#ranting about the importance of Hal?

[lukecastellanshandholder]

Another thing to add to the list of “things that Rick dropped the ball on” is…

You mean to tell me that throughout the entirety of The Trials of Apollo, the 5 book long series from Apollo’s POV, that Hal wasn’t referenced ONCE?

Ya know, Hal, the son of Apollo who was imprisoned and tortured for at least 90% of his life because he used the powers inherited from his father to save someone? The one who was the main catalyst in the start of Luke’s rebellion that almost destroyed Olympus? The son who sacrificed himself in Apollo’s name just to save other demigods so that they could hopefully live happy, long lives?

Because I’m not just gonna simplify it down to, “well Apollo probably didn’t know what they did to Hal so he wouldn’t think about it that much.” No way, with how Zeus is, AND how he blamed Apollo for what Octavian did? Apollo definitely knew about it, and if he wasn’t someone that helped set up that trap that Hal was in, he at very least got an earful from Zeus about it.

So… why didn’t Rick include even just one scene of Apollo thinking about Hal, especially near the end of the series when he’s beginning to understand that the lives of the demigods matter too. When he learns how it is to truly feel human? It would’ve been a perfect addition and an even further showing on just how much Hal’s ghost haunts the narrative of everything in the Percy Jackson Universe.

In this essay I will…

[pluckyredhead]

So Jon went into space when he was 11 and came back 6 years later, when he was 17, yes?

And then he hung out with the Legion for a bit, but since Bendis is the king of decompression, it doesn't seem like he was there for more than maybe a few days before the book was canceled.

And then in Superman: Son of Kal-El, he decided to enroll in college. Which made me raise an eyebrow, because he's only 17, but fine, some people start a year early. Or maybe he had a birthday somewhere in there. But more importantly, he never finished high school. So...what's the plan there, Jonno?

Anyway, Jon literally doesn't even make it into the administration before he blows his (temporary) secret identity and has to leave. And since that comic, which was published nearly four years ago, Jon has not attempted to go back to college. Or finish high school. Or get a job. All of which are valid choices, but like...what does he do all day?

Also, where does he live? Because Clark and Lois adopted two kids and I doubt their apartment had three or more bedrooms. Did they move? Did Bruce buy them a penthouse? Is Jon sleeping on the couch?

Meanwhile, Jay - who last we saw is a college undergrad, probably a freshman - shows up as the head of communications for Steelworks. Which...no! Not only is he hilariously, insanely unqualified for that job, but from everything we know about radical leftist anarchist Jay Nakamura, the last thing he would ever want to do is become the mouthpiece for a corporation!!!

And then Jon decides he wants to move to San Francisco.* Um...with what money, baby? You don't have a job. Are you going to live on your boyfriend's VP salary? How is he supposed to finish his second semester of college from the other side of the country?

And this week Jay declared that they are "twentysomethings." NO! NO YOU ARE NOT!!! YOU ARE NINETEEN AT MOST!!!!!**

Anyway this is mostly a petty rant, but here's the reason it matters. Even though I would love to know how Jon spends his time and where he sleeps, it's not all that important for me as a reader to know. The issue is that I'm very certain that DC doesn't know. I'm sure if you asked all the writers and editors who have worked on Jon in the past five years, they'd have different answers.

And that matters, because how a character chooses to spend their time when they aren't punching Doomsday tells us something about them. Clark Kent being a reporter tells us what he values. Same with Barry Allen being a forensic scientist, or Hal Jordan being a test pilot. Even Bruce Wayne having a civilian life that is mostly for show.

If Jon is [insert vague age here] and lives [somewhere] and puts his energy into [file not found], he isn't a character. He's a cardboard cutout with the words "Good Representation" written on it. (Which, on that note, I feel like if you asked those same writers and editors to describe Jon, they'd say "He's Superman's son and he's bi" and...that's it.***)

Anyway. If you're wondering why Jon seems so much less vibrant now than he did when he was ten, it's worth noting that when he was ten, we knew where he lived and who his friends were and how he felt about his pets and his parents and his cultural heritage. And now we don't even know how old he is.

*Well, actually, I'm not convinced that Jon does want to move to San Francisco, but he's convinced himself that he does, which is pretty much the only interesting thing they've done with him in half a decade.

**Do not tell me that time passed and they've been dating for years, because a) that has not been demonstrated in the comics in the slightest, and b) Damian is still 14. So unless Jon and Jay went back to that volcano, they've known each other for maybe six months.

***Possibly excepting Nicole Maines, who seems to be doing something interestingly messy (see above re: San Francisco), and Sina Grace, whose issue of Shazam! this week was the first time in five years a writer has acknowledged that Jon probably has trauma. But I'm still mad at him over "twentysomethings."

[incorrect-green-lantern-quotes]

I have so many questions about Tai Pham’s universe (Earth-98)

Like, Green Lantern: Legacy only mentions Tai's grandmother and John Stewart as Green Lanterns from Earth, and shows that Kim Tran was the hero always thwarting Sinestro in the past. On top of that, it seems like GLs are virtually unknown on Earth, judging by how Tai doesn't recognize their symbol despite it being very prominent on the ring he inherits from his grandma.

So the natural assumption is that Kim basically takes the place of Hal Jordan in this universe and thus history plays out differently enough that Earth only has two GLs. And while other superheroes probably do exist on Earth-98, judging by the Superman poster on Tai's wall, it seems like Kim mainly operated in secret or out in space.

(While raising her family and running a store that was a pillar of her community, no less. Hal wishes he had that level of mental stability.)

But then in Green Lantern: Alliance, Irey (Kid Flash) mentions Hal, and Kyle shows up at the end! So does that mean a version of Emerald Twilight happened in this reality too?? And if so, was it still Hal who got possessed by Parallax or did Sinestro go for a different target?

Kim's hair does get those ominous gray streaks...

Tbf she was already a grandmother by this point, and subsequent flashbacks show her hair turning evenly gray over time. So this is more likely just Kim aging naturally, and not a sign of her unknowingly hosting the ancient embodiment of fear.

Parallax speculations aside, GL:A doesn't shy away from incorporating the wider DC universe. Flashbacks show that Kim not only fought alongside Superman and the Flash, but seemed to be just as much a mentor for them as she was for John. And that does make a lot of sense, she was already Green Lantern during the Vietnam War. She's been doing the superhero thing since Clark and Wally were still in diapers.

Which begs the question, was Kim part of the Justice League? Did she help found it, or was that still Hal? Was there even a Justice League in this Earth???

(Tai does suggest he and Irey form a "Junior Justice League," thereby implying that the actual Justice League does exist)

I know I probably sound like a crazy person ranting in front of a conspiracy board. Truth be told, the easy explanation is Tai Pham's story is about him and Kim's legacy, so these questions aren't important enough for Minh Le to waste time answering. And since Earth-98 is an alternate universe, there's no reason to assume that things had to happen a certain way just because they did in main continuity.

But I still have so many questions!! How did Kim get her ring? Did Abin Sur crash in Vietnam instead of America?? Do the Teen Titans exist or do Tai and Irey start that in this universe??? What about the the JSA-

*gets dragged off-stage*

If you've made it this far, thanks for putting up with the brainrot, it will happen again. Anyways, I leave you with this little headcanon: Kim probably named her family's cat after Hal

[anghraine]

I follow few enough people that sometimes the fastest way to get to a mutual's blog, esp if I've forgotten their current username, is to go to "Following" and find them that way. But sometimes it's fun to go allllll the way back to see my very earliest follows in terms of people who are still at least vaguely active here and whom I've never had cause to unfollow:

@venndaai - first person I followed on Tumblr! We already knew each other from livejournal Star Wars fandom and iirc their migration to Tumblr was one of the original reasons I drifted from "ugh Tumblr" to taking it seriously as a fandom platform at all.

@duncatra - not many people in SW fandom have such consistently good takes and I was a Club Jade fan long before I had a Tumblr account.

@lantur - eventually I remembered that I could follow more people after B1 of Legend of Korra wrapped up. I started following other people with similar Tarrlok or Noatak feelings, and complicated reactions to the finale that didn't just slide into "labyrinthine social justice argument that's transparently about why my ship should be canon." Lantur in particular seemed cool even before she wrote my favorite between-seasons LOK fic ("Chiaroscuro").

@nanyoky - I am pretty sure we met via the Henriad's brief day in the Tumblr sun due to The Hollow Crown casting Tom Hiddleston as Henry V. His was the first performance of Henry V that I much liked, even though Hal is one of my favorite Shakespeare characters, so I was mildly active in the fandom and we hit it off.

@steinbecks - we met through LOK also, but on the Noatak side of my bloodbender feelings, and ended up talking a ton over the entire course of the show over the next few years and afterwards, especially about creative writing and editing. She's the only one on this list that I've met in person, I think—we went out to dinner at a Mediterranean restaurant when I happened to be in town (and she enabled my fascination with the bougiest cheeseburger of my life that for some reason was on the menu).

@grumpyfaceurn - we met through livejournal, also through Star Wars! She was the illustrator of my Lucy Skywalker fics from very early (we were partners in the au_bigbang that produced The Imperial Menace), and even when our interests diverged drastically over the years, we've stayed mutuals out of general accord.

@heckofabecca - I think we met through a random Jane Austen rant of mine about women's statistically average ages at first marriage in Austen's lifetime. At least, it's the first time I remember interacting with her! We discovered a wealth of other common interests, including sharing some extremely strong opinions on Tolkien matters important to us (like Elwing discourse), so it's a very long friendship these days. We even know each other's public-facing names.

@sqbr - Sean and I go way back (P&P fandom on livejournal and various forums, though we mostly got to know each other really well on Dreamwidth). By the time I followed them on Tumblr we'd been close friends and fellow endurers of the Austen fandom cisheteronormativity trenches for years.

[derseprinceoftbd]

This is a rant I've been meaning to get off my chest for a while, but the conception on Tumblr, AO3, and sometimes here, that Jake is capable of "teasing" Dirk, and all that implies, irks me deeply.

Let me be clear: Jake English is not self-aware. He, in Canon, never does anything resembling self-awareness, maturity, emotional boldness, or anything else that requires a spinal column. This includes apologizing to anyone, talking about his problems in a way that doesn't end up being selfish, teasing someone, particularly Dirk, or transitioning. (I maintain this especially; he does not have the boldness, maturity, self-awareness, or nerve to have transitioned his gender presentation pre-Act-6.)

He has an *understanding* of pranks, if we allow Paradox Space as evidence, but that's it. He makes *Tavros* look like a fully-roleplayed-into-Class-shift Lord.

You know what the popular Fandom perception of Jake, as a member of a DirkJake relationship, lines up with? *John*, before his main writing trait became a deep, all-consuming depression and repression thing.

Like, John’s original Act 5 and earlier characterization before his underreaction to his dad's death and the spiral that sent him down towards his current "transition would not save her" characterization is what people use for Jake (charming, funny, actually seems to have his shit together enough to maybe be transmasc (man, remember *transmasc John*?), and, most importantly, seemingly capable of dealing with the levels of vaguely sociopathic bullshit that an even-close-to-accurate Dirk would throw at him), but DirkJohn/JohnDirk is less popular, to the point of not having a consensus order, simply because Jake and Dirk are *coded* as liking each other.

I think a lot of people miss that DirkJake is fundamentally the Equius of relationships; Hussie isn't one of those writers that feels pride in finding pathos in the ridiculous, but spiteful glee and humor. He genuinely does not care if he accidentally touches people's hearts in a way that doesn't involve Dave, or *maybe* Vriska. The fact is, DirkJake is a joke relationship, which is spelled out very clearly in their conversation.

You know, their conversation. The one they have together. The time we see someone who is actual Dirk Strider, not Hal pretending, not Aranea co-opting a memory, not a Brain Ghost, talking to Jake. That time.

Yeah, that doesn't exist. DirkJohn has as much conversational basis as DirkJake.

Edit:

LESS! GAME OVER! "I FAILED"! LESS!!!

DirkJake is a joke, a long, subtle one being made on everyone who saw Dirk's affections and immediately wanted him to get together with his disabled(?) ongoing harassment victim. Hussie was having a lot of fun making it seem like Jake found it important in the Masterpiece, I'll tell you that much.

@thelifetimechannel/@geejaysmith/@clonerightsagenda did magnificently wringing blood from this stone, I really do mean that, their Alphas are genuinely written better than Canon for 3/4, but that's all it ever was; every DirkJake writer is the YouTube comments under [this video](https://youtu.be/B7bpv5xyrOY?si=wYTCFDHM5ZzOY8fp) saying Equius could ever have been more than what he was.

TL:DR

1, Jake is pathetic, and we should remember this.

2, Hussie is a jackass who hates us one and all for the sin of caring and everything he has done with this franchise since maybe EOY2 has had an ulterior motive, and we should remember this.

3, Most people who write longfics set in SBURBless AUs, whether normalcy or fantasy, and want to ship Dirk and Jake should really be shipping Dirk with John, since now that history of Dirk-Jake interactions that justifies the ship in-Universe is gone at the Author's leasure, John would have the dynamic they want, and they talk *exactly as much*.

4, If you want to trans Jake, [there's a sensible way to do that](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8619856), but there's no in-character way to make him transmasc.

5, Read DDOTA, I beseecheth of you. Like yeah the Striders are emotional to a kinda weird degree but apart from that they really got everyone down right.

[prismuffin]

Heya, wanted to do an ask, as well as your inbox still says you're taking requests. Didn't know if you wanted to change that.

How do you think the justice league boys, (Superman, Batman, Green lantern ( Hal Jordan), the flash, etc.) and John Constantine would react to an alien Reader?

Better explanation: So the reader has patterns or something that changes based on their mood, so how do you think they would react if they were talking to the Reader and Reader's colours changed to love?

Reminds me of Koro Sensei so I'm gonna use his color palette to dignify the readers colors! Also thanks for letting me know abt my inbox LMFAO- Anyways I think

Batman was just ranting to you about his recent expedition with Hal, enjoying how your face would change colors based on your reactions to certain parts of the story. A deep blue with white outlines when you were shocked, green when you were happy and lilac when relieved. It was a simple and straightforward way of knowing how you felt and he liked about you. He had all your colors and their meanings memorized not only in his mind but in his database too. So it was quite the shock when you'd started to turn a light pink, the areas of your cheeks being a bit darker. You looked lovesick with a lopsided smile on your face and he stopped talking as it all really hit him. At the sudden silence your face went gray and neutral signifying your confusion. He chuckled and decided not to tell you the real reason why he stopped. But now that he's aware of your little crush he may act on his own.

Superman would also probably have most of your colors memorized though he still doesn't know what all of them mean. So when you turn a light shade of pink while you both were talking he was confused because it wasn't a color he could relate to anything. When he asked your pink color turned into a salmon color as you got embarrassed, that one he knew. He had to ask Batman what you turning pink meant in the end because he wanted to know just in case it happens again. When he figures out the emotion behind it he's very flattered and likes to see how easily he can make you turn pink.

Hal would be similar to Superman in the sense that he would only know what some of your colors meant. He's never asked he's just picked up on a few from just being around you. He likes to have knowledge on things though, so whenever a color comes up that he doesn't know he wouldn't mind asking you about it. You usually have no problem explaining to him what you're feeling but right now when he caught you turning bright pink when talking to him you seemed to shut down. Your pink turned salmon which luckily he knew so he asked why you were embarrassed which only deepened your color. He wasn't able to get an explanation out of you that day but after observing your behavior (and color) around him while comparing it to others he was able to easily catch on.

Barry would make an effort to know all of your colors. He struggles! But he's trying and that's the important thing. When having a conversation with you he usually tries to take it slow so that he can fully develop an understanding of what all your colors mean, he's honestly very fascinated. He tries to make guesses on what the colors he doesn't know mean based on context clues. So when you suddenly turn pink his brain is immediately in analyzing mode! It takes a couple of interactions with you for him to figure out exactly what it means, it's only a hunch but it's enough to give him the confidence to ask you out!

John has a mental library of what all your colors mean. Even colors you think he doesn't know he knows ok? So when you turn pink and he doesn't immediately know what it means he starts using the process of elimination to figure it out. After maybe two interaction with you turning pink around him and he's clocked the emotion behind it. Similarly to Superman he likes to tease you and see just how pink he can make you. His goal is to make you turn hot pink, he thinks it's cute.

———

Directory

[futurama]

OK so finally after however long it's been I'm doing this sorry lol!!

I love characters like lil Hal So much. the ones that get discarded/neglected. something about that loneliness is so fun to explore, especially in Hal's case. the horror n despair of being a normal person and then one day waking up in what equates to a sensory deprivation tank with nothing else to do but talk to your lifelong friends who suddenly don't even view you as a person with thoughts and feelings anymore, but more as an obstacle or plaything. it's so fucked and it's Sooooo good. I honestly don't know how he kept it together while enduring all of that.

During my first read through of homestuck I had to pause just so I could go on a rant when dirk called him something along the lines of a shitty experiment that turned into a monster. Like, dude.. he's not a monster, he's YOU. (moot point because those two things are synonymous to dirk lmao). but for real... he's you, from when you were 13!! of course he's going to be irritating and fuck things up, especially when being irritating and fucking things up is all he has to do. I know it's because of dirks' self loathing that he treats Hal the way he does, he's basically a walking, so to peak (lol), reminder of everything he hates about himself, and a guilt-free target for dirk to take all of his shit out on, because it's not like hal can actually feel anything, right? (and if he Could, would it even make a difference?) oughhhh. but, I honestly can't entirely blame dirk for feeling the way he did about Hal because I don't know if the average person could stand having their 13 y/o self around for very long.

This is where things start getting fuzzy for me about Hal, I can't remember many specifics on the conversations he had with everyone, but I vaguely recall Hal just kinda.. not really fighting back against his situation for the most part?(aside from insisting on getting a body so he could gtfo and do something else) like, he knew how everyone felt about him, he Definitely knew that dirk hated him, but he never seemed to be mad about it, never seemed to be mad about his situation, or at least he didn't show it. I was kind of surprised he didn't go the whole Evil Robot trope route, because he'd have been totally justified in doing that. If anything, he probably felt like he must've deserved it in some way (he's still dirk after all), and I think that on top of still genuinely caring for his friends (Sob) is probably what kept him from flipping his lid. I could definitely be misremembering things though. I can't remember if dirk always hated himself or if that kinda developed as the comic went on. Maybe Hal was just a chill guy who didn't GAF lawl.

most of what I've said here just feels like conjecture based entirely on fuzzy recollections, I didn't do any research for this.... I definitely need to reread HS!!!! anyways LIL HAL!!! Love him. I feel so bad for him and deserved way better than what he ended up with. I was so hyped when I thought he finally gonna get a body, and then my blood drained from my face when I saw that shitass sprite silhouette in the back of the panel. well, at least he was happy..... :(

no no its ok… yes. yes ive been waiting for this. thank you for getting back to me with your thoughts on lil hals character, i always think its nice to sit down and reflect on your favorites every now and again lest we lose sight of what makes them important in our own eyes ^_^ its also been an eensy weensy handful of years since ive last reread homestuck so i totally get it. im sure id have a lot more to say about hal and dirks relationship if it were fresh in my brains but im running on memory and nostalgia at the time being… oh well!

ive for sure been drawn to hal since being introduced to him all those years ago, but i think a lot of people are typically drawn to the doppelganger of our favorite guys as theyre born unto us with an inferiority complex! theres nothing better than loving and maybe even idolizing a character and then finding out they have a lame, pitiful copy living in their shadow. enticing and relatable. now that i type it out its fun to think that there are plenty of homestuck characters with that specific sort of complex but ESPECIALLY the striders. hal and davesprite are copies of guys who are copies of guys (who are copies of guys…) they really have the worst of it i think!

i dont believe dirk is a monster though, i think that he just has a lot of stuff that is very hard for him to work out on his own though he only wants to do it on his own. i just dont think he trusts anyone else to help fix the gripes he has with himself but in turn isolates himself from that potential comfort and connection that is shared with talking to other humans. i think having hal, a reminder not only of his own existence but his past existence sitting on his face at all times was a really bad idea. in hindsight. i wish i could have told him not to do that, but at the same time its really fun to see him get really mad *blushes*

me personally i read the rooftop conversation between dirk and hal as dirk coming to terms with the fact that he does not actually want to kill himself and is ok with moving on from the person he used to be in turn allowing hal to grow as his own character and move on from the perma presence of his better self, or at least that would have been the case if he weren't thrown into a sprite with equius and left to be a nothing character alongside davepetasprite <--PERSONAL OPINION

anyway its fun to type about hal and co with you :) its always a treat to draw him even though i dont fuck with homestuck anymore but thats because ive adopted him as my son and roommate and brother and pet. i love drawing him and always will

[gilverrwrites]

I don't know why, but I'm so into Hal being so thrown back when reader doesn't say anything about his size. He expects one or more comments about how much smaller it is, maybe some facial expressions, judgement or anything really. He was really bracing himself waiting for anything negative, having been anxious about the moment where his girlfriend would see him bare and they would progress more physically intimately into their relationship.

He knows her really well, that she's kind, understanding and honest, but due to past experiences he awaits the moment where the judgement and the comments will come. Even if the other girls he's been with have either been one night stands or unserious brief relationships, that she's the only one who he's been serious with, who's one of the most important people in his life and the one who not only does he sees his life with her, but he knows how she is as a person, he is so anxious about that moment, thinking the worst. Already anticipating some sting in his heart by what her words will cause thanks to their weight because of how important she is to him.

She never saw what was underneath his boxers and was completely happy to have their relationship taken to a slower pace, having more quality time spent together and valuing his boundaries/limits the same way he respects hers. They did make out, dry hump, use some toys some over his underwear and touch each other. He did see her bare, but she hasn't seen him yet. Which again, she completely respected his limits and was utterly content in the comfort and pleasure he had.

The first moment when she touched him skin on skin, hand to his stick, her hand in his boxers, without seeing, only feeling it, he did flusteredly, almost whispering, staggering announce to her that others had it bigger, but that it didn't mean anything and that he was still very competent. Wanting to reassure himself (without noticing) by saying comments about size overdoing it by accident to her, thinking it would assure her about him. She would just ask a little confused "Why are you talking about other guys penis sizes when we're both having such a good moment?" and shut him up with a kiss continuing her hand job. His little rant quickly forgotten about.

THEN, the night when he's fully naked arrives. He's such a ball of nerves, but he wants to take their relationship to the next step. She's ready and he's ready. On one swift motion he takes all his lower part clothes off. Walking naked towards her with his little fully hard on (wanting to appear confident, but seeming more shy and anxious). He awaits and awaits and she only looks at his jr down. Finally, he asks why she's so silent and she looks up at him with a love filled turned on look (much to his surprise) saying "He's so pretty.".

Unintentionally, making him blush an even darker shade and having his hips involuntarily jerk more towards her while having his dick twitch. No one ever commented on how pretty or beautiful it was. He wasn't even thinking it could be that.

Reader would always find it beautiful and no matter how much time has passed since they're together, she will always make him flustered . Little by little making him gain confidence and not feel the need to explain anything relative to that.

Oh, this is how I pictured it since your fic and is just a discussion about my opinion, not a request!

-the Joey Anon 🦘

Reading this sweet lil piece like

[driftingmagician]

Even though it has been years since I've beaten Echoes of the Eye, it's still hard to stop thinking about the Outer Wilds. And today I just realized how well the game uses different mediums of communication. Sorry if my rambling is incoherent, I just need to rant.

Spoilers for the main game and the DLC below!

One of the first instruments you get is the signalscope. Its purpose is to listen to signals. And producing the most noise in the system are the Hearthians. All of your fellow explorers play their own instruments for you and home to listen to. And it communicates important info through audio, even if it is "just music".

You are then introduced to the translator. A device built to read. You and Hal made it to translate the writings of the Nomai people. And the Nomai wrote a lot. They documented meticulously, everything from operating procedures to casual conversation. But for almost the entire game you can't speak with any, they're all gone. So it feels amazing when you finally meet Solanum and she uses a staff to write in front of you so that you may communicate, and even then she is essentially a living ghost.

When you reach the Stranger for the first time and land in the hangar, you have to turn on your flashlight, and quickly learn that light is the primary way to navigate this strange new place. You find a strange lamp that, unknown to you then, will be the only tool you use aboard the Stranger. The inhabitants of the Stranger recorded their history on slide reels that you use your lamp to watch. Much like the Nomai, you are unable to communicate with the inhabitants. You finally find the only one of their kind who is able to do so, and they use a staff to communicate by showing visions. And here too are they essentially a living ghost.

Through the Outer Wilds and Echoes of the Eye you will listen and read and watch to understand and learn and it is truly a one of a kind experience.

[queensectonia]

last night i was reminded of one of my extremely few Hater Moments (lighthearted) about this series and i never got around to fully articulating my thoughts on it, so it is once again time for our regularly-scheduled kirby rant:

the spider sectonia reveal was poorly-executed on every level.

to start with, this plot element was introduced when the series was in its worst throes of Not Putting The Fucking Lore In The Fucking Games, but I will happily concede that this reveal was at least in a game; just not the game it should have been in.

I almost wonder if the Sectonia Clone as a whole was a leftover from the fact that Robobot started out development as Triple Deluxe 2, but considering that a) TD2 was dropped pretty early on and b) Robobot is just full to the brim with fanservice and callbacks anyway, I don't feel there's much evidence for such a theory.

at any rate, reducing the otherwise very intriguing reveal of Sectonia's prior form to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it easter egg in an entirely different game is pretty... underwhelming. we've had plenty of "reveals" or cool nods and expansions to other lorebits in similar easter eggs, but none of them were nearly as important as "oh, by the way, here's what the character whose whole arc revolves around personal and physical image used to look like! in a totally unrelated game!"

but that's the tamest complaint. that's just the accessibility of this information, which could have been better but certainly could have been worse.

the biggest problem is Sectonia's design. it's bad. it is just not good, fellas. she is literally just genderbent Taranza. it fails visually, it fails conceptually, and it fails really hard story-wise.

this design was so uninspired that when people in the EN sphere first saw it, tons of people thought it just was Taranza. then when we got screenshots, model rips, etc., it was still so painfully similar to Taranza that it made people assume HAL was saying Taranza and Sectonia were related - which turned into just as much of a shitfight as you might think.

even if this weren't attached to such a crucial character reveal, it's just downright a bad design! instead of taking even the slightest efforts to differentiate Sectonia from Taranza, they did the laziest, most barebones "uhhhhhh what if taranza But Girl" design shift possible. she's wearing the exact same outfit as Taranza, just palette-swapped. so little effort went into both the concepting stage and the modelling stage. she's just Taranza's model with the merest tweaks to make sure you know this is a Girl Spider.

genuinely, I would be a hundred times more amenable to this entire plot point if HAL had just bothered to give her an actual design.

but the problem is, making Sectonia a spider kind of just fucks everything about her story and contradicts itself at multiple points.

the aesthetic and theme language in TD is very clear. this is one of the biggest strengths that both it and Robobot share - the identity and literary through-lines of both games pervade every single visual element of them. Robobot tells its tale of capitalistic tech-fuelled colonialism through every part of the game from level backgrounds, to enemy designs, right down to surgical decisions like mechanising the pinwheel tree that was such a fond image from KRtD. every tiny thing bore the mark of the HWC, whether metaphorically or literally, such that you spent the entire game never forgetting that there was one unified force behind all of this, and Haltmann at the end of the game was the culmination of this aesthetic.

TD did the exact same. every part of TD sells that it's a fantastical fairytale romp through a series of themed locations with a connecting thread of the invading Antr* force.

*(this is a way better romanisation than "antler" this is my hill)

if anything, I'd argue that TD's design language in this respect is tighter than Robobot's, because Robobot had a fairly broad theme of "industrialisation and hi-tech space future sci-fi" to draw its foes from, whereas TD had to condense its antagonists under the stricter banner of "evil insect army".

and they did incredibly. every point of design about the Antrs points straight to Sectonia and draws from her in some way or another. it's absolutely seamless. she's the perfect logical endpoint of Antr design from every angle: she's the literal queen bee of this insect hive and the perfect expression of their anatomy. she's bigger than the biggest Antr. she's more developed. she's more powerful. they were so careful and thorough about this design conceit that Antrs have multiple stages that all march straight up to Sectonia. we go from the tiny bronto burt and waddle dee clones with their little wings and eyes that seem so familiar, to the Antr soldiers, all the way up to the Lord Antrs who are one step away from Sectonia. they have stripes and facial markings to echo hers. it's all wrapped up with the genius bow of combining ants, bees, and wasps: they're all hymenoptera! the metaphor goes even deeper than that because there's a species of wasp that parasitizes spiders! controls them, even!

... except no actually, we've decided she's a spider too and all of that buildup and artful design means nothing.

it's awful. it's taking what is far and away one of the best-executed designs in the series and saying that all of that buildup and blatant connection of ideas meant nothing.

but that's just the visual end of it. Sectonia actually being a spider makes no sense in the lore, either.

first of all, TD's incredible design sense and artistic direction applies to Taranza as well. while he's obviously derivative of Magolor, within the context of TD he's clearly meant to evoke the sky fairies. he's designed to look much more like them than any of the insect characters. he's got the same body type, he moves the same way as them, he's a sky fairy with a spider theme. the game draws visual parallels between him and the sky fairies more than once; this is not unintentional.

this is part of what makes Taranza's role as Sectonia's right hand more impactful: he's only insect adjacent, and the design language would have you believe he's more closely related to the fairies than the insects, so him being with the bad guys is notable and interesting.

so why would a spider character be the ruling monarch of the insect hive? why would the line go ant, bigger ant, fancy ant, armoured ant, spider, wasp?

I mean, shit dude, the miiverse posts directly tell us that Sectonia used to "look like her insect underlings". it really feels like the decision to make her be a spider was a total spur-of-the-moment one, between how badly it interacts with the rest of the story and how lazy the design was. Sectonia's backstory had a couple of holes in it regarding the actual timeline of things, but those were just mysteries regarding what order everything happened in. she was both a bodyjacker and a good queen at one point, which don't exactly jive, so it becomes interesting to think about how those two facts coexist. on the other hand, her being a spider just gets shoehorned in there for no apparent reason other than to... heighten her connection to Taranza?

and that just dovetails into the complete mockery HAL made of Taranza's character development after TD, and THAT is a rant for another time.

there was just no point to it all. Sectonia being a spider adds nothing, removes a bunch of nuance and intrigue, and muddies both her story and the background world of TD.

[beinghymen]

Quick Being Human rant- regarding my Asexual headcanons, and also my mom for some reason.

Every time it comes up that I have an ace headcanon for Hal and Tom, my mom gives me this blank stare that tells me she has no clue why I connect to these characters so strongly. And I can't really tell my mom WHY without guilting her. But I figure if there's anywhere I can share it, it's going to be here. So:

The surface level reasoning for my headcanon is that Hal and Tom just remind me so much of myself regarding dating. When they talk about why they can't or shouldn't date, it reads, to me at least, like the lies that I have to tell to people when I don't feel safe explaining my sexuality.

Tom said, "I'm waiting for the right woman," which echoes so strongly all the lies I told to people who wondered why I wasn't trying to have sex- which, at least where I'm from, was the most important thing in the world for everyone around me. But "I'm waiting til marriage," or "I'm trying to focus on school right now," was enough of an excuse to get people off my back, even though I was lying through my teeth.

The deeper reason as to why these characters (and generally why ANY 'monstrous' character who wants to 'become human') resonates me, I can define down to a single event when I was still figuring myself out- probably between 11-13. I realized that the entire world revolves around sex. I was listening to the radio with my mom and I broke down crying, because I realized that my favorite song was about sex, and I was quickly coming to the realization that I'd have to live in a world that wasn't built to suit me.

My mom saw me crying, and I explained why, and she laughed. She said that sex is just a part of life, a part of what makes you human, and that I should get used to it. And I just felt so betrayed. I internalized what she said. I thought there was something wrong with me, that I was missing some fundamental piece of my humanity.

Along comes this stupid little British monster show, following all these characters who feel inadequate, who feel they are missing some quality that would make them human. And the finale gut-punched me with the most uplifting, lovely, and deeply touching message:

"To want it is to have it."

It hit me then that I'm really not broken, I'm not inadequate. I am human, not because I met some arbitrary standard, but for the simple fact that I want to be human. To want it is to have it, and I have it.

I want to be, therefore I am.

[jaxxsoxxn]

Wait, wait wait that one scene in cinderella3

When Prince charming jumped out the window to go save Cinderella when his father told him he wasn’t allowed to go down the stairs, so he jumped out of the window 

But imagine it it’s with flash and wonder woman and Superman 

Wonder, woman : flash I am not gonna let you rescue that villain. I forbid you to go down these stairs, 

Flash looking at wonder, woman, and Superman and the stairs and looked at the window : mm you know when the woman I never really understood why people jumped out the windows the same people they love, but I see now and now I understand why 

Wonder, woman and Superman : wait what ?

(Flash jumps out the window )

Wonder, woman and Superman : Barry !

I adore the fact that JLA n Rouges are trying their best to keep these two apparat (and failing to do so)

"Barry you know better than to date a villain"

"What about Batman and Catwoman?"

"...I said you know better not that he knows better."

Captain Cold learns that he agrees with any supes and goes absolutely 90 degrees in the other way, suddenly the biggest Boomerflash supporter. It lasts half of the week.

Golden glider talking to Wonder Woman like they're besties while actively being against Harley because, just like her brother, she thinks she took her place and is bitter.

Boomer doesn't want them to think that, especially since he didn't talk to them only because he forgot that he could finally.

Trickster Jr. And Wally have beef for no reason, Axel just says he's not funny, Wally rants about how fucking annoying the villain is or stays completely silent.

Weather Wizard says one time "just kiss already" after they fight near him and the scream they scrum made speedy run to them in fear. Mark doesn't care.

August who back stabbed the Rouges, coming back onto their good side by also being not a fan of Suicide Squad. Floyd said one snarky thing about anyone close to him, and he got into a mood.

"That's why all criminals should die" YOU'RE A MURDERER!! U KILLED PEOPLE!!!

Can you see who's my fave characters? Probably yeah.

Usually Flash wouldn't even let them stop him, especially since his lover was in danger, but Wonder Woman wasn't typically one to be out of her mind like today. "What do you mean by I shouldn't help him?!" he couldn't help and raised his voice, bitterness already growing in his chest. "Diana, I need you to move." "Barry, you need to understand - he's Wallers. Not only will that make problems for us, if she'll learn that you will save him, she'll throw him in more dangerous situations. It's better for both of you if you'll stay put." her tone sounded slightly concerned, her eyes jumping from him to other JLA members for support. "You're not even sure if he's not using your feelings here for a lift or something alike-" "He's bleeding out. I am wasting my important time and his blood is wasting on the floor because you believe that Floyd Lawton- Not even Digger, sent me a message by Hack because they needed a lift. Deadshot, the same man that would rather kill himself than let any supe help." his work tone was slowly sneaking it's way into his speech, not being able to stop it. "Wonder Woman, on everything you love, you'll move out of my way." A quick lip bite was all hesitation he got from her, before she stood in front of him with all her might, Superman slightly more undecided, but also standing next to her. "Flash, as a JLA member you know better. I will not let you take one more step down these stairs." her tone was clearly informing him of the truth of this statement. "You are forbidden from saving this rogue." Within seconds Barry relaxed, stretching his hands above his head, confusing people around them, above few who already shot him amused stares. Hal even showing a thumb up, changing it into some form of scratching his chin to remain unnoticed. "You're right- I won't take a step down these stairs." Barry finally said, his voice having that "costumer service polite" in it, making Wonder Woman just more suspicious. "It must be love pushing me to do stupid things." "Why do you say it like that-" The only other sound that accompanied his flight out of the window next to him was Jordan's loud laughter, which he couldn't hold in any longer. It wasn't the first or last time he was falling from surprising heights, so with ease he landed as trained and ran trough the city towards his home.

Get it, because Digger is his home-

No art today bc amma also write the Boomerflash hcs and hopefully end the Boomer centric ones! <3 Anywho, please ask about other rouges n their relationships with Boomer/Flash/their relationship/ JUST ANYTHING

(I will continue to baby Axel, he done nothing wrong ever [lie])

[butchviking]

I miss the Hal who didn't care about celebrities and thought it was weird to care about that lame shit, now you're judging Frank Iero's outfit on the Internet. Not to mention the sexuality speculation - on the public Internet. All the while he's a straight but you as a lesbian were just saying how you're uncomfortable when your girlfriends talk about men they're attracted to. Sooooo.... they're opinions bother you and you can't have a conversation about that but public speculation about a straight man's fake homosexuality is OK because he can perform gay on stage... you can't have a conversation any friends should be able to have,, but you're wondering if those jumpscare ugly moids had sex or not... Got it. One rule for thee but not for me I guess... lame Hal

oh nooooo some anonymous weirdo on the internet misses the version of me they made up in their head 🥺🥺 as though i was not a fandom blogger for years before i ever heard of radblr as though i have not always been obsessed with some celebrity or other as though i have not been frerard speculating since i was 10. u dont know me. grow up.

u also obviously terribly misunderstood something about that little rant of mine the other day bc i was in fact not so much complaining that women in my life talk about men theyre attracted to. i was complaining that i as a lesbian feel left out and wish i could be part of those conversations and i still struggle with accepting that i never can be and it makes me sad <3 and i talked about how that very much relates to my interest in whoever my current Celebrity Guys are because i struggle to have conversations about them even with many other fans because they simply experience things that i cannot and it makes me feel terribly like im missing out on something and like im missing out on bonding moments w other female fans bc they say things and all i can do is wrinkle up my nose and be like 'um well thats nice'.

also yeah frank & gerard are both probably straight and almost definitely never fucked but their stage gay shit was an anti-homophobia stand and did in fact have a very significant impact on me as a child. its important to me. sorry if thats lame to you but yeah it shaped me as a person to see two guys kissing on stage and getting booed and bottled for it it shaped me as a person to experience the reaction i got in catholic school reading the download 2007 review with the frerard kiss image it shaped me as a person to see them get called fags again and again and to take this stand anyway again and again. im very very serious about this i genuinely do not take their stage gay antics lightly and i am forever and ever grateful. it meant a lot. gay people in my kerrang magazine..

[homestuckconfession]

originally i had a several paragraph long rant here about how the hs fandom puts female characters on a weird praising pedestal but i think the fact that i put a hal quote as my senior quote (slash my equivalent of such) because its my little scrimblo. specifically one from page 5,642 is more important to me

it was specifically:

"TT: I understand you are disgusted with me. TT: As an unpalatable expression of yourself. TT: I would feel the same way if I was in your situation. TT: Which I am. TT: As such, I know that you know this is wrong."

which i dunno if that says a lot about me or about how i wanted to choose a strider quote as my senior quote since i read hs for the first time when i was in middle school and going through one of the worst times of my life or whatever but like. damn girl that robot sure can ai until it gets screwed by the narrative

.

[technicianuprisingau]

Drawing the Rest of the Copy Ability Stars... Round 2!!

Me: Okay I think I should draw Round 2 first before I go and reboot the Technician Modes Me, realizing that I was so invested in Round 1, that I draw nearly all of them but 3 (minus the Contact Abilities): Me: ...YOU'RE TELLING ME HAD I DIDN'T STOP I WOULD'VE FINISHED THIS IN ONE ROUND?!

*SIGH* Let's get this over with. Here's Part 1 if you're confused.

Burning - This ability is kinda useless but uh, again, I guess Fire is offense and Burning is speed, so they can co-exist! Had to steal all the icons from Nightmare in Dreamland, Canvas Curse, and 64 just to make this. I hope it's sufficient and it's not just FIRE 2!!!

Ranger - I mean, I certainly didn't expect this ability to appear. But okay, sure! Kirby with a gun supremacy. It looks fun to play in Forgotten Land. I just decided to look at its illustration and have it the icon of the gun shooting a star... I might redo this in the future, it looks... Eh...

Drill - Ah yes, the ability that ruined Technician Uprising's canon standing. Before this ability was revealed, I deadset that Kirby's Technician ability would be Pure, which means he has capabilities unique to him only, in this case copying (and of course Robobot Armor shares that too with him due to partnership clause). Sure, the drill itself (which IS his weapon) was already in 64 but as a power combo which, as you may know, I made that state in 64 as a puberty state, which means that's not legit! So hell yeah, Kirby gets to use a drill. Bring on the Gurren Lagann references, people, he can thrive in it. BUT THEN FORGOTTEN LAND CAME. THEN THE DRILL ABILITY CAME. And so everything is ruined, the drill symbolism is no longer unique to poor Kirby. Thanks, HAL! Now I have to grasp at straws! I tried making the best of it though, all bias aside. It gave me a lesson to be more careful with making Technician Modes in the future though, as if the weapon matches the newest ability, I would be effectively screwed. WAHOO! Anyways stealing the ability hat for this one isn't it obvious.

Technician - My beloved. This design has not changed too much, even in its old days. Nothing much to say here.

Hypernova - Okay hear me out it technically has an icon but... The main reason I wanted to change it is because the Miracle Fruit is so mesmerizing. So I decided, screw canon, canon can eat my ass. In fact, I could've made it colorful too, but I restricted myself to three colors because Contact Abilities aren't supposed to exist! So it makes sense for it to break the rules! Yet I still want some boundaries.

Kabuki - Oh god I do not want to remember what the anime did to this ability. I have ranted about this ability before. So now, it's my responsibility to make it real. But the thing is, before I finalized what it would look like, I needed something to represent their magic, and no I do not want it to be Baton 2.0, so uh. Will-o-wisps! The supernatural Japanese thingies! I love will-o-wisps. So uh... yay.

Well, that means everything is settled... though I will have to do some minor edits to the spreadsheet, because GUESS WHAT?! I checked every file and realized that since I stacked each star one above the other, a small part of the other stars got into the imported picture. Now I have to redo everything AGAIN!!!!!

That being said. Please do enjoy.

[sunnyscript]

Here are some important tags if you want to go through my stuff:

All post made by me are tagged under #sunnyscript

For posts made by me that have image description are under #with id

For sharing stuff about myself or ideas I have it's #sunnyscriptshare

My art is under #sunnyscriptart

For tag rants it's #sunnyscripttags

For posting stuff like pictures or videos or memes or even jokes it's #sunnyscriptpost

For fic recs it's #sunnyscriptficrecs

For things i wrote (fics for example or snippets) it's #sunnyscriptwrite

Talking about comics is under #comics posting

Talking about books is under #bookreading

for specific comics or characters:

For the flash 1987 #the flash 1987 or even #flash 1987

For babygirl Hal moments #my babygirl my hal

For Hal fanart (made by me) #halart

For my Bart Allen fanart #bartart

For Kon it will be either #konart

Palestinian tag is فلسطين# or الاحتلال الصهيوني#

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Not sure how to do this but...

But welcome to this blog. I speak english, french and arabic fluently and I understand spanish decently(?).

I don't care about discourses but this blog is a safe space. This is a blog I made to have fun with. I am by nature not a hater (call it the lover mindset /hj) but I am critical of what I watch/do.

I don't have a dni you can interact as much as you like, but I will block you if you're an asshole or a person with downright horrible opinions. i.e Zionists can go fuck themselves.

I still haven't tagged some things properly so there my be some untagged flash warnings. Avoid gifs in my blog if you have photosensitivity.

Tis blog is neurodiverse safe

This blog is cluster B safe. Cluster a safe. Cluster c safe... etc etc

Safe space for weird genders haver, neopronoun users...

This blog is religion safe so never feel weird talking about it and thought I don't often post things about that I am myself religious. I am muslim.

Also, we're on the internet so I can't stop people from doing things but I'd rather you not comment on a thing I made with things "like X is a god" "I am a god" ...etc etc

Aspec folk please interact.

I don't really care for labels but I'll respect yours. I'm not educated on everything but I try bring kind.