#hopefully these are good references of otto

[0m3n-0f-d3ath]

do you have a particular persona/blog mascot ? don’t ask why….

I have to admit despite being asked this like two years ago I still don’t have a Persona/blog mascot but I’d say it just going to be my favorite oc at the time so right now I’d say

!! Otto !!

[caramsels]

tell me more about this "mono isnt a human" theory thats really interesting

Thanks for asking! A few people have asked for my thoughts on Mono’s identity, and because I will take any opportunity to ramble about Little Nightmares, I wrote up my (hopefully intelligible) interpretation of Mono, and why I think he was always a Resident of The Nowhere, instead of a kidnapped human child like most of the LN kids. This theory is super connected to a few other ones I have, so I’ll rattle descriptions of them at the start for context. Also this post is insanely long I’m sorry

The Nowhere

The Nowhere is its own world that real children get kidnapped to, it feeds off of humanity and kinda functions like your local mall. A weird amount of emphasis is put on jobs in The Nowhere, Residents are often referred to solely by their job titles (The Janitor, The Doctor, The Teacher, etc. etc.)

Besides having a job in The Nowhere, a Resident's proximity to humanity seems to give them a higher status as well. In a LN1 interview, it was said that ALL residents wear masks (as opposed to just the Twin Chefs); we even see in LN2 that The Doctor makes and presumably sells these masks. A humanoid appearance is something that most Residents want. The more humanoid a Resident looks, the more powerful they are perceived to be (not always, because of The Ferryman, but he’s just chill like that.)

Kids and valuable teens/adults (like the circus performers and Otto from the podcast) feed The Nowhere kinda like how animals feed humans. Some Residents are given jobs to maintain this system. Some jobs require more power than others however, typically these are the jobs that require a Resident to keep control over an entire area, which leads me to…

The Cycle

The head honcho Residents like The Thin Man and The Lady are more humanoid and more powerful than the others, this is because they are handpicked and raised from birth to inherit these forms that are passed down over time. This one is super important to most of my points about Mono, so I’m going to spend some time defending it.

The Lady (prior to the Six stuff) had 4 predecessors, each represented by a different mask/hat that you can collect in VLN; This means that The Nowhere (at the time of the first loop in LN2) is on its 5th cycle. The Thin Man is also a mantle that is passed down, we see the previous one interact with Mono before Mono has even entered a time loop in the LN2 comics. This Thin Man, when datamined, notably wears a different hat than Mono’s iteration.

Furthermore, when asked if Thinny Lad is a mantle that is passed on or Mono in a timeloop in an interview, the devs had this to say:

The Pretender (VLN) is a good example of what I think Mono is supposed to be, and what the child forms of the 5th cycle Residents were. The Pretender is a humanoid child with supernatural powers and a strong sense of loneliness. She has her own mansion and Resident servants. The Pretender is the heir to a currently unknown position. She has a portrait of her and five past iterations on her wall, followed by another one of her and her two Resident parents. The Pretender is native to The Nowhere.

But… who is the boss of all the Residents? Who assigns these jobs? Who creates the natural Residents and brings others into The Nowhere?

The Eye

(you could argue its the ferryman but i think he works under the eye too. employee of the year)

I think most fans agree on this one so I won't spend too long on it, but basically I think the Eye is the unseen overall antagonist of Little Nightmares, overseeing everything and everyone in The Nowhere all the time. The Eye feeds off of misery and has a fate planned for everyone, it is not happy when anything throws a wrench into these plans. I don’t think we are meant to know The Eye’s motives, not yet at least, but if I had to guess; they have something to do with an extremely misguided and angry feeling of loneliness, as that is a prevalent theme in an insane amount of Residents. This finally brings me to Mono.

Mono’s Familiarity with The Nowhere

Mono is very familiar with Pale City, he is much more aware of his own fate, abilities, and world than he’s given credit for.

In the door/boat cutscene, Mono watches every TV in the water until it exits the frame. This early in the game, Mono already has an inherent connection to TVs.

Before Pale City comes into frame for both Six and the player, Mono is already standing, he is familiar enough with the route to Pale City that he knows they arrived without even having a clear view of their destination. This is because Mono has been to Pale City before, in the sixth episode of the LN2 comics:

In this comic, Mono met (and wasn't killed by) The Thin Man shown earlier. So to list off the amount of things Mono was already familiar with at the start of LN2: His connection to TVs, his connection to The Thin Man, and how to navigate Pale City. Mono having a lot of experience living in The Nowhere is demonstrated somewhere even more prominent too:

Kickass Character Design

Six’s character design intentionally makes her not fit in with her environment. While the color scheme of The Nowhere and its residents is mostly bland, monochrome, and washed out (sans the lighting), her jacket is highlighter yellow. This represents that Six does not belong in The Nowhere, she’s from the human world.

With this information to ride off of, Mono’s design becomes interesting. Mono’s design is a beige button up, tan trench-coat, and tan pants: A monochrome, muted outfit that fits in perfectly with the aesthetic of The Nowhere. Mono’s outfit including a key ring and a useful color scheme for camouflage further implies familiarity and experience with the way The Nowhere works. If Six’s simple, bright design represents her not belonging there, Mono’s muted, practical design represents the fact that he does.

His Mask

We actually know why Mono wears his mask, we have a direct answer:

You can interpret this as a representation of Mono being shy or insecure or a combination of multiple things, but I think it’s mainly meant to represent, as the description states: Mono hiding from The Nowhere, Mono running away from his fate. The Eye wants Mono to grow up and be the next Thin Man, but he doesn’t want to. Mono’s mask represents his fear, his refusal to use his Thin Man powers, his refusal to do anything that connects him to the world that hates him and wants him to fail; he wants to hide from that world, his future, and the reality of what he is. But ….

(straight up a post of Mono running from his fate)

Unexplained Powers

Mono’s OP reveal was the moment that shook me the most when I first watched my sister play the game; I’ve honestly always been shocked at how little it’s talked about in the community. To me, it was a reveal that told us we Did Not REALLY know much about the character we had been playing the entire time, and that was exciting.

When Mono fights the Thin Man and contorts the structure of Pale City, it is with ease. This is not his first time doing any of this, his body language does not match that of someone who just discovered/unlocked a new ability, him busting out the moves is framed more like a choice that he decided on just before removing his mask. The Thin Man boss battle is easy on purpose; because it's not too hard for Mono in universe, all he does after is wipe off his head nonchalantly and then he proceeds to warp reality. The ominous boss theme that plays during this fight isn’t even for the Thin Man, its MONO’S boss music. The Thin Man is the one who helps control The Signal Tower’s influence, Mono is the one interfering with it, he is the “Signal Interference.” The theme continues even after he’s defeated The Thin Man, further hammering in that it is his.

Mono has his own ominously powerful boss theme and the abilities of one of the most powerful Residents at his disposal; he is not a normal kid.

Mono even shares a power with the established Resident heir that we already know; The Pretender.

When The Pretender sees RCG eavesdropping on her crying, she yells so loud that it physically hurts RCG, causing the screen to glitch. I don’t think this is just a visual effect to show how loud it is to the player; I think this is an in universe ability. You know where else we see a powerful child amplify their voice on purpose to harm an enemy with a screen glitch/distortion effect? Mono in Chapter 5.

Mono and the fifth Thin Man

I think that Mono ran away from wherever it is he’s supposed to be, (probably the Signal Tower) and The Eye/ Thin Man want him back; this is why Mono is not killed by The Thin Man in the comic, just pursued by him

Loneliness

I don’t think I even really need to dissect how loneliness relates to Mono’s character, but he’s not the only character who deals with it. A huge recurrent theme with Residents is loneliness; the sense that they need something, they are missing something. The Lady has a bunch of dolls, The Janitor has.. a bunch of dolls in his own way. The Hunter too. The Pretender runs off to cry when her human doll friend gets messed up at her dinner party. The Resident we meet in Chapter 3 of the podcast is the most direct example so far of intense loneliness in a Resident, and not so coincidentally, it has a ton of parallels to Mono.

Narrative

For the rest of this post, I’m going to focus on how I think this theory fits into the story; because I think factoring in the cutscenes and storytelling beats is important when putting together something’s lore.

A little chatter about Mono

Mono is often characterized as a shy little boy who plays the straight man to Six’s feral goblin who loves eating rats, which is a whole other can of worms, but with this characterization I feel like some fun and interesting parts of his character are neglected, such as: The fact that Mono is an ominous little weirdo. His attempt at trying to save and comfort someone is to hack down her door with an ax with no warning, then proceed to chase her through the house she’s been trapped in; Mono is not too familiar with human interaction. Mono isn’t really a dashing hero who tries to save every kid he comes across either. In the comics, Mono finds an area that is away from the monster killing all the kids, but it’s not like he tells the other kids or tries to bring them with him or anything. I don’t think that this means he is a toxic manipulative character or anything because he is. 9 or 10 years old. I think if anything, this is a trait that experienced characters in The Nowhere have: RCG and Mono both know that indifference is the way to survive in The Nowhere, good deeds usually get you killed. It’s the way things are. I think overall Mono is a well meaning boy who just talks and acts ominously, because that’s what he is used to; he’s an eldritch overpowered being who lives in hell if it had a 1940s aesthetic.

I think that Mono doesn’t start the game a sweet perfect little boy whose ending is sad because he gets betrayed, that’s not a character arc. I think Mono starts off relatively morally gray out of necessity, mostly helping Six out because it was kinda his fault she got captured. He develops into someone who is willing to fight his fate, fight the Nowhere and stop resorting to the escapism his mask provides, only to get crushed to rock bottom in spite of his growth. After all, the villain of Little Nightmares is The Nowhere itself.

How this creates character conflict in the plot

Anytime Mono goes into a weird TV trance, Six is horrified. Her body language tenses and she moves away from him. Six has seen first hand that even the kids like her in The Nowhere cannot always be trusted or relied on (RCG shutting the door on her). Some kids like the Pretender aren't even normal kids, they have powers they use to kill people. The one person Six is starting to trust, and he’s showing signs of possessing supernatural powers? Terrifying. Mono notices these reactions, they give him more cause to hide what he truly is from her. Residents scare and disgust Six, he doesn’t want to lose the only person he has.

This conflict leads me to another point; you know those moments of Six being sadistic and angry towards Residents? How an ominous music cue plays when she kills the bully and breaks the mannequin’s fingers? Earlier in the game, when Six first catches Mono, his part of Togetherness II plays briefly to show his feelings in that moment, which implies that the music cues we hear when a story beat happens are Mono’s reactions. I don’t think these scary music cues are because Mono is scared of Six being creepy, Mono himself likes to beat up Residents. I think that Mono is scared in these moments when he sees the extent of Six’s hatred towards Residents, because even though he doesn’t like them either… Imagine how she’d react if she knew about him.

It is only the Thin Man fight when Mono is finally pushed to the point of using his powers, because in the plan to get Mono to the Signal Tower: The Thin Man took Six as bait. Six was constantly pulling Mono out of his TV trances, Six was supposed to die back at The Nest, Six has been a problem for the Eye since the start and now it’s time to kill two birds with one stone, to sentence Six to her new fate and to crush Mono’s spirit so hard that he finally resigns to his.

The drop is its whole own debate, but whatever you think about it, I think at least one factor in Six’s decision is that from her perspective: Mono has revealed himself to be an entity she cannot trust, he didn't tell her either; he's been hiding it this entire time. Why didn’t he use this power to help them all the previous times they were in danger? What are his motives? What IS he? This, mixed with other factors, causes the drop. (a lot of manipulation on the part of The Nowhere is involved too imo but this isn't a Drop analysis)

Mono is crushed, he loses Six and any true feeling of empowerment that he had before. Rather than The Eye trapping him in the Signal Tower and forcibly transforming him into a resident, I think Mono actually accepts his fate because hes just. That depressed. He actually ages pretty normally for most of the sequence (except for being straight up like 12 feet tall, the podcast confirmed that Residents are just super super big as opposed to the kids being really small, bros got Resident genes) This sequence from the art book leads me to think that Mono knows what the hat entails, Mono chooses to run the Signal Tower like The Lady runs The Maw. The chair sequence is not actually him sitting in a chair for that long, I think it just represents his resignation more than anything.

BUT! Mono is an “uncommonly single minded boy,” who also has control over time, i.e. Mono Thin Man slowing down time in his chase just to fuck with you or the clock sounds in The End of The Hall. Whether you think he goes back for revenge or to stop the downfall of everything, he goes back in time. I think it's on purpose, I think every TV in the background of the first scene implies that Mono has gone back to this point in time over and over again, failing repeatedly, leaving a new TV behind and forgetting the past attempt each time.

This could all be wrong, maybe Mono is just a really badass 4th grader from the human realm who got his abilities like Six, just off screen. But one thing I love about LN is all of the different, creative and interesting interpretations of the fans. So here’s mine regarding Mono lore. Sorry this was so long and I write posts weirdly it is 4 AM. I hope you enjoyed

[ladymorghul]

The marketing tactics for season 2 is ridiculous. I get it, they pander to the majority of the fanbase and that majority is TB, but why increase the level of toxicity in this already extremely toxic fandom? Everything for the money, I guess.

And I find it funny that in the recent promotion material the TB actors, especially Corlys, Rhaenys and Daemon, are literally talking shit about TG, like, "we are better looking", "we are better people" , "the greens hate each other, and we are united" the cringe "we are the thoroughbred" by Matt... The actress who plays Rhaenys literally called TG characters a bunch of knobs lmfao. And all TG actors are allowed to say in their favour are things like "we have bigger dragons"😒. And where are Otto and Helaena? Rhaena is there, but no Helaena? Anyway, this could be seen as the actors simply having fun and making references to the "arguments" used by Twitter and Reddit fans, but given the recent reactions, they failed to pass the message. Or the writing got to the actors, too. Idk, I may be overthinking this, but I'm not even looking forward to this show anymore and have a bad feeling regarding s2. I think that the green fans who still fully believe that TG characters and storylines will be done better in the next season are set up for a big disappointment.

yeah, i saw the new promo thing... i felt it was a bit cringe but what bothered me was "we are better looking" and "we are the thoroughbreds".

the first one is such a bad taste comment and instant sideeye, especially considering that even actors must have heard about the gross ass hate that tg actors, esp olivia and emily, have gotten, and the second one is just dumb considering rhaenyra's children and mother.

and not to be the bearer of bad news because i already knew this, but there will never be much green promo from green actors. tgc has always shared tb stuff along with tg stuff and seems relatively uncomfortable with greens from a morality pov imo, and olivia mostly just does rhaenicent promo and that's about it.

i think the only person who had actually tried to get the green fandom a little pumped up in the past was ewan but there was not much to work with considering the lack of interest from the production.

tbh i'm currently in a very much idgaf phase so i'm like meh. i invested too much energy in this toxic fandom and ultimately none of this matters.

i will probably get back into it as we approach s2 but honestly people should accept this show IS good guys vs bad guys and IS rhaenicent centric and all the talk from the writers or actors is silly when we see the actual product on the screen.

waiting for dunk and egg though. hopefully we can move away from team discourse for a while.

[nonbinarylesbianherb]

Outside of all things related to Rhaenicent, what are you hoping for in S3? For me it’s:

Alicent bonding with Jace and Joffrey.

Rhaenyra realising Daemon is an abuser who groomed her.

Baela getting to prove why she’s called Baela the Brave.

Jace showing us why maesters refer to him as the greatest king Westeros never had.

Helaena and Rhaenyra finally being able to have a sister relationship.

Alicent making amends with those she’s wronged and putting an end to Aegon’s cruelty e.g. the child fighting rings.

Otto’s beheading.

ooh yes!

definitely keen on Otto’s death and Alicent’s reaction to it- Otto was not a good father for all the things he did to Alicent, but he was still Alicent’s father and she loved him nonetheless, grew up with him as her only parental figure (after her mother died when she was very young) and always aimed to please him , and even though she’s angry at him for things and their relationship is very complicated I think his death will still have a great impact on her.

I want to see Alicent’s reaction to Aegon not being there- perhaps she’ll actually be secretly very grateful and dearly regret her choice to have told Rhaenyra, especially because she stayed by his bedside day and night throughout his injuries but when he became lucid again they did not have one conversation- I would’ve really liked to see a conversation between the two.

Okay this one is sort of rhaenicent related 😭 but I swear I’m keen on it for multiple reasons- and that is seeing Rhaenyra’s relationships and thoughts when all 3, Alicent, Mysaria and Daemon are there. I wonder how torn she’ll be between the 3, and how it’ll affect her decision making.

Unfortunately I don’t think Rhaenyra will ever recognise she was a victim of abuse and grooming by daemon, but I think she’s practically lost any trust she had for him and knows he is selfish- and their relationship will (hopefully) begin to sour extremely (especially with her new romance to Mysaria now)

Very interested to see Rhaenyra and Helaena have a conversation, I wonder if Rhaenyra will apologise (or perhaps make daemon do so but I doubt he’d ever do something like that) and if they’ll be able to have amicable relationship/ convo even after everything.

Generally just excited to see all relationships ofc lol and how they grow and change and what’s gonna happen

AND oh i really want to see dreamfyre, we haven’t seen her yet and it’s :(

plus I want to see lots of other dragons too lol because we all love the dragons here

[themissingnumbers]

What's good, y'all! It's me again, so you know what that means :) You all know how I function by now. I write things down in the order they appear in my brain, so things may be a bit scattered, but if you can look past that, then I hope you enjoy my ramblings.

In today's issue of The New Yap Times: THOSE FUCKIN' CHARACTER REFS HOLY SHIT—

So, those character references, amirite? First off, those things are fricking fabulous. Good stuff, Starry. Secondly, y'all know how this goes by now. I've got a lot of things I wanna say and I don't know how to say it, but hopefully, this will get easier the further I go. So! Let's start going down the line--shall we?

"Fire" Red Yuuji: MY BABY-! Okay, okay, lemme stop lmao. But like, look at him. He looks so good! Y'all have no idea how much I celebrated when I saw that my boy Fire got a pair of snow pants and some boots like LET'S GO-! He's not on a mountain in jeans and sneakers anymore; he's got some (keyword: some) appropriate snow gear! Plus, that jacket is still clean as hell. Not gonna lie though, I was kinda like Ehhhhh (unsure) about the new frostbite for him, but after looking at it for awhile I'm more like Ehhhhh (positive). I like it! He looks like he toes the line between being cold/unapproachable and lookin' like a sad baby seal. 9.5/10. (I only have one major complaint about Fire as a whole, and it's a big one: I don't know how you've done it, but you've somehow made him look even more huggable and yet I still cannot hug him. It's a sin >:( Don't worry though, he's really a 10/10, I'm just sad and petty-)

Leaf Aoyama: The Babygirl! Yes ma'am! (I'm so happy that she and Fire tied for once-) She's so beautiful, and I love her hair and eyes! I liked the subtlety of the old markings, but I mess with the new ones heavily. She looks like she's got some gnarly burns on her hands, which is kinda worrying. Plus, I really like the little additions to her outfit. I like her little socks (I think they're socks??) and the necklace/heart locket, too! Where'd she get it? Who's in there? I wanna know! Hopefully, she will share it with us one day. 10/10. (Bonus for Leaf: I know I already mentioned it in the comments of the actual Leaf post, but THE ESPEON!? HELLO?! Imma need the lore for that-)

Blue Gary Oak: PRETTY BOY ALERT HOLY MOLY- Okay, genuinely, Starry, why did you make him so pretty? Jesus- Anyway, moving on- This man is fabulous, and I need him to help me with my wardrobe. He's got STYLE! And his eyes, man, his eyes are GORGEOUS! The jewelry, the aviator jacket, the button-up—he got that shit on tho! Onto his body though, I really like all of his freckles. And I had always wondered why he had bandages on his wrist for his researcher outfit, and I kinda put two and two together to speculate why, but I didn't want to be right. But I have confirmation that I was right with the updated reference, and now I'm just sad :( But in spite of that, his design is still clean with lots of effort put into it. Another 10/10. (Also, Blue named some of his Pokémon and I think that's sweet. Otto and Akira are adorable names and I would like to meet them and spoil them with treats thank you-) (It also makes me really sad that Blue self-harms. Like, I expected it, but still. He hurt himself, and from the looks of things, still does. He doesn't deserve that. Hopefully, we can help Blue wean off of SH later down the line by offering some alternatives and a listening ear.)

"Glitchy" Red Tajiri: Then there's this rat bastard (affectionate). Where... where do I even start with this dude? Don't take anything I say about this man the wrong way, his design is peak and the art is amazing, but he looks so... wrong. Like, ewww, bro. I know he hasn't eaten in god knows how long, but why doesn't he look alive? Why tf is he printer paper white? He just ain't right man. (Slenderman lookin' ass. Bro looks like he bites. Probably microwaves his cereal before he eats it, too. Don't tell him I said that-) Nevertheless, creepy shit aside, I really like how disheveled he looks! Torn, dirty clothes, shoes with holes in them, and long messy hair—it fits him and I mess with that heavy. Also, the viscera that comes with that super glitchy form is crazy! It looks so cool, but it can't feel good in any manner. He's so skinny, too! I am deeply concerned for this man, probably more than I initially was for Fire, and that's saying something. Again, another 10/10. This man has grown on me significantly. (Also, his poor Pokémon team :( What happened to them? I'm curious but also afraid to find out. I also like how his Team has Gen 1 sprites. Nice touch-) (Also, me looking at that digital viscera form with MissingNo limbs ripping out of his chest. "Mhm..." Adds it to the Parasite theory. "Mhm.")

Okay! It's been a while since I started writing this (it's currently 2 AM for me lmao I started at 11) and I think I'm done—with this version! You thought I was finished? NO. I have more thoughts about these references—lots of thoughts—mostly about the Spoiler Edits and Blacked out parts, along with the new Biographies/Descriptions. But that's for a different time and post. This was just me rambling about the updated designs because I have no one else to yap to about it at the moment. So, there will be another, more theory-driven edition of The New Yap Times coming eventually, but not tonight.

Anyway, time for my closing statements. To Starry, you cooked with these drawings bruh. These are awesome and your art just keeps getting better and better. Keep it up! But be careful not to burn yourself out. To the Mods, I know y'all're probably cooking something up in secret. You guys always be moving in the shadows, so just know that I look forward to it ya sneaky little devils, and I hope y'all are all doing well. And specifically to Mod Hells, I hope you feel better soon homie. Being sick sucks, so I'm prayin' for you :) Take care of yourself.

But that's all, folks! Until next time. Thank you for reading The New Yap Times!

[OHHEHEHEHE do NOT ever apologize for your long analysis asks idc how messy you consider it these are a huge highlight of this blog for me and it makes all the work i put into the refs worth it!!

i need to respond to this stuff without giving too much away now.. trust me when I say that for these design updates, a LOT of thought went into the changes, both aesthetically AND for what they mean regarding the stories. but though i know all the meaning and intent being them, i wanna leave it all open to interpretation and theorizing as best as i can...

that said i want to talk a LITTLE about it bc dear god this is such a good analysis and observations LOL

re: Fire - his new snow fit was smth that took a lot of mulling over and was decided on based on the fact that he'd get it in universe from... somewhere. :) the updates to his frostbite were also VERY deliberate- for one i was worried the old stylizing would be read as blush when seeing him out of context... i wanted it to be clear that this is a severe injury. i def did my best to make him toe the line of..... Unapproachable, and Aesthetically Pleasing. im very glad i pulled that off!!

re: Leaf - ill admit to keep it real a large drive behind changing her markings into burn scars was bc i didn't like drawing the chain markings on her arms LOL. but the change is also a deliberate choice that i won't elaborate much more on.. its definitely less subtle, but i think weird scars can be easily justified in the world of pokemon. as for her pokemon... all can be explained in due time! though id certainly suggest putting that scanner and dex to use ;)

re: Blue - blue's always been focused more on Fashion over Function- if there's one thing he cares about, it's appearances. him being more of a prettyboy is intentional by virtue of the fact that he tries to look attractive and such. the.... other thing is smth ive mostly kept as subtext, particularly happening in... recent works. :) but its not something i intend to treat lightly once it's explicitly acknowledged. i honestly considered hiding it like with other things on these refs but that just seemed like overkill ultimately.

as for nicknames- god i really want to give other pokemon nicknames that reflect their trainer's personalities. the problem is that immm just bad at naming things tbh. Leaf would have a fully named team, and Blue would too, or at least a few more than just Otto and Akira. i was thinking Dusty for his Jolteon... ill probably head back and edit names in as we work em out! the refs will definitely be good to glance at from time to time. fires team is nameless and reds team would be .......... immature.

re: Glitchy -

this is the best possible thing you could've said about him. thats all i can really say

anyways!! thank you so so much for all your thoughts- again, things like this really do make it all worth it! i really look forward to your next theory session, but you take care and take all the time you need, okay?

thank u so much for the compliments man,, 🥺 it really does mean a lot. i can really tell ive improved a lot esp looking at the new and old refs side by side and it makes me so happy!! ^-^ im glad u can see it too eheheh.. ill put my side by sides under the cut bc its kinda wild to look at

and as someone whos been seeing all the behind the scenes work unfold.... god im so excited for when the secret the other mods have been working on gets to come out !!! they've been trucking away and its exciting to see :D]

((ps from mod hell: thank you so much our strongest soldier i love you))

old vs new comparisons:

[theadventurerslog]

Quest For Glory 1: So You Want to Be a Hero | Part 1

The Adventurer's Log

Release Date: 1989

Quest for Glory caught my attention when I watched a retrospective for the first game. I bought the set and King's Quest IV, V and VI at the time, not knowing if I wanted to played 1-4 yet. I was fully intending to play Quest for Glory first, but then King's Quest took over instead and the whole series got played here. Well, I'm finally giving Quest for Glory the attention it was meant to have now. QFG is more of an adventure game RPG hybrid with a class to pick, skills to improve and fights to fight.

As always a couple notes:

There are a couple versions of the game: the original with a text parser and a remade VGA with point and click controls. I wanted to start with the original and get a natural progression through the series.

I have watched this game played, however there are some differences in things you can do and puzzle solutions based on your class, so this is going to be a mix of things I know and things I don't as they went with a different class than I'm doing. That'll be a nice mix I think.

Now...

It's time to be a hero! The town of Spielburg needs adventurers, no experience required. There are monsters to fight, brigands to defeat and a few other tasks to earn the title of Hero of Spielburg.

There are three classes to pick from: fighter, magic user and thief. I went with magic user.

Meet Cinder Win. I was going to give myself a bit of Throwing skill and forgot! Off to a good start, but at least some good Intelligence and Magic.

I have four reasons for this name:

I'm bad at coming with names and it can be a long struggle, so I thought maybe a reference would be fun. I tried anagrams of Rincewind from Discworld because I'm a dork, and Cinder Win stood out to me

One of the spells is Fire Dart which I imagine will get lots of use once I get it. Cinder (fire) will (hopefully) Win.

There are some times you need to type out your name and this will be easy to remember

It's silly for a game that is most certainly not totally serious

The game opens up with our first arrival to Spielburg.

I chatted with the Sheriff first who introduced himself as Sheriff Schultz Meistersson and his assistant Otto Von Goon, who would not chat with me but I hope he has fun with his yo-yo.

The sheriff informed me of the monsters and brigands around the area so a hero was certainly welcome. Otherwise he mostly just told me to go find out stuff for myself, so fine, I do like a good exploration.

This street also had the inn and a barbershop but the barbershop was closed. I avoided the inn for the moment and moved onward to market street.

It's a fruit stand run by a centaur! I bought some apples. I also discovered one of the barrels has potatoes and had a laugh because Rincewind, the root of Cinder Win here, wound up with a great desire for potatoes in the books for reasons. Anyway, naturally I had to buy some of the those too, though sadly they just display as vegetables in my inventory.

I also went into the Dry Goods store and got some empty flasks and another dagger. I thought... maybe I can cast zap on one of those daggers and throw it! You know, if I had put anything into my Throw skill. Which I did not. I have no idea how effective that would be but it sounded good in the moment!

Anyway, I sure did go shopping. You start out with food rations, 1 dagger, and leather armour.

Spoiler alert: mistakes were made. More on that later.

But outside I was having fun clicking around.

I moved on to another street and landed in the bar, where more clicking yielded more snark.

This only encourages me to click all the pointless places for all the responses.

I didn't end up doing much in the bar. I found the barber, anyway drunk as a skunk. I bought a beer--more money down the drain! If I had more money, I could have also bought Dragon's Breath to lose more money and also my life because it does kill you, though you are in complete fairness, warned not to drink the stuff. For the sake of death finding I'll have to try to remember trying it when I can actually afford it. There is more to this place at this point, but only for thieves, and Cinder Win is no thief, so I left.

Outside, I obviously examined more nothing and got a shameless plug for the second game.

I popped into the alley where there was a beggar.

The way I was spending my money I feel like I could ended up joining him... I did give him a silver though for some attempted information. I did learn you can get some temp work at the castle.

I popped by the inn but decided to deal with it more fully when it was nighttime.

then it was finally time for the magic shop, a very important place for me being a magic user and all. A place I should have hit up first.

I learned the shopkeeper's name was Zara. I was informed of a powerful hag, Baba Yaga who is best avoided. She cursed Baron von Spielburg. And I learned of what spells she had for sale. She also informed me that there is a powerful spell to be learned if you learn the secret of Erana's Peace. Erana was a powerful spellcaster long ago. She brought peace to the valley and there's still a spell that protects the town from violence or foul magic. And indeed if you try to attack anything you can't.

As for the spells I could purchase:

Flame Dart: 60 silver Fetch: 40 silver Open: 30 silver

The game starts you with 4 gold and 10 silver which is the equivalent of 50 silver. If I hadn't gone shopping previously, I could have afforded the open or fetch spell and I wouldn't have been far off the Flame Dart. Not being able to didn't come back to bite me at all, nosiree. In the meantime I carried on like no big deal.

Sidenote: I did bad note-keeping and someone told me about the wizard Erasmus which was quite possibly Zara but now I can't remember. He exists though and has a tower to go visit at some point!

For the final stop in town, the Adventurer's Guild. Time to see some quests!

There were five quests pinned to the board:

Reward of 50 gold for the safe return of Elsa von Spielburg - an dusty faded poster with a picture of a small child.

Wanted: Brigand Leader. Unknown appearance. Wears a cloak. Must provide proof of identity. Reward of 60 gold and the title Hero of the Realm. Main quest ho!

Another older poster with a picture of handsome arrogant young man. Reward of 50 gold for information leading to the return of Baronet Barnard von Spielburg.

Notice: Spell components need. Cash or trade for potions. Inquire at the Healer's.

Reward for return of lost ring. Inquire at the Healer's.

Goals!

There's also a registration book you can sign for a point!

I chatted with the guild master and got some more details on the Baron, Barnard and Elsa.

The baron was great until he pissed of Baba Yaga and now things are bad. He reckons she's the centre of the problem. The baron tried to make her leave and she cursed him.

Ten years ago Elsa was carried off by something that flew over the wall. The searched for her for several years until everyone gave up. Except the baron's jester, Yorick.

Barnard was a hero. He went one hunting five years and his horse returned with deep claw marks. No sign of the Baronet's body was found.

Clearly this place needs a hero, indeed!

This game has a day night cycle and I still had some daylight left, so it was time to leave town and dip my toes into exploring a bit before returning to sleep.

Close to the town gate was the healer's which is good because she had two notices up: ingredients and her missing ring. She also sells potions which would be great if I had much money.

Healing - HP Magic - MP Vigor - Stamina Undead Unguent - Undead protection

She will also pay for ingredients: cheetaur claws, troll beard, magic mushrooms and flowers from Erana's Peace.

She has two little pterosaurs, Pterry and Pteresa. Pterry likes to keep her company while Pteresa has a nest outside.

And she's missing her ring, but it must be around her place somewhere...

Now, because this isn't a blind play I already knew the ring was in Pteresa's nest, but I was lacking a way to get it. I'm a wimpy wizard with no climbing skill to climb the tree and my only spell was zap. Fetch would be great! I carried on; I'd get more money. It's fine.

I carried on.

When you're running around you may get attacked by monsters and then you have to fight or run. Or die. There have been some deaths to monsters.

(this is a later screenshot because I kept forgetting to get one while fighting. I was too busy panicking and fleeing. It's the Rincewind way. And dying.)

Anyhoo, despite my above drama, at this point I didn't actually run into much. I didn't go far from town since I was worried about night falling and I didn't want to get locked out of town. But the threats were there!

I briefly stopped by the castle and got grumped at by a guard in the castle grounds.

I did talk to the gatekeeper but he didn't have much to tell me that I hadn't already learned from town. There is work to be done at the stable but I didn't accept the job because I was watching the time.

I also met a centaur while wandering the region!

I met Hilde! I bought potatoes! And apples. But potatoes!

He had some interesting info: he got attacked by the brigands a few months ago and there were too many for him to completely fend off. Strangely their leader intervened, and forced them to stop, ordering them not to hurt people from the town. Then the leader gave him a healing potion and had him carried to the healer's. The leader's face was hidden by a helm, but there was a compassion there unlike brigands.

Hmmm.

Evening was falling and ended my little wander so I went back to the Inn. The owners are Katta from the land of Shapeir. There was now a man there who only shows up at night, Abdullah Doo.

Abdullah was going to be the first merchant making it into the valley this year which would have made him wealthy, but he was ambushed by brigands as they crossed the pass.

His trade goods were taken, but the leader spared his life. Now he's a beggar living off the generosity of his friends.

So the bandits have magic and weirdly merciful leader...

I had some dinner--you do have to eat something once a day. And then it was off to bed!

One day done and good night to Cinder Win.

I kind of love this little sleep screen. It's cute.

Next time Day 2 and some chaos as my mistakes come down to bite me!

[tumblezwei]

Yay I'm so glad you have the guide! Can I ask for a link to it so I can keep it for my reference too? Honkai Impact 3rd is just my absolute favourite game ever and is kind of a hyperfixation/special interest of mine and seeing it gain more fans and players just gives me so much joy it's a treasure !!!☺

(Also I too want to put Otto through a woodchipper he makes me so mad but he is well written too that I can't help but like him as a character but I hate him too? If that makes sense?)

Also who are your favourite characters so far? My absolute favourites are Fu Hua and Mei, but everyone in the St. Freya cast are so 🥺🥺🥺🥺 and I always end up at least liking every character. Ooh and what story moments do you like best so far? Anything you're looking forward to?

Here you go! It's the guide that everyone recommended when I looked up how to go through the story, and it's been really good for making sense of everything so far.

So far my faves have been Kiana, Kallen, Welt, and Fu Hua, but I agree with you that I've liked all of the cast so far! I'm also really loving Sirin, she's such a brat and I love her as an antagonist.

I think out of the story I've done so far, the arc I'm currently going through with the Herrscher of the Void has been a stand out. Kiana going through the memories of the second eruption with her mom was also really good.

As for what I'm looking forward to....I guess meeting this game's version of Seele, since I only know her from Star Rail. And hopefully getting more backstory on the Previous Era and what that was all about.

[b1ueoff1ine]

Healing - Part 4

Healing Masterlist

Previous || Part 4 || Next

Full 14 Days Of Valentine's Collection

Otto Octavius FanFiction

Prompt/Summary: long #6 -Life is hard, especially for a single mother, but you've made the best of it and took a new job as the secretary for a billionaire. A terrible tragedy rocks his world and you're there as a shoulder to cry on as he heals. During the healing process, however, he finds you are more important to him than he originally thought.

Warnings: Age gap.(Let me know if I missed any!)

Word Count: 656

A/N: I knew I had to include the tragedy at some point.

__

Sunday went by in a snap. One moment you were waking up and making coffee, the next moment you were making dinner.

You Monday rolled around and you made your coffee. You made D/N some hot chocolate and got in the car with her. You started driving, stopping at a coffee shop to get Otto something. Once you had his coffee, you drove to work.

D/N was excited, she wanted to meet everyone again. You laughed as she practically bounced in her seat.

"You excited?" You asked, knowing the answer.

She nodded enthusiastically.

You entered the building and immediately knew something was wrong. The secretary looked concerned, and when you got into the labs, one of the projects was on the floor with a peice torn off.

You told D/N to stay behind you as you made your way towards Otto's office with his coffee.

You knocked, and were responded to with his angry voice.

"I told you to stay away!" He snapped.

"Sir, Its Y/N and my daughter. She wanted to get you coffee."

The room went silent and some of the nearby employees stared at you.

He finally spoke. "Bring the coffee. But be careful, they're upset."

You knew he was referring to his actuators, so you told D/N to stay there.

You opened the door and handed Otto his coffee. You noticed tears rolling down his face, and you wanted to ask him what was wrong. But you knew to let him finish his coffee first.

"Let me know if I can help you with anything." You told him, then exited and closed the door.

You let out the breath you didnt know you had been holding. "Let's go wait, honey." You told your daughter.

You both went over to where the project you were working on with Dr. Octavius was.

As you sat there, you could hear angry and upset replies coming from Dr. Octavius's office. He seemed to be on the phone. Over time, the replies became more calm and sad instead of angry snapping.

"Hopefully he enjoys his coffee." Your daughter said.

"I think he did." You said to her as as Otto came out of his office.

He looked shaken and upset, and you waited for him to reach you before saying anything.

"Are you alright, sir?" You asked.

"Yes... well no. But I'm sorry I snapped at you. It wasn't... me."

"Its alright, sir. We all have those days."

Otto sighed and dismissed the gathering crowd of employees and your daughter went with them. "Because of... what I've done in the past... I react differently to some things."

"It doesn't matter what you've done in the past- it's the past. What matters is what you choose do do from here on out." You told him.

Otto was speachless for a moment. "I- I think I needed to hear that. I'm sorry, a colleague passed away, he was a dear friend of mine."

"I'm terribly sorry for your loss." You said sympathetically.

Otto's eyes were glazed in sorrow. "I suppose I'll have to go to the funeral... You will be alright here for the next few days, right?"

"Yup."

"Good. I better go before they try to hurt anyone else." Otto looked grim, motioning to his actuators.

You nodded as he left, motioning to your daughter to join you. "Wanna help mama with something?"

"Sure!" D/N said.

She helped you with the next part of the project you had helped Otto with, and you grinned when she remembered something you had forgot.

Then it was time to go home, so you said goodbye to everyone and got in the car with D/N. You drove home playing D/N's favorite song. You heated up and finished leftovers from Saturday with D/N, then tucked her in to bed.

You hopped in your own bed and went to sleep, eager for the next day.

__

Taglist

@currvycurly

[emilykaldwen]

Are we going to find out what Otto was thinking in the stairway scene with Abby?

Oh man this is a great question, thank you so much!

So some backstory that I've tried to drop through the story so far but just to make clear:

Abby's mother, Celeste Strong (nee Reyne), is Otto Hightower's niece. Otto, in this world, was married to Cybell Reyne, who was the sister of the current Lord Roderick Reyne. This is why Abby's been referred to as 'cousin'. When Otto was banished from KL by Viserys, he did ask Lyonel if he'd think of bringing his wife and newborn daughter to court, so that Alicent might have some wise council, and family around her (he also hoped that Lyonel and Celeste would influence Alicent as he wanted, but Lyonel was like 'bruh')

It's also worth noting here: Lyonel Strong had 6 maester chain links. I headcanon personally that Lyonel fostered with the Hightowers at Oldtown and that's how he was able to go to the Citadel. Politics. I'm making a tiramisu here.

(This is more of a show issue. GRRM really does make sure that the court is filled to the bustling, that the princes have companions, that Alicent has ladies, etc, but the show keeps this feeling of isolation which I enjoyed and so I play with it).

You might have probably noted already, but in case not, there is a physical similarity between Alicent and Abby, and by extension, Abby looking similar to Alicent's own mother (Celeste had brighter hair, Cybell Hightower had auburn hair). The Reyne face is the one that Alicent, Aegon, and Helaena share, and by extension, Celeste and Abby share that face too.

So that was a major thing Otto was noticing: How much Abby looked like Alicent, how proper she was, a comely girl. A good choice to be Aegon's queen.

You're hopefully going to notice some of this in the coming chapters how Alicent views Abby, and by extension, how Otto is viewing Abby. Aegon was right on point with tracking that Otto and Alicent are using Abby as a pawn, and using her to try control him.

As Viserys told Alicent in Chapter Two: Had advice come from a comely maiden, he may have been more inclined to listen. What better than a comely maiden whom Aegon already knows and trusts, that they should be able to control.

I hope this answers your question!

[zeciex]

Hi!!!

How many chapters till the wedding? I’m so anxious to read it😬😬😬🫨🫨🫨

I loved that in the other chapter she referred to Ser Erryk as “prettier twin” or “good twin” 🤣🤣

Hopefully she has a cordial relationship with Gwayne, he seems in the show to be nice, hell he managed to raise Daeron (as if now, he haven’t officially met him) and he says he is a good kid compared two the other two. Maybe she can mess with Alicent and Aemond saying “Where your pretty brother Gwayne?, the only good thing of the Hightowers”

The wedding will be chapter 94. I've just counted.

She was just being downright petty in that chapter and she'll continue that pettiness soon enough. But yeah, I found that funny to write too because she was just being a bitch to this man that feels deeply betrayed that his brother has left him and now this girl is teasing him--kicking him while he was down, like she did with Ser Criston in chapter 2 I believe.

I am so saving that! Daenera will definitely have a cordial relationship with Gwayne. And Gwayne will be kind and flirty with her, like he's a charmer, but she's only engaging with it to get under Aemond's skin--which he knows! Gwayne knows he's being used as a pawn, and he's okay with it because its amusing. And while he does has some of Otto Hightower in him, he's still more friendly and charming, he has less of a stick up his ass and more of a silver spoon, ya know? You'll even get a small scene with him during the wedding ;)

[thompsborn]

chapter two - you're in the darkness, all alone

word count: 7,267 (7,235 without the chapter lyrics)

total word count: 14,802 (14,750 without chapter lyrics)

chapter song: flares by the script

chapter lyrics:

did you break but never mend? did it hurt so much, you thought it was the end? lose your heart but don't know when and no one cares, there's no one there

recap + lines i felt were important enough to jot down:

peter turns eighteen. he applies to empire state university on the laptop that he built out of scavenged scraps. (august 10, 2025)

after wilson fisk's death (hawkeye reference!) crime rates have been all over the place due to various criminals trying to step into the power vacuum left behind by fisk's death. peter patrols for thirteen hours and during his patrol gets some information about a location for "where the main operation takes place"

investigation stuff will be in red because my brain wants it to be

peter goes to the location to stake out the place and his senses won't let him leave whenever he tries, even though the only thing he's been able to find out is some times and locations for deals happening later. he then overhears a meeting between five or six people, based on the amount of heartbeats he can hear in the room. one of them is named 'richard' and the one named richard mentions his father. this is what he says exactly:

“How I run things doesn’t matter,” the original person states coldly. “That’s the entire point. My father was one hell of a man—and I mean that in a lot of ways, both good and bad—but he had his ways, and he stuck with them. Negotiation was never his first choice, but a last resort in order to maintain his hold on power and control. With him gone, things are going to change, no matter what. I want to try to keep those changes in order, keep people from stepping on each other’s toes. We’re all here to figure out how.”

before peter can hear much else, he's spotted and has to fight his way out of the warehouse.

peter meets harley!! he stops by the late night latte for the first time hoping that since he metabolism is slowed down he might be able to chug some caffeine and feel more awake. harley is working his shift and asks if peter's had a rough day. some small talk happens. peter feels intrigued about harley as soon as he sees him (his brain recognizes him from tony's funeral even though peter doesn't really remember most of tony's funeral) but is too tired to think about it too much. he thinks about all the shit he needs to do (take pictures for the bugle, sell them to the bugle, eat something, fix his phone that broke, take a nap, go back on patrol). as peter goes to leave, harley tells him to get some rest and saying that hopefully tomorrow will be better. (august 16, 2025)

oscorp ends up on the news. peter looks into norman and otto again and finds nothing concerning or alarming.

he gets accepted into empire state. he receives the acceptance email while stitching up a wound in his leg. (august 25, 2025)

Wherever you are, he thinks (pictures of his Aunt and his Uncle and his parents and his friends and Tony all floating to the forefront of his mind), I hope you’re proud of me. Of what I’m trying to do.

Of who I’m becoming, and who I’m trying so hard not to be.

peter gets a new location while on patrol and goes to check it out. there, he overhears a conversation between richard and someone whose voice peter recognizes from the meeting he overheard before. richard calls this second person marcus. he then brings up a nickname for marcus, aka massacre. he says he wants to make a deal, not just with marcus, but with "his other line of work" aka with massacre, and marcus agrees. peter does not hear the specifics of this deal.

peter uses the information from richard and marcus's conversaion to do some research and figures out who marcus is:

marcus lyman - a successful trader for a local wall street firm. had a wife named judy. they met at work, fell in love, got married. someone planted a bomb in marcus's car. police think it was a client who got upset. no arrests were ever made. judy did not make it. marcus did, but got some brain damage due to a shrapnel injury to the head that caused "certain connections in lyman's brain to no longer function" aka has made him incapable of feeling anything. he has all of his intelligence, all of his memories, all of his capabilities and strategic thinking, no remorse, no anger, no happiness. just absolutely nothing.

peter writes down what he knows so far about the investigation. he writes Richard ??? underlined three times. he writes Marcus Lyman - Massacre. he writes Plan - Potential team up - Richard using Massacre? and that is all that he writes.

peter buys a somewhat okay quality backpack for thirty bucks. he thinks about the financial aid money he'll be getting in order to attend empire state. he thinks about how may and him were never rich, but how they were able to live somewhat comfortably before. he thinks about how he's struggling to put any food in the fridge.

peter figures out that richard is wilson fisk's son despite there are no records of wilson having a kid. (september 6, 2025)

peter starts his classes at empire state (september 8, 2025)

on the first day of classes, peter gets caught up on patrol. he's running on low energy because he's been researching richard fisk and getting absolutely no where. he shows up to his first class nineteen minutes late. he has a hello kitty band-aid on his nose to hide a bruise. when he sits down, he ends up sitting next to harley, who is also attending empire state.

harley says "nice band-aid" and peter thinks about how he thought of tony when he saw the box. harley then lets peter take a picture of his notes for the shit he missed by being late.

"he locks his eyes on the front of the room and doesn't notice when harley keeps glancing his way"

peter thinks about how he used to balance school and spider-man with the help of having the supervision and guidance of the adults in his life. it's a lot harder now because college classes work differently and he doesn't have anyone to help him, only himself. in the first two weeks he's been late to his classes more often than he's been on time. he is already building a reputation for himself as the guy who is chronically late, seems spacey, but still answers every question correctly.

at the end of the second week of classes (september 19, 2025) harry, who sits in front of peter, turns and asks peter if he's a prostitute because he heard his roommate (harley, though that hasn't been stated yet) mention peter being kind of a mystery and when he asked his friend (gwen, though he doesn't say her name) about him, she said she heard a rumor about peter being a prostitute. peter chokes on his water when harry suddenly asks and thinks about brad and betty and europe.

harry feels bad and invites peter to come with him and gwen to get milkshakes and burgers and offers to pay for him as an apology

and that's chapter two! it took me about an hour to get this chapter recap done, partially because i'm rereading the fic as i go and also because i'm trying to condense the chapter into only the necessary bullet points and also keep the recap kind of organized? hence the dates being bolded and in yellow, and the investigation stuff being in red. anyway, it's lunch time so i'm gonna go make something to eat and might also take a shower before doing chapter three.

so, expect the chapter three recap in like two hours, maybe less!

gonna make little chapter recaps while i reread what's posted of homeward bound so far. and then i am going to bust out chapter seventeen. might not finish it this weekend, but i hope to get a majority of it written. let's get into it.

starting with chapter one - i'm so tired of being afraid

word count: 7,535 (7,515 without the chapter lyrics at the start)

chapter song: six by sleeping at last

chapter lyrics:

what would it feel like to put this baggage down? if i'm being honest i'm not sure i'd know how

recap + lines i felt were important enough to jot down:

peter moves into his new apartment (december 2024)

peter needs to be alone

"when he's alone, there's no one to let down but himself."

peter looks up norman, otto, max, flint, and curt as a precaution now that he knows they turned into villains in the other worlds

norman and otto: started oscorp together during the five year gap between snaps, but have not gotten very far due to the world mourning the half of the population that's gone and also because stark industries is already a powerhouse in all the industries that oscorp is trying to step a foot into. peter deems them not a threat for now but will occasionally check on them just to be safe.

max and flint: peter is unable to find records of anyone with their names when looking them up. that's doesn't guarantee they don't exist in this world, they could have different names or something like that, but peter finds no trace of them and feels like it's safe to assume they don't exist here. he'll still check again occasionally to see if anything pops up down the line.

curt: a professor at empire state university with no signs of any of the things that happened in the other world happening to him here. again, peter will check occasionally to make sure, but overall he thinks that his world is most likely safe from these five people becoming villains like they did in the other peter's worlds.

peter looks into empire state university after looking up curt and thinks about how he'd like to go to college. it's always been part of his life plan. his life is completely different than what it was ever supposed to be and he'd need to get his GED, but he thinks about how he'd like to still go if he can make it work.

peter decides he needs to remake his suit, partially because he other suits can't be used anymore now that karen doesn't recognize him - edith doesn't recognize him anymore, either, which makes peter sad because he feels like he's lost a connection that he had with tony after tony's death - but he also wants to remake his suits because he knows the other peter's made their own from suits from scratch as well, so he thinks it's pretty fitting and thinks that it's kind of like he's building himself up from scratch and starting over for good - "...as both Peter Parker and as Spider-Man"

"and karen not knowing him feels a lot like losing another friend."

he includes peter 2 and peter 3 in his suit design to honor them and remind himself that, even if he is alone in his world, he isn't alone in the universe.

raimi spidey emblem on his chest:

and tasm spidey emblem on his back:

"when peter gets lost, or angry, or overwhelmed... he has reminders of them, interwoven into his suit, for him to brush his fingers against and think to himself, be strong, peter. do it for your brothers."

peter had an uncle ben in his world, but his uncle ben died less than two years after his parents did when he was six and a half years old. peter thinks about how his uncle ben impacted his life in a much different life than the other peter's. his uncle ben's last words shaped his morals and his outlook in life, to the point that, when tony first showed up to recruit peter for germany, he had used his own wording based on what ben said to explain why being spidey is so important to him.

"he remembers ben shrugging, remembers him smiling, remembers him saying, "if i didn't help, it'd be my fault, too." the way he said it had been so simple, so sure - a philosophy he fully and passionately believed in."

actually just this whole section feels very important to me so i'm going to copy and paste it right here:

In a way, Uncle Ben played a significant part in Peter becoming Spider-Man, but not in the same way that the Other Peter’s seemed to be influenced by their Uncle Ben’s. Peter remembers that he didn’t think much of the last words he heard his Ben say for a while, but that they seemed to click in his head around the time he was nine or ten, and suddenly they were words he wanted to live by. Doing good, and getting in the way to stop bad things, no matter how big or how small, because then it’d be his fault, too, if he didn’t.

It’s what he told Mr. Stark, back when he was still fourteen almost fifteen and the man had appeared in his apartment. When you can do the things I can, he had said—not exactly what Ben had said, no, kind of added onto by Peter, altered with the weight of Spider-Man stacked on top of the same philosophy he already lived by—but you don’t, and then the bad things happen… they happen because of you.

It’s not what the Other Peter’s talked about, though—because Ben didn’t tell Peter that great power comes with great responsibility. Aunt May told him that. But, for the Other Peter’s, it had been an Uncle that lived longer than his own did.

Then again, the Other Peter’s didn’t have the Avenger’s, and they never had Mr. Stark. Maybe it’s just different because each world isn’t supposed to be the same, and that’s all there is to it.

also may's line from right before ben died, which peter later tells harley about when telling harley the truth about his life:

“You stupid Parker men,” May had scoffed. “Way too selfless for your own good.”

peter thinks that it feels important that uncle ben had such a huge role in shaping who he is, and how the ben's of the other worlds had such a huge part in the other peter's lives as well, even if it was in vastly different ways. he then thinks about how, out of the very few things that peter was able to get out of his and may's old apartment before it was cleared out, one of them happened to be a box of uncle ben's old stuff - including, at the very top of the box, ben's old camera.

peter learns how to use ben's camera to take pictures properly in order to then take pictures of himself as spidey to sell to the daily bugle. he thinks it's amusing and ironic that the pictures he takes are used for articles that slander spidey, knowing that jjj would probably lose his shit if he knew he bought the pictures from spider-man himself.

"everything seems to be trial and error these days - life was never a certainty before, but now it's pretty clearly up in the air and he's left scrambling to try and figure it out, approaching every corner completely blind to what he'll find when he turns it - but that's alright, because he's got the brain of a scientist and trial and error could just be another term for experiment, so it works out well."

that ^ quote is a nice tie in to the tony flashback that happens in chapter 16, where tony calls peter an observer and says that peter is always gathering information and how peter looks more than most people do because peter likes to be prepared and likes to understand.

peter spends new years eve alone (new years, 2024) and watches the fireworks while thinking about the other peter's not being alone before going back to patrol.

peter gets his first Big Injury since ending up completely on his own. he has no one to call and he has no super pain killers like the ones tony had made for him before tony died. the injury starts at his left hip, goes over his ribs, stops at the center of his chest. it was done with a knife. peter has to stitch himself up. it's the first time he's ever done stitches on himself.

he passes out after finishing the stitches and wakes up almost a full day later. thinks about his healing and how his enhancements are definitely being negatively impacted by his lackluster eating habits - he's broke as fuck and also doesn't have much of an appetite due to being traumatized and depressed.

"part of him wonders how drastic a change it really is - wonders if, maybe, the scars will stop fading away. for some reason, that's the thought that makes him feel sick to his stomach."

fun fact: this injury is the one that peter tells harley about in chapter 15 when harley is asking about some of peter's scars.

and that's the end of chapter one! these little recaps are entirely for my own benefit - the only reason i'm posting them is because giving myself the expectation and responsibility of posting them will make me actually commit to recapping every chapter, which will make working on chapter seventeen a lot fucking easier and will make it so i'm able to finish chapter seventeen a lot fucking faster.

i will be reblogging with the chapter two recap shortly

[sl-walker]

All right, since I’m in the middle of a flare and have to work manual labor for the next four days despite it, I figured I would make myself -- and hopefully other people -- laugh by talking about one of my favorite OG Captain Marvel stories. Namely, from Whiz #50, with a cover date of January, 1944, meaning it was probably produced sometime in late 1943.

I want to share it because why not, this is some absurdly charming stuff.

I’ll get more into why it’s one of my favorites as we go, in the form of running commentary. So, full story (with said commentary) under the cut. If you wanna just read the story without my commentary, stick to the pictures. XD

First, let me say that the cover and splash page definitely live up to the story, though the cover’s a bit more sensationalized. But the premise is pretty damn simple: Our intrepid hero and his newsboy alter ego are on vacation. Cap decides to go swimming. It goes hilariously wrong and thus ensues a bit of a madcap adventure, no puns intended.

Second, the fact that Cap and Billy are depicted as essentially different entities makes what Billy does next the ultimate trolling:

Gee, airing out the stolen laundry on the radio? Really? I’ll leave it up to you, gentle reader, whether Billy actually was trolling his own alter-ego for ratings or whether he was just innocently sharing the story while his other-self winced quietly in whatever ether-space he exists in when not front-and-center.

Either way, I love it.

Continuing on...

I get a kick out of the fact that Billy’s monologue is that he’s no dare-devil. One, because that’s so obviously not true in any way -- (that kid is awesomely, sometimes recklessly brave on the regular even without Cap) -- but two, because the bridge is actually named Dare-Devil Bridge. We aren’t given any reason why this dangerous potential death-trap is there, hanging without so much as a gate or a warning sign or anything, because we don’t need one. It’s there specifically for what happens next.

Which, of course, is Billy calling in Captain Marvel, who does some light complaining about the situation Billy left him in. There’s no bite to it, which I find adorable -- Cap actually does get frustrated once or twice in other issues with Billy calling on him for mundane stuff, though he’s never mean about it -- but there is a bit of the sense of being put-upon there that’s just-- I dunno, cute. It’s something I miss a lot in the various post-crisis takes on the character: That duality, that difference in personality, and the way each of them responds to different situations. Often, they’re on the same page, but notably, sometimes, they aren’t.

Someday, I promise, I need to sit down and write how I think that works between those two without being a truly frightening mental illness manifested, what with them being the same person but not the same person. Because I have so many ideas, and I’ve only had since the early-2000s to percolate them. LOL! But until then, just enjoy this.

Here is another reason why I love the Golden Age Captain Marvel books and why I love this specific story: This is an absolutely normal, mundane thing to do. It’s the human thing to do. These aren’t the actions of some super-serious superdude. These are the actions of a pretty shockingly normal guy doing something mundane. And a whole story is built around that normalcy.

It’s cute. It’s funny. It’s the reader already knowing that he’s getting himself into a situation that he absolutely could have avoided, but also completely understanding how it happened anyway. It’s pretty brilliant writing: I say this as a pretty damned good writer myself.

So much of the reason why, I think, Cap was so endearing as a hero is that humanity. He’s got pretty much god-tier power in the Golden Age, once his powerset is established. He’s utterly invulnerable to all physical harm while powered up. But-- he’s human. He knows he’s human. He acts like it, and decides, “You know what? I’m going skinny-dipping.”

He and Billy are both characters it’s so easy to empathize with.

Also, a reminder that the art under Chief Artist C.C. Beck is really, really good. (He had a whole stable of artists to help produce this stuff!) Ignoring registration issues on the printing press, the actual line art is amazingly good; proportion and perspective and consistency.

But anyway--Cap does get to enjoy his swim. But, then, oh no.

I love the idea of a world where the prime hero -- and he definitely is in that world -- can take off his suit and go swimming, and where someone else is bold enough to steal the damn suit off of him. The first time I read this, I started laughing here. Not at him, but at the situation he’s found himself in. At the idea that some random passer-by saw Captain Marvel’s costume and went yoink!

Another thing I love about this particular story is how much Cap and Billy have to work together, just by necessity. Like-- it’s just really good. But anyway, thank everything Billy Batson is on the ball, coming to the rescue.

Sheer bad luck via the weather keeps this story rolling along in hilarious misdirections. Realistically, that uniform probably wouldn’t be all buttoned together (we see Cap take off pieces of it aside the pants in other issues, including socks!), but who cares? The point of the story is that giant bear rug on the floor’s gonna get put to use.

Man, when have you ever seen Superman creeping naked through some stranger’s house wearing nothing but a random polar bear because he went skinny dipping? No wonder these comics sold so well. This next panel is when I start wheezing, though, and pretty much keep wheezing.

“A lady, too! I’ve got to get away from here!”

I’m dying at this point. That’s such a characteristic response, and yet, I think that’s why it’s funny.

Anyway, because this is an excellent story (I mean this without an ounce of irony, too), our dynamic duo stumbles across a plot in play to rob the hotel they’re staying at.

Here’s a big part of why this is such a good tale: Everything fits. Even when it isn’t explained, like Dare-Devil Bridge, it still fits. Why is the tree down? Because there was just a thunder storm, the same one that blew Cap’s suit into the room with the gangsters.

I don’t know if this is Otto Binder’s story, but I wouldn’t be surprised in the least. It’s a complete story told in relatively few pages that accomplishes everything it’s meant to.

Anyway, using foliage as cover, Cap gets to be heroic----then Billy gets to get back to the business of trying to stop the robbery of the hotel and get his heroic alter-ego dressed again.  Which leads to a rather adorable and funny scene of Billy not only trying to describe what Captain Marvel wears, but what size it would need to be tailored in.

(Cap is supposedly a 44 for a suit coat, we find in some earlier appearance, which would refer to his chest size.  So, an XL for shirts and suit-coats.  He’s a big guy, but he’s actually not a hulking huge guy.  But more on that later.)

I love the fact Billy tries to like-- use himself as a model.  Maybe in another ten years, kiddo.  Billy’s actually pretty buff for like a 12-14 year old, he’s not a scrawny kid at this point, but yeah, no.  LOL!

Another thing I also really, really love about this style, though, is that they draw Captain Marvel as being strong, as having a powerful build-- but not as a dehydrated body-builder with deep cuts. He’s got human proportions, regardless of his strength; he’s got a human build, not a superhuman one.

C.C. Beck had a lot of things to say about superheroes who were just muscles on top of muscles, all clearly defined, and he didn’t like it.  As someone who first got into comics in the early 90s with Jim Lee’s X-Men--

I do get Beck’s point.  I not only get it, but I really highly approve of it.  He maintained to the end that he drew (and oversaw) the Marvel family to look like high school and college athletes, and I can see that.  I think the one person who’s gotten it right in the modern era is Evan “Doc” Shaner, who did Convergence: Shazam!  He not only nailed that strong-but-not-hulking build for Cap, but also how young he looked.  College-age, in fact.

But anyway, enough digression into art and why I like this better than most modern takes on the character.  Also, that’s just a cute set of panels.

I also like that there wasn’t an easy fix there.  Cap’s still in his not-birthday suit, and Billy’s still stuck running around trying to solve the issues at hand.  Next comes some other really good panels:

-snorts-  He’s locked in.  Yeah, that’ll hold him.

Anyway, what I really liked here was again that tandem working; Billy can’t punch through a wall, but Cap can.  Cap can’t crawl out while he’s au natural -- well, he could, but he’d probably rather die first -- but Billy’s got no such issue.  It’s just fun when you get to see them doing something like that.  You have to really think for a minute about the trust each of them must have in their alter-ego.

ANYWAY, we get the rare treat then--

--of Captain Marvel not only yoinking a dude into a dark room, but then stealing his clothes.  Except, not his underwear.  Because that’s nasty.  LOL!

I love that in this series, you do actually get to see him wear other stuff.  Go incognito.  Get his red suit messed up enough to take it to a dry cleaner’s, wherein he ends up dressed like a musketeer after.  Jerry Ordway’s series is, I think, the only other time we see Cap not wearing his famous suit, but it happened enough in the Golden Age that it wasn’t a shock.

Like, I hate to be the one to say this, but I do think DC drops the ball often on just how much you can do with Captain Marvel (or Shazam, depending on timeline, but that’s the wizard’s name to me so mostly I’ll stick with the original name) if you unbend enough to.  It’s not just the costume change, or the duality of him and Billy being the same but not, but also his inherent, essential humanity.

But I am digressing again, sorry. XD  I just feel strongly enough about these versions of these characters to spend hours writing this.

Anyway, only a single panel later:

And that’s that!  Billy Batson has just outed his own alter-ego’s most embarrassing moment to whomever’s listening to WHIZ radio -- thank everything podcasts and the internet weren’t available then, ha! -- and we get to see a recounting of a very fun story.

Like I said earlier, I love this one for its essential humanity.  The hero got himself into this mess, he and Billy got him out of this mess, and stopping the criminals was actually just kind of a lucky stroke thrown in there.  But even though Cap got himself into this, the story never treats him like he’s stupid.  It never treats him like he’s some kind of idiot.  You’re laughing, but-- not in a mean way.

I love how human it is.  How complete it is.  How genuinely funny it is.  It’s a thousand times more funny when you genuinely love and respect Captain Marvel and Billy Batson, too.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this dissertation on a skinny-dipping hero.  LOL!  I enjoyed sharing it with you.

[minourp]

Even More Headcanons

Because why not. Buckle in bois

Shockarachnids are never shown collecting scrap like other animals so why do they attack trucks? I think they eat their electrical energy or something

The only (and I mean only) reason everyone seems to become best friends like 5 minutes after meeting is because Ty has never had friends before. He doesn't know the qualifications. These people were nice to me? Friends :)

And after that, they kinda had to stick together because they stood up to D-structs. Who does that?? No one, unless you have a death wish

Remember Ty's "That's gonna hurt tomorrow.... but that's tomorrow" ? shortly before being yeeted off the bridge? I think he was in pain the whole Aquadons episode but didn't wanna say anything.

I think lightning bit bugs are migratory. Either that or they sort of "hibernate" during... whatever qualifies as winter where they live

Reptools raise their young in a communal way. Everyone chips in, especially if something has happened to the parent(s)

The one time Skya and Ace saved the others with the battering ram? Ace would lord that over Waldo (or at least, until they learned it was Ace's fault D-structs knew where to find them in the first place)

The Dumps actually learned from their encounter with the Trux. I mean, we actually kind of see it happen because later on, they're not so rude and self-centered

Tortools are actually quite smart. When freshly hatched, sure, they lack self-preservation instincts, but after we see them assessing complex situations, fighting Scraptools, and even saving Dozer's life. And they're not even close to adulthood yet

There's definitely an argument to be made that the herds the 3 other trux were with in the beginning weren't good herds? They ditched 'em and were never seen or heard from again. But that could also feed into Skya's fierce independence and inability to accept help from others (Drillasaurs)

Honestly I have so much to say about the Volcano episode I don't know where to start...

Something to be said for trauma for sure. So much trauma. And maybe some closure in said trauma, in being able to save this home compared to last time.

Also angry Revvit scary

Other trux (and tools) definitely gossip about the Trux. Why do you think the Ottos and the woodland Reptools heard of them? Garby too. Heck, even in Bridge! By that point, it's less weird rumors/gossip and more "...can you believe these weirdos? Love 'em though."

Dozer is canonically an only-child but I think Blayde is too. And that's why they were so close as kids. I know I talked more about this with someone but can't quite recall...

It actually makes sense that Revvit has never met Slamtools before. If he had, he probably wouldn't have been around to tell the story later.

Pounder was perhaps the most psychotic of the villain gang. Convincing arguments could be made for them all but Pounder didn't actually have a reason to join them? Other than wanting to beat up trux.

Snowblazer and Tops would be friends. You can fight me on this.

The D-bros flashback story definitely seems to paint D-stroy as the victim but I think that's only because he was the one telling it. D-structs didn't want to talk about it but Skrap-it asked and D-stroy used that as an excuse to belittle his brother and bend the truth

Drago and Scoot missed Wrecka when she was helping Garby. Sure they didn't want to help in the beginning, but I bet they missed her after like 2 days or so without her. I think that's how long it was

When Ton-Ton finally got his super fun ball and was making a mess again, by the time they caught it, the ball was kinda far away from the Garage, hence why we never see it again

The different types of tools are likely related. One of the Ottos said the tool who found and hid the diamond bit (of antiquity) was another Otto. But all the designs and the statue were of Rotilian Reptools. So maybe once upon a time, not all Ottos were Hex Wrenchtools?

Installing a supercharger properly (as opposed to just eating it like the scraptors or Garby) gives more efficient supercharger energy and makes it more stable. Improperly installed ones blow out easier and can be unstable

The reason Xee acts... like such a blank slate/know-it-all is because she's socially awkward too. She quite literally admitted to living alone for quite some time.

Not a headcanon but how funny is it that racing is not an uncommon sport? Considering that's their only mode of transportation. The race against the Dumps is kinda just a relay race. Idk, maybe that's just me lol

Also, can we talk about the fact that there are MULTIPLE Dreadtrux??? There's another Dreadtrux mother out there that gave birth to Lil Dread, and there's the egg of the main Dreadtrux. Plus whoever is the father to one or both (assuming they can't reproduce asexually, which is scary too)

In the Ankylodumo Games, when Drago says the "attendance is a little weak this year cuz of the D-bros", he's in part referring to Ton-Ton. Because as far as the others know, Ton-Ton didn't come that year. Not-Not did :)

Anywho, that's all for know (until I post this and spontaneously remember like 3 more right afterwards lol). Up next: Splitter's design. Hopefully.

[assassinshadow17]

Time for a review of the 100th AHW episode. And I will say.... it was amazing! the story and direction were fantastic and overall a great episode, felt like we were back in Season 3 or even Season 4!(Notable as the best seasons) 

SPOILERS, Watch the episode if you haven’t already, or if you don’t care then read on ig.

So first off, I liked the mother-daughter/generations of women being passed down to somewhat “terrible” or “discouraging” mothers. But I believe Kathryn and Katie had good intentions, to try to keep the passed down child from being hurt. As seen with Katie trying to steer Anna-Kat from cheerleading because she could have been made fun of by those girls(only cause they are self-centered and only care about being popular, not Anna-Kat’s fault) I loved Gieselle’s performance this episode, she really locked in her “Anna-Kat” for me and would love to see what she has to offer beyond this 5th season. However the step-mom was the real b**** and she shouldn’t be calling any shots or saying for people “Get over it” A real piece of work she is. At least Kathryn and Katie evaluated their mistakes and made Anna-Kat see that she should blossom and try what she wants to do!

Second off, the upcoming break-up of Trip and Taylor is incoming.... I’m actually really sad about this and I thought we were passed this back in the 5th episode of this season, but apparently they want Taylor to grow out of Trip, or at least move on from him as she’s going through college. I mean I suppose its something that always happens, High School relationships don’t tend to stick, but its really the memories of Trip and how caring he was of the Ottos + Franklin and Cooper. Loved his scenes with Anna-Kat, love his scenes with Oliver and Cooper, especially the family photo episode. Possibly the best episode of the series IMO. So wholesome and showed how lighthearted the show and family truly were. But also its really hard to see others move on, and its life but it freaking sucks and I feel like this will be the sad/disappointment of the season, Cooper and Oliver will be fine, but Taylor and Trip are coming to an end it seems. All the parallels, all the interactions between the two couples.... the promise in Trip returning in the family pic in ten years, would it even happen anymore? I also love his bond between Cooper, they are such supportive and amazing boyfriends to Oliver and Taylor. Their interactions though are so wholesome and are best buds for sure!(Especially since they are the worst hiders in the world LOL, also Cooper being the worst liar but that’s okay lol, if you get the episode reference.) Its too sad and I’m rambling, but I’ll miss Trip. I blame TA lmao, he can leave for all I care. But no I suppose this is for Taylor’s growth(Even if I hate it so much)

Franklin was funny, he really gets in your head lmao. Calling Cooper a dog though I- But he did get it in Cooper’s head that he needed to have his own dreams so that’s cool. Good job Franky!(but not good job in making them fight smh)

Now for Cooper and Oliver....

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

OLIVER SAID IT “WE ARE COOLIVER DAMN IT” YES ADMIT YOU ARE BOYFRIENDS AND SAY IT PROUD! To backtrack as well, Cooper opening the scene with his cooking is muy bueno! His food always looks good like wtf?! But anyways, funny scenes with believing everything that the attack ad from Principle Albulin said lol(politics in a nutshell) Like I said before, Cooper finally started to find his dreams. I personally didn’t mind him not having anything yet, and just wanted to be with Oliver. But I’m so glad that they took this opportunity to chase that plotline, Cooper being a chef and enjoying it now, I’m glad he has his own goals. So moving on, Trevor was still an ass but what else is new? I did like how Cooper defended himself though, pretty badass not to take his crap anymore. Cooliver fighting as well, not a conversation we like to hear, especially since it was pretty serious. We knew they would figure it out, but it still hurts-I did like how Oliver got his attitude in order and realized that Cooper isn’t just going to have his dreams, Cooper wanted his dreams too. “No that’s YOUR goal/dream” A time where he got really serious and considered his future. Trevor saying that they were breaking up- Please Trevor, they would never, they always get like this. But yes they said some things.... But now moving on. Oliver did do the right thing and thought of Cooper, that chef apron was so loving and wholesome of him! “Your boy got it right” Stop Oliver, DON’T MAKE ME CRY- However to sum up Cooliver, it was some realization for them and realizing they don’t have to have the same goals to remain boyfriends. They can steer different directions and always end on the same street!(good overall IRL message too, no need to do everything together) They will always be together, even if they don’t spend every second together.

Cute ending scene between Cooliver too. I forgot the dialogue already but lol it was cute. Taylor is wanting Andre/TA, so yeah.... it was an amazing ride we had Trip, but..... (I’m going to go cry BRB!)

So Katie breaking the 4th wall was neat haha, here’s to 100 episodes AHW fandom, Cooliver fandom, every casual viewer! And hopefully many more episode to see and laugh, cry with. To enjoy. This fanbase is incredible, the cast is amazing, the crew gives their very best. To only great things for everyone and its audience, love you all!

Rating for Episode - 9.5/10. Flawless direction and plotline, just didn’t like Taylor and Trip’s trajectory, but that’s subjective ig(although we all hate it lbr)

[translationandbetrayals]

LGBT+ representation in anime and manga

Queer (queer will be used as an umbrella term for non-heterosexual nor cisgender identities) people have always been present throughout human history, which obviously includes Japan’s. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of literary works that include queer characters through its history, for instance, during the Edo period Ihara Saikaku wrote The Life of An Amorous Man (1682) which has a bisexual person as the main character. Moreover, at the time Ihara Saikaku also wrote The Great Mirror of Male Love (1687) which was intended to represent the different ways men of that period’s society loved other men, and apparently it was also expected to be the best-seller of the year when it was released. Therefore, to understand queer representation in anime and manga we must keep in mind examples as the above-stated that show how Japan have always had some kind of LGBT+ content throughout its history in their works even though the country is not very developed in terms of rights for their LGBT+ community.

Starting from the 50s there are a handful of characters that are said to be some kind of representation for the LGBT+ community due to things that might be implied or might be more direct about it. To illustrate the former we can name General Blue a character from Dragon Ball (by Akira Toriyama, 1984) whose homosexuality it is not expressed explicitly but implied through subtle actions or scenes. In the latter's case where the representation is more explicit, there is Shiroi Heya No Futari (by Ryoko Yamagishi, 1971), that is considered to be the first manga of the yuri genre (girl’s love) and tells the story two girls that fall in love in a catholic school and suffer from being rejected by others because of them being lesbians.

What’s more, towards the 90s we can see real same-sex couple that are canon and were not from the yaoi or yuri genres, for example: Sailor Moon (by Naoko Takeuchi, 1991) & Tokio Babylon (by CLAMP, 1990). Sailor Moon had the famous lesbian couple of Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune. Likewise Tokio Babylon had a gay couple between Seishiro Sakurazuka and Subaru Sumeragi. CLAMP not only made one manga with queer representation, afterwards they published Card Captor Sakura (1996) which show us the obvious love feelings that Tomoyo Daidouji has for her best friend Sakura Kinomoto (the main character), moreover it also includes one of the most iconic gay relationships in the history of manga an anime, Touya Kinomoto and Yukito Tsukishiro.

Starting from 2000 the number of anime and manga in the yaoi and yuri genres increased, a well-known example of one of these genres is Junjou Romantica (by Shungiku Nakamura, 2002) which portraits gay relationships but way more sexualized and a plot less romantically driven. Like that we can also see a development in the fandom culture, and for that reason what we know nowadays as fanservice increased alongside with fake queer representation in both anime and manga, but especially in anime. Hence the creation of a concept like Queerbaiting, a concept that refers to some kind of marketing technique that creates romantic or sexual tension between characters of the same-sex to attract queer viewers, however relationship never becomes canon nor evolves into something more (Urbandictionary).

Henceforth we began to see way more supposedly “queer” characters in anime and manga, however we should ask ourselves “How many of those queer characters are a real representation of the LGBT+ community?”. Thankfully, these days we have some very good LGBT+ representation in manga like Shimanami Tasogare (by Yūki Kamatani, 2015) and Boku ga Otto ni Deau made/Until I Meet My Husband (by Nanasaki Ryousuke).

In conclusion, it must be said that even though Japan is still a pretty patriarchal and hetero-normative society, that has yet to develop in terms of LGBT+ rights, it’s pretty interesting how daring were some Japanese people in the past to write stories about queer characters. Hopefully, these days we can get to see a more accurate queer representation in manga and anime that could help someone who can relate to these stories or give the courage to some others to live their life more freely and be themselves.

by Francisco Vásquez Gatica

[viktorhargreves]

some thoughts i have on the s2 promo stills

I think Ben is appearing either in a dream or to someone other than Klaus. The reason I believe this is the color composition for the shot and the framing. The Umbrella Academy is a dark show. Literally. And the season two promo pictures are no different from season one. Why the sudden departure from this? Promotional photos directly from the source (i.e. the production department) usually are not put through filters so this is how it will be shown in the show. So why the brightness? I think it’s either a dream or revelation (you know the cheesy trope where the sunlight streams in and someone finally pieces things together) or maybe it’s a vision that someone has of Ben. Contenders for this? No idea. But judging from the body that’s strung up on the ceiling (yeah, I didn’t forget that part) it could be Vanya. Or I could be totally wrong. Either way, the body does hint towards Klaus’ telekinesis, something he has in the comics that we have yet to see in the show (besides the suitcase debacle). 

We know that Five is the last to be sent to the 60′s so if he’s stuck in a new time with no one around what does he do? Find a mannequin and make a new friend (or something more). Maybe what we are seeing is him about to home-wreck this bitch and steal little miss blue-dress here. Or maybe he’s looking back at a different character... the villains of this season perhaps? Or maybe The Handler makes a comeback? Either way, he looks cautious and if he is looking at someone less than savory then the set up we see could be set up to mock him rather than a harmless department store display.

The paper reads: “S.J.C.C. asks... Have you experienced DISCRIMINATION by your employeer?” Not much comes up in Google for a look into who S.J.C.C. could be but I personally am SYKED to see The Umbrella Academy hopefully tackle race issues. Especially at this time in the world, it could be what people need. Also a new hairstyle for Allison which I love. I personally hope Allison is thriving but this is the 60′s and even though The Civil Rights Act was signed in ‘64, there was no across-the-board stop of segregation at once. I hope for her sake she stays safe.

Again, we know that Five is the last one to arrive. Perhaps he gathers them all to this place to tell them about the newest apocalyptic event about to take place. But a barn? Not sure why. Everyone else is dressed in back, however, even Klaus which is very telling that something is wrong. Allison has lost the hair bump (she was probably just wearing it to fit in). Luther has a beard which is very telling as well because the only other time that we have seen him with one is when he woke up from his surgery (supposedly after a long period of time) so if it was in his control he would shave it off to be the good little soldier that dad made him. Maybe being stranded in Texas in the 60′s made him depressed like we saw towards the end of season one or maybe he just wants to live a little. Diego’s outfit looks very similar to his vigilante outfit in season one but with what looks like either shoulder pads or a hoodie. This could be one of two things: he is still a vigilante using his powers for good, or he works a job like construction or something similar judging by the cross-chest harness. And Vanya. Look’s like she’s wearing a suit jacket. Peak gay. No further comment. 

GOOD GOD!!!  What to say, what to say. As it’s been pointed out already by many other users, Ben. Is. Holding. Keys. That means he is corporeal and has a physical body. Whether this is for a short period of time like when he punches Klaus in season one or if this marks the beginning of a new era of Ben-filled The Umbrella Academy is unknown. Klaus is a fashion icon. That much we been knew. Although, his beard is longer than the promo pictures despite being in the same outfit. Longer than the picture above too. I’m excited for this scene regardless of what it is about, but if I had to guess: Klaus is motioning for Ben to give the keys to him. The car broke down. Klaus gets out and tries to fix it by popping the hood, only he knows nothing about cars. He gets angry and throws the keys. Ben catches them. Klaus is then irritated and asks for them back. That’s just my take. Klaus looks like he’s smiling but it could be the natural face a person makes when they are squinting from the sun (this is Texas and those are sunglasses (also water is wet)).

#justgirlythings. Vanya is the only one who seems uncomfortable, also where are Klaus’s shoes? If you look in the background it appears this isn’t a salon as you would guess on the first look but rather someone’s house. Maybe this is a way to time travel without Five? Or some other sci-fi device like the shoot that Cha-Cha and Hazel used in season one to get their orders. Either way, there is a lot more going on here than we know from first looking and I wouldn’t put it past anyone that this is an important still to remember and keep in mind.

Iron Man references aside (thank you Justin Min), look at her entire body posture and language. Clenched jaw, clenched fists, forehead straining, eyes closed but not clenched like the others, neck straining. Vanya appears to be in the middle of nowhere so maybe she’s testing her powers? Last time we saw her testing her powers it was in the middle of the woods with Leonard so maybe this will be a good parallel. What else to do in the 60′s when you’re stranded than to try out your superpowers that you just remembered a few days ago?

Vanya! Is! Happy! She is definitely smiling and looks genuinely more happy than she did with Leonard in any event. The blonde woman is Marin Ireland who plays a character “Sissy”. Variety and Netflix have stated that Sissy is "a fearless, no-nonsense mom from Texas who married young for all the wrong reasons". Maybe, and I’m just spit-balling here, she married young because of internalized and outward homophobia that is probably rampant in the 60′s and in Texas. She meets Vanya and the two begin a relationship. Friends? Lovers? More? Vanya’s right hand is either on a gear shift (manual transmission i.e. stick shift cars were much more common in the 60′s than now) or on Sissy’s knee. I like the idea of her resting her hand on Sissy’s thigh and smiling, maybe driving off on a new life together. 

Like. The Gang’s all here, Scoob. Even Ben! Allison is talking, it seems so to have Ben in the shot is odd. Usually Ben only appears when Klaus is the main character of the shot or the scene since he can only see him. Except, maybe everyone can see him!! Klaus can summon Ben as seen in the season one finale so maybe he was able to do it for a longer amount of time. I personally really hope that we see more of Ben (which the stills lead me to believe) and that they will develop not only his character and backstory more but his powers as well. His power rivals only Vanya’s is sheer amount of destruction it can cause. The room, however, where they all are looks unassuming. It could be where Five has taken up a residence, could be a house of one of the other siblings (we know that some of them did in fact settle down and start lives in Texas), or maybe it’s just a safe place to meet as a team. Either way I am psyched!

It’s safe to assume that these are the assassins. Whether they are with the organization that The Handler was with is unclear. What is clear is that I get Stranger Things vibes from these guys. It might be the white hair and dark, cloudy road. Either way, these guys are played by Tom Sinclair, Kris Holden-Ried, and Jason Bryden left to right and they play Oscar, Axel, and Otto respectively. 

Diego, Diego, Diego. My son. Disregarding the long hair and beard completely because I refuse to acknowledge it at this point, here is my interpretation of the scene. This is a flashback in the same fashion that we had a Diego flashback in episode three of season one. That flashback had Grace helping Diego through a stutter and then in one camera motion showed current-day Diego sitting on his old bed. This could be the same kind of thing, with current-day Diego sitting where he past self was and watching a scene unfold around him. Why else would he be in his uniform? How could it fit? How could he be back in the mansion?

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That’s all I have to say about it for now but my ask box is OPEN for theories, possible explanations, or hypotheses on season two or any of the promotional stills. Time travel is messy. Let’s see what happens on July 31st.