i had a very illuminating conversation with a guy about 10 years younger than me that really put this change into perspective, which is this:
i have a very distinct memory, in my childhood, of the moment of my disillusionment. i believed that grown-ups knew what they were doing, and that the things that seemed so obvious to me had to be obvious to them, too (things like DON’T GO TO WAR IN IRAQ, for example). i believed that, and had that belief pulled out from under me, so my disillusionment comes with a sense of betrayal.
a mere 10 years younger than me, this guy has no such moment or memory. he never believed grown-ups were fundamentally competent, or good, or reasonable. he never lived in a world where things didn’t feel constantly careening wildly out of control. there’s no betrayal in his sense that the government has failed him - of course it has, it was always going to. he doesn’t remember a time pre-bush, or pre-9/11, or pre-iraq war. this is just what the world has always looked like for him. so it’s not really a sense of “disillusionment,” actually - his generation never had any illusions to lose. they’ve just been in this world so long it’s all they’ve ever known.
Hiromu Arakawa’s genius is obvious throughout all of FMA but her first and biggest leap of genius was in how she crafted her protagonist.
Arakawa realized the burgeoning youth of the early 2000s wasnt interested in another plucky spry optimistic young shonen protag. Instead she gave us a short ugly egotistical asshole smarter-than-you atheist with so much money and power that people could no longer best him in arguments by telling him “dude shut up ur literally like 12″
Five pages in we’re told Edward’s famous and rich and powerful. Five more pages and he’s calling some girl stupid for thinking God exists. Five more pages and he’s proven right. Five more and he’s kicked an evil priest’s teeth in. And no one can tell his mom on him.
Hiromu Arakawa figured out the dream of every edgy young weeb discovering internet arguments for the first time and she cast them an idol made of gold.
It’s like the original protagonist got turned into a suit of armor, so his asshole sidekick had to fill in as the face.
My feed is currently exploding with the fact that Biden picked Kamala Harris as his veep. I would like to remind my friends of the following points:
1) She’s a cop, and we’re allowed to be unhappy. We’re allowed to be mad, even.
2) We are not just voting for the Presidency. We are also voting for Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s replacement. And a lot of other stuff, but let RBG retire or die secure in the knowledge that doing so will not fuck over this country.
3) “Kamala Harris is a cop and ACAB” and “Kamala Harris’s nomination represents a number of important firsts in the field of politics” are both solid takes that do not cancel one another out and in fact coexist because we do not live in a magic Star Wars world where we have just have the Light Side and Dark Side.
4) The immigrants currently being held in cages and doused with weapons-grade disinfectant by our own government will not appreciate the subtleties of our political choices if we elect Trump for a second term through our inaction or dithering. For that matter, the people dying of COVID because Trump gutted the pandemic response team and then mishandled our response to the virus will not appreciate them. Because they’re dying or dead. Because we couldn’t get our shit together four years ago. My own mother may be one of these people. I’ll never know for sure.
You’re all adults, and I’m not here to tell you what to do. I will, however, share what I’m going to do: I will vote for Biden and his cop sidekick in November. And then if Trump gets a second term anyway, I’m arming myself and getting my ducks in order to go underground, because my Jewish wife and I are not going into the gas chambers quietly.
At that annoying artistic level where all I’m seeing is flaws and mistakes and nothing looks good enough >_< I still don’t feel professional levels of good yet.
would new brushes help? new brushes help me when im critical of my own work
I am Silver Tongue, I am an artist. I have many characters and you can check out my art in the art tag. I occasionally practice witchcraft though I don't do anything too complicated. I am girl 2 and don't know what else to put here.
