#it might not seem like much but this was one of the most ambitious comics I've done

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 10/22/2024

rare tuesdaypost with no fallow sections. i CANNOT find the exact image i am looking for (mouse-drawn person sitting on bar stool with ankles crossed and blushing with eyelashes) but i feel like i found a lot of things this week that charmed me immensely. rare many such cases of many interests intersecting.

listening

almost exactly a year ago i wrote about jolynn j chin's SHIFTED, a piano jazz piece where the time signatures change on every bar, which came with an explainer video that is, spiritually, a physics video.

she's done it again with OFF TIME and a full album of equally bonkers concepts. i have a brain that is fairly good at manipulating 2D things (yarn, fabric) into 3D things but i do Not have this kind of math brain. wild shit.

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reading

thank you philip for overseeing the photography of this trio of DELILAH DIRK graphic novels from Tony Cliff. i saw these on the library shelf and went "holy shit i read one of these as a webcomic in high school".

very well-paced indiana jones and james bond adjacent pulp adventures, with a soupcon of steampunk conveyances for taste. delilah started life in 2007 when strong snappy female characters were far less common. this is particularly...not quite grating, but very notable in the first two books (published in 2013 and 2016 respectively). they are intended to be middle-grade (disney villain falling deaths, no tits or ass, etc), but they punch far above their intended age range. a particularly interesting reckoning with the long-suffering native guide trope. not a series overly concerned with historical accuracy, although it's certainly more grounded in real history than you might expect of a middle-grade pulp adventure graphic novel. more colonial political concerns than i remembered or expected.

the art is really killer in all three books. tony cliff really knows the effect of a good page turn spread.

he also has a very charming way of illustrating continuing action across a huge panel. all four shots are from The Pillars of Hercules (2018) bc it happened to be the last one i read and the one with by far the most ambitious art.

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watching

tubi has acquired the streaming rights to most of the batman animated movies. i keep getting served ads on instagram for an upcoming animated film about batman and the yakuza, where the premise is that a portal from real-life japan has opened up over gotham and the yakuza are pouring through like a demonic horde. this seems to be a sequel to batman ninja (2018, dir. Junpei Mizusaki)

Batman, along with his allies and adversaries, finds himself transported from modern Gotham City to feudal Japan.

batman ninja includes the lines:

I’m going to rule this country and turn it into a kingdom of monkeys and rewrite the history of the world!

and

What am I going to do with you, Batman? You’ve destroyed a perfectly good giant robot castle!

i would describe this as more of a feature-length animation showcase than anything else. the haters on letterboxed didn't even give it an average of 3 but that's bc they hate fun. this is some real weeb shit. this is not a grimdark or particularly thoughful batman entry. this is an entry to clap your hands in glee at the giant gundam vs monkey army fight. they have once again done my favorite comics boy jason todd dirty but what the fuck else is new.

so much fun even on just the like tree field guide level of identifying the six or seven animation styles. plus everyone's feudal japan looks are sick as shit.

was it Good? no. was i delighted at nearly every moment? fuck yeah.

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playing

EXCEPTIONALLY charming embroidery-based game jam game, Cross Stitched by Panzerr here for free on itch.io. made in godot. god bless.

(image from the developer) you've got your little baba yaga house gundam in the center constantly firing projectiles, and you have to keep these fucking birds back. you can WASD around the edges of the tapestry, and your health is in the top (i really love how it gets "ruined" dark chunks taken out of it as you lose health, like a piece of embroidery decaying) and the bottom black bar of motifs fills up as you make progress towards adding another level and another piece to your powerup level tapestry.

(following images from me) you do have to think about your placement and plan it out a bit, and you can't embroider over something you've already stitched. would not recommend surrounding your initial base damage motif with other motifs bc then you've sort of fucked yourself over. a really simple concept (a good bite size for a game jam) elevated by a very fun visual style and great music. really delighted me! i am so jaded by my time in the video game marketing mines that i forgot they can be fun actually!

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making

unphotographable: too many bugs in my house! tried to replace the weatherstripping on my front door and discovering that both the front door and the storm door were installed incorrectly and should probably be replaced.

in better news, the newest pathetic little waif in the office bathroom has been freshly neutered and will be going to a nice cushy indoor home next week-ish. whenever he is fully recovered. the most polite cat i have ever had in this carrier: did not piss, shit, or throw up.

KO'd by six cc's of various goops. poor man.

[lynxgriffin]

OKAY there were a lot of asks specifically for the most recent comics, so I figured it'd be easiest to just try and respond to all in one big block rather than clog up your dash with multiple asks!

Yeah, the problem with where Kris is now is that no one's really going to discourage them from going on a revenge quest, and there's no one around to really help them process the feelings of what happened. Not a good headspace to be in!

I would say they are about 17 now, so a little older than I would have them be in canon. So yeah, they were already living with the Dreemurrs for a few years.

He would be happy to share a cup of tea and some cake with friendly humans!

Maybe he's got a lot of practice at it! And yeah, usually not a good sign when a demon prince wants your soul.

Yes, the ceremony done incorrectly could have sent a human to the wrong place in the Dark World. The mark they put on Kris's forehead to show "who the gift was intended for" was actually very important in getting Kris directly to Ralsei.

Yeah, I suppose that may be inevitable since UT and DR themselves have so many overlapping elements! And some folks do think that Kris is DR's version of Chara (although I have my own thoughts on that, personally). At least with Chara, Asriel was there to dissuade them from actually carrying through on their intentions!

I think you mean Ralsei, but yup, he's just trying to be helpful!!

Kris at the moment doesn't have reason to suspect that Asriel was a part of the cult or the plan, but is also definitely primed to act rashly. Unfortunately, they probably can't actually talk until Kris gets back to the light world.

Yes, Ralsei would have let Kris stay at his castle as long as they wanted. Might have been all right, but after awhile Kris probably would have gotten bored and angry enough to want to leave.

Yes, they do, which is why they were suspicious of Ralsei offering them a bunch of desserts at first.

Well, hopefully parenthood (or adoptive parenthood) isn't the same as soul ownership! ;P

Thank you! I admit, I'm a giant sucker for that imagery.

Aaaand now they've lost that, too. Oops!

Ralsei is just all smiles about this arrangement!

There really is nothing quite so demonic as fine print, honestly.

Well, they quickly read through the main part of it. They may have skipped over a lot of the fine print, though.

Ralsei's just like... "Ambitious, but doable!"

It's more about what Kris now is to Ralsei than the other way around!

Oh Kris didn't exactly trust Ralsei fully, but was pretty much like "well, this seems like my best option, so I'll just take what I can get and worry about the consequences later."

Ralsei is being honest when he says that he wants companionship from Kris. The problem is is what "companionship" looks like to an immortal demon prince may not always be mutually beneficial for Kris. And there's no distance restrictions now; Kris can move as far away from Ralsei as they want, and Ralsei's still the one with power over their soul.

[blueskittlesart]

hi, correct me if i'm wrong but i seem to remember you saying that you're majoring in illustration! i'm currently in the process of applying to colleges and i plan on majoring in illustration as well, so i was wondering if you had any advice for portfolios. I could really use some tips on the presentation aspect specifically, bc I'm a little lost when it comes to stuff like the arrangement/organization of pieces, how I should crop my pictures, etc. any advice you can give me is greatly appreciated!!

hi yes i can totally help you out with this! i like to think my college portfolio was pretty good bc i got accepted to every school i sent it to lol :) the main pieces of advice that i was given when building it were this:

studies and pieces that show off your technical skill are great, but limit them to around a third of your portfolio at most. art schools DO want to see that you're technically skilled and can like, draw a charcoal still life or a self-portrait, because those ARE important skills to have, but ESPECIALLY if you're applying to a school that's more known for contemporary fields like animation or illustration, it's much more likely that they want to see your creative mind at work. the single best thing you can put in your portfolio is a BODY OF WORK, and specifically a body of work that shows off your own ideas and your own take on whatever you're producing. this means 3+ pieces that are interconnected or related to the same central theme. my portfoilo, for example, consisted of 2 or 3ish traditional, technical pieces which showed that I had a certain level of technical skill, and the ENTIRE rest of it was devoted to a series of original interconnected narrative comics I'd written and drawn. Every reviewer I met with told me that this was what made my portfolio stand out to them--it showed that I was not only technically skilled, but that i had something i wanted to DO with that skill, that I had direction and drive with my art and was able to produce work that reflected that. If you're maybe (definitely) not quite as ambitious as me, something like a series of 3-5 interconnected illustrations or a short comic if you're into that might do the same thing.

as a side note, if you DO have a body of work as the central focus of your portfolio, a lot of colleges will be interested in your process as well! for example with my comic portfolio, i used one slot to demonstrate my process, because I penciled every page traditionally before digitalizing it and i had extensive character and worldbuilding sketches. I wouldn't devote more than one slot to it, but if you have a body of work where the process is important to you it could be worth throwing in!

arrangement is tricky, but the advice I generally heard was "put your best stuff first." whatever you're most excited about, whatever is going to grab someone's attention the fastest, that's what you want to have in your first slot. (I actually don't think I followed this advice on my applications LOL but it's what i was TOLD to do and i think it's solid advice.)

in terms of editing, assuming we're talking about traditional pieces being photographed, you want to make sure your pieces are 1. well-lit, (DO NOT TAKE YOUR PHOTOS WITH OVERHEAD LIGHTING. wait for an overcast day and take them outside trust me) 2. legible, (no weird shadows obscuring parts of the piece, high-quality enough that no details are lost due to digital pixelation, etc) and 3. as color-accurate to real life as you can make them. most of this is just about getting a decent-quality camera (a newer iphone should be fine) and a good location. (outside and overcast, as previously mentioned) you may want to throw your pics into photoshop and play with the balance slightly, but I wouldn't do anything too drastic, try to get the most accurate photo possible without any editing. (if your pieces are small and flat, scanning them in may work better. most public and school libraries have scanners you can use for free.)

finally, cropping. the general rule that I was taught is to crop the piece, not the photograph. if you've got a piece on paper and you're not sure you like how the actual drawing is oriented on the paper, crop the PAPER down to size, and THEN photograph it. your photos should aim to show the ENTIRE piece from edge to edge (unless it's a detail shot obv) and I even like to include a little bit of extra "breathing room" around the piece so that it's clear exactly where the dimensions of it end. here's a piece I used for my college portfolios for reference:

i lowkey do not like this piece now but that's not the point. this is what i mean by breathing room--a few extra inches of space around the actual canvas so it's clear that this isn't a closeup and you can see where the canvas actually ends. the same is true for digital pieces. if it's a full bleed illustration (something with full color all the way to the edges of the canvas) just make sure you like the composition cropped the way it is and submit the full piece as-is. if it's a floating spot or something similar without hard edges, leave a bit of white or transparent breathing room around the edge of your image.

hope this helps! if you have any more specific questions lmk :)

[orangepanic]

50 Random Character Asks: Asami Sato

You're lucky I love her.

1. Canon I outright reject

That she and Korra are soulmates. I think that was in a comic? Anyway no, after a few months of trying out a relationship in their early 20s they realize they want different things and break up more or less amicably.

2. A canon or headcanon hill I will die on

Asami is actually bad at stuff! She's not perfect at everything all the time!

3. Obscure headcanon

As fearless and caring as she is Asami is also a bit squeamish and is not great with sick people because she's a sympathy vomiter.

4. Favorite line

"Why would there be fence posts but no fence?" Girl for a genius you were so close.

5. Best personality trait

Selfless without being a doormat.

6. Worst personality trait

Gets angry when she's hurt instead of admitting how she really feels.

7. Age/height/weight headcanon

She's 18-22 in canon, 5'9", 140lbs or thereabouts mostly because she's tall and all muscle.

8. Unpopular opinion about them

She's interesting and loveable all by herself without being Korra's girlfriend. She went four seasons without dating Korra but most of the fandom is only interested in her as part of a pairing that wasn't even in the original material. If you ever look up "facts about Asami" more than half of it is about her dating Korra. It's infuriating. She's a person on her own! I hate that the franchise and the fandom have reduced her to the "and girlfriend" tag along of the main character when she has so much to give just as herself.

9. Scene that first made me love (or hate) the character

Her standing up to her dad in The Aftermath. As someone who also idolized a dad who turned out to be a misguided asshole I can tell you that shit is hard. She should get a medal and a hug.

10. Best moment on screen (or in the book)

I love everything about this.

11. Faceclaim for the role

Arden Cho

12. Crack headcanon

Asami is a slob. She might look put together but her house is a mess and she's always losing stuff amid the jumble of things in her handbag. She grew up with a cleaning service and it shows.

13. Dumbest thing they’ve ever done

Trying to get with Mako again in Book 2. No. What were you thinking? You're so awesome, go find somebody, anybody who isn't the guy who ghost-dumped you for his "friend" six months ago! (eh HEM I even have a suggestion)

14. Most heroic moment

I was going to say standing up to her father in B1 or flying a biplane in combat conditions in B2 or kicking people in the face on top of a moving train or flying a basically untested piece of mecha onto a robot colossus, but I actually think it's this:

It's really hard to forgive someone.

15. Worst thing they’ve ever done

Nothing, Asami has never done anything wrong in her life and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.

kissing Mako in B2

16. Deepest darkest secret they won’t even admit to themselves

Asami is scared that she won't know how to be a mother when the time comes because she didn't really have one. Her dad mostly had staff to do the childcare parts of being a father but she doesn't want that for her family. Asami does want kids, she's pretty sure, but she never quite knows what to do with them and has no idea how she'll balance that with her own interests and ambitions. She's not interested in a stay at home role and finds herself attracted to people who are also as ambitious and dedicated to their interests as she is. She looks at people like Pema or even Korra who seem like such natural moms and then at people like Lin who are all about their career and doesn't see herself in any of them. Asami is desperate for a role model of a strong career woman with a loving family who can tell her how to have it all. Izumi

17. Quotes, songs, poems, etc. that I associate with them.

18. What they’d go to see a therapist about

Having her mother murdered at home. Having her father and idol try to kill her before being sent to prison for treason for funding and then leading an effort to overthrow the government right under her nose, then being murdered after she decides to try to forgive him and have a relationship again. Always coming in second place after the thing the person she loves loves more than her, and always being relied upon to put her own needs aside for the greater good. Being treated as a hot chick by everyone who meets her but rarely engaged intellectually. Asami Sato, half ATM, half meat slab.

I think Asami needs a lot of therapy tbh.

19. Vices/bad habits

She drinks too much when she's sad.

20. Scars

One on her collarbone from when she broke it riding her motorbike at 16.

21. Drink of choice (not just alcoholic)

I think she'd be into flavored fizzy waters.

22. Best physical feature

Um, all of her? Have you seen this girl? But if you ask her she'd say her hair.

23. If they were a scented candle, what would they smell like?

Lavender and engine oil.

24. Most annoying habit

She chews on the ends of pens whether they're her pens or not.

25. 3 things they’d want to take with them if they were dropped off in the middle of nowhere

Utility knife, a bunch of snacks, duct tape. She'd be fine.

26. What they would do if stuck in an elevator with [insert character of your choice from the same fandom]

It doesn't matter who she's stuck with because she fixes the elevator.

27. Their guilty pleasure

Sneaking chocolate into the spa so she can eat it while soaking in the hot pool.

28. How they feel about [insert character of your choice from the same fandom]

Can't answer this without a victim but Asami generally likes anyone unless they've crossed her, in which case watch the fuck out.

29. Eating habits

Asami cannot cook to save her life but generally tries to keep it healthy, which means a combination of salads, instant soup, and takeout. These are all things she can make. She finds it weird to keep a cook just for herself. Once she's married she happily lets her partner or hired help do the cooking.

30. Sleeping habits

Night owl, heavy sleeper, stomach sleeper under a big pile of blankets. Her partner sometimes checks to make sure she's still breathing.

31. If the had a tumblr what would it look like?

Just pictures of hot cars and the occasional Taylor Swift quote. I think she's more of a gamer geek than a fandom geek.

32. Something guaranteed to make them smile/laugh

Asami's feet are quite ticklish. Tickle her feet and she'll laugh whether she wants to or not.

33. Something guaranteed to make them cry

Being dumped.

34. How they react when they are feeling X emotion (sad, angry, excited, scared, etc.—can specify as many as you like)

For a very social person Asami saves her strongest emotions for more private moments. She gets a big smile and will do group hugs when she's excited but in canon we almost always see her turning away or leaving the room when she's upset or scared rather than seeking comfort. The only exception I think is in book 1 where she opens up to Mako about her mom. So I think if she was in a loving relationship she might get a cuddle if she's sad.

35. Their idea of a perfect day

At the beach with a group of close friends, alternating between swimming, games, and sitting under an umbrella with her sketch pad and a pretty little fruity drink. At some point there are massages. She magically doesn't get sunburned. She ends the day tired and happy and feeling loved and relaxed.

36. Their favorite season

Summer. It's the best season for racing and cute outfits.

37. What they really think about themselves

Asami knows that she's pretty and smart and successful. There's no false modesty there. But sometimes she wonders if that will ever be enough for someone or if there's something wrong with her because she keeps being left behind all the same. It takes a lot of steady unflinching love to get her over that final insecurity.

38. Favorite holiday

All of them! Asami loves holidays and celebrations of all kinds. Especially the ones that come with cookies.

39. Favorite game

Assuming auto racing is not a game, kuai ball. She would have said pai sho but she beats most opponents so fast that the only people she really enjoys playing with are Commander Bumi and General Iroh. She and Bumi have a standing game the first Sunday of the month right up until his death.

40. Favorite book

Asami doesn't have a single favorite book and rarely re-reads, but she's very partial to the kind of edge-of-your-seat gory sci-fi thriller that usually involves a lot of people being eaten. I also peg her as a horror movie fan; the more ridiculous and bloody the better.

41. If they could have lunch with anyone in the world (living or dead, from any fictional universe or the real world), who would it be?

The easy answer is her mom. Barring that, everyone tells her she would have loved Sokka so I think she'd be curious to meet him.

42. 3 comfort items

Warm food, warm blankets, and the smell of her workshop.

43. 3 favorite foods and 3 they despise

Love: sesame sticks, pork and chive dumplings, pistachio ice cream. Despise: Gommu's street gruel, tomato carrots, anything served with the head still on it.

44. Their happiest memory

Asami still vividly remembers her first pro-bending championship game. Her team won and she screamed herself hoarse before going to get victory ice cream with her friends.

45. Their favorite celebrity

Korra

46. The person they most admire

I think she'd really admire female world leaders like Suyin or Firelord Izumi. Maybe even Kuvira up until she decided not to step down.

47. Their dream job

Stock car racer or pro-bender.

48. Scariest moment of their life

Being ejected from the hummingbird suit.

49. Favorite toy as a child

She had a doll named Yina who she took everywhere. Yina wasn't her baby but rather her pretend sister.

50. A memory they’ve blocked out

Asami was home when her mother was killed. She called the police using the number her parents had shown her but she doesn't remember it.

50 Character Asks

[spectralsleuth]

Now that we're entering into 2024, I'm asking some artists and writers that I follow:

1) What is the one piece you're most proud of from this past year?

2) What are some pieces that you would have liked more people to see? If you can include links, I'd love to go check them out!

3) What were your top three favorite pieces (art, comics, fics, etc) that someone else has made this past year?

(As always, no pressure to respond! Feel free to just ignore, or let me know if you'd rather I not send you these kinds of asks in the future.)

This is such a sweet and fun ask!! Thanks so much! I enjoyed seeing other authors answering this it’s so hype to get it myself.

1. This is hard to answer, because this year I tried to do something different with every fic I posted. When I got a concept I very pointedly didn’t shy away from it because it seemed difficult, or I thought I might be bad at it, so there’s something that makes me proud with each one. IF I HAD TO CHOOSE THOUGH I’m going to cheat and pick two.

What it Will Be I’m proud of this because it fell out of me SO EASY. I felt like the process of writing it was a testament to how hard I’ve been working at improving all year, and it came together very quickly and very well. I’m also proud because I incorporated @heckitall ‘s comic page to base it off of, and I’d never tried writing fic for a visual media like that. It was super fun!

On the OTHER end of the spectrum is Case of the Hidden City vs Lou Jitsu because it is VERY technically and narratively complicated and is by far the most ambitious thing I’ve ever written. It’s very hard, but I am VERY proud because I haven’t QUIT it. It’s not complete yet, but it is a good amount of the way there and I’m excited to finish it. Probably once I’ve recovered from surgery lol.

2. This sounds insincere maybe, but I really am happy with the engagement I get on my fic. I really do write my fic for me, and while I love to make sure as many people who want to read it can find it, at the end of the day I don’t like assigning people homework! I went through my whole works list and scratched my head and really tried to think of there was anything I wanted to plug, and I don’t think there is!

I guess I’ll post my lowest viewed, my Swanatello fic! @tangledinink ‘s AU I’m sure everyone’s familiar with lol. I knew that one would be lower when I posted it, if only because it has prior required reading (Swanatello). But I wrote it mainly because the AU was starting to reach a critical point and I REALLY wanted to write fanfiction of how I fantasized an ending might be, so I could go back and read it for comfort. I love Odette and the lore Kayson made for his AU, so I’ll plug this only because I think some people may have missed it!

3. Three works!! JUST THREE?? AUGH.

little kid with a big death wish

By @remedyturtles ! This made me leak tears the whole way through, so huge CW’s obviously. Not only was it one of the best fics I’ve ever read, but I got the privilege of seeing how talented Rem is behind the scenes a little and saw how they write and work and I really want to emulate them going forward. One of many all timer fics for me, for sure, I’d love to read any original fiction they put out.

The Whispering Forest and Other Tales

By @sroloc--elbisivni and @kithnkin ! I love love LOVE the feudal Japan fusion, the research, and the perfect blend of Usagi Yojimbo’s universe with what the Riseverse would have been like in this era. Even the little segues into what they’re wearing and eating is endlessly fascinating to me. Every single character is written to be the best and most interesting version of that character I could imagine. Theres Leosagi, there’s a PB&J murder mystery, there’s spookiness- AND Raphael Hamato gets wifed up!! WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT? I love people that write a fully fleshed story that could be a standalone universe, without losing ANY of the flavor or humor or narrative of the original source material.

And last is I’m Sorry, Teenage Mutant What Now

@tangledinink has such a good grasp of family and writing, and realistic portrayals of what would HONESTLY HAPPEN if you discovered literally any aspect of the ROTTMNT narrative. Not even taking into ACCOUNT the turtle nonsense, how do you unpack a family that’s been devoted to destroying a magic monster and sacrificing themselves, or a Dad that fought in a death match battle royale for over a decade, or a RIVAL CLAN OF NINJA? All the characters are written SO WELL, and Kayson does a fantastic job of never letting the characters or story fall into cliche tropes. Their characters are always super detailed, to the point where I really feel it if they’re hungry or hurt or itchy. Which is a weird thing to point out but they make sure you really FEEL the situation. Also like, turtles in highschool? Body dysphoria? My CO-CEO of Hamato Yoshi???

What a great year!! I had so much fun in fandom this year and made a lot of friends.

[pumpkinstrawbrew]

so what about btas!crane and comic!Crane manic periods? ;) I remember BTAS Scarecrow likes to shout nonsense like «I am the God of fear! The Lord of despair!». Maybe that would be annoying for Batman.

How Bruce would deal with his manic periods in BTAS and comics?

oh, jon, jon. 

someone, who one might expect to be a cold type, but he’s actually very explosive, when it comes to his emotions an’ his ‘visions’. there is nothing better, than a villain who screams all sorts of nonsense, when they enter their ‘destructive’ phrase. an’ when it comes to crane, he’s a champ at it. i love how much of an edgelord jon can be without even trying. he’s natural. his rants are always hilariously exaggerated. however, i feel like the comicverse!bruce has the worst deal on his hands out of all three lol.

for one, comicverse!crane is way more unhinged, than arkhamverse an’ BTAS jons put together. ironically enough, he also feels like the most aggressive one as well, when he’s like that. i think, a good example of his manic periods be Batman: Terror, an’ Batman: Shadow of the Bat. in both cases, jonathan’s ego goes to extreme an’ his delusions pretty much what keeps him going, despite everything. he doesn’t doubt any of bs he thinking about for a second, either. in the first case, it was hugo strange’s fault *the ever lurking creep* but it showed how dangerous it is to give jonathan ideas, esp when their main gimmick revolves around him being directed at a single, specific task. the sort of task that would also make him feel powerful on top of it tii. an’ if there is a rule, you never make guys like crane feel like this or they’d readily bite the hand that feeds them. then, the second comic literally shows that jonathan pretty much woke up an’ decided to be a god of fear. just like that. gordon should have organized it somehow too. he didn’t care how. inside his brain this all must have made a lot of sense. an' it's so randomly ambitious coming from him. i suppose after bruce's back got broken, smth inside jon's brain also kinda broke in a new ways. his king of fear was beaten. so being master of fear no longer enough. therefore, he just skips a step *or a dozen* an' decides jump straight to godhood.

an’ well, while all cranes are too committed to their delusions in those moments, it’s the comicverse!jonathan who brings it to a new level. he’s way more dangerous in that state vs the other two, as he seems to have ‘broader’ schemes. he’s also way more openly sadistic during those times too. compared to when he has a meltdown an’ his emotions are all over the place, maniacal crane is actually literally a spiteful lil beast an’ he doesn’t stop for a second to think about anything, that doesn’t fit whatever delusion he’s currently under. he’s really freakin’ scary, when stuck inside his own head. an’ quite frankly, i don’t think that bruce can do anything besides stopping him. can he get creative with those methods? for sure, but i think, that it would be harder to make this version of jonathan to kinda follow along. he’s more paranoid an’ distrustful. so strung up, that it feels like he would sense the fact, that the bat wants to distract him somehow. doesn’t mean, that he won’t get distracted anyways, even knowing this lol. but where arkhamverse!scarecrow needs to be contained, comicverse one needs to be tired out. which you know, might mean that batman has to actually fight him, until jon eventually would lose his focus / make a mistake. or he can tire him out in other ways. i feel like the comicverse!crane is prob the most horny version out of three as well, when he has a manic ep. all that adrenalin *an' self ego stroking* would essentially give him a tent, an’ bruce can pretty much distract him with more carnaval things, even if jonathan would most likely talk crazy talk basically the whole time. y'know, smth like ‘let me taste your terror’, while getting down to suck a dick lol. or 'let me show you what real fear is like' an' do smth suggestive, even if he totally means all of this seriously. basically, spew the sort of talk that is hilariously intense, but idk how sexy it is in actuality, bc usually bruce being the sexy an’ flirty one. but either way, i feel like fighting / fucking *usually both of those things* be the way for bruce to handle the situation, bc jonathan won’t just be ‘kept’, when he’s like that. at least not by the bars or rope. gotta use arms an’ body weight [wink wink] 

now, BTAS crane seems like nearly the most harmless one in comparison to his other two versions. but i think, it only seems this way, esp when he’s kinda in the beginning of his path to utter madness. BTAS pretty much conveyed to us that jon, while clearly touched in the head, wasn’t actually as deeply mentally disturbed in the beginning as what he see becoming of him later on. he was mostly low-key sadistic in nature. an' it just happened to be that his sadism wasn’t physical, but rather he loved causing mental distress. it’s only by writers notes an’ such, that we finding out that he was also bullied like comicverse!jonathan, but unlike him, he doesn’t seem to be hyperfocused on his bullies, but instead taking his anger out on everyone else who wronged him later in life. or well, the ones, that he felt had wronged him. so when he enters the state, where he's maniacal an' delusional ... welp ... it's actually almost better, than when he's calculated an' in control of himself.

his actions are less coordinated. his plans have more holes in them. an' in comparison to both arkhamverse an’ comicverse cranes, BTAS jonathan doesn’t really can do much fighting. he’s short, thin an’ pretty much useless in a hand on hand combat lol. but i imagine, that it’s very challenging to catch him as he literally runs around, screaming nonsense an’ throwing stuff at bruce. totally ‘adult’ fight right here. but i think, that it’s rare when BTAS jonathan can prove to be actually dangerous in this state. he’s more scary, when he knows what he's doing an' less emotional at that. when his mind focuses on whatever terrible experiment, he’s about to conduct, that's when he's really threatning. maniacal crane is more of volatile an' jerky an' loud, than anything. bruce will just have to endure being screamed into his ear about how amazing an’ horrifying jonathan is an’ how the bat should bow down to him an' kiss his boots lol. naturally, bruce’s approach can deviate as it relies on specific factors, but i think, that he usually just kinda ignores jon, once he catching him. therefore, it automatically becomes jon’s sole goal to force the bat to pay attention to him again. which in itself already distracting him from anything else. bruce's biggest struggle prob be keeping straight face, when jonathan would tell him that he's lord of despair an' horror incarnate an' all of this, while being pretty much a lil twiggy gremlin. but in his defence, i have a feeling that once jonathan is maniacal *whichever version*, it's actually the time when he demonstrates that he's way stronger, than people think he is. at least, i feel like there was a reason why both bruce an' robin dragged jon into arkham an' not just bruce. gremlin or not, but once he escapes, it's hard to catch him an' he even puts up a fight too.

either way, i suppose, bruce is really lucky that his villainous kinda bf have a tunnel vision, when it comes to him. it clearly a slower burn for BTAS jonathan, but the other two are literally only interested in fear an' batman, an' nothing else. so making them spend their maniacal periods in batman's company is the best solution for the gotham.

[spotsupstuff]

I wanna learn more about Blessing / Boreas. What’s up with all the bat flies with him? What’s his city like?

-rubs my hands together like a fly- uuuuuu boy, time to shake my blatantly favorite child Hell yeah huhuhuhuhuuu

the batflies enter the scene a good while after the Mass Ascension- they are his coping mechanism after Zephyr collapses and goes dark!

from the comic where they talk about Euros' n Sparrows' relationship, one can probably guess how close these two are. Boreas might be the big scary dog of the whole Eo family that punches things in the face rather than take any miniscule amount of shit, but when it comes to Zephyr he is very open and sweet. she's the only person who can actually influence his opinions and ideas greatly, because he loves and trusts her enough to allow her to do so. so when she collapses, he takes it the worst out of everyone. in a very quiet way. his pain if for him to keep, nobody else can know he's hurting

bear witness to Ňuňu

this lil shit was basically Boreas' therapy dog. just.. very very feckin teeny

child...

she is as smart as your typical bat, but the thing was that when she accidentally made her way into his chamber, he didn't have much will in himself to send the animal to eeby deeby so she got to flutter about. and as animals do, girlie used the empathy trap card to figure out this person who doesn't seem to be posing any danger is Sad. so she landed on his head, crawled up to look into his eyes and chirped

n that was the straw that broke the camel's back and Boreas had his first grief-inflicted breakdown ever. Ňuňu stayed during it and even after it, so emotionally-empty-feeling Boreas decided to take her in. hardly can replace Zephyr, but at least he isn't alone

Ňuňu later brought friends and Bee decided that he will look after them then. even after Ňuňu passes away, he still houses and raises them. the younglings like sleeping on his antennas so he has to watch himself to not move them too much sometimes. Euros has a folder full of photos like that

to his city- the name kush is:

originally from me looking for latin words for Rage. ended up going with Desaevio, because Bee is indeed positioned in a fitting place for the word

and the storm connection plus the last two are the main reasons why the Ancients called the city as such. after project Abet Zephyr ended in such a failure, they had to vent some stuff out. and we are going to claim that it is anger because that isn't as pitiful as shame or embarrassment

(the fact that almost every translator i put it into gives me "i'm sorry" works wonderfully, too. because what else will ultimately Boreas do, but quietly mutter to himself a mantra of apologies when he'll be lying in his chamber 30 seconds from his death, drowning in his regrets and mistakes?)

Desaevio was capable of comfortably supporting over 5 million people (no other Iterator city ever reaches that far- the max is ambitious Gen 3 cities that only ever reached around an estimate of 2.7 million) but at times housed over 6-7 million. despite lying close to the geographical location of Bergen in real life, Desaevio is very far from reaching such nice vibes (the old towns Boreas' structure overshadows come close, though). it is way closer to New York, but more dystopian. if u look up dystopian city on google images u get to see pretty closely what it looked like. combine it with Coruscant from star wars for bonus authencity with the layering

made up of skyscrapers, with endless layered bridges for means of transport (most commonly expres trains), with what little decoration of the buildings chipped away by time without anybody caring enough to restore the beauty- the grey, gloomy expanse of Desaevio is as majestic to witness as it is absolutely harrowing

with it being a layered city and one with Boreas' consciousness/structure, some wonder when does one truly leaves the borders of the city and enters the giant's actual insides. it's hard to tell, with old models of Iterators not being all that enclosed and isolated like Five Pebbles is. there is no karma gate to tell you when exactly the walls turn from homes for people to homes for wires, tubes and alien-like organic life of a colossal Hivemind

despite the whole "Iterators are above the cloud level" thing, i like to imagine that it rains in Desaevio either way. at least- some levels are just straight up Wet like after rain. but it'd be those normal rains like we have, not the annihilating ones that the old towns need to bear with down below. or maybe it's just the upper layers' waste water seeping through the ceilings

most of light of the lower levels comes from streetlights, neon signs and Boreas' own systems once deep enough

cameras and such security systems litter all the streets and every public room- and the private homes are still accessable by overseers- and All of that feeds directly into Boreas' memory cache

this omnipresence is why Boreas later suffers with the fuckin

nobody is as unhappy with Boreas' omnipresence as Boreas himself. no wonder he's always ticked off, imagine being a witness to All of New York's road rage 24/7

[princess-of-purple-prose]

want to talk some about your IDing process? do you do IDs consistently, or in chunks? also, how do you save posts you plan to describe later? i’m impressed by your work ethic so i’d love to hear how u do it so well and so much! :)

🥺🥺 Omg hi Nora!! This is so sweet!!! I don't wanna pass myself off as an expert, but I do definitely have a system that works for me, which I also talk about a little in this post!

I save posts to describe later to drafts, and my golden and most important rule is to NEVER exceed more than ten undescribed posts, because I used to regularly get up to like 60 in my first year of doing IDs and I was absolutely miserable about it </3 I literally cannot express how much this is the major reason I can be so prolific-- seeing the drafts counter up to like 8 is usually my reminder to start doing descriptions rather than continuing to scroll and fill my drafts, and it keeps me from feeling bogged down or overwhelmed! However, my cheat to this is that if I absolutely must save some extra art or whatever, I put the "overflow" in the drafts of a sideblog I use less frequently so I can clear out those as I please

I really like the "consistently vs in chunks" question, because I actually think it's both? I'm generally on mobile, so the trick has been learning how to gauge what posts I can ID as I scroll!! For example, I exclusively do text transcripts on my phone with onlineocr.net, but I've also worked out the level of complexity of art I can mentally tackle while typing on my phone. That means I'm free to save longer/more involved posts and art (like long comics or videos) to drafts until I have time to get on my computer and do a lot of IDs in one sitting!

This also means weighing the kinds of posts I'm willing to put in drafts, since as I said, I'm pretty strict about how many I save. I do a lot of comic IDs, so for those, I consider factors like whether I can use onlineocr to transcribe the text or if I'll have to type it by hand and how complex the composition is (aka, can I transcribe the panels straight to prose or is there more complicated stuff going on that I'd have to figure out how to express?). Generally, I'm more willing to save posts for whatever I'm currently hyperfixating on, since it takes less emotional energy on account of being extra fun to do and consisting of stuff I'm already putting a lot of on my blog! Sometimes I get ambitious and try to save posts for stuff I'm not as into, and they start to rot in drafts as they seem more and more taxing to do, so learning to judge that honestly can help a lot for productivity, at least for me :)

I hope this makes sense and is helpful!!! I always hesitate to label myself as some kind of authority on IDs, but I'm pretty confident about the volume that I do, so I really hope this helps you and anyone else who might need it!!!! Once again, you're so sweet, I hope you're having a great day!!! 💜💜💜

Tl;dr: to write as many IDs I do, I limit the amount of drafts I save, designate descriptions to either be done on mobile or pc, and take interest levels into account when I save posts :)

[cizzle-freezy]

If your OC story had it's own fandom etc which of your characters do you think would be the most popular and why? And who would be the least popular?

Given what I've noticed from friends both new and old: Out of the RP cast, it's definitely my deities that are most popular, especially Gelum. I've tried for years to also shift focus to other OCs but it doesn't seem to stick and my personal hyperfocuses on story arcs do NOT help. XD

Though in the past, Ten and Crystal used to be pretty popular among friends. I can see them being focused on too.

As for least, out of the RP cast... Absolutely no clue?? I mean, I personally find Nick/Alexander unappealing but mostly because after his initial arc I found using him boring (i know i never mentioned him before, but that's because I genuinely struggle to use him). Going off of vibes I also feel like some people might not like Cymek but he's part of a rp story that's also been neglected a bit? Maybe Ryvin because ideally I wanted to write him as a Villain Who Is Just An Irredeemable Villain And A Terrible Father. WAIT SHIT, as I type this, I remember Kori! The one Deity of mine that my friends very visibly wanna deck in the face (affectionate)!

Breathing Color specifically? I feel like it might be either Alex for the Anti-Hero Angst, or Violet because she is smol sweet bean with some trauma. I've had some people gravitate towards Derrick too.

I feel like not many would like Heather early on. She DOES start out as the generic mean girl but at least gets better, but not sure if I should count her because she's early arc and not really reoccurring. Tho I think the Early Arc Characters do have a lot of room for headcanoning so idk?? I do also think Alex could theoretically fall under this category depending on how I write him. He was originally kinda creepy but that whole thing is complicated-- Do not get me wrong, I just think it could be executed better.

I do want to give special mention to @loz-the-alternate-relic, aka the comic I help w/ @hikaririnku-blog, @juan-o-clocks, Kobi (who doesn't have tumblr), @jessebizarreart, and Skai_Blu (also no tumblr). It is a fan comic, and there's only so much that's been currently revealed, but Layla def thus far is like, the one I'd think would be pretty popular. But I cannot reveal who I think would be unpopular.... okay I admit this project might be too ambitious for our own good at times lol

I'll admit, it's kinda hard to think of who'd be least popular because I do love most OCs pretty strongly. I can think of many reasons why someone would or wouldn't like an OC??

[charu-talks]

God, I wanted to love this so badly.

As always, Lafebre's art is fantastic. I'm obsessed with the way he draws people eating like they're just stuffing their face like chipmunks. It's adorable. The character designs are amazing. The main character is, as someone on Goodreads described: "the most cunty woman I came across in a while" and that's always a plus in my opinion. The environmental art is sublime. It's a murder mystery. Lafebre's previous work, Always Never is one of my favorite comics. I should love this.

Why don't I?

In my opinion, the story has some issues. Mainly, the main character didn't seem to have much of a motivation to do what she did. I'm guessing this might have been a case of hyperfocus, but that still doesn't really feel right for me. She got herself into much deeper and deeper shit without... you know. Her having to. Characters would just sit around with her and share their deepest feelings with her without her having to pry much. Maybe Lafebre wants to imply this is because she's a psychiatrist so ofcourse people open up. I don't buy it. There's a scene in which the MC approaches the wife of the murdered man. Just a few days ago, that same wife suspected the MC of flirting with her husband and warned her not to fuck her husband. And then a few days later, they meet in a spa, this lady sees the MC in a spa, MC suggest the woman may have killed her husband and afterwards the woman just trauma dumps on the MC. That's not good writing, I'm afraid. And it's not the only one of this scene.

There is just so much more. Stuff that feels rushed, unfocused, overdeveloped. Sometimes, when you read a story, you can feel there were parts of the story taken out. That's a normal process with writing, but I really felt it here. Some scenes felt a bit contrived. The main character is haunted by three women from her family who give her advice on everything, but we don't know a lot about these three. Of the three of them, there's only one the MC shows to have a reasonable connection with and which makes sense that she would hallucinate her. The other two... I don't know. We see some background story of one of the other two, but the last one we only basically get a throwaway line of who she was. I honestly was expecting more background on her. I'm guessing it was cut during storytelling, but then why keep that character?

There are some more things like that, such as the relationship between the MC and her mother. Basically was just thrown out there in a line. It just feels like there was more story going on that Lafebre took out but realized he couldn't really take out so let's just tell, not show. That's good storytelling right?

I can tell this story was crafted with love, but I'm guessing it may have just been a little too ambitious. Which is weird because Always Never was literally a love story in reverse. But I think Always Never's biggest strength was that the MCs there had more going on. It was about two lives that occasionally crossed paths and the love they shared between them. They didn't need more motivation than that. But here... it just feels like it went from one situation to the next. Just a wild, whirlwind of a ride that unfortunately wasn't too fun to be on.

Man. I don't know. I'm just a little disappointed.

[denimbex1986]

'The year isn’t over, and already we have two movies that have topped the $1 billion mark worldwide. One was based off one of the most popular videogames of all time and the other was based off of one of the most popular toys of all time—though neither of those guarantee success at the box office. With a couple of exceptions, the rest of the list is made up of action and superhero sequels and a Disney remake. So props to both Pixar’s Elemental and, especially, to Christopher Nolan’s historical biopic Oppenheimer for adding some originality...

6. Oppenheimer

Domestic Box office: $651 million Director: Christopher Nolan Stars: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., David Krumholtz, Benny Safdie, Josh Hartnett, Florence Pugh, Kenneth Branagh, Rami Malek Genre: Drama Rating: R Paste Review Score: 8.0

Only in theaters

For a visionary director of big-budget, big-studio, big-idea sci-fi/fantasy movies, Christopher Nolan has often seemed, if not exactly at war with himself, somehow prone to both methodically ascending his big, obvious building blocks and attempting to take wilder, more ambitious leaps. The real test of Nolan’s mettle is something like the great-man biopic – not because he’s insufficiently reverent (or dad-ish in his WWII-era interests), but because of the temptation to give himself fully to that innate squareness. Is the guy who evoked terrorism, the surveillance state, and Occupy Wall Street in service of Batman-movie plot points really up for a nuanced exploration of the legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb? Yes and no. Nolan’s Oppenheimer isn’t so much a great-man biopic as a great-man-but-maybe-not biopic, and at times, the writer-director seems hell-bent on channeling the instinctive, ethereal ambivalence of a Terrence Malick trip. It’s a fascinating spectacle in large part because Nolan isn’t especially Malickian at all (though at least that frame of reference might temporarily ease the overworked, underbaked Kubrick comparisons). Throughout the film, especially as it builds during its first hour, theoretical physicist Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is beset by cutaway visions of stars, waves, and eventually all-consuming fire, fragments of zoomed-in science, blown up to eye-dazzling, seat-rattling IMAX scale. Half the movie feels like a montage and three-quarters of it feels like a thriller; the clandestine elements of the Manhattan Project and the talk of Soviet spies give the movie a feeling of buttoned-up espionage. A showcase piece, of course, is the first atomic bomb test, where bits of nervous comic relief pop up until the blast drops out Nolan’s usually-booming sound mix, leaving only the sound of breathing for a minute or two. It’s an awe-inspiring and discomfiting climax that hurtles Oppenheimer out of his preferred theoretical realm and into a void of reality. As much peripheral stargazing as the movie offers, it’s more interested in wrapping its mind around a 20th century horror that is, for many Americans, both abstract and intensely nightmarish. There is a clenched, impacted sadness to this semi-opaque figure who spearheads the creation of a bomb whose purpose is all too scrutable in the broader historical view. It might seem reductive to relate Oppenheimer’s merging of theoretical physics and practical project management to the way Nolan balances indelible images with practicality, creating an unlikely workmanlike poetry. It does explain, though, where some of that poetry comes from, and why even some of the movie’s more obvious points are able to shake up the audience, not just the premium-large-format multiplex seats. Nolan-via-Oppenheimer offers an explanation for this early in the movie, talking about his chosen field: “It’s paradoxical, and yet it works”—Jesse Hassenger...'

[bichobolitach]

I have the theory that the loss of interest on FENCE as a story for Pacat is not so much rooted on the brand but on the form, that is, the comic format. I think it might have started because, to begin with, I believe Pacat had spoken about not really knowing if Fence would be allowed to continue past it first initial twelve issues- he hoped it would, but it all depended on the success of the series. So that’s already one point against it: FENCE had, at least at the beginning (and probably still does) the impending doom of being cancelled before its time.

Another thing I can chip in, as a comic artist and writer, is that writing a comic is quite different from writing a novel- and, although the graphics are always fun, the comic format can actually be restrictive to someone who is used to novel writing. For you see, comics are insanely time consuming, and you cannot advance a novel lenght plot in the same amount of time with a comic book. American comics, in the industry, and historically, are brief stories: told in one, three, six, or twelve issues. Because, at the quality it demands, a twelve issue comic is a year’s work, with 22 pages per issue, one per month. And this is a rather recent phenomenom, for in their golden age comics of Marvel, for example, were single-issued stories or they’d run across two or three, at most. The amount of story and complexity you can flesh out in a year or two worth of work in a novel- say. A standard 300ish pages book- is not the same as you can accomplish in twelve issues of a comic.

I’m not sure if Pacat has written a comic before- but the way the story profiled itself in it’s first twelve issues, and then how haphazardously it seemed to suddenly skip plot points or character development- it feels like Pacat had quite the ambitious project in the beginning (Probably something up to par with the complex development of his novels), and then ran into the wall of the comic book fashion- he can either try and get his complexity, risking FENCE never seeing itself finished, or he can scramble to find away to rush things along to see FENCE completed in less time, sacrificing a lot of this depth in the way.

Idk, if you asked me when I first read the comic, FENCE was shaping itself to be quite long. With Nick and Seiji having to learn to cohexist, and Jesse setting himself up to some sort of final boss- I figured there’d be a set of arcs where King’s Row would face one after another different schools and finally make their way through Nationals to climax in a final boss battle Kings Row/Exton, while Nick and Seiji slowly learnt not only to tolerate but grew to like each other, and perhaps all the other hinted romance subplots to be resolved first, as well as Seiji learning to trust his team and befriend them properly. I haven’t read the newest issues of FENCE, but I see Jesse is already here himself, and Nick and Seiji’s relationship seems to have advanced leaps and bounds overnight- which is odd, yknow? Which is what gives me the feeling that Pacat might rather hurry FENCE along and see it finished rather sooner than later.

There is also the chance that Pacat did not have anything past the first twelve issues firmly written, with the uncertainity if FENCE would take off at all, and once he secured more issues to be published, he had been away from the comic long enough- and with two novels in the middle- to have forgotten where the characters themselves stood when he left them, and just took some character development for granted.

Anyway. I think it is very possible that the falling off of FENCE has all to do with the disillusion of comic writing for someone who is seasoned on novel writing. Comic writing is much quicker and sparse- you do not work on a comic script of a single issue for an entire month- for your artist needs most of that month, so you have to deliver it quickly. Comic writers keep themselves busy- they write multiple scripts at a time (Stan Lee has been known to churn out an issue in a day). The kind of complex storytelling that can be more quickly achieved in a novel is not impossible in comics- but it takes years upon years, and FENCE doesn’t even have regular monthly issues or anything of the sort. But obvs this is all speculation and I just like talking

does pacat rlly not care about fence anymore 😭 i feel like it’s much better than dark rise and could be better than captive prince too…it’s been a year since i last consumed anything fence-related and i really don’t understand what’s going on with the series?? but anyways i like ur fics a lot & agree with ur reviews of srb’s novels, which also could have had so much potential but ended up kind of sucking in a lot of ways.

Pacat is a mystery to me. Personally, I believe Dark Rise is his best work--it shows much better pacing than Captive Prince and gets the same impact and feel without going to such extreme and explicit horrors, which shows a lot of skill (I know CP is his most beloved series but he's improved a lot since writing it haha). What gets me is that Fence STARTED really strong and I counted it as his best work for sure. There were fun tropes and dynamics, interesting characters with a central relationship promising contention, fighting, and tension, and some fun elements in the mystery of Jesse and potential in the reveal of Nick's lineage. And you could tell there was passion in the project...but even by the later issues of the original 12-issue run, Pacat's social media reflected a large disinterest in Fence, and that disinterest has shown in the story as Fence continues to progress.

I try to logic and rationalize and analyze everything Fence related and literally every time I do I get met with 'it's not that deep' from the actual canon lmfao but I'm going to offer my rationalization anyway lmao the only reason I can think to justify Pacat's lack of interaction with Fence on Twitter besides not caring about it much is that it doesn't fit his brand. Which is only defined by two other series, but it's very much a high fantasy/historical fantasy dark romance with stomach-churning undertones and much darker themes than Fence. So I gave him that excuse for a long time. Fence doesn't fit within that brand at all, so from a marketing standpoint, it makes some amount of sense to focus more on the other franchises. However, I think this strategic thinking is giving too much credit--Fence has always had really shit marketing so either Pacat has no mind for marketing or he doesn't care to market Fence, which both get us back to the only real reason being he just doesn't care about it as much as his other things.

Do I expect Pacat to be hanging out in the Twitter FENCEtag? No. But I do think it's strange that he'll post tweets saying happy birthday to other people's books the day they come out, but literally didn't ever make a Fence Redemption announcement or say anything on the release day. The most he's done is retweet a couple things from BOOM! and 2 other outside sources. And this is regular behavior--he didn't do announcements for RIVALS or RISE either and didn't promote them at all. Yet Dark Rise gets announcements all the way along--title announcement, release date announcement, cover reveal, etc etc etc. He also posts and retweets fanart for his other 2 books really regularly, yet he didn't even retweet all of Jo's (the co-creator and illustrator of Fence) pieces for the Fence event Jo hosted in April, let alone bother with much fanart of it. There's just no reason for the vast gap in involvement and enthusiasm other than him very strongly preferring his other projects and not bothering with the effort of interacting with Fence. He'll occasionally ask culture questions (like if Americans say 'coz' for cousin or how to say something in French) but that's legitimately the best argument there is for his interest or care in the project.

And lastly, his lack of interest shows in the story. He handed his story off to someone else to write novels for and simply let her go wild without regard for how it impacted the comics or the fans. Further, Pacat lost track of his own story and characters between Volume 3 & 4 in a way that I cannot excuse as anything other than inconsistent characterization. And I know I'm biased there, but I make so many people in real life read Fence that I don't jabber at about it/pull into the fandom (so they have no knowledge of my takes), and all of them have commented on the 180 the characters made between the volumes. And, listen, if I wouldn't accept that kind of inconsistency in characterization when grading my 12-year-olds' narrative writing projects, why am I still sitting here trying to excuse the lazy/poor writing in a published and successful author? The pacing is also telling--a lot of conflict was skipped over 'off screen' between the volumes (which, say it with me folks, is lazy writing). Nick's resentment toward Seiji turned into full admiration sans any ill feelings or acknowledgment that even if he IS hot shit, he was still a major asshole in his initial conception, and Seiji apparently agreed to drop his thing about Jesse (you know, the thing that had them in a fist fight approximately 40 pages of comic before). There was no build-up to their relationship or resolution of the conflict that made it unhealthy (expect to have Nick 'admit' Seiji was right to treat him like shit...) These things push the story along a lot faster; rivals to lovers moves really fast if you skip all the tedious development of the characters getting to know, respect, tolerate, and then like each other. Pacat loves rivals/enemies to lovers and (to be blunt) mean/cold bottoms, so it is so fucking bizarre to me that he'd speedrun the relationship and change the characterization so much when it's directly moving away from his preferences (see: Captive Prince, Dark Rise). I don’t know how it happened from anything other than sheer laziness or from not caring about Fence so deeply that he let SRB overwrite the characters and romance he'd originally created.

Last, there are just SO many inconsistencies and copyedit-level mistakes. And I get it that typos happen, but it happens so much that it's like,,, are you even rereading the scripts before you throw them at your publisher? And the continuity errors are massive at this point. Seiji's year in France, which was apparently the result of his loss to Jesse, is only possible if time travel exists and also timelines exist simultaneously. How do you fuck up so big when constructing a story you care about? At least by the time it gets published, you should be sure it's READY to be published. It's like he's writing issue-by-issue as he goes with no plan and can't be bothered to skim through the previous issues to check for things.

I just can't come up with a reality where Pacat actually loves Fence when this is all the care he gives it. We are so so so lucky to have Jo--she is literally the most amazing and gives so much love and care to Fence, and it shows...I just wish Pacat's writing didn't affect her contribution to the comic too. But she at least loves Fence even if Pacat doesn't seem to tell her all that much more than he tells the rest of us LMFAO

This turned into a WHOLE messy essay, I just have a lot of thoughts and they've been brewing for years so sorry to go off on my mad ravings and thanks for tuning in XD and also!!! I'm so happy you like my fics TT.TT <33 and also that you see my point about the novels uwu

[nihoniums-oc-emporium]

Alternian Troubles Part 2

Introducing : Pastex ! A jade blooded troll who really was a life saviour on that one...

Part 1 : here

[myonmukyuu]

A setting where Ayumu is in love with Yu, and Setsuna cheers her on.

END

Previous | Series Masterpost 

If you enjoyed this, please consider supporting me with a Ko-fi!

***

AFTERWORD

***

I can’t believe I made it there... the last chapter...! (Excluding the epilogue.) But yes, I’m so happy to be done! 29 pages is a lot!! My back hurts and I wanna go lie down now...

To think it took almost 2 years to get to this point. How nostalgic... The first chapter only had 5 pages too. I guess I became more ambitious as time went on?

Firstly I’d like to apologise for the 4 month wait. The comic went through a lot of revision. New pages, deleted pages, changed scripts - it was a bit chaotic and had the most revision of any other chapter. I hope it turned out alright!

I love love looooovved colouring this comic by the way. Sorry about the lighting. I’m pretty sure you need sunglasses to read it with how brightly Ayumu is shining. I really loved the atmosphere in this. Especially having the sun set over the course of the comic! I guess this entire series is setting too...

For those with sharp eyes, this comic also had numerous references to previous chapters! While drawing these panels I couldn’t help but notice how my art has changed so much since then... It’s a good sign of improvement. I’ve also planted a couple of seiyuu/anime references. Even used a sun-chart to determine the light direction in the scene. 

Now, story-wise I hope these was a satisfying ending! If not, then I apologise for botching the landing. I feel like this was the only way for my story to end. It may have been 4 months since the last chapter, but it’s only been a single night for Ayumu. Poor girl has been through a lot. It’s a bit of an open ending, but I felt that it had to be that way if I wanted to respect Ayumu’s feelings.

I also get the feeling a lot of people expected me to inflict more emotional damage onto our girls. No faith! I think this chapter has been the most wholesome update since the 2nd chapter. No pain! Just happiness and relief! No strings attached. Ayumu’s heart is sore, but she seems resolute in figuring things out at her own pace. Setsuna probably would be more heartbroken if she had held the expectation that Ayumu might return her feelings. But she was a bit more preoccupied with whether Ayumu would even be her friend. So she’s pretty happy with this outcome.

It was pretty funny writing this because while Ayumu’s feelings were relatively stable, Setsuna’s seemed to bounce back and forth wildly.  The contrast was fun!

I think I can talk a lot about the characterisation and writing choices now that the story is over! But maybe there’s a time and place for that and that isn’t in this afterword. I will say that Ayumu and Setsuna are easily my favourite NijiGaku characters and even though this series is ending, I have so much more planned for them!

I almost want to apologise because I get the feeling some readers are waiting for me to draw other characters/pairs but I’m like “nope I only breathe setsupomu sorry check back later”.

I have a lot of sentimental thoughts, but I think I’ll save that for when I release the epilogue - that’s when it’s truly over. I can’t slow down yet. I have a big announcement after the epilogue is complete so please look forward to it!

It’s been really hard work getting all the way here. It’s exhausting but very fulfilling. When I was finishing this comic, I felt a rather strange feeling. Not a bad one. I felt that this comic could be a lot better. Maybe even the whole story. Drawn better, written better. Okay, it sounds bad when I put it like that, but tat feeling was - despite how much I think it can be improved, this story was something only I could make, and that’s special. To me at least.

...I could really do with some time off though.

Anyways, I’ve typed enough! I hope you enjoyed my story.

Let’s keep working till we blast past the finish line.

***

DELETED SCENE

***

The following pages were deleted. These were originally meant to be between pg 1 and 2, but I ended up removing them. These are very rough and haven’t been edited at all, but here they are anyways if anyone was curious:

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really THAT Bad?

This… This is where it all began.

Sean Connery wanted to finally make a great film again after constantly passing on big franchise opportunities. Alan Moore was actually somewhat enthusiastic about seeing an adaptation of his comic. The dominoes were in place and set to fall on a major success as one of the most ambitious crossovers ever written made its way to scree

But unfortunately, there were far too many problems. Connery refused to play an addict and so they changed Quatermain into a straight hero and the team leader. Tom Sawyer was added in because the studio thought people wouldn’t care about the movie if there wasn’t an American in it. Connery butted heads with the director on set. A legal issue involving an unproduced script led Alan Moore to become bitter when things were settled out of court, as he didn’t get to defend himself. It seemed like absolutely nothing could go right with this film, and then it was released.

The movie was savaged by critics, bombed domestically, and devastated several careers. Connery was left miserable in regards to filmmaking thanks to this, and so retired from acting save for some voice work. The director Stephen Norrington had such a bad experience that he vowed to never make another film. Peta Wilson and Stuart Townsend both had their careers torched by this, and Shane West ended up having to stick to TV roles after this. Most tragic of all, however, is how Alan Moore came to utterly despise this film, leading to him demand his name be left off of all future adaptations of his work and beginning a long trend of him hating literally every Hollywood movie based on his creations, regardless of quality.

This film is an utter nuclear disaster of cinema based on how it ruined so many careers and crushed the hopes of its creators, so clearly the critics must be right on the money and this league of gentlemen is not so extraordinary… right? With 19 years and several other Alan Moore adaptations behind us, I’ve decided to look back and see if this notorious film is really that bad after all. Alan Moore definitely thinks so.

The Good

I think what really carries this movie is the performances. Nearly every actor is giving it their all here, though there are some standouts. Jason Flemyng as both Jekyll and Hyde, Naseeruddin Shah as Nemo, and and Tony Curran as this film’s take on the Invisible Man are the standouts here. The latter in particular is very interesting; due to Universal having the film rights for the Invisible Man, they had to make up a new version… which is for the best, since in the comics the Invisible Man on the team is a rapist, a traitor, and an utter bastard. Rodney Skinner, the version here, is much more of a playful rogue and a rascal, and it’s easy to see why he became a fan favorite. It’s definitely one of the few points of improvement over the comic.

Speaking of which, the decision to turn Mina into a vampire might seem corny to some, but I think it rules. Mina in the comics was very much the badass normal and the leader of the team, but that was about it  for her aside from her gross romance arc with Quatermain. Here, she gets to be a badass, and has quite a few cool fight scenes under her belt by the film’s end. It’s a bit of creative liberty with not only the source material but the comic as well, but it’s not like Moore didn’t take creative liberties for the sake of the story he was telling (for better and for worse).

My favorite addition by far is Stuart Townsend’s Dorian Gray. Even as a kid, who knew nothing about Dorian Gray and was very much not aware of his own sexuality, I thought Dorian was hot. He also is functionally immortal and unstoppable, which is awesome as well, making him something of a very sexy Wolverine. Parts of his motivation are very stupid (more on that later), but I think he’s a pretty fun token evil teammate. He’s definitely preferable to the Invisible Man of the comics, that’s for sure.

Aside from that, there’s a lot of fun action scenes, especially towards the end of the movie where they just go whole hog with everything. We have a Hyde versus Diet Hyde fight, we have Mina fighting Dorian, we just have a lot of crazy stuff. It’s just a lot of dumb fun.

The Bad

Much like the comics it’s adapted from, this movie does suffer from some problems that could definitely hinder how enjoyable one might find it.

Probably the bigger ones are the fact characters spend less time showing and more time telling, as they stand about in their fancy costumes and announce obvious things. It doesn’t help either that aside from that, the plot is a lot more convoluted than ever before and riddled with confusing twists and plot holes. For instance, the big reveal that the Fantom is actually M, who is actually Professor Moriarty… what, exactly, does this add to the story? Nothing is the answer. Nothing is added by Moriarty being the bad guy except, well, he was the bad guy in the comics! Gotta keep him in!

It’s even weirder when it comes to Dorian. His whole deal is that Moriarty has stolen his portrait, and if Dorian ever looks at his portrait he will die. So it would make far more sense for him to not want to help Moriarty since the guy is doing him a solid by keeping that damn portrait far away, right? Nope, he’s trying to get it back because… who knows.

I think the bigger issue here is that Quatermain supplants Mina as the main hero. In the comics, Quatermain starts out as a useless, washed up opium addict who slowly undergoes character development to become the badass he should be (and then he is unceremoniously killed by lightning shot out of Harry Potter’s penis). In the movie, he’s badass from the word go, and we all know it’s because it’s Sean Connery playing him. There’s no way you’re going to pay the bill for Connery to be in your film and then not have him be front and center. But this isnot even Connery at his best, as it’s pretty clear that he’s kind of phoning things in (though not nearly as badly as he did with Diamonds Are Forever). Worst of all, though,is that this comes at the expense of Mina becoming marginalized, and this is after you give her sick vampire powers! Mina has been made exponentially cooler and you still sideline her for Sean Connery and his bland white American foster son! What the hell!

And yes, Sawyer is bland and boring. They don’t really do much interesting with the fact he’s Tom Sawyer. In fact, outside a deleted scene, it’s not even mentioned and you’d have to really guess who he’s supposed to be. This, I think, is the reason this doesn’t quite work as a film quite as well as a comic, by the way; film rights and literary rights are two entirely different things. The entire conceit of the franchise is that you’re watching Alan Moore flex his literary knowledge and see how many references can be crammed into a single comic panel, something that just can’t work in a fast-paced action movie. Sure, there’s some references here and there, but it’s not nearly as dense as the comics. You’re not getting cameos from Thomas the Tank Engine or Pollyanna here, that’s for sure, and it’s a shame because that’s the fun of League.

Oh, and to top it all off, the CGI is kinda ass. I swear this is not a screencap from a Resident Evil game, this is just how this dude looks in the movie.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

Honestly? Nah.

Now let me be clear, this isn’t a good movie. It has a hell of a lot of flaws, flaws that keep it from reaching its full potential and keep it from being as good as the comic it’s adapting. But I always recall how I saw someone say they saw this film as part of a loose trilogy with Van Helsing and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, the thematic tie of the films being action-packed CGI spectacles of the early 2000s, and I feel a bit more lenient. This is definitely the weakest of the three films, but I don’t know, I still think there’s merit in it even if it never quite reaches the highs of its comic counterpart.

I’d say this is sort of the Venom of its time, a fun, stupid action movie with tons of actors giving it their all for an almost non-existent plot. I’d say it’s just about where it belongs on IMDB, though I’d round it up to a 6. It’s the perfect thing to just put on if you want some mindless fun or just a bit of background noise while you do something else, and there’s plenty of place in the world for films like that. It’s definitely not so bad that I feel like it should have tanked a half dozen careers and I definitely don’t think it’s so bad that it should have soured Moore’s opinion on Hollywood (and Sean Connery, if his unflattering depictions of Connery’s Bond in later volumes are anything to go by).

The worst thing that can be said about it is that it does very little with the great concept of the comic it’s adapting… But hey, no matter how bad this is, it’s still infinitely better than whatever the hell was going on in Centuries!

[obsidianstrawberrymilk]

The interesting thing about Allison Hargreeves

Y’know, despite how I often see Allison characterized in kidfics, as a favorite daddy’s girl, from what we see in the show, that’s not actually accurate.

Now, I haven’t read the comics, so I’m just going off the show here, but the scenes we do see of Allison’s childhood are: she snaps at Reginald for always being too busy to tell them goodnight, she snaps at him at Ben’s funeral when he blames them for his death, she sneaks out with Luther to the attic. In all instances, she’s rebelling, and in the first two, it’s blatant, and she’s met with derision. I’m willing to excuse the last because Luther did it as well, but actually- let’s talk about that.

We all know how loyal Luther was as a kid to his dad. As the “hero/golden child”, Reginald had a control over him that never really slipped, and it meant that, in comparison to say, Klaus, he was way less likely to rebel. Yet here we see him doing something obviously against the rules just for pleasure. Ofc a part of it is just that they’re repressed teenagers who needed SOME outlet, but do you think Luther was the one who thought of that? Nope.

So: we see two instances where Allison contradicts or criticizes her father and is met with derision in their childhood, and a scene where she convinces her most loyal brother to disobey their father, and they are both punished. Allison doesn’t rumor her way out of any of them - including, as far as we know, punishment.

The only actual evidence we have that she’s a daddy’s girl is because Diego says so, and well, it’s Diego - how else are you supposed to be broody and dramatic and misunderstood unless the rest of your family just Could Not Understand your rebellion? Plus, we know that him and Allison have a complicated dynamic - he doesn’t seem to outright dislike her as he does Luther or Vanya at the start of the series, but they’re both clearly used to insulting each other back and forth and there was probably some degree of antagonism in their childhood - they’re too similar for their to not have been. So I don’t know how much stock we put in that.

Outside from that, most of the evidence we have seems to point to Allison as being a pretty rebellious kid. She actively criticizes their childhood, seems to be close to Klaus, a ‘disappointment’ child, and as we see in S2, is actively against injustice. Sure, this could be a recent development, but I doubt it was a totally new thing. Unlike Luther, she’s not loyal to Reginald - she’s ambitious and smart and ruthless, and she doesn’t get herself into a situation that’s so bad she can’t get out of like Five, so Reginald still has to worry about her, because she hasn’t stopped herself from being a threat like Klaus effectively has.

So, I actually think she was one of the most rebellious of the Umbrellas as a kid. Evidence seems to point to show!Vanya being less rebellious than her comic book counterpart in childhood, so probably more than her. The reason we might not see it as much is because Allison was smart - when she needed to so something, she didn’t get caught. And I can bet the second she turned 18 and was legally emancipated, she was on a plane to Hollywood.

But where does this leave her relationship with her father? Well, truthfully, I don’t know. We know at least some information about all the sibling’s relationships with Reginald - Luther was the golden child and Diego the scapegoat, Vanya was the neglected lost child and Klaus was the locked-up comedian. We see him exhibit some care for all of them but Klaus and Diego - he seems to at least respect Five somewhat in S2, expresses concern for Luther in the barbershop with Klaus (I’d also like to note the way Klaus flinches and visibly calms himself when Reginald grabs his face here - it seems like an indication Reginald actually did directly physically abuse his kids sometimes), and gives Vanya Grace’s violin (I think it’s Grace’s?). He gives Ben a statue but idk how much of that is care and how much is just him gaslighting his kids. The ones he seemed to outright dislike where Klaus and Diego.

As for Five, Ben, and Allison, we know very little about their relationship with Reginald. As I said before, I think Five did respect him, even before he time travelled - though his regrets about that definitely played a role in how he saw his father, the way he talked in the running away scene does kind of confirm this for me. He seems to be acting in a bit of a ‘look at me’ way - he’s overly dramatic, stabbing a knife into the chair, makes sure he’s in an environment where he will be the center of his father’s attention, and breaks multiple rules, which we know Reginald dislikes. He’s warring for his father’s attention by disobeying him.

This makes me think of the other ways Five acts - ex: “I don’t think I’m better than you, Number One, I know I am.” What’s interesting about this is not only how childish it is, but the way he reverts back to their childhood numbers, almost. I think that Reginald must have nurtured a weird superiority complex in Five - that while he may have been a lower number he was still smarter, stronger, faster than his siblings, and he had to be better than the. This was how he kept control over someone so obviously rebellious and curious - he made him reliant on his respect as well as approval, made he himself constantly push and exhaust himself. I’m sure he meant to be more controlling - I doubt he expected Five to attempt time travelling even after he said not to, for example, but still.

So how does this relate to Allison? Well, I think Allison’s relationship with Reginald was actually similar to this. Allison, like Five, is intelligent, resourceful, ambitious, curious, and has a power hard for Reginald to control. He can’t break her with disappointment, can’t lock her up, can’t keep her loyal - so how does he control her? He makes her think she’s better. She’s Number Three, sure, but while her brother’s worry about their silly rivalry, she’s the smart one. She’s better than them - she has to be better than them, has to be better than just loyalty, because unlike for Luther, more is expected from her.

Both Five and Allison actively try and get Reginald’s attention by disobeying him, and they both seem more tied to their abilities than any of the others, even Klaus, do. I can imagine that, for both of them, Reginald could not just brainwash them into loyalty and call it a day - so instead, he deprived them of just enough attention so they’d feel the need to get it, put them on a pedestal so they would feel the need to earn respect, be better than loyalty. For Five, it backfired, but for Allison, it kept from just controlling her father to do whatever she wanted, as we see in the scene when they’re younger with Luther.

So Diego isn’t totally wrong about her being a ‘daddy’s girl’ either, but he’s not right - the favoritism I don’t doubt Five and Allison both got shown was almost Reginald telling them to earn his approval, to impress him- and he made them think they were the only ones good enough to do so. It’s how he kept arguably his two most dangerous members under control, even if it backfired for one.

The more I watch the show, the more interaction I want between Allison and Five. They’re both so similar, and honestly, after writing this, I could see them having a bit of a childhood rivalry - not as blatant as Luther and Diego, they were ‘above’ that after all, but maybe something more subtle. At least until Five ran away.