#This isn't what the comic is going to be about

[bluemoonscape]

The like, painful thing about Vader being such an iconic and famous character in the star wars mythos is that the more we receive of him, the weaker his initial redemption arc becomes.

Like it was always going to be a problem and it's not really bad if you just never think too much about everything Vader is said to have done in between the prequels and the original trilogy. But it's hard, because the ancillary material provides so so much depth and complexity to Anakin and Vader. He is, at once, made worse and better by continuously expanding on his life.

The tragedy of Anakin is made even more tragic by going into the mind of Anakin the day order 66 happens and seeing the glee he takes in mocking the council during his slaughter. It makes you feel sick, and then you are presented with the failures of the council and how Anakin was raised from slavery and made to believe he is some savior, but he couldn't even save his mother. He was PUNISHED for even suggesting that he intervene. The Jedi Order had already been compromised and their ideology warped to cause harm through inaction and placing the importance on their relationships with banks and private factions that have a stake in an eternal war.

There was a comic where Anakin and Obi-Wan are trying to save this planet that isn't technically part of the Republic and is facing a natural calamity AND the Separatists aiming to take control of the planet. I can't remember the entirety of the comic but I remember what Obi-Wan says to Anakin as the Jedi arrive with the Clones to take control of the situation: he said that the Jedi didn't arrive to help because help was needed, they showed up because a JEDI requested aid. They had known about the planet, they had received their distress calls, they didn't mobilize UNTIL a Jedi sent a distress call (and I think they took control of the planet for its natural minerals)

The comic was meant to emphasize the shift from the Order's altruistic peacekeeping origins, into a for profit military force. So when Order 66 happens, it is an immensely tragic event to everyone else, but it feels as if its divine Retribution to Anakin. iirc he says "I'm what you prayed for, aren't I lovely" or something to that effect in the novel of Revenge Of The Sith. It's like, effed up, but it you can see how--through Anakin's many many troubles and Sidious' constant manipulation--Anakin comes to view his actions as just.

And then going forward, as Vader, we are constantly in his headspace in almost every piece of media he appears in as a character. His disdain for Anakin, unending pain(physically and mentally), how Sidious punishes him for his defeat to Obi-Wan. The comic where he bleeds his kyber crystal...it's such a good goood comic. Gosh, in the vast world of Star Wars, it's hard to imagine a character who suffers as much Vader or who is as punished as Anakin.

Plus Anakin and Padme were T4T m/f and Anakin and Obi-Wan are toxic doomed mlm 🤧 thank you.

GOD you're so right about the continued expansion of his character both making him deeper as a character and yet showing us dimensions of his cruelty and capability for cruelty that we haven't seen before... he's such a tragic character at his root and literally every piece of media added to the collection of his story adds something new and often jarring.

What's so striking to me (which I recalled because you mentioned the RotS novelization which I'm normal about totally) about him is that, at his root, he's kind, loving, and altruistic - everything the Jedi hail. In the Phantom Menace novel, Watto sends him across the Dune Sea on a speeder to negotiate a trade with a merchant. On his way back, he encounters an injured Tusken and stops to try and help him. He stays with him through the night, not knowing how to help but unwilling to leave him, and this small child is thinking and recognizing that he and the Tusken were both afraid of each other, and yet this gives them something they have in common. Eventually little Ani falls asleep and wakes up however many hours later to find himself surrounded by other Tuskens who had come for their injured man. He's terrified, he's carrying valuable parts from the trade he was forced to do, but the Tusken he spent the night watching over signals for the others to lay off, and so they leave him and his valuables alone. This is such a simple but profound scene to me because we know what Anakin does to a village of Tuskens in AotC. In the time after he spent in slavery and before the start of the Clone Wars, something in him shifted to gain the capability to harm rather than guard. He was punished for things he couldn't control and was victim to the war's intentional corruption of the Jedi Order.

And then in the same novel, he helps Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Padme and Jar-Jar get off-world by offering to win them the parts for their ship, something he was not aware would end up benefiting him since Qui-Gon didn't reveal he was freed until after the race. His mom mentions a time when Anakin ran up a huge sand dune to scare away a herd of Banthas because he was afraid they were going to be shot. None of these actions benefit him. The most heart wrenching thing about Anakin's story is that he was such a sweet, loving, selfless kid. He wasn't born with a bad bone in his body.

And that compounds his resentment of the Jedi Order as a whole so much! Of course the orchestration and fall of the Republic is the fault of Palpatine and Dooku, we know who the villains are, but the Jedi Order just wasn't equipped to handle someone like Anakin. They made a fatal mistake. You have Qui-Gon, who freed Anakin - being brutally honest - because of his midichlorian count. He liked Anakin but he wouldn't have gone out of his way to free him if Anakin wasn't a Jedi. This already wildly fucks up Anakin's head because he was freed over his mom or any other slave child because he's special. He was treated differently by the Council because, for anyone who didn't believe he was the Chosen One, he at least had massive potential to be the best Jedi they'd ever seen. Padme and Obi-Wan, the people he loves most, are the only ones who treat him with love that is entirely unrelated to him being the Chosen One. They didn't care about this aspect of him, didn't even believe it was true, and they loved him long before they realized "oh damn, he might actually be? Okay then." Palpatine manipulates Anakin by pretending to offer a similarly unselfish love. Anakin's head has been fucked with so much from going from one in a hundred million slaves to having the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders. He went from one extreme of being nothing to suddenly being everything to so many people. Extremely unstable world for an extremely unstable boy to be growing up in. Anakin is incredibly BPD coded and so being surrounded by such chaos while there's already so much going on in his head just broke him, over and over.

So yeah obviously him killing the Jedi was NOT right or righteous by any extent but as viewers we can understand how he reached this point after a childhood of abuse and then an adolescence and young adulthood filled with grooming, grief, war (I think some people forget the Clone Wars literally started when he was 19, like that is YOUNG and then he had the responsibility of Ahsoka's life thrust upon him essentially to test him and his ability to let go, which was unfortunately unfair for both him and Ahsoka) etc. Then his relationships with Padme and Obi-Wan are so complex because in both of these dynamics he's pushed away at some point despite Padme and Obi-Wan loving him so dearly. They try to protect him from himself and he doesn't understand why. It's all of these things that build the resentment not only for the Council but then Vader's resentment for Anakin himself. Because he was "weak." Because he "let" all of these horrible things happen to him.

Because in the end Anakin hurt himself as much as anything else. And he still can't let go of his attachments. He holds onto Obi-Wan long after RotS and holds onto both him and Padme through Luke in the end, thus bringing Anakin back to the surface through the fog of Vader. The kyber crystal comic is INSANE because it shows us how deep that love and those attachments still run.

Anyway answering rant over,,,,

T4T ANIDALA PULLING OUT MY "ANAKIN IS BASICALLY A CLONE OF SHMI MADE FROM THE FORCE AND LACKS MALE CHROMOSOMES FROM AN ACTUAL FATHER THEREFORE FTM ANAKIN" PROPAGANDA!!!! And toxic doomed Obikin. Clutching you. Shaking you. Shaking you like a toddler who has never seen a cat before shakes a cat. You get me

[ooliecat]

What do u think of Otto Mentalis

im not sure what prompts to ask me this but i appreciate it

i generally like Otto. i'm not crazy about him but i like him way more than most of the other Adult Characters that PN2 added.

I feel like he fits right in to the Psychonauts cast. At least the adult one. He's interesting(enough) and the right amount of cynical. I find his dialogue with raz kind of amusing. he is also fun to draw.

I could say i'm disappointed with how little they did with him and how we didn't even go in his mind? but thats a popular take i feel. And it doesn't really matter. i suppose.

I kind of wish there was more fan content with him. Though I cant speak for it because i dont really do anything with him either. I have a thing or two 'planned' for him i guess. but they're just joke comics. haha.

Any analysis beyond "he could've been sasha's mentor lol" is out of my general interest. and even then i only care for that 'theory' or whatever at a very surface level.

he Can be interesting and he Can be funny but heavy emphasis on Can and how it isn't Is. and that potential isnt something i'm actively verbatim. i think he should have fans though! whats the point if i wish for people to also not care.

ok sorry i wrote a bit i didnt know exactly what you wanted but what do You guys think of Mr Mentallis?? XDD

[pleasuresofsohodolls]

⋆.ೃ - Smith!Reader

Smith!Reader who isn't actually a Smith by blood, and was actually one of Negan's students pre-outbreak, but slowly got 'adopted' by Negan and Lucille throughout the beginning of the apocalypse.

Smith!Reader who would travel with her parents when they were younger, all over the USA and wherever they could afford in Europe - her favourite place being England due to spending the most long-term time there than any other country she's visited. Her mom died in 2008, when she was only ten. Her dad was never the jolliest man but after the death of the only woman he's ever loved, he was barely even there - physically and mentally.

Smith!Reader who's obsessed with anything and everything pop culture. She can't go anywhere without her CD Player and her Headphones. Her music taste ranging from Mozart to Rob Zombie. She has every single magazine she can find scattered across her room, she has dvds of old tv shows and movies she used to watch at the local library. She's so well endowed with her own knowledge that Carl's lack of pop knowledge physically pains her sometimes.

Smith!Reader who the only way she could bond with her dad was through comics, something he had raised her to love. Marvel, DC, Snoopy, she loves them all. She watched through the window as Negan killed her dad in her small garden with the same bat she had used years prior to play baseball with the poor man, if only he didn't get bitten.

Smith!Reader who was basically like the daughter Lucille never had. They'd listen to music while Negan was out finding supplies or on patrol, her dancing while Lucille sang along weakly. Safe to say she didn't handle Lucille's death well.

Smith!Reader who started calling Negan her dad once Simon took them to the Sanctuary, she'd only properly known the man nine months by this point, but he'd done more for her than any man ever has in her life.

Smith!Reader who's first real interaction with Carl was him threatening her with a gun during the Savior's first visit to Alexandria after watching her trying to take some of the medicine - she just smiled at his empty threats and shitty aim. It was cute.

Smith!Reader who's indifferent. She understands both sides of the 'war' ; that's what makes her so likeable to people, such as Carl and even Daryl. She doesn't treat Carl like an enemy and she doesn't treat Daryl like a prisoner - she treats them like what she believes others are supposed to, she treats them like people.

Smith!Reader who's obsessed with Judith. Before Judith she'd never held a baby, never even been that close to one - but she instantly fell in love. And it went both ways. Maybe even three ways.

Smith!Reader who helps Alexandria subtly throughout the war. She tells Carl about different Saviour plans through a walkie-talkie (which have caused many late night conversations with the pair), and gives him a gun that she makes sure he knows has to remain a secret - even to his dad.

˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖ 𐙚 ˖ ݁𖥔 ݁˖

Woah first post. I'm not really a writer I just like making up different personas (is that the right word???) to imagine my crushes with and wanted to write some of it out !!

Also I should really be focusing on a fic I'm writing on ao3 (abt this reader actually) but schools a bitch and just really tires me out 💔

There's so much more I could say abt her but I'd just be yapping with like 100 different paragraphs so I limited myself to 10 😭

[2isted-chocol8-art]

question about time buddies cus im curious: 1) are they dating in the comics you make? they kiss and cuddle and be cute, but like are they together together? and 2) how did they get together, if so? like how did they confess? or did it just happen? basically im asking what are ur headcannons for how they start smooching? i lovelovelove all the time buds art youve made and the thought just came up that, well, theyve gotta start kissing somehow yknow?

Ohhh this is gonna be a very fun ask to answer where I'll pour a bunch of headcanons, so buckle up!!

I haven't yet settled on how I picture hearthian relationships, but I know that I want to make them kinda fluid. That is, relationships aren't strictly divided in platonic and romantic, it's normal and accepted to have crushes in friends, or to make out and sleep with people without romantic feelings involved. Each hearthian has their own preferences too, and since their population is quite small, there isn't a set standard. Some people choose to be exclusive, others don't. Some have many romantic experiences, others have none. For some, romance and sex are linked, while for others it is not. And since everyone is different in this regard there are not societal expectations on this, you can kinda go and try whatever works for you.

For hatchy, they are still figuring themself out and they were experimenting before the loop. They don't fully distinguish between romantic and platonic affection, the line is kinda blurred for them. Meanwhile, while Gabbro does make that distinction and they've have a few previous crushes, they're pretty open to making out with friends without the need for romantic feelings. Gabbro usually puts the focus on the other person's preferences, in that sense.

And so, are they dating? Honestly you can interpret them as you like, and I encourage people to see them as dating if they want, or not if they don't want to. You can even see them as strictly friends in some drawings and as dating in others, I don't really want you guys to follow my 'canon', in that sense.

For me personally though, I think that since they're in a time loop, they don't really bother with defining their relationship. They're the only conscious ones in the loop, they like to spend time together, they sometimes make out, but they arent technically dating, that label doesn't really make sense in the loop, right? From outside, I'd say it's close to a friends with benefits situation.

I also like to think that, in my post-loop comics, this relationship would start to get more defined with time, mostly because they're living back into a society and it kinda forces them to think about what they want regarding each other. I haven't thought much about the details, but I feel that although their dinamic doesn't change much compared to what they had in the loops, they do start having some 'dating' dynamics (they set limits regarding phisical affection with others, manage jelaousy situations, expect to spend more time together, etc,).

And in regards to your second question, how did they get together? I think that they become friends only after the loops starts (they never really hung out before) and they gradually become closer. Then, after the touch starvation and isolation starts becoming unbearable, they start smooching and making out mostly as a consequence of that absence, an attempt to search for that connection. This obviously makes it all the more intense and they end up kind of attached to the hip for a time (codependency my beloved). But again it's all kinda casual and very gradual, there is not a set moment where everything starts and they don't bother defining it either. It's mostly a matter of 'hey, this feels nice, let's keep doing it".

If I'm being honest I picture this starting as in "Next Time" or "Got Weird", thise fics perfectly capture the essence of how I think anything would start between these two in-loop sksksk.

And I think that's all? Thank you so much for this ask, it was a blast talking about all of this! I have a lot of headcanons for these two, and although I encourage you all to interpret my drawings as you like, I love talking about all of this!

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

What do you think of the show's seeming obsession with everyone (the leads especially) being the best and the top? Like, Marinette's parents don't just run a good bakery, they run the Best Bakery in all of Paris! Kitty Section gets a record deal with the city's top producer! Marinette is the personal designer of Jagged Stone! Alya runs a super popular video blog! Max isn't just the resident smart kid, he can make AI with real feelings!

Oh, but actually, Marinette and Adrien are also top of the class (the webisodes straight-up state Adrien is best in class, surpassing Max and Sabrina, and Marinette gets top grades in Chameleon despite all the workload), because how dare our leads be not good at something?

And that's not getting into "Marinette and Adrien are the best LB and CN ever" stuff. That part is best chalked up to Tikki and Plagg being encouraging, because otherwise the show dunks on all the historical figures they made holders, all at once.

Anyway, with everyone in class being a) hyper talented and famous or b) related to some big nabob, it's not surprising that fans thought it was some elite private school. But no, it's apparently a regular state school (holy smokes, why would Andre and Gabriel send their children to a regular state school??)

That would work in a story where comical exaggeration was the absolute norm, but seems like Miraculous tries to be grotesque and realistic at the same time and fails at both.

Oh look, it's time to talk about Kim Possible again! Phineas and Ferb, too. I'll even use My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic to really drive this one home.

It's incredibly normal for episodic kids shows to have the cast be ridiculously talented and connected. They do this for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is that the characters are meant to be stagnant. Every episode stands alone so there's no time for true character growth. That means that the characters need to be their best selves right from day one. Kim Possible doesn't have time to let Kim learn to fight and be awesome. That's just her default state.

Small life lessons may be taught as we see in both Kim Possible and My Little Pony, but you can miss an episode and still understand the characters because those life lessons didn't really matter to the characters. They weren't there as part of some major character journey. They were there for the kids at home.

The second reason is that kids shows star kids and teens. You don't want adults to be too involved, but sometimes you want "adult" powers and so the kid and teen characters get ridiculous upgrades. A great example is Wade from Kim Possible. Wade is Kim's tech guy. He's also 10-years-old. Absurd? Yes, but they wanted Kim to have cool teach while also keeping the reoccurring hero cast mostly teens and kids and so we get Wade. Phineas and Ferb is another example of this. The titular characters are shown doing things like welding even though they're around 10. This happens because they need to have ridiculous skills for the show to work.

The third reason is that the more connected the characters are, the more stories you can tell. If Marinette's parents don't have a successful and popular bakery, then they can't be hired to cater major events like a movie premier. If Kitty Section isn't wildly successful, then they won't get invited to appear on TV.

This is why Kim Possible made Kim's dad a rocket scientist. It let the show use rockets and advanced tech in several episode. There's at least one where they go to space! The main character of My Little Pony is the student of the kingdom's ruler, allowing the show to include princesses and have plot lines around things ranging from royal balls to diplomatic missions. Things they couldn't do if it was just about some random ponies with no connections.

Some kids shows keep the characters more normal and stick to more realistic hijinks, but when your show is about magic and superheroes, it makes sense to go big.

The reason Miraculous' version of these things doesn't work for some people is probably because of our ever present issue: Miraculous feels too serialized. There's too much connective tissue for the characters to get away with being stagnant. The lessons they "learn" are too big to just go away never and be touched on again. They are not their best selves from day one. They actually do need to grow! This makes the things they're good at feel hollow to some because the show didn't set Marinette and Adrien up the way Kim Possible set up Kim and Ron or the way Phineas and Ferb set up its leads. The character's adult skills don't fit their very real flaws.

Similarly, the show has added all these celebrity connections and then done stuff that makes it feel like those connections should matter to the plot when that's not the way this is usually played. My Little Pony kept Princess Celestia well removed from the things Twilight and her friends were getting up to. It never felt like she should step in. She had a kingdom to run! The show also never treated Twilight's connection as a big deal. Celestia might be the country's ruler, but she's very down to earth. She doesn't feel all that special.

Meanwhile, in Miraculous, the celebrities are treated like celebrities, they often have close ties to the cast, and they are actively around, making it feel like they should play a part in the story at times. The big example is, as always, Lila's lies. Many of them should fall apart because of who the cast knows or, conversely, the cast shouldn't care about Lila's celebrity friends because they have those friends, too. Princess Fragrance was a season one episode and gave Rose a close friendship with Prince Ali that is confirmed to be ongoing in season four's Guiltrip, making it deeply confusing when Rose never catches on to Lila's bullshit. You're really telling me that Rose never once talked to her good friend Ali about her good friend Lila? Really? Rose? Little miss loves-to-talk-about-her-friends-and-how-much-she-love-them? Sure, writers. Sure.

In summary, the problem isn't that the characters are too cool, connected, and talented, it's how those ideas were executed. There are versions of the show where the characters are fine being the best things ever and versions of the show where those elements should have been toned back. I can't really say which canon should have done because canon is a mess of episodic stories and serialized elements that has no idea what it's trying to be.

[lurker2773]

So i know that like no one cares but can we talk about how the Hex syndicate standing levels up from handing in collectibles (and I know that it isn't uncommon since we already had the Holdfasts) but the collectibles in question are just. literally junk you find lying around It's not even useful junk most of the time--it's mood crystals and comic books and expired (probably) boxes of cereal and LITERAL ROTTING PIZZA LEFT ON ROOFS AND SIDEWALKS AND ALLEYWAYS and the Drifter is just like

"Yeah, I bet Lettie would be fine with me handing her this moldy 'pizza' food thing right here that is distinctly not cube-shaped. Hm. Yes. This seems reasonable."

And given that the Hex never really made it clear what 'supplies' or prized objects for them are, unlike the Holdfasts on the Zariman (voidplumes), Drifter defaults to just assuming they want stuff that can be found just lying around mission areas, because that's usually how you find syndicate medallions and moldy pizza boxes are basically the same, right?

And given that the romance is locked behind syndicate rank, it gets so much more deranged--I imagine the Drifter is running around Hollvania during missions frantically looking for vaguely shiny or edible objects, tears running down their face as they sob into a teddy bear and hoping that maybe Aoi/Arthur will finally like them enough to date them after they drag back a comically oversized, rough-spun bag full of rotting food, misbegotten camera film, and abandoned On-Lyne CDs that they called in their personal ship to help them find and conscripted Umbra to help get all it into the mall

and when Lettie finally has enough and asks the Drifter to please, please stop giving her whatever they have in their bottomless pockets for the rest of the day they go back to the backroom and make. like. a little pile. a nest out of the lonely little things and then they quietly whisper to the structure about how proud and happy they're going to make the rest of the Hex when Lettie scrapes together enough sanity to take more items off of Drifter's hands.

This was unhinged. I deeply apologize but I need you people to see the vision

Magpie Drifter. Doesn't really know how to talk to people. Tries to give people that they like cool shiny things they found. I think that's sweet. And also cryptid behavior but sweet.

[lynelsscareme]

Two Hero of Legend's walk into a restaurant, and neither is ever, ever going to tell their respective group what they just saw.

Swift:

Legend:

Swift: ... Never talk about this?

Legend: deal.

Gates of Courage and Linked Universe are entirely different trees in the garden of time. They can see each other, and entangle their branches, but they can only ever grow and drop their own leaves. Legend is from a universe where he will - maybe - retire and have a life. Swift did... not do that. Did not do that at all. Legend dreamed and woke up, faith in happy endings shattered. Swift's nightmare kept going when he left Koholint, and that quest isn't the only one with nothing to show for it except bad memories and poor sleep.

(There is only one Ravio per timeline, after all, and Swift dreamt his away by accident. Much like many other quests he only barely remembers completing across time and reality itself... He's not really sure what number he's up to, and he's not sure quests in realms that may no longer exist after his timeline converges in the War of Eras matter in the count.

In the end, between the two, only one of them carved an Ocarina out of a time stone, and of all his regrets at least Legend doesn't have to lose sleep over that.)

Because of how massive the fandom base is for LU, I might as well state the differences up front so people don't get confused by changed characters and circumstances for each link. No, they aren't part of the same timeline (tree, I've decided to consider it) but they have a lot of shared patterns. The most glaring differences is both the number of Links (Gates has... an unholy amount) and the sequence of events. (The True OG timeline is the Downfall in Gates. Deal with that information how you will. Just know that Swift will be coming to terms with both saving untold numbers of people of the absolute destruction that originally awaited them when the Heroes Spirit broke, and condemning possibly hundreds of thousands of people to witnessing the same cycle of chaos that had plagued the world since the First Hero. You know that scene in Sinbad, where Eres shows the Sand Ocean? Yeah... close shave, mate.)

I can't not acknowledge the importance of LU in how I've made and altered certain characters - I've had to completely rejigg certain ones entirely whenever I notice I'm unintentionally mimicking or running alone the same ideas as Jojo - but that goes without saying, as does the influence all the other 'Link Group Quest' fics and comics have had over the years. There are so many that I, personally, have read and liked that it'd be impossible to list them. Regardless of that, I will happily tag my fanart of other people's pretty dam awesome depictions, and my own as vastly separate entities, and will do my best to extend that curtesy to all the others making their own Mega Works.

The most enjoyable part is, thanks to the Magic Systems and Major Divine Plot Bunny that makes my AU what it is, crossovers can be whatever you or I wish it. This is our sand pit, and we all have been given our buckets!

[In other words, don't let the size and complexity of LU scare you out of making your own variations of the idea. Nor the idea that others like me have been making ours for a while, or have seen the idea before. There is no crime punishable in playing with barbie dolls, go absolutely bonkers.]

[crocodiller]

I love your Tav so much but why is Astarion so cold to him? 🥺

Simple answer: I like including comedy in my comics, and making him annoyed at things is funny to me. And I use it as a quick joke a lot lol I'll put too much explanation under a read more.

Maybe he's being a little cold to try to deny any of his own feelings. (...tsundere? oops.) Maybe he does care... a little? But wait, no. Feelings?? Ew.

Rowan turning down all of Astarion's advancements after the first night but still lingering around all the time is very confusing. (knows Rowan likes him, so what do you want??) He keeps subverting his plans. And then when he does flirt with Rowan, Rowan doesn't seem very receptive. (Basics from Rowan's POV: likes Astarion, party night, gets hopes up, realizes it was just for fun, repeatedly trying to distance himself to lose feelings and not get attached/heart broken, fails)

I see the end of Act 1 into 2 as that turning point of not needing to manipulate a romanced Tav anymore to secure a place in the party, and just starting to feel a little bad about the whole mess. And with all the stress going on, I don't know how flirty Astarion would feel like being when his survival isn't hinging on it anymore. I'm basically changing the romance plot here and there to fit around how Rowan is, and it's confusing Astarion when he continuously has to go off script, so I figure he'd be annoyed a lot! (I struggle to put things into words, I hope something made sense here 😂)

[goldhearts-lover]

Villainous Theory!! (*´꒳`*)

I've rewatched a few episodes for villainous and I've always been so interested in the heroes and why they are so corrupt,setting apart the more less known heroes like G-Lo who all have good intentions for being a hero, focusing on the ones considered 'popular' (e.g Sunblast, Miss Heed).

Surely as such influential figures they SURELY have some reason to save people for anything but fame or popularity. Even then, do they have a reason why most heroes are corrupt backstory wise?

For example, Miss Heed. She's so obsessed with popularity, obsessed with being loved and adored to the point she used her position as hero to use this to her advantage. I've always wondered why Miss Heed was like this, seeing as she's a child with a luxurious upbringing as we see how her father gave her a credit card at 7 years old. (coming from Miss Heed's upcoming book advertisement).

With Miss Heed's obsession of being 'loved', we can gather it most likely comes from heavy insecurity which is referenced in a quote said by Dr Flug at the end of 'Heedeous Heart' where he says "You must learn to love yourself first". Seeing as Dr Flug has known Heed since their high school days, we can gather he's well aware of Miss Heed and her self-consciousness. Although, what could've possibly garnered such a insecurity? Miss Heed has always been presenting herself as arrogant, as self absorbed especially around her subordinates or friends. She's surrounded with luxuries, with fame and power yet she still craves more.

This is where I like to insert my theory of Miss Heed being neglected as a child.

Yes, she was most likely not in the worst living situation as a child. Her father is rich, filthy rich as we can see he gets a whole ass villain to help with a plot to get her out of a prison facility AND the fact Miss Heed has several houses around the damn world (As seen in 'The Shrunken Rescue' comic). But has Heed's father ever shown affection for his daughter? Has it ever been mentioned that her father acted to care about her?

Seeing how rich her father is, it's enough to assume he was a business man of a sort. As a business man, he potentially had little to no time for his daughter. Ever since Heed was born, it's a possibility she had been cared for by nannies and not her own parent. It's potential that as a child Miss Heed's father would get her to shut up by slapping a credit card in her face, tell her to 'go crazy' so she'd leave him alone. I'm convinced that the reason Miss Heed is such a brat is because of Mr. Kelly's own doing, of how he raised her. To get her to shut up he'd let her get what she wanted, not matter the cost.

Hell, I'd go as far to say he let her let her go to the Black Hat Institution was so he could get her off his back.

Although, all the spending and expensive items would never fill the lack of love in Heed's life. It would never fill the void in her heart that only the love and attention from a parental figure would fill.

This isn't defending Heed's actions but it's once again proof that Miss Heed could've been yearning for affection no matter what. From her obsession with Goldheart to hypnotizing a whole city for love and attention, Heed's yearning for love can never be satisfied because she never received genuine love. Love and attention from the parental figure who should've given it to her, her father.

Theory ramble done. I would've added more for other heroes like Goldheart and Sunblast but decided to leave this Heed focused cuz I love her hah 😋. Would've added more like her mother not being in the picture but went against it as this is long as hell already .

[mspopstar]

did the mod just imply that being gay is a choice? and what bandana dee said sounds kind of t*rfy and exclusionary. insisting meta knight is straight is suspicious too knowing mod ships metasusie. i get it's a joke but it isn't a good one. offensive humor isn't funny if it is offensive to the group you're offending.

{Huh?...

The joke of the comic is that Kirby thinks that gay means happy and the like as shown here. So with the previous information in mind, for the choice part, the implication is that in Kirby's perspective Meta Knight's saying 'I'm not happy.' to which Kirby says 'Being happy is a choice, and you have to take the first step.' As for Bandana Dee... Are you talking about him saying homosexual? Before bed I just thought it would make Bandana Dee sound smarter if he added the extra Latin word explanation break down for the word homosexual so that it would go through Kirby's thick skull so I added it before sleeping. As for Meta Knight... I'm sorry? I don't know how that is suspicious. I mean, it's true. I like MetaSusie. As for the offensive humor part... That's not the joke though? The joke isn't "Bandana Dee's gay hah" it's "Kirby's a fucking idiot and thinks that gay means happy, thinks Bandana Dee is a part of a secret club for fishing, and unintentionally told Meta Knight that he has to make the choice to be gay. I've gotten like... five questions from people who probably spread through my last ask and either take away that either I'm homophobic, Bandee's a closeted homophobe(?????????), or Kirby's homophobic and want clarification. Knowing how these things can spiral out of control, I really feel like I had to explain it. Again, sorry if I made any offense, it wasn't my intention. }

-mod

[goosemagician]

I was listening to this song while working on the Anti-Hero comic, and got an idea I had to get down

Technically an AU of an AU lol XD

scrumptious explanation under the cut

In this teeny little aside, Hero was never able to save her friends. Everyone in The World of Make Believe was killed except for her. Hero, at the age of 15, gains Hate's trust, and then kills Her when she least expects it. Left all by herself, going mad, Hero rips out her own heart and uses it to restore the keyframes, enabling her to venture back into the real world and, unfortunately, take on RGB's job to find "Heroes". Her methods, however, are far more sinister than his.

Hero takes the hearts of her Heroes and uses them to try and bring back her friends (primarily RGB and Magnus). She's convinced that her methods are moral because she's "doing what she has to do" in order to save the world, even though there is no world left to save, and the only antagonist left is herself.

So yeah, serial murderer Hero AU :P

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Cite your sources.

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[necrotic-nephilim]

@sasheneskywalker i love when you enable me to ramble about things because oh my god do i have thoughts.

so recently, i made a post discussing the phenomena of DC x DP and DC x MLB crossovers and why they exist and part of that post was discussing how largely speaking, at least half, if not more of the Batfamily fandom doesn't read the comics. if they interact with canon DC material, it's adaptations that are their own sequestered universes and oftentimes not remotely comic accurate or seeking to be. the most obvious example is the Young Justice cartoon. i'm adding a cut to this post because it just got so long i'm so sorry.

a lot of times, when people are discussing the "why" of this oversaturation of fanon-only fandom, they blame Wayne Family Adventures. and i think, to a point, i agree WFA is responsible for a boom in this fandom. but as someone who's been in the fandom long before we had WFA, to me it's the other way around. WFA was DC's way of meeting the demand for this easy-to-get-into, easy-to-consume content about the Batfamily that predicates itself on the comics just enough to be vaguely the same characters, but has a more sitcom, slice-of-life sort of vibe so DC could profit off of this section of the fanbase that otherwise wasn't consuming its primary material. and well, it's definitely worked. not only that, but i have a weird theory that the decline in the MCU also led to the rise in the Batfamily fandom. when you consider the fan content that made the MCU popular within fandom, it's that 2012 "they all live in Avengers Tower and Thor is eating poptarts and Clint is in the vents and there are movie nights every Friday" sort of vibe. those were the fics that were a hallmark of the fandom. and as the MCU has strayed from well... quality content in general, but specifically well-thought-out crossover content where characters can have their own arcs but also exist in a wider story where they clearly care about each other, that fandom was sort of homeless. so where do you go, if you like a superhero found family where you can have villains for angst but also stick them all in one big family-like home for silly crack and have a plethora of options for gay ships? well. you go to the Batfamily. if you write a crack/fluff Batfamily genfic with silly vibes and low stakes instead of say, a fic about a very specific comic issue even if it's a popular comic, you're *going* to get more traction for the former. because the fanbase largely just isn't reading the comics.

and i feel... complicated about this. because on one hand, Don't Like Don't Read has been a tenet of my fandom experience. i'm very pro-fandom and that includes fandom content i don't like. and to an extent, i do think this sort of should apply to Batfamily fanon. i enjoy having my moments with other comic purists, giggling over exceptionally painful OOC headcanons or even facepalming in pain over some content but it is on me to not interact with that content. you don't make fandom a better place by being hostile to fans who engage with canon in ways you don't approve of. and frankly? we as comic readers are not going to get non-comic fans to read the comics by being asshats to them. no one is going to want to pick up any comic if we get a superiority complex about it. and also, i feel like we're all lying to ourselves a little bit insisting comics are so, so easy to get into. they're not. we can just all agree, they're really not. i've been single-handedly helping my sister get into comics, specifically Wonder Woman and no matter how simple i make it, i watch her get frustrated trying to understand what pre-Crisis and post-Crisis and New-52 and Flashpoint and all these things mean and what a retcon vs a reboot is and what a Crisis Event is and what the hell Diana's current backstory even *is*. sure, you can give someone a beginner list of comics to start with and slowly dip their toes in the water but sooner or later, *something* is going to confuse them. comics as a medium straight up aren't going to be everyone's cup of tea. and if someone *just* wants to read silly fluffy fanfiction about the Batfamily, i can't entirely begrudge them for not wanting to take the hours and hours out of their day to understand this medium. it's not an accessible medium to get into. "read this and this, but this run is out of print and this run wasn't collected in trades at all but also make sure you read that event in order and this is a good comic but the backstory in it is retconned and you *have* to read this it's so important but it's also really bad because the author kind of sucks" sounds. ridiculous for someone who like. just wants to read some stuff about Nightwing. sometimes, we all make reading comics sort of sound like a chore, not a hobby.

so my point is, i do extend some grace to Batfamily fanon for existing. i think my biggest gripe is, as i said in my other post, misuse of tags (if you're not creating content about comics, maybe you don't need the comics fandom tag on Ao3, just the all media types umbrella tag) and my far bigger gripe: when panels are taken out of context to support fanon only headcanons. if i could impart *anything* onto the Batfamily fandom as a comic fan it'd be this: if you haven't *read* the comic, don't spread the panel. if you don't even know what comic it's *from*, don't spread the panel. it's fine to use comic panels to discuss your headcanons, but so often i see someone spreading a comic panel from a comic they haven't read, and when asked where it's from, they can't source it. a silly example that comes to mind is a post going around, taking a panel where Dick, in his internal monologue goes "here comes the sun. do do do do." and the post is claiming it's from him getting buried alive. when that panel comes from Nightwing (1996) #140, and he gets buried alive in Nightwing (1996) #127, two completely different moments frankensteined together. if you're going to not read the comics, that's completely fine, but unless you're sure of the source and the context, panels shouldn't be spread around. i'm sick of this specifically happening to Red Robin (2009), with ppl claiming Tim has totally killed people because he blew up some of Ra's' bases, when those panels within context, make it clear he gave everyone time to escape. and in a later arc in that very comic, Tim grapples with the idea of murdering Captain Boomerang, and *specifically chooses not to*, because he doesn't agree with murder, even against the person who has hurt him the most. if you'd like to write fanfiction where Tim is pro-murder and has done some sketch things, i'm totally on board and would probably like to read it. but there's no need to pretend it's canon from a few panels you saw out of context.

beyond that, i think it's not *entirely* correct to say that fanon is harmless. whenever i see very WFA-positive posts, they often default to the argument that WFA is fun and silly, and comic fans are killjoys for not liking it. which. i think is complicated because the issue is, WFA and fanon don't exist in a vacuum. if you like WFA power to you, i don't think it's the worst thing ever, but i do think it's degrading to these characters because honestly? they feel incompetent in the webtoon. it's one thing if WFA was solely a slice-of-life sort of deal, just having silly episodes where Bruce is taking on a PTA mom or they're all fighting for the last cookie. but when WFA attempts to take on more serious plots with these characters, it *fundamentally* falls flat in understanding them. i get it, Bruce comforting Jason having a panic attack because a noise reminded him of the crowbar felt cute in a microcosm, but i'm so serious when i say that storyline destroyed how like. half of this fandom understands Jason Todd's relationship to his trauma. it doesn't understand how he reacts when he's triggered, what coping mechanisms he seeks out, and how he would handle Bruce comforting him. even if i can believe for a brief moment Jason *would* be triggered by something like that, him running and trying to hide and then getting a hug from Bruce to make it okay is just. painful. WFA needs everything to be wrapped up in a nice, neat little bow. so even when it starts to tackle interesting concepts, it makes them fall flat with its need to be soft, low stakes, hurt/comfort. there was a two-parter episode that dealt with the complicated mutual hatred/jealousy between Tim and Damian that *almost* really interested me because for once, it felt like the webtoon wanted to explore canon messy dynamics. but of course, it had to be fixed with one conversation and a hug. you don't mend the *years* of issues these characters have like that. WFA isn't in character because these characters are hyperbole cartoonified versions of themselves to fit within the medium and be a cute happy family.

because that right there, is the crux of it. the Batfamily fanon seeks to simplify the Batfamily and force them into a nuclear family. there are so many fantastic posts on here discussing how the nuclear family-ification of the Batfam is eroding decades worth of complex histories so i won't go too far into that. but what i will say is that there's this need, in the Batfamily fandom, for the Batfamily to exist as a unit. they are a *family*. (honestly i think calling it the Batfamily is a misnomer and has been for years but we're in too deep now.) they exist to each other first, and any teams or friends they have come secondary to this family unit. you can *specifically* see this demonstrated in what headcanons are becoming popular these days. i have an entire lengthy meta in my drafts about how i *loathe* the "the Batfamily meets the Justice League" genre of fanfic because it makes no *sense*. in order to have this genre of fic exist, you must operate under the assumption that no one in the League, or adjacent to the League, knows the Batfamily exists and are thus utterly shocked to discover Batman has kids. and to make *that* work, you have to strip *every single Batfamily member* of such important dynamics and friendships so you can lock them all in Gotham for their whole lives. Dick can't have the Titans, Tim can't have Young Justice, Duke & Cass can't have the Outsiders, Jason can't have the Outlaws, Damian can't have the Supersons, Babs can't have the Birds of Prey, and so on. because if they had these relationships, they would be known to the League. the Batfamily fandom doesn't care about this, it's just "silly fanfiction", it's not trying to be serious. but how can you say you like Dick Grayson as a character if you don't understand the Titans *are* his family? at some points of his life, moreso than the Batfamily even is. it is constantly repeated to us in most comics with Dick how much the Titans mean to him. he *needs* them to be who he is. the same extends to every other Batfamily member, most of which have been full League members at this point. but in fanon, that doesn't matter. the Batfamily are a sequestered unit first, and all of those side relationships are secondary and easy to toss away, if it makes your fanfic work better.

and because they have to be a unit first, you have these forced relationships that dump years of actual canon material for the sake of making them get along. the Batfamily fandom has its favorites and well. it's no secret it's usually the boys. Jason and Tim by *far* stand out as fandom faves so, their dynamic is a heavily explored one. it does matter that in canon they don't tend to get along and especially don't see each other as family. what matters is that you can push dynamics onto them. and so fanon gets all twisted up about which Robin Tim actually idolized as a kid (Dick) and what member of the Batfamily is pro-murder but still an older sibling figure to him and looks out for him (Helena, or if you want the dynamic of once tried to harm Tim but they've reconciled, Jean-Paul) in favor of who's the most popular. Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian are always going to be the standouts for popularity, but it's specifically Jason and Tim who are getting fanonized the most. and that's because really, we don't have much canon content of Tim that *isn't* the comics. for Dick you've got Young Justice (tv), for Damian you've got the DCAMU, for Jason you've sort of got the Under The Red Hood movie, but Tim sort of lingers in this limbo. (yes, he's in Young Justce (tv) and Titans (live action) but in neither is he the main character nor given much depth) so, he gets a *lot* projected onto him and has become fanonized. and even with Jason's animated movies, you don't see him interact with Tim, so people build it from the ground up how they want to see it, disregarding of canon comics. i think it's what makes him so popular in the first place- he's malleable into whatever you want or need him to be.

and of course, the fanon ignores other characters in the Batfamily it doesn't know about. i feel like you could create a tier list of Batfamily characters by their popularity, going from the fandom main characters: Tim, Jason, Bruce, Alfred, Dick, Damian. to the underrated: Steph, Duke, Babs, Cass. to the forgotten about unless they're convenient for a story: Kate, the Foxes, Helena Wayne, Carrie, Selina, Harper Row, Maps, Minhkhoa Khan. to the absolutely unknown: Helena Bertinelli, Jean-Paul Valley, Onyx Adams, the Clovers, Julia Pennyworth. it's not lost on me that the ignored characters tend to be women and people of color. which is both a canon and fanon problem, DC will continue adding interesting characters to the Batfamily, play with them for a few years, then drop them to default to the "Batboys" again. and it's a vicious cycle of the fandom only caring about the "Batboys", and thus people entering the fandom via fanon osmosis won't have content about the other characters, therefore, they won't be interested in those characters enough to create it, and it's just this ouroboros consuming itself, no matter how much canon content we have of these other characters. and it's ridiculous just how large the Batfamily is becoming because of this, which is why i'm a pre-Flashpoint fan, because then the Batfamily was contained enough to actually feel like a family with every character having nuances relationships with each other, but i digress because those thoughts could be their own post.

and the thing about fanon is it doesn't exist in a vacuum. DC has started turning the comics to accommodate for what fans are asking for, because fans will beg and beg for content they're not going to consume. Tim Drake: Robin had Tim as a coffee drinker because that's the fanon accepted headcanon. and the resolution of the recent Gotham War arc was for Bruce to buy this new manor for everyone to move in and call him. nevermind that most of these characters have their own homes and have zero reason to be moving in with Bruce. Tim had his marina in Tim Drake: Robin, Dick has Bludhaven, Cass and Steph have their little side of town in Batgirls (2022), and so on. these characters are being forced together as a unit, as one big happy family living together, to appease what non-comic fans want and it's damaging comic relationships. Robin: Knight Terrors saw Jason and Tim team up and working together, which i've seen varying opinions on but i personally despised. their interactions made zero sense for any of their canon history, but it appeases them being this close sibling relationship that fanon acts like they are. also the fears they faced in their respective knight terrors didn't make sense for either character and *only* worked as a moment of bringing them together so they could reassure each other and have this weird dreamscape bonding moment. the canon is bending itself to the will of fanon rather than building on the pre-existing complex relationships. Tim barely even gets along with his most important team in Dark Crisis: Young Justice because it seems the only important relationships the Batfamily can have is with each other. and when we do see them outside of the Batfamily, it only seems to be to relive the glory days like with World's Finest: Teen Titans, instead of developing them as they currently exist. this isn't recent in the comics, it feels like you can trace it back to the New-52, but it does feel a *lot* worse over the recent years. WFA is fine when it exists in its own bubble, but the simple truth is, DC content never exists on its own. the adaptations will reflect back onto the comics. (the damage the Young Justice cartoon has done to some characters should honestly be studied) and so it does frustrate me a bit when fanon-only or adaptation-only fans act like we're being nothing but killjoys for being frustrated with this. since they don't read the comics, they don't see how the comics are suffering as a result of this.

people argue about what's out of character for the comics they don't even read. i'm sorry, but "bad dad Bruce" is consistently canon. that man is just kind of shitty. when you take someone who has the drive he has, who has this need for the Mission first, who needs a teenager in spandex next to him to keep him off the ledge, that guy is sort of going to be a shitty father figure. he just is. not on purpose or with malice, but when you compare him to any other dad in a big DC family, he sure takes the cake. it's why characters like Oliver Queen tend to *really* fucking hate Bruce for how he treats his kids. Bruce loves fiercely, but he doesn't do well with putting that love first. and his love is a controlling one, he is very particular about controlling how others in the Batfamily are "allowed" to operate. it's what drives the wedge between him and Dick, it's why Steph is never a true daughter to him. (besides the reason of her needing to be a love interest to Tim first, anyway-) i've never understood the massive outcry of people reacting to Bruce kinda being shitty in comics they're not reading. there are some moments that get ridiculously OOC with how cartoonishly evil he is (the whole Gotham War arc and that... complicated mess with Jason) but largely if you want sitcom loving nuclear father Bruce, you have to accept that is a fanon thing, not a canon one. the Batfamily being a nuclear family in *general* is fanon. most of the "Batkids" don't actually see Bruce in a particularly fatherly light and begging for moments where he calls them his kids or they call him dad outside of incredibly specific circumstances is just OOC.

it's getting harder and harder to exist peacefully in this fandom it feels like, if you don't comply to the standard fanon has set. i'm happy people are having fun with their blorbos, even if in ways i dislike, but that "harmless fandom fun" does ripple it's way back to canon, eventually. so i end up pretty tangled with my feelings because are fans at fault for DC making these poor decisions? probably not, but it certainly feels like an unfortunate cause-and-effect situation whether at the end of the day, nobody is happy. and of course, i know some fanon-only fans are striving to be more canon accurate and care about canon dynamics more than others, but for them it's always going to be an uphill battle with the above-mentioned out-of-context panels thrown around and ever-pervasive fanon overtaking anything that's truly seeking to be canon compliant. so really, it sometimes feels like we're all losing.

[tradingjack]

a sensory network of thousands of eyes.

[marigraphia]

Making her Hellfire debut... I give you... The Ice Princess!

Really enjoyed how this one turned out, so it gets its own post 😊

I already mentioned the references in the original post, but here they are:

'X-Men Origins: Emma Frost' (2010) -- written by Valerie D'Orazio, with pencils by Karl Moline, inks by Rick Magyar, colours by Morry Hollowell and lettering by Dave Sharpe. Editor Nick Lowe.

Photos from the 2006 VSFS segment 'Winter Wonderland of Glacial Goddesses' -- featuring Hana Soukupová (corset), Ana Beatriz Barros (panties/stockings), Adriana Lima (cape), and Julia Stegner (poofy shoulder thing/hair).

[mewkwota]

A tiny corner comic with two tiny folks chatting on Mario's drawer.

As a father of two, Olimar often shares his struggles being a parent working far from home. Here's when he first learned of his fellow Smasher's family. Maybe Drake was lucky, maybe all of Alph's siblings are grown enough to manage on their own (well even then, with their known food crisis... that's a lot of mouths to feed).