#i cant stop rereading this comic

[rocklain]

Mittens being a lil rascal (this is just the surface)

[ruporas]

invisible scars (referenced previous talk here)

[ID: A colourless, digital Trigun comic of Vash and Wolfwood talking about Wolfwood's scars. They're both laying in bed and topless. Vash lays on top of Wolfwood, playing with the rosary around his neck. Then, Vash kisses a spot on Wolfwood's chest. Wolfwood asks, "What are you doing?" Vash smiles sadly, "You got shot here. In the last town we visited. You didn't even bother moving."

Vash props himself up over Wolfwood, who frowns slightly. Wolfwood is quiet for a moment before he says, "You remember that, huh?" Vash grabs Wolfwood's left wrist and brings it to his face. "And here." He kisses another spot there. "When you helped free the hostages from that robber..." Wolfwood dismissively says, looking away, "Was a lucky shot." Vash huffs, “Don’t brag. Jeez.”

Half of Wolfwood's expression is shown, eyes returning to Vash who is now sitting up, continuing to say, "And..." Vash goes on and kiss Wolfwood's right palm. "You got cut here, even though that girl was aiming at me." A moment from the past flashes, of Wolfwood grabbing a knife aimed at Vash, his hand bleeding.

At present, Vash moves down and puts another kiss on Wolfwood's right shoulder. "And here, from watching my back." Another memory flashes of Wolfwood and Vash back to back. Vash looks back as Wolfwood grins while holding Punisher, bleeding from multiple gunshots in his shoulder.

"And," Vash combs up Wolfwood's hair to reveal his forehead, "Here." A final memory shows Wolfwood with a regeneration vial in his mouth while getting shot on his temple. The next panel is framed in blood with Vash at the center, eyes wide and stunned in horror. The next panel is a closed up shot of Wolfwood's eye, locked on Vash's face.

Back to present, Vash’s head is bowed down as Wolfwood raises a hand to his nape and says, “Spikey.”

Wolfwood looks serious and frowns as he says, "We talked about this. Those were my decisions. They're not there anymore. Forget about them." Vash looks very sad before he smiles ruefully and says, "I still see them. All the time." He leans down so they touch foreheads. Wolfwood’s sorrowful expression can be seen as Vash says, "You protect so much. I could never forget what you've done to me. And many others..."

In the last image, they're drawn more cartoonishly. Wolfwood sweats and asks, "You don't actually remember every wound, right?" Vash points at a spot on his chest. "Kuroneko left a scratch here 7 times." Wolfwood, startled, says, "Why the hell are you keeping count—" End ID]

Credits for ID here and here

[autisticlee]

it's annoying when people think i'm stupid, boring, lazy, etc when I tell them I don't read. some people get so elitist about it and think they're above me and better than me because they can read 5 books in a week. "how can you not like to read! it's the best thing ever! *goes into an angry rant about why it's so good and I'm stupid for not doing it"

not everyone has the ability to enjoy reading, Karen. some of us are dyslexic and have adhd so it's nearly impossible for our brains to focus or retain any words we read and it's more effort than it's worth!!!!! some of us would read if we could do it as easily as you 😒

[limited-hero]

Hi! i was rereading the comic and theres something i noticed

Link at the start seems to have round ears until chapter 2 where suddenly he has pointy ears

im not sure if it is for plot reasons or just design?? but now that i noticed i cant stop wondering about it

anyways love ur au!!

We don't know why his ears turned pointy all of a sudden! But Link was just as surprised-

[kimbapchan]

I'm sorry to have done this joke the first time i read a page of your comic where Reverse SQX were. It was just a joke and i never think about it again. I really love the way you drawn him and i love to see the difference between your version and the canon version. You really created a awesome character. Now i feel very bad to have done this joke so i erased it from the comments where i had wrote it and replaced it by something better, while writing comments that i had forget to write before on some page. I love writing comments.

I really love your reverse TGCF, you have so much cool ideas and design and i love to reread it again and again.

Its alright, I was fully aware and wasn't hurt about the nie huaisang jokes at first. They were just jokes and I shouldnt take them to heart. But it just started bothering me when ALL I see regarding SQX's reversed design is 'NHS this' 'NHS that' it kinda disgouraged me from drawing him or showing him often in the AU.

I get it, yellow black motif with fan. He needed to be yellow black because he's trying to disguise himself as the earth master. His real outfit is black and green and silver. Buutttttt then all i saw in the comments is that he's SQQ or ZZL. soooo I felt defeated regarding his design. I dont know how else to get ppl to stop comparing him to other characters.

But anyways, i still enjoyed SQX's design. It's one of my faves, I just got super annoyed that a top voted comment is about some person complaining that 'oh i cant tell who is who, i HAD to read the comments to find out'.

I'm mostly okay now, thankyou and I appreciate your message and please dont feel pressured to change your comment on AO3! really! It's my personal hangup that I couldnt take the joke properly. I feel a better now, and would just block the more malicious ppl who comment on my stuff. You meant no harm in your comment. :)

[hiemaldesirae]

i have less than 24 hours left before i have to go through one of the most stressful days of my life so. heres a list of my fav radiostatic fic recs in no particular order

clarification: by radiostatic i mean fics where vox is 100% not the dom in the relationship. most of these dont contain explicit sex though, and im not recommending any straight porn fics here because you can easily find those with a click and search through the bottom vox tag lmao

most of these fics are unfinished, so be warned that i will not take accountability if you get attached to these without them being finished properly. in fact ill just laugh at you because then we'll be suffering together

now, that aside- starting off strong with some of the more popular fics:

RHTVS / Radio Healed the Video Star by Aspiring_Forest_Witch

notes: LONG fucking fic. like this guys almost 700k words long fic. one of the best things ive ever read in my life though and it has a plotline thats frankly more engaging than the actual showing of hazbin on amazon. so. you know. if you have the time to read it Please do you wont regret it

Unraveling Emotions by Xaelei

notes: one of my favourite fics ever on god. started my brainrot for dad!husk, portrays one of the most scrumptious radiostatic dynamics and is generally so very well written that i might end up trying to recreate one of the scenes in comic form. genuinely in love with this fic and im so glad i can say i was the first comment on this fic because my God its such a treat to see new chapters drop for this. unfortunately i havent had the time to write out a detailed comment as of now but if someone wants to let the author know that im still in love with their fic and will continue supporting it until i drop dead go ahead for me

Safe with Me by rillyrillo

notes: the prequel and main fic of this series is human radiostatic, though the sequel is set in hell. it comes with gorgeous gorgeous art and frankly one of the most exhilirating endings ive ever had the pleasure of witnessing play out. i recommend you guys check out their other fics too, the art continues in them + their radiostatic is written wonderfully across all universes!

A Month of Rut by Vylad

notes: this fic is very self indulgent to me. i love the way radiostatic is written in this one because theyre very soft and sweet, but others may not prefer it if theyre looking for freak4freak radiostatic. if you just want something to indulge in and relax with at the end of a heavy day though this is my #1 rec. i read this sometimes when i find myself crying at night lmao

Down, Up, and Back Down by CowboyEnthusiast

notes: made me sob like a baby. 10/10 no notes whatsoever read it for yourself because you WILL not regret it. i genuinely am always at a loss for words whenever i reread this because it is among the most gutwrenching but beautiful and poetic works that ive ever read and i think it deserves some recognition

Mind the Gap by ZLynn

notes: again, to reiterate, i do very much dislike the abusive!staticmoth portrayal i see in a lot of fics. but in this one... it's written so perfectly, i can definitely see it actually happening. i enjoy the way that val does still seem to care about vox, albeit in his own twisted way that eventually breaks and fractures their love and trust, and its just. Ugh. So fucking good

+ with the less popular but still wonderful depictions of radiostatic that i love to indulge in:

i'll give you a show (cause it helps fill the seats) by dead_and_dreaming

notes: absolutely shameless plug from me for my dear mk's work because i cant stop thinking about the way that she's portrayed al here. its actually insane how fucked up that stupid little deer is and i just. i really fucking love the way that their alastor is written, it's genuinely probably my Number One depiction of alastor ever. i demand more of this stupid little freak RIGHT NOW!!!!

Any of the fics by Rachello344 in the Hazbin Hotel Fandom Tag on their profile

notes: so remember when i told you guys i wouldnt be linking straight porn. looks away... okay in my defense though i read the smut for the characterization and their unique dynamics. its sooo interesting to see how their radiostatic is explored here and im honestly refreshed by the depiction of their relationship. im here for it !!!

The Read 'Em and Weep Series by TooManyPseudonyms

notes: so from what i was able to piece together (everything flies over my head when im reading, forgive me for my low media literacy) this is an au set before the hotel where (in the first work) al and vox are in a qpr relationship. in the second work this evolves into a romantic relationship, and the exploration of their dynamic through this is just... Yeah. please read it its 100% worth your time and so underrated it hurts my heart

Uneasy by Saezs

notes: this fic is one of the first radiostatic fics i read (the others being RHTVS and... i think i tried the 666 series, but it didnt appeal to me lol) and its actually just wonderful. i really love saezs's genderfluid vox and how supportive the other vees are of them <3 their portrayl of the characters puts a smile on my face whenever i reread their work

Heat Waves by HappyPRAWN

notes: i'll be fr dsmptsd hit me like a truck when i read the title but it is such an interesting debut! only at one chapter as of me making this post but the way the author wrote this is so engaging and it really makes me wonder what they have next in store for the fic

Do I have your attention now? by Chi_Chi25

notes: wow no way we have the same name... anyway ahem. ill be completely honest this ones a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. this fic is a bit fragmented and short, so for people who click off fics when they see imperfect grammar this one may not be for you. however if you can look past that, it has an engaging storyline and quite the juicy concept :)

Killer Ex by FanGirl48

notes: gorgeous, gorgeous little human! radiostatic oneshot. i love the relationship that vox and al have here... the reasons why they both stayed away from each other even though theyre still so very clearly down bad for each other... anyway. i think about this one a lot and i still go back to reread it sometimes lol

Negotiations by FanGirl48

notes: i didnt realize until i started making this list that this fic was also written by fangirl48.... go off queen keep feeding us (me). this one was a fic recommended to me initially by link nonny, and i can 100% vouch for how good it is. its got appletv interactions, radiostatic plus lucifer trying to navigate heaven, angels... basically everything needed for a very varied and well packed with flavour story

The diary of a Serial Killer by ShippersCave

notes: okay im running out of brain juice at this point but. yeah this fic is soooo self indulgent to me. this ones another human au, with al as a serial killer and vox as the journalist trying to conduct interviews with him. its got SUCH a good dynamic between al and vox, i encourage you guys to check it out and give it a chance even if youre not really into human aus.

My heart's been pierced by Cupid by ShippersCave

notes: pirate/siren au !!!!!!!!! RAAHH !!!!! i dont have to say anything else for this if thats not enough to get you to click then i dont know what is

System Shutdown by Swoolie

notes: i cant believe i nearly forgot about this one LMAO... vox goes onto a temporary hiatus and everyone goes crazy about it. im not really sure if this counts as radiostatic frankly because of the way its tagged but its so good i think you should give it a read anyway

Together in Radio Static by Anonymous

notes: QPR media husbands radiostatic au !!!! i love this one especially because it opens off with vox slapping alastor across the face for leaving him LMAOO (deserved)

What Has Been by Tianren

notes: another human au (YEAH YEAH I KNOW. JUST HEAR ME OUT OKAY i swear im cooking) look, as someone with religious trauma deeper than i can properly express and the worlds fifteenth worst parental issues, the depiction of vox in this fic just really hits home. i really adore the exploration of voxs past and how the themes of religious guilt and cults are woven in so far- and it blends very seamlessly with their human au, despite the characters eccentricities

you're too sweet for me by awestruck_atrophy and moonbeanies

notes: basically, vox and al make a deal where vox tries to help him out of the shackles or whatever that are bound to him because of his stupid dumbass lusting for power. its very intriguing so far and i love the setup and worldbuilding the authors have done, so you should check it out if you want a unique perspective on radiostatics relationship

candlelight by curtailed

notes: the best way i can think of to describe this one is like... fake marriage but instead of fake marriage its. fake roommates??? the author probably puts it better than me tbh. its super interesting so far, i cant wait to see where this one is headed especially with how unique its premise is!

Zero Day by Anonymous

notes: this one is like those time regression manhwas. you know, the ones where the protag goes back in time and proceeds to try and avoid everyone who made their life miserable- only to fail because for some reason now they're paying attention to them more than they would have had they stayed the same person. its certainly very promising, though! i do love indulging in time regression stories, especially when the mc is someone i love like vox. i really cant wait to see which direction this one is headed in :)

Never as Good as the First Time by IComeForFanficsNowin403

notes: okay. so, uh. um. so- this one is in spanish. HOWEVER its premise (serial killer alastor meets television star (?? i think. its not quite clear) at a party hosted by rosie, moves into his neighborhood to keep an eye on the pretty prey) is just so unique i honestly think its worth the experience to pull out google translate and try living the machine translated life. really. give it a chance. also its got beautiful art to go along with, so.. you know. thats just a bonus!

+ honorary staticmoth and one-sided/past radiostatic fic rec:

Freak-A-Zoid by Femalefonzie

notes: this fic deserves every single piece of praise its ever gotten because good lord. its SO good. i was not seeing the radiostatic twist come in, but it *is* mostly staticmoth. and also a/b/o but i mean. who *hasnt* indulged in a little bit of a/b/o before honestly

there are other fics that i personally like to indulge in, but i frankly wouldnt recommend to anyone else because they're either the kinds of fics that i myself can only bring myself to read after ive spent 8 hours at work crying into my pillow and need to look at something entertaining, or when im starved of content and cant be bothered to cook myself so i pull out the translator and start going at it. (technically i should know how to read french by now but. urgh. anywway..)

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

I'm sure you've been asked this before, but for us Anglophones following you, can you recommend some good Italian comics to read?

OH BOY ARE YOU READY FOR A LIST

GRAPHIC NOVELS

Zerocalcare's works in general is incredible and the "easiest" answer since hes arguably the one author that brought italian comics back to life. Just pick one of his works theyre all great

"La Terra, il Cielo e i Corvi" by Stefano Turconi and Teresa Radice, that talks about three soldiers in opposite sides during war escaping together. Broke me fr fr

"Troppo facile amarti in vacanza" by Gaicomo Bevilacqua. Post-apocalyptic italy and huge satire of rich people. Highly recommend

"Il Mare Verticale" by Brian Freschi and Ilaria Urbinati, that talks about a teacher dealing with severe anxiety and panic attacks. Incredibly good. Made me cry during work

"Identiche Diversità" again by Bevilacqua is actually a huge collab of many modern italian comic authors and its very funny so thats a good way to get introduced to a lot of them!!!

Honestly pick anything published by Bao Editori and chances are its very good

EPISODIC AND STRIPS

look i nees to talk about W.I.T.C.H. if youre into magical girls. I generally tell people to stop reading after the book saga is over but the first sagas are still very good

PK!!! Aka what if Paperinik aka donald duck superhero AU was sci-fi and lowkey horror and it fucked severly actually

Monster Allergy was great too and I should reread it too someday

for something a lil older, Alan Ford is very fun and has hints of mystery every now and then

Sturmtruppen if you like satire and more dark humor, they're comic strips based on world war II iirc and they make fun of Literally Everyone

Lupo Alberto is also quite satirical of more "modern" topics every now and then, but mostly its shenanigans involving farm animals. Literally Beastars before Beastars

DYLAN DOG READ DYLAN DOG ITS VERY CREEPY AND GOOD

I'm not a big fan but honestly if you like more old-timey comics with a more realistic stuff anything published by Sergio Bonelli Editore is.okay ig. Cant say it aged gracefully skfkgog

...and yea okay the scrooge, donald and paperinik comics from Topolino are still fun every now and then :^)

[just-jordie-things]

spiderman fan anon here again who yapped abt how i think ur spideygumi fic is the literal greatest spidey au of all time.. sry i hope ur not tired of hearing abt it but i just reread the fic (again) and i cant stop thinking abt what mc and megumis development would be like from here… megumi is definitely not the typical peter-parker-type with his sense of justice (as one of his figures’ packaging hilariously summarizes “i save people unequally”) which has SOO much potential for a Good fucking hero story AND new relationship dynamic. like maybe megumi tries to become kind of a more “moral” hero on his own, but shit happens, maybe the govt or police are too corrupt and he realizes he can only trust himself to bring justice to the city, a more batman-like mentality. would mc have a problem with his morality and pull away? would she agree with it and help him as a journalist? would she disagree and give him the With great power Comes great responsibility spiel, leading to him growing into a more “true” spiderman-like hero? Idfk i do not write at all but i cant turn off my comics-loving brain with all this potential!!! i also dont mean to push u to write any of this but i had to talk abt it before i Exploded

the way i wanna make this fic a 5 movie franchise now becuz OMG THE AVENUES THIS OPENS UPPP

i am a marvel girl (sorry battinson baby even u aren't my fav) so i see spiderman!gumi having a deadpool mentality but without the mouth lolol

ok here's some very small thoughts i have about what a continuation in the story would've looked like:

he tries to find a mix between the public eyes' idea of the right thing and his version of the right thing but... dammit some people just gotta suffer a bit don't they?

he sees someone get a lil too harsh with a dog and he can't just give em a lil scare. next thing he knows they're beaten beyond recognition and webbed up to a wall for the police to deal with. fuck that guy, who hurts dogs??

when the news starts to call him things like menace and people start to wonder if he's not the altruistic hero they thought he was, megumi tries to balance between the different schools of thought of justice. he has you by his side, supporting him and wishing him all the best with being the best he can be...

so when some perp he's apprehending starts spouting off some real nasty shit, megumi tries to tell himself that prison will bring him to justice. over and over in his head he tells himself that he has to let some things go...

but damnit this bigoted asshole won't shut up and megumi just doesn't see how society could possibly function with pieces of shit like this roaming around. and no, when the guy's body goes limp after a swift ninety-degree head-spinning snap to the neck, megumi doesn't feel any regret. only relief that there's one less bastard in his city.

as for you, you've always trusted in spiderman. so you're learning to place your trust in megumi, too. you hate the rare occasion when he visits you bloodied and bruised, but you hate the idea of a city without spiderman's protection even more. you've been a fan of spiderman since the first day you'd heard of the sightings. a ride or die doesn't walk away just because things are getting a little nastier out there.

a career in journalism will prove to be difficult. the truth about megumi's double life is a secret that you both understand must stay contained no matter the price. you probably bounce around a few firms, trying to find just the right place to land where you can write the truth without revealing too much. however most outlets just want to report on the crimes spiderman himself has committed, and you struggle with badmouthing your hero (and your boyfriend)

i like to think megumi laughs at the papers trying to paint him as a villain. it doesn't stress him out, it's nothing to him really. just a source of entertainment for him to read to you over dinner. between the two of you, you handle the ugly headlines far worse. but megumi likes to rile you up by reading all the worst ones to you, just to make you fuss over it all. some nights it's like you're rivals again- megumi taunting you with the latest edition of the spider-menace storytelling, chuckling when you start to crinkle your brows and spout off about how some writers are uneducated phonies or how they're ungrateful for what he's done. you never fail to go on a long winded rant followed by some chugged down water. and as always, megumi will just smirk and shake his head as he throws away said latest edition.

___

i lost wind here but i would love to hear if anyone has other thoughts too!!

[wiihtigo]

i kinda want to get into transformers do you have recs on where to start

hmm....probably one of the animated shows? or if any of the live action movies interest you, i really liked bumblebee (2018)

i think the g1 cartoon is great but its a little slow to watch on your own i think? unless thats just my short attention span talking LOL but i found it more fun to watch dragging a friend along to watch with me cuz its so goofy LOL! but starscream is great in g1 so its all worth it. and then youd get to watch the 80s movie afterwards which is a CINEMATIC MASTEPIECE and introduces hot rod (my friend). ive seriously watched the 80s movie like... several times and its great every time

cyberverse is another fun show, i have my criticisms but overall its pretty cute, and the episodes are only like 11 minutes. and i love the art style. really cute designs i think. earthspark and transformers prime are great too. i ended up like tfp way way way more than i thought i would. transformers animated was good :) i liked it less than the other shows though personally, but its very popular so check it out if you want..

i found the shows a good way to familiarize myself w basic tf lore and stuff like what the heck is "energon" and "autobots" and "So the Prime at the end of his name actually means something its not just his full name?"

after that i really liked reading the idw1 comics! particularly more than meets the eye and robots in disguise

honestly i tried reading mtmte at a friends recommendation before knowing anything about tf but i couldnt get into it because i didnt know any of these jobbers and i didnt know anything about tf so i was really lost the whole way. but after throwing myself into a transformers 101 class and coming back to it and rereading from the start i liked it a lot more

im still working...slowly....on my idw1 read through...i want to read the past comics that come before mtmte....but im lazy and stopped after megatron origins (which was very good btw)

so unfortunately i cant give any personal review on the rest of the idw comics chronologically aside from the wreckers saga which i did love...if youre up to it i think its worth trying out though..you can always skim things you find boring and no one will know. i wont tell

[theygotbitchesinmedia]

ask dump

i have a couple dozen unanswered asks on this blog, most of which i believe are media recommendations, so i'm going to go through those now in a batch!

if you haven't seen it already We Are Lady Parts would be a fantastic recommendation for this blog. I started it last week and really love it. It's about a struggling punk Muslim girls band who recruit the extremely anxious, goody-two-shoes Amina to be their lead guitarist. It balance its moments of drama really well with the comedy and all of the women in the band get to be deeply weird in different and endlessly charming ways. My favorite is Amina because of her very relatable habit to have elaborate silly daydreams about anything and everything. Good show with some really good women!

I've heard good things about this one! Adding it to the list

I can't remember if you take recs for things in progress or not but the webtoon Katlaya Rising is currently the high point of my week, the art style POPS and it is jam-packed with girls and girls who love girls

I will always read things in progress 👍 I honestly in some ways prefer getting into stuff before it's finished. Like an animal with one of those food bowls that stops you from eating too fast. Added to the list.

Please read Villain Initialization!!!! The female characters are really good!!!!!!!!!

Looking at the cover and description for this one it seems like most of the female cast is gonna be side characters. i'll add it to the list but itll probably be reallllly back burner unless someone wants to go to bat hard for it and sway me

if youre taking recommendations bittersweet con panna is a cute yuri manhwa and hacks is an insane tvshow about millenial comedy writer who got cancelled on twitter and a beautiful old standup comic about to lose her vegas residency.

added both! never heard of bittersweet con panna but my sister has been going really hard for hacks and i feel like i owe it to her to watch that sooner rather than later because of all the media im always trying to force onto her

"Kevin Can F*** Himself" on AMC is fantastic and has some really interesting female protags, I recommend. Might be a similar vibe to On Becoming a God in Central Florida actually!

Already on the list!

i'd like to second the rec for no home, probably one of the greatest webtoons of all time

one moth ago anon i can safely say you were correct about this it is certainly one of the greatest webtoons of all time. i do think its not really About women but i get why you all wanted me to read it enough to push it

@whatasmoothgardener Reccing a short manga I've been reading recently called Is Kichijoji the Only Place to Live. Its a manga about twin girls who run a small real estate company in Tokyo from the POV of their clients. It has a unique art style, its female character focused, and it teaches you about the different places in Tokyo. However its kinda episodic.

I don't mind episodic at all. Cool to see female manga protags who arent stick thin! added to the list

@phoenixfangs i got into a webtoon the other day called nevermore and considered recommending it to u, but i second guessed myself like oh what if its not worth recommending and its stupid actually, BUT i had a dream last night that u were talking about it so i think i have to at least put it on ur radar, if it isnt already xD what happens if u take edgar allen poe stories and make it about lesbians? u get the webtoon nevermore ❤️ theres an actual Plot to it too im not trying to sell it based on tropes, i just cant describe it better than the actual synopsis/description on webtoon, so id say its worth a glance!

At first glance i'm not sure how to my personal tastes this owuld be but i feel like i have maybe been unfairly biased against popular webtoons in that front. added to the list !

@counttwinkula listen i know your "media to get around to" list is forever long but i reread the haunting of hill house (the book) for my podcast and eleanor and theodora just. won't stop touching each other. some of the most classic toxic yuri imo. also the 1963 film adaptation (the haunting) is so good

ill always appreciate a horror recommendation from one of my learned Horror Mutuals. added both!

if it changes anything, you can find the main stories of arknights and limbus company here and here respectively without downloading the game: [retcons dot github dot io slash limbus-storylogs] [akgcc dot github dot io slashcc slash story dot html hashtag main] (sorry it wont let me send links) i totally understand if u think its too much trouble, but i do think both games have very good female characters

I'm sorry... i just cant go down this road.... it's a path i'm not willing ot walk. if i was going to read the stories for a gacha game i wasn't playing i would just go read shoujo kageki revue starlight re:LIVE. which i havent been able to make myself do. so its just not gonna end up happening

have you heard of tangle tower… it’s a relatively short murder mystery click and point game about two families & their secrets. the art is gorgeous + the game is fully voiced, and the protagonist + his assistant have a dynamic that reminds me of the classic ace attorney ‘lawyer + weird girl’ duos. the majority of the cast are women, and the game features some of the Girls Of All Time. highly recommend, esp since you’re an ace attorney fan

Added to the list!

if you’re trying to flesh out the book section, i’d like to recommend three parts dead by max gladstone! admittedly it’s been a hot second since I’ve read it so i can’t speak on the quality of the writing itself, but the plot and the worldbuilding had some interesting stuff. the novel follows tara, a necromancer in a world where doing magic is more akin to being a lawyer, who’s hired to resurrect a god. the book is the first in a series, and the books that follow have some other interesting female protagonists + canonical queer women if you enjoy it o7

Sounds neat! Added to the list

ok i still have some more from back in fucking April that i didnt manage to get to. but im getting distracted now

[cosmicredcadet]

Ppl are all for trying to help/support you until you tell them their advice is unhelpful then they delve straight into ablism. It's almost comical how much this happens.

I just remember one time I was expressing frustration with struggling to read. I wasn't looking for help, I was just expressing my feelings about wanting to read but struggling to. Someone misunderstood my post and had suggested I do book exchanges. I explained politely to them that wouldn't work for me as the problem isn't my lack of book options and instead of idk moving on like a normal person they doubled down and got upset, insisting that t had to be the problem. I told them, no, my problem is literally I struggle to actually READ.

For the record: I have ADHD. One of the biggest issues I face is processing. Reading books often takes me ages because I struggle to process the words on the page. I end up reading and rereading the same pages hoping it will stick. Sometimes it never does. It doesn't help that my vision acts weird with text where it will shake, blur, and in some cases words change or move around. That makes it 10x harder to process anything on the page. I'm also unable to do the thing where ppl passively read with visuals in their head. I have to actively read the text which means visualizing and understanding what's happening can be hard.

I explain this. I say that literally sometimes I just cant read. And instead of understanding and moving on, they got even more mad and told me if I just magically stop being able to read I should go to a doctor because something is wrong with me.

They took me telling them their advice wasn't helpful and decided to get ablist about it. And that has stuck with me.

I struggle to say I face ablism sometimes, but I feel like this is the one time I can say I genuinely did. And it's been stuck in my head. It's so very familiar and so very frustrating that we are supposed to accept unhelpful advice or else WE are being difficult. WE are the bad guys for DARING to say that the advice given won't help. And that somehow gives ppl the right to be ablist about it... Because I guess we deserve it if we won't accept their awful help.

Idk it sucks I guess.

[notthestarwar]

For your WIP folder…. Omg it’s so hard to choose. Wonder Soldier AU with Kix?

thank you so much for the ask!!!

omg. this is the one im currently rotating in my brain. im SO VERY obsessed with it.

(im going to ramble so badly here lol pls dont feel you have to read it all but im VERY excited by this au)

ok so. ive been rereading the winter soldier comics. starting from the first reveal of him in captain america onwards. i feel like everyone knows about the 'who the hell is bucky scene' which is a real heartstopper but omg. there are so many moments that didnt make it in to the films. theres just so much feeling there and i see a huge paralell between a lot of stuff bucky goes through and the clones origin.

i'd seen winter soldier au's with various clones before, but there was always something missing for me. on my reread of the comics i realised what it was. the being out of time. finding yourself in the future unexpectedly. having to adapt. getting used to being alone. and then realising you arent. realising that someone you failed to save is here. is still maybe capable of being saved. is such a huge part for me. thats the driver of so much emotion.

and i realised that there IS a part of star wars that makes me feel kinda similar. Kix's story. Kix finds himself waking up in a galaxy that has moved on. theres no room for him anymore. he was once a part of something, but now he isnt. he's never been alone before, but now he is, without question. he is the last of his kind. and after he finds out what happened, his identity as a medic is really threatened. his job was to heal his brothers, to save them. but when it mattered, he couldnt.

so then i started thinking. what would it be like for kix, facing this reckoning, having faced it for a while. finding himself a place in this new world, beginning to fight the first order. beginning to move on from something thats really quite impossible to ever truly move on from. what would it be like for him to face what steve rogers does in those comics?

for anyone that doesnt know, steve and buckys stories in the comics are slightly different. they are brought together because captain america needs a sidekick. they dont know each other before. and bucky is pretty much a kid at the time. he's 16. steve becomes like his older brother as they fight in ww2 with a superhero group called the invaders (pretty much like the avengers) against nazi superheroes and the like, unitil, just at the end of the war, they get captured. steve watches bucky being tortured, he cant stop it, and then when they escape, bucky sacrifices himself. the last thing steve sees before he gets frozen is bucky, just out of steves reach, unable to be saved after sacrificing himself for their cause. steve is awake in the ice in the comics. he has all those years to dwell on it, and when he gets out, the world has moved on and its far far too late to save anyone he knew.

buckys backstory has some real similarities with the clones. he grows up on a military camp, his dad dies when he's like 12 and he ends up staying as a kind of camp mascot. he grows up in the army. violence is every day for him. its all he knows. and when he gets recruited as captain americas sidekick. its all about the image. he is a propaganda tool. there to look like a kid so that other kids want to join up, but trained to be a killer. he is there to do the dirty work that captain america cant be seen doing. he's an assasin from the start. deadly efficient.

buckys return in the comics is delicious. it comes out of nowhere, to the reader and to steve rogers. he has been living in this new world and has accepted that noone will ever really understand him. anyone that survived ww2 looks at it with rose tinted glasses, but in a lot of ways to steve, he's still there. and then comes the winter soldier, a cold war relic, woken up to meet someone elses aims. in a lot of ways, it echos how steve has been working for america, putting out fire after fire, since he got out of the ice. the people around steve put the pieces together before he does and when they try and break it to him, he refuses to hear it. he wont look at their evidence. he simply cant. to know that not only could he not save this younger brother figure, but that while he was frozen, powerless, bucky was taken by the enemy and used in the worst kind of way. made to do things he never would have done (a big part of this is that bucky never would have worked against america. his patriotism was a huge part of his character thanks to his upbringing, which his handlers knew and found pretty funny. they used him to fight america because it was ironic). like omg. the paralells there! with the clones being raised to serve the republic, being raised to know nothing but loyalty because alll they knew was the military. and then having chips in their heads force them to do the last thing they ever would have done? again and again?

steve refuses to believe that its bucky. but we begin to see that he knows. he's just in denial. he fights the winter soldier and we have the 'who the hell is bucky moment' and then, his denial is shattered in the worst possible way. a dossier is delivered to him holding records from the winter soliders handlers from the start. he has to see the cold and impersonal documentation of the ppl that ripped his brother, his best friend, from death (from peace) so that he could be used against his country. he'd forgotten everything about who he was, all he had was the muscle memory of this fight. he could still fight. he was still a killer. these files document a kind of sick amusement from his handlers at his situation. his drs talk about him like he's an object for testing. (there are so many paralels here with the kamineese, palpatine, jango and how they treat the clones). worse than this. the files show that even without his memory, bucky fought them. during a mission in america he dropped off the radar, confused and lost, but trying to find something of himself. at this point they start wiping his memory after each mission and keeping him in stasis. he is no more than a tool. the whole thing is heart wretching. i know the movie version touched a lot of ppls hearts but. oh my god. it doesnt even touch the surface.

that feeling. those vibes. are the backbone of this au.

kix is beginning to move on. and then, the first order pull out the winter soldier. kix fights him and he's caught. because this stranger, decades after the last clone died, fights just like a clone. and against his will kix is just. pulled in. it feels like one last link to his brothers. he needs to know who trained this assasin. he needs to know more. this guy is like a ghost. the more he finds out the further he feels from any answers. what he finds. well none of it fits together. this guy has been doing this for decades. is he the first winter soldier? was he the one trained by a clone or was that his predecessor? his predecessors predecessor. kixs new war continues, as he investigates. this is simply a side quest. research to resolve his own curiosity.

and then, kix is fighting yet another battle. and in comes this guy. and as they fight, it gets to the point where its just kix and this assasin and the guys mask falls off. and he's a clone. and its an impossibility. its not something kix ever let himself imagine. how can there possibly be a clone here? how can he possibly be so young. he's hardly physically older than kix, in statis all these years, and the guy runs and kix is left. just. shellshocked. he goes back to his research. it doesnt make any sense.

time passes and kix realises who this winter soldier is. he knows him. not only that. he knows exactlly how they are controlling him. its the chips. the chips that kix was unable to save his brothers from. he woke up here and he thought it was too late for anything. his brothers long dead. him, unable to save any of them. he's a medic but he was not enough. yet. here is a chance. a chance at redemption. a brother, just one, that still needs saving. that kix has a chance of saving. and if he does. its someone that will understand. someone who knows what it is to be a clone. someone who knows what it is to wake up in a new galaxy, after years of stasis against your own will. its a chance.

the story deals with kix trying to face this. the whole thing is just like. emotional turmoil. he's given himself a impossible task. he's trying to save someone that does not want saving and very much wants to kill kix. in doing so he's having to face all this trauma and shit he had just accepted living with. and even worse. he gets to see a chipped clone in action. the lack of self preservation, the lack of control. kix gets to see what it would have been like for every one of their brothers. and he has to face that. its a journey thats kinda agonising. lots to face up to. lots to be dealt with. bad situation all round.

im so sorry for how long ive rambled but. oh my god im so utterly obsessed with this. its taken root in side me. the idea. the thought of them. gives me a feeling in my chest thats just. beyond words.

theres another post where i talk about it here also here

im just...screaming. the whole thing makes me want to scream and bite and never stop

ive yet to actually write anything that i can share loool cause ive just been chewing over the idea HOWEVER rest assured once i have something i'll be sharing it on here lol cause i need to yell about this au as much as possible

[hyolks]

HELLOO i need u to know i just read up on the doc of your wastelands au and im going insane..., it's so good. gnawing on it GNAWING on it

ling is so silly. and winry just STRANGLIGN ed in that one doodle???? perfect

THANK U............... i may dump a whole ramble into it in the oncoming days bc ive had a lot of Thoughts recently... i also need to organize it a little more and make it. less... stream of consciousness lol. upon rereading it i realized how much i stopped midsentence bc i had another thought.. it is quite a mess

i need to iron out more ideas for ling tbh i have a whole comic sketched out of how ed and al meet ling and i cant. i cant start on it. god. also i need to draw winry beating ed with a wrench its so quintessential fma

[dustorange]

is the dick comic reading list u made awhile ago a complete list of all the comics people should read or only a few? also, if you don’t mind can u link it i cant find it lol

those were just starterpacks based on the series and the order i started with! it really depends how familiar u r with comicsreading or dick grayson in general. it seems like a lot of the get-to-know-this-character readinglists start out with really culturally important and crucial-to-the-character comics but a lot of times in my opinion those comics are nooot good starter comics because they requure a lot of specific pre-knowledge. or are boring. and starting with boring comics is a good way to not get into comics at all.

I really would say for someone new to comics, a GREAT starter series is Grayson (2014-2016) because it’s a short run, really fun and clever and really delivers Dick’s character and smarts and darkness. It genuinely made me love comics. It was my first series and it is still my favorite to this day.

But the main list/order for getting the groundwork of Dick’s character imo would be:

Robin Year One

Grayson (2014-2016)

Teen Titans Year One

Batman #655 onward until you decide to stop and then also Batman & Robin 2009. This is the period in which Dick and Damian are Batman and Robin. 655 is Damian’s first appearance (Bruce is still alive), and it’ll get you in the swing of things while also being a really fascinating (albeit dark and heavy) time and character study

Either Nightwing 1996 or Nightwing 2011. Nightwing 2011 is more accessible (only 30 issues and the start of N52, so it is intentionally meant for new readers to pick up) and somehow even angstier and I prefer it to NW1996 personally BUT I HAVE BEEN TOLD I HAVE BAD TASTE so YMMV. Nightwing 1996 starts off veryyyy slow in my opinion and I got bored in the beginning although after like issue 40 is good and it’s important Dick Grayson cultural memory so it sort of has to be read completely at some point but I say start with the FUN stuff

this should give you a good grounding in Dick’s character and characterization in my opinion, and there’s lot of routes to jump off and explore other comics from these issues

Comics comes down to taste a LOT so you will hear people recommend Dark Victory or New Teen Titans, which ARE important Dick texts, but I felt very bored reading them and will probably never reread them in their entirety ever again, but someone who likes chewier, longer, more in-depth, darker stories might LOVE them. I really enjoy Golden Age stuff from the 40s, although the characterization is pretty much way off from what you see now.

The things to read after those ones are done……..I guess that’s when you move to New Teen Titans, Knightfall, No Man’s Land, just various random Batman comics is honestly a good way to find the characters in slice of life episodic things that don’t really matter but are fun

[wc-wild-rewrite]

Into The Wild Reread!

Its actually been like 6 years since i last fully read this series, so it was fun going back through! Overall i give it a 9/10, one point removed for slightly clunky writing and scene changes.

HOWEVER, Every single sentence that includes Spottedleaf is awful and uncomfortable, so it's actually getting an 8.5/10

Please note that i wrote the notes as i read it and have not edited them

My chapter by chapter thoughts and notes are under the cut!

Prolouge

Iconic opening prologue, but we're really stretching the definition of bracken-colored for mr reddish-brown oakheart here.

When did the clans meet otters

I wonder how Mousefur feels about the last fight alongside redtail being the one where tigerclaw saved her

"Fewer kits than normal" bluestar theres 5 of them i'd say thats a decent number, 6 if we're counting Lynxkit

I dont remember many of the prophecies but i hope they use more star ones, the shooting star is a cool one

Chapter 1

They really love their full stops huh, its slightly jarring, as someone who writes with so many commas

I still love their descriptions of the enviroment

I like how they show Rusty's ignorance towards the necesscity of prey by having his first scene be him toying a live mouse, and that being why he lost it

Rusty, collars are not supposed to pinch, your being mistreated

I dont think ive ever seen anyone remember to add the 'lightly raining' part into an animatic or comic or anything

I like to think he spotted Bluestar in the trees when he says it feels like something's in the woods

I like that rusty's sorta mean, real tween energy

They better bring this fox back

This is painfully lore-dumpy but i love greypaw's total disregard for rusty's anger. And for his disregard for clan code, talking to a kittypet when he shouldn't be. Sets up his later code breaking.

I'm always really concerned about rusty's "just sit there and look hungry" comment, like buddy why do you know that??

Lionheart is canonically handsome

I really like how majestic and respectable bluestar is shown to be in this scene, i can feel her power

Bluestar has been keeping an eye on rusty for a while, spurred by the prophecy, i'd imagine

Chapter 2

I cant tell if bluestar snapping at him so fast is because of how despserate thunderclan is in that moment, or if its a hint to how fast she can turn against people.

Rusty's willignness to look a wildcat in the eye and argue is very interesting, i see where squilf gets it from

'Young kit' i love lionheart

Chapter 3

I like to think the yellow eyes in his dream are yellowfang's

Kittypets know what hours are, i wonder if the clans do

I love smudge, poor guy

They have pine trees on thunderclan territory

I kinda like asshole longtail, hes fun

Great job longtail, you got your ass kicked by a fresh apprentice

Only finished his training two moons ago means longtail is 14 moons, and was probably a solo apprentice. I can see why Bluestar is afraid of not having enough, if the last batch of apprentices only had one.

Interesting that they were so quick to accept Firepaw, but only after he proved himself in a battle. Very telling of their culture.

Graypaw never describe Spottedleaf ever again, its very uncomfortable, "not bad looking either" you are a child

"Neither young nor pretty" this line is especially funny now that grey and dark are brothers, like yeah, thats peak little brother energy

Chapter 4

Ok whos this ginger queen, shes been mentioned twice now

Firepaw stop asking for lore a cat just died

Now i wanna see a redstar au

I like how sassy spottedleaf is with tigerclaw

Tigerclaw in this scene feels so much like Scar, i wish they kept this

I like the lore of the leader's den being carved from a river, wonder if DOTC is consistent with that

Love the sharing tongues and eating lore, the idea of older warriors inviting younger ones to eat with them being an honor

I like that the elders are perfectly fine with firepaw

Interesting that sandpaw isn't actually described as cream or sand colored, but 'pale ginger'

Again, loving the eat rituals with the apprentices eating by the stump

Sandpaw's such a bitch i love her, such a tween mean girl, i can only imagine her with a high, bratty voice

Chapter 5

Two toms sitting in a hollow a few tail lengths away cuz their not gay

Birch, ash, and oak trees are added to the 'trees thunderclan has' list

"Thats treachous talk, kittypet" says the guy who tried to take over all the clans, thus sharing a territory

I like that lionheart supports firepaw's thinking

Thunderclan smells warm, Shadowclan smells sour, Riverclan is...pungent, i guess?

Dust and Sand are such brat siblings

Love the implication that windclan and thunderclan have different stalking types due to their difference in prey, light footed for thunderclan, and maybe heavy on the back legs to make a better kick-off for a run for windclan?

Ravenpaw has been an apprentice for 2 moons, meaning hes 8 moons old, and he probably became an apprentice on the tail-end of longtail's apprenticeship, or just after his warrior ceremony

Chapter 6

Two moons passed, 8 moons old, Raven should be 10 moons

Firepaw can scale ash trees with ease

One of lionheart's favourite phrases is "surprise is the warrior's greatest weapon"

Ok good, the fox was relevant

Thunderclan cats apparently climb trees often, given that halftail apparently used to

Chapter 7

"Easy prey for yellowfang" girl why are you in third person

2 moons in and he already doesnt want to feel pity towards a clearly unwell cat, i can totally see an au where he becomes one of tigerclaw's followers

"You seem in an awful hurry to die" is one of my favourite lines

Arch-cat of stench

Chapter 8

Patrol of tigerclaw, willowpelt, darkstripe, lionheart, and bluestar. One hell of a combo

Yellowfang was spoken of for her bravery and wisdom as a medicine cat, interesting

I like the respect Spottedleaf gives Yellowfang, aware that shes another medicine cat. They've no doubt met before this.

Sympathetic eye narrowing

"We found no bodies from either clan" i call bullshit

"Usually she only trains the kits of her deputies" again, bullshit, but interesting concept

Leaders talking with all their senior warriors and not just their deputy for advice

Cultural respect for healers and elders

Chapter 9

They know the word breakfast

Little grey-and-white kit and a tabby kit, probably swift and one of the frost brothers

"Certainly no hardship being around spottedleaf again" you've exchanged about 3 sentences with her

Willowpelt in patrol with her son again

The double mouse eating scene is always so funny to me

Chapter 10

Queens line their nests with balls of down, which are apparently duck underfeathers

Wow, two-ish moons and firepaw doesnt remember smudge at all

I like the parallel between rusty & greypaw and smudge & firepaw

Its actually kind of unsettling how fast he's forgotten his old life, like wow the cult indoctronation really worked huh

Chapter 11

Ravenpaw tripping over his snake, baby boy

Fluffy gray kit, likely cinderkit, no more than 2 moons, meaning they were newborn when rusty joined

Also a tiny black kit and a tortieshell, mystery kits

Rusty's been there for almost 3 moons

Bluestar has serious trust issues huh

"I think i could grow fond of her" ok yeah i see why bluestar x yellowfang exists

Clawface and Stonefur are considered great warriors, at least to Greystripe

Chapter 12

I forget at this point in the book tigerclaw isn't actually known as a bad guy, hes just grumpy and mildly suspicious

Crookedstar is bigger than Lionheart, which means hes fuckin massive

Brokenstar has been leader for 4 moons as of this chapter, meaning he probably became leader around the time spottedleaf got her prophecy. Causation, perhaps?

Eugh can we stop describing spottedleaf as sweet scented

Ough, littlepaw was definitely lying about his age there

Lionheart banter!

Ravenpaw being a good storyteller is my favourite thing

Ah, brokenstar, you mangy bastard

I like that he paused for dramatic effect though, drama queen

I cant tell if Smallear really is deaf or if hes playing it up so he gets left alone

Chapter 13

"But even he will obey bluestar" only for 3 more books

I like that travelling to the moonstone is one of the apprentice milestones

Spottedleaf get your nose off that apprentice

Chapter 14

Leaders cannot eat before the moonstone journey, interesting

Wow, what a dickhead twoleg, also possibly drunk driving

Chapter 15

Love the idea that tigerclaw is just fucking terrified of the moonstone

So bluestar just implied tigerclaw is spiritually weak, interesting

I love the description of the moonstone, it makes it sound so ethereal

Chapter 16

Barley is short and knows Bluestar

"You are tied to your clan like a queen to her kits" oh you have no idea barley

Barley i love you and your inexplicable rat fighting skills

Firepaw knows how to put cobwebs on

This chapter implies coming back from losing a life can take hours

Chapter 17

Blackfoot you asshole put those kits down!!

Yellowfang i adore you

R.I.P rosetail, we didnt know you existed until this chapter

Nooo grandpa lionheart, poor guy

I think its this point that starts the beginning of bluestar's fall, honestly

Chapter 18

Ah, here's tigerclaw's beginning of evil, starting with appointing his cronies as bluestar's bodyguards

Ooo yellowfang still has pain from that leg injury

Wow Yellowfang just called Blackfoot a stupid tank

Darkstripe really just got call shitstripe, huh?

Oh shit, i always thought darkstripe and longtail were aware of tigerclaw's actions from the start, but hes playing them too

Chapter 19

Spottedleaf you cant just tell apprentices about prophies and not give any context

The authors really dont know how to do a scene change, huh?

Firepaw fights light-pawed

Chapter 20

I cant tell if its clunky writing or intentional but the way ravenpaw describes redtail's death is very storyteller-y

Never use the word suppleness again

Brindle really just had her kits silently huh

Elders wash their ears when their expecting rain, more lore thats never mentioned again

Really cute that whitestorm is sitting guard for his mate and kits

Its been like 4 minutes since firepaw stepped out of the nursery, brindle's in there, how the fuck did the kits get stolen

Firepaw you shared 7 sentences with her, why are you so furious

Chapter 21

Can these grown adults stop sending minors on dangerous missions

"Goodbye, my sweet spottedleaf" EW. EUGH. AUGH.

"One of brindleface's kits has a cough" considering tulipkit dies, yeah, she wasnt lying

Something something clawface being a warrior greypaw respected only for him to kill the med cat and kidnap kits

Frostfur's kits are three moons old

Chapter 22

Brokenstar makes them apprentices at three moons and warriors at five

Marigold and Mint were four moons old

Chapter 23

Third time Willowpelt and Darkstripe are in a patrol together

Oh Whitestorm, your not the smartest tom in the clan, are you

Chapter 24

Brokenstar nearly got scar-at-the-end-of-lion-kinged there

It'd be cool if mr lil tabby kit kept the ear scar, i know he doesnt tho

Chapter 25

Tigerclaw really putting on the sad dramatics there

Fireheart and Greystripe, iconic and fitting names!

My thoughts

Solid 9/10, not perfect, bit clunky, but iconic and nostalgic. Im shocked i remembered basically all of it, even tho last time i read the whole thing was about 6 years ago

I think the chapters are too short in places and cut in weird parts, and the authors cant do a scene change for the life of them, but this was 2009, so its fair. Lets just hope they improve (said the fool, foolishly)

Oh, and the spottedleaf thing was terrible and uncomfortable.

[felikatze]

finally finished gilgamesh (the korean webcomic, not the actual sumerian epic of gilgamesh) and like ohhh i get it, tink is haunting the narrative

jrgrjgbgkg sobbing. because this is EXACTLY what zius says in tek which means zius' ideology is directly based on tink. and now zius passes on tink's words to the second special class fjhg

can you TELL tink was my favorite character in this. rip king i miss you but at least you get to be the catalyst for all of tek ✌️

also WOW on context. "oh hey that's legia from gilgamesh" legia is in ONE CHAPTER of gilgamesh. IN THE LAST ONE.

long messy assortment of gilgamesh thoughts under the cut 👍 when i say long and messy and all over the place i mean it btw.

i have no fucking clue what went on with the ending of the main story

the paneling in fights was kinda wild and i couldnt tell what actually killed tink even once i reread the chapter which maybe cheapened his death a bit. like DID waron stab him? I DONT KNOW! I CANT TELL! did he just get done in by two malto goons to protect tludia? fuck if i know. can someone explain

the gilgamesh cast actually ended up growing on me by the end i was ready to scream when it teased hadar dying like three times at the end

and i also like how tludia was characterized later on and her picking up all these habits from ram and listening to a his stories only to later succeed him is aaaaa

foreshadowing 👍

the explanation for ram and tludia's Whole Deal is. wack though. "yeah ram exists because of a programming error basically. also last thursday-ism is real." why does it matter that ram tells tludia the world history if the history is fake??? why did tludia's curse flare up BEFORE hinsher got unthawed if hinsher being alive is the catalyst for it?

i GUESS it fits in with the worldbuilding of restrictions and rules as avenues of power. all power comes at a cost in this world and i think it's GREAT worldbuilding and powerscaling but using it to handwave plot beats kinda blows

on that note the worldbuilding around demons is kind of. yikes. i get they're going for a "forever war" thing but. really had to specify that they're all black huh. is this why tek never shows them onscreen? is hwandaeng embarrassed about this now.

it's not as bad as it could be what with the "both sides suck" approach but damn daljan really fucked up by essentially demoting tink for being anti-racist and not explaining that he'd like tink to teach new knights to be less racist. bcuz all tink is gonna walk away with is "knights are racist". daljan. my man.

i keep talking abt tink (love that bitch!) but i do truly love how fucked the concept of Honor got with him. and ruthless ram is in the later part of the comic. tludia criticizes him by asking if tink had any choice. ram says it was his honor and choice to die. but. tink was blackmailed into working for the malto in the first place. he didnt ever have a choice. choosing to die was his only choice. ESPECIALLY HOW WITH TLUDIA'S BACKSTORY WITH KANDENTIA!! it's paralleled with how kandentia criticzes tludia for stealing, but tludia says it's a priviledge to be so rightous!! not everyone can afford honor! are you gonna tell a starving child to stop stealing because its illegal? are you gonna tell a man being blackmailed into criminality to choose the "right" thing?

honor as a priviledge is a fantastic concept to explore

also on that note. ram. looking back on it he Never really gives people a choice. like obviously, his "negotiation" with the fake mushia. once the peaceful option fails, he just starts threatening her. oh, and how his cowardice is repeated - the people he's leaving aren't ever given a choice either, are they? and from the beginning of the plot, too. what choice does tludia have but to trust him when he's the only one who could possibly cure her fatal curse disease????

and in the end tludia's final actual choice is "life forever or die." like. what choice is that even

at least tludia's desire to keep living no matter what is a long established thing so it makes sense for her to do that

wow the story really has like 2 suicides. first ram and then muitin in the bonus stories. hot diggity

kinda mad hadar's sister plotline didn't really get resolved. where'd she go. i get that hadar's resolution to the plotline is that he gives up on looking for her and starts living for himself, since she never wanted him to find her anyway - but it still stings a little

she probably became a knight. she's not legia's sidekick, is she?? they look a little similar. maybe without the lipstick...

also fucking WILD to have tek things recontextualized

like oh these bozos are fron letoon. where stella lived and died. okay!

or going from "i dont care abt tamin" to "TINK'S BROTHER??????"

morbidly hilarious that he ended up becoming solbas' sidekick then. is that why she cares so much about rescuing him in tek? not just a simply need for his two braincells (as she has none), but guilt as well?

didn't tamin have tink's weapons in tek too. oh my gosh i'm going to cry

other stuff!!

tanshirin got so much more fucked up now seeing her in gilgamesh. "tyr's sister. cool 👍" to "hahah. girl what." good on her for becoming a knight though. seeing her with hinsher's hammer in gilgamesh was surreal

also in tek when zius explains the reason the east and west hate each other so much now realizing he was talking about hadar, tink, and hwashran specifically. i hope hadar shows up in tek at some point. just having the guy who Caused The War, Somewhat there would be hilarious. the smug smirk that launched a thousand ships. (hadar is a riot)

speaking of hinsher!!!! her story is the one that made me sob most (only time i cried at this comic was "gnojes the blacksmith" from the side stories). it's just. auhvrhhr. the human equivalent of hachiko. and at the end of the side story where hinsher steps into the workshop and is greeted by those bearing his name i aurghgfhf

it's really well handled how hinsher reacts to the situation. she's devestated, obviously. that moment when she sees ram and sees he's unchanged and asks him how long it's been but of course he's IMMORTAL but she doesn't know that so she thinks it's been no time at all but it was 500 years i'm. i'm fine

and just like everythinggggg and how she eventually copes by imagining gnojes managed to be happy without her. maybe he found someone else. the conflict of longing and desolation at hearing the name of gnojes continues, but then - he never had any children. he never married. he waited for her.

and how hinsher just. she regrets leaving gnojes. she regrets being trapped. she doesn't regret trying to save strangers. because that is her knight's honor. and she does it again, protecting tludia and nephren in the final arc,,,, don't talk to me

AND THEN THE SIDE STORY SHOWS. GNOJES NEVER GAVE UP LOOKING FOR HER. BUT HE FOUND HAPPINESS AGAIN, TOO. in his work. with the children he adopted. he died of old age surrounded by people he loved, who loved him too. but he never stopped missing her. and she'll never stop grieving him

the tragedy is just fucking DELICIOUS okay

do also love how the side stories show that ram is an unreliable narrator. it's really neat to see characters picked up and fleshed out without his viewpoint. like the fuckin plot twist that it was depression era ram who killed suldin and not tisalle. but ram only heard "suldin was killed by his apprentice" and didn't remember doing it, so he assumed tisalle did it. and then killed tisalle for it. fucked up 👍

what more was i saying

waron is way more fucked up than i thought but zius describes her as "predictably unpredictable" so she's just always been like this. how the fuck did the knights reign her in again. kandentia probably kicked her ass and now she just wants to brawl with zius now that her main target is dead. she's fantastic and i love her. she knows EXACTLY what she wants.

the general theme of self sacrifice and making yourself the villain to help others both with ram's actions and the demon knight backstory and waron's short story on how she hates knights kinda makes me think she also does this to establish that not all knights are just? after all, honor is individual, and not all honor will be "good", with waron as a prime example

did she ask nagyunn how he'd kill her just to figure out if he'd be fun to fight

that is. all my thoughts on gilgamesh i can remember at the moment. this post is long and messy but such is customary for me 👍

once again i think gilgamesh is hampered by the early chapters trying to hard to be comedic. once it settles on a tone and as the art improves i started enjoying it way more but with how frontloaded the flashbacks are (even if they pay off in full later!) i definetly wouldn't have been nearly as invested if it weren't for me reading tek first. tek just has a better plot hook with a character with a set goal and a plan to achieve it, whereas the beginning of gilgamesh kinda meanders as the crew sets out to unlock ram's memories, which doesn't really end up significantly changing ram, even. the beginning is too largely incidental to me so tink n the malto as concrete antagonists to outwit and overcome def helped that.

but also the ending feels just. messy. here is god to give us exposition. everything you did was useless. ram's pivot into ending the world suddenly, even if it's to draw out god(?), feels much too abrupt. yes he had the report about tludia and hinsher being somehow connected, and i did find it odd she could understand hadar without using sign language, but that foreshadowing really wasn't enough to even conceive what his plan was, especially since his talk with the fake mushia leaves out the dialogue where he actually gets her to agree. and then it also cuts out the final words tludia gives to ram before he jumps off the cliff.

to be fair tek ALSO does this a lot but it p much is always dialogue that would've been boring and is brought up only when relevant, with the general sense of "i guess they could've talked about this at that point." (main way tek blows it is with jiroon, imo - like, put the scene with nagyunn encouraging her before her death, maybe? so we're not just invested in her in-post? flashbacks work with tink because he already had plenty of build up before dying, and additional context just expands on what we already knew about him. i digress.)

and then the malto mooks who attack tludia and co are literally unnamed and faceless. it would've already been better if pavrin was the one to betray mushia. it was. just some fucking guy! okay!

tldr abt the ending: i dont really get it ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ the midpoint of the comic feels best to me writing wise. overall i enjoyed it though, even if i still like tek more.

dang, now i should totally reread tek for a fourth time, just so i can pick up on every detail gilgamesh expands on or recontextualizes.

like some of these r just for fun (like why daljan is so important to kandentia, since both of them are rather minor characters in tek), and others r kinda bonkers (the dragon has lost some of his mystique now that nephren exists to me)