#the character backstories are so deep

[boku-no-anime-phase]

Some evil FMA AUs etc that I think are fun

Riza Hawkeye creating a squad of flame alchemists loyal to her and using them for her own (or Mustang's) purposes

Mustang's body used as a host for Greed instead of Ling's

Rose joins the military to try to watch over Ed, a la Hawkeye to Mustang

Sibling homunculi defect from Father together with Greed (bonus: to Ed's chagrin, they view him and Al as something like uncles); now they're all on the run from their dads

Ling not feeling easy in his own mind after Greed leaves - it's too quiet in there

Scar gets his brother's reconstruction arm instead

Winry gets adopted & trained by Hawkeye

Re-embodied Al donates his armor to a cat rescue so it can always hold cats hehe

Olivier as the boys' parent figure instead of Izumi

Found family for the boys comprised of Mustang, Hawkeye, the Mustang Gang, and Mustang's family (his "sisters" and Madam Christmas)

Mustang dies instead of Hughes, and Hughes carries on his work to honor his memory, despite not being as ambitious as Mustang was

The boys as Ishvallans

[stagefoureddiediaz]

I don’t quite know how my brain got here right now - but I’m thinking thoughts about the way the show has been paralleling Buck and Eddie with each other - as well as with the canon couples on the show - but in a very specific and interesting way - because when you take Abby and Tommy as a collective - they are a parallel of Shannon.

All three are firsts and not lasts for Eddie and Buck.

Abby and Tommy have been intentionally connected on the show (yes making use of a fluke name commonality but that’s what makes it especially clever and interesting) on several levels as being basically two sides of the same coin - Abby was his first serious relationship and Tommy his first queer relationship - they are both Bucks firsts and not his lasts. In the same way that Shannon was Eddie’s first and not his last - the show chose to have buck point out that Shannon was the first girl Eddie slept with - implying she wasn’t his first girlfriend (something that was confirmed in the cut Eddie/Chris conversation about the lake.

If you think of Shannon as two entities instead of one person - Texas Shannon and LA Shannon - it becomes easier to spot the parallels.

Texas Shannon is paralleled with Abby - both leave their respective homes and don’t come back - both Buck and Eddie expected them to return when they had done taking some time for themselves - finding themselves.

While LA Shannon is paralleled with Tommy - LA Shannon asks for a divorce after Eddie wants to have the second child he thinks is coming and to get remarried etc - to go all in with her and their relationship. He is making a decision based on flawed thinking and external expectations after a conversation with a ‘elder’ (supposedly wiser figure - Bobby).

Which is very much a parallel to Tommy dumping Buck after Buck decides to go all in and ask Tommy to move in and starts talking about marriage - after the hurdle of discovering Tommys past with Abby and having talked to an elder (in this case Josh who is a queer elder).

Both narratives are connected to commiting to something due to societal expectations - for Shannon it was becoming pregnant outside of marriage in a Catholic dominant society and therefore ending up married to Eddie.

While for Tommy it was having to mask himself as a straight man because he was in the army and firefighting - both environments that were toxicly masculine and heteronormative at the time Tommy was in them and so he ended up in a relationship with Abby - which then sets up the circumstances for Abby to feel the need to run to find herself.

Both Texas Shannon and Abby then feel the need to run - to find themselves because of the environment they find themselves in and this sets up LA Shannon and Tommy as second firsts for Eddie and Buck. And both LA Shannon and Tommy have grown and evolved since Texas Shannon and Abby and both can see that their respective relationships are not meant to last - that they’re not the right fit - that they are forced and they have the personal development to choose end them before they cause more hurt and damage.

It’s a great play on being firsts and second chances but not lasts and it ultimately shows the suitability of buddie - they make the same mistakes in a different way - both having their first independent of each other but having their second chance/ second first whilst within each others orbits - and because they are ultimately looking for the same thing it is all serving to spin them closer to each other to a point where they can understand what their lasts look like - and that it’s each other

[chelshiart]

In 2011 I drastically reduced my DWJ book intake to dripfeed levels, so it was only in the 2024 new year that I finally decided to read Deep Secret. My god - out of all her books this seems targeted at me personally? Stressed late-20-somethings, making fools of oneself in vicinity of fav authors, artist alleys?? Also, blatant unmistakable LGBT-rep??? I can't believe I slept on this one for so long!!! Definitely putting it on the upper tiers of my DWJ bookshelf.

Anyway, here's some designs I've whipped up for the characters! As always, might tweak 'em if ever I draw more in the future, but that's what's fun about figuring out character designs. Rob in particular is a joy to me.

btw Zinka plsplspls let me table with you

[marclef]

day 6 of Pizzatober!!!

feeling not too good today... hope i'm not coming down with something 😓 but i managed to get a quick little thing done at least! so anyways......

AWW YEAH!!! THIS IS HAPPENIN'!!

[themyscirah]

Complaining abt Suicide Squad yet again but the fact that they have Waller exposing the alien community to space racist attacks and talking abt how she got to her position through deceit and being a terrible person and stuff is just. Ahsfiwueh JUST SAY YOU DONT KNOW WALLER.

Anyways literally the 3rd mission of the Squad ever (and the first framed as smth Waller picked and not orders from above) was the Squad discrediting and stopping a rogue vigilante who was only arresting POC and funneling white people into white supremacy groups (of which he was the most prominent member) in SUICIDE SQUAD #4. and it's explicitly framed as this mission being personal for Waller that she's hiding from the government bc its illegal like. Guys. Please why are we having her incite (space bc comics) racist attacks now

Also the whole "Amanda got her position through deceit and being a terrible person" NO. she KEPT her position through being shitty and playing complicated political games!!! She wasn't always that way like there is a difference and it is IMPORTANT ppl PLEASEEEE. In Secret Origins #14 we learn Amanda's backstory and she used to be a normal, caring person! Like even after she entered into working in government and politics she wasn't automatically morally bankrupt like please people. She was originally given control of the Squad by Reagan (*sigh* 80s comics...) to distract and get rid of her because she was so successful at pushing progressive social policy in Congress. Acting like she's this static pillar of evil is such a waste of her character and so fucking uninteresting and disrespectful to her arc it drives me MAD.

Like I am NOT saying Waller is all sunshine and rainbows, she fucking SUCKS (said w love <3) but like there's a human being there. It's a progression, she has a character arc like please, DC, please!!! They've fucked up Waller so bad and made her so opaque and uninteresting she can't even be the protagonist of her own story for fucks sake!

Like I don't know how many times I have to scream it until DC hears me or remembers but WALLER IS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF SUICIDE SQUAD. ITS HER BOOK. yet right now she's a cutout to be used as the villain wherever the writers please. Even in her book we get none of her perspective really displayed, no exploration of her thoughts with any kind of understanding of the role she traditionally has played and was made to play in the story.

[wassupmygays]

ohhhhhhh bev looking right at Ace when bob says "you greasers don't know where your damn place is"... that's evil and iconic ty Tilly and melody I'll be thinking about that forever

(Tilly talked about bev n ace lore last soc saturday around the 34 min mark)

[softichill]

I'm havig a brain wave. Jay the Killer upon ye (inspired by this post by hairscare)

[astro-inky]

man thinking about zeref and natsu again. man thinking about the dragneel family again. man thinking about the tragedy of zeref dragneel again. man thinking about a kid who just wanted to learn magic and save his brother again. man thinking about a man who deep down just wanted to love but everything he touched died again. man thinking about zeref and mavis again. man thinking about two brothers on opposite sides of a war again. man thinking about

[spritebblz]

Please tell me I'm not the only one who made/makes ocs for the DSMP. It's a piece of media with storyline. This is acceptable, right? ;-;

Anyway, this is Woodland. I was going to draw her work attire, but I lost interest... Don't question the logic of the hair. Just let it exist.

[okthatsgreat]

i’m realizing that one of my favorite ways to create a character is by first establishing a major flaw of theirs and then examining how that will inevitably fuck them up a bit. then fleshing them out from there

[dustykneed]

looking at the choir, ocean wishes she'd realized it sooner-- you were good enough, after all.

all of you were good enough.

[pinkmoondoll9shihtzu]

Pixie my pink espeon OC from when i was 11

[ignatiusteto]

valerith, the red swan

[amelikos]

Something so interesting to me about the way they are depicting Gibeon's close friendships, while Amethio still doesn't have such bonds with others yet.

[bingus35]

If the Hibari = Akainu’s daughter theory is true then it would be an interesting way to give Akainu some depth as an antagonist. Even someone like him is fighting to protect his wife and child. Which would also make him extra hypocritical for trying to kill Coby for stopping the war… “Every soldier has a family waiting for them back home!”

Or maybe his wife was already killed by pirates (his parents being killed by pirates already seems pretty certain judging from his childhood picture). With both parents and wife killed, Akainu went off a deep end and devoted his life to exterminating pirates. Maybe that’s why he said “You pirates don’t deserve a home”. He’s jealous that WB got to keep his family while he couldn’t.

With that extreme mindset I assume he’s not a good dad either. Wouldn’t say abusive without proof, but he’s at least extra harsh and definitely forces the Absolute Justice ideology on Hibari. Which would make another parallel to WB who lets his sons think freely: “If you’re pirates, choose what you want to believe!”

[mochlus]

I'm a character backstory hater ok. a hater. of backstories. people are always wishing they had more backstory for their blorbo well I DON'T. I don't care. I don't give a shit about blorbo's past ok. I get it I used to be in the camp of "you need to know how a character grew up and what their past was like to Really understand them" but that is WRONG. A character is not a real person. they are a piece in a story and to understand them you need to know the role they play in the story way more than you need some nebulous "past". yes, it is true that many ways people tell stories involve a character's past influencing their motivation for their present, and their role in the story. BUT THAT'S NOT ALWAYS THE CASE! sometimes a character as presented on the page or screen as they are in the present moment is all that needs to exist for them to perfectly fill their role in the story! The way they grew up doesn't matter! Their childhood trauma doesn't matter! I don't want to know more! I want the character to be engaging HERE and NOW! How much I like any given backstory is entirely dependent on how much it helps a character to be engaging in the story being told! I don't care about character pasts for their own sake! NOT EVERY CHARACTER NEEDS THEIR PAST TO BE SPELLED OUT FOR THE AUDIENCE