laugh at the ghosts of our fears

And yes, they’re real, here’s mine!

The part in both the book and movie that never fails to make me cry is the ‘you have no immediate family you don’t even have a dog’ bit. That because he does not have these traditional relationships he has no reason not to sacrifice himself. Because it tears at the fragile part of my soul that knows people will never believe my life is fulfilled unless I gain a romantic partner or start a family. That even close ones will never be able to understand this part of me and will forever just think I’m off.

Then this story presents this notion as something unfair. People’s reaction to it is that of course a lack of these relationship doesn’t make you more expendable. And the story doesn’t end with him finding the love of his life after all - but finding a dear friend, and through that friendship being able to save two planets together. It’s not something I feel I see often, and it resonates with me very deeply. It’s been so special seeing it resonate with and be embraced by so many others as well. And it just stings to see how much of that becomes lost because people are unable to engage with text that doesn’t revolve around romance, and end up boiling things down to the same fandom tropes we see everywhere else.

mind you, i know that no matter grace's circumstances he would've been sent to space regardless, family or children be damned. he could have had a whole fleet of dogs and it wouldn't have been enough to save him. but something about that line. something about it.

my color tips pdf is now available ! i had a lot of fun with this, i hope you enjoy ^^

my storytelling final! or, that week i almost went blind cross-hatching!

it’s a couple weeks old at this point, but i’m still proud of it (all that cross-hatching…) even though looking back at it now i can see a ton of flaws or things i just could’ve done better. maybe i’ll redo it one day.

the page colors are kind of wonky because they’re photographs; i didn’t have a scanner big enough for the pages.