#exactly the type of dialogue i want to see in the comics

[hood-ex]

@mysterycitrus dude I didn't even realize I was reading your fic until Dick picked up an elephant from Jason's altar.

Btw, I thoroughly enjoyed how Dick verbally flayed Jason alive.

"So, let's go kill the Joker, then."

And Jason being flabbergasted by the suggestion lmao.

[ozzgin]

I can't get your yakuza headcanons out of my mind, Daitou's got me in a chokehold and I'm not complaining, like--

in regards to that doodle you made to show height difference between reader and the boys [I love your art btw (●♡∀♡)] - I can't picture myself in reader's style, I'm currently going through my goth phase in my 20s lmao; picture a big bitch with tattoos and messy hair who's listening to nothing but 2000s hits and screamo bands - so I'd like to request a headcanon of how Daitou would react to a gender-neutral reader like this :D I also like to incorporate the idea of them once being in a famous band that he's a fan of! (sorry if this seems like a lot, I have a huge imagination hehe)

but if he's more into the cute and helpless type, I'll just walk my ass out the door and yeehaw my way into another yandere's arms ✌😔

That's on me for not drawing the reader inserts as cartoonish cinder blocks :') In truth I'm a little bit embarrassed seeing how many likes that doodle has gotten, it was something I put together in a hurry and the clothing was meant to be baggy, shapeless, with not too many folds for the sake of simplicity. I myself am more of a pilgrim goth, just to emphasize the randomness of the choice.

Drawing reader inserts always leaves me a little anxious. If I use a light shade of gray, will people think I'm excluding poc? Will plus sized readers feel like they've been disregarded? What about masculine readers? As someone who's demiromantic I always struggle taking appearance or gender into consideration, because to me it has no influence whatsoever. Which is hard to express when you want to offer blank slate visuals as an extra to the story.

What I'm trying to say is that all of my characters would like you for who you are. Sure, they find your looks cute, but it's not the defining reason. Maybe you have similar traits to them, maybe you're the complete opposite and they find it intriguing. You could be a buff man and Daitou would be just as grateful to have someone who isn't afraid of him. I usually stick to a female reader for bigger stories to avoid messing it up long term, but in the grand scheme of things it makes no difference. I always imagine reader to be a shapeless blob that provides the dialogue I need for the story mood. There's no concrete preference or type for any of my OCs. I mean, ideally you'd like them back and not hang them upside down above a BBQ pit but I feel these are sensible requirements (?).

And now for the actual headcanons since my ramble is over.

First encounter is comically awkward but for reasons you’re unaware of yet. You’re obviously used to people staring at you (more so in a country like Japan), so you were expecting the curious glance every now and then. On the other hand, being under scrutiny, from a man even more unusual looking than you at that, is odd. Mildly uncomfortable. You’re shifting yourself from one leg to another, hoping to be done with the introductions soon.

On his end, Daitou is anxiously fidgeting and trying his best to focus. He’s seen this face before and he can’t shake off the familiar feeling. Where the hell…He obviously can’t downright gawk at you, and he isn’t sure how to politely formulate a question. After several sheepish peeks, it finally dawns on him: weren’t you part of that band he really likes? No, what would the chances be? Then again, how many people out there would look exactly like you? Is it rude to ask? He has no idea. He resumes his mumbled description of the apartment and hands you the papers to be signed.

Back at his place, he finally digs through his merch and sprawls out the available clues. “I didn’t know you were into this kind of music”, Kazuya comments as he looks over the man’s shoulder. He’d come over to ask about the new tenant. “I’m pretty sure it’s them.” He concludes, confidently placing his index over a CD cover. “Huh? Who? The tenant?” Kazuya holds back his chuckle. “Why would a celebrity show up for a shady apartment offer? You’re tripping, man.”

“I’m sorry, this is getting ridiculous.” You finally exclaim, annoyed by the persistent stares of the now two men facing you. You’re standing in front of the apartment building, arms crossed, huffing at the tall scarred man and his blonde friend. “No, I’m sure of it. Even the tattoo is the same.” Daitou turns to whisper to Kazuya, oblivious to your complaints. In turn, Kazuya lightly elbows him, mouthing something about being rude. “Just ask them, man.” He adds, this time louder. “Ask me what??” You groan. “W-were you…um…in this band by any chance?” Daitou manages to blurt out, searching his pocket for the CD case and ceremoniously laying it under your eyes.

Ah. It finally clicks and you exhale, relieved. You confirm their suspicions and show them some backstage photos to solidify your claim. You ask Daitou if he wants an autograph or something, then swiftly scribble your signature on a piece of paper and hand it out to him. He holds it with a wide, childish grin. “You’re a weird one, you know? You could’ve just asked. I guess I didn’t expect to find a fan in the wild, especially here.” Daitou carefully folds the souvenir, eyes lidded with nostalgia. “Oh yes, it’s great. Drowns out the screams.”

[entropicbias]

Last couple asks has me wondering what kind of johndave rep DO you like to read/see? Any examples you can think of in fanworks? And just your own interpretation. Thank you

i have got to reiterate that this is just a me thing. i'm not saying this to police anyone on their writing! i'm just really specific about the way i see these two get portrayed.

this is gonna suck and i'm gonna ramble about it for a while cause i'm mentally challenged. i have a hard time explaining my own thoughts with accuracy. sorry i can't keep this short and sweet. i am the type of person to just know when something is done right. i can't tell you why, but i'll try for you, anon. if you don't want to read all this here, i summarized it.

even more simplified

this is so crude. canon dave is really hard to nail for writers for some reason let alone the specific way i see him. i like a more chillaxed dave. some of the things that really throw me off with dave writing is missing the mark on how annoying he is and dumbing his character down to either angst, obama and apple juice jokes, or him being gay. i think john also encounters this issue. not enough research goes into their interests so writers can only represent them with the bare minimum. nicholas cage, con air, and 'dave i'm not a homosexual'. john and dave are assholes. they tease each other and aren't shy of doing that to other people. not that they're bad people! they care about each other and their friends a lot! but they're not afraid of being really honest about their thoughts or overexaggerating something that doesn't really bother them to poke fun at someone. they can make mendacious remarks to be polite, it just doesn't occur to them as often as just blatantly stating their thoughts on something or someone. i also like seeing them have more naturalistic dialogue. for some reason, when i think of that i think of zach from oneyplays or his character charlie from smiling friends. which is dumb even if it gives you an idea. i feel like a lot of this kind of banter is missing from these fanfics i read. at least, in the way i want it to go. think powerup comics.

gay part upcoming. i think the john and dave's relationship is best portrayed as a childhood crush that is unspoken of. a term i recently learned was "demiromantic", and i think that very perfectly describes how i think john's homosexuality would work. i mean, he doesn't really have a problem admiring dudes, which in itself could be called gay but that's not why i think he would be attracted to dave. i think it's kind of hilarious when people attribute john's homosexuality to him being "romantically interested in cage". john's idols are more like heroic figures to him. i don't like it when that is used as evidence that he's gay unless someone is making fun of him. this is the part where i talk about how john insists on the fact that he's straight. i'm not doubting that at all i think john still likes women and it's easier for him to do so. but he can also develop feelings for someone like dave. hence why i think he's demiromantic in that regard. this is exactly what my sexuality is like, so maybe i am projecting. i like to imagine i'm not projecting incorrectly, though. i think he'd only be able to develop feelings for dave in a setting where he is really a prominent figure in his life. earlier acts of homestuck were like this, but unfortunately the johndave relationship wouldn't work out on john's end with the way homestuck went. their friendship was kind of forgotten after a while, which sucks. in an ideal world, they would have remained in contact and then gotten close again in earth c. but dave was written to be with karkat and jade, which either nulls his feelings for john or opens up a whole new avenue of internalizing it. which is dumb and convoluted and i don't care about postcanon.

dave on the other hand would think about his feelings towards john a little more. i like to think that homestuck dave definitely had feelings towards john. i like to imagine they both developed a crush on each other around the same time, but unlike john who doesn't give it the time of day or even considers it as a crush, dave would. and he'd know that but he wouldn't want to act on it because of a plethora of reasons. probably to retain their friendship and his self image. i guess that could give them some 'angst'.

but you know what? i don't even care for romance all that much! they're bros before they're anything else! and that's all that matters to me! just nailing their friendship in itself is gold. john and dave mean a lot to each other in a platonic sense. even if they pursue other romantic avenues or don't, i don't care! i just like people putting them in a similar setting and showcasing their awesome bromance!

fig. 3, i also like davejade. thinking of iterations of him and john in fanworks that i like is really hard cause i don't read much in that department. what comes to mind is mr. tambourine man and some of deacon_blues's comics. kgtac has a really good dave and karkat too. cole is a spectacular writer. but i've finished neither of those comics so i'm just basing it off the very little i've read. also, none of these examples are particularly johndave related. i just wanted to note down examples of john egbert and dave strider writing i enjoyed. i read like, one comic faygos made but that was also pretty good. pinballhazard is also a phenomenal writer and artist. especially for john! you guys should check all these guys out. anyways, thanks for reading all that!

[clevercatchphrase]

To answer your reply That's fine can't wait to see the final product when it's done

I thought you represented Asriel very well but how did you exactly get an exact picture on what personality type to give Asriel? because the game doesn't really feature him as much as other Undertale characters

I was going to work with someone on an AU comic for Undertale's 10th anniversary and I was hoping to have every charceter as accurate or canon as possible. What would be the best approach ?

I'm gonna answer this ask in reverse, starting with "how to keep the characters In Character", then how/why I decided on Asriel's personality. This is quite a long answer, so I'll put it under a Read More as not to stretch out your dash~

So you say you want the characters to be as canon as possible, and wonder what would be the best approach. Well... the only advice I can give is to replay the game and explore as much as the dialogue as you can. Click on everything. Inspect everything at least 2 times. Make a phone call to Papyrus in every room, then go back and do it again after you befriended Undyne. Keep in mind the relationships the characters have with each other and how they're all connected. Undyne has ties to both Gerson and Asgore, who in turn also have a connection as Gerson was once the War Hammer of Justice, and could resonably served in the royal guard as well with Asgore as his boss. Alphys is connected to Bratty and Catty (childhood friends), Bratty and Catty are connected to Burgerpants (the glamburger fiasco), Burgerpants is connected to Mettaton (boss and employee), and Mettaton is connected to Alphys (both have a mutual interest in humans). Everybody has ties to everyone else. How could those ties effect their interactions? What does the character's home/room/job say about them? Take in the environmental clues and extrapolate on them. You can learn so much about the undertale cast from indirect details. And it's okay to dip your toes into common tropes or stereotypes to flesh them out. Just be wary about making those tropes/stereotypes their ENTIRE personality, or else the characters will end up being flanderized. Never forget Papyrus is more than a skeleton who makes spaghetti, Toriel is more than an anxious mother who makes butterscotch pie, Undyne is more than a guard who suplexes boulders just because she can, so on and so forth. Ask yourself, "What are these character's values and beliefs", then using that framework try to imagine they would respond to the situations you have planned for this comic of yours. While some reactions may be similar, all should be unique. We all know Papyrus's reaction to a bad pun will be different to Sans's, but Sans and Toriel may have a similar reaction, etc, etc. There will be wiggle room. You may have to fill in parts that don't have clear cut answers, but ultimately, so long as you stay consistent with the characterizations you decide, readers will be willing to suspend their disbelief even if their interpretations are not 1 to 1 with yours. That's what makes fan fiction and theories so much fun~

Now for the second part. To copy/paste what you asked;

"how did you exactly get an exact picture on what personality type to give Asriel? because the game doesn't really feature him as much as other Undertale characters"

This is just amusing to me because saying the game doesn't really feature him is just factually incorrect. Asriel is in the game A LOT. More than some of the minor characters like Napstablook and Monster Kid, at least. But what do I mean by this? Well, aside from the protagonist you control, Asriel is the very first character you meet in Undertale, even if you don't realize it, and that's because...

Asriel IS Flowey. This is an irrefutable fact about Undertale's lore. Even if he doesn't look like a sweet goat child, even if he doesn't act like an innocent baby boy, we must accept that this cruel, heartless, emotionless flower is Asriel at his absolute worst.

Asriel himself doesn't even deny it. He doesn't say that the things he did as Flowey were the actions of a seperate entity. He fully owns up to it. To directly quote his dialogue from before and after his God of Hyperdeath fight, "I was so tired of being a flower", "As a flower, I was soulless," "I acted so strange and horrible," "I hurt so many people," "There's no excuse for what I've done." And even as Flowey, he does not see Asriel as someone separate from himself when he talks to you in New Home in the No Mercy route, recalling the memories he has before falling down as is own (example, he says "remember when WE played here", as opposed to "Remember when you and Asriel played here".)

(Now, granted, I think the concept of Flowey debating if he still "counts" as Asriel is a facinating philosophical quandary for him to explore, so much so that it became a minor story thread in a 200k word fan fic I wrote 4 years ago, but that story thread is not relevant to my current fan comic nor the game itself because, once again, Asriel DOES see himself as the same entity that is Flowey and vice versa)

Alright, enough sidetracking, back to my main point. Flowey IS Asriel at his absolute worst. Flowey is what Asriel always had the potential to become if none of his actions had consequences, if his choices had no repercussions. With out a prong collar of past regrets to keep him in check, his worst traits can run rampant. And knowing this, I reverse engineered a personality for him by defining who Flowey is then watering these traits down to something that would fit a 10 year old.

So what do we know about Flowey? We know he's deceptive (Lying to you in your first encounter in an effort to steal your soul), He's controlling (Save Scumming in every neutral ending to keep the upper hand), he's sassy (mocking you after the toriel fight no mater if you spare or kill her) and he's obsessed with Chara (declaring life isn't worth living without them, claiming "chara" is the only one who is fun to play with anymore.) (You can also make the argument that Flowey is incredibly lonely and bored, but I personally think that is a result of reliving so many timelines over and over and not something intrinsic to Asriel) using these descriptors I dialed it back in order to fit an average "child" character. My Asriel became someone who is snarky, stubborn, and cares deeply about those he loves to the point of detriment because he justifies it all as "I'm doing this for your own good/I know what's best for you", which in turn becomes his own hamartia. Asriel is also an honorary brat because he is a child and all children are brats and I don't mean that in a negative sense. I was a child once, so I was a brat once. We were all brats once in our lives. It's part of the process of growing up as an emotionally complex creature, and no one is born with perfect emotional intelligence for others. Chara and Frisk are brats too in this comic, but to varying degrees because of their own life circumstances, but that's an essay for another time.

Anyway, I hope this long-ass post helped you if just a little bit, or at least made you think. Good luck on your AU~! (god, I can't believe Undertale will be a decade old in 2 short years.)

[lightdancer1]

It's one of the stranger ironies of Death as a sibling that one of her biggest flaws just gets overlooked:

There are, of course, reasons for that. Why? Because it's specifically connected to this sibling, one of those underappreciated in comics, show, and fandom alike:

You do see Death at different points with other siblings, or at least statements. She is there with Destiny, Dream, Destruction, Desire, and is noted to spend a lot of time doing things like watching Disney movies with Delirium (no joke, this is a line Delirium casually notes in Brief Lives). Despair? She's never around her at all, outside of a family gathering. This is a consistent rule and I think there's a very direct reason for that.

"It made me sad, you know. I mean, I was sad too much of the time. I thought about giving it up-walking out. And one day I did."

I've mentioned before that between this and her dialogue in the series proper, and even arguably in her miniseries given she very arguably engineered an entire situation purely to have a character tell her she loved her. It's not really a subtext there that Death is clearly smitten by Hazel MacNamara and it indicates she does have a type and what that type is.

On the whole, Death is very much a character who's marked by depression, by the ultimate awareness that she does her job in the end not because she really wants to, because she saw the alternative 'and it wasn't very nice.' Her entire arc is marked not by success in abilities to navigate what she is, but failure.

The Endless, at their core, are personifications, ideas that have complications in all ways from being who and what they are. But and admittedly Death's spectacular example might have shaped his approach there but even so, there is this single truth. None of the other Endless broke beneath the weight of her job like Death did. None of them tried to stop being what they are, none of the others, like she can, will one day be able to treat the job as one complete with punching out at the end of a shift.

So for a being that broke in what was essentially a depression-induced breakdown and went back rather unwillingly, to be around the very concept of despair and depression could potentially either reactivate all that or break open that mask she's so carefully built.

Does this justify her neglect of her younger sister? Not exactly, as the approach she's taken to coping with her own challenges is anything but healthy. She's not entirely truthfully cheerful, she's more of a Stepford smiler as TV Tropes would define it, a smile frozen in a professional work grimace while the actual person beneath it is not doing very well at all. Despair, with her mirrors, would expose too much of that truth and Death cannot quite take that risk.

And yet, in the end, Death is at her very worst as a sibling, and as a person, with Despair of the Endless who is shown to have a further ironic parallel with Death herself. Out of the three youngest siblings Despair is the kindest and the gentlest. Like Death and Destruction she labors beneath a function that asks terrible things, unlike either of the other two she, after her murder and her own death, has made her peace with it, too.

And I think too for Despair there'd be a further factor as well, probably a lesser one. Despair (and then Daniel-Dream) showcase that her siblings can die, that truth that one day she shall have to do a part of her job she'd hate most. It does, in the absence of anything to show otherwise, seem probable that the neglect predates that and it'd probably be a thing where the one and only time the old Despair and Death spoke would have been in the wake of her murder.

And as far as what I've noted with Desire, one of the most obvious roots of their mutual antagonism with Death would be this very pattern, that Death speaks to them in threats and treats Despair as someone to be shunned and avoided, because if there is one unfettered soft spot even with the Desire of the comics, it is their concern for their twin sister.

This is one of her most obvious flaws, it is if anything a complete antithesis to her relationship with Dream, and yet it almost never comes up and there's something fascinating in that. Despair deserves better.

[cinematicct]

Encino Man (1992)

This comedy film stars Brendan Fraser in his breakout role as a prehistoric caveman who finds himself in the 20th century after two high school nerds/best friends discover him frozen in a block of ice.

Other cast members include: Sean Astin as Dave Morgan, Pauly Shore as Stanley “Stoney” Brown, Megan Ward as popular girl (and Dave’s crush) Robyn Sweeney and Mariette Hartley and Richard Masur as Dave’s parents. Ke Huy Quan (future Oscar winner of Everything Everywhere All At Once) plays a small role as a computer geek.

Brendan Fraser, Sean Astin and Pauly Shore are a tight onscreen trio. Brendan Fraser may not have much dialogue (since he plays a Neanderthal-type role), but his physicality and insanely goofy tactics are exactly how he conveys an animalistic sense of curiosity and astonishment. Sean Astin (post-Goonies/pre-Lord of the Rings) not only has the attributes of a socially awkward dork, but he emphasizes his character’s desperation so strongly, you hope he eventually fits in with the crowd. Pauly Shore (who delivers spaced-out dialogue with a surfer accent) is totally far-out as a super chill BFF.

The dynamic between the three guys is basically the central theme of the story. Dave and Stoney each see an opportunity to finish high school with a bang with this particular caveman. However, Dave wants to be popular among his peers, whereas Stoney wants to introduce the radical outlook on societal change to their strange new friend. The caveman (given the name “Link”) in turn helps Dave and Stoney rediscover their own coolness.

The setting takes place in Encino, California during the grunge era of the early’90s. Simultaneously, the film contrasts the Stone Age with that particular time period. In other words, this movie literally depicts the evolution of mankind in comical fashion. Unlike the time back when cave dwellers played with primitive tools made from stone, the ‘90s were a time when teens would gather at public hangouts (hence Dave attempts to dig a swimming pool in his backyard), dress in loose yet stylish clothing and listen to varieties of music (specifically either from a Walkman or at concerts).

Speaking of tunes, the soundtrack contains a list of rock, hip hop, metal, electronic and pop hits from the 1990s along with some original songs. The track list includes: “Let’s Get Rocked” by Def Leppard, “I’m Too Sexy” by Right Said Fred, “Feed the Monkey” by Infectious Grooves (who appear as themselves in the prom scene) and “You’re Invited (But Your Friend Can’t Come)” to name a few. Cover versions of “Wild Thing”, “Stone Cold Crazy” and “Wooly Bully” are also heard.

Now, for people who might’ve had low opinions of this particular movie in the past, to me, Encino Man has achieved a significant cultural impact in its own right since it represents what it’s like to have fun and be your own person. All that said, I honestly recommend this wildly entertaining cult film to every dedicated fan of Brendan Fraser.

“PEACE OUT, BUUUD-DY!”

[marisoft-paint-adventures]

Pgs. 24-39

IT’S HIM.

HE’S HERE.

GIVE IT UP FOR DAVE STRIDER.

this is him. the guy. the dude. the man. the main man himself. the man of the hour. of all hours. all 24 of them within a day. of every day. of all 7 days in a week. of all 4 weeks in a month. of all 12 months in a year.

what was I talking about?

oh yeah this kid.

the ultimate and unequivocal show stealer of Homestuck, you have seen this fucking kid as much as you’ve seen all trolls combined, he is like a disease and he fucking spreads everywhere, infecting the population with destructive irony shitnasty of the likes the world has never seen before.

you know exactly what kind of person you are dealing with when you read the very 1st line of dialogue from him.

TG: hey so what sort of insane loot did you rake in today

fucking perfect. this is what all writers should strive for.

but I have to ask something, why the fuck was anyone infatuated with him???

I know that the internet is not the place for people with good taste in men, Tumblr especially, but

Dave

Strider

from Homestuck.

what do you see in him?? what is there that draws you in???

because to me, he’s a fucking whiteboy. not even a cool one.

now I know, blah blah, canonically aracial, but spiritually he is a whiteboy, he is the whitest written character in this entire comic bar none. he is Hussie, and Hussie is a whiteboy, but Hussie is also non-binary, so Hussie is a whiteboy not as a gender, but as a personal aura.

I don’t know how you find that hot.

anyways moving on from that guy-

John’s manner of talking about movies is a quirk people need to pick up on more often, because this is hilarious.

EB: ok thats fine, but i just have one question and then a word of caution. have you ever seen a movie called little monsters starring howie mandel and fred savage?

John is the type of guy to just unload the entire production of a fucking film because one event happened that was kinda similar to the movie. apple juice jar??? WELL, in LITTLE MONSTERS, HOWIE MANDEL, in BLUE ASS FACE PAINT,

PISSED

INTO AN APPLE JUICE JAR.

“hey friend, I was just watching The Breakfast Club™ distributed by Universal Studios™ featuring Emilio Estevez™, Paul Gleason™,  Anthony Michael Hall™,  Judd Nelson™,  Molly Ringwald™, and Ally Sheedy™.”

just a real living encyclopedia of random 80s flicks, I support.

I also support his fucking graphic design disaster of a Ghostbusters wallpaper, love you John, never change.

what amazes me to this day is how this is somehow a somewhat edited real life conversation from Hussie. it gives me more questions than answers, how much of this actually happened??? did Hussie find apple juice in the closet??? what the fuck???

why would you even have that there in the 1st place.

DON’T ANSWER THAT I KNOW IT’S JUST GONNA LEAD INTO BRO I KNOW PLEASE I DON’T WANNA TALK ABOUT HIM YET.

TG: maybe you can play with TT shes been pestering me all day about it TG: shes mackin on me so hard all the time i start to feel embarrassed for her TG: i mean not that i can blame her or anything EB: yes, it is understandable because you are really attractive. i am attracted to you. TG: thank you EB: jk haha.

uhuh. mmhm. yeah. uhuh. I see. yes. mmhm.

that was an interesting conversation, anyways, I'm gonna get some soda. although, I don't know if I want PEPSI [AUDIBLE WINK] or COLA [AUDIBILE W[AUDIBLE WINK]I[AUDIBLE W[AUDIBLE WINK]INK]NK][AUDIBLE WINK]

TG: hope you like hammers dude!

rare Dave punctuation.

[paladin-of-nerd-fandom65]

Heeeeey buddy!!!! :D

It's great to see you back again!!💖💙💖💙💖

For the favorites ask:

What are your favorite Dickkory moments from the animated shows, animated movies or HBO Titans series or comics?

I’m glad to be back buddy @spider-jaysart 💙💖💙💖💙

For comics: Pretty Much almost any moment they spend together in NTT; in particular Vol2. Issue #34 when Kory flies the two of them into the night sky above Titans Tower,

Dick saying “I know when we’re together I feel right”

Kory then playfully tells Dick “No More Talking” followed up by a kiss with each other.

For other more modern moments, it can also be their interactions in Titans United Bloodpact in which Dick literally kisses Kory our of her brainwashing and over the course of that book he comforts her after what she had done under said brainwashing, being tender with her.

Other moments can be them being good parents to Mar’i in The Kingdom: Nightstar in which gives us the readers insight into Mar’i’s childhood with them; also would be when they get back together in New Order under the common goal of rescuing Jake from the Crusaders, Kory in particular gives her reasons for being unable to stay with her son due to her fundamental drive to fight back against the quasi-authoritarian regime Dick helped set up after her and almost all metahumans powers were taken away. In spite of that and in spite of Dick’s seeming unbending stance of said regime, the latter still deep down loves Kory as evidenced by his vision he saw with Lois’ Blue Lantern powers.

This Especially comes into play after Jake makes his case to his father of wanting to steer him away from his darker side, which convinces Dick to now fully be dedicated to restoring superpowers to the world and at the end, even if their marriage isn’t restored, the two be the best co parents they can be for Jake.

Of course though, almost all of this has foundations in the Animated series that first introduced me to these two lovebirds so there’s countless moments from there for me to list here as my favorites

One I can name though would be when Kory runs off due to her Transformation (Tamaranean Puberty) being revealed and overhearing Dick saying ‘Plasmus is just a monster, and like any monster, he’s got to go’ during their battle that led to this unwelcome reveal for her, Kory viewed herself as a monster that had to go too. Dick however knew different that she wasn’t that plus needed answers on why she ran off, thus he assembles the other Titans to go into deep space to find her no matter what. Once they find her attacked by an even more insidious monster, Dick was the first one to charge into battle to rescue her, since as part of her Transformation, Kory was in a chrysalis.

Then comes the dialogue as Dick tries to get her out of said chrysalis

Kory: “Please, Go…..you do not wish to see me this way”

Dick: “I’m your friend, Starfire. I don’t care how you look”

Then furthermore once that monster was beaten by Kory herself with her Transformation complete…

Kory: “I am…..almost normal”

Dick: “You’re exactly as you should be. No matter what you look like on the outside, you’ll always be Starfire on the inside”

Gosh….just typing that makes my heart flutter…🥹

So at the time being, those are my favorite DickKory moments

[its-monster-mash]

Feeding Crows

@rottent33th's OC Clay and my Jude feeding the birds in the park. (Very Jude forward because I don't want to accidentally be unrealistic with dialogue for your boy) I hope you like it!!

~*~

The old woman has sat on this bench and fed these crows at the same time every day the weather has allowed for as long as she’s been living here.  Oftentimes, she spends a relaxing couple of hours alone with her birds, undisturbed by passersby.

She thinks of her husband, dead for over forty years, her son, recently deceased, and the girl he forced to kill him, now living with her.

Jude would be lying if she said she thought her life would ever be normal, and she certainly never dreamed of white picket fences and baseball tournaments; in all honesty, she never expected to see her thirties, much less the ripe old age of seventy-eight.  Still, as difficult as her young life had been, she isn’t really sure when she got used to all the murders.

Her hands aren’t exactly clean; no, Judith Kaine has killed before, in self-defense and defense of those she cares about, sure, but she still killed.  At some point, it’s become no more troubling to her than taking out the trash.

Far be it from her to judge the young people who take matters into their own hands.

Her wrinkled face stretches into a smile when a young man with fiery red hair drops onto the bench beside her, and she wordlessly offers him a handful of dried catfood to feed the birds; they like it much better than bread, of course.

The first time she’d ever seen Clay Spencer, she’d done a double take.  The red hair, the mud and blood on his clothes, she’d thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.

Of course, Clay is not her son.  Her son is dead, and this boy is much bigger and much younger than Shiloh had been the last time she saw him anyway.  In fact, Clay is around the same age Jude was when she died for the very first time.

She knows he’s not her child, but she knows better than most that family isn’t always written in genetics; in the case of her family, it’s always been written in blood.

Today, there’s flecks of blood interspersed with the usual mud that encrusts Clay’s boots after a long day.  Jude lets out an approving sigh; Clay is a good boy; when he kills someone, they usually deserve it.

Her fingers tremble slightly when she reaches into her almost comically large purse, but that’s just an unfortunate side effect of reaching this age in the family she was born to.  From the bag, she produces a hefty parchment wrapped sleeve of cookies.

The aroma of cinnamon and sugar is almost overwhelming when he opens the package, and Jude smiles.

“These fell out of your pocket the last time we met.”  Jude hands him a beat up tin of cinnamon altoids.  “No one eats these unless they’re a cinnamon fan, so I thought you might appreciate a batch of snickerdoodles.”

He wastes no time taking a bite out of one of the pillowy soft cookies.  “Thanks Nana.”

Jude Smiles.

She only had one biological child, and Shiloh mercifully didn’t have any children of his own, but it seems that fate has designated Jude a grandmother anyway.  She never would have thought she’d be the grandmotherly type after the way she’d spent her youth, but she supposes that the kids who call her Nana need someone like her, someone who can understand them.

Jude would never admit to playing favorites, but if she had to choose…Clay reminds her so much of herself at that age.  Of course, she wasn’t hunting and killing people back then, but she was no stranger to a back alley knife fight during her city days, and the music Clay and his band make almost makes her nostalgic for those days.

All she has left of her old life is that beat up old H53 Harmony Rocket she used to play in her own band.  Hounddog and Randall talked her into torching the old van not long after they escaped the damn cult, but that cheap old guitar had meant the world to her.

Call her sentimental, but she couldn’t just get rid of it.

She looks down at her trembling hands; she can’t well play the damn thing anymore, and it sits uselessly as a decoration on her wall.  It wasn’t the best guitar when she bought it, but she had scraped together everything she had at the time to buy it, and it served her well on stage and in the studio.  

She hates the thought of it just ending up in some shitty little pawn shop, or worse, a junkyard, after she dies.

“I have a gift for you.”  The words leave like sandpaper against her throat; she hadn’t expected herself to make the offer; but is there anyone else she’d rather see have it?  “Back at the house.”

[lumikinetic]

Representation in comics is seriously in the gutter these days but you know what specific examples really piss me off more than anything else?

When people try and use these panels to claim that Kitty is bi. This shit aggravates me on SO MANY LEVELS, first and foremost of which is the sheer fucking lack of self-respect on display that comes from it. Like I don't know about the white gays who go apeshit for these but Kitty's bisexuality being hinted at exactly once, not being addressed at all for two years, hinted at a second time then ignored again to this day really makes me feel so seen and represented. Call me old-fashioned but I want better than that, for Kitty and for myself.

And they hit you with that slick shit, they go "they kissed! She said she has a type "of guy"! What do you mean that's not canon!" and you know what, it would be canon, if writers knew how to do it, but they don't. Bluebird is my favourite DC character and her canonical coming out was not much better than whatever this attempt with Kitty is, she got canonised and then also promptly ignored and never addressed again, and that's BAD that's a damn SHAME there's prime opportunity here for interesting character work they're not taking advantage of

BUT.

At least she said it. At least she said, out loud, in plain English, on official ink and paper "I am bisexual" and now no one can take that from her, if they do it's intentional erasure. There is a concrete, inarguable source point to refer back to. Kitty never said it, so it doesn't count.

And that's not to say "every single comic character that gets canonised as LGBT+ HAS to say their sexuality out loud!!!" like no there are plenty of queer people who choose not to stick with one specific label preferring to be nebulous and undecided and that's FINE that's GREAT it's a viable avenue for representation in comics

BUT.

If a character doesn't say it out loud then the trade off is you have to put the work in, you have to do it in a meaningful way, you can't just do it once then only do it whenever you need to tell people "hey we didn't forget!" And that's just not something editorial is willing to commit to. Worth noting too, HUGE benefit of the doubt to the writers, the fact these panels even exist is a sign they want to do it, but for my sanity, I'm gonna assume it's editorial's fault. That said, there are a few names that come to mind but that's for another post.

Comics are getting more and more progressive each year, which is so great to see

BUT.

(Last one I promise)

The trade off for THAT is they're so so scared of offending anybody, they don't want to say for absolute certainty that anyone is or isn't - do the words "bare minimum" sound familiar? - and the ones that do by some miracle get confirmed, like Tim/Bernard or JayJon - are immediately shoved together with some zero development character that was so painfully obviously shoehorned in just to say that the other character is LGBT, and they're just not INTERESTING. All these relationships are clean and safe, pulled fresh from a Hallmark commercial and the dialogue is written like a goddamn PSA instead of real people. And I don't even care about Tim or Jon like that (especially not with Tom Taylor's hack writing) so that should be an indicator of how much this pisses me off, like we are never returning to the days of Scandal Savage marching into hell to save her one true love then ending up in a poly relationship because they're scared of implying that gay people go to hell or something equally stupid and cowardly.

So uh tl;dr Big 2 Comics are fucking spineless in case you didn't know that and please don't hope for actual representation from them, go out and read some books that actually do interesting and engaging explicit queer relationships (start with Invisible Kingdom by G. Willow Wilson)

[xeno-bio-sociology]

I notice that in the troll ancestor-descendant pairs we see, there seem to be a set of defining characteristics which are always inherited down the direct line - blood colour, horn shape, lunar sway, aspect, and both gender presentation and presumably sex (because just look at Kankri's dialogue, Hussie did NOT intend anyone as trans at that point) always match. Those trolls had a small genetic pool, but Tavros didn't inherit Horuss' horns or Aranea's aspect, for example, the traits that define them to the audience always coincide. Now, that's obviously a narrative convention, but would it be hypothetically possible for this to actually work biologically? Perhaps each troll provides two types of gamete, the A gamete has a full half of the chromosomes, covering the biological aspects of those traits (the behavioural ones being either more nurture-affected or psychic handwavey shit), and in the slurry they pick up little bits of code from lots of other trolls' B gametes? "It's magic" always works, but I'm curious if it can be done with science too.

I don't know all that much about how gametes and genetics work, but I'd say there's definitely possibilities. There is nothing that absolutely says that a troll must have exactly 2 genetic contributors like humans do, for instance, as you have posited yourself.

The more complex the system is, however, the more possibilities of errors being introduced to the genetic code. This is not necessarily a problem. With the intense R-strategy that trolls employ, deleterious errors are constantly weeded out and helpful ones get a good chance to surface in the gene pool. From what I have seen of Trolls, I have always assumed that they have a very high mutation rate. This is supported by all the trolls we see in the comic exhibiting mutations, if one counts being fushiablood or having powers. I have not checked if the same is true for the epilogues, HS^2 or the games. If one includes them, then it may just be that SBurb players tend to have mutations.

The fact that they are players brings up another confounding issue too, as the ectobiology process means that the players do not necessarily have anything like the reproductive inheritance that a normal troll would have. So for our main trolls, it may be that they got the vast majority of their genetics directly from their ancestor/dancestor and the remainder a mix of the rest, but that for the average troll it would be different.

This does not preclude a similar result, however. Even amongst humans one can find people that appear to be dopplegangers, even despite not being related at all sometimes. One could point to sheer chance sometimes letting the buildingblocks fall into the same patterns, the blocks shuffled every generation but eventually the same set popping up in the same order. Unlikely, but when you get into larger number sets it can certainly happen on occasion, and much more likely when there is a direct line of descendance, too.

But you're probably looking for something more interesting than that.

Trolls could definitely produce two types of gametes, either at the same time or one set for kismeses and one for matespritship. One can also get different sets for "girl" trolls and "boy" trolls if one wants there to be a biological reason that the two are separate at all.

(My own HC is that to get a Troll (as opposed to a drone or a mother grub or whatever) one needs a full set of: one mother grub ovum and a gestalt mobile spermatozoa composed of 2 kismet sperm and 2 matesprit sperm, with the sperm gestalt needing to include 2 "boy" and 2 "girl" donors in any order. Usually this means that a pair of trolls will produce a bucket of gametes mostly already locked together into 1/2 of the necessary packet to deliver to the ova, which when mixed into the slurry will have a chance to encounter the other half of the equation. Since most of the gametes are already paired up the troll will usually be the product of one matesprit and one kismet pair, but sometime of the gametes enter the slurry solo so there is also a chance of a random selection of donors or one pair and two unpaired.)

One of the most important questions to get the result you want, I think, is what information each gamete carries and how that information is combined with that of additional gamete(s). (like, does one always inherit their blood from their maternal kismet ancestor, or is it a mix of all of your donors, or what?) The more shuffling and individual data blocks there are, the harder is is to get an Ancestor/Descendant pair. But if there's only a few blocks and they're inherited or passed down wholesale with little modification, then it's much easier to get a return of a nearly identical setup, especially if the children tend to mingle amongst interrelated groups like how Vriska sought out Eridan specifically because of their ancestries.

In any case, I think you need to find someone with a stronger background in the science of genetics for better information. Get some punnet squares happening.

[times-eclipse]

Persona 6 Dream - Phantom Thieves and a Circus Troupe

I had a bit of a nap earlier and ended up having a dream about Persona 6. For whatever reason it also involves the cast of Persona 5, but it at least took it in an interesting way. It's kinda a long description, so let's see how I do.

There was an anime-style OP, as they do, but I don't really remember much about it by this point. It introduced a few dream-specific characters, as well as the Phantom Thieves. I was a little concerned why PT was there, as I worried it might mean it can't stand on its own.

I seemed to be playing the game with a friend, but I only saw the game visuals in the dream. The camera was low-down and close up like I was in the game itself, but seemed to also have running commentary like I was watching/playing it.

The game starts off with some other party going somewhere in some town. I don't remember anything about how they looked, except for recalling the protagonist's design - like a cross between Makoto Yuki P3 and Ren P5. He had short, slightly curly-wavy hair like Ren, but it was a dark blue like it was a mix between Makoto and Ren. He was shown in an outfit that seemed... almost playing-card magician themed - alike the P5 Joker outfit, but with more reds and whites, slightly anime-outfit extravagant but not too much. He also maybe had Joker-mask-styled glasses.

The party end up going to a movie theatre. Two characters from the OP that looked like circus ringleaders - dressed in white blazers and pants, one man with a tophat and one woman with a baton - are all "HEY who wants to rule a Palace?!" and pull out of the fabric of reality a weird cog-spike thing. The cog-spike is heavily black-and-white styled like it's part of P5's UI, and is apparently called a "key".

One party member, the Ryuji/Junpei-type (he even looked rather Ryuji), gets extremely hyped for it and ravenously goes after it, as do some others in the theatre. I (in the background) are all "oh I think I see the story loop here". When he grabs onto it, reality falls apart and everyone is falling through a red void, and the Phantom Thieves are there?? The thieves are all "who the heck is this lot?!"

The party and PT are eventually standing in a garden/flower field sort of area. I don't remember exactly the conversation, but it's said/implied basically that the party has been caught up in some Cognition thing, and the PT are here because they've been solving such events in the background. Akechi is there too. The Junpei-Ryuji guy that grabbed the "key" is nowhere to be seen.

The game seems to inherit from your P5 save file and called Joker "Juurou" here, like my previous playthrough with my friend. This is like the one point the dream tried to be a bit more game and brought up a dialogue box, only to get all "lived" again and me there, in the dream is all "OH HECK YEAH IT'S JUUROU, woo!" and patted his cheeks and confused everyone.

I think the idea in the dream was that these two circus ringleader types were going around showing people the Wonders of the Metaverse, and people exposed to those "keys" suddenly became overcome with power and desire. If you touched the "key", you'd form a Palace right there for that area, as it happened for The Junpei-Ryuji. The dream implied each party member would go through this, even though your entire circle of friends was practically introduced right at the start.

In this situation it would be almost comical after like the fourth dungeon to see party members still fall for the ringleaders' trap.

Regardless, once at the flower garden area, this is about when I woke up. The P6 party was congregating together but unsure what do, and PT were heading off on their own, and then... I don't remember anything else. There was an aside all "hey wait a sec when was P6 supposed to come out again" and then remembered going to a store to get it, and the release date on the trailer being all 2023.04.13 and it was apparently like, the 17-18th in the dream..?

But regardless, aside from the frankly marketing powered inclusion of the Phantom Thieves, the general conceit of the dream was kinda cute. Also if we end up with a P6 trailer announcing it for release on Homestuck Day, you heard it here first folks.

[gotjacobian]

Something entertaining I’ve noticed from talking to people about Tailslide: people’s perceptions of Kestrel split correlated with their existing familiarity with Genius as a world/game system. People who are more familiar with it seem more likely to assume… general “good kiddo”-ness from him, I guess? Less lying, monologuing, scenery chewing, etc, or at least more benign versions of those things. While people who aren’t familiar seem more likely to expect gremlin behavior.

My guess is that people who know Genius have a picture in their head of the full spectrum of “Like That” the Inspired can embody, and know how relatively grounded K is in that context. I dunno how I feel about that from a writing perspective. I don’t think either read is wrong, but I do always feel like I could be doing a better job of including colorful characters and mad science shenanigans that would give people more of the Genius world context. But I also like the idea of people being less sure about exactly how much of K’s  high-obligation chill is a front off the bat. 

This is related to one of the comic’s “baby’s first long-form narrative” problems: the exposition works essentially backwards from how it should for an uninformed reader. More specifically, it does a pretty good job of introducing the specific things in Tailslide that are abnormal in the Genius universe (K working for the mortal government, a “reformed” Clockwise leaving Lemuria to rejoin the peerage, Quinn running for peerage chair as a mortal). But the average reader (untouched by Kyle Marquis) is in all likelihood gonna be more familiar with stuff like SCP-type agencies and abstract organizational politics than Genius’ specific world-of-mad-science flavor. Like, it could definitely be worse. It WAS worse, back when the concept of ‘clockstoppers’, ‘unmada’, and ‘inspiration’ were showing up in that order, which led to my first rewrite of the prologue and chapter 1.  But I can see now that the worldbuilding still requires either some prior familiarity or some patience and faith on the part of a reader to hit the way I want it to. 

This makes sense given the audience and mindset I was writing with at the time, and I’ve been taking the issue into account while finishing rewriting the ch1 dialogue. If I ever redo some pages in their entirety, I think I’d lengthen the prologue both for the sake of better drama, and to spend a little more time introducing the mad science bits of the world before we get to the TLA, Peerage, and OLT. The other thing I’ve considered is major edits that would rearrange chapters, probably starting with Chapter 4, then 3, and then splitting 1 and 2 somehow across future pages if they’re used at all. I don’t love this idea, though. I think it would completely wreck how Altmann/K’s relationship is introduced in chapters 1-3, which is one of the things I really like about the story as it currently (or will shortly) exist(s). I might try cutting the pages this way and reading it as an experiment at some point just to see if that’s the case - but these are all minor, extremely hypothetical longterm goals compared to just Making More Pages either way. 

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 11x18: New Deal - Analysis, Part 3

@galadrieljones:

Guys I have some more notes, too. Okay so first of all, I didn't really take any notes on 11.17. Honestly, I thought it was kind of a purely expositional episode. Some of the dialogue in that first scene bothered me, it was so contrived lol. I know they apparently need to do this stuff for the GA, since ppl will probably have forgotten a lot of what has happened, and we're basically picking up exactly where we left off, but like...come on lol.

For 11.18, I had many notes. I am just going to go through what I have so far. First, that shot of Daryl's knife on the ground. What did you guys make of that? It was an incredibly pointed, purposeful shot. I noticed that in the episode, he drops the knife and then picks up the gun.

But with the gun, it was strange. Daryl is still being so...Daryl. He is such a reluctant hero. He tries to give Judith the gun, but she throws it all back in his face. She accuses him of not being willing to stay and fight at the CW. She really pushes his buttons here. Judith is getting very...antsy? Is that the word? She is a hero, too. She wants her turn, she needs a purpose.

Is anyone able to tell what she seems to be up to at the church? I need to rewatch. I couldn't tell what it was she was getting into. But the fact that she runs away is interesting and also alarming. Judith, what sort of trouble will you find yourself in?

@wdway:

As pretty typical of me I have a few thoughts that I want to add about the scene in New Deal and the comic book. It starts out in Daryl's makeshift bedroom with so many Daryl and Beth symbols. Daryl then moves into the living space with even more Beth/Daryl symbols around the room.

Daryl comes into the room expecting to see Judith but she's not where he thought she would be, expected her to be. He then goes over to JR and leans down at eye level (such an obvious setup to being able to see the back covers of the comic book) to question RJ. Daryl realizes very quickly that Judith is missing. Judith is just gone. Daryl then leaves to go searching for the missing girl. Hummm, can't possibly read anything into that scene.

Here's another idea that falls in line with probably not the case, I'm overthinking, over analyzing but here goes anyway. The comic book is about a teenager who is living an ordinary life. Something happens and he is thrown into a new type of world. He learns how to use his superpowers in order to help others. Could this not be a synopsis of what we believe Beth's story is. She was an ordinary teenager when the world changed. She had to learn what her particular powers were, and she chose to use them in order to help others.

@galadrieljones:

Interesting observations, @wdway. The thing about Slabtown that has always been so mysterious is that, like the Invincible comics, and like Rick's story, it's an obvious hero's journey. Being thrust into a "new world," meeting allies and enemies, overcoming trials, acquiring special skills, falling into the belly of the whale, and emerging with new knowledge.

This is why Beth's story is so bizarre. Because they clearly wanted to set up a hero's journey for her, but then, they just cut it short. When she stabs Dawn, that's hardly the pinnacle. If anything, it's an atonement. She's meeting with the goddess, the ultimate feminine force in her life, which seems to hold an immense power over her. Only by overtaking this role for herself can she ascend. But after everything--giving her her own hero's journey, her own trials, her own unique point of view, they then just kill her off? I don't think so.

To this day, there hasn't been another storyline like the Grady storyline. It's truly unique. The idea that it's just a big nothing burger, that Gimple just decided to ditch it for no reason, doesn't make any sense.

I'm going to use this to transition back to the rest of my notes from 11.18, because I do have some Grady things in there.

But first, I want to talk about Lance Hornsby, whose motivations are starting to crystallize a little bit. Ultimately, is there any question anymore that Lance is in league with the CRM? The first tell was when he gets very mouthy with Mercer after his capture, reminding Mercer that the reason "his men" don't listen to him is because they're "not [his] men."

Later, when he's talking to Pamela Milton, Lance makes some serious threats. He basically tells her that she NEEDS him. He says that without him, "certain alliances" and "certain stabilizing factors" will be lost to her. Further, when Pamela accuses Lance of playing a game he has no business playing, he almost laughs at her.

Lance may not be a blue blood, but he is a DOER. He's a mover and a shaker. He's a mobster, essentially.

Idk if any of you have read the book "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck. But there is this incredible passage about the different types of "people" there are. He talks a lot about this one group of characters, called "Mack and the boys." Mack and the Boys are veritable blots on the town. They are also politicians. They are diplomats. They can talk their way in and out of everything. In the book (which I don't have in front of me so I unfortunately can't quote from it), Steinbeck compares the different types of people to different types of animals. So like, predator and prey. Mack and the Boys are SCAVENGERS. They make the most out of others' misfortunes AND good fortunes. They can turn any situation toward their own advantage, and this is a special skill. So even though they're "blots on the town," they're unsavory characters, typically unworthy of respect, they're also very good at getting the things that they want.

That's Lance Hornsby. So, I think that Lance, in all of his pathological ambition, and unable to change his stars (he comes from a long line of gear heads, just like Daryl--he's a nobody just like Daryl), has found other ways to elevate his status, and other means of "clout" to gather. And I think in doing this, he's effectively gone over Pamela's head. For a long time, he tried to use this to please her, to try and get his foot in the door, maybe she'd let him become a part of her "club," but now that she's ready to throw him under the bus for her degenerate son, he's risen above all that. He's given into the darkness. He's just going to go all in on this other enterprise, which, I think, is the CRM.

Obviously, we still don't know the backstory, but it seems to me that Lance has known Pamela for a lot of years. I can't tell if maybe he's an adopted brother, an illegitimate son, maybe? Or just a childhood friend, a la the Talented Mr. Ripley. I looked into his character in the comics and there's no known information about him pre-apocalypse, so whatever vibe they're trying to introduce between him and Pamela (ie: when she said that thing about how he has been ambitious their "entire lives") is a pure product of the show. Anyway, I am thinking that Lance is at least the doorway to the CRM here, and I still think this might also be part of how he knows about Leah.

I wanted to comment, too, on the "Founders Day" celebration, and how it kind of reminds me of an inversion of "Monument Day," which they observe in World Beyond as a memorial to the original outbreak, or the Fall. The whole Founders Day thing was also heavily reminiscent of Woodbury, how they held that totally insane wrestling match? Reminded me of a more organized, glossy version of the gladiator matches at Woodbury, where the people kill and torture walkers for catharsis.

When I think of Woodbury now, too, I'm sort of reminded of "Davon," or the short story "The Lottery," which both feature antiquated, barbaric traditions that lead down the path of human destruction. The events in Madawaska call us back to the barbarism of the witch burnings in the 1600s, and in Woodbury, walkers are killed and tortured for fun, sometimes people are pitted against them earnestly. These things are centered as necessary for catharsis, for people to feel safe within rules and tradition, but they're full-on hellish. I think a lot of that feeds into the entire essence of the Commonwealth.

The Woodbury imagery also makes me think we are once again turning back the clock. In our approach to the D.C. al Coda, which begins with Hershel's death, is the Commonwealth serving as the proxy for Woodbury? This would help us place where we're at in terms of Hershel's death (the start of the D.C. al Coda) and Beth's death (the end of the D.C. al Coda).

Think about it. Pamela Milton, the Governor of the Commonwealth, is beginning to lose hold of her people and her organization due to a group of nosy outsiders. Her child (Sebastian) is killed by Judith. This is sure to begin a war that will now extend beyond the walls of the CW, marching right up to Team Family's doorstep. In season 3, the Governor of Woodbury begins to lose control of his people and his organization, due to a small group of meddling outsiders. His child is killed by Michonne. This begins a war that extends beyond the walls of Woodbury, with the Governor marching straight to Team Family's doorstep. The parallelism here is very loud.

Another thing going on in the background of Woodbury, remember, is Dr. MILTON Mamet, who is doing experiments on walkers to try and measure whether they have retained any memories or emotional attachments to their lives before they died. I can't confirm whether Dr. Milton was a character in the comics, which makes me think he's not; however, Robert Kirkman has the writing credit on 3.8 "Made to Suffer," which is the episode in which Michonne kills Penny, the Governor's reanimated daughter.

I'm just drawing connections here between season 3 and the Commonwealth. I think there's a LOT of similarities here. It can help us to understand what's happening now, looking back. Secret research into walker intelligence, the Milton factor, barbaric traditions in "utopian" (dystopian) communities who are trying to "put the world back as it was," lead by despot, power-hungry "Governors" on power trips, who seem unable to let go of certain aspects of their pasts. Michonne and Judith parallels. What else?? Merle dies. Daryl struggles with his allegiances to himself and to his new family. Judith is born. Carol "dies." A military helicopter crashes in the woods. Just a lot going on here. I'm going to think on it more. But do you guys have any thoughts on this?

Something weird going on with the mass wardrobe choices at the CW, too, on Founder's Day. Everybody is wearing red, black, and/or white, which very few exceptions. Idk if this is just a thing ppl do at the CW, or if it's a huge example of the black/white theme with red mixed in, which harkens back to Through the Looking Glass, in which black is replaced with red as a commentary on the dark aspects of human nature.

To me, black/white with a red accent communicates a proximity to "the walking dead," or the underworld, whereas black/white with a green accent communicates proximity to the land of living. I've used Daryl's arrows to make this theory. His black/white fletched arrows have red nocks when he's in proximity to Leah and the Underworld, and they have green nocks when he's in proximity to his family.

Pamela is wearing an insane red suit at the Founder's Day celebration. I don't have a screenshot, but you know what I mean!

I loved the story that Daryl told Judith about how he used to run away, how he'd go down and wait by the river until his dad fell asleep. He hasn't told any stories in a while.

I also noticed in this episode that the CW really just sort of looks like Terminus. It's clear that it's designed around a massive train station and train depot. This is not an accident.

There's this very weird shot of surgical scissors, gauze, and instruments that REALLY made me think they're trying to play up the whole medical theme, ie: the disappearances from the hospital. There are other medical things going on, too, like Ezekiel's surgery, the appendectomy, and Annie's pregnancy complication. This is a CRM thing, I'm like, certain, and there's no way this doesn't all connect back to Grady. Like I said, that's an unfinished storyline. There's more to it. It's only a matter of time.

There's literally no reason to zoom in on these instruments and gauze here. Annie isn't having a procedure done. She's just having an ultrasound. This has nothing to do with pregnancy. It's pure Grady imagery.

Lastly, today I just wanted to point out an irony that takes place at the end of 11.18. In the comics, Sebastian is the character who kills Rick Grimes. Now we have Judith killing Sebastian with Rick's gun. Just feels like a kind of metafictional revenge.

Oh, I wanted to add one thing about Annie’s amniotic fluid thing. I agree with what was said about this probably leading to Annie’s disappearance or her going to the CRM for “treatment.” The juxtaposition of her situation with Grady imagery, and “surgical” imagery more broadly, inclines me to think that there may be some sort of research or “Guinea pig” angle to her imminent internment at the CRM, which will also create a vector to Grady.

We can really see now how Madison Clark’s storyline is beginning to intersect with the flagship, too, via Annie and Negan’s storyline. It’s clear now why they astroturfed that marriage/baby thing with Annie, and also why they set Negan up as a husband via the “Here’s Negan” episode. We see in that episode how he screwed up in that role and how his desperation to atone for his infidelity ultimately led to Lucille’s suicide and Negan’s descent. This is now his “second chance,” and because of “Here’s Negan,” we know how far he is willing to go to save the woman he loves.

Only this time he won’t be alone. We can see now how certain characters are “connecting” to the CRM: Daryl via the French connection and possibly Team Primrose, Maggie/Negan via Annie’s pregnancy, Eugene via T. Brooks Ellis. Madison Clark’s storyline (or maybe this is more aptly put as Morgan’s storyline) is really looking like a drawstring here, too. Kids and pregnant women are all in danger. Of what, we don’t know yet. We know they don’t want families. They only want kids. Sounds like they’re making an army, or possibly using them as Guinea pigs. Dwight and Sherry are also on this conveyor belt. So many disparate lines are finally beginning to converge. I’m super excited!!

Also, worth noting that Fear is still several years behind TWD. So, whatever is brewing there has already happened. Where the two stories end up meeting will be super interesting indeed. Al and Isabel are also “rogue elements” here. Certainly, I can see them getting involved in some sort of resistance. I also speculated that it’s possible they’ve met Maggie, based on their current proximity to Knoxville…

@wdway:

All of this is wonderful! Starting with your comment about the similarities of Beth's and the comic Invincible characters both being Hero Journey storyline. I had a palm to the forehead moment when I read that. And with that thought we definitely have to throw Daryl into that mix also. Love it!

Lance being connected to the CRM has been hinted at from the beginning of his introduction to the audience I believe. It was certainly more subtle in the beginning but now they're bringing it more into the light. Just the fact that he has this whole group of agents some former CIA assassins and numerous soldiers at his disposal that are not part of the CW, I mean seriously, where else could they have possibly come from if not the CRM?

We have talked since the introduction of Annie's character about suspecting that her story would be part of little Herschel's and that is what will lead to Maggie and Negan's spin-off. The last episode of Fear really set up what to look for and understand what's about to happen. For the audience members who have not watched Fear or TWB, I can totally understand why they are confused and in the dark about what could possibly happen.

I am looking forward to seeing all these different spinoffs storylines collide. I do agree that either Maggie and Al have already met or something will happen that will bring about the meeting. I think that might be towards the end of Maggie's and Negan spinoff. It will be the next step leading into the next flagship after all the limited episode spin-offs.

[hasgudagudadoneanythingwrong]

Behind the Curtains: An Announcement

So, something that we've been sitting on the fence about for a while, is whether or not to pull back all the curtains on how this blog is run. It's been a source of a lot of stress lately due to not knowing how well it'd be taken or if that kind of change would even be worth it in the first place, but I don't quite think we can continue to keep sidestepping it any longer.

Basically, for starters, our pin has included for a while at the bottom a blurb about this blog being "Run by the Prisms Collective, a plural system with a considerable number of Fate introjects." There's a handy link included too, being morethanone, that gives a good summary explanation of it as well. The TL;DR of it though, is we got more than one person sharing the same brain, called a plural system, that contains a bunch of headmates.

It hasn't come up much since most times it can just be left ambiguous, but basically, the host of this system is me Az, and everyone else either doesn't front often enough individually to make a noteworthy appearance, or, well...

There's not much elaboration on what an introject is, either in the pinned or the link, and to put simply: An introject is (typically) the result of a brain shortcutting the whole "make a new headmate" process by taking a template framework and copy/pasting the actual details from somewhere else. Those details can come from just about anywhere. Including fictional media.

That is to say, all the Servants you see here on this blog? The reason we've been able to write them so realistically, is because, well, they are real in a sense. A copy/pasted, canon-divergent, stuck-in-a-human-body type of real, but still real people nonetheless, who are capable of growth, development, self-awareness, the whole deal.

That's why the cast size is so small, why the plot doesn't exist, why a lot of details don't line up with canon, why so much development happens off-screen, why Servants sometimes refer to their 'canon-selves,' why some posts ambiguously continue the dialogue into the comic description, why sometimes we comment on or reblog jokes about knowing these people in real life... It's the driving force behind just about everything on this blog, really.

While we haven't made too much of an attempt to hide this per se, we've been really hesitant about being explicitly open about it, because we know it changes a lot about how people see us, and not always for the better. We'd be lying if we said we didn't enjoy all the enthusiastic attention we get sometimes that are only really possible when people aren't so worried about stepping on any toes. But, even with steel-toed boots, we'd be lying too if we said it wasn't a bit exhausting keeping everything under wraps all the time.

So, no need to apologize for anything, or tread lightly, or whatever. We didn't become an ask blog for everyone to be too afraid to ask anything, after all. We just, want to be more open going forward, to the point where even risking the relationships we have now is worth it if it means we can be seen for who we actually are, instead.

Keep sending in all the asks you want, we still love answering and chatting with you all. Just know you're talking to exactly who you see here, not a simulated response.

[jamiejamsmediaof2024]

Lost At Sea by Brian Lee O'Malley: 10/10

This is the first example of a piece of media that justifies me making this tumblr. I did this comic HELLA dirty on twitter, only commenting on its art style and nothing else.

So, if you know Brian Lee O'Malley you probably know him for his other comic series about a canadian getting mixed up in a romantic situation with an american and the coming of age story that comes with it. I'll DEFINITELY have things to say about that later, but its important to acknowledge Lost At Sea does its own thing, and it does it super super well.

First of all, that art style that I decided to acknowledge and NOTHING ELSE on twitter: it is absolutely eye-catching. I absolutely adore artists that can utilize the stark contrasts of black and white in their art. Lost At Sea's art style feels defined by it, with the black and white making up these really interesting shots.

tbh i can't be fucked to get a bunch of examples for this i read this on mobile and im typing on da computer BUT as you can see, as opposed to detailing the car interior, O'Malley opted to do all black, creating some nice space for the dialogue of Raleigh's internal thoughts. This is how the story opens up, for the record. This shot also introduces to how the story is told: there's these very harsh cuts of Raleigh just vomiting her thoughts with some pretty road trip scenery, back to her and her road buddies hanging around, back to the thought vomit, back to road trip, until they eventually merge and collide near the end. This method of storytelling was frankly disorienting. That was, until I realized that its exactly how it wants to tell its story. When you read Lost At Sea, you're making sense of nonsense. You're just as lost (at sea) as she is. She's just as confused as you are. If you've ever tried growing up and dealing with difficult emotions, you may come to find out that its very nonsensically confusing. O'Malley is a fucking genius at coming of age and figuring your life out stories (as we'll get to eventually). Lost at Sea is a little complicated for how short it is, but its such a good experience once it soaks in. This is one of those stories that had me a little messed up for a couple days. If interested, I'd highly recommend this, especially if you liked Scott Pilgrim.