I'm talking to a machine

@thecicadasong yeah i havent actually had like, Anons trying to get fresh w/ me about what i Should be drawing (i think ive gotten anon hate like, twice? once for passing along a tweet abt respecting homeless people, another time i have No idea why they were trying to roast me but they were also...weirdly bad at it) but the very rare occasions someone’s tried to tell me i should be drawing different stuff for whatever reason Stick With Me b/c i’m often still steamed abt shit that mightve happened years back but it was THAT annoying lmfao & i reaaally hate when ppl get patronizing &/or when i can tell they’re acting like whatever angle they’re taking is going over my head or they think i’m clueless & i can’t even tell they see me that way lol and i’m like, oh my god i mean it doesn’t make me concerned if i Only Appreciate Boys b/c they’re mostly who i draw b/c yknow......my drawing corner is some rando over here just entertaining myself & Xpressing myself. and a real limited amt of my Interests = the ones im able/interested enough in to draw, & then i tend to wanna draw them a million times lmao....it’s not necessarily the One Unfiltered Reflection of all my interests and all the characters i like, cuz it’s not the only way i think abt shit and express things, & if somebody thinks that my Portfolio not being >50% Girls means that it’s b/c i’ve totally hated girls all along.....that’d be their prerogative i guess. also good lord but that’d be a bad litmus test anyways like.......alllll the misogynist dude artists who draw plenty of ~female characters~ like Yikes City ahhhhh god thats such a fucking cursed realm like. the people so sexist they should be banned from depicting girls and women in any medium. and banned in general God Anyways And Yeah like. the terrible relationships thing too.........like really, this is what you think is appealing???? its too clear sometimes when some man writing this kind of stuff has NO real idea how to think of a woman as an actual person and if they’re trying to write from that perspective it’s like “oh, let’s throw in a ‘smh boys are so stupid and sexist’ thought to realistically depict what it must be like to experience misogyny” and “something about a bra idk” and then call it a day, and if they’re trying to write Romance it’s just like....this Incredible Love that’s truly out of nowhere and they never bother explaining what sustains this, or they decide that the reason bitches liked pride & prejudice is totally because she thought he was a jerk and they fought but then it was like wait nvm we’re in love, right?? and they make that into like, some dude being able to be a total asshole and a really detrimental force in some girl’s life and somehow this Intensity can just be translated into Romantic Intensity no problem, it’s fine that like, they’re not even friends and who knows how to believe they can just get along in regular life and the guy is probably super disrespectful and diminishes her but whatever its fine All Of This And More.....there are so many terrible and annoying ways they do m/f relationships and it’s Really easy to just make it decently written!!! i mean of course sometimes there’s m/f ships that i think are tolerably written and i don’t hate it but also don’t particularly care one way or another but a small / hetero-leaning fandom will like Never Shut Up About It and it’s like ok please shut up about it......i mean really i definitely don’t ever go into any new piece of media expecting to give a shit about any Guy Girl couple. it was a pleasant but total surprise that i really like jeremy/christine (which is not me disavowing the nb lesbian jeremy hc by any means lol) and it was NOT complicated why!!! really in fact a couple of the biggest reasons i found it Especially Good is like, ten seconds in total lmao and it’s “jeremy and christine cracking up by squawking at each other on the couch” and “jeremy doing that Ecstatic Stimming Twirl after kissing christine for 0.003 seconds” lmao.....like!!!! consider showing that the characters can actually have genuine fun interacting with each other for longer than five seconds!!!! give us a single reason why they’d be drawn to each other As People!!! it’s notttt thaaaat harrrrrd aaaaaaaaaA THE WEIRD CHARACTERS yeah i love a true Quirky character and not in the like.....bad clichéd quirky way but like. just someone who’s weird!! the nerdy awkward guys who manifest this by like....maybe being a tiny bit socially clumsy are like, boring and whatever a dime a dozen. but when people are funky and in a sort of fun way and it’s genuinely part of how they interact with others....it’s real relatable lmao i don’t have any very Weird Persona at this point but back in the day i did a bit moreso b/c like, firstly interacting w ppl tended to make me Nervous so it’s like ah hell i’ll do a bit. and then also there’s the classic “well i have this Weirdness abt me that i can’t turn off that ppl seem to dislike, so i’ll put on this extra layer of weirdness that i can try to be vaguely entertaining with.” and then you aren’t popular at all still lol but at least you’ve got your niche amongst whoever does actually like you.....Weird Quirky Guys characters are fun and like, it’s funny that nato of the black suits is Like That in terms of being a lil weirdo who just kind of does his thing in his corner and might Say Something About Anything Apropos Of Nothing as his conversational style and he’s apparently that superlative student type but doesnt seem to actually give a shit and just has his specific interest and depression.......it’s like oh jeez!!! relatable lmao!!! everyone who has a kind of Veneer of communicating a bit erratically and maybe just always throwing out random shit when interacting with others to hope something sticks......but also the strangeness doesn’t even have to be at all performative b/c it’s rarer but super fun when there’s characters who do have that kind of more inherent weirdness that they can’t turn off that really puts people off despite like....them not really doing anything lol....now THAT’S what i call A Timeless Mood it’s funny lmao like i totally have clear Character Types and i always go for those ppl on the same general wavelength as me but it can be a bit Unpredictable and nuanced which ones will actually be adopted into the faves category......like naturally i go for the un-cool passionate excitable types but if someone’s real like, mad energetic or demanding/loud im like oops you lost me. i like people who like to / want to Socialize / have relationships but sometimes if they’re too outgoing / have that natural success at it all / are obv free of anxiety im like, again, you’ve lost me. you truly never know!! only the Most relatable can survive!! one that might seem like they should be a fave on paper might super annoy me lol or just generate Zero interest.......it’s nice to be surprised by which characters really strike a chord lol

FoZ Notes 11

Alright, we’ve rescued Tabitha, driven off an Elf surprisingly easily, and probably kicked off multiple layers of international incident in the process. What happens next?

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Von Zerbst castle is a mess of architectural influences. [This isn’t me knocking the story, this is something the narrative itself comments on]

Rose Knights are one of Gallia's elite knight groups. [Future note: Gallia’s knightly organizations all have flower/garden themes]

There's a deity with "many" arms.

Von Zerbst's servants are sexualized in their clothing, too... ugh. [And all female. Also? We’re done looking at the Von Zerbst castle. Forever]

Why is Henrietta such an angstotron? She's not even stuck on Wales anymore or anything, she's just unendingly angsting about EVERYTHING.

Mr Valliere is a man prone to physical displays of anger. [He strikes the table with his fist]

For the first time, Karin actually puts in a thing of her own. She declares Louise must be punished by the Valliere family -and EVERYONE reacts, including her husband PALING and immediately verbally backpedaling.

Karin's WEAKEST attack vaporizes a wall.

... somehow nobody knows "the Heavy Wind" is Karin La Valliere? HOW?! Oh my fucking god even HENRIETTA doesn't know Louise's mom is the Heavy Wind! This is utter bullshit. Oh, and it's been 30 years since Karin fought. This seems... improbable. On several levels.

The Valliere castle/estate is closer to Germania than to Tristain's capitol.

A surprisingly subtle bit: after all this "ohmygod you were a hero back when men were men and nobles were nobles" stuff? A comment is made that solving things with wands (ie violence) is the way of old nobles. A subtle jab at how all this praising historical heroes of war is praising efficient dealers of death. [Too bad this never really goes anywhere, like, in regard to Saito or something]

What the fuck Henrietta. You don't turn disobedient derelicts into your goddamn HEIR TO THE THRONE! [She wants to make Louise her heir, after Louise ran off and rescued Tabitha against orders in the last volume. I actually left out a bunch of dumb crap about Colbert breaking Louise and some other idiots out of jail]

Henrietta and Louise made some idiot promise to keep each other up to date on falling in love.

Vittorio Serevare St. Aegis the 32nd, pope of Romalia. He ascended only three years ago, and is pretty and young because Japan. As in, he's a little past 20. This is stupid. [Future note: It gets worse. And worse. And worse]

Priests have vows of chastity, and once a week eat vegan because of course quasi-medieval culture would give a shit.

Romalia is "poor in water". Fair enough. [Future note: Never crops up again or has any actual payoff]

The author proving he knows nothing about ants. [Vittorio, to make a point, puts his palm between a red ant nest and a black ant nest that are in the middle of killing each other. After like two minutes they stop fighting. Sorry, no, they’re go crawling over his hand to kill each other, possibly start attacking his hand]

Pope prettyboy wants to bully the elves into letting humans enter the Holy Land via threatening them with Void. He idiotically believes this is a way to avoid war/more moral than war. [Future note: If later stuff was already planned out here, then he’s instead coming up with really dumb lies in place of telling the somewhat-less-dumb truth] As such? He wants Henrietta to steal Gallia's Founder Treasure. Goddammit.

Void magic charges differently from elemental magic because why the fuck not. [Regular magic recharges from sleeping. Void magic recharges from BIG FEELS. This... is... kind of held to by canon later, admittedly]

San Marin, a coastal airship center for Gallia. Construction/development of a dumb supergolem, with Bidashal's assistance. [Future note: Contrary to what you might hope, I’ve yet to see elves utilizing their own supergolems. Not even merely very impressive golems. We learn they like to imbue intelligence into swords and stuff, animate them and all, but... no golems. For some reason]

Fouquet has been paying for Tiffania and company's living expenses. sigh. Well, I guess Gaara of Zero has fucked over Tiffania!

Finally we learn that, yes, the familiar bond has SUBTLE and SINISTER influence on the familiar -but only when physically nearby the master because DRAMA REASONS. [Basically Saito doesn’t actually miss home when he’s around Louise, doesn’t even think about home/mom/etc, and doesn’t notice he doesn’t think about these things] Oh and you can Neuralize the effect out because that's how memory erasure works right? And the Neurilzation effects the runes because shut up.

Blah blah random nonsense claim that Saito taps Louise's vision "only when she is in danger" and does so automatically. Because Louise has only been in danger twice in the whole story, right? [That is: he’s only done this vision thing twice. Also? When she’s far away and in danger several times later? What happens? That’s right, FUCKING NOTHING]

A reference to a "one-eyed demon from southern lands". I think this is a Cyclops allusion.

The dumbass Jormungandr golem has the dumbass Counter spell on it. Somehow. Fuck this shit.

Huh. Louise draws power from ANGER in specific. Interesting. [Future note: This like... continues into the next volume, and then gets dropped in favor of THE POWER OF LOVE. I actually liked the story for a few minutes there when I thought Louise drew her power from The Dark Side, especially since the narrative was sort of implying other Void users would draw on different emotions for strength. That would’ve been cool. Alas, no]

End volume 11

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In summary: remember that arc where Louise and Saito had a rift, it negatively impacted their performance, and they patched it up in the end? Let's do it AGAIN.

Oh, and the reveal that Karin is terrifying I guess. It... doesn’t really go anywhere, though?

And no, there’s not really any diplomatic repercussions for our heroes heroically doing James Bond shit. In fact, far down the line Bidashal is going to turn out to like Saito and think he’s unusually decent of a human being for a non-Elf. That’s right, kids, risking diplomatic incidents that can plunge an entire continent into war is good, clean, healthy fun for all ages!