#ranting to the void

[dangerousdan-dan]

Everyone say hi to Pistachio!!!

I found this little dude a month ago. He's been very sick and on the line since the very beginning, and after five intense days at the vet, I really thought this would be my last day with him. Oh, surprise! My beautiful Pistachio refuses to go without a fight and he's finally, FINALLY out of immediate danger.

I'm so fucking relieved and happy that I just had to come here and yell at the void and show you all his dumb and beautiful face. He's going to live and he's going to be the happiest boy in the world and my heart is so full that it just might explode.

[liveasbutterflies]

What the fuck.

[starzzmissthesun]

i would like to say, liking the marauders era is like having ocs with content, BUT i would also like to say, dont just throw out things that we DO know about these chacters. i think as a fandom we need to reevaluate these characters and make lots of inferenes based on LINES AND THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN THE BOOKS. like I LOVEE aus and, if im being honest, the main reason i like this fandom is because im so bad at MAKING ocs, so these already have designs and names. BUT most of the chacter traits and stuff SHOULD be made up USING THE TEXT because that causes more accurate and nuanced characters. i feel like weve made conpletely new chacters and they lack depth now(obviously not ALL of the fandom and chacterizations). Theyre all so flat and its like everybody has to be either a perfect angel who has no blame at all and was just MADE to do those things(bully snape, be mean, petty, become/believe in death eaters, etc) OR theyre evil and we hate them and dont bat them a second glace. Like having these blank slats are fun, but also, please give these interesting and complex characters a little more thought for how you percieve them. let them be crazy, let them be bad people, let them be mean and bullies, let them be petty, let them be unreasonably kind, let them be soft, let them be haters, let them be self depricating, let them be self rightious, whatever as long as it fits for their canon charcter. my HUGEST annoyances with these are regulus, sirius, lily, remus, and james, people mischaracterize them SO much

[miaikon]

From learning a Sci-Fi script to picking up a Con-Lang (or, a very long very nerdy Star Wars rant)

I need to rant at this to the void, and this blog is my go-to for these things. I feel free to do so since no-one comes here anyways.

A bit of background

(or, the part you can skip if you want to get to the nerdy rant now): I've been into Star Wars on and off since my teens. I'm nearly 40, so that's a few decades. I do watch the new series, and became very fond of "The Mandalorian" really fast. In-between seasons, my spouse and I also re-watched most of Clone Wars. In early 2024, we started a Star Wars 5E TTRPG campaign with a friend, where my spouse DM's, Friend plays a Jedi, and I play a Mandalorian (and she's just so much FUN to play). My character is one I came up with around... 2017? Maybe? IDK if you can find her if you scroll down far enough. Currently re-designing her, though. I originally came up with her after working my way through the Travis books and becoming fascinated with Mandalorians for some reason.

Accidential Language Acquisition

My latest obsession (and distracion from the summer heat) started with me looking up some Mandalorian phrases and curses for RPG purposes. Yes, I know, none of this is canon any more. None of us cares. We kind of make our own canon. Then I found out there's a script - and I was lost. I loved codes and obscure scripts as a child, and I did learn to read Hiragana in my 20s, so how hard could this be? I looked for a chart and found this site, which offers practice reading (and a dictionary, amongst other stuff). So, I started learning the characters in, I think, late July. I read quite well by now, my writing does lag behind. Juuust... the practice phrases are written in the Mandalorian language.

I didn't set out to learn a constructed language. I really did not. I just wanted to know WHAT I was typing. So I looked up the sentences on the cheat-sheet after I got them right. And some words started repeating, and I picked them up. Kinda automatically. I swear, I only practice reading/ writing this for like 15 to 30 minutes a day. After a while, I half-understood what some sentences said. Reading Star Wars fanfiction did not help (or help a lot, depending on your POV) there. I looked up missing words, building a bit of a vocabulary. It's erratic still, but I noticed something. In conversations, my brain sometimes supplies the Mandalorian words I know now. (I usually do catch myself, although stuff tends to slip in when I'm alone with my spouse, to his amusement.) My language center does not know this is a con-lang, after all. I also tried to write a ransom note in Mandalorian, which was a fun experience (for a private project). Through fan fiction and looking up stuff, I also learned about the Legends version of Mandalorian culture. That stuff is fascinating, although I feel like a visitor to an abandoned city. Everyone's gone (since Legends is out of print and stuff is falling into obscurity), but it's still cool to look around. It gives me a kind of bittersweet, nostalgic feeling, too. So many passionate minds, and things I'm so happy to experience, but wished I knew about sooner. Aay'han, if you will, only it's memories I never made. Nostalgia for what could have been. Not gonna lie, I'm obsessed. It's a feeling I seldom get now, although it was quite frequent when I was a teen. It feels great and enjoyable and unhealthy and I think I need to stop. I'm an adult, and I'm too old to fangirl. Or, at least, I keep telling myself this.

Analyzing a Con-Lang because my nerd brain can't stop looking for patterns

Mandalorian actually HAS different words for the people, the planet, the ruler, and the language. Let me start with Manda, which is the collective soul (or the concept of) of the Mandalorian people. The people themselves are Mando'ade (Children of the Manda/ of Mandalore. Singular Mando'ad). The language is Mando'a (no clue why, language would be joha. Maybe Mando'joha was too long and it got shortened). The planet is Manda'yaim (yaim meaning home. Simple enough). The ruler is the Mand'alor (alor meaning, well, leader. Also simple).

Before long, my brain started making connections between some things. Simple things first - "Ke" or "K' " at the start of a sentence is always the imperative form of something ("Command form"). The words for "you", "I", and the third person pronoun. Then, between words, trying to fit new words with what I already know. Like [something] ad was most likely about people. I built myself bridges that are just theories - I am not a linguist in any fashion, and I'm just trying to make sense of what's there. Like mirsh meaning brain(cell), kot meaning strenght, and mirshko is courage - so, "brain-strength"?

And no, for all of you out there that are as nerdy as me, this is not a full language. There isn't a word for "call" or "get in contact with" I could find, for example. Some authors just wanted to add flair to their writing, so an incomplete thing is what we have. Even so, I am kind of hooked in the weirdest way. I play around, trying to make my own sentences and combined words. It's fun, and private, and nobody needs to know. Except for the two people I TTRPG with.

IDK any more where I wanted to go with this. There might be a part 2, someday. If anyone read this, I appreciate you. If anyone read this and had this weird kind of obsession happen to them as well, let's talk. It might just be the universe's weirdest midlife crisis.

[a-babe-without-a-name]

went to the doctor today and she said I for sure have a rotator cuff injury. luckily its not torn, but it's still fucked up. im so mad because I knew there was something wrong when i got hurt last season but bitch ass man doctor didn't believe me. There's only 4 games this season and I'm for sure missing the first one because of this.

ugh fuck fuck fuck, this blows :(

[moreespressoformydepresso]

What infuriates you most about descendants? From books and movies?

Mal.

More specifically her botched character from descendants 2 onwards and the way it affects the outcome of the story. She started out as a really good character and then the writing ruined her.

Okay so how to explain this in a reasonable word count? My biggest issue with Mal is that she seems to backslide on character development constantly. It’s not a one off, and Dove Cameron’s acting and singing cannot save Mal from the fact that two whole movie plots were caused by her doing something that makes no sense from any angle. To be clear: I like Mal… in D1. The first movie, while suffering from the same general weirdness as all Disney channel movies, is pretty good and Mal has a well-written arc. Its only problem is time constraint, but I can live with it being a little rushed and surface level because it’s Disney and it’s just one movie. It will forever grind my gears that Mal makes the emotional “we be good now” speech when she was literally the only one actively still trying to follow the plan, but again it’s Disney and she’s the main character. My only real critique is that Jay, Evie, and Carlos should have been the one giving the “we don’t want to be evil” speech rather than have Mal list out why her friends don’t want to be evil when they clearly already know (as shown in the montage during If Only’s reprise). But whatever, girl who’s never known anything other than how to be evil learns how to be good and find herself thanks to the love of her life. Compelling nature vs nurture story.

Then Descendants 2 rolls around, and the issues start popping up. Audrey doesn’t exist in the movie, which sucks because I feel like this movie should have at least acknowledged the consequences of Mal’s previous evil behavior (and also I like Audrey), but I can live with that. What I cannot live with is Mal being a horrible (girl)friend and making boneheaded decisions despite supposedly being a better person than she was before. I like the concept of someone breaking under the stress of adapting to an environment that is the complete opposite of what she’d known before, especially with the added pressure of being on the road of becoming the queen of Auradon, but as you may have guessed I find the execution severely lacking. My main gripe is that Mal’s reaction is stupid and goes against what the first movie told us. When you break, you cannot be expected to make great decisions, but Mal went through the trouble of enchanting her scooter to get through the barrier (which makes me ask all kinds of questions about the questionable security of the barrier, but whatever) and then actually went there, and chose to stay there even when her friends came to get her, practicality abandoning all of them even after she had time to calm down and think things through. That’s no longer just the stress. Mal was a better friend when they were all villains who don’t do love than she was when she’d supposedly turned good.

Supposedly, she’s learning to be a good person. But she lies about using magic and then abandons everyone without a word after a freakout where Ben’s clearly not even mad about the magic. She could have left a damn note, said goodbye, explained herself, but no. And that’s me going along with the whole leaving thing at all, but honestly even that’s a massive overreaction. Her issue is the pressure that comes with being the king’s girlfriend, that’s got nothing to do with being good, so why didn’t she just break up with Ben? It would’ve honestly been nicer than not breaking up with him and leaving for the isle forever without telling him where she’s going. This, of course, gets Ben kidnapped by pirates. Mal wants to help save him after making a dumbass bet (which was all kinds of stupid) that forced her to give the pirates Fairy Godmother’s want (idk how it would work inside the barrier that blocks magic but sure) but she still plans on staying on the isle. Okay fine, if that’s where she’s happy, but could she maybe talk to her friends and boyfriend about this at least once?!?! Then of course she goes back to Auradon anyways.

In case you haven’t noticed, everything Mal does in D2 is selfish. Not once does she consider anybody else’s feelings. Only a glimpse in Space Between but that’s a single song and all it comes down to is “we’ll still be together” which, to me, hangs a lampshade on the fact that Mal can leave with her scooter whenever she wants and all the kids stuck on the isle can’t. Nobody considers them, except for the antagonists of the movie. Not once does Mal, who is supposed to have grown from being evil, consider anybody else’s feelings in her decision making. Even accepting she’s going back to her evil upbringing, which could be interpreted as a way to show how abuse victims will often chose what’s familiar over what’s actually good for them, there should be something there to show us she isn’t actually the rotten being she pretends to be. You know, since the whole point of the first movie is that she’s not a bad person but pretending to be because that’s what she’s been taught is who she must be? It invalidates the whole first movie. But it gets even worse, because now we finally get to Descendants 3.

The absolute lowest of lows Mal’s character sees in the trilogy of movies, D3 made me hate her to the core of my very being. Not only does she have the same issue as she did in D2 where all her decisions are driven by selfishness with a callous lack of care for literally anybody else, she now lacks even the paperthin excuse of pressure getting to her. Stress and being overwhelmed can make people do stupid things, which is why I gave Mal leeway and didn’t hate her necessarily. I just didn’t really like her anymore. D3 took that leeway together with any and all character development Mal had over the previous two movies, rolled it up into a ball, and threw it out of a skyscraper’s highest window to splatter it onto the pavement below. One villain (who is her dad) almost gets through the barrier and her immediate reaction is to screw over every single innocent child on the isle and lock the barrier forever?!?! What the fuck is wrong with this chick?! I meant what I said in my post about the descendants boys, Ben should’ve told her that if she thinks the risk of one villain getting out is more important than the lives of thousands of abused children, then by her logic they should throw the kids they’ve already brought over back on there too. After all, there’s a risk they may still want to be villains given Mal’s little freakout in D2, tHe RiSk’S jUsT tOo HiGh! Those villains were dealt with by like- three heroes each. You mean to tell me all of them combined cannot handle that? Bring some guards with you next trip and don’t drag your feet when you close the barrier behind you next time, problem fucking solved! Or don’t tell anyone when you’re gonna go get the kids??? No one followed the core four out, and despite this oh so massive risk Mal’s so worried about she sure as fuck wasn’t worried about opening the barrier to go get Hades’ amber! Then Gil and Harry came out and guess what? They helped the main crew because all they wanted was to get off the isle. Mal didn’t just not oppose this cruel, extreme idea… she came up with it. Supposedly she’s a better person now, but her first reaction to her perfect life being slightly threatened with the possibility of issues (not even ruin, just issues), was to disregard every single child who’s just like her (if not better, because their parents weren’t the literal mistress of evil) and damn them to a life in hell on earth, an existence of nothing but crime and poverty and starvation and abuse! How can she be anything but selfish and mean and cruel with a thought process like that?! Her literal reason is that she wanted to protect her and her friends’s new life! So apparently in her mind, now that she has everyone she cares about off the isle, it’s not worth caring about the isle anymore. She has who she wants off, and fuck everybody else. Then she lies to everybody about it being her idea because she needs Uma and her crew to defeat Audrey, meaning she knows full well that what she’s doing is horribly shitty.

That’s what truly gets me, actually. If she genuinely believed this was the right thing to do, if she truly, 100% believed that there was no better solution and this is what had to be done… why did she lie? Why didn’t she explain herself with good arguments? Well… because there aren’t any. This was the worst possible solution, and she knows that, but it’s the best way to ensure her happily ever after isn’t threatened so who gives a shit? (Everybody else, but clearly Mal doesn’t care about that). She lies so she can use Uma, Harry, and Gil. She lies so her friends won’t get mad at her for her horrible behavior. She lies, because it suits her. Because it gives her the happy ending she wants, and that’s all she cares about. Then when this fails, she decides to go the other extreme route of breaking the fucking barrier so she can be queen of both Auradon and the Isle. That’s her literal reason. She says it herself. Even when she makes a “good” decision, it’s just to serve her. To give her more power. I know the message it’s supposed to send is that bullshit about evil not being inherent but fuck that. I don’t believe it, and I really wish we got to see the moment right after the credits where the villains do what they promised they would: take over Auradon and destroy everything, because some of them were on there for a very good reason. The whole point of the two previous movies was that we shouldn’t judge or condemn people based on what their parents did, but on what they do themselves. I have no idea how that means not judging the parents for their own actions either, and frankly it’s so stupid and shortsighted I’ll leave it there. There’s a reason I completely ignore the ending of descendants 3.

Anyways, what I’m saying is that after the first movie Mal’s character just kept getting worse and worse and I cannot stand her anymore. She’s selfish and mean and doesn’t give a shit about anyone but herself, and the narrative tries desperately to convince us she’s a good person deep down but with everything she’s done I just can’t buy it anymore even though I want to. They began well, with a good story about recovering from trauma, and somehow it ended up with them making trauma survivors look even worse than popular media usually does and I hate it. They tried to write a complex villain protagonist who learned to become a better person and escaped from the family cycle that’s implied to exist in Evil Like Me, which is good, but then they fucked it up. Badly. And I cannot stand Mal’s character with how she’s written, nor can I stomach the massive gap between who Mal is and who the narrative incessantly insists she is.

As you can tell I have many feelings on this, and I have a lot more to say but I’ve tried to not make this too long. I hope you enjoyed reading my rant because it was very cathartic to write :).

[neptunetiger33366]

Y'all, I literally just can not. Why is this man so damn PRETTY?! I love him so much, this can't be real. Holy Hylia who let him be made? I've been replaying TotK on a new save and I... Fuck, he's just so pretty and cute and handsome all at the same time. I want to give him a hug and run my hands through his hair. UGH! I want, no, I NEED him to look at me the way he looks at food!

LOOK AT HIM! He is so cute and happy and it's all over FOOD! He's so precious and I love him so much. Like, I need him in a way that goes against feminism and I'm not even a girl! It's not even sexual desire (okay, it partially is, but that's not all it is). My demi ass wants him to love me. Not lust, love. I want him to want to hug and comfort me as much as I want to do those things to him. And I know he's NOT REAL, I know that. But I want him to be. Fuck, I'd give just about anything to have the opportunity to hold Link.

I want so desperately to hug him, run my fingers through his hair, rub his back soothingly, and tell him that it's all okay. That he's a good hero and none of the pain his era has been through is his fault. I want to let him cry into my shoulder as I tell him that he didn't fail Hyrule, didn't fail the Champions, didn't fail Zelda. I want to press soft kisses into his forehead or on the top of his head as I gently wipe away his tears and tell him I'm proud of him, that he should be proud of himself. Tell him that I love him. Hear him whisper back in a shaky voice that he loves me too. For him to fall asleep in my arms, use me as a pillow after being exhausted by his emotional burst. For him to smile in his sleep as he slips into a happy dream, making him snuggle closer to me. I want to fall asleep in each other's arms, unwilling to separate even in sleep.

I want to wake up to him whispering my name, rubbing my arm and shoulder to stir me from rest. Want to huff irritable and burry my head under a pillow and pretend to still be asleep, just to hear his beautiful laugh as he pulls the pillow away. To feel his soft lips kiss my skin as he pulls me into his arms, coaxing me awake with promises of a delicious breakfast he's made for us.

He's so soft looking. I want to run my hands all over his body. Find every scar he has and kiss them all. I don't even care about hair or anything to do with that! But I want to sit with him at my feet as I clean, brush, and play with his hair, just listening to him talk about fond memories from his journeys. I want to hear about all the cool bugs he's found, all the amazing sights he's seen, and all the people he's met. I want him to pretend to pout and be upset when I find a particularly bad tangle, just for me to kiss the top of his head or his cheek in apology, turning him into a blushing mess. He can't keep up the angry act and melts against my legs, refusing to lift his head to let me finish brushing until I coax him up with promises of cuddles and kisses.

I want to visit a hot spring with him. Soak in the hot, healing water with our bodies pressed together. For there be nothing between us. To be as undressed as we'd dare be in a public spring and cuddling shamelessly. I'm in his arms as he holds me to keep my anxiety at bay. His soft whispers promise that it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. That he loves me for me, transness and all. That so long as he's there, nobody will dare hurt or judge me. For me to be half asleep, head on his shoulder, and to whisper back that I promise to protect him too. That even if I can't fight and protect him physically like he can me, I can protect him emotionally and mentally.

I'm scared of heights, but I want to sit with him on a Sky Island he swears has the best view in Hyrule and watch the sunrise. To sit on the beach with a picnic and watch the sunset. To lay down together and stare up at the night sky. For him to point at different stars and constellations, tell me all he's learned about them. To sit together bare footed at the water's edge, letting the waves tickle our feet as we talk about the sort of deep topics that only feel appropriate to discuss at night. Life, love, the universe. The meaning of it all. For me to make a bad joke to calm my anxiety brought on by the existentialism, just for him to laugh. To ask why I keep bringing such topics if they always end up upsetting me. I get defensive and pout about it. He wraps an arm around my shoulders and kisses my cheek. Tells me he loves me. I tell him the same and we share a kiss. I make a dumb joke about Hylia watching and he playfully smacks my shoulder. Not hard enough to hurt, because he'd never hurt me. He tells me that I'm the only "divine being" he needs, which makes me laugh and roll my eyes. I make a self deprecating joke, to which he scolds me gently. His beautiful blue eyes gleam in the starlight, making it impossible for me to argue. So I just apologize thoughtlessly as I gaze into them. He doesn't mind. I lean in to kiss him again. He does too. We kiss passionately, and all is perfect.

FUCK, now I want to write actual pieces about this. Maybe do a series of short stories with scenes like these. Upload them here from time to time. That'd be nice. Might help with the feelings. No promises, but I've already given myself several starting points. Maybe I'll even do shit in Gacha once I get into posing properly. That'd be nice. Think I'mma stop yearning here and put that energy into something else. Good on me. Or, well, I'll do that tomorrow. I should probably go to bed. Goodnight Tumblr.

[begrudginglytumbling]

"The main character is female, and there's all these other female characters, and its written by a woman. I don't think I can get into it. I don't mind strong female characters, but you've got to have a balance"

Said a man about book, after raving about other books that were written by men, involving male main characters, surrounded by other male characters, and the odd token female character.

I just...do you even hear the words that are coming out of your mouth?

I shouldn't be surprised really, this is the same man that complained that we're pushing a 'political agenda' on young children because of the picture books we stock, and that we should only have books on 'normal' (ie: cis heterosexual white British) families...while his youngest was happily flipping though a picture book on unicorns and rainbows, like, the fuck you on about? 'Normal'?

And how the hell do you push political agendas on the age range that picture books are aimed at? They are blobs of human that like dinosaurs and unicorns, and laugh hysterically at anything with 'poo' in the title. They don't care about your political agenda bullshit. They're just in the library to have fun, dickhead.

[lordofthesoups]

paracetamol save me

[dangerousdan-dan]

TWO DAYS WITH A MIGRAINE PLS SOMEONE COME HERE AND SHOOT ME

[rottenhellion]

I don't care if anyone finds me annoying. Like me or don't, I'm not changing. I don't owe you shit.

[liveasbutterflies]

For fcks sakes, please stop using my and other creator’s gif here to make fanvids! I’m so tired of this! Some sets take hours to make! Seeing people just copy and paste & slap on some bgm to make whatever that is, is so goddamn discouraging. And what’s worse is that this is the second time this person has done this!!!

Original

Their "fanvid".

[nightndaydreaming]

I really hate “if you don’t reblog or like this you’re a bad person” “watch nobody reblog this” shit.

I am almost guaranteed not to reblog if it says shit like that

It’s that Facebook, 1 comment= 1 amen shit but worse

[sweetsylus]

im not at all trying to diminish the work of those that write this way for black readers

but i wish there was more of like weird/nerdy (???) black readers? or readers that don’t align with (and i hate to say it like this, but im not quite sure how else to describe it) the stereotypical black woman?

like, 95% of black reader ffs i come across include the reader wearing nails and wigs and being extroverted and/or being a partygoer and whatnot

and while i do understand that there are plenty of black readers out there who are very much like that, i also just wish there was more of like, the nerdy/“loser”-esque black readers

yknow, the ones that play video games or read books or literally need to be forced out of the house/their room because if they aren’t, they can and WILL stay holed up in there (i just caught a stray with that one LMAO). or ones that have ADHD/autism (caught another stray cause im 90% sure im somewhere on the spectrum), or cant do social interactions with people they dont know because it literally tires them out n stuff

or maybe ones that play instruments or have cute little hobbies or talk to themselves even though they have other people to talk to (atp im just calling myself out)

and i feel bad for being all like “you all need to write more of x, y, and z” considering im not/don’t consider myself a writer

but i just wanna feel represented SOMEWHERE, i guess. the only place i have fs is like, x plus size reader fics, but i don’t want that to be the focus of everything i read (and i read an unhealthy amount of ff 💀) just to feel like i can actually fit in with the story? i don’t fit with the “pink cheeked”, “white knuckle”, etc. description i see very often, but i also don’t fit in when it’s actually about a black reader 😭 and it’s hard to envision that i do when everybody and their mother knows that i very much do not :(

but that’s today’s rant, i guess

[mariesstudying]

After seeing videos of that one Rachel Zegler interview, I'm so confused why a new snow white is even being made. I'm not gonna shit on Rachel Zegler because I'm assuming that whatever she said in that interview was talking points Disney gave her. I agree there are valid criticisms of the film but it seems like these films want to reject these more feminine traits in characters in order to make them more modern and "feminist" which is think isn't actual feminist at all.

The interview makes it seem like they've taken the core components of Snow White (kindness, love, being caring, etc) and stripped it all away to make her a "strong, independent woman". My issue is, why can't she be kind, sweet and dream of falling in love whilst also being a strong, independent woman? It's giving "feminine traits are weak traits and no independent woman should have them".

It also seems like they want to make 'dreaming of love' into some outdated trope when in reality, women can be independent and strong whilst also wanting to fall in love. Wanting to fall in love doesn't make a woman weak, it's something they're allowed to want. No one would call a male character "weak" or "outdated" if he dreamed of love, he'd be praised, so why can't Snow White in 2023 want love in addition to being independent and powerful.

We've seen it in other adaptations of Snow White. In both Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman, Snow White is a literal warrior, she rides on horseback and fights/defeats the Evil Queen. In Once Upon a Time, Snow White is a literal thief who ambushes carriages to steal what she wants. All three of these versions of Snow White are also loving, kind and caring characters who fall in love in the end. None of them are weak, this combination of character traits and desires makes them complex and realistic characters.

Based on what's already been said in those interviews, I'm expecting a Snow White who is flat and one-dimensional. Live-Action adaptations are supposed to expand on and bring new life to a film, not turn them into boring versions of themselves, which is how I'm predicting Snow White is going to be. If they wanted to make a film about a woman who is not interested in falling in love and is a warrior (or whatever they choose to do with snow white), they could have just made a new film like people WANT new films from disney not remakes.

(terfs dni)

[doerrferr]

Devon Rodriguez is giving internet artists a bad name.

Ok, I know this happened like weeks ago - but there was an art critic, Ben Davis, from art net, who published an article reviewing Rodriguez’s exhibition in NY.

The article in question, as far as criticism of artwork goes, was one of the most gentle and nice critiques I have ever seen in the visual arts.

Davis starts the article with a brief overview of Rodriguez’s work and life and goes on to give his opinions on his work. This is his job.

As artists, we receive criticism ALL THE TIME, and it is vital to our development as artists, and to continue learning and growing. As an artist, you never become the “perfect artist” or “finished product” - there is ALWAYS room to grow and develop skills further, and that’s what criticism is about. It’s not a personal attack, it’s constructive criticism. Not to mention the fact that art is subjective, and how everyone views your work is going to be different.

As someone studying art at college, and hoping to study at uni and establish myself professionally, Rodriguez’s response to Ben Davis was shocking. I’ve received more intense critiques from my tutors and peers in courses, and they weren’t offensive to me in the slightest. We’re taught to ask for people’s views, because it is vital for us as artists. If you never receive criticism, you’ll always do the same things, make the same mistakes, and your work will become stale because you’re doing the same thing, with the same process, and while the subject you’re drawing/ painting may be different, every piece is going to look exactly the same. It’s not interesting.

The article barely criticised Rodriguez, in my opinion, yet he somehow took it as a personal attack and ranted on his instagram story, tagging davis in each of the stories posted, to his over 32 million followers, some of which went on to dog pile on the critic’s instagram … for doing his job.

It’s disgusting to see this immature behaviour from someone who claims to want to reduce gatekeeping in the art world. Rodriguez claims to be a role model, spreading kindness on the internet but his actions speak louder than his words, and the words of his PR team.

Devon Rodriguez, is often not known by name but as soon as you mention “the subway art guy” or “the guy who does hyper realistic portraits on the train”, people usually know what you mean then. And his art is good, the technique in his work is brilliant to achieve that level of realism. But every single TikTok, Reel, and YT Short is the same. As was the work in his exhibition. An art critic wouldn’t be doing their job if they didn’t mention that. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, sticking to one specific style/ formula, it’s definitely worked for Rodriguez. But it’s not particularly interesting, especially in an exhibition - once you’ve seen one piece, you’ve pretty much seen them all.

Again, thats not a bad thing! If you’re comfortable in a specific style and you’ve found success in sticking to the exact same thing, that’s brilliant! But most artists don’t have that luxury, and you often won’t find yourself being successful and getting jobs if your work isn’t versatile, or if your portfolio isn’t interesting. Photorealism is bloody impressive, but is it interesting? Not particularly if you’re just doing the same thing, essentially the same subject matter and colour schemes. There is a lack of expression in photorealism, that’s just how the style works. Each style has its pros and cons, and again, it varies from person to person.

There’s nothing unique about Rodriguez’s work. That’s just a fact. It’s going to happen when you keep doing the exact same thing. The only thing he leans on to distinguish himself as an individual is his story in how he rose to prominence, through TikTok. That only takes you so far if your work lacks variety, character and expression.

Ben Davis worded his thoughts in the article very nicely, and comes of much kinder than I do in this post. He was doing his job. And if he was just another commenter on TikTok, his opinions would be equally valid because he’s JUST EXPRESSING AN OPINION ON AN ARTIST’S WORK. Which anyone is free to do, and especially from art critics, or peers in the art world - is highly encouraged and useful to you as an artist.

Devon Rodriguez made an absolute fool of himself in response to Davis’ article. He’s making a fool of artists from similar backgrounds and those who hope to build a platform online for their art. Criticism goes with the job. And if art critics and those who are gatekeeping the art world think that the younger generations of artists, or online artists can’t take it , it just gives them another “reason” to keep us out.

The article was nothing but constructive, and extremely nice.

It’s awful to see such a prominent artist respond in such a childish, petty and kind of disgusting manner, and to encourage his following to do the same.

It completely opposes his belief that he’s making the art world a better place and spreading positivity, and reducing gatekeeping and negativity. He’s encouraging the exact opposite, and making it harder for artists from similar backgrounds to him, and backgrounds that often don’t get the chance to see success even remotely close to his. It’s so frustrating to see, especially given the hypocrisy in Rodriguez’s platform and because the criticism was constructive. I’ve respected his platform and his rise to prominence before all this, but i also maintain (and still do) that his work is stale. He relies on his content, not the actual work he produces.

Anyways, just needed to rant about this feel free to add your thoughts, or scroll past. Just felt like ranting to the void.