#was thinking about this bc im looking for a random panel so i can make a stupid meme. havent found it yet. womp.

[dorkicon]

thinking about one of my favorite marvel pages again. not really in terms of narrative importance i guess, more just bc it hits on the hallmarks i enjoy in this particular arc:

1. straxus being a little bitch (look at that pose in panel two!)

2. marveltron in psychological distress (sorry buddy)

its also drilled the term 'optimus prime tulpa' into my head forever. because thats who straxus is feeling up. the optimus prime tulpa. optimus prime tulpa.

[orcelito]

Went skimming thru late trimax For Reasons, got caught up reading the Legato fight, realized things about the fight that I never had before & went WOW, I kind of want to write an analysis post right now!

Felt the same kind of insanity grip me, however momentarily, that fueled all my analysis posts however many months ago. Too tired to actually word things coherently right now, but...

I May or may not have a full(ish?) analysis of the Legato & Vash fight a la style of This post analyzing the Trigun: Multiple Bullets fight that got unexpectedly kind of popular. People seemed to really appreciate that one, & I even had some ppl saying it could be cool if I did that for others?

So. Legato fight. Maybe. Feel free to remind me later if u see no mention of it again for over a week lol

[kiddycup]

hi!!! i wanted to ask you if you had any tips for going about choosing colors? your art provokes very distinct feelings/atmospheres via the colors & i do hope to do the same someday ^_^

hello! thank you... i'm actually quite insecure about my colouring, but i think a big thing that helped me was putting down one base undercolour that i base all my other colours around and not just picking random colours from wherever (sticking close to it on the colour wheel)

i'll use these colours from my comic as an example bc it has 2 different schemes for mood change effect:

the left panel is kinda goofy or whatever, so i chose that green/yellow in the bg there to have a happier/sillier tone. their skin/clothing are still around that colour, though.

this is for ena's (girl on left) skin tone and shirt respectively:

the top half of that colour preview is the undercolour i used, and the bottom half are the subject colours. you can see that if that shirt colour is isolated, it's orange; but put on top of this green, it looks red. you can also see that i dont deviate too much from that undertone on the side slider.

you can see the same thing done w the right panel, which a red tone was used instead of the green/yellow (because red=scary/tense) etc.

these are for clare's (shocked one) skin tone, and then renee's (girl on her right) shirt colour.

you can see that for the left panel, i tended to stay on the upper yellow, while for the right panel i stayed more within the bottom red range on the slider. for both of these, i stayed within the top left of the picker area--thats where the earthier/soft look comes from. it would be different if i strayed further right, which is much more saturated and bright.

i also usually like to choose a less severe line colour, in this case its more of a very dark brown instead of black. i find that it tends to compliment these colours more with the same reasoning as everything else i talked about.... and it kind of gives it a faded vintage look?

anyway, im usually more of a sketcher than an illustrator so take it as a starting point... and don't hesitate to colour drop drawings with colours/moods you like and see how they interact with each other on the sliders/wheels. that's how i learned when i started out.

also, a little colour overlay on top of your drawing is an easy cheat to get your colours more cohesive--i still use it at times. learning the ins-and-outs of how it works without resorting to it is still useful though, and in my experience it makes your colours more specific and stand out

i hope this makes sense and/or helps!!!!

[handoferis]

i have had the most hilarious day

i dropped off my holter monitor and tried to wash off the goop in the bathroom, did not work at all. left with grunge and a weird hickey looking bruise. too obese to button my flannel up. awesome, whatever. i decided to pick up some prescriptions while i was out and about. while i was there i saw my shitty IRL that im tentatively being polite to and her kiddo ran up to me and hugged me <33 oh but anyway she was all like "omg hiii, sorry i havent been in contact ive just been sooo busy. im not mad at you! are you mad at me?" and i just laughed and was like whatever, shit happens dude. like totally not answering her question but willing to just move on. idk i just always laugh when someone genuinely asks "are you mad at me?" or "do you hate me?" it just feels so middle school. i explained my bruise and we had a good laugh, apparently she pulled her shoulder but that's not why she was at the med center, it was for the kiddo. i gave her a couple of muscle relaxers since i JUST got it refilled so fuck it. i wish she would go to an actual doctor though. instead of the ER last week i guess? for a pulled shoulder??? ok .

so me and my MIL finally leave the med center, i bought a preroll at the dispo, i went to gordon food service and bought mochi. boomer MIL went to mcdonalds and decided we need to eat in because she wanted to "make sure they brew a fresh decaf and cook my food to order" (it sounds reasonable but she isnt reasonable about how she asks) and it was insane, the manager was verbally abusing one of his employees. said employee walked out. two customers on two separate occasions started cussing out some of the remaining workers.

finally we go to leave and her car wont start.

MIL is absolutely, and i dont say this lightly, fucking retarded, when it comes to vehicles. She has never changed her oil on any vehicle she has had in the time ive known her. She constantly buys like fucking Temu windshield wipers and then is like "these wipers are fucky sucky" yes Meems its cause you bought it from fuckysucky dot com. Jesus! Ok so

She sat there just trying to start her car over and over again. For like half an hour. No lights would come on, not even flicker. I tried to tell her like hey let's try something else. Do you think she listened to me? No. She is having like 86 panic attacks and listing off every biblical character she can think of while she's trying to start the car over and over. She finally called a family friend and they brought jumper cables.

The battery is in the trunk. The trunk can't be opened because the battery is dead. Could not open the access panel bc it was so awkward to maneuver trying to reach it from the back seat. Family friend googled it and found out theres some battery access nodes under the front hood. and it straight up didnt work. like at all. dashboard lights would flicker on but then right back off. random guy in the parking lot offered 'help' by walking family friend through the steps of what she'd already been doing.

MIL is having a panic attack because the tow truck is going to be $112 and she wants to call "these other cheapy guys in my phone but i cant find it OH OKAY I found it should I call and cancel the other one?" and im like "Meems they are already on the way dont fuckign do that to these people." tow truck pulls up after i finished that sentence. kids stopped playing in the playplace to watch the tow truck lmao.

i finally got home and i was so tired and dehydrated and hungry and my mochi was totally liquid on the inside. god. all i wanted to do was drop off my monitor and go home and play neopets what the fawwwwk

[watsername]

okay the tierlidt . disclaimer: everything is cropped weird bc the website wouldn’t let me use the portrait crop and made everything square, and i can’t include eventi one so these are the photos that ppl sent to me

details under read more

i’m not going through everyone bc there’s like 60 images on the screen rn so i’m gonna talk about notable things .

THE SUITS

Yes, almost every man is in the same category . it’s a suit . i know that’s the basic of men’s evening wear but it also doesn’t impress me . some men are placed higher bc i feel like they took the basics and did a little something to make it more interesting .

THE SAFE CATEGORY

the safe category kind of stands for it’s not a bad outfit but it’s rather. basic on the scale of outfits seen throughout the night . its a nice choice they look good but its also a safe choice .

POKIMANE

gorgeous . the only thing i have to say is that i wish the bag (? they weren’t allowed bags idk what it is) was the same undertone as the dress . the dress was more yellow while the bag seemed more pinkish in photos . she looked fantastic tho

VALKYRAE

she’s always stunning but that green dress just complimented her so perfectly . the length was perfect the fit was incredible the tailoring was perfect she looked great . the mirror dress was stunning although i wasn’t a fan of the nude illusion slits in the front

SAPNAP

i really wanted to talk about this bc he looks great i think all black suits are wonderful i love them they look fantastic and elegant and they’re something other than the average but for the love of god you can afford a tailor . the arms and legs were too long they bunched up a little and i love oversized things but for suits it makes them a little messy . great outfit but tailoring would make it fantastic .

RANBOO

Everyone’s gonna give me so much flack for this but . i just don’t like it . i like the mcr green day vibes of it all but the red is too concentrated in one area . maybe if the jacket was open or the mask was a different colour ?? idk there’s just too much goin on i around his neck it’s distracting the idea is good but execution could’ve been a lot better

ERET

gorge. perfectly fitted to them i think the combat boots are a nice touch the only thing is i think the hem is a little short in the front this is purely a personal thing but i like the hem to be touching the floor in gowns so that’s all i’d change rlly

CYR AND PEACH

listen i love the joutfits im not hearing anything about it it’s creative and they pulled it off well they looked good . girl they looked good and i thought it was fun . i liked it .

NEEKOLUL

she looks damn good don’t get me wrong i just . didn’t like this dress in the first place . it puts me in mind of those ‘it’s girl’ sheer dresses that took tiktok by storm last year and like it’s nice but i’m just not a fan of it . the random cut out on the thighs i just don’t get

NIHACHU

i loved this outfit although it was simple it’s a silhouette we don’t see a lot and it suited her really well . it’s rlly elegant and i think the hair and accessories suited it and kept it interesting but still to the minimal idea that niki was going for . she looks good .

OKAY highs and lows .

top toot : triciaisabirdy. that floor length white floral gown was made for her. the colours compliment her skin tone and her tattoos the puff sleeves added a bit of flair to the bodice to distinguish it from the other sweetheart neckline gowns that were popular on the carpet the makeup was minimalist but effective her tattoos almost acted in place of necklaces or other accessories she looked fantastic

top boot : ranboo i just don’t get along with that mask . there was too much going on in one area everything interesting about the outfit was centred around his neck and sternum the red were all slightly different shades the idea was good i liked the idea of the colours but execution needed work .

Trend alert !!!!

SHEER FABRIC !!! bodice panelling, sleeves skirts, full dresses, nude illusions, there was a lot of sheer moments happening

BLACK !! black for a red carpet event . groundbreaking .

NO JEWELLERY !! minimalism is definitely in full effect right now in the fashion world there was a specific lacking of necklaces across feminine outfits this year.

if u have questions . i might answer .

[m1ckeyb3rry]

Wait THE PONYS SO CUTE??? WTF?? NAME?? Also I’m crying I could be blind so correct me if I’m wrong but is that also a pile of horse shit in the middle pic but either way SHSSH SO ADORABLE those big eyes staring into my soul

AHAHA dw whenever I think abt that gif I think about you <3 but also you’re actually serving the side character community fr ykws funny I was just thinking about rereading bfb Otoya because I was somehow reminded of those expensive cupcakes

LMFOAOAAO YEAH CLOSE ENOIGH HES THAT ONE COORDINATOR CONTEST JUDGE hes indeed elderly and he’s at evened contest and his only comment is some rendition of “remarkable” LMAOOO (dw idr his name either)

Crying there’s so many hair style options they rlly had to go with the ugliest ones

When I read wc my first thought was word count then I realized that didn’t make sense and was like oh ok World Cup? And then I thought abt it again and realized that’s also wrong now ik you mean wildcard goodbye

LMAO FR Karasu with his jaw on the floor like “you didn’t want this baddie????”

YUKI LOOKED SO GOOD IN THAT STREET SOCCER PANEL??? Why didn’t they ever elaborate more on that skill in the main series though they also barely did anything with his gyro shot like HELLO?? Are we not gonna talk abt how insane that skill is I need like spinoffs for every major side character atp epitabieitaken when

No bc wc and Kunigami exploration has sm potential…Lowk I see kaneshiro getting flamed everywhere from ppl being like “this is shit guys” and uhh idk how reliable their info is bc it’s. Yk. The internet fandom. But apparently kaneshiros also focusing a lot on some really weird random other series which is why people are like “you’re writing about the wrong balls!!!” (It’s apparently called like ball girls or something?? I have no idea lowk it’s supposedly really weird from what I’ve seen in the posts I’ve scrolled past)

REAL pause you’re so right abt that it’s giving jjk culling games arc…I remember first reading that and they kept introduce relatively irrelevant (or at least imo irrelevant LMAO) side characters that we barely ever saw again or were rlly just randomly tossed in (im still salty about him never elaborating on Inumakis backstory like bro we literally got everyone except him) SO REAL he should’ve gatekept the ng11 and tbh that would’ve given more opportunities for more bllkers to actually play and evolve like with the ng11 in its like they’re too good that only the top players can keep up but it leaves no room for other people who have potential to evolve or anything like…ig that’s like half in line with bllks idea of like survival of the fittest but idk i personally would’ve enjoyed seeing more characters we alr know get developed instead of having them just be dropped off the face of the planet

Kurona was truly SO random…it makes me wonder if maybe it was just because they thought yuki didn’t fit the popular character trope enough so they shoved kurona in (from what I’ve seen kurona is way more popular than yuki I lowk dk why though) I think we just have the same brain because I literally could not care less about the u20 players (sendous spotlight should’ve just ended in the match showing how the bllkers beat him and went past what Japan had deemed to be their number one striker/ace) that ALSO would’ve given more space do develop of more characters I honestly don’t rlly vibe with how they mixed the teams like that it would’ve been interesting to see u20 as potential rivals maybe but just flat out inserting them into bllk seems weird…like they could’ve held a tournament later on after the whole bllk program to decide who from u20 stays and who else goes I just wish they gave more bllkers the chance to actually train and do shit in bllk (this rant is getting LONG)

HEVDSH it’s ok this is a Barou household not a Kunigami one

You fr just subconsciously had these parallels cooking it’s just embedded into your writing style also WAIT KARASU OLDER BRO you’re onto sth….imagine y/n’s first thought is “your hair kinda reminds me of my cousins/brothers” LMAOO reader having galvantula is fr like me grabbing one super effective pokemon against one elite four to carry me because I never catch pokemon of that type (i fr cannot remember off the top of my head which one it was but wtv) I’m crying the magikarp scam is really funny LMAOOOO

Plot twist pokemon govt is in cahoots w the evil team which is why they’re ass!! Anyways

Nagi’s growlithe rolling in the mud while chigiri and reos pokemon stare as they get groomed is so real (the mc team dynamic >>>>)

I need to go back into our convo and look and what you gave him bc I alr forgot I’m leaving this here as a mental note and I’ll come back to this but FR lowk if we’re following some of the bllk canon dynamics imagine they’re from the same town where the flying type gym is and the wanna hiori has is a product of his parents giving him a like top pedigree ducklett so he can become gym leader and then e4 and champion etc I can imagine him bumping into Karasu working with his reject pokemon and Karasu’s like damn that’s an extraordinary ducklett and hioris like I wish I could just have fun with a bunch of nice pokemon (now I’m imagining the ducklett has an attitude at first like those typical rebellious pokemon and it continues into the swanna phase until some point idk I’m getting too invested into this verse)

Ok that’s funny because I got like 80% of the way through Sun and then stopped playing LMAOO I’m already world building in my head this crossover is too peak…ok but WHO would cook their pokemon poffins I have some ideas but can’t fully pin one person

I WAS JUST THINKING THAT OTOYA COULD USE A CROAGUNK FOR TBAT PURPOSE wait I almost forgot that misty Lowk plays that role before croagunk is actually created?? Guys Tullia Otoya are just misty and Brock

NAGI AND READER IN A PERIOD DRAMA LMFAOOOOOO but REAL gotta Gatekeep to build anticipation (and to also not keep you on the grind like that your to do list would be never ending)

SHDGSHSHS crying I’ll be mentally preparing myself for more wild stories about your rizz and AWEE me fr when I scroll on tumblr and see a response to a long ass ask (our convo)

- Karasu anon

HE IS LITERALLY THE CUTEST SPARKLIEST PRETTIEST MOST ADORABLE PONY EVER literally whenever i get the chance to show him (he’s older and doesn’t leave the property where he lives anymore so we only do the shows that our barn hosts) the judges always tell me how adorable he is like he’s actually perfect (he’s also really lazy so he’s made my legs sooo strong just because of how much i have to push him along 😭) and yes that is in fact horse shit in the middle photo LMAOAO he was kept in his stall overnight so he didn’t get all gross and ruin his braids before the show 😩 his name is cloud (although he also goes by cloudie LMAAOOA that’s what i usually call him because he gives way more cloudie energy than cloud energy yk) and i literally love him sm 🤩 he’s like the polar opposite of the horse i owned in high school (he was an ex racehorse so he was HUGE) but i like not needing a step stool to groom him before my lessons so no complaints here

PLEASEEE i love how expensive cupcakes are otoya’s legacy KFFHSJA i can never walk past those overpriced whole foods cupcakes (not that i ever go to whole foods but ykwim) and not be like damn ik for a fact eita would buy those for me

HAHAHA i think he also has a program on the pokétch in oras like judging contests or smth?? iirc he’s also there in the games judging contests occasionally i just solely remember him from the pokétch but YEAH we’re thinking of the same dude skfhdjsjs

HELP if it makes you feel better i think i also use wc to refer to the world cup in a later paragraph so you weren’t too far off 😭

no because yk hollyhock karasu would definitely be like “no you don’t get it bro she’s lowkey insane” and bllk karasu would just be like “even better 😍” he is NOT going to fumble the bag

STREET SOCCER YUKI WAS SO COOL i almost wish they gave him a more rough and tumble backstory too like maybe he was from a worse area of the country and grew up just playing soccer on the street and getting in trouble until he was scouted for his good looks as a model and that plus his soccer skills were enough for him to move to a better city or something?? and once he escaped his previous situation he learned how to be super polite and kind in order to prove he’s better than his past and deserves a good life just as much as people born to it…it would also add some continuity if he MUST go crazy in NEL like it’s just him reverting to his childhood personality when put in a stressful situation instead of him randomly crashing out at isagi for no reason and then never doing anything again (with this backstory the reason why he’s chill post manshine would be a combo of him respecting isagi as well as doubling down on his efforts to remain calm and composed because the brief lapse made him feel very guilty and ashamed of himself…then an ego awakening that mirrors hiori’s [in an au where he replaces kunigami’s role in isagi’s two gun volley against pxg] is him realizing “wait i kind of NEED to be a bit of an asshole if i want to be a starter and make a true mark on the field” or something along those lines)

LMAOOO no because from what i know literally every other one of kaneshiro’s mangas besides bllk (lowkey including bllk) are batshit insane he’s kind of a weird guy lowkey 😭 honestly he’s doing a pretty good job with bllk though i don’t think it’s shit at all (especially compared to a certain manga that’s about to end atm) just there’s definitely things i would change too!! but at the end of the day it’s just an entertaining manga abt hot soccer freaks so it’s not that deep yk

100% all ng11 players should’ve been left until much later (excepting sae ofc because he’s there to serve a narrative purpose plus he introduces us to the whole ng11 concept) but anyways…as for the u20s agreed they should’ve left them all out to show how blue lock has surpassed them!! then ONLY exception is aiku (not just because of the oaeu he’s genuinely a good player) i would’ve liked to see him disappearing after the bllk vs u20s match (maybe he fucks off to sweden for a vacay or smth) and then when the u20 world cup team is announced he’s on there as he’s the former captain of the u20s as well as an absolutely INSANE defensive player…maybe ego contacts him and is like “ok bro icl you’ve got mad ego even though you’re not a striker wanna join the crew and not give up on soccer for good???” ALTERNATIVELY: it turns out he has dual citizenship so after the old u20 boys are kicked out and their soccer careers are ended or whatever he disappears and then we see him again in a u20 world cup match against sweden!! this could be a match where the aiku vs barou rivalry established in the ln is settled with barou getting his get back 🤩

LMAOAAO ig my internal self knows where home is (nagi) i can’t escape him 😩 and YES THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING TOO “my cousin used to use hair products to spike his hair up too 🥹” “tf does that have to do with me 😟⁉️” and then he literally adopts her as his baby sister 😭 it allows for plenty of karasu bonding and affection without him being a second lead and complicating things…also i think he’s going to be the one to find reader w barou’s body after her houndoom kills him so that’s a parallel for sure there ☝🏻 LMAOO no literally like i still remember my first ever pokémon game i could NOT beat the champion for some reason so i literally caught a random haunter, taught it destiny bond, and revived one of my other pokémon so when the champion’s last pokémon beat my haunter i still had one pokémon left and i was able to win DKFHSJSJSN that’s the vibe galvantula gives lowkey (in all honesty that’s why i picked it…i needed smth strong against water types because so many of readers pokémon [like donphan and houndoom] are weak to them but i ALSO wanted something that was strong against dark types because of barou’s all-dark type team and i didn’t want reader to have many basic pokémon which meant all of the fairy types were basically out and that only left bug!! however bug-grass is such a shitty typing because 4x weakness to fire is just 😰 and galvantula is the only bug-electric i think so that’s what she got!! but i have such a clear picture of the final fight with galvantula against barou’s sharpedo bro i wish it could be animated because it would be so beautiful 🤩)

HAHAHA magikarp/gyarados and aegislash are tied for craziest acquisition stories (i’ll talk more about aegislash’s in a sec) but basically a fisherman convinces reader she NEEDS a water type so she’s like “oh word ok what do you have” and he’s like “trust this will evolve into something powerful” and she’s like “aight bet” and gives him a (probably rare) pokémon in exchange for a MAGIKARP (cue karasu screaming at her for ten minutes straight and her being like “no it’ll evolve 🥺” and resident pokémon expert tullia being like “uhhh magikarp are almost impossible to evolve LMAO good luck”)

okay wait that could actually go hard…the pokémon government creating the evil team in order to make themselves look better + make people who have valid criticisms of the system unable to voice those concerns (“you think people shouldn’t be thrown into pokémon training without preparation or assistance purely to survive? YOU MUST BE PART OF EVIL TEAM”) i feel like corruption is touched on but it expanded as much in the anime and games (it is a bit in the manga iirc) it could be a really cool conflict that’s a bit deeper than the typical evil team wants to end the world scenario…it also kinda explains how they were able to find and utilize barou’s body in time despite being an “underground crime organization” that shouldn’t have as much funding as they do 😰 and if we go the murder route it’s also an explanation for how someone as strong as him was killed as well as another reason WHY they murked him (couldn’t have barou as champion because barou cannot be controlled) WAIT and maybe that’s why reo’s dad is champion instead of noel noa — noa is stronger but he believes that there should be changes with the way things are done so the government is like “yeah no way you’re going to be champion” and they literally threaten him into faking a loss when he tries to become the champion because they LOVE mr capitalism mikage being the champion as he’s very easily bribed to do and say exactly what they want???

team mc’s dynamic is SO FUNNYYY especially because the nagireo codependency is nipped in the bud as reader awakens nagi’s desire to battle relatively quickly so they’re all on equal footing (except for the fact that their crew is actually reo + his sugar babies you KNOW he’s paying for everything) they definitely have their own crazy adventures while they’re apart from reader and co too…another scene i can envision is nagi challenging reader to a battle and being like “btw i caught a new pokémon” and reader’s like “oh word 😳⁉️ me too” and she releases her little joltik expecting nagi to pull up w like a zigzagoon or smth else really basic and he just casually tosses out a cleffa (i think the clefable line is canonically from the moon in-verse) so she’s like “er wtf” and from the sidelines chigiri’s just like “yeah idk we were on a mountain and there was a spaceship and all…long story, super boring” meanwhile reader and co are like UM??? and it’s just never elaborated on what exactly happened and how nagi ended up with a literal alien on his team

okay wait karasu and hiori knowing each other from their hometown would actually be hilarious as well because imagine the way the whole fossil arc starts is reader and co find a fossil pokémon (maybe hiori’s amaura/aurorus??) and they’re like WHAT THE FUCK because what even is that and then reader is like “karasu what do we do 😰” and karasu is like “WHY WOULD I KNOW” and reader’s just like “idk you just always seem to know a guy” (kind of like how dads always “know a guy” for no reason) and karasu’s about to argue back when he’s like “wait…i actually DO know a guy 😔” and then they go and find hiori and the fossil arc begins after that…no you’re so real i keep coming up with little details for the verse it’s so FUN

ORDINARILY i would say barou is the poffin baker but for obvious reasons we can’t have that…lowkey yk what would be hilarious is gagamaru doing it 😭 i can imagine him foraging for berries and concocting something that just looks INSANE and no one wants to try it so he’s lowkey a hidden secret but yukimiya swears by him (most popular baker is ness but yukimiya thinks ness’s products are more placebos than anything and insists that reader and co go to gagamaru if they ever need anything because he’ll give them the real unfiltered shit w 0 preservatives and whatnot)

WAIT LOWKEY YES tullia and otoya are exactly like misty and brock (lowkey aiku kinda gives gary oak like he WOULD pull up to research sites in a red corvette with a bunch of random cheerleaders HAHAHA it definitely makes otoya fume too because that should be HIM)

THE PERIOD DRAMA IS BASED OFF OF AEGISLASH’S POKÉDEX ENTRY where they like use hypnosis and manipulation to control people and they used to be used as protectors of royalty in the past?? so basically there’s an abandoned aegislash that really wants a trainer and it senses nagi and reader’s vibes and is like “wait they lowkey could be the ones” so it kidnaps them and puts them in this week long hypnosis where they believe they’ve been isekai’d into a world without pokémon where reader is a princess and nagi is a knight who has to retrieve a magic sword in order to win her hand and they’re like WTF is going on but they decide that the best way to escape will be playing along with the plot (clearly without chigiri reo and tabitullieita there the combined brain cell count is like. two.) so nagi goes on this quest to get the magic sword but then he comes back empty handed because he realizes that the magic sword is actually the sword stuck in the stone #kingarthur in front of the palace so he goes to pull it out but he can’t??? and then he’s going to be killed on the spot for failing and for messing with palace property (it’s actually aegislash mad that he’s not worthy because he did it for selfish reasons) so then reader runs over and manages to pull the sword from the stone in time to stop whoever’s trying to kill nagi…then the crowd goes wild and they’re like all hail the new queen (another aegislash test) but she ignores them and puts the sword away to check on nagi because that’s all she REALLY cares about and aegislash is like “hold on she cooked here she’s like not selfish and is assertive and shit” and then she wakes up in her tent with a pokéball in her hand and tabitullieita are like “hello you’ve been missing for a week???” and she’s like “wtf no i just had a really weird dream but i didn’t actually go anywhere” but then she realizes that the pokéball (which she assumed was houndoom’s since houndoom usually sleeps near her) is actually a new one which means it’s a new pokémon she somehow caught?? so she releases it and tullia’s like “wow an aegislash 😮” but READER freaks out because the aegislash is actually the sword from the “dream”…let’s just say the next rival battle w nagi is a little awkward because he also thought it was a dream and didn’t even have proof it was real until reader quite literally throws the evidence in his face 😶‍🌫️

no because i’ve already done 15 requests for bllk since may and i have 12 more left to do PLUS my own projects so i think having them closed for a bit will be good!! and HAHA i will continue to entertain both fictionally and irl 🫡 our conversations are always lengthy but always entertaining fr wouldn’t trade them for anything!!

[davishater]

I wonder how much of the manga the anime will cover now that there are only a few episodes left. I really wanted it to cover the whole hacker/m family arc of winter confronting ron, I think that would've been a perfect ending and setting up another season but now i'm not too sure bc that arc has a lot of chapters in the manga. Maybe they'll cut the arc and leave us on a cliffhanger. (Eventho I'd really hate that). The only reason I expected them to cover it is bc they made the choice to animate both winter and milo only for them to appear just for a couple seconds. I think if they covered that arc the animation would be more worth it. I mean IM STARVING FOR WINTER CONTENT HERE!!

First, I want to let you know that there are some days where I'm busy with work, or recovery, so sometimes when I get home, I just gotta take a big fat nap. Like seriously, my day consisted of watching the new episode at 8:30am, go to work, go to Dr appointment, get home, eat, pass out at 4pm and it is now 8:30pm. I adore talking with you, so I will always reply to you as soon as I have the energy/time. You can also fill my inbox with as many asks as you want, it's not a bother to me. It actually makes me really happy when I get random attention like that (I'm basically a mix of Bokuto from Haikyuu and Reki from Sk8 The Infinity). 😂 Even though I have a different kind of anxiety than what you were talking about in a different ask, I get it. I worry about what people think, like if they think I'm ignoring them, or if they're worried about if I'm judging them, so I just wanted to make sure you knew that you are not a bother, you're super fun, and you always make my day. ☺️

OK NOW ONTO THE REAL STUFF!

Before the first episode officially aired, I heard a rumor that it was going to be getting a part 2 soooooo 🤞 but yeah, the hacker arc really is where the story picks up, so, in order to really grab people, they HAVE to animate that arc soon. I'm actually feeling good on the Winter content right now, cause of how much I ate it up, but I do wanna be a pig and eat up more. We TECHNICALLY only got one full body shot with the front view, the shoes, and the back view. I'm sad they didn't animate her driving the boat, cause that's one of her really good looking panels, but I'm still glad we got what we did. Her just letting the man fall to the floor was SO GOOD and funny, whenever I need something more, I go back to the joke video I made on that and I'm just like, "thanks for the meal. 😌🙏"

AND IF THE MANGA OR THE ANIME DOESN'T GIVE ME A PICTURE OF ELI SOON, I'MMA RIOT SO HARD!!! LET ME SEE HIM! LET ME COME UP WITH A PERSONALITY BASED ON HIS LOOKS!!! PLEASE!! I NEED ELI TO FINALLY COMPLETE THE MORIATY SIBLING LOOK!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭

[mekatrio]

no way home pisses me AWF like it is not a good superhero movie it is not even a good MOVIE! especially aggravating when people consider it to be a good movie just bc of how well it performed in the box office like bitch ppl were watching it for andrew garfield and tobey maguire THAT DOES NOT MEAN the movie itself was good... it wasnt! and they had the gall to not even let garfield or maguire shine in the movie despite those 2 being the biggest selling point of the movie. like my sister who likes it goes on about how good it is bc it wraps up the mcu spider-man trilogy but im sorry but unless a film is a two-parter (which none of the mcu spider-man films are) then a film should be able to stand on its own and tell a compelling narrative without needing you to fully understand the context of the previous entries. and like i watched far from home which led up to no way home and i really do not believe that watching homecoming wouldve made nwh any more palatable to me.

like none of the emotional beats hit and what was supposed to show spider-man's relentless selflessness in doing the best he can to reform villains (which i dont even think is a peter-616 trait but what do i know), it just made him look selfish and foolish instead. and the fact that the entire film's premise is that this idiot didnt think to reach out to the university that rejected him just helps to support this as well! and of course aunt may's death which stands in for uncle ben's death bc apparently the mcu skipped spiderman's origins (?!?!) and it just felt so out of place and random and it felt soooo nothing to me like 😐 gawddd this movie sucks.

and also dude aunt may's death is like so freaking similar to rio's death in miles' venom arc with how they die from collateral damage and now that im rereading the panels like yeah.... im pretty sure they based may's death on this??? bc like may dying in peter's arms? peter calling out for medical help? may dying from collateral damage of a villain's attack?

that's from rio's death.... oh wow making this post i was not expecting to realize this i was just planning to bitch abt nwh. god i hope this is just a coincidence but honestly it probably isnt 😑 mcu just cannot stop stealing from miles' storylines BITCH.... its one of miles' worst storylines anyways so whatever 😑😑😑

[moririki]

⤷ MORE THAN YOU'D BARGAIN FOR

DENJI X READER -> 1.7K
when it comes to a fool blinded by love, it sure hurts to have the short end of the stick

REQUEST -> ✰
CONTAINS -> angst, friends with benefits‼️, happy ending bc i'm weak like that, denji not knowing how to process emotions, very loose college!au cos i'm lazy, makima being slightly antagonised because fuck her, mentions of sex but nothing super explicit i don't think
MORI'S THOUGHTS -> thinking about denji's hands. i want to learn how to animate manga panels now so i can do a csm edit. also the writing style got kinda boring im SORRY

HEARTBREAK WAS ALWAYS BOUND TO HAPPEN IN THESE SORT OF RELATIONSHIPS. anyone with a pair of eyes and ears could give a clear answer to the question "who does denji like?" and no matter how much you wanted that answer to change, it would never be you.

even when the blonde boy had been so insistent on his heart belonging to another, he still had urges. so under the influence of one too many bottles of alcohol, it was a fairly easy decision for both of you to fall into bed together. more than once. more than you'd care to admit.

being with denji was nice. he was funny, sweet at times and vulgar during the others, and you found yourself repeating a mantra of don't catch feelings for your friend during your time together. and truth be told, it was hard not to, even when you and denji had finished your business and the topic of conversation always seemed to make its way back to makima.

it left a bitter taste in your mouth when denji acted like nothing had happened between the pair of you in other settings. the bitterness turned sour when you realised that there was no reason for him to have to either, and you cursed yourself when you realised you had done the worst thing possible and gone and fallen for your friend who so clearly wouldn't like you back.

but there were times where you thought that you just might have a chance.

even though your cursed your heart for fluttering and rearing its head each time so willingly at denji's mercy, you couldn't help but take every offhand action of his as a ray of hope. with the way his hands engulfed yours to anchor himself as he thrusted into you, the way his lips left urgent kisses on your lips as you panted beneath him, the way he whispered sweet nothings into your ear as you cried out in ecstasy.

and even when you were lying next to each other in his bed, catching your breath. you would turn to look at his face sometimes, only to see him staring at you already with a look in his eyes that could only be described as wistful. but you were a fool to think that you could ever upseat makima in denji's eyes.

false hope could only get you so far.

with his breath tickling the back of your neck and his large hand rubbing patterns into your hip, this false hope really had gotten you somewhere. but all good things must come to an end. words that you dreaded to say weighed heavy on your tongue, but you dragged yourself along, lifting them just enough to feel them escape your lips before you could really stop them.

"denji, what are we?"

you felt the hand that rested on you go still, and the arm that was poised as a pillow for you went rigid. hell, the boy that was holding you so close to his chest had practically stopped breathing, and you felt your eyelids slide shut in a bitter defeat before you heard another word. it's not like you needed them to understand how he felt, anyway.

"we're friends, aren't we?" his tone was so controlled, so even and level and unlike the denji that you knew and, dare you say it, loved. it sent another shot tubneling straight through your heart, and you were glad that you were currently facing away from him. you wouldn't be able to handle seeing the look on his face as all of your tentative hopes were crushed under his heel. all you wanted to do was curl in on yourself and maybe try to cry away the numbness that was invading your body from the chest outward.

you raised a shaking hand to push denji's own off of you, and you felt the mattress underneath you creak as the boy shifted in confusion at your behaviour.

"y/n?"

your kept your back turned to him as you got out of his bed, pulling on your own clothed and scowling in frustration when you couldn't find your shirt anywhere. you were seconds away from letting the first droplets fall, and you did not want to let denji see.

you snagged some random material of a shirt off of the bedroom floor, yanking it over your head and turning to face denji with a face that you hoped wasn't too scrunched from holding back your tears.

"we're not just friends and you fucking know it."

you didn't have time to register his wounded facial expression or the pleading calls of your name that he cast towards your retreating figure, but you grabbed your shoes before leaving his dorm, shutting the door behind you a little too forcefully and storming off back to your own room.

you must look insane, padding along the halls with no shoes as angry tears streaked down your face and you tried your best not to audibly sob. by the time you had made it back to your room your eyes were streaming, and you flopped on your bed with little regard for anything else other than crying your eyes out.

truth be told, after that fateful night and the best cry of your life you felt much better. you knew where you stood, you had your feelings sorted out, and you knew that a little distance would really help you to finally move on from your friend.

now, if only denji would stop calling and texting you like nothing had happened.

you felt like you could scream when you saw a notification from him, asking if you wanted to study for the test that you had next week. you bit back the petty urge to ask him if he wanted to study with you as just friends, instead opting to turn your phone off and bury your face in your pillow once again.

matters of the heart take time, after all.

on denji's end, things weren't looking much better. he brushed off his confusion at your actions and words when you had left so abruptly the other day, only to find himself staring at his ceiling trying to decipher his feelings and what the hell you had meant.

he likes makima. and he has, for a while now. he could count on one hand the amount of times he had interacted with the girl who sat in front of him in the lecture hall, and every time had been met with this strange giddy feeling in his chest. though it was rare, he knew that feeling.

but the one he felt right now was so, so, different. when the door clicked shut behind you, it felt like a piece of him had up and left along with you. the very reason that he had accelerated things so far in your relationship was because of how right things felt with you. the slightest graze of your fingertips across his chest didn't light any fireworks in his mind, but it's like warmth perforated his skin and was injected straight into him from you.

truth be told, that feeling was the most addicting he had ever felt. and when he heard that air of finality right after the door shut behind you, it didn't take long for denji to realise just how cold everything felt without you.

but he still liked makima, right?

that giddy feeling in his chest he got from her was enough to fill the you-shaped hole, right?

you not talking to him wasn't what made his heart hurt, right?

he only realised just how wrong he had it when he talked to makima for the fourth time ever. she had turned in her seat, even smiling at him and asking for a pen, and all that came to mind was how much he missed your smile.

hell, he missed everything. the sound of your laugh, the smell of your hair. the way you fit against him and said his name. and that's when he realised this you-related feeling was.

longing.

there was a knock on your door. and another. you groaned, rolling over to check the time to see that it was three in the morning.

by the time you had cracked your door open you saw a flash of blond hair and a face all-too-familiar, you knew it was too late to slam your door shut. denji's face perked up, and you already knew that you were done for.

he lifted his hand, revealing a pretty albeit crumpled bouquet of flowers. you almost giggled to yourself, guessing that the mastermind of that romantic gesture was most likely denji's roommate aki. but it was appreciated, nonetheless.

"what do you want, denji?" you were painfully aware of just how much of a mess you looked right now- eyes still red around the rim from how many self-pitying tears you had shed over this entire situation.

denji's mouth and opened and closed, and you sighed against your barely open door which still had a chain on it.

"i'm not in the mood, denji."

"no, no, it's just that i wanted to say that i've finally figured out what we are." it appears tgat your friend finally found his voice. you looked him in the eye again, trying not to let the hope in your heart build itself too high. "we're way more than friends, y/n."

you felt any resistance crumble at those words, and the sheepish smile on your face grew.

"so, can i come in?" you smiled at denji, shutting your door to undo the latch before opening it again, wide enough to let him back in to your life. consider him a weakness of yours.

the first thing denji did when he crossed the threshold of your door was wrap his arms around you, dried tears and crumpled flowers and all, and bury his face in your hair. the only words he had to offer was a mumbled i miss you into your skin, and you felt your body melt against him like it had so many times before.

when you finally broke apart, you couldn't help but wonder.

"so, what are the flowers for denji?" the boy before you blushed, his eyes flitting off to the side. he raised a hand to the back of his neck, taking a breath to summon some courage.

"i was hoping... that i could take you out on a date. or be your boyfriend. something like that."

"what?" denji was still bright red, though his eyes were locked onto yours.

"you heard me." you smiled once again, taking a step forwards and effectively closing the distance between you two.

"i would love to."

take a look at the menu - ,, ⚖️ ·˚ ༘ ꒱

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. It took over a 150 chapters for Hera to face the consequences of trying to set up her niece and brother in law knowing full well her sister would hate that union. 

2. i just dont get how rachel is totally ok to listen to and take ideas by random people to add to LO, but is offended over the idea she listen to even minor input from literal greeks for her GREEK MYTHOLOGY story. like she'll take suggestions to add r4pe to her story for shock value, but listening to greeks to make it even a little accurate is too much to ask of her? im not saying she has to do a "presents" line like riordan does, but silencing greeks out of their own culture's stories? really?

3. am i the only one who hate the modern setting? something about it is so underwhelming, and rachel focuses on it way too much to where when she finally tries to add fantasy and/or ancient elements (flying around, the ancient clothes, growing big (??), the magic pom, etc) it just feels out of place. a lot of stories have a blend of modern and fantasy but LO just overemphasizes the modern too much for too long that the fantasy now being added seems random over a natural fit.

4. im not against the idea of making up new stories for the gods to work in, but i think the issue with LO is none of the stories add anything? like why do we need a chosen one story in persephone? why do we need hades to now be a kaiju to take out his dad? why have hera be a cheater? why have persephone need to teach hades slavery is bad? why have a trial? & the list goes on. theres so many interesting new stories you could use with them and LO picks the most useless ones, esp in a romance comic.

5. Idk if this is just me or what, but the panel of Hera snorting in laughter after Hestia talks about Persephone being a candidate for TGOEM comes off so poorly timed considering Hera is fully aware that Persephone can't be in TGOEM bc of the Apollo thing

And ik the scene is supposed to be more like "haha hestia thinks she doesn't love Hades bc of TGOEM" so maybe I'm looking Too Deep but that was the impression I got when I first read the scene, it made me feel really icky rather then laughing with her 

6. the idea of rachel even touching the other pantheons is a threat, also would just lead to a bigger mess. rachel for starters cannot stand hxp not being the top so?? would persephone take out the abrahamic god when they become more culturally important than the previous pantheons?? like she can joke the other gods are out there but she cant even keep one pantheon together, imagine her trying to connect a bunch of others that she cant rip off from tumblr text posts. it'd be a disaster.

7. rachel: i hate people acting like PJO is the best depiction of myth. also rachel: you should 1000% see my completely made up story masquerading as greek myth as the most accurate thing ever.

-----FP Spoilers/Mention-----

8. (Spoilers for chapter 190!)

So I have a lot to say here but I'm gonna keep it brief

Firstly, are we really saying Persephone having wrath is just Eris' meddling? Is that what we're doing? And that Persephone only has ambitions because Eris gave her wrath? Okay. Okay. Persephone literally couldn't have dreams without interference from someone else, idk what else to say other then how fucking sad that is, and more "Oh see shes not bad at all, it was Eris who made her do it because she cursed her uwu"

Secondly, ik it was done for bad reasons but Zeus' punishment for Persephone is the highlight of season 2 for me. That's all I'm gonna say. 

9. FP Spoiler: Man, my prediction that Persephone will be the one to cause winter looks like it might be coming true. I’m calling it now - Persephone will mess up doing her mom’s job, get angry about not being able to see Hades (I doubt she’ll give a shit about her mom now living as a mortal - it’ll be a passing, one panel mention at most) and then she’ll cause the winter by “oopsies”.

Also, let’s see how bad RS messes up the Demeter’s Exile to Eleusis. She already messed it up by making it a Zeus punishment instead of a self-imposed exile. Screw the importance of Demeter exiling herself from Olympus I guess. 

10. FP Spoilers Episode 190: I'm fucking crying, Persephone has absolutely nothing to make her interesting anymore.

Her intelligence was warped into her brain by Athena, she's pretty because Aphrodite slapped her with a pink cushion (and also because Hera), she's kind not because that's her personality, but because Hestia literally crammed kindness down her throat and her ambitions and anger issues aren't the natural result of her smothered childhood, they're just Eris deciding to be a dickhead for no reason.

I have asked this question many times throughout the trial, but exactly what was the point of this entire scene again??? Why did RS have to give Persephone a pseudo-Sleeping Beauty backstory??? What has this accomplished??? Everything this episode told us about Persephone we've already known since mid-season 1! Why is RS so determined to suck all the intrigue out of her characters via bs-retcons??

Also, wow, really feminist of RS to introduce a new, supposedly super-powerful female character, only to have her literally dragged down by Asspollo and humiliated in front of everyone. So empowering. So cool./s

Eris did legit nothing. She showed up, rattled down some more "look how cool Persephone is"-talk disguised as a "tragic" backstory-twist, got pulled around a little bit and then disappeared. Cut out her scenes and absolutely nothing changes. Same for Apollo revealing he's Zeus' son. (Which, wow, what a plot-twist. Who could have seen this coming. Not like Apollo and Artemis being Zeus' kids is basically a cornerstone of their mythos./s)

Also also, this episode tried way too hard to make me feel bad for Persephone after the verdict. Like, oh nooo, you got put on the gods' equivalent to house arrest and community service? In a literal paradise, far away from the guy who wanted to force you into marriage and everyone else who could hurt you? And you get to be ruler of the mortal realm too? You poor baby, however will you bear this cross?

There is literally only one downside to this outcome and it's that hxp won't be allowed to see each other for a while. (Though even then, I wouldn't really call it a downside, hxp has been nothing but forced and terrible.) Zeus even says, right after verdict, that the punishment is temporary and that he'll lift it when he's convinced Persephone and Demeter have atoned for their crimes. But hxp act like this means they'll be separated forever and do all this overly dramatic kissing and I'm sitting here like "calm the fuck down, it's literally not that bad???"

[wickedpact]

You can't just drop that "I read Forces Multiplied" bomb on us and not give a ten page written reaction.

[cracks knuckles] if u insist

nicky cant drive hc: destroyed. rip. also i loved how andy and nile stole those sports cars and were being badass and driving off the bridge & meanwhile joe and nicky were just absolutely vibing in the van

'heres the thing about power: people who have it think they deserve it' [shot of police car] i see u greg

5 whole panels being dedicated to booker not being able to unlock his door. booker not even seeing noriko sitting RIGHT THERE in the window at first. incredible

noriko being 24/7 horny was surprising. like wow all of the stuff i saw she did out of context was 100% equally horny in context as it was out of context. love that for her

i didnt think the 'andy + slavery' thing was handled as badly as everyone made it out to be when telling me about it. tho from the way it was talked about i had kind of figured the conflict between andy and nile re: slavery would be really racially charged (esp considering nile is a black american and would obvs have Thoughts on the subject in that regard) but like,, done in a cringey 'a-white-guy-obviously-wrote-it' kind of way? but it wasnt that. i mean. it makes sense that andy would be implicit in slavery through the years

i mean, like she says, is that not what people just did to each other in the aftermath of battles for thousands of years? and i really like how its pointed out that it was what she was raised with (in the beginning when you see her put shackles on that guy after the battle) but she also accepts responsibility for it and acknowledges that it was wrong and not just 'what people did'.

i like how from her expressions you can kind of tell baby andy knew it was off but she sets those feelings aside bc she felt angry. it explains how she felt but didnt make her out to be blameless in it. plus i mean. i dont know, the fact that andy was involved in a lot of morally shady stuff for 7000 years is not that wild for me. if you live that long youre just Going to be involved in some shit, and she didnt even have other immortals with her as positive community influences, she literally just did whatever the fuck she wanted for thousands of years

'i was worshipped as a god once' i mean, yeah no shit she wouldve been involved in some seriously fucked up stuff, gods were fucking scary back in the day

tldr it could use some polish but it wasnt that bad

tho everything people said about moose being boring was unfortunately a little true. sorry king i tried to be interested in you

joe and nicky writing verbal fanfiction about nile and moose was iconic. 'you seeing that?' 'i am definitely seeing that'

it was also extremely funny bc that was like 60% of their contribution to the whole comic, besides kidnapping copley. they came, they wrote some fanfic, they left. kings. at least in tog1 they had an excuse to be useless bc they got kidnapped

joe just found out his old friend who he thought was dead is alive (and also probably wants to murder them) and instead of investigating with andy he stopped to help nile up. champ.

nicky shooting noriko through andy was cool. rip to the concept since it wont happen in tog2

wanna see mr ejiofor deliver this line

on that note imo copley was. weirdly enough, more interesting in fm than in tog1. to me at least. the fact that andy let him live and he was so haunted by what had happened that he came back and sought them out despite knowing they would likely kill him for it bc he wanted to not only make up for what hed done but also to tell them what theyd done for the world was admittedly more interesting than andy just kind of drafting him to the cause and him going 'okie'

i like how nicky was drawn in this one. in opening fire he looks like a blob man but in fm he looks more like a very nice grampa with a very good dye job

'theres no pain like a broken heart' andy 🥺

noriko implying andy's never drowned. .. .idk about that one, she musta drowned sometime

joe and nicky came, they waxed poetic about nile's love life, they waxed poetic about grog, and then they left.

sports bras being a reason humanity is good. i mean..... okay, yeah.

i mean. wild but you cant exactly tell her shes wrong

i liked how noriko telling andy that their purpose is to make people suffer coincides with joe and nicky finding out that they actually did good all those years

joenicky in opening fire: jail for booker jail for booker for 100 years

joenicky when copley tells them he knows where booker is: WE'LL KILL YOU WHERE IS HE

joenicky when copley comes back: if your vibes come off as even remotely rancid we Will destroy you

joenicky 2 minutes later when copley helped them find booker: he made up some ground :)))) <3 lov you j cops

theyre forgiving af

moose: how old are you?? a hundred??? a thousand???

nile [vine voice]: I M 2 7 ?

alright andy you got me there

joe texts like my aunt

i dont know why noriko drowning andy in that car tickled me. Bad And Naughty Andromaches Get Put In The Pear Wiggler To Atone For Their Crimes.

the drowning sequence was cool

copley trying to talk to andy while she was like o_o at him was great

ive hit the picture limit but id seen that panel where nicky goes 'forgive me' as he kills a guy out of context and it was HILARIOUSLY anticlimactic for me to discover that there was literally no context to it. nicky just apologizes to random people he kills. i thought that guy was someone he knew or something. nope its just Some Guy that nicky didnt know from adam

nile's complaint that andy was especially brutal to the guys on the boat... i mean. . , how exactly does one kill a man with an axe and not be brutal about it?

it was funny how noriko kissed andy and the only people who seemed surprised by that were nile and also andy

nicky and joe's complete non-reaction to finding out noriko is alive And Evil Now is endlesly funny. they just left her on that boat and neither cared. i get book and nile not caring but joe and nicky knew her, and they just have 0 input on the subject of what to do with her

pinstripe suit guy!

joe and nicky and booker packing up and leaving with nile

andy blowing up at nile was A Moment tho

i dont know, i get why people didnt like the ending but its. .. . it makes more sense in the comicverse. bc the squad doesnt really. .. interact outside of jobs? i mean, think of the moon landing story in ttt. that was booker and joe and nicky doing a job and andy only showed up a for a couple minutes after it was done. or the brunch in the first issue of opening fire. the squad arent as tight in the comic, and andy often seems to do her own thing outside of work, so andy saying 'i dont want to do work anymore' and the squad being like 'alright bye then' makes more sense in this universe than the movie one

also i feel like greg was Trying to set up a thing where nile becomes the Leader of The Squad after andy dies but like. its not very well done since. . . i mean, nile hasnt spoken to booker since opening fire, (and she only knew him A Day). and shes known joe and nicky all that time, but there isnt really anything that indicates that they have any relationship at all, much less one that's grown. in all the comicverse the only time nile and nicky speak is in FM, and in that scene nicky tells nile about noriko. nile goes from someone who needs to be set aside to have background knowledge explained to her to being the Leader of the group with nothing in between. it kind of... comes out of nowhere.

on the other hand tho... i felt really bad for andy thru the whole thing. well, i always felt bad for andy, but in this one she seemed so miserable, especially since it really felt like none of the others actually.... cared about her. when noriko came back no one asked andy how she was doing (big question ik, but it wouldve showed they cared at least), nobody ever expressed any concern for her, no one even really seemed to want to be around her. in opening fire everyone was more distant than in the movie of course, but there were little moments where she would joke with joe, or nicky would try and comfort her, or stuff like that, but in FM it really felt like they just didnt really care about her. & in opening fire it felt a lot like andy's relationship with nile breathed some new life into her, but in FM it felt like all they did was argue. i get theyre not *as* close in the comics but it really felt like the only person who cared about andy at all was noriko (which was probably also how andy felt) but it just seemed to come out of nowhere. honestly i was reading and i was honestly agreeing with andy that she might just be better off if she did just die. opening fire, on the other hand, never make me feel that way

tho everyone made it sound like when the squad split up it was one of those cursed 'the found family leaves each other at the end of the journey' tropes. but guys i mean,,, this is the second installment out of three. that isnt the End. theyll come back in the third one and Dramatically Reunite to fight some baddies (probably those 'others' noriko mentioned). im guessing yitzhak fits into that too somehow.

anyways it wasnt That Bad but it made me kind of sad and the only Sweet Found Family vibes in it were when they saved booker. also they shouldve beefed up that nilemoose romance, it underwhelmed me. 6.5/10

i also ABSOLUTELY understand all of greg's comments about how you couldnt make FM directly into a movie, he always said that it had no plot and. i get it now. it really didnt have a plot sdfghjkl

[zed-36]

1, 2, 15, 17, and 18! :D

1. How did you first get into the series?

oh i got into it soooooo long ago. i have baby videos of me and my brother opening the cars in 2003 lol. we collected them and watched WR way back then and eventually watched Acceleracers when it was on CN. we had lots of those cars too, along with the card game, but its been mostly lost too time.. still have a couple though!

(looking at the date, this is July 9th, and the movie came out in episodes on CN only a few days after!)

But i guess i could say, i got back into it recently. it was mostly i think, my brother found our old WR DVD. he also found a sealed holographic covered VHS of WR at good will. kind just kickstarted my interest as he and his friend rewatched it, which made me wanna rewatch it. and then i infected all my IRL friends that i could at the time lol. this was like... yeah i have had this blog since 2018, so early 2018!

2. What do you like most about the series?

i like this its such a weird concept that can be done well. racing is fun, cool, high speed- throwing it into a more fantasy setting is cool too, its not just real people driving realistically. all in all its a great concept i havent seen done before, i think was just held back by the intention to get money quick and the fact it wasn’t backed by a studio that wanted to see it all the way through no matter what.

15. Random headcanon/theory about [insert character/faction/event/etc]?

i have a couple i think i tag with “headcanon” but heres a half headcanon half theory? no body pays attention to the comics. but i hc/theorize Gelorum tries to recruit Taro Kitano to work with her possibly before Kurt Wylde.

this is based around comic 31, which i have uploaded myself bc its so interesting (also yes Lau look way better in the comics too). sadly the plot of this comic didnt carry through to the movie (most of the comics did not) but it shows Harrison Lau being recruited by Gelorum. BUT in one panel, which i cannot tell if its an error or not, shows taro as Gelorum speaks of recruiting drivers. i cant tell if they fucked up and Lau is supposed to be there, or if its a sort visual hint to drivers she asked to join her (zed at the top, taro to the side)

Regardless, im making it a headcanon/theory. Gelorum tried to recruit Taro but he did not accept, then she went to Kurt- he was a second choice (maybe out of the fact his personality was more...wild than Taro’s lol. Taro wouldve dont the work well if he actually wanted to be bad). Lau was also such an interesting character in the comic. makes me sad.

17. If you could design a realm of your own what sort of theme would it have?

Oof lots of ideas... i feel like a realm that wouldve been cool to see, was one with a little more puzzle solving, but in a way that worked with racing (not like, getting out of the cars to solve shit). Rubik’s cube realm or something. Tracks that need to be driven on in a certain order and connected by a pattern like colors, shifting the entire realm which would eventually reveal a track to the portal out. Of course it would be. very tense considering the time limit but still, would’ve liked to have see something like it!

18. If you could change anything about the story, what would it be?

i feel more like... if i could add anything, what would i add, cuz i think so much of what i feel it doesnt do well is just stuff not being expanded on lol. but i will stick with the idea of just changing what exists and not adding to it. if i were to do that i would... change how teku and MM are set up and/or change marky and kurt- like change/swap their arcs. while i wouldnt wanna make kurt “bad” for a second time, i feel like all his development in WR that couldve impacted him or influenced the story, was totally lost in Acceleracers. i know im not a huge fan of Marky going completely jerk in Acc but i really really would wanna change that whole set up lol, and changing them along with the teams would be fitting.

[nagiscap]

chapter 121 - first half review! 

im back!! here’s my review of the new chapter and sheesh it was quite interesting a lot occurred so let’s get into it before we begin though there will be spoilers ahead so here is your warning!! 

pls the cutest bromance also im noticing is rin’s awakening directly tied to developing a team kinda like kageyama like a team who can handle him if so that is so fucking cute and that makes me so so soft

u dont understand im obsessed with him and srsly oliver isnt even the problem bllk breezed thru the midfield like it was slip n slide also where r the other strikers sae is carrying the offense 

BAHAHHAHAHA me and sae having the same mind he is just so disrespectful about it like he is so so rude but like he is right so it really should be quiet from the offense he has been carrying the u20 team 

this is what i mean what sae can actually say something that is correct but there is always a hint of asshole in it like this would be a geniune critique but when its from him im like ok mr. sassy

the way sae doesnt care if he cant play for u20 truthfully a different breed in this game no one like him frfr

SO RUDE MY GOD and also sae’s two personalities are indifference and rude and bonus on occasion disgust 

i just wanted to point out how cute these are lmao and also nagi being on top soley bc of his trap so he can hold on to the ball and then wait for help 

this is so sick and sae may be an asshole but like he can be bc hes that good like characters who are assholes and are mediocre r annoying but if they are about it and on point then imo it makes them rlly interesting and enjoyable like honestly bllk would be vvv boring without him (in this arc) also i want to see him actually try so so so so badly

like the dichotomy between him and sae is fucking crazy like it is insane also rin is crazy today im surprised they linked even bllk’s defensive success on rin’s awakening... interesting indeed

stunning panel also rin always displaying those brother issues furthermore linking rin’s awakening to sae and not isagi but whatever also i like how 2.5 seconds ago they were like what a great pass and rin is like no this is so shit im not impressed even tho imo rin is worse than sae by a decent margin 

now this i find rlly intriguing bc rin is showing some emotion i think like is he getting annoyed/angry i cant tell but in this moment he seems to be showing a little passion maybe he is trying to do an itachi sasuke humbling situation (i think thats what he attempted but im unsure)

this just made me chuckle

and we’re back with the indifference or maybe he’s disappointed im vv curious abt the next chap

the og duo is back 

LOOK AT HIM LOOK AT MY BB SO CUTE this is also so random but i wonder why certain characters wear gloves and sum dont (ik it bc their cold lol) but why does nagi wear them but like rin doesnt (this is so random lol)

king is like this is my time lmao and sae is probs like finally some real fucking talent smh

[braunyreiss]

How many Parallels/hints/panels has isayama done for EH over the arcs+timeskips because I seen the way on how isayama puts theses two character's together very closely and that shows us something. What do you think about their relationship.

Hello anon! im sorry for the late answer, i was so busy and didn’t have time enough to take a look at tumblr.Parallels between those two. The ones not that important and more random like attitudes or random datas. Most of the parallel images im going to use, i took them from twitter long ago.Before start, i apologize for my english, but i hope you understand my point.Lets start:

1-Killing their first titan, the emotion, the pose and the movement

2-Worried about their close friend

3-Never needed to happend. 

4-The way they cry laughing

5-Their parents trying to inject them

6- Mothers killed in front of them

7-Killing their fathers

8-Overprotective friends, hitting them with their head lol

9-Worried about each other and saving each other

10-Half-siblings with royal blood

11-Destroying the world

12-the pose lol

13- having their fathers memories

14-Boring and routine childhood

15- being interested in something for the first time by reading a book

16- Fake previews, AU, where they both feel so bored about their lifes (And she is the one who understands him).Historia was a kid who received no love and being despised bullied and ignored. While time passed, she didn’t understand what did she do wrong. she felt depressed, insecure, feeling that her existence was unnecesar, that everyone would be happier if she wasnt alive. She blamed herself for everything. She had no goals, only wanting to commit suicide so people will love her for doing sth heroic, and also making other happ with her death. Then, Ymir appeard, she finally felt what life was, she wanted to live, Ymir made her to love herself, she was the one who inspirated her but then she left her saving the warriors, making Historia feeling lost again, the only person who she cared left her, and was alone again. But then Eren appears. She opened to someone else than Ymir, cause he saw through her mask and knew there was sth wrong with her. Then, he said what she needed to be told since the very begining. All she wanted is to be a normal person. She still was kind of lost and depressed (totally normal) and they even wanted her to make her the queen. With all her insecurities and fear because of rejection (something she experience along her entire life) of the whole people in the walls. She had the pressure but she accepted fearfull. Then, she met her father, he said sorry for everything, but he needed to do that in order to protect her, and now is the one who gonna save everyone being the new goddes by having the founding titan. What this meant for her, is that everything was a lie, she was loved, she was special, and finally she had a duty protecting hmanity from titans. But for this she had to kill Eren, and she was going to do it, she blinded herself because how nice everything sounds, and how everything that made her suffer was a lie. She was prepared to sacrifice Eren but not for humanity, for herself, beleiving she was special, her father loved her, a new goal.Eren on the other hand, he was totally different from Historia, a confident kid, with forcefulness goals, killing titans, those who destroyed his life. While he was growing, he kind of thought that he was someone special because of his titan power. And also, there was a big pressure on him with big expectations from soldiers and humanity. He had the title of being the hope of humanity. He kept confident until the Rod Reiss speech. This young boy who was so confident, now was broken for those words, wanting to die in order to, at least, make something good for humanity with his death. Everything about being special was a lie. He never needed to happened. That’s what he said. And Historia heard him. She totally felt that, she knew those feelings. here is the most importan parallelism that made their relationship that strong. Historia opened her eyes, her father was using him, she saved Eren, who still wanted to die and she hits him, being on his side, telling him that humanity is the one who must be destroyed, that she is the enemy of humanity. The enemy of humanity because she didn’t accept her duty, she wanted to live by herself, didn’t accept to be a goddes, a special person for humanity. And because she saved Eren, the “guilty” of everything. Doing this, means that she is on his side (and bc of this, enemy of humanity) so he is not alone. Now she was the one who was trying to make Eren gain some self esteem. Also she wanted to make sure that it wasn’t true that he was no needed. Some chapters later, watching Historia’s development, he understood he was not special, that feeling actually made him weak. But even if he is not special, he must help because he CAN, even without being different of the rest. He needed to chose his path, took decisions, as Historia, who finally decided her path but she wanted to do something in order to become more confident and to overcome herself. She chose to not be a goddes, but a normal person that fight and do what she can do for humanity, and that’s what Eren did, she inspired him, (if im not wrong, isayama said that he was inspired watching Historia in a guidebook). There is no need to be special, just do what you can, broke the chains. Both Eren and Historia were chained by their respective fathers. Historia got rid of this, and then also Eren. He respects her so much since all this situation. She was so important to Eren’s development. Seems that they become close. 

Here you can see when he starts talking about the blondie. He understands her. (Also he ignores Jean trying to bother him with provocations)

Here you see them having a serious talk

Then changing the topic, finally Eren changing his countenance, and then just kidding like close friends. Also Historia

Also, you see how Historia takes a box and kept walking but then she decided to wait and walk with Eren but not with the other ones. You she how she is closer to him than with the rest and feel confortable with him.This relationship is based on empathy, muttual support and inspiration. Both of them were for each other when both weren’t psychologically in a good way or needed help, even if they weren’t that close in the beginning. He was the only one besides Ymir that saw the real her, and supported her. She was the only one who could understand, support, and inspire him in his worst situation. And you see how much Eren is concern about her and protects her. How he smiles when she is arround and sees her happy. You will never imagine that he would smile again after shiganshina’s battle with that traumatic experience, but he still smiled because of her. For me, all of this is beautiful. How positive they are for each other, how they helped each other when they were down in their worst situation. I appreciate that so much and i love it!I don’t think this relationship was built for nothing (not necessary in a romantic way).

[shizekarnstein]

Hello! I know this is a dried up topic, but I was wodering, do you think chapter 120 is any indication that Eren is the father of Historia's baby? I ended up in an argument with a friend because she thinks chapter 120 is evidence that Eren is the father whereas I think Eren had contact with Historia before leaving for Marley and she's probably the only one who knows what Eren is planning which is why Historia was crying in his memory. I'm very sorry for bothering you with this.

It's no a bother at all anon! I leave my inbox open bc I don't mind answering question so don't you worry.

Oh my you just gave the chance to adress something I've only ranted over on tags so here I go. Basically I side with you.

All chapter 120 has confirmed to me is that Eren and Historia had a chat before him leaving for Marley. They met in the farm, I'm guessing after Eren's chat with Yelena, and together decided a course of action. It seems that is where either Eren or Historia herself suggested the pregnancy as a tactic to buy time for Eren to make contact with Zeke and as means to stop the higher ups from inmediatly feeding Zeke to her as soon as Eren retrieved him. That's all I can get from not only this chapter but for following the narrative of the previous ones regarding Historia's pregnancy. As a guess this could also mean that Eren was the hooded figure after all, and not Yelena.

Whatever they discussed was clearly emotional. These two have been thick as thieves since uprising, and have saved each other more than once. After our Ymir left with Reiner and Berthold and their kidnapping at the hands of Kenny and Rod Reiss the two of them became close friends, able to relate to each other. When Eren discovered the loophole for potentially using the FT powers his first thought was to worry over what that could mean for Historia. When Hizuru presented their 50 year plan offer, he was the only one who actually jumped to oppose it out of outrage of what it would demand of her. The others were clearly conflicted as well, but Eren was the only one vocal about it.

It's after Paradis and Historia accept this alternative that Eren met with Yelena. We still don't know what exactly she said to him to convince him to go meet with Zeke, but whatever it was seemed to at least give him the opportunity to actually do something instead of waiting. Maybe this is when the thought of using Zeke for his own goals first occured to him. Whatever it was, he later discussed it with Historia.

I don't know if she really knows all there is to his plan. It's highly possible tho. Going by this months panel of her the feeling Im getting is that it was Historia herself who suggested the idea of taking advantage of a possible pregnancy to stall the plans of the goverment. At this point she had already agreed to do it eventually anyway, what's the harm in doing it a bit early than they thought if this could buy Eren and herself more time? I think that's why she was crying in part. She looks sad but determinated. I can't imagine how painful it must have been not only for her to go along with this, but also to Eren when he realised that all his previous efforts of protecting her from that same fate were in vain.

That's all I can take for the manga with the info we know. Now for my rant.

If people want to ship them I honestly don't care. My problem comes when they allow their bias to merge with the storyline. There's been no indication whatsoever of any kind of romantic feelings between Historia and Eren. And by this I don't mean only that so far Historia has been coded as a gay chatacter. If I go by representation, Historia as a bi girl would be enough for me. I would still see myself on her. So if people like to speculate about a possible hidden romance or whatever I don't give a damn. They are free to do so.

But to reduce Historia's character to only a half of their romantic fantasy is actually complicated given what's happening to her.

I've seen people that as soon as this panel emerged have been screaming for months, theorizing and all about who is the father. It's as if that is the only thing that matters to them. Oh my who impregnated Historia!!!!???? Was it Eren????? Of course it's Eren they are meant to be together!!!! Was it farmer kun???? What a ridiculous idea he bullied her!!!! Must be a diversion!!! After all tha father must be someone we know about it wouldnt do for him to be a random stranger that would make Historia a whore!!!!!!

Can you all please spare a few thoughts on Historia herself???? Does she look like a person who is happy with this??? Why don't you all care about the feelings of a woman whose only choice to fight was to subbmit her body like that, carrying a baby for nine months out of desesperation? Why would you all be so sexist as to only care about who is the owner of that sperm??? Have you not have even an ounce of sympathy for Historia? I don't get the point of romantizing an experience that clearly is taking a toll on her. The focus on all this is Historia and what she is feeling, not whomever got her pregnant. I repeat, does this look like a happy expecting girl to y'all?

With this I don't mean all erehisu shippers are at fault. I'm talking about the ones who make awful videos fetichizing the hell out of this pregnancy and dismissing Historia's side of things. The ones who only care about the possible forbidden romance between Eren and her and completely missing the point of this tragedy and how incredible traumatizing this experience is for her. The ones who only see this as a plot device for making their ships canon and not even listening to the people who feel uncomfortable with this development storywise and are sickened by it.

So in short no, I don't think Eren is the father of Historia's baby bc for me it doesn't make sense storywise. The two of them are friends. Eren fought tooth and nails to avoid this very outcome. It's a tragedy that this happened at all. That they had no other choice to buy time that subject Historia to do the same thing Hizuru and the goverment wanted. Historia is still fighting even with her limited options, but even then this doesn't mean she or us have to be happy about it.

Thanks for asking.

[comicteaparty]

February 26th-March 3rd, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from February 26th, 2020 to March 3rd, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What generally makes the pacing of a comic too fast or too slow for you?

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

My favourite comic style are those large sized, panel and dialogue heavy European comic books, line Blacksad and Asterix. Since every 80 page book tells a complete story, every page is progressing the plot significantly, and the whole thing is pretty compressed and the rate splash page has an impact you don’t get in a more lose, decompressed comic. I love that kind of stuff and I look for similiar pacing in webcomics - heavier on the dialogue but without choking the art, low on wordless scenes (they tend to make me skim), taut and tight story-telling, every page asks and answers a question. I know it‘s a matter of taste and got told more than once that I am too dumb for comics because I don‘t have the patience to read through six pages of wordless, plotless mood-setting; but eh - that kind of stuff just doesn‘t work for me. I firmly believe comic‘s big enough a field that mood pieces and tightly plotted stuff can happily co-exist and find their own readership. I‘m just gonna be in the „plot, all the time!“ corner.

sagaholmgaard

The a comic starts focusing on minor characters that don't hold much importance for the plot I'll find it to be wayy too drawn out. While One-Punch Man is one of my favorite comics, some fights are pretty unimportant for the overarching plot, focusing only on random small-fry heroes fighting random small-fry monsters and it's just... a million action panels for be too read through while waiting for the main cast to return (this turned out to be pretty specific, oops!)

Ash🦀

Honestly, coming from a writing/literature background, I feel that most comics are too fast-paced for me;; I love the slow build up, it makes everything much more rewarding at the end, and the mood-setting that just lets you breathe and stare at the page, yes, a thousand times yes. I guess this is why I don’t like reading or writing actions scenes... so fast-paced and they feel more like “this is action for interesting action and the hero needs exp and not because it’s a necessary battle” ;; but this is more of a personal preference than anything, and... yeah, I definitely blame the books I used to read xD

Capitania do Azar

I'm a little confused with the filler concept introduced here, given that most webcomics are made by individuals (not teams)... What would they even be filling for? I think it's fair to talk about less interesting b-plots or when the scenes are focused on characters we don't like as much, but I would hardly call anything a single artist decided it was worth enough to spend hours drawing by their volition "filler"

As for the pacing question, it is sometimes hard to combine the two facets of webcomics: that they're published on a page-to-page basis but they are often read in bulk, when digging through archives. I don't know if it's possible to find the perfect balance between these two, which makes it possible to think that certain scenes are too slow (oh no, we've been at this wedding for three months now!) but when read in the archive are suddenly too fast... I think breathing room is necessary every now and then, even for faster-paced comics.

RebelVampire

I think you need to consider that just because an artist doesn't see something as filler, doesn't mean readers won't. I've known a lot of comics where the creator created a scene that they loved, but in the bigger scheme of things it served absolutely no purpose to the plot and felt super out of place

So while the filler wasn't intentional as a "I need filler", to the readers it comes off as filler

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I like long paced, slow- burn type stories where there is an obvious carefully crafted plot with each stitch placed intentionally for a bigger reveal and payoff. Much how i like any relationship shown in stories, i love it when an author almost makes readers work for that payoff. It makes the re-read value go way up, and to catch on to the subtle nuances of plot reveal on the second or third go at the story is very rewarding both as a writer and reader!

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

You can easily have slow burn relationships in a faster paced comic. I actually like that better, because that usually requires the characters to have actions and interests outside of the relationship of interest, which leads to more well rounded characters.

A good example is the novel Clockwork Boys and it‘s follow up - slowburn romance, and while the characters figured THAT one out, they solved a huge mystery.

renieplayerone

Im a big fan of stories that are able to turn the pacing up to 11 on a dime without it getting old or lowering the stakes at all. It takes such talent to be able to tell compelling stories with high flying action at the same time, so I appreciate anyone that can manage that balance

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

My personal approach to writing pacing is that each page has to do at least two of three: further the plot, introduce/deepen story-relevant world building, deepen the characterisation. I aim for all three at once; if there‘s only two, there better be a good reason to keep that scene around, if there‘s only one, it gets cut and/or merged with another one. Eg. I have a scene where the character cook (food‘s relevant because there‘s a famine) and a scene where they argue about their plans, those can easily be combined.

Some scenes are still slower or faster than others, but they all matter to the story.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Def agree with Renie on that point too!

Ash🦀

Chalcara makes a good point too, and it’s something I definitely try to keep in mind in my own pages. I try to answer a question and ask another with my pages and pull as much double duty as I can wrench out of it. Now, whether I succeed every time? Absolutely not. But this is a good reminder when I’m going back to edit issue 3- keep the push and pull of questions and answers in mind.

RebelVampire

Ok so at this point I do want to jump in and remind people that as per Rule #1, this chat should mostly be about your experiences as a reader vs. your experiences as a creator. So just want to make sure the convo doesn't delve too far into that realm.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

My answer to this question is very much based on specific situations in comics. Pacing is SUCH a complex thing, and it's not always easy to see the impact in the grand scheme of things. To make a story seem too slow to me, a few things have to happen: the pages/ panels don't further the plot, don't deepen the characters/world-building, or the tension remains consistent for too long. Coming from a theatre background, I sometimes like to refer to this idea as beats. I focus a lot on the importance of every line having purpose. If a character says something, and it doesn't add anything to the experience, then perhaps the dialogue shouldn't be there at all. Or if a panel without dialogue doesn't add anything to the reader experience, the same thing applies. There should be no wasted space. Honestly, I am kind of a sucker for slow build-up (as long as there is actually build-up at all). So I'm not against slow-burn stories. To me, slow-burn shouldn't feel like it's dragging along, or like "nothing is happening," which is a common trap stories fall into. But we as readers need to see those slow moments in order to understand the fast moments too. Which brings me onto pacing that is too fast... Honestly, this is a much bigger problem to me personally. There is this influx in fiction of wanting to have the quickest jump into the action at the beginning of the story, and it always makes me want to stop reading. If the writer doesn't want to have ANY exposition at all or introduce the characters in any meaningful way, how am I as a reader going to give a shit about the characters? That's pretty much an instant story-killer to me. I don't mind if characters are introduced as we go, but completely glossing over them in favor of the biggest explosions never keeps my attention. All in all, I read comics (and fiction in general) for the human experience (which doesn't mean that your characters must be human, lol, fantasy and sci-fi writers).

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa] Thank you for mentioning that comics are big enough to accommodate all kinds of tastes. What I find to be too fast might be just right or even too slow for another person, and honestly, it's all valid.

FeatheryJustice

I like a coherent story. It doesn't matter if it is slow paced because I get to absorb the information. I don't mind if it is fast paced as long as I can understand it. If the story itself doesn't make sense because you want a slow paced story with weird inserts in the middle, you have lost me. If your story is too fast to the point of skipping scenes and details you lost me.

spacerocketbunny

I love slow building stories with larger payoff. Making sure that characters are fleshed out and given the chance to breathe while still facilitating the plot is a tricky thing to pull off but I've definitely seen it happen in comics like Shaderunners, TINF and Tiger Tiger for example. Shaderunners does an incredible job of showing a multifaceted inner conflict with characters while never missing a beat with super fun and high stake heists. TINF is one of my favourite romance stories that carefully builds up and constructs the characters and their feelings for each other while still maintaining that significant information on every page. Tiger Tiger is a slower paced story but keeps me on the edge of my seat every update. Petra utilizes space beautifully and I never feel like there's a need for condensing on pages. I boost these comics a lot but I personally find that pacing is a huge factor in my enjoyment for a comic, and I love these ones so much bc they suit my preference quite well!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

There was a Korean professional webcomic (on Naver, though I don't think it ever got officially brought over to Webtoons) that I read, that had this interesting situation: seemingly fast pacing, very high tension, yet slow. It was a thriller that pitted a serial killer against the surviving wife of his latest victim. Once she got an inkling who the killer was, the tension skyrocketed, and it was a big game of chase. Problem was the chase part. It LOOKED fast paced if you just looked at like, one chapter of it. But they kept repeating the same scenario, just flavored differently. It was a rinse-and-repeat of this: "the wife found a new evidence; now everyone will believe her!" "oh no, the killer is about to catch her!" "the new evidence is lost" "wife finds another new evidence" etc. (It's been a while and my memory may not be accurate, but the idea is there) Nothing really changed throughout the repeated cycles. So yeah, repetition can be a problem.

Capitania do Azar

Haha, @keii’ii (Heart of Keol) I understand your frustration, but I feel like that kind of story is just aimed at a different audience... It almost feels like watching an episodic Tv show where everything has to come back to the starting point by the end of each episode

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That is certainly a type with its own audience. Though if that's what they were going for, they probably could've benefitted from a different way of starting the story so readers would've known what they were in for. And there were lots of things that really felt like could have gone somewhere, but never did.

Hmm, I guess that's another thing that could affect how pacing is perceived: loose threads?

RebelVampire

IDK I think there's a difference between something being episodic and something being annoyingly repetitious. For example, Detective Conan is arguably episodic. Each situation in the larger scheme of things is largely the same: Crime happens -> There are red herrings and twists -> Conan solves it. As a mystery comic, it's never gonna deviate from that formula. But if literally every crime had the basic same plot flow, like if the red herrings and twists were the same everytime, then it ceases to be episodic and just becomes bland and repetitive.(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

OH and speaking of Korean webcomics, I wanna talk about a pacing-related concept that gets brought up a lot in their comment sections: yam vs sprite (they call it "cider" bu they really mean sprite/ 7-up). Baked yam is a common wintertime treat. It fills you up, it's delicious. But it's notorious for making you thirsty. It kind of clogs up & dries up your throat. Whereas sprite is a thirst quencher. So, the idea is you can't eat yams forever. You need sprite to balance it out. Yams are a metaphor for frustrating build-ups. There is a sense that you (and/or the protagonist) are being wronged. e.g. It's a sports comic, and the leader of the opposing team keeps trash talking, even cheats and gets away with it. Sprite is a metaphor for satisfaction. In the same sports comic example, the arrogant, cheating leader finally gets what they deserve. Most stories need its share of yams. But if the yam portion of the story goes on for too long, the comment section will be filled with "where's my sprite!!!" "I feel like I ate 1,000 yams and now REALLY need some sprite" etc.

spacerocketbunny

Ahh that's an interesting concept!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

There are certainly stories that are big piles of yams by design. But I think when done well, readers who like a lot of sprite can tell what it is, and walk away pretty early on. So those comics attract readers who are into piles of yams.

(Of course, there's always gonna be That One Person who walks into a yam party and loudly demands a 5-gallon bottle of sprite... )

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

In that case, I definitely avoid yams! No matter how much I love a character or cast, I tend to go crazy if we stay in one location too long, or in one slow storyline for too many pages, or if I find myself going "COME ON, DO IT, DO THE THING, WE KNOW YOU'RE GONNA." To me, something new should happen on every page, even if it's a tiny plot progression or a tidbit of character info. I very much appreciate when a story takes time to breathe - and I find it's those quiet, cute, or slightly-unnecessary moments that are most memorable when I think of a comic - but too much of that will make me fidgety. I really need alternating paces to be happy.

kayotics

I think for me, it’s easier for a comic to go too slow than too fast. I’ve definitely seen comics go too fast, but the slow pace is more frustrating for me. What makes a comic slow for me are a few things: too MUCH focus on atmosphere (like multiple hand shots that don’t have dialogue), repeated events, too much buildup for an event, and the last thing is technical ability (like speech bubbles that are too large or in vertical scroll comics the panels being way too far apart). I’m pretty ok with letting things breathe, and I actually love that, but I need something to keep my interest, and those things above don’t do it.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't think yams are about repetition, though it can certainly involve repetition. It could be a new level of frustration on every page, revealing something new about the characters. But those would still be yams.

Deo101 [Millennium]

I'm also of the mind that its way easier for comics to go too slow than too fast. However, I think that its also really easy for a comic to introduce too many things too fast, without giving me the time to get to know anyone (contradictory, I know, hear me out) I think a lot of comics will start in a boring setting, before the initial action. It takes a very long time to ramp up to the ACTUAL story, because they want to get me to a baseline of knowledge before we get to all the action. This is really slow though because essentially nothing is actually happening, plot wise, and I think that the creators know this and so they try to do it all as fast as possible, so by the time we get to the action there are 10 characters and a ton of lore I don't actually know.... So I think there are two kinds of pacing, the actual plot/events of a story, and the introduction of new ideas. For me, the plot/events need to be relatively fast, but the introduction of ideas needs to be slow. I can't start a story with 6 people, it will feel too fast no matter what, and I can't start a story with slow action or it will feel like it's dragging. I don't know if this makes sense or not

kayotics

I think I agree with that pretty wholeheartedly. I want a comic to get me into the action pretty quickly, but introduce new characters and concepts slowly. Give me, like... 3 characters tops to start with.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, too slow AND too fast is definitely a possibility!

kayotics

Fantasy and sci-fi are both genres that can fall into that trap easily, and I think the comics that bring me into the world building best is the ones that don’t explain things IMMEDIATELY, but explain things over time as I need to know them

Deo101 [Millennium]

^ yes I feel this too. I think there is also a certain respect for a readers ability to suspend their disbelief that is oftentimes not taken into account... I think that, for the most part just being told something exists is fine, and learning how it works is what needs to take time. But, a lot of stories may try to justify things existing, which feels like overexplaining

kayotics

It’s like explaining why trees exist. Sometimes they just... do. I don’t question why they’re there

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Agreed, I think stories set in the real world have the advantage of starting with a bang, without much need for explanation - there's always a need for some explanation upfront in a fantasy/sci-fi setting, even if it's done through visual shorthand. You don't need to overexplain, but you definitely have to explain... more. Or at least make it abundantly clear that A) this is a different world, B) this is the general event that's happening, and C) this is how you should feel about it, even without living in that world.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yes exactly I feel like I see it most commonly in scifi/fantasy, like you said, where someone wants to explain why their magic exists immediately. This will sound rude but at this point I don't care why it exists, maybe way later you can tell me but I don't care when I'm only just starting .. it feels like reading someone's worldbuilding essay idk

kayotics

Yeah... that’s definitely a thing that can affect pacing negatively. I don’t need a world building essay on how the magic works right away. As long as the logic is consistent in magic I’ll figure it out as a reader. Then you can explain details later and I’ll be into it.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah cause later on it feels like connecting dots, almost like revealing the answer to a mystery

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Yes yes! I love that sense that as a reader, you're being trusted to learn - not so much that you're being fed information, but that you're given enough to put the pieces together. Even done slowly, it's very satisfying.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I like my storys with some unexplained mysteries. I mean, how many people know exactly how the internet works, and yet we use it daily? Dumping down a dissertation on how x works more often than not kills pacing for me.

kayotics

I think it can be done well to keep the pacing going, but it needs to be combined with something. Sometimes you need to provide that info dump so the story keeps working

I can’t pinpoint any exact scenes but I seem to remember Gunnerkrigg Court doing that pretty well. There’s a lot of unusual concepts in that story that need to be explained, but it usually doesn’t feel like a slog

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah for sure. I do think it can also be used either in tandem with or as an instigator to moving things forward, if done right. Its not illegal to reveal information about the world

I think people tend to do this kind of thing better with Characters than the world. Because with Characters, we want to get to know them and this comes more naturally, but with worldbuilding... It often feels like worldbuilding should be a baseline knowledge rather than also a storytelling element I guess

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

One thing that really annoys me with pacing is when a single story beat that should be relatively simple takes way too long in real time. Like in one comic I read, the villains tell the heroes to urgently meet them at some location. And, like, the heroes are talking back and forth, deciding who they should send and such. But, like... it's been six months, and they still haven't left the house yet. I guess the urgency feeling is probably there if you're binging the comic? But, it really doesn't encourage me to follow along with the comic if it's such a slow read. I'm not saying that these sorts of authors need to update faster, but if your update rate is to the point where it takes months to finish an urgent conversation, maybe some things should be cut out? Or they should at least be walking out the door while they're talking? I guess it's just sort of a general "something should happen each page" thing though. Like if the conversation is just going in circles, there's really no need for it, and it can be annoying to follow along when it's seemingly so urgent.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I know it's not the same thing, but that reminded me of all the gaming comic strips out there that poke fun at "it's final dungeon time, the stakes are higher than ever, and the player spends the next 80 hours completing the minigames"

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I have a rule that if any piece of dialogue isn't either directly advancing the plot, giving the reader new information about the characters speaking, or is funny, it should be cut

Definitely agree with what people have said, that big infodumps right off the bat are not enjoyable. I honestly don't ever want the author to sit me down and explain something to me. It's much more interesting to see parts of the worldbuilding in action, or to see things that arent explained and have to theorize about what it is or how it works before the mechanics behind it are shown

Capitania do Azar

I very much second that notion, @sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD) , that's my rule of thumb when I'm writing

Deo101 [Millennium]

I have a similar rule with my pages, but with dialogue I like to have more fluff so we feel like we're spending a bit more time with them

Capitania do Azar

if the info is not something I need the reader to know (and character development is) then what's the point of forcing myself to draw more stuff

but @Deo101 [Millennium] , fluff IS character ;D

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah! But it's not always new information is all

You gotta reestablish stuff, let some things marinate, and repeat things for them to really settle in I think, so it can't ALWAYS be new stuff, even if the page as a whole is introducing something new. I mean usually you can do it alongside other stuff but yeah

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think sometimes it's the same for the characters. e.g. The same characters can have multiple conversations about the same topic, but their understanding/ feelings toward the topic can change as things marinate.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah for sure

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Meaningful conversations where you get to know the character’s personality would fall in the 2nd category

Sometimes its hard to judge whether dialogue will be interesting to someone who’s unfamiliar with the characters

Shadowmark Productions

Someone once told me that dialogue should reveal character and action reveals plot. If done correctly, both work in tandem to advance the story without exposition. I’ve found that to be very useful.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Ooh. True!

mirandalorian

That's a good way to put it. And it seems like that idea is pretty important in comics.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think it's 100% fine if dialogue isn't interesting to people unfamiliar with the characters -- as long as it's compelling to people who have been reading from the beginning?

I live for the kind of scenes where like... character A just smiles... it's an ordinary smile to people who don't know A, but it means the world to people who know the context and the character

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Action can reveal character too

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I‘d say it‘s even more important, I for starters love characters that say one thing and do another; it‘s a good way to show conflict!

(Inner conflict, I mean)

RebelVampire

For me whether I think the pacing is too fast or too slow are actually two different things. In regards to finding the pacing too slow, I generally base this on a character's progress for their goals. While I like to see characters face setbacks and don't expect everything to be solved immediately, I expect some progress to be had. So if I wind up reading a comic and it's basically taking more than 100 pages for any progress to be made in the protagonist's goal and growth, that's just way too slow for my personal tastes. It kind of just ruins my investment in their goal since it doesn't feel like they're actually working on it, and that kind of defeats the point of a goal. In a similar but different vein, pacing is too fast for me if the comic never stops to breathe to exposit or showcase character emotions. Obviously, expositing a whole bunch is bad, and you don't want to take 20 pages to show a character crying. However, these moments where you take a step back and say "Hey look this character is struggling and here is a hint of their backstory" are super important for creating a bond between the reader and the characters. Without them, it just feels like you're sprinting from Plot Point A to Plot Point B. In relation to this, another element that would make it too fast is if characters are getting over things way too fast because plot is to be had. When something emotional happens, such as a character dies, I should still be able to feel those affects much later even if its not at the forefront. Of course, these are clearly just to my personal tastes, which pacing generally is a subjective thing in most cases.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

For sure that thing about needing space after emotional events

not a webcomic but some of my favorite parts of One Piece are the crew goofing off after ever major arc

I feel like webcomics can fail at this sometimes, because things that feel tediously slow when writing week -by-week can feel fast when read back all at once