#*my opinion of the correct answer

[egophiliac]

Okay so I've been wanting to tell you that you're literally my favourite twst artist 😭🩷

So my question is, how do you manage to come up with these funny comics? CUZ I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

(P.s: Lovin' the art style ✨)

oh geeze, thanks! 💚💚💚 I'm really glad people enjoy my stupid sense of humor; mostly I just draw things to make myself laugh, and if it makes other people laugh too, then bonus points! usually it's just one joke or mental image that gets stuck in my head (every time I saw Fellow spin his cane, all I could think about was him go-go-gadgeting away on it...) and in my quest to justify it, it picks up other jokes and bits along the way and usually doesn't even end up as the main focus anymore. entire narrative arcs have spun out just so I could use a single bad pun in a throwaway line. this is a terrible way to explain it but I'm not sure how else to put it into words!

and sometimes it's just "weird things my sister has said that I make fun of her for"

[decaffeinatedcrack]

Who's your favorite philosopher of the enlightenment? Locke? Voltaire? Rousseau? WRONG.

Diderot is the greatest philosopher of the enlightenment because he was the only one who did shit.

Voltaire was all bark no bite, Locke had his head so far up his optimistic ass that he couldn't have implemented any of his ideas if he tried, and Rousseau was Rousseau.

All of the enlightened philosophers believed in and advocated for equal education yet Diderot was the only person to actually provide it.

With his Encyclopedia he managed to distribute knowledge regardless of social class. It started out only for the rich but with modified versions, thinner paper and less pictures, he was able to make it cheaper and available to all. It became a household item that could teach people anything they needed to know.

Was it free schooling? No. But, as a commoner, it was both the most he could do and the biggest step towards indiscrimant education that any philosopher had ever taken.

Diderot is THE best philosopher of the enlightenment, period.

[shimmershy]

I know some different Charas from different universes hate when people say that white chocolate is actually chocolate, so.... is that the same with your version of Chara? Do they hate white chocolate?

Local child informs you about chocolate. Final verdict: they will tolerate it.

[forgotten-daydreamer]

"I hate how they're writing Damian in Batman #146, he can't be that dumb, he's so ooc."

I mean, they're writing him almost as if he were a literal child who wants, no, needs to believe that his father's ideals aren't as fucked up as his mother's, who blindly believes in the man whom he learnt to trust despite being raised with widely different beliefs and ideals for the majority of his so-far short life.

Almost as if Damian were a pre-teen, or young teen at most (because how old can he be here, 13? 14?) who desperately clings onto the belief, onto the hope that his father hasn't really abandoned him, because his father is Batman, and Batman always has a plan, doesn't he? Obscure, complex, but a plan nonetheless, and it (almost) always turns out fine, so Damian needs to trust him, he knows he can, he knows that Batman is safe.

Logically, everyone else is older; I think the one whose age he's closest to might be Tim here, who's about 18 as usual, I guess. But Damian is a child, he's a child who's overall relatively new to Batman's antics, and he's a child who (unfortunately) rarely saw the difference between Batman and Bruce Wayne, a child who rarely got to meet Bruce Wayne at all, if you think of it.

You (you readers, not the characters in the story - because it makes sense for them to be so lost in the plot of their world that they lose sight of things) cannot blame a child for being delusional for believing with his whole heart that his father is not an evil bastard who's attacking everyone, allies included, family included. Because again, Damian doesn't really have a clear idea of how Batman and Bruce Wayne differ, he rarely got the priviledge to be with his father, Bruce Wayne, and not with his work partner, Batman.

You (readers) cannot really tell me that you're putting the blame on a child for 'snapping out of it' so late.

Of course, everyone is free to have their opinions, and if you think that this version of Damian is ooc or whatever, it's a valid, let's agree to disagree. But from a narrative pov, you can't possibly deny that it makes sense for Damian to be acting like this. He's a child, a literal child.

Expecting him to regulate his emotions as well as his sibs do is messed up. Which, by the way, they don't. Dick is a mess but keeping it together - except for the whole "punching your father senseless" thing, but good for him, I'd have done the same there. Jason is a mess and doesn't try to hide it, Steph is baffled and Babs is exhausted. The others are nowhere to be seen (and I'd have done the same pt2). Tim's the only one with a plan that's actually somewhat good - hope he makes Bruce snap out of his fear-induced little gateaway once and for all.

I know not many are fans of this run, but honestly? I'm digging it, it's possibly one of my faves. I love the drama, love the angst, love the plot-twists, like Damian snapping out of it just for Zur to silence him? Backup Robin who grins suspiciously like Jason? Tim ditching his phone - which is ossibly the most shocking thing? I'm hyped as hell.

All of this endless yapping to say that, okay, feel free to hate this or whatever, but please be humble enough to admit that Damian is being written exactly like he should be. I get it, DCAU gave us "Damian who talks like an old man, who never smiles and doesn't understand his peers" and it's cool. He's a bit like that in the comics too. But newer comics have a (very welcome, imho) tendency to write him as 'awkward' while simultaneously keeping in mind that he's a teen. And it's the best thing ever.

I, for one, needed reassurance at Damian's age. I needed an anchor and that anchor were my parents - growing up, the dynamics shifted but it's not the point. At 13, 14, or whatever Damian's age is, you're just a child who needs reassurance, because you're changing, the world around you is changing, and you're disoriented as if lost at sea. Writing Damian like that makes sense, it's not even up for debate.

He's not ooc, and he's not dumb either.

He's just a child.

Feel free to dislike how they're writing him, feel free to dislike literally every single detail about everything, this is a free world. But please don't tell me that needing a parental figure to be there for you, and that siding with said parental figure no matter what because they're essentially all you got left (rip batfam I guess?) - is ooc for a child. Damian is a child, don't forget that.

[mysterycitrus]

Hey! I was thinking about the last ask you answered about how your writing Roy and Jason differently than what is normally seen in dc fanworks. And how you write them is one of the reasons I love persephone so much! It’s so refreshing to read a story that acknowledges who the characters actually are! I hate that I think “finally a story that acknowledges Roy and Dick’s friendship without making it about Jason” but at the same time I’m so glad persephone has me feeling that. I don’t know much of Roy’s character (I’ve just started comics & he’s only made a few appearances so far in ntt which I’m currently going through), but it always bugged me that Roy was seen as a prop for Jason and not his own character in so many aspects of fandom. I think a big issue for me with that Jason & Roy dynamic is the fact that I don’t care for Jason ideologically speaking. I’m getting a little carried away lol. Anyway, that is to say, persephone is a work of art and so is your characterization of each character that you include in the story! <3

thank u kindly! it’s been really rewarding to hear that i’ve done roy in specific justice. it is a shame that one (bad) iteration of these characters has taken over fan spaces to the point where other interpretations are a rarity. roy and the other titans have some really great comics — i wish more people engaged with their preboot stories. best of luck reading!

[iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid]

i've spoken at length about my opinions on this before, but i'm curious about the general consensus

[skyward-floored]

the thing about botw/totk zelink is i absolutely adore it, i just adore other zelink MORE. Like I love orange juice, but my favorite is grape juice, and when i get a nice strong craving for grape juice all i can find is orange, and it is Frustrating

EXACTLY YES YOU GET IT

everyone is planting orange trees even though there's already a huge orchard of them and while oranges are indeed delicious, the grapes are literally dying a few fields over. please water them.

[rotisseries]

i have 3 episodes left to go in jjk s1 so it's poll time

y'all are free to make your arguments for or against either option on this post or argue across my inbox idc

[autisticredhood]

If you could re-write Batman: Death in the Family, how would you do it?

okay so i would introduce miffy and most importantly miffy's dog snuffy. and this would fix everything trust me on this

[vylad-romeaves-autism]

Dude same! I will fully admit Laurence shouldn’t have killed all those people at the wedding. I will absolutely agree that he should face repercussions for that. What I WON’T say is that Laurence is a bad person for it. Laurence is not a somehow fundamentally bad person for responding violently after being held prisoner and being forced to watch the woman he loves be forced into a marriage all while knowing he is going to die if he does not do something.

There is a huge difference between “this person did something bad because they could/they were cranky” and “this person did something bad because they were under extreme duress and didn’t have another feasible way out”, even ignoring EVERYTHING with shadow knights and all that. Saying what someone did was UNDERSTANDABLE is not the same as JUSTIFIED. Mass murder is bad! Mass murder is very very bad! But with his characterization, I fully believe that if Laurence knew of another way to get out he would have taken it.

Laurence did not choose to do that because he wanted to kill all those werewolves, because he was throwing a fit that the lady he loved was marrying another person, because he was a little upset. He did not do it because he is evil or a villain in some way. He did it because he was going to die and he likely did not see any other choice.

I could go on for ages but I’ll stop here for rn so the ask isn’t super long

EXACTLY, also extremely sorry for waiting FOREVER to respond. I needed time to be able to sit down to respond properly BECAUSE YOU GET THIS. (warning me rambling about this below beware!!!)

Laurence doesn't get a free pass from repercussions because of any reason you can think of(ie. is a shadow knight, is in love with aphmau or whatever). But he might never face them unless it is brought on by aphmau/Katelyn because even though i just finished watching MCD season 3, the werewolves shifted the blame for the mass murder/genocide onto aphmau instead of Laurence. So probably by this point unless someone was there, the blame is no longer on Laurence(at least as far as were aware since season 3 kinda got put on hiatus) so we'll never know if Laurence will face repercussions from the werewolf tribe directly.

I genuinely semi get annoyed with people that dont like laurence and this is their main reason, but are die hard aphmau defenders when imo the murder she did at skystead was kinda worse again imo. Aphmau was in no danger other then being held hostage. Lo might’ve been also threatened to be executed but I think they were just also held hostage as well, you can correct me if I’m wrong. But aphmau barely knew Lo, she imo has very little reason to murder for them. I think she was possessed by Irene as well, but I’m not sure. But even then that’s not a good excuse.

Laurence killed because he didn’t want to die, and aphmau killed because she was possessed by Irene(?????)/ wanted to stop an arranged marriage. Their a bit similar situations but still very different but you can’t defend aphmau and hate Laurence for what he did at the werewolf wedding at the same time.

[theminecraftbee]

Ok, so I want to ask, because I want to write something with Watchers and Pearl, what would you say are the biggest sins to her character on watcher!Grian fics? I have a few ones in mind, but I'm curious on the opinion of other person

...okay so the thing is. i think... okay. so, to start: this isn't a knock on people who like sky siblings, or like writing grian and pearl as friends who lost each other because of evo, or all of that. i want to get that out of the way. hell, look at last days! i wrote some sky siblings! i get it!

okay. that paragraph is out of the way.

so. a problem i have with watcher grian fics in general is a tendency to reduce everyone to "guy to comfort grian" or "guy who is vessel for grian angst". and to some extent THIS IS FAIR. because it is a fic about grian. so, therefore, most of how we see other characters interact... will be in the context of grian.

however.

when pearl first joined hermitcraft and people were like "oh yeah she was in evo and on grian's build team". it suddenly felt like people... were only excited about her in the context of "how do we add this to the watcher grian canon". they made her grian's sibling, but only would characterize her in the context of "she is grian's buddy". and the type of pearl-related watcher grian angst i dislike... well. it almost always tends to focus on how sad grian is that he can't remember pearl. or how scared he is to tell pearl about what happened. and. pearl's existence in those fics revolves around how she makes grian feel and... nothing else.

and for a little bit, it felt like all the pearl headcanons weren't pearl headcanons. they were grian headcanons. pearl was just there to add to the world of grian. and it soured me. it soured me a lot. and the thing is, as i said: pearl and grian ARE friends and i DO get the sibling headcanons but oftentimes it felt like they were done solely to make grian a more interesting character, with no regard for pearl, who is plenty cool on her own, away from grian, you know?

anyway the fandom isn't as bad about that now - soup group helped a lot with this, and then double life also helped a lot with disabusing people of a lot of the worst of this. people having new groups and themes and things to do with pearl and pearl being less new helps. the biggest headcanon about pearl is no longer a headcanon about her relationship with a completely different person.

but like. you know. gestures vaguely. i still remember and so it's one more thing that makes me more wary of that genre.

[bestmutt]

Casually sends your opinion on trans men to my bestie {a trans man}

As you should bc I'm right

[navree]

How can you humanize Maegor , if you will make a show about him?

It depends on how far back you're willing to go in his life, because really up until he takes the crown, you can do quite a bit to humanize him and make him someone people want to engage with, without woobifying him or trying to excuse the truly heinous things he does. Starting backstory onwards, there are lot of ways to do this. There's a lot of room to play with in his childhood and the interpersonal relationships that should be his strongest tethers to humanity, but aren't: his relationship with his brother, his relationship with his mother, and his relationship with his father.

Aenys and Maegor are a relationship that was doomed to fail since birth. For one, while the age gap isn't huge, five years is still pretty significant in terms of differences in development as children, which definitely got in the way of any bonding. For two, they also appear to have largely grown up separately, with Aenys spending most of his time by Aegon's side in King's Landing, and Maegor being raised on Dragonstone with Visenya, before the two essentially switched places with Aegon at Dragonstone and Visenya overseeing the construction of the Red Keep in King's Landing. For three, there's also the external factors, such as their incredibly different personalities and viewpoints on basically everything, as well as the fact that, when Maegor was born, Aenys was only very recently removed from the complete breakdown he had due to his trauma over his mother's sudden death, and likely still wasn't in a state to be trying to forge new bonds with anyone who wasn't Quicksilver (and Aegon, but Aegon's grandfathered in by being his literal dad). So Maegor, who we know wasn't making friends on Dragonstone and just in general was probably really isolated from kids his own age due to it being Dragonstone (not unlike how we see with Shireen Baratheon) also isn't getting any kind of connection from anyone close to his own age throughout his entire childhood.

Really, the only person Maegor is close to in any capacity is his mother, Visenya. She's the parent he grew up with, his primary caregiver and his closest relationship not just in childhood, but likely throughout his entire life. In the nature vs nurture debate on childrearing, she's the one who was providing the nurture. Nearly everything about Maegor, his personality and his view of the world and his personal philosophies and his love map in his brain, among many other things, all of that was shaped by Visenya and her influence on him and her care and devotion for him. And with no one else really around to provide him any sort of companionship that he might have needed, and with his other parent being incredibly distant and barely a parent, Maegor likely latched onto her incredibly strongly. I think, if asked, Maegor would say that, should he be found capable of love, Visenya would be the person he loved the most in his life (I'm of the opinion that his relationship with Tyanna was him trying to find a significant other that most reminded him of his beloved mother, not entirely dissimilar to the way that Henry VIII felt that an ideal wife would be one who was almost identical to Elizabeth of York). And we know that this is something that persisted long after childhood, into his adulthood Visenya was his strongest supporter and Maegor relied on her a lot early in his reign, and was publicly devastated when he learned that she had died. His mother was the only parent he ever really knew as a parent, certainly the family member he loved most, adored even, especially in such sharp distinction with Aegon as a distant father. And speaking of that distant father...

I love Aegon, he's one of my absolute favorite Targs, but he was practically just a parent in name only to his second son. And that's going to do a number on someone, no matter who they are. Maegor's father doesn't much care for his mother, certainly doesn't seem to care for him at all personally, and despite the fact that Maegor is probably far more like Aegon, and a far worthier successor, than Aenys, Aegon still dotes on his eldest while barely spending any time with Maegor. And it's not because of anything Maegor's done, or even anything Aenys has done: it's entirely because of Aenys's mother. Aenys is Aegon's favorite, his precious son, not because of anything Aenys has done to earn that, but simply because he is the son of Aegon's beloved Rhaenys, and that his very existence is a way of having Rhaenys still with him after her disappearance/death. We know that Aegon was forever incredibly affected by what happened to Rhaenys and that he never stopped loving her, given that he openly wept when he held Rhaena and was informed that she was named after her grandmother. Meanwhile, there's Maegor, whose own mother's relationship with his father was never very good (marriage of duty for them vs the Aegon/Rhaenys marriage of desire) and had become incredibly cold and distant by the time that he was born, and you can very easily see how that might ultimately affect a kid. He's watching his mother be completely ignored by his dad just for being the wrong woman, he's dealing with himself being completely ignored and passed over in love and affection just because he's the son of the wrong woman, because his mother isn't the lost ghost that Aegon loved and won't ever be able to stop loving. How much of Maegor's prowess in fighting, not to mention the unchecked aggression he showed during training, was borne of trying to impress his martially skilled father and being upset when it didn't work? How much of his continued presence in tourneys and melées was to show Aegon that he was a much better son than Aenys, that he deserved the love Aegon was freely giving his brother just as much? Was there ever a time when he resented Visenya for being his mother when that was enough to make Aegon uninterested, and did he ever hate himself for blaming the wrong person, or blaming anyone at all? How much did he internalize his own feelings about it as the relationship never got any warmer? How did he feel when Aegon finally noticed him enough to knight him himself, and make him the youngest knight in the realm at that? Did Maegor ever want to talk to him about it once he was a young man, did he ever want to try and forge a stronger relationship on his own merits as an adult, did he ever even try?

There's also the matter of Balerion, which is as much its own relationship as a subset of anything that can be played with as it pertains to Aegon and Maegor. For one, we know that Maegor point blank refused to claim any dragon because he felt that Balerion was the only one worthy of him. And you can take that at face value, but you can also go deeper into it, into the ideas that Maegor might not be consciously aware of. Maybe he wants to try and connect with his father on some level through the dragon bond. Maybe he looks at how Aegon gives Aenys so much, his companionship and his throne and his sword and his love, Hell he even gives Aenys a Valyrian bride (Alyssa Velaryon) but demands that Maegor settle for a simple Westerosi, as if he's lesser than and not the blood of old Valyria. And still he waits to see if maybe Aegon will give him something. Maybe once Aegon is too old for dragonriding, he'll give Maegor Balerion, or at least give Maegor the opportunity to try, to prove himself as Aegon's son, to have that connection. And when Aegon doesn't, when it's still Aenys getting everything Maegor might not even realize he wants, that's just another disappointment for him.

But Maegor does get Balerion anyway, once Aegon dies. He finally gets a connection to Aegon that's his alone, and it's after Aegon is already dead and likely after Maegor was already hardening into the man he would ultimately be remembered as. Not to mention, even on its own, Balerion and Maegor's bond is a good way to show a human element to the man. I've always maintained that, when it comes to Targaryens, the most unconditionally loving and the most openly affection and emotional we should see them should really be with the dragons. With their magic and their Valyrian blood and old world roots and just everything about them, even if you don't subscribe to Targaryen exceptionalism, they are pretty far removed from the place they actually live; culturally and ethnically and socially, they are not Westerosi and certainly in Maegor's time, don't see themselves or are seen by others as Westerosi. The dragons, products of Valyria's heyday, are the closest living beings that Targaryens can relate to, and this is doubly important when it comes to Balerion, who was born during the reign of the Valyrian Freehold, who was alive before the Doom. Balerion is a living cultural heritage, and for someone as isolated as Maegor is (and, as we see in his actions re: his marriages and the Faith, as divorced from Westerosi customs and standards as he is), having that connection is probably the deepest one he'd have, bar maybe his mother, and even then, despite that closeness and love, their mutually cold personalities probably made it hard to be open in any deep affection once Maegor started growing up. Dragons and their riders are practically one being, they feel each other's pains and pleasures and angers and grudges and triumphs, and Maegor having something like that, along with the connection to a father he never really was connected to, adds a human element to the man that he was, despite the fact that he used Balerion to do terrible things.

You can also do a lot with Maegor's actions before his own kingship, specifically the reign of his half-brother Aenys. In spite of their differences and distances, in spite of the shadow of Aegon and the relationships he had with his sisters that affected his relationship with his own sons in turn, Aenys does embrace Maegor with open arms. He gives him Blackfyre, another possession of Aegon's that Maegor must have coveted, and he promises that they'll rule together. They're both adults now, and Aenys seems emotionally sensitive enough to have realized that Maegor probably has some deep rooted issues borne out of things that were set in motion before he was even conceived. And while Visenya might have scoffed at the gestures Aenys made for Maegor, Maegor appears to have taken them really seriously. He personally crushes a rebellion against Aenys in the Vale, and makes huge showings of his loyalty by fighting really hard for his brother against his foes. When Aenys makes him his Hand, Maegor takes that responsibility really seriously and is willing to obey Aenys as his Lord and King, as well as protect him. This seems to have been loyalty that was reciprocated, since it's noted that, when Aenys exiles Maegor for his bigamy, he does it because he felt he had no other option than to be mad at Maegor for what he did, due to the huge public outcry, and even then he still offers Maegor a way out. He only exiles him because Maegor refuses to set Alys aside (another way to humanize Maegor, he takes Alys as a wife despite it being a big taboo for most Westerosi and in spite of her being from a pretty minor noble House, and he refuses to leave her even at the cost of losing his home, he keeps her by his side and he refuses to give her up when there were likely a shitton of better options to deal with his childlessness, to say nothing of women from greater Houses with more potential for him politically, but he CHOSE Alys), since Aenys felt that this was the only choice left to him. And Maegor abides by the exile. Yeah, he takes Blackfyre even though Aenys asked him to leave it, but he still goes into exile, and he stays in exile. Aenys rides Quicksilver and Maegor rides Balerion, the two dragons literally go toe to toe with each other and it's so massively onesided because Quicksilver doesn't stand a chance. If Maegor wanted to, he could have very easily repudiated his exile and decimated Aenys if he tried to enforce it. But Aenys told him to go, so he did, and he stayed gone until Visenya came to fetch him back with the news that Aenys was dead. He respected Aenys's word as king, his sovereign authority as liege lord and as the elder brother, and even if he might not have entirely thought the man worthy of what he had, that does speak to a sort of deference in spite of the complexities of their upbringing, and a willingness to obey Aenys despite everything about their personalities.

So, by the time Maegor comes back from Pentos to usurp the throne, there's a lot that can be used to humanize him and make him a compelling protagonist. A close but somewhat stilted relationship with the only parent to have ever tried with him, an unfulfilled, desperate need for approval and affection from a parent who couldn't give that to him due to circumstances entirely outside his control, a brother he didn't know well in his youth and might not have thought worthy of what he had and certainly been jealous of but that he still respected as king and fought hard to defend and that he deferred to even when he didn't have to, at least one marriage that, in spite of what little it offered him and the clusterfuck it caused, he valued enough that he refused to set aside, and an intense bond with a fearsome dragon that you can make him value more than almost anything or anyone. All of that set up can then be used for an extraordinary fall from grace, to watch the potential and nuance slowly grow darker and darker and darker as Maegor does increasingly horrible things, treats the people in his life increasingly badly, descends further and further into the tyranny and madness that will utlimately kill him. There's bright spots that can be used as well, like the fact that he does have Jaehaerys as his heir and doesn't seem to have had him or Viserys treated that badly, even though they were prisoners, and that he didn't actually set out to kill Aegon the Uncrowned at all until Aegon decided to take back his throne and amass an army. Then, as we've watched Maegor slide further and further down, we can watch with a sinking dread as he annihilates Aegon beneath God's Eye, as he turns on Alys and extinguishes her family, as he has Viserys literally tortured to death to punish Alyssa and Jaehaerys and Alysanne for their escape from Dragonstone. So that, by the time we get to shit like the completion of the Red Keep and the Black Brides, we see that Maegor is incredibly far gone, and we can only watch as all the complexities within him are swept aside by the monster he's become, so foul and loathsome that the eldritch abomination that is the Iron Throne finally kills him to stop the madness.

It's not about woobifying Maegor or excusing him. It's about providing a reason for the audience to look back on who he was as he becomes what he was always going to be, to give explanations for why he does the things that he does (how much of his initial militarism and violence and heavy-handedness, before he went doolally, was borne out of not just his martial prowess as a kid but also watching Aenys's version of ruling not work, for instance), and to get people to understand and feel his initial motivations so that the later stuff also makes sense, and so that you're watching something akin to a doomed fall when he becomes Maegor the Cruel. These are, at least to me, some of the most important and influential ways you can humanize Maegor as a character if you're planning to center him in a proper narrative story, without filing down his edges and keeping him as the kind of person he is. Extrapolate on why he is the way he is, and then show him how he is throughout his lifetime and what he does, along with the how and why of what he does.