#shut up ren

[renthebarbarian]

only knowing Michael Sheen as Aziraphale is whiplash-enducing when you find out the other roles he’s played

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 HOW???? How does THAT turn into THIS?????

now I can see why Gaiman originally considered him for Crowley

#michael sheen #shut up ren

[inuyashasforest]

good morning, I was going through some chapters of light me a lantern for undisclosed reasons. for context, when I write first drafts, I will often make little notes to myself in paranthesis that I intend to resolve and delete later.

I found this

THAT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE IN THE FINAL CHAPTER. IT'S BEEN THREE YEARS.

WHY DIDN'T Y'ALL TELL ME.

#shut up ren #lmal stuff #JESUS CHRIST

[novaviis]

I still think that one of the funniest things to come out of the Watercolour series is that in No Place Like Home and Dis(Aster) Ever After, I had Mary and Rudolph divorce, and Mary start dating the most boring guy imaginable. Now, at the time, my own parents had just divorced a few years prior, and my Mom had started dating a guy named Mike, who was also the most boring guy imaginable. Pulling a lot from my own experiences, I put that into the story, but of course wanted to change the name to keep things at a sort of private distance. So, I chose the next genertic white man name I could think of. I named Mary's boyfriend Gary.

Years later, my own mother broke up with Mike, and moved on.

To date a guy named Gary.

#shut up ren #watercolour shit #I manifested this I guess??? #tbf gary is at least slightly more torerable than mike

[maguneedsalife]

not to be spicy if u completely mod all the viera features off ur character but still tag them as "viera" i think you're extremely annoying

#shut up ren #major pet peeve of mine sorry #dont fucking use the viera tag if your character is something else #i dont fucking care what their base model is #if you take the ears off a viera they're not a viera anymore

[shangyang]

small thing (after binging 4 eps of my adventures with superman) - i LOVE that lois is korean, and that they also decided to go with a more midtoned/darker (relatively! to how animation normally portrays east asian skintones) skintone for her. most of my family’s skintones are actually a lot closer naturally to lois’ than the sort of nearly-white paleness you normally see for asian animated characters, so it was really cool to see that

#my adventures with superman #maws #lois lane #shut up ren

[wrenmustdie]

TikTok girlfriend and NPR boyfriend send post

#this is me and them rn #shut up ren

[leblancsvoleur]

Man, a part of me really wants to go back and reorganize my mess of a tagging system bc when i started this blog, I gave little to no thoughts how I was going to tag everything consistently. But to go back to my literal 1000+ posts now to fix my shitty tags is just ughghfsdjfsfkksdfds

#i know tag replacer is a thing but it can only do so much #shut up ren #delete later

[maudiemoods]

What do you all study when you're doing art studies??

#i wanna start really trying to get better grrrgrrr #ren won't shut up

[shslskaterboy]

Need more love for Akira who is a huge dork loser freak typa guy I think. His autistic boy swag is so unparalleled and he’s so awkward and he gets so invested and excited about the most bizarre things ever like. Boy gets top of the class and he’s like Cool 👍 but he makes a plate of curry that doesn’t suck and his reaction is YES 💪 and then proceeds to shovel the whole thing into his mouth in like 9 seconds. He makes lockpicks at his desk in school and talks to his cat with other people around like it’s not the weirdest shit ever in the world, he’s read every single book he can get his hands on, he regularly goes to eat 15lb hamburgers like it’s a thing to do, he cranks the treadmill up to 100% and then falls the fuck off immediately, he bought his own pool cue and attempted trick shots with varying levels of success, he back flipped through a stained glass window like “see ya!” like. If that’s not a boy who’s performing based on tropes he’s seen before idk what is. He is just so strange and peculiar and he has no idea how to express himself he is just there like :3 and everyone loves him for it and they are RIGHT

#I will never ever shut up about what a freak weirdo he is #he’s literally so funny #and I will defend autistic Akira with my life actually #persona 5 #p5 #akira kusuru #ren amamiya #skaterboy speaks #about: Akira <3

[taitavva]

abattage — the slaughter of animals, esp. the slaughter of diseased animals to prevent the infection of others

[pain everyday — clipping.] // close-up + no words under cut

#hiii i had no reason to procrastinate this long #the letter on pego's collar is A btw #persona 5 #p5 #persona 5 royal #p5r #procreate #adobe photoshop #2023 #goro akechi #persona 5 protagonist #ren amamiya #akira kurusu #shuake #akeshu #12 hours #you do not need to know how long i spent editing the colors #2 weeks after halloween is still halloween. shut up

[renthebarbarian]

Ted Lasso really is one of the best representations of healthy masculinity on TV. So many of the boys are positive role models: Ted, Sam, Beard, Dani, even Leslie, who is normally the kind of male character who would be a punchline (fat and “emasculated” because he answers to a dominating female boss), but he is treated with respect regardless. And in this third season we’re getting more from Isaac, Colin, and Trent as well.

Equally important, there are male characters who are flawed but still sympathetic, namely Roy (aggressive) and Jamie (arrogant and selfish). They are shown to be works in progress. Roy is slowly learning how to be more vulnerable and channel that fiery passion positively, and Jamie becomes more mature and considerate of others. These are men who are deconstructing their own ingrained toxic masculinity. (Even Ted himself falls into this category sometimes, as he uses his upbeat personality as a defense mechanism and resists any emotional support, but he’s seeking therapy for his anxiety, which is so good!)

And of course there are shitty men too, mainly Rupert and Nate (though I’m hoping Nate will come back to the good side at some point), but they’re framed rightfully as toxic and not as the kind of person one should want to emulate.

It’s just so delightful to see all of these positive depictions of masculinity, and the show still manages to have room for strong women too.

#ted lasso #shut up ren

[inuyashasforest]

Who's your least favorite Inuyasha character and why?

the fuckin EVIL BABY

#shut up ren #inuyasha

[novaviis]

I don't know who this is but they left this comment on their bookmark for Watercolour and I am desperate to know what the fuck this means.

#watercolour shit #shut up ren

[maguneedsalife]

on god i will never forgive pokemon for un-eviling lusamine just because people were horny for her

like as someone who has a kind of contentious relationship with my own overbearing mother, lillie's story in the original sm meant a lot to me. and so to get to the same plot beats in ultra sun and discover they just. took all that out. that fucking hurt man

#shut up ren

[shangyang]

let's talk aot.

woo, yay, it's ren's yearly rant about aot! clearly, this is the riveting content you guys & the six million porn bots in my notifs are here for. but this is MY echo chamber and that means i get to say what i want. mwahaha, etc. etc.

anyways. aot. the manga's over and the anime is...on its way to being over (though i wouldn't be surprised if mappa extended it for another 0.5 cour), but discourse never really dies. james somerton, a fairly well-established youtube essayist, covered the series in a youtube video titled attack on titan and media literacy in august 2022, though it was just recently reuploaded, due to somerton needing to correct a citation error. by no means am i attacking somerton - he remains one of my favorite video essayists on youtube to date, and he covers queer media with a keen eye and sharp wit - and i think he makes a lot of prescient points in regards to the dearth of media literacy surrounding attack on titan.

but i think there's a rather euro-centric tilt to his analysis. i think there's a euro-centric eye cast over a lot of attack on titan, from its ideals to its messy message and the content isayama created. you can take the message to be that in war there are no good people, only people making hard choices - but that's not quite right, is it? when we make that argument we tend to cast people like the nazis, the japanese, the mussolini italians, under almost pitying lights. "they were just following orders" is a phrase you'll hear a lot, in that regard. but we also know that can't be the excuse. just "following orders" doesn't excuse anyone's actions. you are capable of thought and courage and action. being unable to distinguish right from wrong, or being able to and being too afraid to make that right choice - that's cowardice, plain and simple. and i don't think it's wrong to say that we can blame the cowards.

but i digress. the point i want to make is that, when i look at attack on titan, i can't separate it from the culture that birthed it - japan. japan is a heavily revisionist nation; what japanese schoolkids today learn about wwii is so radically different from the truth of it, that even now, we continue to hear about how japanese people may never learn the truth about japan's involvement in ww2 until they leave the nation. for more on this, see the national interest's 2015 feature: the us should be appalled by japan's historical revisionism. time and time again, japan's leadership has shown that they have no intention of owning up to the extent of the crimes committed against other asian territories and other nations in general during the second world war. this quote in particular just about sums up, in my opinion, the viewpoint japan has taken regard other asian and SEA nations:

This revisionist narrative is laid out in detail at the Yushukan museum in Tokyo next to the Yasukuni war shrine. The logic is as follows: Imperial Japan waged the Great East Asia War (Daitowa Senso) in an effort to liberate the Asian peoples from the yoke of Western Imperialism. The “selfless goal” was to bring the enlightened modernization of Meiji Japan to hopelessly backward Asian brothers and sisters.This revisionist narrative is laid out in detail at the Yushukan museum in Tokyo next to the Yasukuni war shrine. The logic is as follows: Imperial Japan waged the Great East Asia War (Daitowa Senso) in an effort to liberate the Asian peoples from the yoke of Western Imperialism. The “selfless goal” was to bring the enlightened modernization of Meiji Japan to hopelessly backward Asian brothers and sisters.

japan has a long and storied history with facism, nationalism, xenophobia, and racism. it, of course, bears mentioning that no asian nation is necessarily exempt from xenophobia and racism - south korea, where my family is from, is certainly not exempt - but japan is perhaps one of the worst offenders, once we step back and look at their sweeping history of involvement in global conflicts. supremacy is the name of the game for japan - and i cannot deny that the current conservative state of the nation, which is a carry over from that mindset that dominated japan in ww2, is what makes me most wary of a narrative like attack on titan.

it's no secret that isayama admires several japanese war generals. dot pixis, one of the generals in attack on titan is notoriously based off of japanese general akiyama yoshifuru, who is a war criminal, responsible for the colonization of korea and who commanded japanese troops in korea when korea was occupied by japan.

for more on this, see this blog post: the possible disturbing dissonance between hajime isayama's beliefs and attack on titan's themes.

isayama, attack on titan's creator, is 36 currently - but he was 19 when he first began writing attack on titan. i don't think it would be wrong to also say that isayama likely grew up during a time when japan began leaning heavily back into conservative, neo-facist, nationalistic ideals, thanks to the economic crash that occured during isayama's youth/likely during when he was in middle/high school. i want to also say that i say all of this ALLEGEDLY. the truth is, that the account which we attribute a lot of isayama's pro-japan quotes to (migiteorerno on twitter) has never been officially attributed to isayama, though the blog post i linked above does point out a lot of the coincidences and clues that have led people (like myself) to believe that it may be isayama's private account.

but, of course, i can hear the questions about "death of the author." separate the art from the artist. i hear it all. and in general, i understand that school of thought. but i don't think we can apply it to attack on titan.

if i were to explain it, i think the best thing to say would be that i don't believe that death of the author applies to a work, when the authorial opinions in question are intrinsically tied up in authorial intent and the story being told. to elaborate, let me give this example:

say an author believes that climate change isn't real. but, they've written a story about two lonely people meeting online, and slowly falling in love with one another before they both must decide to gather their courage and take the leap into a real life meeting. in this case, i would think death of the author applies. this hypothetical author's climate change beliefs have no real bearing on the story they're telling - and ultimately, they have no real way of skewing whatever story this author has told. so in this case, i would say we put the art before the artist.

but say this author also writes a novel about the environment, and eco-terrorism, or some natural apocalypse. all these ideas have, in some way, to do with the climate or climate change - so i would find myself wary of the contents. the authors ideals, in this way, would shape and warp the messaging of the story - because they are intrinsic to the type of story this author would tell about the environment and environmental destruction.

isayama's purported beliefs - and yes, him being japanese and japan's role in ww2 and the clear ww2 influences aot has - intrinsically shape the message attack on titan is telling. the two are intertwined - attack on titan talks about nationalism, facism, and nation that separates itself from all other nations and thus believes itself to be some great enlightener; all of these are ideals we can so clearly see reflected in japanese nationalism.

it's for these very reasons that i can't begin to see a way to idolize and audulate attack on titan's narrative. i've said it once, and i'll say it again: i'm korean american. my family came to the US from korea barely a generation after ww2. my oldest great uncle, a judge, died during the japanese occupation of korea. i have relatives alive who remember what the occupation was like. who have lived through it.

when i look at attack on titan from that perspective, i can't see anything but the looming shadow of japanese nationalism, and japan's continued perspective on other asian nations - especially korea - taints this work for me. i can't see it as an anti-war narrative. i can't see it as making any deft anti-war commentary. in part because i look at it and see the historical hand of japan's actions, still very much present and puppeteering this narrative - but also because in attack on titan's world, there is never a way to get past this without war.

and maybe that's the crux of it. how can you trust a narrative to be anti-war, when all signs point to it being otherwise? how can i look at attack on titan, knowing what i know about japan's history with the very ideals present within the work, and not be wary? the truth is, that i don't think we can trust that isayama has in any way, set out to tell this story with the intent of critiquing japan's actions or the culture that led to their involvement in world war 2.

you can call me a cynic. but i'd rather be cynical than trust attack on titan not to be facist.

#attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #essay #shut up ren #weehoo...we r starting out 2023 strong ladies & gents #anyways! those r my thoughts. im gonna go sleep

[maudiemoods]

Reblog to kiss sun and moon fnaf !!

#AUGRHRHHR I NEED TO KISS THEM WWAAAAAAUYGRGGRGGRG!!!! #ren won't shut up #they mean so much to me (its more the community of amazing people and wonderful works of art that they graciously share with us) #also whenever i see their canon design #i implode #cute aggression but more like #silly goofy aggression #aurh anyway ignore me