#[i cannot overstate how important lonnie is to me]

[volucerrubidus]

the unpopular character that you actually like + why more people should like them and it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...

North Chooses Violence II Accepting

The answer will shock no one who knows my blogroll (sup @peranarkia), but Lonnie Machin.

I am, first of all, obsessed with that character in general. But second of all, if you have to get into Lonnie by being into Tim first, how can you not get into Lonnie? He's such a deeply integral part of Tim's story that it's impossible to miss him unless you're intentionally ignoring everyone but Tim.

(To be clear-- Lonnie is also much more than a support role character. But most people are introduced to him via his support of Tim as Moneyspider, so that's why I say that).

Believe you me, as a communist who was converted to being an anarchist via Lonnie's comics (not a hard sell to be fair) I fell hard and fast for Lonnie's character, and it is a crying shame that he is 1. slept on in the fandom in general, but then also 2. severely misunderstood by the comic fandom that prefers fanfiction to canon in terms of understanding characterizations and canon events.

I have never pretended to like fanon, but the way the fandom as a whole understands Lonnie makes me wanna tear my hair out. He is a character motivated by unconditional love of humanity, the belief that we have no choice but to be our best selves because it is how he sees humanity, by the knowledge that we not only can, but will change things for the good of all mankind-- and he is literally, canonically, so honest that he can't even bring himself, morally, to lie to The Joker. He is not, by any stretch of belief, some adventurist who only blows shit up "4 da chaos lols" or "because society sucks or whatever." Lonnie is willing to engage in (non-lethal, mind) property damage, of course, but unless someone understands what Direct Action is, it is very rarely presented correctly or with the right amount of nuance in the fandom, and as an anarchist (been one for about two and some change ish years now), it is infuriating to see how anarchist characters are handled by comic book fans (given the trust in the justice system that they provide. and hey, fair enough that trust in comic/fictional justice is present; it's just... comics were built on real-world commentary. DC not using that chance to make real statements about the world is just capitalistic and cowardly at this point, and fans should stop trusting or crediting DC with/to present any kind of good faith argument for anything but institutional, corporate-benefiting, punitive justice that doesn't work, flat out.)

At the end of the day, I can't control how someone engages with comics, and I won't be rude to them about it, but I do reserve the quiet/private right to believe that someone is going about Lonnie comics the wrong way if they don't 1. look at him past his involvement with Tim and 2. give his ideology a real, hard, genuine, earnest look.

Lonnie is a delight through and through, and if you'd like to know more about him, my pages at @peranarkia are readily available to show more about him, such as: a reading guide, a (not comprehensive, but close to it) case-by-case bio, a canon-exclusive FAQs page, and my own personal musings tag (not fully canon-based, as much as indie rp can't be 100% canon sometimes).

I cannot recommend this character enough.

In fact, to add to the propaganda, enjoy a scene from Batman Chronicles that makes me giggle every time: