#im seeing this will be probably be a problem by the end of the comic and when i have A LOT TO FUCKING SAY

[ankiebitez]

starting this off by saying to read to the end before getting mad at me lmao

bit of a.... unpopular opinion but...

its kinda crazy to me seeing people excuse the stuff leviathan does just by bringing up his past 😭

like idk man its probably because ive personally delt with issues before where ive just had to learn self accountability and to not use past trauma as an excuse for shitty actions that whenever i see someone excuse leviathan by going "well he was abused 💔 he doesn't know any better" its just kinda like.... okay? that sucks for him but it has literally Nothing to do with the mc in any way

like yeah, he was abused by the angels in Many ways as a child, but he's also a grown man thats lived for thousands of years. he's had time to go to demon therapy or whatever it is but hed probably end up hanging the therapist too

honestly i think its really unfair to just mark off everything he does by pitying him for his past anyway, try and tell me that wouldn't piss him off.

THAT BEING SAID BEFORE YALL GET MAD AT ME, I really DO like the growth in his character that we've seen in the past few cards and chats weve gotten with him. like i said he is growing on me a lot more and i do like him as a character honestly. i think some of the recent interactions weve gotten are pretty cute, the noose he gave mc, the cream buns from his uniform card, and the comic from his attacker card are all really sweet and i like that he's starting to open up a bit more with mc lmao

its just kinda confusing for me personally to see him getting excused for everything just bc of past trauma

and No im not trying to say that there's a problem with liking him or trying to hold him to human morals either. honestly ive liked his character a LOT more when ive just quit taking what he does seriously.

he was spying on mc through a orb out of jealousy and threatened a horse because he didn't know how horse riding worked, he's like a more pathetic version of a disney villain (i mean this affectionately)

[critterbitter]

AAAAAAUGH THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE OUTPOOR OF LOVE-

This hyperfixation probably would have burned out if it wasn’t for your kind comments! I really appreciate yall :,)

Individual response and bonus art under cut

Sleepy guys as a treat!

(Now, for the individual asks:

@raisansgrapeon hope the art is watering they crops! Hehe.

@getshorked Oh man thank you so much! I love reading what people leave behind and yeah, the boys and their pokemon make me go :)))))

@madredhattie I WILL MAKE THE TRAINROT EVERYBODY’S PROBLEM (pats the guys) THEY CAN FIT SO MUCH SIBLING SHENANIGANS

@lum1n0s1ty223 TY TY I rrreaaaally wanted to channel the goofy on these guys. Gotta draw them as adults more, cause i feel like the goofy factor magnifies with time. Anyways! UH YES ingo and emmet definitely would love to build gingerbread houses. It’s like legos, but in the end you can eat your creations and pretend to be godzilla (dragonit’illa? Hmm. More pending on that train of thought for later.)

@sapphirecereal My art on Your Dash? More likely then you think! (Its cause people are kind enough to reblog, and I am so so so thankful people are cool to do that. Ah, tumblr.)

@mynamesaplant AYY the banner’s a sketch of the trio I ended up coloring! I wanted to post that artwork immediately after I made it but held off cause I had to finish the “emmet has an imposters syndrome moment” comic. You’ll see it when the time comes tho >:) (AND TY)

@theladydracula pokemon found family, my beloved. Glad you’re having a good time on the ride!

@roxasthatisastick YES JOIN ME IN THE WELL WE CAN FIGHT SUBMAS BRAINWORMS TOGETHER. BUT ALSO YoOOO if you could @ me when the ingo fic drops i’d appreciate it a lot! Submas fandom feed me im begging you-

[sparklecarehospital]

I know you’re not working on any askblog things but will the sparklecare askblog ever return?

i've thought about this a lot, semi-recently. sorry for long post, i had a lot to say

see, the issue with asksparklecare is the fact it's supposed to "go along with canon events" and a lot of the time, the arcs will just abruptly end or change with no real connection between them. haunted was sort of my first attempt at putting a "story" on there, then again with the kissmas comic from 2021.

when i started cometcare for example, i wanted to take the generic "ask blog" format and turn it into a coherent, cohesive connecting story that just had interactive elements to make it engaging with readers as opposed to just making people ask the characters questions aimlessly. the main ask blog never really had that entirely, it was just sort of the classic 2010s-style ask blog, this is apparent in basically every arc on there.

it's stumped me quite a bit because now that i have this very different style of ask blog storytelling, the original ask blog feels weird to go back to and i don't feel the same passion or connection with it that i once did. it's a little bit frustrating. i tried to do an arc about the side patients but as you guys saw, i never even did it because i felt so out of touch with that old format of ask blog posts and i couldn't bring myself to work on it at all.

cometcare and darkermatters both have Stories to them, and each arc has a plot that is moved on by readers- even if i already have it written out, there are little things people can influence through the asks and it's a good way for introducing new characters or expanding on characters who we've already met. several times cometcare will return to specific characters to relay information or new details or exposition or something that their initial introduction didn't have.

it's a much more fun process for me to write actual stories in my AU blogs, instead of just....making the characters talk. and another thing- going alongside the main comic has problems, because sometimes there's information i can only reveal in the comic itself, and it's hard to keep up with it in general.

i enjoyed doing the kissmas comic because i got to do a "story" even if it wasn't interactive. i had fun repeating the concept on cometcare last december with help of the crew.

i'm sort of at a loss of what to do with the main ask blog at this point. as much as i miss doing stuff like that for main comic, i just don't find it FUN to do it that way anymore, i've become too attached to the storytelling aspects of my other ask blogs and it just doesn't feel the same exciting experience of watching people react to events and such.

if anyone has suggestions about what i should do with the main ask blog to solve this problem i'm open to hearing them, it would be nice to have some ideas because i'm really not sure what i want to do with it.

there was a time i had the idea of doing a backstory ask blog as an alternate main canon interactive story that followed similar mechanics as cometcare and darkermatters, but idk if everyone would be interested in that. that would probably be a separate thing if i ever did it.

thoughts, opinions, suggestions and ideas are all welcome in the replies or my inbox, i would love to have your guys' input since im making content you all would be engaging with after all

[ganondoodle]

Not gonna lie, the "It looks like a Divine Circle but is actually just hundreds of years of superstition & propaganda"-Concept is the coolest fucking thing I didn't know I needed until ten minutes ago. It's a super cool inversion of the classic trope, opens up a million possibilities for stories and arcs and on top of that, in game, you would obviously not know about it form the beginning but slowly have to collect clues and hints that things are not quite as everyone tells you.

So yeah, very cool concept!

Not directly related, but it's probably no surprise that my favorite Ganondorf line is the "I coveted that Wind"-line from the finale of Wind Waker. He doesn't even go into detail, cause he doesn't have to, this line alone instantly humanizes him. Like, its the end of the game, we are about to fight him, there is no way this will not end in a fight, and yet, at that point, that line, just goes so fucking hard. Because you instantly know what he's talking about, that he simply wanted a future for his people, which, you know, is a very human thing to do. It wont stop us from fighting him here and now, way too much has happened for that, but it reminds us, the audience, that he has motives and reasons and thoughts and is an actual character.

So yeah, in case it's not obvious yet, I too despise the extremely flat "I'm evil because evil, waaaaaaaaagh!" Ganondorf from TOTK. Why even include him if you cant be arsed to actually write him?

Anyways, last thing, I'll have to somewhat disagree on the Gameplay vs Story thing, at least partially because I work in the field and have had experiences with this problem myself. Not saying its impossible to have both, but its a lot more difficult than one would expect.

Towards your point, yes a good story can pull people through a game, but so can strong gameplay. Take the Doom games, I dont really care about their story, but the gameplay is great. On the other hand, the gameplay of the average Telltale game would be incredibly boring without the story behind it. There are hybrids, but even they tend to lean one way or the other: The Assassins Creed or Uncharted Series have solid and fun gameplay, but would probably get repetitive or boring if we didn't have strong characters and stories that keep us interested. And all of that is before you consider that there are different player types that gravitate to one or the other and it gets even more complicated. (There's more to this but I my thoughts on the topic could easily be a full bachelors Thesis, so I'll stop here.)

I should add that I dont think that the gameplay over story (or vice versa) argument can or should be used to defend games or design choices. Yes, Nintendo does prefer to focus on Gameplay over Story. Does that mean we shouldn't expect a good story, or are not allowed to criticize a bad one in their games? Hell no! (And if my previous ask sounded like I was doing that, I apologize, that was NOT what I meant to say! I'll happily critique all of TOTKs flaws, both in gameplay & story, otherwise how can we learn from it?)

This argument can be used to understand and analyze or interpret design decisions but it shouldn't ever be used to defend them. Just like the "just for kids" argument, by using such arguments, the person in question basically admits that they are aware of the weaknesses and faults in their story/game/whatever but didn't fix or improve them. So yeah, I do agree with you on that front 100%, hiding behind such arguments is a problem.

Anyway, sorry for leaving another wall of text in your inbox, hope you're having a nice day!

thank you! that 'cycle' concept is also what destiny (zelda comic) is based on, since it takes place before skyward sword you get to see the set up for it, and, in this story, the gods have been trying to achieve it countless times, throughout the story of it its supposed to slowly be revealed- like demise already knowing some parts since hes yet another 'failed' version of that plan (im reusing that concept for the totk rewrite as well bc i am very original wahoo)

oh you work in that field! thats cool!! yeah my opinion on this sort of thing is very much a thing i formed bc i play games, though i still dream of gamedev, i guess i understood your mention of it a little too much into the dismissive argument way (though not as an attack) and its been repeated so so many times i cant help but get a little >_> at it; the point i was trying to make was more like ... they need to find a balance with it, like you can make it all about gameplay, but then dont pretend you have the most epicest story that ever storied, maybe even do it less or more subtle, like the fromsoft game i feel like are very well balanced in that regard, bc their lore and story is very neat and intertwined, but you have to look and think to get it, and the gameplay is strong on its own so much so that it kinda ends up being both soemthing for people that dont care about lore and those that do, more than about the gameplay

zelda feels like it doesnt quite know what to do (even moreso modern zelda), bc they prioritize the gameplay but then still put in a story that they want understood .. so its like, babiefied? like there is a "simple" story and its few points are repeated into your face over and over and over so the people that dont care to read into soemthing GET IT but also annoy them, bc they dont care anyway, and the people who care about lore/story above gameplay are bored bc the narrative isnt engaging enough and they dont care as much about the gameplay

especially so with totk i think, its so weird, botw wasnt like that imo, it wasnt overly complicated either but at least it left you wondering, and let you think, the more you thought about the more interesting it was (at least to me) totk feels like the opposite, it doesnt want you to think, bc the more you think about it the more it falls apart and makes less sense

like theres types of games that focus HARD on one or the other (like slay the princess for example, its like an interactive audio book, there isnt much gameplay but it goes hard on narrative), so obviously the balance of gameplay and story isnt applicable to every game, but for zelda in particular they say they are one but then still want the other part just as much? like the lore in skyward sword isnt great, the characters are strong though, the gameplay isnt that engaging (to me, since that needs to be said) i got through it mostly just bc i wanted to see what comes next and liked the characters, in botw the freedom and world and gameplay were like nothign i ever experienced, exploring was addictive and the story took a bit of a backseat, but it was fitting for the game and lend itself so well to theorize, in totk they .. idk what the focus was, the .. glue? the toys to glue together? nothing fits together there and each part works against another instead of together, somehow, its so weird to me

the thing is, if you do gameplay over story, you need to roll with it? if thats what it is then let the story take a backseat, make it subtle and in the background or vague, dont stuff the game full of unskippable cutscenes where a character you dont care about explains you a thing you already figured out through the gameplay; like the zelda dragon point, let the design of the dragon and its music, what its carrying speak for itself, the way the deku tree is weirded out by the sword moving, maybe a quick subtle voice line once you get the sword fading away like the last parts of her soul being whispered away- but dont mention it in one of the first cutscenes, fail to bury it in 'thats illegal though and irreversible so nono dont you do it' (why mention it then huh) allude to it multiple times, and then just straight up show it (i get people like the scene but man, it would have been way cooler to figure it out yourself)

same goes for the fake zelda thing, the weird way she said the bloodmoon text already alluded to it, have her show up here and there but vanish before you (no "omg thats zelda omg what is she dooooing") , or go even harder and make her an NPC standing around the world interacting with you all nromally but animals react weirldy to her- make the midfight against her (maybe even that she isnt talking so you are unsure if its actually her but controlled by sth else, or talk all normally while literally going for your throat) and then have her dissolve into goop and woa the bloodmoon thing is without her now the zelda you have been talking to has been fake the whole time, its creepy!! leave out the stupid cutscenes of showing it multiple times!! stop monologing at me!!

ppl that dont care about it can go and do a fight and i can think about it! everyone wins yahoo!

(actually ... if you leave out all the cutscenes in totk i feel like it improves the game by alot ...)

(what my point in the previous thing was in the end that you can repeat the same old trope only so many times without changing anything before it gets boring as hell, like what you said here, and the series seems to really be setting itself on fire bc it just wants to do the trope of old so badly and at some point its gonna drag down even the best of gameplays like gameplay over story means (to me) gameplay is prioritized so whatever narrative there is is in the background, subtle and not overtly in your face with big cutscenes etc- but what i feel like its often supposed to mean is "its fine if theres a shitty story that makes no sense pasted on top bc they prioritize gameplay so stop complaining" like to me what it should mean is more gameplay, less story, a measure of quantity not of quality, but what i feel like it often means is better gameplay, bad story, a measure of quality, not quantity )

maybe my problem lies elsewhere and im just projecting it on gameplay > story, that could very much be the case, i could have a fundamental missunderstanding about this here, im still just a guy with opinions in the end and got no knowledge about anything other than i play games sometimes and these are the things i like and dislike and would do differently *puts my head in my hands*

idk if im making sense, im usually not very good at explaining how i feel or think :/ (or i THINK im bad at it, autism be damned)

(sorry this got so long again ......................)

[yanderespamton78]

okay wait i have a thing to say about folly

Disclaimer!!! I wrote this post before even knowing that The Cleave existed so if it seems odd then that's why

if everyone else has already caught onto this pls ignore me i tend to only realise these things after everyone else does but im sharing it nonetheless

okay so folly is evil. we can all agree upon that. she is NOT KIND.

but the other day i was thinking about her and started to wonder, what if shes really the victim here??

so if you look on the wiki you know that she works for MR/is in MR'S cult. But why? Its mentioned that she wanted something, although we dont know what. and there are a few bits of her dialogue that i find interesting.

THIS. this. very important. we KNOW that follys mask is broken, of course, but according the wiki theres a good chance that this genuinely had a negative effect on her. theres a comic that relates her "lacking a sense of self" to her mask falling off. although i cant actually find the comic its from as the source sited leads to a different folly comic uuhh its probably true also its what i based most of this off of.

and also ive found that folly does have a few weak spots. although most of the time she keeps up the mysterious dream parasite show up and she seems to also keep it up off screen (her killing melanie) you can sometimes see it slip off. or there are just some parts that make me scratch my hypothetical beard. eg:

this one may just be me going insane but the way she says "He's broken." seems kind of?? ooc?? she says it... kinda.. sentimentally?? maybe with shock?? MAYBE WITH EMPATHY???

ahem "The gospel of lies that 'goodness' gave me was a shell of real happiness" that kinda. makes me think. she tried to do the right thing BUT WAS BETRAYED

and finally THE ONE THAT REALLY MADE ME THINK.

SHE WASNT ALWAYS LIKE THIS

SHE WAS BETRAYED

what if this betrayal is what led to her mask breaking?? to her "losing her sense of self"??

and the thing i would like to end this off with

cults always target vulnerable people. people who are homeless, depressed, generally desperate, ect ect are more likely to buy into what youre selling because they have nothing to lose. and the brainwashing that happens in cults can be VERY effective if done right

what if Folly really is just a victim at the end of the day? She trusted someone, she tried to be good, but that didnt help her. this person shattered her mask, and caused her to lose herself. then MR steps in. It offers a solution to all of her problems, as long as she signs in to a feewww little terms. what if she acts the way she doesnt because shes been brainwashed into believing its the only way.

once again if everyone else has alreaady worked this out or this generally just sounds like insane ramblings please ignore me tbh i dont even like folly that much just i was thinking about it and i do have a shocking knowledge of cults. people dont just join cults for no reason they need to be desperate SO WHY IS FOLLY IN MR'S CULT

okay thank you if you read this goodbye :3

AHEM ONE MORE THING FOLLY IS BALD SHES BALD SHES BALD AND SHES TORTURING PEOPLE WHO HAVE HAIR /REF (gets pulled off stage by a giant hook)

[factual-fantasy]

28 ASKS!! THANK YOU!! :DD

@nerdyskullcap

WAAAA THANK YTOIU SIO MUCH!! I WILL EAT THIS ASK WIRTH A SIDE OF RANCH AND CHERIGH IT FOREVERRR 💖💖✨💖😭😭

@foxythefox711

I do intend to get back around to my FNAF AU soon. Rn I'm just going through it™ and don't feel like dealing with all the work and effort it takes to draw those big comics.. I'd just rather draw simple ocs and random memes for now.

That's a good question.. I'd like to think that normally they would. But with Calico Jack loosing his leg maybe he's not as stable as he once was.. I can see the both of them jumping off of something and Kwazii sticks the landing but Jack falls flat due to his peg leg 💔

@khoiazo (Post in question)

Oh yeah I got Bonnet. :0 But thank you for the reminder! I almost forgot her too the first time around <XD

@neo-metalscottic (Post in question)

AAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH! I'M GLAD YOU LIKED THEM!! :DD And I'm glad you liked Coconut especially! I wasn't super sure of her design so this is nice to hear! :}}

As for the koopalings, they are in my Mario AU, I just never got around to properly drawing them for it-

Its intended that they live in Bowsers secret castle somewhere. Guarded by Kamek, Kammy and the entire Blue paratroopa population. :0

@ravenslog

Oh sure! No problem with that :00 Thank you so much for asking first! It means the world to me <:}}}

@citrusfruitman (Post in question)

:DD Thank you!!! And I'm glad I got the tags right <XDD

As for the Octonauts, Kwazii probably wouldn't be surprised at all XDD But everyone else would freak out. "Talking cookies???"

@minnesotamedic186

I know,, I know, I'm ashamed <XD

Making him look like Davy Jones was only way I could capture the personality I wanted for him 💔 My only defense is that he doesn't have a beard like Davy-

TH.... THANK YOUUU,,, SOO MUCH!!! 💖💖😭💖

:D Thank you!! I'm glad you liked it!! :}}}

AAAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! :DDDD 💖💖💖

Thank you so much! :D And maybe someday I'll return to transformers :00

@thedorkyidiot

Hmm.. I'd say maybe some of the game environments? Like the Minecraft title screen :0

@kaiserdarken

By default I feel like Funtime Foxy would be the better "performer". Foxy is a little closer to a Daycare attendant than he is to a stage performer. :0

@itsumikorokotoyomonoko

:D Thank you! I'm honored :)) ALSO NOO DON'T CRY IM SORRY-- <XDD

@ocinstituterep

I basically completely threw out 60% of it, heavily rewrote 35% and kept 5% relatively the same XD

Ohhh I see :0

(Post in question)

XDD I'm glad you liked it!

@luna-purple454

The idea is that Papyrus didn't kill anyone. But Seam doesn't know that.

What happened is.. something.. swept through the underground and killed everyone. It wasn't a human or a monster. It wasn't even really a person.. It was just.. something.

Maybe it was a sound, a song? And everyone stepped outside to hear it. Only to be obliterated all at once..

Papyrus for some reason wasn't killed. And he was left all alone. The event left him so traumatized that he.. didn't really truly process it? Papyrus just goes through his usual daily routine as if nothing is wrong.

The land around Papyrus started to deteriorate though. With no one to run the core and regulate the temperatures.. Hotlands cooled down and Snowdin warmed up. All the snow melted, the trees and grass became dehydrated and died.

There was no new food being grown or made so everything expired. Papyrus was left with just soup cans and non perishables. With Sans "not being around" to patch his battle body.. it started to develop tears and busted seams overtime..

This AU is horrible. And Papyrus has basically completely lost his mind. And he had nothing to do with it.. it just.. happened. They all just.. died. And anything else he had in his life started to decay overtime too..

Its a shame that this situation ended up making Papyrus look like the villain. If Seam had known the truth, maybe things would have been different..

@skywillow28022

In my AU there are not multiple chain chomps. There is only 1 chain chomp. And he is this huge disgusting pile of molten metal and teeth, whos very spine is bolted to the castles basement floor. Its this absolutely horrible creature, whos as big as a 2 story house. It makes horrible inhuman sounds.. and it always hungry..

Due to it being locked away in Bowsers basement, the bros have never encountered it thankfully. But if they ever did, it would probably try to eat them.. And the only power ups that could really damage the chain chomp would be the super star. Which is very rare and the bros haven't exactly learned how to control it yet..

@danman22ful

Thank you so much! :D And its not going to be Circus Baby's entertainment and rentals or Circus babys pizza world. And its not connected to Fazbear Entertainemnt.

I'm thinking that its a classical styled circus. Tents and all. They travel from place to place like old timey circus's did. :0

@patatalota

Its always a shame to hear when people found me through pinterest.. but I'm glad you're at the source now and you like what you see! :}}

I feel like maybe DJ, DA and Freddy might participate in their "birthdays". But Chica, Monty and Roxy?.. Theyyyy probably wouldn't be interested.. :(

@ghfhgkfngjvfnvfnvmfkf

I got plans for Lolbit don't worry XD

After looking it up on YouTube, it appears to be an ice skating act..? Its beautiful! But none of the Circus members are ice skaters.. :(

(Post in question)

XD Oh yeah for sure. Circus Baby and Freddy definitely manhandled him through it-

@beryl-shade

Huh, what a combo! I'm not sure what that would look like :00

Sorry, I don't take requests!

[weirdmageddon]

since hes open to feedback im considering talking to james roach about giving jade the justice she deserves after her narrative shafting in act 6 and one-dimensional ooc-ness (and also being a plot device deprived of agency) in the epilogues. if i do im probably going to link to this post……

so james if i sent this to you and you’re reading this, hi! :)

you say, “i want you to know if youre having problems with the story you can come to me with it and i will hear you out”. first of all you are such a good dude and have such a good open honest approach to the fans. i need to get that out there, because i know you’re just as much a fan of these characters and world are we are. secondly, i don’t know what your plans for homestuck beyond canon are, but dave and jade’s poor handling is a problem in both homestuck canon (act 6, even act 5 fucking them over with “tell, don’t show”; see the latter half of section 1 of the post at > Dave: Deploy cloning apparatus. and section 2) and post-canon that has yet to be addressed.

i understand the nuances of making things flow in a story; things that have already been established can’t be simply retconned. i wrote this post knowing that in mind and hopefully working around that into believably timed and justified/needed arcs gives it more potential

jade is a character i care about so much, and many fans also. her dynamic with dave was one of my favorites but the resolution to their separation…is not even really a resolution. it’s hard to talk about one without the other since theyve always been narratively intertwined. or at least jade has

remember how they musically collaborated more than the other kids? (crystalanthemums is their surprisingly tender song dont forget. i saw that the weird troll grub versions of objects make a comeback in the upd8; make music a relevant part of homestuck in-universe again too </3) dave sending her sbahj furry poster in the mail? the first ones to use a collaborative fraymotif in the comic? kringlefucker and conksuck boot? literally collaborating on creating the right seed for the new universe? and then dave died in jade’s arms and they were separated for 3 years and then that never gets touched on because of the retcon and all the other endgame shit going on (and lets be real grimbark jade from before the retcon wasn’t a satisfying reunion either). we get like, a brief exchange of dialogue at the very very end that made you want to see MORE of them after the battle but it. doesnt happen.

and then in the epilogues jade gets warped into this oddly hypersexual ooc one-dimensional character meant to narratively get in the way of davekat and it’s so awkward and uncomfortable for them. and even THEN in meat timeline gets her agency revoked by the narrative with alt calliope. and in candy dave realizes he’s gay (i thought he was explicitly bi? didnt he call jane hot multiple times both pre-and post-retcon, and once call roxy a “choice babe” in pajamas before he knew it was his ectomom?? if you’re actually gay and in denial why would you have these subconscious freudian blunders). and being married to jade gnaws at him because of it which is. unsatisfying i guess and isn’t consistent with dave’s established sexuality…and then he dies leaving his probably concerned wife and becomes a robot. even if the “point” is that the epilogues are metanarrative commentary about storytelling and candy represents the kind of fanfic that goes off the rails with fanservice it doesn’t feel good when i still care about these characters and their established canons. and a lot of people are in the same camp as me regarding this. it’s still an uncomfortable resolution for their relationship

i really want to see jade’s arc overcoming being used as a puppet by the narrative and the space aspect. just some things to think about / consider that have been running through my head: she’s a witch, right? isn’t what she’s supposed to do is actively bend the rules of her aspect? feferi bended the rules of life by asking the horrorterrors to create dream bubbles so the deceased could still sort of “live” which had a massive narrative impact. who exactly determines that being spacebound means you are fated to be passive and alone? the author? alt calliope? how do we know alt calliope can be trusted or if she’s just projecting her experiences as the most passive class possible onto jade, who ironically has an active manipulation class but is forced to be passive for some reason? normal calliope wasn’t right about everything classpect-related either.

ultimately these things are up to you. you’re still the director of course. but i’m speaking to you, as equally caring of these characters as you and everyone on the team, as a hypothetical suggestion or just something to consider for a jade arc: i think it would do such good to jade and the comic as a whole to see her speak to the manager and recognize the power she has and take back the reigns over her own life and dignity. jade is MAD that she had her own possibilities for socialization and agency taken away from her. and with floralmarsupial, my beloved mutual floral who i went to homestuck high together with, i KNOW the potential they possess to write a compelling arc for jade harley. i think everyone knows too lol floral is THE compelling deep jade harley fanwork big name fan. i dont know what we got to lose. with you guys in charge now, and with the last we see of jade in hs^2 (now hs:bc) fighting callie’s influence and advocating for her own agency, really the only way to go from here for jade is up. (assuming she doesn’t permadie of peanut but i doubt that’s going to happen since she’s one of the original kids and it wouldn’t be satisfying storytelling. and it’s homestuck)

this statement so ripe with potential to me ^ and we’re left on a cliffhanger with jade going in this direction

i want jade and dave to be close friends who care about each other a lot and do silly stuff together again. this isn’t even a call to make davejade canon; it doesnt have to be romantic—i dont want a davekat davejade war to break out, you know? i know you’re trying to balance fan demands. but i just loved their dynamic a lot and i MISS it so much, homestuck act 6 didnt give us this and i wish their reunion had more that went into it. we’re past that point though

i want jade and dave to have a talk that’s like old times. something that isn’t awkward as hell or about sexual relations or drama or whos fucking who. just something for the two of them. something that grounds them in what made homestuck so compelling in the first place: character and friendships and these kind of interactions

i want to see them collaborate again. an idea i have is maybe they start a band or something since they’re both musically talented and also live together so they can make stuff together in person now. you’re a music guy you get it. tangle buddies. jam buddies

and maybe something more serious that concerns just the two of them. post-retcon dave never talked to jade about his thoughts when they fought bec noir right? knowing that jade would inevitably kill him with bullets through bec, but he couldnt warn her because he knows she wouldn’t go through with it, creating a doomed timeline? so jade thought all that time she killed him by accident…..what about all that guilt she must harbor? the first person she had in-person contact with since she was probably four years old, her best friend online, and accidentally killed him within just a few hours of meeting him? and never got to talk about it with him, let alone anyone, after three years? hello?? :(

these are the final lines of the last pesterlog between jade and dave before their 3-year separation (and basically all of act 6)

so uh…..this exchange really openly invites some kind of talk to take place even if it’s long overdue. among other things maybe. they need to hug or something. jade’s touch starvation is real, but not everything needs to be sexualized about touch. she’s lonely and starved of affection but i feel like it would be more meaningful if it wasn’t sexualized. just really basic platonic primal cloth mother needs. just like..both being human beings and having basic needs like this that jade’s been deprived of. who’s the person she would feel most comfortable going to? who does she have the richest history with throughout the webcomic? dave, right? her online best friend since childhood that always cared a lot about her? they have stuff to talk about

i feel like that would address the issue people had with jade’s out of left-field promiscuity in the epilogues and even leftovers of it in hs^2. not only do i think primal platonic touch starvation would be a more meaningful and evocative type of interaction to give them at some point, it wouldn’t rock the boat or create any ship drama (davekat has long since sailed and most people seem to be on board with it) and it would probably be really positive representation of these sorts of things which not only throws a bone to aroace people but just depicting this sort of thing normalizes the fact that two people can be close and not necessarily in an official relationship.

this is a good transition point to this post also which is basically an extension to this one. it’s exactly the issues i had. it’s on the nature of what they had going and how much they mean to each other but how the storytelling held them back when it was unnecessary

this breaks my heart. mr. roach and hs:bc writing team please i miss my favorite blorbo duo being happy in each other’s company. they were such good friends but circumstances pulled them apart. i miss when they created music together and talked about their interests and exchanged quips. i am such a well of ideas for stuff like this. show us how much they mean to each other again

if youre still reading this james thanks for hearing me out. if you wanna pass on to the writing team to look at and get their feedback on this i’d be so so thankful

“and to think that after all this he still chose to save her, like always, probably knowing he had little to no chance, just because he cares for her, her life and who she is beyond this moment, really meant a lot for them. i really, really was mad that this would be the last time they would truly ever be together in a way that to me mattered” — vintagegamebro

[genericpuff]

I followed artsangel since her previous comic immaterial. I have to say she IS talented and has the skills. But her style is verrrrry time consuming and she would only update every 2 weeks. I used to study her art a lot because I was always impressed by it, and Im fairly certain it did not look like like that when it was on canvas. I used to see her progresses on her stories and she uses a lot of assets and predrawn faces to keep her consistent pixar look. The faces were less uncanny and more expressive. Now the eyes are all wonky and displaced.

I think she may have used ai to polish her panels. Perhaps the workload proved too much, or maybe she was feeling insecure. I was concerned when she got picked up by webtoon because I could tell it would be difficult for her to keep up the schedule. Ai is super powerful but its not powerful enough to make a COMIC, not even consistently. She probably using it as an enhancer to her already great skills. A shame though, she doesn’t need it.

Also I think the reason her preproduction period was so quick is because she was highly prepared before launch. She already has multiple comics under her belt and webtoon probably didn’t need to change much. Im sure she just reused her canvas comic for her reboot and built a buffer in the meantime.

Having to meet deadlines can definitely be a reason but not an excuse IMO.

One creator I can think of who has a similar style (albeit in black and grey) is figmentforms, creator of A Tale of Two Rulers.

Updates are slow, she posts maybe a new page once a month, the art is gorgeous but it's clear it takes her time. It's a free to read comic. It's worth the wait.

That said, if she wanted to make her updates more frequent, I wouldn't blame her at all for utilizing new tools and methods to do so - but it wouldn't justify her in using AI tools that are stealing other people's art.

There are loads of shortcuts that artists already use that are fine because they're still genuinely handcrafted. 3D models, overlay textures, blur effects, etc. are all tools that artists use to help speed up the drawing process and were made by hand.

And beyond that, the need to make the process more efficient isn't a crime, but it's in how you do it. You can use these tools irresponsibly or at the cost of your own comic's quality. Case in point, Lore Olympus and Let's Play, which are both godawful in how they implement 3D backgrounds and stock images:

Creating comics is finding a balance between efficiency and quality, not sacrificing one for the other and using it as justification to avoid criticism for that sacrifice.

If Sarah Ellerton was using AI based on her own art and being honest about it, I don't think anyone would be nearly as upset. It might prompt a debate over what's ethical in the world of comics - whether or not it's right for consumers to pay for a product that's being churned out of an AI prompt - but at least it wouldn't be theft and it would probably just be there as an aid to an artist who's been doing this for 20 years and had to find a way to make the process more efficient. I think AI can be used as a productive tool if it's implemented responsibly and without being at the cost of another artist's work.

The issue is that 1.) Sarah is being VERY suspicious over the whole thing which leads us to believe that she's NOT using ethical AI assistance, and 2.) there's a VERY clear distinction near the end of her previous comic, Immaterial, where you can basically tell when she adopted AI. The main character Alex, for example, literally became a whole other person.

This is a common problem for AI coloring prompts, a LOT of them are bad at rendering darker skin tones (I think I mentioned this in my last post, but I literally got to playtest AI coloring tools from WT's a couple years ago, and they could NOT figure out darker skin tones, any dark colors that were put down were assumed to be shadows so characters just looked like white characters with the curtains pulled over their face).

She just looks like a SamDoesArts poster girl now. Everything unique about her has been stripped away and you can see this transition in the final page of Immaterial and the first episode of Quantum Entanglement:

None of it feels like organically her, it feels like a cheap machine reproduction.

I don't doubt that this person has evolved a lot as an artist or that her older work was genuinely her, she's clearly got a lot of skill that only someone who's been drawing comics for years would gain.

But it's clear somewhere along the way she succumbed to insecurity or stopped caring enough to start using AI to do the heavy lifting. I mean honestly, her work from before was fine! So I don't see why she would be using it for 'polishing', there are so many ugly ass webtoons on the platform so even the art from Immaterial - even if she had to simplify it a bit more to make it easier to meet deadlines - would likely be a refreshing change of pace.

But the way she's utilized AI here, I was quicker to assume Sam Yang drew Quantum Entanglement when I first saw it.

And it is a shame, because, as you said, she doesn't need it. Her art is perfectly capable on its own and while I can understand her need to make the process more efficient, there are better ways to do that than using AI that's clearly ripping off other artists and then lying about it. It's a shame she'd put her reputation on the line as a seasoned artist just to meet Webtoons' stupid deadlines. Like, how can it be worth it?

[hotpinkstaples]

i think the one thing i can agree with now is that there’s no real desire, creatively, to continue kon’s story. i think after geoff took over, they tried to build out a semi-new character that did end up working for the stories of its time, but couldn’t really work with new 52 or the rebirth initiative pre-bendis. which, to be perfectly honest, was probably the most cognizant decision they could have made since they were pushing super sons and uuuuh whatever it is they were doing with new 52.

i think what vexes me most is that they brought kon back and did genuinely give him thoughtful character development for a handful of years before shooting all of that dead for dark crisis and dawn of dc. i think it’s easy to hate on bendis but bendis did actually demonstrate that he’d read the broader canon, even if he didn’t necessarily CARE about it.

but he cared about kon plenty, which allowed kon not only to get a coming-home story with young justice and SPECIFICALLY his relationship with bart, but also positioned jonathan and martha as the true ‘parents’ of kon, and not some botched ‘is clark my daddy or lex.’ like yeah, he still shared luthor and clark’s dna, but he’s JONATHAN AND MARTHA’S son, which only makes sense if you see the way adults have constantly failed kon throughout his solo until he finally found his forever home with the kents.

for all of that to be squandered by the trash in dark crisis and the softboot in superboy the man of tmrw, im convinced that kon is just too complex as a character for anyone to really want to grow him using his established canon. truly a victim of the forgotten generation.

and i don’t wanna pretend like not reading the old canon is the only part of the problem. i genuinely think characters like kon and bart simply don’t fit into the ‘clean’ narrative they want to push to promote their one hundred liveaction movies and their latest era of comics. dc’s regressed so much as a creative unit.

[mdhwrites]

The Grimwalker as a concept was so weird. Mainly that Hunter was all 'ohhhh no we cant tell them im a spooky Grimwalker!' But... why would anyone care? The only reason given is that hes a reincarnation of a guy nobody even knows or cares about. Theres not even like, a spooky myth about Grimwalkers because its got such a vague ruleset and premise. He's barely different from a demon.

That COULD have linked to the demon discrimination plotline youve talked about, but there is none so it cant be that. Which i understand was partially because Dana wanted the gays to just exist, so she scrapped discrimination in general. But, a big part of forming cultures and identity is 'Otherness'. People compare themselves to others and define themselves by how theyre different. So scrapping discrimination ends up making the witchs and demons feel like nothing. They have nothing to compare their identity and culture against because theres just no conflict to spark comparison.

This lack of substance also means the fans don't care about Grimwalkers. See the moring comic where the Grimwalker was turned into ANOTHER way to say 'haha Boscha so cringe amirite? point and laugh because she has nobody who loves her.' even though the grimwalker is to reincarnate the dead.

OH MY GOD I'M SO HAPPY SOMEONE ELSE NOTICED THAT! *SCREAMS BLOODY MURDER* Like I know Mark just writes Boscha how the entire fandom sees her (which hasn't helped me enjoy A Hint of Blue, not that I think it's good regardless) but seriously what the fuck!? Why do that to her except just to be mean!?

*sighs* What were we talking about? OH RIGHT! Grimmwalkers.

So for why Hunter has anxiety, it actually is because TOH is doing a very basic clone/artificial human storyline with Hunter and those arcs are actually a lot more internally motivated than externally motivated. Clone lives a life believing they're their own person, then one day finds out they're not, perceives themselves as less because of this distinction but then in the end decides that regardless of their origin, they are their own person and so throw off their shackles, embrace who they are and become better for it. It has nothing to do with race and while it is baby's first clone story, I also still like it conceptually because, well, there's a reason why it's the default clone story. It especially is good for kid's media because while the clone can struggle with the anxiety of it, their friends never have to actually be bad or discriminatory against them because the point is loving yourself for who you are and not who you were made to be.

But I've talked before about how this basic framework actually has a Catch 22 built into it when it comes to Hunter... Which apparently Tumblr wants to tell me I've never done before. Thanks search function. The short version is that this template requires not only a rejection of what they were made for but for them to become distinctly different, usually opposite, to their purpose/original. For Hunter, he only knows Belos so this takes shape in trying to be the opposite of him. The problem is that the opposite of Belos... Is Caleb. Who Hunter mimics in every action he takes after getting away from Belos. There's literally no way to follow this template without adding complexities like him accepting his true origin and being okay/happy with that, something that was probably unlikely in general but especially wasn't going to happen with the shortening, which I will actually give people for. Because the Grimmwalker twist happens so late, they either had to cut it or had no time to actually do anything with it which like... Why not cut it? You did nothing with it and it actually made sure you didn't have the time to actually have Hunter reject Belos' morality so that his redemption doesn't come across as self serving and for survival more than an actual, you know, change to his beliefs.

As for how interesting Grimmwalkers are... They're just clones. Boilerplate, boring clones. Make a body based on another person, put memories in, BAM! Got yourself a clone. Doesn't get more classic than that. It's hardly even magical honestly besides the components, especially with how it actually doesn't give them magic despite those components, or have weird quirks since they're not actually made of flesh and blood, elements that the fans have had a lot of fun with that the show never does, though admittedly part of that is due to how late it happens. Then again, all magic in TOH is boring so it's not likely they would have anyways. Also, you know, a lot of shows will do a single clone episode and have more fun and magic to it than TOH does with one of their core cast members being one so *shrug*

Now, for the final part, I do want to also touch on the 'other' aspect because while discrimination is one way to do it, you can get this across in other ways. One such way is the core defining trait of the Grimmwalker from a tangible standpoint: He doesn't have magic. In a society that mostly has magic, him not having it is a big deal. It's literally what gives him and Willow their first connection as a couple, as insulting as that scene actually should be to Hunter.

And then Hunter is 'fixed' when he gains his magic. His 'other' status removed because he's a real boy now. *SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH*

I have so much more I could say about TOH and 'The Other' (made a blog about a lot of it between writing this draft and publish) but I'll leave it at that so it actually stays on topic instead of the half a dozen tangents I've deleted. None of this makes it good by the way and with how TOH tackles most subjects like this, it's incredibly unlikely that more time would have made it better. After all, being a Grimmwalker is only one of like a half dozen TANTALIZING character/arc concepts for Hunter that are never addressed. The fact that he is trained to kill witches and likely has. His relationship with the Isles because he doesn't have inherent magic. The fact that he is filled with such care for the nation and its government that it blocks out all else in his world. How a sheltered child reacts when they suddenly have freedom and are thrust into the wider world. Etc. etc. that are just footnotes to the writers more than anything to actually build a complete arc around or else they wouldn't have just keep adding to the angst bucket without actually resolving any of it.

So of course Grimmwalkers are bland while being a fine to good concept that's then made terrible by narrative implication or neglect. That's EVERYTHING to do with Hunter.

======+++++=====

Sidenote for this one: It is funny that Dana wanted there to be no bigotry in the Isles when her villains entire scheme is through religious persecution. You know, bigotry. Whole other blog I could go into.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[fancyfade]

i know i'm just being a hater and people might find me annoying because i just Have to bring it up and wont shut up about this, but im glad im not the only one whos got some problems with Robni 2021

the comic is okay at best and mid at worse for me. there are parts that i liked and the comic wasn't all Bad, i get why a lot of people loved it, i just don't get that same hype over it and i didn't really have an explanation without making me sound bitchy

umm before any willismson's or his comics defenders come at me please just remember dont take anything so serious Peace

and i'm probably biased, but i think the people who get it, get it. sorry for the annoying rant! as always i love your takes and thoughts on comics heart emoji

its always valid to rant about comics dw !

and yeah like. I just re-read robin 2021 and knowing what to expect that I didn't like, it wasn't horrible, excepting issue 2 and 3 and it lost the plot a bit by the end. Like I can see why people enjoy just seeing damian doing stuff. But seeing it suggested as The Damian Comic ™ is always disappointing to me.

I think what made me dislike it so much (and what made other people like it) is it came off the teen titans character assassination fiasco... and williamson is really not interested in retconning that out at all and acts as if it was perfectly in character. and who knows maybe DC told him he couldn't retcon it out! But he does still try to act like it's in character, and simultaneously makes Ra's worse as he also is trying to restore Ra's to his pre-2D-villain-ified status quo.... but i think the fact that many people were like "Oh thank god its not teen titans 2016 character assassination arc" made it get graded on a curve.

[labyrinthofsphinx]

Hi your Murder Husbands Partners In ... series are soooo fucking good like WOW im head over heels for your art. I am a bit confused at one part, though.

I probably just have horrible media literacy or maybe it's supposed to be a ~mystery~ but in the Cats, Dogs, and Wild Things comics, what exactly is the nature of the Alastor Cat and Vox Dog?

We see that their shadows are human rather than animal, and in the last panels they both end up human again, but the other always seems to think they are genuinely the animal?

Is it a metaphor and they were always human? Are they pretending the other is an animal for the letters they're writing? Is it a magic thing where they can change forms?

I'm just a wee bit confuzzled so I was hoping you could clear things up ^v^

Oh no problem at all! I'm so glad your enjoying it!! Normally I like answering these with a doodle, but it's actually kinda answered in Part III exactly what's going on, and I don't want to spoil too much.

But yes! It is a metaphor! They're currently writing to a help column butttt it can be a little embarrassing to ask about, well, advice on other people. So, Vox refers to Alastor as a cat because he's got some cat-like tendencies and that's part of the issues he was coming across, namely him wanting physical affection or is just touched starved and wondering how to get his 'cat' to be more comfortable around him.

Alastor in the same regard calls Vox a dog. Now, Al doesn't like dogs, not even in canon, so 'man's best friend' here is almost a replacement term for all men XD. 'His dog' has the problem of being clingy, which annoys him. While not at all entirely outside the scope of weird things he would do, Vox isn't actually hanging outside Al's window XDD

Silly things like Vox mentioning how his 'cat' kills a lot of 'vermin' and leaves them everywhere, and how Al complains about needing to get his 'dog' fixed is just a bit of symbolically covering up other things that go on, like Al leaving bodies everywhere and Vox being a bit of horndog.

I might also suggest that both of the cat and dog advice columns happen some time in the past, probably when they were only partners for a little while and figuring each other out.

By the time of the main story, these guys have it all down pat. They are too used to each other's messes and know each other like the back of their hands, literal partners in crime.

And never worry about asking questions! I love answering them! (And usually, I will respond with a doodle X))

Cheers!

[help-i-need-a-cool-username]

So I saw your whole ‘id kill for a boom/prime crossover fic’ and while I am not currently able to write anything I CAN just come up with scenarios so that’s what I’ll do.

Chaos sonic ends up in sonic boom SOMEHOW (maybe boom is a shatterspace? I dunno) and sonic Very Quickly Realizes that this guy is literally him (derogatory)

Shadow finds a shatterspace that he IS allowed in but the problem is that this shatterspace is boom and now he has to deal with all of these people who have no business being this goddamn tall.

Post s3 with nine left in the grim and he’s tinkering or smth and makes a portal by accident and welp. Now boom! Tails has a twin brother.

I think that the boom comics were Archie? Therefore they got affected by super genesis wave. Basically sonic and shadow were th e only ones who ‘survived’ the sgw and now they’re in sonic prime void.

Shadow falls down the hole at the end of s3 ep one and he undertales into boom. It’s never explained why that island is down there. It just is. He gets mistaken for himself multiple times and it’s a whole thing. I guess by this logic a bunch of the nine robots also end up down there. And sonic later.

Uhhh the sonic boom dimension hopping tech from those few episodes malfunctions and now sonic and shadow are having petty slap fights while hurtling through the void.

Shadow gets sonic through the portal at the end of the last episode in time except that instead of coming back to green hill it’s boom now. They’re in boom. This is now their life. Probably not but still. Sonic tries to get his and shadow’s other selves into couples counseling. It doesn’t work.

(Prime shadow voice) I cannot BELIEVE that you would SULLY Maria’s WISH LIKE THIS-

(Boom shadow voice) fucking WHO???

The boom island exists in No Place actually. There’s two knuckles variants. And also the others.

"while I am not currently able to write anything I CAN just come up with scenarios so that’s what I’ll do" THANK YOU 🩷

CHAOS SONIC IS HIM (derogatory) HAS ME IN TEARS

I want to see a prime!Shadow and boom!team and/or boom!shadow interaction SO BAD and now im just imaging Shadow and a couple robots falling out of the sky from the gorge and landing on top of meh burger 🤣🤣 OMG sonic falls down and the first thing he meets is another him which would be extra weird bc so far he's the only non-robotic Sonic

Boom! Shadow: fucking WHO???

Prime! Shadow: you dont have a Maria?

Prime! Sonic: oh no. Please tell me you at least have a Rouge?

Boom! Shadow: who the fuck is Rouge?

Prime! Sonic: Bat. About yay-tall. One of the only people that can actually put up with your shit

Boom! Shadow: *still actively fighting*

Prime! Sonic: not ringing any bells? Uh, your roommate? Your BEST FRIEND

Boom! Shadow: i dont have any friends-

Prime! Sonic: *gasp* this is a universe where Shadow is a only child?! That explains a lot actually

Prime! Shadow: how many times do i have to tell you Rouge is not my sister?

Boom! Sonic: omg there exists a Shadow who has SISTERS

Prime! Shadow: she's not my sister!

Prime! Sonic: wait does this mean you and Eggman are cousins?

Prime! Shadow: he's my nephew actually

Boom! Eggman: WHAT

Boom! Sonic: WHAT

Boom! Amy: WHAT

Boom! Tails: say what now

Boom! Knuckles: huh? What?

Sticks: i told you so!

[yeiiowmeiiow]

The other night I had a really weird dream and honestly I can't stop thinking about it. it was conveniently Eltingville club related cause I'm just hyperfixated on it 😭

So like the start of the dream started of by having Bill, Josh, Pete and Jerry sat on the table in Bill's basement (like a normal club meeting, im pretty sure this takes place in like the first story they were in) and it was Halloween so they were arguing about who'd tell the best ghost story's or something stupid like that but that eventually leads into Pete telling his ghost story which was about a new girl that had moved into Eltingville, she's all dark and mysterious, for some strange reason Bill takes a liken to her and starts talking to her, being all cocky and shit. Since Bill and the girl started talking he's been bailing out on club stuff and eventually he goes missing. Most of the guy's didn't really care at first but then it becomes a problem when Joe goes missing as well and they don't have any other comicbook shop nearby.

So they all started to investigate. This part of the dream was kinda blurry but the way it ends is that only Josh is left, he finds out that the house that the girl moved into was and has always been abandoned so he goes inside, he finds the remains of Joe along with Jerry and Pete. He also finds the girl eating bills corpse (idk why but I specifically remember it was infront of a fireplace??) And when she sees Josh she attacks him. Petes story finishes there and do does my dream since I woke up by then lol-

I was thinking about turning this into a comic since I thought it was cool but I kinda suck at drawing Bill, Jerry and Pete (idk why but I find Josh rlly easy to draw) so it probably won't happen 😭 I can only hope though 🫶

[rappaccini]

hi im just a rando that somehow arrived at your blog, but i just wanted to say that i am FROTHING at the mouth for your spider-gwen takes (also just read your fic rachnophobia!! it was super good and so frifgin cathartic). your analyses are just so so ridiculously good. they put into words every thing i felt when i first read the spider-gwen comics when i was much younger and couldn't read between the lines (sitting in a tree was so icky and i didn't know why, even murderdock has more chemistry with gwen).

i don't really know how asks work on your blog so sorry if im intruding/being a bother, but if it's not too much i want to hear more on your take for gwen and murderdock's relationship (you know that one scene where gwen almost kills murderdock and they have a talk before gwen dimension hops), it left such an imprint on my mind, but their dynamic isn't talked about nearly enough for my taste.

(also totally unrelated but gwen-65 and the Mary Janes reminds me of dazey and the scouts + mommy long legs 🧍)

hello! no problem re: the asks, you're not intruding at all.

and like. fuck yeah let's talk about murdock. let's unpack the insane psychosexual obsession matt murdock 65 has with gwen.

putting aside the tiny things like him earnestly loving the mary janes' singles, or matt and gwen having the same catholic guilt haunting their subconsciouses, or him having a situationship with the woman who would've become spider-woman if gwen hadn't gotten bitten instead, and discarding that woman for gwen...

it makes me insane that he's a reluctant villain who was pressganged into joining the hand as a kid, who despite excelling at it, hates his job so much that he's preparing to kill himself and the only thing that stops him from going through with it is seeing (... 'seeing') spider-woman.

just knowing that she exists makes him want to live. the only reason why he's still getting up and going through the day is because he wants to see her, and be close to her. he wants to get to know her, and teach her. he wants her at his side. he straight-up admits at the tail end of the life of gwen stacy that the only reason why he hasn't ditched dimensions with his stolen portal watch is that he's staying for her and that matters more to him than his work, his reputation or his life.

like he looooves her. but in an extremely fucked-up, possessive way. that on a personal level, is a deadringer for the way an abuser loves their victim. on a thematic level, is symbolic of the patriarchy gwen's up against, and on a meta level, of all the men, real and symbolic, who keep the character of gwen stacy trapped in an awful narrative.

on the surface, his actions towards her do read like he's protecting her. he orders a hit on captain stacy to demand the cops leave spider-woman alone. he turns up at george's house when he deduces gwen's identity to tell him to his face that he knows their secret, that he isn't a worthy mentor or protector figure for gwen, and offer his legal services. he makes an offer of mentorship to gwen because he wants her to be a better fighter, and actually attempts to train her. he has a pack of ninjas dispatched to follow her around and protect her. he makes enemies of other villains to protect her secret identity. he refuses to kill her (... because tbh if she's dead he'd probably just kill himself). he's like a creepy villainous suitor.

(... @ the spiderverse migwen stans, read her comics. matt murderdock and gwen are literally everything you think miguel and gwen are doing, but it's actually canon.) matt doesn't want to be her dad. he wants to be her daddy.

but to be clear his intentions for her were never good. he's not misunderstood, or seeking redemption. before he's committed to goading her into killing him, his dynamic with gwen is still fundamentally abusive. he inserts himself into her life and turns up at her house uninvited. he isolates her from her friends and family. he has her jumped, beaten to a pulp and humiliated when he 'mentors' her. he lets the cops continue to chase after her to make her feel anxious and disillusioned even though he has the power to shut down her case at any time. that ninja bodyguard outfit is really there to report on her to him, and are not-so-subtly out to kill harry, her kind-of-love interest (... and therefore matt's rival). he sics hitmen on them when they run away together.

yeah, he doesn't want anyone to hurt her... unless he has allowed it. he doesn't see her as an equal, he wants her to serve him. he doesn't see her as the heir to his criminal empire, he sees her as a tool to keep it going. he doesn't want her dead, but that's only because if she dies, then he doesn't get to screw with her anymore. he wants to possess and control her.

the entire power-up pill arc reads like he's her wealthy, older abusive boyfriend who keeps her coming back to him with his resources (she desperately needs his legal counsel when her father's in jail)... and with drugs. he even describes their relationship like he's a drug she can't quit. he loves that she's dependent on him for her power-ups and gives them to her as rewards for obedience and associating with him.

which is all but confirmed when sitting in a tree juxtaposes matt with miles. both of these guys are attracted to gwen in a shallow way she fundamentally does not return, both see her as a symbol instead of a person. (look at how he talks about her:)

and both are offering her a relationship with them that'll lead to her having an easy fix to being persecuted on her homeworld, and power on the surface but little agency in reality. they don't love gwen, they love spider-woman; they want a powerful trophy girlfriend who can reassure them that selling their souls was worth it.

and she rebuffs them both. she sidesteps miles and runs away from murdock at the same time, even, in the predators arc. (... and does so by running off with harry, the only straight guy who's into gwen who actually gives a shit about her feelings and respects her boundaries.)

and murdock loses it. he goes full if-i-can't-have-you-no-one-can and has the venom symbiote created specifically to drive her out of control for good. he's preparing to dose her with the hard stuff, to keep her totally dependent on him and break her will.

not by killing her; by psychologically breaking her down. he wants a symbolic murder-suicide. the way he saw it, if he convinced gwen to go villain, then he has a little companion to be evil with, and she can reassure him that his terrible actions are unavoidable and natural.

... and if she kills him, then he's still corrupted her and he doesn't have to live with himself anymore. he can die knowing he's permanently changed her for the worse, that she'll never outrun the effect he had on her, and that he doesn't have to deal with the consequences.

and to top it all off, at the end of the run (aka when the writer knew he was getting canned and could just fucking go for it), matt straight-up confirms that his interest in her is sexual. it's not subtle.

"my dick is on fire. and here you are: moth to my flame." i mean. come on.

see how the moth/flame reference happens twice? it's a callback to him referring to the symbiote as a way to sap harry's powers out of him. a 'moth to a flame.' so uh. textually, he sees a sexual relationship with gwen as a way to further depower her. and he would have started one after gwen took on the symbiote and was fully out of control (and after harry was taken from her. one more layer of humiliation). she barely got out of there in time.

yeah uh now we have go back and to reexamine the whole power-up arc with the knowledge that if gwen hadn't left him when she did, he would have started sexually abusing her. he wasn't just grooming her to be his evil apprentice. he was, you know, grooming her.

look back. it's all there. look at how he's always touching her as she's squirming away from him, even in broad daylight in front of cops he has on his payroll, or even her own dad.

look at the double entendre in gwen acknowledging in predators that he literally wants her on her knees in front of him. look at all of his talk about 'teaching' her things that might have nothing to do with combat. look at how he became infatuated with her when she was underage and does not care that she's barely nineteen and he's in his thirties, or that she's completely indifferent to his advances and may be queer.

[sidebar: look at how felicia hardy and kitty pryde are also young women with superpowers and complex issues with their fathers, and are canonically bi in 616, who are pressured into compromising situations by murdock that lead to their villainy and imprisonment. he has a pattern of behavior and a preferred type of victim. gwen isn't unique to him, she's just his newest plaything.]

look at how gwen's so viscerally disgusted by him that she can't stop venom from popping out when she has to touch him.

there's a Lot to unpack there.

through the entire latour run, gwen's dodging unwanted and harmful affection from men-- peter the incel who tries to kill everyone when she isn't into him, harry the ex who loves gwen and wants to punish her for what she did to peter (... but realizes he was wrong and redeems himself), rhino the villain of the week who gropes her during their fight, miles the Nice Guy who wants to take her away from everyone she loves and turn her into a trophy girlfriend who makes his spiderbabies, the dozens of spider-men who see her as a vessel for girlfriend trauma venting. and matt, as her nemesis, is the ultimate culmination of all of that put together. he's a groomer and an abuser to his core.

which makes the way gwen deals with him all the more poignant: after trying to evade, work with and placate him for her entire run, and finally snapping and turning on him, she has him on his knees. not because she personally has defeated him, though she did kick his ass-- because the system he's destroying himself to support has discarded him after eating him alive.

she doesn't try to See The Good In Him, she acknowledges that there simply isn't any. he isn't misunderstood, he isn't a woobie, he's absolutely not sexy or alluring. he was never cool or badass. his tragic past doesn't justify the harm he's done in the present. he doesn't have anything valuable to teach her and he never would have protected her. he's a pathetic little man who tries on personas to hide his sense of inadequacy and could have always risen above his circumstances to be a better person but simply chose not to. he’s a white guy with a katana who uses dated slang to try to sound cool to the teenage girls he wants to abuse.

(... tiring of the fandom to not pick up on any of this and treat murdock like a badass. he wasn't. that's the point. murderdock is a kind of evil that's mundane and familiar. that is the scary thing about him: that you know this guy.)

she doesn't kill him, she leaves him behind to presumably be arrested, tried, jailed and have to live with himself in the way he never ever wanted to. no more personas to hide behind, no more wealth or followers he can use to bully people. he's in hell, just not the one he was hoping for.

and she never interacts with him again.

he's an absolutely incredible villain for gwen. his relationship with gwen works to activate her redemption and evolution into a full hero; gwen's entire latour arc is about grappling with the consequences of her irresponsible and selfish behavior. like matt, she's done some terrible shit, is tied up with bad people, and hates herself for it. but unlike matt, she wants to be a better person and puts in the work to do it.

he's a physical representation of the meta forces that are holding gwen stacy the character back: men who see gwen herself not as a person but as a sex object that can make them look impressive or feel less inadequate, who want to deny her any agency or her own relationships, and take them away when she does obtain them, so they can make her all about them. and who see her power as something annoying that should be stripped from her so she can be an accessory to a more powerful man, or as a fun bonus feature that can only be used for that man's advancement. the character of gwen stacy is literally stuck in a cycle of abuse where she's killed, resurrected, killed again, and never gets a break. murdock is representative of the forces that keep that cycle turning, and spider-gwen breaks it, not by existing-- by putting in the work to give herself a narrative that frees her from that status quo.

watching gwen's relationship with murdock evolve solidifies the symbolic narrative about patriarchy running through the entire run.

(we watched matt be absorbed into a violent, male-dominated system against his will as a young boy, and consciously choose to keep perpetuating it, even though it makes him miserable to the point of wanting to die. and the thing that makes him buy in fully is the idea that hey, he might be miserable, but if he gets a girl to submit to him, he can take out that misery on her, gain status for having her under his control, and use her to advance that agenda against others.)

we watched gwen, as a young, naive girl, try to avoid the patriarchy entirely and girlboss her way through life, insisting that she can do whatever she wants because she has powers.

we watched her get the shit kicked out of her in her origin story when it caught up with her, cornered her, and she realized she wasn't the exception. and murdock is the source of this realization because he's the one who instigates the hit on george stacy that causes her to reveal her identity to him.

in the power up pill and sitting in a tree arcs, we watched her literally flirt with the idea of selling out to it, and try to work with it when it offers her special privileges for doing so (cough gwiles cough)

in predators, we watched gwen realize any safety or special treatment it offers her is bullshit and the cost of playing along will violate and destroy everyone she cares about and her most of all

in gwenom, we watched her embrace her most uninhibited self and attack it head-on

in the life of gwen stacy, we watched her realize that a full awakening means embracing other women and taking responsibility for protecting them and her community, rather than simply beating the thing oppressing her until it's dead

we watched her call it and all its enforcers and believers who still cling to it useless little bitches and turn her back on them for good.

this is the gwen that gets away from the male gaze. (or at least she was. thanks spiderverse.)

and even though gwen's defeated murdock, his influence lives on.

gwen's constantly dealing with villains who are attracted to her, whose attraction to her is the basis of their violence towards her (peter 65, harry and em jay for a time, rhino, matt, jackal, maybe johnny storm if the mcguire run hadn't been canned).

she's constantly being knocked around the multiverse and shoved towards miles with a kiss-me sign around her neck because of the same possessive patriarchal bullshit that matt tried to impose on her.

she has serious intimacy issues, particularly with romance. she's flighty, she can't commit, she excuses toxic behavior in em jay, she can't stand up for herself around miles or peter and deny their advances bluntly, she's constantly on this carousel of nearly coming out of the closet and ducking back in.

and though much of this, in-universe, stems from her knowledge of gwen stacy's role in the multiverse, murdock's psychosexual obsession with her is the direct visceral source of that trauma on a personal level. and she hasn't really unpacked this.

he still looms large in her subconscious in a way that no other villain has ever matched. thank you for letting me soapbox about this.

[the-deadly-donut]

"CatNap Says" was such an adorable heart-melter, though it got me wondering about how you portray CatNap and DogDay's friendship.

For me, it read like an SFW interpretation of the classic dom/sub dynamic in kink, especially with the ending where CatNap gives DogDay some reassurance and love after that round of humiliation. Aftercare at its finest!

It recontextualized the whole setup of the comic for me, reinforcing the idea that this whole thing really was just a game between close friends, even if such games have the ability test one's limits. I am curious to know wether or not this sort of subtext was at least partially intentional on your end.

No worries if it wasn't! This was just my personal takeaway and subsequent analysis, haha.

I'm a sucker for vulnerable sweetness.

Great comic! Cannot wait for the next one!

Im so glad you liked my comic, and can I just say I absolutely LOVE this. Like you absolutely hit the bullseye! I don't think I could've explained it better ♡

I remember having to explain their dynamic to someone a while ago since issues were brought up.. but to me there's always been a power dynamic between cn/dd. And on a personal note.. I love a flustered submissive dogday eheheh.. 👉👈

Anyways- This is what I said. Its hard to explain, but dogday knows the dangers of catnap and how he can turn on a dime. Everyone has their own idea of catnap and dogday, and mine is that Catnap can be a bit *much* unintentionally. He's not looking to actually hurt dogday. I guess you could say he doesn't understand the consequences of his actions sometimes.

But that's just me. ♡ You'll probably see plenty more of this dynamic when it comes to them and my projects haha. Hope that's not a problem 🤭