#especially their white faves in comparison

[starlooove]

Realizing the adultification and demonization of Duke and Damian is just. Not gonna stop. El oh el

#demonization more in Damian’s case #and not in the characters can’t do bad things kinda way #but in a writers and readers are so racist they’ll never even acknowledge that they don’t grant him the same grace they do anyone else #especially their white faves in comparison #and with the way they keep tryna spin Ra’s and Talia as being like. perfect parents maybe slightly absent or evil back then but family ppl #at heart it’s just gonna be more excuses to demonize a brown child bc now the very basis of his previous attitude will be gone #i mean for some of you it was never existed or acknowledged but there’s a certain bitterness I’m feeling when y’all can point to a panel #written by someone who’s only read WFA for background and say ‘see its canon that he’s just a murderous asshole for no reason!’ #same mfs who can’t tell me three bad things Tim’s done that they don’t fw bc either they’ve never read it or they justify it in their minds #and for Duke it’s like. just removing every aspect of his character bc god forbid u pay attention to a black child who’s not an easy stereo #that’s the difference Damian’s early appearance was very easy for a lot of y’all to stereotype even and at times especially Talia Stans #for Duke u can’t call him ghetto and u can’t call him one of the good ones bc there’s no ‘bad’ ones as a comparison point so he’s just a guy #he’s a good bro :) he’s there :) u don’t know enough about him to speak :) #and honestly if they keep going down the Al Ghuls are perfect route they might shoehorn Damian near that position too #that’d make it three for three when you involve cass. wow the poc of the family being reduced to no character besides propping up the yt #cast. maybe if we go that route and it happens to all three of them some of y’all will make a ‘fandom has a problem 🥺’ post and dip #like always el oh el so exhausted #batfandom racism #tim drake #jason Todd #dick grayson #bruce wayne #Lemme be a bitch today #Duke cass and Damian Stan’s I won’t clog ur dash with this #actually some of u cass Stan’s are…. #I’ll just say it a lot of you are racist as fuck and can’t say shit about cass besides she fights good and deserves the world #batfam #wfa #anti wfa

[visceralcoma]

Because OP blocked me. I decided to make my own post to debunk every single one of their points. source in case you wanted to see their foolishness directly.

Transcript:

"buh buh buh Dreadwolf not Baldur's Gate 3" You're right, Dreadwolf won't be Baldur's Gate 3. Dreadwolf won't be a game where the creators were so uninvested in a non-white woman's story that they refused to actually finish her storyline and then declared that her being condemned to slavery was the ending she "deserved". Dreadwolf won't be a game that's obsessed with victimizing and slaughtering members of an oppressed minority, all while portraying them as leeches and criminals preying on the people providing them with refuge. Dreadwolf won't be a game where an entire foreign culture is portrayed as irredeemably savage and evil, and where a character of that culture's "good" ending is to abandon her culture for that of western-/white-coded society. Dreadwolf won't be a game that constantly romanticizes emotionally manipulative and abusive white men, placing them at the forefront of stories while constantly portraying women in positions of power as evil and stupid bitches. Dreadwolf won't be a game that vilifies a matriarchal society, especially one of dark-skinned women, while at the same time treating them as sex objects even in the context of them abusing prisoners. Dreadwolf won't be a game where the amount of story content and dialogue a character receives is dictated entirely by their skin colour. Dreadwolf won't be a game where an evil character is heavily queer-coded, with a backstory filled to the brim with allusions to homophobic stereotypes about gay men being manipulative and predatory. Dreadwolf won't be a game that uses a female character to paint a male character as being totally awesome and totally smart, then writes that female character as not only a total bitch but short-sighted and stupid as well. Dreadwolf won't be a game where the roles of recurring characters and whether they return as playable characters or reduced to shallow villains isn't dictated by whether or not they're white. So yeah, Dreadwolf won't be like Baldur's Gate 3, because it is not made by and for shitty people.

Lets go down the line of their "points"

Isabella, when she was given to the Qunari in DA2.

City Elves, insanely victimized and deemed criminals by in world humans. And they (and Dalish) are often slaughtered in the narrative by humans.

Qunari, Tevinter, you can't go five minutes without someone calling Tevinter evil or deeming any Qunari as a savage. And Iron Bull's entire arc is about him leaving the Qun as the "good" ending.

Cullen, Samson, Anders, Solas - their stories are pushed forward, despite the fact their narrative counterparts get the shit end of the stick. Vivienne, Calpurnia, Wynne, and Merrill

Rivain. and Isabella nuff said. In the comics she throws slaves overboard.

The black main character (Vivienne) in DAI has much less content in comparison to any of the white faves.

Samson is an evil character with a tranquil as his partner. As a templar he was part of the oppressor group and could be seen as grooming the mage turned tranquil. Especially when you remember that Templars often abused tranquil, and then what happens in DAI to tranquil.

Merrill vs Solas in terms of the Eluvians. Or, Morrigan vs Solas. Take your pick.

I present to you, Varric, Leliana, Cullen, Samson, as recurring again over multiple games. All white, or at the very least light complected. Then the ambiguously brown characters who only got cameos: Alistair and Zevran. And then the sole brown/black character cameo got shunted to multiplayer only, Isabella.

This person clearly never played dragon age and are pretending to in order to make this post for clout.

#bg3 #dragon age #baldur's gate 3 #dragon age dreadwolf #bioware #larian studios #baldur's gate

[hanasnx]

ex-boyfriend!indy who broke up with you after moved across the country for a job but still can't get enough of you.

indy almost wishes he never moved across the country for a job that doesn't pay him shit in comparison to his last job. "should'na broken with you princess." he tells you with his dick splitting you in half, the prettiest pink shade of pink on the apples his cheeks, skin was slick with sweat. your face is flush with the charcoal coloured silk pillowcase he still kept on his bed. what's yours is his whether or not you're together. you still are his. he grabs a handful of the plush, flesh of you ass, kneading it in his palm.

you can't help but roll your eyes back as he speaks and he's drilling into your puffy cunt so rough that it's ruthless. he just can't get enough of how your cunt drinks in his cock coating it in each morsel of your cum from your numerous orgasms. with each change in position your mind gets dizzy and your eyes just glaze over a little bit. you can't subside your moans either each sound seeming so obscene it's something out of a porno.

"too much—" you manage to string out some words in a coherent sentence or at least two words and he just feels so delicious that it makes you think that you should've followed him. just so that his dick could've molded your insides to match each ridge of his cock. "it hurts baby?" he asks from behind you, face out of your view but you can almost see his expression in your mind, with a smile that showcases those sharp little canines that already left bite marks all over your skin. you felt like the fucking mona lisa and he should've hung a painting of you up above his head. the mocking isn't lost on you. "should'a thought of that 'fore you came to me. i'm givin' you what you want."

he brings his lips to your ear with lower strokes inside you, "you asked for this. i'm doin' what you asked, be a big girl'n take what i'm givin' to you." indy says with that low voice that makes you bite your bottom that's covered in little white ropes that you never managed to wipe from the side of your mouth. "shouldn't even let you cum on my cock if you're gonna act like this." he chides you in a manor that should be criminal

"i— i'll shut up." you try to shake you head and protest his attempt at silencing your pleas. "you better."

this might've been bad, i haven't written in a minute and if it doesn't sound like you that's mb. been scrolling on your account for the past few days got some indy brainrot — anon

thank god you’ve got some indy brain rot bcos i enjoyed this :) especially bcos i love the ex bf trope. the idea of breaking up only to keep coming back make me crazy

i’m gonna rb this with my fave lines but right now i feel like it’s best served posted and in the hands of the people. thank you anon 💕💕

#indy shoots the shit #thanks for the msg!! #anon #indy x reader smut

[pinkandpurple360]

idk how intentional it was, but from a color-conscious pov some of this casting/character coding is kinda fucked up.

someone already addressed stolas as the Rich White Man and blitző as a lower class person of color and how colonial their relationship is. but beyond that. for black characters we have millie, who i adore but she doesn’t have much of a character outside of “moxxie’s wife” (kinda sexist) and “brute” (which when used to describe a black women, who have historical been stereotyped as “angry and “animalistic,” is … yikes).

the only other black characters of significance are tex who is literally a member of a slave race (granted, loona who is white coded is too so idk what to think here) and ozzie (another fave, but black men have been hypersexualized to hell and back, and the whole “black is bigger” and “kaiju cock” comparisons are … unfortunate). i genuinely dont think vivziepop intended this but … oof

also dont like that Verosika, the only other major woman of color, is demonized (no pun intended) by the narrative while the white characters like Stolas, Loona, and maybe Moxxie (someone said he might be half Latino but idk if there’s evidence for that?) get the woe-is-me treatment and forgiven for all.

I never even realised Millie fits the angry black woman stereotype, I’m not sure if she’s confirmed black coded we’ll have to see but god does it make it even worse how her family and neighbours are literally poverty stricken farmers who stolas looks down on after his class takes all their best food…fucking hell Viv you may as well have had them pick cotton while stolas talks about how comfy his cotton robe is.

Ahhh i was just about to say Asmodeus seems pretty good and he is a favourite too—but then the kaiju line hit me with a steel chair. Don’t forget he’s also a pimp(?) kinda(?) he owns a strip club soo

oh nooooooo VIV NOOO STOP IT why are both of her pimp characters men of color! I gotta be honest I feel like there’s no way around the fact Ozzie is kindve a pimp. All the sex workers come from his domain and answer to him.

Idk if verosika is really demonised by the narrative? She seems fairly sympathetic to me. Especially with the pain he caused her. But damn does Blitz hurl every last misogynistic slur he can think of at her at all times. I’d love to see her beat the absolute piss out of him just once. Or at least win a bet or ‘demon dual’ she and her posse are adorable.

They confirmed that Moxxies mother was Latina, there’s a lot of Latino coded characters in wrath. I think it’s the coolest ring personally. But I haven’t seen enough of gluttony (or any of envy) to know for sure

#helluva boss critical #misogyny #tw racism #tw misogyny #racism in writing

[yellowocaballero]

You played the golden deer route!! (I think?) What's been your thoughts so far just like in general but also in comparison to blue lions? Claude and the golden deer are just so fun!!

I have not finished yet! Yes I am like 5/6ths done with the Golden Deer fic. I did something that I really shouldn't do, which is like consume 1/4th of the media and go "okay I could make a fanfic out of this" and then write a long-ass fic just based off initial impressions (this is how Theater of the Absurd happened - if you're wondering why everybody was so drastically out of character, that's why). I'm still only mostly done with the Academy phase, so no spoilers!

Thoughts so far? Claude is so funny. I am genuinely so, so fascinated by him. He's one of those characters who clearly has an entire existence and situation and insanity and you're just barely privy to the surface of it. Our C support is me walking into his room (why did I do that?) as he concocts poisons. He's a mad scientist. He wants to dissect his friends like they're insects. He's incredibly self-absorbed. He's convinced he's the smartest person in the room. He's on his gap year and he's taking a vacation with the white people and the country he leads is not his biggest priority. He wakes up in the morning, looks at himself in the mirror, and says "I'm a SCHEMER I'm a TRICKSTER I'm IMPENETRABLE I'm NOT LONELY". He has a biracial narrative and it's left him with a superiority complex because the alternative is to always be inferior. He'd be a better leader if he cared more.

I love Hilda also. She's so cunning but so kind, and her competence is underlined by her severe self-esteem issues. I haven't really connected with most of the Golden Deer - their ensemble narrative is not NEARLY as strong as the Blue Lions or Ashen Wolves. They aren't all part of the same story, I feel like. I'm still working on their supports (which are mostly C and some B right now...I kinda substituted most of them on the battlefield for the AW...sorry I have faves). Most of them are either a little annoying or uninteresting...Lysithea baby girl...Lorenz is actually deeply Felix coded in that he's kinda the sanest. He cares about all of the actually important things that nobody else cares about when they really should, and a lot of unimportant things,

I didn't expect this to happen, but Claude as your BFF actually deeply underscores how 1) Dimitri is insanely in love with you, and 2) Dimitri's bugfuck. Claude's so normal about everything. Makes me go "Wow Dimitri was normal about fucking nothing".

I'm looking forward to the War Phase and seeing how things change. These kids are fucking disasters in their lives and to each other, which mirrors their disaster country. Right now Claude's the most fascinating aspect to me. I'm not plugged into the fandom, but from what I can see his complexity and depth is kind of slept on - he has a comic relief role in dynamics, but I can already tell it's pretty constructed. Writing him as a jokester is like writing Dimitri as a preppy, perfect, adorably awkward nerd. Yes, that is a major part of how they present themselves to the public. I can't entirely call it a lie. But if you think that those performances are genuine, then you're buying what they're selling. Claude, Dimitri, and Edelgard are liars, and if you stay surface level in your depiction you're scrubbing out what makes them good characters. Also, especially in Dima's case, The Point

#my asks #writing dimitri as who he is in the academy phase and like. stopping there. is wild to me #3/4ths of the way through hes threatening to rip people's throats out with his teeth #taking away 17yo dima's real bloodthirstiness and ugly hatred feels like a disinterest in the character himself #and like. just. it's boring. #comic relief-ing khalid and making him the sole brain cell is boring and a disservice to the interesting character #(and uh ppl do that to POC a lot like they do it to women) #the only sin to me is to be boring :/ #writing dimitri in this new fic and im seeing how he just hinges on. him being two people at once. #him hating violence and him needing it. knowing death was wrong and wishing death upon people #it's contradictory and here's a character with those contradictions #as the writer you have to figure out how he is both of these people at once #it is the FUN part

[bohemian-nights]

cry about it 💋

Kudos to you for not using anon to send this 👏🏽Although perhaps I reserve commending you for your bravery when you’ve seemingly created a new tumblr with no posts or likes to send this, but I’ll play ball with those stats.

1. Everyone knows that Dettles is not a popular ship(which makes it all the more hilarious that people continue to harass us). Even Alysmond, which has an abysmally low number of fics, has almost 5x the number of fics than us on Ao3:

2. Dumbnyra, your ship, received a massive, and I do mean massive, surge in popularity thanks to HOTD.

And if you don’t believe me, go to Ao3(since that’s the metric you want to use) and look for fics dated from December 2013(when The Princess and the Queen first came out) to July 2022(right before the show aired in August). When you’ve done that you’ll find a whopping 63 fics written over the course of 8 years(the first fic was written in January 2014):

It was only after the show started to air in August 2022 that you guys actually started shipping it in mass, going ham, and writing a little over 2,200 fics for them over the course of the last five months of that year. It’s because of the show that your ship has reached the top 100 Ao3 ships:

Note that I included 2021 stats as a comparison.

If HOTD had never aired your ship would still have less than 100 fics on Ao3.

3. Which brings me to my last point, even when Dettles happens on the show, Daemon and Nettles will never reach anywhere close to Dumbnyra’s level of popularity.

You’re probably thinking damn right it won’t, but why is she saying this? She’s supposed to disagree with me and look the fool.

Well, you see the ships that are highlighted in purple in the Ao3 ship stats from 2021-2023? Those are all the ships with Black women that have broken the top 100 ships on Ao3. As you can see, ships with Black women let heterosexual Black women(that’s a whole other issue representation matters, but it’s clear y’all are only comfortable with women who aren’t a threat) are not very popular due to the inherent anti-Blackness(in this case misogynoir) of fandoms.

I could link you with several articles on this subject, but I’ll leave you with this one and call it a day cause I’m not educating an uneducated overly grown person. Google is free. If you choose to still be uneducated and ignorant that’s a you problem.

So while Daemon and Nettles will see a surge in popularity when Maidenpool finally happens, we will never reach Dumbnyra, Alysmond, or insert any other white ships, popularity.

That’s not because our ship is inherently inferior or not canon(if you look at those stats canon has nothing to do with anything). It’s because y’all don’t like Black women and you especially don’t like seeing Black women being in relationships with your white male faves. You’ve literally admitted to this one two many times.

Please know that this was a courtesy response. If you send me so much as a single ask like this one again I’m blocking you and reporting you for harassment.

Now you and your cronies can run along now. Go back to crying about, gang stalking, and harassing someone else who ships something that doesn’t even have 1/10 of the popularity of yours…

#bnasks #bnask #dumbnyra stan gone wild #what does it say about y’all that you are this butthurt about a measly ship with 10 people keeping the lights on #bncommentary #hotd fandom misogynoir #dettles #daemon targaryen x nettles

[aristocratic-otter]

Top 10 vs. Personal Top 10

Thank you for the tags, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe and @facewithoutheart. This is bound to be fun and difficult. How do you choose between your children? Well, I'm going to try.

AO3's Top Ten

Oh, Have You Seen The Fairies Dance

Back To Start

Playing With Fire, Treading Thin Ice

A Fucked-Up Cinderella Story

A Real Doll

A Tale of Two Tails

Careful What You Wish For

The Watford Games

Gates of Ivory and Horn

More Than This

Some of these are high scored because they're older, and some because they were just popular in comparison. There's a lot of overlap between this list and my favorites, but there are some differences.

One thing I notice is that the fics that were 'gift fics' where they were written to a specific prompt, or Carry on Reverse Bang fics, written to art that was made before the fic, didn't make my top ten, probably because it feels like the creativity that built them wasn't wholly mine. I still love those fics, but just not quite as much.

Also, other than Raising Dragons, I didn't include WIPs, though they may become favorites when they are done. I'm especially fond of Saving Simon Snow, my forced marriage fic, which I think is getting close to finished. I'll probably start posting that one by April!

And the experience of writing was a huge factor in my choices below. Getting to collaborate with lovely people, or finding myself as a writer features in all or most of my favorites.

Here is my list of faves:

A Fucked-Up Cinderella Story. Ok, the butt plug joke is my favorite joke of anything I've written, Ok? Not to mention, this is the Erotic Gropefest collaboration where I first met and worked with my dear friend Fristi and learned what a joy it is to collaborate with a brilliant artist.

Back To Start: I've called this fic my baby, and it is. It's the first fic I wrote where I really felt like a competent writer, and you don't forget that feeling. I used a whole lot of my life experience in writing Baz as a baby and child too, so it's especially dear to me.

Careful What You Wish For: This was my second collaboration, and @ivelovedhimthroughworse Apricot is the sweetest, most supportive partner anyone could ask for. And this fic is my favorite type to read: angsty, science-y, plot heavy with loving smut.

The Watford Games: This was the first plot driven fic I ever wrote, and I'm proud of what I accomplished with it. And it's also another type of fic I love to read: AUs that put Simon and Baz in place of well-known characters.

The Blue and The Gray: Written for COTTA, this fic didn't make the AO3 top ten, and I think that's because the American Civil War is probably of lesser interest to non-Americans. But I love it, and I think it was the first fic that made me feel like a writer. You don't forget that.

Raising Dragons: Even though this is unfinished, I've had so much fun writing pregnancy and childhood shenanigans in the SnowBaz universe. Not to mention getting to work with Fristi again!

A Real Doll was from the Monster Under the Bed fest, my first non-COTTA fest. This is the first smut fic I ever wrote solely for the purpose of smut, and I think it turned out pretty decent! (Also was the first fic that got a comment from Aralias, which meant a lot to me).

New Year, New Me: This one again didn't make the AO3 top ten, most likely because of the mpreg tag. But it is the exception to the 'gift fic curse', because again, I got to put so much of myself into it. The song @moodandmist and @cutestkilla wrote for it helps elevate this one for me too!

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun: I'll be honest here. I'll read PWP for the usual reasons, but it's always been one of my least favorite categories. I like plot in my fics. But this idea of Baz and Simon having a foursome with their own clones came to me and wouldn't let me go. And the fact that I got to work with Ashton, @artsyunderstudy? That is absolutely the reason this makes my top ten.

The White Chapel: This one is very new and will likely score higher as I get some distance from it. But as an adaptation of my all time favorite movie, Xanadu, it was a pleasure to write from start to finish (and it's also an exception from the gift fic curse, I'm now realizing--but it wasn't written to a prompt and I think that makes the difference).

Probably everyone has done this, so I tag all the folks mentioned above, plus a few others, just in case. @carryonsimoncarryonbaz, @annabellelux, @krisrix, @nightimedreamersghost, @otherworldsivelivedin, @prettylightsbigcity, and @whatevertheweather, I'd love to know what your top tens are!

#co/ws/awtwb #snowbaz fanart #my top ten #list meme #Tumbler Tag Game

[3lesbiansinatrenchcoat]

As an autistic lesbian and longtime swiftie, I am so fucking sad about the MH “relationship” news. Ofc my feelings pale in comparison to BIPOC swifties, and I would never want to talk over them or their feelings about her complicity in this man’s misogynoir. That said, Taylor Swift has been a special interest of mine for years, and while I never loved her white feminism, I also never thought she’d abandon it like this in favor of this sewer rat of a man. I would check to see what the surprise songs were every weekend and now I just feel like I really don’t care and that HURTS. I know I have no say over her life and I’m being parasocial or whatever but losing a special interest, especially suddenly like this, feels like losing a part of yourself. I don’t know what her plan is here or how I feel after this relationship is over but I don’t know if I’ll be able to go back to the start of the eras tour.. I don’t know, I feel like when I think about sntv I have so many mixed feelings bc it’s one of my faves but I’m not sure if I’m quite ready or able to separate the art from the artist…

#taylor swift #gaylor #gaylor swift #tstheerastour

[halliescomut]

Apo and Colorism-a rant

So, I am on Twitter, but I'm not in BL/KPop stan twitter, so I didn't see a lot of this, but I saw a couple of BL tiktokers speak about it and it makes me mad and I want to rant about it. I also brought examples. The gist I was hearing is that a lot of garbage people on Twitter were making negative comments about Apo's darker complexion. I'm well aware that colorism exists everywhere, but I know that it is also especially prevalent in Asia as a whole. Thinking about this and feeling so sad that anyone would even think of being mean to sweet gorgeous bean, Apo...well it made me mad, but it also made me realize that most of my fave pics of him have been candid. So then came a Google rabbit hole and 2 days of research, and y'all, I think the evidence is clear. I'm gonna try and give this some flow, but it may not work out that way.

I'm gonna start with magazine covers, because from what I saw they are the most frequent culprits of this type of photo editing. Like this is clearly not the Apo we know and love. The Men's Health is from 2015, but the other two are fairly recent.

Vogue Thailand released their cover and interior photos very recently. On the cover Apo, is clearly much paler than in the inside photo. Honestly, even Mile looks much paler on the cover vs. the inside photo.

I also have this comparison, which is the Vogue Thailand cover and an inside shot from Unique magazine. Since it's a similar-ish pose with Mile's hand partially in front of Apo's face. There is the difference between studio light vs natural light, but I feel like you can definitely see the difference. Also consider that Apo in the Vogue cover is lit to cause deeper shadows around his jaw, were he evenly lit he would look even paler.

We also have these covers from Kazz magazine, which are especially odd to me, because both Apo and Mile are made paler on their shared cover, which is a bit of an odd choice. this is also the cover that made me realize that Apo is edited paler more often when he's in a photo with Mile, which just gives me some weird vibes.

Their interior shots are a mixed bag, based on what Kazz posted on Instagram.

Kazz also posted a video from the shoot, which I think helps some to put things into context, because most people's complexion will change depending on the season and sun exposure. Just because a cover is released in October, those pictures could have been taken in June, etc. But we do have live footage of the day of the shoot.

But I like I said, I did notice a lot of more complexion editing on covers vs interior photos, but there was one magazine that just said nope, all of them will be edited so pale...and that was Madan. Seriously, that pastel should bring out Apo's warm complexion, but he's as pale as Apo here.

the next magazine I have is Posh, which is kind of a mix. The cover and some of the inside shots are black and white, so that does change how easily you can see complexion differences, and I don't think it egregious here in the black and white photos. However, the color photo is lit to make Apo's face as pale as possible, and then possibly edited further. Look at the difference between his face and his arm...it's massive.

Here is a studio pic, though candid that I pulled from Apo's Instagram, and I just took down all the color saturation. You can still tell that Apo has a darker complexion that Mile.

So now let's talk about some magazines that did a little better. We have Unique, which is guilty of paling Apo down on the cover, but the interior photos are MUCH better.

And the one of the best that I found was Mangu. Now these are shot outside on location, meaning that you're not blowing out everyone with studio lighting, but photo shop still exists and they could have easily done more tweaking to his complexion.

Best magazine shoot is L'Officiel. They really captured the gorgeous warmth of Apo's skin here. Like just *chef's kiss*.

Now, magazine are bad, but advertisements were so much worse. Here's just a couple pulled from Apo's Instagram, I've matched them with various candid photos from his Instagram as well, to show the difference. It does not escape me that two of these examples are a for a beauty brand/product. This first set is done with studio shots for comparison, since lighting will affect the overall color/tone accuracy of a picture.

And then we have a comparison between ad and exterior candid photo, in good daytime light, so pretty accurate as far as color/tone accuracy.

Now...I am American, and to be honest the majority of my experience with colorism comes from conversations specifically around and with black women, so there's going to be differences. I did try to find a shot/ad/magazine that was specifically American (or even western-media) based, but the best I found was an interview with Teen Vogue, which used pics that were provided by BeOnCloud, they didn't take any of their own photos. But they also did not edit them in a way that altered Mile's or Apo's skin tone.

I just want to end this to say, that I love Apo, I think he's adorable and beautiful and he seems very kind. It hurts my heart to see him given any negative feedback that's based around his darker complexion. So, if you see this shit, especially in local to you media, whether it's Apo or anyone else, call it out. Question it, be vocal about it. Because these 'creative decisions' are going to keep being made.

So....

#apo nattawin #kinnporsche #colorism #colorism in media #colorism in advertising #mile phakphum #vogue thailand #mens health thailand #madan magazine #kazz magazine #mangu magazine #unique magazine #l'offciel magazine #kinnporsche the series #seriously this makes me so sad and mad I'm smad #Apo is gorgeous #duh #He doesn't deserve this negativity

[blueiight]

I rly can't with ppl taking a discussion about how daniel says something kinda racist towards rashid when he thinks he's just the help and blaming it on DM/memory wipes/anything except just being an old white dude with prejudices... people will do anything but admit their white faves could be racist.

like i said b4 ppl think racism is like a personal flaw & have only 1 image in their mind of stereotypical eeevil clearly bad boy raycist when its often especially in our modern day& age somewhat marginally more subtler than that.. esp from a character who was in his early 20s in 1970s california. them hippies turned sour in old age bihhh. rl ppl of no color truly do believe that if they think if they gather enough poc vicarious exp. points or w/e that theyre immune from having racist sentiment/belief. treating race like the big boogeyman to be ever wary of is weird too, like just truly respect & be considerate of ppl different than u. yet it is so hard even for the well intended white lib. which i found why the rent boy comment as well as daniel’s other racially charged moments to be interesting/understated. n i do think theres some meritous discussion in daniel’s bisexuality.. armand & louis r both like immortal creatures that make dan’s 70 years look like nothing in comparison [esp armand] & i think @breha mentioned bogosian saying how daniel becomes more combative the more hes afraid/uncertain so its interesting seeing how n where the ‘white master black student yet equals?’ & commentary on the ‘abused abuser dynamic’ devolve into ‘rent boy’ , prying more into claudia’s sexual assault [& even making jokes about sexy claudia merch somewhere?] how & where daniel retains the beliefs of being raised in a racist society as a member of the dominant racial caste is somewhat tied into how he struggles with/sees these black [+ brown] immortals as objects of his desire.. n subvert the power he would otherwise hold as a white man. may hit close to home for the white lib majority on this site tho if them polls any accurate rep so maybe thats why?? idk.

#yn. #yn answers #iwtv #daniel molloy #yall think louis got the same refractory period he did as when he was alive? orrr

[nebulanewts]

But wait,I have more! So I was still thinking about the new Niji album but specifically about how unusual it is for them to be releasing the outfit voting already but NOT the song previews yet - so this had my brain turning a bit and made me think maybe these outfits are hints about what the songs will sound like,basically this is me predicting what they’ll sound like just based on that :] (once again this post will most likely be very long and for that I will say again,I am so sorry I just have a A Lot of thoughts about Nijigaku finally having a new album)

Ayumu - Sound wise it could really go either way,but one thing I do know is that it will be about Yuu. Like the theme is LOVE SONGS,you really think this girl isn’t going to sing about how she’s madly in love with her childhood friend?? In my mind - Spring-Colored Blazer will mean it’s about her love and appreciation for Yuu,Mystery Brown is like “I can’t figure out how my childhood friend feels about me it’s a mysteryyyy” or something and Tri-Color Stripe…idk maybe it’s her confessing to Yuu and wanting to be bold about it that’s all I got for that one

Kasumi - I’ve said this many times already,but Kasumi’s outfits have me the most split on what her song will sound like bc Retro Orange may mean that it’ll be a fun du-wop style retro song maybe about wanting someone to be more bold and say how they feel or smth,but Elegant White might mean it’ll be a regal piano ballad about her pining over a crush…and then all Black Jewelery could mean to me is that Kasumin is in her black swan era which honestly? I’m about it that would be fun,like throw in her twirling / doing some ballet moves and references to Swan Lake and I’d be EXTRA sold

Shizuku - If we’re judging from all of her outfits,it’s very clear that they’re going for a cuter concept for Shizuku which is something that I’ve wanted for a bit - like yes,I love all of her solos so far but this is very refreshing maybe Pink Frill Dress may mean it’ll be a pop song with a few samples from classic piano pieces a la Feel My Rhythm and references to Cinderella,OR Cherry Cherry might mean she will be the one with the retro song…as for Pastel Lolita I have no idea,nothing is coming to mind if they’re feeling funky maybe like denpa?? Probably not cndjdj

Karin - JAZZ JAZZ JAZZ JAZZ JAZZ,it’s all I want from her!! And not like upbeat jazz like maybe Nonfiction or Fashionista,like a slow smooth type of jazz…to me that would suit Karin and Miyutan so well,idk why they haven’t done it already but any of these outfits could fit that concept especially Blue Moon Night and Amethyst Dress

Ai - From what I can tell,we could be seeing a softer sweeter side to Ai compared to her usual sound,which is just H-AI AI’M AI LET’S SMILE TODAY YAYAYAYAY WHOAWHOAWHOAWHOA ALRIIIIGHT (except for Diabolic muiler of course),and that’s great but I think we’ve been long overdue for a slower,softer pop song for Ai and to me Coral One-Piece or Lavender Lace suit that the most (idk about Striped Romance fitting that,it’s nice but it’s BRIGHT in comparison)

Kanata - If we go off of just Black Ribbon,we may be getting kind of a jirai kei sound which…I’m not sure what that is,maybe straying away from her usual lullaby-ish sound and moving close to dream pop?? Is that the same thing again idk what jirai kei music sounds like but Purple Fairy may mean it’ll have a fantasy theme and be more upbeat for her (if that is the case and it wins please give her elf ears or elf ear jewelry trust me on this it would be SO cute) - while Luxury Cardigan…again,idk it’s not my fave mostly bc it’s a little plainer than the other two

Setsuna - POWER BALLAD!! All of Setsuna’s songs are so upbeat and mostly just pop rock,let her sing a slower song for once if she wears School Rock specifically but maybe she’ll get a more pop punk type song w/ Punk Border or Little Devil :0c which would also be fun idk just a different rock style would be fun for her (also this will be Hayamaru’s first recorded solo which has me like 👀👀 extra excited)

Emma - Ok so it could go one of two ways for me,Colorful Stage could mean we’ll get a fun happy pop song from her which would be fine but if Denim Stitch or Fluffy Chiffon win…hear me out we get a folk / country song and honestly?? I’d be okay with either (got the idea from realizing that Denim Stitch kinda looks like a cowgirl outfit and like tell me I’m wrong you can’t dhdhdj)

Rina - Tsunagaru Connect gets close,but I think Neon Cat specifically could fit a hyperpop song or even kawaii bass which would still be in Rina’s range but still different for it to be fun - Motion Girl could fit more of like a synthy bubblegum pop song where she’s like “cheering on” her crush and telling them (…if it were up to me that would be Mia) how she feels maybe?? Lemon Soda could probably fit either concepts

Shioriko - SPOOKY PIANO SONG!! Like,,why would they give her two outfits themed after ghosts / the undead and then not give her a song like that?? Let Shioko have her spooky Halloween-y song bc it would be funny to have everyone else have regular love songs then you get to hers and it’s just like *DRAMATIC ORGAN PLAYING* - Mint Sailor feels weirdly out of place in this case,bc idk if that outfit would fit that specific concept but I’m sure something could work

Mia - …with outfits like hers my first thought was “just give her a High School Musical type song” and that’s all I’ll say on hers fjdjdj

Lanzhu - If we get hyperpop with Rina,we might get some kind of funky kawaii bass with Lanzhu like yes her previous solos are great obviously but with outfits like Vivid Fur,Street Dancer and ESPECIALLY Pinky Gal that’s the vibe I get from them plus it’d be a nice change up for her

(As usual,I’m aware that there’s a large chance I will be wrong and this is just me guessing wildly bc we don’t have song previews yet BUT again we’ll see :0c they’ll likely be good regardless)

#love live #love live! #love live! nijigasaki high school idol club #love live! nijigasaki gakuen school idol doukoukai #love live nijigasaki high school idol club #love live nijigasaki gakuen school idol doukokai #nijigasaki school idol club #nijigasaki high school idol club #love live nijigaku #love live nijigasaki #mars babbling

[fratricideknight]

i just want to talk for a sec about 'perfect looks'. i used to be super into drawn characters and rl people who look quote unquote 'perfect' but now i've suddenly become really disillusioned with it. people who hit every single point on the perfect feature list are like blank white canvases. sure, there are no flaws. but that's because you didn't actually attempt anything... it's basic and boring. i'd take a wonky, imperfect painting which actually has something going on over a blank canvas any day. i'm not going to name any names and NO ONE ELSE had better do it, either, bc shaming people's appearances directly contradicts the point of this post. but when people proudly parade their faves around, talking about how perfect they are, i just . they have the most basic style bc their sponsors aren't willing to take any risks, they often have little to no personality to speak of in their public appearances bc their sponsors aren't willing to take any risks, and their faces and bodies look like 3d printouts bc their sponsors aren't willing to take any risks. i - in no way, shape, or form - blame people for wanting to use make-up or dress a certain way or get plastic surgery. the pressure to be perfect, which is dictated as having certain a certain set of attributes, is unbearable. but. i don't understand why people would celebrate the culling of diversity among facial and bodily features. if everyone looked the same it would be scary as hell. not to mention that someone being gone at by make-up artists and stylists and quite possibly plastic surgeons to the point that they looked like they've just rolled off a production line is grotesque. the dehumanising comparison makes me flinch, but the truth is that it is dehumanising. both treating someone like an object to be shaped and moulded, and attempting to strip someone of everything which makes them individual. when i see someone zooming in on a celebrity's - or otherwise - features, claiming that their nose is the wrong shape or their eyes aren't right and this makes them unattractive (and, quite often, inferior to the person's fave), i feel incredibly sad. well, no - first and foremost, i feel angry, because they're being a dickhead. but also, i feel sad. bestie. do you realise how goofy you sound claiming that there's a 'wrong nose shape' to have? especially considering you most likely have a 'wrong nose shape' yourself 😶 instead of being weirdly, freakishly pedantic about people's pores, please zoom out and just look at someone's face in isolation. chances are, they're really fucking attractive when you stop thinking about their relative 'rank' and scouring their face for flaws with a fucking microscope. selecting one photo of a person where they don't look as good and using this to claim they aren't attractive is quite possibly the saddest thing anyone could possibly do. these are human beings you're talking about. please get a grip. the truth is, on any human being, you will find something! a scar, a bit of asymmetry, blackheads, wayward eyebrow hairs, something. all of which serve to make their face more interesting. mainstream media will not change bc of this stupid post, but it should know that characters looking perfect all the time is disturbing. you should not wake up with a full face of makeup. you should not be smooth and scar-free when you're fighting a fucking zombie apocalypse. it makes them look like a doll, rather than a person! which they are, bc it's fictional, but immersion is kind of the point... stylists and make-up artists do amazing work! they give you a sense of characters' personalities and circumstances and make them look realistic for their setting. their purpose is not to make someone look "perfect" all the damn time! i can't even imagine how mind-numbingly boring it must be to do the same thing over and over. where's the individuality? where's the risk? where's the literal point of fashion and make-up?

every single industry in every single country does this, but a good example is k dramas. (if anyone starts up some 'those fucking asians' bullshit i will personally curse you to tread on a lego with every step for the rest of your life. this is just an example; it happens in your country, too - have some self-awareness and shut the hell up.) i used to be super into the way they make up characters in a lot of k dramas, and i don't blame anyone for liking it! it's just an aesthetic choice. but now i really don't like it. the characters being too luminous and perfect just looks odd to me. as with any film industry, only actors with select features are allowed to play main roles, so everyone ends up looking really similar once they've been made up in the exact same way as everyone else. these days, i'm just wondering where the dirt and the scars and the smile lines are. i know that dirt and scars etc. are made up in media to be perfect versions of themselves lmao, and it's still all smoke and mirrors, so i don't think of myself as morally superior for this. i just love to see and indulge in the beauty of people with a range of different features. i'm still shallow, and will probably enjoy a show more if i'm attracted to the cast, but at least i'm not expecting everyone to look uniform. i've improved.

in conclusion, if you want to make a character creepy as fuck, make them incongruously perfect. they don't lift their mouth enough when they smile because they want to avoid smile lines. their hair never falls a strand out of place, like it's locked in a vacuum. their skin is so smooth and clear it looks like their features have been painted on. legitimately terrifying

#movies #tv shows #mainstream media #mine #ri rants about something

[flightfoot]

Unfortunately, anon doesn't think people are going to listen to you about Alya, because modern pop culture fans are just fundamentally not good people. They're deeply selfish, focused only on getting the outcome they want. Back in the Once Upon a Time fandom, Regina Mills fans were calling for a black Maid Marian to be lynched, because Marian meant Regina couldn't have Robin Hood as a boyfriend. They were also rape-apologists, excusing Regina raping Graham. Fans don't care what you feel or want.

Oookay, let's not go with "modern pop culture fans are just fundamentally not good people", that's alarming and not even remotely true. People are people, for better or worse. I don't think that's changed over time. I get being pissed about how certain fans are treating certain characters - believe me, I GET THAT - but I'm not going that far.

I watched Once Upon a Time up until "The Miller's Daughter", two-thirds of the way through season 2. At that point my mom and I dropped it, because we just couldn't stand the double standard on display in how the show was treating Mary and Regina, with Mary supposedly staining her heart forever by transferring an illness from someone who was a sort-of, on-and-off-again, ally to someone who'd been attempting to murder a lot of the people she cared about. Which was pretty rich, considering the stuff Regina had done that was somehow considered stuff she could come back from. I'd actually forgotten about the stuff with Graham, but yeah, Regina ripping out Graham's heart when he refused to murder Snow White, and then later in Storybrooke, murdering him in cold blood when he cuts off his... "relationship", with Regina... she certainly earned her title of "Evil Queen".

I wasn't involved with the OUAT fandom, but I'm not surprised at some of Regina's fans were calling for Maid Marian to be lynched. If you love a villain, that's great, they can be fun. But there's a problem when other characters are treated as being worse than them in order to make your fave look better by comparison, especially when massive horrific punishments are being called down upon those characters.

#ask

[fidgetstime]

my simple dimpl collection

I decided my first long post/review would be about some of my favorite fidgets/stim toys: Simple Dimpls. These have been everywhere over the past two years or so, and there are a billion knockoffs now because of their popularity, but the original ones were created by Fat Brain Toys, whom I do recommend supporting if you’re able.

[L-R, top to bottom: Two knockoff simple dimpls; the original Simple Dimpls in pink and blue, and purple and green (both broken, sadly); the three-pack of transparent Simple Dimpls in purple and green, yellow and orange, and blue and green.]

So the way these work are really wickedly simple (hah); each Simple Dimpl is a little lightweight plastic frame with two silicone bubbles that you can pop in and out, kind of like “endless bubble wrap” or Pop-Its, if you’ve seen those toys around. From what I’ve seen, they usually have a small hole you can attach a carabiner clip or a phone strap/lanyard to, so you can clip it to your bag or keychain and take it on the go. The originals (and some of the knockoffs, depending on the manufacturer) also have little raised shapes on the front of the bubbles, which provide a bit of nice sensory input.

Simple Dimpls fit perfectly into the palm of your hand and are easy to fall into a rhythm with, which I think makes them great for stimmers of any age. I will say that the popping sounds can be a little loud, so they’re probably not a good classroom or office fidget. From personal experience, it also might not be a good idea to stim intensely with these for several days in a row, especially if it’s your first time using one--I did that with my first Simple Dimpl and got a slight cramp in my hand.

On to the reviews of the specific ones I have in my collection!

First: the knockoffs. I bought these online after seeing them everywhere on Youtube and Tiktok, and fell in love immediately. They’re the exact same size as the original Simple Dimpls, come in the same colors as the originals (and more), and they even have little knockoff brains on the bubbles, lol. 

The thing about these is that the silicone is a bit stiffer and the bubbles are a bit “deeper” than those on the originals--meaning I have to push slightly harder to pop them in and back again. BUT the plus side of that is, they’re probably harder to break. I’ve had these for two years and they’re pretty much still as good as the day I got them.

Next, the original Simple Dimpl. As you can probably tell, I loved these so much that I fidgeted them to death. Both of the ones I have broke within the first six months of me using them; they sprouted little tears in the silicone that just grew bigger until the bubbles were hanging on by a thread, and then finally came off :( I don’t know if I was fidgeting with them too hard, or if the quality control on this batch was off, or if they really just wear down like this eventually. (Currently, the blue bubble is the only survivor.)

These were my faves for a long time until they broke, and there’s something really pleasing about the colored bubbles on the white frames to me. The bubbles on these originals are slightly shallower than the knockoffs I mentioned earlier, which makes for a smoother popping experience; the first time I stimmed with an original Simple Dimpl I was SO pleasantly surprised at how much easier it felt.

(Comparison of the knockoff dimpl and my remaining original Simple Dimpl.)

And lastly, we have the transparent Simpl Dimpl. I believe these only come in a 3-pack from Fat Brain and you can’t get them individually, but I think the color assortment and the quality makes them so worth it. The clear frames look super gorgeous and more minimalist (?), and there’s an orange-and-yellow colorway that the regular Simpl Dimpls don’t have.

I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but the silicone on these feels just a tad stiffer than the silicone on the originals. It’s not as soft or “slippery” and doesn’t pick up oils from my hands easily, to the point that I’ve tried rubbing a little bit of hand lotion into the bubbles to see if it makes them softer/smoother. The lotion didn’t have as much of an effect as I thought it would, which was interesting. I’ve had them for maybe a year and they haven’t gotten any tears yet, though, which I can only take as a good thing.

Fat Brain also makes these ones with colored frames, more subtle black-and-white versions, and a glow-in-the-dark one. I don’t own any of these, so photos are pulled from their site.

The popularity of Simple Dimpls has spawned a lot of knockoffs, like I mentioned, including “triple dimpls” (ones with three bubbles arranged in a triangle shape), single-bubble dimpls, and dimpl bubbles Frankenstein-attached to pretty much every other fidget toy you can think of. Recently I’ve also seen things called Pull n’ Pops, which appear to be like dimpls/pop-its but with tiny silicone pull tabs on each bubble to pull them back out with.

Personally though, I still like the og Simple Dimpl the best.

#fidgets #stim toys #simple dimpl #fat brain toys #collections #reviews #my posts

[luxnebula]

Back on my quest of (re)listening Voyager's discography in chronological order. This time: Univers (with only one E) from 2007.

First off, I forgot to mention this in my first post, but the first few albums of almost any artist or band are always a little janky, so I don't hold it against anyone. Early Years Jank(TM) is a fact of life and it takes time to find the groove where you belong. Trust the process and so on forth. Idk if this disclaimer is even necessary but here it is nonetheless lol

Secondly, the mixing is way better! You can hear it immediately, just a few seconds in the first song. The vocals don't drown in the instrumentals anymore and it just feels more balanced overall.

I think I'm hearing another vocalist too? Someone else is doing the growled vocals, or they're doing some interesting mixing with layering Daniel's clear vocals with Daniel's growled vocals. Interesting that Daniel dropped growling so fast, only after one album. I wonder if it was a conscious choice or something that just happened. There's also some power metal screams in Pulse 04.

One other thing that I notice that this album is very... melancholic, in comparison to modern Voyager. Everwaiting, Between the Sheets, Sober, One More Time and Falling are all kind of slow and melancholic songs and even the "faster" songs on this album (What I Need) have a thick melancholic atmosphere. This vibe is almost completely absent (or at least in completely different form) in, say, Fearless in Love. I touched on this on my less serious blog, where I mused that modern Voyager doesn't have that many outright melancholic songs and how melancholy is "hidden" or masked in various ways in their songs. I'll talk about it more depth when I get to Ghost Mile and Fearless in Love because it's especially noticeable on those albums. I have to wonder if this shift in mood has been a conscious choice too or if it's just been something that has just organically happened! If I ever met them, that would be my one question for them lol

Overall, the sound is still on the generic heavy metal side, I'm sad to say. The medieval-y sound from Element V is gone too, sadly. Maybe because of this, I find myself gravitating to the slower songs that have less of a heavy sound, with how Between the Sheets is my favourite track from Univers. I do appreciate the majestic feel of Cross the Line too, though. This is also the album that started the legend of White Shadow. Which is a beloved track and not cringe. I will die on this hill. Despite me finding the album's overall sound generic, seven out of the 11 tracks have ended up in my Voyager faves playlist. They've definitely shook some of the Early Years Jank (TM) off already.

#original #in english #voyagerau #music

[ilikereadingactually]

Picturebook roundup: November 2023

since leaving children's bookselling i have missed, and felt woefully out of touch with, the picturebook scene! so i keep a list of books i want to take a look at, and this week i requested a stack from my public library. below are some casual reviews in the order the books appear in the photo above, which is to say no particular order, just how they came to hand. also age recommendations, which are only that--recommendations! i strongly believe that there are picturebooks for every age, including adults, and the age ranges i give are just where i think the most likely interest is. ymmv as far as your own interest or that of your loved ones!

Evergreen by Matthew Cordell

an extremely charming story about a young squirrel learning how to go out into her world and feel safe. i LOVE the art, no surprise because Cordell is a fave of mine, and i love the way this book is separated into (very short) chapters, it gives the progression and repetition of the story some extra sophistication. it's a view of the world outside the home as a community, where the unknown might feel frightening but requires a second look, a little understanding and openness, and a little trust. there's also a little bit of a Red Riding Hood thing going on, with fun mishaps instead of tragedy.

age rec: i'd put this in the 4-8 range. There's more text than a lot of picturebooks, so it's great for a kid who can sit and listen to a longer story, and also great for kids who are reading early readers and simple chapter books on their own.

a bit i really liked: the expressions here really delight me, that little frog omg O_O

more under the cut!

***

Big by Vashti Harrison

i think this book is really delicately done, given the target age! about a little girl who likes to dance, and is consistently told that she's too big (meaning too fat, and the ways this is implied but never said rang painfully true to me). the imagery is especially powerful; in comparison to the other people in the story, this little girl starts out very bright, chubby and a little taller than other kids, and the more she is told she's too big, the larger and more faded she becomes, until she's so big she can't fit in a single page of the book anymore, and has to break out and confront everything that's hurt her. it's the kind of thing that could go too far in a number of different directions and be trite, or insulting, or just too subtle, but instead it's very lovely and made me pretty weepy. there's a quiet racial element here too--the little girl is Black, and as far as i remember everyone who offers hurtful commentary on her body appears white (sepia, because of what the art is doing, but with thin and white-seeming features and hair).

age rec: the text is very simple, so this one could go as young as 2 or 3, and as old as the message--that fat people are good as we are--is relevant.

a bit i really liked: the way this image drives home how oversized and unwieldy this child has been made to feel, and also how totally ignored! her vibrance has faded! MOOD

***

Ancestory: The Mystery and Majesty of Ancient Cave Art by Hannah Salyer

a very cool book, with beautiful art! this one does what it says on the tin and presents ancient cave art for a young audience, with basic facts and interesting questions that don't have any answers. i particularly appreciated the details about what kinds of materials would have been used to create cave art, and the time and effort that would have been put into these works, being added to over time. artistically, i loved the way the style of the illustrations matched the various kinds of cave art being discussed, and the way these unknown ancestors were portrayed in almost smoky-looking silhouette, shadowy and hard to pin down the details of, because they are so long gone that we don't have that many details. and the back matter is great, including a very cool map of the locations of known cave art! i wish there was a little more back matter, actually, but for a child reader i think it's just right.

age rec: i would put this one around the 4-8 range. not as much text as Evergreen, but a little more complex conceptually, and i think given the back matter it could easily be enjoyed by slightly older kids too if they have a particular interest.

a bit i really liked: this page made me cry. i ALSO take the time to create!!!

***

Mr. S: A First Day of School Book by Monica Arnaldo

DELIGHTFUL! a class of kids arrive for the first day of school to find a classroom without a teacher--until they notice "Mr. S" written on the board, and a charming sandwich with olive eyes and a ham slice tongue. they have a great first day of school under the eyes of Mr. S, while subtly outside the window the human who wrote "Mr. S" on the board before the kids arrived is dealing with a continuing series of disasters befalling his car. the ending was a perfect twist, i laughed a ton, and the art is very cute.

age rec: ideal for 4-6 imo, but can definitely go younger if the kid is in preschool and so understands some of the concepts of what school is, and can go older as a very fun read for teachers and educators.

a bit i really liked: their expressions T^T

***

Do You Remember? by Sydney Smith

a beautiful, quiet book. a mother and son curled together in bed share memories, the room growing lighter each time we return to them. the memories include a father, and a move, but don't make it explicit what has happened to separate them. The memories themselves are displayed in a series of snapshots, the perspectives changing depending on whether the mother or the child is recalling it, and the art style is very dreamy and soft and beautiful. in the end, the child shows us the view outside their window, and suggests they create new memories in their new home. i ADORE dreamy, emotional, subtle books like this, i feel like more than half the picturebooks in my home library have these qualities.

age rec: i'd say 4-8, younger for particularly emotionally aware kids, older as a comfort to any kid or adult going through a separation, a move, or some other bittersweet and difficult life change.

a bit i really liked: this memory struck me as particularly visually lovely

***

The Truth About Max by Alice and Martin Provensen

this is one of those meandering kind of books. very simple, a pleasant ride, and of course very charming and loose and clever artwork, because it's the Provensens, whose work i have loved for a long time. they're both gone now, and this is a story dug out from their archives, which is a thing that i always have kind of mixed feelings about--on the one hand, it is exciting to suddenly have "new" work from people you never expected to see work from again; on the other hand, often posthumously published works were not published in the creators' lifetime because they were fine, pleasant, but not amazing. this book has charm! it has Max, who appears in other books of theirs! it's quiet and a bit funny and does nothing more stressful than follow a mischievous cat around a farm. i enjoyed the experience of it, and it's already slipping from my memory.

age rec: maybe 3-6 ish, depending on the temperament of the kid! this is a slow and quiet kind of book, which can be great for one kid and not attention grabbing enough for another. it's also pretty pragmatic--Max is a farm cat, a hunter, who spends some time considering whether the baby chicks could be his lunch. it's also definitely a read-aloud, because the text is handwritten in cursive, which is a beautiful overall look but would be difficult for kids who are learning to read on their own.

a bit i really liked: this cat is so shaped

***

Ancient Night by David Álvarez and David Bowles

i love the art in this, it's so luminous! a lovely, simple book that twists and combines a number of Mesoamerican stories, in which a rabbit fills up the jug of the moon every night with precious glowing aguamiel, and a possum cracks a hole in the jug to taste the aguamiel himself. in the end, they solve the problem of the now-moonless night together, and become the guardians of night and day. it would be a lovely read aloud, and there's a Spanish language version too, and some nice back matter about the stories this is drawing from! definitely a great way to diversify any collection of creation myths or fables.

age rec: i'd put this one around 2-7; the text is sparse enough for a toddler who can sit still for a story, but it has that timelessness of myths explaining how the natural world works that I think holds appeal for kids and grownups both.

a bit i really liked: just look at that glow!!

#books and reading #children's literature #picturebooks #book recs #book reviews #picturebook roundup