#it’s more fun to write him like that imo

[anaxietyyy]

I couldn't agree more! I do agree he is a very handsome young man obviously, anyone with working eyes can agree on that. He also very much is very aware that people find him quite handsome obviously, he most likely has that self confidence naturally but partly because people treat him so differently in a good way because he looks attractive and charming. But, that doesn't mean people should exploit this situation and what happened by writing and drawing these things, imo it's making a joke out of everything and reducing him to a piece of meat and reducing the situation to something not that serious; while it very much is of course! Keep your horniness under control for like five seconds please and stop with the inappropriate actions! I know that people have freedom of speech, and that should totally be protected and respected because freedom is very, very important obviously!! But, this is just madness and madly disrespectful if you ask me! I'm sure everyone else also feels deeply sad about what took place on that day. I still don't know what to think of it, I just feel very sad because of his action and that he decided to throw his life away at such a young age, at the height of what must have been the most beautiful years of his life, his prime years. He could have been a lovely boyfriend, possibly husband and possibly a father if he wanted to some lucky lady or whatever he wanted to be or do next in his life. I just feel that I still don't know enough to share my opinion on the fact, I want to know and learn each and every fact first before I finalize my opinion and even dare to share it online for everyone to see. I obviously do not condone murder, I really hate people who hurt others. But, I could see in some way why he snapped, kinda. I'm totally not justifying his actions, I'm not behind it, but I'm trying to see the situation from everyone's perspective and thus I'm trying to step into everyone's shoes to see try to see what they were feeling and thinking. His motivations are clear and I believe he wanted to do this to trigger a revolution, most likely. I'm not a 100% sure, but it feels like it. I do not condone murder obviously, again, and I do not see it as a good way to solve problems. I do believe in talking to eachother, sharing viewpoints and debating to try and change eachothers' minds and to get stuff done and make change; but these days, or more likely since forever it seems like change is barely happening or if theres change, it is very often a step back in the wrong direction aka regression in my opinion. I do see that life comes with hardship and pain, and that sometimes it is needed to do things in a not so fun and friendly way to put it lightly; and to sacrifice yourself to fight to make a change. But that doesn't mean murder is the right answer, I really wish the world and society were different and people didn't feel like they should have to resort to these very drastic and seriously extreme, very permanent and horrible actions to try and make a change. I just feel so horrible for everyone involved in this situation.

Real person fanfiction is already questionable but if you’re writing reader x fanfic about Luigi Mangione, I do think something is wrong with you.

This is a real man who is facing something terrifying, not some doll for people to play out their sexual fantasies with.

[whatevermakesyoubreak]

so i was watching hell’s paradise & i realized that these two are lowkey lira and illumi in a parallel universe, holy shit. like… the way senta loves and admires yuzuriha bc of her sense of freedom & admires her vivacious and carefree ways & the fact that she doesn’t lie to herself, takes no shame in her bloody, deception riddled career, and openly admits her selfishness. all while he’s doing the exact fucking opposite and forcing himself into a mold he doesn’t really fit in order to meet clan/family obligations?? ahhhh. it’s foreign, but also fascinating and admirable to him, his hands are just as soaked in blood as hers (well, kinda) but while the two women can manage to keep their smiles and their senses of selves despite the gruesome horrors they’re faced with, the men are cowardly at first glance and hidden behind layers and layers of masks (senta), or detached and disassociated from his emotions, but brutally efficient (illumi), both slowly but surely forgetting what it feels like to be human, let alone themselves, and they’re reminding the two men how to essentially live with themselves. not in an, “i can fix him!!” way, but LITERALLY by being their unfiltered and playful selves (even though these badass ladies both have real darkness underneath, but that’s besides the point) around them, and influencing them by literal proximity, essentially. but anyway, like— senta literally loves and admires yuzuriha to the point of envy due to her being everything he’s always needed to be??

THAT IS LIRA AND ILLUMI HELLOOOO???

(ok not obviously, because i clearly did not write hell’s paradise, but we’re just making fun comparisons here.)

my version of illumi and senta aren’t similar in the least, on the outside that is, but as i said, both have constantly lied to themselves, denied their true natures, and forced themselves into positions that are unnatural. senta had to become an executioner, while illumi quite literally had to gaslight himself into being a perfect assassin, the perfect son, etc. and convince himself that he had zero desires for his entire life, until that was quickly proven wrong in like, chapter 2. lol. my illumi has a sense of humor, genuine emotion, thoughts of his own, and a fucking attitude problem— but, it’s all covered up by a perfect mask of stoicism, the initial, almost reflexive spurning and avoidance of anything which might distract himself from that stoicism, and truly ignite his personal desires, as well as blind devotion to his duties. he split himself open and hollowed himself out long ago, but! he never, ever perfected the process, let alone completed it (i mean seriously, just look at all the zoldyck children, like?? NONE of them are ‘perfect,’ assassins by their OWN standards)— and frankly? i don’t think he wants to (in my story, at least). like— this man felt a whisper of connection/care with an equal/someone on his level that was (somewhat, given lira’s personality) genuine ONE TIME, and proceeded to absolutely FOLD, because he realizes that he is human (actually, the one who truly believes themselves to be an, ‘other,’ ‘subhuman,’ or, ‘inhuman,’ is actually lira, lmaooo narcissism go brrrr), that he does have needs and desires, and ultimately, illumi understands this, but he also knows he will immediately, instinctually reject any potential growth between them if he allows himself to dwell on these feelings, and he doesn’t want that. he wants them to stay just as they are and he is terrified to fuck it up— or, well, as terrified as illumi zoldyck could be, lol. instead, he ignores his feelings, or at least, keeps these thoughts buried deep within himself, constantly calling his relationship with lira a, “business relationship,” “partnership,” or, “companionship,” as opposed to what it actually is (while there is physical attraction there, illumi wants her and her abilities, and lira longs for a family, or just a place to call home— but they’re also acutely aware of this within eachother and they’re okay with it, as a relationship this twisted is genuinely the healthiest option for the two of them). however, despite them fully using each other, there is real connection and love there. illumi has already stated he admires how lira seems to have held on to a semblance of warmth, or something else intangible that he can’t quite put his finger on, despite her career, and yes, he is jealous of her, though he isn’t really aware of it. i believe that my version of him is surprisingly emotionally aware, but he still can’t quite understand that jealousy is the emotion he’s feeling— if that makes sense. especially since it’s not a poisonous, toxic jealousy, but more of, “omg i wish i was you so bad, you’re everything i’ve ever wanted to be, so i’m gonna do the next best thing and stalk u forever because i’m disgustingly obsessed with your entire existence and it’s better to bask in your light even if it makes me uncomfortable, than to ever be without you, bc that’s so much worse, and also have i mentioned that i literally want to cut you open and live inside your skin and become you yet? bc i do,” type shit. idk. i’m just rambling rn. idk if this even makes sense. go read sic infit on ao3 if this shit sounds fun to u. it’s linked in my pinned post.

ok bye. 🧍‍♀️

[turtleblogatlast]

Small but significant character moments that I actually really adore are from both the times we see the boys as tots. There is a reoccurrence that happens in both of them that I find so incredibly interesting.

For the turtle tot short, Splinter leaves the boys with weapons. In the short, Raph is the one who suggests they do “what Lou Jitsu would do” and Leo is the one who takes point when Splinter comes back to reprimand them. Leo, in taking point, is the one to defend them and get Splinter off their tails.

And then, in the flashback regarding the Kuroi Yōroi helmet, Raph is the one who grabs and throws “Skully” as a way to replace their missing ball which breaks it into pieces, but Leo is the one who speaks for the group and rushes into action to fix the teapot.

I love this for multiple reasons, but the biggest are how it shows that Raph has always been inclined toward the bold and fun and making the plans to include his brothers in what he loves and believes they’d love, whereas Leo has always been inclined to be the “Face” of the group and shoulder the attention even if it’s potentially negative all while coming up with on the spot attempts to fix the situation.

[fearandhatred]

i was thinking about this line from my fic:

But the fall had hurt, too. Because the wind had cut into his useless wings like knives, his skin and grace peeling away under the friction, and he had been looking right up at the multicoloured and unreachable expanse of sky just to see it fade from his eyes into dull greys.

and i came up with this. i hope the vision came through

[wickmitz]

I decided to start talking about Wick and Rocky's relationship because I like their dynamics too, I like seeing Wick scared of Rocky and Rocky being aggressive with him, which is unusual because Rocky is rarely aggressive with anyone, but of course Wick is an exception to rule

Also my mini opinion about their possible relationship, I think that if Rocky didn't have to fight for his place, then he and Wick could become friends, or at least tolerate each other a little, I also see some superficial similarities, their gentlemanly and romantic natures, and their common love for explosions (remembering the quarrymen chapter), but this is my assumption, I think that I don't understand the characters' personalities well, so I can be wrong in this assumption, something like that. So, what do you think about their relationship?

for starters, i cannot thank you enough for this ask! as i’ve said previously, i have many thoughts on these two, so it’s nice to finally be able to share some of them. although given the extent to which i think about them, i apologize in advance if this is sloppy and sort of everywhere … while i’ll try to structure things the best i can, i cannot promise i’ll succeed! but hopefully this is an enjoyable reply nonetheless.

one of my favorite things about rocky and wick’s relationship is absolutely how aggressive rocky is towards the aristocrat ; he is prone to glares and cruel jokes and borderline hissing whenever the man is within his line of sight, or can be brought to a wailing-fit over the mere mention of his name from miss m’s mouth. there is a childishness to it, but a very prominent threat as well in spite of rocky’s usual incompetence. so he goes out of his way to posture around wick, readily lying and adorning himself with the gangster drapes he so badly wants to wear, in the hopes that it intimidates … will even badmouth wick’s family and make fun of his name and rock related obsession to mitzi, and so on so forth! yet all of this is very reminiscent of schoolyard bullying rather than anything too severe, though we as the audience understand rather quickly that rocky would bash wick’s head in with a tire iron if he could. ( translation : if it wouldn’t earn the tears or hate of a certain beloved mitzi may ) and it’s all very intense despite the absence of actual violence! and i understand why many fans see this as unusual for rocky and believe that it’s only wick who makes him act so aggressively, but i’d argue it isn’t really wick at all that prompts such scary reactions from him … and that rocky is a deeply angry character who’s a.) been boiling quietly for a long, long time and b.) has turned wick into a punching bag of sorts for this inner world of resentment and hurt. basically, when he’s judging the well-to-do or poking fun, his eyes don’t look at wick and actually acknowledge him as sedgewick sable ; instead this is a being, something vague and metaphorical, who threatens to upseat rocky’s permanence in the lackadaisy and steal away his savior, and he’s had a hand in the violinist’s misfortune for a long time.

obviously, rocky doesn’t think wick robbed him of his family twice over and made him homeless, but he is channeling the fear and anguish of those events into his loathing for wick, if that makes sense? it’s easier that way -- to finally have an outlet for everything bleeding inside of you, to be able to bite and claw at something without feeling conflicted or having to take personal accountability for your own mistakes … which is something that i think rocky does struggle with to a degree. he is sort of a finger pointer! his pain has to be worth something, it has to be for someone else ; spending years homeless and losing his last bit of family was for freckle, and the scrambling of his literal brain was for mitzi, and that means he can’t ever be angry with them! well, except that he is, somewhat, but he buries it deep down instead of feeling it. with freckle there is a sense of strain between them -- an air of ‘you owe me’ from rocky to freckle as he uses freckle to appease miss m, and he constantly pokes fun at his cousin too. it’s lighter than his jabs at wick, but there’s a constant pestering, a reminder of how good freckle has it : how he’s got the mom and the house and the job and the girl most notably. i don’t think rocky is intending to come across as mean, and to his credit he hardly does! but it’s rather clear to me that some part of him, some hidden and deeply hurt part, is rather indignant about taking the fall for freckle all those years ago. which he can’t understand, because how could he? he made that choice, he decided to take accountability for something he didn’t do because he loves freckle and knows it’d be so easy to believe this family tragedy was roark’s fault ; the devilish child he was, all troublesome and too broken to properly fit anywhere. so there is a disconnect born here, where rocky can’t comprehend that he’d be angry at freckle, so instead these not so great feelings are placed elsewhere and silently boil over time. and with mitzi … i don’t think he’s angry at her per se, but there is a frustrated and desperate chorus of : why him and why not me, when i’m the one out here dying for you? which is certainly unpleasant. of course, rather than allowing those feelings to be more aimed at miss m, whom he feels unloved by, he ( again! ) represses these emotions and allows them to fester into his greatest fears and fantastical complexes. i think there is a lot of other miscellaneous anger he could have towards others too … perhaps some part of him is sore upon seeing ivy’s normal lifestyle, watching her go to university and knowing that’s been taken from him. or an ache felt when hearing stories from zib and the band and how they used to travel successfully, living as nomads, and rocky is all too reminded of his similar lifestyle and how he couldn’t make it work as effortlessly. people with immense trauma are more prone to irrational anger and jealousy, to viewing everything around them as unfair and believing it’s even more unjust that so many people get to live comfortably while they’ve suffered. a situation that gets more messy when you’re someone like rocky, a man who’s willingly made choices that have harmed himself and wants to continue on with his smiling, bumbling fool of an act. he does not want to be angry, does not want to see it within himself, i think, which leads to an accidental increase of it.

all of this is to reiterate that wick is a scapegoat for rocky and nothing more. it’s why he’s rather hypocritical whenever it concerns the man. for example, it was stated by tracy that he looks down upon wick for his excessive presence at the bar, yet he appears to enjoy hanging out with zib -- who drinks just as often! he makes fun of how all wick ever talks about is rocks, when he himself is prone to poetry rambles that people find irritating or boring, and etc etc. this is also just a human nature thing, to critique someone you heavily dislike and even going as far as to belittle things you love or do in your own day to day because you just hate them that bad! but given rocky’s willingness to befriend anyone, it more so reeks of a dehumanization element. wick is every obstacle in his way, every divine force that threatens to send him packing again, so he is equal parts unnerved by wick’s presence and angry about it. it is mostly a fear response we are seeing, an emotion that’s morphed into long held resentment and anger. so his actions are extremely defensive, with him trying to push wick far away and keep him and mitzi separate, like some sort of animal attempting to ward off a threat that’s come too close to their home. despite the loaded animosity there, this hate has hardly reached its peak … but it shall only grow more intense as things continue onward i’m afraid, since as it stands ( in the comic at least ) rocky is at an all time low … and is ten times more desperate. i’d honestly say wick has become so warped in his mind’s eye that he can only strive towards ‘winning’ over the other man, because that’s all he can see anymore. i think mitzi implying that wick willingly helped her out, the intense head injury, and rocky’s fragile emotional state is exactly what pushes him towards premeditated murder in look-see. i don’t know how people perceive that arc, but to me it’s very clear that rocky actively sought to see the deaths of wes and fish that night. going as far as to lament that he’d be, “very disappointed if ( he ) dreamed them,” and purposefully luring the marigold duo away to have freckle pick them off. while you could argue that this was a smart move, in a gangster sort of sense, there’s still no denying that rocky is oddly chipper about the whole thing and is now seeking death out ; whereas before his methods of vengeance were just, well, ruining people’s livelihood but ultimately leaving them alive. this isn’t to discredit the fact that rocky is going through something! he is in a very muddled and dark place, mentally and physically, but even tracy has said that the head injury hasn’t changed rocky’s personality -- it’s only brought things to the surface.

source : q&a with tracy .

which, yeah! makes sense! head trauma can cause a person to become a wreck emotionally ( think mood swings, irritability, etc ) but it doesn’t completely morph someone either. personality changes may occur, but it’s not like you’re being rewritten entirely, you know? and given tracy’s old statement, it’s clear that ‘personality changes’ aren’t a side effect he’s suffering from. something that adds to my beginning statement, which is that rocky is a deeply angry and troubled person, more so than fans give him any credit for.

however, to touch upon your mini opinion about these two, i actually wholeheartedly agree that rocky and wick could become friends if circumstances were different. they do in fact have many superficial similarities, but one of the more prominent things they deeply share is never really belonging in the groups they frequent. this is more overt with rocky’s character, yet wick faces it too in subtle ways. the well-to-do crowd, seen through the investors, find the gentleman to be lacking in about every place imaginable ; to them he is an obsessive freak who cares too deeply for meager rocks, something they constantly mock him for, while he’s also being noticeably set apart from the rest of them … he seems younger than the investors, more excitable, passionate, and a little less experienced, and doesn’t seem to care for money or reputation as much as them either. there is a constant rubbing between him and them, where what he enjoys is seen as wrong, such as his love for the lackadaisy and his choice in paramor, a grieving widow with extremely dangerous ties. we also know that wick doesn’t have many friends at all, with the only two he has being lacy and church ( church is listed as such on his character profile, in a sort of tongue-in-cheek way ), both of whom work for or with him. they are obliged to hang around, and while they care in varying ways, they are prone to judging him just as much. honestly, it’s not shocking that wick seeks refuge at his chosen speakeasy! but even there he is rather distant from everyone else. he doesn’t speak to zib ever in the comics, nor seems all too close with viktor, ivy, or horatio … it is merely mitzi he is close to, even if he knows of the other people who work there. and, once again, wick very obviously doesn’t fit in. he is not gangster material, could never be an atlas may replacement, much less someone who could get his paws dirty in such an active way. so he has his feet in two different worlds and doesn’t know how to fit into either of them, or which one he actually wants to fit into more. i think in many ways rocky could relate -- these are two very lonely people who wish to belong somewhere and be accepted by some group or another but go about it in all the wrong ways. wick, who is too hesitant to fully commit to what he wants and is worse off for it, and then rocky, who obsessively throws himself against what he wants until he breaks every bone in his body. they also have explosives to bond over, lol, and other miscellaneous things like their taste in women i suppose … but this potential bond adds to the tragedy of lackadaisy, where we see two people who on every level should get along but we’re burdened with the knowledge that it’s an impossibility anyway, because there’s no removing the circumstance of which they’re in.

though i like to believe that despite wick’s fear of rocky, he maintains a kindness towards him regardless. i think his worries about rocky are rather surface level … he doesn’t know the boy at all, really, and thus can’t make heads or tails of him, hence him believing the lie in balderdash. so when i’m feeling particularly self indulgent, i like imagining a world where they’re forced together and sort of ‘stuck’ together ; to which rocky finally breaks and exposes his wounds to wick, in every sense of the word, and wick finally gets him. the aggression, the possessiveness of mitzi … it is all fear and desperation and a profound sadness, things he’d sympathize with. if rocky was able to explain that he loathes wick because if he saves the lackadaisy then mitzi won’t need him anymore and that it’s not fair that wick gets to so easily fix things when rocky would give his soul for his home, for her, and how wick could render every sacrifice he’s already made for naught by smoothing things over with some greenbacks and he can’t lose this, he just can’t --! … which, well, wick is too kind of a man to be able to do anything except feel awful, even though it’s not his fault at all. here we have two people who could coexist! and they should, since rocky logically can’t do every speakeasy job ( band member, rumrunner, mitzi’s shadow, also the guy who gets the money for the hooch ) by himself, just like how wick can’t save the lackadaisy with only his cash and limited booze stash. it’d be a joint cooperation, a collaboration between them, both equally important in the grand scheme of crime’s every turning wheel … but rocky’s rage and fear won’t let him see that, and likely never will. still, in scenarios where everything ends up alright for the lackadaisy and the people involved in it ( which is not how canon will go, by the way ), i fancy wick and rocky getting better within their relationship. rocky will always be prickly and quick to upset around the other man sadly, but perhaps he could see wick in a softer kind of light. or at least understand vaguely enough that he isn’t out to get rocky, so to speak. and then maybe wick learns that pancakes soothe rocky’s ire and poorly makes them anytime he wishes to talk to the man, and other fun things like that! but you should have more confidence in your character analysis skills, because you were spot on ( at least in my eyes ) about them potentially getting along if things were different. it’s certainly a fun aspect to play around with, and is important to note when discussing their relationship so you can fully understand just how warped rocky’s perspective on things are. and how unstable and traumatized he is too, of course </3 sidenote, but i also hope that throughout everything i’ve said here, or anything i’ve said before on my blog, that my love for rocky and my own sympathy for him comes across well enough. while he’s deeply flawed and i have no qualms discussing said flaws in depth, i also don’t think of him as some insane freak who’s evil at his core or anything like that. honestly, i adore analyzing him so much as a character because of how far down his issues go! he’s very well written, i’ll say, as is wick and many of the other characters, but i digress.

once more, thank you for the ask! i’ll end this here because i fear if i don’t i’ll start going in circles, since their relationship is so vast and very important for rocky in a character sense. hopefully i shed some more light on it though! i love these two to bits and pieces and i wouldn’t be half as invested in lackadaisy if their dynamic wasn’t so monumental -- at least to me.

[alternishicons]

bisexual leo valdez and gay nico di angelo matching icons

artist links

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🐚 / 🐋 / 🐚

🦈 / 🌊 / 🦈

[amelikos]

Friede, Amethio and Zeiyu..

[caterjunes]

truly tho what does devon see in ricken. like. at all.

[lord-squiggletits]

I wish to love and appreciate idw optimus more too. But I also don’t want to read through the entirety of IDW 1.0. Can you please recommend me any specific issues/parts?

My best friend and fellow IDW Optimus lover made a post compiling all the comics with major story beats involving Optimus. Her list has a lot of the same things mine does, but also a lot more specific issues because she actually knows which specific issues of which series you can read specifically for ones focused on IDW Optimus. We don't agree on everything (I love some comics she dislikes and vice versa), but I would recommend her list simply because it's the most well-documented and thorough. Link I also have a lot of far less coherent but still genuine posts about IDW OP on my #idw op love tag.

As for specific parts I would recommend... since you don't want to read through all of IDW1, I'll go ahead and recommend you things based on in-universe chronological order rather than story release order, but if anything here interests you then I would recommend reading IDW1 in release order so that you get a better grasp of the story's context and how new lore was given out over time:

Chaos Theory and Police Action by James Roberts (The Transformers 2009 issues 22-23): I love love LOVE the way JRO writes Optimus talking to Megatron during the present day, it's very IDW-Optimus flavored because of how blunt, abrasive, and snappy Optimus is. There's a part in the comic where Megatron claims that he "knows [Optimus] better than anyone else," and he's right, but it's also true that Optimus knows Megatron well enough to see that he's bullshitting and it's very entertaining watching Optimus slowly lose his patience with him. I love the dialogue especially, no one (canon or fandom) has ever quite written the same IDW OP who's in this set of comics. It's also the most MegOP comic of all time because the sexual tension and the subliminal imagery of them doing BDSM together is unreal, plus it really captures their dynamic of two old soldiers who snap together with chemistry despite (or perhaps because of) being such long-time enemies. They just UNDERSTAND each other so well. Also, as a bonus point, Chaos Theory is where the pre-war lore for IDW1 began being published, so if you read Chaos Theory then the context for future pre-war lore makes a little more sense.

Shadowplay by James Roberts (More Than Meets the Eye issues 10-11): More pre-war lore that picks up where Chaos Theory/Police action left off. Important because it establishes a lot of IDW OP's character relationships, especially with "the Senator," Roller, and to a degree Ratchet and some minor side characters. I don't really know what to say about this besides it's just really fucking fun to read and features IDW OP getting to do cool shit like fight bad guys, investigate conspiracies, and do heists while also establishing one of his key character traits: being disastrously gay for suspicious men that he places entirely too much trust in to tell him what the right thing to do is.

Spotlight: Orion Pax by James Roberts: Okay, I'm really sorry for recommending JRO's stuff because it feels like favoritism and I don't even think JRO does the best version of IDW OP, it's just going in in-universe chronological order means that a lot of JRO stuff ends up first on the list. This one doesn't really have much of consequence in it and is honestly one of the weaker Spotlight issues, but like Shadowplay, it involves Orion Pax doing fun action shit and having way too much trust in a suspicious man (a new one from the suspicious man in Shadowplay).

The Autocracy Trilogy (Autocracy, Monstrosity, Primacy) by Chris Metzen: Oh my fucking god this is THE IDW Optimus to me, this trilogy is literally what made my ears perk up to even start liking IDW OP because it's what took me from "Optimus Prime, that's the guy who's the super awesome leader that everyone likes and is a paragron to everyone, yeah I know him" to "Oh.... holy shit this is such a good plot/worldbuilding, Optimus has so much CONFLICT and DRAMA with other people." It covers one of my favorite periods of the general Transformers formula, namely pre-war and early war plot events as conflicts come to a boiling point, there's political conflicts and personal conflicts, the planet is falling to shit and everyone is trying to escape and things are as depressing and scary as you would expect for a war that's literally about to consume a whole planet. I found the general plotlines to be gripping and intense (Autocracy is the weakest in this regard, but the writing gets better with each book) and I really like seeing how Optimus grapples with leadership. Especially the negative parts where people hate/fear him because of his association with Zeta's regime (the previous Prime, who Orion worked for), call his judgment into question, refuse his calls to action or waver in their faith in him, and so forth. I found it to be a really nuanced yet sympathetic view of IDW Optimus that made me fall in love with him. Because really, the thing that humanizes a character the most is making them flawed, and Autocracy trilogy Optimus is so incredibly flawed and conflicted. And also it shows him being shit on by other characters in a way that's well written in a plot that makes sense and doesn't feel like the entire plot is conspiring to shit all over him.

The Death of Optimus Prime by James Roberts and John Barber: This comic is basically the transition from phase 1 to phase 2, it establishes the branching plotlines of MTMTE and exRID, so this is another one of those comics that will help you understand IDW1 better if you want to read for more than just Optimus. Anyways, DoOP is great because it has a similar vibe to the Autocracy trilogy in that society is chaos and full of people who fucking hate Optimus' guts for the role he played in the war. You can also compare/contrast the way OP was before the war and early in the war versus the way he is after the war and see how much the war changed him (Chaos Theory also kind of is like this but it more shows bitchy Optimus specifically in his dynamic with Megatron). It also features a fair amount of Optimus Heroic Moments, Optimus Brooding, and Optimus being so fucking depressed he's literally sad when he wakes up and realizes he's not dead dude get some fucking therapy please I'm begging you--

Punishment by John Barber: This skips ahead quite a bit in the story but I think stands decently well on its own without having to understand the wider context. It's one of Barber's best-written stories and one of the only ones I've come back to reread for its own sake. It features Optimus trying to solve the murder-mystery of a bunch of Decepticons, featuring really cool plot conflicts like Optimus trying to navigate post-war society and the tensions that still linger from the Autobot-Decepticon war. I really like this one because it has that whole "not everyone loves OP and a lot of people hate him for justified reasons" thing that makes IDW OP a much more 3D character, PLUS it has some politics with the way Decepticons are treated post war. And I think it does really interesting things with Optimus in terms of showing how he DOES have this idealistic, merciful side that wants people to choose peace and letting go of vengeance, but of course it's not so easy to expect that of people after a 4 million year war. So when people inevitably choose violence, Optimus gets frustrated and angry and lashes out in a way that feels very real and understandable. It's a really good example of a comic that shows IDW OP in a nuanced way, showcasing both his virtues and flaws in a complicated situation that shows that there's no easy solution to these problems and no way for Optimus to escape without getting his hands dirty. Unlike future comics which involve OP being in complicated situations but instead the plot is super contrived and seems to overwhelmingly shit on OP without ever mentioning the very obvious ways that he could be defended, creating a story that's conceptually fascinating but incredibly mediocre in execution.

If I had to recommend any single one of these to read, I would recommend the Autocracy trilogy the most because it's literally the story that made me love IDW Optimus and made me realize "whoa, this guy is super nuanced and not what I expected of him." That's not to say that no other Optimi have depth and nuance, but I think the Autocracy trilogy was great for me personally as one of the first IDW1 comics I read. It struck a really good balance between "uh Optimus was part of some bad things that warrant being shit on" and "Optimus is struggling to overcome those bad associations he did, succeeding with some people and failing with others" and "Optimus is an optimist who has faith in others even when they don't have faith in themselves." Also, as a bonus, the Autocracy trilogy also features cunty murder-husband Megatron, an interesting character arc for Hot Rod, and the Dinobots as really interesting supporting characters (including their leader, Grimlock, having a cute veteran-rookie dynamic with Hot Rod that I wish we got more of).

[locusfandomtime]

Since the ending of the season has been confirmed… and nobody new joined this season, it’s possible someone new is joining s10! So…

a serious alternative to the other poll. I think some of these have a pretty low chance of happening, but I chose options that are at least possible (i.e. the hermits know them). don’t take this too seriously, i’m just curious on what the fandom thinks is the most likely option

[volfoss]

Genuinely how Hoshie is written in Atom: The Beginning is so infinitely frustrating. She's a character that really barely appears in the original series and had no backstory other than her role as Umatarō's wife and Tobio/Atom's mother, and I was so excited to learn she was in ATB. Or was until I actually read it. In ATB, she's very largely only there to appear a few times as his love interest and has really no reasoning FOR feeling that way nor any character traits outside of that. I'm still before the time skip chapter wise (and have some hope she will get more development after that time skip), but to ME to take a character that is that underdeveloped and you have an opportunity to really add a lot in there and don't? It sucks. It focuses so much more on the other characters that really do not have as much importance in the long run of the series (mostly original characters) and a lot of how the women are handled in ATB can be really rough a lot of the time (Ran as the exception, she's great, but it feels a lot of them are just there to be sexy set pieces. The way that they hyper sexualized Pink's traditional Vietnamese outfit is one of the worse examples of this (as you could write off the "sexy robot girls from Lab 1" thing as criticism of it, but in that case there really isn't much excuse to bring in) and while I'm glad it's not as prominent w Hoshie (because they quite literally draw her as a child and then have her show up later having gone through puberty, so thankfully they didn't get bad with it), it is still so bad. Like why do we have this character that is instrumental to the source material (as he said he based ATB as a sequel to Chronicles of Atom, where she is very important for that one volume and for Atom as a character after he is sold to the circus) and very not developed and all that is done w her is on par with how Naruto tried to develop romantic relationships (girl is in one sided love with the male protagonist and barely appears). You could have done so much, and so much that could have really helped develop the relationship in the future and helped flesh her out as her own characters with her own interests. She had a personality in the original and here, it is just being blushy and fawning over the protagonist and it is genuinely kind of insufferable.

[hannieehaee]

wonwoo gyu and jihoon r honestly the funnest members to write like i loooove writing them so bad

[poppyseed799]

I feel like life series fanon jimmy is kind of mischaracterized and there’s an easy way to make sure you’re doing it right: he has a lot of unearned confidence

[megarywrites]

This part i’m writing is making my skin crawl so much i can’t wait for him to die (it happens in the next chapter lol)

[favroitecrime]

just finished 12 season of bob’s burgers and i’m not ready for the movie not season 13

[waterfall-ambience]

reworking chapters 20 - 23 of perpetua rn. i'm still keeping the old versions around in a separate doc but the character development in those ones felt a little off. damien shrank back too quickly, the aquarium thing would be better material for arc 4, and luna's talk with avery was getting too long and complicated.