#maybe I’ll make more later?

[littlelosthings]

random au concocted by me + a friend where chilchuck involuntarily adopts baby falin

[ohitslen]

Something other about his eyes

Bonus! Based on this quick thing I did this afternoon and the idea took a bit more shape and turned into that thing from above uEK

[froggtogs]

breakfast!

[quikyu]

Throughout the school year, I have been drawing Ogerpons on classroom whiteboards. These are not all of them.

[ricky-mortis]

I have a lot of thoughts about Tinky fucking Ted up- have some doodles about it

[thedaythatwas]

I’m just thinking long and hard about the way Akiren and Akechi are written as foils for each other. Because of course, the game drives it home for us that the two are narrative foils: Akiren is the champion of free will who finds power through his friendships, Akechi represents the ways society binds us. He is chained by his desire to be wanted (importantly, by the wrong people– I’ll get to that).

At first glance, Akiren and Akechi’s point of divergence has to do with their relationships– Akiren has confidants, Akechi doesn’t, and this is the deciding factor in Akiren’s victory over Akechi on November 20th and in the engine room. Still, while this is certainly part of what makes their relationship important as a narrative device, it’s not the full picture. That, I think, has more to do with the fact that they both desperately want the very relationships that are used to foil them. They have common ground, and that’s what makes the emotional beats of their differences hit as hard as they do.

Even though Akechi doesn’t have the close bonds that Akiren does with his friends, he is defined as a character by his desire to belong. He wants to be praised and given everything he feels he was denied by Shido’s callous disregard for his mother and society’s unjust treatment of him after her death. He was a self-proclaimed “undesirable child” who spent his young adult life doing everything in his power to never feel unwanted again. He literally spells it out in his engine room monologue– “I was extremely particular about my life, my grades, my public image, so someone would want me around!”

Akiren, like Akechi, begins his character arc as a social outcast. Unlike Akechi, who appeals to systemic power to claim social clout and chase his own sense of belonging (the Shido revenge plot, which would, uhm, theoretically end with Shido acknowledging his son’s worth), Akiren finds family with other outcasts. All of the Phantom Thieves understand his struggle, and because of this they foster a sense of understanding and community that Akechi never gets to experience.

It is important to note that these bonds are deepened when Akiren helps those around him. While there’s absolutely nothing bad about doing things for the people you care about– in fact, most would argue that this is what makes a friendship a good one– we can take a reasonable guess that Akiren craves the love of those around him just a bit more than is healthy for him. He plays therapist for half of Tokyo– he stretches himself absurdly thin for the sake of his friends. That’s a bit much to ask of one person, but Akiren seems to demand it of himself. This is the nature of confidant routes as a game mechanic, of course, but hey, reading into game mechanics is important to getting a solid reading of who Akiren is behind the mask!

The crux of it is, Akiren and Akechi are both lonely characters. Their desire to be loved quite literally drives the narrative of the game, both in terms of plot and gameplay. What makes their foiling so tragic is the fact that Akechi so obviously wants what he has himself determined he can’t have. He says as much in the engine room when he questions why Akiren has things that he doesn’t, despite being (as he says) criminal trash living in an attic.

And yet, Akechi’s isolation is frankly the result of his own decisions. He is the one who chooses to work for Shido. He is the one who acts on a worldview that requires he keep his cards close to his chest to win— against Shido and against the world that wronged him— and to be considered desirable (even despite the fact that this mindset obviously works against satiating his hunger to be loved. He really needs to go to therapy, but I digress).

I don’t think Akechi even knows how to go about claiming what Akiren managed to. Akechi has agency in the actions he takes, absolutely– he would be furious about any suggestion to the contrary– but in many ways, the choices he feels himself able to make are constrained by his circumstances and the lessons imparted to him by his past.

All this to say, Akechi and Akiren aren’t different because Akechi doesn’t want teammates, or even friends. He sincerely wants everything Akiren has. He tells us this in the engine room. He shoots himself in the foot by prioritizing approval from society and love from Shido above other relationships. But thinking from inside his shoes, what else was he going to do? Where else would he have thought to turn to find what he wanted? He was dealt a horrible hand and he played his cards according to the rule book he was given. If the world were just, Akiren and Akechi wouldn’t be foils. It’s the injustice implicit in that that really drives home the point I think P5 is trying to make when it foils Akiren and Akechi in the first place. It also, personally, has been making me want to scream all day.

On a related note, this is also the exact reason that Akechi being the one to bring up that things might have been different if only he met Akiren a few years sooner makes me want to throw things, but this post is long enough. I’ll save all that for later!

[wisted-twonderland]

aware

[withmytailtotheworld]

the majority of ykwblr be like /silly

(featuring variants with the other yo-kai watch logos since I got a bit- if not… A LOT- carried away with this… stored them under the cut for your safety and for my safety. there’s 11 of them. :3)

[jiraisupportgroup]

[puppyeared]

its so hard to watch time pass when things like careers and assignments exist. what do you mean im supposed to take that seriously

[top-rhaenyra]

the thing about rhaenyra’s lying is that…..…she’s correct that lying and gaslighting are the only ways for her and her children to be safe. that does not, however make said lying any less infuriating to alicent.

these thoughts can and should be held together concurrently

[signed-sapphire]

Um. Can I. @annymation @uva124 @emillyverse

How hard I had to fight to not make Aster a twink was. So hard.

Idk experimenting with canvas sizes

@gracebethartacc has RWTS!Aster with star-shaped pupils and Cielo has glowing golden pupils, so I decided Imma draw KOW!Aster with stars IN their pupil.

The firefly one??? Is okay??? It doesn’t really look lika Aled’s art but idfc (I do, I really do but I gotta go to sleep)

Boots are a bit stiff but what can you do. I wanted to get some fanart out there so I can practice drawing the boy a little more later

[getougender]

actually i have changed my mind and i am okay with a standard-issue happy ending for jjk. yes a pyrrhic victory and haunted protags would be excellent, but i was still real mad about nobara when i said those things and she’s okay now. so i’m okay with it. this is because nobara heals all wounds.

[lovecoredeity]

a little cat porcelain doll character I stayed up all night drawing. The inspirations for this design are: dolls (duh), a porcelain “tea party” bracelet I made and kintsugi! I didn’t give them clothes because my attempts weren’t going to way i liked. Let me know how you’d dress them!

♡ if you like my art please consider buying me a kofi ♡

[zorosdimples]

knowing i should take a step back from tumblr for my own wellbeing vs. being emotionally attached to this app and the people on it

[cat-brrr]

Teeth 😬