#once critique

[things-methinks]

Saying "Gonna be Nobody's Soldier" instead of "I won't be anybody's soldier" because he won't be a puppet to an oppressive regime but that doesn't mean he will stop fighting for Nobodies, one who war is crushing and killing. Oh my fucking god, what if I ate my hand Andrew

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Unsolved Mysteries.

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[blackfangedhellhound]

fascinating how many tumblrinas will come out going "i support all victims. i support victims soooo much. however i just don't think we have enough information. have you considered the lack of information? here's 30 reasons these victims can't be trusted. it's politically motivated. kinda seems like they want to ruin this nice man's life?" and by fascinating i mean completely inating

[autism-alley]

look obviously i don’t know the guy but i feel like 2009 rick riordan would fist fight 2024 rick riordan

[6th-for-truth]

That genius "Mercymorn Art Critique" animatic lives rent free in my brain 24/7 and this scene cracks me up every single time.

Available here on my Etsy!

[tritoch]

Something that bugs me a lot in Dawntrail discourse is watching people who think they are defending the expansion argue away its best aspect. Because here's the thing: Wuk Lamat isn't like prior FFXIV characters. She takes up way more space than them. That's good!

A common thread you see in defenses is that people are complaining about things they were fine with earlier in the story. "Oh well actually Lyse was also the main character of Stormblood and people didn't hate her as much!" or "Heavensward is the story of Aymeric and Estinien and Ysayle, and the Warrior of Light doesn't do that much!" or "No one complained when Gaia jumped into the Eden raids, or when Emet showed up during Seat of Sacrifice" with the implied conclusion of "Wuk Lamat's not different from any other previous major character, your complaints have more to do with [sexism/transphobia/your crippling insecurity about not being the main character] than the way she's written." First of all people did hate Lyse. I get what you are saying but they very much did hate Lyse.

But Wuk Lamat is different. She's different because Dawntrail is unapologetically, full-throatedly her story. She is there at the start, she is there at the end, she is there basically all the way through except for a brief interlude. She is the character you talk to the most, she is also the character that talks the most. She has more of a complete arc than anyone else in the expansion. The antagonists develop much stronger direct and personal relationships to her than they ever do with you. Several major characters have relationships to you through her more than they do with you directly. At multiple points in the story you explicitly step back and are like "Go right ahead, queen, do the main character stuff." She 100% takes your role in certain ways. She's literally a new WL to your WoL!

and that's awesome! Like, holy shit! If you had traveled back in time and told me after Endwalker, "Hey, the next expansion will be almost solely and entirely focused on the character journey of a young woman, and she'll be nuanced and complex and allowed to fail but also allowed to succeed wildly, and her characterization will be interesting and her ideals will be very directly challenged, and she'll get to do some real classic 'sorry my noble opponent but I must stop you, even though I sympathize' shit, and the way she is framed won't feel excessively male-gazey, and she won't get stuck in the FFXII Ashe Miniskirt, and she won't just be someone you watch and clap for while the real protagonist and narrator is some random guy in her entourage," I would've been like "haha, okay, I like FFXIV as much as the next guy but I don't think it's shaken its baseline sexism off enough to do an expansion entirely about a woman and her personal growth and what makes her a good leader, especially after Stormblood's mixed reception. And CBU3 definitely doesn't have the guts to make her even more of a main character than any other prior NPC, and you didn't mention this part future time traveler, but I also don't believe they'll be willing to cast a trans woman in the role." And I would have been fucking wrong!

Yes, Wuk Lamat is the main character. Yes, she does get more attention than other NPCs, or even your Warrior of Light. And yes, that's totally fine, and even something to praise!!! You don't have to run from it to accommodate people who are looking for something to complain about!

[spinjitsuburst]

watching secrets of the forbidden spinjitzu while i get some stuff done and i like to think wu's overly harsh vibe at the beginning of the season is him trying to reclaim SOME sense of authority after his ninja literally had to raiSE HIM FROM A CHILD GFDHKJGKJ

[theoddest1]

Aight, so I am gonna be honest, no clue what to label this regarding triggers or the like or if this warrants one or not, but someone brought this to my attention and honestly...what the fuck is this

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So let me get this straight, the episode clearly showcases that Angel is in a NONCONSENTING relationship where he is SEXUALLY ASSAULTED more than once and having no way out, essentially a sex slave, but Raph thinks it's sexy despite the clear context and having WORKED on the show??

Nice to know Viv AND Raph have no care in the world and wanna hide behind a serious topic to proceed to fetishize off of it. Crazy stuff amirite?! Let's not forget Viv's love for the animatic Raph made, loving it so much she saved it in her faves playlist. Not even just a like, HER FAVES. Must have been jumping with utmost joy.

And how can I POSSIBLY forget Viv's odd fascination with the Val and Vox's relationship? In spite of it all, Viv seems to ship and find StaticMoth to be a very interesting and appealing ship.

Oh and of course, whatever the hell this is supposed to be cause let me tell yah, this sure seems like a pattern of forced "love" Viv likes to hammer into her Gay ships.

Does anyone mind filling me in on how I'm supposed to NOT see Viv blatantly find the noncon hot or hiw she sexualizes and actively likes art of her gay ships in sexual manners life almost always? Think it's worth the discussion and investigation.

[c-kiddo]

a big ol bone i have to pick with the jester origins comic, is despite the respectful, positive depiction of marion as a sex worker, there's also just kink shaming as part of a punchline and point of shame. like lord sharpe's flaw is that he's a slimy misogynist who feels entitled to marion and also yasha without caring much for their feelings. but then the comic has it so part of the joke when jester tricks him and traps him on the balcony is that he's wearing womens underwear? ?? like thats too close to straight up queerphobic bigotry to me, that is a 2005 ass joke. its so weird there are so many other things to make fun of about this man like in the show but the comic writer added that ? man cmon

[16th-of-a-twigg]

Still chipping away at this 😈 2024 V 2014

[touchlikethesun]

so canonically it is liu mingyan that got papa airplane’s propensity for writing porn of… questionable quality… but on top of being sqh’s quasi-son/self-insert, luo binghe is also a disciple of qing jing peak which is known for its focus on the four arts and literature, and with emotions as intense as he has and that proximity to poetry, there is absolutely no way that he does not have notebooks upon notebooks (scrolls upon scrolls??) of alternating love poetry and teen angst venting hidden away somewhere

[metanarrates]

"queernorm" worlds are fine and i do understand why people like them + why there's a desire to make their depictions of queer experiences legible to an audience who lives under real-world gender and sexuality norms. but for me i always end up feeling a little dissatisfied by them because they still end up implicitly adhering to certain real-world norms that in-universe have no real reason to exist. can we not imagine a world in which gender/sex assignments entirely don't exist? what could gender and gendered expression even mean in that world? how would romance and kinship and care be reimagined there? how far could you potentially go in totally deconstructing those norms? wouldn't it be nice to imagine a world so different from our own that even the language we have to describe certain experiences is no longer the same? im dissatisfied by the inability to go much further, even if i do understand why people don't

[purpleshadow-star]

So I went to an early screening for the first two episodes of the Percy Jackson show yesterday (Saturday), and let me just say, it is 100% the adaptation we deserve. It was amazing. Once it ended, I wanted more.

The characterizations were amazing, any changes there were made sense and made the situation more realistic and added tension, the story was straight from the book, it was just amazing.

I went with my mom and she, who doesn't know the books, really enjoyed it. I asked her how she liked it (literary just the first two episodes) compared to Harry Potter (which i had her watch a few years back), and she said there was no contest. She likes the pjo show much more. She said it was engaging and even had her wanting the next episode once it was done.

Everyone needs to watch this show. It was amazing. It lives up to the hype. We need to make sure it gets greenlit for season 2.

[banefort]

Not to sound like a broken record talking about nomadic v settled lifestyles in HOTD, but an interesting dynamic that has come of the Daemon-Harrenhal sideplot is between him, the castle, and Alys and Ser Simon Strong, is what they represent as manifestations of the Neolithic agrarian revolution.

Daemon’s time at Harrenhal is spent oscillating between the two factions. Simon represents the foundations of a settled society. He dictates Daemon’s waking hours and daily schedule (against his will), keeps him tied to his political duties, and goes so far as to impel Daemon to guarantee the longevity of Harrenhal by commencing its reconstruction - affirming a settled and regulated lifestyle.

On the flip side Alys represents nomadic life, occupying the halls of the castle much like a ‘ghost’, only affecting circumstance through cerebral happenstances, whilst also showing a marked affection for the natural world and ancient natural structures (Wierwoods), and repeatedly identifies with the natural world via totemism (calling herself a barn owl). She is the history of Westeros and the First Men made manifest, and personifies a nomadic lifestyle which has been lost to to the regions south of the Wall.

By having Daemon constantly tossed between Ser Simon and Alys - settled and nomadic, polytheism versus paganism, agriculture versus shepherding, he occupies a liminal space and is caught between the refractions of history, and through his tumultuous residence, is implicitly drawn to question the true strength of monarchy, settled lifestyles, and all forms of contemporary power structures; for Alys, and her associated phantasmagorical neolithic ways, are clearly established to have had a far more substantial and cerebral impact on Daemon’s psyche than Ser Simon, who, while Daemon does entertain, he visibly holds no regard for, as opposed to Alys, who he is both wary and keen for. This is substantiated by his being shown to feel conflict and guilt over his perpetuation of Targaryen ethnocentric incest, his failure to fulfill his duties to his faction (be it the Blacks or his children/wife), amongst others, following his arrival at Harrenhal, suggesting that through her presence as an all-encompassing totem of nomadic conducts, his deep-rooted pride in Targaryen legacy, “the establishment” and all things modern, rapidly unwind. The paths of his - and all other citizens’, ancestors calls to him from an intangible, psychosomatic place. His contemporary comforts are all but stripped bare in some primal, unbidden rush to follow in their footsteps.

[skcirthinq]

Finally got stuff scanned! So!!

The last of my sketches from @alicat54cwriting and @amevello-blue 's Chessboard AU (for now) mostly featuring assorted scenes from En Passant.

(with a bonus page featuring a scene from Pawn's Gambit and some from The End of Our World. Look at Vinny. He's. so big! The boyyyy! Bardi 's in his emo phase.)

As per always and forever, I highly recommend these for some good Rise aus, mind the tags, etc etc.

[botlabyrinth]

the percy jackson tv show is actually great when there isn’t a little shit in your ear telling you it’s not “book accurate”