#he doesn’t get any new thing for the villain arc story either

[trivial-writing]

Me: checks pokemas to see any if Wataru got any new content

Pokemas: shafts Wataru

Me: i am suffering beyond comprehension that mere mortals can not understand. My despair is as dense as the earth.

[essycogany]

Rare But Not So Rare Sonic Moments

Flaws

This may get controversial.

I welcome anyone else’s view point on this topic. If you don’t agree I’m okay with that. Just because I have a different perspective doesn’t make what I think right or wrong. You don’t have to change your mind. Whatever your opinion is, I respect it. Besides, it’s fun to have different views on something we both love. It gives us a way to see different sides of the coin.

Disclaimer: I’m a person who didn’t grow up with this franchise and only recently got into in early 2022. I have no biases towards any version of this character. Making my opinions about his characterizations mixed.

By the way, I’ll only use Sonic games as examples (for the most part) because this analysis would be too long if I talked about other medias.

In short. Most of his flaws do stir into different medias as well. To be honest, Sonic’s other variants aren’t as different as some may think, but that’s my hot take.

Times The Blue Blur Messed Up

Riders: Sonic lunched Amy along with Eggman into the air with his wind abilities. While knowing Amy’s safety would be at risk. Then left her. Which was the reason she was so angry and aggressive afterwards. He didn’t ever apologize either.

06: Exchanged a chaos emerald for Elise even after Tails warned Sonic not to.

Unleashed: Was distracted by taunting Eggman.

Sonic: “Well, this is new. Showing remorse Eggman? If you played nice, I wouldn’t have to break all your toys.”

Then became the Werehog. All because he wanted to boost his ego.

Secret Rings: Shahra used Sonic to collect the world rings for Erazar Djinn. Even though it should’ve been expected because she said, “They use to work together.” Ended up not being true.

Black Night: Was tricked into helping Merlina who wanted to create a world that would last forever.

Lost World: Tails once again tried to warn Mr.Impatient about the conch in Eggman’s hand, but kicked it anyways. Then warned Sonic about another trap, he didn’t listen, ended up getting the fox captured instead.

Frontiers: Accidentally helped free The End despite Knuckles and Sage’s suspensions. If his friends, Eggman, and Sage didn’t help him…..Well, it’s in the villain's name.

Side Note: In Secret Rings, Black night, and Frontiers Sonic was rude at points.

Sonic Sassiness

Sonic Sassiness Part 2

Sonic’s Overall Flaws/Mistakes

Some may be from his general characterizations throughout his history.

Sonic rushes into things without a second thought. (Impulsiveness) Sonic can be too reckless, brash, or not take situations seriously.

He’s impatient. (Which was his core trait since his idle animation in Sonic 1)

He doesn’t listen to his friends warnings. Sonic can be too cocky at the wrong moments. He causes or contributes to world ending consequences. The blue blur can also be too trusting and naive.

Sonic doesn’t worry about his own physical or mental state and internalizes his emotions. He isn’t able to express himself very well. Therefore doesn’t put the right words together when speaking sometimes.

Sonic can be stubborn and a bit of a jerk.

Sage: “You are short tempered and short sided.”

And that’s about it. If I missed anything, feel free to let me know.

My Thoughts

A few of these can be seen as Sonic’s strength and weaknesses. Like his willingness to harm himself if it means to save his friends.

The reason Sonic never learns from his mistakes in the games is because he gets away with them. Which is not a good or bad thing per say. (Besides Sonic Riders. There’s no excuse for that.)

The stories never really given him an arc. But I don’t think Sonic’s a perfect or flawless character. If the examples I’ve shown are evidence of anything.

I’d say he’s static, but not consistently. Most static characters I’ve seen rarely stays static anyways.

I also don’t believe Sonic himself thinks he’s perfect. Sonic probably thinks he doesn’t have to change because he’s so sure he should be able to manage things without issue. Everything does eventually go his way. Why should he change?

I do understand Sonic influences people, but why can’t there be a balance? It’s been done plenty of times with other characters. In books, movies, and tv shows. Animated and live-action.

Movie!Sonic in Sonic 2 inspired both Knuckles and Tails. Helping them better themselves with advice and encouragement. While also going through his own arc of growing up and being responsible.

Tails:“You’ve inspired me. To leave my village. To find you and help you on your mission.”

Despite him learning how to slow down and plan things out, Prime!Sonic also inspires the different variants of his friends. Thorn, Dread, and Nine. Helping them grow into becoming better people.

Even in Unleashed Sonic was at his most mature, but it was only after his cocky attitude got him into trouble. So, yes. Inspirational characters can have flaws.

I’ll just say this

Everyone has their own views on how Sonic should be characterized, drawn, played, voiced, animated, and showcase.

It’s fine if you don’t like a curtain interpretation of a character, but to say the character (Especially if they weren’t very consistent in the first place) isn’t acting like themselves now, it’s really hard to argue what self there is to come back to. Because even in the games there are so many different selves for these characters in their own canon universe. From Classic to Adventure, Unleashed, Colors, and Frontiers. (If that makes any sense)

It’s hard to find one place to be in because Sonic’s been in too many places at once. He shouldn’t be held down to one characterization if he’s already been all over the place from the beginning of his existence.

AKA Sonic’s first two shows ever. TAOSTH and SATAM. In both shows Sonic had flaws as well, but never learned from them. Which means he’s been like this from the start. Like everything else about this franchise, his personality is an ongoing experiment that’ll probably never be solved. And I kind of love that. Even if it can be stressful and has it’s own up’s and down’s

All of these unique stories from the games, comics, tv shows, and movies people grew up with are what made this franchise so popular. This is the main reason I became a Sonic fan. Because I learned so much about characterization from this franchise and how to love the different variations of its characters. Finding an appreciation for each of them.

Conclusion

Everyone’s opinions are valid at the end of the day. At least we all have a version of this character we can love and appreciate. Whether you agree or not I’m grateful you’ve made it all the way to the end. You’re a trooper!

Stay Creative! 💜

[blank468]

My somewhat final thoughts of My Hero Academia

Note: Now that MHA is now doing an epilogue and is ending soon, I might as well give my final thoughts about this series. I’ll probably continue to talk more about it after the series is officially over but I’m not going to do a full fledged hour long review because I have better things to do.

This is a generic shonen empowerment fantasy that managed to screw its own theme and message. Any good will I would’ve given to series at the beginning is completely irrelevant as it when on. The morals and themes are constantly changing to throw random s**t on a sheet of paper that either doesn’t make sense, contradicts what being shown on screen, or if it doesn’t fits the tone of the story. My hero is not a deconstruction of the shonen genre that does anything new that would make it stand out. Most of the ideas and plot points created either have horrible execution, given no amount of attention where they’re just ignored or just have horrible payoffs. It follows all the exact same tropes seen in every other series and makes them worse. It also gets to the point where it rips off Naruto and makes the same mistakes it did. The amount of plot twists that are excused as some kind of subversion are obnoxious and predictable where’s it gets incredibly annoying. The world building is horrendous and just makes the story feel small for a world that has a life changing impact. The power scale doesn’t always make sense and it does nothing but act as a way to reward characters that didn’t earn it.

It has a dangerous and horrible message for victims of abuse and bullying. My hero has no problem telling the audience that if you’re a victim of any kind of abuse, it’s your problem and you should just act like it’s not a big issue. Apparently it’s ok lie to your friends, family and colleagues that you can trust but it’s not ok to lie or even hold accountable to your abuser. And no matter if he/she has a reason for the way they are, you are always in the wrong and you should spend your sad life praising and benefiting them.

There exists way too many characters for the audience to be invested in and after watching them for several arcs, they are just stereotypes with nothing new or original about them. Many of them come across as either being stupid, annoying, useless, unlikeable, petty, ignorant or just both. Some characters will either exist to benefit others or just highjack the story, ruining every other character’s chance to get any sort spotlight. The series is way too reliant on putting focus on unpleasant and uninteresting characters to please its large audience. The humor is way too reliant on a character’s personality trait. No matter what they do, the story expects us to automatically like them regardless of how horrible and selfish their actions are. Izuku may not be the worst character, but he’s no where near as great as everyone hypes him up to be. Bakugo is an unbearable mess of a character that serves no real purpose in the story and exists to take away every characters chance of development. His development is one of the laziest and obnoxious parts I have ever seen in any story and yet he’s the most popular sadist in the show with no sort of reason or sympathy for me to like him. Any criticism given to this d**khead is automatically shot down and people like me get harassed and called a brain dead immature f*g for stating our opinion.

Aside from Twice and Gentle/ La Brava, these villains are not that interesting and what ever traits about them gave them something to do is absence. Shigaraki is the stories biggest wasted potential that went from being an idiot to being an incompetent idiot to benefit my left nutsack. Toga is a Mary Stu who went from being a sad and annoying character to an annoying and self centered bitch who complains after being told her actions are wrong. Dabi is just a Gary Stu who’s only interested in wanting to kill his dad. Spinner is a joke that is constantly scammed by his creator.

The only saving grace I can give to this series is the art style of the manga and some parts of the Todoroki family drama. I can even say that Horikoshi’s art style and how he designs characters and panel designs inspired me as an artist. The anime as a whole is fine but it’s not perfect, but that’s mostly because it doesn’t do a whole lot of creatively/artistic things to make it on par with the most popular anime series. As an artist, I would recommend my hero as a reference to use to improve your work. If you just want to read or watch a series that has fights that just make you feel some kind of emotion, then you might get something out of this series. It’s not even the absolute worst thing I’ve seen; I’ve seen much worse in other genres other than shonen manga. It’s just rare to find a badly written series without being surrounded by d**kriders. It’s just a disaster of a series, and I wished I spent my time during the pandemic watching another series like Demon Slayer, or Black Clover.

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Sometimes I feel miraculous has a serious problem, I usually compared it more with its father (Spider-Man) but I feel I should have compared it more with its mother (Sailor moon)

(Btw I’m talking about the inspirations that formed the show, not has some YouTube kid’s kind of thing, just making sure)

Miraculous takes a lot from sailor moon, magical girl, transformations and magic movements that happen every episode to save money, monster of the week, boyfriend character dress in black, etc etc etc

But the ONE THING it should have m taken from sailor moon is to learn to move on, mainly move on from its main villains, sailor moon constantly changes the main threats because that’s how story’s work, repeating itself over and over just makes it worse every time it repeats itself

Gabriel should have been defeated MAXIMUM at season 3 and that’s being generous, I can accept the idea of Nooroo not being saved in this arc (because the show has made sure how Nooroo won’t be saved even after Gabriel is defeated) but eventually they have to change things

Maybe change the Akumas for something else like Robots, or magical creatures (not like sentimonsters, but more like wild monsters the villain uses has attack dogs to hunt the heroes) or even aliens (which the show has mentioned to exist, also in the first Bunnix time travel episode)

Just let the heroes actually make some progress, because at this point it makes it feel like Gabriel and the duo are all incompetent morons who haven’t actually made any progress in their war (Marinette makes charms, Gabriel makes mega Akumas, Gabriel gets the miraculous and makes alliance, nothing happens after, just Gabriel trying again over and over) until a “accident” he ends up putting himself a time limit making him just try akumatizing everybody which is just like heroes day but they are now all the same super powerful akuma instead of each having their own powers

Mir feels repetitive and BORING, it doesn’t matter if it is two Akumas fighting each other or Mr pigeon now being able to turn people into pigeons or the akumatized object being two separate items which need to be put together before being broken or two persons fusion into one or whatever. Is just the same thing we’ve seen before but with a small gimmick, is just the same we’ve seen before and it feels it’s just making things up to pretend it’s not stretching it

Seriously, let’s just hope miraculous doesn’t stretch their next arc like they did with Gabriel’s (and at least let this one have a satisfying ending)

A problem with Miraculous Ladybug's villains is that a good chunk of them tend to either overstay their welcome (Gabriel, Chloe, Lila), or are criminally utilized by the narrative (Nathalie, Felix, Tomoe), and unlike Sailor Moon, the show just can't move onto a new set of villains even when it seems like they're not sure what to do with a good chunk of these characters.

[chrkrose]

I know Team Green hates Daemon, and I agree there are 172838 reasons for him to be hated. But Nettles is one of the only things that make him somewhat likable because even though the green side keeps going on and on about the grooming, let’s be real: the public wouldn’t care as long as Matt Smith had chemistry with the other actress. People didn’t care even when his scenes with young rhaneyra were framed as grooming.

And I’m sorry, a lot of y’all takes is always framed through the lenses of “how can I make Daemon look even worse than the scumbag he is” which fair, but then don’t pretend Nettles is in the center of those thoughts because she’s not. If she was, the first point in any meta would be to determine that Rhaenyra is the true villain of Nettles story and just because Rhaenyra was a victim of Daemon, that doesn’t make her worthy of being “sisters in pain” with Nettles when 1) Rhaenyra was racist against her and 2) Daemon was the one to actually save nettles; if it was up to Rhaenyra, Nettles would be another head decorating the gates of the red keep. It’s hard to take any of those metas seriously when y’all weaponize Nettles arc against Daemon and use her just the same as Team Black does, just for a different purpose. It’s still all about victimizing Rhaenyra, and Nettles is just an means to an end. So in the end, are y’all that much different from Team Black or Rhaenyra stans when it comes to Nettles?

George loves daemon; he never wrote his arc with nettles as a commentary on his pedo tendencies. He wrote that arc in spite of his pedo tendencies. He wrote that arc as a way to show “look, Daemon killed a bunch of people, groomed a few others, did terrible things his entire life and is cheating on his queen with a way too young girl, but look how cool and badass she is and how much she suffered in her life, and this time around Daemon really likes this girl and is willing to do selfless acts for her and protect her, a lowborn girl nobody else cares about, so here, he’s light too, see how gray and complex he is?”. And the truth is that public would eat that up because even with Daemon choking Rhaenyra, killing his ex wife, laughing at his second wife’s funeral and ignoring his third wife screams while she gives birth to a demon baby, he still has tons of people who think he’s awesome. That’s just the reality of it. Now, we can argue about the problematics of the storyline, we can argue about how George wants Daemon to get away scot-free, all of this are valid points and tbh I agree with many. But it doesn’t change the story.

I can’t actually engage with team green discourse when it comes to Nettles because y’all don’t see her as a character of her own. If y’all did, y’all would see she’s way more interesting than Rhaenyra and Daemon combined. That her arc is so much more than her relationship with either of them. That she disrupts the status quo, she comes bringing with her a pletora of questions about what it means to be a dragon rider, what it means to have dragon blood. She brings the perspective of the small folk, of the ones forgotten and not cared about when the royals are destroying each other. She survives. She becomes a legend. She is sooo much more than all of this.

The reason why I want Nettles in the show has nothing to do with Daemon, Rhaenyra and whatever takes y’all have on that relationship when it comes to them both. Nettles is not the “new Rhaenyra”, she has nothing to with that character. She’s not a folder to her story, she’s doesn’t exist solely to prove a point or to be used as a weapon to help in her victimhood. Rhaenyra is not the “new Rhea Royce”. Rhaenyra is Rhaenyra, a victim of Daemon as much as a villain in Nettles story. Nettles character doesn’t exist solely to villainize or whitewash Daemon, or to play a role in his story as a folder of his previous relationships. She’s her own character, with her own arc, with her own importance, with her own role, with her own message. Her romance is her own. Her importance is her own. The sacrifices made in her name were made because she was worthy of them. Stop using her just to make your point when the point you want to make is not about her, you are not sounding any better than the ones who dismiss her as just Daemon’s bastard or want her cut off entirely from the show. Your noise is sounding very similar to theirs if I’m being honest.

[dearinglovebot]

How did you feel about dominion? For me the movie I enjoyed it but I also feel like it lacked something. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m a fan of Maisie and I feel her character did not really have what I hoped she’d go through (I wanted to see her turmoil of how she felt about Dino’s being free) but it just felt like something was lacking, like I love the movie but I’m not quite sure what that missing piece is

the missing piece is the characters. alan and ellie are the only main cast characters who felt like they were properly written.

owen fundamentally did nothing to serve the plot beyond being maisie’s parent and claire’s husband. which isn’t a bad thing, because it’s claire and maisie’s story. but you could easily cut him out of the movie without much changing which is a sign that they should’ve done something different.

the same goes with ian. he and ramsay serve fundamentally the same purpose and neither is particularly given time to shine. you’re left asking: what was the point of spending so much time with this character? he doesn’t add much observation about dinosaurs on the mainland nor the locusts, which is what made his role worth it in jurassic park.

I’m okay with kayla’s arc being saved for another movie because that’s clearly what they were interested in doing. the same with soyona. but with JW4, that doesn’t seem to be where they’re planning to go. which makes their addition less meaningful in hindsight.

dodgson is a severely underused villain. his most villainous scene was cut out of the movie and only included in the extended cut. why? you could replace him with any unnamed villain and his role wouldn’t fundamentally change. there’s nothing special about biosyn. what makes biosyn better or worse than ingen? their evil is left purely to the subtext of the famine they caused. we don’t know how many people that feminine could’ve killed. we don’t know the ramifications. it’s all so ambiguous that it feels useless.

claire and maisie are who I feel like we’re done the dirtiest by dominion though. the charlotte twist was cheap. they weren’t willing to commit to maisie having a very unnatural and sad creation story. instead, they introduce new technology that is not properly elaborated on. and this twist does a major disservice to the adoption plot of maisie and claire. more emphasis is put on charlotte “truly loving her” than claire actively being her mother. her biology is seen as more important than her adoptive, loving family.

maisie doesn’t have to learn to love herself despite her origin because they retconned it in a way where she didn’t have to. where is the emotional impact of that? where is the pay off? nor does she ever visibly think about the consequences of dinosaurs on the mainland. she isn’t actually faced with any moral dilemma over it. we don’t know if she regrets it or believes what she did was right. we learn nothing about her, except about her biology. nothing about the status quo fundamentally changes, either. people are still hunting maisie for her genetics. she’s still in danger of being kidnapped everyday when she leaves the cabin. there’s no resolution to anything that the previous movies set up.

and claire… ohh she’s the same way. like maisie, her story is left half finished. we have no idea if she’s going to get a new job or where she’s going to end up after dominion. we don’t know if her family speaks to her, if they’ve met maisie, if she’s giving up vigilante justice for good to prioritize her family, etc. It’s absolutely not an ending for her or maisie. it’s a very strange middle chapter that’s been advertised as an ending. I truly believe 90% of dominions problems could’ve been avoided if it was more character centric

[snackara]

Prince Flazino

The Crown Himbo, everybody

So yeah, quite a bit to say about this character. At first my plan was to just use one of the seven friends and make them the prince/princess, but as I developed the concept more I felt that none of them really fit. They won’t all be completely scrapped though. Dahlia will be kept in, and the others may have cameos, but otherwise they’re gone from the story. It wasn’t until a little later until I found out about Flazino from a deleted scene, and decided to use him since not many other people were.

Since Earendel has a different role now, I first came up with Flazino as the love interest for Asha. I decided to make him Manuel and Amaya’s son, and his character became a lot more fleshed out. He’s young man who’s very passionate about music, but due to his parents insistence on him learning magic instead, he doesn’t show that passion often. With how much Manuel and Amaya control him, he’s very reserved in general, making him seem like a cold and grumpy individual. Though around his friend Dahlia, he’s a bit more open. Being the son of THE villain power couple, a lot of his arc revolves around toxic and found family, which I’m very interested in developing. (Also I’m only just now realizing how similar he is to Miguel from Coco but let’s not worry about that-)

Flazino’s design is inspired a lot by the concept art of Abuelo Pedro above, as well as his original model. It’s just generally the closest to what I picture Flazino looking like. I imagine his clothing is similar to the concept art below as well.

Now for his backstory I cobbled together at 12 a.m.

Flazino was born to Manuel and Amaya only a few years after Manuel gained power, and was immediately put to magic lessons, despite his clear disinterest in it. (I thought about making him adopted instead, but I thought it would create a stronger arc if they were his biological parents, also Disney hasn’t made many if any biological parents THIS intentionally shitty so…)

As he grew older he found a passion for playing music, but his parents, especially Manuel, quickly snuffed it out. They told him it was a useless peasant’s wish and that he should focus on more important things.

One day met Dahlia in the kitchens as a pre-teen while he was hiding from his parents, and the two became quick friends. He talked a lot either her about things he couldn’t with many other people. Sometimes Dahlia would try and get him to talk about the king and queen, but Flazino avoided the topic as much as he possibly could. (As a side note, Dahlia isn’t a cook in this rewrite, just a regular servant)

When he turned eighteen, Manuel actually didn’t take Flazino’s wish, but he also wouldn’t grant it. This became Manuel’s main source of manipulation towards his son, threatening to take his wish away or worse if he set a foot out of line.

Now the whole trio is done, which means we’ll move onto the villains very soon. I’ll admit now that they aren’t too different from what most people have been doing, but I think it will be a nice refresher from all this new character stuff.

Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more.

[runabout-river]

I disagree that a sequel is necessary. While I see the potential for new storylines, the idea of introducing a completely new set of antagonists doesn’t appeal to me. Starting from scratch with villains can feel like a major challenge, and bringing back old ones would only lessen the impact of their original arcs. I don’t want to see previous antagonists resurrected, as it would feel forced and undermine the emotional weight of their defeats.

There's also the power vacuum left by the deaths of major characters, but that doesn’t automatically mean the story needs to continue. Sometimes, the best choice is to let things end naturally rather than create a new threat just to keep the series going.

Jujutsu Kaisen's ending might not be saved by a sequel. If Gege is tired of the universe, it could show in the quality of the continuation. Forcing a sequel when the creator might not be fully invested could result in something lackluster, and I’d hate to see the series lose what made it great in the first place. I also feel strongly about the need for Gege to rest, especially with the health concerns and breaks he had.

I prefer complete, well-rounded stories, and I’m concerned that a sequel would compromise that. In the end, I just don’t want a sequel to happen, as I believe Jujutsu Kaisen could have ended on a stronger note without needing to push the story further.

About the villains: would you say Sukuna's and Kenjaku's arcs are completely finished? Have they been used to their full potential?

Kenjaku eg. has a background connection with Yuji but no actual relationship with him in-story. There is no push and pull between those two and their past hasn't been dealt with either. Kenjaku also has no realtionship with Nobara and Megumi and only a small one with Gojo. As a villain he did much but his interpersonal connections were severly lacking except for Choso which was one-sided.

A potential sequel could present us the relationship and history with Kenjaku and Yuji that hadn't been dugged into until now. Not to forget Heian era history.

For Sukuna its a bit more complex. He had a deep relationship with Yuji and build one with Gojo during their fight. He showed a different side to him through his relationship with Uraume. But what was extremely missing and cut out in the end was a relationship with Megumi. Megumi's end to his own arc was also cut out.

In a potential JJK 2, Megumi dealing with Sukuna (in whatever form he would appear, a curse or trauma) would delve into that missing part of JJK which had existed since the Cursed Womb arc. What would also come from there is Sukuna's past and why he agreed to become cursed objects in the first place.

As a personal opinion, I would like new desaster curses eg a Death Curse. That would bring that curse-centred feeling back to JJK that was missing since Shibuya.

And of course, I wouldn't want a sequel that isn't made with passion either. If Gege has no desire or love for more stories of JJK (outside of maybe small chapters or light novels) than he shouldn't be forced to continue it. If he has health problems that's the same thing.

But just like me who simply assumes that Gege would love to continue the story, you assume that he wouldn't. But in reality we can't tell in any way what Gege thinks about this and if he even has a potentially bad health status. We get small glimpses of him, which is standard for mangaka, and there isn't much to go from there.

He said recently that he's happy the story ends. Yes, JJK will end with chapter 271. That's a statement of fact and can't necessarily be used to say a Part 2 won't come. In the past, sequel anouncements also took months if not years. We can't tell.

What I wanted to say at the end is, I don't think JJK is a well-rounded story. As it stands now, it has superflous plot elements that should've been trimmed down to make it a well-rounded story. Instead we had last chapter were we went through the fat so to speak and cut it off after the meat has already been cooked.

(Please don't roast me for my metaphor, I hate cooking)

There is a reason why "JJK Part 2" is a popular theory/demand and that's because there is room for one that most people have no problem seeing. I don't think that BHA and Demon Slayer had such big Part 2 feelings outside of a niche demand which always exists with all manga and anime that end.

So I don't think JJK would be pushed into more stories. I think it has the groundwork to build those naturally from everything the story has presented us during its run.

[transgendervelma]

One of the worst things about the ending of Naruto was actually that Naruto became Hokage. He became Hokage to be recognized and seen for who he was by the people around him, but he already got that during the Pain Arc.

We see at the Waterfall of Truth that Naruto actually feels contempt toward many villagers for how they treated them. But we never got a full resolution for that in the real world. For the sake of consistent writing Naruto should have much more complicated emotions, hell being the Hokage was totally secondary to bringing Sasuke home (which Naruto says during the beginning of Shippuden).

So, it would’ve been far more interesting and consistent for nobody to become Hokage at the end of Naruto (it’s not like Kakashi actually wanted to be Hokage either). The leaf is ran by a Jonin council who undertake the building of a new world under the guidance of people like Kakashi and Naruto (but it’s mostly a collective effort).

Naruto and Sasuke would’ve become Jonin, Naruto would’ve grown out his hair to be like Jiraiya (not that long, just a shoulder length ponytail, but he will not be fucking balding). The running of the leaf village becomes more and more of a transparent affair that even everyday people are aware of, not the shadowy cabal that it was under Hiruzen’s regime. The main threat would be loyalists toward Madara’s ideology who really believed in the Infinite Tsukuyomi (not space aliens). The Konoha 13 aren’t forced into undeveloped ridiculous ships for the sake of editors or trying to pump out a next Gen sequel (like Seriously, none of the Shinobi from the previous Gen had kids except Asuma & Kurenai). Hell I think it’s bullshit Neji died so let’s just redact that too. Sasuke obviously doesn’t do jail time like he did because if saving the entire planet isn’t a pardonable action idk what is, rip to those samurai tho.

The government of the leaf village, which before was essentially just an elective millitary dictatorship, slowly becomes more democratic and resembling an actual pseudo nation as opposed to a millitary colony. The feudal lords are slowly rendered irrelevant and basically atrophy into powerless figureheads (and any who resist probably become villains in whatever story gets told in this scenario). Underage Shinobi are banned from undertaking life threatening missions, that’s gotta be a big one. No kids fighting to the death.

So by the time Naruto is in his late 20s to early 30s he’s made Hokage by the people of the village hidden in the leaves in the very first actual election ever held that wasn’t just between feudal lords and councilors (if he even wants the position that is). His scalp is fine, he’s thriving and moisturized, Orochimaru and Kabuto are locked away at the bottom of the craziest prison you can imagine. He’s not stuck in a boring marriage that he avoids, Sasuke isn’t stuck in a loveless marriage with a woman he won’t even kiss. Sakura is girlbossing somewhere in the corner. Tsunade gets to have all the chicken breast and alcohol she wants and Kakashi is a retired dog dad.

[literary-illuminati]

Book Review 62 – The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings

This is the latest book I never would have heard of if it wasn’t for an award nomination (WFA for Best Novel, in this case). Overall, I was left dearly wishing I had liked it more than I did – it was so thoroughly soaked in imagery and references to a whole milieu I only barely know enough about to catch all the references flying over my head. Unfortunately by the final act the whole thing just collapses into a mess of spectacle without much in the way of connective tissue or context.

The story follows Perilous “Perry” Graves, his kid sister, and his best friend/crush Peaches (who is clearly an ersatz Pippy Longstocking but for some reason this is almost literally the only reference the book doesn’t explicitly acknowledge). They live in Nola, a fantastical alternate New Orleans full of zombies, animate graffiti, sky trolleys, and music that is indistinguishable from magic. After the magical songs that sustain the city escape/are stolen, it’s up to the three of them to get them back before Stagger Lee (the song) hunts down and kills the others for his mysterious partner. There’s also an extended subplot with Casey, a recently returned Katrina refugee in what seems to be our world, discovering that his and his cousin’s graffiti and other art is very literally magic and can come alive when he isn’t looking. Things just generally get messier and harder to explain from there.

Above everything else, the book’s a love letter to New Orleans. The sheer fascination and affection Jenning’s has for the place just about oozes out of every page. The geography and the culture and especially and overwhelmingly the art. Now I know barely anything about modern pop music and even less about classic jazz, but Jennings is either a massive fan or an incredibly confident bullshitter, and either way it’s an absolutely loadbearing part of the book – famous jazz musicians appear as magicians and ghosts, snatches and stanzas of different songs are quoted liberally, and of course the songs themselves are the driving engine of the plot. I, at least, just kind of let all the references wash over me and try to figure them out from context, and also started listening to the namedropped songs as I read. But even without really knowing the subject, the sheer love for the culture that just suffuses the book is really incredible endearing. Which is good, because it’s absolutely the main actual draw here.

The dialogue also deserves a shoutout – both because there’s a fun line you can draw between the characters that talk like actual people and the ones that intentionally present themselves like cartoon characters, and also because it’s the first book I can recall reading this year where people speak in AAVE. Plus, as a matter of style, when songs or certain ghosts were speaking telepathically the book used a different font for what they were saying, which is the sort of flourish that I always like when it’s not too overused.

While the surreal, exaggerated sort of magical absurdism works very well for the setting of Nola, the plot is...just kind of a mess. You almost get the sense the book was written in one sprint and then never revised – the protagonists are constantly getting help out of nowhere exactly as they need it to solve their latest problem, and revelations of plot critical information exactly when it’s needed to keep things moving abound, whether there’s any setup or justification for it or not. The metaphysics that underpin Nola are all vague and confused, which really wouldn’t be an issue if the entire third act didn’t turn on on the villain being wrong about them. The end result is a finale that feels like a bunch of big set piece scene the author had been looking forward to writing without any real connective tissue linking or supporting them.

Also, like – it is a major part of Perry’s arc that a year before the events of the book he had a run in with a monstrous caricature of a Jim Crow era hanging judge, and it has traumatized him sufficiently that he had steadfastly refused to try and do any magic since. The judge is later revealed to be an escaped bit of living graffiti, with absolutely zero relevance or deeper significance, and never appears on-screen again. Which just feels like some sort of narrative malpractice, honestly.

I’m also just left a bit disappointed with the villain – or, specifically, the wasted potential. Like, the idea of The Storm as this primeval elemental force that wants nothing more than to drown the world is a pretty great villain for a magical New Orleans, honestly. And there was something there of graffiti and music and just art being this engine of joyous hubris letting the city exist in defiance of its inevitable doom – but you really have to dig to get at it, and most of the other personal plots and heroes journey stuff burying it was far less compelling to me.

Anyway yeah, in the end this very much felt like it was style over substance, but on the other hand the style was excellent. In the end I kind of feel like this was ill-served as a book? Not that it’s necessarily impossible to write a novel that’s mostly about music, but this was really begging for a medium that could include a soundtrack.

[sketchy-the-changeling]

1. Favorite and least favorite parts of MK1?

2. Are there any characters you’d like to see in future Mortal Kombat games/DLC? Either regular Kombatants or guest stars.

Favorite: The alternate take on Mileena. I LOVE her as is and if they decided to just stick to her being a villain in this universe I’d still be happy, but this new take on her abilities and giving her a fully fleshed out character arc that also makes her the most important she has EVER been to the story of a single MK game? It felt like they were writing that story for me specifically.

Honorable Mention: I love how this single game was able to revitalize interest in several characters from the PS2 trilogy of MK, and the story even incorporates story elements of all three games. Shang and Quan Chi team up, like in Deadly Alliance. An evil being betrays a main character and becomes the big bad, like in Deception, and it ends in an all out epic battle between ALL the characters in MK’s existence, like Armageddon. MK1 was like a love letter to the people that enjoyed the PS2 trilogy.

Least Favorite: Reiko is the most boring motherfucker in a main roster that has Kung Lao in it (no shade to his current incarnation, which I like). He my least liked character in a game where my least favorite character in the entire franchise (Quan Chi) exists. How do you accomplish that? He’s the only entity where nothing interesting is done with his new version versus his original version. He was poor man’s Shao before, and he’s still a poor man’s Shao after the timeline reset, and the thing is, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Johnny Cage is just as much of a cocky prick in MK1 as he was in the beginning of the Netherrealm Trilogy, but the CONTEXT around that cockiness and how that affects his character arc compared to that trilogy is unique. Reiko’s devotion to Shao Khan in MK1 is recontextualized as a more Batman and Robin kind of dynamic (fitting considering WB published this game). Shao took Reiko in as a child and trained him, but… that’s all we ever get, and it was through Shao introducing Reiko like a WWE wrestler. It wasn’t given to us organically, just told to us, and NOTHING is done with it, not even in his own arcade ending.

Every arcade ending in MK1 is a canonical “what happened to them after the events of the main campaign” scenario. Some of them are even intertwined. Mileena and Baraka work together to improve living conditions for those suffering from Tarkat and find a cure for the disease. Ashrah joins up with the Shaolin Monks, led by Raiden and Kung Lao and reunites with her sister.

Reiko… is just sent off to find Onaga. At least when Kung Lao’s arcade ending was used to tease the return of a fan favorite character, it came with some kind of meaningful story for Lao.

A bit long-winded, but I felt that in order to illustrate how boring I found Reiko to be, I had to establish how much more interesting everything OTHER than him is.

Future Characters I’d Like to See: Cyrax, Sheeva, Kintaro, Darrius on the main roster, maybe Frost.

Also, Noob. not for the character himself, but just to see what this universe’s interpretation of him would be. Maybe Frost takes the mantle of Sub-Zero once Bi Han becomes Noob. Maybe FROST becomes Noob. Maybe it’s someone else entirely? Like Sektor? This universe’s Hanzo? With how much this universe has changed the established relationships of the characters and their factions, anything is possible, and I’m here for it.

I’m sorry for anyone that doesn’t follow Mortal Kombat and is reading this. It’s gonna look like I just said a bunch of names.

[d3sertdream3r]

I really liked the Ahsoka show but it also felt kinda weird to me idk what did you think of it?

I have the same feeling as you, anon. Overall I liked the show, but I didn’t love it. There was a lot going on mythically/symbolically, but it didn’t all land narratively for me. 

First of all, there was a big Lack of Backstory™ problem going on through the whole thing. 

There was a lot of telling and not nearly enough showing. Ahsoka and Sabine are supposed to be the emotional heart of the story, but we don’t know anything about their history besides vague references. 

We see in the first couple of episodes how much Sabine loves Ezra, but the general audience doesn’t have a clue who he is and once she finds him, it’s just business as usual. Their hug was great but for those who don’t know their backstory (and even people who do), it doesn’t really hit emotionally because there wasn’t enough time spent on showing their relationship in live action and them getting to know each other again after a decade apart. 

We didn’t learn anything about why Morgan is so desperate to bring Thrawn back despite the fact that the Empire eradicated her people. We didn’t learn anything about how they knew each other before he was yeeted to another galaxy. 

We don’t know much about Baylan and Shin’s relationship either. They’re cool and mysterious, and that’s about it. He tells her he trained her to be something more and then decides to leave her on her own in the very next episode to take her place in the new Empire. Why wouldn’t he take her with him if he wanted her to be something more?

I understand that this is part of a larger story, but every season of any show should have solid character arcs that tie into their series character arcs. I just personally didn’t feel like the character arcs were developed enough this season, largely due to Filoni not delving into anybody’s motivations beyond surface level. 

I think having flashbacks between Ahsoka/Sabine and Ezra/Sabine would’ve helped a ton. It also would’ve been a good idea to have a Rebels recap at the beginning of the first episode for those that didn’t watch the show. Kenobi had a Prequel recap that was gorgeously edited and summed everything up before diving in.

As far as the cast:

EMAN ESFANDI IS THE LOVE MY LIFE!!! I adored every single scene he was in, every single mannerism and facial expression he made, his smile gives me butterflies, and his curls are to die for.

Natasha as Sabine was really good, but her character needs work. She didn’t translate nearly as well as Ezra did into live action imo, which is not Natasha’s fault at all. It was 100% a writing problem for me. The first two episodes nailed her character, but as the series progressed she started to flatten out.

Rosario feels really stiff to me. I don’t know if it’s her or the writing or both. I’m not familiar with much of her work, so I can’t really say. She just seemed really apathetic about everything despite her dialogue saying otherwise. I really love Ahsoka, so I hope her live action portrayal gets better, whatever the issue is! 

Hera was given crumbs, but MEW absolutely crushed it! I’ve seen a lot of people complain about her portrayal, but I thought it was amazing. I need to see more of her immediately!!

Lars is spectacular as Thrawn, but the writing didn’t quite make him as intimidating as he was in Rebels. I want to see Lars get to chew the scenery in the future!

Other thoughts:

I feel like the Baylan/Shin dynamic is kind of what Maul and Ezra would’ve had if Maul found Ezra before Kanan did. I really hope they expand on that, especially since it was mentioned twice that Ezra is like Shin. It’s super interesting!

I want to know why Thrawn is so pro-Empire without any mention of the Ascendancy. I hope they don’t turn Thrawn into a generic mustache-twirling villain. He isn’t AT ALL, and that’s the main reason he’s a fan favorite in the first place. 

I need Ezra to be in every Star Wars project going forward! I can’t wait to see him interact with all the other characters in the Mando Era!!

Anakin was awesome, but I needed him to have a deeper conversation with Ahsoka considering the last time they each other, he tried to kill her. 

I need Leia and Ahsoka to interact, or at least a reference that they know each other! Ahsoka telling Luke and Leia about their parents (especially their mother) is really important to me! 

Jacen is the cutest! Ezra and Jacen are going to be the most cinnamon roll master and apprentice duo of all time!!

PISSED THEY CUT BEFORE HERA AND EZRA COULD HUG!! WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL!!!

WHERE IS ZEB?? IS HE SAFE?? IS HE ALRIGHT??

[maybeimamuppet]

I LOST THE ASK IM SORRY ANON BUT HERE

REGINA

favorite thing about them

heheeeeeehoooo i’m a lesbian but honestly she has so much like depth to her in a way that’s not immediately obvious and it’s really interesting as a writer getting to explore that beyond canon

least favorite thing about them

i don’t like that i relate to her!!!! i don’t like the idea of being mean and she is and i’m entirely convinced she and i have the same personality disorder and i am terrified that i’m like her. some people have said it and i just hate that it might be true

but like as a character in and of herself it’s how she uses people for her own gain. that’s not cool boo

favorite line

“boo, you whore” from the movie

“that’s what i keep trying to explain to the president on twitter but he blocked me” from the show

i can’t remember enough of what she says in the new movie rn but i’ll find smth later i’m sure lol

brOTP

damian. she and damian both love taylor swift and they listen to every song together and fangirl together and also damian gets her into musicals. regina likes the dark gritty ones with good music like les mis and little shop and damian likes the classics (obvs)

OTP

post redemption arc i ship her with like every woman in this. like any combo of gretchen and karen, i’m an absolute SUCKER for cadina (like i’m literally on my knees begging for cadina fic prompts please), rejanis is. it has potential not my fav but i do partake from time to time.

but like aaron would just turn out bad nobody really likes shane or kevin and damian. is gay. so none of the men lol

nOTP

this woman is GAY so again any of the guys lol. also if it’s done wrong rejanis can be real icky and i don’t like that

random headcanon

she can juggle. cady is the only one who knows and regina will absolutely kill her if she lets it slip

unpopular opinion

she is a victim who made the wrong choices and not the monster a lot of people make her out to be. she is not the villain of the story she is the villain of her own life by fault of her own mind which is the fault of her upbringing and she is making the only choices she knows how which just so happen to hurt a lot of people. she absolutely can be redeemed and she deserves it. which is why the bus doesn’t just straight up kill her.

song i associate with them

i think i said this for janis but monster from frozen has very much internal regina vibes to me that she like is terrified of letting anyone else see. also i know it’s about something VERY DIFFERENT but all grown up from bare seems like it would really speak to her. and also just all of renee’s songs bc duh

favorite picture of them

it’s a gif and this is how i lost the post last time but uh

like. holy shit.

DAMIAN

favorite thing about them

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again but that boy drinks his loving janis sarkisian juice every morning as part of a balanced breakfast. he knows they’re each others person and i think he navigates their admittedly strange relationship really well. 

and also i love that this ~17 year old fat openly gay kid has SO MUCH confidence in himself. could he be overcompensating and actually have a lot internally that he doesn’t like about himself? yes absolutely . but the way he chooses to handle himself with such grace and confidence as he navigates such a complex web of social issues is really admirable to me and i don’t think he gets enough credit :))

least favorite thing about them

some of the stereotypes aren’t like super cool but like they had to come from somewhere so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

favorite line

damian is what got me into this show tbh i have so many

but i thiiiiiink it’s gotta be either “and they are more addictive than opioids and girl scout thin mints combined” (also hot take but i’ve been a girl scout for 18 years and thin mints SUCK)

OR

“did she just leave while i was actively caring about her? no. / she’s leaving! just like my DAD.”

honestly just like all of stop all of cautionary tale just him i love him yes

brOTP

besides the obvious answer of janis again i would say regina. but also he and gretchen get coffee at least once a week and bond over dances and choreography and whatnot and he and karen are joined at the hip whenever they’re together and you cannot tell me otherwise. and cady is basically his little sister

OTP

THEATRE BOY FROM THE NEW MOVIE OMGGGGG but also like. i don’t really know lol

i usually write him as being with aaron but that’s bc when i was writing like three months in i asked and all my (four) readers at the time said they wanted damiaaron it was not my first pick. but it has grown on me a lot and i think they’re super cute together

nOTP

i am terrified of the amount of romantic fic out there for him and janis?? like y’all ran face first into the point and hit ur heads so hard u still couldn’t see it huh

random headcanon

he kicked janis’ front teeth out in tap class when they were five and janis still has a small scar on her lip

unpopular opinion

i know i write about it a lot and stuff but making him trans feels really reductive of his personality sometimes. we need more trans rep obviously and i love people being able to take characters like him and feel seen but i question it with him in particular a lot. similar vibes to people who make matilda trans i just dk. lots of complicated feelings about it

also that he is the best goddamn character in the whole thing

song i associate with them

uhhhhhh for whatever reason 9 to 5 by dolly parton?? and jolene are the first two to pop into my head lol idk why

oh and also better work bitch by britney spears (i think??)

favorite picture of them

[stillness-in-green]

I know it was never gonna happen but I think it would have been cool if instead of Kirishima and Shinsou it should have been Hoseface on Gigantomachia telling AFO that that “we serve the true liberator” before tossing a mountain at him

You are so right, @plf-advisor-stan.  You have blown my mind with how right you are. Everyone look at this incredible plot we could have had. My god, that would have been so incredibly good.

I wanted—so, so wanted—for Gigantomachia to have an actual character arc about choosing between Old Master and New Master.  He loves AFO so dearly, of course, far more than he does Shigaraki, but AFO transparently doesn’t care about his minions once he’s had his use of them,[1] whereas Shigaraki’s care for his team is repeatedly shown in scenes like him remembering Mr. Compress’s desire for sushi or reflecting out loud that he wants his comrades to get what they want.

There’s obviously a difference in the levels of Shigaraki’s regard for the League and for the rest of his followers, but all the same, I can’t imagine a Shigaraki who’d gotten to spend any significant time with Machia as a follower being willing to leave him in the dust the way AFO does in Jakku—indeed, calling the lonely Machia back to him is one of the first things Shigaraki does after getting out of the tube.  Shigaraki wouldn’t have left Machia alone in the mountains for 15+ years if Machia didn’t want to go, either.

Machia, as he was originally written, was not a mindless Noumu.  He spent the entirety of MVA vehemently not blindly submitting to Shigaraki because it’s what AFO wanted him to do, but rather testing Shigaraki’s worthiness, telling Shigaraki the kind of master he, Gigantomachia, would bow to, and insisting that Shigaraki rise to that level.  Shigaraki did, and Machia accepted him—it’s such a letdown that all of that effort on both their parts has, thus far, come to nothing.  Machia chose Shigaraki as his master once.  He deserves the chance to do so again.

And, of course, the same goes for the erstwhile MLA.  All that bleeding Shigaraki did, all the work the League put in while he was in the tube, and we just get nothing at all about what the PLF think about being repurposed to serve AFO.  Good lord, the higher-ups were so open about their disdain for the League when they thought they were just villains with no larger goal for societal reform, but how does their vision of liberation work at all with AFO at the helm?  As recently as Chapter 363, Skeptic—who’s nominally still giving the PLF remnants their marching orders!—spoke rather dismissively of AFO, instead citing Re-Destro’s desires, Shigaraki Tomura’s interests, and the intent to bring about anarchy that would contain neither heroes nor villains.

AFO is, consciously and intentionally, the ultimate villain.  And even if we’re meant to believe the MLA is all about the quirk supremacy,[2] it’s not like AFO’s even doing a convincing job of being An Strongest, given that All Might has defeated him twice!

The MLA never chose AFO as a leader; they followed Re-Destro in choosing Shigaraki.  It’s maddening that the story seems to want me to view that loyalty as so interchangeable.

Anyway, yes, your scenario is good and you should feel good; A++ thanks for sharing it with me, and it’s my pleasure to share it with my followers.

---

[1] AFO, you cad, rescue your danged husband from prison!!!

[2] They weren’t all about quirk supremacy, of course, which is what makes their lack of on-panel reflection even more exhausting.  I’ll spare the full rant on that until I eventually get around to that What Does the MLA Believe post, however.

[paragonrobits]

“most superhero groups are billionaires beating up poor people” okay this isn’t funny, its just really annoying and like a lot of memes that pick up traction, people are acting like its actual canon so in response consider this:

this is based on the idea that most superheroes are billionaires, or otherwise rich. Besides the fact that a few of the founding figures that would inspire many superheroes were rich as a cover story (Zorro, as an example) and that a common superhero secret identity idea during the pulp era was ‘local wealthy person uses their money to fund their battle against gangsters and supervillains and anyway no one believes a rich idiot would do anything useful like that’, its not really a common thing. At ALL. Some prominent superheroes (Iron Man, Batman) fit this, but most superheroes are not particularly wealthy. For a lot of them it doesn’t really matter either way, narratively, and a lot of the ones for whom it DOES matter are blue collar or otherwise not wealthy.

Actual examples are extensive, but not that many heroes are wealthy. It’s, again, way more common for them not to be; Superman holds down a job as a journalist. Peter Parker’s life is, with rare exception, a constant downward spiral of him struggling to hold down a job alongside doing superhero work. Bruce Banner is consistently depicted as legitimately homeless and his powers render him too unstable to hold down ANY kind of lifestyle that won’t inevitably end in him fleeing from the collateral damage that is his life. It goes on.

Then there’s Marvel’s most unexpected darlings, the Guardians of the Galaxy. For most of their on-screen movie appearances, they’re essentially a bunch of space ruffians taking mercenary jobs. It’s a bit weird to say ‘gun for hire’ as a blue collar job but... well, what else would you call it?

Supervillains are more consistently depicted as rich. The lists go on and on: Lex Luthor, the cunning businessman who’s sincerely tried to turn a whole city into his personal monopoly so he can feel important. Kingpin, who IS the actual kingpin of crime in all of New York and poses as a wealthy benefactor while muscling out anyone who might interfere in his control over the city. Obadiah Stane, the Ironmonger, a man so dedicated to arms dealing he has a whole super identity based around it. Doctor Doom, who whatever else he’s got going on, is also the absolute dictator of an entire country that he rules with a literal iron fist and whose entire GDP is essentially his personal wallet. Pretty much all of Batman’s rogues gallery from the gangster era have this to some degree; the crime families of old Gotham, the Penguin when he’s in top form...

And this leads to the second criticism of this extremely unfunny and  irritating deliberate misconception joke; the depiction of supervillains as victims or people who get beaten up while just trying to make a living. To be blunt, while it is common for supervillains to be depicted sympathetically (and in fact specific villains being treated like this, or in general, seems to go in cycles depending on whether people are sick of it or the inverse at that time). It’s not that common; you might be talking about, say, the minions of the arc villain, but even they tend to be career criminals who happen to get their kicks out of beating the shit out of other people, breaking legs for criminal organizations, being legitimate serial killers who regard torturing people to death as an art form, or take potshots at stray pets for the fun of it. They profit really well off of this job and they’re not typically victims; when they are, its usually a plot point and the writer is likely to address it. You don’t often get cases where a writer will just drop stuff like that or leave bad implications.

The vast majority of supervillains are huge assholes. Even the sympathetic ones; Mr Freeze might be a tormented ruin of a man desperately trying to save his sickly wife, but he is ALSO frequently depicted as being callously indifferent to other people because their problems aren’t HIS problems. Killer Croc is one of the few villains I give leeway to in this manner because dear god Gotham is so fucked up get this man some real therapy please, but even he has his moments. And then there’s the villains often treated as environmentalist feminist icons but when you actually look at them, they generally tend to be actually depicted as ecofascists who never shut up about how their plans is to exterminate humanity.

So long story short, its really weird that people act like ‘rich guys beating up poor people’ is the default of this genre when pretty much all the examples they reference are 1. very specific to the heroes who started out fighting gangsters during the 1940s and they were fighting the Mafia and Nazis and 2. few superheroes are rich, I don’t understand why people think its funny to make stuff up like this to dislike something that’s popular to make fun of (pretty much like it was 20 years ago and back, so time really is a flat circle)

[undomielregina]

Matthew the Raven

I spent the last couple days reading up on as much of Matthew’s pre-Sandman comics history as I could access. Matthew came into Sandman as a character with a honestly rather sparse 17 year publication history. He had been one of the central characters in the original 1972-4 run of “Swamp Thing,” had a three-issue appearance in “Showtime” with the Doom Patrol, and then been brought back into the revived 1980s “Swamp Thing” for a relatively brief period (issues 17-31) before being stuck in a coma until he becomes Dream’s raven. This has a fair amount of body horror, alcoholism, implications of incest, and spousal abuse typical of a 1980s adult horror comic.

Lieutenant Matthew Cable worked for Defense Department Intelligence and was assigned to protecting Alec and Linda Holland while they carried out their DoD-funded research on the “bio-restorative formula.” He first appears in issue 1 page 3 of “Swamp Thing.”

That’s him in the back with the black hair.

This is 1970s comics writing, so Matt makes friends with the Hollands more or less off page. No time for small character moments when you have to cram an entire origin story into the available page count. Things go pear-shaped, Matt is successfully decoyed, and the lab is blown up with Alec inside it. Linda survives, only to be shot and killed not long after, in front of Alec who has resurrected as the Swamp Thing. Matt sees him shambling away from the scene, thinks he’s what killed the Hollands, and dedicates himself to the pursuit of the monster who killed his only friends. For convoluted comic book reasons, Alec has decided he needs to be believed deceased, so he doesn’t explain any of this, meaning Matt spends much of the next 12 issues chasing the Swamp Thing. Along the way he picks up the other major character in this run, Abby Arcane, after chasing the Swamp Thing to the Balkans (it’s a long story.) Abby is also a recurring character for the rest of this run and has an evil uncle who’s a recurring villain for the series (more on that later).

I’m fairly sure that Eurydice’s hair is deliberately the inverse of Abby’s.

In issue 12, Matt succeeds in capturing Alec, still believing him a monster albeit one that has repeatedly saved his life, and delivers him to the DDI, at which point Alec finally reveals his identity and Matt and Abby break him back out.

They travel together for a number of issues before Alec’s mindless double appears and attacks Matt before it is destroyed and Alec is once again presumed dead. That’s the last of Matt and Abby in the original run, which was cancelled four episodes later (in the middle of a story-arc that was apparently retconned out of existence and never gets any resolution, annoyingly.)

Matt reappears briefly with the Doom Patrol in Showcase # 94-96, which I don’t have access to, and then isn’t seen again until issue #17 of the 1982 Swamp Thing revival. Through this run, Matt is clever, driven, reasonably moral, very much a square-jawed, competent hero type. He’s a good dude who, other than his decision to drop everything to chase after a monster out of revenge, generally has his life together and he tends to be pretty emotionally stable. The last we see of him, he thinks Alec died either furious at him or after finally snapping from the pain of his existence as a shambling plant monster.

In issue #17 of “Saga of the Swamp Thing,” things are substantially different. Alec has been through a bunch of stuff with new characters, and they run into Abby by chance. She informs them that she’s living under an assumed name and that she’s married Matt, and begs Alec to come back to their house with her because she thinks it will do Matt good to see him.

It becomes clear that something is very wrong, because Abby seems quite different from the woman in Alec’s memories

Along the way, they’re beset by creepy monsters, which Alec has a hard time fighting because they repeatedly dematerialize, but eventually they reach the house and…

It’s really hard to convey how shocking this page is if you’ve just read 20 issues of Matt the competent, resilient secret agent. He’s also consumed by guilt over Alec’s supposed death (years earlier at this point even with DC’s messy timeline) and half-convinced this is a hallucination.

Turns out, when the DDI decided Holland was dead, they tried to scrub all evidence of the entire program, including setting Matt up with a bogus diagnosis to fry his brain with unnecessary electroshock therapy. They didn’t manage to erase knowledge of Holland or his formula, but they did manage to destroy his ability to work as a government agent, and his mental fuzziness is both too much drink and an after-effect of the ECT.

In addition, the ECT has given him the ability to manifest representations of his intense emotions, explaining the strange monsters that have been plaguing him and Abby, something he’s only just realized. After this, the series changes writers and whatever plans had been in store for Matt get abruptly aborted. The new writer on the series was Alan Moore, and the new run would change comics. He wanted to set Abby up as Swamp Thing’s love interest, so Matt has to be removed (right at the start of Moore’s run, it is revealed that the Swamp Thing is not, in fact, a transformed Alec Holland, but is a plant mass that somehow, through an interaction with the biorestorative formula, absorbed Holland’s consciousness and grew itself a facsimile body, so I’ll be referring to the character as Swamp Thing from here forward.)

In Moore’s hands, Matt lies to Abby, claiming that he’s gotten control of his drinking and that his power has disappeared. In reality, he’s still drinking and has now simply gained control over the manifestations. He and Abby begin having intimacy issues.

It goes on like this. Matt keeps drinking and surrounds himself with manifested horrors. Abby grows closer to the Swamp Thing and begins to reclaim her life as something other than Matt’s wife, including getting a job. Matt grows increasingly jealous of both the friendship and the job, culminating in a very unpleasant argument after which Abby storms out on foot. After a while, Matt partially comes to his senses and chases after her in the car.

Next issue, as she faces down a monster that takes the form of your greatest fear, we find out that Matt has become Abby’s. Also, Matt, dying in the wreck, makes a deeply foolish decision.

For a brief span things seem better, Matt is miraculously healed and his relationship with Abby begins to improve. And then things start to seem off and Abby realizes that Matt has been possessed by her uncle, Anton Arcane. I’ll gloss over that. It’s pretty horrifying.

Matt eventually recovers himself enough to cast out Arcane and gathers himself enough to resurrect Abby, who Arcane had killed, but he’s left in a coma.

(Don’t worry, Swamp Thing gets her soul out of Hell fairly soon afterward.)

After that, Matt lingers in a coma for several more years, publication time (during which the series again switched writers), before in issue #84, Abby finally decides to disconnect Matt’s life support. This is the March 1989 issue and the last time we see Matt as a human. His consciousness has apparently been stuck in the Dreaming all this time, in Eve’s cave.

Hi, Morpheus! Nice of you to show up and help Matt finish straightening himself out.

Various medical malpractice bullshit has been going down in the waking world and Matt’s body is a wreck. Abby decides to finally disconnect him from the machines keeping him alive, but

And the next time we see Matthew, it’s the December 1989 issue of Sandman and he’s the raven we all know.