#in the majority of time i end up hating my traditional art

[d34thsp3llz]

#martin gore #depeche mode #fanart #artists on tumblr #nah i didn’t just stay up till 5am to finish this #in the majority of time i end up hating my traditional art #but i find using only markers and black pen very satisfying #next time i’ll try to do smth realistic w coloured pencils #sorry for the rant lol

[glorified-red]

Damian Wayne SFW Headcanons

word count: 2,300~

warnings: none

Today is officially my first day at school in person after 2 years, I'm officially at Big Boy College, boyos. I am posting this during my Phonetics class which tracks for me.

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

Damian is incredibly loyal and affectionate to those he loves, it just may not be very traditional ways of showing it. He shows his affection through Acts of Service the most: cooking for you, folding your clothes, driving you places, etc. He likes to feel useful and know that his actions are making your life easier. Deeper into the relationship you’ll start to see the physical affection grow steadily: letting you fall asleep on him, holding your hand in the car, wrapping his jacket around you, etc. 

B = Beginning (How would the relationship start?)

Most likely from school. You two met and slowly became close friends. A relationship with Damian takes time, so school is the perfect place for you two to steadily grow beside each other until you become inseparable. Outside of school, you two could meet at coffee shops, art shows and galleries, and dog parks. Bumping into each other frequently is enough to catch Damians eye.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Damian will deny it until his dying breath, but he adores cuddles. He loves to lay on his back and let you snuggle into him, he’ll patiently wait until you let out a sigh and fully melt into him so he can place his hand on your head softly. He radiates heat so he is an amazing cuddler in the harsh Gotham winters.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?) 

Settling down was never even a thing Damian considered until a few years flew by and suddenly Damian wanted to go grocery shopping with you, he wanted to come home to you singing in the kitchen—he wanted a home with you. He finally found a person who made home seem possible, it just took a few years for him to realize it. He is a god at cooking and cleaning so you will never have to worry about the house being unclean. 

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Damian would be very straight to the point with you. If he doesn’t think it's working out or the relationship is more of a hindrance for either of you, he’ll call it out. He’d be swift about it and you’ll probably have to remind him you need more closure than that. 

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Damian doesn’t enjoy being tethered to someone permanently, he hates feeling like his individuality is being erased. He’d much rather give you a promise ring more than anything. It's a way to symbolize he’ll always want a future with you and beside you, and a thank you for your patience with him. Marriage seems so far away for him because of the way his life is, but his promise to you is just as endless as any legal documents.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

He can be brash and blunt in nature but he’s slowly unlearning it from his family and friends. He’s gaining more emotional maturity with each moment so when you two get together, he’s more than ready. His work can be rough and brutal, but he leaves it all behind the second he sees you, you always manage to smooth out all his hard edges simply because he wants to better for you. 

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Despite Damian being a major cuddler, he’s not big on hugs. But ever so rarely, he’ll hold you so tight it was like he was made for hugging. His hugs are usually after a close call or a long mission whenever he’s reminded that the time in the world is finite. He’ll hold you when he’s afraid to lose you, and those hugs are so precious. 

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

Very slow. It takes him ages to realize that the feelings he has for you are love and not adoration or curiosity. He’ll care for you so deeply but the word “love” is so foreign, he barely even knows it. When he does realize it, he’ll say other words that mean the same thing to him: beloved, habibti, or nip at you. He’ll show his love so much that when he says “I love you” for the first time, it’s just another layer of his love. 

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Damian can get very jealous and very territorial very quickly. He’s competitive by nature, so if someone swoops in, he sees it as a threat to his place and therefore a challenge. When he gets jealous he’ll seem more arrogant than usual, he’ll boost just a bit more, puff up his chest a little more than normal, and butt heads with whoever is the source of that jealousy until his place is secure again. 

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

Kisses with Damian develop over time as he learns what makes you tick. He tries to lead as much as he can but eventually he finds more fun in reacting to you so he can get better. Most often, his kisses are quick and short on your forehead, top of your head, cheek, etc. He likes to save mouth kisses to make the best of them, because once he gets a taste of you, it's hard to not want more. 

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

As most of the Batfam, Damian needs to be good with children as he works with survivors constantly. He’s able to keep them entertained and calm them down swiftly . . .  but that doesn’t mean he likes them. He hates kids most of the time because they’re immature and idiotic, they barely have any function aside from annoyance. Yet somehow, kids swarm to him. So he’s wonderful with kids, but he will shoot you a pleading look while he’s being used as a jungle gym. 

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Damian is a very early riser. He enjoys waking up with the sun and starting his morning routines to wake up his mind and body. If you join him, mornings are quiet and blissful. Yoga, soft ambiance music, and a soft smell of breakfast being cooked. The first words of the day are spoken silently through touch and acts, all to say good morning. 

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Nights with Damian are rare as he usually spends them on patrol. He tries to give you a goodnight kiss before he leaves and silently returns in the night so you wake up in his arms. Sometimes neither happens and you’re awoken to the sounds of a hurt bird, others he doesn’t return until sunlight is already shining. But rest assured, he’ll always make it up to you. 

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

As with most things with Damian, he takes his time opening up. He’s in no rush, everything will happen with time. So he reveals small stories here and there, stories about his childhood or his future, slowly revealing what makes him, him. When a story is told, there are more layers that will be unraveled in a few moments, never being revealed all at once. Damian is a puzzle, but he’s fascinating to figure out. 

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

It truly depends. When someone is new or learning, Damian’s patience is unfathomable, especially with those he cares for. With you, his patience is endless. With others that he puts to a high standard or people who should know what they’re doing, he’s very quick to be angered by their incompetence. 

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

Damian tries to remember as much as he can about you. He remembers the most important parts of you, from your ambitions to your creation, he knows you like the back of his hand. But man, he can not remember for the life of him what the difference is between your favorite shoes or your favorite jackets, they’re just functional to him—“So why do you need so many for different occasions when they serve the same function?”

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

The moment Damian realized you didn’t view him as anything other than himself. He wasn’t a monster in your eyes, he wasn’t a byproduct of those who came before him, he was just that, himself. He revealed his deepest wounds to you and you never viewed him differently. That was his favorite moment, when you looked into his green eyes and saw emeralds instead of a lineage. 

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

Damian is the most protective person you will ever meet. He is fiercely loyal and protective of those he cares about and that means you. He would happily burn the world down if it meant you remained unscathed. On patrols, he fights enemies with the reminder that with each one that’s put away, the more safe you are. However, he is competent enough to protect himself, he doesn’t need any protection—but reminding him you’re there after a long patrol is more than enough security for him. 

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

Damian is insufferably good at planning dates and gifts, not because he’s experienced, but because he’s surrounded by hopeless romantics that rubbed off on him. Now he’s naturally a romantic. He doesn’t even have to try or think too hard, he’ll just always manage to leave you breathless. Art dates, museum walks, handmade gifts, and romantic gestures, he does them without even thinking because he simply wants to share his world with you—and that is truly romantic. 

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

He speaks before he thinks a lot. His entire life has been trained on instincts: act now, ask questions later, don’t think just do, etc. So sometimes his mouth speaks faster than his brain does and he can say some harmful things when he’s worked up. It’s rare he ever gets that worked up with you but when he hears what comes out of his mouth, he’s quick to take a step away from you to calm down. But that usually means him storming off until he’s calm enough to talk to you. He hates that he has to do this, but he’d rather wait and talk to you with respect then keep talking with ferocity. 

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

Most of the time he genuinely does not care, looks have never been detrimental to his lifestyle so why should he care how other people view him? But when he’s representing his family at a gala or being photographed, or even going on a date with you, he is incredibly nitpicky with his appearance. He cares what his family and you think about his appearance because he values your opinion, so he’ll trap himself in the bathroom for hours preparing. 

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Nope. In the nicest way possible, no. Damian prides himself on his independence and self-reliance, that doesn’t change when he falls in love with you. The best part of your relationship is that you two are whole individuals who chose to spend their lives building something together that doesn’t erase what you have already. You compliment each other so well because of this. 

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

He bounces into different languages sometimes. From Arabic to the language of the League, he slips into his natural tongues whenever he gets really angry or really sleepy. The first time you witnessed it was during a fight with one of his brothers. Suddenly they were both shouting in a language you didn’t quite understand. Another time was while Damian was half asleep and he started mumbling something to you in Arabic, you didn’t catch much, but the words of endearment weren’t terribly foreign to you. 

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

A partner who needs constant reassurance. Damian is more than happy to provide reassurance but he would like a mutual trust in the relationship that Damian loves you, even if he doesn't voice it. He needs someone who can understand Damian's language of love and find assurance in his actions. He also can’t reassure someone constantly when he has three separate lives to maintain as well as vigilante stress on top of that, he just doesn't have the time or energy. He needs someone who can be there through the chaos of his life and ground him. 

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

Damian doesn’t snore but he does breathe deeply when he sleeps. His breaths are very slow and soft, if you try to follow them you’ll probably get a headache. When he wakes up you can’t even tell because he keeps his breathing pattern the same and slowly brings it to his normal pace. He does it without thinking but it’s a byproduct of his training so as to not alert anyone he’s awake.

Taglist ♡

@anothertimdrakestan

@cherry-dropp

@missredrobin

#Damian wayne #robin #Damian Wayne x reader #Damian Wayne x you #Damian Wayne x y/n #robin x reader #robin x you #robin x y/n #Damian Wayne headcanons #robin headcanons #headcanons #sfw headcanons #alphabet headcanons #batfam #batman #dc #dc comics

[insertsomthinawesome]

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!! Okay so honestly I have been very very inconsistent over the years with just disappearing for periods of time due to various things 😂 So it probably seemed pretty normal to most people.

But it felt different on my side, so I'm excited to be back in business. I took a month long hiatus! 31 days of not drawing digital art. Its not something I talk about on here? But I've been suffering from some serious long term Art Burnout for.... a really really long time. Long enough that I should've taken a break probably years ago. It finally got so bad that I could barely draw. I was scared to do it (cause it always looked "bad" in my eyes [i'll come back to that]) and doing it was exhausting and disheartening.

I talked it over with somebody and realized that the fear and anger and frustration I felt towards my own artwork was uh. Not Normal or Healthy. And I finally committed to taking a real break for once.

I still drew a little bit by hand? Traditional art has always felt like it has lower stakes for me (i don't often share it online, and sometimes I don't even share it with friends) so I did some of that when I felt like it. But Digital art was completely off the table.

I had put such an immense pressure on myself to make my digital art perfect, to make as much of it as quickly as possible to satisfy something. It wasn't fun anymore. I'm proud of what i've made over the years! But for a long time now the stuff I've been making was made while hating every second of making it. With some rare exceptions.

I hated my art! It was a combination of Perfectionism, taking in too many external expectations, and the burnout. If you hate doing something its kinda hard to love it even when you want too lol. It wasn't "Bad" in the sense that the quality was low and it was ugly! It was "Bad" in the sense that it was unhealthy for me to keep doing it at that point in time.

I'm glad to report though, that with my hiatus officially over as of Wednesday last week: I am once again. In Love. With doing art, and being an artist :)

I put off taking a break for years cause I was scared that taking a break would mean that I would never achieve all the things I wanted to do with art. I was scared it was a stupid and lazy thing to do that would mean I'd never achieve my dreams. And Also even though I kinda hated drawing, I also loved making art. Its a weird duality that I can't even really explain??? I hated it but I also loved it. I wanted it but I also wanted to run from it. It wasn't until I was more mature and had more clarity and insight (and unfortunately also until the problems got worse) that I was finally able to let go of those fears and just do it.

And I'm really really glad I did. It was everything I needed. And I hope to strike a better balance in the future with art. Taking more breaks when I need them, or just when other things have my attention like reading or Video games (Some star rail got played during this time xD)

From the outside things probably aren't going to be that different?? At this point I don't really have any sure plans to post anything I've been drawing since my Hiatus ended. I might or I might not xD I'm still a hobbyist artist taking things at her own pace, but I hope that it shows how much happier I am :)

Whumptober 2023 is being officially put to rest by this post btw! I was in major burnout when that event started, and I'm ready to just, move on from all the past expectations I'd shoved on my shoulders. If I feel like filling any of the prompts or going back to any of the ideas I'd come up for it I will! But I'm not going to worry about doing it unless the desire sets in. Thanks to everybody who's been so kind to me throughout my time on here as an artist! Ya'lls tags and screaming and kind words, the fanfic, the asks and the responses? Its been fantastic :) You guys have made me laugh, smile, and cry tears of joy. I hope from here that things only get better and sweeter! And if I have bad days again, that's okay too.

Here's to 2024 and whatever it may bring ya'll :D 🎉🎉✨✨🧡💜

#isa screams #long post #gif #flashing #i think? Lemme know if I'm incorrect on that one alksdjfLKSJDJDSG #I don't normally talk this much so its kinda strange? #its kinda nice to be more honest about this stuff though #I'm a bit more of a private person so its hard to find the balance between wanting to discuss things openly and honestly #but with the fact that I don't owe the entire world an explanation for everything I do #its a tricky thing #but today I felt like doing this and I think that's okay #if i regret it I just won't do it again alsdjLSDJLFJSGSDG #thanks if you read this! I appreciate it! #I'm a pretty smalltime artist relatively. So sometimes it feels as though it doesn't mater what i say or express. #But hm. I doubt its really that simple or bleak #And if I don't respect myself then well. Who will right? #And I want to learn how to be happy with how little or how much I get #part of the reason I've done so poorly mentally as an artist is chasing numbers and outside praise instead of asking the harder questions #am i happy with what i do? what I make? Who I am #I'm going to probably be working on those questions and problems for the rest of my life. #But thats okay. Thats not a bad thing :)

[redslug]

I think it’s kind of a question, kind of a statement but, there seem to be a lot of people upset about you utilizing ai art recently. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you’re training an ai on your OWN art, doesn’t that cut out a lot of the unethical things about mainstream ai art generators? And if I may ask, how do you feel about mainstream ai art generators and the way it utilizes others’ art? I apologize if this comes off as rude, I’ve not seen someone train an ai specifically on their own art and I’m curious about your thoughts. Thank you for reading, I hope you have a lovely day. Your world building and art is phenomenal and inspiring.

My opinion is that the only unethical bits stem from how an operator uses a tool, not the tool itself. Stable Diffusion isn't a person, it's isn't good or evil, it is incapable of acting on it's own without a human's input.

I could do some extremely unethical things with oil and canvas if I bothered to dig them up from the closet. I have the skills to theoretically mimic the style of a known artist and then sell it as if it's genuine. I could use the same traditional tools to straight up copy an artwork and claim that I came up with the composition and plot myself.

I then could come up with an original plot and composition in my head and then achieve that with prompts and inpainting using Stable Diffusion. The prompt might have some artist's name in it to achieve a particular style, but the end result won't match anything that artist has drawn before. You can't steal a style after all.

If I did all that it doesn't make oil and canvas evil and an AI good. The only thing that mattered was my intent. If your intent is foul anything you create with any tool can be unethical.

My attitude towards mainstream AI art isn't all that different from that towards normal art. Majority of both is unoriginal, boring, poor quality or all three in that order.

On AI's side it'd be big titty babes just standing around or Midjourney stuff (I hate MJ's style with a passion), on normal art's side it'd be what I call "face in flowers" types of drawings. You'll see that exact type infesting all of Instagram.

Should these artworks not exist? No, they can stay, they have their fans so whatever. I just personally don't find them interesting.

And then a small percentage of both is truly interesting. It has surprising plot, style, other quirks or is just genuinely funny. Good art is memorable regardless of what it's made with. It's just my opinion though.

If you haven't seen anything memorable made with AI yet, I recommend you search for "Will Smith eating spaghetti checkpoint". It's burned into my mind and still causes an ugly laugh each time I remember it exists.

Or "Anime rock paper scissors" for something less meme-y.

Thanks for the compliments btw, nothing is more rewarding than inspiring others.

#neuroslug

[honorary-knight-of-favonius]

Kinktober Cyno -Day Six-

Tags for the day: Shower sex and School Relationship (Tutor)

Summary: Having to harshly accept something the tan boy would never even think to question somehow lead to him and his girlfriend together in a steamy shower.

Cyno was not only a man adept in martial arts but in Ancient history, as a History major many wanted to have him as a study buddy or tutor but no one had ever succeeded in getting the Jackal interested in them. The boy would only talk to his girlfriend who -was by no means a history major-. However as the boy would constantly bring up mythology she would listen and make sure to pay attention to the boy’s every word. 

But in this situation with her friends asking why she was so keen on letting the boy talk about such boring topics seemed to not only upset the boy but the woman he loved. 

“Seriously Y/n, I really think you should’ve gone for Tighnari rather than this guy. I mean everyone knows you don’t like history.” The girl spoke, within seconds the iced coffee her loving boyfriend had bought for her was all over the girl’s nice white clothes.

“I don’t give two shits about you shit talking to me but the moment you try to degrade Cyno because he likes History and discussing mythological stories I will not sit still! You are so fucking lucky that shit wasn’t red wine I’m telling you now if I had it I would’ve poured that shit all over you.” I spat, I got up from the booth and yanked the aspiring historian’s hand dragging him away from the cafe we were in but the moment I was closing the distance between us and my car he stopped our walking and I looked back to him confused. 

“Cyno? Is everything alright?” I ask

“W-was she telling the truth. . . Do you really not like my myth rants?” I sighed and faced him completely. 

“Cyno. . .I-I’ve never been someone who likes history. I understand the importance of it but I’ve never exactly liked it. Even though I don’t like history, you talk about it so passionately and you actually make it somewhat interesting, besides I know you hate all my law rants-” He cut me off. 

“W-who said I hate listening to you talk about law? I-I like it. . .a lot, I like watching all those criminal and law shows with you. I-I can connect history with some laws, I-I thought you liked my rants.” The boy looked down and I stomped one of my feet and cupped his face. 

“This is exactly the reason I didn’t tell you I wasn’t a huge fan of history! Just because I don’t enjoy it doesn’t mean I want you to hide such a vital part of you! I don’t want you to change for me because I dislike history, besides even if I’m not a huge fan your tangents are rather enjoyable.” I mumbled before I walked back to my car hoping he’d follow because he stated he needed time alone so I gave it to him. 

I had gotten home and for hours on end I worried about him but had to stop as it was getting late and stepped into the shower. While the warm water ran down my body I was distubed by arms around me. I jumped and looked back to see Cyno. He was resting his head on my shoulder and he slowly swayed us.

“I’m sorry for always talking about-” I swiftly turned around and covered his mouth. 

“I love your rants, I love how you perk up when talking about it or how your eyes shine while retelling me the story of Anubis. Cyno I may not like history but I am over the moon for you, I don’t care how many times you want to rewatch the Night in the museum movies, or how many times I have to listen to traditional music. I don’t mind it because I love you!” I said, Cyno smiled and snuggled into my neck kissing it, which turned to licks, and bites. 

I put my back to the wall and made the tan male look at me, “You have my permission, my Jackal.” He smiled and latched his lips while his fingers worked some magic. Cyno hummed, grinding against me until he was tired of using his fingers. He slowly slid deep into my body making me dig my nails into his shoulders. 

“M-mommy~” cyno whispered in a shaky voice. I was going to respond but was picked up by my thighs and forced into the wall as Cyno thrusted into me. I don’t think either of us realized how cold the water got as we focused on one another. I was so aware of where Cyno’s hands were and what he was doing. God it felt heavenly to feel him inside as I finally let the knot unravel. Of course Cyno didn’t stop and thank god he didn’t I wasn’t ready to feel empty again. I was pulling Cyno in closer by his neck, having our lips caress each other as the twitching of his cock insured and Cyno swiftly pulled out, staining both of our stomachs with his cum. I hugged Cyno yawning in his arms while I snuggled into his neck. 

“Tired mommy?” Cyno asked, I nodded and the boy laughed, helping me down and washing my body before he cleaned himself off and got us dry and carried me to the bed. 

“I-I repay the favor in the morning.” I mumbled snuggling into the man’s warm body. 

“Until then mommy.” 

Taglist:

@stygianoir @yunadxd

#genshin x reader #genshin impact smut #sub!genshin #genshin impact #sub!genshin impact #dom!reader #sub!cyno #kinktober #Favonian Archive

[skinnyazn]

Masterlists :)

MY ART

INPRINT: Shop Prints of My Art!

(thank you!)

All art is tagged under #my art MASS EFFECT TAROT ART MASTERLIST Working through the Major Arcana cards

MY FICS AO3

All fics tagged under #my fic

Simon Ghost Riley x F!Reader (Jaguar) Jaguar's Dossier Contact (PG) Jaguar's first intro to Task Force 141 and a rocky start to her relationship with Ghost In the Bleak Midwinter (E) Simon and Jag's first mission together; he comes to collect on your secret The Masks We Wear (E) Jag has a new mission in Italy during Carnivale; a beautiful phantom makes an appearance Dead of Night (PG) Ghost inhaling Jag's cigarette smoke drabble Something Like That (E) Ghost comes to terms for his feelings for Jag Lick Your Wounds (E) Jag get's injured and Ghost goes feral I Will Not Ask and Neither Should You (M) Jag can't escape her past and neither can Ghost Mirrored (E) Ghost makes you watch as he takes you in front of a mirror Simon Ghost Riley x F!Reader (Jaguar) x Johnny Soap MacTavish Texas Sun (E) Standalone fic where Ghost, Jag, and Soap have a shower threeway Simon Ghost Riley x F!Reader Tennessee Whiskey (PG) Slow-dancing in a dive bar with your lieutenant

Liara T'Soni x Femshep Making Up for Lost Time (E) Liara visits Shepard in her cabin after the Shadow Broker mission; they makeup for lost time Mistletoe (PG) Liara learns about some Earth traditions (Christmas drabble) Just One More Question... (PG) Four hundred years later and Liara still loves Shepard (drabble) Like Tears in the Rain (M) Shepard shares a final, tearful kiss with Liara as she pushes toward the bleak end (narration of the final mission in ME3) Kaidan Alenko x FemShep (Amidala Shepard) The Heat of a Cold Night (E) Shepard runs into Kaidan on a solo mission; things fall apart in the shuttle as the star-crossed lovers make up for lost time Priority Mars (E) AU where Kaidan doesn't get injured after the Mars Mission; hate sex followed by makeup sex Autumn, Then Spring (PG) After the war, Kaidan finally asks the question he's been meaning to all these years Garrus Vakarian x Femshep An All-Consuming Path (E) Garrus kills Sidonis but doesn't feel any better; Shepard comforts him and true feelings come out

#masterlist #my fics #my art #mass effect #mw2 #femshep x liara #femshep x kaidan #femshep x garrus #shiara #shenko #shakarian #Simon ghost Riley x female reader #simon ghost Riley x reader

[crazycatkatetrap]

Hello!! The name's Katie, the awkward dumbass who runs this blog, pleasure to make your acquaintance🤩!!

I do traditional and digital art, along with mixed media and occasionally doing something stupid and spontaneous with polymer clay. I also love working with certain art supplies that are considered ancient relics by today's standards (papyrus papers, mechanical pencils, old ass paints, you get the gist). I'm just here to have fun, post stories and art, and hopefully drown out the never ending silence with the sound of the Hamtaro theme song playing in the back of my mind on repeat every day . . . . . . . BUT ANYHOW!!

Here's some random facts about me that are somewhat interesting¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

• I'm an og fnaf fan from 2015 (got into the fandom right after FNAF 4 came out)

• I have a laundry list of anxiety issues, one of which makes me stim randomly at the most inconvenient of times

• I am in fact an adult. I can not stress how many asks I get every day asking me why my art looks like a kid's scribbles. I know it's shit. And you know what? I hate it too, it's why I'm trying to change up my style a little😅

• I use IbisPaintx, and while I do have a Wacom, my computer crashed two years ago, and I can't afford a new phone currently. So I'm forced to draw with either a stylus or my index for the time being

• A major simp for Sun and Moon. A MAJOR SI-

• I have a crippling case of spectrophobia (fear of mirrors)😁

• I fucking curse a lot, so apologies in advance for my language😇

My AUs: Long Live The King-Batter Up!!-Funtimes All 'Round-Life in a Junkyard-Angel of Awkward-Deep Sea Dumbasses<-(working title of course)

Other socials:

YouTube https://youtube.com/@Crazy_Cat_KateTrap TikTok Crazy_Cat_KateTrap DeviantArt (abandoned since 2022) https://www.deviantart.com/katetrap

#meet the artist #crazycatkatetrap #2024 #i am so tired #idk what to tag this as

[gaymer-hag-stan]

Fighting Games is a genre that I have always loved because they allow for unique player expression like no other genre. You get a wide selection of characters to choose from hailing from various different countries and practicing different styles of martial arts or even wielding melee weapons.

We've been lucky to have gotten tons of different games to choose from, and I have personally singled out the nine most vital franchises to the genre; the pillars of the fighting game community, if you will. Unfortunately, I only get ten options per poll, so games like Killer Instinct, Marvel vs. Capcom or Injustice have been left out. But that's why the tenth option has been left free of choice, as I'm sure that some of you will have the most obscure niche options in mind and will immediately comment "why is X not here" so there.

I'm also not deliberately ignoring Super Smash Bros., I just have traditional fighting games in mind and it's kinda not. But it's very much still a fighting game.

I'm also specifically talking about series of games and not one offs so that's why no Skullgirls and so on.

Anyway, at the end of the day vote for whatever you like, just don't bust my balls about "excluding" your fave 🤣

Really wish I could add:

A. More options

and

B. Images to the options to make them look prettier.

But overall I think polls have been a great addition. Good job @staff 👍😁👏

Here's a few general thoughts

I have a weird relationship with Mortal Kombat. My earliest memory of it must be some older kids next to my grandma's house playing MK4 and letting me watch them play for a while. Then I definitely remember the PS2 era games' covers and the video store, the dragon logo is so cool, but I never actually bothered to pick any of them. Until I got the 2011 game when I had a PS3. I liked it a lot, I kinda liked the story but I never understood the normies obsession with it? And here's a hot take; NRS stories are not that good, certainly not any better than any other fighting game like Tekken or SoulCalibur. The only key difference is that they have relatively good writing, while the rest of the major game, which are mostly Japanese, have cringey anime dialogue that absolutely does not fit the dramatic NRS storytelling everyone has been trying to copy post 2011. I wish they would straight up drop it and go back to having a decent, eight-level minimum arcade mode with character endings and stop trying to do what NRS does, because it's not that great to begin with. Anyway, I have since developed a love-hate relationship with it. I got both X and 11, and while both are objectively good games, with 11 FINALLY even making the characters look not ugly for the first time ever, but I think I've kind of moved on from MK. I don't have any attachment to the overall plot, I only mostly care about Mileena, Kitana and co., I mostly prefer 3D fighting games in general and I'm not that good at it so... Yeah. Still a fan series though, both the Reboot Trilogy as well as the, mostly underappreciated, PS2 trilogy.

I was born in 1997 and arcades weren't really a thing in Greece? I remember only having seen a Tekken 5 cabinet at a bowling alley in my entire life, so I never got to experience the "birth" of fighting games with Street Fighter, and Street Fighter itself was almost completely absent from the PS2, save for a few Alpha and SFII rereleases I think. So I finally got to play Street Fighter during the later years of it's fourth iteration when I got Ultra Street Fighter IV for the PS3. I was VERY frustrated at the beginning like, I was used to Tekken, DOA and SoulCalibur style gameplay, all of which are 3D but also combo-heavy games. Street Fighter was not that at all and I thought this made it a bad game. But I decided to give it a second chance with Street Fighter V. SFV is, perhaps notoriously, more simplified in both it's inputs as well as it's overall difficulty, so it helped me appreciate the series a lot more. Most of the characters no longer look ugly too (heavy emphasis on MOST) so that helped too. What's more, I can now actually play IV a lot better, and I even had money to spare to get Super Turbo II HD and Third Strike for the PS3, though I do struggle a bit with those too still, Third Strike in particular. Street Fighter X Tekken is also my guilty pleasure, don't @me. My only real issue is that I seem to be mostly interested in the "less regular" characters in the series like Elena or Poison or Laura which means that I have to find a new main in every single game and... I really don't care for most of the cast, especially the ones who seem to be featured on most of the games and never skip an entry.

I've been playing Tekken since I was 8 or 9 years old and got Tekken 5, the first fighting game I ever owned and I've been obsessed ever since. I love the gameplay because I feel like the four-limb system feels so natural, you know? If you press the X button you get a left kick, if you press the Δ button you get a right punch. It's so simple. Nina Williams is probably my favourite video game character ever, after Lara Croft, and I just really the series as a whole. It's also the only game I feel confident enough to play online atm.

For some reason I was always vaguely aware of The King of Fighters existence since around 2010-2011 but I never felt the desire to play it? Mai was added in Dead or Alive 5 however and I absolutely loved her. I played so much as her. But as far as picking up her own games... Well... KOFXIV looked like shit and I'd heard that XIII, and KOF in general, was very difficult so that was a bit off-putting. After falling out of love with MK however, I had to feel the gap. And along came KOFXV! I was still not completely sold, but I had money to spare and I got the game and I now love the series so much? Definitely my favourite 2D fighting game series. I wasted so many years gatekeeping myself out of playing the games but, honestly, while I sometimes buy things on impulse, the money I can spend on games is a very specific and limited amount so I always try to actually buy things that I will actually play and enjoy. XV is fun, but it turns out the "ugly" KOFXIV and the difficult XIII are even more fun! Shout-out to KOF for having an amazing cast of characters too. Even with Tekken which has been with me since childhood there are TONS of characters I straight up hate or just don't care about. KOF has over 90 characters and the ones I actually hate are probably fewer than Tekken's. This is certainly not a quantity over quality case (the yearly release for the first decade of the series was insane though, I don't know why they thought that was a good idea)

SoulCalibur is another series I loved since childhood but this one I didn't personally own until my late teens. A friend's uncle had a Dreamcast however, and when he would visit him in the summer he would bring it over and we would play SoulCalibur a lot! I have several reservations about Namco basing the series entire marketing on "who's the guest this time?" and later on the character creation. The sole focus should be on the characters themselves, because SoulCalibur has the most detailed and complex backstories in fighting games. Period. But because SoulCalibur has devolved into an overglorified character creator and the guests get the only media focus the game is gonna get during its promotional period, I feel like the brand itself has lost its mainstream appeal. SoulCalibur I is one of the best fighting games, and it has zero guests and no customization, other than being able to choose different weapons for each character. Have your guests by all means, I personally had tons of fun with Ezio and 2B, and Haohmaru even peaked my curiosity for Samurai Shodown, and customization can be fun too, but don't make it your main selling point. It has evidently not been working as well as Namco wants it to. Tekken and Mortal Kombat have guests and customization too, but they're not the games main selling point, they only help bring in additional fans.

Dead or Alive is the booby pervy game, sure, but it's also a great fighting game? The fast-paced gameplay is extremely fun and satisfying, most of the cast is actually pretty interesting, despite the sexy outfits and bikinis and beach volleyball, and whenever there's a new DOA in the market it it will always be the best-looking fighting game available at the time. There's no contest. I had tons of fun playing DOA2 as a kid and I had tons of fun playing DOA5 as an adult, because since DOA became Xbox-exclusive for a while, I never actually owned DOA3 or DOA4. I wish I could have had more fun with DOA6 too but the game is just... Soulless, and that's a shame. The fact that both DOA and SoulCalibur are unlikely to get sequels any time soon is also very heartbreaking.

I was way past my anime phase when I became aware of Guilty Gear's existence, so I was at first hesitant of checking it out. However, a chain of events led me to eventually get Rev 2. See, Haohmaru was a guest on SoulCalibur VI, and Baiken was a guest in Samurai Shodown and I guess you see where I'm going with is. This is why guests should absolutely not go away, but it is much better they remain actual (fighting) video game characters first and foremost and not stupid horror movie characters that haven't been relevant for decades (fuck every single MK12 guest, but especially RoboCop) Rev 2 is so much fun. It's still hard however, so I'm not yet ready to fully embrace Guilty Gear, but Strive looks more and more appealing each day is all I'm saying. Jack' O and I-No may have helped.

Virtua Fighter forever revolutionized the genre by moving things for the first time in the third dimension. I only had a VF4 demo as a kid and I was creeped out by having to fight Shun Di, a drunken old creepy guy, in a dark cave on a raft as Sarah so I never touched the series again until 5. The game is really fun and I will forever be grateful for it because it eventually lead to Tekken and DOA's creation, but while MK having a "good" story mode does not automatically make it a good game, Virtua Fighter having NO story mode, not even arcade endings, doesn't help it's case all that much either.

I've been contemplating trying out BlazBlue lately, Rachel, Taokaka and especially miss Litchi look really promising, but I'm trying to let the thought mature in my mind first rather than making an impulse purchase. I haven't played enough of any of its installments to have an opinion on it, but I know tons of people love it so it must have a few things going on for it, right?

Shout-out again to Samurai Shodown, I love the "fencing" aspect of its gameplay, but I'm just not as invested to it's cast as I am in KOF's yet. I've also always wanted to try out Darkstalkers but Capcom seems to be hellbent on wanting to make this franchise DIE. I don't understand why they don't at least start adding it's cast in Street Fighter as "permanent guests", in the same spirit as Final Fight characters keep on coming back. Morrigan is too good a character to be left to rot. I'd also love to try Killer Instinct, but it's another Xbox exclusive so RIP. Finally, I do own the first Injustice, but American comic book super heroes have always been morbidly boring to me (except Spiderman and Batman & co.) so, consequently, both Injustice and Marvel vs. Capcom are of no interest to me at all.

#Mortal Kombat #Street Fighter #Tekken #The King of Fighters #SoulCalibur #Dead or Alive #Guilty Gear #Virtua Fighter #Video Games #Gaming #Fighting Games

[aelinfireheartgalathynius]

I think it's awesome that you're such a big fan of fantasy novels, me too! I wanted to your opinion about something. I came across a post where you say SJM's books are masterclasses, and I found them to be solid books, but not uniquely great. Can you explain what in your view makes them great at narrative pacing and worldbuilding, and how that compares to other great books in the genre like those by Ursula K. Le Guin or Jacqueline Carey? I'm curious about your pov, since you've been reading fantasy for so long. Please keep up the great blog!

Happy to meet another fantasy lover! And thanks!

Honestly, I don't think comparing authors to each other (unless it's in a "you'd probably love X" way) is useful — fantasy has grown to encompass such a wide array of writing styles. Sarah's style isn't 100% certified unique, because no art is 100% unique. But her style does stand apart from most fantasy writers, especially ones who stuck to a more rigidly traditional style. I think plot pacing, tropes, writing style etc are all personal preferences. I personally prefer the styles of VE Schwab, Sarah J Maas, Naomi Novik, Kristin Cashore... To name a few. Others might hate all of those authors' styles and prefer something completely different. And that's totally fine. Great, even. (As long as those people don't judge me or call me a child for not enjoying the type of writing they find "good," but I know that's not what you're doing here!)

I stand by what I said in that post about Sarah's writing, but that doesn't mean it was objective truth. My mother, for example, has different reading preferences than I do and would probably dislike SJM. And that's fine.

In my opinion, Sarah's style stands out. I came into this not really wanting to get into the reasons but I'll touch on them since you asked:

Her worldbuilding is phenomenal, but I don't feel the need to write a dissertation about it. I feel like the huge level of acclaim she's received for what I call the "Marvel Cinematic Universe of fantasy books" speaks for itself. She has done something remarkable and, in my experience, very unique. If you don't know what I'm referring to, I'd recommend looking up the ending of House of Sky and Breath (I don't like to post about it explicitly because it's such a world changing plot twist).

Her plot pacing is, again, phenomenal in my opinion. All of her books have that 'unputdownable' quality that comes from an author knowing exactly how to pace chapters to keep readers engaged. It's doubly impressive knowing that the majority of her books are multi-POV, too, so she kept multiple stories well-paced and engaging at the same time in each book. It's most obvious when you look at Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn: the reason the tandem read works so well is that she was extremely thorough in making sure the plot pacing and timelines lined up perfectly in two books that came out a year apart.

Her characters are wonderfully written — again, in my opinion. Their thoughts, feelings and motivations all feel real and make sense to me. Her characters experience things like periods (including actual mentions of bleeding and cramps), realistic depictions of trauma and PTSD (I have PTSD, so that's not hypothetical), characters that grow and learn, characters that fuck up, characters that are multifaceted, characters that fall in love more than once, and more.

The emotional rawness of many of her characters and plotlines is also something that sets her apart from many authors. Yes, a lot of books can make readers feel things, but there is something so deeply raw and heart-wrenching about Nesta's self-hatred, Feyre's PTSD, Aelin's struggle with her title and power (and her torture), Manon's questioning about whether monsters are born or made (and whether she is one), Hunt's deep guilt, Bryce's inconsolable grief, literally everything about Lidia Cervos, and more.

I believe that people should read whatever makes them happy, and everyone reacts differently to art — there are books that touched my soul in ways I can barely describe, that I see as beautiful and astonishing... And they still have some one star reviews. That's the beauty of art.

I don't like a lot of "classic" fantasy, but I don't feel the need to convince anyone that those books or writers aren't good or don't deserve their acclaim. Just like I don't really think I need to convince anyone that SJM's books deserve respect — her work speaks for itself, and if you personally don't see why so many people love it, then it wasn't meant for you. And that's totally fine. No need to force yourself to read it!

I don't need or want to convince you that SJM's writing is a masterclass. If that doesn't ring true to you, that's fine. It's true for me, and for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of other readers (over 38 million copies of her books have been sold worldwide, so I don't think millions is a stretch).

I hope that last bit didn't come across as aggressive or rude, it's just my thoughts on your question! Thanks for dropping by, anon, and thank you for asking in such a nice way. A lot of people don't do that. ♥️

#sarah j maas #sjm #tog #throne of glass #acotar #acomaf #crescent city #hoeab #fantasy #anon #asks #mine #yay asks

[mikrokosmos]

Bruckner – Symphony no.7 in E Major (1883)

Every now and then I see a composer described as “you love em or hate em”, and the longer I listen to classical music and see how people talk about it, the more I think this attitude can be used for any artist. Especially since extreme opinions are algorithmically given the most attention, and our way of communicating our tastes is equally encouraged toward extremes and hyperbolic language. Nothing can be “just” good, or ok, or interesting, or flawed; it’s either the best, or the worst thing ever. But maybe that attitude is more for Netflix shows or the latest Hollywood movie than for classical music.

Anton Bruckner didn’t escape this mentality despite living nearly two hundred years before the digital era began. When he was alive, the divisiveness in the public discourse was due to living and working in Vienna while loving Wagner. Side note on the “War of the Romantics”; on the aesthetic side there was the disagreement between developing traditional forms (the side of Brahms, C. Schumann, & supporters) versus letting new views on harmony and subject matter dictate how to structure music (Liszt, Wagner, & supporters). But there was another significant side that isn’t always focused on; being supportive of Jews, or being anti-Semitic. Not only was Wagner a musical radical in the way he conceived of opera, musical time, and harmonic development, but he was also a vocal anti-Semite, and his general dogmatic way of insisting on his views for every other subject was just as strong when it came to his bigotry against Jews. Supporting Wagner’s side of the ‘war of the Romantics’ didn’t only mean to support the new music aesthetics; it also implied that you were part of a growing movement of anti-Semitic German nationalism.

I only bring this up because I can assume that the hostility that Bruckner faced from the ‘conservative’ side of Vienna – including the ‘villain’ of Bruckner’s life story, music critic Eduard Hanslick – is more understandable if the stakes are higher and more consequential than “the music was too long and I don’t get it”. Despite his love for Wagner, Bruckner was more akin to the Wagner fans today who enjoy the music while ignoring or outwardly dismissing the evil side of Wagner’s art. I recall a story about Bruckner (one of the many stories used to talk about his ‘simple’ personality) where he had attended Gotterdammerung, and was enthralled by the music from beginning to end but asked “why did they burn her at the end?”. The music was more compelling to him than the content of the opera’s plot.

That could explain Bruckner’s musical aesthetic; taking after Beethoven’s 9th, focus on abstract music as the source of drama, but expand the use of harmonies, drama, and volume as if it were a Wagnarian opera. Its why, to me (and other fans), Bruckner’s symphonies feel like an emotional or spiritual journey despite being abstract music with no “meaning”. It also is why I’ve avoided writing and posting about Bruckner before. Like Mahler, it’s hard to capture the music in words and articulate how I feel about what’s happening in the music, but I’ve covered all of Mahler’s symphonies because I’d loved him a lot more than I did Bruckner. Only recently has my view of Bruckner warmed from “I like him sometimes if I’m in the mood” to “I love him and can’t get enough”.

Really by accident, or fate, I decided to listen to this symphony again two weeks ago, and Bruckner finally ‘clicked’ with me. I’d first heard him by picking up a few cds from my library, and putting him on in the background while I played old video games (in this case, Age of Empires 2). I thought he was epic, but hard to sit through and unless I was in a “Lord of the Rings” mood, I didn’t want to listen. A few weeks ago, Richard Atkinson came out with a video on Bruckner 6, which made me want to listen to him again. I decided to listen to the 7th again, and I finally connected with Bruckner’s soundworld.

One more note before going into the 7th; another reason Bruckner’s music was criticized in his life; it was for a relatively conservative orchestra where each section is noticeable. But that was because Bruckner was not trying to blend colors in an ‘orchestral’ way, but rather how one would write for the organ, which was his main instrument. So when we hear a Bruckner symphony, we are hearing the sounds he created for church services magnified through an orchestra, a kind of recreation of ‘sacred’ music but in a secularized context where one doesn’t have to think about any specific doctrine or view of the divine, instead you experience a sublime connection that is more uniquely ‘your own’. This is one example of how music was being treated as a replacement religion in Europe after the Enlightenment.

The opening movement of the 7th to me feels like a sunrise with the slow unveiling of the main melody. which rises in an arpeggio that evokes the drone prelude to Das Rhinegold. From this comes a seemingly endless melody that gradually develops with a group of themes played through. Long songlike melodies are rare for Bruckner’s opening movements – usually he uses motivic patterns – so the multiple distinct melodies in this work helped to give it the unofficial nickname “Lyric”. As the music builds tension we see another example of why some ‘hate’ Bruckner: intense build ups are created, but instead of climaxing they ‘stop’ and start over. After this first bursting episode, we get a dance-melody that, to me, sounds the most like “organ music”. Bruckner picks these melodies apart into his own way of development; counterpoint and modulation. In a way, bringing Bach and Schubert together. Every Bruckner opening movement ends with a grand coda where the music reaches its most extreme height, finally bringing us the climax we’d been denied by the previous build ups. Here it is only the first part of the opening melody, the rising arpeggio, over a long pedal point, and the volume and scope of the music rises with it into a transcendental glow of sound.

The adagio is the most famous movement of the work because it also has a long passionate melody, here in the minor and with darker colors from the use of Wagner tubas. Bruckner wrote this movement knowing that Wagner was dying, and it is like a musical memorial to him. That may sour the music for a lot of people, but it could be better to think of it as music in memorial of other music, for its own sake, and not for any toxic ideologies. This movement has two main melodies; a somber melody with unexpected modulations, and a bittersweet melody that tries to be uplifting. This movement is unique for a Bruckner symphony in having a cymbal clash, which was rumored to have been added to the score the moment Bruckner had heard the news of Wagner’s death. But that story isn’t true, the actual story is that a friend told him he should use a cymbal instead of a triangle for that moment. As usual, the more interesting ideas stick around to form a kind of mythos over music that we love.

The scherzo movement, again following Beethoven’s lead, is thunderous. The main melody is based on arpeggiated open fifths falling downward, and when the full orchestra blasts it, it feels like being under a cascading wave. Again, the writing is organ-like in the colors in the sections as they contrast each other like hands and feet over the keyboards and pedals. The trio makes me think of the kinds of ‘schmaltzy’ Viennese dances that would come up in Mahler’s symphonies, just one example of how Bruckner influenced Mahler’s style.

The last movement makes me think of the symphony as being symmetrical: the first half was made of two long movements, one bright and transcendent in the major, the other darker and tragic in the minor. The second half is made of two shorter and livelier movements that have the same major/minor characters. Here, the finale is a dance that opens with the violins playing the main melody, followed by a counter melody that’s more for rhythm than humming along. These ideas play in counterpoint in the winds until dying down in the strings, introducing a softer group of melodies. Later a large wave of unison octaves play out across the full orchestra, an inversion of the opening dance melody. This movement is in arch form, where the order of melody groups plays again in reverse order (1, 2, 3, 2, 1), though melodic ideas are used repeatedly, in the Bruckner fashion of breaking up motivic blocks. As with his other mature symphonies, the movement ends with another grand coda, where the arpeggio of the opening melody to the whole symphony returns, and reveals that the main theme of the final movement is based on this melody.

Movements:

Allegro moderato

Adagio: Sehr feierlicht und sehr langsam

Scherzo: Sehr schnell - Trio: Etwas langsame

Finale: Bewegt, doch nicht schnell

#Bruckner #symphony #orchestra #classical #romantic #blog post #history #music history #classical music history #classical music #orchestra music #symphony orchestra #romantic music #romanticism #19th century music #Anton Bruckner #Bruckner symphony #Youtube #Happy Birthday

[sayheykid]

I want to know more about your baseball guys and friends and my questions:

Who has the most drip? The least?

What are they all studying in college?

When it comes to baseball, who’s the most traditional and who’s the most radical?

What pitches do the pitchers throw?

i'm so glad you like them! they're my best friends and i love answering questions about them.

this is about to be 80000000 words sorry

Who has the most drip? The least?

Ramón definitely has the most drip on and off the field. hallmarks of his style are bright colors, jewelry (earrings and a gold chain at the very least) and shirts that are unbuttoned so low it would honestly just be better to take it off altogether. it's a little unclear whether his style is actually good or whether his confidence is just so unreal that he can pull off anything. uni wise, it mostly comes down to wearing his pants as tight as possible. he's also a dirty mids believer

jake and ellie are always pretty put together but in a more understated way than ramón. charlie can dress up but usually he's just a guy i hate to break it to you. sam and tyler have likely never worn anything that wasn't team-issued or given away for free at other events.

What are they all studying in college?

tyler - mechanical engineering!

ellie - journalism

sam - business bro in some capacity. not finance or accounting but probably management

jake - doing the whole "what do you want to do with your sociology degree" "hit bombs, probably" routine

charlie - some kind of liberal arts because my soul dies every time i see some player say that they majored in something that's definitely not real like "american studies" or “science, technology & society” what do those words MEAN. in all honesty, i don't know how to classify exactly what charlie does, so if you have any suggestions, i'm all ears

ramón - media studies. he's absolutely becoming an analyst once he's done playing because he has the perfect personality for it. he and jake actually have a locker room show (like 96 questions) where they just dick around and try to corner their teammates it's delightful

When it comes to baseball, who’s the most traditional and who’s the most radical?

Charlie is definitely the most traditional. He knows the game has changed over the years, but he's so steeped in the tradition and the history and the heritage of the game and doesn't want to get too far removed from that. he's an absolute workhorse, and wants to throw a complete game every time. he's also good enough and stubborn enough that he could bring back the era of 30 complete games and 200+ innings a year (and he's trying to). his actual motion isn't that complicated either, it's a pretty simple rock step motion kind of like noah syndergaard? he doesn't mess with funky arm slots or deliveries because his pitches are just that dependable, and if you layer his different pitch deliveries on top of each other, they're pretty indistinguishable

on the other end, ramón doesn't mind messing around in the pitching lab working on the next new thing. if there's a new drill/tool/program he's willing to give it a shot, no matter how far out it is. their approaches make them butt heads sometimes but they really balance each other out. ramón does not have a uniform arm slot - he's a sidearm pitcher but just kind of flings the ball out there and hopes his catcher finds it. because of this, he's a little wilder but it's worked for him so far.

whenever i think of them, strictly in a baseball approach sense, i think of this article about gerrit cole and trevor bauer, except for. you know. charlie and ramón actually like each other and ramón is a much better person than bauer.

What pitches do the pitchers throw?

Again, charlie is really really traditional. He probably has a four or five pitch mix, and relies mostly on his blistering four seam fastball and slider, followed by his changeup and splitfinger. maybe a stomach-dropping hammer curve if he wants to mix it up. he throws very hard and very accurately, so he's never really had to learn to fool hitters. he doesn't tip pitches but you basically know what you're getting and it still doesn't help.

ramón does not nearly have the velo charlie does. it's not his style of pitching anyway — he relies mostly on offspeed stuff, lots of motion and getting hitters to chase out of the zone, because let's be real he's not throwing in the zone anyway. i also think he has a bigger arsenal, but it's not that consistent, he'll just mix in and out depending on what's working. he likes a cutter and slurve, and was early on the sweeper bandwagon. he does have a fastball (he prefers two seam) but it's nothing groundbreaking. he's also actively working on a circle changeup

#thank you! #i feel the wheels in my brain spinning very very fast #baseball story

[sergeantsporks]

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

💖 What made you start writing?

💌 How do you feel about comments and feedback?

❌ What's a trope you will never write?

💲 Would you ever open commissions?

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

🏆 What's your most popular fic?

🎃 Do you write fics for certain holidays? Which is your favorite holiday inspired fic?

🎯 Have any of your readers accurately guessed major plot points? Care to share which?

🎨 How do you feel about fan art of your stories?

📈 How many fics do you have?

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

💞 Who's your comfort character?

I really love 7PM-9PM, because I tend to be really productive during that time

I started original writing when I was 12 because I just really loved reading and wanted to write something of my own. And also because I was sick and tired of the "girl character and guy character who hate each other and are always fighting get together at the end" trope and wanted to write something where the girl chose someone who she didn't constantly fight with. Fanfic, though, I started writing because I read a fanfic and was like "oh, wait, I can WRITE those self insert scenarios in my brain 'n let people see them! I didn't think we could do that!"

[Holds your shoulders sosososososo tightly] I love comments and feedback. They sustain me. Give them to me.

Hrmmmmmmmmmmmm, childhood friends to lovers doesn't really do it for me. I don't mind seeing it, I think it can be cute, I just don't think it's something that would worm its way into my writing. Idk, I don't really think of my writing in terms of "tropes" very often, so it's hard to say that there's one I'd NEVER do. Like, I might go "Hrm, the xyz trope" on its own but I wouldn't recognize it as that trope while I'm writing, if that makes sense.

Probably not. Idk enough about the legal yikes of writing fic for money to feel comfortable. That being said, my kofi is open...

YES. I love research. Research is one of my favorite parts. I love incredibly specific internet searches <3 <3 <3

In hits, it's Request, but I don't count that one, so in hits, second most popular is Gilded. By Kudos, its Another Shot at Life

I tend to do Christmas ones because they're fun! Lots of different traditions to pull from! And they can get silly Hallmark family endings. But I think one day I'd like to write a Halloween one, because I really love Halloween.

YES. There's currently an ask sitting in my ask box that's been there since April, and it holds a big old Gilded Plot Point, so I haven't published it. I'll answer it after I get there in Gilded.

[Grabby hands] Gimme gimme gimme please I will hang it up on my fridge and put it in my wallet. I love art of my stories, it makes me explode inside <3

...104 fics. That I can track down across various sites, there might be more.

There is somewhat of an outline in my head, but there's a lot of chunks that are just like "character bonding goes here!" and a lot of stuff gets planned on a chapter by chapter basis. Also depends how long the fic is gonna be. 3 chapters? I probably have the whole thing figured out. Six or more? Ehhhhh

Right now it's just Gilded, and a liiiiiittle bit of the "Hunter gets kidnapped to carve palisman" idea, but nothing really new.

Write it and publish it baybee. You get better by practicing, and in my experience, people will be really really nice! Even the very early stuff I go "EW" at now got comments about something people liked! And even if you don't get any engagement, keep going. You'll get there. You have to do stuff lots and badly before you get good.

Oh, you know it's Hunter Clawthorne Noceda Whispers Huntsman Deamonne. Also Hisirdoux Casperan, but that's on a rewatch basis and no longer so much on a writing basis.

#asks #ask game

[thesinglesjukebox]

JUNG KOOK FT. LATTO - "SEVEN"

Met her on a Monday. Took her for some blurbs on Tuesday...

[5.78]

Alex Clifton: Fits in the grand tradition of debut solo singles that proudly declare "I was in a boyband, but now I am an ADULT MAN who FUCKS." Which, to be clear, is not inherently bad, and I do not envy anyone who has to make this transition, but it's a bit predictable. Jung Kook's vocal performance is winsome, and he sounds good, but half the chorus just listing out the days of the week sounds lazy, and the rap portion doesn't add a Latto. Did you just groan because that pun was too obvious? Awesome, now you know how I felt after I heard this. [5]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: Jung Kook promising to "fuck you right," "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday," "seven days a week, every hour, every minute, every second" sounds like an exhausting proposition. Why make sex sound like a sweatshop? "Seven" gives Zayn "Pillowtalk" levels of desperation in trying to let us know he has had S-E-X. Except at least "Pillowtalk" didn't sound like a Kidz Bop track. [2]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: The kind of goofily horny R&B-pop crossover single that I thought had gone completely extinct from the charts -- it's charming to see it return in a sleek, hyper-streaming optimized form that still manages to retain enough ridiculous notes to stick out. When Jung Kook goes through the days of the week (one of my favorite dumb as rocks songwriting tropes) in order to emphasize that he'll be "[Loving and/or Fucking] you right" you believe him, because who would declare that without a deep well of sincerity informing it. Even a guest verse from noted fraudulent radio figure Latto works -- she's best in small doses, anyways, and the '00s pop hit cosplay wouldn't be complete with a clumsy guest verse that's 20% more overt than the rest of the song, anyways. Am I perhaps overrating this just so I can give it a [7]? Sure, yeah, why not -- but this song has genuinely grown on me, too. [7]

Taylor Alatorre: Both the clean and the explicit versions of the chorus sound wrong somehow -- the former like it's been sanitized by bureaucratic fiat, the latter like it's trying to prove an uncomfortable point to me. So they end up canceling each other out, and what was intended as an ode to persistence in love(making) instead becomes a breezy devotional to the circular nature of time. I considered awarding a bonus point because my mom really likes it, but then I would've had to do the same for the Beatles song because of my dad. [6]

Michelle Myers: Self-consciousness is the enemy of great art, and Jung Kook has had the eyes of the world on him since adolescence. In its attempt to be everything to everyone, this song ends up sounding like nothing. [3]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: BTS ruined K-pop. And really, I would be saying the same for any group that catapulted the genre to unprecedented levels of international success. The most noxious repercussion is that K-pop's adventurousness is now of a different sort; with more eyes on every major K-pop act, and the possibility of Western success always within reach, the genre-blending and scrappiness that I loved in years past is now tempered if not nonexistent. I should hate Jung Kook's take on Craig David-era 2-step -- where's the jarring modulation that made f(x)'s "4 Walls" a delight, or the distinctly Korean pathos that made SHINee's "Prism" an emotive scorcher? And yet, it does offer something to a Korean American like me that I've never heard from any other K-pop song: its marketing mirrors my dual realities. The music video is my public-facing side, showing prudence and decorum when in front of my parents, or whenever I'm forced to represent Asian America; the explicit version is what everyone else gets to see. In a different timeline, EXO would've released a "Call Me Daddy" version to American audiences. Close enough. [6]

Claire Biddles: I don't listen to K-pop because I'm scared: I have seen what it has done to others and I don't have the capacity in my life, hindbrain or bank account for the havoc it could wreak. Just the other week, my friend posted on Instagram stories that she had spent upwards of $50 on a Korean magazine because it had someone from BTS on the cover -- I already have plenty of boys I have to budget import magazine money for without factoring in an entire untapped musical genre. I must be on cognitive autopilot when I add this track to my innocent little 'TSJ amnesty' Spotify playlist; when I pop the playlist on shuffle over the weekend when I go out to run some errands; when I absent-mindedly put it to the beginning again because its catchiness is undeniable. It's only when I go to put it on repeat to save my efforts that I realise... Jung Kook... haven't I heard that name before? And that album cover, the seductive greens and golds, the mesh shirt... the unmistakable, nay eternal, image of the edgiest member of the boyband striking out solo... a vision recurring throughout my life, on and off for 30 years like a tattooed, floppy-haired holy resurrection. Wait a second... does he have a lip ring?? I'm opening tabs rapidly, the song still repeating, the details of his multiple piercings revealing themselves to me like so many shots to the heart. I open Instagram to message my friend with the $50 Korean magazine. Does she know him? Does she know? But of course, how could I be so foolish! It's the same someone from BTS! This vision, this 2006 emo prince singing an anxious J*stin T*mberlake version of "7 Days"! Wait -- he has rubbish tattoos?? A whole sleeve of them?? I have so much to learn and it feels like no time to find out. Somewhere, some supernatural someone is rolling their eyes, laughing at my folly -- the ultimate mark for this little demon and I thought I could just avoid him with my weak mortal scheming? [8]

Crystal Leww: I would let Jung Kook call me noona. [7]

Katherine St Asaph: The UK garage revival arrived fast; I feel like I've heard like three attempts in the past few months alone to remake Craig David's "7 Days." While it is very funny to witness Melody Maker eat even more shit at exponential pace, at some point this sound will start sounding boring. That point has not yet arrived. [7]

Michael Hong: Three things stunt this cute little 2-step number: 1) the syllabic phrasing can be awkward (also did you really need the devotion line twice); 2) Latto upstages Jung Kook just by biting down on the word "cheatin'," but we'll blame that on "Seven" not being in his native language; and 3) the chorus' overenthusiasm tempers any of the song's sexiness. [5]

Brad Shoup: Fantastically desperate and horny 2-step. It turns out the second step is "contract a UTI". Latto is playful where Jung Kook is plaintive, and her feature ends up as a tribute to another pop song about infinite intercourse: Ludacris's "What's Your Fantasy?" [7]

Nortey Dowuona: The acoustic cover version guitar lick that girds this song surprisingly does not actually change throughout the song. It's just pushed further and further into the back of the mix, removed for a little drum bit, then loops continuously in the back. The rest of the song continues, adding synth chords and bass, until the Latto verse appears and comfortably skips alongside the drums, a seemingly perfect addition that is gone so quickly that once the guitar lick appears in the final chorus, it feels more comforting that if you couldn't handle the intrusion, here's the stabilizing element in the rest of the song to scoop you up and send you off! [6]

Ian Mathers: Just to go behind the curtain a bit, when we all reconvened at the palatial Singles Jukebox estate to discuss a possible amnesty, "Seven" was easily the song I heard the most from my colleagues as something we needed to cover where I had so not heard of it I had to look it up to even find out who the artist was. Since my colleagues are, to a person, savvy and discerning music appreciators, I fully expected such a groundswell of support to signal something that would knock my socks off. I am sorry to report that, no doubt due to a flaw in my own character, the only things I truly enjoyed about the song were (in ascending order) 3. the percussion track 2. Latto's whole thing 1. just how relentlessly and catastrophically over it the girlfriend actress in the video is (until the end... you wish they could have committed to the bit; probably bad for the brand). But hey, the part where he opens the coffin is probably the hardest I've laughed at a music video all year, that's good for an extra point. [6]

Aaron Bergstrom: As far as spotlight stealing goes, it's not quite Nicki's verse on "Monster," but for these three minutes Latto is a kinetic revelation and Jung Kook is just some guy who won't stop listing the days of the week. [5]

Anna Suiter: When I first saw the name of Jung Kook's single "Seven", I assumed that it was be a follow-up to "Begin", his solo on the Wings album in 2016. Unlike the rest of the band's solos, he had no writing credit on it, and the lyrics weren't really about him either. With Jung Kook about to go to the army, I assumed that this would be sentimental, another ode to how much he appreciated the rest of group. "Seven" is all about Jung Kook, Latto, and whoever he's talking to, though, and that's way better. [8]

Kayla Beardslee: 1) This is one of the more significant data points in the current UK garage revival. Tonally, it leans less heart-eyes crush a la NewJeans and more by-the-numbers fuckboi. (Which are numbers that we should probably be trying to bring down.) 2) Yes, Jung Kook wants everyone to know that he fucks, and I'm sure it would make this song more interesting if I cared, but, like, I don't. Are there people who prefer Enrique's "Tonight I'm Fucking You" version? 3) This solo debut (not just "Seven," but the whole album) is a very convincing turn at the role of Anglosphere main pop boy, down to the names in the credits. The thing is, I go to K-pop to escape the Anglosphere pop boys. I don't want more Biebers or Puths or Mendeses, though they have their place in the pop ecosystem; what I want is to see the guys putting in some effort to be weird and bold and not just palatable. (3a) Obviously, "Standing Next to You" is glorious '80s cheese with exactly the kind of theatrics I love, no notes -- except that yeah, Jung Kook's trying hard to convince you that he, cough, loves in that song too, but there it's so dramatic that it loops back around to being fun.) 4) Even if this is exactly the song and album that Jung Kook wanted to make, I don't hear a lot of passion in it, which makes for a tough sell considering "Seven" is a track about desire and devotion. Mostly what I hear is the careful weighing of image-crafting and marketability (which most big pop singles have, but some disguise better than others). 5) Hybe is so greedy for interested in the American market that none of this should come as a surprise. At the end of the day, Hybe is a business first and music producer second, and the commercial stakes were very high for a widely anticipated release from a member of its flagship act. 6) Latto's verse comes dangerously close to eating Jung Kook up, which would have been bad for his big popstar debut moment. 7) Why was this not the only pop single this year whose hook was literally just naming the days of the week? Stop it! You're better than that! 8) Jung Kook sounds like he's being possessed by Adam Levine on the hook, which works more against the score than anything else I've said. 9) This is a perfectly fine song! I casually enjoy it! But it's more of a means to an end than anything else. [6]

Anna Katrina Lockwood: All the Craig David quips in the world won't disguise the fact that this song just isn't that interesting. It's a perfectly serviceable pop song, elevated by Jungkook's weaponized charisma -- but it doesn't sound or feel like K-pop, and the only thing that's really notable about it is the hilarious explicit lyric. There's nothing wrong with making forms of pop music other than K-pop, of course, but as a fan of the genre, I have to say it's a little disheartening that the main K-pop dude isn't really making K-pop right now. Also, seven days a week? Who's got the energy for that?! [5]

Jonathan Bradley: That sounds exhausting, Jung Kook. [5]

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#jung kook #latto #music #pop #k-pop #music writing #music reviews #music criticism #the singles jukebox #Youtube

[tehuti88-art]

7/21/23: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is Walther Dannecker. He's the husband of Margit Dannecker and father of Lt. Col. Ernst Dannecker. He's deceased by the time of the main storyline and happened to meet a particularly unfortunate end because his entire family is messed up. There'll be more about him later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se.

Regarding his design, he's a Siberian husky.

TUMBLR EDIT: Walther is the posthumous background character father of another posthumous secondary character (Lt. Col. Dannecker appears only in flashback in the bulk of the story, Reborn and Reunion, and has nothing to do with Ultima Thule, though I'm unsure about Genesis--he does play a major role in the "lore" prequel story Weltuntergang, however), therefore I've not developed his own background yet, if ever. I imagine he had a normal middle-class upbringing. Most of his action in the storyline, including his disturbing end, can be found in Margit Dannecker's entry.

The Dannecker family is hopelessly f**ked up, for want of a better term, though Walther himself is actually sane and stable. Unlike other characters who start out good but go bad, such as Georg Klemper or Jürgen Werner, Walther is genuinely decent, and never falls down that particular hole; he just has the misfortune to marry into a family line with lots of problems he can't fix. When he finally does learn the extent and seriousness of what's going on, he even correctly identifies his son Ernst as a victim--despite Ernst willingly participating in his mother's actions, he's not old enough to make such decisions on his own. Result, Walther's anger is aimed at Margit, not Ernst. He realizes that the only reasonable course of action is to separate the two, and accordingly sends Ernst off to a military academy. It's an act that ensures both wife and son will forever hate him, though he hopes they'll come back to their senses, and even if they don't...well, he couldn't just stand by and do nothing.

Walther is a good person, like I said, and that's why it doesn't occur to him that his son Ernst, aside from being victimized by his mother, was additionally just born broken. If not a full-blown psychopath, Ernst is quite close, and that's something that no amount of motherly "love" or fatherly discipline can fix. Margit herself starts to catch on as to their son's true dark nature after he comes home from the Great War--full grown now, and taller and stronger than his own father--and treads carefully. Walther never has the chance to reach this realization, mostly because Ernst murders him before he can, but also because, being a good person himself, it simply goes against everything he's ever known or learned about people, to realize that some of them are just born bad. Walther figures that, like Margit (who's not what I'd technically call a "bad person," but does do bad things), bad people are made that way through their experiences (Margit, too, was similarly abused by her own father), not born that way--why would it ever occur to him that a child who's been raised sternly but was otherwise loved and well cared for might turn out broken, anyway? The concept is just beyond his understanding. Even if someone were to inform him, I bet he would've thought there was something he could do, to change his son for the better. Walther is no fatalist.

This is a hopeless task, however, and Ernst has a lot stacked against him. Walther's attempt to straighten him out by sending him to the military academy, and by extension unwittingly sending him to the Western Front (he hadn't counted on war actually breaking out while Ernst was away), only exacerbates Ernst's dysfunction by teaching him how to be an even more effective predator and killer. Ironically, Walther--in an attempt to save his family by saving his son--ends up helping Ernst destroy it. (Ernst Dannecker then carries on the tradition by victimizing his stepdaughter Gret, who then, with the aid of another of his victims, helps kill him, in turn. She takes his honor sword both as a trophy, and as a means to protect herself...far better than Ernst ever did.)

Walther ends up a victim of not just his own broken family, but also his own good yet misguided intentions...well, Ernst Dannecker later earns the nickname "Der Teufel" (the Devil), and what is the road to Hell paved with, after all? As well, he becomes just another rusty cog in the malfunctioning machinery of the Dannecker clan, all too easily disposed of and forgotten after playing his part in ensuring the family's collapse.

Maybe, though, in some small roundabout way, that's a good thing after all.

[Walther Dannecker 2023 [‎Friday, ‎July ‎21, ‎2023, ‏‎2:00:52 AM]]

#artists on tumblr #ibisPaint x #SketchDaily #original characters

[linelpisffxiv]

Hokay, so... If I do the thing (Though I'll probably pop a poll again cuz only 4 real responses, though it still gives a majority pangender sexiest) I'll have guidelines

Can I propoganda?

Yep. But keep it propaganda, not antipaganda

That's not how the word works.

I don't care. We both know what I mean. Tell us why to vote for who you want, not why we shouldn't vote for who you don't want moving on.

But what if it was a counterpick?

Look up why fans like the character and use those.

Can I Counterpick?

Sure. I do it all the time when I'm neutral on one character but don't want the other moving on in polls.

Why aren't the twins/Lalas in the sexy poll?

The twins are 16. I know there's some debate and they could be over 18 by now, but until the powers that be say they are over it, we're not touching it. Yes, it says 16 is Sharlayan Adulthood, but there's still laws in the real world about this. If it helps, I HC the twins as 18/19-ish by the end of the quest "Endwalker." But again, until we're shown a growth spurt and they're explicitly said to be over 18, I'm not touching it.

As for Lalas, my reasoning comes from my FC leads when they did art. We all know they're adults. Many have facial hair, and many talk about sex/are implied to be sexually desirable, but if some friend sees you reblog a poll where one of the images is of Tataru and the header says "Sexiest Final Fantasy XIV character" would your non-XIV mutuals understand "Oh, this is a dwarf race"? Or would they wonder why there's a toddler in a poll like that?

(Kan-e-Senna is removed for the same reasons as Lalafell. Yes, she's in her 20s, but she canonically stopped aging in her teens and uses makeup and shapewear to look more mature than she does naturally. She may be the oldest-looking of her race, but I still feel uncomfortable with putting her in, even if she's more borderline than the others)

It turns out X character is under 18!

If this is after the poll concluded, I did my best to try and find out how old these characters are, and if they're using an adult body, unless I had some reasons to doubt, I let them in.

It turns out X Non-Lalafell character you refused is over 18

Again, if they're using a child body, I chose caution.

So-and-so is brigading against X character

Honestly, I don't care. Even if it's my favs, I don't care. I tried to give my favs rougher first rounds for this reason. Even if they're putting it in the tags on the poll itself, I don't care. I suggested otherwise, but I don't control it. And while I'm also not fond of Brigading, especially in the thread of the poll itself, nothing I can do. We all know this is really a tournament of most popular/has the most popular fans/Is a really lucky guy who keeps ending up being used as a counterpick.

What is a counterpick? You keep using this word

When you're not so much picking the person cuz you like them, but because you hate/disagree with the other option. Like when you said Die Hard is your favorite Christmas movie 10 years ago. You aren't saying it's your favorite cuz you actually like it (you may or may not) or think it's a Christmas Movie. You're picking it cuz it takes place on Christmas and you hate traditional Christmas movies. (These days, the statement isn't exactly as provocative as it was. We all get it. But it's the best generic example I have.)

Or in this case, if... say... the fight is Vauthry against G'raha and you hate G'raha because he's a nasty little fanboy who should have stayed dead in 5.3 or even 5.0 or 2.5 and is a homewrecker, you pick Vauthry. Not cuz he's hot. You just want to make it one vote harder for G'raha to win.

Just remember to put Heimlich and Sqiudward memes in your propaganda post and I'll be laughing with you. Vauthry didn't need any submissions cuz I knew you'd all flock to those.

Alternately, your blorbo is Gaius. He's safely winning his poll against Erichthonios so you're not too worried, but the next round he's up against the winner of Vauthry vs Hien, which is pretty tight (Within oh, about 15%, which is less than you expected Vauthry to trail). You know that if Gaius goes up against Hien, he's probably going to lose handily, so you vote for, and post propaganda for Vauthry with all those Squidward and Heimlich memes, because despite the fact that his Innocence form is hot, you know it'll be easier to win against him than Hien.

Will you be sharing Propaganda?

If I find stuff for both sides early enough, sure. Or if there's funny posts of the two kissing.

Do you want your Blorbos to win?

Fuck no. I want them out as fast as possible and I deliberately messed with the polls some to make the first two rounds tougher for them to advance. I'm sorry to those who I gave tougher polls to as well for those two rounds, but if my faves won, it's the will of the people.

What about your BEC? You want him to win or lose?

Eh, lose if I'm being honest, but I left his bracket alone for the first two rounds. If he wins, it's the will of the people.

[douglysium]

In Defense of Green and Technology(A Color Pie Analysis)

So if you’re reading this then by now I should have uploaded my fifth and final article covering Green and the Order of Jukai. In it I had bonus section covering Green as a color pie philosophy and its relationship with technology as well as what I feel are some major misunderstandings of Green both philosophically, flavorfully, and mechanically. Due to the length of the article and the fact that I have decided that this section of the article stands well enough on its own I have decided to post said section here if you do not feel like reading the entirety of the other article. With that out of the way we can begin.

There are some major misunderstandings regarding Green and how it views artifacts and technology. One of the biggest, and one I want to address here, is the idea that Green as a philosophy is inherently incompatible with technology and that all Green characters and factions should view all technology as evil or bad in order to not be contradictory. While there are Green factions and characters that hate all technology there seem to be people that think you can’t really call yourself Green aligned unless you are completely barebacking it in the woods somewhere living off nothing but what the land provides and the skin on your back and any interaction Green has with technology that doesn’t involve immediately smashing it to pieces is a flavor fail or a color pie break. I bring this up because even though Green is the most tradition focused of all the colors on Kamigawa it still has at least a few artifacts so I think this needs to be addressed because inevitably someone is going to ask why is Webspinner Cuff Green or something.

So when it comes to how or why Green may use or like technology and artifacts there are several possible answers, with more than one answer possibly being true at the same time.

Firstly, artifacts in Magic the Gathering as a whole do not literally always represent the artificial or technology. While they can and often do represent those things, artifacts also just represent anything that’s physical but also like not a creature or land. Like if something is just a rock it would be thrown in the same category as a sword in MTG because it's just an object even if there are plenty of naturally occurring rocks in nature and not every rock is manmade. They are ultimately both just nonliving objects that don’t have a strong enough connection to a mana color to be given a color alignment.

I think this is also where the art of MTG can sometimes really matter because while things like treasure and food may sometimes have art depicting artificially made versions of these things, that's not the end all be all for what these things represent.

Food is the most obvious point to make because food is a very vague term and just because something is food does not mean it is automatically artificial.

In fact, one of the major themes in Green is the food chain and your place in it, such as predator and prey.

I would argue that treasures also fall under a similar category because all and all “treasure” can represent both natural and unnatural things. Sometimes treasures represent the gold coins you find in a chest, sometimes they’re pieces of amazing art someone crafted…

and sometimes it’s a naturally occurring gemstone, mineral or what have you.

What I’m basically trying to say is that not all artifacts represent something that is artificial and some artifacts can represent both the natural and/or unnatural depending on the context of Magic the Gathering due to the limitations of card types. Also, while Green is all about accepting the world for what it is, that doesn’t mean it is against all uses of resources and the like. Trying to survive while using nothing and having no impact on the land or environment is literally impossible since you are at the very least going to need to eat something somewhere, and appreciating nature’s beauty or using things like treasure for specific purposes is fine as long as you aren’t greedy, disrupting the natural cycle or getting these things at the expense of nature. Plus, things like gold and jewels can be found naturally in the land and we all know that in Magic, Green has a strong connection to lands and the things they provide

However, this answers why Green in gameplay mechanics may care about artifacts but what about Green and technology from a pure flavor perspective. How can someone go around riding a fucking mecha-horse and have a job as an artificer, a job/occupation that literally requires working with artifacts and technology, and yet still call themselves Green or end up as a purely Green card?

There is once again an answer, actually two answers, for this and the answer is sort of weird. That answer is perspective, but this is a bit complicated so I’ll go into more detail. Different Green characters and factions may draw different lines in the sand for what is and isn't considered natural or part of the natural cycle. Creatures such as beavers build dams and while dams are in fact an artificial creation basically no one is about to argue that a beaver building a dam is unnatural.

In fact, beaver dams can be extremely vital and healthy to an ecosystem. In this way a Green character may view say humans or elves doing things like making a crafting spears, making farms or helping plants grow in a similar light.

All these examples I’ve been using so far are of rudimentary or basic technology but this can be used for more advanced technology too. Machines can be used to better understand and take care of nature. Think of how with the internet or an encyclopedia you can look up all kinds of biological information about creatures and even figure out ways to help take care of the ecosystem and different flora and fauna and make sure they’re healthy or preserve them.

So when you see that mono Green elf living in a house or wielding tools it’s important to remember that they may see themselves and these things as still being part of a bigger natural picture.

Not to mention that it’s not like literally all houses/huts or tools are inherently harmful to nature or anything.  There’s also the fact that Green characters disagreeing on where the line exactly starts and ends for what is and isn’t natural isn’t any different than White aligned characters disagreeing on what is morally good or bad, or Blue characters disagreeing on what is an improvement.

A good example of this would be the respective Green-White aligned and Red-Green aligned guilds of Ravnica, the Selesnya Conclave and the Gruul Clans. It’s important to take into account that even though these guilds both have Green the splash of White and Red respectively pull them in different directions but I think this example still works because ultimately the guilds both have Green in equal amounts and we can see the possible differences Green factions may have based on any extra colors they choose to align themselves with over others.

In this case the Selesnya and Gruul are both explicitly stated to care about nature and have some form of worship and/or reverence for it but their approach to it is vastly different. The Gruul definitely leans into a more feral, wild, and untamed ideal of nature and they see the city of Ravnica as something that needs to be torn down for nature to flourish.

On the other hand the Selesnya have an emphasis on aid and the community and from their perspective their farms, communes, etc. are ways of living in harmony with nature and helping it flourish.

Yet another example would be the animosity between the Mono-Green Therosian god of the hunt Nylea and the Green-White Therosian god of harvests Karametra.

As stated in a “PLANESWALKER'S GUIDE TO THEROS, PART 1” Nylea is a god that is stated to believe in letting nature have free rein and does her best to make sure this applies to her domain. So she is against stuff like building temples and preventing the spread of humans in her domain. Something that conflicts with Karametra because Nylea’s philosophy sees agriculture, the thing that a god of harvests is all about, as a disgusting aberration of the natural world. However, Nylea is also the god of the seasons and the seasons change at her whim since she is a god of nature. Meaning that Karametra gets annoyed with Nylea’s interference with the seasons.

I guess another major factor for these misconceptions is that people interpret Green philosophy as some peace-loving or hippie style philosophy that says you can’t hurt anything or use any of the resources at your disposal when that is not necessarily true. Another example of this would be hunting. Green is against things like poaching because it disrupts the natural system. You aren’t hunting because you need to or because you're supposed to but just to make more money or have a trophy. Poaching is also something that is very infamous for disrupting the ecosystem by driving various animals to endangerment or even extinction. However, if you’re hunting for food or certain resources, just happen to kill whatever you’re defending yourself from, etc and then use the parts of the animal you killed to make say clothes, a tent, weapons, and the like then that’s fine. Firstly, because the reason for why you are hunting aligns with Green’s ideals, and what you are ultimately doing is just using all the parts from something that was dead anyway. This sort of cycle could also be seen as something that works with the flow of the natural cycle or at the very least doesn’t conflict with it.

Not to mention that in certain environments, like a freezing cold tundra, trying to bareback it there is probably just going to end up with you dead. So trying to ditch all tools and technology just isn’t possible in some circumstances so they may have to make do with the next best thing.

If you want a more recent more magical version of this there is the plane of New Capenna. Which I think is a good example of what I mean due to the fact that the entirety of the plane outside of the city has been ravaged to the point that living outside of it is unrealistic, impossible or unoptimal for a majority of people(I would say New Capenna honestly has some very interesting takes on Green with the Brokers, Riveteers and Cabaretti. In fact I might make a quick article or video on Green in New Capenna alone).

There is of course, Kaldesh a plane where people like Oviya see the act of building servos and the like as repurposing the Aether and other materials needed to make them as part of one big cycle on the plane that ultimately doesn’t harm nature. Ultimately, one could argue that Kaladesh’s technology lives in harmony with nature rather than always damaging or destroying it.

The next point I want to make is that color philosophy is ultimately about VALUES. Green values acceptance and nature because it views them as the most important thing. So you can make technology and artifacts but you need to have nature in mind, i.e. it can’t disrupt the natural balance or hurt nature. A color like Blue also cares about nature but the difference between Green and Blue is their value or what they deem most important. Blue views progress as more important and is fine with nature as long as it isn’t getting in the way of its progress. Green views some forms of progress as natural and is just fine with progress as long as it isn’t interfering with how things should be. These two reasons are why I would heavily argue against the notion or idea that a person or creature is not green aligned because they use tools or what not. There’s also the fact that, flavorwise, just because a person doesn’t or can’t live up to their philosophical ideal does not mean they aren’t a certain color alignment. They might be hypocritical sure but being a hypocrite doesn’t make you not a color, just like how accidentally losing your temper wouldn’t mean you're are not Blue or doubting your feelings doesn’t make you not Red.

Also, it is possible for a construct or otherwise mechanical creature to be Green aligned. I already went over this in my article covering the general color pie, but what determines what color alignment someone/something falls under is not necessarily the state of their existence or even their personalities but rather what they believe in and value. I mean yeah, goblins are often Red-aligned and different species or tribes within Magic tend to share one or more colors for various reasons, such as culture, but this isn’t the end all be all mind you. Being human doesn’t mean you have to have White in your color identity, and just being a living thing isn’t enough to make you Green-aligned, and simply being hungry and wanting to eat or just feeling emotions does not guarantee you are of the Red-alignment. So if a robot, machine or artificial creature is Green aligned that is because they have Green’s philosophy and values.

What I’m trying to get across here is that Green using any sort of technology or artifact isn’t automatically a flavor fail or color pie break. Yes, there are of course flavor fails and color pie breaks that involve Green using tech but it’s not as simple as just technology =/= Green. However, just to be clear I’m not saying that factions or characters that hate all technology or want to bareback in forest somewhere aren’t really Green or anything, in fact they are probably very Green most of the time, just that it’s not the ONLY way for Green philosophy to manifest. These things become even more interesting to talk about when you consider the fact that Magic has all kinds of planes with each one potentially following different rules and different kinds of logic. Something that might be clearly unnatural or artificial in our world or on certain planes may be a completely naturally occurring phenomenon on other planes, i.e. the denizens of Mirrodin being born with metal body parts.

Now I know this is usually the part where there’s a pay off by talking about a faction that is a good example of what I was talking about but I’m going to be honest the Order of the Jukai are stated to mostly hate technology. That doesn’t mean what I said was meaningless or doesn’t at all apply though because we still see them use tools, like bows and arrows, ninja stars, etc., and we do see Green aligned people and cards using technology on Kamigawa so i feel like this stuff was important to mention and get off my chest since I imagine a lot of you would have brought it up anyway.

#mtg #colorphilosophy #mtgcolorphilosophy #green #mtggreen #greenphilosophy #TheTasteOfMagicTheGathering #TheFlavorOfMagicTheGathering