#The whole reason the comic exists is me wanting to explore his character but having no chance to in the main story

[bigskydreaming]

The thing that absolutely drives me wild about Batman as a concept is that Bruce Wayne COULD change Gotham on a systemic level, with a proper commitment of his resources, I feel. Money absolutely is a gamechanger and a billionaire's wealth is like. Staggering when you actually think about it. There's a reason we talk about how the ten richest people in the world could change the entire world if they just stopped hoarding their resources and used them for the fullest benefit of all, and like yeah one billionaire isn't going to single-handedly change the world (particularly if the others are setting up roadblocks), but one city, Gotham, as a proof of concept? It could be done. It wouldn't be easy, it wouldn't be fast, but like....the kind of resources Bruce has to devote to things....it could be done.

And that's the kind of exploration I would kill to see in comics. And its also why I have very little patience for the "but you guys act like Bruce Wayne never does anything for the city except as Batman, he supports all these charities, he makes sure WE employees have the best benefits, employs tons of jobs, etc"....nah. We're talking about BILLIONS. He could do more. If you want me to believe that a literal billionaire is committing the fullest thrust of his resources to maximizing the potential of his city and the lives of everyone in it, then you can't give me this bare minimum bullshit, because it will always come across as him just doing the comic book equivalent of doing philanthropic work as a tax write-off. If nothing visibly is changing in Gotham's status quo, and nothing is visibly changing in terms of Bruce's personal bottom line and his wealth and resources....then no, you're not going to impress me with that because he's ultimately still not doing anything that real world 1 percenters aren't already doing.

And sorry not sorry, but I'm not gonna buy the whole ethical billionaire thing ON THE BASIS that "but he's a comic book character, you can't apply real world optics/expectations so yeah in comics it IS possible to be an ethical billionaire" if ultimately, you're still playing it safe with this character and he's at best still just matching particularly charitable real world one percenters. Like, if he's still a billionaire....he could be doing more. Ethical billionaires don't exist not because real world and comic books are different, they don't exist because ethically, nobody NEEDS to be a billionaire so a truly ethical billionaire would at a certain point have divested himself of so much of his personal wealth in an effort to help others that he would technically no longer be a billionaire.

(And yes, I'm aware there have been times Bruce hasn't been a billionaire but never because of what I'm talking about here, that's always been as a reactive consequence to storylines aimed at villains targeting his wealth, etc).

So....writing Dick as having essentially given away enough money that he no longer counts as a billionaire IS a more honest approach to that particular issue than the usual "oh well Bruce regularly gives more to charity than anyone else, etc" stuff. I will give it that.

BUT.

The reason I don't give Taylor any ground here is because like. As much as I truly believe that an honest to God billionaire's resources could definitively act as a game-changer to the status quo of at least a single city, if properly utilized.....

You have to show the work.

And that's the part Taylor never had any interest in. He talked a big game about having Dick realize that this was bigger than anything he could conceive on his own, that he asked everyone around him the best way to go about things, blah blah blah....but he never actually...SHOWED what any of that looked like, beyond the most shallow, superficial level.

I believe that comics have the potential to act as....social laboratories in a way, extrapolations of what society or social dynamics or societal interactions COULD look like if we were able to change various real world parameters....such as disenfranchised individuals having superpowers that could make them the equivalent of entire institutions or states attempting to oppress them, for instance. Or the application of a billionaire's wealth and resources devoid of having to bear the weight/burden of the exploitation that would HAVE to be at the root of that much initial wealth if it was wealth accrued in a real world setting. Or with X-Men comics in recent years, the examination of is it even possible for an ethical ethnostate to exist if one could theoretically be enacted without a displacement of an initial population or actual colonization, the crimes against humanity that go hand in hand with any real world attempt to create an ethnostate BECAUSE of the logistics of forming one in a real world setting, etc.

But it means nothing if you attempt to handwave a radical change to the status quo as just a progressive front, like Taylor did IMO, without having any genuine interest in doing that in order TO explore a specific vision of the future, a specific ethical/moral question, any kind of real thought experiment or extrapolation of some aspect of the world-as-is in pursuit of imagining the world-as-it-could-be.

And there was none of that in Taylor's Nightwing run. Same as there was none of that when he had Jean Grey do pretty much the EXACT SAME THING on a nation-building level in X-Men Red, with her literally going around to various visionaries, scientists, philosophers, etc and going "hey let's brainstorm how to make the world better for mutants" and then making a big deal about I've done it! I've figured out a better road forward!

....and never fucking showing even a hint of what that actually looks like, beyond employing a bunch of buzzwords that sound great on a completely superficial to the point of meaninglessness level, but utterly lack in substance the very second you start to scratch at the surface to see if there's anything more underneath that gloss.

Taylor's Dick Grayson said all the right words to come across as heroic but humble, "I'm committed to doing the right thing" but with only vague gestures at what the right thing is and "I'm smart enough to know I don't have all the answers" but never making an actual attempt at coming up with ANY answers vs just doing an "inclusive world tour" of people he asks for the answers or to help him find the answers that ultimately is just the height of performative....

Because no actual conclusions are ever drawn about WHAT to do. No actual novel ideas or ground-breaking risks are proposed. Absolutely nothing about the status quo in Bludhaven is ACTUALLY changed on ANY level that we can actually SEE....

Its just Taylor (through Dick) saying no I've done it, see, I've changed the status quo.

....DID YOU, though?

And yeah, like Em said, that's why Watters already has 110% more of my attention because like. Even with unlimited resources and the BEST of intentions....which I do believe Dick Grayson would always have, if embarking on a quest to truly enact societal change on a large scale....

NOBODY has the answers for how one individual can change an entire city. But that doesn't mean you're saying shit by just having the comics emphasize Dick saying "oh I don't have the answers" before then jumping to "but let's pretend that what I'm doing here IS the answer anyway."

The REAL follow-up to one man acknowledging he alone does not have the answers and has no infallible blueprint or roadmap to making a better future for his city is not just being like "oh I'm just a mere mortal, I can't figure this out on my own" -

It's following up on his attempts to change things and owning the fact that MISTAKES ARE GONNA BE MADE.

And the real crucible for him as THIS kind of hero is going to be what he does in the face of mistakes he makes when trying to change things on this level, wield societal power on this scale, all while not having a divine mandate that ensures he'll get shit right on the first try.

THAT'S the struggle I'm actually interested in seeing....and whether that convinces Dick its a mistake to try and be this ambitious and reverts him back to just regular day to day street vigilantism....or whether we get to see him pivoting and learning and growing from these mistakes, accepting the responsibility of them without making them an excuse to just stop trying to make things better.

I'm bored of heroes who have the power to change the world but never fucking do anything world-changing with the power because "oh we don't have the right to dream that big" because like....there's a point there, sure, but I don't particularly think that needs to be the point of every single story that imagines people with that level of power. I think there's room for stories about heroes with that power who can acknowledge and own the fact that hey, maybe nobody has the right to wield that much power but that doesn't necessarily change the fact that they DO have that much power and inaction IS still a choice in how to wield world-changing power....even if its simply by not wielding that power and thereby being complicit in the perpetuation of a broken status quo.

I DO want to read stories about someone - particularly someone who does have experience being disenfranchised and at the mercy of those with far more social power than him - being like okay, this is where I'm at. This is the reality....things need changing and I am in a position to change things, and maybe I'm not the right person for that job but maybe there is no right person and I'm just trying to avoid responsibility by saying oh this is too much responsibility.

But like. If you're going to write that story, you have to actually WRITE THAT STORY. We have to SEE this journey unfold on the page. And you have to go into that journey knowing that your hero is gonna get shit wrong before he gets stuff right, and the consequences of that HAVE to be major. Because playing with things on this scale IS major. It demands that kind of scrutiny.

And Taylor didn't want to do any of that, and that's why I have no respect for the lip service his stories pay towards showing a better, more progressive tomorrow. He never actually SHOWS anything. He talks about how his characters are going to make that future, has them make a lot of promises about how things will be different, and then goes right back to writing a next issue where literally nothing is different in any tangible, substantive way.

But if you want to actually write about, imagine, envision a better future for your characters to help bring about, you need to actually bring something to the table. An actual vision, an imagining, a step forward that readers can actually follow and be like okay, we're with you so far....

Rather than just throwing a bunch of characters at a buzzword dartboard and expecting readers to do all the work of imagining what the better future these characters are all talking about and promising might actually look like, and how any of them actually get from the Point A that is the status-quo-in-current-comics to the Point B that is your-claims-for-what-the-current-status-quo-in-comics-could-someday-become.

@hood-ex Do you happen to have that post handy where you talked about the differences in Watters' approach to having Dick try and tackle social issues in Bludhaven vs Taylor's more shallow "look I had him create a foundation, it fixed things, I don't intend to explore why or how but trust me, it fixed stuff" approach? I noticed it when I was online briefly a couple weeks ago and I was like "that sounds right but I don't know enough to support it" at the time, but I've caught up and now I feel like I know enough. I would like to support it.

[nopanamaman]

idk if someone has asked this before but will arthur ever actively appear in some MV or will he actually forever stay as bg gang

You greedy thing this man is getting a 100+ page comic all to himself and you still want more

[thesulkycroissant]

So there's this saying that the only time you see the middle of the road is when you're going from ditch to ditch, and that most of the time is how I feel about the canon v fanon debate.

Genuinely, I feel like people get so stagnanted in this idea that something isn't canon - which, what is comic canon anyway? I strain to unravel the mystery of which comics get to "count" and which do not - and focus on it so much that they miss any aspect of nuance.

Tim's parents are a great example. Tim's parents exist in the way they do for a simple out-of-universe reason: the writers wanted to avoid the mistakes they made with Jason by both differentiating him from Dick (making him not an orphan) and giving him a "buy-in" with Dick (something to connect them -> the circus). (Their logic was that Dick was the key to getting readers to like Tim, and that neglecting his buy-in was their misstep with Jason.) At the same time, Tim having parents is a problem because what parent is not going to notice their kid being gone all the time playing midnight vigilante? Solution: absentee parents. But now the shift to in-universe happens. Tim's parents are gone all the time, but it's not malicious; they're just kind of clueless. They love Tim. Tim loves them. But they are not around. And this out-of-universe choice, once you enter into the universe, logically can - maybe even should, if you're taking the characters seriously - effect how a character reads.

Tim's parents are gone all the time. There's every probability that would cause trauma. Unintentional, but fun to explore! The comics do a very little. I think fandoms can often make the mistake of believing subtle abuse (like neglect) is not sufficient, so it gets elevated to something physical. But your parents loving you and also causing you trauma is a relatable experience, I think. Even your parents doing their best and still causing you trauma is.

Jason being the angry Robin is another rough one. Because yeah, I agree, Scott Lobdell did some wacky and unkind things to Jason's backstory. But Jason, even going back to his original (not original, but his original non-just-Dick-but-blond) backstory, is a traumatized orphan willing to take the risk and steal tires from the Batmobile as a means of survival (in Gotham! In Crime Alley!). Why can't Jason be angry? In the throes of adolescence, at a time when he feels safe with Bruce, doesn't it make sense for his trauma to find its way out in anger? Can't he both believe Robin is magic and be angry? Can't he be sweet and angry both?

Dickie and anger. Yeah, anger plays a role in certain story arcs of his. In NTT, and in the first 80s Nightwing run, the stories take pains to show that the anger is triggered by something and channeled into brutal focus. And that it does not serve him. Dick's relationship with Kory in NTT nearly falls apart because of his anger. He treats her very poorly. I see a lot of people saying they want Dick to be angry, but not allowing Dick to learn how to control his anger is not giving the character his dues either.

And Damian. Shoot. Reading the One Bad Day comic for Ra's al Ghul kinda ruined me a bit because of how much Ra's obviously loves and respects animals, and how can you not see the echo of that in Damian's love of animals? Damian's League trauma is such a thing worth exploring, and I think the value of exploring it only goes up when you add in the complicated factor of the fact that Talia and Ra's do love him, and he does see them when he looks in the mirror, and every day Damian has to decide which parts of his family - his whole family - are good to keep and which are not.

Anyway. There's probably more, but this post is already pretty long lol. Nuance is cool, that's all.

[callmegaith]

I want to know more about your rebels. From the art I've seen, they look very interesting. Tell me more!

ANON 😭😭 THATS SO SWEET OF YOU THANK U SM!!

Well, there are 4 characters that make up a squad. You have:

Pete:

The muscle of the group. He's a hot-head with a shotgun. Pete is the character I use to explore the world of HL the most, since he's the one character I can truly call an oc. He used to be a bit of a scardy cat growing up but when the war happened, being isolated and removed from his family and being forced to work for the combine, his fear turned to anger, and he's got A LOT of it. A bit too much, in fact. The moment they put a gun in his hands and he's had a little bit of that power trip taste, it was over. He no longer had a reason to feel helpless and be scared of the combine, now with his trusty shotgun, he could get up close and personal and make them go bye bye, which he probably likes an unhealthy amount. In his head, though, he thinks it's fine. He's fighting for the good guys, after all. He's doing the right thing. So his violence is justified. And that's sorta the central plot of his character "when do you become the same monster as the ones that hurt you?" Hurt people hurt people, and Pete has been hurt a lot. Though, he believes he's different because unlike the Combine, he loves and cares. The combine wouldn't know what that means, so in a way, his love for Nate and humanity in general, is what he believes keeps him from becoming as bad as the Combine.

Nate:

Nate is the youngest in the squad and the most naive. All he wants to do, really, is survive this whole thing. He just wants to see the sunrise on a brand new day where the Combine no longer exist on earth. He's pretty optimistic about it too which Pete and Marcel often disagree with but ya know, let the man dream. He's the chill laid back joker of the group and the life of the party. The most social out of them but not necessarily the best talker... And he talks... A lot. Like, nonstop. Marcel thinks it's because he's constantly trying to fill his mind with other stuff other than their shitty situation cuz the moment he shuts up he's gonna have to think about it and he's going to collapse. So they just let him ramble. He's a big fan of collecting things (both he and Pete are but he started their collection) some might even view him as a hoarder. Like you'd find him collecting pizza boxes and other useless things simply because... Well, those things don't exist now. They're "relics" of a life pre-war. And he finds that interesting, it brings him comfort even. He's the group's mechanic and the best at handling firearm since he's had the most training, having joined the Rebels before the others.

Marcel and Kit:

2 for one, those two cannot be separated (for Marcel's own good)

Marcel is the medic of the group. He's the oldest in the squad and the most pessimistic. Kit met Marcel when he found him dying on the ground (that's a comic you may or may not have read. I'll link the comics at the end of the ask) after saving his life, the two became inseparable. Marcel is in a very dark place mentally and thus has become extremely fragile. If you ask him, he'd tell you he's not suicidal, he just wouldn't mind not waking up the next day. Kit keeps Marcel safe, both from the Combine, zombies, and whatever threats, but also from himself. Kit wants to give Marcel purpose and a reason to keep living, something to make the days easier to get through, and becoming a medic was that for Marcel. He gets to save lives and it gives him a sense of meaning. It doesn't make him value his own life or anything, but he's at least living to do something good.

Marcel might come off as hostile and aggressive or just very uncaring but, in fact, he cares a lot. You just have to get past his nonchalantness and dig pretty deep to find that part of him. Kit understands he's probably just building walls to protect himself. He doesn't want anyone getting close so no one would miss him when he's gone. But obviously that doesn't work cuz, lmao, Kit ignores that. Tbh Kit doesn't need to bind life force with Marcel to die if Marcel dies. If Marcel dies Kit will likely just die of a broken heart.

That aside, Marcel finds Kit's views on life very intriguing, he's very interested in the Vort philosophical approach to life and death, and the way they form bonds, more spiritually than anything else. And he does end up having that bond with Kit, something so connected to what feels like a greater and higher thing than they are. So cosmic in its nature that it is hard to comprehend. To him, there's something so beautiful and profound about that. It's the idea that one day they will be embraced by that greater thing, so they may become a part of it, but it will happen when their time comes and they're called upon by the cosmos. He's just waiting for that day to come now.

If you'd like to see more of the characters you'll find everything under the tag (HL: change begins with us) or specific characters under: ( oc: Pete, Nate as male 07, Marcel as male 09, kit the Vortigaunt)

If you haven't seen the comics and wanna give em a read:

This is one lore dump and a half but hope you find it interesting, anon. :D again, thank u sm for your interest and curiosity. It means a lot to me!!

[otaku553]

How goes the fma x albedo fic? I hope that doesn't sound pushy, I'm genuinely curious. And in that vein, do you have any little drabbles you may have written or want to write? Especially with your recent kny ocs/yourself and your siblings. That'd be super fun to read about! Your art AND your writing is so freaking good, the moment I see you've posted something new on your blog I'm clicking it so fast. Same with your ao3 account ❤️

Thank you for the kind words!!! Currently not working on any fics, since I just came out of 10 weeks of summer research where my days began at 8 am and ended at 9 pm for probably less than minimum wage hahaha (doing research is a Bit Sad but I get a whole month to relax before classes start again so thank goodness for that)

I do however!!! Have a lot of plans!!! If you’re interested you can read more below!

Plans include but are not limited to:

Finally working on Homuncular Nature again!! I definitely do have a lot of plans and cool scenes playing out in my head for the next chapter, it’ll just come down to when I actually put pen to paper (or stylus to iPad) to actually organize and write them all. The road block I think is that I have seen neither Albedo nor fmab very recently and all my concrete ideas are for around the 30 episode mark for fmab, the turning point with the first actual confrontation against father and the subsequent Briggs arc.

Rewriting Ten Thousand Maple Leaves! A lot of people have been very kind but I think I missed the mark with my first chapter to be honest. My writing has gotten a lot wordier and less succinct, which feels like I’m filling a chapter more with fluff and unnecessary description than actual content. I think I also dislike how I characterized Sanemi and how quickly Kazuha was willing to agree with things. Writing both of them is kind of a difficult challenge tbh! I think in rewriting it I want to give back to Kazuha more of his vagrant role in the games, where he is avoiding the law for reasons somewhat out of his control.

Ebisu siblings content! I think it might be fun to try having them interact with more of the canon characters in kny but I also think there’s some value in a complete sort of outsider point of view when inserting characters into a piece of media. I feel like whenever I see self inserts I see a lot of ocs making themselves indispensable and making meaningful relationships with existing characters that way and that’s totally valid! That’s a lot of what I do for crossovers as well. I think when it comes to my own ocs though, I want them to feel grounded in some form and the reality of it is that none of the characters I make based on myself or real people are that impressive or remarkable. But I also think there’s a lot of value in showing smaller scale things outside of the main interactions and plot to show that even though we aren’t remarkable, we still have our own meaningful connections and ideologies and stories :) in the end the Ebisu siblings are a lot more visual though so I may just continue making doodles and art without writing anything haha

Kirby & Meta Knight ageswap AU: I was mostly doing this on my ask-gikabi sideblog in short form comics, but I lost sight of what I wanted to do after making the discord and starting to interact with some of the people who followed it. I think a lot of people are inspired and have their own very cool ideas that I wanted to take into account but then eventually it was no longer my story or the story I wanted to tell, which is why I’m thinking of restarting it as a fic. This one is still in very rough idea stage though, I have honestly no clue how I’m even going to begin organizing it

Yanfei ace attorney crossover: this one’s just pure crack lmao I would definitely write it as crack taken seriously but I think this is fun to explore just for small ideas that pop up every now and then, i.e. yanfei is semi-immortal because she’s half adeptus so it would be Really Funny to me if she showed up in dgs era, got her attorney’s license, went into hiding after it became obvious that she wasn’t aging, and then re-emerged after rebranding herself as her own daughter or granddaughter. That, and I have a lot of fun imagining someone as pragmatic as yanfei trying to get through the sheer chaos of aa despite being otherworldly

Continuing winter weather advisory: I got to a really good point in that fic and was rereading it today like,,, damn I wrote that? And it would be fun to see where I planned on going with it so I do want to also try working on that a bit if I can

Kazuha & Kunikuzushi role swap au: this is something I posted about a Long While ago but it’s an idea I continue to be fascinated with :) I especially enjoy how these two characters could have had completely different roles and personalities depending on how their pasts happened (with wanderer being so nice and turning so bitter and kazuha growing up so spoiled (for lack of a better word) and turning out so weary and yet kind

Link click and mha crossover: this one is honestly just a very recent idea but I think it would be fun to make a drabble on how lightime photo studio would be able to continue operating even in another world and the trouble they might get into for illegal quirk usage and what using cheng xiaoshi’s powers in a world where being able to tell the future is canonically possible would entail

I have!! So many ideas!! And not enough time or motivation to actually write any of them most of the time :’)

But I’m very glad to hear that you enjoy them and look forward to my posts!! :D I really hope I can work on some of these over the last month of summer vacation that I have :)

[gffa]

I have such a complicated relationship with the softer aspects of characterization in DC comics, like one of the reasons I don't read much of Wayne Family Adventures is because it's just not scratching that itch of what I personally want, the biting drama of the mainline comics is where it's at for me. (I am glad WFA exists, though!! it's cute and fun and a great entry point for those who want to start there or just for those who enjoy it!!) But then I'll turn around and any Soft Batfam Characterization in the comics will get me right in the feelings place, like I think one of the reasons I enjoy Taylor's Nightwing so much is because, look, over the 20+ years I've been into comics, I have been put through the fucking wringer with Dick and Bruce's relationship, there's no way I'm seeing some Soft Dad Bruce and In A Pretty Good Place Dick Who Hugs His Dad and not grabbing onto that with both hands and holding on with a death grip. I have earned this!!! This is my reward for all the pain I went through because of Knightfall! All the pain I went through because of Battle for the Cowl and RIP! All the pain I went through because of Nu52! I WAS THERE, I LIVED THAT PAIN. IT IS MY TIME IN THE SUN NOW. It is also very, very easy to clip a lot of these moments out for posting on tumblr, like it's sooooo easy to post a panel of a hug between Batfam members and slap a crying emoji on there, because that is how I feel in the moment, I love that stuff! I wouldn't make it through the meaner storylines without it! But it often probably seems like I'm just here for the Soft Batfam stuff like because I enjoy Taylor's writing doesn't mean I'm not also eating up the absolute batshit drama of Gotham War or kind of losing my mind at Gotham Nocturne being so much better than I first realized or suddenly I'm just now sitting up in interest at World's Finest: Teen Titans because of a conversation I had about the darker aspects of it with a friend. I love the silly stuff, I love the idea of Dick and Cass baking together in a super silly little story, I love that Dick and Jason said "I love you" to each other in that recent backup, I am delighted with every issue of World's Finest I read that is light-hearted, I'm okay that the current Nightwing series doesn't have a whole lot of dark depths being explored, because for me it's balanced out with all the other storylines I've read/am reading It's just--

It creates a sort of conflict in my head, where I love the more complicated relationship dynamics, I love the meaner edges of the characters, I love the hard bites they take out of each other, but those are often harder to talk about compared to how easy it is to cry about how cute the softer panels are, it's easier to talk about the moments of the characters having good relationships because my entire reason for being here is the Three Ring Circus of Batdad Issues That Dick Grayson Has Just Right There On His Sleeve For The World To See, but also I get kind of tetchy when that softer content is expected to be the norm in the comics, as if the characters having hard edges at times is out of character and that the only way to write them is softer. (This isn't about preferences, but about putting that expectation on others, feel free to dislike it all you want, that's fine!! but it's not ooc for the characters to be shitty to each other and be assholes sometimes and for others to enjoy that kind of drama.) It's hard because I enjoy the softer moments in the comics, but I also kind of glance askance at some of them, like, these moments scattered across the stories make sense, characters who are just assholes all the time are ones that aren't very fun for me to read about, people can be assholes and sweethearts, I think it makes for richer characterizations, but I don't want it to be like that all the time, either. And all of that is kind of hard to put into words, especially when I'm very aware we're reading comics, which have a whole genre of Comic Book Logic (things do NOT work like they would work in the real world!) and Comic Book Structure (the nature of so many different authors and some truly batshit apparent decisions by editorial make everything an incoherent mess that I cannot even try to make a singular vision) that affect things, too.

[dgiacomo]

Hey mun I have a question about Giacomo’s age

Why do you depict him when he’s like 20 during ScarVio’s events? Since I see people normally depict him in his late teens :O

[I've met with an awful lot of resistance about his age, honestly, though mostly from people off of this website (thankfully!)... but there's absolutely a reason. Multiple, really!

Before I start, let me just state that what I'm about to say is my opinion/analysis of this media and mine alone... the fact I interpreted it in this way doesn't stop anybody else's interpretation from existing or change the base material. These are purely my thoughts behind why I did what I did a whole year ago now (wow).

---

Ok, so first of all! Yes, it's very easy to sit and go "this is a school so everybody in it is going to be between the age of 11 and 18 THAT IS A FACT" and usually, that's the thought lines I'd go to as well... but the game explicitly and often reminds that the faculty is an academy.. and that people of ALL AGES can be in it... there's even a guy who... says he's been flunking for 60 years or something and he needs to get credits?! Come on, dude. XD

But yes, the fact is that they have explicitly stated that attending and grades do not equal age... in the DLC even there's somebody who says you can't determine somebody's year group by their age/vice versa because of this fact (so Blueberry also runs on the same rules). Students can also fail and fail and fail and take the year over and over basically indefinitely and not be kicked out as long as they attend in some way.

So. Somebody studying at the academy isn't a child is the fact you can gather from that. That's what they're trying to say, I'd guess.

---

So that's the base work for the theory. Another aspect was that back when the game had JUST released... I actually saw a lot of people complaining that Giacomo, in particular, "looked like an old man being all 'hello fellow kids'"... back then that was a popular take, people interpreted him as older and it was weird to them that he was supposed to be a student when he looked OLD to them.

That was another step in the theory.

---

Next comes the actual game content. When I started this blog/comic, I had a handful of story segments I wanted to tell and explore, I basically planned all of it before I started (and we've seen a lot of them at this point, but not all). I needed to determine all the information I knew before I started. That was;

Team Star are a bunch of students who were bullied in the past.

At least 1.5 years before the game starts, these students carried out their plan to beat the bullies

In these 1.5 year prior flashbacks, they are all the same heights and build as in the "current day"

Giacomo was student council president at least a while before the 1.5 year prior flashbacks

They have advanced skills in things like auto mechanics and seamstry

What that tells me is that these characters had reached their mature heights at least 1.5 years before the game began... for girls that's around 14/15, but for men that's 16-18. For Giacomo in particular, he has a very broad set of shoulders and a sturdy build (in the base game, a year ago)... so he has reached his full shoulder/chest broadness which men only achieve when they are 20 or older.

That told me that Giacomo AT LEAST was over 20 years old in the flashbacks 1.5 years prior to the game. He's at least 21/22.

---

Then I looked at his past. He was student council president at least some time before the 1.5 year prior flashbacks. We've seen his student council hair, it's short. Hair takes time to grow. From my notes here I worked out that he must have been president at least 3 years before the game to allow his hair to grow out that much before the flashbacks.

I'm pretty certain people only really get the chance to be student council president in their final study year (in real life, I'm not sure it's ever mentioned in game), it tends to be a privilege that final year students get... so he was in his final year when he was in that position... and his shoulders were the same, so he was at least 20 at that point as well.

That would make him at least 23 in the base game at this point!

Also, he's balding and has been since he was student council president XD And it's quite strong, he has a big old forehead. Looking that up, the first signs of balding can start (thinning etc) at 17 if you're particularly unlucky with genetics. I had to account for his balding to have progressed as far as it had by the time he was president, 3 years before the start of the game!

---

What made me decide for 25 for his age is just the thinking that for him, he probably went to the academy as a university age student. He had to have been bullied for quite a few years prior to be in his final year and that bitter.

That aside, I find it hard to believe a bunch of kids would be master hackers, master engineers, master seamstresses etc. over 1.5 years prior to how we're seeing them now XD I'm somewhat stuck on Ortega's age because he is SO SHORT but he always has been SO SHORT... but he's also a master auto mechanic. I find it very hard to suspend my disbelief that a 12 year old could build those Starmobiles on their own... considering they have all been in limbo basically for at least 2 years, I think they are all older than you'd think

(A side thought is that I doubt children could get away with playing truant for 1.5+ years without being expelled or given detention or something... It's only adults you can't force to attend an education and can only threaten with dropping their enrolment if they won't attend.)

----

Anyway, that's a simplified thoughts version of the gruelling process I went through to pick an age for him that made sense for me for this comic. I probably missed bits out that also went towards me deciding this age, if I remember them, I'll add them!

Thanks for reading if you got this far. =B]

[violetemerald]

Happy (belated) Ace Week, Gilmore Girls fans! 💜🖤🤍

So I started headcanoning Luke as heteroromantic asexual but of course he has no idea he’s asexual or what asexuality means. I also headcanon Rory as demisexual (hetero-demisexual) too. I can explain why… but it would be more fun maybe to explain in fic form. To analyze them from the characters’ own perspective instead of my perspective kind of a thing.

I genuinely would love to write a fic exploring either or both of these things! However… um…

*Sigh* so it’s hard to know how to broach this when Gilmore Girls was so queer-unfriendly of a show, even with a gay main character (Michel) who was in all 8 seasons (8 if you count the revival). The show avoided directly acknowledging his being gay for most of the show, while indirectly acknowledging it every chance they could and making his whole characterization one of mostly comic relief and the butt of all sorts of types of jokes. They very rarely took him seriously as a character. And he was sidelined; not a member of the town in any real way.

But I’m a queer person who has adored Gilmore Girls for nearly 20 years. I still adore so much about it. Started watching it when I was 14 years old and season 4 was wrapping up airing, and I’m 33 years old now. I didn’t know at the time that I was queer, or that my type of queer identity was even an option—I’m a sex-averse asexual but I’m also gray-panromantic, interested in dating people of all genders, and as a woman I have dated other women and a nonbinary person, and I have a lot of queer friends and acquaintances that span nearly every LGBTQ+ identity. This week during Ace Week 2023 marks the 10 year anniversary for me of coming out to myself as asexual. It’s hard to still be so attached to a show that is so cisnormative and heteronormative—and that’s not even mentioning all the queerphobia they wrote into the show via jokes.

During my most recent rewatch of the entire series around December 2020 into February 2021, when I got to somewhere in season 4 I decided to start taking notes of every time queerness is at all referenced, every transphobic and homophobic joke, etc. 

Part of me wants to find a way to salvage that Lorelai joked about liking women herself because actually she was bisexual, like this fits in as a headcanon that the reason she joked so often about it was because it was on her mind for other reasons. I don’t even know if she joked about it that often but fairly often. A lot of the queerphobic jokes generally came from her? But certainly not all. But her jokes sometimes include herself as into women and it just makes you think “What if she really was? All this time?”. Lorelai also teases many other characters, especially Luke quite often, but sometimes people like Sookie or Rory, and implies they are gay or queer in some other way. 

Rory seemed to be much less canonically homophobic and transphobic. She cut her mother off once when her mother was teasing her homophobically and calls the jokes “inappropriate” even and part of this is just Rory didn’t have the same kind of sense of humor as most of the other characters. She seemed less amused by life, by even their jokes, but especially her characterization was just being a person less likely to crack a joke herself. She did tease Paris in ways that evoked referencing queer things or lesbians but I’m not sure Rory’s humor crossed the line of being actually anti-being queer in any way. Some of this humor is more chuckling at double entendres in English rather than chuckling at the existence of queer people? Like Paris saying she’s sleeping with a girl and Rory bringing up The L Word in reaction.

Actually, though, looking back through my notes for season 4-ish till the end, a lot of characters don’t come up much, or the way they come up is in a different context. Jess actually… I don’t think he ever once cracked a queerphobic joke nor laughed at one. He was the butt of two in season 4 (both from TJ). I hadn’t been taking these type of notes in seasons 2 or 3. I have memorized most of Jess’ scenes and I just don’t recall the early seasons having him being queerphobic. I could be wrong though.

I wasn’t taking notes when Dean or Christopher were on the show much so idk if these men had any such moments. And as far as my notes show, Sookie is just the recipient of Lorelai’s teasing at moments, not queerphobic herself. Kirk is not gonna joke about that stuff, just seriously defend himself against being perceived as gay at moments. And the show frames certain things he obliviously says as a gay joke but he’s not purposefully making any. Maybe really the most homophobic characters are Lorelai and even Luke, and at a few times Emily & Richard. 

Logan’s style of homophobic jokes seem more playful and somehow less offensive to me. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that but there are ways to tease that aren’t based in as problematic of a starting place. It’s like he’s not afraid to include himself in it the most, so he’s not distancing himself from the queerness? Idk I’d have to rewatch to see if I still have that same impression. He’s also just… more worldly than some of the characters feel like to me. He’s experienced bigger city life more or travel and broadened horizons? He sorta seems like he has more friends than a lot of the characters is maybe part of it. But I’d have to rewatch those moments to see how I really feel about Logan’s gay jokes and if this headcanon of him being less homophobic really is valid.

Anyway, here we are…

I basically feel like in order to write a fanfic that feels genuine and actually includes asexuality/the word "asexual" without feeling forced, awkward, etc, it can’t jump to including it. These characters were SO far away from being able to talk about or process that term. These characters needed to grow and change in various ways before it would fit in the worldbuilding and characterization?

I think the only way to make this work is gradually, slowly. The only way is to showcase that these characters actually do have experiences that shape them into being more and more ready for asexuality to exist in their world. The only way I can make it believable is if I can figure out the missing steps on the bridge between where the show was, and where I want the fic to go. I think it’s not just one missing step. It’s not that simple.

I think Lane and Jess were never small towners. Jess came from NYC, then later as an adult moved to live in Philadelphia, both cities. They are the most likely to meet openly queer people and broaden the worlds of people like Lorelai and Luke as they themselves learn and grow. I think it isn’t a stretch to think of Lane and Jess as very much LGBTQ+ allies, and Jess isn’t likely to become the most vocal ally but he… in his own quiet way could very much be one. And he is very closely connected to Luke’s story, even more than Lane, although both of them are. Lane worked for him in the diner and knows him well. Jess and Lane are both extremely connected to Rory’s story. So for either the Luke asexual headcanon or the Rory demisexual one, Jess or Lane could be a key piece of their stories. Anyway I was saying Jess could sneak up on you quietly with his allyship. His would be maybe more casual and incidental perhaps. 

Lane though. Lane is loud. Lane is bold. Lane is the kind of girl the show could have easily chosen to write as queer herself in any number of ways. But the show didn’t. The show wrote her as very much straight. But she’d… RELATE to the queer experience deeply. She’d be drawn to become a vociferous ally, appreciating the LGBT plight because her upbringing made her feel like she wasn’t allowed to be herself, like she knows what it’s like to be disowned by her mother, for her parents to not approve of who she wants to date/who she loves—in her case because they aren’t Korean or aren’t Christian enough. And yes Lorelai lived a very parallel life in some ways to Lane, they are supposed to be mirrors in some ways, but there are key differences.

I feel like Lane, also in part because she’s younger, is easier to imagine as this kind of ally. A big difference between Lane and Lorelai is that Lane started in the small conservative mostly white town as an outsider racially, too. And she leaves to go on tour, to broaden her horizons and was never destined to stay in that small town forever. (I say screw the revival’s mistreatment of Lane.) Lorelai wasn’t raised in that small town, and instead Lorelai chose it for her adult self and feels at home in it. That’s a very different story.

Lorelai, however, has an interesting additional point for the start of some change or growth. Lorelai has Michel. She has been bearing witness to his life for basically decades as a close friend, theoretically. Michel could call her out on her bullshit at some point. He could tell her something she is saying is offensive, is crossing a line that isn’t hers to cross. 

Also if my headcanon about Luke is to come to fruition, then Lorelai is dealing with being in a long-term romantic relationship with a man who isn’t super into their sex life. The way I interpret his asexuality is that he’s… not really into sex. He’s having sex pretty much only because she wants to. His sex drive is low. He’s very romantic, but he’s not very sexual. She’s always initiating. Her sexual flirting is making him uncomfortable. And he’s just… idk. I have a lot to explore specific to this headcanon once I figure out the fic I’m writing. I just think Lorelai will be somewhat primed to believe in and accept the existence of asexuality since she’s been living with a complicated truth that neither her nor her partner understood—that Luke’s potential weirdness around sex/their sex life could be explained by asexuality. I’m not saying they never have sex. But it could explain why when the revival started something had held them back from actually getting married all those years. It could explain some of the issues between them. And it definitely works well alongside the fact that Luke spent so many years single.

I think in order to write this fic, I need to outline a plot that establishes a relatively gradual shift in these characters��� appreciation for the fact that not everyone is straight in the world. That there are more possibilities, make sexual orientation generally something that could comfortably be discussed in a Gilmore Girls style way, with tasteful humor sprinkled in but no longer punching down or ridiculing people who are gay or gender-nonconforming. 

I think I could do it. I just need to find or make the time for it. 

So. I was gonna write a short ace fic for Ace Week while it was still #AceWeek2023 and instead I wrote this meta essay adjacent thing and posted it slightly late. But I hope someone can appreciate this insight into my thought process. I hope it was interesting or fun for at least one of you. :) Thanks!

[decepti-thots]

Roddy x Megatron 🔥

Sorry if you meant this strictly in terms of shipping anon but I'm going to talk more generally about just their dynamic, oop.

Fandom often treats Rodimus' distaste for Megatron at the start as a principled, moral one. I disagree. One thing I do actually really like about their canon interactions, especially early on, is that I genuinely feel like Rodimus is not in fact primarily opposed to Megatron and his position on the ship because he simply thinks that Megatron does not deserve a second chance or anything for moral reasons; I talked about this like two years or so ago here, I think Rodimus fundamentally does not have an issue with that in principle the way a lot of the crew on the LL do. I think the thing which drives their dynamic at first is that Rodimus has a clearly personal dislike of Megatron, much more than he has any existential moral crisis about whether or not Megatron is irredeemable or whatever.

To me, this is much more interesting than questions about moral judgement. Prior to the introduction of Megatron to the cast, MTMTE isn't driven by moral conflict, IMO. Even when characters do things a moral judgement can be made on, that's not what the story is most interested in getting conflict out of. Take Rodimus' fuckup with Overlord, for example. It's very easy for an audience to frame this in moral terms, to look at why Rodimus doing All That is morally wrong, and it's not like it isn't. But the primary conflict that comes out of it for the story going forward is simply less interested in that than it is narrowing it down to one of personal failings, and what it means for the character. The fallout is around his captaincy and his insecurities and how these impact his relationship with the people around him, and what opportunities for personal growth that then presents, rather than a mediation on like, the morality of his actions. And that's not a misstep on the part of the comic! The comic is just using these heightened situations as a way to present larger-than-life canvases to blow those things up to a scale where they can be explored more broadly. The narrative engine of MTMTE at that point is one driven by heightened interpersonal conflicts, not questions of Right and Wrong, and the fallout follows that arc with buy-in from the audience. It's a matter of framing, more than anything.

Megatron's arc is not that; Megatron's arc is about moral existential crises and such, and my opinion on how well the comic can support that in the end aside I think the conflict accidentally created there is where the interest lies for these two. I think the unfortunately kind of untapped potential of the Megatron-Rodimus dynamic mostly lies in that dissonance, and I think it's way more interesting than the more common fandom approach of framing Rodimus' eventual approval of Megatron as some kind of redemptive salve that somehow validates him. Their dynamic is best IMO when it exists in a way where those two distinct approaches are clashing in a way that's made deliberate, and where Rodimus' perspective as someone more in tune with the comic's original perspective is one which disrupts the attempt to shift the needle over to questions about morality instead of the more focused look at 'well maybe you ARE an asshole who sucks, but can you maybe make some friends anyway, without you needing to not actually be an asshole who sucks?' The best Megatron-Rodimus dynamic, for me, is the one where Rodimus is kind of interrupting that attempt to do a quote-unquote 'redemption arc' and bringing it back to the level the comic originally functions at, and I think the dynamic is so much more interesting when that's happening, instead of Rodimus as a kind of facilitator of the whole redemption arc thing, idk. I don't think the comic ever really manages to do that tbh, but I think you can play with that in a fandom space because it gives you enough to work with, and it's what I always want out of fanworks about them tbh, in any context. Just more compelling to me than the more common 'Rodimus is a vehicle for confirming Megatron as Morally OK Now TM' stuff I tend to see.

[martyrbat]

7 8 & 9!! 🫶

7. One DC death you'd like to make permanent—or alternatively, one you'd erase so it never happened?

if i was in a room with the joker and jason with a gun that had two bullets i would shoot jason twice <3 i think his character has good potentials however, being realistic with dc comics as a whole, they're never going to explore it in a way that has significance or is interesting. plus itll retcon the outlaws existence so its a win for the roy & kory girlies too <33

8. Is there anything about post-Flashpoint canon you prefer to pre-Flashpoint canon? Be honest.

i jump around in comics i read & their timelines A LOT so my canon and what i like is me just picking and choosing elements so trying to remember what came from where is difficult, especially because i considered flashpoint itself boring and new 52 is. new 52.... but I'm pretty sure its where willis todd was set up by oswald. i like the idea of him gooning (😌) for the penguin rather than his backstory being just a throw away line that he was working for two face because of the extra class commentary it can provide—especially if hes a poor man who just had to resort to petty crime and his desperation to provide for his family was being exploited. and him being thrown under the bus and arrested for something he wasnt responsible for in a cover-up for the crime lord who he was working for, resulting in being separated from his family and what eventually led to his family's homelessness—having his entire life ruined by a rich man who saw his life as nothing valuable and the unfair system that put him in that place to turn to crime and then punishes men like him rather than oswald... i think it has more depth and potential if any writer was capable of providing it, although i don't care for him now being wingman (?) and secretly still alive... but thats dc, one good idea forward, five steps back.

9. Superman in space or Superman in Metropolis? Does this change if I say Smallville instead?

oooh,,, ill have to say metropolis purely because it allows more nuances and better stories!! i think his adventures in space are grand and can be so fun but part of the reason why i love superman so much is that he IS this alien capable of major feats and he's powerful but, more importantly than that, hes just a lonely man whos scared to lose those he loves and wants to protect people. he has these abilities and he immediately wants to use them to help others and that hes based in that with all his actions. and because hes so people focused it also brings to a point of that sense of loneliness and guilt and identity crisis that he frequently had in 80s/90s comics and how he sacrifices a lot of his own happiness and self in the thought that he must to protect them or be the hero they deserve, allowing for stories to have more emotional weight and his character to be a silent tragedy that a lot of people overlook (literally what i was vaguely talking about last night on [this] post)

also i think a lot of people have gripes that hes boring because of his powers and the scale of his abilities but by having him in metropolis, it shows the heart of his stories and character (and it usually involves more than just out muscling the alien baddie since he has to be smart about his actions and what hes doing to reduce the possibility of civilians being hurt) and who he's supposed to be and what he represents by existing. by having him in such an earthly setting it constantly emphasizes that his character has always been to be a symbol of hope for the people, especially for the oppressed. what use is him having these big powers if he doesnt use it to protect those who needs it? again, his space adventures are fun and can be interesting!! but i think that if thats all superman was and what his stories focused on, itll get tiring quickly since itll be just making up new power-scaled characters to give any sense of conflict and loses such a big part of who he, as clark kent AND superman, is

(also i think him being so messy as clark is very entertaining and theres more possibilities of that soap opera drama in metropolis—i love when hes so painfully human and doesn't his shit together despite being one of the most powerful heros in existence. im still eagerly waiting for the inevitable clois divorce arc & for him to be a little cunty and have a ponytail again <33)

dc ask game <3

[thecomicsnexus]

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #149

March 2024

By Sophie Campbell, Kevin Eastman , Vincenzo Federici, Ronda Pattison, and Shawn Lee.

The Turtles discover the importance of QNA in their mutations as they try to reunite with each other and find the older Donnie, before Armaggon wipes them out of existence.

SCORE: 8

I guess that a proper conclusion to an arc that started with Mutant Town, kind of needed to touch on the topic of self-hate. Not that the topic is completely new to the series, but it's a reasonable one considering so many characters were transformed against their will.

But reading these issues makes me wonder if Armageddon Game just complicated what should have been a simpler story. A whole year was dedicated to the Pantheon saga, and in the meantime, all the character development necessary for this story to make sense was postponed. Now Sophie is trying to tell as much story as possible in just a few issues, and it's not enough.

The most blatant example of that is Mikey giving a whole exposition about his character arc that happened between the present and the future. If this comic was still planning to continue, the five turtles from the future would have had their own micro-series to explore what happened to them. Instead we have characters telling us a very rushed exposition about them.

Maybe I should continue this in the spoiler section...

So Bob can easily undo the effects of Mutant Town with this set of powers. He could have even demutated himself, but he chose to be faithful to Armaggon instead.

But of course, just because a lot of people got turned into a mutant, it doesn't mean that all of them want to turn back to human. In the case of Lita, as far as I can remember, she lost her parents. Or they abandoned her. As a turtle she found a new family, so it would make sense for her to want to be a mutant to stay close to them.

But there is actually another problem with Bob demutating Lita. She is a time lord in her mutated form. Assuming she is still alive.

Whatever happens, I am sure it will lead up to the Turtles going back to Feudal Japan to fight Armaggon, and possibly tie some loose ends around Krang and the QNA.

Again, I understand that this book has been trying to close plots for the last year, but another publisher would have released several tie-ins to tell the rest of the story that couldn't be properly told in one book.

After all, IDW is planning to multiplicate the Turtle books, so why not?

[satellitesoundwave]

director’s commentary on (re)experience?

i was hoping someone would ask about (Re)Experience :) been working on finishing the final chapter (nine! the just-a-bit-of-fun character study turned into nine chapters!) these last few weeks and so have it on my mind near constantly.

commentary for this one is for the flashback in chapter 3. whole section's a bit long to quote so here’s the opening to jog the memory

– Minimus had surprised exactly no one when he’d volunteered to be the one to take inventory of the supplies they’d need to get off the Necroworld and reclaim the Lost Light from the mutineers. Rewind had found him cataloguing how much energon they could transport, to calculate precisely how long it would last them under strict rationing.

There are some conversations that will never be easy to start, no matter what direction you come at them from. Rewind opted to begin with what was most important.

“Are you alright?”

Minimus didn't look up from the cubes. “Hm? Fine, though I would be better if we had the proper medical logs rather than just Ratchet and Velocity's estimates for the crew’s energon consumption rates and fuel efficiency. Underestimating even one person's needs could leave us starving light years away from any supply outposts."

"That... sounds awful," Rewind said. "But I meant, um, about after what happened. With Dominus."

general context to help me explain why this particular bit jumped out at me to talk about: the whole reason for (Re)Experience existing is that the backstory we see for Rewind in MTMTE/LL gave me this strong feeling that he must have gone through some pretty drastic growth between then and now. V1 Rewind quoting “every shape serves a purpose” before he sacrifices himself to stop Overlord read to me (in retrospect with what we later learn about that slogan) like he must have internalised at least some functionist rhetoric, and we know what life must have been like for him as a disposable. but Rewind doesn’t act like someone who’s still viewing the world through a functionist lens, and he doesn’t act like he thinks of himself as disposable and never expects others to treat him like one.

that’s really interesting to me, because it makes the Rewind we see in the comic feel like the end-point of a character arc we never witness but can sort of sense in the drastic difference between how you would expect him to be based on his backstory and how he actually is. originally i wanted to write something that explored what that pre-canon character growth might have been like in a more straightforward way, but i know i don’t have the stamina to write the 100k character study fic it would need. instead, the importance Rewind puts on experiences making people who they are gave me an idea for another approach; what if a plot device cut Rewind off from his memories and put him back in the headspace of who he was in that very different part of his life, and i could explore what he might have once been like and how that differs from who he became, via the reactions of the people that know Rewind as he is now? and thus (Re)Experience came into existence

back to the flashback in chapter 3. i think this might have been the first concept i had for a moment to have Rewind re-experience? ever since the Dying of the Light arc revealed that Rewind’s other husband also made a habit of hiding stuff from him i’ve wanted to get into his head about it

funnily enough i actually wasn’t… that invested in Minimus before writing this? it took a while (plus some great fan meta) for him to grab my interest. but even though i wasn’t too huge on him at the time, i couldn’t deny that he was by far the most interesting person for Rewind to be talking to about Dominus. the personal investment of being his brother provided some great creative opportunities, and while i’m 100% a proponent of picking which characters to include in your fic based on how much you personally like them (see: Whirl turning up, Rodimus being given a key role), i just couldn’t pass Minimus’ narrative potential by. and then i got to thinking about how interesting it is to have someone who was actually there, when Rewind started working for Dominus. besides the broad overview, we don’t know a lot about what Rewind’s employment by Dominus was like. it’s possible that he was recognised as a fully fledged person and treated as such from the get go, but it’s also possible that the Ambus brothers had internalised the (at the time widespread) view that disposables were incapable of true sapience and were more objects-to-be-used than people, and it took time for them to fully reassess and reject that idea. for (Re)Ex i went with the latter, partly bc Chromedome saying befriending Rewind is what made Dominus realise how marginalised disposables were makes it seem more likely of the two, and partly bc of how it makes Rewind’s relationship with Dominus both more tangled and dynamic imo

and then while writing this flashback, i sort of slowly realised that i actually find this bit of backstory really interesting when applied to Minimus. as someone who can be very rule-oriented, i could see him as having incorporated functionist viewpoints into his perspective early in his life, and then interrogating and putting conscious effort into unlearning them later on. it’s this potential point of character development which isn’t actually in the canon iirc, but pretty readily suggested by what is there, just like what Rewind has going on. and i am an absolute sucker for parallels and mirroring, so after i noticed that Minimus’ role in (Re)Experience just absolutely ballooned. originally he was only going to be in this flashback, but then when i wanted to change up the status quo and introduce an outsider to the situation who is a safe ally for Rewind to trust, i thought about this similarity and it made Minimus the obvious option (and no spoilers for chapters i haven’t posted yet, but then i got invested in Rewind & Minimus being friends and just kept. adding Minimus into scenes he wasn’t supposed to be in. would you believe i actually solved the massive plot issue with (Re)Experience's climax i’ve been grappling with for years by doing this. i was like ‘but what if they didn’t get split up and Minimus was here for this?’ and it all just sorted itself out. turns out i can solve any problem with this fic by just adding more of this dude lmao)

[curfewplugs]

never before in my life seen someone else who hates spiderman no way home until now o7

So nice hearing from you flicker! I would love to know why you also hate it o7 and if your reasons are at all similar to mine!

You've given me the opportunity so now it's takedown time...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I truly believe that movie must have been conceived of by a gravely unwell person. It's the only explanation for why it interjects itself into all these sociopolitical conversations and casually resigns itself to their most conceivably destitute logical ends. (Like! It can't possibly take that many steps to string together a multiverse plot??)

It's really important that we introduce the idea of restorative/transformative justice in a Marvel property. How about with the tracksuit crooks, where we have a whole thread going on about how an indigenous man joined them to provide for his deaf child, and died on the job (in the television show airing concurrently with this movie)? Nah, we'll bring back Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin and explore that theme with a hammy cartoon supervillain. Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin. And it's not even like this idea of redemption is diluted and it's the hero's own flawed understanding, it's this weird omnipresent virtue that the characters have to aspire to, spearheaded by the hero's aunt. And she will put her faith in this comically surface-level understanding of restorative justice above her nephew's safety (she knows he's spider-man by the way). BUT she is killed midway through, so before we can even contemplate how shitty of a parent she is, the film tells us she is a martyr and we need to treat her guidance with even more reverence. But what interest would a billion dollar movie have in wanting to make transformative justice seem like an inherently silly idea?

Quickly, two other things in this vein: The concept that Alex Jones/his in-universe allegory JJJ would be blaring on the biggest screen in Times Square. I have to ask why make this comparison unless it's to say something, and what is it saying? Shut up if you're upset about him having a platform because at least he's not broadcasted on like 18 huge screens for all the world to see, like in this hypothetical universe? And Dr. Strange with his world-upending powers, even though he briefly considers the consequences if the spell were to go wrong, he is ultimately rash and precarious and it spirals out of control... okay we're getting somewhere, it's starting to resonate as some kind of analogy, maybe... and oops he's just portrayed as this goofy spell-master and not a kind of villain in his own right.

And then there's the aura the thing as a whole gives off. We know the production and vfx on this were rushed to get it done on time—and that's far from uncommon these days, unfortunately—but there's something about this film in particular where you can feel the sleepless nights, the crusty dry eyes, the oatmeal brain... oozing out from every frame. Watching it made me feel like I worked on it tirelessly and that I shouldn't look at it any more for my own sanity. 

So the whole amalgamation to me is a misanthropic display that really is unlike anything I've seen in entertainment media. This isn't insipid run-of-the-mill studio crap, it's studio bile that is so thick and disgusting that it asserts its place in spacetime and asks you to consider how we got here. I find it so profoundly un-human it takes on a macabre quality. Forget horror movies!

This movie existing and being a crossover event with all the Spider-men? That's fine, even exciting. But the way it turned out, I cannot stomach it on an almost guttural level.

[canadianramen]

30. Power Rangers Samurai (Season 18)

Power Rangers Samurai bottoms this list and it's not even close. Right away something about this season feels really off. The acting is just flat and lethargic and the dialogue is terrible. You can tell it's the writing and direction because Jayden shows up in later seasons (we will get to that later on) and he sounds and acts like a normal human being which makes me question what the hell happened. It makes this season extremely painful to get through and that coupled with poor writing and characterization is what pushes it all the way down here. It's so SO hard to watch and was an absolute slog to get through.

The New Saban era is pretty rough overall and is probably the worst in regards to consistency and quality out of the 4 Ranger eras (of which I will get into more detail in later entries).

Antonio is an absolute delight and Power Rangers deserves props for portraying a homoerotic and queer character in a serious light, he's hands down the best character in this season. There's no actual confirmation of his sexual orientation in the show but there doesn't need to be. This seasons demographic is clearly a younger audience, the nuances of sexual identity is a complicated subject matter and it doesn't need to be explored thoroughly in this show in order to have good representation. He's a very flamboyant and at times androgenous character but he's taken seriously, the other characters aren't laughing at him and the rest of the team accepts him because he's a damn good Power Ranger and good person, even though he's "different". And this is all the way back in 2011, 4 whole years before Caitlyn Jenners influence would change society as a whole to be more accepting of the LGBT+ community, I got to give the writers props. Antonio has some of the best character moments in the show "Unexpected Arrival", "Room for One More", "The Blue and Gold", and "Boxed In" come to mind. This is queer representation done relatively well (in spite of the poor writing of this season).

You'll notice throughout the rest of these posts that I am generally not a fan of comic relief side characters that contribute next to nothing to the plot. There's one or two in every season. Sometimes they're genuinely charming, and other times they make me want to put my forehead through a window. Bulk and Spike are the former. They are both equally hilarious and charming and seeing Bulk again is both nostalgic as hell and a nice reminder that this season exists in the same world and continuity as the other seasons.

(It's already timestamped if you're on pc so you can just click play but if you're on mobile the theme starts at 16:59. For some reason if you're on mobile the embedded link doesn't care that I added a start time.)

The suits and overall aesthetic of this season are absolutely fantastic. I think the production teams absolutely nailed it in regards to the overall presentation of the show. It hits with just the right amount of nostalgia. The opening theme is also fantastic and hits nicely with some good nostalgia sprinkled throughout.

Jayden is a perfectly fine red ranger and over the course of the season gets the most development out of the Samurai rangers aside from Antonio. He goes from a closed off arrogant asshole and over time softens and learns to trust his team but never has any standout moments after the first couple of episodes. He's not the gold standard for Red Rangers by any means but he's just fine.

The team as characters overall are forgettable in this season. Each of them aside from Jayden gets maybe one episode if we're lucky of actual development, other than that they are the exact same person from the start up until, and including the end.

Where this seasons gets complicated is the villains. I don't understand why Cole Ev- I mean Deker, isn't the main baddie. He's a far more interesting villain than Master Xandred. The relationship between Deker and Xandred wasn't explored enough in either Samurai or Super Samurai even though it was very compelling. Props to the concept artists who came up with Dekers design. He is hands down one of the best looking villains in the franchise and I want a Death Battle between him and Yoshimitsu from Tekken so badly. But that's the problem, Deker isn't the bad guy. He's in 21 episodes across 2 seasons (12 in Samurai, 9 in Super Samurai). He's got a compelling look, ironically stands out because he has okay acting in a show where all of them feel like they have AI generated actors and lines. Xandred on the other hand is a one dimensional psychopath who just doesn't do anything. Samurai is a season that suffers from having goons be far more interesting than the main villain, given that this is the first season of the Saban Era, and the 18th season overall, it really should have learned from previous mistakes.

In closing, aside from the production quality, Deker, and Antonio, it wasn't hard picking Samurai as the bottom of the list. No team-up, a confusing and one dimensional main villain and a plot that feels like it's never moving forward, all work together to bog this show down. However it's the acting and writing that truly cement it at the bottom because it genuinely makes it unbearable to watch. If those two things were a lot better, Samurai's other mistakes would be a lot more forgivable and you would probably see this season shoot up a few places.

[thefruitbin]

@yaybatman DUDE I WHOLEHEARTEDLY AGREE. I recently read the three jokers cuz it was such an interesting premise for funsies and then at the end they did this twist (spoilers up ahead) where it ends up being that jokers family wanted to get away from him and they faked their deaths?.??. And batman knew his name week one after joker became joker. Wtf is that. Sorry it just felt like such a weak twist. Like oh, actually 🤓🤓 joker was a bad person even still!! Teehee another twist to his backstory!! Bro idgaf, do something interesting with who joker is currently!

What makes him tick?? What would happen if actually hes on the brink, whats he do when hes genuinely cornered, when his mask is off?? Whats his perspective on things, what are his thought processes??? Interpersonal relationships?,?,Does he get his suits tailored bro?? does bro have chronic pain issues??? does joker loathe not having powers or does he take that in stride? (Look i havent read all the comics so im unsure if these r answered sorry :0)

I dont like this reliance on tkj if that even makes sense. I dont even like the whole thing of his life revolving around ONLY batman. Im sure yes he finds batman interesting as hell (hehe) but RAHH IM SORRY IM JUST SICK OF “batman created the joker heh >:0)! The joker ONLY cares about batman!! without batman! Crime has no punchline 😈” i feel like there can be more to it than that. i like to think he was doing crime way before batman, before gotham, but he just showed up one day as if he always existed there!

In then end, it rlly does just feel so.. wrong in a way to give this queercoded man a wife, i wouldnt mind if jokers bi or pan fr, but the thing that irks me is this sense of full erasure, like purposefully making it so joker is in a heterosexual relationship and has a kid on the way. Like to “prove” to ppl that yeah hes straight, and even with his makeup, now its not makeup, its from the vat of chemicals actually, staining his lips red and bleaching his skin ☝️ further erasing that originally queer subtext where he would put on makeup. It feels so weird. I dont necessarily need joker to be gay (although i absolutely think hes gay or queer in some way), but they cannot deny the queer subtext (that i acknowledge definitely was put in for negative reasons, making this queer coded character an outcast who is bad and a villain etc etc. very clear motives there.)

Its so weird that theyd erase those specific parts of him. Not even weird just.. downright angering. Bcuz ur erasing jokers queerness… why? Its weirder to erase these traits that this character consistently has had. I know its prolly to better appease to an audience, but think about like…. Why does erasing his traits do that.

Like own up to it at this point, jokers traits were put there for a reason but now you can use that in a different way, rather than completely erasing those traits that ppl do relate to. Or even his clown theme, or the way he curates his appearance. He tends to look not well put together or trashed when jokers whole personality is putting on a show. He puts on fancy suits bro, and does his hair and makeup. Let him do just that. And the thing is, it would be far more interesting if they did decide to recognize that joker is a queer man. So many ways to explore that, so many things to analyze and nope. Joker just likes being edgy and stuff lol 🤓‼️ thats it. BRO LIKE I WANNA KNOW MORE ABOUT HIM!!! FUCKKKK. WITH THIS BACKSTORY ITS LIKE THEY R OBSESSED NOT WITH JOKERS CHARACTER, BUT ABOUT HIS BACKSTORY ONLY. JUST LIKE OVER AND OVER WITH REDHOOD AND JASON TODD!! (Which btw other than that being a poll i dont think joker would dare kill a robin not out of being nice but out of not wanting to break this precarious thing with batman. his life doesnt revolve around batman, but he definitely starts to find comfort and routine in their “dance”)

Im gunna be real I prefer jokers backstory to not be known. I personally dont see the ace chemicals backstory as canon, nor do i see joker killing jason todd as canon (since.. people literally voted to kill a child instead of a literal murderer 😭 joker himself would find this ironic like what)

Idk i dont like how DC keeps trying to de-mystify joker, or make him rlly gritty and edgy (same with batman, bats is meant to be compassionate, not an asshole!!!) like wtf happened to jokers clown schtick, hes ripping his face off and its like. Why is that actually boring? The writers keep trying to one up each other in who can make joker do the “darkest” shit and its so predictable and boring. Where is the funny clown. The funny idiot smart genius clown weirdo villain. The guy who curates his appearance and crimes?

The creators themselves say there isn’t a definitive backstory, which i much rather prefer. idk why but the vat of chemicals story being seen as his origin story just doesnt sit right with me. I like a joker who deadass has to put on his makeup, or fuck it id rather not know why he has pale skin. I like the idea that hes as human as batman (i always thought it cool that they both dont use powers! Especially since batman is so adamant on preferring not to have powers anyway). Ppl say “oh but hes scarier if hes kinda inhuman or just a killer” or somn and its like, isnt it scarier that he is human? killers in the real world are human, and so is joker. U cant change that. even if joker himself loathes the idea that hes fallible. Isnt it scarier to think wow. That rlly hes as human as any of us and yet he does the things he does? That the range of humanity extends to cruelty?

“They've given many origins of the Joker, how he came to be. That doesn't seem to matter—just how he is now. I never intended to give a reason for his appearance. We discussed that and Bill [Finger] and I never wanted to change it at that time. I thought—and he agreed—that it takes away some of the essential mystery."

– Jerry Robinson, the Joker's creator

[qqueenofhades]

As a person who haven’t read the comics but spoiled the ending to myself… well, I always had like a sort of permanent misunderstanding of Gaiman’s work and the ending is like.. all of the things that always frustrates me about his writing combined. But I don’t know how to put it in words…

I know that it’s oversimplification and maybe even willful misunderstanding of the Sandman, but really? He has to eat up a child’s soul and permanently change while his other self “dies”? And then he is what, EXACTLY the same but BLOND and PETS THE GARGOYLE? For real?

Also the way Delirium is depicted. I am really wary about her description as this very sexual and very childish character, ultimately useless. Every Endless has a job, except for Delirium. And she is kind of the reason Dream dies. Not liking it. I mean I KNOW that it’s the nineties. I know. But meh.

Eh, I have almost always liked the film and TV adaptations of Gaiman's stuff better than the books themselves, and he has shown a willingness to adapt and edit his own stories to make them better reflect the times and context in which they are being produced. The TV Good Omens adaptation removed a lot of the off-color jokes from the book that would have been absolutely cringeworthy in a 2019 TV show, and the Lucifer TV show likewise went beyond what was presented in the comics and came up with a truly emotional, meaningful, and lovely-while-being-devastating ending. The Stardust movie was also, IMHO, better than the book. So while there are issues from being written almost thirty years ago, in terms of what is updated for TV shows, he has had a good sense of when and how to do that. And as I said, if Netflix doesn't get their fucking act together, oy vey.

Anyway, I don't care about Daniel at all, except in terms of whether he gets to take over the Dream of the Endless job while Morpheus gets to retire for his human happy ending with Hob. As I said, because they have made that relationship romantic and given so much more depth to Hob’s feelings for (and patience with!) Dream, it is an obvious way for him to get his much-earned rest without having to die for it. Maybe it's just my position as an Old Person who has struggled my whole life with anxiety and depression and "what's the point of living," but I find that much more interesting and meaningful for Dream, and not just from a shipper perspective. Obviously I want him to get to be with his human, but I also want him to see that he can exist outside his cosmic function and find an escape from that grief and depression that has haunted him for eons and made him feel like he was never enough. Because man, I Get It, and it would feel like a more honest ending to what the TV series has set up and the themes that it wants to explore. Either way, as I said, I reserve the right to totally ignore and/or entirely fix what I don't like, so yes.