#i’m going to start drawing weird comics about them.

[art]

Creator Spotlight: @themetalhiro

Hi, I’m Metal! I’m a freelance artist from good ol’ New Jersey. My favorite things to work with are a lot of bright colors, exaggerated poses, and candid scenarios. I try to farm sensible chuckles whenever I can, so I’m also big into comics. I love making them about my life, and the media I’m into, and one day I’d like to publish my own series!  Thank you to everyone who has gotten me this far!!

Check out Metal's interview below!

Did you originally have a background in art? If not, how did you start?

I guess so! It’s funny, I don’t remember a single time in my life that I wasn’t drawing as a hobby… somewhere in middle school (a little late, I know.) I put the pieces together that animated movies were made by artists, and that it wasn’t just for fun, they were paid to do it. The moment I discovered people could be paid to make art, I decided I would do that, too. Now I’m here!

How has your style developed over the years?

I think the best way to answer this would be with an example! Over the last few years, I have made more of an effort to draw more intentionally, which sounds silly. Now, I put more thought into my poses and step out of my comfort zone with shape language and composition. I had a phase where I drew everyone with a huge, perfectly circular head and no nose. That definitely did not lend much variety...

Which 3 famous artists (dead or alive) would you invite to your dinner party?

Ack! I’m so terrible at history! I’d love to give a well-thought-out answer about fine artists of old, but I don't think we’d have much in common… Most artists I admire and who have driven me forward creatively are the people behind comics I’ve read. Andrew Hussie, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Eiichiro Oda... these guys have inspired me greatly and had a heavy influence in developing my art style and sense of humor. I’d love to ask them questions about their processes and upcoming projects. I think it would make for an entertaining night!

Over the years as an artist, what were your biggest inspirations behind your creativity?

Outside of pure aesthetics like searing bright colors, layered clothing, and loud noises…. the best and most inspiring moments in my life were those surrounded by friends and loved ones! I cherish the hell out of memories of hanging around in fun locations, trying weird food together, and impromptu midnight walks... so I try my best to capture that atmosphere and my own memories in my work when I can, even if I’m imposing fictional characters on top of them. That’s always the core of it.

What is a medium that you have always been intrigued by but would never use yourself?

I would never permanently refuse a medium, but every time I pick up clay, I’m like a baby using its hands for the first time. Absolutely dreadful. If one day I could make and paint a figurine like the ones I admire in videos, that would be awesome... But for now, I’m not counting on it.

How do you want to evolve as a creator?

I’ve had an absolute blast drawing fanart over the years, and it’s certainly played a massive role in my growth as an artist. But my dream has always been to publish my own stories for y'all to enjoy! I have lots of worlds I want to introduce to you before I’m old and gray. I want to get faster, work harder, and get better at drawing interesting settings so I can get the wheels turning as soon as possible. I also want to stop avoiding the color blue like a coward.

What do you wish you knew when you first started out creating art that you know now?

Pay your taxes quarterly. Tablets will break at the exact moment you need them most, so have a spare. Wear your blue light glasses. You’re going to need to wear a brace on every joint on the right side of your body. It can be lonely sitting at your desk all day. The car on the side of the road that costs $1000 cash….. don’t trust it!!!

Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?

@cranity—They use absolutely beautiful colors and weighty line work. Everything looks so sharp and clean! I wanna put it all up on my wall!

@vewn—Their ability to crank out quality short films and illustrations packed with detail is incredible. The off-kilter perspective they use really sells disorientation and catches your attention like nothing else.

@nelnal—They have absolutely banger character designs again and again, I can’t believe one person’s mind can come up with so many creative ideas!

@jinx88kc—They have a beautiful and recognizable style, and the way they incorporate animation into their illustrations sometimes is SO cool!

Thanks for stopping by, Metal! For more of Metal’s work, follow their Tumblr, @themetalhiro! If you haven't seen their Meet the Artist piece, be sure to check it out here!

[yourloveaton]

Hi! I saw all your AU art just recently and noticed you were saying we can ask you about it! (ITS SUCH AWESOME ART BTW I ADORE IT THE WAY YOU DRAW THEM IS AKAKAKKDMSMAMD!!!!)

I don’t have a specific question, but I do want to know more about it.

So can you just tell me anything about it?

Ahhh THANK YOU SO MUCH !!! I’m so happy that you liked my au art and wanna know more about it !! You have no idea how much joy that makes me feel 🥹💖

Well I can tell you some info and facts about the au, how I’m planning to develop it and all that !! It’s still fairly new and I did it out of nowhere at 3 am in the morning because I thought of my old ideas that I had years ago when undertale was on it’s prime but I was too young to bring ideas to life properly HAHAHA I hope my writing doesn’t bore you!

The au is pretty much founded on the idea of what if Sans also used to be a royal guard when he was younger? Boom. That’s where it spiralled and now I don’t know how revert back to who I was before because I ended up doodling a lot of undertale stuff along with the au, it didn’t help with the fact that my very good beloved friend kept encouraging me and feeding my inner demons of my undertale brainrot HAHAHA

I’m planning to develop the au into 2 parts: Before Undertale and after Undertale.

Before undertale is basically the events that happened before the plot of Undertale took place while after undertale is when they’re finally on the surface and the events that will happen on there! Sounds very generic and common I know, that’s why I’m going to try and develop it to be a bit different and hope that the au is not boring or developed horribly :’D It will take some time though since I know developing an au with a unique plot is gonna be very challenging, there are so many ways to mess it up and aghhh I really don’t wanna mess it up TT

Here are the main cast of the before undertale, this is a very OLD sketch that I made to figure out who’s there and how old they would be before I proceed to develop on the characters. So their heights might not be as accurate as it is in the sketch.

Also DISCLAIMER, Alphys and Undyne never met in before Undertale, so just know there’s no weird agenda going on here! They first met during Undertale plot when they’re both adults (Alphys 29, Undyne 23) so it’s all good!! I thought I needed to point that out because the age gap might seem alarming at first glance knowing they’re officially a couple 🙏 The before undertale plot begins at the age displayed on the sketch, and it ends after uhh.. 10 years? Yeah it’s ten years of events before the main undertale story starts!

I do want to portray the skele family with wholesome moments and you know, how great they are! Well that is before the downfall but we ain’t talking about that for now !! They’re just so beloved to me and I know they were such a sweet family AND WOULD HAVE VERY FUNNY MOMENTS IN WHICH I WANNA DRAW IT OUT!! So yeah, stay tuned for silly mini comics of them eheh

At first, I wanted Trickster (yes I’m calling his royal guard nickname, it’s like a whole different persona of his (alter ego???) where he’s energetic and acts very silly, whimsical, presenting puzzles and quizzes to his opponents sometimes but also can be very intimidating and prove that yeah, there’s a reason why he can be like that cuz it’s HIM) to be nothing more than a mischievous silly royal guard that wanted to keep causing trouble for Gaster but then it grew to be a bigger thing where he unintentionally became the symbol of hope and an entertainer for the whole underground before Trickster disappeared without a trace(?)

I’m still working on this whole concept so not everything is settled yet!! Well what I can also say about Trickster is that Alphys might be involved with the whole Trickster business too eheh

I’ve been practicing on drawing the characters so that I can draw better for this little au project of mine, I hope I can share my progress with you guys as things go on !!!

That’s the general stuff I’ve thought of so far, I hope you enjoy reading ! Thank you for reading and do feel free to ask whenever you have questions about the au or anything else :D✨✨✨✨

[sillygoblinantics]

I CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE

I’ve held my tongue for too long about my feelings on madhouse but fucking hell!

Unless by some fucking act of arceus or universe hands me the fucking concept art that went into this horrible webcomic- I got room to rip and tear!

This is:

Goblin’s Valid Autopsy of Lily Orchard’s PokéMadhouse

Before we go forward!

Hi. I’m Gobbo or Bri (pick ya poison), I’m a current student at Savannah College of Art and Design (as for campus I ain’t saying nothing) Im working on my bachelors in Animation and minoring in Creative Writing. My Concentration starting as 2d animation later switching it to Story and Concept in animation (back in 2021). I started in 2019 and it’s… 2024 now. Don’t judge me! I’ve been mentored by comic artist, storyboarders and many more in the industry! I’ve taken storyboarding and a plethora of writing classes to have enough qualifications under my belt to properly discuss the shit writing, lacking worldbuilding, disorganized plot hole ridden lore/arcs and horrible inconsistent art. So let’s not waste another moment and dive fucking in!

Story:

I’m not using Lily’s self review tvtropes to cover this. It’s disingenuous ego stroking at full blast.

We follow the highs and lows that are the “will they won’t they” relationship between the stated as sisters, Lily and her Gardevoir, G (yes that’s her fucking name). In a Sunday newspaper comic page esc structure. With bits and pieces of trivia and lore that rarely comes up if not to push and pull sympathy points for lilys self insert as she gets assaulted and violated in physical and mental ways. An arc being called “Violate” and later following the would be time span for gestation of a baby that would then become the labeled cryptid child.

I’m gonna be real there’s no point in reading it because the moment something big happens out of the blue there wasn’t a page missing to explain it which god fucking dammit Lily do I need to give you one of those brainframe sheets or outline templates if you decide to write a story? Because I’ll gladly provide them!

How do you consider yourself a fucking writer at all with your fundamental lack of care for lore and story like- for fucks sake woman it won’t kill you!

Characters

Lily

G

Mikayla

Marah

Bonnie

Mismagius

Other hardly seen or used Pokémon that get thrown away out of nowhere

Countless stolen ocs

And Dr Ponytail (yes that’s the fucking name of one of the “antagonists” and I’ve reread it so many times and found nothing!)

Lily has her “antagonists” being either ex friends or partners or someone who tries to call out bullshit! Fucking hell, the way Lily has g written it’s hard to not see HER AS ONE!

You have all these characters and you neglect so many of them to focus on making your favorite Dollies kiss and scissor or do nothing!

You don’t punish actual rapists either like legit what do you do when your Pokémon who’s been raised like a sister your whole life admits to mindfucking you in a weird soul bond type deal (that you wrote the explanation of yourself), then out of fear swaps dna of a Pokémon of her CRITICALLY ENDANGERED SPECIES can match with to save it with your own dna to baby lock you to staying together, what’s the thing you decide to write?

Case in point: stick an entire cactus up your urethra Lily.

I need a break from this… I’m moving on to the art misdirection.

Lily you are the one commissioning these panels from Mikayla. Meaning you are telling her how to draw these making you the literal art director of this shitty comic!

You want my advice?

USE MODEL SHEETS

Like holy shit. I need to copy paste my spiel about what it is one second:

Make a turnaround for your character(s)!

(Excluding front and back you need to make left and right versions of the rest!)

Front

Back

over-the-shoulder

3/4 view

profile

expression sheets

color pallet reference

(if it’s online/digital rgb if it’s for print it’s cmyk)

include the hexcodes for artists if it’s a small production!

lineup for height and scale for comparison to:

other characters

backgrounds

props

etc.

elements of the world + floor plan in small settings

action poses

hair guide (trust me it’s important)

these are the elements every artist who wants to tell a visual story be it animated or comic always needs:

✨A PITCH BIBLE✨

And Lily, if you’re making any story that is

A. Tied to an existing property

B. Has real world/geopolitical/historic relation

C. Needing a basic understanding to science

Do everyone and yourself a favor

AND DO YOUR FUCKING RESEARCH IN MLA FORMAT INSTEAD OF SOMEONE ELSES OPINIONS AND YOUR ASS OF HOLDING BULLSHIT!

Class

Dismissed

Your homework is to get these books:

[cup-cake360]

Every time I remember the “book 4: Air” incident I’m physically repulsed

Can you imagine your some 14 yo girl who’s obsessed with a show. It’s the show that inspired you to start drawing and you draw your favorite ship, Zutara. And then you beg your parents to take you to comic con (because you’re a child who’s heard about the panel with the creators of your favorite show) and idk maybe your parents make you do a bunch of chores or some shit to save up for a ticket or something.

You drag your reluctant dad, or confused mother, or weirded out older sibling, down to the panel. You’re shaking from the excitement, you’ve been thinking about this for weeks. You’re sitting in your chair with a smile similar to Aang’s across your face, just a pure joy, happiness, and childlike wonder. You’ve done nothing wrong. You’re simply a child who enjoys a show and is very passionate about it.

This is the show that truly inspired you, it’s the reason you started drawing, it’s a part of you, you already know it’s gonna stick with you forever. And everyone around you knows it too because you won’t shut up about it.

Then your smile fades. The room is dark. People are laughing at you. Not you exactly, but you’re 14 and a room full of people is laughing at a group you’re a part of. The creators of the show you love are using your fan art to mock you.

Maybe it’s not mocking. You think, because everyone is happy and it’s not too bad. Maybe it’s just funny and I’m being sensitive. But then Sokka comes on screen (let’s say he’s your favorite character so it hurts more) and tells this crowd of people that anyone who ships Zutara (you) are destined to have shitty relationships and die alone for the very reason that you ship them.

You’re 14. Someone you admire and look up to just said you’re never going to have a good relationship, you’re torn apart. The day is ruined.

The adult who came with you noticed a slight change in your mood, but you’re doing you’re best not to let it get to you because you were just so excited to be there only to be berated and humiliated.

I would never draw again. I would never watch the show again. I would cry.

I can’t even begin to process the fact that at no point during writing that, collecting fanart for that, recording that, setting that up, showing it, they never thought Hey maybe let’s not talk down to the people how are just interpreting our work differently from how we want them to.

[ryuichirou]

I apologize if it is too personal but how do you deal with "antishipper" and the way they make callout posts and harassment campaigns against you ? It’s legitimately so scary and it makes me hesitant of posting my own art

Anon! I am very sorry you are going through this horrible feeling of hesitation and anxiety; knowing that people get targeted like that could not only stop you from posting, but stop you from creating altogether, and this is the worst part about this whole thing.

It’s not too personal, and I don’t mind talking about it at all. I’ve talked about our position and our relationship with fandom policing a bunch of times already, so I’m sorry if I’m repeating myself.

I used to be worried about posting certain stuff too. Well, when I was a teen/in my early 20s I wasn’t worried about anything: we had so much juicy stuff posted here lol But then the nsfw ban happened, and the social climate of this app and internet in general started shifting, the first stories about people driven to end their lives because of the hate they received started to come out, and we stopped posting completely. It wasn’t a huge loss to us back then, and this situation wasn’t the only reason why we stopped, but still, it clearly became much more difficult to just appear out of nowhere, throw problematic stuff in your blog and run away again.

I vividly remember us wanting to post my Shingeki no Kyojin drawings and comics based on our AUs and stuff, but not knowing what to do with Ereri – there was no way for us to be “unproblematic” (which was never a concern to us, we just didn’t want to get tons of hate lol) and still post Eren with a man twice his age. So we started posting them without a tag, starting with a drawing that wasn’t too shippy, and then miraculously the world didn’t end. That made us bolder, and we started to post them openly, and posted them for almost two years pretty regularly, alongside some of our other problematic ships + problematic themes. Of course we did get hate, we got a lot of hate while we were posting SnK stuff from all kinds of people, but what we also got a lot of people who found our content refreshing and interesting, even if it was weird and uncomfortable at times.

We weren’t the only people who shipped Ereri (let’s ignore my petty thoughts about the difference between Ereri and Rivaere for now), and we weren’t the only people in Twst fandom who liked Shroudcest, which is another ship that we were super hesitant about posting or even mentioning at first. But with all the hate around I was so certain the world was going to end the moment we post them, and that didn’t happen. The end of the world never happens, but what does happen is that people either get introduced to a fun new dynamic and get invested, or get happy that someone finally posts for the ship they were too afraid to post for. Somehow, when you see some other person being ballsy, you don’t feel as scared anymore – it happened to us with other people’s posts too. Yes, I still say this even though it spawns a bunch of callout posts and harassment, as it did with us. Were we cancelled? Yeah, somewhat. There’s so much you can say about an acc that states “problematic stuff, 18+”, right? I was super relieved and happy, actually, that a lot of people left/blocked us just because they’re the people I’d never want to interact with my art.

I’ve been yapping for a long time already lol so I’ll give you some pieces of advice instead… These are things that legitimately help us.

Surround yourself with people who support you – if not you personally, then at least your ideas (i.e. other proshippers). Luckily, nowadays it’s easier to find them… But also, having a friend who you can vent about these things to helps a lot! It’s cheesy but it’s a fact: when you’re not alone, it’s not as scary.

Always ignore comments/asks from antis and block them on sight, block anonymous asks too. Even if you really want to sass them, it’s much more effective to ignore them: when you give them attention, it invites more engagement from them.

Block people you get bad vibes from. Block those who like or comment bad takes or support harassment of others, block all of their alt accounts. It’s tedious and takes time, but it really helps to keep you hidden from them, at least to some degree. I look up Shroudcest sometimes just to block new people. They try to make fun of me for that, but who cares if it works? You can’t block everyone, but these people usually flock together and it’s usually just a bunch of friends, so taking several posts on these topics from people from the fandom and blocking everyone involved will obliterate the majority of harassers.

In terms of your safety, having multiple accounts in case you main one gets mass-reported helps + I would advice to keep irl stuff away from your fandom stuff just in case.

This is going to sound stupid, but please keep in mind that this isn’t about you. These people are very miserable and not very smart. Even if they try to paint you like a bad person, they don’t know anything about you, so don’t let their judgment affect how you feel about yourself. This is exactly what they want – to have power over you.

Stay strong and take care of yourself, i.e. lock your acc and/or take a break if you feel overwhelmed. Don’t worry, it will pass: it’s very rare for these clowns to keep focus on one person for a long period of time; they have like 5 different dramas per day. There are some absolutely batshit crazy rapid assholes who won’t leave an artist alone for years, but those are super rare and special cases altogether, I don’t think you need to be worried about those.

Keep in mind which fandom you want to do this with, btw. It’s usually okay for the most part, but if the fandom is just a bunch of kids, it’s more likely not worth it or deserves an empty account, at least. Twst is surprisingly good despite anything it might look like! Thanks to Yana being a shotacon and a creator of Kuroshitsuji, I guess. There are many great and supportive people in the twst fandom, it’s been a pleasure to be here, even though, once again, it’s the first fandom where I got a bunch of callout posts and nasty stuff in my ask (SnK fandom usually harassed me for other things).

TL;DR: it is scary, and you could easily get callout posts about yourself, but guess what, you also get to be yourself. Because realistically, callout posts can’t stop you from creating art. They want you to believe that they have power over you, but this isn’t true. Your life online won’t end after some random callout post – mine didn’t. They also don’t understand that each consequent callout post affects the person being called out even less. We do have a minor panic attack for the first hour or so, and it does involve more extra blocking, but mostly it just sours our mood for the day and drops our morale. I still draw, though, out of spite a little lol Oh, and do try to report these types of posts if you get them, there’s nothing wrong with that.

People had been persecuted for their art and ideas for centuries, so what happens now is really nothing new. Without diving into specifics, there are way worse things they could do than writing callouts, but they aren’t super likely to do those. Luckily.

Take care of yourself, but also please don’t doubt yourself; when it comes to your art being way too fun for lovers of censorship to handle, you’re in a very good company. I’m referring to all the artist and writers of this world btw and not just me and Katsu lol but us as well!

[kkolg]

Hi there! I recently was recommend your Abyss animatic on YouTube and was like… whoa…. WHAT IS THIS I NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS AU‼️I’ve been scrolling through your tumbler for several days just soaking in everything about The New Dawn and I was curios what’s happening in this world. are they in an apocalypse of some sort? Either I didn’t scroll far enough on your Tumbler to know more or you just haven’t revealed yet 💀 . Don’t spill anything you don’t want to, I am here for it all.

Trust me you are NOT ALONE 😭😭, I probably should’ve mentioned that I’m super bad at writing down my thoughts when it comes to storytelling in general BUT IM HERE TO CLEAR THINGS UP NOW I SWEAR‼️‼️ The New Dawn AU summary will be under the cut as it might be a bit long lol ANYWAYS THANKS FOR BEING SO INTERESTED IN THE STORY THAT YOU ASKED AND I APOLOGIZE FOR ALL THE CONFUSION 🙏🧎‍♀️also disclaimer because I’m writing this before the season finale some things may change to be in further line with the show which is another reason I didn’t write out the story before BUT ANYWAYS ENJOY‼️‼️

So basically after the events of the show N and Uzi defeat the solver with the power of friendship (also V’s back idk) and they go back to outpost 3 and are like “YIPEEEE WEVE FINALLY DEFEATED THE ABSOLUTE SOLVER WITH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP ALSO DO I HEAR A SONG COMING ON???” And then they all start dancing and Uzi is essentially the new leader of the colony (if you couldn’t tell this part of the story is not that important but you can interpret what I said here as fully cannon in the au if you want lol)

Not too long after that N is like “hey can we try to like reform the disassembly drones and let them into the colony?” And Uzis like “wait that’s an amazing idea” and then they make out but that’s not important- so they go out and start telling all the disassemblys they can find that the solver is gone and can’t spread anymore and that living with the workers is actually pretty lit. A good lot of them are like “woah I didn’t know you were chill like that” and most of them go to live in outpost 3, a few of them are skeptical and still wanna eat workers so not all of the disassembly are chill but most of them are.

While doing this they come across a disassembly drone named A and he’s like “sure I’ll join” and he does…..but he’s not a very cool guy- I plan to make a comic about this so I’m gonna be vague and just say turns out he’s insane and N basically exiled him from the colony.

Fast forward like a month from that incident and Kim is created, finally, and the Doorman’s live happily ever af- WRONG turns out A ganged up with all of the other mean disassembly drones and try’s to just OBLITERATE the colony during a raid and whoopdeedo Thad dies but I’ll make a comic about that later so I won’t get too detailed. OH YEAH KIM IS ALSO ABSOLUTELY TRAUMATIZED SO THATS GREAT-

Fast forward a few years and now we’re in the current time of where most of my comics/drawings take place. Kim is older and looks in the forbidden trauma closet that N and Uzi said never to look in but rebellious child I guess, and he finds stuff about the solver. Getting curious he pulls an Uzi to leave the colony and try to find out what the fuck this thing is and OH NO X JUMPSCARE, again another thing I’ll probably make a comic about but they fight, X says that a certain guy she knows might know about the solver thingy, they become buddies, C-1 is also there- weird visions start to make Kim have a robot seizures, and that’s kinda where we’re at rn

I hope this cleared up a lot of questions you guys may have had and I’ll be adding a link to this post on my pinned in case you ever need to refer back to this‼️‼️

anyways byeeeeeee

[starless-planet]

Being terminally online but only on tumblr and youtube just makes it so you’re forced to go through accidental humiliation rituals irl. Absolute lose-lose situations.

Several months back I started my first ever big person job out of college. My coworkers’ (despite most of them being my peers) exposure to the internet largely stops at Tiktok and Facebook.

It was about one month in when I looked over at my coworker’s computer and see she’s looking at pictures of the onceler on google images.

Obviously my blood freezes in my veins but I go “Hey whatcha looking at over there?” And she explains to me she is planning on putting a photo of “The guy from The Lorax” in our coworker’s locker because he looks like him.

But as she keeps scrolling she’s… discovering. She’s having an experience I wish I could have shared with her instead of looking on like I’m seeing corpses strewn about a battlefield. She’s seeing the art. She’s baffled. “Why would people draw that? What’s going on?” she wonders. She is 24 years old. “People are weird.” I say. It’s all I can say. I’m new here and we are at what is essentially a help desk where guests can come up and talk to us at any time. I leave it be. She finally chooses a normal photo to print.

Later I’m having a conversation about it with another coworker and she goes “oh yeah. Well, apparently on Reddit it was a thing to like… you know… want that guy and the Lorax to kiss.”

I almost lost it, guys. I was screaming in my head. There was an entire 2 hour youtuber essay being held back because I was unwilling to expose myself. I had to just look her in the eye and go “yeah that’s crazy lol.” There was no discussion about the self-ship art. That went right over their heads I think.

A few months later and I’m making jokes to my other coworkers about which president they would marry and my friend pipes up “we should make a tumblr about really hot presidents, guys.” Now this time I only had a moment to suffer the weight of Hamilton Tumblr before she said “It’s too bad none of us have a tumblr and it’s dead.”

(Now before you go and think she’s just doing a bit I later confided in her I have multiple tumblr accounts and she was like “Oh. Good for you!” and promised me she didn’t have one. I believe her.)

Then we come to Columbo Night. Columbo Night is when we all get together and watch Columbo. I was doing a bit where I didn’t know what drugs were (well half of a bit, because I don’t actually know too much about them).

I mentioned learning about angel dust in DARE, but when everyone asked what that was I had to admit I didn’t know which specific drug it was slang for. So they looked it up on urban dictionary. They find this:

They lose their minds trying to figure out what was going on with this definition.

I kept my mouth glued shut.

They learn it’s from Hazbin Hotel. “I think Hazbin Hotel is a web comic?” someone pipes up.

I’m staring at the floor in front of me. The handful of youtube video essays I’ve watched on the show are playing out in front of me. I’m counting my blessings I’ve never actually watched it.

They’re having conflicting opinions about the art style. I’m gripping the edge of my seat.

And then, it’s time for Columbo, and it’s all over. Just as quickly as it started, it ended. Thank you Columbo.

[mintywolf]

(I wrote this on the train coming home on August 26th although I am just getting around to posting it now because time is a weird soup.)

So okay.

****

I haven’t written a personal journal post in a long time but I want to write down EVERYTHING I can remember about my adventure to NYC to see the Critical Role cast so I don’t forget. It was SUCH a moving experience and I’m so glad I went even though I was scared.

So okay my big goal for this year was to finish the first chapter of my C3 prequel fan comic A Long Road Home (southerngothiccomic.com), have a print edition made, and meet Laura and Marisha at a convention so I could give copies of it to them in person. When the CR cast announced they were going to be at Anime NYC this year I figured that was the closest they were probably going to get to me in Virginia. (And getting autographs at NYCC is reportedly like hunting a unicorn so I figured this would be my best chance.)

I was also terrified, and almost talked myself out of it because I was nervous about giving them the comic, even though I already had a badge and it was what I really, really wanted to do. I know the cast loves to see fanart — and also, it has been revealed, reads the fanfic — but it’s also a pretty well-known taboo for a fan to show their fanfic to a creator and a graphic novel is an unholy hybrid of the two. I was also worried that it would seem presumptuous of me to present them with a fanmade prequel graphic novel because there’s almost certainly going to be an official one at some point, and afraid that at best they might politely tell me they couldn’t accept it (for the reasons that comic writers aren’t “allowed” to read fanfic), and at worst they might be kind of annoyed that it exists. Either way I’d be REALLY sad, and in the weeks leading up to the con I worked myself up into an irrational panic about this. Fortunately my friends managed to talk me into not backing out (and spoilers: it turned out okay in the end!) but I was still very scared.

Also I was so focused on the comic stuff that I forgot until after GenCon earlier this month to think of what I wanted to actually have autographed. I decided to get a big print of the chapter one cover from INPRNT, assuming that since I ordered it two weeks in advance with an eta of 5-7 days that would be plenty of time for it to get to me. Well, reader, it was not. (But please do not let me dissuade you from using INPRNT! To their credit when I contacted them and asked if I could upgrade to rush delivery, they expedited it for free. Unfortunately even with rush shipping it just missed me, arriving at my house while I was on the train to NYC.)

Pâté on the train going to see his biological parents. (Laura and Marisha.)

When I saw that it wasn’t going to arrive in time I was starting to panic because there is nowhere near me to have art prints made. It’s a 15 minute drive (past the alpaca farm) just to get to the nearest grocery store. Grasping at straws I was kind of like Should I . . . draw something? On paper?? With real media that I haven’t used in like 10 years??? I only have 3 days!!!

Fortunately my life was saved by @emphaticembroiderer who had the brilliant suggestion of sending my art ahead to a print shop in NYC and picking it up before the convention. There are indeed MANY of those in New York and I managed to find one that was open on Saturdays and able to make my print on short notice. (567 Framing on W 14th street. The owner, Jack Hu, did excellent work and was very kind!) By that point I was frazzled and didn’t want two of the same print so I decided to be self-indulgent and had this one made. Not my showiest piece but it is one of my favorite things I’ve drawn. (This turned out to be the correct decision.) It’s a 6 1/2 hour train ride from here to there (and it got a little delayed along the way) so by the time I got there it was after 5 and the print shop closed at 6:30 so I zoomed over there straight from the train station to pick it up. It turned out BEAUTIFULLY, and the owner was pleased with how happy I was with it and that he’d been able to help.

He enjoys that he is included.

Then I went and checked in to my hotel and that point really just wanted to lie down on a bed but I had plans to take Pâté to see Hadestown on Broadway that night because I wanted to make the most of my trip. (Also it’s important for our scrungly son to receive a cultural education.) In keeping with the theme of the weekend I wore the Laudna-themed sundress I made for GenCon with one of the poppies in my hair. An usher told me they liked my ensemble. :) I had decided to go for a front row mezzanine seat because I didn’t know when I’d ever have this opportunity again and I didn’t want to risk my miniature self being stuck behind a tall person. It was perfect; I could see everything and the performance was AMAZING. Pâté had a very good time too.

The next day was the CR panel and autographs!! I decided to wear my 1950s Laudna cosplay from GenCon. I had some doubts about it when I got there because without the rest of 50s Bells Hells the theme isn’t as clear and outside of a DnD-focused convention the recognizability of a CR character is kind of low, let alone an AU variant on one. But once I found the Critters my Pâté poodle skirt was appreciated. :)

This is Rach @dadrielle, Astoria @astoriacolumnstaircase, Abby @overnighttosunflowers, and me as 50s Hells at GenCon!

And okay I know this said a lot but it’s true, CR fans are the NICEST fandom to be a part of. <3 If you’re ever standing in line for a CR thing by the time you get there you will have new friends. (For comparison the other-fandoms cosplayers I saw at the hotel and on the way to the con didn’t even return my smiles, even though we were all clearly going to the same place.) I fell in with a group of people who were near me in line (including an amazing Owlbearman cosplayer) and we decided to all sit together. The panel was really great. I don’t remember everything that was asked because of everything ELSE that happened later that day but they hinted that Big Things are coming (including multiple live shows!! Please come to Richmond! Or DC! Or at least somewhere on the East Coast!) for the 10th anniversary and Momlan stepped up to the mic during the Q&A segment and revealed that Sam has achieved his childhood dream . . . to become a minotaur. :D

With the mindset of making the most of this trip I had intended to try to get a spot in line to ask a question but I was hesitant about being on camera (even in cosplay) and while I was dithering about it like 50 people got in line. (I was also Suffering by that point because my rockabilly Laudna shoes have like 3 inch heels and after walking from the hotel to the convention center I didn’t have the fortitude to dart over to the line in them.)

My question, which I hope to submit next time there’s a Q&A opportunity, was this: For Marisha. We’ve seen Delilah’s influence manifesting in Laudna’s fashion choices recently. Now that she has the means and the freedom to do so, what kind of clothes would she choose for herself?

(Because I am a little sad that — until a possible post-campaign oneshot — we’ll never get to see a high-level Laudna costume that’s totally of her own design and I’m really eager to know what it would look like! Let her be spooky and free!)

Afterwards the cosplayers were being rounded up for a photo shoot but I was anxious to get a good spot in line for my autograph with Laura at 2pm so I stealthed away with Ken (@elissabrat), a Jester fan I had met in line, who knew where they were and had one with Travis at the same time. When we got there we were told No, go away and come back in an hour and a half, because it was still only 12. So we went to the Artists Alley where we found a girl named Lea whom we had also met in the panel line and collected a few other stray Critters (Ken has a boisterous and inviting personality and importantly, is very tall, preventing the rest of us from getting lost in the crowd) and we wandered around seeking out all the CR fan artists we could find. (There were a lot! It was great. I got some prints.)

by Cait May and Maliveth

Around 1 we decided to go back and see what the line situation was. Before we parted ways I exchanged twitter handles with Lea, who looked at my profile and said “Wait . . . this is you?”

She told me she was a big fan of my comic and looks forward to it every week! and we were both kind of like !!! at each other for a moment. I had never met someone who recognized my art in the wild before. (On ANY other day this would have been the most amazing thing that happened to me, haha.) I was so touched to meet her. <3

I took out the two books I was carrying and explained why I was there and we all got hyped up about it. And it made it feel a little less daunting, to know that there was someone there who understood the quest I was on and how close I was to the end of it.

I was like 5th in line for Laura and since it was still early I got to participate in that bonding experience integral to every con, sitting on the floor in cosplay, with a very good Vex behind me. (Hilariously, even after the dig at them — or maybe unaware of it — in the most recent episode, there were a lot of Funko Pop resellers around us, haha.)

I sent word to Southern Gothic Discord to remember me fondly in case I died here. In fact I'm not entirely sure that I didn't.

It felt like there was a disproportionate amount of fanfare revealing my print because I kept it how it was packed by the printer, wrapped in paper in between two pieces of cardboard so it wouldn’t get bent, so there was this whole ceremony of peeling back the tape, turning under one of the cardboard protectors, unfolding the paper, and turning over the print. But Laura loved it. She made like a happy sob when she saw it (it was really cute) and she looked at it for a long time taking in all the details and said it was beautiful. <3 <3 <3 (No matter how much we love and ship Imogen and Laudna, NO ONE loves them or is shipping them harder than Laura Bailey. She asked if I was going to bring it to Marisha too and was careful picking out a spot so there'd be room for both of their signatures. :))

I told her I was really happy to meet her because I’ve been a fan since BloodRayne (so, um. 20 years) and she said “oh wow, that was OG days!” And she gave me just a really kind look like she understood how much it meant to me to be there.

Then I gave her the comic. You all were right, I was worried about nothing! because she is the sweetest and she loved it. I very nervously pushed it across the table and said it was a comic I had made and wanted to give her. She picked it up and started turning the pages and was surprised when she saw what it was. “Wait, this is a whole novel! You made this?”

I confessed that I had, and she asked how long it had taken, I told her about a year (it was actually longer; in the moment I kind of forgot not how many pages there are in the first chapter but how many weeks are in a year) and she looked just really impressed that I had made it and touched by how much work had gone into it. She said she couldn’t wait to read it and seemed really excited to hear that it’s still going online! (So no pressure on me there if she's keeping up with it now, haha. o.o) And she kept looking between the book and me like she couldn’t believe it.

Then she asked me if I would sign it for her. :')

Somehow I survived long enough to do so! (a little wobbly because my hands were shaking) and someone (I think it was the ticket scanner) made a joke about how I was the first person to give an autograph at a signing, haha. And then she came around the table and gave me a hug. <3 <3 <3

After that my soul was still on the ethereal plane but the rest of me managed to find my way (after a brief wrong turn) to Marisha’s line. (There was a really good Keyleth and Caduceus in line behind me and they kindly noticed and returned the Pâté sticker that fell out of Marisha’s book).

She recognized my cosplay as 1950s Laudna right away! which was very validating after my earlier indecision haha. She loved the Pâté skirt and thought the scissors embroidery on my collar was adorable. She really liked the art too and was kind of like “Awww” about the book like in an “aww it’s an Imogen and Laudna thing” kind of way (she also liked the glass bottle windchimes on the cover and I love that she noticed that detail because Laudna’s penchant for turning things other people have thrown away into arts and crafts is one of my favorite aspects of her character) until she opened it and started looking through it.

Then she said, “Wait, this is actually really good," and she asked me seriously if Liam “Art Dad” knew about it (I said he had liked some of my other art on Twitter but I didn’t know if he knew about the comic) and then she said — still looking at it, more to herself than me — “We’ll have to add it to our art catalogue.” I don’t know exactly what that means (and I don’t want to get my hopes up too high by speculating; I was too !!! in the moment to ask and now I’m going to be wondering) but . . . it sounds . . . exciting??

They also both enjoyed Pâté and his lil sunglasses. :)

I had gone up with the intention of asking my other burning question: How does being cold-blooded affect Laudna in cold climates? If she gets too cold will she enter a state of brumation like a lizard? Will she freeze solid?

But I forgot. And it really wouldn’t have been the right moment. Maybe when I come back with Volume Two. :)

You’re supposed to pay extra to get a quote put on there but they both did it anyway without even asking. I think they must be really pleased when someone brings them something personal that they’ve made to have signed and not something they’re planning to sell.

After that I just kind of floated away from the con even though it was only like 2:30 haha. Nothing else could have happened there that would have equaled or improved upon that experience. Although I did adopt a Tentacle Kitty. The vendor (correctly) guessed “you look like you’d vibe with our spooky collection” so I had to get a new buddy for Pâté. (50s Laudna, still readily identifiable as a witch wherever she goes.) Also I saw a very chill emotional support pomeranian in a backpack.

(On the way back I saw the mark of the Traveler graffiti’d in green on the sidewalk. Truly a blessed day. :P)

Afterwards I just sat on the bed in my hotel room amid the floof of my crinoline wondering what even is my life for the next few hours and being like !!!! at Discord. Then I met up with Abby (whom it was wonderful to see again!! thank you so much for coming to see me) for dinner and had a really lovely time going over the What Just Happened of it all and talking about Imodna over strawberry pancakes. As one does. Perfect ending to an amazing day. <3

It was SUCH an incredible, exhilarating experience, thank you everyone who pushed me into not giving up out of fear. Laura and Marisha are SO nice and gracious in person and it was just so rewarding, after all the work and love and time I’ve put into this comic, to be able to finally bring it to the people who inspired it! And to see it appreciated and admired by them! It was more than I ever could have imagined.

This fandom is the best. My heart is so happy and full of love right now. <3 <3 <3

[fluffernuttermushroom]

KND Community Challenge

1: when did you start watching the show?

 I think it was near the end of 2023? I was introduced to the fandom by one of the comics that @fallen-gabrielle posted. I was a fan of old fashioned cartoons already and loved the unique art style! A few comics and several episodes later, I was hooked!

2: favorite season?

I haven’t watched trough the entire series yet(Currently on season 3). But Iike season three for all the new characters introduced!

3: favorite episode?

T.U.R.N.I.P.

T.H.E.-F.L.Y.

Q.U.I.E.T.

G.R.O.W.-U.P.

D.O.G.F.I.G.H.T.

F.U.T.U.R.E.

U.T.O.P.I.A.

4: hated episode?

P.I.N.K.E.Y.E. (ick)

5: favorite character?

Favorite character(s)!

Rachel(I often feel her ‘I have been everyone’s councilor at this point and I am tired of people’ feeling. Is this an INFJ thing?),

Hoagie(He reminds me of my cousin + we have the shared love for bad puns & dad jokes!),

Abby(Cool!),

Sally Sanban(I am obsessed with her for some reason),

Nigel’s grandson(Same reason with Sally. Dunno why), 

6: did you cry when you watch OP INTERVIEWS?

I didn't cry but It felt quite bitter sweet. I’m the sort of person who watches the end before finishing a series. So I kind of scrolled through the entire wiki and watched I.N.T.E.R.V.I.E.W.S. before actually watching the C:KND. It is an inevitable fate for all kids to grow up to grow old and gray at some point. But I have never seen characters grown up in a cartoon before. The whole episode made KND hit a bit too close to home to me. 

Ironically the episode that made me upset the most ended up being one of the reasons that I like about the KND. 

You will grow up

But you will never grow out of some things

7: funniest moment?

Wally saying “C’mon she already has every single rainbow monkey there is!”

And then watching in horror as the rainbow monkey aircraft coming into view before saying;

“Oh yeah, except that one.”

8: saddest moment?

Abby giving up in Operation M.A.U.R.I.C.E. after facing that every one she knows and loves in the KND will turn into teens & forget about her eventually. 

9: favorite KND artist?

Again, can’t pick just one! This is going to be long so the list of artists and why I like them are listed below

10: favorite canon KND ship?

3x4 and 2x5

11: favorite headcanon KND ship?

Ummm... can’t choose! Straight, Gay, Lesbian, Pan, Poly, Platonic I love & have them all!

I have a lot of different head cannons for different scenarios.

But the ones in my fanfiction are currently 1x362, 60x86, 2xAce(the kid), 83x84, 23x35

12: what's one thing you love about the fandom?

The thousands of fan theories, fan fiction with their own interesting head cannons, multiple aus and crossovers, and of course the beautiful fanart with unique art styles!

13: what's one thing you hate about the fandom?

Those weird pedo & insest shippers that keep spawning out of nowhere

14: do you wish there were more die hard KND fans in the fandom?

YES. A thousand times YES.

15: when did you start drawing KND art?

Near the start of May 2024 and have been drawing almost daily ever since! But It’s mostly animation plans and sketches so I don’t post often nowadays 

:P

16: how old were you when you started drawing KND art?

Hm, will answer that on my birthday.

17: how old are you now and are you still drawing KND art?

Same with the answer above! I will answer on my birthday

18: what's one thing you wish would stop in the fandom?

The pedo & insest ships, art thefts, rude requests and just disrespecting other people.

19: quick pick your favorite 2×4?

M.A.R.B.L.E.(Mustardy Armament Releases Big Loud Explosion) and 

G.A.R.G.O.C.Y.C.L.E.(Granite Augmented Rocket Glider Outstandingly Creates Your Cool Looking Escape)!

20: what's your Codename?

Numbuh 9.24!

(KND Community Challenge Template Credits To @arudan)

+Answer to question number 9

@fallen-gabrielle: The one who brought me into the fandom + has a lot of lovely AUs!

@midnight-the-goth-artist: Satisfies my inner goth, has helluva boss inspired art

@gen-toon: Beautiful angles & poses

@numbuh02: The scratchy art style!

@artsygirl0315: Her OCs remind me of ENA! And they interact with the fandom often

@elijaheldridge: FLOOF EVERY WHERE

@mixxxerlyishere: OC with a unique design! 

@scarlett-v-the-fox: The head cannons for minor KND characters are really intricate

@bluccoli: Rare fellow Korean KND artist & takes a lot of requests!

@gettan49: Still reading ‘Operation:  BEYOND’ it’s a really well made fanfiction

@parasite-doll: Always love the creepy art style

@mixx0: The sillies (OCs)

@kandykatz: Uses the tumblr aesthetics to it’s full extent + draws hair really well!

@bluepastels29: Insane attention to detail to her cloth designs

@numbuh900: G:KND OCs!

@numbuh-72: Great at KND edits! It looks like a part of the show if I don’t look closely

@ohlookanothercartoontofallinto: Lineless art. LINELESS ART.

@kndrules: Sector V as grown-up comics!

@sok-knd: Uses brushes really well & has a lot of different art styles 

@kukiiisblog: 3x4 art in webtoon + old cartoon style

@numbuhinfinitys: Reyna and their  cute shenanigans with the delightful children

@your-genious-artistic-girl: I dunno how she makes line arts that clear! Mine are always squiggley

@pennywhistle2021: Numbuh 30c art! Most of the fan art of 30c that I find on deviant art is theirs

@knd1234isme: Numbuh 4 in every form possible

@torra-and-the-toons: Has really specific Nigel head cannons + old cartoons!

@spicedwatermel0n: Not picky with ships & is understanding with others 

@kidsnextdoor-doodles: Moonbabies :)

@pinkmeanschaos: KND genderbend everything! And a fellow 60 x 86 shipper

@bugtoonz: Pastel art! Their art is always easy on the eyes

@rubiisun: The art style always gives me a fluffy feeling

@kommandonuovidiavoli: Everyones favorite grandma :) Penny’s chaotic nature always tickles me

@rainbowbeam231: Uses colors really well with her OCs!

@totallynoteggos: Unique concept with making the (Y/N) self insert as and OC!

@some-loozzr: Good with lighting! + The spank-happy sector V members look so scrappy I love them

[silly-comics]

So do you got any ideas on how to cuntue the"blurry photos" comic? Or do you still got nothin? Honestly not rushing you just want to hear some ideas that you might of come up with

“Spoilers” for what I’m planning with Blurry Photos

I’ve been thinking about it but I feel like what I come up with has been cringe 💀

Like, I’d probably start off with Killer dealing with all that happened, although I have no idea how I’d go about it.

Here’s a little secret if I’m being honest, I don’t really understand how Killer’s stages work? The wiki and anywhere else I look don’t really explain it super well? I’m the type to stick to cannon as possible and then build from there, so while I have my own ideas of how they could work but I don’t wanna deviate 😭

Anyways, after Killer is done breaking down or whatever he’s doing, I’ve got a couple paths the story could take?

1: Killer runs into Cross (the most sane one out of the gang) and they have a bro moment? Could establish their “bestie” status, because I see them as being good friends in their own weird way (also I’m a fan of Kross/Criller 🥺 (I don’t think I’d draw any relationship stuff tho idk)). Problem is I can’t think of a way to do it without it just being weird or like…dumb?

2: Killer runs into Horror and Horror picks a fight with him over the whole thing. Horror says something about Chara, Killer says something about Horrors head but bro doesn’t care about his scar cuz he’s chad like that, blah blah blah, makes everything worse.

3: I do #2 and then #1 together

I want to have a sort of mutual understanding of don’t mess with each others scars (in a “I hate you but it’s too much work to bother with” type way) being the end result.

Overall, I’m not sure when I’ll get started on this cuz I got internet friends coming over for two weeks and then summer school stuff (because I want to graduate a year early).

Lmk what you guys think 🤭

[matrixbearer2024]

Also how old are the Stan twins by the time Dipper and Mabel are 12? I’m assuming they’re in college but feel free to correct me.

By the time Dipper and Mabel are 12, the Stan Twins are out of college(technically). If we place the AU in 2024(they were born in 2003) they're already 21, and considering that most undergraduate programs could typically last 2-6 years- their undergrad courses (BSBA[Bachelor of Science in Business Administration] for Stan and BS(CMB)[Bachelor of Science in Biology with specialization in Cell and Molecular Biology] for Ford) are 4 year courses. They haven't been delayed or are late in any educational progress so they've only got a year left of undergrad.

They study in Graviton University Oregon, because I didn't have gravity falls "exist" technically. The town exists and that's where the university is, just more urbanized and without any of the wtf weird creatures that reside in the town from canon.

By the way, the niblings haven't been born yet considering that Shermie isn't even married yet. I plan on Shermie getting married by new year of 2025 and settling down in Piedmont with his girl, and the niblings will be born the year after around the same time the Stan Twins finally finish undergrad.

That's not the last of it though since they both still plan on moving up to masters and Ford wants to get a Phd(he starts with one and then starts collecting them like Pokémon) and it's mostly where they diverge paths as Stan throws himself into more of accounting/enterprenurial and Ford into researcher/biologist.

I don't really think Stan uses his knowledge on business too much at the start however since I do plan on him being scouted for a sports team(Haven't decided between basketball or baseball yet) before he graduates and while building his career as an athlete he finishes his masters(he takes 3 years to do it instead of the usual 2).

Ford had his fun in undergrad, so he fully commits to studying at this point and like in canon is pretty damn advanced compared to the rest of his peers. The curriculum and subject weights have definitely shifted from canon but I still do think it would only more or less take him 7-8 years to get his first doctorate.

By the time the niblings are 12, the Stan twins are 34, Sherm's 42.

Stan's spotlight as an athlete is waning and he's mostly helping run Fidds' family business, he's practically acting CEO in Fidds' place and is very comfortable with the pay he's getting. Stan wasn't really hardcore into sports anyway, he just took the opportunity because it presented itself to him and frankly he's okay with that. He starts drawing comics again as a hobby and with Fidds' help eventually becomes a comic-book artist part time since a businessman is his main gig post sports stardom. Much like some iconic artists and writers in DC and marvel, he ends up joining them when people like the series he puts out and the more "retro" artstyle.

Ford is making innovations left and right in the realm of genetics and biotechnology ever since graduating at 30 and he's got Fidds and Bill to help him with the more techy parts of his work. Ford hasn't stopped studying entirely though and honestly collects honorary PhDs to keep himself well rounded, not to mention he consistently attends seminars or science conferences to keep on top of the newest discoveries or updates to what's going on in the world. It wasn't his dream or intention of becoming one of the "greats" that go down in history but he really might at his pace, it's not something he thinks or cares about though.

You could argue that their life is practically being fast-tracked here but honestly, I think the pace fits them. It's a lot less chaotic compared to canon but considering how driven these two are, I think it's a pretty comfortable pace.

By the way, despite the busy life and all that- Ford tries his best to go to all of Stan's games live even when Shermie or Caryn miss it, despite the fact he doesn't really know anything that's going on just which team his brother's playing and if he's winning. Similarly, when Ford is called to give conferences to explain his findings or research Stan is more than happy to fly out to where he is and sit in just to give his support despite not knowing a damn or understanding whatever the hell his brother is talking about LOL

They're still very close considering that they didn't ever have a fight that tore them apart, they respected each other's wishes and interests and just talked. They always talked. I suppose that's ultimately what makes the big difference.

[thaltro]

Hey there! I've been following for a while bc I saw your absolutely gorgeous bad sans ref for Nightwatch and upon finding more content and context i am so excited for the comic- I love the characters and worldbuilding- I wanted to ask a few questions bc I've been loving this everytime I see new art I eat up the new meal :D no pressure to answer all of them ofc! Take your time if you need it-

Will you post the comics on tumblr or a different website?

Was there something that inspired you to make this comic/Kickstart the want to make it?

As someone who really struggles with motivation to do stuff does anything motivate you to draw and worldbuild? Or does it just come to you?

Not sure if anyone has asked this yet but do have a favorite character you made or are making for Nightwatch?

Like I said no need to answer all the questions, love your art and content! :)

Ooh a QnA ok

1) I’m definitely posting the comic to tumblr, but also on my toyhouse! I won’t just suddenly post it though, before that I’ll release pmv trailers which should be very soon.

2) for inspiration I’ve always loved horror- what started the idea of nightwatch was reading I have no mouth and I must scream, the idea of perpetual inescapable torture is fascinating, especially personalized hellscapes. I also really liked AM as a character and he heavily inspired Atrophy (I headcannon his voice to be AMs) (wait I guess it’s not a headcannon hm)

3) I love world building, im a history major and also studying sociology and psychology- I’m definitely inspired from human history and global cultures. Nightwatch’ s world building is a conglomerate of different social stratifications, but leaning heavily towards conservative religious cultures. For world building I really recommend learning history- it makes you passionate about the patterns of humanity and more aware of the tropes you can use.

But for characters it just comes to me naturally (literally) most characters are based off of my Alters haha. So a lot of them like dream, psych, atrophy, memory, killer, horror etc are all aspects of myself. As the host I hold our productivity, our ego, and our low empathy- that’s what psych is heavily based off of. Dream is based off two parts who hold a lot of of our childhood trauma and religious trauma, likewise Atrophy also is based off of alters who hold childhood trauma. When your a system you go typically through some crazy stuff, when I’m done nightwatch I plan in the future to write horror stories based off it but yeah. Aside from system experiences a-lot of the characters who will experience ableism like memory does, is based off my experience with how people treat my physical and mental disabilities.

Suffice to say, I’m an angry person and I hate the world around me. Nightwatch let’s me vent that hatred in a coherent artistic way. I have a big ego and like to think I’m an interesting person so I write stories based off that because I think it’s interesting. My hatred for pop psychology, ableism, child abuse, and religious abuse is pretty obvious in it I guess. If your struggling to write the easiest thing for me at least is to write about what you hate or are scared of the most- then develop a world around it.

4) my favourite character is Dream probably- I mean I never stop drawing him, Atrophy comes close too. Though there are alot of characters I enjoyed writing like Fresh, Dr. Fell, Dust, Epic, Error yk- I like writing comedic characters. But what I’m most proud of writing it’s probably just Psych, Dream, and Atrophy as I put an equal amount of effort into writing both.

Thanks for the questions it feeds my ego nom nomnomnom- kidding I just genuinely like not shutting up and it’s weird that people actually care to ask

[cantpickonefandoms]

Sooo guess what came in the mail for me!!

It’s really good and I wanna ramble about some of my favourite things in the comic so THIS IS YOUR SPOILER WARNING!!

OK SO:

-First, this is probably my favourite of all the TDP comics that have been put out, TTM was chock full of Rayllum and I loved every second of it, and I loved learning about Rayla, and Claudia and Soren’s pasts in their respective comics, but I have been dying to learn more about Callum and Ez’s past for a long time, and this comic delivered plenty of what I was hoping for, I think the only thing I’m kind of disappointed about was we didn’t learn much about Sarai or about Callum’s bio dad, but that’s alright, that’s more of a gripe of mine than anything.

-The story starts off with Callum and Ezran coming back from the incident with the waterfall and the raccoons that Callum mentions during 1x09, nice continuity nod!

-There’s a part where Ezran is struggling to explain to Harrow how he can talk to animals and Harrow just gently tells Ez to slow down to let the words come to him, Harrow is such a good dad!

-Callum makes this face when the boys discover a library:

I love that nerd so much! (All I could hear when I read this line was “I’d like to spend my vacation at the LIBRARY!”)

-There’s a handful of moments where Callum quotes Sarai, little tidbits of advice she gave to him.

-There’s a great moment where Ezran goes around talking to several kids and offers them comfort and sends them to the town hall for safety and Callum is completely blown away and tells Ez that he was amazing and he sounded just like Harrow in that moment.

-There’s another great moment where Ezran wants to go check on the kids in the town hall while Callum reads about the dream warden and of course Callum doesn’t want Ez to go alone and we get some genuine vulnerability from Callum when he admits that he promised to keep Ezran safe for Harrow and that he thinks if he succeeds then Harrow will be proud of him, and that he feels like he keeps failing at keeping that promise, poor guy doesn’t realize that Harrow already is proud of him!

-Easily the best moment is when Ezran talks the dream warden down, the the story of the dream explains that the creature had a young elf friend, but eventually he lost his friend started giving people nightmares as a result, now during most of the comic there’s a lot of times where Callum is irritable towards Ezran, he scoffs at a lot of Ez’s suggestions, he mocks Ezran’s ‘weird animal thing’, and there’s a part where he’s trying convince Harrow to let him come with them to the east side of the village, and is annoyed when Harrow permits him to come on the condition that he keeps an eye on Ezran, and when Ez talks to the dream warden he says that creature reminds him of his brother, that Callum makes him laugh and draws imaginary animals for him, but around the same time every year, around the time when Sarai passed, Callum becomes angry, but that Ezran still loves Callum and refuses to give up on Callum, I love this message so much, also Ezran is truly wise beyond his years, he’s like somewhere between four and six in this story and he shows this level understanding and patience towards Callum dealing with grief and missing Sarai, that’s incredible!

-Later Callum tells Ez that he has a gift for talking and that Sarai would be proud of him, and Ez tells Callum that she would be proud of him too, I love these boys so much!!

-JERK FACE DANCE ORIGIN REVEAL HELL YEAH!

I loved the comic so much, I loved looking into Callum and Ez’s past, I loved the angst, I loved the message, I loved all of Ez’s animal sidekicks, I had such a good time reading it! This is just making me more hyped for season 7! Idk if they’re gonna put out another comic, but if this the last TDP comic then I’d say they ended on a high note.

[ninjagood4]

Hello, I’m Cookie! I'm a self-taught artist, create content about Ninjago and write the comic “NINJAGO: Future of the Past” ~

YouTube · X · Instagram · Toyhou.se (soon)

You can support my work, it’s help my family and give me the opportunity to develop every day 🫂

Link to PayPal Donate Button or QR-code⭡

Life in Ukraine 🇺🇦 | 19 y.r | She/Her

A little bit about me, my hobbies and the most important thing - OC content!

ABOUT ME

Hmm, well… I'm not a fan of communication because of my closed personality, which has seen a lot addressed to it. But you know, our life is too short to waste it on fears, and so I started to work on myself. I'm also very distrustful and often doubt, I'm learning to adhere to the idea of ​​"measure seven times - cut once" (because sometimes I rush and ruin everything) xD Although I'm really silent and can seem creepy(huh?), if I find a person I trust, then on the contrary, I will not be able to shut my mouth!

I very much love animals, VERY! I would still like to become a vet, but… it will be hard for me to come to terms with the fact that I could not save some cutie (it really hurts), so I don't go too far with it. I'm interested in psychology, love reading articles about the past of the earth, science and all sorts of discoveries, experiments, theories, facts, and other things like that… Well, and also… some memes and strange videos on YouTube that you can laugh at, holding back your laughter while everyone else is asleep ^^

HOBBY

There are actually a lot of them, but they are all related to creativity lol. Simply because it gives the opportunity to create something new and interesting! Well, and I just like handwork lol

Drawing is what I love the most! I did it all my childhood, and it was what I really know how to do. But I prefer to think that can do more than just draw :') I somehow didn't think about art school, since instantly lose interest when I'm taught. It's weird, but that's how it is, lol. So I decided to learn it myself, and focused on Ninjago, because it's my favorite series since ~2013, but I watched it from the very beginning - 2011 (I'm old 💀). In 2018-early 2019, I began to actively study natural drawing, and since 2021 I have been actively managing social networks and learning digital art. It's hard for me to say which style I prefer, I really like to parody TV series animations, including WilFilm, WildBrain and the MonkieKid style! But still, I liked combining my concept with The Lion King style, and I think I'll stop there for FotP :) BUT☝️ I will not stop parodying styles/animations, because it is very interesting (this does not mean that I challenged copyright, no!). Yes yes, I'm capable of more than just Ninjago commiss, if that's what you're talking about; just show me the style of the cartoon and maybe I'll repeat it >:D Oh, and since 2023 I started accepting commissions, and I sincerely hope to develop with their help, to make it my job (and also recently opened donations). We do not live very easily, and I am afraid that at this rate I will have to give up art. The only option is to make it my job (in fact, I am not against such a turn of events) 👉👈

Not many people know about this at all, but I compose music :) These jobs is rarer, because they require a LOT of time, and maybe that's why I think no one pays attention to it. And music is exactly what I studied for. I once dreamed of becoming a composer, because I had a passion for music and loved to compose, but my father (who refused to go to music school as a child)) decided that I would do this. Well, when he sent me for testing, I hoped that they would refuse me and send me away, but they took me. I improved my skills thanks to this, but somehow I lost my passion. Although I still compose music and love it, something has changed… At the same time, it's a shame that I did not live up to my father's expectations, but if I release tracks on YouTube, does this not look like a career as a composer? heh 🤔

In 2019, I tried to make a plush Lloyd (the photos are gone, but I sometimes remake it lol, so they kind of exist), but this was the beginning of crafts! Crafts (handmade) are also rare due to the time of work, but they exist. Because of my love for ecology, it seems to me that this also gives some kind of second chance to things. I prefer to use garbage unnecessary things for this (sometimes it's hard to say what I made this or that thing from, there is ALL), and then I put them in a box and they continue to lie :ʼ) But no, Lloyd does not lie in a box, I put him on a shelf, and later I even made Agatha for him jhvjfjgvjgcvm

Other things like wood carving (sometimes even metal), but that's rare. In short: I love absolutely everything that needs to be created, where you need to work with your hands! I think that's enough.

FANFICTION!!!! I can get so deep into the story that I forget it's non-canon (like what happened with Future of the Past). Wait, let this be canon!

Thanks to my mom, I got into cooking, by the way xD I hated cooking because it always turned out to be something smelly and inedible, but when I learned how to cook pancakes and potato pancakes — the world changed 🤌✨ I want to make a cake "Lloyd" someday. LET ME MAKE THAT CAKE

Hmm, does making stupid memes count?..

OC CONTENT

Briefly about NINJAGO: Future of the Past. I just wanted Lloyd to have a girlfriend

Ahem! I didn't plan to go this far, initially my plans were just to create my own character for fanarts, but everything somehow happened by itself. I really liked Agatha (because I had a lot of unsuccessful attempts), I was even afraid that no one would like her because of the idea itself.

Considering that I love nature and simple things, Agatha is an ordinary rice farmer, who lives in the Valley of Mountain Fires (this is a remote area in the world of Ninjago, and the Monastery of Spinjitzu is part of it!). The ninja did not know where they live hahaha))

So, therefore, Agatha spends all her time in nature, thanks to which she is very agile, fast, can climb to heights and swim. This is ✨Child of Nature✨ ​​

Agatha has a fear of the future (the unknown), longing for the past (since she made many mistakes that cannot be corrected), death and minor fears like a dislike for spiders, hatred of Tuesdays, etc :)

She also behaves freedom-loving and sometimes daring, likes to find fault with what she does not like, speaks directly and can be too rude, but at the same time she is a kind person who will not abandon you in trouble, and is always ready to support. In places she is quite timid, withdrawn, afraid to open up to a person (so Lloyd will have to go through a lot until they become friends).

As for Leo, he was invented in honor of my cat, who had the same name. I took up OCs after the evacuation in 2022 to distract myself, and then I had to leave Leo at home because of the difficult journey, which he might not survive (fortunately, our city was untouched at that time, and relatives looked after the house with Leo). But I missed him very much and thought that I would never see him again, so I made such a pet for Agatha.

And Tiger Bongo... Because they are canon, and a huge tiger thinking he is a cat sounds funny :) My cat began to feel extremely bad, but we returned after 3 months and he was waiting for us, so I managed to spend a few more months with him before he left.

I didn't think about the faction for a long time, I had inspiration for it. I create FotP trying to touch on real events from my life, so the faction became the Bandits on dragons, who are doing what is happening now in my country. They occupy the Valley of Mountain Fires, and the inhabitants (including Agatha) will have to live in such conditions for 16 years. There are many more bandits and their dragons (for which I came up with a new type), so ordinary residents cannot resist. If everything goes against their regime, Agatha's vellage will simply be wiped out, but...

Actually, I would be very happy to tell you more about this, feel free to write me questions! :D

Here I will write briefly: the plot is that Agatha and Leo decide to escape from the valley in search of the Monastery of Spinjitzu, so that "five masters led by green" can help save her home. She know that this would be the beginning of a war, but she had no choice. On the way, she is spotted by the bandit, so after 2 days, when the ninja are flying on the new Destiny's Bounty to the valley, the dragon of the robbers attacks the ship on the way and takes the ninja captive - Kai, Nya and Zane (Jay and Cole get lost in the forest, but later find Agatha's village). Lloyd, Agatha and Leo are not noticed, but given that Lloyd did not accept Agatha from the very beginning/she was afraid of him and very soon hated, they began to have a big conflict. Since the whole team was confused, they had no choice but to work together, and gradually they saw a lot in common (even though Leo doesn't like Lloyd and makes fun of him).

Later, the bandits learn that Lloyd is the green ninja, and use his power to search for the last key to Death (this creature supposedly should help them cross the border of the Monastery and create chaos in the world, but in fact it will destroy everyone). Let's just say Lloyd falls into the hands of a man who skillfully manipulates him. To stop Death, Lloyd and Agatha need to learn the Skill of Yin-Yang, which will lead to the fusion of Jade and Energy (Lloyd and Agatha's powers), because without it, Jade absorbs a huge amount of Energy and causes it to the pain, which can destroy the master of Energy.

Forgot to mention that Lloyd struggles with his Oni side, depression, and traumas throughout the series.

By the way, if you're wondering again why Lloyd is chubby - the events take place after the Crystallized, and then peace comes. Due to the imminent separation from Harumi, he falls into depression, and Wu's death becomes a turning point that awakens the Oni side due to negative emotions. Then part of the family breaks up, the ninja are also going to disperse, but Lloyd forbids them and trains them, because he believes that because of the Oni side, they will have to confront him. At the same time, Lloyd prefers to eat away his depression with food, which has negatively affected him for many years. Anyway, I also briefly told everything here. This boy thought that the ninja would have to fight against him, but he didn't expect that he would have to fight for them.

But then again, I plan to write up to 400 pages for the first season (and I'm already close to the final stage), so there is A LOT of stuff there. Even so, I practically didn't say anything about it 😭 There are some things I'm still keeping quiet about, but... if you're interested in something, just ask! 🙌🫠

DON’T MIND/LOVE AND DISLIKE

Ninjago | Only Dragons Rising (sorry 😭)

Any orientation (every person has the right to their own choice)

Distribution/propaganda (of something in greater quantity)

Any wars/those who in any way approve of it

Acceptance of equals

Racism, sexism, any kind of evil banter

This list needs to be extended…

I have a lot more to write, but let's finish this and start watching the shit I publish?) ~really, because I use a translator and I can't imagine how "beautiful" it sounds~ Hope you have fun!

Thanks to everyone who read to the end

:3 ♡

and please I would be truly grateful for donations and commissions as it really help. You can distribute the image with the QR-code it can also help. Ty :)

[icekingofhope]

(Enjoy this meme here-)

so the Sonic 3 trailer is out and I decided to go on and make a silly post and a small announcement

I have decided after much debate I will start officially making sonic art NOW KNOW I am new at drawing the sonic artstyle so the characters may look like something out of the shining or something cause I’m getting used to drawing them I done the same with the lmk style until I perfected it

Anyways I decided to ramble my thoughts on the trailer and why I love Sonic

now I am a sonic veteran I have drawn sonic before but when I was way younger but Sonic has stuck by me I remember back in the 2000s I used to watch sonic underground a lot on Netflix that’s how long ago it was I always loved sonic I loved the video games even own some sonic games myself!

my first one was sonic unleashed one of my favorite games I always loved and still love to this day the time where he was a werehog and sometimes I even wish he can go back to werehog sonic and plus it introduced me one of my comfort songs endless possibilities

I got way more into Sonic thanks to the anime Sonic X I didn’t watch the whole series cause it started to get weird but it was how I was introduced to shadow one of my favorite characters

I remember I was so intrigued I tried to find other content and then I found YouTuber named animebromii (who unfortunately is a…well piece of shit to sum it up he was one of those found out to get to close to kids type of YouTubers category but that was found out right after I stopped watching him) I remember his Sonic videos always made me filled with joy and made me love the characters more

although I stop getting into Sonic as fans started to get a little to weird for my taste and such and Sega didn’t know what the fuck they were doing

what rekindle my love for Sonic was well the Sonic movies and as I watch I remembered the joy I had for it and started to slowly get into Sonic again and explore more of it due to being more mature and such I turned out to have well a lot of unpopular opinion that I know will have a mob of angry Sonic fans chasing me with pitchforks

Just Some headcanons and ships I don’t agree on and such even some dislike on how Sega is going about like trying to make sonamy now NOTE I don’t mind sonamy hell as a kid I was one of the people who ship it or more specifically the werehog sonic x Amy (i saw so many AMVs and one of those story shits….you have no idea how much of a huge werehog sonic fan I was) but the reason it makes me uncomfortable cause I found out Sega have gave the group canon ages at one point….

which where Amy is 12 and sonic is 15 NOW I don’t know if this is true I haven’t seen proof and out of all honestly I personally think the ages shouldn’t have been confirmed cause well it feels like to me it fucks up the lore and a lot of ships people love and you could have your own headcanons and such for their ages and to me Sonic doesn’t feel like he is 15 to me like hell when I was younger I thought he was ALEAST 18 or 16

There is only few ships I feel comfortable with that is Elise x sonic and sonia x knuckles

now admittedly yes I maybe not the biggest Sonic fan I haven’t read any of the comics i haven’t played all the games hell sometimes I don’t know half of the characters sometimes but still I love Sonic with all my heart and I hope you guys enjoy this little adventure of mine of Sonic the hedgehog

[pancake404]

Speed/Lazuli/Silvia: a Romantic Relationship that's not great...(1)

Alright, I said I might do this so here we go.

Speed the Jolteon and Lazuli the Glaceon, as probably everyone who has read the comic would know, are the main romantic pairing in Eeeveelution Squad. It’s a pretty big part of the reason why Eeveelution Squad got popular; due to this, people began wanting the relationship to happen eventually, and then came the shipping wars and all that with people arguing on who Speed in particular should be with as well as other characters but the focus is particularly on him. Then came Silvia which made things worse.

I’m not going to fully explain who these characters are because most likely, if you’re reading this then that means you're probably already aware of the characters so let’s just continue to this romantic relationship which I tend to describe as, “way too liked to the point it’s kind of concerning" as well as, "Speed's Bad Ending"

Now as the...two people who saw my drawings and opinions of the characters of Eeveelution Squad might guess, I’m not exactly in favor of Lazuli and Speed's relationship happening at all or the fact that it did happen in its weird way. To be blunt, I don’t like it whatsoever and I have several reasons why and a decent ton of examples proving them(this not only goes for Lazuli and Speed but also Silvia and Speed at the same time but the ladder might come a little later).

So before anyone that does ship these two or three assassinates me for whatever reason you feel like taking it this far because I say your ship is not good, do me at least the small favor and read through this before the assassination attempt…or just, scroll past this.

Also, I'm not holding it against EV for the writing and having to be forced to set them up together but I don't think enough people realize just how bad the relationship is written to be which I'll be showing a lot of examples for this.

This is will be the first post/part of my rant and it'll mainly focus on Lazuli's treatment of Speed from the start and onward. There are more I want to get to which I can't in this post because there are a few limitations like the amount of images but I'll get to them later.

Now, without further to do, let’s begin.

Starting with Speed/Lazuli:

Let’s start with the basic reason why I don’t like it which is shown in the comics pretty frequently and it’s the constant physical violence that Lazuli commits against Speed. For me, it’s problematic when the first thing that pops up in my mind when thinking about this relationship is just Lazuli hitting Speed and beating him up throughout the whole comic. I understand she has this tsundere trope but here’s the issue, or rather the issue I have with it, it doesn’t make sense nor do I support hurting others, especially those that you supposedly love which is where the trope is often found. But it goes a little further for Lazuli’s case where it’s confirmed that for the first few months(or at least a decently long time), Lazuli did hate Speed which also means that those punches were genuine either from embarrassment, pettiness, or just an argument that Lazuli 99% of the time turns physical.

Speaking of examples, here's a list of them:

I'm willing to give her an "out" for this one as it could be chalked up as accidental as Lazuli quickly apologizes for running over Speed, thinking he's just some random Pokémon in the way.

Lazuli insults him the first time they truly meet, keep this in mind.

Personally, Speed is in the right here, given what we see, Lazuli bumps into Speed, quickly says "sorry" and runs off. Then once Speed comments on it being "a bit late" and that he almost fainted, Lazuli insults him by calling him weak(she has no idea how wrong she is).

Afterward, her way of an apology to this new individual(Speed) is just demanding forgiveness and when Speed shoots back, Lazuli escalates it to a punch already starting their streak of Speed beatdowns which is going to be consistently happening throughout the comic to some degree.

Previous to this exact moment(Chapter 1), Speed calls her nasty but this time is more of muttering to himself as he doesn't yell it out, Leaf doesn't notice this leading me to assume that Speed didn't intend for it to be heard. Again, Lazuli escalated this to physical violence.

Despite it, this is the moment where the ship began in most heads I believe. However, if you look at it from the context and see what's being displayed here, Lazuli is embarrassed and Speed looks disgusted, and even if you count Lazuli's blush as flustered or a hint that she may have liked it, Speed's reaction does not at all show that at all.

Speaking of that moment previously, we see the aftermath and there are bandages wrapped around his ears, head, and sides of his head, and on other panels, we see his chest and possibly stomach. Keep these moments in mind.

Surprisingly, Lazuli makes an effort to apologize but then she demands an apology from Speed which he rightfully questions as it isn't his fault for anything that happened and he was also the one getting beaten up for it. Then Lazuli straight up threatens to take that apology back which hints that she might not be truly sorry or she's pretty good at giving a reason for Speed to not like her.

Not only that, a small thing to notice is that in the previous page, Lazuli gets up and close to Speed, Speed is on the ground and the ball hits Lazuli on the back of the head causing the damage Speed took. Although I would agree it's accidental, Lazuli is more or less the one that set them up like that.

Now imagine yourself in his position, someone that had beaten the crap out of you for them getting knocked into you, which led to you both kissing on accident(somehow), finally apologizing later that night. But then imagine they demand an apology from you even if you did nothing wrong and if you refuse, they raise an arm to beat you up again. Sounds like they're not truly sorry and just want forgiveness because, in reality, they don't truly care as much. Of course, some may make the argument that they don't know each other but that's the issue, this is how they started off and it'll continue on for longer which makes the ship problematic but let's continue.

I'll be also doing these examples to try to put it in the perspective of Speed because this is what he would be thinking and experiencing if this was real life.

Special Chapter 8, before Lazuli had any feelings(doesn't change much regardless).

Kris straight up jumps on Speed to wake him up, however, the difference between instances with Lazuli and instances with Kris is that while Lazuli gives Speed injuries bad enough to give limbs wrapped with bandages, Kris at her worst seems to just give Speed a mean awakening but otherwise, he's completely fine.

Meanwhile Lazuli:

Another punch to the face hard enough to give Speed a nosebleed, all in front of Sunshine by the way.

She also quickly assumed that Speed was being a creep even though all he did(and he explained) was he was just waking her up. Also, Lazuli clearly did not notice Sunshine standing there as it would quickly disprove the likelihood of Speed planning something since his adopted daughter is standing right there.

That would be correct.

Alright then, some may argue that Lazuli didn't have a crush on Speed back then and that's why she was most aggressive with him/those moments don't count. Now, it's established she does now like him romantically or at least interested. You would think she would begin to change her ways as so far, she's been doing nothing but hurting him physically, right?

Let's see how she's doing after this reveal:

You are right about that alright.

If you look closely, Speed is tearing up, that is how hard he got hit in the head for just simply forgetting that he promised Lazuli to take her to the bookstore (which he does later that day with Silvia).

Because Speed is not aware that Lazuli has a crush on him(which is fair, why would he assume that when so far she continued to hurt him), in his perspective, Lazuli is going from hurting him throughout the months to now attacking others. This is also one of the only times Lazuli aims at someone else besides Speed...which I'll get to later.

Speed then apologizes for rightfully snapping at her and Lazuli turns down the flowers, which in his perspective, is just a decline of a apology gift which is way more effort than Lazuli had ever shown so far.

With more Speed abuse, he is getting cornered and integrated by Lazuli who is assuming too quickly, Silvia is messing with Speed with the "big brother thing", and now others are judging him for it because of these two.

Speed truly is just getting screwed over half the time and a lot of the times is from Lazuli or others which eventually lead to another beatdown.

Flashback to their earlier times, keep in mind, this is what Speed sees and remembers. One of them is a reference to chapter one and it's just showing Lazuli beating the crap out of him by...banging his head or more punches, either way, it's something that Speed will certainly remember.

Lazuli...complains that Speed didn't take the punch.

Also, it has apparently become so common for Speed to get hurt by Lazuli that everyone else including Speed's siblings is not even slightly bothered by it.

Besides one time with Silvia, so far in the comic, Lazuli had not attacked anyone else besides Speed. She feels bad because everyone else is being nice to her which could mean that nobody(but Leaf sort of) has directly called her out on it in these past months which also means Speed had been getting punched, beamed, etc. without anyone stepping in truly besides a few rare times.

Anyway, this is another thing that happened in Special Chapter 8, this is how they started off and continued to be after the first day. Also, once again, Lazuli escalates an argument to physical violence.

This is so far one of the more truly friendly interactions between the two and this is also around the moment where Lazuli develops feelings for him. A bit too bad that she didn't change her treatment afterward as much.

But I will give this moment some props as it shows that they don't have to be hate each other and that they can in fact get along if both sides want to. This also shows Speed's character as being this older brother/parent figure to most which I'll get to later.

One last punch...should've been done a while ago.

Now of course, others could argue that all of these times where Speed gets hit is because it's just a "funny gag", or since Speed is level 98, he'll be fine so it doesn't matter, or the fact that's it's not just straight up physical abuse(which it is).

But I disagree on all three of these reasonings, this "funny gag" that is presented happens so often where it doesn't become funny if it ever was and it just becomes uncomfortable to watch or read. Also, the fact that Lazuli later in the comic feels guilt and Speed in this exact panel yells about the abuse seems to already show that all of those punches were not forgotten about and it shouldn't be forgotten about. Not only that, for other shows or pieces of fiction that presents abusing the main character or...any character, a decent ton of them doesn't include injuries bad enough where bandages are needed and don't happen as often as it does in Eeveelution Squad. Seriously, until like the last four chapters, the only chapter that Lazuli does not hurt Speed in was like Chapter 3(Speed did expect a punch to come showing how that's his first response).

Secondly, the fact that he's level 98 or "should be fine" doesn't excuse on what Lazuli did throughout the whole comic. She still clearly was hurting him and he reacted to all of it negatively.

Even EV themself agreed and talked about how this sort of relationship would not ever work in real life and should not have worked even in the comic, that the only reason why Lazuli got her wish come true is that because the fans wanted it so badly.

Speaking about the fans, all I hope is that throughout the years that Eeveelution Squad was cut short and cancelled the reboot, there was time to think and mature(or maybe you just don't care anymore which is fair). Even if you support it the relationship or not, all I hope is that this gave you some other perspective to consider.

Although I have more to say like Speed's feelings later on, I'll say it in a different post but I will end this portion off like this(I still have Silvia and other examples in Eeveelution Squad to cook up as well as other thoughts), in the comic from Speed's perspective. They first meet on a bad start and they quickly despise each other, throughout the months in Speed's perspective, Lazuli mainly targets and physically hurts him for a variety of small reasons and assumptions. Nearly every interaction involves a punch to the face. This goes on for months straight and Speed of course would not think that Lazuli might have romantic feelings for him later on, because why would he? If she did, why does she keep trying to hurt him? If this was real life, if someone keeps hitting you for small reasons, the last thing you would think is that they have a crush on you.

I think it's fair to say that we should start normalizing being respectful and caring to those we might have romantic feelings for instead of being rude or be physically violent with and that is something EV had expressed when they discussed the issues with Lazuli and Speed.

All of this is not really about hating the writing and wished a different ending and all of that as I'm sure others already expressed that well enough but rather, I think not enough people understand and I also felt like expressing my opinions.

It could have worked sort of if Lazuli was aggressive toward everyone instead of primarily Speed in the comic and she began developing feelings for Speed as she realizes that despite all of her treatment toward him, he still tried to be respectful and caring because that's who he is unlike others who still don't like her. But also in the same time, her treatment of others and especially of Speed shows a lot more in the consequences. Like Speed might be able to forgive Lazuli but decides to not share her feelings because her actions still happened and he isn't going to forget months of that treatment quickly.

If I had to give a quick writing suggestion for anyone(and also myself), try to treat characters like humans, it's okay for it to be fictional but have some relatable real-life aspects that makes the audience be able to understand how or why a character is struggling or what challenges they face. It's okay to mess up in your first attempt in a story, or your second or third, as long as you use what you learned from the last one to improve the current one, then write till your content.

Now anyway, back to working on Silvia later as I said, there is a LOT more I can talk about.