#and here is long story long why this comic happened :B

[physalian]

Pacing your Story (Or, How to Avoid the "Suddenly...!")

Arguably *the* most important lesson all writers need to learn, even for those who don’t give a damn about themes and motifs and a moral soap box: How your story is paced, whether it’s a comic book, a children’s chapter book, a doorstopper, a mini series, a movie, or a full-length season of TV (old school style), pacing is everything.

Pacing determines how long the story *feels* regardless of how long it actually is. It can make a 2 hour movie feel like 90 mins or double the time you’re trapped in your seat.

There’s very little I can say about pacing that hasn’t been said before, but I’m here to condense all that’s out there into a less intimidating mouthful to chew.

So: What is pacing?

Pacing is how a story flows, how quickly or slowly the creator moves through and between scenes, how long they spend on setting, narration, conversation, arguments, internal monologues, fight scenes, journey scenes. It’s also how smoothly tone transitions throughout the story. A fantasy adventure jumping around sporadically between meandering boredom, high-octane combat, humor, grief, and romance is exhausting to read, no matter how much effort you put into your characters.

Anyone who says the following is wrong:

Good pacing is always fast/bad pacing is always slow

Pacing means you are 100% consistent throughout the entire story

It doesn’t matter as much so long as you have a compelling story/characters/lore/etc

Now let me explain why in conveniently numbered points:

1. Pacing is not about consistency, it’s about giving the right amount of time to the right pieces of your story

This is not intuitive and it takes a long time to learn. So let’s look at some examples:

Lord of the Rings: The movies trimmed a *lot* from the books that just weren’t adaptable to screen, namely all the tedious details and quite a bit of the worldbuilding that wasn’t critical to the journey of the Fellowship. That said, with some exceptions, the battles are as long as they need to be, along with every monologue, every battle speech. When Helm’s Deep is raging on, we cut away to Merry and Pippin with the Ents to let ourselves breathe, then dive right back in just before it gets boring.

The Hobbit Trilogy: The exact opposite from LotR, stretching one kids book into 3 massive films, stuffing it full of filler, meandering side quests, pointless exposition, drawing out battles and conflicts to silly extremes, then rushing through the actual desolation of Smaug for… some reason.

Die Hard (cause it’s the Holidays y’all!): The actiony-est of action movies with lots of fisticuffs and guns and explosions still leaves time for our hero to breathe, lick his wounds, and build a relationship with the cop on the ground. We constantly cut between the hero and the villains, all sharing the same radio frequency, constantly antsy about what they know and when they’ll find out the rest, and when they’ll discover the hero’s kryptonite.

2. Make every scene you write do at least two things at once

This is also tricky. Making every scene pull double duty should be left to after you’ve written the first draft, otherwise you’ll never write that first draft. Pulling double duty means that if you’re giving exposition, the scene should also reveal something about the character saying it. If you absolutely must write the boring trip from A to B, give some foreshadowing, some thoughtful insight from one of your characters, a little anecdote along the way.

Develop at least two of the following:

The plot

The backstory

The romance/friendships

The lore

The exposition

The setting

The goals of the cast

Doing this extremely well means your readers won’t have any idea you’re doing it until they go back and read it again. If you have two characters sitting and talking exposition at a table, and then those same two characters doing some important task with filler dialogue to break up the narrative… try combining those two scenes and see what happens.

**This is going to be incredibly difficult if you struggle with making your stories longer. I do not. I constantly need to compress my stories. **

3. Not every scene needs to be crucial to the plot, but every scene must say something

I distinguish plot from story like a square vs a rectangle. Plot is just a piece of the tale you want to tell, and some scenes exist just to be funny, or romantic, or mysterious, plot be damned.

What if you’re writing a character study with very little plot? How do you make sure your story isn’t too slow if 60% of the narrative is introspection?

Avoid repeating information the audience already has, unless a reminder is crucial to understanding the scene

This isn’t 1860 anymore. Every detail must serve a purpose. Keep character and setting descriptions down to absolute need-to-know and spread it out like icing on a cake – enough to coat, but not give you a mouthful of whipped sugar and zero cake.

Avoid describing generic daily routines, unless the existence of said routine is out of ordinary for the character, or will be rudely interrupted by chaos. No one cares about them brushing their teeth and doing their hair.

Make sure your characters move, but not too much. E.g. two characters sitting and talking – do humans just stare at each other with their arms lifeless and bodies utterly motionless during conversation? No? Then neither should your characters. Make them gesture, wave, frown, laugh, cross their legs, their arms, shift around to get comfortable, pound the table, roll their eyes, point, shrug, touch their face, their hair, wring their hands, pick at their nails, yawn, stretch, pout, sneer, smirk, click their tongue, clear their throat, sniff/sniffle, tap their fingers/drum, bounce their feet, doodle, fiddle with buttons or jewelry, scratch an itch, touch their weapons/gadgets/phones, check the time, get up and sit back down, move from chair to table top – the list goes on. Bonus points if these are tics that serve to develop your character, like a nervous fiddler, or if one moves a lot and the other doesn’t – what does that say about the both of them? This is where “show don’t tell” really comes into play.

4. Your entire work should not be paced exactly the same

Just like a paragraph should not be filled with sentences of all the same length and syntax. Some beats deserve more or less time than others. Unfortunately, this is unique to every single story and there is no one size fits all.

General guidelines are as follows:

Action scenes should have short paragraphs and lots of movement. Cut all setting details and descriptors, internal monologues, and the like, unless they service the scene.

Journey/travel scenes must pull double or even triple duty. There’s a reason very few movies are marketed as “single take” and those that are don’t waste time on stuff that doesn’t matter. See 1917.

Romantic scenes are entirely up to you. Make it a thousand words, make it ten thousand, but you must advance either the romantic tension, actual movement of the characters, conversation, or intimacy of the relationship.

Don’t let your conversations run wild. If they start to veer off course, stop, boil it down to its essentials, and cut the rest.

When transitioning between slow to faster pacing and back again, it’s also not one size fits all. Maybe it being jarring is the point – it’s as sudden for the characters as it is for the reader. With that said, try to keep the “suddenly”s to a minimum.

5. Pacing and tone go hand in hand

This means that, generally speaking, the tone of your scene changes with the speed of the narrative. As stated above, a jarring tonal shift usually brings with it a jarring pacing shift.

A character might get in a car crash while speeding away from an abusive relationship. A character who thinks they’re safe from a pursuer might be rudely and terrifyingly proven wrong. An exhausting chase might finally relent when sanctuary is found. A quiet dinner might quickly turn romantic with a look, or confession. Someone casually cleaning up might discover evidence of a lie, a theft, an intruder and begin to panic.

--

Whatever the case may be, a narrative that is all action all the time suffers from lack of meaningful character moments. A narrative that meanders through the character drama often forgets there is a plot they’re supposed to be following.

[rorywritesjunk]

Like lighting when I'm swimming in the sea

Buggy never made time for sex until he met you well into his 30's.

Rating: R. It's soft porn, that's all. I have a smuttier version in the works. Nothing explicit happens here. Warning: First time for Buggy. Of course he has a brief insecure moment. Uses of "baby" and "babe" affectionately between partners. A/N: Inspired by @spaceagerabbit and their post about Buggy being a virgin. I also wrote it with LA!Buggy in mind. It's also short but the other version is like... 4 pages and growing so that will eventually get posted I think. Hope y'all enjoy! Title comes from "Powerful" by Major Lazer.

Story below the cut.

“It’s okay, baby.” 

He let out a whine as he felt you sink onto him. Your heat, muscles, everything was almost too much. He was almost undone right then, ready to cum the moment you took his cock in your hand and pressed the tip against your entrance. Why the hell did he wait so long to do this? 

Once your bodies were flush, the bottom of your thighs touching the top of his, you gave him a moment to adjust to the new feeling. When he confessed earlier that he never had sex, never had the opportunity, you were happy to be able to experience that with him. 

“B-Babe!” He let out a whimper, hands on your back, nails digging into your skin as he tentatively rocked his hips a few times. He didn’t think he’d last too long like this, brain already foggy, a sheen of sweat on his skin. Your body was too much for him, your heat, the way your arms were around him, fingers running through his hair as you rocked your hips against his slowly. He buried his face against your neck, holding you tightly as he whined for you. 

He was shaking underneath you, thighs twitching as his thrusts stuttered, struggling to find a rhythm. You decided to change it up, make it easier for him, so you reluctantly pulled off of him, ignoring his sharp cry at the abrupt absence of your warmth. You laid out on your back, reaching for him as you spread your legs open for him. He didn’t hesitate, almost comical the way he scrambled over to you, wrapping his arms back around you as he kissed you. You took his cock in your hand again, stroking him a few times before guiding him back into you.

“I got you, baby.” You murmured against his lips as he pushed in all the way, body flush with yours. You let out a gasp, muscles clenching around him as he bottomed out, his nails dragging over your skin as he kissed you. He was mumbling incoherently, hips rocking against yours as he let out a few whines for you.

He needed to cum right then, the feeling was building up, but he wanted to last for you. He tried to keep his movements slow at first, not wanting to rush, but you were encouraging him, moaning his name softly, begging him to fuck you harder. He let out a choked sob, hiding his face against your neck as his hips thrusted into yours, his movements sloppy. 

“F-Fuck, babe, feels, it feels so good!” He whined, voice cracking as a wave of pleasure hit him. He couldn’t help it, he wanted to last longer, but it only took two more thrusts, you chanting baby, please in his ear, and your walls clenching around him for him to start cumming. He sank into you, face buried against your neck. He tightened his arms around you, refusing to move as he muttered, “Than’you, ‘msorry” over and over again. 

You gave him the time he needed to get through the post orgasm haze. He pulled out after a few minutes, but he laid back on top of you, refusing to look at you as his face turned red. With a sigh, you ran your fingers through this hair gently before pressing a kiss to his temple.

“Buggy, you okay?” You asked softly as you draped your arm around him. He closed his eyes and nodded; you pressed kisses all over his face softly, humming contently. He let out another sigh.

“‘Msorry.” He mumbled again. You gave him a funny look and he opened his eyes to look at you with an embarrassed expression. “You didn’t get to… finish.”

“Oh!” You just smiled at him as you played with his hair. “Don’t worry about that, baby. The night is still young and there’s still a lot more to do.” You kissed him on the nose. “There’s a lot to catch up on for you, Buggy. Don’t apologize, okay? There’s ways to make it up to me.”

His eyes widened slightly and he smirked at that. “Where do I start?”

[aro-comics]

Growth (Part 1)

Growth, 1/3 – And … oh my gosh. I can’t believe it took THIS LONG to finish this comic ;A; I feel like I say this every time, but y’all – I STARTED PANELLING THIS ALMOST A WHOLE YEAR AGO. Really. It’s been sitting on my plate for too long, and I’m so glad I can finally share it!

Where do I even begin with my thoughts? For starters, I wanted to say the examples chosen in slide 8 are mainly from larger pieces of media, because they have greater influence on our *general social consciousness*. I don’t necessarily recommend or approve of the source material! I also have more thoughts on these characters, and about amatonormativity in relation to character growth in general, but for the sake of keeping this caption short(er) I will do so on my stories and pin them to my profile for future reference 😂

AUTHOR'S NOTE: For the sake of accessibility (and my own health) I will be making a transcript of the stories in its simplest form, posted here.

If you have any examples you can think of too, please let me know either in the comments or via DM 🐸🐸

I wish I was joking about the events which inspired this comic, but this LITERALLY happened to me, and this wasn’t the only time I experienced some form of amatonormativity or direct arophobia growing up. You may not think things like this are a problem, but this idea of romantic relationships as a crucial part of emotional growth has real world implications. Aros get told that their orientation IS the root of all their problems, or IS THE PROBLEM ITSELF, a lot. And not only is this wrong (and queerphobic), it also causes people to overlook the real issues that we may be struggling with. This can prevent us from getting help we NEED, not to mention the fact that orientation isn’t something that needs to be fixed.

In my personal experience … I don’t want to get into the specifics of the situation described here (Because it genuinely was one of the worst times of my life, and I don’t like thinking about it) – but basically, the help I needed was definitely NOT to get a romantic partner. A lot of my behaviours were very clearly ones that indicated I should have been hospitalized, or at least sent to a highly trained medical professional for intervention. But I never received any care, even though my parents were to some degree aware of what the issue was … and it somewhat appalls me that this family friend would take one look at me and somehow decide the issue was anything less than a serious, medical situation.

I want to emphasize I know none of them did it on purpose, and to be fair, it wasn’t entirely clear what the specific issue was (to the family friend at least). But it does hurt to have so clearly shown signs of crisis, to have done a near 180 in personality and behaviour, and to have it brushed off or implied that this is caused by something fundamental to your orientation. It makes me feel so inherently wrong, and if I’m going to be even more brutally honest I think the amatonormative way I was raised is a big part of the reason why I still struggle with my self esteem as an aro today. Even now, I still get told that maybe my remaining problems and personal struggles will go away if I was willing to give dating a try.

It just makes me so tired.

But, the more I reflect on my orientation and am able to connect with aros and the community as a whole, it has been helping. I don’t think it will go away any time soon, but at least when the feeling (that my orientation is something that’s fundamentally wrong with me) comes up I can tell myself that it just isn’t true. That I know that being aro isn’t a curse, isn’t a flaw, isn’t something that should haunt me for the rest of my life, that it’s something natural and beautiful and that I adore about my community. And I should extend that same care to myself, too. It has been getting easier.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences on this topic. Do you feel that others perception of your maturity and growth as a human being is influenced by amatonormativity?

Image Descriptions

Title Card: Cover Image. This Comic series is titled “Growth”. Celia, an east asian girl with wavy chin length hair, is illustrated wearing a cream crop top and yellow pants sitting amongst leaves and yellow flowers on a rocky surface. A watering can sits in the background.

Slide 1: Celia is seen standing from the side, with her arms crossed. She frowns. “When I was going through one of the worst times of my life, a family friend went out of his way to tell my parents that he noticed how unconfident I seemed.”

Slide 2: Scene turns to a memory, depicted as a sketch. The family friend is shown talking to Celia’s parents. “He told them not to worry though, because there was an easy solution. I just needed to find the right person, and start dating them.”

Slide 3: A speech bubble from the family friend illustrates this analogy. On the left is a flower pot with no plant, and a sad face above it. On the right is a blooming flower with hearts around it.

Celia’s note: I wish I was making this up. Blossom was LITERALLY the analogy used here

Slide 4: Back to Celia, who is speaking to the reader now: “It really, really hurt. I knew the reason why I wasn’t the best version of myself wasn’t because I hadn’t found love.”

Slide 5: She stares down at a yellow flower as she continues, “But unfortunately, I think thoughts, and unwarranted comments like these, stem from a deeper amatonormative view of the subject of growth”

Slide 6: “Countless stories which show the hero’s growth as pinned to their romantic arc.” Illustrated beneath is a stereotypical hero kneeling on the ground in front of his love interest. He holds a yellow flower as he says “I couldn’t have become the person I am today without you, your love showed me what’s worth trying for”.

Slide 7: “And on the more toxic side of things, those without romantic love or those who reject it end up as decrepit, cold, emotionally stunted, or sad.”

A few characters from popular, influential, or otherwise notable television shows are depicted here: Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmations, Queen Chrysalis from My Little Pony (Generation 4), Dr. Berkowitz from One Day at a Time, Alan Harper from Two and a Half Men, and Rajesh Koothrappali from The Big Bang Theory. A note indicates to the reader to check the description.

As a disclaimer: The inclusion of these characters do not indicate the author’s recommendation or approval of the original source material – they are only meant to serve as examples of the point to be made.

Slide 8: Scene switches to Celia now watering a collection of ferns, mugworts, and other leafy plants in a greenhouse. She says “As an aro person, it’s tiring to hear the more toxic side of this narrative again and again. It feels like we’re being told we won’t grow, like others can.”

[kimberlyannharts]

So I may have been slightly hyped for this book the past few months

For the three of you who haven't heard about this, MMPR: The Return is a story set in the future of an alternate universe of the MMPRs; one where Jason, Zack, and Trini didn't give up their powers upon the eve of the Peace Conference, and thus the team stayed together even after high school. But fast forward twenty-two years later, and the team has broken up due to some sort of tragedy - we know from the Re-Imagine prologue in the 30 Year Anniversary book, Zordon and Alpha were destroyed by Zedd and Rita. But other stuff seems to have happened too. What is that stuff? I guess we're about to find out!

Oh, and I should mention this was written by the original Pink Ranger herself, Amy Jo Johnson. (and her partner, Matt Hotson.) That might be important to know.

It's Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Return #1!

= Three pages in and Jason's already getting his ass kicked. You're forty-five years old, man, you should be at the club

= I know this was debated a bit when the book was announced - how it would line up with Thuy and JDF's passings, especially after coming off the heels of Once and Always, where the focal point was Trini's daughter taking up her powers after Trini's death. (For what it's worth, this book was first conceived pre-pandemic, long before OaA. Making comics takes a long time.) And while Tommy is still a bit up in the air (despite what we'll see in a few pages) Trini does seem to have definitively passed due to illness.

While I definitely get the frustration of Thuy's passing essentially sealing Trini's fate - especially in a comic book, where you don't have to worry about actor restrictions - I'm a little more generous towards it here because Amy and Thuy were close friends and she actually dealt with her death personally compared to how the OaA writers, well......didn't. And this issue is clearly paralleling Kimberly's motivations and feelings to Amy's real-life ones, so this just feels like another part of that.

(Also to contrast OaA's handling of Trini - a) her passing here isn't caused by a graphic onscreen explosion, proving the whole "well they HAD to show it onscreen for more impact!!!" was bullshit b) her friends AND THE WIDER COMMUNITY are actually grieving and talking about her impact on everyone as well as using the non-actor-restriction to SHOW it and c) The book actually gives her a JOB. TWO jobs!!!!!!! Yeah OaA why the fuck did you send ZACK to Congress WHEN IT CLEARLY SHOULD HAVE BEEN TRINI

also I like her middle-aged design. prettyyyyyy)

= onto lighter topics HEYYYY IT'S THESE GUYS!! Bulk and Skull are married and you just can't see the ring through Bulk's gloves, it's real and true

= speaking of which this whole flashback is adorable and nostalgic but I want to point out some background details

= Ernie is just trying to run a fucking business here

= go white boy go

= ZACK/KIM HAS FINALLY COME BACK TO ME MY FUCKING BELOVEDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! God, when WAS the last time they actually talked one-on-one in the main series

= FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

= so along with some other stuff I'm definitely taking this as foreshadowing that Trini wasn't cut off from Kim like the boys were. That's the power of WOMEN (and also if we get Aunt Trini flashbacks with Olivia I'll fucking CRYYYYYY)

= Absolutely obsessed with Billy's face here

= D:

= So besides the Trini stuff I want to the keep the Once and Always comparisons to a minimum but it's very funny how both storylines involve Billy using a company as a front for his embezzlement schemes. At least his telecom company PROBABLY isn't war profiteering

= also Alpha's rose <3

= so anyway Jason's gone rogue and was pretending he's the main character until he suddenly went missing, as shown in the first few pages. And Billy and Zack want to become Rangers again to try and find him.

= but the thing is guys, Kim has won the idgaf war. She's depressed, she's traumatized, she spent twenty-two years raising a child with Tommy's genes all by herself, she's tired. She does NOT want to be wrapped up in Jason's midlife crisis drama

= Zack getting so mad and wanting to risk it all for Jason hell yeah those are my Jason/Zack crumbs

= Mysterious shadowy figure watching the old people drama from a distance, you are just like me fr

= OLIVIA THAT'S FUCKING OLIVIAAAAAAAAAAAA and she already sounds so CUTE. If you go back to the diner scene you can see the phone constantly buzzing until Kim finally puts it away. She's like mom. mom. mom. MOM

= also just because the tragic Tomberly family storyline already makes me want to kms do you think that ring is kind of small and plain because Tommy and Kim were so young when they got married and it's all Tommy could afford. And Kim still wears it to this day. I want to die

= It's already been confirmed that Selena is indeed referring to Sylvia here, so I won't talk about that. What I DO want to talk about is Kim's casual momwear. Those sweatpants!!!!!!!!!!

= It would be really funny if Kim just. immediately slammed the door shut

[moralesmilesanhour]

I'd love to hear what fundamental issues you have with spiderverse... 🎤

Hm I'm just gonna rattle off a few from most to least important before I forget (note: some of my issues with spiderverse are less about the concepts or characters themselves but more about how the writers or producers chose to handle them, or even just exploring the possibilities of what could've been. I still think it's a really excellent movie and complex story.)

If you're someone that skims through longer paragraphs a lot, I've also put my most important points in italics so that you get the gist of what I'm saying :)

Making Miles' story about everyone else but Miles. I understand that Miles' whole thing in Spiderverse is that by defying the odds, he inspires the people around him. But there's a certain point where the story become *about that* and the other characters more than him and his interiority. In its efforts to focus on his growing into the mantle of Spider-Man, the films only kind of allude to the fact that he has a life outside of the mask. His mental health and relationship to his community are pushed to the wayside so much that even Ganke is only on-screen for a few minutes at most.

(This is a long one sorry) Spiderverse as a movie doesn't seem to know for sure whether it likes cops or not. It presents the literal police and policing as a concept as something that is inherently neutral, likening it to the mantle of Spider-Man where they simply have power that they have to use responsibly, and that there are just "bad apples". But the way that Spider-Society operates quite closely parallels how policing and criminality work: you have a bunch of spiders go out and detain people and send them where they're "supposed to be" under the guise that a) the order of things will essentially fall apart if you don't, and b) there is a specific way that your story is supposed to go, and you should be willing to sacrifice lives to maintain that status quo. There's also the categorization of those who break those rules as an Other (anomalies), and the fact that Spider Society reacts to the presence of the anomalies instead of addressing the thing that created them (the collider. HELLOOOO). With all that being said, Miguel and the rest of Spider Society are clearly framed as anatgonistic forces by the film and even has a punk anarchist character calling them out and being right about it. The movies simultaneously critique policing metaphorically through Spider Society while trying to justify it in the real world.

Girl where is Pavitr. His character is literally perfect for Miles to interact with, but we don't see him again until the very last scene. Same thing with...literally everyone we just met. The movie is over two hours long, where did all that time go--OH WAIT

Gwen and the scene with her dad take up wayyyy too much of the movie's runtime, I'm sorry. We spent the entirety of the beginning of the film learning information about Gwen and her dad that could've been quickly conveyed in much less time. Not to mention that, apparently, Mr. Stacy literally gets fired in the comics for letting Gwen go, so that whole plotline didn't even need to happen. Why change that? To say he's a 'good cop' that does his job? The trauma of losing Peter would've been present in her story either way.

The art style. No, this doesn't mean what you think it does. I do not have an issue with the 3D and 2D hybrid style of animation obviously. Spiderverse has literally revolutionized the field, but there are some limitations to it that were made especially clear once TMNT:MM came out. You may or may not have noticed, but isn't almost everyone in Spiderverse...kinda gorgeous? Hear me out here. Someone has pointed this out before me, and it really changed the way that I look at aesthetics in animation. In Spiderverse, everything from the environments to the way that things are shaded and colored is extremely stylized and pushed quite far...until you get to the main characters. Yes, there is diversity in features the likes of which we haven't seen 'till recently, but I'm purely talking about the style in which they're drawn. Compared to everything else, they look closer to something Disney or Pixar might produce. This is not inherently problematic or "bad", but I do wonder how much cooler and cutting-edge and comic-y we could get if it wasn't so pre-occupied with beauty. You can disregard this one, it's just a thought. Apparently the idea that not every cartoon character you see on the big screen has to be hot makes people very angry.

I think those are all the big ones. I'll reblog with new additions if for some reason I come up with new things to complain about lmao

[robo-dino-puppy]

10 Fandoms, 10 Characters, 10 Tags

thank you for the tag @bluntblade! (i'm embarrassed this took me so long. also i've never been good at ranking things so uh don't consider this list in order of most favorite or anything)

Donna Noble (Doctor Who)

Character I think about if I'm having a bad day <3 This scene between the windows in Partners in Crime never fails to cheer me up. Also: "You're not mating with me, sunshine!" Theeeeee best platonic relationship with the Doctor IMO.

Varl (Horizon)

Aloy did not appreciate this good dude nearly enough. I want Varl to be my BFF. T_T But HFW happened and... I won't say too much about that or we'd be here all day. He's alive in my head and that's all that matters.

Cimorene (The Enchanted Forest Chronicles)

Cimorene! She's no-nonsense and clever. She wasn't a fan of being treated like a princess so she went and "got captured by" a dragon so people would stop bothering her, and helps her cook and organize her library. I mean, goals.

Loki (MCU)

I wasn't into the MCU when it started getting big, and in fact I didn't see any of the movies until I read someone on Tumblr (c. 2012) going on about (paraphrased) how awful it was that people liked Loki because he was the absolute worst and if you liked him you were a gross immoral person and you should feel bad. So I went and watched this Avengers movie everyone was talking about. And guess what haters? He is terrible and I love him.

Parker (Leverage)

Although I am not brave enough to throw myself off buildings, sometimes I amuse myself by thinking "what would Parker do?" and since a canonical option involves stabbing someone who's bothering her with a fork and jumping out a window, the thought cheers me up even if I can't do that.

Aziraphale (Good Omens)

He just wants people (aside from Crowley) to leave him alone in his bookshop. He never fits in with his "side" but tries to do what they want anyway, because that's the good thing to do, and he wants to be good. I can relate so hard, buddy.

Milo Thatch (Atlantis: The Lost Empire)

Ok so... I totally had a crush on Michael J. Fox and I was already interested in linguistics back when this movie came out, and then here's a main character voiced by him who was a linguist! Milo had to be my favorite :D

Elena Fisher (Uncharted)

I will fully admit that some of my initial love of Elena came from her AI covering my panic-flailing self early on in the first Uncharted game (I'm THE WORST at games with guns, even on easy, it's actually embarrassing) - but she impressed me right away when she was not overly impressed by Nate. And her snark game is on point.

Zeb (Star Wars Rebels)

I feel like Zeb needs more love. Comic relief character who actually has an unbelievably tragic backstory! And his story has so much untapped potential! We never really get to explore what happened with Lasan, and then then dump Kallus in there with his defection to the Rebellion and his whole *handwaves* history with the Lasats and eventual apparent (b)romance with Zeb - and the show had so little to say about it! Huge angsty storytelling miss right there. (Dave why.)

Brian Finch (Limitless [2015])

This dude! Lovable but he would be SO exasperating to deal with IRL. His arts-and-craftiness just resonated with me. He was always making stuff out of toothpicks and yarn and papier mâché and clay and and and- I'm still mad this show only got one season.

zero-pressure tags: @mari-mary, @ayaitch, @hannahmationstudios, @inomakani, @fogsblue, @nerd-artist, @singingkestrel, @prototypelq, @tjerra14, @artekai or just consider yourself tagged if you want to do it!

[bitimdrake]

Do you think there could be a compelling and well-written way for Jason to ever start healing from his trauma? I get the tragedy and all is why so many people like his character and all but it’s been over 18 years since he came back and I’ve grown apathetic to the whole “I died boohoohoo” thing. Idk the way DC is written makes it hard to me to feel the same way I did when he first came back as Red Hood because death is so meaningless in that universe, now more than ever. I feel the same way about Bruce and his whole mess of trauma and want to see them do something new, yknow? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

.

Absolutely!!

I think I end up hammering on the tragedy and angst aspect a lot because it's the part I feel gets most lost--certainly in fluffy batfam fics, but also in DC canon just abruptly declaring him totally part of the family now don't worry about it after Flashpoint. I think the legitimate trauma Jason has, the significant differences in principle with the other bats, and the harm he's done them in turn, have gotten worn down and minimized, and it's a bummer!

But I would like to see him heal from his trauma and like. have a real arc.

That's my biggest problem with Jason in canon thus far*. It's not that he is a hero now and aligned with his family. It's that we never got to see how that really happened. He was a villain one second, and then the universe got rebooted, and suddenly we were supposed to just infer this off-screen development.

(*Thus far being up to where I have read, which is through the New 52. Cannot comment beyond that yet.)

In my dream where I get to rewrite the history of DC, we would have spent like five years watching Jason gradually progress from the remorseless antivillain he became by the end of preboot into someone healthier, with more actual morals, a principled antihero. And working out his various relationships with his family along the way.

Unfortunately, because DC skipped to the end of that theoretical arc without ever actually doing the arc, we're sorta...stuck.

The status quo is where it is. DC can't pretend Jason has been an antagonist this whole time and give him the arc now. Red Hood has been a significant part of the batfamily for years. They can't just insert the 'Jason heals' arc because theoretically he's already done that. But also, so long as we never actually see that arc, it's never truly going to feel resolved.

This is the crux of the Jason Todd problem.

Anyway, I feel you on the death thing as well. When Jason died (I'd argue even when he came back), death was a lot more meaningful and significant. His death really meant something, and his return was a huge shake up.

But since then...everyone's died. And now there's this awkward disconnect between (a) in story, all these people having gone through the traumatic event of dying and returning which should probably be significant for them all, and (b) out of universe, Jason's death being considerably more significant than anyone else's and a core part of the character.

Jason's death can't really be a meaningless joke (though he absolutely can recover from the trauma), because we all know it wasn't; it was a huge deal. But we also can't have all the characters act like his death was significant while a bunch of other death's aren't, because then they just seem insane and myopic. But we can't have everyone act like every death is significant, because then we wouldn't be able to do anything else except reflect on the massive amount of death and trauma around here, plus it would be so hollow to most readers who know a lot of these comic books deaths were just cheap shock value that got immediately reversed. And around and around and around--

It's a fucking mess. I have plenty ideas of how I could fix it in a rewrite (whether fanfic or magic time travel where I Fix DC Comics). But I don't have a lot of ideas of how to fix it now, over a decade after the problem started.

Although, to return to your very first question: even if we can't fix everything, yes, I do think a good writer could give a compelling story of Jason healing from his tragedy, without a doubt. I do think that angle can still be explored and developed, because it has not be closed off.

...the biggest problem there would just be that comics are cyclical, and you know some other writer would come in two years later and revert him back to brooding about his death all the time, because that's the version of the character they're used to.

[mdhwrites]

I saw you on Twitter ask why Hexside was part of the story, and I remember that the school element was something forced on Dana by Disney that she had to work with, which is why it loses relevance come S2.

I'm going to be blunt: I mean Gus, Willow and Amity when I say Hexide isn't a part of the story. After all, a setting is mostly a tool to a writer and frankly I think TOH uses its school setting pretty well. It understands how incredibly useful a school setting is for introducing its characters, enabling easy explanations for characters of a certain age to come together and the sorts of events that are made possible by a school setting, such as clubs, dances, sports, etc. But none of that explicitly had to stop it from being plot relevant. Eda actually gets part of her backstory filled technically the one time she goes to Hexide as an adult. We then get that made redundant by Them's the Breaks Kid. King has a good B plot about stage fright during Grom, though it's contradicted by his one other appearance at Hexide where he immediately takes over a classroom. Still, it was proven that the two could do something with Hexide. Here's the problem: King has two B plots with Gus, one meaningful conversation with Willow and one adventure with Amity where Amity ignores him for the majority of it and he's there mostly for comic relief. Eda has one B plot with Gus, shared with King, zero real conversations with Willow and serves the same role as King in Eclipse Lake with Amity so gets no meaningful interactions with her either. The Hexide Squad (and frankly this includes Hunter too) and Eda/King are NOT ALLOWED TO INTERACT. Eda spends more meaningful time with EDRIC than she does with AMITY. And one of those Luz's girlfriend. And remember that Found Family, especially Found Family with King, is theoretically the most important part of the series as it literally revives Luz and allows them to win. And yet more than half the cast isn't allowed to even interact with the Found Family. Well what about Hunter? Hunter is at least plot relevant, right? Well... Yes. But if you cut out Labyrinth Runners then Hunter can go to the Titan Hunters with Luz and we can spend some time actually dealing with what just happened to him. Willow's role with Hunter in S2 bare minimum is to have a point of connection through "Don't judge a book by it's cover" and "I've struggled with magic too" which... *gestures at the magicless, bullied human* It's really not that different from Hunting Palisman frankly. Amity gets a Hunter moment too but the larger point of Eclipse Lake isn't anything Amity says but the fight forcing Hunter to use/bond with Flapjack which would have been done by Harpy Eda had she not been busy off screen. These are moments that are either wholly unnecessary outside of shipping or just easily replaced by Luz so that Hunter gets a real connection with anyone instead of four half formed ones by the time he's redeemed. And of those three moments, only Amity's holds real character weight for the Hexide character in question. After all, Willow's problems with magic didn't last long, SKARA is one of those 'don't judge a book by their cover' characters for some fucking reason, and Sport in a Storm is generally agreed to be about Hunter much more than Willow while Amity's character stuff in Eclipse Lake is actually relevant to both Hunter and her. It's also, as I want to point out, actually new since Willow's stuff is mostly a retread of Hunting Palisman.

The only other thing that can be argued is the importance of the Abomatons and... really? If that's your argument, it's pretty weak. The Abomatons never are portrayed as a proper threat to the heroes, to the point where they had to make an ULTIMATE MECH SUIT for Kikimora in order to try and say that THAT thing was a real threat. You easily swap out Abomaton for Emperor's Coven Captain and nothing changes except you don't add literal robots to your fantasy setting. And no, I don't count them as golems because the circuitry and metal is what's made out to make them powerful rather than the magic or the magical material. And the final aspect to talk about is themes. I've talked before that either Gus or Willow needed to be cut because they are such natural savants capable of only one form of magic, doomed to never be able to perform others correctly (this is explicitly Willow's issue) that they actually make it look like Belos is straight correct with the coven system. Bare minimum, they both come off as chosen ones in their own field. Amity at least can claim to have studied and trained to get to her position of power. Self expression is very loosely explored with Willow being better at plant magic at least. It's theoretically a large part of what Amity is about but her defiance against the old pressures that made her conform and be bad is so weak and limp that really, how much does it feel like any sort of struggle? This actually becomes worse as the feeling that she does everything for Luz becomes stronger and stronger. Rather than "This is the real Amity!" it starts coming off as "Amity swapped her mom with Luz for who she was modeling her life after." And the final point on this portion I want to make is that Dana claims that from a very early point, they knew they wanted a queer romance. Amity is that romance. The school isn't to blame for Amity never interacting with Eda and King. It's not to blame for how much time Amity's arc took because I do agree with people when they say the romance isn't rushed. It's given SO MUCH TIME as to feel decently natural if we ignore the ease in which Amity discards her past. If the school was forced upon the show... It used it for the part that frankly should never have been a part of the show anyways. Because The Owl House is a comedy adventure with major themes of found family and fantasy versus reality. The romance with Amity is explicitly even framed in the show as part of Luz's fantasy, through multiple lines from Luz, and she is not a part of the found family. Amity has no business here. But Amity is also why the show was more popular than Amphibia, at least on social media.

Let's talk about the Catch 22 that is the Hexide Squad. All of them minus Gus really. Shipping is a very powerful thing after all. Amity is also what allows Luz to be openly Bi in a way she wouldn't be able to otherwise. A way that is more definitive. Amity being explicitly a lesbian was a HUGE marketing point for the show to the fandom, especially as part of why The Owl House is more special than other cartoons. These are also the characters who are most popular in the fandom. They reflect the age demographic (Hunter included) and are pretty well written teenagers so it's easy to see why people latch onto them. This actually got so bad between S1 and 2 that some people who hadn't properly watched the show, only having been exposed to the shipping art, that they though AMITY was the main character. Which I don't wholly blame them for. S1 Amity has really strong protagonist hair.

Without the Hexide Squad, you don't have shipping and LGBTQIA as such forefront elements of the show. It's frankly the exact problem that theoretically Amphibia S1 faced. Lots of people apparently skipped S1 (and I really need to do a blog on how incredibly well written the first couple episodes of S2 are to even allow that) of Amphibia because they didn't like Anne. They didn't connect with the frogs. They needed more of the trio instead because people who look human are much easier to connect with from an audience perspective. Also from an art perspective, they're going to be a lot easier to draw because you have more references and more experience drawing humans. Amphibia knew what it was though. It was a story about friendship, relationships, Found Family, the complexity of relationships and how they're grown, challenged, etc. and S1 of Amphibia is CRUCIAL to that. Frankly, the decision to make Anne unlikable (in a really entertaining way to me and she normally gets genuinely punished in some way for being a bitch) and to keep S1 almost exclusively with the frogs is a braver creative choice to me than probably ANYTHING The Owl House does. Especially if we're not talking about societal contexts, because Amity is frankly, imo, the only brave thing about TOH and her arc of getting with Luz isn't brave or new or different at all from straight romances that have done that dynamic. She's only 'brave' because it's LGBTQIA+ which by the time Owl House would have been greenlit, that ball was already moving for them. Korra for Nickelodeon existed. Steven Universe for multiple reasons for Cartoon Network. The writing was probably on the wall by then for Adora and Catra for She-Ra as far Netflix representation goes. At that point... Disney was being pressured by their competitors to either start including representation in their televised stuff or getting lots of attention on why they aren't including representation while their main competitors are. And no corporation wants that sort of attention. It actually gets worse btw if you don't count SPoP because then it becomes even clearer about them wanting to get ahead of their competition with the first LGBTQIA+ main character and they failed even at that. But that gets into a lot of themes for why every July EVERY corporation, regardless of politics (Minus Chick Fil A because holy shit that company is religious and fuck Chick Fil A), gets covered in rainbows in someway. In fact, to the point where Skittles lost their Rainbow last year to give it to the LGBTQIA+. That's not a joke. That actually happened. But to get back on topic: You also don't get straight shipping with Huntlow. You don't have Gusthollomewl as your mlm representation. Hexide is ALL about the shipping. Literally. Every episode needs to feature a ship being pushed forward. That's why two of Gus' three episodes feature Matt and then his third has that atrocious moment where Hunter is able to identify Willow better than her BEST FRIEND. Hell, let's take this one step further: Them's the Breaks Kid's main function, as one of our very few real glimpses into the past, is to show Raeda. Just make you sure all adore Raeda. Understand that these two are soulmates and if you don't understand that, what the fuck is wrong with you?

BUUUUUUT Them's the Breaks Kid is also arguably the best episode of S2B. It's easily the most fun, possibly more fun and just entertaining than any other episode than S2 as a whole. It's an episode that embodies how much of a waste of time Hexide is, even when using a main character like Eda, while also showing that the show clearly knows how to have way more fun with a school setting than its own fantasy setting. So if Disney forced them to include a school setting... It sounds like Disney knew the strengths of the writers better than the writers did and knew what the real draws to the show were better than the writers. =========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[menacing-anon]

I’m kicking off my set of posts on season 1 overall, especially as an adaptation, with this one about structure, additions and omissions.

Alice mentioned somewhere on Tapas that she initially intended for Heartstopper to be a novel, but showing events in the characters’ lives without escalating and resolving overarching conflicts was better suited to a webcomic. The show changed it to allow that, and I think they really pulled it off! I have a long explanation in me about how pretty much every issue I’ve seen people have with Love, Simon doesn’t happen in the novel, and I believe most of them are the result of adaptation to cinematic convention, so it’s inextricable from my thoughts about adaptation across mediums and my go-to example of it being at the expense of the story. Heartstopper, on the other hand, is a nice example of retaining a good and similar story while staying in keeping with the TV season format.

What’s also super interesting is that the changes can be subtle and add up, because the show has a lot of the same scenes, in the same order, sometimes even with almost identical dialogue, but the adjustments they make collectively shift the story. That’s also why they’re easier to notice when looking at the whole season. The best example might be Charlie’s apparent low self-esteem: there are multiple instances of Charlie being down on himself added to scenes of the comic. Here are my posts on how the two versions of Nick and Charlie individually are different.

The show kind of stretches the comic: it often takes a couple scenes and has a whole episode surrounding them. I would say that its additions do a few things that all come down to fleshing out the story: they, a, build plotlines more gradually, b, develop and escalate conflicts, and c, take the opportunity to further explore major themes. I’ll elaborate on each 🙂

With regards to the more spacious buildup, it’s things like all the fuss surrounding Tara before she comes out to Nick, and it can be a little fillery. In the comic, Tao tells Charlie that he heard Nick likes a Tara Jones from Higgs, and the next we hear of her is when Harry meddles at his party. And that works. So, strictly speaking, Charlie asking Elle to find out whether Tara likes Nick, Tara coming out to Elle and thus also the viewers beforehand, Elle reassuring Charlie, and Harry and Christian discussing Nick’s opportunity to talk to Tara are not indispensable — they’re just other events surrounding the ones that give us key information. However, this type of additions let us spend more time with and get to know the characters, which is awesome, and the greatest benefit from it probably comes to Taoelle. In the chapters of the comic corresponding to season 1, we only see them together at the bowling alley, and most of their romance is just direct characterization: other people note that they like each other a couple times. In the show, we get to see a lot of them together, their romantic storyline is set up and progresses, and there are scenes dedicated to it.

In terms of brewing conflicts, I’d say the conflicts in question are with Nick’s mates, Tao’s concerns, and Charlie’s insecurity. For instance, Nick actually undoes telling off Harry at the party, so Harry can stay the crux of Nick’s social pressure. But honestly, this whole storyline is one of the biggest changes from the comic, I think: it’s really relevant in the show, it’s almost The conflict, but it barely exists in the source material. Tao’s conflict, too, is way more significant. Both call for their own posts, linked here for Nick's friends and here for Tao. And most of the aforementioned post about Charlie could work as an elaboration on the third one. Anyway, they all reach boiling points in the last two eps of the season, unlike the comic, which moves pretty uniformly. There’s also Ben’s little comeback, which might’ve been intended as part of Charlie’s crisis, but then I think it could’ve been executed more effectively, since what Ben threw at him wasn’t really what Charlie was worrying about. It may also have been thrown in for structure in its own right. Show seasons and movies often have a low point where every storyline has gone to s***, then they’re resolved one by one; Ben Benning again pulls the show closer to the rockest possible bottom and creates another step to take up.

Finally, about exploring themes, I’m mainly thinking about Tara’s coming out storyline. The show has a mostly closeted LGBTQ+ character other than Nick and an opportunity to show, through her, other experiences related to coming out. And I’m glad they do! Here’s a post about me really liking how the season explores coming out 😅 The storyline with Imogen, which is entirely new, can also be seen as fleshing out the major theme, because it slots cleanly into the expectations and pressures Nick faces; and maybe secondarily as bulking up an existing conflict, because it fans the Tao flame.

Through all three types of additions, most characters get to be if not more impactful, then more present than in the comic. Isaac is about equally present to Aled, whom he kind of replaces, Elle makes many more appearances and actually has some influence on the plot, and Tao is waaay more involved. While Darcy hasn’t really gotten her own focus, her participation does increase along with Tara’s, who has an episode that notably explores her coming-out. Heck, even Harry and Ben have more to do.

I’ll touch on omissions briefly, because I don’t think there are many, but they did take some useful and really interesting stuff out for no clear reason, I thought. I’m pretty much just thinking of Tao in the bathroom explaining that he’s as worried as he is about Nick pulling something because Charlie was bullied really hurtfully and Tao was powerless to fix it. This definitely would’ve made it easier to see Tao’s desperation as coming from a place of hurt and fear. But also, Nick in response to that conversation saying that he wishes he had done something about it at the time, and Tao noticing that Nick is flirting with Charlie and doubting the sincerity of that, not their friendship in general. But perhaps most significantly, Christian, Sai and Otis — acronymed, that can make COS, so I call them collectively Cosine (or… Co-Sai-ne?) — blur into the other mates in the show. HOWEVER, credit where credit is very much due, you can see them being uncomfortable in the cinema in the show too,

so I assume they’ll be back and this is some great attention to detail for the retrospect. In that case, though, there will be an unnatural spike in their involvement: they would be apologizing to Nick and starting to be treated as his friends shortly after the viewers learn their names.

[midnightcreator12]

I watched Across the Spiderverse

And here are some random things my brain noticed while watching.

Spoilers ahead, you have been warned.

1: Miles’ suit is too small

In the first movie, Miles’ clothing is a BIG visual metaphor for his character arc. He has the store-bought costume for most of the movie, it doesn’t fit well, he looks like a kid in a halloween costume, just pretending to be Spiderman. When he gets a proper suit, it’s when he become more confident in not just his abilities as Spiderman but in his identity as Spiderman.

In Across the Spiderverse, serval people comment that Miles’ suit looks too tight, (Spot saying it’s bunching in the back, Spider-Punk saying it doesn’t look breathable, Peter B mentioning chafing) I think it’s meant to show that following along with the normal Spiderman script will only constrict Miles in the long run, that he has to write his own Spiderman story. Writing your own story is a heavy theme in both films and I’m betting it will carry over into the third.

2: No Mask = Abnormal

In the Spider Central chase scene, Miles isn’t wearing his mask the entire time. Normally, with characters wearing full masks, having it off is to help convey heavy emotions or valurability. But I think Miles not wearing the mask is to make him stand out as ‘other’. He is the most mold breaking Spiderman in the multiverse by the simple virtue that the spider that bit him wasn’t supposed to be there.

But you know who else doesn’t have their masks in that scene? Peter B, Gwen and O’Hara towards the end. All three of these guys have events that separate them from the normal Spiderverse ‘canon’. 

Gwen is the one bitten, when normally it’s a Peter that gets the powers, she loses her best friend instead of an uncle and it seems like the ‘police captain dies’ canon event isn’t going to happen in her world because her dad quit.

Peter B. is the closest to the traditional canon but where he diverts is the fact he managed to salvage his marriage and life. Most versions have Peter and MJ constantly just missing on working things out, because of tragedy or secrets or whatever else. Peter B not only got a happy ending but a kid as well.

O’Hara is unique in that he wasn’t bit by a spider but, if we go by the comic origin, genetically spiced spider DNA with his own in order to get unaddicted to drugs. He also relies more on tech then his powers, since the abilities he got varied a lot from the normal Spiderman powers. 

We can actually include Spider-Punk too, since he takes the mask off when they arrive and doesn’t put it back on, showing that he is ‘other’ in the sea of Spider People.

3: The Spot and O’Hara Have Construction Lines

This one I need to do a rewatch a few times to cement BUT after my first view, The Spot and O’Hara seem to be the only characters with visible construction lines in their design. The Spot’s are best scene in the first act (when he’s mostly white) and O’Hara’s are best visible during the exposition drop. 

If these two are the only characters with visible construction lines....why? Is it because both are dimension jumpers? Is it meant to tie these two somehow? Is it meant to show O’Hara is actually a bad guy?

I don’t know, I just thought it was neat.

4: O’Hara is Wrong About the Multiverse Rules

Yes, this is theory territory, bear with me for a tick.

O’Hara makes it sound like Pavitr’s dimension is going to collapse because Miles saved the police captain, because disrupting conon events will make the dimension unstable...

But Dimension 42 still exists.

42 Miles was meant to become Spiderman, but Olivia’s collider pulled the spider out of its reality and disrupted the canon. That spider is the catalyst for the canon event that kicks of the entire Spiderman story. If something like saving one guy is enough to endanger a dimension, surely disrupting the inciting incident will make the world shatter, right?

But dimension 42 is stable. Yeah, the sinister six are running rampant, probably along with a bunch of other villains, but the fabric of the reality seems to be fine.

I don’t think it was O’Hara messing with the canon that destroyed the world he was on, I think it was the fact he was there for a long time.

We know a person staying in the wrong dimension can kill them, this can be seen as reality trying to fix itself. But what if the reality can’t because the anomaly is protected? It collapses. Like a body trying to burn out parasites with a fever. But the parasites have a watch that makes them immune to heat so the body just kills itself trying to ‘fix’ things.

As long as everyone stays in the right reality, they can write where it goes. 

5: And While We’re Doing Theories!

I think Earth-42 Miles is still a good guy. Maybe he’s a little darker and probably has fewer moral qualms, but I think he and Uncle Aaron are like rebelion fighters against the sinister six and they only tied up 1610 Miles because they think he’s a part of a plot from them (evil clone, elaborate trap, ect)

Aaaand that’s all I got, everything else is things others have already pointed out.

Have a nice day!

[yummygender]

Beyond The Timelines 4: Meeting the Variant

Loki meets a very…interesting variant

(Warnings: description of bruises and vomit, spoilers for Thor and some Loki comics)

Loki sat up as he rubbed his neck. He was in the void…but not in his old appearance, no. He had his black horns and green robes. He wasn’t in the TVA uniform. Loki stood up as he walked around, nearly falling of a hill as he looked up beyond the horizon of tiny hills…until he locked his eyes on a variant with a broken off horn. Was it Sylvie?

“Sylvie!”

No response…but the the horns began to move.

“SYLVIE!!”

Loki climbed down the hill and ran up to the shadow, only for it to end up not being Sylvie…but he was a variant, just not one he’s ever met before.

“Y-you’re me.”

“…yes, what do you want?”

“I…I need help.”

“With?”

“Mobius.”

The variant lifted an eyebrow.

“Who’s that?”

“A friend…”

“Lokis don’t go out of their way to save someone unless they really really care about them…”

“Are you saying that I’m lying?”

The variant smirked.

“I’m saying you’re not telling the whole story.”

Loki hesitated. Could he be trusted? Should Loki trust the beaten up variant? He looked at the variant. A broken horn like Sylvie’s, a missing tooth and a black eye. He was beaten up.

“What happened?”

“To me or…”

“To you.”

The variant chuckled as he shook his head.

“Just a bit banged up.”

“What’s your name?”

“Iokl.”

“You…you just flipped th-“

“Yeah yeah yeah, I know…I know…I flipped ‘Loki’ to ‘Iokl’, I know.”

“Can you help me?”

Iokl rubbed his neck as he sighed.

“Sure…but what do you need help with?”

“Thanos kidnapped my friend.”

Iokl’s eyes widened at the mention of kidnapping.

“Kidnapped?”

“Yes.”

“H-how?!”

“I don’t know…”

Silence filled the air as the two stared at each other.

“Where is he?”

“He said that…he’s where it all began.”

The two began to think. It made no scene at all. The beginning. The very beginning.

“When did you first met Thanos?”

“After falling off the Rainbow Bridge…”

Loki’s eyes bugged.

“Oh no! I-If he could get to Mobius, then he can time travel a-and he…”

“The Rainbow Bridge has no fencing…”

Loki began to hyperventilate as he had a panic attack. The entire world was spinning and he felt like he was going to vomit. Thanos was going to throw Mobius off the bridge. No mortal can survive that fall. It was a long drop.

Iokl frowned as Loki eventually vomited. The poor god cared so much for Mobius.

“Do you…love him?”

“I-I mean…I am Bi, b-but I…”

He gently sat down as he continued to vomit over the cliff. Iokl knelt down and gently rubbed his back.

“I need an army.”

“You need a therapist…”

Loki glared at the younger variant as he wiped away the salvia. He wasn’t used to anyone but Mobius being gentle with him, so he was pretty jumpy at the touch.

“Don’t touch me!”

Iokl gently lifted his hands as he backed away.

“Sorry. Sorry…”

Loki and Iokl locked eyes for awhile as Loki remembered why he was here.

“You’ve meet Thanos…”

“I’ve wielded the infinity gauntlet…”

“What?!”

Iokl smiled, his eyes glistening with mischief. He was definitely planning something.

“Mhm.”

“So, you can help me?”

“Sure…but you’re gonna need an army.”

Loki nodded as he smiled.

“Thank you.”

“Of course…now let’s find you an army…we’re gonna need more Lokis.”

[zeenbean]

im bored so heres my oc description

so this was just a quick sketch. i dont reall like the style but whatever. also this storry is written to be in comic so it has a lot of character developtments and main aspects of a story

1)lola

idk why she looks so weird but anyway. she's best friend of Amy(mentioned below) she's just living, now when holiday is starting she got summer job in some coffee shop. the same coffee shop where Amy got the job. they became friends. yay. i don't have much more than that i was thinking about Gia killing her(DONT ASK ME WHY I DUNNO) but she kinda new.

2)amy

she's the main character. she has a lot of lore for some reason and her pre-version was something COMPLETELY different. but ill talk about that later. one time she goes home after school and any of her parents neither her sister aren't home. its weird, she waits, after two hours its weird. she calls the 911(not really were livin' in Czechia) and bla bla she gots teleported to another reality where she is dead. than she gots teleported back. fast forward to present day, she's in another reality, she cot control about the porting and she has some other powers like idk reality manipulation but she like can only change color of some pencils or something. than she meets kiri, bla bla, than she mets gia, version of her from another universe, bla bla, than she almost gets killed by ms B(yes its not full name i was just too bored to actually give her some name and personality of any other than being a bitch, which is kinda funny saying her "name" is ms B. in older stages she actually had a name, beliangage, but that was too long, sounded weird and also sounded for some reason like beldam from Coraline. back to Amy, I'm ending with her being in her universe after fixing what Gia did in the drawing "don't trust short-haired version of me" and someone calling on her phone. it was her "missing" mom. actually, the missing parents was one of the oldest ideas bcs i didn't wanted the orphan cliché. her parent went "missing" because Gia at that time wanted to delete her parent from reality and accidentally deleting them from EVERY universe. bye this was long.

3)gia

what am i supposed to say. she stopped talking to her family bcs she found out about her powers and the amazing ms b, like girl- anyways, she's weird. she likes the idea of the whole universe being deleted except one, even though ms b wanted more amy to help her and that is the reason why gia is jealous of amy, she wanted to be the best one. bla bla, she gets mad ot her for something, she pretends to be her in the news, the drawing "dont trust short-haird version of me" happens and she realizes what se had done. but no redemption. were not doing that here. shes supposed to be here bcs even tho she could be "bad" and amy "good", theyre there to compliment eachother nd show that amy. is. not. good. pls. im not doing this anymore.

4)kiri

starting with my favorite, namelogy(does that even exist?) a lot of people thought that the name is from avatar, but i had the idea of her even before. ind the name comes from...cheese. i need help. in our country theres like this cheese spread thats called "cheese kiri" and i thought it would be so funny if her name was kiri too. potentionally a punchline for a joke that would be too cringe to even be written in the script. so about kiri, she just like spawned to amys life, she was like one of the customers and she forgot to do something with her eyes and amy was like wtf so she asked her, she didnt respond, but than she gave her a little note with like can you come please outside at 17:00 i need to tell you something, than telling her something and than disappearing💀. anyways, i thought about that lot but i was thinking if her and amy maybe getting together. i didnt want romance in that story bs i dont really enjoy romance media myself(except good omens, everything except good omens, GO is consuming my brain for the last year and i dunno what to do) so idk.

anyway, little bit of namelogy for the other ppl. the most generic one is gia, i just searched some names. originally amy was supposed to be gia and gia also gia but that would be too much confusing for everyone, even i now mess up somethings their names. amy how i said was supposed to be gia but than i heard the sonf from Britney Spears "if u seek amy" for thr bazzilionth time and thought it would be really good idea to net have two characters that almost look the same,ARE THE SAME PERSON and have the same name so i just picked amy. i actually have a classmate and exbestfriend amy and ppl around me thought she was the inspiration for the name but no, and if ur reading this amy, no sorry, ur not special. and the origin of lola? when i thought about naming her, it was around that time when the song "her name was lola, she was a show girl" was trending so i just went for lola. no funny story, no cheese.

okey this was a lot of work. english is not my first language so im sorry if there was some mistakes. if this wasn't about my ocs, id give it to my english teacher to give me some extra grade bcs she cant speak English and she gives me bad grades just bcs she marks some shit wrong even if its right.

thats it, bye.

[qqueenofhades]

Question: have you read the Sandman comics? Because I haven’t (and probably won’t, because I have a very strange relationship with Gaiman’s writing, despite overall liking him quite a lot), but from what I’ve gathered and from the snippets that I’ve seen, it seems that the series changed Hob’s personality quite a bit? Or not even the series but maybe just Ferdinand Kingsley’s portrayal of Hob? Because in the comics (as far as I understood and gathered) a) there is no queer subtext (or,,,, like I think mayhaps,,,,, it’s just text in the series), b) Hob in the series seems to be… softer? Less masculine? Idk how to explain. Maybe softer is a good word, he seems more open and very vulnerable to me in the series, while in the comics there is like… a bro energy to him.

So, what do you think? A lot of changes were definitely done on purpose but I don’t know if this one is not just an accident. But at the same time Kingsley just openly says that that is a queer relationship and Gaiman says that when Dream went to talk to Shakespeare it’s like your date just abandoning you to flirt with someone else. But still the original story wasn’t queer I think. But I am not sure why would they make these changes and how can it change the story. Basically a lot of thoughts, sorry for dumping them on you!

I have not read the comics, though from what I know, the essential beats of Hob's character are generally the same between formats. I.e. he is tormented for the rest of time about his role in the slave trade, he becomes wiser and kinder as time goes on, he has a genderfluid boy/girlfriend (Jim/Peggy) sometime in the 1920s and thus is arguably canonically queer, he is Morpheus's human friend, etc. But yes, things have been changed between the 1980s and 2022, and writing/acting choices are obviously never something that "just happens;" everything is done for a reason. So yes, the fact that they cast Hob as a young hot guy, and had Ferdinand Kingsley and Tom Sturridge play up the UST/subtextual romantic/clearly queer longing and pining, is not an accident. What they intend to do with it from here (RENEW SANDMAN NOW NETFLIX YOU COWARDS), who knows, but yes.

I have seen people who HAVE read the comics saying that they didn't expect to ship Hob and Dream in the TV show, so clearly the dynamic was Gayed Up, but then, the rest of the show was also Gay AF so I feel like that was a valid choice. Morpheus also seems to have experienced more character development than he did in the comics, as well as admitting his mistakes and growing closer to humanity, so having him actually fall in love with a human (however they choose to end that WHICH WE ARE NOT THINKING ABOUT) would be an interesting next step. Hob is also not mortal, so technically the curse of the Endless's relationships with mortals always ending badly wouldn't apply here. They have thus far (according to my Sandman-comic-expert friend) stuck fairly closely to the comic storyline, and as I said, I am not qualified to offer any predictions on what would happen with the Dreamling relationship from here. I'm just going to sit in my corner and write my gay little fanfiction and have a good time until then.

[kimberlyannharts]

Boom released a first look at the MMPR Anniversary book; the first page of each story! I'll just share each page and give my general thoughts since there's not much else to go on yet

First is Ernie's story, which is apparently done as tribute to Richard Genelle, which is sweet, even if Ernie isn't the most exciting character to see a story about. It's already basically confirmed that Ernie knew the teens were Power Rangers but it would be nice to get that in writing

Next is........oh. Yeah.

I'll be honest I'm probably not going to give this story a fair shake but I want to wait for the actual story to see if my criticisms are legit. So for now I'll just say a) i think that's the Master Morpher so I'm guessing this is post-DT, but I'm not sure why he has long hair??? b) I like that bounty hunter's design

Next is Alpha-5's story, which obv I'm very excited for as an Alpha stan!!! Obviously they're referencing Alpha-1 here but I kind of hope we get hints as to what happened to Alphas 2 through 4

Next is the Ranger Academy intro story which............yeah I have no idea what to make of the timeline now kjkjdkfj like I guess Billy is....a teacher at Ranger Academy? Or he's just a teacher at this institute and helps out at Ranger Academy? I don't know how that works considering he's supposed to be in Aquitar?????? If he's only a "few years older" than his grad students, then he must be in his late twenties at the most. So Ranger Academy really is set in modern times???????? I guess that would explain Merrick but????!????!?? Is it in the prime comic timeline or a different timeline???????? what is HAPPENING

man i don't know. Anyway. THE MAIN ATTRACTION

AMY SAID YOU'RE NOT MISSING OUT ON TOMBERLY IN THIS BOOK ON MY WATCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVERYBODY SAY THANK YOU MOTHER

For those unaware, this is the introduction for Amy Jo Johnson's miniseries, which is explicitly stated to be "her version" in an alternate universe. So we're treading entirely new ground here! I'm very excited

Also I like the teens' designs. Obviously as it's established they became rangers thirty years ago like the show but it's a nice blend of 90s' show and modern designs

[the-heart-of-a-monster]

I feel so bad for our main three... Sonic is gonna be locked in his Gaia form for a long time, Shadow is gonna be stressing about the details, and poor little Chip is gonna be pushing himself to do all that he can to keep the team intact. I don't know if Tails is coming along for the ride, which he probably isn't, but if he is I really wanna see his reaction to the Werehog form.

OKOKOK I AINT GETTIN SIDETRACKED TODAY BINCH-

Seeing Sonic just staring at Shadow in that last panel has a lot of meanings/implications btw. First, it means that he's trying to clue into whatever Shadow is talking about with Rouge, aka himself. He knows it's something about him because he just has this gut feeling, and watching his boo talking in such a low tone like this... To Sonic it doesn't feel right. Before the previous night, the two weren't really withholding much information from each other, and there was rarely an air of secrecy between the two. They got along just fine! But after what happened with the Gaia monsters and Sonic accidentally going apeshit, there is suddenly this weird rift between the two that Sonic can feel, and he can tell that it's getting bigger and bigger by the hour. He doesn't want that. So, he's trying to listen in on what Shadow's saying to Rouge, hoping that if he knew more then there would be a better chance in fixing his relationship with Shadow.

And that's not even getting into how the guy feels responsible for said rift in their dynamic-

Oh and of course we can't forget the other implication of him staring, which is just him staring because he's in love or whatever. (Gay gay homosexual gay)

Another thing I want to note about Chip is that the poor guy just wants to help! :( He's doing all that he can to keep Sonic and Shadow from splitting apart, because even he can tell that something is up. He doesn't know exactly how to fix it, but he does know that honesty is a good policy. That's one of the only things he knows in ethics let's be real. So since he knows that being honest is the equivalent to being trustworthy and a good person, he tries to clue Tails in just a little, dropping some hints here and there about Sonic's condition, while also being super vague. (I think that's what the quicksand thing was about?? Sorry it's been a while lol) Meanwhile Shadow is trying to do the exact opposite, trying to keep everyone as out of the loop as they can except for Team Dark, because A. They're his family, and B. They already knew. Unbeknownst to him, this isn't a good way to handle a kid, and this is not what good parenting looks like, so it unfortunately dampens Chip's mood, which is something that he and the reader DOES NOT WANT.

WHY DO WE HAVE A PANEL WITH SAD CHIP NOW WHY WE DIDNT ASK FOR THIS OKAY WE DIDNT NEED THIS IT IS NOT OKAY WE ARE NOT FINE AFTER THAT-

Okay I am FINALLY DONE with this "Ask," I apologize for how big this is! :p I love reading your comic and then analyzing everything every character ever does, it's such a great passtime! Hope to do this again with either the next page or the one after that if my lack of motivation doesn't strike once more!

NOOO DONT BE SORRY THESE ASKS MAAKE MY DAY!!!!

i like your observation about sonic and shadow's trust with eachother. I'd just like to propose one little thing: how do we know shadow hasn't been withholding information the entire time aswell? who's perspective is this story told from?

the answer is none obviously but i do consciously chose whos characters thoughts we are allowed to know and who's not

oh and sweet innocent chip.... don't worry he's gonna have his arc

[fantomette22]

Master post : Bloodborne & fan arts 

EN : Here's a compilation of some of my posts about Bloodborne and some of the fan arts I've made about it. I will update this some times to times.

FR : Voici une compilation de mes quelques publications sur Bloodborne et des quelques fan arts que j'en ai fait. Ce post saura mit à jour de temps en temps. (Par contre le reste est tout en anglais, mais si vous voulez une trad de certains posts ça pourrait ce faire. Faudra juste demander ^^).

My youtube channel with Bloodborne boss captures.

The Knight and the Beast of Cainhurst : One of the first BB related drawing/story I imagined. One day I would try to actually write a story about it.

Funny drawing based on the "yes b slay, meme". This is why hunters and tomb prospectors don't wear armors. There's already enough in the old labyrinths x)

Meeting at Cainhurst. A drawing about a part of one of my stories. Importants "firsts" encounters between importants characters...

"WHO SUMMONED ME" meme drawing with the first beckoning of the Moon Presence & the creation of the Hunter's dream.

Hunter's training at Byrgenwerth, from long ago. A funny comic page I've made. Basically, Lau, Gher & Mar are being chaotic with fire for 5 minutes straight.

Martyr Logarius headcanons (+ pthumerians & church servants thoughts).

Paarl headcanons

Archibald & Izzy headcanons

Drawings of my interpretations of Gherman through the years. Some kind of evolution line designs of our dear first hunter. How I imagined his appearance evolution within the game lore.

Laurence is SMALL

Hidden/secret connection between the Rakuyo & the Blade of mercy.

Long post about Laurence the first Vicar : tons of headcanons + a tons designs of how I imagined him through the years. ( At least 1 interpretation).

Revisiting Cainhurst & asks : 1, 2, 3

Some stuff I need to talk about one day. And I forgot a lot of things too.

Thoughts on the Plain Doll : My hypothesis about the original purpose of the doll (mourning doll) + a lot of ideas

The Knight and the Beast of Cainhurst part 2 : Following the precedent drawing I did the sequel ! It actually happened a lot of time after the first part, in the story.

The Knight and the Beast of Cainhurst fanfiction : My first ever fanfic ! Based on some Bloodborne drawings i’ve made. It’s really similar to a fairytale. Still son’t know how i managed to actually write it down but i’m quite happy with the result.

ALL the Caryll runes and what they do

Characters design of the Byrgenwerth staff & students ! : One of my interpretation of the past apparence of some beloved Bloodborne characters! Part 1 with only the staff & part 2 with only the stufents

Funny drawing of the Byrgenwerth staff + students running away after a bar fight.

Little one shot+ drawings : Always in the Bloodborne headcanons/fics ideas here’s my last writing and drawing with about hunting lesson + a bit of plot (training/ preview if i wrote my fic)

Post about the meaning/significations of all the Bloodborne characters names

little drawings about the beast possessed soul & the chalice dungeon!

Drawing about the Crows !

Drawing with Dores & snake !

My big fic project retracing the lore and history of Bloodborne : Yharnam’s communion (in english & french)

Part 1 : A scholar’s dream : focus on Byrgenwerth, the chalice dungeons, the discovery of the old blood & how the first hunters and the Healing Church came to be ! (Bonus Caryll runes & other shenanigans)

Drawing with the guardians of the hunter’s dream !

Some Cainhurst portraits headcanons

Caryll headcanons

Lucen Venator (the hunter) headcanons

Rom headcanons

Gehrman backstory headcanon

Headcanons about the old hunters squad pets

Drawing / headcanon about the framed photograph in the Astral Clocktower

Oneshot about the small hair ornament

1 year since I played Bloodborne drawing : The old hunters !

Bloodborne 8th anniversary drawing and asks list !

A concerning discovery of children remains in Bloodborne

Some ideas and design about Maria at the Research hall

Small observations about the brain fluid & parasites in Bloodborne

Disturbing discovery about the fishing Hamlet : theory

10 pages bloodborne fancomic about Gehrman’s past and the sad reality to be accused of becoming a beast in Yharnam.

A few Laurence thoughts and headcanons : X - X - X - X

A few sweets gehrmaria headcanons

Headcanons of my version of the King Consort of Cainhurst !

A few ideas on Logarius

A few Caryll & Rom drawings

2 drawings about the death of Lady Maria ;-; : Fallen Leaves and this other one (blood warning)

Inktober 2023 master post.

Dogs of Bloodborne

You can find my drawings at #my art or #fantomette22art

(A lil Lucen drawing made by my friend @oddsonly)