#also for the final panel its more of a joke bc I wanted to use that spongebob meme so I used Fluff's humanish design with some horns

[bugasaurusrex]

Here's a funny I came up with! Prince Fluff in @cochineal-leviat's RosenRot au with one of my favorite moments from Snapcube's Sonic fandub. Great combination.

[kalolasfantasyworld]

Chapters 372, 373 comments

The comments were written as I was reading. I'll make another post with my overall opinion and analysis. These are live reactions 💕

Chapter 372

We’re starting with Nozel crashing down and Pablo coming to the rescue. CLASSIC. (Helena get over here and heal your husband please)

Thankfully Kahono and Kiato came in. I actually stumbled upon a post on twitter saying that BC mobile foreshadowed this a little, giving us both of them together. 

Moving on I love how they’re giving Noelle a way to fight. 

I’m really glad how Tabata’s showing us Acier’s spells. We didn’t really know about anything except her Valkyrie armor, so it’s great to see how they’re more “bird” related. 

Noelle and Acier are going all out. The fact that Acier is using water is interesting. Maybe it’s to show the similarities.

THE PANELS, THE ART. They’re amazing, we can see how dynamic this fight is and we can only dream how it will look animated.

Acier once again using an eagle and Noelle fighting her off with a dragon, amazing.

YES Solid and Nebra panels! They realise how powerful Noelle is and at the same time they’re terrified, they feel weak and we see them reflect on their actions, on their behaviour. 

I’m glad they realised their mistakes, but no you’re not wretched you were until you realised and tried to make it better.

They get inspired by their little sister and the inspiration trope goes on in BC.

Now once again the epic fight between Noelle and Acier. ART is at its peak here, the foreshortening, shadows, expressions.

And Acier nearly had her, but NEARLY, because SOLID my boy. 

I’m proud of you. I’m so proud of you! I knew you had it in you!

Nebra fights as well! She’s terrified, but she’s not giving up! 

“It isn’t the weak who should be embarrassed. It’s the ones who STAY WEAK!”

YES YES EXACTLY

And they want to atone, want to make a fresh start and want to BECOME A FAMILY!.

All I ever wanted from BC was this last panel. 

Thank yous so much Tabata. The four of them. You made it so beautiful.

I’m extremely grateful I stuck around in the fandom to witness this.

Also hey Nozel you’re up and back in the fight!

Chapter 373

“Take care of the rest for us… SILVAS!!” 

I’m not sobbing guys, no not at all.

Nebra using her strength and covering everything so that they can talk.

Ohhh I love how the next panel kind of flashes back to when he said that she’s a Royal and she has to come protect the capital with him!

Same motifs everyone. Amazing.

Nozel is finally guiding Noelle and teaching her. I wonder what would had happened if he did that since the beginning, but well we’ll never know. Good he’s making up for it now.

Acier comes back and they need more time, Noelle needs more time for this attack. I know what’s coming. Nozel relaying on others! Character development.

“Big brothers exist to protect their siblings!!”

Nozel you’re making me cry 😭😭😭 I’m so proud of you. 

AND yes he’s changing his style, he’s learning, evolving. DEFENCE.

DAMN, so I saw that panel earlier… but I’m still looking… respectfully…

NEW SPELL, I already made Helena make dirty jokes about it… 😂

But honestly even though he looks exactly like the Silver surfer and he had that surfing scene in during the captains’ battle. I LOVE IT. 

And see guys Nozel has some lean muscle, my drawings and descriptions are accurate.

And he kind of got an armor.

I’m discontinuing simping right now.

He’s buying them time! They obviously worry, but how badass that is.

I love how determined Solid and Nebra are here. 

“Solid and I will support your spell!!”

YES Nebra! Good job girl!

They will help, they will support you Noelle.

Maintaining that spell does hurt. I head canon that Nozel has some immunity to his magic in a way that he can control it a bit from not hurting him, but nonetheless it is hurting him. Mercury is poisonous.

However he fights through it now, he goes against his mother, doing his best to buy time for his siblings.

Nebra and Solid have a hard time, it’s hurting them, but they don’t speak they’re focused and they will help her. On the contrary they tell her to push forward. Such amazing development. We can also see their repentance. They know they were wrong and they’re trying to make up for it in these crucial moments.

I saw this panel in @thoughtfullyrainynightmare’s colorings and I LOVE it so much! Nozel and his punishment are very dramatic. He looks so good here!!! (Simp mode is back)

However what he SAYS is so much more important, what he wishes to achieve. He believes in his goal, he will atone and be able to rebuild to heal the bonds in his family.

Okay this is going to be heavy. I just know it.

Noelle doesn’t want to hurt Nebra and Solid. 

CONFESSIONS

I knew it 

😭😭😭

I always head canoned that Nebra was jealous of that and now it’s confirmed. It’s so brave of her to confess it now.

Solid also was jealous, the same magic attribute and Noelle was just more powerful. He was scared, scared to be weaker than Noelle, which he ended up being (self fulfilling prophecy everyone).

But they are SORRY!

And this means to Noelle more than anything.

She charges her magic, as Nozel continues the fight! Spectacular.

(I haven’t red Jojo, but it’s a mojo looking panel) once again I’m so impressed by the movement and just how amazingly Tabata can show the action.

The spell crashes Acier’s eagle.

“It’s a shame, but I got to see my children all grown up and strong As a mother, I’m satisfied!”

Acier despite being an evil paladin is the one of the best mothers’ in BC.

She’s proud of them (me too girl me too)

“You took the long way round, but you’ve finally become a family, haven’t you?”

Yes they have.

[viktormaru]

reasons why i hate zed comic

starting with the personalities, they did shen REAL dirty by making him impulsive and violent when hes the literal opposite of that as trying to be the Eye of Twilight (whose whole thing is suppressing emotions), and it just feels bad to see him like that for, what riot hsa excused as, ~something cooler to see for the audience as a comic media~

Like, I get that his appeal is actually that hes struggling with it, but in the comic it just looks like hes stupid, and not someone who`s been at it for years now bcs hes desperate to fill in his father's shoes bcs its what he thinks he HAS to do...

AND THEN ZED.... DEAR GOD ZED..... Zed used to be this counterpoint to tradionalism with a maquiavelic twist to it. Bcs the context of his desires was Noxus invading Ionia and the kinkou doing NOTHING TO HELP bcs itd go against their teachings... like zed decides that a search for power no matter what is justified if in the end it protects his interests, like his homeland. And thats what made the whole friends to enemies arc from shen and zed so cool bcs with how poorly Shen's dad handled the Jhin fiasco as well... They get eachother, Shen kinda agrees with zed maybe, but he cant commit to that idea at all, he looks for answers in tradionalism

BUT BY MAKING IT SO ZED NEVER REALLY BETRAYED THE KINKOU ORDER AND WAS ACTUALLY JUST OBEYING SHEN'S DAD BCS THAT OLD FUCK WENT COO COO CRAY CRAY IT TAKES AWAY ALL OF ZED AGENCY AND MOTIVATIONS, HES JUST A GUY FOLLOWING ORDER WITH NO GUUUUUUUTSSSSSSSSSSSSS

like no morals no ideals nothign hes just doing what shens dad wants until he thinks even shens dad is not doing it right and kills him, but its too little too late!! zed is completely hollow

its soooo baaad.... cause the little short story of them uniting (which the comic FUCKING RUINS btw) is sooo cool and interesting and tense.... like shen and zed feel like two halves of a whole, or like there cant be one without the other in how they act or see the world idk idk

and jhin is the source of their trauma and the final nail that connects them truly, so if they can find common ground there....

but naah the comic is just weird and exhagerated just bcs its marvel I guess??? NOT to mention!! the sudden constant need for them to be like "ur my bro bro ur like the brotherst brother i have ever brothered bro" and shen gets a wife??? that zed FUCKS SO SHE WONT MARRY HIM??? OR SOMETHING BCS HE DOESNT CARE ABT HER thats gay as shit whats up with the bro thing then (this is half a joke btw (i would reread the comic to make my complaints clearer but i hate it so bad i cant do it by myself) )

and pulling the bro thing in the same comic of having kayn and akali flirt, I have to gag

theres a few snipets of their childhoos together which are cute i guess

and zed is shown to be a good master to kayn, more aking to a father even, which i really love and am glad is canon, but the rest, just put in the trash

the jhins looked fantastic though hes so silly i love him im hitting him nonstop with my flip flops

Oh and they confirmed shen was a red head which was something i advocated for super hard for so long before the comic came out i felt like it was amde for me

edit: also many of the panels looked ugly as shit

[orcelito]

Ok waow I meant to follow up on this sooner, but I ended up leaving the convention after this panel so I have been busy lol

Anyways,

IT WAS EVERYTHING I COULDVE WANTED AND MORE...

I did get the book!!! Yay!!!! I'm gonna get this thing autographed when I see them on Sunday hehehe, I'm excited

Seeing them in person is like. They have every bit of their humor I'm used to, but there they are in the flesh!!!! It just made them feel so Real... and it was rly interesting hearing them talk about their process for making and developing the comic books. A lot of in depth stuff!!! Definitely made me enthusiastic for reading them (I actually need to buy a few between this one and the volumes I own, bc I think I'm missing 3 and 5). I also wanna listen to the podcast again hfkshck I miss it...

They also started the podcast with their editor reading off Dropbox comments they made on this book when they were working on it 2 years ago, which was Just as inane and hilarious as you would expect from the McElroys. Definitely made me laugh a lot.

EVEN BETTER THO.......

After the Dropbox comments stuff, they asked for 9 volunteers. I was tempted, but I ended up not bc I had too much stuff from the vendor's hall and didn't want to bother setting it aside or whatever. I Regret This Though!!!!! Bc they then shared that, well. They wanted to show off the concept panels for a few of them, but ended up not being given a projector for this panel... so they just printed them out on 9 big pieces of poster board 😂😂😂. Each board with a different concept panel with its final panel hidden from view. The game being that they wanted them to guess what the concept panels were for (the joke being that the concept panels were really rough & kind of incomprehensible, though they got a surprising number of them!!!)

The 9 volunteers were each given a board to walk it down the isle so people in the back could see. AND THEN THEY GOT TO KEEP THE BOARDS THEY CARRIED....... which is why I truly regret not volunteering 😂😂😂

The panels included things like the mannequin monster, Merle holding up some jeans, and MOST NOTEWORTHY... the kravitz & taako kiss!!!!!!! The crowd went WILD when that one was revealed!!!!! The person that got that one is SOOOO lucky. And then the one after that was a panel with naked Magnus running 😂😂😂 which the crowd ALSO fucking loved. 9 of these big poster boards exist... signed by the artist... I'm so jealous...

Oh well. I'll get my book signed instead and I will enjoy it very much hehehe

THEYRE THERE........

[salemoleander]

VERY interested in creator commentary for the 3rd life webweave (seriously one of the coolest things ive seen made in this fandom, its gorgeously edited AND very funny AND the quotes themselves are all knock-your-socks off material. That Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Line Holy Shit)

Okay so first off THANK YOU that's super kind! It's nerve-wracking posting graphic design that is reconstituted from other sources, bc I've seen it perceived as a 'lazy' or unskilled format, so this is really really encouraging to hear.

I am not a concise person, which is why this has taken so long! I realized as I was initially responding that I was trying to dive into three separate topics:

The actual process I follow, my tips + tricks on making web weaves

Analysis of my 3rd Life web weave

My philosophy towards web weaves and collage as an art form

Only one of those is the question you actually asked, so #2 is what I'll be talking about in this post! However, I am working on a video overview of the other topics, because I think they're worth exploring - I will obviously post that on this blog once it's done.

To avoid jumpscaring anyone with a wall of text, I've thrown my commentary under a readmore.

The one takeaway I'll mention before we dive in is if anyone has a character/narrative web weave request, please hit me up! I have so many I'm working on, having a next topic suggestion is super helpful to narrow things down.

General Creation Comments

I am At All Times collecting images, so it's only a matter of time until I make a webweave for a group/ concept/ person:

(My phone storage is Certainly being utilized. Also I will never be free of making these.)

It just so happened that my Third Life folder filled up fastest/ felt like it was in a good balance to work with, so that's what I started with!

I try to use a mix of text and images, and both serious and funny stuff. Even at its most serious the Life Series is also funny, and it's important to reflect that!

That said, if you compare the jokes I've picked in this piece vs the void falling web weave, you'll notice the jokes on this one trend sharper. The 'How to Detect Misery' and 'How to Tell if it's Over' memes (both from @thatsbelievable, who is a GREAT source of web weave content) are morbidly funny. Surviving horrific circumstances, preparing to suffer, unimaginable violence, eroticism and death, covered in blood - all of the jokes are violent.

As I go, I weed out posts that don't fit, or (mostly) prune text posts out. Too much text ruins the flow, and I LOVE words so I tend to have too much writing and not enough art.

3rd life had only a few things that didn't make the cut, bc I was fairly judicious as I added to that folder, but these were scrapped:

As I added the posts I knew I wanted and split them between panels, I naturally started seeing a 'flow' from early game biomes/bases and the more tender pairings, into violence + devotion, and then ending in.. something. I wasn't sure what I wanted the end to be yet.

I ran out of posts, and knew I needed Wayyy more images to offset the text, so I went looking through the Smithsonian's excellent collection of CC0-licensed art!

That's where I found the Perfect Image - that last picture of the red angel laid low. I knew immediately that it needed to be most of the final scene, with very little obscuring or distracting from it.

Okay, diving into specific panel analysis!

Panel One

It's the beginning, so everything is still fairly light - lots of brown and green tones.

The summary (imo) is that every faction in 3rd Life is in different stories!

Grian and Scar are playing cowboys, an old Western style narrative where they're beholden to each other, out to get the Bad Guys (even if objectively they're the ones being violent little instigators).

Flower Husbands are a greek fucking tragedy, Jimmy's sudden loss and Scott in mourning, trying to cause as much destruction as possible before the gods knock him down too.

Dogwarts are a middle English story of fealty and homosocial bonds and dying for honor.

And the Crastle is like. Shakespeare or Arthur Miller or Stoppard. They are in a theater, they are playing with all of the narratives. Too aware of the trajectory they're on, and entirely unable to stop it.

The images on the first page are the four primary pairings in 3rd Life - top left, in the background of the 'How to Detect Misery' meme, is the desert. The sudden punchline of that meme felt like a good starting point - a creeper-blast of a joke.

The pair to the right represent Scott and Jimmy. I liked the Impressionist and classic myth-inspired stylization. Also, the toga blended near-seamlessly into the desert hill so it looked almost like a wing, implying a tie to angels as well as foreshadowing Jimmy's death AND Scott's partnership with Grian/Scar.

Up in the top right-hand corner is a little Crastle, and the pair embracing on the right side of the page are Bdubs and Cleo. The red hair fit, but it was the old-fashioned clothing and sense of finality that I really liked.

On the left is Dogwarts - Ren and Martyn. I wanted an image that had a very different style, as they were opposed to desert duo + everyone else. I felt the sketchy ink stood out and elicited ideas of worn vellum paper. It felt like a sketch you'd discover sitting in a chest of a long-worn-down enchanting room.

There's a forest and a mostly-occluded castle in the background art on page one, also meant to represent Dogwarts. That forest bleeds into the next page, where the violence really begins.

Panel Two

We've started with a forest, but it's darker than the last one, and wilder.

Bursts of red stand out violently on the page.

'Fallen Angel' is a classic for emotionally fraught blorboposting! There are many, Many Mountain Goats songs that fit, but the way a-doctor-not-a-fangirl paired this line with this painting was striking to me. In particular, I like how 'getting revenge' was something that drove most of 3rd Life, even though Red Lives (come unhinged) were meant to be the driving force of violence. They weren't supposed to have bonds, they weren't supposed to have allies! But it's the bonds that drove the violence.

The 'I heart eroticism and death' cut-out plopped onto the collage was intended to feel like a kind of cheesy tourist stamp - 'I killed my friends in horrible death games and all I got was this lousy t-shirt' vibes.

The 'First off' comment feels like the illogical thought proces all of the doomed players (so, all of the players) were following - "if I just do well enough at murder, this will all be over."

The 'moments of grace' image is probably my most indulgent addition. I wanted a softer, quiet nod to the good parts, to the fun and the joy in between the violence. In particular, the dawn breaking on waves reminded me of the short span Grian and Scar spent tensely placing TNT under sand in the desert. I imagine silent cooperation and the sussuration of sand on sand, and quiet for just a few minutes.

'It's better to know how to let others unmask you and to endure the rule of the game' means: if you are too good, if you survive long enough, you will end up alone. This is about Bdubs and Cleo - kings of roleplay, of being a little overeager and dying for it and getting a mercifully quick ending. It is also about the cactus ring.

Panel Three

The centerpiece of this page is 'G-d's Idea', the beautiful abstract painting of a blood-soaked angel. It makes me insane every time I see it. Grim reaper in mourning kinda guy

I wanted to do something to tie more directly to the end, but didn't want to pull a disembodied-face-in-90s-grad-photo approach to add Scar. So I found a drawing that looked like the Monopoly Mountain build, and carefully added it onto one wing. I really really like this as an addition, it is probably my favorite combination in this post.

The Anne Carson quote is obvs in Minecraft font - I also split up the lines, so that the left and right side loosely create their own sentences/ideas. "There is a theory that watching other people is good for you" and "Unbearable stories may cleanse you of your darkness." I wish I had been more careful with the contrast on 'yourself all', but oh well, we can just call it being difficult to read an experiential facet of the poem.

"Do you want to go down to the pits of yourself all alone?" is a good fucking line, and manages to mirror both the commentary on us the viewers AND the experience of the creators AND the experience of the characters. We get to experience violence vicariously, the creators get to experience it with friends + in safety, and the characters (or character, I should say, just Grian left by the time you're reading this) are experiencing that low point totally alone.

Aside from the obvious fit, the Rosencrantz + Guildenstern lines stand in as a conversation between the viewers and the characters. The appraising description of kiling and dying beautifully makes way for a mournful interruption that no, fuck that, this isn't a game for us (with some obvious irony there).

Finally, I needed it to end funny; the whole thing is already more serious than it probably should've been. I like this joke because it's short, and it implies the aftermath in a comedic way. Picturing everyone spawning back into Hermitcraft, covered in blood, upset, but mostly with a profoundly awkward sense of 'well I fucked that one up. That got a bit more homoerotic than intended, and now every other shopping trip I have to make awkward eye contact with the person I mcMurdered."

Again, thank you so much for your ask and kind words! I'm looking forward to making a general guide video on web weaves one of these days :D

[starvels]

what are your favourite MCU and 616 stevetony moments? <3

<3 hi bee. this is a cute ask ty ! here are some!

MCU

in avengers 2012 when they work together post the scepter messing with them! i know its corny but 'it seems to run on some form of electricity' is so fucking funny to me, no joke. imagine u wake up from a 70 yr nap, everyone u know is dead or dying and someone's like take a look at this HIGHLY EVOLVED PIECE OF TECH and tell me what's going on. steve should have cussed a lot and that's my only critique of that. i love that tony doesn't rib him for it. just says 'you're not wrong' GOOD! as should.

any moment in the latter half of avengers 2012 tbh, but esp that one shot of steve's glove on tony's arc reactor i BURN for it ty

that moment (in one of those movies i haven't watched sorry i gave up after avengers) when tony is like you said we would lose together, WELL we did that and you weren't there and then dramatically faints and steve's like, but i slow ran to you, i broke everything between us and then gave u a flip-phone and the narrative finally takes tony's side abt how shitty it was lol

616

'you gave me a home.' canonical found family! damn!

too many quiet, little moments at 890 fifth to name. them searching each other out, them in meetings, them having rooftop or library talks, them learning each other and sharing intimacies. avengers v1, tales of suspense, etc

when steve is delighted and very easily okay with tony stark being iron man after all of tony's worrying abt not being enough as himself. also, tony's ID is revealed in a RED THONG lmfao. truly the bisexual disaster we all deserve

good morning, beloved <3

steve knowing all of tony's passcodes time and time again, being the only one with the lock and key to tony's existence.

confessions/civil war: casualties of war. i know i said u gave me a home already BUT the entirety of them. they're just gold. they're so good. they're so fucking sad. i weep so well

red zone cpr tony sacrificing himself for steve and then steve crawling through glass to pick up tony's prone body!! fuck me up! alright alright!!!!!

avengers ensemble moments where the entire emotional weight is hinged on steve and tony having a couple's spat and everyone around them talks about their love and calls them mom and dad lmfao

the illuminaughty meeting where steve says to tony 'be nicer, we've talked about this' sends something MIGHTY through my domestic, lovers-knowing-each-other bones. that's just...i want them to talk about themselves w each other

the bagel scene talking abt reforming the avengers and every other scene where they Know each other v casually and Believe in each other.

when they kill each other in infinity. the whole of infinity is wild garbage and as emo as the s/t focus there makes me, i think the coin of one was life and one was death is not accurate if you're only applying one or the other to each of them. i was talking w @oluka the other day about this but tony is the death->life cycle and steve is the life->death cycle. BUT ANYWAYS i'm mad emotional about the fact that when the entire multiverse was ending ALL S/T COULD THINK ABOUT WAS EACH OTHER. the fuck, bruh!! they chose to die in the streets fighting each other bc they mean more to each other than the multiverse ending. i cannot make this up.

anyways i need to STOP adding bullets at this point i'm just naming every moment skjndkbnkdjnb anyways those are some!!! lmfao!

i'll reblog some of these panels from cap-im for you later, too hehee

[mercifulbutbroken]

vh angst

*cracks fingers* Welp, time to live up to my name again. Ending edited a little bc I said so. CW for death, fire. Also on AO3

Metal.

The taste of coppery metal lingered as Charles had Henry’s arm slung over his shoulders, helping them along as the two hobbled along the broken down hallways and corridors.  Support beams and wall panels were ripped from their places, exposed frames and wires sparking every so often.

Ash.

The smoke from the other room spat out shoot and ash, which clung to the both of them, darkening Henry’s stark white hair, onto Charles’s jacket, which was slung around Henry’s neck, supporting their sprained arm. Crashing into the station’s docking bay wasn't Charles’s intention, but a shot, breaking into one of the engines said otherwise. It was lucky enough that nothing was too broken. Lucky enough that the exploding ships did not catch them as well.

Blood

Both of their legs were aching as they finally reached the final escape pod hallway… only to find all of the windows empty, leading out to empty space. The void, bespeckled with small spheres of hot gas, creating clusters of stars. The earth shining up to them both, the sea and lands swirling together with blues and greens, swirled beneath white clouds. Charles winced, leading Henry down to the wall, where a window stood, looking over everything.  Henry looked up to him, then to the other pods.

“ … none left for us? “ Henry asked, voice low, gravely.

“ None. “ Charles shook his head, sliding down the wall as well, finding a spot next to them. “ We checked all around this ring, anything else would have been taken or destroyed. “

Henry tried to lift themselves up, leaning into Charles’s side more. He obliges, wrapping his long arms around them, pulling them close to him. Another hand came to reassuringly brush away their hair, and Henry looked back up at Charles, a weak smile shining through the dim flashing lights.

“ … Can we stay like this? Please? “ Voice low, quiet, almost not heard over the distant alarm and the rumbling of the station.

Charles only responded by holding Henry closer, opting to lift them into his lap. “ Wouldn't think of anything else Sunshine. “ He reached his hand forward to catch Henry’s free one, and smiled as his head leaned against the plating behind his head.

The two stayed like that for a minute or so, before Henry spoke up again, fingers twirling around Charles’s bracelet. “ . . .  Ellie’s is going to worry about us… Do you think she would know at first? “

“ Most likely. “ Charles let out a sigh, then a grim chuckle. “ Man… she would think we’re doing another dramatic entrance. Always late to the party, coffee for everyone in hand.. “

Henry laughed. “ Coffee with milk, cream, and a pump of caramel, stirred… “ The warm, overly sweet beverage… they could almost smell it. Charles’s own black coffee mingling with their own, and Ellie’s, the sugar wafting from it. They tried to laugh again, but ended up coughing. Charles rubbed Henry’s back, comforting.

“ … Coffee would be nice… if we get down to see her again… You would get a moca, right? “ Charles joked, Henry chucking as another rumble shook the station, their hands gripping at Charles’s shirt. “ Y- Yeah… moca… “

The ship rumbled again, and Henry gripped onto Charles’s shirt tighter. They started to shake, trembling in Charles’s arms. His head went down, nuzzling Henry as he leaned back, holding Henry tighter. Charles’s fingers clung to Henry’s own sweater, still soft…

They seemed so happy to get it on their birthday….

“ I’m… I’m scared… Charles… I… “ Henry’s voice was shaking as well.”  I don’t want to… don’t want to… “

“ I know hon… I know… “ Charles’s hand went to brush at their face, pushing away the tears that started to appear at the corners of their eyes, ignoring the ones on his own. “ I don’t… “ A sharp breath as another rattle made both tighten their grips on each other. “ I… don’t want to either. “

The rumbling was constant now, pieces tumbling down from the walls, away from the mechanics. Flickers of flames were evident at the very end of the hallway, as more supports crashed down. It took another minute before Henry could find the voice to speak again.

“ Y… you know… back at home… that lill jar we were saving up for? “ Henry chuckled at that memory, dumping out an old jar, washing it out before placing it back on the bookshelf. It was so faint by then, Ellie and Charles asking what it was for, and them never telling.

“ Yeah Hen? You emptied it again last month… what for? “ A chuckle. “ What, are you going to tell me now? “

“ In my room… under the mattress...  “ A cough, the air getting thinner by the minute. “ … I got you something. Both of you… “  A smile cropped up again, tears now fully flowing. Then, sobs. Full out sobs. Charles held Henry close as he too began to cry now. He didn't know, but the emotions were so heavy…

“ I wanted to travel the world with you two, I wanted to get a nice home with you- “ A heave for air. “ A home with a garden… a home with the dog… the dog you always wanted, a cat Ellie wanted….. “ Another heave. Charles kerning in on the both of them.

“ I… I wanted to marry you guys…”

The rumbling of the station ripping itself apart exploded into silence, as Charles gripped onto Henry, who then mimicked them, as the both of them felt the burst of heat of the coming explosion, consuming the toppat station in a magnificent, massive fireball.

Fire

The heat was immense, the flames licking up everything in its path. Consuming the fabric of suits and dresses still hung up in closets, bedsheets and pillows charring up in rooms. The chairs in dining rooms, uneaten food still left out in the panic, and in the unoccupied kitchens. Carpets in hallways, curling with the heat generated. The metal plates glowing a fire engine red, radiating more heat. And fire consuming the two still stuck on the station.

Silence.

[themilky-way]

honey {din djarin}

gif credit: gameraboy1 on tumblr

pairing: din djarin/the mandalorian x female! reader

summary: the mandalorian never really cared for romance. he had never wanted it in his life, but some things are bound to change, right?

warnings: um nothing just fluff i think lmao 

author’s note: idk how many more ppl my heart can stan bc sir pedro pascal is adorable as fuck. in my mandalorian feels too lol i miss mando

-------

the sky set out in front of the razor crest was changing colors with every passing minute. a dark orange red adorning its surroundings first, and then switching to a deeper hue of orange and violet. the air around the ship was strong enough to cause some turbulence, which made the small green child aboard to yelp suddenly. 

the mandalorian, captain and designated owner of the crest, turned his helmet to see if it was alright, and when he determined he wasn’t hurt or in pain, he turned the cold stare his visor gave off back onto the controls in front of him. his chair, the pilot’s chair, was positioned directly ahead of the large front view window and he fingered with the buttons and screens for a while until he set a safe planet to land on. 

the mandalorian heard the child giggle again, but this time it wasn’t because the ship was shaking. he heard a pair of boots tread light footsteps from behind him before stopping near the child. he looked at the crib through the corner of his eyes, the action covered by the safety of his helmet, and saw a figure near it. a shadowed hand extended to pet the baby’s head, the coos growing louder with joy. his eyes turned back to look at the scene in front of him, his hands gripping the joystick just a little tighter. 

“din?” the voice behind it is faint, questioning. he doesn’t let himself look at you though, because he knows that if he just merely glances at you for half a second, he’ll drop every one of his morals. instead, all he does is force a noise from the bottom of his throat to respond. 

“you should go to bed,” you suggest. in your mind, you’re laughing at how stupid the phrase had sounded. you, a regular person with only minor knowledge in martial arts, telling a mandalorian to do something? a complete and utter joke. 

regardless, din knew what you meant. but words weren’t his thing; they never had been. so his eyes stayed planted straight ahead and just shook his head, muttering, “i’m fine.”

“no you’re not. i can take over for a couple hours. believe it or not, i’m more qualified in flying a ship than actual combat,” you assured, laughing slightly as you said the last part. you hoped that underneath that strong, emotionless armor he wore he was smiling. even the smallest curve of his lips would satisfy you, realizing that he was capable of feeling something, anything. 

you watched as din pushed a couple buttons at the colorful panel in front of him, hearing a whirring sound when a gloved finger gave a final press to a red disk. he got up, and with a gradual pace began walking over to where his cabin dwelled, and without shifting his helmet to look at you, said, “come with me.”

it sent shivers through you; your arms, your legs, the nape of your neck, they rushed cold when the sound of his words entered your system. you looked down at the child, which had a perplexed look on its face, and reached out to you with a tiny finger. you grabbed it gently, and whispered, “i know, weird right? i’ll be right back, okay honey?” the child made a noise of approval and you shook his finger lightly before letting go, striding over to where din was. 

when you got there, din was standing next to his bed with his back to you, and looking at a small shelf hung from his wall. you stood in the doorway, your hands neatly clasped together behind you, and you watched him. watched him as his hands laid rigid at his sides, his body tense like it always stood. his back, in particular, was where you believed he had the most pain, and you wished he would finally allow you to run your hands through his strained muscles to grant him some form of comfort. but the mandalorian couldn’t agree to this, regardless if he knew of your will to do it or not, for personal reasons. he respected his creed, and you respected him, so you never pushed boundaries you knew would make him uncomfortable. so once again, you pushed the idea of touching him to the back of your mind. 

“stop staring,” he ordered. his voice was rough, raspy from hardly ever speaking, yet when he directed himself at you, it had a slight tinge of tenderness. it surprised you, and even more so to him. 

“i’m not-yeah, um, okay, sorry,” you stuttered. heat rose to your cheeks and you scolded yourself for barely being able to talk right, but who could blame you? a mandalorian was making you blush without even realizing it. 

“why am i here?”

“i need to give you something.” he turns around then, and your breath catches in your throat. you’re never used to him. the effect he seems to have on you and you wonder, deep in your mind, if he ever notices. dyn lifts his palm up then, holding up an item too small and obscure in color for you to know what it is. “come,” he says. 

you start walking towards him, stopping right in front of him and close enough that he has to peer down through his helmet to see your face. “give me your hand.”

you do, too quickly for your liking, but he takes it in his gloved one lightly and rubs your palm softly with his thumb. it was instinctive to him, to touch you in such a delicate way. the action itself poured out of him without thinking, and it caught both of you off guard. how is it, that the man who belongs to one of the most merciless creeds in the galaxy, is touching me so beautifully?, you wonder. in a matter of seconds, as if he read your mind, his thumb stops moving along your skin, and places the item into your hand. 

extending it with both hands and bringing it up closer for inspection, you learn that it’s a bracelet. it’s a thin band of shiny white gold, much like his armor, and it’s decorated with multiple lavender butterfly charms all around. it’s elegant, graceful, a striking contrast to his own lifestyle. wrapping it around your wrist to clasp it, you find that it fits perfectly, recognizing that he must’ve gone into a shop during one of your many stops and had it custom made. 

“din...it’s so gorgeous. how did you-where did you ge-”

“let me help you,” he cuts you off suddenly. he doesn’t want you to ask him the question because he doesn’t want to answer it. he doesn’t want to admit that he doesn’t find you annoying anymore, he doesn’t find himself scurrying to hide in his cabin when you appear, he doesn’t dislike you at all now. it’s the opposite. maybe even more than that. 

“yeah, please. thanks.” you turn your wrist so the clasps are exposed to him, and his fingers work quickly to hook the clips together. once he’s finished, he lets his hand linger a little on yours, hesitantly almost, and you observe him. your eyes dart from his hands to back up to his visor to try and get some sort of feeling out of him. you watch as he begins to move his pointer finger from the base of your wrist down to the very tip of your middle finger. the cold leather of his glove tickles your hand a little and you smile. a childish, innocent smile. you can’t see him, but he smiles with you. the image of you like this, giggling like the baby right inside the cockpit of his ship, makes him happier than he’s ever been. 

with a sudden wave of confidence, you direct to him. “you can hold it, you know,” you voice softly, “it’s alright.”

your courage dissipates as soon as the words leave your mouth. maybe you’ve made a mistake in advising him to partake in such an intimate action. perhaps you were dreaming, this whole scene a mere conjuring of your own touch starved mind. it could also be that din didn’t even want to touch you at all, and you’ve placed him in an uncomfortable position he now has to escape from. 

but, suddenly, your hand is interlocking with his. the size of his hand envelops your own, and through the leather of his glove, it sends sparks flying in every direction. he feels warm, and through the material of his mitt, you can also feel the different shapes of his callouses. this completes him, fills him to the brim with joy; with something far stronger than liking and closer to that of desire. he tightens his grip on your hand, and you reciprocate. you drop your interlocked hands down, and your free hand starts to lightly play with the fingers of his other one. you’re smiling, a dent on your cheek forming. 

“what is it?” din asks, and you laugh. that sweet-like-honey, angelic laugh that makes his heart nearly stumble out of his chest. 

“nothing. i just like the way your hand fits in mine.”

[littlenekosfan]

Jugram and Bazz-b are canonly gay for eachother

i know it looks like a meme post, but its actually a long ass post so please 

read under the cut!!!!

i have already done two analysis about jugram and bazz (which is a little more objective but not really ::)) ) if you’re intereseted, but anyways

this analysis was by pure self indulgence, please don't take it seriously actually i do make some good points so it’s not all jokes... still, i will only take shippers’ criticism :^))  

still naming your bf by his nickname that you gave him over 1000yrs from now? gay.

this panel literally makes me feels things every fucking time, i cant explain it, but just fucking look at it, YOU CAN FEEL THE SEXUAL(?) TENSION IN YOUR VEINS, THERE IS SOMETHING BUT I DONT FUCKING KNOW WHAT IT IS, FUCK ME

they BOTH fucking think about their past as they fight bc despite all this happened 1000 years back, ITS STILL SO FUCKING IMPORTANT FOR BOTH OF THEM, they cannot forget about it or pretend it never happened...

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS ??!?!?!?!? i would first say “love at first sight” but i fucking hate this trope so, ill go with “ their first unexpected meeting that ended up starting their beautiful friendship “ (bc jugo was not liking bazz when they started talking fhdfjdhf but bazz showed he liked him and jugo felt the same back after :’’)) )

look at them, they are so baby oh myyy god, bazz is just being a cutie but has such a loud mouth shdgjdghfd, jugo is just, who the fuck is this kid shut the hell up and stop flexing

this part makes me really sad for jugo and love bazz so much for sympathizing with him, like, im so sorry you have such a miserable childhood jugo and such a low self esteem :((  (refering to his quincy powers) and i thank bazz for using that same nickname to erase the link it has with jugo’s uncle and helping jugo out so he doesnt get hurt again :((  (he knows jugo is trying to get bazz out of his sight to do his stuff and im glad bazz just didnt listen and caught up on his situation)

for the LOVE OF GOD, BAZZ USE THE TERM “FRIEND” INSTEAD OF “UNDERLING” YOU CLOWN, anyways, this is SUCH a key moment in their relationship, actually, its the beginnig of their friendship!! the way how jugo’s eyes become so, ahhhhhhh, he’s genuinely so happy, brb gonna cry, he finally feels like he values something to someone/being loved (also, its not really explicitly said but, bazz obviously didnt really have any friend back then considering his way to talk/flex, jugo was probably his first/only friend, and he picked him over anyone bc he knew there was something in him... he liked him before even talking :’)) )

5 long (he says it wasnt but thats a fucking lie (my highschool was fucking long ok ?)) years with the TWO of them, TOGETHER, IN A FOREST ????, TRAINING ?????????? WHAT KIND OF TRAINING BITCH ????? ok but seriously, if there was no developpement in their relationship during that 5 years, believe me, they woud have broke up and took different path (jugo didnt even have a revenge desire like ????????) they obviously did stuff, talked, played, cared, etc. (let your mind imagine....) they also fucked but kubo didnt want to tell us, anyways, my point is, you cannot just constantly train for 5 years living with just one person in your life and tell me there was nothing between them (yes, i do hc them not knowing Love like the average ppl’s definition is of it, but still ??? they probablly have their own way of showing love and that’s just as good/valid and they’d also learn from the other’s! so bascially, they are in love with eachother but not in the “traditional” kind of love)

anyways, bazz’ gaze at jugo? gay.

JUGO IS SO WORRIED ABOUT HIS BF HELP AHHHHHH he also call him bazz ahhhhhhh he doesnt want him to get hurt :(( (probably bc he thinks they arent ready and bazz being so careless but i dont blame bazz for his behavior...)

NOW, i will not talk about their... break up bc: 1. i dont wanna cry 2. both of them were put under a lot of stress/trauma, traumatizing events do not define a character so... (im talking about the trauma itself, not its consequences)

back to the fight

Dare to tell me that someone else knows bazz’s full name, its a fucking lie like, i know it doesnt seem big, but knowing someone’s full name when they never talk about is so, personal ????? i think bazz doesnt like his full name bc he likes to build up his own persona, that not even his parents define it (with a name) he always presented himself with that nickname even AS A KID, he loves his nickname and yet told jugram at some point his full name... and jugram, JUGRAM SHOUTING HIS REAL NAME TO STOP HIM ?!?!?!?!? BYE ????!?!?!*?@$9739*$&#@)(*

if this isnt love for your bf i dont know then.... JUGRAM FUCKING WARNS HUBERT WITH SUCH A SCARY LOOK, LIKE, IF YOU DARE TO TOUCH MY BF, ILL FUCKING KILL YOU BITCH,  bUt hE’s jUsT foLloWinG thE rULes nAki... NO NO, HES FUCKING LETTING BAZZ PROVOKING HIM WITHOUT ANY KIND OF PUNISHMENT AS WARNING, HE’S JUST: pls stop bazz, BUT FUCKING SHUT HUBERT UP FOR JUST SUGGESTING SUCH THING , HELLO ????????????

bazz monologue makes me feel like shit so, no image, but whether it was before or in the future, only him, only jugram, he was bazz’s goal and he never let go, he didnt want to be the strongest, he wanted to reach him, more than anything (why ? i still have a hard time to figure that out...)  i already talked about it in my previous analysis but, i think he wants to prove him wrong for 1 his ego 2 perhaps that will open jugram’s eyes and he will finally understand all this means nothing if their relationship is not going to be like before (actually spending quality times you know ?) anyways, just read it and you will feel bazz’s pain in his words, the feeling he has lost his only true friend... he truly loved him, its just so hard for him to show it when jugram seem to be so... apathetic about it (of course he love u bazz, believe me, he really do)

and jugram... oh my god jugram i want to punch you too in the face (bc yes, i wanna punch bazz too for having such a big ego and never opening up) WHY CANT YOU JUST TELL HIM HOW YOU ACTUALLY FEEL, HOW YOU REGRET ALL THIS SHIT YOU FUCKIN-, we all know he didnt want to leave bazz back then (and if you think yes, you need to reevaluate your level of empathy/sympathy toward ppl) okok i KNOW he cant do that but i wish he could talk to bazz about all this ?!??!?!? their separation like, please ?!?!?!?!? and i wont talk about the fucking pin, THE FUCKING PIN BAZZ GAVE HIM WHEN THERE WERE JUST KIDS, HE HAD IT ON HIS SWORD THIS WHOLE FUCKING TIME, EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME HE USED THAT SWORD, HE WOULD SEE THAT AND BE REMINDED OF BAZZ, god he loves him so much it hurts

i always wondered why they never settled things during a whole ass MILLENNIUM, so here i go to why (this is big hc time so, naki your whole post is hc stuff, shhhhhh): bazz is the type to direct right ? well not really with his feelings, he always seem to hide his true feelings with his loud mouth (bazz’s brain: i miss jugo :( bazz’s mouth: haha jugo u dumb bitch) there is also that time when he just joined the army, i feel like he isnt very talkative in that period, i think he didnt call him by “jugo” but rather his real name and always felt he missed too much of jugrams life, that he cant catch up with him, thus making him feel so silent and just being a little brat... with time, that gap changed (SO THEY DID STUFF, THEY DIDNT LEAVE IT BIG AS IT USED TO BE) but never closed sadly... (i wonder if something happened between them for him to call him jugo again...)

in jugram’s case, i feel like he closes himself to bazz on purpose so he doesnt hurt him, he still loves him very dearly, but if he were to show these feelings toward bazz, he might put both of them in danger (rumours, jugram being biased, a hierarchy difference etc.) or might hurt bazz even more... he kept is distance and feelings to himself so bazz wont be to heartbroken if something ever happens between them... he’s doing this in order to protect him and i mean... it kinda worked... but not really

speaking of, bazz last line was probably to tell jugram how himself he was sad/disappointed in how losing to him didnt hurt as much as he would have wished... BAZZ HIMSELF WAS HURT BY HOW HIS FLAME FOR JUGRAM DIED LIKE MUCH MORE THAN HE THOUGHT, but that also means, jugrams goal was reached, bazz wasnt too hurt by being killed by his own bf... but also failed bc bazz never stopped loving him.... like i said, bazz was hurt by the fact his feelings werent as strong as before...

and their death...

oh fuck me. Really kubo ? you think this is funny ???? I CRY ABOUT THIS EVEN AFTER 5 FUCKING YEARS, THE WAY THEY JUST BOTH THINK ABOUT EACHOTHER BEFORE DYING ?????????????

bye.

their life started to be meaningful the moment they met each other and it ended thinking about it again.... if that isnt what true love is, then i dont fucking know shit about love

there is also another thing i wanted to point out (perhaps its just me projecting but...) i feel like the main factor, among so many, that made them not open to the other about their feelings is... the feeling they dont deserve it. jugram is conscious about how badly he hurt bazz when he left him, and bazz feels he doesnt deserve jugram since he grew so much/become stronger without him (yes he still feels guilty about “using him” to enhance his power even tho its not his fault) and how he’s not part of his life anymore... they both wanna go back to what they used to be but just,, dont. not only they know they cant, but they feel like it would be selfish for them to be wishing that... (bc they dont know that feeling is mutual) ahhhh i dont know how to explain it, basically,, they wanna be together but cant bc they’re both holding back bc of their own mistakes

i just cannot explain how dearly they care about the other despite their separation and over a millennium of words left unsaid... i know actions speaks louder than words, but in their case, words would have changed everything,,,

there is also an interesting topic between them i should write about but it’s pretty...demanding, the concept of duality between them, always being the other’s opposite but also complement (unlike yhwach and jugram which is more two halves making one, (co?)dependency and not interdependency like in jugram/bazz)... but thats a whole other thing..

but i will say this. i never liked the concept of “other half”, it doesnt sounds... right to me, other half implies there is only one true love (one person) i believe love can be felt toward a lot of ppl (not everyone ofc), we just choose to let ourselves to fall for someone else, so no, one true love doesnt exist, which leads me to how i love love love jugo and bazz opposite personalities dynamic bc it made me realize about how i kinda had and have that relationship and its not always easy... bazz is the hot headed and jugo the cold one, and yet they both work out just fine, why? bc they may not be the best one for eachother, but their love is unconditional and genuine, it woudlnt have worked out if their feelings werent reciprocal... and thats why i love juazz so much (and plenty of other reasons tbh) the fact two ppl who have opposite personas and still loving their partner is just.. i cant. also, thats why i tend to never use the term "best friend" when i talk about them, i just think the best and more genuine friendships/relationships doesnt come with how compatible the ppl are, but how much they love each other no matter what, best friend implies that there is good and bad ones, and also, there is some kind of ranking... best ≠ closest best is more in a profit way closet/dearest is more about love/closeness/intimacy

i know this part isnt clear but, tdlr, juazz relationship was genuine more than anything and i fuckin live for it

i still cannot believe how kubo just wrote about their whole backstory even tho it didnt really have any impact on the main story (or very small...) or how he named it friend when bleach is all about friendship... why them (over all the characters in the series)??? how come they have never called each other friends ?? we will never know...... anyways have that little meme to conclude my shittalk:

no one in the whole bleach series:

jugram and bazz: have not 1, not 2 but 3 flashbacks about their past explaining their relationship and both had 4 chapters and half cutting the whole current battles/events for their story even tho that had nothing really to add to the main story but kubo still wanted them to have something , bc why the fuck not i guess ?!?!??!?!

so, in conclusion ? 

juazz is real.

[notthatiwilleverwriteit]

thanks for ur as always deepful analyses and answers ! another ask for u : im soo afraid in the next chapter momo will be homophobic towards ht !! I mean except Zzx who seems at ease with his sexuality, the other boys all seem kind of homophobic. Jy called ht repulsive bc he called him pretty while he was a guy, Ht is very agressive in his advances (which i linked to toxic virility which entails homophobia) ; then both of them changed for the better bc of their feelings for another man. 1/?

Good evening, dear anon-san!

“thanks for ur as always deepful analyses and answers !”

I’m glad you’ve enjoyed them! Every time people send me questions it always makes me happy and to be honest, a bit taken aback because I’m just a little old me. But I’m glad my answers have had such a positive reception and given people food for thought. And it’s always a pleasant surprise when people feel like they can come to my ask box with their interpretations and strike up a conversation.

Homophobia is a very complex topic, and I wondered where I should start to unravel this ask. But soon I realized before I can even begin that I have to take a moment to sort out my own feelings. Whenever people say the boys in 19 Days are abusive or homophobic for whatever reason I tend to get ticked off. It’s a knee-jerk reaction, often sparked by my own bias, but something that can very easily cloud my answer and make it unfair for you. Exchanging interpretations and perspectives requires a level of objectivity and the ability to rise above your own bias. I can’t dismiss something just because it uncomfortably pokes my nerve. Instead, I should take a step back, try and see things from another point of view, and find some common ground.

I’m not saying I had to struggle to agree with you on anything but your ask certainly reminded me of how challenging yet rewarding it is to actually listen to an interpretation that differs from my own and try to objectively look at the story from that point of view. It hurts your brain at first but is surprisingly freeing in the end.

Because you addressed so many things in your ask, I will tie my answer together under the theme of homophobia and give it some structure that way. This will be my great 19 Days - homophobia edition. \(^v^)/

Sexual orientation and environment

Let’s start with the biggest context you brought up in your ask: social and cultural environment. I’m not familiar enough with Chinese culture to have anything definite to say about its attitude towards LGBT people. Of course, I’ve heard of the discrimination and even blatant hate by their government but I don’t have any idea about how ordinary, modern-day Chinese people view others with different sexual orientations. Not to mention, it’s always risky to take fictional works as an accurate representation of the milieu in which they’re set.

But I do think that 19 Days discusses homophobia in societies, though on a more general level. As Jian Yi has come to realize his feelings towards Zhan Zheng Xi, we’ve also gotten glimpses of his struggles. They’re surrounded by other kids in school, and from the very early chapters it’s been implied two guys being that close together or comfortable with that level of skinship turns people’s heads (ch. 53, 54, 55, and 57):

Of course, those panels also poke fun at the stereotype of girls being interested in cute guys being cute together. The girls stare, take pictures, and even smile knowingly. This bothered ZZX because it put him in awkward situations and created misunderstandings that would be embarrassing to correct. And the more he would try to deny and correct them, the more he would probably end up looking suspicious. But the bottom line is, he was increasingly conscious of the weird looks and attention JY’s antics were attracting and didn’t want people to get the wrong picture of his friendship with JY. All of that could give us some hints on how two boys being close might be viewed by their peers, but it should also be kept in mind that those kinds of “gay panic” moments are a big part of the humor you find in 19 Days.

Having a crush on someone of the same gender gets more serious tones after JY kissed ZZX (ch. 142)

The secret was finally out in the open. JY had carried his feelings in his heart for a long time. He had wanted to confess them so many times and often hidden them behind jokes and antics. Perhaps every time he had jumped to hug ZZX he had caught a whiff of his scent and enjoyed the feeling of him in his arms. But to take the definite last step of confessing and lifting that curtain had always terrified him. And who wouldn’t have been scared? Not only would you have to come out but also risk losing your childhood best friend. It could be JY had even thought of never telling ZZX about his feelings because it could go horribly wrong.

For a while, things are somewhat put on pause after the first reveal which I found very realistic. JY wasn’t flat-out rejected but ZZX most definitely needed a moment to sort out his own feelings. He pestered JY to be straight with him (pun not intended...) and made it clear it would be safe for JY to rely on him and free himself of the burden. Despite that JY was still very unsure if his confession won’t result in ZZX abandoning him because “gay” is abnormal and disgusting (ch. 164):

Even when JY finally confessed he was expecting to be rejected in disgust (ch. 209):

But he had sort of reached the point of just finally getting it all out even if ZZX wouldn’t return his feelings. Even if it meant they wouldn’t be friends anymore. At least he had said it. He had heartbreakingly little faith that their kind of relationship wouldn’t be completely doomed. Thank god he had fallen for someone like ZZX. I don’t think I’ve never been as grateful for a character like him before.

A tangible example of how Zhanyi and their environment collided was Xiao Hui’s character (ch. 158):

When she called JY a disgusting gay, it was the first time he was facing that kind of homophobia. Though her actions were frustrating, I think Xiao Hui’s character was a good addition to Zhanyi. At first, she lashed out both because she was hurt and publicly humiliated but also no doubt because she had internalized the idea that heterosexuality was the norm and anything else was abnormal and wrong. Later on, she had had time to lick her wounds and calm down (ch. 258):

She still has a crush on ZZX but even though she probably realizes she doesn’t have a chance she still wants a clear rejection from ZZX. It still hurts and stings but doesn’t upset her as much. It could even be she’s a little happy for them. I think Xiao Hui’s character is a good example that people are capable of changing and reflecting when they’re given a chance. And no one should be forever held accountable and punished for the mistakes they made and have since bettered themselves.

In a broader sense, I think Zhanyi also discusses what kind of future a same-sex couple could have in society (ch. 268):

That drawing on the wall is my favorite Zhanyi moment. As cute as ZZX drawing him and JY together was, it also carries some bittersweet undertones. The original drawing represents the norm: a boy and a girl in love but if there are no skirts involved, it’s a whole other story. To be open about their relationship would most probably never be an option for JY and ZZX. Something as simple as holding hands in public would take courage and threaten to complicate other aspects of their lives (school, work, family). They don’t have the same privilege as straight people to openly and safely share their feelings and have that universal experience.

Your ask was mainly about Mo Guan Shan and He Tian, but I wanted to take a moment to talk about their environment since you also referred to it. And the easiest way for that seemed to be to talk about the progress of Zhanyi. As you suggested, it does seem the society in which all of the characters live is very much heteronormative which puts pressure on the characters to fit in. And if they fail that, they will face homophobia and most probably feel the need to hide their true selves. Case in point, Zhanyi.

Boys being boys

As much as I know that phrase is deemed Problematic™ these days, I think it fits the dynamics of the boys of 19 Days. They mess with each other, and all of that is typical humor for the comic. Personally, I’ve never taken any of their teasing and good-natured bullying seriously because it’s how 15-year-old boys are around each other.

However, I just finished talking about the environment under which influences and discourses the boys have grown up. I don’t feel like I can ignore what I had just been saying and brush it off as “oh well, they’re just boys” if they’ve always been surrounded by certain attitudes. Does that mean the boys have also internalized those attitudes towards gay people despite having feelings for someone of the same sex? Does that make them a representation of toxic masculinity and internalized homophobia?

In all honesty, I’m struggling to answer those questions. On one hand, I do agree that society’s norms of what is masculine put a lot of pressure on boys when growing up. You have to act, talk, dress, and be in a certain way to be accepted, and it doesn’t take a lot for kids to internalize those ideas. And as you said, acting or looking gay (not to mention, actually being one) is probably the worst a young boy could be. Being gay is often linked to everything a proper man shouldn’t be: sissy, effeminate, sensitive, weak, submissive, on the bottom. The list goes on and on.

On the other hand, do I think you can see that in the four main boys of 19 Days? I suppose it’s possible if that’s the direction you want to take. If you look at anything through those lenses, you can probably find toxic masculinity everywhere. Do I think HT, MGS, JY and ZZX are homophobic because they possibly showcase traits of toxic masculinity? I guess. I don’t know. I see where that interpretation comes from, but some part of my brain never manages to make the full connection between those two. I’m constantly having a feeling that my way of thinking differs from your interpretation but I can’t properly validate or argue my opinions.

Perhaps taking a look at the examples you mentioned might help. You talked about JY being homophobic when this was his response to HT calling him good looking (ch. 108):

I can’t exactly deny that panel couldn’t be taken as toxic masculinity. I might even agree with you on that. I wouldn’t probably go as far as saying JY was being homophobic but it does seem like his masculinity was threatened or questioned in that situation. Interestingly, I’ve seen that phrase pop up a lot in yaoi/shounen-ai comics. Characters who are in a gay relationship don’t often feel comfortable with guys complimenting them - or even the guy they’re in love with. I’ve always wondered that. Does that mean there’s a level of self-denial in those characters or is it just a cultural thing? Does it embarrass them?

In general, I think all of that has to do with their age, and another good example of that would be ZZX and JY’s reaction to HT messing with MGS (ch. 289 and 298):

I’ve seen people calling those moments homophobic as well and can’t really agree with them. I would say those reactions have more to do with teenage boys being awkward and embarrassed. HT putting the moves on MGS in front of them is embarrassing and something they don’t wish to see. I mean, I wouldn’t want to see my friends constantly acting like that around me either. Seeing public displays of affection embarrasses me and makes me awkward as hell. (Though, I don’t know if that’s just a Finnish thing...)

In short, I see a lot of how the boys act around each other just natural to how teenage boys are. They mess with each other and standing up for yourself in that sense (for example, getting revenge, being physical, or returning the verbal teasing) is important and typical. That’s how I see JY’s words in the example you mentioned: he felt like HT was messing with him and shot back. All of that could, of course, be seen as internalized toxic masculinity, but I don’t think it’s quite as blatant as people sometimes make it out to be. I’ve always taken it as boys just being boys and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

What comes to HT being pushy and overbearing, I don’t see that being connected to toxic masculinity and making him homophobic because of that. It feels a bit of a stretch and shakey. Instead, I actually think HT is quite comfortable with both of his own feelings for MGS and the idea of same-sex relationships in general (ch. 187):

The little heart-to-hearts JY and HT occasionally have also show us that despite often making fun of each other, they can take it more seriously when needed. JY would have never asked about having feelings for another male if he couldn’t trust HT wouldn’t make fun of him.

The case of Mo Guan Shan

You talked a lot about MGS, so I thought I’d take a closer look at his character separately. You made some interesting points I’ve also been thinking about and was glad they popped up in your ask.

Since we’ve talked about toxic masculinity so far, let’s continue on that. You mentioned that MGS is prone to homophobia because he’s had to act tough. Upholding a certain kind of image is essential in gangs. Being weak and submissive - aka gay, as I talked about above - isn’t an option in that line of work.

I agree with you on all of that. Why MGS is so uncomfortable with HT being physical with him is at least partly because he can’t come across as someone who can be taken advantage of (ch. 250):

If he can be physically overpowered and made vulnerable, it means he can be submitted. In the masculine world, physical strength seems to be the final and ultimate law that settles all the disputes at the latest. And if you lose in that you’re on the bottom or at least lower on the hierarchy. Now, multiply that mentality by a lot to fit it in the world of teenage gangs and the borderline criminal underworld. So, yes, I would most definitely say MGS doesn’t want himself to be put in that situation. Much less anyone finding out about it.

Then again, the story has kind of revisited that idea when HT “joined” MGS’s gang and his underlings started seeing HT around more. And they seem somewhere between intimidated by HT and impressed their boss has managed to make someone like HT call him “brother”. That fits the same mentality of strength, but I can’t honestly see Buzzcut or other members of the gang giving MGS a hard time even if they found out about HT’s affections. Chances are, they would be even more impressed, bless them.

Overall, I think MGS lashing out (or being homophobic) is mostly due to him not trusting HT and HT slowly but surely wearing him out and making him see his own prejudice against people like HT. Yelling out insults has been the easiest way to fight HT’s affections, although it’s not proven very successful. It’s also important to remember MGS is fairly inexperienced when it comes to love and romantic affection (ch. 222):

He’s always been rejected and discriminated by his peers and over the years, he’s started to mirror that behavior and push people away. Having crushes (let alone having a girlfriend) has never really been a concern for him. And it’s not like he’s had time for something like romance anyway because working has taken so much of his time. In this regard, MGS isn’t that mature or experienced and tends to get uncomfortable and lash out very quickly.

I’ve already talked about the note and what kind of role I think it will have (if it will be addressed at all). And I’m not really worried about MGS saying something homophobic to HT. I think we’re way past of him being like “I don’t speak to a homo” at this point already. He’s been aware of HT’s affections for a good while by now and even tentatively warmed up to some of it (for example, the aquarium date and the studs). (Even though, I think it’s still too early to talk about MGS being in love with HT.)

MGS has come a long way, and I might even say he’s gained some sexuality-related maturity on the way. Slowly but surely, he’s become comfortable with having HT around, and if after all this development he would say something like that, it would be a pretty big step backward. Of course, that doesn’t mean he can’t throw insults and lash out but let’s not forget we’re talking about a purebred tsundere here. That’s always going to happen with him.

And while we’re keeping it real, it’s not like HT would pay any mind to those insults. After MGS asked for the studs, I think HT’s resolve has only strengthened.

I hope this answer makes some sense, to me it feels like a bit of a mess of this and that. A lof of “I can’t deny that but still...” You really threw some hard questions and challenged my thinking a lot. Thank you!

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 19

it’s 2021 now!! time for more transformers 

we start off w/a flashback showing tyrest retrieving ultra magnus’s body from the ship - and we get a look at magnus’s spark, which is the green color of a 0.1%er [eyes emoji]

tyrest punching magnus..... grrrrr leave my dad alone bastard man

‘the divided self’ what a good title 

rodimus is like listen man this is a lot for my poor thot brain to take in

in flashback land, we see tyrest immediately launch into a crazy person spiel about how he can and will edit the law as he sees fit to conform to the situation, because that doesn't seem like a blatant abuse of power or a huge conflict of interest or anything 

oooh the screen in the corner that says ‘thought warfare,’ I see that

oof, poor magnus. its gotta be rough to hear your boss rant about how bad at your job you are....especially bc this is right after overlord called magnus a joke and nearly killed him

its especially brutal bc as magnus says, his job is his life 

augh, I love the panel where the armor is falling off around minimus, and then the one where he’s holding the ultra magnus head...poetic 

its fascinating that there was an ‘original’ magnus who was an actual guy, and then tyrest chose to make him into this legacy symbol - I'm assuming the OG magnus had no say in this, and probably didn't even know that he was gonna become this lawman legacy figure

I do wanna know though - obviously everyone thought that ultra magnus was one dude, but how did the different guys wearing the armor deal w/that? like, did minimus have people coming up to him like ‘hey ultra magnus old buddy! remember when we fought those guys in that one place? good times!’ like, do they have to study up on the lives of the past armor wearers to prepare for the role of ultra magnus?

augh poor minimus, of course he’s been wondering about what happened with overlord after he was KO’d

oof, drift...I feel like minimus looks surprised and a little skeptical at the idea that drift was the one behind the entire overlord thing - which is interesting bc as we saw at the beginning of the story, he doesn't exactly trust drift, but it’s still pretty far-fetched that one person orchestrated the entire thing

tailgate :(

the concept of a load-bearer is SUPER cool, I love it so much

it also puts a much-needed limit on things - as in, there IS a limit to how much weight/mass a normal cybertronian frame can carry, which is why you don't see everybody upgrading to be Massive - bc they actually CANT

oof, the worst part is that tyrest is RIGHT, minimus essentially DID have a nervous breakdown after the war ended bc of the rigid way he views the world

mental health support is clearly in shambles for cybertronians, yikes. they literally have 1 therapist for their entire race, and he’s not even licensed anymore due to hipaa violations. what a mess

the ‘attention deflectors’ thing is so cool and clever and also a great explanation as to why ratchet or anyone else never said ‘hey wait a minute, you're actually a much smaller dude in a trench coat’ 

I love tailgate knowing all the stuff about the autobot code bc of magnus...my BOY

and THATS why minimus was asking about skids specifically earlier!

oh minimus, please don't put so much stock in tyrest being stable and resonable...

aaaand there's skids and swerve! brainstorm says it best - ‘because something unexpected hasn't happened for at least nine seconds.’ lmao ily brainstorm 

finally checking in w/whirl and cyclonus - god I love that. whirl asking cyclonus how many cons he killed and cyc is like psh I wasn't keeping count....................ok it was six

hhhhh cyclonus IS looking for a cure for tailgate, even though he told tg that there wasn’t anything to hope for....excuse me as I go be emo 

and now we flash over to the unethical medical conduct hell zone, where pharma is being weird and horny and ratchet is appropriately horrified 

I seriously love how unhinged pharma looks, the art & colors do such a good job conveying his feral energy 

ratchet has some massive dick energy for taunting pharma when he’s currently just a head and pharma has dual chainsaws for hands 

ugh, I love whirls speech about anger...and I feel like he really does see cyclonus as a peer, despite cyclonus wanting to kill him, which is why he tells cyclonus all of this 

I fuckgin love that cyclonus’s reaction to very suddenly getting stabbed thru the abdomen is to just glance down at the sword, looking mildly inconvenienced 

back over to ratchet - and at first its like oh wow I can’t believe pharma was stupid enough to let ratchet goad him into this contest....but then you see first aid and ambulon and its like UH OH this is gonna be BAD

the idea that getting sliced in half is no big deal for a cybertronian is wild

‘you're gonna let doctor djd cut us in half?’ yeahhhh that's an appropriate reaction, yikes

FUCKING LENGTHWAYS GOD

pharma you piece of shit

poor ambulon :( :( :( that's fucking brutal. amazing panel but....jesus

and like, to further my point from last issue’s liveblog - the fact that this very gore-y panel is okay, but swearing isn't...that's really funny honestly. I guess robo-gore is acceptable, while I'm guessing regular ole run of the mill human gore wouldn't be

then back to cyclonus, who is still looking only vaguely put out by the sword stuck right thru him

and then cyclonus just pulls it right out, which is a very bad idea for humans but probably not as big of a deal for big near-immortal alien robots

circle of light stuck in capitalistic urban hellscape cubicals 

poor skids, being asked to stand trial while having no idea what his crime is due to Big Amnesia 

OH SHITTTT I totally forgot that getaway shows up here

that is super clever though, with chromedome confusing the name ‘getaway’ with the concept ‘needing to escape’

cant believe tyrest is really dumb enough to tell minimus all his evil plans

BUT that means its time for some very important forged vs constructed cold lore

jro spelling ‘program’ as ‘programme’ made me remember when he said that he considers everyone on the lost light to be british, which is perhaps the least valid thing he’s ever said vhbghjsdbfjkhasbjk

the idea that they used the matrix - which is portrayed as kind of a holy object - in reproductive experiments is really interesting

AUGHHHHH this is all so good and interesting...im really fascinated w/this particular brand of like, alien robot racism/constructism/whatever you wanna call it - I feel like it does such a good job as a plot device, where many other ‘fantasy racism’ concepts from other franchises fail, bc there's not really a ‘human metaphor’ being used here (as far as I know/can tell) - as in, this isn't a thinly veiled metaphor for something that happened/could happen in human history

in fact, this type of bigotry (or w/e you wanna call it) isn't something that is even really possible in humans - I guess if there was a stigma against being born via ivf or something...? but there isn't, so there's no obvious real-world equivalent, which I take as a sign of good writing and worldbuilding - it makes the cybertronians feel more Real, bc of course they would have their own types of bigotry based off of completely different things than humans 

additionally - and this is crucial - tyrest is wrong: there’s no like, inherent moral corruption in cold constructed bots. there's no difference at all, other than method of construction. fantasy racism plotlines often flounder here, with the oppressors having a ‘valid reason’ for oppressing the oppressed, but tyrest is just operated on religious zealot bs and some biased science

like, dude, did you ever think that maybe there are other reasons why your trials only condemned cold constructed bots? like, maybe the trial itself was biased? or societal conditions were to blame? correlation is not causation, my dude, especially when the conclusion is ‘cold constructed bots are inherently SINNERS’ lmao 

like, tyrest rlly said ‘FUCK separation of church and state,’ huh

anyways I just think the whole cold construction vs forged thing is really interesting and well-done, and serves as a good precursor to the more fleshed-out functionism stuff we see later 

so tyrest is clearly off his rockers w/the whole drilling thing - dude, you accidentally gave yourself a lobotomy, okay - but I find it kinda funny that he’s right about a lot of that stuff he said at the end, about primus and the guiding hand and stuff being real 

cyclonus saying ‘tailgate and the others’...I see you, man, I see you

also cyclonus looks fine now??? didn't he just get stabbed??? 

ah, tyrest sprinkling a little light genocide onto his plan to find salvation. nice, dude!

MINIMUS NOOOOOOOOO

‘fully deserved’ SHUT UP BIIIIITCH

poor minimus is taking a lot of Ls this arc, geez

oof, great issue! again, as usual....I loved the lore we got this issue, its so interesting...and some good character stuff too. I love minimus, I feel like he’s gonna be my fav this readthru; my first read my fav was brainstorm, second readthru was whirl, and I feel like its minimus/magnus this time. I just love his character arc...

hype af for more B) 

[cleaduvalls]

i watched “spy kids” 4 times in 1 week and here are my thoughts

carmen your nightgown is like 200 years old, get a new one

you clearly know this story by heart, you’re saying parts of it. why are you questioning what “take him out” means

a double wig should be more obvious than that

we can see that that’s a glass elevator. people can see you changing, ingrid

nice hat

why did you kill the swan

is that paul rudd???????

how are jets ripping pages out of a book

heart shaped parachutes shouldn’t be working that well

why is there a guitar on your bed. how do you sleep

i think the kids would have seen the track in the floor at SOME point

why is there a jungle gym in their house. i know they’re spies but who has a jungle gym.... in their HOUSE

carmen you’re a frog

i think juni just legitimately try to kill carmen

why are both parents going to school. is that like, a Thing????

juni how do you do that

who puts a video screen in the front seat

hey look its floop. love that guy

they’re not picking on you for the bandages, it’s cuz you brought the toys OUTSIDE your backpack. always put them inside. trust me

did his mirror just.... zoom in?????

h*ck yeah beat him up greg

do all the other kids hate him too??????

dang that hurt

“chief” that’s so white

stupid kid. his dads a spy

that floop doll isn’t even close to accurate

hey look its floop again. love that dude

Big Willy Wonka Energy

oooh skipping numbers i see. love that

why do the subtitles have “mr. floop” as his name. its just floop, yall

“sometimes in order to think big you have to think small” pretty inspirational tbh

oh hes fidgeting!!!!!! love that

woah what are you doing this is rated pg ingrid

i wish my uncles would tell me im shrinking. they just make small talk abt school 😔

this gradenko lady looks like jan from the office

hey its floop again!!!!! love that dude

yes juni. its a fire drill in your own home

these dudes have a jungle gym AND a pool. what the h*ck

why did you pull off your mustache to prove you’re not related. if anything that makes you more related. greg does that too

why did he put the mustache back ON

where did those boats come from

carmen says manual weird. man-yull

right, cuz adrenaline causes warts

“don’t touch anything” *immediately touches everything*

basic boat ettiquette: don’t shit in the boat. those toilets can’t handle anything

is that globe..... punched in???????

floop!!!!!!! love that dude

feet on the desk????? i dunno seems pretty gay

since when did carmen get keys to that

i might be wrong but i dont think thats every country

what does pressure have to do with positioning a laser

this floor is the best mechanic in the whole movie. reminds me of a richie rich comic i had as a kids

why did they not run into the wall. i wanted to see that

is the slide there when floop films his show????

HEY ITS FLOOP!!!! love that dude

theres a bunch of normal food like.... sour worms. why did they pick the slime from charlie and the chocolate factory when johnny depp finds the oompa loompas

thats a sick coat. best one in the movie

that was a good snap. nice acoustics

God what a power move. something thanos would say

listen floop i love you but thats not how you say research

fELIX NO

and hes gone. cool

did she kick the camera?????

haha author unknown. cuz hes a spy

why did you take that one specifically????? plot convenience????

he can still be a spy, just not a good one. learn to read

is that supposed to be a question?????

FUN FACT if you listen closely when carmen says “like felix said” you can hear a weird cut in “said”, almost like its a new clip

theres no keyhole

i think juni can read. why are you spelling it

did you have the floop toys in your pocket????

OKAY THIS SCENE WHERE THEY PLAY IT BACKWARDS?????? THAT MESSED ME UP AS A KID 

what do those things do?????

i can feel the pain from the fan blades

how did that break the chain????

why would you annouce that. they can hear you. just because they’re thumbs doesn’t mean they’re deaf

that’s a thing, not a place

FLOOP!!!!! ON A BILLBOARD!!!! love that dude

how are you slipping. shes holding YOU

YOU DROPPED HIM GENIUS

how do people not notice the jetpack dudes

DOES NO ONE CARE THAT CLOTHES WERE STOLEN

that’s a cute coat

why is the lady cool with carmen just... doing that

HEY I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!!!!!! AND THAT DUDE!!!!!

ofc you can’t think “straight enough” you’re gay

why is mexico sepia tone

when do you think juni had time to change and learn a new language

IF IT HURTS TO HIT HIM, S T O P

i wanna be on that merry-go-round

HOW DO YOU K N O W THAT HIS CODE NAME. WHY “MUST” IT BE HOMBRE

i love how junis just like “we already got a fake uncle”

LOOK AT HOW FLOOP IS SITTING!!!!!!!! THATS GAY!!!!!!! HE IS A HOMOSEXUAL!!!!!!!!

ALSO MORE FLOOP!!!! say it with me, LOVE THAT DUDE!!!!!!!!!!

minion looks like barry from friends

wait i lied this coat is better

we DO have uncles like that!!!!!

if your inventions are so good why is your font so BORING

hey wait carmen said that. hmmmmmmmm 🤔🤔🤔

glowsticks dont help you see like at all

the map looks like gallifreyan but its not. spy kids is older than the doctor who reboot

they go ZOOM

THATS NOT HOW YOU SAY MANUAL!!!!!!!

great job carmen YOU wrecked the plane

WHATS A REGULATOR

oh its just a breathing thing

haha pee joke. funney

where are the brains coming from???? that factory is Not Correct

if i were juni i would look back over all the floop’s fooglies tapes and see what the agents were saying backwards. once the mission was done, ofc

it took me like 5 minutes to figure out what sknaht meant the first time

SEE THIS MECHANIC IS GOOD BC NOW THERES NO PLEXIGLASS

WHY DOES NO ONE RUN INTO THE WALL

F L O O P  I S  G O D

love that dude

you discussed with the spy parents that juni watched the show. he just told you that you took his parents. you KNOW this is juni, why are you surprised that he watches it????? you already know!!!!!!

tbh i kinda want some of those colorful chains. they’d look cool somewhere

haha voice crack

no wonder your shows not doing well. those are awful times

why is there a sexy thumb nurse. why did floop make the thumb nurse sexy

use her first name?????? you’re clearly dating

!!!!!! THEY USED THE SAME TOOL MULTIPLE TIMES!!!!!! UNHEARD OF!!!!!!!

he cares so much about this show!!!!!! its so sweet!!!! love that dude

YEP THIS COAT IS BETTER, LOOKS A M A Z I N G IN A RUNNING SCENE

haha you killed carmen

ok this scene with the acid crayon is like my absolute favorite. something about using a crayon to escape and then floop (love that dude) opening the door a second later and then doing a double take. FAVE

wheres belize

ok so apparently its a country by mexico

no you CANT tell her you need to ESCAPE

we finally got a clean outside shot of the castle.... that place is wack

haha minion can’t sit in the hand chair correctly because hes STRAIGHT what a loser

hey juni HOW DO YOU DO THAT

minion you know what the robot costumes look like AND what juni looks like. dont be stupid

what..... what do you want carmen for, exactly, minion??????

floop is supportive of others’ art!!!!!!!!!!! love that dude

HE SAID “WHERE’S MOM AND DAD” LIKE THEY’RE HIS OWN PARENTS THAT’S SO C U T E

ALSO ANOTHER SCENE WITH THE GREAT RUNNING COAT

he says doppelganger beautifully

“its too late” that timing was BEAUTIFUL

you COULD take 500 brains out if you just TRIED HARDER. still love that dude

his control panel has buttons that spell “floop”

WHY CAN MINION TALK NORMAL

if its reversible why do you have it in later movies

carmen fights fake juni and juni fights fake carmen because they didnt have the fancy clone (?) technology

THREE TIMES!!!!!! THEY USED THE SAME TOOL T H R E E  T I M E S THIS HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!!!!!!!!!!!

nice censorship

HOW DID MACHETE SMASH ONLY THE CLEAR WINDOWS AND A L L THE CLEAR WINDOWS THERE ARE NO MORE CLEAR WINDOWS!!!!!! ANYWHERE!!!!!

wow nice 3 buttons thats totally how you hack

oh look they have all died

oh. guess not :((

machete you better rip off your mustache

HES GOING TO JUNIS LEVEL TO TALK TO HIM!!!!!!! HE RUFFLED HIS HAIR!!!!!!!!! HES GONNA MAKE A GREAT DAD!!!!!!!

wow no shit ingrid

did he leave his wart bandaid on the kitchen counter?????

ALAN CUMMING!!!! ON A CEREAL BOX!!!!

ok CLEARLY other people watch floop’s show, he’s rated number 2. kids at the school are gonna recognize juni and carmen. they better get popular

is that george clooney

well that’s not how it works in spy kids 2. or 3. or 4. or the tv show

[fullmoonfireball]

alright! I foresee this getting long, so I’m gonna slap a readmore on this.

let’s go from the mission after the first one I focused on (is that wording confusing? it feels confusing. whatever, this is from mission 7 onward.)

so this one isn’t all that eventful, but Herbert’s broken the clock tower! which is bad, since all other clocks are directly linked to it and they’re now going haywire. 

(fun fact! Gary built the Clock Tower because he was bored)

more specifically, Herbert’s stolen the prime gear, the removal of which sent one of the springs flying, and Klutzy decided to make off with its snowball target. most of the mission is just retrieving the missing parts... except the prime gear. you have to make a replacement for that one. but hey, at least it’s fixed and things are back to normal!

uuuntil tremors start happening around the island. turns out Herbert took that gear for a reason, and that reason was making the Earthquake Driller! he drilled around a bunch, making a maze for the player, and drilling through the Gift Shop’s foundation enough to make it fall underground, just to block your way. gotta love that villainous need to just,, inconvenience people. so once you (presumably) get back his map (I think you can do it without actually doing that? but don’t quote me there, I’ve never tried it) and find a way to lift the gift shop and keep it there, you can actually get to the polar bear meat of this mission! Herbert’s trying to steal from the boiler from well,, the boiler room. walking in on him distracts and upsets him, though, and he hits his wrench on one of the pipes... causing the boiler to shake violently. violence isn’t the answer, Herbert. apparently it’s overheating and gonna blow up! so, of course, Herbert hightails it out of there and you’re left to fix his mess.

mission 9 is just trying to track down Herbert, so he’s not really.. in? most of it? the parts he is in though... honestly, I’d just recommend watching it yourself. Herbert dancing is much better with visuals.

(fun fact!

this makes absolutely no sense out of context and doesn’t really make much more sense in context!)

mission 10! I really love this one bc it’s a fun story. we open with mission briefing from Gary (we’re supposed to keep a golden puffle statue safe at the Night Club), but then Herbert hacks into the PSA’s computers! pretty much just to gloat about how he used the camera from the last mission to hack in and that he’s also got a plan! but uh...

.... yeah, i think this speaks for itself.

THANKFULLY, though, this was all planned! Gary (and The Director) wanted this kind of slip-up, because this is all one big plot to capture Herbert! after you help JPG and Rookie with their preparations (and then get distracted by Klutzy), Herbert shows up at the Club to steal the Golden Puffle. dropping the cage on him seems to work until he just.. lifts it off. despite everything, he is a polar bear, and thus, is pretty strong. but joke’s on Herbert, because we have backup! and you can rely on either of your teammates to trap him again, either by shining the spotlights on the Electromagnet 3000′s solar panel to strengthen it, or by taking JPG’s jet pack and strapping it to the cage. either way, the cage gets slammed back onto Herbert. Gary comes in and goes through some options as to what to do with Herbert (ban him from the island, detain him in a holding cell, make him do community service, let him go because they’re nice (that one was a joke)), and the mission is over...

(fun? fact! the “first” time I played this mission I just kinda.. stole Guy’s jet pack and did Rookie’s solution anyways bc I 1: just meant to talk to him and 2: I didn’t realize that was a solution! sorry Guy, but you’re not getting it back.)

except it’s not over! Herbert demands one phone call and... well... Rookie gives him his Spy Phone. and he teleports out of there. cue mission 11! though since we’ve already gone through that, I’m not gonna re-explain The Veggie Villain. that’d just be redundant.

what we will get into real quick is the Battle of Doom! after a Medieval Party where Gary built a mechanical hydra to fight, Herbert took that robot for his own purposes and tried to attack the Everyday Phoning Facility with it. some damage was done to the exterior, but the robot was still pretty easy (and fun! I can attest!) to beat, and no damage was done to the EPF HQ. 

(fun fact! the music for this fight slaps.)

next comes Operation: Hibernation! the name is,, pretty self-explanatory, I’d say? gotta make the bear go to sleep. despite the fact that polar bears... uhhhhh... only do that sort of thing when pregnant? but that’s a can of worms I am going to throw RIGHT out the window. 

the writers later lampshaded that fact anyways. whatever. just add it to Herbert’s Un-Polar Bear-iness List. don’t look too far into this- it doesn’t make any sense either way. also I’ve spent way more time on this than it deserves.

and now let’s get into the final part here! which is going to be Very Fun to talk about! Operation: Blackout!

a while before the event, a certain “Hubert P. Enguin” (no relation, I’m sure) wrote in to Ask Gary, asking how to build a “high frequency infrared reversion laser”. after that, Gary went missing, with evidence to suggest a kidnapping. Field-Ops went offline. the EPF went on Red Alert.

exactly one week after that, the Blackout started. the laser was built and used. not only did it block out the sky over the island, but it was also used to blast the Everyday Phoning Facility, successfully destroying it this time. Herbert’s in control of the island now, babey! he’s revealing agents’ identities while hogging the sun’s warmth! well... the two that already had their real names in their most-known names, at least. (Dot and Guy) but I think that was just coincidence.

so slowly and surely, as the island grows colder and more EPF agents go missing, the player has to make their way into Herbert’s base. first, Herbert captured Dot. then Rookie. JPG was ambushed by crabs, and met the same fate as the others. and finally, The Director was captured while giving the player instructions...

and it was strongly implied you were next.

Operation: Blackout was,, really dark. ba-dum-tsh! and I’m kind of upset at myself for having fallen off of Club Penguin too early to experience it, but at the same time... I’m not entirely sure 11-year-old me would’ve taken it so well. 

but yeah, you self destruct the solar laser and get to see this video! I really like this one, so I’m just poppin’ it in here.

and yeah! that’s about where my knowledge ends vis a vis Herbert! thanks for like,, actually reading this if you did, bc this post is a mile long

[go-diane-winchester]

My debate with a destiel shipper

@artificial-strawberry  Thank you for your response, and not just cussing me out.  It is nice to know what is going on in your head.  First of all, neither I nor any of the other disgruntled fans I have encountered have any issues with ships.  We have issues with militant destiel fans behaving in a way that we think might endanger Jensen and Jared.  I have receipts on that. 

People don't hate them for nothing.  And I have never seen destiel shippers do posts about bad bullying and death threats online behavior towards Jensen.  The good ones don't police their sides. They quickly say ''we are not all like that''.  So please understand where my irritation is coming from.  Mine and everyone else's. 

Your response to ''Jensen can make decisions, including stopping destiel from becoming canon''.

You’re entitled to your own opinion. You don’t have to ship destiel. And you’re right, Jensen and the others do probably have a lot of power on the show, and maybe I should have phrased that more clearly: since I’ve seen some people blaming Jensen/Misha for not advocating for destiel bc ”they would be able to make it happen”, I wanted to point out that 1. they probably DON’T want to make it happen and 2. even IF they did, this is such a big decision that the writers/producers most likely wouldn’t listen to them if they were completely against it. Were the roles reversed, however, and the writers wanted to make destiel happen and the actors didn’t, then yes, Jensen and Misha probably could tell them not to do it if they didn’t want it to happen.

My response

Actually only Jensen, Jared and Bob Singer [unfortunately] are allowed to make decisions regarding the script.  Misha is not a lead and no longer No 3 on the call sheet.  He is a guest star [not a series regular] whose time on SPN has only increased because the season has been shortened.  Contractually, he is still doing the same amount of work, but it just appears that he is making more appearances.  This, according to the SPN spokesperson.  He has no clout in the decision making process.  This is what I find baffling about you, don't speak about Jensen and Misha equally when it comes to decision making.  Misha has no power.  Jensen has power.  Speak about them individually.  So yeah, Jensen can make changes.  Misha, and he had said this so many times, has no power to make changes.  Not only has he worked in fewer seasons.  He has worked in less episodes. 

Misha, according to another destiel fan, wants destiel to be canon.  You are saying he doesn't.  Meanwhile, Jensen gets an arson threat for telling the truth too many times.  So no, this is not a live and let live situation.  There is no destiel.  It is a fanon ship, not a canon ship.  And only Misha gave his fans the impression that it could be canon. 

Your responses to ''Misha queer baited the shippers with his itch tweet and he consistently queer baits''. 

What you said about Misha, I can’t necessarily verify. I haven’t seen all the things you talked about, but it is true that he has ”joked” about destiel in the past. I, too, at first was annoyed by it. You know, don’t talk about it so much if it’s never going to happen. But then I thought about it. And I realized that Misha is part of that ship. We are not. We can distance ourselves, he can not. He gets stories written about himself giving blowjobs to one of his best friends. We do not. So the fact that he jokes about the ship might be something he does in order to make fun of the thing that makes him uncomfortable. And I understand that.

You cant verify whether Misha sent out the tweet?  But the tweet is what the hellers are complaining about.  It is one of many instances that he has done that.  Misha is only part of SPN.  He is NOT part of a ship.  He didn't sign a contract with destiel.  And yes, he can totally distance himself from it.  Who is holding a gun to his head.  All he has to do is stop talking about it.  J2 have been aware of wincest for 14 years.  They have only mentioned it a handful of times, but only when they are asked about it, and yet they are aware of the stories and the fan art.  They use the art to prank each other.  But they don't discuss wincest with fans, because that is the intelligent thing to do.  They don't want to give fans ideas.  How come they managed to distance themselves.  Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, is ''compelling'' Misha to make everything about destiel and even Cockles, which he had no business speaking about either, because Cockles is a tinhat pairing.  He is only one half of a pairing.  And if the other half, Jensen speaks against destiel, Misha calls him a motherf*cker.  I have receipts of that.  Why would he do that?  No one is forcing Misha.  He is doing it for his own amusement.  Who forced him to make the TSA movie.  He is not making fun of destiel.  He is pushing destiel, even though he is aware that people think he is queer baiting.  He spoke about queer baiting.  Don't you watch his panels?  He calls the people who criticize him ''haters''. 

Your response to Misha criticized SPN for being misogynistic in 2013.

I can’t really respond to this, since I haven’t seen it, so I can’t comment on it. I do want to ask though: how do you know he wasn’t reprimanded for that?

There were news reports written about this.  Just google ''Misha Collins accuses Supernatural of being gratuitously misogynistic''.  You will find the articles.  It won't take you two minutes.  What was the result of that?  Misha fans, at his behest, starting rallying together to attack SPN for misogyny and demanded a spinoff.  Their campaigning lasted three years.  That spinoff is Wayward Daughters.  It failed due to bad ratings because only Misha's fans truly wanted it.  Everyone else didn't care.  So the spinoff didn't have an audience.  So Misha, and his big mouth, costed SPN time, money and resources but they can't get rid of him, because of Bob Singer, his wife Eugenie and her writing partner, Buckner.  That is probably why older SPN writers like Sera Gamble, Ben Edlund and Jeremy Carver just left.  They got fed up of dealing with Misha's antics and constantly shoehorning Cas into a script and they know it.  Bob keeps Misha and Cas on board. 

Your response to ''The show is not queer baiting you with metaphors, purples shirts and parallels etc''

The queerbaiting issue is difficult, I’ll say that. All I can really comment on is that I believe the show queerbaits - whether they do it on purpose or not is another thing. You’re allowed to believe that the show doesn’t and that’s cool. You’re also allowed to believe the show is perfect and has no flaws - also cool. I don’t. And that’s that. Agree to disagree.

Oh no honey.  That is not how it works.  Queer baiting should not be based on your opinions and beliefs.  You are tarnishing a show's name and yet you can't provide examples of how they are queer baiting you?  No, that is a cop out of a response if I ever heard one.  Recently, MM spoke  about  Supernatural's  ''notorious'' queer baiting.  Not because they have seen queer baiting, but because of Destiel shipper's social media trends.  The destiel shippers actually trended the topic of Jensen being a homophobe and MM picked up of that.  All because he is not giving in to Destiel.  That is sexual harassment.  They are destroying his reputation because he is refusing something sexual that they want.  Go look up the word social rape.  That is what is happening here.  I am shaking my head because you based a large part of your argument on queer baiting and yet you cant speak about it.  I cant believe you just said ''agree to disagree''.   

Your last response

And finally: I get it. You’re protective of the boys. You love them and you love the show. I don’t want to attack you and I don’t want to even try and convince you to agree with me. You’re you and I’m me and we don’t think alike and that’s fine. All I want to say is that in the future, please reconsider before calling someone names or urging people to block them. I’m a big girl; I can handle it. But there are so many little kids and young teens on this site who are vulnerable and might not be able to just brush it off.

You hate name calling.  Well, then you must despise the hellers.  They ship shame.  They tell the wincest fans to kill themselves.  They tell Jared, a suicidal man, to kill himself.  And they threatened Jensen's life multiple times.  I have receipts on my blog.  They even threatened to kidnap Jared and his children.  And they base their actions on headcanons.  That is why I call out headcanons.  I have likeminded people following my blog.  One of them directed me to your mistagged post.  I didn't find you myself.  They are fed up of destiel shippers mistagging their posts.  And they use my posts, calling out these shippers, to block because filtering tags doesn't work.  Why do you think Destiel is called DeanCas, CasDean, DeanxCastiel and various other derivatives?  So that a non-shipper would be unable to block them.  They indoctrinate people.  By the way, ''little kids'' are not supposed to be on Tumblr.  Its a violation if they are.  You should know that.  And teens are not babies.  Just a few days back, I reported a teen destiel shipper for threatening to kill SPN creators because they are not making destiel canon.  Tumblr, according to one of my readers, responded.  So no, if you misbehave on Tumblr, you should be called out for it.  Tag your post properly.  Because all that plus the online threats and excusing Misha's horrendous behavior is making your side intolerable.  People aren't getting angry for nothing.  People who were neutral on the subject,now hate it because of the tagging.  They don't even know about the threats.  Destiel, like a fly in their face, all the time, bothers them.

All in all, it was nice engaging with destiel shipper for a change, because they usually don't engage in discourse.  They just tell me to eff off.  So thank you for that.  I wish I heard more about the queer baiting, because another shipper I am currently talking to also is shirking that part about the discussion.  Which I find very quizzical. 

[intothedanvers-e]

Interview Jitters (pt.2)

Word Count: 1.1k Pairing: Tom Holland x reader

Summary: A few months after your previous press junket Y/N and Tom had finally started dating. Not too long into the relationship, Y/N had begun auditions for the role of Captain Marvel and luckily got it! Because you guys were the youngest members of the MCU and the hottest new superheroes everyone was obsessed with, in the months following the Avengers: Infinity War madness you guys were put together to do interviews and panels at events like Comic-Cons. You two had decided to keep a secret from the fans; you were just getting used to the influx of people who were supporting you and you feared that because you two had already been shipped so much that your relationship would be put on an unrealistic pedestal. However, of course, your boyfriend had a hard time not starting at you and smiling like an idiot in love during these things and the fans were starting to become more and more suspicious. Author’s Note: whaddup someone requested a pt.2 to this and seeing all the ugly that went down at that one event with those certain people made me want to give yall some nice fluff bc we all deserve it! also i hit bad writers block with my series young dumb and broke and didnt update when i was supposed to and i feel real bad and ill hopefully have the next chapter by the end of the week ok. if you ever have a request or something for me pls don’t ever hesitate to send it to me! Also feedback is always welcomed!! love yall <33

Here’s Part One!

Here’s my Masterlist!

You and Tom were laying lazily in bed waiting to be escorted to your designated events at Comic-Con. It was your second day there and luckily you were always put together to do stuff so you got to spend a lot of time with your boyfriend. While waiting you two were just scrolling through your socials. You were checking twitter and noticed you were getting a large amount of screenshots sent to you of Tom staring at you with heart eyes during an interview. A lot of tweets all said something along the lines of “are you sure nothing is going on between you guys?”

You smiled and pointed your phone in his direction.

“Baaabe you need to stop,” you said giggling.

“Stop what?! That’s just my face love!” he said trying his best to seem innocent.

“You know what I mean babe!”

“I’m sorry that I’m dating the best girl in the world and my face isn’t doing a good job of hiding it!”

You climbed into his lap and quickly pecked him on the lips.

“You know what I mean spidey.”

He smiled into the kiss and leaned his forehead against yours.

“Why can’t we just tell them?”

“In due time my love,” you said giving him a reassuring smile.

There was a knock at the door and the to of you embarked on your day full of activities.

After a while of photo ops and signing things you finally embarked on a few interviews. The both of you recognized one of the interviewers which was the same woman who did the interview where she showed you the clip of Tom. You both smiled at her and greeted her with a hug.

“What a small world!” Tom said as you both sat in front of the woman.

“It’s so nice to see you both again Y/N, Tom!”

“It’s nice to see you too! It’s genuinely nice to see a familiar face amongst the madness,” you said smiling.

“Now not only are you too in the same movie but you guys get to play such iconic characters in one of the biggest movie franchises in the world! Y/N, getting a role like the iconic Captain Marvel must be so overwhelming. What was that process like? How have the fans been reacting?”

“Oh my god it was overwhelming. I remember a lot of 3 a.m. phone calls to this guy over here and I was just bawling after one of the auditions yelling about how I would never get the part because I wasn’t good enough for that and now fast forward a few months and I’m here and its all getting so real!”

“You didn’t think you’d get the part? Are you insane?!”

“She for some reason always doubts her skills! Like I spent a majority of the phone call telling her to calm down and that she was genuinely one of the best actresses ever. Also she did so much research she had comics and stuff always strewn about her apartment, I knew in the back of my mind there’s no way she can’t get this part. Are you joking? Also I wouldn’t doubt Marvel would hire her based off personality alone.”

“Took a lot of trips to her apartment there eh?”

“Well no I mean we’d facetime sometimes too,” he said leaning into his hand, using some of his fingers to cover the cheeky smile he had on his face.

“Also the fans have been super nice! I was quite scared to enter a franchise like this considering the fans will either love ya or hate ya but I’ve gotten mostly good feedback! I think people were just happy to have me and this kid back in action together,” you said trying to change the subject in an inconspicuous way.

“Okay so I know the fans have a lot of questions about the two of you and your love life, but I have a question I feel I have to really get off my chest. Who do you guys reckon would win in a battle: Captain Marvel or Spider-Man?”

“Captain Marvel. No doubt about it, no questions asked, no discussions needed,” you said instantly with a huge smile on your face.

“Excuse me? I reckon Spider-Man would put up a good fight.”

“Oh yeah there’s no doubt in my mind that Spider-Man would definitely try his best, I’m just saying Captain Marvel would absolutely crush him.”

“Why?”

“Okay look spoiler alert if you haven’t watched Infinity War,” you said looking into the camera, “but who does Nick Fury contact to save the world? Captain Marvel. All the while spidey is too busy being dust in someone’s vacuum cleaner. That alone should be an indication of the sheer power that is Captain Marvel.”

You sat there looking into the camera with a proud smile on your face.

“Now that was a low blow,” he said smiling at you.

“I mean she has got a point,” the interviewer said amidst laughter.

After a few more questions the two of you finished the interview and moved on to a panel that included a fan Q & A. The two of you were enjoying answering questions and being able to have some friendly banter. Suddenly the next person asking a question was what seemed like a young mother with a child.

“Hiiii um, my 5-year-old Hunter has a question for you Y/N.”

You got super excited and even stepped closer to the edge of the stage and knelt to look at the tiny five-year-old who was dressed as a tiny StarLord.

“Oh my god hi Hunter!! You are so adorable buddy! What’s your question?”

“Hi Y/N, um, my question is if you would be my girlfriend?”

The crowd erupted in aw’s and cheers. You smiled at the tiny five-year-old.

“Of course Hunter. I would never say no to a little tiny StarLord like you!”

The crowd started clapping and aw-ing again.

“Dude did you just steal my girlfriend?” Tom said amidst laughter.

The crowd erupted in screams. You sat at the edge of the stage and immediately started dying of laughter. You turned back to look at Tom who was trying to hide his red face with his hands but who was also dying of laughter. You could tell he let it slip out without thinking about it.

“Wait so are you guys dating?” the moderator said trying to get a clear answer.

“Are we all surprised that it was Tom that let this cat out of the bag?” you said walking back to the couch and taking a seat a little closer to Tom.

He wrapped one of his arms around and pulled you in for a quick kiss, causing the crowd to go crazy once again.

“Hey, at least this one is far less embarrassing than the last time! This time people actually know you like me back” he said smiling at you.

Taglist: @smilealways19 @tom-hollands-eyelash @colourful-fandoms-ruined-my-blog @cutiepie-holland @hollandlovely (bc we talked about this and were emo) 

[theglguidetowebcomics]

The Webcomic Graveyard

There are plenty of amazing comics on the internet, but for every good one there seems to be 3 abandoned ones. You never know when one of your favourite comics will be dropped or even simply deleted, and if you’ve read a few webcomics it’s probably happened to you a few times. But, even if unfinished they’re interesting in their own way. So, why not take a short look at some these dead webcomics?

Firstly, the biggest problem with unearthing abandoned comics is they’re quite difficult to find, especially if they’re from the 2000′s or even early 2010′s. Because if they’re old, abandoned and on the internet, the lists that featured them or even the comics themselves can be long gone in hosting archives or lost with the domain, which isn’t a bad thing. They’re dead comics. But if I’m trying to find those neon coloured wonky lined GL stories where Amazons hang out; Main characters abruptly die in flames while everyone gives up on the quest in act 1; or love interests fly around knocking out angsty protagonists with alien comets left right and centre… Digging up the remains of some of these is going to be a challenge.

But that being said, let’s have a look at some of the good, the bad, and the tragic of abandoned WLW webcomics. And let’s see if digging these up is as fun as I thought.

Roxie and the Magic Taco

Years: 2015 - 2017 Pages: 114 Reason: Unexplained

First of all, of course there’s a GL comic about a magic taco. Second of all, what a title. This comic is all kinds of weird. it’s art style is painfully 2000′s with the grey shading, gradient backgrounds, geometric yet empty landscapes, and pixelated line work. And this was presumably made in 2015. Everything about this feels and looks like a competent 2000′s comic (minus the furries), but by far the weirdest thing about this comic was that even if I read it twice a while ago, I had NO idea I had only ever read a third of it until a researched it for this list. It went on a small hiatus in the start of 2016 posting a small how it was made list instead of a page which sent you to another part of the website if you clicked on it, so there was a whole year after that update which I had never read because I kept getting stuck on that damn update page without knowing. So I finally go to finish act 1 of this comic after 3 years, and man, what a page to end on. This comic started out as a small yet surprisingly sweet romance between two characters. Princess a heavily sheltered model(?) who’s father controls her day by the minute, and has lived that way all her life except for the few minutes a day where she takes off all her femme apparel and is allowed to wander around due to a lenient body guard. Think a reverse Hannah Montana if Hannah Monatana was secretly a butchy punk lesbian. And Roxie the stuck in the dead end job for 4 years cashier, who works for an insane grandpa who talks to a “Magic Taco” and has a huge crush on the supermodel princess, well, at least her celebrity persona. And the characters are weirdly… interesting. The plot as batshit as it is is alright, there’s clear conflicts for the characters and the twist before the comic ended revealed the “magic taco” actually existing? There’s definitley a few cons to it too, the art is awkward at times, The backgrounds are weird, and there feels like there’s something missing in the story. But weirdly enough, I still kinda want to know what happens next. But with what comes next though act I wrapped up on the 23rd of April 2017 with a message saying it would update again in June the same year. It never did. No more updates. No hiatus notices. Just an empty Tumblr, Facebook page, and badly designed website. Apparently act 2 had already been written, so who knows the story behind that one. An orphaned series.

Amazoness!

Years: 2007 - 2010 Pages: unobtainable Reason: Unknown/unobtainable

Alright, we’ve finally come across a comic that’s domain has been deleted (most likely due to the bills on the domain not being paid for a few years) and subsequently has had it’s entire archive destroyed (bar a few blurry Jpegs floating around). So information about this one is going to have to rely on what I can remember from 5 years ago. So… Buckle up, let’s horribly stumble through this one! If Roxie and the Magic Taco felt like a little like 2000′s comic Amazoness! by comparison eat’s and breaths 2000′s. From the early anime influences, bold colours, and ms paint vibes coming from every pore (not that ms paint is inherently bad. More that i’s used particularly). And, I swear, every abandoned comic has a bizarre premise and plot. So what is the plot? Good question. I’m not entirely sure myself. Amazoness! is set in 559 BC in a fictional Amazonian empire. Think wonder woman but ms paint, a little anime, and a whole lot more lesbian. They live in a women only empire with a giant infamous army, and generally despise men, which makes finding husbands difficult, they’re also basically all lesbians, which  makes finding a husband very difficult. Enter the main character (Left in the panels provided), she’s small and weak compared to her Amazonian peers, which as the next Queen, is a bit of a problem. So she goes on adventures around the ancient world (and by world I mean Greece before being cancelled). It’s a fantasy story with a lot of the 2000′s brand humour, blandish characters, and weird plot. It’s as 2000′s as it gets. But it did have a lot of standout jokes including the dark brooding Amazonian who was originally an ancient goth accidentally starting modern goth fashion in ancient Greece. There was also possibly a trans character, but being the comic that it was, whether that was their gender or whether they were going to become a cross dresser butt of the joke character is up for debate. Considering it was 2007 I’m not the most optimistic about that bit. All in all though it was the standard 2000′s fantasy comedy genre with some nice jokes, a few starts to some promising romances, a few bludges on some touchy subject material, and pretty forgettable art. Who knew what this comic would have become, as a young teen I wanted to find out, but now it’s just another orphaned series, lost to time. This is not a series that’s sorely missed, But maybe foggily remembered. Oh well.

Mora and Stima Apei

Years: 2016 - 2017 Episodes: 27 (Including specials + QAs) Reasons: Hiatus. Moving, free time, and starting another comic

What’s this? A webcomic that doesn’t look like it wears baggy jeans, plays snake on a flip phone, and bedazzle tamagotchis in it’s spare time? And I was this close to have a theme here. But, no. Mora and Stima Apei isn’t from the 2000′s or even 2000′s themed. It’s very modern from its story telling, to its art, to the fact that the authors are qualified in relevant fields. And rather than being specifically abandoned it’s been publicly put on hiatus with a notice and reason why. It’s always nice when creators do that. Whether it will actually be completed story though is still anyone’s guess. It’s still a webcomic. The comic however is pretty interesting, the visuals are a little rough at the start but greatly improve later on. The characters are beautifully designed, the colours are thought out, the tone is pretty clear, and the monsters are dark and twisted. And I’m always up for dark and twisted monsters. Con wise though is it’s a little wordy and poetic at times. Which I do understand is a style choice here, but at the same time I very much in the show don’t tell camp with things like this. It doesn’t do that all the time though. Plot wise though the comic is pretty straight forward, a women wakes up, can’t remember who she is, has a rotten arm, a elf lady in the room, and a skull on her head. Why? We haven’t gotten to the why yet. The art later on is gorgeous, and the mystery is enticing. But there isn’t enough yet to get a grasp on how good it will be, it doesn’t use it’s time well. Its not a bad comic though, it’s mystery and art is very well done. But, still can’t tell what it’s going to be from what there is. On the other hand though their newer comic is still coming out (albeit in early pages) and is extremely well done with nice art, visual story telling, and an intriguing plot. So as long as they keep making comics like that, I don’t mind how long this stays on hiatus at all.