his little smirk whenever he gets to go be annoying at knuckles is sooo funny. funny light-hearted sonic game

Ares,*knocks over books on his desk*: Oh no. Not my feminist literature books that I study everyday, and that I bought from a woman owned library.

Ares: .... I'm 7'1

talking abt that one thing in velma thats on my mind a lot for the past few days (that turned into a big incoherent rambling about gay rep in media)

i'm seeing jokes about how the queer representation in mystery inc being so much better than the queer representation in velma and honestly it makes me want to go on a whole tangent about my thoughts on queer representation nowadays vs the more subtle examples decades prior.

There's this weird debate that goes on online about what is "good" queer representation, and one of the most notable and honestly annoying examples is that queer representation has to be so subtle that you could easily miss it/ignore it. i've always hated that take because its a claim mostly said by straight people who are uncomfortable with seeing characters who are openly queer and/or state their identity, but they present it as some sort of push for subtle and nuanced writing. personally i do prefer it when a character just, identifies as how they are without explaining their identity, but that doesn't mean flat out explaining your orientation is inherently bad representation. its why i will always defend the very clunky and awkward high guardian spice scene. it is absolutely poorly directed and written, but that doesn't make it "bad representation". however, I do consider the character who explains that he's trans bad representation because he is flat, uninteresting and very clearly a creator self insert. he doesn't feel like a well rounded character who's also a trans man, but just an incredibly sanitized example of trans representation.

i have many, many issues with helluva boss/hazbin hotel and i do genuinely find some depictions of queer characters just flat out offensive (you can argue with me about how angel dust being written like your average 90s gay stereotype is woke actually because he has trauma, i dont care), but i do admire and appreciate that the series doesn't want to sanitize its queer characters, even if its done poorly. though i could go into a whole rant about how i find it very telling that female characters that are queer are far less sexualized or allowed to be problematic compared to their queer male counterparts.

anyways back to velma. that show does something that i've always found pretty irritating in queer representation which is just this weird lack of faith in its audience. characters can't have a slow burn anymore. internalized thoughts, anger, frustration, longing. you have to immediately know that two characters are gay for each other, even if they're lifelong enemies. its like when modern horror movies open with the gore because they're scared people are going to be bored or leave early. there's no subtlety or chemistry between daphne and velma, they're just lovers because idk, its two girls who hate each other and who doesn't love that.

then i think about how mystery inc handled velma and her sexuality, how she was allowed to be well rounded and nuanced before you slowly realize that "oh, she doesn't like boys". i know her whole thing with shaggy is controversial among fans but i always loved how she does do something pretty unlikable but not immoral. yeah, it is shitty to force shaggy to choose between her and his dog, but i can understand her line of thinking and empathize with her. and i do like how they become friends in the end despite their awkward break up. It's always fun rewatching it and realizing that their incredibly awkward and cringe relationship was meant to be awkward and cringe. it was supposed to be weird and difficult to watch, because those two weren't meant to date each other. you could see how hard velma was trying to make the relationship work despite the fact that you never get the vibe that either character was full invested in it, unlike daphne and fred's relationship.

then you had velma and her relationship with marcie, which started off as sort of a catty rivalry (not full on attempted murder, i mean holy shit hbo velma) that slowly grows to where you're completely convinced that these two did gradually like each other. and i do really enjoy stuff like that, more subtle writing like that. which doesn't just apply to queer rep btw, my favorite ships are relationships that feel understated, something you have to really dig for and pay attention to. its why i consider bubbline the best f/f representation in cartoon. because its subtle, but not too subtle where it feels out of no where when they kiss, and nuanced in ways that enhances the relationship AND characters.

there's a good amount of relationships i see in cartoons where the creator, who is usually queer themselves, often wants to depict queer relationships, but is weirdly adverse to depicting the uglier aspects of that character, and refuses to add subtlety to it. steven universe is a show i've always felt conflicted on its handling of queer representation because on the one hand i appreciate writing lesbians that are messy, traumatized and make constant mistakes. but on the other hand, the show goes out of its way to ignore these issues and/or make excuses for it, making the decision to make these characters messy and complicated genuinely baffling (this is also one of the big issues i have with catradora and stolitz).

it makes me think back to my own work too. i really enjoy making fluffy, easily digestible gay content for my followers and myself because it puts me in a good headspace. But even now and then i like exploring those little nuances too, because i don't really enjoy stories with little conflict. Because of that acknowledgement of how satisfying it is to write fluffy, queer rep, you end up putting yourself in other creator's shoes. you're so used to media that either dehumanizes gay people or tells people that they don't exist that you push yourself to make the most in your face queer rep you can but its at the cost of an interesting and subtle characters. characters that don't really have arcs or places to learn and grow.

With bugtopia i made a joke about how i want some of my queer rep to feel like you're being queerbaited. It's not literal, obviously, but mixed in with characters who are already married and in same gender relationships, i really want to write dynamics that feel subtle enough for a bit of a slow burn. even if you know they're going to end up together, to at least value the characters on their own before centering them on their relationships. queerbaiting is something that deserves all the criticism it can get, but it is embarrassing when queerbaiting feels genuinely more interesting than actual queer rep because queerbaiting has that factor of "maybe they won't get together" that adds that bit of intrigue, vs so many shows that repeatedly hammer in your head "don't worry guys, they're gonna be lesbian lovers".

mystery inc (and many other shows) being forced to keep a relationship obvious while subtle to get through censorship really forced creators to be creative with their storytelling and not center characters around their relationship and identity. but nowadays i think shows like to take the easy way out. for me, i always thought the most impactful example of queer representation in steven universe is "Rose's Scabbard". I genuinely don't enjoy that episode because it's a good example of the show thinking that trauma is an excuse for shitty behavior, but i cant deny that an entire episode of pearl breaking down and finally accepting that she wasn't the center of rose's world. it's the crew being forced to be creative and push through censors to telling a compelling story about a traumatized lesbian slowly realizing that she basically deluded herself into thinking she was someone's savior.

I think it's silly to try to place good queer representation in one box. like subtle queer rep is good, but also queer rep where a character flat out states that their gay. where I think it falls apart is when it either reinforces stereotypes without properly deconstructing or expanding on them, makes the characters so overly kind and non-controversial that the relationship is just boring, or try to make your messy and complicated characters but the narrative refuses to hold them accountable or at least acknowledge that they're doing something wrong. and to clarify on that last part, i'm not asking for some hays code nonsense where every bad person goes to prison and/or promises to stop being a bad person again. i mean the narrative doesnt just fucking sugarcoat their behavior. i don't want to see helluva boss ignore the fact that stolas made blitzo call him out for only using him for sex and then pathetically rush to justify their relationship by giving them a bizarrely sanitized and sweet backstory. and i don't want to see catra literally end the fucking universe and only do something good because she's straight up out of options and the show just decides that that was her redemption and she doesn't need to do anything to atone for what she did (including repeatedly abusing and verbally berating adora).

anyways velma has none of those interesting qualities and i'm pretty sure daphne and velma kissed because the creator is a weird pervert who thinks two girls kissing is hot.

HEY GUYS I NEED YOUR HELP!!

ok so first off WE GOT INTO THE FINALIST ROUND FOR AWE'S FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE CHALLENGE!!!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

we're in the running to win $100,000 to help us make digital objects into a realty for everyone. this is a huge deal. I am in a daze writing this and literally cannot articulate how major this is

we need people to watch our announcement video on Twitter multiple times to help more people see it! the twitter algorithm boosts things based on watch time, so just opening the link and letting the video run a couple times will be a HUGE help 🙏

VIDEO LINK IS HERE

Figmin XR will never have a subscription based cost model, and ALL of the things shown above are FREE to download within the app right now.

when this technology becomes as ubiquitous as smartphones (and it WILL, possibly even sooner than we think), this is the future we want people to be able to look forward to... and the first step of getting to that future is proving that it's one people actually want.

Helmet hair

I think it's hilarious how Suzanne Collins has such vibrant, deep characters but we only get useful descriptions of some of them. Like, we know every inch of Ripred, it's clear that she knew excatly what that dreamy beast was supposed to look like, but there's absolutely no consensus on the bats, especially Ares. My writers' group and I have been trying desperately to figure out just how big the bats are, but there's not a lot to go off of. Their carrying capacity is important for all the logistics, but weather they can carry a whole boat or just three kids and a cockroach is always up in the air. It doesn't help that Ares, the one we get to see the most of, is just legendarily jacked. He can carry a whole ass Ripred (who again, we have clear descriptions of, he's six feet tall and jacked to hell and back as well). So okay, got it, the bats are huge as well, but then we get all these descriptions of them just vibing in enclosed spaces, and when Ares gets arrested it only takes two people to carry him to trial. Are the Regalians just also incredibly jacked? How many body builders are there down here? We also just never get to know what kind of bat Ares (or any of the other fliers for that matter) is. It really is just left up to the artist's interpretation. There's cover art of him as a microbat, a flying fox, some weird amalgamation of both... there are no wrong answers. I love seeing all the fanart here because we can't agree either so we just get a big buffet of different beautiful bats to look at.

The only concrete bat descriptions we get are that they all have bright, vibrant, and diverse warrior-cats OC pelts. You got your adorable tabby bats, your zebra bats, evil red bats, and edgy loner black bats.

Trans Diluc anyone?

TW SA AND ABVSE MENTION

okay hi, i know this is unusual for this account but i just wanted to put something out there. apparently my stuff is going around on the fake disorder cringe reddit which is..well. it is what it is. i just want to say some things.

if you have a problem with me grow up and say it to my face. hiding behind reddit is pathetic. i have said it a million times before but what you see here is a mere fraction of my life and my experiences. some people on reddit were saying that my idea of “abvsive” is most likely me just whining because i have to do chores. and ill say that im sorry for you, and i feel for you. you sound very lonely and hateful and sad and isolated. i hope you can find something better. truly. i will never understand how people see content online and assume they know some hidden truth, like theyre the only one who can see through the lie.

you want the truth? the truth is that i Do whine when i have to do chores. and i cry when my mother takes away my food as punishment. and i close my eyes and take it when she hurts me. i do what im told because i know what happens if i dont. i keep my secrets inside, and i keep my mouth shut, not because i want to, but because i have to. because every single time i even attempted to tell my mother about any of the sxual azzaults i endured, half of which were perpetrated by my own family members, she told me i was so ugly that no one would want to touch me like that, so i must be making it up.

so yeah. i whine when i have to empty the dishwasher for the third time in one day when there are at least 4 other people in the household capable of emptying a damn dishwasher.

i am lucky enough to have these moments of normal, every day disappointment and frustration. i am lucky enough to have time in between to complain about doing the dishes. you are lucky if you have the time to put strangers down behind the safety of anonymity for no reason other than you can and youre bored.

my life is real. just because you cant fathom it doesn’t mean it’s fake. my diagnosis is real. i am real. find a better hobby and learn how to love yourself.

thanks so much to anyone reading and to everyone who’s supported me so far. i finally have hope in my life. i am forever grateful and i hope these insecure people can find some hope of their own one day. we all deserve it.

happy holidays and merry christmas!

ive been thinking about. turning in my head. why didnt i like bottoms. well because it was bad. what about it was bad. many such things. but what i'm really being struck by 2nite is how dedicated it is to veering away from earnestness. what! why are you. as a movie. irony poisoned. this thought occurred to me mostly because i started watching theater camp, which is ripe for comparison. ayo and molly gordon in it. writing done by the leads. centers on people who are fuuucking losers. and really what i keep coming back to is that the premise of bottoms is oh we're losers no one likes us because we're ugly and untalented. and then every sentence out of their mouths is like the cruelest thing imaginable? and i know it's satirical but it doesn't feel like a loving informed satire. it feels like a shove a kid on the ground point and laugh satire. vs theater camp. which is about theater kids. starring theater kids who ended up on broadway. and definitely satirizes the various kind of Types you tend to get in that crowd, but it's funny. and people are friends with each other. and like each other. and they're still selfish! and stuck up! and vain! and jealous! but there's so much more there that these are notes of a profile and it's not overwhelming hour thirty of fuck you you're stupid you're a cunt you're ugly i don't like you i hate you. like fundamentally the difference while watching bottoms im like i dont think they hate you for being ugly and annoying i think they hate you for verbally swinging on anyone who ever says hi to you. and theater camp. i go. oh i know the exact phrasing someone would use when they were calling you annoying. because they would think you're annoying for being flamboyant and passionate. or straight and passionate. like it's so. wow this is a long post. tldr. bottoms feels like. i'm not cringe im not cringe said while turning into a corncob. theater camp feels like. dashcon 2012

wip wednesday: a couple quick fem!mav updates, dw about it

Go! Kidou: I understand your frustration towards Ichihoshi and the coach being unable to do anything, but attempting to attack him during the game could've led to less focus on the actual game, more distrust between the team, and made Ichihoshi look more like a victim than he deserved and discredited you-

AreOri! Kidou: he tried to hurt endou

Go! Kidou: -You should have stabbed him.

nostalgia for a lost past is like largely morally neutral i think it's more in how that past is imagined (and how much we acknowledge that the past is inherently imaginary) where we start to see issues but its like. really really weird to see how many self-styled left wing people seem to feel that reminiscing over a charming and idyllic is somehow inherently progressive. like what does the word progressive mean on its most fundamental level come ON.

FINALLY A CRUMB OF CONTENT ARUDHDHDHDHDBXNDNSN😭❤️❤️❤️💖💖💜MROW

thought this was a fun comparison...... top artwork was made when I was 13-14, bottom art was made 10 years later...... apparently I have just always been like this 🕷🧁

cool part of oc design: fashion, personality, lore cooler part of oc design: cyborg arm logistics