I Have Been Known To Get Pretty Growly About The Second And Third Examples, Shipping Or Not, Bc Yeah.

I have been known to get pretty growly about the second and third examples, shipping or not, bc yeah. I’m not going to come after people for their art but I would like them to think a little more about why they feel so at ease about removing or minimizing the depiction of POC characters - especially if the ones they change tend to be darker skinned and what they change them to is something lighter.

Ask: Why is my fantasy incomplete without this specific change? Do I often imagine the other direction - making a light skinned character dark?

There aren’t rules - it’s fanfiction - but everyone should be ready to reflect on their inclinations.

Make the art that speaks to you by all means - but take the time to make sure you actually like what it’s saying.

this is how some of y’all look and it’s so transparent…..

The Murderbot Diaries - Artificial Condition

1.

Let me in, ART said, as cool and calm as if we were discussing what show to watch next. I had never given ART full access to my brain. I had let it alter my body, but not this. We had three seconds and counting. My clients, the other humans on the shuttle. I let it in. 

 [ID: a digital drawing in orange and blue. Murderbot is shoving to its feet in an apparently empty shuttle, holding on to the back of some seats. Murderbot wears wide pants with pockets and a hooded jacket. Its head seems to be under water, its hair floats and its eyes glow bright blue, as if the upper part of the drawing was a wave of water. The part of the image outside the bubble is in orange hues. /end ID]

2.

Calm down, ART said, not helpfully. I was too frozen to respond. After three seconds, ART added, She’s frightened. You are a reassuring presence. 

[ID: a drawing in deep purple and yellow, showing two people in a small room. From a top-down angle, Tapan can be seen curled up and asleep, facing Murderbot. She wears shorts with tights beneath and a hoodie, her hair is in a bun. Beside her are her shoes, a backpack and some other supplies. Murderbot is sitting up and looking down at her, and is dressed in pants with many pockets, a hoodie, and boots. Yellow light shines in from underneath the door. /end ]

Probably reblogged this already but I don’t care bc it’s glorious.

image id: three digital paintings of art and murderbot from the murderbot diaries, where art is depicted as a large school of fish. the first image shows the school collected into a massive ball, like a baitball, with murderbot seen as a small glowing figure beneath it. the second shows the interior of the baitball, with murderbot looking upwards and the school swarming around it.

the third is a collection of line sketches. in one, murderbot stands nonchantly while the school swims around it’s head. the second is a bust shot, with two single fish on either side of murderbot’s head. the third shows murderbot lounging with it’s head resting on it’s hand while the school orbits it. the last shows murderbot walking with the school following it. it turns, and the school scatters. end id.

been thinking of ways to draw art my dear friend art and think i settled on one i like!!! school of fish 🐟

Best description I’ve seen so far of how much wtf has to be going on in her head during this madness. No doubt I’ll wish-wash in every direction day by day, but rn I kind of hope she flips on the CR.

leonide listening to murderbot talk to ART (who is, at least by her assumption, a human captain or something) and MB being like "fuck you" vehemently and ART being like "you haven't spoken to me like that in weeks. i've missed it" ... like this woman is listening to a robot (well, construct, one that presumably isnt a rogue because it's still protecting humans) swear at a presumed human, and yet no one else—NO ONE ELSE AT ALL—is acting like this is odd. it's odd!!! from her perspective, it's fucking weird!!!! and then later she's like "is that really a secunit?" because people are being kind to it, iris repaired its environmental suit, and it's talking back and snapping at people and behaving so unlike a secunit one can't help but think it sounds like a person. she's already in an extremely distressing situation, and her life is in the hands of crazy people who treat their bot-human construct like it's just some other guy. i do not feel any genuine sympathy for her, but just imagine what that must feel like. i'd be silently losing my mind.

this is advice I've given friends directly before and I've probably also posted it but I really like giving it so here it is potentially again: do not create something for an imaginary bad faith reader.

there will always be someone who finds fault in your work. there will be people who read the messages on it wrong. there will be people who will take every compelling aspect about your work off of it so they can put in their own.

you cannot make art for these people.

you will never write a story that is free from criticism. you will never draw a piece that everyone finds appealing. you will never compose a song that everyone enjoys hearing. you cannot, fundamentally, set out to create something and only think of how you can avoid someone not liking it.

because, and this is key, there will be someone who sees every angle of your story and feels its intent in their heart and gushes to their friends about it. you will draw someone's favorite art and they will make it their phone wallpaper because they want to see it every day. someone will fall in love with your song and loop it on their way to work because it gets them through the day. and THOSE are the people your work is for. THOSE are the people you have to care about, because they love what you make for what it is - because it's itself.

if you set out to create something and file off every sharp edge, prune every thorn, you will be left with something fragile and weak, and it will be fragile and weak for the sake of someone who does not exist but that you were scared of anyway.

sharing art is complex and tangled and powerful, and anything you care enough to create deserves to flourish as itself. get sillay.

Great take.

Murderbot is such an interesting look at Masking as a survival tactic?

cause up to Exit Strategy it could be identified as two things: a SecUnit or as a Human, and for so long it was forced to be identified as a (non-rogue) SecUnit for its own safety and survival and then when out on its own it was forced to be identified as(and had to make physical adjustments to its own form to be identified as) Human for its own safety and survival

the second taking even more strain and stress and literal pain for it to acheive. it took contant processing and programming for it to sufficiently mask as human and we are continually told that it was taking continuous effort for it to do this.

So in its survival modes the only ways to be safe was either as a non-rogue SecUnit or Human and it had to choose and force itself into those rolls

Which is why i think it was so afraid of being a 'pet robot' and why it is so quick at the end of exit strategy to tell mensah that it /doesn't/ want to be human. because it just saw it as another mask to wear for the confort of others(it is always so quick to mention how everyone would be scared shitless if they knew what it really was)

I think thats one of the moments it realises that a secret third thing is an option now? and that it is secure enough with its people that it doesnt have to pretend to be something its not anymore? that it can actually unmask and mensa affirms that while not everyone is gonna understand that she gets it? and its okay?