#working on this fancomic is the definition of an on-and-off relationship

[jesncin]

guess who just finished drawing a very long Clois fancomic!!!

IT'S DONE (minus some adjustments and a cover) that took like 6 months and not because it was difficult but because I procrastinated on it like a dork

[chaifootsteps]

Its so funny to me when i still see Charlastor haters claim that people "only ship it out of spite!" When it was literally the most popular ship of al Hazbin Hotel since the very start, LMAO!

Like back in the pilot day, every time you looked up fanarts and fancomics of Hazbin Hotel it was almost inevitable to get Charlastor things even when you werent looking for it, it was basically THE hazbin ship.

People just loved the dinamic they showed, even some just acepted it as canon.

It helped a lot that the canon relationship Charlie had with Vaggie was so lifeless that 80% of the viewers didnt even register it as it was meant to be romantic.

Something that stuck with me was that someone on twitter said that they watched the Hazbin pilot with some of their lesbian friends, and after watching it they (the lesbians) said that they thought Alastor was meant to be Charlie's love interest.

Also there were people thinking that Vaggie was meant to be a family member of Charlie due their interactions.

When i watched the pilot i thought that Vaggie was just a close friend of Charlie that had a little secret crush on Charlie, but even i suspected that i could be wrong and it was only meant to be friends lmao.

But yeah, Charlastor was the ship for the fandom since the pilot, to this day is basically an important pillar of the fandom.

Also, the "father-daughter" dynamic they tried to put on them was so forced embarassing and people already decided they work better as lovers. Like at this point people just took it as "your daughter calls me daddy too".

Charlastor isnt my cup of tea, but i have a huge respect for the shippers who still post content of them as much as many of the fans (and even the creator of the goddamn show) hate it and try to bully them off the fandom. The haters are just the dumbest bitches on earth and i like making fun of them.

My theory is that a lot of people, definitely in the Viv realm but also in modern day fandom in general, view fandom as less a hobby than something you do in service to a specific creator or idea. So if you're creating fanworks for something like Charlastor, it has to be out of pure spite and not because you just...genuinely like this very popular, very enduring ship that Viv happens to hate.

That, and also they're the dumbest bitches on Earth.

[thelastomnitect]

I HAVE A FANCOMIC CONUNDRUM

Hey, Voyagers!

I'm Omni, your favorite Robot-American, TTRPG Creator & Artist buddy... aaaand Im in a bind.

So, for those of you in the know, Ive been really enjoying making fancomic works lately, and its been very rewarding (Check out my Helldivers 2 Fancomic "Gentry Dolaan Aint No Fascist" if youre interested in what I've been cooking!). So much so, that I am also working on a Space Marine Fancomic/Webcomic (working title: "BROTHERS: a Tale of Treachery and Doom"), and I'm really excited about it. Ive been doing tons of art and planning for it behind the scenes, and it's a story I think will be really fun to tell and read! I've been a huge fan of the Warhammer setting since I was young, and Narrative campaigns like The Taros Campaign, Siege of Vraks & The Badab War sit on my bookshelves next to my copies of some Horus Heresy books & my Gaunt's Ghosts Omnibus. Its definitely a loveletter to this hobby and setting I've loved for so long...

...BUT...

Games Workshop (the owners of the "WARHAMMER 40,000" IP and the creators of the Tabletop Miniature game) is a terrible company. For a very abbreviated list of their bullshit... - Games Workshop can be overly litigious towards fan creators (a few years back, they went on an absolute spree of issuing cease-and-desist/takedown notices on tons of fanworks in preparation of the launch of their WARHMMER+ streaming service, primarily to prevent competition to their in house animations. It's either directly destroyed or had a crazy chilling effect on many amazing fan projects, such as Bruva Alfabusa's amazing "If The Emperor Had a Text-To-Speech Device" which has been discontinued, or gorgeous animations like THE EXODITE or ASTARTES, both of which were bought up, taken off of youtube and forced onto their premium Warhammer + service behind a paywall. The creator of ASTARTES has already suffered a great deal at the hands of hackers stealing their youtube channel, and since their purchase by GW and move to Warhammer plus has been dead silent, and the EXODITE suffered immensely during its production. And with a new Warhammer TV series in development, and the success of SPACE MARINE 2, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that kind of aggressive legal gatekeeping behavior again soon...) - They abusively price & market their products (they have the single highest priced miniatures in the entire wargaming hobby, frequently rely on FOMO events and bundling [even for rules and important items the community HAS to buy], relentlessly overprice in several regions across the world, and intentionally price gouge their books and rules, all while taking down any free access to any of those rules at the first given opportunity. There is no reason a single, unassembled and unpainted, mono-pose 32mm miniature should be priced at $45 dollars. That's insane.) - They have done so much damage to the Wargaming Hobby Community in their time (They are basically the EA of the Wargaming hobby. They drive medium sized wargames out of the market under walls of money, advertisement and litigation, create walled content gardens that discourage players from leaving them, have set terrible standards in the larger hobby like a lack of free-to-download rules & denial of third-party miniatures at their tournaments, and have gone so far as to literally not even call their hobby wargaming but the "WARHAMMER Hobby", so players dont accidentally stumble across the rest of the industry. Its BAND-AID bandage levels of market crushing brand power, and they abuse it constantly to the detriment of the entire hobby. Again, its basically the same level of industry damage as Activision or EA have done to the videogaming world). ... so yeah, again, I LOVE the setting & the world, and I've had a long standing relationship with the wargame property itself, but GW has a deathgrip on the franchise. Truth is, I dont want to steer more people towards them, or lose all the work I put into this webcomic project because GW's legal team is feeling a little overly litigious in advance of some new Netflix show or videogame or edition release.

HOWEVER, I have other options. Games Workshop doesn't corner the market on Space Marines with big pauldrons and dramatic flair. I COULD just set "Brothers" in a more creator friendly IP... like ONE PAGE RULES's GRIMDARK FUTURE setting, and without too much effort. While there would be some differences, it would still be the same tale of stoic battle brothers contending with isolation, dogma, and struggling with the concessions needed to survive in a hostile place. Hell, their super-human gene-sculpted super soldiers are literally called BROTHERS, so it's... kinda serendipitous, to be real with you. The folks at OPR are much smaller company and have infinitely better business practices. They market their products in a much more responsible and ethical manner, sell both 3d-printable miniature files and pre-printed miniatures themselves, their games are all miniature agnostic and well designed, and frankly, they actually give a damn about their fan creators. They even run Fan Creator Competitions (I just joined a Writing Jam they hosted a few months back! It was a blast), and give free miniatures and huge discounts to the winners. Generally speaking, they are the kind of tiny company I actually could see myself patronizing and supporting, amybe even working with at some point, and they are far closer to the way I'd prefer to see the wargaming industry develop in the future (I am NOT sponsored by OPR, by the way. Just wanted to make that clear. I wouldn't turn it down, not gonna lie, but as of time of this post, I've no support from either GW or OPR) And I know Im not the only one who's been making these calculations when working on their fan works. Bruva Alfabusa has moved on to working with friendly IPs, like their awesome World of Darkness series "Hunter: the Parenting" series, while the Exodite's creator has completely pivoted into working on their own grimdark IP, "PROJECT MORNINGSTAR", which is well worth a look, btw. The issue I face is that while I vastly prefer supporting OPR's GRIMDARK FUTURE and them as a company, I originally started this project as a 40K fanwork. And I know that, for all its many flaws, Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 brand name carries a lot of recognition and fandom power, and it's setting has a lot of personal meaning to me. OPR is growing and it's got a really passionate fandom, but its only a fraction the size of GW's juggernaut, and while I'm not creatively tied to either setting atm, I'd be a liar to not at least acknowledge and respect the sheer fandom gravity of the Warhammer 40,000 IP. And fancomics can live and die on the size and relative energy of their fanbases.

So that's my Conundrum.

Do I continue along the path I was already on and make this fancomic a WARHAMMER 40,000 story, facing the fact I'd basically be advertising for a company I hate and risking that if I ever managed to garner a big enough fanbase the GW legal might just pop in and shut me down, all in exchange for brand recognition? Or do I take a chance on my personal principles, set it in OPR's GRIMDARK FUTURE, tell the same story I was already excited to tell and support a company and a game that I actually think is worth talking about, but risk the smaller community and less passionate fanbase not being enough to get the fancomic off the launchpad in the first place?

I'm genuinely soul searching here, Voyagers. And I want your opinion.

The truth is, I know which way I want to go, but what do you think? If youre a creator / fan / artist / player / hobbyist of WARHAMMER 40,000, WARHAMMER, ONE PAGE RULES GAMES, GRIMDARK FUTURE, WARGAMING, FANCOMICS, FANWORKS, SCIENCE FICTION, or even just read your way through all of this and wanted to give me your opinion (thank you, by the way, that's incredibly kind of you) what do you think? PLEASE, tell me your thoughts and feedback in the comments. And, for anybody who got this far, thank you for reading this. Seriously, I appreciate you. See you out there, Voyagers~

-The Last Omnitect

[whymustyouhurtmeinthisway]

The other day, while scrolling through Tumblr, I saw an Espio x Silver fancomic and somehow mistook Silver for Bark the Polar Bear at first. After realizing Bark was actually Silver, I found it funny that I somehow confused those two very distinct characters for each other and laughed off the idea of Espio x Bark as being pretty stupid, but now that I’ve put more thought into it I think it's kind of a cute matchup.

I could totally see the two of them as the epitome of comfortable silence. Espio's a fairly calm and meditative person and Bark of course doesn't talk at all, so I can definitely imagine them being totally comfortable and capable of having a great time together in total silence. Most of the sentiments shared between them are communicated more through actions than words, body language and facial expression stuff, as if they'd invented their own form of sign language. Bark could tap Espio on the shoulder, gesticulate his hands a bit, roll his eyes, and jerk his head towards the door and Espio would perfectly understand he means "This party sucks ass, wanna go to your place and play video games?" and agree with him.

As for how others would react to them dating, I've always thought of the Chaotix and Hooligans as being personal rivals (like the Hooligans usually have no quarrels with anyone unless someone else is paying them to, but will always immediately beef with the Chaotix unprovoked, even when off the job) so Espio and Bark are kinda like Romeo and Juliet except much less tragic and murderous. I feel like the other members of the teams would react to the news that the two were dating as such: (under the cut)

Vector: Really more confused than anything, he isn't especially angry that Espio's dating Bark, he just straight up doesn't understand why he would. Vector likes Bark more than the other Hooligans of course, he's not as concerned about Espio’s relationship with him as he would be if Espio was dating Nack or Bean instead, but Bark’s still affiliated with the other two and Vector can’t tell if he should trust him or not. He once tried to do the protective dad thing and took Bark aside to interrogate him about his intentions with Espio, but realized how ridiculous the idea of interrogating Bark was after trying for like two minutes and promptly gave up.

Charmy: He'd immediately go 100% annoying little brother mode, pestering Espio constantly about the relationship. He doesn't seem to care at all who in particular Espio’s dating, just that him dating anyone means that Charmy has new angles with which he can prod and annoy him. Charmy's always had a theory that Bark's fully capable of speech but only talks in secret with his closest allies, so every time Espio comes home from hanging out with him Charmy asks some variant of "So what'd Bark tell you today?" or “Is it just me or does Bark’s voice sound kinda nasally lately.” in an attempt to catch him off guard and get him to accidentally admit his boyfriend can talk. This strategy hasn’t even come close to working yet, but that hasn’t discouraged him.

Nack: Despite their long-lived partnership, Nack's really never known much about Bark's personality, what he wants, or even if he wants anything at all, so naturally when the news that his silent enigmatic bruiser had inexplicably started going out with the ninja boy from the Chaotix reached him, the shock stunned him in place like a nuclear flash grenade. According to a certain Duck's reports, Nack proceeded to remain slack-jawed and immobile for the following three hours and swallow at least twelve flies during that time (though the reliability of this claim is debatable). After that initial shock and much considering, Nack begrudgingly decided that as long as it doesn't get in the way of the Hooligans' business, Bark can date Espio. He very noticeably doesn’t approve of Bark canoodling around with one of the enemy, and can be heard loudly complaining to nobody about it every time Bark leaves the house for a date, but he never directly confronts or put more restrictions on him (as he's afraid Bark would quit and join the Chaotix if pushed too far).

Bean: Remember how I compared Bark and Espio's relationship to Romeo and Juliet, except with much less drama and death? Well Bean seems to be under the impression that Bark and Espio’s relationship is like Romeo and Juliet with considerably more drama and death. He often goes on long tirades whenever he sees the two of them together, acting like a one-duck Greek chorus. Like he could be walking down the street one day, totally minding his own business, until he notices Bark and Espio through the window of a nearby building and suddenly bursts into soliloquy: “Oh woe! The two tragic lovers reunite once more, lamenting in the knowledge this could be the last time they ever embrace! What a sordid past, what an even sordider future, will this misery and drama never end!?!?” Then the camera cuts to Espio and Bark and they’re just eating lunch together at Burger King or some shit. Bean’s fully in view outside the window, sorrowfully praying on his knees that the gods above have mercy on their poor innocent souls. Espio looks at his whopper and goes “This tastes like ass”. Bark nods and dips his in ketchup. Bean curls up into the fetal position and breaks down crying.

I kinda really wanna write more stuff about this ship, I like it a lot more than I was expecting to, the dynamics involved are really fun, and I think it’s funny to never explain how or why Espio and Bark started dating. The only problem now is to make up a ship name. Barkspio? Espibark? I don't know, if anyone's actually has any suggestions tell me.

[burning-bubble-tea]

I like writing and reading fanfiction cause frankly sometimes media is lightning in a bottle good when it’s long running.

Like idw transformers, I still need to start reading the current comics but I doubt if anything can really capture how much my brain latched onto it. Like even if the writing is objectively better in the current iteration, I do wonder if it’ll peak my interest the way idw transformers did.

Like with large media franchises, it really is me picking and choosing what I really like.

With dc comics I love all the cartoons. Some of the animated movies, none of the live action movies and none of the tv shows. But I still like the characters. So like fanfics can sorta capture what I’m looking for in a certain iteration of a character.

But also it kinda has to have this sense of imperfection or desire for more to make me actually search for fan works. Cause like I love you idw transformers but the ending was rushed/also the ending was open ended with one of the cut panels saying “over to you” instead of “the end” to signify that the fans could do what they wanted now with the lost light in the new universe. And like ever after high, I love it but it’s like objectively a bunch of interesting half baked ideas that just got cancelled out of nowhere.

Something tight and clean and satisfying like gravity falls for me does not make me desire to read fanfics. Like maybe a short fancomic n what not but I feel the story had a satisfying beginning middle n end so I feel like I can move on fully satisfied.

So there is something so nice about satisfying media. I think Hilda is also super satisfying, it got a bunch of seasons, a movie and got a finale that didn’t feel rushed. But also, there’s something so fun about being ravenous for more, for being not satisfied and looking for places to become satisfied.

First Aid will never be the main character for more than a chapter or episode. But hey, there were like almost one hundred fics I read where he was the main character. And plenty more if I wanted to read smut but I do not so almost one hundred first aid fics for me.

Like the reason why I’ve been so into Damian Wayne and Jonathan Kent stories is that the movie that featured both of them was good but also too short and doesn’t have a sequel. It planted the seeds that its short run time didn’t allow to fully grow.

Or similarly, I’ve heard that dc comics kinda aged up Jonathan to move him into a different comic series away from the super sons series but Damian is still a kid to keep with Batman continuity and it sounds convoluted and confusing and it sounds like the relationship of Damian and Jon was kinda thrown away to have Jon be an adult now because of space shenanigans. So people have been writing under the tag of “naturally aged Jon Kent” to have Damian and Jon grow up together.

But yeah side rant off of this side rant, even though I’ve never read the comics, a part of me definitely wonders if there is room for multiple different continuities to exist at the same time. But also I think crisis on infinite earth’s literally existed to merge all the ips into one universe and it’s cool and all but it does sorta create those odd situations where a character is thought to be better in a different series so they figure out a way for the character to leave the storyline of the current comic series they are a part of so they can go to a different one. Which is from my understanding what Superboy did by going from super sons to like legion of superheroes or something ?? I don’t know. I don’t read the comics.

Anyways so while I do really love shared universes, I do kinda like it when they have little to no impact on each other so they can stay in their lanes. Cause sometimes it really does feel like a crossover more than an integrated universe. And I don’t really like crossovers all that much. Thought I appreciate the creativity. I do filter out crossovers in ao3 HAHAHAH but that’s mainly cause in crossovers I usually have only interacted with one of the medias.

Like one time I wanted to find any fix it fics or extended fics on that movie Epic that came out in the 2010’s and like I found maybe three that fit my very strict filters hahahahahahha. A lot of the fics that used epic was crossover as I think it was lumped into Brave, how to train your dragon, and Frozen, rise of the guardians crossover stuff. Which I’m not a big fan of.

Anyways this post has ran wildly out of control.

The best kind of post.

But yeah love it when things hit the sweet spot of either, “so good that I desperately need more” (Baulder’s Gate 3, IDW transformers), and/or “I love this media with all my heart but I don’t think they did enough with it/it got cancelled/felt like it had a rushed conclusion” (IDW transformers, Damian Wayne and Jon Kent, Ever After High).

[dirkjakeweekly]

DIRKJAKE FIC RECS

This is a rebloggeable version of our sidebar page reproduced in full, for those who prefer to save things on their own blogs for later!

INTRO

This page is not intended to be an encyclopedia, but rather a non-exhaustive list of a few Dirkjake Fanfics (and Fancomics) for those that may be interested in the ship, but a little too tired of trawling through AO3 search! Some of these contain NSFW or suggestive content, viewer discretion is advised.

[ FIC RECS (last updated Jan 2021, click readmore for full list) ]

It’s only a canvas sky

Their guardians dead at the hands of the Condesce, growing up in the shadow of her slow takeover of the Skaian Federation, Dirk Strider and Jake English have spent their whole lives alone up until shortly before their twelfth birthdays.

Or: Dirk fixes a transmitter, makes a friend, builds a robot, and tries to communicate affection over distance to the barest possible minimum.

Read here!

GOD’S BRAND NEW FATE SELECTOR (Fancomics)

In ONE PARTICULAR TIMELINE, detached from many similar ones, an aspiring divorcee stands by his baby’s cradle and attempts to hatch an escape plan with some aid from the ghost of his long-deceased boyfriend. He’s not exactly helpful.

SOMEWHERE ELSE ENTIRELY, Dirk Strider is overcame by the nagging feeling his splinters may be getting a little out of hand and far too into his head, when he gets a booty call.

One timeline is Epilogues-Compliant, another Epilogues-Divergent. 

Read here!

We’re All Friends & Family Here (And Frankly, We’re Sick Of Your Shit)

It’s been about a year since the big Fast Forward, and sure, things on Earth C aren’t perfect for everyone. But they’re fine. Really. It’s fine. Everything is super fuckin’ swell, and that’s that.

It’s not like one night is going to change anything.

Read here!

Perpetuity

“Call it a car crash waiting to happen, you’ll just call it your downfall”

Dirk is a romantic, just not a particularly optimistic one.

(Written pre-epilogues release, post-game, fix-it)

Read here!

Tailspinning Into the Epilogues with Dirk and Jake (complete series)

Read here!

Stark Nonfiction (Part of the Tailspinning series)

Jake tries his hand at a gentler epilogue.

Read here!

Between the Lines (Part of the Tailspinning series)

“It’s just… I can’t remember the last time I felt so at peace, I guess. It was such a lovely jaunt with Jade, and instead of being all torn up about coming home, I feel even better, now. It’s actually been a real while and a half since I felt… bad, you know? Like actually bad.”

You don’t have much in the way of emotional permanence about that sort of thing. Surely it was months ago, when you were staring gloomily at the bottoms of bottles like the world’s most up-his-own-ass useless overdramatic dilettante. Did it even really happen, if it all, in hindsight, just seems like a dumb pantomime of misery to get attention? A successful dumb pantomime of misery to get attention, mind you, you definitely got it, and a boyfriend to boot. Was it ever really as atrocious and apocalyptic and unsurvivable as it seemed?

Read here!

A Palate Cleanser (Part of the Tailspinning series)

ROXY: hay everybody its jakes turn! ROXY: hes got a few words hed like to say about our dear departed buddy

The eulogy we missed on Candy’s page 15.

Read here!

Eschewal

“you hope he’s a benevolent god”

Read here!

Grublr. (Fancomic)

In the consort kingdom, atop of the large, humongous mansion where the god of Hope lives, there is an apartment complex.

Read here!

The Hitchhikers Guide to Your Ex-Boyfriend (Fancomic)

Jake English waking up sore and alone on a cold floor is not a strange occurrence for him as of late. The ethereal beam of light and sluggishly churning floor is new, but he’s woken up in stranger places.

If circumstances were better he’d probably have something shocked and relevant to say about this strange landscape he’s found himself in, but circumstances are in fact legendarily shit right now.

(A comic/fic where Jake English gets rights)

Read here!

The Four Kings, the God Thief, and the Black Diamond Pirates

Dirk and Vriska have it good. They raid ships, pillage merchant vessels, constantly poison each other, possess a lucrative pact with the Wind King, sing a lot of dope fuckin’ sea shanties, and captain a loveable crew of pirate scum. They’re ready to kick back, take it easy, and become the vile and revered scourge of the diamond trading line.

Then they find someone in the water.

Read here!

Sea shanties for Thots (Four Kings continuation)

Jake English has never done anything wrong, ever, in his life, if you don’t count literally all that stuff from the first installment of oxfordRoulette’s diegetic-musical-cum-found-family-pirate-AU. Luckily, that was in the last story, and he is completely better now in all respects. None of that nonsense is a thing anymore and it will not be relevant at all! Surrounded by friends and allies, with a very cool piratey boyfriend and a hold full of treasure from his recently decimated country, he’s got everything a fellow could want.

What will he do?

Befriend an octopus god. Learn to fish. Kick back. Take it easy. Kiss his boyfriend a lot. Open a jewelry company? Pursue immortality. Confront his past. Embrace his future. Maybe save the world. One thing’s for sure: there will be a lot of songs involved.

Read here!

Two idiots at Homoville, N69, TX

In a moment of desperation, Dirk goes on r/relationships. Things get oversharey real quick. He types as follows:

“I [23M] cannot understand my [24M?] roommate. He is the most bizarre man to ever set foot on earth and I’m afraid I’m losing him.”

or, and They Were Roommates.

Read here!

Drive it home with one headlight

Some mistakes are so fucking big that they divert the path of your life entirely, sending you somewhere you were never meant to go. Some mistakes are so seismic and so obvious that when you look back on your life all you can see is the beacon where you made them. Some mistakes leave you so far off course you don’t even recognize who you are or why you’re still here.

You don’t usually get a chance to make amends.

Read here!

A Tallied List of Various Occasions in Which Jake English Encountered the Elusive Smile Belonging to One Dirk Strider

Jake English, explorer extraordinaire, tracks down the most unique treasure of all: a nerd in pointy sunglasses.

Read here!

BONES OF BLACK MARROW

Dirk summons a demon for the exclusive purpose of ‘cathartic boning.’ He gets what he wants.

NOTE: This fic is ergodic (think House of Leaves), which means it cannot be downloaded for offline perusal on your kindle/pdf reader. Also has CYOA elements, so clicking “Entire Work” will make the fic impossible to read.

Read here!

fire fly

A wedding. An anxiety attack. A daring tryst.

Read here!

DIRK TOPS (Fancomic)

Ever think about how Dirk Strider got full narrative awareness of the fanfics where he’s the big scary hunk in charge and went “I can do that” when he wasn’t, in fact, able to do that? i do. i think about that.

Read here!

MLM stands for Moron loving Moron (Fancomic)

aren’t you TIRED of longing? don’t you just want to go APESHIT while dating your best bro? i mean, you’ve earned it, right? (Collection of oneshot comics. marked as complete, updates whenever)

Read here!

fist is a four letter word

Jake’s face quirks. “App?“ 

“Yeah, app. Like, application. You know your phone can do other things right? Like, apps.”

“You sure do keep using that word! I’m not quite sure I understand what you mean.”

“You know, apps.” You try to think of how to explain apps. You suddenly can’t think of what apps are.

What’s the name of an app.

Literally just name any app.

He’s staring at you.

Oh my god.

Read here!

Witching Hour

There’s something almost magical about that time between too late at night and too early in the morning. It’s the perfect time to meet a stranger and go on an adventure.

Read here!

[seyaryminamoto]

I feel like i'm gonna regret asking this but what is hiby

Oh. Ohohoho, oh. I recently answered this to someone else (not on this blog), I suppose there are so many newcomers in this fandom lately that HIBY has become slightly less known than it used to be.

HIBY stands for How I Became Yours, the most polemic and catastrophic fancomic in the history of the Avatar franchise. If you thought any of the official comics were problematic in any sense, woah boy, they’re goddamn flawless masterpieces compared to this thing.

Every possible angle of HIBY is problematic. Spot-on accusations of tracing were the main reason why Deviantart took down Jackie Diaz’s profile and comic from their platform. I heard Nickelodeon also got involved legally, not 100% sure on that front, but if true, they cracked down on her because she attempted to profit off this clunky mess of an inconsistent story by claiming it was somehow an official sequel to ATLA. To clarify, this last thing is something I was told, I can’t find actual sources to confirm it… so maybe I heard an exaggerated account of the tale of HIBY and it never went that far. Nevertheless, this comic didn’t need to escalate into a legal problem to be absolutely abhorrent.

In regards of art, HIBY somehow keeps discarding the asian-inspired setting seen throughout ATLA and instead favors showing the characters in European castles and outfits that don’t fit anywhere within ATLA’s world at all:

Katara is basically wearing a red version of Belle’s dress from Beauty and the Beast, if I’m not mistaken. The architecture of the place they’re at is so European it’s baffling (if I’m not mistaken, this is supposed to be Toph’s family’s house :’D). Also, it’s blatantly obvious that the background is a photograph, so she could’ve just as easily looked for photos of asian locations instead, but she picked european architecture because yes. Yet more blows against the possible artistic merits someone could offer this comic (if there’s any).

Now, though, the BIGGEST problem in HIBY is, of course, the story:

To recap: ATLA ends with Aang and Katara kissing at Ba Sing Se. Whatever problems someone may have with their relationship, or Mai and Zuko’s, or Sokka and Suki’s, it’s unquestionable that those three ships were canon by the end of the show.

Jackie Diaz’s SEQUEL COMIC doesn’t acknowledge this finale: somehow, Aang is in love with Toph but they’re not together despite there’s literally NOTHING in their way, since Aang and Katara weren’t together at all, according to Diaz. And Katara? Oh, she’s pining endlessly over Zuko, who somehow married Mai…

… Despite wanting Katara too.

… Despite he literally knocked up Katara back when the war was ending, which resulted in a miscarriage because of Mai’s wicked schemes~~!!

Can someone please explain to me in what world does it make sense for Zuko, FIRE LORD ZUKO, to be in a relationship with someone he doesn’t want, when the person he does want is RIGHT THERE, AVAILABLE, when there’s no real political consequences to ANYTHING that happens in this comic? You could say “oh no the Fire Nation people wouldn’t accept a Water Tribe woman…” … but then Zuko ends up with Katara anyways and the only problem is that Mai wants to kill them for that :’) so… no excuse works.

Basically there’s no real plot, the whole thing boils down to “I want these ships to happen and I need them to face hardships even if they don’t make sense”. The main hardship is that Mai doesn’t want her HUSBAND to carry out an affair with Katara. Zuko’s response to Mai’s obvious and reasonable complaint about their illicit relationship is to TURN VIOLENT WITH HER. And he’s the good guy :’)

Mai has a non-existent older brother Sho, who looks like a BLEACH character with Ozai’s hairstyle, and together they will try to kill Katara because, welp, someone has to give them trouble, I guess. In all fairness, the only character with a relatively logical flow of thought in this damn trainwreck is Mai. I mean, “my piece of shit husband married me for political clout, got his mistress pregnant, I didn’t want the kid to be a problem for me so I induced a miscarriage in Katara by poisoning her, probs just wanted Katara dead altogether but whatever, I only got the kid. Then Zuko threw me away despite I’m his legal wife and I’m really pissed about it so I want Katara dead” is the smartest writing in this entire comic. And no, that’s not a compliment, it’s still stupid as fuck but that’s how much more stupid everything else is. 

So, the happy couples are, like I said, Zuko and Katara, who get together despite Zuko is married to Mai, Aang and Toph, who somehow weren’t together despite there’s nothing in the way, AAAND… 

… Sokka and fake!Azula. Because I refuse to acknowledge that thing as the Princess we all love and adore.

Frankly, I consider it a miracle that HIBY didn’t destroy our ship completely when it was posted online, seeing as it was amongst the most talked-about fanmade content in Avatar’s fandom at the time. If people no longer associate Sokkla with HIBY immediately, we’ve definitely done a good job saving our poor ship’s face and showing it’s got a fuckton of potential compared to the shitfest that comic portrayed.

Why is Sokkla so problematic in HIBY? Because of fake!Azula, of course. Why is she fake!Azula? Because she’s got plot-convenient amnesia! Turns out that, for some reason, Azula forgot all the events from ATLA (let’s be real, so did Jackie Diaz so it’s not just her) and she shows up in this comic as a completely different character, so much that, upon hearing about the TERRIBLE THINGS SHE DID AND WAS, her reaction is…:

Fascinating, am I right? :’D She’s nice, sweet, shy and as good as brain-dead. And as she’s so sweet and cute now, somehow that becomes absolutely appealing for Sokka. And he falls for her, she falls for him, they bang dramatically, and so on and so forth…

Eventually Azula sacrifices herself in the final battle when Mai and her brother try to kill everyone and oh no! Sokka’s love interest dies again! Such a shocker, however, that Sokka goes to the Spirit World to save her, and unlike Iroh he succeeds… but what does Azula look like post-Spirit World shenanigans?

… Yeah, okay, fake!Azula calling anyone her “little angels” is just proof of how IC she is, if you had any doubts still.

But isn’t it FUNNY. Isn’t it HILARIOUS. That Azula not only undergoes an atom-deep brainwipe that turns her into a flat non-character, but that after dying she’s revived with WHITE HAIR, dressed in blue clothes and whatnot…?

My interpretation, and honestly, I don’t know if there’s any other possible interpretation… Jackie Diaz wanted Sokka to be with Yue :’) She fucking wrecked Azula’s character to turn her into a fake!Azula, who would eventually turn into fake!Yue after being resurrected because oh that’s just perfect to close off Sokka’s storyline, isn’t it? Only, he’s not with Yue nor with Azula because it’s neither of them. Just as it isn’t really Sokka either, or Katara, or Zuko or Aang or Toph.

Now, revisiting this trainwreck, there is a throwaway line where Ty Lee, in her (I think) only appearance in the story tells Katara that Suki and Sokka broke up. So um, Suki does exist, officially, in this comic, and she did date Sokka but it ended, and she’s back in Kyoshi Island with her team. 

Which elicits the question… why the fuck is she Mai’s maid?

I assure you, if you decide to delve deeper into this mess, you’ll absolutely find a lot more things to laugh about, to be outraged about, and to facepalm about while you wonder how on earth would someone, ANYONE, create something like this and not die of cringe looking at the finished product. It’s baffling to me.

At any rate, if you’d like to torture your own eyeballs reading this comic for yourself, there’s a Tumblr blog that gathered HIBY perfectly neatly for all curious eyes eager to torture themselves with this OOC fest. If you want more details than I care to remember about this catastrophic mess of a story, there’s always the TV Tropes page, which I think illustrates everything rather well. 

So… that’s HIBY. While I don’t think it should be sentenced to oblivion (we had best never forget the lowest lows the fandom has reached, else someone might be tempted to outdo them), this particular fanwork is quite the trainwreck in just about every regard. I really don’t think there’s anything worth salvaging in it. So, if you wanna read the whole thing (I’d be surprised if you would xD), knock yourself out in the blog link I posted up there. Otherwise, have a nice day if you still can after reading my answer to your ask :’D

[maiji]

Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs (Part 8)

Previous process and wip documentation: Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Parts 6 and 7

Read the pages here: Part 8 (full complete version will be linked from YYH North Bound master post)

I personally love exploring character dynamics and character interaction! It's definitely what I tend to focus on in comics and stories. Plus you get to draw lots of closeups of people's faces and have a lot of fun with expressions. And that's what Part 8 is full of.

IN THIS EDITION, after the usual script and thumbnails, I'll take a bit of time to talk about expressions and characterization (my thoughts on Raizen and Hokushin specifically, but also some general thoughts on how I approach writing characters and character interactions). More details of some of the panels from part 8 so you can see the faces better!

Script and thumbnails

(If you look closely at the top of pg 2, you can see the page behind was where I started drawing my random dream sequence hahahah)

It’s always kind of funny to look back at the script and see my rushed typing (or texting on my phone, since I’m often doing this on mobile...) - odd typos and dangling/incomplete thoughts like ”my blodd” (lol).

Part 8 was one of the first sequences conceived in the development of this story. As a result, the script and the thumbnails both line up very closely to the final, because I’d already been thinking about it for so long and playing the scene out repeatedly in my head. I had a very concrete sense of how I wanted to direct it, unlike many of the action sequences from previous parts. The main areas I struggled with were historical details (the karaginu was originally labelled “tarp” in the script as a placeholder until I decided what it would be), and the biggest pagination change was probably moving Raizen’s “Maybe you just didn’t take enough off lol!” to the previous page so that Hokushin’s (literal) punchline would be at the beginning of the next.

Expressions

I have a huuuuge soft spot for subtle expressions - the kind where just a bit of extra line or texture around the eyes or the mouth, plus the dialogue or context of the scene, adds nuance to an expression. Especially ones that otherwise can read as relatively neutral. Even a very simple expression that’s just dots for eyes and straight lines for the upper/lower lids and eyebrows can have a lot of variation in how you interpret them, simply based on context and slight adjustments. Here are some examples with Raizen, where his face is super basic:

A: pretending nothing is wrong, calmly answering question

B: pleased with self for being smart - clearly a happer expression than A

C: similar to A, chillaxing and answering question

D: no big smiling mouth so he looks more like he’s focused on intensely sniffing the air

E: same as B basically, but a bigger smile of “everything’s fine!” (when you read the text)

F: extra thickness for his upper lid gives the sense that he’s in the middle of his casual sexy/chivalrous how ya doin’ expression

G: ... which changes in this panel to be more a realization (“oh shit I’m on fire”)

Actually, Raizen and Hokushin are both pretty difficult face types for me, being more “mature” looking male faces with stronger features/jawlines and narrower eyes. Hokushin especially has been challenging because his design has really low eyebrows which result in a default glare. Togashi still manages to make him fairly expressive and not look like he's glowering all the time. With my more limited art skill and lack of confidence, I tend to soften his expressions by really laying on the top line of his eye (this sounds like I'm putting mascara on him or something lmao), and also adjusting the size of his pupils (within reason or it starts to look even less like how I draw him normally, which is a big problem since his shaved head is a defining aspect of his series character design so he already looks pretty different). Here are some comparisons of his face - bearing in mind I had to keep his eyes wide open because of the seals in the story:   

A: crying/relief

B: this one here is supposed to be a bit miserable/self-loathing because he really didn’t think Raizen was going to look for him

C: shock, unexpected

D: thinking + “ugh plan B”

E: worried/apologetic and then “OOF/URK”

F and G: a progression to show the differences in rendering the eye. First is a bit angry because he’s realizing where all the blood for the seals came from, then he notices Raizen’s hands, and G is that example of softened expression (more lines on the top eye, larger pupil) to show how bad he feels about Raizen’s injury. 

One last thought on expressions. They can easily lose their nuance when inking (the slightest shift to a line can change the expression completely), and especially for someone like me who has unsteady hands it can be a bit of a nightmare. The nice thing about ballpoints is that they can retain a bit of the pencil sketch quality, which helped me freak out less when inking the last page with Hokushin’s glare. Here’s a comparison of the progress:

Though this particular expression isn’t that subtle, you can still see some differences as the drawing gets built up. When the pencil lines are gone and the drawing gets rendered in bw only, a lot of shading is lost. The messy lines can be interpreted more flexibly by your brain since they’re less defined and you haven’t “committed”, so the final version looks and feels less expressive. (This is why a lot of artists prefer their sketches to the finished piece, myself included...) Characterization This will get very specific to this comic, obviously, but hopefully my approach (and biases haha) will come through. With something like a fancomic, there are obviously existing expectations around the characters, but the benefit of working with these guys is that they’re not as prominent in the story or the fandom, so I feel more comfortable playing around and filling in the gaps. (This is probably why I like minor characters so much.)

In the case of Raizen and Hokushin, we know these two have a close relationship and history only through assumption and insinuation. We never see them interacting directly in the series at all. Actually, we don't see Raizen interact with anyone except Yusuke in non-flashback sequences (aside from the kudakusushi. In the anime, more scenes were added with his estranged friends, mostly their fond memories of him beating them up lmao). But it's very clear that they're extremely important to each other. Hokushin obviously speaks of his king in an exceedingly respectful fashion. Meanwhile, Hokushin is actually the last name Raizen says before he dies - his second last line, to Yusuke, is "Take care of Hokushin and the others" - or in my Taiwanese edition, "I leave Hokushin and the others to you". (Lol “the others”. Also I need to draw a comic about this at some point.) Despite this zero actual interaction, it's still extremely easy to imagine it because their characters are so clearly defined. In fact, they're both such consistent archetypes with enough particular quirks that they practically write themselves. So it wasn't difficult to extrapolate and imagine much younger versions of them, and how they may have interacted if they had only just met, which is the foundation of North Bound. Archetypes and stereotypes walk a fine line together, but they do serve as really useful building blocks for sketching characters quickly. This is why I really enjoy symbolic systems like astrology (or some of the the modern incarnations - personality assessment frameworks) because of all the character sketching it helps you do really quickly. Astrology in particular because, without even caring about birth dates or charts or whether astrology is "real" or not, the basic idea of a sign and its bucket of traits and symbols is simply a great resource when you want fleshed out character archetypes to build off of. I talked a bit about this in my Lenormand post, but I think of zodiac signs as one of the many games humans have developed in our attempts to categorize our world into recognizable patterns, and since we've been at it for thousands of years, there's a wealth of reference material, scenarios, analyses not only of the individual archetypes, but for all sorts of combinations and relationships. Some of it very well-thought out, and some of it just lots of fun to read. For my purposes, applying this to North Bound, Raizen is basically a Leo. He's dramatic, positive, powerful, passionate, a straight-shooter. Not only does he embody its main traits, he's literally a king (or eventually one in this story, I guess). And he even has a mane, for crying out loud. Meanwhile, Hokushin is a solid depiction of a quintessential Virgo - hardworking, practical, analytical, stoic, kind - and literally the loyal servant that typifies the Virgo paradigm. The Leo/Virgo duo is a classic partnership, and at the point where we meet them in the series, the relationship we can see has stabilized to exactly that. At the same time, there's tons of potential for a hilarious dynamic as well, especially imagining how they got to that point. (If you wanna have a laugh, look up some analyses of Leo and Virgo relationships and you'll see what I mean.) His freakouts next to Raizen's "hahhaa everything's fine!" carry most of the humour (similar to how his freakout at Yusuke's vandalism of the rurimaru stones carried a ton of the humour in that episode lol). Obviously there are other things that further finetune their characters so that they're more than bland cookie cutter personalities (Raizen's deep thinking about the future of the Demon World, for example, and Hokushin's sense of humour and appreciation/enjoyment of fighting), but in broad brushstrokes, these archetypes work incredibly well, and make it so easy to come up with scenarios and write interaction to the point that I'm now ridiculously behind in actually turning them into comics ahhhhh...

[xennariel]

11 Questions AKA Xen Screams About Royai, FMA, and Hellsing

I was tagged by @ladywiltshire Thanks. =)

RULES: Always post the rules. Answer the questions asked, then write 11 new ones. Tag 11 people to answer your questions, as well as the person who tagged you.

1. Do you remember your first time watching or reading Fullmetal Alchemist? What was your first impression? - I think I first got into the FMA manga around late 2002. I loved Ed and thought he was great and that, plus the whole human transmutation thing got me hooked. I loved the 03 anime in its early episodes and I was such a big fan that I went out and bought the sweatshirt that looks like Ed’s jacket and the shoes that look like his. I wore them as often as I could in my junior year of high school. About midway through the anime I started disliking it, though, and I went back to reading just the manga and ignored the anime. But then the manga started taking too long to update for me and about halfway through that, I discovered Hellsing and that held my obsession for the next eight or nine years, making me completely forget about FMA until I heard the manga ended. I remember looking up the last chapter of the manga and thinking it was an awesome way to end it, even though I hadn’t read any of the manga since the halfway point. lol It wasn’t until I saw some royai art on my dash in early 2016 that I decided to watch Brotherhood, and boy am I glad I did because my initial impression of that was “AHHHHHH I LOVE THIS WHERE HAVE I BEEN FOR THE PAST SEVEN YEARS???” And whoops, this ended up being about how I went through my FMA phases instead of taking about my initial experience... Sorry about that.

2. Tell us about The Fave™. - I am guessing all of your questions refer to FMA? So Roy Mustang. I could scream about him all day and never get bored. He’s great. The best. So is Riza. They have so many layers and are so interesting and dynamic. I love them so much it hurts. And out of any media I’m a fan of, I think they’re my absolute favorites. Integra Hellsing is a definite runner up, though. Of course, my fav favs are my OCs Xennariel and Loki, but since they’re not part of an existing thing yet, I can’t exactly rave about how great they are because that would just make me sound dumb.

3. Do you have a favorite fan work? Fanfics? Comics? - For FMA, I have a few fics I love and I’ve mentioned them before so I’m not going to link them again because I’m feeling very tired and lazy today. And honestly, any art depicting both Roy and Riza’s scars are my weakness. As for other fandoms, I loved the writer Thess. Her Hellsing works were amazing. I also liked and kept up with a Hellsing fancomic called And Shine Heaven Now by Sailor Ptah. That was cute. But that was like, a long time ago. Thess hasn’t written anything since like 2009 and that webcomic ended in like 2007 or so. So yeah, it’s been a long time since I’ve been an active part of the Hellsing fandom, and I kind of miss it. I miss seeing what new stuff people are producing for that series, but a lot of the fandom on Tumblr seems a little...iffy. I see so much art reposted with no credit and I cannot support people like that so I don’t really follow many Hellsing blogs. It’s kind of sad.

4. Hit me with an analysis/opinion you have on the series or characters! - Again, I’m guessing you’re talking FMA, so uh... Jeez, I wish I wasn’t so tired, it would make this question a whole lot easier. Um, I think I’ve already written all the analysis I can think of though, which isn’t much. I’ve talked about Roy’s fight with Lust before, I’ve talking about how he looks at Riza during his fight with Envy in the manga, I’ve talked about how Roy is not actually drunk when he calls Riza to give her flowers, contrary to what many people seem to think. It’s hard for me to come up with this sort of stuff when I’m not prompted. lol I need to see something in direct contradiction of what I think or just general discussion about a subject before I have a lot of opinions. xD

I guess I could talk about the couple of reasons why Roy and Riza having a relationship in the manga could possibly be a thing? I am 80% sure that despite how clearly they loved each other, Roy and Riza did not have anything going on between them in the series. However, there are some points I want to make that lean toward them actually being together in a romantic sense throughout the manga.

My main point is how comfortable they are around each other. A lot of people say there’s a lot of unresolved sexual or romantic tension between then throughout the series, but I honestly don’t see that. I see two people who clearly care about one another a great deal, who, with one look, make it obvious that they’re in love. But I don’t see them really pining for one another or anything like that. They act like an old married couple. They don’t seem to act like they want to kiss or jump each other desperately. Which, to me says that perhaps it’s because they already do. (This could be because I’m Ace, though, and I do not go looking for sexual implications in my OTPs, so maybe it just goes over my head all the time.)

Case in point, I knew my husband for ten years before we got married. In the first four years or so, we definitely were a couple of teenagers in love. We pined for one another when we couldn’t see each other. When in public, we stared at each other silently wishing we could go somewhere to be alone, we made out as often as possible. After about four or five years, the feeling of “I need to touch this person because I have a lot of pent up sexual and romantic tension for them” pretty much died down and we became very comfortable with each other. If we didn’t hug or kiss for a while, it was no big deal because we had each other and we knew we could arrange to be together to do those things whenever.

My point is, Roy and Riza act like that around each other, which tells me that perhaps the reason they aren’t desperate to touch one another all the time is because they already do. They’re used to intimacy so why would they itch to touch each other 24/7? If they were as in love as they appeared to be, but couldn’t be with each other, I think they’d show more signs of yearning for one another. This, of course, could be because we just don’t see it since they were not the focus of the series and their relationship had no huge importance to the story (and Arakawa has said that she does not include anything that doesn’t need to be in the story), but I feel like, even with the amount of time they had been together, if they had never touched each other or kissed or hugged or whatever, they’d have a hard time masking the want they would have for each other. Their comfort in each other’s presence could be more than just them having spent a long time together.

My other point is the Barry the Chopper scene where Roy gets super jealous of Barry touching Riza and prepares to burn him to a crisp. Riza stops him and seems absolutely unfazed by his jealousy, which could indicate that he’s acted like that multiple times in the past and she’s used to telling him to calm the hell down.

The last point isn’t exactly evidence, but Roy and Riza did change clothes in a car together and didn’t come out of that flustered or blushing or anything like they might have if they were unused to seeing each other in various states of undress. I mean, yeah, Roy learned his alchemy from her bare back, but it’s not like he saw anything else. I feel like he’d still get flustered if he saw her without a shirt on, even if it was just her back, because if they weren’t together, if they weren’t touching each other on a somewhat regular basis, he’s just a guy in love and he’d want to touch her and blush about it or get embarrassed easily about seeing her. Think about Ed in that scene where he was in the room when Winry was changing. He was flushed and embarrassed because he was a kid in love who had never touched the person he loved intimately before. So this one kind of goes back to my ‘comfortable with each other’ theory.

Also, that scene where Madame Christmas asks why Roy doesn’t just go play with Elizabeth. What kind of ‘play’ is she insinuating? And why does she know this? And why do the other girls think they have a ‘chance’ now that Elizabeth has been taken by another man. What has Roy been telling them about her?

Anyway, that’s all. Like I said, I am super tired and this analysis probably came out sounding weird or not convincing. Maybe I’ll write it up better sometime later.

5. Tell us about a project you have going on! Or if you don’t have one, maybe something you’ve always wanted to write or draw? - I am still working on my super long royai fanfic that I started in, like, June 2016. It chronicles the series from Roy and Riza’s viewpoint, starting from when they first meet, going through manga canon FMA, and finally ending with what happens post series. (Though I really dislike where it’s gone and I’ve been considering scrappy the last ten chapters and rewriting them...)

After that fic is finished, I plan to write another one that goes through the canon FMA manga storyline, only with Riza being an alchemist secretly the entire time and where she is also a candidate for sacrifice. (Though I may end up writing this one soon anyway just because I’m not liking Through Eyes of Flame anymore. I’ve lost a lot of reader so it’s just not worth it.)

And I also want to write a fic that takes place after canon FMA where evil demons from the world in my original novel end up finding a way into Amestris and plan to kill off all the humans so they can take over because they already tried that in their own world and failed. A couple of my OCs follow these demons and team up with Roy, Riza, the rest of team Mustang, and others from the military to stop the demons from killing everyone. I’m a little iffy about this one though because it would have OCs and I never know how well received OCs are in fics...

6. Favorite opening/ending number and why? - For FMA? I love Chemistry and Rain. The songs are catchy and the animations for those have some of my favorite things from all of the openings and endings.

7. Tell me about a scene that really touched your or made you realize something about yourself. - In FMA, I honestly don’t know. I lot of scenes touched me or made me feel something like Hughes’ burial and Nina’s whole experience and subsequent death. Riza getting her throat slit and Roy freaking out. Roy losing himself in the fight against Envy, but having enough sense of self when he looked at Riza to still be soft to her like usual. Lan Fan cutting off her damn arm just to save Ling. I don’t know if I learned anything about myself from any of that though, other than I realized how much I love royai and lingfan and what badasses they all are imo.

8. OTPs! Who are they? Why are you WEAK FOR THEM?? - RoyxRiza, of course. Royai is the OTP of OTPs. They don’t even need to touch on screen or even say anything for you to see that they care about each other deeply. Plus, I’m all about that ‘forbidden relationship’ trope. But even without that, they’ve been together a long time and get along so well. Their dynamic is wonderful and interesting and just pulls me in. They’re not just in love, they’re best friends and that’s the best relationship to have. They protect each other’s backs, Roy knows when Riza is upset without even needing to see her, they just know each other so well and work so well together.

Same with AlucardxIntegra from Hellsing. I like them for much the same reasons and they used to be my OTP of OTPs until I got back into FMA. They’re another battle couple, and they never touch in the series, but it’s heavily implied and obvious they have a thing for each other. And that fucking scene where he bows to her on the battlefield surrounded by dead and impaled bodies? I died, okay. I screamed and raved when that manga chapter came out and I still scream about it whenever I see it. They didn’t even touch, but it was the hottest thing. And then when Alucard comes back to her after 30 years, he says himself that he could have gone anywhere, but he chose to be there. And then she fucking bites her right ring finger (the finger used for wedding bands in Romania) and makes a ring out of blood on it and lets him drink from it? End me. It’s canon.

9. Funniest headcanon you’ve ever seen. Go! - Uhm... I don’t know, actually. I’ve never really seen many funny headcanons go around.

10. What spurred you to join the fandom?

- I got back into Royai and it was around when Royai week 2016 was happening and I had been looking to get back into writing around then too so I thought it would be a good thing to participate in to practice writing. A couple of people liked my stuff and started following me for that and then I found a bunch of authors from FFNet that I liked had Tumblrs, so I followed them and kept up with the writing and before I knew it, I was deep in the FMA/Royai fandom. lol

As for Hellsing, it just kind of happened. And much like with FMA, as soon as I started writing for it, I started getting people that would talk to me about stuff, so that was fun. I’m not an active participant in that fandom anymore, but I never really left it. My love for the series hasn’t diminished, I’m just more focused on FMA these days. Roy and Riza are easier to write for then Alucard and Integra.

11. Definitely the same question… have a fandom meltdown here and tell me why you love your fandom or show/comic so much! - We’ll start with the FMA manga because holy shit it’s amazing and has such good characters and good ships and AHHHHH! It’s such an inspiring piece of work. The thought that went into it, the research, the fucking detail. It’s incredible.Hellsing is one of the best mangas too, if you like gore and horror. Awesome characters, great ships, fantastic plot about killing vampire nazis. What’s not to love, honestly? Alucard is such a complex main character. And Integra is just boss. She is Queen. I highly recommend the manga and OVA. Stay away from the first anime aka the Gonzo anime. It was terrible, much like FMA 03 was terrible, but honestly, I’d rather watch FMA 03 than the first Hellsing anime. That’s how bad it was. lolAnd The Slayers is legit the funniest anime I have ever seen while simultaneously being one of the coolest. The magic system in that is flawless and amazing and the humor is top notch. Go watch the series if you haven’t already. Lina is the best.Also, the book that spoke to me the most was Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion. Go read it and the nits prequel and then the sequel. It’s well worth it. I read it at a time in my life when I was very low emotionally and I saw myself in R and what he says and does is so relatable.