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illuminatedferret · 2 months

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With the new edits to Xie Lian's request to be banished again rather than fight Lang Qianqiu, I'm really struck by the gravity of Hua Cheng rejecting his ascension again. We conflate being a Heavenly Official with being a god, being a god with being beneath Jun Wu's dominion, but that's really not the case. Ascension and godhood are natural consequences of diligence and cultivation, not something handed out because you impressed the right person. And yet as more people ascend, they fight, they bump elbows, they learn to live among one another, regulating each other and developing a 'status quo' for godhood.

This is the Heavenly Court- not a natural location, but a system constructed to exercise control over gods and godhood. A place just as coveted as it is full of rules and expectations, just as unforgiving as it is illustrious. Yet the violence inherent in the heavens, in Jun Wu's rule, is never truly addressed. And that violence can be boiled down into one simple question:

Do people have the right to say no to godhood?

For all intents and purposes, it seems that few people view ascensions as a bad thing. The only case we have of someone outright rejecting the heavens and doing so on their own terms is Hua Cheng. And as far as we can tell, no one ever follows up with him over this, but we can't forget his unique circumstances: his ghosthood, his place in Mount Tonglu, his soon-to-come power as one of the strongest men in the world, all allow him to pull off this escape and land himself a position where the heavens cannot afford to punish him, even if they want to. But for a more average person, what would happen if they said no?

And if Jun Wu accepts that "no" (if he accepts any no), does it come with no strings attached? What are the odds he allows this mold-breaker to walk out the doors without some sort of condition in place? Let me remind you, godhood is not contingent on his approval- rejecting the heavens doesn't make you stop being a god. Really, isn't rejecting the heavens rejecting him and his rule, more than anything else? He cannot make someone a god, and he cannot truly make them stop being a god, either. It is a privilege of his position (and power) that he can pretend otherwise, and he has to go to extreme lengths (the cursed shackles) to do so.

What ruler wouldn't see it as an act of disrespect that someone wants to leave their court? What ruler would willfully allow someone to leave the heavens and become what is fundamentally a rogue agent? It flies in the face of the purpose of the Heavenly Court. Surely this hypothetical person allowed to leave ends up like Xie Lian: shackled, deprived of at least the ability to hear prayers. At worst, Jun Wu may decide someone who rejects the heavens rejects the cultivation that brought them there as well, and seal their spiritual power too. But with those sorts of caveats, who would choose to leave? And to deprive people of choice is inherently violence.

In one act, Hua Cheng not only rejects the heavens but bucks their yoke, escaping the system of power and control that demands obedience from everyone unto the man on top. This is a far, far more significant and noteworthy act than is addressed. While he clearly cares little for it, Hua Cheng is a god, making him the only god in the world truly removed from Jun Wu's control and influence. He exists outside of the heavens' system, and thus paves the way for a space similarly divorced from the control of the heavens, where people can live without fear of censure or persecution from the people the world insists are their betters.

#tgcf #tgcf meta #tian guan ci fu #hua cheng #jun wu #heaven officials blessing #illuspeaks #this feels a little unfocused but i hope my point comes across #the revised version really highlights this w jun wu getting mad at xie lian for requesting banishment #because really its an act of disrespect towards the emperor to /want/ to leave his court #anyway ive been chewing on this for a while

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thelvadams · 6 months

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last stray thought for now but it'd be nice if people didn't use this new era as an opportunity to attack thirteen's era. there's been more than enough criticism and discussion about that era, but we wouldn't be where we are now if it hadn't been for jodie, chibnall and all those who came before

#badly articulated but i hope my point comes across #rtd did an amazing job today but there are some things that even he wouldn't have done 15 years ago #doctor who #dw spoilers #david tennant #catherine tate #jodie whittaker #chris chibnall

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robynrocksforbrains · 9 months

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Mike Wheeler is important and there's nothing wrong with analyzing him

Since y'all wanna be insufferable bitches about it I'm gonna explain to you why he's important, why Will loves him, why his struggles should be acknowledged, and why his character depth is pivotal to byler endgame being a satisfying conclusion for both Mike AND Will. Deal with it!

We are not seeing smoke where there isn't a flame. We are seeing smoke where there is a literal fucking forest fire.

Starting off with something a lot of people aren't ready for but I've seen more people talking about: Mike is the main character of s1 at the very least. He is the character that brings us into the world of stranger things. He is the character that the writers chose for this. Mike is the main character of s1 and it was an instant hit. The writers love Mike. Contrary to popular belief, giving a character an arc where they are struggling and their behavior changes from what is normal for the character we know and love does NOT mean the writers hate that character. It means they deliberately chose to give that character complexity and depth. Your inability to like characters that do anything wrong ever is not the fault of the writers. Your decision to act as if a character is not important is not reflective of the actual narrative because it in fact is in direct opposition to the narrative. So just to be clear, if you genuinely believe that Mike isn't important, or that the writers hate him, or don't care about him, or that his story "takes away" from any other character's - ESPECIALLY WILL'S - you are simply wrong.

In s1 and s2 Mike is established as an extremely caring person. He's loving, loyal, brave, intelligent, and trying his best. He is also established to be hot headed, someone who speaks without thinking quite often, someone who is capable of hurting his friends despite that being the last thing he wants to do. He is all of these things and more. He is a human. He is a kid. So in s3, when suddenly he is entirely different, it is completely logical to assume that there is a reason for that. He did not just wake up one day and decide he wanted to be an asshole, push Will away, make his friends feel abandoned, and echo the same sentiments their bullies held. Something is happening with him. He has so much going on in his head and it is painfully obvious. He's holding something in, he's hiding from everyone and from himself. We see glimpses of what he's trying to hide after Will calls him out on his behavior. Will gets through to him. Mike is usually unresponsive to tough love, except for when it's coming from Will. After their fight, it is obvious that he's trying to be better. But he still doesn't wanna face certain things, and he doesn't know how to navigate that. Because he's 13 years old.

There is a reason for all of that internal conflict. There is a reason it comes pouring out of him at certain times. He's crumbling. He is quite literally falling apart because he's holding on to too much. It's not a stretch to assume that, it just takes basic media literacy. Why would the writers have Mike act this way if he was just supposed to be a one dimensional character? Why would Finn be directed to portray Mike the way he does if there was nothing more going on? There are times where Mike looks like he's in physical pain because of his internal conflict. There is a reason for that. And acknowledging that DOES NOT mean people are taking away from Will. That's the most idiotic thing I have ever heard. Do y'all seriously not understand that more than one character can have emotionally complex storylines? Genuinely asking, is this a new concept for you?

Will's love for Mike

Will is head over heels in love with Mike. That is very much established. So when you're dismissing the emotional depth of Mike's individual arc because you think acknowledging it "takes away from Will" you are actually diminishing the significance of a huge aspect of Will's emotional arc. By taking away the significance of Mike, you take away from the significance of Will.

Let's do a quick recap of the very significant role Mike has played in Will's entire life:

Mike is Will's first friend.

They have grown up together and it can be assumed that they've reached important milestones together.

Mike has always been a safe person for Will. He's been a constant in Will's very chaotic and unfair life. Until the summer of '85, Mike had always been something good in Will's life. (That's not to say he is no longer something good, but it can be assumed that the summer of '85 is the first time Mike has been a causal factor in Will's unhappiness)

When Will went missing, Mike did not hesitate to search for him. It wasn't even a question of if. The moment he knew Will was missing he knew exactly what he'd be doing that night. He spearheaded the search amongst the party. He was the leader.

When Will came back, Mike was the only person that didn't treat him like he was gonna break. He cared for him, and he was there for him, but he didn't treat him differently; Will tells us as much. Which means we can infer that the way Mike was with Will in s2 - how gentle and loving he was - was nothing new. He had just always been like that.

When Will was possessed, Mike stayed by his side. Even when it was scary, even when it could've gotten him killed, he stayed. Because once again, for him, it wasn't even a question. That's just where he knew he needed to be. He was in the shed when they were trying to get through to Will. He was set apart from Lucas and Dustin, but he also wasn't equated to family. And his retelling of the story of the day they first met was the final push Will needed to find a way to communicate.

After a year of things being "weird" between them, Mike tells Will that he didn't deserve to be treated the way he had been. Mike tells him that he wants them to be okay again, and for the rest of the season he puts in the work.

Things get rough in s3, and at the beginning of s4, and despite all of that, Will confesses his love (albeit veiled). In a moment where Mike is feeling awful about himself, he tells him that he loves him and needs him, and he tells him why. And to him it doesn't matter that he's breaking his own heart to do it, because it's Mike. Mike, who makes him feel like he's not a mistake at all, and that he's better for being different. For Will, there was no other option. The person he loves was hurting and he knew how to help, and so he did.

Mike is the first person Will tells about Vecna still being alive. Because they're back to being a team. He knows he can trust Mike, and Mike seems to be very determined to prove him right.

SO.

These are all real and canon aspects of Mike's presence in Will's life. Will falling in love with Mike isn't something that just happened for no reason. Will fell in love with Mike because of who Mike is. When you acknowledge that, and when you acknowledge the reasons they've set out for why Will loves him - the reasons Will literally told us - you can better understand Will. But when you dismiss all of these things about Mike, you are dismissing a large portion of Will's emotional and romantic arc. You aren't being a Will Warrior. You are erasing so much of him and his feelings and his lived experience. That is not the hill you wanna die on.

Will loves a person. Not a feeling. Yes, he says that Mike makes him feel like he's not a mistake and that he's better for being different. But that's not why he loves him. He feels that way because he loves him.

Mike is a fully fleshed out character with his own feelings and struggles and fears and traumas and motivations. He's not a plot device. He's not just an accessory to Will's arc. He's not a character that was written only to be Will's love interest. He's Will's love interest because he's Mike.

If Mike didn't matter, and if Mike didn't play a significant role in byler, then they would be able to write in a love interest for Will in s5 and have it be somewhat satisfying. But they can't do that. Will's love for Mike has so much depth because Mike has so much depth. It is genuinely crazy that this has to be stated and that I have to back up this claim because it is simply a canon fact.

So yes, the rain fight affects Mike's character development and his involvement in it is important. Yes, the van scene literally could not exist without Mike and therefore his involvement in it is incredibly important. Yes, every single byler moment has an impact on Mike, and Mike has an impact on it because they are BYLER moments. Yes, Mike will have a lot of significant moments - with Will AND on his own - in s5 because his arc deserves and needs as much attention as Will's in order to execute byler endgame in a satisfying way.

No, none of these facts negate Will's importance or take away from his story. If anything, they add to it because Mike and Will's arcs are corresponding and intertwined.

Mike's struggles

To name a few

Dysfunctional family

Has been bullied his entire life

Extreme self worth issues

Inferiority complex

Hero complex

Lack of self preservation

Suicidal ideation (has been on display since SEASON ONE)

Internalized homophobia

To get this out of the way: Mike's internalized homophobia is allowed to be discussed. Discussion of it is not the dismissal of Will's internalized homophobia. Surprise surprise, two queer kids in the 80s have internalized homophobia! Who'd'a thunk it?! Their internalized homophobia presents in different ways but it is there for both of them. I personally relate to the way Mike's is portrayed way more than I relate to Will's. So why is it that we can't discuss it without being accused of erasing Will's experience? Or without people saying that we're "copy and pasting" Will's story? Because quite frankly, that feels dismissive of my - and likely many others' - real and lived experience. So please for the love of all things that are good just stop with this talking point because it will never hold up.

Moving on

I'm not gonna do a full breakdown of all of Mike's issues. Because contrary to popular belief, there are a lot. And that would be exhausting and I'd get carried away and it's not the point of this post. The point of this post is to defend the acknowledgement and mere existence of them.

If you're a byler that for some reason thinks Mike only exists to be Will's love interest and his trophy as compensation for his trauma, let me ask you this: Have you considered how awful it would be to have a queer character's individuality and emotional depth completely ignored for the sake of focusing on the queer character that "really matters"?

If Mike's own issues, with his queer identity and otherwise, aren't thoroughly explored... What's the point of all this? If Mike really is insignificant in this storyline and his individuality has no effect on it.. where's the emotional payoff? If his perspective doesn't matter... Why have the writers gone to such great lengths to ensure we don't have that piece of the puzzle yet?

Analyzing Mike and understanding Mike is very important to understanding byler. Once again, I think it's crazy that this needs to be said.

I also think it's important to note that characters can have similar struggles. There's no rule against that. Just like real life. Characters having similar struggles is not a bad thing, and acknowledging that their struggles are similar is not dismissive of either character. We're talking about STRANGER THINGS. Jonathan and Nancy's thing is "we've got shared trauma". They have literal matching scars. Shared experiences are some of the main building blocks for this show's romances. Byler has a TON of shared experience, basically their entire lives. We already know that. So wouldn't it be so beautiful for them to learn that they've been struggling with the same thing this whole time? That the entire time they felt alone in what they were going through when really they had each other and they never even knew it? Wouldn't it be so beautiful for Mike's acceptance of Will and Will's love for him was also a step toward accepting himself? Wouldn't it be beautiful for Will to learn that his love makes Mike feel like he's not a mistake? None of that would be in the realm of possibility if Mike didn't have emotional depth and if his individuality wasn't important.

And that leads me to my concluding point...

A satisfying execution of byler endgame hinges on Mike's individual emotional arc being handled well

God I hope this isn't controversial to say. I sincerely hope most people haven't forgotten that.

Here's a hypothetical:

Imagine season five has been released. You're watching it, and you notice that Mike has been relegated to just a supporting character for Will. We don't get any of his perspective. We don't get any explanation for his s3 and early s4 behavior. His breakup with El doesn't have any real tangible effect on him, it's really just used for El's character development. We never see him pining for Will like we saw Will pining for him. And then suddenly Mike is learning about the painting and then suddenly he's confessing his love and then suddenly byler is canon and official.

Now wouldn't that just be awful? Wouldn't that be unfair to the audience, to Mike, and to Will? For us to never learn just how much Mike had to go through to even be able to say it out loud? For Mike to never get the chance to prove to himself through word and action that he is the heart? For Will to never get an explanation for why things did get so "weird" between them? It would leave us with one big, nagging question: What was the point of everything Mike has said and done throughout the entire show if his conclusion is that lackluster?

Disregarding Mike for a moment (I know that's incredibly ironic given what the entire point of this is but just bear with me) - how would that be a satisfying conclusion for Will? I mean, Will's s4 arc was basically dedicated to showcasing his struggle with his sexuality and with his love for Mike. We were shown just how deep that love is. We were shown how patient, unselfish, unwavering, and beautiful that love is. So how would it be satisfying for Mike's love for him to not be shown with just as much depth? How would it be satisfying for Mike to just be a one dimensional character whose s5 arc is essentially "break up with girlfriend, wait to find out best friend is in love with him, say he loves him back, then they live happily ever after"? I think Will deserves for his love to be returned with the same intensity at which he gives it. And I think it should be clear to the audience and to Will himself.

Back to Mike!

Mike has been through so much shit. I don't think anyone that is denying that actually believes he hasn't been through shit. Because you'd actually have to watch the show on mute and with your eyes closed to think this kid hasn't had just the worst time. It's so ignorant to act as if this stuff hasn't affected him. There's stuff we've seen but there's stuff we also haven't seen. There are issues he has that date back to his childhood pre-canon. Just like Will, Mike has been a queer kid growing up in 80s smalltown conservative america. Acknowledging the pain he 100% carries because of that is so important. His perspective has been withheld from us, not because it's unimportant, but because it's the final puzzle piece. If we had Mike's perspective in s4, byler wouldn't be a "will they won't they" (even though we all know they will). If we got his perspective in s4, byler would be a "100% certain without a doubt they will". But the thing about his perspective is that it's so much more than just loving Will. It's fear. It's pain. It's insecurity. It's doubt. It's the belief that his happiness just doesn't matter all that much. All of that has to be explored. All of that has to be laid out in the open for us in order for byler endgame to feel earned. Mike's emotional payoff will lead to byler's emotional payoff.

Mike has known he loves Will. In s5 we will see him make a deliberate and active effort to overcome the things keeping him from doing something about it. And then he will do something about it.

And so when it finally happens. When both Mike and Will finally know that their feelings are requited, and when their arcs end with us knowing that they will face whatever life has in store for them together, that will feel earned. That will feel like the logical conclusion for both of them. Not just for Mike. Not just for Will. For both.

And Mike is just as important to that conclusion as Will is.

And one last thing...

Some people are going to talk about Mike more. Some people are going to talk about Will more. Because newsflash, people have preferences. Some people just relate to Mike more, or they find his emotional arc extremely compelling, or they just like him. It isn't an attack on Will or any other character. No one is saying Mike is more important than any other character (I'm sure there are people that say that but they are a vocal minority and they are simply wrong). We are just saying that he is important. If you wanna engage in media analysis, please understand that "main character" or "central character" does not mean "only important character" and "only character that should be analyzed". If you wanna talk about Will and only Will, that's fine. But you don't get to act like people that talk about other characters are doing a disservice to your fave, because that's not how any of this works.

#mike defenders i need you to back me up on this #i hope my points come across well #anyway #the way people have been talking about mike lately is so infuriating #its called BYLER analysis because its the analysis of BYLER the ship involving will AND mike #st fandom consistently proving that they have absolutely no idea how fandom works #its almost like people wanna talk about things they care about and you dont get to tell them to shut up #if you dont wanna see people talking about mike you can just mute tags about him #but if you dont wanna talk about mike youre missing a huge part of the byler puzzle and thats your loss #please just let people discuss whatever they want to discuss as long as its not ACTUALLY harmful #sometimes i think y'all are allergic to fun #byler #mike wheeler #mike wheeler analysis #will byers #< this is about him too #byler analysis #byler endgame #stranger things

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jenna-louise-jamie · 24 days

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i think it's so interesting how different book!yassen and tv!yassen are.

first off how book!yassen sent alex to scorpia, it was a mistake because he wasn't thinking clearly. tv!yassen did it on purpose (to the best of my knowledge).

book!yassen did not want alex to kill. he tells him this twice, “killing is for grown ups.” and asking alex if he can really pull the trigger and shoot him, when alex breaks into the boat during eagle strike. going into great detail to dissuade alex from doing it, and all of me believes not just because yassen didn't want to die in this moment. this makes sense for book!yassen because he himself didn't want to kill. so he's trying to save alex from his own fate.

tv!show yassen doesn't seem to have any issues with killing. he doesn't particularly enjoy it, but it's his job and he does what he has to do so he can survive. so he's okay with encouraging alex to do it. by telling him he should view the people he's assigned to assassinate as nothing more than targets. tricking him into helping assassinate max. encouraging him to let go of his emotions. he wants alex to join him by his side.

ultimately while their methods are different, their end goals are the same. they both want to protect alex. book!yassen thinks he can achieve this by pushing alex away, and tv!show yassen thinks he can achieve this by pulling alex in closer. and both work because they're so compelling.

#i didn't phrase this very sensibly but i hope the point comes across!!!#they both love alex very much and don't want to see him die #also worth noting. i can't see tv!show yassen putting alex in a bullfighting ring. for really any reason #alex rider #yassen gregorovich #alex rider tv #alex rider books #there was another thing i wanted to mention but its completely gone from my mind. if i remember maybe ill add it in a reblog.#they're the same character but they're different. i love them both dearly they mean a lot to me.

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kenshiv · 1 year

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John + being whispered to by men in Imagine (1971).

#the beatles #john lennon #john #2 #dick cavett #idk who the other guy is but i hope my point comes across

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queenlucythevaliant · 4 months

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under the wings

1. Polly would always always always remember the feeling of falling asleep beneath Fledge's feathered wings.

2. She'd been curled up close to his side with his coverts over her shoulders like a shawl. His pinions had stretched past her to break the night winds. She'd leaned into the crook of his wing, feeling softness on her cheek. When she turned over in the night, feathers brushed her from all sides, whispering against her skin.

3. If Polly could have wished for one thing, at twelve, at twenty, at sixty, it would have been the same: to live in that memory. If she might, she never would have emerged from her place beneath Fledge's tawny wings.

4. She loved her smuggler's cave because it was safe and small and hers. She loved all kinds of nooks and closets, window seats and beds with curtains and covers she could crawl under.

5. Digory never understood it. He himself liked wide open space and covering skies. "It's the same concept though, I think," Polly remarked once. "There's something lovely about the feeling of being underneath."

6. Polly was even, unfathomably, rather partial to certain bomb shelters, though she'd never have admitted it. How pleasant it was to fall asleep underground, curled up in a corner wrapped in a blanket, safe in the knowledge that she was too far down for anything to hurt her.

7. (And when she wasn't in a shelter and the bombs fell anyway, she squeezed her eyes shut and pictured tawny feathers all round her.)

8. Digory wrote her letters and she wrote back. His were full of ditches in the ground and hers of shelters, but they both liked to write about lions and the sky.

9. After the first war, it was easy for a pretty lady to talk her way into flying lessons with one of the hundred wayward pilots left over from the fighting.

10. He was a mechanic by trade, and he didn't mind unconventional women; but he told Polly she had no business in a cockpit if she didn't know her way around an engine. So, two summers after the war ended, she spent her mornings smearing oil across her ruffled blouses and learning how to make things fly.

11. (She would have married him, if ever he'd asked her- but he never did, and maybe it was for the best.)

12. As the years wore past, Polly met other little girls with ribbons in their hair. She told them stories and she taught them her magic, and when they cried she brought them into her hiding places the same way she'd once done with Digory Kirke.

13. They called her Aunt Polly - both those children that she cared for interbellum, and the ones that came after.

14. Once, Polly dreamed that it had been her instead. Aslan told her, you will be the grandmother of all the angels, and feathered wings sprang from her back. Once, Polly dreamed that it had been her instead of Fledge.

15. (She woke with the feeling of feathers still clinging to her shoulders, itching.)

16. During the second war, she worked at an aerodrome. Occasionally she flew with the training crews, but mostly she'd go out onto the tarmac after the sirens were done and stand in the shadows of airplane wings.

17. When Digory told her about the wardrobe, Polly went to his estate, pulled out all the coats, and shut herself in. She didn't have any notions of getting back to Narnia that way-- but she did it all the same.

18. Jill and Eustace made her laugh: Eustace, who hated heights, and Jill, who panicked in small spaces. Oh Lord, thought Polly, save me from the irony. She loved them anyway.

19. In the end, she died in a train crash and opened her eyes to something like fragrant, golden feathers.

20. And suddeny, Polly understood. They're weren't really Fledge's wings at all, were they?

#at long last i have returned to revising these character study pieces #i love polly so dearly. i have a million wishes for her life between MN and LB #this doesn't all connect together as well as i had hoped it would but hopefully the idea still comes across #my dear adventuress #game if you are #pontifications and creations #narnia #leah stories #edit: i lost point 15 somehow when i posted this lol but i fixed it

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vlindervin7 · 10 months

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little quiz i made. i’ll recommend you a piece of art that feels like summer to me at the end ☀️

#these are not very very original you’ll probably have come across them at one point or another on here but i made it in like half an hour #so didn’t really look that far. hope it’s still enjoyable nonetheless!!#uquiz #summer #jasmine has thoughts #my quizzes

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qubitos · 6 months

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so has anyone else given any thought to what all the constant tea-drinking has done to the islanders? like what sort of effect it's had on them? not physically speaking (though thats definitely a really interesting avenue to pursue) but mentally

like. will any of them be able to drink tea ever again? will they be able to enjoy it? there are so so many memories associated with it now. two weeks worth of friend-killing and they were drinking tea through it all. they were chugging it during pvp. surely that has to twist their relationship with it? like, the mental association. there are foods i cant eat without thinking of home and other foods i cant get down because of bad memories associated with them. i have to imagine that sort of pain/discomfort has to be magnified tenfold here

tina discovered the tea strat because she wanted to make it for bagi. because bagi loves tea, and tina loves bagi. there's so much love behind it all and its so tainted now

#qsmp #qsmp purgatory #i have literally not been able to stop thinking about this #there are soaps i cant use without flinching. theres no way that these guys are coming out the other side of this without an aversion to te #im not articulating myself as well as i want to here but. i feel like my point gets across all the same #i hope someone at least touches on this w/ their character. this is all i ask

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sea-buns · 4 months

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Forgive me if I'm a bit nervous about Gorgug this season. It's just that the last Zac Oyama pc was Colin Provolone, who was arguably one of his greatest D20 performances, if not the greatest.

Zac always does great with every pc he plays, but Colin was something else. He came out swinging with actions and words that were teeming with unspoken emotional baggage. The way Colin's presence affected the other pcs; there was this level of depth that I don't think I've seen in any of his other characters. It was understated and quiet in that signature "just a guy" way that he tends to be, while still captivating everyone instantly with just how raw it was.

Not to say we haven't seen emotional depth in Gorgug. It's just that, compared to the other Bad Kids, Gorgug's journey and progression as a character has been very... impersonal? Like, yes, he found his birth parents, and he found friends who appreciate him, and he faced his insecurities about his intelligence, and he navigated relationship troubles, and his trial through the claustrophobic bug-tunnels was a horrifically-uncanny parallel to how he's spent his entire life trying to make himself as small as possible.

But how much of that has actually changed him from the Gorgug we started with? I would agree that he's definitely happier with his life, given all the loving and supportive people that have been added to it when it used to be just him and his parents. And he's certainly grown into himself and become more self-assured in his abilities, even if he's still, and always will be, our anxious little guy. And there's nothing wrong with that. I've always liked how Gorgug was a representation of all the little things. The subtle acts and kindnesses that don't seem like much to most, but to some are everything.

We don't need another Bad Kid living in fear that their mouth could be shit-in at any moment. We've already got one-too-many.

All that being said, I just feel like Gorgug's personal story beats are much easier to sweep under the rug than everyone else's. He has the same soft and understated quality that Colin held, but they lack that extra oomph that pushed Colin over the edge from being just another guy in a series of dudes, to a character that the vast majority of us could not get out of our heads. He took someone who was anxious and softspoken, who ultimately never wanted to be violent— someone who is remarkably similar to Gorgug in many ways— and maintained that demeanor and core in Colin's character while still hitting us in the feels with character development at max velocity at every turn.

I think Zac gets better and better at this with every season that goes by. With each new character, there is always something that leaves me stunned in awe. And it's been, what, three? Four years since we last saw Gorgug?

I'm just,,, I'm cautiously optimistic but also going into a bit of a worry about what violence this man may inflict upon us

#i got SO carried away LMAO #i dont think ive ever written any posts about gorgug specifically #i made a lot about colin. and some about pib. and some more about zacs performances in general.#but never anything gorgug-focused. i just wasnt on tumblr at those other times that hed been on my mind like this #you can tell i still couldnt resist talking about colin lol #he was just so fucking good. a fantastic character all around. i cant imagine a better example to get my point across than him #when i do posts like this its all very much just me taking a vague idea and working with whatever comes out in the moment #so when i tell you i very much did not plan to get lost in the counterargument and had to stop for a second to remember what my point was #my point still stands but so does everything else #you dont realize it. how similar gorgug and colin really are. or how metaphorical the bug tunnel was.#or how gorgug IS the epitome of little details. small acts. quiet rights and wrongs. the faint causes and the even subtler effects.#u dont truly realize it until youre writing it yourself in a free flow fugue state and it all comes to a halt cuz youve blown your own mind #anyway i love gorgug and i love zac pcs and i hope this post makes sense cuz finding the right words was fucking hard hah #dimension 20 #d20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #fhjy #fantasy high sophomore year #fhsy #gorgug thistlespring #the ravening war #trw #colin provolone #zac oyama

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selenadem · 1 year

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Some Kagetsu/Zelkov from last months

#kagetsu is clingy #i was like wait im cringe #but who cares #im posting here too because I want to share my love for this ship with other people #twitter is cool but tumblr is friendly 👍#kagetsu and zelkov that accidentally come across each other on the battlefield...#there is more but as I've said it might be too ...spicy #my art #fire emblem engage #fe17 #zelgetsu #i was gonna say I hope I'm not too cringe but at this point idc anymore #let's enjoy the silly scenarios

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the-desert-beast · 2 months

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gonna throw my 2 cents in on this current Fandom Topic;

You cannot give in to resentful isolation. I'm serious.

Even if your last attempts went badly you have to keep trying. You have to make mistakes to learn from them. You have to find out who's worth your time and who you click with somehow, and you can only do that by Doing It Scared.

I fall into those mindsets, a lot. They suck. They're powerful and overwhelming and painful. I have to fight with myself and repeat over and over, No, you know your friends care about you. They've SAID that.

And I have to do this all the time. In minor and major ways.

Do It Scared. Try. If you feel like you've failed? Try again. There are ways to build self confidence but you have got to start with letting yourself feel confident any little way possible.

Don't give in to resentful isolation, that will only hurt you.

We all have bad brain days, weeks, or months.

Fandom will be waiting for you.

If you've started to treat fandom like a vending machine where lore/fanfic/art/screenshots go in and compliments come out, you should take a break.

#i hope i got my point across #I fought off my own resentful and self hating thoughts long enough to find friendship and community #and now whenever the thoughts come back i now have a community and friend group to lean on #I want other people to be able to find that and the first step is Trying.#you have to try you have to do it scared you have to let yourself think youre kinda cool actually #you have to believe people when they tell you they like you and your ocs and there'll be times #when thats really fucking hard to do but the fight is worth it #these are obviously just my thoughts #i may delete later #anyway ily i kis ur forehead #chatter

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anti-spop · 5 months

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catra is not a supportive friend/gf/sister/etc.

i see so many posts, including art and fics, that show catra being extremely supportive of adora from the very beginning, even when they were kids. but that's not what we see in canon.

catra stays quiet about shadow weaver manipulating adora all these years. she's apparently known all along that the horde sucks but she doesn't bother, like, talking to adora about it. catra simply doesn't give a shit about the horde hurting others, including her own best friend. catra uses adora's promise as an excuse, but she doesn't even look out for adora. not to mention she calls adora stupid for not realizing the abuse and manipulation sooner.

then we have catra in the portal reality, and she... slaps adora in the face when adora is reasonably freaking out. catra just forces her "to get some air" or "to relax", refusing to listen to adora... which is not even the first time in the show. catra has been calling her "crazy", "brain damaged", "stupid" etc. since EPISODE ONE, before they were enemies!

catra barely changes in s5, where she straight up abandons adora, who's begging on her knees. arguably, catra does not abandon adora in the heart... but it means nothing since catra still guilt-trips adora in her confession and, once again, she calls adora an "idiot" for not realizing catra has been in love with her the entire time.

it baffles me because the actual supportive friends adora has are glimmer and bow. they might not understand her at first, but they actually listen to her and they're patient and calm towards her. catra is NOTHING like that. i'm tired of everyone pretending she is.

#i post #spop critical #tbh it kinda reminds me of mai from atla #obviously mai and catra are very different (catra is more like azula)#but mai is super apathetic and might even come across as uncaring towards zuko #and yet everyone is convinced that mai is the right person for zuko #when she's just an asshole lol #(sorry i don't rlly like mai)#(anyway i hope you get my point lmao)

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arbitrarycategories · 8 days

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my own reverse robins au has me in a vice-grip I swear. Little Duke Thomas I love you so much.

#i dont usually read reverse robins because most aus come across as an excuse to switch around the boys backstories and i feel like they miss #the POINT #like. if you reverse the robins then whoever you replace Dick with now has to be the template for kid-sidekicks everywhere.#the first BOY WONDER #you cant just want to give different traumas to different people!!!!#all my fanfic ever is about the characters. i have now read three comics in order to write duke. i love him hes so funny #anyway starting my reverse robins au with duke as the eldest because theres not even a point to the sidekick if they dont bring HOPE #duke is dicks spiritual successor and in this fanfic i will #anyway i love how in canon bruce has a whole Plan to train duke bc he has trained So Many Sidekicks at this point. hes like we can speedrun #dc #reverse robins #duke thomas #batfam #symbols of fear and hope #arbitrary speaks

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iztea · 6 months

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Something about my drawing feels off , i only got into digital drawing few weeks ago and I'm stuck at the same point and lost .. any advice?

mmm okay first of all this is really good- first impressions-wise, the proportions and anatomy look very solid so there are no major glaring issues so to speak

if you were to ask me, what i think this artwork needs is that sort of 'volume' or depth that most beginner digital artoworks lack. You can achieve this sort of volume in two ways depending on the style you are going for: either by improving the lineart, or by treating the lines just as part of the sketch and painting over them for a more.. ''painterly/rendered'' look if you want to keep the lineart in, what i suggest is adding some "line weight" so that the artwork doesn't look so flat. What i mean by this is to thicken the lines where body parts would naturally overlap (like the neck and shoulder, the nostrils area, the corners of the mouth as well as the tip of the lips etc) and where shadows would normally be for the illusion of volume. After that, i'd also add more shadows and color variation in the colouring layer so that the skin looks more lively and again, for that volume. You can do it with some dark blue or orange on a multiply or an overlay layer, just experiment a bit with colors and blending modes. If you want a more messy/painterly look (which is more down my alley or in line with my artstyle), what i'd personally do is i'd create a new layer on top of everything and just paint over the lines with broader strokes and a darker color in an attempt to add some volume to the shapes and to make the artwork look more cohesive and less "digital" because at the moment, i can tell that it is made up of a Lineart layer, then a Colouring Layer below, that very religiously follows the lineart layer and then maybe a layer on top of that for the other colors and the hair. This is a very common digital art process and a good one to keep in mind but a little secret i can give out that i've noticed in 80% of the artists who have this sort of drawing process is that they will always, always merge everything in one layer at the end and adjust things as they go. They will not keep the layers separated and just never revisit them in the process, despite what it may look like. There will always be something that needs fixing and they will fix it as they go so i suggest doing the same and being a bit more "freeform" with your layers

Anywayss, besides that, I'd also introduce some color variation like in the previous method. As a general tip, try to move the color slider around and don't just shade with a darker variation of the base color. I like how the hair is painted and the shine and everything, it looks very good and everything is pretty much set in place, i'd just render it even more, make it More voluminous. It's just missing a little pop a color: i'd add some blueish gray hues in the brown hair and for the purple hair i'd make it more rich by adding some deep dark blue hues and some faint yellow highlights (bc purple and yellow are complementary colors blabla) As for the shape, think of the hair as chunks of volume that reflect light and that are also affected by gravity.. or as spaghetti if u like flat hair like me bsjsjd That's all i could think of; Again, it's very good and promising considering you started just a few weeks ago, so keep going at it! I hope it was at least somewhat helpful and that i wasn't being too technical with the wording (and that it made sense)

#i hope it didn't come across as mean or something #i have a bad habit of being pretty blunt with my words #and upseting people #the artwork is really nice and pretty but i was asked for critique so i pointed out some parts that could be improved #you don't even want to know what my art looked like a few weeks into digital art lmfao #this is 10x better #keep at it op!#and again hopefully i didn't offend with anything don't take it to heart you don't have to listen to me do what u want #ask iztea #if there are any typos no there aren't

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