#--and retain important elements and stuff for the character. using the canon comics as a basis to work from.

[hollowsart]

sometimes I see a post or two in the Guy Gardner tag and I can't help but wonder if my take on Guy falls into that negative portrayal/bad take on the character thing.

Like.. yeah my take on Guy Gardner has had a cruddy childhood overall, abused by his dad, neglected by his mom, hates his brother cuz of how more well liked by his parents he is and how much more successful he is, too. Tried hard to live a pretty normal life, he had his own dream job that he worked hard to try and get (he succeeded, though not for long as he was eventually fired from his job as a teacher for kids with special needs and all).

He gets along great with kids and to a degree with teens, too. it's just the adults that he has a hard time getting along with. His social skills ain't the greatest, but despite his overall personality and behavior.. He really does try to be good and be a hero. He's just got some weird priorities some odd quirks. The more he interacts with others the more he will slowly but surely change and grow. He has anger issues, yeah, but he hates it and tries to not let it get the better of him.. but by golly that fuse is short and hard to hold onto.

I like to think my Guy isn't like.. a bad portrayal of his character overall. it's just a little different. Puts him more front and center, he's the first GL of Earth for me.

I just.. didn't include a lot of that head trauma stuff from his extended lore. I wouldn't be able to write it or handle it in a way that would be good, and this is something I acknowledge fully. He might not have had something like that happen to him, but I mean I did have one small coma-like instance planned where he ends up unconscious for an extended period of time and he has basically a fever dream that sends him down an entire character development arc for the entire duration of it until he wakes up. and it's all a reference to the Warrior/Vuldarian thing. it just.. makes more sense to be a fever dream and not real. Cuz I just personally prefer him human tbh Lol

[ifeveristoday]

team Slow Burn/Burn it All Down

“Real monsters don’t announce themselves or present opportunities. Not here. They enter your head, your heart, tear at you from within.” -- Angel, Hellmouth #2

Are we talking about the demons underground or the demon walking around with Angel’s face?

Hellmouth leans heavy on foreshadowing and having unspoken/underlining meanings that differ from the actual words on the page. It continues using elements from Egyptian and Roman/Greek mythos but the main draw of this issue - and I’m assuming the rest of the series, is the reluctant partnership of Buffy and Angel. I don’t agree with the criticism that taking Buffy and Angel away from their respective apocalypses ruins the flow of the overall arcs. It’s a vast story to tell and the pace of the reboots (which is something I have criticized) makes it difficult to include in the main storylines without sacrificing important character development. There are just so many characters, especially in Sunnydale. Jordie’s writing excels at the character and emotional beats rather than plots, and while we have had some great strides in Willow, Xander and Jenny’s personal journeys, there remains some distance from the namesake characters, which I feel like it was intentional to get to the place that Hellmouth occupies. 

Love it or hate it, the Buffy and Angel relationship is a huge part of both of their stories and character developments and we’ve had inklings of how Buffy is going to change/possibly wreck Angel’s life in Angel, but he’s remained a shadowy figure in Buffy’s story. Hellmouth changes all of that while retaining some of the original canon’s flaws/trademarks but also poking gentle fun at them.

Spoilers from Hellmouth #2 below the cut.

Buffy and Angel are slightly different from their canon selves - Angel is independent of Buffy’s journey at the very beginning and already has his purpose set in Los Angeles. Buffy is a newly minted Slayer, living with her secret for a whole three weeks before wacky Slayer hijinks puts her in the path of Willow and Xander. Their initial meeting/relationship is reminiscent of the very early episodes of Season 1 Buffy - with a reasonable amount of wariness on Buffy’s part and Angel’s dry/slightly cocky attitude with a 2019 update of their anxieties. There’s also a flip in roles as Angel asks Buffy how she’s feeling and what she wants to do in the future at the start. It’s just the feeling of a connection with no romantic overtones. 

The comic recognizes the fucked-upness of Buffy being a child and fighting the forces of evil and sympathizing with her via the character of Jenny. While there is an obligatory nod to Buffy’s desire to be normal, it also makes a point of isolating her from the Scoobies and her frustration at knowing how to be the best Slayer she can be. Giles tells her that he’s to direct her, but not tell her explicitly what she has to do sounds an awful like parents preparing their children for adulthood. There is no handbook. While Buffy is welcomed into Willow and Xander’s circle (and that’s another flip - it is Willow who reaches out to Buffy first and invites her into being social), they’re very much a unit while Buffy sort of floats between their friendship. But I feel due to them being so young, it’s easy to claim best friendship, because - the intensity of feelings and hormones.

This makes Buffy’s character kind of harder to read, and less sunshiney than her OG counterpart. But it’s a shared facade - TV Buffy just hid it better underneath girliness and bouncy hair, while Boom! Buffy is focused, for better or worse to her duty. This is a Buffy that hasn’t quit Slaying before, who gets slightly conflicted guidance from her Watcher and who needs Willow and Xander more than they possibly need her to be a connection to being sixteen. Everyone has their own stuff to deal with.

Hellmouth gives Buffy the spotlight and also drops her into an immediate partnership with Angel. It very pointedly is not a romance - they both get on each others nerves actually, and it inspires A+ bantering while revealing the most of each character so far. Buffy’s venting to Angel (Buffy #8/Hellmouth #1) implies that she’s worried about her friendships and failure to connect, that she’d rather tell a complete stranger this than confide in her friends/Watcher. 

Angel listening and not judging shows an immediate empathy for her - and his actions during Hellmouth show a more vulnerable/less closed off Angel. He doesn’t occupy the same caretaker vibe he has with Fred and Gunn that he does with Buffy, namely because Buffy refuses it. She calls him out on trying to be the mysterious weight of the world Loner who takes on all of the responsibilities. 

Angel quickly realizes he just can’t be That Guy with Buffy, and it makes his character hilariously resigned/looser in response. He warns her about dangers in the Hellmouth but accepts Buffy’s way is different from his, but that doesn’t make it wrong. He’s willing to admit he might have been wrong about demons being upfront when the slithery shapeshifter demon confronts them - and Buffy’s snarky response “Cool, cool. Won’t rub that in.” lightens the tense moment. 

Notably, Angel is the one that gets injured/dragged by the demons while Buffy runs to save him. The fighting sequences are highlighted and Buffy’s scenes, in particular, are very smooth and highlights her Slayer grace. They fight beautifully together and despite their prickly banter, feel a shared responsibility to each other’s well being. Their separate confrontations with the shapeshifter shows their fears - Buffy ‘abandoning’ her family and friends and failing to protect them, Angel seeing the ghosts of the people he’s failed to save. Buffy reacts strongly to how her family and friends need her, while Angel angrily tells the shifter to stay out of his head and that it doesn’t know anything about him. Circling back to Buffy saying she doesn’t know what she wants, the Ominous voice implies Angel doesn’t really know what he’s doing and who he is.

Ah, vague accusations of something evil and upsetting, how I haven’t missed you.

After Angel demands to know who’s blood is needed for the further escalation of Evil Plan, and the Voice doesn’t reply, he immediately realizes Buffy is in danger and runs to find her.

Buffy’s still fighting the shifter and it mentions she could put an end to her family and friends’ suffering with her sacrifice - namely, that her blood will save the world.

While Buffy logically knows that the shifter isn’t her mom (because of course, the shifter would take on the form of Joyce), this emotional blackmail breaks her out of the illusion and she kicks it’s ass. Almost punching out Angel in the process. 

Angel is less emotional about his ordeal and Buffy lets him have it again, telling him that it's unfair that she’s the only one being vulnerable - “I opened up because we need to work together, and you haven’t said a thing.”

Instead of being defensive and defaulting to Sir Mopes a Lot - Angel sincerely apologizes and tells her that his fears were also centered around his friends and him not being able to save them in time.

And it’s Buffy’s turn to reassure him/pass on wisdom - she realizes that the Hellmouth wants to separate them to make them weaker and that Angel deserves a little more empathy from her.

THEY’RE COMMUNICATING THEIR FRUSTRATIONS AND CONCERNS WITH EACH OTHER, Y’ALL.

Angel does have a moment of saying, “Silent suffering is more my cup of tea,” and Buffy’s quick response of “And how’s that working for you?” showcase their differences/similarities nicely. Angel despite making friends doesn’t tell them what he’s thinking because he’s used to being alone, Buffy with her very loud opinions isolates herself (un)intentionally because she’s new to Slaying and being a teenager at the same time. They can’t talk to the people who care for them--- but they can talk to each other.

When they face hurdles, they take turns reassuring/pointing out the Obvious Evil, and then a tiny moment - Angel adds onto Buffy’s observation of not getting surrounded by the demon horde by saying, “Just like Thermopylae.”

As with each issue of the Boom!verse, when names I don’t recognize I obviously google them - and Thermopylae is a reference to both the battle of Thermopylae (think the 300 comic and uh, history) and the “Hot Gates,” and is the cavernous entrance to Hades.

Is my theory/wish that there’s going to be Persephone/Hades parallels and Eurydice/Orpheus vibes in this story going to play out? God, I hope so.

Anyway, back to the moment - when they inevitably get surrounded by the demon hordes, Buffy remarks, “Well, there goes thermometer.”

The. Classic. Buffy. Malapropism.

My heart.

Angel gets slashed in the fight, and Buffy worries about him, but there’s a bigger problem - 

narrated by the Voice - “Are you sure everything is as it seems? You’ve been wrong before.”

“Blood is spilled...vessels are filled...every pretender killed.”

Shot to Drusilla as Prometheus in chains, spouting some of the worst “Dru-esque” dialogue I’ve read. Sorry Jordie, this is up there with the clunky faux Whedonisms of the early issues.

So Dru isn’t the major Big Bad, but rather the unseen Voice, who we, of course, don’t know.

Is she ultimate sacrifice, the vessel (after all she is of Angel’s bloodline) and oh, Angel Still Hasn’t Told Buffy He’s A Vampire which...

Boo.

All of the voice overs hint that the confession when it happens is going to cause Buffy Big Mad - after all, Angel knows more about her than she does of him, AGAIN.

The art and coloring is stunning as ever in this issue - Carlini really knows how to draw action sequences, and the varying light/color schemes really make the sense of Buffy and Angel descending into the Hellmouth feel vivid and real.

tl;dr I loved this issue and each issue the stakes definitely seem higher. The bantering and a slow reveal of their personalities are also excellent. The foreshadowing/double meanings of the dialogues.

The stuff I don’t like - the Dru dialog at the end, Angel being secretive about his Vampire self.

[ganymedesclock]

Can I just say I love your Coran metas? One thing that really frustrates me in reading (otherwise excellent) VLD fanfic is ~angst~ that could be cleared up if everyone just talked to Coran! Especially Allura, who canonically discusses her fears and grief with Coran.

So I really like the elemental symbolism for the five initial paladins and I think it informs a huge amount of their character, that led me to try and ascribe elements to Coran and Allura. Because I think even when Lance, Keith, and Allura shuffled positions, they retained their respective symbolism.

Lance working with Red still acts like a leg, still acts like a water-aligned person. His focus is still on support, coordination, empathy, interpersonal connection. We don’t see him taking up a “firelike” disposition as VLD codifies that, or operating more according to passion and loyalty as Red’s virtues. He also doesn’t act like an arm pilot, with that kind of high-energy, slightly volatile and fractious disposition.

This is, I think, the nice underlying implication to the paladins’ all having their own colors that they retain whatever Lion they’re flying. It’s because their inherent nature, what initially drew their respective Lions to them, remains unchanged. 

So Allura has her own element, her own identity, and working with Blue doesn’t negate that because Lance’s character wasn’t negated working with Red, nor was Keith’s working with Black.

(I promise, this comes back to Coran, and what you’re talking about in him being overlooked in fic, but bear with me)

With Allura, the element I think that best describes her is light. Not just because she’s conflated with it practically- all of her shows of power come with these flares of radiance- but it’s also reflected by the arsenal of the Castle, which is functionally Allura’s Lion.

The Castle shields itself in a barrier of light, and it attacks by raining devastating beams of far greater power and intensity than any of the other laser attacks we’ve seen. And its dominant color is white, like Allura’s gorgeous, eye-catching silver hair. 

It’s also worth noting that Allura is the only paladin who appears to have multiple colors- she’s associated with white, cyan, to a certain degree the same darker blue as Lance, and her ‘signature’ pink. This would seem to again create an image of Allura as a prism, as light, opalescent in her associations.

In personality, while Shiro is often more of a strategic head in small scale, Allura is the leader of the coalition and she’s the leader of the paladins- she’s their guiding light, and beacon of hope. When it seems like she’s gone in s2e13, the situation is depicted as actively unwinnable. It helps that both the pose she assumed in s1e8 literally reviving the Balmera, and the position Voltron holds when she empowers it in s4e6 are very stereotypically messianic- arms spread, palms upright, head thrown back to the heavens, standing upright and gazing skyward.

So why am I talking about Allura in reference to Coran? Because I think a lot of Coran is informed if you consider both Alfor (fire-aligned) and Allura (light-aligned) and their incredible importance to him.

Fire in VLD is associated with illumination and enlightenment, as well as passion. Instinct in this case refers to a kind of certainty, but also a kind of higher knowing, distinct from the learning and adaptation embodied by the Green Lion and wood. Keith is, functionally, the team’s prophet- and Alfor, his predecessor, was Voltron’s. So this creates a very strong image of a fire that casts a bright light into a dark cavern. Which makes sense- Alfor and Allura were very close to each other.

I think Coran’s element is darkness.

Because the thing is, Allura and Alfor are characterized as luminous people. Charismatic, front and center, brilliant and colorful, seizing attention and connections. And Coran was a part of that; he wasn’t ignored, or pushed aside, but rather, it’s his nature to follow. Light and darkness can be seen as mortal enemies, but that’s not necessarily the case.

Allura at full strength, seated at the helm of the Castle, is a kind of archetypal force. The castle’s size and shields outstrip those of Voltron itself- it can rain devastation on entire imperial fleets. And it is also a symbol- literally, being the castle of a kingdom that long after said kingdom fell to ruin, the sanctity of its castle was never truly defeated. It’s been invaded- some have come close- but in effect, this is the unbreakable will of Altea’s legacy, of Allura as its last living princess. It bears the same sense of lore, decorum, and ideals entwined together with sheer determination that Allura herself does.

Conversely, Coran has no ship of his own. He can work the castle’s systems, but not all of them, and not perfectly- that sort of thing is really reserved for Allura. And he was spectacularly rejected by the Red Lion in s2e6. This, to me, is a pretty glaring indicator that despite his great adoration and fondness for Alfor, Coran and Alfor are wildly different mentalities. Different essential characters.

(Allura was also rejected by Red- but Red let her in, Red allowed her to sit at the console, and Allura is able to understand Red clearly when he calls for Lance, which suggests that they do have their notes of harmony- and Red was likely denying Allura to guide her towards Blue, who would do her more good in that situation)

But think about that. Coran has no signature ship, but he’s able to work Allura’s. Because of this, while all of the other paladins, and Allura even without a Lion, are glaringly obvious, known entities to their foes, Coran? Isn’t. Coran is a virtually untraceable ghost to the team’s enemies. It would take a foe far more attentive and far more focused on them than even Lotor to notice the red-haired man running the microphone for Voltron events is more than he seems.

And with Alfor and Allura both being very light-aligned people... bright lights cast very large, dark shadows. In that sense, a shadow can be perceived as a loyal thing- something that follows light.

Allura is a kind of archetypal active force at the height of her power. On foot, she’s a match for her castle- supernaturally powerful and a potent front line attacker either with the weighted staff she used in season 2 or grappling and immobilizing foes with a bayard. 

Coran, I think, is a kind of archetypal supporting force.

His own identity is probably the most well-developed given his age and maturity compared to the rest of the team. But at the same time, it’s very difficult to pin down. It doesn’t have an obvious glaring hallmark of its presence. We don’t see a signature weapon or ship from Coran to clue us in to his affinity. If my theories about his comment in s1e9 reflecting his weapon of choice are true, then even him revealing said weapon and taking the field as a combatant won’t clarify the matter, by wielding something fundamentally formless and impossible to define.

Because darkness doesn’t clarify itself. It obscures, it vanishes, it acts behind, underneath, and through with the certainty of always knowing what it is, but comfortably remaining an unknown factor.

Coran- happily and comfortably- lives as the man behind the scenes. He is not the king, he is not the princess, he is not the leader- but he will follow them, to the ends of the universe if need be. He will do, and be, what they need of him.

And he’s compassionate, and he’s nurturing, and we see that sort of accommodation also applying to the paladins. After all who could you possibly count on to have your back in any situation, always, but a shadow?

And I think this also comes back to the fact that Coran, quite frankly, has the full capacity to be terrifying and we’ve been treated to multiple innocuous or otherwise offhanded nods in that direction. Such as.... so why was Coran, seemingly, the go-to guy for explaining how to wrestle with one of the deadliest enemies in space back in the day in s2e9? At the same part of his life where he was very noticeably muscular as hell?

(it’d also lend some hilariously meta context to his adolescent emo phase that we found out about in s2e1)

Hell, Coran in s1e11 alludes to us that he was actively planning revenge on Zarkon over Altea. Friendly mustached dad figure seems to have mostly dealt with the loss of his planet by neatly compressing a grudge, bundling it up neatly with cloth, and not acknowledging it until he is actively in a position to shoot Zarkon in the face, in which case he unfolds it like a lovely picnic lunch.

So how this all comes back to what you were saying, anon, about Coran and fanfic and him being overlooked is that- it’s arguably Coran’s quintessential character to be easy to overlook. He’s a really fascinating head to get into with a huge amount of depth, but, you really have to trawl those depths to get to the good stuff. And I’ve said it before- there’s a lot of perfectly good fanwork whose primary struggle is not scratching any of the characters deeply enough. Coran is just a case where it shows very often, because he’s so at peace with, and arguably pretty much lives in, his own depths, that unless you’re paying attention it is beyond easy to forget he’s even there. And the show’s begun to poke at him, his history and deeper undercurrents- 

S4e4 may have been comical on the surface but it is an incredible case study in just how much the team means to Coran, what he’s willing to do and what he’s able to fight off just to be there for the team- and, hell, the fact that he needs to be hijacked by a brain parasite for him to ever push them the way that he did.

-but there’s still way more with Coran than we know. It’s a reason I keep comparing him to Iroh from ATLA: because he very much does the same thing.

Iroh is a master firebender with personal ties directly to the royal family, grieving the loss of his son, and also part of an organization against the fire nation’s aggressive politics, not to mention his own lengthy history as a warrior (see, his history with Ba Sing Se and his mythic defeat of a dragon) and for all that... the first impression he gives is Zuko’s goofy tea-loving advisor. And after coming to understand the serious side of him, it makes it much clearer that he is, in-universe, doing that completely on purpose.

Even Azula, who arguably knows a lot of Iroh’s history, dangerously underestimates him in not immediately going “oh, crap” when he stands up and goes “Do you know why they call me the Dragon of the West?” in a particularly knowing and unconcerned tone.

The thing is we haven’t had Coran have his obvious moment of flexing those hidden claws- there’s been small ones but not really a massive “oh, holy shit, don’t mess with Coran” .....yet. I frankly think that’s completely inevitable, given these guys and again, given every underlying nod to his capabilities. But I think if you’re not really delving in and carefully poking at things, it’s easy to read Coran as someone who just doesn’t have much depth since he’s very much, to a degree, the unsung phantom of Team Voltron. His work is important but often not particularly glamorous or narratively “heroic”.

But really... I think that’s kind of the point. Especially if you consider that Zarkon places a great deal of importance and focus on Alfor, and on Allura- the people he considered worth dealing with.

Coran? Coran was a lesser noble and an attendant to Alfor. In Zarkon’s books, exactly the sort of person he probably would barely even make eye contact with or speak to.

But Coran was the one who flew the castle away from Altea. Coran was the one who made the Black Lion disappear out of Zarkon’s hands and comprehensively denied him that decisive victory ten thousand years ago. It’s arguably on Coran that there’s any ability to counterattack at present.

And Coran- who lives in darkness, who thrives on eyes being turned away from him. Coran, who actively has confessed to holding a grudge and his not acknowledging it since tells us after that season 1 finale, he just folded it right back up and kept it there, maybe rolling it around between his fingers every time he hears more about what happened to Shiro, every time he sees what’s become of the universe under Zarkon, every time he remembers what became of Alfor, of Altea, because they trusted him. Calmly saying things like “Alfor’s affection for his former colleague blinded him to Zarkon’s true intentions.”

Coran is really not someone Zarkon should be ignoring, if the dear emperor has any ability to evaluate serious threats.

[danguy96]

In Light of Recent Events Regarding Magneto and HYDRA

 So, apparently, as I’ve recently heard, in the new Secret Empire series of comic books, Magneto, a villain well-known to be Jewish, is apparently siding with HYDRA in this event. Now, normally, I would be pretty pissed off about this, and, truth be told, until more information comes out (though, I doubt that will change anything, I still think that without a good explanation, this is pretty stupid. However, on the other hand, as some of you may know, I’ve actually grown pretty sick and tired over the whole “everyone I don’t like and I disagree with is a Nazi/Nazi sympathizer” (this doesn’t mean I condone or like Nazis, it just means that I don’t like hysteria), so I’ve started to try to practice not reacting to every single thing by becoming hysterical, and I just wanted to state my thoughts on this and give a somewhat quick history of HYDRA’s in-universe backstory for both the movies and the comics, and why there’s more to it than it just being a “Nazi/Neo-Nazi organization”. I hope you all don’t mind my commentary (also, just to let you know, I also learned about this stuff from other articles and research, and I do sort of paraphrase in places, but these are still my own thoughts).

 First off, I’m going to cover the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of HYDRA first, because that will take less time to explain than the long, convoluted history of it’s comic book counterpart. When they first appeared in the MCU, they were indeed once a part of the Third Reich’s advanced science branch, and received funding from them. However, the Red Skull recognized that in order to extend HYDRA’s influence and power, he and the organization would have to cut ties to Hitler and Nazi Germany (and in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, despite being a Nazi himself and adopting most of the Third Reich’s Social Darwinist theories into HYDRA, even the Red Skull kind of thought that Hitler’s “master race” theory was full of shit), and so, after acquiring the Tesseract/Cosmic Cube, Red Skull and HYDRA went rogue and planned to overthrow and betray Nazi Germany once the Allies had lost, and it’s quite possible they would be even worse than Hitler and his goons were if they got their way. 

 After the Red Skull’s defeat and the fall of Nazi Germany, however, HYDRA seemed to transcend their Nazi roots, though they still retained their totalitarian and authoritarian goals with the belief that humanity could not be trusted with it’s own freedom and must be subjugated for it’s own good. When looking back on the events of the war, Armin Zola concluded the whole “German master race” thing didn’t really work and also concluded Hitler’s methods were pretty dumb and inefficient, even for HYDRA’s standards. Though they gave up working for the Nazis after their fall, they did manage to extend HYDRA’s reach into the Soviet Union (something that would’ve been impossible if they remained full-on Nazis and all of the Nazis beliefs), and, secretly, into the U.S. and SHEILD. As I said before, the HYDRA in the MCU’s present-day doesn’t seem to care that much about what your genetics say or if you have “Aryan” ancestry, and is more focused on just world domination. Hell, they move away even further from them originally being just Nazis, when it’s revealed in Agents of SHIELD that the MCU version of HYDRA has roots that actually extend back centuries and to alien influence, and that the original Nazi organization was just the latest incarnation of the group, similar to it is in the comics.

 Speaking of which, it’s about time I summed up the long history of HYDRA from the original comics, and I’ll start off with when it was first created in real life. HYDRA was originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby back in 1965, and first appeared in Strange Tales #135 (August 1965). While their inspirations from the Nazis was pretty blatantly evident in their early appearances (with them being under the leadership of guys who worked for the Nazi Party, Baron von Strucker and Johann Schmidt, the Red Skull), as various writers delved in their history and backstory Nazi connection sort of started to dwindle and become more vague until, even in early stories, the current incarnation of HYDRA was revealed as an organization which had roots in Imperial Japan. True, they worked alongside the Nazis during WWII, but they’ve always sort of had their own agenda. Their last remaining connection to outright Nazism, Baron von Strucker, was even shown to be a fugitive who allied his version of HYDRA with Germany's Third Reich in a grab for power before betraying them. Fleeing with the Red Skull, Strucker quickly abandoned Schmidt to join forces with a Japanese criminal organization also using the HYDRA name, because even he thought Red Skull was a monster. Though Strucker remained a constant part of Hydra until recent years, his ideology became less about Aryan supremacy and more about his own thirst for power. Later stories further retconned and clarified Strucker’s origins and motivations, placing him as the head of Hydra locked in a war with S.H.I.E.L.D. and other super-spy groups. The elements of totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and fascism still remained at Hydra’s core, but it sort of really wasn’t driven by white supremacy and racial hatred that much anymore. 

 But Hydra as a Japanese crime syndicate isn’t where the organization’s story begins, because in recent additions to HYDRA’s backstory, it turns out the group’s history spans over millions of years, including the Third Dynasty of Egypt, and has alien origins.  According to Jonathan Hickman's S.H.I.E.L.D. mini-series, which explored the secret history of the Marvel Universe (for better or worse), Hydra’s roots go back to before humans evolved, when a Before the evolution of mankind, a cabal of immortal hooded reptilian aliens came to Earth, planning to start a legacy of evil (it’s comic books, just roll with it). Millions of years later, they corrupted an Asian secret society of geniuses known as the Brotherhood of the Spear. They were opposed by a group called “The Order of the Shield” (get it, SHIELD?). Over the centuries, the Order of the Spear grew and changed, eventually becoming HYDRA – an organization that was revived in the early 20th Century in Imperialist Japan with ideals based on world domination inherited from their ancient alien masters. They also included the real life Cathari Sect and the real life Thule Society, which is where the Nazis came into the picture. You see, after the end of World War II, the Nazi sub-group of HYDRA, funded by the Thule Society, was brought into the main HYDRA fold, thus explaining how the likes Baron von Strucker and the Red Skull came to join and lead their ranks. 

 Currently in comic books, Hydra has splintered into several separate factions , but there are two main groups: one led by Baron Zemo, who has been trying to control what’s left of the old HYDRA, and leading a much more Darwinist version of the secret society based on survival of whomever HYDRA deems the fittest to live (usually its own members) - and one being built from the ground up, led by the Red Skull, who has returned to Nazi beliefs, and, for the first time in modern continuity, has introduced a philosophy of neo-Nazism and white supremacy into HYDRA (a move which I feel was supposed to be “topical” and “relevant”, but comes off as preachy and forced, as well as a move which over-simplified and misrepresented certain issues, something which Marvel has been terribly guilty of over the past few years).

 So, to answer, “Is HYDRA a Nazi organization?” Well, the answer is yes, and no. While it is clear that HYDRA’s original real world roots are planted in the idea of neo-Nazi terrorists, for a good portion of their history, they’ve also served the role as your run-of-the-mill supervillain terrorist organization, associating themselves with all kinds of tyrants and criminals throughout history, usually with whatever is considered a threat in real life at the time of when the story is written. 

 Now, going back to Magneto, do I think it’s a good move for him to join HYDRA? Of course I fucking don’t! Even if they’re not technically a Nazi organization anymore, he’d still hate their guts for associating with the Nazis, and he’d especially hate the like of the Red Skull. However, the important thing to remember is that while Magneto is a Holocaust survivor and a tragic figure, he’s also a character who has sought out the domination and/or extermination of humans several times in the past, as he is meant to show that if we allow ourselves to be consumed with hate and revenge, we end up being no better than the people we hate. Yes, he’s had a couple of changes of heart over the years, but still, it’s important to note that Magneto is no saint, either, even if isn’t as bad as the Red Skull (at least in the 616 universe). Still, I don’t think that Magneto would join HYDRA unless there was a reason, like him getting something out of it (though, I do think he would be wary in case they planned to double cross him), or if he was forced to do it for some reason, or if he was mind controlled, the last of which may possibly be the case (Captain America was basically brainwashed into thinking he’s a HYDRA sleeper agent, so I’m not gonna rule out the possibility of that being the big “twist”). Though, something to note is that the brainwashed Cap is currently planning with Baron Zemo to kill Red Skull and depose him from HYDRA (I take it that Zemo probably doesn’t really like how Red Skull is trying to bring back full-on Nazi ideology into HYDRA, even if they fascist terrorists, at least I assume/head-canon that, because it makes the books a tiny bit more tolerable, but not by much), and that Secret Empire looks like the result of his success in that endeavor, so one of my predictions is a combination of brainwashing to bring Magneto into the group, as well as him being a part of the anti-Red Skull faction.

 The one thing I’m shocked at is that I’m probably one of the few people who sees it less as “anti-Semitism” (and believe me, anti-Semitism is a problem, but I don’t looking for it everywhere I see), and more for what it really is; a cheap gimmick made to make people talk about it, even when the story itself hasn’t been released yet. Marvel wants this kind of reaction. They want dozens of articles, blog posts, tweets, and videos fueled by anger and controversy, just like they wanted this reaction from the Hydra!Cap fiasco. If they can’t sell comics by promoting them, then they decide to sell them and get people to talk about them based on controversy. I bet you that when the actual story comes out, it’s gonna end up being one of those things explained away with “it was brainwashing/magic/whatever”. I wasn’t surprised when it turned out to be the case with Hydra!Cap, and I’m not gonna be surprised if that it turns out to be the case with Hydra!Magneto. 

 I feel the best way to “protest” this is to not give in to this obvious publicity stunt like Marvel wants, and just not talk about and give it no attention when the story actually does come out, and then wait until the dust has settled to talk about. Speaking of which, as i said before, this outrage is sparking before the story even officially comes out or is even finished, and while I did just say that we shouldn’t give attention or make any puff pieces about it until the story arc is over with, I still say we should wait until the actual story comes and we learn everything about it (for better or worse), before critiquing it. When it finally does come out and we a whole lot more about it, then we can complain for (hopefully) good and/or justifiable reasons.

I’m sorry that this was long as shit, because I originally didn’t mean it to be like this long. I just really, really get annoyed when people simplify HYDRA as a “nazi/neo-Nazi organization”, because that just show signs of either not knowing a good amount of comic book history, or showing that you don’t actually read comics. I’m not condoning or “apologizing” for Nazism or white supremacism in any way, it’s just that I’m giant nerd who doesn’t like it when people make glaring mistakes and are ignorant of comic book history. Though, to be fair, it is a common misconception, made by both casual fans and even writers who don’t know comic history (something which they definitely should learn), but it still grind my gears when anyone makes any sort of big mistake regarding comic books (just see the numerous times I had to remind people that Harley Quinn isn’t exactly an innocent, quirky little cinnamon roll, when especially after she blows up children with bombs). 

[tyrantisterror]

The ATOM Create A Kaiju Contest

All fifty ATOM Kaiju files are now up on Horror Flora for the world to see.  You can now look at the designs, stats, and brief bios of the fifty-some kaiju that will appear in my novel-in-progress, The Atomic Time of Monsters.   But the event that gives the novel its name – the titular atomic time period – has far, far more than that.  In fact, while only fifty or so monsters appear in the novel itself, at least six times that number will be running around just outside the pages – the unseen kaiju of ATOM.  But I’ll level with you – I can draw kaiju for days, and have literally done so since about mid-December 2016, but I’ll never be able to draw up 300+ solid kaiju concepts.  I mean, ok, maybe if I keep at it till I die, but I have a lot of other stuff I want/need to do.  So that’s where this contest comes in.

Like some of the best fiction, I’ve left a tantalizing gap in my story for other writers to fill in.  Like a narcissist, I’m hoping people would want to fill in their gap.  There are literally dozens if not hundreds of monsters left unseen – how would you like to give them a face?

THE RULES:

1.  You may create and submit up to FIVE different kaiju for the contest.  They must be your own creations – no plagiarism will be tolerated.  You can cheekily reference pre-existing monsters though – we all know the 50+ canonical monsters in ATOM do.

2.  The kaiju you create must specifically be created for this contest  - no repurposing characters you made for other, wildly different stories.  It’s more gratifying to my ego of a fun thought experiment that way.

3. The kaiju must fit the design aesthetics, story themes, and overall tone of ATOM's kaiju. They should feel like B movie monsters from 1950's/60's pop culture.  The better they match this aesthetic, more likely you will win the contest.

4. The kaiju must also fit the setting ATOM.  Remember that “kaiju” has a story specific definition beyond being just a big animal, that most dinosaurs didn’t exist in ATOM’s world (i.e. no feathery t.rexes), and that the alien fauna of Mars, Venus, and the various made up planets follow very specific body plans.  The Atomic Time of Monsters starts in 1954 and ends in 1968 – your entry has to take place in that rough time frame.  I plan on posting some ATOM Bonus Files between now and the deadline that explain aspects of the setting in more detail.

5. The kaiju should add something meaningful to the world of ATOM. What would be the point of having another fire-breathing t.rex monster?  The more unique and interesting your kaiju is, the more likely you will win the contest.

6. The kaiju must be independent of the main plot of ATOM - not "Tyrantis's long lost evil brother who's the strongest kaiju in the world". These should be to Tyrantis's story what War of the Gargantuas is to Godzilla's movies – heroes (well, monsters) of another story in the same world.

7. Your kaiju must have some sort of description of its physical appearance and its personality - you can submit a drawing or a written description (or both!) for the physical appearance depending on what you’re most comfortable with.

The Deadline for this contest is MARCH 16, 2017.  You have roughly two months to work on your submission(s).  To enter you just have to make me aware of your submission - tag me in a tumblr post, send me a message, etc.  It can be on tumblr or on another website - so long as it exists and I can access it, it works.  It

But what about the prizes, you ask?  Well, I’ll put that information (along with some other rambling suggestions and tips) after the cut, but the biggest prize will be making a whole shitload of weird retro kaiju.

Ok, so: PRIZES, PRIZES, PRI-ZIZZES!

RUNNER UP PRIZES:  I will sketch every kaiju entered in the contest, and compile them all in a great big post with a few sentences of commentary on each one.  Every person who enters the contest gets this prize.

THE TOP 5 WINNERS: I will fully illustrate my top 5* favorite kaiju entries and publish them – WITH CREDIT – on HorrorFlora.com as ATOM Bonus Files.  This means they will be considered SEMI-CANONICAL in ATOM’s lore – you will retain rights over your creation, of course, but they’ll also be considered part of the ATOM expanded universe.  *Note: I may increase or decrease this number depending on how many entries the contest gets, or if I just love a crap load more monster than just 5.

THE GOLD MEDAL WINNER: The creator of the winning entry will not only get the prizes from the previous tiers, but will also get to choose one movie for me to liveblog.  It can be any movie – good or bad – so long as 1. I can legally view it in the United States and 2. I don’t have to go into a porno shop to legally view it (thank glarnbodin for bringing up this possibility when I was brainstorming prizes).

TIPS

I’ve got a few tips, but one is so important it needs to be more than a bullet point.  The most important tip for this contest is as follows: I’m looking for Beeruses, not Brolys.

What do I mean by that?  Well, firstly, you need to watch Dragon Ball Z.  Secondly, the hit anime Dragon Ball Z had several non-canonical movies made by people who weren’t the main creator/writer of the manga the anime was based off of.  These movies had to fit in the gaps of the original story, and theoretically hoped to add something new and worthwhile to the story.  Most of them did not succeed.

Broly is the main villain of three of these movies, and basically was defined purely in relation to the main characters: he was like the hero, Goku, except bigger, more powerful than anyone else, and evil.  He didn’t really have a strong motivation, or any personality at all beyond “hates everything and loves destroying stuff”.  He was only defined by his ridiculously immense strength and how violent he was.  Overall, he contributed very little, didn’t fit the tone of the larger story, and yet was deeply connected too/defined by the main plot – the opposite of what my contest rules ask for.

By contrast, Lord Beerus, a villain introduced in a later movie, brought a lot more to the table.  He fit well within the canonical world of the story, both in design and his over the top yet complex personality (unlike Broly, Beerus has many solid motivations and a many dimensions to his character).  While he was somewhat connected to the plot of the overall story, he was also fairly distant – he had never met the main character before, and neither one of them knew much about the other.  The story of their conflict was similar to previous stories in Dragon Ball Z, and yet had several twists that made it feel utterly unique.  Beerus contributed a lot to the world and cast dynamics of the story, fit in with its tone, and was disconnected enough to what came before to feel like he was adding something new.  The only reason he’s not a shining example of what I’m going for (well, other than him not being a kaiju) is that he was made up by the original creator of Dragon Ball Z.

But still, the point stands: I’m looking for Beeruses, not Brolys.

In fact, I had to change my original pitch for this contest because of this rule.  Originally I thought of this as the “Lost Projects of ATOM” – making the ATOM equivalents of weird, cut kaiju from the Godzilla series.  But while I was thinking of oddities like Mogu and Majin Tuol, I realized most people would think of characters like Bagan – the Brolys of the Godzilla world.  This is why one of the rules of the contest is that the kaiju have to be separated from Tyrantis’s story in ATOM – if your monster isn’t a foe of Tyrantis, there’s less of a risk of them taking things to Broly style “I made a monster that’s bigger and meaner version of your monster” antics.

So one final time:  Beeruses, not Brolys.

Now, the other tips:

• ATOM’s aesthetics are mainly drawn from pop culture of the 1950’s and 60’s.  The obvious main inspiration would be the giant monster movies of that time period – the Showa Godzilla movies, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Them!,  The Deadly Mantis, etc. – but other sci-fi and horror stories of that time period apply as well.  This includes movies that were rereleased in this decade – King Kong was made in the 30’s, but was rereleased in theaters in the 50’s to great success – as well as other forms of media published at the time, like comic books, novels, and even some songs.  Silver Age monster comics from Marvel, like Tales to Astonish and other great titles by Jack Kirby, are just as entwined in ATOM’s DNA as Godzilla. • You can also work some modern design sensibilities here and there.  Tyrantis’s overbite is far more common in dinosaur art from the 70’s and 80’s, while creatures like Pathogen and the Writhing Flesh owe a lot to body horror movies of the 80’s and video games like Resident Evil.  These elements shouldn’t be the PRIMARY aesthetic, however – the 50’s/60’s vibe is still more important to capture. • ATOM works on Hollywood Science and, even more than that, child logic.  Scientific accuracy is far from a priority – science is something ATOM uses occasionally for flavor, rather than an essential ingredient.  Feel free to get weird, silly, and stupid to an extent . • Kaiju in ATOM are always characters and need to be expressive in some way.  That’s important to the story’s theme – even the most wicked monsters in the story (with one possible exception) have a sympathetic side to them, and they need to be able to show it. • If you looked closely at the rules, you’ll notice an inherent contradiction: entries will be judged both in how they fit the story, and paradoxically in how they add something new to it.  This might feel like a bit of give and take – a retrosaur would definitely fit, but might feel redundant, while, say, a giant lion might add something new but feel out of place.  Don’t be scared to embrace one of the two at the expense of the other: you can make up to five entries to hedge your bets, and you might actually do a lot better focusing on some of the required elements anyway.

You can also feel free to adapt some monster concepts I failed to make work, including (but not limited to - check my old DA gallery or my thirty day kaiju challenges on my art tumblr for more):

Giant grasshoppers

Giant rabbits

A Sabre Tooth Tiger Monster

Basically any amphibians

Basically any birds

A giant gila monster

Giant shrews

Most mammals really

Finally, here are some links to things that helped inspire ATOM’s aesthetic, so they may inspire you in turn:

[usaokay]

Rebooting a Series

Around March 2005, I began Servers on a whim in Concerned. I always wanted to create comics, but with my self-confidence in drawings, I decided to tackle Garry’s Mod. At the time, I loved anything Rooster Teeth and other webcomics such as Ctrl+Alt+Del (before the controversy) and MegaTokyo.

I thought, “Making webcomics. How hard could it be?”

When it took me several years to finally get up to Season 3, the answer was, “Very.”

I initially approached Servers with the intention of being short and comedic. Once I realized that the team needed to go out of de_dust and explore the world, I created the Game Helmet, a social gaming world where the user can interact with others. For the antagonists, I chose the internet’s most hated type of people: Trolls. To better fit them in gaming, they became hackers. After all, no one likes hackers.

Around Season 2, someone suggested I should make the comic longer as the plot got more serious with higher stakes. 

Even though I had the intention of the series going up to Season 4 with the plot beats involving a fallout of the team due the villain doing villainy, and the rise back into greatness as the team defeats the villain, as time went on, I changed a lot of the general plot, characters, and world.

A ton of factors could be attributed to why I haven’t really finished the series yet:

Perfectionism.

Growing up in a first generation Asian family, I’ve been taught to always strive to be the best compared to everyone else. Sometimes I think that my work is so good, I release it expecting another hit, but it ends up with people hating it without any constructive criticism. While I end up going over a lot of details, there are a lot of things I miss and I do like to see praises, but what I want more is criticism.

Laziness.

The more I felt that people have higher expectations of my work, the less interested I get because not only do I receive some sort of positive stigma, but also why break my back for perfectionism when I could just thrive on the positivity I just received? It’s ironic.

Finding the right idea.

As time went on for Servers, a lot of world events occurred in the gaming industry. Coincidentally, the PSN hack involved hackers breaking into Sony’s PS3 servers and obtaining customer information, which nearly mirrors the hackers’ goal in Servers.

Garry’s Mod is boring.

After sitting in front of a computer all day trying to get that stupid ragdoll in the right position, with the gnawing fear that the game might crash and you have to spend 5-10 minutes starting the game back up and another 5+ minutes setting up the scene (if I didn’t save). My patience and interest wears thin. With the growing standard for quality work, I have to focus intently on also providing such well-rounded settings in my comics. It’s tiring.

The long wait time caused several issues that I needed to address.

Other similar stories coming out and being popular.

Ready Player One and Sword Art Online both have similar worlds involving a VR MMO where there is way better interactivity. While Servers is very different as it tackles personal character issues, there is a gnawing in the back of my mind that readers will think that I was inspired by those properties rather than setting out to be original in some regard.

I get older and wise up about my stories and writing.

I consider this a self-improvement, but when you compare recent Servers works to the very first, it can cause some tonal and writing issues. If I was going to tackle character drama, I need to first get rid of Frank being a pervert all the time.

I can’t obtain all of my files.

Around the development of the first and second season, my computer’s hard drive went kaput. I lost everything, but thankfully I managed to go back to areas around the internet where I posted the comics. Of course I can’t get them all, but I managed to get some of the most important. I learned from this by using trusted image hosts (DeviantArt), a flash drive, and a portable hard drive to save past and future work almost every month or so.

New ideas = more story implementation = longer wait time.

Sometimes stuff occurs in my life that I want to address in Servers. It could be something that still bothers me to this day or something that I would like to praise. Sometimes I write myself into a corner and need to find a way around it.

During Season 3′s development, I realized that not only I want to end the story on a high note, but I also want to stop making Garry’s Mod comics altogether to pursue my dream as a writer. Thus, S3 became the final act, which oddly fits the entire story as some sort of trilogy.

This grew into another issue. As I was making Part 22, I wanted to give people a refresher on the story so far. I tried a small synopsis of the characters and story so far; and an actual comic that added way more to the plot than I intended. 

Looking back on it, I don’t consider it to be a good way to present the story as people would rather go back and read my earlier work; but it’s crude, immature, and just bad. Really bad.

I tried to do a small “remake” of Season 1 that somehow still fits into the narrative of Season 3′s plot, but I eventually became disinterested as I felt that the quality wasn’t up to par.

So, I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one hand, I want to get Season 3 over with and be done. On the other hand, I want people to fully enjoy the story, and with something as crude as the earlier comics with some pages missing, it may put them off.

Time went on. I focused on other comics such as further developing Team Fortress 2 Originals and a non-canon Servers work. Eventually I met a fellow Garry’s Mod comic creator who was making his own site. We got to talking about implementing my work into his site, until he said that I should find a way to update my own work to better tell the story.

I agreed.

As I knew that I once attempted to remake the first season, it was high time to tell the story I initially wanted to tell while also keeping in line with the plot, world, and tone that was the culmination of almost a decade worth of work.

I turned the remake into a reboot and began implementing and polishing up story elements I felt needed fixing. 

I actually tried to fully do a remake of the old season, such as Frank buying a helicopter and crashing it, but it didn’t fit too well with the tone I wanted to set. However, I do and try to retain some element and important plot beats that may come into play in later parts.

While I called the rebooted series, “Servers Redone”, it’s still very much the original Servers as the previous version has been retconned in favor for the revamped tale. Think of it like Star Wars’ difference between Legends and Disney’s version. You can still enjoy the old story on its own merit and to experience the journey of my trial & error into getting where I am now. 

It does seem weird in itself to reboot something when I think that Season 3 is still in development. As I plan to also redo Season 2, I’m not sure if Season 3′s two parts (and Hartman’s Journal) will have to be retconned away or slightly remade to better fit with whatever story I want to include in the future.

With the rebooted story, I could have more freedom to implement whatever I wanted in order to help build up the world. This eventually lead to the inclusion of what I always wanted to do: Reveal that TF2O is set in the Servers world. The Servers world is continuing to grow thanks to its reboot and I hope that readers will find it enjoyable.

Up next: Servers: Part 6 - Of Monsters and Men.