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biff-adventurer · 4 months ago

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roleplay tips: characterization

so it's come to my attention that there's a misunderstanding on what "characterization" actually is. we all know what the phrase implies: we make sure we know why characters do what they do, be it an immediate influence or one from the distant past, as well as the beliefs they hold and the personality traits they display.

however, i've seen people have trouble actually executing the character traits they want to the detriment of themselves and others. this post is meant to clarify the execution of characterization in the context of spontaneous roleplay.

i'll take biff as an example just so no one else feels self-conscious. so biff, poster boy wol, himbo, literal meme incarnate (born from the little comic that goes: i wonder what the wol is doing? while wol is bouncing on the egg mount in the background), hero of eorzea blah blah.

what did i want for this character?

thematic cores: love, adventure. what kind of love? love in all directions; what does it mean to love so fully and so easily? what does it mean to have unfettered compassion for the problems of others? life is an adventure, and i want to see the world. i am full of endless curiosity, i am excited to find all that life has to offer. wherever i go, i love and i learn. because i love you, i will do everything in my power to bring you ease and happiness. (i want to be loved. i want to be worthy. do i matter? i'm sorry. i'm trying my best.)

personality traits: passionate to the extreme, whether it be joy, sorrow, anger, fear, guilt, etc etc. not book smart, but heart smart (he has to be able to make friends somehow). self-effacing, to a fault. temper problems. an insecurity driven need to always be useful to the people he loves, or else he will be irrelevant and forgotten. a strong sense of justice. incredibly stubborn. untrusting toward those he loves, and too trusting of strangers. impressionable. very emotionally sensitive, and wears his heart on his sleeve. pretty standard hero character stuff, anyway.

how do i enact this in roleplay?

spontaneous roleplay often puts roleplayers in situations where they have to make quick decisions while they respond to the simuli around them. since we want to be expedient for the sake of others, it can be hard to see what shape your choices take in the long run.

to deal with this, i look at my character's internal emotional reaction first. then, i go on to consider what possible dialogue choices i have to work with, and what trait each would show about my character. since the telltale games were very popular when i was a younger rper, i tend to map out my characters' responses as though they are part of a telltale storyline.

Biff's Husband: “You have such a soft, tender heart. I love every inch of you.��

the options i can consider here:

"Even the dangly bits?" eyebrow waggle (flirty)

"Yer always so kind to me, husband." (low self-esteem)

"I can't help it. I know how it feels to be a stray." (empathetic)

"And your wisdom protects it valiantly." (grateful)

"I wish I could see it the way you do." (frustrated)

the action or dialogue i choose depends on how i want the RP to go, or what tone we established earlier, or what kind of plots we've agreed to cover. from the above, i chose option 3 because it extends to a greater conversation about feelings and motivations. it lets in the other character while also giving biff a chance to talk about himself in a way that invites someone else to share something vulnerable.

obviously, it demonstrates empathy. the other choices would have lead me down other roads. i usually have a flowchart in my head for how i think this will all play out.

flirty > his husband likely feels dismissed > husband frowns and elbows biff (or worse) > biff is embarrassed for trying to flirt so either he laughs it off or very sadly apologizes > if he laughs, it makes his husband feel dismissed again > suddenly our characters are in a conflict and we're tasked with ushering them out of it, which is a pain > can point toward an unwillingness to open up

low self-esteem > husband feels compelled to comfort him > biff grows upset that he's made it about himself > onus on husband to dispel the situation or let biff sulk by himself > uncomfortable for ooc and ic, and demonstrates a self-absorption trait we don't want (unless this story was originally sought out)

empathetic > husband feels invited into the conversation and shares how he feels like a stray > biff asks him to say more about that > suddenly they're having a deep conversation about their pasts > possible character development or bond deepening

grateful > husband feels appreciated and vows to continue protecting his husband > biff holds him tight > romantic sweet nothings ensue in perpetuity > fluff roleplay activate!

frustrated > husband concerned about biff's temper > biff continues to grow frustrated at his own inadequacies > roleplay turns serious in tone > suddenly i have to find a way to diffuse biff's temper or burden my rp partner with the task > can imply instability of character, which can be dangerous for character and relationship

i apologize if this all sounds very "duh, gwenny, i'm not STOOPID", but i think it's important to make explicit what often goes unsaid, for the benefit of those who can't articulate exactly what they're looking to do. i could give another example involving more conflict, but i think that might be overkill.

all the little choices in dialogue are the actions you're taking in character. not just the literal actions of whether or not you're fighting. what your character says reflects what they believe. if you want them to show up as an empathetic person, you've gotta actively choose empathy or make it obvious to others the way your character speaks that they're coming from a place of empathy. it all adds up to a bigger picture, and suddenly you've realized that you're getting the ending that you wanted, because you worked hard to get there.

obviously, you can't always know how others will receive your character. my character would be a lot louder, cartoonish and unhinged in a closed story than he typically is in roleplay venues. that's because venues are active scenes where we're dealing with other parties who want to have a good time! we don't wanna put a damper on their day unless they're expecting meatball-spicy drama. we often have to give a lot more space for others to be included than we normally would in a fic, where we establish everything on our own.

BUT, having several different choices prepares you for any future misunderstandings. you can tell them your character's motive during that period, but when you are ultimately asked to do something different because of some mistake, you have other choices and a clearer picture of how to have your character create and progress relationships in a story. and you show you are willing to work on both your character and yourself, as well as offer compromises via these other paths, in order to tailor the bond between two characters in a way both parties can agree on.

and it becomes a lot easier to own up to mistakes when you look at your character as both a person that is not you and a literary device meant to convey certain ideas. it's not a personal attack on what you believe, but rather a comment on how people feel from what you've written. that is very useful feedback, for both fics and roleplay writing.

trust me, this comes from years of making incredibly embarrassing mistakes and having to write them into character development unwittingly, because i was an idiot. so unto you i bestow these tools to avoid the shame i suffered......

#roleplay #final fantasy xiv roleplay #final fantasy xiv #open roleplay #roleplay advice #gwenny writes #ooc;;

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thevindicativevordan · 3 months ago

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So, overall thoughts on 2024 Superman stuff, and hopes for 2025?

Pretty good year for Superman with a few exceptions.

Obviously the biggest news on the comic side is the launch of Absolute DC, with a new incarnation of Superman as part of the first wave. DC finally does a proper "Ultimate" line and surprise, surprise, it's a success! Who could've predicted that a new line without DC's messy mainline continuity weighing things down would connect with people (me that's who)? I've loved every issue thus far, Aaron's creation of a working class Superman in the vein of both Siegel/Shuster and Morrison/Morales has been a welcome sight, and the worldbuilding done plus the changes to the usual formula has me excited to see where he intends to go. Ironic that after all the back and forth with various new Supermen meant to replace Clark as the Superman for the 21st century (Jon, Val, Kenan), the comics, film, and animation divisions ended up simply doing revamps of Clark to fill that space. Also Sandoval's art is amazing, if he stays on the title he will definitely go down as a definitive Superman artist when all is said and done.

Williamson's run dipped at the start of the year with the underwhelming conclusion to the Pharm and Graft storyline, but I enjoyed House of Brainiac and the Absolute Power tie-ins. Mora joining on art, Williamson cutting back on how many titles he was writing, and a number of genuinely surprising plot twists has reinvigorated my enthusiasm for this book. Part of why I'm so hard on Waid (more on that below) is that Williamson is doing a far superior job at what Waid is trying: mixing together the DCAU with Silver Age tone and Modern Age characterization/stakes. Current rumor is that both Superman and Batman are getting relaunched in 2025, which could mean the end of Williamson's tenure is in sight. If so I hope Williamson can deliver a satisfying resolution to the Zod and Lex storylines he's set up.

Superstars has on the whole been inferior to the best of PKJ's Action, although I can admit that the book declined steeply post Warworld for reasons I don't believe are PKJ's fault, but I did enjoy Aaron and Simone's arcs. Aaron wrote one of my favorite Bizarro arcs and Simone perfectly captured how Superman feels about fighting imo.

Downside has to be Waid's fall off. If you had asked me to pick who out of the Superstar writers would be the weakest, I would never have picked Waid, but that's what happened. His handling of the Aethyr plotline PKJ set up was dreadful, his sanitizing of Jor-El only made the character worse, to the point I actually dropped the book because of that decision. World's Finest began strong this year with the Magog arc, but has since started to feel like filler and driven me to drop that book too. Now it's just JLU (which I'm unsure if I'll continue to read) and LDoLL (which I actually do remain excited for). Waid's schtick has grown stale for me, tragic irony being is that he seems to have grown disenchanted with his own style as well per his comments on BluSky in the wake of Trump's re-election. We'll have to see if that results in any actual shakeups to his writing approach.

Already dove deep into the trailer and poster here, only thing to add is that at the time of this post, the trailer has hit 50 million views, the lifetime total of the third MoS trailer which was the most popular MoS trailer. Folks if Gunn delivers a film on par with his Guardians trilogy, I think this is going to be the breakout hit of the summer even with Jurassic World and F4 for competition

S&L S4 largely seems to have satisfied the fans of the show and as I thought, has seemingly been forgotten in the wake of marketing for Gunn's reboot beginning. Suppose that's fitting given the DC CW shows by and large always had to toil in the shadow of whatever WB was doing with the characters on the film side. Nice full circle moment that DC on the CW began and ended with a Superman show set in Smallville

MAWS S2 ruled, can't wait for S3. Wish more of you bought the tie-in comic which I thought was excellent and featured my man Bloodsport. Hopefully Gunn tosses some of that Creatures Commandos money this show's way.

SS: KTJL was a total bomb that appears to mark the end of DC pushing them. Apparently RS is haphazardly resurrecting the JL in cutscenes made on a shoestring budget but I genuinely wonder why. Conroy is dead so we probably won't get another Arkham Batman game, the WW game features a different WW, and none of the other Leaguers are ever getting their own game. I am totally fine with Arkham Superman staying dead, only NRS did a worse job handling the character, and I absolutely would not want to play a Superman game that had to try and salvage the mess RS made of Superman and his setting. In the unlikely scenario where we ever did get a new Superman game, it would probably be either off on it's own world or congruent with the Wonder Woman game anyway.

Looking Ahead to 2025

Don't feel hyperbolic in proclaiming that next year will be the most important year for Superman since 1978. This is likely the last chance we have to get WB to push Superman back up there with Batman and Spider-Man the way he was decades ago.

Obviously the biggest hope for me is that Gunn's Superman movie is a critical and commercial success. Even if I don't love it personally I would still benefit from that. If it succeeds it reaffirms to WB that Superman is a money-maker, and that would lead to more Superman projects in animation, comics, film, etc. MAWS would be more likely to get more seasons. Wonder Woman got a video game off of her first movie being a hit. Anyone who wants that for Superman has to root for this film to be a hit.

Comics wise if Williamson is leaving then I'd prefer someone other than Slott took over. Totally fine with Slott getting Action, but I'd prefer Williamson either stay or we get someone like Dan Watters handling writing duties. I cannot wrap my mind around DC potentially relaunching Superman for a past his prime Marvel creator again. But better him than Taylor I suppose, who I expect will be getting one of the books next year.

Speaking of Taylor I hope Injustice 3 is at least one more year off. It's less cancerous for the character with the movie, Absolute Superman, and MAWS in the picture but I still hate that franchise with every fiber of my seething fanboy heart. DC needs to get people to like Supes and Injustice solely exists to dump on him and Wondy while wanking Batman. Let's not remind people of childkiller fascist Muderman while trying to reintroduce Superman to the general public ok?

Can't wait for PKJ's book, with that and Absoute I will at least have two Superbooks to read no matter how things shake out with the mainline

For S3 of MAWS I am crossing my fingers for Zod in addition to Lex. I want a Superman cartoon that has the Big 3 (Lex, Brainiac, and Zod) all together, and the tease they've done about Krypton's fate has my mind scrambling over all the possibilities. Mostly I'm interested to see how they would differentiate a MAWS Zod from their Brainiac who already shares some traits in common with "classic" Zod. I'd also like a more traditional Metallo but it kinda seems like they'll be making Henshaw into Metallo based on the new opening shot of the baddies.

Seems likely Kara will get a new book, I wish it would be a team-up book with Kon. I liked their dynamic in HoB!

Would be cool if Kenan got something written by a good writer but I'm not holding my breath

#superman #year in review #2024 #absolute superman #james gunn #david corenswet

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salarta · 5 months ago

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Comic Book Fandom and "Got Mine Fuck You"

There's a recurring situation I see way too often with X-Men comic book fandom. As I write this, I know what I'm saying doesn't apply to everyone, or to every fandom, or to every platform. It applies to what I've seen. And what I've seen is abysmal.

Back when the 2020 run of X-Factor happened, I saw a LOT of apologism for the way Polaris/Lorna Dane was treated on that book. Paired with trying to spin her being on the book as good for her.

"Oh hey yeah, the X of Swords issue didn't acknowledge Lorna surviving the Genoshan genocide because... uhh... it was all implied! They didn't just didn't say it explicitly."

Then when the Genoshan genocide took center stage in another comic's story arc a couple years later, with Kitty Pryde as the focus, Lorna acting like she has no history with it and just complaining about a lack of coffee gets painted as "Oh but there's only so much panel space! And they already told Lorna's story with Genosha anyway, this time they're focused on Kitty's story with it!"

Let's also not forget that during the X-Men vote, we had so, so many X-Factor fans arguing for her to lose the vote, and not get to be a mainstay on the flagship book, because "X-Factor is her book and she's getting good use there anyway." As if it would've been impossible for her to be on two books at once. Some of those fans were at least more honest about it, where they admitted the real reason they wanted her to lose is cause they thought the book would die without Lorna to exploit for other characters like Rachel.

And now, we have the current X-Factor. Where fans of Havok, Pyro, the name X-Factor, nostalgia for the 90s, etc have all insisted that forcing Lorna back into "Havok's girlfriend who acts stupid so he can be a big strong man about it" is fine actually. Perfectly cool. The sexism is satire so it's fine, everything's fine, shitty treatment of her is fine. Anything to promote Havok, or Pyro, or X-Factor, or whatever else.

Only for those same people to start crying the instant Havok and Pyro look stupid too. Because you see, they can excuse the sexism and making a woman look stupid and completely destroying her character and development to make her fit a sexist mold for their cis straight Aryan male self-insert.

But they draw the line at their woobie self-inserts looking just as dumb. Stupid and character assassination is for the womenfolk you see, not for men.

What I'm getting at is, I keep running into a brick wall called "Got Mine Fuck You" that's pervasive with too many comic book fans. And while I'm emphasizing this behavior on Lorna, it's not just her. They've also done shit like attack and badmouth another writer for daring to suggest their great golden god Writer Of The Moment could have plagiarized their work. Harassing her, changing her Wikipedia page. Because they care more about salvaging the reputation of their favorite things than about what's right.

It annoys the fuck out of me. Because in spite of all the fanfare about comics being progressive (when it's financially convenient), this is one of the big gaping dark sides.

I try not to be that guy. I can't say I don't fail, but I try to be better than these chucklefucks.

When season 1 of Gifted killed Dreamer off, I had no problem calling out how asinine and insulting their handling of her death was. I COULD have been That Asshole that tries to act like it was a genius decision, all because Polaris was being treated amazingly in season 1 and Dreamer's death could've been leveraged for Pain Points for Lorna. I didn't do that.

Secret Wars House of M also gave Quicksilver and to a lesser extent Magneto a raw deal in characterization. Even as AU characters, it hit very wrong for Pietro to be depicted as a mustache twirling traitor type when there were ways to keep him closer to his core without taking that route. Now I will admit, I had a moment of weakness with this because I loved what it was doing with Lorna. But in the end, I still recognized it was a problem.

Even with the X of Swords issue of X-Factor. There were many problems with Lorna's treatment there, but there were problems all around. Rockslide fans were very upset with it, for good reason. And Rockslide had actual people around who knew him and had closer relationships with him. Why did they get shafted, with Lorna used instead?

Fandom should really strive for better. For all characters. Not just their pet favorites. Fandom should not be eager to throw other characters, other fandoms, everything that means so much to them and resonates with them, under the bus just so their own faves can get a little benefit out of it.

Fans should not be eager to make excuses for shitty treatment just cause that shitty treatment makes their fave look good. Fans should not want to see another character's potential undermined and thrown away just cause keeping that character down allows a book they like to prosper. Fans should not be trying to make sexism out to be nothing but satire just cause they think a female character "deserves terrible characterization."

These fans try to say their fandom is great. But then they act in ways that tell the world it's not.

It would be nice if they had some fucking principles for once.

#polaris #lorna dane #pyro #x-factor #x-men #marvel #marvel comics #x-men comics #comic books #comic book fandom #havok #genosha #genoshan genocide #toxic nostalgia #sexism #nostalgia for sexism

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lonelywretchjervistetch · 2 months ago

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My DC Cinematic Universe - Creature Commandos: Part IV

Chapter Four: Fiends Made From Misery

Warning, uh...I'm gonna get a little heated in this one. I'm upset.

The Tourmaline Necklace, episode two of Gunn's Creature Commandos' first season, focuses heavily on one of his favored characters in the series: the Bride. We'll get into his iteration of her origin story in a moment here, but I will preface this with a few things. First, there is nothing wrong with making the origin stories of thee characters absolutely dripping with tragedy, and the Frankensteins definitely qualify in that regard. However, once again, Gunn's version of that tragedy is...fucked. It's fucked, when you really think about it. But again...it's allowed to be a little fucked. We'll get to it, but I will say that The Tourmaline Necklace is certainly...effective, and not badly written in terms of the Bride's origin, overall.

Secondly, I adore the Bride and Frankenstein's Monster in the comics, and I also honestly like the idea that she's the leader of the Creature Commandos, and that he takes a back seat in his role, never actually joining the team. Having two stitched together Victorian monsters on one team is a little much, and I do think this was a good decision, as was putting her in the leader position as one of the most famous monsters in history. Third, having the Bride be a rough-ass character and a bit crude is not a bad character trait. She can be a bit of a bitch (her words), and that's OK. Plus, Indira Varma knocks it out of the park in her characterization, and the Bride is one of the most fun characters to watch in the series. Genuinely, I do enjoy her character, and much of her character development. Not all, but much.

And fourth: having the Bride hate Frankenstein's Monster is a valid and genuine character trait. Yeah, no problem with that. She hates him in the comics, but also learns to tolerate and forgive him over time, which is character development. And there are different reasons for that hatred in the comics (and the original book) than we get in the series, and that's...a problem. Oh, and fifth, both have excellent designs, and the animation for them, especially in terms of the Bride and her action scenes, are genuinely stellar. Great job to the animators and character designers (even though she's missing something, but more on that towards the end).

OK. I've addressed my positives. So...deep breath...spoilers ahead...

WHAT IN THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER???

Why is he a whiny incel fuckboi? What the hell?!? This is a knightly, dignified character, who isn't the monster that he appears to be on the outside, and yes, loves the Bride because they had a bond, broken by the blades of tragedy and trauma! He isn't a whinging murderous jealous stalker pissbaby who throws tantrums when somebody gets too close to his "beloved"! He's in denial, sure, but not a goddamn delusional...monster! HE ISN'T ACTUALLY A MONSTER! THAT'S THE ENTIRE FUCKING POINT OF THE CHARACTER!!!!

...OK. OK. I have been WAITING to get that out of my system for WEEKS. I honestly love this character, and doing this to him in his first adaptation outside of the comics genuinely breaks my heart. And yes, he's coming back, and there's a chance of some kind of redemption for the character, but he's always going to be stained by this season's portrayal. And that's for the entire new DCU that Gunn is crafting! The character is actually ruined in every live-action or animated incarnation under that umbrella, possibly for years!!! It's just...incredibly frustrating. And I haven't even gotten to their backstory in the series, OR the comics. So...ugh. Let's get into this.

The first thing to be acknowledged, of course, is the backstory for both characters. As everybody probably knows (or should know), Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was an 1818 book written by the mother of all Goth kids, 19-year-old Mary Shelley, and introduced the classic story of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, who sought to create life from the dead, and assume the role of God. He did so, and created Frankenstein's Monster as a result. This creature was like a child (like Victor's child, in truth), but was also innocent and naive despite his monstrous appearance. But Victor hated his own creation, and the monster fled, afraid of his creator and the world he was brought into.

In his innocent and naive wanderings, he learned to speak and educated himself, becoming very eloquent and expressive, rather than the stumbling moaning brute he's been portrayed as. In a way, that misunderstanding of his character is a poetic irony, as media tends to turn him into what the people in the book fear him to be: a monster with little mind. However, even in the book, the monster is corrupted, and grows to hate mankind as much as it seems to hate him. He swears to kill his creator, and eventually makes his way back, killing his brother in the process. Eventually, he finds Victor and, rather than kill him, demands that the scientist builds him a bride, so that he's no longer alone. And that goes...poorly.

Here's something media seems to have forgotten: Victor breaks his promise. See, the Monster threatens him to make a bride for him ("Shall each man,' cried he, 'find a wife for his bosom, and each beast have his mate, and I be alone?"), and promises to leave with her forever. But Victor is so afraid that they'll create Monster Babies that, knowing that the Monster is watching, he destroys the progress he had been making on the bride. In return, the monster returns to kill Victor's new wife, Elizabeth, some time later. And yeah, what this means is that Mary Shelley didn't invent the Bride of Frankenstein. I also forgot that was the case until recently. The Bride's existence is thanks to the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, which makes a stitched-together woman with the iconic white streak in his hair.

With that said, though, the end of the Monster's story in the book comes when Victor chases the Monster across Europe to enact his revenge, and the two finally meet within the Arctic Circle, only for Victor to die of hypothermia, and the Monster to realize that his creator's death did nothing for him emotionally, and decides to return to death the Viking way, and end the saga of Frankenstein and his Monster once and for all. No burning windmill, pursued by angry townsfolk with pitchforks, like in the 1931 film. Just a sad monster and his creator, fueled and emptied by pointless revenge.

And that's where the DC Comics Universe's story begins.

A Modern Modern Prometheus

Grant Morrison, maverick that they are, was hired to reboot the classic DC Comics team, the Seven Soldiers, with an all-new roster. So, they decided to bring a classic literary character into DC Comics lore, and it fit surprisingly well. This Frankenstein has much of the same origin story as the original, with the appearance of the 1931 film version, and one major addition: Victor actually did build the Bride. And like in the original 1935 film, she rejected him (wasn't her type; yes, actually, no more acrid than that), and when he seemingly dies, the Bride wandered the Earth on her own. In the process of her adventures, a random supervillain named the Red Swami found her, brainwashed her, and added two extra arms to her to have her look like a reincarnated Kali. But the secretive organization S.H.A.D.E. found them, and rescued and recruited the Bride as an Agent.

Meanwhile, Frank survives the Arctic, and travels to the United States, where he has multiple adventures, including an encounter with the difficult-to-explain eldritch being Melmoth, with whom he has a long history and rivalry (and one of the main villains of Morrison's Seven Soldiers). He's sent into dormancy after a battle with Melmoth, then brought back by a bullied high-school student, because Grant Morrison. He soon was recruited by the Bride to be an Agent of S.H.A.D.E., and joined the Seven Soldiers to fight against Mr. Melmoth and the Sheeda Queen (again, Grant Morrison). And then...Flashpoint and the New 52 came, and Frank and his Bride got a revamp. And not a bad one, to be clear. This time, both began as Agents of S.H.A.D.E., as leaders of the Creature Commandos. However, Frank and his Bride were on the outs when we first see them. And the reason for that is...understandable.

In the 1950s, S.H.A.D.E. technology allowed the doomed couple to actually have a child, created from their DNA. However, while the Bride was excited about this, Frank was worried, and for good reason. The Child broke out of its containment early, rabid and wild, and attacked the Bride. In order to protect her, Frank shot the product of their artificial union, and the Bride hated Frank for his actions. Neither is unjustified in their feelings, although Frank still loves his Bride, no matter what. However, what neither of them knew was that the Child actually lived, and S.H.A.D.E. knew this. It escaped and ran back to Castle Frankenstein on instinct, killing people in its path, and the Bride and Frank went to confront it.

When they found it, Frank recognized it as his child, contrite for his rash reaction when they first met, and attempted to calm it down. However, it was actually in pain and pleaded for death, leading to the Bride doing exactly what Frank did decades before, and killing the Child. This led to her leaving S.H.A.D.E., no longer able to trust the organization and their secrets, and to Frank now angry at her for killing their child, but still in love. If you want to read this yourself, check out Jeff Lemire's run on Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. 1 - 8, and while you're at it, check out Superman (2016) #12 - 13, where Frank and the Bride team up with Superman and Lois Lane to stop a monster, and...compare marriages. For only being in one issue, it's a frighteningly good read, I promise, as well as being gorgeously drawn.

So, with that, you may now realize how complicated these two are, both in backstory and in character. Frank is an eloquent and well-spoken character, extremely noble and stiff-lipped, but willing to dip into the morally gray for the sake of obligation, and haunted by his past. He is a murderer, but never an unjustified one. And yes, he does deeply love the Bride, but doesn't pursue her out of respect (and later, out of anger). The Bride, on the other hand, is admittedly less-defined. She is fiercely independent, stubborn in her own fashion, and does not brook deception. She doesn't care for honor as much as duty, and is far less bound than Frank is. They are starcrossed lovers, but syzygy is nowhere to be found.

There's a lot you can do with these two, so you may be able to see why I'm so...irritated. The Bride's personality, as I said before, is fine in the series. No real issues with it. But Frank? Ugh, Frank. You turned him from this knightly, noble and troubled character into a consciously murderous baby, with NO redeeming qualities to him whatsoever. And again, that's without considering the horrible changes in their backstory.

Rage Without Bounds

Spoiler alert, but in this version of the Frankenstein story, Victor Frankenstein creates the Bride at the behest of his creation/son, Eric Frankenstein (why Eric, by the way, why not Adam?), in his castle in the fictional nation of Pokolistan, where the series' main mission just happens to be taking place. Eh, whatever. Anyway, Eric throws a tantrum to his father/creator, who reluctantly creates the Bride for his son/creation from multiple bodies, as expected. After he is done, the new Bride is immediately frightened of Eric, whose literal ONLY desire is to smash, and doesn't even slightly remember how difficult it was for him to come into existence. He's genuinely an idiot.

We see a montage of Victor teaching the Bride about life and language, all while Eric complains that the Bride doesn't wike him yet, boohoohooGODIhatehim. And as the Bride grows this connection and trust in her creator/father/teacher, she also grows afraid of Eric, who grows increasingly frustrated and pathetic about not being able to have sex with her, blaming Victor for her opinions and calling it a failure, before running out in tears. Ugh. And, then, instead of destroying the Bride in front of his son, as in the book, Victor arguably does something far worse.

He has sex with her. His creation/daughter/student.

I just...I mean...what the fuck, Gunn? Look, I have literally no problem with sex in a DC Comics property, and I get that shitty people online have been calling comic book films sexless, specifically Marvel, but if you asked if I wanted to know the color of the Bride's nipples, I would've said I DON'T FUCKING CARE??? WHO THE FUCK WOULD CARE??? This is a fucking horrible plot point, not even including the fact that Victor was, again, essentially her father and teacher, making this spiritually adultery, incest, and in a way pedophilia, BECAUSE SHE WAS BASICALLY A CHILD!!! And sure, you can argue that this makes Victor Frankenstein the true monster, but guess what? You corrupt that point in the next scene by MAKING ERIC KILL HIM!!!

The Monster killing Frankenstein isn't a crazy idea, mind you, but you immediately paint him as the villain in doing so, as well as in the subsequent stalking-through-the-decades montage, and try to make the audience forget what Victor just did! YOU TRIED TO MAKE HIS ACTIONS THE LESSER EVIL, BUT IT'S STILL INCREDIBLY FUCKED UP WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT FOR LITERALLY 5 SECONDS!!! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING???

And the worst part, of ALL of this, if that's even POSSIBLE at this point, is that in the end, ERIC'S STORY DOESN'T EVEN MATTER!!! Nothing that this character does has ANY EFFECT ON THE PLOT WHATSOEVER!!! When we get our Eric Frankenstein episode in episode 4, The Iron Pot, we find out that not only did the dude kill the kindly blind person analog from the original story, for truly no good reason, but he also is still a whiny piss-baby, AFTER A LITERAL CENTURY OF BEING ALIVE IN THE WORLD!!! At least the Bride grew up at all, but Eric learned nothing? And frankly, this is a waste of David Harbour. The guy isn't a bad actor, at all, actually, but he JUST. KEEPS. GETTING. FUCKED. And he did a really similar character with teh Hellboy reboot a few years back! I just don't get it.

But yeah, when Eric shows up in the series finale to deliver his message, the Bride just shoots him before he gets the chance, calls him a stalker, and walks away! WHY WAS ERIC EVEN IN THIS STORY? FOR LAUGHS? BECAUSE I AM NOT FUCKING LAUGHING!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Purist Choice: Frankenstein's Monster and the Bride

Have Frank be the leader of the Creature Commandos, occasionally talk about the Bride and have her appear as a rival bounty hunter, maybe give them some version of the son story without S.H.A.D.E. involved, so you can still give Frank the lost love thing, get rid of the whole Victor spiritual incest subplot, and DON'T MAKE FRANK A GODDAMN FUCKING INCEL STALKER

Creative Choice: The Bride and Frankenstein's Monster

Have the Bride be the leader of the Creature Commandos, bring in Frankenstein's Monster as a side character and maybe intimate that he works for a rival organization so you can set up S.H.A.D.E. as a potential spin-off in the future, give them some version of the on story with or without S.H.A.D.E., get rid of the whole Victor spiritual incest sublot, AND DON'T MAKE FRANK A GODDAMN FUCKING WHINY LOSER INCEL STALKER

IT'S A PAGE ONE FUCKING REWRITE!!!

I'm...pissed. I realize that my irritation is...over-the-top, but I am genuinely upset by this. And honestly, while I was perturbed and annoyed in the moment when that episode came out, my feelings have matured like a fine wine into all-out rage. And yes, it's extremely possible that the fucked-up nature of their origins will be revisited in the second season of this show that we're getting. I welcome that immensely, honestly. But either way, their character's history is still written in stone. This will always be a part of their backstory in the DCU, and there's no changing that now. It's incredibly upsetting to me. And sure, bad things happen in a realistic universe, but...did this have to be one of them? Ugh. What a waste, in multiple ways.

And another thing, while I'm airing my last grievances: why not give the Bride four arms? I get that it's harder to animate, but there's a very easy way to fix that: don't let her keep the arms. If we did want to give the Bride and Frank a rivalry over the years because of hatred, she easily could have HAD the arms, and seen them ripped off during a fight between the two of them at some point. Or, even worse, she was given the arms in an unforeseen event, and they were later ripped off by their son. That would only have to be one scene of her arms in the flashbacks, and we could see why she and Frankenstein hate each other so much. There are ways it could've been done, and it's upsetting that Gunn didn't seem to try. And maybe he did try...but if so, this is what he came up with? Not impressed.

The Bride deserved to be in Creature Commandos, as did a version of Frankenstein, and both would make it into my iteration of the series, while only one would be an official member of the group, exactly as Gunn did. There's more to it that that, of course, but I'll leave some of that for later, when I talk about the story in a separate essay. And I'm looking forward to seeing the Bride again (NOT Eric), knowing that the decision made about her character aren't the character's fault. What's more, I will say again that her design and animation (even without the two extra arms) are both excellent.

And even though that one thing done to advance her character in the season finale was VERY shitty, I can see that Gunn likes the character enough to develop her, and she's definitely his Rocket Raccoon for the Commandos. And from there...yeah. I'm gonna lie down. This was a frustrating entry. Next essay, though, we'll hit episode three, Cheers for the Tin Man, as well as my favorite character in the series, G.I. Robot.

See you next time (maybe, no pressure)!

Part One: Introduction and Adaptation Part Two: The Original Creature Commandos Part Three: Amanda Waller and Rick Flag, Sr. Part Four: The Frankensteins Part Five: G.I. Robot Part Six: Weasel Part Seven: Doctor Phosphorus

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cecilthecowardly · 8 months ago

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What are your top three moomin adaptations (be detailed) (image accompaniment)

OKAY SO. for the uninitiated moomin is one of my biggest interests in the world. i am very picky about my moomin adaptations. i have beef with the 90s anime that i cannot ever discuss out of fear i will be crucified for it.

THAT BEING SAID!!! MY TOP THREE MOOMIN ADAPTATIONS EVER!!!

#3:

the moomin comics! originally beginning in around the 1950s, i'm hesitant to call it an adaptation necessarily since it was created by tove jansson and her brother lars. it's more of an addendum to the moomin canon, but it's different enough tonally and with the content itself that i feel as if it could be either a grey area or an adaptation. i love it for its plot and sense of humor like. oh my god

(the context is that the moomin family feels too basic and normal for how cool snufkin is, so moominpappa is lying for fun here) (i believe they do end up committing tax evasion, though)

#2:

moominvalley 2019! it's a computer generated adaptation made for modern audiences but it's very faithful to its source and was my first introduction to the moomins, actually. it's comedic while being very heartfelt and emotional in its themes, motifs, and characterization, and the relationship between snufkin and moomintroll is at the forefront of every decision made. the voice acting is phenomenal -- taron egerton of sing and rocketman fame voices moomintroll, for instance, and matt berry (lazslo from wwdits) voices moominpappa -- and the song choices are too! they got a lot of european indie singers like cavetown, girl in red, and dodie to compose and sing music for the show and it pays off so well. it embodies moomin perfectly and i adore it so much. also once again just Look

#1:

THE FUZZY FELT MOOMINS. it feels silly to put this at number one because of how strongly i feel about the 2019 adaptation but this one is just. so important to me. it's so comforting and sweet and a rather faithful adaptation in my experience. the music is enchanting and beautiful and the animation is so captivating and charming that it just has to be at number one because it's so SO GOOD. one guy narrates the entire thing and he does little voices for everybody and it's adorable to me. he narrates it as if it were the books -- and i believe they do just quote directly from the books' translations at times -- and it's phenomenal in every way. i just love it so much i have every one of the episodes on a USB

#cecil responds #moomin #moomin series #<- hesitant to tag but i worked a little hard on this list #also dracula i SEE YOU I KNOW THIS WAS YOU /POS

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lokiinmediasideblog · 1 year ago

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Can you recommend me Loki books? (as in novels, not norse mythology textbooks)

I am not sure if I rated these correctly in terms of audience maturity. But I tried lol.

Comics:

Valhalla comics-Peter Madsen

Fun slap-stick re-tellings of the Norse myths. Children oriented?

Loki (2004) aka "Blood Brothers" by Robert Rodi & Esad Ribic

It's my favorite Marvel!Loki comic of all time. It altered my brain chemistry. You can read it for free on the links in my pinned post.

The graphic novel version of Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman.

There's also this webcomic I found as a teen that's ongoing to this day and I need to go back to following:

Kids:

Loki: A Bad God's Guide to Being Good by Louie Stowell

Diary of a Wimpy Kid but with Norse mythology! What's not to love about that?!

Eight Days of Luke-Dianna Wynne Jones

The book that inspired "American Gods."

Odd and the Frost Giants-Neil Gaiman

A boy named Odd encounters Odin, Thor, and Loki who have been turned into animals.

Teens:

Runemarks duology-Joanne Harris

Just keep to the first two books. You'll hate the rest. Let's just say it dealt horribly with Eating Disorders and Harris should have done research on heavy topics before writing about them. Her Loki in the first two books is very enjoyable and he rules over goblins for a while, among other things. I also thought the way rune birthmarks worked in here was fun.

Norse Mythology-Neil Gaiman

It's an entertaining overview of the myths. If you're unfamiliar with them it's a good place to start.

Adult:

Black Wolf: The Binding of Loki-Una Verdandi

I don't recommend if you want a soft!Loki or one that remains a decent person. Loki is interesting and feels like a force of nature. But let's just say he's like the Joker with all that implies. But I thought it was a worthwhile read (very long). It has probably the best Sigyn depiction I've encountered. She feels like a real person! I go more in detail here. I'd pay attention to the things I warn about in case they're deal-breakers or triggers. My review is not spoiler free but contains warnings.

American Gods-Neil Gaiman

Has very interesting premise and a multiple pantheons existing at the same time. It's fun how the deities adapt to the USA and modern times.

The Goddess of Nothing at All-Cat Rector

This book is basically a Norse myth whump fic. I would avoid if that's not your thing because I can see how someone else might hate it. I know I like it because making fictional characters suffer is my guilty pleasure. You won't be laughing at the mythology-based Loki memes. I don't think it's perfect. For example, I dislike that they have to make Loki's every action "justified", such as cutting Sif's hair because Sif called him fantasy racism slurs. Let him be a bit of an asshole just because. The disproportionate punishment makes it difficult not to sympathize with Loki either way. I don't know how I feel about her Sygin. It's the 2nd best Sygin I've seen yet in books. She has a personality, is likeable, and is not a doormat, but something about her and this Loki feels sanitized to me. Like the author was checking boxes for Sygin and Loki. I don't know how to explain it.

Father of Monsters-A. B. Frost

Short read. Loki is a loveable little shit that gets the Aesir into trouble and takes one for the team to get them out of it. I really liked this characterization and it had cute illustrations of Loki, Angrboda, and Jormungandr.

The Nine Worlds Rising Series-Lyra Wolf

They're not perfect. I think her Loki is very funny and likable but too sanitized. And Sigyn has no flaws other than caring too much for her no-good brother while the other goddesses are evil witches. But the author has a very comedic writing voice that is highly enjoyable and keeps the stakes high so that you want to keep on reading. I also like how one of the books starts with a very vengeful Loki and draws comparisons to Lucifer. Thought that was cool. Also, some reactions to some reveals didn't land the impact as well as they should. They do tease the Odin/Loki abusive relationship, but not with the toxicity I wanted, and Odin goes on a redemption path a bit too soon for my liking (while making all the goddesses evil witches...). There's also a lot of anachronistic language in here, such as Loki mentioning a Chihuahua.

Books I haven't read but I know of their existence:

Loki-Melvin Burgess (I saw a Sigyn stan complain about it, but I am not sure how seriously to take her complaints because she said shipping myth!Loki with say Balder or Thor or Odin was "incestuous" because Loki is Odin's "blood brother" despite Loki being unrelated to everyone but Narfi and Nari on Asgard). My standards for Loki don't require that Loki be a paragon of morality, unlike hers. UPDATE: A mutual told me it's horribly transphobic and has rape apologia.

Harbinger of the End-Nicki Chapelway (I've seen praise from Logyn shippers for this one)

Loki: Nine Naughty Tales of the Trickster by Mike Vasich

I saw an excerpt with a rather humorous joke, but the one other Mike Vasich Loki book I read bored the hell out of me. So I haven't given it a chance for that reason.

The Blackwell Pages by Kelley Armstrong and Melissa Marr

It's a children's book series where the descendants of Thor and Loki are the protagonists.

I might have some revies in "LokiBookClub" tag.

#anon asks #norse mythology #LokiBookClub #myth!loki

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musicboxghost · 2 years ago

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I'm really over philanthropists in comic books.

I keep reading books that try to be about community and positive social change, but they center a kind-hearted billionaire who can be trusted with his riches. 🙄

Dick Grayson in his current Nightwing run, Hawkeye in the iconic Matt Fraction run where he buys a whole building and becomes a landlord, almost any variation of Batman or Iron Man...

And there's varying degrees of this, even in those examples.

I just wish that instead of deciding the fate of communities from their ivory Avengers Tower or the remote estate of Wayne Manor, these heroes were part of the community and used connections to their neighbors/collective power to solve problems instead of more money.

Part of the issue is elites making decisions because in the context of the story, they know best.

Part of it is pushing the narrative that has been championed from Rockefeller to Bill Gates; that the rich can be good, thoughtful stewards of disgustingly bloated bank accounts and therefore should be able to hoard it. Because they give it out incrementally to pet causes of their choosing.

And part of it is the rugged individualism of it all. That our problems can be solved by one good man. One great man. Instead of us joining together. Even neighborhood heroes like Daredevil are trying to conquer a whole city's problems largely on his own. And of course he's wealthy and well-educated and connected. A relative elite.

I want to see more poor people heroes. I want to see more heroes using their powers and their time to do mutual aid, not just beating on neighbors and feeding them into the prison industrial complex. I want to see heroes engaged in acts of civil disobedience. I want to see heroes supporting tenants unions.

I know Spider-Man exists, and I appreciate every characterization of him that brings him back to his working class roots. (As a small aside, can you imagine how much impact Spider-man could have doing mutual aid and street activism? He could haul heavy building materials with his super strength to community members building benches or small shelters for the local unhoused population. It would still be the neighbors organizing the activity, sourcing the labor and materials, building everything, etc. But Pete's super strength could come in handy getting it all there. And that speed would be helpful in case cops show up and the builders need a quick escape. Or if they wanted to cover lots of ground. There's a million more examples of how superpowers could slot beautifully into community organizing) And I think some comics have gotten better at looking at broad social issues. Ironheart, the Champions, and Superman Son of Kal-El all come to mind.

If you can think of any comics that rely on community and connection or align with mutual aid/ anarchist politics, I would love to hear your recommendations.

#comics #dc universe #marvel #spiderman #superman #mutual aid #protest #leftist #anarchist #ironheart #the champions #batman #iron man #nightwing

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the-music-maniac · 2 years ago

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I recently downloaded a book called “Not All Himbos Wear Capes” by this author named C. Rochelle cause yesterday was like a free Amazon ebook giveaway type thing and I was scrolling through the lists with my friend and this particular one stood out to me cause both the cover page and the title made me crack up - also it was a queer novel so - fdaiofjao that’s not the important part of this post -

I read it and I’m actually flabbergasted by how much these characters remind me of a - way waaay more exaggerated and satirical mind you, and i’m like 99% sure this book is satirical because they live in a city called B i g C i t y, so this feels like a call out to every single superhero movie out there that’s set in a b I G C I T Y (ahem new york ahem), and because a lot of the dialogue and names and stuff were absolutely RIDICULOUS in the funniest way possible, I paused several times to just stare at the ceiling and wheeze, it was cringe in a “this sparks joy” type of way, y’know? - version of Steve and Tony.

Like all the plot and the characters + the superhero and villain system and the world building concepts are original so it wasn’t similar per se, but specifically these two characters made me feel nostalgic enough that I sat up and took notice -

Spoiler warning:

The character of Butch - which is the superhero in this superhero x villain duo - first of all, named Captain Masculine (”CAPTAIN” my brain screeched at me) which is The Funniest name I have ever had the privilege of seeing on a superhero, i love it - while way less jaded than Steve is, less traumatized than Steve is - uhhh maybe not less unhinged than Steve is - and way more wholesome innocent, has moments where his demeanor is super reminiscent of what I’ve seen in early 2012 stony fics and some marvel 616 characterizations of him. He’s generally thought of to be a kind person, who has a public reputation that has been controlling all of his decisions and movements for years. And he goes along with it cause he wants to help. Sound familiar?

And Xander - aka the villain - is very much a scientist with multiple PhDs, a marine biologist and a genius inventor, no powers of his own (at the beginning ahem) - called Dr Antihero - is someone who is of course thought of as a villain in the general public even though this man really doesn’t try all that hard to be villainous, doesn’t believe himself to be a good person even though this man genuinely is a pretty good person who’s trying to use his smarts to make a difference in the world. Which is super reminiscent of the characterizations in alternate universe fics where Tony becomes a supervillain (usually for good reason).

There’s a lot there that’s not the same of course, most of the plot is this author’s own - pretty well written surprisingly, admittedly I didn't go into the story with any high expectations, the science was a little iffy but it wasn't the main point of anything so it was fine - and I still view Butch and Xander as their own characters - and i want to make it very clear that they remind me of the fanfic characterizations i’ve seen of steve and tony not the actual canon characterizations because the mcu sucks ass wait what who said that (i hadn’t gotten through all the comics by the time i lost interest in marvel so i don’t 100% know how the comic versions of them are)

If anyone who sees this post is interested in reading the book I also gotta warn that it's 18+ the smut dialogue is hilarious (in a good way - well to me it's a good way cause I had fun reading it even if I did find it cringe at times) but tis still smut

And I was all set to convince myself i was delusional until I SAW THE FANART PRINTS THEY PUT AT THE END OF THE BOOK AND MY MAN XANDER HAS A GOATEE????? AND BUTCH IS BLONDE WITH BLUE EYES???? IN A BLUE UNIFORM??? XANDER’S VILLAIN COSTUME HAS GOLD ACCENTS???

*insert “YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MOTHERFUCKER LOOK LIKE??!!! LOOOOOK” audio*

ALSO THE BOOK HAD MARVEL REFERENCES

Am I just trippin because I don’t know anything about this particular author - maybe i’m just pointing out the obvious - this is the first book I’ve seen of theirs but were they a stony fan in the past??????? Perchance???????

This has been an absolute adventure and a half

#i am bamboozled #flabbergasted #i swear to god i'm losing my mind i need to know #stevetony #stony #not all himbos wear capes #Butch x Xander

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wonderlesscomics · 1 year ago

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Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (Tom King & Bilquis Evely)

Issues # 1-8

Read January 2024

Story: 7.5/10

Hmm. This is the hardest rating I’ve ever had to give. Let me start the entire review with, I love Tom King. I find his deep knowledge of the comics industry inspiring and his ability to create interesting and exciting narratives spectacular. He has truly created some of my favorite comic books of all time. But I find myself as I close the pages on Supergirl, left wanting. Clearly this book has been made with care and love, it excels at what it wishes to achieve. The prose, the dialogue and the characterizations are top notch. The smaller stories inside of the overarching plot are gripping and emotional. However at the end I just felt like I was let down. This book just lacks an overall cohesion that pushes it past just interesting serial stories. While I understand Krem is not really the core of the story he is the driving force behind every action and decision, and he as a whole is uninteresting and boring. He is simply a plot device to allow King to tell the stories he wants to tell. He has all the answers, joins a gang of mercenaries, escapes supergirl multiple times, one of those times discovering and mastering complex magic. And because Krem left me wanting I think it affects Ruythe and left her emotional drive floundering. I couldn’t relate to her mission because I simply didn’t care and it bored me at times. My final complaint is the narrative lies King tells to trick the audience all in the name of a surprise reveal that it was a lie, when not telling us at all would have let us feel anxious and excited over the future. But because he lied, I knew what was going to happen and when they didn’t happen like that I just felt meh, like “oh good job I guess, I don’t really care”. I don’t want to sound all negative because truly this might be the best incarnation of the character ever written and I feel like I truly understand Kara more now than I ever have.

Art: 9/10

Now throw everything out I had reviewed about the plot and listen to me here; this art is fucking stunning. Bilquis Evely is an absolute wizard of the medium. The line work and character design at brilliant, simply brilliant. Thanks to King’s writing he gives Evely incredible set pieces to work on and elevate to more than I imagine he could ever comprehend when writing them. Their work explodes off the page in dazzling colors and bolstered by incredible paneling and page composition. I took too many screenshots of panels, pages and covers that made my jaw drop. From insane moments like space dragons and flying Pegasus at the end of the known universe to little details in characters faces that spoke more than Kings words on the page. I will be following their work forever now and I’ll stare at anything they draw.

Special Notes:

- what’s up with the Pegasus?

- supergirl is just so awesome and I’m not sure why it took so long for her to be done justice

Overall Rating: 7.5/10

I respect it more than I like it. That is the best phrase I can possibly write for this review. I love Tom King and will always admire and support his work, even if it’s the work that doesn’t speak to me. And by the way that’s fine. Every piece of art doesn’t have to move me emotionally or blow my mind with the most incredible plot I’ve ever seen. Sometimes a work just misses your tastes but one can still acknowledge that craft and care put into it. The level of craft on display in this book is among the best in the entire industry, from art, characters, story telling and impact. This book rocked the comics landscape in a short amount of time and it deserves every award and praise it gets. I can’t wait to see what both King and Evely do next!

#comics review #dc comics #supergirl #tom king

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spacelazarwolf · 2 years ago

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feeling completely unhinged about batman, this is going to sound insane. but I think making Tim Drake the bisexual Robin was homophobic.

Our options were the guy has been crossdressing since the Golden Age, the guy who dresses like a leather daddy, the kid who has never had a love interest and is constantly dealing with other people's expectations. They went with option number 4 the guy who is essentially written as a blank slate for readers to project onto with little to no thought for whether or not this created an interesting dynamic with other characters. Though Dick Grayson and Jason Todd were both created very deliberately as foils for Bruce Wayne, with personalities that contrasted against Bruce, Tim Drake was designed as a foil for Jason, in opposition to all of Jason's character traits after Jason proved unpopular due to a combination of classism and the editors and writers just wanting a different direction for his character than the readers did. This design decision for Tim Drake ended up with a character whose personality traits are functionally the same as Bruce, but whose purpose is Blank Slate. As a result his character is and always has been a gigantic pile of contradictions, with him simultaneously being an unpopular nerd and having tons of friends and being both relatable middle class and wealthy enough to denigrate the lower class characters in the minds of the writers. Unlike pretty much every other character in Batman, Tim has no special skills that make him stand out as an expert in a particular field or give him a special place on the team, so writers and fans alike both constantly shove him into the roles of other characters, pushing out their expertise and messing with the dynamics. It's incredibly common to see Tim positioned as the """expert detective""" or """techy expert"""" despite this having very little basis in canon when compared to other writers. Yeah whatever Tim figured out Bruce was Batman but Duke Thomas prepared to go toe to toe with the Riddler when he was TEN and figured out Dick Grayson's identity despite Dick literally having face erasing tech and through that was able to extrapolate on everyone else's identities. Tim's fanon position as as the T E C H Y is one that's been stolen from Harper Row and Barbara Gordon, who was the most powerful unpowered character in the DCU but has had her accomplishments gradually and continually downplayed and erased since 1986. This lack of specialization for Tim and his characterization as the everyman relatable blank slate have held him back as the character continues to fail in being given his own identity, which relates to his continuous deaging, a trait largely only shared by women. In fact the deaging of Tim DRake has gotten so bad that the current timeline implication is that Dick fired Tim from being Robin when Tim was TWELVE in order to give Robin to a TEN year old as opposed to the 17 Tim was when the actual comic was released, as Damian is aging but Tim has not.

The common claim that Tim is """""most popular""" and """""""Best""""" Robin is one that's honestly unbacked, and believed only because Tim stans are so goddamn loud. Before his shit, shit run started 2 weeks ago Tim Drake had not held his own solo title in 12 years, whereas Dick Grayson has continually held one for 26 years and spent decades starring in long running back ups and team books prior to that. The reality that Tim stans don't want to admit is that Tim is bisexual because editorial didn't give a shit about him until he came out and it got people talking. They'll often lift up examples of him being "queercoded" prior to him coming out but it's really very notable that all of Tim's instances of "queercoding" are related to shipbaiting with Superboy. On the other hand Dick crossdressed until the Comics Code slammed the ban hammer on queerness because of his existence, openly stated in 2004 that he was alright with homophobes assuming that he's gay, has had several uniforms with influence from queer fashion, and despite being ostensibly straight has been featured on multiple Pride themed comic covers. Next to him is Jason who habitually covers himself in leather and wears a muzzle and said his girlfriend was a good kisser "for a girl". Instead of examining these adult characters relationships to queer masculinity, including Dick Grayson being a gay icon since the 1940s who has literally influenced gay culture, the queer Robin that we got is the run of the mill middle class white high school boy whose writing immediately shifted to QUEER ROMCOM UTOPIA as soon as he came out. The first issue of his solo run is a notable example with complete fluff, Tim claiming that his relationship with his boyfriend Bernard is more "real" than his relationships with his past girlfriends, and Bernard the schlubby conspiracy theorist previously dressed in hoodies suddenly wearing artfully ripped skinny jeans and a statement blazer. Even outside of this issue, the past year sicne Tim came out has seen his and Bernard's flaws and eccentricities scrubbed away in favor of gay cotton candy, rendering Tim somehow even blander and less interesting than before.

But I haven't even gotten to the worst part yet. I haven't slammed the hammer down. Here's the real bombshell on Tim Drake and why him being the lone bisexual Robin for who knows how long is homophobic.

Tim Drake's one solid long lasting character trait until he came out, the ONE aspect of his personality that genuinely stood out, totally unique to him, his place in the family? Was being a fucking asshole. Not only did he break into Batman's house to demand he get over the death of his son, not only did he refuse to allow Dick to grieve his third dead parent when they believed Bruce was dead, but Tim Drake has been cheating on his partners since he started dating. Despite only being created at the very tale end of the 1980s, Tim Drake has had nine love interests in main continuity. This is a feat accomplished by dating three girls at once. Yet it's Dick Grayson - the Romani man - who gained a fandom reputation for being a womanizer and in fanon a cheater, despite having only around a dozen love interests and existing for nearly three times as long as Tim.

tl;dr the bisexual Robin shouldn't be the one who habitually cheats on his partners, there's queercoding besides shipbaiting, Tim Drake sucks, stan Dick Grayson instead

UR CORRECT

#ask avishai #unhinged anons

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soft-october-night · 4 years ago

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The Love Interests in the Works of Jane Austen: An Assessment

This is an "extremely scientific" and "thoroughly researched" ranking based on personality, money, family and connections, and is a bit of a blend between the book characterizations and the film characterizations (and is in no way only based on my own opinions). Here we go, grouped by book but not much else.

Edmund Bertram: absolute trash. His family has treated you unbelievably shitty since day one and not only has he BARELY noticed, he ALSO has treated you shitty. Will fall in love with someone beautiful and fun and when she dumps him will come crawling to you for a rebound. His passion for you is so lackluster that even the esteemed author who wrote about it barely spared a paragraph on your relationship. Has a job but only because his dad owns the land the church is built on. You’ll gain no connections or family by marrying him, since he’s literally your cousin. 0/10

Henry Crawford: There IS such thing as too much fun, and that is never clearer than in this man, who will try to seduce you as a game, freak out when his middling overtures don’t work and then try and seduce you “for really real” this time. You will definitely move up in the world if you marry him, and if you play your cards right it seems like his sister is also just REALLY into you, so see how that goes. Life will be pretty okay until you find him in bed with one (or more, who knows) of your relations. 3/10, 8/10 if you’re into that

John Willoughby: Will be like something out of a romance novel, you’re thinking he’s going to propose and then he just fucking ghosts you and embarrasses the fuck out of you at a party by acting like he doesn’t know you. Somehow marry him (congrats on the inheritance you must have, btw) and get ready to take a backseat to the whims of his aunt for as long as she lives. 1/10, at least you get to live in a nice house.

Edward Ferrars: Oh Edward. He’s a bit of a mess, isn’t he? Super kind, your family loves him, he made a bunch of stupid decisions in his youth that are coming back to bite him in the ass. He is loyal to an absolute fault, but you luck out when his fiance turns out to be a bit of a gold digger and dumps him when his mom disowns him. He doesn’t have a job and neither do you, but his family doesn’t wanna speak to him (lucky you!) and you’ll be happy and poor together if you two can work on your communication skills. 7/10.

Colonel Brandon: He’s got a nice house, the respect of his friends and the community, and he has a LOT of passion. He’ll give your sister’s penniless husband a job, dramatically rescue you from a rainstorm, make sure his dead girlfriend’s daughter is happy and taken care of even after your ex fucks HER over too, and is all around a pretty decent guy. Just. Uh. Maybe, kinda, sorta, needs to go after women his own age and is probably with you because you remind him of his dead girlfriend. 5/10 with the wildly inappropriate age gap, 9/10 without it.

Mr. Wickham: Please don’t. He’s a thirsty bitch who lives for drama and you think he’s fun until you find out he tried to sleep with one teenage girl and is making eyes at your fifteen year old sister behind your back. Marry him (through the grace of mysterious benefactors, cause he ain’t marrying anyone unless he’s paid the right price) and get ready for a life of being surrounded by military men in the north of England while your husband tries to fuck everything that moves. Work that out somehow with him and you might actually be happy. 0/10.

Mr. Bingley: He is a softboi who will do literally anything his friends tell him to do. He is SUPER rich, and marrying him will throw your sister’s into the path of other rich men and he is REALLY into you, but get ready to be sucking up to his sisters for literally the rest of your life. Unless he can ship Miss Bingley off to live with Mrs. Hurst, have fun trying to wage a war of barely concealed insults over the breakfast table every morning, and if you’re marrying Bingley I’m sorry but that is a war you just cannot win. He doesn’t have a job but he does have five thousand a year, and neither of you can manage money. You’ll love simply and deeply and be happy as any two can be. 8/10.

Mr. Collins: Last resort to rescue yourself from a life of being a burden to your parents until they die and then having to become a governess or something. Has a job but never shuts up about his boss. You will have to rearrange everything in your house according to his boss’ will. 2/10

Mr. Darcy: Is a anxious disaster who doesn’t know how to talk to girls at parties and needs to learn how say no to going out when he’s just not feeling it. He doesn’t have a job because he’s a landlord; he owns half of Derbyshire and has ten thousand a year, but turns out that all of that money and land can’t buy tact or charisma. Doesn’t know how to flirt and thinks he’s doing a great job (he’s not). He’ll propose to you out of the fucking blue one day by insulting literally everything about you, but don’t worry! Reading his letter unlocks Darcy 2.0. This patched version gives him humility, a personality, and he WILL gain the ability to rescue your family from utter ruin. Marry him and enjoy a life of luxury and witty ripostes, but beware! You ARE going to have to deal with Lady Catherine until the day she dies, not to mention Caroline Bingley’s barely concealed contempt every time you meet in polite company. Darcy 1.0 3/10, Darcy 2.0 8/10.

Captain Wentworth: Absolutely top tier. Has a job, has earned everything he has, including a fortune and the respect of his peers, superiors, and subordinates. His sister and her husband are practically the only happily older married couple you know, his friends are super fun and nice (even the dour one with all the poetry knows how to have a polite conversation). If you dumped him ten years ago on the advice of your almost comically shitty family yeah, he’s going to hold a grudge, but he WILL NEVER STOP LOVING YOU and the MOMENT he gets over his pride will do everything and anything in his power (including leaping the bounds of propriety!) to win you back. Based on his love, money, and connections you should RUN, not walk, into his arms TODAY and allow him to rescue you from your family and whisk you off to see the world on his ship, at least until Napoleon busts out of Elba. 12/10

Mr. Eliot: Will lose all your old schoolfriend’s husband’s money in a bad deal, has debts out the ass, might be trying to get with either you or the woman your dad has been flirting with for the last few years, you’re not sure. Is totally ruining the rekindling relationship you’re trying to get going with your far superior ex. He wants the land and title your dad has and will stop at nothing to get it. Marry him and you can move back into your old house (maybe? it’s a little unclear what with all the debts) but have every single cent your mother left you immediately put into some dumbass scheme. 1/10

Henry Tilney: another softboi who just wants to act in the school play while his dad and brother plan to ship him off to military school and berate him for not joining the football team. Bring him shopping with you to pick out dresses, spend long nights over tea chatting about books. Has a job, but again, only because his dad owns the land the church is on. Loves you even though you have some very strange ideas about his house, and will forgive you when he realizes you thought his dad either murdered or imprisoned his mom. If he can find the courage to tell his dad to fuck off and let him live his own life, expect a long, happy marriage of snuggling together in a window seat somewhere, sipping tea and reading. 9/10

John Thorpe: Trash bastard man. Peaked in whatever equivalent of high school he had. Shitty and rude to everyone, would post racist memes on facebook and start fights if he could, all while being shitty and manipulative and CREEPILY possessive of you. -2/10

Robert Martin: A sweet himbo farmer who just wants to love and worship you. He has a job, is pretty rich, and while his connections may not be above his class, he’s an earnest boy who wants to take care of you and be taken care of in turn. Marry him the first time, absolutely do NOT let your friend influence you against him, because who KNOWS if you will get a second proposal! (You will, he likes you THAT much.) Marry him and enjoy a sweet, simple life of exactly zero drama (unless your friend is around). 7/10

Mr. Elton: Trifling gold digging trash who doesn’t know what the word no means. Do not marry, unless you want to be censured by decent, hardworking people -1/10

Frank Churchill: Knows how to have fun, but you know there’s something more going on. He won’t let you see his letters, he sends out secret notes, then he smiles and tells you that everything is totally a okay. Another boy with ANOTHER overbearing aunt, only this one doesn’t know how to say no. Marry him if you’ve got the money, but he will always be longing after the poor girl next door that auntie wouldn’t let him married, and would have cheated on you already if she was into it. 3/10

Mr. Knightly: He’s your brother in law and you’ve known him almost your whole life, so that’s a little sus, but he is also the ONLY person in your entire life who knows how to tell you no (and you really, REALLY need to be told no sometimes.) He is extremely wealthy, but more importantly he’s kind and caring about people who are considered “beneath” him. He will break his weird no dancing rule to dance with your shy friend, he will ream you out for being shitty to unwed spinsters who value your opinion, and somehow has the correct read on everyone all the time. You will gain no connections by marrying him, since the two of you already have the exact same connections anyway, but the two of you should be content in a test of wills that will last a lifetime. You’ll be very happy as long as he doesn’t get super pedantic and start correcting you about everything. 7/10

#jane austen #pride and prejudice #persuasion #sense and sensibility #emma #mansfield park #northanger abbey #mr darcy #captain wentworth

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momsopposed2theoccult · 4 years ago

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It’s come to my attention that a good majority of people on this website have a really poor understanding of the conflict between Toph and Katara in “The Chase.” As somebody who loves both characters and their friendship, this irritates me. Without further ado, let’s unpack that in what is in theory supposed to be a meta but turned out more like a rant.

“Katara was hostile towards Toph because the fact that she’s a gender non-conforming girl made Katara uncomfortable because Katara is obsessed with gender roles.”

Alright, so right off the bat this is just... completely idiotic and clearly fuelled by an agenda (and likely also a lot of projection). First of all, how is Katara of “I don’t want to heal, I want to fight!” fame “obsessed with gender roles?” There’s an entire episode in Book One dedicated to Katara refusing to conform to societal norms for women in the Northern Water Tribe! Katara routinely calls Sokka out on his misogynistic bullshit! (Mind you I adore Sokka but he could be a little twerp at times and Katara was 100% right to challenge him on it) Katara is the feminist icon of ATLA! The fact that people act like Katara is some sort of conservative tradwife who loves gender roles instead of the outspoken feminist and political activist she is makes me incredibly angry.

Second of all, Katara was extremely kind and welcoming towards Toph at first. She gently encouraged her to join in with the group as they all set up camp together as opposed to setting up her own private camp. It’s only when Toph refuses to comply with her that Katara begins to get irritated. Mind you, Toph has her reasons for this, something I’ll get to in a minute, but from Katara’s perspective (key word here is perspective) she’s just being an annoying little stubborn, selfish, lazy, anti-social, entitled brat. Of course we the audience find out later that this isn’t the case at all (or at least in theory we should find out later but apparently some people on here skipped that part), but for all her many talents Katara is not a mind reader and has no way of knowing what’s going on inside Toph’s head, nor does she know her well enough yet to fully grasp the context behind why Toph acts the way she does. Katara is somebody who greatly values community and believes in teamwork, so Toph turning down her warm welcome in favour of “carrying her own weight” likely felt like a slap in the face. Not to mention that she’s already emotionally exhausted from having to constantly mother Aang and Sokka. If I were Katara, I likely would have reacted the same way.

Oh and I agree that the “the stars look beautiful tonight, too bad you can’t see them, Toph” comment was out of line, but it doesn’t make her a horrible person. It makes her a 14 year old, and 14 year olds can be nasty, especially sleep deprived 14 year olds. Katara is otherwise a very kind and compassionate person. Other characters have said worse than that. Hell, Toph herself has said worse than that. That being said, it was a deeply hurtful comment and I do like to imagine that she apologized for it off-screen.

“Toph is a lazy, entitled, and classist spoiled rich brat who just didn’t want to do chores and expected other people to wait on her.”

This is another one that makes me roll my eyes and ask if they even watched the show. First of all, the presumption that Toph is a lazy or entitled person is just... laughable. I feel like people forget that Toph isn’t actually an earthbending prodigy in the way that Azula is a firebending prodigy (I could say more about Azula and how her belief that she was the unshakeable prodigal daughter ultimately caused her downfall and how by the end of the series Zuko is arguably a better firebender than her but this isn’t a meta about Azula and Zuko, now is it?). Nah. Toph was a sheltered kid who discovered she had the ability to earthbend, was told that she could never become great at it because she was blind, and in response said FUCK THAT and decided to work her ass off until she was not only great but the very greatest all thanks to her crazy, stupid, off-the-charts nerve, drive, grit, ambition, and desire to prove people wrong about her. Does that sound like a lazy person to you? Believe me when I say that you do not achieve that kind of skill level by sitting around on your ass and expecting to have things handed to you. And entitled? Don’t make me laugh. Toph hates having things handed to her, that’s one of her defining characteristics.

As for the implication that she’s classist and enjoys basking in her family’s wealth and being waited on...... are you stupid? Did you even watch the show? Toph absolutely despises everything about her parents’ lifestyle. Growing up like that was traumatizing and restrictive for her. We’re talking about a girl who likes to play around in the mud for fuck’s sake. Toph does not care how much money you have. She never wanted any to begin with. She even says it herself; “I guess I shouldn’t be complaining. They gave me everything I could have wanted. But they never gave me what I actually needed - their love.” Not to mention that she easily could have continued to freeload off her parents wealth but instead chose to sneak out of the house and make her own money doing what she did best; disproving people’s assumptions about her earthbending. Oh and I’ve seen someone point this out before but WWE is generally considered a “low brow” activity that “proper” people frown upon and shouldn’t associate themselves with. Toph fucking loved it. I don’t know how seriously people take the comics, as they often miss the mark when it comes to characterization (Toph’s, however, was generally pretty accurate), but there’s a part in The Rift where Sokka asks her when she’s going to start charging people to learn metalbending and she gets all serious and flat out tells him that she will never do such a thing, because money doesn’t matter to her. Sharing her one true passion with the world is what matters to her. Oh and the part where she basically tells a bunch of rich and sleazy businessmen to fuck off and “stop thinking about money and start thinking about people’s lives” is just... *chef’s kiss* Sorry my thoughts here are so incoherent but this take is so piss poor and makes me so angry that I don’t even know where to start. As for “Toph enjoys being waited on” I just- *sigh* Toph has such a visceral and defensive reaction to any implication that she is unable to take care of herself. Like I said earlier, that’s one of her defining characteristics as well as the reason for her behaviour in “The Chase.” Where are people getting these takes?

You wanna know why Toph acted the way she did in The Chase? Well, first let’s recap her life up to this point. Toph was born the blind daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the Earth Kingdom. From day one her parents treated her like glass due to her disability. She was not allowed to leave her house unsupervised, and even then she was only permitted to walk around the gardens of her home. Every day of her life she was pitied, gaslit, babied, ignored, emotionally neglected, and made to feel ashamed of herself. She was not allowed to make any decisions for herself. She was not allowed to do anything for herself. She was not allowed to talk to other children. She had no friends. Other people didn’t even know she existed on account that her parents kept her locked up in her own home and didn’t tell anybody about her because they were so ashamed to have a blind daughter. Flash forward to “The Chase.” Toph begins to set up her own camp separate from the rest of the Gaang. Considering that she flat out was not socialized as a child and hadn’t even interacted with anybody her own age prior to a few days ago, this is understandable. So then Katara comes up to her and asks her why she isn’t setting up camp with the others as if she’s somehow incapable of taking care of herself (again, this is just what happened from her perspective) like she’s her mom or something and it just angers her because she thought she joined this group to get away from all that and she doesn’t understand how friends work because she’s never had one, all she knows is that apparently this girl thinks she isn’t capable of taking care of herself, and that infuriates her because it’s the exact same bullshit she thought she was running away from.

There’s a lot more I could say about this but I’m sick of typing so yeah in conclusion both of these takes are piss poor and I’m sick of having to read them. Stan Toph, Katara, and their friendship.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #katara #toph beifong #nora speaks

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astromechs · 2 years ago

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A, V, and X Pls 😊

A - Your current OTP(s)/OT3(s)/OTX(s)

not to be Like This, but scarletnovadevil (rich/matt/wanda), the ot3 i invented, has completely taken over my life. i will shout from the rooftops every single day about how these characters all really vibe so well together. it's about the shared experiences of trauma, mental illness, and self-loathing, but realizing that good things are still out there for you if you're willing to work at them — and if you have supportive, understanding, and loving people by your side.

V - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms

neo/trinity — the matrix series

katniss/peeta — the hunger games

marianne/heloise — portrait of a lady on fire, because this absolutely counts

X - top 5-10 characters who are yoUR PRECIOUS BABIES AND YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING THEM

ok i will give a smattering assortment of characters here, because i have a lot of favorites:

katniss everdeen (thg) — i don't see it as much anymore, but people were really out here coming for a traumatized teenage girl and calling her a sociopath because she was a lil blunt and not super nice, like... WHAT. anyway, katniss my best girl. named my cat after you. you're the best always. love how she was messy and real and not at all like an archetypal protagonist.

anakin skywalker (star wars) — ok. i know. ok. yes. he's done the war crimes and made horrible decisions in his life and i'm not going to excuse any of that. but the jedi were emotionally invalidating assholes and he was immensely traumatized and taken advantage of by an emotionally manipulative prick. i will always stand by anakin bye

sherlock holmes was one of my og blorbos and while he doesn't need defending necessarily, christ did the bbc show give people a weird perception of him. he's just a funky little weirdo who likes solving puzzles and hates cops, why are you all being weird

clark kent/superman — i have been constantly having to fend off the "lol he's boring" allegations for him ever since i can remember. sorry if you're so unimaginative that you cannot possibly think that a guy who's just genuinely a good person and uses his power to help people is interesting. i feel sorry for your life. (note, this also applies to other characters who fit into this general category of character, especially my beloved boy rich rider, who also has to fend off the "lol boring" allegations from time to time. BEGONE)

i feel like pretty much any comic book woman who does something out of line needs defending, but i'll use this space to defend some of my faves. so elektra likes a little murder, so what, she's sexy for that and i support women's rights as well as women's wrongs. if anyone comes for gamora it's on sight. i will also always stand up for wanda because everything she's done is justified, and it's not her fault that everyone in her life has completely failed her when she needed help. like, honestly fuck both the avengers and the x-men lol

as a bonus this needs to be said — i'm peter quill's defense lawyer, even for the war crimes 616 peter committed, but also, y'all. y'all. mcu peter quill didn't do anything wrong in infinity war, you're just dumb for still arguing about this FIVE YEARS LATER.

also for the holy love of god are peter parker and matt murdock horribly misinterpreted by fans, like, always. bad takes abound. i'm here to defend the honor of y'all's characterization as well as your bisexuality.

fandom meme!

#asks #petit-beignet #fandom meme #and GOD... mj. people are SO weird about mj. don't even get me started

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lucemferto · 4 years ago

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Niki Nihachu & Barbara Kean

Gonna drop something controversial real quick.

Niki Nihachu is the most tragic character on the Dream SMP – and I don’t mean in the sense of her having a tragic story (though she is up there), but in the sense that she is tragically mishandled.

I want to start out by saying that this essay is by no means an attack on the content creator Niki Nihachu or her abilities as a performer. She is frequently one of the strongest actors on the SMP and I have no idea how much of her character writing was within her power. How much of it was improv, how much pre-planned, how much something she genuinely wanted to do and how much stuff she just stumbled into or – in the worst-case scenario – was forced upon her. I don’t know.

The Dream SMP is not very transparent when it comes to their creative process. As such I can only judge it as a discerning viewer and English major dropout, who retained some half-remembered stuff about narratology.

So, a few weeks ago, I tumbled on here that Niki’s character journey reminded me a lot of the character Barbara Kean from the hit TV-show Gotham. Then I got an ask asking me to elaborate. This is the elaboration.

Barbara Kean

So, a quick crash course for people who haven’t seen Gotham (the greatest comic book show on Television, seriously, what are you doing with your life?!): Barbara Kean was a major female character throughout all five seasons of Gotham – and not once during those five seasons did the writers ever figure out what they wanted to do with her.

Every 10-12 episodes or so, Barbara’s role shifted completely. She started out as cop-protagonist Jim Gordon’s girlfriend at home and moral compass, then became part of a bisexual love triangle, then a hard-drinking jealous party girl with a backstory as repressed, lonely rich kid, before being kidnapped by a serial killer and ultimately making her perfect metamorphosis into the psychotic ex-girlfriend trope.

And that was Season 1.

Since then, she became the pseudo-Harley Quinn to the pseudo-Joker, a whip-wielding dominatrix, the obligatory female member in a supervillain squad, some sort of information broker, a mafia kingpin, the leader of a girl-power posse and – my favourite – the reincarnated wife of an ancient immortal who also controls all of Gotham and transferred that control over to her before that plot-point was dropped harder than a half-dead Oswald Cobblepot of the Gotham piers.

Also, she’s Batgirl’s mom.

In short, it’s a mess – but that’s what makes Gotham kinda fun.

Character Cohesion

Now, obviously, Niki’s character journey has not been quite as extreme. But it falls into the same traps, I find. Namely, that there’s just a distinct lack of character cohesion or character continuity.

Now, character cohesion or character continuity doesn’t mean that the arcs these characters undertake can’t be explained in a logical way. Barbara’s character journey is logical in the sense that you can explain it all with in-universe logic – but it’s not logical from a narratological sense now, is it?

Character Cohesion basically means that a character’s journey is reflected in their personal conflict – their Want vs. Need. Their arc is the natural continuation of what was set-up in previous sequences. Everything falls into a whole with Set-up, Confrontation, Resolution – we set up the character’s Want, their Want and Need are conflicting, the Want vs. Need is resolved. Ideally this coincides with the plot beats of the large conflict surrounding the cast.

When you look at Barbara in Season 1 of Gotham, you’re not thinking “This one right here – she’s the reincarnated wife of Ra’s Al Ghul”. Because why would you? There was no set-up; it’s not part of what her character was about in this moment – or any moment before that concept was introduced. It’s not needed for her character conflict (or any thematic conflicts for that matter).

It’s quite transparently just something that is affixed to her so that she has something until the writers come up with the next at which that first thing will dropped, underdeveloped.

Niki in Season 1

Niki follows the same route, unfortunately. She’s set-up as the resistance in L’Manburg, allies herself with Eret and HBomb until – oops – it doesn’t end mattering, because that entire side of the “plot” is completely underdeveloped. Just be a damsel until Wilbur can swoop in and save you, Niki.

Okay, but now she has a big moment with Tommy and Tubbo just after the pit-scene. “We’ll figure something out”, she says. “We need L’Manburg back”. This is all before the backdrop of Wilbur completely giving in to his role as a villain and Techno’s apparent “betrayal”.

So, now, surely, Niki is gonna affect change in Pogtopia and will have some influence on either Tommy or Wilbur, the two people she’s closest to. What’s this? Her biggest contribution is holding a birthday party where Quackity convinces Wilbur to hold off on his TNT-plan? And after that … she’s just gonna be part of the Pogtopia-masses?

Now, I like Wilbur’s writing and Season 1 generally, but when it comes to Niki (and Eret) something went terribly wrong. Both of them provided many a set-up – none of which were taken advantage of, unfortunately.

And, just to be clear, I’m not putting the blame on Niki here (or at least not most of it). Season 1 was pretty firmly in Wilbur’s hand … and Season 2 was a train wreck.

Niki in Season 2

Niki is – for the most part of Season 2 – a nothing character. She has no real conflict, no character beats, no arc. This is because through some unfortunate writing decisions, Season 2 is pretty squarely focused on a specific set of characters – and even fewer of those characters are granted a fully explored, completed character arc.

It all culminates in her Doomsday villain arc – a moment that can be logically explained from both an in-character perspective and a meta-perspective, but unfortunately, it’s not justified from a technical writing point of view.

Niki burning down the L’Mantree is her “Ra’s Al Ghul’s reincarnated wife”-moment. It’s a big statement that put her character on the map for a large part of the audience again. It was a striking visual. It could not be ignored.

Most of that was because it was a stark departure from her characterization in Season 1. Now, such a departure doesn’t necessarily have to be bad. The problem comes in when

a.) The full potential of the character in their previous narrative role had not yet been fully or even partly exhausted

b.) It cuts into an on-going character arc and drastically changes its course

c.) It’s not foreshadowed or developed properly.

And most of those are true for Niki’s character. She was not necessarily underdeveloped but underexplored in Season 1 and had no consistent storyline going on in Season 2. She was a witness to Tommy’s trial, but that was never worked into an on-going storyline for her. No matter how much we retroactively pretend like this turn to villainy, this breakdown, was brewing deep inside of her – there was no foreshadowing.

The reason, why I said it’s understandable from a meta-perspective, is that the content creator Niki Nihachu had a self-admittedly hard time getting her foot in in Season 2 – because Season 2, for as much love as I will heap upon Tommy’s and Dream’s storyline, was a pretty messy.

So, the villain arc was not well foreshadowed and Niki’s turn was developed, but what happened after she was in it?

Niki in Season 3

Well, unfortunately that problem of an inconsistent storyline never really went away for her. In the beginning of Season 3, she hatched her wagons with Jack Manifold, which was a pretty big tonal shift – from darkly tragic to cartoonish villainy.

But as Jack kept developing his character in that lane and following up on big plot development with corresponding character moments, Niki again just … vanished. She then changed gears again, joining the Syndicate – a great idea if only the Syndicate actually streamed together and developed a storyline and group cohesion.

As it stands right now, Niki’s character exists in the negative space of the fandom imaginations. We are given some scraps and good character moments – her sleeping in a jail cell, “I started baking again”, her secret city – but those moments never coalesce into a full-fledged storyline.

Her character’s journey is still as fragmented and underexplored as it ever was. I really hope that – with Wilbur’s revival and the new character conflict that seems to arise from that for her – she manages to finally get the foot in and get the storyline and dynamic arc she deserves.

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