#character: gideon gold

[dinneratgrannys]

ONCE UPON A TIME 6.22, The Final Battle (Part 2)

[ithinkdogshouldvote]

My campaign just ended, so now you guys have to see my sopping wet ugly lizard warlock who's patron is his ex-wife.

[konakoro]

This is definitely my favorite runner in book 6

[daisymylove]

My issues with chain of thorns aside, Thomas' come out was so fucking funny bc of how in character all the interactions were

Thomas, being the dramatic queen he is, simply decided to yell it out to his whole family without preamble and completely out of the blue that he's in love with a dude

Gideon ,our clueless sweetheart (bless his heart, he's trying), was like I wanna be supportive but I dont understand wtf is going on.you're in love? with carstairs? when did THAT happen? Help

Eugenia, another huge-ass dramatic queen, was like YALL HEARD HIM MOTHERFUCKERS,YOUR OPTIONS HERE ARE ACCEPTANCE OR ACCEPTANCE

And sophie, our always practical babe, was like enough chit chat all of you.When is son in law coming for dinner?

[femmehysteria]

I'm doing a series of "Best Character Named X" polls where all the characters have the same first name but are from completely different media, feel free to send in name/charcacter suggestions, I'm posting one poll a day, check my pinned post for active polls

[ifyourereadingthisblinktwice]

me when one character carries a terrible weight on them that they feel the need to hide and bare on their own and they are forced to be with another character who is so terribly devoted to them to the point of destroying themselves to be of service

[helenofblackthorns]

also I was bored last night so here are a bunch of other height charts I did

[kazoosandfannypacks]

Hope: You're so smart, and kind. You remind me of someone, but I just can't think of who.

Gideon: Oh, is it Thomas the tank engine? I get that a lot.

Gideon: I mean, personality-wise. I'm, I'm not a train.

Hope: No... it's not a make-believe train...?

[g0ldgauntlet]

Why I Dropped Winter Moon.

Disclaimer: This is not a callout post on Merryweather (aka the author), nor am I insinuating that the Webtoon's fans are bad people for reading the comic. I was just personally unhappy with it. Also, quick warning for mentions of queer stereotyping, torture, and abuse. (Image description is in alt text)

Florence is My Least Favorite Member of the Main Team

Yes, we're starting this off with him. Florence is the first character of the main trio who the readers are introduced to in the story, and he's an irritating, hot mess. The man is unlikeable to the highest degree. He doesn't need to be a completely good person with a lighthearted personality to be appealing, but the problem I had was that there wasn't anything actually compelling about him. For a while, Florence's character just consisted of being the flamboyant gay guy of the trio with a horrible and selfish attitude, who also had broken fire magic and could win literally every fight that he was in, even when it really feels like he shouldn't be.

His gay identity was constantly made into a running gag that the author could use for jokes, such as when Risa would insult him based on his orientation, but those jokes never really landed for me. They felt awkward and forced (especially the Pride Month episodes, which were really hard to read). Him mistreating the people around him constantly made me wonder why exactly Gideon was even friends with him to begin with, and Florence's broken magic made every fight encounter that could have been compelling to follow...turn out very boring instead, as the predictable outcome would always be that the three main characters would win by a landslide in the end.

It is not until about 123 episodes in that we finally get to see some crucial depth to Florence's backstory, and later on, he faces consequences for how awful he's been to other people, putting him on track to trying to become a better person. By this point in time, however, it was too late for me to care about him. In comparison, we were given Risa (and her brother)'s backstory much earlier, and she receives character development in relation to it, all the way up to when we first find out about Florence's life outside of playing Magnolia Online. Speaking of episodes, however...

I Dislike The Comic's Pacing

I am not one to pressure creators to make content faster if they need breaks, but in the case of this Webtoon, it wasn't about how long it took for the episodes to be released. Each episode that's released is really short, and because of that, a lot of plot points in the story feel like they go on for far longer than necessary. For example, a segment of the story that goes on for, perhaps, 4-6 episodes could have actually been resolved in just 2-3 if more panels were included in a singular episode. A cheap gag that also takes up about 3 episodes for each one could have all been packed into 1 episode instead.

Again, to compare, this was a strength that I think Lookism had over this Webtoon, as I constantly remember Johan's backstory over the 7 episodes where it was tackled, but there was so much content timed in a way that made the reader want to learn more about him (with Zack and Mira even being involved as well). Everything was worth the wait, and I now wanted to know more about what the author would do with this character in the future.

Since Winter Moon had originally marketed itself as a comedy Webtoon, the short pacing makes sense for a story that relied a lot on quick gags for each episode. For me, however, this got old very fast.

Risa's Treatment and Arc

What the author did with Risa, admittedly, was my last straw, as it was the reason why I ended up dropping the comic. To start, I was never the biggest fan of her design. I figured that it followed a specific set of anime tropes, so I tried to brush past it as the comic continued. However, later on, it is then revealed that while Florence and Gideon are adults, Risa is only 17 years old.

Yes, I know that a lot of her outfits are fantasy costumes from a video game, but I still found the design choices to be questionable for a teenage girl whose avatar is directly supposed to represent her. It's especially weirder when I recall that Risa's comedic gag is supposed to be that she's a seductive, gold-digging priestess. This 17-year-old girl goes around online flirting and calling grown men "daddy" in hopes that she can get them to do her bidding. She tries doing the same thing to Florence to get out of a bad situation, but the gag is basically, "Haha, her feminine wiles don't work on him because he's gay!" Yep. Not because Risa is underage or anything, but because Florence is just not attracted to women...implying that there's a chance it would work if he was straight or bi.

I know that, realistically, neither Florence nor any of the men online would have any way of knowing Risa's age unless she told them, but the author does know her age, and he is the one who consciously wrote that into the story....Not to mention that he also wrote Florence making Risa his slave.

As uncomfortable as I was with this so far, I was pleasantly surprised when the author began to dive further into Risa's backstory and character development. Of the trio, she's probably the most compelling character, and the way she acts, whether she grows for the better or goes into a downward spiral, makes sense for a teenager.

My positive reactions to Risa end here, unfortunately, due to what happens next.

Part of the story subjects Risa to a plotline that involves a stranger of her past named Lance. Risa had been mean to Lance during their time together in Magnolia Online, and because Lance is chronically online, he took it so personally that he made it his mission to track down Risa, and abuse and torture her. This plotline was around for more than 28 episodes, with Lance being hinted at a few times but never actually doing much in the story until the Season 3 finale onward. This plotline's biggest problem was its pacing, which I had already mentioned was an issue for me with the Webtoon. Lance spends several episodes setting up scenarios for Risa to be bullied and abused by her classmates so that he can swoop in and act kind to her, attempting to lure her into a false sense of trust. This made sense for the arc so far, so I wasn't complaining. Then, we finally get to episode 42 of Season 4.

This was the start of when Risa was trapped with Lance, as well as a man that he hired to torture the girl. This torture session (as well as Risa's attempts to escape her aggressors) lasts for 10 consecutive episodes before Risa is finally saved by Deiderich, her brother.

That sequence absolutely did not have to be 10 episodes long. I think reception to it would have gone over better if a lot of the panels that were drawn out over so many episodes were compacted into a few. If I were to be generous, it could have been 5, but if I'm being honest, I think it only needed 3 episodes to get the point across to readers.

The sequence, as is, was extremely uncomfortable to read through, and also really unnecessary. Unsurprisingly, Merry received a ton of backlash over this decision - probably the most backlash he's ever gotten over the Webtoon at that point in the story.

As a former reader of the comic, I can confirm that Merry never warned any of us that the story was going to take this dark of a turn. It began with a bunch of awkward gags, but then it tried to take itself too seriously and the pacing issues became much more obvious over time. I think his fanbase had a right to complain about the whiplash that they got, especially with how long this took to execute. Merry seemed to get the message to at least some extent, as when I checked back to view the comic, Winter Moon's genre changed from "Comedy" to "Fantasy," and now the series is rated as Mature.

Mayui, the illustrator for the comic, was also tasked with portraying Lance's "ugliness," since this was relevant during the arc as well.

The problem with this, which was even pointed out in the comments, is that Lance doesn't look ugly at all. His "ugliness" is only portrayed through the usage of physical features that are very commonly seen on people of color. My first thought when seeing these panels for the first time was that Lance had identical features to Asian guys that I knew back in highschool.

When Lance gets plastic surgery to become "beautiful," his face is designed to fit the standard artstyle of the comic, which features thin-to-non-existent-lips and a thin nose. I just found it strange that Mayui made this decision to emphasize ugliness for the character, since from what I can recall, there are little to no black and brown characters in the Webtoon.

After this plotline was completed, I tried reading some more episodes. However, what Risa had been subjected to kept weighing me down, and eventually I just gave up and abandoned the Webtoon in its entirety. I did not appreciate seeing the only female character of the main team being subjected to so much for the sake of what was starting to seem like shock value based on the pacing of the episodes.

The Takeaway

I realized that the reason why I read Merry's comics was not because of his writing, but the artwork itself, and Winter Moon was no different in this regard. The artists that Merry would hire for each of his comics are all very talented at what they do, creating beautiful backgrounds, atmospheres, and facial expressions for the characters that are accurate to the moment that Merry was writing about. This is exactly what happened to me when I tried reading the original version of My Succubus Girlfriend - I thought the dialogue was awkward and not very funny, but the facial expressions and art for the characters made up for it by actually getting a laugh out of me.

As for Merry himself, however, I picked up on how his sense of humor seems to be more along the lines of what cishet white male anime enthusiasts would find entertaining (such as Lost Pause, who has gone on record to say that he and Merry are friends). This is simply something that has just never really appealed to me, and it wasn't hard to figure out that I'm likely not the target audience for Winter Moon.

If you like this Webtoon, then don't let me rain on your parade. I'm not shaming you for liking it - It's just not for me.

[girlscience]

I hate getting into something that has a canon(ish) sapphic couple, but I only end up caring about one of the two women 😭😭😭

[dinneratgrannys]

ONCE UPON A TIME 6.10, Wish You Were Here

[theriverbeyond]

believing in everything (and knowing nothing at all) by @lesbianjesuslovesyou

A series of childhood memories from the Ninth.

I love this fic, it makes me ACHE for baby Gideon, and I love its exploration of Gideon's dynamics with the other characters on the Ninth as she was growing up :') this is the second fic I bound for @renegadeguild's Fanfic Writers Appreciation Day event!

Fandom: The Locked Tomb

Pairing: Aiglamene & Gideon, Gideon & Crux, Gideon & Harrow

Title font: Supernova

Body font: Garamond

Pages: 200

Size: Quarto letter

Case: Pleather book cloth (Generic amazon brand) with sword shaped cut out and hand-embossed gold foil

Endpapers: Skull Natural Copper by HimalDesign

progress pics and ramblings below the cut!

I was SO excited to try a cutout cover for this, and think the endpapers I picked were perfect for it. The Pleather "bookcloth" I used was a bit thick, and that in combination with the shape of the cut out made for some very goofy progress pics. I ended up gluing scrap paper to the tiny flaps, because they were SO at parts.

Also, there were definitely several places that were like... exposed chipboard/paper, so I used a marker to color it in to hide those issues and it worked great

I initially formatted the cover incorrectly and my printer was out of commission at the time so I couldn't re-print it, so I just cut it up to frankenstien it into what I needed! I'm REALLY happy with how the sword cutout ended up lining up with the skull -- you can see in the above photos that they aren't identical, and this is because I did not think about this at all when cutting and gluing the endpaper in. OOPS!! anyway HOORAY luck was looking out for me bc it ended up looking great anyway!

The color of the cover was honestly hard to photograph but I love how it turned out and how it looked IRL. YAYY

[obiscious]

MF!AU Art 2

Prev - Next || here's more pieces ! yes there are hidden messages for all the gravity falls nerds out there .

Characters

fiddleford ( tanuki ) = fords lab partner and long life best friend : fidds ! hes the voice of reason most of the time and safety is everything to him . he always follows his gut , and usually hes right .

bill cipher ( human ) = billiard is his nickname , his actual name is william . he is very intelligent and physicaly fit despite his old age . some call him the hunter of the woods , others call him a maniac . he is the leader of a small group of vigilantes called the henchmaniacs , a sour band of misfits !

gideon ( vampire ) = in this au , gideon is actually very neutral . his dad isn't the " yes man " he usually would be like in the show , instead , he teaches gideon about vampirism and the vampire cult him and his ancestors took part in . his amulet is a gift from his mother for him to lure in victims to their manor , gives him the ability to disguise himself as human , and makes people believe he is not suspicious .

pacifica ( land n sea siren ) = born to a rich and wealthy monster family , pacificas life is tethered to a lifelong memory of serenades and pageants . beauty , music and gold is all that matters to her mother and father . she always hides her land siren form and has always been shown as a mix of both , representing the ties between land and sea , pacifica is a trophy for her parents to display as other sirens pay homage to this equilibrium of harmony of the earths waters and lands .

[daisymylove]

Thomastair is Chot's great highlight aren't they?

Alastair stole my heart on this book, and even their drama is hilarious

Alastair self sabotaging: Oh no Thomas we can't, your friends will never accept us, especially Matthew

Matthew: Im actually fine with it bruh. My life is a dumpster fire and I've seen weirder shit happen

James: I'm your brother in law, ding dong

Kit: my crush is currently in jail, I really don't have the moral high ground to judge anyone.And I wouldn't anyway

Alastair: Oh... well, Thomas you couldn't possibly want me, wretched being that I am

Thomas: *being the embodiment of the homer simpson-going-down-a-staircase-on-a- wedding gown meme when it comes to alastair since day fucking one* I want you baby

Alastair: are you sure? Like sure, sure? I'm bad for you

Thomas: I AM SURE, I LIKE BAD (and no, you're not)

Alastair: gay panicking and sweating cause the excuses ran out

Thomas: all ready and willing to spend the rest of his days with alastair and have his persian babies

Sophiedeon: We love you, but BITCH CALM THE FUCK DOWN

[szaryherbatnik]

What is it about kremy that makes him your favorite?

This is very silly but i fell in platonic love with him during the moment where they were getting cotton candy. It was. SO FUNNY. To me. Its the first ouaw clip i saved on my phone. Before that i decided that if i have to have a favorite character its gonna be frost. But organically after a few episodes i fell for kremy and never got up lol.

Kremy is so amazingly morally grey and richie really REALLY knows how to get the most out of this. Kremy likes to SCHEME he likes to CON he likes FRAUD ooooh so so evil of him...but then he also loves unicorns and becomes a flustered mess upon seeing his best friend *cough* and husband. I love that kremy will do these 'evil' things but then in a higher octave, a panicked voice he will say "thats not true" when accused of using gideon. He will try to scam an old lady into giving her cursed gold, only to feel empathy for her 5 minutes later when she talks about losing her husband. He seems like hes too serious to participate in an opera his friend wrote and yet hes right there on stage in a dress, singing his heart out. Kremy is so so perfectly emotional its fucking beautiful. Perfect mix of every emotion.

Richie is so so amazing and smart, hes so good at revealing information abt kremy in perfect doses. Im SO interested in knowing more about kremys past goddd its so so interesting i need to know more about him but its all so BRILLIANT the way he talks about the baron, about remy, about agwe. The way hes also deeply depressed so like yeah ofc i like him.

And theres more of course theres more i love him wearing dresses. I love how he pays attention to the decorum of it all. I love that he loves cooking. I love how he loves gideon. I LOVE HIM USING MAKEUP I LOVE THAT HES AN ALIGATOR I LOVE THAT HE HUGGED PINCUSHION I LOVE HIM I WANT TO BE HIS FRIEND ❗️

[moonwytte]

documenting the different things you get by interacting with the updated thisisnotawebsite.com ! <3

clickable areas: book of bill, the swords logo, the top of the computer, the jar behind the laptop, and buttons on the computer

computer inputs below!!!

mabel — puts stickers all over the lab. when all stickers are sticker-ed, the computer says “lab is now fully mabelized”

dipper — messages from bill instructing dipper to stare directly into the sun

mason — letter on anagrams by ford. ford mentions a cryptogram codex

tyrone / paper jam — photo of paper jam dipper. “here, he’s your problem now!”

stan / stanley — ebay search for brass knuckles / gold chains for old men / dogs playing poker / 8-ball cane / male girdle / shriner fez / colonel sanders tie / then opens up “wheel of shame!”

wheel of shame opens up various different pages including “ex wives”, “fears”, “secret shames”, “unreported crimes”, “failed products”, “darkest thought”, “lowest moments” and “how he beat me”.

clicking on “how he beat me” repeatedly gives you different messages

imstillonyourmind — video clip of the water, presumably a view of the water from stan and ford’s ship, with stans voice in the background

stanford / ford / sixer — “voulentary discharge” case report from an 18 year old ford.

filbrick — “i’m not impressed”

pines — computer screen reads “a good family tree”

bill / bill cipher — wikipedia article for the eye of providence (all seeing eye)

cipher — wikipedia article for “triangle”

book of bill — “hide it under shirt during pledge of allegiance”

vallis cineris — a staticky video of a young bill, with two other triangles (supposedly his parents). a robotic voice says “why did you do it?” repeatedly.

soos — 3 page message from soos. lol

pinata — video of a bill cipher pinata being hit by a little kid, bill going “OW WHY WHY”

wendy — 👌 (but upside down)

pacifica — note from pacifica

platinumpaz — a story about pacifica’s nightmare, and nearly making a deal with bill. character development!!!!

gideon — opens search bar for “sweat resistant bolo tie”. apparently there is also one where he sings(?) but i have not gotten that one.

waddles — pigplacementnetwork.com

robbie — text messages between xX*RobbieV*Xx and THOMPSON4

tad strange — a… strange video of someone cutting bread.

mcgucket — youtube search for “cotton eye joe”

hectoring — a song about bill is played, the lab computer screen shows a record will a logo of bill on it

giffany — downloads giffany onto the websites laptop, then downloads a file folder onto your laptop full of giffany’s sprites and messages to soos. will have to look closer at this one later

toby determined — search result for “restraining order”

blendin — “time agent lost and presumed incompetent”

various words and phrases are below the cut!

i put this in alphabetical order for your viewing conviencence, and my writing inconviencece!

29121239168518 — “what comes from zimtrex 5?”

3466554 — “what leaves a thin line in the snow?”

ad astra per aspera — a letter from ford ft. notes from mabel on bill’s statue + fords closure

alex — opens browser search for “flannel”

answer — “question”

axolotl — “you ask alotl questions”

baby / baby bill — an ultrasound of bill. “congrats, guess what’s growing inside you right now! see you in 9 months papa!”

black sheep — a test of patience from bill

blanching — youtube result for how to blanch vegetables

blind eye — WKHBOOVHH WKHBOODOOVHH plus a colour code at the bottom

booberry — meaning of life

burnedinside / burn side — a photo of destroyed looking oregon parks sign and a parks department badge

bye gold — “bye!”

card — a photo of a “fructose by the freakin yard” that also says “bill cipher, dream demon”

conspiracy — a video of someone trying to figure out soos’s broken countdown. there’s a joke about morse code in the sparks. “what does it MEAANNNN???”

cray cray — wikipedia result for “mental health”

cryptogram codex — downloads four different fonts

cursed — a clipboard with article pages for how kids can resist drawing bill. the second page is torn and there are drawings of bill scribbled underneath, with the text “he is watching” and “run”

curse wittebane — a bill themed ouija board

death — “life’s goth cousin”

deer teeth — “for you, kid!”

dippyfresh — a reddit post with a photo of the burger king kids club

disco girl — dipper singing in the shower and then singing along to the entirety of disco girl. catchy!

disney — “rat.gif censored for your protection”

divorce — a logo for the bar that bill goes too… billford divorce is real…

dorito — a floating dorito and then a bill jumpscare

ducktective — “ducktective stars in ‘love, quacktually’, coming to: ‘oi, it’s the cockney channel innit?’ this fall

easter egg — “easter eggs? sounds like a conspiracy”

euclydia — “dimension not found”

fbi — “your webcam is on. we are watching”

fortnite / skibidi / rizz — “life privileges revoked. now releasing poison gas”

fuck alex — search result for get help therapy

glass shard beach — a postcard

gravity falls — “never heard of it”

gun — “oh yes oh yes oh yes they both”

harold’s ramblings — “how is clown repellant made?”

help me / god — statue bill and an axolotl

hologram — “universe”

horror — the “always garden” urban legend. backrooms reference!

irregular — bill’s mugshot photos with a code at the bottom

just fit in — a video of someone playing with one of those shape games… i’m unsure what to call it. the game where you hurt he shape into its corosponding spot. you can hear distorted speaking at the end of the video as it glitches out

justblendin — cowboys at a camp… ft irl blendin!

kings of new jersey — downloads the stan twins secret code font

kubrick — a video zooming in on bill cipher inside of a lh old club, i can’t read what the text says (i’m not wearing my glasses SORRY)

liar lyre — “the 20tg ingredient of anti-ciphering tonic?”

lies — “the game of lies”, a parody of the game of life. bill gives us a lesson on lying. lie until you aren’t lying anymore!

life — “life 72% complete. now loading death”

love ya bro — a drawing of stan and ford on the stan-o-war-II. the back has a bro-code on it. will have to translate

love — photo of the bill romance book from the alternate book of bill covers, and an audiobook version of it.

monster — google search for “THERES A MONSTER AT THE END OF THIS BOOK”

mountain don’t — “what’s a medicaid homonym?”

multilevel mark — “who defeated silas birchtrpe—?”

mystery shack — google search for confusion hill

mystery — “?”

naitsuaf — article on selling your soul, link to a soul selling contract

no — “your loss…”

nothing — “something”

portal — “portal.exe has been deleted. i bet you could build one”

question — “answer”

r34lity — pictures of bill’s henchmen in various places, the caption reads “they found a new home”

rat — “thurburts’ number?”

reality — “is an illusion”

scalene — “life form not found”

scary — photo of the bill spookeumps book from the alternate book of bill covers, and an audiobook version of it

scrimbles — life form not fount

season 1 — “season -1, anti-gravity falls”

season 2 — “season 1”

season 3 — “season 2”

season 4 has no result

seven eyes — a polaroid photo of bill’s crossed out henchman. the back says “leave him, escape to dimension [scratched out], it’s against the rules but it’s the one reality where you may be safe from him”

shave your grandma — chapter 9 of the bill textbook, two pages.

something — “nothing”

sorry — photo of ford and mcguckett with a letter from fiddleford on the back

tantrum — a transcript of a conversation between bill and time baby.

theory — MATTPAT???????

theraprism — warning sign

they’ll see — “is seeing believing?”

tinsel snake — “the 6th option on bill’s editing software?”

titansblood — “hoot hoot! password please!”

tj eckleburg — “never mention that name again”

torture mentally — “name an unpronounceable wizard”

triangle — “tri harder” or “)”

trigonometry / math — a note from bill complaining about plato

universe — “hologram”

various swear words — “not s&p approved! wash your mouth out with soap!”

virus — opens up “THEPLAGUE.PDF”

weird — weird al is now trapped in the computer (sorry!)

weirdmageddon — gravity falls gossiper news article, “nothing happened yesterday!”

who are you — “i could ask you the same question”

XGQRTHX — “where do tri angels come from?”

xyler / craz — youtube link to the jem and the holograms theme song

yes — “whats’s mcguckets favourite soda?”