#and maybe a new comic post for those who might like some more context or explanations to justify the scenario of this joke

[giantchasm]

"It turns out that sometimes the future actually belongs to someone else."

Happy Taransusie Tuesday, everyone! Here's...

Content that only ostensibly focuses on Taransusie and is more than anything character analysis of a third party?

How romantic! 🎉🥳

Okay, but no, seriously. Joshing aside, the other day I posted a meme about Sectonia and how she might feel about the idea of Taranza eventually moving on from her. And it was funny. We all laughed. But things can't always be goof-goof "If everyone started saying 'she sent her for you' I would start haunting literally everyone here because no I didn't." I'm a serious guy. I like exploring concepts that make me go "OUCHIE!" and so let's look at that sort of idea through a more somber lens for a moment.

...How would Sectonia feel if Taranza eventually moved on?

Now, I don't know if she's out there... somewhere in Hades or haunting his ass, but either way I think about her a lot. How she might feel in death, especially if she was returned to her right mind.

I think... Sectonia would have a lot of complicated feelings. Like, before we even get to the relationship nonsense. Let's toss all that aside for a second. I think Sectonia would be simultaneously be crushed by the state she left Taranza in and still... upset to eventually see him heal from it. She'd be glad, of course, to watch the scars she left on him fade, but all the same... seeing him make new friends— leave her behind...

That would have to hurt a little bit, wouldn't it? After all, it's not like she'd be afforded the same opportunity. She died young. Via circumstances that were hardly her fault. Of course she'd be a little bit jealous. Of course she'd be a little bit depressed. Maybe even a little bit angry. And she'd feel bad about it, but she would.

So when you factor in the idea of Taranza entering another relationship... oh my gosh, those complex feelings would only intensify. Taranza deserves to be happy. Taranza deserves to move on. She would know that rationally, but at the same time, the heart isn't always rational.

I do think ultimately she'd support him. In whatever he chose to do. Even if it hurt her a little. The least she can do is give him her blessing after everything that happened.

But that's something that applies to just about any Taranza ship. Let's talk about Susie for a moment.

I... think Susie and Sectonia are people who have some similar issues. At least in my interpretations, they're both people who have warped and maimed themselves in an endless search of perfection hoping it will grant them acceptance from others. But this hasn't granted them peace of mind, and in fact all it's done is pull them further from 'themselves.'

I don't know. I just think they'd have a lot to talk about, even in contexts that don't flagrantly disregard the Bechdel test like this one. They're both girlies who would, like, really vibe to both "Oh No!" by Marina and the Diamonds and "Body" by Mother Mother if that's a sentence that makes even a lick of sense. Their mental illnesses aren't the same, but they're like cousins. Their mental illnesses went to school together.

I think this sort of... self-recognition through the other would both make things easier and harder on Sectonia. Because on one hand, I think it would further be a reminder of all the things she'll never have no matter how badly she wants them, but I also think it would help her... have more empathy for this person she's initially inclined to see as her enemy, and maybe even help her eventually want good things for her.

It's kind of a complex scenario. More serpentine than I could possibly portray in a single comic or Tumblr post. Eventually, I'd like to write a fic from a deceased Sectonia's perspective exploring these sorts of ideas. But for now, I'll leave you with one last preposterous observation:

Perhaps this, too, is yuri. 🤖🐝

[metalmewtwo-kxb]

Pokemon story/art/ask-blog for Benta the Mewtwo

Set in an apocalyptic future where most humans have disappeared and only pokemon remain. And the world is not as it had once been.

Benta, a pokemon who has existed for a long time now, has wandered the crumbling cities and empty roads looking for others who might share his ideals of rebuilding what is left of the world. Perhaps even track down the humans, if there are any left. However, the pokemon all seem to be at odds, more focused on hoarding land and food for survival. Many more are feral and vicious.

As others may find out, he is no ordinary mewtwo, and he might very well be the only one of his kind in a world full of ghosts. But is he the only wanderer? Or are there others?

And is it possible to save this future?

⚠️ Under Construction ⚠️

⚠️ Comic Pages 9-12 In Progress ⚠️

⛔️ NO NSFW ⛔️

General Itinerary (in no particular order) :

🧩 rp reply (if/when I have any)

- Thinking I'm gonna limit myself to one a day with these (or as often as I can manage) since I'm a very tired goose with limited internal motivation lol. I love role-playing! It just takes some thinking and energy. If I ever have more than one thread at a time, I'll make a weekly schedule 📅

✏️🖍 asks and/or art responses

- the art side of these can take anywhere from a day to a few days, depending on what I do exactly style/complexity-wise. Obviously can't do art replies all the time, but sometimes I could get inspired to do something other than text replies! 💕

🎨 comic art

- For the main story! The style for this is different and more uniform than what I'll be using for asks, so it definitely takes longer. I don't typically post until I'm done with a illustration/page set, so it can take a long heckin time. If one part one is 8 pages, I'd say it would clock in at two or three months before it's posted (as long as I'm not sick or somethn). I'm okay with posting peridoic snippet updates from my favorite panels though!

Temp. Edit: I've lowered the number of pages in each part to 4 since I need an easier goal to reach at a time. There's still 24 total! I just need simpler intervals. :T 🖼

Beyond this I have work and need me time, but always thank you, and I appreciate the interest! Benta is one of my comfort OCs so I'm treating this blog about the same. I want it to be a fun and cozy space while I build the apocalypse story lol.

#️⃣ tags

This is a list of tags to search on my blog for my art and writing (which will update as they come up):

- ;mun - my general babble, updates, and so on

- ;poké art - all posts involving pokemon sketches and drawings

- ;pokedex - posts pertaining to the story's pokemon and their lore. These pokemon are usually "new" species, not those that are already well known. However, sometimes special pokemon characters will make an appearance

- ;rp - written replies to roleplays. Kind of recommended since some lore will likely only appear in these, and they can be a fun read for those that like to do so (the rp partner's name will also be included in the post's tags) 👍

- ;response - ask responses! Chances are they contain art and scribbles. And maybe not, depends on how I feel

- Benta - self-explanatory, posts containing content of my mewtwo OC Benta (this does/should include roleplay threads and asks, so it's more generalized and not very concise)

- ;UntilTheEnd - the comic and main story for Benta and other characters that we'll meet along the way! (Set in an alternate universe, so don't expect very much anime/game continuity lol)

- ;drabbles and chapters - more written content that can either have something to do with an established AU or with context of the main story. Typically smaller snippets, but potentially a longer chapter set. I'm a faster writer than a drawer, but I enjoy both- so this is just another means of keeping up fun content 🫶

💬 About the mun:

Age: 29

Pronouns: she/her/they/them

Occupation: A menace to modern society :V *cough* artist/writer/author *cough*

Hobby: Literally just bothering my sister and siblings like a sneaky little gremlin.

Pokémun-sona: Zoromun. Info post -> here

More is tba!

Thank you for the visit, and have a wonderful day!

(main -> @ draconic-hydra )

[fadebolt]

Soooo uhhhh, I'm about to go on vacation in two days. Don't worry, I'll still be doing the room analysis posts, and I will still probably post an AF attack or two, I'm mostly just bringing it up cus.... nostalgia. (Yes, I'm about to reminisce on my times in the RW community - I've been trying to keep these kinds of rambly posts to a minimum, but this felt like a pretty good time to go off about this)

Because the first time I discovered Rain World was two years ago, when I was also about to go on vacation very soon, and Htwo's video about the AI of the game caught my eye.

I was like "Wait, really? This looks like one of those old retro games, how the hell can it have a more complex AI, than some of the newer big games that are doing real fancy things with them?", so I just had to investigate, and something about the visuals, and the creatures, and the things described in the video.... it really mesmerized me, and I just had to learn more.

Which I did during vacation, checking out some spoiler free reviews and recommendation videos (as well as official stuff, including the DP scug previews, which sounded real interesting, even from a newcomer's perspective), as well as tons of fanart.

Of course, I did spoil myself a bunch in the process, but it all completely lacked context, so it didn't really mean much. I especially liked a guy called something along the lines of 'FlameFlower' (I'm sort of blanking on it, sry), as they had a real neat art style, and a lot of their comic pages were made traditionally, which impressed me a lot. It was nice and sweet and cute, and I liked the humanoid robot villain who I assumed to be the artist's personal interpretation of what the higher intelligence in this world might be like (yeah, I assumed the concept of an iterator was exclusive to that comic which is real silly, but still xd).

Anyways, I was eager to try out this difficult game filled with weird creatures, where you'll need to be patient and clever, but also skilled and quick witted, which I immediately did, after I traveled home.

I also quickly joined the Discord server, mostly just to view more art, but to my delight, there were a bunch of channels specifically for newbies on their first playthroughs, where I hung out a bunch.

Afterwards, I've mostly just been playing for the next couple months, having a blast while also struggling a little here and there, especially when I got to try Hunter.

I wasn't really doing anything with the community, outside of maybe chiming into a discussion or two. I had ideas, but I sorta lacked motivation. Sharing stuff in Discord gallery chats is not overly fun, as there's rarely any interaction (outside of a few random reacts - a lot of which comes from people that press reacts on literally everything), and the way Discord works makes it very difficult not to start comparing yourself to the other stuff you see, and it really demotivated me, especially cus my skills were waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay worse back then (which is fair, I barely did art before my RW days, but still, good lord do I hate my older stuff xd).

I also just didn't particularly enjoy the vibes of the server too much. Lurking around the chats and looking at the things other people were doing was fun, but I never felt like it would be worth it to try and be a part of that.

Then you know, the new year rolled around, Downpour came out, the game got traction, and everything was getting crazy.

I was still mostly inactive, until my very first art month came up, and I had some fun with it (my skills still being absolutely horrendous, but at least I still had fun :3).

But then something caught my eye - a certain artist doing 'bombs', drawings where the Slugcat designs of many different artists were present. Yeap - I'm talkin' about Pansear!

I was digging around, and I found out that you can get featured by sending a DM, so I gathered the courage to send over a Saint, which was honestly extremely nerve-wracking. Yet the conversation was really pleasant. She actually complimented my design, which felt incredible, and was extremely appreciative of me congratulating her for getting featured in Akupara's Virtual Art Month Museum.

I know that this might sound like a basic everyday thing for most, but for a person with my levels of social anxiety? This was an enormous leap, one that I'm very grateful to have made.

Afterwards, things have finally started happening. I noticed that Pan and her buddies made a new server where they started hosting voice acting sessions for all the comics in their Shipping Container server. So I leaped on the chance to join in, the moment the invites were reopened again, since I always enjoyed imitating the voices of characters, and the idea of me doing the characters myself sounded incredible, especially when they're from a game I love so much.

And from that point onward, I stopped chatting in, or even looking at the overpopulated 'Main World' server entirely, and all my interactions with the community came from that small new server.

Then last year's vacation arrived, where.... nothing really happened, tbh. I was forced to miss out on the Helm fandub, but I had some fun doing colorless Artificer and Rivulet (aka, the first art pieces I ever posted onto Tumblr) on the beach.

But a few days after I returned, I noticed that North was actually starting a new video series, where she would animate Inv's dating sim, and she was looking for VAs on Tumblr, so I grabbed the opportunity, and made an account, so I could upload my auditions.

Yup, the Thanks Andrew dating sim is the reason why this account exists.

Neat, ain't it?

And initially, I didn't really know what to do with this thing, so I was just reblogging, and uploading art, as well as voiceovers, until...

The shipping polls arrived. And thus, my series of daily poll ramblings have begun. Ramblings that have been happening for almost a year now.

And then... I just sort of, kept doing the things I was doing, y'know. I finally got my wish, to be a part of a community I adore, even if just a minor one.

The vacations weirdly represent huge moments for me, as I found out and fell in love with the game during one, while my Tumblr was created immediately after the one that followed.

It's weird to look back on these last two years, and just how much has changed. Despite the downers that the community has had as of late, this was still a really pleasant journey, getting to have fun with others, and make them happy, while they also make me happy in return.

And I suppose this year's vacation can sort of represent my Artfight being created? That was also a pretty enjoyable experience, though it doesn't quite carry the same weight.

I dunno, not every year needs to be a special one. Though the last two have undoubtedly been that way! :D

[kidflashimpulse]

i'd like to shout out Chris Jones, the artist for YJ Targets, for not drawing Bart weirdly skinny. Chris drew him to basically be on par with Tim, and his legs are the most muscular part of him (he has thigh muscle. i salute Chris). and the comics are more on model than the show so i'm just glad to see that's what he's SUPPOSED to look like (also: love the confirmation that Bart's built heavier than Ed. personally i don't think Ed is THAT skinny, but i still take the win)

for real, shout-out Chris Jones!! MVP

i totally get you anon, like HOW do you have a hero who’s whole thing is LITERALLY running and not have their thighs built/toned/thick af, it’s literally illogical otherwise. like i get their speed relies on their metagene but… they literally need to use their muscles for it and speed-metabolism or not, their legs get worked tf out lol

the same goes for ass too like when i read fics and my guy gets described as flat i’m like… are we talking about the same character here?? sdfghjkl /j /srs

in terms of him in animation, i think S4 generally has superiority with more consistency though not by a huge margin, S3 also had its good moments . (New Genesis episode, Illusion of control, Fighting Granny episode) His scene in his backyard with the legion is personally gold also because he generally looks great there in a way that it looks like how he’s SUPPOSED to (this is more in terms of face and in general lol) so that singlehandedly carries the season for me my only thing for both 3 and 4 are when his upper body feels a bit disproportionate to the rest of him (like u said, the legs should be and ARE his strongest muscle, anything else just doesn’t make sense). But whenever that happens it’s usually cause u can tell he hasn’t been drawn with as much care as when he’s a bit more of the focus. So i don’t get too fussed over it. When he’s in civvies he’s also generally drawn better so it could also just be the build of his suit, who knows. Point is, animators r doing their best with the time/money they’ve been given, so this all isn’t at all on them and just on us being crazy lol It’s nice though to see him and all the other characters drawn in a more consistently balanced way in the comics !

id tag chris to express our gratitude but maybe it’s not best to tag him under the context of a thicc thighs appreciation post LOL

but in the meantime, let’s enjoy a collage of our guy (who might I add is getting nerfed like crazy here, literally all his falls shouldn’t be happening but i’ll just pretend bro isn’t even trying too hard and taking it easy lmfao)

ALSO in general, his bart art is SO GOOD like look at these, amazing:

I love how he draws his smile in these lmfao

So if possible, please support Chris by buying some copies, they’re great to have as a collection and reasonably priced as well, here’s a link for those who may be interested:

(u can change the location i believe it should have global availability idk why it’s set to canada lol)

i also totally get you about Ed like… i’ve mentioned this ages ago but for Ed’s own sake he better have gotten way stronger by now (and considering how he ate that fight with Tim and Looker it’s pretty promising) so i also don’t think he’s supposed to be as crazy skinny as some of his animated moments might have him but yeah, Barts been in the game for so long now so it makes sense .

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Well this came as kind of a surprise to me. The live-action/CG hybrid picture IF - from writer-director-star John Krasinski - scored $35m (estimate) on its opening weekend...

For context, this is an original family film not based on any pre-existing source material... And a largely live-action one at that...

This beats out the post-outbreak likes of... ENCANTO ($27m) and ELEMENTAL ($29m), in addition to non-sequel PG pictures that also happen to be based on something, such as THE BAD GUYS ($23m) and MUTANT MAYHEM ($28m). That's also just great for a live-action family film... Those have been kinda rare over the last 10 or so years. You have your occasional LYLE LYLE CROCODILES, but it's not like the '90s and '00s where they were seemingly everywhere as much as the animated ones were.

What went right here? I couldn't tell ya, I wasn't sure how this thing was going to do. It must've just hit right for audiences at the right time, especially after blah pre-sales. While it has a bit of a hurdle to leap (its $110m+ budget), this indicates - along with an A CinemaScore - that this one's gonna be leggy. Despite GARFIELD, despite INSIDE OUT 2, etc. Maybe families were just starved for some something to see together for a while, as KUNG FU PANDA 4 came out in early March... Tie that to the premise and the celebrity cast, yeah... Uhhhh... Possible breakout here?

I've long been writing on here about how animated family films play a much different game at the box office, post-outbreak. Families tight on money are choosier, and for a more original picture or something adapted from untried source material, the odds of opening big just aren't that high anymore. They have to leg it out. ELEMENTAL had to do it, so did MIGRATION, THE BAD GUYS, etc.

IF must've had some kind of pull. I mean what do I know? I'm not the general public, I thought the picture just looked kinda there. A typical live-action kids' movie with cute CG creatures in it. That somehow out-opened "funny duck movie from the Minions/Mario studio", "Pixar's people-as-the-elements movie", and so many other not-sequel animated movies released in the recent years. I wonder if being a live-action movie?

I'd love to see those kinds of animated movies open a little bigger again, like they did during the '10s. When a new DreamWorks or Blue Sky could feasibly hit $40-45m with ease. A massive budget film like ELIO would sure need it.

Anyways, I wonder how it fares next weekend against THE GARFIELD MOVIE. My cinema held a special advance screening of it earlier today, and the auditorium was JAM-PACKED. Right down to the front row. I had predicted this one would open pretty well, but who knows... It might really break out. After all, it *is* Garfield. It may just win next weekend, even if FURIOSA is thought to be the one. Reminds me of when BIG HERO 6 opened the same weekend as INTERSTELLAR in fall 2014... Who would win? Nolan with a space epic and fresh off of his blockbuster DARK KNIGHT trilogy? Or the Disney animated Marvel movie with the marshmallow robot? BIG HERO 6 won by a few millions, won domestically, while Nolan soared worldwide.

Maybe that repeats for THE GARFIELD MOVIE and FURIOSA? After all, the latter is an adult sci-fi/action movie. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD opened - unadjusted - with $45m back in 2015. I reckon this equals that, at least. We've been starved for a movie set in the wasteland, so a 9 year wait could really help that open pretty big. I won't call this the next Barbenheimer, the Garfuriosa, as it's not uncommon to open these kinds of pictures next to each other. Like how DreamWorks opened TROLLS on the same day as DOCTOR STRANGE, both did pretty well. Or FERDINAND opening the same day as STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI. Barbenheimer was its own unique situation for sure, given the subject matter of both films, given that OPPENHEIMER was a three-hour biopic... We're talking about a 5th movie in a decades-old sci-fi/post-apocalyptic franchise vs. a comic strip movie.

Anyways, summer movie season is probably here. Ready to watch how GARFIELD, INSIDE OUT 2, DESPICABLE ME 4, and the like all do.

[threewaysdivided]

I just wanted to say: I love your art and especially your banner rn by talos! also your fic as well thank you for creating everything that you do for people, it’s awesome!

Second: what’s something that you’ve been chewing on lately, story wise? What character conflict, or plot point can you tell me about (that doesn’t spoil too much of course)? I wanna hear your thoughts about the characters you write and your head-cannons on them too! Just spit some word vomit at me!

Thank you! 

My current banner art is actually a crop of the first paired piece I ever did to go with my Deathly Weapons fic.  (Specifically Chapter 11, which I still have a soft spot for since it’s one of earliest chapters that really let me lean into scratching the thing-I-haven’t-seen-too-often-in-fanfic itch.) 

I recently got my hands on a discounted Wacom (my digital art process got tanked a few years ago when my poor art-compatible hybrid tablet-laptop was tragically taken from us by a cracked motherboard) so I’m looking forward to getting into a faster art workflow again and maybe putting some new pieces out more easily.  I’d like to do more comic art pieces for the Chapter 18 mission, and there’s a silly little concept drawing for the planned Mission 5 that might be new-blog-banner material if it turns out nicely.  We’ll have to see how that goes.

As for what I’ve been chewing on story-wise lately… I’ve sort of been all over the place.  I’m still on burnout recovery so I’ve been letting myself move non-sequentially, working on the bits my brain feels like focussing on rather than trying to force creativity where the juice isn’t flowing.   (One of the things about being my type of writing-nerd is that “self-indulgent” for me means a story with plenty of material to analyse, which is very fun as a reader but has created a lot of work for myself as the writer.  As mentioned in another post, I have a full-blown TV-show-style story-bible for this one.)

Recently, my authorial ping-pong-ing has been going into a fair bit of spoiler territory.  There are some chunks of the Act III endgame plan which are underdeveloped in the specifics of what the big-boss bad-guys’ plan is, whether I want to involve the Anti-Ecto Acts more, and the logistics of both the counter-strategy our heroes are planning to use and how to make its more action-heavy parts look cool in writing.  When I’m not doing that I’ve been focussing a lot on the upcoming Wally-centric chapters, which are a set I’ve been wanting to keep schtum about since there’s a small potential spoiler mixed in and I don’t want to risk giving the game up or pre-setting people’s expectations before they have a chance to blind read (even if a few people have already made some close guesses in the comments).  It puts me in a bit of an odd-spot right now because the chapters I’m drafting are an immediate spoiler, the later sections I’m working on are a major spoiler and there’s a good chance that a lot of the character stuff going on in the middle won’t make a whole lot of coherent sense without prior context because of how I like to layer foreshadowing/development.

That said, Wally-centric chapters mean Wally thoughts, and of those I have plenty to share:

First of all, I want to establish that I really do like Wally as a character.  The DW chapter set comprising Flashpoints through to Equilibrium is going to explore and develop some of his flaws and insecurities, which means he isn’t going to be looking his best, but it’s not meant to be a Ron The Death Eater situation.  He’s just a complex person, and taking him warts and all means sometimes you have to get up close and personal on the warts.

Something that I’m maybe a bit over-conscious of when reviewing my DW story notes is worrying about letting Wally slide into just being punching-bag joke-fodder.  Wally is quippy, irreverent, a little tactless and prone to being a bit of an impulsive goober who sometimes gets possessed by teenage boner-brain, which makes him easy to fall back on as a default source of incidental levity (whether cracking the joke or being the punchline).  Because I’m now writing an 8-character ensemble where most non-focal characters only get a few lines per conversation, it’s easy for characters to slide into being defined by their strongest surface level trait(s)… and something I worry about with Wally is that his availability as a source of jokes runs the risk of Flanderisation into a disposable Scrappy/ Flirty Comic Relief, which isn’t his character.  Wally is actually really important – not just for his scientific book-smarts but for his perceptiveness, earnestness and ability to function as one of the emotional barometers for the squad – so I always have it in the back of my mind to make sure I include enough moments that actually demonstrate those qualities and the other characters’ appreciation of them/ their friendship, so that it counterbalances the more light-hearted goofery.

I think he’s walking the same tightrope as Sokka from Avatar: the Last Airbender – yes, he tends to take the L more often than the others for comedy purposes and sometimes he gets stuck with supremely dumb side-plots for the sake of tonal balance, but to claim that it’s the entirety of his characterisation really misses the point by a wide mile.

On that note, I actually really like the decision YJ!Animated decided to go with in its first and only season (ahem) in giving Wally a normal and functional family background.  I know that’s not the typical background for his comics counterparts (and no shade on other fan-writers who want to write AUs exploring the abuse dynamic, those are really interesting stories) but I think it was a smart deviation for the purposes of a large ensemble, and offered a fair bit of potential for cast-balance.  It lets him serve an important role as the normal one – not only as an easy window into what the current lives of ordinary middle-class civilians look like (which is good because ordinary people are who our heroes are donning the masks to protect) but also as a touch-stone for the others, most of whom either come from different cultures or from very atypical backgrounds.  Even if we discount the Impure Atlantean with military training, the ostracised White Martian and the Half-Alien clone-weapon, the other members of this line-up are an orphaned circus acrobat adopted by a billionaire, a girl from a dangerously dysfunctional criminal household where she was forced to fight her sibling, and a fledgling sorceress raised by an overprotective single Dad.  The others might intellectually understand what a “normal” childhood and family look like but they don’t necessarily know it as intuitively and intimately as Wally does.  That normality gives Wally the potential to be a more stable foundation for the others, a source of emotional contrast and of a necessary wholesome mundanity.  That is a good thing for the Team to have.  I think it also speaks volumes to the heart of his character.  For this Wally, the Flash and heroism weren’t an escape from a bad personal situation.  His life was actually pretty comfy and privileged - he didn’t experience a brutal wakeup to the injustices of the world or some other personal call to action.  This is a Wally who opted into the game because he loves the players and sincerely believes in their values and mission.  And while that might mean he has a more romanticised idea of what heroism entails – and will probably face some rough shocks down the line as that rosy vision runs into those more brutal realities – it also means he brings a sincere hopefulness to the job that is less hardened than a lot of his roughed-up, pre-jaded peers.  Underneath the teen sarcasm and surface-level lancer/smart-guy traits, this Wally has as much power to be a stealth-Heart as any of his Flash!counterparts.

Something else I find interesting when using Wally is how a lot of his strengths and flaws feed into each other – and I think this alternate backstory is part of it.  For all of his good heart Wally can come off as insensitive, and I think some of that could be read as a product of living a more charmed life.  I think he’s susceptible to a thing that a lot of real people do – universalising their own personal experience as the default – and that while he is canonically a geek and somewhat genre-savvy about hero cliches, he’s a geek about in-universe media so he probably doesn’t think to apply those tropes to “real people” like himself or his colleagues.  While this Wally is a skeptic, he’s not a cynic, and I think he might forget how much of an outlier he is in a world where things like living parents and loving parents are often mutually exclusive.  He’s smart enough to connect dots but there’s a little blind-spot where he simply might not think to until one of the others jabs an elbow into his ribs, because his default view on humanity is in some ways a little kinder than typical due to that small but still significant amount of privilege.

At the same time, Wally is also someone who has probably run into (or watched his mentor run into) a lamp-post at high-speed at least once in his career.  He contains multitudes and among those multitudes is an endless capacity for some absolute Looney-Tunes nonsense, which the world is 100% better off for having.

I love him, your honour.

[asksoldieron]

SO-18: Memory Bomb!

If there's a lot of engagement on this, this post is liable to get real long, beware before you expand.

No art, but hopefully my eyes will improve enough to add some later!

Welcome to the Engagement Lounge, for Peanut Butter Bubblegum (SO-18) an instalment! Short comments can go in the replies, but there's a 475 character limit. Longer ones will need a reblog. Remember to @asksoldieron if you're reblogging someone else's reblog, so I can see it too!

There! They got him! Well, sorta. That's definitely not Erik but he's in there somewhere. They'll get him out! Eventually!

I had such a cool idea for a musical comic but I can't do it. You'll have to read and imagine David and Hyacinth having it out, while what he is now is slowly subsumed by what he once was... Or while an imposter who made a very bad decision becomes permanently trapped in a web of his own lies. Maybe both at once!

*sigh* I'm struggling, but I don't get real feedback from the eye doctor. It's like they don't think I can't handle any negativity, so everything is all smiles and "you're doing great!" while I'm dealing with shit they should've sat me down and told me about before I even had the damn surgery.

You see, I had the impression the surgery was the best option for not losing any of the improvement I spent all last year making myself sick to gain. Heh. Maybe it was, but I've still lost ground and I'll need to put in even more work to get it back. I have a different issue now: stamina. My eyes get tired of focusing on detail, near and far, and in certain situations they'll just stop. I'll be straining as hard as I can and I won't be able to tell you if that's a D, C, O or G. It won't shift in and out of focus like I might be able to get it eventually, it'll just be a static blur until I rest my eyes and come back to it. (Kinda think the doctor thought I was faking or playing it up, since I could read letters the first time she asked me to, and then I couldn't. But the tech just listened to me describe what was happening and said, "Oh, yeah. Your eyes are just tired. Take a break.")

I don't have much trouble reading - as long as it's black and white or close to that. Much like Erik, I can get it from context. I've always read the shape of the word, because my damn eyes never worked like they're supposed to. But art is not like that. Hell, even reading a comic is harder for me right now.

I'm getting my Xmas computer soon. It has a bigger screen than my tablet, and I should be able to draw on it. I might not get so tired so fast with a bigger screen, but I won't know until I try. I found a good enough refurbished deal that I can afford a pen display with an even bigger screen, if it comes to that, but I'll have to give myself some time to strengthen my eyes in any case.

I thought I was just going to heal from this - it would only be a matter of time until the wound closed and my corneas cleared up - I certainly got that impression at the start. But now they say I'm not going to get better without more work. I'm stuck doing pretty much the same exercises, only now they're hard in a different way. The dry-eye does seem to be improving, but there's no guarantee it will keep doing that. I have nearly a year to wait for the dryness and light tolerance to stabilize, those things are the slowest to heal. Well, they would be the slowest, if I didn't have this stupid vision dysfunction. I have no idea how long that's going to take to adapt.

Anyway, this is all too many words. I'm trying to explain why I won't be able to come back with more story after a two week break, even though I have the next six-pack almost ready to go. I can write. I can reorganize the site (and I need to do that, the theme and the global colours are just stupid, and all my pattern blocks are malfunctioning). I can open a new bank account and put together a Ko-Fi page (after Patreon gets rid of my data - they only have a couple more days to do that within their 30-day limit!!). I can't illustrate. Nobody's going to stop scrolling and look at this shit in their feed if there's no images, and I'm not resorting to stock photos or AI.

I want to get to the point where I can spam my followers with something I'm proud of that looks nice, and send them to a site that I'm also proud of and which looks nice. I want more readers, but I don't feel right asking for them when everything's falling apart, including me.

So, I'll be here, but there won't be more story for a while. At least give me until the 20th, that'll be three months out from the surgery and I should be fairly well healed by then. It's just that I have this stamina issue nobody warned me about and no timeline for that. Almost like it doesn't matter. Hey, you can see without glasses! 20/20! Like we promised! Does it really matter if it expires without warning? It works when you read off the chart the first time and that's all you need, right?

No. I told you people I was an artist. You don't seem to be reviewing my chart and god alone knows if you even wrote it down, but you did ask me and I told you. This is not enough.

We'll see what the next few weeks will do for me. I hope like hell I'll be back soon with another six - words AND pictures.

[Back to Site?]

[a-v-j]

"I have another question for the hypothetical scenario who was deemed too wholesome for this lonely story. There are some questions I am curious about."

"First, since how long would it take for Recall to remember his life as Science, Sans and Geno, before he became Error. And how will that affect the relation with Extinction and Killer? Secondly, what would Killer's opinion on Recall be, pre and post remembering? Since, as mentioned in the previous asks, Extinction and Killer would eventually create some chaos out of boredom, and Recall would have to deal with it. "

"On top of that, since Killer is not a father figure, and more of a brother figure, how much would Extinction emulate him? Since younger siblings emulate the closest older sibling, not the parent in most of the case. How would that affect his growth compared to Extinction in the Eon asks? And what would Eon opinion be on Killer's soul state or story?"

"And lastly, since this is mostly spoken in case where Killer doesn't get errorify by some shenanigans. What would happen if he started errorfying? How would he end up personality wise, considering that the last thoughts of people before becoming Errors define their new persona? Would it be camaraderie for what he got here, maybe family love or maybe self-hatred/self-guilt for putting those watch him. Would Recall try to help him remember, considering he got experience with losing most of your memories? What about Extinction, since with how volative he was during his childhood, I don't think he might react well to this."

"It might sound weird for Killer, but without the interference of Chara or Nightmare, he can feel love and so, taking in context his relation with Colour in the something new comic?"

"So what do you think?"

For the first one, there would be no way for Recall to actually...well, RECALL he was Geno without Reaper. Atleast not in my stories. So there's no scenario for that one. And if somehow down the line Recall does remember, i dont really think it'll affect his perspective or relationship with Ex and Killer, it'll still be the same, just with much more Geno in the mix

For the second one, Ex is pretty impressionable so he'll eventually adapt killer's gremlin-ness and be more chaotic as he grows, heck he'll perhaps be killer 2.0. really an opposite to his sorta stoic, calm and reserve canon adult personality. And Eon wont even exist, cuz yknow, death was never in this mox so...

Errorfied Killer be a mega bitch gremlin, not a violent type but will be destructive as hell. That is..if Recall doesnt kill him off while glitchifying.

I think there would some fight that will ensue between recall and ex, who's most likely be protecting killer at that point

Then again, this is just my impromptu thoughts, perhaps if i take more time foreseeing how their interaction and relationship develop, it might come to a whole different scenario but I'm too busy to do that right now lol

[kiragecko]

@evilwickedme

I’ve started a new post, cause the Cass one was getting a little long. And we’re talking about DIFFERENT fun characters, now.

I checked the issues, and since you mentioned knowing Huntress, and I assume you know the basics about Babs, Steph, and Alfred, there actually aren’t too many people who might confuse you.

Azrael shows up. By 2000 he’s mostly stable (rather than having a mental breakdown from religious trauma and conditioning, and choosing to express it through spikes and beating up 14 year old Robins). He’s the first person other than Babs (and maybe Bruce) to bond with Cass. They’re cute together.

Sasha Bordeau is Bruce’s bodyguard who he started dating and who then took the fall for some crime to keep him out of trouble. Bruce could have handled things MUCH better, and she rightfully resents him. She later joined a secret organization called Checkmate.

Dr. Leslie Thomkins is a doctor friend of Bruce’s dad. She a pacifist and REALLY doesn’t approve of Bruce’s night job, but was still Batman’s medical assistance for anything too big for Alfred to deal with. Her and Alfred were attracted to each other but recognized that they were both married to their work.

There are a lot of well developed cop characters by this point. You don’t need to know all of them, but they have all sorts of drama going on that I never have the context for, since I don’t read the main Batman titles.

Catwoman shows up as a mostly hero (she has her own area of Gotham she protects at this point).

Bane also shows up. A surprising amount. He is weird. He broke Batman’s back that one time, but during this period he’s thinking he might be Bruce’s half-brother and picking fights with Ra’s al Ghul. Nobody likes this, and it is quite amusing how very definite they are about not liking it.

So, those are more teasers than actual character summaries. But half the fun of comics for me is all the backstory that gets mentioned in passing and never expanded on. So I am sharing the fun. Hopefully this gives you enough info to find out more if that DOESN’T sound very fun ;)

[faunastanza]

The World Egg pt 1

(part 2)

The World Egg, by (swirly L) and the Art Pyramid Group

"Maybe Glip has matured and changed," you may be thinking to yourself. "A lot of those unhinged mspaint VNs were a long time ago. Maybe they've learned to let go." Well, I went to Glip's twitter after this was posted (February 2023) to see if there was any kind of explanation or context for it that'd make it make sense (there wasn't, there never is, i am sisyphus and this is my boulder) and they were picking a fight with someone they wrote a callout about. I guess you can't say that they're inconsistent.

I've done a lot of these at this point, so when I say this one is incomprehensible then you know what I mean. It's for a new and more frustrating reason though. Previously these were difficult to follow because Glip just told stories that way, but now this is difficult to follow because this is just illustrated random moments from an RP you weren't in with no context. I have no idea who this is for except the other people who were in the RP who actually understand what's going on. You just have to try and piece together what happened from the random scraps Glip throws to you.

"If you joined the Discord then you'd know what happened" I'm not joining that pirahna pit, are you nuts. I'm not crazy. I mean, I've written a million words about this webcomic no one cares about but I'm not THAT crazy. I have my limits. Also Glip has clearly illustrated several times why you should never join their Discord. Case in point, this VN also features several reasons not to join their Discord. So again, you can't say they're inconsistent!

Anyway, this VN is done in Ren'py now, and as such Glip has a lot of new features to play with. I'll give credit where credit is due - the way the "panels" layer over each other in later parts of this is neat, I've never seen that before. So there you go.

We start in Phesund's room in Owel in the Art Pyramid. It's "Rath 25th (1/25/XX)" and I'd normally not bother with these fake dates but this might help try and piece together what happens throughout. We're introduced to two of the worst character designs I've ever seen. I've been through this entire comic and I was shocked at how bad these are.

what is even happening

The one on the left is Decateronomy, or Pengo's character if you recall, and that ugly looking weird worm pixie bird amalgam thing on the right is Phesund. Decateronomy wakes up and says he's had a realization - he can't remember when he and Phesund started their Relationship. If I felt generous, I'd say "oh, I guess Glip and Pengo had their characters fall in love in the RP" but as we've seen many many times before, the border between Glip and Glip's characters is non-existent. So I'm assuming this means Pengo and Glip are now dating in real life, which doesn't surprise me.

Phesund says "Wasn't it when..." and we got some disjointed shots. Phesund in their less ugly looking pixie form lies on Deca's chest. Then there's a shot of Deca, I think, holding an even uglier character design. Yes, it's possible. This one is even worse somehow.

lord almighty

This new character who looks like Pearl from Steven Universe has Euphobia's head on the back of his head and just looks godawful. I don't know what Glip was thinking here. I guess the symbolism won out over how stupid it looks? I don't know. I'm just kind of amazed at how bad these designs are. He also has Pengo's trianglehead's eyemarks so I'm not sure what to make of that, but there it is. Anyway, Deca holds the Pearlknockoff (I think), then maybe menaces him or reaches out to him, then holds him again.

We cut back to Phesund, who says that it just sorta happened. Phesund and Deca talk about their feelings and love for each other and it's dull and weirdly stilted. It's like being stuck in a car ride with the most boring navel-gazing new couple imaginable that also kind of talk like aliens.

in real life, i assume

Phesund says that he had his realization about his feelings during the thing that made him start the free classes, saying that he wanted to share with others what Deca had shared with him, the ability to learn about yourself. He says his memory is hazy, but he recalls saying "I love you" and then says he was "Mesund" at that point, so if you thought you'd escaped the character-within-character matroyshka dolls, you were wrong.

here's a clear shot of deca's head face thing, you try and figure it out

Deca goes on about their feelings and says that it felt different with Mesund in a nice way, who I assume is the Pearl knockoff.

it's just this for ages

We cut to a flashback I think where Mesund says he made an assumption about Deca wanting him present on his island. He says that he can't know that Deca wants him there and Deca agrees. Mesund says he doesn't want to "word fight" anymore. I just can't get over this character design.

where do the horns come in

It's not clear what "word fighting" is, but it may be related to the "scenes" that Glip would do in their discord, which they still do to this day I think. Deca asks what Mesund wants. We cut back to Phesund and Deca talking and they talk more about their feelings. I know I'm harping on this a lot but just look at them.

tail is a paintbrush get it

I just can't get over these designs. I just can't. Jesus. Anyway, Deca and Phesund flirt a bit, with Phesund referencing himself as a tyrant king. Deca talks about taking over for Phesund sometimes and making him a pet in a Ds kind of way and Phesund's super into it and now I feel like I know way too much about Glip's sex life. They talk some more about feelings and it's dull. Deca mentions talking to Mesund about parasites and changing them, and convenience. It's not really clear what he's talking about, but he says that he felt very open and close to Phesund on that day.

Phesund says he's glad he was there on that day, and Deca asks him what that day was like. We get more flashback memory things, this time of Mesund pounding on a door with the Euphobia head throwing up rainbows because Glip really can't get enough of that imagery. It happens a lot when I think about it. Mesund, notably, has Andre's little wand. Did you feel a twinge of foreboding?

help i'm a paint tube and someone's squeezed me

Mesund screams at someone named Vita to open the door and come out. Then he either turns around and sees Deca or it's a new scene with Deca, I'm not sure. But Mesund looks happy and says he doesn't mind sitting or standing as long as he's with Deca, even though he doesn't appear to have legs. Mesund assures Deca that he's never felt better being here. Cutting back to Phesund, he says that day felt unreal, but Deca felt real. He says that day was rather complicated, and we cut to Mesund with a whole bunch of the X eye cats and I think the erasing knife Mr. 5 used to have. Or maybe it's just a knife. Not clear.

i poked out all their eyes

Usually the X eyes are associated with Beleth, and the cats are associated with TAL, so not sure what to make of these ones. Phesund says he wishes that Deca had been on the first floor when everything was happening.

Deca asks if Phesund wants to talk about why he wanted Deca there, and Phesund says he's (drumroll) been accused of saying things he didn't remember! Boy, that happens a lot to Glip! He says that he can't even check if he did or not. He says that if Deca had been there, he would have remembered and understood why that day was so hard. Deca says he'd do anything for him a bit like a robot boyfriend you programmed would say it.

you're the perfect mop boyfriend

Phesund says he wishes he could revisit that day and it bothers him. He wonders how everything got to that point and why it felt so extreme. On one hand, he feels like it was meaningful and is glad Deca was there to talk him through it. He then says on the other hand, he's not happy he was on the path to harming a student. Uh oh! Maybe something interesting is finally going to happen! We cut to another new character design with discordant music screaming at someone else choppily. This one's named Phesomme because we just can't get enough Phesunds in here.

my quill pigtails are so kawaii

Phesomme accuses the person of being selfish and wondering if they thought about anyone else before they attempted "a cut" at something that saved someone's life. Phesund thinks to himself that he doesn't think that he said that, but that's all that comes to mind. He says that he can't remember, and all he can remember is him yelling and "him" crying, which basically fits the same pattern we've seen with Glip before where they blow up at someone and then conveniently forget what happened later. See Circlet of the Sun. (Glip did an RP and then blew up at someone on their discord? I'm shocked)

Phesomme yells "be someone else" at whoever they're yelling at. Mesund shows up yelling at "Duke" while Phesund thinks that he didn't know how to handle those situations any better. Some goofy looking thing shows up while Mesund yells about how whoever it is keeps hurting him and why are they here. Mesund asks if they like hurting others and that every time they say they want to "eat" him (? vore?) it hurts him, and he lives it out in his mind, whatever that means.

hey kids, it's me

Did someone on the Discord have a vore fetish? These are the fun intertextual questions you can ask yourself while reading this comic. "Comic". Mesund continues yelling, demanding again to know why they're here and what's wrong with them while Deca sits placidly in the background watching, apparently. Phesund says that he can't even remember who he was yelling at, just that he was yelling. I guess when you're always yelling at everyone it can be hard to keep it straight.

Phesund remembers that it's some kind of mouse named Valys. Valys says that Mesund is scaring them and that Mesund's yelling is scaring them in a way that seems vaguely like a show for preschoolers trying to explain emotional reactions. Valys says "don't you care about me?" Mesund responds with "I do not, not right now" which boy, if you're looking for red flags, here's one. See Circlet of the Sun again.

Phesund wonders what Valys's expression was, then speculates if they were crying. Odds seem good. They fill in the blank space of the mouse's face with a crying face.

i don't remember, it didn't affect me so it wasn't important

Phesund tries to think of what he DOES remember. He then pivots to saying that he wished Valys cared about scaring Pomphe, whoever that is, and that he wishes they'd cared about doing that. He gives Valys an angel face while saying that he wishes they'd cared about putting everyone's lives at risk.

angels sure are a happy bunch

"I wish trying to trust in you caring hadn't led to me getting so hurt" Phesund says, centering the narrative around him again as Glip loves to do.

"Glip hasn't been really embarrassing in a while" you might be thinking. Well pop the champagne because we've got fake Discord screencaps coming in. Mesund yells about how spies were trying to come into the Discord and how disrespectful everyone is, and mentions fairy circles again but doesn't explain them either. The pixie Celebis like making them but that's about all we've got.

it was so hard for me to yell at you! why aren't people thinking about how hard it was for me???

Mesund oddly says that they could go back and read the logs but won't for some reason. They say they felt bad for yelling and also that everyone deserved it though, and how unfair it is that everyone made Glip yell when they didn't want to. I mean, Mesund. Made Mesund yell. Mesund continues capsing into the void about yelling at another person named Lighty, who he apparently told would be better off dead, but this is phrased in a weirdly casual, off-hand way.

 I meant said you'd be better off dead but who can say, these things happen. let's keep talking about me.

Mesund insists that they can't remember and because they can't remember they CLEARLY didn't mean it (so don't be mad at me saying it!). Nuez, another one of Pengo's characters, apparently enabled Mesund's yelling, and again Mesund laments not going over the logs to see what happened himself even though nothing is stopping him from doing that as far as I'm aware.

We cut back to the shot of Mesund with the knife, and Phesund says it feels strange to be so close to Deca after being on such an ugly path. More feelings talk happens, with Phesund saying that "feeling like he doesn't deserve the nice moment he had with Deca" was an unfair thought. Deca, weirdly holds onto Phesund's throat as he says that he also went to Vita's room, although he didn't know what he was planning to do. He says that being together in a painful moment helped relieve it, but I'm not sure if that moment was with Vita or Phesund or what. Phesund asks why he went to Vita's room, and he says that he felt like Phesund was in pain and could feel a "deep pain from you, coming from Vita" so maybe Vita is yet another aspect of Phesund? God. They talk more about feelings and Deca slathers on the praise like he's an extra in a Mary Sue story.

and you're perfect and wonderful and everyone's so jealous of you

Deca says that they want to care and nurture and protect Phesund, and when Phesund asks why, Deca says that they're just a caring person who tries to help everyone. Pengo really is in deep here. Phesund says that Deca is very attractive which, lol. Thankfully we have enough of the boring couple and shift somewhere else, the Synemetricism Temple of the Sun in Althar, on Oxoth 14th, (2/14/XX), so.... later? I have no idea. We're on the ritual stage, which sets off warning bells about the scenes and stages in the discord. We meet President Goop Gaap, the central cardinal of Synemetricism and high priestess of Althar, at a ritual receptacle. She's surrounded by four other cardinals: North (River), East (Thorn), West (Check), and South (Azlyn). Azlyn was Orobas's name when she was an oracle! Omg, an old character!! What does it mean!! Gaap starts the Heart's Day ritual (oh, so it's Valentine's day). I'm pretty sure Gaap is Paige in disguise.

hey she's got the paranoia flower on, i just noticed that

Gaap starts a prepared speech, then stops and says that words will not do to describe the tragedy that's befallen everyone. She says she'll show everyone in words reminiscent of Writer's Block a while back, but says she'll need everyone's help. We cut to Mel's House (who?) in the Shrine of Tempo in Althar, that same day. A beecat is sitting with some kind of dog and also there's some Lunekos there. The dog has some stuff coming out of their eye. Beecat asks how they're feeling, and Dog says they feel temporal displacement. At this point things are now getting layered over each other and we'll be cutting between a lot of different scenes fairly rapidly.

help, squiggles

She asks for further clarification on what it feels like and what it is, and then, god damn it, Call-Clout shows up again. I thought we were done with you!!! Go back to the Mspaint vns!! She's holding Paige's nib and repeats a line about "can't write without it, but only about the pen breaking"

[always sunny meme] i've had enough of this dude

Call Clout talks to some kind of fox thing and says that she'll be writing "her" a short letter stating that "you" will be arriving at some point. Fox thing says they'll give it to her but only if they're safe. We cut back to dog thing on the floor, who says they can only think of two words: banana cookie. That's not a joke, that's what they say. Beecat asks what that means. Callclout tells the foxthing that they're not naming them, and they'll give "her" a phrase to let her know that Foxthing is the courier. CC says it's "banana sugar" and that Narcissa (who?) liked it, but Foxthing doesn't have to eat it. Papaya is standing with some dude in a big hat, maybe River? Saying that she's dialing and no one's answering.

scribbles of a different sort

She speculates about remembering things, saying that Problemedic had charts, and that Horseshoe and her city are connected and both align with forgetting and remembering. I can never keep track of what city is where in this. Papaya rambles a bit about potions, internal experiences, her neck feeling sore, Chordincepts, and erasing a librarian.

by the way, horses! horses.

We didn't get an explanation for chordincepts that I recall. I have no idea who this librarian is. Papaya comes to the realization that she can un-erase the librarian and they can just do that. Yay I guess? Hat thing asks "how" to what I think is a lamprey? Who just goes "Hmm." Someone says that this is a recording of a "Static", a type of angel, and that they like to sing. It has little notes coming from what appears to be the little line keys. They say the raw voice of a static is "hard to describe where it came from". Whoever it is says that Statics come from "this place" which doesn't have a name, and while they can't tell you where it is, they know it exists. You can reach it through "Chlorospace" lol, although the voice says they cannot be there.

hello rendering, nice to see you again

We cut back to Beecat and Dog, and Dog says that there's no difference between art and what it represents to them. Someone, maybe Andre, seems to take offense at this? Or maybe they're talking to someone else? They're upset at someone named Faith anyway, saying that they really hurt them and asks what they did wrong, and what actually hurt Faith. They ask why Faith ever cared about knowing them. A bunch of Andres appear to ask if Faith (I assume) had fun violating him and violating his meaning. I think this is about someone who drew a lot of Andre porn (which... how does THAT work) and it creeped Glip out, but I'm not positive.

you're so touchy lately, andre

Andre says that isn't this what you wanted, Faith, didn't you want some PERSONALIZED attention? He knows it is, don't be shy! Which seems rather ominous and a bit creepy. We cut to CallClout again, ugh, although part of the background is still showing. CC asks "What do you do when you want to run away from yourself, but can't?" while the background still has "what's my fault here? what actually hurt you?" We get more chatlogs because great, that's great, with Deca asking why Mesund loves him, or if that was just something he said in the moment. Mesund asks for a moment to try and word it, then drops a huge wall of text. It's the same weird, stilted dialogue we've seen so far, and there's a brief mention of resonance but that's all.

i love talking about me and my feelings!! god damn!!

Some kind of rabbit thing with the goofy angel face Valys had above shows up and says that education is the last bastion against war while a Static looks on. The rabbit says that being programmable makes them very easy targets, if you don't have any respect for angels. They say that Statics can easily be programmed to program their own purpose and that there's a specific Static that does that, a "reality radiograph". It can catalogue reality and determine what things need to change to let it program itself in different ways. That Static can also "overlap" with another angel, so it's a bit specialized. They say that Self-programming can be achieved when you've catalogued all of reality, including every decision and every possibility. Then they say "the Librarian: it's a form of self-manipulation". Sure. Bunny thing then says there's no need to be scared, and that any potential exposure they've had can be counteracted, and that'll be the next optional (optional?) assignment. They say they'll look for a Static to help, and say it's not a good idea for anyone else to do it. Dog on the floor says that Phesund's connection to "The Mask of the World" has been cut. It has a shot of Andre and Paige hugging from Try Try Again.  

also gaap is there

Biteycat from an update or two ago shows up next to what I think is Deca. They say delayed reactions feel negligent. We cut to what look like goopy angel versions of Phesund and Deca. Deca asks what Phesund remembers about "it", and Phesund says they remember having a house and making paintings, and that they had Lunekos. Dreams and Lunekos. Glip moved out of their house during the harassment a while back, by the way.

deca doesn't look that different, honestly

Phesund says they had a doormat that said "go away" but Lunekos couldn't read so they came in anyway. There's a brief shot of Speckle showing up at the house all "don't tell ME what to do!" at the doormat. I'LL DO ART WHETHER YOU WANT ME TO OR NOT! Also, Lunekos. Inside the house, the Lunekos are knocking stuff over while Andre protests. Deca asks what the Lunekos were like, and Phesund says they were pests, like normal kitties. Then says something about Mew York (the city that got magically dessicated that got blamed on Call-Clout, but it was actually MALwire that did it I think?).

ooo a toy mouse [drops conversation]

Deca says he's heard stories of a Luneko who'd yell at its owners while holding a toy mouse, and we see Andre trying to paint and the Luneko doing just that. The Luneko gives Andre the mouse, saying it's for him, while he's flattered and grateful. Phesund continues crying about how much he cared, and the other Lunekos he remembers (one with fish, one with water). Deca asks if Phesund wants to connect to a future where "she" is remembered. He emphatically says yes. Deca says "let's connect to that future, let's build that future" and Phesund asks how. There's a pale overlay of Andre and Paige hugging, then Phesund rambles about how he hates feeling ashamed and being a disappointment and not being able to look at himself. Deca says that they can change that, and that Phesund can turn into someone they love to look at. Phesund says "want to love us" vaguely to someone. Andre paints without his cloak on, like a stick figure, then when he puts his cloak on he says he feels better. We get some shots of Phesund as a normal pixie thing, then a shot of the Andre mural in Glip's old house with a Worthworm on it. Remember those!! Remember those! They're from Circlet of the Sun! NEVER FORGET CIRCLET OF THE SUN even though Glip took it down. IT'S STILL RELEVANT Some kind of cat thing cries while someone, Mesund maybe? Well, Glip either way, rambles on about their transgressions. They apparently put some bad things in his fairy circle, and told Mesund not to worry about it. Mesund's offended even though whoever it is said the feelings were positive because they were "deeply inappropriate" and ignored the whole of who he is. Maybe that cat thing is Phesomme from up there? It's not clear. This seems to be the same event though.  

why must you fail me so often!! - glip, to everyone, constantly

Phesomme, let's just say it's Phesomme, cries more about how the thoughtlessness was deeply damaging. They ask why whoever it is is here, and why they shouldn't view them as anything but a parasite. Mesund shows up to say that he doesn't want to sacrifice himself for a parasite, and doesn't want Headmaster to be sacrificed as a parasite either.

just pounding his fists on the floor wailing like a toddler

[lilyunad]

Post about Eos 1/2

I am not the kind for horror but I do have it with some of my OCs.

Such as Meisha and Tigahr at times

It's always soft as in, something they used to do and stopped doing ? I'd never write violence except in some cases.

but also Eos

Eos and Meisha are more horror-oriented in their development than any other of my OCs...

(context for those who don't know about my OC Eos yet)

Comic : https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/the-killer-of-giants/list?title_no=408934

Eos is the Killer of Giants. He kills giants. Smaller beings too. He's a titan, so that's not really a problem. He's also known by entire planets and it's worse when it's planets that developped spaceships and communication, legends spread.

In some cases he's treated like mythology. In other there are statues, texts and... photos. Everything and everyone being scared of just viewing him. Maybe some races have seen him more often (worst case scenario) and some races only once (in which cases they'd call him The Wanderer/Walker/Etc), and any interactions are known to only have gone badly.

But nuances are as follow :

-The Killer of Giants only kill bloodthirsty creatures/genocidal individuals/killers

-Interactions have gone bad because he's been seen fighting the ones interaction happened with (aka, the bad guys) so he's believed to be a bad omen (he is not, he only comes to worlds when there's something threatening Life with a big L or lives or a whole plane of existence and etc etc. I think that it's not impossible he's believed to be a good omen in some places, a shy wanderer having a break in some world before going to another ?)

-He is awfully socially awkward but is nice, if you give him a chance or find him. Might be in a very bad mood if you wake him up from his slumber (sleep is a few thousand years long sometimes)

-He is known for having enslaved and worse deadly stuff, thought that's just more myth than certified truth. Though I have a new idea regarding that other than "legends spread and other things get added", the idea is that he did that but might have lost a shard of his soul and forgot (if he recovers it, will the bad Killer of Giants emerge ?)

[unproduciblesmackdown]

You’re the only person I know with similar thoughts on the whole Mordecai Mitzi Atlas Enigma. I don’t really have any extra insight on that, but I do have wild speculation about the future. I think Mordecai might at least attempt to meet up with Drago or even call the feds on Lackadaisy (provided he escapes his current situation without too much suspicion). He dismisses Gracie’s idea of sicking the feds on Marigold, but the first thing he tries to find out when the Savoys arrive are where Gracie meets up with Drago. If Mordecai was just going to hand the info over to Marigold I don’t think he’d be in such a rush . He might see big raid as a way to further doom Lackadaisy financially and convince/force Mitzi to retire without too much bloodshed.

oh for real, lackadaisy's one of those "go figure, liking something a lot &/or for a long time, and just never really seeking out / participating in any online discussions about it, like even searching out Posts" matters lol including not posting about it too much myself, but now the glitter jar being shaken up / revisiting the entire comic with as much sagacity as i've ever had = enriching times. that is to say, i have zero idea what Ideas are or aren't really out there in terms of the biggest mysteries, which i kind of divide up as [rocky & freckle's big secret] and [marigold's big secret: thorn in its side & who even runs the place] and [mitzi & mordecai's big secret] with the lattermost seeming most mysterious to me....but i'm definitely interested in what ideas other people have, since i sure don't expect to have the keenest most accurate theories about it, and with anything, anyone might have noticed some detail you didn't or interpreted something in a different way that provides some new potential context. paying especial attention to like, exactly what characters say when they're speaking Of this matter, since like yeah sure otherwise going "hmm i'm not sure i understand what this means / this doesn't quite fully make sense to me or perfectly align with something i'd assumed was the case" is so Usual i might overlook it

i think the same about how the fact mordecai's asking Who gracie meets up with and Where means that's the most important info to him right now / that's what he thinks is his lead here. and that, yeah, he's not simply doing the extra detective work for marigold's sake, and he's also more interested in figuring out the source of marigold's agitation / resolving important things he thought he knew than he is in feds being told that marigold killed atlas....i've definitely considered whether drago's investigating marigold as a way to go after mordecai actually, but if anything i'm sure he'd actually be after marigold through some investigation of one particular person, being a prohibition agent after all rather than any detective after a guy for a bunch of murders or anything. plus drago sure does seem interested in marigold specifically, but it still might be something else / not Just that....like, why Would they get someone out of prison who they wouldn't think could help them that much, and who's then proceeded to not be able to pass along any usable information....great question. also good to have reminded myself of some other loose ends where we left off, like that zib's meaning to cut his losses with lackadaisy, is held in jail, and has had this passing introduction with drago, whose schedule sure seems to imply he keeps meaning to meet up with people that mordecai keeps being tasked to kill, namely gracie and presumably his lawyer

but fr like what can we expect mordecai to do with this information....seems like he need only ask for A Name if he only plans on investigating the guy himself, but what's he gonna do with a potential Meeting Time/Place....killing him, or even interacting with him, would be a bold move anyways, all the more so Without this being directed by marigold. and maybe he just plans to have an anonymous, mysterious exchange with him, supposing he's not worried about being recognized by sight or anything, could break out the ezra alias again....he could also just look out for drago from a distance to know what he looks like, maybe tail him a ways, but like, what would that really tell him. and why should mordecai be so motivated and taking such risks already / pretty evidently going a bit rogue & doing this for his own purposes rather than just gunning for marigold employee of the year, but only be willing to go This far & leave things off here. and i'm definitely interpreting mordecai's Rushed Secrecy here to be about the savoys being fellow Marigold Employees rather than like, him just not wanting to have to discuss this with them so that he can talk with them less lol. and the savoys are evidently paying attention to things too (and, again, i doubt they'd really fully buy that oh mordecai's just having fun) and who knows, maybe they'd actually be like "oh right on" about solving this mystery so that they're not so in the dark about what marigold's up to, either

and, also, why Should marigold be so mysterious about things? like, if this is all about "yeah this federal agent is too ambitious and won't take a payoff so we're uh. killing people about it" it's like, why shouldn't that be disclosed. not like such transparency would ever really be necessary, but that apparently this work is Newly mysterious; i.e. mordecai might've at least been able to Guess why he got such assignments prior, if not being told the Why....and there's also the question of why he's Newly teamed up with the savoys, since "because there's not enough for them to do otherwise" is something of an underwhelming explanation, though maybe i'm forgetting a detail or two there. what Things Had Changed before atlas died, but also Now, such that marigold's taking out loose ends? seems like the latter could be about drago being around and investigating marigold, but what of The Former, e.g. whatever asa warned atlas about....atlas Would have been aware that running a speakeasy Could be investigated by a federal department. though it's also possible asa didn't really warn atlas of fuckall and he's only referring to increased investigative scrutiny Now. i'm also supposing that mitzi might be right in that mordecai could be overthinking everything lol / there's not Necessarily a connection between his confusion re: marigold and anything concerning their mysterious shared secret knowledge of atlas's death (and mitzi's mysterious culpability), or not a direct one, anyways, and mordecai's just ending up proactively investigating marigold's investigation just to ensure like "oh whew so it Didn't have anything to do with My [mysteries]"....mordecai Reading Into that brunch exchange also Does give him a reason to talk about it to mitzi, which lets us as readers be introduced to the knowledge of That Mystery; we'd have no clue about it otherwise, except that the gossip is that mitzi Might've killed her husband

also Ooh Yea the emphasis on trying to go "no but for real everyone retire" at mitzi & everyone else at lackadaisy, and in his working for a rival* maybe presuming that if they get in the way / start being more Successful again, that could mean it becomes his job to start shooting at them, which he might be willing to do but certainly doesn't seem eager to / wouldn't actually relish it. i definitely buy that raiding their armory was such a Nudge of a [retire, btw] from marigold rather than mordecai carrying out a grudge, like how i also buy that mordecai Was reasoning with viktor to [retire, btw] by kneecapping him on his way out lmao, rather than spite, or his absolutely not caring if viktor dies; but mordecai Also not being willing or able to take on the responsibility to try to absolutely ensure that no one could possibly get hurt. his talking about I'll Surely Do A More Thorough Job to mitzi about if he's sent after lackadaisy again isn't warm and Obviously Amicable, but like the "if he really hates mitzi & wants her to have every last problem in the world, why make the remark about fixing the car windows; it's helpful advice, not criticism for its own sake" element, i imagine it's more of a warning than a threat, sort of his own personal brunch with mitzi by having this car chat, trying to preclude more bloodshed.

and who knows how he'd approach things if he Is tasked with causing problems for lackadaisy again. it could be a case of like, Wanting to make sure it's him who's in the position to do that, because Someone Else wouldn't potentially be trying to minimize casualties. but even so, i don't think he'd be fully able or willing to Really put it all on the line to make his absolute priority protecting lackadaisy....and for sure, maybe making an actual treasury department raid happen would be a death blow for lackadaisy. just also the question of like, if he could even manage that lol, again the questions of if he Could talk to drago....who already is apparently disinterested in dealing with lackadaisy, though not so re: marigold. and again wondering what kind of a loose end zib's gonna be / already is atm....what can he get up to in jail. and is he also going to be like, well i'm no longer working at lackadaisy but i'd rather everyone didn't die / instead retired or whatever

*also, still kind of a question like, Why did mordecai join marigold....could be a matter of a) not having options besides the work he's doing now but b) not wanting to stay at lackadaisy b/c of the Situation re: atlas. Or c) being involved in atlas's death b/c he may only have this line of work available But he doesn't want to be stuck at this one place forever...? might be a bit unlikely....gracie seems to be assuming that mordecai thinks marigold killed atlas, even though it Also seems like mordecai's really tipping his hand about like "i know how it really happened btw" but maybe it's only so obvious b/c we as readers have had more context for that already....but i just doubt that mordecai is feeling super loyal to marigold / doing this all just to insulate them or something, yeah. which gracie must also be assuming if he's offering to tell drago that marigold killed atlas. which also now makes gracie quite the loose end for mordecai himself, if this guy's gonna be out here having assumed that mordecai's just positioned himself as a spy within marigold to like avenge atlas or what have you. though, in turn, at this juncture it might be a wash whether gracie resents mordecai specifically or marigold overall more....interesting that he may even want to help mordecai further, beyond the fact that mordecai has his life in his hands, because as he says, his uncle died in the course of setting himself up as an informant for the feds, and he's telling mordecai about it only because that way it might mean more than nothing....which, now that i'm thinking about how it's plausible gracie doesn't die or anything, it's Also possible mordecai tries to have gracie operate as a triple agent here; meet with drago himself, but be working with mordecai....maybe they're kindred spirits in terms of like [raise your hand if you Haven't half accidentally killed someone] or something. though if he's stashing gracie in the veritable oubliette of some lagering caves (which, how's he know they were there??? feasibly marigold does, but i'm still wondering like What's Going On In All Those Caves over at lackadaisy and whether some discovery or other around there created some Situation re: why atlas died. just very relevant and ripe for mystery, drama, symbolism, etc. like with the rivers) with a leg injury, he doesn't seem in the best position to be sent to stroll into a meetup. but who knows. gracie, mordecai, maybe the savoys: the rogue marigold detective agency (all with their own motives)

[gotjacobian]

The Comic (tm) has been getting more attention recently for reasons that have brought up a lot of complicated feelings on my end. To qualify, by “more attention”, I mean like, a journey from being read by one new person every couple of months for years, to one new person every week or two for the past year (whenever I was actually posting pages, so like, half that on average). To 2-3 new people, every week, for the past few weeks. So not an eye-popping difference, but something that has never happened before. 

This difference in traffic comes exclusively from reddit, where I mirror/post pages every week. My best guess is that it’s due to some combination of small algorithm-manipulating changes in how I make those posts, regular posting so that people are reminded of its existence every week, and maybe something in either the quality or the content of these pages specifically. (I remember seeing a bump in attention at the end of chapter 2, a narratively similar scene. Which surprised me, I’d guessed the more visually striking  and mad-science-y action scenes would get more attention. Both scenes also require significant context to know what the hell is going on, which I’d assumed would be a deterrent to random strangers. But maybe it’s the opposite? I do also think they’re some of the better written scenes, in terms of like, emotional clarity, which might contribute. )

My first thought: It feels weird to have my messy feelings about what I want from making things and posting them on the internet turned into statistics. From what I’ve observed, there’s a line that gets crossed, in terms of number of people exposed to any given thing I post online, where the feedback I got  turned from “uninterpretable randomness” to “actual statistics”. That makes sense. More people clicking through to the website directly translates to more people reading it, commenting, whatever. But the law of large numbers also means the more people who click through to the website translates to a more consistent proportion of people who do those things. That proportion is universally low and noisy - from what I’ve read about online marketing, both getting a random person who sees your post to click to your website, and getting someone who clicked to your website to stay and do something there, are textbook low-probability events. That means when the sample size (number of people seeing your post) is small, the noise dominates the signal, and you can’t extract meaningful information from the relationship between what you’re posting and those downstream returns (engagements, comments, etc). Most of the time your return will just be zero, because you’re looking for a low-probability event with a small sample. 

This is a simplified model of both people and posting, obviously, but it captures the wild difference in both the subjective experience and quantitative results I get from posting somewhere I can force 50 people to see my art versus somewhere I can force 5000 people to see it, for the same stupid comic. This is my current joker arc about algorithms and independent artists online.  The algorithms on many websites are built to make it so that a few posts are seen by a million people, and many are seen by 10 or 5 or even 0 (*cough* Twitter) people.  I’ve had more success finding new readers on reddit than anywhere else because of 1) silo-ed subreddits with large subscriber bases that 2) have an algorithmic feed that shows recent posts to more people most other websites do. [and 3) definitely not the ability to easily sockpuppet a single upvote to my posts because that gets them shown to more people, who will then subsequently upvote them. I definitely don’t do that because that would violate the reddit ToS, and that’s definitely not the thing I think is actually driving the increased traffic in the past ~month or two.] 

Second thought: this also triggers an evolved anxiety in me, centered around the idea that better art gets attention because it’s good, and doesn’t need to play a numbers game to get even small returns. This thought fails the “not written by the generative language model in my brain that hates me” smell test, for what it’s worth, but it makes an interesting point about what I’m even trying to measure with those numbers. It’s difficult to separate my ego from the difference between what something I make means to me versus what it means to other people. It’s difficult to separate my complex feelings about that difference from the messy feedback in a chaotic system that I have to use to approximate it. 

To get existential for a second, I’ve felt like there’s a growing gap, especially the past few years, between what I’d have the ambition to be or make or do in an in ideal world, and what I can do in the world I live in as the person that I am. I’m better at accepting it in some areas of my life than others. I actually think I’m relatively good at accepting it when it comes to making art.* There’s a comic I want to draw (and just haven’t yet) about the process of writing/drawing/making things that get put up for public consumption, where an abstract humanoid representation of “an idea” gets graphically and violently beaten to death, by me, with a bat in front of casual onlookers. That’s basically how I feel about it. Not even in a bad way! Still, I don’t think I’ll ever not have those ambitions, and often feel like I’m trying to feed them table scraps. I don’t mean that ungraciously - more like, I look at a Number That Goes Up a little bit and think “great, but I have no idea how this will impact my future, and I feel like I could really use something that will impact my future right now”.  Which is probably not a problem reddit can solve, for me or the vast majority of people. But I appreciate it trying, I guess. 

*I used to be way worse. Probably detectably worse, lol. I like to think I’ve gotten better at seeing what I make for what is is without my ego getting in the way, and I have definitely gotten less anxious about showing it to other people.  I find it interesting how that got better. In most other areas of my life where I felt a disruptively painful desire for external affirmation, part of what resolved that involved getting that external affirmation. Mostly because I had a lot of luck in getting it, honestly. It’s not like I got zero affirmation with art stuff, but I had a lot more experiences where I wanted to prove something and felt like I didn’t even get a foothold, for reasons that felt like fundamental personal limitations. Unwillingness to adapt, lack of connections, perceived incompatibilities, whatever. The edge has slowly worn off anyway, which is pleasantly surprising. Like, I know I complain a lot, but I feel happy with and good at what I do frequently. I probably would’ve preferred a path where I felt like I was constantly hitting some validating new milestone, I guess. But it’s interesting and bracing to know that’s not necessary for the thing to feel worth doing in the long run. 

[zorilleerrant]

It's not so much that you're not supposed to write like this; people appreciate informative posts when they're written in this very careful grammatical style. (Anything you know a lot about or are very interested in, like your original old machines example - especially if you include pictures of anything you're working on.) And plenty of people prefer to communicate in very careful grammar.

There's just a formality level that most people don't ascribe to. You could try capitalizing fewer of your sentences, while leaving the grammar intact, or you could try using a few runon sentences or otherwise more casual grammar. It's mostly that your questions are very short and direct while using formal grammar, which makes them seem like real questions instead of a complaint. But since they are real questions, this is actually great!

I found your post the first time because someone I follow reblogged it; probably this was for the humor of complaining about

the fancy font.

Watching redditors discovering tumblr features is a popular pastime right now, which is part of why your post got traction. (Don't worry, it's all in good fun; it's like rediscovering local landmarks while showing them to your out of town buddy.) Another part of it may be that my response was pretty thorough, and I know a couple people reblogged it from me in case anyone else needed the advice. Tags will help things get around, but I don't know if they did this time.

Tagging for subject is the only one that will make posts reach a wider audience, because people search by those topics. Some people overtag, some people undertag, but in general, you want to tag anything the post is about, and then if you want, you can add the context of the post. This might be some particular discussion that's going on (for which you can also use tag commentary), or a cultural moment, like it's common to see jokes tagged 'writer's strike' right now, if they're on the topic of unions.

You'll also see a lot of people tag things 'tw: [topic]' or '[topic] tw', which people do sometimes for common triggers, and more frequently if one of their friends/followers has a specific need. You may also see '[topic] for ts' which is the same thing, but in a defunct format. (It stands for tumblr savior which is a program people don't use anymore.) Some people also use '[name] don't look' which people can block but is only useful for that one person. I'm sure there are people who search for posts using those, but I doubt it's common. Aside from 'tw' (trigger warning), you may also see 'w' (warning), or 'c' (content/contains). Some things may look like that, but are just for the person organizing their own blog. (If you have no idea what a tag means, it's probably organizational.)

If you want to indicate sarcasm/lack thereof, a lot of people use /s and /gen and those tags, which I can't get the hang of, but some people must find them useful, because I see them a fair amount. (I appreciated the way you did it here, and maybe you should just keep using that. Just offering an available option.)

Blorbo is a really fun word, and if you're interested, you should look up the history of it, but it's basically some character you're very attached to. For me, Xanthe Zhou is one of those characters! They're a new superhero (I use that term loosely, because they're one of the plainclothes kind) from DC comics.

Their comic is called Spirit World (although they've appeared in the Lazarus Planet event and this year's Pride anthology), which they share with Cassandra Cain/Wayne and John Constantine. They're sort of a ghost and therefore can manipulate the fabric of reality to make ghostly items real. (And create ghostly items through papercraft, of course, but anyone can do that.) The story is an exploration of Chinese mythology, which I'm very excited about, because most mythologically influenced stories in comics are still Christian, Greek, Norse, and Egyptian.

You don't actually have to read it. You won't lose anything; Xanthe isn't a major meme or anything. I just got excited and wanted to share my blorbo with all the redditors. I promise it's just a regular story and not a rickroll or anything; if you google 'Spirit World DC Comics' it will probably show you where to buy the comic pretty fast. (Or use the character name, but that might lead you to some wank about the character, since apparently there are some annoyed reviews out there.)

I'm so glad you found my response! I was worried you didn't know how to check notifications, and then I had no idea how to tell you how to do that.

I've been on tumblr regularly for a couple weeks now I think. So far so good. I changed some of my dash stuff. Prof pics and header is done. I wrote a line on the thing under my name. I reblog every now and then. I'm still not entirely sure how tags work. Or comments? Is that what you call them? So far so good I guess?

I miss reddit. I miss a lot of the niche subs I was on. I miss the discussion style of interacting with the other users. The organization of subreddits and comments threads just made so much sense to me. Who the hell am I supposed to talk to now for some advice about that super specific old ass machinery?

Tumblr is weird, but I can see myself staying here. Hell, I'm weird as fuck too.

by the way

What the fuck is this font used for and why is it so fancy? Can I just keep writing like this for all my posts?

[kidflashimpulse]

Just heard about the possible confirmed cancellation of YJA and I need.. I dunno. Do you have wisdom or comfort? :(. I’m at a loss so I’m turning to my favorite blog

Hey <3 I usually like to answer my asks in order but I feel urs is better addressed now because i’m sure a lot of ppl share the same sentiment which I understand, it’s a show that’s important to so many of us and it would be amazing to get confirmed for a fifth season.

Below are some screenshots that I feel might help clarify the situation a bit:

For those who might not knw Chris Jones he’s done a lot of art for YJ, including story boarding and is also the artist behind YJ Targets. He’s also gd friends with Greg. Some context to what he’s saying is that when YJ first got renewed from it’s actual post season 2 cancellation years later, it was only renewed for one season by the DC Universe streaming/production service. After season 3 came to an end if i remember correctly it was around 3 months before we even got word on a possible season 4. When it was confirmed that it would be serviced by HBO Max, this was only again for one season. Basically the show gets renewed on a season by season basis, which isn’t atypical, most HBO Max originals (e.x Our Flag means death) also only got renewed months later on an individual season basis.

One of the biggest problems with the production behind YJ in recent years is that it’s always been by a platform that’s going through major changes and again as y’all might have heard, now that Discovery and Warner have merged, there’s major shake up everywhere especially HBO Max. This means any expected time frame of these things is much less predictable. Considering when things were relatively “stable” there was still a considerable waiting time on news, now with all that’s going on with WB the “waiting time” on things will be longer. But YJ isn’t in any different state now compared to months ago, there is no news on the matter. Right now it’s a topic of whether it’ll get renewed or not, not so much about cancellation. The latest news report on it was just some staff member saying that theres no update on YJ situation but it got spun into something completely different to worry a lot of fans.

The best we can do for this type of situation is understand wats actually going on and also try to help in all the renewal efforts that a lot of ppl organise (mainly through the #RenewYoungJustice #SaveEarth16 and #YoungJustice tags on twitter) . A good way to stay updated on this is through the YJ Reddit and Discord which often clarify all this and where I stay updated. Below is a good explanation on the subject :

Basically, the best we can do is take part in those projects and stream the show as much as we can on HBO Max to show our support.

It also doesn’t hurt to purchase the YJ Targets comics to show support ! If anything, it would show support in the franchise itself (helping our chances with Renewal). We could even get more comics too if there’s enough public interest.

These things can be rlly upsetting so I hope I managed to clarify and maybe even share some comfort in the clarification of the situation and hope I can keep sharing YJ content (let’s be real in my case it’s mainly Bart Allen material lol) for ppl to enjoy with me :)

[sabugabr]

How "Loki" managed to make Loki's "outed" version also be their most heteronormative one

Well hello again!! This one's gonna be a single post, and relatively shorter than my previous ones (God I hope). I just want to get into one little detail that bothered me while watching Loki — the blatant heteronormativity of all that.

I'm not even talking about plot, the well is deeper ( that's a Brazilian saying, I don't know if it exists in English. Oh well)

SO KKKKKKKKKKK LOKI HUH. Unless you've been hibernating for the last few months, you probably know that some time ago, Disney+ debuted its third series on the platform, Loki, AND TUMBLR WAS ON FIRE. And there's already been a lot of discussion regarding some aspects of the series, some plot choices, well, all sort of things. However, I won't get into all the issues regarding his bissexual representation, or the gender fluidity issue, or even anything regarding Sylvie or Mobius. If you want to know more about it, you can have quick walk around tumblr, or even just go and see what Russell T. Davies has to say about it. It was a crazy ride, this series.

But I know there are a lot of different takes on this matters, and there're many ways in which you can relate to a media or story, and it's not my place here to meddle. If you liked the series, if the queer representation of this series was something that resonated with you, was something meaningful to you, that's genuinely great. So I'll abstain myself to my area of study, Visual Culture, and therefore what I want to talk about here is costume design. More specifically, Loki's.

(just a disclaimer, I'll be refering to Loki using he/him pronoums, since in the series is clear that he identifies himself as male. Also, I won't cover any aspects of Loki in the comics — or even Norse mithology or other medias —and their portrail there, because otherwise this would be WAY longer, so I'll just stick to the MCU)

So let's talk about queer coding, shall we?

1. QUEER CODING

Ok so, let's say you walk into a room full of queer people and ask anyone who loved Disney villains as a kid to raise their hand.

There'd probably be a very fair share of hands up, right? I mean, I know mine would. The relationship between Disney and queer kids has always been an interesting one, to say the least. And it's very common for many of us to feel especially drawn to the villains, and one of the possible reasons for it is the fact that most of the previous Disney villains (and some movie villains in general) are queercoded.

(and Kuzco. Interestingly, I never saw Kuzco being mentioned in these Disney queercoding discussions. Maybe The Emperor's New Groove is just more popular in South America...? Or maybe because it's like a positive representation, so it doesn't count? He's great tho, this movie is wonderful it's truly Disney's finest work I should make a whole post just extolling it just watch me BUT ANYWAY BACK ON TRACK)

If you google it, you'll see that queer coding is

"the subtextual coding of a character in media as queer. Though such a character's sexual identity may not be explicitly confirmed within their respective work, a character might be coded as queer through the use of traits and stereotypes recognisable to the audience. Such traits are greatly varied, but traits of exaggerated masculinity and femininity, vanity, and hypersexuality are frequent." [source: Wikipedia]

In the context of those movies, this was often made purposefully, blatantly, and in a very hurtful way, with very damaging implications, to associate (in a pejorative and stereotyped way) queer = evil. If you want to know more about it, and I highly recommend you do, there are two videos on YouTube by Rowan Ellis that explain these issues in a very complete, didactic way, and much better than I ever could. One's all about Disney villains, and the other is about the historical and social panoramas from queercoding to queerbaiting. I linked them both right there.

But the thing is, even though these are very problematic issues, what ended up happening is that many of us reclaimed those Disney villains. We felt attracted, drawn, captivated by a lot of them (not the Pocahontas one, that one is just bad). To the point where they might be our favorite characters in the movies. And why does it have to do with Loki?

Well, because, let's face it, Loki looks like a Disney villain.

the attitude. LOOK AT HIM

And that was one of the things that amused me the most when I'd go see a Thor or an Avengers movie, because not only would Tom Hiddleston's impeccable acting make the character completely captivating to me, but his outstanding looks always caught my eye.

In my humble opinion, in all the movies he's been in Loki has the most interesting costumes. They are always not only incredibly beautiful but also richly detailed, always following the color palette of Green, Black and Gold, even when he's wearing casual style. I also love how the gold is always used in adornments, and how well-fit his clothes always look. He looks like he'd only wear Asgardian haute couture.

I mean, look at the patterned scarf (which looks enormously like a leopard print to me) with green accents, stylishly matching his black vest and longcoat. THE CANE.

Of course the other costumes are also ok (Thor's armor for example has shades of blue, silver and red, all opposite to Loki's colors - although unlike Loki he almost never changes his outfits, which is a bit disappointing to me). But look at how Thor's outfit is made to make him look big, strong, MASCULINE and caricatured, while Loki's is simply elegant and slim.

His shoulder pads resonate the same shape as Thor's, but are narrower, making him look smaller in comparison. And I find it interesting how (unlike Thor who has an outfit pretty much the same as his comics counterpart) they stripped the more rustic fur trim from Loki's comics design, but kept the characteristic (and more elegant) square shoulder armor/pads.

In short, it's like his whole visual concept is to look dark, slim, fit and elegant.

And oh my, the sass

And Loki's costume designs actually have very beautiful meanings? As you can see in this Buzzfeed interview with Co-Founder and former Co-Head of Visual Development at Marvel Studios Charlie Wen and Marvel Studios Senior Visual Development Artist Anthony Francisco, when designing the character's casual Asgardian clothes, they made the clothe's lines

"more angular, almost architectural in its repeating angles. The purpose was to contrast the soft interior greens (Loki’s primary color) with the rigid blocky exterior (symbolizing Loki trapped inside the rigid walls of Asgard)."

The green color represents his soft interior. In a similar association, his characteristic collar was inspired by the flower faux calla lily, symbolizing "sacrifice and a resurrection motif". It's all very poetic. They deepened this concept in Loki's clothing in Ragnarok, where the replacement of green for blue in his clothes was meant to represent grief and sadness, and his personal growth.

"It's kind of like a nice arc for him. In the beginning of the movie he's green, then he's blue, then he's green again...by the end of the movie, he finds who he is," they said

But with the blue outfit, they added a yellow cape to represent that things would be all right at the end. Yellow and blue also make green. So like, colors mean something here. And they also wanted the blue to evoke a peacock, since Loki was showing himself off to the Grandmaster. A 10/10 outfit. Because you see, asides being elegant and dark and all that, the thing is Loki is flashy, both in his style as in his body language.

And of course none of this necessarily means anything. Things like physical appearance, fashion choices and personality traits have absolutely nothing to do with a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. But just as in the case of the Disney villains, there are certain characteristics and representations tendencies that due to both social constructions and pre-established media codes (such as the ones influenced by the Hays Code, and others), when watching, we feel more inclined to perceive as being queer. And while this usually has a pretty negative connotation (since these evocative traits are usually based on harmful stereotypes), with Loki this wasn't necessarily the case.

Even though he was introduced as a villain from the beginning, Loki has always been decently built, deepened and humanized throughout the films. Even though he was queercoded, he was never defined by grimaces, clothes or stereotypes, nor were these ever necessarily the target of bigoted jokes.

And on top of that, his personal narrative revolved precisely around the sense of feeling like an outsider within your own family. Of feeling less loved, less valued, "trapped", because of a trait he desperately has to keep secret. In this case, it was being blue. But you can change blue for queer that still works fine. It was a very familiar narrative to many queer people watching. So in a way, I think we ended up reclaiming him as well.

And I genuinely think that might have been one of the reasons this character became so loved by the LGBTQIA+ and tumblr communities. He was fabulous, and his presentation and personality reflected that perfectly.

And where did it all end? In Loki.

2. HETERONORMATIVITY

Because you see, in Loki, the only scenes where he actively wears his usual clothes are at the beginning of the series, and then never again. For the rest of the series, he wears the TVA brown coat and later a plain white shirt with a tie.

And while he was on TVA, ok, perfect, they required him to wear these clothes, fine. But after he runs off with Sylvie, he finds himself in SEVERAL situations where he might as well change his clothes. As is constantly explained to us, he can alter his appearance as he pleases and magically create fabrics and clothes at his own pleasure.

But in the one situation where he actively does this (in the train), he chooses to continue with the clothes he got from TVA (and Mobius, which is a cute point of view, but not the point here)

SO JOYFULL!!!

And for the rest of the series, he apparently forgets about his clothes and sticks to that. In that same train, is also revealed to us as an audience that Loki is indeed queer. In a intimate conversation with Sylvie, he is said to like both men and women, and the director reffered to him as bisexual.

And from there he develops a deep affective relationship with Sylvie, a woman (as we were emphatically told in that slightly misogeneous scene between the Lokis where they debate the mere existence of a "female Loki"), which regarding his queerness would be perfectly fine, if it weren't for the change in Loki's presentation from then on.

BECAUSE YOU SEE one of the major point of the Loki series is the development of the title character. Especially, his development in becoming "a better person". He starts off being a so-called pompous narcissist (much like Kuzco if you think about it), meets people who change his perception of himself and the world, and then he starts trying to improve, and redeem himself. In short, becoming a hero (again, just like Kuzco, only The Emperor's New Groove does it better).

And one of the most important things about character design is that a character's costume essentially reflects who that character is, much more than their lines or actions. Just by looking at a character's costume (if it's a good costume) you can basically know everything the movie or series or play wants you to know. And especially if you're telling a story where a character goes through internal changes, the exterior (ie, their costume) should reflect that as well.

So, Loki goes through his great journey, changes, evolves as a person, becomes a hero, and how does his presentation reflects that?

I could laugh but then my laughter would turn into tears

No, really, please. I'm not talking about Sylvie please don't think I'm in any way attacking Sylvie here, just look at him. The kinda grimy white tight shirt, enhancing his chest? The rolled up sleeves??? The leather straps holding his weapon and once again enhancing his chest? The creases in his pants evidencing his pelvis? HIS POSE????? This is a CLASSIC cis straight heroic white male lead pose. This is the kind of aesthetics I'd expect from Chris Pratt in a Jurassic World movie, and I know that you can see it too.

At no point in any movie has Loki ever presented that kind of body posture, that kind of body language. It's as if the show was saying "See? He's tough now"

And there is none of the elements that Wen and Francisco had so beautifully enshrined in Loki's costume composition, in the visual narrative that his clothes would tell. No color scheme, no green, no lily, nor nothing reminiscent of the characteristic curved necklace centerpiece he always wore (which according to Wen and Francisco, is an element that symbolizes Loki's mother, Frigga, like a "mother's crest". Interestingly, notice tho how Sylvie's costume has it, and I don't know if I find it endearing or disturbing)

So, since there's no reference to anything previously used by Loki in the first Thor and Avengers, the only symbology I can attribute to this costume choice is to show how Loki now doesn't care about things like looks anymore. His clothes are dirty, he didn't even bother to change them at all, he's not the same man who started this journey, he dropped Gucci. (They even made a joke about how he magically summoned an ugly blanket to cover him and Sylvie) And consciously or not, I genuinely think it's possible they wanted to make him more "hero-looking", "good-guy-looking". And apparently that meant making him less queer-looking.

And of course there's no way I'm saying queercoding is a good thing But why couldn't he save the world with his fabulous looks? Why couldn't he be the good guy and be flashy? Why couldn't he go through the arc of discovering emotional vulnerability and being able to open up to other people and still enjoy nice clothes and gold? Why couldn't he kiss the girl and have, idk, black painted nails? To me this has the same bitter taste as the recent Disney movie Jungle Cruise, in which the queer character proves his worth when he "man-ups". (And besides, this film is very derogatory in the portrait of South America??? But anyway)

And again, of course none of this necessarily means anything. Your choice of fashion has no direct bearing on how queer you are or not. People express themselves in different ways, but we're not talking about real people. Loki is not a real person, but a character whose wardrobe and gestures and lines were all decided and thought out by an external group of people, with goals and direct consequences in our perception.

And this is even more evident and difficult to ignore for me by how much the series itself shows. In the scene where he meets the other Loki variants, if you notice, everyone is dressed in very elaborate costumes. Honestly, President Loki is MAGNIFICENT with that green vest, the one sided shoulder pad detail, and the textured tie evoking something reptilian (I also loved how they adapted the characteristic gold necklace into a tie pin). But the thing is, he is represented as being, in a way, evil.

They all are. They are shown to be, you know, "the older Loki" versions, those who haven't evolved as much, you know. They're still treacherous, and liars, and slippery, and cowards, and suspicious, and back-stabbers, and narcissists, and bla bla bla. "Our" Loki even calls them "monsters". And since he stands out so much from them all, with his simple, modest, heteronormative clothes, it's very easy for our brain to make an association between "dressing" and "acting." And suddenly Loki's old flashness turns into a harmful stereotype.

Because now the way he dressed is a possible implication of when he was a "bad person". From when he had all the characteristics I mentioned above (all commonly associated with queer people in a pejorative way). And that's so disappointing to me, because in my opinion they missed a great opportunity to get the exact opposite message across. In a social context where the media still villainizes queer traits SO MUCH, where works like Rock Horror Picture Show are still seen as grotesque and villainous by so many people, they could have made a fabulous hero. A queer hero, with characteristics reclaimed by us as a community, portrayed in a beautiful and positive way, just as we see them.

So, this was all only the point of view that I took from the costumes. But the point is that costumes tell a story. They deliver a message. So in Loki's case, what message is this?

Think about it.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading!!!