Zorojuro and Sangoro (after Rekisentei Eiri's Tamaya Shinbei and Mikuni Kojoro)
Was learning about Ukiyo-e in Asian art history and got a little bit obsessed with kabuki.
Rekisentei Eiri's Tamaya Shinbei and Mikuni Kojoro, a portrait of a kabuki couple from the play "Tomigaoka koi no yamabiraki" (富岡恋山開) by Namiki Gohei I. Kojoro is a courtesan sold by her older brother Kujuro to the Fukagawa Pleasure Quarters. Shinbei eventually kills Kujuro.
#inktober Day 15: Mysterious I’ve gotten kinda addicted to a game called Castle Cats (mostly for the design) and I decided to personify one of the Halloween cats, Pumpy. I did change his design a bit though, but the resemblance is clear enough. Also, this is the first page of my new sketchbook!
Inktober Days 4 and 5: Underwater and Long These two are Shā Wùjìng and the White Dragon Horse from Journey To The West. The characters are based on the ones made by Red from #overlysarcasticproductions on YouTube. It’s a great channel with interesting storytellings of history, literature and myths, so check it out. I found out a little bit about Journey To The West from there. It’s a shame I can’t read the original story because its in Chinese. Either way, I would eventually look for a translated version of it.
Fr tho bro was really chill about having fun with Ifa without Cacucu
Inktober Days 2 and 3: Divided and Poison PWA Inktober Days 3 and 4: Red and Protect It’s everyone’s favourite dead Diego Armando/Godot!
#pwainktober Day 11: Animal Taka the hawk as a human and Simon as a magpie. I might do some more human Taka in the future, perhaps after Inktober.
My silly thoughts when seeing the combined Jolly Roger fork + sword motifs in the zosan pride month wings magazine
Illustration in the magazine by Takeuchi Ryosuke (if my google translate isn't wrong)
My latest D&D character Alka! He's a 19 year old siren hybrid, the first of his kind, with an OG bird siren father and a mermaid mother from a cannibalistic species of merfolk.
He finally dropped his Disguise Self spell in the 5th session of Dance of the Dragons, when the party was taking one final short rest before facing off against the tyrannical black dragon Clarion. Alka joined this dragon-slaying party to protect his new mate and pups from being eaten <3
I went with my cousin, aunt and sisters to @thecompanyofcats to interact with cats. I drew a few of the cats while most of them ignored me since they found my pencil case and my mother’s old mechanical pencil more interesting. Either way, it was a fun time just being surrounded by cats and slowly drinking hot chocolate. Unfortunately, the cafe company is closed now.
Did you feel after watching GOmens S2 with your friends that this season could have been… better?
I was excited for S2 and I had some high expectations due to spoilers (yes, I am the kind of person to seek out spoilers to raise my personal excitement for the show). But after a watch party with some friends that had me gaslighting myself into denying the letdowns of this season (I was going through the first stage of grief okay), I’ve come around a few days later to bring a list of problems, gripes, and some suggestions for improvement for Season 2.
(EDIT: I reposted this bc I originally tagged Mr Gaiman according to my friend's suggestion. That was insensitive of me, I'm sorry. Thanks to the person who commented and knocked some sense into me, even if I did get a severe increase in heart rate and my hands were literally trembling after seeing your comment)
Mr. Gaiman, if you're reading this somehow, please don’t take any of this criticism as a personal attack. Like, you’re a prolific writer, we’re just 4 girls with opinions, so I don't think you'd really need to take much of these words to heart. I know I wouldn't.
And to the fandom, well, if you enjoyed S2, good for you! I enjoyed it too! If you enjoyed it in a way you understood but I didn't, that's fine too! This is just the perspective of like 4 girls on some writing decisions we found kinda weird. We all have opinions, we can express those opinions as long as we're not attacking anyone.
Also, spoilers for S2 of course.
Anyway, let’s get to it shall we, starting with the most controversial of decisions in episode 6!
Halo Ex Machina
Like for god’s sake if you wanna pull that out last-minute, at least show it being used in an earlier episode in a flashback from the war
Ineffable Bureaucracy
Aziraphale agreeing to be the Head Archangel to change heaven with Crowley
Ineffable Divorce
The purpose of the body swap in S1 feels undermined in S2. Like, that was to scare Heaven and Hell into thinking that they’ve grown so powerful that they’ve made their own side. Shouldn’t Heaven and Hell be like, a little more cautious with these two after agreeing to leave them alone?
The Divorce really feels like it’s written solely for the purpose of milking a certain reaction from the audience rather than a natural development for Azicrow’s relationship. Also, with the amount of times these two ‘break up’, it gets boring, okay
Nina and Maggie were just kinda,, there. I’m not quite sure what themes they’re here for, I was lowkey bored anytime they got on screen. Maybe Nina’s abusive relationship mirrors Aziraphale’s relationship with Heaven, but like, idk it’s really not the best mirror. I don’t care about them, okay, they didn’t need to be here and if they did, at least cut down a bit of their time please? The part at the end where they stayed to help was kinda ehhh, the part where they had to tell Crowley about his feelings was even more eh. I’m not sure why they cared so much to tell Crowley about it. I don't hate them, I just wish they could have been written better.
Crowley just waltzing into heaven. In S1 they were undercover and it’s so nervewracking. This time a bunch of demons just see him go up into heaven and don’t even question it. And then a bunch of archangels just come down the lift with him. Like what???
The miracle that hid Gabriel was kinda handwaved away? What was up with that
What was Bee’s plan with storming the bookshop. Wouldn’t that attract a lot of unnecessary attention from the demons and angels? Is discretion not a thing?
They never really explained what was up with Az’s bookshop and the vampire entering rules like???
Angels and demons really do feel like much less of a threat this season somehow
Guess who had “I’ll Follow You Into The Dark” on their playlist? Guess who didn’t follow someone into the dark.
So, I challenged myself to rewrite S2 to make the reveals a little less jarring than them all coming at you one after the other in episode 6 like Voltaire tormenting Candide.
Aziraphale’s desire to change the way Heaven is run, thus accepting Metatron’s offer
I know the Job episode was a thing, but again, that was only one scenario and not a consistent running theme throughout the season. The Victorian doctors do not count — that’s Aziraphale learning to become more flexible with his morality like Crowley. It doesn’t have anything to do with changing Heaven except maybe showing how much better Crowley is than everyone/j. The magic show definitely doesn’t count.
Also to all those ppl who say that Aziraphale has religious guilt or is going through religious trauma or smth along those lines… idk it feels more like they’re projecting than that being an actual thing shown by the show. If that was the intention, it doesn’t come across like it well enough
It might be believable that Az’s indoctrination by Heaven might cause him to think that being in charge would improve things, but like,, that needs to be actually shown in the show. Show us his doubts after the end of the world. Give us better foreshadowing of his concerns over the past 6000 years, how he’s seen Crowley struggle with being a demon/how he imagines being a demon is like/how heaven has indoctrinated him. Otherwise it’s like he’s learnt nothing over these past 6000 years!
Gabe and Bee’s relationship
This really suffers by being revealed only at the end because the way they act seems suddenly out of character of how we expect them to. We’re all left kinda unsure if they’re actually in love or even know what love is.
An earlier reveal of their relationship and maybe some Bee/Jim interactions in earlier episodes would help with a more gradual acceptance of expectations vs reality
Also, would it kill to have one close-up of the fly? Or even like, Aziraphale swatting the fly away as it flies into his face when he opens the box? That thing is so tiny it’s no wonder it’s so easily missed. Please, I’m myopic
Divorce
I want Crowley to snap so bad at Aziraphale. And with better dialogue than “no nightingales”. I know it’s a reference, but surely we can do better than this!
Aziraphale really caught the idiot ball this season in the most narratively unsatisfying way, and if it weren’t for Michael Sheen playing him it would be even more annoying.
A lot of the coffeeshop/recordshop AU
The whole storming the bookshop thing. What was Bee’s plan really
The angel-demon miracle. The damn thing was what attracted heaven’s attention anyway and in the end it was just handwaved away? Let’s toss it out, and by extension, we’ll have to toss out… (checks notes) the Archangels’ visit to the bookshop, lying about getting Nina and Maggie together and the further matchmaking attempts for them, Constable Muriel, Shax’s storming of the bookshop, and god knows what else.