#I had more ideas but I'm not falling for a long-form comic!!

[pyralart]

Oh Luz...

First part - Previous part < Here

Last part I'll be making of this scenario for now!

Thank you so much for everyone's support and thank you again @petitprincess1 for letting me use your idea! It was fun putting my own twist on it, and definitely ended up longer than I had planned... guess you guys can't complain lol

I'm already working on the next fancomic I wanna make :)c

You can find the pages as soon as they're done and some exclusive art/extras on my Ko-fi! You even get a little extra comic under the cut, free of charge. I'm that nice

Luz is regretting accepting this deal. If she wasn't already...

[satorubrain]

Back again 👀👀👀

How would Gojo react if his s/o dressed as him? Like he’s back from work or he walks in on them- can be up up you!

I can imagine the reader giggling to themselves while trying not to trip over Gojo’s trousers BC WHY IS HE SO TALL???

Pairing: Gojo Satoru x Reader

Tags: Fluff, crack, reader is implied to be short but lets all agree that Satoru is just a fucking buff giant. Why is he built like that. I'll stop ranting-

Synopsis: Gojo sees you cosplaying as him

A/N: I had to add stupidity to this.

"Perfect!!" You exclaim styling your white hair wig. Now all that's remaining is, do work with Satoru's humongous clothes. He was already giant yet his uniform is fucking baggy, which just increases your problems.

The amount of pins you had to use to make his pants fit you already have your hands aching. His top is a fucking dress and you think you're gonna cry. But it's too late to stop. Continuing to put on the white mascara on your eyelashes and checking if the blindfolds fit you-

"FUCK YOU SATORU" You scream trying to get rid of the anger his size is giving you. You just want to get ready before he arrives home. You just tear up the blindfold since you're now too lazy to make proper adjustments, it's just easier if you tie up a knot.

Finally, you put on the ridiculous wig. Yes, it's absolutely absurd that you decided the wig hair length should make up for the difference in height.

Oh lord this get up is hilarious. You're shaking trying to control the laughter while looking at yourself in the mirror. Unwilling to ruin your mascara, you decide to get up and wait for Satoru in the living room. You text Satoru that you "need him" before putting on the blindfolds again, manspreading and sitting like him with a wide smile anticipating his arrival any time now.

It doesn't take him more than twenty minutes to hurriedly unlock your door. But this is not what he was envisioning, nonetheless he is not disappointed.

"Im hOO-" he stops mid sentence removing his blindfolds so he can properly look at you for a couple of seconds before bursting into his loud hyena laughter, clutching onto the door knob for support because lord you knocked the air out of his lungs in the most comical way. You would've looked so cute if it wasn't for that darned wig of yours.

"Laughing at the strongest? That's not a very good idea" You choke out trying to control your laughter, biting your inner cheek.

He's wheezing oh so loudly now and closing the door behind him, so he can go to you and sit beside you. He fails to form any sentence whenever he even glaces at you- both of you are now trying to control your laughter, just wanting to breathe for a moment.

"C-can I have a pic-" He wheezes so loudly he starts coughing and at this point both of you have tears of laughter running down your face.

"Yes you may, my dear FAN" you yell the newfound nickname with your cracking voice sending the both of you into another fit of laughter.

It takes you both a solid while to calm down before he can have a photoshoot with you while recording the entire thing with another camera so he doesn't miss out any moments.

You both also record a tiktok with team rocket's motto, but instead of meowth there's an abrupt cut of you tripping over his damned long pants and your wig falling off your head with a screech and him trying to save you- the video goes viral overnight.

What others don't see is how you tripping caused a loud rip of his pants from your toe till your knee as the stiff wig falls with a thud on the ground and you both are rolling on the floor laughing again.

You best believe this man has tucked away the clothes you wore today, as he would say, "to keep the memories safe" but lets ignore how he made the wig a table decoration.

I'm 5'3- so imagining a whole foot long wig standing is fucking killing me.

[REQUESTS ARE OPEN]

[MASTERLIST]

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

01/22/2024 Daily Recap

Hey all! It's been a long day huh? I wanna apologize ahead of time, whatever sickness my kiddo had last week finally got me so I'm not feeling terribly well. I'm gonna do my best to articulate todays events for ya!

===Renew As A Crew====

So the very first thing I want to touch on today is updates from @renewasacrew. As you may have heard, they were going to be changing leadership as the shift in priorities changed from renewing to saving OFMD. That being said, the leadership change happened over this weekend with some hiccups (I don't know what the hiccups were entirely and I'm not going to speculate, if you wanna delve down that twitter hole you can, but having been in it for today I'd recommend against it for your mental health, and we don't want to be drawing a bunch of media attention to it) there's a lot of confusing information, and as we know things can get conflated fast if we don't have all the pieces to the puzzle-- let's not speculate and wait for the to come out with more info.

So what I'm focusing on today is @renewasacrew's message to please give them some time and practice some patience while they get back up and running. This also includes anyone you happen to know on twitter working with them, for example: @TheCozyPirate. Let's give them some grace, they've been steering us well so far.

The good news is, several folks, on tumblr: @iamadequate1, @quirkysubject, @asgardian--angels, On twitter: @havethisonelife @yougotoofast @Lcmwriter100, we have all we need to keep going for a few days while things get ironed out. (If I forgot someone please let me know, sorry I am half awake tonight)-- see the HOW CAN YOU HELP section below.

One thing I will mention-- we are moving so very fast right now. It's only been 13 days since the announcement that OFMD wasn't renewed, and we've accomplished SO MUCH. So when there's a lull, it's going to feel like things are standing still and maybe something is going wrong. Don't fall into despair, that's just how things go with negotiations. Take a break, take a breath, and just keep on Polite Menacing until we hear more from the leadership team.

===How can you help?===

**Go to visit the DAILY RENEWAL TASK LIST there's lots of ideas and ways you can help! Have more? Shoot me a dm! I'm happy to add stuff!**

*Note: To our international fans, I promise I'm working on a write up for you as well I've just been sick today and have been able to finish!*

Something new today-- a lot of you have expressed your desire to help in the @renewasacrew efforts. Well if you did-- and still want to, now you can volunteer! Many thanks to @redshiftsinger for getting this up so quick!

Please visit their survey: Volunteer Intake form and fill out how you may be able to help!

=== Cast and Crew Sightings ===

As if on cue, Chaos dad reached out to everyone on twitter today to express some encouragement!

He also saw we were at 77K and posted his astonishment!

Some folks have been a bit weary about his vagueness today, but as we know, Daddy Jenkins is the king of vague-- and he has to be! If there are contracts in the works, he can't be hinting at things. Don't lose hope!

===Samson Kayo ===

Our beloved Oluwande updated his IG with some pictures and a message. If you have IG I'm sure he'd appreciate some love!

Next up was our favorite Captain, Rhys Darby, promoting a fellow comic @jamesroguecomedy over on IG!

And our pirate queen Ruibo Qian was making posts about saving ofmd and fanart about Zheng! Featuring folks you probably know around tumblr: @mistysblueboxstuff and @tsutsu_ya over on twitter

=REMINDER: Cross Fandom Watch Party! on 01/23/2024 1 PM PT, 4PM ET=

Looks like there's gonna be some cross fandom watch parties on twitter you're welcome to tune in for Jan 23-26 on twitter. They'll be watching good omens in an effort to try and get engagement up with PrimeVideo. It sounds like it'll be similar to the LubeAsACrew but with Good Omens fans! Thank you to @Dandeebakes on Twitter for getting these organised!

Hashtags to use: #PirateOmens #AdoptOurCrew #SaveOFMD, and helps to @PrimeVideo

===Articles===

New article, but take it with a grain of salt, see @TheCozyPirate's message:

Our Flag Means Death's marketing was concerned about the shock of violence in the show

===============================================

Alright lovelies. Here we are again, I told you it'd be quick. Today was very very very busy. Take a break and get some sleep ya? Lean on your crew, we are here to support each other. I'll end with a quote from Tolkien (it being all of us in your crew):

"May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out."

Tonight picture features Taika and his "I love you eyes" at Rhys. Thats me, I'm Taika, I love you all.

PS: Idk why this isnt showing up in my recaps repository but ill figure it out in the morning.

[crying-fantasies]

Loved your Prowl/Constructicons/reader thing you wrote earlier!

I'm especially intrigued by the way you write from Devastator's perspective and about the gestalt psyche as a whole, any headcanons about that? (no pressure!)

Thank you for your kind words!

Well, it's mostly based on what happened in RID and the combiners wars, where, from time to time, you can see mainly the thoughts of the center of the combiner and the thoughts of the very combiner in between, a psyche born from every component, and it was just so cool to me, because in the way it acts and how it talks you know who is inside, of course, it changes between the gestalt's own team.

I remember, back with G1, every component needed to have a personality component, as in their own "me" had to be hard enough to not get lost inside or something like that, and if that didn't happen the combiner would be weak, and sometimes I link that "me" with the idea of "what I want to do" in order to form a combiner.

If there is consensus over at least one thing, a combiner can happen, or you use the Enigma of Combination and create one by force, whatever goes your way, really, but in the second scenario you must see if it can stay together because launching together 3 or more bots can result in all of them going their way without a real objective and simply fall apart.

Defensor, for example, can transform since all the protectobots share a single ideology: "I must protect my people and I must protect the defenseless humans", because we've already seen how this specific combiner treats humans as they were his kids, that comes from Streetwise, maybe a little bit of First Aid is what handles the main idea since Defensor is also know for having medical knowledge to some point, the part were he stops to think before going full rage? That's Hot Spot alright, but that fury when the innocent is in danger's way? That's Blades, the part that tries to calm the wounded? That's Groove, they aren't exactly close to one another, but sharing a similar, if not exact, objective in mind is what makes Defensor, but their differences show in how they can't keep their force shield together for more than a few seconds.

Devastator, it's been said time and time again how the constructicons all share one thing, rage, anger, be it against the autobots or whatever, their rage is what forms the most iconic combiner of all times, but it isn't perfect, in almost every continuity Devastator is an amalgam of different mechs that didn't want anything to do with one another (like, majority of all the decepticon gestalt teams) but by Megatron's order it must happen because it just must, hence you have a strong as fuck combiner, but that's it, there is no great procedure and the constructicons have been burned from this, in the early comics you motive how Mixmaster wasn't as crazy as be ended up for example and Scavenger's anxiety is also more notorious, Bonecrusher is mad all the time like Long Haul and Hook is way more fixated on making everything perfect, they're all mad at something, just look at Scrapper, who wanted to be away fromt them for a moment, and what happened to him, most irregular components merged together must remain together to be sane since now they are tainted with one another and it can cause insanity.

Now, Devastator with Prowl, finally there is no only anger in their shared mind, there is options, thousand upon thousands of options than the whole team has ever seen, than what Devastator even had the processor to even imagine, and Prowl gives him something that he never had before: the idea of freedom, and they all love it because Prowl is a mad, gray freedom that they would die for to be real.

Then we have perfect child, perfect team and perfect combiner: Superion, whose whole gestalt team is in synchrony by force, because it's Superion himself that put his components in mute an goes on his way, using the shared idea of destroying the decepticons of his components to keep going and not falling apart, but this is a bad movement, since there is no center there is no bond, no talk, and Superion struggles to even talk or do something as simple as moving something if it isn't related to eliminate the decepticons.

Now, if we put in something they want, or at least one of the components want, you may catch the interest of the others or the combiner itself, as it happens with Prowl, the constructicons and Devastator, because they share it, and depending from how they take it you have a different result, and since the constructicons are awful and insane Prowl's little human conjunx is also theirs to some degree now, so, somehow in their beaten psyches, Chainbreaker is also theirs.

Devastator hasn't been formed since it's time of great peace (freaking finally) but he'll also go along the lines of "if he is yours then he is mine, since you're a part of me" kind of thing if he sees Chainbreaker, more prepared when all his components know about Prowl's progeny, not like with reader when he was hit with the revelation during the bond, and just for the record, the son of a glitch that asked you out was Bonecrusher.

[chelledoggo]

"it's okay, Blair! i'll help you out! just relax and let your imagination roam free!"

okay soooo...

i had this weird idea for a Journey Into Imagination AU in which Figment is a benevolent reality-bending psychic/mind being who forms a pact with Blair/Dreamfinder. it's kinda inspired by Bill and Ford from Gravity Falls, except Figment's intentions are 100% pure and benefit both parties.

a rough overview of the lore below the cut:

Blairion "Blair" Mercurial is a scientist who is looking to unlock the potential of the mind/imagination (similar to in the Marvel Figment comics, except this AU takes place in more recent times. like... i'm thinking maybe the 80s at the earliest but idk). in his experiments, he manifests his childhood imaginary friend Figment into existence.

Figment has the ability to form a mind link with someone. essentially he can read/enter the mind of whoever forms a bond with him, helping the host to harness the powers of their dreams and creativity. he can put the host into an altered trance state in which they can explore their mind/imagination.

since Figment is a product of Blair's mind, he requires Blair's dream power, or "spark," to exist. this spark is a completely renewable energy source to Figment. as long as Blair is alive, it can never be depleted.

so they make a pact (actually, it was a pinky promise) together. Figment will help Blair in his work, if Blair allows Figment to hang around and survive off his spark. the Imagination symbol on Blair's hand is the mark of their pact.

since Figment genuinely loves/cares about Blair, he would never use his mind powers in a malicious way. it's a mutually beneficial relationship.

however, sometimes Figment might have a little good-natured fun by causing a little benign magical mischief around Blair, but he only does this to help him lighten up.

[distort-opia]

we all know that joker is in love with batman, but would you say that bruce is in love with joker? they're obviously both obsessed with each other, but do you think it qualifies as romantic love on bruce's part?

...Is it as simple as saying Joker is in love with Batman, though? I think he himself uses this expression because he doesn't have any other word for what he feels; it's just too complicated. And clearly, what Joker understands through love is very different from a regular person's idea of it. It's something so intense and that encompasses so many contradictory feelings and behaviors. It does have some traditionally romantic aspects, but I've always been conflicted about calling it only romantic on Joker's part, without acknowledging the complex nature of it. And besides, Joker definitely does use the trappings of romantic love strategically, to get at Bruce (and not only him, actually; Joker flirts and uses sexual undertones as a weapon in interactions with many other characters, specifically to press their buttons). Bruce has undeniable trouble with forming close relationships, and with intimacy, so Joker's aggressively romantic gestures are partly meant to unsettle him just as much as they are genuine, on Joker's part.

In the end, if you try to use a more classic definition of love, Joker's feelings both qualify and don't. He does relate to Batman, but he doesn't trust him. He does care about him, but he hates him too. He protects his life when his death is inevitable, but most of the time all he does is hurt him. He is possessive and jealous occasionally, but not about all of Bruce -- it's more about Batman. And in my understanding, sexual attraction or desire for a relationship of that nature is secondary to Joker. Having Batman's attention and getting to fight him is akin to that already. Joker canonically takes pleasure in violence.

And when it comes to Bruce's side of things, I think it's similarly nebulous. In the sense that his feelings towards Joker are very intense, and it's definitely an emotional attachment, but calling it "romantic" is... complicated. The way Joker and Bruce feel about each other is very different, though in the end, they use each other for similar purposes. In Joker's case there's a lot of obsession, idealization, projection, twisted empathy, pure and utter codependence and need -- mixed in with hatred, both for Bruce and himself. Joker sees his identity as defined by Batman, and that has many complicated corollaries. The same isn't true for Bruce.

Alright, clearly, I will get long about this, so I'm putting my interpretation of Bruce's side of things under the cut.

Bruce has wondered and felt guilt about the creation of his villains from the start, though none fits the mold better than Joker. The fact that Bruce could not save the Red Hood from falling haunts him, and it's more fuel for his constant guilt and self-hatred, because of what Red Hood turned into. Bruce feels responsible, and as time went by, he started to hate how responsible he felt, because at the end of the day, he knows that objectively it wasn't actually his fault:

-- Batman: Hush #7

Nearly kills Joker too; it's the closest he's come to doing it with his own hands, actually. And leaving aside the flaws in Hush as a story, this makes sense to me, time-wise. This is after Barbara's shooting, after Jason's death, after No Man's Land and Joker shooting Sarah Gordon-Essen. Joker's kill count had escalated more and more, and so had Bruce's guilt, his anger-- it was going to blow over eventually. Tommy Elliot's apparent death was just a last drop.

But ironically, the other side of this is the root of the possessiveness Bruce displays towards Joker (here's a link to a post of mine that compiles multiple comic instances of it). There's more to it, but part of him does see Joker as someone he made, and ultimately, someone who's fate (and death, especially) belongs to him. This aspect, despite all of Bruce's repression and denial regarding it, is relieving. Because... well. Bruce feels extremely alone, and it's an important component of his character. I'm not going to get into a full analysis of Bruce's anxious attachment towards his parents and the way their deaths made him afraid of being left behind, abandoned and alone; the way this fear impacts all of his relationships and causes him to push people away. But it's a big factor when it comes to Bruce's complicated attachment to Joker. Is Joker a monster? Yes, absolutely. Bruce genuinely hates him and everything he's done, to other people and his Family. But is it a disturbingly comforting thing for him, to have this constant in his life -- this monster that can't ever truly leave him because Bruce made him? Yes, it is.

But it isn't just this aspect that plays into Bruce's deep sense of loneliness. The arguably bigger factor is the fact Bruce understands Joker, and empathizes with him -- and that makes him feel less alone. He knows that Joker chose his path after a trauma similar to his own; that becoming Joker came from the same place as becoming Batman did for Bruce, but in the opposite direction. This is something that's been expressed especially in comics where Bruce's mind was fractured in some way, because it's not a truth Bruce is very eager to acknowledge. So he gets confronted with it unwillingly, most of the time. For instance, here Bruce is under the influence of fear toxin and hallucinating Joker, among others:

-- Batman (1940) #629

Or, when Batman gets split away from him as a different persona and a conflict ensues between Bruce and him, this is what Batman tells him:

-- Batman: Ego

But I guess the biggest acknowledgment of it is still one of the classics:

-- Batman: The Killing Joke

And all that after the things Joker did to people close to Bruce: shooting Barbara, torturing Jim Gordon. It's a pattern that continues... Bruce doesn't kill Joker even for Jason's death. He saves Joker's life from the electric chair. He chooses to save Joker's life when Jason returns. He revives Joker himself when Dick kills him, and so on. Even the few times Bruce lets Joker die, it's basically leaving him in situations Joker could survive. And yes, part of it is the fact Bruce saves everyone. It's his Vow, it's part of his mission. But in many of the cases I listed, it's Bruce going much farther for Joker than we've seen him go for any other villain, and to the detriment of his relationships with people he calls Family -- and I have more extensive discussion of this aspect in these meta posts, linked here and here. To me, Bruce not letting Joker die is more attributable to just how less alone Joker's existence makes Bruce feel, and how deeply he needs that. And it's just... painfully selfish. Joker's continued existence means only more death and destruction, and yet he cannot let go, not even when the rules written by his trauma would allow him to. His own emotions take priority.

After all, Bruce's no-killing rule, or any of the rules he has around his crusade as Batman, are not rooted in morality or ethics. They're borne out of trauma, and everything resembling a system of beliefs came after. Bruce is driven by emotion, not logic, and most of all he's driven by the fear of loss. It says everything about his character that as a child he loved so desperately that, when that love got brutally taken away, it utterly broke and rewrote him. Much of his adult personality is a result of his rage-fuelled fight against the fear of ever going through that again. Because, after Bruce was afraid, he became angry: at the criminals who took his parents away and by extension all crime, and at himself for not being strong enough to save them. Batman serves many functions, but a fundamental one of them is an expression of Bruce's anger through violence. Every night when he goes on patrol, he saves his parents through every person who lives because of him, and every night he beats the shit out of the criminal that took his parents away. Moreso, Bruce has explicitly admitted more than once to enjoying the violence. He likes inflicting pain on the people he thinks are deserving of it; there's an underlying sadism aspect to his idea of punishment.

However, these two things (this orouborous of fear and anger, and his loneliness) are constantly at odds, which is why Bruce has so many failed relationships and such an extensive Family -- but one he's had a lot of trouble in being a father to. He wants to get close to people, he craves connection and can't help reaching out, but then the fear kicks in and all the avoidant coping mechanisms associated with it. And not only is Bruce horribly afraid of losing the people he cares about, he's also afraid of himself, and the anger he has in him. He can't easily be himself around people, out of fear they'll leave him because of his darkness, and because of Batman. Also, there's the fact Bruce is clearly neurodivergent and due to his trauma occuring at such an early age and his solitary life after, he never managed to learn how to handle emotions healthily-- his own, or others'. This left him ill-equipped to put in the work of relationship maintenance.

But none of that is a concern with Joker, is it? Bruce can just be Batman. He doesn't have to worry about being the wrong thing, saying the wrong thing. He doesn't have to worry about being too violent, or hateful, or spiteful. Taking his anger out on Joker without limiting himself is not only excusable since he's a villain and a murderer of the worst kind, but also, Joker enjoys it. He asks for it. Being this way towards him won't make Joker leave. Joker can't leave him, because Batman essentialy made him, and then Joker chose to tailor himself as his opposite, the other end of a balancing scale. Bruce takes out his anger at the world on Joker the most, and Joker knows that, and intentionally plays into it-- gives him something to fight against.

Thing is, Bruce's relationships tend to be... somewhat unequal. Both in the romantic department, and in the Family one. So many people love him, and want to be loved by him in return; and because of it, they do things for Bruce, compromise or make changes that otherwise they might not do. And it's not by accident. Bruce emotionally needs to have the most power in a relationship, and sometimes that means people being what he wants them to be. Manipulating them, if it comes down to it. That's not to say he doesn't love them back. He definitely does, but if you give it any amount of extended thought... Bruce is a terrifying person.

If Joker can be equated to a force of nature, chaos personified, isn't the embodiment of order just as fear-inspiring? Bruce is someone capable of untold destruction because of the lengths he can go to in his need to control everything... so that loss never happens to him again. He's been shown repeatedly as capable of razing entire worlds to the ground, with not even Superman being able to stop him... and that's because Clark is someone who loves him too.

And so, who else can withstand a force of nature, but another one of its kind? Joker doesn't bend. Joker is just as dangerous. Joker can kill him. Joker can stop him. This is one of the things they use each other for-- unyielding walls to bash themselves against. They're equals, and thus capable of stopping each other, which is something they both need.

-- The Batman Who Laughs

-- Batman (2016) #49

For me, a fascinating aspect on Bruce's part that's connected to this is his obsession with understanding Joker. See, if he knew who Joker was before he fell into the vat, if he could solve the mystery of who Joker is and how he worked, maybe he could predict him. Maybe he could stop Joker.

-- Detective Comics (2016) #1027 -- Many Happy Returns

Part of this is that need of Bruce's to have the emotional power in the relationship... to be in control. And with Joker, he isn't. Not really. All he's ever been able to do with Joker is react, but not contain, and that's especially troubling to a man who prepares for every single scenario, who's got back-up plans for his back-up plans.

Although that's not all it is. The other side of it is the empathy, the need to relate-- that black hole of need for connection that's at the core of him.

-- Batman: The Killing Joke

The question here isn't "How can I stop Joker if I don't know him?", it's "How can we feel so strongly about each other and not know each other?". And even though Bruce claims to have given up trying to make sense of Joker, he's pulled insane stunts in his quest to do just that (as demonstrated by the story surrounding Batman of Zurr-en-Arrh).

-- Batman: R.I.P.

Wanting to understand Joker, and reaching out... it's something that makes me want to chew on glass every time it comes through. Because it's something incredibly risky, something that endangers the people around Bruce and himself, something that's not really justifiable as anything else. The Killing Joke aside, or the attempt on Bruce's part in Batman: Cacophony #3 that Joker shuts down, or the entirety of Batman: Secrets, this one flashback to the early years is just... insane:

-- Batman: Death of the Family

Snyder just had to establish Bruce had taken in Dick too, basically making it even worse that he's revealing his identity to Joker... who could now harm the child Bruce adopted, if he so chose. Keeping this in mind, the way Joker puts it in DotF -- Bruce having invited him in to destroy everything he has -- is not an inaccurate description.

Because here's where another shared aspect comes in, another purpose they've chosen each other for: self-destructiveness. Both Bruce and Joker are, in many ways, seeking their own death. It's a fascinating paradox, in both of their cases. Bruce has explicitly described his Vow to become Batman as a form of suicide; but also, he's admitted that the Vow is what stopped him from downright ending himself as a child. So Batman is both something that keeps him alive, and something that killed his childhood self. And in many ways... it's the same for Joker. His fall into the acid vat was a suicide attempt, and his construction of the Joker persona afterwards was a way to keep himself alive. He used Batman as one of the core tenets of it, he turned Batman into his reason to exist, but he also designated Batman as the person to kill him.

Actually, as Bane accurately put it:

-- Batman (2016) #13

Neither Bruce or Joker can put the gun to their head, so they've turned each other into it. Joker is trying to get Batman to kill him, and Bruce has chosen Joker as his inevitable end. Joker is the monster Bruce has chosen; arguably, the monster he's created, destined to be the death Bruce can't deal out himself.

-- Batman: Endgame

-- Batman (2011) #49

This frankly bonkers level of intertwining, at so many different emotional levels, is what makes me hesitant in calling it "love". A lot of it is need, a need so fundamental neither of them can escape it... and that they both resent each other for. Bruce most of all, because this is one of the very few relationships he has in which he does not hold the most power. It's Joker dictating the rules of the game, and most of the time Bruce is only reduced to reacting and minimizing the damages. He's the one suffering the most severe consequences for this attachment he can't break free of, not Joker; I also spoke in more detail about it in this answer, linked here. (Also, I saw a post recently with an amazing tag that went "what are soulmates if not a kind of mutually-tightening noose"... and that's it. That's Batjokes reduced to its bare essentials!)

To conclude this behemoth of an answer I churned out as if possessed by a demon... as described, there's many different components to Bruce's own feelings. Loneliness and need for connection, possessiveness, empathy, anger and sadistic violence, hatred and self-hatred, obsession, need for control... and fear. Bruce fears Joker, and he's ever angrier at him for it. He fears the depths of Joker's love and obsession for him, he fears the depths of his own. He fears all the lines in their relationship Joker hasn't crossed just because he didn't feel like it. His fear and denial has often turned Joker into something fully inhuman (as shown in DotF most clearly). He sees Joker as a curse, some kind of creature, a monster that's more catastrophe than man, because it's easier that way. This is something else in which Bruce and Joker are opposites: Joker has accepted his feelings towards Batman and built his purpose around them, while Bruce denies and rejects them entirely, horrified by what they say about him.

In the end, some of what Bruce feels qualifies as components of romantic love, but unlike Joker, he'll never allow the outright acknowledgment of it. The violence between Bruce and Joker has been depicted as having sexual connotations more than once; there's entire books about the sublimation of sexuality through violence between men in media, the "intricate rituals". Here's a link to a more comprehensive collection of this pattern. And, well... perhaps the most blatant romantic aspect in the comics currently is the fact that, in the Flashpoint universe, Thomas Wayne is Batman and Martha Wayne is Joker. They're married and in romantic relationship, which also provided us with one actual canon (technically) Batman/Joker kiss (since we sadly can't count Bruce giving Joker CPR twice, and the implications of Batman: Europa):

-- Flashpoint: Batman -- Knight of Vengeance

In the end, there's ways to argue that Bruce's feelings are romantic, and there's also ways to argue it's just unhealthy, hateful obsession; a form of self-harm, on his part. Personally, I think it's both. And when it comes to what I find most compelling about Batjokes, I could write another separate essay on just that; but Joker says it best himself, in the iconic Lego Batman (2017). "You've ran away from every person in your life, but I'm the one you're always chasing."

[the-s1lly-corner]

hii

I've seen you're taking creepypasta requests ? I really like your Zalgo's concept ! so..

can you drop some of your headcanons about him?? I'm really interested!!

stay safe!

Zalgo headcannons!

hihihihi i promise i saw you send this in a few hours after you asked this and i truly didnt mean to push writing this off for so long ive just been going through it (2 new interests have been kicking my ass for the past 7 or so weeks) but we're back !!

CAUTION these hcs are heavily centered around my concept!! i wasnt totally sure if you wanted these as romantic, so i decided to go down a middle road and just make it how interacting with the guy would probably go down + other ideas!! warning this is a lot of scattered rambling because my brain is all over the place and its 7am

the main thing that my take on zalgo and the main fandom interpretation have in common is the fat that theyre both powerful entities capable of causing mass destruction and chaos

however my zalgo exists more so as a... weird half concept half tangible entity if that makes sense? like he indirectly interacts with the world around him instead of going out and wrecking things himself; a close comparison i can think of is mother mabuka from fran bow but even then it seems she has more direct influence in that universe compared to zalgo... or maybe my interpretation of her is all whack too but eh

exists everywhere and nowhere at once, in my au he's responsible for the creation of the other creepypasta characters. for demon characters like slenderman or the rake he hand crafted them himself to cause torment. for characters like ben or eyeless jack he plants the seed to cause them to become what they were. for ben he allowed him to come back as an angry ghost, and for eyeless jack he made the curse that eventually infects the guy (although jack was just the unlucky host, zalgo had no specific target)

and keeping true to the original zalgo comic stuff, he can corrupt media in anyway he wishes, and perhaps implant subliminal messages or 'viruses' to infect more people? that second part is mostly a concept idea but i vibe with it

so how does one interact with a being that doesn't totally exist?

well

you dont

at least you cant initiate it; no if zalgo wants to be perceived by you he'll come to you, typically if you can offer something to him (usually the ability to cause issues for others, ie general creepypasta character criteria)

injecting this really quick but admin is really into the concept of certain characters/entities being just a simple part of nature, zalgo falls under this idea. he just exists because of the laws of the universe

is he capable of forming bonds? sure he definitely has some sort of favoritism towards certain creatures thanks to how effective they are, but like, what about emotional bonds?

probably not, if im being honest; like sure he can check in on you more often than his other agents of chaos, but that doesn't necessarily mean hes your friend

but lets pretend you somehow made friends with the omnipresent and almost omniscient birthplace of wrath and doom:

you cant touch him but he can touch you, kinda. it kinda feel like being wrapped around with a huge freeing cold and immensely heavy blanket when he decides to grace you with his presence

you know how when in adventure time, the lich makes the screen go dark (ex. the fall meme) i feel like itd be something like that

though ive never watched adventure time/never got too far into it SOBS i plan on changing that i promise

oh he is so so so clingy and he so truly hates your mortality

even in death he wont let you go, he'll probably forcefully bring you back, and by extension twisting you into something you weren't before

like this dude is genuinely not someone you want to fuck around with

even if you dont end up dying hes probably going to change you in some way at some point

on a lighter note hes the type to tear the world apart for you, both in the "i care about you as much as a creature like me can" and a "if you ever leave me im going to find you, i already know where you are because i have eyes everywhere"

like i dont like writing stuff that can dip into yandere territory but like. zalgo would do that kind of shit

bonus hcs, he doesnt really care how people perceive him.. because they cant, and even if he allows it he still doesnt care. wanna use any pronouns for him? he doesnt give a damn. see him as a god? as a devil? he doesnt care. truly could not give a shit what you think, he is unbothered

i feel my hcs for him have shifted a bit since i last brought him up in a post but i think

out of all the creepypastas, zalgo is the one i have with the most changing hcs

esp since in this au hes like. the reason everyone exists as they are, and why everything is going on; he is literally the reason all the bad things happened to everyone and hes responsible for the monster-type characters existence

okay thats all i apologize again if this is a mess i simply got. silly and im running off two hours of sleep and im scratching my brain trying to remember my ideas since i havent really thought of zalgo in 2 months (thanks to other brainrots SOBS)

[goldendoodlerlockerlove]

4, 10, 11, 27!! (took you this long to reblog the thing >:/ but hell yessss ♥️)

Yesss!! Thank you so much for invading my ask box, DT!!❣️

4.) How many different styles/mediums (e.g., digital art, traditional art, comics, sculptures, paper craft, etc.) did you try this year?

Actually, quite a bit!! At least, more than I initially thought I did. I, of course, did mostly digital art near the end of this year, and ended up producing a lot more pieces than I've done before!! It was honestly kind of crazy how much art I began producing at the end of this year. It was like I was a driver in a race, pffffffft. But, at the beginning of this year, I dabbled a lot in traditional art, because I enjoy the feeling of putting a pencil to paper, and whilst it takes more time, sometimes it can give you more freedom to experiment with designs or expressions. I also began making a long-form Bob's Burgers comic for the first time, which was inspired by @bluebirbbs and their long-form Bob's Burgers comic, which everyone should read if they haven't already. When I was younger and in art class, I actually used even more mediums for creating art, like sewing an actual Christmas ornament, and sketching stuff using a lightbox, which is super fun. But I haven't done those two things in years. I kind of want to try doing them again someday.

10.) What inspired/motivated you this year?

DT, you know I'm going to say you as my first (and biggest :3) inspiration. I mean, come on, you're the reason I have this blog in the first place. I know I've said it before, but seeing your amazing, lovely BB art inspired me to begin making my own and get back into drawing, and it caused me to create my blog and expand it into territories I didn't even think were possible. And now I'm running Geneuary, an event celebrating my favorite baby boy, and that would never have happened if it hadn't been for you, and that initial Boblin ask I somehow worked up the courage to give you (and am so glad I did)! It doesn't show it anymore, but do you remember how I didn't even have an image for my account?? 😆

Yes, I'm getting super sappy, but all of this is true!! Now, of course, you weren't my only inspiration. There are too many blogs to name, but @br1ghtestlight has been super sweet and my Gene Belcher buddy!! He's the one person who loves the baby boy as much as I do. We may or may not do a collab for Geneuary based on an idea she had about Gene and Tina working on a lil' puzzle together, which is just too adorable 😭

I also must shout out @babsvibes too. She was also, in a way, the reason I even have this blog. I used to be content enjoying this silly Burger show on my own, watching the episodes and having fun, and reading the occasional fanfic (@thisaliennerd and their Boblin fanfic Falling For You is Easy [Like Sunday Morning]) was one of my first forays into the BB fanfic community, and it wonderful) when I suddenly stumbled upon this Tinimmy fic by Babs one fateful day called Honeycombed Hair, I believe: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44413795

This fic led me to you, DT, and your amazing art!! And I joined this incredible Muppet community, and nothing's been the same for me ever since. Now I don't have to enjoy this show alone!! Of course, I have my BF @cryptidchrome now, who watches the show, but I digress. Babs also invited me to the Louigan server, which has been an absolute blast. And she's just an excellent writer in general, which is very inspiring as someone who also writes.

I must also shoutout @theangrypomeranian for being so sweet and Commissioning me, and also being an excellent writer (she called me the #1 Gene person in this fandom and that made me so 🥺). And @devilh0rnsinc for having such lovely art that it makes me squee every time. And @jimmypesto for making the best Boblin fics and just being the ultimate Boblin connoisseur. Shoutout to her new nephew for being the most adorable bambino on the entire planet. Welcome to the world, lil' bean!! @jimmyjrsmusoems is another fantastic writer and is hilarious, and is the other Tinimmy connoisseur in this fandom, besides you, DT, of course. Also, @koko-raccoon has some of the cutest art ever and listened to me ramble about my OCs, which I definitely want to thank them for. Their art is very inspiring to me. But the person whose art is the most inspiring to me, besides yours, DT, is probably @dianadeadwing. Her art is wonderful, and I'll never get enough of it. I also get so excited whenever I see it.

Okay, now for more of a speed round so I can mention more people!! @ratguy-nico has adorable art as well, and I love his style so much. It's wonderful. And @ltwharfy is such a good writer and I didn't even know until I read his Roudise Week fic about Bob and Rudy getting Louise a new hat when she outgrows her bunny ears. @keepyourhornson-spyro is another fantastic writer and is the certified Tedmort Monarch. There are just so many more people I want to name, but I'll just mention one more person: @carnivaldemon, who gave me the most adorable art of Gene and my OC, Alexis. His art is truly inspiring to me.

11.) What pairing/character/subject did you create the most for this year?

You probably already know the answer to this ☠️

It's definitely a tie between Boblin and Gene/Alexis, which is definitely my newest ship and obsession. But I have to give Boblin a special shoutout because I began work on an entire Pre-Canon Boblin series (which I'm still working on to this day) and a "Linda is Deaf" AU, both of which are super close to my heart now. Thank you for giving me the push I needed to work on my "Linda is Deaf" AU when I sent that ask about it to you, pfffffft.

Gene is definitely the character I've created the most for in terms of just singular characters. I could talk about him all day. I love this lil' guy so much. Hopefully, y'all don't get bored of hearing me ramble about him, because I'll certainly never get bored of rambling about him.

27.) Biggest surprise while creating art this year?

Honestly, the biggest surprise was just how sweet, supportive, and welcoming the Bob's Burgers community ended up being. Y'all welcomed me with open arms and supported all of my creative endeavors (and long analyses about Gene) and for that, I'll always be grateful. This community really does feel like one big family, and it's so lovely to see. Everyone is just so nice to each other, it warms my heart 🥹 And one of my biggest surprises was learning about the Ship Weeks/Character Events, and how fun they are. They're truly a testament to how sweet and talented this community is. I'm definitely looking forward to them all next year if they happen again.

[tender-emotional-music]

Hi, I love your blog!!! It's so tubular to talk to fellow Stranger Things and Byler enthusiasts and you really get the characters. I wanted to ask, when do you think Mike and Will started liking each other, when do you think they realised it, and how oblivious are they to each other's feelings? Also any opinions you have on Mike's sexuality and his feelings for El? I'm aro-spec ace and way too fixated on analysing the platonic/romantic nuances of relationships, and it would be so cool if you could break those down in Mlvn and Byler. Make the answer as long as you like, I could talk about Byler for hours! This blog is totally sweet!!! Oh, any Byler headcanons you have too, sorry for such a long ask, lmao.

Sorry, i haven’t been checking my inbox and completely missed this ask 😭

I think Will has had a crush on Mike pretty much since he can remember, but it’s around s3 that he starts to realise it, with everyone growing up and having to see Mike in a relationship. He represses it throughout the summer, and it’s in s4 that he’s consciously aware and accepts it. Will is still dealing with his own internalised homophobia though, and fully believes that Mike will never reciprocate, hence him giving away his feelings in the painting scene and essentially resigning himself to helping fix Mike and El’s relationship, since he wants them to be happy and thinks this is how that can be accomplished.

Mike is more complicated, but I do believe that he realised he was in love with Will/gay/bi/however you interpret it in the s3 finale. Just the flashing between his and Will’s faces as the van drives off, focusing on him looking back at the Byers house and hugging Karen, and also him looking like he’s having a *realisation* when El says she loves him (while kissing him in front of an open closet with “The First I love you” playing - the song which also plays when Robin comes out to Steve in the episode prior). He’s aware of it then, but I think he seriously represses it and also doesn’t think Will is gay. It’s cool to see him leaning back into his more nerdy interests and being influenced by Eddie to be more carefree in s4 though, since we see him start to shed the idea of being “normal” and conforming (which is a big theme for Karen and Nancy too. That damn Wheeler family 😭)

I’m still torn as to whether I see Mike as bi or gay. Pre-s4 i was firmly in the gay Mike Truther camp, but I can see them going either way and I think there is evidence to support either reading. S1-3 he comes off as possibly being bi, but s4 it seems like he’s been written as gay. Either way, i hope they do it justice, as it will recontextualise his actions and his relationship with El differently depending on what his sexuality actually is.

Regarding El, I do think that he and El have work to do if they want to have a proper friendship after they break up. I don’t think they’re immediately going to fall into being besties, since they don’t share a lot of interests, and we don’t actually see much of their dynamic as friends, since the romance overshadows it. Regardless, they care deeply for each other and I’d like to see them start to make up for lost time and form a friendship.

And finally for headcanons, we know Will gives art to Mike, so I imagine Mike also gives Will little stories and stuff he writes. After the stuff with Vecna is over, i love to think of them starting a comic series together, maybe taking inspiration from their own experiences with the UD and their friends. They’d probably go to the same college too, and would move to a city, but still live a relatively quiet life and maybe adopt a dog. I think Mike would also start to listen to some of Will’s music. We know he calls Should I Stay or Should I Go “that weird song” in s1 and if we take his playlist as canon he seems to personally prefer synth music to rock, but I think he’d probably listen to some of Will’s faves to feel closer to him. They’d both also love 90’s music, and we see that there’s a guitar in Mike’s room in s4 (probs Eddie’s influence) so maybe he’d try to play something for Will.

That’s all I can think of for now, but I hope this is fun to read and I answered everything well enough! Sorry for leaving it so late lol

[mysteriousmaninthesmoke]

Start - Prev - Next - Latest

Why hello there. Welcome back to my idea of what would happen if the military was able to turn its soldiers into powerful beasts with HRT. But first, let's get to my little rant you can just skip if you want.

Now I wanted to rant about Undead Unluck but that seems off-topic. but you should really go read it because you will laugh, you cry, and you hate god by the middle of part one.

I mean just look at her transition.

Anyway, I want to talk about what I was first thinking about if I went through a creature hrt. Now I was thinking of going for a crow or raven as the transformation but the more and more I thought about the more grim the ideas got. The process of my teeth becoming a beak and pushing out of my mouth, my feet becoming razor-sharp talons, whether my arms would become wings or would they sprout out of my back. And then @prettiestplatypus had to remind me of my sensory issues with her comic (which also led me to the idea of using animal HRT for medical practices but we'll get to that later) and the idea of me scratching my skin hard as feathers came out. So I decided to drop it because I did not want to go grim and bloody. I might come back to but for now, let's continue with more

Project Chimera Part 3

"Extermination across our nation, the fires are burning brighter than the sun."

Dr. Thedore Hans Erian began to slowly regain consciousness as he heard someone sing to themselves. "What happened," he said groggily. He began to open his right eye but couldn't seem to open the left one, as it swelled with pain as he tried. He looked up to see he was still in his office and that a man dressed in all black was in front of him with a bucket. "Who the hell are-"

"Oh good you're waking up. Let me help you." The man threw the bucket at the doctor, fully drenching him with freezing cold water. "WHAT THE HELL!" Dr. Thedore yelled, now fully awake. The man just stood there as the doctor began to stand up. "Good, now we can have a proper talk about you and your patients." The man said. He wore a black trench coat and a fedora, with long straight black hair running down his back. The fedora covered the man's face with shadow, making it hard for Dr. Thedore to make out his features.

The man pulled a folder out of his coat that the doctor recognized as the folder where he kept all his patient details. "Where the hell did you get you get that? Who the hell are you and why are you here?" Dr. Thedore began slowly backing away and towards his desk. He slowly remembers being punched straight in the face by this man before falling unconscious as he touched his left eye and felt a sting of pain as he touched swelling the bruise that was forming there.

"Names Smoke, a private investigator of the normal and paranormal." The man said giving his name. "And like I said, I'm here to talk about you and your patients." Dr. Thedore finally reached his desk and reached under it to grab something, but to his surprise, nothing was there.

"As for where I found this folder, it was in your desk, where I also found these." Smoke pulled out a gun and syringe from his coat. "I think these are what you were looking for." Dr. Theodore was shocked to see the man casually holding his emergency gun and his special formula for situations just like this.

"Interesting thing you got here. According to your notes, in this syringe is an extreme hormone replacer that works in seconds, meant to transform yourself into a dinosaur, in case one of your patients came after you, unhappy with what you did to them. It also seems to have some heavy painkillers in it so you don't immediately go unconscious from the pain. I'm sure some of your patients would have loved to have that type of mix in their treatments." Smoke said this last part with what sounded like anger in his voice. He then threw the syringe to the ground, shattering and spilling the formula on the floor.

Dr. Theodore was shocked but slowly collected himself and sat at his desk. "What do you want?" He asked. "Like I said." Smoke said sternly "To talk about your patients. Let's begin with this one. Eris. Seems she is on dog hormones. Let's see what you given her to help her out. Huh nothing. Not even special glasses for her degrading eyesight."

"Well that is for them to-" Dr. Theodore began to say before being cut off by Smoke "Goldie. On fish hormones. Same as last time, nothing. From what I read from your notes scales can lead to bleeding and pain, but you have given her no prescription for pain meds or bandages. Hell, it even says that taking this hormone can lead to forgetfulness, yet you have not given her a prescription for any medicine that helps with memory and focus."

"It's just that-" Dr. Theodore was interrupted again. "Kayla! On bat hormones. Nothing for their increased hearing or loss of vision. No medical earplugs or glasses." Theodore was starting to get scared of the anger beginning to radiate off this man. "Fae. Human hormones."

The doctor could swear he heard Smoke mutter "Why would anyone want to be human. We are ugly creatures ruining this planet." Smoke cleared his throat before starting again. "You f*cking ripped her off. you gave her hope and then you made that hope despair. She was suffering, trapped in a body she did not want. For 2 years she thought you had the keys to let her out, yet you dangled them in front of her and gave her NOTHING!"

Smoke threw the documents to the ground. He grabbed the doctor by the coat and picked him up "You could have used this hormone replacement therapy for medical practice. Your patients experienced improved eyesight and hearing. You freaking have notes of a patient regrowing a lost finger when using lizard hormones. Yet you went down the most profitable path. You gave people the opportunity to become who they truly were, but you never helped them through the hardships they had to go through to get there.

"You sicken and disappoint me, doctor. The dragon hormones. The people who went through that process suffered, brains slowly breaking from the pain and anguish they experienced, becoming beasts that could only walk the road of rage, running on only animal instinct. You could have helped them. Give them medicine to help them through the pain. BUT NO! YOU LEFT THEM TO FEND FOR THEMSELVES!!!"

Smoke let go of the doctor, dropping him back into his seat. "You know I wish I was here to beat you up for how you treat your patients but I have other things to do. I want you to tell me what your deal is with the military." Dr. Theodore was shocked at the yelling and accusations he just went through. He went to put on his glasses only to realize they were on the floor by the door broken. He let a sigh and said, "I don't know what you are talking about."

To his shock, Smoke pulled out the doctor's gun and pointed it at him. "Don't you dare mess with me." Smoke reached into his jacket and pulled out military dog tags with the name Private Tompson on them. "I pulled these dog tags off a literal dog who attacked me while I was investigating one of my cases 2 days ago. After that, I looked into animal hrt and saw you were the main provider and creator of it. So let's try this once again. What is your deal with the milit-"

Smoke was cut off by banging and rattling coming from the vents. He looked up and asked, "Do you have a rat problem?" "I don't think so." Dr. Theodore was glad for the sudden interruption, but suddenly the vent cover on the ceiling fell to the ground and a humanoid rat creature jumped down from the vents, screeching "YOU DO NOW!"

Hope you enjoyed this part. Thank you to @nyxisart @deadeyedfae @kaylasartwork and @welldrawnfish for letting me mention their character. I am happy that I got to vent my anger about how @ayviedoesthings doctor treats their patients and how they could have gone down the medical path, not the most profitable one. Anyway, I hope to see you next time in part 4.

[rigelmejo]

Things Read 2023

I thought it'd be kind of fun to do a little collage of some of the things read in 2023. Because pictures entice and maybe one of these will look interesting to you, and maybe I'll just feel slightly more motivated the next time I try to read something.

First row: Easiest novels to read, I highly recommend if you're a beginner. 秃秃大王, 大林和小林, and 笑猫日记 (any book in this series).

Second row: also fairly easy, though maybe not for total beginners? (Unless you want). 小王子 (which was the first non-graded reader novel I read in chinese, and in retrospect I wish I'd started with the books above instead... but this was still readable as a beginner, I read it in paper form to stop myself from looking words up and it was still a doable read), 盗墓笔记重启 （幽默漫画）a very cute domestic side stories for dmbj set during chongqi, extremely easy to read if you know the character names. 他们的故事/Their Story by Tan Jiu, a cute slice of life girls falling in love story, it's setting makes it quite easy to read.

Third row: manhua that are a bit harder, but still probably very readable if you're not looking to work hard and sink into a novel. 19天, bl and funny af, set in school so common vocab but the jokes land better as u understand more, I also love the art. 破云  1 and 2, they're kind of hard to read in that this manhua has a page just for niche word definitions in the front, but it's easier to read than the novel it's based on. I thought it was a fun way to enjoy the story while I waded much more slowly through the novel version. Similarly, I've been reading the 烈火浇愁 manhua (not pictured) on and off since I can get further in the manhua than the novel before running out of steam. There's a lot of manhua on the Bilibili Comics app, and that's definitely an option if you're into manhua too if you like a novel premise but aren't quite ready to tackle the novel (or want to check out the manhua too). Also, sometimes on bilibili.com you can find videos of manhua with voice acting and music, which can be nice.

Fourth row: some novels I'm still in progress with lol. I read 盗墓笔记 books 1, 2, and half of 3 in 2023. I'm continuing along, and maybe eventually I'll get to sha hai. If you plan to read/watch more in the tomb raiding or supernatural genre anyway, I highly recommend reading. dmbj is not that hard to read, new words usually pop up early and then are repeated enough that you learn them within a few chapters, which makes the following chapters easier and easier. By the time I was through book 1, I switched from looking up unknown words to looking up no words and just guessing from context and it went fine. npss also writes in an easy style to read once you get used to a few wordings/slang. A lot of the words I learned from dmbj were helpful with other supernatural genre stuff I read, since I like to read that kind of stuff. 撒野, both harder than I thought it'd be and easier. It is very doable of a read as far as following the main idea of the plot, after you've read a few other novels (like row 1) or gotten comfortable with daily life words. It does some beautiful stuff though with the writing style, and detail, that's more noticeable upon re-reads. I've restarted this novel like 4 times because each time I picked it up again my reading skill had improved, and the writing felt different upon reading. If you can watch chinese shows with chinese subtitles you can read this without looking words up, but if you do encounter unknown words this was a novel I found the unknown words were frequently useful and worth learning. I'd say it's very approachable, it's just the chapters are quite long so it's always a painful reminder of how slow my reading speed is. It's about two teenage guys who meet and fall for each other, and it's also about their families and personal struggles and very character focused which I love. After this novel, I plan to check out the other novels by this author. And of course, still, 镇魂. Look, I keep reading the whole first arc, then taking a break, then re-reading the whole first arc. I need to stop being a perfectionist about understanding and catching every detail, and just move forward. I've read my print version about 2 times to the end of the sundial arc, and the web version about 2 times. I've yet again reached the end of the sundial arc as of December 2023, and hopefully I just move forward at this point. I wont say it's an 'easy' read, but I will say I picked up so much of my initial reading vocabulary from this and Tian Ya Ke, that priest's preferred writing vocabulary and particular way of phrasing sentences is more familiar to me than any other author's. So now I have a much easier time reading priest's other novels. And in the case of Zhen Hun, I know 98% of the words more or less on any given page. So yes, it's a bit silly I keep combing over to try and understand more details. (In my defense, I've been combing over the AUDIO my last read through, to try and get my listening vocabulary comprehension closer to my reading vocabulary level - I figured it was a good novel to do this with since I know nearly every word reading-wise in the sundial arc at this point). Anyway... when will I finish reading Zhen hun? Ask me when the last official english translation book is published. Because I'm waiting to read the english until I finish it in chinese first. So no doubt when the english is totally out I'll probably rush through anything I didn't finish so it's easier for me to compare. (You'd think I'd do that for Sha Po Lang and... lol you're not wrong... that's why I haven't started reading SPLs official english translation yet... I want to dig out my chinese print book and compare). Tldr: Zhen hun is one of the easier priest books to start with, all things considered. Or Tian Ya Ke. I started with both, and they're still easier reads to me than Dage and Sha Po Lang and Can Ci Pin.

Special mention:

I also read 2 pingxie fanfictions, 半夜衣寒 and 寒舍 by 夏灬安兰. The first story is shorter by far, both are around as easy to read as dmbj or a bit easier, and they're supernatural au in everyday life so a lot of the words are applicable to either the real world, or to books in genres like dmbj.

I also read/watched many a voice-acted manhua video on bilibili over the last year. Bilibili algorithm recommends me tons of bl, and supernatural mystery stuff, so I'd click on manhua compilation videos when bored and use the voice acting speed to get myself to read faster than I would if I were just reading the manhua in silence. I found a pretty cool horror manhua, but upon making this post I checked bilibili and the compilation I saved was deleted. If I find it again I'll post a link. It was a college student who just moved to the city, and he meets this ancient guy who may be a demon/guardian sort of thing, and the city is just full of haunting and awful deaths and misfortune going on. It was both scary and full of comedy, which was fun.

[fanfic-chan]

Snow and Memories in Sumeru

Ler!Cyno/Lee!Tighnari

Summary: Heya @tickly-trashcan!!^^ I ended up getting you for the squealing santa event, so I decided to use the pairing of Cyno and Tighnari with the wake up tickles prompt because I absolutely adore these two! I really hope you enjoy it and that you had a happy holiday! Also, thanks so much to our amazing host this year, @hypahticklish!! I had a ton of fun participating in this and I can't wait until next year!!

"Alright that's it, stop being stubborn and get up already. I'm not gonna tell you again..."

"Mmnn..."

"Tighnari, I'm warning you...."

"Ngh, nooo... Go 'way... Lemme sleep you lummox..."

Feeling his eye starting to twitch in annoyance of his friend's unusually crabby attitude, Cyno watched as the half asleep forest ranger merely rolled over and continued to doze, the comfy blankets of Alhaitham's guest bedroom bunched up around him in a messy tangle of chaos.

On any normal day, Cyno wouldn't have really minded so much if his friend wanted to sleep in a little. In fact, he would even go as far to say that he preferred it when thinking back on all the times he'd had to practically force Tighnari to stop studying long enough to sleep back when he was still a student.

It was honestly kinda nice to see him this relaxed and carefree, and he might have even felt a little bit bad for trying to wake him... if not for the circumstances.

Taking a quick peek out the window, Cyno let out a little sigh of relief to see that the tiny flecks of white snowfall that had been his original reason for waking him up in the first place were still falling, and rather heavily in fact.

It had honestly came as quite a shock to him at first when he'd seen it. Afterall, it was pretty rare that Sumeru ever got any snow at all, and if his memory was correct, he and Tighnari had still been small children at the time. Back when the biggest concerns either of them had were climbing trees to get fruit or playing loosely ruled games of Invokation TCG that usually ended in either an argument or a rather competitive tickle fight...

Wait, now there's an idea...

"Tighnari. I'm gonna give you ten more seconds to get out of that bed, or else... Ten."

No movement...

"Nine."

Still nothing...

"Eight... Seven... Six..."

All the way down to the very last numbers, Tighnari still didn't budge an inch. Cyno sighed.

"...One. Ok then. If that's how you wanna play it. Don't say I didn't warn you..."

Not wanting to waste even another second, the general quickly lunged at his friend's sleeping form, earning a surprised yelp from the unsuspecting forest ranger as the force of his landing on the bed made the entire thing jostle for a moment, and at long last, the fox finally raised his head up, presumably to yell at the wannabe jokester for the disturbance...

Only to immediately shut his mouth again and freeze up when he caught sight of both the threatening look in his friend's eyes, and more importantly, the clawlike, wiggling fingers that he was slowly creeping towards him with.

Oh no...

"W-Wait Cyno, hang on, let's just talk about this like adults alright? W-We're not kids anymore, this is childish! There's no need to- WAHAHA!! AHAhahaha- NO!! Plehehease Cynohohohooo!! Wahahait not thahahahahaaat!!"

Tighnari cried as he was finally pounced upon, having been unable to make a run for it in time due to the seemingly infinite amount of sheets that his legs were currently tangled in.

Cyno couldn't help but chuckle a little at the panicked look on his friend's face as he proceeded to latch onto his sides, sending the poor botanist into a near instant fit of hysterics before he could even begin to properly try and talk his way out of it.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid begging isn't going to do you any good now, my friend." The general stated, sounding comically like this entire ordeal was even more tiring for him than Tighnari, "I already tried waking you up the nice way several times, and yet you still refused me each time, even going so far as to use the little bit of wakefulness you did manage to muster just to insult me before going back to sleep, and yet you expect me to show mercy now?"

He asked indignantly, and perhaps Tighnari was even starting to feel a little bit bad about it...

"Now, doesn't that seem rather, inconsleeperate, of you?"

Ok. Scratch that. He was going to kill him after this, actually...

"Yohohou absohoholute idiohohohohot!!" Not paying any mind to Tighnari's annoyed little half-growl half-giggle in response to the pun, the general smiled, feeling just a tad bit nostalgic of that first snow day back in their younger days.

Ah. Right. The snow.

"Alright. That's enough of that then I suppose." He sighed, finally releasing his friend after only a couple more seconds, watching fondly as the poor forest ranger continued to giggle tiredly, "Let's go. Hurry up, before the snow stops."

A beat.

Another. And then...

"Snow?! In Sumeru?!" Aaand, just like that, the fox was already up and gone, just barely remembering to pull on a pair of boots and a jacket before he was out the door, research journal in hand as he went out into the chilly weather, presumably to start researching how the current environment was faring in such unfamiliar circumstances.

Cyno couldn't help but smile a little at the sight of his normally composed friend's excited smile. Perhaps those two curious young children they'd both once been back then, weren't so very far removed from them afterall...

[terastalungrad]

Once again, I'm annoyed by people pretending Dr Who has a canon.

This week, I blocked someone on Twitter for claiming Big Finish stories are "Elseworld" stories, unless confirmed by the TV series. It's just the perfect tweet to annoy me.

Elseworlds

Elseworlds was an imprint of DC comics that presented alternate realities, set outside of DC's "canonical" stories.

Actually, I've started in the wrong place.

Canons

Canons are usually a big list of works, defined as significant by some authority.

"Significant" can mean different things:

The Biblical canon are books considered authentic - i.e. the Gospel According to Luke is considered a genuine book of the Bible, as opposed to some made-up nonsense.

The Sherlock Holmes canon are the books and stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle, as opposed to works by any other writers.

The western canon is a list of works of art and philosophy considered to have achieved classic status.

For various nerd properties like DC comics, Marvel comics, Star Wars, Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the "canons" are the works considered to be valid parts of the big picture. The Last Jedi, for example, is considered to have happened from the perspective of any stories set after it. Knights of the Old Republic, on the other hand, is non-canonical, and stories set later are free to ignore it.

Dr Who canon

Dr Who doesn't have a canon.

This sometimes surprises Dr Who fans, especially when they're also fans of comics or Star Things. But unlike those other things, nobody with the authority to declare a Dr Who canon has ever done so.

In fact, the first two showrunners of Dr Who in the 21st century actively stated that there IS no Dr Who canon, and the third said nothing on the subject at all.

The owners of Star Trek, Star Wars, Buffy, Marvel and DC had incentives to determine official canons - mostly financial. "These comics are canonical Buffy!" might sell more comics. "Old Star Wars novels don't count!" makes it easier to market NEW books as the ones that are really worth buying.

With so many nerd properties making declarations about what's in/out of the canon, a lot of people have absorbed the idea that a canon is an intrinsic feature of long-form storytelling.

But it isn't.

Continuity

"Continuity" IS an intrinsic feature of long-form storytelling, and maybe that's what people are thinking of. People often use the word "canonised" when the word they really mean is "references".

For instance, in the 2017 Dr Who episode "The Doctor Falls", the Doctor references the events of the 1987 Dr Who comic, "The World Shapers". People claimed that this canonised the comic - that the comic was now a valid part of Dr Who.

The implication being that, until the Doctor referenced it on TV, it was NOT a valid part of Dr Who.

But that's just not how this show works. The show happily references - and ignores - whatever it likes. The show's been regularly referencing spin-off material since 1964, when the show was a year old, referencing a Dalek comic. The same story contradicted a TV story from earlier that year.

Elseworlds

"Elseworlds" was useful branding for DC comics. The fact that these stories were set outside of normal continuity was a selling point. You knew you were in for fun you wouldn't get in canonical comics. Marvel's equivalent was called "What If". Doctor Who's closest equivalent is the audio series "Doctor Who Unbound" from Big Finish.

The selling point of Big Finish audios is that they're explicitly set within normal Dr Who continuity. They're not required reading or anything - you're free to ignore them, and the show will still make sense - but they're consciously part of the same story. That's how they're written, that's how they're produced, and that's the understanding on which the BBC licenses Dr Who to the company.

So when someone tweets "Big Finish are Elseworld stories", they're exactly, precisely wrong.

But that's because they're not trying to be correct. They're trying to convey a feeling, not a fact.

Authenticity

To this person, Big Finish audios don't feel authentic. The Girl Who Lived feels to them like a real Dr Who story that's part of the tapestry, and The Sword of Orion doesn't.

And the irony here is that if they'd expressed themselves this way, I'd have enjoyed the observation. But "this bit doesn't feel like MY Dr Who" isn't how fans like to express themselves. They prefer to say "that bit doesn't count".

So often, people will say "Dr Who books aren't canon", and what they mean is, they don't want to read Dr Who books, but they also don't want to be considered anything less than full dedicated Dr Who fans. They feel threatened - insulted - by the idea that being a true fan should require them to read novels, so rather than say "they're not for me", they say "they don't even count".

I hate this attitude. Dismissiveness woven into unearned authority. Who are you to say what parts of Dr Who are valid? Even the BBC don't do that. Even the writers and producers don't do that.

And it's especially annoying with Dr Who, because.

It's Not Even True

More than any other nerd media I can think of, Dr Who cheerfully builds on stories from its own spinoff media all the time.

You have to accept that Dr Who's spinoff media established elements of Dr Who on TV ...

(jumping here from the future to say - you can just ignore this massive paragraph, and the one coming up too)

... if the Daleks are made of Dalekanium, if the Tardis was built by an advanced civilisation, if the Doctor met Nelson/Churchill/Picasso, if the Dalek invasion of Earth was thwarted by the Earth's magnetic core, unless the Doctor lies to Davros, if the Daleks are accelerated evolution, if the Doctor can levitate, if the time vortex is blue when travelling backwards in time, if it's red wen travelling forwards, if Rose Tyler visited Justicia, if the Doctor met Arthur Dent, if Sarah Jane's K9 is broken, if the Void exists beyond the Doctor's universe, if the Daleks count in rels, if the Doctor has a brother, if the Face of Boe's final words are true, if the Citadel of the Time Lords exists in an enormous dome, if the Tardis is designed for six pilots, if the Doctor's a complicated space-time event, if Autons are vulnerable to heat and radio waves, if the Tardis archives old console rooms, if the Doctor was taught to swordfight by Richard the Lionheart, if he fought with Errol Flynn, if Kate Stewart has children, if the Master survived the events of Death in Heaven, if the Doctor wears pants with question marks on them, if the Doctor visited frost fairs before his trip with Bill, if Venusian Aikido requires five arms, if the Doctor loves the musical Hamilton, if Graham is from Essex, if there are talking cats on Gallifrey, if the Time Lords intentionally restricted regenerations to 12 per Time Lord, if the Doctor and Yaz witnessed the gunpowder plot, if the Doctor's previous incarnations exist in her mind, and if the Doctor can regenerate back into previous incarnations.

Other stuff introduced in spinoff media before featuring on TV:

The planet Vulcan, the Dalek Emperor, the President of Earth, the Dalek Supreme, the planet Karn, the Dalek lie detector, the glass Dalek, the Time War, UNIT officer Muriel Frost, Kronkburgers, the planet Lucifer, the nickname "the Oncoming Storm", the Kaled God of War, Millingdale ice cream, sabre-tooth gorillas, the Butler Institute, Davros's mechanical hand, UNIT's NYC base, the Space Agency, Henrietta Goodheart of the Silver Cloak, the planet Arcadia, Chelonians, Haemogoths, Professore Arthur Candy, Luna University, Kate Stewart, Paternoster Row, the Paul McGann Doctor's companions, the War Council of Gallifrey, class 1C at Coal Hill School (taught by both Barbara and Clara), Abslom Daak, Hyperspace Body Swap, vampire monkeys, the Velosians, the sonic trowel, the Ninth Dimension, the planet in Smile, Rassilon looking like Don Warrington, the Siege of Atropos, the type 75 Tardis.

The very idea that the absolutely wild selection of stories that led to these things are valid part of Dr Who but no other spinoff media sotires count - it's just such obvious nonsense, even by the standards of Dr Who fans' theories on canonicity.

So why say it at all?

To Ruin People's Fun

I'm not much of a Big Finish guy to be honest. Love the books, ADORE the comics, but I'm a lot pickier when I engage with the audios.

But they have a really passionate fanbase in their own right, and that's just lovely. Big Finish audios outnumber TV stories. It's a bigger piece of the pie.

And what I will say is, Big Finish fans are rarely obnoxious enough to sneer at other Dr Who fans. It's only the TV fans doing that.

Fiction

Fiction is a creative work featuring the imaginary.

People can be so invested in their fandoms that they throw their wright around to insist that some stories are more imaginary than others.

But these are all just stories. Even Star Wars. Even DC. You can just ignore the creators, you know. Enjoy the stories you want - and ignore the ones you dislike.

I've never seen Star Wars 9. I don't see it as a valid part of Star Wars. But it IS canonical. But woo, here I am, deciding on my OWN personal list of significant stuff (a ploss, if you will).

And there's all sorts of Dr Who stuff I consider true even though it's not in ANY media. Like the idea that she's been Jo Martin twice (once before Hartnell, once between Troughton and Pertwee). That's more real to me than the idea that Graham created a support group for old companions.

This week, someone on Twitter claimed Big Finish stories are "Elseworld" stories, unless confirmed by the TV series. So I blocked them, condemning their future tweets to a reality outside my own.

[avelera]

Can I just say how freaking Satisfying it was to read the part in giving sanctuary where dream realizes that of course, to a man who grew up surrounded by the goddamn plague, a table loaded with food would be his idea of heaven? Because god, that was satisfying. (Dream, I adore you, but sometimes I want to hit you with a pool noodle.)

I find the contrast between Dream knowing things & understanding them absolutely fascinating in ur fics. For example, in come live with me, how dream starts to realize there are lots of parts of hobs life he leaves out because he thinks they are too sad, shameful, or boring for Dream. It makes his character development *chefs kiss*, and the steps he takes towards trying to understand people all the more meaningful. Because what is loving someone if not trying to know them, despite already knowing their life story? :)

;____; Thank you so much!

(I promise, CLWM will update soon, I'm just an idiot who had the next scene be a really steamy sex scene there and writing the Naxos arc of Giving Sanctuary at the same time is NOT conducive to jumping between the fics, arrrrgghhhg)

But in all seriousness, I'm having one of those "I know I was doing that because to me, there's a natural divide between "knowing" something and "understanding" something, but I had no idea I was doing it that strongly in the fic" and I feel really seen in a good way that you spotted that and you explaining it back is really making me think now and self examine and get very excited about what your observation says about the story that was both intentional but also a bit subconscious!

(Cut for CLWM and Giving Sanctuary behind the scenes rambling)

Because I believe Dream absolutely "Knows" that humans face privation but does he, a being who does not need to eat, sleep, or even breathe truly Understand what it would be like to experience that? Does he understand it enough to understand the contrast between having nothing and having excess, or does he only see the boorishness of the largess?" Dream has understanding but he lacks empathy. And worse, he often doesn't even try to have it.

There's a line in Brief Lives (which I was recently re-reading for GS) where Destruction says that in the past, Dream just saw other living beings especially humans as (paraphrased) "things that dream" - things that serve Dream's function. Almost like they're crops that need tending rather than individuals with inner lives. Which is actually a terrifying thing to learn about the creature that tends the dreams of humanity because of its potential for sheer monstrousness, of seeing those in his care as literal livestock. But I believe Dream can overcome this, he's not inherently a monster, but to paraphrase Pratchett, the root of all evil is seeing people as things, and I think from that perspective, Dream had immense potential to become a monster, for the Nada situation to be the norm not an exception and that he could have become worse if something didn't derail his trajectory. The fishbowl might have been excessively cruel but something was needed to force Dream to look in a mirror and have a serious examination of whether he liked what he saw!

And I love Hob being a source of reversal on this aspect of Dream as opposed to the cruelty of the fishbowl! Like, obviously, because I ship them and I'm writing romance instead of long form comic books, my take on how Dream could be set on the path to emotional redemption is via falling in love with another person. And I think there's canonical evidence to back that up. Heck, I think there's canonical comic evidence that the reason Hob and Dream don't have more scenes together in the comic is because you can feel Dream's self destructive narrative flexing, crumbling, breaking when he's around Hob.

Having one friend (regardless of romance but I think romance helps supercharge this) who truly only knows and likes Dream for who he is really puts lie to Dream's entire schtick about only existing as a story and not being able to change. It's hard to maintain those ideas if someone like Hob is in your life. Hob, who is the anti-story in a way, who just continues to live because being a person and being alive is the ultimate experience, it doesn't require a character arc, it doesn't require an ending to be satisfying to him!

Hob's not going to end his own life for love like someone would in a story, not even for his own child, not even for Dream, his only constant. But he will be there to share life with Dream or with anyone who partakes (I've realized while reading Brief Lives that the way I write Hob at least is basically Destruction if he wasn't Endless or Dream's brother lol and I've been noodling on that a bit). I think given Dream's melodrama, that's a very radical point of view to have in his life, and if the narrative allowed Hob and him in a room together more well... heck, even in the comic, they have a ton of bizarrely romantic interactions, like you can feel that relationship poking at the borders of the story until it's wrenched away.

Anyway! Pardon my ramblings, the ADHD meds are kicking in and I love warming up my brain and fingers for the day with a rambling meta piece XD

[greenlantern94to04]

Green Lantern #48 (January 1994)

"EMERALD TWILIGHT," Part 1! Good ol' Hal Jordan isn't in a great place right now. Not only did some rude supervillains from another comic dislocate his arm, but they also wiped out the city Hal grew up in and everyone who lived in it (except for his best friend and his two legal-age, non-alien romantic interests, as revealed last issue). The good news is that the arm thing heals pretty quickly in this issue.

The bad news is that Hal's psyche... does not. Hence him using his Green Lantern ring to conjure up a green ghost of his long-dead father, as seen above. Hal tells his dad that he resents him for always patting his brothers on the back but never taking two seconds to tell Hal he was proud of him. Ghost Dad replies that his brothers simply accomplished more than Hal, but Hal is like "Dude! I'm Green Lantern! Come on!" and points out everything he's done in his superheroing career. Ghost Dad's reply: "Didn't do much to save Coast City, did you?" Then he steps into a Ghost Plane that explodes in front of a distraught Hal, just like when he was a kid.

Next, Hal's mother shows up (also as a green ghost) and lovingly tells him to move the fuck on, because the pain and loss he feels are "dangerous things" that could "ruin him" if he doesn't let them go. She tells him to "be satisfied with the memories" as she fades away, but Hal shouts that memories aren't enough, dammit. He wants Coast City back! If only he had something that could make that happen, like a power ring or some-- ohhh, right.

So, he makes it happen: he uses the ring to make the entire city come back, exactly as it was. Only, you know, green.

As he's floating across Ghost Coast City feeling like God, Hal runs into his childhood sweetheart, Jessica, and they reminisce for a while, which is kinda sweet until you remember he's talking to himself. She mentions that she died when the city exploded, but adds: "Nobody blames you. We're just happy you're doing this for us." Next, Hal stops by his parents' old house and his dad, who is in a much sunnier mood now, repeats the same sentiment as Jessica: "everybody" appreciates what Hal is doing for Coast City.

In fact, it looks like Hal's dad is finally about to tell him he's proud of him... when he fades away, along with the entire city.

Hal's Green Lantern ring has ran out of juice. Suddenly, a Guardian of the Universe (as in one of Hal's bosses, not a friend of He-Man) shows up in the form of a projection to tell Hal that using your power ring to recreate your entire city after it was blown up by Superman villains is explicitly against Green Lantern rules. I guess this is the superhero equivalent of being fired over Zoom? Anyway, the Guardian tells Hal that he must surrender his ring and prepare to be transported to their planet, Oa. That's when we find out that scolding your mentally unbalanced employees using a projection they can absorb to make themselves more powerful isn't a great idea.

Hal says: "Oh, I'll come back to Oa all right... but you're not gonna like me when I get there." As Hal flies off to space with murder in his eyes, two young lovebirds chilling in the desert spot him in the night sky and mistake him for a falling star that's going the wrong way. They seem nice. Let's all get very invested in their continued well-being!

Plotline-Watch:

That last page is the first appearance of Kyle Rayner, future protagonist of this comic, and Alexandra DeWitt, future inspirer of a messed-up trope name. When I first read this comic I got the impression they were hooking up in Coast City's crater, possibly because they got their rocks off on human misery. But no, I guess it was just a regular night desert picnic elsewhere in California.

Hal's parents had previously debuted in the Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn (1989) miniseries that retold Hal's origin, so their appearance in a storyline called "Emerald Twilight" is fitting. I like the attention to detail when Hal remembers/recreates the explosion that killed his dad: he even included his childhood cap flying off. (Would it have killed them to use the same sound effect, though?)

Given the fact that Hal hadn't lived in Coast City for years at this point and that no one that close to him died in the blast, I'm kinda intrigued by the idea that his mental breakdown was less about losing the city and more about his unresolved issues with his dad and with handling grief in general. We'll see if that interpretation holds up in future Hal appearances. (I will not entertain theories about the breakdown being caused by a yellow space bug.)

As a kid, I was always curious about Hal's brothers, who are briefly mentioned in this issue. I always kinda assumed they'd died in Coast City, but it was revealed in the early 2000s that they both happened to be in other cities and were alive and well. It's just that no one had bothered to check in on them until then.

Guy-Watch:

This is the section in which I'll look at whatever's going on with former Green Lantern (and current "What the hell do we do with this character?") Guy Gardner every month, though I reserve the right to make full posts about his comic once Beau Smith takes over as writer because I'm a huge fan of that run. Guy Gardner #16 is mostly about Guy duking it out with his idol, General Glory (kind of like Captain America meets Shazam/Captain Marvel), because Glory saw Guy's evil alien twin murder someone in a previous issue. Eventually, Guy convinces Glory that he didn't kill anyone by having Wonder Woman tie him up with the lasso of truth. Cue predictable Guy Gardner joke.

The issue also introduces a typical '90s super-soldier dude (big guns, psychotic, wriggly colored lines around his word balloons) called Militia, who is hired to kill Guy and seems pretty eager to do it, as if they already knew each other. Militia himself isn't as important as the organization that hired him, Quorum, which will also poke its nose into the Green Lantern comic with rather infamous results...

NEXT ON GREEN LANTERN '94 TO '04: Everyone dies!

[flare-dragon]

Okay, not normally something I do, but:

Jake English ramblings

Thanks to a whole bunch of wonderful posts discussing this dude, he's probably been one of the few characters in any media I've managed to have many complex thoughts about. (How much of it's an internal echo chamber? No idea~)

It's interesting how much can fit into one character in terms of potential and missed opportunities, especially since it takes having the seeds of a good character for such potential to really shine in the first place.

There's lots of characters in Homestuck who fit this bill. Jane, Aradia, Tavros, Feferi, Nepeta, and more. Each characters who had elements of good that never quite got to shine, whether it was simply the nature/course of the comic, the complexity they'd need to show that was unwilling to be put in, ideas that were already formed that (at least to many of us) just aren't as good as what could've been, and sometimes just the nature of having such a large roster that not all characters can share in the limelight.

Honestly, why Jake, of all characters, would attract me seems arbitrary (in all honestly, I didn't see him as much until I figured out a HoH headcanon for him, which opened me up to seeing more of his character. Relatability seems to be important pfft), but he really does strike me as one of the characters with the greatest amount of lost potential (right next to Jane, Nepeta, and Feferi).

(Seriously, Jane and Feferi could've been super interesting with working through social expectations and expected leadership, become explorations of breaking these downs, and Nepeta was an interesting example of kindness amongst the harshness of Alternia, seeing through Karkat and Equius' harsh exteriors even as (or perhaps because) she doesn't see the complexities of Alternian social classes and expectations)

When we look at Jake on the surface level, we see a teen who has all the same bravado and aspirations to adventure as his alternate adult self, shown with the new light of being a complete social buffoon (at least we're lead to believe this; how much is put on comes under all the hidden potential he has as a character)

If only see at this surface level, his cowardice later one feels almost expected, with Grandpa Harley always running, with his final destination being an island with nothing but butterflies and his daughter. The patheticness turned up to 11 by the end of the comic, he seems like he's meant to be the pathetic loser who dreams big but is too afraid to take them.

And yet, when broken down into fundamental parts, we start to see so many potential explanations to his character, we begin to wonder "Who is Jake English really?"

(I wanna say that his descent into "loserdom" by the end of the comic was Hussie basically giving up on him being a decent character or him playing the long game, building him up so that when he falls, he looks spectacularly shitty, which makes me wonder how seriously to take it as part of his original intent)

I don't think I'm gonna try getting into answering the "who" (there's a bunch of great people to check that, such as @4lph4kidz, @abraxas-calibrator and @hemoanarchist), but the fact that he in particular can have so much analysis on who he is and could be, despite how he's treated? It strikes me as super interesting

(Like, you can make those kinda of analysis on the Striders and Vriska, but they've always been treated well in terms of showing them off as well-designed characters - Vriska especially - and Terezi and Jade, as pushed down as they get, still come across as good characters you're meant to like who also have depth, but Jake doesn't fit into this kind of list, and yet he also has so much hidden depth, it's almost paradoxical. Almost~)

How can you have a character who's the "Strong Female Lead but male", as well as "a spectactularly goofy kid", and yet also potentially be someone who purposefully hides his true intentions because he never wants to hurt (himself and his friends) yet always seems to fail that? Amongst all the other things he is and appears to show elements of?

I dunno. Jake just...strikes me as super interesting in that regard.

Very much "full of potential who could be so much", living up to his classpect heheh