Keep Doing It Wrong, Singing Along

how i design trolls

wecanspooky:

yesterday there was a bit of talk about body type variation in how people draw the trolls on my dash! it made me think of how i approach drawing the trolls, and boy do i think about that a lot, haha. 

it’s taken me a while to come up with my solid “headcanon” for the trolls shapes/faces, but now that i kind of have it down, i have trouble drawing them any other way. 

my “shtick” for drawing trolls is that i base their entire design around their symbol/shape of the horns/zodiac/personality. in animation there are several visual stereotypes for different types of characters, and i basically just utilized these to create a cast of stylized characters that have variety but look like they could all belong to the same universe (and actually the 12 trolls are all related in some way so there are some shared traits between them.)

ANYWAYS, i am going to share with you my design rationale for each of the trolls. i wouldnt say so much this is “body type headcanon” and more like “character design pitches” haha. i haven’t tried to make every character like something wildly disparate from how fandom at large draws them— for a reason! certain stereotypes exist for a reason, because they are easily recognizable and relatable to the audience. 

AND NOW, onto my explanations! (with crappy sketches)

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stupideverybody:

girrafeoflife:

So I just wanted to put it out there that aside from being incorrect pseudo-science, the whole concept of Black people’s melanin protecting them from skin cancer reeks of social darwinism. :/

So… this says otherwise.

http://www.skincancer.org/prevention/skin-cancer-and-skin-of-color

Melanin helps protect the skin against effects of the sun such as skin cancers and premature aging. In African American skin, melanin provides a sun protection factor (SPF) approximately equivalent to 13.4, compared to 3.4 in white skin.^6-8 This discrepancy illustrates why skin cancer is more prevalent in Caucasian people; it is, in fact, the most common type of malignancy in the US among Caucasians. 

And this, from Wikipedia:

As with peoples having migrated northward, those with light skin migrating toward the equator acclimatize to the much stronger solar radiation. Most people’s skin darkens when exposed to UV light, giving them more protection when it is needed. This is the physiological purpose of sun tanning. Dark-skinned people, who produce more skin-protecting eumelanin, have a greater protection against sunburn and the development of melanoma, a potentially deadly form ofskin cancer, as well as other health problems related to exposure to strong solar radiation, including the photodegradation of certain vitamins such as riboflavins, carotenoids, tocopherol, and folate.

And this:

http://anthro.palomar.edu/adapt/adapt_4.htm

Nature has selected for people with darker skin in tropical latitudes, especially in nonforested regions, where ultraviolet radiation from the sun is usually the most intense.  Melanin acts as a protective biological shield against ultraviolet radiation.  By doing this, it helps to prevent sunburn damage that could result in DNA changes and, subsequently, several kinds of malignant skin cancers.  Melanoma  in particular is a serious threat to life.  In the United States, approximately 54,000 people get this aggressive type of skin cancer every year and nearly 8,000 of them die from it.  Those at highest risk are European Americans.  They have a 10 times higher risk than African Americans.

Don’t let your social issues cloud your judgment. If you have sources to back up your pseudo-science comment, I’d love to see them. I’d like to point out that I have not read this book nor do I know anything about it. I’ve just learned of its existence today. 

Oh ha, I guess I should have clarified that the pseudo-science I’m talking about specifically is the in-book explanation that ~solar radiation~ powerful enough to wipe out most white people somehow left PoCs mostly intact. I mean, the narrative itself mentions off-handedly that ‘coals’ can get skin cancer on occasion, but aside from being just illogical and stupid, the idea that a PoCs melanin protects them from radiation powerful enough to kill most of the poor delicate white people just seems so damn skeevy and racist in a really antiquated way.

ficlet: the attempted rescue of her royal highness, the princess brittany s. pierce (klaine au fridays, fairy tales)

icedwhitemocha:

(thanks to the fair lady jenny for the quick read-over and titling assistance!)

Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a princess who was kidnapped; snatched right off her unicorn by an evil witch, who left her trapped in a tower out of spite. This tower — as towers often are — was guarded by a dragon, a cruel, yellow beast with snapping jaws, who the townsfolk called Murphy.

The King and the Queen were desperate to see the safe return of their daughter, and offered her hand in marriage to any knight who could slay the dragon and rescue the princess from her tower prison. Knights from all over the realm flocked to the base of the tower, in the hope that they would be the one to succeed. A line of knights stretched for half a mile, all along the bridge that led to the tower and beyond, into the edges of the haunted wood that surrounded it. (Because a tower must always be surrounded by a haunted wood, of course.)

Unfortunately for those brave knights, Murphy the dragon was a nasty creature, an enemy of joy and true love who rained fire and dragonpiss on those who sought to enter the tower. One by one, the knights fell or fled, and the princess could do no more than wave from her window, shouting encouragement or condolences as needed.

Close to the end of the line, still patiently awaiting his turn, was a curly-haired knight, small of stature with eyes of hazel, clad in golden armor bedecked with enameled songbirds perched upon his shoulders. Even late in the afternoon, the day was hot and sunny, and the knight turned to the knight behind him, wiping a drop of sweat from his brow. 

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