#oh ive also started reading the old comics

[s-escapist]

So I've started reading the book (translation by Anthony C. Yu) and I'm only on the early chapters cuz life stuff holding my butt back but, like, I couldn't resist to scribble on the pages like the menace I am;

I've only watched the 2009 series so being exposed to a lot of the other variations they have rn is very intriguing and fun. Alas, I still use lmk wukong's look since I'm more familiar to that. (But like the old comics of jttw and mkr do be looking good dayum)

My fave so far is when the monkeys get a surname and tiny suns Is a thing IDK ITS SO CUTE???? WHY DO NOT MUCH PEOPLE TALK ABOUT THIS AND WUKONG'S MONKEY FAMILY???

[frankmillerturnonyourlocation]

related to last post: finally reading all star. my vendetta against frank miller has been reignited.

[jevilowo]

Not sure if ive already done this. But.

Predictions for COMIC 7

CHARLES DARLING WILL BE THE FINAL ENEMY besides Helen. Trust me on this one I swear they wouldn't have brought him in if they didn't have plans. ALSO the mother of the Mann triplets (Bette Mann neé Darling) was RELATED TO HIM HE'S RELEVANT. I'm so convinced he's the one Helen made a deal with and he's going to make a grab for Mann Co.

We'll get to see Bilious Hale in a flashback and find out what happened to him. Bilious Hale, oh guy who punched coal out of mines and sat on John Wilkes Booth while other people shot at him, my beloved. I hope they don't reveal he was a bad father or anything.

A woman is nice to Ms Pauling for once and she gets a smooch. She deserves it. Hopefully it won't be a smooch from Helen (DAMN YOU 4CHAN LEAKS), the old lady's had her hired since Pauling was in her mid teens.

WE GET HORSEMANN LORE! this is just wishful thinking on my part the Horsemann makes me insane. Shout out to Silas Mann fr. If he doesn't show up, I hope they at least acknowledge or reference him. I swear they had plans for him back in 2010. Which they then immediately abandoned in favour of developing Mann vs Machine.

Spydad reveal. Pretty much a given. No need to elaborate. I hope Scout’s mother shows up I love her.

Demo gets something important to do! He's only been there for comedic bits so far really, so I think he deserves some Serious Plot Stuff.

Build up to and cop out on Pyro face reveal. The whole thing of Pyro's character is the mystery, so I think the funniest way to go about a face reveal would be for us to only see the team's reactions and have them all react very differently e.g. Scout vomits, Demo gives them the thumbs up, Spy starts taking horrified notes, Engie looks vaguely lovestruck, Saxton Hale expresses annoyance that they aren't actually *insert obsucure species of something here* like he thought.

CONAGHER LORE!! By which I mean Engie shows up and has a chat with Fred about Radigan and immortality and whatnot. Fred has to have been spared from the bloodshed for a reason, right?

Classic Medic shows up! Or they confirm he is dead. Or they confirm he is Pyro which is a funny theory I read once but sincerely doubt. Maybe they'll pull a Bea and have him have been a girl the whole time.

I have a crackpot theory that Helen/Elizabeth is actually Bette Mann (again, mother of the Mann triplets), and while it's unlikely to be true, it would genuinely be so funny if I'm right so WATCH THIS SPACE. My main reasoning is Helen started her Australium search the year the triplets were born, aka the year Bette DIED, and also Bette is a nickname for Elizabeth. Also also it adds to my theory that she will team up with Charles Darling, who is, as I've already said, related to Bette.

Olivia gets to do something important also. Saying this bc she's mostly been a prop so far. I'm manifesting a sideplot where she summons the Horsemann to beat up Charles Darling for her.

Merasmus returns! Last we saw he was arrested, but Jay Pinkerton really likes his Soldier/Merasmus interactions so chances of him coming back are high.

There will be a joke like "geez it feels like it's been seven years since we beat grey mann" and a panel where everyone just lets that process before going back to plot stuff

Chances are, a new comic after so many years means there will be new writers, and the fandom has changed quite a bit since the last one. There will be SUBLIMINAL SPEEDING BULLET SHIPPING. There will be MORE FOCUS THAN IS REALLY NECESSARY on Scout. SOMEONE WILL THEY/THEM PYRO which sounds great actually you know what I forgot where I was going with this godspeed.

ZHANNASOLDIER WEDDING FINALE!!!

[yellowocaballero]

SHAZAM SHAZAM SHAZAM pls tell us about billy batson. ive only ever seen the movies o great comic knower

Very very very VERY far from comic expert (that's brawltogethernow) but I have read a lot of Shazam. His history is actually really, really fascinating and involves more than one lawsuit that really defined very early comics. I'll focus on one thing, though.

There are two Captain Marvels: One from the 1940s to around 2013, and one from 2013 til now. The Captain Marvel you're familiar with (who is named Shazam) is from 2013. He's a more realistic, grounded character. He was created to be pretty much the polar opposite of his original version. The best summary is to say that the Wizard chose Billy Batman 1940 because he had the purest heart, and the Wizard chose Billy Batson ~2013 because he was there. My personal 'best' Shazam story is the "Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil" graphic novel by the guy who made Bone. It's good because it's for elementary schoolers yet acknowledges this small child as homeless. Which, don't get me wrong, you shouldn't always do. My personal favorite is the 1970s ones.

As some background: Otto Binder was the creator/main writer of the very early Captain Marvel comics. He was by far and away the best writer of the early Superman Silver Age comics, because all of his comics were batshit insane. Shazam has a complicated and legal history with Superman, so the 1970 run was a super fun high camp tongue in cheek reinvention of the best Silver Age stories.

So the 1970 Captain Marvel comics are insane.

I can't even summarize them without sounding crazy. Basically the conceit is that Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr, and Mary Marvel (Billy, Freddy, and Mary) are having 1940s Golden Age Adventures when they get somehow in suspended animation and are basically time travelled to the 1970s. This don't bother them too much. Why would it bother them. Nothing bothers these people. Nothing. I don't think anybody experiences a negative emotion in these comics. Not bc they were twee. Bc they were insane.

Many of the comics basically had three shorter comics inside it: one Billy story, one Mary story, one Freddy story. Interestingly, they all had different art styles, artists, types of story, genre, etc. Billy's stories had a cartoony art style with very over-the-top and silly plotlines that involved supervillain bad dudes. Freddy's art was slightly more realistic and was slighty more grounded, but still had some classic Marvel indescribable scifi that can best be summarized as that one meme panel people have seen where Sivana recites a science equation that lets him walk through walls. Mary's stories were much more realistically drawn and featured the most banal shit, like her starting a club with her friends. Somehow Mary Marvel gets involved in those.

Sometimes they worked together and did superhero things and fought bad guys. The average fight looked like this:

Billy was a twelve year old who lived by himself, in his own apartment, had his own radio show, a full-ass job, a whole thing as Captain Marvel. He paid fucking taxes. Everybody knew this and nobody cared. He's the most affable, good natured kid on the face of the planet. Nothing bothers him. Nothing. Nothing bothers any of these people. Sivana shows up and he's BIG MAD so he's creating another death ray and Captain Marvel shows up like "Oh you rascal! Time to punch this and go back to helping my friend eat his infinite Jello."

He has a friend named Talky Tawny, who is a talking tiger wearing a suit. He also has a friend named Sunny Smiles, a person of indeterminate gender who everybody falls in love with, for unexplained and unknown reasons. Not to be confused with Freddy's friend Gregory Gosharootie, the "World's Dullest Mortal", who is so boring that nobody notices him and he keeps accidentally comitting crime. There is also an old guy named Uncle Marvel who pretends he has superpowers, which they all find funny so they just roll with it. Freddy is a disabled orphan who has to sell papers on the street corner to make a living. Mary lives in a middle class suburban home with loving foster parents. It never once seems to occur to Mary's parents to adopt Billy, for Freddy to live with Billy. Everybody is happiest this way.

I do think this is partly why a good Shazam comic has to be aimed at the 6-12yo demographics. They have to be for small children, because Billy is living a complete and utter power fantasy that only a ten year old would think is a good idea. He's a kid, and he doesn't have drag parents or a lame family, but he can turn into Superman, and he can also do magic, and everybody loves him and thinks he's the nicest person, and his supervillains are Dr. Doofenschmirtz and a worm, and his supporting cast is like okay my sister if she HAS to be involved, but also my best friend who is a paperboy! but cool because he's disabled, and….

Look, you could engage with that seriously. You could go "holy shit this is a homeless child". That's fine. That's what they do these days, and that's what they did in the movies. Nothing wrong with that. Take the story more seriously.

But also they don't give a worm the electric chair in those stories, so.

To actually give some commentary on these comics: these comics really love people. I've never seen comics that were so entrenched in their community. The kids just know everybody they meet on the street. Freddy delivers paper up and down every block, so an average story for him is just talking to a butcher or baker or old man or grumpy housewife and helping them out with some batshit problem. Mary's a sweet girl who's always starting clubs with her friends and taking on neighborhood projects. Many Billy stories involve one of his many friends falling into some trouble and Captain Marvel helping them out - or just exploring some fun with Billy hanging out with Sunny Smiles, who is a person of indeterminate gender who for some reason has magic love brainwashing powers -

This isn't the biggest #Shazam take, but I think a good Shazam story stays grounded in that. These are poor street kids who love Fawcett City so damn much. They love fighting their supervillains, but they love helping out the random guy off the street with their problems even more. Way more so than Spider-Man or a lot of other guys, I think of the Marvel family as the friendly neighborhood superheroes. They're both larger than life and street level. They're Superman level powers but they just use the powers for wrapping up their hijinks. Isn't that nice? Aren't you tired of going apeshit? Don't you just want to be nice?

[pen136]

its been so long (like less than a week) since ive burger posted so here we go: headcanon list guys!

also cw - mentions of mental illness/trauma

bob : very much based off my own dad (one of my favorite people alive), bisexual, autistic depressed and clinically anxious, lies on the floor a lot because of back problems, works through injury and illness (the family's doing a bit better on money now but he's lived his whole life in fear of being unable to support the people he loves and their wellbeing), saw that tina aligned herself with femininity from when she was a really little kid (supports her endlessly, was the first one to buy her a dress), gives the kids his old records/cassettes/cds, quality time is his love language, loves crappy old movies from the 80s (like weird science), winona ryder was his childhood crush, tina shows him phoebe bridgers and he loves her (cries to kyoto bc dad issues), so desperately trying to not become his father, dreams about his mom a lot, has been getting gray hairs since he was 17 (purely from stress), bad episodes of insomnia, claims he doesn't mind being away from linda (if shes not in the same room as him for more than an hour he needs to cry, she is his absolute best friend), really adores teddy like a stupid younger brother, fucking hates mr frond with a burning passion

linda : truthfully i dont have much for her. i dont need to really give her any headcannons i worship her the way she is, but shes def adhd and autistic

gene : genderfluid (he/she), audhd, live laugh love fiona apple, bad sensory issues, cant wear pants unless theyre baggy, sisters buys him reusable earplugs, got linda's family's loudness, talks shit WAY too loud, jazz bitch, can surprisingly do a cartwheel really well, walks around belting 90s music (everyone hates it except lin), loves makeup and looks amazing in it (tina is secretly really pissed that he looks better in it than her), can fall asleep anywhere, will eat anything once, has bit alex/courtney as a form of affection (tina and louise too but theyre used to it), will sit on tinas floor and vent to her at any given moment, remembers nothing except for the most obscure random things about the people he loves, incorporates music in all of his school reports, loves salty food especially

louise : unlabeled (she/they), autistic, loves japanese candies and snacks, phone screen chronically cracked, permanently cold hands, tina does her hair, makes own jewelry and pins, loves broaches and mints but always forgets which is in which tin, has drank paint water by accident, very artistic, loves to draw in comic book/manga styles, secretly really enjoys being around jimmy jr (finds him really funny), loves a good ironic trucker hat, if you can read this the bitch fell off, needs glasses (ends up getting funky ones like lindas), short fingers that are always painted light green and pink, lots of scars on hands from skateboarding, learns bass later in life, starts saying "oh my god" like bob

tina : transfemme (she/her), autistic/has clinical anxiety and depression, speaks with the most subtle new york accent (residual from linda), multilingual (fluent in spanish, conversational in french, knows some korean, can say random words in various others), loves bad campy horror movies, incredibly soft but always sweaty hands, layers her hair (learns to cut her own), because of everything thats happened she is extremely paranoid about family dying, sensitive skin, has a bunch of digestive issues (throws up a lot), sometimes has violent tendencies (feels guilty for them always), sleep walking/chronic nightmares (wakes up screaming a lot), watches drag race with bob, #1 phoebe bridgers/lucy dacus/julien baker fan, adores sleater-kinney, loves riot grrl music, bites nails, extremely clumsy (scars), loves big jackets over dresses, takes naps because she cant sleep at night, truly is her fathers daughter

i do not think anyone will read this whole thing, but i hope you like it if you did

[mcfujo]

a lot of words incoming + spoilers for tf:one pre-words; i started with the bay movies so i didnt grow up with this franchise, i was already an elder teen by the time it came out. i came back recently due to the tfone film and i have some thoughts now that ive consumed a shitton of tf material. first of all tfone is a great film and a great introduction to the franchise. i love the designs, i love how it kinda simplifies the overall story without dumbing it down (theres a LOT of transformers lore), though it too struggles with what i think is transformers major flaw.

the politics. the movies, the cartoons, and the comics all kinda go back and forth between "the conflict is everyone's fault" and "it's actually the decepticon's fault" in the end. when i was reading the IDW comics i realised how blatantly apparent it was that they were written so close to 9/11 because the american propaganda in the arcs before MTME was denser than the bottom of the ocean floor.

the franchise is old so, yeah, the cons were supposed to be generic bad guys back in the day and most of them are still, by their own choices mostly, "bad people". but i for one think a story is more interesting when "good people" and "bad people" are not so black n white, at least thats how i prefer it. for me the problem seems to be mostly that hasbro can't decide if they want this franchise to always be a toy commercial for kids, or if they want to pander to their now aging fanbase that has held onto the franchise since the 80s. because of this the current state of its media is balancing a very fine line between being good enough for either group. it also doesnt help that hasbro is one of the worst companies ever and are scared of doing anything risky. if you want something to be memorable, it needs to be worth remembering. you cant stick to safety at all turns, itll get predictable and boring. with tfone i really enjoyed seeing the personal depth to megatron's development, that shit was good. but at the end of the film the "one bad guy" has been taken care of (sentinel) and now only good autobots are left while all the evil decepticons who like violence and only value strength are the baddies.

placing the systematic problem of class difference on ONE individual is... bad. it lacks depth. it lacks reflection. the comics have tried to make it more apparent that it was a systematic problem with years of influence from many different individuals that kept up that system that was the problem, and not just one boogeyman.

it feels very american, the idea that oh, its just one person who is to blame for everything and if we get rid of that person everything will be fine - except for those crazy loonies who are angry and like violence, we'll need to get rid of those too eventually! and making it all just a personal conflict between two people with different emotions regarding a situation being the reason for a whole population dividing into two.

i havent finished IDW's run yet so i cant say what theyll do in the future, but ive already seen them do the jk rowling thing of "decepticons are all inherently bad and will always make bad choices except for this 1 guy who is gonna be on the good guys' side" and i want to rip my hair out because its just, so unrealistic. its so short sighted. narrow minded. whatever you wanna call it.

i remember this being the reason i stopped being interested in the franchise because it has the potential for a really cool, in depth story with a very deep look into why people make the choices that they make, but ultimately an american company is never going to be brave enough to tackle something that isnt going to propagate the political agenda of the united states.

same shit happened with arcane and it makes me sad, that art and complexity must be sacrificed because of capital.

anyway, i dont know what i wanted with this, i think i just wanted my thoughts out. idk if this resonates with anyone else but if it does, let me know. and if you hate what i wrote, well, aight.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

batman recommendation anon!

i've been looking to get back into comics lately so i'd be up for a bigger series

i prefer a more serious tone but typically try to avoid gore simply for the sake of it

i don't know if this is canon to the comic books, but i like the kind of partnership between catwoman and batman in some of the movies

oh, ideal! this is such helpful information, thank you!

bearing in mind that these are some personal preferences, my taste is what it is, more recs are welcome but nobody give me shit about my shit:

Batman: Year One (Frank Miller and Mazzuchelli, 1987) - this is a short, 4-part series that locked down the new official origin story for Batman after Crisis on Infinite Earths. it's pretty serious but not gory, following Bruce and Gordon as joint protagonists as they each struggle through their first year protecting Gotham. Selina is also present whooping Bruce's ass before they ever become Batman or Catwoman, and if you want to see more of her side of things there's a Catwoman mini-series (Mindy Newell, J.J. Birch, and Michael Blair, 1989) that takes place alongside the events of Year One (warning for that one dealing much more heavily with the violence Selina was facing as a sex worker!). also I don't know how important the art is to you but I LOVE the art in year one, it's so moody and evocative and really makes the most of an extremely minimalist palette.

for serious, self-contained stories you really can't do better that Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's triptych of the Long Halloween (1996), Dark Victory (2000), and When in Rome (2004). the Long Halloween is iconic for a reason, taking you on a tour through Gotham's rogues gallery early in Batman's career when costumed villains are just starting to overtake the old mob families with a newer, much more unpredictable breed of crime. the story is fairly simple - an unknown killer strikes each month on a holiday, and Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Dent are on the case - but sweeping and atmospheric. the sequel, Dark Victory, sees young Dick Grayson added to the Bat-family, and When in Rome follows Selina on a solo adventure to Italy seeking out information about Carmine Falcone. you only need a broad strokes understanding of Batman lore to follow along with the plots here, and Bruce and Selina's relationship in here is interesting and tense because they only know each other as Bruce and Selina, while Batman and Catwoman are still unsure how much they're on the same side. also I just really like how Loeb writes Selina, especially when she gets to be the star in When in Rome.

for a story that is part of the larger Batman narrative at the time but can be read as a standalone, I like Heat (Doug Moench and Russ Heath, 1993)! It's a 4-part story from Legends of the Dark Knight, a series whose rotating cast of writers and artists could introduce a brand new Batman story every few months. Heat is a pretty grounded crime story, featuring Batman, Catwoman, and Gordon all chasing a cat-themed serial killer while Gotham is in the grip of a crushing heatwave. aside from the costumed vigilantism of it all it's a relatively grounded story, with Catwoman dealing with the fallout of being a suspected murderer and Gordon having to quell racial tensions that arise in the city when the serial killer is suspected of being a Black man.

skipping WAY ahead in time, can I tell you about Their Dark Designs (James Tynion IV, Tony S. Daniel, Danny Miki, and Tomeu Morey, 2020). TDD runs from Batman vol. 3 issue #86-94 and is SUCH a fun story, centering on old plans that the Batman's fab four - Catwoman, Joker, Riddler, and Penguin - made in the early days of their crime careers coming back to bite everyone in the ass and rock Gotham to its fucking core. Bruce and Selina's relationship is very central, as she's officially made the leap to be more hero than anti-hero as she works alongside him, and it's very grounded in well-known characters while still serving up just a heap of premium bananagrams comic book bullshit. the plot is convoluted but a lot of fun, I had a great time with it and I infamously don't care for modern comics. this is important: you will be tempted to read what comes immediately after this. it's Joker War, and it's very bad. do not say you weren't warned.

lastly, if you want to get Catwoman-heavy I cannot recommend Catwoman: Lonely City (Cliff Chiang, 2022) nearly enough. although it takes place in a Gotham 20 years after Batman's death, Selina is still heavily influenced by her relationship with him and spends much of the series trying to puzzle out the legacy he left behind. it follows her fresh out of prison in a Gotham where Mayor Harvey Dent has outlawed costumed vigilantes and criminals alike, and you get to see Selina fighting to rebuild her life when the entire world around her has changed. you get middle-aged versions of classic characters - Selina, Dent, Barbara Gordon, Killer Croc, the Riddler - and some sparkling original characters - Edie Nygma, my beloved!!! - taking on a world after Batman, once again requiring very minimal knowledge on behalf of the reader to just sit back and enjoy the world. also, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Cliff Chiang's art if fucking gorgeous.

[lordsalissoon]

Two questions (aside from my past one) first is are all nokori takena dn changed when there kids? I remember silver saying in a q and a that they havent aged much

And second (could be me being dumb) who is dorje? Ive seen evelyne mention him a couple of times but cant find someone with that name

Not all nokori were kids. Silver was 35 years old when she was kidnapped. The majority of the adults of the comic where taken when they were adults already. I know I didn't said the ages of all characters, but the experiments started six years ago. If you feel a character is mentally older than 24 now, they were probably mentally older than 18 when they were kidnapped.

I'm saying mentally because of the fact that Stephan is 200 years old and is still mentally a child because he was a dragon. And Evelyn is 50+, but she's mentally 14, because she was an elf before.

I'll show later in the comic what the nokori are doing to keep track of how mentally old each nokori is. They also are doing this melhor to determine how they age. They confirmed their body age slower than human body, hence Silver saying they haven't changed much, but how much slower is still something they're trying to confirm.

And oh no!!! Dorje was a character made by someone else I had to take out of the comic for personal reasons. I thought I had edited every dialogue mentioning him! I'll have to read the whole comic again so I can edit his name out for real this time!

[lazaruspiss]

the batman page is all snippets from i think old forums (1992-2007), which is interesting! but not really a source. i remember seeing a comic page once possibly years ago where bruce says that hes a catholic turned atheist but cant for the life of me figure out where that would be from.

screenshotting any comic names i find bc uh. sunken cost fallacy or something. nothing to do with any lapsed catholic angst. totally.

also when was batman scottish. like this is an absolute first im hearing about this.

and this is an interesting bit. unrelated to religion but interesting nonetheless.

this one i just think is funny. also i know jewish bruce is popular bc smth smth his mom may have technically been jewish. only provable via maternal cousin but like. right. you could technically argue for it technically being accidentally canon. i have 2 things to say on it (but i will preface with im not jewish myself, so like. dont take me as a source or anything)

1) the amount of random moments and quotes that allude to christianity and/or atheism are both more present and go back further

2) catholicism (and the rest of america) is patriarchal. catholic dad means those kids are raised at least some kind of christian in most cases

(and a bonus third point. really? i get wanting rep, but bruce? why would you want him of all people.)

(wait. wait bonus forth point. what is with the people bringing up kate being jewish, not so that they can talk about her being jewish, but instead so that they can talk about bruce potentially being jewish. like whats up with that.)

oh and as far as i know both catholics and jews do circumcision. so the one thing we do know is that hes cut lol

holy shit is it fun reading a bunch of comic book nerds arguing with each other about religion. ive just barely hit the halfway point.

i feel like ive seen similar conversations happen throughout bruces comic appearances. cant really die on any hill until i actually read the books though.

"the majority of people from [place] are [religion]" is NOT a source forum user "commish"

the sites notes correcting the forum users are so funny

not posting screenshots but oh my god the debate about whether theres more gay rep than christian rep in DC in 2006.

oh and theres the explicit antisemitism. im almost surprised it took until 2006 for people to start talking about how they hate minorities.

they added a note just to bring up this guys icon i know it

wait no that sounds adorable. wheres my angel bat daughter helping the homeless and pounding down on bad guys. auhg. i finally find a batgirl story i might be interested in and its just a scrapped concept. sob. "a little bit old testament" why is that cute...... everyone shut up im caring about cass for the first time rn

[magicwithineleteo]

thinking about how much better the gaang deserved.

like it truly breaks my heart thinking about it. they were left to fight, end, and pick up the pieces of a war that they weren't responsible for. it was never their faults. they fought, harder than many. they literally ended the destruction the fire nation had started. and they were left to clean up the mess of the world.

the gaang's ages ranging from 12-16 makes me so sad. like theyre just kids, and they had the entire world on their shoulders. even the other characters, who are controversial, they are not to be blamed. none of this was their fault. it was all of the adults. (i primarily think of azula in that.)

that's why i feel like any sort of jabs at characters, specifically the younger ones are invalid, because they're just kids.

it's why the hate against katara is so infuriating. she's just a 14 year old girl, who grew up and matured faster than she should have, essentially acting as the mother over her friends, and even her older brother. because she saw her mom in her last moments, then realized her mom died for her. that's the way she coped. she fulfilled the role her mom left behind. she doesn't bring up her mom every 3 seconds, and if she did, it would be completely valid.

all of the different kids' traumas and the way it manifests in their personality is so heartbreaking man

and i hate thinking about the gaang after the war, specifically zuko, because i just feel so bad for them.

they are all left to faciliate peace for the entire world. to pick up the pieces. they don't get a chance to breathe, because there is so much that needs their attention, and no one else who has the criteria or maturity to handle it.

they're all so young. but they're the only ones who have the empathy and understanding to properly rebuild.

i have not read any comics but i've read a bunch of fanfics and the common hcs i see regarding post war is the following:

zuko is STRESSSSSEDDDDDDDDDDDDD this boy cannot BREATHE (i saw in a comic he goes to see ozai for guidance which can u imagine? zuko would've have to been strugging so much to go to OZAI for help) also it makes sense bc he literally had no experience nor training to be the firelord. he wasn't the original heir (rip lu ten) so he never got the training , then he was banished and presumably, azula got firelord training. this boy has nothing to go off of

also, he's sooo targeted, ozai supporters coming for his head every 2 seconds. assassination attempts are everywhere oh my god

ozai shooters in his council, and so he gets rid of them. but he can't remove certain ppl on his council, like ppl w power and influence, but these ppl don't believe it was right to end the war bc they are fully enthralled in fire nation propaganda

which leads to zuko and whomever else from the gaang is in the council to constantly be undermined and spoken down to, simply bc of their age and lack of experience in political setting

but these kids literally did more for the people and were more involved in the war than all of these mean ppl ever were

suki (and ty lee and the rest of the kyoshi warriors) are zuko's bodyguards which i think is cute but must be a very difficult job considering zuko's got a lot of haters on him

w katara and sokka, i either see one of them rebuilding the southern water tribe or one of them is on the zuko council thing , in which they are spoken down to, as a water tribe peasant

ive also seen katara be a healer for ppl in the fire nation

ive also seen suki and sokka go back to kyoshi island as well as go to southern water tribe

aang literally has to be everywhere bc hes the avatar and needs to be present for all peace talks

toph either stays w zuko in the fire nation bc theyre bffs and she can also be very good security or she tries to make amends w her parents and goes back to the earth kingdom

that's the general consensus i would say

but it just makes me so sad bc theyre so young and they have to bear the weight of the world on their shoulders. my babies.

i like to hc that zuko specifically sometimes deep down misses when he was w the gaang during the war. he feels really guilty for that, but he misses them a lot. he misses having a geniuine family.

speaking of zuko's family, azula is a whole other story and frankly it breaks my heart too. maybe i'll make a post ab it but i just. it's devastating.

oh yeah and uncle iroh ruled until zuko healed and was ready and now is in ba sing se w his jasmine dragon tea shop. which i love but i also have mixed feelings about.

in conclusion, they deserved to just be kids. they deserved to just breathe. not be responsible for the world.

some songs that make me sad as i think about all this:

once in a lifetime by one direction (it's literally so them, like zuko reminicising ab when he was w them everyday)

are you with me by nilu but specifically this version.

it just makes me want to throw up with so many various emotions i love them so much and i feel so bad for them

thank u for listening

[plumbus-central]

How did you develop your art style? Like how did you find your own voice in your art?

Oh what an interesting question, I never expected to asked abt my art!

Honestly i took a while to think abt this question, and I think a lot i've done about developing my own art style came from seeing things i liked in other people's art and copying it lol.

For instance when i was in the [REDACTED] fandom when i was a young teen there was a very popular artist who used gradients in their work to add depth and color and i liked it a lot, so i started doing it in my work too.

A few years ago i started following an artist and really liked their work bc they had such a strong grasp of color, shape, gesture, and line. And they used these strong, thick lines to fill out the form of their work, but i noticed that the lines often didn't touch and that it didn't matter bc you could still understand and make out the form of whatever they drew just fine. So i decided to stop worrying abt MY lines touching either lol. which is how i ended up with those sort of ghost constructions of figures and shapes i do sometimes.

I can vividly remember seeing a comic on tumblr ONCE where i saw a character have just a line for a mouth that went off their face and i just stared at that panel for a while trying to figure out why i liked it so much lol until i realized it was their expression that i liked. So i kept that in my head, and a few years later i realized that i had started using it in my art too.

Another aspect that has influenced my art is exploring other media and being challenged by my own interests. Like when i was a teen i was very into steven universe and my own ocs. which was fine but didn't challenge me too much artistically. Then in college i got into bojack horseman, and specifically my favorite character was herb kazzaz, a short, fat man with a beard. Completely out of my comfort zone to draw, but i wanted to draw him so bad! so i figured it out!

(some of u might actually be familiar w/ my boajck horseman sideblog @hambone-fakenameington , it hasnt been updated in a while cause im on that rick and morty shit right now lol). But now i have to skills to draw these things by way of my interests in the character.

My fixation with rick and morty was actually so strong at first that i was drawing like crazy, which eventually taught me to focus on and hone my skills with gesture, thumbnailing, and composition bc i wanted to draw so many ideas at once that i couldn't spend too long on each one. (and it also gave me lots of practice). Thanks to my interest in R&M ive also developed skills in drawing very skinny bodies lol, but also on pushing expressions and gestures to extremes that i never used to!

Hell even just trying to figure out how to take features and details from characters in something and translate them into YOUR style can be a big learning and growing experience. (u can see in my old art it took me a while to get rick to look right)

So i guess the overall is that seeking out and consuming media is always important bc you can take a lot of inspiration from something without even realizing it. (honestly if ur feeling stagnant in ur art watching/reading something new can be a good way to jog ur brain). And taking a good look at the art you enjoy and trying to figure out WHY u like it, and what elements are stick out to u. Then seeing if you can bring those elements into ur own art and see if it's successful to u to explore it.

as far as voice goes um.... i guess what's become important to me is that u gotta know when to cut corners lol. like a hand doesn't ALWAYS need to be perfectly formed, like it can be a squiggle and it might even look better for it. sometimes loose and sloppy looks good for what ur doing and sometimes heavily defined and carefully lined work is necessary but i gotta remember that the clean art is built on the back of the sloppy studies. and stray lines, warped perspective, and unaligned facial elements can give a lot of character to a work that might otherwise seem bland and stiff.

thank you so much for the question it was fun to take a look at my work and reflect on how i got to what i have as a style now! R&M has honestly done A TON for my art style and drawing abilities that i didn't realize till now.

Also worth mentioning bc i forget how much of my life i share w/ you guys but i also have BFA in Illustration with a focus in Animation Arts and Sequential Art.

[lemon-sugarcoats-nothing]

14. 🍋 and 🐝

Question 14 of the artist asks (Im sorry ive been sitting on this one for so long aaa): How has your art changed over the years?

My art hasnt changed much honestly! i've gotten better at watercolor painting, and acrylic paints, and i'm getting the hang of digital too! - 🍋

🐝 - ...Oh boy, another long history lesson today, Strap in. To keep things a little easier on me to keep condensed, I'm only going over my traditional pony art and NOT digital art. (Im not sure how much of the digital art i could even recover anymore)

TL;DR I've gone through many phases in my art, both pony and otherwise. I started out drawing ponies in 3rd of 4th grade in a very cartoon style, then trying to copy the show style, then with anime eyes to varying success, and finally to where i am now.

Alright so long ass history lesson:

This is my earliest attempt at making my own ponysona; i was really into applejack and wanted my pony to be in the apple family! This oc didnt really go anywhere though, and i dont think i drew her again. This was also early on, before i started following tutorials for drawing ponies.

A bit later, after drawing ponies while following tutorials for a while, I started trying to draw them in my own style. At the time, I was mostly trying to draw in an anime style with my humanoid drawings, and so the big eyes transferred over. During this time, most of my drawings were in blue ballpoint pen on notebook paper or printer paper. I was drawing a lot during my (online) classes and I would fill out pages and pages like this.

While i wasnt using tutorials as often anymore, i still watched a LOT of pony drawing content. At some point, i discovered some videos that inspired me to expand how i drew even more, and i started adding more graphite and colored pencil into final drawings.

Videos in question:

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSmSN3VtdD0

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTyMx2H-nuI

A bit later, i also got into creepypasta drawings for mlp and some of the songs (specifically for rainbow factory), but i didnt ever read or listen to MLP creepypastas on their own until much much later. I did however, write my own two page creepypasta comic for pinkie that i never kept up. I think i intended to but after 24 hrs i forgot and dropped the project. Ironically, I tried to redraw it a few years ago as a humanoid comic, stretching it out into i think...10 pages? until my hand got tired and I never actually got to the creepypasta part of the original first comic page. (If you'd like to see, let me know! I still have them, but there would be too many images to post in this already really long post)

Oddly enough, i noticed that around this time i was also mostly drawing either creepypasta, psychotic ponies, or drawing ponies sad and crying. Just a weird little note.

I had a short phase where i drew ponies with more boxy muzzles too, but most notable here is that i finally remade a ponysona! I would keep this sona until I would stop engaging with MLP content and go through my "Ew, mlp weird" phase.

This was also from my time of boxy nosed ponies, and I think the first image was inspired off of a drawing that came up on a google search but i dont remember. I redrew it a while later, after practicing with colored pencils more. The redraw happened sometime during my "Ew mlp" phase.

And now we enter more current stuff. all these drawings are still old but are more in line with what i draw now, and were while i was starting to come out of my "Ew mlp" phase.

First image, you can see this is one of the first times I drew Lucious as a pony. At the time, in the main rp he's from he was still just straight up a demon. And in the second image is a sketch dump of the mlp characters, where i was jut getting more comfortable drawing them again. Still held onto those boxy noses though.

No style change here, but there was a time in my humanoid art where i would draw my and Mocha's characters as royalty. Then i went and drew them as ponies in those outfits! the first image you can see Cinna as an alicorn, and an early version of Lemon was just a unicorn. In the second image, was one of my first attempts to draw Jaysir! I guess its not too far off.

Last is just this pencil drawing of Lemon when their name was still Lemon Sugar-Moon! After this point, i think i took another break from drawing ponies until we come to current day where my style of drawing ponies has less boxy noses, and more pointy, less realistic and just a bit more fun for me personally :D

Who knows where my pony art will go next! Thank you for your ask and I'm sorry again that this has taken so long for me to finally just sit down and type out lol

[blessedshortcake]

FISH ILY i had to start a new chain bc this was So long it made my phone lag and i couldnt type for the life of me qwq <3 people go check fish's post @amphibifish

Ty for the tag also cndnf

1. Three (3) ships: Soap x Ghost (COD) , Heavy x Medic (TF2) , Vampire x Rockstar (CRK/CROB)

2. First ship: Probably Robin x Starfire from Teen Titans. That or Dick and Babs from the old comics but it was definitely a Grayson x Redhead (Wally includee) ship just cabt remember which 💀

3. Last song: Red Wine by Follies & Vices

4. Last movie: I have movies/videos/serieses in the bg for noise a lot so technically Venom but the last move I watched because I was interested has to be Nimona as well

5. Currently reading: Howls Moving Castle! I havent touched it in weeks but it counts

6. Currently watching: Im about to finish season 5 of Adventure Time! I will start Fiona and Cake after because I wanna be caught up with lore first >:D

7. Currently consuming: like.. eating? Im not eating anything but i last had some fried camambert cheese with blueberry jam and some salted fries. Been craving cheese all damn week + ive been too sick to stomach anything heavier so its been fries for the most part

8. Currently craving: sleep. Its 6am someone send some melotonin. Or like a good back rub actually i have this weird stuck feeling in my spine and i cant for the LIFE of me stretch to make it go away and its making me feral

9. People to Tag oh No my weakness /lhj

@cursedhue @bittersweetstargazer @zaniwee @slooshee @lemon-slushie @marblessoda @yuuzeart @loneliestmuffin + my dearest mutuals I cannot for the life of me find. Yes @ you all (/nf this is entirely optional)

9 people you would like to get to know better

[abcdosaka]

media time

im soo excited for the jjk anime. the manga is really good rn too the fight is so interesting. when gojo dies >>

ive also been reading hiroyuki nishimori manga lately. i started w i'm doshiro bc i was high and i read the description and it sounded funny and i read like 25 chapters and it was actually a knee slapper especially high it was really really good. it started getting a little serious after that so reading it sober i was like ._. but it was still fun. i might reread the beginning bc i really forgot

then i read all of cheeky angel and now i'm watching the anime. im kinda obsessed with it like idk its really really good and same thing happened where it was funny but then shit got really serious toward the end but i think it worked better here. its interesting bc its kinda dated (obviously since its 20 years old) but also very progressive in its view of gender roles.

like since the audience thinks that megumi is a boy and has the mind of a boy she is right to think the way she thinks/behaves, i.e. her want to be cool and reliable and strong is taken seriously but even given the spoiler that doesn't change she's still a serious character which i really appreciate. obviously bro did not have trans people in mind when creating this manga but it’s interesting to see the idea of changing genders taken seriously when normally genderbending is like a fetish thing in manga. and literally every character is bisexual as a result thats crazy. even keiko. i love keiko she's so much funnier in the anime idk who they got doing her voice but she's a star. anyway point is its nice that in the end, even though her identity is important to her, equal importance is given to her as a person

oh also abt the manga. the viz translation is really... like idk who was translating it but anime fans in the early 00s were not real bro nobody talked like that not even in american comics or whatever they were trying to emulate to make them appeal to western audiences. they were doing way too much esp in the early chapters. it got better later on but overall the anime delivers the comedy way better

ig the one thing thats like ermm is that the gender roles are sooo enforced in the society depicted in the manga like ik its how it is/was but damn. my parents go easy on me like i haven't done anything feminine (that was forced on me and wasn't out of my own desire to act feminine) basically ever. and i was never really all that feminine anyway. maybe its bc i was pretty passive too so they let it slide

the early art style was so pretty im kinda sad it changed but ig its nice how stylized it became toward the end. also the 2nd ending is SO good

anyway i will be reading kyo kara ore wa after. reading these made me realize i love delinquent manga. oh i might finally continue reading slam dunk too i'm in the mood for some old shit

what else. i watched paul high. that shit was ASS truly terrible idk wtf letterboxd reviewers are on there was maybe 2 funny lines and im surprised bc some really good comic actors are in that like they couldn't have spoke up and been like hey maybe we should stop embarassing ourselves. points for the lesbian tho i forget her name but its sue sylvester. but anyway i was high and that movie had me completely stone faced like WHAT

last thing. im looking forward to hwasa cb. she released some of her greatest hits when she had auburn hair so i am ready for her to serve

[drawnaghht]

Gotta post about this b4 I forget about it but basically;

went on TVtropes yesterday, found the SRTUC page again, started adding to trivia and though, hmm, I've been getting "earlier anthro action cartoon" vibes from this show for a while now.... wonder why that is?

and guys, adding some of the art peeps there no the TVtropes trivia, I noticed that supervising producer ben jones actually worked on SWAT KATS as a character designer for 3 eps! what a connection to make!

my brain at that moment:

edit 1(27.06.2023) - ok, turns out I just mixed the actual show up with this show.... but it's sorta nice for me bc I like reminiscing about Swat Kats haha xD

on with the old post!!

actually, swat kats is a cartoon I was obsessed with for a while as a kid after we got access to cartoon network and they started airing it here. i think it'd seen a dubbed version of it before but it was exciting to see the english original, . it was fun and rompy as I remember, but also I loved the music and action elements after bikermice ended and I missed it so much, seeing something with similar musical cues felt like a consolation almost, like "oh there's more cartoons like this". now admittedly, i don't really remember that much abt swat kats anymore. it aired alongside other H-B cartoons and there was a lot to watch and pay attention to, so i kinda haven't retained more of it than memories of memories of loving the intro, memorizing the music and feeling cool while watching it. I remember the shift to more "serious" storytelilng (if I remember it right at all lol) and both feeling a bit critical/apprehensive at Callie (bc I'd thought, "why is she the only one who gets a more human-like appearance) and loving her design/fawning over her ("oh no, girl hot") but also it was just interesting to see a girl character given a mayoral role which made her seem more important than I'd seen from other action cartoons directed at boys so far.

like, i need to rewatch this series now that I've seen the cast/crew list, and just see also what it was about this show that I loved so much it left some kind of artistic impression on me.

lol idk what other connection with SRTUC it has, but when I'd read that Ben Jones was on it, I suddenly also thought, "well, not it makes sense why the antrho designs in samurai rabbit actually makes sense" There are so many shows, comics and so on before which have made different kinds of attempts at anthro/furry designs, and they all might make sense within the context of their show/media piece, but what I liked about Samurai Rabbit was how it didn't "humanize" the animal designs *too much*. Resulting in awkward designs where women look much more human than their male counterparts. which might not bother a kid much, but will bother an artist like me concerned with consistency lol. like in the og usagi yojimbo it makes sense how the animals look a little more human depending on their role or function in the story/scene, Stan Sakai is very good at making his cartoony style work with these ideas of "basically human, but represented by animals" but also literally animals. And I like that the show takes this same idea and runs with it in it's own way.

All this to say - Experience builds on experience.

so Ben Jones and many other veteran animators/artists/writers in the field working on it, but also the numerous visdev artists, animators and other visual folk with similar vested interest in a UY adaptation, give this show such an unique flair among other furry/anthro shows.

sdfsdf ill continue writing this later, I am soooo exhausted after work today, but, this was cool to think abt yesterday and ive been mullting it over in my head during quiet hours. so cool to have a brain that keeps noticing all these names and all these similar things and then running with it. like the animated things you like are so connected thru their staff knowing each other or having worked on same/similar things before, you wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it all the time.

[my-lunaberg]

OKAYYYYYYYY okay, Im about to watch Tommys The Last Stream vod after I go for another quick walk, after that its just Tubbos stream which is probably just the same thing but from a different pov anyway, then its just the Syndicate End vod and then its just a two minute video of Ranboos end and then Im finally free. I really wish I could do this properly on my blog instead of having to do this in my notes app but I simply cannot wait another day. Im so hopped up on adrenaline rn i dont think I can sleep tonight, especially if I dont finally finish this. Also I have therapy tomorrow when Im writing this and I need to calm tf down before I show up at the therapists office all shaky n shit because of some minecraft roleplay. Its almost 6 pm rn and I shall be free of this nightmare before the clock strikes midnight. Amen.

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Tubbitch boi

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I dont even have anything to say man

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This is so upsetting dude

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I made it through these first 15 minutes with basically no pausing and I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate that bc I just know the second that joker starts talking to Dream I'll be pausing every 5 seconds

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Why the fuck does the prison look like it was under water for like a decade and now theres just barnacles n shit growing on everythinh

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YOU SPIN ME RIGHT ROUND BABEY RIGHT ROUND

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DREAM

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Alright I took two minutes to mentally prepare myself now Im ready for this

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Wait why the fuck was he just hangin out in the main cell if he wasnt even expecting Tommy. weirdo behaviour

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PUNZ IS THERE AS WELL??? WERE THEY HAVING A DATE IN THE TORTURE BOX

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"IM READY TO FUCKING KILL THE BOTH OF YOU"

*long uncomfortable pause*

"Uhm... okay"

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It looks like Tommy is doing a good job stalling them so far so Im very curious how it goes from this to the stuff Ive read spoilers about

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Ouhhhhhh I wonder how hes gonna react to that dig at Spirittttttt.........

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Okay, no like verbal ouward reaction but that is what got him to start attacking Tommy

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I dont think Punz will care that Tommy tried to kill himself bc of Dream, I think hed find that kinda hot

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"The world doesnt fucking revolve around you"??? Bro Punz Boomer arc??? "Those darn zoomers wanting compassion and kindness after almost killing themselves

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"Youre insane to think everything revolves around you" hello?? says the guy who fancies himself a god and also thinks everyone but him and his boytoy deserve to die because theyre "simple-minded"

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OH NO i completely forgot, the nuke is not gonna hit them. this is allpretty much pointless

DAMN YOU JACK MANIFOLD

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Okay listen, Im a huge c!Dream sympathetizer and I know this is gonna end with him being presented in a sympathetic and pitiable light and Im gonna fall for it no matter what because of course I am but like, he has been so comically awful throughout this entire finale I am not expecting this to end in an actually satisfying way at all

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Oh that sly dog got him monologuing

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Girl help I dont remember pre-rp dsmp well enough to tell if Dream is embellishing shit and victimizing himself or not

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OKAY dream smp from Dreams pov lets gooooooo

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??? what.

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Bro Dream is not in his right mind hes so far away from his right mind he might as well be chillin in lmoonberg that guy is so mentally ill (source: I have like atleast 90% of his mentall illnesses for sure)

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what do you MEAN "know more"???

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Maybe Im just a simple minded nihilist but why does that matter man. Why die so you can "know more" when you can live and have like, a party with your buddies

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Honestly, I feel like Dreams motivations are so stupid at this point, like literally just make him someone who worships XD and is favoured by him or whatever and then also have him have this morbid curiosity about the stuff beyond the server and have him try and become god while appeasing his actual god in the hopes that he'll reveal his otherworldly knowledge to him or whatever idk man

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Hows Dream gonna grow old with the people he loves when he doesnt have fucking friends HAH got im

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No offense but why has most of this finale been Tommy philosophically waxing about how you should accept death even though all thats waiting for you on the other side is eternal torment with Dream responding by being like "but why though?? :(" when that has like, literally nothing to do with any of the Dream SMPs themes? Like, okay, theres been a ton of storylines obviously but the two main ones are definitely Tommy vs Dream (its essentially the throughline to all this bullshit) and Wilbur, Lmanberg and every single attempt at a country after that. Because of this I would say that the dsmps themes are Cycles of Violence and Legacy and when they intersect you occasionally get glimmers of this idea of History Repeating Itself.

The Legacy theme is insanely well executed, no notes, Im in love

The Cycles of Violence theme.... less so. I'll probably make a more detailed post about this in the future since I dont wanna waste too much time with this liveblog. But I personally think that if they wanted to pull this theme off while also making Dream sympathetic, he absolutely needed to be affected by the violence he inadvertently caused and the audience needs to actually see it in atleast one (1) scene that would be impossible to twist into something unsympathetic unless you were looking at it in bad faith. Dream being thrown in jail and subsequently physically tortured wouldve been a great opportunity for this kind of stuff like, I remember lurking in the fandom around this time, this was the point where plenty of people were starting to sympathize simply because of how inhumane the prison was. Like, if they werent gonna show him break a little in front of others for their perspectives, the least they couldve done was make like, a few short videos of Dream being alone, doing whatever, you wouldnt even need dialogue and then pepper those throughout the post-prison arcs. You could have one like two or three minute video right after Tommys visit where he maybe tries writing those stupid essays out of boredom before burning them and then some potatoes plop into the pool and you really get a sense for the emptyness and isolation of it. Another good one would be one showing how Quackity tortures him, or maybe one taking place right after one of the torture seassions with him starving and shaking and maybe trying to write a log or something but failing because everything hurts. Him being in the prison after hes escaped and made it his base again, watching it slowly decay and fall apart with him in it. They really dont have to be long, again, two or three minute videos wouldve done a lot of good here imo. And then you could also sprinkle in some monologues because as much as I like to make fun of the snake monologue in my head, it did give some much needed insight into Dreams perspective on all of this while making him a bit more sympathetic.

*

Honestly, Dream is making some pretty reasonable points here (if you completely disregard all the context of the entire dsmp but still) but like dude, you cannot go around calling your teenage nemesis a pest that such obvious villain behaviour dude

*

Im not gonna lie, i thought the very last final scene between Dream and Tommy would take place in a more, idk, intimate? place. Thats not the right word but whatever I cant think of anything else that fits. But like, they absolutely do not have a reason to leave so I guess this is just gonna continue with Tommy and Dream talking in this fucked up room of this fucked up prison while Punz is also right there

*

Okay, I just got to the bit where Tommy says 'Im sorry' to Dream and I know a lot of people were upset by that bc they took it as him apologizing to his abusers for being 'abuse-worthy' if you wanna phrase it like that and thats not what I got from that at all. Like, its technically part of a very earnest emotional statement so his tone was kinda soft and apologetic but it really came across as an 'Im sorry you feel that way' kind of apology to me

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BRUH HE JUST KILLED HIM??? WHAT

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What the fuck is happening now

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Is this hell.

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NO ITS THE EARLY DREAM TEAM STREAMS THIS TRULY IS HELL

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Oh my god please tell me this wont go on for much longer I already watched like 30 hours of these boring ass guys dicking around back in late 2020 i cannot take a second more

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Bro why did they pick the part of the stream thats just Dream trying to figure out his fucking minecraft settings for this this isnt doing anything

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Please bring me back I dont wanna watch this boring shit

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What is ahppening

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Okay they revived him, are they gonna explain why his afterlife hell is just him watching the most boring minecraft streams on planet earth

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"It doesnt matter if I get horrifically traumatized because I'll just live forever :)"

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Okay I think Im starting to understand Dreams motivations here a bit more and they make more sense but its like, if you care so much about eliminating suffering why did you go out of your way to torment Tommy like that in exile. Like, i know its because you did want him to be your friend at some point and maybe you still do but you didnt like how he would never listen to you so you figured itd be better to just break him down mentally but like, I dont think that would be necessary for the long term goal of eliminating all death and suffering at all so, what

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Dude, he was not happy he was adjusting his minecraft settings

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What if he just started sobbed. Hes all smug like "well, im happy now :)" and then the dam jist breaks. wouldnt that be grand

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Hes fucking psychoanalyzing the green bitch this rules

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Im sorry man I was not envisioning this emotional final scene to be accompanied by Punz occasionally saying some bullshit in the background

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"George and Sapnap are still here" uh no, George literally isnt and last time we saw Sapnap he was making a deal with God to sacrifice his own life and afterlife to ensure that Dream would die and stay dead forever

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Oughhhhhhh this is great I can practically smell the insecurity coming off of him rn

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Oh god why is Tommy being like "you just wanted things to be simple [like they were in the past]" giving me a more complete understanding of myself as well this sucks I dont wanna be a c!Dream kinnie anymore >:(

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I dont think Tommy is wrong about what hes saying abt Dream at all here and I think this is a smart angle to focus on for making Dream seem more sympathetic but right now I definitely feel like its missing the crucial element of "yes, Dream just wants friends, friends who will do what he wants with minimal resistance because hes a control freak" yknow? Like, his need for absolute control all the time is one of his most prominent traits and him wanting to gain some understanding and control of death and other things beyond his comprehension actually lines up quite nicely with that, its just kinda getting muddled with Dreams statements about wanting to make everything better. Granted, he probably wouldnt want to admit that his version of "making everything better" is just making everyone listen to him bc hes god basically but still, I think his control freakiness needs to get addressed more explicitly and maybe it will be, weve still hot a few minutes but ehhhhh. I doubt it

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Honestly, ive grown to like Punz quite a bit eventhough he really hasnt done much but like, why the fuck is he here

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I realize that the dialogue in dsmp is always overwhelmingly improv but its just so odd and kinda bad in this conversation. I think its because out of context, the way both Dream and Tommy are phrasing things makes it seem like they were on more equal footing and both suffered equally during their conflict when thats just not the case and Im not a fan

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I think Ill tentatively take back all the stuff I said about how Dream shouldve been a worshipper of XD but i still think its a neat concept so I'll probably do something with that later

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Oh god why did they do that crown, Dreams skin already looks bad and silly enough. Oh well I take solace in knowing that all the fanart of this scene probably slaps

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OH I FORGOR ABOUT THE NUKES

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Punz is still there is he gonna say anything about the nuke thats about to hit

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Lookat these guys, never heard a nuke about to hit before

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Ohhhhhhh I thought that previous 'sorry' was the one Ive seen people upset about, but Im pretty sure its actually this one

Honestly, I still dont see why you would be upset about it outside of the fact that it is an abuse victim apologizing to his abuser but its like, idk man. I dont think a piece of media featuring a scene where that happens within a very specific context is doing abuse apologism, although I guess a lot of people would argue that the fact that Tommy is even reaching out to Dream after everything he did is abuse apologism and. Im not even gonna try to argue with them. I'll just say that I disagree and try to explain my perspective in some amount of detail, this will get pretty personal though, so watch out:

I was recently semi-diagnosed with a personality disorder and i probably have a bunch of other bullshit going on as well and not to armchair diagnose a fictional character but c!Dream definitely has that personality disorder and whatever other shit thats hiding inside my weird brain. His irrational, defensive thought processes, his contradictionary wants, his persistent need for control, his detached nature, his manipulation, the way he uses actual emotional pain as a tool for manipulation while keeping that pain at an arms length, even his weird monotone way of speaking, I relate to all of it. I have seen and related to a lot of mentally ill and neurodivergent and neurodivergent-coded characters and I have never felt as seen as now. He embodies my worst qualities turned up a few notches to make them even worse and then he has a weird god complex on top of all of that and yet, he still ends up being given sympathy, someone tries to understand him and offers him help. And idk, that just means a lot to me so I look at this whole thing a bit differently.

Also, while I get why some people are upset and I get peoples desire to critize this from a Doylist perspective because real people came up with this story in real life and that still has implications, even when the line between fiction and reality is thick enough to be considered a wall, from a Watsonian in-universe perspective its like, Dream is not a bad person for accepting help (or trying to accept help) when its being freely offered to him

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Okay wait but if the nuke still hit the prison and blew everything to shit what the hell did Jack do when he rewired the redstone at the launch thingy. Is the prison that close to the main smp I dont remember

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Oh man this is gonna take a hot second huh

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Okay we're back in Minecraft, Tommys punching a tree

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I hate the fact that Tommy doesnt atleast punch the entire tree down before making a crafting table

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OKAY IT IS DONE

I was gonna finish the whole series today but its almost 11pm and I a sleepy gal so i'll watch Tubbos pov tomorrow and the Syndicate vod and all that and also I'll probably give my thoughts on the ending in more detail after that. Right now I dont think I cant bare to write any more man, I just wrote like three or four decently detailed (for me) analyses about fucking bullshit basically in a row, my head literally hurts

So yeah, goodnight I'll be hopefully posting all of these posts tomorrow and I'll hopefully be peoperly liveblogging everything again