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#Lately I feel like my creativity and art have no meaning of existence

annoyingann · 3 months

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Hey, I'm having a bit of an art block. I can't offer you sketches for big things, but I can show you silly doodles

I'm going to kidnap Marcus (or adopt)

The thought that Zeke is only 15 y.o. in Hedone High brought me to memories of me at the age of 15 .. and I was very scared of boys then :')

translation: she communicates closely with a guy for the first time after a long time.

Lil' me: "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?"

#nah lil' doodles #sketch #silly doodles #i'm sorry #darqx #Honestly #I don't know why I'm posting this #Lately I feel like my creativity and art have no meaning of existence #I draw #but it doesn't bring me the same intense pleasure as before #but I still love it #I hope this will end one day and I will stop feeling ashamed of what I draw #sorry for venting #I won't stop drawing self-insert #you won't stop me #If you've read all of this #I wish you a great day!! I appreciate your attention

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askspookyfox · 6 months

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Wow, my artist, my guy, thanks for a whole lotta nothing for 3 years. It's a'ight. It's fine. Cool cool cool cool. Don't worry my sinners, I do still exist! Imma try to make plans to make a dramatic return and have an explaination for everything, but the timing just isn't quite right. Those of you who still watch this blog, I 'presh you. ✌️ Until then, I hope y'all been taking good care of October in my absence (and by 'good care', I mean annoy the heck outta her, heh).

Mod Mutt: Heeeeeyyy.... So... 'Bout droppin that ball that I mentioned in my last post... Three years, huh? My bad, y'all. 😅

As it was stated in that post, I had some serious financial priorities that I needed a second job that demanded a lot of my free time (thanks student loans, always a blast whenever you sap up a third of my paycheck every month 👍👍👍). As of 2023, even though some things are new in my life, I’m still technically in the same situation as I was back in 2020. It’s really hard to have the energy and motivation to do art in general and when I do, I usually couldn’t do more than a sketch before I tuck it away and don’t finish. I’m knee deep in a burn-out, stuck in a cycle of working two jobs and taking care of adulting shit on my weekends.

Honestly, I’m tired of living this way.

I feel like a shell of who I used to be, giving my life to work. I miss the creativity that comes with art and telling stories. I adore watching my best friend do their October’s blog, year after year, and every year, I get the inspiration from them but lack the time to jump back into it. Such as this year, it’s just too late as we only have a week left in the month.

However, if you’ll have me, as a New Year’s resolution for next year, I want to refocus back to art and sharing Spook’s stories and help Night push October’s storyline along with Spook’s help. If this means having to work on Spook posts once a week every week leading up to October 2024, then so be it! I can’t guarantee anything, I can’t make promises as life do still take priority, but I do have a lot of sketches and answers to your questions sitting in my computer, waiting to be completed, so who knows what you’ll see! For right now, please accept my apologies for literally disappearing on everyone in 2020. I want to do better and I want to bring Spook and all of his scary toothy sassiness back to you. Thank you to those who’s still around, I hope that you’ll come back in 2024.

Until then, stay spooky!

#Spook #Mod Mutt #Mod Mutt Talk #Holyshit Im alive lmao #Sorry bout that #Thank you for your patience #If yall are still here lmfao #Seriously though #thank you #Spook is real mad #Time to buckle down and start workin #Love yall

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clanofjones · 4 months

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MERRY (late) CHRISTMAS!

I started this on Chrismas Eve and I just finished it five minutes ago, but I think it's pretty good nonetheless! Quality got scrambled tho, so click for better quality LOL

L to R: (I am sorry for the tag if you don't celebrate or didn't want to be in this, I will do my best to change it if that it the case)

@fanatess, @theosb0rnway, @3mutantsinatrenchcoat, @paytato435, @karonkar, me, @delicatechildwitch, @allyheart707, @friskebits, @zeawesomeness, @tinker-the-dragon, @yelenapines, @justletmereadmycomics

There are so many others I wanted to include, but my canvas is not that big! I love you all regardless!

For those pictured, I am feeling sentimental, so have a nice sentiment under the cut ^^

Fanatess: You are always super sweet to me, and you let me rant about silly tropes and fic ideas! Thank you so much. (Fun fact, I own the tree hat in the art, and it gives me 'you' vibes)

Oz: Oh my god, literally where to start. You are absolutely amazing, and I have to thank you so, so much for letting me rant about random crap, even if it makes no sense. You’re like. The best person I could have made an AU with.

Three: Gotta say, I don't really know you all that well, but what I do know is that you are so kind and awesome. Your asks always brighten my day, and it's always awesome to talk to you!

Payto: They say great minds think alike. Regarding Casey Junior, I think we might be thinking exactly the same. LOL. Thanks for letting me bounce ideas off of you regarding the best boy. We've taken over the "au-rant" channel and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Kar: You are like. SO COOL. I stand by that statement. You are one of the coolest people I’ve met online, and my brain straight-up short-circuits when I remember 'yes, we are friends with this guy, and this guy knows we exist. Holy shit.' Weird world, ammarite?

Me: SELF LOVE, you guys! If this many awesome people care about me, then I'm probably pretty awesome too, right? YAY! Friends!!

Ally: If our server had a yearbook, you’d win “kindest person” or whatever the actual title is. You get the point! You are always so kind and inspiring to me, and thank you for the extra encouragement to actually finish this!!

Del: You are so sweet and kind and creative it's unreal! It's been so fun so far getting to interact with you and I look forward to more of it in the New Year!

Frisk: Thanks for somehow always being there. Whenever I shove some janky art or concept into a server, you’re almost always the first one there with encouragement, a compliment, or something to add. Thanks for the extra encouragement on this thing's completion as well!!

Ze: I haven’t interacted with you much, but when I have, you have been nothing but nice and welcoming! If we’re being honest, I was pretty nervous but you’ve been super cool to me, and it means a lot!

Tinker: It’s always crazy when you share fandoms with the gang outside of The Main, Soul Encompassing One, and I find it so fun to have someone else to discuss them with! Hatchetfield and TMNT enjoyers unite! *high-fives you* You've also got such good takes!

Yelena: If not for you, I wouldn't be on Tumblr at all in the first place! For that, you've earned a place in my hall of fame. I know we don't talk often anymore, but it's always so exciting when I see you on my dash!

justletmereadmycomics: (slightly embarrassing, but I don't know a name to call you by ._.) You are one of my closest beloved mutuals! I have loved getting to know you, it always warms my heart whenever I see you in my activity! You are so funny and smart, keep just being you!

You're all so smart and creative, it bewilders me how we met in the first place! Either way, I'm so grateful for it, and I wish you all nothing but the best in the New Year!!

#my art #merry christmas #mutuals #well #like half of you #i love you guys #i love my friends #I hope I got y'all's sonas right-#I love you all so much with my entire heart #discord server #sonas #others sonas #my sona #happy holidays

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tolkien-feels · 1 year

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Here is something I've been thinking a lot about lately wrt to Nerdanel, feat a little bit of Feanor. And Gandalf and Saruman.

(More headcanon than meta tbh but I think if I tried I could make A Case for this being a possible, if not conclusive, reading)

Oh fyi this post is a mess but I've been trying to make it more logical for weeks now and my brain isn't cooperating so here it is in all its messy glory

Let me share a famous quote but highlight what I want to talk about

While still in early youth Fëanor wedded Nerdanel, a maiden of the Noldor; at which many wondered, for she was not among the fairest of her people. But she was strong, and free of mind, and filled with the desire of knowledge. In her youth she loved to wander far from the dwellings of the Noldor, either beside the long shores of the Sea or in the hills; and thus she and Fëanor had met and were companions in many journeys. Her father, Mahtan, was a great smith, and among those of the Noldor most dear to the heart of Aulë. Of Mahtan Nerdanel learned much of crafts that women of the Noldor seldom used: the making of things of metal and stone. She made images, some of the Valar in their forms visible, and many others of men and women of the Eldar, and these were so like that their friends, if they knew not her art, would speak to them; but many things she wrought also of her own thought in shapes strong and strange but beautiful.

So much is made of that first sentence, of Nerdanel not being considered beautiful enough for Feanor, but lately I have been Considering headcanoning this being the polite version of what the Noldor truly think about Nerdanel - that she's weird. Not quirky, not creative, just straight up off-puttingly strange.

Nerdanel strikes me in this paragraph as being profoundly restless of mind. She wants to know, she wants to explore, she won't be confined by the physical limits of the territory of the Noldor nor by the societal limits of gender. Insofar as that shows independence and curiosity, I don't think the Noldor would find any of this negative, or at least not extraordinarily so.... but we are shown a glimpse of Nerdanel's restless mind in this paragraph: the (abstract?) sculptures she makes are beautiful but strong and strange.

Even though apparently her ability to make realistic sculptures is outstanding, Nerdanel seems to be drawn towards expressing things that don't exist in the world, and these seem to be implied to be slightly unsettling? I mean, the Noldor are the Noldor. How weird does your artwork need to be for it to be labeled as strange? Especially strange in opposition to beautiful. Not strange as in awkwardly done. Strange as in "You clearly know what you're doing but also wtf is this sculpture?" It feels very... Modern art? It's cool. Not really the point of the post but cool.

Anyway, Nerdanel has chosen a craft unusual for her gender and then proceeded to apparently try to reach for something beyond the grasp of even the Noldor. You know when Yavanna brings up the ents and Manwe is like "Okay... That's. Weird. In the Song, but weird." and has to take a moment to understand the creation she's being called to do? That's the vibe I get from Nerdanel's sculptures

And then it's like... Of course she and Feanor are a match. Who else could be more restless? I bet Feanor looked at her strange sculptures and was immediately interested. They are both reaching towards some unknown thing they can't find in Valinor, and Nerdanel may or may not be attempting to describe this longing in physical form with her sculptures

I think in a way, Feanor and Nerdanel sharing a love of crafts and exploration is almost... set dressing for their romance. The thing actually pulling them together is that they are looking at the world around them and saying "Okay, but what else is there? This is not enough for me, I want more than this, I need to know more than this, I need to experience more than this, I need to create more than this"

The question is, of course, where that leads. Unstoppable quest for knowledge and "what else is out there?" - especially when coupled with a subcrearive drive and EXTRA especially when coupled with separating oneself from society - has always been a red flag in Tolkien, starting from Melkor. Hell, even Gollum fits this pattern. I'm not saying that's a worldview I personally subscribe to (I. Don't.) but it seems to be a clear fact of Arda metaphysics. Curiosity + creativity + self-isolation tends to = corruption.

So - is this what makes Nerdanel "the Wise"? Is she a woman who was tempted in every way every villain has ever been tempted, but she resisted and never fell?

Because I can only think of one other hero character who has all of the following: hunger for knowledge, a marked desire for solitude, a strong tendency to be considered Off-puttingly Weird by their peers, a penchant for loving subcreation, possibly immunity from temptation via wanting to understand rather than master the world:

Gandalf.

Nerdanel Istarnie has parallels to Istar extraordinaire Gandalf

Hell, Gandalf is even a fan of Feanor!

And like, that completely changes my read on Nerdanel's character. Because then, narratively speaking, she's the Gandalf to Feanor's Saruman. She is Feanor as Feanor should have been.

Which is like. Ten thousand levels of juicy. Like, you could conceivably structure an entire storyline around Nerdanel staying true to her mission as a Noldorin subcreator while Feanor goes astray. (What is that mission? Debatable. Suit yourself.)

And then, more than just an emotional scene, Nerdanel pleading with Feanor to not take away all her sons from her becomes the ultimate test of her commitment - can she stick to what she thinks is the right thing even if it costs her the loss of her beloved children, possibly the dearest of all her creations, so to speak?

Like, I could go on, but I just. Nerdanel as Feanor who never fell. Nerdanel as mentor and cheerleader, with varying levels of success. Nerdanel as Gandalf!!!!!!! I just love it so much, and I predict I'll be thinking about this for many years going forward

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ketho484 · 1 year

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Hoi! This is gonna be the start of my personal version of the Welcome Home Actor AU made by Frillsand on Tiktok and inspired by the drabbles made by @wally-darling-hyperfixation (love your work! Keep being inspirational!). This will mostly follow Wally and my OC, Willow. I'll put up a character sheet or several for each story I have in mind at a later date. For now, let the show begin!

Au belongs to @frillsand

🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬🎬

Chapter 1: The blue haired child

It was a pretty normal day in the busy city. Cars were full of people trying to get to work or trying to get kids to school. The hustle and bustle of the early morning was fairly common, albeit rather annoying. The city was a good place to live, but it wasn't without its flaws, to put it kindly.

The greatest flaw in this city would be its discrimination against puppets. See, in the late 1950s, a prideful puppeteer had discovered a way to bring what he created to life. Nobody knows how he did it, but the puppet population exploded rather quickly after that as the creatures spread out into the world. They were similar to humans in many ways. They can grow and develop from childhood like humans, their digestive tracts are like humans, they can produce offspring like humans, and they can bleed, be bruised, get hurt, and even die much like humans. However, nobody knows if they are a new race of humans or if they are a species of their own due to the differences they have. The puppets can be hurt, but they are significantly more durable than humans. They can heal rather quickly, needing stitches and casts for roughly half the time that humans need them. If the injury is grave, like, say, a limb gets cut off, they just need to stitch the limb back onto their bodies and it will work with no problem. It was a bit freaky, but people started accepting that as normal for puppets as time went on. Even still, discrimination is a bit of a problem in the city as humans still try to grapple with the existence of puppets living among them.

However, this story doesn't deal with that on the macro scale. Instead, this story begins a bit smaller, beginning in the city suburbs, where a small puppet girl worked tirelessly to meet a deadline set for her, hearing an argument between her human parents outside her work room door. She had yellow felt skin and dark blue hair that hung down to her back. She wore a ragged dress with long sleeves, but wore no shoes. She had a gift of mastering many creative arts, including singing and sewing. This little girl would hum to herself, just like right now, as she worked on costumes for this place her father had signed for called PlayFellow Studios, the home of her favorite show, Welcome Home, the cast of whom always needed new costumes, so her father made a contract with the studio owners to make them and dumped all the work onto this poor little kid.

It was rare that she was allowed any time with the TV, but sometimes her father would allow it if she had been very good. When that happened, she was always keen on watching Welcome Home when it aired. It was one of the few things that made her feel like an actual child, watching all of the friendly characters sing and dance and have fun. It made her start to daydream about how different her life would be if she went to that beautiful town to live there. It would be far better than this horrible place…

She shook her head and got back to work. These new outfits had to be ready for tomorrow or else her dad would punish her. She hated being punished. Her dad had set up a whole room for her punishments depending on the severity. If she didn't get this finished, then-

"Willow?" A gentle voice called from the door to her sewing room, the voice of the girl's adoptive mother

"Yes, momma?" Willow looked up, turning off the sewing machine for the moment to speak

"Hey, honey…Your father and I were talking and-"

"You mean arguing?" Willow cut her mother off, making the woman chuckle as she came closer

"Either way, I…I might've convinced your father to take you with us when we go to show these costumes to the cast" Her mother said with a smile that widened when Willow's smile came bright and beaming onto her face

"You mean I'm gonna meet them!?" She asked as she bounced in her seat

"That's right…though for your safety, I need to ask if the costumes are ready yet"

"Almost" Willow said as she calmed down, turning to her current costume project "I just need to finish the costume for Mister Darling. I know he didn't demand much, but I wanna make all the costumes really special and I can't help but feel like this one is missing something…"

"Like what?" Her mother asked as she looked down at the white shirt Willow was sewing

"I'm not sure" Willow said simply as she kept going with her project "That's the problem. I'm not sure what this is gonna need. I made everything right. What is it missing?"

"...Could you sneak something onto it?" Her mother asked quietly

"What?" Willow perked up as she took the finished shirt off the machine

"Try adding something as a personal signature" Her mother said "Something your father can't take credit for"

Willow started thinking. What could she add to make these costumes unique? Something to ensure people knew she made them…That’s when it hit her. Her mother had been teaching her this technique for a few weeks now, so maybe she could try it. She gathered all of her colorful thread, grabbed the knit sweater for Wally’s costume, a simple dark blue sweater, and started sewing some embroidery on it, specifically a nice rainbow wrapping around the body. Willow gave her adopted mother a nod and the woman left to let her work. Willow didn’t often smile, especially at home, but she was smiling now as she embroidered all of the costumes. Wally’s white shirt to go with the new sweater had some vine and apple patterns on the collar and shirt cuffs, Julie’s new dress got some flower embroidery on the skirt and neckline, Frank’s new vest got some butterfly embroidery, Howdy got some apples on the pockets of his apron while his shirt cuffs got some caterpillar imagery, Polly’s new costume got some baked goods imagery, most notably on the bottom of her baking apron but also on the skirt of a dress, Eddie’s shirt collar and hat both got some letters embroidered onto them, Sally got some stars on her skirt and a theater mask symbol on her dress pocket located on the chest, and Barnaby’s vest got some bouncy balls and dog bones on the bottom along with a rainbow on the chest pocket and a daisy embroidered into the new hat. Willow was going through a creative frenzy thanks to her mother encouraging her, and she finished it all just after her parents went to bed.

As usual, she had to feed herself, but there was nothing in the fridge, so she went and got some money from her mother’s purse to go buy a burger from a place down the street. The owner, Jerry, was there when he saw her come in and sighed. She looked worse and worse every time she went in to see him. She just ordered a plain burger, but he gave her a big combo meal including a burger, chicken nuggets, and a large holder of fries. He paid for it himself and bid her farewell after she thanked him. She ran home, but ate on the porch so her father didn’t catch her eating in her room again. Last time it happened…She shuddered and finished eating before throwing out the bag and taking out the still full trash. She then quietly crept to the room she had been sewing in and laid down on some fabric scraps, the softest of which was her pillow. She took a deep breath, smiling at the outfits she’d made, and closed her little eyes.

Tomorrow was another day…

#Welcome Home #OC #TW: Mentions of abuse #Actor AU

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fortunesfavours · 2 months

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time travel in ten - sequential narrative collage piece done for my class, Artifact.

ramblings below the cut for those interested in the process/life update for friends who have noticed i've been gone

right lmao. i had two weeks to do this project and had a completely different idea that i just could not get myself to be excited about. emailed my prof in desperation, but it being like 10 pm meant that she was not about to respond. within 30 minutes, as it goes, i got struck with divine inspiration by whatever force of nature governs procrastination-induced genius, and i promptly spent the next 12 waking hours non-stop working on this.

my class, artifact, is a requirement for the foundation year at the college i attend. it centers around time-based media, ranging from the sequential illustration here to video later in the semester, and a bunch of other projects designed to get us thinking in 4d. artifact is the theme of the class - my peers are doing the same projects under a variety of different themes (tragically, haunting filled up too quickly and i missed out on enrollment in that one).

our first project was designing an artifact and doing a write-up of the story behind it. the girl to my left made beaded spiders members of a fictional cult carried. the guy across from me made an amulet of a long-dead god. you get the vibes. mine, which I still need to take professional photos of, is a pocketwatch that lets you time travel. cause, yknow. i'm me. it was gonna be about time travel.

i had originally intended to do a bunch of drawings of the watch's owner, building out her backstory and the world she lives in, and explaining why the watch exists,,,, then i couldn't bring myself to pick up the stylus. I just can't seem to find the energy for my usual digital art (sorry friends i miss yall i'm still here i swear).

here's the bit about my life so feel free to stop reading if you just care about the art 👍

I haven't drawn fanart or my ocs in months now, since last semester, and I miss it a whole bunch but right now that creative energy just. is not happening. i don't plan on abandoning it forever by any means, but p much everything i have is going towards school right now. sad as that is, i'm having so much fun, and i'm so proud of the technical improvements i've made. I've got so many things i want to create, mostly for my ocs. i still love crit role, but i've fallen of campaign three. i don't have the time, and the story hasn't been engaging me for a bit.

i've been really into dr who lately, and am eagerly waiting for the spare time to sit and watch all of candela obscura. i'm in a new dnd game. i've got friends! real life friends! irl friends who called me the wizard friend within a few hours of knowing me before i even opened my mouth about dnd lmao. i've discovered a new love of collage, and i've just declared my major in something unique to my school, a program called Studio for Interrelated Media. i'll be learning about illustration still through the extra electives i'll have room for, but i also get to explore printmaking in more depth, as well as event planning, installation, curation, and theatre work as well.

i miss being on here a whole bunch and want to be more active when i get more time. don't plan on abandoning this blog by any means. boston has been kind to me, and though i have had some Real Low Points, i've also been living the life i've hoped for since i was a kid. i'm good, really really good.

to my friends, ily, i miss you, and i hope you're well. can't wait to catch up on all yalls art and fic. sending all my love. <3

#my art #collage #mixed media

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eerna · 2 months

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Hello! This is incredibly random, but as a fanartist, enjoyer of critically examining media, and critic of capitalist corporations (*cough* Disney), do you have any thoughts about fan art being a form of unpaid labour?

Context is I’m writing an essay about digital labour and how fan creation is basically kind of like free PR for big corporations… and now whenever I do fanart I can’t get that thought out of my head uGH. I want to believe that drawing fanart is my own form of creative expression and way of showing love for the media, but at the same time I’m like “am I being exploited???” since I’m helping advertise smth for free and these corporations are just capitalizing on my love for said media??? and I can’t reconcile these thoughts 🥲🫠

Also I’m struggling with the essay LOL my eventual conclusion is that we as fans do have agency but we kind of still are being exploited… so it’s not a very optimistic outlook haha. Doesn’t help that the scholars’ articles I’m reading are all very negative about this digital labour thing. Help.

Sorry if this is unexpectedly deep!! 😅 just really curious to hear a fellow fanartist’s thoughts, and I respect you a lot for being unafraid to criticize media 🙏🙏

Hi! First of thank you for your kind words~ Second off, what a cool concept to discuss. Your message is pretty much how I feel. It is very frustrating to remember that so much of the media I love is so closely tied to the harmful cycle of capitalism. I grew up in a country that didn't have access to merch or much in the way of official media so piracy was my go-to most of the time. This means I was introduced to the concept of consumerist aspects of fandom via the Internet as a teenager and started feeling bad about "not supporting" stuff I love, but I told myself "Well I pay back by doing fanart and talking about it online". And then I found out about the way capitalism shapes the media landscape and started feeling bad for playing into it, the same as you. It gets even more conflicting when I am talking about something I dislike made by a company I dislike - yeah, I am probably preventing some people from interacting with the media for themselves, but I am also probably making others interested. What makes me feel better about the entire thing is that the "digital labour" I do is that I'm doing it for other fans like me, and to express myself. I love things so much that it makes me feel like I am going to explode, but pouring it out onto paper helps with it! Of course, I don't have to post it online for it to be worthwhile, but sharing it with others who feel the way I do makes the feelings even better. BUT one of the most important aspects of the issue is how willing those companies are to let me gain something monetary from the relationship. Are they ignoring fanworks being sold as fan merch, as commissions? It is illegal, but I feel like it should absolutely be allowed as a sort of unmentioned perk of being a fan worker, and the companies that don't allow that are evil. My audience gets bigger, I sell more prints, and so do they. (This is also why I never accept money for fanworks made by small creators, such as webcomics)

There's also the fact that lately I've been seeing the rise of "If you REALLY love this piece of media, it is your DUTY to consume it as much as possible and spread the word about it as much as possible and make the company as much money as possible if you want to see more things like it!" takes. These are utter bullshit and where enjoyment of media goes to die. The moment you reduce your love for something only to how much money it can make the evil capitalist overlords who allowed it to grace your eyes, you completely deny any kind of artistic worth. Media should exist because we deserve to have our hearts touched by stories, not because it makes someone money.

I don't have a clear answer or feel like my approach to the issue goes entirely along with my morality. But I don't think we can find a way to feel good about the entire situation as long as our media is dictated by capitalism. It's the sad reality of loving something in a system that will squeeze any money out of you that it can. But we gotta march on, remember that we are the ones allowing them to survive and not the other way around, and love while we do it. Good luck with your essay, stay positive!

#eernask #elsartzz

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magpies-gold · 3 months

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I may have finally unlocked the thing what turns my unhealthy overproductive causes-me-burnout creativity into enjoyable creativity - and it's called working off of vibes.

In the past I've tried just taking breaks from being creative, but that never works. Doing things other than being creative just feels like I've put myself in time out from the thing I actually like doing. Ultimately, I want to be creative. I love making art! I love writing stories! I genuinely get life from being my artistic self like.... all the heckin' time. It's all I genuinely want to do is make stuff. What I don't get life from is making it a grind. Working to rigid schedules, focusing on daily goals and - oh my lord, I despise the push to monetize it. I'm leaning hard away from that these days, and I'm not sure how far I'll ultimately take my aversion to pursuing profit from my creative ventures. It doesn't make me significantly happier to make money off of it (even though sometimes it's necessary, like when disaster strikes and I don't readily have four digits in the bank account to fix whatever's exploded), especially when making money comes with added stress from things like figuring out the taxes on what I've made, and the horrors of the perpetual chase to make more money. The emotional balance trends towards the negative and I'm over it. So I'm attempting a vibes-based approach - doing things when it's good for me to, and in a way that is fun. Some of it's a bit of concerted de-programming: for example, my webcomic is a source of truly bad habits for no good reason. It exists only on my Patreon, and it is exceptionally obscure and always was. There is very little point in wearing myself out trying to pour twenty hours a week into a new page every single week just because one is supposed to stick to a schedule, but over the last decade or so I programmed myself very well to do just that. Getting out of that rut so that I can have a healthy relationship with it again is a fight, but I'm winning. I want to chase the short term happy of getting a new page queued up every Monday, but instead I'm refusing to do so. If the page is done, I queue it up a few days late. And then the next week a few days later than that. Always a different number of days, pushing it out of sync so that I can't fall back into routine and neither can my handful of readers. I did not ever promise them a schedule. A schedule is bad for me. Result? I (mostly) drew three pages this weekend and enjoyed it. They're not done, but I made a heck of a dent and didn't feel gross about it. I'll finish them over the course of the next week or so, in bits and pieces rather than forcing myself to sit still for hours at a time until the page is done. I should be stopping when I'm done. I'm also way happier with the art I'm making. I'm still churning it out quick, but the lack of self-imposed deadlines means that I can have fun with it. I'm doing similar things with my writing. It's nice when I can keep Alpha Base moving forward, but for the last while I've been muddling around in different directions than forward and it's actually getting the creative wheels spinning in my head better than the methodical one-step-in-front-of-the-other approach. If I have a hankering to jump elsewhere in the plot and write a scene, I do. If I need to explore an aspect of a character that technically falls into a prequel (because dang it, I'm starting to develop prequel material) then I go for that. If writing a drabble that might not even land in the book, or any of the book(s), is what I need, then I'm doing that, and it doesn't matter if I'm "ready" to or "there yet" - I'm just doing it. Vibes. It's all worthwhile. Hell, I spent most of the weekend writing a purely fluff scene (me! writing fluff!) between two of my antagonists and I think that was one of the best ways to spend a weekend. I feel damn good about it and learned a ton about them both. I think I even know where in the book to put it, and I sure didn't when I started writing. Didn't know that would happen! Life's too short to spend turning everything into a dang job. I just want to play. So to hell with it. We play.

#art #writing #creativity #play is important #VIBES

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citrus-cactus · 17 days

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Creative Goals & Progress (April 10)

Posting this a little late, because I had a busy weekend of driving, visiting friends, and eclipse-viewing!

Goals are split between “things I will put on Tumblr when they’re done” (aka, fandom stuff), and “things I will be keeping to myself” (because they will eventually have my real name associated with them).

Personal stuff:

Two (2) Secret Personal Project (SPP) drawings Status: Done.

SPP File Export Status: Done.

And do you know what that means?

MILESTONE

COMPLETE!!!

I did it! Go me!! Of course, there's still LOTS to do before SPP is DONE done. But now I feel like I can actually show it to people, and get some feedback, which is HUGE! SPP doesn't have to exist in a vacuum anymore (or be quite as secret), and that feels A M A Z I N G !

Fandom stuff:

Haru blog queue, episode 52. Status: 50% complete (no progress since last week).

Haru blog 4th anniversary art. Status: Not started.

Garg fanfic. Status: BLERGH! (none. that means none progress)

BONUS: Menace art. Status: 35% complete (no progress since last week).

#creative check-in #the cactus speaks

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flavia8 · 5 months

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"Cartoon" Book Covers - What's with them?

These are just some musings of mine. Just thoughts kinda organized with some things linked. Lately, there have been discussions about the recent trend of "cartoon" covers for books that have been coming out. As like any discussion of art, a lot of it depends on subjective opinion on how the covers look, the feel they evoke, and if it encourages people to read the book. Before I continue, I think it's important to define some terms and scopes and all that. Ready? (Also this is very long)

"Cartoon" covers seem to be the most prevalent in recent romance releases, however, cartoon covers exist in any genre and are not just a recent thing. (Recent here being loosely defined as within the last 10 year) Romance as a genre is derided, pretty much all throughout history until now which is awful. By talking about this, I am not trying to say that romance is a worthless genre that has nothing to say, in fact, I think the opposite! Romance is extremely important and worthwhile, from brain candy romance to literary romance. It is not a genre I read a lot, just because of my interests and such, but I do read them because I believe in reading a wide variety of books and that exposing yourself to different things is extremely important. But, since many romance books have cartoon covers nowadays, a lot of the books I'll be talking about are romance. Also, I am talking about the covers, not the books. Cover does not indicate book quality, but covers do serve as a sort of "appetizer" for them. I also will only be talking about books, as in novels and such (I am not sure how best to put this, I mean books mostly composed of words alone), not comics or other different types of books.

There's also the issue of how you would define a "cartoon". I will be using the definition of "Cartoon" given by the Oxford Learner's Dictionary, with a bit of modification.

Cartoon - a simple drawing showing the features of its subjects in a humorously exaggerated way, especially a satirical one in a newspaper or magazine. (X)

The modification being that humor/satire is not required to be considered a cartoon. Thus, the definition becomes this:

Cartoon - a simple drawing showing the features of its subjects in an exaggerated way.

Regarding Cartoon Covers, the recent prevalent opinion seems to be negative, with a variety of reasons as to why readers dislike these covers, which line up with my own reasons I dislike *some* of them.

For me, personally, they do not have enough thought or effort put into them. The compositions are not very creative and tend to be static, which is quite boring. They are generally quite simple, but not in a good way. Generally cartoon covers look cheap. However, Being simple does not equate to looking cheap. And yes, while there is something to be said here about how cartoon covers are cheaper for publishers and thus that is a reason they have become prominent, this is a separate (though related) issue. Figures rarely have actual eyes or features, and are not really anchored within the "scene" and they look stiff. Limited (if any) shading means these covers lack depth. The backgrounds are often silhouettes that are a slightly different cover than the overall background color. Honestly, they tend to have very limited color palettes in general. Since I am from the U.S, the covers will probably be U.S Versions.

However, there is a distinction to be made I think between the types of cartoon covers drawing ire and cartoon covers that are not. IE "Good" covers and "Bad" covers. Of course, this is subjective and many love cartoon covers I would consider "bad", and inversely many that would dislike covers I love. In order to illustrate my point, I would like to present to you this cover of the Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas.

By the definition above, this is a cartoon cover. (This book is a YA Contemporary bildungsroman) It also matches some of the characteristics of covers I dislike. The composition is simple and the figure is not traditionally "anchored". But, I LOVE this cover. The symbolism of the title being on a protest sign is amazing and extremely fitting for the work. The sign itself serves to anchor the the young girl, and the contrast between the figure and the background, interrupted by the sign adds visual interest and makes the figure and title stand out. To me, it this cover feels "cared for" if you know what I mean.

In contrast, there is this cover of The Hating Game, by Sally Thorne:

This cover is so awful. My first issue is the woman is so undefined that her pose looks unnatural. Her torso looks unnaturally twisted, as if she's both facing the reader and has her back to them. The man looks like a poorly done papercraft (No hate on papercraft itself) blob with his floating hand and the amalgamation of simple "layered" shapes. (Though there's not a lot there) The figures just float, and the composition is boring. This is a nitpick, but I dislike that the words overlap with the woman. Word placement and font are extremely important to book covers.

Some more examples of covers that I think are unappealing and that I think are the types of covers contributing to the dissatisfaction with covers that are "lazy, cheap, and hollow". Some are more unappealing than others.

While I find these covers to be bad, the thing is that a lot of them actually have aspects that "could have been good." For instance, I like the Idea of the Covers for "Happy Place" and "The Heir Affair." "The Charm Offensive" Has a boring cover, yes, but I like the spotlights separating the figures. But overall, these covers seem poorly done, and "corporate." It's especially sad, I think because it discourages people from reading books they may enjoy and creates a negative association with cartoon art. There is also a metric FUCKTON of these types of covers. They're ubiquitous. In contrast, I want to highlight some cartoon covers that I think are good (Though not without flaws), and are not the same type as those above.

For me, all of these covers are leagues better than those above. They are visually interesting and dynamic. The figures don't look lifeless and stiff, and they all look unique to their own book. Arguments about if I should be comparing books of different genres and aimed at different audiences might unfold, but I think that's reductive. Cartoon covers exist in all genres for all audiences. Case in point:

Some of these I like and some I don't. I actually do think that *poorly done* cartoon covers are a legitimate problem. Since the genre most plagued by these covers is romance, it can encourage further dismissal and invalidation of the genre. If romance covers are largely perceived as cheap, hollow and insipid, those perceptions further color the perception of romance as a whole. I do not think that romance is any of those things, or that the covers should cater to people who hate romance. But, romance being generally a feminine interest is, like a lot of things considered feminine, mocked and considered inferior. I worry that prolific bad cartoon covers only serve to reinforce this horrible association. Additionally, the saturation of these covers begins to homogenize the romance genre covers making it hard to identify the type of story the book holds. Romance readers (AND AUTHORS) deserve book covers with effort and thought put into them, that match up with the type of book it is. Silly fun books should get silly, fun covers! More serious books should get more serious covers to match. (Of course, cartoon covers can be both but when silly cartoon covers are the only thing being created it's bad and leads into stuff I mentioned) And I know book covers, like most things, have trends. But still.

Book covers looking similar is not a crime, and it generally doesn't bother me. And I'm not trying to be mean or attack the designers of the covers I don't like, I'm just trying to critique and distinguish certain types of covers. I know a lot of this is subjective, and this is by no means anything definitive. This is just my thoughts on something I noticed. This is not -serious- analysis! I did not do any *in-depth* research. And I'm not even touching on AI images. It's just. This trend of simple, flat, blobby, cheap art in covers worries me. I know the publishing industry is beyond fucked and tiktok is NOT helping. Cartoon Covers can be quite lovely and amazing! That Cover for "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is one of my favorite book covers of all time. But the push for cheap mass appeal is creating/exacerbating problems. There's not even really anything wrong with going for mass appeal, (especially since book covers are supposed to draw the audience in) but when it becomes the ONLY aim, instead of being a fun/creative way to enhance the book/add to the experience through visual means as WELL as to appeal to readers, something very important is lost.

#eta #books #book covers #cartoon book covers #booklr #reading #romance books #romance genre #cover art #booktok #book cover art

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okanra · 1 year

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⚠️ Note: This post is about Dragon Ball Super, and is written mostly for recap and research purposes, but it involves a few real-life related topics and will be pretty long so you should treat this like a blog post. If you’re comfortable with this and still curious to see what this is all about, keep your mind open and let’s go! 🤓

MY THOUGHTS/CONTROVERSIAL TAKE ON THE CURRENT STATE OF DRAGON BALL SUPER and DRAGON BALL FRANCHISE AS A WHOLE, AND THOUGHTS OF THE FUTURE OF THE BRAND

- PART 1: INTRODUCTION OF THE COMICS and TIMELINES -

1. INTRODUCTION:

Hello everyone, if this is your first time seeing me on your dashboard, my name is Kah and I’m an artist who have been working on a Dragon Ball webcomic named “Trunks and Goten in High school AU”, starring Goten and Trunks since 2021 and is still ongoing.

It’s used to appear on Google a lot until the current arc of Super happened, and Elon Musk’s decision to deleted the Moment feature on Twitter (that was the main link that mostly appeared on Google about my comic). It’s an art project that I’ve been letting it sleep inside my head for ~20 years and finally decided to manifest it into existence while infusing my style in it, until it got unexpectedly “canonized” by the Dragon Ball Super creators in late 2022 while the project is still in the beginning stage, in a way that I couldn’t predict it.

It changed everything afterwards of course. For both myself and the fandom, and maybe, the impact of this will be bigger than we think it will be 🤔

I know there’s nothing for you to believe in what I’m about to say, and I won’t force you to believe them too, of course, you have no obligation to do that. That’s exactly why you should try and read this and decide of what to think yourself, it can be something quite worthwhile.

The time this blog post is written is in January the 3rd, 2023. The incident was in December 2022, I will include timelines and many other articles down below, as well as images for you to see things more clearly. For the current me, this post is a recap for research purposes, and since I’ll be using myself and my work as an example, there’ll be some unwanted personal feelings unconsciously mixed in, but I’ll try to keep my mind as most neutral as possible.

You’re about to read my real thoughts on the current arc of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero since chapter 88, the similarity of my webcomic in it and many other deeper things, as well as my theory/glimpse at future of Dragon Ball franchise as a whole. I hope this read would be entertaining to you.

2. THE TIMELINE:

Before we get into the main topic, here’re some of my character designs and background visuals for my webcomic. If you can, read through some chapters as well, it’s not much but it will give you an idea of what to come next.

Ok so the first question to ask is, when did my webcomic project start? I say it’s around May 2021, in the midst of the Covid-era, when mostly everyone was quarantined at their homes. This webcomic art project is drawn so I can practice my drawing, storytelling and creative writing skills. It’s an indie project through and through, that takes a lot of time, effort and love. I don’t profit much from it tho, I mean my patreon is even opened in August last year and I didn’t even promote it much on any social media platform other than Twitter sometimes. So yes, the main purposes of it were mostly what I wrote above.

When did the current arc of Super start? Since 20th, December 2022. After the Granolah arc of the Dragon Ball Super manga ended, this is the arc that is currently running: the Super Hero arc. In appearances, there’re a bit of similar vibes from the manga and my webcomic in 2021, and while it may sound farfetched and like false accusation for everyone else, my intention is not exactly aiming towards that, it aims for something lying deeper. This is just the tip of the iceberg, that I would analyze and share a bit of it with you. Like I said, I would try my best to write it out as neutrally as possible.

From here on out, I’ll begin to list the entire timeline that leads to the current state:

- The last time Goten and Trunks appeared as main characters in canon was almost 30 years ago, I was talking about the Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball GT versions. Goten and present Trunks were not favored characters by fans, even when they have a small fanbase and have some fanworks throughout the years, they were still mostly listed as a funny dumb duo and unmarketable by the franchise. This leads to these two characters not being developed and touched upon by their creators for many years, because Toriyama is the type of artist that would draw because he likes it, yes, but he would cater to the masses of fans more (for example, a lot of his decision in the writing of Dragon Ball was suggested to alter into something else that fit the general audience more and he would mostly agreed, like his desire for Gohan to be the main character after the Cell arc, but Goku was brought back into the picture due to his iconic popularity and flat-character type, and that’s how we got 30 years of Goku’s journey). (what is a flat character: here)

This personality of his would later have a hand in him selling his ownership and license of Dragon Ball to Shueisha (main license holder), Toei (animation license holder) and Bandai (merchandise license holder). Akira Toriyama is the creator in name only, but big decisions are not depended on him. He’s pretty much like Stan Lee - the creator of Spider Man, but all the copyrights and licenses are hold by Marvel.

- In late 2019, I decided to re-picked up the Dragon Ball manga due to nostalgia. While remembering about my love for Goten and Trunks and seeing the lacked of content for them. Being forgotten by their own creators for unjustified reasons, I decided to write and draw my own story for Goten and Trunks, and published it to the internet since May 2021 on many social media platforms, but Twitter is where I’m the most active. And Twitter is the main international platform for many official account of Japanese brands, including manga, anime and of course, Dragon Ball.

- Any loyal Dragon Ball fans in the fandom community will know they mostly love the Toriyama style, and most will try to make their fan works in his style to honor him and the show itself (and will get more attention from other fans). And even though my webcomic is not as favorable as other Toriyama style fan arts and fanseries/fancomic due to the personal unique art style (I have my own drawing style) and differences in tone and storytelling (while the show mostly veers in the humor/gag/action direction, mine is more towards the dramatic/angsty/introspective side), it did raise the awareness to other fans in the community about the potential of the “forgotten half Saiyans”. Especially when two of my good friends that I usually talked and hyped with on Twitter are a Dragon Ball fanartist (@/amartbee) and a Dragon Ball content creator/YouTuber (@SLOplays) that always share official news of the show on his page, I included their handle names in here just for a few examples, in no way do I want to pull them in this whole mess of course. But anyway, both have a big following on Twitter, have big influences and love Dragon Ball.

- And they love my webcomic. The fanartist shared my webcomics a lot to her page and her community (blessed her), and while the content creator didn’t share it (except for a few times), he felt the love I have for Goten and Trunks that I put in my fan comics, and love them more and shared that feeling to his fans as well. So through my and their influences, the fans during the covid-era began to see the light on these characters, and want to see more of their potential as well as love them more. During this time, the Dragon Ball Super manga was in the Moro and Granolah arc, still focused on the journey of Goku and Vegeta defeating opponents in space, because they’re the fan-favorite, the icon of the brand for many years and Toei/Shueisha felt right to continue milking them for content and marketable purposes. Until the midst of 2021...

- After my webcomic started in summer of 2021 for a few months, the official account/website of Dragon Ball began to dropped the news of “DRAGON BALL SUPER: SUPER HERO” movie (in production) in late 2021. And everyone was curious over what’s this all about.

- Then in February 2022, we had the full key visual for DRAGON BALL SUPER: SUPER HERO movie like this. “That’s something we have never seen before right?”. Yes, indeed it was. It was. But everyone was ecstatic, including me.

- During the time of the movie being in the production stage, several visuals and interviews from the animation staff member as well as Toriyama himself were published online, twitter was always the fastest of course. Toriyama said he wanted to make Piccolo as the main character for this movie only, but Toei wanted to include Gohan as the co-protagonist to lure in the Saiyan fans, which held the more dominant side of the fanbase. Hence why the movie had two protagonists that were Piccolo and Gohan. But the weird thing is, they decided to finally include the Super’s teenager version of Goten and Trunks this time. They were drawn by Toriyama, but I can tell based on how good he was as a character designer, Toriyama himself didn’t think much about their designs due to how simple they were. This made me feel like they were not at the forefront of his mind, and more like he was “told to do”.

- When the movie was finally released across the globe from June 2022 until the rest of the year, we found out about the scene with Goten/Trunks was only about 2 minutes, and they did nothing major in the movie. This would later confirmed my theory of this movie being an experiment and a very clever survey from Toei to know the taste of the international fans at the time with characters other than Goku and Vegeta (because they had been milking them for almost 30 years and even when these two are still the icon, the taste of ithe fans have changed).

Despite that, their 2 minutes on-screen was enough for me, my friends, our friends and followers/fans to expressed our love for these two through likes, shares, fanarts and everything else.

- During this time, I still worked on my passion project aka the Goten and Trunks webcomic series, and with a few fan arts mixed in along the way. Still hyped with my friends and followers as a fan on many social media platforms. Love them, the hype in this fandom is real.

- After the movie was aired for a few months, in August 2022 chapter 87 ended with a note from the editorial staff that said the manga would go on hiatus to prepared for the next arc. This would later confirm my theory of “this break” being the time when the whole franchise and “Dragon Ball” brand’s marketing/research department to check on the stats from the movie (that acted as a survey for international fans) to know which direction to go next.

- Until August 2022, the official account/website of Dragon Ball dropped the visuals of the next arc, which included Goten and Trunks as super heroes, and this arc would be the arc before the Super Hero movie with them as the protagonists.

This is when I began to feel a queasy feeling that whispered something like “that was... Odd. Good but... Odd”. Because from the beginning of Dragon Ball Super until now, it has always been a Goku and Vegeta’s journey to space, there was no build up, no anything to lead to Goten and Trunks being protagonists at this point. Below are some examples from the Moro arc, they still remained in kid’s forms like what they have been for so many years like this.

- In November 2022, there’re leaks about the next arc of Dragon Ball Super aka chapter 88, and we found out this arc will focus on Trunks and Goten’s high school life, with Trunks as a protagonist and learn how to be a superhero.

This was when everything came crashing down on my head, shattered my rose colored glasses and connected all the dots. I decided to wait a bit longer to confirm my theory by reading chapter 88 and see the content in it. While most of the fans were ecstatic, because they finally got what they wanted: Goten and Trunks finally got their spotlight in canon; I was feeling nervous more.

- In 20th December 2022, chapter 88 got released and while it caught the eye of many fans from both Japan and the international, the first chapter of the arc got mixed reviews due to it focuses too much on Trunks’s crush on Mai to the point of forcing readers to accept it. I wrote this thread right after reading chapter 88, giving out my prediction. And later today, it got confirmed by Toyotaro himself in an interview: he did intend to put in lots of romance in this arc.

- But after all of this, I mostly saw the weird and lots of lots of “coincidence” in my theme and the Super manga theme. They are both alike, and TOTAL POLAR OPPOSITE. Imagine two similar (or same) products, but they are being produced under two different brands (in this case, it’s from a company vs a homemade one), with opposite directions and purposes.

We’ll continue the next part after this, it’ll dive deeper into the real life topics to emphasize my points and researchers. The theme of the next post aka part 2 will be:

THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE DRAGON BALL SUPER, THE RELATIONSHIP OF THE MANGA WITH FANS AND FANWORKS, AND THE FUTURE OF THE DRAGON BALL FRANCHISE AS A WHOLE

- end part 1 -

#dragonballsuper #controversial take #dragon ball super super hero #dragon ball #dbsuper #dbssh #truten in high school au #trunks #goten #my comic #akira toriyama #toyotaro #important #research #information #long post

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inventors-fair · 9 months

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Levity and Play Commentary: Softer than a Punch-line

Okay so! I’m busy as hell and losing my mind, but there’s no reason why I can’t have fun in the meantime. And you know what? I think that this is a good time to mention that over the last week and a half, we’ve been engaging with creative workshops, and from that, we’re learning a lot about intent and how to give feedback. The small issue, of course, arises from the fact that creativity and gameplay aren’t fundamentally the same at every level. A card that feels like the embodiment of a natural disaster also has to be counterable by a mage’s flick, or an accidental surge, or some manner of inter-gameplay reasoning that means it can’t be as all-powerful as its signifier’s existence wants it to be.

In some ways, that’s the purpose of this contest. You have to find an little ‘in’ in the card world and translate that into gameplay. Or, really, you’re finding the fairness in the gameplay and saying, how can I make metaphor from this objective world meaning?

With so many of these, there was massive and wonderful success, and I’m glad to have laughed and smirked and snorted my was through. With the absurdism of not getting what we want, levity must be made. Let’s get into it, then! If you see a card marked JUDGE PICK, that means that either I was amused by a particular aspect or that it was close in the folders of winners and runners-up—a longlist, if you’ll forgive the literary-ness of it all.

@batatafilosofal — Late to Class (JUDGE PICK)

What struck me about this card was the fundamental funniness of Quintorius as a character. And I’m learning to love him a little, learning how he’s going about in the world, and what this card could’ve been. I mean, an elephant is going to be a little trampley, a little hasty, and an elephant who’s going to be in people’s way is definitely something you have to watch for on campus. Learning is what feels like both a funny aside and the real Strixhaven idiosyncrasy—students learning. He’s not exactly in class, but the world asks that he learns, which is totally fine.

I feel that that’s the power level of learning, because this card’s pretty close to a cantrip! You have to discard, but I mean, either you loot through the deck or you get an extra card in your hand for one mana, and if you super need it you can target an opponent’s creature, which is very helpful, I think. Solid for sure. On the specifics, trample and haste do have to be switched around, but like, if you want a great draftable combat trick, this would be the common to look out for. It’s definitely aggressive, and that’s fine; Lorehold kind of needed that push. Prismari would be in that vein as well, y’know, but that’s the nature of uncontrollable draft. And, last little note, I want to say how much that flavor text is leaning into the storytelling voice, as if this is the start of a narrated journey, and I’m quite amused by that.

@bread-into-toast — Gorge on Hotpot

We’ll still have to talk about food as it comes up, but that’s totally fine, because I like how food becomes more evocative when we think of levity. It’s a place of comfort and a place of connection with magical worlds—everybody has to eat even if sometimes it’s a hobbit in a cocoon. What this world is going for is definitely trying to get that world connection, the Chinese-inspired world of Shenmeng which I have to admit, I haven’t kept up with all of the new planes, so there you go. Flavor text is doing some cute work to contrast with the spicy art, and it’s making the right moves in terms of contest intention to have spicy noodles be the damage source. Maybe ending on “It’s hard to stop at just one bowl” would land the punch that the relationship is already doing between concepts.

With the mechanical introduction of paying for your bowls of noodles, having them be so hot as you come out and (in-world) eat them, I’m getting a tiny bit lost in what this gameplay world is supposed to be. Traditionally, when we’re in the vein of multiple tokens, I lean towards MH2, and it’s really in conversation with that set but not quite getting to the gesture of on-the-table identity. Is this a token sacrifice archetype, is this a Food or a Treasure archetype, tokens in general, artifacts—I’m not entirely sure. As a rare, it’s not really the boardwipe it wants to be either, because it asks so much of the replication with the mana cost and the Treasure. I wish there was a mechanic like Conspire that could exist here? There are ways of playing about with it, but when we’ve reached the “I get it” point of paying for your noodles, I wish this card told me more about what these very specific archetype-gestures want to do in the set.

@curiooftheheart — Unfortunate Spill

I know that this isn’t what you probably want to hear, but the first thing I see when I look at this card is a lot of text. The flavor text is pretty funny, sure, and it’s a fantastic use of the prompt. But, goodness, that’s a LOT of text for a card that’s—well, it’s doing a lot to justify having it but I don’t think it’s necessary. Exact sacrifice is super cool, and I want to point out that that stood out to me as a precise, unique piece of tech. It adds at least two lines to whatever card it’s going on, though. This card could’ve had two paragraphs; the first, the additional cost, and the second: “Choose any target. If one token was sacrificed to cast this spell, it deals 4 damage to that target. If three tokens were sacrificed, it deals 5 damage to that target and...” etc. Hm, hold on.

As I’m typing this out, I’m realizing that damage prevention and uncounterability are a lot to have here. Really, this whole box needed to be pared down. This isn’t to say that your idea of the world isn’t fantastic, and that the ice cream being dropped isn’t a really funny image. Maybe it’s a little odd to have it be that much damage considering it’d only be that much damage for a small creature, but you paint such a portrait that I’m on board. The amount of (what feels like) unnecessary wording frustrates my reading of this card’s strengths. Really think about how much you’d need to make it work in the envisioned environment and what precedent you can use to shape it into a more legible and streamlined card.

@dabudder — You Reach Into the Brush

I put this card into a weird category where it’s less funny and more definitely lighthearted—and also subtly not so? There’s that old adage about, like, the weight of the adventurer, and so reaching into a bush and finding a broken branch—that gives two power, jeez—is a much more lighthearted jaunt, but not as exciting as the holy-crap-factor of finding the sword. But the sword also carries with it that notion of oh no, I have to save the world, which is a lot to handle, a bit. It’s the enormity of fate. But I’m reading too much into it, so whatever, I’ve had a long week of reading into things.

In terms of the card itself, this isn’t going to be crazy broken and will probably be a three-mana tokenmaker that’s sometimes incredible, so you know, as an uncommon, I feel it. The fact that it’s at instant speed is a little odd, because I read it as a pivotal moment of decision and less of a quick reaction. Reading it as a quick reaction is pretty funny, though, especially if your Brushwagg reaches in and finds the sword right in time—although, like, both the abilities are definitively aggressive and would be pretty disappointing if you needed a blocking ability. But like, first strike is a lot for that effect, so I get it. And the abilities are both still good! So, the massive amount of text is still grokable, even if it is a lot, so I’m bearing with this card. D20s and whatever aren’t a me thing, but you have a great sense of adventuring, and I’m willing to meet this card where it needs to be.

@deg99 — Ropework

Mechanically, this card’s pretty great. I like how you can play this as a quick cantrip if you’re desperate, but the ideal usage makes you want to play this card in such a way that you get to get through a blocker and swing in with the team, wham bam and all that. That encouragement is a super cool design technique, e.g. you see this card and you want to build a multicolored deck in order to get your money’s worth. Tapping and haste are always fine, and a cantrip is too, so there’s nothing that’s not known about this card; it’s the togetherness and the little wink to camera that’s what I like.

The mood is pretty sensible, too, although I’m a little taken aback by the choice to have someone sitting down as they’re supposed to be given haste. It’s hard to get across without there being a chase scene, perhaps, or having the adventurer be part of some kind of active and subtle role at the same time—so maybe they’re having a dance-off? That’s the first thing that comes to mind and it’s not, like, the best idea, I know. But the point is that I want there to be a little something that I can point to and go yes, absolutely, I get why this keyword is happening here. Sitting just is a little—not in motion, is the best way I can put it. The flavor text isn’t doing much work for me either, honestly. I get the intent of having rope be like, oh, it doesn’t have to be a lasso, it can just be a lace. We’re already captivated by the art to know that, though, so, what’s the new flavor we’re adding? Think about the scene, or the act of magic, how that’s being transformed, perhaps? What’re you going to do to show us yes, new rope, there’s a joke in here, something about being tied up, knotted, whatever. But it does need to be more playful, I think, to fully emerge.

@dimestoretajic — Kibo’s Japes (JUDGE PICK)

Speaking of bananas. I...am 80% sure there’s a subtype manipulation deal where you get infinite Bananas, but I couldn’t begin to tell you what that might be. Well, just to be clear: this is one of those cards that makes sense, and in any other circumstance I’d be nitpicking, but the seriousness with which I read “are Bananas in addition to their other types” was just sending me. As a build-around-me card, having the red-aligned part be where most of the Treasure comes from (as well as the Peel effect) is pretty well-balanced with how much green likes to make Clues and Food. I also like how it affects all of the tokens on the battlefield, which is reflective of the flavor text.

Not that I’m entirely on board with what the flavor text is getting at, but I’m mostly there. With the “legion” being mentioned, I get the feeling that there was some sort of weapon manipulation happening, but here, you have non-weapon objects being banan-ized. How precisely am I supposed to be reading this in the world of Kibo? Again, on-board, I’m totally down for the gameplay and it makes sense, and it’s kind of silly that Food and Bananas are artifacts all the same but that’s just semantics. I think that the sheer silliness of this card is what’s inspiring me to call it a judge pick. Even if the world isn’t 100% matching up for me and there’s a possible imbalance depending on how fast you can make tokens, there’s a lot I’m willing to overlook in favor of the melee and chaos of bananafication.

@dravidious — Crash Test

The idea of crash test dummies is one of those straddle-the-line questions of how serious or silly they are even in real life. It’s quite a profession, after all. ... I may or may not be writing this before coffee. Anyway. What’s uncertain to me is the notion that there’s any kind of testing of this caliber, or that seat belts and airbags are part of the world. Also, I don’t know why my mind went to dummies, it could just be a test—although there is the part that destroys a tapped creature. No no, backing up: seat belts. The vehicles of Kaladesh aren’t built for that at all, really. There are hovercrafts and monowheels and all sorts of weird things, but airbags? I don’t buy it, honestly, or the fact that they’d use the language of the DMV as presented here.

Card-wise, I will say that that part of the prompt can be checked off quite well. Destroying artifacts is important for vehicle and Aetherworks Marvel-sized removal if need be, and destroying a tapped creature is probably what you’re going to be using this more for anyway. I like how it’s a tapped creature, which is one of white’s no-attacky-me killspell tricks as well as a crewing punishment. That part’s actually really clever, and I hope that it’s all intentional, and I’m just going to assume that it is and you’re flexing some design muscles. Besides the flavor hangup, the card itself seems completely reasonable.

@flightyquinn — Unplanned Adventure

Purple-bordered cards, huh? I won’t take too much stock in it, don’t worry, no imaginary points docked. Exploration! I’m astounded that there were only sixteen cards that actually explored in the whole of Magic, with a couple others that care about payoffs. It’s a wordy mechanic but it’s so fun, and here there’s a wonderful use of it in a context unrelated to Ixalan at all. Without reminder text, there’s a lot to be asked for if you just opened this out of a pack or whatever, but let’s assume design speculation rather than what-do-players-need and printing and all that.

I personally love the combat trick weirdness/protection as needed/ strange removal that comes with blue instants like this. While there might be some confusion with the question of legal targets if XYZ is removed in response and the “then” clause—oof, maybe I’m overthinking it, and/or maybe it’s too early in the day for me to be considering the comprehensive rules. Who knows! I’m sure it’ll be fine, and again, I really do like the exploration. While the flavor is playing into tropes, hey, it’s a good trope! Strixhaven possibly, or another school in the multiverse? Doesn’t matter—kids are gonna get lost in a magical academy that cares not for their safety or well-being around forces beyond the world’s control. But they’re not getting killed or maimed or whatever—an adventure awaits! Yeah, that brings a smile to the face. And a shift+enter to the flavor attribution next time. (And thank you for the set symbol! I love when people have their own custom ones on MSE.)

@halfsilveredmirror — Resolve the Dispute

When I was first playing Legacy back in 201X or whatever, a friend of mine used Mangara of Corondor and the card Karakas to exile whatever he wanted and return Mangara to his hand. As a one-time Magara effect, I’m actually surprised that this hasn’t been done before. And so cutely, too! Right, backing up: I’m going to assume that this card isn’t going to be in the same theoretical format as Karakas, but bouncing or blinking your own creature in response is still really funny since it’d just exile your opponent’s card. And the fact that tokens are easy to generate make this decent as well. In most limited settings, I don’t see this card being played without a strong token build-around, but it’d be easy to do so, and perhaps your early plays getting exiled isn’t so bad.

Cuteness carries the other half of this card in a way that may not be in-depth or story-heavy, but it’s pretty much just what this contest was looking for, right? To take the void of nothingness, that horrible vacuation into which monsters and innocents alike go hurtling never to return, and to apply it to tiny mouse siblings? Heh. Not gonna lie, there’s a little darkly-humored edge to this contest when I actually think about it, but there’s just the gameplay of time-out that could be applied, too. You have to stay in the sideways zone until a new game, little scamp. Love it! Maybe that’s part of what this contest asks for: if Magic had always been flavored differently, what would it looks like, and how would we think of these effects? Anyway, cuteness is worth something, and I’m pleased that this effect was brought up.

@helloijustreadyourpost — Gwart, Aspiring Chef

My brain is the problem here. Now, hold on: I like this card a lot. I think it’s a great limited bomb that is a Commander possibility. But: if there’s any kind of Food generation in the set, then this card essentially becomes a once-a-turn sweeper. Which...is problematic, if true, but we can’t know that. If it’s implied that there are other Food-makers in this set, and Capenna once again has a Masterchef empire (still thinking about that!), then we once again have a potential power level problem. If it was each creature inclusive, or there was a different cost attached, then perhaps it would be more balanced; repeatable sweepers are still somewhat of an issue in any environment.

The funny part is that the levity is dependent on the potential direction. If this guy’s by themself in a home kitchen, then it’s their various pots, pans, and cockroaches that suffer. I can also imagine a light-but-still-serious burning situation in which a goblin literally kills people with their bad cooking techniques. So, I’d say that this card straddles the line of the prompt, but still lands in a funny enough camp. I still, in-world, wouldn’t want to stick around for seconds.

@horsecrash — Science Fair

I’m gonna say that this is legit in poor taste (in-world, anyway). Ambitious, yes, but wow, Zimone should know better than that if she’s a prodigy! Emotionally, the world may never know, and I haven’t read enough about her to understand where she is as a kid/young adult/teenager/I don’t actually know how old she is-person. “Younger than most” seems to be the consensus. Would she be part of that science fair after everything? I might be overthinking the specifics, but the point is that she saw the Phyrexian invasion up close; this flavor feels more Un-set than not, honestly.

As for power level, this is a wonder, isn’t it. Show and Tell is definitely A Card, and I wonder if this is at a power level enough to make it...matter? I’m thinking, like, if you put Omniscience onto the battlefield, your opponents probably can’t do much about it, right? I think that Show and Tell is still really darn good, so the question afterwards is whether or not a standard environment can handle something like that. You know what? I think it might. Elesh Norn, Anti-Harmonicon would be a fun card to have on the battlefield if you throw down an Atraxa. ... Yes, I’m still on New Phyrexia, gimme a break. Are there anti-token generators? One-sided nonsense cards? Obviously S&T is still broken at this cost, but I’d be willing to see how crazy this card’s willing to go.

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes — Surprise Round

I have read and reread and once again read that art direction and I cannot for the life of me figure out what’s supposed to be happening here. If you’d be able to make a sketch from this, I’d greatly appreciate it. For the moment, I’m just not having the brainpower to solve the placement. Let’s back up to the gameplay side of things. I... Look, this is one where I have to admit, I didn’t play with the initiative, I didn’t like the concept of the initiative, I don’t play D&D or any TTRPGs, and while I get the concept this card, there’s an emotional distance; perhaps it’s the IP adjacency of the trope? Double honestly, I don’t know for sure what a surprise round is. Or who “Mrs Caveat” is. Or what...any of this is supposed to mean, I’m so sorry, I just don’t get it.

And the card’s probably fine! It’s a weird little cost and a damage spell, which...is actually fine considering Kabira Takedown and have-a-dude hit-a-dude part of White’s combat trick. That’s all fine! The initiative is a great thing to take at the end step! I think. There aren’t any instants that have you TAKE the initiative—not “gain,” heh—probably for weird power level reasons of having other effects tacked on, y’know? I wouldn’t know because of Reasons.

I want to stress that this is a “me” issue. This is the problem with a variety of designers and players and tastes: I don’t have that expertise to give you the commentary you deserve here. For that, I do apologize.

@izzet-always-r-versus-u — Spring Break (JUDGE PICK)

It’s versatile, it’s an odd multicolor blink that really digs through the blue, and you have a cool choice of landing. I like it! Is this a Strixhaveny kind of card, or is it still in the vein of doesn’t-have-to-be-specific? ... Wow, I love my hyphenated terms for specificity this week. For this week. I really hope this isn’t going to be a week late, oh cripes. ANYWAY. This card! It’s a good card. Let’s start there. I think this is one of the ones where the only thing that could’ve propelled it would’ve been art direction in conjunction with other cards being Not As Good. Unfortunately, other cards were as good. The blink and stun is super cool, and having to save the creature and buff it tapped is a small price to pay when on the other side you can freeze a creature. I like that effect a lot.

Are there springs in the spring break? For some reason, I imagine a literal spring breaking and someone getting launched into the air, OR like a vernal pool with a magical spigot launching a swimmer above the pond. What would the direction be, really? I want to know, and that wanting is borderline frustrating if the card wasn’t so cool. Some students sleep in, or some teachers sleep in, and some others—oh, I just noticed, Quandrix and +1/+1, that’s definitely a Strixhaven card, isn’t it. Gotcha. Unless I’m wrong. At this point, I don’t think this commentary is helpful, is it. Look, here’s the gist: you had hot competition and you went for something slightly too abstract to be absolutely perfect in envisioning, and I like the card a lot, and you designed well. Hope that helps!

@misterstingyjack — Game Night (JUDGE PICK)

You know, in the end, I wondered why I made this a Judge Pick on the first pass, but then I realized how meta-warmfuzzy it is. We’re here to have a game night. It’s the reactions to the power on the board that really make it. No, I don’t want us to go easy on each other! We should be playing to our best advantages! We should be putting out personable powerful monsters that affect the board! I like affecting the board a lot. And being with old friends. I love losing to the people I love losing to. Does that make sense?

In terms of stacking and effects and specific wording, I think “starting with X” might need to be in there somewhere, but the draw is nice, and this is a card meant to emulate the feeling of being with people on an equal playing field. Great to bring back the rhino and elephant from Late to Dinner; isn’t that what this is all about? How would the elephant roll the dice, though. ... By trusting his friend to make it equal and even. I think I wanted to include this one here not because it was necessarily funny in the laugh-out-loud way, but the emotional impetus brought a smile to my face. That’s worth something. Isn’t it lovely, to capture loveliness in a resonant way?

@nine-effing-hells — Polyattendant

Unlike the initiative, I did end up playing with attractions. Like the initiative, I didn’t enjoy them. Unlike the initiative, I’m amused to see it in Legacy play. Now, with this card and the contest—well, okay, let’s go back over the card itself first. As a draft card, it’s a great bomb to slam to even get a single attraction. Right? The GGG is a bit of a labor-intensive practice but it hardly matters later in the game if you can get to a part where you open a zillion attractions. Sure, that much I get.

This contest wasn’t about the Un-iverse. It wasn’t stated that these cards were meant to be not in that world, because we’re still using “border” to talk about it, but—will Attractions come back to a world that isn’t filled with clowns and tickets and parody? Look: the Un-iverse is meant to be comedic in its own right, its own existence. What’s the challenge in making something meant to be funny, be funny?The world is filled with natural humor and the Magic world can be too. And also, this card implies that the hydra ate and killed its manage. Is there levity in that, or is the humor still in the miasma of darkness? These cards weren’t supposed to engage with death, morbidity, or even much snark. This wasn’t the contest for this kind of card. Thank you for bringing to our attention to our need to change that wording. Genuinely, though, it’s an important distinction to make—the source of where comedy is derived and how. I should have been more specific.

@reaperfromtheabyss — Oops!

The name is what’s making me make the same face as that commander, I imagine. There are so many more Magic-evocative names you could’ve gone for, argh! Maybe it’s a me thing, and I know it’s a me thing, and I have to explain this in an objective manner, but when the expected flavor doesn’t mesh with the establishment (boardwipe and silly goblin), the framing—name, effect, situation—has to have all the alignment a player needs. “Oops!” doesn’t align for me at all. The art direction and the flavor text are impeccable. Maybe this was a moment where I needed to make a compliment sandwich, but I’m growly and moody and you get the brunt of my brain’s darkness. ... Which is just this. I’m not actually pissy, it’s just a lesson about mood and expectations.

Cardwise—gameplay wise, whoof—I wonder about the setup here and how much setup you might need in order to justify having this effect. What if you don’t get the card you need to have the mana value equivalent? Is it worth getting rid of your hand for? Is the “scorched earth” kind of effect (more a pyrrhic victory, perhaps) able to justify the fact that your opponents will have the card advantage in hand, probably, if not board advantage? How much advantage will this give you? It’s variable, and I want to like it, but I don’t think this card is that playable. It’s fun, certainly, even printably fun. Not a constructed card, though. Dredge, though? Heh. Kidding, kidding. Someone would have a victory with it.

@snugz — Papercraft Mule

It took us a little bit to get that this was a pinata. No, I’m not gonna look up the unicode for that, I’m already so far behind and there’s literally a German shepherd eager to jump onto my lap as I’m typing this. Dammit, Frank. AHEM. Mule! Yeah, heh, I’m glad that we got that out in the open and all. Hm, could this even be a Donkey Construct? I love the fact that donkeys are a type that would make sense to be brought back to Multiverse Magic. The flavor lands once we established the emulation. I have no idea why it took so long. Is there a world of mesoamerican culture where this can be done respectfully? Ixalan was...probably not the right one, considering. Actually, I’m remembering, of all things, a Viva Pinata! comic from Penny Arcade and also a Five Second Film where a living creature has its entrails eaten. Is that happening here? Is there a humane way to engage with this humor? Or am I just a crazy person.

I really like this as an annoying blocker, but also, it forces you to decide how you’re gonna play the rest of your hand. It’s cool that you can save this for, like, turn 4 or 5 and then use the next turn to jam two spells, one of them being a big creature. I think there’s gonna be someone who forgets about it, plays a creature with 2-3 power, and gets less food than they hoped for, but they can deal with it. What role would Food play? This card doesn’t make me ask that, thank goodness, but there’s gonna be a LOT of food for later. Hopefully that balances out. This card can be a real pain in the butt with the lifegain later, can’t it. Is that too much? Variable food? Hm... Something to think about.

@stareyedesper — Rake

And now, the Inventor’s Fair One-Time Award for Most Uncreative But Actually Reasonable Like What Else Would You Call It Naming Convention. It’s a rake! And you can scrape or step. There’s no possible other way to make it happen and I think that the obvious answers are all less funny than the result. Comb and splat, eh? Heh heh. Like, if I saw this in a pack, I’d feel amused but also a little worried about who at Wizards allowed that to see print. And then it’s be the only thing that people could talk about in the set, because it’s the most perfect thing to exist. It’s hubris and it’s silliness. It’s useful and it’s dangerous.

I like the mana value clause there; lets you take out the aggro decks pretty easily once you comb with it. The scrying is a curious little case here, isn’t it? I wonder about how many folks would forget it, but it’s something to remind folks of, perhaps. I do like how you’d have to keep it that way in anticipation. End step to prepare, upkeep to prepare in a different way. But you have to use it or lose it, right? Untapping is out of favor a little but—don’t tell anyone—I love it in moderation even if I know it’s never gonna come back. In the end? This card’s super useful and a good curveout for a midrange limited deck. In sealed, ugh, I don’t even wanna think about it...

@stupidstupidratcreatures — Miss the Bus

Sometimes the art direction writes itself. Sometimes the flavor does, too! Except in this case, I wish there had been some flavor text written in that blank space, even just a single “Wait!” down there. You have to run to miss the bus, right? I think I like how that works out. For one mana, this would be such a pain in a controlly and slow draft deck, but not enough to break hearts and minds and tables. I’m glad it’s an uncommon; too strong for common, far from the power of a rare. But power level isn’t what this card is about.

Countermagic’s crazy taxing effects have been flavored in a few handfuls of ways, but in general, countermagic is a mage-y power-y lightning-y dispelling-y affair, not—well, this. Where would one find a bus? I’m thinking Capenna, and honestly, I don’t think anywhere else. Would that be a train, then? A train could link it to either Capenna or Kaladesh. Ravnica, for all its flaws, is a walkable city. ... Oh my god, how have there not been jokes about Ravnica being a walkable city before? Or is that me projecting humor where there is none. This card is pretty upfront about it, and I like it. This is the card about missing the bus, and there can be no other. Just add some flavor/AD/final polish, and hey, all the more power to you.

@wolkemesser — A Kiss for Good Luck

That’s a fantastic name and I love the way that this card works in general. In terms of power level, I’d say that the aggression might be a touch high? There’s no cantrip, but looking at Kiln Fiend, for example, the evasion and cheapness are such that you’re gonna be seeing consistent wins where there wouldn’t be wins otherwise. I’m not sure if that’s the greatest thing an aggro-spellslinging or prowess deck needs in the environments where they’re already pretty powerful and consistent, y’know? Still, concept is solid.

Name is too, as I mentioned, although I can’t make the flavor connection for the life of me. Why does a kiss make you menacing? Does the kiss need to be “blocked” by two others before it can be, uh, shared? There might be something that I’m missing in either the semantics or the intent, but my kisses are slow, private, passionate, and not at all menacing. In my work, I mean. Please do not kiss the judge. Unless your name rhymes with Bajani Boldmane. Huh. I think I want to be menaced before I’m kissed—does that count? ... It’s been a long summer, folks, my brain is shampoo.

@yellowpie — Yoink

YOINK. It’s been yoinked! Lemme start with the few reasons why I’m not sure about this card, starting with: the fact that it can still grab planeswalkers. What’s the yoinking? Lands, that’s just funny. Artifacts and enchantments, well, they’ve been manifested, so I’m going to go with okay and threatening. It doesn’t give haste, so that’s fine to have it in hybrid. Is...is this something that both colors can get? I’m actually not sure. The gameplay side raises questions that I’m not sure I fully understand. If it was just artifacts, then it wouldn’t be as curiously fun, but it would make a little more sense. But that obviously wasn’t your intent. I’m quite curious about this card’s nature and I wonder if it’s...possible for it to be okay!

Flavor-wise, heh, I love it significantly. The flavor text opens so much about the world in conjunction with the art, and the name is so gobliny even if the flavor text is more about the yoinking—two sides of the same city! This card is, in a term, full-bodied. You’ve got the gameplay side, how all the elements are connected either by similarity or contraposition, and it’s silly, fun, and probably more powerful in the right circumstances than I know. Commander certainly would make use of this in an unfun way. Ah, but doesn’t it always? Let’s end with this: the mechanics raise questions about color legitimacy, but the flavor makes me want to know more about the world for sure.

WHEW. Okay, let’s get this posted. And in the meantime, show us your lands!

@abelzumi

#mtg #magic the gathering #custom magic card #inventor's fair #commentary #entries #silly card contest

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bluedalahorse · 9 months

Text

I’m going to mention something I really liked about Heartstopper season 2. It’s partially about Isaac’s arc, and partially also about how they handled the ensemble as a whole and what I think worked about that.

So let’s talk about… the power of Friendship!

Isaac’s on an aroace self-discovery arc in Heartstopper S2 and I’m here for it. His aroace journey doesn’t look exactly like mine—I didn’t really start to adopt the label until my late 20s—but aspects of it absolutely ring true. “I don’t have any celebrity crushes.” YEAH EXACTLY ISAAC.

Naturally, friendship is important to Isaac, and I was pleased to see that Isaac’s friends were making sure to include him in the squad dynamic even when he wasn’t coupled off. This didn’t always run smoothly, and there are the parts where people assume he might have something going on with James, or when he’s frustrated to be surrounded by couples. But we’re also seeing moments where they pull him into prom photos, invite him to dance, include him in the group hugs, etc.

One of the most important things that makes this all work, however, is that the friend group is having all of these little moments of friendship independent of Isaac as well. We have Tao and Charlie and their flashback to friendship meet-cute and their lock at the bridge. There’s Elle making new friends at art school and how that’s shown to be important. There’s Tara and Nick going off to the side and having their own chats with one another, and Nick considering Imogen an important friend and working to integrate her into the group and deeming her as important to come out to. All of these moments mattered to me as a viewer, because it means that when Isaac’s friends pull him in and include him in things, it doesn’t just feel like the lip service version of supporting aroace folks. This squad is able to value Isaac’s friendship because they value friendship period. It’s subtle but it makes a world of difference in how I enjoy the story.

Queer representation is often talked about in terms of visible queer romance and sexuality, which does make sense and does need to be represented. That then gets reflected in how we go about fandom things, and how we often focus on romantic and/or sexual pairings in shipfic. I enjoy these fics and getting to marinate in these pairings that I ship, but I always find myself missing something. I always want more. I think it’s because I want to marinate in the friendships of a work as well.

I want to take moment to talk about queer friendship, and how queer friendship is so central to the queer community and how we’ve organized ourselves for survival. It can sound a little bit taboo to say that queer friendship is qualitatively different than a more cishet-normative idea of friendship. Still, I’m gonna say it. Queer friendship is absolutely important and its own beautiful thing, and we need it depicted alongside the relationships that involve kissing and wedding rings and bouquets whatever else.

Heartstopper season 2 has done something really special in showing how vital friendship is, how friendship exists and lives and breathes in these queer spaces. They do it in a way that feels 100% organic and real. I hope other creatives—whether that’s people making the art for our books and television and movie screens, or whether that’s us in fandom writing our fanfics and drawing our fan art—take note of how this can be done.

Friendship forever. And ever, and ever, and ever.

#heartstopper #heartstopper season 2 #heartstopper spoilers #isaac henderson #the paris squad #aromantic #asexual #aroace #the importance of friendship #queer friendship

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livums · 10 months

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Okay I got a weird idea i have to ask writeblrs I like: What would your ocs be an alternative universe? Any type you want, but I would love to hear in like completly different setting they are in real life. You have quite many wips so your choice!

omggg hiiii this is such a fun ask! I wanted to give it a lot of thought.... it was a little difficult because both of my main WIPs are set in like ... old fantasy settings which is typically the AU itself lol and I'm not terribly creative so that's what I would ordinarily go with... but that doesn't work here!

SO I decided to take The Marking Blood and The Romance of the Demigods and... swap their settings! Just to think about what would happen!

So without further ado... I would like to introduce The Mark of the Demigods and The Romancing Blood!

KESH is a vampire who has cheerily stalked the Mont Estival nighttime for years upon years, with no one to look out for but her own damn self. It’s a carefree undeath, save for dodging her ████████████████████ as well as the ever-diligent Hunters. Well, and the unshakable envy. So maybe she misses being a human. So maybe letting herself be turned was not her best decision. So maybe she feels corrupted and irredeemable. She takes it out, in her way, on the steadfast hunter Eve, whom she’s constantly teasing and toying with. It’s dangerous—the day Eve finally catches her is the day her undeath comes to an end. But it’s a thrill like nothing else. Despite proudly declaring herself the “biggest thorn the Guild’s side has ever known”, Kesh is shocked to attract attention for it. She’s thusly accosted by Nysa, a nobleman’s daughter and brand new vampire. Kesh has never reckoned herself the mentoring type, but there’s something that strikes her unbeating heart about Nysa’s determination to walk in the worlds of both the living and the dead. It would be nice, Kesh thinks, to feel a little closer to humanity.

Continued below the cut because this um. is gonna be a while.

EVE is an esteemed hunter of vampires, marching in the steps of her valorous forefathers. It’s among the holiest of callings. Yet she finds herself afflicted of late with the strangest dreams—dreams that more and more compel her to allow the vampire Kesh slip between her fingers. There’s something alluring in Kesh’s taunting. A deep and hidden longing is stoked in her. The more she lets the vampire toy with her, the more she finds herself daring to acknowledge her doubt, her craving. It’s a terrifying thing. Whether slaying Kesh will quell her confusion or amplify it, Eve is uncertain. But on and on she pursues the vampire, knowing not if this will be the night on which she finally refuses to stay her hand.

NYSA is the scion of a powerful nobleman… and, as of recently, a fledgling vampire. She’s done fighting her new nature tooth and nail. Human, vampire, whatever, there must be a way to thrive in both worlds, and Nysa is determined to find it. Or, if necessary, to force it into existence. It’s no simple thing—not when her father is a devout patron of the Hunters Guild, nor when her betrothed is of a Hunter family himself. Naturally, she seeks expert assistance—in the form of Kesh, the self-styled “greatest to ever do it”. Learning to survive as a vampire is hard enough, but maintaining her role as an upstanding noblewoman at the same time? Nigh on impossible. But she can’t afford mistakes when mistakes mean her head. Nysa will find a way to live both lives, or lose both trying.

IRIAL is known by many as the greatest Hunter of his generation. Yet one vampire has managed to elude his grasp—the devious Kesh. Unlike his fellow Hunter, Eve, he is patient in his pursuit of the vampire. There is an art to the hunt. This, he knows above all else. If he lays his trap well, he is certain Kesh will waltz her way right into the point of his stake. He is not at all prepared, however, for how taken he is with her. Oops!

THE MARK OF THE DEMIGODS is a way-too-complicated AU that took me three+ hours to type out. Kill me! It’s about vampires and vampire hunters screwing each other, what more do you want,

Sorry for the bait I actually took one look at the cast and was like oops! there are too many of you and I’m too lazy </3 so um if anyone’s interested. maybe I’ll make a part 2 with this . lmao .

#writeblr #asks #tysm for this ask it made my head hurt but in a /pos type of way ya feel #new synapses are forming. i feel bananas.#im gonna go sleep for sixteen hours. bye!

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askadrianalucardtepes · 1 year

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[OOC] A big note of appreciation

Hey guys! I've been thinking lately and talking with some of the people running the other ask blogs that are currently active, and I realized just how much I appreciate all of you. This community has been one of the most friendly and welcoming I've ever interacted with; everyone has been kind and respectful, absolute sweethearts through and through. I've gotten massive support when I dealt with something unpleasant on the blog and I've received kindness, encouragement and affirmation whenever I post something. I've been and am involved in some incredible roleplays and I've made lots of great friends here thanks to my blogs. I just want to give a thorough shoutout to my friends and the people that have been supporting me here, you all make me feel so appreciated and I cannot even begin to express how much that means to me. in the ask blog category: @lastofthebelmontsrp : You are the one who I blame for starting this all. You were here first, and when I'd just moved my account to tumblr from instagram you reached out with a fun rp starter. That rp evolved into what I now consider to be one of my closest friendships. appreciate you so much, you are an absolutely amazing person with great art skills and writing skills to boot. If you haven't checked out Trevor (or their other blog @asklisafromlupu) yet, I highly recommend doing so!! Addon: And before I forget! Happy birthday, homie. <3 @askcarmillaofstyria : You're an incredibly fun person to chat with, and ever since we got to talking you've been a great friend and someone I greatly appreciate. You're sweet and incredibly skilled in botht he art and writing department, with creative ideas and infectious enthusiasm that not a soul can resist. To everyone who hasn't checked out Carmilla (or their other blog @askthewinterprincess), go for it, you won't regret it!!

@asksyphabelnades-belmont : You've been really sweet since we got to talking, and you seem like a really fun person to be around. Hearing your dnd stories and seeing your mini painting work has been super cool and I really enjoy reading them and seeing your work!! You're a very kind soul and I look forward to seeing your blog grow and get even more attention because it deserves it through and through. If you guys haven't checked out Sypha yet, go for it!!

@forgemastery : You are such a sweet bean omg, you're creative and enthusiastic and it shows in everything you do. You're fun to talk with and bring really great ideas to the table, plus you are a formidable roleplayer. I've been enjoying our budding friendship a lot and enjoy our plotting and shenanigans, it's great fun and I hope we'll get to continue it for a long time! For those hwo want to show Hector some love, do it!!

@askisaacforgemaster : I haven't spoken with you that much yet, but the times we have spoken have been incredibly pleasant and I admire you greatly. You seem like a very kind individual with a great writing style, and your roleplay skills are equally as fun and good! I hope we get to talk more, because you seem like a really awesome person. For everyone that wants to check out a great Isaac, here's your chance!!

And now for some askers that I've interacted with and really really appreciate: @flame-bloom : God I love you so much. You have been the backbone of my askblogs, ever since I started out with the comics I drew. You have been my number 1 supporter who has cheered me on every step of the way, who has indulged me in my interest and taken an active interest in it as well and who has been nothing short of just plain incredible in every single way. Every day I wake up feeling grateful to have you in my life and, as I've told you many times, you are the highlight of my day both in and outside of my blogs. You are the best girlfriend I could've ever asked for and I love you so, so much. Thank you for being so supportive and thank you for showing so much interest in what I do. I appreciate your existence every day and I can't even begin to describe how happy I am whenever I talk to you, see you or get to be with you. I'm rambling, I know, but I just really fucking love my girlfriend guys. She's amazing and you guys should all show her the love she deserves, she's just that incredible. Even now just writing this has me all giddy, can you see yet where Drac gets it from?

@blurree-face : You are someone who I've seen around my blogs frequently, and I am so happy that I do. I love your asks and your interactions with my blog, you help me bring the characters I portray to life and you're just generally fun to interact with. You also seem like a nice person in general with great writing skills and a lot of creativity, and I hope you'll keep that up! Thank you for being such a cool bean around here!!

@ariawen : You are also someone I've seen around my blog frequently, and you're just so damn sweet. Your asks are incredibly fun and I love the comments you send on my posts. The interactions we have are very fun and I'm just really appreciative of what you do with this account. Thanks for being so awesome!!

@iheartfireemblem : You've been around for a long while, and your asks have always been enjoyable. Building the little familial bonds with Drac and Alucard with you has been fun and you've been very sweet with your asks! Thanks for being so kind and sending in such fun asks for me to work with!!

Also a small special shoutout for @striga-official, who just joined us! She's a friend of mine and really sweet, go give her a look and send in some asks!! You guys won't regret it, promise. :D

If I didn't name you here, know that I do also appreciate you so so much. Every single one of you here has been nothing short of delightful, with only a few exceptions that honestly aren't worth mentioning here anyway. You all are amazing and I am super, super appreciative of all of you, seriously. You guys don't know how motivating and encouraging it is for me to log on to tumblr and see my inbox filled with asks that I can unleash my creativity upon. You all rock and I am thankful for all of you every single day.

Tl;dr: I love you all so much. Thank you all for being so cool and making this a fun experience. I appreciate every single one of you to bits! Much love, Valentine/Adrian

#shoutout #I love my friends #and I'm a simp for my girlfriend and unashamed of it

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