flowers and trash

Where the magic happens. Mostly flowers, animals and fandoms. Instagram: sketchyroad My Art Blog

[currentlycryingaboutlancelot]

“i have of late lost all my mirth” should be a valid reason not to come in to work

[syn4k]

i like the phrases "it's not for me," "it's not my thing," and "i'm not the target audience" because they're the most concise way to express "this thing that you enjoy has merits but idgaf about it" without being aggressive

[anton--rayne]

[crowttore]

Are you currently suffering from The Character?

[ozdical]

[carys-the-ninth]

"The magic system is never fully explained" yeah that's how life works. Imagine having a story set in modern day America and the characters have several pages of exposition on combustion engines and telecommunication networks before we get to the plot

[et-in-arkadia]

i think this is absolutely correct and good writing advice but also victor hugo would like to have a word with you about the parisian sewer system circa 1832

[bendingsignpost]

victor hugo would like to have many words with you about the parisian sewer system circa 1831

[marzipanandminutiae]

See, I feel like there's a difference between "the magic system is never fully explained" and "the author clearly does not have anything in mind for how the magic system works"

They don't have to fully explain it, but I would like to feel as though some level of thought went into what they're writing

[bethanydelleman]

The problem is usually something like, "Are there real stakes?"

Some fantasy works of fiction make every solution feel like a deus ex machina and that is a huge problem because it means that there are no stakes. If it's a non-fantasy story, I know the basic limits of human bodies, but in fantasy that can be up in the air. I need to understand on some level if and how the characters can be in real danger.

Lord of the Rings never really explains its magic system very well, but it also doesn't pull random solutions from a hat, so you never feel that there are not stakes. We know the important things: Big Evil Ring can only be destroyed by volcano, none of the super powerful people can take it because if it corrupts them we are all Doomed. The magical items the Hobbits use are pretty straightforward (cloak that helps you hide, light that scares the cave dwelling spider, special sword that glows near orcs, super chain-mail). While these items help, the story is mostly about very human Hobbit endurance and people getting corrupted if they are too close to the Big Evil Ring. We all understand those stakes, even if what a wizard is exactly is kind of fuzzy.

Bad fantasy pulls random objects out of nowhere to solve problems (in LotR, the eagles appeared previously, the magic objects were gifts etc.). It leaves you wondering what could even kill that villain (we know exactly how to kill Sauron, it's just hard). Or worse, the hero can do something we've been told is impossible because He's Just Cool Like That.

Even if it's never fully explained, the author should have some sort of rules in their head that they write to and sometimes it really seems like they don't.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Yep! Sanderson’s First Law of Magic*:

An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is directly proportional to how well the reader understands said magic.

You can solve problems in a real-world story using electricity or cars because the average person has a general idea of what those things can and can’t do, so the hero electrocuting the villain doesn’t come across as a something the author pulled out of their ass.

(Though a Fast & Furious movie where a scene hinged on ignoring the existence of parking brakes totally broke my suspension of disbelief. A parking brake is mechanical! You cannot hack a car with the parking brake on and make it drive! Out of all the over-the top stuff in the movie, THAT’S what my brain couldn’t accept.)

* Brandon Sanderson, fantasy author who tends toward highly-described magic systems.

[lamignonette]

[not-tootall]

Daniel Ings as the Laughing Storm A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms 1.01

[arinewman7]

Flourish in Radiance

Jie Song

[urgetocreate]

Jie Song (Malaysian), 2025, Oil on canvas

[bark-barkley]

I WANT TO LOOK AT THINGS MADE BY HUMAN BEINGS

[softwetmoss]

And also occasionally by pufferfish

[skulandcrossbones]

it's so wild to me that you absolutely cannot force a hyperfixation to happen. like you'll watch the most perfectly tailor-made-for-you content that everyone says you'll love and feel absolutely nothing, and then the thing you watch on a whim to fill time will reach through the screen and put its damn fingers in your brain and start rearranging the neurons right in front of you and every single time you're like THIS??? THIS??????? and this happens like every 6-12 months forever

[tofupixel]

shoez

made in aseprite 💚

Prints // Merch // Tip Jar // Digital Store // Free Stuff

[cobythinks]

Dead wife montage but it's all slow motion shots of your dead wife throwing grenades and doing backflips and oneshotting the enemy with their long range weapons

[babushkaat]

[rosieandthemoon]

why are people so against negative character development? characters don’t need to improve and become better people they can get worse and make mistakes and end up in a worse state than when they began and it’s just as interesting and entertaining as characters developing positively

[ryan-sometimes]

Paramore was right. Hard times

[mollybeenoel]