starryarchitect

Latest Posts by starryarchitect

map of europa with drawings of my fellow soldiers from back during the ice war

way back when I got promoted to sergeant my captain gave me the company guidebook on europan warfare and all these maps. neither of them were worth anything except as a canvas. thing is, ink and paint freezes in those tunnels, so I drew the other soldiers all in pencil. I've been going through these old sketches from my time on the ice and thinking I might share some of them, so I'll have a few more for you soon, because the ice was hell and this was the only thing that made it gentler

Source for map (Global Geologic Map of Europa by USGS in conjunction with NASA):

https://pubs.usgs.gov/sim/3513/sim3513_sheet.pdf

(I love USGS so much)

🎉If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let's get to know the person behind the blog. :)

This is so cute! Let's see, three random facts. I've never lived anywhere for more than three years, I'm trained in search and rescue techniques (technically. it's been a minute), and I love to hike! I feel like I'm very obvious about my nerdiness and love of art on here so I thought I'd try to throw in some other parts of myself with this

upon morning reflection I've decided the ice looks decent and the helmet looks kinda sick but I failed to convey the cosmic horror of the watchful eye of jove. but I think that's because no earthly medium can capture jove's pitiless face, and certainly not the crude colors of a veteran like me

we honor our fallen comrades beneath jove's unblinking eye

we honor our fallen comrades beneath jove's unblinking eye

they ship in warmies who think they know war but no one knows war before

no one from terra knows what it is to feel your lungs fill with ice as the red eye watches you forever

no one from terra knows how to fight in tunnels or trenches; that planet is too crowded, everywhere has people, no one knows what it's like to fight inside the ground itself

no one from terra knows how the fighting goes when the line between soldier and miner is as blurry as your vision gets as the ice sets in

no one from terra knows how fighting used to be, without plasma guns or electro-bombs, no one knows how to fight when it gets so cold that all the modern tech dies and you're left with your frozen purple hands and the rifles of your ancestors

no one from terra knows what war is. no one knows what war is before—

before they come here.

I think I've never posted any httyd art before?? which is crazy because this series was like half my childhood. (the other half being calvin and hobbes) anyway here have a tired hiccup. I love this boy

"Passion has little to do with euphoria and everything to do with patience. It is not about feeling good. It is about endurance. Like patience, passion comes from the same Latin root: pati. It does not mean to flow with exuberance. It means to suffer.” ― Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves

loved the colors of the flowers from conference so I just had to doodle them

When Adrien gets out from under Gabriel's thumb, I imagine he's going to wear a bunch of disgustingly unstylish clothes. I don't mean he'll start wearing styles that Gabriel objects to; I mean he'll start wearing styles that everyone objects to.

If you think this looks bad . . . thank you, that's the point

okay this has been bothering me a ton so . . .

You know I used to think "tumblr's absolute refusal to actually engage with the Trolley Problem in favor of insisting that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is just a short-sighted idiot is really fucking annoying, but I guess it's not actually doing any harm".

Anyway that was before we asked tumblr at large to decide between "guy aiding a genocide but making progress elsewhere" and "guy who would actively and enthusiastically participate in a genocide and would also make everything else much, much worse for everyone elsewhere" and the response was that there must be a third, morally pure option that doesn't require them to make a hard decision and that anyone who asks them to make a binary choice is a short-sighted idiot.

You know he would.

That was the most asexual movie I've ever seen and I am here for it.

okay yeah yeah villain but the diagram is so cool you guys

Wall I made for this (featuring: Russian, Spanish, toki pona, DNA code, women's script, a few alphabets, some geometry and arithmetic, and a language that I invented, among other things. I had fun with this)

carbs > abs

I've mentioned that I'm obsessed with @bigfatbreak's Feralnette, right?

Redraw of this old piece because I was in that kind of mood again, even if this part of the story is over

If you ask I will rant about this forever because I have OPINIONS

kal doodle

yes girl. cry. let it out

I love @bigfatbreak's Feralnette because she looks like she's getting just as little sleep as I am

So maybe I'm unqualified to say this as someone who's never been in a relationship, but actually, forehead touches are much more romantic than kisses

Rory!

She, she screams in silence

A sullen riot penetrating through her mind

Waiting for a sign

To smash the silence with the brick of self-control

- Green Day, "She"

The proper move when you have a sucky week is to figure out what made it sucky, buckle down, and work hard so next week isn't as sucky. But I'm tired so instead I just drew Sep

Marigold from @zoe-oneesama's Scarlet Lady AU!

My hand slipped and, um . . .

I wrote another all left fic for the au by @sabertoothwalrus! One chapter up, the other two written. It's what I've been referring to in my head as the prosthetic fic. I am quite happy with it actually and, um, I would be even happier if you would read it . . .

I feel a need to bring this back in the wake of the canonical representation of Adrien as a princess and Marinette as his knight in shining armor

Gender Roles in Miraculous Ladybug

Miraculous Ladybug is filled with excellent subversions of gender stereotypes. And no, I'm not just going to say it's feminist, because what I'm talking about is much broader than that. The show is filled with characters that refuse to fit the standard roles their gender lays out for them, both for female and male roles.

Let's start with the most obvious example, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, or Ladybug. It's pretty clear that her character and function in the story revolts against stereotypes of femininity: she is a woman—well, a girl—but she leads her team, which is a traditionally male role. She is the decision-maker, the rationalist, the realist, the one who catastrophizes before she hopes—this is stark contrast to the traditional expectation that women follow and comfort, holding the team up with optism and joy. She is the head, not the heart (that's Adrien). She is driven, strong, determined, and self-assured.

Adrien, too, subverts stereotypes—perhaps more than Marinette, although it's not something you notice immediately like Marinette's subversions. (This is because we're familiar with the patterns of feminist characters, but not the anti-sexism found in Adrien.) At heart, Adrien is arguably the most clasically "feminine" character in the show. On the surface, it's easy to see—he is a model, objectified for his beauty, something that has been done to women for all of history and is still being done today. But it runs deeper, too. He is submissive, mild, willing to bend to other's will—both his father's and Ladybug's, as well as the desires of other people in his class like Chloe and Lila (both of whom are, interestingly, women). His kindness and sensitivity, as well as his role as the heart and support when suited up, all mirror traditionally feminine traits and roles.

And yet, despite all this subversion, neither of the main characters are simply a rebellion against stereotypes. It's clear in Chat Noir's tendency to flirt and his function as a protector, but it's especially evident in Marinette, who doesn't just subvert female stereotypes—she also fulfills them.

Marinette is a leader, a thinker, a pessimist, but she's also interested in fashion and art, both of which are considered feminine. More than that, she's incredibly kind, exemplifying that women can abandon the negative feminine stereotypes of submission and obedience without sacrificing the positives like kindness and selflessness. And finally, she's clearly not a "strong independent woman who don't need no man" because she wants a man. No, she doesn't need a boyfriend, but she wants one. True feminism doesn't mean women throwing aside all romantic relationships, it means not pressuring women either way, into or away from romance. Marinette can be strong and independent while still loving someone and wanting to be loved back.

The characters in Miraculous Ladybug are not governed by stereotypes. They were written to be good, nuanced characters, not feminist characters. Marinette has both feminine and masculine traits, proving that traditional "feminine" values are just as valuable as "masculine" ones. Adrien has both, but far more feminine than masculine traits, demonstrating that masculinity is not superior, and that toxic masculinity is just as harmful as classic sexism.

Miraculous Ladybug didn't say "We need to stop forcing women to be feminine," which is a common and harmful misinterpretation of the feminist vision. It didn't say "We should let women act like men!" or "Femininity is bad! Let's leave it all behind." It said, "Stereotypes—both for men and women—are harmful, and we should let people just be people instead of defining them by their genders." It created a world where there are no traditionally feminine and masculine traits, there are just people traits, and anyone can be anyone.

been listening to hadestown and I'm just the tiniest bit in love with Orpheus

These days I have enough thoughts and feelings about Adrien (and Gabriel Agreste and sentiadrien and everything) to write a dissertation, but art is easier

Sharing books is so intimate. It's like . . . here is a book with hundreds of pages, I've touched each one of them and now you will too. Here's something I've cradled against my heart to keep it dry in the rain, and now you get to hold it too. Here's the thing that's lain on the table beside me as I sleep, and now it'll lay next to you. Here's the thing that's traveled with me across seas and over mountains, and now you get to journey through the world with it. Here's the universe I've been trapped in for days on end, the confusing and painful and beautiful events I've witnessed through these words, and now you get to experience the same things as me. Here is the thing that has consumed my mind and soul before, and now you get to let it consume you too.