#that dialogue is actually from the comic about them that I did not post few years ago

[product05]

I took a walk down memory lane then found motivation to draw good ol TL!Frisk/Erase!Frisk again and his hair is till inconsistent. It's been years since I post UTAU stuffs here especially my comics (which I discontinued), and I never got the chance to explore this guy's relationship with TK!Sans which is very important in the story. Since it's been so long I actually forgot some parts of the inconsistent story lol.

Explanation ahead:

This part is actually in between the beginning and rising of the story after Dreamingdark visited TL!Frisk's timeline and attacked him, then yadayada portal door appear then Omega timeline then TK then this then that.

It was supposed to be set on the Timeverse where tk took tl to cheer him up, being gloomy since his arrival at the Omega timeline. Dunno why he did despite the risk of someone tampering with the timelines but hey! for the sake of plot lmao

As usual, UT © Toby

TL!Frisk/Erase!Frisk © me

TK!Sans © @perfectshadow06

[meanbossart]

ASK COMPILATION #385032: Shape-shifting genitals, mouth-mashing skillsets, who taps out first in the bedroom and the 17 different types of meat this guy eats.

I TRIED TO MAKE THIS A BIG ONE. Thank you everybody for your patience!

The truth of the matter is that I need one dramatic light-source or I will perish. HOWEVER...

Yeah, they seem the type to leave it purposefully ajar for the thrill of it. As well as the excuse to bring hell down upon anyone caught trying to steal a peek.

YES, actually! I've had the concept for a comic or two that's precisely about interactions they've had while younger. Comics take a lot of work, and there's a LOT of things I want to do, but that is definitely in the plans.

Yes! Or rather, as a shapeshifter, I believe she doesn't bother with them 99% of the time, possibly never, even though she has the habitability to form them if she so wished. The Orin DU drow knew was always doll-like in appearance when nude, and he did not particularly mind it or fantasized about anything different.

I believe this is both a preference in Orin's part (and across many shapeshifters, if I recall correctly) as well as a strategic choice.

And thank you so much!

[MORE BELOW THE CUT]

I don't know, kissing isn't that hard LOL I think they're pretty even-leveled in technique but Astarion is the tonguier one.

ALL IN DUE TIME, MY FRIEND, ALL IN DUE TIME...

Maybe 😊 🤫though I'm not sure how useful his powers would be in that context.

That said, Indeed! The irony of this match isn't lost on anyone. I'm sure Astarion would have some thoughts about the convenience of it.

I know this is more of a jokey message, but I don't think Astarion would be cool with that sort of thing, and DU drow most definitely wouldn't ask 😂

Whatever works, as he would probably say!

Astarion got drunk through DU drow on occasion while he still fed on him, yes LOL I don't care if that makes sense or not, It's a hysterical concept and definitely factual in my canon. To be fair as well, DU drow is a huge man and has to drink a LOT to get properly wasted - so Astarion wouldn't have to consume a whole lot from him to get on a similar level!

Post a few particular post-campaign events, Astarion gets drunk through strangers' blood that were either piss-drunk already or have been fed alcohol forcibly by the pair.

He likes thick stews, braised pork, and meat-pies the most. Don't ask me when or why I've decided this but he likes octupi as a every-once-in-a-while treat - I think he mostly enjoys the experience of eating it more than the taste.

For drinks, he likes beer, red semi-dry wine, and mead the most. He also likes a GOOD whisky - none of the copper-coin garbage they serve at most Inns.

Hi! Incredible question. DU drow can go indefinitely but when he stops he knocks out in record speed. There usually comes a point where Astarion flops over and lets him do all the work.

You know how, shortly after you find out about it, if you tell Astarion that you're frightened of your origins you get that really heartfelt bit of dialogue about how yourself and him are so much alike, and how he feels similarly powerless before Cazador as you do toward your father? Well, I never got that, because DU drow was too busy squinting into the horizon and contemplating the logistics of his conception which prompts Astarion to, essentially, say something along the lines of "Okay, if all you want to do is discuss your dad's cum I'm out"

So, like that.

They didn't smash in the graveyard! I'm hoping to either write a short thing about it, draw something inspired by how the scene went down in my head, or, ideally, both!

That IS kind of a wild comparison but I'm guessing you know about my origins, LOL.

Not... Quite. I'm reluctant to say more because I would like for it to be a surprise that I bring you all through art (even if you can make a pretty accurate deduction based on what has been said so far) but suffice to say that this is the flipside to the Bhaalist DU drow AU.

I don't think I could find the time 😭😭😭 but that's a hysterical idea and I would gladly mash together a bunch of clips if someone else was willing to highlight them!

Hello and thank YOU for humoring me in my nerdy little forays!

I hadn't heard about Model/Actriz but I had a little sneak-peek and, indeed, this might just be right up my alley LOL

It's hard for me to remove these characters from their intended universe so I have a difficult time picturing what they would listen to if the options didn't all sound like string-y bardcore music. I'm sure there are more genres to speak of in DnD lore, I'm just ignorant of them!

That said I do have some thoughts about which of them even enjoy music at all.

REALLY enjoys music: DU drow, Jaheira, Misc, Karlach, Wyll.

Modestly enjoys music: Gale, Shadowheart, Minthara, Halsin.

Generally doesn't enjoy music: Astarion, Lae'zel.

No notes just canonical character information being shared

I forgot what this one was in reference to for a moment and I was so aghast.

I really, really hope you weren't hoping for me to give you work-out advice because both, if you were, you've come to the wrong man.

But if you're just wondering about lore here, I think it's a solid 50/50. I think he's predisposed to a really well-built physique because Daddy Bhaal said so AND he's incredibly active and incidentally does a lot of manual labor. If he's had a few too many sedentary days in a row (which is rare) he pretty much has to tire himself through at-home routines or he goes a little cuckoo-bananas as well.

And thank you for being interested in my little freak!

He's pretty thoroughly desensitized, and thinks far too little of Orcs and half-orcs to be intimidated by them, even when that lack of fear is downright stupid. He's not impervious to fear, however, despite how hard he tries to be - Myrkhul, Grym, the giant Steelwatch, the brain, and even Cazador AFTER he snatched Astarion away were all encounters that made his blood run cold to varying degrees. I think it takes an unfamiliar foe for his sweat to run a little cold.

(Ironically, Raphael had no such effect on him.)

[pluckyredhead]

hi! i'm new to comics and i got in through reading your fics and wayne family adventures. i've since started reading more of the mainstream verse and i realized that most comic fans consider wfa to be totally fanon. you're one of the few i saw that disagrees. would you mind elaborating a lil on why? i'm too new to really form an opinion either way but i'd like to know your's!

(also yes i really did stalk your blog back years worth of posts i'm sorry! 😭😭)

Aw I love this! Welcome!

So I think it's really important to be clear on definitions here:

Canon means it's part of an official text. It's literally in a comic (or book or movie or other property) published or licensed by DC.

Fanon means it's made up by fans. That doesn't mean bad or good, it just means that it comes from fandom and is not part of the official text.

Wayne Family Adventures is an official licensed comic by DC, so by definition, it cannot be fanon. That doesn't mean everyone has to like it, but it's not a fan comic. It's an official DC product. It's not fanon.

Now, WFA isn't part of the main DCU canon. It takes place in a separate universe. The Jason in Batman #138 and the Jason in WFA are not the same and they are having very different experiences. (And I'm sure the Jason in WFA would be grateful if he knew.)

But that's no different than a comic that takes place in an alternate universe, like Dark Knights of Steel or DCeased, or a movie like Blue Beetle or a show like My Adventures with Superman. They all take place in their own universes, but all of those universes are canon. None of them are fanon.

What I think most people mean when they say WFA is fanon is that WFA draws on tropes and characterizations that are popular in fandom. Which...yes, absolutely. This is on purpose, and honestly, it pisses me off when people complain about it. (Not you, anon! Your question was lovely, you just triggered my unskippable cut scene of dialogue. Sorry lol.)

Wayne Family Adventures is probably the single best idea DC has had in the 20 years I've been reading comics. (The second best was the kids and YA graphic novel lines.)

I just checked, and WFA has 1.3 MILLION subscribers. That's more than every floppy comic starring Batman sells in a month, combined. It's more than literally any superhero comic has sold in decades - in this century! The combined strips have over A HUNDRED MILLION VIEWS. That is bonkerstown. That is a readership like DC hasn't seen since the 1970s. That is unparalleled success, and it's introducing characters like Kate Kane and Duke Thomas to a whole new audience.

Now, WFA was clearly designed to appeal to Batfans who were active on social media and fanfic sites like AO3 and Wattpad, and Webtoon readers. The readership of Webtoon is mostly young and female. Fandom as a whole is mostly female. The writer of WFA is female.

And maybe I'm not being fair here, but when I see people dismiss WFA as "just fanon," I always catch a whiff of "It's not a real Batman comic. It's a girl comic for girls."

I have spent the past 20 years begging DC (and Marvel, DC is not alone in this) to see women as a viable audience - as their largest potential growth audience! I have watched in dumbfounded frustration as they ignored the juggernaut success of Raina Telgemeier and Ngozi Ukazu and Alice Oseman running rings around the NY Times bestseller list and counted a 50k shipment here and there as a resounding triumph. I have literally seen them throw out survey responses from women because "those women had an agenda." (This is a true story. 2011 was rough, y'all.)

And all of a sudden, they gave us a comic actually catering to women and young people and fandom, and they put it on the most popular, current, modern platform for comics availably - and it's brilliant. It's smart and funny and stunningly drawn and every episode makes clever, inventive use of the scrolling format. They FINALLY gave us a girl comic for girls, and it's a masterpiece.

And yes, it riffs on fanon concepts. It also has its roots firmly in mainstream DCU canon. It references deep cuts. CRC Payne and StarBite know their shit. Jason Todd being a bookworm may be a fanon staple, but he does plenty of reading - including Jane Austen - in the 100% canon mainstream DCU comics.

It's not going to be for everything, because nothing is. It's completely fine if you don't like WFA. No one has to read it or enjoy it. If you're into Batman for the darkness and the crime and the ongoing plotlines and the angst, WFA won't be for you, and that's totally fine!

But to finally, finally be valued as a reader by DC, to have them do something smart and innovative and so, so well executed, and have the exact people they made it for dismiss it out of hand because Bruce has a "World's Okayest Dad" mug or whatever? Yeah, that chafes.

[spocks-husband]

✨Axel's Ultimate Batman Video Game Play Guide and Reviews

You guys seemed to enjoy the previous version of this I did with all the Batman Animated shows, and now that I'm done with all the Batman games I thought I'd post my thoughts on those too! I decided to do this one in just like. Regular text format. Bc I didn't feel like editing all these into images like I did for the last one. So uhhh lemme know which format you prefer lol.

Anyways, please enjoy my comprehensive thoughts and feelings on (almost) every modern Batman game, five months in the making because I have no life. Enjoy!

🦇

Batman: Arkham Asylum (2009)

My Personal Rating: 7/10

My Total Hours Played: 17.1 

Steam Rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (96%)

Description: The first game in the Batman Arkham Series. Based off the iconic Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth comic from 1989 (aka the only good thing Grant Morrison has ever produced in his entire feeble life). The inmates at Arkham Asylum have begun a violent riot, and as Batman goes through the hospital to stop them, he uncovers a sinister conspiracy involving his greatest enemies.

Play If You're Looking For: An intro to the Arkham Series, a very different interpretation of Arkham Asylum compared to other versions of Batman, and some really dark aesthetics. Also, this isn't explicitly canon, but according to this series’ timeline, this game takes place in the space between Jason's death and Tim’s arrival, so if you're interested in a very dark, brooding, traumatized Bruce, playing this game with that information changes it a lot. 

Things I Liked:

Genuinely really scary

Incredible atmosphere 

Both Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamil are featured in their iconic roles

Really well written

Birthed a bunch of really iconic Batman memes (go to the r/Arkham subreddit, it's so funny unfortunately) (OFFICER BALLS.)

This was actually my introduction to Oracle and I love her more than anything in these games

Things I Didn't Like:

The graphics aren't fantastic but to be fair it was 2009 so

THE FUCKING BANE BOSS FIGHT. GOD. FUCK YOU BANE. THAT SHIT TOOK ME SO LONG.

The Killer Croc boss fight wasn't super difficult but it was so scary that I cried the first time I played it so. Keep that in mind.

Batman: Arkham City (2011)

My Personal Rating: 9/10

My Total Hours Played: 27.5

Steam Rating: Overwhelmingly Positive (95%)

Description: The second game in the Batman Arkham Series. After the riot at Arkham Asylum, Sharpton ascends to the mayor's office and cuts off about 6.4 acres of Gotham as ‘Arkham City’; a walled off portion of the city where crime runs rampant and mostly untethered. 

Play If You're Looking For: Agonizing Brutalia angst, a fight with pretty much every Batman villain who's ever existed (except for Scarecrow but that's for AK), a tiny sprinkle of Brucie Wayne right at the beginning, and an INCREDIBLE story that is generally agreed to be the best in the series. 

Things I Liked:

TONS of collectibles

Taliaaaaa my angelllll <<3

The side missions are really great

If you get the DLC, there's a special game section focused around Harley where you play as Tim’s Robin and it's super fun

The story is just. My god. It's so good. It's SO good. 

The map is massive and there's so much to do, I was still playing weeks after I finished the story

Things I Didn't Like:

As much as I loved the collectibles there's like over 400 of them in the game and I couldn't get all of them and it still pisses me off 

You have to play as Selina a few times in order to progress and she's like super weak compared to Bruce (not in a misogynistic way on my part I mean like she genuinely dies after like two good hits) and her dialogue annoys tf out of me. Sorry I'm a hater. 

Batman: Arkham Origins (2013)

My Personal Rating: 9/10

My Total Hours Played: 27.2

Steam Rating: Very Positive (89%)

Description: The third game in the Batman Arkham Series– but this one is a prequel! I actually played this one after Arkham Knight but. Shhh. Anyways, this game is based loosely off the world presented in the Batman: Year One comics, and follows a younger Bruce in his early days as Batman, including the origins (lol) to many of his greatest enemies as they try to hunt him down, with their efforts spearheaded by a certain someone behind the scenes. Also it's Christmas!

Play If You're Looking For: Little baby angsty Bruce being a problem child, a game where you get to punch cops, and tiny tiny tiny baby Babs being adorable (she's like twelve and she's so cute).

Things I Liked:

I don't usually care about the soundtracks for video games but. FUCK the music is good. It's all based on Christmas/Nutcracker music and it's really really cool

This game genuinely helped me get over a lot of really deeply ingrained trauma surrounding Christmas /gen

Fun little Mad Hatter side mission!

Batman and Riddler argue like teenage boys (because they are)

Alfred and Bruce's relationship has some genuinely really beautiful characterization in this and their arch is really enjoyable 

Things I Didn't Like:

FUCKING. BANE. HE HAS LIKE THREE SEPARATE BOSS FIGHTS AND THEY'RE ALL SO HARD AND SCARY AND AND AND AHHHH 

The graphics are a little iffy but to be fair my view was skewed bc I played this right after finishing Arkham Knight

Batman: Arkham Knight (2015)

My Personal Rating: 8.5/10

My Total Hours Played: 47.9

Steam Rating: Very Positive (91%)

Description: The fourth and (kind of) final installment of the Batman Arkham Series (not counting Arkham Shadow because idgaf). Scarecrow is back, and threatening Gotham with a new fear toxin compound, resulting in a mass evacuation… but something else is going on here too, and Batman has a new enemy who may be his most dangerous yet. 

Play If You're Looking For: agony, pain, suffering, nightmares, tears, emotional exhaustion, etc. 

Things I Liked:

Really well written story (it's just really traumatizing)

Some of the most beautiful graphics in any video game like. Ever.

The DLC suits are SO COOL, you can play as Flashpoint Batman….

Really really great fighting mechanics that make combat actually really enjoyable even though that's not really what I'm here for

Amazing side missions; there's basically a side mission for every mechanic in the game, so whatever your favorite part is there's a little section where that's pretty much all you do

Things I Didn't Like:

This game took me WEEKS to get through because the story is so painful it was genuinely not fun half the time 

The ending isn't very satisfying (to me)

You know the concept of the “all is lost moment” in story telling? Yeah, this game’s “all is lost moment” is like 80% of the game. Everything is lost like. Most of the time. 

Oh we're just not gonna talk about Talia. After all that shit in Arkham City. Okay. Cool. 

Selina is so annoying in this game, there's this whole side mission that's basically just her and it's really irritating

FUCK YOU EDWARD NYGMA THAT DRIVING COURSE WAS BULLSHIT AND I COULDN'T GET THROUGH IT NO MATTER HOW HARD I FUCKING TRIED

I actually just kinda hate driving games generally and there's a LOT of driving in this game but you get used to it eventually and it becomes easier

Gotham Knights (2022)

My Personal Rating: 10/10

My Total Hours Played: 46.9

Steam Rating: Mixed (68%)

Description: Batman is dead, leaving Dick, Jason, Barbara, Tim, and Alfred to pick up the pieces and finish what he started. 

Play If You're Looking For: Batfam content, a perfect mix of “holy shit I haven't cried this hard in years” and “this is the funniest thing anyone has ever produced ever, goofy dialogue and one liners, and casual queer rep.

Things I Liked:

The map is HUGE and genuinely feels so unbelievably alive in a way that I don't think any other Batman game even comes close to in its depiction of Gotham– like I could write ESSAYS about how well this game captures the experience of living in a big city like Gotham (let me know if you want me to make a post about that actually lol)

Collectibles that are actually reasonable and fun

Super fun side missions

Absolutely gorgeous graphics 

The characters can emote and all the Batkids have their own dance moves :( and Jason dances like he's 70 years old it's really cute :(

Even after completing everything in the entire story it's STILL fun to go patrolling because it keeps generating new crimes– premeditated or otherwise– for you to fight and it's really fun

The Batkids have a pride flag in their house ☹️ and Dick has a bi flag mug ☹️

Things I Didn't Like:

Literally everyone hates this game for NO FUCKING REASON it's genuinely fantastic you guys are just losers

Talia is unfortunately characterized kinda shitty and it makes me sad bc her design is incredible but she does some OOC stuff :(

You can customize your suit but not as extensively as I would've liked 

This game gets kinda hard to play at points because it's really hard to see your screen through all the tears (cough cough the last boss fight cough cough)

Batman: The Telltale Series (2016)

My Personal Rating: 5.7/10

My Total Hours Played: 9.1

Steam Rating: Very Positive (86%)

Description: A 5 episode point-and-click adventure following Bruce Wayne as he faces some of his biggest challenges, both as Bruce and as Batman. 

Play If You're Looking For: Minimal combat and story-centered gameplay.

Things I Liked:

I love love love the character designs in this game, this is actually one of my favorite versions of Bruce possibly ever

You get a lot of opportunities to make Bruce and Selina kiss in this game and I said no every single time and it was very gratifying for me 

Alfred and Bruce have an incredibly sweet father-son relationship (if you play your cards right, anyway) and it makes me really emotional because Bruce literally loses EVERYTHING over the course of this game and Alfred is there at his side the whole time

The ending was really satisfying overall and actually made me enjoy the game a lot more

Things I Didn't Like:

Chapters 2-4 are INCREDIBLY stressful, especially for me because A) there's an involuntary psych ward commitment and B) there are a lot of themes around the Wayne's developing a bad reputation and being hated, which are massively triggering for me personally and because I don't have the spoons to play through the whole thing at once I had to sit in that stress for a while before it concluded in-game

Batman: The Enemy Within (2017)

My Personal Rating: 4/10

My Total Hours Played: 10.2

Steam Rating: Very Positive (91%)

Description: The sequel to “Batman: The Telltale Series”. John Doe is let out of Arkham and seeks to take you up on that favor you promised him.

Play If You're Looking For: BatJokes, Angst, and a lot of “Is Batman Good For Gotham?” Stuff.

Things I Liked:

The opening chapter with Mori was kinda fun

I think Amanda Waller was written pretty well overall

Things I Didn't Like:

Fucking any of it lowkey 😭

Same as the other Telltale game tbh

For me, it was emotionally exhausting and really upsetting, but that's just kinda because I HATEEEE the “impossible choice” trope in any almost any media, I just never enjoy it, and there's a LOT of it in here

The ending made me wanna kms because there's literally no good option here what the fuck

Like I get that's the whole point but. Okay what if I kms what then. 

[starryalpacasstuff]

Indian BL? FROM 2017????

There's an Indian BL from 2017 that I just watched. And I have incoherent thoughts

Before I continue, massive thanks to my bestie @anixknowsnothin for telling me about this show and proofreading the post for me. You don't even watch bl so I have no idea how you found this, but I'm incredibly grateful nonetheless

Here's the link to where I watched the show from, there's a glitch in the first episode subs where the subs seem to be from another show entirely, but it's only for the first ep and about 50% of the dialogue is in English anyways, so it shouldn't be hard to follow.(My ask box is also always open if there's a specific dialogue/scene in Hindi that you want the translation of)

Edit: The link seems to be region locked, so to watch it you can use a vpn and set your region to India, otherwise the episodes are available on youtube, albeit without subs

Note:- this post is going to have a few mild spoilers throughout, but I'll flag major spoilers in red

It's no secret that India is fairly behind when it comes to queer love shows if we compare it to other Asian countries. While it has a handful of great queer shows and movies, it's still quite a small quantity. Additionally, before this, I'd never watched an Indian show that felt like I was watching a bl (if you have recs, please send them my way!!). I'm not going to get into the technicalities of what feels like a bl and doesn't, because honestly, I'm not completely sure myself. For now, I'm just going based off of vibes and feelings, and this show felt like a bl through and through.

Titled 'Romil and Jugal' after its main characters, the story is a modern, desi, bl remake of the classic story...

Romeo and Juliet

Well, Bad Buddy was the first Thai bl I ever watched, so Romil and Jugal being the first Indian BL I watched just feels right, no?

I didn't actually know that the story was based off of Romeo and Juliet till the second episode, because I didn't bother looking for a synopsis, and jumped right in. However, it's links to Romeo and Juliet quickly became apparent, around the same time I started to see similarities between this show and Bad Buddy. I also did not know that this show came out in 2017 before I googled it, having already watched the entire thing, which was a pretty huge shock, because this BL is progressive by 2024 India standards.

Alright, enough of my rambling. Here's a synopsis of the show in case you haven't heard of it. (I couldn't find an official one, so I did my best to write a spoiler free synopsis)

Ramya happens to start talking to a slightly older woman at an airport, who believes that there is no romance in the younger generation. To prove her wrong, Ramya decides to tell the older woman her brother's love story. The story from the past is shown to us as Ramya narrates it to the woman in the present. Jugal is a closeted 19-year-old who lives with his parents. One day, a family moves into the house next door, and Jugal immediately falls for the son, Romil. The two of them attend the same college, and eventually become friends. The two of them eventually get together, but have to face the challenges of a homophobic society and having parents that hate each other.

I was a little skeptical of the show going in, but the show surpassed all of my expectations in the best way possible. It's no masterpiece, and it has its flaws, but it was far better than what I expected. It had both comical elements and darker themes, and it did not shy away from exploring the darker themes at all. Oh, and it has a few musical numbers. What did you expect? This is India after all.

The show is 10 episodes long, with 20 minutes per episode, and so it does unfortunately fall into some of the pitfalls that shorter shows tend to fall into, namely underdeveloped relationships and rushed endings. I did end up feeling a little bit like it didn't make sense for the pair to sacrifice and suffer as much as they did because they hadn't known each other for very long, and I felt like they should have been given more time to fall in love with each other. But it also could be argued that the show stays true to the play, and Romil and Jugal are dumb teenagers who make mistakes and stick with each other through them. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.

One thing that I loved the show for was that it showed us that the relationship is not all sunshine and rainbows. They argue, they break up, they get back together, and they do argue even after that. But every time, they eventually work through the issue and reconcile. The show even depicts Romil dealing with internalized homophobia and struggling to reconcile with the fact that he will never be who his family wants him to be. Although I do wish they'd have had more time to explore this, I'd say it was decently depicted and handled. The show really delves into how children are forced to uphold their family's wishes and are constantly put under pressure to make them proud. Although it clearly affects both of them, it's more obvious with Romil, who is expected by his family to date and marry the daughter of his father's boss, whom they think he is dating. There's a metaphor along this theme too, where Romil pretends to like the mango shake that his mom has been making for him since he was a kid, even though he hates it, and when he tries to tell her, he has to act like it was a joke to spare her feelings. The show also goes into the communal mindset of basing your actions off "what will people think?", and you can see how a lot of the characters' actions throughout the show are haunted by this question. Some of Romil and Jugal's earlier disagreements are due to this very mindset.

The show also very candidly depicts the extreme homophobia of society in India. Romil and Jugal had to constantly hide who they were, always having to keep up a mask and I felt that reach somewhere deep inside me. When the pair come out, the show really shows how ugly homophobia can be in India. Their parents immediately disown them. They're mocked in college and wrongfully suspended for a fight that was provoked by other students. Very, very few people stand with them, and the pair very quickly realize that now that they are out, they simply cannot live in the city anymore. So with the help of Jugal's best friend and her mother, they flee to Mumbai, where they get jobs and live as paying guests with a friend of the aforementioned mother. But, even in Mumbai, the masks stay up. They have to act like cousins, for fear of being persecuted. The series depicted the worst-case scenario that so many of us live in fear of, so watching it was something of a cathartic experience for me.

Another thing that the show did quite well is showing how different people and their mindsets can be. Jugal's best friend, Ahalya, and her mom are very supportive, and they help the pair out quite a bit. Ahalya's mother provided a safe house for the pair and helped them find a fresh start. Meanwhile, Romil and Jugal's parents are incredibly homophobic. There was a scene that really stuck with me, (mild spoiler ahead, skip to the last sentence of the paragraph) where Ahalya's mother came across Jugal's mother, who prided herself on being educated and well-read, searching up how to cure homosexuality. Ahalya's mother then tells her off for calling herself educated yet believing that homosexuality is an illness. It is so important to me that the show depicted both the violent homophobia that permeates Indian society and the surprising, warm acceptance that one can find.

One final thing that I loved about this show so, so much is just how authentically Indian it feels. Asian cultures share a lot in common, but they also have their differences, so seeing a show where I can imagine encountering the characters in real life is really amazing. Rather than something big, it was little things sprinkled throughout the story that warmed my heart. The story felt like something I could hear the local aunties gossiping about. The way it depicts queerness in India hits incredibly close to home.

One thing I've learned watching Asian bls is that the ending of a show can make it or break it, but with this one, I'm stuck. The best way I can describe the ending is absolutely insane and incredibly Bollywood.

I believe this show was supposed to get a second season because the last two minutes of the show leave us with a massive cliffhanger. Now, it's been 7 years, so a second season is unlikely, so I'm simply pretending that the last two minutes of the show never happened. But the ending has so much more to it than just this (Major spoilers for the ending up ahead. I mean it when I say major, this is like going into Bad Buddy knowing that they're going to trick their parents in the end).

About halfway through the show, I remembered what play it was based upon and realized that there was a very real possibility that Romil and Jugal would die. The first half of the last episode leads up to this, telling us that they died when reconciling after an argument in the middle of the road when they were hit by a truck. We get a super emotional scene (yes, I cried) where the two families somewhat reconcile in their grief as they go to the police station to identify the bodies. Except... they're not dead, which is revealed when Romil's father hugs Romil's (not) dead body. They reveal that they planned this to show their family that they still loved their sons. I did say it was like PatPran tricking their parents in the end, didn't I? So the families reunite, Romil and Jugal get jobs in New Zealand and get married, and return to India for a wedding celebration (yes, I cried. again). The ending does feel slightly rushed, but if I'm being honest, it wasn't as terrible as it could have been. Believing that your child is dead for a bit is a somewhat justifiable reason for a sudden change of heart. There's a part where Romil and Jugal tell their parents that if they choose acceptance, they can reconcile, but if they choose to remain prejudiced, Romil and Jugal can simply get back on the stretchers, because they'll be as good as dead to their families anyways and it is *chef's kiss*.

All in all, the show was surprisingly heartfelt and poignant. It had me laughing, kicking my feet and even crying. There's a lot more about this show that I could talk about, but I'm going to stop here for now, and I'll try to write more on it later. This show really does deserve more recognition than it has, and I'm almost mad at myself for not knowing about it before. Am I being really biased when talking about this show? Absolutely. But I do think that this show is a worthwhile watch, and I'd really like to see what other people on here think of the show, especially because I'm aware that I am biased towards this show.

I'm tagging a few people who I know might be interested/have some thoughts about the show because this is a show that I really want to hear other people's opinions on and have conversations about, so I hope you guys don't mind!

@waitmyturtles @lurkingshan @bengiyo @neuroticbookworm

[siblingshuffle]

Sibling Shuffle: The Darkman Problem

FINALLY FINISHED. WHOOOOOOO!

I’m a bit iffy about some of the dialogue (idk of its awkward or not) but I finished this late at night and don’t want to change it right now

A bit of context: the question this minicomic is based on is right here. For those who don’t know, back in January I posted to my main blog a question I had about Megaman 5: Did Dr. Light know that the Protoman who kidnapped him in the intro was not the actual Protoman?

While it’s hard to say for sure for the original universe (though if you have an opinion / evidence suggesting either way please share in the original post), there is a VERY clear answer for this universe…

…And that answer is yes, yes he did.

No one who actually interacted with Rock before thought Darkman was him lol

Darkman was trying to go for a "without direction / family / a home, turned to crime" kind of thing. And that’s like. Contrary to his function.

Random civilians? Yeah, most of them could believe it. The Robot Master attacks and fact he once worked for Wily weren’t really helping. His family? Absolutely not! Everyone who knows Rock knows he’s a sweet kid who wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone unless there was no other way.

(Idk if it’s clear but that’s basically what Dr. Light is saying: “your disguise is so bad, you didn’t even grab me or gesture with the correct hand. I doubt literally anyone this was supposed to fool actually fell for it.”)

————

Rock is left-handed! They made him a leftie in the games for readability, I believe - it would look weird if he fired from his right hand; he’d have to turn his body to face away from the audience. I try to keep it so he gestures with the left hand more than his right, but I’m not the best at The Focus Thing™️ and I may have drawn him gesturing with his right accidentally a few times.

To distinguish between Rock and Darkman, I desaturated Darkman’s colors a bit!

I didn’t feel like doing much for backgrounds. The one in this comic is a slightly-edited screenshot from a scene in the game taking place at the very end.

"It was at this moment that Darkman IV knew: he ****ed up"

—————

Next Up: Cave In

As always, please ask any questions you have!

[avaantares]

Guardian Bonus Bingo: Answer

Okay, I'm going to have to cheat a little on this. I do have an absolutely IDEAL scene for the @guardianbingo "Answer" fill, one that contains the exchange

"Does that answer your question, [name redacted]?"

"If I say no, will you repeat the answer?"

...but I realized I can't post it as a fill because it's the penultimate scene in the (very long) story I'm (hopefully) about to start posting, and as such it would be a spoiler. And since there are a few dozen chapters ahead of it -- most of which I still need to finish editing, and definitely won't have ready before the end of the amnesty period -- I can't just post the rest of the story early to fill the prompt. >.<

So since that can't go live just yet, and I doubt that two lines of dialogue out of context constitutes a bingo fill, I'm going to tackle a question that probably has no definitive answer (see what I did there?). It's one that has mystified me every time I've rewatched this series, and which (conveniently) I was prompted to ask again while pulling gifs from episode 3 for my last bingo fill. The question is:

"Why Do We Even HAVE That Library?"

(If you read that in Izma's voice, you get it.)

The SID has a library. We see it several times throughout the series. But we aren't sure why it has a library, because Zhu Hong straight up states that it's not functional:

...And looking at the books, it's clear that the SID library really is the collection of all time. What's the theme? By what criteria are books selected for inclusion? How are the books catalogued? Why are half of them upside-down on the shelves? Why are there a dozen duplicate copies of several titles? WHO KNOWS?

(Well, probably Sang Zan, eventually. But he's not here yet.)

To probe this mystery, I decided to zoom in and see what I could make of the books. And lo and behold, some of the books have legible titles!

Bottom shelf, left to right:

BLOOD RITE Dominique (not sure if that's an author or a subtitle)

CLASSICAL NOVEL (very original title, that)

Arletta (the Comic Sans nightmare that appears all over the place in various cover colors)

(indecipherable; I think it's both in Chinese and upside-down on the shelf, but it's out of focus)

the statue of liberty (style preserved)

LUXURY HOTELS

Read It Yourself With (last word cut off)

CENTURY

BLOODY HARVEST: The Killing of Falun Gong for Their Organs (I am actually surprised by this one; I had assumed this book was banned by the CCP, but there are multiple copies here)

CENTURY (upside-down this time!)

THE CATCHER IN THE (presumably RYE)

Next shelf:

The People's Lawyer

Unicist Organizational Cybernetics

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE (volume numbers obscured by Zhu Hong's hand; it's the book she's taking down)

Something with an approximation of the American flag and a bunch of languages on the spine

untitled

untitled

BLOOD RITE Dominique (same book as lower shelf)

OUYE Sofa + Furniture (this one's repeated all over the shelves, along with CENTURY and Arletta)

Basics of Modern Economic Management (translated title)

Corporate Finance (translated title)

the 10Ks of Personal Branding

GLOWIENKA

GLOWIENKA (but upside-down)

In addition to many duplicates of these books on other shelves, other titles visible on the wide angle pans include:

Anne of Green Gables (good to know this classic also exists on Haixing)

The American Journal of Medicine (we already suspected America existed on Haixing, given the flag stool in ZYL's apartment)

Imperial Crown

Charles Darwin: The Descent of Man (parallel evolution on Haixing? *rimshot*)

The Hotel Book

None of these titles seem particularly relevant to the SID's function -- except, perhaps, for the Justice of the Peace regulations, which Zhu Hong was actually looking for -- which makes me think there must either be a secret code of some kind, or the SID once raided an IKEA OUYE and took all their prop display books into evidence, and then someone at the SID later saw all the books and assumed it was a reference library.

A lot of the titles in this scene aren't really clear, but when I have time to pull up later episodes that have scenes dealing with the library specifically (Zhao Xinci visiting, et al.), it might be fun to grab some frames, enhance with the magic of Photoshop, and put them on my 4K display to see if I can find other interesting titles.

Also, I don't have time to go looking just now, but I'd bet the books in the library are duplicates of the ones in Shen Wei's apartment, which I seem to remember being pretty random. They recycled so much of the set dressing, I can't imagine there would be more than one collection of weird shelf-fill.

Zhao Yunlan's tastes, on the other hand, are a bit narrower. The most prominently-displayed book in his apartment is just titled Furniture.

[oyeicher]

Decided to turn my late-night ramblings on Starstruck into an actual post for the three people who might be interested in a little bit more of Yoojae's characterization in the source material. Yoojae reacted poorly to Hanjoon's confession, to say the least, but the novel gives much more insight into why Yoojae reacted the way that he did.

Now the show didn't really explain how Yoojae found out where Hanjoon lived, but in the novel, Yoojae goes to see Hanjoon at his old home the day before the college entrance exam to give him something, only to be told by the landlord that Hanjoon and his mom moved out ages ago. The next day, after the college entrance exam, Yoojae goes to see the owner of the boxing club, who has been feeding Hanjoon meals because he doesn't have enough money for his meals. It is the boxing club owner who fills Yoojae in about Hanjoon's current predicament.

After Yoojae says, "Don't try to preserve your dignity in front of me," to Hanjoon, he also says the following:

Throughout high school, I often went to school hungry, so you invited me to your home to eat. This happened countless times. Why did you do so? Wasn't it because we're friends? So why can't I do the same for you? Why is it that I am allowed to rely on you, but you can't rely on me? If things are difficult, just say so. What's so difficult about that?

Both of them grew up in poverty in the same neighborhood so neither are strangers to not having enough money to buy food. However, while Yoojae's family has made a small fortune and moved into an apartment in a fancier neighborhood, Hanjoon and his mom have been kicked out of their home. Nevertheless, having been through similar situations himself, Yoojae is painfully aware of what it's like to be so poor as to go without meals, as well as not wanting to be seen as a charity case and pitied by others. Thus, after Yoojae's family escapes poverty, Yoojae treats Hanjoon the same as he always has, save for small things like occasionally buying a few snacks and offering to pay for Hanjoon at the comic cafe. Yoojae did not want to tell Hanjoon about his family's newfound wealth on account of Hanjoon's family's finances. Especially after witnessing his parents show off to everyone, Yoojae had no desire at all to show off or even tell others about his family's wealth. As for Hanjoon, he did not want to be a downer about his own situation in the face of Yoojae's "good fortune."

Both of them do what they think is in the other's best interests, but they still struggle to understand where the other is coming from. Moreover, a lot of Yoojae's thoughts and experiences on love and relationships seem to reflect what he has witnessed from his parents, who constantly fight and blame one another. At times, they also force him to take sides. Therefore, it's no wonder that he has such a warped view of love and relationship. And this isn't even taking into account the internalized homophobia that others have mentioned as well.

Hanjoon loves Yoojae so much, and has loved him for so long, that he takes the opportunity to express his love to Yoojae through an expensive heart-shaped box of chocolates, under the pretense of wishing Yoojae good luck on the college entrance exam. We see how happy Hanjoon is to buy the box of chocolates and give them to Yoojae, and then how crushed he is when Yoojae throws it on the floor. But all Yoojae sees is that Hanjoon spent money he doesn't have on the fancy chocolates.

Yoojae reacted poorly, there's no question about that. However, I do think that the rest of the dialogue, which was cut from the show episode 4, gives more insight into what was going on in Yoojae’s mind at the time. [edit: portions of this dialogue were in episode 5]

Are you threatening me?

Are you saying that if I don’t go out with you, I won’t be able to see you ever again? How could you say something like that to me?

You must have known that there was no way that I would ever agree to something as ridiculous as that. So why did you say it to me? Are you really going to never see me again? Are you really going to give me up just for that sort of reason?

Contact me once you’ve sorted out your feelings.

My interpretation is that Yoojae viewed Hanjoon's confession as emotional blackmail of some kind, which coupled with his own confusion regarding his feelings toward Hanjoon, led him to react even more strongly. All this is to say that yes, Yoojae was behaving like an immature teenager, but his life experiences shaped him to be that imperfect person, and he wasn't simply being a jerk just for the hell of it.

That's all I have to say about Starstruck for now and if you're still reading this, thank you for reading my word vomit💕

[rupeenotruby]

Of Courses I Have Horses -Reflection

Ok this is mostly for me but if you have any feedback for the comic I'll leave my anons on for a few days and you can pop it over there!

Anyways proceed with caution, this'll probably be long. Also I'm probably going to be pretty critical of myself here but please don't worry or feel the need to defend me from myself. I actually love critique and if I really do hate what I've made I won't even be able to look at it.

Stats:

Expected Time: Three Weeks (Don't clown on me I have ambitions)

Actual Time Spent: Ten Weeks

Expected Length: 9 Parts (73 Panels)

Actual Length: 9 Parts (72 Panels + one big panel) and one bonus drawing.

Pros/the good:

FINISHED IT!!!!! :D I did it. I did it. I'm the best you know how it is!!! I've always been scared of bigger projects like these because of how intimidating they can get but I did it! I got to the end! And about 83.56% of the panels had an environmental background (not all unique but hey whaddyagonnado).

People liked it!! (unless everybody is lying to me *-* jk jk too many people for that to be true). Sure you shouldn't measure your success on other's opinions but it is nice to know that I'm not alone in my enjoyment of my work.

Updated it pretty regularly! Good to know if I ever want to make a real webtoon.

Horses Researched ✅ I probably have some blind spots having not actually interacted with horses all that much but eh. It is fanfic in the end.

Cons/the bad:

I don't like posting while writing/drawing. Too much pressure even if the pressure was kinda good to motivate me and it was technically imagined anyways.

Colors are ugly. I'm not sure why I chose that color of sky but hmmm.

Backgrounds are present but uninspired and bland. The colors contribute to this but also the fact that I didn't draw the backgrounds before I drew the people most of the time. I also was just referencing images from botw (if you couldn't guess) and this lead them to be flat and like they were not existing where the characters were existing sometimes.

Too wordy in some places. Despite the fact that I chose to do four panel chunks to practice brevity I ended up being too verbose in some situations. One of these was Legend's episode. I felt like people wouldn't get the joke so I over explained it in the dialogue but even then I still don't think people got it got it. This is usually fine but when you over correct and still end up failing it is bad because you end up failing both ends (so to speak). Also the words were not always that good or polished.

Characters were off model frequently. The horses were the worst part as their head shapes would change frequently. This is most likely a result of my lack of experience drawing horses (why I decided to go with a series where I would have to draw a bunch of horses no one will know).

Characters were also ooc (probably) Wild was a little too happy/silly, Four was a little too irrational, Legend was mean mean instead of more accidently mean, and I think the others were fine. They just didn't really get to showcase their personalities all that much.

Lessons for next time:

MAKE A REF SHEET!!! I had to go back and forth between old pages to get the colors and it was such a hassle. Made me not want to color which is bad because I already don't like coloring all that much.

Crank up the threshold on the bucket tool when coloring. Leads to more being colored in and less white bits to fill in later

Write it all out before!! Especially if short like this. Makes it easier.

Put the words before sketching dummy!!! Saves many headaches.

Speaking of which, maybe set the background to be grey so you get less headaches (maybe, unconfirmed if this was the cause of headaches).

Draw (sketch) the background before drawing the characters.

Add clouds to the sky.

Do wrist exercises! Real ones!

Conclusion:

Good experience all around. Many things learned about myself and my creative process. Still not a horse girl but maybe one day.

Anyways this is probably the last you will see of "Of Courses I Have Horses." On to bigger and brighter things!

[jacky-rubou]

Twenty Questions for Fic Writers

thank you @septic-dr-schneep for the tag!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

44 public works, 48 if you count anonymous

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

486,495

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Gravity Falls, which is the only one I really write for. Any other fandoms I have are either from previous fandoms or crossovers with Gravity Falls lmao

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. A Hug For Those Who Need It with 205 kudos (first fic to hit 200, woot woot) 2. The Trouble With Sweaters with 190 kudos 3. Sometimes All It Takes Is A Sleepover with 132 kudos 4. He Signs I Love You with 125 kudos 5. In The Dark with 112 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always try to at least give them a single sentence of gratitude, if not an author's cut of why I did what they liked. Sometimes just a heart if their comment doesn't have much to respond to. or a winky face if I'm being coy lol. I just like to let my readers know that I appreciate the comments and that they're not commenting into a void lol.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

that is so hard because almost all my fics are angsty in some way haha. but i guess there are some with bittersweet endings that aren't as crushing as others, so I'll go with Sacrifices Must Be Made (major gore warning), The Things You Can't Live Without, The Twist of the Knife That is Fate, and Lost in Loving Memory (suicide and self harm warning) all with major character death.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

define 'Happiest'. i got some hopeful endings after soul crushing angst like Not So Different (And We're Dying For It) (suicide attempt warning) and Barely Living (And All It Takes Are Some Pills but idk.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

occasionally. mostly just peeps upset at pacing or my weird choices. i haven't gotten a lot. if i do, i delete it right away usually.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

haha no. (no shame on anyone who does but... that's not my style)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I've written a fair bunch. I think the wildest one was a Courage The Cowardly Dog and Undertale fic I abandoned on ffnet.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no idea if I have and hopefully i haven't. anyone who notices someone stealing a fic of mine please let me know.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

if i have, they haven't asked or told me about it.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

nope and the idea terrifies me. though if helping with ideas counts, i have had someone help me with one of my fics in a more 'major' way but i don't want to talk about them further for personal reasons.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

right now, i like fiddauthor.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

there's a wip i made a few months ago inspired by a small angsty comic about ford's ptsd being triggered by water guns and almost shooting his family with a real gun i saw but i lost interest pretty quick when i didn't know where the hell to go with it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

emotions. i have made many a reader cry and i love that about my writing. and I think I have a good grasp on world-building.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

probably my bias towards specific characters blinding me to implications. specifically Ford.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I think it's fine. I don't do it because I fear writing something wrong. Also I don't really write with characters that would know other languages (except for Stan I guess but I don't get very much opportunity to add it where it makes sense haha)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

regrettably, the transphobic wizard franchise mixed with Sonic the Hedgehog for some godforsaken reason. never posted it anywhere though, thank god. just something i handwrote as a kid. for first ones I've actually posted, see the courage the cowardly dog and undertale fic on ffnet i mentioned earlier.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

ARRRGGGGHHHH SO HARD TO CHOOOSE!!!

A few I love from myself are my suicide!ford duology (soon to be trilogy, shhhh), my paralysis!ford trilogy, my blind!ford duology, and Dead On Arrival

anyway, tagging @ferretwhomst and @thereareeyesinsidethetrees

[flowervolcano]

Oh man… I just read Deadpool (2024) #6 and I GOT MUCH TO SAY. But I’m gonna keep this Taskpool centric, I might do an overall review on the full series later but there’s a few talking points specifically about Taskpool I’ve gotta say before I forget ‘em.

spoilers beyond the cut so DO NOT READ IF YA DON’T WANNA GET SPOILED!!!

At least I hope this works. It’s been a while since I’ve done this, I don’t usually even do review type thingys but I’m really hyped ^^

Let’s begin….

Really loved the way Tasky looked here. But also find this pretty funny considering back in Despicable Deadpool he threw a guy/his wheelchair at Taskmaster.

Interestingly enough, Wade called him Taskmaster more times in this comic than the previous ones. But he’s on business mode rn so he’s definitely keeping it professional!

Because not too much later he then calls him Task-Daddy— WHY DID HE DO THAT???? Tasky, you aren’t getting out of this anymore, I’m sorry… I had to full stop and process this. We kept making jokes… we did it for months now and Wade finally said what we all been saying 😭💀

This just interested me a lot. Both of them are talking about new territory, but it’s not the same kind. I think it’s really important for Tasky because he’s never actually been a father-like figure to anyone (not even his own daughter…) but maybe I was reading too much into this—

I know this is very much in character for Tony to wanna brand more since he’s broke, likes good business, etc, but I can’t help but feel like this equals him being a dad to Ellie, why? he’s never had to brand anybody before, but he obviously saw promise in her and even if Wade may have thrusted this mentorship onto them both, he didn’t HAVE to do it like this, that he is explaining the reasoning just felt like an excuse/deflection, it was like he WANTED to have a piece of himself in her outfit but he’s just gotta act cool about it.

I won’t lie when I say this “No Killing Rule” has piqued my interest the most, because to me, rules are made to be broken. And I am intrigued to see where this leads in the future and what will unfold. It is sort of a big deal for Wade to put onto Taskmaster, and I can think about how he may react if Ellie crosses that line— I mean it is his responsibility… I’m wondering if I’m thinking too much on this!

At first I just wanted to add this in and say isn’t he just gorgeous here? But then I realized the dialogue is something to poke at. He’s somewhat pulling her leg here, but I also think it could be interpreted in a few different ways; he’s never gonna admit that he’s protective of her, but he is. It’s not just hit reputation that he’s concerned about okay?

I also think it may be how he’s worked with Wade for a very long time, but with her, it’s a whole new world. It could go a lot of ways, but I’d like to think there’s a part of Taskmaster that is going to miss working alongside Wade and he doesn’t wanna confess. But being around Ellie is just gonna be a reminder.

Being around Ellie might remind him of his own daughter that he knows nothing about. And maybe he feels regretful about this. Idk maybe he doesn’t even remember her at all… depends on the writer.

—————

Loving the dynamic he’s got with her so far. They’re goofy and silly and I love to see him being the funny guy in the situation while Ellie is more serious. Nice change from Wade & Tasky. Really appreciate Ellie is her own person and not just a Deadpool 2.0, I think Tony likes that about her too.

Finally. Love seeing these two interact. A lot. This is something I will REALLY miss now that… well you know… now that stuff happened…. And at this very moment NEITHER TASKY OR ELLIE KNOW THAT WADE IS DEAD OH I AM SICK!!! (Also why did Wade look extra cute here… there was zero reason for it. Thank you Artist!!!)

Uh yeah and these were my little thoughts and such. I might of jumped over things and I’ve never really done posts like these. But this issue really itched my brain and so I wanted to discuss stuff a little haha. Hope y’all enjoy and ofc enjoyed the new issue!!!

[otakween]

Digimon World 4 - Final Thoughts

Whelp, that was...something. This game is objectively bad, but I still had a good, brain rotting time. It falls into the "game to zone out on the couch to" category. The lack of much story, characters or dialogue means I got in some quality podcast/music time as well. It's pretty similar to Digimon World 2 in its crappiness, but I found DW4's gameplay more satisfying. I think DW2 has the more appealing art style though, so they even out to the same rank basically. Full thoughts below!

Notes:

So this is loosely based on the Digimon X-Evolution CG film I posted about before. I was disappointed to see that the opening credits are just a hodge podge of scenes from said movie. That's pretty boring and lazy if you ask me. I picked Dorumon to control in honor of the film's protag (and since it would be a more novel experience).

I found any weapon aside from the guns to be a colossal pain to use, so I just used guns and guns alone for the entire game lol. At least I was able to get tech points quickly that way!

This game has the most unbalanced difficulty levels ever. It's either stupid hard or stupid easy. Luckily, the stupid easy moments are far more frequent. Every time I fought a boss I braced myself only to just button mash my way to the end in like a few minutes. Most of them were jokes. On the other end of the spectrum, the beginning of the game was weirdly hard because I would get mobbed by enemies and massacred in like two seconds (this is when I realized I should be using the guns lol). It's hard to have much strategy because most battle moves you can do (spin attack, charged attack, block) suck control-wise. My strat for most of the game was either the ole "shoot and run" or just to get up on a high ground where I was invincible. The latter move kinda felt broken and was part of what made the game stupid easy.

Thank God I emulated this game. Although it's mostly easy, there are definitely moments where it's easy to die. Some dungeons will lock you into the tightest corners and then just spawn like a jillion enemies out of nowhere (the Otamamon and Infermon were the WORST). Some of the harder bosses had some pretty cheap moves too. Save states were the VIP, as usual.

The plot of the game is really basic and the writing is just as wonky as DW2. Basically all you need to know is that there's a virus that's bad and you need to get rid of it. It doesn't get any deeper than that and there are no twists or turns. Ophanimon, Seraphimon, and Leomon are the only characters with significant dialogue (none of the bosses talk) and they really don't have anything interesting to say (I did like Ophanimon and Seraphimon's models tho)

The dungeons were definitely better than DW2 in terms of visuals/layout, but the enemies felt super repetitive. You get maybe 3 types of enemies per dungeon and then you just fight those same 3 again and again and again.

The dungeons are unreasonably long slogs with no way to save in the middle of them. I had save states so I was okay, but sometimes a dungeon would take me over two hours?? Like wtf. I know kids have a lot of free time but some of them aren't even allowed to game for 2 hours straight!

Of course, I played this single player. I actually think it'd be really fun as a multiplayer game? Like, that's probably what it was actually built for. There are actually some moments where you can't go to certain parts of dungeons without a buddy :'(

The bosses were mostly big bads from the series/movies which was fun. Made it awkward when I defeated them so easily though lol

All of the walkthroughs for this game suck lol. The one I used for the majority of the game the guy literally kept writing "I don't remember what happens in this dungeon. Just go through it." LOL thanks for nothing, bud. He said "I don't remember" sooo many times it was comical.

I poked around on the internet looking for info for this game and it seems the general consensus in the fandom is that it's pretty abysmal. Still, there are people like me that got enjoyment out of it regardless.

The little noises Dorumon made when attacked were very cute

I never bothered with digivolution. You don't get digivolution until late in the game and if you digivolve it reverts you to levl 1. Nuts to that!

I also didn't bother with any side quests because they sounded extremely not worth it (some of them don't even have a reward?)

I was pretty under-leveled at the end of the game (barely scraping level 30) but I felt like I had infinite healing basically because I had so much MP. That's another aspect of the game that felt broken.

The ending of this game was SO anti-climactic. I defeated the boss, returned to the hub world expecting a cutscene, and then it went straight to credits. No dialogue, no thank you, nothing. I had to go around and talk to people to get some thank yous but they didn't sound that appreciative really lol. Where are my flowers!? 😭 This took me over a month of tedium!

One part of the game that I did find pretty hard was the Storm Train where you have to get to the end of a train track while hitting the right levers while simultaneously fighting of a ton of enemies. If I had to do that without save states, I probably would have given up lol

I never really regret beating a video game, even if it kinda sucked. It's especially nice to check off another game in a series (even though the World series isn't really connected). I give Digimon World 4 a 5 out of 10.

[rcbirdy]

So yesterday was Hourly Comic Day and I actually remembered to do it this year! I posted these on Bluesky as I drew them (because I have a Bluesky now), but here they are all together for Tumblr.

[ID: Six images showing the life of the artist. Individual image descriptions follow.

A two-panel comic showing the hours from 12:00 to 7:00. First panel shows the artist in bed with very wild hair, looking determined. She thinks, "I forget every year. Well not this time!" Second panel narration says "Recently started playing Wordle and comparing results with family. Got it in 5 today!" The image shows a text conversation between Aunt, who guessed the word in 3 tries, and Me, who guessed the word in 5 tries.

Three-panel comic showing the hours from 7:00 to 10:00. First panel narration reads "Breakfast," with a side note reading "(cranberry-orange muffin)." The art shows the muffin surrounded by glitter. Second panel narration reads "Shower," the art shows the artist behind a shower curtain washing her hair. Third panel narration reads "Social Media," and the art shows the artist sitting at a desk with her hair wrapped in a towel, eating the muffin. A thought bubble reads "oh yeah I should post these." A splash in the lower right corner reads "RIVETING!"

A two-panel comic showing the hours from 10:00 to 3:00. First panel narration reads "I did a few Productive Adult Things TM…", art shows the artist folding laundry, framing a poster, and cleaning a fountain pen. Second panel narration reads "…and got a treat." Art shows the artist sitting at a table wearing a jacket, drinking a boba tea. Dialogue on the side of the image reads "boober <3".

A one-panel comic showing the hours of 3:00 to 6:00. Narration text reads "Comic drawing and podcast listening." The art shows an over-the-shoulder view of the artist sitting at a computer, drawing a comic about some sort of wormy creature. Off-screen the podcast is playing, and speech bubbles read "Perhaps so we do not get lost, we should hold onto each others' tails."

A two-panel comic showing the hours from 6:00 to 9:00. First panel narration reads "Lunchbossed too close to the sun and now I have a tummyache." The art shows the artist leaning back in her chair with a tired look on her face, her stomach is grumbling and she is weakly saying "nooooo." Second panel shows the artist reaching towards a bowl, saying "Save me, ice cream!"

A two-panel comic showing the hours from 9:00 to 12:00. First panel narration text reads "Finishing off the day with some BG3!" The art shows the artist sitting at her computer and playing the game. Second panel narration text reads "It's my second playthrough so I'm going after Gale this time. (I still think he's a dipshit but now it's /affectionate)." The art shows Gale eating a magical cloak while the halfling player character looks on, thinking "ohhh I can't NOT fuck him."

End ID.]

[watcher-comic]

okay hi

did i promise to make an art... lore dump post literally last month? yes. did i not do it for nearly a month? also yes. and im Very Sorry.

anyway! onto the ranting

So starting off with the obvious, Nanehi's color scheme is based off of the Shawnee tribe's flag!

Obviously more desaturated, but the blue sweater and two yellow stars were meant to show that he's native.

Alright, going in page order I'm just gonna throw around some easter eggs or fun facts or commentary...whatever....

Because this is the only good image I can find of it, Nane wears his parents' wedding bands on a necklace. Because his parents are divorced </3

On page 2, Nane has a poster up on his wall which is my current sketchbook cover in my art class. I believe it's somewhere on my art blog

Nane has a ziptie on his backpack! It doesn't mean anything.

Page 6: The white text that says "what?" is actually a reference to the first debut of Nane - an askblog!

(technically his first word was "huh" but i changed it to what for plot's sake)

Continuing with the black spaces on page 6, the panicked eye doesn't really mean anything. However, the twisted light switch was supposed to represent the noose that shows up at the end of the comic.

For page 7, there's obviously the audience design to talk about, but the things I actually wanna focus on are:

The doodle on the top left, which is Nanehi saying that he thinks he has tinnitus [which he then goes on to immediately deny in the next page]

And the doodle on the bottom right. His fursona is a bunny and if I could, I would've tried to fit more bunny imagery into the comic. But alas :pensive:

Page 13: All the different colored text were the responses I got from a select few people. I showed them the previous panels of the page and asked them what they wanted [there is one distinct person I didn't ask but I will get to them later].

I also want you to keep the... 3rd shade of green in mind [the "i want to see where this goes"]

For this panel on page 15, I wanted it to be known that Nanehi isn't a real person, and they know it. Everyone else's face is squared, even the simply doodled character in the background and the barely visible person in the foreground. Everyone except Nane.

Page 16: Man that's just mold on his shower curtain.

Page 17: There's actually a lot I want to talk about with page 17. Firstly, the design of The Audience. It changed, clearly. Before it was that weird circle thing, but now it's more humanoid - to the point of having hair similar to Nanehi's. The reason being, it's not entirely The Audience anymore. It's The Creator too. Nanehi was based off my fear of being watched and constantly having an audience. The little amount of comfort that the figure gives was... sorta supposed to be an apology to the character- as cheesy as that sounds.

(Also the fact that their text originally said "didn't they already answer that" but was crossed out to say 'we'. The Creator disguising themself as The Audience. And truly, what is to separate them?)

Another thing I want to point out is the dark grey panel. It's the same shade of grey I used for the askblog, and he's smiling in that panel, because during the askblog he was much happier around the audience- or the concept of them, rather.

And then of course, the dark blue text that reads "I know how this ends." That actually wasn't a response I took from someone, but rather a piece of... I guess dialogue, that I felt like someone would say. That specific someone being my friend Classi, who was the only person besides me that knew how Watcher ended. Purely because she had a very similar character and we thought that they'd be buddies.

On page 18, we have 3 entire panels in a different style. That being the style of the askblog.

(some examples)(the last image is where the avatar came from, haha)

On page 19 we have this panel, which you can probably assume what it is. It, I suppose, could both be seen as Nane standing, back to the audience, or as Nane hanging without the noose. You choose.

And of course, the last page. For some reason this fucks me up. Because this is The Creator talking to Nanehi. The Creator knows that Nane has no say in how their story ends, but they're given the illusion of control, because that's all they've been looking for. They wanted control over something, so the only way to prove such control was to show The Audience that they could end the story whenever they wanted. He doesn't know that he was talking to The Creator, he just assumed it was still The Audience. He doesn't know that he didn't really have a say.

This was what he wanted. That's how he's ending the story

[raylangivins]

twenty questions for fic writers

thank you @acorrespondence for tagging me in this! i love shiteing on about writing :)

How many works do you have on ao3?

33, which shocks me because for some reason in my head the number's permanently at, like, 8.

What's your total ao3 word count?

195,093

What fandoms do you write for?

I mean currently it's beatles rpf 🌝. But also Check Please (specifically jackparse, I have absolutely no interest in anything else), Wolf 359, The Social Network, Community (although none of these are an ao3 due to I wrote them when I was 15), and some random one hit wonders.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

live through this, and you won't look back - Jack/Kent, Check Please

if being afraid is a crime, we hang side by side - Kepler/Jacobi, Wolf 359

baby, it's all relative - John/Paul, Beatles

Time May Change Me - Mark/Eduardo, The Social Network

Five Men Roy Ruined For Jen - Jen/Roy, The IT Crowd

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, always, unless I forget!! I don't know why I wouldn't like, if people are reading I am genuinely excited and grateful for that. Why wouldn't I tell them? (I'm very bad at thinking of things to say which aren't just "I'm glad you enjoyed it", but I try).

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I think lately you've been feeling so good i forget my future (in which jack and kent go to prom) is pretty grim not even because the ending itself is the worst but also it foreshadows so much worse to come. Most of my jackparse fic is them as teenagers because I love that "the worst is yet to come" doom that constantly hangs over them in those years. Also one and one and one is three (in which john/paul/yoko have an emotionally fraught threesome). I hurt my own feelings writing that one lol.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Not one of the recent ones, I can tell you that! Although it depends if you mean fluffy or happy by my own metric because EYE think the best happy endings are the ones you have to work through some angst to get. So if you're looking for fluffy, probably Five Men Roy Ruined for Jen; if you're looking for a journey that ends in happiness, then I'd say wouldn't it be? nice makes me feel euphoric at the end.

Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten a couple bitchy comments but generally no.

Do you write smut?

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I've only written one and it's where Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Rec becomes the Eleventh Doctor's companion in Doctor Who. It's cute, I still like it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

God, I hope not. Although, I did have someone once finish a fic I abandoned on ff.net without really asking me first, which I thought was both flattering and hilarious of them. So true, babe. Write the finished fic you wish to see in the world!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I think someone translated one of my old Gossip Girl fics on ff.net, also. I can't remember what language it was though.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I'm not opposed to it.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

All my fave ships are pretty much variations on the same dynamic with a few exceptions. It's comical how consistant I am about this without even trying.

What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

Tbh I never truly rule anything out. There's a post-canon Justified fic that has lived in my head for years, that I mostly haven't written because it's a lot of work, and I don't really care about sharing it that much it's mostly just for me. There's a Dawson's Creek Pacey genderswap fic I dream of writing, but likely will never bother. There's a beatles fic where Paul can talk to instruments that I actually wrote 20k for but it's so dogshit I can't bear to try to fix it so it's going to just sit on my computer forever probably.

What are your writing strengths?

I hate this question, I'm so bad at identifying these things. Vibes? I think I'm good at dialogue but that's mostly because that's what I start with, so it's like the bones of most of my fics. I've been told I'm good at like being thoughtful to all the different characters in fic even if it's not about them or their POV, which is always a nice thing to hear.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Physical descriptions probably. I don't care about them very much and therefore I don't put as much effort into them as I probably should. Also, I write chronologically so most of my endings are slightly lazier than the rest of the fic.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I don't know. I've never tried it. As a bilingual person, seeing people who are not bilingual completely miss the nuances of that is actually really irritating. Especially as someone who speaks Portuguese but grew up in an English speaking country, reading TSN fic was so specifically annoying. And don't even get me started on the concept of "untranslateable" words and "saudade".

It can be done well, but often isn't. Also, if you give me a bunch of text in a language I don't know, my brain is just gonna skip over it, so it's often redundant when it's more than, like, a sentence.

First fandom you wrote for?

First fic I published was for Gossip Girl, but when I was like 11 I wrote what was essentially a Life With Derek canon-divergence fic in a copybook that I showed to a teacher in my school.

Favorite fic you've written?

All of them. But some that have not yet been mentioned on this post:

kissing just for practice - Jack/Kent (idk, I set out to do something specific with this fic and I really felt I did)

i want every other freckle - si-5 ot3 kind of (this fic means so much to me)

tomorrow i'll miss you - mclennon before sunset au (before sunset is one of my favourite movies and i worked really hard on this one)

i thought i knew one, what did i know? - paul's girlfriend catches john and paul together (this one makes me crazy and i'm the one who wrote it lol)

tagging: @softbrah @jeanharlowseyebrows @scurator @wurmzirkus @coyotesuspect @midchelle

[spacevixenmusic]

Unfairly Maligned Games, Vol. 1

Games I loved that got low scores, review bombed, or have some other weird negative stigma attached to them that I think is unfairly earned.

NOTE: I don't believe in giving games a number score or a letter grade. Maybe I'm just bad at criticism or very easy to please, whatever.

Battleborn [2016]

One of my personal favorite games of all time, Battleborn was advertised as a hero-based PVP shooter with MOBA mechanics that unfortunately came out right alongside one of the biggest games of the PVP shooter genre ever released (Overwatch). Thanks to this poor timing, Battleborn - along with several other similar but different games - was doomed to failure, choked to death by Blizzard's infinite marketing resources and predatory Free Play Weekends that just mysteriously happened to occur on the same weekends as its "competitors" major updates, DLC releases, promo events, etc. Battleborn is no longer available to play ANYWHERE as of January 2021; so few people played it after it was review bombed as "the game your mom bought you when you asked for Ovewatch for xmas" (yes Blizz fans used that fucking Simpsons meme TO DEATH, it's their one joke they have about Battleborn) that the game's servers had to be shuttered so the money could be funneled into Gearbox's much bigger cash cow release at the time, Borderlands 3.

Sour grapes aside, Battleborn was in many ways the game that many people actually wish Overwatch was now. In addition to the PVP game, Battleborn had a co-op campaign mode - complete with a story, cutscenes, and unique character dialogue depending on who you brought to each mission - which could be played for character XP (ability tree unlocks), random gear loot (for use in either campaign mode or PVP), and character cosmetics. The 30 playable characters were wildly varied in terms of design and gameplay, and yes I have to point it out every time, Battleborn had both "cute tiny animal in a mech suit" and playable black women BEFORE Overwatch did. The game also featured a very impressive and highly slept-on visual aesthetic that felt like every Saturday Morning Cartoon I ever grew up with from the 80s/90s, featuring a wild blend of 3D and 2D animation that all the other hero PVP games WISH they could have matched.

And damn, dude. If you like Lore in your video games, there was a TON of material written for this one. And I'm not just talking about supplemental media like a comic or a wiki or an interview about cut content or whatever. I mean there was a metric FUCK TON of additional world-building material right there in the game. Each character came with a set of challenges you could complete which would give you the usual XP and money, but also unlocked a fun little tidbit of Lore about the universe. These came in the form of short stories, recorded conversations, email logs, forum posts, shipping manifests, and even fully voiced segments explaining details about each character, who they were, why they were fighting this war, and some fun little ways of explaining how their weapons or abilities worked. For example, Reyna holds her laser pistol on its side, gangster-style, because she wanted to use a very specific gun model, had its internal parts stripped out so she could use an ammo clip of a much stronger caliber than that model was supposed to be capable of, but in order for the chamber to reload correctly, the gun had to sit a bit cockeyed. And that fun little nugget is just sitting there, right in the game, for you to discover! It's fucking cool as hell!

Now I know you're itching to make a joke about there only being like 15 people who even played the game. Yes, I've seen the Active Player Steam charts meme. It's true, Battleborn had a very small, but also very dedicated, community. Despite that, there were so few people playing that we all ended up making friends with each other pretty quickly. It was one of the friendliest PVP communities I'd ever been a part of. We knew there weren't many people online, so we created an environment that felt comfortable for players new and veteran alike. Many of us are still friends today, outside of the game. Because there were so few people online, we also got to play regularly with Gearbox devs and game writers, and even one of the voice actors responsible for at least three of the game's characters (plus a few NPCs!). We organized and hosted our own events, got official backing from the devs for Double XP weekends, held art jams and hashtag celebrations. Hell, I even used my love of this game to jumpstart my serious foray into music by making an entire album of songs for its characters (complete with a bunch of commissioned fan art from the community)!

(art by Leaddybum)

So yeah. Rest in peace, Battleborn. You were ahead of your time and the hate and harassment you got from The Gamers was completely undeserved. I will always keep hope alive that you'll come back to us some day. Maybe as a sequel, maybe in a new format. There was so much more left to explore in that universe.

May our battle never end.