Merle in Rainbows

snapdraws: Apologies for the terrible image quality - I’m...

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:06:35 +0100

Apologies for the terrible image quality - I’m lacking scanner access at the minute so I had to take these photos on my phone

I was reading hyperbole and a half’s blog entry explaining their experience of depression and decided to make another sketchy comic based on my experiences with anxiety, which is another mental illness I think people tend to misunderstand quite frequently

Hopefully this will be of use to some people - whether they suffer from anxiety themselves or if they just want to know more about it

lcosta1973: And this happened today. Had a great time chatting...

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:32:55 +0100

lcosta1973:

And this happened today.

Had a great time chatting with Raphael this afternoon. It was a pleasure meeting this kind-hearted man and exchanging notes on our ME experience. Check out his grassroots non-profit organization that helps fund L.A.’s green projects —www.greenwish.com

This happened. This totally happened.

leadhooves: unicornamber: elenaflutterby: Tangled comparisons...

Tue, 07 May 2013 01:53:48 +0100

leadhooves:

unicornamber:

elenaflutterby:

Tangled comparisons - concept art to the final film.

why the fuck is the concept art so much better

DAT CONCEPT ART OF THE TOWN AND CASTLE

tfw Tangled’s setting is in Westeros

tfw Pascal is actually a Dragon she hatched by burning Eugene’s body with her mother tied to the pyre

tfw She got the Unsullied in the Snuggly Duckling to join her side

tfw I just crossed over Tangled and Game of Thrones

Typical Mass Effect Battle

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 02:15:59 +0100

Everyone: OMG! GET IN COVER!
Vanguard: lol no

^
HISTORY OF MY GAMING LIFE

"I’m gonna go ahead and make “Citadel grin” an official thing. I have it all across..."

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:48:00 +0100

“I’m gonna go ahead and make “Citadel grin” an official thing. I have it all across my face right now!”

- Merle, while playing Citadel for the second time, with her Renegade Shepard

Coffee with Kaidan: The other side

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:38:00 +0100

It comes as a small surprise to anyone who ever crossed paths with me for some time that I am a fan girl of sorts. I can’t help it, it’s in my system. My relationship with Mass Effect has been one of the most rewarding and frustrating experiences of my life. Having started as a fan of the first one, I had sort of a love-hate relationship with the second installment and nothing could make me predict the free-fall furious storm of feelings the third game would bring me. It really affected me.

My first and main Shepard was a Paragon Vanguard, close enough to my heart and the type of character I like to play in RPGs. Biotics are Space magic, you say? Biotic to the bone. Athena Shepard, a brutal fighter with a gentle soul.

I was sort of a veteran to BioWare games, back then, and the relationships with the companions were nothing new to me, despite being ever exciting. I was surprised to find kindred souls both in Liara and Kaidan, although everything was quite controlled and kept under the rug. Now that I look back at it, I can make a completely different reading of it since there are regulations against fraternization but, back then, the romance didn’t really strike me as a life changing event. That completely changed in Mass Effect 2 for Liara and Mass Effect 3 for Kaidan.

One particular moment that marked me in the original Mass Effect, though, was when Kaidan and Liara both pushed my Shepard against the wall and made me decide on who I wanted to romance. I was incredibly confused since, quite frankly, I wanted them both. They were both kindred spirits, both to my Shepard and myself. We all had a connection. I ended up choosing Kaidan without regrets, but that choice would haunt me time and time again, with both Shepards, no less.

I was confronted with the weight of my choice when I played Lair of the Shadowbroker and I realized that if there was no Kaidan, there would be Shepard and Liara, with a passion. I was equally confronted when the Normandy passed through the Omega 4 relay and Shepard just stared at Kaidan’s picture, even after Horizon, even after everything. That’s when the romance started having an actual meaning to me.

On Mars, there was sexual tension in the air. And obvious jealousy. I couldn’t believe that one kept playing up on me, but there it was, teasing and amusing me to no ends.

It goes without saying that the buildup should have prepared me for what was about to come, but it didn’t. It so didn’t. I was an adult (or sort of), past her mid twenties, with plenty of heartbreak under her wing and I caught, in great shock, my heart skipping a beat, once more, due to an in-game romance. It all happened at Apollo’s Café. And what did I do? I consumed it like a junkie. Every single drop of it. It was the ultimate turning point. I had made the right choice and everything was, for the first time, right.

Or was it?

Sometime after finishing Mass Effect 2, I decided to make another Shepard. A Renegade Shepard. Not so close to me, this time. Actually, I wanted her to be the opposite of me. So, I created a Renegade Soldier, badass to boot, my antagonist. Alice Shepard, lesbian Renegon extraordinaire. I made her one and only weakness to be Liara and it was a joy. The chemistry was intense, the thin balance between becoming a sociopath and remaining human - I still love her, she’s at the end of Mass Effect 3.

According to her persona she should have left Kaidan at Virmire. I did it, diligently, all according to plan. And then I went back and loaded game. I couldn’t do it. And because I couldn’t do it, she couldn’t do it, either. Thus, a strange brotherly relationship was born.

I experienced Mars from the other side of the triangle and it was still as intense as the first time. I also realized for the first time that Kaidan had feelings for Shepard he had never expressed and were unrequited. That broke my heart a little bit, but only added to the drama. I knew what was like to be in those shoes and it was quite intense for a character like him, but I was in control. I was sure he would get over that eventually, since they were clearly never meant to be. It was an intense relationship with ups and downs to add to it, but Shepard didn’t feel that way at all about him. There was Liara, in a faithful, locked relationship, which made every sense in the Universe to the character in question.

When I went to Apollo to meet Kaidan, I was feeling relaxed and couldn’t wait for a little bonding time, feeling safe and glad that he and Shep would be able to put their past behind them.

That was when he confessed his feelings.

I didn’t remember receiving such a slap in the face from a video game in a very long time. I didn’t even know why I was so affected by it, maybe because I was pretty sure I was in a locked romance with Liara for the past three games and I had totally left my guard down and was so sure he had gotten over it and had become the easy dudebro my Shepard wanted him to be. It would be so much easier on everyone. And I was in control, right? But there he was, Kaidan Alenko, without a chance in the world, confessing his feelings to Alice Shepard. And there I was, the player, reveling in the safety that there was nothing this game could do that would surprise me or affect me any longer, not giving, but receiving a biotic punch from the game itself. And that shit hurts.

I had to load game and speak to Liara first to get my romance definitely locked and get the dudebro Kaidan scene I was hoping for, but not before I repeated the scene way too many times. It was incredibly masochist of me and I kept getting punched in the face.

It’s good to know the other side. And it also happened at Apollo’s. Everything seems to happen at Apollo’s for some reason…

spacehedgie: “In the name of the Alliance, we shall punish...

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:55:35 +0000

spacehedgie:

“In the name of the Alliance, we shall punish you!” // 2013

I was so disappointed that the Citadel DLC didn’t include this.
Continuum to this.
I regret nothing.

~~Sry for making them so slender as they need to be kawaii shounens.~~
~~And Kaidan’s the shorter one, oops.~~

I AM SO SORRY, WORLD

sister-sons: Hobbit Valentine’s cards [part 1] (Because I had a...

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 23:07:04 +0000

sister-sons:

Hobbit Valentine’s cards [part 1]

(Because I had a majestic need for lame hobbit puns okay.)

redmeadows-and-guardians: Basically everyone right now

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:26:28 +0000

redmeadows-and-guardians:

Basically everyone right now

theginachu: yumoirs: She’s a member of AKB48 who was caught...

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 15:31:26 +0000

theginachu:

yumoirs:

She’s a member of AKB48 who was caught coming out of a male idol’s house. At first people thought she’d be forced to move to one of the sister groups or something not as harsh, but she was made to shave her head (she says it was her idea, but i mean c’mon) and then management uploaded a video of her asking for forgiveness and it’s all so ridiculous. She was also demoted to trainee level, after being in the group for 8 years. So if you could go to their YT channel and flag the video as abusive so YT removes it, that’d be great.

EVERYONE: Please go here and flag this video as abusive content against vulnerable individuals. We need to get this taken off youtube IMMEDIATELY. PLEASE.

Jesus fuck!

I heard about the “scandal” yesterday, but never did I imagine that they would do something like this. That video was one of the most upsetting things I’ve ever seen in my life.

Please report it and spread the word about how wrong it is to do something like this to a poor innocent girl who has done no wrong!

we need to help her omg i feel horrible for her jfc

For those who don’t know this: This kind of thing is common practice in j-pop groups. Japanese culture absolutely does not tolerate anything of this sort in their pop groups. One of my favorite groups, W, got disbanded because one of them was caught smoking.

If you are in a j-pop group and you do anything reminiscent of drugs, violence, smoking, or having any kind of a relation with a man, or even if you sing a line or note wrong or miss a dance step, you are immediately held as a social pariah, and usually ‘demoted’ to the lowest level of the group, if not kicked out completely, and once that happens, good luck trying to get back into the music industry.

This has always unsettled me about j-pop groups. Their music is amazing, but they are held to such an insane standard of perfection. Ever wonder why so many j-pop singers quit or take hiatus due to ‘exhaustion’? It’s because they’re pushed so hard and so far that their bodies and minds eventually break down.

I am, of course, not saying this is okay, it’s absolutely not, but I just want to point out while everyone has their attention on this that every j-pop band in Japan is held to this standard. Given, I have never heard of anyone being forced to shave their head, but this stuff does happen if they get caught.

This is so ridiculous… I’ve seen more things like these happen (remember Aibon), I know of idols who ended up killing themselves for reasons which were not made public (remember Okada Yukiko). These boys and girls aren’t treated like people by their agencies - not only they are human, they are also very young and growing up. Some of their most basic human rights are completely ignored and the punishments for things they are not supposed to do are ridiculously out of scale and completely tyrant in nature. This girl was made to humiliate herself publicly for acting her age. We all know entertainment business is no spring breeze, but this has been going on in Japan for far too long and I don’t know if this debate is open inside their borders or not, but what they do to their idols is extremely cruel and out of proportions.

ichxliebexdichxnicht: Coercion is not consent.

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 05:11:10 +0000

ichxliebexdichxnicht:

Coercion is not consent.

“I am rebelling against the beauty of this world. I will love...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 05:10:49 +0000

“I am rebelling against the beauty of this world. I will love my body because I know that just because she is beautiful does not mean I am not.”

The Female Perspective in Game Development

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 13:49:01 +0000

dgaider:

I happen to be fortunate. My team of writers on Dragon Age currently consists of nine people— most of which are female. It’s reached the point that, when we consider new hires and transfers, I tend to joke “ummm, we could use some more testosterone in here…” and give a big goofy grin. Mine is probably the only department that could get away with saying something like that.

Read More

Gaider, I love you, man.

♥

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 18:43:26 +0000

♥

youngjusticer: New discoveries. :D Which Disney character fan...

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 01:57:17 +0000

youngjusticer:

New discoveries. :D Which Disney character fan art here is your fave?

Ariel Found Headphones, by Sakimi Chan.

Photo

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:03:24 +0000

Why as a man, I need Feminism

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 22:34:20 +0000

Why as a man, I need Feminism:

knightofphoenix:

The necessity of Feminism - the desire for gender equality - from a male empowerment perspective.

Something I’ve wanted to write about for some time. I’m optimistic that the patriarchal order will meet its long overdue end in our lifetime :)

leteia: goddessofcheese: commanderbishoujo: isabelaismyhomegir...

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 12:48:04 +0000

leteia:

goddessofcheese:

commanderbishoujo:

isabelaismyhomegirl:

awesomefuckyeahmotherfucker:

theuppitynegras:

ianthe:

daniellawhon:

claudia-in-wonderland:

fairywingsandarmyboots:

krutstrated:

thespacehead:

$4
Okay then.

$19.50

damn. couldn’t make it to 20

$23.50

……………should i be proud or something?

I got $73…. O.o

$83 JESUS CHRIST

$85.50 oops

&43 bucks. Goddamn Iante

$32.50

$9. 50

$87.50

i win

$38.50

(wtf is up with the “ate a whole thing of oreos”, is that a new scandal I missed out on or?)

16.2€ :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

… 74,5€ ._. Well, Not sure about the convertion, though ;D

WHY IN THE NAME… I am laughing too much at this! Took me a...

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:00:17 +0000

WHY IN THE NAME… I am laughing too much at this! Took me a while to get it, though. I started looking at the picture and thinking “Hey, I know that guy in the midd… YOU GOTTA BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!”

According to this, I’m a Grey Warden from Orlais. I loved...

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:56:59 +0000

According to this, I’m a Grey Warden from Orlais. I loved the fact that my lover is Aveline, Oghren is my best buddie, Flemeth has a crush on me, Sebastian is my mortal enemy and I was cockblocked by Anora.

Everything about Aveline and Anora is a very true story.