Critical Geekery

[criticalgeekery]

Final Fantasy 1-3: A Retrospective

So, I'm going to lump these together. They are short games, they don't have a TON of meat to them, and I want to get them out of the way. I played the Pixel Remasters of all of the first 6 games, so keep that in mind.

Final Fantasy 1

This game is by no means bad it's just not exceptional in any way. This is maybe the 3rd time I've played it. It's short, and it sets up a lot of the Final Fantasy mainstays, of course. You create a party and choose their jobs/classes/whatever you want to call them. I believe my starting party was Fighter/Black Mage/White Mage/Thief? But don't hold me to that. There is a very basic "stop the big bad evil guy" plot. The magic system is simple, but works. It's incredibly short. I think I beat it in like 2 days.

The Good

The Combat: It's the standard jrpg formula, but you have to give them some credit for being pioneers in a lot of this. Each job has abilities that they can do that no one else can, and it's fun enough.

Magic: Because you buy new spells for each magic level, there is a good feeling of progression there.

In the end, this is basically D&D: And that's not bad. You go in with a party of 4 classes, you advance those classes, upgrade them at a certain point, beat the BBEG and save the world.

It's Short: It may not be the best RPG out there, but it's not going to take a lot of your time, and if you want to know where the series started, there are worse ways to spend a few hours.

The Bad

There's nothing really remarkable: This isn't BAD per se, it's just that playing this in retrospective means that you are left saying "why am I not playing a game that does this better?" This certainly wasn't the case when it was released. Then, it was really novel, but now, in 2026, looking at it as an option to play now, there are just better things to spend your time doing.

Final Fantasy 2

This is not a good game. I think a lot of people would grade this the worst of the bunch, it is certainly one of the weirdest. It's not a terrible game. It's not as bad as I feared going into this (at the time, I had never played this game to completion), but i was Square experimenting with a new formula (which they would eventually change and adopt for the SaGa system). As you use your stats, they level up. There's no exp, there's no levels, you just hit things, and your strength goes up. You get hit, your HP goes up, you block things, your evasion goes up. The story is... frankly forgettable, as in I don't remember anything about it at all, and it's only been a year. But this game wasn't exactly a struggle to get through, and like the first game, it's short.

The Good

It's Short: Even more so than the first game, this is an advantage. The story is not super engaging, the system is not super fun to play with, so the fact that you don't have to do so for very long means it ends before the novelty wears off too much.

It IS something new: This was only their second outing in this series, and they tried something completely different for it. They are far from the only ones to do this in the 80s (looking at you, Zelda), and it is worth giving credit for the kind of gutsy development decisions that we just don't see from AAA publishers anymore. The system isn't even THAT bad. It's intuitive enough, it's just not the most fun to play with, and it's SO different from the first game that it's kind of jarring.

The Bad

The Story: Honest to god, I do not remember one single plot element to this game. I can't remember the bad guy, I can barely remember the good guys. FF1's story isn't exactly the most memorable either, but this one really feels like it wasn't top of mind when making the game.

It's possible for the system to create some feelbads: As is the case with ALL "use it and get better at it" systems, if you decide to change course later, you are kind of stuck, and it's POSSIBLE, although not likely without trying, that you can get yourself in a really bad spot. For example, if you manage to get some REALLY good equipment early on and build up your evasion, you'll never build up your HP, so when something DOES hit you, it's going to hurt. That makes for a very steep correction that you need to go work on.

Final Fantasy 3

Probably the best of the lot. It's their first attempt at REALLY playing with the job system, unlocking new jobs as you go, playing around with various party compositions, and being able to change things up. It's a pretty fun time. They don't REALLY nail this concept for a few more games, but it takes what they did in FF1 and adds complexity, rather than just change for the sake of change. I actually had fun with this one, and I think it's the first time I get to REALLY say that in the series.

The Good

The Job System: We're getting somewhere now. We're seeing a preview of what will be a pretty standard series staple going forward (even if not always as obvious as it is here). Customization is something that I, personally, really enjoy out of my RPGs, and while FF2 sort of tried and failed at creating a customizable character experience, FF3 seems to be heading in the right direction but putting on SOME rails, but allowing you to choose the train.

Character Advancement: I mean this tags onto the job system, but I want to say that this is the first time where I felt like my characters were notably different and more powerful as I leveled them up, and I actually bothered to get them to max level before beating the game (I often do this. But I didn't bother in FF1, and that wasn't possible in FF2).

The Bad

It's still pretty stripped down: There's not as much meat here as in later games. This is to be expected, but again, looking at this as an option for a game to play right NOW, there are better choices out there.

It's Short: This time, this feels like a bad thing. The game was pretty fun, the job system has some meat to it, it would have been nice to gave a longer game to play around with that in.

The Story: It's still not super memorable. The JOB system is memorable, but the story not so much.

[criticalgeekery]

Final Fantasy Replay Retrospective

So, for a couple years now, I have been making slow progress through replaying all the numbered Final Fantasy games as sort of a retrospective, thinking about it as a series, seeing how my opinion of these games has changed over time. I had no idea what I was going to do with this effort. I had considered streaming it (there would have been times when that would have been entertaining), but that's a lot of work, and may amount to nothing, and would have hampered when I could play. So, instead, I have opted to go and dig out my tumblr in order to post my thoughts on each game. As a warning, even some of these are a bit hazy, because I played them a year or so ago. Anyway, it's not like I have a bunch of followers, but this might be entertaining to some folks who find it.

[dirhwangdaseul-archived]

John Boyega at Hyde Park demonstration #BlackLivesMattter

[haloud]

[Transcript]

[Boyega]: I want to thank every single one of you for coming out. This is very important—this is very vital. Black lives have always mattered! We have always been important. We have always meant something. We have always succeeded regardless, and now is the time. I ain’t waiting! I ain’t waiting! I have been born in this country, I’m 28 years old, born and raised in London, I’ve grown tired—every black person understands and realizes the first time you are reminded that you are black. You remember, every black person in here remembers, when another person reminded you that you are black. So none of you out there, all those protestors on the other side protesting against what we want to do, protesting against what we want to try and achieve, [?] you, because this is so vital.

[Other voices, to crowd]: Sit down! Sit down!

[Boyega]: Sit down, guys, we have to sit down. If you could sit down, if you can sit down. Now I need you guys to understand, I need you to understand now how painful this shit is! I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing! And that isn’t the case anymore. That is never the case anymore. We are going to try today—we are a physical representation of our support for George Floyd.

[Crowd cheers]

[Boyega]: We are a physical representation of our support for Sandra Bland! We are a physical representation of our support for Trayvon Martin! We are a physical representation of our support for Stephen Lawrence! For Mark Duggan! It is very, very important that we keep control of this moment and we make this as peaceful as possible. We make this as peaceful and as organized as possible. Because you know what, guys, they want us to mess up. They want us to be disorganized. But not today! Not today!

[Other voices]: Not today!

[Boyega]: Not today! And now this message is specifically for black men. Black men, we—[Boyega cuts off, crying and bending over from emotion]

[Crowd]: Speak! Speak!

[Other voices]: You can do this, you’ve got this.

[Boyega]: Black men, black men, we need to take care of our black women. We need to take care of them! They are our hearts! They are our hearts, they are our future, we cannot demonize our own. We are the pillars of the family. Imagine this, a nation that is set up with individual families that are thriving, that are healthy, that communicate, that raise their children in love, have a better rate of becoming better human beings, and that’s what we need to create. Black men, it starts with you, and it’s done, man—we can’t be trash no more. We have to be better.

You don’t understand, I’m speaking to you from the heart. Look, I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this. But fuck that--[words bleeped out]. This, today, is about innocent people who were halfway through their process. We don’t know what George Floyd could have achieved; we don’t know what Sandra Bland could have achieved. But today we’re going to make sure that that won’t be an alien thought to our young ones. I’m sure you lot came today, you left your kids, and when you see your kids there aimlessly playing, they don’t understand what’s going on. Today is the day that we remind them that we are dedicated, and this is a lifelong dedication. Guys, we don’t leave here and stop, you know. We don’t leave here and stop. This is longevity. Some of you are artists, some of you are bankers, some of you are lawyers, some of you own shops, stores. You are important. Your individual power, your individual right, is very, very important. We can all join together to make this a better world. We can all join together to make this special. We can all join together!

[End transcript.]

[aethosial-moved-deactivated2021]

black people, please take care of yourselves. please take care of your health. please take care of your mind. please take care of your spirit.

i understand if your soul is not at peace. i understand if you are exhausted. just, please take care of yourselves in these dark, hateful times and surround yourself with people who understand why.

[butterscotch-veins]

any black followers and friends, a thread of mental health resources if you need them can be found here!

[heroicadventurists]

The Cobb Squad

[transfemininomenon]

listen nothing in sound design will ever come close to the sheer power of the sound of a lightsaber turning on

[gryllingbears-deactivated202108]

I truly 1000% believe that Star Wars would never have gotten as popular as it has without everything about the lightsaber being absolutely perfect.

And I also believe the lightsaber is the perfect weapon in any form of media ever.

It draws upon a traditional and iconic weapon: a sword. Swords have gravitas, an ethos, that I don’t think anything else has. People love swords. They’re dramatic, they allow posing, tense back and forth battles, tests of skill and chances to flourish and show off.

But it’s better than a sword, because it sounds fucking awesome. You know what’s even better for your sword fight? If they make a cool ass noise when they hit eachother. Like everything about a lightsaber sounds amazing. It turning on, when they clash, when they deflect something, hell even when they just sit there and HUM it sounds cool.

There’s also the different colors, and this is important because it allows there to be differentiation. Vader has red, Obi-Wan has blue, Luke gets green. They’re instantly recognizable and you can understand what side someone is on based on the color of their weapon. It also allows there to be a certain amount of personalization and customization, which is VERY IMPORTANT because you know what really gets people into your story? When they start imagining themselves in it. When people start thinking about themselves in Star Wars I guarantee one of the first three questions that will come up (if not the first) is what color lightsaber would you have.

Finally, this is a small thing but, lightsabers are just easy to carry around. You just turn the damn thing off the and blade goes away. It’s a very manageable prop to carry around, and then you get sweet noises and posing when it turns on.

Laser sword goes swoosh buzz hmmmmm and it’s rad

[primedoverlord]

That TCHZYOOM it makes when it ignites is fan-ficking-tastic and I ten for ten agree. 

[xxtc-96xx]

Little known fact you get ten minutes added onto your life every time you hear the sounds of a lightsabre

[sandersstudies]

You CANNOT serve from an empty vessel but go off I guess

[i-have-n0-idea-what-im-d0ing-de]

OP what does this mean?

[sandersstudies]

When your friends are hungry, you cannot serve them from an empty breadbasket, no matter how good your intentions. When they're thirsty, you cannot serve them from an empty pitcher, no matter the effort you put in.

We have to stock ourselves with good things before we are able to give them away, and if we are too exhausted to make bread, we must rest before we can make it to serve our friends. If we are too hungry to serve, we must eat some bread ourselves first.

It's a metaphor for emotional exhaustion. When we wear ourselves down it makes it difficult or impossible to help the people around us, and all the effort and good intentions in the world can't make up for the fact that our vessels are empty. It's hard to not want to serve when our friends are in trouble, but trying to serve from an empty vessel often leaves both of you floundering.

On the contrary, when we care for ourselves and are kind to our body and mind, we are full vessels, and serving the people around us becomes easier. That's why it's important to take time for ourselves once in a while, to refill ourselves with good things.

[cluegrrl]

In the event of a sudden pressure change, put on your own oxygen mask before helping a companion with theirs if needed.

[ailithnight]

I have never seen this concept so perfectly and eloquently articulated.

You cannot serve from an empty vessel.

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

the fact is, writing and poetry are overtly and obviously undervalued as artforms online as compared to visual art.

There is no shortage of posts discussing how undervalued visual art is by society at large, how to fairly price commissions, how to properly tip visual artists, how much work goes into visual art, why visual artists deserve more recognition, higher pay, and more respect.

And this is good!! It’s true! Society and the professional field notoriously underappreciates, dismisses, and underpays visual artists.

However, the reason these types of posts don’t really make it around about writing, is because, well, writing is so dismissed in general, even by other artists and fans, that charging for writing isn’t even on most writers’ radars.

Go to an artist alley at a convention, visual fanart abounds. There are beautiful prints, models, keychains, stickers, etc. And yes, notoriously artists have to undercharge for these things, but there is a space to sell them.

Imagine seeing a  fanfic booth in an artist alley. Imagine a fanfic author charging for and successfully selling a written product. Imagine them being able to advertise their original work along with it, which sometimes gets appreciated and purchased.

I’m a writer, and even I catch myself thinking “well, that just wouldn’t make sense.”

Why not?

Why have we formed a culture in which visual art can be sold, but we expect and even demand writing for free or else we’re not interested?

Visual artists work hard, and they post countless pieces for free on their blogs, and they deserve any support they get. But given the opportunity, they can take that product to a space designed specifically for them to profit from it.

Writers work hard, post countless poems, fanfics, and original works for free on their blogs. And it ends there.

We need to reframe the way we think about nonvisual art.

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

val-ritz

The difference between writing and visual media is the mythology of “there’s no way I could ever do something like that.” But now anyone with a keyboard subconsciously or consciously thinks “huh, I could probably do that. It’s just a bunch of words in the right order.”

this is EXACTLY it. people think if they had an hour or two, they could make something just as good. They don’t consider writing as something that requires practice, as something with a unique voice and style, the same as visual art.

[vampireapologist-archive-deacti]

pipcomix

I think it has a lot to do with how quickly we can experience it though . Especially with things like cons. Ppl spare things 1 glance and make a choice right away and you can’t do that with writing

This is Definitely a factor to consider. You can glance at a print and think “nice,” where you can’t do that with writing. However, I do think about how many people I know, including myself, who will take a chance on a random book based on the back description.

I also think about how many people I know who tell me they’re going to a con or artist alley Specifically because a specific artist is there. They’re not even sure what pieces will be for sale, but they know they’ll get something.

It’s much harder for writers to build that sort of audience online, because of how often writing is dismissed, passed around without credit, etc., as compared to visual art.

I’m not saying people should start buying fics and original works Or Else.

I’m just saying we need to start at least creating a space for writers that will respect them and allow them to grow beyond being a hobbyist if that’s what they want.

[criticalgeekery]

I am a professional writer (I’m a technical writer for a software development company), and I constantly find myself thinking that I’m not worth the money I’m paid (because I just write stuff), and, simultaneously, I have to sell myself extra hard, because EVERYONE thinks that they can “just write stuff.” Why would you hire a professional?

So yes. Full agree.

[criticalgeekery]

Wait... Which Blade?

Wait… Which Blade?

Hi, Everybody! I know it’s been a long time. Let me do some catching up. Let’s see … Guardians of the Galaxy 2: Fun, heartwarming, and not at all what I expected, but not as funny as the first movie and felt a little like they were in plot purgatory until Infinity War. Wonder Woman: It was great! Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot are a rock star duo. I wish they would just hand over the DCEU reigns to…

View On WordPress

[maggierogers]

Who is this young woman?

[thesuperheroesnetwork]

The Best Wonder Woman Texts From Superheroes (No Movie Spoilers)

 10.

  9.

  8.

7.

6.

Keep reading

[tyrantisterror]

I’m watching The Sword in the Stone for the first time in decades and I’ve gotten to the part where Merlin is trying to get Arthur to lose his virginity to a squirrel.

[tyrantisterror]

Y’know, if Merlin turned that squirrel into a human it would save Camelot a significant amount of problems down the road.

[tyrantisterror]

“Squirrels mate for life Arthur, so the chances of her fucking your best friend and inadvertently causing a schism that leads to the downfall of an entire utopian kingdom are completely nil!”

[tyrantisterror]

Ok hopefully this is the last time I add onto this but Arthur marrying the squirrel would stop both of the events that destroyed Camelot - namely the aforementioned falling out with Lancelot AND the birth of Mordred.  Being with him since youth, Squirrel would keep Arthur from being seduced by his half-sister Morgause (or Morgan Le Fay in the versions of the myth that cut Morgause out) when he was young and foolish, as he’d already be in a committed relationship and thus wouldn’t be able to be tricked into starting one with said half-sister.  No incest means no Mordred.  Then, as mentioned above, Squirrel would be a faithful wife, which means Guenevere would be single, which means Lancelot and Guenevere could pork each other without causing a huge row that ends with Lancelot killing dozens of his fellow knights of the round and inspiring several others to turn against Arthur out of loyalty to him.

Camelot would have been saved if Arthur just. Fucked. That. Squirrel.

[duskargentum]

You say all that but all I hear is “here is how Merlin trying to convince Arthur to become a furry could have saved the world”

[tyrantisterror]

Look this was a journey for me ok?

It started as “I can’t believe Disney made a movie where Merlin tries to get a squirrel to take Arthur’s virginity” and slowly became “I can’t believe Disney’s weird bestiality subplot actually solves the two biggest problems that cause Camelot’s downfall.”

Because as baffling as the squirrel fucking plotline is just on its own, the fact that it’d actually be solution to the eventual problems Arthur faces - whether anyone at Disney was actually thinking about that or not (and I’m guessing not) - is even more so.  It is bizarre and unsettling to me that squirrel fucking could have saved Camelot, and that’s, uh, the point of this I guess.

[literatedead]

So, pointless fun fact. Around 2008, someone on 4chan actually made a ‘humanized’ version of the squirrel called ‘Hazel’ (i.e. one who had been changed to a human to be with Arthur). For a little while, there were a number of artists making pieces about her, and stories written suggesting alternate histories.

I know it’s a minor point, but I still love the notion that people are still finding ways to rewrite the story so Arthur can f*@# the squirrel.

Whole gallery of pics here, because some of this artwork gets downright amazing…

[strixmoonwing]

I REMEMBER THESE!!!!

[mousathe14]

Fascinating

[bugcthulhu]

@tyrantisterror  your legacy endures

[tyrantisterror]

To an ever widening group of people, I am “that guy who ranted about Arthur fucking a squirrel.”

Of all my legacies, this is certainly one of them.

[spankzilla85]

I think I’ve posted about this before buuuuuuut fuck it? This makes me deliriously happy and sad. The resolution of Arthur becoming human and having to try to explain himself to a sobbing squirrel is one of my strongest childhood memories about having to deal with heartbreak and I’m literally fucking tearing up right now GOD DAMN YOU TYRANTIS.

[lokiloo-blog]

I hate hate HATE all those 2edgy 4me theories about kids shows. Like Angelica dreaming up the rugrats, or the ed, edd, and eddy children being ghosts, or literally anything that takes a lighthearted and fun kids show and has to turn it into some tragic take of rape or murder or misinformed mental illness. So you know what? From now on I’m gonna do the exact opposite. Every cool grim-dark show is now because of a bunch of children. To get us started: Game of Thrones: A middle-school DnD campaign with the most angry, vindictive DM who has promised to kill everyone’s player characters (and their family) by the end.

[werewolfxo-moved-deactivated202]

The Walking Dead is actually a bunch of kids playing zombie apocalypse in their neighborhood and every time someone “dies,” it’s because their parents called them home for supper.

[transselkie]

Breaking Bad is actually just a fanfic the students in Mr. White’s class write about him because no one has any idea what he does with his free time and the running jokes about it got wildly out of hand.

[scrapbby]

These are all officially my headcanons for the actual shows now

[prncediana]

“It’s my favorite scene in the movie and it’s the most important scene in the movie. It’s also the scene that made the least sense to other people going in, which is why it’s a wonderful victory for me. I think that in superhero movies, they fight other people, they fight villains. So when I started to really hunker in on the significance of No Man’s Land, there were a couple people who were deeply confused, wondering, like, ‘Well, what is she going to do? How many bullets can she fight?’ And I kept saying, ‘It’s not about that. This is a different scene than that. This is a scene about her becoming Wonder Woman.’” -Patty Jenkins on the No Man’s Land scene

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

^ PATTY JENKINS GETS IT <3

[criticalgeekery]

This scene and the action scene immediately following it were two of my favorites in the movie. They are scenes that no one would have even questioned in a Superman movie. But you have this realization as you watch that seeing a female hero do this is something you have never seen before. And it’s kind of magical.

[hellotailor]

Terry Pratchett's 'The Wee Free Men' is getting a movie adaptation from the Jim Henson Company

The first book in Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series is going to be a movie.

With a screenplay by Rhianna Pratchett, daughter of Terry Pratchett, we’re finally going to see an adaptation of The Wee Free Men.

The Wee Free Men introduced Tiffany Aching, the young witch who starred in several of Pratchett’s last Discworld books. It also features a group of Discworld characters who seem absolutely perfect for a Jim Henson movie: the Nac Mac Feegle, a community of foul-mouthed and gleefully violent gnomes.

[READ MORE]

[meabhair]

*HIGH PITCHED SCREAMING*

i hope this is glorious

@thebibliosphere have you seen this?

[thebibliosphere]

I’ve been indisposed for most of the day but yes! I saw it on Facebook and promptly lost my shit for a good few minutes. I am very excited to see how this turns out :)

[the-tao-of-fandom]

Excite! Also:

“The Discworld series offers a wide range of genres and characters, and the Ankh Morpork City Watch books (a series of law enforcement adventure stories) are probably the most obvious choice for a Hollywood adaptation. Unfortunately, the humor and absurdity of the Discworld series just doesn’t fit with the expectation that adult fantasy stories should be dark and gritty, likeLord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and Warcraft.” 

…Who’s gonna tell them?

[thebibliosphere]

It’s my honest opinion that Hollywood couldn’t handle Discworld at it’s darkest.

It would want to take Sam Vimes and either make him into their kind of Good Hero (who are generally neither), or it would make him into the Villain, because they wouldn’t know what to do with a character like him. They wouldn’t know what to do with a man who is cynical and dark and terrified of his own thoughts and so filled with rage he becomes a beacon of light and hope instead.

They wouldn’t know what to do with Lady Sybil other than make her into a jolly fat woman who dotes on her “barely-tolerating-husband” and has an eccentric hobby in breeding dragons. They wouldn’t make her tall and fat and so sure of herself you could bounce a nuclear missile off her self confidence. They most certainly wouldn’t allow Sam and her to have a sex life, or if they did they’d kill her in childbirth because that’s “Realistic™”, right?

They wouldn’t know what to do with a woman like Granny Weatherwax without making her lament her spinsterhood, or twisting her magic into something dark and fueled by loneliness. They wouldn’t know what to do with an old baggage like Nanny Ogg without turning her into pure comedic relief for Granny’s darkness, when what she actually is is incredibly complex and powerful in her own right because Nanny’s power is not having to use magic at all.

They’d take Tiffany Aching and make her “spunky” and a rebel, when in fact all Tiffany wanted to do was make sure no one ever got hurt for being different ever again.

Brother Brutha would become a fated prophet when all he was was a simple man who believed in being kind and changed an entire religion and culture simply by being so.

Vetinari would become a monster, an evil man who controlled the city with an iron grip, not because he loved it, but because he can, when Vetinari never wants power, not really. He’s a tyrant yes, but only because the world is so profoundly messed up that it needed someone to get to the top and say “No, no more…” and sometimes the world needs good men to do bad things, because as much as Hollywood might want to make us believe, bad men rarely do good.

Death would either become cold and uncaring or tragic, when he is in fact neither. Death is not justice and he knows this, Death is just death, so he tries to be kind and do his job as efficiently as possible because at the end of the day, that’s what is required of him. Susan would become this hard nosed bitter “don’t talk to me” bitch with the powers of Death and would constantly suffer the urge to use it on “bad people” because that’s what Hollywood does to women with any kind of power, when Susan is actually the Goth version of Mary Poppins and also considerably kinder because she takes the fear of children and teaches them how to make it into a weapon against the thing that frightens them. She knows they don’t need to be told there are no monsters under the bed because there are, what she does instead, is show them that monsters can be beaten. She empowers them in a way children rarely are, and she does it without a spoonful of sugar because that shit will rot your teeth.

Carrot would become the fallen King, banished from his realm and forever longing for a throne he can never have when in fact he chose, he chose to carry a lantern and walk the streets at night because the night might well be dark and full of terrors, but it doesn’t have to be.

Hollywood wouldn’t know how to handle Discworld at it’s darkest, because at its darkest Discworld is so overwhelmingly human in its need for hope it hurts. And Hollywood doesn’t deal with human, it deals with tropes, and that’s what is wrong with the majority of mainstream media at the moment. People are not tropes. 

As for the whole idea of “the world is dark and terrible so we all must be grim faced and stoic”, like have you been to a funeral? Do you know how many people laugh at funerals? Do you know how many people smile, and hug and kiss and cling to each other with such profound love because that’s what humans do? We look at the darkness and we follow the sunrise. Grief might be the price we pay for love, but that doesn’t make love a weakness.

And Jim Henson understood that. His family, understands that. And it makes me happy that it’s them who are involved in this adaptation of The Wee Free Men.

[thelittlegreenproblem]

Is this some kind of Sales/Marketing ploy? If so, its incredibly effective because I have just ordered myself some Terry Pratchett

[thebibliosphere]

You know those people that go door to door asking if you’ve found Jesus yet? I’m that person but with Terry Pratchett and enthusiastic leaflets about dragons and a t-shirt that says “Ask Me About Discworld” except I don’t knock on your door, I just scream relentlessly into the void and hope someone else gets to experience my joy.

[amemait]

@thebibliosphere Don’t lie we know you’re really Constable Visit-The-Discworld-Unknowing-With-Explanatory-Charts.

[thebibliosphere]

Oh wow, this post is going around again. And you got me. Would anyone like to see my notes *unfurls parchment that hits the ground and never stops rolling*

[marvel]

Get ready to run this September with a new “Runaways” comic series by award-winning author Rainbow Rowell and artist Kris Anka!

[shitpost-senpai]

Artist: Hey guys i need money! Commissions are open!

me:

Artist: Lineart:: $40, Fullbody: $60, Colored: $120

Me:

[spider-hands-mannos-deactivated]

Look man either pay them or learn art yourself to feed your fat fetish.

[dark-alleys]

bitch 40 for lineart should be the standard, art is a damn luxury and some of these artists need food

[shitpost-senpai]

@ whatever greyshades is these days, Like I said, they’re kids who don’t know how to haggle.

[tammdraws]

>Lineart - 2 hours for pencils, 1-2 hours for lines = 3 hours at $40

>$40/3(aprox) = $13/hr - paypal fees and bank transfer fees = 10/hr

>Colour - 2 hours for pencils, 1- 2 hours for lines, 3-6 hours for colour = aprox 9 hours at $120

>$120/9 = 13/hr - paypal fees and bank transfer fees = 10/hr

Art is an extremely specialised skillset that takes anywhere from 5-20 years to develop, costs around 500 minimum entry to be able to create digital art due to requiring a tablet and software, along with enough RAM to run high-layer drawings depending on your program. Thinking you have any reason or right to haggle with someone because you don’t like their prices is some entitled shit my friend. You don’t walk into an autoshop and try to barter with them for their hourly wage and their parts cost, why the fuck would you do it in something else? It’s capitalism, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it but don’t think you have a right to special treatment.

I guarantee you we’d charge hourly if that was a possible standard but because the industry has no standards peope have to charge what will sell and that is ultimately much lower than it really should. Especially considering most of us have standards against drawing furry mpreg vore.

[swedebeast]

People don’t realize just how cheap commissioned art online actually is. Most of the time you pay the artists minimum wage.

Just think about that for a second.

[swedneck-blog]

>500 bucks for a computer used for drawing

Since when do you need an RX 580 to draw? And i really doubt you’d need more than 8GB of ram either, which is standard.

[tammdraws]

Alot of artists work off shit laptops, myself excluded. The issue is tablets, a good one of which will run you 250 minimum, and the cheapest monitor tablet on the market is a 9" for $520CAD. This in addition to between 50-200 for drawing software, if not included with your tablet can be prohibitively expensive. CSP goes on sale semi-frequently but is still an investment and investments in your business need to be factored into cost of the service provided. In addition, programs like SAI use line smoothing, a CPU intensive process that depending on how much of your computer is working on a streaming program as well as 30+ layers on a 4000x3000 canvas can cause harsh slowdowns and make such tools worthless without a powerful enough computer. Once again ignoring rendering times for 3d artists.

Realistically most artists are working well below minimum wage depending on their country of residence and need things like Patreon to survive, or to keep a steady job on the side. This isn’t a skill you go to school for four years and are workable and hireable, this is a skill that is unique and takes decades to develop into something that you can pay the bills with. Artists are an extremely specialised field and skillset and should be treated as such.

And once again, you don’t like it, don’t buy it you entitled cunt. We get to deal with manchildren and entitled babies that we often don’t have the luxury of saying no to. Do you really want to compare asking for a used table at a swap meet to asking someone to spend ten hours drawing your furry OC taking ten cocks in the ass?

[psyk323]

I rarely reblog but this stuff is true.

I started from scratch with a shit computer, shit tablet and shit screen, and have slowly worked from there thanks to commissioners a small few who gave their goodwill to support me and get where I am right now. Most of the time I get paid slightly above higher than the minimum wage for portuguese standards, which are very low, but I would never survive in other countries outside Portugal. EVER.

PS: You do need more than 8gb of ram to draw nowadays without wanting to have your computer shit itself with photoshop alone.

I don’t have anything else to add. Tammdraws dropped the mic on this.

[pikminpedia]

Thought I’d add my own two cents into this.

As a professional artist, I can attest to the time and effort it took to become “good at art” (as friends and family tell me). It took even longer, 5 years minimum, to actually start getting people who wanted to commission me for my style of art.

It’s as the saying goes: “It takes me 10 minutes to an hour to draw you a sketch, but it took 5-10 years of my life to be able to get to this point in which you’d WANT to buy a sketch from me.” (Well… that saying is worded differently everywhere, but the point still stands!)

As everyone else said, art is a luxury. It makes life more appealing and can speak with more words than a regular body of text (which, as an author, I can attest to this. (Not saying authors do not have merit. They’re quite astounding in how they formulate words to create a story.)) Both of these art forms took time to perfect. It took a tenacious attitude and constant support from friends and family to become the artist that people know them for.

If you, or anyone else, wants to tell an artist that their hard work is worth LESS than the gold they see it for, then I suggest you look in a mirror and punch the person staring back at you. Clearly, whoever is in that mirror needs to understand common decency, social etiquette, and the basics of human kindness.

Artists are not pitiful lowly creatures that do your bidding. They are living, breathing people who deserve respect for doing something you cannot do, and doing it WELL enough to be paid the price they have their art set at.

FINALLY: Let the artist decide what their art is worth. If they want your opinion, they will ask it. Don’t assume you’re right in your judgement of price, because you can only speak for yourself, and NOBODY else.

[criticalgeekery]

If you are hiring an expert, you should expect to pay for their expertise. To be honest, looking at it like this, the amount artists charge for commissions is ludicrously low. I'm a professional writer and editor, and I would never do my work for $10/hr. I went to school forever to learn to do what I do. I'm a specialist. Artists are the same.