#ive never made a short comic before and that much will be obvious

[this-is-turtles]

Okay this is literally just part of a comic wip but i need yall to see this doodle of Mikey

He's just a silly lil guy!

[deaku]

Phantastic Memories

While working on dinner I was watching/listening to some videos on Youtube about the Phantasy Star series (specifically the classic games) and I remembered back to when I first played the games. Now I have an urge to write about those memories. Anyway… please pardon my ramblings as this will probably be very rambly. Also there will be spoilers.

Phantasy Star was one of those series I was aware of for a long time because I'd see ads and articles in various gaming magazines but never played because I didn't have access to a Sega system; I didn't own one and nearly everyone I knew were Nintendo people. From what I had seen in magazines and a few short times seeing a friend's older sibling playing PSII & PSIII I thought the Phantasy Star series looked pretty cool; although this was a bit before I got into RPGs so I wasn't rushing to play such games. The first Phantasy Star game I actually ever played was Phantasy Star IV. I didn't own a Sega of my own at this point I had a SNES then; though I had a friend with a Genesis and when there were games on the other system we wanted to play we'd swap systems for a while. And one of those time we exchanged systems was when I found PSIV at a local rental place and thought it was time I checked the series out firsthand. I thought it was an awesome game; nice graphics, great music, good battle system, and a story that pulled me in right away. It had a unique presentation with many cut-scenes being depicted with comic-like panels; giving it a more cinematic feel than many other rpgs of the time that depicted their cut-scenes with their usual in-game sprites. But something that really grabbed about the game, and the series in general, was the setting. The setting was a lot more sci-fi than many other similar games and that made it stand out to me. Sure it has the usual fantasy stuff like swords, magic and monsters, but it also has things like robots, lasers, spaceships and interplanetary travel. In PSIV specifically it's actually a bit post-apocalyptic due to events in one of the previous games, civilization is slowly recovering but it's obvious things were pretty bad because of what happened. I completed the game, but unfortunately I had no way to check out the rest of the series at the time because none of the local rental places had any of the other games nor did any of my friends. It'd actually be several years before I was able to check out and play the rest of the classic Phantasy Star series when I gained much greater access to the internet and I discovered emulation. Now I've played all four of the classic PS games; as well as reading about the history of the games, character backstories, as well as a good bit of fan fiction.

Now here's some thoughts and memories about the specific games.

Phantasy Star: The original way back on the Sega Master System, back in the starting days of console rpgs. Not only was the setting even more unique back then but it also had a heroine as the main character, an even greater rarity at the time. While Alis would fit right in the usual fantasy setting with her look and being a sword user some of the first things you see are some stormtrooper-like robotcops and you're near a spaceport, establishing that it's not going to be a typical fantasy world. I thought the game had a unique hook into the story. Alis wasn't out to save the world; sure she did end up saving the whole Algol system but she started her quest for revenge, to kill the man she considered responsible for the death of her brother. Even though I first played it so long after it came out I thought PS1 was still quite a good game and that it must have been outstanding when it first came out. You get interesting characters, including an animal companion that's a full party member instead of being basically an extension of another character or simply a mode of transport. Three planets to explore, both on foot and in vehicles. I think it has a great story for a game of its time and once you beat the evil king Lassic whose rule is responsible so much of the bad in the story you find that it's not over yet; you gotta face the ancient evil behind Lassic that appears to terrorize the Algol system every thousand years.

Phantasy Star II: Firstly I must admit that this is the only game of the classic series that I've never actually finished. I've actually started multiple times, but every time I'm only part way through when something comes up that eats up my free time for awhile or I get busy with something else. By the time I get back to the game I figure it's been so long that I'd better restart. However I've read about and watched enough videos to know the rest of the story. Anyway… PSII goes even further into the sci-fi side of things with tech-y looking cities, clone labs, bio-tech, more robots and not to mention a master computer running everything. I really liked the general aesthetic of PSII, it really caught my eye even when I just knew it from the ads and articles from game magazines. The game starts out with Rolf the government agent being sent out to investigate some odd happenings and things generally go wrong from there. By the end you've permanently lost a character, end up with one of the three planets of the Algol system destroyed, had to destroy the master computer Mother Brain since all the stuff that went down was under her direction, then you find out what's really behind everything. It's quite a ride through the whole game. Though something I always found odd was the way you gain new characters for your party. Rather than when you get to a new town and you have a story bit about meeting someone new, when you get to a new town you need to pop back to Rolf's place in the first town and then you find the new character waiting for you at home.

Phantasy Star III: Ah the black sheep of the classic Phantasy Star series. Upon a quick initial look much seems to have changed. The game starts with Prince Rhys getting ready to marry the mysterious Maia who washed up on the kingdom's shores one day with no memory. Everything seems to be a pretty standard fantasy kingdom with no signs of all the tech stuff from previous games. The wedding begins and then a dragon swoops down grabs Maia and flies off, so Rhys sets out to save her. Petty standard fantasy stuff really. But once you set off on the quest things start popping up that show things maybe aren't so far removed from previous games. At one point Rhys needs to take a boat but the captain doesn't ever set sail without a cyborg aboard, which leads you to tracking down the red-headed cyber Mieu. Then when you have to travel to a different land you need to go through a cave; entrance to the cave looks normal enough but when you get inside suddenly everything is metal and tech-looking. Turns out the game takes place on a generational spaceship, one of a fleet that blasted off before the planet that was lost in the last game went boom. While a lot is different from the other games in the series I did actually enjoy PSIII, and I gotta respect the ambition of making a multi-generational story in a console rpg back then. And not in a single storyline either; in the first and second generations once you complete the main quest you choose from two potential brides and proceed as the resulting child in the next generation, while the third generation is the last that's still four potential protagonists there for that generation. And depending on what path you take through the game you experience different events and meet different characters. Well except for your cyber friends Mieu & Wren, once you pick them up in the first generation they're with you always through all the generations. It would have been nice to have had more characterization and character interactions than what was there, but I can understand the tech limitations of the time put a limit on what they could do. Anyway, for those wondering I've been through and finished the whole game twice so far and gotten Sean's and Adan's endings.

Phantasy Star IV: I suppose I kinda already went over many of my thoughts on PSIV earlier in this. Like I said it's an awesome game, definitely one of the best of the 16-bit era. And an excellent finale for the classic series. PSIV is very story heavy when compared to previous installments; not only is the main story is a lost more detailed there are lots of character moments and interactions as well. It even has lots of links and shout-outs to the previous games in the series from talking about previous events to characters having links to those from the other games; though there good amount I missed the first play-through due to me having played PSIV first. But even not knowing much about the lore of the series at the time didn't prevent me from enjoying the game.

So to sum things up I think classic Phantasy Star games are quite an enjoyable series for games of the time. While certainly not perfect if you like old school rpgs they're definitely games to check out. Some stand out things about the games (at least to me)... The Setting: The sci-fi setting rather than just being a more standard fantasy; sure you can plenty of rpgs like this now but Phantasy Star was one of the progenitors. Plus the sci-fi stuff is right there in the setting from the start of the story as a current part of the civilization; rather then being something like tech from an ancient fallen civilization, used by invaders from somewhere else, or even just random techy things with no explanation. The Music: These games have some good music and there's some memorable tunes all throughout the games, I particularly enjoy the intro tunes. They do some clever stuff in PSIII too. Like the battle music changes depending on the situation; like an uplifting tune for when you're powerful enough that'll be an easy fight or something darker when there's a good chance the enemy might get you. Or like with the overworld tune it gets additions as you gain characters that builds up the music, and if anyone is knocked out the bit that goes with their party slot vanishes until they're revived. The Characters: The series has some interesting characters, though to get all the details you need to read some backstories since not everything gets revealed in the games themselves. The designs are good too, especially if you like an anime aesthetic. Very good enemy designs as well; ranging from cute to creepy to monstrous and threatening.

Okay I think I'd better stop my rambling here and maybe think about playing around with the series again. I actually have all the classic series in various forms now as parts of different collections. I even have Phantasy Star Online and Phantasy Star Universe too, but those are perhaps discussions for another time.

Also if you would like to see some art I've done of some of the characters you here's a link over to my deviantart which has all the pics in one folder over here

[sheepisreading]

Books I finished in Febuary 2023

The first three I grabbed at the same time at the boostore because I was bored and needed cheering up!

Naked, David Sedaris, 1997

This is an essay collection! I’d previously read Calypso by the same author and loved it. It’s a fun read, not hard to read or get into and doesn’t require too much concentration to read while still being very entertaining. I chose it as my next book for that reason, because I’ve been pretty fucking stressed recently and thought I could read it without spiralling. It worked! I loved it, it was funny and earnest, recounting amusing anecdotes and real learning moments. I love these kinds of essay collections heartfelt but self aware and comedic.

(Also, because I’ll probably never review it since I read it like six years ago: in the same vein I can only recommend Watsky’s essay collection “How to ruin everything”, probably even more than Naked! It’s I think less emotional or about emotions but I honestly loved it, it made me very happy, Watsky is awesome.)

Assembly, Natasha Brown, 2020

Fully picked this one up in the bookshop because the cover is pretty but after reading the blurb I immediately bought it. It’s fiction but clearly inspired by the authors life. The main character muses on her life so far and the decisions she’s made. It says clearly some shit that’s obvious but for some reason still an issue! The author clearly writes about the differences in class and upbringing between rich old money white people (her colleages) and hardworking new money black people (her). It’s about stuff we take for granted and casual racism. Very good ! It packs a punch in only a hundred pages.

Bluets, Maggie Nelson, 2009

Maggie Nelson writes “propositions” meaning short prose-poetry rambling-things about blue. I’m very into blue and gave a school presentation two years ago on the history of blue in art inspired by the vsauce video about it (which is amazing by the way, I rewatch it often), so I’ve been wanting to read it for a while. It’s good! Maggie Nelson writes beautifully about artists who have used the colour in the past (which is good inspiration) and her own relationship with blue, as well as with two people she cares about at the moment of writing. Her writing is absolutely beautiful! There is a lot of mention of romantic and physical longing which I cannot relate to, but that’s an issue I run into often and her way of discussing it remains interesting. It’s a beautiful book and its atmosphere stays with you.

The Nice House on the Lake vol. 1, James Tynion IV, 2021

Okay apparently the author is well known but I’ve never heard of him as I don’t really read comics and read like one graphic novel a year. As I understand it what I read (volume 1) spans the first six issues of the comic (out of 12). I grabbed it while browsing and loved the colours and was intrigued by the premise (having watched and thoroughly enjoyed Glass Onion not long before, I kinda thought it was a hardcore version of that, turns out: way more sci-fi shit in Nice House). I got home after my first day of internship, spent an hour doing jack shit and then picked this book up and read the whole thing straight. It’s amazing, there are fleshed out characters (some of them are queer yay), suspense, tension, emotion, it’s just really good! I will warn for like apocalypse, discussions of suicide and body horror though if that’s a thing you can’t go near! But if you can and are into weird sci-fi horror I recommend it! (I actually kind of like Walter I have to say, he just loves his friends !)

Steppenwolf, Hermann Hesse, 1927

!!! My mum is a big Hermann Hesse fan and always advocated for me reading one of his books. I happened upon this one at the used book market and immediately bought it because I noticed someone had anotated parts of it which. Yeah. Anyways, a bit of a slow start with the introduction written from an outside perspective from the narrator of the remainder of the book but absolutely hang in there! It's absolutely amazing; reflections on selfhood and the way we choose to live or not live our lives, connections with others, finding joy and excitement. It really did exceed my expectations. I thought there would be too much romance talk for my taste but it's so beautifully written that it's not an issue at all. It left a mark on me, that's for sure, it's a really powerful book.

[decepti-thots]

are horribull and needlenose actually canon in idw? ive seen people call them a couple but is that just fanon?

Oh, this is actually kind of a tricky one, in a similar way to, say, explaining the canonicity of Prowl/Chromedome and the arguments people have about that.

The long and short is that yes, they are intended to be a couple, and when you read exRiD and the bits concerning their relationship, this is very obvious from the text itself, not just some weak word-of-God after the fact. However, this is kind of a... retcon? Of sorts?

Horri-Bull dies SUPER early in exRiD. (It's not something I would call a spoiler bc like, he's introduced to be killed and it's not a twist, haha.) Barber kills him off as one major impetus to get the "series one" plot going in like... either issue 2 or 3 idk which. At that point, we're well before canon LGBT stuff in phase two coming in at the end of MTMTE's uhhh... second year, I think? god im so bad at dates and i cba to check tfwiki

Later on, Barber writes some stuff in with Needlenose talking about Horri-Bull in a way which makes it clear that they were together romantically. Needlenose refers to Horri-Bull as 'the only person [he] ever loved' and the framing makes it clear what he means IMO.

But strictly speaking, it's never 100% made 'explicit', in much the same way neither Prowl or Chromedome ever actually SAY they were romantically involved or are exes on page in MTMTE. It's what I'd call... largely unambiguous subtext, let's go with that.

I've seen people insist this means it 'doesn't count' or is 'only implied' but tbh this retcon/re-contextualisation happened after a point where the audience was taking m/m romances as part of these comics largely for granted and the framing is pretty obvious, so I think that's disingenuous. By the point it comes up, the audience doesn't need it hammering home cause there's m/m couples all over canon.

.......this is kind of a weirdly long answer, but in my defense, the gradual rise in how "explicit" phase two was about its LGBT stuff is just Like That, lmao.

[dashedwithromance]

Slithered Here From Eden - Princewitch

KINGDOM OF THE WICKED SPOILERS!!! I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW SPOILERY THIS FIC IS. THE HEIGHT OF SPOILERS!! THE PEAK OF SPOILERS!! THIS IS A VERY LOUD WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KINGDOM OF THE WICKED SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT DO NOT KEEP READING IF YOU DONT WISH TO BE SPOILED THANK YOUUUUUU

anyways here is my first princewitch fic!! i hope you guys like it, and let me know if you have any ideas for fics for those two. im a little nervous to put this out here - ive written only cressworth and original stuff for a while, so im kinda nervous this wont be in character or will be weird in my style. anyway, please let me know if you like this, and if its something you want more of. im already working on a few others, courtesy of @duchess-of-nothing-and-nowhere ‘s brilliant ideas, but send in any requests you have!!! i hope you guys enjoy, thank you!!!!!

---

Hell was, well, hell.

Her husband was busy doing whatever kings of Hell did in their spare time, which she was thankful for. She didn’t wish to run into any of the Wicked, but Pride was close to the top of the list. Not the worst offender, however. The Prince she’d once tentatively called an ally had claimed that spot with his spectacularly humiliating betrayal. 

The worst part was that she still didn’t understand. His motives, his feelings, his aims - all were shrouded in mystery, one that seemed to taunt her at every twist and turn. Bastard. 

Contrary to her preconceptions, her rooms were actually rather beautiful. Similar to the style of the house Wrath had rented in Palermo, but it felt different. Darker. Her quarters were styled in black and gold, with serpent scones lining the walls. The fire flickered in a menacing fashion, though she’d long since learned it had more bark than bite. 

Shadows crept along the floor until they curled at her feet like a cat, announcing the presence of the one demon prince she wished to see the least. 

“What do you want.” Emilia barely gave him a glance before he walked him, arrogance pouring off him. As if he owned the damn place. 

Infuriatingly beautiful as usual, he wore a dark suit, flecked with golden patterns, not unlike the tattoo she knew adorned his shoulder. Her attention flicked to the wicker basket he held gingerly in his hands. Covered with a soft blue tea towel, it looked like something plucked off the streets of her home, not something that belonged within the obsidian walls of the kingdom where wickedness ruled with abandon. 

Silence was his only reply as he looked her up and down. The gaze threatened to set her alight; with rage or desire, she wasn’t entirely sure. Once, the bed that loomed behind her would’ve offered a taunting distraction and a fragile but desperate wish. Now, it only annoyed her, reminding her of the moments she’d failed so magnificently at seeing through his façade.

Still no response. They hadn’t spoken since her wedding, and their last words had been less of a conversation and more of throwing of well-deserved insults on her behalf. He’d told her that she knew nothing of his motivations, and to assume he wished her harm was foolish. She’d told him a few carefully chosen expletives, complete with a hand gesture that would’ve had her mother wringing her hands. Wrath had spent the days prior skulking outside her quarters, never saying a word, only letting his shadows pollute her already foul mood. She might’ve had the slightest amount of sympathy for him, had he not betrayed her, lied to her, married her to his brother and thoroughly pissed her off in the process.

He placed the basket down on the table at the other side of the room. Looking up, Wrath raised a carefully groomed brow. Apparently, princes of Hell had beauty routines.

His mood was undetectable through his face, but the shadows that followed him gave it away, if only slightly. They were the same dark as a summer night; dark enough for comfort, but not the soulless black pitch she’d seen him wear so often. An interesting combination for a prince who seemed to care not a whit whether she lived or died after he’d gotten what he wanted.

Wrath pulled back the cloth covering the basket to reveal – food. A carefully curated selection of her favourites, smelling like they’d been plucked off the serving plates of the Sea & Vine.

She nearly salivated at the sight – the food she’d eaten in Hell had been a sore spot for her. Though nothing was wrong with it, it lacked the love of homemade food. The flavour that came with knowing that someone lovingly made every single bite. There were no laughing families who cooked here, no fathers to taste-test, or sisters to tease while they made sangria side by side.

  “How on earth did you find this?” The words slipped out before she could correct herself. ‘Earth’ was perhaps not the right term, though she couldn’t truly tell where she was. Under, felt more accurate. Below.

He looked at her as if she was missing the obvious – and she was.

The food smelt like she was used to because it was what she was used to. The same recipes, made with the same care as every meal that came from the Sea & Vine kitchens.

Panic enveloped her faster than joy.

“Did you hurt them?” She hissed, desperately searching his appearance for any sign of violence. He was wearing black, that much was true, but either he cleaned up exceptionally well, or there was no blood to be found.

“Hurt them?” Wrath’s tone was even, but she could hear how he scoffed. The nerve, “No. I even paid for it.”

Her heart still beat fast enough to burst from her chest, so he continued, “Relax, witch. No harm has come to them, nor will it, if you comply with my brother’s terms.” There was no audible threat in his tone, but she knew it went without saying. Comply, be Pride’s blooded wife, or her family would receive the same fate as Vittoria. It hurt to even think about, however brief the thought was.

She was going to throw something right at his beautiful, awful face. Maybe the basket, once she was finished devouring her favourites. Wrath would certainly look ridiculous enough with a basket slammed over his head, if he didn’t kill her first.

“It’s not poisoned, if that’s what you fear.” Emilia blinked, unsure how to respond. He seemed to be lingering, if demon princes could ever linger. Why wouldn’t he leave?

She nodded, restraining a biting retort about how she was sure that fact was a deep disappointment for him. Remembering the odd rules of demonhood, she thanked him.

Still, he wouldn’t leave. Just stood there, watching her with those golden eyes that peered into her very soul, reaching inside and setting her alight. His gaze was unnerving.

Her patience, which had thinned dramatically since becoming a co-ruler of Hell, waned, “Are you waiting for payment?”

He laughed. Actually laughed. A short, biting sound, but a laugh nonetheless.

“I could smell your foul mood from my own House. Perhaps this will appease you.”

Appease her. As if it were that simple. As if he hadn’t tricked her, lied to her by omission, made her into an even greater fool than the one she was.

“Perhaps if you deigned to be truthful, I would be more polite.” Lies, but worth a try. If only he would tell her something, anything by way of explanation. Even if it was brutally cruel and benefitting a member of the Wicked. Anything but the agony of anticipation.

Apparently this evening was full of more surprises, because Wrath then pulled out a chair, and gestured for her to sit down, like they weren’t sworn enemies. The thought of a biting retort was attractive, but the smell of food was too much. The scent of all her favourites, food she’d spent hours labouring over in the past, wafted towards her like an irresistible gift.

The basket held everything she dreamt of. Wrath laid the table with his harvest as she tried not to gape at the sight. Twin glasses of sangria, somehow still delightfully cold. The comforting smell of garlic and fresh herbs permeated the air. Plates piled high with a mix of all her favourite things: a selection of antipasto, a side plate of bruschetta, a bowl of pasta, and a small dish of cannoli. If she closed her eyes, and forgot the presence of the prince in front of her, she could picture being back home, surrounded by her family and loved ones. If she thought hard enough, she could faintly smell Vittoria’s favourite perfume, the one she made for herself.

When she opened her eyes, the dream faded away, and there was only Wrath sitting across from her. Despite all the effort she presumed he must’ve taken to fetch the food, he sat watching like he thought it was attack him. Or she would. A laugh escaped her lips, almost hysterical, at the situation. Her, Queen of Hell, sat with her husband’s brother, another demon prince, as they ate food from her family’s restaurant. Comical, if disturbing.

“It won’t bite,” She said, eagerly helping herself to a plate. His eyes flickered with the promise of his bite, and she fought to keep any sign of her reaction off her face. Now was not the time to think of his kiss, or goddess forbid, his tongue. Watching carefully, he followed suit, piling his plate high with a mirror of her own. If she didn’t know the strength that lurked beneath that bronze skin and manicured hands, she would’ve called it sweet.

The food was – the food was heavenly. The taste of home, the love of her family, the promise of safety offered in those few bites brought her more joy than she thought possible. She wanted to stretch out the meal forever, as long as time would permit. If this was the last time she would taste such heaven, she wanted to remember it.

Despite her anger at the demon sitting across from her, curiosity embedded itself in her mind. How could he have known? How could he have known this was exactly what she needed, what her soul craved? Just as he’d done with the orange blossoms after Lust, he’d somehow known her mind and soul needing nourishment, and brought it as a gift to her door. Perhaps there would be a price to be paid, someday, but for now, her happiness was enough.

It was ridiculous and Nonna would’ve scolded her dearly, but it was the first semblance of normal she’d had since signing her name over to Pride. The meal sent flashbacks of the time she’d spent after Lust had invaded her mind; the days she’d spent lying in bed, a stranger in her own body, while Wrath sat like a comforting guardian demon. They hadn’t spoken, but he’d delivered her meals thrice daily, and never left her side unless to fetch her clothes from his mysterious source, or to give her privacy if she’d asked. He’d even brought her reading materials, though they were filled with battle strategies, not the steamy romances she craved. At the time, she’d thought it was a sign that maybe, just maybe, Wrath was different. Now, she only felt the white-hot flush of shame. Her appetite faded, and she pushed the plate away.

He catalogued her change in mood with a barely perceptible nod of his head. Truly, she had no idea what he was thinking. Sometimes she thought he was terrified for her, her witch-blood and mortal heart acting as a beacon for all those whom Pride had made an enemy. Sometimes she thought he wanted to kiss her until her lips were swollen and she begged him for release. Sometimes she thought her presence disgusted him to a never-ending degree. A mystery.

“You need to be careful,” He broke the silence with a warning, as if she treated Hell like a stroll along Sicilian streets.

“It would help if you told me anything.” She hated the petulant near-whine of her voice, but it couldn’t be helped. She had nothing and no-one in the world, but she needed an ally. Or, if she couldn’t have that, information would have to do.

“I’ve already told you too much.” Lies. Complete lies.

Her questioning had bored him, she assumed, as he stood up to go, leaving the remnants of their meal scattered around them. Wrath cast one last look at her before stalking out, taking the shadows with him.

Just as she was about to curse his name, she spotted a bouquet of orange blossoms on the dresser.

Bastard.

---

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Tags: @shadowturtlesstuff @otome-azarada @chococannolii @beccalovesbooksstuff

[anarchy-in-the-vent-blog]

creating this at the behest of a friend who may or may not just want to stop listening to me. cannot entirely blame them as i wouldnt want to listen to me either always complaining but it really piles onto my feeling that im not that close to anybody. today, and i dont know if this is what im really upset about or just a broken shoelace, i lost a writing contest over a script that i've been working on and off on for about a year. i did not expect to win necessarily, but the year before this i was a finalist in the same contest with a script i had spent only a few days on. im pretty devastated rn. i thought this would be a chance to get a foot in the door of professional comics, or at least a big ego boost, and i got fucking nothing after months and months and months of work and honing this story. i cant even think of anything i should have done differently, my story was good my presentation was incredible there were fewer contestants this year than last year i went the extra mile and threw in an entire edited polished script along with my pitch document and pitch video, i did a fucking somersault at the beginning just to get these anglo fucks' attention and i got nothing. this creative shit isnt working out at all. ever since i was a kid i just wanted to be some kind of artist, the particulars changed every couple of years. i wanted to be a novelist for a while, a filmmaker, a musician, blah blah fucking blah. ive been working the last two years writing short stories and comics, over and over, i spend countless nights just writing and editing and reading more so i can get better ideas and for fucking what. the short story market out there is abysmal. i cant even submit to most anthologies bc theyre so idpol focused that only 1/3 of them accept manuscripts from straight white guys, and the ones that do accept have only 1/2 a chance of responding to you at all when they reject you, and maybe 1/20 of the ones that send a rejection email actually give a reason why, even if a brief one. i've sent out about 100 submissions for a dozen or so stories in the last few years and i've only sold two to two of the smallest magazines that nobody's ever heard of. one of them went bankrupt immediately after the issue in which they horribly misprinted my story (1/3 of it got cut somehow "accidentally"), and the other one is a small run new zealand gimmick theme publisher that i actually lost money on just ordering myself a copy of. maybe it was a fucking scam, idk. but they only made $5. I've made less than $30 selling fiction unless that haunted doll counts and i'm fucking miserable. I'm keeping up other creative hobbies that are going nowhere too. I just finished and released an hour long album a few weeks ago that i put two fucking years of my life into planning, writing, recording, editing, re-recording, mastering, promoting. I've worked harder on this album than anything else i've ever actually released and i think maybe only 4 people in total have listened to it. My closest friends have given it a cursory glance. i dont make art entirely for attention but how the fuck am i supposed to keep going if im getting kicked in the ribs any time i put anything out. nobody ever reads my stories, when i get rejected i never find out why, nobody ever listens to my music. the joy of creating in itself is really slipping from me. nobody really cares about me. my friends keep insisting that they do but i dont know if they do much to show it. im an obvious third wheel half the time. my dad broke a 3 year sobriety. i swipe on bumble every day and havent gotten a like in weeks even though friends have told me that i look good. my grades are slipping. i'm out of work. i have no job prospects or any sort of prospects in general for the future. i haven't been in a relationship of any kind in almost two years. i havent been in a happy relationship since fucking high school. i have neither the time nor money for therapy. therapy has never worked for me in the past anyway. i am really considering suicide for the first time in a long while. i dont really

take any joy in anything anymore. even momentary physical pleasure like masturbating and eating unhealthy food feels like absolutely nothing. i feel scared all the time. i feel like im gonna get screamed at or beat up at any second, mostly from my dad but also from strangers. i feel like im always about to be verbally chastised by my friends. it kills me that i cant see things objectively, only from this shakey nervous point of view that i know is most of the problem. i cant help it. i dont know if ive forgotten how to socialize with people or if i never knew to begin with and im only losing my illusions now. i really dont feel like living. i havent felt good in years. not truly good, maybe not since i was 12. the last time i felt generally vaguely happy like everything was mostly okay was when i think i was 16. im never going to be a great artist. ill probably never have a girlfriend i actually care about. i find most people incredibly boring or cruel. ill never really know if my friends like me, or why they even tolerate me. im writing this while putting off an important essay i've barely started. my friends seem to get so much love and notoriety for the smallest artistic efforts. i feel too stupid to read whatever theory and manifestos it is i have to read in order to make things like they do for the people they do, but i dont even want that for myself. i just want to write comic books and short sci-fi stories and im too fucking retarded or hopeless to even do that for an audience larger than myself. im really really fucking hopeless, i really dont want to keep living if this is all life is. i have no reason to believe that there is anything else. most people cant stand to be around me and i dont like myself either, i cant stand being in the same body with me, i hate having to think my thoughts. i hate being stuck inside myself. i think im going to cry again. i guess ill put off the rest of this important essay for tomorrow and collect my B- with all the other fucking midwit nobodies.

[lihikainanea]

I...I may re-write this at some point. Because I hate it. Let’s be clear, I just want these two to bang each other’s brains out again like right the fuck now but I feel like I had to ~set it up~ properly and just...look, this what you get when a horndog of an author with 2987548695659 kink buttons is in A Mood(TM) to get all of them SLAMMED AT ONCE but instead has to write ~fluff~ because it’s what makes sense for the story right now. If you need me, I’ll be in my little corner flipping this story off while my kink buttons very much do not get slammed. Fuck you BFF!Bill. I'm so mad at you right now.

Part 1 + 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6

Credit my rage to @ill-skillsgard and that nani who ruined my life with the original ask in Parts 1+2 there.

I dunno how many parts left I got to this, the part below really discouraged me. I  feel like I got carried away in their story line and I’m all self-conscious about it now because I really just....I want to write all the sexy times. That’s it. I liked the shorter drabbles of these two that I did more towards the beginning. 

BLERGH, shut up Leilani. 

***

In hindsight, the ice cream was a terrible mistake. 

To your credit, it had taken awhile for things to get awkward. A good few weeks. And to Bill’s credit, he really made it near impossible to be awkward around him.The awkwardness had littered your friendship to varying degrees, but no matter how mortifying the events were, Bill just never seemed plussed about any of it. There had been the time he had gotten food poisoning on a camping trip in the woods, pitifully crawling his way on all fours to your tent in the middle of the night. You had woken up to what you thought was a wounded animal, unzipping your tent and seeing Bill’s curled up form on the ground in front of you. It had taken over an hour to help him crawl just a hundred feet to the communal washrooms, where you stayed with him on the floor for the entire night. It was nothing short of contortion, the way he folded his large body in on himself in the tiny stall, groaning in pain and discomfort. Your heart bled for him that night, he was so sick he had gone grey and the only thing you could do to help was stroke his soaked back and keep wetting paper towels to hold on his neck while he wretched. He had eventually passed out, thunking his head hard right onto your chest, and in your sleep-deprived hysteria, you thought he was dead. Mutual friends still tell the tale over beers, now a great source of laughter, of how you had emerged from the washrooms in the wee hours of the morning screaming for help with Bill--all 6′4 of him--slung over your shoulders in a fireman carry. Bill’s feet still dragged on the ground and his upper body hung limp over your shoulder, but you didn’t care. You just knew he needed help. When he eventually came to, hooked up to an IV and still looking grey, he didn't seem at all shocked when he was told how he made it to the medical centre.

Then there was the time during a traditional movie night at his place, when you felt the tell-tale cramp--that deep cramp low in your belly that had you folding in on yourself briefly. Your cycle wasn’t due for another 3 more days, but your body had other plans. You hadn’t even brought a purse to Bill’s, and looking frantically at your light coloured jeans, you knew you were in trouble. Bill stared at your form, gradually closing in on itself as another cramp hit.

“You okay?” he asked, putting a hand on your back.

“Yeah I uh...I have to go. Sorry, forgot I needed to do something tonight..” you trailed off, tossing the blanket and slowly shifting to stand in a way that would attempt to minimize the flow that you could now feel starting between your legs. Bill eyed you cautiously, then rolled his eyes. Grabbing another slice of pizza from the box in front of him, he stood and grabbed your elbow.

“C’mon,” he said, leading you to the bathroom.

“What are you--” your sentence was cut off when he reached an arm up, opening the cupboard. Inside, you stared in confusion when you spotted a small box of tampons, a few pads, even a little bottle of Midol. He turned to you, shoving another bite of pizza in his mouth.

“If there’s something in here you need, just take it,” he said, his mouth full as he chewed loudly.

“Bill why the fuck do you have these in your bathroom?”

He shrugged, blasé.

“Because I’m a grown ass man and I have grown ass women in my life,” he said, as if it was the most obvious explanation in the world.

“Take whatever you need and get your ass back on the couch, the best part is coming up,” he turned to leave before calling over his shoulder “or if you need something else or whatever, just write it down and I’ll pick it up next time I’m out.”

When you emerged from the bathroom a few moments later, a pair of sweatpants hit you smack in the face.

“In case you’re bloated or whatever,” was the explanation.

You changed. The pants were comically large, with a ton of material still pooling around your feet even after you had rolled the waistband a dozen times.

Joining him back on the couch, he covered the two of you with a blanket again before reaching behind him for something. He tucked a hot water bottle against your stomach and you moaned slightly at how good it felt, then he put his arm back around you and pulled you into his side, restarting the movie. Not another word was spoken.

So compared to a lot of what had happened in the past, having sex with him should have paled in comparison on the scale of awkward. If the sex had been terrible, perhaps a certain degree of awkwardness would be expected. But incredible sex? Incredible sex should be celebrated. And you were on board with that, for awhile.

Until the ice cream.

You had almost forgotten, in fact as the days went on you became more and more able to downplay what had happened, and the level of pleasure you experienced which seemed to have put your body in shock for more than a few days after. Maybe it wasn’t a matter of Bill being so good in bed, feeling so safe with him, and more a matter of just....how pent up you had been. You were almost convinced, almost certain that this was fact. Bill was probably just average, at best. But you did trust him a whole ton more than any of the Tinder dates you had met so combined with your hair trigger for needing a release at that time, it had all just culminated into three delightful explosions.

Until the ice cream.

It had been a longstanding tradition of yours, no matter the season, of going for ice cream the day before Bill left on another shoot. He had a sweet tooth that was completely unrivalled but he had stayed away from sweets for the few months leading up to his new gig, having to take some weight off his already slim frame for his new role.  But as you sat beside him, a banana split for you and an extra large vanilla soft serve for him, you realized what a terrible mistake this was.

“Oh my god,” he groaned in pleasure and you stilled, memories of that groan flooding your mind. You turned to him just in time to see his long tongue snake out, licking slowly from the the cone to the tip of his ice cream.

“Jesus Christ,” he moaned again, “it’s been so long.” His mouth closed around the peak of it, making a small slurping noise as he sucked part of it into his mouth. You felt the heat immediately rising to your cheeks. He moaned again, swirling his tongue around the cone.

“How’s yours?” he asked. 

“It’s uh, it’s good,” you said.

“Might be better if you took a bite, tiger,” he teased. Looking down, your spoon was clenched tightly in your fist and your sundae was untouched. Shaking your head slightly, you lifted the cherry off and popped it in your mouth. You nearly choked when Bill let go another groan that was nothing short of sexual.

“I’m in fucking heaven,” another long lick of his cone from bottom to top,  he sighed happily and closed his mouth over the top again to suck another bite in. Your thighs clenched as you couldn’t get rid of the images that flooded your brain. Bill’s green eyes, peering up at you from between your legs, asking permission. Bill’s eyes closed, moaning in content as he ran his mouth and his nose over your panties. The hum and suckling noise when he pursed his lips around your clit, dragging it into his mouth. That sinful tongue--that long, skilled tongue slowly lapping at his ice cream--and the way he slowly lapped at you, savouring every single lick as if it was giving him as much pleasure as it was giving you.

You watched as he stuck his tongue out to lick at some of the ice cream that had dribbled on his chin, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

He had done that too, once he was done turning you into a quivering, moaning mess beneath his mouth. You remembered how he raised up on his haunches, his eyes a blaze of fiery green, as he licked at his bottom lip and swiped his mouth with the back of his hand. 

You had almost started to sweat, feeling the flush creeping up your chest.

“You look weird, kid,” his voice interrupted your thoughts, “You okay?”

You cleared your throat, begging your voice not to crack. Begging--you had begged him, too, begged him to make you feel good. And he did. He promised you he would, and oh God, he did. You ran a hand over your face, resisting to urge to knock the side of your head in an attempt to force the images out of your thoughts.

“I’m good,” you lied. You couldn’t meet his eyes anymore, as you felt that ache deep in your gut start again. Your legs shook slightly, your thighs trembling, remembering how good it felt. How good he felt, and how good he made you feel. The way he seemed completely focused on your pleasure, on making sure any little movement he made gave you pleasure. How he had checked in on you, made sure you were feeling good, before continuing anything. How he had made you cry out, clinging to him, gasping for air not one, but three earth shattering times.

Suddenly, you needed air. You needed air, and you needed space. Distance. 

You stood, abruptly. Bill looked up mid-lick, his tongue still on his ice cream as his eyes peered up at you. That look. You closed your eyes, pinching your brow with your fingers.

“Finish tongue-fucking that ice cream, I have a lot of work to do tonight ” you said. Your tone had come out much, much harsher than you had intended, but you turned before you could catch the confused look on his face. 

He dropped you off that night, the car ride home was a one-sided conversation as he talked about the new project and how long he’d be gone, what he was excited for, what his character would do. Walking you to your door, he wrapped his arms around you tightly and laid a wet smack of a kiss on your cheek.

“Let me know when you’re free to FaceTime,” he had said, his face tucked into your neck, “There’s not too many night shoots so our schedules should sync up.”

“ ‘kay.” 

“And hopefully you can come out for a weekend, you’d probably like it there. New Tinder material for you,” he chuckled.

“ ‘kay.”

He pulled away, keeping his hands on your shoulders. You stared at his chest, but felt his eyes boring into you.

“Tiger,” he commanded, “look at me.”

When you shifted uncomfortably, he moved one hand to under your chin and tilted it up to meet his eyes.

“What’s going on with you?” he asked. You looked away, your chin still resting on his hand, and gave a half-hearted shrug. Images from before still clouded your brain, your pleasure receptors still firing on all cylinders at the memory of that mouth, those hands all over you. You let out a ragged breath, and his thumb and forefinger moved to pinch your chin.

“Are you getting awkward about what happened between us?” he asked and your eyes widened in surprise--sometimes his direct and straight-forward approach still caught you off guard.

“Jesus Bill,” you tried to move your chin away but he opened his hand, cupping your jaw.

“Answer me.”

“No, I’m not getting fucking awkward about it.”

“Eyes, kid.”

You dragged your eyes back to his and he saw right through you, raising his eyebrows in challenge. You pouted.

“Don’t lie to me, tiger,” his tone softened and he sighed, “Look, that night--did it feel good? Did you feel good?”

“Uh....yes,” you responded quietly. He bent at the knees, tilting his head to maintain eye contact with you when you tried to look away.

“And do you feel better now, after you got what you needed?” he asked. You hated this. You hated every part of how honest he was, how comfortable he was at having these insanely uncomfortable conversations.

“Ugh, Bill, I can’t--”

“Answer me.”

“Yes,” you whispered, heat blazing your cheeks. There was nothing but kindness in his eyes though, genuine honesty to his questions.

“You deserve to feel good. You needed to feel good. And you trusted me with that. And I helped?” he looked to you for confirmation.

“Yeah. Yeah you helped,” you confirmed. He smiled, stroking your cheek.

“And I was happy to. You’re my best friend, kid. I love you, and I wanted to help you. That’s it, okay? We promised it wouldn’t get awkward,” he looped an arm around you again, bringing you back in for a hug. ‘It’s just sex.”

“Fucking phenomenal sex,” you muttered into his chest.You felt his boisterous laugh, his arms squeezing you tighter.

“It was fucking phenomenal sex,” he pulled away and smiled at you.  You tugged his jacket collar down, silently beckoning him to bend and you kissed his cheek.

“Have fun, Billy Goat,” you said.

“Be safe, tiger” he responded, “Stay outta trouble while I’m gone.”

And with a final wave as you shut your door, you watched him pull out into the street. He’d text you tomorrow morning from the airport, you knew, and again when he landed.

But tonight, tonight you still had an ache in your gut, a tremble in your thighs that you knew wouldn’t let you sleep until those pleasure receptors--ones that remembered all too well--were satiated again.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 10x04: Silence the Whisperers - Analysis

How did everyone like the episode? As always, I thought it was really good. The first thing I’ll say is that there isn’t nearly as much symbolism in it as there has been in the past few episodes. Not that there isn’t any, but you know how the past few have just been ridiculously overflowing with it? This one just has less. It’s one of those episodes that’s more action-oriented and setting up for what comes next.

***As always, spoilers abound below for episode 10x04. Don’t read until you’ve watched!!!***

Opening Sequence:

So the song playing in this sequence whispers “1, 2, 3” over and over again, which I think it significant. I already talked in an Ask about the wheel decoration behind Daryl, and how I think it represents the death fake out arc, and may show that Beth’s arc is about to come back around. Beyond that, Ezekiel is sad, Magna is having some issues, and a tree comes through Hilltop’s wall.

Hilltop:

We learn that 9 people got trapped in a building when the tree hit the roof and it caved in. They got all the people out, but this could be part of the Hole in the Roof theory. As the episode proceeds, the noise from the tree brings walkers and they’re afraid the whole wall will collapse. It’s already been weakened by the tree and now all the walkers are pushing in on it.

This hearkens back to two things for me. The first is the fallen trees in Them, which I always saw as significant. The second is, of course, when the church fell in S6, bringing down Alexandria’s walls and letting walkers in in 6x08/09.

Why would that be significant? Well, I think it’s obvious why Them would be significant, yeah? I mean, it’s after the storm and the fallen trees that the music box woke up. So if you want to draw a direct parallel, you might argue Beth will arrive after the tree falls. Honestly, I don’t see this as a big enough event to herald that, but it might be one of many small events that lead to her. More on that in a minute.

And how about paralleling it to S6? The biggest thing for me there is that that was smack in the middle of Glenn’s death fake out. After the church fell and let the walkers in, Glenn showed up, miraculously alive, and reunited with Maggie. Just saying.

In terms of the plot, I’m wondering (and this is pure conjecture) if Hilltop will eventually fall too. The Kingdom has already gone down, and I wonder if HT will too, forcing the entire group together at Alexandria. I’m not at all positive that’s where they’re going, but it crossed my mind.

Because the wall actually does collapse, but Michonne’s group shows up to help fight the walkers, and they do talk about fixing it. So we’ll see.

Ezekiel:

Given all the messages and Asks I’ve gotten about this, I doubt I need to explain it in great detail. Zeke has always had heavy parallels with Beth. Just as Daryl and Carol are very similar, so Beth and Ezekiel are too. Here, we have him contemplating suicide, much as Beth did in S2. Much like her, he realized he wants to live. 

As I mentioned in an Ask, this happened on one side of the now-broken bridge Rick was blown off of. So that connects him to Rick. And he wore a green shirt (Beth). So I think that connects him to the death fake outs and this functions as a foreshadow of Zeke’s own coming death fake out.

He also rode a black horse. It ran by Michonne after he let it go. That made me realize something. It’s not anything groundbreaking, but just a detail I hadn’t really thought of before. We’ve always seen as white horse = Beth and black horse = Daryl. The white horse also = life or being alive. But I realized the black horse also = death, despair, lack of hope. That’s how Zeke felt here, and how Daryl felt around the time Buttons died. Again, nothing we didn’t already know, but I just hadn’t thought of it that way before.

When Michonne and Ezekiel talk, she says, “it never would have worked between us anyway. We’re both too stubborn.” He says, “maybe in another universe.” I laughed at that. As in, the comic book universe? It’s obviously the writers’ way of acknowledging that this is a nod to their comic book romance, but it’s not going to happen in the show. (Add that to the list of things TD has been correct about.)

Daryl/Lydia/Alexandria:

This was obviously the biggest story thread in the episode. And I gotta say, I loved it! Gauge and his friends are mean to Lydia and bully her. She talks to Negan about it more and more, which Daryl isn’t happy about.

I was laughing hysterically when Lydia butchered the squirrel in front of them. How much like Daryl is that? Like father, like daughter, I guess. She’s rebellious just like he is. Which isn’t surprising since they come from similar, abusive backgrounds.

Daryl is older and wiser now and advises her not to provoke them, but he himself would have done much the same only a few years ago.

The three bullies attack Lydia and Negan saves her. I gotta say, while I was one who thought it would have been more just for them to execute Negan at the end of AOW, it’s really hard to hate him when he’s being sweet to Lydia. While rescuing her, he accidentally kills the woman who used to be with the highwaymen.

So, remember in episode 1 when I talked about how Negan told FG he didn’t want people’s fear of the Whisperers to blow up in his face so that they blamed him and wanted to string him up? I said that was setting something up and this would happen eventually. So this episode is the fulfillment of that. It truly was an accident and he didn’t mean to kill her, but no way people are going to let it go, now. So Negan takes off.

In truth, I’ve been waiting for him to take off. I’m actually really excited about this story line. Remember last season when Negan escaped and left Alexandria for a while? Judith tried to stop him, and he took her compass? Well, he was only gone a short time, but during that time we saw tons of callbacks to Still, saw him run from dogs, and saw tons of other Beth-ish symbolism. We weren’t exactly sure what it meant at the time, but now I think we do.

That small excursion from Alexandria was a foreshadow of this one. He’ll probably be gone much longer this time and the arc will be much bigger. It’s important to note that we saw not only Beth symbolism, but also saw Negan drink bad water and throw it up. That hints at the radiation/helicopter group stuff.

So I’m not saying Negan will meet Beth in the woods next episode—obviously I’d be great with that, but I’m sure it will be much more complicated and protracted—but just that something about him leaving will lead to Beth. I’m excited to see how it all plays out.

When Daryl talks to Carol, she says all the drama in the communities—both the stuff with Negan and Lydia, as well as the tree situation at Hilltop—are distractions from the true enemy: Alpha. I know there are lots of theories floating around about Carol being the one to have let Negan out. 

While I don’t think we have much evidence of that either way, I certainly wouldn’t dismiss it. It would mirror her killing Karen and David at the prison in 4a. Not that the action is the same, but this wouldn’t be the first time Carol took it on herself to solve a problem in a less than ethical way, because she thinks it’s for the greater good. But no one knows for sure what happened yet. They didn’t tell us in this episode. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, when Michonne and Daryl talk on the radio, she tells him to protect Lydia. She’s afraid that if anything happens to Lydia, or if she leaves Alexandria, Alpha will attack them. Yeah, once again, that’s a setup. Something along these lines will happen eventually and bring Alpha’s wrath.

Near the end, Michonne, Judith and Luke head back to Oceanside because Rachel radioed to say they thought they saw some Whisperers near where the mask washed up in 10x01. So Michonne is going to investigate. She takes Judith and Luke with her. Where Luke is concerned, I kinda feel like he might die. I hope not, but they sure focused a lot on him saying heartfelt goodbyes to his group (Magna, Connie, Kelly, and Yumiko). That struck me as suspicious. Like that group might not all be together again.

Details:

I won’t do a full details post because there were only a handful I saw worth mentioning.

When Lydia said Gauge and his pals deserved what she did (with the squirrel), Daryl said, “I get it.” Obvious Beth line.

When Siddiq had another freak out, he put his face in ice water. Not a huge deal, but another example of water helping to (temporarily at least) heal him.

When Lydia was in medical, talking to Daryl, we see a bunch of IV bags behind her. Just reminded me of Grady.

Oh, and Lydia played around with a worm when she was talking to Negan. (Worm Theory.)

When Michonne talked to Daryl on the radio, she told him to be her proxy for the vote. This really isn’t anything official, but that word caught my ear. It had nothing to do with Beth in the plot, but how often does TD, in our theories, talk about Beth proxies? And I don’t think I’ve ever heard them use that actual word on the show before. So it just got my attention. ;D

When Negan disappeared, FG said the guards reported that the keys were missing. Key Theory. And reminds me a lot of all the keys we saw at Grady.

When Daryl and Carol talked on the steps, Carol had an interesting line. She said, “it’s like time never moves.” I wondered if that might be a reference to the clocks without hands. She also mentions New Mexico yet again.

We see Michonne and Judith fighting walkers side by side. Just look at this. I think it might be a callback to when Rick and Carl fought walkers together (with guns in that case) at the prison in 4a.

Finally, this isn’t really a TD detail, but they’re definitely setting something up with Magna and Yumiko. Their relationship is in a rocky place, but I feel like it’s mostly because Magna is kind of spiraling. She seems angry and like she just wants to kill everything. I don’t know what they’re setting up there, but something.

When Lydia butchered the squirrel, which I already said was very Daryl-like, it specifically showed that Father Gabriel (embodiment of the Sirius symbolism/Beth) was watching her. I’m not entirely sure what to make of that, but I found it interesting.

I loved seeing Daddy Daryl taking care of Lydia. It’s really sweet and compelling. I’m enjoying his interactions with Lydia. I always feel like he’s on the verge of telling her about Beth. But alas, he doesn’t. At least, not in this episode.

Lydia said she let Negan out, though when Daryl confronted her, she admitted she didn’t. But she ultimately wanted to stay in Negan’s cell because she felt safer in there. It just occurred to me that she currently has a Morgan mindset (from 6x06) where she actually feels more comfortable in a cage. Just kind of interesting.

Ending:

At the end, they repeat the “1, 2, 3” song again. We see Luke saying goodbye to everyone, which I already talked about. Then we see Carol on the roof, looking at a map. (Maybe evidence that she’s systematically looking for Alpha?) Then we see Daryl scrubbing the graffiti off his front door.

Guess what? The vest is back! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

That’s super important, guys. We really haven’t seen his vest in a LONG time. It’s return now, with the missing wing on obvious display, feels really important. Like Beth’s return (the return of his missing wing, perhaps?) is just around the corner.

The camera pans around, showing all the graffiti (there was more than just the stuff on Daryl’s door). It stops on one particular instance of it. And, this might be hard to hear, but if you put on the subtitles, the song ends, followed by the sounds of walkers. Then the subtitles say that a Whisperer is saying, “Shhhhh.”

Yeah, that feels like a very significant setup. I feel like these first three episodes were really intros or setups for the season. Now we’re going to get into the meat and potatoes of things. You know, either really get into the Whisper War, or else something else huge is going to happen. And whatever it is, I think it will lead to Beth. I saw the last sequence of this episode as evidence that the arc where Beth returns is about to ensue. That makes me happy.

Okay. Gonna stop there for today. As I said, I won’t do a details post for this episode. Either tomorrow or Wednesday, I’ll do a post talking about where I’m thinking the events of this episode (such as Negan leaving, Michonne going to Oceanside, seeing Daryl smoke last episode, etc) might be heading. So it will mostly be a predictions post. Sort of. Stay tuned. ;D

[myheadcanonacademia]

Bakugou X Reader.  Draft/Concept.

You want to be a hero but your husband doesnt want you do.

I want to keep working on this and make it longer but i dont have the time right now and wanted to get something out so here is this. Its not spellchecked OR ANYTHING. i will not apologize. 

You sat on the sofa lazily, but your eyes darted to the front door every now and then as you patiently waited for your husband to get home. The child was in bed hours ago, dinner was just waiting to be reheated, and you had shaved your legs so everything was ready for a celebratory return. In just a few short weeks your little baby girl was starting preschool and you wouldn’t need to be there to care for her every minute of the day anymore. That and you and your husband had made a deal and it was his turn to hold up his end. You had both been working the same hero agency as sidekicks when you had graduated together from school. Adult life snuck up on you both fast. One day you Katsuki were making out in alley ways and the next you were saying your vows. And then Katsuki had asked you if he could become a father. You both wanted kids but Katsuki wanted them much sooner than you were prepared. You had hoped to become a professional hero and own your own agency with your husband and have a few sidekicks as well and then start a family. But the way Katsuki saw it the longer you waited the life would get in the way.

You had both made a deal. It was obvious you were suspended from hero work while you were pregnant, and then the baby had been born and she had been so very sick… she was always in the hospital, Katsuki used to stand in the bathroom with the hot water steaming up the air at 3 am to help her breath, your baby girl hadnt been easy. But that was behind you. Because the deal you made stated that Katsuki would continue his hero work (he had a better salary) while you stayed him and cared for the child. And you were happy too. You needed the rest. But now you were energetic and hungry for action. You had kept up with you training for the most part, and of course stayed in touch with your friends. You had called Yarayouzo and handt even needed to ask before she had you signed up as a side kick at her agency.

You were getting excited. Katsuki would be home any moment now, your husband was going to be so happy to have you at his side once again. You often spoke of your future dream to him and he would smile and agree. The lock on the door clicked and Katsuki Bakugou stopped through the door shedding layers of clothing as he made his way past you and to the kitchen.

“welcome home.” Katsuki nearly jumped out of his skin.

“fuck! ____ don’t scare me like that…” his hand was over his heart. “what are you doing up still?”

You grinned with excitement following as Katsuki moved through his routine and tossed his meal into the microwave to warm up. There was a hop in your walk and a big grin on your face, your hands clasped behind your back as you swayed comically. “ive got news.”

“good news I hope.” Katsuki was messing with the leather buckle on the remains of his bracers. It looked like it was coming loose. He cursed as his fiddling caused it to break. His eyes shot up. “your not pregnant again are you?”

“No! no. don’t worry about that.” Being pregnant woudlnt really help you right now. “____is starting school soon!”

Katsuki checked his still cold food. “In just overa month. I know.”

“Well, I was thinking- and I already talked to Momo about it and shes totally on board to don’t worry about that, and ive been going to the gym to that’s something im working on and-“

“stop. Youre rambling.”Bakugou gave up on warming the meal and took his luke warm dinner to the table. He was ravenous.

“oh sorry I just got excited… I just cant wait to get back into being a hero!” you smiled wide. Well you were going to be a side kick but it was a start. You waited for the joyous reply you expected from your husband. It dint come. He stared at you, his eye brows knitted together.

“what are you on about?” he frowned.

“well with ____ growing up so fast there is a lot more free time and we did make a deal… you got to be the hero first, then when the baby is big enough I get my turn.  Honestly, im hoping we could both stay in the field.” Katsuki was silent still, his mouth slightly open and his knee shaking. “it might be difficult if we are on different-“

“No.” he cut you off.

“what?” you looked on at him, taking a seat at the table as well. What did he mean by no? You husband continued to shovel food into his mouth, his eyes avoiding your confused stare.

“I said No. You cant be a hero.” He ran his tongue over his teeth, cleaning them off before taking another bite. “Your more use to this family as a mother.”

Something in your brain snapped, all the joy and happiness you had been feeling felt like it fell out of your ass in one painful bullshit reality check. Bakugou didn’t wait for you to reply as he continued his explination. “Its not really a good time for me either. Im almost at the top ten, I don’t need to be worried about taking care of a child added on top of it.” The asshole took your hand in his. “I need you here, doing all the home stuff so that I can become number one. Besides- “ he released your hand and took another bite of food ”-I thought you liked being a housewife.”

You shoved yourself up from the table. Your husbands face looking honestly a little confused at your rage. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I’m not saying ever. Maybe when ____ is in middle school.” He seemed satisfied with that.

You grabbed the remains of his dinner, his hands raised in surprise as you tossed it in the garbage. “I put my dreams on hold for you…” the rage was too much and was bubbling out of you in tears.

“And I love you because of it… I couldn’t have done it without you-“

“its always about you isn’t it!” you finally scream. “The great Katsuki Bakugou! And his dutiful wife… I cook, I clean, I had your child. I sit and I wait at home for you to come home every night. That is my life!”

“Do you regret having our child?” he spat. You walked straight over to him and slapped him in the face.

“you’re a fucking asshole.” You turned and made your way up the stairs to get ready for bed. You didn’t want to get into a big fight with him about this. Fights never got either of you anywhere, you were both hardheaded and aggressive. Fuck you did feel guilty for slapping him, he would never lift a hand to you no matter how angry… You were trying to make your body move and go apologize to him but you just couldn’t. you got ready for bed and lay under the covers hoping for sleep before Katsuki joined you.

But it didn’t take long for the male to enter the bedroom. He took his time in the shower before he slipped under the covers. The lights were turned off and you felt his warm body press against your back. His soft hands ran over your arm and clenched your waist. “im sorry for how that went down…”

“im sorry for slapping you… “ you whispered.

“you understand where im coming from though?”

You were silent as Katsuki waited for an answer but got nothing. “Im going to do it Katsuki. I don’t need your permission.”

“Will you take a blessing?” He layed back down on to his back, crossing his arms over his chest. “I believe in you. You will be a great hero.”

[chichorie]

unpopular opinion: I think that the dr3's characters overall fell short of those from the previous games. It has some excellent characters, but I was uninterested in most of them.

(v3 spoilers under the cut)

i kind of agree and kind of disagree. i do think that v3 relied heavily on some tropes set up from the previous games, (this could have also been due to plot/endgame spoilers) but personally, i felt that the cast of v3 was my favorite and i honestly like every character in the game. 

a few complaints i do have tho:

kirumi: this girl has no personality AT ALL. and its such a shame because she has a cool design and an interesting talent. but they made her talent HER ONLY PERSONALITY TRAIT. shes a maid! and thats the only thing that we’re getting out of her the whole game. her freetime events? “im a maid. heres what i can do.” it doesnt even offer any reason why she became a maid or anything that she does/did before becoming a maid or in her downtime. just. “im a maid.” her love suite event? predictable. maid/master. its... sad. 

kirumi had the potential to be a badass character and they reduced her down to one trait. thats why i really liked the manga anthology- there was a comic where kirumi talked about how she used to play gacha games a lot and had to stop because she was spending so much money on them. thats character! thats personality! thats backstory! it was so refreshing to see! but in game it felt like they didnt know what to do with her, so they killed her off in chapter 2.

korekiyo: i honestly often forgot that he was a character until chapter 3 because he... didnt do anything. he didnt talk to anyone. so when he started getting involved in the investigation in chapter 3 it was very suspicious and it made it obvious that he was the killer because before that point he did absolutely nothing. i feel like the writers also kind of forgot that he was a character and forgot to make him do absolutely anything before chapter 3. but he has a cool design and personality so its rlly :( 

also cut the i*cest shit out please

himiko, tenko, and angie: i didnt care about this arc. at all. every time one of these characters started fighting over himiko i just sighed and wanted to skip it because it was SO BORING. ive never been more relieved over victim reveals because that meant i didnt have to sit through 10 more minutes of those two fighting over himiko. but then i realized id have to deal with himiko saying “im a mage” and “its magic” for the rest of the game bc of the “dead friend” immunity perk and i was like UUUGHHH. even after all that, i didnt feel like himiko changed much. at least, she didnt stop annoying me.

tsumugi: let me preface this by saying that I LOVE TSUMUGI SHIROGANE WITH ALL MY HEART but i feel like the writers did her dirty. i wish she had been more important before the chapter 6 reveal. i feel like her not doing anything until she became the mastermind made it easy for players to hate her when she actually is quite a sweet girl. also, i feel like if she had done more, say along the lines of kaito or maki, it wouldve been more devastating if she had been revealed as the mastermind because you wouldve felt betrayed. 

tsumugi was a really nice girl and i wish i couldve seen her interact more with the others instead of being content with being thrown into the background. i know she says shes plain but i think its endearing and nice because both her and shuichi and kaede have that normality in common, so i think they couldve been good friends. personally i wish she and keebo had talked more, because of team dr shenanigans, i thought it wouldve been cute if she treated him like a little brother. 

ALSO CUT THE I*CEST SHIT IN THE LOVE SUITE EVENT OUT PLEASE.

maki: i both like and dislike maki, i wish she wouldve changed more throughout the game. i think i wouldve preferred to see kaito’s reaction to maki being executed instead of the other way around. maybe she kills to protect him or something, something shes never done before. i think it wouldve been more interesting than the blatant “i have feelings for kaito” reveal at the end of chapter 5. and the fact that she couldnt actually do anything to save him- it wouldve been so cool to see maki in action is what im saying. it wouldve been nice to see maki say ”i love you” without actually having to say it, either. 

shuichi: i didnt like shuichi in chapter 1 because in comparison to the other boys, i just didnt think he was interesting at all. i think shuichi only works as a protagonist, because i didnt like him until chapter 2 when he took over for kaede and i got to see what he was thinking. this isnt a super big complaint but i thought id mention it.

keebo: they did my boy dirty. they did my boy SO DIRTY. i hate that the entire game all he does is get bullied by kokichi, which makes his “haha hes a stupid robot who yells about ‘robot rights!’” trope come to the forefront of his personality so he doesnt seem like he can do anything at all until the end of the game when he fucking kills himself. 

[xseedgames]

2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza Blog! #1

It’s time for our first 2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza! We’ve got a bunch of these we’ll be posting over the holiday break, so please look forward to them. Now, let’s roll right in!

We have answers from: 

Ken Berry, Executive Vice President / Team Leader John Wheeler, Assistant Localization Manager Nick Colucci, Localization Editor Liz Rita, QA Tester Brittany Avery, Localization Producer Thomas Lipschultz, Localization Producer

Question: Has selling your games on PC worked out for you so far? I know supporting the PC platform is a relatively recent choice for XSEED. - @Nate_Nyo

Ken: Being on PC has been great for us as it allows us to reach anyone anywhere in the world regardless of region or console. We were probably one of the earlier adopters in terms of bringing content from Japan to PC as we first published Ys: The Oath in Felghana on Steam almost 6 years ago in early 2012.

Brittany: I love working on PC. The work involved is greater than working on console, but I feel like it's a bigger learning experience, too. For console, the developers normally handle the graphics after we translate them, and they do all the programming and such. For PC, everything falls on us. I wasn't that experienced with Photoshop in the beginning, but I think I've gotten a lot better with it over the years. We can also receive updates instantly, and since I talk with our PC programmer through Skype, it's easier to suss out our exact needs and think of ideas to improve the game or bring it to modern standards.

Question: What non-XSEED games do you praise the localization for? - @KlausRealta

Brittany: Final Fantasy XII. I love everything about Final Fantasy XII's writing. I'm also a big fan of the personality in the Ace Attorney localizations. I'm still playing Yakuza 0, but you can feel the passion of the localization team in the writing. There are some projects where you can tell the editing was phoned in, and then there are games where it's obvious it was a labor of love. All of these games have a color I aspire to.

Tom: Probably going to be a popular answer, and not an especially surprising one, but I've got to give props to Lost Odyssey. It's hard to deny the timeless quality and absolutely masterful English writing that went into basically every line of that game's massive script, with the many short stories being of particular note. That game really does represent an inspirational high bar that I think most everyone else in the industry will forever strive to reach in their own works.

For a more unexpected answer, I've also got to give mad props to Sega for their work on Monster World IV. As a Sega Genesis game released digitally in English for the very first time less than a decade ago, I guess I was kind of expecting a fairly basic "throwaway" translation -- but instead, the game boasts a full-on professional grade localization that's easily up to all modern standards, brimming with charm and personality. It's really nice to see a legitimate retro game being given that kind of care and attention in the modern era, and it makes it very easy for me to recommend (as does the fact that the game is actually quite fun, and is sure to be enjoyed by anyone who's played through all the Shantae titles and really wants to try something else along similar lines).

John: I played Okami on PS3 earlier this year (before the remake was announced), and I was awed by how skillfully the team handled text that is chock full of localization challenges like quirky nicknames, references to Japanese fairy tales, and regional dialects. I was especially amused to see a reference to "kibi dango," the dumplings Momotaro uses to bribe his companions in that famous story. We dealt with the same cultural reference with STORY OF SEASONS: Trio of Towns.

Nick: My go-to response is always Vagrant Story, because it’s the game I credit with getting me really interested in a career in localization. Before that point, I had enjoyed games for their story and characters, but hadn’t realized just how much the specific word choices and tone contributed to a reader’s perception of a story as a whole. The gents behind VS’s localization would go on to be industry luminaries, with Rich Amtower now calling shots in Nintendo’s Treehouse department and Alex Smith being synonymous with the highly regarded prose of Yasumi Matsuno’s games – including the cool and underappreciated Crimson Shroud for 3DS, and Final Fantasy XII, which as anyone who’s played it can tell you is a stellar localization. Having spent a lot of time with FFXII’s “The Zodiac Age” remaster this year, the care and attention to detail put into the localization still blows me away. The unique speech style of the Bhujerbans (with...Sri Lankan inflections, if memory serves correctly) sticks with me, because I knew that I myself would never have been able to pull off something like that so deftly. I guess you could say Vagrant Story started a lineage of games that’s always given me something to aspire to as an editor.

Final Fantasy XIV, which I’ve been playing this year, also has a very good localization, especially considering the reams of text that go into an MMO of its size and scope. Michael-Christopher Koji Fox and his team have done a bang-up job giving life and personality to the land of Eorzea, and I’ve enjoyed seeing how the localization has changed in subtle ways as time has gone on. The initial “A Realm Reborn” localization sort of cranks the “regional flavor” up to 11 with heavy dialects and vernacular, but in subsequent expansions, they kind of eased up on that and have found a good mix between grounded localization and the kind of flourishes that work well in high-fantasy settings.

 And, while I haven’t played it in a number of years, I remember Dragon Quest VIII having a really great localization, too, with ol’ Yangus still living large in my memories. Tales of the Abyss was fantastic as well, and both DQVIII and Abyss delivered some really brilliant dub work that showed me how much richer one could make characterization when the writing and the acting really harmonized. I still consider Tales of the Abyss my general favorite game dub to date. The casting is perfect, with not a bad role among them. I also want to give mad props to Ni no Kuni’s Mr. Drippy, just as a perfect storm of great localization decisions. Tidy, mun!

Question: How hard is it to turn in game signs and words to English for Japanese? Is it as simple as going in and editing text? Or as hard as creating a whole new texture for the model? - @KesanovaSSB4

Tom: We refer to this as "graphic text" -- meaning, literally, text contained within graphic images. How it's handled differs from project to project, but the short answer is, yeah, it involves creating a whole new texture for the model. Sometimes, this is handled by the developer: they'll just send us a list of all the graphic text images that exist in-game and what each image says, we'll send that list back to them with translations, and they'll use those translations to create new graphic images on our behalf. For other games, however (particularly PC titles we're more or less spearheading), we'll have to do the graphic edits ourselves. When the original PSDs or what-not exist for the sign images, this is generally pretty easy -- but as you might expect, those aren't always available to us, meaning we'll sometimes have to go to a bit more trouble to get this done.

John: The best practice is to review graphic text very early in the localization process because it takes effort to fix and can throw a wrench in schedules if issues are discovered too late. On occasion, it is too difficult to change ubiquitous textures, especially those that might also appear in animation. This was the case with "NewTube" in SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash, which the localization team wanted to change to "NyuuTube" to make the wordplay clearer to series fans.

Question: With the Steam marketplace becoming increasingly saturated and being seen as a greater risk to publish on in recent times, what does XSEED plan on doing in order to remain prominent and relevant in the PC gaming space? - @myumute

Ken: It is indeed getting harder and harder to stand out as hundreds of new titles are releasing on Steam each month. We are working our way towards simultaneous release across all platforms to help leverage some of the coverage from the console version to get more attention to the PC release, so hopefully that's something we can accomplish soon. For PC-exclusive releases it continues to be a challenge, but at least they have a long tail and even if it's not an immediate success at launch we know it can continue to produce sales for years to come.

Question: What was your favorite film that you saw in 2017, and why? - @Crippeh

John: I'm way behind on movies this year (haven't seen Disaster Artist, Phantom Thread, or Get Out, for example), but recently I've enjoyed both Star Wars and Lady Bird. I expect I'll watch my favorite film from 2017 sometime in 2018.

Ken: Wind River. Mainly because of Jeremy Renner's performance and how many quotable lines he had.

Liz: Get Out for horror mindblowing amazingness, Spider-Man Homecoming for genuinely fun comic book movie, and The Shape of Water for Guillermo del Toro. Guillermo del Toro should always be a category.

That’s it! Stay turned for blog #2 later this week. Here’s a preview of the kinds of questions we’ll be answering:

Question: Have you ever considered selling the music CDs for your licenses stateside? - @LimitTimeGamer Question: If possible, would you please consider researching and localizing classic Korean-made PC xRPGs? - @DragEnRegalia Question: Do you have any interest in pursuing the localization of any of the large, beautiful Chinese RPGs that have been hitting Steam? Or are you focused exclusively on Japanese titles? - @TheDanaAddams Question: What inspired you all to do this kind of work in the first place? Also, what’s the story behind the company name XSEED? How did you all come up with it? - @TBlock_02 Question: What was everyone's favorite game(s) to work on this year? - @ArtistofLegacy Question: What's everyone's favorite song from the Falcom games you've released so far? - @Crippeh

[dorcasing]

TASK #003 - THE FUTURE

i. people around her kept on dying, disappearing, leaving. oh, how she wished she could be numb in face of such carnage, that her mind and soul could be as quiet as her tongue whenever another grim meeting of the order took place, with their moments of silence and ‘i’ll go tell the family’. the moment words of yet another loss reached her ears, she glitched, malfunctioned - mortality was still such a flimsy concept in her head that dorcas would never truly learn how to grasp the concept of someone being gone. she lived too fast for such notions. the loud-mouthed comic was silent. she’d remain that way for a handful of meetings, and for whichever funerals she’d manage to attend.

ii. she once confided in gideon prewett information so precious, so confidential, that she wondered if he doubted its honesty for a moment. addresses to all the family members he’d never seen and a message as clear as rain - if something happens, it must be you who tells them. ‘tell my brother first. bromley knows there’s a war.’ the list of details went on. ‘never tell my mother alone.’ a set of rules so carefully prepared that doesn’t align with the image of aloof dorcas, always a touch unreachable, mysterious, as if she didn’t truly live in the same plane as other mortals. she came with no rules, but her past did. gideon died before her, shattering her heart in ways she’d never recover from. she asked mary macdonald then, and hoped, and hoped, and hoped, that she survived for longer than her. she wasn’t sure how many messengers she could lose.

iii. dorcas was growing restless, the war wearing her down to the bone. she was but a child when the order took her in, and would die centuries older, exhaustion seeping into her veins - but not wiser. her lack of experience and her fiery personality made for an explosive match, and she felt every shrapnel dig further into her skin day by day. her recklessness became more obvious. some tried to tell her the road she was headed to awaited her with open arms and pain, pain, PAIN, but she laughed it off. dorcas meadowes was untouchable - they’d never seen her bruised, they’d never seen her scarred. something far more nefarious was brewing inside her though, expanding after each death, feeding on her fears and anger. if she must bleed out for peace, so be it; all she wanted was an end to the uncessing misery. ‘you’ll get yourself killed’ so be it. a shrug of the shoulders, a hollowed chuckle.

iv. ‘marlene mckinnon is dead’. she stopped hearing after that. seeing. breathing. all she could feel was this tingling sensation on the tips of her fingers. the woman demanded to see a body, and so they showed it to her - her heart sunk at the sight. dorcas was certain she’d left it there, near the sickeningly-pale CORPSE of her whole world. the following hours remained hazy in her mind until the desperate end: people spoke, held her shoulders, hands, face; she trembled, as if the cold was to never leave her soul again; her soul, fragmented, ripped in half ( god, why didn’t they take her half too ), left her with an ache she couldn’t reach to soothe. dorcas meadowes entered that room, but she never left.  

v. she left a note for the order, referring to an ongoing case and explaining her purpose. she’d end it all, for marlene. yes, yes, she’d do something BRAVE, something great, something deadly. her only stop on the way was to ronan avery’s doorstep, and she refused to come in. dorcas couldn’t remember, in the end, what she’d told him exactly - there was this deafening silence in all her memories. all that mattered was that she would be walking into the lion’s den, knowingly, and probably never coming back. no one would come tell ronan avery such a thing, so she owed this to him. a bitter goodbye. he was the last real human she spoke to.

vi. her plan was reckless, STUPID, suicidal. she was well aware. the suffering in her told her not to care, and she dutifully obeyed. during the following two days, she infiltrated into a small group of death eaters, something she’d done before, but those had always been her best planned missions. she made her presence barely noticed, hiding in the dark corners, sneaking documents out, stored away for proper recollection later. they never made much of a difference in the war. it was useless, after all. dorcas meant to take only one break from her pain-numbing work, and it was to attend the funeral of one marlene mckinnon. the manor she was leaving from had newly casted protection wards that didn’t allow for apparition - something was wrong.

vii. oh, how the death eaters had asked to put an end to the THORN on their side that was dorcas meadowes, the moment her identity was easily discovered. they’d failed to accomplish that goal before, and voldemort would take no such chance again. no, he deserved to taste this death, slowly, gloriously. he chased her around the gardens for a while, a hunter without honour, baiting a wounded prey. when the game bored him, all it took was a short duel and there she was, fearlessly looking into his eyes, taunting him. dorcas would never stop laughing in the face of the devil, no matter how defeated she was. i’m not scared, i’m not scared, i’m not scared. her boggart is her own corpse. i’m not scared, i’m not scared. she held her bloodied chin high, sweat running down her face, but no tears. i’m not scared. his wand was near her face, such a fragile thing, just like magic, just like life. i’m not scared. there wouldn’t be many left to mourn her.

mourn.

it hit her in that final second, as her weakened body and mind tried to force a surrender out of the woman. i’m terrified.

dorcas meadowes died that day. whispers at her friend’s funeral condemned her absence, claiming that the least she could do was come to say a final goodbye. they learned later that a mangled body had been found near a particular telephone booth in london, covered in blood, in pain, in regrets. it was a message - they would tear apart those who’d stand on their way. the order should be careful. this was the result of daring.

[xellzios]

Life

This was supposed to be written due to @bhion-chan​‘s request, but instead because of the message it turned into something different than what I intended. You’ll see a bit of Fairy Tail inspiration from this, but mostly this is what I think the baby symbolizes in the story.

This is from Ayato’s point of view, because I wanted to write something that involves him and his relationship with Touka (and Hinami). Thank you @mamasaiko​ for being my quality control (lmao). I hope I did not make Ayato OOC.

This is roughly a continuation of the fic, World. Part IV of World occurred before and around Part II of Life. Enjoy. :)

I.

“Y-you’re what?” To say that he was dumbfounded was underestimating it.

Touka smiled sadly, her eyes downcast as she laid in bed. His eyes traveled down to the hand that gently rested in her stomach and then back up to his sister’s face. “I’m pregnant.”

He was speechless, and yet his hands shook with such intensity that anyone in the room would’ve noticed. It was a good thing Hinami wasn’t here, he thought, because she would’ve seen right through him.

He was scared, and that fear brought out his anger.

The revelation shook him as he clenched his fist and gritted his teeth. He was torn between the absurdity of the news and the unspoken truth of the guilt he had been feeling ever since that day. Why in the world did this stupid-ass king get his sister pregnant at this point in time? He almost lost her for fuck’s sake!

The situation was so surreal he thought he was dreaming. Just a few weeks ago, he almost lost her to the doves, even if what he had done all this time was to make sure that she would stay protected. And now, with this kid in tow, it almost felt comical. The gods had a cruel sense of humor, he thought.

“Ayato, please understand.” Her voice was pleading and scared, just like him. And when he looked at her, her eyes radiated with an intensity in its wish that he couldn’t even think about lashing out his anger. He wanted to scream and tell her what an idiotic sister she was, to tell her as well that he was so scared when she almost lost her life back then.

And yet he couldn’t, his throat felt like it had thorns. The look of sadness in her eyes was too much for him to bear, and he knew the weight on her shoulder was already heavy that he didn’t want to add up to her burden. His sister didn’t even feel like Touka at the moment, and he knew she wasn’t still over the fact that she almost lost her life as well, and her brat. With a sigh, he loosened his grip and placed his hands on his pocket.

“Do what you want, stupid sister.” His voice was cold, even to his own ears. He wished that he could tell her how much he wanted to support her, but he didn’t know what to say or feel about the news. He didn’t want to sadden her more either. “But if you get hurt again, I guarantee that his life will be the price.”

Or his. But he did not voice this out. Ayato could see the unease slowly dissipating from her form as she gave him a tired smile. With a sigh, he gave her a small smile of his own as he left the room. Sadly, it did not reach his heart.

He sat by the edge of the roof, face on his palm while he was lost on his thoughts. He was bored and irritated as he observed Touka read to the Aogiri kids.  She looked so tired and worn out, he thought. It didn’t even seem like she was eating or even sleeping. And yet he knew that she was, he had been keeping an eye on her after all. Was this what her pregnancy was doing to her? Tch, stupid sister.

“Ayato.” Hinami yelled at him for the umpteenth time that day. Briefly, he looked down to find the source of the voice, his mind still in disarray. She was pouting from where she stood from the ground underneath him, holding a bag of clothes.

“What do you want Hina?”

“You told me you’ll help me with the laundry!”

With a sigh, he put his palm on his face. He didn’t think he’d forget it was their turn to do the laundry this week. “Alright, alright. I’ll come down now.”

With one quick swoop, he was in front of her. “Mou, you’ve been spacing out a lot lately.”

He patted her head as a response. “Don’t think too much, you’ll get wrinkles.” He gave her a wide grin as he took the bag away from her hands.

“Dummy!” she blurted, sticking her tongue out at him. He chuckled at her reaction as they proceeded to walk back into the house they shared with his sister and Ken, picking up some more laundry along the way. And yet, even with the small banter they always did, Hinami felt the distance that kept her from reaching him.

She herself had been worrying about Ayato ever since the raid in the 24th ward happened.

Their trip to the water source was short, but silent. Ayato looked detached, and yet she knew he was just worrying, as always. Despite his cold exterior and nonchalance, Ayato always had an internal turmoil of emotions that haunted him. And Hinami could see through that.

She could see the changes in his attitude and actions, which say a lot more about Ayato than his words. These days, he was always on high alert – he stood on guard every night and refuse to leave the base because he thought he was more needed there than whatever operations GOAT had planned. He also silently kept tabs on her and Touka, and even though he thought she never noticed, Hinami could always sense him.

She knew he was worried about them, she also knew he felt guilty for leaving the 24th ward. It was obvious how he would clam up every time that event was mentioned. More often than not, he was always spacing out as well, quietly lost in his own thoughts even though he was talking to others.

When they arrived, Hinami instructed him what to do and they broke the errand down equally between the both of them. He obliged silently and went to work, his mind still in a turmoil. He worried a lot about his sister’s condition recently. He didn’t know if it was a good thing to keep the brat, because for him it felt like in every day that passed, she became worse for wear. And yet she also looked somewhat happy whenever the child is mentioned or when Ken was beside her.

“Ne, Hinami-chan,” he suddenly started, still dazed, “do you think my sister is doing the right thing?”

It was the first time he addressed his uncertainty, and the first time he told someone about his worry. “About what?” she asked curiously.

“The brat.” He spit out, as if just muttering the words made it all seem real. His cheeks felt warm at the mention of it, while he proceeded on sorting the clothes.

“Why not?”

“I don’t know.” He put his hand to rub the back of his neck, “I just.. worry.”

Hinami giggled at his reaction.

“What’s so funny about that?” he blurted, frustrated.

‘So this is why he was acting weird,’ she thought.

“Nee-chan’s face always lights up at the mention of the baby, Ayato-kun,” she explained. “I think it a good thing.”

Ayato’s eyes widened by her answer. If there was anything that life taught him, it was that the world was cruel, life itself was cruel. All the things he loved, all the things that brought him peace – eventually they were all taken from him. He wanted to believe in it, Hinami’s words. He wanted to hold onto hope itself, to finally hold onto something that will not slip away. “Do you really think so?”

The uncertainty that was mixed with a fragile hope was too palpable for Hinami not to have heard. It showed her how much Ayato cared, and how much he wanted to see life itself painted in blue. It made her heart ache at the thought, and yet she smiled for him.

Because she also wanted to give him hope, and thus in turn she wished that the hope will grow and bloom. “Hai.” Her voice was strained with emotion, of the tears she tried to contain. “Whenever I talk to Touka nee-chan about it, her face would turn warm and she would smile,” she described, remembering how Touka’s eyes would light up at the thought of the child living, of the future she wanted to bring to life. She herself could see the changes in her actions, and she could see the hope that radiated into those sorrowful eyes. And despite being worried about her health, she knew that her sister would endure anything for this baby to live. “She really loves the baby, she will be alright.”

She believed in her.

With a sigh, Ayato stood up. He too, had noticed the subtle happiness in Touka whenever he asked about the pregnancy. There was still no single identifying feature in her body that could give away the pregnancy at the moment, except for the morning sickness she had been feeling every day. And yet despite that, he could feel the warmth that radiated through her when she thought of the child, of the gentle gazes, of the hopeful eyes.

“I hope so too.”

II.

“Are you fucking blind you stupid aneki? Can’t you see what that thing is doing to you?”

Ayato seethed in anger. He wanted to shake Touka awake, to make her see that this wasn’t working out.

He had tried, oh he did. He had tried so hard to convince himself that it would work out, that she would be fine. But in every passing day, it hurt him how Touka continuously endured all of the brutal onslaught that the pregnancy brought. He shook her shoulders, hoping that it would wake her up.

“You’re wrong.” But try as he might, even if she already looked so fragile and tired as he shook her shoulders, Touka’s eyes were the same. He felt like she was slipping away, like all other things he had in his life. 

“If this is what’s needed to bring my child in the world, I will do it, Ayato.” Her smile was gentle, in contrast to his rash and aggressiveness. Yet it was also deceiving, he thought. And her eyes – they burned with a conviction so deep that Ayato could never hope to win against it.

And it hurt.

It hurt him that whenever he would try to feed her, she would just end up heaving everything back out.

It hurt him when she couldn’t even find the strength to get out of the bed in some days, as if she had become a prisoner in the room that was supposed to provide her with comfort.

It hurt when she would try to cheer up his worries, and yet all she could do was fake a smile and tell him she was alright. When in reality, she was shaking so hard, it was as if her resolve would shatter right in front of his eyes in any given time.

And most of all, it hurt him that he could do nothing, not one thing at all to ease her pain.

He was afraid that this time, she would leave him. He was scared that if he did not do something, he would never get to see his stupid sister again. Unknown tears fell from his cheeks as his emotions whirled. He stayed silent, defeated. He felt like she was slipping away from him. Was this what she felt like when he left? Utter helplessness? Now he knew.

And yet, like always, Touka was the calm in his storm, the warmth to his cold. Instead of saying anything, she gently wrapped her arms around him, as if to comfort him. Like a silent promise that she would always be here.

“Nee-chan, please.” He didn’t know why those words came out of his mouth. Hell, he didn’t even know why he was even saying this anymore when Touka herself was decided. He didn’t even know if he was talking to her, asking her to live. Or maybe, he was talking to a god out there, because he wanted to hope and pray that he would keep his sister safe.

He exited the room, defeated and forlorn. He was at a loss on what he should do anymore, as his sister already finalized her resolve. He had lost the battle.

As he got outside the cottage, he went to the small clearing where his target was, alone and walking towards where Ayato himself came from. He gathered all his strength and frustration in one hand and punched him hard that he felt some bones in his face break.

“If something happens to my sister, Kaneki,” he churned, his blood boiling, “Consider yourself dead.”

“This is all your fault.”

Ayato sighed. He didn’t know what he wanted to say to Touka, didn’t know how to apologize for his rash actions.

Hinami berated him non-stop when she found out what he tried to do, and now he was left in a bind because she made him promise to patch things up with Touka before the end of the day or else she would be mad at him.

Ayato knew how scary Hinami was when she was angry.

Clearing his throat, he breathed deeply to calm his nerves as he gathered what confidence he could before he would knock on Touka’s room. He decided he would tell her that he’s sorry for yelling at her when she wasn’t supposed to be stressed, but that’s about it. He would keep his mouth shut after and leave. He didn’t feel sorry for punching Kaneki at all, or for telling the truth about the pregnancy.

But as he was about to knock, he noticed that the door was slightly askew, bringing forth an eye-opening reality that did not only surprise him, but also opened his eyes.

Inside the room was a sight he never thought he would see. A man’s eyes that stared wide with wonder, as if it was the only thing that existed in the room. His sister’s face was no different than his, cheeks stained with tears that freely fell in her face, which radiated with warmth and joy. They were lost in their little world, as if they were experiencing something that the mere eye woudn’t be able to comprehend.

Two people who had lost a lot in the world where blood rained, and yet found each other in a storm.

“I didn’t know you like to peep on opened doors, Ayato-kun.” His cheeks felt warm at the comment that it made Hinami chuckle.

“I-I was not peeping!“ he defended, moving away from the door as he went back into the kitchen. “I wanted to talk to Touka, but it looks like they are busy.”

A warm smile graced Hinami’s lips. “It must have been quite a sight for you to look like that.”

“S-stop it you idiot.” His blush deepened.

A brief, but comfortable silence enveloped them both, interrupted by a half-choked sob that came from inside the room. For Ayato, he still couldn’t process what he should feel at the sight, but he knew what it could’ve meant for the both of them.

“Do you see now, Ayato?” Hinami turned her back on the wall. “Do you understand what Touka nee-chan feels?”

He looked at Hinami and thought of all the things she had been through since she was young. She lost her father, whom she loved so much at a young age, even if they were ghouls who did nothing to harm humans. And as if that wasn’t enough, she lost her mother not long after the tragedy, who had died to give her the time she needed to escape. It made her question if she was even allowed to live in this world. And he knew that for a long time, she kept struggling in trying to validate her place. She had been through a lot, and like a snuff to rid the candle of its flames, he almost lost her as well during the raid in the 24th ward.

Yet, despite all the hardship and suffering, of all the pain and agony life had brought her, she kept on smiling. She smiled through the tears and kept her positive outlook about his sister’s resolve. She had given him the courage that everything wasn’t lost, that they could still stand up and be allowed to hope. Could he put his hope in this child? he wondered. Could it really bring the hope that these people who were starved of it, who had been through a lot, needed? IF Hinami, a ghoul who held nothing but light in her heart thought so, then maybe he could too.

“Maybe.”

III.

“So small…” he observed, looking at the bundle wrapped securely around Touka’s arms. He poked the tiny little hand that was clenched, but sadly, the baby was far too deep in his sleep to care. He looked a lot like Touka, from his facial expressions to the color of his eyes. But what stood out the most was how he looked so peaceful and carefree. “Is it even alive?”

“Of course it is, dummy.” Hinami berated, looking at Ayato with indignation. “He looks a lot like you, Onee-chan!”

“Hmp, he better!” He crossed his arms proudly, mesmerized by the little life form. He didn’t know what to think of him yet, but his presence was infectious.

“Ayato, don’t be so loud, the baby will wake up!”

“His name is Kazuki,” Touka whispered softy, gently touching her son’s face. As if hearing his mother, Kazuki stirred and wrapped his tiny hand around Ayato’s finger, his little face forming his first semblance of a smile.

His heart physically hurt at the sight, the feeling of overwhelming warmth that pooled in his stomach, the happiness and joy that he brought - it was too much. He couldn’t help but think how his sister felt at the moment, for surely, it was worth more for her. His eyes drifted to where she was, of the warm smile and the eyes that stared and studied every feature of the child. She turned her gaze to him for a bit, to give him a smile of her own.

“When I saw him for the first time,” Touka recalled, her eyes deeply captivated by her son’s smile, “I felt a light shining into my heart.”

Her voice shook with of emotion, her eyes brimming with tears. “And I dreamt of a future full of hope for him.”

‘Kazuki, huh?’ The name itself was that of hope, he realized. A whole-hearted smile formed on Ayato’s lips as he rubbed his thumb gently on the hand that was wrapped tightly around his index finger. His sister must be tremendously overwhelmed right now, he thought. He could feel her shaking, using her body to support the baby in her arms. Her tears continuously fell from her face, yet she didn’t care, fully mesmerized by the sight in front of her. It must have been too much for her to finally see the product of her sacrifices. The joy that she felt was palpable within the room, as well as outside it where Kaneki was greeting all well-wishers and those who wanted to see the baby.

He himself was caught within the warmth. These tiny little hands were the embodiment of the light that Touka had desperately sought for within the darkness. From this little body radiated all the infinite possibilities of the future that they thought they had lost after their defeat in the 24th ward. This tiny little soul had saved them from the darkness, he was their little hope.

He looked at Hinami whose eyes were also brimming with unshed tears, her smile tangible. He had thought that life was cruel, and viewed it at something that continuously took away all that made him happy. And yet, seeing Kazuki for the first time, the embodiment of all of his sister’s sacrifices, tears, hope and happiness – he realized that there was also one gift that life was capable of giving, something that proved that they too, belonged to this world.

The gift of life.

I hope I brought some justice to the characters in this fic, because I am not yet confident with my writing. I was gonna include a Yomo-Ayato or Kaneki Ayato interaction but when I wrote the first two parts I decided to cut it short. I have the drafts for those but maybe for next time. :)

World || Hope || Life || Strength || Will || Closure

[itcamefromblog]

The arrival of THE LAST JEDI on the big screen conjures up deep emotional feelings of nostalgia in me that are hard to suppress. After I first saw the end credits of RETURN OF THE JEDI roll by in the summer of 1983, I knew in my heart that STAR WARS was done; that this wonderful chapter of cinematic joy in my life was over. After all, a beleaguered George Lucas had said at the time that he was taking a long, indefinite break from his brainchild, despite offering up the promise of potentially making nine STAR WARS movies. We all know what happened in the interim with the prequels and various animated series and incessant merchandising, but I never truly believed over the course of the last three decades that my human heroes from The Original Trilogy — Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia — would ever return to continue their adventures.

So when Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012 and a new trilogy of STAR WARS films was announced along with a steady stream of spinoff films, I had to pinch myself that it was all happening again with the Original Trilogy trio for THE FORCE AWAKENS. Given the overwhelming success of that entry, its follow-up, THE LAST JEDI, promises a lot more screen time with Mark Hamill as an elder Luke Skywalker — and has an obvious fan-perceived correlation to 1981’s THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Darker, deeper, and potentially superior; a film that builds on top of the previous premise-establishing tale to do more world-building and to put our beloved heroes in even greater jeopardy. The tone and approach of EMPIRE has always been the benchmark comparison for the first sequels of many a Sci-Fi franchise, and though it’s essentially an apples-to-oranges comparison, THE LAST JEDI still has a lot to live up to.

In short, I’m super excited to see how this new STAR WARS movie stacks up to the rest. And in the process, I’m taking many walks down memory lane in a galaxy far, far away.

Looking back, it’s hard to believe that a full three years went by before we got a theatrical follow-up to the first STAR WARS (which mutated into STAR WARS: EPISODE IV – A NEW HOPE, complete with an unnecessary makeover two decades later), but to this day I’m grateful that we had so much time to mine our own imaginations for the further adventures of Luke Skywalker and friends before the saga got seriously deep and then, conversely, a little too cartoonish. The wild storylines in the Marvel Comics adaptation of STAR WARS and such novels such as SPLINTER OF THE MIND’S EYE and HAN SOLO AT STAR’S END (not to mention countless hours listening to the records and playing with the Kenner toys) helped guide us, but it was still up to a generation of fertile minds to fill in the gaps until we’d see our friends again on the frigid wastelands of the ice planet Hoth.

On May 21 in 1980 I waited in line with my pals to catch a matinee of EMPIRE. Like so many, I was absolutely blown away by everything that I saw onscreen. Blown. Away. And then we stayed for a second viewing to watch from the front row, solidifying the life-changing experience. That unexpected cliffhanger ending was killer, of course, and we were faced with another three-year wait to see what would happen next, kind of like our own frozen hibernation hell in carbonite. I’m glad the stretch between main STAR WARS movies is at least down to two years now, with the spinoffs proposed to be released every other year to fill in the gaps. Too much? It remains to be seen…

As I revisit my 12-year-old mindset in anticipation of THE LAST JEDI, I’ve assembled a healthy handful of almost 30 original EMPIRE STRIKES BACK lobby cards, a few in German and French thrown in for good measure, to help you stoke the fires of your own nostalgia. Enjoy!

A little background info on lobby cards I like to regularly share for context: Back in the days before the Internet, movie lobby cards were a powerful tool used by Hollywood studios to lure audiences into the darkened theater. They were the last line of enticement — and sometimes the first — alongside carpet-bombing consumers with coming attractions, movie posters, marquees, publicity stunts, movie program books, and newspaper advertisements for their newest big-screen sensation. With no entertainment websites or blogs available to tease audiences with stills from their films, lobby cards served that purpose for the studio publicity machine. These days, movie theater lobbies have eschewed the traditional lobby card for posters, standees, trailers on repeat, experiential activations and more.

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You made it to the end of the article. Sweet! Please take a moment to “like” IT CAME FROM… on Facebook and “follow” on Instagram and on Twitter for more great retro content.

More Lobby Cards to ogle:

Original 1977 STAR WARS Lobby Cards

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Lobby Cards from 1977

Ridley Scott’s ALIEN Lobby Cards from 1979

BLADE RUNNER Lobby Cards from 1982

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE James Bond Lobby Cards from 1967.

More STAR WARS stories: 

My STAR WARS Story and Mark Hamill Interview

STAR WARS and the End of Famous Monsters

Happy STAR WARS Day!

STAR WARS Toys and Early Bird Kit Nostalgia

  A healthy helping of #StarWars to stoke the fires of nostalgia for the arrival of #TheLastJedi The arrival of THE LAST JEDI on the big screen conjures up deep emotional feelings of nostalgia in me that are hard to suppress.

[renaramblesaboutcomics]

Wednesday Roundup 25.9.2017

Okay, so I had another huge comic week, and looking forward this might be the last time that really happens for a while since at least three of these issues are here due to previous delays. and I’m trying pretty desperately to cut down on comics I’m subscribed to now. Which just emphasizes the fact that this week made it SO much more difficult to declare that because there was so much good.

... There was also some hilarious outrage on my part, too, so if you’re here for that you will not be disappointed.

Image’s Black Magick, DC’s Detective Comics, DC’s Harley Quinn and Batman, Marvel’s Immortal Iron Fists, Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, DC’s Nightwing, Image’s Saga, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dark Horse’s Zodiac Starfore: Cries of the Fire Prince

Image’s Black Magick (2015-present) #8 Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott

Have I mentioned lately how Nicola Scott may be the most gifted artist in the industry in a while? Not since last month? Well we are definitely well past due time!

Story: Things are ramping up as the Hammer’s members increase their numbers and keep close watch on Rowan while Rowan settles things with her partner only to be manipulated once again by the terrifying forces of these unknown entities with that creepy AF girl with the stitched up mouth. That is a lot of stuff being unpacked in one issue and yet the moving parts never feel like they’re incongruent or taking away from each other. Seeing Rowan’s familiar watching the Hammer members, seeing Rowan struggle to be more open with her partner, and then seeing her old demons (literally) beginning to come to her work and haunt her there (literally and figuratively) all feels like it moves perfectly together.

I just really wish we didn’t have to do a “gay scare” which is a bit disappointing from Rucka, honestly. Haha get it Rowan was worried that her partner was onto her for being a witch and he just was mad because he thought she wasn’t coming out to him and it’s just all a good laugh. Or at least I would be laughing if either Alex or Rowan were confirmed queer women and so it isn’t just that he’s well meaning but oblivious while... literally taking away the possibility of representation. 

Maybe this will be corrected later in that very way! Who knows, I’ll be relieved if it is, but until then it feels like an unnecessary marring of what is otherwise a great story I’ve been enjoying.

Art:  I mean... just look at it! Nicola Scott is... arguably the best artist in comics right now. Her work is phenomenal and nothing presents that fact more than just how expertly she manages the medium in almost any way and how it adapts based on the type of story she’s writing. It’s very special for an artist’s style to work as well in a bombastic, colorful superhero comic then turn around and hit the perfect contrast of noir and witchcraft narratives. And all of her characters are distinct and especially her variety of noses, it’s simply gorgeous.

Nicola Scott very well may be the best artist in the business right now and any comic company that doesn’t snatch her up for major titles is foolish, honestly.  

DC’s Detective Comics (2016-present) #965 James Tynion IV, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Adriano Lucas

Well, it’s weird to say but if there was any issue for me to read before I took a short break from ‘Tec I am so glad it was this one. Which has all the makings of a backhanded compliment but we’ll see where I take it. Probably will seem like a backhanded compliment but I’m going to try to swing it toward positive.

Story: So I’ve been pretty sure I was going to drop ‘Tec for the upcoming storyline and then jump on again later for the next one, similar to how I did for the Monster Men crossover event, but I was really curious about Tim’s return and more specifically about the context of Tynion bringing Tim back which made me pretty excited for this comic. I love Tim Drake of old and reading this issue reinforced the fact that this current Tim Drake is the Tim of the 90s that I fell in love with -- the dork who loved Batman and Robin so much he put his life at risk to save the legacy of his heroes. And while this issue culminated mostly in a “slideshow” of Tim’s retconned retconned history bringing us back to the Tim origins from “A Lonely Place of Dying”, it actually felt really loving and refreshing to see the character I grew to love so much back in action. 

I don’t care one bit about this Evil Future or Mister Oz or literally anything else going on right now. In fact I find that whole crossover tedious enough I dropped Superman a while back but I really did feel like I needed this reminder that we’re supposed to be reading this Rebirth Tim as the Tim we knew and cared about in the past. And that made this issue on its own worthwhile to me. 

Art: Eddy Barrows is an excellent artist, through and through. The coloring’s fantastic, the art itself dynamic. Even with a familiar storyline and setup that we’ve all read before, he manages to find ways to make it read as unique and new through subversive angles and set ups. I really enjoyed his take on everything from Tim’s past. But even great artists sometimes fail the Batmanequin challenge. Which is, can anyone tell who the Batboys are apart from each other when they’re all the same age. The answer is no. His Tim looks identical to his Bruce to his Jason to his Dick and most of the time to his Damian and we’ve really got to change that at some point or else there will be a singularity of Batboys and we will all be sucked into an artistic blackhole and not in the fun way.

DC’s Harley Quinn and Batman (2017) #4 Ty Templeton, Rick Burchett

After this issue there’s only one issue left and in all honesty.... it’s about time we had some real emotional direction actually driving this comic because I’ve been asking for the last few issues “where is any of this going”. And since I all but refuse to watch the animated movie sharing a similar name, it’s that much more confusing for me trying to figure out what exactly this is all culminating in. 

Story: Like I said, we’re finally getting some real tension in this issue as we have Harley confronting Ivy, it becoming more and more obvious that Ivy has a genuine problem with rejecting her own humanity for the sake of becoming as much of a plant as possible, and we also get that emotional catharsis of Ivy at least somewhat confessing that Harley is the only person she cares about. And it’s obviously a deep and intimate form of caring. She’s pained by the potential of Harley’s rejection and offended at the assumption that Harley would think of herself as anything less than her partner. But this comic, like all of comic canon, just refuses to give us THE WORDS. I’m so tired of partner being emphasized instead of girlfriend. I’m tired of cared being acceptable substitution for love. And I’m REALLY tired of Harley and Ivy only being portrayed as sexy and into each other in a way that’s meant to be attractive to guys. I’m not a guy. I’m a woman who likes other women. And I would like for this relationship, if it’s to be real on any level, be treated respectfully and given canonicity. Maybe we’ll get that next issue. I’m hoping, but since next issue is the last I’m not exactly expecting much. 

Dick and Bruce are... still fun? I guess. It’s not really their story and I’m not sure why Batman’s even in the title at this point. His addition to this story culminates in a “not really”

Art: I gave Rick Burchett’s first two issues a hard time, especially compared to the guest artist for last issue, but this issue really had him stepping up his game and reminding us all why he’s been working with these characters and especially this style for the past twenty or more years. He really nails it... though it still has that edge of lacking refinement that we might see in something other than a digital first comic, the colors are really enhanced, the character and background art more detailed and controlled, and just overall this was a very pleasant looking and well laid out issue. Great work all around

Marvel’s Immortal Iron Fists (2017) #5 (of 6) Kaare Andrews, Afu Chan, Shelly Chen

We’re beginning to near an ending for this miniseries and I am growing an ominous, horrible feeling that I am desperately hoping is completely off base and unfounded outside of my constant apprehension of trusting comics too much. But we’ll get into that.

Story: As we left off last time, it was the culmination of all the storylines that we had seen building up in Immortal Iron Fists before then, Pei and her friends, the popularity drama that was the school dance, Danny’s feelings of responsibility and pride, the ten scrolls of Mara, and the strangely backward advice of the babysitter that Pei had been receiving throughout. And it all came down to a climactic battle with Danny and Pei finally at long last fighting side by side, both as the Immortal Iron Fist.

But suddenly there can only be.... one? And to save the world and inherit her responsibility as the Immortal Iron Fist, Pei had to choose whether or not she would take the dragon’s heart straight from Danny himself and use his chi to defeat Mara and his legion of demons. Which, of course, Pei refused and chose instead to sacrifice her own chi so that Danny could save the world.

This apparently erased Pei from reality and everyone’s memories in one solid swipe and sent her... to hell?? Where Brenda, who was in the storyline that brought Pei into the comics but has not been a factor through all of this miniseries, is a zombie champion fighter who saves Pei and her classmate that’s been in the coma because Mara was planning to use his body for his resurrection and also the popular girl, Danny’s girlfriend for an issue, an the babysitter are all daughters of Mara who are responsible for all this chaos. 

And I genuinely feel like there’s been a lot of missed opportunities in the previous four issues that would have allowed this to be set up more. And that’s what is leading to the worries I mentioned in the opening. As far as I’ve seen, in Defenders or the solicits for Immortal Iron Fist, Pei has not been allowed to make much of an impact outside of Andrews’ runs. And.... I would really hate that a series that has sold e SO hard on Pei and on a new spin on Danny Rand to be a series that gives Marvel an easy out to erase those very things. 

We have one issue left to go so I suppose we’ll have to wait and see in that regard.

Art: It’s still good art, still all-ages, but I’m starting to grow the opinion thanks to @secretlystephaniebrown and mine’s insightful talks that comis with cute art and lots of slapstick are pretty much utilizing a certain style to undermine dramatic writing or consequences in fear of being genuine. Or, in terms, bathos. And I really hope that’s not the intentions here because the relationship between Danny and Pei are genuinely sweet and good and if that’s the intention I really hate that comics don’t have the confidence to be dramatic fully in heart. 

Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2015-present) #23 Brandon Montclare, Natacha Bustos, Tamra Bonvillain

I’m worried about my favorite adorable team of superheroes. How can there be a Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur if there is no Devil Dinosaur? But also... is this the inevitable end? Are there not more adventures to come of our favorite world class genius and dinosaur? According to solicits there’s more for Lunella but is there more for the friendship that warmed our hearts? Are any of us truly ready to say goodbye?

Story: Legitimately I have no idea what’s going to happen next with this comic because it seems like Lunella is sidekick hunting for the next couple of issues, so the real question is how ready did this issue make us to move on from the loving friendship between a girl from Yancey Street and her bumbling dinosaur? Honestly, compared to the majority of the tight and loving writing of this series, it doesn’t feel like this conclusion was something we were very well prepared for. Sure, Moon Boy and Devil Dinosaur are something we know of vaguely from other comics, but the anticlimax of the goodbye, and just how obvious it was that neither Lunella nor Devil were ready for it made the profound loneliness of this move feel so dissatisfying. Especially when Lunella returns to a doombot empty base instead of going home and emphasizes the strangeness even more. 

I’m hopeful that this is set up, but I’m always on high alert for books like this that could easily be canceled by Marvel and worried about ending on a note I really wouldn’t want it to.

Art: As always, the art for this book is gorgeous and the coloring is fascinating and eye popping. The cooler hues this time around really helped with the more subdued and sadder tone of the comic which made the actions toward the end not only more disconcerting but plainly just more heartbreaking. It was an excellent choice and incredibly subtle but effective. This is a creative team that truly understands their crafts more than the vast majority of people in the industry today, and that’s saying something since quality is not exactly in short supply in recent years. 

DC’s Nightwing (2016-present) Vol. 3: Nightwing Must Die Tim Seeley, Javier Fernandez, Chris Sotomayor

So I don’t.... really have any surprises in the works for those of you who follow my main blog at @renaroo who got to witness me liveblogging my experience reading this comic yesterday, but I’ll just put it definitively on the record here: Uh. Not a good effort here, guys. And this is officially the last thing written by Tim Seeley this gal is going to be picking up. Which I’m getting really tired of saying about writers who handle either one of my main two DC dudes -- Dick or Terry. Can we just... have anyone... care a little more? A bit?

Story: Okay so there’s about three plots going on at the same time during this comic and I’m going to address them in the three and then talk about the One Issue That Doesn’t Fit after. So four parts: The Robin Story, The Baby Story, and The Batman Story, and then The Good One. The way the plot is laid out you could argue that these three are interwoven enough to deserve going in a linear basis but I would argue no not really. Please take note that the title of this storyline according to the trade cover is “Nightwing Must Die”, a callback to the climax of Morrison’s run on the original Batman and Robin (2009-2011) series titled “Batman and Robin Must Die”. No, I’m not nerdy and observant, this thing is determined to hit you over the head with this allusion at every turn. 

The Robin Story: Damian who has basically been forcefully emancipated from Bruce and sent to live across the country with the Teen Titans rather than ... idk just be sent to Gotham Academy which is a boarding school anyway, is pissed because internet forums have declared that the original Robin -- aka Dick -- is the best Robin and Damian sucks. Why Damian suddenly cares about 4Chan is beyond me but here we are. Now, despite there being an overly long and obnoxious storyline in Batman and Robin (2011-2015) called “War of the Robins” where Damian already went through this and beat up all his predecessors sans Dick because they have an actual relationship, or the entirety of “Robin: Son of Batman”, or the huge storyline “Robin Wars” where there were 30 Robins including Duke Thomas all over Gotham and something I didn’t pay attention to about the Court of Owls and Lincoln March -- this is a useless subplot that makes no sense for the characters or relationship that has already been established by Damian and Dick here. That’s what I’m saying. 

Because this story isn’t interested in getting Damian right or doing him any service. This is dedicated to Dick in... about the worst way. And the weak motivation for getting Damian in Blüdhaven in order to reinact the events of “Batman and Robin Must Die” are so contrived that there’s really this feeling of “we need Damian in Blüdhaven come up with an excuse later” instead of it being something organic. For example: Damian is quick to bring up his concerns that Dick staying in Blüdhaven and starting a new life with Shawn is because he’s trying to become Batman of his “own franchise” and that he’s abandoning the rest of the family. This is really disconnected from the motivation of “who’s the best Robin” and would make more sense on a character level if Damian went to Blüdhaven of his own volition because of that concern to begin with. He feels pushed out of the family, and with Tim’s death he’s upset and surprised by Dick’s seeming abandonment of everyone else. Including him. The Robin with THE most abandonment issues this side of Jason Todd. Why not bring up something along the lines of “you haven’t been home since the funeral”. That would contrast the themes of family, Dick and Damian’s relationship, and Dick’s supposed worries about personal responsibility all at once. 

This isn’t how that was handled and I am suspicious as to why. because we had to have that awful, ugly -- for me personally inexcusable -- panel where Dick tells Damian that he knows no one can balance being a superhero and having a secondary identity because Bruce sucks at it SO BAD that he now has the “burden” of being a father to a bunch of Batkids which he follows up with “And the one I think suffers the most from this is you, Damian. His only real son.” 

So. You know. Fuck themes about nonconventional families and adoption I guess. Tim Seeley, go kick your own ass because you don’t even deserve the ass kicking from me.

It might seem like I’m being harsh but this one moment is SO hugely stupid and never brought up again or refuted later to the point that not only is it gross on a real world level, it actually REALLY weakens the theme of families and the such through the rest of the story specifically because there’s now this big ugly turd of a plot thread looming and never dealt with. 

Professor Pyg and Doctor Hurt are back from Dick and Damian’s time as Batman and Robin and theyve made a bunch of disgusting Dollatrons specifically of Damian and Dick, or Robintron and Deathwing. This actually matters a lot less to the story than you might actually think because Robintron and Deathwing don’t have a relationship outside of being made to believe they’re Robin and Nightwing and one ultimately kills the other once they remember this. It’s symbolic because the Robintron was in Dick’s original Robin suit and Deathwing was in the New52 Nightwing suit do you get it do you get it do you get what they’re trying to say here it’s clever. Anyway. 

The symbolism on a meta level is pretty on the nose “The New52 Dick killed the innocence of the old timey Golden Age Dick la da da” but in story we don’t really have Damian go through an arc or actually develop as a result of this matter and neither does Dick. Does Dick feel like his identity as Nightwing has killed his relationship with Damian? With his other family? With his idealistic self? It doesn’t... seem like it. Dick just kind of... punches Doctor Hurt after he decides that tragedy doesn’t define him... or something. It was from the hallucinations and like a whole issue later from Deathwing killing Robintron. And then Deathwing and Doctor Hurt kill each other by stabbing and falling rocks. Both ways in which villains have NEEEVVVEEERRRRR returned from the dead from before so I’m sure they’re gone forever.

So the Robin Storyline as a whole? it kinda comes to a conclusion with a genuinely nice two page spread where Dick and Damian talk about missing each other and missing their time as Batman and Robin. Dick even confesses something that would have brought all these storylines together rather nicely if it was done correctly: when Bruce came back to be Batman, Dick thought of staying as Batman, too in order to stay with Damian and train and raise him. But ultimately he thought, at the time, that he wasn’t old enough or ready enough to take that responsibility. 

Dick was not ready to be a father but now he looks back at himself and who he is now and is ready for another go, with Damian or with his own children in the future. ... EXCEPT that reading of how the themes would play out are completely undermined and broken beyond repair by having Dick say that UNBELIEVABLE comment about how Damian is the only REAL son to Bruce and that the “Batfamily” aren’t a unit like that. Therefore the Robin Storyline doesn’t really have a conclusion. 

Damian’s going to go back to San Francisco and still get pissed at /b/, there’s no family unit for anyone to reflect on, and.... the baby storyline:

The Baby Storyline: I could sum this up with one gif. I really could. I’m not going to but because I know this is only entertaining to hear me yell for an extent, have the gif anyway:

Now I’ll go into what actually bothered me about this storyline. Because this is tied to Dick’s relationship with Shawn and their pregnancy scare alone, and we see Dick freaking out at the possibility of the immense responsibility he may be stepping into, it actually genuinely had the potential to be a huge deal, a big game changer, something that actually would have developed both their characters and really questioned what they would be doing going forward with their lives. Would they both give up their costume lives? Would they move from Blüdhaven if they’re not defending the streets and it’s a terrible part of town? Would the baby have superheroes in its life from an early age?

It doesn’t matter because in what could probably be the weakest fake out ever, Shawn’s not pregnant she’s just... apparently not as regular as she once assumed. Which, hey, I hear that that happens fairly often for my fellow uterus havers and you know what? They’re young adults in their first serious relationship so I actually get the freakout from both of them. 

But it doesn’t end up meaning anything other than Dick screams at Damian a few times that they have to save his “girlfriend AND baby” and for some reason Damian just goes with it because Damian of course has never before in his life ever shown signs of jealousy and concerns about conditional love. 

The biggest problem beyond the fact that this plot’s resolution is a huge PSYCH spitting in everyone’s face is that... what... was the tie-in here? 

Was it JUST the drama of “PHEWWWW dodged that bullet, now let’s go give Sandy a makeover”? I guess so. 

Because if this was actually tied to the plots of the storyline it would have ended with at least one speech from Dick to Shawn, to his monologue, or to Damian that back when he returned to being Nightwing because he feared being too young and to unprepared to take responsibility for raising Damian, he had been wrong. He’s not ready because no one is, but he has a relationship with Damian that proves that he’s more than ready to be a father then and now. That he might not do it Bruce’s way because he didn’t like Bruce’s priorities, but he would find a way to balance all the aspects of his life and so can Shawn.

But that would require this story to... care about Shawn’s character more. 

I actually like Shawn? I want to see more of her and I think there’s a lot of potential there, but at the end of this story outside of genuinely good moments, like the time with her and Deathwing where she tries to soothe him, she’s... just a damsel to be rescued? Just a possible babymomma for tension?

If she was more than that, then the plot would have given her more to do once she joined Dick and Damian. Like even ONE scene of her and Damian playing off of each other in the aftermath would have done wonders, made her more than just an attachment for the advancement of Dick’s character, but we get more development for Deathwing and Robintron than for the potential love of Dick’s life.

Kidding. DC would never let Babs and Dick have actual meaningful romances outside of each other anymore. Just like DC will never let them have meaningful romances with each other!

So this was a trip into a cul de sac of disappointment. 

Also condoms condoms condoms condoms condoms boys and girls. Wrap it before you tap it. 

Or be a lesbian. But that’s my answer for everything.

#Shawn Tsang deserves better #Hollatchagirl

The Batman Story: Oh, Bruce. How your shadow lingers large over all things that have nothing to do with you. 

This is the “actual” plot. The one about Shawn being kidnapped and it all ending up being a plot by Professor Pyg and Doctor Hurt to relive the “Batman and Robin Must Die” storyline because....

Well. That’s the problem.

Doctor Hurt, as much as I really wasn’t a fan of that storyline under Morrison, served a very specific purpose. He was the antithesis to Dick when it came to Bruce’s legacy. Dick was his ward but also Bruce’s light and when he ascended to becoming Batman he took most of that with him and grew into the cape, so to speak. He embodied the detective work that Bruce taught him (finding the clues in the mantle that found the secret door), he embodied the friendship (taking his place as Batman on several superhero teams), and most importantly he embodied the head of the family. Alfred gave him advice, but Dick kept the Batfamily together as best he could, specifically by raising Damian as Bruce had raised him. And none of it was easy. 

Doctor Hurt worked as a villain to Dick’s Batman because he embodied the worst of Bruce’s darkness. The strange and forgotten stories of the past, the psychological horror, the devilish iconography. Those things that were Gritty McBadBat about Bruce were never things that Dick was going to embody as Batman. And that’s why Doctor Hurt and him battled, basically over the heart of Damian: Robin, the partner, the son, the future of the cowl. 

I didn’t like “Batman and Robin Must Die” because rather than have a huge statement about choosing the direction for Batman’s future by having Dick battle and defeat Doctor Hurt and his continuity drag, Morrison literally deus ex machina’d by having Bruce travel back through time and save Dick and Damian and basically take control immediately. It was such an anticlimax to both Dick and Damian’s arc even though Morrison tried to play it off as being the culmination of Dick and Damian and everyone else looking for Bruce plus Bruce’s “Return of Bruce Wayne” storyline. It’s messy and just feels like “whatever” at the end. 

I don’t like it here because .... Dick’s not Batman. He and Damian aren’t partners. Neither of those things have been factors for either of those characters for six years now and, I hate to break it to everyone here, but at least one of them was “dead” for at least three of those years anyway. 

Doctor Hurt is a Dick Grayson villain, but he is not a Nightwing villain. And the attempt to make him one here fell incredibly flat. 

Also why was Professor Pyg there? Does Professor Pyg now know Dick and Damian’s secret identities too? Was that throw away line about him building dollatrons for Hurt meant to tell us that no only Hurt knows the identities? How is that much better? Why does everyone know Dick’s identity and he doesn’t care? Why doesn’t Damian care that the random Robintron knows his full name and who his father is? Why doesn’t Dick? If only Hurt knows then how did Pyg brainwash Robintron and Deathwing? If Pyg didn’t why did Hurt need Pyg to brainwash them for this since he apparently already knows how?

This story basically sacrificed all logic within the story itself to tie-in Dick’s time as Batman, which he doesn’t want to go back to and isn’t  even tempted to go back to throughout the story, purely to justify having the Bat as part of the cover logo still. That’s it. 

The Good One: There’s a one shot at the very end of this volume, #21, that’s definitely filler in between storylines but is actually the best thing in this entire volume. Probably the best of this run of Nightwing I’ve read and... apparently will ever read since I’ve paid my penance and given Seeley’s turn a chance. It’s a classic team up between Dick and Wally with a pretty inventive villain named “Timebomb”. It’s funny, has a lot of heart, the coloring isn’t muted garbage, and it features some high stakes without losing its sense of fun. It’s a good issue. I would actually implore fans of Dick and Wally to pick it up. It does a great service to their friendship.

Art: The art is good, the entire “Nightwing Must Die” part was colored in this muted, pasty way that basically made all backgrounds feel like they weren’t a part of the scenes and made all humans look dead or undead as it were to the point that Dick and Damian -- both canonically characters of color and occasionally colored to match it -- have the same pallor of the rotting corpse faces sewn onto Robintron and Deathwing.

The exception is the blue used for Nightwing’s costume and gear and for Shawn’s hair because.... idk. I guess we’re supposed to guess that they’re important to the comic or something. 

No seriously, I love the art but they have to buy some more markers. I appreciate that you can only do so much when supplies are low but c’mon.

It’s a joke I know it’s a style choice I just don’t like the style.

But I emphasize again, the art is good. I just personally would go for the last issue’s coloring more than the main storyline’s. 

Image’s Saga (2012-present) #47 Fiona Staples, Brian K. Vaughn

The real question comes to be... will Saga ever have a truly bad issue? I doubt it. Like at this point I’m not really sure what a bad Saga issue would even look like, but I think there’s absolutely no doubt that mediocre issues or issues that were more build up for what is to come can exist. Again, I give backhanded compliments here but I mean them... in the best way possible? Never mind, these cold opens are hard.

Story: We don’t progress too awfully much in this issue. The Will is captured by a vengeful victim’s wife who means to torture him by making him suffer and forcing him to see the very people he loves die.... until money gets involved and suddenly like everyone else she wants to capture Hazel and company to make the big starbucks. But, strangely for Saga, for the first time in this series we really don’t.... go anywhere with this issue outside of what’s taking place with the Will’s torture. There’s no scenes exploring what’s going on with the other groups, there’s no narration from future Hazel, we’re left with the Will, his past we haven’t seen yet, and his current circumstances. 

Now this could make sense, the jumping around Will’s past is in place of jumping around the stars, and how could Hazel ever know what’s happening to the Will here, but it just all feels like a departure from the near omnipotence of Saga’s story before. And mostly it just feels like a setup for explaining how we get all the characters gathered for the next part of the story. And that’s.... not as cool as it could be. 

It’s definitely a weaker entry for Saga overall, but that’s like saying a TV show with 100 episodes may have some that aren’t perfect.

Art: Fiona Staples’ art continues to be the star of the series, but perhaps because of the restraints of the setup, this isn’t the most visually creative or wildest design ideas she’s had in this series. The reveal of the shrew woman’s face felt.... anticlimactic compared to some of the truly out there examples of aliens unlike anything I’ve ever imagined before and it made the pause for the joke “my husband was nearly as beautiful as me” feel like... “have you seen what some of the other alien species look like????”

Likewise the backgrounds of both the flashbacks and of the room Will’s tortured in are not as wild as we’ve seen before, but I have to say the creative idea of the floating prism in space kind of makes up for it because that was creative and visually awing. Again, much like the story itself, the art only suffers because in comparison to the rest of Saga I’m only kind of blown away and not totally blown away. 

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2011-present) #74 Kevin Eastman, Tom Waltz, Cory Smith, Ronda Pattison

Man we are just in the forest for transitions in storylines right now. Nothing is bad but nothing is standing out and I was expecting much the same with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles considering that we’re on Part II of the Trial of Kraang, but you know, it wouldn’t be TMNT if they weren’t continuing to surprise me.

Story: So this is a court drama because if there’s one thing that TMNT is dedicated to it is DOING ALL OF THE THINGS and apparently court drama hadn’t been checkmarked yet so here we are. And as someone who really genuinely likes the minutia of continuity and rules and regulations of different worlds and the way laws work in different universes, I found things fairly compelling. Not the least of which because of the smart use of characters and how they fit into their roles -- especially Donny and Professor Honeycutt both working as the prosecution. Don, after all, is the sci-fi heart of TMNT and him being in the thick of this as Kraang is the most “his” of their roster of villains makes perfect sense.

We mostly hit the same beats you’d expect from a court drama -- an unfavorable judge, slimy defense attorney making things hard for our prosecutors, the prosecutors pull a surprise key witness, and all in the background we have the unraveling of victims and friends trying to deal with the uncertainty of the situation while also.... fighting an interdimensional alien war. Hm. Okay so that last part is pure TMNT shenanigans but the drama of the story is really structured and punctual.

Which.... basically means that this issue is something like 80% dialogue with little tiny bits of action to give the other three turtles and their friends something to do while Don and Honeycutt hold down the fort. And if you’re prepared for that going in, you’ll probably find the case as interesting and the way facts are being retold and manipulated fascinating, but if you’re not then it’s probably going to be a bit of a slog compared to the ninja action you’re usually used to.

Art: TMNT’s art is always so shockingly good that it’s hard to comment on anymore. I really like how varied and interesting alien designs are with people not afraid to be gross by “human standards” when making things. And I like that the turtles manage to be simple so that they stand out in every setting without feeling out of place, and still have enough variation and ranges of emotions that there’s no confusing them with each other when the masks are off. It’s very good art and that should always be applauded. 

Dark Horse’s Zodiac Starforce: Cries of the Fire Prince (2017) #2 Kevin Panetta, Paulina Ganucheau, Sarah Stern

I have been on the edge of my seet for a few months now, waiting for news on when the next Zodiac Starforce was going to be coming out and, at long last, the answer came. It was today! And there was much rejoicing. From me. Because I’ve absolutely fallen for this team book.

Story: We learn more about the titular Fire Prince and honestly that’s where a lot of my apprehensions come into play. In the original comic series, the Starforce was comedic at times but its drama was never undercut by it. Relationships were taken seriously and the threat to the girls was certainly serious, particularly from their own goddess and from Cimmeria. So when the first half of this issue was spent with the Fire Prince and making his powers known but also having him laughably dance around and prove to be a bit of a sadsack and not even comparable to the last threat of Cimmeria -- having been imprisoned and shamed by her himself -- it was a little worrisome. The threat after a huge battle like last time shouldn’t really be followed up by something we’re directly told is lesser. And that fed right into the lesser fights too, with Savannah undercutting Alice’s threat by having to make a joke of why they were fighting and remind her of the fact that she even was a threat to the Starforce to begin with. I know I’m throwing this word around a lot lately but it feels like bathos -- like fearing the sincerity of the drama so going for a joke instead. And that wasn’t something I really remember happening in the previous volume.

That all said, the one thing always played straight and the risk that is never dampened is honestly the one that remains the most important overall, and that’s the relationships between the girls themselves. Lily and Savannah’s romance and Savannah’s obviously very supportive mother, Molly and Emma’s close friendship, everyone’s concern for Kim -- it’s all great stuff and taken seriously throughout which is why I still have a lot of hope and expectations for this series. It’s just so nice to see a book that’s so supportive and intent on emphasizing the importance of female relationships.

Art: The art for Zodiac Starforce is beautiful and popping, but it also has a very serious control of its style so as to not be cartoonish beyond the point of feeling the danger or concern for things within the story. Even so, there were a few things that felt off model this time around. It’s mostly nitpicking, but there was something different about the way Emma’s hair was drawn, specifically when she was Gemini, and there were a few times where Alice and her goons seemed to look very different from how I remembered them. but overall I can’t emphasize enough that it’s a beautiful book and really does capture the feeling of being a Western Magical Girl team story. 

There was a lot of good this week in a lot of different ways but when I think of what I enjoyed the most I have to absolutely give it to Black Magick. This book captures a unique style and tone of two things I sincerely love -- noir and witchcraft -- and is really doing something special with them in the modern age. And those are the kind of daring choices -- much like doing a mostly black-and-white comic when almost all comics stick to high definition coloring -- that really capture my attention and help any book stand out in a given week. So that absolutely must be my Pick of the Week, even with some of my harsher criticisms sent its way.

And, once more, I am in a bit of a financial crunch for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which being the medical bills I’m paying for my dog, Eve, who experienced a catastrophic dog fight and underwent surgery recently. On top of that, I have exactly a month and a half to pack up everything I own and move halfway across the country again which is not helping those financial crunches I mentioned before either.

As such, I really would appreciate if you enjoy my content or are interested in helping me out, please check out either my Patreon or PayPal. Every bit helps and I couldn’t thank you enough for enjoying and supporting my content.

You could also support me by going to my main blog, @renaroo, where I’ll soon be listing prices and more for art and writing commissions.

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Marvel's X-Men Relaunch Explained: What to Look For

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What do House of X and Powers of X mean for the future of the X-Men and Marvel?

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Jonathan Hickman’s ballyhooed X-Men relaunch has finally arrived! Both House of X and Powers Of X have seen their first issues released into the wild, and as the site that dug through Hickman’s entire body of Marvel work for Secret Wars, we felt it was important to get in on the ground floor of what is so far a 12-issue weekly series that blows out into six different books come October.

So with that in mind, and in the spirit of the books, here are X things we’re watching after issues 1 of House of X and Powers of X (get it, because it’s actually “Powers of Ten”?).

WARNING: This article contains EXTENSIVE spoilers about the first issues of House of X and Powers of X. STOP READING NOW if you haven’t read both comics.

I. The Art

There is no greater sign of the depth of Marvel’s commitment to this relaunch than RB Silva and Pepe Larraz handling art duties on the two books. If this relaunch was meant to be a short term spike for sales and a way to get people talking about the X-Men again without making any substantial changes to the line, there are plenty of monster names that could have handled six issues of art and sold a ton of books. Larraz and Silva, however, are only superstars in the making - staggeringly capable artists who absolutely blew away these first issues and will probably become superstars on the basis of what they’re showing in these books. Putting them on House and Powers of X gives them the space to grow into superstardom with the additional recognition.

Every page of House of X is a home run, and most of the attention is going to the sequence with Jean tearing up at the Professor’s welcome to Krakoa, but while that’s a great strip, it doesn’t capture the breadth of Larraz’s skill. He can go from that small moment, to the grandiose intimidation of Omega Sentinel on the Dyson Mastermold, to the blistering action sequence with Mystique, Sabertooth and Toad in the space of six pages. He’s been extremely good since Uncanny Avengers, but this is him taking his game up a notch.

read more: The X-Men Movies You Never Saw

Likewise for RB Silva. His art on Powers of X is superb all the way through, but what I found utterly shocking was how much emotion he put into Nimrod’s hands. Think about how ridiculous that sentence is: Nimrod, the pink and white Final Boss Sentinel from the future who just Terminator walks at Rachel Summers for like, 4 issues back in the early ‘80s, and RB Silva made his hands as expressive as Jean Grey’s eyes. As excited as I am to find out where the story goes, I’m just as excited to keep looking at the stupid good pictures.

II. What’s Left From The Old Continuity

House of X/Powers of X has been billed as a relaunch without a reboot, which implies that the old continuity will continue to exist. And in a way, it does - we’ll talk later about how much these books rely on older stories to build off of. But at the same time, it’s a pretty clean sweep from what came before.

After being reverse decimated post-House of M (if they were actually decimated, one of every ten would have died, instead of one out of every ten keeping their powers), the mutant population has been slowly creeping upward. Old mutants were put back whenever there was a narrative purpose, and mutant births started again in the last few years. But House of X goes full Morrison - humans will be outnumbered by mutants soon and extinct not long after that.

As far as recent continuity goes, there’s not much. Most of the deaths from the past year or so of Uncanny X-Men have been undone or are about to be. Xandra, Charles and Lilandra’s bird child from the delightful Mr. & Mrs. X, is destined to become Empress of the Shi’ar in 100 years. And that’s all we saw so far.

III. The Bad Guy Plan

The story is split across two books. Powers of X is looking at the scope of mutant history, starting with Charles and Moira meeting 10 years in the past (X^0), carrying through today (X^1), 100 years in the future (X^2) and 1000 years down the road (X^3). House of X so far is only focused on the X^1 timeframe, gathering the mutants on Krakoa under the leadership of Professor X and Magneto, and setting up mutant embassies around the world. And...um...I think the Professor is the bad guy.

The central conflict of the X-Men has usually been some variation on the Professor’s students fighting to protect and peacefully integrate with a world that hates and fears them, and Magneto and his followers either trying to completely dominate that world or separate from it entirely. In House of X, there’s no peaceful integration. It’s more like “threatening coexistence.”

The Professor has three speaking scenes across the first two issues: the EXTREMELY creepy scene with the pod people and the only slightly less creepy scene when Jean arrives on Krakoa in House of X; and the scene with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in Powers of X. There he talks about sacrificing for a new future, and I want to reiterate, *with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants*.

read more - The Essential Episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series

Ignoring the fact that “Charles” never takes his helmet off and looks like The Maker, the minor villain of Secret Wars; and the joy Magneto expresses through both issues (seriously, nobody is happier about this relaunch than him); all of “Charles’” interactions are creepy as hell and hard villain-coded.

IV. The toying with genetics

Breaking news: X-Men comics contain a great deal of genetic engineering science fiction talk! We also have film of the sun rising in the east, and documentary evidence of water being wet. Stay tuned, dear reader.

Seriously, though, these two issues are heavy on the genetics even for an X-Book. There is the obvious example, in Powers of X when we see the combination of mutants that made the Rasputin who has been tearing up the internet since the teaser image was released (for the record, it’s Unus the Untouchable, Kitty Pryde, Quentin Quire, X-23, and “Rasputin” DNA, which explains the metal but not the Soulsword).

And then there are the pod people in House of X, one of whom has very prominent red hair, and one has red energy bubbling out of his eyes. These are probably central to the big mystery of the story, and if you want blatant spoily speculation on what that all means, jump down to number X.

V. Omega Mutants

In yet another example of bad guy coding ruling the day, both books treat Omega Mutants like uranium: a dangerous natural resource to be exploited at all costs.

House of X goes into great detail about the definition of Omega Mutant. The previously commonly accepted definition in the comics was “extremely powerful,” but here it shifts to “primary power has no conceivable upper limit.” This both makes perfect sense - Iceman has been an Omega Mutant for some time now, and he’s basically an ice elemental, reforming himself from ambient moisture (or Havok’s piss that one time) - and is a terrifying new concept when you pair it with the revelation in Powers of X, that at some point in the near future, Mr. Sinister is going to start fiddling with omega powers to create super-chimerae who will collapse Mars in a singularity.

There are a handful of surprising names on HoX’s omega list - Jamie Braddock, Psylocke’s brother who has been off and on dead for 30 years is apparently alive and kicking again. Legion is around but unaffiliated, and Mister M (from the post-Decimation District X Bishop/detective book) is listed as unaffiliated. And Franklin Richards is flagged in red…

VI. References to Hickman’s Old Marvel Work

Avengers was as a concept basically outlined as a powerpoint, so the volume of infographics that Hickman and designer Tom Muller put into the two books is entirely expected. And because they’re very good, we get a lot of info just out of the way these infographics are presented.

I won’t go through all of them, but the two most important seeming ones at this moment are the list of Omega Mutants, and the reading order. Franklin Richards is the key to a lot of theories of the Marvel Universe (when you finish this article, go google “Franklin Richards + Marvel Time”), so it’s worrisome to see him mentioned so prominently in House of X. At least it should be to the people inside it.

The reading order, which appeared at the back of both books, highlights three issues in red: House of X #2, House of X #5, and Powers of X #6. Those three issues are supposed to be the paradigm shifts, and the first one comes next week!

read more: Best X-Men Movies Watch Order

And beyond the design elements, there’s a lot from Hickman’s old Marvel work present in these first two issues, and a lot that we can expect to come. Cyclops was notable in Avengers, but underutilized and eventually went out like a chump in Secret Wars. He gets more play in House of X, and it feels a little like Hickman finally getting to do with Scott Summers what he wanted to do with him before. Franklin Richards was a huge part of his Fantastic Four/FF run, and he’s very notably lampshaded in HoX, as are the Imperial Guard in PoX (Hickman introduced the human Superguardian Smasher for his Avengers). Apocalypse is almost certainly coming soon, and he was notable in S.H.I.E.L.D. There should be more throughlines as the story goes on.

VII. References to Old X-Men Comics

All the promotional materials for this relaunch talked about it being the next in a line of universe-shifting X-Men comics, following on Giant Sized X-Men #1, X-Men (vol. 2) #1, Age of Apocalypse, and Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s New X-Men #114. The books certainly feel like they belong there, and are self-consciously referential of those four books. Krakoa was the villain of Giant Sized, and Powers of X feels like a bold alternate reality in the spirit of AoA. And House of X is basically an homage to Morrison’s entire run, with mutants developing their own culture and Magneto spending the entire issue with the Stepford Cuckoos walking past various Xorns. But the continuity and thematic debts don’t end there, and there are two key stories that I think are more important to understanding these runs: Days of Future Past and the Utopia era.

Nimrod and the Hounds are hugely important villains in Powers of X, and they are straight out of Rachel Summers and Kitty Pryde’s futures in DoFP. It is the prototypical dark future, where mutants are all killed off by robot hunters and mutant traitors, and that is the world that is presented to us in this week’s comic.

Meanwhile, Utopia was a little bit different than Krakoa is presented here. Utopia was the floated remains of Asteroid M in San Francisco bay, a refuge for the 200 living mutants to try and survive. It leaned very hard into the paramilitary school subtext that’s always there in X-men stories, but was also political in a very different way that most of its predecessors. It’s my favorite era of X-Men comics because of how cohesive the line was (and because Second Coming was like a perfect X-Men action movie), but because it was a small number of mutants fighting for survival and not acceptance, it wasn’t a great example of the line over its history. There are a lot of strong parallels here, with the biggest difference being it’s no longer mutants struggling to survive, but mutants fighting to dominate.

VIII. Apocalypses

Not blue pencil lipped Rocks-Of-The-Eternal-Shore Apocalypse, but the ones where things end.

Hickman is no stranger to the end of the world, having destroyed the Marvel multiverse once already. But his X-catastrophes feel less like Secret Wars and more like another of his comics: East of West.

East of West is a biblical, American end, where Earth’s history diverges at the civil war before technology rushes forward and the Book of Revelation begins in a technological utopia. It is very smart (and incredibly gorgeous thanks to Nick Dragotta’s Sal Buscema-drawing-Akira looking art), but it’s very American and very specifically Christian. That is surprisingly all here, too, starting with the mutant decision to place their embassy in Jerusalem.

read more: Complete Schedule of Upcoming Marvel Movies

There is a strain of Christian belief that says that the end times begin with Israel’s geography being set in a particular way, and that includes Jerusalem being its recognized capitol. This has real world political implications, but it’s also been the source of a lot of good fiction. Putting Magneto, the arch-villain of the X-Men saga, in a Jerusalem embassy telling people that they have new gods now is essentially casting him as the Antichrist and setting the world up for the end times. Nothing about the war in the future of Powers of X indicates that this read is incorrect.

IX. The Timelines

We don’t just get multiple timelines represented in Powers of X: we get events sequenced across it and House of X, and things happening simultaneously in multiple time streams. Take, for example:

Sabertooth, Mystique, and Toad spend House of X breaking into Damage Control and steal plans for something (looks like Sol’s Hammer, the Dyson Sphere laser that Iron Man used to blow up an invading army in New Avengers, but that could be a fake out). Meanwhile, 100 years in the future, four mutant chimeras are caught stealing from the Man-Machine Alliance’s mainframe, and Percival (the Cypher-looking dead one) is repeating “Charles’” quote from House of X.

Is it possible we’re looking at the X-Men equivalent of “The Best of Both Worlds?” Where the same event is unfolding simultaneously across multiple times?

X. Our speculation.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a deep mystery without fanboys speculating wildly about what’s going on. So we’re absolutely going to do that. If you take all of this into account and where do you land?

Charles isn’t actually Charles. He’s Sinister.

Nobody has won more from this relaunch than the master mutant geneticist. He, along with the other brightest minds in mutantdom, couldn’t figure out why mutant births ceased after House of M, and couldn’t figure out how to get them back. Now, he’s got thousands of mutants to choose from and the ability to experiment however he wants. He can exist in off-books literal Black sites on Krakoa, cancerous growths undetectable to the rest of the island. And if he’s posing as Charles, he gets to steer public events to his liking. He gets to direct policy like “protect omega mutants at all costs,” or “Hey Magneto send the old Brotherhood to steal plans from the Fantastic Four please.”

Whether we’re right or not, Charles is almost certainly not Charles. He isn’t telekinetic, so lifting the thumb drive away from Mystique was a flag. And keeping his Cerebro helmet on at all times is a BIG sign that he’s a bad dude and not who we think he is.

Sinister works here. If he gets his hand on reality warper DNA (remember, Mister M, Legion, Jamie Braddock and Franklin Richards are all in the wind as of issues 1), he can do pretty much anything he wants. He could easily be covering up his forehead ruby with “Cerebro.” It makes sense, and we know he’s coming back.

For more on House of X, Powers of X, Bedhambers of X, Multiples of X or any other X-Books, stick with Den of Geek!

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Feature Jim Dandy

Jul 31, 2019

Marvel

X-Men

Jonathan Hickman

from Books https://ift.tt/314GpCF