Cosimo Galluzzi
Claire Keane
if i look back, i am lost
untitled
One Nice Bug Per Day
NASA
almost home
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Doug Jones
izzy's playlists!
roma★
Cookie Run:Kingdom Official!
gracie abrams
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🩵 avery cochrane 🩵
The Stonewall Inn
occasionally subtle
Today's Document
Monterey Bay Aquarium
tannertan36
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@htalon-artwork
I seriously wish people would develop their brain and form their own opinions about creators. Instead they just follow along with what people say regarding baseless claims about a person, and never do the homework themselves. Just take them all at face value, never questioning things.
It's hivemind mentality, and it benefits nobody.
I wish folks would stop treating fictional characters like they're real people. They aren't real! They're objects! It's called "FICTION" for a reason.
Fictional adjective fic·tion·al ˈfik-sh(ə-)nəl Synonyms of fictional : of, relating to, characterized by, or occurring in fiction : invented by the imagination
Just leave creators alone.
can we please bring back “in poor taste” as a concept
Because at some point it got folded in under “problematic,” and now every damn thing that has Unfortunate Implications or deals with sensitive topics indelicately enough to raise hackles or gores somebody’s sacred cow is treated as a grave injustice or a threat to society. Online activism culture has lost the vocabulary to express “this deals with touchy stuff in a way many people might find inappropriate, and you should probably avoid it if insensitivity on this subject gets you angry/upset, but it’s not promoting hateful ideas or demeaning people or affecting anything but my opinion of the creator’s sense of tact.”
I think this really an important post. We’ve fallen into such a rut of “everything is right or wrong, no inbetween” that stuff that’s merely in poor taste is conflated with things that are actually offensively malicious.
this is so well worded like i been trying to say this for awhile thank you
Damn. This is the thing.
I also kinda dislike that people started saying ‘problematic’ when they could be specific about what someone did wrong. It becomes this vague scary thing that someone ‘said something problematic’ and you don’t know whether they passionately defended nazis or made a clumsy joke about retail workers. And because we don’t know what someone means but we do want to be safe a lot of us just assume to worst and avoid people labelled ‘problematic’. This makes is a very effective tool to bully out people for minor flaws and to reinforce purity culture and disposability culture.
“Are you in love with her?”
Inaudibly Vernaya gasped.
Vulkan had found his mark; Asmodei’s features twisted with fury. This stirred a semblance of light piercing through its depths, but the answer it would not accept, nor could confront. Not even in its most harrowing moments would lead it to entertain Vulkan’s suspicions. That bastard would not have this, nor anydog else.
Vulkan grinned with satisfaction. “So, it is true! But the important thing is…Does she return your affections? Or, does she despise —”
Asmodei charged.
Like a furious gale it was upon Vulkan. It tore at him with savagery, seizing and snapping at his face, claws scrambling at him. Taken by shock, Vulkan scurried and rounded, meeting its advance with a wicked smile, all yellow teeth bared. As Asmodei executed another lunge, Vulkan ducked and rushed beneath it, clipping it in the flank. It roared in fury but rushed to attack again, but its movements were misguided, determined to conquer this monster, for what he had done to her, what he was doing to her. That he dared ravage her femininity beyond salvation, to ruin her into nothing, made it shake with utmost loathing. It narrowly missed his muzzle, and Vulkan missed his footing. Asmodei was upon him, tackling him to the ground, trying desperately to claim a fatal hold on his throat. But Vulkan would not give in and countered just as viciously. This heightened Asmodei’s wrath; how could such a wretched cur be so strong?
Finally, regaining herself, Vernaya raised her head. “Asmodei!” said she fearfully. “Get out of here!” She remembered Tiran and her heart thundered with horror. “It’s Vulkan! Get away from him! Run!”
But it took no heed.
As the pair remained locked jaw to jaw, Vernaya huddled away, but did not run. Though she willed herself to escape, her terror kept her immobile. For never had she beheld so much fury from both dogs, eyes flashing and teeth snapping, fur, drool and blood flying into the scattering leaflitter. There was no deterring Asmodei or Vulkan’s course.
It was no simple battle; it was to the end.
—
It’s been AGES since I shared my borzoi art on here. Here is my most recent set.
HT | 2026
I think xenofiction should be allowed to explore sex and reproduction as blatantly as human-centric fiction. We already suspend belief that they have human level thinking and sometimes similar societies, but talk about a couple having had sex or sleeping around and you're suddenly a weirdo or claimed to defend beastiality or something. I don't know, I just think if we can write about complex abuse and shit we can talk about sex.
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Agreed 1000%
Sex is a major part in any animal's life, and it's not fucking "zoophilic" to include sex in your SAPIENT animal fiction >_< Sure, we can describe characters being killed in brutal ways, but GOD FORBID characters engage in intimacy...
Apologies for the swearing; I've been accused of this shit before and it pisses me of SO MUCH. It can seriously damage a creator's career. So many of the whiners are all teenagers whose only exposure to XF is WC. Accusing creators of being "zoophiles" gives the word less meaning to the point real abusers can slip under the cracks.
CW: brief mention of SA.
I understand why this happens, but I wish xenofiction, especially animal comics and novels, had a wider adult audience. Most of the time the audience is pretty young, and when is "adult and mature" feels more like Hazbin Hotel in the sense is actually more for teenagers who think they're mature.
It feels like the only web comic artist that actually has an "adult" approach to animal comics is DoePrince (I have many issues with their comics, but I appreciate more adult comics and variety).
WAC exists, but to me it falls more so on the category of "Baby's first story that covers SA"
There are more xenofiction books that are more of adult reads, though. Most of them are oldish (Bambi, Richard Adam's works, Jack London, The Fox and the Hound, etc), but are more varied
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Yes. Just because a book has swearing and graphic violence does not equal ""adult"". So sick of people saying WC is mature when at worst it has violent character deaths, and even those are not explicitly described. Plus it is MG fiction, so of course it won't be too dark.
Does anyone else notice that almost all wolf fiction follows the same formula?
I mean, yeah, it’s like the most overused animal out there. But omg, almost all the popular books (and even the lesser-known ones) follow the same plot: “a lone wolf rejected by their pack for x or y reason seeks revenge or returns later and turns out to be a hero who saves everyone and becomes the leader.” I can count on one hand the stories that break from that mold, and most of them end up being simpler and shorter. Is it really that hard to come up with a different plot involving wolves?
Oh, and it’s the same (or even worse) with foxes. Because 90% of fox books also follow the “fox faces hunters” trope; I can only think of two or three that are about something else, and even in those, I’m sure they manage to squeeze hunters in somehow. I get that they’re heavily hunted animals (though that’s not unique to them), but you could introduce other kinds of conflicts, you know? I don’t even care anymore that they’re always gray wolves and red foxes.
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At least Wolves of Time did something new with the use of wolves, making it a journey and character driven.
We will find each other every time…
The best guard who gives ol cat dragon a fight. Looks like brute but is actually adorbs.
A few artfight attacks from this year :]
@sorceryhounds | @siarczek | @cafeyote | @taurzza
mmm somethings been rattling around inside my brain about queerness in xenofiction (warrior cats centric cause that’s obviously mostly what people are talking about in my internet circles) and I know around here I am preaching to the choir but w/e. I feel like i may have made this post before but i’ll do it again until i feel like i’ve crafted all of my thoughts correctly
everyone knows there’s always like. some shmuck on twitter or youtube comment sections, complaining about how gay cats just don’t make sense ~realistically~
and the common argument back is always something along the lines of “these cats have complex society and religion and talk to ghosts and sometimes have magic powers, and being gay is where you draw the line? it doesn’t have to be realistic”
and something just rubs me the wrong way about that argument, not that it’s WRONG, it’s not wrong, xenofiction by definition is all super super unrealistic. I think it’s more like, it oversimplifies it. because honestly when I make critiques about the warriors world building not making sense, I don’t tend to like the argument beginning and ending at “well it doesn’t have to be realistic” because no it doesn’t but it’s still supposed to feel believable.
i think i don’t like that the argument seems to imply that gay animal characters are at all on par with other fantasy things like talking to ghosts and having powers or complex religion. I also don’t like it when people who are being fake-supportive can condescendingly say “well the gay couple may be completely absurd and unrealistic but I guess it’s ok because its just a silly fantasy :) ” cause like. Like its not unrealistic tho. i don’t like the implication that it’s uniquely unrealistic, if this was a grounded story with no magic or religion and the cat social groups were more inspired by real feral cats, it would still be illogical for some queer cats not to exist.
I feel like it is a more effective argument to point out that straight cats are just as unrealistic, in fact more unrealistic and silly
“cats lovingly and monogamously married-for-life and raising kids together” is the absurdity it should be compared to, rather then the magic elements. Because then the complainers have to contend with the fact that they aren’t bothered by unrealistic relationships between cat characters, they are just uniquely bothered by gay ones.
I mean…not to get tmi but it seems obvious to me this knee jerk reaction people have to rolling their eyes and scoffing when “gay” and “animal character” are placed in the same sentence is based on their insistence on equating the breeding behavior of animals to the romantic relationships of humans. Y'know, they’re assuming that when people talk about romantic couples between anthro characters, that that is the sort of thing they are drawing from. When, certainly when it comes to cats, that is a very very poor equivalent. Cat mating behaviors are not affectionate or long lasting–they actually seem quite stressful, and then the father runs off to find more girls and probably never calls his one-night-stand again.
this is why I am really not fond of “mate” being used at the go-to replacement for husband/wife in xenofiction. Consider just coming up with a brand new word for your animal character’s version of romance! maybe they have types of relationships and words for them that humans don’t even have! but “mate” feels like. an action, nothing more. It doesn’t inherently imply love. frankly I think more people should be anthropomorphizing mates as simply Business Partnerships where the business is in desiring offspring, as opposed to husband/wife.
Just like….ok if you’re going to use the real behavior of animals as at least the loose inspiration for your anthropomorphic character’s behavior, surely pair bonding would be a smoother translation to what we view as a romantic couple?? not mating?? because pair bonded animals are the ones having consistent pleasant interactions, and being physically affectionate, and working together in life, sometimes even raising each others kids together.
And keeping that in mind, frankly you could argue that gay-coded cats should be the norm. (not that I think pair bonded creatures should always be interpreted as a romantic coded relationship, you could interpret some as platonic or familial or simply allies needing to survive. The point is no matter what route you go, you are projecting some human experience onto animals who’s minds and feelings we cannot ever actually understand. So to make it coded as a gay romance is just as reasonable as making it an adopted found-family sort of affection. You can go any route and be the same amount of unrealistic.)
If these losers actually want reasonable cat fiction, no one should have romantic affection for anyone! and if two cats have kittens together, it should be treated more like a short-lived antagonistic business partnership where you part ways immediately after. If you only criticize one type of romance for being “unbelievable and silly because these are CATS for crying out loud 🙄” but you don’t feel “distracted” or “taken out of the story” about the other type of romance, then this aint about realism my guy, sounds like you just have some baggage to unpack.
I am beating people over the head with a very big sign that reads “Whether you’re writing about cats or birds or aliens or fantasy people or whatever, you cannot grant any creature the ability to love without all the variety and complexity that **naturally** goes hand in hand with those messy emotions. If the creatures can fall in love at all, then there must exist the possibility for some of them to be queer about it. And if you view queerness as unnatural, then we don’t have a writing disagreement, we have a fundamental moral disagreement about life. And I can’t help you there, that’s your problem! But I refuse to let people benignly hide behind a “simple desire for more realistic-feeling fiction uwu” as a defense!! (gay people are real. It’s true! I checked!!)”
shout out to the random little resurgence this post got lol…somewhat validating bc i am thinking about this topic A Lot. tempted to rewrite a more concise version of it again b/c i’m really getting off track in the middle. probably should have been two separate posts….
fun fact i’ve since written an actual essay for school on this topic and the maximum 2,000 word assignment was 6,000 words when i turned it in…
…god someday i’ll learn how to focus in an essay, it just hasn’t happened yet.
The “realistic” vs “believable” differentiation is one that applies in SO many fandom arguments tbh
Also hard agree on the idea that if you (general “you”) view queerness in warriors as “too unrealistic/unbelievable” it really makes it seem like you just see queerness as something unnatural/artificial. Which is uhh… a bad look to say the least. I think this is especially evident in how people react to trans head-canons and general request for trans rep.
And no intention to derail the conversation, but I also feel like this all applies a lot to arguments around disabled characters. The go to argument I see defending the ableism in the series is always that its “not realistic” to have disabled warriors. As if these are just typical feral cats living typical feral cat lives, and not intelligent, human-like beings with a whole-ass society and knowledge of basic medical care.
If paleolithic humans were able to care for disabled family members, there is no reason clan cats shouldn’t be able to as well.
The Kiss
the author's barely disguised longing to be a real person
the author's barely disguised longing to not be a real person
Eurasian Wolf | Wildlife by KNielsen
May I interest you all in some Dragonets in these trying times?
I drew all five of these loveable little fuckers in one go with no break whatsoever. My hand is in shambles...
As you guys can clearly see, I took a bit of liberties with Tsunami and Starflight's designs. I like them all, but the SeaWings' designs really bothered me a lot in the graphic novel. These are semi-aquatic dragons and yet they looked almost entirely identical to every other non-MudWing dragon in body structure and it drove me nuts to look at.
So I kinda gave Tsunami some bigger fins, more visible gills, and a few more bioluminescent whiskers.
It's been about 2-3 years since I completed the GN, so I admittedly can't remember too much detail for how much of the story and characters were, but I do remember Starflight being something of a know-it-all bookworm type of guy (Who had a crush on Sunny), so that's sorta why I went with the more sheepish nerdy design archetype.
Yeah, I know it was pretty low-hanging fruit to slap some big ole' coke bottle glasses on him but---C'mon, you can't tell me he's not cute in them.
Ah, and Glory's colors are butt-ugly and dull because of her negative mood. I promise her colors are so much prettier and more vibrant when she's happy.
A deleted scene from THE FOX AND THE HOUND, where Copper, Chief and Amos get themselves drunk singing 'Huntin' Man'.
I honestly wish they had kept this scene. It's so fun and wholesome! Also love more of Copper and Chief's banter. Also, Chief was going to survive anyway. It wasn't a last minute change, but was in the script way early on. I do think they should've killed him off to make it more impactful, but I am also glad they spared him at the same time. He is my fav character, so I'm pretty attached.
Also I must draw this frame...
Country roads. Braine le Comte, Wallonia, Belgium
