#these r my kind of dark energy girlies!

[supercomms]

these little bitches are absolutely deranged! good for them! good for them

[saltwukong]

I'll bite, how?

Both RWBY stans and RWDE consistently miscast and misrepresent the style and aesthetics of the characters they obsess over in almost identical ways. Ask me how.

RWBY stans want everything as qu**r as possible to prop up RWBY as a progressive show, and can therefore commonly be found painting Yang as some kind of butch lesbian dream with abs and muscles galore, despite the fact that Yang is about as butch as I am (hint: not at all).

RWDE types, on the other hand, want to misremember older RWBY as more inherently qu**r (I'm using that word to satisfy y'all, not me) so that they can decry what Rooster Teeth ruined and took from them, despite the fact that there's more than enough reasons to hate Rooster Teeth without making shit up. Couldn't find it again (not that I care about anyone who catches strays, y'all know me, I'll vibe check my best friends), but I've seen people refer to Ruby as butch and Blake as gnc. Not new Blake--old Blake, with the cleaver sword.

What part of this is gender-nonconforming to you? Is it the bow? The high heels? The thigh-high stockings? The exposed midriff? There is not a single member of RWBY who is butch or gender nonconforming. And you know why?

Cause that wasn't in vogue. That hadn't taken off yet. What was in vogue at the time was feminist fantasy. Girl power. Girly girls glittering and high heel-ing their way through battle. And that's why the members of Team RWBY look the way they do--feminine. Ruby's goth feminine. Yang's aggressively feminine. Weiss is princess feminine. Yang dresses for the male gaze, skirts are everywhere, and even Blake, an anti-establishment rebel who sleeps in tents, looks suitably dark feminine.

Here's the thing: that's not a bad thing. For what it was at the time, RWBY as the girl power fantasy that was every bit as actionized and violent as the male version tends to be was incredibly attractive as a concept. Hell, it still is.

Yang doesn't have abs, she never has, she never will, and that's okay. It doesn't take away from her. Her lack of abs isn't a problem on its own, it's not a flaw. There's no reason she should or shouldn't, they're not a required feature for someone at her tier of 'anime'. It becomes a problem when you consider the idea she won't ever have them because Miles personally wouldn't find it attractive, but that's still another story than what Yang actually was concepted as and made it into Poser as.

I once saw someone refer to Adam Taurus' (who definitely suffered under RT) original design as 'the most bisexual-looking character in the show' and gurl, that was a man in a suit, slacks, and loafers--calm down. It was far and away less lgbt-looking than the Grimmjow model he was actually sculpted from. Same energy as when I see kpop fans referring to a man's look as "cunty" and it's just a dude in a tank top.

Sometimes this happens with race, too. I see people claiming RT whitewashed the fuck out of Sun Wukong when the switch to Maya came, and then in the two screenshots provided he looks exactly the same.

RWBY as characters lost a lot when Rooster Teeth started changing their appearances, but qu**rness wasn't one of them, because the truth is that RWBY has just never been a very qu**r show. It was barely feminist in 2013, and even in its glory days, it was still pretty straight and cis and within cultural trends. It doesn't make sense to turn classic RWBY into something it wasn't just to exhaustively mourn what you were robbed of, especially when in truth quite a lot of these people weren't around then to get robbed in the first place.

[spr1g4t1t0]

i think i just made a breakthrough with my ocs

so i have these two ocs, who origianally had nothing in common (inka and skyler, ill have to di a whole essay about those two because its complicated) and i figured out theyre origins. inka was a characyer i had to make for an english project on villians, and skyler was originally an oc x canon girly. these two get their names and designs changed to fit whatever universe im shoving them into, whether its pjo or pokemon!! im planning on writing a book and these two r in it just under dif names (Melantha and Amarantha (WHY ARE THE NAMES SO SIMILAR HUH)) and as i explained it once "its like pjo, but lesbin, british, more angsty, and kind of ran like the hunger games in some aspects" (idk if i plan on ever publishing but like...)

mels godly parent is poseidon, and amaras is aphrodite. heres the thing, theyre personalitlieies and actions in this book are extremely different to theior og designs.

inka is harsh, and cold, she doesnt care what pther people think and is sick of being the golden child, she lashes out and is the oldest of 16 kids. shes cursed, and alone but she doesnt care. she just pushes herself until she starts pushing others

skyler is an absolute harlot, she has a severe aversion to all substances, smoking and alcohol but is the personification of a racoon, she stays up all night, and her house is always trashed. she had an extremely rough childhood, and lives off energy drinks. shes insecure, but other people like her so she has to put herself out there to be able to make a living.

vs

amara has experienced much grief, shes a child of aphrodite so she has many siblings who love her, and support her but none can quite sympathise with her greif and how she feels after loosing one of her best friends. shes the opposite of what youd expect from an aphrodite kid, with choppy hair, and punk clothes that are often torn to shreds, she has scars and shes not afraid to let them be seen.

melantha has experienced loss, she has been bullied, but she can pull through, shes optimistic, she sees light at the end of the tunnel even if shes a loner now (her siblings got killed :p) she tries and succeeds at help amara with her greif. shes complex, and doesn't really understand herself, but thats what she likes about herself., shes her own person and shes unique, her experiences tell her story.

i think very different characters overall as you can tell, but i think their og godly parents would be different if they were demigods aswell!! inka/amara would be a child of hades, and skyler/melantha would be a child of aphrodite that also needs explaining hold on

inka was suposed to have powers coming from a generational curse, she travelled in the shadows and spoke to ghosts. her powers were dark and would hurt, i feel like that speaks for itself

skyler could practically charmspeak, and half the country was attracted to her. she was good at makeup, and had a strong sense of fashion.

i feel like that explains some things, but their character designs have come a long way from the beggining which is why its so drastic!!

[sheepishmastectomy]

hey thanx for tagging me @myriadism

rules: tag 9 people you’d like to know better. (rules 2: ignore me if you don’t care for these things no worries!)

top ten songs i can’t stop listening to:  A R I Z O N A - Freaking Out Seeb, Bastille - Grip Primary, Anda - the open boat (Feat. colde) Casper - Sirenen Casper - Ariel Little Mix - More Than Words DALsoooobin - Katchup PVRIS - You and I Bear's Den - Agape GIRLI - Day Month Second

favourite colour(s): orange! from bright almost highlighter allllll the way down to like hmmm dark pumpkin.

top 3 ships: uhhh right now? alucard/trevor/sypha - castlevania gaalee - naruto lan wangji/wei wuxian - grandmaster of demonic cultivation

lipstick or chapstick: chapstick. i need it. to keep my lips from falling off. but uh. not the brand chapstick. not a fan.

last song: Casper - Lilablau (I'm loving this! A beautiful song for a beautiful color!)

last movie: Christopher Robin (it's on netflix and it turns out I Am Not Immune To Nostalgia,,,)

currently reading: uhhhh a few things? Ariah - B.R. Sanders - not really into this yet. some kind of fantasy with elves? i dont really remember why i bought it but uhhh still at the start Why does he do that - Lundy Bancroft - Saw this recommended a bunch in advice posts and wanted to know. It's very informative. Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters - Jim Mahaffey - Guys... We fuck up a lot with nuclear energy. But the ultimate goal of the book is to show why we should still use it. And tbh it makes some good points about how dumb humans are omg. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War - Drew Gilpin Faust - idk this was probably recced here on tumblr but it's really fun? Like interesting? I guess? The background info on what it was like to die before the civil war and the culture around it is really fascinating?

Tagging (uh sorry if this is in your notifs and u dont want it to be ; u;) @mousesounds @anonymouslyandrogynous @justhowmanywaffles @omnomnawa @mahoushi-faust

[suckmyseal-blog]

Why I Despise AoT’s Main Characters

At time of writing, the long-awaited second season of Attack on Titan, or as it’s called by some of its fans Shingeki no Kyojin is close on the horizon. The stunning and all too brief trailer left me nostalgic for when I first watched the series in 2013 from under my blanket at 11pm, blinking away a haze of Monster energy drink and tears. This nostalgia led me to rewatch the anime’s first season and official spin-offs created by the same studio. My elation at reliving the thrill of the series, however, was stunted by my sudden realization that I couldn’t stand any  the leading characters.

Now allow me to elaborate, I obviously don’t dislike the show as a whole. The aesthetics of the show are consistent and interesting, from the environments to the military uniforms consisting of an unbuttoned crop top jacket, a copious amount of belts, and a miniskirt. Attack on Titan is effective in conveying just how threatening the Titans are by the manner in which they move, look, and sound. While a little in-your-face at times, the symbolism is quite enjoyable as well. The last and most important hurdle, of course, is characterization, and oh boy does Attack on Titan fall short on this one.

Before I tear into this show’s writing with the self-righteous vigor of a fat World-of-Warcraft player tearing into his bag of Cheetos, I must state the difference between personality traits and qualities with regards to character. For those of you who failed 7th grade Language Arts, ability, ailment, appearance, alignment, and affinity (what the character likes or dislikes), etc. are all qualities, whereas things like kindness, courage, impulsivity, and discretion, etc. are personality traits. For example, The main character’s adoptive sister Mikasa has interesting qualities, but they are diminished by her utterly boring personality. Mikasa will repeatedly exhibit how she is effortlessly and inexplicably much more physically capable than anyone else, and that could get someone interested in her character, but once you dive beneath the surface, you find that the only only unique personality traits she displays are apathy and introversion. The main characters and many side characters in the series have the same problem, and never evolve past being archetypes. It is entertaining to see their conflicts and interactions in the same way it is entertaining to watch the emotions from Inside Out interact, but you wouldn’t actually want to talk to them in person because they are so predictable. This is why so many cringeworthy “Ask <character’s name here>” pages have popped up, every action that the characters take is predictable to the point where even internet fangirls are able to create dialogue that feels convincingly like it is coming from the actual character. However, the be-all-end-all judge of character is the question, “Do you want the show spend more time on them?”, and the answer with all three of Attack on Titan’s lead characters is no, not really.

And in answer to my question, the creators of the series decided to make a side story centered around Levi, the Lance Corporal of the Survey Corps, an elite branch of the military tasked with reconnaissance, intel-gathering, and R&D to some extent. I didn’t feel that Levi was in dire need of a backstory reveal, considering that it was obvious from the outset that he was a jaded war-veteran with a dark past and OCD. Now in that description the only personality trait I listed was “jaded”, and a jaded character isn’t interesting. Whenever he looks over a threat with a nonplussed, bored expression, I think to myself, “If he doesn’t view the threat as viable, then why should I?”, and I ponder if my time would be better spent impressing women or pumping iron, or whatever you non-weeaboos do all day. But I’m getting off track here. If you are seriously interested in a man who constantly stares at people with a mix of disappointment and anger, then you clearly don’t have an Asian Father. The writers working Attack on Titan then totally blew me out of the water when they released a  spin-off that revealed, to everyone’s surprise, that he was in fact a jaded war-veteran with a dark past and OCD after all. The spin-off did end up showing off some very interesting characters, namely Isabel and Farlan, Levi’s friends. Now naturally, this being a prequel, the fate of these two characters was predetermined because neither of them are seen or even mentioned in the main plot. With the loss of these 2 characters,  the show lost it’s ability to shock me, because it seems like the writers don’t know of any way to have characters be separated from each other painfully and permanently in any way other than death by Titan. An example of this would have been if Farlan was thrown in jail when people found out their plan to assassinate Erwin Smith, a captain in the Survey Corps, but Levi and Isabel weren’t found out. This could fit into the main storyline, and carry potential for future plots like if Levi had to do some high-ranking policeman’s dirty work to get Farlan out of jail. Honestly, I would take either character over Mikasa any day, but enough with ineffectual death, onto the main point, Character. Farlan, while kind and caring towards the unfortunate street urchins he lives amongst, still bears the demeanor of a thug. Isabel is loyal, eager to impress, humorous, playful, genuine, outspoken, and rude, despite her peppy, girly nature, she is not above assassinating a captain of the Survey Corps to be able to rise up out of the life of a dirt poor city dweller. Every character had a motive that made sense, with every character you could point at them and go, “I don’t exactly agree with your choices, but I see where you’re coming from.”. The writers did an excellent job of making the audience bond with characters who were only given about half an hour of total screen time.

The manner in which the lead characters’ comrades are characterized is lazy as well. Connie Springer, a recruit who attends boot camp with the main characters is referred to as stupid, and refers to himself as stupid, but never actually does anything to demonstrate this. In fact, the way he acts in combat and when trying to get sensitive information from a shell-shocked comrade, is quite quick witted and astute.

Footnote: Thanks for reading, I know this is kinda weird for a first post, but it would be awesome to get some feedback from you!