I love this SO MUCH. I love how Whenua is teaching him that just physical power doesn’t make you strong, and that there are more important things, and it’s just soooo goood!

So we all know that one chapter in Tales of the Masks, the first chapter that screamed Kotahu energy

How come Kopaka didn't think to use his Kanoi Akaku Nuva to find Pohatu?

This has been on my mind for a while and I'm genuinely curious, like yeah I get panic and all but come on Kopaka

Tales Of The Masks is such a funny book to me.

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Because if you look at it from the perspective of its framing device? I'm not a fan. The mask hunt conceit worked well in 2001, when the Toa were just starting out, needed to learn to work together, etc. Then repeating that the next year with the Krana felt a bit more forced, but was still sorta acceptable. But doing it a third time with the Nuva masks felt deeply stale, even as a kid, and on top of that felt like it ran counter to the premise of the Nuva Masks being one-of-a-kind upgrades brought about by their transformation. That's not even if you also consider the whole thematic angle of the mask's power extending to those in their vicinity, something something Unity something.

Looking for masks that really shouldn't make sense to exist in the first place, somehow got overlooked when they were searching every nook and cranny in 01, and just felt on some level sisyphean after gaining and then losing the Golden Masks that had all that stuff in one nice package anyway, just never really sat right with me. And now I have an extra layer of frustration from it given how some people point to that as proof of the early years being shallow and kiddie, unlike the later years with their edginess and violence.

But at the same time, when you actually read it, Tales Of The Masks also kind of embodies a lot of what made the early years so great; the fun dynamics among the Toa, the island's many mysteries and more and more signs that the Turaga knew so much more than they were letting on, and just some genuinely sweet moments of development of these initially-simple characters, taking advantage of the breathing room afforded to them by the lower stakes, that the Ignition years just couldn't or didn't make time for.

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Idunno. It's frustrating to me, because I've seen people lately dismissing 01-03 as nothing but shallow collectathons, and honestly it feels like G2 made that same mistake to some extent. And on some level I can understand where they're coming from, because yeah, it did lean on the collection aspect a little too hard at times, to its own detriment at times. (See again, all my complaints about the Nuva masks.)

At the same time, I feel like painting it as just "good guys find masks, fight bad guys, end of story" is just, a painfully reductive and bad-faith reading of those years, when they had so much else going for them.

The worldbuilding wasn't as broad and expansive, but it felt more intimate, with the MNOG games in particular really fleshing out the Matoran culture and day-to-day; while also leaving enough open to the imagination, paired with the pervading sense of mystery and unknowns waiting around every corner, to use that as a launching-off point.

The characters were pretty simple, yeah, but they worked great as part of a dynamic, with distinctive and enjoyable personalities thst could be played off each other to fantastic effect - and still are, given a lot of the posts that circulate the Bonkle corner of tumblr.

And heck, even the supposedly simple "good versus evil" conflict wasn't what it seemed at first glance, with the Rahi being innocent animals under Makuta's control. The Bohrok ultimately turned out to have a good and important purpose, that whole conflict only happening because of the series of catastrophic events that led to the Matoran being displaced to where they weren't supposed to be in the first place. And even Makuta himself was supposed to be more sorely misguided than genuinely evil, until his rework in 2004. (Whereas the later years, if anything, felt a lot more straightforward and shallow about that a lot of the time, even if the presentation was more visceral. Why do the bad guys do the bad things? Because they want power. Why do they want power? Because they're the bad guys.)

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Point is, I feel like Tales Of The Masks is kind of an interesting case study of both some of the best and worst aspects of the early years' writing both evident in full force. For many years I considered it my least favorite of the Chronicles books just because of its framing device, and it was only on revisiting it more recently that I was able to re-evaluate my opinion, and appreciate the genuinely good stories contained within. I just wish certain others would give it that same reconsideration.

for the mutant mayhem request, what aboute splinter having to sit in the principals office and says “is my son in trouble?” and the principal says “no I believe Leonardo may be autistic” and splinter says “I know”

this ask has been collecting dust in my inbox for months and finally got around to drawing it 😭

idk how to say this without sounding really boomer-ey, but like, what happened to horror content for kids? maybe i’m using the word “horror” a little liberally but i remember when i was a kid there was SO much out there that existed solely for the purpose of scaring kids in a safe, fun, age-appropriate way. just off the top of my head there’s goosebumps, scary stories to tell in the dark, tales from the crypt (little before my time though), coraline, mirror mask, monster house, dark crystal (more incidentally scary but w/e), even courage the cowardly dog; all these really fantastic books and shows and movies that let kids explore being scared on their own terms.

now there’s idk, those new addams family movies? but those aren’t really scary.

i see people talking about the “kid-ification” of horror games and i can’t help but wonder if part of the reason kids latch onto that stuff so much now is because there’s nowhere else for them to experience healthy, safe fear. a little kid wants to get the thrill of being scared, but their parents won’t let them watch any actual horror movies, so they go on youtube and what do you know, there’s markiplier playing another cheap horror game set in a toy store or whatever, and now that kid’s fear quota is being met. (obviously there’s more to it than that, but it’s a theory i have)

this like, doesn’t really matter probably but idk, i feel bad that ~kids these days~ aren’t getting the experience of something scary made specifically for them with their genuine enjoyment in mind, rather than whatever the next fnaf ripoff is that just wants to sell them merch. being a kid and watching a well-made scary movie feels like you’re finally being taken seriously; you’re not being babied or coddled, you’re being trusted to face the skeksis and the other mother and the nebbercracker house and not back down. i wish people were still making media that respected kids that much.

So I'm CONSTANTLY bringing up this issue, where it's the first appearance of Stephanie as Robin, so let me just show it to yall.

It is so so real to me. Tim's parents love him and he loves them. Bruce and Steph work together well. Steph wanted to kill her dad because he killed her mom. Bruce respects Steph and saw greatness in her. STEPH CALLING BRUCE DUSKY!!! Steph being respected. It is so so important to me. This is my Batman and Robin.

🥊

HERE’S HOW BARRISOKA CAN STILL WIN-

GGY Week Day 7: Free Space AU

and here’s tarbell! he’s apart of an au of mine where tony gets glitchtrapped instead of killed at the end of ggy. there’s plenty of notes about his design on the drawing, but i’m not gonna talk much about the au itself since it’s an aspiring fic that i wouldn’t want to spoil. tarbell and rab are very close though :) they are 100% completely different entities and people from gregory and tony tho. very sentient, they just… may not have very humanlike morals and values lol

i’ve made tons of art for these 2 recently (most in my sketchbook) so i’ll probably share more later!

Drawing every mask from Majora's Mask [11/24]

☂️Kafei's Mask☂️

1. the image of onua and whenua sitting eating lunch out of a sack together is adorable (even with the questionable nature of eating in this universe shhhh)

2. i love the mysticism in the true power of the toa, that it’s not their powers, it’s their strength as a team

3. gali was angry at onua for not standing up against the others wanting to split up? interesting

4. WHENUA YOU LIL SNEAK just casually dropping a hint like that and then being like ‘oh never mind it doesn’t matter anyway’

Most of you are going as this for Halloween. And it doesn't even require a costume.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/

#COVID #COVIDisNotOver #COVIDisAirborne #COVID19 #eugenics #ableism

nbc hannibal introducing this incredibly dog coded character and saying hey. he doesn't fit into this society. he'd rather be in a forest. he needs a pack with him but he's so painfully lonely. he bites. he's territorial. he wants to be loved so badly and he's constantly pretending he's harmless and normal but he's not he's not he's not -

he lives in a place called Wolf Trap. don't you want him to finally break free?

Made a Rena Rouge mermaid design. :3

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Please do not use or re-post my artwork without my permission. Thank you!   (reblogs, however, are welcome and appreciated)

I do not own Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, nor it’s characters. All rights to their owners.

What Pecharunt Teaches Us about Love

Ok the title sounds funny but, I just find something about Pecharunt so interesting and a bit tragic.

Pecharunt's expression of "love" is gift-giving; it showers the old couple with materials. To it, love is conditional and takes form in objects, or gifts to simply put. In order to be loved, it needs to grant the wishes of the couple. Love in a way can be transactional (gift-giving), but usually we understand that when you love someone, you don't really expect to have anything in return when giving them something.

It’s one thing to gift someone. Humans have done that all the time. But does love not always have to mean about the objects. Love is about the thoughts, the words, the time spent together, the memories, going through rough moments together, the actions other than gift-giving (hugging, singing, playing, talking, etc.). And the story mentions that the couple took care of Pecharunt, so there must have been moments where the couple genuinely cared for it without its influence.

Pecharunt's action distorts the goodness of love, which parallels the professor - their obsessions diverted them away from taking care of Arven. Their own selfishness conflated with their works of expressing love. Ironic, isn't it. (Disclaimer: love has different forms, but in this analysis, I am focusing on familial love and love in general).

We have a child who may have been spoiled rotten, but nevertheless loved and taken well by the parents, who wishes for their love and does fulfill their wishes, but in questionable ways that caused it to be separated from the couple by its own actions. We have a parent who works hard to make their dreams (their own childish dream with their dream of living with their son) come true, but at the cost of spending time with their son. Both depart from their loved ones to achieve a goal that would become reality for some time, but their efforts still end up in vain and would never make up the lost time that could have been spent with their loved ones.

Is it still really genuine love if you use questionable means to achieve so? Yes and no. The motivations behind the actions or methods can be truly love and well-intentioned, but can be still be morally wrong. Love is an interesting thing; it is a good thing that can be used for the wrong things.

Pecharunt's use of power (be it unknowingly or not is a different story) to influence in fulfilling both the couple's and its own desire - seems paradoxical - Pecharunt wants to be loved, so it gives more and more- it seems innocent/harmless yet selfish because it wants more despite being already loved.

It would be neat if we could go to the crystal pool, have Terapagos out again, summon the mist, and meet both or either one: the couple and the old man. On one side, the couple meets Pecharunt again, and tells it (this couple is from the timeline where Pecharunt has been gone for a long time), that they realized they never needed the mask, all they ever wanted was Pecharunt and for it to be happy.

On the other hand, Ogerpon meets the man again (obv before he got presumably killed), and we get to talk to him for some time. He thanks us for taking care of Ogerpon what not.

Treasure the moments, not just the materials. Because the materials can only mean so much if you forget about the memories you've created with others.