I get people think it's sexy, and the character was basically designed as a thirst trap for horny gamers.

But I do believe I've seen enough 'Jack-O challenge' poses in the past few weeks to last me my entire life a million times over.

You'd think someone would think up something original to compete with it, or imagine something they thought was more sexy. Or even use one of her million other poses in that game. Maybe cosplay their OC as Jack-O instead of just the pose. Something more original or creative than 'Imma copy er'boddeh else!'

Sadly this has not been the case, or very rarely so. I mean... no one's even drawn the new KOF Shermie, and she's fuckin hot too. I guess 'face down, ass up' is just too attractive, no matter how old it gets, huh?

In this time of sitting around alone with little to do, I've been watching a LOT of anime. After seeing the popularity of Beastars here in the fandom, I thought this one would also draw some interest:

https://www2.gogoanime.video/category/bna

The anime is called BNA, and is about how, after a long time in hiding, anthros have come out into the open in the world. Humans of course are discriminating against them, but there is a city for them that has been established. A young tanuki girl travels there, looking for safety, and meets a mysterious wolf character, along with some shady plots starting up.

I didn't watch into it too far, but what I saw was good. If you're interested, give it a peek.

The anime is called "Nezha Zhi Mo Tong Jiang Shi" and tells a very interesting tale of demons, dragons, curses and balance.

This one really impressed me. The animation reminds me of a Pixar movie, with great visuals, lots of humor and incredible fight scenes. I highly recommend giving it a watch.

https://gogoanime.video/nezha-zhi-m.....-shi-episode-1

https://www.kickassanime.rs/anime/n.....sode-01-428116

https://dreamanime.fun/anime/watch/.....ie-english-sub

What's more, despite being almost 2 hours long, they hint at a second movie, and give a preview of another they have in development at the end! I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the next episode of this.

I highly recommend it, though it does require some subtitle reading.

https://gogoanime.video/bai-she-yuan-qi-episode-1

It was full of magic, a semi-tragic love story, some adventure and high martial arts combat.

The animation was genuinely top notch, beautiful and detailed, and despite being about and hour and a half long, it hinted strongly at a sequel that I'm am now greatly anticipating.

If you don't mind reading while watching, this is a very good one, and I hope you'll take a look at it.

I was randomly browsing around e621 and came across Spotmini porn. You know, that little four legged robot with the odd, snakelike robotic hand/arm combo you see opening doors? Yeah, that one.

Now, I know Rule 34 is a harsh mistress to some people in the fandom, but this is right up there in my mind with that guy marrying his car in my head. xD I'm honestly at a loss for what to think about it.

I"ve noticed that when coming here or trying to view certain images, instead of loading, I'll get a blank white screen instead of it loading right away. A reload fixes it, but it's odd that it's happening, and it only seems to happen here on FA.

Were there any changes to the site that I'm not aware of that might be causing this? If anyone knows something, please let me know.

There is something I'm watching happening within FA right now that is very disturbing. Certain people are trying to elevate themselves by making the community and this, along with all other current furry websites, seem flawed. This person is at the same time touting the creation of another site which they will found and control that will be better than all the rest, and from what I'm getting from their words, will only allow the *right* kind of furry access. The concept disgusts me.

Why? Because it sounds like this person is attempting to glean off a group of their most rabid fans and most like minded individuals in order to found something they're in control of and that they can restrict and use in such a way as to try to guide the future development of the fandom. And many people are on board with this. A lot of them seem to be so simply because of the 'furry celebrity' of the person in question.

Segregating the fandom will not improve it. Even having the concept that segregation is somehow improving things, or that only certain people with certain self-approved personality features should be allowed to be a part of this community is the exact WRONG way to promote and repair the fandom. They would say this isn't what they're doing, and that they want instead to improve the overall nature of the community, but if this were true, they would do it on all fronts, not retreat into a corner, bringing only those of like mind along with them.

I sincerely thought about not making this journal. I don't like pointing fingers at people, or even starting a hint of drama, and I know a lot of people don't like how frank and straightforward my words are. But this disturbs me, so I felt like I had to speak on it at least a little.

Well, here it is, Americans.

I don't often say much of anything here like this, so this should give some indication of how important it is to me. Trump has run rampant in office since he was elected, the racists, hate mongers and flatly insane have rallied all over the country it seems, and every day you read about some new lie or crazy thing our president is doing.

Attempting to redefine gender so it's only based on biology at time of birth? Yup.

Trying to revoke birthright citizenship, basically telling people born here that they're not American? Yup.

Continually ramping up tarriffs against China, even though doing so is rebounding against every American company and making things worse for everyone? Of course.

Kissing up to Putin and Saudi Arabia because 'money'? *smooching noises*

Blanket labeling everyone of a specific race as equal? Because if one of them proves to be a murderer or breaks a law, then ALL of them are gonna do it, right?!
Right on point.

And everyone in his party is just coasting along behind him, enjoying the craziness and the 'popularity'. ...more like enjoying the way he does such outlandish things that the relatively small things they're doing are going virtually unnoticed.

Maybe you're FOR Trump, and feel he's doing a great job. That's fair. Please go out and make your voice heard as well by voting. But please. Don't just lay at home and say 'Nothing I feel or do will matter.' or 'Even if I do vote, it's already been decided.'

Your vote counts. Let your voice be heard.

I just learned of Cartoon Networks idea for a new way to evicerate my childhood. Something called 'Thundercats Roar'.



Compare the above to either the original:


or the 2011 version:


Now, after the amazing job they did with mangling Teen Titans from a well animated and somewhat deep cartoon into a long series of poop and fart jokes interspersed with eating pizza, I was worried just reading this. But to actually see it... Did they just fire all the actual animators and hire a bunch of 10 year olds, or did they just ask them to draw the base characters and then force the artists to draw in a similar style?

This HURTS to see, and it make me REALLY, REALLY wish that, if this is what they're going to do with them, they would just leave the cartoons I grew up on alone. They would have done much better to have brought back and remastered the originals. But I guess that would have been too much work. How much do you want to bet this is filled with horrible fart jokes and blunt brained behavior as well? I really can't. Not even a little.

Was browsing through my subscribed channels on YouTube today, when I found a video called '10 most paused moments of 2017'. In it, they show a list of interesting little easter eggs and sections of movies... including this one from a movie called 'The Untamed' in which a woman is raped by a pretty realistic tentacle monster.

https://youtu.be/HTLnSR7nX6k?t=6m17s

I just kinda blinked, and as the video suggested, rewound it to look at it again. It's both disturbing, sexual and, taken out of context as it is, makes me wonder about the hows and whys of the situation. Not sure if I want to watch it though...

A friend recently showed me this, and I plan to use it. You may not use these exact words, but at least you can voice your opinion... and you should.

https://i.imgur.com/EOgFupl.png

If Net Neutrality is removed, all those big corporations will gain the ability to charge you to see the things on the internet you want to see, ban the things you like that they don't, and generally turn 'the internet' into 'another way for us to control people and take their money'. Everyone who can, SHOULD make it a point to let those in charge know it's not something we want, now or ever.

Say something before the deadline of December 15th. Hopefully it'll stop them from making the wrong decision.

Well other than a sex session with me I recommend this:

Dial for Men Maximum Moiature shower gel: https://target.scene7.com/is/image/.....&fmt=pjpeg

I don't know if one of the guys in their R&D department thought it would be funny, or was in one of those 'certain moods', or just was trying to make it look like lotion, but... it looks like cum. Slightly bluish tinted yes. But DEFINITELY cum. It even has the right consistency to it.

I half wanted to squirt it all over myself just before my shower then walk through the house from my room to the bathroom, loudly proclaiming how GOOD that session was and how much I needed a shower now afterwards, just for the shock value! xD

Seriously, go look at it next time you get the chance! ...it also smells really nice. ;3

So I just watched this movie, and... "Good lord, what's going on?!" was my first thoughts after only watching this for a short while.

I wouldn't call myself a huge expert or even a buff of space exploration, although I do like the various concepts involved. But from the very beginning, things happened that just didn't seem to add up; little details that made me tilt my head like a curious puppy and go, "Huh?! ...Wait, what?!"

The captain dies in the beginning by being immolated in his cryo pod. It literally looked like someone had him in some kind of cremation chamber. ...Is cryogenic fluid really that flammable? If it *wasn't* cryo fluid, wouldn't the pod designers have done more research to be sure that a random bump or impact woouldn't trigger an event that would instantly kill the occupant?

And when they try to get him out, presumably due to some sort of malfunction with the lid... they pull out this huge 'jaws of life' type device that looks to be designed to break the glass... and it doesn't work. It has NO mechanical support (no hydraulics, no spring loaded spike to crack the glass, no electrical support; not even a basic hand crank to increase the force it exerts) and relies purely on the strength of the guys using it to work... and it fails completely. They then hammer at the glass with what looks like an axe or other heavy tool to no effect while to man burns alive. And this is the future, folks. No manual, seal or hinge releasing failsafe built into the outside of the pod. The people inside the pods are responsible for releasing THEMSELVES, so in case of a medical emergency or them not waking up, they basically die. And despite the horrible, unsafe design for restraining the occupants and for the pods themselves being stable once 'secured', they're apparently made of a material so strong it can't be broken through by a device designed specifically for the purpose. And that's just the glass.

Speaking of impacts... the pods were hung up like coats on a coatrack instead of being securely held in place or built into the walls where they wouldn't be as likely to easily fall to the ground and trigger internal combustion. Admittedly the impact was supposed to be fairly severe, but even so why would they leave pods that could kill the occupant after a fall hanging up from a single connection point?

One of the crew BANGS HER HEAD ON THE GLASS of the pod door! What? WHAT!? So they didn't think to secure the person's HEAD inside the pod so they wouldn't randomly snap their neck or crack their skull in event of an emergency? You know; the most important part of their body that controls everything else? Did they assume that the kind of random happenings that caused the whole problem didn't exist in the depths of space? Did they just assume hanging someone in a pod like a coat on a rack was enough to protect them from everything that might happen, or dismiss the chance of problems in the first place?

Then it got worse.

The terraforming machines, huge hulking machines, were being restrained with chains. Not clamps, not hydraulic presses. Chains. And not even very thick looking ones, considering the size of the machines being moved. This isn't some terrestrial transport by a highway of a contrsuction vehicle, it's a multi year trip thru space with thousands of lives in the balance. And they only used chains. Chains secured by machines that were obviously not up to the task of keeping the terraforming vehicles in place, as several of them had pulled partially loose from the shockwave impact! ...wouldn't someone have tested all this out BEFORE launching this mission? From what I understand, every OUNCE of weight is critically measured just to get something into orbit, much less send it on a seven plus year trip across the galaxy, and these things looked to easily weigh tons.

When they go down to the planet, they just... go. No 'stay in orbit and scan the planet for a day', no 'Send a small group to investigate'. They send more than half the crew AND the synthetic who manages things while they're sleeping.

They detect a massive plasma storm in the upper atmosphere... and dive RIGHT into it. No going around it, no waiting for a window to clear. Just toss the crew in a drop pod into the middle of an electrical storm they're not sure they can weather. It actually made me laugh when the people still on the ship were surprised they lost communication with the pod while it was flying through lightning hell. ...and then when they get through it, the pilot 'doesn't like the terrain'. Maybe if you had taken a few hours to SCAN for a good landing spot! Oh. And they finally choose a landing stop that's EIGHT KILOMETERS from where they're going! They're in a flying dropship that can hover, but choose to hike 8 kilometers through unknown, mountainous terrain (the signal is coming from the top of one of the mountains) to reach their destination instead of just... going there. That pilot seriously couldn't find a single good landing spot in an 8 kilometer radius from the signal's origin point that was closer?

And then after they land... nothing. Wait, what? Nothing? That's right. They open the ship and walk right out. No breathing masks, no body armor, no scanning devices in hand. Just guns. Fuck alien bacteria or hostile life forms or poisonous, unknown gases! We've got GUNS, bitch! What!? It's like in the future, we're going to regress years of understanding that alien things aren't necessarily safe, or that when going into hostile territory, you should probably be concerned with maintaining physical safety as much as being able to kill shit.

I always thought that in order to be able to go out into space on a trip at ALL, you need to be able to handle stressful situations calmly and rationally. I'm reminded of how in one case, a suit leaking water during a spacewalk nearly caused one astronaut to drown in his suit, but he was able to remain calm and collected, and was saved because of it. Not THESE guys.

When people start showing signs of sickness, they of course help out... until the WEIRD shit starts happening. Then it's freakout central. They bring one infected person on the ship, despite thoughts of quarantine and him vomiting blood on the person trying to help him... which is a pretty good sign it's too late. When they get him to the medbay, you'd think they would scan him or give him meds or otherwise treat him, right? Nope! They just sit him there and wath him mutate, then die, all the while doing the LEAST useful things imaginable. The pilot completely loses it and locks the other female in the medbay, supposedly for quarantine reasons (yes, she then opens the door later because FUCK quarantine, right? RIGHT!?). And the woman locked in the room...? After seeing the guy's back starting to split open, she goes and HUGS him. GREAT treatment practice! I'm sure he'll be all better n... oh wait he died.

After this comes either the most hilarious series of slapstick moments in recent history, or that part in the script where the director was drunk and wanted the actors to make him laugh. Dealing with the young alien. The female in the room (let's call her the doctor) grabs a knife... then promptly slips in the blood on the floor and goes down. Let's chalk another couple of points up to design flaws, shall we? Medbay floor; not textured in any way to prevent slips due to fluids on the floor. Sppace grade hiking boots... ALSO not textured in any way to prevent slips on smooth, wet surfaces.

The doctor then sits on her ass, ineffectually pointing her knife at the thing... and it subsequently jumps on here and tries to eat her face. Stab it? S...stab it. No really. Hello? ....nope. She never drops the knife, but she never uses it either for some reason... just lays there getting her face mauled. And then the pilot comes in with a gun to save the doctor... and slips in the SAME PUDDLE OF BLOOD and falls on HER ass! I had to pause to peel my face off the wall behind me, I facepalmed so hard. I assumed since they had been given guns and (presumably again) training in combat, that they would be able to actually fight with knives and guns while also being aware of their surroundings. Maybe it's just me, but I really can't imagine sitting on my ass while some animal or creature stared me down waving a knife at it. If I had to be low, it would be a crouch. If I had a knife and it got close, claws and teeth or whatever, I'd stab it til my arm got tired, then cut up whatever was left once I was done. Guns are for long range. If I was trying to shoot something, I'd work from as far back as I could, instead of trying for a point blank shot, and good GODS look where you're walking!

...and then she randomly shoots at the thing as it escapes and comes after her. It's fun to note that the same glass that couldn't be broken on the pod in the beginning cracks after a couple of hits from this thing headbutting it shortly after being born (I'm assuming they would use the same glass; could be wrong). She fires at it as it comes down the corridor, completely unaware of her, and misses. And then she shoot at it again and misses. And then it leaps on some cargo netting several inches at best from her and she... misses it. Then she goes into 'insane randomfire' mode and shoots some tanks which explode and destroy the ship, blow up the other two... assuming the doctor was even still alive at that point... and leaves her to stumble out of the ship in flames before dying too. ...the monster escapes. Of course it does.

At this point, I'm gonna pause this journal, because I'm going to have to seriously fight with myself to continue watching this shit. I feel extremely sad for the Aliens franchise at this point, and I had real hope that as well recieved as this movie was, it was going to give me that old feel that the originals did. I couldn't be more disappointed right now.

I don't usually report on these things, but I figured it might be interesting to some of the people here.

I've been watching this anime called 'Grimoire of Zero' or 'Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho' recently and it seems pretty good. It has these beings called 'beastfallen' who are basically anthros, and the main character is a tiger beastfallen who gets tied up with a witch who tells him if he works to protect her, she will restore his human form (which is odd, since he was apparently one since he was born, but eh.) It's cute in that she seems to like him as a beastfallen though, always teasing him and cuddling up to him because of his soft fur. ^^ I also figured some of my watchers might like it since the main character is kinda big and beefy, which appeals to some, I know.

You can watch it here. Hope you enjoy it.

http://animeshow.tv/Zero-kara-Hajim.....-Mahou-no-Sho/

Happy New Years, everyone. Here's to hoping the next year or so is a tad less stressful, a little less painful, a bit more wonderful and a little more... full of good things.

I won't look back at the bad things of the year past, though I will remember them and try to learn from them. I'm only going to keep looking forward. I hope you all see pleasant things on the horizon too.

I recently found this trend going on, and it's making my once considered long dead WTF meter give of strange, distorted beeps...

http://gamejolt.com/games/what-if-a.....-game/132926#!

Apparently this is a pretty huge thing that I had NO idea existed until now. I've seen Adventure Time a few times; it's interesting, can be hilarious, and has a 'not bad' storyline for the cartoons you tend to get these days. ..but when did * this* happen?

http://retrokidz.deviantart.com/art.....onna-388919665

When did Finn turn into a curvy female, along with just about every other character in the cartoon? xD I'm not knocking it or anything, it's just... wow. Can't say I saw this coming at ALL.

...but at this rate, I'll be the only one left. :P

To the admins of FA, please do something so you stop having these issues. If you're tired of running the place, just say so to everyone, then give them some time to clear out and shut the place down.

You know the issues you have; or at the very least, everyone ELSE knows them and has been talking about them for so long there's no way short of absolute lack of association with the people you cater to that you DON'T know the issues yourselves.

People know them well enough to exploit them repeatedly. I've been around long enough to have seen this exact scenario over and over. And each time a mass of your clients and members flip you off and leave, never to return. I'm not even that active as I was anymore, and *I'm* getting tired of this.

If people who work code or have some other concrete knowledge of the site give you advice about it, please take it and have some non-furry, not potentially in the future gonna suddenly explode into drama and activate that back door they built in, not incompetent, 'hired because I knows the boss' person rework your base code and fix the problems.

It makes me sad in a way to watch how a fandom that drew me in with its concepts of tolerance and unity is falling apart steadily in the years since I joined it. How many websites should I have to visit just to see all the artists I like here on FA? Please try to make it so they're not at the least unwilling to remain here in one place.

...the ones that are left, in any case...

*looks* ..No, not the metal coiled thing...

*looks again* N..no... not the poolof hot water boiling up from the ground...

*looks some more* ...What does a bunch of guys sucking each others dicks have to do with Spring?! o.o;

I've been trying to search online for some kind of furry image related to the season of Spring, but other than one excellent sixleafclover image of a springtime dragon, I've not been able to find anything.

Mostly, there are images of guy in hot springs having sex, along with character images with maybe a flower or sprig of something green in it. Mostly it's porn. xP

Does anyone know of any good images drawn by furries that represent Spring? The SEASON Spring? If you know of a good image, could you link it in the journal below? It would be much appreciated.

Focus in on a home in a wrecked, ruined town. Garbage is strewn across the streets, along with the unfortunate bodies of those who have fallen victim to whatever destroyed everything. Fire had taken it's toll in various places, and this house is no different. One wall is collapsed and smoldering, a section of roof still burning slightly, but is reduced to mostly char and ash. Miraculously, part of the house is not only still standing, but mostly intact; probably due to the car that has crashed into a nearby fire hydrant, spraying water over the side and roof of the house until the water pressure failed.

Patches of snow cluster here and there on the fridgid ground, and in another fluke, christmas lights flicker slightly in one window of the house... on fitfully for a few moments, then dimming, then dying... only to blink on again weakly a moment later. Perhaps the few solar panels on the roof are getting enough power from the cloudy sky to keep them running? Inside the one remaining room, a light shines, dimming and brightening in time with the colorful lights outside, but never quite going dark. Inside the room, two figures stand quietly.

One figure is vaguely female; her clothes are spattered with blood, torn and dirty. Her arms hang slackly from her shoulders, the skin faintly greenish and brownish in places... clearly some sort of undead creature. In one claw-like hand, she holds the head of a little girl; a green polka dotted bow tangled in the remains of its dirty blonde hair.

The second undead, a male, stands facing the first, as if unsure of what it might do or was doing a moment before. The slack jawed expression on it's somewhat rotted face seems to only increase the idea of it being confused, or perhaps surprised by everything going on around it.

The eyes on the female undead's face turns slowly, tracking something, only to come to rest on the fitfully flickering lights in the window. She stares as zombies tend to do at the lights for several hours... then something seems to spark in her eyes. She looks around at the ruins of the room... wrecked, torn presents litter the floor; a dark, collapsed christmas tree lies on it's side; the preparations for a fire, still unlit, are set up in the fireplace. Her eyes move to the other zombie, who continues to stare at her with that shocked, amazed expression...

The arm of the hand holding the little girls head twitches and then both hands move, gripping it tightly, and lifting it to chest height. The throat of the zombie works weakly, and then begins to make sounds.

"Mmnh. ...Mmm... Mmmuuh. Murr."

The slack jawed zombie shifts a bit at the sound, perhaps thinking something alive is in the room, but then seeing only another zombie, tilts its head, as if truly confused. The zombie holding the head tries again, arms twitching as it extends the head a few inches out in front of it.

"Mrrrr.... Murrr... Mrrrr... Crrmsss. Mrrr crrrrmssss."

She takes a slight step toward the slack jawed zombie, who, seeing this, hangs it's jaw even further open... either in actual surprise, or just because it's jaw is too rotten to keep holding it's jaw closed anymore. The two toddle towards each other a few steps... then the slack jawed zombie tackles the one with the head to the floor, apparently accepting it's "present".

And so, the Wish: "Mrrr Crrrmsss!" to everyone.

And the Idea: "It's always good to get a little head during the holidays." ;3

Today I saw in the newspaper as a headline that "Platitudes aren't enough" in the "war on guns". It seemed to be pushing (yet again) for stronger gun control laws to prevent such tragedies.

Now... I'm not one to really get involved so often in this subject, but this kind of made me want to make a few comments and point out a few things.

First thing is the most glaringly simple one. Since when has any criminal or terrorist been mindful of laws in general, much less gun laws? Do the people pushing for greater control really think these people, who flout the law constantly and intentionally are suddenly going to say, "Whoa... they made the laws REALLY tough now. We'd better turn our weapons in and stop killing people."? Somehow I doubt it.

Second thing I thought: is this really the proper reaction to an increase in terrorist or criminal activity? I mean think about it. When crime increases in a city, do they disarm the police in order to "control the problem"? if, in a war situation, or one where the military is involved to police and control unstable areas, things get worse, do the order the troops to disarm? No they don't. They INCREASE the amount and power of the weapons on hand to discourage further action. How then does making it harder for civilians to arm themselves improve this situation with people running around killing them? Remember that neither criminals nor terrorists give a hot damn about laws in general; any laws put in place would only make it MORE likely for civilians to get killed without even having a chance at self defense.

What we need now in this country is stronger border control and better screening of people in general when it comes to weapons. Both seem to be incredibly hard to bring about though... mainly because everyone is so busy grandstanding on all these subjects that nothing is really going to happen until a second coming of 9/11. I also think that instead of taking guns away from the populace, there needs to be some sort of program to educate people in the proper use and ownership of weapons, and with very careful screening, training of some of those people to concealed carry said weapons for protection on a wider range than is currently in place.

I'm still not sure how I feel about people walking around with loaded AK-47s around their necks while screaming about their Constitutional rights. These are the people who I would screen out of such arming programs as I mentioned before simply because to me they seem to have the wrong idea as to why they're carrying those weapons. But I personally can't see a reason why anyone would say, "Terrorists and crazy criminals are killing people by the dozen! Everyone should turn in their guns as soon as they can; THAT'LL stop 'em!"

I happened to come home from work and was browsing around randomly online and came across some art from  Fossil. It's been a very long time since I've seen or heard anything from him; I heard he fell on some hard times or something like that, and I'm wondering if anyone has any concrete info on just what happened to him or where he's gone to now.

I know how harsh life can be and I'm just hoping things are still alright for him (as far as that goes). I'd like to contact him, but it seems he's cut himself off from most people he knew in the fandom. If anyone knows how to contact him but can't tell because he asked to be kept private, at least let him know Dracos is still thinking about him and hopes he's doing well.

And if you have any up to date info on what's going on with him, pass it on will you?

Apparently FA is being sold to IMVU (something I've only vaguely heard of)? Is that even what's happening, or is it something else?

I tried looking at the thread dedicated to explaining things a bit, and someone (apparently? I don't know, the comment was removed) said something about dildos, then EVERYONE ELSE commented on that comment, even after it was removed. After scrolling down for quite a while, I kinda figured I was unlikely to find anything explaining the situation there... since people were all trolling as hard as they possibly could.

Can someone sum it up for me WITHOUT trolling?

I couldn't believe it when I saw that Leonard Nemoy had passed away. He is one of the most iconic beings in my mind, having send my imagination soaring more times than I can express. I felt shock for the first time hearing someone famous had died; maybe because I didn't know of his illness, or just because he really did seem immortal in a way.

I thank him for all the times he entertained and amused me, made me dream of space travel and alien worlds, and just was himself, a good person in a world with too few good people who could make me forget my sorry life for a little while.

Rest in Peace, good sir. May you travel to yet more uncharted territories in the next life, and continue on as you had in my imagination.

(( Just a warning of sorts. I'm interested in conversation on this topic, but not looking for arguments. If you feel like you want to argue, also prepare to feel like I really don't give a fuck. This is me stating my feelings on this matter. If you want to do the same, fine. If you want to fight me about it... ))

Today I commented on a certain piece of art, and received rather quickly a reply saying "Well obviously you're not acquainted with THIS extremely niche sounding fetish!" from the artist. They also explained to me how, if I were aware of said fetish, I would know it existed outside of the furry fandom and how many people enjoyed it. It got me to thinking on a much wider scale about what a viewers reaction is supposed to be to certain things in this fandom, and how they're supposed to react or reply to what they're being shown.

A lot of what goes on within this fandom is built and presented in such a way that there's no buffer between what you see and what you WANT to see; I understand that. The expectation is that either you grow a thick skin and take everything equally without comment or thought ("Just shut up and fap!"; a weird mentality that supposes you can ignore anything wrong with an image, either morally or anatomically if it's even vaguely sexual. And what about non-sexual things?), you pick and choose what you see based on your interests only, before you even view the image, which isn't as easy as it sounds ("If you don't like it, don't look at it!"; I've always wondered how I can tell if I like something without looking first.), you're only allowed to criticize art if you yourself are an artist ("If you can't do better, then shut up!" ) or you're then limited to only looking at a range of art that is bland or without variation in order to not be offended or offend someone else.

Added to this now is what seems to be the "That's my fetish." concept, where people draw strange, sometimes gross, sometimes unpleasant concepts in their art, then get oddly irritated when you don't give them the generic "Omg, so f'n hot!", "<3 <3 <3" reaction and move on. If what's in the picture engenders any other reaction from you, like "Ew, no!" or "Wow... that's not right." the people react as if there's something wrong with NOT liking everything you see without thinking about it. The very concept of "don't think too hard about it" bothers the shit out of me. Why don't you want me to think about what I'm looking at? Or more precisely: What's wrong with what I'm looking at that I shouldn't think about it? Isn't art SUPPOSED to make me think and feel? Is there some weird fuckin' trick I don't know that allows me to enjoy what I'm looking at without conscious thought and emotion?

When I mentioned how hard it is to find exactly one kind of art, I mean for example how an artists interests change over time, or how some artists will tailor their art to the current "hot thing" (aka FN@F), or how an artist will get commissioned to draw a certain thing, come to be known for that thing, then claim they hate it suddenly. People change what they draw and sometimes can be influenced by any number of things to draw outside of what you knew or remember them for. There's one artist I like here who usually drew extremely cute characters doing random stuff. Their art usually made me smile every time I saw it. Now the cute stuff is mixed with images of kinda cute chubby characters being tentacle raped. I can only guess they were trying to increase their views or something, and the art styling is still the same... but the subject matter is completely different.

Taking this in the direction of fetishes, how does one even figure those out? Isn't it possible for ANYTHING to be called a fetish? Does knowledge of that fact somehow alter the appeal of a thing, simply because it's a fetish to someone else? For example, there are people who think rape is a fetish. There are people who think blood and gore are fetishes. There are people who think MURDER is a fetish. There are people who think being shit on or pissed on is a fetish. So if you drew a picture of a child shitting and pissing on someone who then rapes them, cuts them open and has sex with their corpse (ANOTHER fetish!), are you really expecting me to not say "WTF?! HEEELLLL no!" when I see it? I know this is an extreme example, but my point is I can respect if you have some weird ass fetish that you feel is somehow erotic. But give me some consideration if it's not my thing. Maybe it's not YOUR thing; maybe as an artist you just got money for drawing it. Still doesn't make it any easier to understand why you would try to come off as if I should understand what I'm seeing and have nothing to say about it.

The comment about "I'd see it wasn't just something to do with the furry fandom if I looked." bothers me too. I don't search for fetishes in my spare time, and I'm not really interested in them in general. Most of the ones I've come in contact with are pretty strange, and some of them are outright disgusting. This being said, most of the ones I HAVE come in contact with are through this fandom. The one in question has a very "furry" feel to it; something a furry would allow and enjoy as compared to someone not involved in the fandom. COULD it be something larger and more widespread? Of course. Is it such a huge thing I should be instantly... or even generically aware of it? No.

Artists should be a little considerate of the people who watch them when posting their art. If you put something a little odd in a post, do something with the thumbnail to say so. Admittedly, most of the people here really DO go by the generic "everything goes, everything is awesome and erotic" motto here, simply saying, "any art is great, looks great, has great concepts behind it, great, great, great...!" way of thinking here on FA. It's extremely rare for someone to say anything that's can't be read as "Hey, look, this is me kissing the artists ass." or "Oh, I LOVE this specific thing right here, even if I've never seen it before!" anymore. I think it's mostly for fear of having people jumping on them to "defend" the artist, the art, or the subject matter. I think it's sad, as without any real guidelines as to what makes a good picture, some artists have literally stagnated to the point of being horrible, all the while feeling as if their doing great and making tons of money... all because no one is willing to criticize them to their faces. Check on any other image sharing website though, and the same people are getting torn to pieces behind their backs.

tl;dr version: I find it hard to understand when an artist or any of their followers expect you to both understand, have extensive knowledge of, and ignore or accept all the various concepts that can appear in their art. I find it even more confusing when they seem to get annoyed when you express a disinterest or dislike of said concepts, as if anything should always go in furry art (and to me by extension any other kind of art). If people took a little time to give warning on the more weird, fetishy, perved up stuff they post, they sure as hell wouldn't have me saying anything against what they posted.

It's called Armello, features anthro characters, and is currently in a kickstarter. It looks like a lot of fun:

https://www.kickstarter.com/project.....ntures-to-life

This isn't *really* an invitation to pay into it; it's already reached it's goal. It's more to let more people see it and perhaps follow it if they feel interested as I am. I'll probably think about getting it once it comes out; might be fun to play with/against some people I know who also have it when it's released.