#tol comic

[railroadlion]

To be continued...

[bicon-crange]

been genuinely having a ball sprucing up my little doodles of these guys with some halftones :p

[headsplit2008]

jamie but aweosme

[eunnieverse]

Happy Pride Month

(I couldn't resist making something dumb for this)

[yarrayora]

X days left until the western elves ambassador arrives at the golden kingdom

[feohtlac]

GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!!!

[chibichangas]

Nero and Nanashi go to the Garlean coffee shop one fateful day

[singlecelledbutch]

this was what happened in the battle of the bands audience trust me i was the moai at the back

[thebunnyremix]

Team CRMEN Text Posts

[gt-daboss]

Gremlin tinies? NAH HOW 'BOUT GREMLIN GIANTS

Annnnyways... there is a CASCADE of illustrations and writings about how a giant can and WILL get easily fucked over by a gremlin tiny, hell, they literally live in your walls. BUT SCREW ALL THAT! WE ARE TALKING ABOUT GIANTS TODAY! Giants who attach tiny's favorite food to a string, right. Maybe a tiny thinks they're so so sneaky and boasts about it all the time, only for one day the giant comes out with a fucking phone book sized collection of pictures of them eating and stealing all there food. bonus points if they start hanging the particularly embarassing ones on the walls outside their home. Maybe even sharing a couple to borrow-tok if we're feeling extra spicy~

OMG what about a tiny sneaking around trying to steal food only for the giant to sneak up behind them and make a Nat Geo doc on them, "Here we can carefully observe the totally 100% independent borrower female. Well renowned for their hunting prowes, she wanted to let me know that she wasn't the one who stole my twinkies last night. ah but alas back to the hunter... slowly but surely approacing the dull light of kitchen... all good intentions I'm sure... (Bonus points of course if the tiny can match the vibe, make this shit an episode out of the 3 Stooges)

And if you're a giant whos thinking, "Oh no! I can't do this to my tiny they'll be too scared! they'll think im bullying them!" THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY'VE DONE, steel your heart, If they can be a gremlin, So. Can. You. Get out there and cause some mayhem!

[railroadlion]

Tomorrow.

Stay tuned.

[bicon-crange]

breaking news: worst roomate in the world both DIDN'T stay on top of his laundry AND talked his roomie into doing something stupid. AGAIN.

this message WILL repeat in 2 weeks when he pulls it off again

[headsplit2008]

does santiago have bpd? (and does jamie have AuDHD?)

Wether intentional or not, santiago displays a lot of symptoms of bpd. Specifically, I want to look at his habit of 'splitting', and how Santiago seems to apply it to Jamie.

'Splitting' is basically the tendency to think in extremes- basically going from seeing something as 'all good' to 'all bad'. it's also called 'black-and-white thinking' or 'all-or-nothing' thinking. The second term is also interestingly relevant (though, again, probably not intentionally) because the comic itself is deliberately only in black and white. 'my head feels like like it's gonna split right open.' is the VERBATIM blurb underneath TOL's title on comicfury.

Santiago has a hard time telling other people's intentions. He automatically assumes the worst in situations; that people are out to harm him, that he's gonna die, etc.

but he's also concious of the fact these thoughts are unreasonable! when he's aware that he's doing it, he tries to stop his thoughts, mostly in defense of jamie.

underneath santiago's surface-level violent thoughts (something in and of itself common in bpd) and 'hatred' of jamie, there's an incredible almost reverence for him, and a deep fear of being abandoned. he constantly assumes jamie is beloved by all, despite evidence pointing to that most people just think he's weird.

he automatically assumes jamie has left him, shows himself 'evidence' that jamie actually doesn't care about or respect him, tells himself he needs to find jamie or else people will kill him (although probably hyperbole, the sentiment is still there). when his fear of jamie abandoning him is seemingly confirmed (even if it turns out to be untrue!), his brain pulls a 'see? i told you so!' about it.

santiago's fear of being abandoned by jamie could also be the reason he keeps coming to parties even when he hates them; he'd rather put up with jamie's 'bullshit' than risk losing him. we know jamie helped get santiago out of his shell; santiago sought out his friendship to some degree because of how much he admired him. jamie made him feel included and wanted, and even in the prologue we see how he's constantly being kind to and reassuring santiago. he cares a lot about what santiago thinks/how santiago will react to things. It's speculation, but could jamie know how much reassurance santiago needs, espeically from him?

if santiago has gone through this cycle of idealization/disillusionment with jamie before, jamie might have reason to believe santiago would 'snap' at him again (please don't take this as me villainizing people with bpd this isnt a moral judgement), which could also explain why he doesn't want santiago to be mad, and why he runs away after the doorslam.

speaking of the doorslam, when jamie reaches for santiago after it occurs, santiago cannot read his expression.

santiago is unable to tell if jamie legitimately intended to hurt him, he doesn't know wether to trust him or not. his perception of jamie is up in the air. it's been skewing negative, but now there might be proof jamie actually hates him and wants him dead! It also explains this reaction.

By apologising, Jamie is being reset in Santiago's brain as 'good'. because santiago is unable to think in greys, jamie can either only be 'good' or 'bad' at a time. he's 'redeeming' himself in santiago's eyes. which is why, then, here,

jamie is reset as 'bad' again. we can even witness this happening in real time:

'ugh, i can't believe him.' he wants to forgive jamie and have him be 'good' -> 'actually, maybe i can believe it.' nope, jamie is 'bad'. santiago's thinking in extremes, too; 'the one time [...]'.

It's phenomenal how well we're put into santiago’s shoes if he’s 'splitting'. His actions seem totally reasonable based on the information we're given (the information SANTIAGO has and how he processes it). We're able sympathize with him and understand why he feels the way he does, experiencing something that's often heavily stigmatized.

part 2: does jamie have AuDHD?

In the same way santiago displays behaviours common in BPD, Jamie displays behaviours common to ADHD/Autism. I want to specify here when I say AuDHD I don't mean it in the watered-down, pop culture way it's come to be associated with. Because people/characters with autism & adhd are so often infantilised, the knee-jerk reaction to 'Jamie might be autistic/have ADHD' might be to go 'but he's such an asshole!' but the thing is, very often in real life, ADHD/autistic people, especially undiagnosed ones, are seen as assholes or inconsiderate because of their inability to empathise with or understand other people's emotions, and their impulsive tendencies.

This also could explain Jamie's complete literalness. He takes everything Santiago says at face value. He even tries to explain a very obvious joke to santiago, probably because (as expanded on HERE) he would want someone else to explain it to him and make sure he's not confused.

Jamie's way of speaking is also very strange for someone of his age/gender. At first he comes accross as a typical bro-ish kind of speaker, lots of 'dude's and 'man's. but shoesies? Having a 'strange' or uncommon vocabulary is something really common to autistic individuals (as is probably obvious from a quick peruse of my blogue).

Jamie does not appear to understand social conventions. This could also be a reason for him going to parties; things that are in other contexts 'offputting' or 'bizarre' about him become acceptable and even fun.

although the girls here ^ are talking about how 'funny' jamie is, it's got a mocking undertone. they're not laughing with jamie, they're laughing at jamie. but because santiago has this preconcieved notion in his head that everybody loves jamie, as the biased narrator he is, he becomes frustrated at their praise of jamie, and how it contradicts his current feelings on him.

That's all to say~..! Wether or not santiago and jamie are purposefully written as bpd/audhd, they do a really good job of realistically and empathetically portraying the traits of those disorders without villainizing or infantilizing them. myself and my friends who have these things are able to see the things we do reflected almost to a t, and it's very relatable and comforting :-) thank you to gray & mari for first suggesting this theory to me, and gracia and aida for giving me feedback!

[fatedroses]

The (perhaps cursed) result of Zenos listening to Tsukiko sometimes (she has no remorse).

[talesoftheraysen]

[yummycrummy]

now that we have the crackship ‘rolly’ I need Leslie beating the shit out of Wally

Gotta make sure he knows his place 👊💥

Goofy lil comic 😈