#oakwyrm

[mothshrub]

Anyway, the latest hobby here is 'watching video essays by trans authors particularly but not exclusively if they have an essay on masculinity or gender and society'.

Recs:

Contrapoints

Jesse Gender

Lily Alexandre

Lady Emily

RickiHirsch

Alexander Avila

Oakwyrm

Shanspeare

KazRowe

[melodramamatic]

Mech Cadets: Characters - Frank Olivetti

Minor spoilers ahead.

This boy has been my favorite since his second line of dialogue. When the MC Stanford talks to him (mostly to cover for staring longingly into the cadet training group) Frank knows his name and responds kindly. Frank knows the first name of a member of janitorial staff and is on friendly terms with him. Frank is also shown to be friendly with his classmates and is supportive of Maya Sanchez (friend and eventual gf) when she worries about her odds of ranking high enough for a chance at a Robo. He didn't even sound competitive! For an opportunity he was also competing for!

After the competition, Olivia's poor sportsmanship leaves him in third and her in first, but he's the one chosen by the Robo. He doesn't rub it in or brag about it or even act smug at her. He only brings it up in relation to her lack of teamwork, but not in a mean way. More distrustful and maybe a little judgmental (but I'd call that one justified, given her certified dick move in the competition).

This boy would almost be too perfect. He's supportive, he can cook, he's good at teamwork, he's okay following someone else's lead, he is good at piloting and fighting. But the show does a good job showing us he's not as confident as he seems and he also needs support sometimes.

He takes (not terrible, but not good) advice from Adam on what kind of date to take Maya on. It takes a reminder from Olivia (you cannot convince me she hasn't been secretly shipping this the entire time they were all in the academy) for him to calm down and remember they like each other for who they are and they don't need to do what other people consider normal. Maya gets to be the one to support him later in the season, when he worries about having potentially made a mistake. He also reveals (to the audience and Stanford, his classmates seem to know) his mother is (was? I'm not getting active war hero vibes, more retired) a pilot - apparently a participant in a famous battle - and he worries about living up to her legacy. Even though she never pressured him, the expectations he has for himself are clearly high and he worries about meeting them. Frank is a capable person who needs support sometimes, but he's also a people pleaser, and he's put up with things he's uncomfortable with in order to not 'be difficult.'

Which brings me to this show's disability rep. I think the show did a great job, but I can't speak from a disabled perspective. Oakwyrm on youtube has a great video on that. I can only speak from an audience member's perspective.

Frank is an above the knee amputee (or has a limb-difference, I'm not clear on the preferred terminology). It affects the way he is treated and the expectations people have, but not his ability to be a pilot. Frank prefers his crutches to a prosthetic, they're more comfortable to him and he is a great athlete with them - he was training for the paralympic soccer team. But the academy wouldn't let him join unless he used their fancy high tech prosthetic. His mother didn't even argue for his right to do what he pleased with his body. So he put up with something he was uncomfortable with because they 'couldn't change the program just for one person, you understand?'

When their fancy prosthetic breaks (and we get a great scene of it being used as a weapon), Frank shows he's just as capable on his crutches, and is actually more confident, which makes all the difference. With seemingly minor mechanical adjustments (Ava Patel is the underappreciated hero of this show), he can continue to be a pilot without being made uncomfortable. As in, this could have been done earlier but they'd rather make him adjust to the standard than work with him so he could be at his best. And that is a very important experience to show kids.

Kids definitely need to see people like themselves on screen, and this show has pretty great rep. But I can only speak from an able-bodied perspective, and seeing people unlike yourself, learning about other perspectives, is super important and also a thing this show does. Frank helps teach the audience that people (especially disabled people) know their own capabilities best. They know what works best for them. It's better to work with them than expect them to conform to your idea of what they need. (I'm trying to express the difference between shows that have characters for representation, but often they're in the background or only the focus of one episode as a lesson for the main character/audience; and shows where a minority character gets to be a person outside of the representation they provide. Not sure how well I explained that.)

I also love that we never get an explanation for his leg. Because we don't need or deserve one. Frank just has a limb difference and it's no one's business how or why, unless he opts to tell them. I love that his backstory wasn't about the loss of a limb, it was about how people expect him to deal with it and getting the opportunity to be comfortable in his own skin. It ties into his tendency to be a people-pleaser and put up with things for the sake of others. In this case, putting up with an unwanted prosthetic shown to make him physically and mentally uncomfortable.

TLDR Frank Olivetti is a sweetheart who wants to live up to his mom's legacy and support his gf, and deserves people respecting his boundaries.

[awesamkiller]

*clears throat*

I drew my favourite youtuber, @oakwyrm !

His videos on disability are something I look forward to all the time, and I love the way his voice sounds for his voiceover-style videos. I cannot sing high enough praises, the videos are amazing and they keep me critical of my media where it counts while being super interesting and sarcastically funny sometimes!

All in all, Oakwyrm, thank you for making the content you do! It helped me both come to terms with my own disability and learn to love it, learn to argue for my proper treatment, and find my community. You are so cool :].

[voidwithtoomanygooglyeyes]

[gaasubap]

My Youtube playlist Disability and (Dis)Ableism (systems, vocabulary, voices) I'm still not fully happy with it. It's still cluttered at the end and there's some longer videos I still need to rewatch. But it's the last day of Disability Pride month! I'm not gonna let perfection come before progress!

[mischieffoal]

So. Sansûkh. Indeed Sansukh Week 2022. Thank you  @fishfingersandscarves​ for prompting me to actually finally record this damn song, edit and post it!

Day 7 of Sansukh Week, celebrating a year since the fanfic was completed, is about endings. This song is about the ending of the fanfic, and the emotions it gave me. I wrote it whilst I was ill with COVID, about a week or two after Sansukh finished. I then forgot about it. Did some editing. Forgot about it some more. Asked @oakwyrm @hobbitsoupbowl and @fishfingersandscarves if I could use their art, they graciously said yes, I forgot about it. Now it is here!!!

This video is a) an emotional retelling of a weird emotional; b) a massive thank you to @determamfidd; c) a joke that I mainly did because I thought of the last line and it made me giggle.

I’ll reblog with links to the original art and the backing track I used! Video description under the cut

Video description: video of a series of images, set to illustrate a song. The song is “Into the West” from The Return of the King, with some altered words, sung by an alto voice over a kareoke backing track.

Lyric “Hope fades into the world of night”

Image: Living in 2021 like...

Lyric “Through shadows falling”

Image: screenshot of the summary of Sansukh

Lyric “Out of memory and time”

Image: selection of images from 2021 - COVID, Evergreen ship, Trump, Destiel

Lyric “Don’t say we have come now to the end”

Image: screenshot of the end of chapter 47 of Sansukh, “TBC”

Lyric: “White shores are calling, you and I will meet again”

Image: shot of the Grey Havens with a ship sailing out to the West

Lyric: “And you’ll be here in my arms, just sleeping”

Image: fanart of Gimil and Legolas hugging in starlight, by Oakwyrm

Switch to chorus, now two alto voices singing

Lyric: “What do you mean, notification?”

Image: stock image of a phone screen with an email notification

Lyric: “Why do my emails call?”

Image: Email inbox with unread email from AO3 showing new chapter of Sansukh

Lyric: “Message unseen, anticipation”

Image: The email from AO3 now open

Lyric: “The ships have come to carry me home!”

Image: Author’s notes on Chapter 48 of Sansukh

Lyric: “And all will turn to silver glass”

Image: fanart of Gimli, with white hair and beard, looking at Legolas walking away by @fishfingersandscarves

Lyric: “a light on the water”

Image: fanart of old Bilbo, with ghost Thorin leaning towards him by @hobbitsoupbowl

Lyric: “Gay ships pass into the West

Image: the image of the Grey Havens and the ship from before, except with a rainbow poorly edited over the top

[kalebsocs]

This was a small sketch because I wanted to draw @oakwyrm. I love his content, and have learned a lot about the disability community from him. I know this is not the pfp he uses, but I was going off of reference from his latest video at the time. Either way, fucking watch his content, he’s amazing! 

[chevron-misc]

@oakwyrm

A casual painting I wanted to finish after one of my headmates went complete fanboy. He just relates very very heavily, and watches almost all of oakwyrm’s videos. There is a lot of love in his heart and it makes for wonderful art.

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

[Image Description: Thumbnail for the YouTube video “I watched Morbius so you Don’t Have To” from YouTuber Oakwyrm. Text over a still from the film “Morbius” reads “Is Morbius Ableist?” Description ends]

Serious discussion of Disability Rep in the meme movie du jour.

Host appears as a minimally animated avatar, fleeting suggestion of indirect eye contact. Properly closed captioned in English.

[eowyn-igneelcheshire]

Me: *is reading Sansûkh*

Chapter Thirty-Three notes:

Me:

[cawfeecakes]

I wonder how oakwyrm is doing.

[blogalreadydoesntexist]

httyd3 rant because i promised it before

basic movie junk, character centered, plotline centered, design centered

yes im already working on the next parts for homecoming and shit, ill add their parts to this main post!

no fucking 'this is berk' intro/outro. it's been a staple of the franchise to the point of being included in the two/three shows, and it makes you feel more outcasted, jumping straight into the action instead of the typical build up to Cool Dragon Shit TM that was present in all the other installments.

hiccups actions as chief. hiccup has more than 2 braincells, he would use, i dont know, the good portion of several other closeby islands, instead of risking a, starvation, b, easy spreading fires, c, lack of general resources, etc.

astrid was, eh, in the second movie, but in this one shes just been dumbed all the way down to Girl hate Marriage! Ha Ha! and Female Supporting Role. I can't remember a single line from her, not even the dramatic little talk she and Hiccup have.

do you like snotlout? Good, because hes a fucking dick here. Yes, the shows arent technically canon, but come the fuck on. snotlout doesnt joke about death, not when it was a. his uncle (hc on that but cmon man) b. his chief, and c. his friend's fucking father

eret gets no screentime, which is shitty, considering that hey, the former dragon trapper has been living in harmony for a year now, hows that been going for him (plus all the shit with him and gobber is disgusting, next point!-)

gobber lusting after a man barely older than the boy he raised alongside stoick is gross. Especially when you consider how hes THE only gay character. He was old and disabled and not-instagram-model pretty, yet you have to ruin that (albeit shitty in execution) work just to make your only gay guy lust after a dude way younger to the point where he could have been raising him instead of hiccup?

the whole marriage between astrid/hiccup being so 'iffy' and a 'will they won't they' dragging pain blister is just that, a dragging pain blister. yes, their relationship seems to factory reset every installment (eyes audrey greywind's hiccstrid analysis) but still, this wouldnt happen. especially not with all the forced doubt when you KNOW it's gonna happen because theyre both cishet looking and white

grimmel isnt a villain. if toothless is the only nightfury left, then the nightlights must have been doing some inbreeding, since nightfuries and more so lightfuries are so strongly connected to cats, the dark scales on thunder and his family need to come from somewhere. oh also, i doubt that the island of night was a full ruse or that the cancelled firetides comic was shitting out of its ass about more nightfuries.

the lightfury isnt a good plotline. the prior movie had made a little comment about finding another nightfury, and instead of making a whole subspecies that doesnt even look good, we could have made that foreshadowing AND added more stakes by having mutliple nightfuries under toothless's alpha respect shit. grimmel doesnt get just the dragons, he wipes out an entire species.

toothless and the tail. he wouldnt have come back, not this toothless. the gift of the nightfury my beloved.

you like ruffnut and how shes another strong, anti-dumb blonde woman character? Well, good! you remember how she was smart AND comedic when she got captured by viggo? Yep! This time, she doesnt even check to make sure shes being followed after she was freely let go. So smart and funny and RTTE ruffnut of her, right??

finale shit. Finally, the fucking centerpiece of the steaming pile of horse shit. a. the prior EVERYTHING was all about embracing what makes you different (cough cough autism analogy) and the fact that thw throws that to the side for a 'well we should hide our interests and what we love JUST because there will always be one person who doesnt like it' is fucking idiotic, especially when most of the fandom is made up of queer neurodivergents.

design shit because it deserves whole another category

lightfury - did we need the glitter and literal eyeshadow/liner? how smooth and descaled she is? how stereotypically fem she looks? I already hate her for lore and plot reasons, but cmon! did we need to furry-art-ifiy the very 'this is supposed to look like a real animal' dragons? (no hate to furries, it was just the best thing i could think of to describe how not-animal she looks)

HICCUP. they fucking instgrammed my boy. what happened to his imperfections? his scar? his freckles that were utterly adorable? he looks like plastic now, and (i havent seen a pic of his teeth in a hot second) I dont think he even has his tooth gap anymore

astrid. astrids design was.. okay. i way prefer her hair from httyd2 / rtte, but eh. she just looks like shes already had 3 kids and shes rolling up to her local baptist church, I dont know if its because her hair is more down or what, but she looks No. she looks like just how shes written: stereotypical wife character.

snotlout is pure yes and i love his design here, eret too. erets armor design is more professional and battle-smart looking, while snotlouts is gaudy-ier, with a full head-mask of Hookfang. Pure yes i love my opposite-poles-of-the-autistic-spectrum boys

valka. Oh boy. Same issues with Hiccup, but they aged her down to looking like she just dyed her hair. She genuinely looks younger than Mala, whos supposedly older than her own son. (also little me thought that they were the same age, little comment id just like to add)

I dont mind the others as much (I hate ruffnuts hair in execution, give my girl the glowup she actually deserves) but eugh. valka, astrid, and hiccup are the worst offenders (i also hate everyone other than eret and snotlout and hiccup with stubbly chins but if they were ever bearded i would Gag)

tl;dr: the hidden world goes against the message of the prior installments while also destroying all characters built up over said installments.

[mrsonvsyoutube]

This Movie Traumatised Me

[januscorner]

Queer YouTubers That Don’t Suck:

So after all the horrible stuff with James Somerton you might want queer video essayists who aren’t like that. Here are some of my favorites along with my favorite videos of their’s

STRANGE ÆONS - History of Queer Women’s Symbols

Spacey Aces - Asexual Imposterism | Am I Fake?

Rainbott - Why are all Cryptids queer icons?

Lily Simpson - The Trans Boy Meets World Episode

Hana Hyperfixates - Gravity Falls and LGBTQ+ subtext: Decoding the Queercoding

Rowan Ellis - The Tedious Repetition of Coming Out Movies

Oakwyrm - A Delightful Dead End

Jessica Kellgren-Fozard - Are You a Butch, a Femme, or a Stem?

Dreamsounds - Boy Bands & Queer Feelings

[jumezart]

Rough sketches of alternate outfits for the Nightmore Night episode, since my buddy @oakwyrm got disappointed they didn't use the opportunity to put them in winter-appropriate and species-appropriate clothes. He also provided ideas for how to dress them and it got me really inspired! so credit to him! :3 Cleo is also here because two of my friends complained she wasn't.

Clawdeen and Clawd aren't as bundled up as they could've been given that they're covered in fur.

Drac, Cleo, and Frankie doesn't need to bundle up given the entire undead thing. Hence why Draculaura is wearing a skirt and Cleo is in an indoor jacket, though Cleo will need to prioritize staying dry. Also Frankie has a metal leg so they're not taking any chances. Lagoona is freezing her fins off because she's cold blooded.

Heath doesn't need the bubble-vest at all but i saw some concept art where he's wearing it and I liked it for him. He's a glowing a little dimmer by the cold and growing spots but he's fine.

Abbey wears her fur and a light jacket because if she's wearing the exact same thing on the Himalayas as she does in shorts-weather monster high I would assume she'd overheat. I understand why the showrunners chose not to rig 7 new models for only one episode, when they're not even selling dolls with the outfits, and how they got around it by having the characters not plan to pack warm clothes. But still, as someone who has lived her entire life in the arctic I have a pretty strong opinion about cold-outfit character designs.

[mock-arts]

Happy approaching new year all! I just wanted to look at all the covers I’d made for Star Wars fics in 2022 all at once lol

links to each beneath the cut!

Crashing Down by @oakwyrm (art)

Marshal Commander Cody of the 7th Sky Corps is, despite his reputation, mortal. When a severe injury threatens his life and his continued ability to function should he recover, protocol states he should be sent back to Kamino. It does not explicitly state that he would likely be decommissioned, but his vode all know how to read between the lines.

General Kenobi’s response is equally predictable.

Careful What You Wish For by @shadowlight17 (art)

Cody was head over heels for his Jedi General, so when Order 66 was executed, he was in emotional turmoil. And then he died. Or so he thought. He said he would give anything to fix this...would it be worth it if fixing it meant leaving everything he knew behind? Thrown into the past, Cody is given that chance. To make things right.

Cody was head over heels for his Jedi General, so when Order 66 was executed, he was in emotional turmoil. And then he died. Or so he thought. He said he would give anything to fix this...would it be worth it if fixing it meant leaving everything he knew behind? Thrown into the past, Cody is given that chance. To make things right.

Cody was head over heels for his Jedi General, so when Order 66 was executed, he was in emotional turmoil. And then he died. Or so he thought. He said he would give anything to fix this...would it be worth it if fixing it meant leaving everything he knew behind? Thrown into the past, Cody is given that chance. To make things right.

Cody was head over heels for his Jedi General, so when Order 66 was executed, he was in emotional turmoil. And then he died. Or so he thought. He said he would give anything to fix this...would it be worth it if fixing it meant leaving everything he knew behind? Thrown into the past, Cody is given that chance. To make things right.

In This Our Liberty — currently unposted, series here.

from ancient grudge (to soap opera television) by @eclipsemidnight (art)

The Jedi and the Sith, in fair Coruscant where we lay our scene...ancestral enemies, whose battles these days are more likely to be to first spend rather than to first blood. This does not amuse the clone security forces who have to break them up, or Chancellor Windu who has to deal with them afterwards.

Meanwhile, Maul and Ventress's marriage is arranged by Sidious and Dooku. Obi-Wan and his friends Ahsoka and Quinlan crash their engagement party. We all know how this is going to end--a wedding, of course! It just takes a few hands, the threat of the Coruscant Guard, and a porg-print towel to get there!

This I Vow by @wanderingjedihistorian (art)

To secure a planet's help for the Republic, Obi-Wan and Cody must get married. Having been quietly together for some time, it is an easy decision for the pair to make. They didn't expect what followed. Nor did anyone else.

Once Upon a Dream by @glimmerglanger (art)

The man was still warm; not warm enough but he obviously hadn’t been dead long. Cody thinned his mouth, looking at the man. He had a fall of copper hair and a beard, scars here and there on his body. He looked like he’d been a fighter, all muscle, trim and--

“Sith’s spit,” he added, cutting over the chatter in his bucket, as his assessment reached the man’s hand, curled, even in death, around a familiar metallic cylinder. “General Tachi, I think he was a Jedi.”

OR, the one where Marshal Commander Cody finds a mystery figure three years into the Clone Wars, and it changes the course of history.

Or Why Comes Thou to Caterhaugh? by Afiregender (art)

In the midst of the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan very abruptly goes on leave to attend a "personal matter" on his homeworld Stewjon. Both Cody and the Jedi find this somewhat odd, and Cody goes on leave himself to investigate. He finds his General at a banquet meant to celebrate the new Fae King... which turns out to be Obi-Wan himself. Or: Tam Lin but Codywan.

Descent by @kutaisi (art) (we’re just getting started on this one!)

As they're fighting in the rain on Kamino, Jango Fett and Obi-Wan Kenobi are thrown forward in time to a version of the galaxy that neither of them could have imagined.

Finding themselves fifteen years in the future, their struggle to get back to their own time is complicated by devasting discoveries and a nightmare of a reality that they have no idea how to navigate through.

...and also by each other.

I also illustrated a bunch of other fic this year, that didn’t necessarily get covers.

Soul Found by @darthtarvera (art)

It had been five years since he’d dreamed of his soulmate. 

Five years since the council broke the bond between them. 

Now, a last test as the council sends Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon to Mandalore to protect the Duke of Mandalore and his two daughters. Obi-Wan is determined to prove once and for all he has what it takes to be a good jedi. 

But can even the jedi truly break a bond between a jedi and their soulmate? As Obi-Wan discovers more of the culture and people his mark ties him to he realizes that maybe his path isn't so rigid as he thought.

i don’t wanna feel stuck by @ghostlandtoo (art)

Three years after the war, Obi-Wan has stuck to diplomatic missions from the Order, tired of fighting. When he's burned by the Republic on the tail-end of one such mission, Obi-Wan finds himself stuck on Myam-1, a beach planet in the Outer Rim. Work doesn't stop, even on a vacation planet. Reunited with an old flame and a few old friends, Obi-Wan can't help but help the several people on Myam-1 in need of help, even if he lost his lightsaber a few planets back.

This, too, was a gift by @lttrsfrmlnrrgby (art)

The Rako Hardeen mission was a success, but it left Obi-Wan Kenobi sick at heart after the empathic stresses of the mission, and questioning whether the mission was worth it. The troopers of the 212th welcome him back, wanting nothing more than to assure him he did the right thing, and Obi-Wan works to make their trust in him worth it.

The Force, however, shows Obi-Wan a detailed vision of the future to come. He eliminates the threats posed by the Sith, but feels he cannot return to the Order or to his men, and sets out alone, letting the Force direct him to the grimmest parts of the galaxy and the people who were always overlooked and underserved. 

Marshal Commander Cody takes his general's warning and evacuates Kamino and all of the clones from Republic space. As the Jedi work to recover from the Sith plot and the Republic stalls out on how to move on, the clones settle a new world, try to heal, and look for their missing general. Along the way, apart and together, Cody and Obi-Wan make discoveries that will change their and the galaxy’s future, and learn how to move forward even when things are broken and like nothing they'd planned.

I think that’s it as far as Star Wars fic I’ve illustrated/made covers for goes? (There’s a little bit of punisher/daredevil fic I’ve still been working on illustrating this year but that would be off theme lol)

if you’re a Star Wars fic author I’ve worked with this year and I’ve somehow missed you, let me know and I’ll add a link in! I’ve had an absolute blast collaborating with everyone this year, and I’m looking forward to digging in next year too! ❤️