#and it's a bad look if you have to apply their traits to a white man to find them interesting lol

[wavebiders]

I think what really bothers me about fanon!Astarion isn't just the woobification. That happens to every problematic white boy. It's annoying, but not news. It's that almost every trait that the fandom assigns him is something that is already explored through a different character in this very game

You want a character that's too focused on the task at hand to want to stop and help innocents? That's Lae'zel! Astarion is cool with dicking around, but Lae'zel spends most act 1 actively in a panic about the tadpole and pushes you to just find a cure already

You want a trauma survivor that is mostly self-serving but can't help but care about people in a similar situation? Well, Astarion disaproves of you helping slaves, but Shadowheart really wants you to look out for kids! Even when she gets tortured for it!

You want someone who is prone to sympathizing with the monstrous? Despite being a monster hunter, it's Wyll that has that covered! Astarion doesn't even like you sympathizing with a recently orphaned goblin kid

You want a proper courtship with a prince charming? That's literally Wyll's romance!

You want a character that tries very hard to be bad, but deep down enjoys doing the right thing, and starts to accept that over the course of the game? Shadowheart again! A massive part of her story is just that

You want the angst of a character still having been a minor when entering their abusive situation? That's the case for literally everybody except for him and maybe Karlach! He was an adult with a job

None of this is meant to be an attack on Astarion as a character, but pushing all those traits on him does the game a massive disservice. All these character's storylines exist in conversation with each other, they all benefit from the existence of the others. To instead pretend all those things apply to one character, is just

Well, it's incredibly boring

#not to mention all the other characters mentioned are women and a black man #and it's a bad look if you have to apply their traits to a white man to find them interesting lol #but anyway can't stess enough that I do think Astarion is a great character #he's just not the character a lot of his fans think he is #and it's a shame how prevalent that version of him has gotten #bg3 #astarion

[spider-xan]

I'm also thinking all over again of those bad gender analyses of the scene in the D*sney Mulan animated film where Westerners were like, you see, Mulan uses a fan, which is a symbol of femininity, against Shan Yu's sword, which represents phallic masculinity, so it's a scene about the triumph of woman over man, but it's like, that kind of folding fan isn't associated with women in Chinese culture, and it looks way more like a war fan used by men in the military, though who knows what D*sney intended there lol

Also, I don't really care too much about the D*sney film bc it was made by D*sney for Western audiences (unsurprisingly, it wasn't popular in China, where they have their own long tradition of works based on Mulan), and it's fun for what it is, but white people lecturing Chinese people on the ~true meaning~ of the original folklore is YIKES

#like the main message of the original ballad is filial piety #and to some degree duty to country #sometimes there's the line about the male and female rabbits running side by side #and how you can't tell their genders apart #i think there's also the line about the ideal (male) soldier #having the traits of both a tiger and a woman #and when mulan reveals that she is a woman #she does not get hit with misogyny #but the poem is not about her being a feminist girlboss sticking it to the man by being a tomboy #and white women 'improving' the poem by removing her filial piety to her father for being unfeminist is a bad look #filial piety isn't just for fathers btw #but it's applied to her father in the poem bc he's the one whose life is in danger

[birdofmay]

I just saw one of those "autism isn't linear, it's a spectrum" posts again and one picture was that how much the traits are pronounced could look like this:

[ID: two golden circles filled with the spectral colours. There are five white dots in each circle, each for one of the five categories: "sensory", "language", "executive function", "motor skills", and "perception". One dot is connected with its neighbouring dot by a black line, making it a simple polygon. In the first circle, it's almost a triangle, in the second circle it's a pentagon. Unfortunately my maths isn't good enough to tell you the name of the pentagon, but the bottom and the right side appear to be of equal length. /end ID]

And yeah, exactly, to use the outdated terms "high functioning" and "low functioning" - this individual here would be considered high functioning. Some traits are very pronounced and in fact very disabling. That's why "high functioning" dismisses the struggles of those autistics.

But they are considered high functioning because there are many traits that aren't that pronounced.

To illustrate that, this here would be someone considered low functioning:

[ID: The circle from above, but now there's a black line subsequently drawn within the circle, almost bordering the golden line. There are no white dots, but just imagine that the dots are on the outer edges, meaning that the traits are very pronounced. /end ID]

And you do see the difference, right? Every trait is very pronounced, very disabling, there's nothing that's not on the outer edges.

Sure, low functioning doesn't make sense when it's applied casually to every autistic with intellectual disability, or when it's applied to everyone who has some traits that aren't very pronounced - and unfortunately that was the case way too often.

But I just wanted to illustrate "severity" to you.

This is why I was diagnosed with "severe autism", because none of my traits are "weak" enough to compensate for the pronounced traits.

I don't like functioning labels either, I especially think that high functioning is very harmful if it's applied to an individual by others because it ignores that many of those autistics still have needs that need to be met and still struggle and (often) still in fact are disabled.

But you do see the difference, right?

My language skills got better over time (as you can read), but I still can't speak. My motor skills got better over time, but I still need people to help me with BADLs. My perception got better recently - I now sometimes hear when people call my name. But everything else? My perception is still shit.

That's the difference. That's why "high functioning" dismisses struggles but at the same time definitely is different from people diagnosed with severe autism. You can't even compare your bad days with our good days. Our life is completely different because we don't have those "weak traits" in the circle that you have.

Right.

And we definitely need to talk about the "neither nor" category of medium functioning and medium support needs, but that's for another day. This autism acceptance month maybe 😁

#long post #me trying to be informative

[ae-neon]

Nesta Vs ACOSF, a rambling rant

TW: mentions of sexual assault and abuse

Besides the "love" story that read like a quiet descent into domestic horror, ACOSF has one element that keeps me from being able to pick it up even just to sift through for Nesta gems: sex.

Here me out, I'm not a prude and I think we could have gotten a smutty romance but...

At her core, Nesta has always been a proud and modest person.

To be clear, with pride, I mean that her sense of self - her famous steel spine - has kept her together and unbroken even during harrowing circumstances. It's vital to her. It's so ingrained in her that - given we have no other explanation - we can assume it's what shields her mind from literal magic. However, like any trait, her pride can also be a thing that comes off as negative in the wrong situations.

With modesty, she was raised to keep a certain ideology that based her value on sex, beauty, marriage etc but it's important to understand that Nesta applied those standards inwards, at herself. (Eg In acotar, she brings up Feyre and Isaac in defence of her and Tomas, in acomaf, she is mostly upset about not hearing from Feyre or being notified that Feyre has switched courts - not about Feyre sleeping with Tamlin and then Rhys)

Now, I don't think Nesta's modesty makes her better than Feyre, in fact I was happy to get the representation of two different types of views on sex

But what I didn't consider at the time was that SJM was painting this out to be a negative trait.

In retrospect it seems obvious even though Nesta has defied her narrative destiny and become a sort of icon, at the end of the day she was still supposed to be written in a negative contrast to Feyre.

It seems funny but imagine you consumed the book the way Sarah intended, the way so many in the fandom have. The old Sarah Says rule, for my long time mutuals.

For example:

The dinner in acomaf - it's obvious Nesta is upset that she hasn't heard from Feyre only to have her come through not only as a whole Fae but bringing others and endangering their entire family.

But imagine it as a one dimensional reading and suddenly the "I fuck" dialogue is a girlboss moment of feminism giving a fuck you to the strict patriarchy of the "mortal lands" let's ignore how the Fae are actually more patriarchal and the Illyrians even more so than that

So understand that Nesta's modesty is being directly contrasted with Feyre's sexual freedom. The reader - at least from sjm's perspective - is supposed to agree with Feyre and disagree with Nesta in a sort of win/lose, yes/no, black/white dichotomy.

And because sjm is consistent and boring and a self-inset author, this dynamic doesn't change even when the protagonist does.

Only now sjm and her feminism has changed from fuck-whoever-I-want girlboss to kinky-but-only-with-my-husband tradwife

So Nesta can't be prudish and cut off because 1) it's not as conducive to the breakdown of self and buildup of a dependent and abusive relationship and 2) it's not in direct contrast with Feyre's current monogamous, traditional family values character.

So Nesta starts drinking and sleeping around and it's not because we're going to explore the unraveling of the pride and modesty at the core of the character as part of her transformation or as a result of her trauma

But because it's supposed to be a bad look, degrading, it shows she's failed, it makes her a loser

All of that is already insane. And even more so when taken with the context of her assault by Tomas and the sex centred relationship she has with Cassian

Now add to that the fact that in the book, Nesta is an object of desire for 2 villains and undergoes assault and drowning AGAIN

Sjm literally gives less than 2 fucks about SA, that much is obvious even from the way she inflicts and then disregards the experience of both Feyre and Rhysand respectively. It's a tool for her, a quirky story element

But to have Nesta experience such a similar thing - especially when the experience of being Made can be read as a sort of rape allegory on its own - and all for the sake of "romance" fantasy??

Even Nesta's reading habits are sexualised, to be clear I don't think there's anything wrong with reading smut, but the scope of her intellect and reading is narrowed down when we're suddenly made to believe most of the books she reads are smut.

This is someone who likely taught herself economics and investment within months in order to not just pay off the debt, upgrade her whole family's way of life but also rebuild the family fortune. Someone who, having stopped schooling at around 14/15, did the math needed to calculate the feasibility of the evacuation of a small country.

Someone who's verbally stated life goal was to see what a woman could make of herself in the world.

Even her love of reading is used as a stepping stone for how horny she is, instead of it being a result of her deeply ingrained need for escapism

She reads smut because the only thing she has in common with Cassian and the IC is sex. Because sjm thought one of the core elements of a friendship between 2 SA survivors and a disabled woman from a culture that mutilated her for being born a woman would be their desire to fantasise about men.

All the while the male love interest treats her like garbage.

We could have had a smutty book filled with sex where each scene could have been the growth of Nesta's trust and love of Cassian through intimacy. It could have been a sexual relationship that involved and explored kink - which explored vulnerability and the negative impact of how Nesta's pride became a source of stress and strain.

It could have been an exploration about the complicated relationship with desire and oppressors that many survivors have. But it isn't.

It's hahaha horny, so RELATABLE

Even when it comes to the abusive situation Nesta grew up in, it's just hung up like decoration on the character. Not explored, let alone healed. I don't wanna hear that sjm explained or explored Nesta's abuse when we don't even get her mother or her grandmother's names

We don't get

The complexity of being a trapped and abused woman who came from a trapped and abused woman who came from a trapped and abused woman

Or the complexity of a dysfunctional family

Or even the journey of recovery from addiction and self-harming behaviour

Now, not every aspect of Nesta or any survivors lives have to boil down to how it relates to their experiences but SJM is praised for her "recovery" and so much of this book is about sex and abuse but has no depth

It could have been a less-deep, fun experience of sex and desire and kink. But no

Nesta has sex with many faceless men because sjm is condemning her as a failure. Sex is her punishment, it makes her dirty and unworthy and cheap.

Then, through her "healing", she becomes a sex doll for the right guy. Sex is her reward, it makes her hot and useful and appealing.

Sjm writes not just like a man but like a particularly talented misogynist so it's the way sex is used that really puts me off

Edit: ultimately I think the sex and romance should have interacted with and evolved her pride, modesty and past experiences, rather than those things being demolished to turn her into a sex doll

#anti acosf #anti nessian #anti sjm #acotar rant #nesta deserves better #sjm critical #nesta archeron

[evelhak]

Seen so many bad jokes about autistic people's literal black & white thinking that I wanted to talk about how it might actually look like. Yeah, sure, haha it's very funny if you say you have to turn the place upside down and someone thinks you literally want to turn the house on its roof, but who would actually think that? Sure, that image would pop in my head but I wouldn't think that's what you meant. Like, most people can understand the meaning of common sayings they've heard all their lives, even if they did misunderstand them for the first few times of hearing them. So if you're trying to write an autistic character and you're not autistic, here's some examples that could be helpful.

My mom asked me to empty the dishwasher while she was at the store. Once she came back and went to the kitchen, I wanted to ask her something, don't remember what anymore, but she replied that she was admiring my work in the kitchen. To which I just laughed and continued with my initial question. At this point my mom was suddenly enraged and I didn't understand why, until it became clear that she had wanted me to both empty and fill the dishwasher, which I had not understood, and "admiring my work" was sarcasm because she thought I was just being lazy and did know what she had meant. And her rage came from the fact that she also assumed I had understood her sarcasm and chose to ignore it.

What I want a writer to take away from this is 1) there's an internal logic to my thought process and actions that is just as logical as my mom's. It's not random and once I understood where my mom was coming from there was no longer confusion. 2) I also learned from this and didn't repeat the same mistake ever again.

Once at the doctor's office I was given a list of about a 100 things that one should avoid eating if they have IBS. I took the list and went home, immediately started to follow the list for a month. Next time at the doctor's office I was asked if I had been using the list and which things I had been avoiding. I blinked in confusion. All of them of course. The doctor's eyes widened. "All of them??" I was just like... Yeah. Apparently I should have understood that I could pick and choose.

What I think is important here is that 1) autistic people aren't necessarily "rigid" as if that's negative. We tend to process things very deeply so we assume instructions are to be taken seriously. 2) Again I learned from this and remember to ask specific instructions more these days.

This happened a LOT with my girlfriend: she would say something half heartedly, like, she wanted to go to a movie, and I immediately began to arrange when we could go and when I asked her if that day was good she didn't even remember she had wanted to go to a movie anymore. Because it hadn't been a serious statement, just a thought. But I could not tell the difference between serious and non-serious wishes because the words used for them would be literally the same, and I default to seriousness.

Here I'd like to highlight how 1) this example is more complicated because this dynamic can apply to so many different situations that it's harder to not make the "same" mistake again. 2) The default assumption for me is that all of people's words have the same weight. Sure, I have learned to tell pretty well if people are joking, but when they are not exactly joking it's hard to tell the degree of seriousness.

Obviously I'm giving myself as just an example.

All in all, my point is I want writers to consider the LOGIC, the subjective reasoning behind a character's actions just like they would for any other character. You can't just copy and paste together a bunch of autistic traits with no rhyme or reason because the traits are just the outcome of an internal process. They are just the visible part. And for any individual just being autistic isn't enough of a reason to give them a specific trait you have to figure out why their specific autistic presentation is the way it is. Autism is just the label. It's not the explanation. You have to understand how the individual traits your character has, relate to each other and work together from inside out, if you actually want to create good representation.

Obviously I know this is hard. It's almost like it's difficult to think with a different brain type to your own. But that's something autistic people who are high maskers attempt everyday, and can be quite successful at too. But there are still "leaks". These examples are some of mine.

#actually autistic #writing advice #autistic characters

[stiffyck]

Hey Stiff,

@scittiesenjoyer here (why won’t Tumblr let me ask from a side blog)

I kinda went off in the tags of two anonymous asks you got implying you were racist for giving Scar a big nose in your art

I’m here to double down

Because I love your art and seeing you in the community and it makes my blood boil to think that some dickhead accusing you of something you didn’t do will make you feel less welcome here (honestly I wanna be a lot meaner to that anon, but I’m choosing to believe that they were coming from a good place and are just ignorant rather than malicious)

Anon has taken a very real issue and over applied it to the point of almost parody. I would like to make it clear that I am white myself and was raised Christian (agnostic now not that it really matters), so by no means an expert on the issues faced by others. But I do listen to Jewish people and have read into the topic of harmful Jewish stereotypes seemingly more than anon. Prepare for me to give you two whole sources more than that anon

Yes overly large noses (often also hooked) are used in caricatures of Jewish people, but never in complete isolation. Here’s a post on Jew-coding, the practice of applying character traits that make you think of Jewish people. Which can be good or bad, depending on what is making you think of Jewish people

https://www.tumblr.com/roach-works/703234602671751168/on-jew-coding

It doesn’t touch on large noses, though it is often brought up in discussions around art and animation. Especially as villains are often negatively Jew-coded. Think big hooked noses, curly hair, bankers/moneylenders (or otherwise tight with money), and of course stealing or harming blond haired, blue eyed children. Here’s an article that goes more into that for Disney especially

https://www.heyalma.com/why-do-so-many-disney-villains-look-like-me/

I think something important about most of what you will read on this topic is that it’s never a single trait in isolation. It’s the layering of bad Jew-coding that makes something racist. A college student being frugal is not a racist stereotype. But if that college student also had curly hair, was cowardly, antagonised others, and had a thick New York accent then we’d need to be concerned

You giving a character with no illusions to being Jewish a big nose is not racist. You’re not making him the villain, or greedy, or part of some shadow council or otherwise applying any negative (or positive for that matter) Jew-coding to him. You are just drawing a guy and having fun with your art style

I know nothing I can say will take away how you’ve been feeling about that initial anon, it feels horrible to be accused of something like this. Especially when it comes out of nowhere, and in this case is quite unfounded. I know I would have been scrambling trying to figure out where I went wrong. I hope knowing some of the context helps alleviate any distress you’ve been feeling

Please keep playing with proportions and your art style. There is nothing wrong with exaggerating only select features while leaving the rest proportional, the implication that there could be baffles me. I totally understand you wanting to take a break from posting art for a bit. This would be a massive blow to anyone’s confidence. But I think it’s important that you not let this steal away your joy in creating the art you want to

I’m happy to talk more on this or anything else if you wanna reach out, sending love and artistic inspiration

Hi, thanks for the ask!

I think I can see where the anon is coming from when it comes to some of the stuff I drew but I genuinely never thought it would come off as anything bad? Like to me my design just sorta looks like a character you'd see in a cartoon, which is why the ask took me so off guard.

I also feel that since I'm white and I can't really talk about this because I'm not really well educated when it comes to this sorta stuff? Like I don't want to argue with someone or try to defend myself when I don't know enough.

I've been meaning to read up on some stuff but adhd has been making it hard to do literally anything tbh. I need to get medicated so I can read non-fandom related stuff and in general actually do more productive stuff (more art, other stuff i enjoy I haven't been able to do because executive dysfunction) but I'm getting off track here dkvfkdjge

Ive been real anxious lately and that ask really got to me so I don't know about any art for now. I just need some time I guess for the anxiety to ease up idk.

Basically. What I'm trying to say.

I dont know enough about this and in no way would I ever want to do something that's bad or comes off as a racist stereotype or something.

Thanks for the sources and thanks for the nice words

#asks #i still dont know what to tag this #ask to tag

[firedragon1321]

How to Spot an AI-Generated Tai in the Wild!

Because I am insanely obsessed with the blorbo and AI art is a hot-button topic right now, here's a silly thing. I'm sure most artists can tell the difference between real and AI art. But my autistic brain wants to pick apart Tai's character design a bit so here you go. This applies to all seasons, touching on basic traits Tai has between them. So I won't go too much into clothing here (people like to dress him up in different cool outfits anyway- keep doing that).

Note that this isn't true to all models, but works 90% of the time. AI art is advancing so quickly that this may be obsolete by tomorrow. Also, real art might "fail" these little tests simply due to lack of experience drawing the character. If you suspect someone is posting AI art, just block and move on. Report if you want, but you know how Tumblr feels about AI. Most importantly? Don't use this post to be a dick.

WARNING: This post uses AI-generative images found from around the Internet for demonstrative purposes. No credit is given because if the "creators" wanted credit, they should've learned how to actually draw. :)

SKIN TONE

Tai has this nice, tanned skin tone that the rest of the Adventure DigiDestined do not have. While he keeps it in 02 and tri, he loses his color in Kizuna. A real fanart piece is most likely to reflect this, or even add color to his paler designs.

Most AI models have a generic pasty white skin tone for anime characters. This applies to any anime character, not just Tai. I believe this model might have gobbled up his Kizuna skin tone. But I've seen fake Tais even paler than this.

There are some AI models that combat this. But the standard AI identification tricks apply. Here, the tongue is mushy, and the highlights on his goggles make no sense.

HAIR OF FLOOF FLOOF

Ah yes- my point of expertise. Tai's hair is a difficult thing to draw. I don't blame anyone for dropping the ball here. But AI does have some notable, repetitive failings.

A "legit" Tai tends to have fluff, rather than spikes. The bangs consist of one stripe over the forehead. The few spikes present designate messiness, but the general shape is actually curvy (look at the top right side of the head for the most wavy lines). The size of the floof ranges between adaptions and even storyboard artists.

AI-generators are convinced that all "anime hair" is spiky. Notice this AI Tai has more spikes and less curved lines.

Then, there's this one, which drops the ball on Tai and Matt so bad that both characters resemble Bakugou from My Hero Academia.

WHO'S THAT DIGIDESTINED?

Eye shape and color has some leeway depending on the artist's style. Adventure/02, tri., and Kizuna supply three different eye styles. However, there are still some dead giveaways.

Revisiting this AI-generated image, the eyes look...familiar. No?

How about now? The modern Pokemon anime style has been completely absorbed by AI models. Sometimes, Digimon and Pokemon will be confused for each other, resulting in similar eye shapes and other traits (look at the noses, too).

HUMAN TOUCH

There's some times you can look at an art and know with confidence it was human-made, such as-

MS Paint blobs/sketches on lined paper/anything showing layers/etc. They're too unrefined for an AI image creator to want to profit off of, so why would they make them?

Some fetish art. A lot of kinksters are using AI, which is why deviantArt made good ammunition for this post. But many have distinct art styles that AI has not copied yet.

Western-cartoony art with hard or thick lines. AI is allergic to these traits atm. Notice the softer, thinner outlines on all three fakes.

Clearly attempting to master Tai's unique traits, even if they don't translate well (e.g.- a dome vaguely shaped like his hair is more credible than a "perfect" hairdo with too many spikes).

FINAL NOTES

All of this could change tomorrow, at the rate at which AI advances. I'm fairly good at deducing AI art from human-made art. But a recent piece almost tricked me (interestingly, it was Davis- not Tai- who looked off). These things are constantly evolving. But in addition to the usual tricks, knowing your blorbos can help identify AI images so you can freely block (or, when applicable, report) the idiots who made them.

#tai kamiya #digimon #taichi yagami #taiposting #fuck ai art #all of this will change in three days #character design #ai art #ai art identification #might go into tai's hair more one day there's a lot i want to say about drawing it

[creation-help]

Just a moment, survey yourself.

Body diversity edition

[READ B4 COMMENTING: Not all of these are automatically negative by simply existing, and some questions can have very nuanced answers that can't simply be summer up as "Thing: bad. Stop." I'm making this so you can keep yourself aware and reflective on what you do, and encouraging you to learn, diversify and be on the lookout for anything sketchy. You're not automatically a bad person if some of these apply to you, however just be wary of how. Lack of diversity is a design problem. And it can be improved! You can improve! Not everyone starts out knowing everything and many of these can simply be bc someone really just didn't know. That's okay. Don't start stressing, take it like a champ and think how you can work with the situation. Thank you]

- Have you noticed that the characters you make fat have usually if not always something to do with either greed, materialism, their love of food, or eating, or being spoiled?

- Are you using fatness in character design to communicate something unpleasant? Why? Does it really have to be represented or tied to fatness, or are you just used to seeing fat be presented as negative and ugly in media?

- "Why is this character fat?" Why is this character not? Why is this character thin? Do we really need to justify the existence of fat characters in some way? Fat people in real life simply exist. There can be reasons someone is fat, but that doesn't define them. There isn't always some "cause", but regardless of if there is, that shouldn't impact their right to be here and live their lives same as everyone else.

- Could this character design be made more interesting or distinct if you gave them a different body type? Does the vast majority of your characters have the same weight, body proportions and physical abilities? Is there a concrete reason why you make your designs have such similar body types? Is it really out of story purposes, or are you just unable to think about your designs in other physiques?

- Do you know how to draw different body types in general? Have you taken the time to practice and learn? Any art style can depict a variety of body types, it's not a question of fitting, it's a question of the artist's skill to adapt. That can be learned and honed. Yes, you too can learn.

- How many of your characters have physical disabilities? Is the amount simply tied to the fact that you hadn't thought to add any? Disability is also something you can learn more about and then apply to your stories. Yes, even if you're abled.

- Are you only drawing characters a certain way because you think the other alternatives are ugly? Why? And why shouldn't you learn to draw ugly things too? Do you really think these things are ugly, or are you just not used to seeing it? Ugly traits in character designs isn't a bad thing. But it is bad to give your character traits you deem ugly, in order to present them in a negative light. Real people out there have these traits you think ugly. Ugliness doesn't make someone a bad person.

- Do you know how to appropriately draw various ethnic traits? Do you avoid drawing certain traits because you have a bad impression of the ethnicity? Are the traits you consider ugly, actually just traits different ethnicities have? Do you avoid drawing racial diversity out of inexperience, or are you just nervous to make a mistake? These things can also be learned. Yes, even if you're white.

- Do you assign your ethnic looking characters certain traits simply because you associate this ethnicity with them? Is this backed up by any research, or are you relying on stereotypes that mainstream media always leans on? Are you aware of stereotypes, or harmful biases?

- Do you only draw curvy bodies for sexual or otherwise appearance based reasons? Do you notice yourself portraying curvy characters more sexually simply because of their body type, instead of something related to the character? Do you automatically make your promiscuous and sexual characters a specific body type? Why? Why not some other one? Why can't another body type be sexually attractive?

- In the case of fat characters, are they usually if not always linked to themes that are associated with fatness? Are all your fat mermaids whales or octopi? Why can't cute catgirls be fat? Do you give your fat characters associations with pigs, cows, or other fat animals? Do you do it with all of them? Are you aware of reductive tropes that implicitly reinforce negative stereotypes?

- Do you portray thin characters in a normal way? Do you have thin characters with small boobs, narrow hips, wide shoulders, bulky jaws or protruding features? Do you portray thin characters as anything other than conventionally attractive? Do you intend your thin characters to always look attractive? Do you only portray thinness in relation to poor health? Eating disorders? A character's health isn't always dictated by their body type. Fat people can be healthy, or have eating disorders just the same as thin people.

- Do you always make your male characters traditionally masculine? Are they often muscular or square shaped automatically? Do you portray fat male characters as either comedic or gross? Are you (intentionally or not) saying something about your male characters through how masculine (or not) they are? What? And why? How do you portray feminine male characters? Are they always portrayed as more sexual, innocent or weak? Why? Do you think this could (intentionally or not) say something negative about these characters? Do you infantilize male characters based on certain traits? Their ethnicity, body shape and size, or sexuality?

- Do you always make your female characters feminine? Do they always have only specific traits and body types? Why? Do you automatically portray masculine women as more aggressive, loud or mean? Why? And why don't you do this in comparison to your feminine women? Are you (intentionally or not) often putting masculine women in a negative role in the story? Why? Did you intend this when designing them? Do you give masculine traits to female characters who are meant to be seen as bad? Even if not intended, is there still a harmful pattern in how you do this?

#Body positive #Character design #Artists on tumblr #Fat positive #disabled positivity #disabled artist #fat artist #Fat acceptance #Artblr #infantilism #toxic masculinity #Male gaze #Fatphobia

[noobsomeexagerjunk]

Personal QSMP design hcs and interpretations (PART 1)

1. q!Quackity

ducktaur. predominantly golden yellow feathers and bright orange duck legs

partial heterochromia (dark brown with bits of bluish-grey)

his wear is different depending on which language he is maining at the moment

Eng!Q has an eyebrow scar, calloused hands, and some browning feathers. Wears religious jewelry and warm-colored clothes.

ESP!Q has ear piercings and blue-dyed feathers. Always has a clip-on tie and cool colored clothes.

Post-Tilin death, he either has their ribbon as a necktie (ESP) or belt (ENG)

has a pin of the QSMP logo always on his person

Brushes his feathers before teaching class

2. q!Jaiden

she is the cartoon character reflected by the mc skin, though is nonetheless perceived as human

she magical girl transforms into the vtuber fit whenever she wants to. Most of the time, it's to fight or to protect Bobby

she transforms using a magical brooch that resembles the emblem on her vtuber fit. she can add stuff on the brooch to alter her transformed appearance (like changing the bird wings to butterfly ones, or having a shiny rainbow mode)

she made a smaller, less powerful replica of her brooch for Bobby so he can get into armor much faster

she "draws" things out of her inventory with her fingers in the air (think the spellcasting of the witches in The Owl House, but with different symbols)

When Bobby died, her transformed look takes on a more dark and brooding appearance

3. q!Roier

he's not a spider hybrid but like, an actual Spiderman—literally got bit by a radioactive spider and everything

alternates between his superhero suit and a civilian fit. like jaiden, he transforms between fits superhero style

can fire webs from his hands, has slight spider sense, and also venomous saliva (so i beg of you, do not get head from this man)

wears natural makeup bc he likes to. he darkens it a little when he feels particularly vengeful (this is canon but yk)

the spiderman traits also apply to Melissa, whose dyed lingerie is literally weaved from spider webs

Post-Bobby death, he wears more blacks (both in civilian and superhero fits) and a lot more eyeliner

4. q!Bad

humanoid looking demon. resembles a void-like shadow in extreme emotional states

distinctly has a glowing halo. it has long horns growing out of it + a shadowy demon tail

has his mc skin's hoodie but sleeveless. collared shirts of any color is usually under that + beige khakis, white socks and various sneakers!

His hoodie has a small embroidered symbol of the Order Theoritas, hidden near the collar of the hood

his hair is long and usually tied loosely. wears glasses as well

sharp canines make him look a bit catty

his reaper get-up is well-sewn cursed cloth. wearing the fit makes his halo and tail larger, darker, and more shadowy

there's a block of diamond + an image of skeppy always on his person

He lets Dapper wear the ghost chat bell as a tail accessory

5. q!Spreen

werebear. He turns into a human during sunny daytimes, and is otherwise an anthromorphic bear-man.

black bear, like the mc skin

fashion sense however matches the CC; generally street-looking even with the bulk of armor

canines and claws glow when he's fighting someone in bear mode. he grows them out fighting during his human state

smells like cigarettes

6. q!Slime

a player equivalent to minecraft slime

prefers taking on a humanoid appearance, and has taken it long enough to master recolorization of said state. feels uncomfortable taking any other form as well

experiences pain when shifting (i mean that's also canon but yk)

behaves like a magma cube in extreme negative emotional states. will resemble one if you piss him off enough

he has no actual clothes, he shapeshifts the appearance of clothing. (q!Mariana has noticed, and he doesn't like to think too hard about it) his most external layer is armor and glasses.

he and q!Mariana have each a piece of Juanaflippa's shell on their person

7. q!Cellbit

human. well, not completely according to genetics but is more or less perceived as one.

The CC but wearing the blockman-cubito's fits

wears eyeliner to hide the eyebags. This doesnt work and only makes his eyes more expressive

a shadow looms the upper half of his face whenever he's being super weird and mysterious. It darkens when he's consciously about to do something really bad in a dramatic anime way; this is much more emphasized if he puts on his goggles

he paints his nails and the paint always trails. these glow sailor moon style when he comes into contact with the blood of any living creature

has a caffeine addiction

The chainsaw scars are deep enough that Cellbit doesn't like looking at himself when changing; he forces it though to remember why he's doing anything at all

Taught Richas how to draw the symbol for the Ordo Theoritas. He also has the symbol pressed into the leather of his gloves

8. q!Wilbur

humanoid man of unidentified species. perceived as human.

really is human looking, minus the pointy ears and prismatic irises

wears clear glasses. yellow sweater + sleeveless brown longcoat + grey jeans + black boots

has a black scarf and red beanie both made of wool and embroidered with gold threaded flowers.

always has a guitar on his person. since tallulah entered his life, he's let her put stickers and draw all over it.

They jam together when they can

may or may not have an enchanted singing voice

part 2

#qsmp #qsmp headcanons

[lol-jackles]

The original Snow White is my all time fave Disney movie. I saw it in theater as a kid when they rereleased it. I hate when people who were born after 1985 take something made before the 21st century and apply a 21st century mindset to it. They talk like they want a Snow White who will make an impact as if she didn't make an impact in the original film. If you actually pay attention when watching the original movie you can see the impact that Snow White has on those around her.

I didn't realize how much I liked the OG Snow White until we got a VHS tape of a stage musical that was nearly scene to scene of the OG Snow White. I watched it over and over again with my younger cousins. It held us over until Disney finally released the original Snow White to VHS in 1994, when it broke records and sold 50 million copies worldwide. I ask again, why would current Disney think it's a swell idea to change Snow White so much in the live action remake?

Looking back I really liked how Snow White was mostly show not tell, which is the most important aspect of any movie. But a lot of movies nowadays are full of monologues of what a character needs to do and what's going on and how they're feeling instead of showing us and letting us discern for ourselves.

Snow White's value is timeless, that's why she's endured for so long because she resonates with people all over the political spectrum and why they badly reacted to Disney's remake of Snow White based on Rachel Zegler's words.  Snow White epitomizes values about hard work, not being entitled, and choosing a survivalist mentality instead of a victim "woe is me" mentality. Moreover, it is realistic to have hopes and dreams, but not at the expense of shirking your present responsibilities.  Her world was pulled out from under her and she lost everything she knew, but she got right back up.  Many adults have rent and bills to pay so they couldn't just wallow in their self pity and misery.  They have to go to work and carry on, just like Snow White did.

Snow White is relatable.  Many abuse victims grow up to be abusers at worst or assholes at best. Not their fault but still people like Snow white should be admired, she didn’t expect to receive refuge without earning a living. And Snow White helped the dwarves become better people, she even broke through Grumpy and won his affection.  The dwarves answered to NOBODY, and yet they had to answer to Snow White because they loved her, and then would kill for her by chasing the evil queen to her death.

Snow White is a great example of “the kindness you give to others comes back to you” i.e Snow White helps the baby blue bird find her parents, who then return with her parents to help Snow White. Often times the best indicator of strength isn't whether you reject your circumstances but how you choose to live with them.  Snow White (and Cinderella and Aurora) teaches lessons about emotional strength, optimism, and kindness. Not only are these important lessons, but they should be on par with the lessons that Mulan, Tiana, and Moana teach.   Kindness and optimism are just as important as bravery and leadership.

Femineity is not weak or bad, and masculinity isn't either.  Snow White was strong because she is feminine, not despite it. While it is important to show that women can have masculine traits, it is even more important to show that it is okay for women to have feminine traits.

Side note: The Disney renaissance in the '90s was shaped by a man for whom a large part of his identity was rejected by society, and he was unable to express it, which makes the Renaissance make sense for why there are so many stories about self discovery. But the older films were shaped by a man who had to work hard to keep his company afloat during extremely rough times (World War I and The Great Depression), so those stories featuring hard work and resilience make sense. Walt had said that Cinderella was his favorite heroine and the fairy godmother represented the "miracle" (through Snow White) that launch the company to success.

#snow white

[blackautmedia]

The Deku Scrubs and Racism in Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Content Warning: Depiction of Racism, mention of cannibalism

I briefly touched on this in my Zelda video, but I wanna talk about the way the Deku in Majora's Mask are portrayed.

Zelda utilizes racial coding to depict nearly every group/race in the series. Racial coding if you're not aware is you apply traits associated with our real-world understanding of race, gender, disability and so on to non-human characters. It's neither inherently good nor bad to do and can enrich a story if used consciously and carefully.

It can also be done unintentionally without a storyteller realizing the implications often because they're repeating elements from stories they enjoy without catching these details.

It can also just be used maliciously in making harmful commentary using racial coding as a way to bypass any restrictions or legal issues that would come up in showing something directly. Much like queer coding, it also offers a form of plausible deniability.

A lot of cartoon characters wear gloves for instance because they were designed to embody minstrel caricatures popularized as a way to perpetuate Anti-Blackness. The practice of minstrelsy has never really died out, it's only changed and evolved with time.

Legend of Zelda uses that same coding in its storytelling. The Deku are plant people with a great deal of plant clothing and architecture. Their color also gives them a dark brown appearance which is common with a lot of the savage islander tropes used here.

They're also portrayed as prone to violence and anger, impatient and impulsive in how they wrongfully assume this monkey harmed their princess, and most notably they utilize the trope of boiling their victims alive as a scene of shock for the white explorer:

During the first section in the Southern Swamp, you can't even access the Deku palace as they don't welcome any outsiders except those the same race as them, not realizing that Link is a white boy with magic powers and has taken the form of their bodies (which is a thing all on its own in this context.)

Even then they don't welcome outsiders of any kind but only allow Deku Link entrance to witness a spectacle at a barbaric showing of publicly executing a monkey they believe has kidnapped the princess.

This is a trope commonly used toward several groups of people, many of them often lumped together as vaguely "brown" people, but you see it done with a lot of Native characters, Black people, Pacific Islanders, Asian folks, and many groups in South America. There's real-life overlap of these people--Afro-Indigenous and Latin Indigenous people exist for example--but the point in the eyes of a white gaze is to depict these as some evil and dangerous other to the horror of the white protagonist.

It conflates a lot with race, nationality, and ethnicity and which specific demographic of people will vary, but it's often done by portraying dark-skinned people of some kind in contrast to the civilized, rational white protagonist.

A lot of times this often goes hand in hand with the portrayal of cannibalism and blood rituals which isn't shown in Zelda, but to give an example of what this trope looks like, compare the visuals in Majora's Mask to the 1932 Mickey Mouse episode Trader Mickey:

Note: (you can watch the entire episode here if you'd like.)

There's an entire genre of film that utilizes the savage brown person in with the white explorer protagonist that go into this idea of framing whatever group of people it is weird, uncivilized, dangerous, and thoughtlessly impulsive often utilizing white fears of the "other" to portray them as beings of horror.

Often these films had usually one "good" brown person and often would have a lone woman character, usually the tribe leader's daughter who was objectified for the protagonist and audience and was usually portrayed as the only civilized or "good" ones, often exoticized and hypersexualized. If she wasn't, she was often abused into submission for the white character.

Also adding to this is the...everything about the Woodfall temple and the boss, Odolwa leaning into the same tropes.

I bring this up mostly as a way to provide an educational resource for other Zelda fans so we have a better frame of knowledge to not reproduce these narratives in fanart, fanfics, and so on. Majora's Mask is my favorite Zelda game! But that doesn't mean it's above critique especially in how it utilizes racial coding.

I'm deliberately avoiding showing more graphic imagery of film examples to make this as not triggering as possible, but cannibalism is a common element in these portrayals as well.

This kind of imagery pops up in quite a few Nintendo games and outside the gaming sphere as well. Off the top of my head, there's Kirby Superstar with Wham Bam Rock as portrayed in the SNES version and the Spear guys from the Mario brothers series.

Here's the Zelda Gerudo video if you haven't seen it before.

#legend of zelda #majoras mask #loz #loz link #racism #tw: racism #tw: cannibalism #gerudo #deku scrub #mickey mouse #trader mickey #media analysis #the legend of zelda #racial coding #rito #orientalism #zonai #goron #zora #sheikah #wham bam rock #kirby super star #kirby superstar #nintendo #Youtube

[windypuddle]

enstars headcanons

ok im going in order but i dont have headcanons for a few characters for sure. so. whatever on we go . just saying in advance these are mostly gender and Autism

fine:

eichi tenshouin: look i cant say anythinf about this guy hes already canonically terminally ill and gay. like what do you want me to do

wataru hibiki: genderfluid. whatever gender fits the performance. shes the moment hes the star theyre the epitome of an actor

tori: boy you are so gnc. princess but not a girl you know

yuzuru: has definitely had impulse thoughts about dying his hair and having a scene phase at 3 am

trickstar

hokuto: bigender. sooooo queer . also autistic

mao: um ritsu braided his hair sometimes when they were younger

ryuseitai:

chiaki: trans guy i have many feelings about this but he leans into the hero thing because its gender affirming. also autism

kanata: no gender only blublublub. likes wearing long skirts. filipino. has like 1 million fish earrings. also autism

tetora: TRANSMASC ‼️💥💪

midori: transfem... also autistic.. she is so important

shinobu: Autism Autism Autism. bonus the detachment from gender that sometimes comes with the autism but he hasnt really thought about it. hes just some guy

alkaloid:

hiiro: transmasc autistic i will die on this hill

aira: my lovely mutuals have convinced me with blasian aira its canon to me now. white french? no. cowards happyele are cowards i tell you. theres such a vast portion of the francophone world that is not white . also transmasc

mayoi: scaredgirl weirdboy core. whatever gender is easier at the moment. she likes being pretty

tatsumi: ok yknow what. fuck it. aroace tatsumi

eden:

nagisa: so much autism. nonbinary guy. religious trauma

ibara: lesbian. not going to elaborate bc thats not my problem ibara is just a lesbian

hiyori: hes just gay idk what to tell you. cisboy gay who is so annoying. when people complain about "gay isn't a personality trait" theyre complaining about him. also chubby

jun: also gay but fans love him for being normal about it. one of his main motivations for working out is being able to princess carry hiyori. hes so polite usually its insane but with eden he doesnt care because he loves them so hes a bit of a bitch

valkyrie:

shu: god is a woman and her name is shu itsuki. transfem and autistic i will Also die on this hill.

mika: transmasc and autistic

2wink:

hinata: men liker but dont ask me about her gender idk

yuuta: i see those slipups in twin peaks girl u are transfem nonbinary i think

crazy:b:

rinne: bigender [wild cheering] also demi aka down bad for niki specifically

niki: tboy swag but hes not really bothered too much about medically transitioning. arospec i think

himeru: Sooooo nonbinary. so so so nonbinary. i like to hc afab nonbinary himeru and mainly got top surgery to more easily pass as kaname but like gahdamn of course you have blue hair and pronouns (they/it/no pronouns)

kohaku: tboy swag . the gender in crazy:b is off the charts

Undead:

rei: 1 million genderqueer and SO gay. has all the problems of an older sister but also the hotness that comes with issues u know.

kaoru: ok. bear with me. aussie. also transfem... like what do you mean you hate men and only hang out with girls. definitely arospec

koga: AUTISM!! weirdgirl to autism boy wonder transmasc swag pipeline

adonis: also autism. he can be gnc. as a treat

akatsuki:

keito: come on man we all know youre gay and insufferable about it

kuro: he should get to have piercings i think

souma: autism boy wonder. while you were busy learning social cues he was studying the blade. also applies to gender norms

ra*bits:

nazuna: boy there is something gender going on with you. weirdboy or maybe a gender cis people have never heard of.

tomoya: That Is The Normalest Girl I've Ever Seen

mitsuru: autism

hajime: girl what is your gender. hes like the narrator of the arch nemesis cynthia post. so poor they cant afford a gender

knights:

tsukasa: autistic and please please please let him be chubby. staring at happyele with my biggest saddest eyes Please let tsukasa be chubby. while you're at it can he wear a skirt. please

leo: ok i give a lot of characters autism because i have autism and i get it but i think leo has adhd

izumi: agender. any pronouns. idk what to tell you he said in next door that he doesnt care about gender only beauty

arashi: only normal one in knights. i love aranee she should get 1 million hours to stress bake if she wants to

ritsu: ah i understand why vampires are gay. occasionally a girl if its funny

switch:

natsume: Diversity win!! the angry witch is transmasc!!! neurodivergent but i think its funnier if i dont specify.

tsumugi: new gender unlocked its pathetic wifeguy. hes every spirit in the fields of punishment and he does it willingly for natsume

sora: wahoo autism ^_^ yippee!!

madara: is cowboy a gender?

feel free to reblog and throw in ur own headcanons i love hearing other fans hcs it is so awesome!!

#puddle talks #oh god #tagging time... #enstars #ensemble stars #enstars headcanons #eichi tenshouin #wataru hibiki #tori himemiya #yuzuru fushimi #chiaki morisawa #hokuto hidaka #mao isara #sorry i have no thoughts on th e rest of trickstar. oops. no hcs anyway #kanata shinkai #tetora nagumo #midori takamine #shinobu sengoku #hiiro amagi #aira shiratori #mayoi ayase #tatsumi kazehaya #nagisa ran #ibara saegusa #hiyori tomoe #jun sazanami #hinata aoi #yuuta aoi #shu itsuki #mika kagehira

[teeth-cable]

Wait…is she only saying Millie is black because her VA is black? Because Millie and her family are coded to be white trash country bumpkins. Also they’re not human and therefore human race doesn’t apply to them, in which case you could make any character any race you want but you’ve only got the one black actress?

Why does it feel like Viv really wants to be praised for being “inclusive” and “progressive” but doesn’t give a crap about…you know actually being either of those things.

Mille is black coded because of her voice actor, just like how Loona and Stolas are white coded because of their voice actors too. I have no idea what's going on with the coding of Millie's family, everyone in her family having a white VA and her being the only black one.

That's why I'm confused why Viv wanted to make Millie black because in the pilot, Millie's VA was white and they're all imps. As far as I'm aware no one was pressuring Viv to add rep. It also feels weird because Millie, the only black main character has the less amount of screentime and no self-center EP which why she is considered token rep.

Viv just wants to be praised for being so a head of her time and progressive but her shows have such bad rep. From appropriating and profiting off of ostracized religions, making all the male gay character have the same trait of being sex-obsessed, designing POCs to look racially ambiguous and with no POC features, the lack of WLW rep in Helluva Boss, and making all the trans characters background characters who only have 1 minute of screentime and no importance to any plotline, (No Sallie May is not the expectation, we barely learn anything about her character and you can rewrite her out of Ep and nothing important will change), and the terrible POC rep in both shows.

#helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #helluva critical #vivziepop critical #vivizepop criticism #꧁rambles꧂ #➥asks

[random-autie-fangirl]

I think one thing many people would agree that Chara has is a rather black and white sense of who (or what's) good or bad. It's like the humans I knew were cruel to me so therefore all humans are the worst ever and all deserve to die horribly and on the other hand since the monsters that Chara met  were kind to them, all monsters are the most perfect creatures ever to exist and all deserve the world and Chara would do…anything to save them.

And so I took this little black and white thinking thing and applied it to...everything around Chara.

Like Chara is either a perfect angel who's literally good at everything and was sent down from heaven in order to save monsterkind

...except for when they make a silly mistake, in which case, they're all of a sudden the worst ever and can never do anything right (see my headcanons for more explanation on that one)

Asriel, in life, was again a perfect being who could do no wrong, the only person who was as good as Chara. (And part of that is how openly Asriel loves Chara. Asriel is such a good person because loving Chara is an inherently morally righteous act (from Chara's perspective, that is)).

But once they learn Asriel is Flowey, all of this dramatically switches around...like maybe the anger is warranted, maybe the feeling of betrayal is too. But the genuine belief that he should die horribly for what he did and the willingness to reset everyone's happy ending so he doesn't get off "scott-free", ...not so much. Chara thinks that every good trait Asriel had previously shown must have been a trick, he is just as awful as their human parents, and Chara will....never forgive him.

And this sort of applies to worlds too.

Like they don't feel bad about geno, partially because they genuinely believe Undertale's timeline is now a "lost cause", it's not worth anything anymore, they took one look at the state of everything and decided it shouldn't exist (which is mostly because of Flowey's existence and the fact that Chara's brother turned into that....thing) And, yes, they are partially killing for power but I still don't think they would be willing to destroy the world if they didn't believe the world was already worthless.

And then, in my headcanons, they find the world of Deltarune and latch on like a limpet because that world is almost entirely perfect to them (it's their "heaven"...or it will be)

I do intend to elaborate more in my later headcanons, but I think this way of thinking is based on Chara's surface life and their human parents...

When you are either treated with adoration and (over) affection or violence and cruelty by all those around you and that can switch around at the drop of the hat, it probably doesn't help with forming the most measured opinion of oneself...or anything else, for that matter.

#undertale #Chara Dreemurr #what a strange child... #hey look! I did a thing

[thatgordongirl]

Colour Symbolism: Patrick Butcher

Reminder this is highly speculative and it’s probably just me overanalysing clothes. Don’t take it too seriously if you don’t want to 

Other than being just a regular Scout Master uniform, it tells you what kind of person Pat is from the beginning. The persona is presented as positive and uplifting as he’s meant to be the supportive one of the group. What I think is a consistent thing with the ghosts is their clothing being somewhat deceptive, as in it displays a part of their character that masks a whole other part. Though this presentation of Pat isn’t necessarily false, it masks the fact that he can’t work through his own emotional damage. His persona of comforting others makes him seem more sure in himself than he is. 

Beige, his preferred kind of brown, is considered basic by most people, like Captain, he has a relatively consistent colour across all articles of clothing. It is somewhat structured and plain, which could relate to his routine and issues in his relationship with Carol. However, he is unaware of the issues it poses to others, and thus he embraces the use of beige, he embraces structure. Brown is commonly used to signify dullness and predictability. Brown is a neutral, which suits Pat’s mediation skills. It is a resilient colour, which applies more to others than it does to Pat. It takes someone else to make Pat recover, such as Robin. 

They are both dressed brown, where Robin is grounded, Pat is dependable. Brown is an isolated colour, which highlights how Pat feels about being separated from his family. He’s used to being in large groups. Brown’s natural compliment is blue, which is the same colour as the arrow in his neck. His death decidedly compliments his persona, a brown scout uniform and a blue arrow. Alright, let’s have a look at some of his life looks:

(Pardon the 80s quality and general badness) Pat wears some lovely looking sweaters around Christmas and in general. It’s not exactly an uncommon thing, but in relation to Pat it further emphasises his warm and inviting nature. It also highlights his organisation as his clothes are complimentary, reds, blues and whites. Pat’s role as a family man is very significant to him, and he presents himself as such. Pat’s more darker clothes are only seen at home, now he probably did wear them outside, but it would be interesting to consider he only showed his doubts or anxieties to his family in the form of darker tones. 

Now a little surprise, let’s have a look at Carol and Daley: 

Before Pat’s death, she wears rather dark colours which I assume to be green, brown or black. They not only match Pat, but signify their connection. Carol is spreading to agree with Pat on his structure, but her clothes are darker than his generally are, showing they have a significant difference. Considering her affair with Morris, it may have been her being somewhat unhappy. 

After Pat’s death, Carol is seen wearing lighter colours, particularly pink. She’s also less frustrated by Daley getting the camera out, probably because it reminds her of Pat. She’s most likely partially reconciled with herself by this point, four years on from Pat, and perhaps already moving forward with Morris. As such, she wears brighter and happier colours. 

(I’m assuming it’s Daley in the second one, but I could be wrong and I don’t have the episode downloaded) Daley’s outfit also compliment Pat’s, incorporating brown and yellow, whilst also having darker green and brown like Carol. He has both of their qualities, being able to be positive whilst also acknowledging the faults. Daley is well-rounded, Pat did a good job. 

After Pat dies, Daley begins to emulate him. Daley wears a sweater reminiscent of Pat’s, darker yet with colourful elements. It is clear he begins taking on more of his father’s traits after his passing, especially when he continues the Christmas tradition. It is no wonder he named his son Patrick. 

#bbc ghosts #pat butcher #robin bbc ghosts #carol butcher #daley butcher

[spiderh0rse]

Stark's Mind notes! Pt1, e1-5.

e1

Before I get into the video itself, the description does carry some interesting tidbits! Going forward, they'll always be listed as such:

Desc. Vincent Stark is 24, used to work at Black Mesa, and considers that place his personal hell. Right now, he reluctantly serves as Dr. Freeman's body double.

We start with an intro beyond the "face, series name" format! Going down the tram tunnel.

He is not happy to be doing this today.

When he left Black Mesa, it had the same tram monologue as it does now.

He is late.

He jokes about hiding in the bathroom stalls for a while, then implies he genuinely did used to do that.

Knows about Freeman being on parole! How!

Tries to rationalize being late.

Concerned about the safety standards of people welding stuff

Tourists apparently enter the facility from time to time

He's getting into character as Freeman by acting like he's still part of the company

hums Military Precision

"ba donk"

Does like how the area around Black Mesa looks

a tad unnerved by the tram shaking

talks to people when they're far out of audible distance. He doesnt know why he does this.

hums Hard Fought

SO bored by the train. Narrates the dramatic lights turning on

Thinks the decathlon sounds fun. Might stick around and do that in Gordon's place. Used to get first in it :>

considers himself an "athletic superstar" even if in a joke

Some of the departments the tram passes aren't ones he's really that involved in

Doesn't want any of his relatives to work at Black Mesa

"All of the gates today have played the waiting game with me. And so far? I'm winning." Silly.

Familiar with Star Wars, but mixes up the Republic and Empire eras.

GREEN GOOP PUDDLE. OSHA INCOMING

horrified at some guy being in danger. Can't do anything about it, really, so he gives up

his freeman impression SUCKS

Knows Barney, forgot he works at Black Mesa.

nervous laughter

"Horn"? Someone! Who works at Black Mesa

doesn't know Gina Cross. :(

e2

"Subtitles by Prinnamon" PRIN IT'S YOU

Freeman impression has improved slightly

attempts to assist with the computer crash

He's coming off as awkward and not neurotic. This is blatantly not a Freeman trait

Makes a very similar joke to Gordon's about the techno hell room

Stark Also does not know his way about

The architecture is new!

Gman's stare scares him

BAD PUN ALERT

He's... Hungry. He didn't eat breakfast.... Plans to steal a casserole.

doesnt know Freeman's locker combo. Implies he used to know

no mirrors in the bathroom,,,

applies an idiom about money to toilet paper

thinks the mk.v looks better than the mk.iv. calls it the 4.5. Ugh.

wants to turn off the HEV suit voice.

does Not know what "you're in the barrel" means

Sector C is not open to visitors.

It's 2009!

He did something when he left Black Mesa that could severely put him in trouble if people find out he's here

Deeply concerned with ethics and safety in the workplace. Blames Breen for it. That's part of why he left.

Warning signs are written in blood

Knows Otis Laurey. Considers security guards far more foolish than the scientists.

knows Dr Vance

bothered by safety issues

assures Eli the issues here aren't his probably

Breen wanted to recreate the big bang

tells someone to report a safety concern

drinks coffee

glib about his lack of a helmet

fun to watch a sample be bombarded with antimatter

thinks the AMS is pretty and likes the white noise

goes from pretty happy to be working to scared for his life

Scared and Whimpering at the vortigaunts

e3

wakes up having a hard time breathing

overwhelmed, can't think clearly

IMMEDIATELY puts all the blame for the ResCas and resulting deaths on himself

sees a bloody handprint and promptly breaks down about it

he's still on the security database in Black Mesa. Has level three clearance.

constantly torn between guilt and panic

does try and run down a list of things to do in this situation

he guesses a large amount of the facility has been impacted by the ResCas

"by Schrodinger's cat! He's alive" met with an "unfortunately." HEY.

immediately clocks a headcrab as an alien

goes from somber talking to Eli to yelling panicked swearing at some lasers

states that this is Literally Hell and the headcrab zombies on fire are Literal Demons

gets MEAN when he's scared and has a target he won't feel guilty for attacking

continues to have bouts of nervous laughter

familiar with Alien

witnesses some deaths directly, the elevator crash, promptly starts blaming himself again

repeating "I did this." on loop. There are better things that don't make you feel worse to say on repeat, pal (as prinnamon once put it: vince you have got to think of a better vocal stim than "i did this" and i do hope the quote is not minded. it sticks with me always)

e4

okay yeah he's just in the middle of a panic attack and has been for multiple minutes

implies the only reason he's not curling up and waiting for death is because he still has a task at hand to perform

doesn't want to get blood on his suit

makes a little tune about wanting to have a gun

stark you will cook slowly in that metal suit of yours

admits he suffered a breakdown, claims he's not crazy yet

you are not in fact staying calm, sir. You're in shock.

not impressed by Gordon's locker

deeply snarky surrounding near-death circumstances and his panic in them being derided

doesn't really like trophy hunters

can't save someone's life and promptly blames himself for causing his death

resolves to be strong and stand his ground. Runs from a zombie immediately

immediately attached to his crowbar

fine with killing the zombies

longs for a gun

"is it not?" <3

e5

"leaks"? I think, given a later line i poorly remember, he's talking about whistleblowing

"why are you Broken are you Jokin" kdfjkjf

LAUGHS he is DELIGHTED to solve a small problem

atheist

thinks he is going to solve all issues caused today. sounds SO happy about that

keeps snapping at the zombies and headcrabs

checked a clearly dead body for a pulse. doesn't know why he did this

internal monologue fullnames himself

still looking for weapons in random crates

comes up with a nice little ditty about breaking crates

"laced with blood" is one way to describe this room

doesn't have enough upper body strength to perform a pull-up

knows gordon goes to the gym. stark, however, does not

rambling very quickly when he realizes hes in a bad situation

"i'm not in the right state of mind" for. killing zombies? when is ANYONE in the right state of mind for that

tells a double-dead zombie to stay down decompose and not reproduce

does Not want to go into the vents. vent sharks

gets choked by a barnacle. calls them something out of a bdsm fantasy

he thinks he will LOSE to vent sharks

names a barnacle david. gets goofy with it

calls a houndeye a dog :> ouppy. ham dogs!

watches The Price Is Right

still not entirely sure whether all this is real

almost tells someone he Isn't Freeman, decides he doesn't care

he says he's never used a gun before. confident he can use one anyways. fool. <3

wants to take a minute to do nothing and rest. also wants to radio the surface immediately to get help as soon as possible

tells some guy he's responsible for everything happening right now

#stark's mind #vincent stark #mindverse #rmanotes