Atarah Derek

INFP, Christian, Montanan. Me in a nutshell.

[atarahderek]

HERE IT IS! THE FIRST PAGES OF MY WEB COMIC!

This story is based on the idea that Ben Franklin is the one who invented time travel. But now that he's too old and too busy to be galivanting through time, he's turned the privilege over to his eldest grandson, William Temple Franklin.

Happy 250th birthday, America!

[atarahderek]

I am officially announcing my first attempt at creating a web comic/graphic novel! Follow Temple Franklin, the grandson of the famous Dr. Benjamin Franklin, as he sets off on adventures through time using his grandfather's Chronoscope to write his own story!

This is an idea that's been floating around my paracosm for years, and I'm finally committing to it in celebration of America's 250th birthday! But I need help from all of you: I need you to hold me to my word to open the story on July 4, even if it's nothing more than the first page.

Since this is a teaser poster, everything here is subject to changes and tweaks. I'm hoping to be able to smooth out that handwriting a bit. I'm right-handed and have dysgraphia, and here I am trying to trace and imitate the handwriting of a southpaw who, by all accounts, definitely did not have dysgraphia. I sure am a glutton for punishment.

[atarahderek]

I know, it's Owl House: The Movie, but did anyone besides me get the impression that Hexed was intentionally written as an allegory for undiagnosed neurodivergence?

[atarahderek]

Did you know...

Cyanide comprises 11% of the vitamin B12 you're consuming in your cereal, almond milk and standard supplements. You get less cyanide in almonds themselves.

[atarahderek]

New AuDHD skill unlocked: Drunk hypervigilance

I don't drink very often because I'm not a big fan of feeling drunk (my autism finds it grossly overstimulating, but my ADHD finds it fascinating from an academic perspective). I've never been more than buzzed because I do not want to deal with a hangover the next morning. But I notice that ever since my diagnosis, I am extremely aware of how alcohol affects my whole system, and I tend to overcorrect for it. On the plus side, you will never have to worry about me getting behind the wheel of a vehicle in this state. But if you were hoping I would loosen up with booze in my system, I'm afraid you'll just have to find someone who doesn't have autism screaming, "WATCH IT, YOU ABSOLUTE MORON!!" at their ADHD.

[atarahderek]

Hey I came across this photo of you and I was wondering where you got the dress?

Made it myself.

[atarahderek]

Finally sat down to finish this. Sophie of Dundee is the nickname given to a 14-year-old girl who went viral for saving her 12-year-old sister from a Pakistani rape gang in Scotland. She was charged for doing what every indigenous Scot worthy of having a younger sibling should consider second nature. She has since become a symbol of indigenous Celtic pride, right to life campaigns, right to self-defense campaigns, anti-rape campaigns and anti-Islamism.

Dundee is in the traditional clan territory of Clan Carnegie, by the way. I don't know what clan Sophie hails from, so I guessed based on her residence.

[atarahderek]

Who here had a Runalong as a kid (or still has one now)? A Runalong is a figure, typically an animal, that you would imagine running alongside your vehicle on long road trips, dodging or leaping over obstacles as it went. Did you have one consistent Runalong or would it change depending on the terrain or on your current interests? What was your Runalong? How did it interact with you? If you have an illustration of your Runalong, reblog this post with it!

[atarahderek]

Getting a formal AuDHD diagnosis is definitely validating. But then you get hit with the big question: What's next?

Well, I intend to find out. The year is young, so let's treat this as an adventure.

[atarahderek]

Today I went to see Angel Studios' David.

Here are my initial thoughts. Spoilers will be unmarked, but they are all the same spoilers found in the Bible (specifically 1 Samuel), with certain changes noted.

Summary

David is the latest animated feature length film produced by Angel Studios. It's a CG animated musical following the early life of Israel's most famous king, the shepherd boy who defeated a giant with just a sling and a stone. We get to see David rise from a lowly shepherd boy, the youngest of Jesse's sons, to an inspirational leader who unifies the tribes of Israel and leads them to victory against not one but two dangerous enemies.

Like many of Angel Studios' films, David is a biblical story. Thanks in no small part to Angel, biblical stories have seen a resurgence in popularity over the past few years. So how does David measure up to its predecessors?

Characters

The characters are well designed and personable. We get to meet young David (Brandon Engman) while he's tending his sheep. He has to defend a ewe who is in labor from a lone young male lion in search of an easy meal. The lion doesn't find it, however, as David is determined to protect his flock no matter what. And though David defeats the lion and saves the ewe and her lamb, he doesn't end up killing the lion. It gets trapped among the rocks, and David, taking pity on it, sets it free rather than slay it, foreshadowing his relationship with King Saul. We get to see David's potential for leadership with the way he protects, inspires and leads his flock while still showing mercy to their predators. And when he returns home to find the prophet Samuel looking for him to anoint him as the new king of Israel, David is reluctant, saying he doesn't deserve to be king. Samuel assures him that humility is a highly valued quality in a ruler. Even as David accepts his calling, he remains loyal to the current king, Saul, playing music to soothe him and taking a stand against Goliath on Saul's behalf. The film focuses almost exclusively on David's character arc, and it's not hard for the audience to root for him. As he grows up in Saul's court, David (now voiced by Phil Wickham) fearlessly faces impossible odds many times over throughout the film, which is what inspires his people to rally behind him. But he's no Marty Stu either. We see his doubts. We see him struggling with tough decisions. We see him make mistakes. And we see him put his trust in God over and over again. He demonstrates that walking in faith isn't a lack of doubt, but a willingness to repeatedly surrender those doubts to God no matter how many times they crop up. That's what allows David to repeatedly get back up when he falls or is knocked down.

The second most prominent character arc is that of David's eldest brother Eliab (Jonathan Shaboo), who resents being passed over by Samuel in favor of David. Out of jealousy, he swears continued loyalty to Saul, and doesn't take David's side until David refuses to harm Saul, assuring Eliab that he still regards Saul as his king even if he is anointed to be Saul's successor. Eliab puts too much of his trust in flawed, fallible humans, including David, and struggles to learn to trust God. He get there in the end, and in so doing becomes David's most loyal supporter. Eliab is very much out of focus in the Bible, so to see him fleshed out here and his relationship with David developed is nice.

The main antagonist of the story is King Saul (Adam Michael Gold). Saul is haunted by visions of the Amalekites, a brutal tribe that intimidates even the Philistines. He is even more haunted by Samuel's prophecy that God will remove Saul and his line from the throne and give it to another. Saul has become self-absorbed in his role as king, having statues and tapestries to himself created and shown off to the public. But his anxiety has turned into paranoia and psychosis, and only music helps him. David is brought in to play for him, and David's songs alone seem to soothe Saul. At first, they build something of a friendship, particularly after David defeats Goliath. But eventually Saul comes to realize that David is the one Samuel anointed to succeed him. He also begins to notice that David is more popular with the people than Saul ever was. He turns on David, driving him and his family into hiding. David eventually gets the opportunity to slay Saul in a moment of vulnerability, but chooses not to take it. This inspires Saul to abandon the hunt for David and he turns his attention instead to the advancing Philistine army. During that final battle, we never actually see what happens to Saul, but it's implied that he falls to his enemies, as he is nowhere to be found when David ascends the throne. In 1 Samuel 31, Saul's three eldest sons are slain in battle, and Saul commits suicide rather than surrender to the Philistines. In the film, however, only Jonathan's death is directly implied, while Saul just...kind of disappears.

Samuel (Brian Stivale) appears to kick off the plot by looking over Jesse's sons, eventually passing over the six older sons in favor of David. He has a rebuttal to each of David's excuses as to why he shouldn't be king, claiming that David is only listing the very qualities that will make him a good king. Samuel follows God's lead, but he's not without his doubts either. He knows that Saul would consider what he's doing to be treason, so he does his best to lay low. Once his job of choosing Saul's successor is finished, Samuel barely appears for the rest of the movie.

Saul's oldest son Jonathan (Mark Jacobson) plays an important role in the story, though it's far more minor than I personally would have liked. Jonathan takes a liking to David when David dares to go back into the throne room after being kicked out once, as all the musicians before him had been. Jonathan finds David's courage infectious, and the two quickly become best friends, with Jonathan, who is known in the Bible for his recklessness, happily falling in behind David whenever David runs off to help people. Jonathan is shown rescuing a child from a burning building, then giving David the lead to rebuild the house. Jonathan also acts as the main anchor by which Saul grounds himself, thus making him a buffer between Saul's wrath and David. Jonathan later falls in battle to the Philistines, but not before assuring them that even if they succeed in killing Saul and his sons that day, they will only put David on the throne by doing so, thus assuring their eventual defeat. Jonathan's loyalty to David is made clear early on, and when he learns that David is the next anointed king, Jonathan readily accepts it, much to his father's chagrin. And of course, Jonathan later saves David from Saul, giving David the chance to flee. David and Jonathan's friendship is my favorite biblical friendship, and I would love to have seen it become the focal point of this story. But while Jonathan is a valuable ally to David, he doesn't play a large part in the narrative. To me, he's the character the story missed out on the most.

David's mother and sister are also given roles in the story. Their names are Nitzevet (Miri Mesika) and Zeruiah (Sloan Lucas Muldown/Ashley Boettcher) respectively. They act as David's main supporters after he's anointed, with young Zeruiah excitedly proclaiming herself princess now that her brother is to be king. Nitzevet takes on a role similar to Jethro in Prince of Egypt, assuring David in a song very reminiscent of "Through Heaven's Eyes" that God has a plan for him even if he can't see the tapestry God is weaving with his life.

Goliath (Kamran Nikhad) is there too, but he doesn't get much focus, being taken out early in the second act. He serves primarily as a means of setting up the conflict between David and Saul. While most adaptations of David's story focus primarily on his defeat of Goliath, this film makes that battle what it truly is: A mere stepping stone on David's way to what God has planned for him. The giant Goliath is diminished in size before both God and the plot. The irony of his very minor role in the film is played up by his design, which includes another oft-overlooked detail: Goliath had six fingers on each hand. He's also shown to be very pale, unusual even for his European ancestry (a prevailing theory is that the Philistines were descended from survivors of Santorini's last VEI 7 eruption, which destroyed the Minoan civilization). He's not albino, but he does look more Celtic or Germanic than one would expect, making him stand out against his tanner countrymen. He's large, in charge, and impossible to ignore. For his defeat to be downright anticlimactic is very suitable, demonstrating how small and trivial he truly is before David's God.

The plot

Anytime you're dealing with condensing a person's life into a single story, you face the challenge of fitting their life within a three act structure. The writers of David clearly faced that challenge here. Especially since David's defeat of Goliath was never meant to be the climax or even a terribly significant event in his character arc. This can make the first half of the film seem a little bit drawn out, but it still works. Goliath's king, Achish (Asim Chaudhry), doesn't cease to be a threat after Goliath's death. So he's still able to drive the plot by complicating the relationship between Saul and David with his looming threat, with Saul repeatedly sending David and Jonathan out to fight the Philistines. The Amalekites also present a largely unseen threat that the Israelites and Philistines alike are terrified of, only showing up in the final act as a direct threat to David's family specifically. But the real focus of the plot is Saul's growing jealousy of David's popularity, coupled with David's desire to remain loyal to his king even while he's being guided toward God's will to succeed Saul. The question David continually faces is how he should trust God to guide him as Israel's future king while still honoring God's anointing of Saul as the current king. David feels conflicted about what he should do throughout the film. Should he slay Saul in what any judge would rule is ultimately self-defense and claim the throne God has promised him? Or should he continue to hide and trust God's timing, remaining loyal to the king he's come to care deeply for? Especially since continuing to hide puts his family at risk from Saul, the Philistines and the Amalekites. Over and over again, David chooses to trust God, even when it looks for all the world like he made a mistake in doing so. And over and over again, God brings David victory out of what seems like defeat. David's example of faith and faithfulness even leads Saul to something of a redemption, though it doesn't lead to total reconciliation between the two. But David's example does make even Saul's heir completely loyal to David. Jonathan has never been afraid to risk his life to aid others before, and he shows that he's not afraid to risk his life to protect his best friend and give him the chance to become the king Jonathan is confident God will lead David to be. David is forced to turn back from that final battle to rescue his family from the Amalekites, rallying the men under his leadership to rescue the women, children and elderly, and inspiring everyone to take a stand against their captors. It's here where he is formally recognized as the leader God anointed him to be. The deliberate parallel with Gandalf and the Rohirrim's BDH moment at the battle of Helm's Deep certainly helps.

What's really unusual for this movie as a biblical film is the lack of any explicit Deus Ex Machina moment. Usually, God is a character in these films. Here, His presence is spoken of and implied, but He never shows up in any way that an audience might typically expect Him to. His intervention is subtle and looks more natural than supernatural. There are no explicit miracles; just God working through ordinary people in seemingly ordinary ways, but which become extraordinary when put into context--much like threads in a tapestry.

The animation

The animation on this film is beautiful. My first love will always be traditional hand-drawn animation, but David is one of the most visually pleasing CG films I've yet seen. The background artists put great care into depicting Israel's landscapes accurately. The costumers created detailed cloth, allowing the audience to see and appreciate every thread in every tapestry. The lighting was perfect, often referencing other films such as Prince of Egypt and Lord of the Rings. The tapestries themselves deserve special mention, with each one telling a whole story with just a brief glance. Even Saul's royal banners, each depicting a wolf (the animal symbol of the tribe of Benjamin), tell a story on their own of Saul's dedication to leading his "pack" turning into an obsession with being the "alpha wolf" and behaving more like a wild beast at times than a dignified king.

The one bit that confused me was the repeat appearance of a fallow deer stag. Judah's animal symbol is a lion, so associating David with a deer seemed an odd choice to me. My best guess is that deer are often used as symbols of divine guidance, and the stag that shows up multiple times could represent David reaffirming his trust in God's plan. It could also be a reference to Psalm 42:1, which reads, "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after You, O God." This reinforces David's nickname, "a man after God's own heart."

Overall, the animation was absolutely fantastic and shows how far Angel Studios has come in its animation game.

Final thoughts

I believe David is one of the best animated features of 2025, and one of the best biblical films of the past few years. The characters other than David could've been given more attention, imo, but they're still easy to connect with and follow. The music, while no Prince of Egypt despite its obvious attempts, is still uplifting and carries the story well. The plot looks a little messy in the first half, but much like Nitzevet's weaving, we only see the back of the work at first. Once it's turned over, a beautiful picture is revealed. The irony of Goliath's insignificance was delicious. And David's loyalty, compassion and forgiveness leading Saul to have even a minor redemption arc is shown in a believable, satisfying manner that other films find difficult to do. All in all, David was quite a satisfying film that I'll be glad to go back to later to mine for tropes.

[atarahderek]

Concept art for a plot bunny currently titled Temple of Time. These are early sketches and character bios. All of these characters are actual historical figures (though Clarutza's surname remains unknown due to her only being mentioned, possibly by a cover name, in one of Wurmbrand's books, which was written while she was still in the Soviet Union doing underground work). They are presented here in the order in which they're introduced in the story.

Main cast:

Temple Franklin - leader of the team and the keeper of the Chronoscope, his grandfather's greatest invention. This whole plot bunny was spawned by the thought, "What if Ben Franklin were the one who invented time travel, and the reason Temple is mostly absent from history is because he was the guinea pig experiencing all of it?"

Susie Ann Baker - the first and youngest black nurse in the Union Army during the Civil War. She was the last character added to the lineup, but the first that Temple meets on his travels. She has the most ambitious personality on the team. She's better known in history by her married name: Susie King Taylor.

Clarutza - an escapee of the Holocaust who is now working to undermine the Soviet Union's communist regime. Clarutza is absolutely fearless. She is a queen of stealth and has become a skilled grifter and smuggler as a result of her work in the underground church, both under the Third Reich's thumb and behind the Iron Curtain. She was trained by Richard Wurmbrand himself.

Johnny Fredson - the young man in charge of base camp during the Stuck-Karstens Expedition. As much as he enjoyed playing a role in the first successful ascent of Denali, Johnny craves a more active role in an adventure. And with school out for the summer and Archdeacon Stuck headed up the Yukon River with Walter Harper, Johnny is free to do what he pleases for a couple months.

[atarahderek]

Did you hear about the indigenous child who was arrested for defending her little sister from colonizers who wanted to rape her?

But it's okay, because the girls were indigenous to Scotland, and the colonizers were from Pakistan.

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Concept: The 16 personality types form a superhero league. It's called Jung Justice.

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Have an educational fic about axolotls and thyroid health:

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

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Sophia Hinerangi

A tour guide and temperance preacher, Sophia Hinerangi, also known as Te Paea, was the daughter of a Maori woman and a Scotsman of Clan Gray. In the winter of 1886, she was the tour guide on duty when her boat full of British tourists encountered a ghostly war canoe coming out of the mists on Lake Tarawera, a large lake in the caldera of a volcanic complex on the North Island of New Zealand. The war canoe contained ghostly warriors who wore the ceremonial feathers with which decorated warriors are buried. The occupants of the ghost canoe looked at the tourists, but otherwise did not answer their hails. The canoe vanished into the morning mist as quickly as it had appeared.

When Te Paea told her local tohunga (a master of an art; in this case, a master shaman) what she and the tourists had seen, he warned her that it was an omen of doom. At over 100 years old, he had the stories of his people memorized. Shortly after the Maori had arrived in Aotearoa and established villages on the slopes of Mt. Tarawera, the mountain let them know it was very displeased with their presence. 500 years later, the tohunga knew history was about to repeat itself. He blamed the commercialization of Maori culture and of the mountain's volcanic features, such as the famous hot springs called the Pink and White Terraces. The ghost canoe was a dire warning of what was to come.

A few days later, the tohunga was proven right. Tarawera erupted with the same strength as Mt. St. Helens in 1980. Every village on its flanks was buried in pyroclastic flows or lahars. A lahar rushed into Te Paea's village. 60 people took shelter in her house with her family, as hers was the sturdiest structure in the village. They all survived. But only a handful of people in the rest of the village lived long enough to tell rescuers what they had witnessed. Te Paea went on to teach tourists and settlers about her culture and speak against the dangers of alcoholism. Over the course of her life, she was married twice and had 17 children altogether.

Te Paea's story would make an amazing natural disaster movie, and it's also the type of story that's right up Peter Jackson's alley. Why he hasn't done it yet is a mystery for the ages.

[atarahderek]

The other Wild Kratts OC I've created so far.

Name: Mai Phan (pronounced "my fan"; yes, the bros absolutely take advantage of this to confuse Aviva and Koki)

Home: Louisiana

Affiliation: North American Wild Kratts Kids

Bio: Mai is a 9-year-old Vietnamese-American girl living in the bayou of Louisiana. She loves reptiles and wants to become a herpetologist one day. She's constantly out in the swamps looking for all kinds of reptiles and shows no fear of alligators or venomous snakes. She borrowed the snake hook from a neighbor, and her parents don't know she has it. She has become an expert at hooking cottonmouths and moving them to where she can get good pictures of them. She's started relocating snakes for her neighbors.

Though Mai is an expert on the native animals of the bayou, she's not familiar with the invasive coypu. But she does know it doesn't belong in Louisiana. So when she sees one, she calls the Wild Kratts to identify and remove it, only to find out there are a lot more than they anticipated.

[atarahderek]

This honestly isn't an easy style for me. I'm so used to doing the line art first and filling it in with color.

Anyway, this is the colored in version of my Wild Kratts villain OC.

Name: Minh Hoa Phan

Occupation: Geneticist

Represents: Unethical animal testing and misuse of genetic modification

Allies: Gaston Gourmand and other villains as needed

Enemies: Wild Kratts crew

Goal: Create a creature hybrid that can best the Wild Kratts; incorporate creature powers into human DNA

Bio: Minh Hoa grew up in Louisiana in a large Vietnamese family that ran a Cajun-Vietnamese fusion restaurant together. She began to pursue a career as a geneticist and paid for college by working for Gourmand while he still had his license. That connection put her on a path to become an environmental villain, which was a lucrative career choice--though not one her family approved of. She greatly admires Anthony Fauci and has a pin-up poster of him with a dead beagle puppy strategically placed across his lap. Her approach to GMOs is, "If we can, there's no reason we shouldn't." She has a little cousin, Mai, who is part of the North American Wild Kratts Kids. She can and will exploit that connection when she needs to. Otherwise, Minh Hoa makes sure Mai is the last person who knows what she's up to.

Minh Hoa is especially intrigued by the whole Tazzy Chris incident, which inspires her to start tampering with human and animal genes and studying how the creature power suits really interact with human biology. She'd love the chance to experiment on one of the Kratt brothers directly; perhaps make "Tazzy" Chris a more...permanent condition.

Skills: Cooking (she's better than Gourmand, but doesn't make anything of it because she genuinely does not care), chemistry, genetic experimentation, navigating wetland and jungle habitats, finding rare creatures with rare DNA, dealing with reptiles, killing mosquitoes