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some-pers0n · 3 months ago

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Demoman is one of the characters in the fandom I feel most people straight up ignore or don't know how to write. Blunt, sure, but I do stand by it. Demoman is such a fascinating, intriguing character with the most fleshed-out backstories, yet is oftentimes relegated to being Soldier 2.0, only now with poorly written phonetics.

In other words, hey! I'm a fanfic writer who has a ton of opinions as well as a neurotic need to analyze every character they come into contact with. Pleased to see you're reading this. I've already done a little doohickey essay like this with Medic a while back. The purpose of these long rambles is half of me combing through every instance of the character and pulling them apart to see how their character works...and also me not-so-subtly venting and complaining about mischaracterization. Shocking how a fandom where the main characters are all very clear-cut stereotypes with some slight subversions here and there can't seem to get them.

This essay will go through Demo's beginning and all the way to his latest appearance in the 6th comic. I'll touch on how his character shifts and is expanded upon. I doubt he changes as much as Medic has over the years, but I think it will be interesting to see. I'll just go over bits of characterization, try to rationalize it, and then try my best to sum up all of the traits by the end and try to describe his character in the most canon-compliant way.

With that preamble out of the way, let's begin. This is also 7k words btw just...be aware of that, okay?

Before we actually get into proper character stuff, I wanna lay the groundwork first by exploring the types of characterization I see from Demo. Pick them apart. See what they're really like.

So, of course, there's the popular Redditor opinion of Demo that's mainly shaped by the way people play him in the game. There, people will describe Demo as being generally a bumbling drunkard. It's not too uncommon to see people say that he's an angry drunk. A man who is more concerned with alcohol and drinking himself into a stupor than anything else. I've also seen people say that Demo straight up can't read, which...euhhhhggg. He feels more like an alternative version of Soldier at times, which, again, isn't accurate to his character.

I don't care at all for this characterization. I do think a good chunk is rooted in racism and it's generally very uncomfortable for me to look at for too long. This characterization is pretty shallow and empty, which makes for a boring and offensive caricature. Reddit moment.

The second one is more interesting and the version you'll see more on Tumblr. It's this...odd version of him. I can't exactly put my tongue on what is off about it. It seems more accurate to his character. He's a foil for Soldier a lot of the time (Boots n' Bombs is his most popular ship let's be real) and generally isn't exactly seen on his own. Sure yeah there's the oddball art of him and him only, but let's be real most of his tag is mainly just him being in the background or saying a jokey-joke.

I actually fell back into Ao3 for a bit to skim over some fics to see what kind of characterization there was of Demo there to refresh my memory, and some of the common throughlines was shockingly that he doesn't drink a lot. "He rarely drinks!" I remember reading once. That's not right, no. He's an alcoholic. Like that's a core part of his character. Another fic had him being called "Cyclops" as a pet name. Ew. Anywho, other than that it's Demo being pretty into cryptids, having the Eyelander as a buddy guy, etc and etc. It's fun, but also it's missing...something.

Then, it hit me: Demo rarely is seen as an individual. He reminds me of Heavy in that regard, where most of his appearances have him be the straight-man to another character. Most of the time he's secondary and just a folly for the other characters. It's disappointing in that regard. Like you see a lot more stuff for characters like Scout, Medic, etc and etc with their own unique characterization stuff and getting their own attention.

So...then what is Demoman's character, exactly? Well, that's what we're here to see. It'll be pretty interesting, no?

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So, funny thing is that Demo didn't change nearly as much as Medic has over the years. Sure yeah, the concept art of Demo was more of the generic stereotypical Scotsman. White, ginger, sideburns, that whole thing. Cartoony and fun design, but eventually they went with the Demo we all know and love today.

Looking at the concept art, it all seems pretty standard for the tone that Invasion was going for at the time. Nothing really to note there other than Demo's face being a stock angry grr grr expression. It is interesting to see how the idea of him wearing an eye was a constant even from the beginning though.

This then brings us to the voicelines. Ahh, good ol' characterization. Demo here is characterized as being jovial and having fun. He's throwing out insults left and right, damning them to hell and laughing at them as they die. Usual typical mercenary stuff. This is just personal headcanon material, but I always rationalize the way the mercs act on the battlefield as being a result from adrenaline and generally being drunk on blood. They aren't as mean when off the clock, but it's worth noting that these are how these characters act when a gun's in their hands and they're exploding people left and right.

TF2 really likes basing the characters off of the class they play as and how they act. Scout is fast moving and his gameplay is oftentimes getting right in someone's face and bolting, which is reflective in his hotshot personality. It's only reasonable that Demo is an explosive, fun, and generally cocky guy when out and battling. He's lobbing grenades and sticky bombs left and right. He isn't afraid to yell to the Medic he just blew up that he's been shagging his wife and calling the Scout he just chopped the head off "twinkle-toes". He teases and such when it comes to the other team.

However, the voicelines also very curiously give us a really fascinating look into his character. He's an alcoholic. He loves his scrumpy, which is not whiskey, shockingly. I thought it was whiskey for the longest time, but no! It's a cider! His stock melee is the bottle he uses to drink, now turning it into a quick weapon. His model in the main menu is him holding up the bottle itself. His default melee taunt is him taking a swig from the scrumpy bottle. It's a core part of his identity, let's be real. It's a part of the whole Scottish stereotype he has going on.

The game of course follows this. There's a lot of lines where he's slurring and babbling in a cartoony drunken way. A good portion of it is just him making vague threats...but a lot of it is also sad. He calls himself a one-eyed bloody monster. He weeps and cries. When jeering, he says he's hit rock bottom here. Interesting new development.

Apologizes for pausing to ramble, but I don't get why people try and sand down the edges to Demoman's character by making him out as though he isn't an addict. He is. That's something that is made abundantly clear. The iconography of alcohol follows him like his own damn shadow. I dunno. It bothers me.

I digress. There's some other bonus stuff I think is quite interesting. Most of his battle charges involve the other team. "Let's gettem lads!" and all. I think it's neat how he views his teammates as just that. Teammates. Those he fights alongside with. Another thing of note is how he occasionally has lines that are...odd in a way. Poetic and dramatic. Something that subverts the typical characterization. When he loses at rock paper scissors, there's a chance he'll say "Oh, 'tis a dark day", which. well then okay buddy.

So to recap: for characterization in-game, Demo is an alcoholic Scotsman who is generally pretty witty and functioning despite the incredible amounts of booze he drinks. He is energetic, bombastic, and generally hearty and having fun. He's not taking things terribly seriously and is generally just going about and blowing stuff up. However, there is a very noticeable streak of sadness to his character. When drinking, he reveals undertones of self-deprecation and hatred. Why? How?

...well, you just need to take a gander at his character card.

Erm excuse me what the fuck.

I honestly do not understand the logic behind this backstory. Like in a practical sense. Like, yeah!! obviously this backstory is sad and such! I really actually like this backstory and honestly I love writing him in the context that this happened to him. It's just that...I can't wrap my head around the idea of this being Demo's backstory given that everyone else has pretty silly little blurbs here. I think the darkest it gets is Soldier going to Germany years after WWII ended to kill people.

This??? Sure yeah TF2 gets a lot sillier and more cartoony comedic as time goes on, but even with the current tone where is the funny? I ain't complaining, I love me my angst, but this is so jarring to see. I suppose that explains why they retcon it later, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Hey, at least it gives us an explanation to why Demo is sad. We can pretty easily gleam a reason for his current behaviour in the game from this: his messed up childhood. To begin, Tavish Finnegan DeGroot was abandoned by his parents and left to live in an orphanage. Eventually, he was adopted and brought up by some foster parents, who he then murdered in an attempt to blow up the Loch Ness monster. This was when he was six years old. Actual child.

He then went back into the orphanage, where he would tinker with bombs. Why? Insert whatever headcanon here, but for me I think it's a feeling of fascination, yet also heavy guilt. Perhaps revenge. Either way, he loses his eye from these experiments. Eventually however, he's brought back into the family when word spreads of his excellence when it comes to manufacturing bombs. The use of the word "lovingly" feels exceptionally sarcastic, but that could be in part to how his parents are later characterized. Either way, this is a result of the DeGroot tradition, which, and I quote, is wholly unnecessary and cruel. It even cites it as him being reintroduced into his family as the "end of his unhappy childhood".

...so yeah. Pretty safe to say the reason for his alcoholism is to cope with that. He feels the guilt over that and will breakdown into sobs over it even. Yikeesss... It can also mean that he feels as though he's held up to incredibly high expectations, having the entire DeGroot family lineage to live up to. Again, later on he's being nagged at for not being as hard-working as his father, who, in good ol' TF2 fashion, blew up the Queen for a nickel. It does certainly feel that way, no?

So this introduces a new wrinkle to Demoman's current characterization: he's an alcoholic who is happy and has an upbeat and fun personality (at least on the battlefield), but underneath it he's hurting and feels ashamed of who he is. He drinks to cope and manage it, yet it only seems to exasperate problems at times.

Can I safely say that Demo is the merc with the most fascinating and intriguing backstory and personality thus far? Sure yeah I love Engie a lot as well, but Demo's character actually feels like it is a result of the backstory written for him. Like all of the other mercs sure you can go on and on about stuff with them, like Scout and Spy and their whole deal, Sniper and his parents, everything with Heavy, etc. Demo?? Right off the bat there's something to chew on in terms of actual character writing.

What an interesting character! I sure hope later installations of the story will follow through on this and give him ample screentime!

Anywho, time for the Meet the Demo video. Again, a departure from the Meet the Medic video and how I rambled on and on about that one, but it was mainly due to MtM being something to mark a drastic shift in Medic's character from serious and angry to more silly and mad scientist-esque. Meet the Demo, due to it being one of the Meet the Team videos made so early on, doesn't really get the benefit of a short with a story, but I digress.

This one is stylized more like an interview, which, in canon, means he's telling this all to The Director and all. It opens with the title screen before the horns section seep in, cutting to a clip of Demo running while explosions go off behind him. A freeze frame cut before a voice-over of Demo comes on with the iconic line "What makes me a good Demoman? If I were a bad Demoman, I wouldn't be here discussing it with you, now would I!?"

Okay so just more confirmation and all of Demo's personality in-game. According to his bio, he has a short temper and all, which could explain him getting louder when asked that question. I don't think it's a joke or him exaggerating, since he seems genuinely pretty upset by the suggestion. He would have to be good at his job in order to be telling you this, yeah? Why even bother asking? It's an interesting bit of characterization that somewhat expands on that short temper.

More generic footage of him running about while explosions go off before coming back to the interview of him explaining a bomb in its simplest form. "One crossed wire, a wayward pinch of potassium chlorate, one errant twitch... and kablewie!!" Seems like filler dialogue, but I always like taking note of the fact he uses the chemical compound term as opposed to something more colloquial. It's just headcanons, but I really enjoy thinking that Demo is pretty damn smart and really gifted when it comes to making bombs and general chemistry. It's a clear passion and love of his and I like touching on it when I can.

The next couple seconds are shots between him taking a good swig of his scrumpy and then blowing up a level three sentry. It's just showing off his capabilities as a class. Nothing special (other than being cool and showing he's competent at his job). The real interesting part is his breakdown where he's on the verge of tears, exasperatingly telling the camera that he's...off. He knows it. There's not too many black Scotsmen, especially ones with a busted eye. "They've got more fucking sea monsters in the great Loch Ness than they got the likes of me" he says.

But, he perks up! He talks over a clip of him baiting a group of BLU mercs into a sticky trap. The voiceover is also really fascinating here. The way Demo talks reminds me something out of an Aesop fable. It's a very curious and fascinating way of talking. I wish this bit of characterization stuck around since it's pretty fun. "Come and get me I say! I'll be waiting on ya with a whiff of the ol' brimstone. I'm a grim bloody fable...with an unhappy bloody end!" is really cool.

The video ends with him taunting the mangled corpses followed by a rendition of the main theme with bagpipes. I should probably also mention Drunken Pipe Bomb, his theme song. It's an upbeat and fun piece with a mixture of the typical TF2 sounds (funky jazzy drums and bass guitar) as well as a Celtic flair, what with bagpipes, whistles, etc and etc. There's also a kickass surf rock section. It's quite the battle theme and definitely reflects a lot of Demo's character as being an energetic, explosive type of character who is proud of his Scottish roots.

So that's pretty much it for SFM bits for now. How about we take a step back and look at the first-ever actual TF2 comic: WAR!, where Demo really gets a big break for his characterization. We don't care about the Saxton Hale or Jarate ones. WAR! my beloved...

But first, the actual WAR! update. It was the sixth major content update released back in 2009. Remember when this game got actual content updates? Me neither. The update was based around the rivalry between the RED Demo and the BLU Soldier to excuse why they were adding new items for the both of them, with Soldier in the end winning the little contest and getting the Gunboats.

For canon lore, the update serves to introduce the idea that the RED Demo and BLU Soldier had a comradery at first. Friends! Interesting piece of characterization to have Demo explicitly go against RED and become friends with Soldier. The two of them do bounce off of each other quite well when they're paired up, I will say. They're both heavy-hitters in terms of gameplay and their personalities are quite loud at times.

For added voicelines, there's a bunch of the Administrator denouncing their friendship as well as domination lines for both Solly and Demo whenever they kill each other. Demo pretends he hates Soldier, but asks if he's okay, tells him that he loves him, and generally is like "but we're still friends though, aye? :]" He does care a lot about their friendship, which is pretty sweet and cute. Sure hope that lasts.

In the WAR! comic, we see Demo in a mansion. He's loaded! It's also confirmation that the mercs are given quite a lot of money, but apparently not enough for Demo's mother. She's nagging him about not working and saying that he should be ashamed for being so lazy, to which he rebuttals, saying he has three jobs and has made millions annually. Apparently not enough for his mother, since Demo's father worked twenty-six jobs.

She also brings up an interesting piece of information. "No demoman worth his sulfur ever had an eye in his head past thirty!" which implies that missing an eye is a family tradition to lose your eyes when working this job. Would this also imply that Demo is not thirty by this point, since he still has the one eye? Eh, whatever.

Demo taking care of his mom in this old, nagging state is pretty neat characterization, as well as him holding down two other jobs besides mercenary work for RED. He's very capable and talented! He's also extremely caring and sweet. Even when his mum is complaining and griping about him not living up to his father, he gets her tea and takes care of her. He does respond with a lot of "I know mum" when it comes to that. He's heard it all before. She keeps saying the same stuff. I like thinking he knows fully well he can't live up to the extreme work ethic his father had or truly impress his parents and is pretty bummed out about it, but that's just headcanons.

Anywho, Pauling's there. She's there because the Administrator wants to break up the friendship between Demo and the BLU Soldier and instead have them be pitted against each other. While Soldier needs to be tricked and insulted by Demo and told that he's a civilian (something that he hates apparently), Demo is more coerced and convinced.

He's still loyal to their friendship, but, aye, there's something different about that sword there. Here's an interesting bit of characterization: Demo being a sword guy. There's a lot of medieval stuff relating to Demo, what with DeGroot's Keep, the Eyelander, his general way of speaking at times, etc and etc. It's fun and I think he takes great interest in medieval-period stuff, but, again, headcanons.

Demo feels conflicted. How could she make him choose between his best friend and this cool ass sword?? He doesn't give an answer, but Miss Pauling further pushes him to choose violence when leaving even more stuff for him as well as telling him that Soldier said that he'll join the fight. It's then assumed that Demo agrees by that point.

It's interesting to compare and contrast Demo and Soldier. Soldier, despite hearing all of these mean things, still wants to be friends with Demo. It's until "Demo" calls him a civilian, something personal and sensitive to him, is when he decides to betray him. Demo meanwhile is more swayed by things that he loves, but the final push is that betrayal. He only acts when he's finally told that their friendship has been severed. Curious how their loyalty is strong in those ways.

...I should probably sometime mention the actual retconning of his backstory however. Hoouhhh boy let's go. So, for the 2011 Halloween update, there was a comic alongside it. This comic had some cute gags, like Heavy giving a little boy he scared seven grand. However, the main attraction is the rewritten backstory for Demo.

I mentioned earlier, but I honestly can't blame them for maybe trying another crack at a Demo backstory that isn't as bleak and miserable. I do really like the original one because I'm a sucker for angst, but this backstory does work a lot better tonally when you're just trying to write some goofy stuff, especially if it involves Merasmus at some point.

The story retcons the whole thing and seemingly makes it so that Demo has always been with his parents and the reason he lost his eye was not because of some brutal accident but rather a currrseeee ooohhhh spookyyy. He's hired by Merasmus to sweep up the place a bit, with him being exceptionally clear to young Tav to not touch any of the accursed tomes. He does, of course. Nothing too much in terms of characterization. It's more just saying "Hey Demo's eye is cursed and that's why he lost it but! hey! it comes back once every Halloween!!"

Again, I can't really knock this version of events. They're simple, but goofy and fun. It's all up to whatever you're trying to accomplish with Demo methinks. If you want silly and whimsical stories, you can have that backstory. If you want gut-wrenching angst, probably should take the initial one.

Aanndd that's virtually it for Demo being important. Demo doesn't get too much plot relevance later on. He's just kinda done with. He shows up in Expiration Date for a quick gag where he returns with a bunch of beer, shouting and cheering while being unaware of how they all just learned they're going to die in three days. He then shows up again during the bucket scene and doesn't do much other than mouthing somethin' (I can't tell you want tbh). A new thing is that he plays piano! That's fun! He then kinda watches Scout try and ask out Pauling and he yells for him to describe what she looks like, which is just what Demo currently sees her as (drunk, blurry, etc). He then fights in the big battle yada yada and shows up at the end with the beer again.

The MVM trailer I suppose is a thing to be noted. Here, he's a BLU Soldier and is playing cards with the Soldier of the same team. Seems like regardless of teams, there's some sort of bond between the two of them. All that happens is that Demo is down to bust up robots with the rest of the RED mercs. Pretty much it.

It is quite unfortunate to see Demo relegated to a role so passive in the story and comics. I've mentioned it before, but I do have an ever so slight grudge against Soldier for taking up the majority of the screentime when it comes to the comics. Yeah, he's really fun to write about, I can't blame the writers for doing so, but also like...c'mon... In the end, we're left with a good chunk of the mercs being underdeveloped in exchange for a ton of Soldier trivia. Props if you like Solly though; your fave got the best treatment.

Ah, but still! Demo has some moments in the comics! Let's go through them!

Uh. Upon checking most of the comics before the mainline ones, it appears he does not say even a single word. Or even show up in a good portion. Well that's disappointing. I thought he at least said like...one thing. The most he does in terms of characterization is put on a crown in A Fate Worse Than Chess, and even then that's just a silly cosmetic. Damn.

It's fine though! Because now we have the mainline comics! Hot damn finally some actual casual Demoman TF2 writing! Let's get a look and see what his normal usual personality is like! I wonder what fun shenanigans he's been up to.

The first time we see Demo he's babbling about his job being replaced by robots and looking utterly dishevelled and depressed.

Okay. That's...yeah pretty in line for his character thus far. An alcoholic who is struggling with some stuff and oftentimes will have a very vocal breakdown in front of others.

The way that he's characterized here is rather fascinating though, I'll say. He's depressed. From what we can glean, this is what his life has been like since the layoffs. He's gained weight (what with Soldier's very blunt "Hello fat Demoman!"), hasn't shaved, his clothes are dirty, and beer bottles are scattered in the living room. Even the Eyelander is like "dude you need to let it go" when Demo mumbles about robots replacing jobs. He's presumably lost his two other jobs and has just been laying on this couch, drinking booze and watching TV and nothing more, despite his mum's nagging.

This is a side of Demo we don't really see. Sure, yeah, we see the hot and tempered side (ex: Meet the Demoman and the general game) as well as the sad and weepy side, but it's never to this degree. Like full on depressive episode. Yikes. Sure yeah he gets dragged back into the plot and instantly gets back to himself (albeit more orange than actually black)(I keep forgetting how whitewashed Demo was in these first few comics), but it's played for laughs and gags.

What an interesting piece of characterization, no? I've seen a fair amount of major depressive disorder, BPD, PTSD, and or bipolar headcanons slapped onto Demo and tbh I can't blame them. I'd be really interested to see some fic explore that in greater detail. I'm too busy writing Engiemedic yaoi to do anything for now though. Womp womp.

The ending bit of the comic has Demo and Pauling mainly chat with each other. Oh yeah!! Demo and Pauling! They've got a couple pretty neat lines. For the usual contract it's just jokes about his alcoholism, his eye, and a couple about his mom and just general gags. In the Tough Break update, she's out drinking with Demo and nearly spills the beans about her job. Fun. I really like the Miss Pauling characterization where she regularly hangs out with the mercs. It's cute.

In the comics, she talks to Demo more like an actual equal than, say, Pyro or Soldier. She talks to them like they're children roughhousing in the backseat. Demo sits up front and the two go back and forth. Demo is the more mature and reasonable one here. Another thing that's a common bit of characterization in the comics is that Demo isn't...drunk. He's not slurring nor acting in a way that makes it immediately clear he's inebriated. He's pretty lucid. This can be from the fact that he's a very high-functioning alcoholic, but it also makes him out to be actually pretty all-there for most of the time. I've seen far too many fics where Demo is in a perpetual state of shitface drunk so that was a nice refresher.

Demo reappears in the second comic, where we get some pretty neat characterization. He's out on the town in disguise. I keep forgetting about that "What do you see?" "Not a damn thing. Let's switch places" gag that's so funny. Whatever. He is the voice of reason when it comes to Soldier. The straight-man character. He's not really...drunk here. He's not slurring his words nor is he exactly doing anything. He steps in front when Soldier starts yelling at an elderly woman, instead approaching her with a calm and kind demeanour. He holds Soldier back when he goes to strangle Scout for. I guess just being there.

So there's Demo when he's just doing stuff normally, I suppose. He's generally pretty level-headed, albeit because he's up there with Soldier. He's the Normal One when posed next to a guy like Solly. A little disappointing, but there's probably more in comic 4.

Ah the Swordvan comic. Demo and Pauling head over to Sniper's house to retrieve him. An odd bit of characterization is that Demo just takes one look at Snipes' house and goes "Welp, nobody's here. Let's get out". He doesn't seem terribly thrilled to be here, further backed up by him saying that there's just gonna be fingernails and jars of piss and he straight up says "good riddance" like what is his issue with the bushman??

Now that's kinda interesting. Demo sees Snipes as being kinda just gross and a raving lunatic. He could easily be in-place for the audience and just saying what we're thinking, but I think it's interesting to see that Demo, the guy often portrayed as being the weirdo party guy, being very straight-forward. He think Sniper is some sadistic madman and just wants out. Unfortunately, he's given a neckfull of Sniper's homemade family moonshine, so he can't get out quite yet.

A very common thing in these comics it seems is Demo being the voice of reason, which is pretty interesting. The straight man to everyone. When he wakes up to Pauling spitting on him to wake him up, he goes "eughhh gross, but, hey, it worked!!" before then is knocked out. He then stays quiet for the rest of the scene, unless of course you're counting the deleted pages. There's no dialogue, but Demo breaks free from the ropes binding him, yells at Sniper, then pushes past before then inserting three syringes-worth of the moonshine into himself and passing out. Alcoholism joke as per usual. Shockingly the first one we've gotten so far.

In the submarine ride down, Demo's passed out with his scrumpy in hand. Again just a gag about him drinking a lot. He then kinda stays in the background for the rest of the comic, only appearing really once to hold a vat of liquor, before then coming to in the final shot where he holds Sniper's dead body. Heyyyy Demo I thought you thought Sniper was a weirdo freak.

Nothing too much to say from this comic then. It's just establishing more and more that Demo plays a very...straight-man character role when it comes to the comics at least. He's reasonable, level-headed, and often just says whatever comes to mind. He's kind and will instantly rush to someone's aid when they're hurt as well as just generally being pretty good-hearted. Nice!

Comic 5 mainly just features a gag with Demo's liver being so overworked that he starts turning his other organs into alcohol distilleries. The whimsy. The line that I find most fascinating from this comic is from Spy.

Like oh okay so he straight up doesn't eat anything other than alcohol and aspirin. Water literally poisons him. Probably just a throwaway gag, but geez. It does say that he is kinda in pain all the time, at least to the point where aspirin is one of the few things his body can handle. Someone out there can probably work with that and make it angsty. Other than that, not much else for Demo.

Comic 6! The final one! Home stretch here folks before I can wrap this up and give a thesis on whatever the heck Demo's character is. Demo, again, is mainly just here for gags. It's the one thing I do really wish that the comics did more: explore Demo's backstory. Like you don't even need to keep the original one, but it's still fascinating to bring up the fact he has a family lineage at all. Instead, he's mainly just a straight-man character. But, hey, whatever. I'm just the one analyzing these silly comics and jokey joke characters for gay melodramatic yaoi fanfiction.

There's a gag about Demo's liver coming back to him after leaving. These soap opera drama scene could parallel the type of shows that he was watching when having that depressive episode, but that's maybe a bit of a stretch. He then gets included in that fun group shot, where his pose mimics that from the Meet the Demo, before then gets a one-on-one scene with Medic.

These two are such a fun duo I wish Jaggerbombs was a more common pairing. Ah well. Medic catches Demo up on everything whilst he's stitching up wounds. The medi-gun is broken so they're doing this the old-fashioned way. Demo has a gag where he's still drinking, only that it's hydrogen peroxide instead. This then leads to a scene where Demo asks why Medic never gave him an eye. Reasonable methinks. Medic responds saying he did.

Demo gets upset. He raises his voice for the first (official) time in the comics. Again, his temperament. I think it's a reasonable thing to be upset about tbh. Like imagine being told after all this time you could've had your eye back. He then learns that, no, the procedure has been done before, but rather that it never sticks because of how his eye socket is cursed. Demo asks how he can't remember this, to which Medic goes "Hooh :] It's because I scooped out a part of your brain" because of course he did. He then forgets the entire conversation + probably Medic entirely.

Aaannnddd that's pretty much it for Demo. That's his last speaking role. Just a quick, simple gag about his eye being cursed, his alcoholism, and generally being the straight-man for others, even if he does have a couple silly gags too. Seems like a culmination of everything he is in the comics.

To conclude: Demo is a character I feel can take on two main roles depending on what kind of tone you're going for. If you want angst, you've got a character who carries the guilt of murdering his foster parents as well as the burden of being a DeGroot, turning to alcohol to cope with his sadness and general inability to deal with it all. If you want silly goofy stuff, you have Demo being a straight-man or a neat party guy if you like the bit from Expiration Date where he brings back beer and such. Of course there's nuance. I find it best to try and find a balance between these two opposing sides. It just takes time and practice to really get a hold of his personality methinks.

I do wish he was more in the comics though as his own person, y'know? He's very reliant on others in order for his character to function, whilst most others have scenes where it's just them doing something. I wish he was used more than being the guy who drags the others back to reality. Damn it sucks to see that the fics where he's mainly just the straight-man are kinda right in that regard.

But for character traits? Hm, let's see. I find it's just trying to make sense of what's given to you and seeing what best fits for the tone of story you're trying to go for. However, for me trying to write him? Well...

His alcoholism is a central character trait. He is definitely 100% an alcoholic, regardless of however people try and sand him down. I personally really like sticking to the idea that he straight up can't eat anything but booze and aspirin because I think it's funny but also sad, but that's me. I think him having a flask of scrumpy on his person at all times is a neat headcanon as well.

Another big trait with Demo is his frequently shifting mood when drunk. He can swing from loud to weeping in a couple moments. I wouldn't say he's particularly angry nor aggressive, no more than any other character at least. He's most volatile on the battlefield, but otherwise at the base I feel it wouldn't be an uncommon sight to see Demo partying until dawn or holed up in the living room and sobbing. Poor guy.

In spite of what many think, Demo is certainly not lazy. He's a workaholic is anything. He holds down three jobs and rakes in a lot of money in order to live up to his name as a DeGroot. It could be because he likes working that much or that his mother just nags him to push himself that far. That also ties into his self-deprecation, another core trait of his, but that's pretty obvious to see.

His heart is another big trait. The guy loves. He cares for his mother even when she nags at him. He sticks by Soldier's side until he feels as though he's been betrayed. He takes care of the Eyelander and treats it like a pal. He generally cares a whole heck of a lot about people and other things. He wears his heart on his sleeve and says what he means. He doesn't feel a need to really hide who he is as a person. He's loud, fun, and just naturally pretty sweet and kind. I don't think he's ever really "mean" outside of the game stuff. There's also the whole "being hired to explode people" part but ehhh that's just the silliness in him :]

Demo also being generally pretty...normalish. He's a guy who's really just going through it when you take the angst option. He oftentimes will try and hold back others from doing something stupid when sober. I feel like when he's drunk he's more willing to get in on dumb shit, but still. However, this doesn't mean he's wholly a normal person. I think you can do a lot of headcanons here where you bring out some traits that are otherwise not talked about too much.

There are a lot of liberties to be taken with Demo's character as per usual. A ton of writing a character to be, well, in-character is just getting down their voice and mannerisms. Understanding their personality and motives is just half the battle. Demo sometimes speaks like an old-timey medieval knight or poet or whatever. He's generally pretty well-spoken and whatever. For the love of god if you want to write him, you don't need to include phonetics constantly. Please. It's so much better that tu'try toh spell everay whurd like tis. Oftentimes people will just know what the character sounds like regardless. Just try and mimic his way of speaking more and you'll do wonders for actually making that character sound like, well, that character.

I've neglected to mention Demo being a black man a lot because, well, it never really pops up a lot in canon. I think the most recognition we get for Demo being black is him just saying that he's black. He's a black Scotsman and that's about it. It's curious since I've seen a number of fics where it's all period-typical racism angst and whatever, with Demo being used as a way for the author to get up and proudly say that they think that racism is bad by having Demo being called a slur and getting upset. How progressive.

I dunno. I never really personally touch on period-typical bigotry stuff myself due to the fact that this is Team Fortress 2. Rocket jumping was invented before stairs. Besides, this is the late 60s/early 70s. The civil rights movement happened by this point. Not everyone walking the streets is gonna be some abrasive bigot. I don't know why people want to try and make it "historically accurate" to begin with since this series has never been period-accurate to begin with. I don't particularly think TF2 is a great series to go on about tackling period-typical bigotry either. Literally if you want Demo angst you've got the actual mountain load of angst with his backstory right there. Obviously of course people are allowed to write what they want and I do fully believe that sharing stories and portraying bigotry is important, but why with TF2??? Do people just really look at a POC and think their existence is inherently political and they need to make it clear they think Racism Bad, even though the tone of canon really doesn't match that?? Ah well. I'm just rambling.

Regardless, Demo is just a character where you can take a lot of different avenues with. Maybe you can explore his trauma and try and write about how he feels trying to live up to his family name. What about his issues with his now-deceased father? Maybe you can forgo that and have him be a partner in crime to Solly or whomever else, with the occasional glimpse into his more sensitive self. Really, it all just depends on the story you're trying to tell. Ultimately, writing Demo with a healthy mix of comedy and angst is probably what is best done if you just want a pretty in-character version. He can be out on some grand adventure to take down Nessie with a merc or two AND have it be a story about him coming to terms with his past. That's just a me thing though lol.

Demo, like the rest of the cast, is an easily moldable piece of clay. All of the mercs at their very core are just funny character archetypes. They can be whatever you want them to be. It's just best to work with their original characterization and personality in mind, y'know? Fanfic writing is mainly about having fun anyway.

Speaking of which, enough procrastinating for me. I need to get back to writing my yaoi...

#sp-rambles #tf2 #tf2 demoman #character analysis #long post

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mamawasatesttube · 2 months ago

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Sorry, I know you don’t really like people bringing up Jason but I’m very curious. I read Straight on Till Morning several times before really joining Tumblr and I was surprised by how much you seem to dislike him compared to how nicely he was written in said fic. Is it cuz it’s a future fic so he can be more chilled out than in current comics or something?

Feel free to ignore me if you want. Curiosity does not owe me answers.

no worries, i don't mind polite questions! :P

so there's two things. a) sotm was written when the only real comics i'd read were sb94, yj98, tt03, batgirl (2000), and nightwing '96 (iirc - i might be forgetting one or two but the point is, when i was pretty new to comics). at this point wfa had tricked me into thinking jason actually had a consistent character arc that i simply hadn't read yet, and i assumed it would be weird to write a fic where dick, tim, and cass were all around as kon's friends + damian was there being jon's friend in the background, but jason didn't get mentioned, so i worked him in bc i thought that was like. gonna be weird if i didn't, even tho i didn't know what he was doing in postcrisis yet. i mostly just wanted to write about kon and did not yet have the strong "actually i do not care for 99% of post-rebirth comics" feelings i have today. if i were to do the sotm rewrite in my mind, jason would actually still be in his villain to antivillain era because that's my actual favorite era of him. i think it's fun when he's hanging around being like... a vengeful ghost who's just determined to make his problems Everyone's Problem. i'm not really interested in soft angsty daddy's boy jtodd or whatever sdkjfh and that seems to be the most popular version of him i see. it's either soft angsty daddy's boy jason or it's power fantasy cop-adjacent jason who has never done anything wrong in his life and is completely valid in every decision he's ever made. neither of these interests me.

which brings me to b) it's not so much that i dislike jason todd as a character so much as that his fans are so fucking annoying to me. that chapter of sotm? multiple people in the comments were there ONLY to talk about jason, even though the fic is literally about kon and not about jason and he just happens to appear for PART of one scene that chapter. it made me get sick of hearing about him. like theres soooo many jason todd fics out there can you go read those. i want to talk about kon! and i've had people bring him up on my completely unrelated fics too like he doesn't even get MENTIONED like one fic is about clark kon and tim, and someone was in the comments like "omg i bet clark was thinking about jason here" and i was so ... dude. read the room. or the fic even. it is not about him.

but even more than the way a lot of jason fans have this apparently compulsive need to make him the main character of the entire universe, i really can't stand how many of them i've seen spout literal straight up copaganda and/or defense of the death penalty. like they will bend over backwards so hard to defend why he was right to put 8 heads in a duffel bag or why it's morally correct to kill rapists that they start spewing right-wing talking points. and the constant need to make him the perfect imperfect victim ("he's angry and loud unlike GOOD victims--") and all of that just... it really turns me off of 99% of fan content about him that i've seen. it makes me genuinely kind of uncomfortable. like if you think there's a category of criminal that it's okay to execute (without a trial, even) i want nothing to do with you. can you guys just say it's sexy when a man is covered in blood after murdering a room full of people without having to be like "and he was right to do it too!!" because i promise he was not. and if you SAY any of this people will come up with a whole thing about how you must hate victims and/or poor people or some shit. its... really something.

all of that being said - i think there are interesting things you COULD do with his character. i think he can be a fascinating character! with stories worth telling! the family tragedy, the horror story, the vengeful ghost! but at this point with how rancid i find his fanbase i just really only want to see jason takes from people i know will not start spewing copaganda at me + people who i know appreciate tim kicking him in the balls (bc he kicked dick in the balls and tim is a bitch).

anyways. bring back tentatodd 2k25 who's with me

#answers #syndertenebris #jason

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princess-ibri · 4 months ago

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It's great to write for the established characters as well as create new OCs, but have you ever done the relatively rare thing of picking out a nameless background character and giving them a name and backstory?

I have actually yes! There's been quite a few background characters I've had little head canons for, mostly from Beauty and the Beast,like the guy driving the cart at the beginning is Lefou's older brother, and the girl he waves to is the older sister of the littlr blonde girl Belle pats on the head.

Or the Little Mermaid 2, with the kids, human and mer. I had names for all of them at one point but can't remember them now xD The blonde merboy was Urchin from The Little Mermaid Animated Series' son though.

The one reall obscure ones I got into were some people in the very last scene of Beauty and the Beast.

There's a girl in green I was going to have her be an apprentice to the Enchantress. But I ended up scrapping the story idea, before I ever did any art, it just no longer fit in with what I was making with my DisneyVerse. But perhaps I'll go back and rework who I think she is one day.

There was also this handsome looking bloke who I had the idea of being a half-brother/illegitimate brother of Prince Adam due to the similarities but decided to nix that idea.

Atm he's the human form of the Music Box, deleted character who was expanded in comics to be the only enchanted object in the castle that started out as an object, not a human. In my version he gained a human form when everyone else turned back, and he looks like young Prince Adam because the music box was a cherised toy of the prince when he was young.

(But tbh I'm not entirely sold on that idea either but its there for now)

Also I'm fairly sure this tall lady in green is the Enchantress

More info about the Music Box under the cut

Taken from the article on the Disney Wiki which I can verify is true because I actually happen to have this comic. But its in one of my many boxes now as I'm moving :p

Oh but they have a picture of the cover/production art so that works too!

In a short-lived comic book series set before the events of Beauty and the Beast (not to be confused with the Marvel comic book series set during Belle's stay at the castle), the Music Box was given a very important part in one issue (specifically Issue 1).

In that issue, it is explained to Chip by Mrs. Potts that unlike the other enchanted objects, the Music Box was never human, and he has been in fact the Beast/Prince's favorite toy. Although Chip along with the Beast likes his music, Cogsworth tends to look down on the Music Box as a "primitive creature".

In an amusing scene where Lumiere tries to coach the Beast in the art of courting by using Fifi (here called Marie) as an example, the Music Box is called on to supply the dance music. The Beast has grown to depend on the Music Box to lull him to sleep with his music, so that when he accidentally smashes him during one of his tantrums, he is devastated.

Lumiere and even Cogsworth are grieved as well, commenting that although he was different than the rest of them, he had a "heart" just the same, and are left wondering if they can put him back together again. The fact that he is seen in the movie at the Battle scene as well as during the Marvel Comic would seem to indicate the positive.

Thanks for the ask!

#asks #disneyverse #disney #the beauty and the beast #deleted disney #disney comics #disney concept art

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lordshroom · 5 months ago

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Happy One Year Anniversary to 2012 Good Genes! WOOOOO

I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported the comic! Whether it's writing a comment, leaving a like when a new chapter drops (or spamming likes as you binge it), or just reading it. Thank you <3

Hard to believe I've managed to semi-consistently update a comic for a whole ass year. When I started this comic, it was a means to force myself to learn how to draw the turtles and just force myself outside my comfort zone: dynamic posing, perspective, shivers backgrounds.

I thought I would run with this idea for a few months, get bored, then move on to something else. A fate that has unfortunately fell many of my previous projects.

But then I started recognizing the same few blogs liking the new updates. I got a few followers. I got a few comments. Every note felt like something special, a sign that people actually wanted to read this story.

So I kept making the comic. One of the biggest shifts in mindset came from when I met Gavin Smith, an artist for the IDW series, I asked him how long it took him to draw a page. He said, "It changes depending on the page. Sometimes it takes three hours sometimes it takes three days." My priorities shifted from "Get the comic done as soon as possible before I get bored" to "make the comic you want to make". The comic went from this to this. I missed coloring, so I started coloring. But I always liked inking more than coloring, so I started inking the comic pretty soon after.

This does mean the comic takes longer to get out, and that bums me out. But I don't mind taking some extra time to give the pages some zest because, well, you guys. If you're going to take the time out of your day to read the pages, I'm going to take some extra time to work on them.

My dream job has always been to be a writer. I've fluctuated between writing books, movie scripts, comic scripts, and a bunch of other stuff.

When I was little, I would imagine elaborate 2012 fan fiction. I never wrote any of this down since I was deeply embarrassed by my fascination with TMNT. It was a boy's show, and I was a girl. On top of that, 2012 became my lifelong hyperfixation. I didn't even seek out an online community for 2012, the closest I ever got was the forums for the show on the Nick site I watched the episodes on.

In high school, I realized who the hell cares and started entering the online community. I watched Rise and 2003, bought the IDW hardcovers, and started getting the figures.

Then in college, I said, "screw it," and started writing a fan fiction on AO3. It did not perform well. I tried to tell myself that I should write for myself, but it was hard to find the motivation to continue so I moved on.

Last summer, I started working on my original story and considered making it a webcomic. I watched a bunch of videos about making comics and wanted to try it out. Now, all the advice for making your first comic is to "make it small so you actually finish it!"

I did not take that advice.

The idea for 2012 Good Genes was old, like, fan-fiction-I-made-in-my-head-in-high-school old. It was different from the current comic. That old version took place post-season 5 with a bunch of OCs and Donnie being mutated into something more bug-like. I went with a retelling of "Vengence is Mine" so I wouldn't have to worry about designing any new characters/ environments, and I those handful of episodes as a blueprint.

2012 Good Genes was supposed to be a learning exercise and became something so much more with your support. That support got me to work on another fanfiction on AO3, which got so much more love than I was expecting. It was so touching that people liked my writing enough to read it without any silly pictures.

So I'm going to say it again, thank you. Thank you so much for a fantastic year. I would not be where I am today without your support.

And if you managed to get through all my rambling, here's an update!

"The Invasion!" will have four more pages which I'm still drawing. After that is an original episode that I want to take time to write a script and design a character before I start posting updates, so in the meantime I will be working on drawing some stuff for my asks and working on the next chapter for "Perfect Son".

#2012 good genes #good genes #good genes au #tmnt good genes

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spamtoon · 4 months ago

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DCRC Week 8. In week 10.

This is normal at this point, but this time I have an excuse for being late! Vacation! But everybody else is taking naps so like come on now's the perfect time to read Dangerous Disguise by Carl Barks, obviously. Oh wait hold on let me get on Club Pengui.n

First thought I like how they phrased it that the only reason he'd send them on a vacation is if he NEEDED them out of duckburg at the moment. alright donald your bad luck is only going to make things worse here lets get you and the boys out on holiday. Here, go ruin the mediteranian

im so mad i just like. looked down a textbox and thats literally what donald confirms help

Okay there we go I'm in now we can REALLY read this story, which I've heard is generally bonkers but I'm unaware of the extent

Lord the humans are uncanny. by now i've gotten used to some of the basically humans with dog noses but these are just. kinda humans. 50s comic style humans yes but they're sitll humans

i love how the triplets' gut reactions to remembering that spies exist is accusing every single person around them of being a spy. shoutout to that guy with a long beard though he's just here to have a good time

needed to include the picture actually. he deserves to stand on the shore and gaze wistfully into the ocean

no don't worry guys donald flirting with real human woman is par for the course right now. for context i just came back from gran fiesta tour featuring the three cabs, a ride where like the movie donald goes after real human women

it might be cliche but madame triple x might just slap as a spy name. i thought about a certain friend's certain duck oc for a split second. you know the one

i like how the spy and the counter spy are complimentary colors. donald just sees a man shaking at the thought of a lady and he's like ok. i get it you don't even wanna deal with this right now

i know this joke has been done to death but the fact they all have the same gun got a good chuckle out of me

what if i started using this as a reaction image. maybe not because of the me but oo la la and that pose is speaking to me right now

chiliburgeria. chiliburgers probably are a thing but i've never exactly thought about one actively before

tied with beard guy this is the best background character

THEY JUST KILLED A GUY OKAY we're not even that many pages in and the triplets have already killed a guy that they don't even know--that guy could have been working for the US government and they would have absolutely no idea because you literally cannot tell

donald just got a power rush after killing the guy he's like HELL YEAH . im a REAL SPY NOW no you're not

this guy's fit slaps. i like to think the nevermind in his declaration speech means that he un-countered at some point. a rogue counterspy that decided to counterspy for a different spy organization.

donald's fucking luck i'm giggling so much in public i'm so. this comic is great i think i needed a dumb fun read today

IM SO MAD great excuse to save him. labor unions saved donald duck everybody

the way the stakes are escalating in these old cartoons i just. taking a concept and running with it

IM SO MAD the way donald is like "my bad luck! when are you gonna kick in!" and the universe was just like "lmao time to spend your vacation fighting a bull"

THE VERY SMALL PANEL everyone is utilizing the very small panel but its. the single best part of the comic they're so little. they're so teeny. carl barks knew it. the secret secret service. i'm so. this comic got my grandparent to ask me what i was laughing at so that's a really big compliemnt. im excited to read more of these random little duck stories in the future

#dcrc #dcrc week 8 #dcrc carl barks

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lyr-caelum · 1 year ago

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Hi!

do you have any tips for those who want to start making comics?

I love your work btw :)

Hi!

Actually, I barely know what I'm doing, (because this is the first time ever I'm making a comic) so my advice is that if u want to start making comics then MAKE COMICS!

but I can share my process in case that helps.

Step 1. Script and Planning

(In my case, since I'm adapting something that is already written and I've already read it more times than I'd like to admit, [thank you for the pain Rollercoasterwords and MsKingBean89] I've already established all the plot I'm going to adapt. So I already have every year divided by chapters and plot points, to make sure the story stays consistent. But in case your work is original, the first step will be to write your story)

Write the script. ( my friends beta-read my script to make sure it makes sense and to check for any misspellings cause I'm dyslexic)

Establish a shot list. (this helps me a lot to figure out the intention and vibe I want to achieve with every scene and how I want the dialogue to be delivered)

Thumbnail every scene. (this makes me calculate how many drawings are needed for a scene, and how they all work together to make the story readable and understandable. This way I have a rough idea of how many drawings, shots, and backgrounds I need).

I ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND BEFORE THE NEXT STEP, THAT IF A DRAWING IS POINTLESS IS UNNECESSARY FOR THE STORY.

Step 2. Drawing.

Rough. (here is when the madness happens, rough sketch every thumbnail, figure out poses and expressions [show emotions don't tell them. Everything supports the dialogue])

Clean-up. (making sure the drawings of the characters are consistent. This is my personal hell)

Paint. (here is when I add the lighting or the grayscale I choose for the scene and the backgrounds)

Once I did this to every scene I can feel my blood bubbling cause I'm close to finishing the chapter yay!

Step 3. Finish.

Layout. (is time to put together the comic strip! Here I also make the grid)

Bubbles and text.

Finishing touches. (this is my last chance to fix any little detail that bugs my eye- and try not to get obsessed over everything)

Beta read. (here is when my lovely @imsiriuslyreading beta reads, and if she cries is that i did a good job)

Publish. (export, publish, and never EVER look back! time to START ALL OVER AGAIN!)

AAAAAAAAAAAH!!! (screams in Spanish)

DONE!

Thank you for your ask <3

I love it when u guys ask me this kind of question where I can share my experience doing this project. I know it's a lot of work, and it might be other easier processes, but this is mine (it took me a while to figure it out) and so far I'm learning a lot!

And in the end of the day that's my goal. <3

#Drawing and getting better at storytelling drawing gay wizards!#how to make a comic #i gues...#thank you so much for your ask #this is just my process i hope that helped #fan comic #atyd #atydsp #webtoon #screaming in spanish is my everyday mood

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sadfruittheatre · 7 months ago

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Loss and Lots of Retcons: The Current State of Affairs and Moving Forward

So, now that things have begun to calm down, I want to talk a little bit more about various retcons and what's going to change, both in terms of this blog and the timeline. This is also a to-do list for me, because I have hella ADHD and get very overwhelmed without some kind of game plan.

So, to get the big thing out of the way, several characters are no longer going to exist and will have never existed. You're going to see the things on this list and go "woah, wait a minute! aren't all these guys like, super important to a bunch of things!?" and the answer is yes, but sometimes things happen in real life that affect the plot and that is just a potential consequence of working in collaboration with other people.

So, the casualties are:

Mara

Flann

Veroa

Kuroza (Fish)

Anzu

Carma and Kone

It's a lot of characters unfortunately, but we still have plenty left.

Cayenne

Bragi

Aneas

Tomor

Eugene

Mirin

Coulie

Dulze

Deeji

Letch

Mille

Mento

The character pages will be updated accordingly.

There will also be some new characters introduced in conjunction to the plot things that have been happening in the background, but I will not be elaborating on all that yet until I iron out this other stuff. But know that I am definitely looking forward to introducing you to these guys and their lovely creators!

But Kateh, I hear you ask, how are you going to have concurrent plot things going on when you have to retcon like, everything??? Well, you see, I'm basically doing my best to keep the overall trajectories of my OCs as close to the same as possible in broad strokes, even if there are different characters involved or some things just didn't happen anymore. Some characters are honestly completely unaffected by this (like Aneas, who wins by staying in his lane and loving his wife). Other characters, namely Bragi, and to a lesser degree, Tomor, need a lot of work done to fix the damage.

As for the art and writing I've uploaded, much of it is probably going to be taken down, because I don't feel comfortable having art up of characters I no longer have the rights to use for a continuity that no longer exists. Some things can be edited in small ways, and if I can salvage it, I will; plenty of other things will stay up, though the context for them is largely going to have to be rewritten to fit the new continuity. I'm definitely bummed that so much of this entire project has to be gutted, but I'm hoping to be able to slowly rebuild things going forward. Honestly not sure if it would be easier to delete and start over, but I'll try to fix things as they are before I do all that.

I do actually have some establishing comics in the works to get us all adjusted to the new vibes, so we can at least look forward to that!

Now, let's talk plot and characters. We've talked a lot about what's lost, but here's what remains.

Now, while there are still a lot of minor details to work out, the broad strokes are as follows:

Bragi's still being sent to Conton City to atone for his stinky boy crimes. However, the big difference now is that for better immersion in the mortal culture, he's staying with a host family, the already overcrowded teacakes house with Dulze and Yamcha. Deeji is his new best friend. #DeejiSupremacy

He's still going to slowly get his shit together until he's forced to confront Aneas and they reconcile. Details are still hella fuzzy as to how that goes down but Aneas and Coulie (and Eugene) remain largely unchanged. Still happily married. #FlowerBudsSupremacy

A lot of the stuff with Mento probably still happened, though the context of Mirin's existence and what led up to Mento's death is gonna have to change wildly to accommodate it. Bragi's existential crisis will definitely have to be adjusted.

The Anzu shit? Didn't happen. Bragi likely remains unstabbed, unless we find another context to stab him in. With that in mind, he's probably going to revert back to his pre-vest design because like, the whole reason for that is because he got stabbed. At least his godtube channel remains alive and shitty. Coulie can still systematically dislike all of his videos.

At the most recent point in the timeline, Bragi's at least a little more willing to open up to people he trusts because Kuroza/Fish isn't there anymore to fuck it up for him by being weird about his trauma. He's still got some trust and vulnerability issues tho.

Tomor needs an overhaul at least in terms of his own trajectory. Part of this is due to the plot things I'm sitting on, part of it is because he lost his comedic foil in the form of Fish. He will definitely continue to cause problems on purpose tho, probably with New!Mento.

The Mento with Mirin goop in her brain is still very much a thing btw. She's so silly and I love her. #MentoSupremacy

Some of this stuff is still subject to change, and whatever does change likely won't be as detailed as it used to be, but we're doing what we can. It's a hot mess right now and it's gonna take a lot of time to fix it, so uh, thanks for bearing with me 👍

#mod post #meta #very bummed to have to make this post and rebuild everything but I'm taking my time #this old continuity wasn't built in a day and this one won't be either

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rubykgrant · 2 years ago

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It be Marchurch, so... have some Church! Not all the art I've done with him, but the ones I'm especially fond of~

Up first is a picture of Church (Alpha, that is) and Tex listening to a good0bye message from Epsilon (which he never thought they'd be able to hear), and the smug Church face from my pin-up series. With them are also two versions of Alpha as an AI without the armor (on the left is him actually returning after being "dead" for so long, on the right is a concept of the original Alpha when his Fragments were just part of him, all together yet different, before their memories were taken away). Next is some more AI pictures; Theta is my favorite, the best little guy EVER, and Sigma just happens to have my favorite aesthetic- fire (I promise, I love the other AI Fragments too, I just haven't drawn much with them). Also, some family times from my series of picture with Church celebrating Hanukkah (featuring him telling the story to Carolina with Tex in the background, and also the AI having fun making their own digital dreidel). Third is the process of my Blue Team group picture (the solid shapes of the armor colors, the outlines of their bodies inside, and finally just them. I'm so glad I figured out a fun composition with Church slouching/flipping the bird with Tucker standing confidently holding the sword, and Caboose waving with Tex flexing. also, enjoy chunky and chubby Church; this is the ideal Church body). Below that is the "Blue Team Carries Church" pictures; everybody takes a turn picking him up! Fourth is Church doing the "Hatsune Miku Middle Finger Tutorial" poses, the first version I did of my face design for Church, a rare image of Church actually looking intimidating (Tex taught him that), my favorite Church faces from the emotional comic between him and Tucker, and the little pixel-chibi design I made of Church so I could dress him up in different clothes (this is his default outfit). Next is some lovey-dovey Chex pictures;them in fancy date outfits (and Church being very proud he's actually strong enough to lift her), him kissing the inside of her palm and also doing the proper Gomez Addams move by kissing al the way up her arm to her neck, some images of them finding each other as AI again, and the funny big spoon/little spoon picture. After that is more funny Blue Team moments, and some emotional hugs, and also Red Team buddies~ That's a LOT of Church! Though, he might not think it is enough haha

#red vs blue #rvb

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iolaussharpe-24 · 7 months ago

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I was not prepared.

Let's talk.

I was expecting Addams Family 2019 to be bad. I really was. My expectations were on the floor. I'd seen clips and I knew the cast. I knew the general breakdown of the plot. I wasn't expecting there to be so many parts that I would actually like.

Don't get me wrong, the thing is terrible. One of the worst Addams Family movies I've ever seen. (It's above Addams Family Reunion because that one put me to sleep five minutes in three different times over the years and I have yet to watch it all the way through. Also, I haven't seen Addams Family 2.)

The thing is, there were a lot of moments, jokes, and even plot points that I actually really liked, but the execution for most of them was 💩. I think a good half of it or so could potentially work on paper if not in an animated (or even live action) movie.

My favorite joke (that is to say, "the one that made me laugh the hardest") was the cotton candy bit.

Then you have the "lime in the coconut" nonsense.

The spider bridge followed by "surfing the web".

WTF.

Also, I'm saying this as an Addams Family fan and not a crazy fan of any of the cast specifically, even though I love so many of them, these guys were WASTED on this thing. Oscar Isaac was probably the best part (cause he's the only one who consistently sounded like he either gave a shit or was just trying to have some fun with terrible material) and I hate that he was in THIS version. I think that Oscar Isaac, Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Bette Midler would be really good in live action as the same characters they voiced. Also, Finn Wolfhard was pretty good as Pugsley, but I can't see him trying to do it in front of a camera.

As an Oscar Isaac fan I'm gonna say that my boy got done DIRTY.

Before I wrap this up, I just want to talk about the character designs.

I can get behind using the original comic designs for an animated movie. It's been done before. I think that's a pretty neat idea. HOWEVER, that works a lot better with 2D animation than 3D.

The arms and legs on the kids are so pencil thin that there were times I couldn't see their limbs as they moved. They just blended into the background.

Like so much else, the idea was good, the execution was not. Everyone is too thin, too smooth, and too weirdly simple despite clearly being complex at the exact same time. They look like clay balanced on pencils and toothpicks. Basically, give these guys some carbs, and add more details like Wednesday's noose braids. As is, they make Vivziepop characters look heavy and healthy by comparison.

Like I said earlier, it's not the worst Addams Family movie I've seen, but it's right next to the bottom. If Addams Family 2 is anything like this first one, it might get bumped up a notch though. I can't say. Have to see it first.

Going from worst to best (movies only):

Addams Family Reunion (1998)

The Addams Family (2019)

The Addams Family (1991)

Addams Family Values (1993)

ONE OTHER THING!

If I had a nickel for every time an actor I thought could be a good Gomez Addams ended up in a terrible version, I'd have two nickels. It's not a lot, but I think it's funny that we've failed both Tim Curry and Oscar Isaac.

#the addams family #addams family 2019 #rant #movie review #my unhinged thoughts

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hollowsart · 2 years ago

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Again me. X3

Why you're choose sloth for your spidersona? I can guess they're cute but maybe you have other reasons x3

One more thing.

Can you write your opinion on The Spectacular Spider-Man's Mysterio nd Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio? I'm alright if this will be different from what I'm thinking.

Hello hello again!

This will be a long response:

===

1) I tried to make a spidersona before that was like a Spider Crab/Japanese Spider Crab because "spider" and also those are my favorite crabs ever, as well as just to be silly, however nothing was working, so I gave up and forgot about it until this year. I really love sloths, they're my favorite animal ever and so I had the brilliant idea to make mine a sloth instead of a spider! Really makes mine stand out from the rest, plus it wasn't too hard to design it in a similar way to spiderman! Lots of similar design elements, like the black around the eyes and all!

I am also archnophobic and think sloths would be more friendly. It also makes people underestimate me in a fight with their preconceived notions of how sloths are vs how I actually am because of my enhanced abilities from being bit by the genetically modified spider!

Also makes my spidersona more unique and personal to me 💕 and you're not wrong about sloths being cute!! They're adorable 🙏💕🦥

..I did recently draw up a quick concept of an alternate spidersona for myself that is actually based on a spider like everyone else, the spider I chose was a Bunny Harvestman:

They're the only spider I can withstand looking at surprisingly (they're kind of cool?), plus.. cute bunny.. and a nice color palette!

----

2) I never saw Far From Home, but I am disappointed that the character isn't a rejected melodramatic theater kid with a background in the movie making business. That's all I've really gathered about him. I like my Mysterio/Beck to be a goofy funny silly guy who can be a real big threat and very serious when he wants or needs to be. I just feel his character wasn't done the justice he deserves, I guess. I don't have any desire to watch FFH to gain a more thorough opinion on Jake's take on the character tho, unfortunately.

I hope that's not disappointing?

TSSM's Beck/Mysterio, however, is by far my absolute favorite version of him and I've grown so fond of the one from the Amazing Mary Jane mini comic series where he works with MJ to create a biopic of himself. (Learned it's a part of a bigger more complex story and all but ehh, I'm gonna ignore everything before and after that little series. It's better that way. More enjoyable to imagine Beck just really wanted to make his own biopic movie with no real bad intentions or ulterior motives for making it. Genuinely his character was so cute and charming in that comic, oh my gosh 😩💖)

I haven't read really hardly any comics tho, but I just wanted to mention that!

Anyways TSSM's is absolutely my favorite above all others. He's everything I like about the character and then some! A shame the cartoon was canceled because I would have LOVED to see more of him. That's the version of the character that got me into him, got me to like him (also I mean, Mysterio's design in general from almost anything he's been in has been really eye catching and appealing, so..) and is also the main base of inspiration to my own version of Mysterio/Beck and his personality and overall design.

Smoochable blorbo 💖 would hold hands with him if I could..

#I have a headache makes sleeping difficult so I'm answering this in the meantime #//long post

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morganmerylhodgepodge · 2 years ago

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Maybe its because I can't seem to draw at all right now, but I've been thinking a lot about the preceeding issues perhaps leading up to it. Namely, my frustration with the backgrounds I drew and how they didn't hold up to my idea if professional work. A while before that, I gave up on boxing myself into the skinnier, taller American format of comics by being inspired to make Bande-Desinee inspired wider pages. I even used rectangular balloons.

The more I think about everything the more I'm unsure of everything.

How does one reconcile their abilities and personal style with what is conventional to get work?

How do you reconcile your perfectionism to make things look good, with actually getting things DONE, finished... getting things OUT THERE?

Do you just... make things and hope for the best? How do you know you have something people will want? Will hire you for? In an industry that tends to not respond at all if they aren't interested, instead of telling you what you did wrong and what needs to be changed. And in a world where web comics are ubiquitous where people can just say "just post it online, that's enough."

Because it isn't enough. I want to make things for other people. I want to be paired with a writer. I want to work on existing IP. I'm not a good writer and I'm way more interested in drawing. I want to be put on assignment. But how do I do any of this in the first place?

I've never finished a thing in my goddamn life, 3 decades + on this earth. Is it my perfectionist tendencies? Do I just need to accept my art, flaws and all? Or is that the professional in me that's making sure that I don't just put out crap? That's making things that publishers will actually want? Or am I not good enough for that and should just give up already?

What do you guys think? Do I need to learn to let go when I get back to it, and just do the best with what I have, because finishing things is better than not finishing things?

Or is this a good thing because I'm doing my best to put out professional art?

Or does it not matter at all because I'll never be good enough anyways in this competitive market, so I should just either have fun with it or shut up already?

Let me know.

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crimsonxe · 9 days ago

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-cracks neck- Here we go again.

Funny Michel Koch from DontNod says otherwise as well as basic writing where characters that go through what PF went through either get forever bonded or utterly shattered apart with little to no repair possible. They fall into the prior camp based just on what's shown across LiS1, LiS2-Bae, and TC. But that is then reinforced by the aforementioned statement from Michel where he directly states that while there might be bumps in the road for them, they'd ALWAYS come back together. Even pointing to aforementioned ordeal as why they would. Also how you can say that ANY of that was "natural" is beyond me. Chloe would NOT leave Max; Chloe would NOT talk about threesomes with a guy; Chloe would NOT be chatting up Victoria; Max would NOT even in her own head pull the trauma card on Chloe; Max would NOT give up on her relationship with Chloe; Max would NOT be nonstop horny on main. There is nothing natural to it, which is exactly why there's backlash against it by the majority of players in particular long-time LGBT+ fans.

Um "weakest pairs", no its not even close as they are the best of the entire series; where the only ones that come close to matching them is Chenrich and AmberPrice. But those two still don't hit the same level. Funny my mind isn't at all clouded by nostalgia as I've both played and watched others play OG and when I look at their story both when at the center of the story and in the background its STILL the best of the bunch.

Chloe is an asshole and she's fucking VALID for it, hell if anything it sets her apart as a femme character in being that way vs. some version of a "nice girl".

Here's a bit of a heads up, before I go off about the use of "trauma bond" cause I don't think people have a damn clue on the definition of that phrase.

[A trauma bond is an unhealthy emotional attachment that develops between someone who is abused and their abuser]

This does NOT fit PF at fucking all and is an utterly disgusting ass take. They're SOUL-BONDED not trauma bonded.

Clearly your ass didn't bother to actually pay attention, cause there's numerous damn scenes in LiS1 that show Chloe's care towards Max. No, she's not drooling over her or gawking at her cause that shit isn't Chloe. For her its all about the who gets within her walls, which is limited to exactly 2 people: Max and Rachel. What Chloe does for the first half of LiS1 is keeping up her walls, because she knows how bad it hurts when someone hits the soft inner core of her type; even more so given Max having done exactly that in ghosting her. It isn't a lack of interest its a self-defense mechanism to keep distance, while also being focused on the other girl she has a thing for. On top of that there's an entire story for the two that is all around that time period, both before LiS1 proper and even after via the cameos in LiS2, TC, and the entirety of the comics.

No, Chloe having resentment towards Max actually doesn't make a damn bit of sense to anyone that knows her damn character. Not only is she very clearly shown as having absolute loyalty to those that get inside her walls, but she handed that choice/decision to Max after presenting her case for the others. Thank fucking god she did too, because Chloe does the thing most good humans would do in devaluing herself while raising up others. Max is an outside party that holds Chloe as her most important person, thus knowing her value to the world. What actually makes sense is what the comics did, Chloe having survivor's guilt and being filled with a recurring imposter syndrome. Also get your shit straight, Chloe is at peace with either choice that Max makes; she isn't seeking death. She's a girl that has self-value issues and is a good person. Regardless once again the comics covered this topic in a manner ten fold more accurate and in-character than DE's OOC trashfire AU.

I'm actually in the camp of liking BtS, mostly in how it handles Rachel. And this last bit says everything one needs to know. a) you're clearly AmberPrice so wouldn't give a shit about PF's handling and b) wouldn't mind having basically Chloe and Max made into Rachel's that have name-tags for those characters slapped on. Rachel would leave Max; Rachel would pull a trauma card; Rachel would talk about threesomes with guy; Rachel would be horny on main; Rachel would chat up Victoria; etc. Meanwhile I'm someone that likes both pairs in their own ways and I respect all the characters as their own people, not wanting two overwritten by the third cause she's more to Decknine's preference (a femme lipstick bi that is very much traditionally attractive).

Once again Michel Koch one of the fathers of LiS as a franchise and specifically LiS1, says you're dead ass wrong.

Oh yes, one line about wanting to move forward that's surrounded by uttery shit writing totally makes it great. Like no, it COULD have been good; but it was done in an absolute dog shit manner. MAX should've been the one leaving w/ it being ONSCREEN and in a player choice that either does a separation or a full-break; the entire threesome bullshit can be tossed out; Max pulling the trauma card can hit the trashcan; the shitty ass new romances can hit the curb; the focus can be put on Max dealing with her trauma over the course of Caledon events; that then leads into a reconciliation in the "separation" chosen path.

The comics had Chloe supporting Max going out to find her proper place in the multiverse with the hope that it'd bring her back to her in the LiS1-Bae branch; which it did. Chloe has survivor's guilt not resentment. The comics do everything that DE attempts to do but actually good and accurate to the characters that DE fails at. Also Emma the writer for the comics has gone on the record to state that the comics are a canon within the multiverse of canons, so they're as canon as anything else. On top of that DE can definitely fuck the absolute hell off of any kind of main canon ground, instead its an AU Decknine branch rotting away due to the inept writers. They basically even gave the basis for people to do exactly that by their changing the LiS2-Bae picture from green-hair Chloe aka actual true main canon LiS1-Bae one to a blue-hair abomination written by someone without a clue about the character. Now setting that aside, yes AmberPrice-Chloe does go into that territory because once again Emma actually is a fan of LiS1 and its characters; unlike the DE narrative team. Its funny how your ass ignores that the comics navigates things to having Max dealing with her trauma and insecurity with where she belongs in the multiverse to come back to Chloe ready to move forward together. There is no new love interest that is clearly a femmed up Chloe knockoff; there is no tone of "we're doing this better than DontNod" that DE is sopping with; there is no character assassination of the two main & iconic characters of the franchise.

As for Max keeping things that remind her of, keeping pictures of, and journaling to Chloe, you mean like someone that's in love with another person; cause that's exactly what that translates as.

You clearly don't have a damn clue about the characters, no investment in them, and are wanting to run defense for this trashfire of a game. The fact that your ass bends over backwards to keep saying "they could still be friends", like absolutely fuck off with that shit. If Decknine wants to salvage this trashfire of bullshit that's disrespectful to DontNod and LiS1, they'll actually bring in a writer like Emma to fix the shit that they screwed up; take back the character assassination done to Max and Chloe; and give players the damn option to reconnect PF even in this rotting AU branch. Thankfully it is just that, an AU branch while DontNod's main timeline still has green-hair Chloe and Max touring galleries and living their best damn life together. DE's bullshit can continue to be dunked on and trashed as the bullshit it is; no matter how much ones like you want to try to defend it.

the pricefield breakup was good

just finished double exposure and while the game had many flaws i entirely disagree with one of the biggest complaints i’ve seen both before and after the games release: the pricefield breakup. in fact, the pricefield breakup is my favorite part of the game and one of the most fascinating character writing decisions that defined a lot max’s character for me…so here’s my essay on why max & chloe could never work long term, the breakup was incredibly natural, and how its the only way for both of them to move on. don’t bother reading of course if you don’t want to hear any of these opinions <3

to start off the bat (and this will be the paragraph people hate the most): max & chloe are one of the weakest lis pairings (and again this is obviously all my opinion). they honestly never even had that much chemistry to me and i probably never would have shipped them had the game come out later but since the game came out when it did and it was the first gay game i’d ever played and they were like the only gay rep i knew it was brilliant & i think nostalgia for this clouds a lot of what people see when they think of pricefield but objectively they never make sense as a pairing to me and i find their scenes together quite awkward or boring. chloe is an asshole to max throughout the whole game (and i am a huge chloe supporter, i understand absolutely where all of her anger and issues were stemming from and it made sense!) and max is either a pushover who just lets her do it or like entirely indifferent to it/ignores it i guess depending on how you play; and max is shitty too i mean we know she ghosted chloe for years and then went back to blackwell for like a month or whatever without ever looking up chloe and who knows if she ever actually would have. which like max doesn’t have an obligation to do that but she clearly wanted to after she meets chloe again and then she spends so much of the game thinking about how chloe replaced her with rachel when max left first and trying to just slot herself back into the exact spot she left (also chloe did not replace her anyway they were entirely different relationships). (unrelated but this is why i hate when people have max add her name to the wall in the junkyard hide out lol) max spends the entire game watching chloe die in several different ways and trying desperately to keep her alive which has got to make a crazy trauma bond/attachment and honestly aside from one or two very obviously written “gay” scenes chloe barely registers as romantically interested in max to me (which…yeah chloe is spending the whole game going through a lot of stuff!) right up until the end where chloe realizes how hard max has been trying to keep her alive/max has been helping her with all the struggles she’s having this week/backing her up with her family drama etc during a time where chloe doesn’t really think anyone cares about her…which i don’t know again seems like a trauma bond to me! and then max sacrifices an entire town for her? of course they get together. you also have to remember that this game takes place during like the WORST week of these two young girls lives it’s just crazy to me how people define their entire relationship/personalities by this time period

also like i know a lot of LIS fans don’t love BTS because its a different studio and the original LIS writers never wanted a prequel & that for some reason a lot of LIS fans think rachel is the devils fucking spawn BUT thats a different argument (bts being my second favorite game & rachel my third favorite character) but after watching chloe in bts (still with Issues and trauma but less heavy and more shared) and seeing her fall in love with rachel there i could never see her with max the same way

also to be clear i’m not saying at all that i think max & chloe don’t care for each other deeply; i do believe they love each other my argument is just that this relationship could never really last long term and mostly stemmed from the trauma they were going through which brings me to the main part:

max & chloe breaking up makes perfect sense for their characters, especially the reason given as well. chloe telling max that she wants to move forward and live in the future but max is always looking to the past- this single line sold me on the break up immediately i found it fascinating! max does live in the past! its her entire power! her entire game is about rewinding over and over to make the perfect moment etc. max’s character is constantly being brought into question when it comes to how she uses her powers even when she only ever tries to use them for good reason (in particularly i really like the subtle way the comics handled this too, BY CHLOE, but i know not everyone likes the comics either and they’re obviously not canon to the games since they contradict double exposure lore as well. but in the comics an alternate timeline chloe criticizes max on how reflexively she uses her powers to save/help people without considering how rewinding a moment affects everyone around them as well- and how sometimes things go wrong but can work out anyway. this is proven by us also following a second timeline without max there to rewind and we see how those characters navigate the issues max erased and in some instances they turn out even better and i like a happier healthier chloe having this perspective). i feel like the chloe we meet in life is strange is so specific to that one game (she is going through so much active trauma and it is literally like the worst week of her life) but the pieces of her i’ve seen outside of that game show me how much her character can change when given space to breathe so i don’t think its fair to hold her to just that week. i can very easily see how chloe would want to put everything behind her and try to fully move on/away from everything that has happened and this being the only way she feels she can move forward- similarly how max could spend everyday stuck living with the choices she made and the effects its had on her, how much harder it is for her to separate and move on.

i also think it makes perfect sense that chloe could grow some resentment towards max for her mothers death- i’m sure chloe wouldn’t act on this but i can see them both knowing it’s there and chloe not really being able to help feeling it. i mean chloe really is fully accepting of her death in life is strange and its max who makes the choice to keep her alive (and yes it’s shitty of chloe to make it seem like a choice at all but that’s also just like…the game having to give the player a choice too). chloe has to live with knowing her mother and everyone she knew died so she could live and max has to live with knowing she directly made that choice and both of them have to just…know and live and think about this everyday they’re with each other how can they move on? is that not suffocating? with some space they can at least maybe start to really separate from it

i also think chloe’s implied insecurities around max rewinding parts of their relationship also make sense to be honest…max spends the entire game trying to fix every interaction to be the right one like i KNOW she would rewind mistakes because i DID that as her; and maybe you can say max would never use her powers again after the storm but to be honest i don’t think thats true…i think she would never redo grand scale things again (except i guess she does in double exposure) but i just don’t know if i believe she could resist the temptation to keep her and chloe’s interactions perfect- at least in the beginning. i’m not saying she DOES but i GET it- i understand chloe’s paranoia (if it is just paranoia and not fact) because i don’t think i could trust either because i also understand MAX. max who killed an entire town for chloe & their relationship- wouldn’t you feel like you had to keep doing everything in your power to make sure it works? to keep it good, to keep chloe happy? it’s a really complicated feeling for both of them i’m sure

and i think chloe is right when she says max is always living in the past because we literally see her doing it during the game. she’s still journaling to chloe, she keeps chloe in her wallet & on her wall, we keep having flashbacks to arcadia, max keeps a box of arcadia with her (even though we know she’s also been traveling/on the road most of her adult life), she’s never discussed any part of her past with her friends, her photography focus is about the lonely and abandoned. the entirely of double exposure is about max learning how to really stop living in the past and the harm it could do (through what happened to maya and safi and how its still happening four years later because no one ever really dealt with it etc) and that’s why this undercurrent and the pricefield breakup is my absolute favorite part of this game and the best part of it

i also think it’s really worth pointing out what a lot of people seem to have missed (in the complaints i did see); max & chloe didn’t have some horrible explosive ending and they hate each other forever now and the two are forever ruined or whatever…chloe simply saw she could never truly move forward with max and maybe more importantly she saw max could never move forward with her (how could max move forward from the worst choice she’s ever had to make in her life when she’s also sharing a bed with it?) chloe still loves and cares for her, max still loves her, they could be on friendly terms very easily- in fact i think the only reason they don’t talk right now is because of max (which is for the best during this time i think anyway) and chloe would be absolutely open to their friendship whenever max is ready. chloe wants the best for both of them & chloe’s text at the end of the game proves she’s still thinking of max & open to talking again whenever max is. max also has feeling by the end of the game that’s ready to really start moving forward from arcadia now and one day she will be ready to confront chloe again and i think whenever that happens the two will be really good friends again- like they always were.

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transneonneko · 3 years ago

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Things from Archie Sonic that I would love to see return in the Mainline Games and/or IDW Sonic!!

Recently, I decided to read some of the Archie Sonic Comic, from like issue 186ish up until the first MegaMan crossover and the reboot, mainly because there were some gaps in my knowledge of those stories. Mainly Issues 198 till 235, which I never got to read as a kid and, I have to say, there were a lot of really interesting concepts during Ian's run of comics before the reboot that I really loved. There was a lot of really interesting concepts I love after the reboot too. I wanna celebrate that. A lot of these concepts and story idea I feel really deserve another chance.

So I wanna make this list of stuff I wanna see return in either for stories in the Mainline Games or the IDW Sonic comics. Before we start, I do wanna add somethings. This post isn't meant to be shitting on IDW and being like "IDW would be better if they did this". I really love the IDW comics and universe. I also know that some of these concepts likely can't be done due SEGA Mandates and I'm not gonna include stuff like "Bring back the Freedom Fighters" because I feel asking to bring back characters isn't gonna be very productive, as much as I would like to see their return. Anyways, let's begin.

The Fate of the ARK

One thing that really inspired this list was this scene right her. We'll talk more about Silver's Future later but for now, let's focus on the ARK. I'm gonna assume anyone reading this knows the story of the ARK from SA2 and Shadow. Sadly, the ARK hasn't really been revisited in the main canon since Shadow, despite how iconic of a set piece it is. In the Archie Comics, we get a look at Silver's future and one of things that may have been the cause of how bad things are is the ARK crashed. Sadly, Archie got rebooted before the writers could go more into it but, from SA2, we know that the ARK was set to crash into the planet if all 7 Chaos Emeralds are placed into it, wiping out all life on the planet. This could be an excellent premise of another Silver adventure, whether it be in the comics or games, where Sonic, Silver and some friends have to stop someone from making the ARK crash into the planet.

Expanding the Eggman Empire/Egg Bosses

Something I've always found a bit lacking in the game canon is how the Eggman Empire itself has been presented. In the games, the Eggman Empire is usually just made up of Eggman, Metal Sonic, Orbot, Cubot, a bunch of robots and (recently) Infinite. It's not really an Empire if it's just one guy and a bunch of robots. The main goal is the conquer the world but we hardly see Eggman actually see what happens when Eggman conquers a place, like what happens to the people who used to live there, besides like Colours and Forces, where the Wisps and Mobians are usually just seen being imprisoned. The Egg Bosses are the perfect solution to this and adds so much to Sonic's World.

The Egg Bosses are Mobians who, either willingly or unwillingly, aligned themselves up with Eggman for whatever reason, becoming commanders of the Eggman Empire. This usually comes about when Eggman has taken over a part of the region and the people living in that region have no choice but to join the Eggman Empire, for their own safety. Not only does this make the Eggman Empire feel more than just one person but it also makes Eggman more a villain himself. It able to portray Eggman as someone to be feared and, I mean, this is a dictator and genocider who is pretty much declaring war against the world.

It also brings up some interesting thoughts about the world. Characters like Maw, Thunderbolt and even Nephthys to a degree joined up with Eggman because they felt it was the right thing to do for the sake of the world, or in Nephthys case, to stop things getting worst later on, meanwhile characters like Grand Battle Kukku are plotting to usurp Eggman, with Clove and Beauregard only working for Eggman to protect family or close ones.

As I said before, having these Egg Bosses also makes Eggman look more threaten, both because he's able to look like a "bigger bad" next to these villains he has command of and, because almost all the Egg Bosses hate Eggman's guts, they are cyberized, a terrifying process in which those who work for Eggman are focus to have parts of their body replaced with cybernetics, with either bombs which will blow if they decide to leave or a locking mechanism that will paralyze their entire body, ready to be locked up.

If either in the game or the IDW comic, I would like to see the Egg Boss concept return. It doesn't even need to be the same characters or use the name "Egg Boss." It would help expand the army of the Eggman Empire, as well as provide some fun bosses for the games I think.

Mobians and Humans living together

This was always a weird hangup I felt the series had. In the case of games between Sonic Adventure & Unleashed, Sonic and friends were the only Mobians, humans made up the NPCs while Mobians were reserved for main characters. Then in Forces and IDW, Mobians made up the background characters, so then Eggman is the only human. I really prefer it when they have the two living together, it makes it seems more normal and, honestly, a better solution than the whole "Two Worlds" explanation.

Eggman Seemingly Defeated

Can I just that I love Issues 198-200? In these 3 issues, Sonic and friends Eggman's main base, the Egg Dome. This including fighting on the outside of the base, involving fighting hoards of the Dark Egg Legion soldiers and Eggman in the Egg Phoenix. After dealing with the outside, Sonic and friends raid the Egg Dome itself, taking different directions, with the Dark Egg Legion seemingly retreating, until they reach the center of the base, where they are blocked off by a barricade, which only Sonic can pass through, giving a "Point of No Return" vibe, Dark Egg Legion soldiers lining up and saluting Sonic. Then Sonic reaches the center and finds Eggman in the Egg Tarantula, starting their final battle which Sonic wins. This defeat is enough for Eggman to lose his sanity, seemingly ending the war Sonic and the Freedom Fighters have been fighting their entire life.

Of course Eggman returns but, god, it's just such a memorable couple of issues. There's a real sense of finality to it. I would a sequence like this in the games, something that feels like truly ending the Eggman Empire and defeating them once and for all. Of course, it wouldn't be the end, Sonic games are always needing to be made which would lead to...

The New Rulers of the Eggman Empire

In the comics after the defeat of Eggman, the Eggman Empire is taken over by some of it's Commanders, the Iron Queen and Iron King, who rules the Empire as their own until they are defeated and Eggman's return.

I love the idea that even if the Eggman, there will always be someone there to take his place. The games could do this by having Neo Metal or Infinite take his place. Hell, IDW did have Neo Metal take over but I think what made that less interesting was that Neo Metal wasn't doing it for himself, he was doing it for Eggman. I think this would work well if a concept like the Egg Boss was introduced in the games, maybe have one of the characters part of that group take over OR have a lot of the more ambitious Egg Bosses war against each other to take command, until eventually Eggman returns and puts them in line.

Silver's Future

Silver is one of the most recurring characters, who always joins the gang when his future is in trouble. The problem is that we never see his future besides 06. We have no idea what Silver's future is currently until it's in danger and, even then, we never see it.

We see Silver's Future in both continuities of the Archie Comic, with two different takes. Pre-SGW has a destroyed city vibe, like 06 but less lava. Post-SGW brought a whole new take where people are ruled by a corrupt council where people are put into class groups, and security robots will arrest if you are not at your job at the right time. They even re-contextualize Silver's bracelets as cuffs that the robots can activate. With Silver being my favourite character as a kid, I remember being obsessed with this new world and story, wanting to know more.

I'm not saying they would need to copy this world exactly but it would be nice if they gave us a concrete and consistence look for Silver's Future.

The Heroic Metal Sonic

Right before the SGW, we were introduce to Shard the Metal Sonic. His story is that he was the original Metal Sonic, the one that raced Sonic in Stardust Speedway. He appeared later in the comic, where Sonic made him realized there was more to life than just being Eggman's killing machine. He seemingly died, but was rebuilt to serve as a member the Secret Freedom Fighters.

This one would be tricky to be included. It worked in the Archie comic as they had been many Metal Sonics throughout the series, each one getting destroyed. Meanwhile, there's only officially been one Metal Sonic in the games made by Eggman (two if we count Classic and Modern). Admittedly, Gemerl fits Shard's personality and does need to be used more in the games but having it be Metal Sonic is just a cooler concept.

I think a solution to this is that we have Metal Sonic 1.0 made by Eggman and, in Rivals 2, we have Metal Sonic 3.0 by Eggman Nega from the future. But what about Metal Sonic 2.0? I think we could have a game where after Metal Sonic fails, Eggman builds a replacement, being 2.0, which would give reason to Metal Sonic wanting to revolt, which could lead to a redemption? While I am loving the IDW comics, I do really miss a lot of what both Archie continuities offered. I haven't mention the some other concepts and stories I liked that really focused on certain characters such as Naugus, Geoffrey St. John, Dimitri etc. Maybe I'll talk about that another day...

#Sonic #sonic the hedgehog #archie sonic #idw sonic #pre-sgw #post-sgw #sega #eggman #eggman empire #egg bosses #shard the metal sonic #silver the hedgehog

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