#going to work is probably a terrible idea but i have to

[newttxt]

hi quip! i really like your one piece comics and i am curious how you do them! i'm not good at comics and want to be better at drawing them! how do you learn how to make comics?

thank you!

uh oh... im afraid u have caught me at the perfect crossroad of "bored at work" and "unrelated task ive been meaning to do but keep putting off."

this is long. i hope you like reading (and grayscale progress pics). and of course!!! disclaimer before we begin that this is just how I, personally draw comics. there is no "right way."

quip's comic-making process!

Switching my typing to make this more legible...

My process can kinda be broken down into 6 steps:

Brainstorming

Thumbnailing

Sketching

Panels & Text

Lines

Tones/Colors

1. Brainstorming

My brain is a leaky sieve on a good day, so I sloppily jot down ideas in my phone notes the moment I have them. This helps me when it's time to draw too, because if I feel art blocked, I can look through old concepts and see what catches my interest.

Otherwise, I love drawing for other people's writing. :) And if worst comes to worst, doing manga/comic page redraws in my style teaches me new things every time.

Once I have my idea, I'll usually make a bulletpoint list of "plot points" or "story beats" I want. Then I plan the comic with this format that I've adapted from a tutorial I read once. I'm going to use my most recent comic (original comic post) as an example.

I start in the third column, writing notes of what I'd want to see in each panel. I also include the dialogue (in this case, I didn't have to write the dialogue! it's from the fanfic linked in the original comic post!). I usually write the whole name like [Luffy:], but at this point I've drawn so much of these guys, just the first letter works.

I like to handwrite these notes to get an idea for how much text I'm putting in a single panel.

After I describe all the panels, I go back and separate them into pages. I can't tell you how to know how many panels to a page. It's whatever works for you. I just kinda know about how big each panel will be, and so I can feel when I'm probably running out of space. (Also. You can change things later. I don't in this example, but I add/drop pages/panels all the time.)

2. Thumbnailing

Thumbnailing—as the name suggests—should be done tiny. Too tiny to accidentally get sucked into details.

This is about marking down blobs where items/characters go, and figuring out the paneling. I'll draw and redraw these a bunch of times too.

This is also the most time-consuming/brain-working part for me. If I were in a zine that did progress percentage, I'd try to finish thumbnailing around the 50% mark (but I'm also a moderately fast artist, so your mileage may vary).

I think the terrible quality makes them charming, actually. I really like how silly they look. :')))

I will add, when you draw your "page" rectangle, make sure it's the same proportions as your actual canvas for the final image. You want an accurate idea of how much space each panel will take up, especially if you have a lot of text.

3. Sketching

This is my most recent change to my usual workflow, and it's saving me a lot of time. I make my thumbnails a bit bigger (each one about half the size of the final canvas), and I sketch these basic body forms right over them.

It just helps give me placement for my actual lines!

I usually draw these in a paleish color so I can lower the opacity and not get distracted by them while lining. The random darker parts are to either help keep two forms separate (like when two characters have their limbs all over) or to better define sections that were too sloppy/poorly proportioned.

I also think this helps my poses stay looser, because I have more dramatic/wriggly shapes that aren't too bogged down by proportions yet.

Sidenote: I CANNOT show this here, but sometimes this is when I take videos. Of myself. I prop my phone camera up and shoot a video of me acting each panel. :/// It looks really dumb, but it also shows me fun body language ideas like hand gestures, expressions, weight distribution, etc. Just pretend you're an overdramatic cartoon character, and try not to worry about your roommates or mother walking in on you doing odd things. (You can also use the video for anatomy reference later, but I usually just capture the vibe and don't try to copy the actual video frame.)

4. Panels & Text

Oh, boy. So, the panels are usually just straight lines (though it's fun to make creative exceptions, like a round panel to mimic looking through a spyglass), but there are some fancy rules that I don't strictly adhere to.

I believe (I have no technical training in this. Take everything I say with a grain of salt) the vertical gaps (between two side-by-side panels) should all be a consistent width and the horizontal gaps (between two panels on top of each other) should be another. The vertical ones? Should be thinner? Because you want the eye to easily glide between them, whereas the horizontal gaps should be a visual barrier to keep you from jumping ahead. Just something I've vaguely noticed.

There are lots of fun "default layouts" you can look up. Or keep it a consistent grid. I think it's fun to sometimes have characters/objects sticking out of panels and overlapping others. This is just a matter of taste, creativity, and inspiration. (Read Witch Hat Atelier... It has some of my favorite paneling...)

You may also notice I have already done the speech bubbles. This is, to me, a crucial step. This helps me catch early if I don't have enough room for all the words. It also lets me plan the art in each panel with the speech bubbles in mind. There's nothing worse than working really hard on a panel, and then you realize there's no room for the bubbles.

I also try to lay them out in a way that guides the eye! Even without art, can people tell where to go next? Better yet, if I want people to look at panels out of order (aka not left to right, in my case), can I use the speech bubble path to make them? Here's just a vague example of what I mean.

As an added bonus, doing speech bubbles early also allows me to be lazy! :) Ignore the comic; I'm not supposed to post it yet oops,, There's a whole lot of drawing to do on each comic page, and I am not wasting my time on stuff that will be covered up. So yes, if I hide my bubbles, there are a lot of unfinished lines trailing off into nothing. (As a bonus, if there's a part of a character you're struggling with—and it won't look weird to do so—you can move speech bubbles to just hide the problem area yayyy)

Making the actual bubbles could be their own whole tutorial, tbh, but there are some general guidelines I use.

Zoom out when you choose your font size. You want to know how it will look to the average reader, so it isn't super teeny tiny or way too big. You generally want to keep the same text size for all your pages/bubbles.

When I draw bubbles, I try to size them about one vertical letter height (and some change) around the words [left side]. This isn't always the case though, because humorously large or funny shaped text bubbles can convey different feelings [right side].

On Procreate, I set my bubble lines to Reference and just drag-and-drop the white fill on a separate layer below the lines. (Remember to turn Reference back off again when you're done, or your fill bucket won't work right when you're drawing.)

To get the white outlines I use to keep the bubbles from cluttering up the art, I literally just Gaussian blur an all-white copy of the lines + fills... and then I copy and merge it 5 times until it's opaque enough. This is a terrible way to do it, but it works for me. :')

5. Lines

This is the part that I can't tell you how to do. I literally just. Draw right over my wacky sketched body forms. Boom. Comic drawn.

I'll make three suggestions:

Don't focus on making every panel perfect. Give a little extra love to big ones or ones you want people to linger on. Otherwise, know that people are typically speeding through the art. It's way more important to focus on storytelling than art technique. In my opinion, a good story that's told well will always be better than a beautiful one told poorly. (Some comics are beautiful AND well-written... Alas, I am just a hobbyist who needs to get the ideas out of my head at top speed.)

Put your background lines on a different layer. Put your foreground lines on a different layer too, if you have those. Basically, I try to keep the main part of each panel (usually a character or object) on my lines layer so I can erase background/foreground/etc lines to ensure clarity/focus.

You can make background lines lighter colors too. I have too many numbers sorry. (1) Background. The stuff that's farthest away. Lightest lines. Few details; more focused on shapes and the suggestion of a background (I'm not good at backgrounds). (2) Midground. Same distance away as the characters are. Lines can be black. (3) Also midground, and also the same distance away. But they're very detailed, so I lighten them so they aren't so distracting. (4) The characters. Black lines for focus. For people who haven't seen the comic, I swear they are just hugging. This is SFW. D:

6. Tones/Colors

Do not. Do NOT ask me. I don't understand colors. I hate working with them, but I try because I want to improve. I hate doing anything beyond the simplest grayscale shading. Please go elsewhere for your coloring/tone advice. This is how my color picker looks 95% of the time. I have pre-set "percentages" of black that I got by lowering the opacity of a black layer and just color picking it. I don't even know the exact percentages I used. Good luck out there. Be better than me.

7. Sharing

This is a bonus step that I didn't mention earlier, but it's actually the most important of all of them.

You need a friend. Or maybe a groupchat or discord. A family member or coworker if you're really close like that. I don't know.

Find SOMEWHERE you can spam wips and be cheered on. Drawing comics takes a while, especially if you're trying to tell longer stories than I'd dare to attempt. If I don't force someone to praise me for every line I draw, I shrivel up and die.

Also if and when you post online, add alt text. I'll admit I'm the first person to complain and drag my feet on this, and I literally use a screenreader myself when my eyes hurt (strong prescription glasses wearer). Comics should be accessible, because stories are fun and everyone should be able to enjoy them.

***

Learning???

And I guess lastly, how do you learn to make comics? Two steps: 1) read them and 2) make them. This is the tragedy of creating things.

1) Reading them: I grew up reading comic strips, western serialized comics, and webcomics. I've always loved graphic novels too. Then in late middle school, I started reading manga (Death Note and Haikyuu were my first two), and now I'm trying to read more webtoons (sorry im so slow bree)!

I also... mass-consume doujinshi, thanks to proxy mailing services and bilingual friends/Google Translate/knowing some Korean. (I have an entire bookshelf of doujin, actually,,)

The thing is, it's not usually enough to just read comics. You also need to be thinking. :/ I notice paneling, comic devices, clever comedic timing, etc. as I go. It's just a lot of studying/learning while also enjoying the story.

2) Making them: You just have to start. :( Even if you think they're "bad." My first comics were actually just drawings placed randomly all over the page, connected by speech bubbles (yay... I was already practicing how to place bubbles to lead the eye around the page...). I was going to post a pic here, but I'm a coward. Backscroll my account and you can find some older ones though.

I also know my art in general improved dramatically when I did ten comics in ten weeks for my friend's fic. Don't do this. It hurt my hands/wrists. But do practice in moderation.

***

If you actually read all that... I hope it made even a modicum of sense. And maybe it was even helpful? Just know at the end of the day, there is literally no right way to draw a comic.

And if you aren't ready to go for it yet, you can start by just adding a couple speech bubbles to your illustrations or doodles! It's a way to add storytelling and dialogue writing to things you may already be making.

Yay. I love comics. :))))

[loviestmav]

| A Terrible Fruit Crisis!

❀.ೃ࿔ ─── You love Tabito and his family, even when he's away at Blue Lock you find yourself at his house with his sister enjoying the bowl of fruit that would've been his..

| i've been obsessed with grapes lately and every time i eat them this is what i think of : grapes♡ : first post too, shaking in my boots

・cw : Tabito Karasu x implied fem!reader : Otoya(self explanatory) : poopie writing : reader loves fruit : Karasu's taller and stronger than reader : Karasu's sister is still unnamed so i'm leaving her unmaned

・wc : 839

In the six years you've known Tabito his house has always been stocked with fruit, everytime you went over to his house after school or during weekends you were always offered a bowl of fruit from at least one family member

For two of those six years you two have known eachother you have been dating, the fruit offerings have only doubled - not that you minded you adored his big sister and mum, even more now that they basically only bought fruit for you when you were over

•······················••······················••···········��··········•

It had been little over a month since Tabito went off to this 'Blue Lock Project'. Your knowlegde on soccer was very limited but according to him this was how he would "make it big in soccer" (his words not yours)

Even though you were excited for him, there was a hole left where Tabito should be. Even though you had friends at school, there was no one for you to copy the chemitry work off of now, you were left to fight for your life in history without his answers, and worst of all, he wasn't there to bring you random fruits from his house - how were you going to survive?

It's definitely not like you weren't welcomed there it was simpy too much work to walk all the way around the corner of your street to his house just for some fruit

| tabis sissy♡

mum just bought a giant pack of grapes just for u

(she misses u)

Well who were you to turn that offer down? Your didn't want to break your second mothers heart. It wasn't snowing too, so it was very clearly a sign from the univserse that you needed to help Tabito's poor family who were dealing with a terrible fruit crisis!

You almost fell over from how fast you stood up to put on your shoes and a coat and grabbing your near dead phone that still would've been on charge if there wasn't an active emergency

Running on the icy road to get to the end of the street wasn't the smartest move and one of your bones is probably fractured just a little from the four times you slipped but it's fine, there's bigger problems like the fruit that you could practically hear calling your name

Another slip up their driveway which completely toppled you over, you deeply regret your shoe choice which had little to no grip, clearly at the fact your couldn't stand up to shamefully walk to the front door

'Maybe crawling would work!' Thinking to yourself - was it a good idea? No. But who cares no ones around

"Y/n? Are you ok?"

You knew that voice way too well for your liking and considering your lying face first stuck on the icy driveway of his house you knew for a fact you woudl never hear the end of this

"Woah wassup pretty girl? Wanna see my ninja- OW!"

"Leave her alone Otoya"

Slowly your head turned to see Tabito in the flesh, if you could stand up right now you would give him the biggest hug ever and cover his face in kisses but, number one, your stuck and number two, your absolutly mortified after noticing theres a group of guys standing behind him watching you fight for your life on the slippery surface

"..Help me please.." Your head hung low hearing Tabito's footsteps creep up behind you

His two strong arms efortlessly picking you up off the ice and into the tighest and warmest hug - one you so dearly missed

You could've cried from how happy you were to have him back until his sister opened the door letting the warm air from inside hit your face and simultaneously reminding you of your mission

"MY GRAPES!"

An attempt to leap from Tabito's grip was defintely made but wasn't successful - you forgot how strong he was, and did he grow to?

"Nuh uh, you're not going anywhere"

He quickly hoisted you off the slippery ground and onto his shoulder keeping you safe from falling over for the maybe twelth time today and all within less than five minutes

Still on his shoulder with his friends trailing behind you two, Tabito smoothly took your shoes off placing them next to his at front door walking past his sister in the process

"I'm still getting the grapes right?" The concern obvious in your voice towards everyone in the room

The two just laughed it off which only deepened the worry, your face almost turning white

"Right?! Like you two didn't just set me up or something?"

•······················••······················••······················•

"They good sweetheart?" Tabito asked you while sat at the kitchen counter next to you, his head leaning against his palm

"SOO good! The pain was'll worth it" Your mouth still stuffed with grapes

You might love Tabito to the moon and back and even further, but the fruit at his house is always loved a little more

| i've never had more fomo about something fictional that i've written in my life

© loveliestmav | do not plagiarise or translate any of my work

[novicedraws]

your biggest fan here

So evil Lao and Raiden didn’t know each other [closely] before becoming enemies, huh? ig it felt like they had a history because when they are not fighting Raiden seems… chill/tolerant to Lao? XD like “are you fr breaking into my room through a window? kinda rude but sure ig” lmao

How did he ended up in this situation then? 👀 did he just fell for the Bad Boy charm, or was there something more? they love to hold each other in arms while wounded, do they have a common enemy who brought them closer??

🍀

omg, its you again! hola hahahahaha Yea that's my bad lol I tend to draw "story beats" out of order so I can see why the confusion. So if you don't mind, imma kinda look like this

First Meeting - The start of it all, atp the Shaolin have been winning and gaining back territories and recourses from the Red Dragon. Kung Lao is called in to "fix" the problem. Raiden only knows by word of mouth about Kung Lao (vise versa Kung Lao with Raiden). Kung Lao is more amused about this new "champion" as he doesn't see him as a threat (until he gets his ass beat in that first encounter lol) obviously the two still don't like each other.

The Girls are Fighting - probably the least amount of drawings out of the arcs. honestly that one drawing is even leaning more towards "changing Point". essentially, This is the messy part of the story. both the champions don't like each other what so ever. its also the longest part of the "story" (months time in the story) Mavado/ rest of the Red Dragon starts picking up about this new threat. In turn they put more pressure on Kung Lao, it makes him so fucking mad. Its as if he's not a threat anymore. (he still very much so). Raiden on the other hand also gets pressure from his piers, the champion should have already fixed most of the issues already. ((side note - yea they should go after Liu Kang but *plot twist* Liu Kang is actually weakened. Its why he wont just rewrite the universe, something went terribly wrong, plus he's not a "public" figure)) both sides allies think they are getting "obsessed" with the other.

Changing Point - Raiden by default is a nice person, even in this rough situation. So seeing how this war just brings so much pain and suffering he goes for a different tactic. Diplomacy with Kung Lao- just enough to try and reason with him. It doesn't exactly work and in that moment of vulnerability Kung lao takes his chance to disarm Raiden. Raiden can keep up with Kung Lao but he panicked with his amulet stolen, so he did the most crazy thing (aka kiss him). If you asked, Raiden has no idea why he would even go for that tactic he just panicked lol. But he didn't hate it, no matter how much he tells himself otherwise.

Feelings? - Mavado gets wind of the new annoying champion, and sees how Kung Lao is annoyed with him...or is he? Mavado knows Kung Lao's mannerisms, hes 90% sure its not hatred. And knowing that, he feels...annoyed, mad, upset even? but instead of actually thinking about it, he acts petty and tries to hurt them both (alt. to fighting). He hurts Raiden at the party- Raiden doesn't know why he's upset seeing that. And Kung Lao doesn't know why he cares for Raiden's feelings. - Kung Lao knows how to sneak around (he had to for survival) so he often goes to see the enemy front (its often how he's able to defeat the enemy) but this one night is different. He see's Raiden very close to another individual (smoke). He doesn't care who or what that person is, he does not like them being that close to Raiden. (this is bit of a toxic trait- not enough to thinking of killing that individual- but immense jealousy)

Earth Realms Champion Injured - Raiden is one man, and while he's very strong and powerful, he's still a humble farm boy. He tries to please everyone and over works himself to the point of almost passing out in battle. The pressure and stress has got to him at this point. Despite telling everyone he's fine. He almost dies in battle but Kung Lao comes in just in time to save him. He sees the state Raiden in and is pissed. (just to note they are not fighting each other here, this is a separate issue trying to take over- aka Shang Tsung's army) Long story short (i wanna draw something later lol) Raiden is out of commission for a bit.

Something Changed - Raiden got better! but something strange keep happening during his recovery. Little gifts and such keep popping up in his room, he tries asking the others, but they deny leaving anything. He knows who it is, but he doesn't want to believe it really because why would he care about him? they are enemies, sure there's something, and he's scared. He shouldn't have these feelings, but he does. Is Kung Lao playing with his feelings? Is he just messing with him before killing him once and for all? He doesn't know. - Until one night, he stayed up enough to catch Kung Lao enter his room looking...normal. Soft. A little exhausted by the bags under his eyes. Its the first time in a while the two have gotten to see and talk to each other after all the shit they gone through. Just the two of them alone for once. They both know things were never going to stay the same again, and they don't hate that. That night they embraced each other as though they were meant to be together.

Omg Change Pt. 2 - Still working on it LMAOOOOOO--- the two now know what the other is feeling. orrrrr they're trying lol. Kung Lao is raised to keep emotions in otherwise its a weakness and can be used against you. Raiden learns people pleasing is how he is able to help his village. Its how he got injured in the first place. so they are both trying to work on it lol - will they have a happy ending? idk but thats for later hahaha.

Theres still gaps in the story, but honestly that comes in when I actually draw them in lol

So just some small spark notes I couldnt fit up above- - Raiden becomes more tolerate of Kung Lao around Changing Point. His feelings also start to slowly build up. Same with Kung Lao. - While he's not exactly against sex, Raiden definitely had a more tame upbringing. He's raised as a farm boy, and trained as a monk. Kung Lao existence alone is making the poor boy spiral LOL. Poor man is having a crises as to why he's feeling these things, he shouldn't! but he does! (also kind of makes him insecure but Kung Lao reassures him to never think like that) - The parts from changing point to omg change pt. 2 is actually short in terms of time compared to the girls are fighting.

OMGGGGGGG that was a lot, I hope I answered at least one question LOL

[storylessposts]

I think it could be possibly doable to salvage Videl with a post-Buu-only rewrite, since the biggest slight the Buu arc does to her is randomly awkwardly shuffle her and her arc off the field halfway through the story so it can focus on Goku Hour again. I understand if it struggles a little, since post-Buu shuffles Gohan out of the major character deck (with him finally retiring his own Goku Successor ribbon and moving into academia as he wants), and since randomly ejecting her halfway through the story does damage her narrative character, but I think it would be doable to take what had been set up + awkwardly unresolved and build on that for her, and I think promoting her would also lessen the loss of Gohan for her arc.

But I do agree rewriting Buu is probably gonna be better for Videl than trying to clean up the mess the story leaves her arc in. Honestly, I’d argue we might need to go one further — instead of just giving her a Spopovich resolution and retaining her in the main combat team for the rest of the arc, I think we should go back and mess with her introduction as well.

See, from the start, Videl is a narrative foil for Gohan. Plus, She was a Girl, He was a Boy, could Toriyama make it any more obvious? That’s where she enters the canon Buu arc — someone for Gohan to play off of, someone for Gohan to be compared to, someone who takes an interest in Gohan. She’s smart and strong, but since this arc starts out as Gohan’s go at being our protagonist, Videl quickly falls into step as a supporting character in his bid for protagonist-land. While culling Spopovich is the actual bullet that does in Videl as a major player for the arc (and, by effect, for the series), her shot at being a main character is hampered somewhat by how much her role in the Majin Buu arc revolves around where Gohan is in regards to his own character arc.

So if we’re making a rewrite starting with the Buu arc and aiming to introduce Videl as our successor to Goku’s narrative role (and, possibly, his Art), I think we ought to go back to her introduction and entry to the story, not just her half-baked canonical arc. Instead of casting her as a member of Gohan’s supporting cast, we should establish her with her own supporting cast, potientially even slotting Gohan in to them instead.

Don’t get me wrong, I think she works great as a foil to Gohan and I don’t want to lose that. At the end of the Cell arc, Gohan inherited all the power of Goku, and simply never truly had the drive to use it, and that’s interesting! Videl plays off that well, since where she starts is all drive and no inheritance. They’re narrative foils, and we want to retain that. Plus, because they’re narrative foils, they do make a decent enough shoo-in for a romance pairing, inasmuch as Toriyama is willing to do one of those. They’re friends with fathers who have a huge reputation weighing on their respective backs in different ways, and honestly I bet they wouldn’t mind being born into each other’s families instead. (That’s be a pretty fun one-off/filler-type storyline, actually…)

But getting back on track, while we should keep Videl’s relationship to Gohan as characters, narratively I think Videl would benefit from being introduced in a way disconnected from Gohan. It’s a bit of a balancing act to do, I guess, because the telling of the story would probably want to shift from Goku to Gohan to her, but I think it would help if from the word to you could tell that she’s got her own story to tell. She walks in and the narrative stops watching Gohan to see what Videl is up to, that kind of idea.

From there, absolutely develop her interest in going beyond, give her what she needs to show her drive. She wants to become stronger than her dad, partly because he’s become a terrible father in the wake of her mother’s passing, but partly because she thinks it would help him to get taken down a peg — she’s angry but she’s not apathetic to him. A lot of her early beats work both for developing her and for developing the Buu plot line, but all that in canon is somewhat incidental — so make it intentional, make it about her and not just about Gohan or about the both of them.

And then, I think, the most interesting thing might actually be — what if after she sets out to face Gohan at the Tenkaichi Budokai finals, after she’s learned Ki manipulation basics in impressively quick time and laid out why he’s the one she needs to beat before taking on her own dad, after the two are lined up to face each other in the finals for that good old Tournament Resolution — have Spopovich show up… and throw down with Gohan.

As much as taking the Videl vs. Spopovich rematch out of the original Buu arc hurts Videl as a character with a narrative arc, Spopovich 1 isn’t really a main character fight. He’s there to set the fear of Babidi into everyone, and to show off strange techniques that make him not especially fair to fight. He’s there for someone to lose to, so he can show off. And even though Goku is not above getting seven shades of tar beat out of him in pursuit of a fight, protagonists are just never good fodder for that kind of fight, narratively, so setting him against Videl would hurt the narrative role we’re trying to sell her as. Instead, letting Gohan job it against Spopovich would do a good job showing that 1) as strong as Gohan is, he’s not invested in the Art like his dad was and like Videl will be, and 2) whatever the deal is with Spopovich, it makes him on a half-Saiyan’s level, and it is more important than the Tenkaichi.

Gohan, I think, will handle Spopovich poorly. Gohan has a good foundation, but he’s already largely coasting on that foundation, rather than cultivating his Art. Spopovich would present Gohan a challenge that he hasn’t really sought out since the Cell arc — namely, a fight he has to actually try to think about. And while Spopovich would need to come packaged with a weakness so he can actually lose a rematch, Gohan will just struggle through throwing more and more power on the guy until he wears himself out.

(For bonus points, I think Gohan should also feel the need to hit Spopovich so hard that the dude’s neck breaks — canon Videl is at this point used to brawls that can go very badly very quickly, but canon Gohan was so over leveled for the Saiyaman fights he had that the presence of things like bullets and bombs just kinda went in one ear and out the other with him. This would be the first time he’s killed someone since he fought Cell, and I think however poorly Videl would react to Spopovich’s neck going snap, I think Gohan can react worse.)

Videl can also help cement her role as Goku’s successor by not having the Spopovich 1 fight, too — Goku’s counter-fighter antics can make a return in Videl, as she watches Spopovich eat everything Gohan can throw and find some weakness to exploit. It would be a nice little call-back of sorts to Tenkaichi fights like Goku v. Tenshinhan, and help sell the idea that Goku’s legacy will be ultimately inherited not by any of his kids, but by the random human girl.

(Though, Spopovich’s weakness would probably have to be added in by the rewrite of his first fight, since the Spopovich rematch being unceremoniously cut also deprived him of an exploitable weakness in the first place. He takes punishment like an Android or like Nappa (you basically have to land a kill shot because he’ll keep fighting through anything less), and he doesn’t die when he’s killed, so I almost wonder if Babidi randomly discarding him with only a fraction of his value claimed is because Toriyama had no idea how anyone could actually beat him when he still had the M?)

From there, Gohan and Videl would have an interwoven arc into the Babidi/Buu stuff, where it becomes clear that while Videl never got the power necessary to handle the kind of fights Gohan can, she still has the mind for it, backed by an unyielding drive to prove herself any way she can. Even though Videl only knows baby’s fist Bukūjutsu and not even a basic Kamehameha, Videl should prove instrumental to defeating (or more likely, solving) antagonists in the Buu arc. the ‘old guard’ would probably have to provide the power, and there’s a decent chance that keeping this arc’s sends offs for Goku and Vegeta mean they have to lead the ultimate resolution fight, but to let this arc set Videl as the narrative successor, she needs to not only stick around and talk to the rest of the cast, but play important roles with the tools she has (and prepare to pursue all the tools she doesn’t have).

hello. odd question: if you were given the choice, what sort of post buu sequel would you personally want to see? you don't have to write a whole story or anything, just, what kind of story would you want to see told if it were up to you? in terms of basic premise, tone, or "gimmick" if you'd like to see one.

Probably unpopular opinion but my ideal vision of a post-Buu Dragon Ball sequel would be to retire Goku and Vegeta after the Buu arc for good. Goku's story ended very satisfyingly with the Cell arc and I don't think Vegeta could ever go out on a higher note than what Buu gave him. I think Dragon Ball has a lot of potential for future storytelling beyond Buu but if we're working from scratch then these two characters, specifically, I'm ready to be done with.

What Dragon Ball needs to give it that shot in the arm is to have the courage to do what it wanted to do post-Cell: to start over and reinvent itself.

I do understand why that fell apart with Gohan. Gohan doesn't like martial arts. He never has. He enjoys it as an activity he can do with the people he loves, but he isn't a martial artist at heart. He has no drive for it as a hobby; His only relationship with it is as a necessary evil he sometimes has to engage in to protect his loved ones.

That's not a spark that can drive a Dragon Ball protagonist down a road of self-discovery and personal improvement through a deep, personal relationship with the art. And all the attempts to make Gohan relevant again just amount to giving him free power-ups and browbeating him into doing things that, on a fundamental level, he just hates doing.

Gohan doesn't want to be a Dragon Ball main character. He has never wanted that, and we shouldn't force him to. It's better for him and better for the story to just move along.

So where does that leave us?

I think the Buu arc gave us all the tools we need to reinvent Dragon Ball already. I think the characters who have the most potential in telling new Dragon Ball stories are the ones the franchise kinda just... wants to sweep aside. It's Goten, Trunks, and Marron. Pan and Bra. And our new green god Dende. The next generation of Dragon Ball heroes.

It's Goten and Trunks looking at their fathers' backs and knowing that these are the mountains that they are meant to climb. To become more than Goku and Vegeta ever were. And questioning if that's even what they want for themselves. What is their relationship to the art, independent of their fathers? Independent of each other?

Who even are they to each other? Are they to be a reflection of their fathers? Are they to be their fathers' mirror opposites? Or are they to be something else, something independent of their fathers, something only they can identify?

And what does the art mean to them personally? When it stops being "I'm doing this because my family does it," what is it to them? Is it even what they want or, like Gohan, do their destinies lie down another road?

Who is Marron? Who will she grow up to be? What does the art mean to her? In this world of Saiyans and Namekians, what are the limitations that her humanity imposes on her? And how can she break those limits and become something super?

These are the questions that I think could fuel a really interesting sequel series. I think the key to Dragon Ball's artistic future is in allowing someone else to go on a martial arts journey of their own, so we can watch them grow from a wide-eyed child to a wizened master as we once watched Goku.

[harryshomebaby]

this is literally the worst i've ever felt in my life and i have to leave for work in 20 minutes

[somegrumpynerd]

-Okay but some of the fears that Color has are in fact the same fears that Nightmare has when it comes to Killer.

Like, Color is worried that Killer's so blindly loyal to Nightmare for whatever reason that he wouldn't even think of complaining if he hated it. And at the start that was something Nightmare probably expected. His henchmen should be loyal and obedient and not ask questions nor complain. But now, after years of learning and bonding and softening up significantly he wonders sometimes if that's still the case.

Nightmare knows Killer well, perhaps better than most, but he's not exactly an open book. Especially when it comes to his own wants or needs. More often than not when he makes a request it's intentionally silly or unreasonable for laughs, like asking if they can take Dust to the nearest pet store and try to trade him in. Very rarely does he want something strong enough to make it known, both to himself and others, like asking to keep the first cat he found.

So.

If he hated this. If he truly struggled and fought and agonised with himself about the position he's in and the work he's doing and the life he leads.

Would he say it? Would he realise that was how he felt? Would he even consider saying no was an option?

If Nightmare asked him to do something he really genuinely did not want to, would he just do it anyway because he doesn't believe he has a choice in the matter?

The only way of finding out (besides making a blatantly difficult request of him, which Nightmare is not willing to do) is to simply wait and trust that Killer will tell him if something is wrong. Which... is not exactly foolproof or easy.

But it's part of why Nightmare hates to be around Color too much, because deep down he's more than a little worried that Color could be right and he doesn't know how to fix it.

[egophiliac]

We ARE going to bring up Captain Amelia. You have good taste! GOOD TASTE I SAY! *aka I just rewatched Treasure Planet and got hit with, "Oh yeahhhhh... that explains a lot!"*

honestly, the Meg/Jasmine/Amelia trifecta tells you 90% about me as a person. (the rest is covered by Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Uranus and, uhhh, I'll stop baring my soul to the world now)

and speaking of Amelia, this is tangential, but like -- there's one Twst comic I have been kicking at for a while where I needed an RSA sports/flight teacher and, uh, well

someday I will wrangle this stupid comic into coherency and she'll get to make an appearance (in the background of a single panel, half-obscured by a tall hat) (but I will know she's there and that's the important thing)

[chez-cinnamon]

I got back from a comic book festival on Thursday and ever since I’ve been really tempted to post more OCs and actually get personal projects rolling ,,

I’m at a tie between different stories I have bc idk which to introduce properly and also my attention span hops between them all too much ,,,,,

But lately my zombie apocalypse story has been on my mind…. So maybe maybe 👀👀

[co27]

i guess my question is why DOES nuance immediately become looked down upon when it comes to that one webcomic

[sskk-manifesto]

Atsushi's back in the game!!! ۶( ˆ o ˆ )

[supercantaloupe]

schedule sending emails for the morning so i don't look like a freak sending them at 11:39 pm on a friday in late december

[qumiiiquinnquin]

its only been 2 weeks but i just dont feel like i can do this.

its really stressful. the workload is always high. having a break isn't really a thing. and with how bad my schedule is (that i could not do anything about) i have to wake up extremely early (5-5:30am) and i come home in the evening (also 5-5:30 but pm). and i just have to dedicate that time to homework and i know there's going to be lots of all-nighters

i have no time to eat. im tired all the time. focusing on work is difficult in general, but my lack of eating and sleep make it worse. and while i know the exercise is good for me, having to walk a mile each way to and from home and all my walking on campus makes me very tired and sore. (im so petty)

i know im being overdramatic because its only been 2 weeks. but it gets worse from here on out. im really stressed and anxious all the time. and ive already broken down a few times. i want to cry right now because im under so much stress, but people are awake so i cant.

its so petty. i want to give up now and i keep contemplating, i thought about going to the rooftop and. well. you know. i want to drop out now but that would upset my family a ton (also its only been 2 weeks!!!). but i dont really like my family's idea that if they went to college and got their degrees, so can i. they all went to college so thats what was encouraged of me to do too after i graduated high school. and this is just community college. if im barely hanging on in community college id be dead by now in a uc or cal state, either one im planning to transfer to once im done at community college...

i knew i wasnt cut out for college. i knew it since before applying. i keep telling myself this is only until december. and when i register for the spring term i can hopefully form a much better schedule so im not stressed out and loaded with work all the time and i can actually take care of myself. so im trying to keep moving forward. but its only now september. i have 13 more weeks. and if these first two weeks were enough to kick my ass then im fucked for the rest of the semester. and probably my entire time at college.

[jontheredrc]

Well, it's about that time again...and I'm sorry, but I feel like my head's been replaced with a big rock that's too heavy for my neck. I did get some sleep, but it doesn't feel like enough, plus I woke up with...you know, all the usual problems I have when I wake up. Everything else is going swimmingly with the new work schedule, except sleep, though again, if you're in the habit of reading these, you know that's been happening for awhile already...it's not the schedule's fault I'm tired. In fact, the schedule is working exactly as planned! I had a moment where my alarm went off and I wasn't able to get out of bed for an hour and a half. I...I don't remember falling back asleep, I remember the alarm going off and thinking that I needed to get up to use the bathroom, I remember struggling to rise--and by the time I did, I saw the clock on the stove in the kitchen on my way back out, and I was surprised by it. But these are the sorts of things I expect out of myself, which is why the alarm is set early to begin with. I know I have sleep problems and that my doctor will not help me. I have to accept these symptoms in my life and simply plan around them better. But man...these symptoms fucking suck. I see characters in stories waking up feeling refreshed, feeling a little yawn and a stretch, maybe, doing so well first thing in the morning...and I wish that were me.

Have a great day, everyone! Love you! 👋💕

[zevrra]

𝐢. 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐬

synop: you and vik get caught “messing around” in the lab by jayce; who surprisingly wants to join in on the fun.

wc: 1.8k

includes: straight smut, p w/o p, fem!reader, jayce x reader x viktor, slight vöyeurism, oral (m receiving), slight dirty talk, threesome, bottom!viktor

extra: part 2 is here! reblogs are appreciated <3

“don’t worry,” you whisper, fingers twirling along a red tie before smoothing down the front of viktor’s vest. “i sent jayce out on an errand run and he won’t be back for a little bit. just enjoy this v.” you add with a hum.

viktor looks up through his pretty lashes at you. he leans back against his desk, practically sits on top of it to keep weight off of his leg, as you two stand inside of the lab. he had been working far too hard recently and the only way you could keep him distracted long enough not to think about anything involving his work was to pleasure him. it was the same way trying to get him to sleep every once and awhile, when he would sneak into your room. you had never suggested doing it in the lab though…and the thought thrilled you just as much as it thrilled him; even if he thought it was a terrible idea.

“w-we shouldn’t. not here in the lab and what if—” viktor mumbles but his words end in a soft gasp as your fingers begin to untuck his shirt from his pants.

“viktor,” you chirp as you fall to your knees in front of him, unbuttoning the front of his pants and pulling them down ever so slightly. “you need to take a break. be a good boy and just relax.”

your fingers are just grabbing the hem of his underwear when the door to the lab is being thrown open and jayce’s large figure enters the room. “hey, i was looking for this thing you asked for but i—“ jayce had begun to speak, his eyes pointed down as he entered the room, before he finally looked up and caught the two of his friends in the act.

you freeze in your spot, eyes widening as you stare at jayce from the floor. a scarlet red blush is spreading across your face, you can feel the heat on your cheeks in an instant and you’re sure you match not only jayce’s shocked face but viktor’s as well; and you can’t even bring yourself to look up at him. you probably stay like that for a little longer than you should’ve until jayce clears his throat and you and viktor alike scramble from each other.

“we!” you start as you stand up straight and as quick as you possibly can. “wait it’s not what it looks like! we were uh just uhm—“ you ramble before looking at viktor to help dig both of you out of this hole. but he’s busied himself with trying to zip his pants back up, making it far more obvious if it hadn’t been already. you sigh, turning your face off to the side to stare at a small spot on the floor, unable to look jayce in the eye.

“do…you do this often?” jayce’s voice cuts through the built up silence in the room like a knife.

you shake your head quickly but viktor speaks up for you instead. “never in the lab.” he mutters.

“it’s unprofessional, we get it, let’s just drop it and forget this—“ you begin to add but the sound of the door closing with a lock interrupts your rambling. when you finally bring your gaze to jayce, his eyes are soft but clear in their intentions. and it was his turn to no longer be able to look at the two of you.

“can i…watch?” he whispers under his breath.

and with three little words, everything changes between all three of you.

now, jayce leans against the lab’s desk as viktor leans back against his chest. jay’s strong hands fully support viktor as you’ve returned to your spot in front of him. you had never in your life thought jayce might have been interested in whatever you and viktor had going on. maybe you just assumed he already had a lover and never brought it up again. but now his hazel eyes stare down at you, just as viktor’s amber eyes also watch you, both with a hunger to their eye. it almost made you nervous, being watched, but your fingers once again hook around viktor’s underwear and pull down, ignoring the jitters that hum under your skin.

your hand wraps around vik’s semi hard cock and you give it a soft tug, rubbing right up the shaft until the tip. there was a new feeling in the air around all 3 of you. breaths being held, eyes watching ever so closely, the slight tremble to your hand. it had been different when it was just the two of you enjoying midnight meetings but now with jayce there too…it felt far more scandalous and naughty.

“tell me what it feels like.” jayce whispers, purposely placing his chin into the crook of viktor’s neck, as his hands slowly run up along vik’s chest.

your own hand continues to move against viktor’s shaft, stroking him slowly up and down, moving to press your lips against his head.

“mmph, her fingers are a little cold,” viktor replies with a low groan. his chest rising and falling in quicker succession as he begins to get turned on. “but it feels good.” he adds. and his honesty makes you smile a little.

you move your hand faster in return to his praise. trailing your fingers along his head, pressing your thumb into the slit of his cöck, where he’s growing sensitive and causing him to gasp softly. you take the moment to lean forward and capture the head of his cock inside of your mouth. drinking in the sight of viktor’s eyes fluttering, his fingers tightening onto whatever he can grasp, as your mouth wraps around him.

“keep going viktor.” jayce instructs as you watch him place hot, heavy kisses against vik’s throat. one of his hands groping his thin chest and waist.

“w-warm! it’s so warm and wet,” vik breaks. he’s fully hard now as you suck on his head, making him whimper at the feeling. “feels—ah—really good.” he adds with a groan as his eyes return to watching you.

you can feel his thighs tighten as you swallow more of his cöck, continuing to use your hand to stroke up to your lips. you watch every expression that crosses viktor’s face along with jayce’s fingers that slowly begin to take off his vest. strips him of his vest and then works on unbuttoning his brown shirt underneath.

jayce keeps laying hot kisses along the back of his neck and on his throat, slumped over and threatening to swallow all of viktor’s thin frame.

the sight makes you somewhat giddy and excited to see what jayce does. but it never distracts you from making viktor feel good as well. sucking a little harder, spit bubbling up at the sides of your lips as you sink further down onto his lengthy shaft. your eyes are almost falling close to help you focus as you swallow more and more of him, but jayce’s voice catches your attention once again.

“she looks so pretty like that, doesn’t she, vik? makin’ you feel so good.” he whispers against just as pretty, pale skin. his words cause vik to stutter, hips lifting up and forcing you to swallow the rest of him. and you do so with ease.

you truly wouldn’t have guessed jayce was so good at dirty talk but you welcomed any surprises at this point. viktor simply whines in response, head hanging low, gaze still on you as you continue your routine of sucking him off.

jayce stands to his full height then, hanging over viktor just enough so he could turn his face and capture his lips. viktor’s eyes widen in response but he does nothing to stop jayce; no, instead he’s melting into the kiss. you watch with eager curiosity as their tongues clash together, jayce easily winning in the battle of dominance, as one big hand of his moves up to gently caress viktor’s throat.

fuck, was it hot watching them. you can feel your pussy throbbing at the sight just as you can feel yourself growing wet against your panties. you squeeze your thighs together, slipping a hand down below to press your fingers into your core. the best you can through the pants you wear for the moment but the pressure is enough to make you groan. you move your lips faster along viktor’s shaft, sucking harsher and sloppier to bring him closer to his end.

the change of pace and jayce’s tongue surely has viktor coming undone quicker than usual. for he breaks the kiss with a harsh whine. “i’m close!” vik gasps, tossing his head back onto jayce’s shoulder.

jayce presses a quick kiss against his jaw before his hazel eyes return to watch you suck viktor off. his eyes are hazy and full of lust as he fixes his intense stare on what you do; which makes you shiver with newfound pleasure under his sight. his strong gaze makes you press your fingers into your pussy once again, seeking any form of satisfaction you could get for the moment.

“look viktor,” jayce instructs as his hand smooths over viktor’s lower abdomen. “she’s touching herself.”

viktor’s breath hitches in his throat but he moves his own lust filled gaze down to stare at you. with both of them returning to stare at you, you palm yourself harder through your pants. moving your hips in sync to every bob of your head, needy and desperate as things evolve, all the while you moan around vik’s cock.

it’s all too much for viktor as his hips lift and he thrusts wildly into your mouth. “going to—!” he cries softly, body tightening, throwing his full weight back against jayce.

but jayce is quicker. one hand grabs your hair and pulls you off of vik’s twitching cock before he takes his hand and wraps it around where your mouth had just left. “stick out your tongue. i wanna see the mess he makes all over your face.” he grunts, pumping his fist quickly along vik’s entire shaft. his hand is much bigger than yours and it wraps entirely around viktor with ease, and it makes vik lose all control he might’ve pretended to have.

but you do as your told and swiftly stick your tongue out to catch whatever you can. all it takes is viktor staring at your tongue and jayce’s hand jerking him off to finish his orgasm. viktor forces himself to watch as he comes, fingers grasping and gripping onto anything he can that’s near him as he tumbles over the edge with a sharp cry.

your name, along with jayce’s name, leaves viktor’s lips in a pathetic whimper as he comes. can feel the sticky substance coat your tongue, cheek, and chin with each rope jayce rubs out of him. all the while viktor and jayce watch as he makes a mess across your lips and face, never once looking anywhere else.

not until vik is completely spent, limp against jayce who holds him up effortlessly. the only noise now in the room is the shared panting between all three of you. you lick your lips, trying to clean yourself up just a little, before it was your turn to break the silence.

“let’s keep going.”

[i-eat-mold]

just here to say that gertrude robinson is the single funniest character. she is THE character. she dies before the show even starts. shes an old lady that adopted an edgy teen and traveled the world. She is the avatar of one of the fourteen elditch horrors that feed on primordial fears, she had basically infite knowledge of everything and her plan to stop one of the rituals of a cult of another one of said list of eldrich horrors was to blow it up with a bunch of c4. we only find out about this because she stored all of the explosives in a random storage unit and the aforementioned edgy teen with mommy issues (who by the way, is dead, but when he died she sneaked into the morgue to put him inside a book) speaks through the book to the woman's succesor who, by the way, has no idea what the fuck is going on because neither she nor anyone else has bothered to explain shit to him, and tells him that she kept something important in the unit. we only find out about this after 100 episodes of the show. She feeds her subordinates to an all consuming monster/god, but its ok i guess. Later on (earlier on? at the same time? in a different timeline? after?) the literal end of the world and the end of the end of the world shes back and still has to deal with this stupid teenager who at least doesnt spend half his life focused on dyeing his hair and the other half about finding murder books (not as books about murder but as in, books who actively murder). She is a well experienced arsonist despite having no affiliation with the actual official arsonists club that is yet another cult to yet another one of the previously mentioned eldritch horrors. She is, however, metaphysically tied to the Chosen One, the Messiah of said cult, or some shit. She is absolutely terrible at her actual office job (on purpose). She dismembered a guy (who was her assistant) and probably commited several undocumented crimes against humanity. Once again, she has all seeing abilities and barely noticed her favorite assistant was torturing a coworker. She dares her murderous boss to kill her and gets surprised when he does so. When asked what to do about a literal Monster Pig, her advice is to encase it in cement. She was such a bitch. Her plan B was always to set things on fire. Her plan A was often to set things on fire. One of these instances was approved by her boss (the one who killed her). It is canon that the reason she started all this shit in her life was because the fire cult killer her cat. She sacrified another one of her assistants who became an avatar of the literal concept of Insanity but it was just a other thursday for her. She knows on a first name basis pretty much every person and monster affiliated with the eldritch horrors that she tries to keep at bay on the daily. She stopped a ritual for The Lonely by making the place a tourist destination. She has an ebay account. Instead of performing a ritual for the God that she was affiliated with, she wanted to destroy it and planned to 1. blind herself, and 2. set fire (yet again) to her workplace. It didnt work, because and her boss, who was also the one who was going to perform the ritual, finds her right before and kills her after she says he has no balls to do so. Also she is voiced by the mother of the main character's voice actor (who he named with his own, full, legal name) and the series' writer, which are the same person. Shes the worst, shes the best, i love her, we will never get anyone like her again, we need more characters like her.

[justsomestuffreally]

I think the Batkids reaction to a Bruce who isn't de-aged to 8 but rather 29 (pre-Jason death, post his adoption) would be fascinating. 

Their reaction would vary wildly:

Dick: Oh. Bruce is soft again. Bruce calls them ‘chum’ and ‘buddy’ and gives head pats for no reason. He still isn’t perfect, his communication skills are still a work in progress, but compared to his future self? Without actively dying Dick is hugged plenty. Bruce asks him to go to the zoo, unrelated to any case, just to spend time together. Dick is hit with more nostalgia and longing for the past than he knows what to do with.

Also notable: his dad is younger than him. That is something. Second, holy existential crisis Batman, his dad is younger than him and already one adult and one teenage kid??? Dick is not ready to feel this old yet. Third, Dick has absolutely no idea how Bruce managed to stay patient through his no-pants years. He is going to thank reason every day from now on that Damian wears full protection.

Jason: After his death and League he clung to an image of Bruce. One many tried to beat out of him, but he still kept it somewhere close to his heart, buried deep enough even he couldn’t see it. When he came back Bruce wasn’t like this idea of him. How stupid of him to believe the mind of a traumatized kid. Trying to create one good thing before the kid drew his last breath. Making up memories that never even existed.

But they did. Every smile and hug and even his words reflect the image tugged safely against his still-beating heart. His dad very clearly, very deeply loves him. Which is so much worse. Because he can understand why a Bruce, who never cared, didn’t kill the Joker. But he cares. So why the fuck did he not kill the Joker?

Tim: The reason he joined the family, the reason why he became Robin in the first place was because he saw a problem when Bruce started self-destructing and thought ‘Someone needs to fix that!’. Therefore he went and collected Dick, who didn’t seem keen on fixing it. So, the job fell to him to fix it.

He thought he did a good job, he thought he fixed the problem. Except now he sees who Bruce was, and he knows he failed. Their Bruce is less soft, less affectionate, less like he was before. Batman needs a Robin and Tim didn’t manage to be good enough of one to save him. 

[Or: Tim has a guilt complex a hundred miles wide and blames himself for things that aren’t his fault part 52]

Steph: Jason and she are very similar. Both come from the Narrows, both have a mother addicted to drugs and a shitty father. The differences start when Steph keeps waiting on the roof of their apartment for Batman to whisk her away, while Jason tries to steal the tires of the Batmobile and is taken in.

When Steph started out as Spoiler Bruce tried to keep her off the field, and obviously this one would too (even if he would probably be less paranoid about it), but she knows this Bruce would have also taken her in. This Bruce would be the father she always wished for when she sat on their roof and couldn’t see any stars. 

And she didn’t get to have this because Jason went ahead and died. (Of course, she knows she isn’t fair to the guy. Dying isn’t fun… And she knows the only reason she lived is because he died. When Batman rescued her from Black Mask she was in such terrible shape that Leslie managed to convince the World’s Greatest Detective that she died. If Jason hadn’t died Bruce wouldn’t have been as paranoid, wouldn’t have noticed her missing so soon, wouldn’t have been as urgent in his response. Would have been just a minute slower, a minute which would have killed her. Just as it had Jason.)

For her, this Bruce is a distorted mirror into a past which never was. 

Cass: This Bruce and B are not the same person. They don’t move the same. In a fight, this Bruce is younger, faster, stronger. Doesn’t compensate for a previously broken spine. Less experienced. Still one of the most experienced she knows, but less. 

He still moves differently, outside a fight, less pain. More likely to engage in physical affection, more likely to hug and pat and talk. He talks more than B. B knows what she means without words. This Bruce doesn’t.

She likes this Bruce, warmth, and softness. But not as much as B. He knows what she means, when she wants a hug, when she tells him ‘I love you’ without words. B doesn’t need words. This Bruce doesn’t know her, doesn’t communicate like her. She wants B back.

Damian: At first, when this version of his father seemed uncanny and oddly familiar, he assumed it to be due to the stories of his mother. After all, she always told him tales about his father. He simply did not have the frame of reference to understand the kindness she spoke of. Clearly, the clash between the ideals of the League and the ones of his father causes these feelings, just as they did when he first entered the manor.

He presumed this to be the case until one day on patrol Batman laid a hand on his shoulder and told him he did a good job after no particularly impressive fight and he nearly called him ‘Grayson’. Because the stories of his mother may have painted the picture of this version of his father, however, it wasn’t what made it familiar; no, he knew this kindness. These hugs and compliments one would bestow upon a child. Compliments which, despite the indignity, still warm him. Because Grayson learned how to be a… caregiver from his father.

His father used to be like Grayson, used to be until his grief hardened him. Damian could have had this. Damian could have a brother and father who would- But he doesn’t because of Todd. He loathes Todd. Loathes him for ruining the life he could have had.

Why did he die anyway? Damian certainly wouldn’t have a problem escaping bonds created by the Joker, Damian would have disarmed the bomb in time, Damian would have never thrown this life away like he did.

[Or: Damian is a child who was raised by assassins and has unreasonable standards for fighting abilities and also is a child who needs to focus his rage on someone.]

Duke: He was neither there before Jason died nor in the aftermath [according to my math he was around 4 when Jason died] he joined the family when Jason was already back for 4 years or so. He mostly skipped all the drama. For him, Bruce is the way Bruce is because he is Bruce. It’s weird to see him so different, to see how grief shaped parts of Bruce which Duke assumed were just Bruce things.

He’s glad this Bruce is brighter, or not because it just highlights how much that light will dim? Who knows, certainly not him. 

What he does know is that, with their Bruce, he has a distance which, with his parents still alive, he appreciates. With this Bruce, he can understand why Dick struggled so much whether he wants to be his ward or son, how he doesn’t want to replace his parents but still have this Bruce as a dad. It definitely explained the ted talk Dick tried to give him after Bruce officially took him in as a ward.

He likes this Bruce well enough, but he doesn’t necessarily want him to stay this way. Yes, their Bruce is less happy, less open but he did heal, he did grow. Duke met a Bruce who tried to learn from his mistakes, learned to communicate better, and learned when to pull and when to push. For Tim, Damian, Dick, and certainly Jason there is too much baggage, too much history in their relationships, it’s difficult for them to ever move past- anything really.

Sure, when Dick and Bruce are on the same page they are essentially invincible but then the past catches up again and they don’t talk to each other for months. And honestly? Apart from Cass, Duke’s pretty sure he has one of the best relationships with Bruce simply because he got to know him at a better time.

Duke doesn’t mind this Bruce. But their Bruce loved Jason, cared for him so deeply the scars still show to this day. And he still chooses to open up again even if just a bit by bit. Even if just Duke can see it. He is used to being the only one that can see.

And maybe knowing this care extends to him, this love even grief can’t shake? Maybe it makes him feel just a little bit safer, a little bit warmer, a little bit brighter.