#this guy and his origin story comic comes to my mind so often

[totallyradicalmucky]

[meanbossart]

Pin!

Hi, I'm RJ (Male, 27 years old) I'm a -usually- horror oriented artist and collaborator alongside my partner and better-half @barbatusart, though I'm currently on a Baldur's Gate 3/DnD streak with both my art and writing, specifically centered around the Dark Urge I created for my campaign and his antics, so that's most of what you will find here!

I want to leave a warning right here that I occasionally venture into delicate topics in regards to character lore and history - though none of it strays too far from what the game already delves into and I try to give a heads-up ahead of time whenever I feel like something might catch someone off-guard otherwise.

PATREON WHERE I POST WIPS, SKETCHES, UNRELEASED ART, ALL OF MY NSFW CONTENT, ETC : patreon.com/meanbossart/

BLUESKY WHERE I PUT UP FULL VERSIONS OF *SOME* OF THE NSFW THAT I CAN'T POST HERE: bsky.app/profile/meanbossart.bsky.social

TWITCH WHERE I STREAM SOMETIMES: twitch.tv/meanboss14

PSA: I get a lot of asks and I'm slow to go through them, please don't take it personally :U

Anyway, here's the guy of the hour:

🚨FAQ BELOW🚨

Q: Does your Durge have a name? A: Nope! I named him "drow" when I played the game because I didn't feel like thinking up anything special. His lack of a name has become part of the character's lore and you will find him to always be tagged with "DU drow", or referred to as The Drow or just Drow.

Q: Where can I read your BG3 fan-fiction? And what is it about? A: Right here! The main plot follows DU Drow, Astarion, and Shadowheart on a new adventure that fractures into a couple of different directions, but mainly focuses on the aftermath of the spawn that Astarion has released and the personal development of the main cast, alongside a number of original characters that get involved in the narrative. My goal was to create a kind of "DLC" experience, so you can expect a lot of themes that parallel the main game.

Q: Can I draw one of your characters, a scene from your story, or any of your characters interacting with mine/other characters? And can it be NSFW in nature? A: YOU ABSOLUTELY CAN, AND I'LL BE DELIGHTED TO SEE IT IF YOU CARE TO SHARE. I'm equally fine with NSFW as long as everyone involved (in the art and otherwise) is an adult.

Q: What drawing software/tablet/brushes do you use? A: I draw on a Wacom Cintiq 22, using Clip Studio Pro. I switch around brushes quite often but most of what I use comes from the DAUB super-bundle by Paolo Limoncelli.

Q: Where can I find more of your work? A: You can find mine and my partner's comics here, but please bear in mind that most of it is highly violent stuff and you should read the content warnings on the store page carefully before making any purchases - if in doubt of whether or not any of it could be detrimental to your mental health, DON'T BUY IT. Stay safe!

Q: Do you take commissions? A: I am not currently taking any new commission inquiries, sorry!

[pluckyredhead]

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:

[welcometogrouchland]

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

[tothefiniteyou]

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

[flamestar126]

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!

[understandableparadox]

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

-----------------------------------------------------

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)

------------------------------------------------------

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.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-------------------------------------------------------------

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.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

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

-------------------------------------------------------------

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!"

----------------------------------------------------------

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

---------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

---------------------------------------------------------

Block 12 winner:

Contra Aurela

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

-------------------------------------------------------------------

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!!)

---------------------------------------------------------------

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.

---------------------------------------------------------

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.

-------------------------------------------------------------

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…

---------------------------------------------------------------

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!

[sod4leaf]

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..

[corvidcrowned]

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!)

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

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.

[hannahtempler]

Hi! I am a big fan of your webcomic (and also I just realized you did some of the artwork of Thirsty Sword Lesbians and congratulations on that, it rules). Anyway, I found the Book 1 of Cosmoknights at a comic book store yesterday and I have been pouring over every little detail since. And there is one thing that's making my brain buzz. So I hope you don't mind me asking...

The thing is, I am reading the French translation, and that means stuff is a LOT more gendered. Particularly, in Cass' flashback during her time as a princess, when she goes to meet with Bee, people use male epithets to refer to her, including Bee. Also, Jaws uses female wordings to talk to both of them at the bar, but during the tournament the only time the turn of sentence genders her he says "tu es cinglé", which is the masculine form. I have checked, and all the male epithets correspond to places where the original story says either "fella", "dude" or "big guy", which could mean that the translator has just decided to keep the masc vibe of those terms and ignore that fact that (as far as I'm aware) the terms they're using in French are not as gender-neutral as they are in English. And I guess Jaws saying "cinglé" instead of "cinglée" could be a typo. But all put together, with the fact that the commentators use he/him for Bull even in the English version, makes me wonder...

So I guess my question is, on one hand, did you get any say on the translation? Is this the translator's interpretation, or yours?

And if it is yours, can you tell us a little more of what's going on with Cass' pronouns here? Is she (I'm using "she" because Bee does) genderfluid to some degree? Is she just someone who likes male epithets because of their associations? Does she have a male alter ego as a cosmoknight to keep pursuers at bay? If yes, does that mean all the cosmoknights know and are willing to protect the secret that she's a woman to the public, and that's why Jaws genders her like that at the joust?

(Also, is the second book going to come out in French? I'd love to have the series all in the same language, and not paying the price of the book in shipping fees would be great)

I hope I've not overwhelmed you, i'm sorry for the wall of text, and I hope you have a great day!

Hi! Thanks so much for your kind words and thoughtful questions! I'll do my best to answer here:

I didn't get a direct say on the translation– although I do speak French, I don't practice a lot, so I would probably miss a lot of the subtleties you're describing. It's possible that there is variation after translation, but from what it sounds like, the French version does come close to the intention of the English version.

Cass uses any/all pronouns and is gender-fluid– most of the time she uses she/her pronouns, but does not object to more masculine descriptors (for example, Bee affectionately greets her with "Hey, big guy" during the flashback). It's less that she has a male alter ego, and more that she is unconcerned with how people interpret her gender (Cass's gender expression matches my own, so I'm also partially speaking from personal experience here).

It's worth noting that during the games the commentators assume she is a man because of her size and approach to fighting while still referring to Bee as a woman, and often in public Cass is addressed with male pronouns (or "hey fella" etc.)– and while that may help keep her identity hidden, it's not necessary for a secret disguise (some women do compete in the games, after all). Cass loves to play in the gender playground and gets a kick out of people's perceptions– for those who don't know her (e.g. fans of the game) it's an indictment of their assumptions about gender, and for those who do (for example, Jaws), it can be a sign of mutual respect and acknowledgement of her fluidity.

It makes a lot of sense that she would enjoy flexibility when we consider the highly gendered expectations placed on her growing up*– now that she's away from home and dressing how she wants (often wearing a binder), she's free to thrive in and out of people's expectations.

I hope that makes sense! There's a little more about this in the second book (specifically about the way knights interact with each other outside of the ring) that I think helps illuminate some of this too.

Also: yes, the second book will be out in French either later this year or early next year! No exact dates yet, but the publisher (Bliss) will announce at some point soon.

*here's some fun bonus Cass trivia: she's the youngest of five, and all the boys in her family have names that mean "ruler" or "king"– Kingsley, Derek, Rory, and Elric. Expecting another boy, her parents picked out the name Caesar, but she juked 'em :^)

[idgivemyeyesfor-mattmurdock]

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!

[scrunkore]

Scrunkore Media "Thread" 2023: Part 1

welcome to the scrunko core

1) Drill Dozer (GBA, 2005)

I'm a big fan of characters with big fuckin' drills, and Jill is definitely one of the more fun ones to play as while you mow down goons (including cops) and navigate platforming levels. It's a bit underwhelming in some areas, but it has a fun and energetic style, and I respect what the final boss fight does. A solid non-Pokémon offering from Game Freak, check it out sometime and maybe track down the cute little prologue comic too. [4★]

2) Kirby Fighters 2 (Switch, 2020)

Kirby is hardly a stranger to platform fighters, being in Smash and all, but having his own one is pretty novel - even if the characters who really steal the show are Meta Knight and King Dedede with their partnership in this one. The game itself is a fun little brawler that will take a few hours to beat mostly because of how long the harder parts of story mode can take, and it's full of fun powers and characters that you can use, but I'm not good enough at fighting games to say if it's really a good one. I enjoyed my time with it, though. [3.5★]

3) Sonic The Hedgehog: The Movie/OVA (Anime, 1996)

Strange, isn't it? Toei's original Sonic "movie" has plenty of oddities like an annoying anime catgirl who I actually kinda love, a silly old owl guy and Knuckles rocking that cowboy hat, and these honestly give it a unique charm. In terms of the main qualities, it's fairly nice to look at with good music and a really fun fight against Metal Sonic towards the end - I must say it's nothing spectacular until then, but I found it to be decent fun. English dub is pretty average for the time, which is to say not great, but it's also kind of iconic? Just a neat little part of Sonic history really, if you like the funny blue hedgehog you should probably check it out. [3.5★]

4) Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Movie, 2022)

It's kind of crazy how much more interesting this is than the first movie, it wasn't even on my radar until the trailer showed off some of the excellent animated action that the final movie is filled with. I'm glad I checked it out, because this movie is a really fun adventure that also manages to not pull many punches with its darker theme, but it also has some rather silly bits, and I'll admit the bear family storyline actually touched my heart. Excellent villains too, with the terrifying wolf relentlessly hunting Puss, and the comically evil Jack Horner just being a dick the whole time. It's just a damn good movie with some great-looking animation, and I'm oddly excited for the future of the Shrek franchise now??? Thank You Pussy Boots [5★]

5) Super Kirby Clash (Switch, 2019)

Hope you like Kirby boss fights, because that's basically all this game is, with only four (admittedly somewhat new-feeling) abilities to choose from and a whole lot of grinding to be done on them if you want to actually finish the game. There are also microtransactions, but the game is nice enough to give you a limit on them, so I can't really complain about them that much, and you don't need to use them anyway. The fights are fine, pretty standard Kirby fare, and it was nice to see Nightmare from Kirby's Adventure get some acknowledgement. I didn't mind this one. [3★]

6-7) Chainsaw Man (Manga/Anime, 2018-Present)

Tatsuki Fujimoto's Wild Ride has been a hot topic for a while, and it's easy to see why, with the absolutely wild pacing, visceral fight scenes/massacres and great use of horror elements with movie influences that are worn on its sleeve. It's an intense and violent series that still has heart and likes to fuck around sometimes, effectively using themes of control and desire and struggling in a hellish world yet still maintaining hope, it's something with a vibe you don't see often and I'm still eagerly following the manga as it comes out. The first "part" of the manga is done, which is what I mainly made this about, and the anime adaptation is fantastic so I hope it continues at least to the end of that. Give it a go, I'd say it lives up to the hype. [5★ so far]

8) Metroid Prime Remastered (Switch, 2023)

I'd been putting off playing Metroid Prime for no real reason for a while, and then Nintendo randomly dropped the first game in HD on the Switch one afternoon, which pushed me to give it a shot. I'm glad I did, because Metroid works really well in the FPS format, which isn't the type of game I usually play so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it in the end. There's the odd annoying room or brutal boss fight, and I'm not 100% about the whole visor gimmick, but as someone who loves Metroid, it does Metroid about as well as I could hope. Now, though, I really want them to put the other two games on the Switch too, because using a modern standard controller for this game feels too good to give up... [4.5★]

9) Pizza Tower (PC, 2023)

The indie darling of at least the first few months of the year, it's easy to see why people love this game - it's like that one Wario Land game, but with incredibly strong cartoon influence and also the Shinespark, and all of this works in its favour. It's a super satisfying action-packed platformer with a combo and ranking system that keeps you coming back for more, though I was never good enough to get more than an A rank myself. Bosses are fun and creative too, with a really good final one, and the aesthetic fits it perfectly, not to mention the absolutely incredible music. I don't think it's quite perfect, as there are some levels I'm not too fond of and there is the odd questionable enemy design, but it's damn good game anyway. [4.5★]

10) Kurukuru Kururin (GBA, 2001)

Okay, I see what this game was going for, and it's a good gimmick - rotating a pipe-shaped ship through increasingly difficult mazes while trying not to hit the sides or you'll die works just fine, and if I had more patience, maybe I'd actually love this game. But I kind of don't, and a lot of the difficulty of the game just feels more annoying than anything else, so I can't say I'm a big fan of this one. Multiplayer does look fun, and I guess the birds are cute, but I don't have that much else to say about this other than "eh not my thing". Can't say it's awful though, I still finished it with save states. [2.5★]

11) Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Switch, 2018)

I honestly did like the Captain Toad levels in Super Mario 3D World, so having a full game of them is pretty nice. The box garden diorama type levels full of items for Toad to collect are cute and fun, often short and sweet, and although a lot of them may be kind of a breeze, it absolutely will get hard if you try to do a more completionist route. There are also boss fights, but I don't think they're much to write home about, and they kinda repeat a couple times throughout the game, but they don't really hurt. I like that this version added Odyssey levels too, it's probably the best version of the game if you had to pick just one. It's nice fun, that's all really. [3.5★]

12) Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe (Switch, 2023)

Return to Dreamland/Adventure Wii was the start of what is honestly one of my favourite eras of the Kirby series, and this polished remake shows that it's still just as good as it was back on the Wii. Typical fun campaign with everyone's favourite treacherous egg Magolor doing his thing, with a whole new mode starring the fellow after you beat it - the new mode is cool as hell by the way, it's not very long but it's really good extra content that fleshes out the lore. There are also a shit-ton of minigames from across the seires in this one thanks to Merry Magoland, each with their own challenges to complete, and you get funny masks to wear in the main game for doing so. Arena is still here too, and it's good to see Galacta Knight again after he got screwed over in Star Allies. This game's just a complete package, I only wish it had online multiplayer. [4.5★]

13) Blue Reflection Ray (Anime, 2021)

This one's just kind of alright, I would not have watched it had I not done it for someone I loved, but I enjoyed my time with it. It's a sort-of spinoff of a game series about gay magical girls protecting emotions from being erased, and I do really like what they did with that idea. So many of these girls are traumatised, and it explores said trauma in a way that I found rather effective, they didn't do a bad job with that. The character designs are pretty nice too, particularly when they're in their typical magical girl forms. The story itself isn't too bad, but I did get a bit bored sometimes, and the production values aren't anything to really take notice of - pretty standard fare there. I can see why my girl likes this anime, and I found plenty to enjoy about it too, but I don't think it really had much of an impact on me. It was fine, no shade from me here. [3.5★]

Next post here

[morguemaw]

Talk about or show off something you've desperately been wanting to chat about your ocs!

Some sort of character change? A detail about the world you haven't had the chance to talk about? Anything? Everything!

I LOVE YOU OH MYGOHD IM GONNA HAFTA SAVE THE CHARACTER STUFF BC THIS IS ALL ABT WORLD STUFF!!!!

I wanna tell u guys abt some projects!! Alot are scrapped but i figured its still fun to tell the plot :D ( Hint, i figured out a good issue-fixer all the way at the bottom )

OKOKOKokokok so like !! My favorite things r normally world-building, world-designing, character plotting and so much more

My current dream is to create a project or two that i can keep up with: think One Punch Man, a manga series that literally started off as something personal and silly that slowly grew in popularity!

I currently have a few projects i would love to talk about! Alot are scrapped, on hold, or still being developed

It Gets Worse: Originally about Gutsy's lore, the comic would basically start by introducing how Gutsy died and became what he was, which was becoming a type of demon in a Limbo world. The entire plot is all about redemption and accepting the fact he cant go back and be better and needs to move on, but along the way he needs to correct wrongs since the world is also sprinkled with people he needs to make up with, such as his brother Killcode. This story was scrapped since it changed alot since atm im unsure if i want Gutsy to have lore. I used to do the " theres OC Gutsy then Sona Gutsy " but if i did that for him i would do that for pretty much everyone i consider a "Sona"

Creation Damnation: A world where it just expanded on characters backstories and profiles pretty much! The few main characters involved would be Gutsy, Rot, and other ocs like Angie, this story is currently scrapped too Un-named Hero World: A world where Endo and a old fursona Cinder would be placed: Loosely inspired off cliche hero shows/manga/anime/cartoons. But with this world very few are born with a power, those born with ones often get sent to a school called CTC ( Champion Training Course, Champions are what the heros are called ) and are trained to use these powers for good. It would ofc have cliche villains and stuff and its kinda on hold since i still need to work on tweaks and theres still a daunting issue ( see all the way down )

Project Cloud Nine: Was a world that involved Sugerhigh, Spiggy, and Wish. Sugerhigh is a cryptic hunter / old magic user, and Wish is the cryptic he is hunting. Spiggy is just a victim in all of this and is dragged along

Black-Water : the newest project im thinking of doing, as of rn the idea is Black-Water takes place in... Well Black Water County, a town that is festering with witch-craft and magic users. It would focus on a few characters, a main one being named Zorra, a social media influencer who left the town but rumors go around of something terrible coming

Currently im wanting to combine most into a story: Black-Water and PCN can mesh together flawlessly because Sugerhigh is connected to Zorra because both were born and raised there

Creation Damnation and It Gets Worse can be combined too since its roughly the same in the sense of how i would project it: Characters going through shit and showing how they change and grow The Hero World is the only one im not too focused on since its mostly a placeholder world for Endo, but i did also draw him, Cinder, Spiggy, Wish, and i believe Sugerhigh in a comic cover for It Gets Worse...

If you couldnt tell, my main issue with projects is i make alot but tend to repeat using characters, which can easily be fixed by scrapping or mixing certain worlds together! Ik for sure It Gets Worse will mostly be re-used title wise, and a current fix i have in mind is that It Gets Worse is the title of the series, while everything else are chapters....

Which.... Honestly i love the idea of that..... Mixing in all the stories that end up clashing into one only separated from different POV's... Huh.....

[spongebobafettywap]

The one excuse I see often brought up for why this retcon is good is that "it was Claremont's original plan!"

And I'm just like

It was a scrapped idea like the og nightmare one so it never went anywhere outside of his mind space and the editor's room

Claremont stopped writing mainline X-Men for awhile now and whenever he does it's out of continuity minis, more ooc than anything and he throws all the character arcs he didn't make out of the window to make his new hip ideas fit (like, just as cannonball become an official X-Men, Claremont sent him back to his new mutants rank because)

And we already had an established canon for 30 years that worked with all things considered. A whole generation of people grew up with the mystique and baron (and azazel) story. Cartoons were about this. Storylines were about this. Plot points were about this. Character dynamics were about this

Claremont doesn't always have good ideas and we should be critical of them out of respect for him as a person. That's what editors and fans should do. Especially since other writers came along and also built X-Men over the years and this move discredits their whole published work. Also this new origins wasn't even written by Claremont so how does that argument work concretely with someone who showed that he doesn't know anything about Nightcrawler's character as he kept piling up the mischaracterization and plotholes with him since he started writing him

... Although the best argument I read against that remark was from people online going "you mean the same guy who started the whole 'nightcrawler wooes and sleeps with his (adoptive) sister' trend since the 80's and never let go even in the early 2010's ?"

Anon you are speaking my language!! I do really hate people putting Claremont on this pedestal of this infalliable perfect X-men writer, to do this they have to ignore things like the sexist way he wrote Lorna as being nothing more than Alex's wife and cutting off her ties to Magneto, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch effectively making her only a side character to Alex's story. Not to mention removing her magnetic powers a powerset not even used by very many comic book characters at all to make her a She-Hulk rip off.

Seriously for a man praised for his work with female characters its so bizarre how he wrote Polaris in such a sexist way. Do these people that lawd Claremont even read the recent stuff he writes? like X-men Forever or when he wrote Nightcrawler's solo? The man peaked in the 80s and even back then he was writing some characters like Lorna like garbage.

Whilst I am not a fan of Claremont I do agree with you on how his fans should be more willing to criticise some of his ideas, I never like it when people become uncritical fans of someone and then just accept whatever they make or do and then create this weird culture around them about how flawless they are as a person or a creator. It's really weird and it doesn't just apply to Claremont I see it with so many content creators.

"Although the best argument I read against that remark was from people online going "you mean the same guy who started the whole 'nightcrawler wooes and sleeps with his (adoptive) sister' trend since the 80's and never let go even in the early 2010's ?" LOL I agree with this it's a really perfect counter for when people act like all his ideas are gold and should all have come to fruition. Especially as they can't really justify it beyond "well they aren't blood related" and they start to look like a real weirdo to any normal person for saying that. It was already bad to put that in a story in the 80s the fact that he held onto it for like 30 years is so stupid, what exactly was it about these two siblings that Claremont felt like was the ultimate love story? Because for me whenever I see characters who were raised as siblings doing that kind of thing I am just like NOPE.

It really marred Nightcrawler's reputation, I've seen a lot of fans make jokes about him because of that. But hey apparently the Draco was the worst thing to happen to him according to the official "le tru X-men fans™"

This is the same guy that wanted to make it so Gambit and Mr Sinister were constructs of some mutant kid. One of the most beloved X-men characters and one of its best Supervillains were just meant to be some imaginary characters come to life. We were apparently never meant to have this Ancient Scientist who worked with the likes of Charles Darwin to study genetics isn't that crazy?

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for November 6th. Not the handsomest of guys, I'm sure. A bit of a big forehead.

Speaking of big foreheads, I was listening to a podcast with James Urbaniak, and he mentioned he auditioned for Rainn Wilson's role in The Office. I don't know if that's true or not, since that 'cast was more of a series of fictional stories using his real name. But it'd be interesting to see Urbaniak in The Office.

Had that happened, though, I probably wouldn't have been a fan of his, since I'm all about The Venture Bros, it's the best show ever, I love it.

It's funny, but, although I'm a proper nerd who loves comics, manga, cartoons and movies, I never really enjoyed one of those long running narratives with an epic flavor that seem to be what a lot of works are aiming for. Venture Bros itself is probably the closest - a cartoon about a long war between two factions, involving multiple generations of characters, with character development taking the spotlight, and a central mystery personally related to the main characters that ties into the bigger conflict.

But unfortunately, the show was unceremoniously cancelled before a proper conclusion - even before it was officially cancelled, it felt like it was half-cancelled already since it took so long for seasons to come out. A movie came out after a while but it wrapped everything up in a rush, it wasn't an epic ending in and of itself.

And that's one of the things about epic stories - endings are always a bit off. If we're talking big worldbuild-y sagas, the biggest example of it is Game of Thrones, which seemingly cornered the market on disappointing endings. The Song of Ice and Fire book series seems to have gone on a different direction and just not end. Even if those planned last two (or three) books are ever published, everyone's already lost interest after the show did its own, clumsy version of the story.

The ending of Harry Potter, too, wasn't my favorite. To be honest, I think I grew out of it during the period between the publication of the last three books or so (and their plots all mix together in my mind). I never even finished the last few chapters of the Deathly Hallows one. And now there's that crappy prequel saga that's movie-only, seems like the story's completely jumped the shark.

A lot of shows try and go for the "myth arc" concept where the entire show is built up around one story with a main mystery and a supposed grand apotheosis in the finale. And it never works, does it? Lost kind of started the trend, and that show went nowhere. Purgatory stuff and whatnot, right? Those last few episodes of Steven Universe somehow pinned down all the bad stuff about the show, and made it obvious to everyone. Breaking Bad actually managed to do it, but that's not really a nerd show - it's a crime drama, and, yeah, a really good one, but it had a smaller scope. And even that has the prequel that doesn't capture lightning in a bottle like the original did.

Comics are a horse of a different color. There are great runs where one creator has a character in his hands to really explore an epic story, but often the story doesn't reach the end (I'm looking at you, Jack Kirby), or reaches the end but has to continue going with different, often less-talented creatives at the helm. Creator-owned comics are supposed to escape that fate, but they often have trouble being profitable enough to earn an ending, or end up being stretched thin because they're too profitable. Of course creator-owned work is usually a bit too alternative to fit the mold. One sad example is Astro City, which at first felt like a perfect superhero epic, but was abandoned due to writer Kurt Busiek's serious health problems. Poor guy.

The Marvel movies did a good job at it with the Thanos-era movies, but they had to keep going after the heroes beat the god of evil (after all, nobody burns down a money factory), and it all felt a bit like a long "cleaning up the rubble" session without Thanos, Iron Man and Captain America around. Even though some of my favorite movies in that series come after Infinity War, they're the best, mostly despite being part of the MCU, not because of it.

Which is probably why I often prefer shorter stories, as opposed to sprawling sagas. My favorite manga are usually 10 books long at most. Comic book limited series like Watchmen are also pretty memorable. It's also a lot easier to read something that's available as a single book, instead of five hundred issues scattered around different comic book shops - although that problem's not too relevant nowadays thanks to the internet and whatnot.

That's often an issue with entertainment. You usually keep going while the story's good, and once the quality drops, you end it. Like they say in the Dark Knight movies, you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. And, funny, the Dark Knight, along Venture Brothers, is one of the few works that managed to escape that curse. It's not my favorite, but it's definitely not a disappointment. And there are some oddball stories that managed to feel epic and strike gold despite their long runs. The Invincible comic, for instance, and one of my favorite underdog webcomics, Doctor McNinja.

Figuring out good endings is one of the hardest stuff about writing, in my opinion.