#yes I know but I'm talking about the old Disney comics

[ceiling-karasu]

Cartoon Rabbits my beloved

[bluecrocss]

Yes. You are racist. (Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one)

So approximately half a year since the premier of the Disney+ Percy Jackson show, and almost two years since the announcement of the Trio's casting, I would like to take this moment to look back at the insane, racist and anti-black backlash that was launched at Leah Sava Jeffries and a few other cast members from the PJO fandom.

I'm not concerned with the trolls who are openly racist, who resorted to racist slurs and outright threats, everyone agrees that they "took it too far". I want to talk about the rest of you, the "I'm not racist, but.." people, the "What's wrong with wanting book accuracy?" people. Just to let you know, for the unasked question... yes, yes you are.

I've noticed the Percy Jackson fandom has been lording some weird superiority complex over a certain *unnamed* fandom that has fallen out of grace due to their recently outed bigot of an author. But honestly, y'all are not much different. The amount of vitriol and anti-blackness I have seen from this fandom (beyond just bullying a 12 year old girl), y'all don't have a leg to stand on.

Below is a breakdown of the most common arguments I have seen used to justify y'alls absolutely insane bigotry. I am going to explain why none of these justify the amount of anger and vitriol y'all have sent towards Leah, Rick or any of the cast.

I am not here to argue, and this is not a democracy. I am giving you a chance for some self-reflection and to understand that this pattern of violence directed towards POC actors (mostly black women) has never been justified in the name of "book accuracy"/"comic book accuracy"/"ending forced diversity" or whatever other excuses y'all try to make up.

If you still try to justify or argue further for any of these points, I will just block you. I am not coddling you through your racism. If anyone has seen any other dumb arguments floating around that I might've missed, feel free to sound off in the comments.

She's not book accurate:

Neither is Percy, Luke, Grover, Dionysus, Poseidon, and just about every other named character.

Rick already made it clear that physical features were not the priority with casting, rather it was actors that embodied the role. So why are the biggest complaints about Annabeth and Zeus? 🤔

What? You're gonna say everyone else got backlash too? I see you trying to obscure the main issue by playing dumb 😉

See my friend, yes, there were one or two comments about how Percy's hair should be black or how Luke is supposed to be blonde, but as soon as Leah was cast, none of those actors got any significant backlash. In fact, Walker and Charlie literally have an army of fan girls at their beck and call, calling them the perfect Percy and Luke, despite neither being "Book accurate". But then again, have we not observed the pattern of White boy of the month vs WOC to hate for the year? (Yes, I know Charlie isn't white. Further adds to the irony, doesn't it).

Why include character descriptions if you won't stay true to them, you cry? Well, my dear sweet moron, see, books and TV are two different mediums. Because in literature, you can't *Literally* SEE the characters, the author has to add descriptions to paint a picture in your mind, in TV... that's not an issue. So unless the character's appearance is necessary to the plot (like Luke's scar, or Nico being Italian) the show runners can actually focus on more important things.. Like ACTING and PERSONALITY.

2. It's just not how I imagined her:

News flash, babe! ANNABETH ISN'T REAL. None of these character are. They are concepts that originated from the brain of Mr. Rick Riordan. It doesn't matter how YOU imagined her. There are millions of people who read these books that imagined her several different ways. When the creator of the character watched Leah's audition and said, 'Yes! She embodies the character I created!", your imagined version of Annabeth ceased to matter. And guess what? The books still exist... they have not been burned. Your version of Annabeth has not disappeared. Go read the books.

3. Zeus can't be black/Gods have to be Greek/*Insert Character* can't be black:

Y'all did not read the books, I swear. You have to be fake fans looking to troll atp.

The gods move based off the center of western civilization. They change their forms/environment to reflect the culture they are occupying (they did it with Rome, now they're doing it with America). The gods change forms all the time. How we see them is not their true form as a mortal would disintegrate if they were to see their true form.

America is a cultural melting pot (specifically NY where Mount Olympus is now based). If the god's choose forms that reflect the current society they inhabit, they could literally be any race (keep in mind NYC is only 33% white).

All of this is literally SPELLED OUT in the Lightning Thief.

Furthermore, if you're going to push the ethnically Greek thing... Poseidon is British with a British accent and Hermes is Latino. The only ethnically Greek actor is Dionysus (who still doesn't look book accurate). Y'all are sounding like some white supremacists because do you forget that race is a social construct?

Before the advent of the transatlantic slave trade, I can promise you that the Greeks and the Anglo-Saxons did NOT view themselves as the same people. Why are y'all not taking issue with Poseidon's actor then?

Also, Percy Jackson has canonically had a slew of explicitly black demigods since the second book (including Harriet Tubman, which I have mixed feelings about 😭), so I genuinely have no idea where some of y'all are going with this point.

4. She was our smart blonde representation:

Don't pmo. I swear to God!

White, blonde women have NEVER been excluded from Hollywood. Representation is not something you lacked. The dumb blonde stereotype was a simple branch off of a larger misogynistic "dumb woman" stereotype. It has not truly been relevant since the mid 2000s outside of childish jokes.

This iteration of Percy Jackson will probably not go beyond the first 5 books, based off pacing and the age of the actors. So here's a fun game: 5 bucks to the first person who can find me a quote in the first 5 Percy Jackson books, where Annabeth laments her insecurities about being blonde (hint: there aren't any).

Also, her blonde hair does not hold her back at Camp because she is head of the Athena Cabin who are highly respected (and guess what?), ARE ALL BLONDE!

Her insecurities about her hair color are two or three lines at most in the later books, not this fundamental, core part of her character y'all all of a sudden wanna pretend it was. And guess what, as a non-blonde black girl, I was able to read those scenes of Annabeth feeling undervalued because of her looks and relate to her even if she didn't look like me at the time.

Why all of a sudden can y'all not do that with a black Annabeth? By every metric black girls are undervalued for their intelligence in academia more than white girls are, regardless of hair color. So your little representation of a woman undervalued by her looks would still hold. Do y'all dehumanize black women so much, that you are incapable of empathizing with show!Annabeth's plight in the way I could with Book!Annabeth simply because she doesn't look exactly like you?

Your issue isn't that she isn't blonde, it's that she is NOT WHITE.

Furthermore, Becky Riordan had tweeted previously (before the show was even cast) that Annabeth never needed to be blonde (probably recalling the BS y'all put Alexandra Daddario through), so even if they cast a white Annabeth, the blonde hair was never a guarantee. the author and producers all agree that it was not a significant part of her character. It's been a non-issue since day one.

Also, stop acting like smart blondes are rare in media... If you don't go watch some Legally blonde, Iron Man (Pepper Potts), Zack and Cody (Maddie), Liv and Maddie, FMAB (Winry), Captain Marvel, She-Ra, Buffy, The boys (starlight) etc. etc., and go sit down somewhere 🙄🙄🙄 (those were literally all things I've watched recently, off the top of my head, btw 💀)

5. It's not about race, but...:

Yes it is. It was always bout race. No other actors got as much hate as Leah. Her grandmother and other family members on IG had to mute their comments because they were getting so many threats.

Alexandra Daddario had to come to her defense on Twitter. Rick had to put out an official statement on his website. This girl has endured years of psychological torment for simply having the best audition. No one else is book accurate, no one else is ethnically Greek (except Jason Mantzoukas). Walker literally has British and German ancestry.

Why was she being called racial slurs on reddit and in youtube comments?

I know what you're gonna say, "I actually had problems with the entire cast", "I actually had a bigger issue with Walker's hair color", blah blah blah. Then why aren't you in Walker's comment sections? Why are you only making your displeasure known on posts defending/advocating for Leah? Why is she always your first example of 'wrong casting"?

Well, she "looks the most different"... Look up the term "scapegoating".

"Oh, I don't agree with the harassment. I just don't like the casting." Guess what? She's already been cast. They are not going to uncast her. What do you get out of still complaining about it.

All the vitriol you're stirring about her when you complain about her on Social media, it is directing people to send her hate, even if you're not writing it directly. It's is not enough to "not agree" with the racism, it is your duty to actively prevent it. And btw, these are young gen z actors, they are active on social media. They see the edits of themselves (even comment on it) and they most likely see these little "harmless" complaints you're posting. Are your upset feelings really worth contributing to the racist dogpile on this poor girl?

6. Why couldn't they atleast give her blonde braids?:

Why should they? Y'all wanted blonde because of the "dumb blonde" trope... that doesn't apply to POC.

A blonde black girl is gonna be viewed the same as a non-blonde black girl (or at worst, someone might decide she's "ratchet" or some shit for wearing colored hair). What difference would it make?

Why shouldn't Walker dye his hair, then?

7. Annabeth has Gray eyes:

Less than 3% of the global population has "gray eyes". Even if they cast a white actor, they would've needed contacts. Her being black is not the reason Annabeth's eyes aren't gray. Simply put, it is a plot element they removed, like the whole "names have power" element, or Ares having flames for eyes, or Dionysus using his powers to grow strawberries at Camp.

That's how adaptations work. Unnecessary plot elements are cut to save time and budget. This has nothing to do with her casting. They probably also didn't want to make child actors wear contacts (not a new practice).

8. Even if Rick chose her, he was wrong/Disney is forcing him to be okay with it:

Where do I start? Rick created the character. He can't be wrong. Do y'all have no self-awareness? Death of the author has no place here, because y'all are hung up on an aspect of the character that is not relevant to her arc or development.

Y'all's justification for wanting a "book accurate" Annabeth is that she was such an inspirational and important character growing up, and yet your behavior is so in conflict with the character you claim means so much to you. You're narrow minded, dismissive of bigotry and injustice, and disrespectful to the wishes of the creator of your favorite character; everything that Annabeth would never be. Y'all were never genuine fans of the books. You're bigots that needed an outlet for your rage.

Keep in mind, Rick has said countless times that PercaBeth directly mirrors his relationship with his wife. Y'all think he would have allowed them to cast someone who doesn't live up to the woman who has been by his side for decades? The mother of his children?

Regarding Disney forcing him, show me one piece of direct evidence that proves Disney in anyway pressured Rick to cast her. Cuz if you can't, that's baseless speculation. And if you have to resort to baseless speculation, maybe try to examine why it's so important to you to hold on to this belief.

9. So, I'm racist because I hate "race swapping"?:

To start, there is a difference between "race swapping" and "color blind casting". Often times, when y'all complain about the former, you're actually mad about the latter.

It would be "race swapping" if Rick and the team decided ahead of time that they wanted a black Annabeth and ONLY allowed black actors to audition. But the actual reality was that they accepted auditions from everyone (there were white actors and non-black poc that also auditioned for the role) and chose the best person who embodied the role. They didn't "make Annabeth black" and they didn't "make Zeus black", they cast black actors for those roles.

Y'all think you're being slick with your wording. Dismissing that is implying that they did not earn their roles fair and square. Which is racist. It's the equivalent of going up to a black college student and telling them they only got in because of affirmative action. You're dismissing the achievements of a person solely because of their racial background.

For all you people complaining about "unfairness" and "forced diversity", I would think hiring based on merit would appeal to you 🤔

71% of theatrical Hollywood leads were white in 2024 in comparison to 29% POC and you still think "black washing" is a thing? You still get this angry over a black person fairly earning a role because you think in a time where Hollywood only knows to do remakes and adaptations, that the majority of lead roles still *have* to be reserved for white actors?

Once again, white people have never been excluded from Hollywood for being white. Representation has never been something you lacked nor is it something you can lose. Your anger comes from seeing a black face where you think they don't belong. Because you feel you are owed a disproportion of representation in Hollywood.

10. Woke agenda/DEI/Forced Diversity:

If you are unironically using any of these terms in a negative light, it's already too late for me to reason with you. Look up the term "dog whistle". If you are sharing the same terminology with Elon Musk and his fanboys, maybe reevaluate some things.

POC are objectively underrepresented and have been historically excluded through actual laws and policies in Hollywood. There is no such thing as "forced diversity", you have bought in to a right wing conspiracy theory.

"Woke" is a term that was intentionally appropriated from the black community. It originally meant being aware of injustice and systematic threats to the community and is now being weaponized by bigots. Good job.

Diversity and inclusion is a good thing.

11. But POC deserve to have their own stories told:

We do. And we have been fighting for it for over a century now, and we've made great strides, no thanks to y'all.

No thanks to y'all gaslighting us about how little representation we get or that representation matters at all. No thanks to y'all pushing the idea that POC can't sell globally and obscuring POC actors in international promos. No thanks to y'all continuing to whitewash even to this day (Bullet train, the beguiled, gods of Egypt, atla, every portrayal of Jesus ever, etc.). No thanks to y'all calling every piece of media that has more than one black lead and more than one queer couple "woke". No thanks to y'all throwing a fit every time a black person in a fantasy setting isn't a slave.

Fact of the matter is, y'all never cared about POC "getting their own stories", you're only parroting our own words back to us now as a politically correct way of saying, "leave white roles alone" lmao

Well fun fact, actors of color getting opportunities to play lead roles and allowing poc to "tell their own stories" are not mutually exclusive. If y'all cared that much, instead of bullying a 12 year old actress, you could actually support up and coming independent POC writers, directors, and studios 😱

12. Studios need to stop "setting up" actors of color:

Do me a favor and google the term DARVO.

Your racism is not the fault of the studios for giving a POC actor a role that they earned. It is not up to the rest of society to tiptoe around racists to avoid their vitriol. It is our responsibility to hold them accountable and protect minorities from unwarranted hate. At most, you can say it's the responsibility of the studios to provide adequate support to POC actors who face this backlash.

At the end of the day, Hollywood only allows very few spots for POC actors (especially WOC), while simultaneously pushing a new white boy every month to put in everything. Putting minorities in these roles that are usually closed to them, usually opens the door to more actors of color than before.

Brandy being cast as Cinderella did a lot to push her into the mainstream (yes, she was already extremely famous in the black community atp), Halle Berry being the first, black, bond girl literally shot her to icon status, and even going as far back to what Anna Mae Wong did for Asian American actresses with her "femme fatale" roles.

At the end of the day, even with the backlash, *some* rep does more good for POC actors than *no* rep. The solution to racist backlash isn't to take away those opportunities, but rather to not be racist??? 🙄

Also, for everyone that claims that "POC race-swapping" is just as bad as "white-washing", despite white washing having a longer history and objectively causing more harm, note how the backlash to white washing never lasts as long as the harassment that POC get.

Like, no one brings up Scarlett Johansson's ghost in the shell role anymore, but you can best believe Candace Patton is still fending off racist trolls. As much as people hated the atla movie, people moved on quick from Nicola Peltz playing Katara since she was just a kid that accepted the role (re: daddy bought her the role), but y'all would not have any of that consideration for Leah Sava Jeffries.

But I digress...

13. What if we made Tiana white? Wakanda white? Hazel white...:

Ah, my favorite inane point. I was so excited to get here :)

See, I could start out by pointing out how "White washing" and casting a POC actor as a traditionally white character are not equivalent.

I could point out the history of hollywood ACTIVELY excluding POC actors and POC stories. I could point out how grossly over represented white people are in hollywood. I could point out that POC characters are so few in comparison that whitewashing them causes actual harm, where white people have never lacked rep.

I could point out how, because poc characters and stories are so often tokenized that their racial/cultural background is often directly tied to their character's identity, in opposition to a lot of white characters, since hollywood treats white as the "Default".

See, I could make all those points, but the thing is, the people who make this argument already know all that. They are trying to waste time by drawing me into a pointless circular argument that will sum up to "fair is fair", while ignoring all the context and nuance I previously provided.

So you know what? Forget it. Let me play your game.

I am actually fine with a white Tiana. Would it make sense, for her and her family to experience Jim Crow era racism, in the south while white? No. But we can look past it. Disney was never known for historical accuracy anyway 🤷🏿‍♀️

However, in exchange, the live action frozen will have a black Elsa and Anna, live action Rapunzel will be black, live action Merida will be black, we're re-filming Cinderella and Beauty and the beast to cast a black belle and Cindy, snow white will need to be recast as black, and we also get aurora whenever the live action sleeping beauty is announced. But then y'all can keep Tiana, deal?

You want a white T'Challa? Fine! (I'm partial to Ryan gosling), in the meantime, we'll be recasting Iron man, Captain America (Steve version), Bruce banner, Thor, Loki, hawk eye, black widow, ant man, captain marvel, Bucky, Peter Parker etc. All the avengers and their side characters, then y'all can have Sam Wilson, war machine and the whole of Wakanda (will it make sense that a sole, hidden, African nation is randomly made up of white people? Who cares? We get the avengers!).

You want white Hazel? You got her! I hope you have no problem with us taking Percy, Nico, Will, Poseidon, Jason, calypso, Rachel, Tyson, Silena, the stoll brothers, Sally Jackson, Hades, Hepheastus, ares, etc. But y'all can have Hazel and Beckendorf.

If we're gonna do this, let's commit all the way. Fair is fair, after all.

14. Leah isn't as "pretty" as Book Annabeth/Movie Annabeth:

I wish I could say this wasn't a genuine point I had read, but when all else fails, they will always go for a woman's appearance.

Now first of all, as a rule, I will never hold black women to white beauty standards. Our hair will never be long and silky enough, our nose will never be narrow enough, our skin will never be fair enough and our eyes will never be light enough (Might I recommend Toni Morrison, when you get the chance?). But Leah is unfairly gorgeous idc what any of you say, and you're not gonna have me use my defense of Leah as an opportunity to bash Alexandra either because she is also beautiful. These two queens slayed to the best of their abilities within this toxic ass fandom.

I find it funny, however, that so many of you harped on the "blonde" issue because you thought it was important that Annabeth be seen beyond just her looks, but quickly devolve to bashing an actress's looks when it comes to why she's not right for this role 🤔

I would also like to sincerely apologize that the 13 year old girl they cast in the show, wasn't as sexually attractive to you as the 24 year old woman they cast in the movie and sexualized through like 25% of her screen time (I'm actually not sorry. You're very weird if this is an actual point for you).

15. I don't agree with sending hate to the actor, but she's just not right for the role:

Once again, what are you doing by complaining about her casting on no other basis than her race?

The creator of the character said she embodied the role. She has already been cast, and Disney would be in a legal/production hell to recast her atp. Just because you're not directly leaving comments on her social media doesn't mean you're not part of the hate mob.

No matter how you look at it, your issues with her casting come from a very entitled and narrow-minded place. When you join in on these dialogues you are bolstering a sentiment that pushes more people to harass this teenage girl. When you leave these "harmless" complaints, on show content, fan posts or posts defending her, she's liable to read them because the cast regularly interact with fans online.

What do you have to say that is so important that it trumps protecting a young girl from the long-staying trauma of racism, of being told she doesn't deserve something she worked for because of how she was born?

16. I can't even criticize the show without being called racist:

Get. Over. Yourself.

Y'all are not the victim. Have fans of the show gotten protective of Leah and the young cast? Yes.

With good reason. This fandom is unbearably toxic.

Racism outweighs your need for a "perfect adaptation", sorry.

If you explain yourself properly and keep your critiques fair (like, even I don't think this was a perfect season, and will be sharing my thoughts shortly), no one is gonna call you racist.

You're preempting with that because in all honesty, you're probably planning to use your "critiques" of the show to pivot to one of the many points that I just outlined, and you want to pre-empt the criticism.

If a black Annabeth is the end all be all for you, just don't watch the show, no one's holding a gun to your head. Geez.

17. I'm Black/POC and I don't agree...:

Hey, Candace Owens... No one gives a shit.

First of all, for all the "I'm POC and I don't agree" people, you don't speak for us. Anti-blackness is rampant in just about every culture globally. You being not-white doesn't somehow make you less prone to hating black people.

But for the "I'm black and I don't agree" leftovers (assuming you're not just a 👩🏼‍💻 behind a keyboard). Black people are not a monolith. You're not obligated to think a certain way because you're black.

But consider why you're putting yourself up as a barrier to protect this hate mob. It's one thing to just state why you don't like Leah's casting, but to start off your spiel with "I'm actually black" as a way to weaponize the very identity politics you're critiquing... very strange. Not to mention, what are you defending?

The black community is coming together to defend one of our own, a kid who has been receiving death threats since she was 12, and this is when you feel the need to back the opposition?

I mean whatever... sometimes the house slaves would snitch to the master. There will always be some of y'all in the woodwork. It is what it is.

But when the exact ideology you defend is turned against you, when a Baltimore elected official is being accused of getting his job through "DEI", when conservatives are claiming that they wouldn't "trust a black pilot", don't decide that's where you'll finally draw your line in the sand.

All that being said, This is my Annabeth:

May every tongue that rose against Leah Sava Jeffries Shrivel and die in 2025 🙏🏿 My girl will keep winning ❤️

(video by @/waleahhasmyheart on TikTok)

[sparklingelectricblue]

From the Ashes: Marvel Infinity #13

For those who don’t know, Marvel has a subscription service where you can read back issues of comics digitally. This service is called Marvel Unlimited. I really enjoy it. I’s nice to read comics without handling my comics or comics that I have not yet gotten ahold of.

Another part of unlimited is their infinity comics. These are short weekly comics that are online only. They tend to be silly short stories or they explain some missing back story from a main comic book. This week’s issue focuses on Magneto and is meant (I think) to fill in some back story on how Magneto went to young and powerful after being resurrected and fighting Orchis to now old and wheelchair bound.

I know not everyone has access to this so I thought that I would write up a summary about it.

There’s not going to be a lot of screenshots because the comic is meant to be read on a tablet where you scroll down through the story. It makes it so that it’s hard to capture a whole scene. But I’ll try to add some good ones. Plus, I don’t want Disney coming for me. I'm not going beat by beat but I do the major points. Anyways, I talk too much…

We start with this image:

Only to see Max scream “no” as he wakes up. He was having a nightmare. He looks over to the hover chair that he has been using in the new X-Men series. The helmet sits on the chair and seems to be daring him to wear it. “But he is Magneto… …he dares.”

Next scene, Max is hovering around in the chair as Hank is bouncing around him, asking Max if he plans to going Merle. Max confirms, “not that it’s any of your business, but yes”. That’s when Hank asks him if he could not go wearing his helmet and floating chair.

Max has a good response:

Honestly, I just love that Max calls his helmet gaudy. Hank responses that the helmet sends a signal that might be distressing given Max's "checkered" history. “At least try to put our new neighbors at ease.”

Next scene is Max in town in a normal wheelchair sans helmet. He compares the townspeople of Merle who worked or ignored the sentinel factory to the “neighbors” who willingly ignore the concentration camps outside their towns or the trains that passed through during the Holocaust. Honestly, a pretty fair comparison. “And so he will never trust a “neighbor” again.”

At this point someone bumps into Max causing him to drop what he was holding. The person is saying sorry but Max is calling him an idiot. A random girl picks up what Max dropped and gives it to him. Girl: “Here you go Mister Magnet. You dropped your pretty hat.” The art makes the girl look preteen but the dialogue makes her seem younger.

Max responds like this:

The girl’s dad says to her, “Don’t worry about it Anna. That old man’s probably just having a bad day.” Anna responds, “*sniff* he seems so sad, Daddy”. None of that seemed sad to me. Just angry and cranky. Maybe justifiably cranky given how things have changed for both him and mutant kind and he is stuck in a town where people worked towards the eradication of mutants. And it's cold. And someone bumped into him.

Maybe the writer was trying to reference that scene in Son of M where Luna says that Max is not a bad man, just sad.

But look at this face! It just makes me laugh.

Why does Max have a kippah? He’s going to a temple. Maybe the dream made him decide to go to temple.

Once inside, there’s a person who approaches him, “I was wondering when you’d drop by”. Max says he's been busy and that Merle was the last place he expected to find a temple.

The person is Rabbi Rachel Sagan and she offers Max a cup of coffee and to listen to him. She calls him "Mr. Eisenhardt", which I didn't know Max's real name was public knowledge or not. I guess it is now.

Max takes her up on it and over coffee he lists all the various places that he's seen destroyed: "Asteroid M. Utopia. Avalon. Genosha... Oy, Genosha. And now Krakoa."

So Rabbi Sagan asks how this brings Max back to temple.

It's really understandable why he would feel this way and everything he's been through.

"When Genosha fell, I looked out over the ruins and I knew we only had one or two chances left to marshal our factions together in the pursuit of a common dream. That chance will never come again."

Rabbi Sagan compares Max to Moses, leading his tribe though the wilderness. Max states, that was Charles. "The bald schmuck with the eyebrows? No, he never saw himself as an instrument. You can tell. It's you. It's always been you. But there's a problem..."

The show Rabbi Sagan put her hand on Max's, "Moishe was a humble man, Max. Are you?"

Pfft! No! He's the Master of Magnetism!

Max responds. "I... have been humbled. Over and over."

Rabbi Sagan says that's not what was asked, and prompts him to remember his Torah; how Moshe was was commanded to climb and was told him he would not live to cross the River Jordan.

Max: "What are you insinuating, Rabbi?"

Rabbi Sagan: "I'm suggesting that your fear is a consequence of your pride. Do you really fear that there is no promised land for your people, or do you fear that they will not be able to reach it without you?"

Max doesn't respond well to this.

Everyone has probably seen the scene where Max is then zooming out on his wheelchair while stating, "This was a mistake. I should never have come." so I'm not going to include it here.

The next scene is him outside in the street. He's angry about what the Rabbi said. A caption box says, "The Gall! Why if he was still himself, he'd..." . When suddenly, a truck sliding at full speed in the snow with a loud "Skreeeeee". Someone yells, "Billy, get outta the road! It can't stop!" and Max is surprised.

Bam! The truck hits him throwing him from his wheelchair before hitting a telephone pole and bursting into flames.

There is a close up of Max's face with blood on it. A caption box says "Yes, in dreams, he is a founder and feller of nations."

Then we end on this scene.

What's going to happen? We'll find out next week!

[daughterofheartshaven]

I was typing all of this up as a reblog to someone and then was reading it over and realized I wasn't really addressing their post correctly. Their post was something along the lines of "noting how Doctor Who fans are excited for the show to get cancelled and believe that suddenly all of the EU stuff will become good like it was in the 90s" and I proceeded to write up "why I'm excited to see what the happens in the EU when the show gets cancelled even though I don't think it will suddenly become like it was in the 90s" which is a similar topic that isn't actually the same topic.

So, uh, here's why I am excited to see what happens in the EU when the show gets cancelled even though I don't think it will suddenly become like it was in the 90s.

First of all, I've seen some posts disparaging the quality of the EU stuff (especially Big Finish) has done recently compared to the Wilderness Years. I... can't really agree, with Big Finish especially. I like modern Big Finish a lot more than I like Wilderness Big Finish. (For example, the recent Second Doctor Adventures and the Sixth Doctor Purity trilogy are both among my favorite Who stories of all time. Don't spoil me on The Conspiracy of Raven tho I have yet to listen to it.) If you like the old Big Finish stuff better, then that's a totally valid opinion to have; I'm just trying to show my perspective. One thing I try to say a lot during these sorts of discussions is that it's so cool how many different valid opinions there are about Doctor Who. I'll totally agree that the Doctor Who books done during the EU level tended to be more interesting than ones done in the NuWho era, but that's really only one part of the EU.

It's also probably worth noting that I tend to like the EU better than the show itself for the very simple reason that I don't like tv as a medium as much as I like comics or books or audio dramas as a medium. I don't think the EU is better than the tv stories! I firmly disagree with that! It's just that the EU tends to be in mediums that don't give me anxiety to engage with.

But yeah. I haven't talked about this online, but I've totally talked to people outside tumblr about the fact that I'm very interested and exited to see what happens after the show gets cancelled. For me this is very heavily pushed for by two factors.

One, curiosity. As has been said elsewhere, the circumstances now are very different to that of the 90s, but the Doctor Who franchise is big enough that I have full confidence it would continue to do something. I'm confident there is enough of a market for books and stuff to be viable, given how many books Obverse and Arcbeatle are pushing out that are spiritual successors of 90s book lines and have nothing to do with the show today. I'm not expecting the 90s again, but the concept that there won't be anything (or anything worth something) after a cancellation is one I fully disagree with. I hope we'll get Doctor Who books that are more divorced from what the tv show is currently doing. Maybe we won't though, and I'm okay with that. But there will be something. And I'm very interested to know what that is.

And two, inevitability. To be perfectly honest, I will be surprised if Doctor Who the tv show survives until 2030. I see waaaaaaay too many parallels with how Classic Who went out to what we've been seeing right now, and the current climate of tv shows is very unfriendly to a long-runner like Doctor Who. The show, as far as I am aware, got pretty dang close to cancelled back when Chibnall and Whittaker left, and I kinda expect Gatwa to be the last televised Doctor for some time. Even if he's not, Doctor Who has pretty much always had diminishing returns, and I don't think shoving Disney into the mix has really offset that too much. No matter what, NuWho will end at some point. And I'd much rather be exited for the next stage of something then any of the other alternatives.

Am I being optimistic? Yes. I do that. But I don't think I'm being unrealistic. I certainly don't think the content is going to get better after the show gets cancelled, but I think it will be different and continue to evolve, and I'm exited to see where that goes.

[vani11a-ice]

So, any unpopular opinions about Star Wars Legends that you have? I'm perfectly willing to listen.

Lmao hi, I didn’t expect to see you here! I really liked your Mara Jade criticism/analysis, and I saw your thoughts about my silly little hashtags—off topic to the ask but yes I definitely agree it’s too late to do anything with Mara Jade now given her story already concluded in Legends/EU verse, not to mention Disney now own the rights so that couldn’t even happen. If she were rewritten however she definitely could be far greater of a character.

As for your kind ask, when it comes to Star Wars EU there’s a lot to unpack because there’s so much content, but I guess I can give an overall opinion to make it more concise (But brace yourself, I will be yapping quite a bit anyways on here lol).

I generally love Legends. I grew up mainly with the central Lucas canon many years before Disney acquired the franchise: obviously the movies and 2008 clone wars series, and then some small EU content such as video games and some children’s comics/books before I even knew what the EU was. Because of this, I think it’s easy for me and many others to look back on the old stuff and be nostalgic for it.

But now that I’m older and gotten back into Star Wars (after losing interest in it for a while due to the sequels), I now have a better grasp of Legends content as well as a lot of lore I didn’t know as a kid—mainly books about what happens post ROTJ—and one thing I’ve noticed is that the quality highly fluctuates. On the one hand you get some amazing stuff like the Old Republic era, some of the Clone wars comics, old Battlefield games, the Darth Plagueis novel, the Prequel novelisations, Thrawn, Clone Wars 2003 and ofc many more. On the other hand, you get some pretty ridiculous stuff too, like Dark Empire, Shadows of the Empire, the Force Unleashed (Ironically, I actually really like this game for the nostalgia, its gameplay, Galen himself, story potential and the memes but many events of the game itself do not realistically make sense lol) and many books post ROTJ (mind you haven’t read all of them, way too many lol) that kind of have plot points I’m not too happy with and I could go on forever about (and some others I probably haven’t thought of).

My main point is, many legends fans will always advocate that the solution to Disney’s less than stellar Star Wars works recently is doing adaptations of existing legends material. And whilst I do think that there is a lot of lore you can pluck from legends and reuse/rewrite for their potential (I mean Disney already does that with characters like Thrawn), I never would want a 1-1 recreation. First of all, Legends started before the prequels so a lot of it doesn’t make complete sense now anyways (Hot take, but post-prequel-movies legends has always been better overall in terms of quality. For this reason, Old Republic/Prequel era was handled better overall than New Republic era). Additionally, Legends just isn’t as consistent or good overall as people would like to believe. It’s a large universe with several different writers, there’s bound to be mistakes/bad works riddled throughout here and there.

I also don’t think there’s enough people that talk about (especially) the older legends materials’ problematic elements as well. I’m not always a huge fan of how certain writers treat female and even other minority/non-human characters in Legends. I’m sure you’re familiar with this with people like Mara Jade. One of my other personal main gripes just to list another example is Leia. I’ve always hated how sidelined she is because she was always my personal favourite as a child, and the writers throughout the continuity could not make up their mind on whether she should be a Jedi or not to the point where her skills largely varied between writers until they finally decided to make it official when she’s much much older. Even by then she’s already overshadowed by her children/brother. George Lucas himself didn’t always write her or other female characters in the best way either, but I always thought an EU continuity would be the perfect place to give her the attention she deserves, instead all we got was an inconsistent arc, especially after the Thrawn trilogy. Disney could have turned this around but unfortunately the exact same thing happened where they couldn’t make up their mind on whether she was a Jedi or not (and gave her the shittiest excuse for quitting—how ironic that both Legends and Disney write in immediate motherhood and marriage as a sexist obstacle rather than actually letting her character grow before/during these events).

Fanatic Legends fans will, however, unfortunately rarely agree or at least try to understand criticism of their favourite universe, and, in my view, this is no better than Disney Adults who vehemently reject criticism of some of the worst recent Star Wars media that’s been released.

To conclude this long ass rant, I just think Star Wars EU whether that be Legends or Disney could do with rewriting/organisation here and there. But that’s highly unlikely, so a more realistic solution is just to pick and choose the media you enjoy from both universes (or make up your own!) and just accept it as your own personal canon. That’s what gives me peace and mind anyways :)

[ozma914]

Movie Review: Deadpool and Wolverine

 One danger of watching "Deadpool and Wolverine" in the theaters is that you never know what was spilled on that floor you're rolling around on.

And I don't mean you'll be making out with someone because the movie's boring, either. No, "Deadpool and Wolverine" is exactly what it's advertised to be: Profane, fast-paced, irreverent, hilarious, and ... oh, yeah. Emotional.

That's the trick Ryan Reynolds and company manage to pull off. Deadpool speaks directly to the audience, talks about being in a movie, makes fun of Marvel and Disney, and just generally breaks all the rules. Then he grabs you by the feels and pulls you in until you actually care about this guy, despite the fact that you both know he's only a character.

Wade Wilson has left his super anti-hero days behind him and sells cars, badly, after a failed attempt to join the Avengers. But he's pulled back into his old life when he discovers his entire universe is going to end because of the loss of its anchor hero, Wolverine, who died during the events of "Logan". (Hey, it been out way too long for that to be a spoiler.)

That sends Wade on a multiverse-spanning search for another Logan to bring back, an attempt that treats us to several different Wolverines until Wade finds one that may work. Unfortunately, it's the worst Wolverine in all the universes. Together they set out on a blood splattered journey across timelines, encountering familiar help and villains along the way.

Yes, it has a plot. But just putting Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in a room together would generate plenty of fun for two hours, all by itself. They're clearly having a blast here, and yet, as mentioned earlier, they also generate plenty of pathos and suspense. After all, there are millions of universes, and Deadpool's isn't even the main Marvel one. There's nothing to say it will survive the fight.

I'm not sure there's any way to communicate just how much fun "Deadpool and Wolverine" is. It helps to know something of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (especially the TV series Loki). It also helps to be a fan of the comics, although its not necessary. Most of the main points we hit along the way are familiar to even those with only a passing knowledge of the MCU, for the same reason someone who's never seen Star Wars can spout off a dozen catchphrases and the basic plot.

Just the same, the sheer number of cameos, references, and background clues will bring squeals of glee from comic fans, even as non-comic fans enjoy the fast pace and no holds barred banter. Oh, and the stabbing. Lots and lots of stabbing. Did I mentioned the movie's rated R? Do NOT take your kids to see it.

But take yourself to see it. If you have half as much fun as Reynolds and Jackman clearly did, it'll be a good day. Where to find our books or just have some fun:

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4898846.Mark_R_Hunter

Blog: https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

Website: http://www.markrhunter.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrhunter/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

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Smashwords:  https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/ozma914

Remember: Books can be just as much fun as Deadpool, without having to clean up the blood.

[ducklooney]

Sorry to ask you, but first I want to congratulate you for having 1000 followers, and secondly, one question. Who do you think would best play Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie? Since I saw you complained about their voices? It's just purely out of curiosity. Thank you. 😁

Hi and sorry for the late reply, and thank you very much for these words of yours.

I assume you saw my post about my comments for Donald's nephews at House of Mouse. I absolutely do not like how they sounded there. Yes, it's a bit of a complicated topic, but I think Donald's nephews would sound best like boys their own age. After all, the boys are smart, albeit naughty, but they would sound much better that way. They were at their best in these educational cartoons like "Scrooge McDuck and Money" from 1967 and "Donald's Fire Survival Plan" from 1965. Dick Beals played them and I know Mellomen played them too.

However, even though many people don't like her, I think Russi Taylor voiced them as well as Webby in OG Ducktales. And then she gave their voices in several cartoons. And she gave voices so that if you listened carefully you could tell by the tone which was which Donald's nephews. It sounds funny, but those who followed the OG Ducktales closely would certainly know. You could imagine their voices while reading Donald Duck comics. Of course, Clarence Nash's voice wouldn't be bad, but that would be more true for old comics, while for newer ones more voices than Russi Taylor or boys of their age. Unfortunately she passed away five years ago and the big question is who could replace her to do her voice for Huey, Dewey and Louie. I hope they find some good voice actresses for it.

Of course, actresses like Jeannie Elias, Pamela Adlon and Elizabeth G. Daily did a great job of portraying Donald's nephews in the Quack Pack and did a good job of voicing Donald's teenage nephews. Too bad they didn't give them another chance to play Donald's nephews properly afterwards. As for Ducktales 2017, I know everyone praises that version, although I didn't like it, but that doesn't mean it's not a good version. However, the most I dislike about them are their voices, which absolutely did not sound like boys of their age, but as if they were 20 years old. I know it's pretty trendy in modern cartoons to have famous TV and movie actors play boys, but somehow it doesn't always work. You know about Danny Pudi, Ben Schwartz, and Bobby Moynihan who played Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck in Ducktales 2017. Let's face it, those actors are very good, but they just kind of gave me bad voices in a way that didn't even sound like boys from 11 years old, already from 21 and older, which is quite annoying. For me, I wouldn't want Donald's nephews to sound like that in the future. Although with how Disney treats all these characters, I can only say that I expect only negative experiences and nothing more.

This is only for the original version, while for the dubbing of other countries Donald's nephews are mostly played by boys or female actresses and they did a good job. In my opinion, the best Latin American Spanish, Spanish and Hungarian dubbing. Another interesting fact is that for the German dub a male voice actor voiced Donald's nephews in Quack Pack, while in the French dub the voice actors who voiced Dewey and Louie in Quack Pack also voiced the same characters in Ducktales 2017. Although they have totally different personalities. XD But I hope you understand what I'm talking about.

Certainly, in my opinion, it would be preferable if in the future Donald's nephews are played by someone who knows how to do children's voices or do voices like the late Russi Taylor did or they are played by boys their own age. That's how I imagine them talking while reading Donald Duck comics. However, this is just my opinion. I hope you are happy with this and I apologize to others if this bothered them, I was just stating my opinion.

[haethyre]

X-Men 97 Thoughts

My personal opinions

Okay. So I grew up with X-men The Animated Series. It was one of my fave shows. It always came on late at night on Toon Disney (at times i shouldnt have been awake LMAO) so it has a special place in my heart. I was very surprised that of all things they decided to "continue" it. So, when I heard about it, I did a full rewatch (even that ungodly last season where quality took a nosedive OOF) Anywhoo! Started and finished 97. Those who know me best know at heart I am a big OG fan of my fandoms and am trepidacious of reboots/even continuation reboots, bc lets be honest most of them are all about stomping on the source material, SO I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed Xmen 97.

You could really see how much they tried to capture the feel of the old show and the characters. The voice replacements were surprisingly well done. (i mean, Wolverine is a little off, but i'll give the guy a break its been like...28 yrs XD ) The animation looks amazing. Even if i'm taking some points off for the hair hfgjhdf haha

Now the storyline.... The elephant in the room. We all know the one. I have been a Romy fan since I was a kid and yes, when I was a young girl in Borders, I did come across the comic that showed the RoguexMagneto storyline. I hated it then and I hate it now. Its just...weird. (Again, my opinions. If you like it, power to you. Enjoy, but its not for me and this post isn't for you) but its even weirder in the show, and ill tell you why. As a Marvel comic reader, I'm well acquainted with the fact that everyone gets with everyone. That is just a trope of Marvel comics. All ships of imaginable and unimaginable proportions happen. BUT I think when doing this, they really should have thought it through a bit more in context of the show's universe alone . Bc I'll be real, if you're coming in from TAS, this kinda hits you out of nowhere. She had no form of connection with Magneto in the past show. Like....they had a makeshift funeral for him and she didn't even care. She was just worried about Gambit being stuck in space. So, their "secret" just seems so random and out of place. I do like that it was used for her to understand fully her feelings for Gambit, but man was it frustrating to see him just killed off when he was one of the best characters.(even if it was really well done and the animation, again, was amazing)

There's talk of him coming back as "Death" which is a storyline I'm not familiar with but I also heard talk of the original showrunner idealizing a timeline where Rogue and Magneto have kids....so... IDK It all just left me a bit frustrated and disheartened bc Romy was like one of my earliest ships before i knew ships were a thing. To see what happened to it made me sad, even if it could be part of a long game to get them to their HEA. (and thats always an if bc we don't know, even if the original guy isn't in charge anymore)

Other things that bugged me a little but not too much. Gonna bring up Morph. I love Morph. They were always a fave and they went through so much to finally be back on the team again. I really don't understand why they changed their character design tho? I read it was to make Morph look more like the character changeling from the comics but this is again something that doesnt make sense coming out of TAS bc Morph always had that other appearance throughout the entire show. I mean...it could have at least been explained... Also, as far as the feelings for Wolverine, i kinda found it funny XD bc in TAS, it always seemed like it was the other way around jkhfgjkdfh Wolverine was so attached to Morph and wouldn't let 'em go. That being said, I kinda wish they didn't go this route if its only meant to be unrequited and sad. AGAIN. I know. Marvel is all about unrequited drama jfhdkjfdh but hasn't Morph been through enough??? That being said, I love the ship even though I know its doomed. Wolverine is the worst person to be down bad for tho. Mans falls in love at the drop of a hat fhghdfjhsd

Other than these couple things, I really loved the show. Some people said "why are they shoving so much story into such a short amount of time" XD The storyteller in me would like to agree but i will be honest, there is nothing more like Xmen TAS than smooshed storylines jkdfhfkjds with random one-off eps in between. XD So, I was fine with it.

I liked the conclusion with Scott and Jean, as messy as it was. The family fun time was a pleasure to watch.

Xavier and Magneto. They really highlighted their messy, but still devoted relationship from the original series, so that was nice to see. I was glad to see him back in the red suit LMAO bc the one he was wearing all season was weird for me.

I loved Jubilee's journey, and it was cool that they brought Alyson Court back for that one episode.

I was very pleased overall that they didn't tone things down and since censors are different these days, they could show more stuff they couldn't in the 90s. So, I am looking forward to more seasons (and pleeeeease for the love of god give Romy back to me i am begging)

[olderthannetfic]

Hi! So I have a rambling explanation that’s going to lead into a genuine question about making a website somewhat like a03 or finding alternatives to a site I will mention (it’s not a03 don’t worry)

I am a non/disney editor, crossover artist, amv maker and deep faker and any other term for “make videos of characters in canon or au type scenarios to music”. I’m also a fanficcer. And I remember when being wary of Anne Rice and Archie Comics and DC was a thing. A teacher, to cover his ass for an assignment of mine, taught me how to write an apology letter to a company on the offhand my hand written basically Batman fanfiction, made it’s way online or was heard about. I was in the tail end right before A03 but I am extremely grateful that the site exists. Okay. So now I need to talk about the Owl House. In season three episode special one, Luz Noceda makes an amv coming out to her mom.

Editor friends in a private discord were both happy and worried. Luz is one of us….but also Disney knows about us, to some level. Nothings happened I’ve just been stewing and I’m just worried something might hit the fan for the community given many of us use Disney media (hard not to when 80% of things put out is by them) So I’m asking how one would make a platform like A03 but for video media. Or if there’s things you know like that. YouTube is getting more and more difficult for anyone nowadays too.

Again, nothings really happened yet, I just can’t get it out of my head

--

Video is worlds harder than text, but you know that.

There are a couple of approaches here: First, more is more. The more sites you have your stuff on, the smaller the chance that Disney can nuke all of them. Second, if you're not just using youtube and getting good at playing the algorithm, you need some way for people to find you or to keep track of all your alternate hosting.

Vidders of the oldschool sort have taken to using AO3. It doesn't have native hosting, of course, but it provides a stable URL and useful fandom-based tagging without algorithm bullshit. It's also a decent way to get vids out there if you only have download links and no streaming (though, of course, that means fewer views). You can embed a bunch of different copies of the same thing in the same work.

I don't know of a ton of fannish attempts at video hosting that are open to everyone. The only person I can think of who's heavily working on that is the guy behind Vidders.net who has a few different projects going.

For other hosting options, I'd see what AO3 currently has whitelisted for embedding. Two obvious ones are Critical Commons and Archive.org.

--

Broadly, yes, fanvids and AMVs have been subject to even more disastrous mass deletions than fanfic has, and far fewer of them have been saved by other fans because video files are huge.

Oldschool AMVs in the strict sense (i.e. Japanese anime and not Disney) are catalogued and sometimes hosted on animemusicvideos.org. Oldschool Media Fandom has some vidding archivists, and really old stuff was released on tape and then disc, and people still have their copies of those. But online-only fannish video stuff from the 00s and 10s has massive gaps in the historical record already.

Disney is quiescent now, but they haven't always been, and neither have other rights holders. Worse, a bunch of hosts vidders liked just up and deleted their entire sites, wiping out eras of videos and commentary.

Your stuff is in less danger than it would have been 10 years ago, as far as anyone can tell, but video is always in massive danger of disappearing.

--

If you actually succeed at video!AO3, more power to you! I'm just skeptical that you'll be up to the technical and financial challenge if you don't already know more than you currently do, you know?

Hosting video has, among other problems, the issue that people trading actual abuse materials will upload their videos to your service. Hosts often play whackamole with illegal and traumatizing content. I've known people whose jobs exposed them to this shit, and they were... not okay.

I guess you could make things slightly easier on yourself if you restricted video to cartoons only, but then you'd have the same issues amvs.org does where people who start as one kind of editor start working with other footage and keep trying to upload the wrong thing.

It's often not really viable to host unless you make everyone pay and/or you're authorizing a few dozen accounts of people you've vetted, not running a service just anyone can sign up for. Hosting a hundred videos for friends that you have reviewed and know to be fanvids/amvs is a lot easier than hosting enough stuff that you can't personally review it all.

If you or anyone else is interested in trying to start a site, I'd go check out the various writings by Denise (who runs Dreamwidth). She has some twitter threads and posts on enforcement and running a platform. I remember she talked about the tech people use to detect CSAM from known law enforcement databases.

I don't want to be a downer here, but there are serious legal implications to being the actual host as opposed to just running a discord or something on someone else's platform and reporting some fucker if they try to post illegal shit.

--

If I were you, I'd get my buddies together, embed all our works on AO3, and then maybe make a collection or tagging standards so we could find each other's stuff.

For hosting, I'd add the Internet Archive, Vimeo, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. to Youtube and do a periodic audit of AO3 works to make sure links were still working.

AO3 already has a lot of tags that have been made filterable, like Fanvids, AMV, Video Format: Streaming, etc.

[signor-signor]

June 27, 2023 - 7 Years Later

And now a TED Talk-type presentation (a DET Discussion) by Lord Hater.

Attention, fans of Wander Over Yonder (and Lord Hater, #1 superstar), I'm reaching out to you today to give you the current status of our show and explain why you need to pull yourselves together and pull your own weight in acknowledging the show's need for one more season! For those who are completely clueless, Wander Over Yonder is a sci-fi comedy cartoon show created by veteran cartoonist Craig McCracken, and it debuted in 2013 on Disney Channel before being moved to Disney XD. It ran for two seasons, but one more season was planned and probably primed for production.

Seven years ago, the second season showcasing our lives came to an end, in which I single-handedly stopped Lord Dominator, who, by the way, nearly destroyed the entire galaxy and spurned my affections for her. HOWEVER, because of the uncalled-for cancellation that was decided by the "higher up bosses of bosses of bosses," the majority of the world keeps calling this event the... ssseries... finale... oh, it's painful to call it that... and frankly, I'm really, really sick of it. So let me tell you this...

Our show is NOT dead! It's just left in limbo! Two seasons were NOT enough! The End of the Galaxy is NOT the true series finale and I have the information to prove it!

As you can plainly see, the people who worked on our show NEVER planned on stopping after two seasons. The show itself even has some details pertaining to the plans for our third season, which was pitched back in early 2015.

For instance, in The Waste of Time, there were two images that briefly appeared during the final time travel sequence: one of an orbble-powered ship called the Star Nomad, where, according to Craig McCracken, I'd have to bunk with Wander (shudder), another is one of what fans are speculating to be me in a past life as a space ape. I can see the resemblance, but the facts remain to be known and proven true. Nevertheless, neither of them appeared anywhere else in the first season or the second.

Another telltale sign of our show's unfinished business is the absence of the other villains, including Emperor Awesome. Last time I saw them on the show, they were still on Suburbon V; oddly, they never reappeared when Dominator seemingly destroyed every planet except the one Wander and Sylvia found. As a result, after I defeated Dominator, I was unable to brag about it to the villains!

(EMPEROR AWESOME (off stage): Dude, just because I wasn't in that episode doesn't mean I don't know what happened!)

Anyway, another reason our show is not finished is this: In Craig's Tumblr post announcing that gropforsaken cancellation and concession, he told the readers, and I quote, "We had plans for new characters, the return of old characters, and even a bit of backstory!" Back in 2015 at Comic-Con, just a couple of weeks before our second season premiered, he confirmed he had an origin story planned out for me; the second season only revealed that Major Threat's evil deeds inspired me to take up villainy, but no origin story explaining how I, Lord Hater, came to be!

(MAJOR THREAT (off stage): I'd sure love to hear all about it, man, but for reasons beyond my understanding, we have to keep it in the vault until the big cheese himself gives Craig the okay.)

Yes, Jeff, I get it. Just so you know, you were planned to be a recurring character. Now, in the case of the new characters, I heard they would include a team of space cops called Star Forcement Forcen Force.

(COMMANDER PEEPERS (off stage): It's Star Force Enforcement Force, sir.)

Whatever. Apparently, these new characters were set to be introduced in the third season we were denied years ago, and because we don't have that third season, they have to hide themselves under question marked sheets and we're not able to say their names, like [NAME REDACTED], [NAME REDACTED], or [NAME REDACTED]. AAHH! It's so annoying!

And don't get me started on how Craig ended his post with some of the words from a song Wander sang to cheer me up, or rather, reignite my ire. Believe me when I say his post will ignite your ire when you read all the way to the end, unless, of course, you're a hardcore fan of some overrated show that gets so much attention. I'm talkin' to you, blue cat boy.

Moving right along, in the finale of one of Disney's underappreciated shows, Future-Worm, the titular invertibrate and his companion Danny warped to various universes, including the alternate version of the one in which our show takes place. And guess what they saw when they arrived in it... Wander and Sylvia aboard the Star Nomad! Remember when I said I'd have to share a room with Wander on the ship? This is the very ship, the same one you saw in The Waste of Time, and if there's something I know about it, it's that it started out as a regular airship seen in The Secret Planet, and Wander and Sylvia would use it as their new mode of transportation to bring any refugees remaining on the planet I saved back to their home planets. You know, the planets I wanted to conquer as soon as I saved the galaxy. The point is, this ship was planned to play a BIG role in Season 3, and while I'm thankful for not bunking with Wander at this time, I'm still determined to know more about it.

(WANDER (off stage): Hey, Hater, if you wanna know more about the Star Nomad, you can join me at Underappreciated Cartoons Anonymous and Fyootch and I will be more than happy to tell you all about it.)

No thank you, and I'm still not your buddy. Oh, that's another reason our show's not finished: Wander has not yet befriended me. Even if he did, I'd still keep my distance from him, but I digress.

Now, what else is there? Waste of Time images... absence of other villains... origin story... new characters... Future-Worm cameo... Oh yes.

Fans, I have saved the most obvious reason for the show's total lack of closure for last... A DOWNED SPACE CAPSULE WITH GREEN LIGHTNING AND MONKEY-LIKE SCREECHING FADING INTO MY EVIL LAUGHTER! Words alone cannot describe how serious this is for a show that got canceled prematurely. If you look up "cliffhanger" in the dictionary, there would be a picture of that space capsule. To add insult to injury, Disney kept shunning us and continued to show more love for that strange Oregon town show, which the Internet never seems to stop talking about even though it already ended perfectly, and that anime-influenced show about a naïve princess with a powerful, cutesy-wutesy wand that got not three seasons, but FOUR seasons! Honest to Grop, I'm really fed up with their popularity. They ALWAYS outrank us!

(Clears throat) Thankfully, the SaveWOY campaign was flourishing since the day Craig made that dreadful announcement, but as the years went by, most supporters simply gave up and moved on, almost as if they were telling us that we can't reason with those "higher up bosses of bosses of bosses." It’s pathetic. You know what I say to that? Giving up is quitting, and quitters never win! Don't make those bosses think they were in the right when they canceled the show. Not doing anything gives them the impression that you're giving in to their demands. If a show has more to tell, THEY should be giving in to YOUR demands. And if you dare to discourage the curious fans from fighting for a proper conclusion, consider yourself likely to be struck by lightning.

Don't forget, our show is currently accessible on Hulu and Disney+, but with Disney being focused on the present, the future, and the shows that are hard to surpass in popularity, like that one about the school girls and cold-blooded critters and that one show about a Hispanic girl in a fantasy world, saving the show has become more impossible than difficult. Seriously, what has an entertainment conglomerate got against shows with guys as main protagonists? What does it have against a show that doesn’t feature Earth? And for that matter, why is it still not swayed by the SaveWOY campaign? How are they not comprehending what the fans have been trying to communicate on social media? We’re in the 21st century, for crying out loud!

After seven grueling years, the SaveWOY campaign's efforts to save the show have been absolutely futile, leaving the public perpetually in the dark about the plans for Season 3. That's why I, Lord Hater, propose we start up an entirely new campaign where fans old and new come together to meet a common goal: FinishWOY! Instead of begging Disney to bring back the show, we can make it our mission to collect the missing details, put the pieces together, and create that third season in the cheapest format possible! In doing so, we can spare Disney the trouble of getting the crew back together and spending tons of money to make it. At this time, Craig is back at his alma mater working on that Powerpuffed Girls revival and the Foster’s preschool retooling for Imaginated Friends, and he said that "movement, music, and McBrayer” would do our show’s third season justice. However, in these difficult economic times when he can't be bothered to spill the beans, the crew is already scattered, most of the world fails to acknowledge our existence, and the bosses don't give a zbornak’s pajamas about the show's unfinished business, it's probably best if we make it ourselves, and if it has to be relegated to web comic form, I'm willing to take it as it is!

In conclusion, if a show is suggested to be incomplete, it would be totally foolish to say it ended and even more foolish to leave it ignored. If you do that, you push it further into obscurity and let it bite the dust. If that third season bites the dust, everything planned for it bites the dust as well... my origin story... that orbble ship... Star Forks and Forks Galore... and most important... MY CHANCE TO CONQUER THE REBORN GALAXY! Yes, we may be lucky enough to have two seasons and that instance where I defeated Dominator and won, but it’s hard to be happy about it when there is CLEARLY a space primate in peril! There are people who know all that was planned for Season 3, but they pledged to never share everything they know about it to anyone in any instance for any reason, whether that’d be their children, their neighbors, or at a convention center. Now, if you want to see me back in action, stop lamenting on "what could have been" and start ruminating on "what there could be." Why wait for Disney to make Season 3 a reality when you fans can simply do it yourselves? You don’t need their permission. Nothing's gonna stop you. You've probably watched Seasons 1 and 2 multiple times, and we have just enough information to get an idea of what might happen, so make that third season and the show will be revived, at least in your imagination. Or if the bosses finally decide to revive the show themselves for one more season, that would be a miracle. Either way, this wrong is still waiting to be righted, and I’m not gonna wait another seven years for that to happen. Tag and support "Finish Wander Over Yonder" and I shall resume upholding my reputation as THE GREATEST IN ALL THE GALAXY! Hater out!

That’s right, FinishWOY is a brand new campaign where we fans get the facts we have about Season 3 (SFEF, “Monkeyboy,” the Star Nomad, etcetera) and figure out the overall plot. It’s just like Team Sea3on, who are responsible for giving Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) the third season it was never given back in the ‘90s, but the animation is totally optional.

Mind you, this is entirely a suggestion. If you endorse the idea, though, then welcome to the club!

[zippy-reacts]

Sonic the Comic Liveblog: Issue 94

I really like this cover art! I can't put my finger on it, but there's a certain je ne sais quoi about this art that really identifies it as belonging to a British comic.

Oh okay, cover art was by Elson, explains why I liked it then. Anyway, we see once again that the price of StC is being raised. I've said before I feel StC is expensive, especially in comparison to late 2000s era Beano, but I suppose when you compare it to something more comtemporary like IDW Sonic it's a good price? Then again, who knows how it stacks up when you account for inflation. Annnnnd final note about this image - I wonder if that sonic spinner toy works like a fidget spinner?

It might be because this is a whole different planet from Mobius, but it feels really odd that we're seeing like… Disney-esque dog humans as secondary and background characters rather than more traditional anthromorphic animals.

Anyway, professor dude turned into reverse colour scheme Hulk. They're not even hiding it, his name is literally Bulk.

Ah yes, Sonic's "spin really really fast to solve any problem" tactic! Haven't seen that one in a good few issues.

Lol that's some pretty good snark.

Hey, that's pretty close to my main blog's URL!

Hmm. Starting to get Totally Spies vibes.

Nice monochrome colouring! And it's pretty interesting to see Vector characterised as being smart in this way, even if the explaination does sound like it fits right in with Classic era Doctor Who lmao

A review of Fighting Vipers, and look, there's Honey! I bet this reviewer never would've guessed that character with later be connected to the Sonic series

Ooooooh! Did not expect to be introduced to Ebony and Pyjamas today! I am quite aware these two are fan-favourites. Btw, I'm loving that outfit Ebony is wearing, never seen art of her wearing anything modern and casual like that before.

Ok! I guess she can change her outfit instantly! But man, I can already see that people must've fallen in love with this character quickly, just this one panel is great show of personality.

You have my heart, Ms Ebony <3

I haven't really brought it up much, but for a good while by this point, StC has become more or less just a Sonic comic (jeez, who would imagine considering it's name). The only other Sega comics they do anymore is the occassional run of Decap Attack comics. I guess out of all of them this one must've been a favourite among readers.

I about to make a joke sugguesting Johnny's drink is alcoholic, but I wonder how old he actually is? Legal drinking age is 18 so he could potentially be old enough? But even if he wasn't, the UK is not exactly know for having teenagers who always follow drinking laws.

Gonna file this one under "sentences that sound a lot more racist if we weren't talking about animals"

It's kinda funny that Knuckles just like… randomly has a pet dinosaur now. …oh my god this issue is from 1997 so means Underground (released 1999) wasn't the first one to give him a dinosaur for no reason.

You know what mate? I'd be pissed off too.

A third of the back page which is otherwise dedicated to reminding you when the next issue releases? oh god yeah, such a waste of space. Totally unbelivable. 🙄

The word of a kid who probably also enjoys burning ants under a magnifying glass.

[rezonan]

Red Hood, other Anti-Heroes/Villians and the issue with killing in comics.

First here's the thing before you read this, I just wanna say this isn't a post complaining about if killing is good or not, far from it so don't worry.

I also wanna say really like Jason Todd. One of my favorite Robins though I like him more as Red Hood. My only issue with him is that DC is stuck with his direction as a character(Not as much as Tim at least). For a lot of reasons

One of those things is that anti-Heroes don't work in main superhero universes at least in DC, in Marvel killing isn't looked down on much unless you do it like the Punisher(Consistently, no exceptions and extreme)

When I'm talking about Anti-Heroes I mean who don't hesitate to kill, because the definition of Anti-Heroes even include guys like Batman, Spider-Man, Iron man and Daredevil (Classical Anti-Heroes,Disney Anti Hero,) talking about the types like Huntress and Red Hood(Unscrupulous Hero) and Punisher (Nominal Hero).

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Analysis/AntiHero if you wanna know what I'm talking about.

An issue they have is that they kill criminals consistently, and those criminals include supervillains but in comic books, villians in comics are kinda a commodity. Villians are what makes the heroes. So DC obviously will never let Jason kill the Joker or Riddler or Poison Ivy or Bane, or let Frank Castle kill Green Goblin or Kingpin. That's getting rid of a commodity that writers need for stories.

It's why I laugh when people say why doesn't Batman kill the Joker or something, they won't let him guys. Joker is too popular to kill same with the rest of his rouges, the writers need the villians to continue writing more stories and if time has taught us anything is that new villians don't even catch on most of the time to replenish the old popular ones.

So Frank and Jason and left to keep offing mooks, looking stupid and incompetent for not taking out the actual threats or just offing D-listers, it then brings up the question of why doesn't JASON kill the Joker since he's always talking about how willing to kill he is. yeah sure they'll write Batman like the biggest dick to fight him not too but there has been times when nothing has been stopping Jason to do it, see what I mean?

There's also another thing that DC and Marvel just won't let chracters less popular than the big no kill rule big heroes be more effective (and this is coming from a guy whofor the most part is anti killing). You really think Marvel is gonna let Red Hood have the moral high ground with Batman or Punisher with Spider-Man or Captain America?

But yeah I don't wanna get into the whole 'should heroes kill debate' here just making a point.

This is why they honestly work in outside comic universes like the games or movies. See the 'Superhero Movie Villains Die' trope

Basically they just don't mesh well with the status quo nature of comics.

So now we have heroes/villians(yes I consider frank a borderline villian) who are known for killing but can't kill anyone significant for multiple reasons, like how Red Hood by the New 52 had like 83 kills but no one in there was anyone actually important.

This is why Punishers best run was in an entire different universe where heroes didn't exist so he could kill Kingpin without issues. With Punisher they can always stick with that or just do what they usually do and make him take out mooks and barely developed rouges. They recently made him the head of the hand and gave him superpowers, it's actually interesting in my opinion.

With Jason it's more complicated. There's two sides, he drops guns and killing and joins up with the bat family as a kind of character development or he unrepentantly leaves the bat family behind and starts killing people and using guns then runs into all the issues I mentioned above. The latter side believes that hum dropping killing and guns removes everything that makes him interesting while the former believes it's good character progression for him to drop it. I think both have good points.

Personally I think they should lean into the supernatural side of him, like go all in and make him the dude in the Batfamily that handles supernatural threats, his the only one in the family that has straight up superpowers (Edit: forgot Duke, forgive me but he got them before him so point stands I guess) with his All blades so take those and have him to team up with Zatanna or Constantine, fighting vampires and zombies. (Happy to see they are doing this with Cass kinda I haven't read Spirit World)

Or they lean into the Task Force Z/Outlaws/DCeased aspect of him leading other Mistfits, Anti-Heroes and Villians into becoming better people like with the thunderbolts from Marvel. Maybe hook him up with some kinda of government connection so people he kills aren't illegal during this redemption quests or something.

Well I've got nothing else to ramble about.

[crossovershipstournament]

ROUND 3: SIDE 2: Jiminy Cricket (Pinocchio)/Timothy Q. Mouse (Dumbo) VS Megaman (Megaman)/Pit (Kid Icarus)

Propaganda for Jiminy Cricket/Timothy Q. Mouse:

This ask! So cute!

Also this ask~!

I swear to god, this has nothing to do with the Jimmy Timmy Power Hour thing, I came up with the ship separate from that. So like, as someone who grew up watching both movies, I was like "There are similar elements to these movies." "These two characters are kinda similar." "You know, I wonder how these two would interact, given their similar circumstances." "Yeah, they'd def bond over talks of the kids they watch over and such." "Perhaps the two would be besties." "Wait, both appeared in Dumbo's hat in the opening of The Mickey Mouse Club? Awesome!" "Hold on, maybe they could also be an interesting romantic couple." "I am writing stuff in my head and also a fic and doing art as we speak." "There are old Disney comics that have them interacting, I am on Cloud Nine right now." "This is my ship, I love them. They are both not straight. They're besties. They're trying their best." And here we are. I'd be more than happy to make art specifically for the polls if asked/contacted. Otherwise, I'd be happy to direct your attention to those old comics and stuff. And I'd be more than happy to also elaborate/talk more about 'em when asked.

#hi! my partner submitted Jimothy! please vote for them!

Cute art!

To the person who's drawn the cute chibified art of them, thank you for doing prop off gander today. I've been sick in bed all day and completely forgot.

So hi! Yes, hello. I came up with Jimothy several years ago and was the one to submit the prior propaganda to the blog. These two have been in so many scenarios in my mind, y'all have no idea. They are so small. They are both mentor figures (more or less). They, uh, small. Even outside the ship dynamic, I can imagine them being amazing friends. Did you know that prior to their Disney work, both of their original voice actors (Cliff Edwards for Jiminy, Edward Brophy for Timothy) were in a live-action film with Buster Keaton? That has nothing to do with the ship, that's just a fun fact. I would have more to say, but like I said, still sick. Please vote Jimothy.

More art!

TINY DAD SIDEKICKS

#OH THATS SUCH A CUTE SHIP ACTUALLY??? #TINY MENTORS..... AWWW..... #YEAH IM ON TEAM TINY MENTORS #VOTE JIMINY AND TIMOTHY

Uhm hi, please vote for Timothy and Jim…PLEASE!! They are literally so cute together :0) just two little dads living their best lives

Even more art!

#they are from the 40s…so old and in love Jimothy is a couple you can fit in your pocket. To be honest, I'm just glad they made it past round 1. This silly lil crossover ship I've made sure has grown over the years, huh. I'm super-glad that it's gotten so much love over the years. No matter what the outcome is, I love you guys.

#jimothy SWEEP

Propaganda for Megaman/Pit:

This ask, which includes the art used in the bracket image!

Oh my god. This one came immediately to mind. Idk how big the ship is now, but I remember like seeing it everywhere back when Super Smash Bros Ultimate was like popular on Tumblr/Twitter. I think it was originally a crackship cause both of them were in Captain N (a cartoon), but it’s like a serious thing now. Literally all it took was one interaction between them (there’s like dialogue you can get if you do some combination when you play as Pit) which is just Pit gushing about Mega Man. It’s cute. And honestly kind of iconic

#MEGAPIT ?? good for them #go back in time and tell kid me the ship he came up with on a whim would be in a tumblr bracket :'3

#megapit sweep!

#megapit nation let's pokémon go to the polls #let's give it for a wholesome and iconic crackship

#MEGAPIT NATION RISE. RISE. RISE #MEGAPIT

#MEGAPIT!!!1!

#MEGAPIT NATION RISE UP

#c'mon megapit nation #sure they may lose but let's get them some votes anyways!

#vote for the boys people!!! #let's get them as far as possible

Art Credit: Jiminy/Timothy pic from the Disney comics Megaman/Pit art by @/farraigeart

[thearoaceshark]

My headcanons for Transfem Leo:

— When she started using eyeliner everyone thought that Karai had taught her, but she actually taught herself. She has an excellent pulse so the eyeliner always looks divine on her ✨️.

— April taught her to paint nails.

— She is curious about wearing a corset. If she could be human for a day she would try one on.

— She loves to wear sweaters and baggy clothes, it's the only human clothes that fit her, but she dreams of being able to wear tighter clothes.

— When she was a child she liked Lilo & Stitch a lot, her brothers also liked it but she more. She admired Nani very much.

— Her favorite Disney princess is Tiana.

— She was always interested in ballet, but she was afraid that her brothers would make fun of it, besides, sensei was already teaching them to be ninjas, she had no time for ballet (that and according to what she saw on TV, she couldn't wear those cute shoes because his feet were very big).

— She often wonders if she is really pretty. She knows that she could never fit the human standard of beauty, but she would like to look cute even for a turtle.

— When she was 7 years old she helped her father make yukatas for her and her brothers for their birthday. At the age of 20 she and her girlfriend made kimonos for their birthday, three montsuki (male kimonos) for her brothers and a Furi-sode (female kimono) for herself.

— She likes gossip and comic and dramatic telenovels.

— She continued to have tea parties with Chloe every Friday and Saturday, and the little girl was the first to find out that she was a trans girl. She went from Mr. Imaginary Turtle to Miss Turtle very quickly.

— One day, instead of having tea, Chloe made her play on the catwalk and named her Miss Universe, according to the blonde that was an official title, she was the most beautiful woman in the world. She was having a bad day so that cheered her up a lot.

— She and Karai made her brothers and April swear that they would never mention how they met, much less in front of Shinigami. Mikey accidentally told Shini, but she chose to ignore it, made a deal with Mikey and pretended that she still didn't know.

— She and Donnie cried when Inside Out was cancelled, they were super fans of the series. Then Donnie tried to hack Netflix and they had to stop him.

— Secretly watch kdramas with April.

— When they were children Mikey for some reason began to call her Sleeping Beauty, she secretly liked that nickname. Years later they remembered that and Mikey said that he started calling her that because she slept just like Aurora when she fell under the sleeping spell.

— She watches a lot of makeup tutorials even though she knows she's not going to use 80% of the products they show, she just likes them.

— When the Barbie movie came out, she wanted to wear each and every one of the clothes changes that Margot Robbie had. This was her favorite:

— After defeating the Shredder, she and Raph improved their relationship, they started talking and they didn't argue so much anymore. Obviously they kept fighting, siblings do that, but at least it wasn't as serious as before. Now she and Raph confided in each other, Raph was the second after Chleo to find out that she was trans, and Leo was the first to find out that he and Mona were going to have babies.

— She and her girlfriend often question whether they should adopt a child, but the conversation always ends with them not being ready. One day they found a stray dog ​​and they adopted it, it was not what they had in mind but they are happy.

—Taylor Swift fan.

— "Not because I like Monster High does it mean that I'm lesbian... Yes, I'm lesbian, but not because I like Monster High."

— "My favorite MH is Abby–"

"That's such a fucking basic bitch answer"

"Oh! Do you want an original answer?!!"

"ª–"

"Marisol Coxi, Abby's cousin who was featured in the 'Monster Exchange' line! THAT'S MY FAVORITE!!"

— Gwen and Pavitr are her favorite characters from Spiderverse.

— Had a time when she was obsessed with wigs, and she managed to have many of them, nowadays she still keeps them but only uses them occasionally.

— She dressed up as Elizabeth Liones for Halloween.

— Once in a while combs Chloe's hair.

— She is ashamed of her emo phase, especially now that she is a diva.

— When she came out of the closet and she said that she would change her name Mikey bombarded her with thousands of options, some names were good, others not so much. She ended up keeping one, but Mikey was disappointed, telling her that he hoped she would choose Artemis.

— The list of names in question is:

Megan

Elizabetta

Suzanne

Diana

Leona

Dracuturtle

She-Turtle

Skull Crusher

Eleanor

Wendy

Chanel

Mulan

Leah

Harmony

Killer Beauty

Kunoichi Blue

Thalia

Tired Mother of 6

Dinosaur Tamer

Lorraine

Stunningly Beautiful Miss Universe

Lisa

Jisoo

Luciana

Lavinia

Leshawna

Bela

Black Widow

Shakira

Selena Gomez

Artemis

Elsa from Frozen

Blue Princess

Turtle-Woman

[cookinguptales]

are you forreal acting like youre some wise elder because youre 30? 😭 saying shit like "i thought people would get the context bc i lived back then" and "the early 90s were a different time" as if you lived it. your bio says you're 32 so you were born in 1990 at the earliest. you would've been a toddler when this was happening 💀💀💀💀💀

I'm acting like I knew these things because I knew these things...? And yes, I'll be 33 in a couple weeks so that time period checks out. When do you think I would've been in the target age group for the Disney movies that were coming out back then? Like, really do some math on when my relatives would have been most concerned that I'd be exposed to Disney movies. Do you think maybe it might be when I was 5-6 years old? You know, in 1995-1996 when Disney was first putting these policies into practice?

Like I'm genuinely glad you didn't have to grow up in a situation where you had to know about these things from a young age, but I did. I grew up in a family where my grandmother was a bigoted Sunday School teacher who went to Disney and abortion protests, my uncle was a pastor who preached intolerance from the pulpit, and my grandfather became legendary for his homophobic comics online.

I learned what being gay was from reading those comics when I was a child. Like -- I'm talking a seven- or eight-year-old child. Comics about HIV and AIDS and how gay people were going to kill us all by transmitting those diseases through mosquitos, if they didn't sexually assault everyone first. I didn't know any different because my parents, while less bigoted than their parents, still wouldn't allow me to consume media about gay people. They never even talked about them. That means that when I started puberty and started realizing I wasn't like the other kids, I had to start unlearning all that myself. And every morning on the way to school, I had to listen to my dad listen to talk radio about how people like me were ruining America.

Indoctrination often starts from a very young age, and like -- again, I'm happy if that's not a life you had to live. But I'm not sure why you're acting like it's an unbelievable one. Lots of people have lived that life, and my notifications have been full of them for the past 48 hours. I can't say I'm surprised that so many exvangelicals with shitty childhoods are on tumblr, but I've been saddened to hear the same story over and over and over.

I'm not sure what your story is, anon, but this seems like kind of a pitiful chapter in it.

[lacepockets]

That Time I Helped A Book Get Published

I've been what you would classify as "an artist" for pretty much my entire life. Or, at least, as long as I could hold a pencil. As soon as I even vaguely figured out how to make a picture transfer from my brain onto paper (or whatever surface, including the walls, and woe betide anyone who tries to clean that away), I completely unloaded on the world.

Not much of my art survived until now, but here's a few from I think around when I was 8 or 9 years old. Forever stuck in the 3/4 angle facing viewer left.

That said, I was never much of a fanartist; I've always preferred to create original characters, either that exist in series I was a fan of (which I GUESS is a type of fanart? but not really what people think of when they say fanart) or I would make up entire worlds and populate them. I would make up stories to go with this too, and often made either comics or pseudo-books out of them which I just stapled together. Some things never change, really.

I would even LARP my stories all by myself (I was every character), complete with costumes and background music that was usually comprised of the soundtracks of Disney movies, video games, and later anime, which I would blast from my awesome 1990s audio player.

(I also had a Discman eventually but I have more memories of this thing)

When I learned how to, I would even make like mixtapes from the songs I used to make up my story's soundtrack. I would pretend(?) that these stories were "real" as in they were actual cartoons or whatever that I was a fan of. I didn't have any friends so it's not like I shared these things with anyone, but that didn't really stop me. I simply talked to myself about them and wrote my own critic reviews and "episode summaries".

I really do not know how I was not screened for autism when I was a child, but whatever, I'm here now.

Drawing and making up stories and such took up pretty much all of my time that wasn't already taken up by video games or books.

I was even drawing in class. To be honest I was a terrible student — I never really paid attention to anything unless it happened to be about something I was already hyperinterested in, and I subsequently did not give a flying hoot about grades. Instead of doing classwork or, yknow, listening to my teachers, I would be drawing. Some teachers caught on to the fact that I was drawing, and for those classes I switched to pretending to be taking notes or doing work but I was actually writing about my OCs.

Anyway, all this is to say, one of my teachers really liked my drawings, even though they weren't really any better than typical child doodles in my opinion.

I don't fully remember what grade this was, maybe 2nd or 3rd? This teacher was supportive of my drawings even though it was technically disruptive of my learning. She'd ask to see what I was drawing and would talk to me about it, though I wasn't ever really keen on talking about it with her, and sometimes she asked me to draw something for her. She really liked Mickey Mouse so it was usually him.

One day this teacher told me she was writing a children's book, but she needed an artist to illustrate it. So she asked me if I wanted to be the illustrator for her book. I said yes, and she and I worked together on the book for I think a couple months? I can't fully say what the book was about, all I remember is that it was about a little girl with freakishly big pigtails. I don't even remember the title, I wish I could.

The book was eventually published.

It's really funny to think that there's a book out there that my 2nd or 3rd grade teacher wrote and little baby me illustrated, and I just have zero memory of what it is. I sometimes wonder how many people have read the book or bought it for their kids or something and I am just completely ignorant of it.