I dunno man I feel like most statements along the lines of ‘Batman isn’t REALLY x, he’s y’ don’t hold much water because usually, there’s a pretty good chance a number of writers over the years have written him as x, you just didn’t like it or think it doesn’t count for some reason.
For example ‘Batman isn’t REALLY a good parent, he’s actually a bad parent’, when Batman has been written as a good parent by a number of writers, and has, in addition, been written as realizing that he’s screwed up with his children and resolved to fix it by even more. At the same time, stating ‘Batman isn’t REALLY a bad parent, he’s actually a good parent’ is also incorrect, because Batman has been written as a bad parent by a number of writers, either intentionally or not; in addition, the pattern presented by the tug-of-war between writers who believe he should be a good parent and writers who don’t has, over the years, created an unintentional pattern that strongly resembles that of an abusive relationship. So, stating he is a good parent is inaccurate and dismisses a bunch of his canon writing, but stating he is a bad parent also dismisses a bunch of his canon writing and the intentions of the authors that wrote him.
The secret here is realizing that Batman has had so many writers over the years that it’s practically impossible to find a universal truth about him beyond the basic premise and maybe very, very basic characterization keystones. Writers with different beliefs about both the character and the world at large have written him in accordance to their worldview, and sometimes that worldview will align with yours, and sometimes it won’t.
Like, at this point, Batman is more an idea than he is a character. He is the bare-knuckled fight against injustice, but what ‘injustice’ is depends heavily on your worldview, as does what ‘bare-knuckled’ and ‘fight’ mean. Batman has been interpreted in dozens of different ways over the years, and singling out a few of those as the True Batman is largely arbitrary and dependent on your personal taste and belief in what the character should be. The only ‘objective’ measurement you could apply here are the old Golden Age comics, and I think most fans can agree that measuring modern Batman comics by how faithful they are to the Golden Age comics is, more often than not, a little ridiculous.
For the record, I do think that arguing about what Batman should be matters; if right-wing assholes use the character as a mouthpiece for their worldview we can and should critique that, but not because it’s ‘OOC’, but because the worldview espoused by those right-wing assholes is harmful and shitty. Batman should be a good parent, not because it’s ‘OOC’ for him to be a bad parent, but because having your paragon of justice be a child abuser is pretty shitty. Etc.
I don’t really have anywhere specific to go with this, I just think it’s a little strange when people try to view Batman as a character with a clear-cut characterization, rather than a concept that many people have approached in different ways over the years. Can that concept be mishandled? Sure. But it’s usually mishandled for reasons a bit more substantial than ‘a previous writer wrote it differently’.
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Alon the Stray Hound
I redesigned my Touchstarved Hound!MC to have more of a showman-y vibe, since they’re a magician. Do you believe in the heart of the cards?
Pronouns: Usually uses She/They, but they’re honestly fine with any pronouns
Birthday: March 20
Height: 4’11 / 150cm
Personality: So a bleeding heart, unwarranted hero complex, and astounding immaturity walk into the Wick and see that their good friends, dignity and self-preservation couldn’t make it…
Likes: Street food, dancing, rowdy taverns, making friends, pranks, adventure
Dislikes: Rules, rich people, rainy days, boredom, bullies
Fatal flaw: Would turn her self-destruction into a joke, but hey, at least it’d make for a decent stand-up routine in hell
Other: She has a terrible singing voice that was once mistakenly reported as a Soulless attack — by the end of the song, the neighbours probably preferred a Soulless attack.
Quote: “Look, buddy, I’m no stranger to failure — ideally, you don’t, but if you do, best to have fun with it, yeah?”
More about them below:
Alon is cheerful, mischievous, and outgoing. They love to make new friends wherever they are.
She’s restless, never stays in one place, and fidgets a lot, so she practised sleight of hand from a young age. It came in handy haha for thieving, but they’ve also become quite good at street magic. It’s not the real thing, of course, but it opens up busking as an option to earn coin (and get close enough to unsuspecting rich folks’ pockets in the process)
They specialize in street magic, which combines close-up, stage, and platform magic. They also do escapology (good at picking locks and getting out of sticky situations) and comedy magic (they don't shut up).
She has a lucky deck of cards that she usually shuffles and fidgets with.
As a trickster and magician, she tends to use tricks, jokes, and the unexpected in confrontations. They’re hard to catch, easy to miss—
Her fighting style is summarized by that one clip with RDJ as Sherlock where he keeps discombobulating his opponent (give or take ten hours).
Unlike my other MCs, Alon has no specific reservations about Monsters. It’s kind of hard to when you’ve been threatened, abused, and betrayed by humans your entire life. Like, at that point, what worse could a Monster do to you? Anything they try, you guarantee a non-Monster already attempted.
100% the kind of person to, at someone pointing a knife at them, go, “Well. This night just took a sharp turn.” or “What’re you gonna do, stab me? …Damn, they actually stabbed me.” *surprised pikachu face*
They have a knack for breaking into places they shouldn’t be, like a persistent raccoon that keeps finding its way into your trash or attic. Back with their old crew, she was usually the one who could squeeze into the tight spaces as the smallest thief. So yeah, the Senobium being locked to outsiders is a bit of a hiccup in her plans, but they’re not deterred.
You’d think Alon would be more reserved and distant because of their curse, but they’re actually a very physically affectionate person
Not to say they’re not cautious about it — she always keeps their hands bandaged or covered — she’s just found ways to give people physical affection without the use of her hands. They’d jokingly bump shoulders with someone. They’d lean on someone to physically comfort them. They nuzzle their head against their loved ones.
She doesn’t usually let strangers initiate physical contact, not necessarily because she’s uncomfortable with it, it’s usually for their own safety. Strangers don’t know them well enough to know her hands are off-limits. But if she’s known you for a while, she welcomes the physical exchanges.
They distance themself in their own ways. She hides pain or discomfort with jokes and charm. Good luck getting them to be serious about something she absolutely does not want to address.
Like their old crew’s betrayal. Some of them, they’ve known since they were a kid. They grew up together. And yet, when it came down to it, she wasn’t worth more to them than a fat purse of coin. “At least it was a fat purse of coin. Anything less and damn, they’d have really hurt my feelings!”
Direct questions about their cursed hands usually lead to jokes and misdirection, I wonder if you caught that, by the way:
“Want to tell me what’s up with the bandages?” “What bandages?” “Okay.”
“Pffft, you believe hands are real?”
“You’re looking at the aftermath of a super embarrassing tattoo I got one night while drunk as shit. Highly recommend the artist, though. Y'heard of Rahim?”
“Important piece of cooking advice, don’t put out grease fires with water! …Oh, that has nothing to do with my bandages, it’s just a good tip to remember.”
“I’m saving them for marriage.”
“Bad case of halitosis.” “That’s an oral condition.” “…Real bad case.”
Aside from that, she’s rather open and wears their heart on their sleeve for any potential new friend.
Eridia is a new beginning, a new world far away from the walls she's always known. It's supposed to be all she's ever wanted, but beyond the excitement of a new adventure, she feels so alone it's almost paralyzing.
They go back to the dream they've had since childhood, they go back to focusing on finding a cure, and they keep moving forward because if they stop for even a second for the grief and loneliness to catch up to them, they don't know if they'll survive it.
Her zodiac sign is Pisces
MBTI is ENFP
Enneagram is 7w6
I also updated their character playlist. I associate her with more energetic music, like electro swing, songs that you could hear someone running away from the guards to:
“Monsoon Nights” by Sekai no Owari
“One Jump Ahead” by Brad Kane
“All Star” by Smashmouth
“The Hand that Feeds” by The Crave Wives
“To Noise Making (Sing)” by Hozier
“Curses” by The Crane Wives
“Tears of a Clown” by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
“Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen
“Good Life” by OneRepublic
“Lost Boy” by Ruth B
“On Top of the World” by Greek Fire
“Good Riddance” Cover by Annapantsu ft. IdrysLTS
"Tavern Crawl" by Runesmith, JoCat, Annapantsu and friends
Okay, I have, like, a vision. Alon is giving a tour through Eridia’s best spots. The first tavern is the Senobium’s gates. The second is Elyon's brothel (mostly because of the singer being unable to pay and how fitting “Rail-Away” is for a brothel). The third is the Seaspring (“Don’t be surprised by what lurks on inside and really, don’t fight it. Believe me, I tried.” to describe our pal Ocudeus). The last one is the Wet Wick and it’s their favourite because it’s got the Bloodhounds, always ready for a show (“This tavern’s my favourite, it’s got its own band, and they’re always more than happy to lend me a hand!”)
Here’s their new full character design!
I changed it from the original, which had a more swashbuckling pirate feel, since I wanted to incorporate more of the magician and performer aspects of Alon into their design. …It’s giving Wonka, lowkey. I did consider giving them a top hat but…yeah. XD Edit: I added a diamond pattern to the inside of her vest! I like the new addition.
As with my other MCs, I incorporated their backstory symbol into their design. In Luneth, the Unnamed symbol is in her bodice. In Jin, the Alchemist symbol is in his medallion and spellbook. In Alon, the Hound symbol is in their cards.
I also tried to include the specific shapes of each backstory symbol in each MC so Jin’s design has a bunch of circles, Luneth’s has diamonds, and Alon has several triangles.
Here are the bios of my other Touchstarved MCs:
Luneth the Reluctant Unnamed
Jin the Abandoned Alchemist
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Can you show us how you draw? Your drawings are AMAZING! Can we also get a ref sheet for da bendy? As well as ink boi? (Sorry if this this multiple asks in one and sorry again if this is annoying asking for stuff)
(( oh sure! thank you so much!! 🥰️💕💕💕 and this is not annoying at all! it's a very fun ask! 😄 uhh first i start off with sketches. i start light and very sketchy, then dark but a little cleaner
i always make bendy's head a circle, then i like to use the size of his face for basically everything else on his body
the size of his bean bod, length of his arms and legs, and his hands and feet depend on his face. then his tail is the the same length of bendy's body to his feet, but sometimes i like to make it longer!
inky boi is a little different, the size of his head is around the same size as his chest, then his legs would be double the length of his body. his tail would also be the same length of his body to his feet
then i INK them! and make minor corrections if i wanted
linework and then i fill them in since bendy's all black. use the eraser to make new lines
same with inky boi
add some goop
then i color them in! and the lines too
and it's done!
here's the way I draw my bendy and my inky boi! ✨✨✨
but i'm not consistent at all when it comes to keeping characters looking the same and of course my drawing style changes all the time... but i try to at least keep these proportions in mind! again, thank you! and i'm sorry if this is too long or not what you wanted! 🥰️💕 ))
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Hello ❤️ I have some meta asks for your ocs
Kana: What controversies/drama would your character incite in fandom?
And (yes she gets two because I am biased and looking for crumbs)
What is the quote between your character and their love interest/whoever they might be shipped with that their fans would latch onto?
Kurumi: What would be the ‘incorrect but wildly popular’ interpretation of your character in fandom?
Yui: If your character had a breakout show/film/comic, what would the plot be? Who would be in their supporting cast?
- 🍎
Hello 🍎Anon 🫶✨👀 Thank you for sending this over and enabling me to yap more about my blorbos 🥰🥰🥰 I only know what to talk about when I draw them, but for pure text posts I often blank out on what to say, so I love asks! I will try my best to give you Kana crumbs too!
🍎Kana: What controversies/drama would your character incite in fandom?
If Kana were a canon character, Kana and controversies/drama are like blood brothers, like soulmates. They are a set package. It wasn't there at the start or perhaps there will be initial discourse about her gender. But fandom will find out eventually that they have bigger fish to fry. As more and more layers of her character gets revealed, the more fandom discourse there is. She is certainly not a character for people who view things in a black or white manner or those with low reading comprehension 😭🤣😭🤣 *looks at those gear grindingly loud mfs on twi//ter*
On the surface, she would prob be reduced to either a some kind of siscon (memes included) or straight-up a cruel/heartless character with ulterior motives ("maybe her love for Kurumi is just a facade? and she has ulterior motives?"). If you peel off the first few layers, you will see that she really does genuinely love Kurumi and her family, for better or for worse. If you peel off more layer, you will see an asshole. If you peel even more layers, you will see an even bigger asshole banned from hell.
Also do you know that one meme where they keep putting Oi\\kawa (from Hai\\kyuu, a VOLLEYBALL series) in a line up of actual villains/war criminals?
Kana would be there, except she kinda deserves to be there. People who don't get the joke would complain about why Oi//kawa keeps getting included in these fuckass lists that includes Kana and other messed up characters lmao (truthfully i didn't get it at first when i saw it and was lowkey pissed since im an oi//kawa oshi lmaooo now it's just funny every time i see it. still crazy to see him lined up with characters like d//io or aiz//en or gri//ffith like damn wwwwww)
Did you know? My favorite character from Monster is Joh//ann Lieb//ert hahahaha nothing important, just wanna say it haha,,,hahaha,,,,, pls ignore if you don't know Monster sdkjfsdhvfsd
🍎Kana: What is the quote between your character and their love interest/whoever they might be shipped with that their fans would latch onto?
The least spoilery thing I can come up with on the spot on is Hibari telling her "You're so stupid (affectionate & relieved)" after she does (and says) something objectively very stupid that could even give YuiRumi&family a heart attack & a stroke simultaneously.
Short, simple, effective. ME, personally, I will lose my mind and latch onto it even on my deathbed.
If you want something that could potentially come from a Kana POV, I do have a quote like this saved:
🎀Kurumi: What would be the ‘incorrect but wildly popular’ interpretation of your character in fandom?
For Kurumi, I think modern fandom would focus too much on her gender? There would be a divide in the fandom based on how they interpret the "Gender: ?" in her profile lmao We can see a lot of people insisting that she's non-binary. That's fine and all, everyone is free to interpret characters as they like (except if the creator has reiterated clear rules and boundaries for it). The problem is that we can also see people say that you can't refer to her as anything else but non-binary sjdgbhjsdfvhjsbfd
🤖Yui: If your character had a breakout show/film/comic, what would the plot be? Who would be in their supporting cast?
My understanding of this question is that it's asking for a Yui spin-off where he's the MC! It would be in a light novel format under the romantic comedy genre (with some sci-fi, perhaps? because he loves making robots hahaha inb4 it becomes a mecha story). The story's main couple would be him and Hiyori, because that's what Yui would've wanted. He is delusional and down bad.
In terms of shipping, we actually have three main ships we've committed to. It's just that I often end up posting about the two CanonxOC pairs more sjkdfjskdf but the third one is an OCxOC pair between Yui and Hiyori (YuiHiyo). Sowwwwyyy Yui! uwu Hiyorin is holding me at syringe-point and telling me to shut the fuck up about it.
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