#as a warning I have plans to end this arc in like 2-3 comics

[ralibo14]

TPN Brainrots part 2:

Warning: just like the in the previous part... There will be Manga Spoilers.

Since I was unable to finish part 3 of my comic for Emma's birthday (due to being in a place where bringing a laptop was not advised) I will do my head canons and theories on her.

So today's post is about: Emma

Emma is a protagonist in the wrong genre. That was my first thought when I finished season 1 for the first time. Of course now I know how much more complicated her personality is. Introducing her first from the Trio was a really good choice in my opinion, because her cheerful, hopeful, happy and naive personality makes you believe that everything in all right with their lives. Her point of view up until Connie's death really shows how easy it is to believe in a comfortable lie. (not to forget that in canon they're 11-12)

Emma's appearance explained:

Just like I did with Ray... I have something unique to add to each drawing of her. First let's talk about the Freckles! I'm a big fan of interesting character traits, such us freckles, moles, scars, tooth gaps, vitiligo or anything similar to that. Also the red/orange hair🧡! My second favourite hair color in anime & character history (first is black🖤).

When colouring I like to use vivid colours for her clothes (mostly red or orange to bring out her hair). Maybe that's why, my favourite outfit is what she wore in the Goldy Pond Arc.

In the manga colouring above if you look closely, Emma has faint scars on her knees and elbows. Since she most likely do what her heart says before thinking, I imagine that she didn't mind if she scrapped her knees or bruised her elbow, while playing with her friends and family. Physically active kids often fall while playing but, falling hard then getting up again all by yourself is a good way to symbolise their in journey. (Old drawing of mine😅⬇️)

Leader of the Grace Field Group:

Emma simply had to get into the Leader's role after Norman's shipment. I'm sorry to say that but Ray was a bit useless. He was lost in his own pain and gave up all hope (I mean... valid, but still), so she had to plan everything. Norman's letter and the other kids (Gilda, Don, Thoma, Lanni, etc) helped a lot, but she was practically alone. She couldn't even grieve Norman properly. Don't forget that Emma is smart and an amazing actor. She fooled Isabella thinking she gave up too (not to mention that time she slowed her heartbeat so Mom doesn't know she was lying).

My forever favourite moment (Idk why didn't I mention this in the Brainrots part 1) is Emma slapping some sense into Ray (pun intended😁). Like that setting and that scenery is my Roman Empire. Her catching a burning match just in time, not caring about burning her hand, then convincing Ray to excape with her and the rest of the group (Okay actually... let's be honest... she basically had to drag him out of the House). The first glimpse of what Emma is capable on her own. Nerves of steel for cutting her ear off too (her first big sacrifice just to save the others).

After the Excape, she got a lot of help from Ray who also apologised for his behaviour. The two of them comforting each other after thinking Norman died is just such a heart warming scene. Meeting with Sonju and Mujika was a big turning point for Emma, because of three things;

1: Okay first she was scolded because of her recklessness as well as Ray for trying to play the hero, but that not strongly Mujika or demon related. The world opened up for the whole group. They learnt about the Promise and how the world was divided into two.

2: Emma learned and saw from first hand, that not all demon are evil. Mujika helped them despite their differences and the end of that week Emma thrusted her so much she even showed her the photographs of her family and told her about Norman too.

3: Receiving the neklace and the advice to search for the Seven Wall while they're on their journey.

Arriving to B06-32 and meeting Mister/Yuugo there was a new challenge. All the kids saw another 'Isabella' who tried to kill them. Emma, then Ray were the first ones who saw through his facade.

Goldy Pond Arc was Emma time to shine as a leader and as an individual too. Meeting Lucas and the Goldy Pond squad and immediately connecting to them shows how much she cares about others. Her bonding time with Lucas as they uncover the mysteries surrounding the identity of William Minerva.

Fun fact: In my fanfic I like to age up the Grace Field Trio roughly to Oliver's age, because I think this way their personalities are more dominant and clear.

Emma's relationship with adults:

I like to think that Emma never saw Isabella as a monster (not even after discovering the truth). And as truthful as it is. I think Isabella formed a deeper bond with Emma than with her own son. That's because from the Grace Field Trio, only Emma could have been saved by Mom. With the Mom/Sister Program, Emma would have been able to live on, but it's against her nature to harm anyone. Although I found it interesting that that was the original composition of the manga. Emma becoming a Mom and Gilda becoming a Sister (correct me if I know this wrong). Also this picture under... I found it on Pinterest and it's reflects back to my theory of what might happen to the boys.

Meeting Yuugo and Lucas were a complete different experience for the Grace Field kids. The Bunker Dads were the caring parents both group (Grace Field & Goldy Pond) needed and deserved. Not to mention how Emma reminds me both the young and hopeful Yuugo from the past and the clever and patient Lucas of the present. Spending almost two years on the B06-32 shelter while searching for the Seven Wall makes their last goodbye 1000% more heart breaking.

Back to Grace Field Arc is when Emma meets Isabella again. She gets closer slowly but she doesn't have an emotional barricade as high up as Ray or even Norman. Emma forgave her easier, but that doesn't mean she justified the things Mom did with her family. She simply realised that Isabella had no other choice if she wanted to stay alive.

Making the new Promise and the Human World:

First of all King of Paradise Arc? Realising that Norman is still alive?! Oh the the happy tears when I first read that🖤🤍🧡. (Although to tell the truth Ray slapping Norman as soon as he sees him was such a right choice in my opinion) Emma breaking down in tears and hugging Norman was such an emotional and wholesome scene. But the argument after... let's just say I don't like miscommunication and/or characters keeping important secrets to themselves. (*glances at the GF Trio* "All three of you is in trouble")

Ohh Seven Wall Arc my beloved 🧡🖤. I like every bit of this story but Seven Wall Arc holds a special space in my heart. That Arc still holds so much potential to play around. The demon God's power to manipulate time, space and play around with Emma's and Ray's memories was wild. For the demon God name... I call them Elari. (Yes I stared at that nonsense of a word until it looked like a name). It was such a nice touch that the demon God only wanted to talk to Emma, but I couldn't help but feel a bit bad for Ray, because I think he was worried as hell when he woke up alone without Emma on his side. (I also sometimes think about what kind of Reward he would have received if he stayed with Elari).

The Reward Emma got is... without a question... cruel, and I think it was not needed, but I also can't think about something else what she could have gave to Elari if not her memories.

She deserves happiness and I can't say how much I cried when the Ray and Norman + everyone else found her in the human world. In the end I'm happy that Emma and all of them got a relatively happy ending.

Head canon to Human World and Reward: Emma's necklace!! It holds her memories. They just somehow have to find a way to unlock it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO EMMA!!!🧡🧡🧡.

Okay. That's it for Emma. If you have anything else to add, correct or you want to share your own theories just write it in the comments or reblogs. Next post will be the 3rd part of the comic. Then brainstorms on Norman will come.

[thatstheproblemwithnapkinman]

my somewhat hot take on ric grayson

firstly, spoilers for the whole ric grayson arc. if you haven't read it and have somehow avoided learning about it through tumblr, here is your warning

also a disclaimer, i am only just getting into comics by reading nightwing. i have read nightwing (2011) aka new 52, grayson, and all the rebirth (2016) stuff. i am yet to read infinite frontier (it's on its way) so i can't talk about any of that

spoilers and shit opinions ahead

so, i read all of ric grayson aka nightwing (2016) #50-73/77 depending on how you want to fully define his arc and the supporting issues of batman #54-55, and the joker war where he gets his memories back

and tbh, it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be

don't get me wrong, its an awful nightwing story. i did hate a lot of it. it was only when jurgens took over and actually made the plot a plot did it get better, but i was expecting it to be the worst thing in the world and i actually found myself enjoying it in the same way i enjoy watching twilight, which is to say its cringy but there's just something that keeps me hooked.

so lets look at the positives and negatives

positives:

bea: i actually really like bea. i think she was actually a decent match for dick as she did good in her own, non-vigilante way, and was reliable. she wasn't trying to backstab him or trying to mind control him, and she actively fought for him to get his memories back in the end and was willing to get to know dick even thought she fell in love with ric. she also wasn't annoyed that he was/is a vigilante and didn't tell him to stop for her sake. i'm not mad dick broke up with her bc i expected as much, but she was one of the better partners.

parts of ric: under it all, ric was still dick. i was expecting an absolute piece of shit but ric was actually a good guy after jurgens took over. maybe it was the expectations i had from what others have said but fully, i think he isn't given enough credit. he wanted to leave the life he didn't remember behind but ended up going back to it and being one of the 'nightwings'. he didn't do it for an anterior motive, he didn't do it because he owed someone, he did it because it felt right. especially after the way he reacted in nightwing annual #2 when bruce old him he was nightwing, it was nice to see him going out there.

the court of owls: i loved the court of owls tie in. its a great plot that has been central to dicks new 52 story, and one that carried all the way through to the end. especially with it being cobb in the end, the way it started, it felt nice and cyclical. the history of the court of owls in terms of its creation for new 52 is interesting and the way dick was tied up in it all is one of the things that i have really enjoyed throughout the 3 titles. seeing it through 2011, grayson, and then multiple times in 2016 makes me little nerd heart sing. again, it may just be my bias to the court as a villain, but seeing dick as a talon, even for a short period of time, was pretty cool.

joker war: obviously this whole storyline could work independently with dick or ric but i do like how it was tied into his story so well. the magic crystal thing is weird but, given dick's history with the joker as robin and as jason's brother, i loved that it was the joker that brought his memories back in the end i know it was the court and the bea that did most of the work but still i also loved seeing the aftermath, seeing him struggle to go back to nightwing despite him being dick again, the fact that he was happy as ric and had to leave that behind. dick had another hero moment and i do like that

ok, with that all done, here are the negatives:

the arc length: i know this is very common but the arc went on for way too long. i know it was because the original 8 issue plan was thrown out, and jurgens then had to do damage control, but it was still too long. im lucky that could read it all start to finish in one sitting, but this was an arc that lasted 2 years! like WHAT! this really should have been 1 arc, i get it being 2 after the whole mess with who wrote it but still, cut out like most of the middle stuff, have the first arc and the final court arc and then boom, it would be so much better.

the other parts of ric: ok, so i don't like most of his character. mainly him not accepting help from his family. again i know this is a common complain, most of the negatives are, but he had so many people around him that wanted to help and he dismissed them all. they all tried to help him have a life afterwards and he basically told them to fuck off. even after he started going and vigilante-ing again, he never reached out to talk to them. i do sort of get it when he first left the hospital to go to the manor and bruce had the stupid idea to show him his death, but i still think it was a major flaw.

dan didio, scott lobdell, and eric esquivel: if you don't know these names, count yourself lucky. i did my research and found a great reddit post all about the logistical history of ric grayson that is worth reading if you're interested but the crux of these three is a whole list of verbal abuse, toxic workplace practices, and sexual harassment/assault. didio is co-publisher and has a reputation of hating nightwing, like he tried to have him killed off during infinite crisis all the way back in 2005. lobdell is the person who ached for the amnesia arc to be extended despite him only writing 8 issues in the end. esquivel was only brought on for co-writer for one issue but that issue was released only a few days after sexual abuse allegations about him came out. a lot of these men being in charge of nightwing and not being fired until 2020 comes down to their standings in DC and the connections they had at the top. all disgusting, but it meant that the first chunk of ric graysons run is marred with their names and actions. i wouldn't;t include this as a factor except it is a factor. ric grayson may have been 'created' by benjamin percy but he only wrote the first issue, the next 8 were lobdell, before jurgens wrote the rest. and if the big men upstairs wanted ric grayson, they would get ric grayson.

honestly, when i got to #49, i was tempted to not read any further. I would just skip straight to infinite frontier and pretend that ric didn't exist. but i wanted to do my due diligence to the character, so i powered through and found that there was some light in the dark. there is a lot wrong with the arc, and even with the positives i would still say i didn't like the arc, but i can see some of the positives.

also again, this reddit post is super interesting for anyone who doesn't know the history behind ric as how he was received at the time. im glad i read it but i won't be revisiting it

[doodlingbot]

Should we get a cage for the Narrator or something?

(Hello fellow Arospec💚! It's fine! I just had a certain order I wanted to do some of these asks in, and so some had to be postponed until I established things.)

[CONTEXT] <- all silly bird narrator asks will be tagged as #/silly bird narrator (so just search that tag on my blog if you want to see past asks and such.)

[kusuguricafe]

Top 22 of 2022

end of the year tag game by @otomiya-tickles!!

part 1: fandom faves

1. favorite new fandoms of the year: I got into bnha this year and, fair warning, it became quite the obsession so a lot of my answers are related to this 😅

2. favorite new ships since this year: bakudeku 🧡💚 they are everything to me

3. favorite anime/tv show of the year: bnha

4. favorite movie of the year: it didn't come out this year, but I watched heroes rising for the first time this year and it was really something

5. favorite character of the year: ohh, tbh I can't choose between bakugou, deku, kaminari, or wanderer (aka scara redemption arc)

6. favorite soundtrack of the year: the sumeru battle themes absolutely slap, so I suppose it would have to be the genshin impact - forest of jnana and vidya ost

7. favorite book/manga/comic of the year: I started sasaki and miyano and I'm enjoying it so far!

8. favorite game of the year: this is a really tough one, it's gotta be either genshin, splatoon 3, or everyone's FAVORITE video game, my hero one's justice 2 (my partner and I have been playing it together, uh, a normal amount)

9. highlight of this year to remember: the "laugh! as if you are in hell" ova changed my life 💕 I remember watching the hype build up in the community, and when it was finally released, we all went bonkers reblogging the same few laughter clips again and again xD (honorable mentions: scara banner and bakudeku cranking 90s)

part 2: community review

10. favorite tumblr moments of 2022: well, I started my blog this year, and the amount of support I've gotten from all of you in just one year is absolutely mind-blowing to me!

I do have to shoutout the art and fic I commissioned this year by @ticklishfanart and @intheticklecloset. I'd never commissioned anything before and boy howdy, I couldn't be happier with how they turned out 🥹💖

kagehina fanart by @ticklishfanart renga fanart by @ticklishfanart kamibakudeku fic by @intheticklecloset

and I can't forget my fic requests either!!

bakudeku request by @my-tickle-blog spicy bakudeku drabble request by @otomiya-tickles bakudeku christmas drabble by @otomiya-tickles and of course, my squealing santa gift by @something1987

11. favorite fan art of the year: besides the ones mentioned above, definitely this bnha tickle fight comic series, this kiribaku, and this deku and all might by @simplysmilingdrew!!

12. favorite fic of the year: besides the ones I mentioned in question 10, it would have to be this bakudeku fic by @intheticklecloset and this bakudeku fic by @ticklishscumbag

13. favorite ask game of the year: I never actually received any, but I loved hearing others' answers to this voice ask meme! especially @ticklishfanart struggling to say her own blog name xD

14. my top achievements as a writer/artist/creator/blogger: starting my blog, reaching 5,000+ hits on one of my bakudeku fics on ao3 (how????), and reaching 100+ followers here on tumblr!! thank you guys 💕

15. my own best fic/post of the year: I really like how my tickletober teasing bakudeku fic turned out ^^

16. my most underappreciated fic/post of the year: hmm, maybe this genshin windtrace fic?

17. a post of mine that got more popularity than expected: the same teasing bakudeku fic I mentioned in question 15!!

18. something I changed on my blog since this year: it coming into being *cue albedo voice*

part 3: next year

19. something I didn't post this year but would like to do next year: I don't know if any of you guys remember, but I was planning on doing a valentine's day event this year that I never got around to finishing because I took on wayy more than I could manage in the small timeframe I gave myself. so, I am hoping on actually completing it and posting it by valentine's day 2023!

20. goals for next year: I don't have any specific goals, but I definitely want to continue writing more fics ^^ and flesh out my hybrid bakudeku au

21. 2023 releases I look forward to the most: I'm not sure when it's supposed to be released, but I am sooo excited for sk8 season 2!!!

part 4: spreading love

22. shoutouts to people who made my 2022 a better year:

@otomiya-tickles for this tag game, making me feel welcomed and appreciated, and for all the stellar content you provide 🙌 thank you queen, I don't know what this community would do without you

@intheticklecloset for their amazing writing and kindness they've shown me 💙

@ffeather-ficss, @ticklishscumbag, @veryblushyswitch, @happyandticklish, @volleeball-bo, @my-tickle-blog, @something1987, @impulsively-made-tickle-blog, @justmaybee, and @burningablaze for their amazing writing as well!!

@ticklishfanart, @skribblz, @chibimochii, @simplysmilingdrew, @vqler, @sleepysheepytea, and @dokidoki-muffin, for their incredible artwork

@wertzunge for their wonderful writing and premium anime tickle clips (idk how you manage to find and collect all of those, it's truly a feat to behold)

@lovelymessybubbly for her lovely art, positivity, and kind heart! 🥚💛

to everyone who has ever liked, reblogged, and especially left a comment on any of my posts or fics 💓 (to the people who keysmash and leave little comments in the tags, I see you, and you are very appreciated)

if you took the time to read this far, thank you so much 💖 I am so glad I finally gained the courage to make a blog this year. it's been so nice to be able to interact with the community, without only sending asks on anon. I am so grateful to everyone who has made me feel welcomed. here's to another year full of art, joy, and laughter! 🎉

[sayuricorner]

Sonic the Hedgehog X Megaman archie comics crossover idea: Robots Freedom Fighters AU

Warning: English is not my first language so sorry if it’s confusing.

Heya folks! ^^

So times ago when the Megaman and Sonic archie comics were still arround, when the second Megaman/Sonic crossover “worlds united” was announced I was very excited about it, the covers/alternative covers which were presented as previews in the wikias showing on it the robots masters and other Sonic characters like Shadow made me more hyped about the possible interractions betweens those characters in this upcomming crossover.

WARNING SPOILERS!!!

But then we got the infamous Megaman #49 ending(not ranting about it or anything but I’m still sad to have saw a good bunch of my favorites robot masters gone! T_T) and then when the crossover came out the whole Team Dark got outright killed when the worlds fused.

Althought the crossover wasn’t bad, I thougth there was a lot of missed opportunities in storytelling and characters interractions so then I had this idea:

“What if at the end of the Megaman 3 arc Dr Wily and the generation 2 & 3 of the Robot Masters got spirited away into Sonic world?”

P.S.: You can use this AU if you want just credite and tag me in return please! :)

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AU concept:

So during the Megaman 3 arc, Wily found a mysterious gem(aka a chaos emerald like back in the worlds collide crossover) but unlike in the first crossover, Wily didn’t study it right away instead he put it into one of his confinement machine while the Megaman 3 events happen.

During Megaman and Willy fight, the emerald’s energy surcharged the system of the machine and then of all Wily’s computer system, making the whole lair explode.

Megaman managed to get out in time but Wily and his defeated Robot Masters were still inside and the lair exploded, leaving nothing but a crater.

Due to the explosion seemed to had destroyed everything, Wily was declared dead, much to doctor Light’s sadness, and his Robot Masters was declared destroyed.

But what everybody ignored is that Wily was still alive and his Robot Masters, althought very damaged, were still fonctioning.

You see, the explosion provocked by the emerald, instead of destroying the lair, teleport it and everyone inside into another dimension which turn out to be Sonic’s world.

When Wily realized he was in a new world, he was at first panicking but then he thought of all the possibilities and advantages, he get a new opportunity of conquest in a brand new world which probably knew nothing about robots like the Robot Master, a world which apparently don’t use the concept of the three laws of robotic, a world which knew nothing of him giving Wily a big opportunity to plan to conquer it.

With his newfound determination, Wily repaired his Robot Masters and begined to repaired his lair to start planning for his conquest of this world.

He bring the intension of Eggman, who didn’t liked that another mad scientist was trying to tread on his toes in the conquest of the world, however, when he saw through his spies bots Wily’s Robot Masters and what they could do, he saw an opportunity.

Eggman made sure to descretly meet Wily to convince him to become his ally, Wily was unsure at first about trusting Eggman but the latter menaged to convince him with his silver tongue with promises of power and how they will equally rule the world ect...

So Eggman and Wily became allies and begined to planning together.

The two scientists lunched their first attacks, with the Wilybots fighting the Freedom Fighters for the first time.

The Freedom Fighters were surprised at first about those new robotics ennemies and by the new ally Egman found but stayed determinated to protect the world from them.

The Wilybots fought the Freedom Fighters over and over again ,only to be defeated mostly by Sonic, which frustrated them ‘cause being beat by a “blue hero” was giving them a feeling of déjà vu.

After a lot of battles, the Wilybots begined to have doubts, they have resentments toward the humans for how they treated robots like them but, what about the Mobians? They didn’t do anything to oppress their kind and their world didn’t even had anything related to the three laws of robotic so what was the point to fight them and conquer their world?

As time passed their doubts became bigger, especially about their master’s “ally” who, and his robots, creep them out for some reasons, especially after having witnessed a roboticization for the first time.

They also noticed changes in their creator’s behavior, Wily was becoming more and more agitated, violent and irrational and was even starting treating them just like Eggman was treating his robots: like a bunch of mindless tools, as his Eggman influenced Wily in a very bad way.

Time passed, the fights and interractions they got with the Freedom Fighters made the Wilybots had a respect for them and also grew even more their doubts about their loyalty to doctor Wily and even begin to make small defiances and tricks to manage to act against their master’s orders.

The breaking point happen when Eggman and Wily made their new plan to conquer the world.

The plan was to use the chaos emeralds and the phantom ruby, a gem that Eggman found times ago and which got reality change powers, to connect both Eggman’s world and Wily’s world together and erasing everything and everyone, their ennemies included, and reshaped both worlds in one world at their image.

To the Wilybots this was madness, their creator was a conqueror not a destructor and would never outright use a power for his plans without study it to knox how it work first. What’s happened to their creator?

They saw what Wily became, thanks to Eggman’s influence and his own delusions of grandeur, Wily was now the shadow of himself, a man overtaken by madness and his desire of power.

 It was the last straw for the Wilybots who decided to rebel against Wily and to warn and help the Freedom Fighters to put a stop to the mad scientists’s plan and finding ways to remove the program which force them to obey Wily’s orders.

Althrough wary of them, the Freedom Fighters accepted to ally with the Wilybots and together they fought Eggman and Wily and after a long and hard battle, both mad scientists were defeated, Wily got banished back into his world, Eggman escaped once again and the phantom ruby just disappeared in thin air.

As for the Wilybots, the situation was now complicated as the Freedom Fighters didn’t know what to do with them and them themself didn’t know what to do now, they could go back to their world but quite frankly they didn’t feel at their place there and would prefer stay in the mobians’s world and expressed they wished to join the Freedom Fighters.

So the Freedom Fighters decided to give them a chance to prove themself and took them back with them in Mobotropolice.

Everyone was rightfully wary of the Wilybots because of what they have done in the past, but with time and hard work, the Wilybots ended up earning the Freedom Fighters’s and all other Mobians’s trust and became official Freedom Fighters.

Since then the Wilybots fought at the Freedom Fighters’s side to protect the world against Eggman and built themself a new life among the mobians but they didn’t expected that one day Eggman would once again play with dimensional powers and fuse the world with a very familiar world to them and made them saw once again the one they in the past saw as an ennemy: Megaman.

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AU details:

General:

-In this AU Worlds Collide didn’t happen.

-Setting: This took place after the Megaman 3 arc and in the Post-super genesis wave’s version of Sonic world.

Before the Wilybots betrayed Wily and joined the Freedom Fighters:

-The Wilybots getting respect for the Freedom Fighters as fights after fights.

-Quickman and Sonic becoming rivals, everytime a fight between the Freedom Fighters and the Wilybots happen Quickman always engage against Sonic ‘cause he want to prove he is the strongest and faster one.

-The Wilybots being unsure about conquering mobians ‘cause unlike with humans they didn’t have bad blood against the mobians.

-Everytime Wilybots like Woodman or Hardman fight the Freedom Fighters they always make sure to not fight Cream nor Tails ‘cause to them young children have nothing to do on a battlefield.

-Espio and Shadowman becoming rivals, both of them having respect for each other for their skills as ninjas.

-At some points there’s moments during which the Freedom Fighters and the Wilybots got hearts to hearts moment duting which the Freedom Fighters point out the hypocrisy and inconsistencies of Wily’s logic and even ask the Wilybots questions like “If you want freedom why keeping on following someone who force you to obey him?” which would stunned the Willybots who would not know what to answer.

-Espio one day give a speech to Shadowman about the stupidity of him always talking about honor when nothing he do until now was considered as honorable.

-The Wilybots noticing a change for the worst in their creator’s behavior and they didn’t like it.

-When the Wilybots witnessed a roboticization for the first time, they couldn’t help it but being horrified by it ‘cause it’s look very painful and also because of the fact this doesn’t turn you into a robot with a mind of it’s own like a Robot Master but into a mindless machine, a drone who just obey orders and this made the Wilybots extremely uncomfortable.

-The Wilybots’s doubts becoming bigger days by days.

-The Wilybots making small defiances against their creator.

-Ex: Topman and Woodman helped a mother mobian and her children, who were captured by Eggman, to escape before they could be roboticized ‘cause despite all their best efforts to try to justify it to themself and because of the mother’s beggings to spare her children, their conscience was stronger and so they discretely helped the mother and her children to escape without Eggman nor Wily finding out.

-The Wilybots unwingly becoming more indenpendant when they begin to play and twist Wily’s oders to make defiances against him.

-Ex: They have been times where the Wilybots saved the Freedom Fighters’s lives because of the respect they got toward them by using the logic that while Wily ordered them to fight them he didn’t odered them to kill them.

-Eggman and Wily plotting against each other in secret and planning to backstab each other at the right time.

-When the Wilybots turned against Wily and warned the Freedom Fighters about Eggman’s and Wily’s plan with the Phantom Ruby they all found out that the consequences of this plan will be more serious than anticipated.

-Apparently using the Phantom Ruby’s powers will provock a clash with the effects of the shaterred world crisis and risk to create a bad chaine of reaction which will not only destroy this world but also make collapse the whole multiverse.

-When the Freedom Fighters and the Wilybots fought Eggman and Wily, the two already created a portal to Wily’s world with the Phantom Ruby in a machine to begin the fusion.

-After the mad scientists were defeated and Eggman run away, abandonning Wily, the Wilybots officialy disowned Wily as their creator before throwing him in the portal back to Wily’s world and, to the shock of the Freedom Fighter, destroyed the machine, making impossible for them to go back to their original world.

-When asked why they have done this as they could have gone back to their original world with this machine, the Wilybots answered that distroyed the machine to ensure that Eggman wouldn’t be able to use it was way more important, this and also because it doesn’t matter to them if they go back to their “original world” or not as it never feel like home anyway.

-The Wilybots surprising the Freedom Fighters when they ask them if they could join them.

After the Wilybots joined the Freedom Fighters:

-The Freedom Fighters having brough back the (formers) Wilybots at Mobotropolice with them.

-The Freedom Fighters after a good discussion together and with the king deciding to give a chance to the (former) Wilybots to reedem themself and to prove to them they could be trusted to become Freedom Fighters.

-This is like a sort of community service.

-The mobians and humans government being, rightfully, very wary of the Robot Masters.

-Some mobians, outside of the Freedom Fighters, being ready to give the Robot Masters a chance like Rosie or the Mobian mother and children Woodman and Topman saved, the husband of the mobian mother is even very gratefull toward the Robot Masters for having saved his family.

-The Robot Masters working very hard to prove they’re trustworthy and earn their place among the Freedom Fighters.

-The Robot Masters’s first times with the Freedom Fighters being though at first because of the Robot Masters’s shenaningans.

-The Robot Masters getting through the AU hero moments and character arc to become better bots.

-Sonic’s and Quickman’s rivalry becoming withh time more friendly and the two even becoming very good friends.

-Sonic and Quickman reguliary challenge each other into friendly speed challenges.

-During the Meropis arc: Bubbleman, Flashman and Quickman went with Sonic, Amy and Rotor to Meropis and helped to defend the city against the Dark Gaia creatures.

-When one of the Dark Gaia Creatures was about to lunched an explosive energy to Meropis, Bubbleman, to everyone’s shock swimmed to intercept the explosive energy and send right back at the creatures, destroying them but ending up badly damaged in the process.

-Thankfully Chuck and Tails were able to repair Bubbleman and the latter is consider as a hero by the people of Meropis for having saved the city.

-The Robot Masters becoming official Freedom Fighters after the Meropis arc and officialy became the “Robots Freedom Fighters”.

-The Robots Freedom Fighters having a introduction ceremony for their official introduction into the Freedom Fighters ranks like Amy’s in the original sonic Archie Comics timeline.

-Shadowman, Snakeman and Geminiman often going making to missions with team Dark.

-Shadowman training reguliary with Espio.

-One of the Robots Freedom Fighters becoming friend with Nicole and maybe even developing a crush on her.(That’s up to whoever who use this AU)

-The Robots Freedom Fighters bonding with the other Freedom Fighters and citizen of Mobotropolice and creating bonds of comeradships and friendships with them.

-Snakeman liking to prank others with his snakesearch, particuliary Antoine D'Coolette.

-Flashman being one of the Robots Freedom Fighters who stay often on the Sky Patrol to help Rotor and Nicole and keep an eye on Cream.(Nob to World Unite)

-The Robots Freedom Fighters learning to move on from their bad blood toward humans.

-The Robots Freedom Fighters participating in a good bunch of missions with the Freedom Fighters.

-Quickman using his speed to explore the world and make reports to Sally to keep an eye on Eggman’s activities.

-Some Robots Freedom Fighters helping Chuck with his lab and researches.

-Sparkman helping to the management of Mobotropolice’s electricity when not on mission.

-Crashman getting hands thank to Tails and Chuck.

-The Robots Freedom Fighters expressing hobbies and passions from outside of their programming.

-Rosie Woodchuck emotionaly adopting the youngest and childlike Robots Freedom Fighters.

-During the champion arc: Quickman, Shadowman and Topman get on Breezie’s tournament roster by Sally as “Team Freedom” along with Sonic, Amy and Tails.

-When Honey the Cat proposed to team Fighters and team Freedom to give them the emerald if she win in exchange of both teams promoting her fashion lines which make Quickman discretly turn around with Shadowman and Topman while whispering like “Aaaannd we’re getting away from her” despite Topman’s protests like “But that interest me!” only to had they way blocked by Honey who examinate them with fascination and interest while commenting about the fact she never had design clothes for robots before but she never say “no” to a challenge much to Quickman’s and Shadowman’s dismay and Topman’s excitement.

-Team freedom participating in the tournament with team Fighters and later help them to fight Metal Sonic.

-The Robots Freddom Fighters fighting along the Freedom Fighters and helping them to put a end to the Shattered World Crisis once for all.

In Megaman world:

-Until the fused worlds arc, the Megaman timeline keep going from Megaman 4 to Megaman 6.

-Ever since his “adventure” in Sonic’s world, Wily became more crazy and paranoiac than he was before.

-Wily took his two Robot Masters lines’s betrayal very badly and became rutless with his creations and treat them badly to the point his new Robot Masters are afraid of him.

-He even decided to abandon his creations to rust whenever a line is defeated by Megaman ‘cause he refuse to “tolerate any more failures”.

-Fortunatly each time this happen, Megaman save them and bring them to doctor Light to have them repaired.

-Currently the Robot Masters created by Wily(Megaman 5) are living at the Light Labs while the Robot Masters who were stolen by Wily(Megaman 4 and 6) have been send back to their creators.

-When the arc with Sonic’s world and Megaman’s world getting fused together happen, Wily’s latest plan involve the Stardroids.

Regarding the arc with Sonic’s world and Megaman’s world getting fused:

-How this arc go depend on whoever who use this AU! ;)

-I have however two conditions about this arc:

-The Robots Freedom Fighters NEVER betray the Freedom Fighters, they stay loyal to them.

-At the end of the arc, and the AU, when proposed by Megaman to come at Light Labs with him and live here, the Robots Freedom Fighters politely reject the offert ‘cause they grow attached to Sonic’s world and the Freedom Fighters and feel more at home in Sonic world.

[dimonds456]

Gem Steven’s gem is flipped upside-down. (Theory/Speculation time!)

SPOILERS FOR @spudinacup’s SU AU “Gone Wrong”!

Also WARNING: long post!

So recently, someone pointed out that Steven has a scar on his torso going across his gem’s location, which I found interesting in and of itself. Makes sense, since he wasn’t able to heal it since he DIED and his gem was shoved out of his body before it got the chance to heal him. That slash mark is there now. Wow, neat! Nice detai-

Wait.

Hold on a sec.

Is his gem... flipped upside-down? Well, it’s been like this for a while, maybe it’s just a creative choi-

...oh.

This is VERY intentional.

So I did some digging, and found much more symbolism and possible foreshadowing, and now I want to throw out my theory about Gem Steven here, including his potential arc and character development. I’ll try to keep everything brief while still blowing your minds, and I’ll try to get across what my jumbled mind has come up with.

Spud please notice me.

I will not be uploading photos to go with everything I say (go reread the comic after this and verify for yourself what all I’ve said), but I’ll show visuals when they’re necessary. I do not claim ANY of this art as mine (I wish my art was this good ;u; ), all of it belongs to Spudinacup and their SU AU, which has all kinds of hidden symbolism, foreshadowing, and visual cues we haven’t picked up on yet, as I’ve just learned while researching this theory. This ain’t your run-of-the-mill AU, everything in here is intentional. Scott Spud doesn’t do coincidences. So I’ll point out that stuff in screenshots.

Okay let’s go.

SO! To begin with, let’s talk about why his gem may have flipped, and to realize that, we have to know when. We don’t see the gem much, but we do see it constantly through Chapter 1, where it is normal. The pentagon is pointed upward. However, in Chapter 2, this is where we see it flipped upside down. When did that happen? We didn’t see it. I believe it happened in that first scene in the bathroom, right after we left. The butterflies were swarming angrily, and Steven was very lost in thought.

Notice whenever those butterflies appear. They seem to show up every time he thinks about who he is. Is he still Steven, or is he someone else now? Steven is dead. Everyone is mourning him, trying to heal him, but Gem is still here. So if Steven is dead, but Gem is still alive, that must mean he isn’t Steven then, right? But then that undoes everything we learned in “Change Your Mind.” He IS Steven. He’s always been Steven. But that’s when they were together...

...And so the butterflies swarm.

Notice how the first one shows up when he looks at himself in the mirror. When you look in a mirror, you should see yourself, right? But who IS he? In the show, butterflies represent thoughts and ideas, mostly dark ones, disturbing ones, or ones you don’t want to think about. Well, he already spent WAY too long proving who he was, so now to do it again sucks.

But he isn’t Steven anymore. He’s on the couch being mourned. But he’s already proved he IS Steven before, and it’s this uncertainty that is making his mind swirl. I believe this is why he flipped his gem. Just upside-down, so it’s a small thing no one will notice, while he tries to figure it out. In doing so, he’s separated himself from “Steven”, as they’re not one and the same anymore, and the flipped gem shows this. He’s someone else right now. Maybe. He’s not sure.

So what do we call you for right now? Steven. He already proved he was Steven, so until he’s proved otherwise, Steven it is. Now he just has to figure out what exactly that name means and wether or not he still fits that quota.

Flipped gem/Pink Diamond imagery is EVERYWHERE, mostly hidden in drastic shadows or in panels. It’s things you don’t notice at first, until they’re staring you in the face. See if you can spot them from the 3 screenshots below.

There’s probably more hidden throughout the comic, these are just the ones I’ve found that I feel confident enough to show as hard evidence.

So, what does it all mean? We’ll talk about the screenshots in order, left to right.

First, the Diamond is hidden as the panel in the center. In it, Human Steven lies upside down while the gem-panel is technically upside right. This can be interpreted in a few ways, but what that means to me is that something isn’t right here. If you flip Steven back around so he’s upside right, the gem is now upside down. Notice Gem Steven looking towards his human half on the bottom panel there, clutching his shirt over his gem. It’s a motion we’ve seen Steven do a TON throughout the show, anytime he’s thinking about Rose/Pink, who he is, or complicated gem stuff as a whole. Because early on, his identity was always shrouded in shadow. THAT is Steven, on the couch, without his gem. So for Gem Steven to call himself Steven is inaccurate, but also not at the same time. It’s all swarming in his head, and thus, the gem is flipped.

Next, he’s just broken the rejuvenator. This was probably the hardest to spot of the three, but if you look at the panel where Bismuth asks “feel better?” you will see, in the background, a white line cut through the soft pink hues. Look closer. It’s the outline of the gem, but it’s flipped correctly this time. This is because Bismuth seems to be the only person NOT saying Steven is dead, and treating his gem half one and the same. Is she unnerved? Yeah, but who WOULDN’T be? This is still Steven we’re talking about, as emotionally blocked as he is. He’s aware of why everyone is being weird around him, so to see Bismuth trying her best to treat him with familiarity instead of a completely different, new, dangerous stranger is really calming and helps to calm the storm a bit.

Notice the gem is flipped correctly. This is because he feels like Steven right now. Bismuth has been constant confirmation that he is still Steven, no matter the circumstances. Notice how his eyes dialate back to a larger size. They do that a lot in the comic, articulating his emotions without changing the rest of his face. It’s a clever detail to keep track of. His eyes grow more relaxed, dialating bigger when she pats his shoulder, asking if he feels better after destroying the weapon that killed him. It’s a huge relief for him to hear. So, the gem is correct.

Finally, we see Bismuth telling Greg that his son is dead, which is very contradictory to what Bis was saying earlier (in Steven’s eyes). Where is the gem on that frame? Look at Steven’s shadow. There it is, facets and all. To us, the gem is correct, but think about it this way: if Steven were actually replaced with the gem in that frame, what would it look like, Pink’s or White’s? That’s right. The point is coming from his feet, meaning it would look more like White’s, meaning it is back to being flipped upside down. Again, Bismuth just said Steven is dead, meaning he’s back to questioning his whole entire identity. So it’s back to being flipped upside-down.

It seems that the orientation of the symbolic gems hidden throughout panels show quite clearly where his head is at in terms of who he is. If it’s upside down, he’s separating himself from the cold meatball on the couch, whereas when it’s normal/upside right, he is associating himself WITH the cold meatball on the couch.

Notice he’s been grabbing at his gem a lot recently, too, all things he does while in turmoil over who- or WHAT- he is. He cannot heal right now. He can’t use his powers. Some powers are new and unfamiliar (see the more recent pages where Lapis struck out with water and he blocked with those hexagonal shields/walls). “Steven HEALS people.” He can’t, so who is he?

This is something he’ll need to have an answer to by the time the comic is done, and this is a mission for Gem Steven and Gem Steven alone. If his human half were alive (and content without his gem), he’d probably call himself “Steven” no questions asked, since he GOT his answer already, two years ago. But Gem can’t do that, not when everyone keeps drawing all these lines between the two. He needs to learn what being “Steven” means, and know that he is a part of a greater whole, but on his own, he is STILL Steven. Everyone else needs to realize this, too, and stop separating the two. It’s gonna be rough, since it may feel like replacing what they lost, but is it really? It’s going to be a tough road to trek, and I don’t know what anyone’s answer is gonna be (that’s the big mystery here, after all), but I’m here for it.

Remember, all of this has been speculation on what may happen based on facts and clues Spud has presented us with. I’m not claiming to know how Gem Steven’s arc will end, but I am throwing my hat into the ring on where I THINK it will go. Either way, the foreshadowing, symbolism, and unspoken characterizations here have been excellent, and I’m looking forward to seeing everything play out. Spud, your mind is incredible, and whatever you’ve got planned over there, I’m confident the answer will be satisfactory.

I’ll shut up now. Thank you for reading this huge meta post, and go read Spud’s comic. You can find it at @suaugonewrong or on Spud’s Tumblr, which was linked above. If you think I’m wrong or have a counter argument, bring it. Let’s talk, cause this is genuinely interesting and fun to dissect. I wanna talk about it OwO

Thank you. You may now continue scrolling.

[why-this-kolaveri-machi]

just because you’re afraid it doesn’t mean you’re broken.

Titans 3.05

once more into the cold dark void of the internet with my stream-of-consciousness take on a superhero tv show...

spoilers ahead.

1. i cannot believe that among the first things i get to hear in this episode with my own two ears is the line 'eluded our overdudes'. why must you give me such pain along with so much joy, show?

1.5. scarecrow stringing jason along on this path to red-hood-dom is not something i would’ve ever expected, but does kind of make sense. 

1.55. i don’t know all the details of the original resurrection arc in the comics but i like that jason, weirdly, has a greater role to play in his own demise and rebirth? i think it makes it easier to draw a line between his past trauma, the demonstrably shitty and terrifying responsibility of being robin, the ways bruce and the titans wronged him, his responses to that, the reasons he turns to scarecrow, and his final evolution to red hood. it makes for a smoother character arc rather than a one that was interrupted for two decades before somebody went oh hey let’s resurrect that kid that the audience once voted to kill and make him an anti-hero!

1.75. what’s crane giving him? anti fear toxin? anyway, crane is a fucking creep and i’m not sure i want to see a whole lot of him on my screen.

2. oh, um, heads up: there’s a long sequence of unsteady cam + flickering lights right after the title card upto the 3:16 mark. it’s a bit headache-inducing so if you want to skip, you can go ahead and do that. 

2.45. that’s... weird... why would he dream about... donna...

ok, who am i kidding. i’m going to jump right into my theory about Why Titans Makes Sense Actually because the show itself is apparently not interested in explaining itself:

a) it makes no sense for jason to be conjuring up donna--who famously did not care much for him!--in his dreams. (he wasn’t even there when she died.) or for her to be telling him don’t go or there’s still time.

b) this leads me to think that that’s actually donna, in some sort of limbo between life and death, the kind of place where jericho used to be

c) rachel has demonstrated that she has the power to link the minds of the titans across great distances--she called jason and hank/dawn for help in 2.01, she linked up everybody later in the season, projected dick’s hallucination of his father into their brains without even realising she was doing it, and in the finale, she managed to get dick into conner’s brain. she’s in themyscira now. is this how she gets donna back to life? but reaching out to her in that non-space between life and death?

d) the next obvious question is: why isn’t donna appearing in the dreams of the other titans? she probably is, but they have better reason to be dreaming about her since they were actually close to her, unlike jason.

e) but why would she warn jason in particular? does she foresee jason entering the afterlife--however briefly? does she have an idea of what jason plans to do and what he will become?

f) anyway, more trippy mindscapes and weird psychic powers, yay!

2.5. my heart clenched when bruce comforted jason post-nightmare: clearly i’ve been reading way too much batfam fic. this is a side of bruce we haven’t really been told to expect by all the characters on the show calling him a ‘psychopath’ (*cough*unreliablenarrators*cough*) and him getting jason to speak to a professional speaks volumes about the kind of self-reflection he’s done post dick’s departure, and maybe some of the regrets he has with regards to how he dealt with dick’s traumas.

i mean, just look at him when jason dismisses his concerns! BRUCE IS TRYING JASON

anyway, i have a whole lot more i want to say about this, but i’ll save it for later. 

also: LESLIE THOMPKINS!!!!

3. i really like molly--and i love that she’s a friend from before jason got taken in by bruce, the implication that they meet up regularly and that she’s a grounding influence on him (tho clearly not grounding enough to not go along with his dumbass idea about confronting a child trafficker alone). 

3.5. aw, jason. robin was his armour against everything in the world that would throw him down and chew him to bits, but san francisco proved that even robin wasn’t enough to protect him. it’s really interesting how ‘disillusionment with the idea of robin’ is so integral to the traumas of both dick and jason but in such different ways. 

4. LESLIE!!!!!!! i even forgive her office being so goddamn blue because leslie! 

4.5. it makes so much sense for titans!verse leslie to be a therapist, because this show is so inward looking anyway, and therapist sessions are a useful tool to showcase this character work in a story. besides, at least in fanfic, leslie often seems to double up as a counsellor anyway. 

4.6. oh man. i’m not terribly convinced by walters’ red hood (tho i think that may be the point--argh. i’ll come back to this thought later. have to stop getting distracted!) but he plays the asshole kid that’s trying not to let any real emotion seep through really well.

“you’d like me to punch you, wouldn’t you”

5. not sure what to think of batman’s little trophy case other than the show winking unsubtly at us and going look look - catwoman! the riddler! two face! you excited yet?! it’s like the scene from the end of amazing spiderman 2 when they were trying to drum up excitement for a sinister six spinoff by having harry osborne walk by a bunch of display cases with stuff from iconic villains in them.

... but then again, bruce does like to display a lot of shit in his batcave, including his dead robin’s bloodstained costume, so.

5.5. bruce is so soft with jason it’s killing me. beyond just trying to learn from his mistakes with dick, it speaks to his own genuine desire to balance his dedication to gotham with doing the best by his sons, although he’s often not successful with that. 

i love that titans is really playing the long game with bruce wayne, with each season and character-perspective sliding in fresh pieces of a bigger puzzle. titans’ bruce has always been a phantom of other peoples’ making, but now we’re getting the idea that he’s a whole lot more complicated than other people make it seem.

5.75. it really recontextualises some of his actions from previous seasons: the fact that he locked dick out of his security systems in 1.06 is likely his way of respecting dick’s independence and his desire not to be associated with batman/gotham anymore. jason knowing about bruce’s tracker while dick doesn’t is probably bruce trying to be more honest and upfront with his charges. bruce sending jason packing off to sanfran to spend time with the titans is probably not him passing on a big responsibility to dick (as i first uncharitably thought) but him trying to get jason out of the toxic influence of gotham for a while and a sign of his trust in dick as a leader and a mentor,

5.8. i mean, bruce is a prick, but he’s also human.

6. i think leslie is doing some good work with jason here, though she may have overstepped the line with her line about robin as a construct being projected by a man with BPD. her speculations about bruce’s diagnosis have no place in her session with jason, and if bruce confides in her, an egregious violation of patient-therapist confidentiality. 

(about the diagnosis itself... i don’t know. i can’t really confirm or refute this without a whole lot more information, and i’m not sure if the writer of this episode means BPD in the same way an actual professional might.)

6.5. i think a huge thing that gets missed out in a lot of recent comics as well as movies/shows is that bruce didn’t create the robin persona out of whole cloth. dick did. he’s the starting point of that legacy and to call it entirely bruce’s creation is blatant erasure of that. in fact, i’m surprised that dick doesn’t feature more in the conversations they’re having about the pressures of being robin. after all, the guy had been robin--bruce’s partner--for such a long time before jason. 

6.8. (and here’s the primal part of me that resonates the deepest with dick grayson--the Eldest Daughter part--that’s sort of resentful: that jason gets the therapy and softness and the learning from mistakes when it took years and years for bruce to reach out in any meaningful way to dick.)

7. oooh that was a great scene!

it’s fun to do these stream-of-consciousness live reactions, because the moment you step down from your soapbox, the episode goes right into tackling what you were just complaining about. bruce means well, he’s learning, but he goes about exactly the wrong way to help jason: taking away robin now can’t be read by jason as anything but a devastating judgment call from bruce. and iain glen really sells the moment that bruce realises this--too late--and his helplessness in trying to get jason to see that it isn’t jason’s fault that he’s trying to do this. he loves jason enough that jason is enough. 

7.5. aaaah so jason brings up the elephant in the room at last. dick got everything makes sense from his perspective, where getting to put on a costume and fight crime means approval, means being something stronger and better than you are. dick got to be robin, then nightwing, and a leader of a whole team of other costume-clad heroes. 

8. ... how did jason just walk into arkham????? this is ridiculous.

8.3. i mean, clearly jason’s not thinking straight, but betraying batman like this puts his possibilities of being robin again even further away. 

8.5. watching that chemistry experiment montage was strangely funny. this guy is looking for an antidote to fear? well, constantly mixing up and inhaling gases concocted by a mad-scientist supervillain is something only the very fearless--reckless to the point of foolishness!--would do. what’s to say crane’s not given you a formula for a drug that will keep you tethered to his every will and whim? hmmmm?

8.7. so he sought out the joker to... test the formula??? 

9. wow the “loud and clear... boss” hits different after a whole episode of them referring to each other as father and son.

9.3. waitwaitwait HOLD UP. wait a DANG MINUTE. you’re telling me that scarecrow had enough resources that he could not only have folks on the outside steal jason away and dunk him in a lazarus pit (i TOLD you that this show would bring up and dismiss ra’s al ghul in a ten second aside! I TOLD YOU) but also have his own little chemistry lab in the basement, AND have enough resources for jason to build his red hood persona???????? all of this in barely twenty four hours?

well there goes my ‘jason orchestrated his death’ theory. it was nice while it lasted. *cups hands to the sky* fly away, my baby.

9.6. a part of me is gleeful at the rushed nature of such an iconic transformation though, especially when compared to all the character work that went before it. we’re so used to getting the opposite that it’s fucking delightful to have a show that’s more interested in exploring its characters’ minds rather than battle scenes or recreating transformations from the comics. that’s taken such bold and exciting steps to fully convey all the nuances of its most recognisable character, bruce wayne, from casting an older actor to play him to unflinchingly showing just how damaging the vigilante lifestyle has been to him and the people he loves. BRILLIANT

*sporfle*

10. again, heads up: a whole lot of flashing lights between 40:28 and 42:00. 

10.3. i guess it’s the super-compressed timeline that’s really throwing me off. where did he have the time to get/develop the mind control thing from? or is it something that he got from the cabal of villains that he intimidated at the beginning of 3.02? very messy.

10.5. i love molly, i hope she shows up again this season.

11. aaaand that’s it! that was a solid episode as flashback episodes go, but now i can’t wait to return to the present.

[twh-news]

"Loki" Director Kate Herron Talks The Epic Season 1 Finale And The Easter Egg Fans Should Go Back And Listen For | Buzzfeed

Warning: There are MASSIVE spoilers ahead for Season 1 of Loki!

Welp, Loki Season 1 just came to an end and I think it's safe to say that the Marvel Cinematic Universe will never be the same. Following the Season 1 finale, we sat down with director Kate Herron to talk about everything — like how it felt introducing the multiverse and Jonathan Majors to the MCU, casting this incredible ensemble cast, Loki's bisexuality, and so much more. Here's everything we learned:

1. First, Kate has always loved Loki, so she knew she wanted to be involved in the "character's next step" in some way.

"Basically, I love Loki, and I found out they were making a show about him. As a fan, I was like, 'I need to know where he's gone.' Then, I just wanted to know what the story was going to be. I loved the character. I think Tom Hiddleston's performance is amazing. I really wanted to be part of whatever this character's next step was because I think Loki's had one of the best arcs in the MCU."

2. Directing all six episodes of the first season felt like filming a six-hour movie.

"Directing all six episodes was a really unique experience, right? Because normally TV is run through the showrunner system, and Marvel didn't do that on Loki. It was incredible. It was quite an undertaking to do six hours and run it like a giant film. I'm so grateful for the opportunity, and I'm really proud of what we made."

3. When Kate signed on to Loki, only the first few scripts had been written, the "rough shape of the show" was in place, and they knew Loki would be arrested by the TVA.

"When I started, Michael [Waldron] had written the pilot. Then, there was a second episode written by Elissa [Karasik], and Bisha's [Ali] episode was written. So, there was a rough shape of the show. It was already fixed in that Loki was gonna be arrested by the TVA and then it had this twist that he was going to try and solve the mystery of who this other Loki was, but then it pivots and becomes this love story about him falling in love with himself. I just thought that was so inspired and the message that had about self-love. I just really wanted to be part of that."

4. And they always knew the show would end at The Citadel at the End of Time and the multiverse would be born.

"As we dug into it with Kevin Wright, our producer, the studio, Michael, Tom, and also our whole team, I think it was always thinking like what was the best story, in particular during the second half of the show. We always knew they were going to The Citadel, something would happen, and the multiverse would be born, but we didn't necessarily know it would come out of Loki and Sylvie fighting. That idea came out of discussions with me, the writers, and the studio."

5. It was "always the plan" to introduce Jonathan Majors to the MCU during the Loki Season 1 finale.

"I think me and the writers were just like, 'Well, they haven't told us we can't introduce that character. I guess we're doing it.' It was really exciting and I felt really honored that I got to be part of it."

6. Kate was involved with Jonathan's casting for He Who Remains/Kang alongside Peyton Reed, who will direct Ant-Man: Quantumania, and Marvel Studios.

"Being part of the casting discussion with Marvel and Peyton was amazing. It was massive. I was just like, 'Wow, I can't believe I get to be part of this conversation.' Everyone was just so excited about Jonathan. He's one of the best actors. I just couldn't believe we got him."

7. Jonathan brought a lot of "cool ideas to the table" once he was cast, and Kate gave him "space to play."

"He just brought so many cool ideas to the table. I think when you're working with an actor like Jonathan, it's really just about giving him space to play, and let him find the character and give him a cool way to do that. I really enjoyed working with him. We finished the shoot filming in The Citadel, so it was really interesting that we finished filming with Jonathan. I just felt very lucky I got to direct him."

8. Jonathan actually voiced the Time-Keepers in Episode 4, which added to the Wizard of Oz homage.

"Obviously, the Time-Keepers were being made in post, and we hadn't cast anyone [for the voices] yet, and I thought, 'Well, Wizard of Oz. Like it should be the wizard, right?' So I thought it would be cool if it was Jonathan, and I think the key thing then was just working with him in a way that we could disguise his voice. I think the fun thing was, Jonathan is an amazing character actor. So we just sent him the art and he was sending audio clips to me and Kevin Wright and being like, 'What about this voice?' It was just so much fun to do that with him. I think that was just joyful."

9. Kate's favorite Easter egg from Episode 5 was Throg — in fact, Chris Hemsworth recorded new lines and sounds for that small part.

"That one I was very proud of and it was very fun. I had that shot designed for a while. I think I'd seen it in Futurama, and a lot of animation does it, but I love the idea of going through the dirt and it reveals something. I always felt like that shot would be the place to insert an Easter egg. When we had Throg in there, it was so much fun and it was perfect. We also recorded Chris [Hemsworth] for that. It was just so much fun."

10. She also loved the Thanos Copter and said it was a "funny" detail the producers loved from the comics, so they had to include it.

"The Thanos Copter was great. Kevin Wright, our executive producer, was really obsessed with that copter, I was like, 'We have to put the helicopter,' and it was so funny. Episode 5 is our best Easter egg episode. There's so much deliberately because of the nature of The Void as a place where deleted things are sent."

11. There's one Easter egg/detail Kate hasn't seen fans catch onto yet, and it involves a "familiar" voice at the very end of the Season 1 finale.

"The one I would say is — it's less Easter egg and more cool story-wise. So, at the very end of the finale, when Loki is in this alternate TVA, there's a character that runs behind him and is going to the armory and people should listen to the voice. It's very quick, but it's someone familiar."

12. Loki was inspired by numerous iconic sci-fi movies, like Children of Men, Alien, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Metropolis, Starship Troopers, and more.

"Bisha, in the episode [she wrote], she spoke about Children of Men and also Before Sunrise as a reference, so I was really inspired by that and the idea of bringing these sci-fi things together. Across all the TVA, I wanted it to just be a big love letter to sci-fi movies, like Metropolis, Brazil, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, [and] Alien. A reference I could never talk about early was Starship Troopers just because, obviously, the TVA are bad guys and in that movie they also use a lot of propaganda film and we had our Miss Minutes film. So, that movie played a hand. There was so much across the show. We had references from everywhere."

13. And the inspiration for how The Void would look in Episode 5 actually came from Teletubbies.

"I never really spoke much about it, but basically in Episode 5, The Void was originally written like a desert, but when I pitched, I said I thought it would be cool if rather than like a Mad Max desert apocalypse, it's more like an overgrown garden. Like, this is the place where the TVA throw their rubbish in. I just loved the idea of that. I think I realized as it started to unravel that I'd basically pitched the British countryside. As we were building it, I was like, 'Am I just homesick?' I remember trying to explain it to the visual effects artists who were making it, and I was like, 'You know, it's like the Teletubbies. You know, rolling hills just one after another.' So, yeah, the Teletubbies became a useful reference when describing The Void. So, that's how they played a hand in it."

14. Kate was the one who suggested Sophia Di Martino audition for the role of Sylvie.

"Sophia was in a short film of mine called Smear. I was very happy to pay her, finally, for her talent. When we were reading for the role, I was like, 'There's this actor I know and I think we should ask if she wants to read.' Everyone was like, 'Yeah, sure.' So, she read in these audition tapes, and we were all watching the tapes back and I remember everyone at the studio was like, 'Wait, who's that?' And I was like, 'Oh, that's my friend Sophia.' They thought she was amazing."

15. Sophia's audition tape was so good that she was immediately cast.

"Basically, everyone was really excited by her tape and I think she got cast in the room, which is incredible. I was excited because I got to bring my friend along. She's such a good actor. She's fantastic in Flowers and I was just so happy that she was coming along for the ride. I think she's done such a beautiful job with Sylvie."

16. One of the most important things when crafting Sylvie and the other Loki Variants was making sure they were their own characters, and not just Loki copies.

"I think the most important thing, minus just tiny little gestures, was really making it important that Sylvie was her own character and that all the Lokis weren't just 'faded photocopies.' They were all their own Loki. It wasn't even that they stood in a similar way or looked similar, but what in their soul made them a Loki. I love that line, 'Lokis always survive.' That idea goes across all our characters who are Lokis."

17. Casting Sylvie was one of the hardest things, and Sophia was able to bring her own spin to the character and she was the perfect "sparring partner" for Tom.

"Sophia has this talent — and I think Tom has it as well — where she's so funny and naturally so witty and charismatic that you can't take your eyes off her. She's also really good at playing characters with a lot of anger, pain, and vulnerability. I just felt that those qualities were so Loki to me. She brought her own spin on it too. Tom's performance is so iconic, so Sylvie was a tough role to cast because you need to give him a good sparring partner, but also, it's another Loki and people love Loki. So, it was really making sure that she felt distinctive enough that she was different, but also that we gave Tom a really fun actor to play alongside. It was really fun watching them. It was really fun seeing their chemistry grow."

18. Sylvie's fighting style was actually crafted to have similar movements to Loki's, thus showing that they are basically two sides of the same coin.

"I know Tom and Sophia spent a lot of time together. I think the fun thing with Sophia was the little things, like the fighting styles. She has a very different life to our Loki. Loki is very balletic in his fighting style, because he grew up in the palace, whereas Sylvie grew up in apocalypses. So, she was going to fight a bit more like a feral cat. I thought that was fun to play with. We worked with Mo [Ganderton], our stunt coordinator, and it was really fun to find little mirror image stuff they would do when they fight. We did a little bit of that on Lamentis and there's little bits here and there where we've done that. There's also little gestures that they do that are quite similar."

19. Kate had a "four hour" phone call with Owen Wilson before he was cast. They talked about Marvel, Mobius, and Loki.

"Everyone was so excited to cast him. I remember, they were like, 'Kate, just call him and see if he's up for it.' That was a lot of pressure. But then, I spoke to him on the phone and we spoke about Marvel and Loki in Marvel. Also, we talked about what our show was doing, who Mobius was, and then just getting his take on it. It was a very detailed conversation. I think we spoke for like four hours. At the end, he was like, 'I'm in.'"

20. Wunmi Mosaku's role was originally supposed to be a male character, but Kate suggested having an "open casting" because she thought Hunter B-15 would be really great as a female character.

"When I spoke to the studio, I was like, 'This character is cool, but I just think it could be really interesting if this was a female character. So, could we do open casting? We'll have men and women read, and we'll just see who's the best person for the role.' So, Wunmi read for it and just blew everyone away. We were like, 'We have to cast this person!' So, we kind of remade the role, really, around her."

21. Kate loves the idea that Hunter B-15 joins this club of sci-fi female characters who were originally supposed to be men.

"It was cool because I love Ripley in Alien and I love Kara Thrace in Battlestar Galactica. In the original Battlestar, Kara Thrace's character was played by a man, and Ripley in Alien was originally written as a man, so I liked that Hunter B-15 was joining these badass women in sci-fi. That was really cool to me."

22. When Kate pitched her ideas to the studio, she include Gugu Mbatha-Raw as the actor she wanted to play Ravonna.

"Gugu was in my pitch when I spoke to the studio. I was like, 'I think she'll be really great.' I love her work as an actor. From Belle to the episode of Black Mirror she's in, everything she's in is so different. I think that's so interesting with Ravonna because in the comics, Ravonna's been good and bad, and she's such a big character. I was like, 'I'd love to see Gugu's take on that character.' The studio was really excited by that and so was Gugu."

23. Kate said it was "important" to recognize Loki's bisexuality in the show, and she loved how it was naturally worked into a conversation between him and Sylvie.

"It was just important for us to do it in a way that made it canon, acknowledged it, and also done in a way where like, if someone asked me, I would just be matter of fact about it, like, 'Yeah, I'm bi.' I think that was the important thing for it and building it into the conversation. It was important to the whole team and the way that it was written was really beautiful. It felt like the right place to do it because these two characters are starting to open up to each other and are being a bit more honest about who they are. So it felt like the right place to have that moment."

24. The TVA weren't always going to be Variants/humans. That idea was born out of conversations with Kate, the writers, and the rest of the Loki team.

"When I started, I think it was a bit more up in the air with like, who are the Variants who work for the TVA? Are they Variants? They actually weren't Variants when I first joined. Casey was an alien, for example. I think something we all locked onto was it was more effective to make them more human. It was already in there that the Time-Keepers wouldn't be real and that would be a big Wizard of Oz rug pull. But the extra rug pull we added was that, on top of all of that, the TVA don't realize that they're actually Variants."

25. One of the things Kate enjoyed the most was figuring out the "inner workings of the TVA," like how the Minutemen would operate.

"I think it was really fun, in terms of the bigger structural stuff, to work with everyone. Also, figuring out the inner workings of the TVA, like every squad of Minutemen would have a hunter and they'll be little details sprinkled across all the world building in the show. Generally, we always looked at the characters and what was the best story and how to get to the end goal in the most effective way."

26. The season finale intro — which included seeing space, the sacred timeline, and hearing quotes from the MCU and history — was an homage to Contact.

"Basically, Eric Martin, our writer, he'd written in this amazing idea that for the opening we do an homage to Contact, and kind of move through space to the end of time. Then, we'd see the physical timeline, and then we see The Citadel. I love Contact, and I was like, 'Oh, that's so cool.' We took that idea to Darrin [Denlinger], our storyboard artist, and me and him just nerded out about space and about how we wanted to pay homage to Contact but not be completely the same.

So we played with the idea of time and he was bringing in so many cool ideas. But then, the amazing pitch he had as well was like, 'What if when we pull out at the very end, the timeline isn't a straight line like how you guys have been showing it in the show? What if it's actually circular?' I thought it was such a good idea."

27. Kevin Feige helped come up with the idea to include Marvel quotes over the Marvel logo because it was something the MCU had never done before.

"I had this weird idea where I remember saying to my editor, Emma McCleave, I was like, 'Oh, can we add a baby crying or the sounds of the city? And it's like we just hear life.' So her, me, and Kevin Wright got really into that. So we were adding all of these different sounds into the timeline. We also had quotes from just life, not Marvel. Then, we showed that cut to Kevin Feige and the rest of the team.

They all thought it was cool, and then Kevin Feige was like, 'Oh, do you know what? We've never done quotes on the Marvel logo before.' So, we thought that was cool and we added the quotes to the Marvel logo intro. Then, me, Kevin Wright, Emma, and Sarah Bennett, Emma's assistant, decided to just put the MCU quotes across the whole thing."

28. Going from hearing all of the voices in the season finale opening to utter silence in The Citadel was also a way of learning something about He Who Remains.

"I loved the idea of all the noise and this Greek chorus building because when you finally pull out and see The Citadel and how isolated it is, it tells you so much about He Who Remains' psychology because he's surrounded by all this brimming life, but he's completely isolated and alone. I thought it tells you a little bit about his character and who he might be before we see him."29. Kate loves that the season finale opening is a "beautiful handover" from the previous phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into this one with the multiverse.

"It was a real group effort, and we were just really excited at the idea of it being this really beautiful handover from the previous phase of Marvel. Also, we get to encapsulate a little bit of our world as well, which was really fun. The editing team put so much time into that. I really want to watch it in a planetarium or something."

29. Kate loves that the season finale opening is a "beautiful handover" from the previous phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe into this one with the multiverse.

"It was a real group effort, and we were just really excited at the idea of it being this really beautiful handover from the previous phase of Marvel. Also, we get to encapsulate a little bit of our world as well, which was really fun. The editing team put so much time into that. I really want to watch it in a planetarium or something."

30. And finally, even though Loki sets up a lot of upcoming MCU projects — namely, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and Ant-Man: Quantumania — Kate didn't have a lot of conversations with other MCU directors and writers.

"Kevin Wright and Stephen Broussard from Marvel were our producers on Loki, and they worked with Kevin Feige, Louis [D'Esposito], and Victoria [Alonso]. They always steered us in terms of the Marvel big picture and let us know if anything was off base. It's so secretive at Marvel, so I only spoke to Peyton just because our timelines crossed [with Jonathan]. Generally, Marvel manages everything internally and keeps us all in check."

[nightwingmyboi]

Hello! I was just wondering if you had knew the proper order to read Dick as Bats but with Damian as his robin? Thanks!

Sure! I couldn’t tell if you were asking for all the comics that have Dick as Batman or comics specifically where Dick and Damian are both present, so I just did a list for both. The ones in bold have both Dick and Damian present. This list is in my best attempt at an in-universe chronological order...it was hard but I tried (cries). Here we go: 

BATMAN DICK GRAYSON COMIC LIST

Nightwing (1996) #138: Dick and Damian first meet. This is part two of seven in “The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul” arc. You can read the whole thing for context, but this one is the only one with significant interaction between Dick and Damian. 

Nightwing (1996) #152-153: Dick tries to reconcile with the fact that Bruce is gone, and that he will have to continue his legacy. These comics have Dick going head to head with Ra’s al Ghul, and also show him moving back to Gotham. 

Battle for the Cowl #1-3: Gotham City is in trouble, and Dick is forced to take on the mantle of Batman. 

Batman (1940) #687-688: A lot of this is about Dick learning to be Batman, but you also see a lot of him talking about how he is planning to approach Damian. You also see some of the beginning of Dick training Damian as well. Technically an epilogue to Battle for the Cowl.

Batman (1940) #689-692: Dick continues to adjust to his role as Batman. Two-Face manages to sneak into the Batcave, and tests Dick’s conviction. 

Batman and Robin (2009) #1-3: Dick and Damian’s first time working together as Batman and Robin. 

Batman (1940) #693-696: While Batman takes to the streets, Damian is mostly delegated to training, in order to improve his detective work. Unfortunately, Damian doesn’t take the work seriously, leaving Dick vulnerable to Black Mask’s and Penguin’s plots…

Batman (1940) #697-699: Batman finishes dealing with Black Mask, and goes on to face the Riddler. 

Batman: Streets of Gotham #1-16: A collection of stories showing how Robin and Batman are adjusting to their new roles; the duo doesn’t have a lot of trust yet. Interestingly, these comics show more of how Hush was handled. They are also where Damian’s friend Colin is introduced for the first time. 

Batman and Robin (2009) #4-6: Batman and Robin versus a (somewhat out of character) Red Hood. 

Batman and Robin (2009) #7-9: Dick tries to resurrect Batman. Warning: this arc is extremely out of character for Dick and I hate everything about it. But this isn’t a comic rec list so I’ll include it, ugh. Here’s where you’d read this monstrosity. If you want to skip it, here’s all you’d need to know: 1) Damian went to his mother to heal his spine after Red Hood shot him, and 2) Dick and Damian now have reason to believe Bruce is alive. Bam, now you don’t even have to read it. 

Batman and Robin (2009) #10-12: Damian and Dick uncover clues that reveal that Bruce is alive. Meanwhile, Talia attempts to kill Dick...using her own son to do it. 

Batman (1940) #700: A special event that has sections where Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, and a future Damian Wayne are Batman. A weird comic overall, but the parts with Damian and Dick are really pretty good. 

Batman (1940) #703: Dick and Damian have developed a solid partnership, though Damian is continuing to learn more about being Robin and about his father. The comic acts as a prelude to Bruce Wayne: The Road Home. 

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Bruce evaluates how things have been going in his absence, and gives his thoughts on the new dynamic duo. 

Batman and Robin (2009) #13-16: Dick and Damian struggle to deal with Professor Pyg, Joker, and Dr. Hurt. Bruce returns! 

Batman (1940) #704-712: Batman leaves Gotham to Dick while he puts Batman Incorporated into place. Damian, Tim, Azrael, and Selina all make appearances in this stretch of comics. 

Batman and Robin (2009) #17-22: Dick and Damian work together as Batman and Robin to stop Una Nemo, and then White Knight in the following arc. 

Batman and Robin (2009) #23-25: Dick and Damian team up with Jason to save his former sidekick, Scarlet. (Jason’s still acting a bit more extreme than you’d typically expect.) 

Batman: Black Mirror: This is a collection of Detective Comics #871-881. I’d say these are my favorite Dick!Batman stories ever. All the cases are very good (really chilling), and the characterizations are top notch stuff. Lots of Gordon, Barbara, and some Tim also. 

Batman (1940) #713: Damian tells the story of Batman and Robin. Very heartwarming. 

Batman: Gates of Gotham #1-5: A good story, it’s interesting to see how Dick interacts with his siblings (ie Cass, Tim, and Damian) as Batman. 

There’s definitely a bit of hopping back and forth required if you’re going to read it this way lmao. Also, here are some more comics with Dick as Batman that I was too lazy to try to put into the timeline here: 

Superman/Batman #76: Superman’s reaction to Dick taking up the Batman mantle following Bruce’s death. Happens towards the beginning of Dick’s time as Batman. 

Blackest Night: Batman #1-3: Dick, Tim, and Damian deal with an army of Black Lanterns, composed of once-dead friends and enemies. Bruce’s body is stolen, and Dick and Tim have to face their parents’ reanimated corpses. 

Red Robin (2009): Mostly focused on Tim Drake. Dick and Damian appear in minor cameos throughout as well though. It’s interesting to look at Dick and Damian as they are in issue #1, with Damian being really rude and not listening to Dick at all, and then jumping to issue #12 and seeing just how much Damian now follows Dick’s lead and has changed while Tim was away. Idk, it’s just kind of cool. Issues #13-14 also have Tim working with the new dynamic duo as well. 

Batgirl (2009): This one is mostly focused on Stephanie Brown taking up the Batgirl mantle in the wake of Bruce’s death. Dick and Damian first meet Stephanie in issue #5...and they get off to a very rough start with her lmao. The team features heavily in #6-7 also. 

Titans (2008): This series starts off with Dick as Nightwing, but then he leaves the team to become Batman at the end of #10. He appears as Batman in: #15 with Garth, #21 with Starfire (really thought this one was interesting), #23 with Wally and Donna, and #28-30 with Slade. 

Justice League of America (2006) #41-60: Dick’s time on the Justice League with Donna. Likely takes place towards the middle and end of Dick’s time as Batman. 

Hope this is helpful to you! 

[radramblog]

What happened to Dirk in Homestuck^2?

Why am I doing this to myself.

I memed a little yesterday when I was posting that article around social medias about Homestuck jokes, because once again we are in lockdown and I am therefore Stuck at Home. Canned laughter goes here. But there’s a topic related to the comic- or more specifically, its aborted sequel, Homestuck^2, that I’m interested in delving into a little bit. I’m going to avoid talking about spoilers as much as possible, but considering said comic takes place not only after the events of the massive sprawl that is Homestuck but also the more linear but still messy Epilogues, some amount of sus shit is inevitable.

Anyway. Much maligned is what the Epilogues and 2 did to everyone’s favourite decapitation target, Dirk Strider, and I have a theory as to why it happened this way.

To begin with, let’s summarise what and who Dirk is through the course of the comics. Fair warning from me, though, it’s been a while since I read through this.

Dirk Strider is a teenager who grew up in a post-apocalyptic future Earth, completely devoid of physical contact with other people and only really ever gets to talk to 3 other people, only one of whom is in anything remotely resembling a relatable situation. He struggles with self-identity, having created numerous robots including an artificial intelligence based on his own brain, aka Lil’ Hal. He’s somewhat of a control freak, and a bit of a cold aloof asshole, but means well, and is pretty gay. NBD. The kinda guy to set up a plan meticulously and thoroughly, not informing any of the moving parts even if said parts are his friends, and often involving some form of self-sacrifice.

Throughout the comic he further reckons with self-identity problems and his own self-loathing including entering a relationship with Jake which doesn’t go well and he eventually breaks off since he knows his overbearing and manipulative behaviour is Not Cool and Pretty Toxic but doesn’t know how to shut it off. Eventually he reaches the God Tier as a Prince of Heart, gaining the power to literally annihilate souls, which he never actually uses since he gets yeeted into deep (Paradox) space and then everything goes to shit. Except none of that happens because of the Retcon (aside from the God Tier bit) and we don’t actually see how that shit progressed in the canon timeline. I think. Dirk’s arc, as it were, doesn’t really come full circle- while he does assist in Dave’s character…growth? he really isn’t the focus of that conversation. This immediately precedes the action climax and there isn’t literally any dialogue after that so that’s what we’re left with.

I like Dirk in Homestuck a lot. It’s hard not to, considering the flashes heavily featuring him (Unite/Synchronise and Prince of Heart: Rise Up) are genuinely excellent, along with many of his music themes being absolute bangers. He gets to interact with Caliborn a lot, with a pretty great banter, there, and the whole splintered personality thing is a really interesting hook for a character. I think he’s my favourite of the Alpha kids, a controversial pick considering I know everyone loves Roxy so much. I think, I’m not as in tune with the fandom as that statement implies I am.

And then the Epilogues/Homestuck 2 came.

Now I read the Meat half of the epilogues first, but that’s more interesting, so we’ll tackle Candy first (this is going to get real confusing for those who haven’t read this comic, huh).

In Candy, Dirk almost immediately kills himself, citing the irrelevance of the timeline as cause, an act considered by whatever mechanism governs God Tier deaths to be Just because he hates himself (and also bc of things we’ll get into), so it actually sticks. This isn’t super relevant for the discussion, but that’s just kinda so unbelievably fucked up? Entirely? I’d imagine if you read Candy first you might get entirely turned off by this, which I’m sure a lot of people did.

Meat is where the, well, meat of post-canon Dirk is. You see, a concept very quickly introduced in the tail end of the original comic is the Ultimate Self, an idea where you somehow encompass every different timeline iteration or alternate version of yourself. This was pretty clearly tacked on to make it so characters whose arcs all happened in the retcon timeline could have their not getting an actual arc explained away, but it didn’t land then and it sure doesn’t land for me now. Anyway, in Meat, Dirk becomes his ultimate self, making him near-omniscient and able to control the fabric of the story himself- for much of this story, he is the narrator. And he uses this power to fuck with all his friends really distressingly without their knowledge (or consent), including breaking up a marriage, in order to further his own goals which largely appear to be just keep the story going so to not fade out of relevance. It’s a plot that makes no sense with his previous characterisation, but I guess now that he’s the Ultimate Self he’s a different person? But I liked old Dirk, and I don’t like New Dirk. He’s a villain now, but he made a much better anti-hero.

But this would be fine if he (or the epilogues, or Homestuck^2) were written well. But they aren’t. Dirk’s dialogue is long, painfully drawn out, with tangents that tend to amount to pure wank, misused literary references and pointless metaphors that go on and on, filling the screen with a bright orange screed that hurts to look at as much as it does to comprehend. It’s not fun. And we’ve seen Dirk communicate before, obviously, the story of Homestuck is built around chatlogs, but it wasn’t like this. He was sarcastic, dryly witty, blunt at times. Even when he was literally talking to a different version of himself it didn’t get that masturbatory.

I was so confused about what the hell happened to Dirk, because I had no idea what the hell someone writing this character was thinking when they turned him into this. And then, the 21st page of Homestuck^2 dropped.

And it all came together.

What Ultimate Dirk and Terezi are referring to is Pony Pals: Detective Pony, a children’s book about some girls who hang out with ponies and solve a mystery. It’s a real book, buy it for your 5-year-old.

Except they’re not referring to that, they’re referring to the Homestuck Canon version of Detective Pony- a birthday gift from Dirk to Jane, heavily edited and to be much more obscene and eventually developing into it’s own story, stated to be “tough, emotionally draining, but cathartic in all the worst ways possible”.

Except the quote “Remember Longcat, Jane?” and references to philosophy, dead languages, and ancient earth culture aren’t referring to the three pages of the Dirk-edited Detective Pony we see in the actual comic itself. That quote doesn’t appear there.

That image is from Detective Pony, by Sonnetstuck- the 40,000 word fanfiction from 2014 that serves as a completed version of Jane’s copy of the book. An expansion of what we see in canon. And it’s a tough, emotionally draining read, but cathartic in all the worst ways possible.

It’s a very good fanfiction.

In the later bits of Detective Pony, we can start to see the origins of what would become Ultimate Dirk’s signature style of writing. Long blocks of rambling text, orange dripping down the page, references to philosophy and history and language that go on and on. And it probably does look familiar to those who read the Epilogues and ^2. 

But there are a couple of key differences here. First of all, it’s just better written? The way these rambles circle back on themselves is so excellent, the absolute absurdity of this being written on top of a pony book for little girls, the humour (beyond some of the more immature stuff), it’s just a really well-written piece of fiction. Hell, you don’t even need to be familiar with the character of Dirk to enjoy it. It’s a harrowing piece, but it’s also self-aware- because it’s not supposed to be tough, draining, cathartic etc. just for Jane- it’s clearly that for Dirk himself.

The second part is, of course, that this is a fanfiction. It’s not canon, it’s not official, this is by someone who really likes Dirk for people who really like Dirk. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, so if you bounce off it (and I’m sure a lot did), then you don’t have to keep reading it, it’s fine, thanks for playing. As much as Homestuck^2 tried to doll itself up as “dubiously canon” it’s still the official continuation of the story, and that means if it’s as difficult to get into as Detective Pony, that’s going to be a problem for a lot of people.

The other part of it is that Detective Pony’s exploration of Dirk’s character is, well, in character. When the man himself steps in as a character in his own book, the explorations of what he is as an author, who he is as a person, make perfect sense for what we see of him at the start of the comic. He is that manipulative, blunt person, and he is aware of his faults. He’s the kind of person to hide a lamentation on his own failings inside an impenetrable maze of a story layered on top of a book about fucking ponies. Ultimate Dirk does not act like Dirk, outside of the “manipulator” angle, something that Dirk was aware of and trying to improve in the comic. But I guess people don’t have arcs, right?

It’s so interesting to see the seeds of Homestuck^2 laden within Detective Pony- because the meta angle that and the epilogues take is also represented in said fanfiction. While the nature of canon is a facet of the work, the idea of authors and narrators fighting for control of a story, different ideas in mind for the characters, one being more personally connected to them than the other, it’s all there. When I wrote about Fallout 4 in the past, I mentioned being worried that Bethesda took the wrong lessons from Skyrim- seeing something successful and trying to recapture that lightning in a bottle. I think Homestuck^2 is an extreme example of this- the writers of the comic saw Sonnetstuck’s masterwork and thought, yeah that’s great, we can do that. But they just can’t. And with the comic crashed and burning, the probably won’t ever get a chance to. Dirk is forever stuck as this amalgamation of himself that looks nothing like any individual version of him ever did.

At least we will still have Detective Pony, and many other excellent fanworks, for actually good Dirk content. I admittedly haven’t looked into much fanfic written during/post-epilogues, and I’m kind of afraid of what I’ll see- I can only hope the fanbase didn’t take the same wrong lessons as the official team did.

[magical-girl-hell]

A Fan-%#&#$-tastically Good Story

A Reading Guide to Marvel Comics’ Loki

This is an updated version of an old post that was getting a little unwieldy to edit. Same caveat as the original post: this isn’t every appearance of Loki in the last fifteen years, but it’s pretty dang close! I’ve tried to focus on trade paperbacks with the most commonly listed author, to make it easy for people to find them.

Part 1: 2007-2015

Thor by J. Michael Straczynski (volumes 1-3)

Thor, now king of Asgard and wielding the Odinforce, is returned from the void after Ragnarok. He decides to bring back the rest of the Asgardians and establish a new Asgard floating above Broxton, Oklahoma, but Loki has plans of his own –  or rather, her own.

There’s a lot in these, but particularly there’s a good amount of time devoted to Loki’s origin and how he came to be adopted by Odin. I highly recommend these! They’re quite good, and if you’re new to the Marvel Comics universe (if you’re coming from the cinematic universe, for example) it’ll give you a good idea of who the characters are and how they fit into this world.

Thor by Kieron Gillen (Complete Collection) and Siege by Brian Michael Bendis

With the help of Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers, Loki works to bring new Asgard crashing down – but the heroes bring chaos that not even Loki is prepared for.

Thor: The World Eaters by Matt Fraction

In the wake of the siege of Asgard, Thor misses his brother. Oh, and Galactus wants to eat Earth or something.

These are transitional, and there’s a lot less focus on Loki overall, but I still recommend them. Siege is a big Avengers crossover event, Gillen’s book and Siege contain the end of Old Loki, and World Eaters contains the beginning of Kid Loki. If you want to skip them, the next entry in this series will recap them.

Journey Into Mystery by Kieron Gillen

The complete(ish) adventures of Kid Loki. The old Loki is dead and in his place is a new Loki: a child with no memories of his predecessor’s evil. But Asgard doesn’t trust him, and old Loki left behind plenty of schemes. Some crimes can never be forgiven.

If you want these in paperback and you can afford it, there is a pair of lovely and sadly out-of-print omnibus books, but for the rest of us peasants, there are five volumes to keep track of:

Journey Into Mystery: Fear Itself

Journey Into Mystery: Fear Itself Fallout

Journey Into Mystery: The Terrorism Myth

Journey Into Mystery: The Manchester Gods

The Mighty Thor / Journey Into Mystery: Everything Burns

Tie-ins:

The Mighty Thor by Matt Fraction (volumes 1-3) -- While Loki and Leah are doing their own thing in Journey into Mystery, Loki’s having some adventures with Thor on the side, as well. If you want to read about them, this is where to find them.

Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen

Loki schemes to manipulate a bunch of teenage superheroes into helping him regain his full power as the group is pursued across the multiverse by the sinister Mother: an extradimensional entity invisible to adults, who manifests as murderous doppelgangers of the teenagers’ parents.

At least digitally, these are available now as a single collection: Young Avengers by Gillen & Mckelvie: The Complete Collection (But one comic didn’t look that great so... enjoy the original three trade paperbacks -- the full collection has the same cover as the last volume, sans volume title.)

Tie-ins:

A+X 005 (collected in Marvel A+X TPB: Equals Awesome) -- Directly before the events of Young Avengers, Loki appears in issue 5 of Marvel’s one-shot crossover series A+X, in a teamup (of sorts) with Mister Sinister. I can’t find the trade paperback anywhere, but it’s just a one-shot side story and he only appears in the one issue, so unless you’re really invested in finding out the fate of Doom’s Loki clones from Siege or you want to read the rest of the Avengers/X-men teamups in the book, you can skip this.

Loki: Agent of Asgard by Al Ewing

Loki makes a deal with the All-Mother of Asgard: for every mission he takes on for them, they will strike one of old Loki’s crimes from the books. Since the old Loki was reborn when Thor called the Asgardians back from the void, he has been scheming and struggling against the vicious cycles of his past. Loki has done terrible things to become the god he is today -- and now he is determined to wrest back control of his destiny and write his own story at last.

Or die trying... again.

Original Sin: Thor & Loki -- The Tenth Realm by Jason Aaron and Al Ewing

Loki takes a break from dealing with the All-Mother’s missions to accompany Thor on a mission to the sealed-off tenth realm to find their long-lost sister.

These are available as a single complete collection digitally (Loki: Agent Of Asgard - The Complete Collection), and I highly recommend it, as it also contains the relevant parts of the elusive Marvel Now! Point One 001 one-shot prequel comic (without which, the beginning of Agent of Asgard is rather abrupt.) Otherwise, if you want the three original volumes, don’t skip Original Sin -- it’s not recapped in Agent of Asgard, and without it the transition from volume 1 to 2 is very confusing. Think of it as volume 1.5.

Tie-ins:

Ms. Marvel 012 (Collected in Ms. Marvel Vol. 3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson) -- (Takes place before Original Sin.) Loki makes some mischief in Kamala’s neighborhood -- and her love life! -- in the Valentine’s Day issue of Ms. Marvel. One-shot, can be safely skipped.

Avengers & X-Men: Axis by Rick Rumender -- The full Axis alignment-swap event. Relevant parts are included in the trade paperbacks for Agent of Asgard, but there’s more Loki content in the full event! It can be safely skipped.

Angela: Asgard’s Assassin (Collected in Angela: Asgard's Assassin Vol. 1: Priceless by Kieron Gillen) -- Loki has a brief part trying to help Thor hunt down their sisters when Angela steals Odin and Freyja’s new baby daughter, Laussa. Recommended if you liked Angela from Original Sin and/or if you’ve enjoyed the rest of Kieron Gillen’s work so far. If you’re just here for Loki, you can safely skip it, he ducks out of the adventure pretty early.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 007-008 (Collected in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Volume 2: Squirrel You Know It’s True by Ryan North) -- Somewhere between the end of Axis and the end of Agent of Asgard, Loki helps Squirrel Girl trap Ratatoskr, the wicked squirrel-god of gossip – never mind that he’s kind of the one that let her out to begin with! While you can skip this one, I actually really recommend reading it unless you’re super not into SG. Loki gets a fair few more little teamups with her (including some that span multiple issues), Thors appear (in both Worthy and Unworthy flavors), and Ratatoskr stays relevant. It’s pretty easy to find single issues digitally if you don’t want the whole tbp. (Loki appears in the second half, in issue #8)

Honorable mention:

Thor and Loki: Blood Brothers by Robert Rodi and Esad Ribic -- In an alternate universe, Loki has waged war on Asgard and won, and now he must decide what to do with his new crown and his captured enemies. To secure victory for all time, all he must do now is execute Thor -- so why does he hesitate?

A heavy deep dive into Loki’s character, his past, and his relationships that, while not canon to the 616 comic universe, has greatly informed both the comics and cinematic adaptations of Loki. A piece of Loki history, and the source of a lot of common fanon.

-

I’ll link to part 2 when it’s finished. Until then, enjoy this updated guide!

I don’t know that I remember some of these well enough to give good content warnings for them, but I definitely remember Siege in particular having some brief but surprisingly extreme gore, so you might want to skip it if that’s gonna bother you. (And maybe World Eaters, if that contains the dream arc?) Tenth Realm and Asgard’s Assassin also both contain babies in mortal peril.

[winterironbang]

Art Preview:

 Below you will find the art previews for this year, remember authors that its not quite time for claiming yet!Take a good look and pick 2-3 favourites and remember their Title for when claiming does begin.

If you’d rather see the art as a google doc click here

   Title: Kissing under the fireworks

Description/Prompt: what it says on the tin. Kissing under the fireworks.

This one is a pretty open universe, could be a first kiss, a regular kiss exchanged at New Year's Eve, the fireworks are celebrating that one of them have been crowned King or them finally getting married. Or maybe a romantic proposal at a holiday celebration. 

Warnings: None

Limitations: No unhappy/ambiguous ending, no alcoholism (but recovery or past mentions are fine), no watersports (kink) 

A/N: The art is not finished I am open to reinterpretation and/or taking the prompt a different way then the one I have outlined or changing the art a bit to better fit the story like Bucky (not) having the arm, short hair or long and similar 

 Title: welcome back / welcome home 

Description/Prompt: Bucky pulls Tony into a bone crushing hug, extremely relieved that Tony is back home and alive. Bucky doesn't plan to let him go, ever again. 

Open verse, could be a no-power AU, or pre-Afghanistan, or maybe sometime when Tony is IronMan. It could be focusing on Bucky's anguish at not knowing where is Tony if he is alive. Or could be the celebration that Tony is home. Maybe how is their life is being affected after.

Warnings: None

Limitations: No unhappy/ambiguous ending, no alcoholism (but recovery or past mentions are fine), no watersports (kink) 

A/N: The art is not finished I am open to reinterpretation and/or taking the prompt a different way then the one I have outlined or changing the art a bit to better fit the story like Bucky (not) having the arm, short hair or long and similar

   Title: 19th century AU

Prompt: 19th century-vibes AU (or can be Bridgerton AU), with behaving one way in private and another way in public to save face, love, and searching for one's freedom. (Can be ABO or not)

Limitations: dubcon/noncon between the OTP, eye gore, MCD, D/s verse (a normal universe with a D/s relationship is fine though), unhappy ending, pwp. I would prefer if it was not simple love at first sight.

 Title: Sweethearts

Description/Prompt:  Punk!Alpha!Bucky gets into a fight, not on purpose - this time - and while he does win, he gets beaten badly. 

He tries to walk it off, but he runs into his Omega classmate Tony who is heading home from a late night lab-session. 

Tony sees him and is very adamant to treat Bucky's injuries - he lets slip by accident a couple of details about Bucky, showcasing that he pays more attention to Bucky than a "proper" Omega should. 

Tony patches Bucky up, and they fall asleep on the couch, Bucky relaxing after a long while.

They end up becoming friends and Tony offers to tutor Bucky. 

They end up falling in love with Tony, and Bucky stops skipping class and getting into so many fights. Though Tony patches him up, every single time. 

In the end Bucky's grades improve enough that he finishes in the Top 10 of the class. 

Warnings: none

Limitations: No unhappy/ambiguous ending, no alcoholism (but recovery or past mentions are fine), no watersports (kink) 

A/N: The art is not finished I am open to reinterpretation and/or taking the prompt a different way then the one I have outlined or changing the art a bit to better fit the story like Bucky (not) having the arm, short hair or long and similar  

Title: Iron Man Noir AU

Prompt: Iron Man Noir AU with influences from Spider-Man Noir. It is 1939, Tony Stark is undercover in Berlin in his hidden Cabaret, to gather intel, and help where help is needed. 

Why is Bucky there? Is he sent for undercover work, ready to meet some secret contact? Is he a Russian spy sent to gather information about America's plans? Or is he just some normal guy who wandered into the wrong Cabaret at the wrong time? 

(These are just some ideas for Bucky, if you have others, let's talk! Bucky could be MCU-inspired or comic-inspired, or a mix or something else.)

Limitations: noncon between Bucky and Tony,  MCD, ABO, D/s verse (a normal universe with a D/s relationship is fine though), eye gore, eye things in general, unhappy ending, pwp, smoking except pipes.

  Title: BDSM AU

Description/Prompt: I was definitely thinking praise kink and rope play, but feel free to include others as well. Who is being tied up is the Author's choice, I will adjust the art accordingly (like including Bucky's metal arm) 

Warnings: BDSM, Rope play and I guess other kind of kinks if they get included. 

Limitations: No unhappy/ambiguous ending, no alcoholism (but recovery or past mentions are fine), no watersports (kink) 

A/N: The art is not finished I am open to reinterpretation and/or taking the prompt a different way then the one I have outlined or changing the art a bit to better fit the story like Bucky (not) having the arm, short hair or long and similar.

    Title: Sea AU 

Description/Prompt: Siren/Mermaid Tony and Sailor/Pirate/Privateer!Bucky - Tony visits his land bound lover, Bucky. 

This one is open verse, I have already listed couple of options for them, but feel free to change that. 

The world can be dark - Siren!Tony attracts unsuspecting ships (and sailors) to their death. Either by Bucky's sword or by shipwrecking them.

Could be angst - ala Little Mermaid style (original or Disney version) or a completely new one 

Could be hurt/comfort - Bucky is the only survivor of his ship, because Tony saved him. But Tony could only bring him to a lonely Island, where the only way out is for Bucky to build a raft, and Tony provides company whenever he can stay above water. 

Could be fluff - Tony and Bucky deeply in love, where in the end Bucky follows Prince Tony into the depths of the ocean, never to be seen again by human eyes.

Or any other combinations! Go wild! 

Warnings: None, I would say 

Limitations: No unhappy/ambiguous ending, no alcoholism (but recovery or past mentions are fine), no watersports (kink) 

A/N: The art is not finished I am open to reinterpretation and/or taking the prompt a different way then the one I have outlined or changing the art a bit to better fit the story like Bucky (not) having the arm, short hair or long and similar 

Title: Vampire Bucky

Prompt: Vampire Bucky AU with Bucky. How does Tony find him like this? Let’s brainstorm together.

Limitations: noncon between Bucky and Tony, unhappy ending, pwp, MCD, ABO, D/s verse (a normal universe with a D/s relationship is fine though), eye gore, eye things in general, smoking, evil Tony, evil Bucky

A/N: It's still very sketchy, total WIP.

   Title: Knight in shining armour

Description/Prompt: The Winter soldier is pulled from a burning HYDRA base by IronMan. 

Open verse, it could be that Bucky is slowly methodically taking his revenge on HYDRA, and everytime he is injured IronMan comes and rescues him, but Bucky never stays, all the way until the end. 

Or maybe Bucky was kidnapped and wiped, and IronMan wiped out the HYDRA base in revenge and now he is taking Bucky home.

Maybe IronMan finds HYDRA during Avengers one and decides to do some recon on his own and comes face to face with Bucky Barnes. 

There are sooo many possibilities! 

(While the IronMan armour is intended to be the Bleeding Edge armour, this can be changed) 

Warnings: Hurt/Comfort? Possibly darker themes 

Limitations: No unhappy/ambiguous ending, no alcoholism (but recovery or past mentions are fine), no watersports (kink) 

A/N: The art is not finished I am open to reinterpretation and/or taking the prompt a different way then the one I have outlined or changing the art a bit to better fit the story like Bucky (not) having the arm, short hair or long and similar 

Title: Dragon Shifter AU

Description/Prompt: Tony and Bucky are dragon shifters, Tony with fire magic, Bucky with ice magic. They can't stand each other, but they have to get along now... (Basically any enemies/ frenemies to lovers story you can thing of will make me happy, maybe with arranged marriage or a common goal/ enemy?)

Limitations: no A/B/O, no Civl War salt, no non-con between bucky/ tony, no mpreg

A/N: This art is purely self-indulgent. Anyone who wants to just have fun with the idea feel free to pick it up!

Title: Warlord Tony AU

Prompt: Everyone has heard of the warlord Iron Man, a cunning monster whose troops mercilessly slaughter his opponents on the battlefield and who has never lost a single battle. According to some he's not even a man at all: After all, he can cut through weapons and people alike, and survived direct hits that would kill a normal man. His army turns wins fights against superior numbers and his cannons never miss their target. Very few people know that he also hides quite a number of secrets in a calm little valley at the heart of his territory, in a town called Arc.

For Bucky, you can go wild - whether he's part of a tribute, an enemy soldier, an assassin or something else. We're looking forward to talking about plot ideas!

Warnings: implied violence, blood

Limitations: no non-con between Tony/Bucky, no fully evil Tony, no MCD, no ABO, no mrpeg, no team cap  bashing pls

  Title: Alpine 

Description/Prompt: Biker Bucky finds Alpine on the side of the road, abadoned and hungry. Bucky decides to take Alpine to the vet, unfortunately this being - your choice of holiday - there are not many vets are open and most of them is for emergency only. 

Bucky worried that the kitten won't survive the night, runs into vet!Tony who is about to head home. However seeing the kitten, Tony decides to help and nurture the kitten. Alpine survives the night and becomes a bike-riding cat, usually traveling on Bucky's shoulders or back pack. 

The story could be a falling in love at first sight, or Bucky bringing all kinds of animals to Tony, because Bucky trusts Tony to take care of them. (There maybe a cracky story hidden in there somewhere too *wink*) 

Warnings: no kittens were harmed in the making of this prompt - none 

Limitations: No unhappy/ambiguous ending, no alcoholism (but recovery or past mentions are fine), no watersports (kink) 

A/N: The art is not finished I am open to reinterpretation and/or taking the prompt a different way then the one I have outlined or changing the art a bit to better fit the story like Bucky (not) having the arm, short hair or long and similar  

    Title: Late night dance lessons 

Description/Prompt: Bucky is baking late into the night as a super soldier he doesn't need much sleep and baking is a relaxing hobby. It's 2am, the night is quiet no people around and his favourite music is playing from the stereo. 

This is the moment when Tony arrives (could be a long night at the 'shop, or maybe just coming in from an overnight flight, maybe this is the time they regularly meet), they get into a small talk which slowly evolves into Tony staying and talking and Bucky reminscens of old times and what he can remember. It's a soft and tender talking the one people only have at 3am. Then an old times music comes on, reminding Bucky of nights when he went out to dance. And Tony seeing the look on his face offers to dance with him. 

Warnings: None

Limitations: No unhappy/ambiguous ending, no alcoholism (but recovery or past mentions are fine), no watersports (kink) 

A/N: The art is not finished I am open to reinterpretation and/or taking the prompt a different way then the one I have outlined or changing the art a bit to better fit the story like Bucky (not) having the arm, short hair or long and similar 

Title: Feats of Flexibility 

Description/Prompt: Bucky is doing push-ups, and someone accuses him of showing off - he had been in the gym for hours now - and Bucky claims that this nothing challenging to him, so naturally he is challenged into proving it. 

This is escalated into more and more complicated and complex tasks ending in Tony sitting on Bucky's back while he is doing push ups, with his feet in the air 

Poor Tony who only come down to keep in shape and tries valiantly to not stare at those feats of muscles and flexibility gets roped in 

Can end in a kiss/confession or more sexy times *wink*

Warnings: None

Limitations: No unhappy/ambiguous ending, no alcoholism (but recovery or past mentions are fine), no watersports (kink) 

A/N: The art is not finished I am open to reinterpretation and/or taking the prompt a different way then the one I have outlined or changing the art a bit to better fit the story like Bucky (not) having the arm, short hair or long and similar 

Title: Untitled

Description/Prompt: Open to any ideas for some steampunk shenaniganry! Skyships, pirates, dashing captains, scrappy inventors, swash*buckly* adventures?

Warnings: none?

Limitations:  DNWs include a/b/o, mpreg, noncon, dubcon between major protagonists, death of major protagonists, unhappy/ bad endings

  Title: Fantasy Secret Identity AU

Description: Bucky standing in front of a wall plastered with posters of all sorts, among them some wanted posters, one for Iron Man, one for the Winter Soldier.

Prompt: Tony Stark is a well-known noble and mage, and Iron Man is a well-known villain. Of course, the two aren't connected at all. Until Tony Stark takes on a bet to figure out the identity of the man in the armor - and hires James Barnes, a washed-up mercenary to find any clues possible. It's just as well James has no links to the feared assassin called Winter Soldier, because that would be making things complicated.

I'm always open for other ideas but am really hoping for some identity porn :D

Warnings: None

Limitations: no A/B/O, no mpreg, no CW salt, no MCD

A/N: I haven't inked most of the posters in order to leave the author some freedom for the AU they want to make - I'm open for suggestions about adding stuff in!

  Title: Promise of the Desire to Live

Description/Prompt: This is a Pokémon crossover piece. The Pokémon egg on the left belongs to Magearna and will hatch in her original coloring (which are pretty much Iron Man colors). This Magearna will be the partner of Tony. The Pokémon egg on the right belongs to Mewtwo and will have almost the same coloring as Shadow Mewtwo except that his tail will be navy blue. This Mewtwo will be Bucky’s partner. Here’s the prompt – 

            The Avengers are called to deescalate a situation involving a young and semi-inexperienced Inhuman who lost her family due to a suicide bomber. After receiving her powers mere days after that traumatic event, this young girl, no more than 12, is able to sense who has a strong desire to commit suicide and send them to places/people/beings that need help and are able to bring them back from the brink of suicide.

Omega!Tony and Alpha!Bucky are sent to a Team Plasma lab with an egg incubator in the center of the room with two eggs in it. They take the eggs.

Warnings: Discussions of depression and suicidal thoughts

Limitations: Story cannot be ended with the Pokémon hatching. I want a full-length Pokémon journey from Bucky, Tony, and their Pokémon. I want them to find a way to travel between the Pokémon world and their home world. Also, must have A/B/O. No rape.

Title: Bunny Tony/ Wolf Bucky

Description/prompt: No matter what the media and Hollywood tried to say, there wasn't really that much difference between predator and prey presenting people. A jaguar wouldn't love climbing trees and napping all day anymore than a squirrel would hoard nuts and play deadly games with cars.

But whenever Tony's gorgeous rear and fluffy tail wind up in Bucky's line of sight, he has to clamp his teeth against a strong urge to bite. And when Tony comes down to the kitchen each morning, hair a mess and silky, floppy ears on display, Bucky has to fight more possessive urges. He's sure neither the team or Tony would appreciate Bucky dragging the bunny off to his territory...Would they?

Warnings: N/A

Limitations: Happy Ending, No Civil War, No  AoU, No bathroom kinks, Prefer Team as family, Explicit welcome

A/N: The sketch will be colored and have at least one more piece featuring a Wolf Bucky. And maybe a shot of Tony's fluffy tail.

  Title: Untitled 2

Description/Prompt: something based on the John Wick tailor scene or James Bond-Q outfitting or just general spies or mafia? 

Open for brainstorming or alternate interpretations or anything really! Assassins/Spies not up your alley? image can be edited/background removed if your idea is for a non powers tailor au instead!

Warnings: canon typical violence for story (john wick levels or mcu levels up to author?)

Limitations:  DNWs include a/b/o, mpreg, noncon, dubcon between major protagonists, death of major protagonists, unhappy/ bad endings

Title: Hold out your hand

Description/Prompt: The only thing I feel needs to be heavily included in the fic would be about Bucky's relationship with his arm and how Tony helps him with that (though it doesn't technically need to be the main storyline) 

If you want other input then I love tropes especially soulmate type situations and Bucky recovery fics, but pretty much any trope is good. 

Warnings: NA

Limitations: Character death, age play (I am pretty much open to anything else, any rating is cool with me as is including smut or not)

A/N: I am still messing with the composition and finish on this so if you have any input then let me know :) (for example the smaller images of the hands and Tony could be used individually for page breaks in the story rather than being the main art?)

Title: Porcelain and Metal or maybe a Toy au?

Description/Prompt: This particular piece was created because I really wanted a porcelain ballerina tony and nutcracker-ish bucky.This could be a first meeting scene of sorts with bucky being a shameless flirt but the writer could expand and add more scenes of course! I mostly just wanted a very cute and magic realism-ish vibe. 

Warnings: N/A

Limitations: No unhappy endings. A bit of angst for the sake of the plot is fine. Non-consensual acts of any sorts is also a no

Title: Scheherazade AU

Description/Prompt: Based on Thousand and One Nights, war chief!Bucky refuses a spouse and threatens to kill anyone he's set up with. Tony ends up married to him and talks every night, leaving off right before bed so Bucky has to keep him around another day 

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Limitations: no noncon/heavy warnings. Also really not into stucky, even as background influence/past feelings. Also don't want any feminization of Tony by having him as 'weaker' or a damsel. I don't like infidelity or overcomplicated drama because of simple misunderstandings. Some smut is okay, but no hard kinks, PWP, or A/B/O.

A/N: Besides inspiration of original story, I don't have much planned. While no warnings, it would include arranged marriage, but no actual noncon please. I like slowburn so totally down for a long fic. Also pretty relaxed with background ships and always here for some epic friendships (tony and rhodey, bucky and nat, etc). 

  Title: Mirror images

Description/Prompt: Bucky and Winter got separated into two bodies by accident or on purpose, which helps greatly with them getting along better (or at all), until they decide independently to woo Tony 

Both of them show how much they care about Tony, even if it's very very different from each other 

Tony appreciates and loves both and absolutely can't decide between the two (nor does he want to because both are important to him) and it ends in polamory either a triangle or v-shaped

Warnings: N/A

Limitations: No unhappy/ambiguous ending, no alcoholism (but recovery or past mentions are fine), no watersports (kink) 

A/N: The art is not finished I am open to reinterpretation and/or taking the prompt a different way then the one I have outlined or changing the art a bit to better fit the story like Bucky (not) having the arm, short hair or long and similar 

Title: College au meet cute or something

Description/Prompt: No specific plot, maybe Bucky and Tony like each other but both are oblivious to the others feelings. Steve and Rhodey as the "Why am I bestf riends with an idiot" best friend. With minor thundershield please 

Warning: N/A

Limitations: No unhappy endings. Bit of angst for the sake of plot is fine.

A/N: Will color and clean this up a bit. I'll also be willing to make more art for the story if ever.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Weird q..but i really dont understand why most fans hate season 4, especially the last episode. Why? I think it gave us a deeper look on both sherlock and mycroft! I felt it tells a lot about mycroft how he had to step in and take control of things ever since he was a kid himself. Also he is not a robot or a killer. Also redbeard thing. It was an appropriate deep psychological trauma (cause most shows usually disappoint in that area). I am not trying to impose my opinion. Just want to understand

Hey Nonny!

It’s all good, and I totally respect your opinion and how you enjoyed S4! It’s totally okay! I know that there are quite a few who got a lot of of S4, and who genuinely enjoyed it.

Sadly, I am not one of those people, and I’ll try to be as diplomatic a possible in my response, but PLEASE know that I don’t think you’re “terrible” or “stupid” for liking S4 because I DO get passionate sometimes in my responses, and I’m just merely speaking as someone who studied the series very closely for quite a long time before S4 aired, and as someone who knows Day-One-ers (ie., people who watched Sherlock on its day one airdate) who also are a large majority of the people who did not like S4. This is just me simply stating why I didn’t like it, but it’s different for everyone.

Stating what I DO like: The acting and cinematography of the first two episodes were brilliant for what they had to work with, and I’ve never faulted any of the actors for the flaws of S4. And for TFP, they did the best with what they had to work with.

That’s… pretty much all I really liked about S4.

Now, here’s my problems with S4:

Nothing made a LICK of sense to the narrative that they were telling in Seasons prior. 

This series was always based a bit in reality, and suddenly everything became comic-book rules: X-Men villains, shitty “redemption” arc, destroying favourite characters just for drama, ludicrous physics, explosions that only destroyed one small room in an apt where in previous episodes one explosion destroyed an entire block, etc.

Sherlock was OOC.

Mary was being built up to be a fantastic villain? Ah, nope, here’s the lacklustre twist where tee hee Mary’s just an assassin with a heart of gold that still emotionally abuses Sherlock and John and just won’t fucking stay dead.

And speaking of this, the DVD’s make NO LOGICAL SENSE unless she was planning to kill herself

AND she tries to make her death equatable to Sherlock’s??

Everyone was RIDICULOUSLY out of character in TFP, I’m so sorry: Mycroft is a bumbling coward for the most part, Sherlock disregards John when he gives the Vatican Cameos warning, the Holmes Parents are assholes because Mycroft COULDN’T SOLVE A PROBLEM WHEN HE WAS 12?? ARE YOU SERIOUS???? And that creepy Moriarty / Eurus thing, and LITERALLY they’re implying that EVERYTHING HAPPENED BECAUSE EURUS DIDN’T GET A HUG. Like, I’m so sorry, but that’s lazy writing.

And don’t even get me started on the ridiculousness of the entire character of Eurus. She LITERALLY had X-Men powers, and like… just nothing made sense. Her involvement in the entirety of S4 MADE NO SENSE. Why go back to prison if you can get out?? WHAT IS THE POINT?? AND I repeat: She did all this because she didn’t get a hug. Yes. I’m oversimplifying, but at the base level, that’s what it was, because she wanted Sherlock’s attention. Welcome to the club, kid, stand in line, everyone on the SHOW wants his attention.

The ENTIRE plot of the first 2 seasons got wiped out all because it wasn’t Moriarty who was interested in Sherlock, but Eurus?? What… What about Carl Powers?? Like…. the ENTIRETY of season one and TGG makes no sense now, because of that one 5 minute scene where Eurus “enlists” Moriarty. I… ugh.

The SUDDEN tonal switch from kind-of Sherlock to James Bond, for some fucking reason.

And on that note, how terribly lazy and cheap TFP looks in comparison to the other two episodes. The whole episode looks like it was filmed in a small house with 4 identical rooms.

EVERYTHING that was etablished in 2 episodes prior were COMPLETELY forgotten when Mary was “shot”.

The complete character assassination of one loyal blogger John H Watson in favour of Mary for some fucked up reason, even though AT HIS OWN WEDDING HE COULDN’T STAND BEING AROUND MARY. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe for one damned second that John would EVER forgive Mary for murdering his best friend after seeing what it did to him. That’s not love from her, and that’s NOT John’s character EVER in the ENTIRETY of the series.

And speaking of character assassinations, Molly’s character being devolved to S1E1 Molly, where instead of giving her agency like they were doing with her the ENTIRE series, so much so that Sherlock picked up on her dominance enough to give her a big role in his mind palace in HLV and TAB, only to make her a sad little self-insert Mary Sue pining for the main character, and in turn made Sherlock a TERRIBLE human being for MAKING HER say what she did. It’s gross.

AND speaking of Molly’s character, they’ve been setting up Mollstrade since as early as ASiB, but I guess that plot line got shafted. Look I LOVE Hopkins, and I am ANGRY they didn’t give her more than 3 fucking lines in the entirety of ONE episode after HEAVILY promoting her actress and character, but they essentially reduced her to a piece of ass for Lestrade to chase. AND THAT’S NOT HIS CHARACTER EITHER. EW GROSS.

The constant plot holes being gaped wide open, and the Chekov’s gun moments where they bring up shit but do nothing with it!! 

TD-12? Nope, just a lame reference to a story we like. 

John got shot at the end of TLD with a VERY REAL FUCKING GUN? Nope, it was a dart gun. 

John not suddenly knowing how to be a doctor.

The TGG one I mentioned up above. 

What was in the letter? And who was Anyone??

Moriarty essentially being erased as anything other than a hired thug and had no part whatsoever in Sherlock’s history. 

Eurus… Just all of her character is asinine. 

Everyone in T6T suddenly not knowing John’s the blogger, which is in direct contradiction to literally the entire series. 

The AGRA plotline was ridiculous, in the end.

Baby? What baby? It was only there when convenient.

They dropped whatever plotline they were going to do for Mycroft: He was being set up as either dying, or the villain.

Redbeard. I’m sorry, I disagree with you on that. Mofftiss is trying to tell me that a little boy fell down a well and went missing, and that WASN’T the first place searchers / the police wouldn’t have looked? Sorry, no. And then. AND THEN his parents just… go along with this thing where Sherlock shuts down and they DON’T get him therapy? Yes, I agree the mind is a funny thing, and we can be traumatised into forgetting or dissociating from traumatic events. I GET IT. But… like I don’t believe the Holmes are so heartless as to just never grieve or have memories around about their supposedly dead daughter. It’s another OCC thing for me.

John’s cheating.

Disappearing and reappearing characters, like this scene, and the entirety of the aquarium scene.

Mary and John being terrible parents

OH GOD THIS FUCKING SCENE. That bomb SHOULD HAVE DESTROYED THE ENTIRE BUILDING.

What… who was this girl on the plane? What? Like I know WHO, but if she’s supposed to be Eurus talking to Sherlock, why don’t we see Eurus… talking to Sherlock? I … Ugh.

NORBURY. 

The glass SUPER SECRET GOVERNMENT ROOM THAT NO ONE SHOULD SEE INTO in T6T.

Sloppy camera work that some believe was intentional, but if it wasn’t, jesus c’mon.

The RIDICULOUS amount of 4th Wall Breaking. Like… even the actors didn’t give a shit.

Essentially, everything on this list here and in this blog tag here.

And everything mentioned on these three posts:

T6T: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night 

TLD: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

TFP: 10 Revealing Things That Haunt You Late at Night

There’s SO much more I can go into, but please go through my “something’s fucky” tag in that last link.

Notice how probably 90% of that has NOTHING to do with “johnlock not becoming canon” because the Johnlockers get MONSTROUS accusations as to THAT being why we didn’t like S4, even though it was, like critically panned by the GENERAL AUDIENCE who have NO investment in the series other than “I liked it in the past”.

Two of my fave YouTubers have interesting (not perfect, but still good) takes coming at the series as casual viewers:

‘The Day Sherlock Died’ by The Closer Look

‘Sherlock is Garbage, and Here’s Why’ by hbomberguy

So it’s NOT just Johnlockers. I’ve talked to Sher1011ies at 221B con who didn’t like S4 either, because most of them realized how shitty Molly was treated in the last episode. So yeah, a big middle finger to those who think I dislike S4 because of  “no Johnlock”. No, I disliked it because I need my stories to make logical narrative sense. I disliked it because I love John and they ruined his character all for the sake of drama and because Moffat has a “hurting Ben” kink. I disliked it because Mary should NOT have been “redeemed” because she was an abuser. I disliked it because Moriarty was turned into a cartoon villain, even though he was already overused in the series. I disliked it because the core of the show – the FRIENDSHIP of Sherlock and John, and their solving mysteries together – did not exist at all. I disliked it because John got sidelined. I disliked it because TFP was a ridiculous episode that, if you replace ANY of the characters, it wouldn’t make a difference, because it didn’t feel like an episode of Sherlock. I disliked it because everyone was OOC.

Anyway. Sorry. One too many accusations my way over the past 1100+ days LOL.

As for your assessment of TFP, I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you. There was no growth and actually it implies something far more sinister: That the Holmes are and were terrible parents that gave no shits about their daughter, their traumatized son, and expected their eldest to essentially be a parent. It implies that Mycroft, at 12 years old, orchestrated the ENTIRE Sherrinford thing… Look I can suspend my disbelief, but there’s limits, and this is one of them. A LITERAL CHILD. Perhaps Uncle Rudy had a hand in it somehow, but then why not shit on Uncle Rudy? Why is Mycroft blamed for it all?

Look, I don’t doubt Sherlock had a traumatic experience regarding “Redbeard”. But then why play into the fact that he was a dog? Why bring another character into the series just to have a gotcha moment? Because Mofftiss wanted a “Shyamalan twist”, that’s why. They threw EVERYTHING away for a twist ending either because they GENUINELY thought it was good, or they got tired of doing Sherlock. ALL of TFP is LITERALLY a really bad plot twist because reasons. TFP makes no sense to the ENTIRE narrative structure of the previous 12 episodes. It erased EVERYTHING from the previous episodes, and coated it with a gross closing by a character no one wanted in the series, and then tried to convince us that it’s a new beginning – “a journey they had to go through” – but it SOLVED NOTHING.

Anyway. I have big feels about S4, and the only way I can enjoy it is to watch it subtextually, but even then, I cannot sit through TFP without cringing. 

That said, Lovelies, please do not attack Nonny for enjoying S4! I know you guys won’t, but Nonny came out with an olive branch and they just want to understand why the fandom is passionate about S4′s… whatever it was. We can have a civil discussion about it, and point out – without attacking – why S4 is universally panned. It’s okay to like things no one else does, and Nonny was respectful to me in this ask! 

So with that, feel free, lovelies, to express why YOU didn’t enjoy the series, or why you did! I’m interested in both “sides” / pov’s whatever :)

[raymondebidochonlifechoices]

A VERY long post

… on how to build a hero Riverdale-style (or the power of double standard)

I will forever wonder: how is it possible that, although both Betty and Archie use morally ambiguous means, and although taking down a serial killer or a cult is ultimately more beneficial to a community than taking a gun and inciting a civil war, there are still people who believe that the woman who took down the serial killer is corrupted and in need of saving by the guy who helped start a civil war …

We all talk about how Jughead and Betty think that the end justifies the means, but in a show where existing within the grey area is the norm, what is it that perpetuates this idea that Bughead are more morally ambiguous than any other character? Aside from the fact they’re given the season’s mystery A plot and, thus, more exposure.

Archie is a prime example of someone who thinks that the end justifies the means. That’s the definition of being a vigilante, which has been his storyline twice in the show.

He believes that bringing a gun to the Southside and forming the Red Circle is fine because he is protecting his father, that burning a car or cutting the chains of protestants is ok because Hiram’s vision for Riverdale is Good™, that beating thugs bloody is justified because they were Bad People™ who threatened the El Royale minors. (They were. He could have tried to build a case against them instead). And yet, in the worst of circumstances we will say he’s a bit of a moron, never that he thinks the end justifies the means.  

In season 1 Archie was a himbo (and a bit of a fuckboy). (He was also Grundy’s victim but the writers though that was … hot?). He couldn’t make up his mind, he was jealous, he kissed someone who was not his partner (I can’t believe I’m writing this about Grundy). Yet, I (like most of the fandom) didn’t have a particular problem with him. He was called out on his behaviour, but without malice. Partly, I suspect, because he was behaving similarly to comic!Archie but thankfully sans the triangle plot. Archie stopped being a fuckboy after season 1. He did have two kisses with Betty while in a relationship with Veronica (season 2 & season 4) but they both came out of nowhere and the first one led nowhere (and in a way the second one will similarly lead nowhere because of the 7-year time jump). Archie started losing his popularity with the audience in season 2, not because of the kiss, but because of the gentrification storyline and -more importantly- because of the writers’ decision to ever since actively brush off his more questionable behaviour, while still giving him problematic storylines.

The idea that Betty needs saving and that Archie should be the one to do it, comes from this double standard.

1. It is not really about having good intentions. Just like Archie, Betty and Jughead do have good intentions. I should think that trying not to have your family/friends brainwashed by an organ-harvesting cult or ridding Riverdale of a drug lord (drug lady?) mother are fantastically good intentions. The juxtaposition lies elsewhere. @go-ldy called it earnestness vs ruthlessness. I call it impulsiveness vs deliberation. Archie acts impulsively, which makes him seem more earnest and is, therefore, seen in a more positive light. Whereas Betty and Jughead are shrewder: they think things through, are aware of the grey areas and then consciously go on with their plan anyway. For that reason, they seem more ruthless than Archie, although their intentions are equally good and their execution is no more questionable than his.

2. But then the writers explicitly tell us that, in Archie’s case, the end does indeed justify the means. More often than not, we are shown Archie earning a sympathetic pat on the shoulder for his good intentions (and “misguided” actions). Yet, the audience in never told in the same explicit way that Betty’s and Jughead’s actions were for a good cause. This is an artifice to set Archie apart and reinforce him as an earnestly “good guy”. The writers like this device and keep employing it season after season. (Personally, I find that having Archie repeatedly earnestly engaging in problematic choices, has a cumulative negative effect. Obviously, the writers do not agree.)

3. Unlike Archie, Betty and Jughead are explicitly labelled by the writers as dangerous / dark™. For all that Dark Betty (also ™) has very specific visual marks, Betty’s “darkness” has been a very vague notion, encompassing (AND deprecating) her sexuality and mental health. Don’t even get me started on the non-existent “killer genes” (by the way, Archie wouldn’t be able to do anything about them, because, you know … supposedly DNA). Likewise, for Jughead, the Serpents were originally presented as dangerous and evil: Jughead was ashamed of his father being a Serpent and, even in their evolution in season 2, they were still morally ambiguous (f.e. Tall Boy, Penny). These labels sticked, even when the Serpents fizzled out to mostly being Jughead’s posse whenever the plot was in need of more friends/allies and despite the fact that Betty is usually NOT Dark Betty when blackmailing people (blackmail being her most questionable behaviour so far, alongside being coerced to cover up Chick’s murder).

4. In comparison, Archie’s character is continuously lifted up by the writers, who alternate between scenes of Archie’s questionable -but ultimately acceptable- decisions (f.e. the way he delivered the news of the break up in 2x18) with scenes of his good guy persona (f.e. trying to warn Jughead of the Southside High raid and being his right hand in the car race in the very next episode). Betty and Jughead are always too involved in the mystery, so their “good persona” scenes are usually their couple scenes. As a Bughead fan I find them very nice and hot and validating for their relationship, but they do not carry the same moral gravitas as Archie making a Thanksgiving Feast for everybody in El Royale or trying to convince Munroe not to take drugs to boost his performance (even if these are isolated events). These are explicit and unquestionable reminders of Archie’s goodness that, in a way, are also meant to redeem his more questionable choices. No other character is afforded such scenes with such frequency. While Betty and Jughead were out there trying to solve a mystery (and keep Jughead alive) Archie’s whole season 4 plot (that went absolutely nowhere) was a series of shirtless moral dilemmas (wherein he always chose wrong and then righted his choices). Archie was even afforded an indirect redemption arc for his choices in season 2 by means of the juvie/boxing storyline in season 3. Indirect is the key word here.

“I’m messed up, Veronica.”

“We all are, Archie. And, honestly, you less than most.”

(1x10)

Archie is not less messed up. His goodness is not solely character driven. Neither his intentions not their outcome are better than the intentions or the actions of other characters.

When Archie beats Dodger (who was about to flee anyway) up to the point that Darla cries “Stop! You’ll kill him!” he’s objectively not a Good Boi. Yet when Betty blackmails Donna out of profiting after having planned a lot of murders/attempted murders, she is a Very Unscrupulous Sleuth Indeed? Bitch, what?

There is just a very particular and consistent way in which Archie’s “grayness” is dissolved in Sweetwater River by the writers that simply does not apply to other characters. It’s a deliberate writing choice.

For some viewers this obviously works. For me, it just pisses me off.

Comic!Archie didn’t interest me much. Riverdale!Archie, however, actively annoys me.

It’s not because of the things he does per se. I might not like them, but, eh, I don’t particularly have a problem with them either. Everyone in Riverdale does questionable things. It’s because of the way the writers try to shove that double standard down my throat.

[themadauthorshatter]

After the MONSTER that was Arc 2, time to wrap this up!

RED SCHOOL AU/UA STORY/HEADCANONS ARC 3!

This is hopefully going to wrap up Red School, so buckle in.

We begin in Rhian's 'office' as the two trios explain what happened: The Beast just burst through the trees and began attacking, out of the blue just like that.

He asks if there's anything else they noticed, and Cal mentions the red eyes and the fact he looked like he drowned. Rhian finds that odd because The Beast was never the best swimmer.

Tedros also mentions the incident before with Nicholas. Agatha vouches for him, saying she'd probably be dead, if Tedros didn't stop him, Sophie giving Agatha the stink eye as she inches closer to Cal, who fights a cringe.

Regardless, Rhian mutters how it can't be and tells them all to just be careful. Mare, however, notices his unease and knows he's BS-ing.

Either way, Rhian excuses them and watched them leave, though he does ask Agatha and Sophie to stay, to answer some questions. Tedros glances back at them as he leaves, giving Agatha 'please stay' eyes until Maven pats his back and says that, if he wants, he can watch Cal and Maven train, so he can help Maven kick Cal's ass next time they fight.

Back with the girls, Sophie despairs at her princes leaving, but Rhian clears his throat and asks if either have had anything to do with The Beast ending up in the state he's in. Agatha immediately objects, saying she couldn't have because her punishment in Good is a scolding and being locked in her room. He asks Sophie and she shakes her head; she just got her hair butchered and was on her merry way. Rhisn remarks that it's funny because a lot of the Nevers stating that The Beast disappeared around the same time Sophoe was sent to thevDoom Room, so either she's lying or someone else decided he needed to swim with the fishes. Someone more vain than she is.

Neither speaks on it, so Rhian excuses Sophie, though warns her to not do anything fishie with Cal; neither school has forgotten her misadventures with courting Tedros.

He tells Agatha to stay, however, because he wants to ask her about that question she asked Lucas, about leaving with the Silvers.

Semi-embarrassed, Agatha admits, that, yes, she did ask that question. Even if her only way out is a fairytale ending, maybe the Silvers are that ending, even if it's a loophole ending.

Rhian commends her for her cunning, but affirms that won't help. If she wants to go home, she'd better be ready to strap into and study like her life depends on it, because, in a fairytale, it will.

Agatha nods and asks him one question, just one this time, not a bunch of mini questions and one big question. If he knows how everyone's story ends, why not just tell them. Rhian shakes his head. He doesn't know when how storoes end, but if he told everyone theor endings, then the ending will change. They'll either strive for more than what their old ending is or become unmotivated and not strive at all.

With that, Agatha leaves, giving a glance to the Storian before doing so.

When she catches up with Sophie, Tedros, and the others, she finds ths boys having a three-way fight, Maven and Cal trying to roast each other while Tedros blocks with some magic and his sword.

Sophie watches them and drifts off into fantasy land while Mare and Agatha talk about what happened, since Sophie couldn't care less.

She explains that The Beast disappeared a little while back and no one's seen him until today. And people have been getting weird lately, which Mare gets confused by.

Even while he fights, Tedros explains that students have been getting red eyed and violent, attacking each other for, really, no reason.

Intrigued, Cal wonders if it's a apell gone wrong, even asking of their magic can get that powerful. Agatha shows him that they can do a lot of things, i.e. mogrify into animals, use spells to refurbish plants or for self defense. She's seen students do some crazy stuff, but admits that she doesn't think a fellow student could do it.

Maven muses that it all seems weird, but does admit that maybe the School Master has something to do it.

This grabs both Sophie's and Tedros's attention, Tedros noting that Agatha and Sophie were thought to be in the wrong schools, but really might not be a mistake(Sophie disagrees with this) and Sophie admits that if he put her and Agatha in the schools they're in-by 'accident'- maybe he got bored and cast a spell to throw in a new adventure, and brought the Silvers to join in on the fun.

Agatha's not certain, but knows one thing: they need to be careful.

They all agree and Tedros contemplates getting the jump on Cal, which leads to Cal grabbing him and throwing him to the ground, just enough to surprise him, nothing more.

As they get back into it, Agatha asks Mare a question, quietly so Sophie doesn't stop her: Is there a chance Mare can get Agatha and Sophie on their ship and take them away from the school? In return, she can help Mare get back home to her family.

Mare almost snaps at her, but Agatha explains that Mare isn't the only one that wants to go home.

She'll think on it, asking if Agatha can really help, and Agatha admits that she's not too sure, but she'll still try.

With an exchange of 'thank yous,' they watch Maven and Tedros duke it out with Cal both reffing and instructing them as Sophie watches, the two glad to be watching rather than participating because Cal is a brutal teacher.

From here, we get something of a time hump woth shenanigans like Evangeline and the other High House children observing the classes, Mare being hounded by Evergirls that offer her a change of makeup, because her foundation will clog her pores, Cal traching the Everbous more efficient combat techniques that won't get them in trouble, and even the main six hanging out, though Cal makes it clear to Sophie that he's flattered, but he's betrothed, so his hands are tied.

There is a close call when Agatha and Mare are having lunch together and run into Sophie, who's pissed at losing another prince, and not only realizes that Agatha's been cautious around Elara, but also that Mare and Cal are very close, for people betrothed to someone else. She pits two and two together and races off to a teacher, any one will do, but Agatha and Mare give chase, Mare being faster and catching up to Sophie and tackling her to the floor and practically shouting that Sophie had better not tell anyone, or else she'll be killed, along with herself, Agatha, both their families, and anyone remotely close to them, and being dead means no princes, so she'd better wise up.

Sophie agrees and they let bygones be bygones.

Mire time passes, and we get another red mist possessed fight with a wolf, in which Sophie jumps in to help, kind of, by mogrifying as a large bird to distract the wolf. They report it once again to Rhian, who's getting worried about the occurrence of this mist, but talks to Mare is a slightly altered version of this conversation you can read right here.

More time passes, and we get more Tagatha, some Marecal, some Evangeline being a bitch, some friendship, and, most importantly, Maven and Elara still talking about their plan, which is on hold because things are fishy and Elara's feeling a little less like herself. (Hmmmm?)

I know I'm rushing through all this, but trust me, you'll get why in a second.

Fast forward, and it's been about a month since the Silvers left Norta. Tibe, Cal, and Maven realize how long it's been and decide they need to head back.

Rhian understands, and offers them a proper send off to show the rest of Norta: a ball in the School for Good to show the unity of Norta and the School for Good and Evil. The rest of the High Houses, 1 child accompanied by 1 chaperone, have already been invited and preparations are already being made.

Tibe is incredibly flattered by this and thanks Rhian for such an act, though the School Master thanks Tibe in return for showing him what's beyond the Endless Woods.

From her place a few feet back, Mare notices Elara standing at the window and fighting a coughing fit as she stares back at Mare, red blood dripping from her nose.

I'm sure she's fine, BECAUSE WE CUT TO THE BALL!!!

It's just as extravagant as what happens in the or original comic, though at first the Silvers are weary until they warm up and relax.

We also get a sort of glare/stare off between Maven and Elara after she reads Mare's mind and Mare glaring at Tibe after his speech of peace and cooperation, and he simply gives her a look of 'what're you going to do about it?'

(Turns on a megaphone)WE DO NOT GET THAT SHIRTLESS WRESTLING MATCH BETWEEN CAL AND TEDROS! THIS IS A FORMAL EVENT, SO THEY SIMPLY TALK AND EXCHANGE NICETIES!(Puts the megaphone away.)

In a scene of set up and pay off, the sides begin to dance and have a good time, though Sophie tries dancing with Cal, but ends up her Hort, who actually emells nice for a change, but she's pretending not to notice because she wants to be with Cal.

Mare and Maven talk about this whole journey and admit it'll be a little sad to leave when the ball is over. Mare spots Agatha and Tedros in the fray, sees them smiling and happy, and agrees. It will be sad, but, as Maven points out, they're visitors. They always had to leave.

With Rgian and Tibe, Rhian asmits that this was possibly the most entertaining revel he's seen or had in a very long time. Tibe asks if it's two or three years, as a joke, and Rhian admits it's been half a century since the last GOOD revel, like one he'd go to and have all over again because of how fun it was.

It weirds Tibe out, but he notices something else that actually freaks him out: Elara's gone.

Back on the floor, Hort glares at Tedros as Lucas and Ptolemus have a muttered conversation about smelling smoke and Ptolemus thinking there's a bomb somewhere. Lucas disagrees; some of the students might be crazy, but none of them would openly try regicide.

The two spot the red mist, Hort noticing a second later. Rhian sees it, too, and shouts at all three to get away from the door.

Too late!

All three get possessed, Hort going into his Man-wolf form as Lucas and Ptolemus simply decide to rip and tear EVERYONE IN SIGHT.

Tedros tries taking care of Hort, but gets yeeted in the process, as Cal takes on Lucas and Evangeline tries to snap Ptolemus out of it.

The entire ballroom goes to shit with students and Silvers going off on each other as the red mist possesses them. Cal, Maven, and Mare are all fighting for their lives and wondering what the hell is going on, but quickly deduce that this is what's been bothering the school since a while ago.

Now why aren't Tibe and Rhian doimg anything? They're fighting they're own fight, Rhian with his magic and Tibe with his Burner ability; he was going to use hus sword, but Rhian told him not to because they couldn't have a body count.

Tibe demands to know if Rhian had anything to do with this and Rhian snaps if it looks like he did, gesturing to the students with wide arms and a panicked look.

Getting overwhelmed, the trio decide, very reluctantly to make a break for it, getting stopped by Ptolemus and Hort.

Good thing Evangeline decudes to be a good person and lend a hand before they attack her instead.

Cal shouts for her to come with, but Evangeline yells back that he'd better not die because he wouldn't run.

They leave just as they see Evangeline get swarmed by red mist possessed Silvers and students.

Agatha, Sophie and Tedros did escape, but it's not shown so we build tension😈

The RQ trio run out and get seperated, Cal chased by Lucas, a strongarm, and Hort, Maven chased by a couple wolves, and Mare chased by Elane, the coven, and Sonya.

We cut back to Rhian and Tibe, the former noting the fact that the mist is moving faster than he thought, and is stronger than before, as he heals a student who got knocked out cold. Tibe asks where his sons and Mare are, but Rhian says they should be fine. They're capable and are close with each other.

Tibe agrees and asks what they should do, seeing what's becoming of the students and Silvers. Rhian states that there's no time to get to his office, so he needs Tibe to be his shield as he heals as many prople as he can.

Tibe asks what's in the office, but we cut to Cal, before we get the answer. He's running through the halls of Good, and avoiding any runners(I know they're called zombies, but when I think 'zombie' I think of walkers from the Walking Dead, and these mofo's don't walk that much) he can, hiding behind walls and in classrooms to do so; it bugs the hell out of him, but he's not beating up any females and schoolchildren.

When the runners are gone, he slips down the hall and scoffs at the fact that almost everything he's looking at is candy and is both insane and a hazard, especially when he sees that bits and pieces of the wall are missing. (Really wonder which Evergirl did that one?)

Cal sneaks down more halls, but stops when he hears someone running down the next hall, crouching behind a wall. The footsteps slow and stop, also behind the wall.

After a minute, and with a head shake, Cal sparks up his hand and shouts as he wheels around the wall.

Maven yelps and falls back, covering his head; 6'3" of pure muscle with a killer instinct and fire powers, you'd have to have balls made of an allot made of iron, steel, and tungsten to not be afraid that jumping out at you from behind a corner.

They see that neither has the evil red eyes and reunite, hugging and sayimg they're glad the other's safe before asking where Mare is. Maven thought she was with Cal and Cal thought she was with Maven.

Good thing I bring up Mare because she's sprinting around the corner, leading Beatrix, Anadil, Tristan and Nicholas down the hall. No time for reunions because Lucas and Dot are right behind them, Dot casting chocolate onto the floor so no one can run while Lucas harpoons anyone he sees.

Yeah, time to go.

Like before, the students are unfortunately left behind, but this time, when they run up to Merlin's Menagerie, it's Mare who wants to go back and help them, but Maven pulls her outside as Cal slams and welds the door shut.

She yells that they could have saved them, but Maven argues that there wouldn't have been time.

They're all silent for a second, about to shake off what happened, but all get defensive again when they hear a twig snap, Cal holding out a blazing hand as he demands for whoever's out to show themself.

SURPRISE!!! The SGE trio is alive, though Tedros has some scratches from Hort on hus arm and chest.

They reunite again, glad everyone's alright, including Sophie, who gets a, 'Yay, you're alive🙄, happy to see you, too, now stay focused' from Cal as they see what's become of the school.

Yeah... Everything is shit, but as they qonder what the next plan of action should be Maven notices a bunch of red lights appearing in the School Master's tower, which Mare points to, and they agree they need to find a way inside.

They sonewhat argue on who should go, noting the airship/blimp/whatever aircraft available used to bring the other High House children and the fact the SGE trio can mogrify, but before they get a solid plan, runners burst outside, forcing them to run towards the aircraft.

Cal and Tedros fall vack every now and again to keep the runners back, buying them a couple minutes at most, but Maven runs into Mare, who's standing with a look of pure fear and despair on her face. The airship is too far for them to reach and is getting mauled by stymphs, who shred it and tear it down.

Thank goodbess Agatha comes up with a new plan by leaping off the roof and grabbing a stymoh, which has some rope caught on it. She makes it crash back onto the roof and saddles up-though, it'smore bare-backing here- as she explains they can ride the stymphs to the tower. Maven shouts that she's out of her mind, but Mare's on board because they have no other options and more stymphs are coming, some being normal and hollow eyed while the rest are pissed and red eyed.

Tedros kicks back a mist possessed Ravan and agrees as he and Cal race toward the rest of the group.

So there are three stymphs, which lead to them forming groups of two, and before Sophie can dream again, Agatha grabs her, pulls her onto a Stymph and takes flight, Mare and Maven following and shouting for Cal and Tedros to hurry up because theirs is taking off without them.

They jump for it and while Tedros manages to get on its back, but Cal isn't as lucky, instead having to grab its claw/foot and hope for the best.

His job's about to become harder because Hort, still in Man-Wolf form, leaps off the menagerie and bites onto Cal, around and slightly above his ankle.

Cal shouts and almost lets go before Tedros grabs his wrist. Cal apologizes abd kicks Hort off him, which not only makes Hort fall, but also makes the bite worse than it already is.

Don't worry, Hort lands safely on a tree a greenie summoned and got back inside the school.

The group makes it a good distance toward the tower, but get ambushed by mire red mist possessed stymphs that make them crash through a window on a lower level of the tower.

Everyone gets up and gets their bearings, but quickly have an 'oh shit' moment when they see the bite Cal got. They all wonder if he's going to get possessed, but Tedros doesn't think so, having seen how people get possessed, which is by the host 'giving' the red mist by making the person "inhale" the mist, and by inhale I mean the mist goes up their nose and into their mouth and down their throat, which leads to their possession.

Mare backs his play, having seen the same happen with Nicholas and Tristan, and they conclude that Cal's safe, as long as he doesn't bleed out.

Mare acts quickly and tears off parts of her dress to use as a bandage until they can get a proper healer, and Tedros flips out at the fact she's Red; Hort scratched her up too, and when Tedros asked earlier, she simply replied that it wasn't hers.

Regardless, Maven and Mare help up Cal and continue towards the tower until they reach Rhian's office, Cal and Tedros staying behind as lookouts so Sophie, Agatha, Mare, and Maven progress and see what or who is causing this all to happen.

Surprise, it's Elara, who's über possessed and writes with the Storian as it tries continuously to get away.

Mare's surprised by the fact Elara's been possessed, but is still surprised to see the Storian moving of its own accord.

They quickly form a plan, and convince a very disturbed Maven, who agrees, despite his instincts telling him not to because that's his mother and he still loves her.

They plan to dogpile her, but Cal and Tedros get attacked by Dovey, who's also possessed. Cal may has standards, but Tedros kicks Dovey's feet out from under her before they rush into the office, Cal limping a little.

It gets everyone else's attention and Mare and Tedros got right into attack mode. Too bad she deflects them like flies and casts spells and Maven, Sophie, Cal, and Agatha, to subdue them.

Elara, possessed, tells her to stop, because they're injured enough to do nothing, so Dovey simply magics them all to the floor.

Mare asks who this is, the person that isn't Elara, and why they're doing this.

Rhian, who the spirit(who we all know is Rafal, though his identity wouldn't be known as of yet) refers to as his darling, dimwitted brother, is foolish if he believes there can be such a thing as peace in times like these, where the Schools for Good and Evil can really be united and stay united with the introduction of the Silvers and their powers. Stories aren't meant to be peaceful, there must be discourse, and there can't always be happy endings.

Tedros argues that for every Good ending, there's an Evil ending that follows. Everything has to stay in balance, that's how it's always been.

Rafal scoffs and tells him he's more of a fool than he realized, if that's really how he thinks.

Maven's turn to ask a question, out of panic and emotions: Why Elara, of all people?

Rafal admits that he's glad Maven asked and leaves Elara's body and possesses him instead, which is painful.

'Maven' stands and Rafal explains that with the students and the Silvers of Norta, he had a lot of people to choose from, from the broken and empty Maven to the one-tracked thinker that is Cal to vain, selfish, beautiful Sophie to lying, prideful, foolish Tedros to Agatha and Mare, who are both eager and desperate to return to the dirt piles they called home, possessing each of them as he explains before returning to Elara, who tries crawling away before she's possessed again.

Rafal explains very sharply that the Queen was the best candidate for his plan, having seen how power hungry and rutheless she is, and sneers that he had tried to reach his goodie two shoes brother, but the two trios kept screwing it up for him.

Mare asks if he's going to kill them, and Rafal uses Elara's whisper ability to torture Mare into silence before her raises a hand, finger and palm filling with black magic as he dare her to guess.

With a quick apology to Maven, Cal tackles Elara/Rafal to the ground, and Dovey prepares to shoot a spell at him. Tedros shoves her just as Rafal backhands Cal off.

Before any more damage can be done, Maven pulls Elara off Cal, Rafal knocking him back with magic. Mare shoots some lightning at him, demanding he return the storian(he'sbeen holding it this whole time), as Cal and Maven stand with flaming hands, and their battle begins.

Meanwhile, the SGE trio deal with a possessed Professor Dovey, who cries at them that she's sorry and how they need to run as she casts a spell at them, one they dodge in time before anyone gets singed.

Thinking quickly, Agatha tells Tedros to give her and Sophie time, to defend them with his word, since he isn't the best with magic.

He does so, though Dovey fights back barehanded.

Seeing this as life or death, and finally putting her Evil to good use, Sophie tells Agatha to stand back and sings, summoning wasps, locusts and hornets to the tower and whistling them attack Dovey.

Back with the RQ trio, Rafal uses magic to fight off Cal and Mare, throwing them into a wall before approaching a weak and slightly injured Maven, grabbing his throat and picking him up, calling him weak and saying it's no wonder Tibe chose Cal to seat the throne and not a child like Maven.

Mare, who's been sneaking forward, grabs Rafal and knees him before electrocuting him(don't worry, Maven's fine). He casts a spell to the wall, grabs the cape Elara's been wearing, and magics out of there instead.

Mare gives chase with Agatha, Cal, and Maven behind her; Sophie and Tedros stay behind to keep Dovey busy.

The chase ends on the roof with Agatha catching up to Mare to assist.

Rafal ain't having that and uses Elara to control Agatha, who casts numerous spells at her and chases her around the roof before one hits her in the chest, sending her to the edge of the roof.

Cal calls for them both, but Rafal smirks at him as Dovey snatches him and pulls back in the tower.

Back on the roof, Rafal watches Mare dangle a little and saying she would have made a lovely fairytale, if only she hadn't interfered. He then grabs and commands Agatha to finish the job and make Mare fall, tightening his grip when she refuses.

Through the possession, Agatha cries and apologizes, but Mare does, too, because she electricutes them both, making Agatha and Elara fall back, amd forcing Rafal to drop the Storian.

Mare falls back and grabs for it, Agatha screaming and falling after her, much to the shock of Cal, Maven, Tedros, Sophie, and Dovey.

They both fall, disappearing into the mist for a second before the mist fades and the two rise, Agatha having mogrifed into a condor or a vulture as she carries Mare, who holds her claw and she holds the Storian.

They pick up Elara as she begins to come to before landing in Rhian's office, reuniting with everyone, and crying while doing so, but the boys won't admit it.

Outside, the mist falls. Silvers, Reds, Evers, and Nevers all drop and shake out of their haze. In the ballroom, Hort shifts back into a human and groans as he pushes himself up, Rhian handing him his cloak and saying he's alright, and will be okay. Tibe watches everyone come to and turns to Rhian, who says he knew they could do it, referring to Cal, Maven, Mare, Sophie, Agatha, and Tedros, and explains that regardless of which side it is, or who wins, there's always a happy ending.

Back with the two trios, they stop hugging and watch Elara cough and gag, red smoke spewing out of her nose and mouth until it takes the shape of Rhian, who charges at all of them.

The Storian stops him and, in its own words, tells him to get lost.

As the sin rises, Rafal vanishes, though retreats into the woods, leaving them all in shock and awe.

We get something of a montage of the group reuniting with Tibe and Rhian, everyone getting healed, the group hanging out in the infirmary, even as Hort apologizes to Val for biting him, but Cal tells him it's gine and shouldn't worry about it, Tibe commending Cal, Mare, AND MAVEN for their efforts, which is a shicker for both Maven and Mare, the Storian reporting to Rhian, and finally, the group, Tibe, Rhian, and Dovey confenting Elara, who's in Silent Stone manacles.

When told to explain, she states she was possessed, that jealousy had gotten the better of her. It started off as pleasant conversation, but soon, the voice in her own head started speaking of something that she had to refuse. Little did she know, Rafal is a narcissistic ass and took control of her. Rhuan asks what she means, and she responds that she remebered him talking about balance and the futility of appealing to both sides, speaking of how his brother was a fool and was never good at learning his lessons.

Rhian tries to pull the 'I don't know this spirit' card, but Sophie agrees, saying Rafal spoke of Rhian very poorly when they confronted him.

Slightly ashamed, Rhain admits that, yes, the spirit was his brother, who lost the war and died, and yes. By war he means the one that took place centuries ago.

He had tried to keep the spirit under wraps by using spells and charms around the school, but figures that something must've happened to one of the charms that allowed Rafal's spirit to return.

The gears in Cal's head start turning, but Rhian has Elara freed, much to the dismay of all the fandom, and commends all of the group for their bravery and efforts, saying the Woods is indebted to the Silvers, though more specifically Cal, Maven, and Mare, who admits that Tedros, Agatha, and Sophie deserve some credit, too, as they would've been minced meet without them.

Tibe thanks them, and says in return they can have anything they want, excluding Cal or Maven or Mare(pulls out the megaphine again for Sophie) BECAUSE THEY'RE BETROTHED(puts the megaphine away).

Agatha's about to take Tibe's offer amd ask if he can take her and Sophie home or to Norta, but stops when she sees Tedros struggle to keep smiling, Sophie waiting for the final blow that they're leaving Tedros and Cal behind forever, and Mare, who's just waiting to see where this goes.

She asks if they can keep writing to each other, seeing as how the Silvers are leaving tomorrow.

Tibe and Rhian agree, Rhian admitting he can show them a technique for sending letters, but on the condition that only Tedros, Agatha, and Sophie can write letters and no one else.

They agree.

Time jump to a creak as the group hangs out one last time, Mare and Agatha sitting on a log as they watch Sophie find wild flowers to press for her letters and the boys just goofing around, Tedros and Maven swimming as Cal struggles to get in the water, though to be fair, Maven is knee deep in the water.

Mare asks Agatha what made her change her mind about taking the trip back, seeing as how all she wanted was to go home.

Agatha sighs and ecplains that she still does, but, having heard what Rhian said, she now fears for what would happen if she and Sophie left. The other Evergirls aren't the best with magic and if the schools are taken over again, the Silvers aren't there, and Agatha and Sophie are in Gavaldon, they're all basically fucked. Besides, it would actually hurt Tedros's feelings, which Agatha admits as she watches him and Maven drag and throw Cal into the water and laugh as he scurries out, screeching at the top if his lungs.

Mare notices and asks Agatha if she has athing for Tedros, having noticed their little glances at each other and how Tedros gets when he's with her.

Agatha, flustered, counters Mare gets the same way with Cal and Maven, so she's no better.

Speaking of Tedros, Cal, and Maven, Mare and Agatha watch as Cal carries a flailing Maven over his shoulder and wrangles Tedros into his other arm before throwing them into the water, Tedros not really minding, but Maven screaming because the water's freezing.

Mare admits that she's pretty sure Cal's going to miss having Tedros around, at least, but Agatha reassures her that if Mare's a Red with powers in the Endless Woods, then anything's possible. The SGE is for fairytales, after all.

Time jump to the next day. Mare visits her room and falls back onto her bed, letting it swallow her up so she's stuck when someone walks into her room.

Agatha asks if she needs help and Mare accepts, letting Agatha pull her up, before the two hug; they've only known each other alfor a little more than a month, but they're friends, damn it.

Outside the school, everyone exchanges their goodbyes, some crying and some trying not not to cry because Silvers don't cry.

Tedros plays it cool when he says goodbye to Cal, holding out his hand and leaving his other hand resting on the hilt of his sword, claiming that he's looking forward to the next time they meet, so he can kick Cal's ass next time they spar.

Cal, upon seeing how shaky Tedros's hand is and how glassy his eyes are, ruffles his hair instead and reminds him that they can still write to each other. That's enough to make Tedros crack and hug Cal, who obviously hugs back.

Sophie says goodbye as well, to both Cal and Maven, saying she hopes they're happy with their betrotheds. Maven asks if she's finally got the point of what betrothed means, but Sophie reminds him to be careful, as she could always send a spider in their letters. Cal remarks that it wouldn't be very Good of her, but does tell her to stay out of trouble, as much as she can, at least. Sophie only folds her arms and dares THEM to try being good when attending the School for Evil.

Tibe and Rhian exchange their goodbyes as well, Tibe thanking the School Master for his hospitality and Rhian thanking Tibe for sending the Swift and the Eye a while back; he can't remeber the last time things were so entertaining at the school.

The Silvers all take thier seats in their carriages and wave goodbye to the students and Rhian, though Tedros, Sophie, and Agatha sort of run after the carriage Cal, Maven, Mare, and Evangeline are in, because they're teens and will miss the presence of their new friends.

They wave back, but Cal's smile drops as he gets to thinking about what Rhian said, about the charms around the school. As Evangeline, Mare, and Maven talk, Cal starts putting the pieces together and the realization he has makes him feel sick to his stomach.

When they board the ship, he tells Mare and Maven immediately:

When they first arrived, the Swift or Eye must've moved a charm, which allowed Rafal to take over.

Rafal appearing was a direct result of the Silvers.

Maven peers over Elara's shoulder to see her smirking at him, whispering to him that they need to talk again, but this time it's more important.

The three stare at the Endless Woods as they leave, the scene zooming in on the woods until we find an engraved rock on the ground, which Sophie picks up.

She hears a whisper in her ear as Agatha asks if she's coming back to the school or what, Sophie looking between her and the rock she found.

AND THAT ENDS RED SCHOOL! Holy shit! I did not expect this to take as long as it did, but I just turned a 100 page comic into a full fledged book, so of course this is long as hell.

Ibrelly hope you guys enjoyed this, I never thought I'd be doing this and get it done. And if Victoria Aveyard, Soman Chainani or Joel Gennari are reading this, THIS WAS JUST A FAN THING BECAUSE I GET BORED WITH MYSELF, PLEASE DON'T BE MAD AT ME!!!😫🙏

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, amd I hope you enjoyed!!!!!

[artsyalyenora]

💫PART 2💫

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First of all, I'm sorry and please don't kill me😅... This isn't a comic arc that has a happy ending. At least, not for now. Maybe someday I'll expand past part 3 and give them a happier ending. Once again, you have been warned, there is no happy ending.

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Anyway, I feel bad for hurting these two so much, they don't deserve it, I know... I promise I'll draw a fun little comic arc for them towards the end of the month to compensate💕. Until then, place all your tears in here -->🥛

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Part 3 will be up next week. I originally planned to have it ready for Sunday, but I drew 11 drawings in 3 days, so I'm a bit burned out therefore I don't even wanna see or touch my Wacom this weekend.

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Btw, thank you for all the love! I'm so glad so many if you like this and this motivates me to draw so much more!💕

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*Note : the part where she says that he promised he would come back and where he calls her sweetheart are taken from the novelization, as well as the last panel where he says I will always be with you.🦋