#i dont want to disrespect the work that was put into this comic by just posting all of the pages for free cause then whats the point?? 😭

[ninjautizm]

// SHATTERSPIN ISSUE 2 (SPOILERS!) JUST SOME GORGEOUS MAJESTIC PICS OF GARMADON IN THE NEW SHATTERSPIN COMIC!! 💜

He looks so majestic.. and silly 🥹💜

For those wondering, I brought this comic off of Amazon Kindle, and I live in Australia so it's the 9th of October for me! Meaning it's the day of its release! Which is how I was able to read the comic,, but tomorrow it's gonna be released for everyone else,, just currently I'm spoiling them!

[grub-hut]

I don't use Tiktok, never will, In my opinion I think the app should shut down. [ But that will never happen... So I will cope.] But god are ya'll are insufferable on there. The fact you have this strong par asocial attachment to Sebastian and claim that Zerum is ""ruining the character"" is just blasphemy and shows you guys know nothing to zero about writing and do not play the game whats so ever. I've talked to Zerum; Ive talked to the devs and mods ; and all the false claims and misinformation that's being spread like a wildfire IS CRAZY. Everyone's so exhausted. It takes just a couple of minutes to prove it's false but that would actually require these people to literally sit down and fucking read. Zerum never banned anybody. Zerum doesn't handle the bans in the server. If you got banned or muted, it was most likely the automod in the server that they have implemented to avoid people saying anything weird or sexual... [ A friend of mine got muted because they sent a gif that had a weird name to it; nothing related to the gif, the gif was fine and they filed a ticket and got unmuted. Its just the bot doing its job.] and even then the mods probably banned you for something completely unrelated...

and even then, can we STOP normalizing this??

Like this GRINDS my gears, it fucking rusts, it makes me want to break down and combust into flames- Stop. Stop. YOU ARE THE ISSUE. Creators want to create. Either for ourselves or for others, whatever it maybe people enjoy letting their creativity flow because ITS FUN. IT SHOULD BE--- FUN!!! We are giving you literally something free and something to ENJOY because we enjoy it just as much! This stupid fucking mindset being so normalized makes me SO SICK. " whatever is put on the internet is free reign!" you guys have ZERO respect for any creator; even yourselves and its so BLATANTLY OBVIOUS. You guys preach about "respecting artists/creators" till it doesnt fit with your agenda, because we should just "expect" our works to be disrespected and used. Like our feelings never mattered. Are we going to ignore the discussion of AI art too? Or copyright, or literally anything of that sort here? Yes, its the internet, there WILL be people who are so drastically cruel and do something you will not like. I do agree its best to ignore those kinds of people but that does not mean we should just LET it happen. It does not mean we should suck it up and take the blows. This is how people stop creating, youre killing artists, youre shunning them away because "its the internet, lol, dont get mad if ppl -" Stop it, you're teaching younger generations that it does not matter if you have boundaries or not and that your voice doesnt mean anything. I mean fuck, you put your oc here I can use it however I want then! Because you shouldve expected the moment you click post for other people to use it! Who cares right?! its OUR oc now >:)!!! No matter what the character is from, by a indie game, a comic, a book, yadda yadda. If youre gonna be scum, you are gonna BE scum. Artists should be respected and be listened to. If Zerum ships her oc to her oc, so fucking what? She created him. YES. SHE CREATED HIM. Just because she is a """co-owner" You forget she wrote and designed him. You forget its STILL HER CHARACTER. WHICH BTW, HE WOULDNT EXIST IF IT WASNT FOR ZERUM!! ITS HER CHARACTER- Not yours, and if your first thing that comes to mind " oh but shes ruining her character" then so what, its not MADE for you. Hell, Sebastian is only like 1% of the whole entire game! ENJOY THE GAME, ENJOY THE ACTUAL LORE. MAKE YOUR OWN OCS, GO WACKY WOOHOO AND ENJOY IT WITH OTHERS. If you make headcanons for Sebastian or any other characters! Great! As long as you are respectful who literally cares. HAVE FUN! Stop harassing and bullying and literally spreading misinfo; I am so sick of people with this mindset! This is why the internet is such a shit place to begin with because we just let this stuff happen. Grow up! Like PAInter said.." YOURE NO FUN AT ALL!"

[beesmygod]

HI EVERYONE: TODAY'S PAGE IS LATE.

im calling my shot too early, but i've spent the last 2 days getting my ass beat by lupus symptoms. im feeling so much better. the page is coming.

BUT in the meanwhile: i wrote this long post about why i left Hiveworks

ill put it under a readmore here on tumblr in its entirety:

intro: dont get your hopes up

look, i’m going to be straight up with you: there’s no messy drama or fallout that caused this. no juicy deets or salacious rumors to slurp down. you know if this were the case, i would have erupted across my various social medias in a frenzied rage with all the delicacy of a bull in a china shop partly for entertainment purposes. instead, this will probably be a boring at best navel gaze where i try to walk the line between pragmatically trying to explain why i left and moral grandstanding. because leaving abruptly looks weird externally, i do actually have to explain why instead of just mysteriously leaving during a period of time where i am being an obnoxious asshole. a combination of disdain for the current cultural zeitgeist and a growing culture of disrespect toward audiences has culminated in my online behavior devolving into the online version of grabbing people saying stupid shit on the street and shaking them very hard. this is something an insane person would do. i know.

the commodification and increasingly blatant commercialization of an art format that could once arguably be compared to other amateur transgressive arts (ex: underground comix, tijuana bibles) is borderline heartbreaking. not to be too dramatic, but i want to start smashing things like im a monster from the rampage arcade game to scare the NIMBYs away before they start building escape rooms where the fetish web comics used to be. there is no place unspoiled by the poison of advertising and sponsorships. except…

 

 

trying to make money in comics is a fool’s errand. go make furry porn commissions if you want to make money doing art! you’re completely out of your mind if you go into the arts to make money. full on detachment from reality if you choose comics. they should commit you if you choose web comics.

 

at hive:

i think people have a wildly different perception regarding the popularity of A Ghost Story so i have approximate data to give people an idea. having culled the SHIT out of my analytics results to remove bot traffic, i think i have relatively accurate results, i get about 1000 unique visitors a month (generously rounding up lol), about half of them are regulars, and 10% of them donate to patreon (this is, imo, an unfathomably large amount lol. shocking and humbling. thank you for your continued support of me in spite of [gestures]).  i feel like a small comic 99% of the time, but man. 1,000 is a big number. i can at least reasonably assume, i’m PRETTY sure, that i was a comparatively small comic in hiveworks.

my monthly payout was roughly $100 a month (and merch sales, if applicable) and their services included web site help, dealing with any merch sales, and site hosting in exchange for running banner ads (which have been a fixture on web comics since the conception of google’s ad program; remember the homestuck bidding wars??). banner ads felt like a small and reasonable compromise to be included in something that felt like a weird pipe dream. in certain circles, a hiveworks invitation was a stamp of quality with prestige; i was very aware of the company i was invited into keep and was initially pretty concerned with how my presence reflected onto them and their work. i was going through some serious brain problems due to a deeply stupid relationship and, as a result, i did my best to keep my head down, stay out of people’s way, and focus on not bringing undue shame to something i was well aware i was completely unsuited for. i had (and frankly, still have) no idea why i was chosen as i had not applied. i cannot stress enough that i was under no delusions as to the quality of my comic lol. my perception was that someone had stuck their neck out to make a special exception for me and i was constantly on the verge of fucking it up and humiliating them.

it was a very off-balance exchange extremely in my favor, and i was aware of this. especially since, being frank and honest here, i was bringing absolutely nothing to the table for them. i don’t want to put words in anyone’s mouth, but its a reasonable conclusion that i was more trouble than i was worth, given the infinitesimal worth.

the vast majority of hiveworks readers completely bounced off my comic, which makes perfect sense given the hiveworks audience is i think more interested in the genre they primarily host: fantasy and magical realism. in comparison, “a ghost story” is a slow, slooow burn about federal bureaucracy and being insane with extremely amateur art; i know what i am! and that’s fine! but i became a little resentful (and i tried not to! honest!) after 7 years of perpetually being put on a back burner. it felt like i was being strung along for reasons beyond my comprehension or as the baseline of acceptable awfulness for the website’s quality. someone has to be the “worst”, objectively. it’s not a great feeling to know it, coming to terms with it i think was much healthier than trying to fight it. it was a really good driving force to keep my mind off the nightmare of my life at that point and improve my art a lot.

AGS’ irrelevance was underscored by it being mentioned once over the course of 7 years on official social media networks, upon which a great deal of importance was placed. but frankly, there is nothing worse than dealing with the guy who sucks whining for the spotlight as though they are clueless as to why they are getting the shaft. so i simply achieved enlightenment by getting over it and realizing where i was in the hierarchy and how lucky i was to have so much shit done for me. i was (am, unbelievably. it never gets less wild when i sit down and really think about it) making enough through patreon that the $100 became my monthly fun money while i lived in oregon. it was welcome, but not essential.

a lot of real life, awful things happened that suck and couldn’t be avoided: one of the main points of communication and organization became terribly ill, COVID happened and obliterated shipping and manufacturing rates for apparently all eternity, uhhh the fabric of reality began to unravel lol. it’s been a terrible couple of years. i want to underscore this stuff so that people understand i was not wronged greatly in the grand scheme of things.

there are things that started to chip away at me over time, which made me question if i was a good fit at all. genuinely: the only thing i want to do is to try to live happily within my morals doing what i love to do. even and especially if it means living very broke. that’s the exchange i’m consciously choosing to make when i pick up the pen every day. due to the generosity of the people who support me or have supported me at any time (special shout out to adam, who puts up with this shit for some reason), i am able to do that. i contribute a proportional amount to the household now but tried to be (was??) 50/50 or 25/25/25/25 when i had roommates. i don’t want my one unyielding selfish choice to be anyone else’s burden.

i was told by another artist in hiveworks that my confrontational behavior could be a poor reflection on the brand, which became the tipping point in my choice to leave. to be clear, no one in charge told me this, but even conceptually i was not comfortable representing a company that i felt i was a member of out of obligation or inertia. i didn’t belong there and my presence was an active detriment instead of a tolerated nuisance.

anyway:

when the offer to leave was presented, i didn’t feel regret, or anxiety, or upset at all. i felt a placid sense of relief. i COULD leave. that’s TRUE. i had been kicking it around on my private twitter for a few months going back and forth with myself over what was more important to me: being able to take care of myself financially or doing something about my own hypocrisy that kept me up at night. if my incessant argument is that advertising based commercialization is a societal poison, then i need to put my money where my mouth is. and if i’m consistently annoying, i need to leave as a courtesy to everyone else.

i don’t regret my time with hive at all, but the overarching transformation from a collection of cartoonists to a brand is not where i want to take my art. i can’t bring myself to work even within the proximity of seven seas, a deeply abhorrent company. i am completely disinterested in wasting time or energy worrying about “the algorithm” because i don’t make comics for the computer’s sake and recognize that there’s a finite number of people interested in web comics in the world and an even more finite amount of money to spend on luxuries (because none of us have any money lol). i don’t want to repeat the familiar cycle of lamenting the death of art as we know it every 6 months.

people who are choosing to spend their limited funds supporting me are making a deliberate choice to elevate my presence in their life. i want and need to keep this in mind at all times, because it drives my attitudes toward what i want to choose to focus on. i want to keep my art (“art”) free with additional goodies being as reasonably priced as possible in the hopes that in this way we scratch each other’s back. making money drawing comics is a ridiculous privilege granted to me by people willing to sacrifice their time and money to me; i need to be thinking more about all that i have instead of worrying about what i don’t.

[nin-jay-go]

LIVEBLOG!!!!!!!

COME ON GUS DONT TALK SHIT ABOUT THE DEAD

aw shit the dragons

awawawawawaw arin's little horns :D

"i love you arin" cuuuute

oh i love how homemade and worn arin's armor looks :)

lloyd is so fucking tired give this man a break

"watering the plants can wait." he says epicly

AMONG US

there is no war in ba sing se :)

PERCIVAL TARTIGRADE!!!!!!!!!

HELLO DR LAROW CAN WE KISS

fucking YIKES beatrix your dictator is showing

"i made it do a thing! i deserve a break ^v^" KAI BUDDY

THESE FUCKING HOTHEADS LMAOOOO

i am! a sneaky man!

wyldfyre i love you so much

yall they're ghosts just splash them with water

YALL. WATER. WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

fuck OFFFFF with that "he created the other realms" bullshit i am cancelling that

oh they just invite frohicky up to the monastery huh

THE ANNUAL SOUP-LAUNCHING FESTIVAL???????

frohicky being the assistant keeper of the monastery could either be the worst decision ever or the best decision ever

oh god the hotheads are together

get cleaned idiot friend: gently sponges you

omg wait there's little swirls in arin's curls!!!! he IS the master of spin :D friend: he does his hair with spinjitzu

they're just playing frisbee

OH DEAR GOD HE BROKE THE SHIP

my friend and i in unison: YOU HAVE SAILS WHY ARE YOU PADDLING lloyd: we have sails us: THANK YOU

IRON LUNG?????????

oh the coral guy from the trailers!

OH THE CRAB. THE GIANT FUCKING CRAB.

CACKLING

I AM GOING TO START CRYING!!!!!!!

dey pay me in woims

ok so we were right the crab is controlling the guy

🆑🅰️🅱️

lloyd you are not beating the cat allegations

skulkin look interesting in their new update

i love this guy's voice he sounds funny

SIR WHY DID YOU EAT THE CUP

BRING BACK SNAKE JAGUAR

or. that. that could work. why did he put on the noir coat again

wyldfyre. girl. YOUR ACTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES

i love these lavatides so much oh my god

whoever wrote kai this season nailed it

omg zane's birthday :D

LOBBO LOBBO :D

GULCH!!!! i missed you buddy

ZANE EXPERIENCES A MICROAGGRESSION

INSTALLING WINDOWS

lobbo my love

they gave kai the role of comic relief in lieu of jay being missing

frohicky you are so silly

EYEBALL???

oh boy the jay spirits

....wait. if the spirit of the temple was split in two by the merge... could jay have been split in two?

ZANTH... LIKE XANTHE MY YELLOW NINJA...

oh no nya girl how are you not having a panic attack

this djinn has depression dear god

oh god they're CURSED????

oh the ghosts are djinn banshees that are gonna kill them. great.

nya's gonna have some Thoughts after this

dorama- the elemental master of parlor tricks

"they call it doom" yea its a video game from the 90s

oh the lightning dragon's name is jiro! cool!

effervescent.....

DOOM MUCUS?????

VERTICALITY

COLE'S KIDS!!!! THERE THEY ARE!!!!!

arin voice rapton lives don't matter

alas. i have been. ✨disrespected✨

watch the path be lined with salt crystals

CALLED IT

OH SHIT ITS THE OFFICE WORKERS

BIG ROCK COLE!!!!! HES BACKKKKKKK

ANOTHER FRITZ????? LIKE FRITZ DONNEGAN??????

THE HOARDER??????

cole's boyfriend???? real????? love wins??????

LIKE THE LAND ITSELF IS SCREAMING???? ARE YOU OK?

elemental power of SUPERGLUE

FUSION??????????

dude geo's design is so cool. is he a geckle/munce hybrid or is he a keeper?

bonzle....

oh wyldfyre can just break rocks with her hands huh

SILENT HILL???????????? WHY ARE THE LOST ONES IN FUCKING SILENT HILL

oh geo is a hybrid!

this is a transgender allegory. trust me bro.

oh my god geothermicshipping real

STOP DEADNAMING HER

ALKWGJLKASDKHSKJFDAJH A LITTLE GUY

SWEEPER????????? I WANT 50

there is no heterosexual explanation for them

welcome to the backrooms!

this is an eldritch dimension

this is genuinely horrifying what the fuck

i like how the hotheads were the first to find the core

kai voice hi i have trauma. but i'm normal.

why does the purple serpentine sound like one of the starkid actors

is it jay sending them the messages???? i want him to be a villain so bad pleaseeee

WHY WAS ZANE KIDNAPPED??????? HELLO?????

jay's the manager, calling it now

oh my god we're in the realm of madness??? WE'RE IN THE FUCKING SPIRAL REALM

ADMINISTRATOR IS JAY

why are these computers SO bad

my friend: lloyd garbageadon

OH MY GOD WE'RE IN ACROSS THE SPIDERVERSE

CALLED IT

I FUCKING CALLED IT

LKETS FUCKING GO

IM SO SMART

dorama's gotta be an important character later on bc that's a lot of power he has

zane you are so cool

dude don't just leave the core at home thats so stupid

oh ras is from wyldness? not chima?

?????? why is zeatrix 1) named that and 2) what is that power?????

imperium is not immune to propaganda

jiro's a wildclaw :D i know what my next project is

oh my god drew's cole is so good,,,,

my friend: guy who has only been in theater productions: this is giving me a lot of theater vibes

rapton is dead.

oh they're twins. that makes sense

last time there were twins with powers the power split itself in two. what happened here?

beatrix and harumi would get along like a house on fire

GET THEIR ASSES PERCIVAL TARTIGRADE

surprise! the mad scientist has morals! or at least self-preservation

she is still kissable

what if jay is next season's villain? (still has hope)

oh hotheads my beloved

SORA TRANSGENDER

LMAO NYA JUST CALLED BEATRIX MID JKDSFGBKJSKDJFJ

hey nya you wanna tell the others that cole is alive??????

HOTHEADS MY LOVES

rapton domestication arc

ok rapton is really funny actually

oh dear.

THEYRE GLITCHING THEYRE GLITCHING HTEHSAUHAOWHOUHFHAWHODAUWH

NO WYLDFYRE

ARINNNNNN HE LOVES SORAAAAAAAAAA

OH MY GOD THEY ARE STILL ON BEATRIX'S SIDE

every queer kid cries out in agony for sora

theeeere it is! elemental powers :D all her own :D

LOBBO SAFE AND OK ALL IS GOOD

oh!! the conduit!!!!

DRAGON HUGSSSS CUUTE CUTE CUTE CUTE

7 source dragons huh......

oh god ras has a new student

YOUR MASTER?????

[fortheb0ys]

Soo my situaction with my "friend"

im gonna Call her L.

So we started Being friends at start of this school year and we were unspereable but at first secret Santa in our class i see that she dont treat me same. I give her what she wanted and added few other things that definitly costed more than limit to buy gifts. She gave me comic book and pack of gummybear i needed to choose for myself. I have her comic book, some sweets, hot wheels car and few trinkets. Same with our birthdays i MADE for her anatomicialy correct model of mushroom (Red one with white dots) from scratch and she, she didn't get me anything, like not even fucking chocolate. Also, she dont take things seriously, like now we have project and we need to plan a project. I do almost everything and while i was stressing myself as hell she was laughing with her sister. like girl, we need to give this thing tommorow and you talk with your sister about some useleds shit and not even help me?

Next thing is that there if group of girls on my class i Feel comfortable with, even if im nonverbal most of the time they respect me very much(AND THEY BUY VEGAN SNACK JUST FOR ME 🙏🙏🙏). (In this friend group is around 5 girls and me, the gay friend) So here is example why i want to be away from L and be in this friend group ;

I llive laugh love all handmade stuff and i can make these cool braided braclets. And on monday on sport class i didn't work out so i decided to make braclet(with Name of my favorite pookie with choking kink who killed 30000 of Solider 🤭)

And i needed to put beads on it so one girl from that friend group grabed all beads from me and she was giving me excact letter i needed do i wont stress myself about dropping the bead. And all these girls where obsessed with all my handmade shit and i decided to starts making braclets for them. I make custom one for girl who was keeping beads for me and i send her pic of it and she THANKED ME SO MUCH I STARTED CRYING. And im giving her this braclet tommorow so we will see it she will get me candy or something

So here is the question, how i get away from L and get more into that friend group? How i tell L that im dont with her shit?

Ps. L's mom dont like me bacause :

1. I have long hair

2.at L's birthday part i didn't eat some fucking pasta she made and she thinks its disrespectful

3. I wear kandi braclets

Sorry if its long but i seen some other anons also writing their stories here 🙈😅

Btw, I NEED MORE MAKAROV CONTENT

In my opinion, I think she's taking advantage of your kindness. You sound like a really sweet person and some people take that as an opportunity to take more than they can give. I've been there especially as a neurodivergent kid, I sadly find people will use you for their own gain.

Be honest and tell her what she does is hurtful and distance yourself from her. Your project is ending and now your time with her can end to.

I know it can be hard to voice your emotions but in the long run it's sooooo much better for you. At the end of the day be there for yourself. Maybe ask one of the girls if they could go with you for some support!

Don't let people like this make you lose your kindness or make you feel bad for who you are. Surround yourself with people like those girls. They make your kindness grow. Still be kind to L but you don't need to be her friend.

They sound extremely sweet and I'll be honest it made me tear up a little hearing about them.

L's mom also seems like a factor to how L is. She didn't teach hee daughter well. I think long hair on guys is the best! I love my long hair!

I ACTUALLY LOOOVEE MAKING ANYTHING WITH BEAD!! KEYCHAINS BRACELETS ANYTHING!!!

I hope I could help and good luck 🥰🫶

Also I swear I will work on some Makarov fic soon!!!

[greatghuleh]

okay i got one last rum & coke let me try to type out my issues with MCU and how they are handling Sorcerer Supreme, the title and how it effects the characters Wong and Strange. This might not be coherent.

Okay.  Like, try to look at this as more than just a joke these characters like to throw around.  Try to think of Sorcerer Supreme as a title that actually means something.  (because it does)

Let’s start here.... In the comics Doctor Strange went on for a LONG time before he was ever Sorcerer Supreme. It was “Doctor Strange Master of the Mystic Arts”. So, Stephen doesn’t NEED to be Sorcerer Supreme to have fun and interesting stories.  Get that out of the way. I, as a fan, don’t need Stephen to be the Sorcerer Supreme.  But there is WEIGHT to this title. and MCU is more and more disregarding it. 

So. look at how MCU has told this story.  

We have Stephen’s whole origin movie.  And the emphasis on him and the almost “chosen one” aspect of him coming in and becoming the Sorcerer Supreme.  because the Ancient One (Current SS) saw it.  and they KNEW he’d become the SS.  and this was SIGNIFICANT.   Tho the first movie absolutely 0-100 guns Stephen’s training from novice to kind of proficient to Sorcerer Supreme in no time flat.... this is what they did.  him Becoming Sorcerer Supreme and accepting this responsibility from the Ancient One in the first movie was significant.  and was not a thing that he or the audience were meant to take lightly.  There were SCENES that hit this very heavily.  THIS WAS A BIG DEAL. 

And alongside this, we have chosen to adapt Wong as a direct peer of Stephen’s, even a sorcerer more experienced and knowledgeable.  a *bit* like “Season One” dynamics but not quite.  Wong is a competent Sorcerer, skilled fighter, and displayed to have a very good head for knowledge.  Remember that we are also at the same time presented with a Stephen Strange that essentially has a photographic memory in his first movie. 

Stephen is Sorcerer Supreme. But hes inexperienced........ MCU missteps first here.  Now Wong’s role is to wrangle an inexperienced Sorcerer who is THE LEADER, instead of just being his protector.  We’ve essentially tried to empower Wong here but have still put him in the same position as his comic counterpart but with a SS who kind of deserves the title less.  

We see a competent and powerful SS!Strange appear in the Avengers movies with Wong playing the support in Infinity War.  Okay.  We see Strange growing into his responsibilities and taking them seriously and a Wong who doesn’t have to wrangle strange as much as work alongside him. (loved this)

then the switch happens.  End Game, Stephen gets blipped and Wong (”by default”) earns the Sorcerer Supreme Title because Stephen is essentially dead and somebody has to be SS. 

So.  here come the problems.  Wong didn’t necessarily EARN this title.  the movies keep telling us he’s only SS by “technicality” and we even see Stephen disrespect his position, as shown lightheartedly in MoM (its still disrespect), and now we see the absolute MESS MCU has made of this. 

We’ve BARELY established Doctor Strange in the MCU and as this Sorcerer Supreme before we snatch it away from him with the *snap*.  and now we have to come up with some “solution” to the problem we’ve created.  we killed the sorcerer supreme.  there has to be another.  Give it to Wong.  But now we brought Stephen back and we dont want to FOCUS on Wong, the Sorcerer Supreme, so we just start to turn the title into some little joke because we don’t know what else to do.  We have no real avenue to correct what Infinity War did.  We didn’t think this far ahead.  

You see.  Now that Wong is Sorcerer Supreme its this kind of flimsy title suddenly that is just earned on “technicality”.  He’s a character that comes and goes and somehow ends up with the busy work.  You can argue this is just kind of how Wong works, he’s more oriented this way.. He’s going to better maintain the Kamar Taj school and training and be more physically present in the “day to day”. and I hear that.  But the casualness that the title Sorcerer Supreme takes on suddenly in the MCU speaks. 

( and the first Doctor Strange movie did not joke about this title and its responsibilities and what the role needed.   its all the movies that came after that kept making it less significant as they realized Stephen Strange was farther and farther from re-obtaining it.)

and throwing out that while Stephen was Sorcerer Supreme (and portrayed as competent for a bit) doesn’t JUMP HEAD FIRST into every new thing the title unlocks as MoM revealed the SS is given access to knowledge of the Vishanti and Book of Vishanti and we learn in MoM that Strange didn’t know anything about this but Wong did??

its like, shitting on them both at the same time.  because we have a Strange who didn’t seem to bother learning all that was available to him *LOLOLOL* and a Wong who is highly disregarded by the MCU despite his knowledge and skill. 

We’ve now overselled Strange as a Sorcerer and potential SS and entirely undersold Wong.    and yes. this fucking shits on them BOTH. 

We’ve dumbed down Stephen to such a degree that he’s left for half of his OWN movie asking “What’s going on?” while we went to all that trouble to *not* make Wong an underling and even made him SS yet he’s still EXPLAINING all this shit to Stephen.  

We’ve missed the marks entirely.  

We probably would have been better off leaving their comic book dynamic almost in tact at this point and how they’ve disrespected both characters but especially their attempt at empowering Wong.  

and then, with all these changes and making Wong a SORCERER and SS, you have to sit down and ask, why aren’t the movies about Wong, Master of the Mystic Arts, Sorcerer Supreme??

they BUNGLED IT.

[yaoi-sekai]

I dont mean any disrespect, We all appreciate your work but since it has been 3 months since last zettai no bl chapter is it dropped? I saw taht you were collecting twitter comics but just wanted to confirm zettai is ongoing right. Thanks a lot for the time and effort you put into translating this novels

Like I mentioned before, Zettai BL is ongoing and we'll keep translating it, but there's not any sign of a Vol 3 yet. We'll wait for a volume release for the reasons mentioned here. Sensei posts short comics on twitter regularly, so I've been indeed putting them together to release them at once. Just yesterday, Sensei uploaded another comic to twitter (and a new comic to their fanbox as well), so I think we will close the batch with those. Please wait a bit more, thanks for understanding.

[mp100fanworkstranslation]

The Spirits and Such Patisserie: Part 3

PART 1 IS HERE

PART 2 IS HERE

The original comic is here: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/62284042

Newspaper captions: Seasoning City News Paranormal Activity? Self Proclaimed Psychic Rei ---- cuts off

Ekubo: You sure about closing that store?

Reigen: I feel like this place suits me better. 

Ekubo: You say that, but you can’t deny that the patisserie made a lot of money.

Ekubo: If possible, don’t you want to continue that business?

Reigen: Give it a rest

-Door Opens-

Reigen: Welcome! eh?

Reigen: Well that’s unusual… why are you here? If you’re looking for Mob, he’s still at his club right now.

Ritsu: I know

Reigen: ...? Then did you leave something here?

Reigen: Wait... what do you have there? Is....Is that chocolate? 

Reigen: You just want to rub it in don’t you? You here to show me what actual acceptance looks like yeah?! Caption: What is with him?

Reigen: Ekubo.....Someday I’ll be just like that spirit from the other day.

Ekubo: ...You

Ekubo: You didn’t get anything at all? Not even a small gesture of a gift? (A non-romantic small gift to show that people care.) 

Reigen: No! Stop hurting me!! 

Ritsu: Mr. Reigen

Reigen: What? Kid, if you’re here to gloat, why don’t you just go? There’s no need for this insult to injury.

Ritsu: This isnt something I received.

Reigen: Eh?

Ritsu: I just feel that if you died without ever receiving anything.... any gift to show that the people around you care about you, that would be really sad. 

Ritsu: ....Thank you. 

(The “You” that he uses here is very respectful and not something he’s ever used before to refer to Reigen. It’s an acknowledgement of “Hey, you’re older and wiser and not terrible.”) Ekubo: Be that as it may, Reigen

Ekubo: Congrats. Now you’re not going to become an evil spirit.

Reigen: What are you talking about eh?

Reigen: And what’s this? 

Ekubo: Probably Chocolate

Reigen: Eh? Really? Is this a joke? Is it really chocolate? Why would he give it to me?

Ekubo: It’s because of that thing yesterday

Reigen: I wish he’d said something

(See note about Giri Chocolate in Part 2)

-The Next Day-

Reigen: Oi! Ritsu!

Ritsu: I got your text. Did you need something from me? 

Reigen gives him a gift

Ritsu: What’s this?

Reigen: It’s a return gift for the chocolate you gave me yesterday

Ritsu: Well, you didn’t have to

Reigen: Ah it’s fine. This is just how gift exchanges work.

Ritsu: Can I open it?

Reigen: Of course

Reigen: At first I wasn’t sure what to give you. I thought about it really hard and even asked Mob for advice.

Ritsu: You asked my brother?

Ritsu thinks: You know.... maybe he’s not so......

Reigen: But! Then I decided that this would be something you’d really appreciate. 

-Ritsu feels a little nervous-

Tofu? 

Ritsu: ..................

Reigen: Well, I heard you like tofu so....It comes packaged in shredded wood fiber. 

I got it this morning, It’s freshly made.  Ritsu: YOU ARE SO DISSAPPOINTING!!

Reigen: What why? You dont like tofu?

Ritsu: I DO like tofu but that’s not the point!

Ritsu wanted to shout No! You’ve got it backwards at the top of his lungs. 

>>This is somewhat of a cultural inside joke. In Japan, when someone gets out of prison it's typical for them to receive gifts of tofu.  Tofu is a very bland,  and a palate-cleansing food.  So it represents getting rid of bad impressions and starting off on the clean slate. Not eating the tofu is bad luck because it means you'll return to your old ways. But he's not saying "hey let's put our differences aside and start over", because it's actually a directional gift. So because he's giving it TO Ritsu, what he's really saying is "Hey you were an asshat before, but I forgive you. Let's start afresh from now on, cleanse your palate and your soul.  I'm willing to overlook how much you hated and disrespected me in the past, to forgive and forget." Which honestly is just like the glorious douchebag that he is. So of course Ritsu is angry, and Reigen plays it off like "hey what you don't like tofu?"<<

Artist’s Comment: I wanted to draw something with a Valentines day feel. Here’s a comic in which the Spirits and such office runs a pastry shop in response to a request to exorcise spirits.

After I finished, I realized that it became a story of an adult who is not accustomed to being cared about and a child who is not accustomed to being protected. I like Reigen, the patron saint of middle school students.

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. tbh i think the pointed ears on the nymphs is kinda cute, the issue is that rachel and her team cannot keep most of their designs consistent and most are so lazy (ie daphne is just persephone with blue splotches, leto is just hera with black eyes, echo is just female hades, etc) that the features arent really a sign of thought out character design, but rather laziness that even they cant keep straight, as well as showing how lazy it is when only single features can tell anyone apart.

2. if anyone wants to see good versions of taking a webtoon and reworking it for print, go look at hooky, punderworld, and even let's play to see how it's actually done. the LO version is so rushed and lazy it's honestly kind of insulting to how well the other examples did their print versions.

3. It’s a fairly profound realization when you can sit back and recognize that Persephone has almost zero personality traits that aren’t completely wrapped around Hades. When taking a moment to think about what other meaningful relationships Persephone has outside of her love interest, there’s maybe…two (Hecate and Eros…possibly Hera)? I just need to point out that this is highly unusual for any sort of character, especially within a serialized work of art, to possess nearly no identifiable attributes aside from “what will their crush think of them if they do [blank]?” Persephone retains the same lukewarm qualities that early-era Disney princesses hold: interchangeable, formulaic, and malleable enough that viewers can easily insert themselves within the character’s respective roles. Some other anon had mentioned this before, but you could just as easily change Persephone’s name to “Y/N” and practically nothing would change within the story context itself.

4. heres what i dont get. its pretty obvious the first lo book at least is riding off repurposing longer panels as page backgrounds, which i do think is neat, the problem is even by ep 26 (which is where the first book ends) rs stops doing panels like this, and if she ever uses them very rare and still lacking interest. by the time the print version line up with the actual comic, it'll be nothing but a bunch of squished in. static panels with nothing to try and punch it up in the background.

5. itss really weird hera pointed out persephone is young and impressionable and would never argue with hades because of her naive nature and how her youth makes her easy to be pushed around and yet ... hades does exactly that to her and its framed as romantic?? like rachel you know when you say hades shouldn't do that that you actually shouldn't have him do that, right?? like she always setts something up to be disproven (like the age gap or smth) only to play it straight, like???

6. what i dont get of the print LO books is that the logo implies it's a whimsical fantasy, which LO is not, and even the first volume's cover implies its a contrast between the ancient world and the modern when thats not what LO is either. It's aN obvious example of false advertising and promising a viewer something they wont be getting. The second volume cover is horribly designed and lazy, but it's a bit more accurate in telling the viewer LO is just a 50 shades rip off at least.

7. What bugs me the most about LO is the over the top naive personality that RS puts on Persephone; for a goddess who lives with her mother in the farms I guess she could have a more assertive personality giving the context of dealing with the constant feeling of getting married unbeknownst to her or her mother, @a-gnosis comic portraits a more competent and unyielding Persephone, even when it needs to confront Hades, she doesn't fall in love in the way like LO Persephone does, that's a good story.

8. I had to stop reading the most recent fastpass because I couldn’t stop laughing at how some of the hands were drawn. Like, there are panels of Apollo and Zeus where their hands are so out of proportion that they are comically huge in comparison to their tiny heads.

9. I looked at the lo fast pass tag and found an account blaming us antis for effing up the LO tag… Like can you guys take it up to ones who made this app??.. It’s not our fault that tag system is messed up.

10. Is it just me or the humour in lo got super tiring an completely out of place? We are getting same old jokes all the time with "people" being loud and disrespectful to social norms (like Hermes walking in the court as it's a tv show) and every time it's placed during serious events, like what for? Why destroying the mood? Also it got super predictable - who would have know P would ask H to represent her - such complicated plot much suspence. It got super tiring to read now

[poplinn]

@divine-buni​ ha risposto al tuo post: “ hello! I myself am not Jewish, and I was wondering why Jewish Medic is anti-Semitic? I'm genuinely asking, if it's possible that you could elaborate a bit more, please?” 

Yes, I’d love to elaborate for you [and other people who’ve seen the post and aren’t quite sure what I meant]. Considering this post is going to be quite a long one I’ve put everything under a read more, but here’s a quick TL;DR

TL;DR:

Medic’s actions in Comic 6 contradict Jewish beliefs, therefore I find it disrespectful to our religion to HC him as Jewish.

Most people who HC Medic as Jewish are goyim, and portray him/Jewish beliefs/Judaism very incorrectly but don’t seem to listen to Jewish people who try to correct them.

All art i’ve seen of Jewish Medic so far feed into Antisemetic Stereotypes which is disgusting. 

Jewish Medic only came into existence to counter the Nazi HC

People just don’t their research even though it’s not that hard. 

Full explanation under the read more:

So before i start explaining why I think the Jewish Medic and its portrayals are anti-semetic I want to give a little background information. I myself am Jewish, I have been my entire life, and I’m a practicing conservative Jew. I go to the Synagogue and I have read the Tanakh [The Hebrew Bible]. Now I understand that the text may differ in some translations/interpretations of the original text. I also understand that some things are left a bit ambigious at times, meaning different people can have different interpretations of the same text. What I’m about to write after this is all part of my personal interpretations/findings of the Tanakh and what I’ve been taught. I, obviously, don’t speak for all jewish people out there, this is strictly personal. 

Now, what I’ve always learned from reading the Tanakh is that the belief in demons and Satan [sometimes even angels] is often, if not all the time, rejected. There are no mentions of demons in the Tanakh, and Satan is not a demon. Think of it that Satan is more of a metaphor, and doesn’t exist in physical form. He’s more of an advocate or metaphor for having different opinions. 

In Kabbalah Satan represents a sinful impulse a person might have[we’ve all been there], or a “force” that prevents us humans from submitting to divine will. The Devil doesn’t exists, he’s merely a metaphor for the bad stuff we have inside us, our sins/sinful thoughts. But physically? He’s not there.

It is also generally believed that Hell is...not a thing. It’s really more of a Christian thing to make people fear G-d. But what happens if we commit sins? Well, what I’ve been taught in my 20+ years of living is that when we die, we either go to heaven or go to purgatory. In purgatory you work off your sins for a set amount of time. This time differs per person depending on what sins you’ve committed and if you show remorse. But Hell itself does not exist at all. 

Why does this all matter? When Medic dies he goes to Hell and meets the Devil. 

The fact that this happens contradicts Jewish beliefs. I think that if you headcanon Medic as Jewish without taking this huge contradiction into consideration is very disrespectful of out belief. And mind you, all people I’ve seen HC Medic as Jewish are goyim.  Medic meeting the Devil himself isn’t inherently antisemitic or disrespectful, considering Medic is not canonically Jewish, but headcanoning as Jewish is.

Then there are the portrayals of Jewish Medic in art. Now we all know what Medic looks like: 

He’s a white man, with short black hair and a little flock of hair that rests on his forehead. All the art I’ve seen of Jewish Medic so far, and I mean ALL, feed into Jewish stereotypes. Curly black hair, really dark skin and a huge nose. I’m sorry but, since when is this okay?? [ I shouldn’t be one to speak on this considering I have black curly hair, tanned skin and bigger nose /joke ]. Not every Jewish person looks like this. If Medic were indeed canonically Jewish the way he looks is just...fine. A character doesn’t need to have black curly hair, darker skin and a huge hooked nose in order to be Jewish. It just baffles me that in the year of 2021 people still think doing this is okay. 

And to add to it, like every other religion, in Judaism we also wear specific kind of clothing. The cloth and colour of our Yarmulkes all mean something, and to see this being portrayed incorrectly, by goy people nonetheless, it just bothers me a lot. It gets even worse that, when me and other Jewish people try to reach out to these artists and try to tell them nicely that they’re portraying our religion incorrectly that we 1. dont get listened to, 2. get blocked, 3. get dismissed.

To directly quote a message from a certain person I messaged about their Jewish Medic portrayal being incorrect: “I don't know how much I can say of Jewish issues considering I've never been connected to that part of my ancestry religiously or culturally.” Right after I explained everything to them, it’s incredibly dismissive in my eyes. You don’t need to be Jewish in order to understand Judaism or Jewish beliefs. 

I feel like I’m kind of starting to ramble, so apologies if it’s a little less coherent, but....I also think the origins of the Jewish Medic are a bit...icky/weird/uncomfortable. I’m not sure what the right word is [apologies, English isn’t my first language]. 

Back in the day the Nazi Medic Headcanon was a thing, which is obviously problematic on its own. Some people, in response to that, wanted to counter this Nazi HC by making Medic Jewish. Because it was “fun and quirky.” Which is ridiculous. Our religion is not just something “fun and quirky” for gentiles to randomly use as a headcanon. I personally feel like gentiles take our religion serious because of that. Jewish people are not the direct opposites of Nazis. The world really isn’t that black and white / Bad vs Good. You don’t need to be Jewish in order to counter Nazis or be anti-fascism. If someone isn’t Jewish, it doesn’t make them a Nazi. 

I don’t mind if a person wants to HC a character as something they aren’t, but please please please do some proper reasearc or reach out to people before you do, so you can also do it correctly. For example: I have an OC who is intersex. I myself am not intersex. I did research, I went to forums and I asked around to make sure what I was doing was right. It’s not that hard. 

I may have missed a few things here and there but I hope it answers your question and happy Passover

[theunconcernedembalmer]

what’s the issue with elisop? is it just bc you hc aesop as ace? im so concerned by seeing ppl adamantly opposed to mlm/wlw ships but im also genuinely curious about why you dislike it and other lgbt ships so much lol

hmm. that is a strong accusation, n i find it just a bit odd. are you new here? or perhaps you are taking personal offense at my dislike towards a favourite ship of yours and using the lgbt argument as moral high ground?

whatever the case may be, i thank you for asking. if u r truly looking for an answer, its below the cut n it is very very long. mind u these are all my personal opinions n i am in no way policing how others enjoy ships. just in case this wasnt clear; i dont wish to start discourse on this blog, especially since my takes are probably... unpopular.

firstly i would like to address the “disliking lgbt ships” bit, because this has very strong implications in itself. i have nothing against lgbt ships. i enjoy them, even. if the two characters have chemistry between each other, i ship it. however, the moment characterization is broken for the sake of romance, i lose interest. this is generally my stance on ships in general, n this applies for both straight n lgbt ships. 

the ships themselves are fine. however, i do have issues with the ship dynamics, so ill let u in on that.

i want to touch on mlm ships in particular; i believe u are familiar with the top/bottom dynamic that is rampant in these kinds of ships? (i wont deny that this dynamic can be found in other types of ships, but for arguments sake i will be focusing on gay ships because i feel that this occurs more commonly here) its such a popular dynamic that is prone to stripping the personality from one if not both characters, only for them to be reduced to being dominant/submissive. for a character to be pigeonholed into a stereotypical category based on... preferred sexual positions? its just downright insulting, never mind the larger more problematic implications of it. top/bottom is not indicative of someones personality, by the way. flattening multi dimensional characters into these stereotypes is so so so insulting.

unfortunately this is The Most Popular portrayal of just about any gay ship around. ive seen it being used everywhere in so many fandoms n it just about becomes apparent to me that ppl come to stories looking for a Ship. not the stories, nor the characters, just a ship. while id like to say theres nothing wrong with that, keep in mind not everyone is just looking for 2 characters that look pretty next to each other. if i ship something, i see interesting n meaningful interactions between 2 characters, which is so often not the case once u bring in the top/bottom dynamic. why is it so popular? because somehow this is what ppl like from a gay ship n hence it sells. ppl want the drama, characterizations be damned. ppl want to see the big kiss that happens in the end, n maybe the sexy parts that come after. characterizations be damned.

so u can say im a little wary of gay ships when they cross my feed. hell, as a joseph aesop shipper i see this trope everywhere n im pretty disappointed as well. small tangent but i feel like this is the reason why zh0ngli n ch1lde is so popular in g3nshin. i try to see the appeal, i really do, but after a long while of analyzing their respective characters i dont think they have as much chemistry as ppl think they do. dont even get me started on how incredibly ooc they make either of these very interesting n unique characters in ship portrayals. all because of the top/bottom dynamic that ppl want to see. i say this for that particular ship, but this is pretty much the case for a lot of ships out there, n the latter part is painfully true even when the 2 characters do have potential between each other. ill say it again im disgusted by the blatant disrespect to the characterizations if all ppl ever want is 2 pretty puppets to mush lips together. cos thats what theyre essentially reduced to this way.

n its so obvious to see when an artist subscribes to this rhetoric, because u can so clearly see it in the way they draw their characters. the “top” generally has sharper features to go with their “dominating personality”, while the “bottom” has disturbingly softer, feminine, dare i say sometimes child like features “to submit”. n thats where the uwu soft gay trope comes from, i believe. which, in case u still dont know, i hate with a burning passion.

so again for ppl with impaired reading comprehension, im fine with ships, including lgbt ones, but the moment u break characterization for the sake of the ship, im not that okay with it. u want to do it for a short crack comic? fine. but if thats the only way ur portraying the 2 characters then im immediately wary of ur content. ill still look at it cos usually the art is really good, but im very very wary. so im not “adamantly opposed”, just very critical of how the ships are being portrayed. if other ppl want to enjoy their ships like that, sure. just dont expect me to join in on something i dont agree on.

.

now id like to address not shipping “because i hc aesop as ace”. for ppl who are new to the blog (hello there), im an ace in a romantic relationship, so thats definitely not the reason i dont ship elisop. its more of being in a relationship has largely shaped my views towards romance as a whole. even before i met my boyfriend, i hated the romance genre in stories n media. most of it comes off as incredibly forced, especially those love triangles they seem to love putting into teen novels. thats one reason why i stopped reading when i was younger, but i digress.

did i partake in shipping when i was younger? i did. for a gay ship too (if anyone really wants to know, its kurotsukki from haikyuu. at least this was one that i can remember, i was mostly working on my 20 odd ocs for the longest time). i also used to write little short romance ficlets that i never posted anywhere cos i hated (n still do hate) my writing. but writing romance when u dont have experience was really just a way of projecting n probably a way of coping for myself, not that i knew at that time. but after i actually started a relationship with my boyfriend (whom i love n cherish a lot thank u very much), i began to see how much all these have skewed my views towards romance n have actually done some harm to our relationship. the bullshit that the general media feeds u constantly doesnt help in the slightest either.

quick topic shift to elisop in particular (about time, right?). i already stated that i only ship characters if i sense chemistry between the two personalities, n if u have seen the part where i dont ship elisop then u must have seen how agonized i am over not being able to have a concrete personality for eli. that is the main problem i have with elisop: eli does not feel like a solid character to me. n that is a huge problem, because if he doesnt have any defining characteristics besides being mild n nice, then he can be whoever i want him to be. (i have done this in my exorcist comics, i will admit this. n the fact that i can just do that... it really does not sit well with me personally.)

n that is dangerous.

back to young me doing lil ship things. i think its also pretty safe to say when u really do ship 2 characters, chances are u kinda really relate very very hard to at least one of them. that very quickly can turn into projecting, n shipping therefore is not “exploring the relationship between 2 characters” n it becomes “my preferred dating simulator 101″. of course this isnt always the case, but at least it was for me, n subconsciously it might be for lots of ppl too. n since this is ur mental playground, u call the shots, n there is no consequences if u slightly (or even entirely) alter one or both personalities to fit ur desired narrative. n u wouldnt even notice or know, cos ur blind to ur own biasness.

we bring our perceived notions into real life, im sure u know that. so when ur partner does not become that perfect knight in shining armour, or when they get upset at things that u do (which is a very normal thing by the way), n u think (very subconsciously), That isnt what my otp would do, something is wrong here (nothing is wrong, actually its just ur skewed perception of a stable romantic relationship). why wouldnt ur otp do this? because u are both halves of ur otps, there is no hidden secrets between them (apart from the pining part but thats irrelevant), n again they have been altered to fit ur preferred narrative. 

a real relationship requires a lot of communication between parties, because newsflash, liking someone doesnt mean that u have to like every single thing they do, they will make mistakes n it will hurt u, n guess what, the reverse is also true. if u do go with absoutely anything that they would do with 0 objections whatsoever, ur not crushing on someone, ur idolizing them, n that power imbalance is detrimental to a relationship. these things are not obvious to ppl, especially when the whole climate is hell bent on getting into romantic relationships by a certain age or some bullshit. communication is key n is pretty much the only way to solve relationship issues, because the other person has a lot that u r not seeing n vice versa. as similar as 2 ppl can be, i doubt u can have 100% the same thoughts on all things. i dont make the rules.

so in ur mental playground u focus on the fluffy parts, maybe there is communication, but rarely is there any meaningful conflict. thats unrealistic, n if u bring that mindset to an actual relationship, thats not going to end well. i say meaningful conflict, because yes, generally u shouldnt have conflicts with ur significant other. but inevitably when ur with each other for long enough, u will realize that there are habits that u must change in order to be with the other person. habits that are harmful to the other person directly, or harmful habits towards yourself that indirectly harm the other person. these are meaningful in a sense that if left alone, it will manifest into larger problems that will harm u, the other person n the relationship as a whole. its meaningful to the relationship.

all these is made even worse if ur neurodivergent. maladaptive coping practices, self sabotaging behaviours, inherent disabilities. all these must be adjusted n addressed. im so incredibly thankful for my boyfriend for being incredibly patient with me when working all these out, n it has not been easy for me to work on myself n all my problems, n im still not done working on them. this aspect is often not explored in romance in general (or properly), n there is a very good chance i would have still been stuck in the unhealthy mindset of “this isnt like my otp, maybe we’re not meant to be”. because loving someone is a choice. no one is made for each other, it is a conscious choice made between 2 ppl to make things work. this is how arranged marriages work, i am told, n i do see the appeal, not that it actually does appeal to me culturally.

special mention to the kurotsukki ship, cos from there i found a very, very good fic that explored their relationship before n after getting together, n it actually showed aspects of this problem in the incredibly slow burn of (at that time) 20+ chapters. it was just one fic (n a very good one at that, i believe it was called Leviticus), but it had a lesson i never thought i needed to learn, n learn it i did, with a lot of help from my dear. 

this is also probably the reason why i dont really want to delve too much into romance now. i know its a lot of work, n everything (mostly) that the media feeds u is really false advertising, but ppl eat that shit up n so it remains one of the most popular genres to date. im just very wary that if i do start on a romantic story, i want to be able to show it in a way like that fic did, the truths of relationships, because i dont want to make something that sells, i want to make something that meaningful to me, if a little indulgent. n that also includes being very careful in how the respective characterizations will change in a relationship. almost too careful now that i think about it, but its not something that i mind. i was never one for romance from the start, n now im very careful about shipping because of what happened to me persoanlly.

okay enough about me, lets talk about aesop. in any au u put the character in, the essence of the character must remain despite the change in environment. so lets say we have ur typical modern au. dead mom, check. shitty mentor doing illegal stuff? also check. autistic boy with social anxiety? we’re good to go. all these have implications on aesop as a character, n while ppl are aware of this, again the way they go about portraying it can go, in my personal opinion, very wrong. ppl who immediately woobify aesop completely because he has autism annoy me. ppl who reduce him to uwu soft boi cos he has social anxiety do not know how the disorder really works n as someone who has that i hate it to the core. ppl who do all these for the sake of ship have lost my respect. its insulting.

remember the top/bottom dynamic? not that elisop is completely free from that (even if i dont know much about eli, to put him in either one of those stereotypes feels very insulting to his character. i wont even say anything about doing it to aesop its so upsetting), but its not entirely made up of either. but now i want to introduce another trope i am very wary of, which is “i can fix him”. im sure u guys have seen the meme going around poking fun at this trope (for those who havent, its along the lines of “u can fix him? well i can be his worst nightmare”) n no doubt yall would have seen it n gotten sick of it in some forced hetero romantic bullshit. we have one damsel in distress with a saviour that solves all their problems just by existing n being romo with each other.

remember “my preferred dating simulator 101″? this is not mutually exclusive n from my point of view this is dangerously close to this trope. lets be real, if it was actually a thing that all ur deep rooted trauma magically disappears if someone were to waltz into ur life, we would want it. definitely. no painfully dissecting ur own problems n constantly facing them head on. real life states that this is not the case, but it will not stop us from dreaming. n so this trope is born n lives n will go on.

(finally) pulling aesop n eli into this, at least in my mind, u have one severely traumatized boy with lots of issues n u have this. nice mild guy who can be anything u want him to be. i hope u can see where im going with this, n thats the direction i see some elisop heading towards (i dont read a lot of elisop to be fair). if u came from my eli character talk, i mentioned that it is incredibly one sided. this is exactly what im talking about.

putting it all together in case u havent already, aesop is the damsel in distress, whose problems magically disappear because of elis godly kindness n little to no work on improving himself, n they lived happily n gayly ever after.

can u tell how much that does not appeal to me. 

never mind the butchering of character that inevitably happens somewhere somehow, the unrealistically perfect themes n implications of this trope makes me so viscerally uncomfortable. this is, of course, due to personal reasons, n i definitely see the appeal of this dynamic because i would probably have been interested in this once upon a time as well. but as i am now, with everything i have explained up there n everything i have been through, i would politely rather not.

n its difficult to think of another dynamic, because of how little i know about eli apart from him being this saint, which easily makes him a candidate for being aesops trauma panacea. never mind aesop rarely, if ever, does anything for eli as a character in return, n its so damaging to buy into this rhetoric, where a person like this who would solve all ur issues no strings attached exists somewhere in the world. they really dont. a relationship has to be mutually benefitting, or it will be draining n disastrous. maybe u say, Oh its nice to imagine it once in a while. n yeah, i agree, except once in a while is a little difficult to keep track of n that is sort of what happened to me. id rather stay as far away as possible from this kind of unrealistic fantasy, i just got this shit sorted out with myself n my boyfriend.

i have some other reasons, but theyre more personally problematic, so i wont go into them here. but this is mostly n generally why i do not ship elisop romantically. if u do, u do u, and have fun, but again dont expect me to join u. thank u for coming to my ted talk, this took a lot longer than expected.

[gilded-green]

@persononplanet replied to your post Okay but if you want to know some truly cursed...

I mean it fits a lot with who Yong is. A man who loves torturing and walking over other people that he feels like he can walk over. Tuan’s one of those and Tuan’s letting it happen because he’s not coming up for himself, at all. So he’s the most simple of the directors to bully. Yong wouldn’t dare do it to Long Feng, Shirong (oh yeah definitely bully the man that will brainwash you in the night), If Yong gets too close to Delun, Delun’s going to bore him to death with history,

And Quy...well Quy is just a chill dude no one really seems to mind. But Quy would stand up for himself and he knows how normal relationships should work.

All of which yong does not. 

Tuan, all in all, is the easiest to bully.

Why does yong bully? Well who knows, we certainly dont. But some guesses? Probably a bad childhood wherein he might’ve been abused by his family, leading him to turn bitter and only know how to deal with people in a violent way and with disdain.

It may be insecurity, a fear of people not respecting him or something like that, which he tries to fill by feeling superior than them. Which obviously isnt exactly the right way to solve such isssues but its the only way he knows how to. 

He definitely seems to enjoy it, so it might also be that he has a mental illness that screwed something up inside to the point he does nothing but what he always does, except when he needs to appear all formal and nice. (psychopathic perhaps?) 

All in all, for whatever reason, Yong is an abusive little shit to Tuan because Tuan allows it. Tuan doesn’t stand up for himself, he doesn’t defend himself, doesn’t do anything, because he, just as Caelum pointed out, longs for that brotherly companionship that many Dai Li have with their assigned partner. But he doesn’t.

Plus, he might think that if he just sits back and takes it, it would be less bad than actively pointing out his former partner’s behavior.

It’s definitely an issue of insecurity for Tuan. And we see it all the time in the written works. Tuan’s a Dai Li director, he’s in charge of all the patrols, he’s scary and terrifying to everyone, except the rest of the Directorate. They all don’t take him that seriously and Yong outright bullies him. Tuan’s self esteem and self-assureness must be rock bottom at this point for this situation must’ve been going on for several years now, and that with Yong even longer. 

My conclusion? Tuan deserves some actual care and friendship, someone should put Yong in his place, and I really need to stop pulling a re-education agent and psychologically analyzing people/characters, and get back to the mother’s day present im making. 

thank you all for listening (err reading) to my tedtalk

-the totally not a weirdo re-education agent, ahlyae

OH HI AHLYAE I DIDN’T REALIZE THAT WAS YOU!!!! Thanks for the novel, lol.

Nice analysis! Reeducation would like their hat back.

I would like you to rest assured that there is no dark secret or tragic backstory or anything else in Yong’s background that could possibly be cause for sympathy, however. He is very much just a dick. A solid middle-turned-upper class asshole with a penchant for power trips, who sees human beings as numbers and statistics and capital that only exist as a resource to boost him up. One of those people who, at their core, is fundamentally just kind of a jerk, and instead of allowing basic human decency and their relationships with the people they care about to temper that, turns and goes in the other direction to just become an even bigger jerk. The kind of jerk who doesn’t see why human rights violations are such a big deal.

I mean okay maybe there was something that might’ve set him down this path, but like *gestures at Yong’s everything and also the Dai Li’s shadow police practices in general* we are well past that. A few decades and multiple torture victims past that, really.

Tuan is pretty much just living with it at this point, as he has been for years. I’m very glad that I got That Time Tuan Got Plastered published; in GG Tuan was comic relief and I appreciated him for it, but in TTTGP I got to show how he’s competent and also overwhelmed. Dude needs a vacation or ten and also a friendship detox but idk when that’s gonna happen for him.

Really is a shame auspisticism isn’t a thing in this universe. I’d nominate a Reeducation agent for their middle leaf.

.......Maybe someone should lock them in a closet with Shirong, if he’d would be willing to cooperate. Yong is low-key frightened of Shirong. He learned the hard way not to disrespect Shirong.

[ectonurites]

a very very genuine question: so its bad to repost art but no one says anything when people repost things from the source material/creator's sketches.....why?like sure everyone who likes it may recognize the style but there are plenty of fan artists i recognize immediately, new or old art, with or without. to me it just feels the same, like either dont repost art or people should be able to repost stuff, i dont see how they can work at the same time. and this isnt me saying people should be allowed to repost and all that bc i do understand the theory of why reposting hurts artists, just that the logic doesnt seem to fit once it extends to famous artists/creators. just bc its official and easily recognizable makes it okay? how does that work? again, there are plenty of fanartists who are easily recognizable and lose no money when people repost their work (bc they posted it for free) and from my own observation, it seems it just, somehow, makes them want to do art less (from what i have read from artists themselves). why do we not consider that when it comes to official creators? wouldnt they also feasibly be less motivated seeing their hard work plastered across the internet for free when thats the sole way they make their income? and its not a system where its solely sticking it to the man bc it hurts the artists income, as well. but if it makes them happy to see people enjoying and sharing their work with others, drawing interest, why isnt it the same with fan artists? people often repost art, not out of malice or intent to claim credit, but bc they enjoy it + want to share it, esp on social media where sharing isnt a feature (instagram, for example) again im not trying to justify reposting, just confused about the contradiction

First of all instagram does have a form of sharing posts- stories. Which yes they are temporary by default, but you can use the highlight feature to collect your favorite things you’ve shared from people right there on your own profile AND it links back to the original post and can permanently be on your profile as long as you keep it there. You can even label them and everything! But then moving on to answering more of your actual questions

To start: this is a very complicated thing. And I feel everyone trying to answer it might have slightly varied opinions. 

I personally see a pretty clear distinction between ‘Officially published/released’ works (like comic book [as like you’ve probably seen I frequently post comic panels] or other materials that may have been released in creator guides, official video game art, promotional art for things, etc etc) as opposed to like, personal work and fanart. Because with official works:

There’s usually a source to buy it and you should if you’re referencing it a ton (while I don’t own every comic I’ve ever read I do have a lot and if I did read something first through illegal means [because some comics are just straight up hard to find due to age/being out of print] and enjoyed it I try to seek out a physical copy after if possible)

There is a level of far wider recognition (I know you personally might find fanartists’ styles recognizable but like, things that are in mainstream media.. have just such a higher profile. it’s not really comparable) 

If you’re not supporting the official release you’re harming the big company that published it far more than the individual artist (like, the individual artist probably also wouldn’t appreciate it, because it can effect them for sure as well, but they’re not gonna be taking the brunt of the damage unless it was entirely self-published work, which I’d definitely categorize differently from what I’m mainly talking about here.)  

Often fanartists/professional artists who aren’t that well known, in addition to wanting to just create work for the sake of it, also want to build their own platform, to have an audience that they interact with. Or like, if they’re offering commissions, a bigger platform puts you in a position where people will actually see the art and want to commission you. When you say reposts of smaller artists’ fanart doesn’t ‘loose them money’ because they didn’t charge to post it, you’re missing the fact that it makes them loose out on proper linked-back-to-them exposure. Especially like, when a repost account on insta or something says ‘ah yes credit to [username] on tumblr’ the vast majority of people who see it aren’t going to then open up a whole different website and look for the artist. Some people might! but if there’s anything i’ve learned from working professionally in arts marketing it’s that people want things that are convenient and directly in front of them. Someone who wants to see more works because they liked one is significantly more likely to click on the username of someone who posted it rather than opening up a browser or a different app and searching a separate name put in the caption. 

Then honestly, I do feel weird about reposts of professional artists’ more personal works unless the artist has stated they’re fine with people reposting with credit. It should be about the comfort level of the artist. I think a lot of professional artists who aren’t in a position where they’re as worried about building a platform, because they already have one and might have professional connections/opportunities already lined up, might not really care about reposts especially on a website they don’t use. (Like tumblr. I’m coming at this mostly from a comics artist perspective here, but most professional artists I see are waaaay more active on twitter and instagram than tumblr) If it’s a website they don’t use, it’s not taking away from the platform they had been building there for themselves. And also, some artists really just don’t give a shit, which is their choice they can make with their work! But that’s not a universal thing. One artist being fine with their personal art being reposted =/= all artists being fine with it. 

In my own experience as a fanartist, when I see my art reposted without credit, especially when it’s art I’ve also already posted on the same platform... it’s definitely disheartening. Even worse is when the repost gets even more attention than my original post. (something that has happened to me multiple times!) Like, it can get so upsetting!  Because it lets me know that someone else was using my art to build their platform and I got exactly zero benefit out of it. Then when it’s reposted with credit it’s a little less annoying, but I still don’t... get much out of it. Especially if it’s an instagram repost and they credit my tumblr not my account on there, since insta captions don’t actually do links unless it’s to other insta accounts. Also with insta for example, I have a 'business’ account set up so I can look at and track popularity of my posts and see how they’re doing as something to keep in mind when considering posting times, etc etc. When other people repost my art there I have no control over it. That sucks a lot! Also, when I quite literally ask people not to repost my art (it is IN! MY! DESCRIPTION!) and they still do, it’s just straight up disrespectful. I asked for a boundary to be respected with my work and people have just completely ignored it. That doesn’t feel good at all.

But, conversely, I’m gonna talk about my more professional irl work for a sec. I’m a graphic designer, so I do things like posters, logos, etc, When I design a poster for a client that is meant to be advertising something, even if it’s got my own original illustration or something as part of it, I know my name isn’t necessarily going to be attached to it the same way as it is with my personal work. I get a credit line somewhere, but that’s in a fine print probably not even on the poster itself at all, but that’s like, part of what I signed up for. I already get paid separately, I am giving permission for my work to be out of my own hands in that way. Professional work for a client is often setup in some way similar to this. I don’t get mad when I walk down the street and see a poster I made up somewhere without it directly ‘linking’/referencing back to me (aside from maybe my signature if it had an illustration), in fact I go ‘OMG ITS THERE ugh wait i see one pixel is off oh noooooo” and then move on with my day. It’s just an entirely different situation because that kind of work has a different arrangement from the start, where you know it’s going to be put in a different type of circulation.

So yeah, my word isn’t god here, but I definitely see official releases as having a different set of permissions based on the fact that they are published in an entirely different situation. And I think reposts of personal art aren’t cool if the artist isn’t okay with them, no matter how big a platform they have. Other people probably approach this with a slightly different perspective, but that’s mine!

[smalltragedy]

* justice smith, demi man + he/they | you know gabriel de leon, right? they’re twenty three, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, six years? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to 1984 (infinite jest) by the used like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole waking up in a body as heavy as the dead, emotions always on the verge of spilling over - you laugh before the punch lands, the belief that every encounter you have will be the last thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is october 31st, so they’re a scorpio, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( james, 21, est, they/them )

hi im just reposting gabe’s intro bc its been a very long time n im starting a little fresh hehe. yes i do regret the text color bt im not going back.

VIOLENCE TW

mini playlist.

ghosting ;; mother mother / roam the room ;; citizen / art of doubt ;; metric / thnks fr th mmrs ;; fall out boy / heart in a cage ;; the strokes / where is my mind? ;; the pixies / flowers grow out of my grave ;; dead man’s bones / 1984 (infinite jest) ;; the used / blister in the sun ;; the violent femmes.

statistics.

full name: gabriel de leon.

nickname(s): gabe.

birthday: october 31st, 1997.

zodiac: scorpio sun, scorpio moon, gemini ascending.

label: the icarian.

hometown: belleville, new jersey.

sexuality: bisexual (masc-leaning).

pinterest.

biography.

it’s only rly ever been gabe n his mom n the little new jersey suburbs that r always the same no matter where they go. they dn’t speak abt fathers or brothers or spain or anywhere other than the now, and how its constantly changing bt oddly the same.

his mom’s name is sonia n we love her. she worked a lot as a single mom n p much hs done everything on her own ever since leaving spain.

they dn’t talk abt spain bt we cn talk abt spain n hw sonia hd grown up partially there n partially in the states n hw she’d originally planned to live there forever bt the man she’d fallen in love with ws involved in some. high class dangerous shit n it ws safer fr them to part even if tht involved leaving everything she knew n loved <3

bt its like. ok. bc she hd gabe <3 n they dnt talk abt it so it practically nvr happened. n she tries her best as a mom n usually tht is enough.

they moved around a lot just bc sonia is a very. flighty person. anxious bt nvr seems tht way is just always. tense. gabe didnt think she ws capable of relaxing fr. a rly long time.

she wld commute 2 nyc every morning n after school gabe wld climb onto the train n by the time he got 2 her place of work she’d be just getting off n they’d get a slice of pizza n sometimes they’d go somewhere like central park or coney island (just fr the novelty) bt most of the time they just got back on the train home w/ gabe either doing homework or napping on her shoulder.

when gabe got a little older he’d sometimes skip school n take the train after sonia had already gone so he cld spend the day in nyc. he liked learning bt didnt rly like school. he nvr properly fit in bc of the amt of times they’d move so it felt like nowhere ws. right fr him.

got rly involved in. the punk scene as a young unsupervised teenager n tht led 2 a lot of like. shitty stick n pokes bt also a love of. very loud angry music n a sense of justice tht he held tightly in his fists. got mouthy towards bullies whether at school or in the scenes he involved himself in n started getting into a lot of fights bc of it.

during this, sonia ended up dating n marrying gabe’s stepdad who he calls craig sometimes bt i dnt think thats his name i wont lie to u guys. its partially a joke n partially purposeful disrespect bc gabriel does not trust a single man bt like. man. ‘craig’ is just an accountant. he’s fine he’s a good dude. they once bonded over like. the mets.

violence tw // anyways. when gabriel ws 16 he got into a super super bad fight tht ended rly. terribly n like listen. nobody died bt it ws just. it got blown up very out of proportion n gabe might’ve gotten expelled even tho he wsnt even the one who started it bt thts okay. ‘craig’, or paul, suggested tht maybe. a change of scenery wld b good fr gabe n b4 they knew it they were. moving to paul-robert’s hometown of irving, north carolina. violence end of tw //

he wld’ve complained more bt. fr sonia’s sake gabe kept it 2 himself. it made her happy 2 see them all get along anyways n like. idk he cld put forth tht little effort <3

bt honestly like. he didnt rly get into too many fights once they moved down here n even tho sometimes he ws like. ommgg. i hate this town .. its so washed up .. he still made friends n like. the only thing tht changed ws tht it ws a lil harder fr him 2 acquire illegal substances.

anyways. currently he hs a tattoo apprenticeship n is a professional piercer n like. he plays guitar n writes songs bt thts more of a hobby rn than anything else. mostly focused on paying his rent at port apartments bc as much as he. loves his mom he does not want 2 live with her forever <3 n thts okay!

personality & facts.

overall xtremely passionate person like god. feels emotions so intensely. every time he opens his mouth n talks abt an interest of theirs its just very like. u listen n ur like oh. gained 2 inspiration. thanks.

clings onto his friends p tightly bc he like. nvr rly stayed in one place fr super super long in new jersey so he nvr made very long term friends n now hes like. very clingy HLKDSHLKFSHLKDG also hates to b alone. subtle desperation behind interactions with ppl he rly wld like to be friends with.

like dnt get me wrong hes gotten into. sm fights bt thts mostly bc he cannot keep his mouth shut n he also cnt stand douchebags he like. always wants to tear them down prob bc he ws a victim of bullying. n u know what. we support him. otherwise he loves ppl bt esp if they hv similar interests 2 him.

like golden retriever who bites kind of. intensely loyal but at the same time is very skeptical. things tht good things do not last very long even though they’ve been doing already fr the last few years.

also bit of a nerd. they were nvr rly a big fan of school bt theres smth abt a good superhero comic tht draws their attention more than like. any english class evr. bt seven soldiers of victory? classic. big dc fan.

uh. very into like. hardcore music. hardcore rock. punk. if its loud n angry they r into it like so so much. hs sm tattoos is like. super covered in them its partially bc they work at a tattoo shop n partially bc they do not know hw to manage their money well.

ooohh u know what theyre. kinda moody i wont lie to u. very defensive like they dnt evr wna talk abt their past. has experienced Things n they do not wish to discuss them. will usually like. deflect frm conversations he doesnt wna hv.

in tune with nature. loves fkn taking walks. hangs out in the woods by abernathy creek n lilac ridge bc nobody rly goes there n its just. nice

tries not 2 take anything super seriously 2 the point where when he does take smth seriously its a little scary bc theyre super intense abt it. forcibly optimistic even tho on the inside he feels like a total pessimist. lots of. deep down insecurities tht he projects by attaching himself p firmly onto others. >.>

so so so energetic. can never stay still. always hs to be moving around. restless like tht. probably got it frm his mom. overly protective over the ppl he loves. probably got it frm his mom as well.

goes onto Tangents bt also divert frm those tangents n is generally all over the place.

always cold n always looks tired n like he hsnt slept in a thousand years n u know what. sometimes he just does not sleep.

oooohh theyre a vegan. totally into animal rights. devious little demi man beyond that .. loves horror n the paranormal n believes in like. every cryptic. will debate u on it.

erm not. the kindest 2 themself theyre a bit self destructive. impulsive. drives very fast n parties super hard. said i will hv my effy stonem moment. u dont hv to gabe.

bt ya! luvs oranges n reds n is maybe a short king. hs an eyebrow piercing n like. a lip ring i wont fk around here he IS living his best emo life in 2021. a little outdated on the trends bt thats okay. probably will tell u hes frm new jersey. its a personality trait. smokes the shittiest cigarettes ever.

wanted plots.

just ghosting along ,, dnt even exist 2 me ,, ;; god. firstly just the vast amt of ppl tht gabe hs like. spoken to romantically n then dropped suddenly. n then maybe like. one tht actually Hurt bt they cnt avoid each other bt theyre actively pretending each other doesnt exist n its. hurtful bc it ws like. actually smth nice bt <3 ykno FKLFSDHG

hey hey heyy c’maahn i’m just a little guy ;; n this is the vast amt of ppl tht gabe hs probably. pissed off n hs either fought or been on the verge of fighting just. unable 2 resist a good bicker-turned-duel.

just blistering in the sun ;; they cld b close friends bt also they cld also not b bt just ppl who. indulge in bad impulsive decisions with gabe. general bad influences on each other’s health n just. no good! party hard bt at what cost.

n also ;; like ... rly solid good friendships ... flings n maybe an exe or two tht either ended on good terms or just. horrendous, ppl they’ve distanced frm, ppl also frm up north, piercing customers, bt not tattoo customers bc im p sure they’d get fired if they were just tattoo’ing ppl willy nilly, etc.

[pastellipanic]

Junkenstein's Legend

It isnt a secret that I like Overwatch. It isnt a secret that my favourite event is the Halloween event of Junkensteins revenge. It also isnt a secret that I get hyperfixated onto uncommon things or parts of things. So today, presented by my hyperfixating grey brainmatter, I bring you:

The Full Tale of Junkensteins Revenge

Or, you know, the The Full Tale of Junkensteins Revenge as Theorized by Pastelli During Sleepless Nights. Anyway, we shall start at the beginning!

(Everything in this story is theorized upon the tidbits of canon information from the game, the comics and details of skins, sprays and maps. You are entitled to disagree with my theorization and I will gladly take on any opposing theories if they are given to me with a constructive and positive vibe. I will also gladly have a chat with anyone who is interested in the subject or has ideas I hadnt considered. That being said, Enjoy!)

Chapter 1: The sad beginnings of a mad doctor and his first step onto the battlefield.

Doctor Jamison Junkenstein was a young lad who worked for the local Lord Reinhardt in a town of Adlersbrunn located in the outskirts of Black Forest. He was a brilliant mechanic, engineer and had no fear of working with electricity, hence he had gotten the job in the first place. While his social skills were limited and his fame in the town stained, he was a hard worker and a genius in his own field. At some point during his career, he got bored of the same old electricity and piping, and began to experiment in robotics. His first one was a crude little thing but he was proud of it, so he decided to continue on this path. He began to dream of building live automatons, creatures that could think and feel for themselves. Perhaps it was the fact that he yearned for someone to befriend whilst the townspeople mistreated and disrespected him for his oddities, or perhaps it was his pride towards his own intelligence. However it may be, he started spending more time upon making the automatons, "omnics" as he called them or "Zomnics" as they were later called by the townspeople for their ghastly slow movements. Lord Reinhardt was displeased by him giving his time to such silly things, even more so when Junkenstein came to his door to show them. Every time he made adjustments and showed them to the Lord, he waved the "useless trinkets" away, and everytime his already feeble fame deteriorated in peoples rumours. Madman, lunatic and fool were quickly becoming synonyms for his name. This only spurred him on in his quest to prove them wrong. The metal husks laying in his laboratory soon turned to dug up corpses, the wires he used to put inside turned to stitches on the flesh and what he couldnt understand in anatomy he changed into machinery. Soon he had a body, half organic half inorganic, and all he needed was to make it come alive. Bloodpumping didnt work. Watershocks didnt work. Exchanging the heart into a running motor didnt work. Atlast he tried using electricity to bring his creation to life, unsuccessfully. Junkenstein was exhausted, abused and even his trust in his skills had failed him. He was on the brink of quitting and burying that stupid project, until...

Witch of the Wilds appeared!

The Witch of the Wilds was a well known individual, feared by all near and far for her magic. It was rumoured she could turn coal into gold, make waterfalls run upwards and burn a castle with the flick of her wrist. She was also known from her coming to people at their darkest hour and offering a solution... for a price. And thats exactly what she offered Junkenstein, a solution to his problems; the spark of life. She only asked for a favor, one she would come collect in a nearby future and one that he couldnt refuse. He accepted. He had nothing to lose. Applying the spark of life onto his machine, he started the creatures heart and mind. There were a lot of things that went through its mind when it woke, curiosity and giddiness, but most importantly: Panic. In a furious frenzy it tore itself from its bindings and ran out, into the streets of Adlersbrunn. The townspeople, upon seeing the monster, immediately screamed, cried, yelled, attacked and fled. The monster had no sympathy for people so cruel as the baker who hit it or the children kicking its shins, so he let out his rage onto the masses. It was carnage.

Junkenstein was happy. He had succeeded! His monster was doing exactly what he wanted; avenging the years of societal neglect and bullying Junkenstein had gone through. Yet he had no control over the monster, and no idea how to get it to the Lords doorstep. A couple of hours of manipulating the routes and trying to get the monster where he wanted, he finally got to the door.... Only to find that while he was busy, so was the Lord. He had hired a few wanderers to protect him when he had heard of the happenings in the town. An old soldier searching for a fight, an alchemist practizing her talent, an archer running from the past and a gunslinger hunting for easy money. Only four they were against the doctor, his monster and his minions, and against the Witch of the Wilds and her fearsome ally; a cursed pumpkinheaded man by the name of Reaper. And only four they were who beat him, leaving his corpse battered onto the rocktiles of the yard. His monster was perished, the Witch had fled and the Reaper had gone with her. The wanderers went inside to claim their prize.

Chapter 2: How to tame a monster and revive a doctor.

As the wanderers left the scene, Witch of the Wilds saw her chance to do her work. She quickly used the spark of life to revive Junkenstein, giving his bruised flesh some tidying up whilst doing it, and watched as he sat up. Safe to say, he was pissed to have lost. He wanted to charge right back into fight, but was stopped by the Witch. She managed to make him change his mind, to wait for a year and build his army before trying again, and give her some time to get allies. Gathering what he could of the broken zomnics, Junkenstein found the corpse of his monster and decided to take it back to his lab for revival. He wasnt sure if the creature would run out again or stay, but he wanted to still show the town that he could make something living. This time, when rising from the cold metal table, the monster sat still and stared at Junkenstein. During the fight it had noted that the doctor didnt attack him, even defending him from the attacking gunslinger. It decided to stay near him, for no other reason than that it trusted him. Junkenstein was thrilled to have a friend, even if it did smell of decay a bit.

11 months went by in peace. The town healed, forgot about the incident and, assuming that the wrecked corpse of a homeless man was Junkensteins, buried the past with it. Meanwhile the doctor had other things to think about. He had built an army of zomnics, had tamed the monster and befriended it, had taught it to speak a little and had served the Witch on a few occasions. On some days he still liked to venture into town to see how life was going there. At one point he had almost forgiven the town, before he had come to learn of a new game for the children based after the mocking of his person. Thats when his short temper blew into pieces and he jumped to make an announcement in the middle of the town. He raged, mocked, spat at the townspeople, before revealing his identity and announcing that all of them would perish under his boot. Seeing a dead man back from the grave gave quite a scare to the town, making them panickedly run to the local Lords. They decided that a meeting was to be held to consider this new threat. Some voted to kill Junkenstein again, yet it was deemed to be an ineffective solution due to him coming back the last time. Some voted to trap him and enslave him for the rest of his days, but it was a futile idea for someone like him to be trapped. He would just squirm his way out like the vermin he was. It was decided that Adlersbrunn was to be evacuated. All people were to be gathered into Lord Reinhardts castle, to have few protectors stay behind until they could safely escape. Lord Reinhardt sent word to three people in order to get protection for this event. A Countess from a family of Hunters that had shut herself from the world. An old friend of the Lord who traveled the world, hunting dragons. And a Monk with his Apprentice, answering to a higher calling than human.

Meanwhile the Witch of the Wilds was gathering her allies, having gotten an interesting offer from a dragon in the Black Forest. The dragon offered to lend one of their servants the powers of a dragon and give that servant into the Witches hands for the battle. The Witch was intrigued but suspicious, so she asked what the dragon wanted in return. Nothing. It wanted the greater good and it knew that the Witch wanted that too. Adlersbrunn was filled with people and people were filled with fears of the unknown. The Black Forest was filled with the unknown, and therefore they were hunted. Silver bullet battles, witch burnings and burials of the undead had plagued the creatures of the forest for long enough, and it was time for the people to leave them alone. If not by peace, then by force. Junkenstein was a great tool for the Witches cause, but she still needed more power, therefore she agreed to take the servant of the dragon onto the battlefield as her ally.

Chapter 3: Junkensteins Revenge 2, Electric Boogaloo

The fight happens almost the same as last, but this time the tables have turned. The wanderers struggle to keep up with the Summoners dragonfire blasts, the bombs lobbed by Junkenstein and the gunfire from Reapers guns. While they dont win the fight, they manage to hold them off just enough time for the townspeople to flee far away from Junkensteins grasp. Instead of a petrified Lord, Junkenstein is greeted by an empty castle. At first he seems gleeful, running to hop on the throne. Once he sits down and looks around, he bursts into tears. After all these years of pain, he doesnt even get his revenge. He doesnt get to have his victory even at his brightest moment. The monster tries to comfort its creator, succeeding just to quiet him enough for the Witch to speak. Its time for the favor he owes her.

Before, she wanted him to leave the town as well, but seeing how he was alone already she wanted something else. She wanted him to be a guardian for the black forest. No town would ever become of Adlersbrunn ever again and no one would step a foot into Black forest while the doctor was alive, to ensure that the creatures could live in peace.

He accepted, as he was to do, and remained the only human left.

Chapter 4: The time that we dont speak too much about because honestly nothing happens

Some hundred years passed in quiet. Adlersbrunn collapsed and became ruins of what it once was. Junkenstein guarded the forest and helped the creatures inside it, at one point building a bride for his monster. (Nothing too much is said about what happened to her or where she went) The monster learned and lived, helping Junkenstein with his work. Due to both of them having been revived with the spark of life, they had become immortal. (Unless killed) Witch of the Wilds passed peacefully after a long life. Reaper found his head and his curse was lifted. Life was good.

Chapter 5: Junkenstein of Eichenwalde

One day Junkenstein realizes that where Adlersbrunn once was, is now something new. People have come and started building a town, so he disguises himself and goes to investigate. These people have migrated here from the north, calling this place Eichenwalde, and seem to be very nice. They offer him food and water, the kids want to play with him and the grown ups tell stories of the North to him. He doesnt see an issue with them coming here to stay, since they seem nice and the forest has few creatures left to protect. When a little girl tries to run into the woods, Junkenstein holds her back and tells her not to go. Intrigued, the little girl asks why. The doctor starts telling about monsters and creatures to scare the kids, but they are more interested in hearing his ghost stories, so he obliges to tell them one. He tells about a mad scientist who created a monster and how the monster now lurks in the woods. The kids are excited and the adults think of it as a great legend. It becomes a habit for Junkenstein to come into the town to tell ghost stories to kids. One day, when its Halloween, he notices a difference. The town has changed their style into old fashioned clothes, their mechanical cars to wooden carriage and posters of a fake Mad scientist and a Monster litter the walls. The kids are playing as the characters from his stories and running around with mouths filled with candy. The legend has come into a tradition of a reenactment.

One day, a man arrives into the town, and raises some questions in Junkenstein. The man looks like the Lord. Speaks like the Lord. Walks like the Lord. Has the same mannerisms as the Lord. He even introduces himself as Reinhardt to the disguised Junkenstein. The Lord escaped. It would make sense for him to have started again somewhere else. This could be his descendant, without knowledge of the legend. Who would want such an odd story to be passed down to their descendants? Who would even believe it? Junkenstein keeps an eye on the man and, even when he leaves, the monster follows him for a while. It doesnt seem like he is a threat of any kind. The life goes on in Eichenwalde, with Junkenstein telling stories and living his life with the monster. Every year his story is celebrated in front of him, without any idea that it is truer than any other tale told.

The End.

It took me 3 hours to write this down and I know it starts showing at the end. Also, there are still some mysteries in the story that have absolutely no canon to even start theorizing from. (Aka The Sombra Situation. Theres literally only one spray and a skin where she is linked in any way.)

Also, some very fun theories that I didnt know how to incorporate into the story are:

McCree gets bitten by a werewolf after the first fight

The first fight is the original Junkensteins revenge-gamemode. The second fight is the Endless gamemode.

Canonically the countess killed the Monks master, and I like to think its because of this they lost. They couldnt trust eachother.

When Summoner is close by the air gets heated.(Almost Canon. It is implied in voicelines)

Junkenstein is implied to be so chatty that he keeps talking/laughing during the fight

The Countess is from a family of Vampire hunters, who was bitten by a vampire and was ashamed. The reason she joins the battle is to honor her familys name and hunt for one last time.

It took me 3 separate days to research the canon elements, put them onto a paper and theorize around them and now I finally got this written down in here.

If you are interested in the notes I have, here you can read them: (Mostly in english, but might have some finnish words in there)

Now go my children! Hyperfixate onto this and share my pain!

(Also I would appreciate that if you take this theory and post it somewhere else, that you would credit me and tell your friends I said Hi!)

[androgynousblackbox]

God, I keep getting recommended that goddamn killing stalking video. No YouTube, I actually *dont* want to watch a video essay about some dude who did fuck all research talk about why he doesn't like this comic I really enjoyed. I bet he ignores the fact that it's one of (if not, the only) popular queer media that focuses on horror. Yes, queer people and horror are very much intertwined, but this is the only piece of media where its explicitly queer by having the two main characters be queer men. Sorry, I'm just really upset by people not doing a lick of research then getting up on their high horse to preach to us about how shit something is. Ugh.

To be fair (and this is the only point I will give him because fuck that guy), he doesn’t criticize the manwha on itself. It’s a little annoying that he defines as a stritctly psychological horror and completely disregard the Boy Love portion of it’s genre, either because he doesn’t know or decided that it was irrelevant, which is a little disrespectful considering it’s a an asian genre and his western ass kept acting as if the idea of this being considered anything BUT horror was just wrong. Like, his whole shtick really REEKS of someone who hasn’t ever even read BL but still dismiss it all the same because his comprehension is limited by his own ethnocentrism. I mean, the fact that he could only mention three other works that “romanticize abuse” and they were all western was pretty fucking telling. Besides he was talking about how it was “weird” for Koogi to publish sexy/shippy art of her own characters on her social media because it’s a horror, which... I didn’t get at all to be honest. Like, what is weird about an artist doing fanart of her own work? “But why would she do that if that is meant to be psychological horror, I don’t know, I don’t get it, let’s ignore that” To be someone who brags about how knowledgeable he is, he sounded EXACTLY as your average teenage anti here on tumblr who literally discovered yesterday that shipping exist. No, the real point of that video is that he “criticizes” the fandom and how wrong fans are to see anything romantic on the manwha, enough that we would ever want to ship the main characters. The concept of whump is completely alien to him. The idea that some survivors use it as coping is not even an option (in fact we are harming survivors of abuse, the usual). The notion that some of us like the disturbing shit BECAUSE it’s disturbing never enters the picture, despite the fact that he made two whole fucking videos talking about queer people enjoying horror. The story is fine, the characters are fine, but we, the fans and especially the shippers? The one who supported Koogi from the start? The ones who spend months and even years theorizing about every single piece on each panels, analyzing colors, expressions, and kept talking about the many instances the abuse is shown and how masterful it was the way of Koogi to do it? We are reduced to nothing but teenage girls “fetishizing gay men” on Tiktok, because he is an outsider who clearly has no experience with transformative fandom AT ALL, doesn’t know what shipping is besides just really liking an already established canon couple and yet still felt the need to act as if he just knows so much better than all of us. The fact that he decided to frame us like that AND literally put himself on a position of superiority is so disgustingly misogynistic I  am appalled that no one else calling him out on it. The comments of that video are nothing but “I read the story, I liked it, but the fandom was just awful, man, nothing but uwuw shippy shit, why would anyone like that, it’s so abusive uwuw”. It really shows that as long you paint a group as teenage girls then you can always dismiss them entirely. If he had attacked the manwha itself, I could calmly refute it, but he grabbed a sample of the fandom from the worst source possible, didn’t even THINK about bringing our perspective, thoughts or feelings into the table for discussion and declared himself the owner of the right way to see this manwha, which, you know, feels pretty fucking insulting.