#yeah the original panel is more of a closeup

[mewkwota]

November 2013 → November 2023

Boo-haha, sorry for the Twink Simon Jumpscare. I can't believe it's been 10 whole years since I started drawing this vampire hunter. And all because of a little bond he had with two other platformer boys.

Though I only got into seriously looking into Simon and his series 4-5 years ago, he had always been a character of interest to me. Just, not as much back then as he is now, but I'm glad I gave him that chance.

I've always wanted to redraw this scene from a super old comic I made, it's pretty much the first uploaded comic I ever drew of him.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 408: Orphaned Cryptid to Billionaire Supervillain

Previously on BnHA: HE WAS BORN AN ARROGANT BABY.

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi decides he’s going to cover the rest of the AFO/OFA saga in the span of just seven pages, the majority of which are mostly just filled with lovingly detailed closeups of AFO and Kudou’s eyes. Back in the present day, Kid For One takes a couple of seconds to trample the last of the “Kacchan is OFA II or is related to OFA II” theories into the dust, and is then all “fuck it, I’ll just take him out with one last spectacularly grotesque supermove.” Kacchan is all “lol you fucking dipshit”, and he says it with such confidence that it truly makes me believe he can defeat AFO’s “ALL THE QUIRKS EVER!!” attack with his piddly little exploding bloodsweat quirk. AND IT WILL BE A SIGHT TO SEE.

interesting!

Yoichi’s name btw is written with the kanji 与 which means “bestow” or “give”, and 一 which means “one.” so basically “one who gives”, which is fitting as the creator of OFA, but also fits in with this new context of being the first “possession” bestowed upon AFO

oh yes and also AFO I guess has just torn his brother to shreds or something too. idk. I’m going to be honest with you guys, this panel has such a surreal vibe that I just sat here blinking stupidly at it and wasn’t even shocked or anything. like what. is he dreaming this?? or did he really just make a “STOP! IN THE NAAAAME OF LOVE” gesture and in doing so remove half of his brother’s jaw

ewww

idk what’s wrong with me today guys. AFO just disintegrated Yoichi, and Kudou and and OFA Tres (who apparently still doesn’t have a name???? freaking Kudou got named before you??) are literally RIGHT THERE and presumably horrified, and all I can think about is how fucking gross it is that they’re all hanging out in a fucking sewer

oh shit y’all it’s about to go down

he can’t kill Kudou right off the bat can he? does Kudou even know he has OFA yet? are we going to see him transfer it to OFA III? I’m so fucking excited omg

LOL WHAT

“weirdly matte” omg. so apparently he’s like All Might, where the “he’s just drawn differently” thing is something people actually acknowledge in-story. “yeah he actually has no pupils. that’s a real thing. technically that should mean he can’t see since pupils are what let light into your eyes, but don’t worry about that part. just know that his eyes canonically look weird to the story people as well, and everyone is creeped out by it, not just you”

yeah he’s actually blind

so he literally can’t see outside himself. way to lay those metaphors on thick, Horikoshi

(ETA: this is my “just in case my impeccably dry wit doesn’t translate well across the internet” ETA to assure everyone I know he’s not actually blind lol.)

now we’re cutting to some random city where AFO is broodingly staring at Yoichi’s severed hand because he’s perfected the art of always doing incredibly unsettling things

I cannot believe the fucking hands thing has an actual origin story. of course it does. this man has never done a single hinged thing in his life. it’s all unhinged or bust. am I talking about AFO or Horikoshi? YOU DECIDE

he’s sitting at a table with a bottle of wine holding his dead brother’s embalmed severed limb and thinking about fucking quirk shit

so your transformation from Orphaned Cryptid to Billionaire Supervillain happened almost completely offscreen huh. I’m kinda disappointed, ngl. I could have read a few more chapters about that. maybe a spinoff miniseries

WAIT WHAT

are you serious. we finally get a panel that’s INCREDIBLY RELEVANT to pretty much ALL OF MY BNHA THEORIES, only for that same panel to contradict itself ONE SPEECH BUBBLE LATER?? so what is the truth???

omg omg omg

so many fucking questions, omg. what the hell does “through research” even mean. how did he confirm Yoichi’s quirklessness, and why did he later change his mind? how the fuck can Yoichi have a quirk factor and yet not have an actual quirk. “it was just so weak it didn’t count or something I guess” okay??? how much of this is unreliable narrator vs. the word of god? how is it we’re getting so many answers and yet all I have is more fucking questions you guys

BRUE?CE?CEE??!

bruce

Kudou is so goddamned hot. I hope you washed the hell out of that arm wound after getting it all covered in sewage you stupid sexy man

I can’t get over Three’s name. “idk if anyone noticed, but it’s kind of a subtle homage to another very famous superhero” Horikoshi your nap wasn’t long enough, please go home

also love how Bruce is talking shit about OFA being a puny loser quirk for wimps. how the fuck do they even know what’s going on, anyway? was there a tutorial???

oh you just had a feeling huh??? that it was “something like this”, huh??? how is it that I, who knows all about OFA because I’m from the future and have read 408 chapters of this nonsense, am somehow still less in the know than this handsome clown who doesn’t know shit but just “had a feeling”

(ETA: while editing this post I noted that Bruce is sitting in front of a computer in what seems to be some sort of medical lab, so maybe they ran some tests or something? except that only makes me more confused, because it implies they didn’t actually figure out OFA’s workings via convenient plot instincts. so then how the fuck did they figure out the transfer process?? questions)

meanwhile AFO is sitting in the panel next to him whining about how someone stole Yoichi’s quirk. excuse you. he did not steal it. it was in fact a gift

these flashbacks are all jumbled up and it’s unexpectedly fun to read, but also really chaotic

I guess he’s talking to Kudou on the right and AFO on the left

so many intense closeups of eyes in this chapter oh my goodness

Horikoshi even drew the individual goddamn eyelashes. this looks like the margins of someone’s notebook from when they were really bored in middle school

oh my god the information overload!!!

so much for AFO actually feeling emotions lol. or is he just lying to himself about why he cried. that delicious ambiguity

so we don’t even get a flashback explaining how the transfer actually happened?? to either Kudou OR my beloved Bruce?? goddamn you Horikoshi. omg I would seriously kill for more of this. make a movie about it. I want the OFA origin story prequel movie damn it

I like how AFO just sits there on a throne holding court with a single tiki torch beside him for aesthetic reasons

I can’t quite figure out how he killed Banjou and I’m not sure I really want to know. it looks very violent

friendly reminder that Shinomori is Sir Not Appearing In This Flashback because he’s the only OFA user who died of natural causes! good for you Shinomori. En probably wishes he was more like you

poor En

was Nana just taking a stroll or something one day and stumbled across this epic fight with the evilest man on the planet vs some kid in a trenchcoat, and then the poor kid got bisected and he looked at her and he was all “please eat my hair” and she was just like “ok”?

OH WOW

what a transition omg

LOLLLLLLLL

you know, part of me always wondered how All Might was so certain he’d killed AFO that he apparently never bothered to confirm it. but looking at this panel now, I can understand

fjjfdzjgf

he’s sweating so much. like “okay yeah he punched the top of his face off, this is pretty bad but I’LL DO MY BEST”

BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY AWW SHUCKS

so let’s recap. over on Kacchan’s side we have “GOTTA USE THE PAIN TO WIN!!!” haha ouch. and then over here on KFO’s side we have. whatever the fuck we just experienced over these past two chapters. so basically it’s a battle between the two most deranged characters in the entire series. glorious sweet chaos

DSFJKSLDKGJL he’s now trying to figure out how the fuck they look so much alike and whether they’re actually related

“no, that can’t be it. so then maybe... this kid grows up and then somehow travels back in time...?!” HE’S JUST LIKE US FR

so now he’s saying it’s because Kacchan didn’t have character development yet the last time, but now that he does his eyes are all Full Of Determination just like Kudou’s and so we’ve basically come full circle!

transcended WHAT? :O :D :D omg I’m kidding you guys please don’t hurt me

lol

actually the more we learn about Kudou the less I personally see the resemblance now lol. because Kudou seems so calm and collected, but Kacchan is just... [gestures to literally everything about Kacchan]

so AFO’s trying to strategize, but he can’t warp Kacchan away because the only available targets are too close and he’s still got that SUPERSPEED, BOYO so it wouldn’t make a difference. lol but if you kept doing it repeatedly it might be kind of funny though

and he can’t keep fighting him either because he’s getting his ass whooped and it’s speeding up his de-aging or whatever. well you could just give up then I guess. your call, AFO

oh was that your plan?

spoiler alert for me lol. but it’s not exactly shocking or anything since he’s dying, guess he wants to abandon ship

(ETA: just FYI for anyone reading this who’s not familiar with my dumbassery, I have currently only read chapters 1 through 374 at this point in time, before skipping ahead to 403 because Kacchan came back and I lost all willpower. I am working on catching up with the rest!)

oh so now you did come up with a strategy?

lmao what the FUCK

how much of this is going to be clearer to me once I finish the chapters that I missed, and how much of it is just plain old “nope this is all brand new zero-context BnHA bullshit” lol. this looks like every single quirk AFO ever absorbed combined into one gigantic horrifying blob that forced Horikoshi to take an extra week just to draw it

oh my god!?

Kacchan hovering there bravely facing all this is giving me Gandalf “you shall not pass” vibes and I’m LIVING FOR IT

so either AFO is going to kill Kacchan for the second time right here and now, or he’s going to fail and turn back into a squishy evil baby fdslfjkls

love how All Might is all “DODGE IT YOUNG BAKUGOU!” thanks for the warning, champ. doing his part

more exploding bloodsweat closeups. are these just going to be a mainstay of Kacchan fights from now on

“are you stupid?”, when faced with [gestures to the entirety of the previous page], is possibly the best line ever uttered by anyone in the series. even better than the polite “coming through” uttered only seconds before it

ah man. you love to see it. he literally doesn’t even care. HE ALREADY DIED ONCE TODAY, AND IT CLUED HIM IN TO THE FACT THAT HE’S A MAIN CHARACTER AND ACTUALLY IMMUNE TO DEATH. sorry AFO it’s curtains for you. CURTAINS

[femmeleatherface]

i know the accepted origin for monsieur mallah and the brain's epic gay romance is doom patrol V2 #34, and that's certainly the first time it was really explicit for sure, but has anyone else read the V2 swamp thing annual #3?

it was published in 1987, 3 years before #34, as a tribute to all the DC comics gorillas, so mallah gets a lot of attention in it and he is EXTREMELY gay coded. it ends up making his feelings toward the brain get presented in a very un-heterosexual way. and it's all tied in with the themes and structure of the annual's story so closely that it feels very, very deliberate.

[ ID: the cover to the swamp thing volume 2 annual #3. a golden gorilla sits menacingly in the center, looking directly at the reader. a torn white shirt is clutched in its fists and dangling from its fanged mouth. in the leaves and grass in front of it are the remains of the rest of a stereotypical safari outfit, including a rifle that lies propped on the gorilla's right arm. swamp thing's face is in the background, the red eyes glaring at the reader above the gorilla's head. end ID. ]

basically, the plot of the annual is that gorilla grodd has figured out a way to weaken the shackles of his mind prison in gorilla city, and he's using his telepathic powers to summon all the dc comics gorillas to free the rest of him and take down solovar through lightning magic. swamp thing... is also there. he doesn't do much. the annual is more preoccupied with the gorillas than its titular character, who's primarily busy having relationship drama with abby.

this drama is what the annual opens with. in the previous issue swamp thing apparently made a "merely human" comment toward constantine, which hurt abby's feelings since she is also human. this sets up the main ongoing theme of the story, about humans in relationships with non-humans.

this is very closely tied with the portrayal of gorillas in certain medias, particularly from the early the 20th century. the annual explores this very extensively, leaning heavily into the sexual implications...

[ ID: a series of three comic book panels featuring b'wana beast in his alter ego, mike maxwell, with his companion/girlfriend, djuba. maxwell is a blonde white man and djuba is a red-furred female gorilla.

panel 1: smiling, maxwell pushes an extremely phallic sticklike thing into djuba's mouth while she takes off his hat. their arms are around each other and their faces are very close. maxwell says, "don't have to play macho man with you... nooo. gimme a drink. gimme a drink..."

panel 2: maxwell and djuba's faces are touching now, their heads turned so they are cheek-to-cheek. djuba feeds maxwell a red bottle she has around her neck, and he sips from it. maxwell says, "just a tiny bit now... i have to drive our friend back... that's it..."

panel 3: a closeup of maxwell and djuba's mouths, basically touching. djuba's lips are parted and maxwell says, "ohhh yeah... that's it. i can feel it... i can feel it..."

end ID.]

[ID: a single panel of congorilla in his gorilla form. he has golden fur and is looking behind him to some bushes, where the heads of two black-furred gorillas are popping out. congorilla thinks, "i'm picking up the overpowering scent of females in the grove below and my blood's starting to boil. it feels good. too good." end ID.]

[ID: two comic book panels in gorilla city.

panel 1: sam simeon, a more anthropomorphized gorilla with human-style white skin, black hair, and visible chest hair, speaks to solovar, a non-anthropomorphized gorilla with blue fur.

sam says: "lemme tell ya... here i could do my best work! y'know, get into a little self-publishing, maybe put on a comic convention or two every year... i bet we could get thousands of atilla gorilla fans!"

solovar says: "umm, yes, of course. i see that your human friend is enjoying her stay here, too..."

panel 2: angel o'day, a thin white human woman in a strapless black bikini with her white hair pulled up, smiles at a crowd of four gorillas clustered around her. they all smile back at her, enamoured. one gorilla holds her hand and another writes something in a small notebook. solovar and sam watch on in the background. sam looks confused, maybe even hurt. he says, "angel...?"

end ID.]

this is primarily where the humor of the comic is supposed to come from. it's honestly a bit uncomfortable because most gorilla media--particularly ones with this sexual element--draws upon a lot of extremely racist and eugenist ideas when utilizing these tropes.

the annual mostly ignores this; except for a white savior-y joke with b'wana beast's introduction early on, race never really comes up and it's primarily just wacky horny shenanigans with white people and gorillas with zero interrogation or even acknowledgement of where those tropes come from and why they exist. since the comic isn't all that interested in acknowledging the questionable racial elements at play, i'll just leave the discussion at that so we can get moving along to the fun part of how mallah and the brain fit into all this, but i did want to point it out because uh. yikes.

anyway. moving on!

mallah and the brain are the first non-grodd gorilla-related team introduced, right after the relationship drama is set up with swamp thing and abby. while they are on their way to commit international terrorism and kidnappng, a lackey harasses mallah by asking him if he wants to have sex with lois lane. mallah spends the entire conversation looking completely dead inside.

[ID: a single comic book panel. roland, a white human man with orange hair holds a newspaper. he leers at monsieur mallah, an auburn-furred gorilla. mallah stares back at him blankly while smoking a cigarette. roland says, "whaddya say, mallah? how'd you like to get between the sheets with superman's girlfriend? y'think you're more her type? you got animal magnetism, don'tcha?" a speech bubble from the brain off-screen shoots back: "enough, roland!" end ID.]

so our entire introduction to mallah as a character is dependent upon him experiencing a microaggression deeply rooted in heteronormativity, and he is very clearly having none of it. interesting!

at this point, grodd's mind control beam reaches mallah. he kills all the lackeys who were picking on him, which the brain is really only mildly annoyed by, something that, sidebar, is absolutely hilarious. he could be more supportive of the whole microaggression thing, but ultimately he's just like: "why did you do it NOW? you should have waited until later!"

[ID: a single comic panel. cigarette still in his mouth, monsieur mallah kneels on the ground, holding the lifeless arm of a dead white man. the leg of another dead white man lies on the ground in front of him, and there are puddles of blood everywhere. standing in the corner and covered in blood, the brain says: "sacre bleu! mallah, what has come over you? why have you slaughtered them? couldn't you have waited until they had outlived their usefulness?" end ID.]

at this point, though, mallah turns on the brain and breaks his life support chamber. the brain is fine, but feels betrayed, and in his first line mallah explains his behavior simply by saying "c'est la vie!"

[ID: two comic book panels.

panel 1: the brain and monsieur mallah inside a tank. monsieur mallah sits at the controls with his cigarette, still a bit blank-faced but looking more relaxed. the brain stands in the corner, his dome broken and a burst of elecrosparks. he says, "y-you betray me, monsieur... crackle pop... i... i who created you... fitzz fitzzz. why, monsieur... cracklcrackpop... tell me, why??"

panel 2: an exterior shot of the tank zooming off through the desert, treads and billowing dust behind it. a speach bubble coming from the tank reads: "c'est la vie!

end ID.]

this ends up being a running gag in the annual, where the brain tries reaching out to mallah but the mind control is so strong that mallah just continues torturing him. it's poetic justice, since the brain's entire plan before the mind control happened was to kidnap a child and torture them, but it's also buildup to something at the end. we'll get to that.

first though, they pick up sam simeon and angel o'day from the angel and the ape comics. throughout the annual angel has been used as the designated "white woman all the male gorillas go bananas for," but i want to note that we never see mallah as one of those gorillas. we never see him interact with angel at all, in fact, except arguably once, where even under gorilla grodd mind control he is more polite than angel's friend sam:

[ID: a single comic panel of monsieur mallah, the brain, sam simeon, and angel o'day inside the tank. monsieur mallah is at the open tank hatch, lowering himself inside. next to him, the brain pops out of his life support chamber as a mess of wires and cerebral matter. sam simeon is at the tank controls, angrily clutching the wheel in one hand. angel grabs sam's shoulder, looking worried.

mallah says: "look! it is ze sign we have been waiting for! attack, mes amis!"

angel says: "sam?"

sam says: "shaddup!"

the brain says: "fzzt."

end ID.]

it's like the cracks the lackey made about mallah and lois lane earlier and how apathetic he was to the conversation. this mallah is shown to just be SO disinterested in human women compared to most of his male gorilla counterparts. he also doesn't show any interest in b'wana beast's gorilla companion/girlfriend, djuba, when she shows up, which one might expect considering the raging gorilla horniness and grodd's own brief flirty remark to her. but why? why is mallah so disinterested in all these women?

obviously it's because he's gay as fuck, but is that what the comic is actually trying to imply? i'd say yes! that is where the ending comes into play, and why i feel the gay coding in this comic is intentional.

after grodd is defeated by frying his own brain, we get one last scene between mallah and the brain. it's only a page, so i'm just going to paste it here, because all of it is... amazing...

[ID: a full comic page layout.

panel 1: a closeup of the brain lying in the grass. he is little more than a mess of cables and metal being stepped on by monsieur mallah's bare foot. a sound effect reads, "plltch!" the brain cries: "aakk!"

panel 2: monsieur mallah and the brain in the jungle at night. mallah picks the brain up from under his foot.

mallah says: "monsieur brain! what luck zat i have found you! come, we must move quickly! ze coup has failed and ze soldiers of solovar are after us. apparently he did not take kindly to my little uzi love taps."

the brain says: "m-mallah? ooooh-nooo..."

panel 3: monsieur mallah cradles the brain to his chest and runs through the foliage.

the brain says: "n-non! please, monsieur... leave me be... or better yet, kill me now! i can't take zis torture any longer!"

mallah says: "kill you? monsieur, you offend me! mallah owes you his own life, many times over! one of our old hideouts is nearby. i'll have you safe and snug in one of your spare life support modules very soon, wait and see!"

panel 4: monsieur mallah huddles under a large leafy plant, hidden by that and the grasses with the brain close to his chest. mallah looks out cautiously, watching as three shadowy gorillas walk by with flashlights and metal helmets. the outlines of mallah and the brain's dialogue boxes are dashed to indicate they're whispering.

the brain says: "y-you will? but i thought... i thought you wanted to destroy me?"

mallah says: "nuzzing could be furzer from the truth, monsieur. i am here to help you and care for you, to protect you and serve you in any way i can!"

panel 5: mallah races through the foliage, holding the brain tight. the gorilla soldiers are walking away behind them.

the brain says: "b-but... why?"

mallah says: "c'est l'amour!"

panel 6: abby arcane, a young white woman with white hair that has black streaks in it, lies on the ground. she is in a fetal position, her eyes shut. behind her, a lake stretches out in the great yellow moonlight, the great trees of the swamp further beyond that.

end ID.]

JUST. SO MUCH EVERYTHING GOING ON HERE.

the mind control is gone at this point, so this is the only point in the comic where we get to see monsieur mallah fully as himself and how this version of him would normally interact with the brain. and it's so... passionate and sweet? he just basically says that he's going to be always there for the brain because... because of love? whAt???? did he just straight up tell the brain that he loves him??????? oh my god.

and just... the way the comic has spent so much time sexualizing the relationships between humans and gorillas, and how the ending scene with abby and swamp thing after this is also so freaking horny, and here we get a human/non-human relationship where one of the parties doesn't have a body and they cannot be physical, and for them in this comic at least... it doesn't matter. because love. the way this explores and subverts the horny gorilla tropes in such a unique way. oh my god.

and it's treated as a joke, for sure. the entire punchline for the running gag of mallah treating the brain like shit for the entire story is "he loved him all along!" which. uh. questionable in so many ways. but the entire origin of the brain and monsieur mallah as a gay couple came from a joke in a one-off doom patrol comic, so really this is all in the exact same "mallah and the brain as a big gay joke" vein. it honestly makes me wonder if grant morrison read this annual and that's where it gave them the idea for #34. but idk.

ALSO. that closing panel with abby waiting for swamp thing? yes, that's setting up a transition to a new scene, but it's also a reminder of abby's previous scene. swamp thing temporarily got hit with the grodd mind control beam and actually went to go impact the plot of his own annual, and she had her own big speech about her feelings:

[ID: a full comic page layout.

panel 1: abby stops at the edge of a lake, looking down at it. she is in a swamp with tall trees and a ramshackle cabin behind her. she says: "i don't understand, alec... i just don't get it at all. something's wrong with you... something's terribly wrong."

panel 2: a closeup of abby's hand touching the surface of the lake. she says: "one minute you're perfectly fine, the next you're unraveling. it's almost as if your personality were coming apart piece by piece... you don't have alzheimer's disease, do you? no, i don't think a plant can get that..."

panel 3: abby sits sadly huddled on the ground. her knees are pressed to her chest and she's stacked her fists on them to support her chin. she says: "it was probably what i said, wasn't it? i shouldn't have acted like that towards you, i know... sometimes i'm such a spoiled brat."

panel 4: a closeup of abby looking sadly at the water. she says: "i just wanted you to know that my feelings were hurt, and that we should work on what we have, alec... but i'm a stranger to you now, and that hurts worse than all the stupid remarks either of us could ever make."

panel 5: a distant shot of abby sitting and holding her knees while she continues to look at the water. she says: "i don't pretend to understand it... but i--i know where i belong... right here, waiting for you to come back. even if it takes forever. you are coming back, aren't you, alec? i mean... what would i ever do without you?"

panel 6: swamp thing under the water. moodily, he sits squatting with his arms crossed over his knees. a tire is half-buried in the sand next to him.

end ID.]

THE PARALLELS. the being hurt and hurting someone you care about but being determined to stay by their side because you love them. what. the fuck. what the fuck. this has got to be intentional and more mallah/brain fans need to be aware of this comic and add it to their lexicon because what! GAY!!!!

[hoardlikegoldenirises]

blurple time.

finally finished this~ months after he appeared 😅

you can tell there's a bit of a punk/industrial vibe infusing the whole design. i also drew from various details in the comics, and other random things like bulletproof leather jackets.

closeups, ramblings, (and a version with a cape) under the cut:

i was originally not planning to add a cape cause i wasn't sure if i could make it work and tbh. still not sure. i like the way the purple cape looks from behind but the inside is like. idk. if it's purple then it looks weird, but the black feels off to me too... I don't think any of the other colors would work.

oh also i decided this glows in the dark (predictable as always)

Helmet's been through some sketches and stuff, spent a while figuring out the mechanisms and so on and settled on this design in the end.

Obviously you can see here the top is leather, it's based on a combo of a motorcycle cowl (with an angled zip you can just see there, and then the shoulders from an armored motorcycle jacket i was looking at. then the blue is meant to be a (heavily) modified like, boilersuit or whatever those are. mechanic's jumpsuit.

Plus all the spikes. Obviously there's no spider-punk in this setting but I like the aesthetics, and I like giving Hobie like a little thing of his own in terms of hobbies/interests so I thought adding that punk aspect would be fun, esp as it ties into his whole thing with being unsure of himself and being a little different and so on.

the lenses are one piece each, just with different colors of film on them, like you see on a variety of custom motorcycle visors. used chrome silver for the white "eyes," which i think would look cool and matches the metal hardware. very reflective. hobie prob won't be the only design with chrome/mirrored lenses for reflective purposes (thinking about the hobgoblin) (well. technically peter will also have aluminized lenses at one point but that's a spare mask for fires, not a main look)

earlier concept which i drew on my phone actually lol. some of this i obv jus copy-pasted cause it was fine as is, other stuff got tweaked, like i ended up changing the lens shape to look a little more like the comics and i did end up scrapping that shape for the faceplate/chin.

and you can see there i edited a pic from the comics playing with what colors i wanted to use. i liked the steel blue that showed up in some of the older painted art from the Prowler's earliest appearances, and I felt like I wanted to give him a color other than purple and green, though I didn't wanna ditch the purple either, so I ended up with this kind of neon blurple + navy combo that I liked a lot. And the silver too.

back of the jacket and helmet. Didn't originally plan on adding all those spikes but then I was sketching this out and I was like, oh... that would look cool... so i committed!! i like how it looks.

Originally I also had no logo/symbol on the front of the chest so I decided to put one on the back. Then I ended up adding that flat panel to the chest and added the symbol there too, and decided to keep the back one as well. i can def see a 19 year old being like, hell yeah... sick... people will definitely take me seriously now. and you know what. he's right.

i will admit i ended up a little dissatisfied with the story i told involving the Prowler in the linked fic, but... I also probably shouldn't have tried to wedge it between like five warring subplots. But it was like, the spot that made the most sense. If this was a cartoon I think it would be a like... 1-2 issue special focused more on him. And also peter would jump out the window. (The real tragedy that I didn't include cause it's hilarious, poor Hobie XD)

Anywho. Is this mechanism needlessly complex? Perhaps. I tried to simplify it at one point but then the more I thought about it the less the simplified version worked so I stuck with the OG idea here. I mean, i guess I could have ditched the locking mechanism entirely but i thought it would be fun if the helmet was self-locking! I also wanted a way for it to rotate/go visor up even with the spikes, thus it being a pretty large rotating faceplate with the spikes on it instead of elsewhere. not that he ever puts it up in the fic. peter just takes hobie's helmet off there 😂

He's also wearing a balaclava under there which I didn't bother really drawing, mostly to protect his hair (which I put in twists for related reasons of helmet-wearing) (I briefly had been considering braids but then, well, ATSV and Miles G. happened and I said, well now I cannot do that XD) (I mean I COULD have but I wanted to do something else here lol) Anyway. The idea here is that it's a kind of slide lock with a spring-loaded peg that slots into the holes, and the square hole with the square peg locks the faceplate in place and prevents it from rotating, but when the square peg is in the round hole, the faceplate can rotate freely. The only wrinkle here would be that Hobie has to pull on both locks simultaneously or as close to it as possible or he'd risk cracking the helmet (i assume? stress and pressure etc.)

Sliding the lock forward also slides the whole plate forward, which lets me (in theory) have a flush, smooth silhouette while still allowing it to come forward enough to push up. It's not vacuum sealed or anything though. But it does have like... air filters and a voice modulator and some other things. MOST of the suit is super low tech and doesn't require electricity but the helmet probably has batteries or something. (peter's new webshooters at this point are also battery powered lol)

Helmet is pretty typical fiberglass construction with foam pads inside. Idea there is that Hobie made a lot of this stuff using campus workshop resources like autobody or machining shop on campus, for stuff like getting fiberglass, having a space to work in, making polycarbonate lenses etc. Though it's totally possible to do fiberglass work at home too. (peter also uses campus resources for his lenses specifically btw)

Gauntlets!!! Uhhhh ngl very difficult. Trying to design armored gauntlets that don't look like knightly armor is very hard for me cause I always just google reference pics of knightly armor. LOL. I think these came out alright. There's a hint of motocross influence there too (though really even in modern days armor is armor so there end up being shared traits) The gloves ended up being mostly leather with some armored parts, though there is probably some inner armor which is not visible. The claws I left bare since you would not be able to sharpen claws coated in plasti dip—

oh yeah the purple color on all the hard parts is plasti dip, which is basically rubber paint.

The wrist gauntlets are very very very loosely based on a guy's grappling rope web-shooter thing which you can see in this youtube video: link. though i didn't wanna just rip him off so i mostly just said, alright, tubes and a harness—which the prowler already has in the comics anyway, albeit smaller. so really it's pretty much like the comics anyway.

Right wrist has the green laser dazzler, both have grapples, left wrist has EMP (not pictured) which Hobie uses in the scene I have him and Peter fight except then I realized recently I didn't actually explain what that was or how it was working 😂 I probably should have done that scene from Hobie's POV in retrospect. It's an EMP though and it scrambles Peter's spidey sense via interference/signal noise.

(electromagnetic signals being responsible for several cases of irl "hauntings" —> spider-man's haunted)

waist utility belt... I like the way the silver belt on the old art looks! So I decided to make these hard silver hinged cases instead of soft pouches (originally were soft but I changed my mind while coloring) — IDK if these really are metal or if they're just fiberglass with chrome paint lol but either way, shiny chromey, hinged to open, the insides are probably padded... buckle is actually metal though.

Boots—modified snow boots. These are loosely based off of a real thing btw: link to blog post

The silver things are the magnets. Gauntlets are probably also magnetic but those are not visible like the boot ones. I also read some comments saying certain kinds of electromagnets would be preferable for something like boots but ultimately, IDK how to draw that, so I just drew it like they look in jen foxbot's prototype.

There was some other stuff I initially planned on including that didn't make the cut, aside from the cape. I was toying with stuff like a jetpack (or really, a jump jet), gliding/wingsuit, etc. but... I didn't use any of those. Kept it simple and streamlined for the most part. so no gliding for this Prowler, but hey, he's got magnet boots.

maybe in the future if Hobie ends up with an Iron Man-esque collapsible suit, perhaps he'll be able to fly, but for now, he's a college student making a supervillain persona so he can keep himself from getting evicted...

And his face!!! cutie :3 loosely inspired by Greg Eagles' face (the voice actor for grimm from billy and mandy) Not that ATSV had no impact on this design but that was the main thing. Twists to keep his hair protected in the helmet under the balaclava etc. and something he can do himself, and then a twist out afterward.

plus you can see the nose rings I mention in Creep here.

[ifievertoldyou]

in my english class, we had an assignment to make a comic displaying parts of the hero's journey within a story that we're familiar with. and you already know what story my autistic ass decided to go with. here's how it turned out !

as always, check out @alexanderwesker 's fic here !!!

and obviously, i had to abridge some parts of the story, since i was already doing double the requirement of panels, and i didn't really want to do like 14 more just so i could include tHAW!slime and q's whole crisis on LN being real and stuff yk ^^;

chapter 1 + 2 comic

full thing

panel closeups + analyzing

---

panel 1

panel 2

if i ever get a chance to foreshadow q's change to becoming more like quackity, you know i'll immediately jump on that shit. and i did in this panel. here, the sun shines a little more in his left eye, and you can even see a sunbeam cutting through it. idc if that doesn't make sense in the situation, i feel like it solidifies the parallel between him and quackity, and that's all i really wanted for this part tbh.

panel 3

the intention with this panel was to make q seem as small, alone, and exposed as possible, so as to draw (haha) on the essence of what this walk through the desert is a metaphor for.

panel 4

ignore how his hair makes him look emo here. it's for the ✨️ symbolism ✨️

"what symbolism, tumblr user ifievertoldyou?" i'm glad you asked, imaginary person.

for one, i really wanted las nevadas' lights to reflect in just his left eye, to nod to that eye becoming his blessed eye later on.

for another, i kinda wanted him to only see out of one eye, to foreshadow him meeting, and eventually becoming more like, quackity.

(also i gave the little box of the arial view of him running a purple tint to represent how the sky gods are watching him go through all of this.)

panel 5

i made the las nevadas sign look a lot like the las vegas sign, but i also tried incorporating things from the las nevadas flag onto it, like the little star with the ace of spades, and i also leaned more into the flag's color pallette (though it's still pretty close color-wise to the las vegas sign)

i also had the sign popping outside of the box because of how good las nevadas is at grabbing your attention, and to demonstrate how she's so much larger than life.

panel 6

i kept in mind here that q's shoes kinda look like half boots, and i also drew upon the reference of his meet-up pics with phil.

also, the shoes have just a hint of that wine red that's all over the pariah district and has come to represent quackity. ;]

and obviously, him stepping onto the not-asphalt was symbolic of him crossing the threshold, so there's that.

panel 7

i originally intended for this comic to be longer (and who knows? maybe one day i will continue it), but this frame was intended to also be in the flashback when q has to figure out what quackity's lucky card is. that's why there's a whole frame with just the double doors (and also to cause anticipation, and transition into him meeting quackity, but yeah-)

panel 8

quackity! his little box is super red, in contrast to q's purple box in panel 4, because that's quackity's magic (and favorite) color, so it represents him.

his desk has a las nevadas star on it too, simply because i couldn't think of anything else to put on there lmao, but also, when looking at the LN flag, i can't help but think that the star represents quackity, since it's his magic color and it's all sharp around the edges like how he tends to be, and the ace of spades that is inside of it is more representative of q, since he has the blessed eye, and it's the same as his magic color and whatnot.

misc things:

the color of the gutters get progressively more red than purple as the comic goes on, to symbolize las nevadas and quackity coming into q's life. though the purple is still there, because so are the sky gods ;]

the same goes with the punctuation marks. it starts out purple (with a red outline to foreshadow his future and stuff), but then that eventually inverts itself when he sees the lights of las nevadas. (and quackity's question mark is much more red than q's, although the purple outline is still there, just less noticeable.)

the first person narrative boxes are red, while the captions are purple. again, this stands for the divide between q and the sky gods, since the sky gods are in control of the story, while q is (for now) in control of his own thoughts. wine red is more of quackity's own color, while purple is also the color of the sky gods. so when it's just q's thoughts, they're red, to distinguish him from the sky gods, and also to maybe hint at him becoming more like quackity in the future.

also, i didn't get to do any frames showing his forearms besides the first panel, but just know that q rolled up his sleeves as soon as he realized he was in a desert, as he wanted to avoid getting more hot than he had to. i thought it was important to draw him in a long sleeve shirt though since his bruises were most likely covered up when he met soot.

i know the lights look kinda purple in panel 8, but i swear they're pink, the blue sky just makes them seem more purple. quackity isn't being blasphemous, i promise.

every single red thing in this comic was drawn using the same colored pencil, to show how important quackity is in las nevadas, as well as q's story.

visual foreshadowing and color symbolism: *exists*

me: oh man, this shit fucking slaps

.

thanks for making it all the way to the end !! i hope you enjoyed it, because i spent wayy too much time thinking about and making all this stuff to not share it with y'all :p

as always, any interactions are very much appreciated ^_^

[suau-grey]

Some Behind the Scenes!

A/n: Hey, all! I’m still on hiatus, and I’ve barely been able to do anything more than a sketch for some time now. That said, I am beginning to feel better, so hopefully I’ll be back up and running soon!

In the meantime, I’ve been feeling bad for not updating, or at least not giving you guys anything to see. So, for my “update” today, here’s the planning and thumbnailing I did for my last few pages~!

Here’s the original planning sheet:

A lot of the wording for things changed! Originally, I wasn’t going to do full comic sheets, and instead, I was going to only do the single-panel style like my usual work. But then I realized that there was a kind of pacing I wanted that would be ruined by that format, so I switched over to...

full comic page 1 base sketch:

There were certain parts of this sketch that were supposed to be replaced later by better, more detailed versions of the characters represented there. This sketch was extremely quick, so the sketches are messy, basic, and only really meant to denote which character it is and a very general idea of what they’re physically doing and where they are in relation to one another. I ended up really liking the silliness of the basic sketch in panel 3, so I kept it. Whoops! Happy accidents, I suppose.

page 2 comic sketch version 1:

I knew exactly what was happening in this one, but this didn’t feel dramatic enough, you know? I knew it was plain, empty, and missing a lot of details. I went to several of my fellow AU creators (Chor, Omni, Kitty, Kymy, Starry, Meku, Dimension, Topaz, and Stricc) for some advice, as many of them are much more focused on and practiced in panel-based comic styles. They gave some fantastic critique.

It was mainly Kitty who suggested the following fix (though the others helped flesh it out a bit):

page 2 comic sketch version 2:

The closeups, as Kitty suggested, really help make this page feel less empty, while bringing more focus to the level of drama in the situation. Steven here isn’t feeling too hot, and now you can see up close that there’s more to it than just the scratching.

final panel sketch:

I was really proud of this shot. I wanted to get across the feeling of overwhelm in feeling sensory overload, but also the feeling of being helpless to stop someone else’s sensory overload while not necessarily understanding that that’s what’s going on. I have been on both ends of this situation, and it’s truly not fun on either side. There’s a lot of panic, a lot of fear, and even physical pain, in an overload. But hey, if your skin had most of its layers just suddenly melt off, and you could suddenly feel sunlight for the first time while every other feeling is somehow tripled, you’d probably get pretty overwhelmed, too. Especially if the first thing that happens to that skin is getting split open or scratched off. Yeah, Pearl needed to be pretty terrified, seeing her adoptive kid like that, so I went for it pretty hard. I loved the end result, so much so that I painted it instead of using my usual coloring style!

I hope you guys enjoyed seeing these!! Let me know if you want to see more stuff like this in the future, and I’ll be sure to show you guys these pieces more often.

[francesderwent]

[THE SCENE: a dimly lit conference room; one wall has a chalkboard with some progress charts scribbled onto it, another wall has what looks like a storyboard, one corner is in complete darkness.  The room is populated by diminutive creatures that look like lumpy sandcastles, the shapeless ones made by dribbling wet sand onto itself, with a few twigs and stones and wilted leaves stuck in at random.  They’ve somehow squeezed their oozy selves into little business suits; some of them are seated around the table going through files, some of them are busily updating the charts or rearranging the storyboard.  One sandman, wearing a bucket as a hat, stands at the end of the table.  He clears his throat.]

BOSS SANDMAN: Alright, boys, what subconscious fodder have we found for tonight’s work?

SANDMAN WITH TWIGS ALL OVER LIKE A PORCUPINE, checking a file: She’s been reading more murder mysteries, we could do something with that.

PARTICULARLY OOZY-LOOKING SANDMAN, at storyboard: No good, we don’t have enough visuals to draw from, and she doesn’t have the imagination to fill in the blanks.

SANDMAN WEARING GLASSES, puts down a thick file entitled “Fears”: She’s nervous about her dissertation.

BOSS, unimpressed: She’s always nervous about her dissertation, or should I say lack thereof.  What else?

GLASSES: The slow collapse of civilization? Her attachment to technology?

BOSS: No, I’m not feeling it.

OOZY: We could just give her another one of those low-level stress dreams where she has someplace to be but she can’t find the right clothes to wear.

GLASSES, nodding: General unpreparedness for what life requires of her.

BOSS: Nah. We fall back on that too much. 

PORCUPINE: She just went hiking.  What about a nice flying dream, through waterfalls and stuff?

GLASSES: You know she only flies when stuff is chasing her.

PORCUPINE: Oh yeah.

BOSS: Come on, give me something good.

GLASSES, boredly: The teeth falling out thing?

BOSS: What, do you want her to never sleep again?  No.

OOZY: A recycled never-learned-the-routine-for-the-dance-recital nightmare?

BOSS: Old! Tired!

PORCUPINE: Uhh, what about hiking and a murder mystery?

[The BOSS ignores him and hits a switch under the table. The lights in the corner come up on a huge carnival wheel with brightly colored flashing lights. Zooming closeup on the plaque above it which reads in fanciful lettering: Wheel of Lost Loves and Former Flames. Quick closeups of a few panels, which have labels like “Code name: long-term boyfriend” or “Code name: what might have been”]

BOSS, gleefully: Looks like we’re gonna have to spin the wheel.

OOZY, nervously: Are you sure, Boss? This would make the fourth day in a row that we’ve spun the wheel.

PORCUPINE: I mean, luckily we landed on last year’s crush on Thursday and Friday.  That’s not that unsettling.  Weird, since she hasn’t seen him in eight months.  But he’s a nice memory, at least.  But Saturday we gave her that rat bastard from college.   

OOZY: Shouldn’t he be out of her subconscious by now?

GLASSES: No, he still has pages and pages in the file.

PORCUPINE: I guess we should be glad we didn’t land on that same old dream where she has to break up with the musician again and again.

BOSS: Spin the wheel.

GLASSES: What if we land on the bastard again? Two nights in a row?  That would really mess with her head, and then it’ll be nothing but anxiety dreams for months.

BOSS, slamming his hands dramatically onto the table: Spin.  The.  Wheel!

[PORCUPINE, sighing, stands up from the table and gives the wheel a good spin.  BOSS is cackling, his employees watch it turn with held breath.  It creaks to a stop: zoom in on “Code name: best friend from high school”.  The underlings heave a sigh of relief; BOSS looks disappointed.]

PORCUPINE: We can work with that.  Didn’t she just hear that he moved away?

GLASSES: And there’s no serious unresolved issues there, they only dated for like three months.  We can go 80% nostalgia.

OOZY: I’ll throw in some vibes from that new Taylor Swift song.  [He claps his hands together, making a wet, slapping sound.]  Let’s get to work, people.  This is day four of lost loves and former flames, so let’s show a little originality, and maybe she won’t notice!

[Slow zoom out as OOZY and PORCUPINE start assembling images on the storyboard, GLASSES calling out ideas to them from various files in front of him.  BOSS is standing next to the wheel, gazing at it adoringly.  The sound gradually fades out, and then, sudden cut to: me, waking up blearily at 7am, after yet another dream about yet another man.]

ME: What the hell. Again?

[dimples-of-discontent]

Reporting in from Paleyfest

I have returned from Paleyfest (and some drinks with friends afterwards so sorry for the delay)! It was a great experience - the crowd was psyched and it was all super fun. I’m glad you all got the livestream so you can enjoy the whole panel too. I’m actually pretty surprised that there wasn’t some kind of announcement made, either about possible Season 14 (although Singer alluded to it with “maybe we’ll go there next season” it’s not a confirmation and he could just be assuming) or about Wayward. It seemed like with this much PR going on there would be something substantial to promote BUT the crossover ep itself is a big deal and a long time in the making so I guess it was the occasion.

Speaking of the crossover episode, I’m going to break the rules (or the very polite request that they gave us) to not spoil it for anyone else. @tinkdw asked me to and I’m guessing there are other people out there who’d like to know some the details in advance. (I’m also not a member of the press or anything or else I’d have more qualms about making public stuff they asked to keep on the DL since it would be job-related.)

SO - I am putting my thoughts on the episode below a cut. If you read on, know that I will spoil the whole plot and also give you my initial analysis of it from the perspective I usually have (Destiel-positive, endgame-positive). And if you’d rather not spoil, just scroll on.

@elizabethrobertajones @naruhearts @sactownbrowns3 @amwritingmeta @postmodernmulticoloredcloak @mittensmorgul @amyoatmeal and any other meta writers (who I forgot b/c it’s 4:30am to my body clock) I’m alerting you to the existence of this post in case you want the episode details ahead of time BUT in your position I probably wouldn’t so don’t feel in any way bad if you don’t want to read now. (I’ll reblog once it airs.)

***SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT LIKE WOAH***

I loved this episode!! It was a ton of fun. It was slapstick and silly but did some heavy lifting too. Honestly, it worked the way a lot of our favorite crack episodes did and alluded to at least one of them explicitly (”Changing Channels,” obvs, and I think there may have been more subtle references to others). 

I’m too tired to do a full meta analysis but here’s a kind of bullet recap, first of the most plot-based elements:

The plot turns on the fact that the Scooby Doo world, suddenly, ends up functioning like the world Sam and Dean inhabit. The boys enter the cartoon assuming all usual cartoon rules would apply (and Dean’s ready to have a rollicking good time with them) only to discover that the first murder in the haunted house is real. Ghosts are real. Death is real. Sam wants to tell the Scooby gang about it from the get-go but Dean wants to protect them and preserve their innocence. 

It’s already obviously about childhood, and losing it, but Dean makes it explicit by talking about how much he loved Scooby Doo because no matter where their dad had dragged them it would always be on. They were his friends and constant companions. He is really being thrown into the best part of his childhood....and you can see why it would be the best because it’s probably his fantasy and deepest wish that the ghosts, demons, etc. of the world he inhabits would turn out just to be bad guys in masks, death wouldn’t be real, etc. It’s Dean safe place in childhood because it takes his actual life (ghost hunting) and makes it safe and even fun. Dean wants to keep his safe place safe and is shocked and horrified when the rules of his universe invade.

It’s Sam who wants to tell them the truth about monsters from the word “go” even before it’s been revealed that death can come to Scooby Doo. (Dean laments, heartbreakingly, that it doesn’t matter if he dies...what’s important is that they make sure Scooby doesn’t die because clearly he’s such an innocent creature.) Sam, who did not have his childhood cut as abruptly short as Dean and who did not have to seek solace in a cartoon world because Dean helped him make a safe space in the real world, doesn’t see the point of lying about ghosts being real. Dean, who worked to keep Sam safe from this knowledge for YEARS of his own stunted childhood by acting as a parent, does want to keep the gang in the dark because he wants them to retain their innocence. It’s a huge lampshade to the different experiences Sam and Dean had as children and as sons.

They do eventually have to tell the Scooby gang and, wonderfully, it induces an existential crisis in them. Watching Daphne question the existence of God based on what she has inferred about the afterlife is amazing. It is not what I expected. Dean brings them back from the brink by reminding them of all the good work they had done before.

I’m going to tell the ending now and then double back to some other observations: the phantom they are chasing is the ghost of a small boy who is being manipulated, through a cursed object (a pocket knife given to him by his beloved father before he died), by an unscrupulous man (the real estate agent who we met in the beginning) who unleashes the boy’s anger on whoever he chooses for his own purpose...to scare people off of property he wants to buy. This way, the villain of a typical Scooby episode actually becomes the villain of this SPN episode...the evil real estate developer. 

Before heading back to their world, where they burn the pocket knife and free the ghost, Dean convinces Sam and Cas to lie to the Scooby gang and tell them that they were right initially--ghosts aren’t real. He goes so far as to stage the unmasking of the cartoon villain (the one from the original Scooby episode) and helps them to explanations involving wires, cornstarch blood, etc. Sam is grumpy about it but does it anyway. It’s crucial to Dean that they leave the Scooby gang as they found them and not saddle them with the world the Winchesters live in.

Let me just reiterate...the ghost that has been terrorizing them is frightened little boy. Who kept a pocket knife (much like the one we see being used to carve the Winchester’s initials into the Impala) as a token of his dead father. His father is symbolized and memorialized by a weapon. The weapon is the object the little boy is tied to and that another man--a bad man--can use to manipulate him into hurting others because “I just get so angry sometimes.” To be free, the knife (weapon, father’s legacy) has to be burned. There are closeups on a very sad Dean while this happens (some sad Sam and Cas too).

It is blindingly obvious that the little boy, who is wreaking havoc on the cartoon safe space of his childhood, represents Dean. To stop the destruction Dean has to let something go (he starts the episode referencing Elsa and EXPLICITLY SAYING THIS LINE I CAN’T EVEN). Something that is keeping him angry. Something that is tied to his father. Something that can be used to manipulate him, employed as a weapon to hurt other innocent people (Mark of Cain/Demon Dean plot lines). Dean is full of anger and of self-loathing and it’s coming from the same source. That source is toxic masculinity. Let it go, Dean. Let it go.

Is it also tied to issues of sexuality? I think so. I’ll reflect a little bit below, but I wanted to do the whole plot-based analysis first. 

And now the less plot-based stuff:

Ok, so can the ghost represent repressed sexuality/a different form of masculinity? SO MUCH YES. Point one: Cas is the only one who stops to take a look at the ghost and is thisclose to seeing through it’s big ol’scary disguise and finding a vulnerable child. He stops and squints at it, Cas-style, and says “I’ve never seen a ghost wear such a ridiculous costume. Unless...” and then he reaches out to it, starting to push aside the veil only to be pulled away. Now if that isn’t metaphorically precisely what Cas did, and does, for Dean and his performing facade I will buy a hat so that I can eat it. 

Point two, there is a scene where the ghost is chasing everyone through a series of doors on either side of a hallway (you know the scene...they run across the hallway, doors open and shut on either side, feet flying everywhere). They successfully shut the ghost in a closet with iron chains, though it’s close to breaking out. Daphne presses her body up against the door to hold it. Dean checks her out very obviously in a way that is both superfluous to and inconsistent with the plot. This means that the silhouette of a conventionally sexy woman is QUITE LITERALLY holding the closet door closed on the ghost. Metaphorically, it shows how Dean is able to use his attraction to conventionally sexy women to hold back what’s haunting him...attraction to men, ideas about a certain type of masculinity. Does it work? BIG FAT NO. The ghost breaks out anyway. (<Puts on professor cap> Have you guys read “The Beast in the Closet”? It’s by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and is about "intense male homosocial desire as at once the most compulsory and the most prohibited of social bonds.” It’s about Henry James’s work but I think you would all dig it. <Takes off professor cap.>)

I wanted to start with that because I can tell that people are going to be very upset about Dean’s excessive flirtation with/pursuit of Daphne. And, yeah, I almost injured my eyes by rolling them so hard at some of the things he says. BUT THAT’S THE POINT. What he’s saying is a child’s idea of how a grown man would act with a woman he likes. And it bears a great deal of similarity to how Dean does act sometimes. We call it performing!Dean and wonder to what extent Dean is conscious of his performing. Given this episode I’d say..maybe .not that conscious? I feel like the overstated heterosexual dudebroness was done specifically to give us an over-exaggerated literal cartoon version of heterosexual Dean to compare to regular Dean so that anyone who doesn’t know Dean performs in his own life will have a lens through which to see it.

Also, Daphne is his childhood crush. OF COURSE he’s going to act like a moron around her. If I encountered [insert childhood TV crush here...for me it was Kevin from “The Wonder Years” for whatever reason] I’d act dumb as fuck! But you have to remember that she represents innocence for him...it’s established that all the Scoobies do (heh - puns!). Even if he’s kissing her hand or putting an arm around her or whatever there is no danger there, just like there’s no danger in the ghosts. Sexuality to Dean isn’t scary in Scooby Doo because it’s simple: it’s just a girl he likes. Except, just like how the ghosts are also dangerous, the love plot isn’t going to be that simple or that straightforward (heh - straight). You see where I’m going. Dean would rather be in a universe ghosts weren’t real because it’s safer and easier and kind of a fantasy land but they ARE real and he will have to deal with them; Dean would also rather be in a world where he was a suave, irresistible ladies’ man because it’s safer and easier and a kind of fantasy....but he’s not. Jensen even said so in his interview. Granted, Jensen’s comment may have just meant that Dean’s not suave like he thinks. But the actual episode draws a parallel that’s pretty damn clear.

Another reason to not worry: Daphne is zero interest in Dean at all. She has negative interest in Dean. Her lack of interest in Dean has created a void that is sucking all the air out of the room. She may not even know that Dean is hitting on her. She is so focused on Fred that no one else exists for her as a romantic interest. They are so obviously a pair, even though they are never shown to be together as a couple explicitly. <Stares directly into the camera like I’m on The Office.> Can Dean not see that? Is he blind? Well, he does see it, but he thinks Daphne is “settling” for Fred who represents a kind of masculinity that makes him uncomfortable (more in a sec). In point of fact, no one is romantically interested in Dean in this episode...unlike Sam who gets a lot of appreciation (and an eventual kiss) from Velma.

 As for Fred, Dean begins by really hating him (so much that Sam remarks on it) and when pressed about why he attributes it to Fred’s self-confidence despite things like his “stupid ascot.” Dean comes to like and admire Fred and, ultimately, have the confidence to wear an ascot himself BECAUSE HE LIKES IT. It didn’t make Fred less of a man. It doesn’t make Dean less of a man to wear it with his plaid shirt. Fred helps Dean along the way to some self-acceptance. It’s nice. Fred is there to serve as a contrast to Dean’s overblown notions of what is “masculine” and offer another form of masculinity that is, manifestly, still appealing to the ladies.

Now, remember the Scooby Doo universe doesn’t have sex in it. It’s a cartoon. And they bend those rules only the tiniest bit here. All of Dean’s advances and even his jokes are PG. That innocence on the part of the Scoobies is played for laughs, Daphne remarking that Dean is silly for not knowing that “boys and girls don’t sleep in the same room” for example, but it’s also integral to the plot. (There are some other jokes too and, for a glorious second, I thought that they were legitimately going to reveal that Daphne and Velma were a thing but sadly not.) No one would want to ruin the Scooby universe by telling them about sex...not even Dean. Again, it contains a child’s conception of relationships.

I’m imagining some people will also be upset about how the episode treats Cas. I was especially stung that, right at the outset, Dean says flat-out that “Cas is basically a talking dog.” I made a noise of indignation that made people look at me. BUT let’s also remember how much Dean loves that talking dog. He’d die for him. He wants to protect him at any cost. He doesn’t want to spoil his innocence. So, yeah, that’s not a nice thing to say but it’s also not the whole story. Cas is grouped with Scooby and Shaggy the whole time and he bonds with them, SMILING (ALERT ALERT CARTOON CASTIEL KNOWS HOW TO SMILE) AND LAUGHING when he has to leave. He thanks them for showing him the importance of humor even in dangerous times. I think it’s a good lesson for Cas and his real affection for them reminds me of what a soft character he is inside, wanting to get a cat or save monkeys or keep bees. That’s been missing from Cas lately (even though I do LOVE bamf!Cas) so maybe this will help him recall it.

I want to say again that Cas is the one who can see through the ghost and its “ridiculous costume.”

Interestingly, both his entrances (his first appearance after Fred and Dean take off to drag race; when he reunites with the boys in the haunted house) frame him as a scary villain. The first is from behind and you just see the coat billowing out (though this did remind me of the girl running the drag race in “Grease” which...lol); the second he’s silhouetted in a window, approaching it in the rain, and is then covered with a sheet before he’s “unmasked” by Dean and discovered to be a friend. This is...pretty much Castiel’s character progression always. Looks like a threat but is discovered not to be.

Once they get back to their regular world Dean makes a remark about how that was the most fun he’s ever had “including that time with the Cartwright twins.” Cas studies him and asks “What did you do with the Cartwright twins?”. There’s a long beat in which Dean looks shifty and grins and shakes his head and turns away. Sam says “I don’t think I want to know.” Cas says nothing. Cas does want to know. This is new and part of a general progression that @amwritingmeta wrote a great analysis of where Cas is becoming able to think something like Forget that sacred oath...I must know what Dean did with those twins.

There was probably more, you guys, but it’s super late for my poor body clock. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone you think would like it but bear in mind that a) there are MASSIVE SPOILERS, b) this is just my interpretation of the episode, and c) I only saw it live once so my details may be wrong. 

I thought this as a fantastic episode the more I think about it and I’m SO EXCITED for all of you to get to see it too so I can hear your thoughts!! <3

[tirkdi]

okay okay let's start with the ring

There are three panels with closeups of Baghra putting on and wearing a ring, after they arrive in their hut and before they go to meet the elders. In the original story, it's described as a heavy garnet ring. It's only given one sentence in the story ("She … pulled a heavy garnet ring from her pack and placed it on her finger") but in the book it's got three whole panels, which makes it seem much more important.

The word 'garnet' does not appear in the original Shadow & Bone trilogy at any point, and is only used once in the Six of Crows duology as a metaphor. Garnet does appear twice in the King of Scars duology, both times associated with Shu Han: the Tavgharad have garnet in their uniform, and a temple has garnet columns at each entrance.

So, let's say this ring has its origins in Shu Han. Okay. Deep breath.

Because on the very last page, Aleksander is wearing this ring.

In the original trilogy, he doesn't wear a ring – he's often wearing riding gloves and anyway it seems like the sort of thing Alina would have commented on if he was wearing one, but she didn't. You know where he does wear a ring?

Yeah, the TV show. And, um.

That looks like it could be a heavy garnet ring to me!

So things we know about this ring:

Baghra puts it on when she is going to be separated from her belongings. It could be it's the only thing she has of value and she doesn't want it to be stolen. Could it be some sort of amulet? We don't see those in the Grishaverse (other than amplifiers), though we certainly can't rule out that they exist. Sentiment? What sort of sentiment does she have from Shu Han?

By the end of the book (whenever that is – that last page is ambiguously set it in time), Aleks is wearing the ring. He (continuously?) wears the ring in his adult life, though it seems to move fingers as he grows – in the book, he and Baghra both wear it on their right index finger, and in the Netflix poster he's wearing it on his right pinkie. That's a believable progression if the kid in the graphic novel grows up to be Ben Barnes.

I'm going to argue that it's unlikely to be an amulet (though I have a whole theory around that, too, lol, I am in way too deep), and unlikely also to be something Baghra wears because it's valuable given that Aleksander wears it later on. It's sentimental. Add to that that in two of the images where you see Baghra's finger with the ring, she's pointing to his heart.

What sentiment does she have from Shu Han? We know about Aleksander in the text of Demon in the Wood that "[h]e spoke fluent Shu and Kerch, and could pass as either." She wears the ring on her right index finger – in some cultures, that's where you'd put a wedding ring.

This ring is totally from his father.

There's a story there – I actually think it's likely Baghra killed Aleksander's father (that's a separate theory) but even if she did, it doesn't mean she wasn't sentimental about it. And wearing a ring from a father he'll never meet, wearing that ring for over half a millennium, seems exactly like the sort of Extra thing that the Darkling would do. Attach a claw to it? Sure, why not. Love is pain, sentiment is pain, "all men can be made fools" ... there are plenty of reasons the man he became might have done that.

I don't mean this to say that I think the Darkling is half Shu, especially because in countries with shared borders it's not always that simple (as is demonstrated by the sort-of-Fjerdan Ravkan Grisha in Demon in the Wood). But his affinity for this ring and what it represents to him certainly put his reactions to half-Shu show!Alina in a bit of a different light, as well.

don't mind me, i'll just be in my corner over here with waaaaaayyyyyyy too many conspiracy theories about the Demon in the Wood graphic novel

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Theory by a Nonny: Gregory Went Out Looking for a Doctor

Nonny says:

So this is my “Gregory went out looking for a doctor” theory. I originally sent this to another TD tumblr, but since this ask about Gregory on your tumblr started I decided to share it with you too so I can hear what you have to say about it. 🙂 Especially as you don’t believe Gregory went out looking for a doctor, it’s much more fun to share theories if two have different opinions! :D I apologize in advance if anyone in the TD fandom already made a theory like mine. I don’t have a tumblr myself and don’t keep up with all of the theories that’s around, I mainly read a couple of TD tumblr’s and try to make up theories on my own on my iPad. So if anyone else already have made a connection like mine - I’m sorry, I didn’t know. 🙂

This one is about Gregory and proof that he DID in fact go out looking for a doctor in 7x15. The actor himself admitted in an interview I don’t think we’ve talked about. So stay with me, before we get to this I need to sum up a couple of things first:

1. In 7x11 Negan killed the only doctor the Saviors had at the Sanctuary… 2. … so because of that in 7x14 the Saviors went to Hilltop and took the only doctor they had back to the Sanctuary so they could have a doctor. 3. Hilltop is now without a doctor. They need one.

Now… In 7x15 we can see Gregory in his office take up a map from his desk. It is a map of Virginia. As Gregory opens up the map and checks it he calls Cal into his office. He tells him “I’m gonna need you drive me somewhere… Yeah… You gonna wanna pack a bag…”.

So where was he going? A lot of fans thinks that Gregory went to the Sanctuary because of these 3 reasons:

1. In 7x16 Negan tells Sasha that “A little birdie told me that Rick and the rest of your people are up to no good.” and in the comics it is Gregory who betrays Rick and tells Negan about his plans. 2. In 7x14 Gregory and Trevor have a conversation after the Saviors have taken the Hilltop doctor. Gregory basically tells Trevor that as the leader of Hilltop he got to provide for his people and gain their trust otherwise he’s afraid someone might get crazy ideas and try to take over. Trevor answers with “If you’re having problems of that nature - come to see me. Anytime! I’ll arrange it so that you just tell the guard who you are and he’ll let you right in. As long as there’s no shenanigans afoot.” and Gregory replies with “There willl be none.”. Trevor gives Gregory a note where he has written something. One would think of a map to the Sanctuary since Gregory told Trevor he doesn’t know where to go. 3. Gregory is a douchbag.

I don’t agree with these (well… I mean… Maybe except from number 3… LOL MEAN!). I’m going to explain why:

We know from 7x16 that it was Jadis and her group what’s-their-name-who-can’t-talk that betrayed Rick (seriously, what’s their name? The Garbage people?). The Garbage people is not in the comics, so what we can see here is that this comic arc changed in the show (just a funny easter egg… When we first meet the Garbage people we get a closeup of a bird at their camp. Negan calls the betrayer “birdie”.). Gregory also didn’t know about Rick’s plans. Secondly, Negan didn’t know Maggie was still alive until he saw her in 7x16. After Trevor told Gregory he would come to the Sanctuary if someone tried to take over as the leader of Hilltop one would think Gregory would tell Trevor who would tell Negan about Maggie being alive, hiding and Jesus helping her and that they are the ones trying to take over the Hilltop from him (these two are obviously the ones he had in mind). But nope… Negan didn’t know Maggie was still alive. So no. Gregory did NOT go to the Sanctuary because in summary it was The Garbage people who betrayed Rick, Gregory didn’t know about Rick’s plans and he has NOT told Trevor-Negan about Maggie being alive. May I also add that Eugene told Sasha in 7x16 that it takes a couple of hours to drive from the Sanctuary to Alexandria. Hilltop is not far from Alexandria. Gregory would not need to tell Cal to pack a bag for just a a couple of hours drive. Trevor also told Gregory to not bring any other people with him to the Sanctuary if he went there and to wherever Gregory’s going he takes Cal with him, so he’s obviously not heading for the Sanctuary.

So here we go. The proof there is that Gregory DID IN FACT go out looking for a doctor for the Hilltop are as follows:

1. When the Saviors are together with Gregory in Dr Carson’s office at Hilltop to take Dr Carson with them back to the Sanctuary, Dr Carson tells Gregory before leaving “All of my charts are in order. You need to make arrangements for some kind of medical care here. Especially for my uncle and patients.”. Gregory answers “I will.”. 2. When Gregory and Trevor are talking about him going to the Sanctuary if someone will try to take over as leader of Hilltop Trevor tells Gregory to not stress. Gregory replies with “I would be a lot less stressed if you would leave my doctor.”. 3. In an interview with Xander Berkeley (who plays Gregory) he (pretty much) confirmed that Gregory didn’t go to the Sanctuary. The interviewer said Gregory went to the Sanctuary which XB replied “Well, I like to think that we’ll keep the audience guessing with Gregory. And one of the things that does make him entertaining and fun is that you can’t quite be sure where he’s headed next literally or figuratively. He does appear to be on his way somewhere there in the last episode that you saw him in, and he always seems to be headed somewhere a little other than what you expect. You’ll look back and you’ll see I wasn’t such a big douche-waffle after all. I was a good guy. Like I said, I’m not a bad guy [Proof Gregory didn’t go to the Sanctuary and betrayed Rick]. But what I will hold out hope is that I will continually be able to pull away new layers and show new colors and keep the audience constantly unsure of where I’m going to go next. One of his survival instincts is to keep adapting to whatever people want and need from him [DOCTOR!!!], and one of those things is going to be a certain element, even if it’s a little sleazy snake oil huckster charlatan charm and humor. That’s an element that we’re not finding in other places as much at this point. So that will be a fun place to go with Gregory wherever he goes.”. Read the FULL interview HERE http://www.blastr.com/2017-4-2/amc-the-walking-dead-xander-berkeley-interview.

Hilltop needs a doctor. Gregory did NOT go to the Sanctuary. In the interview XB also says that he has talked with SG about the character and he says Gregory won’t be a bad guy. XB says Gregory’s survival instincts is to keep “adapting to whatever people want and need from him”. HILLTOP NEEDS A DOCTOR!!!! KSHFSLFVSNSX!!!

So Gregory’s heading out to find a doctor. The most obvious place to go looking for one would be, even after an apocalypse, at a hospital. Now, there’s obviously hospitals in Virginia. But after following SG’s way to run a show I would think he would prick up the dropped storyline of Grady Memorial Hospital here considering EVERYTHING SHADY that has been around Coda, panels, contracts, actors, actresses, filming etc around Grady. There are tons of paralells with Grady, Hilltop and the Sanctuary. Then the obvious choice for a hospital in the show would be Grady me thinks. However, why Gregory chooses to go to Atlanta Georgia instead of some hospital in Virginia, there’s a few ideas. There are reasons to think he does in fact go to Georgia instead of staying in Virginia. First of all, Gregory is from Virginia or had been to Virginia before the outbreak. Add to this that most likely there are a couple of people from Hilltop that lived in Virginia before the outbreak. Gregory and his people know where the hospitals are in Virginia. So why use a map, right? No, he would'nt need one. Correct. And maybe Hilltop already had runs in all of the Virginia hospitals to find medication, supplies etc, so they know there are not any doctors there (maybe that’s where Hilltop first found their Carson doctors? Who Negan later took… First one, then two. And then it will be a third doctor at Hilltop!). If Gregory knows all of the Virginia hospitals are empty of doctors at this point, but knows that they DID find the Carson doctors at a hospital, he might think he can find another doctor but at another hospital, in the nearby state and THAT he would need to pack a bag for. And bring Cal. Because it’s a long way and dangerous and Gregory doesn’t have any walker skills what so ever as we saw with him and Maggie. So, if he’s going to Georgia/Atlanta, why use a Virginia map? I think he checks out the fastest road to take to get to Georgia. He would'nt want to leave Hilltop too long. Gregory wants to be in charge and being away mean someone else (Maggie and Jesus) will take over as leader (he was afraid that would happen) and adding to this the fact that he has barely gone out from Hilltop after the outbreak it makes sense he wants to do whatever he’s going to do as fast as possible. And if anyone after reading this would come up with the theory that maybe Gregory went to the Sanctuary to rescue Dr Carson and take him back to the Hilltop… I don’t think so. 1. Gregory is too much of a chicken to pull that off and he would need someone much stronger and bigger than Cal to bring down even a few Saviors (If you’re not CooorAAAL!) to take back Dr Carson / 2. Gregory and Cal doesn’t know how the Sanctuary looks like, how to get in without being seen and they don’t know where Dr Carson is. Sasha was different. Sasha had a map of the Sanctuary. She knew how to get in without being seen by guards. She didn’t plan to get out of there eventually either / 3. If Dr Carson disappeared Trevor would know it was Gregory who took him since Trevor knows how much Gregory wants a doctor. And even if Trevor didn’t think it was Gregory he would still show up at the Hilltop to look for Dr Carson since he knows the Hilltop was his home. And the writers aren’t that bad that they would go with that hide-cuz-the-saviors-are-coming-to-the-hilltop again like they did with Maggie and Daryl.

As an end to this sub I want to say that I think Gregory changed his mind about Maggie when she said that it’s never too late to change and saved his life. He also talks about her as a pregnant woman and he’s aware that she above all else at Hilltop needs a doctor now during her pregnancy. I think he decides to go out to find a doctor because that’s what Hilltop needs and he wants to be a good leader.

Thoughts?

@twdmusicboxmystery says:

Thanks so much to the Nonny who sent this in! You’re right: having opposing theories to discuss is always fun.

And can I say that this theory is very well thought out and I think you do a great job gathering evidence. I think you’ve shown very astutely that when Gregory left Hilltop, his destination was not the Sanctuary. (I especially love your detail about the bird at the junk yard. (Officially the group is called the Scavengers, btw.)

My one issue is still that I don’t see Gregory having the balls to make a journey all the way to Atlanta. Even if, as you say, and as XB said in his interview, Gregory is turning into a nicer guy and decided to do the right thing, I still don’t see him making a journey like that himself. He’d be more likely to try and send someone else who is better at surviving. 

But that certainly doesn’t mean your theory or your evidence is wrong. I was thinking as I read it that you’ve definitely found a lot of clues to Gregory + Doctor. As I said in a previous Ask, I’m not sure I think anyone will go back to Atlanta. I think our most compelling evidence is that Beth will show up in D.C. via Oceanside. I still think we’ll see stuff that happens in Atlanta (downfall of Grady, Beth at Terminus, etc.) but it will be via flashback. There’s such a “can’t go back” theme throughout season 4 and 5 that I don’t think anyone will actually “go back to a graveyard” as Carol said in 4x10.

So I think most of what you’ve gathered here is right and that you’re really onto something. Maybe Gregory will find a doctor but it will be more like finding him wandering around in the area with a certain blond, rather than traveling all the way back to Atlanta to find him. 

Of course I could be wrong. And if someone does go back to Atlanta, I’ll be tickled. Either way, you’ve made me very curious to see how this story line and set of symbols pans out. 

One more thing: I have seen spoilers that do put Gregory at the Sanctuary in S8. I can’t say for sure how reliable they are. If I read correctly they are both unconfirmed and also I don’t think they came from the main, big spoiler site, but from another one that’s less reliable. So we really can’t take them as fact right now. 

But, I wanted to say that even if they’re true, that still doesn’t mean your theory is wrong. Gregory might have set out to find a doctor. Any one of a million things could happen (and we all know Gregory isn’t the best survivalist) that could have led to him ending up at the Sanctuary. 

So like I said, we’l just have to see how it all pans out. Can’t wait to find out. Thanks so much for sharing this theory with us, Nonny. You’re a natural! Xoxo! 💖

[audiovisualrecall]

aaaaaah i wanted to leave at 11:30 originally but i used up time organizing my art cart, so then i was going to leave at 12, but i wanted to update stuff on my etsy really quick. well now it’s 1pm which means if i leave right now i wont get to my studio till 1:30 maybe. and then i wont really get started till 2 probably

and i was feeling better about the project last night and now im second guessing everything again and im not 100% happy with anything or my decisions or ideas, like why should the big one be the bathtub, should it have plants included after all, should i refocus on it being about the plants, with the visual appreciation being a part of it but not the point/focus? actually yeah that feels right, that feels more true/better

but also i have to paint the trio on wood panel and i dont want to?? part of it is the wood looks so gorgeous i dont want to ruin it by painting over and hiding it! but if i paint on the not as pretty side then the pretty side wont be seen? and i have one piece where i leave the wood showing for the cabinets and id love for the pretty wood color and grain to show but again im afraid to ruin it. and idk if i love any of my options for the trio anyway!! i love the other bathroom piece with the closeup pieces that i add the plants into, that one im enthusiastic about. *falls over* aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

i need to take a reference photo from inside the tub area and probably some other ones too, and i need to find two more 5x7″ boards and i need more palette paper and another rag and some more paper towels. and i need to empty the dishwasher. and i need to pack a lunch of some kind. ill be lucky if i get out of the house before 2! and then i want to leave my studio around 5! and tomorrow we have edison’s vet in the morning and then ma will help me get the kickstarter stuff to the post office and sent out. idk if ill have time to work in the studio after that, bc i have therapist appt tomorrow night. and i still have to work on my artist statement and i have so much painting to do and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[rayadraws]

Ok. OK.

Loved reading this and adding some of my thoughts, I always have so much fun when we discuss these things back and forth in our messages <3

- It’s interesting to draw comparisons between Genos and Garou. They’re both young men with traumatic pasts, they both are (or were) students with a ’sensei’, they both seek to grow stronger (and are both excellent at learning from what they’ve experienced in past fights), we don’t know if it was nearly to the same extent but ONE has suggested/hinted that Genos was also bullied as a child, etc. But what they’ve taken away from their experiences is very different and they as a result are going down two very different paths now.

- Holy shit Garou, basically like a feral animal. Genos seems to think that he’s crossed the border completely. But yeah, he still won’t actually kill people!!

- Holy shit BANG? Best grandpa ever???

- Elder is SO BIG omg. Every panel with him is amazing. Poor Murata lol

- More info on Blast WHEN?

- Yes yes yes all the limits talk! The whole chapter is just shock full of nods and throwbacks, it feels like an extremely significant chapter. And yeahhh... Genos can never go back after his conversion, not physically at least. With so many super powered humans in this universe, it makes you wonder if he’s ever wondered what his physical limit would have been if he still had his original body. But of course, if he was badly wounded back then he might not have had many options. He does describe his 15 year old self as ”weak”... That leaves the question of how much exactly is decided by the mental limit. If Sai is anything to go by, it’s probably by far the more powerful limiter.

- Genos was readying himself for a suicide mission and he KNEW it. That closeup of his face!! And even more, Bang knew it too - I’m thinking about the meteor scene here, he saw Genos give it his all then to, and telling him to get out of there and leaving Genos to die... but Bang wouldn’t leave then and he won’t leave now. Seriously, best grandpa A+++ (and makes me wonder what kind of person Genos might have become in another universe where he’d studied under Bang - he does feel like a person who could have helped/guided him well, he speaks in terms that are familiar/similar to Genos’ way of thinking and I personally hc that Genos finds comfort in being a disciple/student - having routines, guidelines, taking notes and so on).

- Genos seeing himself as basically a soldier is interesting for sure, I wonder if we’ll see more war references as everything intensifies...

- The vore scenes???? Omg????

- The scene where Elder is about to crush Genos is so heartbreaking... Genos has grown SO much but right now, all he can think about is how it never seems to be enough - and clearly, protecting others is one of his greatest driving forces - he’s been ready to give up his quest - and life - several times in the series, just to save someone else.

- I LOVE KING.

- The tunnel of lov-, sorry, of finding your disciple. Sai only has eyes for Genos and he visibly relaxes when he sees that he’s alive. Is he that clueless to his own emotions, or did he not want to tell the real reason to King..?

- ”Uh, power?” sounds thoughtless at first BUT as you say, Saitama doesn’t even know what happened in the first place, how would he know what went wrong? XD But he’s heard Genos going on about power so often it’s the obvious answer, isn’t it?

- I was surprised Elder was actually killed, since I heard it said he needed to survive! I still wonder if a part of him remained alive so he can regenerate... Also, Saitama was clearly so strong he broke past Elder’s normal regeneration abilities, but it’s almost like... before that, every time Elder ”died” he molted/regenerated. Worth mentioning that Genos gave him such grave damage after Bang - one of the strongest S-ranks, plus his supposedly even stronger brother - had already hurt hum and caused him to grow even bigger. So Genos basically displayed VERY strong power during this fight, fighting like two very strong S-ranks put together! But it’s still not enough...

Opm chapter 84 commentary

Lots of screaming under the cut from this LONG and epic chapter!

Keep reading

[mcttv-blog]

ShadowForce: Runners in Time

Written by Relfar

Original Concept from Shadowrun: Hong Kong

(When Marked Narrator it is Demma’s voice, when Marked Demma it is Demma speaking in real time)

Narrator (over black): I never asked for this.

Shot pans up revealing an endless sprawling desert.  Swivels right

Narrator: I don’t think any of us knew what this job entailed.

When the camera comes nearly 180 the outcropping of rock begins to appear.

On the edge of the sharp, pointed ledge stands an albino fox. The camera continues to pan right, she transforms into a humanoid figure, but the tail remains. The pan is fast enough to save on most the transformation budget.

Behind her is a heavily tattooed elf in a wife-beater and a pinstripe vest. He smokes a cigarette.

Behind him sits an old-fashioned Japanese man, lotus position, wearing an Edo period kimono, pointed shoulders and all.

Crouched behind the samurai is an orc with obvious Jaw/Fang cyber gleaming from under her cloak hood. As the camera continues one of her metal legs is visible, tapping her monkey-pawed cyber toes on the rock.

Standing at the rear, leaning on a rockface, is a female troll sporting spectacles and reading a book.

Narrator: Yeah, we may be a bunch of assholes, but we’re nothing compared to the people who sent us here.

Camera pans up to the sky.

[ShadowForce]

A strange futuristic Aerospace vehicle flies into the camera cutting to black.

[[Commercial break]]

The ork Lija and a Johnson sit across from each other in a busy rigger shop.

Lija: “How much does it pay, and do I need to be subtle.”

NeoJohn: “250 for a job well done, and subtlety will not be necessary.”

Lija smiles with all her teeth. The tops seem to be organic, while most the bottom jaw is cyber.

Cut

An Aztechnology Johnson approaches a table in a Library where the troll sits. He gently lays a token down on the table in front of her.

AzzieJ: We’re calling it in.

Cut

A dojo. Strange figures clad in red and black attack the samurai. He wounds three of them in a quick fight, before his blade is split twain, he is then apprehended and a strange purple portal appears.

Cut

Three Ares trucks rumble along in a ramshackle part of town. The buildings are dilapidated and the dirty people scatter as they see the armed vehicles.

Knight Errant 1: “We know you’re in there. Come out peacefully and we won’t blow up any of these buildings.”

Asako: “Fine, fine”

The albino elf walks out from behind a building with one of her hands up. She has sunglasses on, and with the other hand tosses a grenade into one of the Ares trucks. Closeup of the sunglasses a large net is reflected in the dark glass. Her face is gone as we zoom out from the sunglasses, they fall and a large net sails over them as they fold themselves to hang on a teal scarf around the albino fox’s neck.

The fox retreats, but around the corner stands a team of Knight-Errant with large net cannons. They fire, and the fox squeals.

Cut.

Diner. Demmalition1 sits relaxed in the booth. He exhales heavily as a well-dressed troll and blonde elf enter. The elf stands at the end of the table and gestures to the seat across from Demma.

Kogane: “May I?”

Demma: “Shit, you gonna leave if I say no?”

Demma shakes his head.

Demma: “Go ahead.”

Kogane sits.

Kogane: “I understand you’ve run, in the past at least, good with the…” He makes a typing gesture in the air that could easily be misconstrued as air-piano.

Demma: “Couldn’t afford a Johnson? How busy are you over there at Mistuhama?”

Kogane smiles he has an almost sinister canine smile.

Kogane: “Too important. 300. And if you don’t mind, I’d like you to treat it just like any other story, except you’re going in deep cover. You remember the Trans-Corprate thing?”

Demma nods before making a fist and placing it on the table.

Demma: Yeah, that shit idea that never panned out.

Kogane: “Some dragon beat me to it. I can’t say for certain, but blue, red, green, gold. They all have fingers in this pie, and I want to know what it is.”

Cut to black

Narrator: I should have said, ‘no’.

[[Second Commercial break]]

The troll runs across the sand and throws a manabolt at the large aerospace vehicle bearing down on them. The vehicle has four smooth swoops of metal that conjoin around an opaque white-glass-looking sphere. It has no visible propulsion system.

Jo: “Any luck on the hacking or blowing up of the machine there, decker.” She says over comms.

Jo reaches the top of a dune and tosses a manablast behind her at the aeroship. Closeup on Jo as the blue light completely fills her spectacles. There is fear on her face.

Narrator: That’s Josephine. Jo. Troll Scholar. *tsk* Whom I to judge.

Demma: “I’m working on it, you ever think how out of my element I am here? It’s not like I’m the foremost expert on the future Matrix.”

Demma is among a strange simple green representation of the matrix, he pulls up a schematic for the aeroship that he looks surprised to have found.

Lija: “I’m trying to get in manually. Can you guys lure it a little closer to the ground.” The ork stands, riding atop a heavily modified Ares Mule, reaching up for one of the long metal swoops coming out from the center orb of the aeroship.

Narrator: “Lija. More machine than ork that one. The amount of Cybermancy. *Whistles*

The samurai carries the albino fox as he plods along the sand. The fox looks pleased as shit with herself.

Narrator: “The topknot is Toshiro. Bonafide Samurai from the Fifth World. The fox is Asako, the saucy little minx. No telling if she slipped the carrying idea into his mind, or if the old man is just gullible enough to take her along.”

Lija: “Got it!”

Lija grabs onto the metal of the aeroship and flips upward, grabbing onto the frame with her feet, both of which have monkey-like paws.

Demma: “There should be a panel near the back of the orb. Do you have an MZS connector?”

Lija: “Yep! Jacking in.”

A pause, the color drains from Lija’s face.

Lija: “I’m getting major defences and I can’t read any of these commands clearly, trying the first, then I may need to eject.”

Demma: “The first one cuts power to propulsion!”

The aeroship drops suddenly, Lija is thrown off the back. Jo rolls to the side, but Toshiro turns around. Not having any of that Asako leaps off of him. He draws his new mono-edged katana as the ship continues down towards him. He leaps, avoiding the metal, and slashes out at the opaque white orb. After he lands, and the ship comes to a stop the team surrounds the newly opened orb.

Demma: “I don’t believe it.” He says as he continues through the schematics.

All (except Toshiro): “It’s empty.”

Zoom out from the split open white orb filled with flashing circuitry and computer looking parts.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 278: MOMO IN CHARGE

Previously on BnHA: Deku and Kacchan were all “SIR, THAT’S OUR EMOTIONAL SUPPORT SENSEI” and got really ferocious and made a very passionate attempt to blow Tomura up and it was great. It basically did nothing, but it was still great. AFO was all “COME HERE LIL BRO”, and Tomura was all “silly Sensei, you can’t just take over my mind and body just like that”, and he was very confident of this despite there really being no evidence to back it up, but okay! Gran was all “time to make the fandom mad at me” and grabbed Tomura by the collar and yelled at him about Nana a bit, and then Bakugou and Endeavor made an even MORE passionate attempt to blow up Tomura, which may or may not have done some actual damage. The chapter ended with Gigantomachia battling Mt. Lady, just kinda out of the blue, which is FINE, but she had better be all right, though!

Today on BnHA: Everyone is all “WAUGHH IT’S GIGANTOMACHIA” and running around freaking out about it. The U.A. alums all kick some ass, and pretty much everyone else not from U.A. does jack fucking shit. Mt. Lady, who I plan on naming all of my future children after, does her best to stop Machia but he keeps flinging her aside. Kamui Woods is all “here I come with Midnight to put Gigantomachia to sleep!” and is PROMPTLY FUCKING MURDERED!? by Dabi because he’s a flammable tree man, and so Midnight falls all the way to the ground and is badly injured. So then she’s all “well I better call the most competent person I can think of to fix this mess” and dials up YAOYOROZU FUCKING MOMO, who proceeds to take charge LIKE THE BOSS SHE IS, and mobilizes the rest of the kids. And honestly I have more faith in them than in any of the adults at this point, so yeah, you know what? Let’s do this.

so I am possibly a bit spoiled on this chapter because I did a “top five predictions” post earlier this week, and someone replied to that yesterday on Thursday saying that they were mostly correct. I don’t know exactly how close to the mark I was though, and in any case most of the predictions were just “so-and-so shows up, probably”, so it’s not too bad. we’ll see how it goes!

OH THANK GOD MY BABIES ARE SAFE

I mean, CLEARLY they’re all about to be in horrible danger, seeing as Jirou is about to inform them of the whole “THE BIG GUY EVERYONE WAS AFRAID ABOUT WAKING UP WOKE UP” thing, but in the meantime at least Kami and Toadette and Honenuki made it back to the group safely

also Kaminari’s use of “Jirou-Jack” here is fucking inspired and I want him to teach a class on nicknames. isn’t he the one who coined “Yaomomo” as well? this boy has a gift and it needs to be appreciated

so Jirou is all “SOMETHING REALLY BIG IS COMING”, and actually she says “INSANELY HUGE”, which if anything is still an understatement, hard as it is to believe

WOW

“A BAD GUY IS HEADING THIS WAY?? SOUNDS LIKE IT’S TIME TO ABANDON THE CHILDREN IN THE WOODS” kjlfakh okay you know what?? fine!! you weren’t even going to do anything anyway so let’s not pretend!!

holy shit it’s like Mt. Lady isn’t even there

look at those speed lines!! goddamn. I just felt this huge rush of empathy for Mt. Lady though. like can you imagine growing up with this super-destructive quirk, and managing to become a hero with it against all odds, and having to put up with the manga making fun of you all the time just because sometimes you have a tendency to DESTROY A LOT OF STUFF, but it’s not like you can help it!! but the upside has always been that when your quirk is on, you are fucking UNSTOPPABLE though. so even though it’s been a hell of a rough ride for you, it’s worth it because you’re a complete badass and the number of people who can beat you out in terms of sheer physical strength is probably in the single digits. and you’re working really hard too, and lately you’ve been moving up through the ranks and actually becoming a damn fine hero if I do say so myself (and I do), and it’s like, about time though?? like finally, finally it is all starting to come together for you. and then this snarling trashrock person suddenly comes stampeding along and you put your all into trying to stop him, and it doesn’t even do a damn thing. like, holy shit. that’s just not fucking fair and YOU DESERVE BETTER, MT. LADY

anyway so she’s still hanging in there for now though so let’s check in with our villain squad riding on his back

lmaooo they’re all “I don’t even understand what is going on here”

YOU GUYS, THIS IMPLIES THAT THEY WERE ALL PLUCKED OFF THE GROUND BY THE SCRUFFS OF THEIR NECKS AND THEY HAD ABSOLUTELY NO SAY IN THE MATTER OMG. like I’m picturing Spinner being held by his cape pinched in between Machia’s thumb and forefinger, and awkwardly trying to lecture him like a mom with his hands on his hips all, “BAD GIGANTOMACHIA! NO! NOOOUAGH -- !” and cutting off with a yelp as he’s dropped onto his back

and I am glad they got Toga some clothes! I like to think Gigantomachia grabbed those for her as well. so thoughtful

wow Skeptic actually wants to go back to Re-Destro??

color me legit impressed. I underestimated your loyalty my dude. and let me also just take this moment to extend my gratitude toward Horikoshi for leaving the rest of the MLA out of it because good fucking riddance to them, goodbye forever hopefully!!

I guess they’ll be needing Skeptic’s quirk down the line for some reason? maybe he is meant to be like a new, less out-of-control Twice. smdh y’all out here trying to replace your dead buddy like a pet goldfish

who is this “they” Dabi is referring to

do you mean the heroes? lol yeah I guess they’re pretty distracted by the literal fucking kaijuu you’re currently piggybacking on

SIGH

“the Jakku team must’ve made a mistake” BOY, I’LL SAY. you know what, don’t even talk to me about that yet. it’s still too fresh. suffice it to say that your suspicions are correct and things in Jakku are not very daijobu right about now

anyway here’s a closeup of this bubble person just cuz

they are everything and I want them to be my friend. also there’s a squid person a few paces behind them who can probably do anything a squid can do. or they might actually be a shark person, actually. I don’t know. either way I love them

GETEN PLEASE GO AWAY

WE ARE PHASING OUT THE MLA!! MOVING FORWARD IT’S ORIGINAL LOV ONLY!! I’M SORRY BUT YOU DIDN’T MAKE THE CUT. we already have an ice character so shoo

OH DAMN MY MAN CEMENTOSS HAS HAD ENOUGH OF HIS NONSENSE TOO AHHHH YESS

1) hey so Cementoss is legit terrifying who’d’ve thought

and 2), did Cementoss always have a mouthful of gigantic perfect teeth each the size of a slice of bread, or is this just something I’m only noticing now because I’m behind the curve. either way, let me just say sincerely, DKJDLKFJLSKJG

RE-DESTRO YOU GO AWAY TOO!!

@waywardfacegarden​ you asked the other day which are the characters I actually dislike, and this is one of them lol. he’s just a big ol’ prick, and on top of that has the audacity to not even be interesting in any way so as to balance it out. anyway so apologies to any Re-Destro stans out there but I basically spend every panel he’s in hoping that someone will punch him in the face hard enough to finally make him shut up

anyway so my man Edgeshot is here though, finally!! but of all the people for him to fight! this is a real predicament for me. the most soothing character in the series contrasted with the character who grates my nerves the most. Edgeshot’s sexy ASMR voice is gonna be drowned out by all of RD’s punching and self-important ranting in the anime and I’m lowkey devastated but I’m gonna pull myself together and read on

SPEAKING OF SELF-IMPORTANT RANTING

Edge, if you can liberate us from having to put up with his insufferable ass once and for all I will be so grateful to you. can you do this. please. for me

and it looks like some other boring MLA villains are following along behind Machia so I’m gonna need someone to kick their asses as well. please

-- YESSSSSS

okay so now I see what that comment on my prediction post was referring to lol. I did indeed have my fingers crossed that these two would show up again, and sure enough! THE GANG’S ALL HERE YAY

and Mt. Lady is being sumoed aside!

anyone want tonight’s lotto numbers. during this brief fleeting moment of having my predictions be actually credible, I would just like to say that Hagakure is the U.A. traitor. thank you and goodnight

OH NO KAMUI IS WORRIED

HE LOOKS SO PANICKED?? OUT OF THE BLUE I SHIP IT SO MUCH?? I keep forgetting they’re on the same team and stuff and wow, I need to calm down

LOL MIDNIGHT IS ALL “NO TIME FOR SHIPS!!”

I wonder if her quirk will actually be enough to take him down? this is something I’ve been itching to see for a long time, actually. just how powerful is she? we know her quirk is more effective on males than females, but is anyone actually capable of resisting it? imagine if she really did just knock Gigantomachia out after all of this buildup. that would be some god-tier shit omg, DO IT

(ETA: I am just going to assume that since Horikoshi had to go to elaborate lengths to take her out of the fight, this means that her quirk really was capable of knocking them all out. another tragic case of Too Badass For The Plot. y’all better respect Midnight.)

YESSSSSSSS

is she stripping. you know what -- don’t think about it. I won’t let you ruin this for me Horikoshi. Midnight’s gonna be a badass because the ladies are fucking ruling this arc and that’s all there is to it

NOOOOOO

DABI GET BACK HERE I JUST WANT TO TALK!!

oh thank god, she’s all right. BUT KAMUI ISN’T THOUGH DLKJSFLKSJDG??!

did Kamui Woods just... die

(ETA: okay but for real, is there an actual curse in effect on the Billboard Top Ten right now, though?? did one of them accidentally disturb the tomb of some ancient king??)

...

( ･ั﹏･ั)

oH MY GOD!?!

NOOOOOOO WHY ARE YOU SO QUICK TO SLEEP ON MAJESTIC, LET’S SEE IF THEY CAN DO IT!! GIVE US MAJESTIC GOD DAMMIT

(ETA: Horikoshi is seriously just yanking our chain at this point. when Majestic finally does show up, he or she better have the coolest fucking quirk of all time, that’s all I’m saying.)

okay how badly injured is Midnight here, though?? she just fell all that way?? DO I NEED TO BE REALLY MAD. I CAN WORK MY WAY UP TO IT PRETTY QUICKLY, JUST SAY THE WORD. I’M ALREADY HALFWAY THERE HONESTLY. WHERE’S KAMUI WOODS

!!!!!!!!!!!

AND JUST LIKE THAT MY ANGER EVAPORATES INTO THE NIGHT, YESSSSSSSSS!! MOMOOOOO

holy shit. “a quirk that can stop that thing,” she says. and goes and calls YAOYOROZU FUCKING MOMO y’all I am barely holding myself back from SCREAMING right now I...

you guys

you guys. if Midnight and Yaomomo team up to take down Gigantofuckingmachia using some sort of MOMO MADE A MACHINE TO SPREAD MIDNIGHT’S QUIRK strategy, or whatnot?? I will fucking die on the spot. you can end the manga right there. Kacchan you can keep your quirk I don’t even care

“IT MIGHT BE AGAINST THE LAW” lmaooooo insert John Mulaney “WE’RE WELL PAST THAT” gif here. holy shit. listen, that is fine. if anything it’s even better

WHAT THE FUCK

DO I NEED TO START GETTING REALLY MAD AGAIN!?!?! FUCKING WHIPLASH, IS WHAT THIS IS, BUT YOU JUST TELL ME WHAT SORT OF OVER-THE-TOP REACTION IS NEEDED HERE AND I’LL GO FOR IT

(((( ;°Д°))))

[GRABS HORIKOSHI BY THE COLLAR] listen, you. if you only just now, for the first time ever, gave us a lady hero actually mentoring another lady hero, which we have somehow NEVER HAD BEFORE in almost three hundred chapters, only for you to then KILL OFF THE MENTOR IN THE MIDDLE OF HER GODDAMN SPEECH TO THE MENTOREE, I will... there’s... I’ll... okay, listen. DON’T. THERE WILL BE A RECKONING. CAPSLOCK SUCH AS THIS WORLD HAS NEVER WITNESSED!!

ヽ(#ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ┌┛

I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO REACT TO ANYTHING IN THIS CHAPTER AND I’M LOSING MY MIND OVER IT

so the other kids are all “what the fuck” and “so Momo’s in charge??” which, YES!!! IT’S THE ONE GOOD PART ABOUT ALL THIS SO DON’T YOU DARE QUESTION IT

MOMO NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE CRIPPLED BY YOUR ANXIETY, YOU CAN DO THIS GIRL I BELIEVE IN YOU

hell, it’s not even just an “I believe in you” thing, because it’s not just belief, it’s fact. you motherfucking can do this, you are the most capable and brilliant student in 1-A, you just gotta have faith and let yourself shine!!

so now there are some more panels of Machia running and the villains and heroes fighting, blah blah blah. and Momo screwing up her face as she makes her decision...

YESSSSSSSSS

my baby girl is all grown up and TAKING THESE MOTHERFUCKIN REINS and MOMO I WILL LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU JUST SAY THE WORD!!

lol she’s all “Jirou use your ears and scientifically calculate how long it’ll take him to get here”, and Jirou is all “I can literally fucking see him, he’s gonna be on top of us in like two seconds” WELL OKAY THEN

thank god there are no adult pros left to fuck this up. is that weird that this is a real and honest and completely sincere thought that just ran through my head? like, at this point if any of the adults were around I’d just be afraid of them dying honestly. but with the kids I actually feel real hope that they’re somehow gonna do this. of course it helps that unlike the adults they’re pretty safe from being killed off

also! way to represent the entirety of class 1-B there Honenuki lulz. sorry, The Rest of Class 1-B

OH MY GOD

MT. LADY I WILL LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR YOU AS WELL!! YOU HAVE MY LOVE AND FEALTY!!

I’M STANNING HER SO HARD I’M GONNA EXPLODE SOMEBODY HELP!?!

JIROU SAYS THAT MACHIA HAS SLOWED DOWN!! YOU GUYS I’M ABOUT TO GET “MT. LADY FOR PRESIDENT” TATTOOED ACROSS MY FOREHEAD

lmao at Shouji using his power of “putting some extra eyeballs on my arms” to inform everyone that Gigantomachia is Right Over There and Very Big

good job Shouji

oh my glob I have so much love for Momo right now that it can’t even fucking be contained. brb wildly flailing my hands around a little to try and release some of this excess excitement

maybe Momo can be president instead and Mt. Lady can be the vice president

NO THE CHAPTER IS ENDING I’M NOT READY

AND JUMP IS ON BREAK AGAIN NEXT WEEK TOO, FML!!

okay!!

Kaminari is so fucking brave right now I just want to crush him in a hug?! we know he’s still scared!! look at his eyes!! and he was freaking the hell out earlier too, and now the situation is much worse! but he doesn’t give a fuck because his friends need him! he is ready to be a hero, my little baby boy is all grown up and I’m so proud??

Mineta’s face in the bottom right corner is everything. I know, I know, boooo Mineta, but that’s still the best face anyone has made in the entirety of this manga

Tetsutetsu’s out here all “I humbly request to also represent class 1-B” and Momo is all “okay fine I guess we can have two of you guys”

can we all just stop for a moment to appreciate how KamiJirouMomo is alive and well. like, we had interactions between all three of them in this chapter, in all possible permutations? do you know how happy this makes me?? I am vibrating with joy??!

I really can’t stress this enough -- I have no clue at all what these little soda can things are (anesthetic, I guess??? you know, like how you sometimes buy cans of anesthetic at the supermarket?? what do you mean you don’t do that??), or what they’re gonna do with them. I have like negative clues. but DAMNED IF I GIVE ONE SINGLE FUCK. the next chapter can be them all fucking hurling them at his face for all I care. THE DETAILS OF HOW SHE KICKS HIS ASS DO NOT MATTER!! GOOD MORNING TO YAOMOMO AND YAOMOMO ONLY!! MY MOMO ACADEMIA