Mystical Ranting Dragon
_{(A collection of thinkpieces cast into the ether)}

Why Humanity is the Most Important Aspect of Art
_{Written and posted Sept. 8th 2026}

Hey, Society, here's an idea: Can we stop celebrating every rando who walks into a room saying they did something all on their own without questioning HOW they did it? There needs to be a list of qualifying criteria for these things in the age of AI/LLMs , and it gives true creatives their dues.'I made music!'
Cool!
What instruments did you learn?
If you only sing, whose prerecorded backing track did you use?
If you had to hire musicians, who are they so they can get recognised for the work they did for you?'I made a social media/media sharing platform!'
Okay!
What's your stance on promoting fascism on your website?
How do you make sure you're not putting kids in danger by allowing their parents to use them as financial assets, where creeps could be taking those pictures/videos for their own purposes?'I made art!'
Nifty!
Can I see the timelapse, or the layers in the program you used?
Did you take pictures during the WIP process?
What art supplies did you use?
Could you show me the original concept sketches?
If it's pixel art, how did you choose the graphical style of the piece?'I made a video game!'
Awesome!
What programming language did you learn?
What engine did you build your game in?
Where did you buy any premade assets you used for it?
Did you commission artists, writers, voice actors, or musicians, and did you take on any of those additional roles yourself?'I started a business!'
Impressive!
How did you acquire the funds and permits?
Do you source your materials responsibly?
Do you pay your workers fairly?
Do they get the right healthcare benefits provided by you, depending on the country?I'm sick of living in a world where we constantly have to deal with the consequences of these qualifying questions NOT being asked. GenAI/LLMs are just the latest in a DECADES-LONG list of failures as a society and a CULTURE to actually serve the working class and creatives. If art was truly valued, humanity wouldn't be treated as optional components.From now on, I want success to go to the people who were able to build A TEAM OF CREATIVES, and make something WONDERFUL from it! I want to see the FINGERPRINTS of EVERY ARTIST who has touched a piece of work, and be able to tell 'That was this person's work, I know because of how they did that!'Prime example: Silent Hill didn't become a success because they followed what Resident Evil were doing to a t. They were a bunch of people at Konami who had been collected into a group like the naughty kids' table at a family function, and they created their own DISTINCT kind of horror! Go watch Super Eyepatch Wolf's videos on the Silent Hill sequels, he goes into way more detail about that and why that was important in the kind of story they wanted to tell, and how studio interference messed it up a bit down the line.I understand if people might want to keep behind-the-scenes stuff behind a paywall, in this day and age. That's why we have online platforms that allow you to crowdfund creative work, to reward supporters with sneak-peeks, or find skilled creatives to outsource the work to if you can't achieve it on your own. But at least with those platforms the PROOF of your creative process, from start to finish, is SOMEWHERE.People also need the space to FAIL, to be IMPERFECT, to be CLUMSY, so that they have the space to IMPROVE. The tired cliché of AI 'democratising the arts' is like if everyone in humanity had superpowers. If EVERYONE could make 'art' at the push of a button, NOBODY would make art, because nobody would LEARN how to make it!Don't let machines take away the simple joy of creating something that wouldn't exist without YOU. No matter how much you hate practising, or how many times you had to start over in the middle of making something, I promise, it will be SO MUCH BETTER than if you had just gotten AI to do it.And honestly... I think this rant is as much something that I need to HEAR as something that I felt I needed to SAY. The sprite edit I recently made for my streamer friend PandaHeroRoux of him as Trevor Belmont is one of the first times in a while that I actually made something with the specific intent of gifting it to someone or at least showing it off.I want to create. But I'm so often too scared to show the things I made, because I'm afraid people would laugh at me for not having enough practice/skill. And if it's writing related, honestly... I'm a little scared people might think it's weird depending on what I'm into if it's nsfw at all?I just feel like I can't MAKE things if I'm not making them for the joy of telling other people this story idea I had, or asking them for tips on how I should execute this thing, or showing someone how I learned this art technique...My joy comes from that of others, and that's what art should be. The creation of something from deep inside yourself, that connects you to people you never even knew, who felt exactly the same way but were never able to find the words, or the visualisation, until they found what YOU made.That's why GenAI/LLM models suck.End of rant.MND413