Dobbear! SYAC: The Master Review 6
I am so going to ruin someone’s childhood with that now, but...
guys, it had to be done!
Dashing and daring…
Courageous and caring!
Faithful and friendly…
With stories to share!
Doesn’t at all apply to this one artist…
Lesbian obsessed and each nerddom’s nightmare!
Dobby BEAR!
Whinning here and there and everywhere!
Making claims that are beyond compare…
This is our Dobby-Bear!
Yeah, if you can’t guess, around now is the time I am going to put down the kids gloves and will really dig into why SYAC is garbage. And a huge factor into this, is in part Dobson’s self insert past 2012.
The existence of the blue bear as Dobson officially calls it (or Dobbear as most people call it) is in my opinion rather baffling already in terms of design choices.
I get e.g. that Dobson wanted to distance himself of his past humanoid self inserts as much as possible. But why of all things a bear?
The fact I am focused on that may sound weird, but hear me out for a bit. For starters, I know that Dobson likes western animation. And seeing how western animation has for the longest time been dominated by anthropomorphic animals, I can understand why he would redesign himself as a funny cartoon animal.
But there are at least three things that feel weird about it. First, Dobson had made it clear in the past that he hates furries. So him actually redesigning himself as an anthropomorphic animal is kinda weird
In fact, Dobson himself acknowledges that realization in one of his strips shortly after his fursona took over.
Second, of all the animals to choose from, why a bear? This question is in so far valid, as that bears are not necessarily one of the first to go animals, furries or western animators tend to go for when designing an anthro. And before any furries or anthro enthusiasts are calling me a hater, let me make one thing clear: I like anthropomorphic cartoon and comic characters too, and am okay with most furries. As long as you don’t have a diaper fetish, are a pedophile or hurt actual animals, you can do and enjoy whatever you like.
But I am also aware enough of furry culture to know, that bear based anthros are most of the time hyper sexualized and muscular, connecting them to how the term “bear” is used in real life gay culture. Which is okay, I think it is just a funny coincidence that Dobson choose an animal, that most furries associate with a life style that Dobson is deeply afraid of, even if he claims to be an LGBT ally.
And as stated earlier, bears are not necessarily the go to animals for animators.
Don’t get me wrong, we all know some cartoon bears like Winnie the Pooh, Yogi Bear, Poh and the main cast of TaleSpin (btw, Kit Cloudkicker fan for life). But lets be honest here; ducks, mice, rabbits, canines, felines, equines and any other “easily to domesticate” animal in the real world tends to make better for easily recognizable cartoon characters than something that can reach a size of 3 meters tops and weigh over 500 pounds.
Truth be told, the pool of cartoon bears is so small, these are the first two things that came to my mind when thinking what may have inspired the Dobbear
And wouldn’t you know? According to Dobson, the Carebears were supposedly the main inspiration for his design.
Unfortunately, this is also more or less the most I could find of Dobson addressing what went into the creation of the character.
Which kinda brings me also to the third issue as why I think the bear redesign is weird; It is too sudden.
One day Dobson draws himself as a shaved 20 something, the next day he is a fedora wearing Carebear clone, likely created and then rejected by Care Bear villain No Heart, as part of a plot to create a mole when conquering Care-A-Lot.
… and now I need to reevaluate my choices in life, that I was able to make such an elaborate Carebear joke.
It is just a change of design that in my opinion should have been addressed either outside of the comic or in context of it. Which it kinda is, but isn’t.
See, this is the first strip with the blue bear
And then only 13 strips or so later in something called “Continuity” is Dobson more or less willing to address the change…
And he does so in a passive aggressive manner, with Persistent Pam as a stand in for those asking him what is going on, while Dobson just dismissively continues working.
On one hand, you can argue that this is just the joke. The change happened, don’t bother with it, just enjoy what is still to come. And you know, I don’t want to make a rope out of everything Dobson ever posted, including that comic.
But then you have also to account for the fact, that Dobson would eventually associate himself with the blue bear so much, he made him his avatar and icon for his comics and online accounts. In fact, that one comic I posted WAY BACK in the first Master post of Dobson reminiscing how he started SYAC?
For reasons that are a bit confusing to me, he redrew himself (badly I have to add) as the blue bear in one of his earliest strips ever. The one where he belittles the manga fangirl for drawing manga. So I have to ask, what is going on here? Has Dobson increasingly decided to reset his past? Does he want to destroy any traces of his “human” self in his work to create the illusion to any new readers, that he never was as controversial of a person as he was and that there never was a need for him to reimagine and reinvent himself? Is this 1984? And how many of you realize that this paragraph is just me going conspiracy nuts for the sake of entertainment?
But still, it is kinda weird that he went to the bother of redrawing his human self in that one background sketch as a bear. Plus, I honestly think Dobson never even attempting to “explain” the change in the pages of his comics is a wasted opportunity for some decent jokes. Like every time Dobson tries to explain why he is a bear now, something interrupts him or we only get fragments of a story that if we put them together would be as ridiculous as the entirety of “Trapped in the Closet”.
I mean, the dumbest joke idea I have in mind is that Dobson went to build a bear to get a present for a family member. Instead he was build into a bear and later on successfully sued the company, which explains why he can afford to live despite not really working on comics anymore but lecture people badly about the evils of nerd culture.
So yeah, three major things about the design choice that more or less confuse me.
But here is the thing: Confusion is nothing compared to feeling genuine disdain for the design at hand. And compared to Dobson’s earlier human designs, Dobbear is just utterly unlikable.
A lot of that boils down to the following three facts:
1. From a certain point in time on (which I will cover in more detail later on) Dobson uses his bearsona primarily as a soapboxing mouth piece to talk about “politics” in nerd culture. Or at least what Dobson perceives as politics, coming off like a condescending jackass who believes among other things that white people are inherently incapable to identify with black people…
… or that comic book shops have radicalized nerd culture, essentially calling them terror cells.
Which btw are so inherently offensive to me, I promise I will cover these two separately. One even sooner than the other.
2. If Dobbear is not talking about politics, he will tend to be a smug asshole to other people (most of the time strawmen) or their interests in one way or another. Being e.g. used by Dobson to express his disdain for criticism…
or to mock legit criticism he had gotten by exaggerating things.
All while also tending to make his critics look like inherent assholes.
These two facts, combined with Dobson’s average erratic behavior online on platforms such as dA, twitter and tumblr over the years, pretty much assured such a close association between the two, that a separation between artist and creation was not possible anymore, condemning them.
And for the record; Dobson was always a bit of a whinner who liked to act as if he was a better nerd than the average comic book fan. Otherwise, we would have not e.g. gotten Danny and Spot out of it.
But as the years went by in the last decade, Dobson turned from someone in his mid 20s, desperate to be seen as a “quirky” and likable internet persona (like certain internet reviewers), into a virtue signaling, lesbian obsessed asshole who likely regrets his life choices.
… Like certain internet reviewers.
But seriously, Dobson turned into someone who would flip the lid at something as ridiculous as Cheeto flavored chicken fries…
While also being just the worst type of condescending nerd….
All while losing his mind about politics. Especially after Donald Trump became president
And just as Dobson became a radicalized left winged jackass who saw politics in everything he consumed, so did by default Dobbear, because Dobbear was not a character with his own personality, but a mouth piece.
Something I am about to get into detail in the near future.
But till then, I want to cover in the next post the following third and final fact about Dobbear that really makes him unlikable to me: The fact he can’t be happy.
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BnHA Chapter 139: Deku and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Hallway
Previously on BnHA: The cops and Nighteye’s pro hero group took about nine pages to approach Overhaul’s house, only to be stopped by some massive troll of a man before they could ring the bell at the front gate. Everyone was all, “HOW DID THEY KNOW WE WERE COMING?” while ignoring the fact that there were like 70 guys all conspicuously gathered outside this place for like an hour prior to them getting started. Ryuukyuu turned into a dragon and I wanted it to be like this, but so far all she really did was hold the guy down with one of her big dragon claws. Which to be fair was still pretty cool. So she and her group are staying outside to deal with the cave troll while the rest of the heroes head on in. Meanwhile in the secret underground labyrinth beneath the house, Overhaul plotted to have his underlings stall the heroes while he made his getaway. And this is why you don’t ring the fucking doorbell before invading a mafia capo’s house. Just FYI.
Today on BnHA: The heroes finally make it inside the house! So thrilling. Nighteye uncovers a secret passage, and the heroes proceed down below. After smashing their way through a blocked wall, they discover a hallway doing its best impression of that Salvador Dali clock painting. This apparently is the work of one of Overhaul’s henchmen, Mimic, whose quirk allows him to enter objects and control them. Apparently he shot himself up with some Trigger and became a “living labyrinth.” Since Mirio is the only one not physically deterred by this, he activates his quirk and runs ahead before the others can stop him. The rest of the group suddenly falls into a big hole that opens up beneath their feet, landing in a room with three more henchmen. The pros get ready to fight, but Amajiki holds out a hand to stop them, saying he’ll be the one to take them down.
(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 171 now, so any ETAs will reflect that. My son the musical prodigy.)
okay, time to get back on this. some holdover thoughts from the previous chapter since I’ve had a couple days to reflect on it:
why the hell didn’t everyone wear kevlar or some shit. you know you’re going up against enemies that will be shooting at you, and if they hit you you’ll lose your quirk. it blows my mind that the pros didn’t suit up with extra body armor knowing this
even worse, because of the way the house is designed, they’re basically going to be sitting ducks. they only know one way in and out of the lower levels of the house. seeing as it’s underground, that means lots of long, narrow tunnels and hallways. they’re in just about the worst strategic position they could be for a raid like this: the enemy knows they’re here, and unlike Nighteye’s team, they actually know their way around the hideout. meanwhile the raid team is inevitably going to either have to split up and get themselves lost, or stick to this stupid plan of taking the most direct route possible to get to Eri, and meanwhile have bad guys shooting quirk-destroying bullets at them the entire way
that being said, they should stick Kirishima out in front and use him as a human shield lol
(ETA: to be fair, the only one that actually ends up getting hit is another one who is normally for all intents and purposes bulletproof. and in his case kevlar wouldn’t have done jack shit because he would have ended up shedding the vest anyway due to his quirk. so fair enough, but the others should have still geared up. no one cares about safety huh)
all right. so let’s see just how screwed these guys actually are
okay so we’re opening with the mafia dudes demanding to know what’s going on, and the cops explaining that this is a raid suckas
the lower level pros are holding the mob guys back while the cooler pros go on ahead
FG’s apologizing for not stopping to take off his shoes since this is an urgent situation. how fucking rude. tracking in all that dirt
oh my god
fucking kidding me with this shit. Bubble Girl in the lead? she barely even has a shirt, let alone any type of armor? is her quirk defensive in any way? let’s hope so
is Nighteye’s quirk even active again yet? right now he’s just a guy in a suit, isn’t he? although he did work with All Might for years, so he probably does have wicked combat skills that we just haven’t seen yet. hopefully
(ETA: wicked combat skills and a six-pack)
I can’t even see Kirishima in this shot. jeez. ridiculous
so as they run, they’re all discussing how the bad guys seem to have known they were coming, and that this is Not Good
I don’t really care about what Aizawa is saying in this panel, but I like that he’s right next to Deku
taking that promise very seriously. well good, since we all know that literally the instant Aizawa lets him out of his sight, Deku is somehow going to end up facing the final boss or something
(ETA: fucking uncanny, though. every fucking time, Deku)
anyway, so they’re logically concluding that Overhaul and the top brass must already be in the basement either hiding all their shit or getting ready to escape
this makes Kirishima very angry
well yeah, Kiri. but bad guys gonna bad guy
still, if it gets you fired up, you go ahead and feel that righteous anger boy
and now Nighteye’s stopping at a random panel in the wall and says this is it
oh, cool
please be a secret door please be a secret door please be a secret dooooor...
yay!
oh shit lol
never mind. close it
ughhhhhhh the centipede guy is using his quirk nooo whyyyy
he’s picking up two of the guys with his centipede arms
to me this is a fate worse than death
WHYYYYY
now Bubble Girl’s using her bubble quirk!
she’s... making bubbles. from her body
they’re floating over to the last bad guy
and they popped in his eyes and he’s screaming “my eyes!!!”
are these... are these just normal bubbles
I don’t really get it but hey! at least it’s not centipede arms!
so she’s restraining the dude and telling the others to go on ahead
and down they go. off to the garden of madness
except that almost immediately they’ve come to a dead end??
this doesn’t look like a normal quirk though. maybe someone has a wall-building quirk? similar to what Cementoss has?
(ETA: this is most definitely Overhaul’s reassembly quirk)
anyway, Mirio says he’ll take a look
oh my god. I finally get to see just how Mirio deals with immediately shedding his elaborate costume and then having to put the whole thing back on again later
oh snap
WELL ISN’T THAT FUCKING CONVENIENT. OKAY THEN
so if Mirio can have a costume that phases with his quirk, why can’t Hagakure have one woven out of her hair that turns invisible along with her? is it just because Horikoshi is a pervert. okay then
(ETA: I’m not even gonna bother getting into this anymore, but just know that I am rolling my eyes at this obnoxious fucking mangaka so damn hard)
anyway, so Mirio’s taking a peek and then reporting back that the path up ahead is exactly like Nighteye described. he says the wall is very thick though
oh, riiiiight
I keep forgetting about the “reassemble” part of Overhaul’s quirk
oh well. time to bust a wall
lol, FG and Static are like, “whoa”
I think this is the first nice thing Static has said about any of the kids
oh shit. now there’s something else happening
the floor is getting all weird and uneven? like it’s getting all warped somehow
um
well this is. annoying
(ETA: actually, “annoying” is the mildest, nicest, most undeservedly polite way possible to put it)
my god I hope none of them is claustrophobic. or ends up being claustrophobic after this, because I sure wouldn’t blame them
the head police guy says this has to be Irinaka’s quirk. that’s the HQ chief
so wait, is that the little guy from chapter 132 who made an arm grow out of his head??
and it doesn’t even sound like they’re sure it’s him
although FG points out that if he got all doped up on quirk enhancers, this isn’t outside the realm of possibility
oh snap! it is him!
oh my god. “I’m not on the ship. I’m in the ship. I am the ship”
LMAO at Fat Gum though
what kind of pathetic excuse for a pro hero can’t even predict that a guy is going to turn into a basement
he’s asking Aizawa if he can erase the quirk, but Aizawa says he can’t without being able to see the quirk users’s body
hold up, does this mean illusionists would be immune to Aizawa’s quirk?? because that is some bullshit. (which I now really want to see)
Amajiki seems like he’s starting to psych himself out here. he’s muttering out loud that if the path keeps changing, they’ll never reach their goal, and the enemy can easily get away
oh shit, it seems like he’s starting to get overwhelmed...?
hey, hey. easy there bud. you guys got this
OH SNAP MIRIO TO THE RESCUE
what a manly dude coming to the rescue of his bro who was starting to freak out. I love Mirio so much
ahhhhhhh he says he can still go on ahead as long as he knows the right direction
ahhhhhhhh I’m suddenly so fucking worried?!?! HE’S SO BRAVE AND I’M TERRIFIED FOR HIM
SON OF A BITCH HE JUST TOOK OFF JUST LIKE THAT BEFORE THEY COULD STOP HIM
oh my god. in the first place, isn’t he blind whenever he uses his quirk? don’t all of his senses disappear? so he can keep pressing forward, but like what happens if he turns the quirk off because he thinks he’s made it through, only he hasn’t made it through? because this isn’t an illusion, as far as I understand it; the Mimic guy is actually warping the passageway
oh my god. forget just the characters; I’m going to end up becoming claustrophobic at this rate
(ETA: yeah this still nopes me out thinking about it. Mirio’s definitely braver than I am, that’s for sure)
but at the very least, Mirio bravely pressing forward seems to have snapped Amajiki out of it
hey guys, guess who ships the shit out of these two now btw. yeah that’s right. me that’s who
so Mimic is thinking that he can’t stop Mirio, but that even if he does make it through, “he won’t be able to do a thing by himself”
idk about that. you should’ve seen what this freak of nature did to almost the entirety of class 1-A in a matter of seconds. while naked no less
wait. this is starting to sound a bit eyebrow-raising. I promise you it was a g-rated beatdown though
oh snap, Mimic is warping the ground and dumping all of the important characters deeper into the basement while closing up the path back up
well that’s nice. so now they’re all sealed up in this death chamber. cool. that’s cool
not that I want it to happen, but a part of me is wondering why Mimic hasn’t just crushed them all yet if he has control over this entire basement
so are they purposely trying to keep them alive? is it to avoid as much legal trouble as possible? are they hoping that if they just incapacitate them, Overhaul can later use his quirk to wipe their memories like he did with that Tarantino gang?
incidentally, every now and then I wonder to myself why someone as intensely rational as Aizawa would keep his hair so long and not just cut it short or tie it back to keep it out of his way. and then panels like this come along and it’s just, “oh yeah, because it’s hot”
(ETA: but ain’t it the truth)
so yeah, they’ve landed in this pit and now here’s some more bad guys!
literally all they have to do is have Aizawa incapacitate them with his quirk one by one and have Deku or Kiri punch them. the rest can sit back and take it easy
(ETA: the fact that they refuse to follow this most sensible of plans throughout the entire arc is one of the more frustrating things about it)
oh snap, but it looks like someone else is finally ready to jump into action after seeing his boyfriend disappear down the enchanted hallway of doom
WELL SHIT, LET’S FUCKING DO THIS THEN. TIME TO EAT SOME SUNS
also. that flashback panel though. that was a middle school uniform. these two have known each other since childhood just like Kacchan and Deku. omggggg
AND MIRIO USED TO HAVE A FUCKING PONYTAIL. TALK ABOUT A 180 DEGREE STYLE CHANGE. NIGHTEYE THIS IS YOUR DOING, DON’T LIE
BONUS:
glad to see the minds that brought us the yaoyorictionary and ochachakaleg are back at it again
so what exactly is the point of the lemilliohelm. I don’t get it. “it was designed so he could put it on quickly and then inevitably have it fall off again almost immediately”
consider my interest piqued at the mention of him being rescued by a hero in the past, though! I went back just now and looked at his flashback in chapter 152, and yeah! now that you mention it!
also! BnHA kids really need to be more careful on flashback bridges because those things are slippery as fuck
so can we get a name for this guy who saved him and inspired him to become a hero, then? I’m super curious about him now
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