#so id have to like draw more “realistic”

[gifti3]

Can demons experience the horrors?

[marblerose-rue]

ermmmm (sneak peek)

[butchlifeguard]

perona inspired by @onepiecefashion :]

[ID: a pencil drawing of perona from one piece, in a cartoon style but more realistic than canon. she wears a black valentino minidress with a velvet heart at the bust and ruffles at the hem. it is accessorized with black fishnet stockings and black high heels with red roses and black feathers near the ankles. persona has a clutch bag, but the original model does not. perona is standing with her weight on one leg and her hand on her hip. she wears twintails in large ribbonlike curls. the second image the original model in the same outfit. end ID.]

[dockaspbrak]

Smart part of brain: Your ability (curse) to ruminate is literally ruining your life!!! Inaction is action jfc

Stronger more pathetic part of my brain: what if i just think about if more

[crownednova]

If I write an essay/analysis on Fectp Elfilis tomorrow, it is not my fault

[flovverworks]

(person back from ship tags) the way its literally why the hell is nero the bus driver all of a suddenly in every other work is SO funny to me. nero universally loved no wonder ure going thro hell in pt2

[fox-guardian]

Commissions are now OPEN!

[ID: A commission sheet with a purple, green, and orange background. A header reads "Fox-Guardian's Commissions!" with their fursona -- an orange, green, and purple fox with tentacle horns -- pointing to themself and saying "That's me!" Below are examples or different types of commissions. The first row is sketch commissions featuring Samama Khalid standing awkwardly with a confused expression. The first is less detailed and uncolored with more cartoony proportions and is marked as $10. The second is more detailed and uncolored with more realistic proportions and is $20. The last is the same level of detail as the second, now with flat colors, and is $30. The second row are lined commissions featuring Falin Touden standing and waving with a smile while holding her staff. Each are marked with lines for bust, waist-up, and fully body sizes with prices at each level. The uncolored lineart prices are $20, $25, and $30 respectively. The flat colored prices are $55, $60, and $65. And the fully rendered prices are $85, $90, and $95. Below is a footer with OP's fursona doodled at the bottom saying "I accept USD via Paypal! DM me for my order form!" and a list of things they will, won't, and might draw as follows: Will Draw: - Furries/Anthros - Humans/Humanoids - Non-explicit pinups - Simple robots

Won't Draw: - Explicit NSFW - Offensive/Hate - Mechas - Real people

Might Draw: - Gore (Realistic or Pastel) - Non-humanoid Monsters - Pets/Non-humanoid animals

end ID]

~~~~

I am opening THREE (3) commission slots for the time being!!

Not doing backgrounds, just a flat color, either your choice or white (or transparent)

Up to 2 characters, each will be priced fully (i.e. a Colored Sketch of one character is $30, so a Colored Sketch of two would be $60)

I'll do fanart or OCs

the rendering style isn't strictly the mostly cell-shaded, partial soft shaded style shown here if you'd prefer a different one i've done before. whichever you pick would be the same price <3

as the sheet says, DM me if you are interested and I will send you a link to my commission google form where you place your order, and will get back to you on whether or not I accept within 3 days of your form being submitted!

a couple more notes:

payment is upfront, and commissions over $30 must be paid partially upfront and partially throughout the process

if you are not 100% certain you will have the money to pay for a commission, please do not order one (if you get a big one tho and realize you can't afford the full thing after it's partially completed, we can arrange a downgrade so you can afford it if you'd like)

whether or not I accept a commission depends mostly on whether or not I feel I have the skill to execute it well. even it fits into the "will-draw" criteria, I may still not accept it

more information can be found in my form, thankies a bunchies uwu <3

[incesthemes]

dean's sexuality is an overwhelming recurring theme throughout the show: his fetishes are prominent, he flaunts his sexuality and sexual behavior freely, he's a relentless flirt, and he has the most sexual encounters in the show. what i want to briefly consider here is how his sexuality and, more importantly, his fetishes may symbolize a freudian eroticization of a fantasized domestic life, particularly in his fetishization of femininity.

so hear me out: dean subconsciously eroticizes his mundane desires because he can't externalize them in a safe or realistic way. the desires are, namely, a longing for a domestic, "apple pie" life, which is a desire that has been explored in the show multiple times. dean routinely covets domesticity, through his desire to raise a child (ben and lisa subplot), the djinn fantasy (2.20), his "nesting" in the bunker (8.14), and his displacement of that desire onto sam (who is the primary subject of his erotic fixation in general and a subconscious extension of himself—if sam acquires a happy domestic life, dean can live vicariously through it).

he also routinely denies himself this domesticity because he's given up on getting out of the hunter life. he was raised in a survival environment and never was given a real opportunity to escape (even sam had to fight tooth and nail to get out, and we all know where that got him). the one time he had a chance to reject john and embrace normality he returned smiling because of sam (9.07). he's the one that vehemently secludes himself (and sam, like in 1.06) from society because connections are a liability. he leaves potential long-term relationships preemptively, always choosing hunting (and sam) over them before anything "real" can happen (1.13, 6.01, 6.21, also consider 8.19, perhaps more abstractly). he's so broken inside that he lacks any real desire at all (5.14). et cetera, et cetera. he denies himself his domestic desires to the point that he lacks desire at all—he's a broken shell of a man.

so the violent repression of the id causes the secret desire to leak out through erotic fantasy, a playground of fiction that is used by, well, most if not all people to explore desire in a safe and controlled medium (see: how many women have rape fantasies, for example—the sexual fantasy is a constructed world for safe exploration of certain desires, often abstracted through erotic symbols).

dean is so repressed as an individual, likely by external pressure to conform and control himself via john, that dean could subconsciously transform his secret desire for domesticity, into an erotic fantasy. he displaces those unacceptable desires from the unattainable mundane onto the safer erotic and they eventually distort into fetishes. the fetishes themselves are then abstractions of the things he covets but can't obtain.

and i want to focus specifically on his desire for domesticity and make an argument for feminization as a fetish (thank you rhonda hurley for your contributions to society) and how that relates back to that base desire.

there are several episodes in the show which suggest that dean fetishizes femininity itself, or rather feminization as it pertains to him (4.07, 5.04, also consider 10.05 in a more abstract sense). in 4.07, dean openly fantasizes about living in a "hot cheerleader's" body (youthfully feminine). in 5.04, dean recounts the time rhonda hurley forced him into her pink, satiny panties, saying that he liked it. 10.05 is a meta episode which additionally posits a plotline where dean becomes a woman through supernatural means, suggesting that fans are invited to draw a connection between dean and feminization. (these are the episodes i can pull off the top of my head; it's probably not comprehensive but i can't remember others atm)

so let's consider this feminization kink: we have dean fantasizing about femininity, womanhood, and especially girlhood, which he notoriously eroticizes (again in 4.07 and also in 4.13 and 10.13, to name specific references, but there are so many examples of this) in relation to himself, specifically. you can layer this in the way his deeper desires are of domesticity, and the home is traditionally (importantly) the domain of the woman. if dean would come to associate domesticity with femininity, then he would subconsciously connect his desire for domesticity with a desire for femininity. therefore, this feminization kink can represent an eroticization of his own (perceived) femininity. dean craves domesticity, but the domestic can only be achieved through womanhood, and therefore his desire for the domestic manifests through femininity, and thus feminization.

this "perceived femininity" of the domestic is important because of how dean conceptualizes the world largely through his consumption of media (see also: his "wild west fetish" via 6.18), which enforces gender roles and the relegating of the woman to the domestic sphere. this additionally aligns with dean's lived experiences: he had a domestic life while mary was alive, and when mary died the domesticity died with her. his only personal experiences with a settled home life are inexorably tied to the presence of femininity (his other excursion is when he lives with lisa, strengthening this association), and the absence of it and subsequent domination of john (the masculine) also took with it that domestic life.

and then you could even go so far as to make the argument that his eroticization of girlhood and his fetish for barely legal girls is a symbol of the domestic life he didn't get to live himself. it can represent a longing for youth in an environment that was inaccessible to him, a stability and domesticity walled off by womanhood. his youth was masculine, and his desire is for the feminine. it would stand to reason that when he yearns for an idealized youth, it would be through the lens of the symbolically feminine. and so this desire manifests through a fetishization of youth (girlhood) and his subsequent creep behavior. it all comes back to the life dean didn't get to live, eroticized and represented through a sexual fantasy born of rigidly enforced gender roles and the loss of femininity in his home life.

[entering--hyperspace]

Tribune Echowatcher (Ls1)

My design musings below

Literally only doing this bc I love Leo soooo so so so so so so much. I also in general just love character design So!

1st. I Know I wanted to push the limits of what Charr Look like, I know theyre big ""cats"" but whenever I design ocs I like to push boundaries and play with what aesthetic restrictions exist.

Hyenas came to me (i think, it was 6 years ago when I originally made him so my memory is foggy) because I saw Hyenas around Ascalon and thought, what a fun concept to play with.

I knew I really wanted the very clear shape of hyena ears to stay while also keeping the charr 2 ears, my only choice was to kind of shift the horn placement around. You can see that his ears cover half of the horns, and that theyre a further back on his head in general asba result. I really didnt want to limit myself with the shape of charr ears bc even though I love them, having a character with very clear rounded Hyena ears was too charming of a concept for me to drop.

2. I inverted the colors of a Hyena! Hyena cubs are actually born with black fur and then get a lighter shade as they grow as with many animals, but I thought it would just be a fun way to play with a more unique color scheme, a primary black/gray fur with orange highlights than simply keeping a more realistic and usual color pallet.

3. Spotted Hyenas have some shaggy fur! Its so cute! Its thinner around the neck which I thought was another key feature of the animal that I wanted to translate onto Leo.

4. His armor is definitely not what I consider to be super unique, I needed a ls1-HoT quick armor to draw him in, so I just threw shapes together. I did however want to keep his color coded: Green. Originally I was trying to find some huge complimentary color to add to his outfit but realized that the orange of his mane and spots was already complimentary enough that adding a different color or more to his outfit would feel like Too much. Thus I went with homogenous green/blues and silver for the metal color.

5. His nose...his head shape...his more "Canine" Features I guess are just huge charmpoints to me. Yes this is me just gushing about my love for my own character but if you clicked read more thats ur own doing. Ive said this before but Leo is Heavily Mexican coded, this plays into both his design and lore in a lot of ways.

Xolotl is the Nahuatl god of death, hes a dog! Dogs being a bit of a symbolism for companions in the afterlife and guides was really important to me, so its why I do really adore what canine features Leo does have (I know Hyenas arent canines but you can see the same kind of shapes.)

Id gush more but thats the big ones....

Leo became a Tribune of the Blood Legion, because bangar wanted one of his own reporting back on the growing power of the Pact and the Pact Commander that was less of a loose canon than Rytlock, especially as theyre investigating draconic threats with the underlying ulterior motive. For now, hes playing along.

[squirrel-art]

Finished my little compilation of Sav and her mobility aids! ID in alt for each.

Disclaimer that I'm able-bodied & open to criticism about my portrayal! Also I realized belatedly her rollator is parked in a way that would, in fact, not keep it from rolling the fuck around, my bad.

Further details about my design philosophy/Sav's symptoms under the cut.

I played Savtas through Consular Story Chapter 1 in Full Good Girl Mode, saving all the Jedi and using the shielding ritual whenever prompted. The side effects of the rituals are vague and inconsequential in-game so as to make the job of the writers and programmers easier; characters comment worriedly about the fact that you "look tired" and not much else.

Fortunately, I have none of these restrictions. I don't know how to scientifically quantify "life-essence", but in my canon the energy required to create and maintain the shields comes right out of the body of the shielder, and behaves first and foremost like a faster-than-sustainable burning of calories. In the short-term, Sav became dangerously malnourished and fatigued; in the long-term she developed PoTS and what I've been glibly referring to as "Force fibro" in my brain, because the symptoms she experiences are the similar to that of those who suffer from fibromyalgia in real life: chronic pain, chronic fatigue, disordered sleep, and brain fog.

Some of those physical symptoms are ameliorated via use of a mobility aid, so she's tried out a couple different types.

Rollator

Sav's mobility aid of choice, purchased somewhere at the beginning of Ch 2. Sav is prone to dizziness and fatigue, and has less difficulty walking than she does standing for long periods; the rollator helps keep her balance and gives her somewhere to sit for short spells when she needs to.

The wheels do make this device better for navigating flatter and more even ground, but I imagine she can swap the wheels out for all-terrain varieties. I wonder if you could put blades on them like ice skates, to move around on places like Hoth? Well, the brakes wouldn't work, so probably not.

As mentioned in a previous post on my other sideblog, the design and colors are meant to evoke the pillars of the old Jedi Temple on Coruscant. This model is bespoke, created to Savvy's whimsical specifications. It wasn't even that expensive; you'd be surprised how many discounts people are willing to offer a Jedi!

Chair

A gift from the Jedi Council upon her defeat of Terrak Morrhage and the subsequent quelling of the Force plague. It's a more expensive model, and comes with a sturdy stand to rest it on when it's charging or not in use.

Design inspo drawn from both canon sources and the wonderful hermitmoss' hoverchair headcanons post!

I deliberated for a while as to whether Sav would have been given a wheelchair or a hoverchair. I settled on hoverchair mostly because Sav wanted a certain level of independence in her movement, but nobody was sure how long it would take her to regain enough upper body strength to reliably push herself around in a manual chair.

Sav in this image is at the beginning of her recovery, but she does continually make use of her chair after regaining some of her weight and muscle mass. Her rollator became her device of choice over the chair in part because the chair is kind of bulky and heavy, and can't be easily collapsed for transport. She probably has a lighter, more maneuverable transport chair stored on the ship to utilize in a pinch.

Looking at the design of the chair, I am already dissatisfied with it - the seat isn't raked to keep her from sliding out of it, and the control panel should realistically be attached to an extension and not directly under her hand. We'll fix that in the next pass, I think, but for now this drawing is representative of the overall design and colors.

Cane

She's got a few of these! Most have an offset or contour grip because she finds them the most comfortable, and most have adjustable bases.

Her favorite is probably the non-adjustable wooden one she got from a craftsman on Alderaan, the only one she owns made of fully organic materials.

[cripplecharacters]

hi, me again! the advice from the last ask was super very helpful, and i have that characters mask figured out now ^_^ i have a question tho, about a v different set of characters.

so im planning this comic about a sort of cyberpunkish dystopian world, the precise worldbuilding is still fuzzy. anyway one of the protagonists is a wheelchair user due to a genetic condition. i envision her as crafty and intelligent, but i don't want to have her character fall into the whole 'wheelchair tech nerd/man in the chair' thing.

so i want to give her a lot of upper body strength, where she can do cool and difficult feats- she also carries weapons on her and stuff. yknow, cool character things right, kind of upped for storytelling purposes

and this may be a silly question but i don't know if there's a point where the kind of things she's able to do would have her seem not disabled? like she doesn't use her legs for any of these things, and she can't walk really at all, but i don't want to do the whole 'character has ability that negates the disability'. hm this feels dumber the more i write idk

also if you're going to read all this i might as well give you a drawing of her. her name is Strike thank you for reading i hope you can answer ty

[id: a drawing of a black woman with blue ponytails, a black tank top with green edges, and a utility belt. she is in a wheelchair, and has one arm behind her head. above the drawing are the words, "Moira 'Strike' Lenore". next to the drawing are three doodles: the first one is the same woman in her wheelchair showing the middle finger, the second is the same woman with a happy expression, and the third is a different character in a coat standing dramatically. end id]

^did i do that right. thank you again

Hello lovely asker!

hello again, I'm glad one of our mods was able to help you! Also there are no silly or dumb questions here <3.

So a character's strength—especially if they use mobility aids or a wheelchair in this question—does not negate the fact that they are still disabled. And in reality, a lot people who use walkers, wheelchairs, etc have ridiculous upper body strength. If the character mostly depends on their arms for stability, movement, transferring, then you end up building those muscles because of lifting either heavy mobility aids or having to lift your own weight.

All this is very realistic actually! And the design is really cute too (I love the hair). Happy writing!

~ Mod Virus 🌸

[queenoftheferns]

Harley, Woodrue, and The Green: An in-depth analysis of Poison Ivy (2022)

(Discalaimer: This is an analysis of vol. 1 -issues 1-6- of the Poison Ivy series by G Willow Wilson, and it doesn’t take any later events into account. This is also over 2,400 words long so buckle up)

Hi!! I watched a video on how to analyse things and was inspired- I loved the first bit of Poison Ivy’s series and had a lot of fun going super in-depth into the writing, symbolism and psychology of Poison Ivy.  So let’s get into it! 

First, to make things easier, I’m going to assign some new meanings to the words “change” and “transformation”.  Although this is not how these words usually work, in this analysis “change” refers to the way you choose to evolve. Change comes from within yourself and is never something forced. “Transformation” on the other hand, is something done to you by someone/something else. It is a violation of your personal autonomy and it erases your identity with a new one deemed as “better” by the other person’s standards. Now. Back to Ivy.

Transformation: What it means to Ivy

This theme appeares a lot in Ivy’s story. Her first instance of transformation is with Woodrue who experiments on her- transforming her body and mind against her will. He’s the one who first introduces this concept of “out with the old- in with the new”- something we end up seeing a lot of in Ivy’s ideology. “Nature is not sentimental” Woodrue says, “the strong consume the weak… this is the virtuous cycle.” The fact that “Virtuous Cycle” is the title of Vol. 1 should tell us a bit about how much Ivy has carried these ideas with her (more on that later).

[ID: A picture from the comic depicting Ivy's flashback to Woodrue's experiment. Narration: "She thinks it's going to kill her." Woodrue: "Nature is not sentimental. The strong consume the weak and then excrete them to fertilize the earth. That is the virtuous cycle. Consume. Digest. Renew." /end ID]

Like many villains (and heroes for that matter), she draws a clear line between her two identities. In her eyes, the identity of “Pamela Isley” represents everything wrong with humanity: she’s shortsighted and can’t see the bigger picture beyond her own emotions and she failed to acheive her goals because of her human need for love and validation. The identity of “Poison Ivy,” however, has embraced her transformation and has let her old identity be completely eradicated. Ivy isn’t human, she’s Greater, More Than human. She can see the bigger picture, the one humans could see if they weren’t so wrapped up in their silly mortal relationships. Poison Ivy is untouchable. 

Until she’s not. Until her body is transformed against her will once again at the end of “Fear State,” but this time not into something stronger or greater. Although Ivy’s anger at Harley (issue #1) is in no way justified, it makes a little more sense when you consider how reminiscent this is of her backstory: changed forever against her will by the actions of someone she loves, cutting her off from her relationships (with Woodrue her green skin and powers/pheremones cut her off from humans, with Harley and Gardner she was cut off from her relationships with plants and the Green), and destroying all of her ideas for what her future would look like. 

[ID: A picture from the comic where Ivy is losing her green skintone and preparing to drink the vial of Ophiocordyceps Lamia. Narration: "Every day I lose a little more of the power of Queen Ivy. Soon enough I'll be back to my old self. As the invincible parts of me die away. But there is one last chance to salvage something from all this. One final opportunity to carry out the will of the Green..." /end ID]

Of course Harley didn’t know that would happen and had just wanted to save her girlfriend, but she, and the readers, can also understand how triggering and painful it must have been for Ivy and that it’s realistic for her to lash out at first. What Harley doesn’t see is this: That Ivy’s spent years hating her past self and seeing Pamela Isley as the epitome of human weakness- and now she’s her again. From here on out, Pamela’s views of humanity as a whole are directly related to her view of herself. She thinks that humans aren’t essential to the environment, so she tells Harley “you saved the parts of me that didn’t mtter”.  She beleives all of humanity must die via the Opiocordyceps Lamia, and although she makes an exception for Harley she doesn’t make one for herself. In her conversation with dream Harley, what they say (“It’s not too late to fix a mistake.”/“I wish that were true.” etc.) could be applied to either humanity as a whole or to Ivy’s view of herself as broken and unfixable. And, as her view of herself evolves, her view of humanity evolves with it. 

[ID: Image one. Ivy and Harley are having an argument after Ivy has lost her connection to the Green. Harley: "We were trying to save your life!" Ivy: "You saved the parts of me that didn't matter!" Image two. A shot of a man consumed by the Ophiocordyceps Lamia. Narration: "Sucking up every resource on this planet until all that's left is a ball of superheated concrete. The only way to save this beatiful marble is to get rid of us. Every one of us. Even me. Because there is only one person who deserves all this beauty. And that's you." /end ID]

To carry out her new plan, Pamela goes “back to the beginning” and steals the Opiocordyceps Lamia from Jason Woodrue. It’s clear she still feels that she needs something from Woodrue in order to be Poison Ivy- after all, he’s her creator. Her breakup with Harley and her plans going forward seem to have grown from her desperate desire to prove that she’s still not entirely human, and won’t make human mistakes. In the first few issues, we get the sense that she would (at this point in her story) rather die than be Pamela Isley again. For her, escaping Pamela Isley means embracing the ideology of the man that killed her. Of course, Ivy doesn’t see it that way, but it’s not hard for us to see in the way she attempts to transform the other humans against their will like what Woodrue did to her. Watching the human’s shock and betrayal fade into awe that the beauty of the Green is reminiscent of how Ivy herself learned to love her connection to the Green despite the pain of her original transformation.

[ID: A scene from the comic where Janet is talking with Ivy while being consumed by the Ophiocordyceps Lamia. Narration: "Janet is part of something else now. Part of the life cycle of this riverbank." Janet: It's so beautiful. So clean. Like starting over." Ivy: "Right? Now you can see it too." Janet: "I want to see everything like you see. Take me with you. I don't want to go back to... to that." /end ID]

She also inherits Woodrue’s view of the natural world as something detatched from humanity with no room for human kindness and love (JW: “Nature is not sentimental”/PI: “Nature isn’t cruel, just efficient”). The same way Ivy unknowingly spreads Woodrues ideology, she is also unknowingly spreading his mind control virus in the form of Opiocordyceps Lamia. Throughout the story, transformation is a force of evil, violating someone’s autonomy in an attempt to make them a vessel for something greater. Yet the creator can never really control what people transform into…

Change: What it means to Ivy

Change is never on the table for Ivy. She is transformed by Woodrue and in turn tries to transform the planet and humanity. In every instance, whether it be about society or Ivy herself, her mindset is always that change is too late. Our life courses are set in stone by our own nature unless we are transformed by some greater force. This is why Ivy seeks out Woodrue after losing her connection to the Green, and why she is so focused on following the “will of the Green” rather than doing what she wants to. She doesn’t trust herself to make the right decisions (she’s been wrong too many times) so instead she wants some Other Force to transform her into someone who doesn’t make human mistakes. This rejection of change and worship of transformation was the basis of Ivy’s ideology. Until…

…Harley Quinn! Seeing Harley in this comic always brings with it a mild sense of disbelief. She seems so out of place within the comic’s mood and aesthetic… and I realized that it’s for a good reason. Harley Quinn is the epitome of change, she’s multifaceted and unpredictable and her path in life is never fixed. First she was going to become a gymnast, but then she was a psychologist, but then she fell in love with the Joker, but then she left him, but then she went back, and just when you think you see a pattern, when you think you know what she’ll do next, Harley does something else. She breaks up with the Joker for good, she falls in love with Ivy, they break up but not really, she starts to become a hero but her redemption arc itself is filled with messiness and unpredictability and all of it was her choice. Sure there was more than a little manipulation on the Joker’s part, but at the end of the day Harley chose to jump into that vat of acid— she wasn’t pushed.

[ID: Image one. A picture from the Gardener Files comic showing Ivy in a cell meeting Harley. Bella's Narration: "After years trapped in an echo chamber of her own dark thought, a woman was place in an adjacent cell. A young woman madle in love with a monster, trapped in a cycle of abuse. Harley Quinn." Image two. A scene from the end of the Fear State saga with Harley and Ivy talking. Ivy: "There's one more thing I need to to..." Ivy pulls Harley closer with vines. Harley: "Hoo-boy... Pammy... I know this is a lot to process and you don't like when I get all meddly... but I'm trying to be a good guy and save the city and junk-" Ivy: "Harley, stop talking." Harley: "Okay." The two kiss. Image three. Harley and Ivy from Ivy's dream in Poison Ivy (2022). Ivy: "I can't. I've gone to far to turn back now." Dream Harley: "It's never too late to fix a mistake." /end ID]

In every respect, Harley’s mere existence is the most persuasive argument against Ivy’s ideology. Although this might seem like a roadblock in their relationship, it’s actually the reson Ivy loves her so much. Harley’s ability to change is everything Ivy wishes humanity (and herself) could be. If more people were like Harley, not held back by societal norms and not paralyzed by the fear that it’s “too late” to change, then maybe Ivy could have more hope for humanity. (I can imagine Ivy, bored and self-righteous, meeting Dr. Quinzel for the first time, thinking she knows exactly what to expect from a young, naive psychologist. Then beginning to fall for Harley as she smashes Ivy’s expections again and again. That’s what a good joke is after all: building up an expectation and then subverting it. Anyways. Back to Ivy).

Ivy's Arc

Ultimately, Ivy/Pamela’s story is about her relationship to her own humanity, and the other characters’ role in the plot is to tug Pamela back and forth between two perspectives: Humanity (and by extension, Pamela) being irredeeamble and in need of a deadly transformation, vs humanity (and Pamela) having inherent value and being capable of changing and turning things around. Woodrue beleives that the only way to thrive in this dying world is to take advantage of the struggle around him to benefit himself. This is reflected in George Holloran, the boss at the packaging company Ivy works at for all of ten minutes (issue #4). Like Woodrue, he accepts the state of the world with no attempt to change anything, deciding to climb to the top of the hierarchy instead of trying to dismantle it. The guys at the bar (#1) also mirror this with their focus on satisfying their own desire rather than treat a woman with respect and (unlike Harley) do not stray even a little from Ivy’s expectations. They and Woodrue represent Ivy’s worst assumptions about humanity: that everyone is ruled by their own desire for power and pleasure and are incapable of changing or growing because of how society has shaped them. 

[ID: A panel of Jason Woodrue as Floronic Man. Woodrue: "This planet is too far gone to save, Pamela. It needs a revolution, but all it wants is a band-aid. So we might as well make millions selling band-aids." /end ID]

[ID: A scene where George Halloran is being consumed by the Ophiocordyceps Lamia. George: "It's just hard, you know? To be the boss. At first you want everybody to like you. Th-then you realize it doesn't work. They hate you anyway. Because you're all in the same system. And the system chews people up. S-so you start to do things you shouldn't because you start to hate them back. You f-figure out that fear is more effective than love. And that's... when it all... goes dark." /end ID]

On the other hand, however, are characters like Jesslyn and Timothy at the packaging company (#4), Carrie at the motel (#3), Jenny Bolger at the restaurant (#2), and of course, Harley Quinn. Other than Harley, all of these characters are people struggling to make meaningful change in the confines of their normal lives under capitalism. Whether it’s through art, human connection, or focusing on a small peice of earth you can control, these people show Ivy what change looks like. It’s not as flashy and sudden as Ivy’s plan to transform everyone, and these aren’t the kind of stories Ivy would’ve known about had she simply looked on the news. But the willingness of all these people to at least try to help the world and each other is enough to make Ivy question her assumptions on the fixedness of human nature. 

[ID: Two panels, one with Ivy and one with Carrie, the lady Ivy meets at the motel. Narration: "It's too early to make exceptions. Yet somehow, that's exactly what I find myself doing." Ivy: "-I don't want to get dirt all over you." Carrie: "Well. Suit yourself." /end ID]

When on her own, Ivy has no particular character growth, but when she is with these people, the good people, or when she has memories of Harley, those are the moments we see her grow and change. Ivy says she has faith in the world while working with Carrie, and her will to live comes back after sleeping with Jesslyn. And of course, everything always comes back to Harley, the love of her life. In the end, Ivy defeats Woodrue not because of her ideology but because he made the mistake of threatening Harley. This is the moment a lot of her developement has been leading up to. She’s lost all her powers, even the ones given to her by the Lamia. Like when she first became Poison Ivy, Woodrue has complete control over her body. Like before, she had trusted his science when she shouldn’t have. Manipulated, weak, and abandoned by the Green, there is barely anything left of Poison Ivy. She is almost entirely human. Almost entirely Pamela. Finally, she has no choice but to rely on her human instincts- her love for, and desire to protect, another human. And it works. Pamela Isley succeeded where Poison Ivy failed because of  her humanity- not in spite of it.

[ID: A scene with Ivy and Woodrue in the comic, Woodure is forcing Ivy to hold a knife to her own neck via the Ophiocordyceps Lamia. Narration: "-simply have to accept that you've failed. Your enemy has won. And no one is coming to help." Woodrue: "And then I'm going to track down your little blonde girlfriend. --And I'm doing to turn her inside out. Not for any scientific purposes. Just because I can." Narration: "But that's not what happened this time." /end ID]

This is what ultimately opens her eyes to how, actually, these human instincts and human desires are what’s going to save the world. Her desire to protect Harley is the same as her deisre to protect the planet, which is the same as Carrie’s drive to save the plot of land by the motel, which is the same as Jenny’s drive to create art, and Jesslyn and Timothy’s drive to reach out to others and support each other in a hostile environment. After meeting a child and sensing the ecosystems he contained, Pamela comes to the conclusion that “we are the Green”. She realizes that our humanity is a feature, not a bug. We were designed to be here, and to love and protect the world and people around us. It’s when some people deny their humanity (for personal gain like Woodrue, or fear and self-hate like Ivy) that we start causing harm. 

[ID: A scene from the comic where Ivy is picturing the faces of Jesslyn, Jenny and the nice guy from the restaurant. Narration: "Home. The only home any of us will ever have. Because nobody without billions of dollars to burn is going anywhere. And because-- after all-- we're not so bad. We can still gorw things. Gardens. Communities. Friendships. Against all odds. I realize, here at the end of everything, that I've been fighting the wrong people. Because it was easier. Easier than fighting the real enemies." /end ID]

[ID: A scene where Ivy is reaching out to a child who's handing her back her scarf. Narration: "--but when I look at this child, I see more than just one individual. We float in our own ecosystem of symbiotic bacteria. We exhale and the trees inhale. Billions of tiny organisms call our bodies home. To the microscopic beings alive on his skin, this child is the entire universe." Ivy: "...We are the Green." /end ID]

In eating Woodrue’s corpse (Iconic, by the way), she shows that she understands now that the blame for what he did to her lies with him, not her. In the end, she tells Harley that she “made me understand that we have to protect what is truly precious.” In other words, helped Ivy understand that protecting people is protecting the Green. She signs her name as “Pammy”, not “Ivy” or “Ives”. Maybe this is just because Harley calls her that, or maybe it’s because the identity of Pamela Isley has finally proven herself to Ivy.

[ID: A comic scene of Harley Quinn reading Ivy's letter (which is also the narration.) Narration/Letter: " --you've made me understand that we have to protect what is truly precious. I love you. And only you. Until the end of the world. No matter what. Always and forever, Your Pammy." /end ID]

If you read this far, THANK YOU!!! I love analysing stuff and hope to put out some more Poison Ivy analysis in the future. In the meantime, I really, really appreciate any comments, questions, or even disagreements. I would love nothing more than to have a conversation about Poison Ivy in the notes.

[spro-o]

So I’ve seen that you draw the sins and other’s characters with different ethnicity’s, I was wondering if you had any specific races for them? I just find your art style so beautiful, but I was curious if anyone was a specific race you head canon them as.

sorry for taking so long!! house md hyperfixation had me in a chokehold (binged all 8 seasons), but anyways!!

i've been think about this and here are my ideas :3 btw, these are for a modern!AU (in which i'd HC that all the events happen in England, since the likelihood of you encountering such a strange group is much higher in a city like London), since if i was sticking more closely to canon it'd be pretty boring since they'd all be Scottish 💀

Meliodas (+ Zeldris): BRASIL NÚMERO UM CARALHO ‼️‼️ sorry but there's just something about them,,, they'd def be Brazilian (and mixed, in terms of skin tone)

Diane: Scottish (and Black) - this one i don't really have proper reasoning for aside from the vibes that the giants' land has just fits best with where it is canon - rocky landscape with few trees, pretty cold, etc. and also i don't know where it started but the collective HC of Diane being Black has made it so that i genuinely forget she's real pale in the canon

King (+ Elaine): English - the royal vibes make me think posh English lads - they are absolutely the British stereotype and feed into it unknowingly (they'd be rather pale, with a tendency to get freckles)

Ban: Russian (or any other flavour Slavic) (i feel too guilty and self indulgent HCing him as Polish,,,, but i want to😭) - i also HC him as albino in the modern!AU, if we're being more realistic, which i should def do some fanart of sometime

Gowther: South Korean - methinks it just fits with their fashion sense and mannerisms - they absolutely indulge in all kinds of Korean and Japanese dramas/shows/movies (they'd be on the tanner side)

Merlin: Welsh - mage,,, wizard lady,,,, speaking niche languages,,, yeah, Welsh,, tho i do think she has somehow managed to learn like 7 different languages and visit close to every country on earth - something something endless pursuit of knowledge (i think she'd be pretty pale, as when she isn't out on the other side of the world, she's indoors, barely getting any sun)

Escanor: Spanish - also would have dark skin, since i HC one of his parents as being Moroccan. source? reason?? my beautiful brain

Elizabeth: French - same reason as King and Elaine, the typical royal vibes just drew me to these decisions (tho, alternatively, i do think she would also fit being from England) (either way, she'd also be pretty pale)

so yeah!! thats what i came up with, but id be very curious to hear any other ideas/HCs y'all have :3c

[ask-the-dunmeshi-biologists]

What does a scientist illusttaor do? I wanted to be one when I was little, and even though I have different dreams now, I still practice drawing plants and animal around me as best I can when I'm at parks and such.

This is going to be really silly, cuz I know objectively it's an important job, but like, um, what do scientific illustrators do for science aside from make realistic illustrations for animals? What exactly does the kob entail? Is it fun? Sorry my question was definitely worded rudely I'm not quite sure how to ask it I just genuinely want to know how scientific illustrator niche fits into the wonderful world of science!

[Velwyrm: Hello there! Scientific Illustration, although not outwardly impacting research, is a fundamentally incredibly important part of the school of science! I’m glad you asked, because there is SO many amazing things that you can do with this skill.

Scientific Illustration is the skill of drawing accurate, precise drawings of scientific diagrams (bio, chemistry and physics all use these). They can be very simple, such as those seen in textbooks, or incredibly detailed, like many of the dinosaur illustrators we see today that use the most updated information available to visualise what the animal would have looked like. This is very important in the context of museum specimens and paleobiology, as fluid preserved specimens quickly bleach & loose colour, and bones can only help people visualise an animal so much.

Scientific Illustration is also used outside of the context of scientific research (though it is used in various papers and posters to gain funding, e.g. in medicine). For example, in advertising, marketing, raising money for volunteering organisations (clearing invasive species — sometimes illustrations are vastly clearer than photographs when IDing) and childrens books, or animal dictionaries that I used to love reading as a kid!

If you or anyone else is thinking of pursuing this career or hobby, then helps to have a degree in biology or other sciences (especially illustrating for medical purposes), but you don’t necessarily need one if you’re very very lucky. There’s a few short courses on Skillshare for animal illustration if you want to give it a try, but I personally would recommend getting a degree in one of the sciences though as it would open a lot more doors and opportunities.

Art and science truly do go hand in hand!]

[t34-mt]

unfinished pieces of 2022

I lied the last one is from this month, pieces are in order from oldest to newest so the first two have missing stuff from the current Canon.

Small explanations of each images below - >

first features tamtam and his white cazoar reaching the southern coast for the first time, in a strongly idealized view of the real crossing. I absolutely love to remake it one day as this is quite old and features off-saddle, clothing, and even cazoar anatomy (long tail), id like to have this remade alongside a historically accurate one in a single post. Just to show how the "realistic" oil paintings (a technique created in late AOS by kyhuines) were commissioned to romanticize reality and make it glorious. To be then used as propaganda for GA (in kaar'kchir). the drawing itself feels super empty and i just didn't know what do do to fix it, so i abandoned it!

The second is about south-west kyhuines ( because of blue gular skin) relaxing in their typical highly climbable city, with a female having a snack and a male with smoke coming out of opperculums, background as family groups that i initially wanted them to eat together, on the wall behind them i was planning on decorating it with neolithic like cave paintings. the drawing was started before i gave them tahofahs so in the piece its missing on the two kyhuines you see. started this drawing on FA then got bored of that program to go back on ms paint for the render, i feel like its a bit too decorated for a kyhuine town, just something about it isn't good so i won't continue.

and now for last! just a sub-adult (no blue feather reflection or white undercoats) north-east maanul (characterized by having dark feathers due to the rock coloration there, from ancient volcanic activities. and also having the ear hood skin covered in feathers) going out for a hunt in the large open sea. as maanuls live in coast and cliffs, with it the sea sometimes cut in two parts, by natural rock formation, large mangrove roots or even corals. hunting is done by going in the open sea, usually with several people, using primitive yet efficient harpoons. I wanted to add a marine animal under them that is just curious about the maanul, but i left that drawing so now it will be a blob of color with white under! the maanul isn't wearing anything which isn't normal, while rendering i was planning on adding minimal bracelets, necklaces, and a bit more, as the rest would be left at home.

plus sub-adults don't have access to certain types of permanent jewels as well as dyes, scarifications, and tattoos so they're naturally less decorated. also,peaking out the head to probably look at something interesting, not to breathe! with tahofahs hanging out to smell, when diving back it will be retracted as if wet its almost impossible to smell for several minutes.

[yellow-computer-mouse]

isopods 🫵

I LOVE ISOPODS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay so!!! you probably know them as a:

roly-poly

pillbug

sowbug

woodlouse

potato bug

[plain text: roly-poly, pillbug, sowbug, woodlouse, potato bug]

or any other regional nickname! i have noticed that cubaris and armadillidium species normally get roly poly or potato bug, while porcellio get sowbug or woodlouse!

Some terminology:

Cephalothorax: The head (1st segment)

Pereon: The abdomen (2-7th segments)

Pleon: The tail (Final 5 segments. These are much smaller)

Pereopods: The legs (7 pairs)

Gonads: Sexual organs (located under the pleon)

[plain text: Cephalothorax: The head (1st segment), Pereon: The abdomen (2-7th segments), Pleons: The tail (Final 5 segments. These are much smaller), Pereopods: The legs (7 pairs), Gonads: Sexual organs (located under the pleon)]

SO!!! there are three main species of terrestrial isopods (that I know lol)

.....

Armadillidium:

Your typical roly-poly. This is the dark grey, perfectly round little guy you'll find in your backyard. A classic!

[ID: Two Armadillidium isopods. One is dark grey and very round, and the other is slightly orange-tinted and a little flatter. They are on a pinkish-orange rocky background. End ID]

.....

Porcellio:

These are the really fast ones that look more like lobsters. You know, the ones with the lighter ridges along their sides? Those guys. They can't roll up like an Armadillidium, but they do flex their abdomens like a lobster! Also, sometimes they play dead. I don't know if they're meant to do this, but I've seen it. It's very convincing!

(This is an ABSOLUTE UNIT of an isopod btw. Why are you so big. Calm down. Easy on the protein shakes bro.)

[ID: A Porcellio isopod. It is a dark grey-brown, with light orange ridges along the side of its body. It appears to have small bumps along its back. It is standing on the palm of someone's hand. End ID]

.....

Cubaris:

These are the really fancy isopods that you'd buy from a breeder. They have a slightly different face shape. Also, they're adorable. My favorites are lemon blues or rubber duckies! (Both images included.)

[Left ID: Several large and small lemon blue isopods on a log. Right ID: A close-up of a rubber ducky isopod with two babies. They are standing on a sandy substrate. End IDs]

.....

My all-time favorite isopod is the Thai Spiky Isopod. I can't find a species for it, so it's just under the general family Isopoda. I love it ver much tho!!!

[ID: An isopod on a leaf. It is dark brown with two off-white segments in the middle and is covered in small, rounded spikes. Its head and pleon are a lighter brown. End ID]

..... Here's how to sex an isopod!

[ID: A realistic drawing of a terrestrial isopod, showing anatomy. It shows an isopod from its top and its right, as well as a close-up of the gonads. It appears to be a Porcellio isopod. The drawing highlights the cephalothorax, the person, the pleon, the pereopods, the antennae, and the male and female gonads. End ID]

.....

Fun facts!:

Male isopods have two penises!

Isopods have gills; yes, even these terrestrial ones!

They need to keep their gills moist to breathe.

Despite having gills, they will drown if completely submerged in water!

Isopods molt! They also eat their shed!

[plain text: Male isopods have two penises! Isopods have gills; yes, even these terrestrial ones! They need to keep their gills moist to breathe. Despite having gills, they will drown if completely submerged in water! Isopods molt! They also eat their shed!]

.....

that's all my yapping! thank you so much! also sorry not sorry for the essay lol