#like a lot of large oc comics that tell a story/backstory

[pricklepicklepie]

It might be hard to ask for faves… so who is the oc you’ve had the longest?

OH EVAN, thank you bless you i love you. Let's open this can of worms together -

(forgive me, this got LONG. I mean LONG. It should be a simple answer but NO)

So, my oldest OCs, I didn't even post yesterday. This is a group of some of my oldest. I'm sure there are older ones, but these are the ones I remember/have images of. Lucis is probably the oldest with Katey being the second. There were piles more with this crew. Pretty much anytime I drew anything that wasn't transformers fanart, I added them to this "world". Which was nothing special, none of these guys ever had solid backstories or even interests or jobs. They were just designs that I returned to. Zoi and Lucis eventually got a little more developed (but not a lot lol) and got pushed into my "second gen" OCs. I don't really draw these guys anymore accept occasionally or when I want to make something new, sometimes I revamp an old OC and insert them into whatever story I'm making. Here are some of their more recent designs. I think these are all I've drawn of them in like, ten years or more lol.

Eventually, I made Zoi an office worker who plays bass in a band with Lucis and another OC, Elliot. SPEAKING OF ELLIOT

Elliot is kind of my oldest OC with a 'story'. SORT OF. First, I had all those loose OCs, not in a story, not doing anything. Then one day I make Elliot and Adrien and I decide they're going to be in this angels and demons type story where Elliot dies and comes back to life and they encounter evil angels, etc etc. Joel was a villain, Lucy was like, 'the girl', lol.

This whole plot didn't stick and I eventually just made Adrien human and now they sort of exist in a nebulous, melancholy, dreamy, sorta real-world setting. Elliot is roommates with Zoi and Lucis and the three of them are in a band. Adrien is a guy who just happens to be at their show. Some of my other OCs are in the background of this world, but I don't really think about them lol.

Here's kind of the transition period between the original, fantasy-type story, and the normal world story.

This was late in high school/college that I started calling Elliot's story Elliot's Sword. And it was going to be like Elliot going into a fantasy world from the real world and becoming a god-like figure. But after college, I made them the normal, real-world story. Here are some drawings from the modern era of Elliot and Adrien

It's hard for me to even find drawings of them bc I don't draw them so much, which is a shame! I really like the way they had become. I want to do a story with them where they meet at a show (or reunite since they went to college together) and Elliot eventually helps Adrien through the loss of his Grandmother who is his family's matriarch. And this brings up a lot of feelings for Elliot about his mother who died when he was a child. And together, they sort of explore this half-waking/half-dreaming world of grief. I had this idea that Elliot is like, a dream hopper and goes into people's dreams. And it's a story I really want to write one day, but ALAS. time will tell.

The Oldest Oc I posted about last night, is Puck! OOOHH BOY DO I LOVE PUCK. BUCKLE IN.

These are some of my first drawings of Puck, along with Richard and some other OCs in her setting. I made Puck for a character design class in college. I think my Junior year. She and Richard were basically Fallout rip-off OCs - they came from a post-apocalyptic world with Puck from the country and Richard from a large settlement. They were kind of 'Prince and the Pauper'. And I had this whole thing where they meet, dislike each other at first, have to work together to rebuild Puck's hometown, grow to love each other, adopt a girl named Tommy and raise her in the town, and eventually, Richard does something to betray Puck's trust when they're in their late 50s and they spend the rest of their lives in this bitter divorce arc. Here are some comic pages I made for various college assignments. This was a story I called The Town of Shilo.

Their story now is a little different than it used to be. Now, the idea is Puck comes to this large, sci-fi-ish city and meets Richard and all these other people and helps them maintain their little community by keeping robotic police off their turf. Puck's mother and sister are the CEOs of this large pharmaceutical-turned-weapons company, (though she has been sort of cut off from them and is their unknowing test subject, so she's not involved in whatever they've been up to). And Richard is the son of some politian and is trying to play double agent and use what he finds out from his nepotism job to inform his friends. There is SO MUCH MORE to it that I need to write down and nail down. But that is the basic idea.

These are all the OCs I think about who aren't DnD related. So I kind of have two worlds (elliot's and puck's) that I revisit from time to time and fuss with. The thing is, I never write anything down and never try to world-build or nail anything down. I just draw them with non-specific ideas in mind lol, which definitely has to change. With DnD ocs, it's just so much easier to make a quick guy who has a flaw and then his story is just figuring out that flaw and you get to do that with your friends and it's EASY. But I have a hard time getting back into my other OCs bc I can never settle on a story for them. But I do have dreams of making comics of them, so who knows, hopefully soon I will actually build out their worlds and be able to be more specific about what they can do/what happens to them. lol. BUT I UH NEVER GET TO TALK ABOUT THEM REALLY SO I SORTA TOOK THIS CHANCE TO SAY EVERYTHING EVER ABOUT THEM. HOPE THAT'S ALRIGHT??

tldr: I have this OC, Lucis, who is probably my oldest Oc who I don't draw anymore LOL

[cuppajj]

I have so many animatic/animation ideas and so many comic ideas that look so dang cool in my head; and then I think about how long all of those will take individually to finish, and I’m suddenly turning into a raisin as all the hydration leaves my skin

[remosdeerica]

Batshit AU Pt #2: The Grandkids

So I mentioned in the last post Batshit AU Pt. #1 that I cover Dick and Jason's kids but since I've been thinking (read: fantasizing) about the future of the Batfam I figured I'd just do a post with ALL the grandkids!

Just a heads up: this is a LONG post.

First we shall start with the Grayson's:

Mar'i and Jake (Jake is not my original name I've seen it pop up in other media- dunno if it's canon in any timeline but I'm going with it).

Mar'i Grayson: Mar'i is the biologically daughter of Dick Grayson and Koriand'r of Tamaran (aka Starfire). Kori is unknowingly pregnant after one last one-night-stand with Dick before going back to her home planet to take over as queen. Unfortunately, because of Kori's sister Komand'r (aka Blackfire) causing civil unrest to try and usurp the thorn from her, Tamaran becomes unsafe for Mar'i as she is Kori's only heir.

-Kor'i goes back to Earth with an infant Mar'i and begrudgingly hands her over to Dick so she can live with him and be safe from Blackfire.

-Kori of course visits while she can but has a lot of responsibilities on Tamaran. When Mar'i is older she is able to go back to Tamaran to visit her mother.

-A few years later when Dick and Barbra get married, Barbra officially adopts Mar'i. Seeing both Kor'i and Barbra as her mothers Mar'i decides so call Kori "Mama" and Barbra "Mom/Mommy".

Jake Grayson: don't have much of an exciting backstory for him. He was basically just an orphaned infant Dick and Barbra decided to adopt after his bio-parents had been murdered.

Now he have the Todd family:

Because I am a heartless monster I decided that since Roy died in the comics without any sign of Lian and Jason was pretty fucked up about it, I would have Jason adopt Lian because Roy wasn't round to take care of her. So this is basically what happened:

Lain Harper-Todd: 1 year or so after Roy's death, Jason is visited by Jade Nguyen (aka Cheshire) who is carrying an infant Lian. Jade explains that she hadn't realised she was pregnant with Roy's child until after he was already dead and since she is not ready to give up her life as an assassin she states that Lian is better off without her. She then asks Jason if he would be willing to take Lian in as Roy's former partner (read into that how you will).

-Jason agrees, and decides to hyphenate her last name Harper-Todd so that she will always have a piece of Roy with her even if he can't be there for her in person.

it's not that I don't think JayRoy is cute! It's just that I honestly I don't really picture Jason dating anyone in my mind and the thought of him being a single dad is just precious. I'm also allergic to OC's (of my own making) so I usually try to keep to characters that are at least canon in some timeline and Lian was the first to come to mind.

Also I'm a angst-hungry monster so...

Drake-Wayne/Dowd/McGinnis household:

Lol, this family has too many names.

I already went over Terry and Matthew McGinnis' backstory in Batshit AU Pt. #1 but if you are too lazy/ don't feel like reading it I'll try to make sure to cover the important details.

Terry & Matthew McGinnis: A few years down the road, Tim is the current Batman and married to Bernard Dowd (my new fave batship). One night on patrol he finds the boys hunkered down behind an garbage container and approaches them.

-Terry is extremely protective of his younger brother Matt and becomes immediately aggressive, swinging a baseball around and threatening Tim to leave them alone.

-Tim finds it admirable/endearing that Terry is willing to face Batman alone in order to protect his brother and tells him so. He then asks them where there parents and and Matt (trusting Batman) tells Tim that they were killed by the 'Bad Men' who are now looking for he and Tarry.

-Tim is worried for the boys safety and offers to take them to the Police, but Tarry only says that they already tried that and that there are spies in the GCPD who ratted them out to the 'Bad Men'.

-Tim figures out that the boys are in more danger then he first realized and takes them home with him in order to protect them.

-Tim eventually finds out about Project Batman Beyond, an experiment orchestrated by A.R.G.U.S. in order to create the perfect child to usurp the Cowl and give A.R.G.U.S and 'in' with the Justice League and the super-community as a whole. A part of this project is making sure the children are biologically Bruce Wayne's in order for them to also gain influence over Wayne Enterprises.

-Tim realizes that there is no real safe place that he can send the boys and after discussing it with his husband, Bernard, the two decide to adopt the boys.

I think this adoption story is one of my favourites. Especially because I find the idea of Bernard not at all being surprised by his husband brining home black-haired blue-eyes orphans, hilarious.

Bernard: I figured since you are now Batman it was only a matter of time.

Tim: >:(

Wayne-Kent situation:

DamiJon is one of my absolute favourite ships in existence. But since both boys are so young in canon my version of their future relationship truly is creature of my own design, I will explain them a little and then the kids. I'll be quick about it. Promise. (There is also a 2 part series I'm working on that goes into my version of events called "Jon and Damian" if anyone is interested. Jon's chapter is done but Damian's is still in the works).

Jon: he is the one that I really have to explain. I call my version of him "Dark-ish Jon" or 'dark ish jon' for the tags. For those of you who already know the deal (or don't really care) y'all can skip to the *** for the kids.

-basically Jon was kidnapped by Jon-El (Clark's Kryptonian Bio-dad) in order for Jor-El to mold Jon into the perfect weapon for his plan to conquer the universe. They have a machine that Jumps through various timelines so no one can find them, and Jon-El trains/tortures Jon for 2 years.

-Jon eventually discovers new powers that allow him to kill Jor-El and escape but he ends up spending the next several years trying to find his original timeline.

-He eventually meets the Legion of Superheroes that help him get home, but once he arrives home he realizes that for him it has been 7 years since he was kidnaped, but only 2 weeks for his family/friends.

-Because of this he and his family find it hard to adjust to the new situation and Jon ultimately decides to return to the Legion but visit occasionally.

Damian: Honestly I don't think I really have to explain much about Damian for y'all to get the kids but I do want you to know:

He has long hair

He has peirced ears

Possibly tattoos?

He's has more of a slim figure than Bruce's bulky one

He is a fashion icon and kinda has 'bitchy white girl' energy

Bacically he very pretty and looks a LOT like Thalia

And yeah. The two eventually reconcile after Jon is done moping in another timeline and they decide to retire from crime fighting and build a cottage/farm and live in peace.

***

Athanasia: So she is actually Bruce's bio-kid from the Injustice timeline. And for my AU she is still Bruce's biologically and she does recognize him as her father, but because she and Damian are 13/14 years apart and she knows him better she lives and defers to him as her caretaker. I shall explain:

-Athanasia was created by Thalia in a fit of madness after Damian's death. Because of what happened to Damian, and because Athanasia turned out to be a girl (and therefor Ra's would have no use for her), Thalia keeps the little girl locked away and a secret so that no one can harm her.

-Years pass and Athanasia has never seen the outside would. Eventually something happens (will depends on the Fic -because I will get around to writing this shit eventually) and Athanasia is given to Damian (the only other person Thalia ever told her about.)

-At this point Bruce is getting older and most of his current children already have their own kids, so both he and Damian agree that because Athanasia is mostly attached to Damian and doesn't really know who Bruce is outside of being her father, that she will live with he and Jon.

-Athanasia get's older and eventually meets another girl at her school named Carrie Kelley. The girls form a quick bond, Carrie's louder personality complementing Athanasia's more quiet one.

Carrie Kelley: being best friends with Athanasia leads to Carrie spending a lot of time over at her house. This allows Jon and Damian to get to know the girl and become quite fond of her.

-one night after a sleepover at Jon and Damian's house with some of their other friends, Carrie's father comes to the house drunk and carrying a shot gun. He accuses Jon and Damian of being pedophiles because of their sexual orientations and calls them a variety of homophobic slurs.

-It's his attempts at shooting Jon that leads to Carrie calling 911 and having her own father arrested.

-Because her mother had already left and Carrie only had her dad to take care of her, Jon and Damian offer her a place in their home and eventually adopt her along with Athanasia when the girls are teenagers.

So, yeah! That's it for now. I am absolutely obsesses with this AU. I just love the idea of Bruce deciding to take in Dick leading to him having an army of children and grandchildren so large that all family gatherings have to happen at the Manor because nowhere else is big enough.

[baggebythesea]

In a peacetime modern AU of SPOP where the characters are fans of a show similar to our SPOP, how would they engage in fandom? For example: Who would ship whom? Who would write fic or draw art? Who would write or draw smut?? Who would have a wall of theories with evidence connected by a web of threads? Who would do their own thing shipping a rare pair and who would be a card carrying popular ship shipper? Who would strongly empathise with their parallel character and who would just not get them at all? Would anyone cosplay? Which older adult would shock the young'uns by saying 'Well I wouldn't say no...' as they sip their tea from the doorway? (Obviously answer as much or as little as you like!)

Ooooh! Great ask.

Glimmer declares the show the best thing ever (because it's pink and princessy and kicks ass), and the best friend squad watches it religiously. Adora doesn't really get what the big deal with shipping is supposed to be, but she think it's neat that Netossa and Spinnerella is a couple. Lowkey ships Glimmer with Bow because she likes the idea of childhood friends falling in love with each other. Also, she really likes it when the title character gets a horse. Hangs out a lot in fandom space but doesn't really produce content, at least until Bow and Glimmer manages to talk her into writing down some of her many, many theories of how the show will turn out and just what the logistics network through the whispering woods are supposed to look like. She secretly worries when one of her posts don't get as much attention as the last one.

Bow is just hung up on poor Catra and want for her to get some love. Mostly he cheers on Scorpia, but he would ship Catra with Adora or even Double Trouble in desperation for someone to take the cat away from the hole she spend most of the series in. He takes up sewing and makes a point of cosplaying every single princess. Comments on everyone's fanfic and likes everyone's posts.

Glimmer sees a bit of herself in Catra (because she too knows the pain of having a mother who doesn't understand her). She totally ships the cat-girl with the glitter princess and writes really messed up fanfics about them. So much passion. So much delicious, delicious self-destruction. Practically drools at the end of season 4 and all the angst that goes down there. She regularly asks Bow to beta read and traumatises him badly. Gets into fan-fights on social media about stupid shit. Cosplays Catra on a con and makes out with a Glimmer cosplayer.

Angella vaguely recalls the first show from when she was young and earns some much needed mom-points with Glimmer when she digs up a mint condition original She-Ra+Swift Wind toy from a carefully labelled box in the basement. She ships Glimmer with Bow because she really likes that boy. Micah used to watch the show as a kid and had a bit of a crush on the original She-Ra. Ships Bow with Sea Hawk and cheerfully fills the hashtag #SeaBow with memes at least a decade out of fashion. Mortifies his daughter when he take them to a con and insists on cosplaying as Hordak. Ends up in the bar together with George and Lance and sings karaoke to My Little Pony-songs.

George and Lance don't really get the show but are happy to take the kids to con. Cosplays as characters from old Belgian comics.

Catra thinks the show is silly (and watches every episode passionately. Shut up. Just humouring Scorpia, is all). She thinks the Catra character in the show is a wimp, but ships her with Double Trouble because she likes it when villains get their way. Draws really good fanart. A bit of a troll on social media because its so fun to rile up people like Glimmer.

Scorpia ships Catra and Adora and cries just as much as Bow in the First One's Temple part of season 1. She is completely floored by the large, femme and kinda clumsy Scorpia character hooking up with the beautiful, beautiful Perfuma because... um... Writes really bad but 100% heartfelt self insert fanfics. Draws stick figures of Perfuma and Scorpia holding hands. Reads and re-reads her favourite fanfics until her eyes are red from crying and in the end leaves a shy little "it was good"-comment for the last chapter. Tries to work up the courage to go to a con and talk to other fans. Wants to cosplay but has too bad self esteem.

Entrapta thinks the robots are unscientific for reasons she is happy to write hundreds of blog posts about. Ships Darla with the Velvet Glove (the word 'docking' is used extensively). Considers Hordak a total hottie and draws really - and I mean really - explicit fan art. Spends her first convention on the parking lot trying to fix her Emily cosplay.

Lonnie rage-quits watching the show the moment Adora leaves the Horde but thinks Adora and Mermista should just do it already.

Kyle ships Bow with an OC named Lyle who everyone likes and no one makes fun of. Has written a ten chapter fanfic which no one has commented.

Rogelio ships Tung Lashor with Sea Hawk. His fanart can melt through steel.

Sea Hawk ships EVERYONE with Merm-iiiiiiiiiista. Runs ten different fan-events simultaneously. Mermista just ships Adora with Lonnie or whatever. They do duo-cosplay on cons, much to Mermista's embarrassment.

Perfuma ships Entrapta with Hordak, writes post after post exploring their psychosocial dynamic and is downright gleeful when it becomes canon. Spends the cons friend-momming on the rest of the group and makes sure they are all hydrated.

Frosta thinks shipping is stupid and want to see more of princesses teaming up and beating the shit out of the bad guys with the power of friendship. Also has a really detailed backstory for her OC. Only ask if you have plenty of time. Has a pretty good Glimmer cosplay.

Huntara ships Juliette with Castaspella and writes surprisingly sweet fics about them crushing on each other. Keeps order on social media.

Castaspella ships Shadow Weaver with Angella and writes fanfic that could easily be published as high class erotica. She's a really good commentor on other people's fics, giving tons of support and little constructive hints where she feels it might be well received.

Juliette has better things to do than watching a children's cartoon, but she does enjoy some of Castaspella's stories.

Spinnerella ships Catra and Adora and is just so proud when it turns out to be canon. Tells everyone who wants to listen how little representation was available in her first fandom and how far things have come.

Netossa ships Adora and Mermista and draws really hot fanart of them making out in gym showers and the like. Prefers modern aus and couldn't care less about canon as long as it gives her hot characters to play with.

Shadow Weaver doesn't ship anyone because no one is worthy of the love of Adora who is the only worthwhile character. Writes a 40+ chapter story about a badly out-of-character Adora who takes over the Horde and laughs at her enemies from the throne. Is enraged when people dare having the wrong opinion about things but can't tell them so because she feels social media is beneath her. Secretly reads Castaspella's fanfic.

Horde Prime ships Horde Prime with Shadow Weaver. She is written completely out of character in a rather insulting and sexist way. Completely insufferable on social media and insist on everyone signing up to his headcanon.

Hordak says he doesn't ship anyone because romance is silly. Cries over Adora's redemption arc when he thinks no one watches and ships her with Glimmer because he just wants to the poor, rejected Horde soldier lost in a strange land she doesn't understand to get some love and kindness.

Wrong Hordak ships Scorpia with Perfuma because love finds a way. Draws the purest fluff you'll ever see.

Double Trouble trolls social media at every turn and gleefully ships the most messed up shit they can think of. Shadow Weaver and Perfuma, Catra and Sea Hawk, Angella and Hordak, Horde Prime and Swift Wind... Also ships the characters they deem to have most dramatic potential to derail the story such as Entrapta and Hordak, Glimmer and Catra, Glimmer and Double Trouble... kinda has a low key crush on the sparkly character but denies it if anyone asks. Really good at cosplay and runs a tutorial at the cons.

Swift Wind thinks there are too few horse characters. Ships Swift Wind with Rainbow Dash.

Light Hope only ships canon pairings because by definition canon is the only thing that is valid. Writes long, convoluted predictions that she updates after every episode. She gets an existential crisis when her predictions don't pan out in canon.

Mara ships Adora and Glimmer. Still gets hot and fussy every time she thinks of the s1 hot spring scene. Wants the hardworking perfectionist to get love.

Razz write novel length stories where she ship a character mentioned in passing in an unpublished Dickens novel with her old middle school math teacher. No one has any idea what she is going on about or why she posts it in the she-ra tag, but her stories are good and she's a complete delight at cons, so she's welcome in the fandom.

[novastarlyght]

That Time I Named an Invader Zim Background Character and Everyone Thought it was Canon: The Story of Ixane

Like a lot of others it seems, the premiere of Enter the Florpus has recently made me think back to my first stay in the Invader Zim fandom many years ago. For me it was between 2006 and 2007, and I was 14-15 at the time. IZ was and still is a very special cartoon to me, not only for how it influenced me creatively but also the fact being a part of its fandom was my first really positive experience in a fan community. And I wanna talk about that experience because it... lead to something very interesting. Something that only could’ve happened in the now bygone days of the early internet where reliable sources were harder to find and misinformation was much more common, but somehow, has lasted until today. 

This is how Ixane, a silent extra that appears only in the episode “Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars,” got her name.

So first off, you might be wondering “Who the heck is Ixane?” As I mentioned, she only appears as a background character in the 21st episode of the original series, titled “Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars” which I’ll abbreviate for the rest of this post as just Backseat Drivers. She’s a member of The Resisty, a resistance group against the Irken Empire who also only appear in that episode, although they were planned to become more significant recurring characters later down the line before the show was cancelled.

In 2006 I LOVED the Resisty. They were my favorite group of characters in the entire show, probably because I was fascinated by all their potential which sadly didn’t get the chance to be explored before IZ was canceled. What planets did each of them come from? What are each of their individual species like? How did they form into a single resistance group? What were their names, their personalities? Their hopes, dreams and fears?! THEIR FAVORITE DRINKS?!?! I attempted to provide my own answers to some of these not-so-burning-to-anyone-but-myself (or so I thought at the time...) questions by writing a fanfic called “Resisting Authority,” which I published on Fanfiction.net and later DeviantArt. It’s since been taken down on FFN while the DA version is currently in private storage on my old account, so here’s a screenshot just to prove it existed:

(click here for larger image)

Despite being more adult in tone than the show it was based on and rather melodramatic (then again, I was 14, and probably so was everyone else reading it), “Resisting Authority” became really, REALLY popular... at least for a fic that didn’t feature any of the show’s main characters, given it was entirely about the Resisty and told mostly from the perspective of its leader, Captain Lard Nar. Regardless it got a large amount of positive feedback and significant fan art on DeviantArt, most of which is no longer online although there’s still a little bit hanging around - mainly featuring Lyn, an Irken OC from the story who chooses to rebel against the empire and falls in love with Lard Nar, leading to a star crossed lovers conflict.

Because the purpose of the fic was to further explore the Resisty along with the idea of “What if an Irken betrayed their own?” several characters that appeared onscreen for only a couple of seconds in Backseat Drivers were fleshed out considerably in “Resisting Authority,” where they were given names, species names, home planet names, backstories, motivations and personalities. And of these the one who received by far the most development was a feminine, blue-eyed alien in a hooded purple cloak who I decided to name “Ixane.”

Ixane would become one of the most important characters in “Resisting Authority” right behind Lard Nar and Lyn. She is a Xanan from the planet Xana, a race of spiritual mystics. She is initially distrustful of Lyn, despite her actions and claims to be as much of a rebel as the rest of them, due to her hatred for the Irken Empire and how they destroyed her home. She believes Irkens are more like machines than living creatures, their bodies merely being empty shells to carry their PAKs around, making them incapable of genuine emotion. When she discovers Lyn and Lard Nar have been in a secret romantic relationship, she becomes even more hateful towards Lyn both due to jealousy, since she’d been harboring feelings for Lard Nar herself, and her genuine belief that Lyn’s feelings aren’t real, something that will only hurt Lard Nar in the end.

However throughout the course of the story her views are challenged and eventually Lyn manages to prove her wrong by displaying what she can’t deny is anything but legitimate love for Lard Nar and compassion for her allies in the Resisty. Unfortunately Lyn is fatally injured during a battle with a number of Irken soldiers sent to hunt down the rebellion. Now wanting nothing more than happiness for the person she loves, Ixane uses her mystical powers to save Lyn’s life while sacrificing her own in the process.

This character development (both in the meta sense and in the context of the fic itself) plus her selfless heroic sacrifice is what I think made Ixane one of the fic’s breakout characters and caused her to stick in the minds of those who read “Resisting Authority.” They were no longer thinking of her as just some extra, but as this fully developed character complete with an arc that I’d made her into - as the character of Ixane. But it didn’t occur to me just how big of an impact this may have truly had until about 9 years later.

In 2015, the official Invader Zim comic series by Oni Press began publication and I found myself extremely hyped about IZ again for the first time in almost a decade. It was during this time I came across a particular IZ wiki article and section of its TV Tropes page...

(Sources are here and here)

And I thought to myself “Wait... I thought I named her Ixane...?”

Because at this point I seriously couldn’t remember. I hadn’t thought about “Resisting Authority” in years, and with TV Tropes in particular noting that Ixane’s name was given “in the [episode] script” I wondered if I didn’t actually come up with the name. Maybe it was in the script for Backseat Drivers after all so I used it in the fic. Being unable to find said script (the original script as made by the episode’s writers, not a transcript) I couldn’t confirm it, so I mainly shrugged it off and thought more than likely I just had a bad memory. It wouldn’t be on a (still regularly maintained) wiki if it didn’t at least have a high possibility of being canon, right?

Cut to last night, August 2019. Me and all my other friends and fellow nerds who also grew up loving IZ are still buzzing over Enter the Florpus and our childhood/teenage fan content comes up in conversation. I dig up “Resisting Authority” from my old DA storage for perhaps a good laugh and a bit of nostalgia when more of when I first wrote it starts to come back to me. “I know the wikis all say her name was in the script, but I swear I came up with the name Ixane myself,” I thought, wondering if there was any way I could prove it.

Turns out I could. All the proof I needed was in a drawing of the character I posted to DA in January of 2007, which like the fic was still in storage:

(click here for larger image)

“Um...I bet a lot of people who read Resisting Authority got the impression she was an OC. She technically isn't. She is a Resisty character we saw VERY BRIEFLY once or twice in Backseat Drivers and I just elaborated on her for the story. The cloaked girl, yasee. Just look here: [link] “

That link no longer works normally, however putting it into Wayback Machine provides a snapshot taken in September of 2006, which would be around the time “Resisting Authority” was first published on FFN. Scrolling down on that page gives us...

(click here for larger image)

Additionally, opening the image itself reveals the filename “resistycloak.jpg” rather than something like “ixane.jpg” or “resistyixane.jpg”

For those who weren’t in the fandom back then, The Scary Monkey Show was a very well known IZ fansite and its Encyclopedias section was basically a resource for the show’s lore, one considered highly reliable, before things like fan wikis became commonplace. I actually used this site as a reference for the different types of Irken ships and other planets in the IZ universe brought up in the fanfic and so did many other fic writers at the time. If any site on the internet would know a minor or even background IZ character’s name, if it really was in the official episode script, it’d be The Scary Monkey Show. Yet her name is listed as unknown.

So why am I telling you this?

Because as wild as this whole situation is, I’m not a person who likes misinformation. I feel like IZ fans, both young and old, should know Ixane is not actually this character’s canon name as given to her by the writers of the show. That being said...

I see no reason to stop calling her Ixane. That’s just her name now.

Heck, it’d probably be difficult to go back to thinking of her as having no name given how long the name has been used on all these wiki pages and whatnot. And I’m completely fine with receiving absolutely zero credit for actually being the one who came up with the name in the first place, because here’s the thing...

I may have made the name, but it was the fandom that spread it. The IZ community, primarily in my absence too, were the ones who codified, legitimized it. Who added it to those wikis and accepted it as canon all these years. Who believed in it enough to assume it came from the official episode script, from the IZ crew themselves!

Ixane isn’t my name for her. It’s our name for her, as the fans who made Invader Zim the cult classic it is today.

And I want that to be something we all can have and be proud of ❤︎

[sparkmender]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE: MUN & MUSE

Fill out & Repost ♥ This meme definitely favors Canons more, but I hope OC's still can make it somehow work with their own lore and Lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multimuses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

Tagged by: @ifthearmorfits -- thank you opo!!

MY MUSE IS.   canon / oc / au (...in-canon au, because transformers) / canon-divergent / fandomless

(I will be getting into spoiler territory with this, but given that you all are following this blog, you’ve probably stuck around long enough to already see what’s up haha.)

is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO.

is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  WELL… / NO / IDK. (evidently a lot of people have it bad for the nerd but I don’t do NSFW on tumblr, so lol)

is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

are they underrated?  YES / NO.

were they relevant to the main story?  YES / NO.

were they relevant to the main character?  YES / NO.

are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.

how’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. (Given Rung’s quantum forgotten status WHO KNOWS)

HOW STRICTLY DO YOU FOLLOW CANON?

Putting it bluntly: Functionist alt. dimension Rung has a whole lot of plot holes. Swiss cheese boy. I’ve made liberal changes here and there so that he can play with a majority of muses in the MTMTE/LL community, but I’ve also taken a lot of free reign giving Rung’s general lack of backstory in-between spoiler/plot beats :P

SELL YOUR MUSE! (aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutual.)

Rung is a very rare type of character, being an ostensibly ‘masculine’ character (in regards of a human binary lens) who prides himself on empathy, understanding, and caring for others’ physical and mental wellbeing in ways that often linger in more ‘feminine’ realms (again, in approx. to the human binary); it interests me to be able to explore such concepts in a territory where, considering lore and implied history, there’s no societal concept of (human ideal culturally-imposed) gender. He’s a creator ‘deity’, he literally produces souls, but nothing about his design is meant to emphasize a human sense of reproduction/fertility/etc. Most people would never look at him and conclude who and what he is. There’s also the fact that he’s been methodically documented, experimented on, taken apart, and then tortured for approx. 2 million years and yet he refused to let that break him. Rung is unflinchingly kind, willing to reach a hand out to anyone who needs a shoulder to lean on even when he has nothing of his own to offer. Hell, he studied medicine and philosophy so he could build the foundations for the Cybertronian method of behavioral psychology because even without memories of being Primus, Rung wants to take care of his creations. ...And then you add in how absolutely adorable it is to watch this old man dodder about with his puzzles and models and big googly glasses and I love him so much okay--

NOW THE OPPOSITE! (list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?)

To be honest, Rung can be kind of a Mary Sue/over powered character in some people’s eyes. Like, what, this random character who’s new to the franchise and made specifically by the author is actually Transformers God who suffered amnesia? And is friendly and polite to everyone but also has a streak of keeping a grudge and survives literal untold horrors because his body can just heal itself?? And he spits out crystals that make up sparks??? OH AND HE’S MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD AND DID I MENTION HE’S GOD SOMEHOW AND THEN HE STRAIGHT UP JUST DIES TWICE IN CANON, WOW

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO RP YOUR MUSE?

H,,,, Him round,,,,,,,, No really I just loved his design that much. Him round. Also both my mom and my granddad are shrinks so I have, like, a basic grasp on psych stuff after reading through their textbooks and watching my granddad’s old research films and study tapes, so it was familiar territory I settled on writing Functionist!Rung in specific because I sympathize with having weird + painful medical shit inflicted on you all the time and because the idea of someone so genuine and careful being the core of a revolutionary movement is really,,, makes my heart squeeze.

WHAT KEEPS YOUR INSPIRATION GOING?  

hell if I know I’m just kinda here forever lmao

SOME MORE PERSONAL QUESTIONS FOR THE MUN.

do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO. needs more weird eldritch tech woogies but I’m terrified of alienating people

do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO. (mostly as they get yoinked by the fandom at large and then my notifications break my phone)

do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO.  

do you think a lot about your muse during the day? YES (to an extent because I write a lot of different muses and I’m constantly making/doing/playing something to keep my hands busy, so it’s inevitable) / NO.

are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO.

are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO.

are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO.

DO YOU ACCEPT CRITICISM WELL ABOUT YOUR PORTRAYAL?

Criticism is the best way to grow as a creator, tbh, but I will say I think the biggest complaint is just how goddamn slow + forgetful I am hahaha,,

DO YOU LIKE QUESTIONS, WHICH HELP YOU EXPLORE YOUR CHARACTER?  

Sure! I have a tags specifically for weird Cybertronian biology quirks and for Rung just rambling about things, and it’s fun to get to reveal bits and pieces of the backstory I’ve created for him.

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES TO A HEADCANON OF YOURS, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY?  

........I mean lmao you can tell me why you disagree but at the end of the day this is my personal portrayal of a specific version of a character who only shows up for like three issues of a 70+ issue long comic series.

IF SOMEONE DISAGREES WITH YOUR PORTRAYAL, HOW WOULD YOU TAKE IT?

There are several other fantastic Rung writers out there each with their own interpretations and understandings of the character, so like. Godspeed. Go, find the god your heart desires, and whatnot.

IF SOMEONE REALLY HATES YOUR CHARACTER, HOW DO YOU TAKE IT?

Do you hate my portrayal of Rung, or just Rung in general?? I know a few people who just straight up dislike any version of Rung at all, so there’s that.

ARE YOU OKAY WITH PEOPLE POINTING OUT YOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS?  

English hard, hebrew and yiddish and spanish and romanian and german only. More seriously I was raised in an extremely weird house where English was the primary language but I was being taught by older people who never remembered which language they were using at the time. My first word was Mickey Mouse. I don’t know what’s happening. I went to art college. Please be gentle with me, sir.

DO YOU THINK YOU ARE EASY GOING AS A MUN?  

Oh most likely. There’s only like... one or two things I will go out of my way to discourage or avoid + I’m generally just kinda here to make other people happy haha

[comicteaparty]

June 6th-June 12th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from June 6th, 2020 to June 12th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

How do you personally decide to kill-off a character, and how do you handle it?

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I never kill a char for shock or to motivate other characters (hate, hate, HATE those tropes); but if that character's decisions result in their death, so be it. But I always double check if decisions with huge results like death make sense for that character, to avoid the "ideot ball" problem.

Mind you, I only have three character's whose death would break the story, all others are fair game.

Miranda

I have yet to kill a character. But I do have a death planned...and right now the reasoning is to show how far a character has come from being a self-preservationist ass. If I maintain that route it won’t be done lightly and the person who does it will feel the weight of their decision.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Any deaths in my current work happened before the story started, and... that changed nothing. They’re still characters in the story I don’t know if I could actually KILL-kill a character without knowing that their death is an important stepping-stone to the plot’s conclusion. But even then, the character can feel more like a device than a person. Maybe for a future work, I can do it... but... for this one... I’m actually banking on things worse than death

copperine (Lady Changeling)

I have a main character death planned. It's not quite the same as most deaths but explaining further would be spoilers.

That is... not a helpful contribution, but oh well.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

It's such a battle of 'do or do not' at times with these things! You want that death to make an impact for the story, however it may lend to the narrative, and that makes planning just when and where so difficult!. When we first started writing GJS, we had SO MANY planned deaths! That was the first draft, which when we read it later as we approached those parts, made us realise that these character kill offs didnt really affect the story in a way readers would care for. (in fact, it was a chapter before that we decided to save an important one!) We later calmed down our edgy-ness, and had any such sort of death fit more cohesive with the tone of the story-- and I think that is a big part!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I've had kind of a similar character death journey with my story. There were a lot more for more shallow reasons when I was starting out. I think that probably is also a symptom of writting most of those deaths as an edgy teenager :p But over time I've cut a lot of them or rewritten them, in the case of backstory deaths, so that they're more nuanced. Even the like three I have planned to happen as plot points may end up being changed by the time I get to actually scripting it. Honestly, if I was writing a new story I'm not sure how I would approach having death involved or if I would. Death is a really defining experience. For the backstory deaths in RDD they're included because they define some aspect of the characters they effect. Sometimes it's movtivation (though not the I Must Avenge! kind) and sometimes it's just how they view the world. I think that's the way I would continue to use death as a device, though there are all kinds of other experiences that can create the same outcome. Death isn't always the most interesting device to use for creating depth or raising the stakes.

carcarchu

In PP the eliminations are kind of the equivalent of dying. Most of them don't have a lot of emotional weight but i'm really dreading having to eliminate the more important supporting characters later. i feel like the author of Princess when she wrote in her author's notes that she couldn't stop crying when she had to kill off her main character and had to draw through the tears, that's me but like 100 chapters from now

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I wholeheartedly agree, Mariah. I think as we grow, we find out ways to problem solve without being so absolute about our decisions in a sense

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I have killed off characters in my story; heck, their deaths are part of of the whole problem! I chose to kill them off because they’re not just one off characters; their deaths have a major impact on my protagonist’s character development. If they have to die, then they shouldn’t be dismissed at all. Rather, it has long lasting effects of trauma and that’s something the protagonist has to move on from.

carcarchu

Oh and also in my second story which i have not drawn yet the main character dies in the first chapter but she comes back to life after winning a bet with a demon and that whole thing is an extremely important plot point that ties the entire series together

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Like @LadyLazuli (Phantomarine), most of my character deaths happened before the story even begun. Most of them were incredibly important to one character or more. Although... Since the story of Whispers of the Past is told largely through flashback, it feels like these deaths just happened. And when I wrote the prequel stories to my comic, I battled myself over a certain death that I didn't want to happen. I realized very quickly that I don't make the rules.

eliushi [a winged tale]

My kill test is: if the character dies, what sorts of impact would it have on other characters? The narrative? Readers? Could it be misinterpreted as a message I wouldn’t want to send as an author? And what happens if the character survives? I do have planned character deaths as I don’t want my characters to have plot armour. I approach this by designing the deaths/narrative and events leading up to it important and impactful. Hopefully I’ll stick the landing.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(omg Kill Test Eli)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

That’s a really good test to use, Eli. It’s good to understand what a character’s impact is on the whole story if they die. Deaths are pretty traumatic, so it would also work to see how other characters react to it.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

The "what happens if the character survives" is the big one I always consider it's the one that has saved a lot of characters because the answer has been more interesting for me to write than the death was XD(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

That's fascinating to think about... Holy hell, if one particular character didn't die, it would be an entirely different story!

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Sometimes the survival of a character has even more impact than the death. Unless they come back as a ghost, which in this case, they can still actively influence the story as opposed to being inactive

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

generally when i'm writing character arcs, i start from the end and work backwards. so if at some point in an arc i get to something like "this character needs to experience death for their growth" i'll put a character earlier in their story to get killed off. or if the character arc ended with the character's death, i'll make sure to build up to it throughout. i guess my style of writing is kinda different to some others'? in the sense that i don't go "ok here are my OCs, let's see what happens to them" - rather, i go "here's what happened to my OCs, let's see how they got there". though, that does kinda result in me tipping my hand a bit, lol. like if a character gets killed by one of the protagonists, i'll generally make the killed character a big jerk. if the character is killed by an antagonist to spur on the protagonists, i'll generally make the killed character really likeable.

eliushi [a winged tale]

I also consider when you want to kill a character during an arc. An incomplete arc is more heartbreaking than one that is complete before the end

That’s totally fair snuffysam. It’s all about the perspective

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohh that is an interesting way to write Snuffy-- that would definitely produce interesting results and a cool way to tackle character development

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

It is a good way of thinking and also introduces a lot of possibilities. Because what if the character killed by the protagonists had legitimate grief/beef? Or that the story hints at their backstory a bit more and show them to be more human? It can set up some good questions about the moral grey area.

I like to believe that each character thinks they are their own protagonist of the story....whether it be heroic, anti heroic, villainous or in between.

eliushi [a winged tale]

Sometimes the survival of a character has even more impact than the death. Unless they come back as a ghost, which in this case, they can still actively influence the story as opposed to being inactive

It’s also interesting to think about death as a concept. If your story deals with an after death story vs death as an absolute vs reincarnation one

Death itself can mean different things to individual characters

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Death of a friend, death of a loved one....death of a personality.

Or even growing up can be seen as one, since it’s death of your childhood.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Because what if the character killed by the protagonists had legitimate grief/beef? Or that the story hints at their backstory a bit more and show them to be more human? It can set up some good questions about the moral grey area.

Yeah, exactly. Like, I have a character who is currently stricken with guilt over a guy he killed. And, like, the killed guy in question was a huge jerk as mentioned, but, like... he had a family. So it's a lot of figuring out what one could do to make up for that sort of thing.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Exactly. Even if they were portrayed as jerks (or actually are jerks, like in the case of your story)...they're still people and have their own stories to tell, too.

Imagine the stories you lose out when you completely demonize or put someone on a pedestal.....not seeing them as human at all.

eliushi [a winged tale]

I definitely prefer round rather than flat characters and even if it’s one who’s only seen once in the story, I like to add some contrasting characteristics to hint at their “person” even though their roles are small. It’s the little things that will be most impactful especially when they die

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

especially when they die oh my god Eli your bloodthirst is showing

eliushi [a winged tale]

I there’s a place for characters who are designed to pass for the sake of the story’s theme/character impact/setting danger

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

hmmm there is. And the trope is called Stuffed in the Fridge, when that character is specifically slated to die for the sake of story progression, like you said.(edited)

eliushi [a winged tale]

Stuffed into the Fridge: A character is killed off in a particularly gruesome manner and left to be found just to offend or insult someone, or to cause someone serious anguish.

I think there’s a fine line between the intentions for sure

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Absolutely. Depending on how you write it, you can pull if off very, very well.

Oh! I think I meant to say the lost lenore

Usually people who have died and who end up driving the characters' motivations, my bad

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

yeah there are times that killing off a character for another character's progression can be done well like the first 15 minutes of Up are considered some of the best scenes in pixar history and that's totally lost lenore

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

It all depends if the character actually was a character with their own hopes or dreams or just a thing to be smashed to make someone sad.

Did the character who died have agency? Did they have their own hopes and dreams?

Thing is, I personally only care for character‘s death if I also cared about their lifes.

It‘s hard to explain, but so many lifes only seem to matter in stories because they matter for someone more valuable; and there‘s a definite pattern which character gets to be valuable on their own and which one is only cared about because it impacts someone deemed more worthy.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Gurren Lagann is still my benchmark for a meaningful, impactful, heart-wrenching character death - one that propels the story forward (eventually) but also brings it to a screeching halt long enough to really delve into the emotions behind it. It's a death that doesn't feel necessary at first, but you look back and see the doors it opened to deeper conflicts.

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

Ohhh, character death!! I'm gonna second a lot of opinions here about death having to be relevant and affecting other characters; and I sure wanna bring the point home that even in war, violence has meaning and life and death have meaning too. Deaths of characters happen mostly for plot reasons: they happen so I can show things (about them or about the others around them). I like to think in terms of what characters represent and the way a character dies says a lot about what you personally think about the things they represent. So I have characters that from moment one I could say "Oh no this guy's gotta die and he's gonna have to die a LOT". Also gonna go there and say that yeah sure I am guilty of the killing for motivating other characters, but also to put the plot in motion. Others, I hope, also tell us something about the characters involved in their deaths...(edited)

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(YESS CLAIRE!!! I always say the Kamina Death when we talk about that possibility in stories XD it was such a good impact)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I know people bring it up SO MUCH (along with one in Madoka... which was equally shocking!) but there's a reason they do!

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

hhh yesssss Madoka too!

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

those deaths are brought up for very good reasons, they are huge marking points in both narratives

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Madoka and the deaths in it always felt shallow to me. I facepalmed and went „of course�� on the first one. I knew it would happen from the moment the happy music started.

eliushi [a winged tale]

Deaths are just another plot device. Just have to make them count... or not... depending on what you want to do as the author! Imagine all the control... But to make a death impactful, that’s a harder question. For your wips, I’m curious what are your go to tips? Great points about agency, multifaceted, relationships with other characters.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

.........Write them as a character first before their relationships with others. Or if you do write their relationships first...brainstorm why they interact with others the way they do. Did something in their life influence it?

And...never stop asking questions about your characters. Fire away them yourself or have a friend ask you constantly. Thinking fast sometimes helps you get an eureka! moment about your characters and reach a deep part you might not have realized it at first.

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

I started the story knowing I was gonna have to kill a character in the next one or two chapters and I wanted it to matter; if I had started the story killing him right away, it would look too much like a cheap, shock-value death, and its impact on the other characters could possibly look like an overreaction. So I had to make sure that character would have a lot of interactions with others that would show at least the points of his personality that I cared for the most.(edited)

It felt like running against the clock and everytime he was on the spotlight I was just "oh no I gotta make this count, I gotta make him matter" and I hope I could make it look like he mattered to the people around him(edited)

eliushi [a winged tale]

I really like that shizamura! Making the scene and character portrayal count as we slowly move towards their demise

I’m also curious when people realize a death flag for a character. I try not to hint at the death until it happens but I’m sure there are some things that clue the readers in

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

I tried using red flags by making other characters sound like they'd be the ones to die to draw attention from my target, tho I don't know to which extent that work

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't think anyone actually disagrees with me, but just bringing up a counter-point: character death does not have to be surprising to be impactful!

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

agreed!

DanitheCarutor

Depends on the story, I have a couple where characters die. One is a fantasy/sci-fi/war story where death just happens, it has a mix of the overall horror of war and the desensitization to it all, but there is also a scene where it has personal significance in a good and bad way. (Super vague, I know.) I also have a cosmic horror/fantasy comic where characters die, but they don't officially go until their souls are gone, so "death" doesn't have much importance but the devourment of souls and fading away of old souls has a sobering importance, with the former having an almost taboo feeling. I will admit to really enjoying low-blow gallows humor, as a mean joke I was actually considering making a fake ending in my current comic where an important character dies, making the other have to reflect on everything alone, and it would have dropped the story into full blown Tragedy territory. Doing this solely to see how my readers would react, but that would be too mean, and I don't have the energy or time for something like that. Although in all seriousness, as desensitized as I am to death and gore, I personally try to handle death as respectfully as possible. It's a big deal, and I don't like the use of it as a cheap story device.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Death... Hm. I have very few stories in which I actually kill off Characters. For me, personally, the Characters kind of live in my head, and if I know I am going to kill them they are sort of "branded" in a sense in a way that taints them for me even while I'm working with them when they're alive. It's hard to explain, but I look at those Characters differently and it's always in the context of making the death as powerful as I can, rather than the kinds of things I enjoy working on more. So, I very rarely decide to kill Characters. I can find more uses for them when they're alive! The only time I will do it is if it's a short story, and the death is an intrinsic part of the tale, or in longer stories if it is something to establish stakes (if I want the stakes to be death, sometimes I don't!) Other than that, I really try to write around deaths, cause sometimes Character deaths feel like "and now we don't have to deal with writing them anymore!" Rather than being something very potent. I've not yet had a character die outside of story outlines and plans. So I'm not sure I can say how I approach it, yet.

Tantz Aerine (Without Moonlight)

Every character that dies in my stories hurts. Some more than others for sure, but they all hurt me I don't know if it makes sense but I try to save them. It's just that their personalities and choices tie my hands. If I can save them in a way that would be plausible for the story setting, I do. I like happy endings. Usually, the deaths in my stories leave gaping holes. In the style of 'things would have gone much better if so-and-so hadn't died.' And if I kill, I kill permanently. No fake outs.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

I rarely think about character deaths very often, myself. I know, weird, right, considering I have a murder mystery in my own comic? However, the victim, Count Bailey, was a death I was ready for and planned very carefully around. In the brief time we saw him alive, he was likeable and fair, to get readers wanting justice for his murder. He was also passionate in his beliefs, and this last bit allowed me to hit the ground running with possible motivations for the killer(s?). As time goes on, I also plan to reveal more about him as well. So, even though he's dead, he's still very much an active character. Retroactive? But, yeah, I suppose that's a bit of a different take from others, considering the genre. In general, I'm not a fan of killing off characters, unless it drives the story, and I would be hard-pressed to do it especially to a character my readers have bonded with. That feels cruel to me, and I wouldn't want to do that to other people.

I want to make clear that I'm definitely not judging others for doing that! It's just not the kind of writing I could do myself.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah that's exactly my thinking too. Like sometimes a character (or multiple) needs to die to move the story forward, but I can't imagine writing something Game of Thrones-like where every week you tune in to see who's gonna die. Like, I just can't imagine writing character arcs in that sort of environment, unless I was writing some experimental story about characters dealing with their own mortality in different ways. Like a more philosophical Final Destination. Not to knock anyone who does, but I just can't write like that.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

This might be splitting hairs or something, but I feel like while I am not at all against "character deaths," I don't like to "kill off characters." Probably an approach/mindset difference (and different approaches are all valid!) rather than a difference in the results.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

It's kinda the same for me. Because I don't really "kill off characters," they just... die, and I'm basically just a witness.

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

I killed my protagonist in the first chapter

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Well, I mean, with a title like Hans Vogel is Dead...

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

but also there's a difference between killing a character and necessarily removing them from the narrative altogether: I used to be SUPER into killing ALL THE CHARACTERS!11! when I was younger and have since moved away from it (a lot in part because of how turned off I was from GoT) and have been trying other ways of getting rid of characters

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Honestly, why can't more characters leave because they left on a journey or something?

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

yeah!

or like, opened a bookstore or something

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Yeah!

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

or if they're bad there's a lot worse things (dramatic music)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

ooof

I mean

I don't know if I'd like to see anything too gruesome, even for villains

(Doesn't help that my villain is my favorite)

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

oh no, I'm a baby lmao I can't do gore and that kinda stuff :''"D

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I mean, or mental torture

nah thanks

I'd rather just let 'em die at that rate

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

I'm a big fan of The Good Place theory of letting them punish themselves

there's a lot of options out there for sure

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

^^^

eliushi [a winged tale]

I’d like to think a character killed on screen give some sort of impact and meaning to other characters and the readers, that can’t be achieved in other ways (leaving for a journey, survived but different, losing memory etc).

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

that's definitely true! it depends on what you want the reader to get out of the character being taken out of the narrative

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I haven't committed to killing off any characters yet and I'm not sure how I'm going to go about it when I do. Only one character has really died so far (Joe) and that was just the premise for the whole thing so it wasn't a difficult decision. I don't know whether I'm going to kill other characters at this point

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

If I need to get rid of a character, my favourite way is to give them exactly what they want. Since I write adventure stories, that usually leads to their retirement - or with them having to deal with the consequences of the fullfillment, which means they are interesting to write and read about again.

AntiBunny

It really varies depending on what the story calls for, and the character arc. In the case of Nailbat http://nailbat.AntiBunny.net/ the main character's death was already a foregone conclusion from the very beginning. It was the premise of the entire story. Everything built up to that moment.

A character just died in http://AntiBunny.net/ as well. In this case it was more to make a statement. There wasn't a place for this villain's story to go other than prison or death, and I chose to kill him off because he lived inflicting violence on others, and his last moment is one of shock that he'd meet his end at that very same violence. It's a human moment for an otherwise monstrous character as he reaches out, perhaps asking for help, but it's too late.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

My comics don't kill a lot of characters mid-story, but now that I'm thinking about it...there's a whole pattern of "characters whose arcs include managing the fallout of pre-canon deaths."

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Leif & Thorn stars a team of knights that was twice as big before a flubbed dragonslaying mission, so I had to come up with a pack of character designs that I only ever draw when the main cast are reminiscing. https://leifandthorn.com/comic/watching-over-me-629/

eliushi [a winged tale]

Pre-canon deaths I’m also interested in yours or anyone’s approaches to deaths that happen before the story started. What made you decide that? How do you keep the readers interested and care for those who’ve already passed on?

DaeofthePast

i imagine there'd be some flashbacks? :0

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Well, in this case, the readers don't really need to care for the passed-on knights...the important part is you can tell the survivors cared about them. And the survivors are the main cast. So if they're sad about something, you care based on your attachment to them, not based on having a personal attachment to the ex-knights.

🌈ERROR404 🌈

I think that it really depends on the genre for sure. The generic death of the father in a tragic accident can turn into an action protagonist's reason to start their adventure, and never appear again and still work for the genre/ Meanwhile, for something that's noir or mystery styled, the death of the father before the story starts affect very specifically the characters more than the audience. It's important to understand the genre when working with death post mortem

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Occasionally there's a flashback that brings someone out in more detail, but it's for the sake of "let's explore a specific way that character's death is affecting one of the survivors."

boogeymadam

catching up to this for the first time and there's a lot of great advice in here "KILL TEST" ASDFG but like its so wise so i can't make too much fun of it :')

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

The reason I decided to have so many of them was that Thorn is "the only survivor of meeting the dragon face-to-face", and I want readers to appreciate how big a deal that was! A looming pile of non-survivors makes the point pretty well.

boogeymadam

something already mentioned way up there earlier: killing characters to motivate others has been treated kinda taboo lately (and i imagine a lot of pre-canon deaths fall into that category,??) but its a perfectly valid thing to do as long as the characters would be multidimensional regardless of the death. i think. it can definitely depend on the voice the story is trying to have~ Or a readers Knowing The Stakes type death like Erin just mentioned those are fun!

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Honestly, I don't think pre-canon deaths work the same way there. The worst part is when a new character gets introduced and you start to get invested in them, to care about their feelings and think about where their storyline is going, and then it turns out they were just a plot device whose only purpose was to get killed off.

If the character's already gone by the time the story starts, there's none of that bait-and-switch feeling.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think one of the big issues with "killing characters to motivate others" was sexism; like, far too often it's female characters being killed to motivate the male lead. It's extra questionable when the female character is supposedly equally (or even more so) good at surviving/ fighting as the dude.

But like any trope, it's not inherently bad; there's just been Weird trends with people using them thoughtlessly.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Oh, definitely. If part of the reason you're excited about the new character is "finally, another woman in this dude-heavy series"! (or "finally, a same-sex couple!" or "finally, a black person at all!"...) then it hits doubly hard.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeeeeeah...

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Because it's not just "the writer(s) got me invested in this female character and suddenly they offed her", it's also "the writer(s) gave the impression that they were going to include and develop more characters from this underrepresented group, and suddenly it turns out, nope, they didn't care about that at all."

And honestly, that's super easy to offset, if you just put in more variety of characters from the beginning.

DaeofthePast

^^^ I get flashbacks to basically every zombie apocalypse story I've watched.

eliushi [a winged tale]

The bait and switch feeling can be tricky to navigate for sure. I find that act 2 deaths can sometimes feel that way. Act 1 deaths tend to motivate the protagonists/be the inciting incident and act 3 deaths kind of form the finale.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Nyx+Nyssa deals with the pre-story death of Nyssa's mother, but her actions and decisions she made before she dies reverbrate through the whole story. She's more a post-mortem character than offed-and-gone. Dead ten years and STILL causing trouble.

... Another reason I don't like death-to-motivate-main-character thing is that it can so, so easily feel cheap and generic, too. "Yay. Another dead romantic interest/younger sibling" way - as if the writer couldn't think of something more interesting or more fitting to the story/setting.

It's like... So many stories use it as the character-motivation equivalent of the "As you know, Bob..." style exposition.

Can it be used well? Yup! Everything can! But it so, so, so often isn't.

AntiBunny

In the case of Pre-canon deaths I do have the mother of the 4 Rabbintlov sisters. In this case while one male character has been chasing revenge all these years, it's more been about how these 4 sisters interact and grow up, without her. The youngest never knowing her mother, the middle two being most traumatized and it becoming a source of strife, while the oldest is wracked with the responsibility of having to be both sister and mother to her younger siblings.

I think deaths that happen before the story tend to be less about the character who died, and how the characters in the story deal with loss, and have to go on without them.

copperine (Lady Changeling)

(I am lurking here because any comments about character death in my own comic are spoilers and I don't have any to mention in the ones I read yet)

DaeofthePast

I haven’t killed anyone off (yet) but I do plan to. This specific character was created for a purpose and once that purpose is done, then I’ll probably kill them off. Unless I think of something else they can do, otherwise there’s no point in keeping them.

Idk how much I want to say without spoiling, uh, I tend to think of character by what role/job I’m having them do in the story. Like, “I need a character can teach the protagonist this life lesson” and then if there’s no existing character that can fill that role, then I create a new character.

So this character that’s going to die has a very important role in the beginning to get the ball rolling. I could possibly keep them, but I’ll be introducing some other characters later on and I might have too many characters to juggle and keep track of by that point So that’s my decision making process for killing them off.

DanitheCarutor

Pre-canon deaths I’m also interested in yours or anyone’s approaches to deaths that happen before the story started. What made you decide that? How do you keep the readers interested and care for those who’ve already passed on?

FFFF I didn't even think about this! I actually have a pre-canon death, from a reader perspective it's supposed to be seen as a third party learning about the death of someone's relative, you see how it affects the characters and memories of them tend to be more romanticized. In all honesty I don't really care if readers are interested in or care about him? I just want them to know he existed at one point, and he that he played a large roll in the MCs lives, holding much greater importance to Julian than Apollo. A lot of brainstorming went into his removal from the main plot, if he stayed my comic wouldn't even be a thing. I considered at one point just having him disappear, but that would honestly be too cruel for the characters, (like when a loved one disappears, leaving the family wondering what happened or if they're still alive. Not having that closure can be devastating for many people.), and the main story is already bleak enough. Lol Presentation wise, I use flashbacks and character discussion, although not a whole lot. Just enough to get an idea of what he meant to them, and what his role was. I want to leave it vague for the audience to speculate. The most recurring approach is the use of photos, or a single photo specifically, since it's the only tangible proof of his existence.

Moral_Gutpunch

I cheated at first. The one who died is a ghost, but talking about him turns into talking about others who died, be they legendary, a death that has political effect or personal effect

Feather J. Fern

I always plan deaths of characters, anyone can die. The favourite, the villian, the best friend, the main character, someone's coffee, anything is free game for my writing.

[farklelucas]

all about the lesbian sea pirate

ahsjdkflg okay im gonna do the first section above the cut and the rest under

send me an oc and some numbers pls!! | here are my ocs!

Section 1 - About:

1. Briefly Describe your OC: Appearance, personality, role in a story, etc..

okay so!! hana is half-japanese, half-german, she’s got short/spiky black hair and fucking Huge brown eyes. she’s the protagonist of a thus-unwritten pirate love story and i fucking love her. she’s superbly socially awkward (doesn’t get customs like politeness or like asking before doing things asdjkfl), she’s a Romantic romantic, she loves sword-fighting, she was raised by her father (alongside three older half-brothers, though she was chosen as the heir to his ship which hmm pissed two of them off), she’s very much butch/tomboy, she loves adventure and sailing so fucking much, uhhh yeah her.

2. Briefly describe their backstory/childhood

like i said, she was raised by her dad, who she idolizes, along with her three brothers on the sea; she never knew her mother, because her father told her that she died giving birth to hana (or did she….? hm. maybe hana’s dad is just shitty?). she was always super excited to play and go on adventures and fight, especially with her three older brothers (only one of whom actually like. liked her.), and by the time she was old enough to hold a sword, her dad taught her how to. eventually, her dad became ill, and named hana, who was only 16, his successor. her two eldest brothers planned a mutiny to overthrow her, killing the other brother who protested. hana fought them but they escaped with half her treasure, promising to come back and kill her, and she’s spent the past six years seeking them out to defeat them.

3. Describe their family life and friends.

i mean i pretty much nailed her family, but she’s very close to all the crew. i’ll give you a quick rundown: there’s caspian, her first mate/quartermaster (grew up on the ship with her, an orphan who was stolen in one of the raids, searching out his lost family but is also a big time goof), dover, her “advisor”/sailing master (wise, lazy, arrogant, bitchy, basically her pseudo-father because her father was usually off being captain), darya, her gunner (slutty bisexual aromantic queen, runs the artillery AND the under deck gambling ring, always drunk, loyal to a fault especially to hana), and zarya (we’ll get to her later ;)) and the other lower-ranking crew members.

4. What is the world they come from like?

hmmm very mystical and mysterious, very “pirates are bad and suck and we dont like them even though they’re not usually bad” but. you know. hana is still an outlaw of the land. there are mermaids and sirens and cracken and curses so it’s better to assume that if its magical it exists.

5. Are they original or exist in a certain fandom?

original!!

6. Are they an introvert or extrovert?

extroverted babey

7. Greatest fear?

being unable to sail but also, later on, (SPOILERS) being arrogant and greedy and malicious like her father

8. What’s their sense of humor like?

honestly just fucking. stupid. she probably likes puns and like dirty jokes.

9. Favorite pieces of fiction or genres they enjoy?

i dont think she can read???? but her third eldest brother bourne would usually tell her princess stories and she liked those

10. Favorite music genres?

folk ig

11. Describe their vision of a perfect spouse, if applicable.

a tall, beautiful, kindhearted woman, who sees past the pirate savagery and sees her heart beneath; a woman who can rule the sea alongside her and knows how to handle her and keep her in check. (looks at zarya meaningfully)

12. Largest regret?

not being able to save bourne

13. Something your OC would say?

my quote for her in her bio is “what am i without adventure?” but i also imagine her saying to zarya, “you are more celestial than the stars, my love, and twice as beautiful to behold.”

14. Whats their morality like?

technically lawful good but could be a roulette wheel depending on the day

15. Would they live in a city, rural area, or suburb?

oof none but if she had to probably rural

16. Which actor would you like to portray your OC? (Or a voice actor)

sjskdldldl my face claim is jen ruggirello

17. Sexuality? Gender Identity?

lesbian baby!!!!!

18. What inspired you to make this character?

honestly?? probably a lack of rep in romance and adventure novels. i just love her!!!

Section 2 - If…

1. If they existed in another decade, what would they wear? (Asker can choose what decade) (Bonus points if you draw them!)

hmmm ill pick… current day tbh, and i imagine lots of overalls and baggy sweaters!

2. If they were in a RPG, what would be their class?

i have to imagine somewhere between paladin and a fighter, im not sure which.

3. If they received a large amount of money no strings attached, what would they use it for?

i honestly think she would just. go into the nearest village and buy all the local hungry children bread. like she wouldn’t horde it or spend it on herself. she has everything she needs.

4. If they competed on a competitive TV show, how would they approach to winning? (the “mean” one, the one who makes friends, the one who’s there for fun)

hm… i honestly dont even think she would think about it like that dkdkflfl. probably the charming one, the leader, the adorkable one.

5. If they could change one thing about their past, what would it be?

i think she would choose to keep in contact with her mother. not necessarily live with her, because then she wouldnt have her first love which is the sea, but just like. talk to her. know her better. go see her every few months. write her from different ports about their adventures.

6. If you met them, what would they do?

i would honestly probably be so fucking charmed by her. shes got that way about her, a leadership quality you can’t shake, even if shes really incredibly awkward too.

7. If your character exists in another series’ world, what would they be doing/look like?

i kind of imagine her in harry potter as like. this half blood gryffindor who’s So Gryffindor it hurts. on the quidditch team, always screaming about house pride, everyone loves her. and then she goes and falls in love with this muggle born slytherin and shakes the whole school dkdkkrklr

Section 3 - Other:

1. What other OCs would they get along with?

oh… i think it’s kind of cheap to say jack, because they’re both pirates, but honestly i think they’d get on like a house on fire. other than that… definitely michael minkus, who would make an epic first mate, and lucy stilinksi-hale, who she would probably wanna smash.

2. What’s their singing voice like?

bad. comically bad. she tries to sing to zarya sometimes and zarya locks her out of their room.

3. Take a personality test as the character. Post results.

okay so ive already taken a couple for her in the past (ex: gryffindor, entj, the motivator, etc.) so im gonna take a completely benign one off buzzfeed and post the results. so if she were a song off of thank you next she would be “bad idea” skskkdkd

4. What would be their fighting style in a fighting game like Mortal Kombat, Super Smash Brothers, or Street Fighter?

to outsmart her opponent, think two moves ahead of theirs just like in real life. jokes on her no one else is ever thinking skdkkfkfl

5. What are some mannerisms/quirks?

putting her feet up on tables, walking into rooms without invitation, holing up in her cabin for days working, smirking instead of smiling, smoking, docking in random cities for the thrill of adventure, wearing her blouses nearly completely unbuttoned, just taking things and enforcing sharing bc. she’s always shared everything with everyone naturally and she doesnt know to ask djdkfkfk

6. Describe their favorite meal.

honestly she’ll eat anything but just like. a Nice leg of mutton and a glass of beer. that’s it. that’s the dream.

7. What do they do when they’re bored?

her favorite activity is to randomly attack caspian and have impromptu sword fights with him, but she also loves stargazing and telling stories to the town children.

8. How do they express love/affection for someone?

honestly she’s very. nuzzley. soft. like a little kitten. also waxes poetic. at least romantically. platonically, shes usually like a dad friend sjdkkrlr. like im talking “attaboy” and punches on the arm. pep talks. dad voice. the whole nine yards.

9. Most embarrassing thing that could/has happened to them?

honestly, she’s not easily embarrassed ever. i think she’s kind of just like meh over most things. the most embarrassing thing that could happen would be losing the respect of her crew. she would hate that so much.

10. Make a portrait sketch of them!

[renaramblesaboutcomics]

Wednesday Roundup 11.10.2017

It’s that time of a week again where I prove to be nothing if not a complete glutton for punishment, which apparently includes having way too many trades preordered on the same week by magical coincidence. It’s like the old saying, when it rain it pours. And sometimes it’s just ridiculous. 

But we’re seeing the closing a few storylines, the beginning of a few, and just a general large array of comics at our disposal, including more of the Marvel Primers. So I say we just dig right into it. 

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine, Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, DC’s Batgirl and the Birds of Prey, Marvel’s Captain America, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel’s Immortal Iron Fists, DC’s New Super-Man, Image’s Rat Queens, DC’s Red Hood and the Outlaws, Marvel’s Runaways, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe

Marvel’s All-New Wolverine (2015-present) #25 Tom Taylor, Juann Cabal, Nolan Woodard

Will I ever run out of good things to say about All-New Wolverine? No? Good. I wouldn’t want to be dishonest and that would be the only way I’d have negative things to say about my love for this series.

Story: So believe it or not, the relationship between Daken and Laura is something I have desperately wanted to see more of. In the Daken/X-23 crossover they had a few years ago, I really felt like we got somewhere with their relationship, and the bits and pieces since then have really helped my attitude only grow stronger on the subject. So seeing Taylor hint at it growing more in the last arc, and knowing it would be delivered on in this arc has me SO excited about what is to come. 

You know. When Daken is around for more than an awesome bar fight that... leads to his dismembered arm being hung from a bridge. THAT old plot device. I’m a little sad to see that Gabby is being left behind (especially since her outfits never cease being adorable and hilarious) but knowing that we’re dealing with Mutant Bigots this time around somewhat made me appreciate that decision. I worry way too much about Gabby to take that at face value.

And then that cliffhanger hits like a freight train and it’s like WHAAAAT. But no like what. Oh my god. Is this real? I know we have to wait a month but. uh. Kudos, Tom Taylor. I am not often surprised by characters seemingly returning from the dead anymore. To say this was not expected is VASTLY underplaying my shock.

Art: There have been a lot of great artists on this title and I don’t think Juann Cabal is an exception to that rule. He has solid character art, lots of good control of backgrounds and paneling, and got pretty inventive with combining flashbacks with Laura’s current travels and actions. And the bar scene with Daken was just fantastic all around like, a simple but highly effective action sequence and I’m really excited to see what action he’ll draw Laura herself in as we carry on. 

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (2016-present) #12 Ryan Stegman, Brian Level, Jesus Aburtov

We wrap up another storyline of what has quickly become my favorite Spidey series of the ‘10s and it comes with highest of highs and lowest of lows. And lots and lots of adorable hugs.

Story: I was concerned that with the pacing we had had for this storyline up to this point that there would be a lot of things that would have to be knitted together a bit too tight or not at all, and that definitely seemed to be the case. We flew through this issue with revelations hitting in waves. Ms. January was the villain all along, Normie is suddenly a perfectly normal kid who was just misled, the symbiote is removed from MJ using sonic waves, Annie saves her parents, and just overall there was a lot that happened within this single comic. It all made emotional sense, and the hug between Annie and Normie at the end, bringing their family feud at last to an end, felt completely right. 

I liked small callouts like having Liz be the parent Normie needed, the X-Men coming to help the Parker family, and the amazing banter between MJ and Peter, but I think because there was so much fit into this last issue there felt like a bit of continuity bending to make logical sense where the emotions didn’t quite carry us. Like Normie’s... complete change in character. And Ms. January’s apparent obsession/love of Harry and need to avenge him. These things make sense if they fed into each other -- Ms. January’s influence inspiring Normie to cut his mother out of his life even more than she had been already and then feeding him more and more hatred toward Spider-Man by saying that it was his fault. But that doesn’t make so much sense with what we read in the issues before, specifically the issue where Normie took up arms to protect his company and revealed his backstory through his own internal monologue and flashbacks. 

So while this confrontation has been 12 issues in the build up, the resolution mostly came... only from this issue. Maybe the last two issues, too, if we’re being generous. 

The epilogue confuses me. It feels like Renew Your Vows is trying to wrap itself up and yet I know from solicits that it’s not, but we are justifying a timeskip to eight years in the future so that artists have an excuse to draw a teenage girl in a tighter costume --  I MEAN BECAUSE THEY WANT TO TELL MORE TEEN ORIENTED STORIES OBVIOUSLY. But I worry that this change is going to make what has been a unique take on the Parker-Watson family and turn it into Sider-Girl Lite, which is unfair to everyone all around. Also were they... not operating for those eight years? Why is the new costume a big deal for her eighteenth birthday? How much sense would it make for them to just... suddenly find a way to stop Annie from going out as a superhero with them when the whole point of the past 12 issues is that they couldn’t. 

What about Dr. Connors and his son? What about Annie’s additional precognitive powers? Did she end up going to the Xavier institute? 

I feel like I was asked to bite off a bit too much in this issue, and as much as I enjoyed it and enjoyed this series, I feel this is a rare storyline where I actually would have preferred an extra issue to set all of this up.

Art: The art is beautiful. Soft and textured but also sweeping and animatic like you would want for any good Spidey story. And considering that there has been a fair rotation of art teams on this book since the first issue, I really appreciate how much they worked toward giving the book a consistent style of its own. It was neat and helped even artist style changes feel coherent still and I’m really interested to see if this dedication to that continues, especially since the epilogue appeared to have a different feel to it. 

It’ll be interesting to see next month either way. 

DC’s Batgirl and the Birds of Prey (2016-present) #15 Julie Benson, Shawna Benson, Roge Antonio, Marcelo Maiolo

Well, I’m sure for 99% of you this is an unexpected addition to the roster. For those unaware, I have put the first volume of Batgirl and the Birds of Prey on blast on my personal blog @renaroo for having some things I consider to be insufferable in regards to the handling of Barbara and specifically the consistent villainization of Oracle. Which you know, I’m about sick of. 

So why am I picking up BoP now? Simple: Cass is going to start appearing regularly beginning with this particular storyline and I will support her here since for finances I’ve had to move ‘Tec to trade wait. 

and oh boy. This is. Something.

Story: So there’s this old episode of the animated Justice League series where an Amazon OC standing in for Donna Troy unleashed a plague on Earth that only affected men and it was putting all men in comas and the such and it left the only two women of a seven-person Justice League because of course there were only two women to deal with it and save the world... well half of it. It was broad strokes of feminism as written by men which included Diana being the strawwoman feminist who couldn’t understand if losing men (including her friends???) would doom society and Hawkgirl being the relatable cool egalitarian alien bird woman to be all “guuurrrrrlllll you need to respect men more”. It’s like. The episode i remember the most from my childhood and I hate it with the burning passion of a thousand suns. 

Apparently I’m not the only one who remembers it however because that... that is the plot of this storyline. I don’t know why they couldn’t just bring back the ebola plague from Batman: Contagion which was a legitimately good storyline I like but we’re doing the... gender specific plague. 

Are they going to address trans men and women? How is this disease preying specifically on men? Is it magical in origin and that why it follows no rules? Why is Lois here? Is Wonder Woman here just because of that Justice League episode? 

I don’t know. 

I appreciate that we didn’t waste a whole lot of time with Batwoman’s squad duking it out with Babsgirl’s squad over whether or not antiheroes who.... one of which she’s worked with before and... another of which she knows for a fact is... engaged to her cousin. But whatever. Also Steph in her post-Belfry uniform is... going along with this okay. I’m picking too much but there’s a lot of what in those four pages.

I do appreciate that the dialogue seemed to match everyone’s character very well, and Oliver and Dinah were hysterical and lovable together. .... But damn is it difficult to wrap my head around Babs’ character anymore. Like literally falling to her knees and tearing up begging Poison Ivy (who she was friends with in the previous BoP???? which is sitll canon bc they bring it up???) to help because “people she loves” are affected by the disease like. It’s the antithesis of the Babs I knew and was familiar with and admired in the day but. I guess that’s the Babs we have now. And I’m just... supposed to roll with it I guess. 

Also enjoyed Helena being a teacher again, that was awesome. Even if her calling up Dick instead of Babs was... still difficult to process but whatever. 

Art: It’s good! Really consistent, the lineart was sometimes a little softer than I prefer, but there were varied bodytypes and lots of good action sequences handled concisely enough that it didn’t feel like panel space was wasted. I really enjoyed it overall.

Marvel’s Captain America - Marvel Legacy Primer Page Robbie Thompson, Valerio Schiti

I have been pretty vocal in my disdain for how Marvel has handled Cap for the last two years and I join pretty much everyone in a chorus of “how can you misunderstand something so bad” but at the same time I’m... just tired. And it’s hard to even be excited at the fact that the reign of Spencer is over because it feels like the enjoyment and interest I’ve felt for Cap for all this time is simply used up. which is why a primer like this is really something that I needed. I needed to see a reminder that Cap punches Nazis and Hydra and Marvel -- or at least some people at Marvel remember that still. I don’t want that history gone, cosmic cubed or otherwise. And given Waid and Samnee’s interviews it seems they’re going to push for just that. 

Here’s hoping they accomplish it because even these three pages of Cap acting like Cap again was enough to make me smile at least a little. 

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy - Marvel Legacy Primer Page Robbie Thompson, Marcus To

If I was going for snark and snark alone here I would begin and end this with “why is Scott Lang here” because no really why is Scott Lang with the Guardians of the Galaxy. And it’s something I shouldn’t be asking because I really have still -- even in liking the movies as much as I do -- not found myself any more persuaded to read into the space opera stuff over at Marvel. It’s just not something I want in my life right now. 

Marcus To’s art is very nice, though, and usually worth it on its own. Even if I’m beginning to notice a touch of samefaceness in the art style At least it’s a very pretty face. 

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

Immortal Iron Fists has come to an end and I’m both saddened and yet incredibly enthusiastic about how everything turned out!

Story: So I feel like it should not have taken the better part of 5 issues for me learn that Pei and her friends are sixteen and not... middle schoolers despite how they were drawn and how they acted as way way younger than that. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that... it’s not that they’re drawn or written younger, it’s that it’s that unusual to find an American comic that actually shows teenagers appropriately and that helped me gain a whole new respect for a series that I was already very much enjoying.

Everyone coming together and remembering Pei for the impact we have seen her make in their lives, Pei fully realizing her power as Iron Fist, and the general fun of a huge climactic battle that was a three way fight between Pei, demons, and the Mother of All Dragons is probably one of the most bombastic that can be asked for. And I love that Brenda made a comeback after her truly terrible exit from the finale of Immortal Iron Fist under Andrews, but at the same time don’t... really care for how it wasn’t set until last issue. 

All the positives of this story almost make me overlook the unnecessary, though appreciably subverted, kiss of life Pei gives her guy friend and I love that Danny, man serial dater that he is, is flumexed by this turn of events. 

Everything is fun and delightful and I really really appreciate how dedicated this comic was from beginning to end to be Pei’s story and not letting that focus escape it the entirety of the six issues. 

Also Brenda flying off on the Mother of All Dragons at the end and being like stfu Danny you ruined a good thing was hysterical and I loved it.

Art: There was definitely more production in this finale There seemed to be a lot more variation in coloring and textures, and even the characters seemed to keep almost perfectly on model the entire time. The one distraction of note, though, was that Pei... developed more into a traditional teenager look by the end... by which I mean.... boobs are now a thing and I’m not sure if it was just that she wore thicker clothes throughout the story or if it was because much like myself, the art team realized last issue for the first time that Pei was a sixteen year old and not... twelve. Anyway. It was a little distracting, but the increase in panel variation and high number of action sequences definitely made the story far more fulfilling in my view. 

DC’s New Super-Man (2016-present) Vol. 2: Coming to America Gene Luen Yang, Billy Tan, Viktor Bogdanovic

After what felt like a long wait, we join Kenan and the rest of the Justice League of China once more on a bombastic quest as written by Gene Luen Yang. And much like last time, the results are rather unexpected and honestly kind of remarkable.

Story: Going off of my experiences with Yang’s work, I really feel like his passion in storytelling lies in finding the balance between the question of identity and how identity is formed by the cultures that nurtured us and how it is formed by the influences of the cultures around us. I think that was the main focus of American Born Chinese but it really is beginning to shine through Kenan’s adventures here as the New Super-Man and how much of the titular’s character is being drawn from the two huge influences he is feeling -- the pressures and dangers of the Chinese government and culture, and the admiration and sometimes oppressive shadows of the American culture that he is both attempting to copy as Super-Man and attempting to circumvent by finding the focus of his powers in Chinese philosophies and values. 

And I think that’s where his supporting cast -- Wonder-Woman and Bat-Man and now also Avery Ho’s take on the Flash -- are really coming into play. While Kenan is being torn back and forth by his responsibilities and his bombastic self-absorption both in his internal conflict and his external conflict of learning the truth of his parents, we are getting a broader exposure to what being a superhero in China means as opposed to the normalcy we’ve come to expect from Western comics. 

Bat-Man is just as influenced by his family as Batman, but the pressures are more in the focus on building his exceptionalism and in differing from his sister on whether to stay within a system that robs children of their childhoods and individuals of their sense of self, or to find purpose within that system and excel based upon the traits which only he can bring. 

Wonder-Woman, like Wonder Woman, is derived from myth and legend but instead of a Western legacy, it is purely Chinese and her alienation and stand offish nature initially toward the rest of her team only makes that much more sense given what has brought her to her current state. She is a myth, a legend herself, but she is nearly forgotten by the current times -- Kenan even has to be told the story of her origins by Bat-Man -- and her finding the will to fit into a China that is so influenced by external cultures and influences are a struggle we’re only now beginning to appreciate. 

And finally, with Flash, a Chinese-American, we’re going to receive yet another wild perspective, and considering Kenan’s already developing friendship with Avery I imagine that this is a perspective that will only receive more focus in stories to come. And I perceive that Yang’s inclinations to reference the struggles of culture and self-identity are going to be explored further here.

All around i greatly enjoyed this volume and am looking forward to the continuation now that Kenan has finally learned the truth about his family. There are a lot of interesting new angles to explore and I hope we do just that.

Art: The art is really reminiscent of Greg Capullo’s run on Batman, but has a whole lot more color and variety breathed into it which I personally really appreciate. The colors do a good job of presenting the differences in everyone’s base personalities and also makes the action sequences easier to follow even as the action itself becomes increasingly complex. The page layouts were fairly reserved considering the DC standard lately, but I personally appreciated it because it kept the focus on the storytelling and in doing so enhanced the nuances therein. 

Great work all around, and yet another enjoyable volume. 

Image’s Rat Queens (2013-present) Vol. 4: High Fantasies Kurtis J. Wiebe, Owen Gieni, Ryan Ferrier

I only recently jumped on the barge for Rat Queens and I’ve been more than happy with the results of caving to the advice of many friends. Because what is better than female-full cast of hilarious and dramatic DnD like adventures with more swearing than a naval ship? I gotta say, not much!

Story: So compared to the previous volumes, I actually found High Fantasies to feel like it had a lot less at stake. Although part of that may just be that I was somewhat anticipating a Betty-centric volume finally to elevate her out of being the shroom eating comic relief and bring more of the assassination attempts and her outlaw past into the forefront. And that’s clearly a problem of my own expectations and not necessarily the story’s fault itself. That said, the focus on Vol. 4 being on a gender bent loser version of the Rat Queens was pretty funny but also not something I would have thought carried enough weight to pivot as the main plot, but that would be just me. 

I do appreciate Braga being in a larger role this time around, and really I wish we could see more less human creatures on the roster in general. It was also a huge heartwarming feeling to have Hannah more comfortable around her Queens and even showing some horns now and then in public. It feels like a huge progression of her character, even as she spends a fair amount of time earning the girls’ ire and.... walking in on naked mayors. As you do.

Basically Vol. 4 isn’t as character centric as the previous volumes have been, but it is a great adventure that feels like a good ol’ fashion DnD campaign with the friends you love at the helm and for fantasy nerds like me that’s more than enough to bring me back into the story.

Art: The art is always spectacular with Rat Queens, but I did find  that this volume -- mostly as a result of not going to as many unestablished and important/original locations, did have a significant lack f inventive background use. That’s not always a slam on art, really the art was very good, and I actually am just... happy to not have Upchurch as the artist, honestly. That alone is worth three and a half gold stars. Though the whole controversy there is still my largest apprehension with the series at this point. 

DC’s Red Hood and the Outlaws (2016-present) Vol. 2: Who is Artemis? Scott Lobdell, Dexter Soy, Kenneth Rocafort

Okay who authorized this? Who made this comic exist and who made it be actually good?? Because I didn’t and I feel offended at the amount of emotions that were forced upon me in this single volume of a comic written by Scott friggin’ Lobdell of all people. You couldn’t have told me a month ago that I would be enjoying anything that was remotely connected to Scott Lobdell and expect me not to laugh hard enough I’d bring myself to tears. 

And yet here we are.

Story: Having learned a bit from how lackluster the attempts of balancing the concentration of the narrative was for his previous incarnations of the Outlaws, Lobdell somehow learned how to, y’know, write an ensemble narrative that is still heavily Jason Todd’s perspective, but does not lose any opportunities to expand on or even concentrate on the stories and character development of Bizarro and Artemis. oth of which are shockingly well handled and shockingly controlled, well paced, and interwoven into each other’s stories. 

Like legitimately, did someone nab the Lobdell who wrote decent 90s Marvel comics and put him on this project? Because that feels like the kind of bizarre logic that would seem acceptable at this point.

Now, of course, it’s not perfect. Far from it. But at the end of the day we got an intriguing ongoing story, a team building exercise, Jason’s internal struggle personified both through his inner monologue and flashbacks, but also moments like his sparing of Bizarro whic not only didn’t have overly wordy exposition bringing attention to it, but was strong enough and meaningfully enough that from it alone we could see what Jason couldn’t: he is not as lost, he is not as amoral, and he’s not as cold as he has tried desperately to prove himself to be.

I actually found the take on Artemis and the Bana Mighdall pretty interesting in this retelling, and I like that we have a rogue Amazon as a new enemy for the team. 

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m super excited to see what will come after this. 

Art: There was a range of artists, which is fine, the industry standard of pushing out these comics with the turnaround that they do does cause some disconnect, but for the most part an artist stayed for at least the completionof their storyline and then she was. And overall the trade still fel tconsistent, with some artists just standing out more than other. 

Marvel’s Runaways (2017-present) #2 Rainbow Rowell, Kris Anka, Matthew Wilson

The new run of Runaways absolutely blew me away last month by shooting any and all expectations I had right through the skylight and beyond, so a good premise with beloved characters and a set in conflict really leads to a question of how do the pieces fall in order?

Story: I absolutely adore how Gert being the heart and glue of the family is being so blatantly emphasized throughout this (and that Old Lace is back). I also love that... honestly the trauma and lingering horrors Chase and Nico have survived in particular are being treated as real and damning in the eyes of someone who knew them only two years ago already. But most of all I love the emotional balance. Gert’s anger and disappointment are justified, but her crudeness and accusatory nature are also clearly shown as being wrong and too subjective. The important thing to her, and thus to the group, is to come together again. And I love that it is her prime motivation through and through. 

That all being said, after such a bombastic first issue, it was a little difficult to have the momentum come to a halt so quickly. I don’t want to be taken wrong, I love issues where comics take their time and really meditate on the characters, their reactions to evens former and to come, and really develop relationships and the such. But it does feel a little unnatural to have that only two issues in when the previous issue was SO incredibly packed. 

I’m still fascinated with where we can go from here and very excited to see that Victor, Xavin, and Klara might not be destined to eternal obsecurity like I assumed when the book was first announced. 

Art: Honestly I’m still amazed at just how fantastic the art really is in this comci. .It’s SO good and the designs for all the characters are simply gorgeous. Though probably the best thing about all of it is the great coloring we see done here. Top notch. 

Marvel’s Spider-Man - Marvel Legacy Primer Page Robbie Thompson, Valerio Schiti

I think I know less about what Marvel plans to do with Miles these days than Marvel knows what to do with Miles, which is horrifying because I just set that bar about as low as it could possibly have gone. But we.... have Rio Morales back which is the big reason I stopped keeping up with Miles to begin with so yay? I don’t know. 

I feel like this primer is actually aimed at fans like me who got off the wagon back when the Ultimate title lost most of its steam both from killing off too many of Miles’ personal supporting cast and becoming too much about tertiary cast’s origins and then Peter Parker returning to life and stuff’s weird. This feels like a big neon sign that says “Things are back! The origin’s the same! Do not look behind the curtain!” It makes me curious but also apprehensive at the same time. 

also can we get robbie thompson to write miles’ book and bendis let someone else write some books already jfc this was such a relief. 

IDW’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe (2016-present) Vol. 2 Nick Pitarra, John Lees, Brahm Revel, Ryan Ferrier, Adam Gorham, Sophie Campbell, Bobby Curnow, Pablo Tunica

So unlike the rest of the reviews, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Universe doesn’t really fit my review format since it’s more like a collection of vignettes across the TMNT universe that feed into the main book and each story is written and drawn by a different team, so it wouldn’t have that same cohesion. 

As the giant Ninja Turtle fan that I am and probably always will be, I can’t get enough of the mythos and the characters in TMNT, so having a book that has a solid, even meditative point of just exploring smaller stories and little character developments that wouldn’t fit in the very tight and controlled narrative of the main title is something of a perfect godsend to me. I love it in concept and in execution.

One thing I worry about, however, is that there definitely seems to be a lot of stories here that feel necessary to keeping up with the main series. Such as the story of how Alopex and Angel ran into the Toad Baron and escaped -- that was a pretty crucial piece of information for the Eternals storyline a few issues back in the main book. So it feels like more and more, because of how tight and concentrated the main book is, they’re using books like Universe to fill in everything else, including buildup to larger more important narratives. And while that’s fine and even something I enjoy, it’s a move that will really push people to start being more choosy with their books. It’s much like keeping up with Transformers right now, and that tends to lead to some mixed bags. But I suppose we’ll trust and see.

At the end of the day, I have to pick the comics that really stuck with me the most. And while I was a little disappointed by a few titles this week, there was a pretty intense competition between the ones that genuinely caught me and made me really feel while reading them. And I think by that measurement I have to give the Pick of the Week this time around to the conclusion of Immortal Iron Fists. I was so worried about how this story could wrap everything up and it’s with mother flipping dragons that’s how. I love it. I love Pei and I love her being officially adopted by Danny who is TOTAL ridiculous dad now. This is the kind of Immortal Iron Fist I am happy to support. 

As far as trades go... wow I for some reason was not anticipating getting slammed as much as I did, but I really didn’t feel like any of the books let me down. They were all pretty amazing and I felt like I also managed to incidentally cover the entire span of comic book genres and types in a matter of two days, which let’s admit it, pretty impressive. I feel like the new releases this week are honestly a harder competition than the single issues but twist my arm, surprising no one nearly as much as I’m surprising myself here, I have to pick Red Hood and the Outlaws for managing to be a comic that... is unexpectedly good and unexpectedly sincere and unexpectedly emotionally motivating in ways that I wish... more comics... were? I just. have a real hard time complimenting Lobdell after tearing his books a new one for..... six years straight now.  But... thank you? for writing well? And making me feel things? For Jason Todd, Bizarro, and Artemis? Am I doing this right?

And those are the comics for this week! Did you happen to agree with me? Disagree? Think I missed out on picking up a comic that was good? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

But before I let you go, I have to (yes have to) plug once more:

I have exactly a month 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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[mikunology]

Mikunology File #4: Fanmade/Derivative Characters in Vocal Android

Forget those dumb character lists I made in the first two files, I don’t have the time to make icons/portraits for everybody.

But, I figured I might as well talk about the fanmade and deriative characters that will be featured in this series/comic/story/whatever, so here we go. And remember, some portrayals of characters are made up purely for storytelling’s sake--if there wasn’t a story to any of this, I’d probably portray some of these characters differently.

Info under the cut! (WARNING: A CRAPTON OF READING.)

Truthfully, unlike the Cryptons, who have a clear-cut role in the story (which is, duh, the main characters), a lot of the fanmade characters are sort of scattered throughout the story. Some are important, most are just little background characters that help populate this wacky, futuristic world the Vocaloids live in. But I have to say, I have the Friendship is Magic approach to background characters: despite being backgrounds, they probably have their own story to tell.

So what of them?

Akita Neru & Yowane Haku: Oh, these guys. As stated on a post I made on Incorrect Vocal Android Quotes, these two start out as low-tier villains, so low-tier I actually wouldn’t categorize them as such considering other characters fill the title of “villain” so much better. Why? Story-wise, these two do little more than make halfhearted attempts at antagonizing Miku and the Cryptons, and even then, it’s mostly Neru’s personal envy. That’s why I don’t consider it a spoiler that Neru and Haku end up joining the heroes--though Haku’s role gets expanded later on as we learn more about her creators.

Calne Ca/Calcium: Calcium, surprisingly enough, would have counted as a oneshot villain if it weren’t for the fact she’s just terribly lonely. Calcium, in reference to Deino’s concept, is supposed to be a robotic exoskeleton--and in this story, a robotic exoskeleton developed by a miscellaneous company for some shady reasons. She gains a Miku skin (thus becoming Calne Ca) after coming to idolize Miku’s music and deeds, and later on gets the more humanlike skin from Bacterial Contamination after Miku befriends her.

Zatsune Miku: As mentioned on Incorrect Vocal Android as well, Zatsune is definitely one of the more textbook supervillains in Sapporo. Created by a mysterious underground company, Zatsune’s mission is basically Kill & Replace--assassinate Miku, get all her glory and fame, maybe cause a robot uprising in the process, who knows. Thing is, curiously enough Zatsune’s specific function is more of an attack droid, not a singing one, and while at first she’s a bit more quirky and hammy she gets MUCH more serious when you see her...other design (aka her original one, if you’ve been to the Fanloid Wiki).

Dell Honne: Last I checked, I mentioned Dell quite a few times on Incorrect Vocal Android as well, and well...he’s not at all a nice guy, and arguably a worse villain than Zatsune depending on your perspective. While in retrospect I realize Dell was supposed to be a “Yowane Len”, so to speak, he’s actually a human character who is supposed to be Haku’s creator. He runs the large technology company Honne Corporation (a corporation I’ll go into more detail about later since I plan on making a post about companies in this story), and initially created Haku based on Miku’s success, and subsequently junked her when Haku failed to perform. But he’s not just a backstory character--he gets up to some evil plans later.

Hagane Miku: OK, OK. I’ll be honest that my portrayal of Hagane is a bit confusing, but I’ll do my best to be straight about it. (The problem with Miku’s derivatives is that I had to explain why she has so many lookalikes.) To start, I will say that I didn’t initially intend Hagane to be her own person in this verse--in one of the old drafts of this plotline, Hagane was simply a death metal alter ego Miku took on when people wanted her to be edgier. But in this current plotline, there are two Haganes, based on the H-side and M-side versions the Haganeloids were supposed to have. 

Hagane Type-H: The Type H Haganes are a line of attack droids sent to destroy Sapporo while simultaneously wrecking Miku’s reputation, supposedly created by a faction of Honne Corp. (though it’s unconfirmed). The thing is about the H-Haganes is that unlike the Cryptons, or heck, unlike Zatsune, they are mindless--they simply follow the commands whoever made them gives them. Which, to Miku and crew, makes them that much more dangerous.

Hagane Type-M: This is where the more confusing part comes. See, as more stuff happens, the Vocaloids end up inspiring a LOT of people, and not only do more singers pop up because of them, more heroes do, too! That said, it’s not uncommon for some of said new heroes to base their image on the Vocaloids themselves--and thus, M-Type Hagane Miku is a vigilante fighting bad guys on the lower deck in a punk-rock Miku image. Who she really is, no one knows, but she definitely helps the group when the H-Types show up.

Sakine Meiko: OK, this one is purely technical but I felt I should clear up some things in case someone tries to point it out--Sakine Meiko and the Meiko that features as a main character (MEIKO) are one and the same. Sakine as the derivative she’s known as was Meiko’s persona when she used to be a teen idol, being a one-hit wonder before retiring so Meiko could study science. Hence, that’s why I give Meiko the surname of “Sakine” even as an adult.

Shion Family: Yes, they exist here, too. The Shion Family is, as expected, Kaito’s crazy family of brothers (and one sister) that he occasionally goes to visit, or that occasionally visit him and cause havoc. I won’t go into detail about each one, but the family is pretty much made up of (in order of birth): Akaito (red), Kikaito (yellow), Kaito himself (blue), Mokaito (brown), Taito (purple), Nigaito (green), Kaiko, and finally Kageito (who I’ll go more into next). All this plus their unnamed foster father who I need to make. Zeito, as much as I wanted to include him, isn’t here simply because I haven’t figured out a role for him yet (as Kageito kind of has the role people would expect Zeito to have, knowing Zatsune).

Kageito Shion: You know how above I say that not all portrayals in Vocal Android are reflective of my image of the character, and that if this were ust a story-less random thing characters would be portrayed differently? This is definitely one of those times. Kageito, in this story, is Zatsune’s right-hand man and most loyal lackey, being a calm and sweet boy that was transformed into a devious and crazed monster after being possessed by a mysterious shadow being. He directly antagonizes Miku and the Kagamines numerous times but is routinely defeated, and goes into hiding with Zatsune sometime later (whom he’s infatuated with, by the way). Whether Miku actually brings him back to his original self is up in the air.

Hatsune Mikuo, Kagamine Rinto, and Kagamine Lenka: I was slightly iffy about adding genderbends in simply because it’d be hard to explain how they exist (because, like I said before, I’m trying to explain why there’s so many Mikus running around), but I gave in eventually. Kind of along the lines of how Haku was developed, the genderbends were made as knockoffs--created by a couple of random scientists who wanted a piece of the action. Mikuo, Rinto, and Lenka don’t have the powers that Miku and crew have, though, but they befriend them just the same. S’all good.

Kagami Kawaiine: Now we’re getting to the silly ones. Kagami, unlike most of the characters above, is simply a silly background character that pops up now and again to annoy absolutely everyone around her. She’s a human girl that tries to imitate Miku and interrupts random events by being a weeb.

Sasayaki Nerune: Another background character, and actually my OWN character--she’s a narcoleptic android that works random odd jobs and appears from time to time doing something weird. I just think it’s fun to have her cameo occasionally.

Hachune Miku, Tako Luka, Shiteyanyo and Larval Rin: The weird little mascots are characters that simply pop in now and again to do whatever, with Tako Luka officially being Luka’s pet in this story. Hachune shows up very randomly as a sort of a visual joke, but also offers Miku rather assertive advice (thus leading Miku to believe Hachune is simply a figment of her imagination). Shiteyanyo and Larval Rin I haven’t decided on yet, but maybe they’ll show up somewhere.

Mikudayo: Mikudayo, in all essence, is just a little running gag that exists solely to spook the hell out of the other characters. While I imagine it originated at a convention/concert kind of place (mirroring how it came to be in real life), it just stalks Miku relentlessly for some reason. Miku isn’t too sure it’s even just a human in a suit, either.

OK so that was a LOT of writing I just did. But yep, those are the plans for those characters, at least. And just so everyone knows, I’m totally open to suggestions on other derivatives as characters (I am NOT taking ocs, but if there’s a more notable fanmade I haven’t heard of then I’d love to include them). If you got to the end of this post, then I wholly appreciate your endurance of my weird ideas and your interest.

[renaroo]

Wednesday Roundups 7/6/17

Wow I had a lot to read and I still managed to turn it out faster than I turn out about 90% of these which I’m not sure if it’s a reflection on my reading and writing skills getting better or if I was stressing out over doing these way too much in the past. 

Regardless, we have quite a variety this week and still seem to be celebrating Wonder Joy so let’s just get into it~

DC’s Batman, Creator Owned CBLDF Defender, Marvel’s Spider-Man/Deadpool, DC’s Superman, IDW’s Transformers: Lost Light, DC’s Wonder Woman FCBD, DC’s Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor, Viz’s Yona of the Dawn

DC’s Batman (2016-present) #24 Tom King, David Finch, Danny Miki, Clay Mann, Seth Mann, Jordie Bellaire

Okay, so I follow Batman at a distance because I’ll be completely honest: Tom King absolutely lost me with the Gotham and Gotham Girl plot because I just could not get into it, and it annoyed me, so I’ve been hands off with the title for the most part, a decision I only double downed on with the Catwoman debacle and my correct assumption in King really relying too heavily on TWISTS. a

.... 

But I absolutely picked up this issue because even if nothing in my thinking brain believes, at all, that this will be allowed to change the status quo between Bruce and Selina...

I love BatCat so much you guys.

He proposed. And I bought it purely for those pages.

I have to emphasize it was for those pages alone because I could not have cared less about Claire and Bruce’s conversation because I’m just so tired of how many people there are in Gotham and how this conversation would have been so much more meaningful if it came from Kate or Dick or Tim or Cass or Duke or Harper or Damian or Julia or Luke or Jean Paul or Leslie or -- THERE ARE SO MANY BAT CHARACTERS THAT ARE NOT BEING USED TO THEIR FULL POTENTIAL RIGHT NOW DAMMIT.

The conversation itself is kinda stuff we’ve heard before, and while I like how it tied in thematically it just wasn’t in me to not criticize the fact that it’s coming from the current OC of the Day. 

Anyway. 

I came for the BatCat and I was happy for it even if it was basically only three issues and I had to deal with grown artists making Gotham GIrl’s skirt incredibly short while she was in weird positions for most of it. 

So. That’s my take on that.

Now I can write 3 million fics about how this could be wonderful and that Helena Wayne gets to grow up with all her siblings and be loved by the world. byyyyeeeeeeee

Creator Owned CBLDF Defender Vol. 2 #2 Marc Adreyko, Gene Luen Yang

So this is mostly just an addition at the last minute both because it’s free and because it’s, well, an information brochure about uniting to subscribe or pledge money to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund for all those who have been encouraged into activism thanks to recent events and the collective consciousness surrounding events like last year’s Pulse nightclub shooting.

It’s a good idea and it’s pro-community messaging speaks to me. I’d like to spread awareness for people that these voices are out there and that if you’re interested in providing support you can check out this particular brochure on Comixology for free or google at your leisure.

Marvel’s Spider-Man/Deadpool Vol. 2: Side Pieces Scott Aukerman, Gerry Duggan, Penn Jillette, Nick Giovannetti, Paul Scheer, Joshua Corin, Reilly Brown, Scott Koblish, Todd Nauck, Tigh Walker

Okay, so... I like Spider-Man/Deadpool’s first arc... but it’s pretty much exactly like Trinity over at DC and it’s spiritual predecessors Batman/Superman and Superman/Batman in that, outside of what’s honestly a pretty stellar initial premise, there is not a whole lot of plan behind where the comic wants to go for the future. 

So you get a whole lot of different creative teams and no cohesive narrative or direction for the comic to go. 

But I guess that really brings into question what makes ongoing comics work and whether or not th idea of “hilarious monthly team ups of Spider-Man and Deadpool without a point, and assumedly without continuity consequences” is enough to work. 

And as someone who honestly really enjoys one-shot one-and-dones, that’s honestly a pass for me. 

But at the same tim... I mean there’s a reason I have both Spider-Man/Deadpool and Trinity on trade wait status now. 

The whole is not equivalent to the sum of its parts, but honestly it’s got some genuinely funny and worthwhile parts as it stands. And I appreciate that. 

DC’s Superman (2016-present) #24 Patrick Gleason, Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, Mick Gray, Joe Prado, Wil Quintana, John Kalisz

You know, sometimes being a comic fan is kind of like reading the newspaper more than reading a narrative story. 

For me that’s kinda what this issue felt more like, I was getting information on where all the characters had moved since last time, the motivations, some backstories. Slight progress and movement in the form of an update on what happened to Lois and getting to see her still kicking Clark’s ass in gear despite his concern for her injury, which I liked, but overall this issue mostly felt like filler for the final moment where we see Jon fall completely into the control of Manchester Black. 

Who... is a big whooping plot hole I am stil waiting to be addressed. Clark remembers Manchester Black from the New Earth continuity still and the “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?” and knows about the Elite, but do they know about him? Or are they completely different from the Super Elite we knew? Are we going to get a Justice League Elite mention (which good god please spare me, though I’ll take Sister Superior). 

This is one of those cases where I feel like my overly extensive knowledge of things in continuity actually puts me at a disadvantage to actually like... reading and taken things for granted. 

I want things to make sense, or I want enjoyable Kent family shenanigans. 

But this issue did have Krypto so, I automatically add a star to it. Sorry, I don’t make the rules. 

IDW’s Transformers: Lost Light (2016-present) #6 James Roberts, Jack Lawrence, Joanna Lafuente

Look, sometimes I think it’s important for critics, reviewers, readers, what have you, to bea ble to say that they’re confused and don’t know what emotion to feel or whether or not the comic accomplished exactly what it wanted to and I’m just. Like. 

Yes that is my emotion at the moment.

A lot of stuff happened in this issue. Like lots of crazy, out there, amazing stuff was packed into a single issue and it’s like, there were panels where you’d blink and you’d miss important character development notes -- like Ratchet hugging their Rung once they got back. Like there’s so much good -- Rodimus had a lot of amazing moments throughout and I love the range of humor to anger to disappointment that he showed. Like his trust and faith in others is already pretty shattered at the moment and to feel Megatron’s apparent betrayal adding onto that is like a million times more stuff. I fear he’s nearing a very dangerous ledge, which is bad because this issue also tells us that Rodimus’ death wish and lowkey desire to put himself in dangerous positions to die heroically is still as prominent as ever. 

Someone hug my trash fire of a son, please.

And then magical girlfriend romance bringing back her girlfriend as a baby and it’s kinda weird like is it still going to be the same Lug? Does Anode acknowledge that it’s weird? Is anyone going to point out that they could feasibly use protoform matter now to resurrect anyone whose spark remnants are available now? Including Skids and Ravage?

what is going on

Anyway. 

There’s a lot packed into this issue which is why I am honestly kind of happy that next issue’s description is a “fallout” from this because holy shit, I need room to breathe and think through things.

Also. Dat smile when Megatron heard Optimus’ voice in the epilogue-ish finale. I like. Maybe had a fangirl moment. Just maybe. 

Anyway. I’m shrug emoji right now until I can get my emotional state sorted out because wow there’s a lot at the moment. Like a lot. A lot a lot.

DC’s Wonder Woman FCBD 2017 Special Edition (2017-present) #1 Greg Rucka, Nicola Scott, Romulo Fajarado Jr.

Like last week’s Wondy special, this is a reprint, but it’s a reprint of the first issue of “Year One” which still holds up as the far superior of the two starting Wonder Woman titles from Rucka last year and is amazingly well held up...

...save of course for the exact same criticisms as the last time I went over the issue which is Dead Bro Walking trope and a whole lot of Rucka Why???? that comes attached to the really bizarre treatment of race in the first arcs of the series. It’s just so bizarre.

But honestly, again, these moves are meant to attract the new, excited audience after the box office smash that has been the Wonder Woman movie -- an audience that has been largely female of all ages. And if there’s one free comic I’m glad will show up immediately on their google searches this Wednesday, I’m very glad it’s going to be the start of what has quickly become my favorite standard bearer of Wonder Woman’s origin story. 

Something I appreciate even more after having finally read the entirety of Azzarrello’s Wondy run which. Eck. Wash my mouth out. 

DC’s Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor (2017) #1 Tim Seeley, Christian Duce, Allen Passalaqua

So this addition to my pull was kind of unexpected in that I had no idea that it was coming out this week and thought “why not” because I’m literally still so Wonderfully Pumped Up a the moment and as far as I can see, the more proceeds DC and WB can see attributed to Wonder Woman the better.

That being said, Tim Seeley really dug into his Grayson roots in this one because that’s about the only thing I really got from this issue is that Steve Trevor’s a badass secret agent with secrets and a deep seeded guilt thing. Which kinda felt like a harsher toned take on his Dick Grayson more than anything else. Which is fine.

Part of the problem here is that I did not read the New52 short term published book that was A.R.G.U.S. or whatever where Steve starred during the weird interim where Steve was not allowed around Diana and Lois wasn’t allowed around Clark but DC still wants to make money from fans anyway.

idk. And since those kinds of spy books are rarely my cup of tea, I don’t think this issue sold me on renigging on that instinct.

Still it was cute and Diana and Steve’s interactions, while minimal, are really the driving portion of his narrative which I think is always good.

But, just like the Annual, I’m left just sitting here going “why don’t we use this opportunity to show off the upcoming Wonder Woman creative team, DC????”

And I get no answer bc DC actually doesn’t care about some weirdo random blogger on the internet constantly screaming at them.

Viz’s Yona of the Dawn (2009-present) Vol. 6 Mizuho Kusanagi

I have actually been very interested in Akatsuki no Yona since I saw its anime show up in my Crunchyroll feed, and as with most anime I can’t help but immediately try to find the manga instead because I am impatient and want Answers Now. As I understand it, the Viz official translations are far behind the current run of the manga (makes sense, as the manga series has been ongoing since 2009 in Japan), and is only catching up to where the anime left off so far, but that’s more than okay for me right now.

Because oh my gosh, it’s so amazing to read such a beautiful story about the growth, empowerment, and pure will of a female character as told by a female author and artist. I’m not the biggest fan of Shoujo as a style of art, but having Yona strike a balance between beautiful and cutesy visuals with what is ultimately a fairly action driven plot with intense moral posturing and constant detail put into the grayness of life’s choices makes Yona of the Dawn honestly unlike just about any Shoujo I’ve read before. 

Yona is one of the most compelling heroines I’ve ever seen, and her intensity of spirit and her meaningful examination of her kingdom makes this fairy tale story really unlike anything else out there. 

And while I’ve really enjoyed Yona to this point, I have to say it is an amazing relief to reach Volume 6 an finally get more female characters than just Yona. I like the reverse harem appeal of the cast as it has been so far, and I have affection for several of the boys, but man is it so much more meaningful to have a few more compelling female characters backing up Yona in the representation department.

Especially since some of Yona’s crew still feel... a little bland to me. It’s usually not a good sign in a massive cast when the traits that come immediately to mind for me are purely character design. 

I’m excited for what’s to come and to see how our Princess fully realizes her potential as the Crimson Dragon. 

Also I should note some skeevy parts of this. One I don’t mind but am sure other people might, there’s the fact that Yona’s current storyline is dealing with Yona taking down a ring of human traffickers and slavers, which brings up the question of autonomy both for Yona as a woman in this honestly pretty traditionally sexist kingdom but also for the Dragons themselves and how their “service” to Yona is framed as a question of their own will. But it’s still a story about human trafficking and that could bother a lot of people. Another thing in this volume, which has bothered me in the previous volumes but really came to a head this time around, is Hak’s... weirdly possessive outbursts toward Yona. I get that they are meant as... idk protective and romantic to some and that we’re supposed to be compelled by his struggle to not show his affection for Yona, but honestly I’m just kinda... naw hoss. Like Hak’s a fine character and I like his relationship and history with Yona most of the time, but like.. the weird pushing her against walls and... licking honey off of her wrists and just. idk. We’re lost in translation here or something bc I’m not a fan.

I’m also not a fan of Viz’s weird changes in the font randomly throughout the book? Like just stop. It’s bad when your translations look lazier than the fan translations I’ve seen floating around on tumblr.

I’ll be honest, as high quality as I consider almost all of these comics this week, I would say the good majority of them did not give me a fully emotional experience or really captivate me in a way that satisfied me from start to finish. And I’m sure in the follow up issues to come there’ll be a lot for me to question into why that might be for the majority of them, but that time is not now. So, as much as it may feel like cheating to pick a volumed book over single issues, I can’t help but say that Yona of the Dawn by far is my pick of the week. It delighted, it changed up its structure and storytelling, built out its world and has started spending more time on the titular characters where before it often felt like we were just taking for granted that there was a dragon gained every volume. And Yona herself is just one of the most satisfying characters to see grow into their own. 

But that’s just my opinion, I’d love to hear what you all think. Agree? Disagree? Think I missed a great comic this week? Please let me know!

[punk-rock-pixie]

1-50 for the OC asks boi do 'em all

1. Your first OC ever?

FUCKIN MEI.

Cuz I was a weaboo piece of shit once. 

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OCs?

Hazel and Wendy. My beautiful children. Hazel is a demigirl of the dystopian future and Wendy is a trans female elf of the same world Both do magic and alchemy. They’re gonna be girlfriends. 

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?

I mean the time twins are made with the help of my friend Timmi

4. A character you rarely talk about?

That’d be Kuro. 

Made her back in 2012. She is a shinigami and she is a total mary sue.

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? 

Either of the time twins, Wendy or Mr. Wicca. I love those four so much….

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?

Not really. I have two sets of twins and the others don’t look alike. 

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?

Yes. Kuro was part of the D. Gray-Man series. The time twins are part of this web comic idea called Eereree. Blue Topaz is of course my gem for Steven Universe.

8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs 

I don’t but here’s Wendy and Hazel

Wendy: Good evening, chaps. My name’s Wendy. I currently am the assistant of Mr. Wicca. Love to stay and chat, but Mr. Wicca has me on some errands currently

Hazel: Evening, all. Hazel’s the name, alchemy’s the game. I… also really don’t have a lotta time. I’ve got a kingdom to rule after all because, of course, my brother won’t help me. He’s a pain in the ass, but I love ‘im anyway. 

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?

LITERALLY TAKE KURO AWAY. 

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? 

I mean… None are super like hard… Mostly Wendy is hard because she has vitilligo, and I can never remember which pattern I used for her.

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? 

Maybe Mr. Wicca. He’s always excited about magic but idk he has his points.

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lot

I love the other eereree characters honestly. 

 13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? 

Mr. Wicca is mischievous as fuck. He uses his elixirs to screw with people. 

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory 

I have Kuro’s backstory up because I’m on my Deviantart page for this crap. 

I wrote this way back when so yeah….

Long ago when the world was created, small pieces of shiny fragments called innocence were scattered around the world after the great flood. One in particular was called the Heart… When people discovered this “Heart” it was somehow split into two halves- two sisters with large, white wings. Adam and Eve cared for these two…. until the day the Earl came. He stole half the heart. This part of the Heart *aka Dark (obviously)* was raised to become an enemy towards the human race. After about 200 years of being raised, the kidnapped part of the heart had become so sick and twisted with evil, that her wings turned an ominous black.Her sister, on the other hand, had learned how to survive on her own. She worked in a town called Mater building dolls, playing with the children, and helping those in need. *holy beep what a do gooder* Her wings may have stayed white, but they seemed to glow even whiter with every good deed she did.Soon, after about 400 AD, the two were locked in a supreme battle. The pure side thought her sister had betrayed the human race, but in reality she was only kidnapped and manipulated to kill. (NOTE: The Earl taught her that the human race was a foul thing, and it needed to die off)) From what the Pure girl had said, the Dark girl had turned on her “father” and killed him. Or so she thought…Now, in the 21st century the Earl is back and even stronger than before. The two girls have been doing all they can to keep him from sending the universe into utter chaos and causing the complete destruction of the human race…

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?

Yes! @dreamxng-forever and I constantly crack jokes about our eereree characters. Her princess is in love with the time prince, but she forgets he is like…. SUUUUPER fucking gay. “Is it hot in here or is it just you.”“Oh, Sar, uh. That’s just our kingdom’s natural climate. You see, we have lava falls…”

“Ohhh… Okay…. SO IS IT HOT IN HERE OR IS IT JUST-”

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? 

Definitely Wendy or Mr. Wicca.

17. Any OC OTPs? 

Hazel and Wendy all the way. They’re girlfriends maybe. Mr. Wicca also would be nothing without Wendy. They’re very close friends. 

18. Any OC crackships?

  Not really????

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)

Chloe Lockwood. I created her in like sixth grade. First OC. I projected a lot onto her. Even though we was good at a lot in school, she was bullied a lot. She felt alone, but she had one really good friend who cared about her a lot. It’s something I went through when I was in elementary school. 

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details  (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?

Hazel and Hades sing a lot together. Hazel sounds a bit like a higher pitch Meg from Hercules. Hades has my voice essentially. Both are basically parts of me in a sense of like… idk. everything. Hazel is my more like…. Confident, get-shit-done side and she doesn’t take a lotta shit. Hades is more my sensitive side. He was affected differently by what the two went through I guess.

21. Your most artistic OC

Wendy. She draws flora and fauna when not in the lab. She probably owns an etsy or something. 

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? 

Hazel- She isn’t COMPLETELY stone cold and Hades really isn’t just a shy ball. Hazel can be vulnerable but doesn’t like it a lot. Hades really can fight. He’s just scared to. He isn’t totally helpless. Mr. Wicca is not good and pure. He is actually a terrible person, but Wendy keeps him under control. 

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?

Hazel started out as having my dead name, much more feminine, and likes dresses. Now, she has some form of pixie cut or something punky, REFUSES to wear something to feminine because of her mother, and is also Filipino rather than white. Hades also became Filipino. Or they might be Japanese. Idk. 

 24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

I’d like to meet the time twins. They’re both parts of my personality. Idk. 

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)

The time twins, like I said lmao. Mostly the three of us share personality traits and interests. 

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? 

Not really?????

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? 

Nope.

28. Your most dangerous OC? 

Likely Kuro. Again, she is kinda a mary sue in a way. Although, Hazel IS trained in combat so idk. Also Mr. Wicca straight up has magic. But probably Kuro.

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?

Mr. Wicca. He lives in a creepy haunted cabin already. 

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? 

Well Hades has a not-so-secret one. Hazel might have one.

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)

Okay so Wendy would have like this gorgeous like elven/fae/magic aesthetic blog filled with flowers, potions, and pretty stuff. You can SMELL the lavender off her blog. 

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? 

The time twins. Think about it- rich kids probably in a super haunted mansion. They have to solve mysteries left behind by their dead parents? Idk

33. Your shyest OC?

Mei. She doesn’t like speaking. Crippling social anxiety. 

34. Do you have any twin characters?

The time twins and Mei/Yamiyo. 

35. Any sibling characters? 

Above answer.

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? 

I mean. Most of Eereree are friends so. The main job of my OCs in an ever-changing future is to go back in time and be like “whatever you just did…. it fucked this shit up. Fix it”

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human 

I have already. Kuro and Wendy. The twins LOOK non-human, but they are. They’re just like horribly experimented on. Well, and I also briefly mentioned Blue Topaz. She came out all skinny and weird. She has a scythe as her gem weapon. She’s blue I like her. 

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? 

Mr. Wicca loves to waltz. Blue Topaz because of fusion. 

39. Introduce any character you want 

I mean…. Okay. 

Mr. Wicca has been practicing magic for as long as he can remember. He’s about 500 years old and keeps himself young with necromancy. His assistant, Wendy, is an elf who is a few hundred years old. Both work together create potions and elixirs that they give to the time twins to sell. Mr. Wicca dyes his hair lavender to keep out any silver while Wendy dyes hers blue for fun. Mr. Wicca wouldn’t be anywhere without Wendy, and he sees her like the little sister he never had. 

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!

Just all the head canons between my eereree twins and @dreamxng-forever ‘s eereree twins.

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)

NO. OH MY GOD I’D LOVE FOR THAT TO BE A THING.

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods?

The Time Twins. 

 43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confess

Gay. Probably not human. 

44. Something you like about your OCs in general

They’re all very unique. 

45. A character you no longer use?

Kuro, Mei, Yamiyo, and Chloe. 

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?

Oh, yes. 

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child?

No. I don’t usually talk about my OCs 

 48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure

No. They’re all garbage people. 

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes

Hades fuckin ADORES memes. 

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you wantIf you want, you can tag your ask answers with #yetanotherOCmeme so I can check them out too `v´9 

 have a lot of diversity in my characters and I’m proud of myself for not going into like default for them

Hazel: Demigirl or maybe genderfluid. Idk. She uses She or they. Panromantic demisexual, polyamorous. Either Filipino or Japanese. Main ruler of the Clockwork Kingdom. She and her brother are people who survived through abuse. Super toned

Hades:  Cis graysexual/homoromantic boi. Social anxiety despite having to do public speaking every day. SUUUUPER bad ADD/ADHD. Takes potions for it because “medication is a social construct” he says. Chubby boi is trying to work out. 

Wendy: Trans MTF lesbian. black and has vitiligo. Insomniac and recovering from some eating issues. 

Mr. “Wics” Wicca: Albino. He’s not sure what he is. “I like what I like. I don’t know what the bloody hell I am” loves Wendy more than anything. She’s like his little sister and is very protective of her, even though she is a capable young lady. “Wics” is the nickname Wendy gives him to annoy him. 

[kendelias]

🎬 tiff

how they’d be introduced: tiff is introduced in early season four, as booth's assigned partner!!

who the fandom ships them with: wendell FOR SURE, but i do not blame the tiff/sweets shippers bc... they. nasty people would say tiff/booth, and smart correct hot people would say tiff/ramona xoxo

why the fandom loves them: she's a WOMAN. in POWER. she has a gun and she knows how to use it; she struggles with her loyalty to booth and her love for her job which is a really interesting dynamic; also she's there to support everyone (ESPECIALLY wendell) when they need it most. i love her.

why the fandom hates them: bc her backstory isn't as tragic as most people's so she's just kinda There. she can also be a bitch for like. no reason. love her tho.

what the cast relationship would be like: dakota is such a goof and the funniest woman alive so EVERYONE would love her. she would be so in awe of david (booth) like she grew up in the era of buffy so she's truly like. O.O meanwhile she and jfd (sweets) would be fuckin CRACKHEADS and i love that for them xoxo. they would have The Weirdest inside jokes and literally everyone would look at them like. "..... huh." michael (wendell) would not know what to do with her but she would make The Most effort to be his friend and they would become close. oh OH she would also die. DIE. working with zoe (ramona). and she'd take lili (kennedy) under her wing ofc.

what was their audition scene: in her first episode with booth, she has this back and forth with him where he tells her she has a lot to learn and she kind of shoots back at him. it's her first scene really, and it shows off a playful and fun side of tiff. it also shows how cocky she can be. it'd be fun for dakota to do and would be a great intro to tiff!!

dependent upon the fandom, who they’d be on a press tour/at comic con with: JFD. JFD. JFD-- like truly i think they'd be together all the time.

if they spoil things: dakota's pretty professional, and she'd LOVE tiff and respect her story so much. she'd NEVER my queen

if the show/movie has ended, are they happy with their character’s ending and the ending at large: in the end, tiff gets a promotion and she and wendell are engaged and thinking about buying a house!! dakota would be thrilled (although i think she'd be remiss to leave early </3)

send me 🎬 + an oc for if they were canon!

[isisdreamweaver]

Couldn’t decide whether this fit on my OC/FC blog or writing blog but I’m writing it here.

Back in 2015, I wrote a Metroid novel for my first ever NaNoWriMo. It was a fun time. I still have yet to upload it to anywhere (probably AO3 first because I’ve got a history on FanFiction I’m trying to distance myself from + a lot of embarrassing works with gross crap I wasn’t even okay with at the time but wrote because it got me reviews and crap), but I will... eventually. I want to have most of my Zero Mission fanfic finished and that’s been slow going.

I predict... Late 2017/early 2018 maybe? Hard to tell given things are proving so. freaking. difficult. this year.

Anyways, this is really long and ramble-y so I’m gonna put a keep reading ‘ere. Nice and neat. Mmmm yeeeeasssssss. There will also be Hatchling spoilers, so if for whatever reason you actually want to read the crap I wrote when I edit it enough, you’ve been warned (actually, I’ll warn you exactly when the spoilery stuff comes up).

Being an ‘origin story’ for Samus, this pretty much lays the groundwork for my Metroid fanon and offers worldbuilding and other stuff. But mostly just Samus growing up and trying (often failing) to fight against the pain of loss as she tries to carve out her place in the universe.

As previous posts on this blog show, my version of Samus isn’t like the usual fandom interpretation, nor is she like any of her canon portrayals with the possible exception of the Metroid Prime (nothing she does in those games contradict my interpretation).

Where the popular personality for Samus tends to be cold and aloof (as Fusion and Zero Mission, both canon, seem to roll with) or cold and cruel, my version of her is emotional and kind, wanting to be the hero in spite of the terror she feels when confronted with, well... everything she meets. She’s scared a lot in Hatchling, and from what I’ve written of my Zero Mission, she spends most of that fanfic scared out of her mind.

The reason for her fear is simply that I find courage more interesting to write than fearlessness. To me, courage is knowing that when you take the leap and try to be the hero, you may not be coming back. Fearlessness is... certainly a trait, one I will write other characters as having, but a fearless protagonist just isn’t interesting to write or read to me. Personal preference ahoy.

Samus knows she’s ultimately just one woman against the horrors of the universe. She knows that each time she fights Ridley or some other threat, that fight may well be her last. She knows that every day presents new and interesting ways for her to completely frak up and die an undignified death. But she presses on, using her fear of death/desire to live to strengthen herself and win the day. And then she’ll do it all over again the next day. Why? Because she’s Samus Aran, and there are people out there who look up to her as a symbol of hope.

Hatchling, so far when I compare it to what I’ve written of my Zero Mission fanfic and the outlines of my fanfic series as a whole, really serves as the springboard for Samus’ character like it was meant to. But it also introduces a lot of other things, both related and unrelated to her, and I’d like to ramble about ‘em, however random they may seem.

To start with, I’ve completely gone against the usual depiction of Samus’ life before the Pirates attacked the colony and killed her parents. The general accepted canon/fanon is that she lived a fairly normal/perfect life, her parents loved her very much, etc etc etc, then everything changed when the Fire Nation Space Pirates attacked. And here’s where the spoilery crap comes in hide your unspoiled eyes while you can, folks. Note this is mostly backstory stuff that I’m not sure I’ll be able to fully address in my rewrite/edit of Hatchling but I will try.

In my fanon, Virginia is the captain of the security force on K2-L. She loves Samus and Solomon (yes I somehow discovered this obscure little brother in only appeared in some comic story thing during the 90′s and decided to add him) very much, but her work makes it very difficult for her to give them the time and attention they need.

Rodney, the chief engineer and leader of the mining operation at the planet, absolutely despises Samus and is only slightly less dismissive of Solomon. The stress of his job has of course made him very bitter but it’s worth noting he was already kinda sorta short-tempered and bitter to begin with. And he definitely wasn’t keen on having kids, but Virginia assured him they could make it work.

Rodney’s main issue, the big thing that creates a huge chasm between him and Virginia and quickly sets their relationship downhill, is Samus herself.

Namely, Rodney believes Samus isn’t his and even refused a DNA test because he was in ‘Get mad, stay mad’ mode and wanted to continue believing his wife cheated on him almost immediately after they got married. Why? Reasons known only to him really, but I’d say a large chunk of it is he simply wasn’t ready for this (as stated he wasn’t keen on having kids) and it was easier to deny he had any responsibility.

So who’s the unlucky chap Rodney thinks is Samus’ real father?

He’s some dork called Adam Malkovich. Last anyone heard, he dropped out of college and joined the Galactic Federation military because his family (consisting of only him and his kid brother, Ian) was dirt poor and he didn’t see any other way to help them. Occasionally you’ll hear talk about him from some of the other soldiers. Something about him having it really bad for some guy named Anthony Higgs? Who knows.

He was also, as it happened, Virginia’s best friend since childhood.

Shortly after Virginia and Rodney got married, their jobs pointed them in the direction of K2-L. A new life, a new planet, not a bad way to start.

Virginia, however, wasn’t quite ready to leave Adam behind and while Rodney was busy working things out with Federation officials, Virginia spent a weekend with Adam before the military took him out of her life and she lost her chance to say goodbye. Absolutely nothing happened between the two, because at the end of the day their relationship was purely platonic, but this was enough to make Rodney assume...

It’s a miracle Rodney and Virginia’s marriage didn’t immediately crumble.

So, needless to say, Samus’ brief childhood with her birth family was... rocky. Rodney didn’t like her and didn’t bother to hide it, and she also had a tendency to get in fights at school because let’s face it, she’s a wannabe hero running to everyone’s aid.

Also worth noting that Adam eventually becomes aware of what his time with Virginia did with her marriage and feels like the worst person ever for helping make it happen. Hurting his best friend was never his intention, and he desperately wants to make it up to her, and even try to get in Rodney’s good graces despite him personally disliking the man. But he’ll never be able to do any of these things, because Virginia and Rodney are dead.

Anyways, this has gone on way too long and I need to sleep so I’m gonna end it like this...

Hatchling is quite different from its sequel and the other fanfics I will write, and if I’m being honest, I don’t think I’ll ever write a Metroid fanfic quite like it ever again. It’s an origin story for Samus Aran, or at least that’s its sales pitch.

At the end of the day, what it really is, is a story about people making choices both good and bad, the consequences of those choices, the pain of loss and the struggle to cope with it, denial and acceptance of things you absolutely cannot change, and how relationships of any kind are complicated and often impossible to make sense of, but you don’t let any of this keep you down.

Hatchling is about rising from the ashes and carving one’s own path, wherever it may lead.

And that’s why I’m not ready to post it. So much work needs to be done to make it closer to my vision.