bezpez

[bezpez]

Children's novels are so funny because a character can die brutally but as long as nobody swears it's ok

[bezpez]

first time drawing todd i believe...

[bezpez]

Super cool production art of Todd Tolansky from X-Men Evolution

[ source ]

[bezpez]

Kurt: I'm immune to mean and hurtful words because my friends say nice things to me every day and their love protects me. Toad: I'm immune to mean and hurtful words because my friends say mean things to me, so I'm prepared.

[bezpez]

Todd Tolanski: Evolution Headcanons

Yet another oldie I found

—————

Will love and worship you till the end of time

He makes a croaking noise when he is comfy

Extremely touch starved

Will lovingly tease you

Be prepared for nicknames

Babe, doll, hun, baby cakes also various personalized names based on traits or characteristics you have

he is so happy that he has a person to give affectionate nickname too and it shows

His smile is the cutest ever

Insert frog smile meme

If you scratch his scalp he will become a snuggly cuddly pile of goo

He has the clearest and loveliest skin ever

Beauty influencers wish they could have skin as dewy as his

Despite his green complexion

He would thrive with a caring partner

How they show him love doesn't really matter

His partner could be motherly or a feral goblin.

I think he would appreciate a person with a good sense of style

No particular reason i can just see him gravitating towards people like that

In order to have a good relationship with him you will have to develop a level of trust with him

It will take time and you'll prob be friends before yall date

If you ever manipulate or abuse his trust you will never be able to regain that trust back

He would need someone who outwardly expressed they enjoy hanging out with him as well as spending time, it makes him feel better

Banter with him, he will always be putting his two-sense into any situation he finds himself in

So if you make quips or responses he will enjoy it and feel closer to you

If you ever defend him whether from vocal judgements or physical violence against him.

He will feel so loved in those moments. It will be a huge reminder to him how much you care about him, though he will insist you shouldn't do it as it puts you in the crossfire of his issues, and also he can fight his own battles

But he still appreciates it more then he will ever say

Complement his appearance

Bonus points if you cover him in kisses simultaneously too

The brotherhood with unanimously groan at the mention of your name

Todd will take any opportunity to talk about you and the things he admires about you or the little things he notices and will go on long tangents about you

You can’t really really blame him though, almost all his thought are of you

You occupy a large part of his subconscious

You will be well acquainted with the entirety of the brotherhood as they are all Todd's friends

They are Todds only friend group

The reason todd doesn't shower often is because much like a frog he absorbs things through his skin and the brotherhood is very poor and the soap they get is not good for anybody but todd is impacted by this ten fold

if you ever offer to bath with him as incentive, you will have to do it every time from then on

He struggles a lot with jealousy, views your relationship as a sort of miracle. So he is constantly scared you’ll leave while also thinking you deserve better

Really it doesn’t even really come from a place of jealousy

He is waiting for the day you will just stop loving him

He waits for the moment when you'll wrinkle your nose at him in disgust when touching him

Or when you realize you're too good for him and leave

He isn’t worried about you cheating on him though, the pedestal he’s placed you on is to high to think so poorly of you

Treat him well he’ll need a lot of reassurance

In exchange he will give you everything he is

——————

[bezpez]

Future Todd sketches. I think these came out nice.

[bezpez]

Quick Todd sketch cuz he's still the best

[bezpez]

i miss my family

[bezpez]

What is your opinion about Toad (Mortimer Toynbee)?

CONGRATULATIONS YOU'VE UNLOCKED A RANT

Mortimer is one of my favorite characters! With most popular characters from mainstream comics, there's so much content that you can basically interpret them as any kind of person you want. Yet, Toad only has two similar but distinct personalities given by the writers. At least, that's how I see it.

He's a vintage Evil Henchman™, a classic Igor type: Ugly, devious, intelligent, and loyal despite obvious mistreatment from the Big Bad. The two versions of him are commonly found in similar characters. He's either sold to us as a dangerous and cowardly pervert leeching off of brave and powerful Magneto despite secretly hating him, or he's a pitiable, perpetually abused sadsack, staying with the devil he knows and sort of loves until he has no other choice. Either way, most writers don't intend for us to like him.

These motherfuckers seem to have forgotten that they're writing for X-Men fans. Having him as an obvious villain in almost any other story would probably work! But our heroes are fighting oppression based on things out of their control, things that they were born with! And people are mean to Toad because he's ugly and tells people to fuck off when it happens! Like, Dude! You told me to think about my internalized prejudices and then did one yourself!? Y'all did not think this through!

When people actually bother to make him a little three-dimensional, he's always fascinating. His life is doomed from the start. He can build a rocket ship from bits and pieces he found in the garbage but can not have a reasonable conversation to save his life. He's so desperate for positive attention that anyone who's even a little nice to him becomes a Saint in his eyes, which always goes wrong because there’s nowhere to go but down when you put someone on a pedestal.

Needless to say, I find this deeply relatable in the absolute worst way.

Of course, readers' perceptions of him are based on how they're introduced to him. Many people who hate him on a visceral level know him from the worst evil pervert arcs. Think the time he kidnaps the Scarlet Witch, finds out she's pregnant, and goes on an incel rant that would make Red Pill Reddit proud. Or the alternate universe human trafficking storyline. Both are pretty heinous.

I was introduced to him in X-Men Evolution, and boy, he is a sadsack. We are NOT supposed to like him. He is supposed to be a creepy bad guy. He kind of is. He's also a fourteen-year-old who eats from dumpsters and gets beat up by the football team. He's down bad for Goth Scarlet Witch. He's mainly doing the villain thing because otherwise, Mystique will fuck him up and kick him out into the street. He makes bad choices, but I absolutely get it.

He has so much potential to grow, and he has in past comics, but it always gets retconned. Whether he's straight-up evil or just a guy with shit luck, he's having a bad time. That's Toad's comic baseline. When the storyline ends and the world returns to normal, Jean Grey lives, Uncle Ben dies, and Mortimer Toynbee is miserable. He could be a great antihero, or a good guy with a tragic backstory, or just a morally grey side character who's got his own life far away from the Brotherhood and the X-Men, but he's not allowed to be more than what he already is. I hate it, but Marvel ain't gonna hire me any time soon.

I live for the in-between moments where he gets a little braver, a little bolder, and tries to change. He makes friends on Krakoa, or he falls for Husk, or he joins Spiderman! I want desperately for him to escape the cycle and be happy! Because I want that for myself! I want it for every miserable asshole! Especially assholes for whom it makes complete sense to be an asshole! Toad deserves better! We all deserve better!

It happened for characters like Mystique (Even if I hate how they went about it.) or Blob (How dare you retcon him. Give him back his books and mustache. I hate it here.) I'm holding out hope, but not much. That's why I love the fandom! Fanfiction soothes my soul. In my heart, our favorite little freak is alive, going to therapy and leading a happy, healthy life. He reconciles with the people he's hurt, and he never ever ever has to see the people who abused him ever again. He also has an actual bed because I'm still not over that. What the fuck, guys. His life sucks so bad, at least give him a mattress. What the fuck.

Anyway, he's one of my recurring hyperfixations, so if you want more detail, feel free to ask. Please ask. I will be so normal about it, I promise.

[bezpez]

Something I’ve been slowly working on between commissions 

A study of Toad in my au comic Brooklyn Heroes! 

I hope to do this with Peter and Gwen, too!

[bezpez]

Wolverine and the X-Men #31 (2011)

[bezpez]

Wolverine and the X-Men #33 (2011)

[bezpez]

When I'm sad, I draw the characters I love, shirtless. It's therapeutic

I went a bit overboard on the hair compared to my adult version of him, but it was for my own pleasure

[bezpez]

TOAD

[bezpez]

What are your headcanons about Toad (Mortimer)?

Sorry for sitting on this one, real life is a thing that keeps happening, but time is an illusion, so here we are.

This is just some general stuff that knocks around the back of my head, because you’ve given me a lot of wiggle room with this question. I’ll just stick with what I consider metadata, or whatever. I’m willing to admit that a lot of what I’ve written here is broadly accepted fanon on this corner of the internet. I do have more specific thoughts, but we’d be here all day going through it. If you have a more specific question, I’d be happy to answer it! Anyway, I’m putting this under Read More because it got a bit long.

So in real life, many species of toads have sensitive skin. They absorb oxygen through it, and this process is most effective when they have a healthy layer of mucus to prevent the absorption of substances other than oxygen, much like a filter. What doesn’t get absorbed should just wash off the next time they go for a swim. However, this isn’t foolproof, and other stuff gets pulled in, making them sick. Notably, things like perfumes, lotions, scented soaps, all things humans love to rub all over themselves, might even kill a toad. I think our Toad has a partially effective membrane covering his body. It doesn’t work very well due to years of chemical damage from human products. This is why he’s slimy and smells weird. If you got him some bath products that didn’t poison him, it could heal. He’d probably smell okay, if you could notice the odor at all, once he was healthy. He’d still be sticky, though. Getting him to use said products might be a challenge. He might not realize that the stuff is making him sick, but most soaps he’s used before were painful on his sensitive skin. Now he doesn’t trust the stuff, and he’s used to the smell. Mostly.

Toad's automatic fear response is not fight or flight. While they are the most common, people often forget that there are four major categories of fear response: Fight, flight, freeze, and the perpetually overlooked fawn. Fawn is when you look at the thing about to kill you and you try to convince it to like you instead. 'You don't want to kill me! I'm funny! I'm willing to do whatever you like! Why waste your valuable energy hurting me? Surely there's something more worthy of your time, someone as impressive as you!' Toad fawns, endears himself to the scariest people in the room because while he has no confidence that he can keep himself safe, he knows the big bad can.

Which brings us to the neurodivergence. That boy ain't right. He's got something going on under the hood, but I'm no psychiatrist, and he's a fictional character, so anything I say is based on my experience as a repeat grippy sock vacationer. My vote is for bipolar disorder. I think you could read the significant disparity between how he's written in one arc and the next as a series of manic and depressive episodes, the worst of which resulting in varying paranoid delusions. I was diagnosed as bipolar for a while, and I added this one to my list of headcanons for him during that time. I've got other stuff going on, turns out, but I still think it's a good fit for him. I think he's also got C-PTSD, because the amount of stuff he's been through there's no way it hasn't fucked him up. Sprinkle a little attention deficit on top and you've got my version of Mort's brain. Any other interpretation is just as valid, as long as we agree on SLS: Shit Life Syndrome. He is struggling, guys.

There's no way that struggle didn't start early. Every version of Toad's design is noticeably inhuman in some way. I believe his social alienation began at a young age and never stopped. The best he got was disinterest. The worst was undeniable abuse. In the comics, he's mentioned having grown up in a group home (and burning it down), but I don't recall him ever mentioning his biological parents. I think Mr. Sinister paid some down-and-out pregnant girl money to let him run experiments on her fetus. I don't think she ever planned on keeping the child if it came to term. Mortimer's obvious physical mutations probably dissolved any doubts she had. She likely thought she was doing him a favor, believing herself unable to care for him either way. Maybe she was right, but our boy sure didn't have a good time. I don't claim to know anything about the foster system in Britain, but it sure ain't fun over here in the States! So Toad spent his early days in the underfunded, understaffed, overcrowded system, all while being undeniably abnormal. The early stages of neurodivergence would likely present as learning disabilities. Without anyone to fight for him to get extra help, he'd underperform in school. He's undeniably brilliant, but his ability to pay attention in class or interact cohesively with other students would be poor to begin with. It would only get worse the longer he went without help. Eventually, they'd just expect him to fail and treat him accordingly. Behavioral issues follow. He failed a test because he was too shy to ask for help with the material, and now he has a reputation as an idiot. He steals because he needs to eat, and now he has a reputation as a thief. He defends himself from a bully after ignoring them doesn't work, and now he has a reputation for being violent. And this would he true in every aspect of his young life. Every mistake would reinforce the idea that he's a bad kid, and every triumph would be treated as a fluke or as him cheating somehow. His deep-seated insecurity begins here. Before he could age out, Magneto saved him in a very flashy way, earning his trust and loyalty. I think it was a 'Weird Misunderstanding Almost Leads to a Public Lynching' scenario, à la Nightcrawler's backstory, because I love a good thematic parallel.

However, I think both in the Evolution show and the Wolverine show, Toad at least mentions his mother. So they had to at least stay with their moms for a portion of their childhoods, but those two scream foster kid to me. Evo's Todd doesn't get a special episode where Mystique adds him to her collection of delinquents like some of the others. He's there from the start. I like the idea that his mom is out there, alive but decidedly unwell. Whatever issues she has led to little Todd being taken by the state, and while she wants him back, she can't keep her shit together long enough to make it happen. People love the tragic backstory of super evil parents doing super evil things, but it's much sadder to me when someone who loves their kids can't take care of them because they can't take care of themselves. (Call me a cinema because I am PROJECTING) So he lives through the American foster system until he runs away and spends some time on the street. (Did you know that approximately 50% of our homeless population is made up of former foster kids? Because we've fucking failed them that spectacularly.) And then the Brotherhood comes in and saves the day! He's offered food and a clean place to sleep and told that, no, you aren't bad for being a mutant, humans are the bad ones! You're special and valuable, and if you do what we say, you'll be in the ruling class of the New World! (Watching Evolution as an adult is so weird because I can't look at The X-Men and The Brotherhood without going, "That's a cult. That's two cults. How did this small town end up with two separate but undeniably intertwined mutant child soldier cults? Who let this happen?" You can argue cult behavior from either side of the conflict in most X-Men media, but Evolution's High School AU setting makes the recruitment of vulnerable teens thing stand out more.)

That’s the basics of our favorite little weirdo. Or, the specific little weirdo that lives in my brain. There’s plenty of other stuff, so feel free to ask!

[bezpez]

Just more Futur Toad

[bezpez]

Some more Kurt because I love him