thegraysquirrel

[thegraysquirrel]

Look I know Rapunzel paints and Tiana cooks, but if you guys don't think Mulan is the Most Creative Disney Princess, you're wrong.

She's literally introduced in this perfect scene that highlights her whole character, flaws and strengths:

The first time you see her she's:

Cheating, which is totally the opposite of what honor-code General Shang would do.

Undisciplined, which is what going to the army fixes.

Problem-solving—by writing the recitation she can't remember on her wrist—

BUT LISTEN. That last one is the first hint you have that she's the Most Creative Disney Princess. Because guess what? She's not the first young woman to cheat at the matchmaker test. The Matchmaker specifically checks to see if she's cheating when the test begins. But the rest of them wrote their cheat sheet on their fans.

The Matchmaker was prepared for the usual kind of tricks. But Mulan's full of her own ideas, not everyone else's.

You guys know the rest. She dresses up like a soldier—nobody suspects her because the idea that someone would do that never occurs to everyone else. She climbs the pole by tying the medallions around each other when none of the other recruits can figure it out. She lights the cannon by grabbing Mushu instead of searching for flints. She creates an avalanche instead of just taking Shan Yu out. She tricks the Huns by dressing her friends up as concubines. She defeats Shan Yu with his own sword and a bunch of fireworks.

But even beyond problem-solving, Mulan never does things like other people do. She doesn't even do things like other women do.

She doesn't just walk across a bridge, she jumps from pillar to pillar. She doesn't just bring her father tea, she puts a spare teacup in her sleeve because she knows she's clumsy.

Mulan is creative. But you know what that moment proves? That she's not just a representation of all women-versus-men. Mulan is representative of a human, who sees where she has strengths, and sees where she has weaknesses. She uses her strengths to her advantage and works to improve or make up for her weaknesses. She doesn't try to be exactly like a man. She just tries to use what she's got to do the right thing. And finding ways to use what you've got, even if it's not like what everyone else has, is creativity.

[thegraysquirrel]

y’all ever see a piece of fan content about your favorite character that is so horrifically different from what you personally believe and you just

[thegraysquirrel]

[thegraysquirrel]

Naruto Banned Books Week

October 6-10

Hosted by @mrssakurahatake and @tipsyraconteur

Open all to the entire Naruto fandom. All generations, villages, ships and characters welcome. More info coming soon!

[thegraysquirrel]

How am I only just learning this!?

[thegraysquirrel]

idk why in this scenario he would still be lying to her about being anya's bio dad, but anyways 😹😹😹

the other comic

[thegraysquirrel]

Somebody actually made something close to a full decision tree map for Slay the Princess.

1. Can't wait to see how much messier this gets in a week. This doesn't even include optional or exploratory dialogue! 2. See, this is why we didn't build a timeline for you to jump into.

LINK: https://app.excalidraw.com/l/84AW7yZQM7h/7HuAkd7c5K7

[thegraysquirrel]

how much do you care about a fic’s title?

this is something I often wonder. I suck at naming things cleverly, so I tend to default to the hipster millennial best practice of ye olde song lyric.

but what of you, dear reader? Do you care what a title is in the slightest?

Reblog for reach. leave opinions in tags

I’m honestly curious!

[thegraysquirrel]

Mr. Becket... this is Mako Mori. One of our brightest.

PACIFIC RIM (2013) dir. Guillermo del Toro.

[thegraysquirrel]

i think 'I trust you with my life but not your own' as a trope is one of the ones that can always fuck me up no matter what

[thegraysquirrel]

Spy x Family volume 15 omake chapter translation

Volume 15 of SxF was just released in the Japan, and along with the new illustrations I posted about the other day, a 2-page bonus/omake chapter was also included, featuring Henry and Martha. I created translations of the pages, and big shoutout to @rafaron1223 for using his superior editing skills to put my translations into the pages 😃

Also, for those who haven't seen, Martha is on the cover of volume 15.

I like how the inner cover of young Martha for this volume matches the inner cover of volume 14 (young Henry).

[thegraysquirrel]

So, Discord has added a feature that lets other people "enhance" or "edit" your images with different AI apps. It looks like this:

Currently, you can't opt out from this at all. But here's few things you can do as a protest.

FOR SERVERS YOU ARE AN ADMIN IN

Go to Roles -> @/everyone roles -> Scroll all the way down to External Apps, and disable it. This won't delete the option, but it will make people receive a private message instead when they use it, protecting your users:

You should also make it a bannable offense to edit other user's images with AI. Here's how I worded it in my server, feel free to copypaste:

Do not modify other people's images with AI under ANY circumstances, such as with the Discord "enhancement" features, amidst others. This is a bannable offense.

COMPLAIN TO DISCORD

There's few ways to go around this. First, you can go to https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/requests/new , select Help and Support -> Feedback/New Feature Request, and write your message, as seen in the screenshot below.

For the message, here's some points you can bring up:

Concerns about harassment (such as people using this feature to bully others)

Concerns about privacy (concerns on how External Apps may break privacy or handle the data in the images, and how it may break some legislations, such as GDPR)

Concerns about how this may impact minors (these features could be used with pictures of irl minors shared in servers, for deeply nefarious purposes)

BE VERY CLEAR about "I will refuse to buy Nitro and will cancel my subscription if this feature remains as it is", since they only care about fucking money

Word them as you'd like, add onto them as you need. They sometimes filter messages that are copypasted templates, so finding ways to word them on your own is helpful.

ADDING: You WILL NEED to reply to the mail you receive afterwards for the message to get sent to an actual human! Otherwise it won't reach anyone

UNSUSCRIBE FROM NITRO

This is what they care about the most. Unsuscribe from Nitro. Tell them why you unsuscribed on the way out. DO NOT GIVE THEM MONEY. They're a company. They take actions for profit. If these actions do not get them profit, they will need to backtrack. Mass-unsuscribing from WOTC's DnD beyond forced them to back down with the OGL, this works.

LEAVE A ONE-STAR REVIEW ON THE APP

This impacts their visibility on the App store. Write why are you leaving the one-star review too.

_

Regardless of your stance on AI, I think we can agree that having no way for users to opt out of these pictures is deeply concerning, specially when Discord is often used to share selfies. It's also a good time to remember internet privacy and safety- Maybe don't post your photos in big open public servers, if you don't want to risk people doing edits or modifications of them with AI (or any other way). Once it's posted, it's out of your control.

Anyways, please reblog for visibility- This is a deeply concerning topic!

[thegraysquirrel]

hey folks if you have an android phone: google shadow installed a "security app".

I had to go and delete it myself this morning.

[thegraysquirrel]

god this is such a fucking face. Atem was not expecting this and he is not having a good time right now.

this is the face of a man who only recently promised to stop setting people on fire and is now seriously reconsidering that decision

[thegraysquirrel]

I can't find an option for it in the settings. Maybe it was an xkit add-on...? I think it's probably a difference between the [name].tumblr.com blogs (will open in a new tab with a left click, right? I tried it with your post and it opened in a new tab for me) and the www.tumblr.com/blog/[name] since they don't have their own personalized page on in their settings.

What I do in general is if I want to view a post in a new tab, I click the link with the middle mouse button. Any link clicked in that way will automatically open it in a new tab instead of directing the current page in some way to it. The alternative is right click -> hit the option to open in a new tab.

What do I have to do to open another person's blog in its own tab vs. just seeing it in a narrow band overlying my own dash? I know I read there was a way to do it, but I can't remember what it was.

[thegraysquirrel]

Alright, I see you love The Dragon Prince so let me ask you a question about that if I may. What is your take on Lord Virens character? I don't know how I feel about him honestly, but I'm interested to see what direction the writers will take his character.

I think Lord Viren’s character is that of a sympathetic villain who has found himself in over his head. (Literally in this case.) Used to being the most manipulative and ruthless person in the room, with Aaravos he is clearly outmatched and has relinquished control of his own path, whether he’s aware of it or not. That being the case, I don’t think he is going to be the principal antagonist of the show, or that there will be a traditional Boss Showdown between him and Harrow, Callum, or Ezran. Another path may be for him to nearly lose his humanity, but regain it at the end for the sake of his children; however, considering how cheaply he was willing to regard both his kid’s lives in his quest to secure power, I personally wouldn’t find it terribly convincing.Instead, I think he will serve as more of a cautionary tale to Claudia, who is faced with a similar temptation to use Dark Magic, although Claudia’s motives are selfless while Viren’s are selfish. Viren may eventually become an unrecognizable creature, leading Claudia to second guess herself and how far she is willing to let the ends justify the means. 

[thegraysquirrel]

no one:

Harrow showing up in his kids' lives after 9 years of absence: