#the TTT ones are also good

[1794]

cs class: ok write a program to play tic tac toe against yourself. aren't two dimensional arrays fun?

me: *reinventing the fucking wheel to set up the world's six millionth unbeatable tic tac toe bot*

[tenrose]

They are doing a LOTR marathon in the cinemas but it's Saturday and I fucking work Saturdays, why do I have to submit to the fatal order of needing money 😭😭😭😭

I can still go to watch ROTK though 👀

[welcometogrouchland]

I am going to try and rewatch thanks to them 😎 (<- unaware of the horrors)

[powerbottomjeremy]

Fyi, a bunch of Redditors are working to archive RT and AH content. Find more info and a link to the discord here, and here’s the site where they’re uploading everything.

Another Redditor has a torrent for every AH video across all YouTube channels, linked here, though no one can confirm how good the video quality is.

Personally, I’m also gonna be nabbing a good chunk of content to store locally. All the Minecraft Let’s Plays, Hardcore Minigolf, TTT if I can get adequate storage, various videos here and there that made me laugh over the years.

If any of you have First accounts, I would suggest downloading any First-exclusive content you want to retain access to. It’s unclear if First content will be nuked once the company shuts down, and the archivers are currently not uploading it anywhere due to it technically being piracy.

[volvolts]

TOO LATE SUMMARY

Luz and the gang watched the cosmic child destroy Belos with a flick of his finger before they ran to the human world. 

Eventually, they returned to the Boiling Isles and saved their home. The Collector disappeared from their world to find more adventures and to do some self realization of their own. With the emperor gone, the Boiling Isles try to heal from the rot he left behind. Maybe one day, he’ll be nothing but a distant memory.

Five years later, the town of Gravesfield suddenly has a pest problem with some kind of creature. 

Or

Au where Belos just…missed out on the finale. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: this is a belos redemption story so if that is not your cup of tea, you are free to unfollow/block/ignore me. i really dont want to fall into archetypes so i will try my best to avoid them. also there will not be any shipping beyond the canon (lumity, eda/raine) and mostly canon (huntlow, alador/darius). feel free to think whatever during but know everything else is strictly platonic

comic in chronological order / too late au tag

more notes under the read more. ALSO, if its not addressed under the cut it might mean it'll be explained later. but if you want some more clarifications feel free to ask and i can try to add it in this post

quick things first

everyone thinks belos died during the day of unity

most of season 3 with belos didnt happen since he was out during all of the hexsquad's time in the human world and when they save the Boiling Isles

TtT and the climax of WaD dont happen since they're heavily belos oriented but the Hexside plot in FtF does still happen

that means flapjack is alive, hunter's eyes are still magenta, and everything with the titan doesn't happen. however the titan is still slowly laying rest for good and his magic with it. king is still gaining his magic like in the epilogue

most of the epilogue is still the same with everyone recovering and moving on. where they are in the epilogue is roughly the same in this au

visuals regarding belos

[anghraine]

i just finished rereading lotr for the first time since i was nine and like i knew the movies did the whole steward's house dirty but The Movies Did The Whole Steward's House So Goddamn Dirty. i know this is not a revelation to you but i had to get it off my chest to someone who understands

I know it took me awhile to respond BUT NOT OUT OF DISAGREEMENT. They really, really did, and so many people are so insistent on Peter Jackson as the One True Arbiter of Tolkien's Vision that the shitty film interpretations of the House of Húrin are also completely inescapable.

I really do feel that there are understandable concessions to the medium and limitations of time etc and then there's whatever the hell that was. The point where Gandalf is calling them "lesser men" and using "steward" as a term of contempt (???????) and clobbering Denethor over the head where the devoutly Catholic Tolkien handled Denethor's despair and suicide with far more sympathy and care ... it's just so bad and there's nothing about film as a medium that requires it to be.

They had limited screen time, sure, and Faramir and Boromir and Denethor are not the most central characters, true—but there's also so much screen time wasted on indulgent bullshit like the skulls cascade and Frodo sending Sam away and so on. I don't remotely buy the justification that handling them so badly was somehow unavoidable and couldn't possibly have been done better for some reason.

I dislike certain choices made with Boromir, though there are some good points as well—there's a lack of subtlety in the foreshadowing that feels a bit like being repeatedly clubbed over the head rather than organically developing over time, but he does have some good moments as well that feel very Boromir. Movie Faramir, meanwhile, is so fundamentally dissimilar from Tolkien's in both TTT and ROTK that I feel he might as well be an OC, and one I don't find interesting or likable. I've always been deeply unconvinced by the justifications of the films' approach to him as the only workable one for the character. But then when you add to that the films' treatment of Denethor and the IMO completely unjustifiable handling of something as weighty as suicide, it just feels like there's a contempt for this family and their people built into the films' narrative that is hard to escape, either while watching it or in Tolkien fandom for the last 20 years.

[argumentl]

Bar Boo summary - 2024/05/27 Boo's 50th bday

Its Boo's 50th birthday with TTT!

They first talked about going to see COMPLEX at Tokyo Dome together recently. Koji complained Boo took up so much space with his size, that Koji himself was forced to stand sideways to avoid intruding on the next seat.

Kaoru said that it was difficult to see from his seat, due to the people infront, so he ended up pushing the other guys sideways in order to see better, and Duttch ended up stood out in the aisle. Kaoru said 'gomen ne' to Duttch 😌

They talked about Kikkawa's high cymbal kick during the COMPLEX show, and wondered if Koji can recreate it if they get a cymbal ready. They ask Kaoru if Shinya can bring his high cymbal in, and Kaoru said Shinya might actually be watching. Boo adds that Shinya sent him a bday message earlier, and wished him good luck for the broadcast.

Talk of the COMPLEX show takes up the first 30mins.

Boo brings out a board with a list of interesting topics to discuss. The first one is 'Birthday memories'. Boo starts this by explaning how he had a bday countdown party the previous night. He was so drunk he doesn't remember much of the party, but he does remember he was desperate fo the toilet when he got home around 2am. Because he was so drunk, he couldn't find the key to his front door, and ended up fully pissing his pants. Strangely after he got in, he managed to completely clean everything up, despite being so drunk. This also happened to him once in his 20s, and he ended up getting the police to help him get his door open then (with pissed pants).

Koji then tells a story about when he was in LA with Boo, doing modelling work with the company Crimie. They had to share a hotel room, and Koji woke up in the morning to see Boo asleep flat on his back, with his massive belly and impressive morning glory. Koni then tells a similar story about having to share a hotel room with Boo once, and nearly dying from Boo's farting.

Boo asks the others if none of them have ever pissed their pants as adults. Only Tsuyoshi says he has. Duttch says he nearly shit himself when he was in America once, but had to do an 'outside shit' in the bushes in front of someones house instead. Kaoru laughs at this 😆

The next topic on the board is 'Meeting people you admire'. Kaoru says that Dir en grey were once invited bsckstage of a Kyosuke Himuro (vocal of BOØWY) show by an aquaintence while they were in LA. 4 members other than Kyo went, but there were a ton of people hanging around the dressing room door when they got there, so the 4 of them just hung out off to the side. To their surprise, they were called in, and Kaoru was super nervous. Himuro asked Kaoru, 'Are you the vocalist??', and Kaoru had to apologize that the vocalist wasn't with them.

Duttch says that at the recent COMPLEX live, Aiji was kinda playing air guitar to the music, and this reminds Kaoru of what Toshiya had said the day before at the Pierrot talk. Toshiya had said that back in the day, whenever anyone called Aiji on the phone, Aiji would always be playing guitar while on the phone.

Teru from Glay turns up to join Boo on his bday, and the others pretty much go quiet after this. Boo explains to Teru how he met all the TTT members. He first met Kaoru while he was working for MTV. MTV sent him to cover/report on a Dir live, and Boo says that Kaoru and Toshiya recognized him from MTV and made fun of his MTV persona. Kaoru says 'no, thats not how it went', but refused to give his own version of the events when asked by Koji.

Boo ends up crying from emotion a couple of times having all his friends praise him, despite being royally fat shamed for most of it too.

[saewokhrisz]

have u ever talked anywhere about your coloring or composition processes? u are honestly one of my favorite artists and i would love to hear any insight on how you make pieces 💓

wahh thank you TTT !!! I did sorta give a very simplistic answer here but it was more of my simpler sketchy style so lemme redo that, ill try to be consise and make this understandable ?? its a bit hard cuz it honest to god depends on what Kind of piece im even drawing, cuz for some i go the whole length of doing lineart flats and all that, others i just just fuck around untill it looks right?

i do usually start with a rough sketch or colour draft, especially with more compley pieces this helps with figuring out the feel, honestly i should spend more time drafting properly, figuring out poses and such but im so lazy i just go w the first thing that looks good

then just lines over the colour draft, fixing lots of anatomy and proportion stuff, and depending on how i wanna do the colours ill either keep the colour layers or merge them together and have the edited colours as the base colour (this might not even make sense help)

see this piece at the time gave me an insane ammount of trouble with lighting and colours, so after trying to render i ended up merging everything together....which i dont USUALLY do but the rendering is pretty similar except usually i have colours be seperated by layer,

ANYWAYS sadly i dont have a process on how it got from flats to this specific render for this piece...but i still followed my initial drafts/plans with vibe and colours and just painted over it, its why i make it after all!

but honestly a lot of times its just very simple colours and just trying to mainting good contrast and values !!!! and THEN fucking around with colours and rextures, for other pieces i kinda just paint as i go? i have this timelapse of my justice piece that may be a bit more help!

it includes the initial colour draft, the cleanup/lining process, flats, rendering, and all that so its probs the most accurate timelapse of my morecomplex work processes, with stuff that doesnt include heavier backgrounds, which is a whole OTHER topic honestly

im sorry if i cant explain it more cohesively, i genuinely barely know what im doing most times and go by muscle memory and stuff i Know but cant. Explain? like i know how light and folds work since i observed and studied them but i cannot put it into words at all )--)0

my brushes also contribute a lot to how i render and colour, depending on what i use, you can find the swatches for them here !

[aroaceleovaldez]

what's your opinion on the trials of apollo series? (if you already have a post like this, you could link it below, i just haven't seen it if so)

I think it has an interesting concept and introduces some interesting worldbuilding, plus some nice new characters, but overall it's not executed well and is an unnecessary third series. A lot of TOA kind of ends up breaking the theses of the first series by creating a premise that basically every character involved needs to be retconned to be able to fit within. It also focuses way too heavily on unnecessary cameos and retcons/overcorrecting previous mistakes. Not to mention how much new stuff it introduces that is... not great. Altogether it's kind of a mess. But I can see promise in some of the core concepts.

My two main sort of main "takes" on how I think TOA could be improved is either: a.) remove Calypso from HoO and instead have her be re-introduced in TOA as a tritagonist in a trio with Apollo and Meg, with the focal point of the trio's dynamic being the intersection of their experiences and how they relate to one another - with a lot of emphasis on Calypso being a mirror to Apollo in both being stripped of their immortality and thrown into the mortal world and having been unfairly punished. Then have Calypso join the Hunt in approximately TTT (essentially her way of taking control of her own life again and regaining her immortality) so the finale is Meg and Apollo on their own and Calypso's absence is naturally felt because we're used to trio dynamics in the franchise. It'd be a great way to break the convention of the series while also playing with this feeling of loss but also hope leading up to the final fight in a meaningful way without having to lean so heavily on unnecessary (and poorly executed) character death. Calypso is gone because she got her happy ending, and now it's Meg and Apollo's turn.

or b.) - and this is apparently controversial - instead of having the protagonist be Apollo, have it be Ares. Otherwise the overarching plot is the same. This way you can keep the plot structure but not have to entirely retcon Apollo's character to fit the story concept. It also finally ties up that loose thread about Ares never seeing repercussions for his actions and allowing him to have a positive character arc that way more naturally touches upon events from the previous series. As a bonus it also allows for bringing PJO!Ares closer to how he's mythologically portrayed and examining some of his mythological themes and what exactly he's the god of. Mars is an agricultural god! Having his deuteragonist being a daughter of Demeter would be really fun to highlight that! Mythologically he's usually portrayed as a really good father! Let's allow him to have some character development where he stops being such a jerk!

One of my core problems with TOA is Apollo's character is retconned entirely for TOA to even begin, he doesn't have any actual true flaws that he needs to work on throughout his character arc, and by the end he's literally just back where he started with his characterization in PJatO. It's a total net-zero. Why? Having Ares be the protagonist instead would be a great opportunity to take his currently very stagnant character from PJatO (and the very little he shows up in HoO) and have him change dramatically for the better. Doing so would also fit way more with the themes of the first series.

[toadallytickles]

NEST 2024 + Gatherings Going Forward (again)

Attended my 4th NEST this year! This is just a quick point-form summary as I’m still dropping and wanted a write-up before I fly out this weekend to see my moms!

Perhaps I wore my “tickle me I’m cute!” shirt on Friday- and perhaps it got me pinned and gang tickled by 4 friends UGH- I haven’t been gang tickled since last June which is WILD honestly. Kinda hoping wishing this June it happens again 👀

Learning that it’s okay to let people touch me. 🙄😒 From my past writing “AUNT 2024 + Gatherings Going Forward,” I shared that I’ve denied myself from playing with friends until everything felt perfect, but recognized that I set the bar way too high and that maybe I just fear that “awkward first session” because I’m really awkward with touching and this fetish. At NEST this year I’ve allowed friends I’ve met and connected with at previous gatherings to tickle me in the con-spaces to break that touch barrier in a fun, familiar way for everyone. I also let myself engage in pick-up sessions with friends to get that “awkward first session” out of the way! I had to reassure myself throughout the weekend that it was okay that they were touching me, and they were touching me because they wanted to~.

My nesting partner is choosy about the gatherings he attends as he wants to focus on those he has connected with already, and can find gatherings overwhelming at times. This NEST made me feel similar- I want to continue attending gatherings, and I love meeting new people, though going forward I’m going to focus on regular attendees and friends I know from previous gatherings. There are a lot of regulars and mutuals I would love to get to know better and potentially play with- I’m just really awkward and don’t know how to approach people, and in turn I feel I accidentally give off a closed-off vibe. I would like to be part of my friends’ friend group, I just don’t know how to integrate! NEST going forward, I would love to volunteer and help out more to continue making the gathering the best it can be!

Oh, I had my first Wawa experience! I tried their Caramel Cookies and Cream Frozen Cappuccino, IT WAS SO GOOD, Starbucks Frapps could never. definitely kept me up way past my bedtime! 😋 Also the mascot is a (Canada) Goose because Wawa was originally a dairy farm in Wawa, Pennsylvania, and the Ojibwe word “we’we” means “Snow Goose.” Now I need a Sheets experience~.

I got to try out @ticklingduck's vibrating tickling rods! @mister-ttt and I did record content including them! They are like a small Pursonic (without it stopping after 2 minutes~)! 😏 I also BOUGHT ONE!! 🎉 @ticklingduck's socials: Etsy, Twitter, Tumblr.

Wore my Geurdo Link cosplay on auction night, even though I was not participating in the auction, and I was extremely shy so I just sat in the audience and didn’t really show it off LMAO!! (Still editing the tickle video featuring this cosplay, previews are in the NEST Server and on my OF~).

I’ve had the literal pleasure of forming a play partner dynamic with a local friend, and he has really built up my confidence, self-esteem, and has helped me be more self-sex-positive. It was exciting to carry that sex-positivity into some sessions this weekend, and I learned that I really like being consensually sexually violated by friends.. 🥴💦 don't look at me.

This weekend really validated my growth and boundaries. Finding this gathering somewhat personally hard to navigate because I wasn’t meeting my exact wants (a me-issue, not NEST's), that helped me recognize that I’m not the same person I was at my first NEST and other 2019 gatherings, and that I’m truly growing. I wasn’t able to navigate NEST like I did in 2019, so now I know I’m on the right path and know what I’m exactly looking for.

And finally on the last day of the gathering, I’m sitting in the lobby in my lazy travel fit, not showered, sporty wind-breaker, capris, my glasses, pink paw print socks + sandals of course, and a guy I’m pretty sure was not part of the NEST group asked me if I was “Kyle-“ and there were other men around. I say no, and guy just wanders back to where he came from. Assigned Kyle at NEST. I have not felt gender euphoria in a long time. 🥹

anyway, the end. looking forward to the next gatherings~

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

What made you fall in love with Copollo and how can we angst this with Hypollo?

I had to marinate this in my head for a bit haha

First - What Made Me Love Copollo?

I don't know if I have the words for it, but I shall try! XD

First of all, I do love me some of that simple, satisfying ships that make you smile - ie, Percabeth - but -

But. But.

There's something about those toxic relationships that are so interesting.

And Copollo has an especially interesting dynamic - Commodus is the more toxic one, but Apollo's the one with all the power. Usually it's only one person with both those things but it's split between them (and note: I said Commodus was the more toxic one - Apollo was also toxic. he was enabling Commodus.)

So the dynamic is one reason. But I also just...love their story.

They relate to each other on a level rarely reached. They had a genuine relationship that was more than carnal, or even just affectionate. They loved each other, and I do think Commodus had just as much of an effect on Apollo as Daphne and Hyacinthus did.

I mean come on.

Apollo gets nervous around trees because of Daphne = Apollo doesn't like water because of Commodus.

Apollo describes Hyacinthus as perfect = Apollo has thought of Commodus as perfect.

It's all right there^^^^

And with Apollo, it's like he's caught in this "I can fix him" / "he can make me worse" mindset.

With Commodus, he's been seeking validation his whole life and clings to Apollo's when it's given to him - and his sanity spirals when he looses it.

They're that perfect mix of "match made in heaven" and "match made in hell". They would have worked but they also could not.

It's just. such a tragedy. which FITS because ya know, Greek Tragedy TM ;)

AND OF COURSE THEIR INTERACTIONS ARNUMNUMNUM!!!!!

How they're so very casual with each other in that flashback. Apollo's bouncing grapes off Commodus's nose for crying out loud THEY'RE IN LOVE YOUR HONOR-!

And then. In ToA. urhhhhhh it's so good. Commodus is That Ex with a picture of his ex on a dartboard. SERIOUSLY. and he THROWS KNIVES AT IT.

LIKE COME ON HOW MUCH MORE JILTED EX CAN YOU GET?

"dear heart", anybody? DEAR HEART? REMEMBER THAT?! I DO!!! LIVES RENT-FREE IN MY HEAD!!!!!

also the two innuendos in TDP and TTT are so good like come on Rick you know what you did there

and then. their final scene together. it's just. ARGHURHMMRM

Apollo reminisces on how he used to hold Commodus's hands with love. Commodus is so fucking eager to take a shot at him. Apollo screams him to death like omfg and the last thing - the last thing - Commodus hears is Apollo's pent-up heartbreak.

May I emphasize Apollo's pent-up heartbreak. HIS HEARTBREAK OVER THE LAST FEW MONTHS YES BUT ALSO HIS LIFETIME. WHICH MEANS COMMODUS IS LITERALLY GIVEN A FACE-FULL OF PROOF THAT APOLLO STILL CARED FOR HIM.

Two people in love, and their love going so wrong when one betrays the other - killing them! - and the other is suddenly hellbent on revenge?

It's all about that lovers to enemies, everybody. Enemies to lovers is good and all but what about loves to enemies.

It's so good armnumnum.

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVE THEM OKAY I LOVE THESE BISEXUAL BITCHES MJHYJUFGH

inhale

exhale

i'm good now. ahem inspects ask angst it with Hyapollo now, eh?

Let's see here...

Well for one Commodus is 100% jealous of Hyacinthus. Like sorry I'm not moving from this hill I will die on this hill you will have to climb up this hill and drag me off it kicking and crying and screaming and clawing you. I'm not moving. crosses arms and sits down pouting

Meanwhile, in the Hyacinthus department, I think Hya would just...not really care? Or well, he'd care about how Apollo took the whole arc but he wouldn't be like "oh no he moved on :(" about it (Poly Apollo is canon y'all i don't make the rules!). more like "bitch you think I give a shit about you?" at Commodus. "YOU'RE NOT WORTH MY TIME!"

I also find it funny if it's this:

this hasn't really turned out as angst but the comedic potential is too good lmao XD

[hariboz]

some bestfriend!yujin thoughts for you nonnie! <3

bestfriend!yujin who never lets you pick anything when you’re together. you’re watching a movie? he already picked one, too bad. you’re going for some snacks? he already has the cart filled with his picks, maybe be a little quicker next time. always picks stuff he knows you will like as well though so <3 he can be a little sweet when he wants. pretends he doesn’t like the stuff you pick but sneakily takes a picture of the snack you got that turned out the be extremely good so he can buy it for himself later.

bestfriend!yujin who has a designated “tiktok-time” with you where you show each other tiktoks you’ve saved over the week. sometimes it’s stuff you want to try, videos that made you laugh, videos you think will make the other person laugh — you could just send them to each other, but the reactions are just a thousand times better in person so you’ve come to really cherish ttt™. but yujin also gets super huffy if you don’t end up crying on the floor from laughter, his humour and choice of tiktoks are elite why are you not laughing rn?

bestfriend!yujin who gets a little jealous when you hang out with other friends but plays it up so much to make it seem like a joke but you see right through him. stares at you with the blankest expression you’ve ever seen when you tell him “well, you’re with gyuvin all the time!” — “not by choice???” asks if you do stuff you two do with those other friends since that’s your guys’ thing and does not appreciate you joking about him trying to trademark your friendship.

bestfriend!yujin who has absolutely no interest in any type of gossip but still listens intently and remembers everything you tell him. “alright so this girl in my class—“ “which one? the one that cheated or the one that tripped the teacher?” listens to the audios you send him while doing his bedtime routine at night and sends you back a whole essay stating his opinions and why he is now also enemies with the girl that kept annoying you all week

bestfriend!yujin who always has your back even if you’re in the wrong. actually doubles down when you’re wrong and adds even more of his own outrageous takes and stands by them. you two have never lost a debate simply for the fact that people can’t stand you two together because it’s like arguing with two walls. at least you’re insufferable together!! <3

bestfriend!yujin who, without fail, will scribble and doodle on your papers and study materials when you go for a bathroom break or get something to drink. you come back with a glass of water and there’s just a random shinchan scribbled onto the corner of your paper while yujin pretends he’s thinking super hard about the math question he’s been working on for the past 15 minutes.

bestfriend!yujin who always pinches your side because it a) makes you squirm b) makes you let out inhuman sounds he finds utterly hilarious and c) it pisses you off if he does it enough times. loves himself a fun little no-stakes fight full of silly quips at each other.

[theotherbuckley]

Tease Tidbit Tuesday/WIP Wednesday

As it is Wednesday here I've decided to combine the days and just do one post.

Tagged for TTT by: @loserdiaz @loveyouanyway @wikiangela @underwater-ninja-13 @actualalligator @daffi-990 @honestlydarkprincess @hippolotamus @dangerpronebuddie thanks for the tags everyone, tagging you all back for Wednesday 💜💜

Here's some more from chronic pain!Buck fic - I thought I'd finish it today but I have a test tomorrow and like 5 assignments to do so I'm gonna be a good girl and actually study. In the meantime, here's a snippet:

“I’ve got you,” Eddie murmurs softly. Buck feels so soft, so protected.

His emotions towards the man are fighting to be set free with every act of kindness he displays. Buck is in awe of him. In awe of just how incredibly perfect he is. How he always knows exactly what it is Buck needs, how he has this sixth sense to know when Buck’s struggling and is always there to help him. How he stays even when Buck is being too much. 

Also, Buck loves how fucking strong this man is that he can lift Buck up and deposit him in the bathtub in one swift motion because holy shit. Buck has to fight his body to stay calm. Now is most certainly not the time for any funny business. Buck yelps as Eddie lowers him into the water, expecting to be met with something too hot or too cold but no, of course Eddie has some magical power of making sure the water is just right. 

He must’ve made some noise to voice his thoughts because then Eddie is saying, “Chris always complains when the temperature’s not perfect, so I hope it’s to your liking.”

Buck sinks into the warm water, letting the water soothe his aches. He plays with the foamy bubbles that have gathered on the surface, feeling like a kid getting a bubble bath. He smiles dopily at Eddie as the pain slowly subsides to a more bearable level. “Thank you,” Buck murmurs, closing his eyes and leaning back in the tub.

Tagging for WIP Wednesday: @disasterbuckdiaz @fortheloveofbuddie @jeeyuns @wildlife4life @honestlydarkprincess @eddiebabygirldiaz @spagheddiediaz @jesuisici33 @your-catfish-friend @ladydorian05 @giddyupbuck @eowon @elvensorceress @watchyourbuck @steadfastsaturnsrings @housewifebuck @thewolvesof1998 @rainbow-nerdss @cal-daisies-and-briars @evanbegins @diazsdimples @fionaswhvre @aspecbuddie @lover-of-mine @nmcggg @tizniz @monsterrae1 @smilingbuckley @pirrusstuff @actuallyitsellie @bucksbackwardcap (let me know if you'd like to be added/removed <3)

[superman86to99]

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #4 (September 1994)

It's... CRISIS TIME! Listen, we're not in the habit of covering every issue of every crossover event Superman appears in, but we're making an exception for this one because: 1) Superman plays a prominent role (as do the characters in my other blog), 2) it's by two of the most iconic creators from this era, Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway, and 3) we just like this comic a whole lot. Still, we'll do our best to keep these posts shorter than usual so we don't spend forever in September 1994.

Fittingly for a series that begins at #4 and counts backwards, this issue starts at very end -- as in the literal end of time, when all that exists is the entropy crushing the universe (and Doomsday, but looks like he was too busy being crushed by entropy to appear in this comic). We see The Time Trapper, a hugely powerful villain with a control over time, being easily taken down by a mystery character who says he's going to "make things right."

(That's what you get for being an old villain in a comic where a new one needs to be established as a badass, TTT.)

Next, we see weird time-related things happening all over the DCU: Batgirl shows up in Gotham City with her spine intact, Dick Grayson is back to wearing green undies, Hawkman is now multiple Hawkmen, Flash is suddenly in the far future (historically, not a very good time for a Flash to be during a crisis), etc.

Superman's frenemies the Linear Men, the time police, notice that something is erasing time, starting at the end and moving backwards, as if God had said "screw it, let's start over" and was holding the backspace key on the universe. Linear Men Waverider and Hunter are sent to the 64th century to find out what's going on and, once there, they run into Flash -- and also a big wave of entropy eating the universe. Flash attempts to stop the wave of mutilation by just running really fast at it (which is how he solves most of his problems in his own comic), but the wave just eats him too.

A Flash died? Oh, now it's a real crisis.

The Linear Men's next stop is 58th century Star City, whose hero is a time-displaced younger version of Green Lantern Hal Jordan (we know he's younger because he doesn't have greying hair, and also he isn't homicidally insane). Before he and Young Hal are eaten up by the entropy wave, Hunter yells at Waverider to look up the word "crisis" in their archives. Back at Vanishing Point, the Linear Men's HQ outside of time, Waverider basically reads the Wikipedia article for Crisis on Infinite Earths and becomes one of the few people in the current DCU to learn the forbidden knowledge that there used to be a multiverse that got wiped out, leaving a single existing universe. The "existing" part might not last much longer, though...

While all this Linear Men stuff happens, we see a repeat of the scene from Man of Steel #37 when Metron of the New Gods comes to see Superman about the time crisis. Together they go off into Green Lantern #55 to ask for new Green Lantern Kyle Rayner's help in producing a hologram of Superman that Metron can forward to the DCU's other heroes. Green Hologram Superman gives everyone a little speech and asks them to come together to figure out what to do about the whole "time is literally ending" issue.

Metron personally visits The Spectre to ask for his help, since he's one of the most powerful beings in the DCU (and did come in pretty handy during the previous crisis), but Speccy is only interested in fighting evil, not "natural disasters" -- even universe-ending ones.

Meanwhile, Waverider learns that time is also being erased from the beginning, not just the end, and goes to warn the geezers at the Justice Society about it, I guess since they're so old and at risk of being erased any moment. Plus, they have a Flash in their team, so he's probably the most endangered being in the DCU right now.

As Waverider shows the old Flash what happened to his young namesake (he doesn't take it well), we see that someone has invaded Vanishing Point: this comic's villain, Hal... I mean, Hall, Hank! That is, Hank Hall, formerly Hawk of Hawk & Dove and Monarch of Armageddon 2001, and currently known as Extant.

And he's totally working alone, with no more dramatic revelations about heroes-turned-villains to come, nope. TO BE CONTINUED!

Poll-Watch:

The results for our Zero Hour Batmen art poll are just in (okay, they were in a few weeks ago, but we hadn't made a post since then), and the winner by a pretty decisive margin is: Neal Adams Batman! Don Sparrow will get working on that artwork -- which reminds me we have a winner for Don's original Maxima art giveaway, too: our old pal Chris "Ace" Hendrix! Congrats to Chris and whichever wall in his home is about to be blessed with a Maxima! To take part in future giveaways (including the Neal Adams bat-art), you can become a SUPporter via Patreon or our newsletter's "pay what you want" mode.

And speaking of Don, obviously he wasn't gonna miss the chance to gush about the art in this issue, so keep reading for that:

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

A short personal anecdote: With a September 1994 street date, the first issue came out on September 10th, and while I was reading the Superman books at this time, it was also summer, so I lost track a little bit of what was going on in comics.  I knew from the in-house ads that Zero Hour would be big, and with the pedigree of Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway—1/2 of my personal Mount Rushmore of comics greats—it was a series I wanted to pick up.  So imagine my shock, after a busy summer, when I stopped in a comic shop (a new one that had just opened up, called Amazing Stories) to see Zero Hour #4 on the shelf!  Sure, it was a busy summer, but how could I have missed three whole issues already?!  I asked the store clerk if he had any copies of issues 1-3, and he said he didn’t, and I certainly didn’t want to pick up the fourth issue without the other three.  So I went to the other comic shop in my town, 8th Street Books, which in those days was much more my regular store (I would later work at Amazing Stories, but that’s a tale for another time) and they set me straight—I hadn’t missed ANY issues, this series was numbered counting down, from 4 to zero, on a weekly basis.  I wonder if any other kids were as thrown with the unique numbering system!

We start now with the cover, and it’s perhaps a strange one.  Sure, the presence of some of DCs biggest heroes, namely Superman and Batman let the reader know it’s a big issue, but having an empty mask as the focal point for a first issue is not the most intuitive choice, even if it’s an arresting image. 

Shining a spotlight on the art in this series is a difficult task, because honestly, top to bottom, it’s gorgeous.  I could easily fill up pages admiring this team, which to me is about as good as superhero comics get.  Jerry Ordway, as regular readers know, is my favourite comic artist of all time, but his observed, photorealistic finishes over Dan Jurgens’ tight and dynamic layouts is just such a treat—every page looks like a poster.  So in the interest of space, I’ll just focus on the absolute best images of all these amazing images. The first such amazing image is of the MIA Barbara Gordon Batgirl lassoing the Joker, in stunning rim lighting from the lightning in the skies.  This version of Batgirl hadn’t been seen in costume since March 1988’s Batgirl Special, which was hailed at the time as the last Batgirl story, being released one week ahead of the tragic events in the Killing Joke one shot where the Joker’s actions left Barbara Gordon paraplegic. In the hands of this art team, the reader can really see what a great design this character is.

Ordway’s texture rendering is stunning throughout but the Wally West Flash’s shimmering costume (and determined expression) on page 10 are certainly worth singling out.  The various echoes of Hawkman is a nice bit of showing off, as Jurgens gets to draw several eras of the character as well as alternates unfamiliar to me.

The “getting the band back together” sequence of heroes reacting to Superman’s holographic message has lots of great details, like the little glimpses and backgrounds (like Superboy being in Hawaii) and I love the subtle Justice League shield that makes up those panels.

The faces in this series are all so well drawn, they consistently look like real people, few more prominently than the world weary Green Arrow, who, with his pompadour and prominent forehead wrinkles, looks like Luke Perry in a van dyke.  Just a page later, Jurgens and Ordway do a terrific job of keeping their own style, while blending the swirly, liney loose inks of Tom Mandrake, which defined the Spectre at this time.  I love how throughout this series they draw the Spectre as though all his lines are hissed through clenched, angry teeth.

Lastly, the Pieta-like callback to Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 with Jay Garrick Flash holding the empty costume of Wally West is a great image, made all the more arresting by the minimalist colouring. 

SPEEDING BULLETS:

It’s only natural that this storyline be compared to the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, which had only taken place nine years previously, though that’s a lifetime in comics time.  But honestly, from the jump, it improves on some of the mistakes Crisis made, classic though it was. The original Crisis focused on new characters it introduced.  So readers had to deal with familiar beloved characters play second fiddle to relatively new (and to me, far less interesting) characters like Lady Quark, Harbinger and the loathsome Pariah.  Yes, eventually household names like Flash, Supergirl and Superman took to the fore, but in those early issues, there was a looooooot of world building, from people in whom we had no investment, and little interest.  Zero Hour wisely jumps in with some of their most recognizable characters—Darkseid, Batman & Robin, Joker etc—right off the bat.  Even Waverider had already been established in the line-wide Armageddon 2001 storyline 3 years ago, so he was at least somewhat familiar to readers, and also had a much cooler name than The Monitor. 

I dig the Joker revealing that he knew that Azrael Batman wasn’t the real Batman.

However, there is something downright hilarious about the World’s Greatest Detective��� deducing “helicopter!” when he sees a helicopter. 

The bewildered Flash on page 10 to my eye resembled another beloved redhead, a young Ron Howard!

But, why is the Flash running around in the 64th century?  Was that something happening in the Flash books at the time? [Max: Yeah, Flash #94 is about Wally fighting Abra Kadabra, and it ends with both of them being transported to Kadabra's original time due to Zero Hour's time shenanigans. Kadabra is also suddenly wearing his old costume -- he did NOT look like this in the Flash comics at this time. He was even uglier, believe it or not. Anyway, off you go to read Mark Waid's Flash, Don!]

I know we already saw it in Man of Steel #37, but there’s something satisfying about Batman and Superman acknowledging the "Knightfall" and "Doomsday" storylines.

I didn’t get this whole scene with Green Lantern Hal Jordan until years later when I read some early Broome/Kane GL comics.  For some reason, the people of Star City in the 58th century would periodically abduct and mindwipe Hal Jordan to serve as their superhero—named Pol Manning—when crises would arise.  When I first read it, I thought that the old guy was Pol Manning, being addressed by one of his council members.  But no, he was referring to the title of Pol Manning, like James Bond or something. [Max: Whoa, I did not know that until know! I always assumed some future people randomly brought in Young Hal to fight the entropy wave. Side note: I like how Not-Pol Manning's facial hair continues the idea that the van dyke is a common look in Star City and that's why Green Arrow's secret identity isn't immediately obvious.]

There’s something a little amusing about all the different heroes speaking back to Superman’s projection, when we’re given no indication he can hear them back. 

Not exactly a GODWATCH segment, but it’s interesting that God’s instrument of wrath, the Spectre appears to be hiding out in a Church.  There’s also a part of me that likes that a ‘New God’ like Metron can be so summarily dismissed by someone as legitimately godlike as the Spectre.

It’s a clever bit of writing that we don’t see what Waverider sees as he plays back images from the Crisis on Infinite Earths, since it’s still a bit vague just what all happened in the present continuity, and what is remembered.  By seeing only Waverider’s reaction, they aren’t nailed down with any details that might be contradicted by present-day continuity.

Some good misdirection by showing Extant at the end of the book, which makes the reader believe that was him at the beginning of the issue, dispatching the Time Trapper. [Max: What do you mean, "misdirection"? He's the villain of the book, right?]

Missed an issue? Looking for an old storyline? Check out our new chronological issue index!

[crimeronan]

I feel like Luz “Separation Anxiety” Noceda would be a bit dismayed upon learning that Vee and her friends are going to graduate and go to college at the end of the school year (presuming that Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior are Human Realm Exclusive Terms)

Like “oh my entire social life actually revolves around you and your friends because I’m too awkward and different to know how to approach people and am too nice and accommodating to any and everyone because of The Horrors to tell anybody to back off if they get too nosy so truly I cannot fathom how I’m going to function in a school setting without you but it’s Fine :) I’m really happy for you and not at all going to cry about this :)))”

Maybe she’ll join the school band to try and become socially independent and then just get really sad cause she misses Raine :(((

baby girl :(

i think she'd have a kind of tough time in a school environment to begin with, honestly. i made a post to that effect earlier but decided it was too depressing and deleted it.... but! since i ended up thinking a LOT about how her school experience would be handled. the gist was:

she'd have a really good 504 plan in place -- 504 plans are written plans that help students with disabilities stay in a normal classroom. it would have accommodations like her getting pre-written notes about what they'd discuss in class, a slightly separate desk to avoid being unexpectedly touched by other students, blanket permission to step out into the hallway if she gets nervous, extra time on tests, etc.

she'd purposefully be matched with the friendliest teachers and the easiest graders, people who are Very willing to talk with her about her needs. and also to say "i'm not upset with you." probably the really relaxed english teacher from TTT is one of them. this occasionally does remind her of raine and make her feel incredibly guilty/sad :(

and i think she'd have a one-on-one aide assigned to sit with her and show her what she's supposed to do in a classroom and help her navigate between classes. most likely this person is with her all day except for during lunch periods, when she takes her break....

this definitely marks luz Other by the student body (as having a paraprofessional does for every kid in a mainstream classroom) but she actually does not mind it! it feels like being guarded & she's grateful to have someone telling her what to do.

(in my head the aide's name is miss delilah and she's an OC who exists purely to be really kind and understanding. because please god give luz this.)

even with all of this, though....

classrooms are not Easy for luz. in the canon, she has CRIPPLINGLY hyperactive ADHD and can't focus on anything going on. she's weird and offputting and exuberant and causes ten million problems.

here, she has a LOT of baggage from belos. not just the physical trauma, but also everything she's internalized about How To Behave. she's learned a lot about how not to annoy him. and school is a public-facing event, which means she's in full Gracious Princess Mode. trying to make herself as small and unobtrusive as possible

so all of her concentration goes into Sitting Still and Being Quiet. she can't anxiously stim without disrupting the classroom, she can't chatter without annoying people, she can't chew through pencils or rip up paper without attracting Concern.

this is. incredibly stressful!! for her!!

stressful enough that she can't really retain anything the teacher says in classes. her homework is always done and her notes are always neat, but her quiz and test scores are Abysmal. because she either can't process the questions or can't remember the answers. because being in the classroom is Hard

which just adds another layer of stress. luz is like. PLEASE don't tell my mom. please please please please please don't tell my mom :(

vee doesn't really understand this -- she Loves the classroom. loves to sit at a desk and participate in discussion. loves to do worksheets. loves to get good grades and be a pleasure to have in class. Behaving Normally is a lot less stressful for vee than it is for luz.

which makes luz even clingier, when she can have lunch with vee or see her between classes. she's microdosing on being in the company of someone who feels Normal And Fine. and who has friends who clearly feel Normal And Fine. and who don't mind if luz is weird around them

luz being like oh!! you're going away. i see :) um. congratulations!! i'll be right back. i need to lock myself in the shower and cry so hard i throw up.

[for-those-who-wait]

i feel like i might have already said this but i like the way you describe Hunter’s physique, if i may. as described by his friends (in your writing of course), his shoulders are bony which i interpreted as the arms a lot of volleyball players have. i have a lot of friends who play that sport and they have skinny arms but they’re also insanely strong (for obvious reasons), which sometimes feel like their bone from how compact their muscles seem to be. Hunter is very athletic and needed to be good at cardio and arms as Golden Guard, which probably gave him the kinds of shoulders a lot of volleyball players have!!

i have no idea if that’s what you were trying to convey when his friends leaned on him, but in my opinion your description was spot on!! it’s just a thought that’s been circling around my head for a while

I was trying to convey a more lean physique but also was trying to imply that he wasn't very well-fed when he was in the Emperor's Coven.

He's definitely got a lot of lean muscle from his particular brand of fighting, and he's definitely going to be very strong and in-shape just from whatever training he has to do. This man is Not Soft, and that's part of why I chose to mention his being real bony since it's a very physical and hard-to-ignore aspect about his past status as the Golden Guard (apart from his scars, mannerisms, etc., you know what I mean). I was trying to give him a sense of otherness in a way, since a lot of the time I find myself writing TTT Hunter as feeling very alienated from his friends due to 1) his previous actions/status as the Golden Guard and 2) being a Grimwalker, something he assumes they would find terrifying and despicable. Like because he's got harder and leaner muscle, and because he's not as comfortable to hug, he's not like them and is somehow lesser than them. Meanwhile his friends are like damn what a cool guy, I should give him a hug

As for not well-fed thing, IIRC there isn't a ton of canon information about what he actually did in the Coven apart from his two mentioned missions (Hunting Palismen and the mission he was supposed to go on [that he ends up going on anyway] in Eclipse Lake), but from the eye bags and things I've seen in a lot of other fics and art and stuff, a lot of people seem to agree that he gets severely overworked. Maybe he's got a bit of a workaholic in him since the Emperor's Coven seems to be a very dog-eat-dog environment and he feels the need to get ahead of the curve. So I put my own little HC in there that he either forgets to eat or literally doesn't have the time because one thing that always gets me is when a character actually gets to experience consistent good meals for once in their life. I will absolutely write that in whenever I get the chance hahaha

Thank you for the ask, sorry for the ramble!

Edit: Also addendum to the second paragraph, I love the concept of "character who is not good at comforting tries to comfort someone" and Hunter being physically very uncomfortable to hug kind of shows that the way he grew up wasn't conducive to those types of interactions. He wasn't "made" to be comforting, or to be comforted, and that just hurts me a little bit