applies here, but that doesn't mean people don't have a right to be upset. the fandom community we've built here on tumblr is incredible, it's brought so many people together and overall been so positive, fun, and welcoming to be a part of, so it's understandable that a change threatening the stability of that fanspace would make people upset. i'm not happy about the possibility of the watcher fandom dissipating after this announcement, but i think it's highly likely. watcher TV has created a divide in the fandom, and no matter what it looks like after this is over, it won't be the same. what's going to happen when most people can't access watcher content anymore??? no matter what happens, being in this fandom was absolutely incredible while it lasted.

what's my overall take on the situation??? i don't know how this will turn out for them, i'm not sure the announcement was carried out in the best way (it was hyped up in a way i don't think it should've been, a slower lead up to this could've made it more digestible), i'm sad that a lot of people won't be able to enjoy content that used to mean so much to them, but if this is a business move they think they need to make, then think i understand that. i'm no business expert, i have no idea how this will work out, but i'm absolutely not manifesting their downfall. i think it's very important to discuss this in a civil manner, to critique and analyze the effects of this situation on both the community and the company, but letting that turn into blatant hate and threats to watcher employees is WAY TOO FAR.

these are just some of my thoughts. if you want me to clarify anything or know my thoughts on specific aspects of this situation, please don't be afraid to ask!!! my only request is that this post doesn't turn into a vessel for hating on anyone, whether that be watcher or anyone posting about the situation.

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Hey, Lost hope u doing good, I'm just a like a half-year-old eruri and I love them so much with all my heart canon or not but there has been a thing lately I've come across many people saying eruri is dead even among eruri fandom. Since the end of Aot' final ofc it' not same but as someone who reads eruri a lot, and wants to write too, it's making me lose my enthusiasm. I really would want to keep it going but it weighs on my mind heavily. Would want ur expert opinion, is it really dead?

Hey Anon, welcome to the fandom! Please don’t be put off by people proclaiming that Eruri is dead, people have been saying this ever since Midnight Sun was published in 2016, and yet the fandom is still thriving. We’re still getting official art, we have an astonishing number of amazing artists and the number of Eruri fics on AO3 is increasing every day.  Having said that, all fandoms have peaks and troughs that follow canon media cycles and the Eruri fandom is no different from any other fandom in that respect. It’s to be expected that some people will move on when a beloved character dies, or a series ends, but that doesn’t mean the fandom will die out altogether. Far from it!  It can actually be quite freeing for a fandom when the canon media comes to an end as it gives you free rein with the characters. (Not that transformative works ever have to be bound by canon of course.) 

In terms of the Eruri fandom, many fans did leave when Erwin died, others drifted off during the Marley Arc, and when the manga or the anime ended.  One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that a lot of new fans are coming to the fandom via fanworks rather than the canon media which I think bodes well for the longevity of the fandom, though it can lead to some "interesting" characterisation.

It’s also understandable that fans get attached to “their” fandom; the chapters that were published, the episodes that were airing, the popular artists and writers who were active when they first joined the fandom.  It can be really sad when those people move on, and it can feel a bit as if “your” fandom is dying, even if new fans are discovering the ship all the time.  I’m no different in that respect, I still get nostalgic for the Eruri fandom c. 2016, the intense highs and lows, the outpouring of creativity, the amazing friends I made at that time.  However it really bugs me when I hear people saying things like “the fandom died when X artist or Y writer left” because that does a massive disservice to all other artists and writers who are still active in the fandom. 

I think there’s also something to be said about some fans increasingly treating fandom as content to be consumed, rather than a community to contribute to.  Once they’ve consumed all the “popular” content, they declare the fandom is dead and move on, rather than actually contributing something creative themselves.  Fandoms thrive on collective creativity and their longevity depends on having an active community rather than one or two big name fans, writers and artists. 

Anyway, all this is to say, just ignore the killjoys and enjoy this amazing fandom. Enjoy all the gorgeous fic and art by the incredibly talented writers and artists that have come and gone over the last ten years, and support the new writers and artists who are creating equally amazing work. 

[cristaq]

Beating a dead horse, I know, but I saw that Activision changed Soap's bio to confirm his death in the reboot timeline. Damn, what a massive disservice that is to a character with so much potential and history. How can random people on the internet write infinitely better plots than the ones that are actually paid for it? :(

Corporate gaming sucks. As long as graphs shown at the annual shareholder meeting go up, everything goes. And I am ready to bet that 95% of them have never played a good game.

Sorry for the rant, but I grew up with these games and characters. And now they use them as nostalgia generators and kill them off for shock value. I believe that characters that are ingrained into video game history should be treated with respect.

Video game stories are like any other stories. They are tales made to be retold and enjoyed so I agree with a reboot actually! I think it is great that so many other people got to interact with these characters in a new light. But killing off your assets is not the way. Bad writing at such a high level is not the way. Creating a DLC and marketing it as a full game is not the way.

There are other franchises that managed to reinvent themselves a bit and become relevant again. We can talk about DOOM or Ratchet and Clank for example, but there are so many others out there. Unfortunately, you can only create soulless art when you yourself are without a soul.

It's probably not that deep but it still sucks.

[positivelybeastly]

Hi, new here, but very interested in what you've got going on-- I don't know a lot of active X-Men readers I can discuss things with, let alone any who are actually interested in Beast, so I wanted to ask, how do you feel about the writing for him over the last decade, taking into account the awkward situation X-Men as a whole has been in over that time (Schism+) but particularly, I suppose, how his character's been treated from then through Krakoa, and this "fresh start" we've got with From the Ashes not having memory of... really this entire time period highlighted?

Hello there, welcome! Hope you enjoy the experience, because it's liable to be a rambly one.

So . . . man, this is gonna be a long one, because I actually have to dial it back a little further and talk about Beast on Utopia if I'm going to talk about Schism and everything that came after.

I don't like Matt Fraction's X-Men run. Aside from the Greg Land art, which is an obvious problem, I'm not massively in love with what I kind of end up reading as a justification for black ops kill teams and militant, isolationist statehood, to say nothing of just. Poor pacing and messy storytelling and a lot of really confused storylines that just feel weird and jarring and full of really strange character choices.

I think that Fraction did mean for his run to be more critical, that when you read Hank and Scott arguing about preserving the soul of the X-Men vs. saving mutant lives, you're meant to come away conflicted, but I think that Fraction's Hank just kinda sucks and that he comes across as very whiney and self-centred.

Like, in the end, I don't think that a lot of what Cyclops did in this era, a lot of morally repugnant shit, actually really cost him anything, because history validated him and he was elevated to whatever the big general position was on Krakoa.

It wasn't a great feeling to see the guy who literally, textually abandoned members of his teams to torture, used bioweapons as a first resort, and basically told a kid to just kill people to solve the problem, have all of his actions be whitewashed and ignored post-Schism.

Like, Bendis' Uncanny and All-New act like the only bad thing Scott ever did was kill Charles Xavier while under the influence of the Phoenix, and I'm just over here like, nnnnnno he did a lot of bad things before that, very much in his right mind, and he never paid for any of that. He got to be the black ops kill team leader and the saintly revolutionary, and I don't think that the narrative really interrogated that contradiction all that much, it was just #CyclopsWasRight.

With that context . . .

I don't have a problem with Hank being a conscientious objector and leaving the X-Men. He's done it before, and I think he was right to do it, and it fits his character.

That being said, he was then pushed straight on to the Secret Avengers, which was, while not a kill team, very much a black ops, deniable operations organisation with team members who did kill people, and while I like some of the stories from his time with the Secret Avengers, overall, I think it was an intensely stupid move that made him look like a massive hypocrite and damaged his credibility, making it look less like he was taking a moral stand and more like he just didn't like Scott.

Which is a bad thing!!! Hank loves Scott! They've been best friends since fucking forever! Not only do you damage Hank's character by doing that, but you also reduce what was a moral conflict with nuance and dimension down to petty bullshit! It's a disservice to both characters! God!! It frustrates me SO MUCH when this conflict is boiled down to that!

God forbid that these characters actually stand for something and have actual intellectual, moral problems with one another that they can have compelling conversations about, why not let's just make them petty assholes who snipe at each other for drama?

You can do this conflict and make it good! It's possible! I promise!

This is what Schism should have really been about! And Hank was, at least before the dumb move to push him to the Secret Avengers, a character with moral legitimacy who could have made Schism work! I think there's a lot of mileage to the idea that Wolverine has progressed to the point where he wants to protect people from violence, where he wants to save kids from being turned into weapons like he was, but that's a personal motivation, and it's really, really, really hard for him to have the moral high ground.

But, in the end, Wolverine sells comics, not Beast, so Wolverine became the figurehead of the less militant side of the X-Men comics. Fine. Okay, we'll deal with it.

Wolverine and the X-Men is . . . good. It has problems, but on the whole, I like it more than a lot of what came after. I especially like Jason Aaron's moves to keep Hank and Abigail together, as well as fold Broo into a growing family unit. That's a good progression for his character, and it makes sense.

Then there's Avengers vs. X-Men, and it's. Like. Garbage, but. Whatever. I do appreciate that Hank is at least occasionally in character during it.

But then we come to All-New X-Men, and I just . . . ughhhhh.

UGHHHHHHH.

I hate it, man. I hate it. I hate Bendis' bullshit garbage characterisation of Hank McCoy, and I hold it directly responsible for everything that came after it, because it functionally replaced his prior characterisation.

Hank is a character obsessed with consequences in the 00s, he's obsessed with making the right choice, he's already learned that there's only so much that he can do to fix the world. Endangered Species (which I think is an amazing Hank story) shows us that Hank will only go so far, and that, honestly, in the grand scheme of things, he will stop himself.

And then Bendis was just like, well, fuck all that bullshit, Hank blew up the space-time continuum because he doesn't like Scott Summers.

And I hate it.

It would be one thing, if Bendis were actually interested in Hank as a character, if he was willing to examine his character and his choices and his reasons and his personality, but he isn't. He flits in and out of All-New as and when required, to be castigated for a decision made while he was dying, depressed, and dealing with multiple brain aneurysms. Ostensibly, we're meant to buy that Xavier's death was the tipping point, but we don't even see Hank react to it. It's not considered important.

Hank's grief, Hank's isolation, Hank's horror, all of it is just ignored.

There's no real emotional dimension here, there's no 'what is Beast thinking, why is he doing this, let's have him talk with characters that are his friends and try to work out where he's at mentally,' because Bendis doesn't care. "Why is Beast like this? He just is. He's just a morally hypocritical asshole who judges other people and does things without thinking." He just makes Hank look like a goddamn lunatic, and it all culminates in this.

I just. I fucking hate this issue, man. It's a long, excruciating character assassination that casually wrecks Hank's long running relationship with Abigail Brand, torches his legitimacy as an intellectual or moral individual, and portrays him as a sad, lonely old man who might as well just leave because no-one actually wants him around. It's fucking galling.

Hank just straight up would not wreck the space-time continuum to teach Scott Summers a lesson. He just wouldn't. I fundamentally reject the premise. I reject it just as much as I reject the shitty attempts to make Hank/Jean Grey a pairing.

I reject the idea that Hank is a loose cannon with no regard for rules or others, who just believes in his own moral authority and says fuck everyone else, I do what I want. That is NOT who he is, and I really do just have to wonder what everyone was smoking that no-one looked at this and went, wait, when did Hank change into this? Everyone just accepted it.

It really does just feel like people got tired of Hank complaining on Utopia, so when it came time to pile on the blame for all the problems that happened after it, no-one really cared when it all became Hank's fault. No-one was willing to point out that Bendis' characterisation of Hank doesn't make sense.

Does Hank hate Scott? Why? "He's going to cause a mutant genocide" = based on what? "He killed Charles Xavier" = under the influence of a cosmic force. I don't understand these characterisation choices. Hank knows Scott better than this.

Bendis just. Does not like Hank McCoy. I really can't come up with another explanation for why he went out of his way to do two bumper issues, All-New X-Men #25 and Uncanny X-Men #600, that are just a round robin of everyone telling him that they hate him and that he sucks and he should go die.

There are glimmers of better characterisation during this period.

Jonathan Hickman's New Avengers is - complex, and you'll often hear people gesture to that as the point at which Hank became full on amoral, but I reject that hypothesis entirely. It's a conclusion come to by people who haven't actually read it.

Hank spends most of that series being wracked with guilt, trying desperately to find another way to solve the problem that doesn't involve blowing up planets, and refusing to take a life. Which tracks with Hickman's characterisation of Beast.

"Broken him." Implying that it's not his natural state, and that there are other factors are at play. This is important to keep in mind.

For most of this time period, Hank is in a very rocky state. He's not quite with the X-Men, he's not quite with the Avengers, he's got a reputation for being a chronic screw-up, people regard him as unstable, and yet they'll still call on him to fix their problems for them.

Like, the amount of times that the X-Men call on him to help them, despite the fact that he left after their failed, garbage intervention, and he still goes back to them, is just so very tiring. Either the X-Men should stop relying on someone that they seem not to like or trust, or Hank should stop going back to a 'family' that seems not to value him or have his best intentions in mind. The halfway house they settle into is just weird and inconsistent.

Like, which is it? Do you guys actually want him around or not? Because you're kind of being massive assholes to a guy who primarily wants to help. And we're meant to be knee deep in his turn towards moral ambiguity by now, but he's still just kinda being a good dude!

Anyone who tells you that Beast's moral downfall has been a consistent slide since Threnody is a fraud, because there is nothing consistent about this period of history for Beast.

If these panels show you anything, it's that there are two Beasts running around - a guy who makes problems for other people to solve because he's an idiot, and actual Beast, who occasionally makes mistakes, but who has pure intentions, a good heart, a joke at the ready, and he's fundamentally a nice person. It's getting to be impossible to tell which one is going to turn up to your story.

The only really good writing comes in fits and spurts, and usually when he's under the care of a writer who seems to have some affection for him. Especially if Simon Williams is around.

Whenever I write this version of Hank, his tag is getting by, because it feels like his life is just perpetually on the skids and there's no real rhyme or reason as to why. He just oscillates between two extremes as and when the story wants him to be an asshole or not. Even he seems confused as to what's going on.

And then we get to Krakoa, and . . .

It's just fundamentally not the same character. It's not even the same as Dark Beast, it's just Mr. Sinister in blue fur with less jokes. Benjamin Percy just expects you to accept that Hank woke up one day and was like, y'know what? I think killing countries is fine, actually. I want to head up an intelligence agency. I should cut off Wolverine's head. Maybe torture some innocent aliens for fun.

Why?

Eh, he's just evil.

Why are you bothering to question it?

And people don't question it, because Hank is a horrible hypocrite who will do anything that falls within his narrow view of morally acceptable actions, and he's an awful person who people barely tolerate being around.

Except. He isn't that. Or is he? Because Bendis said he was like that. And as everyone knows, Bendis is the true arbiter of characterisation and continuity. Just ask a fan of Wanda Maximoff, and they'll tell you how happy they are with his definitive version of the character.

Like, I just don't buy it. Not for one bit. You can't make this character this and pass a spot check. The only reason people are fine with it is because they never particularly cared for Beast to begin with, and so this new, more 'interesting' characterisation is better. It's 'truer.' Meanwhile, people who actually have been following the character for years remember when other X-Men were saying stuff like this.

Which is it? Has every single nice thing an X-Man said about Hank McCoy been a horrible, hilariously off base misjudgement, or is Benjamin Percy a hack who can't write? Iunno, man. Jury's out.

And then we come to From the Ashes, which is . . . a little too early, to make a judgement? I'm tentatively optimistic, now that we have a Beast who isn't just. The worst. I don't love the fact that he's missing 40 years of memories, even if the storytelling opportunities of such a character beat are interesting.

I'm also on the fence about this.

Idk, I'm hoping that it'll be born out by the rest of the issue, and that Hank's characterisation here makes more sense with context, but I don't love the idea of bringing back the single most heroic version of Hank McCoy that ever existed, then side-jumping him straight into a redux of the Legacy Virus 'I can't leave the lab/I have to make moral compromises' storyline from the 90s.

I have faith in Jed MacKay, and I'm willing to give it a shot, but I'm just so used to being disappointed by Marvel and X-Men by this point.

To come back to how I feel about it all? This isn't what I would have wanted for Hank. Not even close. Bendis threw out everything I liked about Hank back in 2013, and it set us down a path that has even a hint of Hank being anything less than perfect seeing comments sections explode, saying that he's well on his way to becoming evil again.

His name is dirt in the fandom, and the reason it isn't considered more of a problem is because he never had that big of a fan base to begin with, which is mostly a result of the fact that he's not a character who gets big flashy 'I'm so cool' moments - he's a character whose storylines are often sad, morose, dark, and unhappy. People like Beast, but they won't generally go to bat for him.

The revisionist history bugs me, a lot. No, he wasn't always evil, and no, it's not been a consistent slide to villainy ever since 1993. He's just as liable to be written badly as any other character, and frankly, I think he's been a victim of it a lot more than a lot of other characters during the same time period, but whereas other characters will have that bad writing forgiven by both fandom and the writers (Emma Frost), it just. Hangs, over Hank's head, like Damocles' sword.

It's been disheartening, honestly. I left the fandom in 2015, after Bendis' runs, because I just didn't want to deal with it anymore, and when I came back a year ago, I found out it had only gotten worse. Everyone else got to enjoy Krakoa, with its big mutant pride storylines and their stories of redemption and deepening bonds and political machinations, and my character got stuck in the shitty black ops corner, acting like a James Bond villain with none of the charm. It really didn't make me feel welcome.

If it hadn't been for a good few other fans who have stuck by me since then, I probably would have left the fandom again, and while things are looking up a bit more now, I don't know if I'm ever quite going to be at a point where I'm not jaded, expecting another heel turn from Marvel.

It sucks, because Hank has always meant a lot to me. He's a character about ethical science, about body dysmorphia, about mental illness, about triumph through adversity, about second chances, about maturity, about nuance and conflict and complexity, and he just got bulldozed into being the war crimes guy.

I got invited to join an O5 X-Men Reddit the other day, and the only posts that even mentioned him both were like 'lol war crimes lol Beast killed someone,' and it just made me think, why in god's name would I want to be part of that?

Like, I have stuff to contribute. I have a lot of thoughts about Hank, and his friendships and relationships and his meaning as a character, stuff that people often haven't considered because they don't think about Beast as deeply as I do, stuff that could elevate and deepen people's enjoyment of stories they've read a hundred times before - and I just.

Why would I share it? Why would I go into a space where I don't feel welcome? Why would I share my thoughts on the deeper meaning of Hank's tendency towards performance and how it changes over 60 years of comic books, when I know that the first comment is gonna be some variation of 'lol war crimes'?

It'd be one thing if the story we got was any good, then I could at least say it was worth it, but it wasn't. That's the thing that bugs me the most. The story of Hank's heel turn could have been amazing, but the lack of care and thought to consistency extended so far that even his villain turn was bad. We sacrificed this

for this.

And it's just a straight up downgrade. There's none of what Hickman or Morrison talked about being the point or the appeal of Beast. There's no sweet man, there's no heart, there's no humanity. It's just edgy. It's just the ends justifies the means, and that's it. That's the final thesis. There's nothing more to it than that. It's just so. Simple. Undercooked, really. It feels like a disservice to the complex character that Hank McCoy is meant to be.

Final thoughts? Uh. It mostly all kinda sucks, go buy a copy of S.W.O.R.D volume 1 instead, it's really good.

[scorndotexe]

the other day i met someone new and cannibalism came up at one point and yeah i mentioned a lot of my art is about it and she started talking about how romantic it is and how her romanticised fictional version of cannibalism doesn't reflect real life. the thing is i often don't like cannibalism as something 100% romantic. it's just not that interesting to me. there are so many layers to a relationship where cannibalism is a possibility that reducing that to "i love you so i'll eat you" is doing that relationship a massive disservice. it feels so...simplified. you have this grand idea of romantic cannibalism but to me it's so much about how love has teeth. any kind of love. familial cannibalism is my #1 no one gets me. you need to get fucked up with loving cannibalism i swear otherwise what's the point.

on the real life side i do also think about the ethics of actual cannibalism constantly. she and i live extremely different lives.

[misshowdoyoudo]

9.) Who is your favorite version-specific turtle?

27.) What is something you love to see in TMNT art/fics?

Thank you for the ask!

I have a MASSIVE bias for Leos all across the board, but choosing just one is hard. '03 and '07 have that older brother/kingly leader flair (best way I can describe it I guess). '87 and puppet/suit have the goofy side where logic says bye lol. '12 is a dumbass (/aff) with SOOO much trauma (me fr fr lol). Bay is also a dumbass, but in like an adult way? Like he doesn't feel like a teen to me. And then there's TOT and Rise. Oh boy are these two babies placed firmly in my heart. TOT is just figuring things out, while Rise is trying SO HARD to stay a kid. And the GUILT and ANXIETY. I suppose if I HAD to choose, I'd choose Rise Leo, but it feels like such a disservice to all the others.

In terms of art, I love the fluffy stuff, where brothers are helping each other and hanging out/beating up bad guys together. I can also get behind the angst stuff that rips my heart out and shreds it :)

In terms of fics, it's kind of similar, though I lean more heavily on the angst side. Some of my favorite stories just absolutely torture the babies and I am HERE FOR IT. As long as there's a happy ending, you could literally kill one of the characters and I'd be reading it up.

@friendlyneighborhoodterrapin

[sinnerburrito]

I may have lost a good friend

Rio Grande do Sul was destroyed due to massive and preventable flood during this rainy weeks. The city basically disappeared, and now that the water is retracting, we can see the extend of the damages.

I won't get in details on the gruesome scenes, I think it's a disservice for the victims, and as the title says, I may have lost a couple of friends in this disaster. Everything is destroyed and we can't reach anyone, I do hope is just a miscommunication issue, but I'm not that sure.

And in this hard times I believe we, as a community, we have the power to make a difference.

The road to recovery may be long, but with your help, we can provide vital aid and resources to those affected.

I still making 30 USD art, and I'll extend this sale as much as needed, part of the money will be donate to help the victims.

If you want to donate money, you're more than welcome, I don't know how the international donations policies work but you can send to my ko-fi account, and I'll send the recipts to show the money was fully transfered. I'm also thinking on buying food and clothing to send 0/

Your donation, no matter how big or small, can bring relief and hope to those who have lost so much.

Your donation today can help shape a brighter tomorrow for these resilient individuals and families.

Click the link below to donate and be a part of this crucial aid effort. Thank you for your generosity and kindness in helping us rebuild and restore hope for those affected by this disaster.

[swords-in-space]

You once mentioned you have a thesis about fanfiction as a genre of literature and its value to genre fiction. I reallyyyyy would like to read your thesis. If that's okay for you

okay so i don't actually have a thesis about it. like, i think about the topic a lot but writing a thesis would require a lot of research and interviews and compiling information and i am far too adhd to do that on my own, and i'm not going to grad school anytime soon to have an excuse to do it

however

some thoughts include:

-genre fiction can be (often is, arguably) a metaphor for current cultural fears. the popular tropes in sci fi particularly and fantasy to a lesser extent are often a reflection on current global events. (well, i say current. usually it's about 3-5 years behind due to the nature of, yah know, writing and publishing a book.) this ties into the first point too, a little, because genre fiction allows the author and reader to put some space between you and the fear/trauma/event -- you're not actually reading a story about someone who could be alive right now and suffering, you're reading about a guy with a name straight from Fantasy Name Generator and his life in the post-apocalyptic future. we can confront our fears about nuclear war and censorship while we read about a dude named Guy who burns books for a living. then -- to pick a non-random example -- how many fics have been written in the last several years that are sickfics, zombie aus, or just straight up about quarantines and isolation?

-fanfiction is already a massive part of genre fiction. just because it's licensed doesn't make it less fanfiction -- i dare you to go into your local bookstore, find the sci-fi/fantasy section, and take a look at how much of it is taken up by star wars, star trek, warhammer, dungeons and dragons. how many video games have licensed novelizations, how many popular movies. i was a bookseller for 6 years, i can tell you that easily a quarter to a third of the section is just this. so then the question is -- how is that functionally different from fanfic on ao3 or whatever other site you frequent? just because they have an editor and a publishing contract doesn't mean they can't also be writing fanfic. i know several published authors here on tumblr that i've found through their ao3 pages

-how many times do you see posts talking about people using fanfic as a way to process trauma? the posts are usually explaining away dead dove fics, but i was a child with a library card and no oversight in what i read and i have to say i've never come across a dead dove fic that broaches a topic that i've not also seen in an obscure fantasy novel

-all art is worthwhile and all art means something to someone. all art has the ability to be beautiful and moving, and you cannot gatekeep what will be to someone. i've cried reading fanfic before, i'm sure you have too. sometimes it's even mostly smut and it's still emotionally moving. i think we do a HUGE disservice to those authors who have touched us if we say that what they're writing is somehow lesser than just because they're writing naruto tentacle porn or whatever the fuck

-Wattpad is owned by HarperCollins. the company takes a look at the most popular fics on that site and offers publishing contracts. this isn't hearsay, i was literally told by a HarperCollins rep while i was at a work dinner with them. it's how the After series was published, to name the most famous example. if you look in YA and romance, you'll spot more than a few "Wattpad originals" too. if publishing houses think that fanfic has enough value to be financially beneficial to them, then we can't sit here and say it's not culturally or emotionally or thematically valuable. if someone is making money off it, then it has influence whether we like it or not

-Fifty Shades of Grey is infamous at this point. we can't deny that it's had a huge influence on the romance genre -- there are so many books being published today that are fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, and more that are from well-known fanfic authors who have an existing fanbase. it seems to be more and more, too, that if an author wants to publish an original romance novel, to have a loyal readership already is a huge point in their favour to win a publishing contract. this is less about fanfiction specifically a genre of literature and more about the influence it has within the publishing sphere already

-so: what makes a genre? they have specific tropes, sometimes unique to the genre, they have specific structures and themes. genre is hard to define, too, because the lines are so often blurred -- what makes The Woman in the Window, for instance, be shelved in general fiction instead of mystery. (the answer is usually "the publisher thinks it will sell better there.") so what do "legitimate" genres have that fanfiction doesn't? i've debated this point with my gf before, and she was on the side of "fanfiction is a type of fiction, mostly serial fiction, and encompasses a variety of genres" and i was on the side of "fanfiction is a specific genre unto itself". we never came to a conclusion, and i think that there's merit to both arguments -- my point here is that this is one of the things that would require a lot of research to make a compelling argument, and i don't have that research (yet. there's always hope.)

-there's historical basis for fanfiction too. for all that the term is a modern one, and fan culture as it is today being born out of women's star trek writing circles and the internet, people have been writing derivative works for centuries. what is Milton's Paradise Lost (and Paradise Found) but Bible fanfic. what is Dante's Inferno but self-insert rpf. what is Virgil's Aeneid but a historical au of the founding of Rome

anyway! there's probably more thing that i haven't mentioned and will wake me up at 3am, but this is long as it is

[taylorswiftstylequestions]

I've been thinking about Anti-Hero, Dear Reader, Question, and Midnight Rain as possible continuing themes on the next album. The good news is her fandom is so massive and so supportive she can really go there with her art and explore concepts which maybe aren't 'relatable' but are true to her life!

While this is true and a lot of us are here and hooked in so deep because we are invested in her personal story I think it's also a disservice to fans and also the key component of Taylor's music which is her transcendent and inherently relatable storytelling to say that she's not still producing content that we can all find nuggets of truth and ourselves in (in addition to the palpability of her story and how attached we are to that).

[hopalongfairywren]

i think other than the fact c!awesamfam was a massive disservice to all the included characters, i hate the most that hannah and sam had both said as creators they don't like it. hannah said that the art was cute, but that it was not canon and never would be, and sam specifically said he actively didn't like it. and people did not care at all

Yup.

[lietpolski]

while i love feliks' fem-leaning outfits, in canon art he doesn't rlly crossdress that much? maybe 3-4 times? don't get me wrong, the oversaturation of fanart of him in fem clothes is fine, but it IS a massive disservice to his UGLY ASS canon fits. his hideous button-ups he found in some attic that hasn't been opened since the 70s. he's probably got dead bugs in the pockets of his jeans. he smells like naphthalene and thinks orange looks good on him ❤️ smth so eastern european about it fr fr....

[cosmicjoke]

Ah, Jeez, this last episode of “Trigun: Stampede”, man.  This is genuinely one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.  I said before that it was better than the OG, but it’s more than that even.  It’s infinitely better.  It’s better than most anime’s out there, period.  Anyone who’s skipping out on this thing, or can’t get past their ridiculous nostalgia, are doing themselves a massive disservice.  I can’t praise this show enough.  It’s so deeply emotional, so heartbreaking, so complex in its relationships between the characters, especially Vash and Nai, Nais’ monstrous actions being at their core so understandable, his deep wish to protect Vash, his love for him, but how that love in turn hurts Vash beyond description.  Vash’s lifelong belief in his own uselessness and weakness, reinforced by Nai’s seeming superiority and directly comparing himself to his brother, along with Nai’s at times cruel mockery of him, and worst of all, the way he manipulates Vash into truly believing the crash was his fault.  The whole thing just tears me apart to see unfold.  How could anyone say this show is less than spectacular?  Not to mention just the absolutely stellar animation, direction, voice acting, music and framing.  Everything about this show is A++.  This last episode nearly had me crying, it was so good.  What a beautiful, tragic, deeply dramatic and brilliantly done work of art this thing is.