#spirit world

[overzealous-imagination]

So while rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender recently, I noticed a trend

A number of spirits we see have an animal form, specifically animals we recognize as "normal" for us. For example:

- Wan Shi Tong is an owl and his knowledge seekers are foxes

- Tui and La are koi fish

- Hei Bai is a panda

-The guardian of the mother of faces is a wolf (The Search)

Heck there's even the talking Baboon spirit and the monkey missing its face that we see in the Spirit World at the end of Season 1.

Basically every time we've seen a "normal" animal, they've been a spirit.

My point? I argue that Bosco is a spirit bear that's chilling and living the good life in the mortal world just because he can.

[avatar-firelordzuko]

ᴢᴜᴋᴏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴜɴᴄʟᴇ ɪʀᴏʜ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ sᴘɪʀɪᴛ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ. 🐼

ᴛᴀʟᴋɪɴɢ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴏʟᴅ ᴅᴀʏs. 🌋

ᴇɴᴊᴏʏɪɴɢ ᴊᴀsᴍɪɴᴇ ᴛᴇᴀ ᴛᴏɢᴇᴛʜᴇʀ. 🫖🍵

ᴢᴜᴋᴏ ᴀɴᴅ ᴋᴀᴛᴀʀᴀ ᴅʀɪɴᴋɪɴɢ ᴊᴀsᴍɪɴᴇ ᴛᴇᴀ. 🫖🍵

ᴋᴀᴛᴀʀᴀ ɪs sᴇᴡɪɴɢ ᴏɴ sᴏᴍᴇ ᴄʟᴏᴛʜᴇs🧵🪡

ʙᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇʏ'ʀᴇ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏɪɴɢ ᴇᴀᴄʜ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀs ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀɴʏ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴊᴏʏ.

☺️🫶🏻❤️

Beautiful fanart 🎨 Zuko and Iroh fanart by Polapaz &

🎨Support the artists🥰♥️

[batfamilycentral]

Cassandra Cain in Spirit World (2023), art by Haining. - requested by anonymous.

[casscainmainly]

So in Spirit World there's two separate panels that show Cass' family/loved ones. The first I think is more circulated:

The second is this one:

These line-ups are probably different due to space/convenience, but to overanalyse these panels for a bit, it's interesting who's present in which. Bruce, Steph, and Babs are present in both - makes sense, they're the most important figures in Cass' life. Steph is front and center in both, suggesting she really is Cass' favourite person ever.

Bruce is relatively big in the top panel, but much smaller in the bottom. The top panel explicitly is about "family," while the bottom is about people who "know and love you". Bruce becoming smaller suggests that Cass thinks of him as her dad, but the 'knowing' and 'loving' part isn't as secure for her. (This is probably not intentional but reflects their dynamic very well, particularly post-Cass being sent to HK and her unresolved feelings about that).

Babs is pretty big in both, and I love that she's Oracle here (the wheelchair in the bottom panel!!). This makes total sense - the time when Babs loved and cared for her most was when she was Oracle. Cass probably still sees and remembers her that way.

Onto the interesting stuff, which is Duke being missing for 'family' but present for 'know and love you'. I think he should be in the top panel, but maybe he's too new for Cass to consider him family? Everyone in the top panel is from the bg 2000 era, so Cass might think of that time as her true 'family'. Anyway, the fact he makes it into the bottom still shows they're close, and that Cass considers him someone who understands/'knows' her.

Dick and Tim being present for 'family' and missing for 'know and love you' is so fun. Tim maybe should be present in the bottom, but recent canon hasn't made them as close as they used to be (in BG 2000 and Red Robin). So they love each other, but not to the extent of anyone in the bottom panel; he's still definitively family though.

Dick is the same, but there's a lot more sibling rivalry and complicated feelings there. It makes total sense for Cass to see him as a brother, but to not think he 'knows' or 'loves' her all that much; they do get along, but I think they remember their mistakes with each other and think the other person still holds a grudge (they don't). Peak Dick-Cass dynamic to me!

So if I had to rank Cass' favourite people in the Batfam according to these panels, it'd be: 1. Steph 2. Babs 3. Bruce 4. Tim and/or Duke 5. Dick

[jesncin]

Xanthe Zhou is Chindo now whoaa whoa that's nuts I love representation!! I'm a big "qpoc characters reclaiming cultural clothing" enthusiast so here's The Envoy in kebaya peranakan, sarong, and hanfu. The keris they're holding is based on my shaman friend's very own keris.

[xanthezhou]

SPIRIT WORLD character design sketch by Haining

[psuedofolio]

Cassandra Cain, Spirit World #1 I dig her new threads

[kuruk-weekend]

The gorgeous promo art is by @bellwethers. Make sure to check her blog and commission sheet!

KURUK ERA WEEKEND 2025 JANUARY 10TH - JANUARY 12TH

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE PROMPTS!

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[389]

[mustasekittens]

sketching some of those guys to try get back in a groove

[farsight-the-char]

BIRDS OF PREY #13

Written by KELLY THOMPSON

Art by GAVIN GUIDRY

Cover by LEONARDO ROMERO

ON SALE 9/4/24

With the search for Barbara finally over, Cass leads the Birds of Prey through  the portal one final time, and where they end up is a world far too familiar to  Cass but strange to everyone else. What here will turn everything on its head…or should we say who?!

....

"Familiar to Cass but Strange to Others...."

Spirit World Reunion!

[oliviarampaige]

“Ukiyo”

Day 3 - Path

The floating world.

[vinelark]

Hi! Just curious, what are your favorite comic runs? I've finished the comics on my current to-read list so I love hearing what other people like!

hello! as always i’m sure i’m forgetting plenty of stuff but these are some of my favs, both completed and ongoing series.

completed:

batman: the knight (2022)

miniseries, 10 issues total, so it’s extremely readable and really satisfying in a short amount of time! i like zdarsky’s bruce a lot (i’ve also enjoyed his work on the current batman run) and carmine di giandomenico’s art is fantastic. also, it’s the ghost-maker origin story and bruce & khoa somehow get divorced at least twice before the story’s over. love that for them.

superman: american alien (2015)

anthology collection about clark kent through the years, a really great read for superman—digging into clark’s character rather than focusing on external plot!—with some great cameos too (like young adult clark getting mistaken for some rich guy named bruce wayne at a yacht party, or reporter clark running into pre-robin dick grayson).

future state (2021) batman: dark detective

i am not immune to dan mora’s bruce wayne, especially when he is skrunkly and beat up the whole time.

batman: urban legends (2021)

an anthology so you can kind of pick up/put down as you like! these are a good read if you don’t want to be tracking huge overarching plotlines for a bit. the first few issues have a great jason series too.

ongoing series aka my current pulls at the comic shop:

spirit world (2023)

this one is new and is SO fun and compelling; i love xanthe already, and the assorted cast (including constantine and cass!) and new side characters (bowen my beloved, i’d die for you if you weren’t already dead) are delightful. one of those comics where i’m genuinely interested in the plot too and not just reading for my favs. alyssa wong is doing some really cool things with this concept/cast and i hope they have a chance to do way more in this world.

batman/superman world’s finest (2022)

again, i am not immune to dan mora, or the delightful superbat of it all. (and robin!dick! i love him.) i also started reading waid’s teen titans spin-off that takes place in this same era and there are only a few issues out so far but i’m having a great time.

city boy (2023)

i am OBSESSED with this concept (sentient cities! sharp-edged/lonely character figuring out his connection to them!) and the writing is super fun so far. also the intro comic (free on kindle/elsewhere; also has a free spirit world issue) has a great nightwing run-in.

i’m also subscribed to nightwing, superboy: the man of tomorrow, action comics (anything with kon crumbs…), and dark knights of steel (listen…i am still holding out hope for more royal court spy!tim crumbs), and i don’t know much about shazam yet but i’m giving the new series a try too.

[venus-of-the-hrdsell]

Spirit World going viral on twitter with the comic panels of Constantine respecting his non binary friend's pronouns just confirmed to me that most of the people who claim to love the character know nothing about him. "John Constantine has gone woke", a lot of people say.

You mean, the Constantine who kicked the shit out of Nazis on his early comics? The one reminding you how much he hated Margaret Thatcher? The one who was teased as a queer character since his creation in the 80s and was confirmed as bisexual in the 90s? The one who lost gay friends during the aids crisis and the one who despises cops? The former punk who has voted the Labour Party all his life?

You mean, are you surprised THAT character is "woke" now? If you are disappointed, that's on you.

Anyway, while you are here, buy Spirit World. You won't regret it.

[wileycap]

Okay, so I had a thought (and I'm about 300% sure I'm not the first one, but I was too lazy to check, I also don't know if canon has adressed this already):

When Wan Shi Tong was dragging the library into the Sprit World, how was Toph able to hold it?

Because Toph learned from the badgermoles.

Let's back up a little. The Ocean and The Moon are explicitly spirits. Fang, Roku's dragon, is able to traverse the Spirit World (and on the Solstice, even the physical world) freely, even though Roku isn't. Appa is spiritually connected to Aang and able to perceive it (with help) and follow the connection to Ba Sing Se.

I think all of the original benders are either spirits, or animals that crossed over from the Spirit World. And all of the bending styles we've seen have distanced themselves from the original sources of bending - even Airbending, because Aang and the historical benders don't fly freely, like Appa. Firebending is fueled by rage, that's explicitly stated, I don't have anything good for Waterbending so the source is firmly trust me bro, and in Earthbending, Toph's moves are based on a different martial arts style (Zhujia/Chugar family kung fu rather than the Hung Gar style used by other earthbenders*) than the other earthbenders we see - there is explicitly something different about learning from the original source. I also think all of the original benders, when crossing over, used their bending to anchor themselves into the physical world. For dragons, fire was life and the sun, for Tui and La, their eternal dance was their life and power, etc.

That's a long paragraph to say that no other earthbender could have held up the library. Toph learned her bending from the badgermoles, not as a fighting style, but as a way of interacting with the environment - the same way they do. I don't think she's necessarily aware of it, but I think that, because badgermoles are spirits that crossed over a long time ago, as Toph learned, she also unconsciously learned a style of bending that is much more spiritual than human-taught bending.

This also weaves nicely into the show's themes of destiny. Aang was destined to find Toph (he saw her in a vision, after all), and Toph was destined to teach Aang. But not only that, Toph was the only person who could have held up the library. She wasn't just holding up a big rock. She anchored it into our world.

And I think that's beautiful.

*BUT NOT WING CHUN THO THAT INFORMATION WAS LITERALLY ONE GOOGLE SEARCH AWAY ALL THIS TIME I THOUGHT IT WAS WING CHUN I SWEAR I HEARD IT SOMEWHERE AND INCORPORATED IT INTO MY BELIEF SYSTEM FOREVER thank you dear person in the tags i don't know if it's polite to @ you considering it was in the tags but thank you srs

[jesncin]

low effort Xanthe Zhou fit for Halloween 🔪🎃