#I promise I will eventually post the next comic page | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dailycass-cain · 1 year

Text

So on January 26th yesterday, I looked into how the comics had Cass combat her disability in Dyslexia being not able to read and relate words vocally.

What worked, what didn't, and which era handled the progression better.

At the very core of her very first appearance in Batman #567 by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott, Barbara Gordon is trying to help Cassandra overcome her disability. And it is her first words spoken that give her father David Cain pause.

Batgirl Vol. 1 #2 gives us the first look into how Cass really doesn't fully care about learning in either study instead focusing on her new vigilante life. That is until running into Robinson and learning WHY words and writing truly matter.

#5 has her run across a metahuman who has mental abilities and because of those rewires her brain to have the capacity to understand.

It's a cheap copout for sure. But it gives Cass a voice in her mind along with the capacity to speak better. Bad news? It screws up her abilities and how her mind was originally wired.

This leads into #6-9 basically being how Cass can get her ability to read body language and learn with the added bonus of her mind continuing to be the way it is. Enter Lady Shiva who gives her this, but at a price aka the crux of what will lead into Batgirl #25.

Batgirl Vol. 1 #20 written by Chuck Dixon (art still by Scott). Where Cass comes to a drop man who's murdered before he can deliver a ransom. Her lack of being able to read leads her to seek out--

-- one Stephanie Brown aka Spoiler. I think at this point the reason Cass went to Steph was that she was afraid Babs would lecture her on neglecting her reading lessons (which she would later on).

Tim Drake, she had just fully befriended (#18), but he was close to Babs. So Cass probably figured he accidentally let slip this and she'd be in trouble. Steph wouldn't she was on the outside from the Bat Family (at this time).

The issue does promise of Cass in attaining another reading teacher (which pays off in the most weirdest place, Convergence: Batgirl #1), but this plot point goes nowhere here. Cass/Steph's friendship would intensify for the next ten issues (#21, 26-28).

For the most part, we don't really get to see fully Cass try and fight her Dyslexia again until the Dylan Horrocks' run with #51 where we learn HOW Cass is expanding her word vocabulary via TV but neglecting on reading.

This bit reads its crux with the infamous #54 (i.e. the one that causes Cass/Babs to fracture away from one another).

In the issue, Cass has to deal with a killer robot that's taking out any place that has a copy of a book that has the codeword to shut it down. We learn during the fight, Cass has been neglecting her studies in reading. Again with the infamous page:

Now Horrocks did this because he was ordered to write Babs off this title (Birds of Prey, the comic Babs was primarily in would be eventually moving away from Gotham). It was the first of that would make the writer leave the comic (and DC Comics altogether).

Regardless again the way the case rattled Cass enough to think about it all and work back into trying to read.

If there was instant positive of writer Andersen Gabrych when he began his run. He made sure this was a reoccurring plot point THROUGHOUT his run starting with #58.

By giving Cass her own diary it enables her better way to try and combat her disability. Along with in the very same issue, Cass trying to actively read a book for the first time on page.

The diary motif would be a hallmark of Gabrych's entire run with the book. So I'm not gonna post every entry. But I think that's why I really loved those first few issues because he covered ALL corners with the character.

You saw it all.

Never once did Gabrych use behind the issues trick. This was a struggle for Cass. I think it better helped resonate the character with readers by doing so. It also went down an angle that was different than Puckett and felt like the better next step from what was built on prior.

Course Cass would still have her bad habits of being an avid TV watcher. So the balance of her trying and struggling was a nice touch.

This came to an ironic fully circle with #67 with Babs returning (for one issue) in the comic and the pair hashing out their differences and mending. But it also reveals a further reason why Babs really wants Cass to learn to read. Again, this is probably the best reason.

She knows Cass wants to be Bruce's heir and be Batman. She knows the only way to fully be that is to get fully conquer her disability. And for the second time in her ongoing we get a look in how Cass's brain was wired from her learning from her father and the metahuman.

And we get the clearest answer how Cass's brain truly operates and why the usual methods in overcoming her disability in reading.

That's the final gift Gabrych gave us.

A hope.

A small faint hope that maybe Cass could learn with whatever writer would take on the character next. The only thing is even he couldn't anticipate what was to come...

Batgirl was canceled with #73 and well the next time we saw Cass and how this disability was handled came in Robin #148.

Alright, before I go into this portion. Newly minted Robin writer (this was his first issue) Adam Beechen came into comics had zero idea of the character of Cassandra Cain, other than what he was told and found.

The DC Editors on Robin did not help him or assist him. They gave him an edict... and he did that edict without question. The result....

Was this INFAMOUS page from Robin #149. Cassandra Cain the character who had the disability of Dyslexia somehow was able to learn another entire language.

That's not even going with the OTHER problem Robin OYL gave us with Cass (but that's an entirely ANOTHER issue). Regardless after the story arc, Beechen (and DC) realized just how badly he screwed up.

Course, the entirety on HOW Cass was suddenly able to learn an entire language with how her brain understood information. Yeah, this was a plot thread nobody truly wanted to answer when the retcons began dropping after Cass's "EVIL" phase to fix it.

In fact, it was Beechen himself who addressed the issue in Batgirl Vol. 2 #1 amongst the CHUNKS of well exposition and history that was the mess DC made of the character from 2006-2007.

So all those issues Babs mentioned in #67? Cass and Alfred fixed them and for the entire MISSING YEAR Cass made great strides to overcome her disability. THAT'S how she was able to understand the Navajo language.

Look I get what Beechen was doing and I also get we were NEVER gonna get the missing stories to showcase that. But to see an entire character's journey in overcoming her disability fixed overnight?

Even with Beechen giving us a classmate in Sal (who's last name we NEVER learn, and is forgettable male love interest #3 for Cass) who gives us the promise of something we never get from the Vol. 1 ongoing. Because DC was gonna DC.

That's basically it for the original run for Cass. That it was a nice harrowing journey that had its bumps but the character was making great strides to be better. Then well the road bumps began to occur and yeah...

I'll give it to Beechen that he tried at the very least to fix the holes he himself caused. But... in the format given it's just crushing how this was fully handled in the end.

Sadly we got nothing more as DC really did a meh job for about five years? We did get this little nugget in Convergence: Batgirl #1 though (somehow connecting that line from waaaaaay back in Batgirl Vol. 1 #20)...

Which is shocking of all places for Cass trying to overcome her disability, Convergence: Batgirl #1 was not the place one ever would think to find that, but we had that surprisingly.

So when Cass was "reintroduced" into the DCU with Batman & Robin Eternal. A reset was in order and writers were allowed back to square one in how to deal with Cass handling her Dyslexia disability.

I will say this for James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder on how they handle putting a metahuman with mental abilities they just slot that character in #11 by introducing the Sculptor who basically fills the same void the meta in Batgirl Vol. 1 #5 did.

Much like the original metahuman, once this link is established Sculptor nopes her way out of the story and is never heard from again.

Which kind of surprises me, because it's something I figured Tynion would maybe address during his Detective Comics run (that had Cass in it) given how much in #11 and 12 establish the character and her origins.

But nope. Nothing further.

So yeah, after this we got James Tynion IV's Detective Comics run that had Cass in it starting from #934-981.

Not surprisingly, Tynion really handled the whole disability issue well than those in the past with the constraints he had. Even more so Juggling multiple characters in this book and going down a better avenue than his predecessors.

And that all begins with #953 with Clayface (Basil Karlo) trying to comfort Cass after learning her mom is Lady Shiva.

By doing this. Tynion lays the seeds on how he'll deal with the issue on Cass combating her disability while also cementing the hallmark of this run, Clayface's rehabilitation and friendship with Cass.

#958 we see Basil teaching Cass Shakespeare by playing audio and having her learn to read and increase her vocabulary via that.

It's probably the best thing Tynion did character-wise with Cass by briefly showing us this but fully giving us a more plausible method than prior on how to deal with her disability.

The fact that this hits throughout this arc (as Cass quotes Shakespeare at a good moment) and is carried over until the very end of his run when Cass meets Barbara in #981.

This version of Cass is actively trying to combat her Dyslexia more than her prior versions, and this Cass is actively doing a better job. Even though we don’t get much Babs teaching Cass (though they do work together in the next arc after this that sets up Batman & the Outsiders). But that run doesn’t dig into Cass’s progress instead going into other routes to touch on with the character.

Unlike what was carried over from Batgirl Vol. 1 to 2 (and between that) Cass has a more concrete subplot here. Where we can SEE and are TOLD of her progress.

That leads us into the current Batgirls ongoing. In #1. where this is a little bit lampshaded. As Cass uses a reading bag to combat criminals to retain stuff she/Steph had that was stolen.

A further bit of subplot is continued throughout and in #4 with Cass now ACTIVELY being a bookworm and reading works of Edgar Allen Poe.

Like it astonishes me that this element of the character has remained actually consistent from point A to B. But it's a nice contrast of things that creators at DC worked on better here than prior.

And no issue highlights that fight of Cass actively wanting to combat her dyslexia then "Sounds" from DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1 by Mariko Tamaki and Marcus To.

It's why Tamaki just fully GETS the character of Cass not in every corner of the character. Why many want the writer to handle the character again.

But Tamaki isn't the only one who did a good job in showcasing Cass fighting her disability and the one that does the best job is Shadow of the Batgirl graphic novel. Where writer Sarah Kuhn and artist Nicole Goux go both literally fighting her disability.

And her actively learning to read and increasing her vocabulary by hiding in the library was absolute perfection.

But it also is a nice avenue (and nod to the past) by focusing on a library since that's the location where Barbara Gordon teaches (and again a nice nod to that character's history too).

Quite literally...

That's another layer to why I adore that graphic novel. Just the layer of dimension to BOTH characters while it gives that nod to Babs, the story is clearly more Cass.

Again, Kuhn modernizes everything to perfection.

So there you have the history of Cass and her disability. And my final gift on this day (which has now passed) to celebrate the character of Cassandra Cain.

#cassandra cain #dc comics #barbara gordon #clayface #tim drake #stephanie brown

573 notes · View notes

prying-pandora666 · 1 year

Text

“The Search” Rewrites, Book 4: Air, Leaks, and A Call for Help from the Fandom

I’ve talked a little about the Book 4: Air restoration project @book4air. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out! Three full episodes are already out and episode 4 is going to cover Zuko’s early days right after his banishment, exploring his relationship with Iroh and the world as Zuko understands it as a lost boy rapidly coming into manhood.

Wait until you hear the VA’s performance with music and everything! It’ll break your heart.

But I want to talk a little bit about what comes after these next few episodes: our adaptation of “The Search”.

If you’ve seen our adaptation of “The Promise”, you’ll know it was quite faithful. This won’t be the case for “The Search”. For the purposes of the overarching story we are telling, this story is getting overhauled. (Please still support the original release if you’d like to see the canon version).

The biggest change that’s been announced is the addition of Toph. The team felt that a story about family, identity, and faces could benefit from including Toph’s perspective as she comes from a unique but toxic family situation, has a strong conflict between the performance expected of her versus who she really is, and is completely blind and so faces don’t even register for her.

Here is the sample scene we released:

youtube

But I want to talk a little bit about what we are changing about Zuko and Azula’s roles in the story. While the set up is virtually unchanged, there is one small alteration that makes a big difference.

(Sorry for the poor quality, this is technically unreleased content and I’m being kinda risky leaking it.)

Ursa’s letters are now a diary. This means that rather than get random flashbacks, the narrative framing now becomes Zuko and Azula reading these entries together. As a result, they get to discuss their discoveries about their family, and even share each other’s perspectives.

What that means is that when things like Zuko dangling Azula over the cliff happen, now we actually are forced to address it. The characters have to talk about how they treat each other and the reasons why. They have to confront the toxic family dynamic they’ve been forced and groomed into since childhood. Zuko has to realize his mentally ill little sister isn’t the monster here and in fact he’s the one with all the power now, and Azula has to realize that Zuko can be trusted if she can let go of her fear long enough to talk to him about her vulnerabilities.

We also address issues like this:

Many people criticize this for being OOC, but I think there’s a way this could easily not be. Sokka has been known to be juvenile and reactionary as a first response, the difference is that he always eventually apologizes and learns from his mistakes. Without even needing to be asked.

Threatening a mentally ill person who has just been removed from an asylum—even as a joke—is not okay. It would be questionable even if they’d been friends before this, but considering their prior relationship it really does seem like an boneheaded lack of awareness or compassion for how triggering this could be.

So rather than remove this interaction, we addressed it. And I am really taking a risk posting this here, but here is a brand new script page:

Sokka isn’t just comic relief. Sokka is smart, Sokka is compassionate, Sokka is brave, and Sokka knows when it’s time to apologize and reach out versus when it’s time to fight.

Safe to say, there are several things that stay the same and we tried to keep faithful to the spirit of the story, but there’s a lot we wanted to do for the Gaang and for the Fire Sibs, and I hope you’ll join us on this adventure, whether you’re a diehard fan of the comics and just looking for a fun AU, or you hate the comics and would like a rewrite, or even if you’ve never read them and would just love to return to the world of ATLA.

The only trouble is, we can’t do it alone. The project is very expensive and time consuming to produce. Our team pays for everything out of pocket and some of us don’t even have reliable housing, so it’s been a hard time.

If you can help in any way, even only by spreading the word so YouTube will stop burying us in the algorithm, that would be huge!

If you can afford to help, we have a Patreon where you can get all sorts of early goodies.

Reblogs and comments greatly appreciated! As the head writer and voice of Azula, this project is very near and dear to me. Avatar was my first pro-writing gig when I was just a homeless 19 year old, and it’s here for me again as I struggle to rebuild my life and health that COVID destroyed.

I love this series and the community that has helped me through the hardest times in my life. I can’t wait to make something beautiful with you all!

#avatar #atla #avatar the last airbender #The seach #Azula #Zuko #Sokka #book 4 air restoration project #Youtube

224 notes · View notes

petra-creat0r · 4 months

Text

Annual Update 2024

Alright everyone! New year, new updates for all my stuff!

Starting with ...

AtDFF and AYC

(The new signatures for my main art, AtDFF, and AYC)

As some, and by that I mean most of you have probably noticed, I rebooted AtDFF... again. I technically started a revamp all the way back in 2020 where I was redrawing the older updates to better match the current style and reformat the asks and text for better readability, but that didn't impede on the main updates (well, besides putting more onto mine and the rest of the team's work load.)

The Reboot

This past year though, I made the decision to completely reboot the comic for a few reasons. One was an attempt to renew my motivation, another was wanting to rework some of the lore, yet another was being inspired by @askfallenroyalty to remake the comic and post to ComicFury, but I think the main factor was... I wasn't all that happy with it. I think I kept comparing it to other comics, especially Fallen Royalty, which is my own issue, please don't go blaming anyone else. I knew I could do better, especially after over 5 years working on this, but now looking back, part of me feels that, rebooting it again is, in a way, diminishing those years. Even with the 2020 revamp, prior to it you could go through the updates and really look at how my art has progressed, and though true you can still scroll and find the old updates, it's just... not quite the same. Same can be said for the 2023 reboot.

Does that mean I'm going back on the reboot? No. I already have the next updates planned (I just haven't had a chance to work on them that often) and I really like the new lore of the world that I've come up with. I just think this will be the last time I ever reboot the comic. Whatever happens, happens, and I need to just roll with it. Even if what happens is our little roadtrip getting derailed into a corn field again, lol.

Comic Fury and New Comic?

With that said, what do I have in store for the new reboots of AtDFF and AYC? (yes AYC got rebooted too, I just haven't posted the first update like I did with AtDFF) Well, I mentioned a Comic Fury, which surprise. Both AtDFF and AYC have their own Comic Fury pages now! Don't worry, I still plan on posting to Tumblr as well, but now you can also find them on Comic Fury. Along with another comic I'm planning to do (eventually), Undertale-ish: The Comic. Ever wonder what Ish Frisk's journey through the Underground was like? Want to see what happened in most (not all) of their 800 runs? Want to see this child grapple with their self insecurities, perfectionism, and the responsibility of having full control over time and an entire civilization's lives in the palm of their hand? Want to see Chara as a ghost? Well that's what you'll get with Undertale-ish: The Comic! Coming I don't know since I such at scheduling and time management for these things!

Schedule

Speaking of scheduling! When are any of these comics coming out? Well... I just said I suck with schedules, and I can't promise really... anything when it comes to release but like... I know I for sure would like to release things... regularly? Even with the start of the reboot, I started it in April, and that stuff extended until at least August. Every summer I naively think "Oh! I'm gonna have so much time to work on the comic!" and then I get a summer job. Because I'm nearly 20 and going to college and even if I'm still living under my parent's roof, I can't entirely rely on my dad to pay my tuition. Only for half the year. Then during the school year, I have classes, and I feel burned out by the time I get home, and- It's a whole thing I need to find someway to work around or else nothing gets done and my brain just screams at itself. So, I think scheduling is something I'm gonna figure out throughout January, and try and get a backlog of updates ready throughout February to April or May so maybe we can start posting again in summer. Does that feel like a long wait? Even being near a year from the first update of the AtDFF reboot? Yes. But also I'm trying to over estimate and give myself the time and space I need while still attending college, and I wouldn't just be working on one comic update, but multiple. I'm trying to give myself space and some grace instead of making promises that feel hollow after a while of being unfufilled.

Lack of Motivation and How to Fix

Another thing to address, is my motivation when it comes to these series. I don't think it's accurate to say I've felt completely unmotivated to work on either comic, I mean, I was motivated for some of the beginning of last year to full on overhaul them, but I will say that, these comics have started to feel like a job. It's been something I've felt for a couple years now, where I've been having less fun with the comic as it's begun to feel like actual work. Believe me, I'm super excited for some of the later plot points of both AtDFF and AYC, and I love Undertale-ish and these characters but to get to those points or character moments, it feels like I'm slogging through what comes before it, which isn't good. This is something that sure, rebooting helped for a bit, before I got caught up in school and other stuff, but it's not a permanent solution and I've felt myself slipping back into the comic feeling like a job.

So how might I remedy this? Well, I think the solution might lie in another series I started this year, Drawing Junior Secret Squad until Chapter 3. Even if DJSSuC3 is more Deltarune focused, I've enjoyed drawing Chicago and my other fankids pretty much daily as, there's not that much pressure on it. Definitely not like there is with AtDFF or AYC. I don't have to line, or even color them since, they're just little doodles. I don't have to worry about missing a day since, I'll just do multiple the next day. They're quick, they're easy, I can just draw whatever idea I have with the characters I want, I'm having fun. Back when Ask the Dreemurr-Font Family was nothing but an ask chat on Amino, that's what I did it for. For fun. I wasn't worried with popularity or being like other creators, I just did silly little character driven roleplays for fun. I think that's been my issue with the comics. They aren't fun anymore. They're work because, I feel it's my job to tell this story rather than just... telling it because I want to. So, I think going forward, I'm gonna try to have more fun with the comics and Ish in general. For you all, that's probably gonna look like more sketches and doodles getting posted and maybe even just sharing small comics based off ideas that pop into my brain or from roleplays that happened in my server. Little things to help me regain the enjoyment I had with these comics and world.

Deltarune: Fool's Fate

I think that's all I've got to say on the Undertale based comics, so how about now we move onto something Deltarune related? As I was doing DJSSuC3, I introduced an idea called Deltarune: Fool's Fate. Aka, Chicago and Co's adventures through the Dark Worlds after Kris denied their destiny. So far, this has just been little doodles, character designs, and a roleplay I've been doing in my discord server. I've been having quite a bit of fun with that RP, we're nearly to the end of what would be the first "chapter" and have been fighting Dorothy, the secret boss of the Attic Dark World and who some of y'all might recall I made a real life doll of when my old computer finally kicked the bucket earlier this month. (I've still yet to make her dress or crown) I think roleplays have always been the thing I find the most enjoyable when it comes to character exploration as, I don't have to spend forever drawing comics and I get to sorta live through the characters. It's something I've been doing for characters from even before I was in this fandom. With the Fool's Fate roleplay too, I've also got to come up with elements that could feasibly be in an actual video game without, you know, actually coding a video game.

I don't know where Fool's Fate will go from here, while it'd be cool to have it be an actual fangame, I don't have that sort of skill. Nor the budget to pay a team. (My team for the comics is really just a bunch of friends I convinced to help me out for free.) Even with a sprite comic, it'd be too much. So, for now, it'll likely just remain a concept and roleplay. But, who knows. Maybe someday I could make it into something. I mean, after watching this year's Underevent I wanted to.

Other stuff

With all the UTDR stuff out of the way, what about some of my other stuff? (Because, surprise, Undertale and Deltarune aren't the ONLY things I do. Just the things I hyperfixate on the most.) Well, I've got my Fakemon region, Azmayca, POW-R, Dragon Riders, and Kinder Eyes which I started last summer. I don't really have any plans for them, asides from bugging people for ideas and doodling whenever I'm in the mood. However I think starting this year, I'm gonna try to post more of the doodles I make. Either ones in my sketchbook since DJSS gave me the confidence to post sketchy silly little doodles like that, or sketch doodles I draw digitally as warm ups. Though who knows. Maybe a hyperfixation swing some time during the summer will cause me to actually try to do something crazy like outline the whole Azmayca region and hypothetical game. Hopefully not something like that though. Making the evolutions of my redesigns of the starters might be nice.

Commissions

Another thing I'd like to finally do next year is update my commissions sheet. It's something I've had in the work for a while now, and was working on along side launching the comic updates. But, like the comics, school and work got in the way so... I sorta forgot about it. Regardless! I'm gonna try to post my updated sheet some time within the next few months, it's mostly just been havin to draw or find recent examples of my work. Hopefully then I'll actually get some more commissions because, um *looks at the whooping $3.94 in my checking account* I could really use the extra money. I might work during the summers and get grade payments from my dad but, that stuff is to pay my tuition and some of my lunches during the semester, and even with lunches, 500 dollars is spread thin through 17, 16 ish weeks. That's like, only $30 a week, which is maybe enough to cover buying lunch at the campus food court like, once or twice from the food court. Maybe three times if I'm lucky and conservative with my spending. Not to mention that $300 of that went to my new laptop, and even if I should be getting $300 from a paycheck I was never paid back when I worked at Arby's 3 summers ago, I still haven't gotten that gift card in the mail so... Yeah. If I was living on my own, I'd be screwed. Which is why commissions and Patreon are like, my only source of income during the school year. (I still need to look into getting an on campus job for this upcoming semester but that's its own whole big can of worms.)

Patreon

Speaking of Patreon, that's another goal I want to set. Actually posting to it again. I had a burst early last year were I was regularly posting to Patreon with early access chapters of The Puppet and the Real Boy (before I retconned that with Fool's Fate) and thanks to my only Patreon ever @kierangecko, I managed to make around $50 bucks which ended up being used to help get blanks for some of my Christmas gifts for people (thank you Gecko. I know I did stop posting after like, May, but that money really came in handy.) So for this next year, I'm gonna try to post to that again. Be it WIPs of the comic, scripts, little doodles I don't post on Tumblr or whatever, I want to make Patreon another source of income. Which involves posting to it at least monthly. And even if I don't, then you guys won't have to worry about anything since I've got it set to not charge for months I don't post anything.

Resolution Review

So, to review some of my... I guess you could call them resolutions, though I'd rather think of them as goals I don't absolutely have to hold myself too but would just like to accomplish, I'd like to...

Have more fun when with AtDFF and AYC through drawing and posting more loose, silly comics and doodles

Try figuring out a posting and work schedule for AtDFF and AYC by then end of January

Hopefully get a back log of updates for both comics ready to release by summer

Start on and release Undertale-ish: The Comic sometime this year

Keep doing Drawing Junior Secret Squad until Chapter 3 until Chapters 3 and 4 of Deltarune hopefully come out sometime this year.

Possibly design hypothetical secret boss predictions for Chapters 4 and 5 of Deltarune before the next chapters come out.

Keep working on, designing characters for, and coming up with Dark Worlds for Deltarune: Fool's Fate. Perhaps even drawing some tarot cards with the chapter bosses.

Post more about my other projects, even if they're only sketchbook drawings or warm up doodles.

Update my commissions page and hopefully take more commissions to earn some extra money/save up for college or to move out.

Post regularly to my Patreon, also to earn some extra money.

Generally have a better year than 2023 and to find more enjoyment in my art and projects.

Closing

Ho boy! That was... A lot! This has turned out to be one very long post. Hehe. Well, should be over now that I've said all I need too. Also, if I haven't said it already, I'd like to thank all of you for supporting me and my art. Be it my comics, DJSSuC3, my other projects, or anything I've posted this year. It means a lot to me that people even like what I draw and you all mean the world to me. With all of that out of the way, thank you Creative Creators and I hope you have a Happy New Year.

#happy new year #update post #long post #petra's annual update #undertale ish #ask the dreemurr-font family #ask young chara #deltarune: fool's fate #drawing jr. secret squad until chapter 3 #djssuc3 #atdff #ayc #undertale-ish: the comic #azmayca #kinder eyes #pow-r #dragon riders #petra rambles

9 notes · View notes

trainwreckzadr · 2 years

Note

Are they still gonna go to the dance despite his death and revival?

Eventually yeah, if I can ever get through the dang pages... >:/

Honestly, even when I can make time for Trainwreck, I'm finding it a huge struggle to get any work done on it. I'm just not in the same headspace I was when I started this comic.

I'm actually wondering now if I should just put everything into a script and post that, like some people suggested when I first came back. That way anyone who's curious still gets to see what happens next, and if I want to finish drawing it someday (or hire someone else to), all the info's right there for me.

I'll draw up a lil example script and post it in a second, so y'all can see what I mean.

Also, since I did promise a fully-drawn comic and I don't think I'm going to be able to deliver on that, please PM me if you donated to the Kofi and you'd like a refund.

I'm not rich, but I'm not like actively starving to death or something. I did the math, and I can afford to refund you guys if you need it. Y'all are super sweet and supportive, and I really don't want to cheat anyone out of their money just because my barely-employed ass keeps breaking its promises. ^-^;;

Anyway, Imma go make some decaf. Love ya <3

#trainwreck zadr

79 notes · View notes

biteghost · 1 year

Note

Ok first I’m sorry if you get my ask 2 times because honestly I don’t know if the 1 one send sooo …yeah here I go I just want to know if the bonus comic about backlash that you post on your patreon will be post eventually for everyone (public) I’m curious again if you have my ask 2 time just anwser one of them!!! Thank you

All bonus comics are considered Patreon-Exclusives, and are posted only to my Patreon as an extra goodie to thank and reward all my readers who are able to support BACKLASH with $1 a month (or more) pledges on Patreon.

Bonus materials for BACKLASH specifically - like extra comics, process breakdowns and Throwback Thursdays (and many other Patreon-Exclusive posts) - may go public in the future, but not until one or more of the following criteria are met:

1) I make a physical printed edition of BACKLASH and the material is included in the back as bonus pages.

2) BACKLASH ends.

3) I make enough income through Patreon that I can make BACKLASH full-time.

This is not intended to be a punishment for fans who can't pledge to my Patreon. I know that not everyone can financially support my work, and I appreciate all the ways that my readers find to support me whether its by sharing BACKLASH with friends, reading the updates and leaving comments, drawing fanart and writing fanfiction, and all the other incredible and creative ways you all show me you care about my story every day! I don't want anyone to feel obligated to give me money, especially if they cannot afford it. Times are tough for everyone, please do what's best for you.

However, you get a lot of content on my Patreon for very little money. Just $1 every month (even less if you pledge annually - ~$10 for a whole year!) gets you every comic page early, as well as all bonus material I manage to create between pages and my day-job.

If less than one-tenth of my followers here on Tumblr pledged $1 a month to the creation of my comic, I'd be able to surpass all my milestones and making BACKLASH would be my full-time job! I'd have more time and energy to devote to making the comic, as well as extra goodies like illustrations, merch, prints and more.

I make this comic for free, it is free to read and will always be free to read. I use my very precious free time to continue making it without any promise of profits. And I am happy to do that - I love BACKLASH, I love my work and I love telling this story.

But like. I do have to make money somehow. We do live under the thumb of late-stage capitalism and I do have to make my rent and eat every month. Until our socialist agenda is fulfilled and we get UBI in the USA, I will continue to make fun extra goodies to say thank you to those who are able to give me their precious paychecks because they believe in my art.

Thank you for understanding. I will be sure to denote and tag Patreon Exclusive posts more clearly from here on out so as to avoid any future confusion.

Thank you for your continued support, and I'll see you in the next update! 💖☄️

#asktime #not art #links lead to the tags on my patreon

11 notes · View notes

littlemissonewhoisall · 2 years

Text

Alright, so I put together a Twitter thread about the recent queerbaiting that DC has pulled with Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain. It's an interesting and frustrating story so I decided to repost it here. There is a demonstrable shift in how the two have been written in Future State and beyond. This is a long post but I wanted to be thorough.

First, some background: One thing that frustrated a lot of fans about Steph and Cass's friendship between Batman and Robin: Eternal and the beginning of Joker War was that there wasn't much interaction between them at all. They became friends off-panel, and Cass and Steph's relationships with Harper and Basil, and Tim respectively were much more heavily focused on than theirs. This led to the finale of Detective where they embrace feeling a little hollow for some. This changed w/ Joker War where we finally saw them being friends and they first started building hype to what seemed like an inevitable “Batgirls” comic.

It should be noted that this period where they weren't interacting much was also the time where we first got textual indications that they're both attracted to women, though it was never "confirmed" in that exact language.

Alright, preamble out of the way, let's get into the issue at hand. The story starts with Future State, which is really the REASON why everything else is so bad. The bait here is INTENSE. Throughout the story, Stephanie CONSTANTLY uses terms of endearment that are... well, it's literally just flirting. While it might seem like just taunting at first, the fact that she keeps doing it AFTER dropping her act says otherwise.

This alone would've been pretty blatant subtext... BUT the comic goes further once Cass starts opening up about things. The implication is extremely strong here that the two were romantically involved before and, by the end, are heading towards that again.

At this point, the only thing keeping it from being official was confirmation BY the writer and sure enough... The editor for Batgirls posted this panel in direct reference to the upcoming book and the Future State writer retweeted it with the bi pride flag colors and two girls holding hands.

That last bit is VERY important to remember going forward because some of what I post after this might not seem like bait out of context but remember this is the expectation Future State set: that Steph and Cass WOULD eventually get together. With that in mind, let's look at Batgirls. First, the backup story leading to the ongoing comic itself, which features lots of affectionate body language and Steph and Cass sharing a bed at a hotel. Not inherently bait but in the aftermath of Future State it comes across as a reinforcement of what that comic had promised.

With the comic itself, the most bait-y stuff isn't in the pages of the comic but in how it was promoted. The solicitations talk about "their love for each other" and how laying low is "that much easier to bear because they have each other".

Variant covers added fuel to the fire: Steph and Cass holding hands next to a pair of conspicuously rainbow-colored skis and Cass falling asleep on Steph's shoulder could be dismissed as a coincidence, but having them write "XOXO Cassie+Steph" on the Valentine's Day cover is... less subtle

Within the pages of the book itself, the baiting is more restrained, restricted to Steph using some of the same flirtatious language as in Future State and a rather suggestive panel of their faces VERY close together as Cass holds Steph affectionately.

MOST of this stuff isn't particularly egregious individually, but when put together shows a clear pattern, and so it shouldn't be surprising that when THIS line showed up in the solicits for Batgirls #9, a lot of people had some hope they were FINALLY doing something.

But nope. The solicitations for the next issue confirm that what's ACTUALLY happening is that Stephanie is being paired with a new male love interest who, based on the cover, seems to be Kyle Mizoguchi, brother of Maps Mizoguchi from Gotham Academy.

I think with all that put together there's a pretty clear case for this having been intentional bait on SOMEONE'S part. It's pretty frustrating to have your hopes built up (even to the tiny degree I allowed myself to hope) only to have one of the characters paired with the most random man possible.

#StephCass #Stephanie Brown #cassandra cain #batgirls #future state #queerbaiting #Bat Family #bat fam #DC comics #batgirl

49 notes · View notes

kulay-ng-banaag · 1 year

Text

☆ IT'S MY PARTY ☆: What A Concept!

This was an extended version of the footnotes I provided in addition to my comic submission for the Razzle Dazzle zine. Out of respect for readers, I wanted to keep the zine version as simple and straightforward as possible (knowing my own wordy nature!)

CW: mentions of war, death

It hurt to look back at these footnotes, considering how I wanted to bring to light Pepe Diokno's influence behind the scenes. It hurt when you saw how he truly passed the torch to one of my choice senators in Halalan 2022. It hurt to think of how much of a deja vu the endgame might have been.

Yet, in spite of the heartbreaking turn of events, it made this story all the more worth telling.

The story itself hit the maximum limit the zine page count, so I was unable to include the cover illustration in the final submission.

For the panels, I tinted them in a mix of pink and yellow, emulating the color of some vintage photos from the 60s.

I included four motifs that pertained to American-introduced culture in the Philippines.

The design aesthetic of comic cover illustrations from about the same time period as the story setting.

While the tokenized hero Jose Rizal was typically credited as the first cartoon illustrator, the Philippine komik industry as we knew it today did not pop off until post-WWII, and borrowed heavily from the comic books left behind by American soldiers.

2. Yes, the title was after the song of the same name. I also disregarded the fact that Lesley Gore’s cover was released a year after the alluded party of my comic (let me keep this one anachronism). It added to the double purpose of reflecting the persistence of American pop culture.

3. The sorbetes! Not the same as sorbet, and absolutely not dirty ice cream (that was a classist pejorative). It was introduced during the American Occupation.

It was the real first step in getting Piri to cool down (HAHAHAHAHA) his aggressive stance towards America.

4. The TV glitches. They also popped up at certain moments in the story.

Although the first television broadcast in color in the Philippines also took place in 1963, there was a dramatic rise in the number of households in the country owning TV sets. It was the sign of a nation progressing from the dark days of WW2.

At least that was the story that would have been broadcast.

That should explain Piri's visible demeanor.

☼ ☼ ☼

On July 4, 1946, the United States government fulfilled its promise of granting the Philippines’ independent status. For the next 16 years, July 4 was the official Philippine Independence Date.

The road back to 612 was no less bumpy.

On May 9, 1962, the US House of Representatives junked the bill that would pay back the Philippines 73 million USD in war damages. Protests from Filipinos exploded. On May 12, President Diosdado Macapagal issued a proclamation that re-established June 12 as Philippine Independence Day. In his radio speech delivered May 14, he also declared the postponement of his state visit to the United States.

It was important to remember that WW2 further delayed the officiation of an independent Philippines. To flip on the added promise of repatriation was akin to scratching on old wounds. It was easy to see how Macapagal’s public moves could be interpreted as a passive-aggressive reaction.

While the decision over the bill was eventually overturned and passed, it was not the first American stain on Macapagal’s legacy.

Back in December 9, 1961, Menhart Spielman, general manager of Harry Stonehill’s tobacco business empire (worth 50 million USD) walked into the US Embassy with a heavily bruised face. He wanted to testify on the illegal activities that sustained the business.

On March 2, 1962, Justice Secretary Jose W. Diokno ordered a raid on several of Stonehill’s offices. Amongst the retrieved evidence was a “blue book” that listed beneficiaries, matching up to the allegations of several government officials being bribed into protecting the business. The list of names included the president himself, his predecessor Carlos P. Garcia (whose term was already laden with graft and corruption), and his successor Ferdinand Marcos (the dictator behind Martial Law).

On April 26, Spielman failed to attend the deportation trial for Stonehill. Newspapers published the following month stated that he was murdered in the southern part of the country in an attempt to escape (the government traced the date of murder to April 22, although his body was never found).

During Macapagal’s radio speech delivered on May 23, he explained that he had yielded to Diokno’s resignation request from his position (letter delivered May 19). Diokno argued that he never made such a request.

To add insult to injury, it was through the letter Diokno received that he learned he had been sacked.

The trial for Stonehill had not even reached a final decision when Macapagal ordered for his immediate deportation on August 3, 1962, barely two months after the historic return to 612.

Ka Pepe Diokno is indeed of the same kin as Chel Diokno (Chel’s father, actually). He also led public coalitions (which were a precursor to People Power Revolution) against the Marcos dictatorship after the assassination of Benigno Aquino.

Macapagal mentioned in his memoirs that the plan to return to 612 lingered in his mind as early as during his days as a congressman.

In 1959, historian Gabriel Fabella published his resolution that outlined his points defending 612 as the true date of Philippine Independence.

Among the reasons was that it was the date during which Emilio Aguinaldo led the declaration of independence at his family home in Kawit, Cavite. Fabella’s advocacy was inspired by his attendance of the 612 celebrations in 1954, where he was pained by the sight of his idol and fellow weary veterans, seemingly forgotten by history.

(ENGLISH translation directly below!)

“Over the years, Fabella’s admiration for the great Aguinaldo strengthened as he felt Aguinaldo did not receive enough recognition in exchange for his contributions to the country. When he attended the June 12 celebrations in 1954, he was further reminded of the hard work of the aging former president and the remaining survivors of the Asosacion de los Veteranos de la Revolucion to uphold the memory of the historic event of June 12 in place of the government establishing July 4 as the date of Philippine Independence since 1946. It was then he decided to initiate a campaign - a revision to the date of Independence Day. His efforts went into writing articles, first through the Philippine Collegian, and conducted talks throughout the country, regardless of any lack of support.”

My honest first impression after reading that excerpt: Really? Of all the possible options, you go for AGUINALDO?!?!

Although I made a couple of other pitches for the zine, I had no solid game plan in mind for them. If I pushed to change my submission, that meant going through the research process a second time. I would be killing time that could have gone into drawing a final submission at all.

It frustrated me how we never explored the nitty-gritty of a so-called historical moment that was frequently attributed to a figure whom I personally felt did not deserve it.

While growing up a (non-K to 12 generation) student, the lesson plans of compulsory PH history education were as such:

Summary of precolonial PH society

Summary of 350+ years of Spanish rule

Summary of the revolt that ended Spanish rule

Summary of the legacies of PH presidents.

That's it. I am not kidding.

We practically glossed over the periods of American rule, WW2, and even Martial Law. The most we could infer from what was going on in the Philippines was through the lens of the contributions of our elected leaders.

Which was bullshit because it is a severely biased frame of reference for studying history.

I’m going to be frank: My view of 612 1962 had since been jaded after doing more in-depth reading on the occasion. I wanted to back out of the zine because I did not want to promote a twisted story of nationalism.

Instead, I pushed myself into sticking to whose perspective I was narrating the story. How would the big day go for Piri? How would the big day go for Piri while having to grasp all these harsh truths?

Way to ruin the party.

☼ ☼ ☼

What I ended up using to show the comic title & author (because, again, I could not squeeze the cover page anymore) was supposed to be the 612 souvenir program.

Throughout the comic, Piri was quoting lines from Macapagal’s Independence Day speech that year. You may read the speech in full here!

Screw Filipino time. Piri would have arrived at his own party much sooner than the president.

Note the empty chair to the right of Piri.

I found this silent film of an Independence Day parade from that era. It was labeled 1962 but I genuinely believe that was erroneous. For one, Macapagal was donning a Western-style suit in that video. Photographs and accounts showed him in a Barong Tagalog as a symbolic gesture of reclaiming 612.

Macapagal was inaugurated into office on December 30, 1961 (Rizal Day). The 1962 celebration would be his first as president. The video should at least be one of the holiday celebrations between 1963-1965.

Even if it were not THE 1962 holiday event, the reception was stiff and unexciting for both an event and a political move that were equally of historical significance. The parade participants seemed mechanical in their movements. It felt more like a staged affair than a cause for celebration. A show of nationalistic spirit and nothing more but a show.

I added TV glitching effects to various panels throughout the comic as well, with the first third of the comic having the most intense glitching. A visual metaphor for problems in signal transmission. An allusion to what happens when you send the wrong message and how that distorts your reality.

An interference to the program.

☼ ☼ ☼

And so once more, the spotlight returned to Aguinaldo, who was not only made the guest of honor for the 612 1962 celebration but even had a replica of his Kawit home built especially for the event.

Sentiments for Aguinaldo were mixed, as it was strongly implied that he played a role in the deaths of two other leading revolutionary figures, Andres Bonifacio and Antonio Luna. Even though all three fought for the Philippines’ independence, Aguinaldo had intense rivalries with the two men when it came to the means of achieving that independence.

In ☆ LOST & FOUND ☆, I played on the scenario that the true copy of the original flag was kept by Piri. There were mixed accounts of how it got lost, but one was returned to Aguinaldo himself (albeit a later version designed by none other). It was said that he never left it out of his sight and would keep it close to him while asleep.

Note how Piri left by the time Aguinaldo arrived.

Of course, he would have been aware that he could not simply just ghost his own birthday party. A scenario made clear early on in my first fancomic. Luckily it was much easier to evade the eye of the crowd in the 60s.

Although the fact that nobody noticed him at all says a lot.

Except for a pair of navy officers who were present at the celebration. No, they were not actually designated bodyguards, but you could sense the concern from them that the birthday boy was removing himself from his own party.

Piri appreciated the company anyway.

☼ ☼ ☼

How Piri climbed up that monument is a scene you will never get to...see.

The pylon of the Rizal Monument was indeed much taller than its present height. Rather, there was an attempt to increase the height of the overall structure (what better gesture to emphasize the greatness of Rizal?). By 1961, the installation of a stainless steel pylon over the original granite obelisk was completed.

Two years later, the pylon was removed. Why? It looked ugly. Aside from the fact that it minimized the namesake focal point.

That paradoxically did not stop a certain real-estate company from constructing a certain high-rise condominium in the background of the monument, about a good 50 years later.

What better choice of street food on a hot & humid day than some sorbetes! We come back to the president’s speech. I picked out the ones I felt were good enough food for thought given the page limit.

Snacks for thought. Hehe.

☼ ☼ ☼

Someday I would draw those old folks he was referring to.

Even Piri himself had no clue about the actual date of his manifestation (his birth, if you will).

Not that anybody ever noted it down. He appreciated the idea of letting 612 double as a birthday for him. As he said himself, what mattered more was the fact that people got to celebrate (or rather, a reason to party). That was the point of memorializing the occasion, after all.

I hope you all appreciated that pun from me, but how exactly did Piri feel about all that? Why would he even allow that to happen at all?

Should he take the blame for passively accepting the change? Or should we blame those who implemented the change? Who was the one at bigger fault here? How can we answer a question when we do not know the details? How can we get the details right when we cannot get all the details? Who do we ask for the details? Is it even fair to gauge the opinion of a NATION through ONE person? Ironic, isn’t it? No wonder Piri felt the way he did.

The road to independence was never smooth, and yet as bumpy as the road back to 612 was, it was almost as if it stopped being about the Philippines than so much to preserve the egos of those who led the Philippines.

The day may have been dedicated to him in theory, but it must have been an awkward situation for Piri to be surrounded by the people who gave back to their country by taking what should have been rightfully his.

I won’t lie. I was hesitant that it might be too explicit for a politically defiant stance. But then I remember the 1986 Comelec walkout that preceded EDSA Revolution. I remember the 2001 impeachment trial walkout that preceded EDSA Dos.

It’s his party and he gets to say no to all of the theatrics.

☼ ☼ ☼

A moment to absorb that biting thought, while he took another bite on his sorbetes.

Oddly enough, the next panel proved to be the most difficult one to draw in this entire comic (more than the larger panel with the Aguinaldo home!!). All these people were revolutionary figures throughout Philippine history. Due to spacing challenges, I only drew most of the cited names in Macapagal’s speech.

Of course, both Rizal and Aguinaldo were mentioned. I opted for the monument and the monumental man that were already physically present in the story.

Look closer at that same panel and you would notice the flag was colored against a sepia-toned reenactment (and some more glitching).

A disruption of reality? Or an invitation to rethink reality?

A challenge to the notion of what constitutes a hero?

After all, THE Jose Rizal himself was never officially proclaimed the national hero of the Philippines. In fact, no one was. (If you don’t believe me, don’t worry. Neither did Filipino Hetalians on Twitter. Funny story for another day.)

It was not to say that there was never an attempt. A National Heroes Committee was formed in 1993 to convene on the individual/s who would merit the prestigious title. No final action was taken after it submitted its report (a result of 4 meetings within 3 years) to the Secretary of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports (now the Department of Ejokeation).

This was the final assembled criterion:

“Heroes are those who have a concept of nation and thereafter aspire and struggle for the nation’s freedom. Our own struggle for freedom was begun by Bonifacio and finished by Aguinaldo, the latter formally declaring the revolution’s success. In reality, however, a revolution has no end. Revolutions are only the beginning. One cannot aspire to be free only to sink back into bondage.” “Heroes are those who define and contribute to a system or life of freedom and order for a nation. Freedom without order will only lead to anarchy. Therefore, heroes are those who make the nation’s constitution and laws, such as Mabini and Recto. To the latter, constitutions are only the beginning, for it is the people living under the constitution that truly constitute a nation.” “Heroes are those who contribute to the quality of life and destiny of a nation.” “A hero is part of the people’s expression. But the process of a people’s internalization of a hero’s life and works takes time, with the youth forming a part of the internalization.” “A hero thinks of the future, especially the future generations.” “The choice of a hero involves not only the recounting of an episode or events in history, but of the entire process that made this particular person a hero.”

Minus all respective individual controversies, it perfectly summed up that it was never the person who made a nation but the people.

Perhaps that was why Piri never contested the date change. It was never about the individual who lit the spark, but rather the people who kept the flame alive. It was how nations were born.

And what better gift could a nation ask for?

☼ ☼ ☼

Even in the present day, we sometimes used the Spanish word in specifying time or price. A vestige of the bygone lingua franca.

It seemed like a cheap answer to a million-peso question, but 50 centavos were worth a lot back then. A humble reward for a humble answer.

Yet, it was hard for Piri to not ponder on how else the day could have gone for him instead. Who else he could also have spent the day with. Who else he could share the gift of freedom.

Now that Piri finally achieved his independence, it was safe to say he could move on to working towards other goals. Rizal had plenty of other dreams, after all…

But that was enough nostalgia for the day! Unless…?

Note how the comic ended with a trio. Sounded like Piri had a pitch in mind for the boss...

☼ ☼ ☼

Image Credits

Carlo Caacbay (Lapulapu), Carlos "Botong" Francisco (Lakan Dula & Andres Bonifacio, from "Filipino Struggles Through History"), The Centenary of the Rizal Monument (The Official Gazette), Dan H. Dizon, ("Rajah Sulayman’s Last Stand at Maynila"), Ernee Lawagan (Blogspot), Pinoy Kollektor (Blogspot), Pinterest, Presidential Museum & Library (Flickr), Rosalio Ortiz ("Dagohoy"), Wikipedia

Sources

“Address of President Macapagal on Independence Day.” Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. Accessed May 21, 2021. https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1962/06/12/address-of-president-macapagal-on-independence-day/. Anastacio, Ellen Joy, and Janine Natalie Badiola. “The Early Days.” what’s the story, pinoy tv? (blog). WordPress. October 2000. https://pinoytvstory.wordpress.com/early-days/. Esquejo, Kristoffer R. “Gabriel F. Fabella: Talambuhay at Pamana ng Tinaguriang ‘Ama ng Hunyo 12,’ 1898-1982.” Philippine Social Sciences Review 63, no. 2 (2011): 55-88. Farolan, Ramon. “Freedom Day and family,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 13, 2016. https://opinion.inquirer.net/95189/freedom-day-and-family. Pasion, Kristoffer. “The Turbulent ‘60s and Marcos’ Ascent to Power.” Indio:Bravo// (blog). Tumblr. September 6, 2016. https://indiohistorian.tumblr.com/post/150014337316/the-turbulent-60s-and-marcos-ascent-to-power-we. Ocampo, Ambeth R. “Macapagal at 100,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, September 29, 2010. https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/philippine-daily-inquirer-1109/20100929/283042640853016. "Philippine War Claims Amendment Bars Lobbyist Fees." In CQ Almanac 1963, 19th ed., 303-9. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1964. http://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/cqal63-1317123. “Proclamation No. 28, s. 1962.” Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. Accessed May 22, 2021. https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1962/05/12/proclamation-no-28-s-1962/. Pugay, Chris Antonette P. “Remembering the Father of June 12 Philippine Independence Day.” National Historical Commission of the Philippines. September 6, 2012. https://nhcp.gov.ph/remembering-the-father-of-june-12-philippine-independence-day/. “Radio Speech of President Macapagal on the program, ‘President Macapagal Speaks to the Masses’.” Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines. Accessed May 22, 2021. https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1962/05/14/radio-speech-of-president-macapagal-on-president-macapagal-speaks-to-the-masses/. “Selection And Proclamation Of National Heroes And Laws Honoring Filipino Historical Figures.” National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Accessed July 1, 2021. https://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/selection-and-proclamation-of-national-heroes-and-laws-honoring-filipino-historical-figures/. United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. "10-35789 - USA v. Harry Stonehill, et al". Government. Administrative Office of the United States Courts, September 28, 2011. https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/USCOURTS-ca9-10-35789.

#historical hetalia #hws philippines #mentions of war cw #mentions of death cw #footnotes: IT'S MY PARTY #arc: modern #long post

3 notes · View notes

dickgreyson · 3 years

Note

Been thinking about a dick grayson who starts traveling again. Maybe it's after ric or spyral or bludhaven or watching yet another friend die, maybe he decides he's tired of being berated by someone no matter what he does or that he's tired of being in the same place so he packs a suitcase and goes. He follows a circus, blindly throws darts at a map (decides that's perhaps a little too spontaneous to be the only way he picks his next destination), criss crosses the world to visit friends and plots out a path between must see locations and places he's always to go. There are some big cases, broken up trafficking rings and villains tied up making front page news, but more so there are stories on social media. Threads and videos popping up across the globe about interrupted muggings, taking a blue striped hand and stepping away from the edge, and late night talks on fire escapes about mundane topics. During the day dick travels and is a normal tourist, no cover, no larger goal, just a guy in his twenties out to see the world. He sends postcards, takes too many photos, gets lost in crowds, buys cheesy souvenirs and not so cheesy ones, finds new favorite foods and places off the beaten path he vows to visit again, and maybe there's a few posts online about meeting the last flying grayson. Eventually he does go back because dick always goes back and he's fluent in four more languages, passable in a few new ones, has several new numbers in his phone from both inside and outside the caped community, other less conventional ways to get in contact with a few more new friends, and some new tricks. Maybe he stays again, maybe he's only there to visit but he goes and his smile is a bit less of a performance. Maybe it's a little ooc but I think it'd be nice for him to get to get away from gotham and the eastern seaboard in general on his own terms and maybe a part of it is also me being petty and wanting the batfam to have to deal with dick who instead of asking forgiveness and promising to do better packs up and leaves bc he is a competent vigilante with his own life and he deserves respect and "you all clearly think you can do better without me so I'll just get out of your way" and idk this got long, it's like 2am, give dick a break 2kforever

thank you so much for sending me this like it honestly brought peace to my afternoon. its windy and raining and storming outside, but this was a beam of warmth and sunshine.

i totally dont think this is ooc at all, considering he's still out there breaking up crime rackets and protecting civilians. i think he might have stayed in southern italy a little longer than any other place because like..... theres so much mafia there. and thats kinda like new york and bludhaven back in the old days, must have felt nostalgic. to deal with such a human problem. something that isnt alien or overpowered, just good old fashioned goons and gambling and handguns.

we know that dick runs. he is flighty! he starts fresh, he road trips, he does travel in the comics. but i really agree, his family keeps him on such a leash. it isnt good for him, especially the way he can never seem to do right by them. so i really think it would be good for him to take a year and travel. i mean, he's done it before! hes struck out on his own, and traveled around trying to find his bearings! its time for him to do it again!

i love the idea of him being a tourist, maybe retracing the footsteps of his family through america and europe, forging his own path through the middle east and asia. just taking some time to see these places and really experience them without a goal or the pressure of a mission. he's always needed this kind of freedom!

#this was so well written its really beautiful thank you #and imagine the photos!#ive always thought that he would be the person to carry around a polaroid #he gets so many head injuries one day he's going to start forgetting things for real #so.....#great ask<3

135 notes · View notes

sturchling · 4 years

Text

Turn the Page - Part 1

Thought I would try my first multi-part fic.

Next Part

After Lila takes control of the class, Marinette finds she has a lot more free time. What will she decide to do with that spare time?

Hope you guys like it! Let me know what you think!

Marinette felt lost lately. The tension in the class was at an all time high, ever since Lila followed through on her promise. Almost her entire class had grown to hate her because of the lies. It had taken a while for Lila to accomplish her goal. The class had been hesitant to doubt their Everyday Ladybug. But when Lila started to show them ‘proof’ of Marinette bullying her, the class started to doubt Marinette. Lila had shown them texts and emails that were supposedly from Marinette. Unfortunately for Marinette, the class didn’t confirm where these messages came from. They trusted Lila, and Lila had apparent proof. At first, they just ignored her. But Lila kept making bigger claims about Marinette’s behavior. Eventually the class believed that she was a cruel person and they had started being cruel to her as well. The only people that hadn’t fallen for it were Nino, Chloe, and Nathaniel. They all knew that Lila was lying, not just about Marinette but about everything.

--------------------

Nino had found out by trying to help Alya. He was fact checking Alya’s most recent blog post about Lila, because Alya had been attacked online for her lack of sources. Despite that, Alya kept posting without sources. Nino thought that if he gathered some sources, he could post them in the comments to help his girlfriend. But the more he looked for evidence of Lila’s stories, he couldn’t find anything. The only time Lila was mentioned online was by other posts on the Ladyblog. He decided to research her other stories, and quickly discovered that she had been lying since the beginning.

--------------------

Nathaniel had found out when Lila had lied about the wrong thing. She had seen him doodling some drawings of Ladybug for the next issue of his comic. Lila had decided to try and win Nathaniel over with a new lie. She sauntered up to his desk and said, “You really like drawing Ladybug huh? You know, I know the author of that new Ladybug comic, The Adventures of Ladybug. She is so sweet. I could introduce you to her!” Nathaniel was shocked. That was his comic. What did Lila mean that she knew the author? And she was calling the author a she! Nathaniel realized that if Lila was lying about this, Marinette may have been right. Lila may have been lying about everything. After a little research into her lies, it became clear that was the case.

--------------------

Chloe had known that Lila was a liar since the Miraculer incident. Chloe wasn’t an idiot, and new that the dance Lila showed her was bogus. The only reason Ladybug had been there was because of the akuma. At that time, Ladybug had told Chloe that she probably wouldn’t be able to be Queen Bee again, because it wasn’t safe. Chloe had decided that while she may not be able to be a superhero, she could still be heroic in her personal life. She decided it was time to try and make amends with Marinette. She apologized to Marinette about the bullying and vowed not to bully her anymore. Their relationship was still rocky, but they weren’t at each other’s throats anymore. When Chloe and Marinette became closer, Lila began to view Chloe as a threat as well. Soon, Chloe was just as isolated as Marinette.

--------------------

It hurt at first that the class had abandoned Marinette. She had thought they were close enough that Lila wouldn’t be able to pull them apart. Then one day, Lila stepped up her game even more. She started telling the class that Marinette had been threatening her before class. “She is so mad at me for showing you guys the mean texts! She told me I better stop talking about it or she would ruin my life.” The class was furious and began texting and emailing the young designer very cruel messages. They thought if they were mean to her, she might back off of Lila. At this point, Marinette’s parents found out what had been happening. They found out because they came up to her room to tell her dinner was ready. But instead they found her sitting at her desk crying. After some coaxing Marinette told them everything. They had wanted to go to the school and raise hell and get Marinette out of that horrible class. Marinette talked them out of it though. “I still have some friends in class. I don’t want to leave Nino, Chloe, and Nathaniel.” Tom and Sabine reluctantly agreed and decided to just change Marinette’s phone number and email address.

--------------------

Unfortunately, this didn’t solve the problem or even help it a little. Lila was able to use this to her advantage. No one in the class besides Marinette’s friends knew that she had changed numbers and emails. The class just thought that Marinette was ignoring them. This just caused them to get angrier, and it was easy for Lila to convince them to take revenge. She got the class to start destroying Marinette’s stuff. They ripped up her homework, her sketchbooks, and anything else they could get their hands on. They were hoping that maybe doing this would make Marinette change back to their old friend. They were expecting apologies, and tears, and promises to be better. They didn’t get those reactions however. Instead, Marinette would just calmly gather the tattered remains of her stuff and leave the room. The class didn’t know what else they could do to try and fix Marinette.

--------------------

The final straw was a few weeks later. Lila was furious that Marinette wasn’t more upset. She had hoped that by causing the class destroy her stuff, Marinette would be completely destroyed. She thought doing that, would upset the designer more than it actually had. Lila decided to take another thing from Marinette. This time, she set her sights on the class rep position. She starts telling the class that Marinette had started physically attacking her. She came in with fake bruises to sell the lies. She had told the class that Marinette was attacking her because Lila had asked questions about the next fundraiser. She then got the class to start doubting her. “I just wonder why Marinette was so defensive when I brought up the fundraiser. I have to wonder if something is wrong.” The class started to wonder as well. Marinette hadn’t answered any of their questions about fundraisers either. Of course, this was because they were asking these questions over email, and still sending the emails to the old email address. Eventually, Lila had chipped away at their confidence in their class rep enough that the class called for another election. The class elected Lila to be the new class rep.

--------------------

Marinette wasn’t as shocked as she thought she would be. Marinette had known for a while that the class was losing faith in her. It still hurt her deeply that her class did not trust her enough to even let her stay as the class rep. After school, the day of the election, Nino, Chloe, and Nathaniel came over to the bakery after school. They were comforting Marinette, who was still very sad over what had happened at school. “It is ok Mari. If they don’t want you as the rep, then they don’t deserve you.” Marinette wiped her eyes and said, “Its not that. Its just that Lila has finally done it. She has taken everything from me.” Nino pipes up, “That isn’t true dudette! You still have us. And your parents. And she could never take away your success with fashion either. That is three things right there that she could never take.” Chloe looked pensive for a moment. “Speaking of your fashion, I had a thought. You have a lot more free time now that you aren’t class rep. Why not take this chance to expand your business? Maybe start a website and take commissions?” Marinette thought about it, she had wanted to work on her fashion more. Chloe was right, she would have a lot more free time now. Maybe it is time for Marinette to think about furthering her future career. “I love that you have that confidence in me Chloe, but that is a lot of work. I don’t know if I can do that.” Chloe just stared at her with a blank expression. “You are being ridiculous Dupain-Cheng. Utterly ridiculous. Even if you were going to do this on your own, you would be able to do it. But you won’t be on your own. I don’t know about these two, but I am going to help you.” Marinette was stunned. “You? You want to help me Chloe?” “Of course, I will help you Dupain-Cheng. Who better to help you start your fashion career than the daughter of the Style Queen herself?” Nino and Nathaniel also quickly volunteered to help. “I’m not sure how much help we will be, but we both have experience running a website. I set one up for my DJing and Nathaniel has one for his comic. We can at least help you with your website.” Marinette was still hesitant. “Oh, come on Dupain-Cheng. What better time to start?” Marinette slowly began to smile. She looked up at her friends with a smile on her face for the first time in hours. “Let’s do it.”

1K notes · View notes

millenniumblog · 3 years

Photo

[ID: A chart describing the core values of each of the nine Enneagram personality types with YuGiOh characters correlated to each of the types.]

YuGiOh Enneagram Analysis, Part #1

Please note that this is the “boring” informational post about Enneagram with the Types listed and explained as well as a few other things. The next post is what has the actual, in-depth character profiles promised!

Introduction & Motivation

Over the past several months, I have been trying to analyze my strengths and weaknesses as a writer and learn more. I have been writing fanfiction since I was a little kid, making my first FF.net account in 2003 when I would have been twelve years old. Even before that, I was a lurker and wrote fics to share with my childhood best friend on paper or floppy discs.

YuGiOh came into my life at some point shortly thereafter. I know this, because I spent my thirteenth birthday in a comic book shop, mostly watching some of my male friends play the trading card game. I had some of the cards, but I was never much of a player, unable to keep up with the seemingly rapid rule changes. Besides that, I was always way more interested in the story and characters than I was in the card game. I remember I even wanted to call “YuGiOh cards” “Duel Monsters” instead to make it seem a little closer to tween-y LARPing.

Eventually, I gave up on collecting cards or trying to ply the game. I felt that while my male friends didn’t mind me being around when they played, they weren’t extremely interested in helping me learn or keep up. I felt I had other strengths, so I started carrying around a notebook even more than I already did. I started my fledgling forays into online fandom. And YuGiOh was a big part of the beginning of that.

I can’t remember posting any YuGiOh fic in particular, and I’m sure that if I had it would make me cringe now. What I do remember is reading some and also spending a lot of time lying on my bed, headphones plugged into a small purple stereo, listening to the first of the two American-released CDs with YuGiOh-inspired music on them. In particular, the last three tracks were pieces of music from the original score composed for the 4Kids dub, which is - for some reason - different from the original Japanese music.

During that time, I would fantasize and conjure my own YuGiOh plots in my head, most of which were focused on the Ancient Egyptian and more spooky, spiritual, and horror themes in the show. I was really fascinated with the reincarnation angle, though my understanding of and opinions on how that works have grown with time.

Years went by, and I didn’t think about YuGiOh much at all. Then, something happened in 2018. I don’t know what got in my head, but it was like all the joy I once found in thinking about the YuGiOh characters came back in a giddy conversation with my childhood best friend. Then, for a little while, it wouldn’t leave me alone.

I started writing for the fandom then, and after several detours, I’m trying to get back in the groove of it.

My approach to the tone of YuGiOh-fanning is that it’s a bit serious, but it’s also with a tongue placed in my cheek because of how incomprehensible or silly the plot can be on a meta level. Sometimes, it almost brings tears to my eyes by being so over-the-top about something that, in the real world, would make no sense at all. But the drama, in the context of the universe, somehow rings true.

I think that’s all owing to how most of the primary characters are just... really freaking great characters.

It has often puzzled me. Like, did Takahashi do all this layering on purpose? Is it really there, or did earnest fanon just make it seem like it? And, as a person, I am always here for a good fan-and-canon symbiosis.

This post is going to be, from here on, an effort to match the YuGiOh characters to the 9 Enneagram Personality Types. I am writing this for my own benefit as I continue to work on my pet YuGiOh fanfiction project, It’s Always Sunny in Domino City, which is a mixture of YGOTAS-vibes-and-concepts taken seriously and a sincere take on fanfiction for the actual canon. It’s dramedy about a sizeable chunk of the main cast a few years post-canon with some canon divergence such as the Memory World arc not yet and possibly never-happening. If that sounds like something you’d like, I would humbly request you check it out!

Either way, this will be an in-depth character analysis cheatsheet for all of the characters above, based on my observations, opinions, and feelings. I invite discussion, but it’s fine if we need to agree to totally disagree!

If you are interested and enjoy what’s below the Read More and in the coming second post, then you are welcome to utilize the character analyses to aid you in your own fanwork!

Enneagram

What is Enneagram, and why am I using it?

Enneagram is a personality categorization system that one might compare to the somewhat better-known MBTI. However, in the words of excellent writing-advice YouTuber, Abbie Emmons:

MBTI shows us how we behave.

Enneagram shows us what we believe.

I will be referencing Abbie’s video Using The ENNEAGRAM To Write CONFLICTED CHARACTERS and her free Enneagram-cheatsheet, available in the description of the linked video. Whether it’s before you continue reading or after, if you’re interested in writing, I would highly recommend you check out her channel!

The Enneagram system has nine basic personality types that overlap and interact in really interesting ways. It is not a hard science, and it’s not a horoscope. Instead, it’s supposed to be “based on conventional wisdom and modern psychology.” All I can say is that with every set of characters I’ve tried it with, it works! Once you get the hang of it, it feels kind of like ~✰~magic~✰~!

Below, I will list Abbie’s simplified definitions of each of the personality types, in order:

Type 1: The Reformer

The Rational, Idealistic Type:

Principled, Purposeful, Self-Controlled, and Perfectionistic

Basic Fear: Of being corrupt/evil, defective

Basic Desire: To be good, to have integrity, to be balanced

Key Motivations: Want to be right, to strive higher and improve everything, to be consistent with their ideals, to justify themselves, to be beyond criticism so as not to be condemned by anyone.

Type 2: The Helper

The Caring, Interpersonal Type:

Generous, Demonstrative, People-Pleasing, and Possessive

Basic Fear: Of being unwanted, unworthy of being loved

Basic Desire: To feel loved

Key Motivations: Want to be loved, to express their feelings for others, to be needed and appreciated, to get others to respond to them, to vindicate their claims about themselves.

Type 3: The Achiever

The Success-Oriented, Pragmatic Type:

Adaptable, Excelling, Driven, and Image-Conscious

Basic Fear: Of being worthless

Basic Desire: To feel valuable and worthwhile

Key Motivations: Want to be affirmed, to distinguish themselves from others, to have attention, to be admired, and to impress others.

Type 4: The Individualist

The Sensitive, Introspective Type:

Expressive, Dramatic, Self-Absorbed, and Temperamental

Basic Fear: That they have no identity or personal significance

Basic Desire: To find themselves and their significance (to create an identity)

Key Motivations: Want to express themselves and their individuality, to create and surround themselves with beauty, to maintain certain moods and feelings, to withdraw to protect their self-image, to take care of emotional needs before attending to anything else, to attract a "rescuer."

Type 5: The Investigator

The Intense, Cerebral Type:

Perceptive, Innovative, Secretive, and Isolated

Basic Fear: Being useless, helpless, or incapable

Basic Desire: To be capable and competent

Key Motivations: Want to possess knowledge, to understand the environment, to have everything figured out as a way of defending the self from threats from the environment.

Type 6: The Loyalist

The Committed, Security-Oriented Type:

Engaging, Responsible, Anxious, and Suspicious

Basic Fear: Of being without support and guidance

Basic Desire: To have security and support

Key Motivations: Want to have security, to feel supported by others, to have certitude and reassurance, to test the attitudes of others toward them, to fight against anxiety and insecurity.

Type 7: The Enthusiast

The Busy, Variety-Seeking Type:

Spontaneous, Versatile, Acquisitive, and Scattered

Basic Fear: Of being deprived and in pain

Basic Desire: To be satisfied and content—to have their needs fulfilled

Key Motivations: Want to maintain their freedom and happiness, to avoid missing out on worthwhile experiences, to keep themselves excited and occupied, to avoid and discharge pain.

Type 8: The Challenger

The Powerful, Dominating Type:

Self-Confident, Decisive, Willful, and Confrontational

Basic Fear: Of being harmed or controlled by others

Basic Desire: To protect themselves (to be in control of their own life and destiny)

Key Motivations: Want to be self-reliant, to prove their strength and resist weakness, to be important in their world, to dominate the environment, and to stay in control of their situation.

Type 9: The Peacemaker

The Easygoing, Self-Effacing Type:

Receptive, Reassuring, Agreeable, and Complacent

Basic Fear: Of loss and separation

Basic Desire: To have inner stability, "peace of mind"

Key Motivations: Want to create harmony in their environment, to avoid conflicts and tension, to preserve things as they are, to resist whatever would upset or disturb them.

Now that you’ve seen all those, what do you think your favorite character is? In YuGiOh or anything else! It works great for original characters and even yourself and your loved ones.

The actual Character Profiles will be in coming post(s), but continue reading if you want me to explain more about how and why the Enneagram is a great personality typing system. #nonspon, or whatever.

The Enneagram Chart

Now, you could just go to the Enneagram Institute’s page on How the System Works, but below I’ll cut it down to only the parts I’m interested in and explain those in a way that helps me.

Unlike in astrology or MBTI, which are both more restrictive in different ways, the relative position of each type matters a bit on the Enneagram chart, because it can be used to visualize a lot of things about a person!

The Basic Chart

The Types are shown in a clockwise fashion with “1″ in the 1 o’clock position on an analog clock. The interior lines mean things, but I have trouble reading it without further delineation.

Centers of Response

Below are two small charts, displayed side-by-side. (If it’s too small, try right-click, open in new tab!)

The chart on the left shows the three “centers.” The “centers” indicate the first ‘processing language’ a person would use to respond to stimuli.

Type 8, Type 9, and Type 1 respond first based on instinct (primal, gut-feeling). If you want to go Freudian, this is from the id.

Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4 respond first based on feelings (social or personal desires, the heart). If you want to go Freudian, this is from the ego.

Type 5, Type 6, and Type 7 respond first based on thoughts (analytical rather than emotional, the head). If you want to go Freudian, this is from the superego.

Remember that, of course, every single type and person engages their instincts, their emotions, and their thoughts at different times and to different degrees, and some of these are learned or changed behaviors. This is about what their innate drive toward that would be.

Likewise, the same “centers” can also be used for the chart on the right. You will notice that all three of these are defined by what is typically considered a negative emotion. This is because this is about a person’s instinctive, not particularly conscious emotional response when they are backed into a corner and deprived of something that is core to the needs of their personality type.

Type 8, Type 9, and Type 1 tend to respond to a threat to their psychic well-being with anger/rage.

Type 2, Type 3, and Type 4 tend to respond to a threat to their psychic well-being with shame.

Type 5, Type 6, and Type 7 tend to respond to a threat to their psychic well-being with fear.

Stress vs. Growth

We all know that there are times when a person isn’t acting like themselves, for better or for worse. Usually, “You’re not acting like yourself,” means that a person is behaving badly. Of course, it’s way easier to withdraw and bristle and defend rather than growing in the midst of adversity. However, it is certainly possible to experience character growth in response to experiences, good and bad. Unlike a lot of other personality typing schemes, the Enneagram has a way to display and predict what stress and growth do to a person.

The Enneagram never suggests that any Type is an island unto itself. Every person contains multitudes, but a person’s Type is likely to remain relatively stable throughout their lives, once they have had a chance to develop any personality at all. This means that when a person is stressed or growing that they do not become the type they emulate. Rather, they are more highly expressing that aspects of their personality that reflect those drives and desires but in a way that is either fraught, sickly, or unwell (in the case of stress), or aspirational, flying-high, and incorporating the hard-lessons into who a person is going to be going forward (in the case of growth). The latter, especially, isn’t a sustainable mode, while a stressed person can become more entrenched in their bad habits and defensive coping mechanisms.

Stress

Note the white, directional arrows. Each number has an arrow point pointing to it and an arrow leading away from it. The point indicates that this is the stress manifestation for the Type at the origin of that arrow. The origin of each arrow indicates the Type being described.

Confused? Let me finally give you a YuGiOh example.

When I was trying to identify the Types of the characters, defining Marik was difficult, because he has a “Yami,” or Dark Side, which has its own personality and will but which is not its own separate soul or person than Marik himself. Rather, it’s a kind of fantasy/magic-assisted personality splintering where Yami Marik is a full manifestation of the negative traits Marik needed to embody to survive.

So, for reference:

When stressed, Type 1 behaves more like Type 4.

When stressed, Type 2 behaves more like Type 8.

When stressed, Type 3 behaves more like Type 9.

When stressed, Type 4 behaves more like Type 2.

When stressed, Type 5 behaves more like Type 7.

When stressed, Type 6 behaves more like Type 3.

When stressed, Type 7 behaves more like Type 1.

When stressed, Type 8 behaves more like Type 5.

When stressed, Type 9 behaves more like Type 6.

Alternatively, you can use these sequences to follow the stress lines:

1-4-2-8-5-7-1

9-6-3-9

Growth

Think of the above-explanation in reverse.

The sequence:

1-7-5-8-2-4-1

9-3-6-9

As a Type 1 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 7.

As a Type 2 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 4.

As a Type 3 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 6.

As a Type 4 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 1.

As a Type 5 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 8.

As a Type 6 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 9.

As a Type 7 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 5.

As a Type 8 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 2.

As a Type 9 grows, they incorporate more positive traits of Type 3.

Wings

The final thing to know about the Enneagram chart for my purposes is about wings. The wing of your personality traits accounts for the complementary and contradictory aspects of your personality. They are the inconsistencies that make you human, predicted and jumped in. Typically, a person is not thought to have both possible wings but one or the other. A wing is one of the two adjacent Types to yours, the number before, or the number after, and it is annotated, for example:

Type 1, Wing 2: 1w2

Type 1, Wing 9: 1w9

Link to Part 2 Here!

37 notes · View notes

inevitably-johnlocked · 3 years

Note

Hey Steph!!

So I was just wondering what your absolute favourite fic is, because you have friggin AWESOME taste and I would love to read it!

Have an absolutely amazing day!! xx

Anonymous said to inevitably-johnlocked: Hi Steph! I hve the ultimate request. Can you recommend your favourite fic of All Time?

-------

OOOF you guys must’ve read each other’s minds, LOL. Ahhh, Octopus, this is very high praise, so thank you. I’m pleased that my fave reads are also becoming y’all’s faves!

AHHHH this is such a tough one, because I love so many fics. So to start off, here’s some lists you might enjoy:

Top 20 Fave 40K+ w. Fics (April 2017)

Ten Fave Short Johnlock Fics (Easy Reads April 2018)

25 Fave Johnlock One Shots (April 2018)

Top 10 Fave Fics (September 2018)

Top 20 Bookmarks of 2018 (March 2019)

Another Top 10 Fave Fics (June 2019)

Top 30 Read-Again Fics (March 2019)

Top 30 Read-Again Fics Pt. 2 (Sept. 2019)

Top 25 Fave Non-Ao3 Fics (Nov. 2019)

Top 25 Bookmarks of 2019 (Dec. 29/2019)

I’ve read many fics over the years, but even after all this time, I absolutely still have to say that this one is still currently my fave fic ever:

A Promise Made to Be Broken by PlantsAreNeat (E, 37,018 w., 7 Ch. || Fake Relationship, Pining, Slow Burn, RST, Eventual Relationship, POV Sherlock) – A young John makes an ‘if we’re still single at 40, we’ll get together’ pledge to a woman who ends up all wrong for him. She keeps reminding him of the promise, and won’t let go of it. John asks Sherlock to pose as his boyfriend at a family wedding, so as to dash her hopes permanently. Sherlock, who has at last acknowledged his feelings for John, reluctantly agrees despite knowing how painful it will be to ‘have’ John, but not keep him.

I’ve gone back to this fic so often I can pretty much read it on the back of my eyelids. I love the characterizations, and I love how each chapter starts as a flashback to John’s life. It’s so good. It’s fake relationship from Sherlock’s POV, which are rare already, and just the progression of their relationship feels so natural.

Plus, Sherlock has a John in his mind palace that he dresses up like a paper doll. I LOVE IT.

So yeah, please check out that fic. It’s one of my fave of all time. It’s silly and cute and JUST the right length, and I often go back to it if I’ve read a string of fics I just couldn’t get into. <3

I’d love to do a comic version of it, but my time management skills are garbage so I doubt it would ever happen, plus I don’t want to take away from the author so yeah. *shrugs*

Actually, another REALLY close contender, one that I’ve also read a tonne, is this one:

Iris by slashscribe (E, 11,948 w., 1 Ch. || Parentlock, Pining Sherlock, Post-S3) – Sherlock does his best to make John happy when John comes back to 221B with his new baby after the events of Season 3, but Sherlock has a track record of getting things wrong in this area. This story is an exploration of their gradual shift from friends to lovers, told from Sherlock's perspective, full of a lot of pining and lack of emotional awareness.

It was actually my fave BEFORE I read Promise, so yeah, two great fics if you’re looking for a couple shorter fics to read in a pinch.

Actually, let’s do the history, LOL. Here’s a couple of my fave long fics:

Midnight Blue Serenity by BeautifulFiction (E, 151,907 w., 19 Ch. || Friends to Lovers, Gay Bar / For a Case, Drugs, Pining, Case Fic, UST) – When Sherlock infiltrates a club in order to track down a serial killer, his altered appearance is enough to make John question his assumption that Sherlock is beyond his reach. However, is he the only one who appreciates his flatmate's charms, or is Sherlock at risk of becoming the next victim?

This one was my fave BEFORE Iris, but I also go back to it quite often if I want something longer to wrap comfortably around me. Also this one:

Shatter the Darkness (Let the Light In) by MojoFlower (E, 109,683 w., 23 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Genie/Djinn AU || Magical Realism, Kidnapping, Genie Sherlock, First Kiss / Time, Case Fic, H/C, Angst, Clubs, John Whump, Mild DubCon, Hand / Blow Jobs, Torture) – Fairy tales are for those who remember how to dream; not John Watson, broken and hiding from his bleak future in a beige bedsit. But then he discovers a lamp and finds himself in the dangerous riptide of an enigmatic man whose very existence is unbelievable, murder charges against his sister, and the growing pains of feeling alive once more.

The fave fic BEFORE MBS LOL.

AND finally, my VERY FIRST fave Sherlock fic:

The Green Blade by verityburns (T, 72,929 w., 15 Ch. || Casefic, Bromance) – As a serial killer hits the headlines, the police are out of their depth and the next victim is out of time. With faith in Sherlock Holmes at an all time low, this is a case which will push loyalties to the limit...

When I first got into fandom, I read this one IN BETWEEN EVERY FIC I READ. I love it so much. I actually first read it on FFNet. THAT’S how old this one is. I only recently was shown it’s on Ao3 and I was SO happy I was able to have an eBook version of it now! <3

So yeah, check out those fics, LOL. I’ve SO many new faves, honest to goodness, and new fave authors to add to my list, AND I’m CERTAIN that I’ve still to read more of my fics that will be my faves in my 90 pages of MFLs on Ao3 LOL. But yeah, these fics are like coming home to a hot cocoa and warm blankie on a cold night. Not just because of my love for them, but there’s something about a fic that you’ve already ready countless times, and not having to invest too much energy into getting into that world again, but instead just REALLY taking in your favourite parts of those fics and just smiling and feeling all squidgy all over again at your fave parts. <3

That all said, please, authors, never stop writing. I love reading your worlds <3

What’s your fave fics, Lovelies?

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #my fic recs #fave fics #mindless-octopus

96 notes · View notes

thisweekingundamwing · 3 years

Text

This Week in Gundam Wing 23-29 May 2021

I’m so on the ball with this lately... >_> Sorry. Here’s this week’s roundup! May 23rd - 29th!

Remember to give your content creators some love! Be sure to join in on the events at the bottom! And remember to send in any new works you see or make next week!

~Mod Hel

Fanfiction/Snippets/AU Ideas:

@bobo-is-tha-bomb

The Preventer Calendar https://archiveofourown.org/works/31561295

Gen, Reader, Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quatre Raberba Winner, Chang Wufei, Zechs Merquise, OC - Character

Mature, No Archive Warnings Apply, Humor, Partial Nudity, Reader-Insert, Nudity, A teeny hint of TrowaxReader, Rating because of some gratuitous nudity on Trowa's side

Twelve models, twelve shoots, twelve different locations in the Ardennes, and all of it in two fucking days. Because Preventer couldn’t spare you their agents any longer than that.

Why had you agreed to do this project again?

It's all for the arts.

boxofhatebrains

Helping Hand https://archiveofourown.org/works/31620146

M/M, Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

Explicit, No Archive Warnings Apply, Light Angst, Comfort/Angst, Minor Injuries, Implied/Referenced Blow Jobs, Not Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop Compliant, after series, Flirting, Not Beta Read, slight reference to Episode Zero, Swearing

Duo realizes that Heero comes around whenever he damn well feels like it. They’ve been in contact for the last seven years after the Mariemaia incident, but generally at Heero’s own whim. Duo stays in the same place, it’s Heero who gravitates.

This time is no different.

@duointherain

Silent Menace https://duointherain.tumblr.com/post/652120818915115009/fic-silent-menace-11

1x2x1

Warnings: Mute Duo. Drugged and injured Heero.

Une always had the dark side of the job. She’d let others give out goodness, but bad news she owned herself. Duo had come to the conclusion that she was trying to take responsibility, trying to be a decent person. He could vibe with that.

@lifeaftermeteor

Touched by the Stars (Ch. 7) https://archiveofourown.org/works/26314657/chapters/77885468

M/M, Chang Wufei/Duo Maxwell, Chang Wufei/Heero Yuy, Trowa Barton/Chang Wufei, Chang Wufei/Quatre Raberba Winner

Explicit, Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings, thar be porn, Dubious Consent, Aliens, Alien Abduction, Alternate Universe, mention of MPREG, everyone takes a turn with Wufei, alien anatomy and interesting dicks, Tentacles, Monster Boys, Slime, Double Cocks, Cum Inflation, Knotting, Oral, multiple dicks, Xeno, Spitroasting, Oviposition, Body Modification, Polyamory, Unbirthing, Triple Penetration, Cervical Penetration

University instructor Chang Wufei didn't even believe in aliens, much less intentionally attract their attention. But that doesn't mean much when they decided he'd be the ideal final mate for their group and scoop him off of the planet to take home to their queen. Enjoying him on the trip there, of course.

@noirangetrois

Of the Sea (Ch. 10) https://archiveofourown.org/works/12749670/chapters/78205124

M/M, Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

Mature, No Archive Warnings Apply, fairytale my way, Meroctopus!Dorothy, Slow Burn, Multi POV, POV Third Person Limited, merman au, MerMay, Fantasy Politics, mentions of abuse, Unnatural November

Heero Yuy will soon be reaching the age of majority, at which time he will ascend the throne of Wingaria. Before such time, he must needs choose a bride. But what if there are no good choices? What if someone else has captured his heart?

The Story of Wrong (Ch. 8) https://archiveofourown.org/works/13849020/chapters/77856332

M/M, Duo Maxwell/Heero Yuy

Explicit, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Duo POV, Angst, Drama, Tragedy, Spoilers, very dark, Heero and Duo don’t die, I promise, Yaoi, slowburn, Mental Instability, Mental Health Issues, Mental Breakdown, If those are in any way an issue for you then go ahead and skip this, Eventual Smut, VERY eventual, this is mostly canon-compliant but I’ve changed a couple things here and there

Duo recounts his experiences during the war in order to explain… well, why he was wrong.

simulacraryn

love me like (tomorrow we’re) stardust https://archiveofourown.org/works/31458119/chapters/77811359

M/F, Treize Khushrenada/Lady Une

Treize Khushrenada, Lady Une, Original Characters, Hot Dog (gundam wing)

Explicit, Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Angst, Near Death Experiences, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, unredeemable villain, Sex, Smut, consent is fucking sexy, Spoiler: He wore the Astro Suit at last!, Newtypes (Gundam Wing), no predators or prey here, intact brains

The World Nation would face off against the White Fang to bring about an end to all conflict between the Colonies and Earth. The plan had called for the bitter end of the last bastion of the old regime, Treize Khushrenada. However, as with every play on the stage of war, the actors have chosen to adlib. Effectively throwing the course of history off the rails, the director finds himself faced with a new road to choose.

@zaganthi

Jiu Jie https://archiveofourown.org/works/31413956

M/M, M/F, Duo Maxwell/Quatre Raberba Winner; Treize Khushrenada/Quatre Raberba Winner; Treize Khushrenada/Duo Maxwell; Duo Maxwell/Hilde Schbeiker

Explicit, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Relationship Negotiation; Polyamorous Character; Quatre Raberba’s Uchuu no Kokoro | Space Heart; Aged-Up Character(s); Newtypes (Gundam Wing); Past Relationship(s); Jealousy; Awkward Flirting; Bathing/Washing; Cuddling & Snuggling; Museums; talking about feelings; Psychic Bond; Dealing with exes; Ex Sex; Colonists exploring earth

Hilde waved goodbye as she left and Duo went to look for Treize and Quatre. What the hell was wrong with him. His body seemed to be saying yes but his mind was definitely not in that space at all. What the everlasting hell was going on. He wanted to see her again but why?

Treize passed him a picture of tree frogs, apparently feeling the confusion as Duo half jogged through the aquarium to catch back up. What the hell. Just what the hell.

It took him a while to get there, but the moment he got close, Quatre saw him, beamed a happy smile and the link opened up with a rush and he was surrounded again in emotional warmth. It was addictive and a relief, and there wasn’t, there wasn’t any recrimination from either of them. Just run off and see an old flame, it’s cool, we’ll be here when you get back vibes.

Lebensmüde https://archiveofourown.org/works/31413278

M/M, Duo Maxwell/Quatre Raberba Winner; Treize Khushrenada/Quatre Raberba Winner; Treize Khushrenada/Duo Maxwell

Explicit, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Aged-Up Character(s); Quatre Raberba’s Uchuu no Kokoro | Space Heart; Newtypes (Gundam Wing); Preventers (Gundam Wing); Cameos; Therapy; Aftermath of Torture; Aftermath of Violence; Rape Aftermath; Physical Disability; Gratuitous Smut; Psychic Bond; Psychic Abilities; Domestic; Injury Recovery

Treize remembered the discussion of gunpowder residue on his head; it was one of the things John had been livid about after everything, and unable to explain any more than Treize had at the time. Seeing it written down… was something else. Treize closed the book over his finger, gently tapping it on his thigh as he looked up at Quatre.

“The first hot chocolate of the season,” Quatre said sitting down next to him, comfort flowing over the link. “I really wanted something sweet.” He paused. “I can feel something is…oh.” He noticed the book in Treize’s hand.

“Adding to the list of things we need to probably talk about,” he said quietly, contemplating it as he reached with his other hand to take the cocoa. “Have you written everything up?”

Fanart/Crafts/Photo Manips:

@2pcbart

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31618103

Recollect - Trowa/WuFei, comic style

@alphaikaros

https://alphaikaros.tumblr.com/post/651358650733150208/little-angry-boi

WuFei Chang, fanart

@bettertasting

https://bettertasting.tumblr.com/post/652303436314017792/something-spicy-for-the-dash-im-really-digging

Heero/Duo, fanart, nsfw

@bobo-is-tha-bomb

https://bobo-is-tha-bomb.tumblr.com/post/652089738925359104/%F0%9D%98%9B%F0%9D%98%A9%F0%9D%98%AA%F0%9D%98%B4-%F0%9D%98%AA%F0%9D%98%B4-%F0%9D%98%97%F0%9D%98%B3%F0%9D%98%A6%F0%9D%98%B7%F0%9D%98%A6%F0%9D%98%AF%F0%9D%98%B5%F0%9D%98%A6%F0%9D%98%B3-%F0%9D%98%9E%F0%9D%98%AA%F0%9D%98%AF%F0%9D%98%A5-%F0%9D%98%A4%F0%9D%98%A2%F0%9D%98%AD%F0%9D%98%AD%F0%9D%98%AA%F0%9D%98%AF%F0%9D%98%A8-zechs-merquise

Tallgeese, gunpla

https://bobo-is-tha-bomb.tumblr.com/post/652448694036316160/sd-wing-gundam-ew

Wing, gunpla

@judaru

https://judaru.tumblr.com/post/651257960922857472/im-20-years-late-but-ive-been-reading-a-lot-of

Duo Maxwell, fanart

@keiko1183

https://keiko1183.tumblr.com/post/652327422940807168/completed-with-pencils-might-be-doing-the-acrylics

Trowa/Quatre, fanart

@not-so-dead-fandoms

https://not-so-dead-fandoms.tumblr.com/post/651085636504272896/mermay-01

Heero Yuy, fanart

https://not-so-dead-fandoms.tumblr.com/post/651494132071661568/mermay-02-duo-as-a-betta-fish-merlad

Duo Maxwell, fanart

https://not-so-dead-fandoms.tumblr.com/post/652283083819810816/mermay-03-of-course-i-made-trowa-a-clownfish

Trowa Barton, fanart

@pineappleglazedham

https://pineappleglazedham.tumblr.com/post/651759824584966144

Trieze/Une, fanart, fanfiction, playlist

Photosets/Gifsets/Screenshots/Manga Pages:

@clair-audients

https://clair-audients.tumblr.com/post/652114120696594432

Wing & Altron, gif

@disturbed02girl

https://disturbed02girl.tumblr.com/post/617456995130294273/thoughtful-quatre-thursday

Quatre, manga page

@meggie-stardust

https://meggie-stardust.tumblr.com/post/652350439669547008/same-energy

Epyon is an icon.

Fandom Discourse:

@bobo-is-tha-bomb

https://bobo-is-tha-bomb.tumblr.com/post/651423437954433024/a-homage-to-the-reader-insert

Reader Insert Homage

@cuteciboulette

https://cuteciboulette.tumblr.com/post/652076342033170432/shinigamis-coming-to-town-d-duo-just

Duo Maxwell, doujinshi

Quotes:

@incorrectgundamwingquotes

https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/652102805897805825/in-the-groupchat-trowa-why-tf-do-we-have-20

Trowa & WuFei

https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/652356366558806016/heero-yeah-but-as-far-as-plans-go-this-is-not-a

Heero & Quatre

https://incorrectgundamwingquotes.tumblr.com/post/651830976331251712/duo-gesturing-to-heero-dont-worry-weve-got-an

Duo, Heero, & WuFei

Calendar Events:

@gundamzine

Rhythm Generation 2021

Meet the Mods: https://gundamzine.tumblr.com/post/636708854145613824/come-on-over-a-meet-your-2021-zine-mod-team-head

Check out the blog for the Zine schedule!

@gundam-wing-pride

Gundam Wing Pride 2k21 https://gundam-wing-pride.tumblr.com/post/648237909672083456/incoming-transmission-faq

A Beautiful Rainbow of Prompts https://gundam-wing-pride.tumblr.com/post/649898271517573120/a-beautiful-rainbow-of-prompts

@gwartserver

Month of WuFei https://gwartserver.tumblr.com/post/649995521569767424/month-of-wufei

Shooting Stars (online convention) https://gwartserver.tumblr.com/post/650013463432888320/once-upon-a-time-lifeaftermeteor-and-myself

@gwcocktailfriday

Cocktail Fridays!

Post responses on Friday, during Happy Hour between 3 & 5 pm in your own timezone.

Here’s the prompt for Friday, !

In need of Summer/Fall(Autumn) prompts!

(I’ll um... fix these when I have time to find more prompts.)

@gwlemonyshenanigans

May 23rd’s Submissions https://gwlemonyshenanigans.tumblr.com/post/651999227800600576/may-23rd-submission

May 24th’s Submissions https://gwlemonyshenanigans.tumblr.com/post/652131130827571200/may-24th-submissions

May 25th’s Submissions https://gwlemonyshenanigans.tumblr.com/post/652252350922342400/may-25th-submissions

May 26th’s Submissions https://gwlemonyshenanigans.tumblr.com/post/652312096032342016/may-26th-submissions

May 27th’s Submissions https://gwlemonyshenanigans.tumblr.com/post/652433653693136896/may-27th-submissions

May 28th’s Submissions https://gwlemonyshenanigans.tumblr.com/post/652434486286548992/may-28th-submission

May 29th’s Submissions https://gwlemonyshenanigans.tumblr.com/post/652648408588353536/may-29th-submissions

Friday Spotlight! https://gwlemonyshenanigans.tumblr.com/post/652439213602684928/the-lastspotlight-friday

@oztober-rust

Welcome to Oztober Rust

We’re an up and coming Gundam Wing event with a slight twist! This page is still a work in progress, but you’re welcome to join us over on discord and get a feel for the event.

Have discord, will fan. https://oztober-rust.tumblr.com/post/647568110262566912/i-see-a-nice-and-steady-following-we-do-have-a

@seasons-of-gundamwing

Summer Event Voting https://seasons-of-gundamwing.tumblr.com/post/646220556727877633/seasons-of-gundamwing-okay-wingers-its-time-to

@thisweekingundamevents

Events Calendar https://thisweekingundamevents.tumblr.com/post/644080386309275648/events-calendar-update

If you are hosting an event currently, or are planning on one, hit us up with links and dates! We’ll add them to the Calendar and reblog your notices to get the word out!

#Gundam Wing #This Week in Gundam Wing #Weekly Roundup #23-29 May 2021 #(it's late again... but not as late as my last one)

18 notes · View notes

cruciatusforeplay · 3 years

Note

Do you know of a comprehensive list of Hawkeye appearances in the comics, with summaries?

So when I first saw this ask I thought "a comprehensive list of Hawkeye? With summaries? That is absolutely madness, who would have done that?"

I had a quick glance at Marvel Unlimited and found there was over 500 issues listed under Hawkeye (and that's not considering his time spent under other names, or alternative universes, or Kate Bishop doing her thing) and confirmed to myself that a comprehensive list would indeed be completely unmanageable. So obviously I decided to give it a go.

I absolutely cannot give you an entire rundown, because ya boy's been busy, but I can try to give you a little bit of an overview. (Head's up, I said "little" but that was a lie. This is a BIG post and I'm hoping it might give you some key points for Clint's comic career and his background which will hopefully be useful for figuring out which comics to read or anyone writing canon-based fanfic)

A not-so-brief history of Hawkeye in Comics (spoilers below the cut)

First appearance: Tales of Suspense #57 (1964)

We run into Clint working at Carson's Carnival, where he is being underappreciated by the audience and very unhappy about it. He's a proactive lad, so he makes himself a new costume and arrows to be utterly unforgettable. He accidentally gets himself implicated in a crime and meets the Black Widow. They become allies and he uses trick arrows and nearly manages to take out Iron Man, but must abandon his plans to save Black Widow from a blast of his own arrow. He kicks off as an enemy to Stark basically. There is also a bunch of Iron Man shenanigans happening here and it's a fun read.

He sticks around as a villain for two more issues in Tales of Suspense #60 and #64 (1964 and 1965).

First appearance as an Avenger: Avengers #16 (1965)

Clint shows up about halfway through and has determined that he'd like to be an Avenger instead now, thanks. He tells them a little about his doomed love with Nat and how she paid the price and they decide they're on board. He is introduced to the press. There's a bunch of other Avenger member swapping around in this issue (and if you want the most of it, you should start with issue 15 because it's a direct follow up story wise)

He's a key member of the Avengers from hereon in and features in most issues. He spends his time shooting arrows and having problems with authority (particularly Cap)

Key background: Avengers #19 (1965)

This issue gives us a bunch of background on Clint. The Swordsman shows up wanting to be an Avenger (because he wants an Avengers ID - yes really). Clint objects and we find out Clint's an orphan and that the Swordsman took him in and trained him at Carson's Carnival. Clint then caught him stealing from the circus and they fight where he leaves Clint for dead. It's a big old betrayal. The Swordsman then spends the rest of comic kidnapping and trying to kill Cap, so all round that's a no on the Avengers ID.

Hawkeye quits the Avengers: Avengers #109 (1973)

Hawkeye doesn't like that Scarlet Witch and Vision are in a relationship, and essentially he plays the jealous jilted lover who throws a tantrum (door slamming included). He quits the Avengers, immediately realises he didn't actually love Wanda after all. He spends his fresh downtime teaching The Champion archery, who then promptly betrays him. The Avengers come to the rescue.

His involvement in the Avengers is spotty over the next decade.

Hawkeye gets Hitched: Hawkeye #1-4 (1983)

This is Clint's first solo run. It's important for two reasons. He meets Mockingbird who he marries by the end of the run, in what can be described as an enemies to lovers speed-run. This is also the series where Clint is originally deafened; he has to make a sacrifice play with one of his own sonic arrows which is how he ends up deafened. There are some other classic Clint moments: he starts the run by getting dumped, he rides on the skycycle/sky-sled and he ends up with his outfit getting mostly ripped off more than once. We also get some background about him and his brother Barney running from the orphanage to join circus, how Barney got him to hospital after the incident with the Swordsman, and we find out that Clint didn't speak to his brother for years and that he's dead now. Honestly this run is great fun and I have a big soft spot for it.

The West Coast Avengers: West Coast Avengers #1-4 (1984)

Clint helps found and then leads the West Coast Avengers with his wife Mockingbird. This is another mini series, but it led to a much longer run starting the following year that ended in 1994. Real talk: I've only skimmed this iteration of WCA but what I've seen is campy fun, the skycycle is back, Clint really settles into being a leader and the sun is always shining. Special shout out to Tigra who is a bad-ass in this mini series. During the longer run, Clint and Bobbi's marriage is put through the ringer amongst other things, and they eventually separate. Truthfully there is a lot of other stuff going on regarding their relationship in that run and onwards. If their marriage is something you want to know more about I recommend checking out the full summary listed at the back of Hawkeye and Mockingbird #1 (2010) - it starts on page 22 of that issue - be aware it contains major spoilers for later stories.

Key background: Solo Avengers #1-5 (1987)

We get to meet Clint's other circus mentor here: Trickshot aka Buck Chisholm. You'll be shocked to hear that Clint gets betrayed. We kick things off with some circus shenanigans where his charity performance/showing off opportunity is interrupted by mercs sent to kill him, by Trickshot wanting to settle a debt. The second issue presents us with a lengthy flashback where we find out Hawkeye's dirty secret: it wasn't actually the Swordsman who taught him archery, but instead an actual archer called Trickshot. We see Clint get trained up only to be immediately pushed into a life of crime where he ends up shooting his own brother. Buck then shoots Clint when Clint wants to take his brother Barney to hospital. Trickshot is shown to have an unsavoury taste for killing for pleasure and promises to kill Clint when he's got something to lose. In addition we also get some flashbacks to Clint's abusive home situation and his time in care before joining the circus. The next two issues cover a side story that honestly doesn't lead anywhere or get resolved by the end of the run. Issue #5 (which is the first of this run available on Marvel Unlimited if that's how you're reading) then brings you into the real action. For reasons that aren't entirely clear, Clint spends this entire issue in only his undershorts. There's some fun archer Vs archer antics, before an emotional reveal where Trickshot begs Hawkeye to end his life because he has cancer and doesn't want a slow death. Trick has a cry, Clint refuses to kill him and instead they have a comforting cuddle on a beach under a sunset. It's an unusual run, but Trickshot will show up again later in Clint's arc, and it's got a lot of fun quips and action sequences.

Quick note on the 90s

In my opinion, the 90s weren't real good to Clint. He had a couple of solo runs, but imo nothing with major substance, or character development so I'm skipping them. If you want to know what you're missing check out Hawkeye #1-4 (1994) aka Clint broods in Canada and there are wolves, and Hawkeye: World's Mightiest Marksman #1 (1998) aka Clint is stubborn and goes head to head with Taskmaster.

Key background: Hawkeye #1-6 (2003)

This series, which has Clint travelling on a motorcycle in order to find the best chilli and sporting some 90s boyband hair, also gives us some really great insight into his and Barney's relationship. We get snapshots in amongst the rest of the story of Barney being the moral compass for Clint. We see Barney getting his GED while Clint works on archery, and later we see Buck encouraging Clint into crime and Barney telling him it's wrong. We get another retelling of the Swordsman story, this time with both Buck and Barney coming to rescue Clint. While Clint's broken leg is healing, Barney tells him he's joining the army and Clint should come with. Clint says no, then changes his mind, but ends up missing the bus. We again see Clint on a job with Buck where he shoots a guard only to realise it's Barney, and is subsequently shot by Trickshot for wanting to help Barney. They both make it to hospital. Clint asks what happened and Barney tells him "guess you are what you are." Years later we see Clint at Barney's grave and are informed that he was involved with the mob. Clint is upset, only to then be informed Barney was actually working undercover for the FBI. These snapshots are my favourite part of the entire series. The rest of the series focuses on Clint doing some detective style work and shooting arrows. If this is the first run you've checked out since the WCA or Solo Avengers runs, you'll note this is very different in both art and story style. There was a definite shift in the 90s that brought us closer to the style we have today.

Clint doesn't have any solo runs for a while, but he is involved in a bunch of bigger stories which we'll take look at in part two of this post.

The MCU push and key background

In the lead up to the movie premiere of Avengers Assemble (2012), Marvel produced a lot of content for the Big Six as promo to their preexisting market. Hawkeye and Mockingbird #1-6 (2010), Widow maker #1-4 (2010) and Hawkeye Blindspot #1-4 (2011) follow on directly from one another, though you could read any of them independently and the first two are less about Clint. Avengers Solo #1-5 (2011) also featured during this time. All but Blindspot are simple action comics without any lasting impact for Hawkeye. Blindspot has a pretty comprehensive rundown on Clint's history including his abusive dad, the circus, the Swordsman, Trickshot, his relationship with Cap and the Avengers, him becoming Goliath and some very important information regarding his brother and their relationship, all woven into a well paced plot. Additionally, he's going blind. There is a lot of story in these four issues. It also provides the foundation on which Fraction set his run, so it's a good story for anyone who had any unanswered questions regarding the start point for Hawkeye (2012).

The Fraction/Aja Run: Hawkeye #1-21 (2012)

This is the big one. Either you're here because you've read it and now you love this idiot, or you want to start reading Hawkeye. This is where you start. I'm not gonna summarise this one because everyone deserves to read it without spoilers. But I'll say this: this is Clint when he's not being an Avenger. He's messy and relatable and he loves dogs. This is a character defining run and it is one of my all time favourite comics. There is so much good stuff in here and I could talk for hours about it. Go forth and feast your eyes.

If I've missed anything major, or listed something incorrectly or you just have some Clint related opinions that I need to know about, do hit me up.

I've run out of images, so this post will continue in part 2 which you can read here.

#clint barton #deaf clint barton #hawkeye comics #marvel comics #let's talk about comics #comics #hawkeye #hawkguy #hawkguy and other costumes

87 notes · View notes

superman86to99 · 3 years

Photo

Superman #84 (December 1993)

Superman takes a short Paris vacation! Like, one day short. What's the worst that could happen?

Oh, man.

So, for the past few issues, we've been hearing about children being abducted in Metropolis. Now we see that they're being kept inside a giant toy house by some creepy bald man in Quasimodo clothes who seems to be obsessed with toys -- a "Man of Toys," if you will. Side note: no wonder the children haven't been found... all the articles about them are just gibberish! (See clip below.)

The kidnapper thinks that these kids' parents don't deserve them, and that they're much better off here, in an underground hideout with a man who threatens to starve them if they don't play with him. (And I do mean literally play, with action figures and stuff.) Meanwhile, as these children cry for help, Superman is having the time of his life. While helping move a stranded ship with some huge-ass chains, Superman spots a sunken galleon with a treasure chest inside and fantasizes about keeping the booty...

...before turning it over to the authorities anyway, the big boy scout. Then, he wakes up Lois at 6 AM and tells her they should go to Paris right now, which usually means your significant other is having a mental breakdown, but in this case they can actually do it. And so, after deciding that he deserves to use his powers for fun every once in a while, Superman and Lois drop everything and fly to France with super-speed for the rest of the day/issue.

Anyway: back to the child abduction! Cat Grant and her son Adam attend a Halloween party at Adam's school, but there's a disturbed weirdo in a hideous costume lurking among the crowd. Yes, I'm talking about Jimmy Olsen in his Turtle Boy suit.

Shortly after that, a guy in a dinosaur costume (see, all the creeps are dressed as reptiles) lures Adam out of the party with the promise of "superb video games." What child could resist that? Of course, that turns out to be the kidnapper and Adam ends up in his hideout along with the rest of the missing children and, worst of all, not a single "Lextendo" console.

The kidnapper gets angry at Adam when he refers to the toys at the hideout as "old-fashioned junk" (he was REALLY looking forward to those video games), and even angrier when Adam tries to free the other kids. Adam is brave and puts up a good fight, but...

And those were Adam Morgan's final words. "Uh-oh."

Next, we have a pretty harrowing scene of Detective Turpin letting Cat know Adam’s body was found, and Jimmy and Perry White taking her to the morgue to identify the body (most people probably wouldn't bring their former boss to something like that, but Perry sadly knows more than most about losing a kid). As for Lois and Clark, they were gone so long that the Daily Planet had time to print a headline about the murders. The issue ends when the lovebirds walk into the office smiling like two people who just spent the night fooling around in Paris... only to feel like jackasses when they find out what happened.

To be continued!

Character-Watch:

And that's it for little Adam Morgan who, unlike the also tragically diseased Jerry White, didn't even get any post-death appearances. Adam went from a little kid scared of Superman, to a huge brat, to a character who was approaching likeability as of last week. That's why I hate it when DC kills off young characters like Adam or Liam Harper: in long-form storytelling, children represent potential. Look at how much Wally West or Dick Grayson evolved over the years compared to their mentors! Sure, there's a huge probability that Adam would have ended up disappearing from comics for 25 years anyway, but who knows, maybe we'd now know him as Teen Gangbuster or something. GangbusTEEN.

This issue also represents a turning point for the kidnapper, who is never named or seen clearly in the story itself but I don't think I'm shocking anyone by spoiling the fact that he's Toyman (it's in the cover, for one thing). In his last two appearances before this storyline, Toyman helped Superman save some kids from Sleez and looked genuinely sad to learn about Superman's death, so this is a pretty dramatic change for the character. We'll find out why he went from big softy to child killer in Superman #85 (but don't get your hopes up).

Plotline-Watch:

The most disturbing part of the issue, all things considered, is still the part where Toyman climbs into a giant crib and hugs a huge stuffed bunny. Look at serial killer Tommy Pickles here:

Don Sparrow says: “Even with the upgrade, Toyman is still just a man in a suit, a common complaint about Superman’s rogues gallery.” Funny you should say that, because I JUST shared an old Wizard interview in our Twitter in which Dan Jurgens talks about how Doomsday came out of his frustration with the fact that most Superman villains are dudes in suits (plus other interesting tidbits from the era, like how it was actually Roger Stern’s idea to bring back Hank Henshaw, so check out that link!).

Don again: “The entire Superman storyline of this issue feels like filler. Diving for buried treasure and soaring off to Paris -- it all feels like wasted time next to the Adam storyline.” I have a theory that the entire ship sequence is there as an excuse to put Superman in those big chains and make that Spawn joke (which I didn’t get until now, since I’ve always read this issue in Spanish).

Superman says that pulling that big ship was "a little easier than expected" -- that's either another hint that there's something going on with Superman's powers since he came back, or a subtle dig at the state of American ship manufacturing.

Another adorable "window tap" scene for the books, and this is the sexiest one so far. Is it me or has Jurgens started copying more than just Teri Hatcher's hairdo from Lois & Clark? (For anyone who thinks Lois has gotten implants, I refer you to this clip.)

While in Paris, Lois asks Clark if he's ever wondered what would happen if his rocket had landed in other countries. Don: “Clark’s conversation with Lois sounds like a bunch of concepts for Elseworlds stories. We eventually would see a Russian Superman, and a British Superman, but not yet the French Superman. (Hire us, DC!)” Yep, got my French Superman pitch ready, Jim Lee. Or just let us do Russian Superman again, since Red Son wasn’t even the first time you published that idea.

Don once more: “Another thing that makes no sense about the ‘new’ Toyman is his resentment of technological toys—when in previous appearances he himself had deadly high-tech toys to vex Superman over the years.” I especially resent his hatred of video game consoles. Incidentally, I wonder what types of games are available for Adam’s beloved Lextendo. Star Lex 64? Mega Man Lex? Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles & Lex?

No one is more upset at Lois and Clark for going AWOL than Whit. NO ONE. He's so furious that his usually grey mustache turned black.

Patreon-Watch:

As always, shout out to our patrons, Aaron, Murray Qualie, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Samuel Doran, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush and Raphael Fischer! Last month’s exclusive Patreon article was about the recently unearthed sequel to Superman 64 for the PlayStation, featuring Metallo, Parasite, and Lois looking even hotter than in this issue:

Hot damn. Find out more at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99!

And believe it or not, Don Sparrow has even more to say about this issue. Read his section after the jump:

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

I should start off my section with a big caveat: I flat out hate this issue. There were several weird decisions made in the post-Death-and-Return era (most of them along the same lines of making the Superman titles more grim-and-gritty), and this story was one of the worst of them. My theory is that, despite the praise and record-breaking sales of the Death and Return storyline, the Superman creative team felt pressure to have more extreme storylines, perhaps in response to the wildly successful Image books coming out at the time. Between this story, and the upcoming “Spilled Blood” storyline, the Super books take a hard—but temporary--turn into more violent and upsetting storytelling—even though these stories are by the same writers as the previous few years. While death has always been a part of comics, and Superman comics was no exception, there is a jarring glibness and unfeeling toward the way violence is handled in these pages that is quite different from the stories that preceded it. It’s made all the more jarring by the fact that well-established personalities suddenly veer wildly out of character, Toyman chief among them.

We start with the cover, and while it is technically well-drawn (by the familiar team of Jurgens and Breeding) it’s also a very upsetting visual. I think they should have gone with the pieta type pose with Adam and Superman, OR the scary badass bowie-knife Toyman (who apparently has a Cheshire cat smile now) but not both. But the cover is a good hint at the tonal dissonance of the comic within.

We open with a splash of the now-extreme 90s looking Toyman, with his serial killer shaved head and spooky cloak, ignoring the pleas of hungry kids he has locked up in a tiny jail cell for days at a time (if that sentence doesn’t ring alarm bells for how wrong this is for a Superman story, I don’t know what will). For much of the issue Toyman’s eyes are obscured by glare on his lenses, further de-humanizing a character who was once one of Superman’s more empathetic bad guys.

We cut to Superman tugboating a huge tanker with giant chains and it’s a cool visual (one repeated in the Batman V Superman film). It feels especially out of place to focus on, given how upsetting this issue is otherwise, but throughout the whole comic, Lois is drawn smoking hot, especially on the two page spread on pages 9-10.

The scenes depicting the actual murder, while still wildly out of place in a Superman comic, are well done, and give a real sense of darkness and menace, which I suppose is the intent. Perhaps my least favourite visual is the Big Bird stuffie, silently bearing witness to what’s about to occur.

The edges of the panels on get more slashy and off-kilter (to me, looking very much like the layouts more typically seen in Image comics of the day) and I suppose I appreciate the restraint of how little Dan Jurgens shows of the death of a child, showing only a bloody slash on a black background. This is still a pretty baroque image for a Superman comic, but certainly less violent than it could be, given what is happening.

Cat Grant’s silent horror is well staged, and powerful in its way. Lastly, Clark Kent bending in sorrow and regret is a powerful image.

While this issue is handled marginally better, and more maturely than other comics on the shelf at this time, I still believe it is one of the biggest mistakes of the era. Giving a long-established character an unceremonious death for shock value is gross on its own, but making it a child definitely crosses a line for me. Making it worse is that, while the Toyman is a criminal and a killer, he has shown in past issues (a similar kidnapping storyline involving Sleez) that he genuinely cares for the well-being of children. So for a long-time reader, this also felt like a betrayal of a long-established, fully developed character. Adding to the ugliness of this is that Adam dies heroically, trying to free the children who have been caged, unfed, for days, but even in that regard, he fails. The headline at the end of the issue confirms all the children are dead. Adam’s death did not buy the other kids enough time to get away. It was all for nothing. Had Adam died, but the other children lived, maybe this issue wouldn’t leave quite as bad a taste. [Max: It’s weird because it’s all told in a way where it’s told in a way where it would make sense, narratively and within the story universe, that the other kids survived, but then it’s almost casually revealed that nope, they died too. A scene of one of the kids relaying Adam’s heroism to Cat in a future issue would have gone a long way.]

Superman doesn’t come off well in these pages, either. It’s honestly the type of story they should just stay away from, because the more you think about all the calamity that is going on around the clock, the less defensible the whole Clark Kent persona becomes. Superman carving out time to romance his fiancée directly led to the preventable deaths of innocent children—how do you come back from that?

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

I’m always looking for hints that perhaps Jimmy or Perry know Superman’s secret identity deep down, and Jimmy’s anger at Lois and Clark on their return to the Daily Planet offices would seem to give that theory some credence, as he’s as angry at them as if he knew Clark really were Superman. Either that, or he’s ticked that it fell to him, and none of them to escort Cat into the morgue. [Max: Has this issue finally converted you to the “Jimmy is terrible” side now, Don?]

I don’t think I’m the only one who disliked the new Toyman—SPOILERS BE HERE: years later, in Action Comics #865, Geoff Johns retconned this whole story, reverting Schott into the criminal who over-relates to kids, rather than the child-killer of this story. Apparently the infantile Schott, who speaks to “Mother” a la Norman Bates, is a robot so lifelike it fools even Superman, and the “Mother” he’s constantly replying to was the real Winslow Schott trying to recall the malfunctioning robot. [Max: That’s one Geoff Johns retcon I really didn’t mind, even if it felt kind of derivative of his similar “all the Brainiacs are robots made by the real Brainiac” reveal.]

#superman #dan jurgens #josef rubinstein #toyman #cat grant #adam morgan #dan turpin #whit #gangbusteen #super luthor fighter ii turbo championship edition

32 notes · View notes