#yet I keep cycling

[saphira-approves]

Something something professional artist jargon something something insert art knowledge here—whatever I want to talk about the book covers

So you’ve got Eragon, with a 3/4 portrait of Saphira; she’s giving a benevolent side eye with almost a Mona Lisa smile, she’s got that gleam in her eye, she’s looking at you but not head on—listen, this was the whole reason I picked up the book in the first place when I was eleven, she was so clearly full of life and personality and I just really wanted to meet her. It’s a really good glimpse of her character before even opening the book. She’s engaging you, but also maybe judging you a little bit, and she has a lot of thoughts but she’s going to keep them to herself for right now, thank you.

We’re skipping Eldest for right now because I have a point to make. Shush.

For Brisingr, we get a perfect side portrait of Glaedr, the grumpy old man. He’s not even side-eyeing the viewer like Saphira does; he is eyes forward, goal-oriented, noble and regal and, unless you’re worth his time, not really going to bother with you because he has Important Business to attend to. He is The Last of the pre-Fall dragons, his Rider is The Last of the pre-Fall Riders, he represents a bygone era that will never fully be resurrected, but can still inspire the present to fight for the future; he is no longer fully his own dragon, but a Relic, a Memory, a Symbol. He’s not anxious about it the way Eragon or Saphira might be; he has grieved for a century, he couldn’t be anxious about it if he tried. But he knows that keeping his integrity intact is important, and so this is how he presents himself: Noble. Regal. The Survivor. The Last.

Fírnen graces the cover of Inheritance, bookending the original series by almost perfectly mirroring Saphira—and seriously, it is so satisfying to line the books up with these two at the ends. Though he’s got a 3/4 profile like Saphira, Fírnen is much more reserved. No Mona Lisa smile, no mischievous gleam in his eye; he simply looks at you, and you look back, and you wonder what he’s thinking. He is, in fact, a lot like Arya—anyone who’s read the previous three books up to that point and hasn’t been spoiled for the ending might be able to guess, just from this portrait, who the final egg would hatch for. It’s also a perfect expression for the Final Book, with the fate of Alagaësia and the dragons hanging in the balance: what world does this mysterious dragon emerge into? A war-torn apocalypse? A hard-won victory? What does his future entail, and thus, what do the futures of our favorite characters entail? You ask him so many questions, but all he will ever do is stare deep into your soul with his somber, too-knowing gaze.

And now for the main event:

My beautiful precious son, the red-scaled Thorn, staring you down from the covers of both Eldest and Murtagh. I have loved the cover of the second book ever since I first picked it up, and my appreciation has only grown with time; needless to say I was very excited when the Murtagh cover dropped, and I got to see both of my favorite characters in one place. For both of these, Thorn takes the same stance: a full-frontal combative position, looking You, The Viewer directly in the eye, daring you to judge him, daring you to get in his way. I’ve always had my own opinions about what lay behind this show of force, and the context we get in Murtagh does not disappoint. He may be terrifying, he may be the scourge of the war, but underneath all that, Thorn is terrified. He’s traumatized, he’s claustrophobic, his body is too big for his age; he is painfully young still, and yet treated like a dragon ten times his age because that’s how he looks. He’s also sweet, and playful, and cares so much about his Rider, and wants desperately to keep Murtagh safe and happy. Just like Murtagh, he hides all of that—the fear and the softness both—behind a visage of ferocity, playing into the fears and preconceived notions people have of him, warning enemies away so they can’t get too close to what will actually hurt him. He dares you to try. He’s terrified you will try. He will fight tooth and nail if you do try.

#why does tumblr keep tagging this post as mature when i hadn’t even posted it yet??? #IM not labeling it mature what is going on #is saphira too sultry or something #murtagh spoilers #anyway yeah i just wanted an excuse to talk about thorn’s character in the book covers #i love him okay #i may disagree with john jude palencar about what a dragon looks like #but i CANNOT deny he is extremely good at giving dragons personality #at some point i may to shruikan and vermund also i just mostly wanted to yell about thorn #there's definitely parallels to be drawn between shruikan and thorn but also vermund and glaedr #...sigh. yeah i guess i'll be doing them at some point in the future #inheritance cycle #christopher paolini #murtagh (inheritance cycle) #thorn (inheritance cycle) #saphira bjartskular #glaedr (inheritance cycle) #fírnen (inheritance cycle)

[paradoxbeta]

Artificer and pebbles hug?

top 2 people who would like to change the past

#artificer has a chance to change its fate and break the cycle of violence but uh. 5p youre stuck with the rot #i keep answering pebbles related asks in black and white because i dont have his colors figured out yet oops #rainworld #my art

[kujakumai]

Sometimes it really does get me. The very last living villager of Kul Elna was murdered in the same place as his predecessors by the son of the king who reigned over the massacre. Children repeating and re-enacting, in small-scale, the violence of their parents and the state that raised them.

#what do i keep saying about cycles am i broken record yet

[solarwreathe]

christmas with no limits

really, this art was all an excuse to show you this image. i miss when old movie promo photos were awkward as shit.

#home alone #wet bandits #merry christmas #christmas art #christmas movies #really what do i tag this as #'solar is everything okay? you've barely drawn any weird ugly men lately' #no but fr i need to fetch an ugly man muse every few months to keep my art alive. this is the molting part of my life cycle #im proud of how i caricatured harry but what you see of marv is my 4th attempt and i'm still not satisfied. it doesn't look like him! #he veers more towards the pompous brand of bearded villain than the weed smoker he actually is #anyway little anecdote: home alone is one of the first movies i remember watching. we saw it in school on one of them old tellies on wheels #i didn't know much of america yet. being a toddler. so the whole time i was like: #why's it such a big deal the family's trapped in paris? it's an hours flight...

[lunarharp]

autumn witches

#witch hat tag #orufrey #just random-ass stuff....sigh...so i'll just throw it together...some followups on the oru birthday comic... #i seem really fixated on this little 'kissed on the cheek and now what' era.. i wanted to draw happy future actual kiss art today #but like. No. i can't. they're not there yet. in my current cycle. why do i truly live alongside characters that arent even mine #i also want to draw emotional art to get out stuff but i keep doing dorky gentle comics. Probably means something #there was tsukigumi yesterday. Anyone remember when i was a takarazuka artist. but i was so tired lol. reikoumi were there. drinking beck's #my estranged dad (who lives in germany) IS WAY OBSESSED WITH BECK'S so it was a lot. For me #ORU IS NEVER ALLOWED TO DRINK THAT. EVER. DON'T BE A BECK'S DAD.

[swatato]

I refuse to believe a damn thing I’m seeing thanks <3

#noragami #noragami spoilers #like this just spits in the face of all the themes and messages of the entire story #idk how hiyori being yatos shinki could possibly benefit the narrative #like do they just go home after this and begin the entire cycle of protecting a shinki from ggs again? #or does she conveniently get to remember everything too cuz of some asspull and then they live happily ever after?.? #the whole point was that hiyori should live a full long life #whats the point of yato rising up to father if he just gets ‘taught a lesson’ yet again #and nora too for that matter im just waiting for some payoff after that entire bond she formed with hiyori #like this is just the dumbest way to go out especially for how rushed it is #its so absurd which is why i dont entirely believe this is actually hiyori kicking the can #surely adachitoka gonna pull something here dhsifnksjf #im betting amaterasu will pull some magic cuz a) yato keeping his promise to kill father #and b) something something about a loophole with hiyoris unique half dead status #and the fact that theyre in father weird abstract water dimension #jumbled thoughts ghhhgghh #like im yatori garbage to my core but this aint it

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

every night i wake up and say "this is the night i respond to my friends' messages" and every morning i say "i swear i'll do it when i wake up"

#repeat repeat repeat until you get stuck on that cycle of guilt and forgetfulness and guilt and stress and guilt and Oops Forgot Again and- #see this is why i'm really bad at making/keeping friends!!! #bc i meet someone and then they text me and then i Never Reply #bc i wait too long dithering on how to answer or i forget to open it and then its Been too Long #biting myself so so hard #mentally. not physically. im not into that. ....probably #hmmm apologies for Venting On Main im just feeling this intensely before i turn in #yet another day of telling myself ill do something important and another day of not doing it #absolutely unprompted #unfortunately i also tend to do this with asks/replies and it kills me inside every time #not as much as accidentally ghosting people i care about but Wowzah #i simply cannot escape this mental block when it comes to anything #i still have to reply to my grandpa's responding father's day text. its been a week. #wailing howling clawing my way into the cold dark earth etc

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

there are a lot of reasons i think pericles is really slept on as one of the most tragic characters in sdmi, and they start with how easy it is to connect the dots that he took a mind-destroying curse full to the face as an infant. one that breaks adult humans and renders them unrecognizable, when pericles was not only a baby but is from a species that is explicitly much more vulnerable to it. right from the beginning of his life the entity obliterated his sense of self so thoroughly that there's not even a version of him who shows up in the Sitting Room.

fuck, man.

#sdmi #scooby doo mystery incorporated #professor pericles #sdmi is fundamentally a show about the cycle of trauma and abuse--about breaking a very literal generational curse #and i think it does a real disservice to both that theme #and pericles' narrative specifically #that he gets painted as That One Guy Who's Just Evil and Abusive for No Reason #when everyone else gets the benefit of 'even thoroughly horrible people are still people' #'and that doesn't mean they didn't hurt you; or that you have to let them keep hurting you' #'or that you're obliged to proceed in a way allowing for the possibility they'll decide to stop. that's on them to do. and they might not.' #even w/o the systemic oppression or decades of torture and psychiatric abuse #pericles was a victim of the entity in genuinely and quite possibly the most thorough way of them all. and yet he made a lifetime worth of #choices and many many many of them were to harm people in horrific ways; to his own ends and for his own satisfaction #and like. what do you do with that. #it is difficult and uncomfortable to sit with that and draw conclusions from it that are neither 'his trauma means none of that counts' #nor 'okay yeah well he's a victim BUT HE DID BAD THINGS SO THAT DOESN'T MATTER FUCK HIM' #if there's any show that invites you to do that it's sdmi; i love that about it. but you can't leave pericles out w/o defeating the purpose #especially when the nature of his being a link in the cycle of abuse is critical context for exploring the trauma of his victims #the vast majority of what he does to ricky is very clearly projecting and reenacting his own trauma onto a vulnerable target #and just. aaaaahhhhhh i have so many feelings about it god #abuse cw #grooming cw #SDMItag

[amarriageoftrueminds]

I have to say I am hooked on your anti-peggy metas and with every single one, I just say out loud "You're absolutely correct and you should say it!" Everything that I've read so far is exactly what I've been having trouble articulating for years, and I'm so glad to find another great blog that shares the exact same sentiments.

Oh wow Anon, this is a lovely message to get!

I know just how you feel, too! Nothing better than going from wondering if you're mad for seeing this obvious thing nobody else can (like you've taken crazy pills), only to discover there are a bunch of other people who feel the same way.

Thank you for telling me. 🥰

#raymond_holt_VINDICATION.gif #antipeggy #antisteggy #p*ggy meta #toAyourQ #dat's me #mcu critical #cynthia glass #hey nonny #mcu meta #by now it's all been so analysed by so many people... #...that I think it's getting easier to articulate? #but there are so /many/ bad things to articulate about her that just /listing/ them all takes up so much space! #...or at least it does for a serial editor like me? 😅 #I never mean for my metas to get so long... #It's just that there is So Much to criticise... #and MCU keeps beggaring belief by finding still more Atrocities to commit in depicting her (every time you think they Must've run out! 😬) #...that I'm constantly trapped in a vicious cycle of 'and another thing!!' #swiggety swag it's a catrintag #yet each man queues the thing he loves

[kazumasdiary]

i keep thinking about how olive green's whole murder plan is also a kind of test.

because she didn't know her fiance was murdered. she didn't really consider the possibility of murder until she heard soseki talking about his gas leak. perhaps she suspected something beforehand- "i'm going to buy strychnine" is a pretty big jump to make from "my fiance died in an accident"- but if she hadn't overheard soseki, she probably would have accepted the explanation that duncan's death was an accident, and left it at that.

she wasn't sure. she was setting up a plan to murder a man and she still wasn't sure if duncan's death was an accident or not.

like, she sends the letter to william shamspeare, but the letter specifically says, "i have information regarding duncan ross's death." if shamspeare hadn't been involved, he might not have heeded the letter- he might have brought it to the police, or the landlord, or just ignored it. he might not have left his apartment at all.

he does, though. and when she goes to briar road, his flat is empty. but that's not confirmation- maybe he was scared he'd be hurt if he didn't follow the instructions, or maybe he didn't know what else to do. she doesn't know for sure.

so she executes a murder plan that will only kill him if she's right.

she wanted the truth. but she wanted revenge, too, for her and for duncan, and the two are inextricably linked- the crime committed against her, and the crime she committed in order to know what had happened. she set it up so that her revenge would give her the truth- if shamspeare died, then she knew she was right.

but then she fails. she loses both: shamspeare survives, and she now knows the truth but she's made it unusable. she can't come forward with the knowledge that her fiance was killed, because the only way she can prove she knows that is to admit to her own attempted murder- and who will believe her then?

(and she and duncan are poor. she's not wealthy enough for the police to care- what are the chances that they would have discovered her murder, thrown her in prison, and stopped there? her murder was a lot more clear-cut than shamspeare's, so it's likely that her crime would be discovered first, and no one is going to bother investigating the claims of a poor woman already arrested for murder.)

we've seen people commit murder in the name of vengeance before. ashley graydon does it in 1-5, and we'll see it again with enoch drebber in 2-3. but i think olive green is the first person we see to tie truth and vengeance together- to make "getting revenge for the loss of a loved one" and "finding the truth behind the loss of her loved one" one and the same. and it backfires on her, in the end- but it was the only way she could see forward, to actually find closure for what she'd lost.

(hey, kazuma. remind you of anyone?)

#dgs #dgs2 #dgs spoilers #dgs2 spoilers #olive green #meta #my meta #like kazuma and olive's situation have some major differences: namely that he is not right about the culprit where she was #but genuinely i am not over how much olive green was just like. #would you like to see me speedrun the major themes of the next three cases? #because we're about to speedrun the major themes of the next three cases #the cycle of vengeance? got it. the struggle to live with major loss? got it. in order for the truth to matter it must be heard? got it! #the only thing she's missing is an authority figure keeping secrets from her #now this makes some assumptions about 2-5 that i can't back up yet but like #she REALLY DOES FEEL like a speedrun microcosm of everything we've got going on #q

[roboyomo]

do you ever get an idea for a drawing or an illustration and be like "damn i gotta draw that later!" but then you get only more ideas and you don't know which one to start working on so you basically do nothing

#and then the cycle of “i gotta draw that later!” keeps on going #yea i am having this issue rn #my mind tells me to design reverberation ensemble adam and then it tells me to design distorted adam #and then it gives me an idea for an adam animatic #and then oc illustration ideas #and you're just like “man i want to draw all of these at once....” but you remember a commission you were gonna finish #and you end up just doing nothing but laying in bed yet another day thinking you would be productive #i am okay but man #i wanna draw more and then i don't and it just turns into this repeating cycle #someone please give me more motivation to do anything besides being a shut-in #yomoposting

[saphira-approves]

So I’m watching the Star Trek: Picard show and uh

…

PLEASE tell me she’s gotten calls from the Eragon tv show casting director, look at her and tell me that isn’t just our dearly beloved Arya Svit-Kona in space—

#saph speaks #arya (inheritance cycle) #i keep forgetting her name because i’m just calling her arya in my head #i also desperately want a star trek/ic crossover where it turns out elves are yet another branch on the vulcan-romulan family tree #anyway. elnor is my sonboy. #also YES i do know who’s in season 4 and he may or may not be like. 30% of the reason im watching it #im normal about star trek im normal about star trek (lie)

[blackberry-jam]

My theory here is not that HABIT and Vinny are the secret gay heroes or whatever my theory is that I think HABIT is so in love with the idea of change- a thing neither he nor Vinny can achieve- that he wills himself into believing that if Vinny kills Evan, truly believing himself to be the hero, it will break the cycle. He wants the one thing he is incapable of having, and he places all his bets on the only other person who cannot change to make it happen! It’s pathetic! It’s cruel! It’s so, so sad!

#emh #emh spoilers #idk I just think there is something so compelling about this vicious blood-spattered beast who cannot change because he cannot understand #wanting to change so badly that he etches the cycle even more indelibly into the earth #he won’t change what he does or how he acts #but he believes things can be different every time #like that’s INSANE. that is the DEFINITION OF INSANITY. and yet #he never gives up. he keeps chewing off his own foot thinking this time the blood will grease the wheel enough to escape #HABIT you are so pathetic. all that power and you can’t even change yourself. weak little man breaking under the weight of boredom #anyway. sorry

[skunkes]

when you mentioned that talon takes up sex in the comic w/o elaborating much i immediately understood it was an instant gratification/desire for a quick touch without getting involved in the "mess" of love bc i did a similar thing with my oc and its genuinely SO cool to see someone else do it and mention specifically because its out of a deep seeded fear of getting too attached but still wanting some sort of touch bc they literally like. cant live without it for too long. i love it im chewing on talon

YEAS....im considering rewriting/reuploading that whole panel because in my need to not be a weirdo and unnecessarily go into depth on a characters abuse, i ended up being rly vague in the parts where I couldve explained more, but Im glad someone understood even before my clarification ^_^

(harder with talon as no matter how much he tells himself he'll never risk losing anybody again, he's very quick to get attached. Desperate for a home, a family, to curl up around something warm and kind)

#oh and then come the mood swings because he must push you away. he doesnt deserve any warmth. or pity #but also pleaaase dont abandon me... #skunk mail #werewolfclaws #its just a cycle of being punished for trying to Live #i think even in his canon a main struggle would be him trying to find any reason to keep him away from just sleeping until the universe die #sorry im jst talking about him more now. #he has another Punished For Trying event where he tries to form a connection with someone #i think that might be genevieves role in his canon story #though im not sure yet #but it does seem to line up because she already hurts him in some big way in my drafts #it makes sense that she's also the one who hurts him further #and its sucks bc he does love her #and he doesnt know how to leave because he finally has one ''good'' thing #it seems he has no problem causing injury; physical or emotional; unless its when it counts #oc text

[grimgummies]

Sudden urge to drop off the face of the Earth (have zero online presence) and just focus on my art and myself then suddenly come back like nothin happened but now my art looks super different and I'm prolly mentally better too

#Grim rambles #I just know this is one of my weird phases. I cannot for the life of me have a total lack of presence #I still want to talk to ppl :( #I love interacting with ppls posts #but the break from posting art for an undisclosed amount of time just to focus on myself and find the simple joy in creating again sounds.. #super appealing #my mood fluctuates constantly between loving and hating posting my stuff #like I love showing my stuff because people seem to enjoy it! #and I love showing my ideas and sharing creativity in a community of people with similar interests #but at the same time I feel like it has taken away what made art enjoyable for me as a kid #and that was creating simply because it was fun #now I feel like I kinda sucked the fun outta it #and I oughta take my own advice and return to my roots #I keep telling fellow artists time and time again to focus on themselves #not worry about an audience #just experience the simple joy of creating again #yet fail to take my own advice #it's like a vicious cycle I can't escape #it's almost become routine #and once you make a routine it's hard to break it #once I get a few things done I'll see what I can do #I just need to get into that mindset of 'I don't have to post my art I can just create to have fun'

[daz4i]

funniest (/s) irony about my pains is that the only painkiller that actually helps (mostly, not entirely) likely also makes them worse in the long run. i just love having a body and being alive!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#i don't know what to do 😭😭😭😭😭 i have a doctor's appointment tomorrow ig I'll ask him #since i don't have an actual diagnosis yet idk if it's actually a big no-no like it is for ppl with the disease i MIGHT have #but given my symptoms match up and keep coming back despite me supposedly taking medicine to help #i think it's safe to assume i should at least treat my body as if it has it #(also when i say symptoms i mean more than pains like. i mean actual internal inflammation n shit like that) #god. god I'm so tired. i have to take a painkiller every day bc it's just so unbearable #but ik taking them this often isn't a good idea. and i can't mix them up with others bc like i said it's the only one that helps #I'm so so tired of being in pain. and being scared to do basic things my body needs in order to function bc they make the pain worse #fucking drinking water makes the pains worse sometimes 😭😭😭😭 but it's not like i can avoid that #and every source i read said an unstable mental state makes it worse so that's just great. #bro the pains make my mental state worse!!!! this is a neverending cycle!!!!!! i want to fucking dieeeeeee #vent #medical // #ask to tag