#you may think it's boring

[gerbits]

well I guess there is no magic in Love Day, but the Romance Festival...

#behold a sim perfectly tailored to waverly in every way #you may think it's boring #but is anything truly boring this gen #the sims 4 #the sims #sims #ts4 gameplay #truffles #truffle:4 #waverly truffle #rowan webber

[acarillustrated]

hi my name is august and for the past week or so i have become so consumed by thoughts of avatar the last airbender that it is actually ruining my life and relationships.

yeah so unfortunately i can only be completely insane about this so i have to stop before it consumes me or at least manage the fixation i have for this early 20s zutara au

+ mai bc its really a shame that they didn't resolve her story outside of her relationship to zuko. so i think she starts fight club. which gradually turns into a gladiatorial ring

edit: im typing up everything that i wrote in the drawing bc it just occured to me that not only is my handwriting a mess, but it's also cursive

Image 1

katara: How do you live in this hot ass country.

zuko: What about that literal glacier you live on, hm? Do you see me complaining?

Image 2

Zuko: my plan right now is to soft launch democracy for the Fire Nation. like, i don't think we can do that now because we're so weak, but 10-20 years down the line?

Image 3

Zuko: Honestly, my plan right now is to rule for a couple generations and fix everything that my father and my grandfather did , and then establish a democracy.

Katara: why not a democracy now?

Zuko: because the people of the Fire Nation don't know the truth about their own history. they've been fed propaganda for a hundred years. they need to be able to make informed decisions before i can do that.

Katara: and after that?

Zuko: after that im fucking off to the earth kingdom to take over my uncle's tea house and you will literally never hear from me again

Image 4

from left to right "katara" "need to redo the face" "this is chief katara to me. this is her at around 19/20 to me" "Anime katara. this anime shit is easy" "fire nation katara. putting her at about 14 y/o" "this is a screencap redraw"

Image 5

me: hello greenpeace

katara: after my mother died i had a lot of unchecked rage for the world, so my dad signed me up for tai chi classes to, like, calm me down but i ended up still angry but also really good at tai chi

katara: i feel like im doing well all things considered

me: katara is so special to me. she is a fully realized creation to me. so casual. so passionate about the world. one thing about her is that she is an activist. she has a strong sense of justice. fuck. the train jumped lol

image 6

mai: zuko, im starting a gladitorial ring and i don't know the legality of it so if you could just change the laws as i go that'd be great

zuko: yeah sure that sounds great

zuko, but smaller: wait what.

image 7

mai: REF, ARE YOU BLIND?! WHAT KIND OF CALL IS THAT!

background guy: woah holy shit

captioned: "Mai starts a gladiatorial fight club

#atla #avatar the last airbender #zuko #katara #prince zuko #fire lord zuko #chief katara #mai #atla mai #softboy art time #atla fanart #zutara #yeah so if anyone want to talk to me about this i would Love to #because i think my friends are bored of me going on unprompted monologues about katara #shout out to all the gay men that like zutara #its me and you against the world #bc im pretty sure we've lost the rest of us to zukka

[bloobydabloob]

Happy day 3 of DirkJake week.

Today’s theme was “Retro / Decades”… I am not sure if I even understood the theme right but I did them as like 50s greasers. For the decades part. Yeahh

#homestuck #homestuck fanart #dirk strider #hs fanart #jake english #blooby posting #dirkjakeweek24 #I spent like 90% of this drawing watching those awful 3lame videos on the side #like “the twerk of 87“ and whatever other stuff #My friends all know this but I think that 3lame was kind of a genius #There is probably no one else in the world who could possibly have come up with that cuphead song #What a guy. #Also made banana muffins once again #I already ate like 6. I just may have a boring ass life #Hit me up I’ll mail you one of the remaining 4 if you’re lucky #you can receive a handcrafted cold and mouldy muffin in the mail #8-10 business days #Please no one hit me up. #I’m eating the rest tonight anyways #DirkJake

[whimsyprinx]

I feel like now is a good time to announce that I’m in the process of moving blogs! Im doing so for a few reasons, the main one being paranoia, so for that reason I won’t be saying my new urls publicly so like please dm me if you’d like my new url so you can follow me there! I’ll be reblogging this post a lot so ppl can see it (so sorry if you get annoyed by that)!

I’m also remaking my discord account as well so if we’re friends on there then feel free to message me for my new username!

friends and mutuals please do reblog so shared friends/mutuals have a higher chance seeing it!

#whimsy whispers #I’m just like ahdjfjjg #I’ve been considering remaking blogs for a few years now (as some of you may know) and like simply changing urls isn’t enough #no matter how many times I chnage urls the paranoia won’t go away and I think that starting a new blog is the best choice #idk what to do if my newest blog gets found by the ppl I’m paranoid about like idk the odds of that are low (I hope) alas I’m still anxious #about it #for some slight context: I’ve had several people now pop up in my life pretending to be other people/several people and while I’ve blocked #then on every social media account I interacted with them in im still paranoid about them lurking #and then like there’s other reasons to remake as well #I’m tired of this blog like I love it it’s been fun but I think starting over will be nice #tbh this is the longest I’ve had a blog without remaking I usually remake accounts every so often #I don’t intend to remake my next blog like at all but like agdhjfjg I have a habit of getting bored of accounts and staring over (usually #this applies to art accounts like y’all wouldn’t believe how many deviantart accounts I’ve had) #uhhhh idk I’ve been rambling for too long #I have this in drafts rn but you should be seeing this post soon

[shepards-folly]

Hi! I'm here to be a bad influence on you again, do you still like The Mason? I certainly like how you draw him so...

(consider this a free pass to doodle a little guy)

OH HO HO HO!!! Thank you for the ask :]! I will always take any excuse to draw characters i like

here’s a bunch of quick masons for the price of one aka i took this as motivation to compile some doodles and semi-finished things of them i had lying around!

i’ll probably post some close ups or ramblings in a rb later too! idk man yall might see alone on a friday night as its own post cause i think abt it all the time….

#shep arts #content smp #csmp #mason arathain #i doodled a few more mason as bugs concepts but really after doing the uhh weird scarf cape dragonfly one i just got bored :P #i may revisit something similar to the uh long one on the right cause idk i think its an interesting idea but i kinda bungled it here #tbh I don’t know shit about luxintrus and noxintrus but I had a thought a while back and i had to get it out of my system somehow #something aomething those two and their shadows(?) [<- DISCLAIMER: I KNOW NOTHING GOING ON IN THE CSMP TBH] #im a fanartist but also despite getting fixations on things I like never can get myself to really remember anything about them #if you want me to like explain anything about my favorite characters half the tome I just cannot. I’ll know like two things abt them #that or you get the unhinged ramblings of a man who knows too much… #tbh the first one is better for all parties involved…

[ride-a-dromedary]

The thing that I find interesting to think on, is that Halsin isn't wrong about framing himself as old, even from an elf perspective. Not just operating under the framework that he's a survivor, and seems to have likely been the eldest in most groups he found himself in, so it's a habit to assume younger unless informed otherwise (especially considering he's the last of his line, and suffered through the deaths of his similarly aged fellows and elders during the Shadow Curse), and not just operating under the premature maturation that seemed to stem from this, thus him likely feeling older than he really is.

No, he's just stuck in 2e DnD lore (which considering that is what BG1 and 2 utilized, he's not technically incorrect to be, as he would have hypothetically been alive in canon during that period of time - consider it as a generational gap in thinking what constitutes as "old", and how previous generations aged or viewed aging compared to current generations):

(Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition: The Complete Book of Elves, pp. 37 Table 4)

[Info: A chart taken from the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition Rules Supplement, indicating the age ranges of various types of elves, including Aquatic, Drow, Grey, High and Sylvan. A section of the chart is highlighted in reference to Sylvan elves. Sylvan elves are listed as being considered at venerable age by age 325+]

According to this chart, Halsin - by other elves' standards - would have been considered to be in "Venerable" territory, which is usually applied to those who are afforded a great deal of respect, particularly due to length of experience or age. And Halsin being in this category further informs his physical appearance, as according to the same manual:

"Only at venerable age do elves begin to show their years, yet they still appear younger than most humans do at age 50." (pp. 37)

and

"[At Venerable Age] the elf, at age 350 [on average] or older, begins to show signs of age. Wrinkles start mapping her face. Her physical condition deteriorates still further, but her knowledge and her wisdom continue to grow even greater." (pp. 39)

Which could partially explain *why* he refers to himself as old; by all technicality he's earned the right to do so.

And while the 5th edition of DnD does nuke this specificity of lore in favour of opening the floor to more creativity, and this is by all means technically outdated, it's still interesting to take previous lore into consideration in how it might inform choices and characters.

#BG3 Musing #Halsin Posting #Halsin #i'm just messing around with lore stuff while bored at work #yes bg3 operates under 5e lore but that gets more complicated when you consider characters like jaheira and minsc #were directly in 2e lore in canon which means it informs their existence to an extent #and then halsin astarion and minthara who hypothetically would have *also* been in it should they have been introduced in BG1 and 2 #so i don't think it can be discarded completely because previous lore informed current lore #so if your tav/durge/etc is older than halsin welcome to venerable age territory friend #he's also referred to as 'elder' in the epilogue and while that canon might be a lil debatable i think this may be a case #of actual elves viewing aging very differently than people on the outside do - their stages of life may very well #have someone 350 be considered older because they've reached that category #even if they don't look it to others and may not be considered so *because* they're only about half way through the average lifespan

[mildcicada]

#when i was first coloring him in he was gonna be golden chinchilla colored but then i was like ehhh jonah magnus should be red/orange but #elias should be gray ...so i just desaturated what i already did instead of recoloring lol but #he is now supposed to be shaded silver lol #but thats why his coat pattern is on the darker side compared to what it *should* be #og elias bouchard coming from an important/roch family and while whole thing with thinking he just *deserves* stuff bc of his upbringing. #etc. -> he is purebred and matches the breed standards etc for a scottish fold of his color #obviously the eye color doesn't matter because. ahaha #i thought elias fit the Scottish fold vibes because: Scottish folds are known for looking sort of like owls and having intense eyes #and the cat body/face type (also present in british shorthairs) to me gives off sort of... unnasumming vibes? #like ahaha yes i am a boring boss who loves paperwork look at how unnasumming i am season 1-2 elias y'know #trying to think of what cat breed jonah would be. and also jon gerry etc you know all the other characters i like #would it be boring to have multiple british shorthairs #i mean.. #Michael shelley/distortion is a laperm that's all I know #i didn't particularly care with the personality attributes associated with eliascat because it didn't need to fit his personality on account #of not being his original body. but i do try to keep in mind the best personality/look/etc. cat attributes as a whole for a character #also sometimes get obsessed with jt making historical and geographical sense but then it just limits me greatly to a point im not into it #so i don't care about specific breeds in that respect lol #tma #my art #elias bouchard #the magnus archives #some notes looking back(made it 2 hours ago but still looking back ok..) on it now are that i feel like elias would never choose this breed #for his next bodyhop because of the inherent health issues in scottish folds. I saw the breed was created in like the early 1960s and #assumed that maybe the health issues wouldn't have been common knowledge until later enough for jonah to be unaware of them but actually no #there's legislation about it like 6 years later LOL so jonah would..maybe not make this choice #i guess in the future when drawing i will just make him a British shorthair #my catTMA is simultaneously 'they are just regular cats or like all show cats or something' and 'exact tma plot but as intelligent cats' #LOL its just vague in my mind idk..also maybe jon can be an Abyssinian #ALSO WHAT WAS I THINKING 'jonah may not have been aware about x thing' like did i...did i forget. me 2 hours ago was dumb as rocks

[compacflt]

wip wednesday: made a HUGE amount of progress this week (for context—purple is unfinished & yellow is finished; last week all of them were purple) … i am in the home stretch here

#and then… it will be time for me to say goodbye i think #some darkstar politics in here #driven by an essay I read last year titled tinted blue: Air Force culture & American civil-military relations #everyone has a different idea of what modern warfare will look like #1 & 2 are from the same section obviously… i just think it’s interesting #& i wrote elsewhere in may maybe that ice & mav would be on opposite sides of this debate #ice with his big picture managerial perspective… it’s good for warfare… mav with his specialist pilot loyalty POV #obviously their conversation predates the russia-ukraine war which has shown drone warfare in its fullest to date potential #4. is… idk. does it help to tell you it takes place in 2014? #3. * #pete maverick mitchell #tom iceman kazansky #icemav #top gun #top gun maverick #top gun fanfiction #sorry for the like defense ethics conversations if that’s boring #i just think that stuff is philosophically so interesting

[flashhwing]

just because you dislike the direction a character’s development went in, doesn’t mean it was objectively bad

that being said. you absolutely have the right to complain about a characters direction that you didn’t like. what the hell is the point of consuming media if you don’t get to have opinions about it?

THAT BEING SAID. you also have the right to complain about people complaining about a characters direction that they didn’t like but you did. being a hater is one of life’s little gifts

the point is. fucking have opinions and talk about them! you stating your opinion online doesn’t affect creators in any way. someone else talking about their opinion doesn’t mean they’re trying to stop you from having yours

#I may have just had the dumbest discourse argument in my head #that amounted to ‘I don’t like this thing. i should be allowed to talk about how I don’t like this thing’ #‘but if I’m allowed to talk about not liking this thing it stands to reason that other people can talk about me talking about not liking - #-this thing. …… well yeah so what. let them. it would be pretty boring if everyone had the exact same opinion wouldn’t it.’ #anyway I really dislike the way Yasha developed through c2. both character wise and visually #and I’m allowed to think that. and it doesn’t mean that Ashley Johnson should’ve done anything different with her #and yasha fans are allowed to think I just don’t ~get~ her. even though I feel like I’m more correct about it #do you understand? do you get it??? #it’s not that deep. and also it’s kinda beautiful and really cool #this has been a post

[master-of-the-railway]

Gordon would kill for the girls actually in my mind. He used to be upset that his old friends moved to other places on the island, but while it still hurts sometimes, he's grown to love Nia and Rebecca dearly. Do NOT fucking insult them in his presence those are HIS girls and he WILL do everything in his power to protect them. He's like the scary worker who would choke a man to death to protect his fellow coworkers. He's everyone's dad.

#ttte #thomas and friends #thomas & friends #I just get so angry when ppl hate on the girls bc they happened to replace Henry and Edward. AS IF THEY DID THAT ON PURPOSE. #they have SO much personality and Nia's backstory is so sad but everyone just calls them boring and uninteresting just bc they aren't- #-Henry and Edward #and I think honestly Gordon would end up feeling the way I do because despite his rough exterior he clearly cares about the other engines. #like he may be bitter over things himself and he may not admit it aloud but he does care about Nia and Rebecca. Especially Nia due to her- #-whole situation. Being sent to another country away from all of your friends because you have nowhere else to go... #And we've seen Gordon and Rebecca bond in canon. We KNOW he likes her quite a bit.

[forerussake]

tag yourself! i’m a combo between beach cryptid and birthday boy

#i love him your honour #fascinating man on all counts #and he thinks he’s boring!! sir that is one of the things we like about you!!! #(i may or may not have just walked 20 minutes down a mountain just to get signal to post this. i will not see your response until tomorrow) #zhu yilong #朱一龙

[perhaps-mr-collins-has-a-cousin]

Hello praying people, I'm not doing well and would really appreciate your prayers right now <3

#long very boring and unnecessarily detailed tag monologue incoming‚ feel free to skip: #this is going to sound like a silly thing to be hitting rock bottom over #but i’m fairly certain i have a semi-rare skin condition known as sensitive skin syndrome #which is basically where skin gets progressively more sensitive #until it won’t tolerate the topical application of anything at all without getting irritated #usually it happens to people on the skin of their face and i have it there but i also specifically have it on my lips #(which apparently is extremely not normal; i found a dermatologist’s case study from like 2019 of one woman who had it on her lips #and according to this case study there were no other cases of people having it on their lips #in all the dermatological literature he had read) #i can’t follow the protocol which all the journal articles i’ve been able to find say is helpful for the rest of the face which is basicall #leave the area the heck alone for at least a year #because if i don’t apply anything to my lips for more than two or three days they will get so dry they crack and bleed #so it’s looking like one way or another i may be having to deal with dry burning irritated lips for the rest of my life #and i’m not dealing with the thought of that very well #i’ve already suffered so much anguish from extreme sensitivity on the rest of my face #and not being able to take proper care of the skin there #and this is just too much for me #i know God is allowing this for a reason but it’s filling me with so much frustration and panic and despair that i don’t know how to go on #but i must and i will #this isn’t a serious or a life-threatening condition but it’s looking like a pretty hopeless one and it’s hurting me badly #and i would appreciate prayers that it would just be healed or that i would know what to do #i think i will try going to my dermatologist but somehow i doubt she's even heard of sensitive skin syndrome #on a COMPLETELY unrelated note i'm just about to get my period and also for two days i've ''eaten'' nothing but vegetable smoothies #and those in pretty small amounts because they're disgusting #(do a detox my hormonal health doctor said) #(it'll be fun she said) #ok if you read this far you're so brave braver than any u.s. marine etc. #thanks for reading ily <3

[lbhslefttiddie]

then and now

#svsss #arts #backlog #shen yuan #shen jiu #luo binghe #you may be thinking: hey is that yqy over there? yes #why does he look like a salaryman?? because yqy is a sims 2 character trapped in the vessel of a student council president. next question #hey levanna what the fuck is going on here?? you know what. not even im 100% on that one chief #i had some vague notions about a murder mystery featuring a lbh who could see ghosts #and the ghost of a boy who has been stuck in his old friends' haunt (lol) for oh i dont know. thirty years #but see the thing is that sy doesnt know why he's here either! #he doesnt even remember dying but. well. he was always a sickly kid. he cant say hes surprised he suddenly kicked it #honestly it was such a mundane occurrence for him it must have been too boring to recall #but lbh spends time with yuan gege and pretty quickly comes to the realization that this is NOT the case #he finds like an old new article and in reality sy was found murdered in this place 30 years ago #and its much for likely that the trauma of the event is why he cant remember his death at all #oh and there was gonna be some drama where lbh suspects sy's now much older twin #who is now a teacher at their old school and a very different person from what sy remembers #but it wasnt sj he's just fucking traumatized by his brother being murdered in what theyd considered their safe place #he hates this school and he hates qi ge who never Really talks to him but is still fucking HERE (also teacher) #but he cant leave either bc he cant let go #and part fo him is still hoping to find answers for what happened back then #anyways i think this premise is all very good and sexy #but levanna's brain frankly was not built for writing murder mysteries #free to a good home if any of you fuckers want it #death #murder

[kyistell]

Wowza ain't this a big one eh?

SCENE KID NJ IS BEST NJ PROVE ME WRONG!!!!

*ahem* Soooo...I did this on my Ipad if it isn't obvious, I actually really like this lol.

There honestly isn't too much to say about this, like Jersey was a slight scene kid in the early 2000s and basically DIY'ed everything he is wearing, did I make it obvious enough that he is a Devils fan?

The red and green is a heavy call back to the original jerseys the Devils used, which I lovingly call the Christmas Jerseys, and clearly I went VERY heavy with that lol

The other side of the hat has a Rutgers patch instead of the Devils one you can see, this would have been when the Rutgers football team was doing pretty good I think soooo ya know, I felt it was important to mention.

ANOTHER POLAROID, this time by Rhode Island, and no you aren't reading that date wrong and I feel as though I don't need to elaborate ;)

#welcome to the table #welcome to the statehouse #wttt #wttt fanart #wttt new jersey #wttsh new jersey #soooo #i had another sketch before going with the second one #it was him in a more 80s style dress #i was bored can ya blame me? #anyway i didnt really like it for a finished product so i went with the second one instead #also your eyes dont deceive you rhody does sign with rhode runner #pretty much every polaroid will be signed with more or less the states nickname #also polaroid's are not limited to jersey #he just happens to be the focus of the two ive done thus far #also this is probably the only polaroid drawing that will be completely finished and also on the ipad #like dont get me wrong i love procreate and the advantage of drawing on the ipad in general #but i also love doing the sketches on the computer where yeah i may have to put in more thinking but it doesnt take nearly as long #idk im sorta ranting now huh lol #anyway this was just my start to my Scene Kid NJ propaganda #there will be more #eventually #lolz

[tricoufamily]

2023 Tumblr Top 10

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Created by TumblrTop10

#villareal SWEEEEEEEEEEEEP #it's boring when there's cc i wish you could exclude tags so i could see only non cc posts #but this is the fall poster and first post in the top 10 good this is how it should be 🧘‍♂️ #the first post is my favorite post of the year and among my favorites ever <3 maybe my second favorite #i can't share my favorite favorite from my old blog bc it'd be spoilers but i'm so reposting it the second i can #and i kinda think even vaguely describing it would be spoilers bc it may have already been referenced in the story. in a way #why did you all like those paranormal investigators so much though #if i had known i would have used srwe on the full body shots they're so low quality it drives me crazy tbh lmao

[birdmenmanga]

@raventhekittycat

hi okay so I've been mulling this one over for the past day or two and I think I have the answer. not to be using hamburger to explain anything to an american but you're my detco mutual so I'm going to try and explain it in detco terms

There's a post going around recently about how if you've read detco and only detco, the first time hakuba shows up you're going to be totally flummoxed, because damn this guy is clearly important, he gets to be even cooler than Shinichi, he's got a half-page shot of him (in such a panel-dense series such as Detective Conan, no less!!) and he's got a fucking hawk. he's CLEARLY important. everything about the narrative is indicating that you need to PAY ATTENTION to hakuba and that he's the coolest guy and he's important!!!! and then he dies in the case lol (not for real. but still.)!! and you're like huh??? what was that. why did aoyama do that.

But with the context of magic kaito this totally makes sense. He's a beloved character that people have been waiting decades to see again. Of course Aoyama is going to hype him up!! It's his big moment after years of being locked in the backrooms!!!

Anyways reading birdmen for me was kind of like that. The author's previous series, Kekkaishi, was pretty one-dimensional at the beginning, and even after the main plot started picking up at around volume 6, it still felt quite understandable. I knew what she was trying to get at, and the spectacular job she did with the anthropocene and climate change metaphor towards the end of that series really made me interested in the rest of her works. That and the way she writes familial relationships is absolutely DEVASTATING. (I mean this with the highest of praise)

But when I read BIRDMEN for the first time, I was probably in... middle school, maybe? And I read it, sure, but I didn't get it. I could see what was literally happening on the page but the narrative choices were absolutely baffling at times. Why skip over the entire part of the plot where they figure out who the birdman that saved them was? She blatantly doesn't care about that. What does she care about then?? I knew I didn't get it, I knew there were parts of it that were important and I couldn't figure out why and THAT'S how it dug its pretty little claws into me. Even after I finished catching up it nagged at me a little bit, not often at all, but enough that every once in a while I go, huh, right, that was a thing, let me go read it again.

For the record this type of story haunting has happened to me twice. First time was the Heart of Thomas, second time was BIRDMEN. I think the thing is that these are both stories which are not what other people say they are and I think I came into both of these stories with a misconception, trying to look too hard for things that weren't important and therefore missing the things that were.

Because sure, BIRDMEN is about mental illness. Yeah, it's about an evil scientific organization growing mutants in a lab. Yeah, it's about what it means to leave your humanity behind. That's all technically correct, on a surface level, and the fandom at large likely agrees with these takes for the most part, but in my opinion none of that really delves into what the thematic messaging of the story is about.

There are cryptic conversations about authority and human extinction and peculiar outfit and ability choices. You can tell these choices weren't made to serve the purpose of "writing exciting shonen manga" because that was what she did for the most part in Kekkaishi and you can tell she wasn't putting her whole pussy into doing that here. So what was she doing? What's like. All of this. Waves my hands at this.

The short answer is that it's really about the interplay between capitalism (represented by humanity) and communism (represented by birdmen), and explores the role institutional white supremacy (EDEN) plays in enforcing capitalism. It is ALSO about queer liberation and the importance of community, but hey, that double-stacks conveniently with the communism metaphor.

But also take this opinion of mine with a grain of salt. As far as I know I'm the only one who really truly deeply believes that it is not only AN interpretation of the work, but one that was fully intended by the author.

So basically, I like it, because I think it says something true and beautiful that I also believe in, even if I didn't have the words for it the first time I read it. But I don't really think that's what people really look for in a media recommendation.

Do I like it? Yes, I love it. Will I recommend it to others? Yeah, sure. But do I think it's deeply flawed? Yeah, absolutely. It's flawed in the same ways as The Witch from Mercury— a rushed ending, too many threads that were opened and never tied together. The pacing and characterization is perfect in the beginning, and too rushed at the end. There are prerequisites you basically HAVE to read in order to understand the story (tempest for G-Witch and the communist manifesto for birdmen). I think a truly good story wouldn't have any of these things so if people don't like it I never blame them.

It's my personal experiences that make birdmen so profound to me. If you are not queer I just don't think Eishi coming out as a birdman to his mom will hit the same, just as an example. Sorry that I wasn't the kid you wanted me to be. I know you love me and you just want the best for me and that's why you're so controlling, because you think I can be saved by conforming to societal expectations. But I can't live like that. I can't be like that. And that's why I must go. etc.

Aesthetically I do love birdmen a lot. If I had to describe it in a few words it would probably be "chilling", "beautiful", and "powerful", which nicely coincides with the type of things I personally like to draw. It's also silly to a small degree but it's so serious and I know Tanabe can be way way way funnier (read kekkaishi for this. kekkaishi and hanazakari no kimitachi he were foundational to my sense of sequential art humor) so that's not really the standout trait of this series.

I can't let it go because I'm chewing this series like a bone. And it's taking me years but I am getting that sweet sweet marrow. By god. We are on year 3 of this shit and I am GOING to understand this series. and I'm going to make 3 video essays about it

#just thinking thoughts... #stray bird thoughts #so it's like... I don't like it because birdmen is good #I think I like it because I am a certain type of person and the author was trying to say something specifically to the type of person I am #OH #I'M THE TARGETED AUDIENCE THATS WHY I LIKE IT. #YEAH THATS REALLY IT!!! #A long time ago I said that birdmen wasn't written for the people who read it at the time it serialized. #it was written for the people they would become. #and I stand by that 100% #if it really stays with you there is going to be a reason even if you can't articulate it yet #and it may APPEAR sloppy to someone who doesn't see the queer or communist metaphor #like 'what is she doing what is she saying here she's not saying anything meaningful and emphasizing the wrong things' #but that sort of presumes she is gunning to make 'the best shonen manga ever' #which she clearly isn't. #I remember when I was reading fma with a bunch of my classmates and I'd lend them a volume or two every day #and a piece of feedback I received that has stuck with me was 'volume 15 was so boring' #(that was the volume recounting the ishval civil war. it was boring because we were middle schoolers and didn't REALLY get it.) #and like. I think to people who are looking for something like kks. the whole thing is going to feel like fma volume 15 #like WHAT is she going on about? ? ? #like witch hat and dunmesh I think are similar types of stories but I think these two are just executed way better than bm #but because of that it is just not as compelling to me you know. #like yeah yeah it's well constructed. we all see it's well constructed. #the metaphor is so well constructed that I don't feel the need to point it out. everyone is saying it already you know #but bm is cryptic enough and just slightly missed that execution enough that I feel like I'm pulling the analysis out of a smoking wreckage #recently I've been watching mentourpilot videos about airplane accidents and like. that's exactly it. #there's nothing to say about a perfectly executed flight. #it's the ones that failed. and in particular the ones that just barely failed by a little bit. that compels people the most. #cue my de communism is failure post. bc that bm sure did fail.