#they are straight by definition but they don't feel straight to me because straight (in media) in my mind equals boring and toxic

[maykitz]

played a bit of frostpunk 2 and so far it seems good. giving more depth to the laws system was a straight upgrade. the expedited time passage removes the nighttimes that could previously have nothing to do depending on playstyle so probably a good call. i'm not a huge fan of trading in the circular grid for hexagonal tiles; it removes such a core characteristic and unique trait of the original for nothing. in general the generator seems have gotten downgraded both visually and gameplay wise. in the first one it's (literally) the centre of everything, you would frequently fiddle with the heat setting to balance coal consumption against heat requirements, use overdrive etc. now it's just another part of the economy, it regulates itself and just sits there. cold is just another society debuff like crime or disease. i haven't progressed much but it seems you're now supposed to manage concurrent cities which is fun. the new icebreaking mechanic to unlock buildable area is kind of whatever though. it adds nothing but additional cost to buildings, idk the point. but the overall ui to my mind is definitely worse. the og was really easy to get into playing because it's visually distinct and logical, you know where everything is. i can't put into words well what bothers me about it now but i feel like it's lacking clarity. the outside world exploration screen just doesn't tell me what's happening at a glance anymore. the buildings don't look very distinct. it's kinda like, grey/white/metal slop visuals. and it feels like they knew this because they added coloured overlay. but if you change a base builder to a city builder why do you design the districts so samey that you need overlays to distinguish them? it's not like you were *that* constricted by realism, the first one has guys flying around to hunt meat. lol

[ihopesocomic]

It's such a shame how many good brother-brother duos or sister-brother duos there are compared to sister-sister duos

I know it stems from writers always feeling the need to add a man in every woman's life

A lot of writers can only make a character who's a sister if she's a sister to a brother and it's a real shame

Honestly I think Nothing from MP is a pretty good example of that

Look at her relationship with her female siblings/cousin vs her male siblings/cousin

Fire ended up being horrible and Feather is a toxic positive "lemme make you feel bad for wanting to change your ableist name even though it literally doesnt effect me" dirtbag

But Nothing had a better relationship with vs her younger sisters/cousins

Farleap and Silentstalk bullied her and Feather's sisters thought she was weirdo though they like literally never interacted

It's just always suspicious when a writer seems to prioritize a female character's relationship with guys over her relationship with girls

Like their gender shouldn't matter but they'll always pick their male characters first

The sexism in writing still to this day is wild. Especially where so-called independent creators are concerned. Because I thought the whole point of being indie was creating stuff you wanted to see in mainstream media but didn't get, but a lot of it is just more of the same crap you get from bigger productions. So either people want more sexism, or its just baked into their brain and they don't even realize it.

A lot of better stories out there are about brothers (well, I could argue that a lot of it is lazy and that there is no point to the characters being brothers, especially when strong emotional friendships between men are practically nonexistent in media.) and anything having to do with sisters is as I said, either petty nonsense or there's no point to being sisters at all.

And then there's as you said, an inherent need by creators for women to have men be relevant in their lives when that same standard is not applied to men. You can throw a rock and hit a movie or show with a female pov where her only motivation has to do with a man. Father, son, brother, husband, boyfriend, abuser. Whatever.

That's not to say any of these are bad stories. But when its the majority of supposed woman-focused media, it loses its edge as woman-focused when the women in question are focused on men. The writers either consciously or subsconsciously don't get that women have motivations beyond men. This even happens with lesbian characters, where men should have even less relevancy? LOL And it doesn't even matter who the writers are, whether they're men/women, cis/trans, straight/gay, everyone does this. You'd expect better from queer creators but even then there's a clear preference. And they're wont to bring up that "gender shouldn't matter" but only when it pertains to asking why they're so opposed to women being the focus. Its quite interesting.

MP is in an interesting position of hating both men and women at the same time while not commenting on how the patriarchy has negative effects on both men and women. Not an easy feat but Tribble sure made it look easy. She made Feather Nothing's prime motivator for leaving the pride, and while I have my own criticisms of Nothing's "subtle" motherlyness towards Feather, that wasn't extended to the female cubs. Fire is Nothing's other motivation for leaving the pride, and then he turned out to be a wannabe dictator. Quickmane was shown to be a sympathetic and caring mate who definitely wasn't homophobic, but had no qualms about killing children. And then there's alllllll the women who are meant to be oppressed to the same extent as Nothing, but they all somehow manage to be even worse because the narrative wants us to side with them.

And even Nothing's abusive relationship with Quickmane as we've stated in our review is arguably less fucked up than the relationship she has with her own mother. Because we know what they think about each other, and Powerstrike still insists that Nothing's existence is a burden on her soul or whatever. Like what the fuck is up with that?? I'm sure they could've made Powerstrike less-bad than Quickmane, was this some sort of weird equalizer of the sexes? And you can count Nothing's relationship with Sharptongue if you're so inclined to, but even if you ignore everything else she did, Sharptongue would still be the only positive female influence in Nothing's life. But not a key motivator in Nothing's story. Like not even a little bit.

[thedevilsoftruth]

Happy birthday to The Fragile!!!

Today is a very important day, folks. Today marks as the 25th birthday of NINs 3rd studio album ' The Fragile '

The Fragile is probably one of the most iconic albums from its time, and arguably one of, if not the best Nine Inch Nails album. There's so many things that makes this album great, and i can just spend hours praising it.

The Fragile is The Downward Spiral but matured. Sure, TDS was very compacted with raw emotion, but i would argue that The Fragile is more raw and emotional. And that's because it feels so true and honest to me. Trent was going through so much at the time of making this album and was definitely at his lowest at the tike of making this.

The Downward Spiral is angry and is more about wallowing in a pit of sorrow and giving up. The Fragile is more about actually trying to get back up off the ground and become a better person. And that was exactly what Trent was going through at the time of making this album. But enough about TDS since this isn't about it.

My favorite, all-time favorite song off this album is The Wretched. That and Into The Void. My main introduction to NIN and the song that got me into NIN was Into The Void.

I remember cooking food and watching a Moist Cr1TiKaL stream ages ago where he was watching the live stream of some sort of DLC announcement for the game Warframe. When they showed the dlc trailer for this, they had the song Into The Void playing. I remember stopping what I was doing completely just to watch the trailer and listen.

I had known NIN before, of course. I liked a few of their songs, but they were a bit too loud for me at the time ( those songs being Closer and Only. ) But when I heard Into The Void, I just fell in love. I recognized the band, of course. NIN isn't too hard to spot. And with that, I downloaded the game that night and listened to The Fragile all for the first time.

I listened to The Fragile before I listened to TDS, which might be why I like it more than TDS. The first NIN cds I collected were The Fragile and Pretty Hate Machine because those were the only albums by NIN I knew at the time and yada yada.

One of my favorite songs to see NIN play live is The Frail / The Wretched. The Frail is just so fucking beautiful played live. It feels like walking outside in the middle of the night for fresh air.... and then those drums kick in, and it's just like.... Holy fuck. Changes the mood completely, if not for the better. But I just love The Wretched ad a song just so much. I really don't know what else to tell you. It's just straight up an amazing song.

But back to the album itself, The Fragile is 100% a must listen. If you haven't listened to it you need to listen to it. The Fragile has helped me get through so much and has helped so many others as well. Its 100% Trent Reznors best fucking work ever. It's definitely one of my favorite albums of all time. All fucking time.

But yeah. That's about it. Once again, go listen to it if you haven't, and yeah, I'll see you all back on the 23rd for the birthday for Broken.

[sciderman]

Sometimes i remember a comics moment i randomly came across somewhere, where Sam Wilson mentiones a musical and Steve Rodgers says he doesn't like musicals, to whitch Sam goes "Guess that means you really are straight" and even tho i don't care about Cap America or the Avengers, the moment stuck in me for that quote by Sam. And like....Sci, any ideas if straight men actually don't like musicals or is that bullshit?

actually i think i know more gay men who hate musicals than i know straight men who hate musicals. i've had a drag queen stop me point blank when i was about to sing a barbra streisand song, and i know so many gays who pointedly hate abba. so based on my experience i think the inverse is true. most of the straight men i know are kind of impartial about musicals, but gay men? hate.

my theory is that a lot of gay men don't want to fall into stereotypes, maybe. but thaaaaat's just a theory! a gay theory.

[void-proxima]

One of the more heartbreaking episodes of this show was released on April 28, 2019: "This is Not A Drill", featuring Drill Man (...and his absolutely abysmal excuse for a father). To commemorate it, I drew him over the weekend (and touched up the shading today). As always, the poor guy is not having a good time.

no background version under the cut:

[piplupod]

i need to lie down and curl into a ball and tuck myself into a box and be gently lowered into the earth i think. and just stay there for a few days... years... however long it needs to be until i can exist without feeling like i am a prey animal being hunted for sport every day !!!!!!!

[lyril]

i feel like not enough people use writing fanfiction as a way to like... study and learn? outside of it being more practice and things. like sure, this is for entertainment first and foremost, but for me keeping the writing tone and characterization as accurate as i can to then transform it more into a writing style to create something good just ends up in me like, intensely studying the source material. i don't ever go off of memory i fucking break that shit down, study dialogue patterns and write down literally everything the characters i'm writing for say, observe the structure and themes and tone of whatever i'm looking at, watch and analyze things until i'm sick of them and come out a better writer because of that hands-on observation and because i simply fucking hate when other people go off of memory while writing characters i like ❤️

[toasteaa]

Thinking about that sovereign of the seas au again...

Nothing super substantial, I don't think. Just Neuvillette getting distracted while trying to find a way to break the curse and finding himself fascinated by the intricacies of human life. How his previous prejudices turn into genuine interest in the way humans interact with the world around them. How they live and grow and work and change in the slightest ways. How their cultures and customs are long lived and influential (as are his own) but each individual human has their own way of going about each daily ritual.

If he's to find a way to break this wretched curse without being caught or his true identity being suspected, then he needs to blend in as well as he possibly can. At least...that's what he told himself. But then he starts asking questions about humans with a little glimmer of interest and curiosity in his eyes. Mimics their rhythms and rituals even if he does not understand them completely. Finds that need to break the curse just a hint less pressing than it had been when he was first forced to take this form.

And of course, there is still that very present and urgent need to return to the sea properly. To be amongst the waves with fins and scales and to hear the water speak to him as it has for the past 500 years - and longer still in terms of his kind. But...now there is another desire inside of him as well. To touch and feel and know this world that he's been thrust into with hands that he'd never believed he would have but...he always secretly desired he did have.

A double edged sword of a curse; robbed of that he has always known - the power that he already had to fight to keep for his kin - and yet it has given him the freedom to walk amongst humans as though he were one of them. See the peace that followed the horrors of war centuries ago. Feel the warmth of the sun on human skin instead of a dragon's scales. The solidness of the earth beneath his feet instead of the security of water that surrounded him on all sides.

...The softness of a human's lips - their soft, even breaths - when he steals a moment to run his thumb over them while they sleep.

A step too far perhaps - one that finds him holed up back in the room that same human had so graciously given him. A step that he has to convince himself was made out of curiosity and only curiosity...and not from these new, human emotions blooming within him. Another reminder that he is not human. That this is not his world. That this curse - this wretched, awful curse - was made to weaken him and force him to submit to that witch of an Archon. He needs to break it. He has to.

Before he completely forgets himself in the longing he's long held for this world.

[kurokoros]

first of all, the duffers absolutely didn't have the full series planned out from the start because Stranger Things was originally pitched as a limited series with 1) the potential for a direct "sequel" that would follow the younger kids as adults (basically, they pitched "It") or 2) an outright sci-fi horror anthology. second of all, even if the duffers did have everything mapped out from the start that doesn't mean that plan isn't garbage.

[suitsimp]

probably doesn't look that great but i attempted to draw Valarie Bronev and Clayton Bronev from the How Things Change au by @multiversal-madness

also i want to point out i attempted to make their poses be similar to some poses done by a certain top hat wearing professor that Luke is missing very dearly, cause i think it's neat and sometimes you just gotta make a child cry

[mariyekos]

One day I'm going to finish my FFXVI mega essay, but for now I think my thoughts on the game can be summarized like this:

When making FFXVI, the developers sure knew what they wanted to do, and by god were they going to do it.

Were they also going to do other things that would make those first thing better? Were they going to do other things that make a good game overall? Ehhhhh...they were going to do what they wanted to do, and invest all their time and effort into that, so surely that would be enough! Surely!

[neverendingford]

hardwood comb project

I forgor to buy a lighter colored wood for the spine/core so I can't keep working on it tonight cause all I've got is the walnut.

[mossy-thing]

@outofangband @main-to-outofangband is the recreation of the post you were asking me about. I tried to keep it as close to the original as I could, so I hope what you wanted to comment on is still there

Something I really admire about Tolkiens writing is that he manages to write m/f relationships that don't bore me but actually make me interested and invested in their story.

I am sure that many of you can relate to this, but I would like to say it regardless: Growing up queer with basically no media representation makes me want to throw up whenever I see a generic female lead start fluttering her eyes at a generic male lead who is ten years older than her and just tried to kill her.

So why am I so excited about, for example, Beren and Lúthien?

Let me explain. What Tolkien does is simple yet genius: he switches up the powerdynamics. He takes a guy, drags him through the most traumatic shit possible so he is permanently covered in blood and tears, makes it seem like he has grown unapprochable and dangerous because of it (Think Beren fighting armies of orcs completely on his own), and lets him run wild for a bit.

Then he takes a woman, who is one of the most etheral and powerful beings in general and who also seems unapprochable and dangerous, not because of what she has gone through, but because of who she is.

Now he takes both of them, drops them in a 10 mile radius of one another like a chemist would drop sulfur and salpeter acid into grape juice, and lets them react. And then the magic happens.

The man immediately turns into a himbo ("Can you teach me how to dance?") and the woman into a girlboss who WILL tear apart the world if anyone dares to hurt her man. They fall in love, and it feels so real.

They are so passionate and honest about each other, so much so that the narrative eventually grows bored of it and throws an AND THEN CAME CELEGORM WITH THE SPEAR at the two (which set off the funniest fight scene I ever read).

And throughout it all, while the main plot is going on, Beren is just kind of... there. He tries to go off on his own two times and Lúthien just shows up and makes it clear that "Yes Beren, I understand you want to keep me safe, but I am half angel and you are a himbo, if I don't come with you, you will die with a 100% certainty, and I would rather be tortured by Morgoth than let that happen. I'm coming with you, you fool."

And after the second time, he is fine with it. He doesn't feel threatened in his masculinity or whatever any Tom Cruise character would do, but he respects her wishes and is just thankful that she is with him on this journey.

She has to save him multiple times and he is nothing but thankful. He falls asleep while she fights Morgoth (and I know why, but it feels like Tolkien saying: Alright, Lúthien is being epic, fuck I forgot to write what Beren is doing, errrrr, he's under her spell too. Yup.) But the best part is that, while the powerdynamics are switched up, there is no moment where he is afraid of her in a "Fuck you could literally tear me apart", kind of way.

He simply loves her and she simply loves him. That is a given fact.

We need more pathetic man/powerful girlboss relationships guys, if a white english guy could do this in the 20s then so can we!

[dragonsongmakhali]

.

[britneyshakespeare]

being aroace is weird bc i’m queer but other queer ppl for the most part don’t understand the way i’m queer unless theyre also aro and/or ace

[buysomecheese]

FUCKED UP THAT SOMEONE CAN SEE THEIR FRIEND IN A VULNERABLE POSITION AND THEN USE THAT TO THEIR ADVANTAGE!!! FUCKED UP THAT HE WOULDN'T TAKE KINDLY TO HIS OTHER FRIENDS HELPING HIM GET OUT OF THAT SITUATION SO WE CAN'T HELP AS MUCH AS WE'D LIKE TO. FUCKED UP THAT SO MANY GOOD THINGS WILL BE TAINTED FOR HIM NOW. FUCKED UP THAT HE'LL LIKELY BE SO CLOSED OFF TO EVERYTHING NOW BECAUSE OF THEM!!!!!