chiptrillino

something stranger and more wonderful

(ID in ALT text)

my art for @faux-fires (ao3 Link) fic "something stranger and more wonderful"

beta red by @ranilla-bean (ao3 Link) for this years @zukkabigbang2024 event. its truly a beautiful fic. Keeping you on your toes while reading. making you worry about sokka exposed to the whims of nature and zuko, all alone.

big thank you to reikah and rana for all the handholding during this project! And stoping me form overthinking details.

More than 1000 people have been killed in a horrific 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand, and the devastation is enormous. To help survivors:

World Central Kitchen are en route to the affected areas.

MSF/Doctors Without Borders also have teams on the ground to aid the injured.

If it's possible for you, please send donations and humanitarian aids to Myanmar for the earthquakes. We don't have a good plan for earthquakes in place because the country literally is going through a civil war. Though I'm not minimizing the damage in Thailand in anyway, Myanmar's situation has been very largely ignored for the last few years so this was very hard-hitting since we were already going through so much. Mandalay is especially in shambles, and it is known as the second most populous city in Myanmar. People and businesses really suffered from this and they won't be able to rebuild this at all for the next few years because of the civil unrest. And even places not affected too much by the earthquakes, like Yangon, is facing electricity cutoffs. They were rationing electricity before and now there are not even rations. The whole grid is down. Phone lines are also still partially down. What's worse is the military junta hates the word "donation" or "charity" so sometimes they would shut down bank accounts for it and give out arrest warrants, even if the donation is not about supporting the defense forces. So we're in a bind as people who want to send money over will already have to disguise their help as something other than a donation because they don't wanna be flagged and arrested for this. Foreigners have the upper hand as they can just prove their aids truly is a humanitarian aids, while people in the country don't even get a first chance. So please send any (monetary or otherwise) help over if you can and I hope y'all can at least spread the news even if you cannot contribute to the cause.

See this post for updated local news in Myanmar.

popular culture used to be very much about eroticism. rockstars used to be on stage in sequins and thongs and thigh high boots playing guitars like they were masturbating. girls used to wear velvet mini dresses and no bras and red-brick-brown lipstick and mascara on their bottom lashes. people used to have body hair on television and in the movies. people used to be sweaty. people used to touch each other over denim and under cotton. foreplay used to be staring at someone over the rim of a glass across a bar across a park across a dinner table. people used to want. i think we’ve lost something

Not to be rude but you think our current pop culture ISNT sexualized enough? All we have is sexual content and it’s not even quality. Just because it’s not the exact aesthetic of eroticism that you prefer doesn’t mean that something is “lost”, it’s just done differently

there’s a difference between eroticism and sexualization ☝️🤓 we have too much sexualization and not enough eroticism. eroticism is suggestive, not overtly sexual. i know you don’t realize this but you’re actually kind of agreeing with me. we have too much low quality over sexualized content with no meat or context or purpose. everybody needs to put their clothes back on and start staring at each other from across crowded rooms NOW! 🫵

Jet from atla is so funny bc like, he's fighting zuko and taunting him being like "bet you wanna use some fire instead of those swords, dont u fireboy" which is a funny thing to say to a guy who is clearly very eager to fight using swords

"likes mean nothing on tumblr" you're sending me a little heart. that's not nothing it's your heart. look here's one for you <3

when I made this plan there were fewer of you

my pen may be dying but the joy & friendship does not

where's the mitski quote. where's the goddamn mitski quote.

nothing scarier than being a fan of a fic and then becoming mutuals with the author. like hi shakespeare. big fan of your fake dating au

I feel like this should probably be considered.

(this being like. the actual writer of Ashes of the Academy.) Absolutely you can criticize Bryke and their handling of Azula's arc in ATLA all you want, but the parasocial "the writers have it out for us specifically" is a little bit over the top.

While I still understand the frustration with Azula's (lack of) arc and handling, I think that acting like everything is shade thrown against us and harassing the writer over something like this is not fair. The ATLA fandom has really been treating the writers (especially the smaller ones, because they are more reachable than Bryke) like shit lately, and it sounds kind of similar to the author of Penquan Island getting harassed because she didn't center Korrasami. I think it is important to consider the perspective of the different characters the writer is, well, writing, and stop acting like that makes someone irredeemable.

I do think that she handled the critique and comments with class and respect so kudos on that. I appreciate her taking the time to clear that up with a touch of humor tossed in. I'll climb onto the Azula trash heap.

I am going stand by what I said though with that the word choice was careless given how sensitive this fandom is about and how frustrated this fandom is with certain topics.

I'm also still warry of Bryke because they kind of have a history of taking jabs at parts of the fandom, namely Zutara fans. I think that fans have a right to feel frustrated or upset when storytelling becomes sloppy and starts to drag on.

All of that said, I still don't condone harassing writers or sending hate. And I do genuinely hope that the DMs that Hicks got were polite.

Edit: I also really loved Azula’s solo comic. This new one was just not it for me. The concept was cool and there were bits the I liked (Mai's bug hobby,I thought it went nice with her aunt's flower shop) and there were parts that made me laugh (Azula using the word bro being canon is funny as fuck to me for reasons) but overall the comic was a miss for me. I like The Search and i liked parts of Smoke and Shadow but there were some huge glaring issues that I had with how they were written.

For me the comics are extremely hit or miss. The solo novels were hits, Ashes was a moss imo.

That is fair! I think that Bryan and Mike have been pretty unkind about certain parts of the fandom (and god knows i have a lot to say on how they handled the portrayal and arcs of certain characters in legend of korra too, on a in-story and a meta perspective) - but I also am concerned that people are starting to lump in other authors and creators into the Big Amalgamation of Bryke when they are really separate people with separate opinions.

I think also, trying to appeal to a sensitive fandom might be part of the problem? The fandom has gone through a massive boom since 2020, which means a HUGE rise in conflict within it. If writers try to appeal to Everyone they will end up pleasing no one and I think that might be contributing to the disjointed storytelling.

I admit that I did that a little bit at the start, the knee-jerk, freshly finished feelings. Which is never a good look. But after the dust settled a bit, the logic started kicking in lol. Some reals, mostly feels! But yeah, I feel like Hicks got caught in the crossfire and that's not right. Even if the joke was meta,and even if Bryke is stirring the pot, the way to handle that is to just stop buying the comics and stop supporting the franchise. The worst way to handle it is to start sending the authors nasty messages. Theyre human too and two wrongs don't make a right. Complain on individual blogs, not in authors' DMs.

Absolutely fair. We saw what happened with Voltron. I do think that the writers should tell the story that they want to tell. No matter what a lot of people will be disappointed. But a lot of people will be happy too.

I've kind of partially checked out because and feel better just engaging with the main show and fanfic. At this point I'd rather just wait and see how stuff plays out down the road.

Hate to see the authors harassed on their personal accounts but given the history Bryke has I still think we should go to dark horse and request the wording be changed if possible. Even if they used “loyalist” “spy” “goon” or some other term it would have still felt in universe. I know for me reading the comic that jarred me out of the scene.

DarkHorse even have a “feedback” option on their website.

We can voice our concerns that a portion of fandom is being attacked with this word choice. And try to get the bubble changed. We can say Page 71 panel 2 appears to be attacking the fanbase, can we please adjust the wording in Mai’s voice bubble.

Because we can’t do much for what they choose to do with Azula. But blatantly attacking fans is not acceptable.

That's probably not something that I would do; I don't really believe in censorship. As far as in universe phrasing goes, I agree there--that phrasing was jarring and did pull me out of the universe. Granted it wasn't the only one in there, come to think of it. Like the panel where Azula called Zuko her 'bro'. I thought that it was funny af but my brain was also like, "my girl wouldn't say that." Funny but it just didn't feel like the type of language that Azula would use.

For me, Hicks clarifying was enough; it wasn't meta or intended to be an insult. It was a (imo) tactless joke that didn't really land like the Iroh/June thing. The fandom collectively read too much into it (which, tbh I feel is perfectly fair given how the fans have been treated in the past). It wasn't an attack but it was a joke in poor taste.

Personally, I'd rather just move on. We got clarification, I still don't like the joke and I'll still talk about the subject if it comes up but I think that it's better to just stop messaging the creators about it. I would like to see what Bryke has to say about it/what their intent was but only if people approach them respectful. But after that, I think that interactions should be kept to a minimum. Just my personal take on that though.

I agree with this - I feel like some of the disjointed writing comes from trying to be more "relatable" and could also just be the disconnect between writers and variations in how they interpret speech and characterization! I found something similar with the new Roku novel, where Randy Ribay uses far more modernized language and a more simplistic writing style than F.C. Yee did and it's definitely somewhat of a jarring difference. (And I definitely prefer F.C. Yee's writing style because of this, it feels more immersive and thought-provoking to me.)

Anyways, yeah, I agree that moving on seems like the best approach. If you're disappointed by the writing and the direction they're taking it, you can always choose to stop engaging or only engage with the things you like, like you said! I think a lot of these issues with the fandom has arisen from (mostly) Bryan and Mike paying too much attention to fandom discourse and taking sides based on that, instead of just writing what they would like to and letting the fandom self-balance.

I will say that the reason Azula fans specifically are so touchy about this is because of Gene Luen Yang - he said some rather nasty things at one point, and I think a lot of people jumped the shark and thought Faith Erin Hicks was doing the same. I'll admit this made me feel quite irritated at first, too, but after seeing that it was supposed to be a joke... maybe not the best thought out, but it makes sense and I'd rather people just let it go.

Besides, there are different issues with that comic we can criticize.

Pretty much, yeah. And like what's already been mentioned above, when the writers have a history of insulting their fan base, you really can't blame people or get mad at them for taking that line the wrong way. There needs to be some form of self awareness on the writer's end, and that's not our fault. It's theirs.

While I can understand people's frustration with Gene Luen Yang (because I saw the shitty comments he made after I wrote this post and yes, they were ABSOLUTELY not okay to say to people who defend a teenage girl who was given very little redemption in canon) I also have talked about how people are lumping in all the writers together - initially jumping the shark makes sense given a pre-established pattern, but the fanbase should not be harassing a writer on Bluesky or any other platform, and if you cannot take the time to think through your actions before doing that, I absolutely can be frustrated and angry. The writers are not all the same person, they are not all responsible for the shittiness of one of them, and repeatedly harassing a writer because she could have "worded something better" is absolutely on the fandom.

While Bryan and Mike (which I am referring to separately on purpose because I need to make it clear they are separate people) and Yang have definitely played into the parasocial relationship between them and fans (as @bellatrixobsessed1 pointed out in another reblog) that really doesn't justify fans harassing the writer, which is what my original post was about.

I feel like the big push for AI is starting to flag. Even my relatively tech obsessed dad is kinda over it. What do you even use it for? Because you sure as hell dont want to use it for fact checking.

There's an advertisement featuring a woman surreptitiously asking her phone to provide her with discussion topics for her book club. And like... what. Is this the use case for commercial AI? This the best you could come up with? Lying to your friends about Moby Dick?

One of the big pushes tech companies are making for AI is entirely in the tool of convenience. Take Gemini for example, one of Google's really big pitches for it is in features like Help Me Read and Help Me Write, which are like the lowest tier use case for deep learning models but are also the two AI features that the average consumer will actually care about. Sure they advertise the GenAI stuff Gemini Advanced is able to do, but they've woken up to the idea that the average consumer does not care about GenAI and non-AI Bros fundamentally loathe GenAI.

Every company with a language model got sucked into the venture capital pitfall of AI and now have to market the one set of features the general person actually cares about.

I work in advertising and the culture shift surrounding AI even from January until now (end of March) has been drastic. At the beginning of the year, the company I work for was using AI to design most of their assets. Clients started coming back and requesting that we no longer use AI generated images or videos for copyright liability reasons. Basically, there's no way to tell whose art or photography was scalped to make an image, so as companies who are trying to make a profit using potentially stolen images, it puts them in a gray area, legally.

Also, companies do look at their comment sections. Anti-AI commenters on social media ("this is not a real image" "I don't trust companies who use AI" etc) are seen by higher ups of a company. Basically, keep bullying brands who use AI, it's working. Now my company uses almost no AI for deliverables, which is a huge win.

okay because i feel like i need to reorganize my thoughts because my posts don't. ever usually get this much discussion

and

100% agree.

Gonna add that even though Mike, Bryan, and Yang behaved unprofessionally we shouldn't be seeing them hate and harassing messages. If they want to make themselves look like jerks, let 'em. The best way to express dissatisfilaction with their behavior is to withdraw support of the franchise (stop buying merch, stop watching new content, etc).

🌟 PRODUCTION UPDATE 🌟

Sticker sheets of the beloved animals and past avatars! We love the quality of these and how they came out.

Shout out to all the Black ppl that can no longer participate directly in the fandom they love because of the stresses of racism 👍🏾 you contain multitudes of value and I'm sorry that the color of your skin and the power of your voice makes people not want to acknowledge that.

Yes, nonblack people can reblog. I'd appreciate it, in fact, if y'all took the time to vocally support your Black friends/fans in fandom.

"shout out to everyone/POC-" I was talking to Black people. You may absolutely feel inclined to make your own post! But I am talking to Black people. If you are uncomfortable speaking to and specifically showing support to Black people without feeling as if there needs to be a caveat, then this isn't your post to speak 😐 in fact, you may be a part of the problem.

"There's millions of Tumblr users" to you. To me There's only about 12 and we all reblog the same five posts from each other

Occasionally someone will bring a new post into the ecosystem, and those days are VERY exciting. ENRICHMENT!

It's not just to have a "do over" that doesn't involve the original cast, it's to cut them out of the royalties. Literally the entire point is to make sure all the money made by Harry Potter goes to transphobes or people willing to work with transphobes.

If you watch it, you are supporting bigotry, hate, and oppression. That's just objective reality. All for a story that you probably have already seen in movie and book form.

#the last point is especially true since the old cast receives royalties for anything with their likeness on it#meaning the original trio still gets money for every mug with their 14 year old faces on it#if they stop making those and replace them with the new cast which they will the old cast gets cut off completely#which is again exactly what rowling wants because she cannot stand those 'ungrateful brats' as she would likely put it#and as she has last say in anything that gets made in harry potter paraphernalia this might also explain the decrease in faces on products

via @discipleofkleio

I hate Rowling so much.