I Went And Saw The Creator Of Dead Plate, @racheldrawsthis Used To Draw Lots Of Camp Camp, So I Drew

WHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

In the changeling au, what does “keeping” mean? I know there’s the whole thing about faeries tricking people into “giving” them their names, but what actually happens in this au? Like what would the actual consequences be in a practical sense?

(And I assume nothing happens if Adrien just learns the names through other means bc they have to “give” it to him?)

it means that people who's names he has are susceptible to his illusions and persuasions, even if neither party knows it

they can't perceive what he doesn't want them to, and they're more likely to agree with what he asks, even if its wildly out of character for them. he doesn't know he has this power, he just thinks his friends are really nice to him

and yeah, if he learns someone's name secondhand, it doesn't count. it has to be a direct interaction, and it has to be comprehensible

the sketch of this and the screenshot

Ramshackle is finally here and I am so fricken' happy!

screenshot redraw/very minor spoilers.

@zeddyzi and their team did an amazing job!

Imagine if the first one to find out Ladybug’s identity...

…is Chloé Bourgeois. 

I can easily picture Alya finding out; I swoon at the thought of Adrien finally knowing. thelastpilot has given us an extremely spot-on characterization of Nino finding out who LB is. 

But when it comes to Chloé knowing, a part of me hesitates. Because I honestly don’t know how she’d react to that. She LOVES her some Ladybug, but absolutely cannot STAND Marinette. How does a person reconcile that? Will she like Ladybug less? Or stop altogether? Or will she stop being awful to Marinette? It could go so many ways! 

Imagine Chloé realizing that the girl she was secretly jealous of, the kind Marinette who made friends without money or fame or threats, the girl that Adrien seemed to enjoy being around, THAT girl was ALSO Ladybug? Who was loved by all of Paris? Including herself? 

Would her jealousy just get worse? Would she hate Marinette more? Try to sabotage her because no way can she have it all. She can’t be this popular pretty girl in school and ALSO a super hero. She doesn’t get to be so close to Adrien in school AND have him gawk at her as Ladybug. It’s just so UNFAIR. 

But then imagine Chloé knowing that with all the YEARS of harassment and rude comments  she’d subjected Marinette to, LB STILL saved her life. Multiple times. Marinette let Chloé call her a friend when she was behind the mask, even knowing she’d got back to school the next day and hear the mayor’s daughter throw insults at her. 

Maybe that is what, once and for all, stops Chloé’s reign of terror. Kinda. 

Imagine the class’s reactions when Chloé starts asking after Marinette’s health. Suddenly feeling guilty and realizing the girl might be falling down a lot because she has bruises or broke something in a fight or GOD what if she has the flu? 

Imagine Marinette’s skeptical reaction to that, and Chloé’s nonchalant “Well don’t think I actually CARE or anything…just don’t want your nasty germs getting all over me Marinette Dupain-Cheng!” 

Imagine Tom and Sabine’s bakery suddenly getting it’s debts paid off, courtesy of the mayor. Imagine them getting invited to cater at high-profile events and galas in Paris. Suddenly business is booming even MORE than before. The Dupain-Cheng’s don’t have to worry about money anymore. 

Imagine Chloé suddenly asking Sabrina to do two sets of geography homework. “You know…just in case I lose one or something!” But she knows an akuma attacked late last night and there’s no way Mari had time to do hers. 

Imagine there’s an akuma attack, and all their classmates wonder where Marinette is, and Chloé distracts them with a “Who cares about her anyway? She probably tripped and got herself locked in a closet somewhere. Let’s just go!” 

Imagine her purposely being late for school (she makes Sabrina do it too) as well so that the teacher leaves Marinette alone. Because if Marinette is in trouble then so is Chloé, and who would dare give the mayor’s daughter a tardy, and “We’re not late, the rest of you are just early!” 

Imagine that Chloé Bourgeois still pretends to be the stuck up rich brat everyone knows her as just to keep Marinette’s secret safe. 

Imagine her actually wanting to be Marinette’s friend even MORE, but feeling super embarrassed about everything between them and not really knowing how else to be. This is all new for her, and she’s never been really good at making friends. ;) 

And she thinks maybe that’s what she deserves for treating Marinette so terribly. Maybe she doesn’t deserve to have her as a real friend. But she’s definitely going to do what she can to help.

She IS Ladybug’s number one fan after all. 

trying to get the hang of them

Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.

And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.

And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.

Take these scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.

This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.

And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.

Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.

So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.

It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.

Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.

These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.

Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.

Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.

And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).

But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.

Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.

On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:

"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."

Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.

And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.

Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.

So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.

This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.

In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.

To conclude, I wish fandom would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.

kofi request: “I would like sniper tf2 trying to load his sniper rifle but finding that instead of bullets, he has the tiniest amongi in his ammo spot, thank you”

Quick doodle after watching the new episode!

ew ew ew ew ew 🤢

haven't made a full drawing in awhile, 'twas fun!