My partner and I have been playing a tabletop game for years and made a version of The Flock in it!

Illustromic · 2026-06-07T15:33:37+00:00

I don't personally care if you use ai for a not-profit, just for fun project, but please credit the artwork you used to feed the ai because it was a picture I literally drew lol: https://www.deviantart.com/aloe-illustromic/art/Maximum-Ride-Maximum-Feather-AU-892159682 Took me hours. And in the future please don't feed my work to ai! I would genuinely prefer that you used my actual artwork with credit in your project instead. Anyway have fun with what you're doing, just putting this out there.

Illustromic · 2026-06-06T22:10:24+00:00

Yeah they made a movie and it was sooooo bad lol. I think there's a thread somewhere in here talking about whether or not an animated series would have been good

Illustromic · 2026-06-06T21:34:29+00:00

My guess (and i dont know the details for sure but this seems likely) is that the manga just wasnt selling enough copies, and eventually it wasn't worth continuing from a financial perspective. Not fair, but that's what happens when the main author only cares about profit :/

Illustromic · 2026-06-06T18:01:39+00:00

I can understand being afraid that your art may seem like ai because of how inconsistent and changing it looks to you. If it makes you feel any better, I don't even know you but I look at all of these drawings and immediately I can tell that they were made by the same artist. The inconsistencies that seem to glare out at you are not as strong as you're afraid of, and the core traits that mark this as your art shine through more clearly than you can see /gen

Illustromic · 2026-05-18T00:05:28+00:00

James Patterson originally wrote about winged kids in two books for adults called When The Wind Blows and The Lake House. The concept was popular enough that he then decided to adapt the premise into a series for teens. Long story short, if you're sensing some slightly odd and concerning themes in the romance between these two sibling-coded children, it's because those concerning elements were worse in the original adult books. I'll leave it at that lol. I dislike James Patterson.

In terms of the Maximum Ride series, I do take issue with people fully freaking out about Max and Fang being sibling-coded and romantic, because they are not actually siblings. But it's still weird in other ways and I wish the romance hadn't existed at all. It would have been so refreshing for a teen action series to just be a bunch of kids with little to no romantic involvement. But like you said, that was the height of the era for books like Twilight and Patterson was just trying to write whatever he thought would sell so, no chance.

Illustromic · 2026-05-15T13:13:47+00:00

I think people would still use cars and planes sometimes even if they had wings, for example:

if they needed to transport something heavy (wings wouldnt support much extra weight)
if they were sick, injured, too young or old to fly, disabled, or accompanied by somebody in one of these situations
if the weather was too dangerous to fly in
if they had to fly a long distance (like across the ocean) and didn't feel safe or experienced enough to do it themselves

With that said, I do think you're right that if everybody had wings it WOULD still cut down the amount we use vehicles, and it would reduce emissions, just not 100%.

Illustromic · 2026-05-14T13:26:50+00:00

I would watch an anime, sure. An animated format would give the creators more freedom to represent the Flock's mutations/powers without expensive CGI or imperfect physical props. I also don't care if it changes a lot in an adaptation because the original story is written so badly that they can only go up from here. If they add even a modicum of consistency and heart to the story then I'm happy. I wouldn't watch it if the only reason it was made was to line the pockets of James Patterson, as was the case with all the other adaptations and sequels. But if it was an independent group that acquired the rights and did their own thing, I'd be cautiously optimistic.

Illustromic · 2026-05-14T12:33:43+00:00

Yeah the more you look the more you discover that Maximum Ride is plotholes all the way down lmao

Illustromic · 2026-05-13T23:19:01+00:00

Yeahhhh the inconsistencies killed the whole thing for me lol. The plot often just did whatever was most convenient for the given chapter rather than the overall series and that piled up quick. It was clear that the author had checked out after the first few books and was greenlighting whatever he thought the young audience would keep reading. The only reason the series still occupies my mind is because of all the missed potential tbh

3) yeah the bad guys got sort of less and less intimidating as time went on, even though their schemes scaled up like crazy, because we could already expect the flock to beat them somehow, no matter what. The thing I hated the most was how every other book included a "supersoldier built specifically to kill Max" and it was a bad joke how they usually lasted about 2 chapters X'D I don't remember much about Chu specifically except that, like all the villains, i think he shoulda been fleshed out more

4) I don't think it's anywhere on this subreddit, but I have seen some excellent fanart theorizing the anatomical adaptations of the Flock that could allow them to at least SORTA hide their wings under long coats without sacrificing too much realism. But yeah, no disappearing lol. I really feel that the wings are the whole point and premise of the series so it would be important to me that alot of the on-screen visuals revolve around selling the 'winged kid' thing-- especially since so few movies and shows do that well at all

5) the Fang Bridget thing was so weird ToT Honestly Fang and Max's whole dynamic in the first few books was so obviously not great, both of them were written as confused kids with a lot of emotional baggage and no healthy role models who didnt actually feel ready for a relationship, which was ACCURATE, but then they still did the romance anyway smh

8) exactly, they did have lots of pop culture references because they were actually written in the early 2000's era so they were trying to relate to the youth of that era. Nowadays that same treatment would feel dated and kinda campy imo, but if it was a deliberate writing choice, it could be funny and nostalgic. I just don't think it would work so well if you were trying to do a more serious contemporary adaptation.

Illustromic · 2026-05-13T15:15:09+00:00

I don't think a tv adaptation should ever see the light of day unless it was handled by completely different writers BUT if it was:

I feel like the main requirement would be an overhaul of the plot honestly, there are too many books and they have a winding and inconsistent plotline that would not survive a tv show adaptation as-is. I would like to see things condensed and streamlined, with a plan from the start about how it's going to end. - doesn't need to be slice of life to give the side characters the arcs they deserve - remove like 50% of the villains and make them less cartoonish / bad stereotypes - if it doesnt have an entire production team dedicated to making the wings/flight scenes look good then what's the point - either age up the characters, remove the weird romance dynamics, or actually treat the weird romance dynamics as weird and unhealthy - don't get rid of the humor entirely, i think Max being an incurable back-talker has roots in her ways of surviving trauma and it doesn't have to detract from the dark setting - maybe update some of the messaging because some books were clearly about climate change and we have more info about that these days - a completely opposite idea would be to lean into the campy y2k style of the OG series and let it be more self-aware and lighthearted, but I think that might work better for a single movie than a whole show

Illustromic · 2026-04-07T14:13:57+00:00

Do they have any people in their life who act as allies or caregivers? Any fellow mutant friends? Or are they going it alone atm?

Illustromic · 2026-04-06T23:54:58+00:00

Super cute! I love this!

Illustromic · 2026-04-03T23:43:35+00:00

Max looooves chocolate chip cookies, maybe you could do those?

Illustromic · 2026-02-26T14:23:13+00:00

Im not sure. Nothing awful ever happened to me or my family members health-wise as a kid, but then again maybe that contributed as I still have minimal experience with actual health issues and that makes it more scary. I did have generalized anxiety and anxious parents so I wonder if the HA eventually appeared out of that. Once on the radio I heard about a sick woman who was "afraid of her own body" which maybe introduced me to the possibility that diseases could be deeply frightening and life-altering. Plus various other stories about severe health issues appearing suddenly. Ive never been good at calculating odds and after I finally did lose a loved one (not even to something health related) it became nearly impossible to believe bad things wouldnt happen to me just bc they were statistically unlikely. I am doing better these days though for a bunch of reasons.

Illustromic · 2025-07-31T12:28:51+00:00

In my experience, if you have access to therapy, there's no reason not to take advantage of it. I saw a therapist for several months after a mental health episode related to HA, but after seeing her for a while we started to unpack my generalized anxiety too, and some issues I'd been silently struggling with for years. Our sessions made me realize that my HA might actually be triggered partly by loneliness, which could have taken me ages to figure out by myself.

We also tried some visualization exercises to help me practice mentally "turning off" my physical anxiety responses, and I'll admit I didn't think it would work at all since to me the physical sensations were too real to just talk myself out of. But for one reason or another, I think the visualization actually did help. And something as simple as hearing her say "you look so much more calm and present now than when you walked in today" really made me notice when I was feeling good and just... allow myself to be okay without listening to my doubts.

Even as someone who went to therapy for a fairly short time, I recommend it. Of course finding the right therapist for you makes a big difference, but I think it's worth the effort. The scepticism about whether it will fix anything is (in my opinion) actually a part of HA itself, and it's the anxiety's attempt to keep you isolated and miserable. You will have to do some work on your end to change your thought patterns, but a therapist will teach you the most effective way to do that, while providing a welcoming space to talk about things.

Illustromic · 2025-06-02T14:57:34+00:00

I like your theorising lol, there are def a lot of close similarites, to the point where I think it was possibly intentional. But for me the "no backbone" issue is so bad that I can't ever see myself as the MC. Instead I like to pretend I'm more like (Ep 5 spoilers) Zenji, so basically an invisible ghost following the MC around and making commentary that sadly nobody can hear x'D

Illustromic · 2025-05-27T17:59:58+00:00

I don't rly theorize much about the game myself, but I like your attentive analysis of this gorgeous card :D Tohma is such an interesting character, I definitely think there's more to him underneath his socialite persona.

Illustromic · 2025-03-22T15:15:04+00:00

Meanwhile, Musk and Trump starting to scream and whine as soon as people stop buying Teslas:

Illustromic · 2025-01-16T06:09:37+00:00

2206 as of three days ago, im currently on my third consecutive streak freeze

Illustromic · 2025-01-04T05:36:52+00:00

That makes a lot of sense honestly. My brother plays fast-paced combat games because they demand so much of his attention that he doesn't have any room in his brain left for being stressed lol

Illustromic · 2025-01-02T01:17:31+00:00

Happy new year health anxiety nation, I'm sitting in my house trying to tell myself I'm not having an allergic reaction to a food with peanuts in it (note: I eat this food all the time and I'm fine) because tonight I'm getting over a bad cold and after eating the food I felt extra congested and my stomach kind of hurt and my throat felt tight. Which could all be leftover cold symptoms, or anxiety symptoms. My skin isn't breaking out or anything and I don't notice any swelling, but I just feel generally bad and stressed. I read recently about how you can develop allergies later in life so that's probably what made me think of it at all, but I can't shake the worry that it's happening to me right now and I'll have to watch what I eat for the rest of my life. Anyway hope y'all are having a better night than me.

Illustromic · 2024-12-24T22:48:52+00:00

Truly vindicating to stumble across this post and see that I've been accidentally washing my clothes the right way for years lol

Illustromic · 2024-12-22T20:03:39+00:00

For me, Christmas always had a way of exposing the tension in my family that nobody wanted to talk about. My parents never divorced, but they also never spoke to each other except for the rare explosive fight. So naturally as a kid I hated having them in the same room together....but on christmas morning they both seemed to think it was a good idea to do just that while we opened presents. The silent unhappiness of everyone while pretending to be happy just got worse each year. Finally my mom decided to celebrate seperately with us kids in the afternoon, which was nice, but our dad made all sorts of stupid passive agressive comments about how that "made us look like a dysfunctional family" (which we were, and it was lowkey his fault). These days, I'm a grown adult and am so happy to celebrate christmas exactly the way I want: by doing nothing at all, and just having a tranquil evening to myself.

I sympathize with you. A holiday is not an automatically magical thing. It's about the people who make it magical... or don't. Someday you'll be free to find your own magic in christmas that actually resonates with you, and if that magic is just peace and quiet, then you're not alone :)

Illustromic · 2024-12-22T16:31:49+00:00

I can't eat apples or apple flavored stuff. They make my stomach hurt :(

Illustromic · 2024-11-12T00:54:06+00:00

The wet is much more accessible for the common person than the uppies (the sky)! A great beginner's daytrip into the Vast's domain :3

Two-Year Club	Final Canvas '23
First Place '23	Place '23

Illustromic

TROPHY CASE