Reblogged
"Hello, we love your work, have you considered putting yourself into an AI that can share your ideas and talk to people in your tone when you're offline?" Have you considered the sequence of words you've just typed?
Reblogged write-on-world
They De-Tumblrized Ms. Frizzle
Allow me to explain:
Everyone dropping this pic
And talking about how the new frizz her is her niece, allow me to do a direct side by side instead
These are STILL not the same woman. Where is the icon fashion, the earrings (the chameleon, which might be in the new show idk I haven't watched it), the prominent hooked nose, the broader shoulders, the volume to her hair, the LIFE IN HER EYES
This frizzle looks like she's been called into the school board for inappropriate behavior and dress one too many times and has been broken.
Also others have said it before me but I couldn't find it in the scroll backs but they whitewashed all the kids too. They same face syndromed everyone to either be easier to draw or be more ambiguous so as not to offend or both or something, and it just makes me sad
Fuck it I did the digging cause I'm still mad
And that’s not even to mention what they did to the bus itself.
The old bus had a personality and life and fun and now it’s just… a bus.
HOW DO Y’ALL WHITEWASH A BUS?!
It's gives "anti abortion Jehova's Witness cartoon" now
Vector puppet animation and a shocking drop off in investment in kidvid is largely at fault, but international marketing is also to blame.
What's important to remember is that the whitewashy approach to character design in kidvid is a backslide.
Representation in cartoons had generally been on an upswing since the 1980s, even though efforts were often minimal, clumsy, or badly executed. Diversity helped sell action figures in the lucrative US/Canadian market and it was recognized as a prosocial value on the production side.
"Prosocial messages" are a major part of kidvid TV pitches and development, nearly every show has specific prosocial lessons the narrative themes are intended to work around, even if its an action-figure ad. These range from sincere expressions of the creator's intent (Gargoyles, OG Magic Schoolbus, OG He-Man (no, for real)) to the entertainment equivalent of carbon credits.
Slight aside. Actual ink-and-paint animation tended to lock characters down into more distinct tones because there were only so many standard paint colors. Which is why Kwame from Captain Planet, Roadblock from GI-Joe, and Tim from OG magic schoolbus all use essentially the same pantone.
Ralphie gets skinny because not only fatphobia, but I suspect because he would need slightly different rigging and would add just a teensy bit to the budget adjusting his animations when they could just copy-paste from one of the other identically built kids. If they need to put them all in spacesuits or diving suits or whatever, they just make the one body and slap the heads on, eazy-pezy.
Decals on the schoolbus mean they have to be tracked, they have to use different versions of the bus in flipped shots, same with Mrs. Frizzle's clothing patterns. Wouldn't want to spend time flipping Ralphie's "R' around.
And with the marketing for everything now being global, there's an impulse to average everything down to appeal to all markets to a general degree. Making stories oversimple makes them easy to translate. Humor varies culture to culture, keep it slapstick or quick quips that can be localized easily. Everything that makes the Chinese censor boards happy also makes US reactionaries less likely to kick up a protest, the incentive is to keep everything:
ALSO: These characters have the same face. They probably use the same eye and mouth parts for character animations.
It's all to do it as cheap and broadly appealing as possible, as determined by business weirdos who know nothing about art and care nothing about kids, and they're more than willing to leverage racism (or just ignore that its happening) for the promise of a tenth of a percent more profit.
And what's galling is that this kind of animation software doesn't have to make crap. It can be used to make amazing stuff and still be vastly cheaper than traditional hand-drawn, but the same quality at 60% of the cost is never going to beat 1/2 the quality at 5% of the cost for the money-men.
The path of least resistance rolls over a lot of people.
Reblogging for "the path of least resistance rolls over a lot of people"
All of this, but I want to highlight @therobotmonster's point extra hard because I see people watch media from the 90s and get confused on the difference they see now. There was a massive, intentional push to diversify children's media to connect to specific communities that has been watered down in order to sell to an international market. Chasing after more money has robbed us of richer storytelling, and you can see it in not just children's media, but in what movies Hollywood decides to make.
And yet, when art is able to speak to and about those communities, it's very successful. Kamala Khan has been a breakout star of Marvel comics because of her Pakistani-American background, her connection to her community, and being a Muslim American. Sinners was one of the best movies of last year. Most of the best graphic novels I read last year (Big Jim and The White Boy, Hello Sunshine) were about specific challenges faced by specific communities and how to navigate them.
When you're creating art, an essential question you should ask is "who needs this the most" instead of how to make it appealing to the most people. If it is genuine, the audience will be there.
Reblogged write-on-world
They De-Tumblrized Ms. Frizzle
Allow me to explain:
Everyone dropping this pic
And talking about how the new frizz her is her niece, allow me to do a direct side by side instead
These are STILL not the same woman. Where is the icon fashion, the earrings (the chameleon, which might be in the new show idk I haven't watched it), the prominent hooked nose, the broader shoulders, the volume to her hair, the LIFE IN HER EYES
This frizzle looks like she's been called into the school board for inappropriate behavior and dress one too many times and has been broken.
Also others have said it before me but I couldn't find it in the scroll backs but they whitewashed all the kids too. They same face syndromed everyone to either be easier to draw or be more ambiguous so as not to offend or both or something, and it just makes me sad
Fuck it I did the digging cause I'm still mad
And that’s not even to mention what they did to the bus itself.
The old bus had a personality and life and fun and now it’s just… a bus.
HOW DO Y’ALL WHITEWASH A BUS?!
It's gives "anti abortion Jehova's Witness cartoon" now
Vector puppet animation and a shocking drop off in investment in kidvid is largely at fault, but international marketing is also to blame.
What's important to remember is that the whitewashy approach to character design in kidvid is a backslide.
Representation in cartoons had generally been on an upswing since the 1980s, even though efforts were often minimal, clumsy, or badly executed. Diversity helped sell action figures in the lucrative US/Canadian market and it was recognized as a prosocial value on the production side.
"Prosocial messages" are a major part of kidvid TV pitches and development, nearly every show has specific prosocial lessons the narrative themes are intended to work around, even if its an action-figure ad. These range from sincere expressions of the creator's intent (Gargoyles, OG Magic Schoolbus, OG He-Man (no, for real)) to the entertainment equivalent of carbon credits.
Slight aside. Actual ink-and-paint animation tended to lock characters down into more distinct tones because there were only so many standard paint colors. Which is why Kwame from Captain Planet, Roadblock from GI-Joe, and Tim from OG magic schoolbus all use essentially the same pantone.
Ralphie gets skinny because not only fatphobia, but I suspect because he would need slightly different rigging and would add just a teensy bit to the budget adjusting his animations when they could just copy-paste from one of the other identically built kids. If they need to put them all in spacesuits or diving suits or whatever, they just make the one body and slap the heads on, eazy-pezy.
Decals on the schoolbus mean they have to be tracked, they have to use different versions of the bus in flipped shots, same with Mrs. Frizzle's clothing patterns. Wouldn't want to spend time flipping Ralphie's "R' around.
And with the marketing for everything now being global, there's an impulse to average everything down to appeal to all markets to a general degree. Making stories oversimple makes them easy to translate. Humor varies culture to culture, keep it slapstick or quick quips that can be localized easily. Everything that makes the Chinese censor boards happy also makes US reactionaries less likely to kick up a protest, the incentive is to keep everything:
ALSO: These characters have the same face. They probably use the same eye and mouth parts for character animations.
It's all to do it as cheap and broadly appealing as possible, as determined by business weirdos who know nothing about art and care nothing about kids, and they're more than willing to leverage racism (or just ignore that its happening) for the promise of a tenth of a percent more profit.
And what's galling is that this kind of animation software doesn't have to make crap. It can be used to make amazing stuff and still be vastly cheaper than traditional hand-drawn, but the same quality at 60% of the cost is never going to beat 1/2 the quality at 5% of the cost for the money-men.
The path of least resistance rolls over a lot of people.
Reblogging for "the path of least resistance rolls over a lot of people"
All of this, but I want to highlight @therobotmonster's point extra hard because I see people watch media from the 90s and get confused on the difference they see now. There was a massive, intentional push to diversify children's media to connect to specific communities that has been watered down in order to sell to an international market. Chasing after more money has robbed us of richer storytelling, and you can see it in not just children's media, but in what movies Hollywood decides to make.
And yet, when art is able to speak to and about those communities, it's very successful. Kamala Khan has been a breakout star of Marvel comics because of her Pakistani-American background, her connection to her community, and being a Muslim American. Sinners was one of the best movies of last year. Most of the best graphic novels I read last year (Big Jim and The White Boy, Hello Sunshine) were about specific challenges faced by specific communities and how to navigate them.
When you're creating art, an essential question you should ask is "who needs this the most" instead of how to make it appealing to the most people. If it is genuine, the audience will be there.
Reblogged punkrorschach
Source: tiktok.com
Reblogged punkrorschach
Wut-In-Tarnation is really What-In-The-Entire-Nation with southern accent
It’s time for the fascinating history of the word tarnation, which has nothing to do with the word nation
In 18th century America there was a trend of finding nicer ways to say curse words so they could shout exclamations without committing blasphemy. “Heck” and “gosh” originated at this time. “What in Sam Hill” was just a censored way of saying “What the hell?”
Damn and damnation became darn and darnation
At the time the word eternal was mostly associated with God and heaven, so the slang term “tarnal” was created to speak about eternity without invoking God
The new soft-curse word darnation sounded a bit like the slang word tarnal so people mashed them into tarnation (source)
“What in tarnation” means “What in eternal damnation” which also means “What the hell” which also means “What in Sam Hill” thanks to a bunch of Americans in the 1700s wanting to say bad words without incurring the Lord’s wrath
Reblogged write-on-world
Tiny Ways to Make Characters Feel Real Without Info-Dumping
We don’t need a five-paragraph backstory. We need texture.
1. Hint at depth — don’t prove it. Instead of telling us she had a rough childhood: “Her sleeve slid up, revealing the tattoo she never explained.”
2. Give them contradictions. People aren’t neat. A pacifist who snaps. A leader who overchecks his reflection. A cynic who keeps a lucky charm.
3. Let side characters breathe. Give even the one-scene shopkeeper a quirk: “The baker spoke in a whisper like every word cost him coin.”
4. Make habits matter. Not “He was nervous,” but: “He thumbed the frayed seam of his pocket again, again, again.”
5. Tie perception to personality. Someone anxious doesn’t see a forest; they see shadows between trees. Someone nostalgic sees the same forest but softer, full of memory.
How to Describe Without Pausing the Story Dead
Description is strongest when it’s moving.
1. Anchor description in action. Instead of: “The tavern was dim and crowded.” (pause) Try: “She shoulder-checked through the dim tavern, lanternlight slanting across sweat and spilled ale.”
2. Only describe what your character notices. A thief notices exits. A poet notices colours. A soldier notices threats.
3. Mood colours setting. Waiting for bad news? “The sun felt sharp, too bright, like it was watching.”
4. Don’t aim for a full picture — aim for the right details. “A single bootprint in the ash.” Tells a whole story.
Subtle Writing Techniques To Help Make Your Writing Pop
Just little tweaks that level your writing.
1. Use natural actions to foreshadow. Not: “Little did she know the knife would be important later.” But: “Her gaze snagged on the drawer — then she looked away.”
2. Use symbolism instead of clichés. If you hate the metaphor “time was running out”: Plant broken clocks. Or a street performer counting down songs.
3. Trust ambiguity. Real life rarely explains itself. Let readers make theories.
4. Repeat themes in different places. If the story’s about trust, show it in: • a broken promise • a character avoiding eye contact • a shaky hand passing a key
5. Change sentence rhythm to match the scene. Fight scene? Short, sharp lines. Grief scene? Slow, heavy, lingering.
Unpopular opinion: Being intelligent isn’t an excuse for being unkind.
Pretentious asshole is OUT! Pretentious Sweetheart is IN! Wearing dapper clothes and holding the door open for others makes you feel COOL AS H*CK! Glance up from your hefty books to give a stranger a smile!! Quote literature to inspire others! Be presumptuous in the way that you presume that everyone needs their day to be a little brighter!!!
Administration showed us this tweet on day one of grad school and boy did it hit home
“distinguished yourself by being kind” is my literal life motto at work, holy shit
Reblogged shopwitchvamp
I Will Get The Light Back In My Eyes in 2026
Reblogged tetrafelino
If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading
Reblogged
64 transparent PNGs of official Taco Bell products (and also a couple of random items, such as a flip phone, a CD case, and one image I made into an icon frame).
I've been hyperfixating on cutting out PNGs lately, and recently when I wanted to make a Taco Bell joke edit for my friend, I couldn't actually find a way to download any images from their website. So naturally, I then spent an entire day downloading images from the official Taco Bell Instagram and cutting them out.
I'm pretty sure no one on Earth will ever need this many transparent images of Taco Bell. But by God, it sure does exist now.
✦ Varying image sizes ✦ All made by me! ✦ Good for your web graphics, Carrd, Rentry edits, YouTube thumbnails, digital collages, etc! ✰ Download here ✰ DNI if rdqueer/prship ✰ Tagging @editblr-archive
Reblogged shopwitchvamp
This is actually such a crucial part of healing from neglect and abuse and I have to add to this.
Because indeed, people who like you will not roll their eyes and sigh at the idea of accommodating your needs, they will value your voice and be upset with you about injustice done to you, not at you for "being difficult". They will be happy when you find a way to live a better life, and help you to get there. If you are struggling, someone who loves you wants to see you smile, not tell you to smile because "you have it so good".
[image: tweet by overlyxclusive: "when people love you they find joy in making life easier for you"]
Reblogged
The Silmarillion fandom is genuinely insane. Like, you hang out on tumblr, read fic on AO3 and you think, yeah. Lots of people have read the Silmarillion. It’s Tolkien. Everyone’s read Tolkien. Barnes and Noble has a whole bunch of the HoME and also a bunch of books by people writing about the legendarium. This is mainstream, surely.
But then you actually touch grass and talk to normal people. Not even that, you talk to people who self diagnose as hard core Tolkien fans. And. None of them have read the Silmarillion. The Silmarillion is famously a book that nobody reads.
And yet. On AO3 The Silmarillion and Other Histories of Middle Earth has more works than The Lord of the Rings. Think about that. That’s baffling. It’s ridiculous. Like I realize that LotR fandom is split a bit by the movie, but still. The Silmarillion has almost four times as many fics as the LotR movies. Everybody has watched the movies!
I need to know what percentage of people who actually read the Silmarillion went on to write fic or draw fanart about it. Because it must be insane, surely. Like, I’m pretty sure the Silmarillion wins some kind of record in this department.
Thinking about the fanfic bell curve where on one end you have “Perfect, needs no improvement or elaboration” (LotR sits here) and on the other you have “So bad it’s no fun to even think about” with the middle being the fanfic zone. But I think there may be a secret fourth Silmarillion option. Which is a book that is perfect* but simultaneously non existent. It’s not even a real story! The language is super pretty and deeply incomprehensible (especially to people who, unlike me, were not raised from early childhood on both the Bible and classic literature). And it’s more of an outline and an abstract painting of cultural and world building vibes (not cultural and world building facts and information) than an actual narrative. There are story hooks galore. There are vivid and fascinating characters, but their lives are glossed over and you only get one or two paragraphs of prose that will reorder your brain chemistry and haunt you forever. There are countless more characters who only exist as names, the implication of whose existence is fascinating. All of this is deeply frustrating, both to casual readers who just want a Normal Enjoyable Book, and super fans who want All the Lore. But it is catnip to anyone who engages in transformative work.
*I am aware that not anyone who is a fan of the silm thinks it’s perfect
Yes!! That’s exactly what made the Silmarillion the first and only work I have every written fanfic about – the fact that it’s more a framework than a novel. There’s enough to make the characters interesting to think and write about, but not enough that the story feels ‘complete’ and not so much that it’s intimidating to try to match the character’s personality and style of speaking and everything to canon – because in a lot of cases their personality is based on a a couple to a dozen events at most, and few or no lines of dialogue. (The more complete parts, like the Leithian or The Children of Húrin, are ones that don’t spark fanfic ideas for me – because they’re more complete.)
I don’t find the language incomprehensible, I find it beautiful and dramatic and compelling, but you’ve pinpointed the trait of the Silm that led to me – who hated creative writing decades ago when I had to do it for school – writing fanfiction about it.
This is also very much how Tolkien himself seems to have thought about and gone about writing it. For most stories that Christopher Tolkien cobbled together to form the Silmarillion, there were other drafts, often deeper insights into specific scenes that are sketched in the Silmarillion. Many of these are touched on in the Histories, or given in the Unfinished Tales, and also in the more recent works like Beren and Lúthien, and The Fall of Gondolin. What the fanfic writers are doing is in that way not dissimilar from what JRR himself was doing. What Tolkien excelled at more than any other author I know of, was writing the sketches and timelines and Eagle’s eye view of the broad strokes of the story. For himself as much as for the narrative and the creation of textual ruins that hooked readers on his world for years before the Silmarillion was published. And I guess this is the same thing that draws fic witters to the work. The world is there, the characters are sketched, and much story implied—but not (yet) written.