#stuff discussion

[violetthecreature]

for my first post for this blog where i discuss stuff about things i make, i present a redesign

the old design is the odd one out, the new design is everywhere on the page

princess mako is the heir to a monarch in a non-descript plant-like kingdom. the kingdom's duty to preserve and maintain a giant tree which houses the kingdom as a whole. due to an incident concerning ancient artifacts and a dog-cat kleptomaniac (unrelated to the kingdom but to the wider world instead), she takes it upon herself to join the band of misfits which includes said dog-cat creature, a bat thief, and the last surviving child of an extinct species, to solve the problems caused by the misplaced artifact

now, its not that there's something inherently wrong with the original design, moreso that theres nothing about it thats any interesting. its a dryad-like creature that wears leaves for clothing and a makopa (java apple) on its head acting like a crown of sorts.

as a matter of fact i wasnt even planning on redesigning her until i tried drawing her from memory and then that drawing on the bottom left came out of it. then the ideas kept flowing and i came out with that design. while the second design doesnt really tie her into her role or into her story, it actually does try to aim for something more than just "green human"

her head is a fruit-like bulb and everything branches out from the bulb. the overgrown leaves on the top act as her hair. the tendrils that sprout out from the bottom hold tight to the sticks which act as her legs and let her stand up in some way. vines irl use any sturdy object to let them off the ground so the sticks being used like walking aides feels natural if not a little tacked on

the makopa crown and the leafy shawl do still stay from her original design because i saw no reason to change or remove them

and that was my thought process for redesigning one of my old ocs! i may make a third design because the second one does feel like something is still missing for me to consider it complete. the sassy look from the original got scrubbed off in the new one but I'd honestly argue that it was an accident on the original. its a princess from a closed off kingdom of large tree, why would she appear as anything but "prim and proper". she can still be sassy in attitude when she joins the misfits and gets a taste of control for the first time. thats all i have to say sooooooo seeya

[somewhereincairparavel]

"jason is a knockoff watered down percy" NO hear me out, jason actually parallels annabeth immensely, sharing SO many similarities with her personality, not percy, in this essay I will-

edit: my full analysis is out now! here

[ddddd-pixels]

For International Asexuality Day, I'm hitting you all with the Ace Beam. ☺️

(This took a lot more effort than I thought it would, lol...)

Edit: 800 notes?! In less than five hours?! Thank you all so much!!

Edit 2: 2000... The most I got on any post before was just over a hundred, lol. You are all so nice!

[australet789]

Some assholes on Instagram saying that Epic fans are "gaslighting" themselves about Odysseus being faithful to Penelope because of the Circe part and being pretentious about it and how we are stupid for considering The Odyssey romantic

Motherfucker

1. The Odyssey is an epic poem we all fucking know that? That it's a tragedy, technically comedy (comedy in ancient literature used to mean "happy ending", not funny stuff)

2. The Circe bit can be interpreted in different ways, as if it was fully consensual or not or just a transaction. There was still a difference in power dynamics, which was 100% mentioned by Calypso in the beginning, but if you choose to ignore that part if the same as saying some of Zeus' kids were ok to be conceived because the women agreeded to what A GOD wanted.

3. Obviously Epic!Odysseus is differente from Homer!Odysseus, but trying to say Homer! Odysseus is a horrible person that fully wanted to cheat on Penelope just because you want to defend ALEXANDER HAMILTON, i have bad news about you.

4. "The crew had to beg to go back!" I read the Odyssey too. As a child and a few days ago. They stayed on Circe's island to rest so Odysseus job as a captain was literally wait until his crew told him they were ready to leave, specially after what they have lived. Odysseus didnt force anyone to stay in that island, when the crew went "oh, sir, we miss our families, please lets go back now, yes?" Odysseus immediately said "ok". It literally felt like a father waiting for the kids to stop playing in the playground.

5. Homer!Odysseus is not perfect, at all (man killed his disloyal maids because he didnt want to deal with shit anymore, even if they also were coerced/raped by the suitors), but come with a better gotcha than Circe. You are just fixiated on the Telegony and it shows.

6. Idk what to tell you, but if you think renouncing a life with two inmortal godesses (one of whom offered you immortality), traveling for 10 years defying a God's rage, killing 108 men who wanted to marry your wife (and ruined your house), almost killed yourself when said wife rejected you only for her to go "haha i was just testing you, silly :)", have your literally marriage have a word created for you two specifically is not romantic... Idk go read Bridgerton

[bunnis-monsters]

People who hate on reader inserts will not survive the winter.

Fanfiction writers keep your fandoms alive, and that includes reader inserts writers.

[transgwender616]

Monsterfucking is so normalized on Tumblr I kinda forgot it even counted as a kink. I thought it was like liking boobs on girls. The basic normal stuff most people like.

[umblrspectrum]

tessa, being the edgy little freak she is, obviously took the original darkxwolf username

[teratomatica]

you always land on all fours

[thatwavephenomenon]

Do not think about Anders having to write copies upon copies of his manifesto by hand. His manifesto has to be sent or handed to people, as many people as possible, in order for things to change. He has to convince them. They have to read it, they must. So he makes copies to hand out. By himself. Because he could never afford to have it printed. Printing is way, way too expensive. He knows it. One of his best friends, Varric Tethras, is a writer who keep having books published, but Varric is also well-off enough to cover any unexpected cost. Still, Varric isn't interested in his fight, and any printing shop who would dare to risk being under templar's scrutiny for helping him would surely ask an exorbitant fee, and Anders could never repay such a huge favor. So he write all those copies by hand, for hours. Because people has to read them for things to change. But they do not in the end. They do not read them. Not even his own friends read them.

[teaboot]

Social anxiety level: Chatting with someone experiencing a schizophrenic episode and becoming increasingly self-concious of how I'm just saying "That sounds really stressful", "I've never heard of that but it sounds scary", and "You must be pretty worried about that" over and over again

[nonbinary-vents]

A lot of non Jews just do not understand ashkenormativity and what non Ashkie Jews mean when we try to discuss it, and it’s really getting infuriating to me. Non Jews think ashkenormativity equals Ashkenazim being like, the privileged oppressors of all Jews, when that is just… completely not the case, and sometimes actually the invert— the early 20th century, for example, was not a good time to be Ashkenazi among other Jews, Samech Tet supremacy was a pretty big thing. Ashkenazim do not have a ‘one up’ on other Jews when it comes to how Jew haters see us, in fact, there’s actually some specifically Ashkenazi specific bigotries and conspiracy theories, things like Khazar conspiracy or chunks of leftists Jew hatred.

Some examples of actual ashkenormativity is the neglect to try to preserve and document Jewish diasporic languages that aren’t Yiddish, or the heavy focus on Ashkenazi history and oppression while downplaying everything else— I can not sit through another Jew trying to say that Jews had it good as Dhimmis or that Mizrachim were living it up with the Islamic countries until we got expelled, please I will explode—, or acting like the epitome of Jewish food is Kugel and Latkes, or the generalisation of non-Ashkie Jews as one cultural group, or the way Mizrachi culture has been looked down upon and seen as ‘primitive’, and are you seeing the pattern yet? Ashkenormativity is an intracommunity issue, and it works fundamentally differently to how most non-Jews think they understand it. It’s mostly based on the idea of neglect and the centralising of Ashkie experiences, not whatever weird idea you have of ‘Jewish racism’. If you’re trying to define it as that, then you’ve fallen for some intense disinformation and propaganda, or you yourself are knowingly spreading that to demonise Ashkenazim. Frankly, I really don’t want any non-Jews to be involved in these things at all, because it’s a self contained Jewish issue, meaning that outside communities can’t really change or work on the problem. It has to come internally.

There are a lot of things I want the Jewish community to improve on when it comes to non-Ashkenazi subcultures. I want things like my family’s customs, diasporic languages, cultural tales, foods, all of that to be preserved, cared for, and revitalised in the same way that many Ashkenazi counterparts are. I want the neglect of our Jewish subcultures to improve. I want to not feel like crying when I hear about how my mother grew up being looked down upon and being embarrassed to be spoken to in her mother’s native language in public, I want to be able to know that’s a complete thing of the past and there’s nothing that resembles it at all now. I want to be recognised properly.

I do not want, in any way shape or form, to make Ashkenazim less safe, or have Ashkenazi culture be less cared for.

Trying to tear down Ashkenazim, who are just as vulnerable to the non-Jewish world as the rest of us are, who need just as much help and respect from the people on the outside, and whose cultures are just as valuable, just as beautiful and integral to the Jewish people as anything else, that is evil. It’s just evil.

[soulbrand]

man you all were not kidding abt the therapyspeak in veilguard.

[bisexual-king-icon-tonystark]

the most devastating thing a ficwriter can do is delete their fic. i make a desperate appeal to all ficwriters, please, even if you think your work is shit, leave it on fanfic sites anyway. any piece of your work that you have done is extremely valuable and valid.

[cacodaemonia]

I have several recommendations for addressing the specter of compulsory sexuality—and the marginalization of asexual people—within sex positive frameworks. ... Third, sex positive frameworks should avoid a narrow focus on guilt and shame that solely emphasizes guilt and shame associated with the presence of sexual desire/activity. Sex positive frameworks should also emphasize that guilt and shame can be associated with the absence of sexual desire/activity.

[avpdpossum]

can we talk more about avpd being a (proposed) schizospec disorder? because i almost never see that theory talked about but i wish it was. like…

avpd makes me censor my thoughts because i think someone might hear what i’m thinking and see what a horrible person i am on the inside or judge me for thinking embarrassing things.

avpd makes me so afraid of someone walking in on me doing something i Shouldn’t Be Doing that my brain twists background noise into the sounds of whispers and footsteps behind me.

avpd makes me so worried about people staring at me that in my peripheral vision, anyone near me looks like they’re already staring at me, and it’s only when i look at them directly that i realize they’ve been looking in a totally different direction the whole time.

avpd makes me so convinced of how much everyone must secretly hate me that i often start thinking everyone secretly wants to hurt me too, to the point where i’ve had panic attacks from a person walking too close behind me because i feel like they’re getting ready to attack me (when i haven’t had any kind of trauma that would create that fear), and the paranoia just serves to reinforce my need to avoid people.

avpd makes me lose my ability to speak or reduces it to nothing more than one word answers only when spoken to, turning the thoughts i wanted to express into a jumble that’s impossible to turn into words or just throwing them away completely and making my mind go blank, so i end up just staring at people silently or even acting like i don’t see them standing there at all (not on purpose but because my brain won’t let me engage with them).

avpd makes me look damn near emotionless around everyone but my safe person (and sometimes even around my safe person) because showing my emotions would be far too vulnerable for its liking, so it completely takes away my ability to express them.

and i could keep going! there are so many things i experience because of avpd that i’ve seen really closely reflected in the experiences of schizospec people. i don’t know how common these kinds of things are in avpd overall, but they’re a really prominent part of my experience with it, so when i found out that some research suggested it could be considered a schizospec disorder itself, that made so much sense to me! and i’d be so curious to see how many other avoidants have dealt with this stuff but haven’t talked about it because it’s never mentioned as being part of avpd.