So I Just Saw A Post By A Random Personal Blog That Said “don’t Follow Me If We Never Even Had A

And worst of all, for me to live 🎶 I gotta kill the part of me that saw 🎵 that I needed you more

Happy plagueiversary

just once I want to see a good post critiquing makeup culture that doesn’t turn out to be made by some janky radfem blog

This is why gintama always wins <3

genuinely one of the worst things that’s happened to television in the last few years (exacerbated by streaming services) is death of Filler. going from 20 episodes to 8 because “we didn’t really need that episode where the main characters went to the beach right? it had no long lasting effect” but we DID!!! we needed to see how they act without the Big Bad Plot and to establish the dynamics between the characters and lay in the sun (do they forget sunscreen? how do they react to a thieving seagull? do they get buried in the sand or do they do the burying?). the plot isn’t everything. the action doesn’t hit as hard without the quiet moments. give us character development and our little scenes back

actually, i love you, so you cannot be ugly to me. sometimes i think i have no idea what you actually look like. i know we've been friends for like a while but if someone asked oh who's that i'd talk about how funny you are, how charming. about how i have watched you grow as a person, about how you often choose kindness where i would honestly choose a feral violence. i know you keep a tally of your mistakes and they run around your brain - but in mine? i think they never even make it past the front gate. when i think of you my heart swells up with all the weird shit we've done together and how you've talked me through heartbreak and how i've held your hair back and how we both are like, in therapy, and totally above gossiping, but also like, are going to spill the work tea.

i know! i know you feel ugly. i know you hate that you show symptoms, that you're not normal. you said once - i'm afraid to show others the real me. but i see the other things - about these little quirks that are so, so endearing to me. how you are gentle to strangers. how you stand by your friends. how comfortable you make everybody. how you say hey, did you get home safe? even when it's like 6 feet i'm walking.

i love you. yesterday you spent an hour liveblogging the episode of owl house that you're on and i was like - this person is so fucking amazing. last night you said sorry for infodumping. as if you have anything to apologize for. as if part of the reason we're friends is because i love it when you do this, i love listening. i love you, idiot. i love you so fucking much. i want to stick you in a cage so you stop getting random injuries. i want to throw you into a garbage disposal every time you send me that one specific meme. i love you, i love you, i love you. you mean absolutely everything to me.

A (devastating) Christmas present from Mr. Stroud himself, posted to Twitter.

Be warned: spoilers for The Hollow Boy.

general techniques to avoid gross shipping of your characters

have most characters be non-minors, around the same age range. this is mostly to minimize underage nonsense.

while family relationships are important, save them as background elements, explored every now and then. focus mainly on the bonds of non-related characters and how their different backgrounds play off each other.

limit the overly edgy tone, where pain and suffering are near-romanticized. try to emphasize wholesomeness, health, and the various ways characters can have good relationships despite their differences. a lot of nintendo franchises are good examples.

avoid creating significant characters who are utterly irredeemable with harmful ethics. (for me personally, i limit elements such as abuse and discrimination for background conflicts while presenting more interesting, morally gray arguments, where either side is right/flawed) if you’re going to have a villain, either make them team rocket goofy or classic disney fun.

just. try not to have characters + relationships rely on racial tropes. if you overly rely on a tough dark-skinned / dainty light-skinned formula, you’re going to see some racist shipping. mix it up. round ‘em out.

same goes for gendered tropes. if a dude is downright violent and irresponsible and a level-headed girl has to put up with his flaws without him facing consequence, that’s a downright unbalanced relationship. and do keep in mind that if two boys utterly despise each other, people will absolutely take that a certain way. again, with #3, try to play off disdain as comedic or with exception rather than constant seething hatred.

obviously these aren’t hard and fast rules, and what/how you create will vary. but it’s how i generally approach my work

can you imagine howl coming back to the castle fully ready to Gloat to Everyone (mostly Sophie) that he had defeated the witch!! Love Me Sophie, I’m Clearly The Most Awesome How Could You Possibly Resist (in all honesty, he probably realised that witch was a decoy and returned to the castle to Complain and Moan and Demand Attention)

but when he gets back, michael slams the door open with a frantic ‘hOWL WE LOST SOPHIE SHES NOT HERE THE WITCH SAID SHE HAD MS ANGORIAN THE SEVEN-LEAGUE BOOTS ARE GONE’ and howl looks over at calcifer who has gone greenish-blue and sulky with something a little like guilt

damn it, calcifer, he thinks, only somewhat angrily. calcifer would never give up one of his own. besides, howl’s more terrified by what he’s going to do next than anything else.

‘i can’t stay,’ he says gallantly to the collection of ladies in the room, and percival. ‘i’ve got to rescue that fool sophie.’

one of the letties - honestly, howl could be bothered to figure out which one, but his mind is otherwise occupied - juts out her chin stubbornly. it must be a hatter thing, because sophie did it a lot too. ‘you’d better’, she says, and howl swallows a gulp. michael’s fearful talk of aunts suddenly seemed to make sense.

‘of course’, he tells her, his mega-watt smile snapping on for an instant. ‘won’t be long. ladies.’ he shut the door to the castle and turned around, orienting himself. he’d have to raise a wind.

Sending out the love to all my fellow donut-house-builders.

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