#being disabled AND injured freaking sucks

[butchwheels]

feeling. like a nuisance. relying on ppl a lot right now physically and financially til my carpal tunnel surgery in november (hopefully) bc obv as a wheelchair person i can't do much w/o my hands. i feel like i keep fawning and going all meek and having to be extra grateful and be as small as possible and as pleasing as i can be all the fcking time and it's so exhausting. feeling like a burden. and when someone helps me but is visibly grumpy about it i literally want to explode. like my self worth falls down the drain and i want to disappear. i just want my autonomy back so bad. i'm losing my mind

[avelera]

Maintaining Scope of Violence in Your Story's World

I saw an interesting discussion in the Baldur's Gate 3 subreddit, commenting how a player's immersion was broken when a version of the player character, known as "The Dark Urge", is apparently to blame for a particularly brutal murder and yet the companion characters don't turn on him/her/them immediately. The commenter was baffled given the brutality of the killing. Yet many replies pointed out that other members of the party are also murderers or tapdancing on the edge of committing atrocities, not to mention other mitigating circumstances that it would be spoilers to go into.

This got me thinking about scope of violence in genre fiction and how, on top of all the other difficult jobs the writer has before them, establishing what level of violence is "commonplace" vs "shocking" can be a surprisingly delicate process.

(Cut for length. Includes references to Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, John Wick, and NBC's Hannibal in an exploration of how to establish the scope and scale of on-screen violence. TW for discussions of violence against children in shows like GoT and HotD, though it is largely in abstract terms.)

I'm reminded of "House of the Dragon" (HotD) which, I must confess, I found to have rather patchy and uneven writing.

One moment in HotD that I found rather dissonant, shall we say, was when a child of the nobility loses his eye in a brawl with other children. His mother, an aristocrat, is understandably horrified and enraged. However, some of the threats she makes to equally powerful Houses over the incident feel, dare I say, disproportionate to the event, given that her threats could lead to the world as she knows it being plunged into civil war, all over what amounts to a tussle between children, albeit one that ends in a particularly gruesome manner.

On the one hand, any modern mother likely would completely freak out at such an appalling injury as a lost eye from a knife fight between children. That would be a major shock to a modern community, where such violence is quite rare. And in fairness, the aristocrats of the world of "Game of Thrones" and HotD by extension are largely insulated by their privilege from the day to day violence we see portrayed in the series. If anyone was realistically going to have a modern response to a child's maiming, it would be the sheltered daughter of a noble house with regards to her beloved child.

However, as understandable as her reaction might be to modern viewers and to those who take into account her sheltered upbringing, in my mind, the show's narrative wobbled there in terms of establishing the level of violence that is considered commonplace in the world of HotD/GoT. In the first season of Game of Thrones, we famously saw a child pushed out of a window, permanently disabled and left in a coma for months, and while this is a major event that creates a great deal of tension and conflict, ultimately the family after their attempts at individual revenge the fact is they can't start a civil war over this single event. So in a way we're sort of left with: this is just a thing that happens that we have to suck up and deal with, even if certain individuals might wish to and continue to pursue a personal vendetta. Couple that with commoner children being murdered and the deaths going completely unremarked upon by wider society, we're left with the impression of a world in which brutality, even brutality against children which would grind a modern community to a halt, is simply an ugly and relatively common part of life. A life with so much ugliness and personal violence that it really almost gets lost amidst all the other horrors.

Which makes the HotD mother's reaction feel... disproportionate. Not in relation to her child's suffering, which is entirely understandable, but her view of what retaliation constitutes a proportional response comes across as hysterical. Too modern. Children are horrifically injured in the GoT/HotD world all the time. Frankly, by comparison, a lost eye is almost minor compared to a loss of mobility in a rigorously martial world, access to which Bran lost with his fall. We don't get as good of a set up of what the conflicting morals of this world are, we don't get the comparison between commoner and noble children as clearly as in GoT, we don't really get all the conflicting views of "When is it normal to start a civil war over a child's injury?" - the sense of scope and scale of violence and how we and the characters are supposed to react to it... wobbles.

Along these lines, I've also pointed out that in shows like NBC's Hannibal, the show is scrupulously careful about not really referencing global events like wars. In my mind, there's a simple reason for that. Your average drone attack on civilians in the Middle East kills more innocent people by accident than Hannibal Lecter has ever killed in his entire murderous career. Compared to weapons of war, one murderous serial killer is barely a rounding error in terms of death and human suffering. So the show has to remain almost claustrophobically intimate so we never get confronted with the "So what?" of the individual death and human suffering Hannibal and the other serial killers bring about on a very close, personal basis. The horror style is meant to force us to imagine ourselves if we were the victims (or the killer) in these incredibly intimate murders. If our suffering was writ large. If every individual death was massively significant. But this is in contrast with real world mass casualty events which would dwarf many times all of the deaths in the Hannibal show combined.

As a final example, the moment the first season of "True Detective" lost me was when the value of a single life also wobbled dramatically. The conceit of the show is that a single murder, or a half dozen at most, murders of young white women is worthy of a major, multi-year investigation. Yet when the investigation inadvertently leads to an outbreak of violence in a predominantly black community, shown almost immediately to kill more people (in front of their children, even) than were lost in the entire murder spree of white women that's being investigated, the show didn't seem to care at all. Individual white female victims were worthy of a breathless investigation into their untimely loss, but twice that number of black people killed in an outbreak of violence directly linked to the investigation didn't even seem worthy of commentary or reflection at all. The value of a single human life was no longer consistent. If these deaths aren't worthy of justice, then why should I care about the few individual deaths being investigated?

As with any measuring of scope in fiction, it's very hard for the author to do alone. It really is an instance where an outside pair of eyes is incredibly valuable.

But things to keep in mind while crafting a narrative around violence is just how much are readers or viewers supposed to be alarmed by individual acts of violence. It's common and indeed necessary for modern media to establish the rules of its world. Even stories nominally set in "our" world actually do almost as much worldbuilding as any fantasy tale in this respect. In a cop drama where each episode is built around a single murder, we need to inhabit a world where a single murder is worthy of dozens of people spending time and resources bringing the killer to justice. In such a world, a mass casualty event of several deaths should be shocking. To this end, like in NBC's Hannibal, it's probably best to avoid mentions of mass casualty events caused by war or natural disasters.

By contrast, an action film like John Wick might place less value on individual deaths (beyond the motivating deaths of a single dog, which is thoroughly commented on within the story as feeling disproportionate and therein lies much of what makes the plot so unique. I'd argue it is also the cutest dog ever born, but I digress). We're not going to see a lurid headline, "John Wick murders 26 local men in cold blood, read about this tragic loss along with quotes by their devastated wives and children on page 6". To a certain extent, the violence there is meant to be just shocking enough to thrill, but we're not meant to get too invested in the details of the actual body count.

And, to go even more extreme, in war or disaster movies, we see or have narrated that thousands have died at a time. Again, to go back to Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon, one reason it's hard to see the mother's reaction to her child's maiming as anything but a bit disproportionate is because we see with such brutality hundreds if not thousands of men, women, and children dying directly or indirectly as a result of war. While it's understandable that a mother would burn the world down for an injury to her child, we're not well placed to agree with or sympathize with her reactions on the broader scale, in terms of retribution that would lead to war, against a backdrop of brutal mass casualty events in the thousands where even more families are devastated and more children injured or killed.

As a final, positive word on the Game of Thrones universe, the early seasons of the GoT were actually very good at controlling the audience's reaction to the scope of violence. Namely, the Battle of the Blackwater sticks out in my mind. The world of GoT is so grounded in the mud, in ugly, personal but intimate violence done with hands or blades, otherwise rudimentary weapons, that the first time we see an explosion on a near-modern scale feels as genuinely breathtaking to modern eyes as it might have to the Medieval-eseque eyes of that world. Yet there are movies chock-full of explosions where the explosions lose impact and importance, become background noise, because they're simply one of many. By rigorously tamping down and limiting the scope and type of violence to largely hand to hand combat, Game of Thrones set up a moment where modern warfare-style explosions are awe-inspiring. Against that backdrop, the appearance of fire-breathing dragons on the battlefield is also arresting, though their capabilities would likely be dwarfed by a modern fighter jet and many viewers of GoT would be familiar with films where the scope and scale of violence is much bigger and more explosive. It feels big in GoT because the scope and scale has been so small to that point.

Once you as a writer have established the modernity of your violence, the scope and scale of it, the average body count, the importance of a single human life, it's important to stick to it. If a character has a differing view, then they should be noted as having it by the narrative. A grizzled war veteran might shrug at a small town murder investigation of a single individual, but a sleepy town might lose its mind over it. In the modern world, the lives of children are put on the highest pedestal, but once you establish in your world that some children's lives are of lower value, then showing a mother act with an understandable modern sensibility of horror and outrage still needs to be commented on so we understand where her reaction falls within her society, especially if it's in contrast. That is what teaches us how to watch and appreciate the narrative choices as they're meant to be appreciated.

[the-owl-tree]

regarding various ideas thatve been discussed here, my vision is like 

After the whole “seriously considered murdering him” bit in sunset, Firestar demoted Brambleclaw and made Brackenfur deputy. Cardboard cutout of a man 

Initially Jay is brightheart’s apprentice, Holly is Leafpool’s, lion is brackenfur’s 

In a battle that makes Jay and Holly change their minds (for Jayfeather I feel like I would want him to have some kind of arc about internalised ableism,, like he has to learn a nuanced lesson about how he doesn’t need to be productive by the standards of clan culture and it’s okay for him to acknowledge his limits and choose a different path, but also his clanmates should allow him to define his limits and not treat him like he’s made of glass. I digress) - in the battle where Holly and Jay change their minds, Brackenfur Freaking Dies and only now is bramble deputy. I think I’d want firestar to die earlier too so we can get shitty bramblestar + the most depressed squilf you’ve ever seen

Now we’ve got Jay as Leafpool’s apprentice, Holly as ashfur’s, and lion as brightheart’s because man I always felt bad she never got an apprentice again 

and with this setup I would want basically everything to be significantly more fucked up. Ashfur exacerbates Hollyleaf’s fixation on the code and power (foreshadowing tbc??), I’d want Lionblaze to like, accidentally hurt somebody really badly in training and have to grapple with feeling like a monster more. Maybe instead of Cinderheart falling out of a tree, Lionblaze accidentally injures her 

Speaking of cinderheart I want her to do some of the stuff poppyfrost does I love poppyfrost but having cinderheart narrowly escape death and feel strangely drawn towards the moonpool would be a lot more fun - I think I’d frame her being cinderpelt as something that was either accidental, or intentional but StarClan was in the wrong for not letting cinderpelt rest because I really resent the idea that cinderpelt needed a second chance at life as if the life she lived after becoming disabled wasn’t a good and worthwhile one 

So yeah cinderheart is possessed by a restless ghost, lionblaze can’t stop hurting people no matter how hard he tries, hollyleaf is just regular hollyleaf but more, jayfeather… I dunno maybe make StarClan genuinely scared of him because of how much his power allows him to defy them. Maybe he feels detached from himself and is almost constantly dissociating because he spends so much time walking in dreams and other peoples minds. I don’t know I don’t like jayfeather 

ALL THIS. And then have your thing about dove and ivy being cinderholly kits also be true do you see my vision do you understand . I am so sorry about the length of this I got carried away

I AM EATING ALL OF THIS UP BIG YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i always wished jaypaw's first battle with shadowclan was what got him to change, like it's this big awakening to what clan culture is really like. he gets the shit kicked out of him and he's like "wow. this sucks. why is everyone making this sound so great"

and big big BIG yes with cinderheart, i feel she deserved some better meat than what po3 and oots was throwing her. these are lovely i am LOOKING

[nightwingmyboi]

what do you think about nightwing in the batman animated movies (bad blood etc) personally i found it lacking but would be great to hear your thoughts on it!

Oh boy do I have thoughts lol. I’ve kind of talked about it a bit in the past, and there are aspects of these movies I enjoy, but I do find the batman animated movies a little lacking myself! I’ll just lay it on all on the table; there’s like three big issues that I have with these movies (warning: some movie spoilers ahead). 

1) The Damian Wayne focus

I love Damian, he is one of my favorite characters in the Batfam, but honestly I’ve had enough of him in movies. He was the main character in both Son of Batman and Batman vs. Robin, and he was also a major player in Batman: Bad Blood, Justice League vs. Teen Titans, Teen Titans: The Judas Contract, Batman: Hush, and even the most recent Apokolips War movie...that’s a ton of screen time fam! And most of it’s wasted in my opinion lol, because we don’t actually see Damian learn important lessons in these movies...in the comics, there was growth. Damian was initially an annoying, prideful brat. He had no respect for anyone, and he would always go off on his own and do things his way, because he thought he was better than everyone else. But he was eventually humbled. He changed; Damian grew to respect Dick, and gradually learned to work as a team and follow his Batman’s lead. And his skill set improved over time as well--Dick trained him, both in combat and particularly in detective skills, which the League didn’t bother to coach him in. 

Batman (1940) #713

The Damian in the movies doesn’t need any training; he’s already overpowered as hell. He takes Deathstroke down in the very first movie he makes an appearance in!! Which is insane. Not even going to talk about the stuff with Nightwing lol. He literally has nowhere to go skill wise. And he never truly loses his condescending attitude or learns to be a team player. In the first movie, he sneaks out of Wayne manor despite Bruce’s instructions to stay. In the second movie, he sneaks out of Wayne manor multiple times despite Bruce’s instructions to stay. In the Judas Contract, he...you guessed it...sneaks out of Titans tower to investigate things on his own. So on and so forth. He’s constantly doing things his own way. And the big way of improving this...is to send Damian away to the Himalayas instead of actually letting him form a meaningful bond with anyone in his family lol. He’s been a very static character in the movies--let him grow if he’s going to have so much screen time!

I’m also really disappointed that DC has gutted Dick and Damian’s relationship. Dick was a huge positive influence on Damian’s life in the comics; he was the first one to reach out to Damian and believe that he could be good. Their bond was an essential relationship for Damian to have. I really do think that the erasure of their mentorship/brotherhood is a big reason we have seen so little growth from Damian in these movies. 

2) The treatment of Dick Grayson 

Dick looks like this: 

DC hates him, enough said.  

...but I’ll still complain some more, because I am also not a fan of how DC makes Dick lose fights and get injured constantly. Anybody else hate his freaking SHOULDER right now??? I could point out an instance of him being nerfed in literally every single movie he has been in, but I’m not going to bother because it’s exhausting honestly. Cannot even think of a time he’s won a one-on-one fight rn. It also stinks that DC uses arcs where Dick is supposed to play a big role, and then delegates him to the sidelines, usually in order to elevate other characters. His origin story as Nightwing was the Judas Contract...and they very nearly cut him from that story (also really missed Jericho in that one, not going to lie...would have killed to see Dick and Joey interact). And in Batman vs. Robin as well, DC has the Court of Owls be the antagonists, and didn’t even bother to mention how Dick was supposed to be a Talon himself, or that his great grandfather was a Talon...which seems like a pretty big detail to me! Instead, Talon tries to recruit Damian, which is honestly just typical at this point lol. 

3) The erasure of Tim Drake and Oracle

DC should give Tim some love. He’s barely in anything lol. I actually think it’d be really cool to see Tim’s origin story play out in movie form; DC could milk the Jason-died angst for Bruce as they love to do, and seeing that NTT #55 scene with Dick and Bruce’s falling out on the big screen would be heart wrenching!! And then we would really be rooting for Tim to help fix things. I also think seeing Tim’s origins could help people connect with him. I think a big reason DC rarely puts Tim in movies is that people without intense comic book knowledge just don’t know about him or understand how he fits into things...so that would really help his character out I think. 

We also really need Oracle frankly. Why would you just erase a disabled superhero from your roster? There are few enough as it is! Barbara is so capable, her intel and computer skills are invaluable to Batman...she could really make a difference in some of these animated movies! Honestly, we just need some good Barbara Gordon in general, because the few movies she has been in as Batgirl you could cut her out and it would have zero effect on the larger plot. The one movie where she was a central character, her characterization unfortunately sucked ass. Barbara spent 75% of The Killing Joke obsessed with Batman (the other 25% she spent in the hospital), which is a disservice to her character. And every scene with her and Bruce in it made me want to tear my hair out because of how much Batman talked down to her. Especially...that one scene...was sooo yikes for me. And Babs still didn’t seem to know Batman’s secret identity afterwards, did Bruce not even take the cowl off for sex? God, I don’t even want to think about it, why did I even go there.

Anyway, there are a couple of other little beefs I have with the movies, but these are the main things that have me rolling my eyes. There are things I like about the movies as well. The fight scenes are usually pretty fun as long as they don’t involve Dick lol. The last part of the Killing Joke with Mark Hamill’s voice acting literally gave me chills, it was so good. Love Under the Red Hood, and, as long as I ignore the Nightwing erasure, the fact that DC let Kory lead the Teen Titans is stellar honestly. They seemed to take Starfire seriously for the most part, and at least they didn’t let Damian lead lol, there’s that. Honestly, sometimes I feel like the only character that is pretty consistently nailed in these movies is Alfred!

[firelord-frowny]

honestly like!

i HATE!!!! the very CONCEPT of guns. and i’m theoretically SO fundamentally opposed to violence. 

but that opposition is based on an idealist assumption that no one is doing anything that they need to be stopped from doing. 

and there are obviously a fucking hell of a lot of people doing a fucking hell of a lot of vile shit, and no amount of ~peaceful protesting~ or litigating or campaigning or Reaching Across The Aisle is going to stop them, and it’s fucking RIDICULOUS that anyone at all thinks people should just wait patiently for The Powers That Be to spontaneously manifest a conscience and finally quit trying to maim and murder people For Funsies. 

i would LOVE it we could just hug them into submission and invite them over for tea and chit chat and take their ugly ass hand and smile at them and show them that I’m Just A Normal Person Like You and have them finally decide to stop wanting me to die. and honestly, some people REALLY CAN be reached through those kinds of methods. and i don’t think people should stop trying to do that. and if anything, i think MORE people need to be trying to do that.

but i ALSO think that more people need to start punching some bigots in the fucking face. 

if self proclaimed conservatives and right wingers and proud wimpy boys get to go around committing terroristic acts against other peoples, and if the politicians and ceos they stan for refuse to take any actions to stop them at best, and at worst go out of their way to FACILITATE the suffering of all but bigoted, well-off white people....

then we should get to punch them in the fucking face and not have anyone say WORD ONE about it. 

they wanna be all big and bad and parade around threatening and committing violence against teachers and health care workers and black people and asian people and jewish people and indigenous people and women of all backgrounds, then they should be fucking tough enough to cope with a goddamn punch in the face every now and then. they should WELCOME every fist that ever collides with their flesh. 

if they want a fucking fight, we should GIVE THEM A FIGHT! and make sure they fucking lose.  make sure the pathetic little ~civil war~ they’re begging for is HUMILIATINGLY short. chase their fucking asses into the most barren, useless parts of the world where they can be vile all by themselves. 

bc i SWEAR TO GOD, the only reason why these people have any power at all to impact anything or anyone is because people LET THEM. not because they’re soooo smart, or they’re soooo dangerous, or there are sooooo many of them. it’s STRICTLY because an enormous majority of bare-minimum-decent people care more about Taking The Moral High Ground than about actually doing what’s necessary to disable evil people from doing evil things.

This is a hella problematic way to put it, buuuut

black people know not to do or say certain things to a cop because we’ve been conditioned to fear the consequences of even the most benign ~infractions.~ We swallow our fucking pride and whip out those “yes sirs” and “no sirs” and we move slowly and we try to keep our hands visible at all costs because we’ve seen, over and over again, for DECADES (centuries, really) what those people might do to us if our hand isn’t totally visible for a fraction of a second. And sometimes it doesn’t even work. Sometimes we do everything in our power to demonstrate that there’s no need to hurt us, and we get murdered anyway. 

WOULDN’T IT BE NICE if those wack ass bigots could learn to fear the consequences of being disgusting out loud and in public? 

Imagine if, over the last several decades, malicious bigots were met with SWIFT physical consequences every time they did some fucked up shit. 

do you think they’d be so bold now? 

i don’t. 

i think if they thought for one second that whoever they pull a gun on might pull one out back at them, then they would keep their fucking mouths shut and behave. i think if they LEGITIMATELY thought that they’re actual lives and their actual freedom were at stake, they wouldn’t say SHIT. Because they know that whether or not they have to wear a mask or get vaccinated or whateverthefuck has absolutely NO real impact on their place in the world. there is NO. WAY. that they would be all up in arms over something so fucking absurd if they thought anyone would actually try to hurt them in response. 

they don’t think anyone is going to show up at their dumb lil protests with tear gas. they don’t think an angry BLM activist is going to shoot up their country club in retaliation against the oppressive policies they support. they don’t think anyone is going to stop them on the street and start screaming in their face and threaten to kill them. they don’t think they’re going to lose a damn fucking thing. they think they’re literally going to just waltz into some of the most secure buildings in the world and wreak havoc, and that NO ONE is going to do shit about it. 

that’s the problem :) :) :) :) :) :) 

the problem isn’t that these people exist. i mean, it fucking sucks that they exist and if they could somehow cease to exist, whether by alien abduction or some sort of freak simultaneous lightning strike or WHATEVER, i would be THRILLED. but just existing doesn’t hurt anyone. Having a stupid belief doesn’t automatically make someone dangerous. It just makes them a shitty person.

But to have a stupid belief and to feel SO ENTITLED to acting upon those beliefs???

those motherfuckers need to fear for their safety. those motherfuckers need to be SO PETRIFIED that they dig themselves underground and bury themselves alive and NEVER resurface. 

i don’t understand how, at this point, with over half a million people DEAD because of the actions of these assholes, and with thousands of people CONTINUING to drop dead over it every day, the so-called “good guys” still don’t see fit to resort to drastic measures to render these people INCAPABLE of causing further harm. 

so many people have died. not just in the time of covid, but decades before that. so many people are murdered in the name of carrying out the pettiest whims of the most wretched people on earth. People get injured. People get poisoned by their own water supply or the very air they breathe. People get sick because they’re forced to live under unhealthy circumstances, and then they DIE because they can’t afford treatment for the illnesses they developed because of the unhealthy circumstances that made them sick in the first place! Children starve. Global warming sets people on fire and drowns them and destroys homes and lives and landscapes. 

literally, at WHAT point does it become acceptable to finally just declare war on these fucking demons? WHEN do we meet them where they’re at and start punching back instead of just curling up and trying to survive the attack?

i KNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW that there are groups out there who are taking direct action in some form or another. but CLEARLY it’s not enough.

and i ALSO know that there are MANY PEOPLE who have the actual skills and resources to stage a legitimate countereffort, and they’re just. not. doing it. 

we’ve got all these vile-ass ~ex military~ types boasting about their arsenal and how they intend to use it to reign terror upon innocent people. these fuckfaces who are LITERALLY HOLDING PUBLIC OFFICE and saying Out Loud that they want to attack us. and their peers exalt them for it. 

you CANNOT tell me that there are 0 ~ex military~ people who are sympathetic to the cause of resisting these malicious bigots. you CANNOT tell me that there aren’t people in public office who know that something MUST be done, and who have the POWER and ACCESS to do something - even if it’s “unlawful.” 

but they’re not doing it. :) because they’re weak. :) and they fear for their lives in a way that ~the right~ has NEVER had to contend with. A democratic state senator knows someone might hunt them down and try to kill them if they say anything ~too radical~. a republican state senator is confident that he could literally call for the public execution of someone and be met only with a pathetic verbal reprimand from some spineless liberal congressman who bends over backward to be Respectful And Fair as they gently try to explain why it’s not okay to facilitate mass death in every demographic but their own.

can somebody with the actual power and means to do so PLEASE start doing ANYTHING to terrorize these people back to the bland, tasteless, spiritually bankrupt cesspit they congealed in? When one of these american terrorists brandishes a gun in someone’s face, can someone PLEASE brandish their own gun right back at them? THEY should be the ones who are too terrified to speak up. Not us. THEY should be the ones compelled to look over their shoulder. 

im so sick of a world where mass suffering and exploitation are accepted as Just The Natural Order Of Things. instead of a harrowing dystopia that should be burned to the ground quick, fast, and in a motherfucking hurry.

[mobius-prime]

227. Sonic the Hedgehog #159

System Reboot

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

All right everyone, we've finally made it! After 213 long issues of having him around sticking his fingers into everything, we've reached the final issue that Ken Penders ever wrote for the Archie Sonic comics! Interestingly enough, this isn't actually the final issue he had a hand in entirely - he inked and lettered one final story several issues from now - but since this is the final one he actually wrote, this is where we'll be saying our goodbyes to him. And so soon after Karl left, too! Those of you who know the comics likely know what's coming next issue, so we might as well tear through this one to get to it! Kenders, with your final issue, show us what you got!

So last issue saw Hope lying on the floor injured and unconscious from a blow to the head, and Shadow threatening Sonic if she dies. Sonic then does the most level-headed and reasonable thing a person could do in this situation, meaning he immediately gets offended and attacks Shadow, and they both start punching and throwing each other around while hurling insults in each other's faces. Rosie is quite understandably disgusted with their behavior, and shouts at the both of them to stop at once.

About time! In his lab, a distraught Uncle Chuck reviews the Metal Sonics' technical specifications before lamenting ever creating them in the first place. Rotor reassures him that what's happening now isn't his fault, and reminds him that it's not necessarily the inventor's fault what others choose to do with the invention, obviously hinting at his past with the roboticizer as well. Eggman, meanwhile, finds himself in awe at the sheer destructive potential of the bots, admiring their reckless destruction of Knothole without regard to the citizenry that get in their way, but rather disappointed that he himself didn't come up with these particular models. Shadow, chasing after Sonic, is still worried that they may not reach the doctor in time to save Hope, and he feels a particularly strong connection to her due to her resemblance to Maria, as well as the compassion she showed him back when Locke kidnapped him. This gives him the strength to once again use his Chaos powers in a way he… apparently still doesn't understand. C'mon, Shad, this is hardly the first time you've used Chaos Control, surely you should recognize it!

At Castle Acorn, Elias and Antoine, standing on lookout, are dismayed to see that the Metal Sonics haven't been stopped on their rampage through the center of Knothole, and are on a straight course for the castle where everyone is sheltered. Shadow's Chaos portal abruptly opens behind them, and Sonic hands Hope over to Dr. Quack for treatment, something Shadow begrudging accepts as being the best they can do for now. Sonic, thoroughly annoyed by now at having to deal with such a menace modeled after himself, races back out to fight the rest of the Metal Sonics still bearing down on the castle, and Shadow follows him once again, not content to be left out of the fun. Sonic does his best to take down the attacking force with a whirlwind of his own, but it barely leaves them rattled, and he begins taking some nasty blows, clearly losing the fight. Shadow, coming up on the scene, realizes that despite all their differences he can hardly leave Sonic here to die like this, and raises his hand, emitting another blast of energy that immediately disables all the remaining robots.

Honestly, I'm a little weirded out by the idea of Knuckles of all people explaining stuff like Chaos Control to Shadow, given how hard that role is reversed in the games, with Shadow knowing a lot more about Chaos powers and Knuckles being an isolated loner with no proper knowledge of his heritage or the extent of his abilities. Anyway, with the day saved, Sonic reenters the castle to find Elias holding a medal which he has apparently pulled directly from his ass given the speed with which he's managed to produce it, or otherwise he's just had an award with Sonic's name on it sitting around for a long while for just such an occasion as this. He's awarded the title of Gentleman-At-Arms, something which comes with many privileges that Elias promises to explain later, and then… it's party time! Everyone weirdly acts as though this has been the biggest threat their society has ever faced, despite the fact that barely a year ago a malevolent alien force that had already eliminated civilization on this planet once before tried to suck the entire planet into a black hole, but whatever, we can let them have this one. But what of Shadow? Is he just standing around outside broodi- yeah he's totally standing around outside brooding.

…sorry, Chuck, but what the hell does that mean? What secrets do you apparently hold that are so important that you feel like you have to deviously hide them from Shadow? Like… it's such an ominous-sounding line that means absolutely nothing. By the way, this is where the story ends - absolutely no explanation is given for why the Metal Sonics went on a rampage the way they did. I mean, we know that someone targeting Eggman activated them and sent them after him, but halfway through the story they just kind of switched targets from Eggman to All Of Knothole for seemingly no reason. I suppose you could just say their programming got too scrambled to tell an innocent from their target, but honestly they feel more like a plot device intended to let Shadow discover his own abilities, and therefore something that wasn't well thought out and will be forgotten about by the next issue.

The Despicable Dr. Robotnik: Insidious

Writer/Pencils: Ken Penders Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

Well, after all the excitement of the previous day, Eggman is looking to recoup at least some of his losses. A.D.A.M. is thankfully online once again, and despite Eggman's sour mood, A.D.A.M. hopes to cheer him up with some good news. He draws Eggman's attention to the nanite fiasco of a few issues ago, and while Eggman is initially unimpressed with him bringing up one of his failures, his interest is piqued when A.D.A.M. demonstrates that the signals the nanites send between themselves can be intercepted by their own equipment here in New Megaopolis. This gives them a direct backdoor into the dealings inside Knothole, and Eggman watches in fascination as A.D.A.M. manipulates some of the nanites in real time while Tommy, Jules, Chuck, and a few others run experiments on them.

Under Eggman's guidance, A.D.A.M. directs small quantities of nanites to "infect" first Jules, then Bunnie, with those two being the main targets due to their inorganic body parts. However, when Eggman tries to order Sonic himself to be bugged, A.D.A.M. points out that since he's organic he can't bond with the nanites, which kind of seems to go against the idea of Tommy doing just that…

See, this bugs me, because I actually put thought into the whole "this is why the nanites can bond with Tommy's shell now" thing, and yet here it's discarded in favor of "I don't know, shells aren't organic or something"? Yes they freaking are, Penders! I researched it! I learned more than I ever thought I needed to know about the biological composition and evolution of turtle shells just to make sure my one little comment about Tommy's shell bonding with the nanites would be accurate! Granted, I get that Mobians aren't exactly the same as the animal species they're descended from, but you'd think the shell of a Mobian turtle would count as similar at least. *sigh*

Well, on that somewhat anticlimactic note, we've finally reached the end of Ken Penders' tenure as head writer for these comics. It's been… well, I feel like saying it's been a wild ride would be a bit of an understatement, but the sentiment is there, at least. And while I know he hasn't been a popular writer among many fans, and I've had my own fair share of criticism for his work (especially the later stuff), I still think it's appropriate to recognize the many good things he brought to the comic, especially the characters and plot points that have by now become mainstays in the world of the preboot. That said, now that we're moving on from the Era of Penders, a lot of the most controversial stuff in the comic is behind us, and we have a bright, interesting, and well-written new future to look forward to! Hope everyone is ready for the excellence that is Ian Flynn, cause here he comes!

[malafight]

hi im so sorry but i wanted to ask for help if u feel up to it. basically ive done next to no schoolwork (bare bare min) since we went on quarantine 4-5 weeks ago and i just missed two deadlines for big things and i still haven't done those assignments and i keep missing the online classes and i can't seem to make myself work and i feel terrified and awful and also like i have to hide it from my friends and therapist despite my anxiety and depression. what do i do? (again im so sorry. ty & ily)

hey, sorry it’s taken a bit to respond to this; i spent today recovering from a massive panic attack myself and probably wouldn’t have been able to provide good enough advice at the time. but i’m here now!

first of all, you’re not alone. you’re far from the only one terrified right now. and it’s okay to be terrified. you don’t have to apologize for your feelings or for asking for help -- i’m always willing to provide whatever advice i can, and hunt down things that might help when my experience hasn’t given me a good enough answer. we’re all doing our best out here right now, even if your brain is telling you you aren’t doing enough. you’re trying to survive, right now, and that is enough. it’s all most of us can do at this point. don’t let yourself feel bad for being afraid; we all are. don’t beat yourself up for not doing more, for yourself or for other people; you can’t pour from an empty cup. you don’t have to do anything but survive, right now. i give you permission to just focus on keeping yourself together as best you can, okay? it’s a tough time, but you’re not alone.

now for the actual school-related stuff. i know most people would tell you to be professional when communicating with professors, but now is not the time for your instructors to see you as an automaton. i’ve found that being genuine, honest, and polite helps humanize you to a professor who may only know you by your name in their system. i’ll preface this with the fact that it doesn’t always work, because sometimes teachers lack basic empathy, but it’s much easier on you, even, to be honest from the get-go.

now is not the time to put on a brave face. the world is hideously, pants-shittingly terrifying right now, and if people don’t know you need help, they can’t help you. some folks have the spoons or money to spare; folks like me have words and the Mom Friend Override. for some, being able to help others makes it easier for them to cope themselves. if you can’t bring yourself to reach out and look for support for yourself, remember that humans are a social species -- we need each other. so reach out and let your friends know that you’re scared. they’re scared, too. feeling afraid sucks, but feeling afraid and alone is even worse. you know the saying “misery loves company,” right? don’t look at it as a negative right now. think of it as instructions to seek out companionship and understanding in times of trouble. misery loves company. go find some company.

(also, tell your therapist -- what’s the use of having one if you don’t open up to them? you can’t treat an illness if your patient isn’t keeping you updated on the symptoms. if you had an injured leg, and suddenly it started inexplicably hurting even worse than before, you’d tell your doctor, right? same goes for mental health. please talk to your therapist. i’m not certified or even trained in this sort of thing, just someone who’s been fighting for decades with a brain that doesn’t work right in a world trying to kick my ass at every turn. there are things a therapist can help you with that i don’t have the resources for. use what you have at your fingertips! trust me, your therapist is hearing all about covid right now, and they won’t judge you for being scared.)

i also want to say that it takes a lot of courage to reach out for help like this, and i’m proud of you. i can tell that you’re doing your best. and i know how much it sucks to feel like your best isn’t enough. everything is awful and stressful, but we need to reach out to each other, if only to huddle under a blanket together to avoid the storm roaring outside.

i’ll provide here what i hope will be a useful template for asking your instructors for help with this situation. i know emailing them is even more terrifying, but you can’t get help from someone who doesn’t know you need it.

also, i suggest you edit the template a bit to fit your situation. in situations like these it is so, so important to humanize yourself to them.

(email template below)

[Instructor Name],

This is [name] from your [course] course. I know we haven’t been in contact much over the semester, but I need to ask for your help.

I’m sure by now you’ve noticed that my performance in class has started to slip, and I want to let you know that it is not because of your failure as an instructor, and it’s not meant in any disrespect. I’ve been enjoying your course so far, but with the current Coronavirus situation, it’s getting harder and harder for me to even function on a normal, human level. [provide some detail here about your mental state, ie: I’m freaking out, I’m stressed and terrified, and I feel like I’m falling apart, and that things are awful and hopeless. use your own words, preferably, but be honest.]

I hate bringing this sort of thing up, but [I’m mentally ill, I have depression and anxiety, I have a disability, basically explain your particular situation] and it’s making an already-terrifying worldwide disaster even harder to process and cope with. [give some example of how it’s harder for you to function -- your partner has to remind you to eat, it took a spatula to even get you out of bed, you keep losing track of the time to panic and find entire days gone with no memory of doing anything but freaking out, etc]

I promise I’m doing my best in your course, and I want to be able to complete it successfully, but I’m afraid I might fail under these present conditions. Is there any sort of help you can provide for me, like an extension on assignment due dates? I’m not trying to get out of doing my work, but under this much stress and fear, it’s getting harder and harder to focus on completing my assignments. Any sort of assistance you can provide would be helpful.

[you can also ask here if there are any resources the school can provide you in this situation. even if you look up resources on your own, your instructor may know about some things you haven’t found yet]

I know you’re probably scared, too, and I want to thank you for any help you’re able to give me.

Stay healthy,

[your name]

please keep holding on. we’re in for a long ride, and we can’t do it alone. humanity’s strength is its humanity. empathy, sympathy, compassion -- we need each other. don’t be afraid to reach out, because i guarantee you, there will be someone out there reaching right back to you

thank u for attending my anime power of friendship speech. please stay safe and healthy out there. we can get through this together.

[andimackfaneditsss]

the boys of Andi Mack should not be given a pass

So ”We Were Never” was fantastic for many reasons. No doubt about it! It was honestly, in my opinion, the best episode by far. It was nostalgic of season 1, where things weren’t so complicated with love triangles upon triangles upon triangles. It was nice, focused on some characters’ stories we thought had gotten left behind. We even get a few heartfelt moments of two families in this episode. I cried, ngl! But after the tears and smiling I came to the conclusion not only did this episode finally touch on storylines we thought were being forgotten...it also touched on characters and relationships in a way that has me seeing things differently now.

I realize the Friendom has made jokes about how oblivious Jonah is, I’m guilty of that. I also realize the Friendom has pointed out something else might be up with him, he might be depressed or suffering still from his toxic relationship with Amber and unfortunately that’s how his relationship with Andi turned out. But if Andi is going to be held accountable for literally everything she does, I don’t think the boys of this show should keep being given a pass.

Let’s start with Jonah: he seems to be oblivious, he seems to be helpless, but I’m not so sure now. He was obviously manipulated and forced into a relationship by Amber and because she’s older than him by a year and is pretty intimidating in nature and is in high school, that’s believable. However, she still has a heart that Jonah kind of played with. In a way? He sort of led her on. But that’s because he didn’t know how to speak up to get out of the relationship. There wasn’t any communication on both ends and so both people got hurt.

Okay, so both people messed up. Not entirely Jonah’s fault. But his relationship with Andi should have been different. Why? It’s Andi we’re talking about. Such a sweet, understanding girl.

Some people have given her crap because she’s only freaked out over their relationship the entire time they were together, always panicking and assuming the worst. But look at it from her perspective: if you’re dating someone (you think) and aren’t getting any signs from them that they don’t like you or that they don’t want to be in this relationship BUT they also literally don’t tell you anything (“hey, I’m helping a friend that day I scheduled something with you, sorry” or “oh btw I’ll be hanging with a friend of mine at the Spoon, you can come down and say hi if you’d like) then you see how your parents’ relationship is turning out and it’s not well, you’ll freak out and only think the worst of things.

When Jonah invited Andi out to the virtual arcade, he also invited Buffy. We all thought he was oblivious and just liked hanging out with everyone. Maybe he’s nervous about being alone with someone. But then we see him hanging out with Morgan at the Spoon, it’s only him and her. Now yes he and Andi have hung out alone before, but they weren’t dating then. If he really started to question their relationship and wanted to go back to being friends, he should have spoken to her about that. But maybe he was scared? Well...no. He grinned and was quite relaxed and actually believed Andi just knew he didn’t really consider them together. He held her hand, he told her he liked her and was oh so hurt when she laughed at him for falling down and injuring himself, but they’re not really a thing? Is she a side chick? Does he have a main? What’s going on here that he thinks it’s just universally known and accepted you’re not really a couple if you do some couple things and the other half of your not-a-relationship will think you’re dating. Now this could be because Amber basically I guess cheated on him? We’ll never really know until they bring it up again, however. But let’s say that’s affected him—okay it would make sense. Some people try not to do what was done to them, especially if it made them feel bad. But others don’t even know that they’re doing unto others what was done unto them and hurt them.

Whatever his reasons for being this way, he clearly believes it’s no big deal and doesn’t hurt anyone. So now my thoughts on Jyrus after realizing Jonah is this way: it should not happen. Hate me if you want but do you really want that for Cyrus? For him and Jonah to be together, do couple things, be all cute and happy together, only for one day to have Jonah walk up to Cyrus and say, “oh no Cy-guy we weren’t actually together I mean I don’t really like labels, were just friends, we’re good right—yeah we’re good.” Because I don’t want to see that. I no longer ship Jyrus because of Jonah Beck.

Now for Tj: he sucks. I really don’t see how stealing a muffin for Cyrus, or rather, getting him to steal a muffin for himself? Being forced into passing his teammate the ball during a game? How does that make him a good guy? He’s a jerk. Who doesn’t decide not to be one, he’s forced into not being one at times. He got Buffy to break her moral code and do his homework for him because he didn’t want to be pitied by anyone for at least one more game. But he can’t even sympathize with people. I don’t like him, sorry. And no, I don’t ship Tjyrus/Tyrus. Him having a learning disability is good representation, but does not redeem him.

Now for Cyrus: he really should have just asked Tj what he wanted from Buffy. Because I think if he knew, he wouldn’t have helped him trick Buffy like that. Also, he tends to make things worse when he tries talking with everybody. I know he just wants to help. But if Andi is going to be held accountable for her. Every. Action. Then we shouldn’t entirely excuse how Cyrus messes a lot up.

Bowie: not really sure how to feel rn. He deserves happiness. But so does Bex and Andi. There just needs to be better understanding and communication.

And as for Ham: you’re awesome, my friend.

Marty: come back pls.

[queenofthestubbornreaders]

The Council by Kayla Krantz

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I had high hopes for this book. Perhaps that’s where I went wrong.

The Council is about Lilith (nicknamed “Li” and I’m not exactly sure where that came from. I never really understand nicknames that are just shortened versions of your name with a different vowel sound unless she’s literally just called “Lih”) who lives in a place called “the 5 realms”, one for each type of witch: mind powers, water, air, fire, and healing. She lives in the fire realm and is just finishing up her schooling, where she will be “sorted” into a coven and given her job. Unfortunately! Our protagonist was born to “UnEquipped” parents, which means they don’t have powers, so she won’t have them either. Or it’s highly unlikely that she will get them. Or there’s a small chance. Depends on the page you’re reading in the book. It’s all over the place. Lilith and her similarly UnEquipped friend Helena along with their friend Clio who is the class leader (despite the fact that Lilith is suuper smart and has no powers, she thinks she ought to be the class leader… I don’t get that one) all talk about the UnEquippeds’ chances of getting powers in vastly different ways. One moment it seems totally possible! You just have to study! Next minute, Lilith is SUPER SPECIAL for being born to UnEquipped parents and getting powers. Then! During her ceremony that reveals the telekinetic powers that she has been hiding from everyone (it’s okay, she did a couple of dramatic reveals before the ceremony) she is actually revealed to hold powers from EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE REALMS. IT’S AMAZING. Chaos ensues.

“it’s okay…” I whisper to myself. Lots of books have super speshul characters. “It’ll be okay”. Reader, it was certainly not okay.

To summarize the spoiler free version of this review, Lilith continues to be super special, but like her chances of developing powers, her degree of super specialness seems to vary page to page. One minute she’s incredibly rare and powerful. The next minute, all of her abilities seem to be a totally possible thing to happen. Maybe this was the author’s way of tempering the “oh my god she’s the chosen one! She has all the powers! She’s so SPESHUL.” It wasn’t very successful.

Lilith is also disabled from a magical related accident that seriously injured her leg as a child. This causes her constant pain and difficulty moving around. From her POV, it’s a life ending injury that causes literally everyone around her to doubt her ability to do literally anything. If she was destined to a non-magical job anyways (if all/most magical jobs are protecting the coven) are there NO jobs were she could just sit down? Besides, this injury didn’t happen yesterday and she seems to function basically fine and is stubborn and accomplished. Why is this still such a major factor? Why is everyone handing her new pain medicine all the time? They’re just like leaves. Is everyone discovering new leaves constantly? I need to know!!

Wholesale, I don’t think this book is terrible, but it needs a lot of work and a very, very good editor. There’s still typos and awkward sentences, not to mention a lot of the inconsistencies I mentioned earlier. The overall idea, I would rate as good. The book could definitely be marketable and a whole lot better if it was heavily revised and edited. Despite my own stubbornness, I just can’t push through to the second book because I know my likelihood of DNFing is like 85%.

SPOILERS BELOW. DO NOT KEEP READING IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED.

Spoilers (and general complaints) ahead!!

Okay, why is Lilith so obsessed with how “chunky” Rayna is? She delights in the fact that she is not the only “slow walking” person because Rayna is fat???? I had to read this line like 5 times before I even comprehended it. She goes on to mention several other times how her robe is larger than the other Council members or that she’s chunky. Seriously, the other Council members, even if you don’t like them or they made you join against your will, are supposed to be accomplished in their skill. Lilith doesn’t even seem mean spirited in general. She doesn’t even just flat out refuse to get to know any of these people. She just wants to fat shame this one girl???

Please… it’s “oughta” not “outta”.

Lilith suspects that her parents are not her real parents after the ceremony is interrupted and she learns things from the first Elemental woman. Then when someone else mentions that it could be true (Lavina the healer), she faints from the surprise? You already had this thought! You have been suspicious of them! Why are you so freaking shocked now?

There are several scenes where Lilith freaks out (sometimes even understandably) and she runs off to seek solace in someone’s company. Here’s how it goes:

Lilith’s friend: Hey, how’s it going? Why are you here?

Lilith: Oh, you know, I’m just here on business. Thought I’d stop in.

Lilith’s friend: Oh neat, have you been by to see your parents? (or any other reference to something tied to why she was upset literally five seconds before)

Lilith: Oh right! I was super upset! LIFE SUCKS. *cries*

She literally had to be on the brink of being mauled by a bear to use some fire powers. Now when called upon as a surprise during an execution, she can just light the fire to burn the witch and she spends .5 seconds thinking about it?????

If their world is comprised of 5 realms and Lilith goes to visit them all, why does she not ride a horse (or whatever applicable technology exists) to save her bad leg and WHY does it seem like it takes them like a day to walk to each one? Is their world the size of Rhode Island?

Last thought, I swear. Size of the world aside although that does really bother me, where are the Elementals hiding and why is this never mentioned? If someone came out of the woodwork and interrupted my magic ceremony, claimed I was one of them and attacked my coven, why am I not speculating where they are hiding? Is there some wasteland outside of Magic Rhode Island? Is there another realm? Are there whole other cities/towns/etc outside of this place? Can they not just leave if they want to?

So. Many. Questions.