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liedownquisition · 23 days ago

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Hi, Hello, and welcome to:

Snowbirds Don't Fly is Kind of Good, Actually, and You Should Read it and Rethink Your Biases About The Story It's Telling You

By yours truly.

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: now like a lot of people who read older comics, I do have my beefs with dear ol' Denny, but there are a handful of things that your criticism starts to teeter into more than a little bit of a red flag. I'm going to discuss why that is, alongside why I think more people need to learn the core message of this arc.

I HIGHLY encourage people to read Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85-86, which depending on where you read might just be listed as part of the Green Lantern (1960) series because it is in fact technically part of that.

And when you do so I want you to actually read what's being said in the comic, in particular I want you to read Roy's lines. Because it is so, so important to acknowledge that, as a whole, this particular arc SIDES WITH HIM. Which is, honestly incredible.

Like, guys, I'm not going to say you're wrong when you say this is an anti-drugs PSA. I'm saying that if you read this comic and saw it only as an avenue for the "War on Drugs" then I'm not sure you really processed some of the messages in this comic. Because most War on Drugs propaganda is NOT interested in empathizing with the addicts in question, and encourages isolating them ("Just say no, and stop hanging out with people like that" being a familiar refrain from school assemblies over the years.)

Listen, I'm American, I've been having anti-drug PSAs preached at me my whole life. War on Drugs all around me. Grew up in somewhat poorer neighborhoods, literally was told to my face by multiple people that they were surprised how well I turned out because they thought that despite everything I was going to grow up to become a "drug whore." I'm not fucking joking about that one. I had family members say that to me, even.

Anyways, just, keep that in mind. I grew up around dealers and addicts and I have a lot of feelings about their portrayals in media. This whole thing was originally going to be part of a different media but it's probably best to split it up this way anyways.

TW: Slurs, drugs (obviously)

SO, without further ado,

Dennis O'Neil, in addition to comics, has a background in Journalism and some investment in social activism. He actively stated that he thought that he could use this in his comics, especially because, at the time, Green Lantern comics were potentially getting cancelled so he had a bit more freedom to do whatever he wanted. Basically, if it flopped in a probably-cancelled comic anyways, nobody had anything to lose. Think something along the lines of that Flinstones Comic by Mark Russel and Steve Pugh.

Ignore the goddamned cover, it's sensationalist and meant to get your attention, and it does the job. READ the WORDS. The above image is straight off the first page of the book. O'Neil takes off running with the utmost of compassion for the addicts in question, emphasizing their humanity, their mistreatment, and their suffering.

Now, lets be realistic with ourselves: Not every addict is so nobly tragic* as are depicted in Adams & O'Neil's story, but if you've heard people talk about addicts, both then and now, you'd know that it really does mean a lot that they come into this from an empathetic angle. *Yes I'm aware that I called them "nobly tragic" despite actively betraying Ollie & Hal and helping to drug them & leaving them to get caught by the cops while drugged up. Though they do express some hesitation at different parts along the way. The fact of the matter is people often ascribe a certain "nobility" to "victims" that they have enough distance from - whether by them being fictional or by not knowing them personally or changing their narratives after people's deaths to support themselves. in real life it's not uncommon for victims to be unpleasant to be around, they can also be perfectly pleasant people. They're human, and humans cover the whole range of personality and experience. Even if they are not "noble" & even if you do not have that distance, they deserve dignity.

Now, while our first introduction to the addicts (who we don't immediately know are that) they are trying to mug Ollie for money for dope (the dope part is implied). The second time we're introduced to one, however...

We are immediately thrust into the struggle of: quitting. Not using, but how difficult it is to quit. That's the worst part. This won't be the last time we discuss this.

Now, this is an arc where we see Green Arrow, who's typically the more liberal voice voice to Hal's politically neutral straight man, but I have to admit that as a Flawed Ollie enjoyer, I like to see him make a mistake, and he makes a LOT of them here. He is, in particular, harsher with the kids than he should be, and he holds a very very common position of seeing addicts simultaneously as "victims" of their dealers, while also refusing to sympathize with them.

The world is hard for everyone, why can't they Just Say No?

Up to this point, we're looking at pretty standard War on Drugs-style propaganda. But near the end of the story in #85 and for the bulk of #86, this is where I'm going to flat out say that the most important voice in this entire comic, is Roy's.

Roy doesn't at any point hesitate to stand up for himself (verbally) and call his generally well-meaning guardian out for his bling hypocrisy and ignorance. We see that neglect and loneliness led him here, but lets go back a bit and look at the reasons from a few of the other addicts:

Discrimination, cruelty, a need for an "escape." Any even mildly sympathetic media will have addicts explain that's their motivation, and I worry sometimes that people hear this and don't process it, because it's only one part of the circumstances that lead them there. the War On Drugs not only took the people who needed the "escape" the most and shoved at them a bad "solution" then imprisoned and profited off them.

From here we go back into Green Arrow's flawed logic:

He's a good, flawed man. He's like many parents who bring up their kids a certain way, a way they think is right perhaps because it's not unlike how THEY were brought up and absolutely missing the ways that they're harming them. Ollie will eventually see the error of his ways and regret these mistakes, but they're very common and very mundane flaws for him to have.

Alright, I'll admit I included this page mostly because that composition makes me giddy. Like, holy SHIT that's gorgeous. And now we are once again introduced to the idea of the struggle we were shown at the beginning: Quitting Cold Turkey.

It's extremely painful. It's dangerous. It could potentially even kill you as sure as the dope does. This is not something for everyone, and definitely not something to handle alone, which Hal himself expresses some uncertainties over, before inquiring what led Roy to this.

Is he wrong? Are the things he's saying any less true now than they were back then?

Even now there is plenty of pro-war propaganda (Just the other day I overheard someone talking about how their grandfather was in a war "Not World War 2, but one of the other Good Ones."). Even know there's lots of explicit and implicit racism that is treated as if it's justified and really MEANS anything about our humanity (Immigration/border control/ect). Even now we have people who believe that wealth is a measure of a man's worth to society or that it makes them inherently better (... I mean, I don't think I have to explain this one).

Hell, this doesn't even touch on gender (Whether discussing strictly feminism or if it's a trans issue) or sexuality or ableism (Whether physical or mental). Do you know how many people I've heard tell me they won't go to a therapist because they don't want to be reliant on a drug that might get prescribed to them? (ignoring the distinction between different branches of the psych field here, they never know the difference)

These are all things that get parroted to kids. We've seen the rising resurgence of gender essentialism, we've SEEN the rise of neo-nazi-ism, and TERFdom, and all these extremist views and movements and they ALL originate in the exact same place.

"What does that have to do with drugs?"

It's the same story. They're dismissed, they're disdained, they're not treated as equal living and learnign human beings. They are TOLD but they are not EDUCATED and they aren't treated with the kind of respect that leads them to think that they can even believe adults when they ARE being taught.

That neglect will be filled, whether by ideological groups preying on the vulnerable or by drugs or something else.

And here we meet our villain. We see society tossing the children away... and a man profiting off their despair. A CEO of a pharmaceutical company, even. Though, that's not really revealed until a few pages later.

... I'm so obsessed with this page you guys have no idea.

Our villain could have been a foreigner, a slumlord, a stereotypical drug kingpin, but it's not. It's a man with an abundance of wealth and a pristine reputation. A man so well known that he's on TV.

Denny O'Niel may or may not have known about the deliberate efforts to put drugs into black communities and prosecute them for them, but he clearly did see that the root of the issue was NOT someone among them, but something that someone else who could exploit them was bringing down to them.

Bringing this back to the dismissal of the youth and Roy's voice being the single-most important one in the story. Roy explicitly states that he only made it because he had support. Kicking a habit when you're on your own isn't impossible, but it's sure as hell not that far off. And, as I've mentioned, going "cold turkey" can also be deadly.

Now, yes, we have managed to create pharmaceuticals that can be useful for getting people off the harder drugs, and sometimes you can even find it for fairly "cheap"... but in our current day and age I don't think I should have to explain how predatory "Big Pharma" (and the health insurance industry) tends to be for those who have a need.

Like many things these days, even something like a rehab center is an industry - largely for profit, and the ones that aren't are often religiously and ideologically motivated. Even THOSE have issues that many result in incredibly dehumanizing conditions. (I was trying to find an article I read a while back including a few interviews from people discussing the conditions and treatment they faced while in rehab to link here, but I can't seem to find it. Must've gotten lost in all my other links and bookmarks.)

Despite there being places online you can look for how to spot a bad rehab center, the fact that these places will continue to exist with bad treatment methods and a complete lack of regulation and many people fall prey to them especially because they don't know to look for this stuff remains. Even still, and this particular one might be a bit outdated, It's not fully understood how best to treat addiction, especially since the one thing we do know of for absolute certain is that it has to be judged on a case-by-case basis. Though there have been good outcomes recently using MORE.

Social stigma and discrimination Including in media and news journalism plays a huge role in perpetuating these systems. And most people have this mentality of thinking it can be "cured", rather than being a chronic disorder with a management system. Here's another page discussing addiction treatments. Have I made my point yet?

My point is that this comic only reads as war on drugs propaganda if you're only listening to Ollie, who is FREQUENTLY being challenged on this throughout the entire arc by every person around him. Ollie in this is someone who has heard and fully bought into the propaganda, despite being a good person who typically tries to help those in need, He Is Not Immune To Propaganda.

There is a reason that this comic starts with a statement emphasizing that the story is about humans being mistreated, and ends with Roy calling Ollie out.

Ollie comes away from this with a changed perspective. It's not outright stated at this point but it's strongly implied because of how proud he is at the end there, and the ways he tries to repair his relationship with Roy down the line without (mostly) being too overbearing.

I would definitely say the worst part of this comic is that the solution our "hero" (Roy) uses is going cold turkey, which is a miserable, godawful, and dangerous experience. I will allow some forgiveness because it's likely that better addiction treatments weren't well understood back then.

So, in conclusion, Denny O'Neil is not without faults, but if you're issue with his works are "He wrote one of the most human-focused anti-drug propaganda pieces of his time, if not also compared to a lot of our time as well" or "He incorporated a lot of social justice topics into his comics" then I genuinely think you need to reevaluate yourself. Maybe he's a little heavy-handed with it, but have you SEEN people's reading comprehension even TODAY?

Sometimes a heavy hand reminding you that other people are human too, and you need to face the "ugliness" of our society and how it treats them and how YOU treat and think about them is the kind of kick in the ass people need.

I'm not even mad that they used Roy, because nobody is above addiction - not even a hero. It doesn't ruin him, because addicts aren't ruined. It's interesting and dynamic. If later writers take this history and write dehumanizing storyline that frame Roy as the villain of his own addiction, that's their biases, not the original story.

Anyways, ending this on my favorite moment that's not fully relevant but not irrelevant, from Justice League of America (2006) #7:

#dc #green arrow #green lantern #speedy #oliver queen #hal jordan #roy harper #Dinah Lance #Black Canary #<- I debated tagging her but she's in some of the panels.#I don't heavily discuss her role here but it's very important to me nonetheless.#Mashing Meta Bones With Axel #Fuck it I'll post it now.#I considered adding more links #But I gotta go to work

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pluckyredhead · 1 year ago

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Can you please say more about the Lanterns' politics?

I am so glad you asked me about this because I've been thinking about it since I reblogged that post but also I'm definitely about to get yelled at lol. ANYWAY THIS IS GOING TO BE LONG.

Tl;dr: John is the only one with a coherent political position or an up-to-date voter registration.

Hal:

So something interesting about Hal is that his stories are often very political but his character is not. With one extremely obvious exception, he rarely talks about politics; rather, he serves as a means through which to tell political stories, usually unintentionally.

What do I mean by that? Well, for example, in the Silver Age, his love interest would occasionally be possessed by a misandrist space jewel that would force her to attack him, but always lose because women are inherently inferior to men and prefer to be subjugated by them anyway. That's the original Star Sapphire concept. It's wildly misogynistic, but it doesn't mean Hal the character is misogynistic. But it's also a very political story, even if I don't think the writer was deliberately trying to make a point so much as...being an average, thoughtlessly sexist guy living in the 60s. (Carol continues to be the subject of mindbogglingly sexist writing and art well into the 2000s. Fucking comics.)

And so you have Hal Jordan, whose love life was ruined by his girlfriend getting promoted above him and who called his best friend by a racist nickname for decades; Hal Jordan, poster boy for chest-thumping post-9/11 kneejerk patriotism; Hal Jordan, lightning rod for a certain kind of regressive bigoted fanboyism. Choosing Hal as the Lantern for a particular story over John or Kyle has come to signify something very specific, but none of that is necessarily reflective of what Hal himself believes.

So what about Hal himself? Well, when we first meet him, he's the epitome of privilege: a white, straight, cis, Christian (I know he's canonically half-Jewish now but that's only as of the past decade or so), ablebodied, upper middle class (Geoff Johns retconned him to have a working class background, but in the Silver Age, he had one uncle who was a millionaire, another who was a judge, and a successful politician brother) man with a flashy job. Privilege tends to lean Republican; even if he is from California, I suspect Hal voted for Eisenhower in 1956.

In GL/GA, the word "Republican" isn't used to my recollection, but Hal is definitely presented as...I'm going to say conservative by I mean lower-case C. He doesn't have deeply held political beliefs, but he's traditional. He doesn't question the system, because he's never had to. He resists things that challenge the way he's always understood the world works, and that's very relatable - most people do! And he will absolutely argue with Ollie, who certainly isn't always right about everything. But he's also willing to listen, and have his mind changed, and certainly reachable via appeals to compassion and fairness.

Once the "relevance" trend of the late 60s-early 70s was over, Hal's stories default back to ostensibly politically neutral, although obviously nothing is actually politically neutral. In the late 80s and early 90s he's the most unpleasant version of himself, and that has political manifestations, like when he allows John to be imprisoned in apartheid South Africa for a ridiculous and unnecessary crime Hal himself committed. It's extremely fucked up, but again, it's less because of Hal's actual opinions and more because Christopher Priest wanted to write about apartheid, even if it does make Hal look incredibly, horrifically racist.

Then jump to the mid-2000s and Green Lantern: Rebirth, and you might imagine that losing his hometown, getting possessed by a giant space bug, becoming a supervillain, dying, and becoming the embodiment of God's vengeance might have some effect on Hal's politics, but that is not what Geoff Johns is here to write. Johns is writing a Hal who teleported in from, like, 1967 - no nuance allowed. He's a summer blockbuster that walks like a man. He's a Baja Blast. He's never had a coherent political thought in his life. In his defense, he has had more and goofier concussions than any superhero I can think of and his brain is smooth like an egg. Still.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I think Hal tends to default to center right positions but can be easily coaxed over to center left. That said, he has never not once in his life had his shit together enough to vote in a single election, not even for his own brother.

Guy:

So Guy's deal is a little bit complicated because his most vocally political era was also in part due to severe and personality-altering brain damage.

When Guy was originally introduced in the 1960s, he had the pleasantly bland personality of all superheroes. Many years later, he suffered a series of major injuries, torture, and a lengthy coma, and he emerged from the coma in 1985 with the aggressive, abrasive personality he's best known for today. Justice League International took that even further, using him to parody the jingoistic, red-blooded American action hero of the 80s.

This version of Guy is a vocal fan of Ronald Reagan and despises the USSR. He's pro-war, proudly xenophobic, and treats women badly enough that it crosses the line into repeated sexual harassment, both physical and verbal. (To be fair...ish, this last also applies to Wally West and arguably a number of other men, and was always played for laughs. It was gross all around.)

Again, this is partially a manifestation of his brain damage. There's also a running gag in JLI where if he gets hit on the head, his personality changes to this cloying, timid, gentle one, sort of halfway between a child and a flamboyant gay stereotype. Hit him again and he goes back to Asshole Guy. I'm not going to pretend I don't find some of the gags funny, but it's obviously all highly problematic, and not just from a medical standpoint.

That said, I don't think we can dismiss Guy's politics or his usual personality as simply a manifestation of brain damage. We see in later flashbacks that he developed the abrasiveness as a defense mechanism from growing up in an abusive home, and as he matures through the 90s, he doesn't actually become a significantly different person, even after his Vuldarian healing factor kicks in and heals his brain. (It's a thing.) I think it's more accurate to say that the brain damage probably affected his impulse control, his filter, and arguably even his paranoia levels.

All of which is to say that as much as I would love to go "Guy's better now, so he's not a Republican!"...that dog won't hunt. I think a really good canon writer could make the case that Guy is pro-union-style working class and also a former teacher so he's at least center left, but as of now canon evidence is pretty firmly on the red side. It doesn't help that the GLC has been written as fetishistically pro-cop and pro-military since Johns got his grubby hands all over it. I will happily ignore the New 52 retcon that Guy was a cop, and you could even try to argue that he dislikes cops because his brother was a corrupt cop who became a supervillain, but I think it's much more likely that he identifies with cops as a Corps member. Although I don't think he would have any patience for killer cops. ("You were afraid for your life even though you were the only one with a weapon? Then fucking quit, coward.")

All of that said, I think Guy is similar to Hal: defaults to center right, can be talked into center left on certain issues but he's more stubborn about it. (They would also both be enraged by Jan 6 and disgusted by the current Republican party - I can't quite argue that Guy Gardner is a Democrat but Green Lanterns don't have any patience for traitors or cowards.) It's also kind of a moot point because he never knows what is happening on Earth and hasn't voted since his pre-coma days.

John:

Oh John Stewart, thank god for you.

John was introduced as an explicitly political character in an explicitly political story. The first time we see him, he's stepping in to defend Black men from a white cop, citing his own knowledge of the law to do so. He shows a much more perceptive and informed perspective on the issue's main plot (a racist senator running for president) than Hal does. Even in the little moment above, we see that he's sensitive to exactly what it means for him, a Black man, to be taking on this role.

None of this is a surprise, since we'll later learn that John's parents were civil rights activists. Not only would he not have had the privilege Hal and Guy did to assume his existence was politically neutral, he was explicitly educated about political realities and progressive advocacy from childhood. He's well-informed, he's passionate, and he's going to tell you when you are being fucking stupid.

John isn't immune from the GL cop/military...thing, although I can't blame Johns for that - it was the cartoon that made him a Marine, and the comics followed suit. But that's never outweighed his origin or his upbringing. Like, he's friends with the DCU's fictional version of Nelson Mandela.

This one is straightforward: John is a staunch progressive. He is, however, in outer space 90% of the time, so he's always at least a little bit out of date. I imagine every time he comes back to Earth he spends the first 24 hours watching the news in abject horror.

Kyle:

Kyle doesn't talk about politics a lot, but when he does, he lands pretty much where you'd expect a young California-born artist living in New York City to land: to the left. My read on Kyle is that he hasn't really thought any of his politics through, which makes sense - he's a character who is led by emotion over reason every time. He doesn't have John's carefully thought-through arguments or knowledge of the law behind him. I feel like when something political upsets him, he's more likely to splutter angrily than make a coherent argument (which: same). When he's given the time to think things through and speak from the heart, though, he can be very eloquent, like in his speech to Terry after Terry accidentally comes out to him.

It's also worth pointing out that his solo appearances were mostly in the 90s, which were prone to avoiding politics or only addressing them in a halfhearted both sides-y way like the story above.

That said, I don't think he ever actually does anything about his political opinions. He never votes in midterm or primary elections, and probably only voted in a presidential one because Alex dragged him along one time. I feel like Donna tried to do the same when they were dating and that was when Kyle realized he'd forgotten to change his voter registration from California to New York. Jennie wasn't responsible enough to Mom him into doing his civic duty, and he's been in space pretty much nonstop ever since, so...

Simon:

In that other post, I said Simon's experiences should have radicalized him, but instead he was created by Geoff Johns. Simon is a Muslim, Lebanese-American man who came of age in the post-9/11 era, and was wrongfully convicted of terrorism and waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay. His reaction to this was...to put on a ski mask and wave a gun around. Like, it's been a while since I've read these issues, but aside from the "ripped from the headlines!!!" of it all, I feel like Simon's experiences largely don't inform his actions or perspective except that he's super angry (fair enough).

The thing about Simon (and Jessica) is that he hasn't been around very long, and most comics don't have characters directly expressing political opinions. It's not a coincidence that these characters are in chronological order and each write-up is shorter than the last. I can think of about three times where Kyle has ever said anything I can interpret as political, and he's been around for 30 years. Simon only has a third of that history. So while one could certainly extrapolate what Simon's opinions are likely to be, I can't think of any canon where he actually says them.

Jessica:

Jessica has even less to go on in terms of explicitly political comics. You'd think she wouldn't like guns because of what happened to her friends, but she has one of her own and doesn't seem bothered by Simon's. I'd imagine she has opinions on immigration as someone whose family is from Mexico and Honduras, but it never comes up. If I were writing for DC, I'd make both Simon and Jess leftists, but as for actual canon proof? I got nothing.

I will say that she probably avoids political discussions because anxiety, and I bet she got really good at voting by mail during her years not leaving the house. She probably votes by mail from space. Maybe John's not the only one with an up-to-date voter registration.

Kilowog:

#green lantern #hal jordan #guy gardner #john stewart #kyle rayner #simon baz #jessica cruz #meta

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welcometogrouchland · 1 year ago

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Batman #149 by chip zdarsky is mostly unremarkable, but I'm really fascinated by how it makes a great case for 'good' endings not saving 'bad' stories*. Because there's a lot of interesting concepts in this issue (bruce having to deal with his rapidly aging and decaying clone making him think about his own life, re-establishing a 'nest' so to speak for his family after pushing them away, etc) but bc of the OOC slog that came before it, almost every moment w/ the batfamily comes off as unearned and disingenuous imo.

Like, everything with Damian is the perfect example in this. Because in isolation it's...fine. admittedly it's a missed opportunity to not go deeper into how Damian would feel about a clone of his dad who tried to kill considering Damian's relationships with clones of himself (the heretic rejects and respawn) or with former enemies who wanted him dead but who were manipulated and/or brainwashed (like suren and maya).

Zdarsky doesn't go into any of this but you could maybe excuse it as the issue not being about Damian. However, coupled with the previous bizarre characterizations of Damian in 147 and 148, it ends up not being fine- instead it starts to feel...icky how Damian (who, despite often being drawn and written as white, will never have his connection to the non-white al ghuls forgotten and will always be effected by racism even when not portrayed as a poc) is constantly written as overly violent, uncaring and narrow minded in this run. Coupled w/ trying to recanonize the morrison origin for Damian it's like. OH this is badly written and laden with subtle bigotry, sick**

That's me going into detail on it with Damian but it's applicable to other things in this issue- the way Cass, Steph and Duke have all been ignored or turned into jobbers makes their inclusion in the 'family' here feel hollow instead of satisfying. Bruce proclaiming that Zur was still a part of him and he needs to accept responsibility for his actions (when it means taking in clone son) wrings hollow when just last issue zdarsky was bending over backwards to separate Bruce and Zur bc otherwise the Jason thing would get really awkward. Ends are achieved through means that feel hollow or strange. I'm at my destination but damn why'd the bus have to do all that???

I only really have opinions on this latest arc of zdarskys Batman bc it's the one I've read the closest (bc I'm a hater, masochist and avid follower of even the bad damian storylines) but it's not saying great things.

Bc zdarsky can do one thing good in this book, and it's write Bruce and Tim. And yet this entire story, whether of his own volition or editorial mandate, includes other characters who aren't Bruce and Tim, the fabric starts to unravel in very telling ways.

(p.s, I think pennyworth manor is an interesting idea but I feel like in execution it's just gonna be 'bruce living in a house haunted by the memory of the people he couldn't save' but with a different dead guy this time. Illusion of change and whatnot)

*whether or not the ending is good is up to you ofc, as is your opinion on the proceeding arc! I saw some ppl complain that the ending was too "WFA" for them, which I get even if I dont think it'll literally be the same premise. If anything it's probably a lead into the new tec run. Likewise many ppl who aren't in the weeds of Damian and Jason characterization liked the previous arc! But I have my opinions and rest my case before the bench

**disclaimer, I'm white and portrayals of bigotry in comics are complicated and subjective, but I am basing my point here off what other poc comic fans on socmed have been saying about 149. Also the "sick" is sarcasm incase that wasn't obvious

#ramblings of a lunatic #dc comics #dc #damian wayne #bruce wayne #uhhh. not gonna tag the others i dont have time #batman #idk if the zdarsky series has its own tag #anyway yeah. i saw some interesting discussions surrounding 149 and it got me thinking #the experience of reading the issue is inoffensive until i remember how we got here and then all of a sudden i start to feel downright evil #the bruce/zur separation thing pisses me off so bad. MOTHERFUCKER YOU WERE JUST SAYING LAST ISSUE THAT NONE OF IT WAS HIM #and maybe we were meant to agree w Bruce and not Jason in that issue but if that's the case. piss poor job demonstrating it #Bruce never really faces like. interpersonal consequences from the family that last beyond an issue #which is WILD considering the shit he pulled back before they knew he was having a menty b (mental breakdown for those who dont know)#the damian thing is just like. its such clear author bias in ways both lowkey funny and also. not funny. at all #i know a lot of ppl on here didnt vibe w/ batman and robin by joshua williamson but like #i cannot stress enough how he was one of the ONLY ppl in damians corner and now hes leaving that series #he says he approves of the new creative teams assigned but also they're his coworkers. so i dont trust SHIT until its in my hands #anyway one day I'll give a more good faith reading of zdarskys Batman and i do wanna read his daredevil some day #but as it stands he suffers from terminal ''has seemingly never read a comic not abt my special white boys and refuses to try''#which means everyone is going to have to suffer through my haterism #also sorry for no images. i really want to but i just don't have the wherewithal to do alt text rn

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jesncin · 23 days ago

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Are there any one-off characters who you wish could have shown up more, be it show or comic or what have you? The intended one-offs can't all be runaway stars like Harley Quinn, but there are some out there who could have been decent at reccuring.

BTAS one-off characters I would have liked to see more of were Maggie Page from 'Eternal Youth', and Dana Blessing from 'The Worry Men'.

Maggie had a charming humor about her, and Alfred deserves to have at least one significant relationship where he is not the primary caregiver.

Dana Blessing, being Bruce's secretary, could be in a position to figure out his secret vigilante identity after enough odd errands. In her one scene we know that she has a kid (phonecall), she wears a headwrap to her corporate job (which in rl people get rasiat flack for). And when she brings Bruce his coffee, along with cream and sugar there are two cups, which implies that morning coffee is something they share together, and they could have conversations of any kind during that time. She is also privy to Bruce's idea of humor, whereas the "take it out of your salary " joke is one Bruce had said to Alfred during the Joker episode set on April Fools.

So back to the question, what one-off characters pop into your mind?

If we're talking about one-off Bat characters since this seems like a Bat-centric ask- I dunno probably Joey Rigger Firebug with his original origin story and being Black intact. Otherwise Bat characters really don't take up my brain space most of the time.

For non Bat characters, she's not a one-off character but has the energy of one- I'd love to see more Diane Meade for Martian Manhunter. Also Karen Smith, who was a co-detective of J'onn. Idk I think bringing her back in some capacity would be fun.

For Hellblazer, this might surprise you guys because I don't talk about this character often. He rarely pops up after the Resurrection Crusaders plot, Ray Monde. I want him back. Always. Constantly. Even as a ghost or flashbacks come on-

#askjesncin #i can never escape the shadow of the bat can i haha #fr i do like bat characters in general but i don't let them take my brain space. most of the fandom does that already

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tothefiniteyou · 1 year ago

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Something that's been in my head a while concerning the brothers and their "roles", so to speak. This is meant to be about the original Mirage comics, but applies to 2003 and IDW as well. Potentially 2012, maybe more. I don't remember the exact issues, but this WILL contain spoilers for IDW and the original comics.

Raph is the one that takes on the responsibilities no one else does/wants to. He very often has to play the part of the bad guy because his convictions are more rebellious in comparison to what Splinter teaches them, core beliefs and rules that Leo in particular takes to heart. Raph keeps his family in line through his anger, for better and worse, being the one of tough love. In volume 1 of Mirage when they retreated from New York after Leo was almost killed, he calls his brother a coward for not "finishing the job" and goes off to face the Shredder alone. He almost got killed because of his impulsiveness, yes, but Leo's always been about saving his family. So really, he had the courage to face Shredder again because it was for someone else's sake. Their whole fight was kind of gruesome and full of harsh words, but at the end of it all, Leo thanks Raph for it. It's very interesting to me. It shows that Leo, even if he was originally mad, understands that his brother was only doing it because he was scared of his family being hurt again. He sees that it was for his own good, so he expresses gratitude.

Alongside that, I've said before that it's not that Raph wants to be the leader because of the title itself, but rather that he wants freedom, and for others to listen to him. He resents Leo for holding him back, not fully understanding his brother's reasoning. He focuses more on action and less on the consequences of said actions and choices.

In essence, Raph is often the one that has to do the dirty work. His parentification in Rise is even similar to this, having to parent his brothers and be the one to tell them "no", even when it isn't his responsibility. But if no one else is going to do it, then he has to be the bad guy, even if his brothers resent him for it. At his core, he always has his family in mind, even if the execution is flawed.

Raph being thought of as the shield has always felt right to me, as shields can still be used to hurt.

On to Leo - Leo is a very existential person, and that also makes him the most spiritual. Kind of a yin and yang ordeal, with him seeing how there's a balance to things. (I would also say that he needs to assign a purpose to everything, if only to rationalize bad things. It's sort of why he has a bit of a crisis in several iterations when Splinter isn't there to guide him). He's the most "warrior-like" because of the way he values life and honors things like bushido. He'll kill to protect, but that doesn't make him callous, just "strong" (putting this in quotes for multiple reasons). I think IDW tackled this quite lovely, especially when he goes on to have a greenhouse just full of life.

However, I can't say all of this without mentioning the fact that Splinter's teachings are often flawed. I've said before that a lot of Leo's major "arcs" and "growing up" is about becoming his own person and leader, and that's still very much true. Blind Sight is my favorite story to have come from the original comics, and I think it really puts into perspective how Leo struggles to see himself as anything but a weapon. It's that bad habit of his where he must assign purpose to everything, struggling when proven wrong or having to recontextualize things. There's so much more I want to say about him and his role, but a lot of it would be reiterating my points from this post. I struggle to call Leo the sword of the team considering his words to Mikey about how, if he were to throw his katana off the roof, would that be the same as throwing himself. But in Blind Sight, he does learn that he's more than just some sword for his father to wield, and that a sword not only hurts, but protects.

People infantilize Mikey wayyyy too much in this fandom for just being the youngest, which makes me have to pick and choose my words very carefully for fear of the wrong impression. He's definitely the goofball that tends to not take things as seriously, but I think something that The Last Ronin meant to emphasize is that his "raw talent" is from a place of love. It's not that he's not the best of them all just because he lacks focus, it's that he's never seen a reason for him to have to be a warrior like that. Surrounded by his brothers, he doesn't have to try so hard. He'll watch their backs and they'll watch his. He's got the same warrior's spirit as the others, it's just that he rejects some of those teachings in his own way? Raph is often seen as the contrast to Leo, and that's typically true, but I think Mikey can be as well... In a way, Mikey has the most ties to humanity, and that's why I think he's similar to Leo in some ways. Not to say the brothers don't have humanity, but... It's so hard to word what I mean, bear with me.

Being a better warrior kind of means losing his fun-loving and go with the flow nature. He would be less like Mikey. Not to say that being good at fighting exactly equates to being deadly, but that's always a possibility, you know? IDW Mikey is such a good balance and blend of his little shit characterization and his more empathetic side. When he's the first to leave and reject Splinter's ways in IDW, this shows what I mean with him being more strong than Leo's way of being considered strong. He might not be "the best", and he might not tap into his raw talent that several characters mention, but I don't think that's what he necessarily wants. Splinter's idea of strong isn't necessarily the best.... Hopefully this section makes sense and my point gets across that Mikey is both the heart and armor of the team.

And as for Donnie... Oh boy! He has to use a gun in the original comics and actually be the one to kill (since only Raph and Leo really did that from what I can remember), and it shakes him up SO BADLY... And volume 1 just ends with him not choosing to go back to the sewers with his brothers, but to stay on the farm with Splinter for a bit. This is quite a finishing scene after ending a whole war within the city...

Donnie doesn't love his brothers any less, it just goes to show that he's never wanted to be the one to have to kill, and maybe wasn't prepared for it. While Mikey is definitely a pacifist, you can argue that Donnie is more of one. Him wielding the bo even supports this idea, as it can still be deadly, but not as lethal as his brothers' weapons. He's a very soft-hearted person that prefers to invent and give life to machines.

I hate when people think he's any less skilled in fighting than his brothers, because that's wrong! He just doesn't like violence and, dare I say it, I don't think he ever wanted to be a warrior in the same way. His intellect is a mightier and more useful weapon to him, because he can use it to keep others safe and make machines that can do all sorts of things. He'll fight to protect, same as the others, but disarming is more of his goal in the end. This makes Donnie, at least to me, both the brains and armor for the group. He's more than that, but... something something, things falling apart when Donnie is missing in SAINW.

At the end of it all, something you have to remember about all of them is that, even when they grow older, they started out as nothing more than child soldiers cultivated for the sake of revenge. Killing was always in the books, but they all have a different role on the team, and killing wasn't meant to be Donnie's. He helps with plan-making and would probably rather be support than a tank, if that makes sense.

They're heroes but but but. They're just kids, too...........Gripping my head

#tmnt #tmnt 1984 #tmnt mirage #tmnt idw #tmnt 2003 #tmnt 2012 #all of them #leo may be my favorite but i don't play about any of them #their core characteristics are so important to me #character analysis #rottmnt #since i mention it a few times #i didn't add this in mostly because i wasn't sure how to word it but #there was that really good thread on here about rise leo and his relationship with death and i think it heightens my point #i think i could've mentioned how this affects things in the 2007 movie but #well #anyways #i have many thoughts about these guys all the time anytime

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flamestar126 · 1 year ago

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Give me a "M"!

(click for better quality)

Bonus + related art + rambling under the cut

Originally I just wanted draw Dexter in a cheerleader outfit (an excuse to put him a skirt for pure funsies) and so I did! Which is art is below that i drew like a long time ago now.

It was just Dexter at first but I am a dexdark shipper so I had to have him react somehow. Then I remembered there was a comic about an athletic Mandark so I added him in his outfit from the comic.

Then my mind like it always does, wandered and created a short story to make sense of why they would be in this position in the first place.

~~~

After years and years of competing with Dexter relentlessly, Mandark had gotten into a rut during his high school years. He's absolutely frustrated that he's STILL second best to him.

(The time the art is placed is late hs years)

So what does a teen genius do? He explores outside of the science community and what do you know. . . he's actually not half bad at sports. He quickly abandons science for it. Mandark is thriving. Why didn't he try this sooner? And Dexter? He's so confused. Never thought his greatest rival would ditch him science for a mere physical activity. Determined to find the bottom of this he goes directly to the source of his confusion and asks. It goes as well as you think. Not at all. Plan B. Find a way to get close enough without raising too much suspicion. How? Cheerleading.

It honestly wasn't that hard to join. He's cute and flexible enough due to the battle he's faced through out the years. Plus a recommendation from his dear sister, Deedee, quickly received him a spot.

(HAVE YOU SEEN HIM DO FLIPS IN THE START OF EGO TRIP?? BOY IS READY)

The idea seemed brilliant at the time. That is until he found out he had to wear a skirt of all things. Deedee secretly tricked as a little bit of revenge. It wasn't too bad in the end. He rocks skirt ngl. With the excuse of having come to rehearsals and games that involved Mandark, things have become much easier to keep a closer look on him.

His sudden presence certainly didn't go noticed. Mandark's eye often drifted to the redhead that cheered him on during events. And oh, what an ego boost. His former rival cheering on? Yelling out his number whenever he had the ball? Wishing for him to succeed? Even if it was for only the cheerleaders' expectation to do so. How addicting.

He cornered Dexter right after. "That 'M' for me, McPherson?" Mandark teased. Knowing the "M" was their school's name. "How kind of you." "In your dreams, Astronomanov." It continued on like for a while.

They lap it like fucking cream. They've missed this. The feeling buried was bubbling up to the surface once again. Stealing quick glances, the playful jabs, grins matching the other's.

Who made the first move? It wasn't clear. It seemed so natural to be in the other's presence. Both just eased into they didn't even noticed.

Meanwhile, the science department was taking heavy losses. They lost their best two students. Ended up begging the two come back.

Eventually Dexter and Mandark did return but as partners this time.

. . . Douglas? He was thrown out of the loop about the entire thing. He missed out a lot when watching from afar. No one told him they were switching sides! What the heck guys. :/

He wouldn't survived the switch anyway. He's athletic pathetic. Stay on your game boy, Douglas. It's better this way.

~~~

Details I didn't include

Mandark was indeed incredibly suspicious of Dexter's switch

He was a total tsundere about Dexter's outfit (he did like it)

They had a talk about why they made a switched. talk about it and sealed it with a kiss (maybe :3)

Mandark said science for geeks but he's a geek through and through. he couldn't resist science for too long

Sports department was crying after

They do the same thing in college but in different uniforms (already drawn but not sharing that here :>)

I'm definitely forgetting more details but i am drawing blanks here

~~~

Bonus!

"You know there are male cheerleaders, right?"

"I like the breeze it gives." Half truth. Was told they ran out of male uniforms. <- Lie by Deedee

"Hm. If you say so." Gay panic

Inspired by a scene of Daffy Duck from Looney Tunes (2011)

Thank you for reading!

#dexter's laboratory #dexter's lab #dexdark #dexter #mandark #flame draws #they were gonna be in a gym that i had trouble with the background and i like outside scenery more #this is more like a short verison of this whole thing? im sure i could've stretch out this more but god im not a writer #i was hesitant about sharing this. i kept going back n forth for so long but i saw something today and now im posting out of spite lol #this is the first i rambled my story out of tags! look at me. i ran out of words in here #im just proud of this whole thing. technically my full fledged au ig? and damn if im not gonna share it #sorry if my little story doesnt make sense tho. i've been trying to put it into two for 2 hours now and trying to iron it out. it's rushed

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starblue2406 · 3 months ago

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The path behind the process +: Argique

As today's bonus, I will talk about Argique

I didn't include him in the Arceus post because despite being the same character, he deserves his own device and I didn't want to stir things up anymore. In itself I think it's confusing to be dividing each character in each format (original concept, original comic, written version 1 and 2).

Argique It doesn't have much of a journey actually, so this plus will be a quick comment.

Initial concept:

Original comic version:

The initial concept of Argiqué doesn't have much science to it, in fact it's even consistent with the absurd nature of the original comic.

The idea of Arceus with a human identity with no powers at all, was born in a weekend at a tianguis in Santa Teresa 3, Huehuetoca, that's right, my beloved little town of social interest houses. As usual my mom and I went to have breakfast at a stall there, while eating for some reason the thought came to me "What if I do a chapter of Damos and Arceus eating at a tianguis like me right now?"

Yeah... Just like that out of nowhere it came up. I guess in my unconscious it had to do with those memes of a couple where the "humble" character invites the character who is supposed to have "more economic status" to eat at the tianguis. I don't know if that joke is made on the English side, but at least in Spanish speaking and especially in Latin America it is made a lot.

Anyway, I had that idea but I thought "hey, it would be strange to have god eating in a tianguis as if nothing", it would be very implausible for the plot of the story, which although it was a parody, it still had a line that could not be passed for the story to work. So that's where Argiqué came from, its original design certainly leaves a lot to be desired, if you scroll down far enough in this blog you'll find the original design and if not, there's the link to the original comic.

So yeah, the idea of Arceus having a 'status' human identity was always there.

Evidently, as Arceus himself mentioned, the name of his human identity is a combination of "Arkhé", which means "origin" one of the words from which the name Arceus came from and "Argider", which is a compound name from the words argi 'light, clarity', and eder 'beautiful'.

Later I will talk a little more about this name, but from the beginning I knew it was ridiculous and, unfortunately I made the mistake that I changed the 'k' for 'q' so it should actually be written "Argikhé", I guess it was a spelling mistake that I dragged with me until today or by an absurd comfort not aware that in Spanish we are used to write with "que" instead of using the 'khe' ; the truth no idea what happened there, but it looks nice when written and it's too late to change it.

Written version (Actually):

Well, we'll talk a little bit about the actual concept of Argique, although I think you already have the idea in mind, but there are still a few things you don't know and it's worth talking about.

The concept of Argique evolved from being the guy who feels he has some sort of superiority (in the earthly sense for him) in a place that is pretty low by the standards he's used to to literally turning him into the stereotype of the rich guy who is coming out of his comfort zone that he's lived with during his bubble of privilege and thinks he has a superiority that he doesn't really have.

So his base is to be a 'whitexican' or a 'fresa' as we call them in my country.

The idea of making the main idea so drastic, came from my cousin, who often describes my Arceus from the comic as someone 'mamon', a rude adjective used to describe a person who boasts of his conditions or qualities; real or imaginary. In this case, it was in the sense that Arceus had and boasted of a pride and authority that he truly deserved.

With that in mind I thought "Arceus with a human identity would just be a sucker guy to others, without his god-like status, he's really nothing but would still think everyone owes him something, just out of habit."

Hahaha!!! With that in mind, I took the idea that he was from Kalos, that is the equivalent of unfrench in our world and to top it off, with a little research on the region, I found that the best place to say it was his supposed place of origin was Lumiose, which is basically Paris XD.

A curious fact is that 'Argider', one of the components of Argique's name, comes from the Basque language and culture, which is found in the Basque Country, a region that encompasses northern Spain and southwestern France.

It was a coincidence, because it's only now that I'm finding out XD

Well, if I were given a coin where I hit on coincidences like this in the components of the story, I would have three coins, which is not much but it is rare that it happens three times.

Honorable mentions:

The role of "researcher" covers two concepts: that of a historian and that of an anthropologist, more specifically, an ethnologist because that is what I am specializing in and I think it is the most appropriate branch for what I want to look for in the character.

Both concepts will be divided from each other, sometimes they will accompany each other, but they will not mix to the point of being an ethnohistorian.

In the case of the historian, because of what he will be discovering about the Archestian religion, that is to say, he will become acquainted with the project of his first-born and, being totally impartial to it because he ignored it for a long time, he will bring to light several interesting things.

In the case of the anthropologist concept, it is for a more personal reason, of self-discovery and because I feel it would give more artistic value to the work and enrich the character.

Since I entered the propaedeutic courses at the university and now with my first semester of the career, I can assure that I have a new perspective on the subject of living and blending into the environment and way of life of others.

Obviously I still have a lot to learn and therefore I must add that this farm is subject to many changes, according to what I am learning. I guess we will both learn at the same time somehow.

I am excited to show that new concept to the mix when the story progresses normally.

Haha, I'm dying to buy him that wallet that would double as a sleeping bag. So he will be in the same situation as me when I have to go on my field trips xD.

Personality:

Original comic version:

The little I showed of Argique in the original comic m is of an Arceus who flat out wants to relax and send everything to hell at least for a while, to the point that he leaves the job of administrator to Mew.

He's pretty laid back and laid back, but because this Arceus changes so drastically between being a rules guy and a drama guy, it doesn't feel so forced, in fact it's even funny in a good way and you think "yeah, Arceus needs a vacation, he looks cute eating at the tianguis".

Written version (Actually):

But I didn't just want to leave him with this crude oritips of privileged people, something else had to be put in. That's when Sunny Starscout came into the mix.I do like MLP's g5 and if it wasn't for Izzy, Sunny would be my favorite.

Her hope, optimism, genuine interest in learning about the other pony breeds and her attempt to try to put aside the prejudices between the three pony breeds and her own that she has really touches me.Her adventure full of hope, energy and with a clear ideal, to learn from others to seek a union or on the basis of understanding others.

Although I can also say that I put a little bit of Izzy in it, I say this more than anything because of its innocence.In the movie and in the MLP G5 series, But especially in the movie, Izzy causes a bit of a mess due to his naivety and complete ignorance about earth ponies and pegasus, she's not stupid at all, she's creative and witty, but it's adorable to see how she always seems to be in the clouds,with optimism and curiosity around it even though it can be a little counterproductive.

Determined, adventurous, curious and somewhat innocent...Understanding! Learning! Living with those you are supposed to stay away from! Uff! perfect to balance the mix! It is curious to describe Argique as optimistic, energetic, proud, innocent, often a bit unfriendly and perhaps a bit reckless

Therefore also in his optimism is that characteristic pride and perhaps that sometimes he forgets to be empathetic with those he still hypocritically considers as "inferior": he still thinks he should be treated in a special way, he lacks tact when living with others and for better or worse, his status as Kaloshiny gives him a certain authority at the same time that certain vulnerability to his environment.

However, this vulnerability is not only brought about by his pride in an unfamiliar environment, but also by his degree of innocence due to the ignorance he has sustained for years. He is the opposite of his son Mew, who tries to maintain a proud and authoritarian image, but in reality he is a poor lost alpaca that can be hunted at any moment.

Contrary to his son Mew, who in spite of showing a sacred, tender and innocent image, knows very well how his environment is and how to manage in it without the need to have "dirtied" himself in a direct way.

And of course, his innocence brings him recklessness, which has been shown with Damos explaining to him that he has to keep a little aside for being a Kaloshiny, because that kind of people are not very well regarded and he does nothing but get into one or another mess.

Like the other character sheets above, I also draw on some of the MBTI and the Hogwarts houses for him.In your case, I categorize you as an ENFJ and as a Ravenclaw.

The characteristics of ENFJs are:

*They are empathetic people

*They seek to bring out the best in others

*Skilled at expressing themselves verbally with others

*They take on leadership roles naturally

*They guide others with their charisma, enthusiasm and convictions.

*They inspire others to reach their full potential, encourage and support those around them.

Strong sense of morality and justice, seeking to improve the world through their actions and decisions *Great sense of morality and fairness, seeking to improve the world through their actions and decisions

*Enjoy being around people and creating meaningful connections, as they value deep relationships

*They have good ability to organize and plan projects and ideas.

*They feel committed to social causes

*They are people who try to maintain a positive outlook on others

Now I will show the characteristics of a Ravenclaw, which go beyond simply being "smart."

*They are people who think out of the box.

*They constantly seek to ignore less

*They are creative

*They are always looking for new things to learn

*They look beyond what's in the books

*Because of their insatiable hunger for knowledge they are always in constant training to expand their minds.

*For the same reason, they tend to be strangers to others on certain subjects that most people do not take into account.

*Desire to challenge what is already written

*Eccentric and flamboyant

They are intelligent, yes, but in their problem-solving skills, they look for answers in the most unlikely places.

Character Design:

This is definitely one of my favorite parts of Argique's current design is a combination of her original comic design with the elegant scarf around her neck and the colors that allude to her royal appearance; how French royalty dressed between 1700-1750, with her pretty gray coat, her long blonde hair; but not to mention her adorable attempt to connect with the people of the region she is in with her gold sandals and excellent quality leather.

But not only that, I also have to mention that Argique's appearance and the calmness that his image transmits is based on Issac Newton from the Super Sciencie Friends series, specifically in the fanarts of this one. This is something you already know if you have been around long enough to have seen Argique's arrival to the story and to the blog, if not, well, here I let you know.

Her cute fluffy hairstyle and his iconic gray jacket was born amon concept ideas from Issac Newton's amazing fanarts from @whitebunny-shen and @devillefort-master.

A curious fact about Argique that I add in this section is that Argique's bag was born from Sunny, the pony mentioned above.

While Sunny's is not infinite, it is the same type of bag that you put across your body, plus if I plan along her journey I will put little brooches to adorn her little bag, just like Sunny. So much is the connection that I thought about putting a Sunny bag to Argique custom pony to fulfill this parallelism, but I decided to make her my own bag because I saw that sooner or later it would break if I put it on her and because it would be a better detail.

I'm thinking of doing a redesign to fix some character design issues I'm already aware of.They won't be as drastic as they were when they moved on to their second version, but they will highlight their origins, which make reference to French culture and their current character status.

Evolution in history:

Written version (Actually):

Arceus will be occupying the name of Argique for most of the story,I think that to explore what he has to learn he must do it as another person so that he can improve when he becomes a god again.You will learn good things and bad things, but the ignorance that clouded your eyes will be completely eradicated.He will get into a lot of trouble, his insatiable curiosity will unleash many things, it will divide and mark history as well as change everyone around him.

At some point the story of the strange Kaloshiny will end abruptly, but the key will be in all that Argique brought to light through his curiosity and innocence, an answer that a god has always needed and will need at his most critical moment.

Not with him making a fool of himself or anything like that, because he also has no idea what the Kalosians are like and really only has a certain image of them from what others have told them. But maybe it would be a good opportunity to address the problem of one culture talking about another without even doing research and of course, address the issue of pigeonholing another as the bad one.

That just occurred to me as I write this, it would be an interesting chapter, I will write it down as an idea for the adventures of the Kaloshiny.

Honorable mentions x2

Another mention I would like to add is that a dear friend mentions that Argique reminds her a lot of Ariel, who happens to be my favorite princess since I was a child.

Especially in chapter 13 where he is so ignorant of human things that he doesn't even know how to drink water, because he never saw the need to do so.

To be honest, his clumsiness with this new experience was in my mind before just for the comedy and character narrative;However, when the similarity was pointed out to me, I took that detail into account and, why not? Watch The Little Mermaid again to see the similarities and reinforce the idea I have of Argique.

General reflections:

Without a doubt, Argique contributes to Arceus as a character being my favorite. At the end of the day without the character himself and I'm dying to advance his process, but for that I need Arceus to naturally become him with the proper work and care possible.

As soon as the remakes are completed, we will continue to follow this researcher with such a hunger for knowledge, not only the religion that is in his name, but a whole product of his creation.

#fanfic #fanfiction #pokemon fanfiction #pokémon #my art <3 #arceus #pokemon #Argique #fanfic inspiration #fanfic aniversary #fourth aniversary

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understandableparadox · 2 years ago

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The Grand homestuck oc tournament poll! Round 2 winners!

the votes are in, time to see who our winners are! attached to this will be our post round interviews, thus if your charecter has something to say about what went down, please send it in to my dms!

Block 1 winner:

Nahlee Rovian

He is just silly.

He is just a guy who would eat a slice of cheese off of the floor, cheese of unknown origin.

He is a sweet and funny guy and is way too easily trusting.

If this guy was a playlist it would be "weird al" and "ninja sex party".

He smells funny.

No rizz.

Tamidn K'sazze

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Block 2 winner:

Persep “Perse” Rhiali

She streams, she draws, she always has a knife on her, with a small size and big personality Perse WILL either be your friend or A Problem (TM)

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Block 3 winner:

Anomal Conspi

One of the most brilliant, anxiety ridden queens on her whole planet. She’s so paranoid that she has a backup plan for just about anything. She predicted the world was going to end via meteors and had a ship fully ready to go for several years, and had a mental breakdown when she ended up being right. Overthinking is her strongest skill, making plans for her plans just in case something she didn’t think of happened. Her ship, despite being made of old and ruined tech, is so heavily equipped with safety features that she should probably be in charge of OSHA because ain’t no one getting hurt on that thing. Would go outside in a hamster bubble.

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Block 4 winner:

Viiveh Telore

Viiveh is a fuchsia blood in an abusive relationship trying to forge his own destiny. He tries to stay positive and is unlearning some classist traits. He goes to the surface and hides his blood color by dressing like a robot. He really loves tech and the mechanics of it, since the seadwellers can mainly only use bug-based tech underwater. He takes the name Vexxin during his hiding. Don't get him started on troll Daft Punk.

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Block 5 winner:

Atroxx

Atroxx lives in a swamp full of boiling tar, lurking in the dark and serving as something of a dark legend to the locals. They fear her and often leave her sacrifices, believing her to be a monster or some sort of demon. She just likes getting free things out of it and sometimes toys with the minds those who wander a little too far out of the torchlight, taunting them from within the darkness. If you survive an encounter with her, she's not very eloquent, and is quite stubborn and impatient, unpredictable and almost wild in behavior. She is also, however, incredibly resourceful and clever.

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Block 6 winner:

Trenas Maladi

trenas is a rustblood author who has the worst case of writers block ever seen. she's very tired all of the time and comes off a bit harsh, but she means well!! she's very nosy and knowing other people's business. she's very good at giving out advice to people too. she enjoys monsters and romance stories ABOUT monsters.

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Block 7 winner:

Lollie Gravez

Your name is LOLLIE GRAVEZ and you use ne/nem/nir, sh3/h3r/h3rz and h3/h1m/h1z. You are a SCENE KID first and foremost, and a troll second.

You love COMICS, CARTOONS, and SHIPPING, and listen to way too much ALTERNATIVE MUSIC. You send a lot of your spare time SEWING CLOTHES, both for yourself and your PLETHORA OF PLUSH FRIENDS. You spend way too much money on VIDEO GAMES, that you never get around to playing. When you aren’t hiding in your room away from the world, you love watching shows with your friends, then making self inserts for all your friends. Your squad loves the troll anime SUGIO QUEST FOR KOKORO, despite it being outlawed for rebel imagery.

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Block 8 winner:

Orfeus Etimio

Orfeus is soft spoken, docile and as weak as a troll gets, but people tend to fear them because of the horde of ghosts following them everywhere, even for those that can't see spirits the presence is overwhelming.

They constantly give more than they can for the ghosts and have ended up emotionally drained, not properly reacting to most situations and appearing emotionless. İf you grabbed them and took them home they'd only say "ok" and let it happen.

They like playing minecraft with their moirail also

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Block 9 winner:

Zapika Zapity

Zapika is a self-proclaimed inventor and infamous local mad scientist. Her voice quirk is that she speaks like early season BlackButler Mei Rin. She is a Prospit dreamer, Mind-bound, iceskateKind, and psiioniic! Her design started as a joke when I randomized troll doll maker in 2020. Been my fave HS OC since!

"Best darn inventor on this side of the space-rock, aint no-one gonna tell ya otherwise, they aint!"

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Block 10 winner:

zalium azoran

Zalium is a rogue fuchsiablood who was raised by an axolotl lusus away from the prying eyes of the alternian empire. eventually he was able to find community in the lower bloodcastes of alternia and here he learned about alternian history from a true perspective.

he gathered an aliance, heavily inspired by the sufferer's rebellion, and rises up against the empire. being a highblood he held a greater chance against the empress and gl'bgolyb, and after a strenuous battle he manages to take down the horrorterror and the empress in turn

i don't even care if he's bad i love him so dearly

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Block 11 winner:

Alemap Occurd

Alemap is 6.5 sweeps old and just your average purple blood! She loves bright colors, silly jokes, and taxidermy! She's an exlaughassassin, murder for hire, but left that life behind when she met the love of her life: Punkin Pyrper, a nerdy lime with a heart of gold. Sure, she was *supposed* to kill him, but he's so sweet and cute and interesting!!! She's autistic and love learning about biology and poisons specifically and she's bisexual, though technically she's not interested in anyone but Punkin. He's her world! Her lusus, Sweetbaby, is a semi-aquatic possum with three tails that she uses to propel herself through water.

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Block 12 winner:

Contra Aurela

Sweetheart Violet, and Alternia’s Beloved Final Girl (an actress!)

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Block 13 winner:

Baxtin Nyswud

Baxtin used to be part of a semi-popular lowblood boyband called Sequence, though they fell out of popularity and while they aren't officially broken up... It's been a couple sweeps since they toured or even met up. Instead Baxtin spends his nights farming melons and gourds from seeds he kinda just found and decided to cultivate. Luckily his lusus, Timber, loves them. Timber is a huge south alternian longhorn bull and has cartoon physics for no known reason. He is actively a problem for the resident of Baxtin's town. This is upsetting for Baxtin cause he's incredibly socially anxious and scared of... well everything. He tends to be very spacey and doesn't listen to retain things very well outside of his music, but he's got major artistic blockage atm. His neighbor and best friend Vivsy keeps him grounded, though they don't see eye to eye very often (mostly on Vivisy's side- and not cause he's shorter!!)

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Block 14 winner:

Auiwyn Trasyl

The silliest, most self deprecating emo you’ll ever have the displeasure of meeting. His favorite movies would be the troll twilight saga, and they would make fanfiction of his rainbow drinker oc and Troll Edward. They have such a large obsession with rainbow drinkers that it’s consumed almost everything in his life. They would geek out if they ever met Kanaya, it would be so bad they’d probably faint. Would bite people to taste the blood and then gag when it tastes bad.

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Block 15 winner:

Emegon Gehana

Emo goth *and* catholic! Saying Emegon is weird is an understatement. Her interests goes against what her cloister believes in and she's seen as somewhat of an outcast because of that. She likes anything creepy and horror-related, and is very interested in early creepypasta stories and videos.

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Block 16 winner:

?????? Achlys

19 yo Mage of Void hemoanon, Achlys is a air-headed party girl who likes to take it easy, life is definitely too short to be worried about every little thing. She's quite friendly for a troll and always knows what to say to please people. She changes quadrants pretty often.

However when SGRUB begins she seems to know just where to look to learn all the rules and easily makes herself the leader before anyone notices. Not to mention her fake lusus and dreamself that seems to be puppeted by horrorterrors…

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congratulations to our contestants moving on, and to the contestants that have lost this round, once again i thank you for your participation, your characters are fantastic and amazing!

#homestuck #polls #tumblr polls #homestuck oc #fan troll #fan human #poll results

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sod4leaf · 1 year ago

Text

Hi guys! So ive been working on a comic called martyrs dogma :D its still very rough and its

My first time making a proper comic so any and all feedback is appreciated!

Lore of the world:

The story takes places in aldris, a city build around a massive tree wich allows for the use of magic. This tree, called the manatree, is ancient and its seed was planted before mankind discovered fire.

Nobody knows its origin, only that its what allows for magic to exist. It was first discovered by the alderians some 3 thousand years ago, who settled around the tree after discovering its properties.

Magic soon allowed for society to advance as manatec was created, machines and technology powerd by magic.

Naturally, people began worshipping the manatree as a god, and a church formed around it. Called the church of leafes, wich soon became incredibly influential in the cities early years and eventually ruled it indirectly trough high barons who were nothing more than puppets to the church.

While most people have some degree of magical abilities, those that dont are often shunned from society. They soon turned to alchemy as a way to keep up with the magic of the manatree. However the church of leafes saw this as heretical, and formed the branched order, a millitarisitc branch of the church ment to “remove” alchemists from aldris.

Alchemists soon fled underground into the massive cave network under the city formed by the manatree´s roots, where they established Roots keep, a safehaven for alchemists.

It soon formed its own culture and distinct identity, and eventually formed the Alchemists coven. The coven was created in opposition to the church of leafes, being part resistance group and part religious organization.

The coven preached that the manatree is inherently evil, as magic corrupts the body and mind of humanity, and that alchemy is the only way for a better future.

As society advanced, roots keep became popular among rich alderians to build factories and mines. They exploited the “rootlings” (a common insult for alchemists) for labor, barley paying enough for them to buy food. Where aldris was a shining city of breathtaking architecture, scientific progress and wealth, roots keep was city made of the junk and scrap the people of aldris no longer needed.

The alchemist coven began to organize more into a millita ment to eventually openly revolt against aldris, and began engaging alderian police in open combat.

In this rising unrest, thrya and yimiron were taken in as kids by the coven, trained to be millita soldiers in the coming revolution. The two were streetkids barley getting by, but once they were taken in they had a shelter, food and people who cared for them.

So they were extremely loyal to the cause, or at least thrya was. Yimiron witnessed the covens less honorable acts first hand, as he was actually the son of a alderian baron but was kidnapped when coven millita raided his home and killed his family.

He eventually betrayed the coven by making a deal with branched order inqisitors. He would get the inheritance of his father and become a baron, but had to give them the names and locations of all coven members. Including Thrya, who he saw as his big sister.

When the inqisitors raided the hideout, thrya was the only one to get out alive. She spend the next few years on the run, before being caught and eventually executed.

Her death, as she predicted, was the spark that lit the powderkeg. The Alchemist coven seized control of all alderian offices and factories in roots keep, executed officials and declared independence from aldris. This sparked the root war, a 4 year conflict wich nearly caused the destruction of both cities.

A peace treaty was eventually made, when the newly appointed High baron Yimiron used his remaining contacts with the coven and influence in aldris to allow roots keep greater independence. It was officially still part of aldris, but was allowed to act on its own.

For the next 20 years, there was relative peace, as roots keep became The Coven Republic. Alchemical technology greatly advanced during this time, as they reverse engineered manatec to be compatible with alchemy.

However, by 1847 p.e tensions began to rise again, as Yimiron attempted to wrestle power from the church and branched order. This sparked a civil war, wich is threatening to spill over into The coven republic.

So, The covens science division created the phoenix project. Its ment to clone and resurrect 10 heroic individuals from the covens history as part living propaganda and part elite soldiers.

Only known to a handfull of individuals however is the true reason for the program,as this plot runs deeper than the roots of the manatree..

#artwork #character art #oc art #fantasy world #fantasy architecture #fantasy art #worldbuilding #fantasy character

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corvidcrowned · 1 year ago

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Peeks in

Hi i finished yttd and now i have to ask what exactly is the ai test idiots au? im very curious,,, from what i can tell its a sara ai? who became sentient? but idk abt the others lol im just oh so interested

ok so get this right.

the ai sims- aka where the percentages are from- were disrupted one day when a glitch happened, messing with everything going on in the facility. This happened when the sara ai won, causing her to achieve self-awareness! (Here’s a comic of what happened from red’s perspective kinda)

Before this event, the sims went pretty normally- one or two people winning and all the others dying. Noticeable patterns showed up though! The sara ai and keiji ai were pretty much nemeses, the sara ai killed the shin ai most times, and the anzu ai had a pretty decent win rate, particularly because of her rivalry with the sara ai. ‘PLEASE stop killing people’ ‘ermm.make me?’ You know.

The glitch that made the sara ai becoming self aware led to some other weird stuff happening though. For example the sim itself would glitch often leading to the ais themselves to get super corrupt for short periods of time. Very strange and unusual. Michiru was supervising all this but scientific curiosity was too much to make everything normal again.

Fun fact though !! The Sara ai ends up becoming a lot more different from the original, eventually becoming his whole own person entirely !! He goes by Red, originally a nickname from Michiru because of his eyes. He/it/bite little creature guy<3 the anzu ai clings to being ‘anzu’ longer though, since for a while getting back home because her family needed her was what kept her going. Eventually though, they accepted being an ai, picking out the name ‘Pierrot’ with Red’s help. The two of them won a lot of simulations together! Pier wins some alone too ofc but unlike red’s weird mother-son like relationship with Michiru, pierrot does not like her at all (here’s how they met)

Eventually the simulation is concluded and red gets put into a doll body (which is drastically customized- fangs and his red eyes. He cuts his hair a little bit too hehe) while Pierrot manages to get into the general system at asunaro. The two don’t see each other for a while because of this unfortunately but eventually they do reunite, pier just living in red’s (stolen) phone sometimes. <3

Red and Pier’s funny lil story goes in a few directions depending on things, they show up in a collaborative au between me and some friends (ai guys<3) and some other stuff, I wanna make a comic abt them eventually (the Pluto project..<3) but their ‘canon’ end is them living with the survivors of the death game!! Because. Red’s ass broke into the dg LOL. He was like ‘heyyyy emiri ^^ you know what would be funny..’ and she was like. ‘Get in there boy’. So red ends up hangin around and messing/hanging out with people!!! Like kai(here) and gin(here) but he and sara REALLY DO NOT GET ALONG!!!!

You see… Red is very jealous of Sara. Why did he have to be created just for her sake? How come she got homecooked meals and a family that loved her and friends and school and he had to live through hell every day?? Ofc sara’s life isn’t that great (her father is literally meister after all..) but red does not know that. Sara finds herself disturbed by red. This weird copy of her keeps running around causing trouble and insulting her to her face.. she thinks he was thrown in to make everyone trust her less or something. They’re so messed up…. After the death game though they hang out a lot. Make amends. I ljike them..

ERM YEAH THATS ALL OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD..!!! Also candy’s here sometimes she’s a cute pink girl who kills<3 (she also is an ai of shin who takes after midori… a lot. Because she was directly under his thumb and had to deal with him she began to associate violence and love until the two concepts totally overlapped in her mind. AND she’s trans!)

#SO SORRY IF THIS IS INSANITY.did you know I’m really normal abt the ai test idiots #Ai test idiots #red namida #Pierrot #Candy

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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 1 year ago

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Is the original Vengeance of Moonknight run a good read?

Are you talking about the 2009 Vengeance of the Moon Knight: Shock and Awe by Gregg Hurwitz and Jerome Opena ?????

Oh boy.

You are asking me to review things out of order and ahead of schedule you naughty annon.

Trust me, I will review the heck out of this one.

If anything, the art alone is STUNNING. Opena went OFF.

It also involves a fantastic approach to his armor/outfit that works wonderfully. The colorists also went off on this series and the clash of warm and cold colors makes me very happy.

The bad guys? It takes place during a huge Osborn uprising in the comic timeline and Osborn sure is causing PROBLEMS.

It also involves another of my favorite heroes that Marvel tucks away and brings out once in a blue moon: The Sentry!

(We love Bob Reynolds in this house). He is often seen as the other side to Moon Knight. He embodies the light and sun and all that is good. He also has three sides to him (though it's not confirmed or cannon that he is a system with DID). He does have significant mental health issues as Bob/Sentry/Void.

As for the story itself….

Now the thing to know about Shock and Awe is that it takes place after the Huston/Benson run 2006-2009.

In the Huston run, we get a LOT of Marc dealing with Marc issues. Not to mention that time Marc faked his own death (again) and ran off to take care of business.

So him coming back is VENGENCE for all the shit that went down in the Huston/Benson run.

In Shock and Awe, we also are following Marvel Civil War (2006-2007) so the Avengers are also having a time and are licking their wounds and a little bitter… And Moon Knight is also a little bitter about the way that he was dismissed as too crazy to get involved…. But then again… so was Bob.

.......I'm getting way ahead of myself. IS THE STORY GOOD?

I haven't read it since at least 2010. Back then, just getting into Moon Knight, I ate it up. But there was also zero Moon Knight content out there so I'd have taken anything (ALMOST ANYTHING. No thank you Bendis/Bemis/Aaron) that was handed to me that vaguely looked like Moon Knight.

So younger me greatly enjoyed it. Has it stood up to time and the current understanding of Moon Knight? I don't know... I haven't started the re-read yet. So... Keep that in mind when I say YEAH I loved it! But I also know it had a LOT of problems.... like... a lot. But not nearly as bad as certain other runs....

It 100% treated Moon Knight's mental health as a big joke, you got a lot of violence and angry moody Marc, and anything with Avengers and Osborn is gonna get messy. ...BUT THE ART IS SO PRETTY.

...I'm sorry I can't answer your question well right now. I really need to get back into re-reading soon. My memory is absolute dog shit.

I'm taking January off from my re-reads for personal reasons and hope to get back in Feb or March.

#Ask away #talk to me about Moon Knight

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idgivemyeyesfor-mattmurdock · 2 years ago

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i liked your original post reminding people to be mindful of matt's blindness when writing fanfics for him, but your new one is quite odd, to be honest.

anyone who writes for him is free to interpret his character based on what stood out to them in the show, and how they use that interpretation to insert or conduct matt in their stories is very honestly up to them. there are famous and generally agreed-upon headcanons for matt because of popular fanfics in the dd fandom (which i'm also a big fan of), but ultimately they're just that: headcanons.

you may interpret matt as someone who would worship whoever he's dating, but many might not interpret his character as the same. i know you mean well, but i feel that being authoritative over how to write his character takes out the fun in writing fanfics for characters.

OMG HI!!! Thank you so much for responding!!!

Remember: this is my opinion. Not fact. I am not claiming my words to be fact, nor word I ever <3

Totally get where you're coming from; let me clarify my post.

So, there are fictional men like, Jess Mariana, Peter Parker (comic book, not live action) Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Clark Kent, that I feel like can be written overall in a pretty safe and vague way...they're the sweet guys of the fandom, and if you were to put the worst dialog on the planet by those characters but they were having picnic with so and so person, I honestly would read it and believe every action and movement.

If you were to write Though, when writing, Anakin Skywalker, Loki, Bruce Wayne, and Matthew Murdock/Daredevil... we enter this new world of layered writing that should be handled in a way that the reader (even if its for fun) gets the density of their personality, and tendencies.

I said, "Remember that Matthew Murdock is Daredevil, and Daredevil is not Matthew Murdock."

That, is what it means... and I don't feel like I have to defend it that much. His character is almost like moonknight in a way when you're writing two at once. Whichever you choose to focus more on, will reveal that personality for itself. Also, I've read some fan fics that do play this out very well. At night, and at all times at night; Daredevil is rougher with his love intrest, adn himself... vs the day where it's more puppy love.

"Sure he'd want to get a girlfriend, propose THEN have a kid. HOWEVER, throw in a wildcard of a women into the mix, and the order will have to change. Or, throw in if the oc hangs out with Matthew, she may go for the more traditional approach to a family. Vs, a character like Mercedes Castle (My OC. Check out Cherie on Wattpad!) who is more like Daredevil, but spends more time with Matt, then that changes the mix entirely because she's not traditional, but he is."

Again, this goes with handling with person you're oc is hanging around more often.... going back to the daredevil at night thing, I feel like choosing his choices for lets say the oc (at night) says, "I'm pregnant." right? Daredevil (imo) won't be as happy about that, but come the morning, Matthew Murdock plead his heart out to her and ask for "forgiveness" for being so rude.

"Matthew love interest, please remember that they become his god. He worships them, so he will bend the side of him he doesn't like to please her."

So, this can get see as authoritative towards his character. I get my wording was a lil off but, hear me out.

A lot of fan fics i've read MASTER this concept of "worshiping" the oc. But, I'm not saying whatever I say is fact, but in the show he does have a tendency to put xyz character in place of his own self (depending on how much he's 'into' them.) Sure, I get what you mean like, "you may interpret Matt as someone who would worship whoever he's dating, but many might not interpret his character as the same." saying that it takes away the 'fun' but hear me out. We want authenticity, and it feel better as the reader when you are given that raw dialog, and movements. my opinion: I love the worshiping idea, and it plays really well in a prompt when something happen to character B, and he has to give everything up to help them

Why am I writing this?:

Well because I really care about this character, and I hate to see such an intriguing person, get subjected to things that cross their moral standard.

we all have the capabilities to grow and accept others opinions!

and three, well, I just have been writing him for so long, that when I see a post like, "his eyes met my face" I'm like... girly. No. No he didn't because he's blind. And, when I see a pregnancy scare, and she's like, "He slipped his black mask away from his face and hugged me in excitement, saying 'I am so excited to start a family with you.'" I'm like... waitttttt hold up, and hear me out.

If you have a problem with this, please send in a request! Also, I'm open for requests about Matt, so enjoyyyy queens!

#matt murdock fic #matt murdock x reader #matt murderdock #please dont come at me #ao3 marvel #mattmurdockxreader #mattmurdocksmut #mattmurdock #daredevil #mattmurdockfanfic #charlie cox #charliecox #writingmattmurdock #bornagain #she/hulk #jennifer walters #she hulk #marvel #comic spoilers

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