#ramblings from beyond

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

i've been asked multiple times for Awake Barnaby so instead you get messy lights out Laughingstock doodles

[moonsinkfoxgirl]

honestly not sure why people are so into elves tbh, they're kind of mid

[notachair]

thinking about how Sypha described Alucard like a "cold spot in a room" in S2, and Alucard showing up at the end of Nocturne S1 looking all desaturated, though yes ethereal, but also in a sense cold and ghostly, all buttoned up at the front. Sypha saying his sadness being like an icy well. And here he'd been so soft and happy by the S4 finale 😭 I'm nervous- but excited. And I fear the new groupie got some walls to tear down

[salty-an-disco]

I disagree with Narrator in a very fundamental and philosophical level, but you know, even if I agreed 100% with his worldview and the reality he wants to bring about, I’d still think he’s wrong for taking matters into his own hands and changing THE VERY FABRIC OF REALITY affecting people in the entire universe, simply because HE thinks he knows what best for the world.

Like– that’s why I find him so fascinating, it’s not only the fear of death or disgust towards the very concept of change (tho that is very funny and interesting in its own right), but the utter arrogance to champion himself Savior of the World without EVER considering that maybe– just maybe, people might not agree with what he plans to do.

Like. Hubris indeed, and he even has the gall to say, “you can still do what you must and kill her” when we call him out on it. Like. Wow. I want to study this guy under a microscope.

[beedreamscape]

I'm pretty much the worst person to even weigh in on this topic because I've been partial to Suvi since day one, but in my opinion there wasn't ever a need to explain or justify Suvi's choices/reactions.

Not because she's perfect, never wrong (though in my heart I know...) but because I'm very certain that the people that keep on hammering on her mistakes/shortcomings/tendencies are people that already dislike Suvi (or don't like Aabria very much, I wish this wasn't a topic of consideration but even 30+ eps in there's still people like that around) for whatever reason and gather excuses to justify their bias against her and no amount of explanation will turn their hearts in her favour.

It really feels like a parallel to the way Suvi herself tries to be understood by her friends and yet she fails time and time again.

And people insist on forgetting that Suvi is not the Citadel, she's just one young wizard of the Citadel.

And it's gut-wrenching how much I relate to that feeling of alienation before every corner she tries to fit in: amongst her citadel peers she's othered by her position and privilege, and now by her friendship to a witch and a spirit; between her friends she's the odd-one-out because of her Citadel connections and the nature of her power; and now amongst the witches she stands out by being the face of the "enemy".

I don't blame her for clinging to the little corner of the world that has not made her feel foreign despite the very nature of her presence: in Steel's family whom she's not related to by blood, yet completely by heart.

And it'll never be a fair game. The girls especially are very young and with new-found independence, they're given colossal decisions to make, and that before beings older than three generations of them combined and incomprehensively more powerful and less empathic.

As much as Mirara wants there to be a good witch and bad witch, there's no such thing as black and white, there are decisions and consequences, what one does with the power they're given. There is no right or wrong in a fight filled with so much heart, there was never a world where a fight between Ame and Suvi would be clean.

[aingeal98]

Any story where Cass learns to be more like Shiva and less like David Cain is a good one to me. Cain took Shivas abilities and bastardised them, twisted a child into a murderer which left her feeling guilty for the blood on her hands and her gift for violence for years. And the batfam helped Cass realise that she wasn't doomed to be evil just because she enjoyed violence, that in the right context she can do good, can BE good.

But it's always limited. Always as gentle as possible (Cass, not Bruce). Always restrained and controlled and with the executioners axe hanging over her head, waiting for the second she goes too far. She can imitiate them, do good work the way they do, but in her eyes she will never truly be fully like them.

Enter Shiva. Who understands Cass in a way no one else can. Cass's ability to read body language, her talent with martial arts. David Cain pushed them to extremes but the gifts originated with Shiva. Cass will never share her birth mother's comfort with death or her detachment from the world around her but she can reach her in other ways. Connect with her, talk to her as an equal and peer the way no one else is for them. And she can learn from Shiva too, not just skills but philosophy. How to live with all the different contradictions that make up your personality. How to reconcile your love of violence with your desire to help people. How to be unafraid of what you are capable of, to let go and enjoy it because it is not evil, it is simply you.

Shiva will never be a mother or a mentor or even a trustworthy ally. She doesn't want to be and she doesn't need to be. Cass has all of those things already. Her connection with Shiva is based off something different, and it works for them even if no one else understands it.

[bloobydabloob]

When you answered the ask asking about your art style (which is a post I keep looking back on bc what you have to say is very interesting) in one of your screenshots of you talking you mention something about how most if not all of your symbolism is self referent and I was wondering what you meant by that!

Hellloooo. I’m glad you found my ranting interesting. Here is some Dirk art I’m probably never going to finish for your troubles.

What I meant by that when talking about any symbolism in my art is that it doesn’t reference outside sources - e.g. where some art might use something like religious concepts, animals, real life events to represent ideas, I tend to use things more like colors, contrasting objects, composition. That sort of thing. So things that are inherently a part of the work itself rather than connections to the real world. If I ever do use symbolism otherwise, it’s usually comic related even still. Although I have done pieces with religious symbolism before too, haha.

I don’t know how to describe it other than “self referential” because I’m not really sure what else to classify that sort of symbolism as. Just… artistic maybe? Non literal? I couldn’t say. I think it all basically just goes along with the majority of my art nowadays being more figurative than literal. Sorry if this doesn’t explain it very well. It’s also funny to think that anyone is “Looking back” on any of my texts posts though, haha. To me I feel like I am just dumping my words on my poor followers. Surprising. Thank you for reading.

[quinn-of-aebradore]

I keep thinking about how Ashton’s been acting lately and I coming back to them saying that they’ve earned “a minor sense of superiority” for all they’ve been through in their life and then how through a lot of what they said after that demonstrates that that sense of superiority goes far beyond being minor. Especially the way they laughed and said “who else?” when the Hells asked themselves if they should really be the ones deciding if the balance of the world should be upended and remade. It carried a lot less of a “well who else is going to do it?” energy that I think it might’ve once carried, the sort of thing the Nein might say, and instead felt more like a “you really want anyone else but us choosing that?”, which aligns with the wildly out-of-hand way they were behaving in the council meeting. They really seem to be placing themself above everyone that was in that council room, especially with how they repeatedly said that all of those delegates are stupid and blind and so on, particularly those who answer to divine powers (I cannot remember if Ashton directly said that last night, but I feel like it would align with what they did say even if they didn’t put it that clearly).

What makes that very interesting to me is that Ashton is also a vessel for a higher power now, a power that—from the way they seem to be looking at things—is grander and older and more powerful than the gods themselves; a titan. They may not answer to Rau’shan, but they channel her power just as surely as any cleric or paladin might channel their deity’s powers. Which is a little hypocritical, but that’s not my point.

I keep wondering that if maybe, probably on a subconscious level, that connection to an older power than the gods is fueling Ashton’s sense of superiority over the gods and those who follow them.

[azaracyy]

a lesson on good karma digimon survive week 2024 day 4: supporting characters

[wuekka]

My brain first time seeing this dude in new episode of maws was to yell:

I know this villain is DC too, so hey people who know comics, are they different versions of the same character?

[lepidjester]

i wasn’t super sold on royalteeth/kingleader/kingmaster until i discovered my partner kins kinger and i kin caine. therefore, i had to draw them being dumb gay old men

they r holding handz <3

[welcometogrouchland]

Batman #149 by chip zdarsky is mostly unremarkable, but I'm really fascinated by how it makes a great case for 'good' endings not saving 'bad' stories*. Because there's a lot of interesting concepts in this issue (bruce having to deal with his rapidly aging and decaying clone making him think about his own life, re-establishing a 'nest' so to speak for his family after pushing them away, etc) but bc of the OOC slog that came before it, almost every moment w/ the batfamily comes off as unearned and disingenuous imo.

Like, everything with Damian is the perfect example in this. Because in isolation it's...fine. admittedly it's a missed opportunity to not go deeper into how Damian would feel about a clone of his dad who tried to kill considering Damian's relationships with clones of himself (the heretic rejects and respawn) or with former enemies who wanted him dead but who were manipulated and/or brainwashed (like suren and maya).

Zdarsky doesn't go into any of this but you could maybe excuse it as the issue not being about Damian. However, coupled with the previous bizarre characterizations of Damian in 147 and 148, it ends up not being fine- instead it starts to feel...icky how Damian (who, despite often being drawn and written as white, will never have his connection to the non-white al ghuls forgotten and will always be effected by racism even when not portrayed as a poc) is constantly written as overly violent, uncaring and narrow minded in this run. Coupled w/ trying to recanonize the morrison origin for Damian it's like. OH this is badly written and laden with subtle bigotry, sick**

That's me going into detail on it with Damian but it's applicable to other things in this issue- the way Cass, Steph and Duke have all been ignored or turned into jobbers makes their inclusion in the 'family' here feel hollow instead of satisfying. Bruce proclaiming that Zur was still a part of him and he needs to accept responsibility for his actions (when it means taking in clone son) wrings hollow when just last issue zdarsky was bending over backwards to separate Bruce and Zur bc otherwise the Jason thing would get really awkward. Ends are achieved through means that feel hollow or strange. I'm at my destination but damn why'd the bus have to do all that???

I only really have opinions on this latest arc of zdarskys Batman bc it's the one I've read the closest (bc I'm a hater, masochist and avid follower of even the bad damian storylines) but it's not saying great things.

Bc zdarsky can do one thing good in this book, and it's write Bruce and Tim. And yet this entire story, whether of his own volition or editorial mandate, includes other characters who aren't Bruce and Tim, the fabric starts to unravel in very telling ways.

(p.s, I think pennyworth manor is an interesting idea but I feel like in execution it's just gonna be 'bruce living in a house haunted by the memory of the people he couldn't save' but with a different dead guy this time. Illusion of change and whatnot)

*whether or not the ending is good is up to you ofc, as is your opinion on the proceeding arc! I saw some ppl complain that the ending was too "WFA" for them, which I get even if I dont think it'll literally be the same premise. If anything it's probably a lead into the new tec run. Likewise many ppl who aren't in the weeds of Damian and Jason characterization liked the previous arc! But I have my opinions and rest my case before the bench

**disclaimer, I'm white and portrayals of bigotry in comics are complicated and subjective, but I am basing my point here off what other poc comic fans on socmed have been saying about 149. Also the "sick" is sarcasm incase that wasn't obvious

[meraki-yao]

and I thought of this

I was drowning

And you threw yourself into the water without hesitation, without a backward look.

If I knew how to make edits/gifs, I would, but unfortunately, I have no fucking idea

Reading "bad metaphor about Maps" never fails to make me cry, I really fucking need to hear Taylor read it (again, demanding a full-cast audiobook once the strike is resolved, most of all I NEED to hear the boys read the book emails)

UPDATE: @rockingtheorange MADE AN INCREDIBLE VIDEO EDIT, PLEASE WATCH IT HERE

[upsidedownsmore]

Jade Shadows spoilers, just some lore thoughts and theorizing

I wonder if Jade was used for most high-order jade light executions and was the soul source of it, or if she was just an extension of an already existing technology. Before, I used to think the jade light was from some kind of device, but if it's been Jade this whole time at the source that has implications.

Of course, even if she was the source of jade light, it must have been harnessed in devices to allow for remote executions and portability, like on the Zariman and with the Myrmidon. So she wouldn't have had to perform all executions herself in person when even just her residual power is enough to power Parvos' jade eximus units.

But Parvos referring to Jade as an executioner might imply that she was used to perform at least some executions personally, and I imagine those would have been the executions performed in front of the Seven.

Like Margulis.

And if they needed a Tenno operator to control Jade, that would effectively have been using a Zariman kid to kill their adoptive mother using Jade, a victim of Ballas' warframe project during pregnancy.

holy fuck

Edit: Though there's also reason to believe that Jade wouldn't have been the one to execute Margulis because it may have required the use of a Tenno operator, which I can't imagine would go well. But there's still a bit of vagueness around whether Jade needed an operator, similar to how there's vagueness around whether Stalker needs one.

Edit 2 (July 2024): go behind teshin there's new jade lore go go go

[aroaceleovaldez]

one thing running @riordanverse-ship-polls has gotten me thinking about is that the fandom should bring back a lot of old ships that got dropped. Just to mix things up and add some more variety into the fandom again. The community used to have a lot of really interesting and really varied ships but now most of the stuff you see is canon and maybe a couple of leftover things from that time or some rarepairs and that's it (and a lot of weird aggression towards people who diverge from canon ships at all). Half the major characters don't even have prominent alternative ships to canon these days. Like, did you know Hazel/Piper used to be a decently popular ship? When was the last time you saw Hazel/Piper stuff? Probably never if you're a newer fan.

anyways we could really stand to have more variety. together we can bring back variety. the fandom needs to get weirder again. like cmon we've got some new characters let's thing of some new combos.

[ragnar0c]

Frieren used to get her head patted by Flamme. It happens a few times in the anime so far and she doesn't rebuke her typical "don't pat my head" like she does when Heiter and others try too.

On the topic of Heiter, he often patted Frieren. At least like once in every serious conversation they had. So he expressed his affection that way a lot.

So Frieren patting Fern's head is not only just a cute thing, but it's a cute thing her master user to do to her AND something Heiter has likely done for Fern too.