#like there's no comics canon basis for it as far as i know?

[calware]

Do you have any advice on how to write Dirk and Hal or know of anyone I could get tips from :0?

okay so first of all i want to say that i don't think that i'm really an 'authority' on the subject, or that anyone else really can be aside from andrew herself. but i do have some thoughts and opinions that i'm willing to share

#1 piece of advice is to reread the comic once in a while. or at least reread bits and pieces if that's too daunting or not feasible. the POV cam extension is really helpful for that because you can specifically reread just the parts where dirk is there (does not work for hal though iirc which is where the dialogue directory is the next best thing) anyway i suggest doing this because it's always better to have their canon depictions fresh in your mind so you aren't accidentally working off of purely fanon ones

i think this is more of just a writing tip in general but try to think about how much you intend to transform the character. and by that i mean how much you want to stick to canon characterization. no matter how far you go with it, your depiction should always be informed by canon, but you can go as far with it as you want as long as it's intentional. so for example, if you want to stay really close to canon characterization, go for it. but if you want to stick them in an AU, ask yourself how that will change their behavior, personalities, etc. and it you specifically want them to act differently than they do in canon, that's okay too as long as you justify it and make it believable to your reader. you don't have to be afraid of changing them as long as something happened to cause that change

i feel like these are the two biggest pitfalls people fall into, usually a combination of the two. either they just don't understand the character well enough to give a believable portrayal of them, they don't give the audience enough reason to believe their portrayal of them, or both. for example there are a lot of hal fics out there where he is evil and kills people for fun, which to me just tells me that the author didn't really get him. but the takeaway isn't that you should never make hal evil and kill people, just that you need to provide basis for the audience to believe that he would be evil and kill people while still feeling in-character for doing so. that's what i mean by intentionality, you need to understand why you make the artistic choices that you are making

i wrote down some common tropes (?) of hal writing i tend to see that are along the lines of "i see these a lot and they wouldn't be bad if the author just made them feel believable" if that's at all helpful. i can do some for dirk as well if anyone wants me to

3. avoid being reactionary. the homestuck fandom is so reactionary with its portrayal of characters, meaning that one mischaracterization will get popular, and people will complain about it and swing the complete opposite direction, leading to a different mischaracterization becoming popular. an example of this is everyone thinking dirk is the coolest ever, and then switching to think he's the lamest ever. just try to focus on your own perceptions of the characters based on what you read from the comic and what you agree with others on, don't form perceptions based on trying to break away from something else

4. this goes more for dirk than hal because hal isn't as popular, but just keep in mind that dirk isn't the main character. i think a lot of people attribute main character energy to him when they don't really have to. obviously if you write a fic about dirk, he's literally going to be the main character, or if he's your favorite character you're going to care about him more than the others. but that doesn't mean he's any more important, more special, more traumatized, more mentally ill, or what have you, than any other character. going back to the example from above, the people who treat him as both the coolest OR the saddest character are both portraying him as the Special Boy. when the reality is that they are all pretty special and he's not an exception

i hope that all made sense... if not feel free to ask and i can explain further if needed

[farshootergotme]

Let's pretend for this scenario that they're going undercover somewhere and they need an alias.

: Names

Dick: Frederick Loyd. And these are my cousins, Peter and little Tommy over here.

: You're in the clear. Go ahead.

Dick: Thank you.

Jason: Peter? Seriously?

Dick: Cut me some slack, nobody calls you that, Pete.

Jason: Tsk. Lost all the creativity after the first one? At least you attempted to be original with the little bat. Though going from Thomas to Tommy is no-brainer, really.

Dick: You're just mad your name isn't nearly as cool as mine.

Jason: Mad about Frederick Loyd? Please, at least mine is from a known piece of literature. Where did you get yours? Disneyland?

Dick: In case you didn't know, Peter Pan is technically from Disney, so I don't see you point.

Jason: Fuck you.

Dick: Right back at you.

...

Dick: Tommy, you've been quiet, everything okay?

Damian: Rich- Frederick.

Dick: Yes?

Damian: Frederick Loyd as in... Freddy Loyd?

Dick: ... you've heard that name before?

Damian: Just once or twice before, in the league... A failed recruit from what I heard. However, it was years before I was born. Their name only persisted so long because according to rumors the...child was never found and they were notably talented for their age.

Dick: That's...

Jason: Something you aren't telling us, Freddy?

Dick: It's not like that. It was a long time ago and it wasn't...

Jason: Jesus fuck, so you really were part of the league? Even before the brat? Now how did dear ol' dad let that happen to his favorite soldier?

Dick: First of, not a soldier and not his favorite—

Jason: Whatever helps you sleep at night.

Dick: —and secondly, he didn't 'let that happen' because I didn't tell him until later. I escaped after the first time he fired me and infiltrated in a school for kid assassins. Not the league.

Damian: 'Vengeance Academy'?

Dick: ...fuck.

Jason: Where's the golden child and where has this information been all my life? And here I thought your little perfect legacy had no stains.

Dick: Jay- Peter, this is really not the time. And I didn't join the league—I'll bother to process that later—to become a killer. They found me and I saw the opportunity to take down a possible evil organization that was recruiting children for assassins work.

Damian: Frederick is not like you, Peter. His mission was a success. The project was futile and it was discarded after being proved unsuccessful.

Jason: Jeez, you're insufferable. No need to get your panties in a twist for 'Freddy', brat. And on a side note, I'm really starting to hate the new name so fuck you for that too, dick.

Dick: Ha ha, real funny. You know I can tell when you're cussing, right? And we're using the aliases because we're currently in an undercover mission, in case you forgot.

Jason: Right, because talking about assassins and infiltrations is much safer.

Dick: You can never be too careful.

Damian: And getting accustomed to the names will result useful. So you should stop your childish behavior and stop using profanities to refer to Frederick, Peter.

Jason: I hope you know I'm never doing a mission with you two again.

Damian: Good because Richard and I have no need for bystanders. We are the best and we don't need an incompetent-

Dick: Tommy, names. And stop fighting, both of you, we're going in.

Has anyone told Damian that Dick trained under a group affiliated with the league of assassins once when he was young in his early teens? Because that would be fun to read.

[vlueberries]

One sec I need to talk about Shiva.

Lady Shiva was introduced in Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter in the 70s. She was a traveling martial artist hellbent on getting revenge for her sister, who she believed had been killed by Richard Dragon. She lured Dragon into a trap, revealed herself as Carolyn's sister, and tried to fight him to the death. Once she realized that Dragon had nothing to do with it, that Cravat and The Swiss (unimportant villain characters, they killed Carolyn) had been the ones to kill her sister, she helped Dragon defeat the villain (by giving him her shiny belt so he could redirect the beam of a deadly laser that was being pointed at them while they were fighting, don’t even ask) and Richard Dragon and Lady Shiva became allies, friends even. Dragon convinced her it would be a waste to kill Cravat and told her that he had killed the Swiss himself. She accepted this. They shook hands. This all took place over the course of one issue of Richard Dragon: Kung Fu Fighter. It took ONE issue for Shiva to go from antagonist to ally. She then tagged along with Richard because she liked the adventures he got up to, the danger, the challenge, and the thrill of it. Richard even called her later on when he needed help on a different adventure. What I’m saying is she didn’t start out as evil.

Okay, so what do we know about Shiva so far? She’s a thrill-seeking peripatetic martial artist of great capacity and skill. She cared about her sister. She’s willing to kill. She’s an adventurer and a valuable ally. Great. Moving on.

The Question 1987 features THE Lady Shiva. A character capable of both ruthlessness and mercy, cruelty and tenderness. A curious, thrill-seeking, teasing character. She was vicious and nonpartisan and she was working as a mercenary for hire. But she was an ally, even when she was beating the shit out of Vic. She loved the O Sensei. You can tell she even cared about Vic in her way. I’m not saying she had a heart of gold, or that there weren’t tropes she fell into. She wasn’t and there were. But she was a fairly well-rounded, morally gray character that played a key role wherever she showed up. She was closer to a non-traditional anti-hero than anything else. Idfk, just go read The Question.

I read a tvtropes article describing Lady Shiva as “an archetypical Dragon Lady, complete with sinister motivations and exotic sex appeal,” which… she isn’t. She subverted this trope in several ways actually. She never had “sinister motivations” until Chuck Dixon got his grubby little hands on her. Her motivations were pretty neutral. She had her own set of principles, she was very morally gray. She wanted to travel and fight worthy opponents on her adventures for the thrill of it. She seemed to operate mostly on personal whims, and on the basis of building worthy rivals, out of love for the art of combat. And she didn’t use her sex appeal for shit (until the Richard Dragon reboot comic kms), she didn’t tolerate sexual advances or objectification. She just WAS NOT a conniving temptress, I don't understand where this misperception came from (but I do blame Dixon, I’ll get to that in a sec).

This same article states that she began as the arch-nemesis of Richard Dragon? Unless you’re accepting the version of the two of them from the very short lived Richard Dragon 2004 series as their canonical relationship then NO she didn’t. But I digress.

There was a marked change in the way Lady Shiva was written by the time Robin (1991) came out, this is where her character starts to lean towards the Dragon Lady trope imo. She also weirdly, and maybe arguably, leans more into traditional femininity while at the same time being written as more wild and uncontrollable. Chuck Dixon seemed to fundamentally misunderstand Lady Shiva as a character. He turned her (sometimes ironic) disdain for brutes who wouldn’t last a second in a fight with her into stereotypical womanly haughtiness. He turned her capacity for ruthlessness into bloodlust. And he made her into a conniving, somewhat deranged, villainous woman, tempting our young hero towards evil (oh my!). Again, I’m not saying she ever had a heart of gold, but Dixon changed core character traits (namely her respect for other people's personal code) to turn her into a villain.

“Kill him, little bird. Kill him and become a predator…Aren’t you my weapon? My instrument of death? Say you are mine.” Like?? She would not fucking say that, respectfully.

That isn’t even to mention Richard Dragon (2004) where Dixon turned Shiva’s relationship with Dragon into a resentful, sexually charged dick-measuring contest.

Even so, I don’t entirely hate Shiva as a villain, especially in Batgirl (2000). Pucketts Shiva is a bit less egregious imo. So she’s a passively suicidal evil mentor-figure who wants Cass to be a killer like her. Whatever, I can get on board with that I guess. I can enjoy it because I love Cass and this is a great comic run. But the retcon that–Listen, THE RETCON THAT IS SHIVA’S SISTER BEING KILLED BY DAVID CAIN, SHIVA DESCRIBING THIS AS FREEING, SAYING SHE’S GRATEFUL, THEN AGREEING TO GET PREGNANT WITH HIS CHILD IN RETURN?? This boils my blood. Shiva, who was introduced as somebody who cared about getting revenge for her dead sister. Shiva, for whom freedom and autonomy were core character traits. That Shiva?? That Shiva is relieved her sister is dead and is willing to carry her sister's killer's child to term?? What the fuck?

I hate it. I don’t understand it. Why would you take a complex character who makes it difficult to tell who she really cares about, and flatten them into somebody incapable of love?

Okay I’m done, this is getting too long and I don’t even want to get started on New 52 era Shiva. I don’t have a conclusion, I’m just annoyed. Thanks for reading. The Question (1987) is NOT a perfect comic but if you’re interested in Shiva please please please check it out, it’s very moody and philosophical, noir-esque. Also Chuck Dixon suck my dick.

[zahri-melitor]

The thing that actually most frustrates me about Damian's pets is not only that it's turned into a gratuitous menagerie that only show up en masse because it's now turned into 'Damian likes animals, give him another pet' without considering how many he already has, but that the basis of a good story already existed before we ended up where we are today.

The problem is that we wouldn't be in the situation we are today with them if not for Grant Morrison.

Because look, if you read Batman and Robin 2011 on its own, Tomasi and Gleason do a solid job of using Titus as a route to demonstrate Damian's growing responsibility and ability to show affection and connect with Bruce. Titus is explicitly framed as a responsibility, as 'a boy and his dog', and one dog around the Wayne household is pretty common (usually an Ace). It's the opening steps to more story about Damian trusting others.

If Damian loved animals and stopped to play with kittens in alleys and just had Titus at home, we wouldn't be in this situation.

Bat-Cow, and honestly Alfred the Cat, are what caused the problem.

Bat-Cow as a concept is inherent Silver Age ridiculousness (what a surprise from Morrison), but also Damian saving a milking cow who is being sent to an abattoir is far more of a demonstration of what we end up getting, which is what looks like a possessive level of hoarding. Damian not only saves the cow, but wants it installed in the Cave, even though that is a terrible environment to keep a cow in, and there's very little point in having a cow living on the Wayne property. And what annoys me more is that nobody will let the cow just quietly disappear off panel never to reappear again (she's at least now been on a 'farm' since Joker War and Bruce losing Wayne Manor).

Alfred the Cat irritates me in that he's just a duplicate story to Titus, only done with less effort and entirely because Grant Morrison never reads anyone else's work AND Morrison wanted to give Damian a pet to humanise him right before killing him off. Alfred is a narrative device and annoys me because a good editor would have had Morrison just use Titus instead, who could have hit very similar beats, rather than Damian acquiring three separate pets in just over a year of comics, right before dying (and as far as Morrison was concerned, dying permanently). A pet is for life, not just a reward because you're getting killed.

And from there on, it's just turned into 'oh Damian likes animals!' so we get Goliath and Jerry the Turkey (who I believe recently emigrated to main canon in the last few years rather than being in Lil Gotham). And the story doesn't know what to do with so many animals, so they disappear entirely aside from occasional art cameos, Super-Pets stories, and about one story beat ever 3-5 years. He's endlessly going through the story of 'why' he acquired a pet to humanise him, rather than being humanised by playing with a long term pet.

There's also a narrative problem where we never actually ever see Damian caring for his animals (outside of Titus and occasionally Alfred the Cat), but what scenes we do get of people looking after the animals are all scenes of Alfred and Bruce checking in on them because Damian's not available. So while the dialogue in those scenes tends to be 'oh Damian would normally be doing this but'... we don't see Damian doing it. We only see Alfred and Bruce doing it. Or Maya, who's looking after Goliath. And given how often Damian runs off to find himself on an island, a lot of that pet care over the years has been from Alfred and Bruce, because he's not been living at home.

And yes, there's also the issue that Damian And His Pets is rather similar to the self-centred position Damian has on his various clones. He considers his clones his brothers; but the narrative is frequently setting that up in a manner that suggests this is grace that Damian especially extends to them because they are his clones. It's not really grappling with the concepts of extending that care and humanism to people or animals that are not 'his'.

It's just endlessly frustrating to me, because if Damian just had Titus, I think both Titus would appear on panel more often (and thus have more narrative use), and there would be the potential to build further plots out from Titus, if writers wanted to explore the themes around what pet ownership can demonstrate.

[plum-pitt]

X-Men Origins Rewrite

Ok I guess this is a follow up to this post i made not too long ago abt rewriting this shit, the brainworms rlly got to me here so you’re getting a follow up sooner than expected lol

Before I actually do any rewriting though I wanted to lay out the big changes I’d be making and why, mainly for myself as a guide and to organize my thoughts both about the original film’s issues and how these changes could potentially solve them, but also to allow anyone else with some ideas for possible changes to add their own thoughts or suggestions by engaging with the post.

As for what kind of final product you could possibly expect these ideas to result in, i haven’t quite decided if I want to just do an in depth outline for the story with my proposed changes or do like a full length fic novelization. It’ll probably depend on how motivated I still feel about the exercise by the time I’m finished and happy with the cleaned up outline, but I digress. Lets just go ahead and get into the changes I want to make:

Proposed Changes:

First off, I’m removing Blob and Gambit from this cut. I like both of the characters and think it’s cool they tried to include them but the cast is crammed enough as it is and those two serve very little narrative purpose that can’t be shifted to others just as easily.

Second, I’m adding Silverfox to Team X and letting that serve as the meeting point for her and Logan, it gives the audience more time to get to know her and come to care for her and Logan’s relationship, while also harkening back to the comics where she was also a part of the weapon x program. Also I know this isn’t a real film but let it be known that if it were i’d actually hire a Native American actress to portray her, i’m still shitty they whitewashed her.

Third, I’m removing the third act “Silverfox wasn’t really dead” twist. I really shouldn’t have to explain why, that shit was dumb and completely unnecessary, not to mention introducing a shit ton of plot holes with that whack ass mutant ability they pull from thin air. In my version she’s human(as far as we know) and when she dies she dies for real, full stop.

Fourth, we are GETTING a biblically accurate Deadpool. They did my bro dirty and I refuse to compromise on this. His role will be larger to compensate for his big ass personality and the fact that i’m affectively letting him take up Gambit’s role from the original in addition to what he already had. Also I just think he bounces off of Logan really well and could serve as a really interesting parallel with having such similar trauma and very different ways of responding to it and seeing the world. Like just imagine D&W if they accidentally traumabonded over their similar origin stories.

Fifth, I’m making Victor our stand in for the films Weapon XI! He doesnt get adamantium or new powers like Wade, only the dehumanizing psychological torture present in the original Weapon X comic. I think it works great for his spiraling arc, gives me a chance to squeeze a faithful weapon X adaptation in here without upending the entire film’s structure, and helps to better position his character on a trajectory towards his more feral appearance in X1 where he doesn’t seem to fully recognize Logan.

Sixth, I’d like to include Dr. Cornelius as the head scientist in Weapon X. My current concept is that he’s in charge of all the unethical mutant capturing and experimenting, working under Stryker’s supervision but still an outsider to the government, being sent in by Stryker’s most significant source of funding for his program in Nathaniel Essex. I know this has zero basis in canon I just think it sounds cool and makes sense for Sinister to have hands in a program aiming to create perfect mutant soldiers, as someone using mutants DNA to create a genetically perfect race of superhumans and become the ultimate life form. (Sinister would not play a large role, more of a looming presence pulling strings and fucking people over)

To get more overarching here, I wanted to hone in on the dynamics and themes present in the original that i thought had the most potential for further development. Victor’s spiral to madness and eventual complete loss of self under Stryker, Logan learning to let go of Victor’s influence and the violence that he let define his life only for both to drag him back after Silverfox’s demise. Really digging into that nature vs nurture shit, and adding more mutant politics (and their accompanying metaphors for the struggles of marginalized people) cuz honestly i feel like it’s absence in the original is very noticeable, and ties in really well with Logan’s arc of self acceptance and learning to see himself as more than the violent nature of his mutation.

Stuff I Still Want Changed:

Ok so here’s where I’m throwing my hat out for suggestions, because there are still a couple minor things present in the movie that i’m just not a fan of or don’t really know what to do with. The difference is, with these I can’t really think of tweaks that could fix/improve them. So if yall have any ideas on what I can do about these, or maybe some completely unrelated changes that you just think could improve the rewrite, please let me know.

One, not really sure what to do with Zero, he’s around for a lot of the movie but didn’t really stand out much to me. I just don’t know a lot about the character or what his deal is in the comics to find something cool to do with him. I’m going back and forth on if his role is ultimately necessary?? Does Stryker really need another henchman? Or should I use the space he occupies to hone in more on Victor and Logan’s rivalry? Idk i’m still on the fence so tell me what yall think.

Two, god I just fucking hate those memory wiping adamantium bullets. It’s such a stupid plot device that makes no sense conceptually and was clearly just thrown in as an afterthought at the last second like the writers forgot they needed to erase his memory by the end. That’s not to mention the fact that the bullets’ function was retconned later in Logan. Genuinely though I cannot find another way to go about fucking up Logan’s head without basically upending the structure of this movie in its entirety so any ideas on how to solve this dilemma are appreciated.

[i-wanna-show-you-off]

hey anon I really don’t want this to come off rude because I’m not mad or anything but I think maybe you just enjoy popular ships

those are called rarepairs by the way

ship rant (revolved around II)

i don't understand how some people just. see characters together. i get balloon and suitcase, balloon and nickel, people that interact. but why trophy and tissues, trophy and cheesy, trophy and knife or any enemies like that??

i know this rant is useless i don't know how many people will read it but why do they ship enemies... i see some people as siblings, like mic and knife, or trophy and soap they're siblings in my eyes please help m

fantube and lightbrush my beloveds tho <3

.

[true-blue-sonic]

The fandom doesn’t want a Year of Silver cause they don’t think it’ll perform well. I don’t want a Year of Silver because I have absolutely no faith in the current writer’s characterisation of him and do not wanna sit through an entire fucking year of that. We are not the same

Yeah, I understand fully what you mean. My thoughts on it are three-fold: firstly I indeed wonder if a year for Silver will really work out, because he's not as popular as others. The Year of Shadow worked because Shadow is hugely beloved, to the point there was a time he was more popular than Sonic himself. It's no surprise to me that a game with a storymode in which he plays a central role would sell well! But Silver does not have that popularity by far. On Tumblr people seem moderately fond of him, but I have no clue how he's seen on other websites. It might be quite risky to dedicate a whole year to him; I fear he might not be able to carry it. (And then of course there's also the issue that Shadow just plays like Sonic + Chaos Spear + extra gimmicks that are still very fast-paced, whereas for Silver's PK they'd really have to make changes compared to how he played (and ran lol) in '06, in my opinion. It might take some time for Sonic Team to work out what to do with Silver and in what playstyle, perhaps more than Shadow. That could make them hesitant to try, but that's just pure guesswork on my part.)

And then secondly, there's a lot of characters who are more popular than Silver, yet who don't really get much attention either. Sure, Amy, Knuckles and Tails became playable in Frontiers, but they got no year for themselves despite Knux and Tails starring in the second movie. I don't even want to imagine the fandom implosion if Silver got a full year starring him in a central role before any of these characters XD And I would understand it! To me, Silver deserves getting more spotlight, but that's because he's my favourite and we don't get much content on him. If your favourite is Tails or Knuckles or Amy or Eggman or Metal Sonic, and they'd get snubbed by a far less popular character, I can imagine very well that'll leave you feeling bitter (and also, it doesn't help that Silver is already scorned for '06 presenting him as the Third Male And Thus Very Important Hedgehog™️ at the expense of other characters, or at least so I've heard before). Perhaps after more attention has been paid to others in the cast could a Year of Silver fly over better, but as things in the fandom are now, I think it'd cause utter mayhem.

And thirdly, I agree with your point that Silver is not well-written in a lot of supplementary material. I have as extra point that I really don't like Bryce's voice for him; nothing against the guy, but in TSR Silver sounds like a cockier Sonic half the time and vaguely like a Silver the other half, and compared to what we used to have before with Quinton's Silver I consider it a huge downgrade. On the other hand, I adore Kirk's Shadow in SXSG and Kirk is quite a contested voice actor for him, so maybe with better directions the same can happen for Bryce? But in general on the topic of Silver's characterisation, I've been seeing more posts on Tumblr describing how Silver is highly OOC in e.g. the IDW comics, and then if you also count stuff like the most recent takeover's incredibly random "Silver is kinda like my little brother! :D" statement that has zero basis in canon... I guess overall we don't know what the future holds here, haha! But I think Sonic Team could be wary about making a whole Year of Silver, when keeping my first two points in mind. Though on the other hand, the more time goes on, the more chance there is SoJ pays more attention to Silver's characterisation in the West and implements changes there to keep him more in line with his game- and Sonic Channel personality, maybe?

Overall, we just can't know, but I wouldn't worry about it too much either: in SXSG I'd say Shadow was written really well in the way he talked and moved and just existed in the game, and I greatly enjoyed his storymode in no small part due to the fact he felt very authentic to the character to me. I think if SoJ is on the case (because they are probably the ones making a Silver game in the end), there'll be much more quality control around Silver's character than e.g. for the IDW comics or a takeover. But I think it might be years before we get a Year of Silver or even a game that has Silver in any way playable in a main role, to be honest. We'll just have to wait and see! In 2018 Takashii Iizuka said a Silver game could be a possibility, and Shun Nakamura is also still fond of his creation, or so I've heard. I'm curious to see what the future will turn out to hold🍀

[carnation-damnation]

Here they are!! All my AU Shadow's!!

Some design info + small trivia bits under the cut:

Refraction of a Shadow:

Story takes place after Sonic Heroes but before SHTH 2005. Emerald and I go back and forth about how it's like Shadow The Hedgehog (2) in the sense that there's multiple endings but also like Sonic Adventure (3) where you'd follow different characters in overarching stories with different perspectives. It was, at first, a fun idea about what it'd be like if Terios (The prototype of Shadow during sa2's development) were to exist within Sonic canon. This rides off how Shadow NEVER joins GUN and as a result, they seek to create their own "Shadow" of sorts, as a basis for a robotic/organic army (Since Shadow never joined them, they view him as a potential threat, both politically in how they're responsible for the covered-up ARK deaths and shadow knows and physically, as the Ultimate Lifeform.) Shadow's design is close to how I'd draw him cemented into the Team Dark dynamic; he ditched the white gloves for fingerless black ones and wears red mascara. He's attempting to heal from his experiences and trauma, but this new threat is opening up old wounds.

Rumination in Saudade:

Oh this guy is just so fucked up

Sa2 but everything is so FUCKED amiRIGHT!! So uh. I'd imagine hurtling towards Earth and losing all your memories after this blue angel of a hedgehog tries to save you. That can kinda..fuck you up. Esp if you're a weird little alien thing. Like...Having to relearn how to be something, how to be personable, and mask (haha...autism) He doesn't remember how he was conditioned by Gerald and Black Doom to train and be the Ultimate Lifeform, and doesn't remember how he grew up with Maria, loving Earth and all the people in it. He doesn't have any of it. He's just a weird little freak of a guy. He's off-putting, doesn't know how to control his chaos energy and black arms DNA, and overall just...Trying his best to re-learn what it's like to be a person. No influences from anybody except himself and Sonic. His design elements are basically Sa2 But With Some Extra Bits. Thousand yard stare, singed from becoming a fucking meteorite, an extra eyeball, messed up little tail, 'n an awkward demeanor. So your average unmasked teenager

I Was a Teenage Werehog:

The anxiety and dread of not being able to remember anything but bits and pieces not your style? How about a werewolf au where I self-indulgently combine everything I love about werewolf stories and their tropes for shits and giggles? No please don't run awa-

Basically Unleashed..2. I was inspired by the zombot arc in the comics and was like "haha what if....werewolves" and it kinda went from there. Shadow is your typical Experiencing Werewolf Issues protagonist, except he's not patient zero. Like instead of the real werewolf protagonist dealing with the pain and turmoil of waking up in a mess of blood knowing that something horribly went wrong for some random joe on the street, you get to see what happened to that guy instead. Shadow keeps things to himself; he's the ultimate lifeform, nothing can hurt him! He fell out of space! He fought THE DEVIL !!! Sonic's fucked up werewolf virus will have no effect on him and his mobian/alien DNA <- Guy who is so wrong and incorrect. For design elements, I purposefully fuddled with his proportions to make them a bit less...?? Sonicy?? ig? To put everybody in clothes that didn't make my head spin in confusion. He's got the hot topic 'fit he's got the mascara he's got the RIPPED JEANS!! He's ready for a gritty 2000s teenage werewolf drama baby!!

anyway, thanks for reading this far! I like these guys they're cookin', these cats are swingin'

[crowkacola]

Welcome to another episode of Crowe's incoherent rambles, this week's topic:

Lawn, Lamp, and The Ripper :

The (somewhat) accidental crossover au

By now, you probably have seen Lawn and Lamp, they have become very prevalent background characters since the comic first began; and they have a ridiculous amount of lore tied between them. For those who really recognize them, their connection and lore is no surprise.

Also you probably see this coming, but Death Note spoilers ahead! If you are confused as to why, this message is probably for you anyway.

Lawn as a character was created waaaay back when I was writing chapter 1. My husband and I happened to be watching Death Note (for my first time) around the time I started working on Page 15. I was obsessed with the character of L, so I put him in the background as a subtle cameo. I nicknamed him "Lawn" from his full name (Lawliet) and that is where I assumed it would end.

However, when I started taking character submissions, my partner and I discussed the idea of creating Light as well. But unfortunately, we decided his Canon design was far too plain to even be recognized. So we had to get creative.

We made Light a hoardling, mostly to serve as a counter to Lawn, but it also gave us an excuse to spice up his design by combining it with Ryuk's look. Once again, meant to be a funny one off cameo. Since he was a hoardling, he got a goofier, hoard-worthy name: Lamp

But with a design we poured a lot of love into, stemming from a show my partner and I adored, we started to contemplate what could have happened to these two in this world. How did Lamp (formerly known as Lumen) end up like this?

Those who are familiar with Death Note know that L (or Lawn in this case) is defeated, and killed. But in Craftworld, Lumen (Light) died first. This brought several prompts to mind that became the basis of this new AU:

◇ How did Lumen Die?

◇ What does a "death note" look like in a world w/ life tokens?

◇ Does Ryuk exist? Does Misa exist?

It was all just too fun to think about. But copying the entire cast from Death Note wasn't too enticing, we instead had the idea to pair our silliest little guy patches, with the pair that were trying to find one of Craftworlds most renowned serial killers. What could go wrong!

The idea of Patches secretly being a hardened cop was too funny. This also gave us the excuse to have Patches be close to Lawn. Since they started out as the only two detectives for the knights, having them hang out was expected. This also gave us what I personally think is one of the most iconic panels in UVT's history.

And yes, Lawn does know that Patches eats the pieces. He believes this makes the game more challenging and fun for him to play. But Taffeta is getting really sick of buying these two more chess pieces.

In the end, the tragic story of Lawn and Lumen is one that will be told in the background over time. While I would love to make all the comics in the world to explain it, (and trust me I have PLENTY of ammo) I just don't have the time. Reguardless, they are both surprisingly complex characters, both of them having more lore than some of the main cast. I never intended to accidentally create a LittleBigPlanet x Death Note crossover AU, but I did. So that's something.

Maybe I'll write scenes from the Ripper case as a short story instead if anyone's interested.

[b00m-b0mb]

do u have lore/a storyline in ur head for wandering karate perchance? i love them a lot :')

AHHH... Wandering Karate, my truest beloved!!!! I do!! But I am rewriting my canon :3c so this is kind of messy and due for a little bit of changing maybe?! Orz !!!!!!!!

UH.. WEOW... cringe...

The basis for a lot of this is a really old fic I wrote for myself that doesn't exist anymore waaa qwqq sorry if this doesn't make sense!

• Joe's family lives in one of the villages Ronin (Wandering Samurai) has rescued.

• Specefically I imagine the one in "Super Samurai Slice", since he leaves unnoticed.. However, Joe saw the whole thing! (Imagine this is some like, 3rd incident lol)

• I like to think Joe would attempt to jump into action and help out (foolishly brave!), but due to being a teensy bit of a clutz he ends up being carried most of the way.

• But he still helped out you know, and like, real danger! Ronin is impressed. And gave compliments where it was due

• Samurai is invited for a drink / some steak and rice. They hang out!! They just chat. I think both of them are a little lonely, and it was just easy to talk. And they did, for hours.

• Joe's inspired by Ronin's skill. Ronin thinks Joe is inspiring for jumping into the situation despite his misteps. Like the desire, but weak energy for skill (Joe, who i project chronic fatigue onto lol), in contrast to the unstopping precise performance, that could fear nothing more than a mistep.

• To me, Joe is a guy who's embarrassed a lot, but he keeps trekking! But hes also frozen still into his current situation, unable to free his wings. While Ronin has light feet when it comes to his embarrassments. And, ofc, cannot let himself stay too long, anywhere! I think due to his nature, he's lonesome and is locked into a endless cycle of self reflection/percieved redemption (over critical)

• Anyways the family comes home. And Ronin's like, ah, I shall go. (Not wanting to be a disturbance) and heads out the door.

• BUT Senior is like "Joe, I need you to pick up my epic gi from -inserts convenient far away comical temple post office-" and Joe, somehow not irritated, and now given a journey, is like 💡‼️ and chases after Ronin.

• He really wants to tag along for just a while. He helped after all! Whats some more time together..? Ronin briefly attempts to decline, before deciding the company wouldn't be a bother... letting Joe come along- call this a ROADTRIP!

• Anyway, the idea was they had two nights of travel / chitchat, with a bit of shenanigans to themselves. Learn about one another. Kind of can see a glimpse into the others perception. And like.. yah... Dudes who want to be friends so bad, everytime they talk there's a silent spark inside both of them bc they're so lonely and a!!!!

• My oc, Karate Maccie, played into my fic uhmm,,, she became the unwanted child tagalong. She's the comic relief pretty much lol!!! but she also is like really trying to set them up as friends you know? She sees these two introverts trying to make it happen. She thinks Joe could use the friend :] She's also just nosey. I know what you are (lonely.)

• More shenanigans & silly adventure for Senior's mail... In the end, Joe and Ronin would have to part ways, but, they would keep touch in letters!!!! Joe being given a post office to write to, and Ronin promising to be there in time to recieve it!

Also I think Maccie + Ronin would have a mini rivalry arc, but it's mostly one sided from Maccie's end lol, and by the end it's somewhat resolved, and Ronin actually offers to train with her or something some time! They all had fun okay! Ugh!!!

I think from there their relationship is just you know, they get each other I guess? They share their thoughts in letters, and are honest and discuss anything and yeahaha... Sometimes a letter is just. "I saw a bird :)" -drawing-, and they get it...!!! they repeatedly will express in their letters how much they truly treasure the others company. Idk man!!! Queer platon guys okay!!!!!

Ronin would definitely make time to come around and visit the village, and Joe would up and leave the house w/o anouncing for mini trips to travel and meet the wandering samurai when hes close to the area!! Skipping practice?! For the samurai he holds dear?! It's serious, you know!!!

But I think the tension takes forever to boil over into melting their boundaries with one another. These dudes need to embrace. So bad. I think. But it's so hard, when you know the lack of it can hurt???? But one day.. I will feel confident enough in both of us, to hold you...??? And know that even when we part, ill see, and hold you again? Wails???

Uhgrhrbrbmammamaaammama 👍👍👍 normal about burnt out souls that are maybe a little mentally ill <33333333 I LOVE THEM SO MUCH ugh,h,m,m,,,,,,

Also they both have a somewhat similar family life in my hcs. Dead mothers, somewhat strained relationship with father, tradition, a clash in how they want to live? Something. They can't be together, but they treasure and hold their shared time dearly, and hold their long distance relationship with nurture :) I lovegh. Them.

Also, food for thought- Bon Odori is also in the village Joe lives in. (And I hc the toss boys are kids in this village, so fourth) maybe Samurai Slice Endless (DS) is there too :] I think he'd do that anywhere needed, but I like the idea of him going from not well known anywhere aside from few legends, to becoming apart of this community because of Joe? Or something? Sobs...??? Sorry idk...

Also I imagine a mini plotline of their relationship regarding the fact Ronin doesn't have a true name + Joe's rise to doing things outside the house ??? Things.. !!!

and and UHHHGGGGGGG rhythm heaven head canon world I missed you.....

[wolvertooth]

Did u see the news that sabretooth is confirmed to show up in xmen97 season 2? I'm extremely excited and giddy yet mortified bc of the whole useless [mag/rogue) "romance" 97 adapted/retconned into existence,

even if they had the whole ballroom dance together it was still very obvious they were showing both the implied grooming and the power imbalance mags had over her and seeing as 92 did adapt the whole silverfox flashback+ her death and the team X EP I'm really paranoid that the writers will suddenly tack on unnecessary SA implications both to torture logan and as a way to make sabes cruel and sadistic in a lazy ass way..

*sighing loudly* sorry for the long ask, I'm just really passionate about both their characters as a longtime fan boy and knowing the insane positive reception 97 got I'm just terrified that IF they do add on that implication ppl who like his character will never hear the end of it, or how he should be killed off forever bc he's a mindless murdering cannibalistic booty warrior who stomps on babies and makes kitten tacos on Wednesdays or WHATEVER lame shit they mame him do avoid writing a character that's both evil and terrifying yet charming and a lil sympathetic, God forbid we have complex characters that can still be villians and not cardboard training dummys for the heros to attack 🙄

dunno about the grooming thing, considering rogues in her 20s(possibly even late 20s). i think shes just a grown woman with a case of Wanting That Old Man Carnally. confession -> i havent actually watched past episode 3, cuz tbh i. dont care much for the xmen aside from wolverine. and he barely got to do anything. so all my context is just from tumblr posts.

also i genuinely thought u meant like. sabretooth SAing wolverine in the past. and i was like bro theres no way disney would allow that dw about it👍 then after rereading it a couple times i was like OH U MEANT THE 2003 COMIC THING LMAO. first of all, with the current rating they got, theres No chance they'd go that far. besides, shes alive, and logan knows all that was just implants anyway(i reallyyyy hope they dont forget about the whole implants thing...). second, i dont think morph would transform into sabretooth as a joke if he was really someone who fucked up logan That Bad.

anyway i literally forget that people like him as a Villain cuz im just over here seeing him as the rich merc whos an occasional annoying bastard with a heart of gold and a history of mental breakdowns.. like hes got a bit of a The Mask situation going on with his costume tbh, he'll just get written way more cartoonishly evil whenever hes got that thing on lol

anddd if they do decide to follow the previously established canon(and they likely wont do too much due to him still being on the villains side in the intro, just lemme dream for a sec here), i think him and logan are on somewhat good terms now! last time they hungout he only fought him for like 2 seconds cuz he thought wolverine was picking a fight, then dropped it pretty quick(it was also the episode that revealed any of the bad memories they had of eachother in the past were all just implants). after that, he was last seen without the costume, which is kind of a big thing for his character? i think?

..ok i just remembered the recent 97 prequel comics where hes just...#normal villain sabretooth working for sinister and the marauders. 😦😧chat......this better not mean what i think it means..........(CLONE PLOT PART 4?). but theyre also both on a last name basis with eachother so. ❓ progress?

at least the comics didnt forget about team x. so maybe we got a chance at something good

[the-meat-machine]

is stridercest canon-compliant

Hi. I'm not sure how to answer this question, but like hell am I going to let that stop me from rambling on about it for far longer than anyone would consider reasonable.

What does it mean for a ship to be canon-compliant?

My first difficulty is this: what does it mean for a ship to be "canon-compliant"?

I tend to be of the opinion that you can come up with a justification for nearly any ship that, at the very least, doesn't contradict canon. Whether that ship is probable or not is a different story.

To give an example of a ship that's technically possible but canonically unlikely… let's say I were to posit that Nepeta had red feelings for Aradia. Well, we get fairly direct evidence of Nepeta's romantic interests throughout the comic, and Aradia never features in her self-pairing fantasies. Not to mention that if she had such feelings, you'd think it would cause conflict in her relationship with Equius, who does canonically have feelings for Aradia. But Nepeta never says she doesn't like Aradia that way, so for all we know they could have had a torrid romance offscreen that is never once hinted at in the comic. Highly improbable within canon, but not strictly impossible.

A level above that, there are ships where there's basically nothing to go on. Nothing to contradict it, but nothing to really support it either. For example, how would Dirk and John get along? Well, they only ever meet once in the comic and it's when Game Over!Dirk is giving himself over to the glitchy void, so who fuckin' knows. You'll have to base their interactions on a general knowledge of their characters. And hey, you can probably come up with a pretty convincing argument that they'd be great for each other! You can equally come up with an argument that they couldn't stand one another. There's really no canon basis to say either way.

That said, I think Stridercest is on a rung above that. These characters have had significant canonical interactions that revolve around one another, giving a richer basis to draw from. Or at least… Dave and Dirk have. Which leads me to my second difficulty.

What is Stridercest?

"Stridercest" can refer to quite a few possible ships.

For example, Guardiancest. Do I think Guardiancest has a basis in canon? No. Alpha Dave and Beta Dirk lived in different versions of the universe and both died well before the end of the game. They almost certainly never even knew that each other existed.

That said, Homestuck is a pretty wild canon as far as possible character interactions go, what with all the various ways characters can hop between universes, time travel, get resurrected, meet up in dream bubbles, etc. Trans-universal communication is canonically possible (see for example Jade and Jake's letters to each other), so who knows -- maybe Alpha Dave and Beta Dirk could have met each other somehow. Does it seem likely? Absolutely not. But it's not impossible.

Now, if you were asking about the original Stridercest, Bro/Dave, that's a ship that clearly is logistically possible, at least. They spent 13 years in the same apartment. Something could have happened. Did it? I don't know. I don't consider myself a Bro/Dave scholar, so I'll leave that as a question for the reader.

But one pairing I have significantly more to say about is Dave/Dirk.

Here are some things that are canon:

Dave has had, at the very least, passing attractions to a minimum of two of his ectobiological relatives -- namely, Rose and Roxy

Dave has evinced attraction to both men and women

Dave used to idolize his bro, but later came to have more complicated feelings about him

Dirk has had a lifelong obsession with his own long-dead bro. He studied all the minutiae of Alpha Dave's life and patterned his own life after what he's gleaned from that

Dirk is definitely attracted to men

Dave and Dirk had a long heart-to-heart during which they hugged each other

Here are some questions that cannot be directly answered by canon:

Do Dave's incestuous inclinations extend to Dirk and/or Bro?

Is there a homoerotic dimension to Dirk's obsession with Dave?

Now, you could plausibly answer these questions with "no". Maybe Dave's upbringing with Bro made it impossible for him to see Dirk in a romantic light. Or hell, maybe he only likes blond hair on chicks, not on dudes. And for all we know, maybe Dirk's interest in Alpha Dave is strictly platonic. (…ha, that one's hard to type with a straight face. But it's possible.)

Of course, I'm asking these questions because I think you can easily answer them with "yes". There's significant canonical basis to suggest that these suppositions at least could be true. At the very least, conditions are ripe for these two to have some very weird, complicated feelings about each other that are laced with incestuous and homoerotic undertones.

So is Stridercest canon-compliant? For Dave/Dirk, at the very least, I'd argue that it is.

[mlmshipbracket]

Fourth MLM Ship Bracket Tournament

Welcome to the New Year everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed the Third MLM Bracket Tournament and its outcome. It's not over though, there is still more to come. Remember, the Masterpost shows the roadmap for MLM tournaments held on this blog. Feel free to check that out in order to know what to expect.

Next, I would like to announce that submissions for the Fourth MLM Ship Bracket are now open! This is the last opportunity to submit your favorite men loving men ships to be pitted against each other and see who will be crowned victorious.

This Fourth tournament is going to be different from the previous three tournaments. This Fourth tournament is going to be the biggest MLM bracket held so far on this blog, up to 64 spots open, therefore there will be more time to submit your favorite MLM ships.

Information and Rules for submitting your favorite gay ships can be found below, along with the submission form at the bottom. Please make sure to read all rules and information. If you have any questions feel free to submit an ask and I'll be happy to answer.

INFORMATION:

Submissions must be made through the form linked below

Multiple submissions are allowed per person, but only submit an MLM ship once

Previous ships from previous MLM ship brackets will not be considered for submission [Found Here],  [Here], and [Here]

Ships will be added on a first come, first serve basis, ships with more submission will take priority

There are 64 slots open, any remaining slots will be filled by me

Make sure to mark any spoilers

Submissions will close once all slots have been filled

If you have any questions about submissions, information, or rules please use the ask button

*RULES: 

Ships must be fictional

Ships must be male (cis or trans) or masc nonbinary /genderfluid 

Ships for this poll are couples only

Ships can be canon or fanon

Ships can be from a variety of fandoms and genres including but not limited to: TV Shows, Movies, Plays/Musicals, Games, Cartoons, Anime/Manga, Books, Graphic Novels, Comics, Webseries, Webcomics, and Podcasts  

No original characters (OC’s)

No Furries

No Bandoms

No Minecrafters

No real figures such as celebrities', youtubers, or streamers

Note: Any ships submitted which do not fit the above mentioned criteria will be disqualified from participation in the bracket

@tournament-announcer , @tournamentdirectory

[mewtwoandme]

Considering TC-96 has said stuff like "mewtosis" is just a joke only to make it the basis of the flower thing an at some point didn't want more babies after Huey, what are the chances you are not gonna retcon yourself to make Hugo canon anyway?

I mean...with all the AUs I have now, there's nothing really stopping me from choosing one to focus on in the future after the blog/story AU stuff is done. I don't know how far into the future that'll be or if I'll even still have an interest to keep doing these comics by then. But if I am, then I could always make the Hugo AU my main story AU, and make it canon that way.

[mayordeas-clone]

Smash Tier List, Ordered By Which Characters Have Canon Last Names

i decided one fateful friday evening to make this tier list cuz i was bored. shoutout to the smash prose server for helping me iron out any kinks and retrieve some obscure information to help make this tier list reach its fullest potential (discord link for the server on my blog if youre on desktop or in my pinned post on my art account always b pluggin)

below the cut is some extra details on the tiers and character placements.

THIS IS ROUGH AS HELL!!!!! and the research and sources aren't very cut and dry throughout ;w; a tier list i wanted to make for the sillies that ended up going deeper than expected but not all the way, so it's sorta in a weird gray area of reliability. apologies for not-so-clear info in advanced 😔

Official Surname

what it says on the tin. i'd put detailed explanations of where all of them were "confirmed" but i don't know the nitty gritty of a lot of the characters and just know em from official bios. will provide detail if i see fit cuz its my post.

Byleth: "Eisner"

Joker: Civilian name is "Ren Amamiya", from the anime. Akira Kurusu is another civilian name he goes by, coming from the manga, however Amamiya is more common in official media (and kind of canonized in the PC release of Persona 5 Royal, where changing the language to English from something else will default his name to Ren Amamiya)

Kazuya: "Mishima"

Samus (And Zero Suit Samus): "Aran"

Fox: "McCloud"

Falco: "Lombardi"

Wolf: "O'Donnell"

Terry: "Bogard"

Cloud: "Strife"

SImon and Richter: "Belmont"

Donkey and Diddy Kong: So we all pretty much agreed that "Kong" is a family name :P it could be moved to the yellow canon-ish tier but idk

Peach: "Toadstool", which she signs off as in Mario 64 (So that's pretty canon right)

Generally accepted fanon surname (or exists in obscure non-canon media)

these are kinda? surnames. theyre not official like the ones above or acknowledged in the main source material, but they draw from some sort of source that fans run with. usually, it's common for multiple fanworks to use them as last names when dishing them out :P there could be multiple of these for each character. this is where a lot of handy guidance from the prose server came in, thank you very much once again!!

Mario, Dr. Mario, and Luigi: "Mario", from the live action Super Mario Bros. movie (also, "Mario Mario" is the funniest shit ever to me). Also the joke of "hey if theyre the 'mario bros', then is their last name mario?!"

Yoshi: Alright apparently in the 1993 manual for Super Mario World, Yoshi's full name is "T. Yoshisaur Munchakoopas". Alright then?? I was going to put Yoshi in the "species" category, but this bit surprised me :P not sure if it's like, a scientific name or something, but I guess this Yoshi is a special case.

Ganondorf: I think in a manual or something like that (Forgive my vague language, this was just something I recalled that the people I worked with agreed with), he is given the last name "Dragmire".

Marth, Chrom, and Lucina: "Lowell" was a last name given to Marth in the Fire Emblem anime. With Chrom and Lucina being direct descendants of him, they also inherit this last name.

Zelda: "Hyrule" is generally assumed to be her last name. I'm pretty sure Zelda's father in BotW is given the official last name, though I know there's some different reincarnation shenanigans going on. Still, no one stopped me 😎 it's a common theme for a lot of "royalty" characters to be assigned a fanon last name named after their respective kingdom (though I may have overlooked some, we'll get to those later).

Ike: "Greil", named after his father. I thought it was kinda dumb for his last name to be ripped from his dad's first name but idk maybe everyone is on a last-name basis for him (I haven't progressed far in Path of Radiance to know).

Sonic: This one surprised me. Apparently in the Archie comics, his full name "Ogolvie Maurice Hedgehog". So his last name is "Hedgehog"? I suppose this means Sonic's full name could also be Sonic The Hedgehog, with "The" being a middle name :P

Captain Falcon: I was going to include this in "canon", but given that it's technically from a manual and other surnames in this tier come from a similar source, so might as well be consistent. In one of the F-Zero manuals, he's given the name "Douglas J. Falcon" (baller ass name tbh). In the anime, he's also given the civilian name "Bart Lemming".

Sephiroth: According to the Prose pals, it could be "Hojo" or "Crescent" depending on who you ask (idk I'll take their word for it. Yeah sorry this isn't a very thorough list in terms of research and sources).

Ryu: Another Prose pal said that one of the movies gave him the last name "Hoshi".

Bowser and Bowser Jr.: Heard "Koopa" tossed around, given Bowser is the king of Koopas and Jr. is his son.

Mega Man: "Light", after his creator Dr. Light.

Roy: "Pherae", after him being the son of Marquess Pherae.

King K. Rool: I think I assumed "Rool" could be his last name, and the K. is an initialized first name. Heavily based on my own guess tho.

No Canon Surname

Yeah. Though some are Weird and probably misassigned.

Snake I could have sworn had some kind of fanon surname, but I drew up a blank when consulting with the Prose server :P any hardcore Metal Gear fans can swoop in and correct me though.

Corrin and Daisy are kinda... weird to me cuz I assumed they would operate on similar logic to Zelda, being named after their respective kingdoms ("Valla" and "Sarasaland"). But I've never seen those used in practice so it's probably negligible. They bounced between tiers a lot while I made this.

I suppose Dragon Quest 11 Hero could fall in the "kingdom last name" category but idk I'm still internally debating with Corrin and Daisy. Didn't do any research on the other Heroes and no one seemed to stop me. So sorry!! 😭

The only other thing I have to say about this tier is that I'm surprised Bayonetta, Shulk, Olimar, Alph, and Sora didn't have any note-worthy last names to speak of. Unless something slipped through the cracks!

Idk if Sheik would adopt Zelda's assumed last name which is why they are in this tier.

Title, no canon name

Pretty much a title given to the character, be it related to their occupation or status.

This was originally a "no canon first name lmao" tier, but I changed it to be more broad at the request of the Discord buddies to include weird edge cases like Dark Samus (who isn't really a species, but not really a person?) and Duck Hunt (who accounts for three separate entities in one lol so that kind of confused me, but a tier like this worked for him).

Species????

Pretty much a character that comes from a species of many, meaning they don't really have an actual name to begin with (Inklings technically count, since it's not like "Inkling" refers to status or occupation). Yes, I included R.O.B. there due to Subspace Emissary's lore :) one could argue that's not canon, but be fr does R.O.B. have any existing lore to work with? Brawl essentially made him its own OC for the story campaign and that's amazing. Anyway, unnecessary rant aside, R.O.B. is a species in my book, and he's the last of his kind (another detail originating from Smash).

Last two tiers are kind of joke tiers I came up with as the idea for this list cooked up in my brain. One could argue "Mr. Game and Watch" is a title, but I thought his own dedicated tier was funnier so I kept it intact :P

~~~

Thus concludes this dumbass tier list. Feel free to roast me in the notes for inaccuracies cuz there's probably a lot (Or don't I'm sensitive as hell)

[skaruresonic]

Honestly, it feels like a lot of this mandate discourse is just a natural consequence of Sega trying its darn best to organize nearly three decades of confusing, conflicting Sonic media. Like, we know they were comfortable letting Archie kill off Robotnik in the original comic, but still considered Sally popular enough for the franchise to demand her ressurection, even though that was not a character they came up with. It really feels like they had no idea how to control their IP and just went with what stuck to the wall in the 90's and 00's, which culminated with that infamous lawsuit case.

It's good that they now have a specific team that oversees how Sonic the Hedgehog is used and portrayed (which is an industry standard nowadays), but since the fandom is already used to wildly divergent interpretations of the IP, it may take a long while to accept those guidelines (I'm assuming they didn't exist or were not seriously enforced before).

Honestly, it feels like a lot of this mandate discourse is just a natural consequence of Sega trying its darn best to organize nearly three decades of confusing, conflicting Sonic media.

Which is a fool's errand. This is why I'm always stressing the games as the core canon: if you ignore all offshoot media (and I mean all of it) and focus solely on the games, then a lot of confusion automatically clears up. The games are actually fairly solid about explaining themselves and tying up loose ends. It's only when you consider everything canon that things get dicey.

Of course, that's not to say the games handle everything perfectly. I feel Knuckles' character in particular has been rather inconsistent across the years. But even then, it's not like he changes so incredibly drastically that I might as well say he has no character at all. The latter approach, that throwing the baby out with the bathwater, is what we tend to deal with.

When others muck up the canon, it's always SoJ who are to blame. And while I don't agree with Iizuka's current, rather naive approach of unifying everything because I feel like he's trying to ingratiate the series to bad-faith actors, I also can't begrudge him too much. We're marinating in a fan culture desperate to make Sonic anything and everything but itself.

---

It's good that they now have a specific team that oversees how Sonic the Hedgehog is used and portrayed (which is an industry standard nowadays), but since the fandom is already used to wildly divergent interpretations of the IP, it may take a long while to accept those guidelines (I'm assuming they didn't exist or were not seriously enforced before).

Honestly, I feel like a lot of this aversion stems from an allergy to the games on the basis that they're embarrassing. The mainstream has made it painfully uncool to like Sonic games, therefore we have to move as far away from the games' "cringe" as possible. So then you have comic book and film and SatAM fans swearing up and down their offshoot media du jour is so much better and more fleshed-out than the games. Of course they're going to chafe at the notion of making their preferred niche more like something they actually hate. Maybe it's the game purist in me, but I have no idea why anyone would feasibly want to consider everything canon, because the immediate consequence of that is trying to fit square pegs into round holes, which just doesn't sound fun. It sounds like work. In addition, more often than not it's the games universe that gets retooled to fit the offshoot media, not the other way around. The cold hard reality is that the offshoot media would have to change on such a fundamental level to even begin to fit into the games, it might as well be something new entirely. And complete change is a risk many people just aren't willing to take, as Daniel Barnes illustrated with his tweet about Sally.

Not to mention the constant disappointment that would entail: Rally4Sally needs to hang up its hat because it's been three literal decades at this point, not because Sega's dangling her in our faces just out of reach. They already did their job in making Archie revive her. She's had her time in the sun.

My personal attitude towards the matter is that there isn't as much confusion and inconsistency in the games as people say; rather, the problem tends to be a lack of good faith and literacy.

Yes, literacy. There's a lack of critical thought about what happens in Sonic games because many people either paint their own version over it, or else assume nothing of importance happens because Sonic Games Are For Kids(tm).

That may sound harsh, but considering I frequently find myself explaining the most basic plot points screenshot-by-screenshot, I'm inclined to think there's a shortage of understanding somewhere. Most of the games are largely self-contained pieces of work. Some build on previous entries, such as Adventure-Adventure 2 and Battle-Advance 3, but I don't need any given Sonic game to do that in order to enjoy it; I just need it to be a good story on its own merits. The references are just nice cherries on top. It shouldn't be the main dish to the detriment to all other parts of storytelling.

This might also be a side effect of me getting older, but I find I don't really care about the nitty-gritty like I used to. "How come ShTH shows a whole moon in the opening cutscene when it was destroyed in SA2?" Well, aside from later games establishing that Sonic's world has two moons (therefore it's not an inconsistency), it's a detail not worth stressing about when the moon doesn't factor into the game at all. It doesn't play into the game's themes of moral agency. It's not like Shadow goes on a mission to repair the moon or anything.

To be frank, many "inconsistencies" fans point out instead imply a basic failure to understand the fundamentals of storytelling. Gerald's original motives for the Eclipse Cannon are meant to be ambiguous in SA2; we're meant to ponder the question because anxiety about WMD development was rife back in the early aughts. Shadow is not inconsistent, he's always been a little aggressive. Mania's place in the timeline becomes a lot clearer when you recall how, in Generations, Classic Robotnik decided to "dedicate the rest of his life to forgetting" Modern Eggman's failures and therefore rewrote history. Thus Robotnik dug up the Phantom Ruby earlier than he "should" have.

But nowadays, it's like everything that doesn't receive an immediate and concrete answer gets painted as an "inconsistency." CinemaSins style "critique" coupled with anti-games bias makes games discussion a huge headache.