It's insane how casually the calls to end a genocide, not just the students in Columbia University but pro Palestinian views in general, are labelled as terrorists. The audacity to still publicly support Israel's actions even after the horrific bombings these last months and then turn around to say that the ones who oppose it are violent anti semites is just baffling
Changing my belief system from "this is the hill I'll die on" to "this is the hill I'll kill you on" has done absolute wonders for me 10/10 do recommend
"you really gonna die on that hill?"
"someone is."
Robert Tinney’s December 1977 Byte magazine cover
One thing that I do admire about Star Trek: Discovery is that, even though it's had (I think) four or five different showrunners, they pretty much all "yes, and..." one another. They don't throw out bits of canon because the next guy thought they were stupid or cringe. And that latest episode just reminded me how much I've actually liked this series.
found a vintage makeup add thought it would be fun to redraw it
ofc spock only took me like 30mins to render while bones and kirk had me rethink my life choices..
Make them straight adjacent for the homies
[Image ID / screenshot from an interview with Alexander Siddig:
SIDDIG: I subconsciously keep that door open with just about every character that I play, and I always keep it as ambiguous as possible. One of my first roles was in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia with Ralph Fiennes and I played Feisal and again, not in the script, but that was charged with homoerotica and implied homosexuality. I’d just come fresh off that project. And I’ve done it numerous times since, characters that are written straight I just make sure are not quite straight. That’s just one of my things, probably because I’m not quite straight myself and that’s probably perfect.
/ END ID]
this whole interview!!!????!!!!! every day sid gives gifts
some good quotes in this bitch:
"That is something Garak brought with him to the party, a bottle of implied homosexuality."
Dumai from A Day of Fallen Night 🌟
So much of Garak as a person starts to make sense once you know his childhood was a fucking gothic novel. His main playground was a graveyard and he'd play pretend by perfoming improv eulogies to an imagined audience. For a long time his main touchstone for most important figures from recent history is 'oh yeah I know about that guy my dad buried him. great flower arrangements for that one'. He finds out later his 'parents' are actually a brother and sister who had to get married to avoid the utter shame and social devastation of having a child born out of wedlock, and they live in the basement of his biological father's house. (the madwoman in the attic vs. the tiny elim in the basement.) His biological father calls himself his uncle and locks him in a closet whenever he fails to live up to his insane and unpredictable expectations and everyone just has to act like that's normal and expected, and his will hangs over everything at all times, unseen but always felt keener than anything else. The father who actually raised him grows the world's most beautiful (and as it turns out, most poisonous) orchids and keeps the mask of a god hidden in a box in his work shed. Everyone in the house is choking down secrets like it's the only air they know how to breathe anymore.
What I'm saying is that right from the get-go this guy never had the faintest shot at turning out normal, so I'm glad that by middle age he's found a way to get a bit silly with it as he continues to be deeply deeply not normal about anything ever <3
sisko: *sigh* against my will and for complicated political reasons I am sent to save your sorry cardassian ass yet again. just get in the fucking car already pls
gul dukat: there's a hidden meaning in that! the usurper of terok nor obviously desires me carnally
widomauk is heartbreaking to me because it truly feels like Molly always had a little soft spot for Caleb. But I think Caleb was trying to stay distant and didn't really let himself get attached like that, and he just. Didn't realize how much he actually cared about Mollymauk until his Circus Man was gone. And then, in his grief, he just held onto Molly even more, with all his heart.
Burying Mollymauk with his letter, asking Jester if she can bring him back, dropping to his knees to dig up Molly's grave with his own hands. The memorial in stained glass. Making sure there's a bedroom for when the last of the Nein finally comes home.
Caleb trying to convince himself to run, that night before Mollymauk dies. "Look at this one. He's like a walking rainbow. What is this? Why are you with him? It makes no sense. He's a circus performer. He's not going to help you."
And then in Eiselcross, Caleb asking himself why he should stay. Holding the Magician card in his hands, the card Molly drew for him, and admitting, "I know that we're supposed to go where Molly is. Otherwise we wouldn't have seen the things we've seen, we wouldn't be the Mighty Nein." Heading into Cognouza with every intent to save the friend he lost.
And it's this fascinating contrast of Molly falling for Caleb fast, but never taking things further than a little playful teasing. Because he knows how terrified Caleb is of intimacy, is still working out his boundaries, isn't ready to open up like that again. And then he's gone--too sudden, too soon. And in that absence, Caleb starts to spiral and just realize, Oh, I do love these people, this team, this little family.
And maybe he loved Molly, still loves Molly, and nurtures this growing fondness for him in quiet moments, worrying at the lucky stone in his pocket and daring to hope for reunion--
One question, and you will answer. How long was the Doctor trapped inside the confession dial? We think four and a half billion years. He could have left anytime he wanted, he just had to say what he knew. The dial would have released him.
Before the Flood || Face the Raven || Hell Bent
if you don‘t personally own one but your roommates/parents do and you are allowed to use it, that counts as yes
I love how the Nein got their first glimpse of Ludinus from the distance way back in ep48 and their first thought was "should we murder him". Iconic.
I mean, they would die, but their instinct was right all along
… christmas present for a friend :(
(This is part one of two lessons, with this one focusing on how our hair itself! The next lesson will encompass how to incorporate its existence into your writing. It'd be a massively long post otherwise.)
So! Black hair. Black hair is a CENTRAL, ESSENTIAL part of our culture and identity. Writing and drawing it means understanding the vulnerability and trust that comes with access to it, and yes, it is racist to suggest that ‘it’s just hair’ when our hair serves such an important role in our history and art. I already wrote a mini-lesson and ask on the topic, but being aware of what our hair looks like, and what means to us, will help you to understand why we care that you put in the effort to get it right.
We are not a genetic monolith! However, for the sake of this series, we are focusing on 3C-4C, because 1) it's most likely to be seen in life and 2) least likely to be seen in popular art! When you are creating your characters, consider the style and care for THESE textures. I will get more into this next lesson.
Let's get into SOME of the hairstyles!
“So, what’s the phenomenon behind the Afro? Well, it’s our hair in its most natural form, but that’s only part of the phenomenon. It’s a way to fight the status quo without saying a word.”
-Ebony Magazine, The History of the Afro
When nonBlack society hears ‘afro’, they think completely picked out, Black power imagery, political statement. And it was, and is! But in actuality, afros are just the natural hair growing out of a Black person's head. The same way your hair grows out of your head. Our texture. Even my hair is not allowed to be ‘hair’, it has to ‘assign’ my Blackness; my distance from whiteness. Imagine, the hair growing out of your head being automatically associated with how you should be perceived. Just by existing, it is making a statement in a Eurocentric society.
There are SO MANY TYPES of braids and ways to wear them. If you can imagine a design, I bet there's a Black braider that can do it!
CORNROWS ARE NOT AUTOMATICALLY BRAIDS! Internalize this! They may be used in the same style, but they are NOT INTERCHANGEABLE TERMS!
Braids are considered a protective style; that is, a hairstyle designed to let our hair 'rest' and grow without having to manipulate it. If you have a Black character that's constantly on the go and/or doesn't have time to focus on their hair, and you want an accurate, more true-to-life experience for them, braids can be a crucial part of character design.
(Yes, while that link has plenty of examples, it was also self-indulgent. Locs are gorgeous, Black men with locs are gorgeous!)
"Locs vs Dreads": As someone in the loc community, there’s been a push to refer to the style as ‘locs’, rather than ‘dreadlocks’. Some people with the style will not care, but others take it very seriously, so it’s something to keep in mind. There’s a societal stigma behind having locs, that they’re ‘dirty’ or ‘unkempt’ or ‘lazy’ and that is NOT true. Locs are beautiful, and they take far more effort than people seem to want to believe lmao.
Locs, though there is currently a positive revival, are still highly discriminated against. Kids have been expelled from school and even have had their hair forcibly cut off to be allowed to participate in sports. Many places won't hire you if they think your hair is 'unprofessional' or 'dirty', especially if you're a Black woman. To consider yet another example of the hair that grows out of my head 'dirty' is extremely racist.
LOCS ARE NOT BRAIDS!!!!
Locs are also a protective style, albeit a much more permanent one, and one that comes with a long history and culture behind it. Many Black people consider the biblical story of Samson to be a man with locs, and that our locs hold power within them. That not just anyone should be allowed to touch your locs. So, if you're interested in mythology and powers, that might be an intriguing way to go, that would be possible if you had a Black character with locs!
The lack of awareness and concern about our hair isn't just a fan or amateur creator experience. It is ubiquitous in the professional media world. Black actors, actresses, and models have discussed having to do their own hair when working, because no one would properly care for it on set if it wasn't familiarly white. It’s admittedly grown better- however! After decades of not having options other than ‘stereotypical afro’, ‘box cut’, and ‘white people hair’, it is LONG PAST TIME to stop settling for the bare minimum in Black character design. We can tell when "one of us" (with some sense, at least) wasn't in the room to make decisions in popular media.
If you were curious about the lesson title, here's a current example of what I'm talking about in video games. Tell me if you see a pattern:
This style? The Killmonger? We seent it!!!! It has become the “hairstyle to show I understand the exaggerated swagger of a young Black teen” option, the "I know the Black people!" go-to, and frankly, we are all tired of it. Okay it was cute on Ekko. The Black Delegation DEMANDS the professional video game industry pick something else! We have SO MANY DIFFERENT HAIRSTYLES!
I'll give you an example on the other end (not trying at all; refer to Lesson 1) from one of my favorite games, Hades:
This is my blorbo. My favoritest guy. I’ll fight for Patroclus being Black til the day I die. While I begrudgingly settled in my excitement, I can tell you no one Black with any voting power was in the room at Supergiant when they approved this design. Why? His texture! Locs were such an easy option if they wanted long hair! Locs existed BEFORE Ancient Greece! The man did not have a flat iron while fighting in a war! A good Black designer would have considered that!
To give him a more accurate design, some artists (myself included) lean into giving him locs (one of my favorites is @karshmallow 's Pat; a phenomenal example in caring about your Black characters). It’s something Black fans find themselves doing- redesigning Black characters. That's not something we should have to do at all, especially in media we pay for!
But if you REALLY want your Black character to have straight hair, that leads into the last style of this lesson:
We do have straight hair. But it’s not straight because it grew out that way! It will still look and be thicker! It might be a wig or a sew-in (human or synthetic), it might be flat-ironed (while relaxed? While natural?) It takes effort to get and maintain straight hair.
If you catch yourself thinking this, this is a racist statement. Whether you’re aware of it our not, there is a bias towards Eurocentric/white features in our society, and that includes in our media. When you think “I only drew [this Eurocentric hair texture and style] because I think it looks good on them!” I want you to PAUSE and think about the WHY. WHY do you think that this Black person’s natural features are unattractive in comparison to the white hair texture you gave them? And how hurt might a Black peer of yours would feel hearing that you find their natural features not worth drawing because they’re “not attractive”. It requires approaching your own internal biases, recognizing them, and then working to unlearn them. And that means practice! Using references to draw our hair and styles, and growing used to using OUR features on US!
Me personally, I think if you think drawing thinner hair textures is easy, thicker hair textures should be a BREEZE. I was curious, so I challenged myself and-
(it took me about thirteen minutes total to do ol boy's hair and it's still not right. I'm sick fr y'all don't even know 🤢)
@ackee has a really good art lesson on the how-tos of drawing Black hairstyles. I highly recommend checking it out, as well as following and supporting a fellow Black artist (who is far better than I!)
Finally, an option you can use for painting is downloading Black hair brushes! Vegalia has an amazing array of brushes with different types of curls, locs, and braids at her Etsy store! You can also follow her on social media to see how she applies them, and support yet another amazing Black creative!
I know this was a long one, but you made it! Just keep going. Remember, it's the thought that counts, but the action that delivers!
listen so closely to me i think liliana temult is a fascinating character and she’s really fun to examine morally but also nothing will ever come fucking close catharsis-wise to watching ashton and orym fucking cross examine her ass in episode 92. the sexiest shit i’ve ever seen “your worst fear is probably my worst fear, and i think we just got a little sample (my worst fear came true because you weren’t fast enough, what will you do when it’s her head on the line?)” and “keep wrestling (you must bear the weight of their deaths on your conscience and know it will never be enough for what you took from me)” like holy SHIT you guys
ALSO maybe this is just me but i almost never see good depictions of the rage that comes with grief, especially with a sudden and intense death, and like. as someone who has INTIMATELY experienced that rage, orym and ashton got like ten times more hashtag real for me in that scene. like fuckkkkkkkkkkkk dude. orym’s cold rage hardening his words. ashton’s making him choose his words soooo carefully and deliberately. catharsis, in a word,
