#have a non-joke comic for once lol

[kawareo]

"I was so young, I didn't know evil when I saw it"

Young Karlach and Gort!

Tried something new this time, but man this comic fought me back lmao

Strike and Karlach are besties post-tadpoles, they are on the surface very similar people as the two most easygoing in the party, so the betrayal when they reach the point of reveal is really hard on both of them

[3d-wifey]

This is such a niche ask, but I saw that you do Mortal Kombat. Can I ask for some flirty intro dialogue? You know like the conversation the characters have b4 the fight? But like with a Goddess!reader who's basically Hecate? like a Nyx/Hecate fusion if that makes sense. Oh and can you do what some of her taunts would be? I feel like those and her fatalities would be illusion and tarot based :)))

Flirty Intro Dialogue

Pairings: Johnny Cage x Reader; Noob Saibot x Reader; Erron Black x Reader; Dark Raiden x Reader; Cassie Cage x Reader; Shang Tsung x Reader

A/N: (Back to using gifs for headcanons). This is just for the MK 11 timeline. Once MK 1 comes out, I'll do new ones. Had to do a little research fan fiction-wise for this one, but I got a good amount out (plus some taunts the reader would say during the fight). I put a lot of thought into the reader's backstory in the MK universe, even though it'll never be used lol. Please, feel free to request more of these characters or some intros for different characters. Maybe even request a one-shot? Who knows ;)

Behind the Scenes: You know how when Erron Black shows up in the intro, he's looking at a Wanted poster of his opponent? I feel like Goddess!reader has something like that where she's looking at a tarot card that's different for each character before it disappears into mist. Another opening is the reader strutting in shapeshifted into her opponent, before turning back. Her friendship fatality has her stirring a comically large witch's caldron and Noob Saibot pops out in a cloud of mist.

You: Jonathan Carlton

Johnny Cage: Sexy witch goddess.

You: I…Hmm.

-

You: I can feel the magic coursing through your veins. You are one of my Night children, Jonathan.

Johnny Cage: You don’t mean that literally, right? Because it would suck to have the hots for my mom.

You: (sighs)  And what a waste.

-

Johnny Cage: Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming.

You: Do you dream of me often, Mortal?

Johnny Cage: Ohho, absolutely.

-

Johnny Cage: Somebody pinch me, I must be dreaming.

You: (sighs) How many times must you make that joke?

Johnny Cage: You know you love it!

-

Johnny Cage: So…what are my chances of getting you into my next movie?

You: I’ve told you. I have no desire to appear on your “big screen”.

Johnny Cage: I was thinking we’d make a different kind of movie.

-

Johnny Cage: Goddess of dreams, huh? Can I call you Sandman?

You: You may call me whatever you please, dear mortal.

Johnny Cage: Oh, you do not wanna give me that kind of power.

-

Johnny Cage: Heard you and Shinnok had a thing.

You: A…thing?

Johnny Cage: You two boned! Get it? Cuz he’s a skeleton.

-

Johnny Cage: Tarot, huh? Card tricks are cool and all, but do you got any other witchy gimmicks?

You: I'm particularly fond of palm reading.

Johnny Cage: ...So what I'm hearing is, you're good with your hands?

-

Johnny Cage: You, Fujin, and Raiden go way back, huh?

You: Since the dawn of time.

Johnny Cage: (grimace) Yeesh, they've been friend zoned that long?

-

Johnny Cage: Not so fast, Hermonie.

You: Must you always spout such inane drivel?

Johnny Cage: Someone's been using their word-a-day calendar!

-

Johnny Cage: I've never met a non-evil Eldar God.

You: Evil is quite subjective.

Johnny Cage: I'll remember that next time I'm kicking one's ass.

Noob Saibot: My Goddess.

You: Bi-Han.

Noob Saibot: The shadows cling to your presence. 

-

Noob Saibot: Many have wanted me to yield to their command.

You: Oh?

Noob Saibot: Only you have succeeded, My Goddess.

-

You: You are not touched by the Night, dear Bi-Han. You are shrouded in it.

Noob Saibot: What better way to show that I belong to you?

You: It certainly seems that way, doesn’t it?

-

Noob Saibot: The shadows whisper your name.

You: (smiles) What do they say about me?

Noob Saibot: That your beauty is combated by no other. They speak only the truth for their Goddess.

-

You: You have been a steadfast worshiper, Bi-Han. How shall I reward your loyalty?

Noob Saibot: I only ask for one thing: to be your consort.

You: Hmm. That could be arranged.

-

Noob Saibot: I do not want you to be upset with me, but I will not take back what I said.

You: Your brother cares for you, Bi-Han.

Noob Saibot: Yet, here we are.

-

You: Why must we fight?

Noob Saibot: I wish to prove to you my might, My Goddess.

You: Oh, dear wraith. For you, my love is freely given. You have already earned it.

-

Noob Saibot: You're different than the other Eldar Gods. You...care.

You: Do you think me weak?

Noob Saibot: Never.

-

You: Care to spar?

Noob Saibot: I'd be honored.

You: Then don't take it personally when I beat you.

-

Noob Saibot: The shadows crave your touch.

You: Only the shadows?

Noob Saibot: I'll always long for you, My Goddess.

-

You: Do you fear me, dear Bi-Han?

Noob Saibot: I respect you.

You: (sigh) That wasn't a no.

Erron Black: You've got quite the pretty penny on your head.

You: Are you here to kill me then, Erron Black?

Erron Black: With a face like that, I wouldn’t dream of it.

-

Erron Black: You got any love spells up your sleeve, witchy? I swear ’m good for it.

You: Love is not something to take lightly. Who do you have in mind?

Erron Black: (smirks)  Look in a mirror, darlin’. 

-

Erron Black: You the Goddess of lust, by any chance?

You: That is not a purpose I was created to serve.

Erron Black: Pity. You’d certainly suit it.

-

Erron Black: You had something to ask me, beautiful?

You: Yes. What is “reverse cowgirl”?

Erron Black: (smirks) How ‘bout I show you the ins and outs after this?

-

Erron Black: ’M not usually one for marriage, darlin’.

You: Neither am I.

Erron Black: I don’t have to be the only one, as long as I’m your favorite.

-

Erron Black: You ever find out why Shinnok offed you?

You: I believe he wanted to turn me into his revenant bride. He became rather desperate after I declined his proposal.

Erron Black: (chuckle) Well, I guess I can’t blame the guy.

-

Erron Black: Why don’t you take a peek into ol’ Erron’s dreams? Swear you won’t be disappointed.

You: I’ve seen your dreams. I must say, you give me very generous proportions.

Erron Black: Then you must know I’m a very generous lover.

-

Erron Black: I've struck gold

You: How so?

Erron Black: Well, you're here, ain'tcha?

-

Erron Black: You cast a spell on me, Goddess?

You: I have not, Erron Black.

Erron Black: Do you want to?

-

Erron Black: How 'bout you and I see where the night takes us?

You: Do you think you can keep up?

Erron Black: Trust me. I may be fast on the quick draw, but I don't shoot quick.

-

Erron Black: You've got the magic touch.

You: A good deal of my powers flow through my hands.

Erron Black: I want 'em on me.

You: I’ve heard of how you…disposed of Shinnok.

Dark Raiden: After what he did to you, after how I mourned, I would behead him a hundred times over.

You: It isn’t judgment you sense in my voice. I would have killed him myself if you hadn’t beat me to it.

-

You: Do you still desire me, even as you are now?

Dark Raiden: If you need to ask, then I have failed to show you my devotion.

You: Hmph.

-

Dark Raiden: Will you abandon me too, my love?

You: It is not in my nature.

Dark Raiden: They do not deserve your blessings.

-

Dark Raiden: How have you…How are you here?

You: I sensed my presence was needed and returned to my corporal form just in time to be put in Kronika's void.

Dark Raiden: You could not sense how much I needed you, how much I mourned?

-

You: We are in such uncertain times, my vision is clouded.

Dark Raiden: I’m sorry for the part I play in your duress, my love.

You: You are only doing your duty. It’s how you’re going about it that leaves me weary.

-

Dark Raiden: How can you find such beauty in their shortcomings?

You: The Night welcomes all into her shadowed embrace.

Dark Raiden: You are wasted on them!

-

Dark Raiden: I was so lost without your guidance.

You: When I died?

Dark Raiden: When you were taken from me!

-

Dark Radien: How did Shinnok do it?

You: He lied to me and attacked me when I let my guard down.

Dark Raiden: (growls) If I could, I would bring him back to enact justice upon him once more.

-

You: I have but one wish.

Dark Raiden: Anything.

You: I wish for you to come back to me.

-

You: Is it true? What you've done?

Dark Radien: It was the only way.

You: You have lost yourself.

-

You: We've never fought before, have we?

Dark Radien: We never needed to for me to know you're the stronger between us.

You: Flattery will not save you.

Cassie Cage: You know, I think I’m finally understanding why Raiden lost his marbles.

You: How so?

Cassie Cage: I think I’d lose my shit too if someone like you was taken from me.

-

Cassie Cage: Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

You: I’m…afraid I do not understand.

Cassie Cage: Oh, you have got to let me take you on a movie date.

-

Cassie Cage: Who’s your favorite: Fujin or Raiden? Come on. You can tell me.

You: I’m a Goddess. Why would I limit myself to one lover?

Cassie Cage: You dirty girl.

-

Cassie Cage: What are you the Goddess of again?

You: (hesitates) …It would be easier to list what I am not the Goddess of.

Cassie Cage: (whistles) And I thought my parents expected a lot of me.

-

Cassie Cage: Come on, just one kiss!

You: I am older than you could possibly imagine.

Cassie Cage: An older woman. What’s not to love?

-

Cassie Cage: I heard you died. So, how are you standing here in all your godly beauty?

You: I have much power over death and the comings and goings of the Underworld. My soul simply dispersed there.

Cassie Cage: Yep. That’ll do it.

-

Cassie Cage: So…You didn’t happen to see that one dream, did you?

You: I’ve seen all your dreams, Cassandra. And I’m flattered.

Cassie Cage: (clears throat) …Right.

-

Cassie Cage: It’s a full moon

You: She calls to me and all who feel her light.

Cassie Cage:…You’re not gonna turn into a werewolf, are you?

-

Cassie Cage: You gonna turn me into a frog, Goddess?

You: It’s a possibility.

Cassie Cage: (shrugs) As long as you change me back with a kiss.

-

Cassie Cage: Heard you hung out with Jacqui.

You: Yes, though she didn’t mention you at all.

Cassie Cage: She is the worst wing woman.

-

You: You’ve come to my crossroads. Do you need my guidance?

Cassie Cage: Just wondering if you could teach me a trick or two.

You: So it’s my protection you seek.

Shang Tsung: Your beauty entices me

You: My power entices you.

Shang Tsung: Two things can be true at once.

-

Shang Tsung: Soon, you shall be my bride.

You: You cannot tie down a Goddess; you cannot tie down the Night.

Shang Tsung: I can try.

-

Shang Tsung: Do my powers impress you, Goddess of magic?

You: They certainly intrigue me, Sorcerer.

Shang Tsung: Allow me to give you a closer look.

-

Shang Tsung: Every time I invoke my magic, I do so in your name.

You: Your loyalty changes with the moon’s phases.

Shang Tsung: I devote myself to you, my Goddess.

-

Shang Tsung: I want something more valuable than your soul.

You: Such as?

Shang Tsung: Your love.

-

Shang Tsung: You forgave Shinnok, but not I?

You: I did not forgive him. He killed me when I refused to be his bride.

Shang Tsung: I will succeed where he has failed.

-

Shang Tsung: I kneel at your altar, my Goddess.

You: You needn’t prostrate yourself before me.

Shang Tsung: It is never a hardship to be on my knees for you.

-

You: Do you fear me?

Shang Tsung: I’d be a fool not to.

You: Then why challenge me?

-

Shang Tsung: You have the godly brothers on quite a tight leash.

You: I demand no loyalty from them.

Shang Tsung: It’s doubtful that they stray far from you.

-

You: Kronika spared me in hopes of using my powers. When I refused, she cast me into the void.

Shang Tsung: We have been similarly wronged by her.

You: That is why we must aid Luai Kang in defeating her.

-

Shang Tsung: You are the last Eldar God.

You: Yes. And I shall help Luai Kang in his creation of the new timeline.

Shang Tsung: Then this will be goodbye for now.

Taunts

You: The Wheel of Fortune comes for us all. You: Your future is uncertain. You: You cannot hide from the Night’s embrace. You: Knell in repentance. You: Your path ends here. You: You are lost. You: It is simply an illusion. You: You challenge an Eldar God? You: Will you make an offering? You: You are forgiven. You: I will lead your spirit through the gates of the Netherrealm. You: You shall not pass. You: Are you seeing double? You: Allow me to guide you.

[olderthannetfic]

Until I read the comments on that one post I had no idea the Bechdel Test was a joke and wasn't supposed to be a serious measuring stick by which you gauged if something was feminist or not. Everywhere I'd ever heard it brought up, it was brought up as a very serious thing, and it was a failure of media if it didn't pass it. I remember the debate about Mako Mori from Pacific Rim and if she was a character you were "allowed" to like as a progressive person despite the fact that Pacific Rim doesn't pass the Bechdel Test, the discourse, the discussion of if the director was sexist for not writing in another woman for her to chat with about non-men related stuff, the camp of people trying to insist that having a fully realized character arc and being as developed as any of the male leads = good writing even if she doesn't talk to another girl...

And I've also had the remark about my writing not passing the test, just not to my face. I searched my fanfic's name once, curious to see if anyone was discussing it outside of tumblr and AO3, and found a Tiktok complaining about it not passing the Bechdel Test. The top comment was "motherfucker YOU don't pass the test but we still watch your ass". I cackled and moved on, but neither the commenter, poster, nor I had any awareness this wasn't Feminist Media Critique 101 theory and was, in fact, a goof.

Right now there's a segment of fandom debating if Blue Eye Samurai is feminist since when Mizu and Akemi talk, they do bring up men, since, y'know. Women aren't considered people with rights in their era in Japan and thus it's something they mention instead of only talking about being cool girlboss badasses who never bring up gender. If something doesn't pass the Bechdel Test, a smug segment of the internet high-fives itself and congratulates one another on being More Feminist Than Thou.

They then get really angry if you disagree, even though by this metric, Sleeping Beauty (the original animated one, where Aurora has only 16 lines of dialogue) is more feminist than Blue Eye Samurai.

--

*DYING*

Okay, so, nonnie....

Dykes to Watch Out For (1983-2008) was a long-running comic and major piece of lesbian media. I grew up buying compiled volumes at the bookstore. To be honest, that kind of 90s-ish lesbian culture isn't really my scene despite me being bi, but it was very nice to have this slice of life-y somewhat realistic, occasionally somewhat parody, look at the queer communities around me. It's up there with Tales of the City for me in terms of being a window into a particular culture and time and place.

If anybody is interested in queer history, in addition to looking up factual info, I think a read of the complete Dykes would give a really good overview of how people were thinking about things and what issues came up a lot. You'll see things like Barnes & Noble increasingly putting feminist bookstores out of business in the 90s, attitudes towards porn in lesbian circles—all kinds of cultural issues of the day.

I drifted away as I got later in my teens and found more genre fiction I cared about, but at one point, this comic was a very welcome antidote to the glurgey coming out stories that made up a lot of the more realistic media.

Anyway, here's the comic itself, reproduced in its entirety because I think it's important to actually understand the context.

This is from 1985, so the era of Rambo, Conan, and Death Wish, each of which you can see being made fun of here. It's based on Bechdel's friend Liz Wallace's actual rule for seeing movies.

That's it. That's the origin of this whole stupid test.

"LOL, fuck 80s action movies". That's it. That's the joke.

The fact that blockbusters still routinely fail to pass in the 2020s is shameful, but that was never the point of the strip.

[ratcate]

I'm here to admit that I may have developed a hyper fixation on your OCs (especially on Zerion and Sir. Valentine) so can you perhaps tell us more about them? (And other OCS)

oh hey!! great selection of characters. Makes me really happy you wanting to know more about them! I love them a lot, but Sir Valentine more, as Zerion's personality and setting is pretty nebulous still. info about them both under read more!

Zerion is some sort of cartoony super villain, heavily inspired in the night of the bald mountain monster interpretation from Fantasia(disney)

(art from 2020)

I think he's a very strong dark mage or something. Right now I have him reduced to a joke. A cartoony villain living his slice of life, but always awaiting action, the smallest spark chaos, to join in, in a world where nothing ever happens. He has his sidekick, Vampina (I think that was her name). A vampire chick who lives in the moment and is Zerion's servant, as long as he provides him with some blood every now and then

(2023)

(2021)

she almost never pulls off that relaxed smile from her face, her brain usually has no thoughts more than "can i eath this?" "I can eat this" Both of them are pretty evil. I remember once i tried to sketch out a first chapter, where they had a visit of income tax department agents, coming to remind Zerion he hadn't paid his taxes, and both Zerion and Vampina made a whole intricate plan on how to get rid of them and torture them, to show the government they're not to be fucked with. Though, all their scare tactics were just confusing, failed magic tricks for the men, now tied to apparent non functioning electric chairs, looking at each other through their sunglasses, stoic faces, while confused to what Zerion is yapping about in his villain monologue, while Vampina eats a stale bread in the BG. ---------------------------------------------------------

I don't have much about Sir Valentine either, but I certainly have drawn him more. For now, His name is Sir Cannon Valentine, but we'll get to that in a bit.

(both from 2020)

This is the first art ever I made of him, and that's a lot of his vibe. (2019)

This MAN, is some warrior who died in his armor but is back by some whack magic, and he's impatient, easily irritated, screams instead of talking, and I've always imagined having him a strong accent. He's here to fight and go headfirst into everything bc he really cannot die.

As of 2024, Sir Valentine is Sir Cannon Valentine (you can still call him the first version), BECAUSE, besides him being reborn and inmortal, angry and ready to fucking obliterate anything in his way, now his body works as a canonball

He went through my manic episode of redesigning many of my characters, after getting a taste of Pizza tower's cartoony characters, and became this. Much more functional, easily drawn, flowy. he just works, i can animate him in a snap of fingers. Still consistenly working to improve his design even more.

I will probs change the story, but this guy is resucitated as a last resort for a war between kingdoms, as a mistake, bc they wanted to revive some other guy, but got mistaken and went to his thomb. This guy revived him, after a ritualistic dance and some lightning

and then he is like "oh wait I fucked up", and Valentine is like "TOO LATE BITCH I'M FREE!!" and blasts away from him, as a cannonball, fueled by his own fire and methane gas from the catacombs he is in lol. This story is very not much constructed, but I love Sir Valentine a lot, and the characters I can surround him with. I see him falling for a bourgeoisie woman, or a princess even, bc all my stories need the romance, I'm nothing without the romance. I am also thinking of including another character of mine, Sayen, as the daughter of this death guy

Sayen previously appeared as a participant in a nsfw comic in my twt alt account lol. I love her and her design very much.

[gunilslaugh]

HEAR ME OUT! 😼 i NEED something of Hyeongjun dating a mid/plus size woman pls!! I love the skinny guy x big girl trope🥴💫

(my english is not the best lol sorry)

Here you go! Skinny guy x Big girl trope with Hyeongjun I hope you enjoy. (your English is good!)

Han Hyeongjun

Summary:What your and Hyeongjun’s relationship is like with him being a skinny guy and you being a big girl. 

WC:558

Warning:none

photo not mine credits to owner.

The size difference between the two of you is a notable thing about your and Hyeongjun’s relationship. Your thighs are plumper than his and Hyyeongjun loves to rest his head on them at the end of long days. His head lying on your lap as a show plays that neither of you are fully paying attention to. You’re more focused on running your fingers soothingly through Hyeongjun’s hair. Seeing the way he relaxed into your touch. Hyeongjun’s arms are loosely wrapped around your lower back. He readjust a bit, snuggling deeper into the warmth of your thighs. His fingers drummed a non-consistent rhythm that slowly faded away as he drifted off into dreamland. 

You give him your hoodies instead of the other way around. Actually he has given you his hoodie before, but it turned into a bit of a comical situation since it clearly looked small on you. The sleeves didn’t quite go all the way down your arms and there was nothing baggy about the hoodie.

“It’s better than nothing?” Hyeongjun chuckled, causing you to laugh too. 

“I knew you were small, but I didn’t know you were this small.” You go up to Hyeongjun, encasing him in your arms and rocking side to side in a joking manner. To which he responded. 

“I knew you were bigger than me, but I didn’t know you were this much bigger.” in the same joking manner you used. Both of you then took a couple photo together. Him wearing your hoodie that was too big for him and you wearing his hoodie that was too small for you. You ended up making it your wallpaper. 

Some days insecurities can get the best of either of you. Some days Hyeongjun feels insecure about his skinny stature. Thinking that maybe he needs to bulk up a bit. Seriously thinks about going to the gym with Gunil or Seungmin. Doubts fill his mind that maybe his size prohibits him from being a good boyfriend or the boyfriend that you deserve. He can’t pick you up and twirl you around. You can’t comfortably wear his clothes. He feels like he might not be able to protect you. Good thing that you are there to quickly shut down his doubts and work through his insecurities. You reassure him that he is more than a good boyfriend, that he is the most perfect boyfriend that you could have asked for. Maybe he can’t twirl you around, but you can definitely twirl him around and you think that it’s funnier that way. That you feel the safest when you're with him. 

There are days where you feel insecure about your bigger frame. Maybe it would be better for you to lose some weight. I mean the media often tells you that you should. A voice in your head tells you that your weight is a burden to Hyeongjun. Once Hyeongjun hears of your insecurities he is just as quick to put them down. Very reassuring that your weight is no wear near a burden to him. That he loves you everything about you and that includes your weight. Your bigger frame is something that he adores, it gives him more of you to love.

Your and Hyeongjun’s relationship may not be a completely typical one, but neither of you would have it any other way.

[decaydanceredacted]

To make up for my Ao3 advertising and non-redacted submissions here, I figured I'd finally offer a true submission.. (off anon bc I already revealed my blog name in my last submission-)

I have a horrible obsession with cnc and stalking, (Which leaks into pred/pray kink stuff-) and when that last tour video of Joe and Patrick dropped, when Joe raises his eyebrow when Pat tries to challenge him for once and IMMEDIATELY backs down. (I hope we all know what I'm talking about here)

Let me tell you, said video has kept me up at night and still clouds my head, and I can't count the number of fantasies that have spawned from this. In the simplest way possible, I want to be hunted and chanced by Joe. (I apologize that this is gonna be lengthy)

So anyways, there's this particular fantasy that's been super prominent for the past week concerning Joe and Pete.

To set a small background up, you know both Joe and Pete, either as friends or simple acquaintances. (Bonus points if they had been joking with you about breaking into your house and using you and had been teasing you about it) Imagine being home alone. It's dark out, maybe a little stormy, and you're watching a show or movie on your couch or whatever. You get up to go to the kitchen, but as you round the corner, there's a shadow standing in front of you that isn't your own. You have nothing to grab in defense as you slowly back away from the kitchen doorway, and your heart only sinks further into your stomach as you recognize the face of the intruder. Pete's standing a few inches from you, an almost playful smirk on his lips. Instinct kicks in, you run through the house, thinking if you can get to your bathroom or bedroom, you can at least barricade yourself from him. Almost comically, as you run into your bedroom, you run straight into Joe. Maybe you try to scramble and run from Joe, but he just grabs you by your shirt or hair and throws you onto your own bed.

The two of them proceed to have their way with you, using you. Pete can't shut up about how long he's been watching you through your windows, saying shit like how much he's craved your body after catching glimpses of it through windows. And Joe can't shut up about how hungry he's been for you, how he's considered cornering you when you've hung out before but he wanted to wait so that both him and Pete could have their fun with you. Maybe he was the one who convinced Pete to join him.

They put you on your knees first, taking turns with your throat before they get bored and try and see if you can take both of them in your mouth at the same time, laughing at you, humiliating you. They eventually move onto fucking you silly, taking turns with your hole while you whine and try not to moan, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of knowing you're enjoying it. If you turn away from them, one of them grabs your chin and tells you to 'keep watching, or else.' And if you try talking back to them, you get slapped, bit, or spit on.

Once they get close to cuming, Pete switches to using your mouth, throat fucking you while Joe continues to destroy you in Missionary. Joe makes sure you're full, and Pete makes sure you swallow. At this point you'd forgotten you weren't supposed to be enjoying this, hell you'd even forgotten they'd broken into your house in the first place. And then bc I'm a sucker for good endings, they make sure to give you proper aftercare and spend the night with you, all the while knowing they're just gonna use you again tomorrow.

Apologies if that was a lot.

Kinda debating on actually making this a fic, but I wouldn't make it an x reader probably bc I don't like writing x readers lol.

-Sybil

.

[kerubimcrepin]

Liveblog 6: analsysising harder

I am having a finals' nightmare week in university, but finally found the time to sit down and relax, so here's to episode 3.

He's so supportive. For all his faults as a father, (like the fact that Joris might not be able to read yet in here, despite seemingly being pretty ready to be taught how to, as was pointed out to me by @dullard during our separate rewatch from this rewatch) the fact that Joris can sell things at the market all by himself at 7yo and knows what a commission is, is actually really cool. Good job, Keke! This once, I will not kill you with hammers.

Do start teaching your son to read/write soon. Please. Please.

ANALYSIS EVENT LEVEL 10 ALARM WEE WOO WEE WOO. CAN WE TALK ABOUT THIS.

Joris is seven years old. Kerubim was, by his own words, "barely older than him," during his confirmation ceremony at the Orphan Temple. Can we actually ask what Kerubim Crepin was doing, at seven years old, in the orphan temple??

As we know from Dofus Heroes Kerubim comic, he was busy being an orphan, plotting to resurrect his parents, (either adoptive, or step-father and biological-mother. It doesn't really matter !) and being sad, to the point that, as an adult, even while amnesiac, he empathizes greatly with a stray kitten.

Having dreams of not wanting to be lonely, projecting his loneliness onto stray animals... It's the reason why he's afraid of showing people that he's weak and driving them away, and what makes him a compulsive liar, as I've pointed out in the last post. He can't bear being alone.

No wonder, then, that despite being old, and having a decrepit house, he didn't try to find Joris a better home. It would be a betrayal of his own ideals of protecting children from what he went through. It would mean that someone so similar to him would, too, be all alone. And, a bit more selfishly, he does need someone by his side.

I would point out, that Atcham was in the temple, implied to be mistreated, that they are both full brothers who grew up in the same family, and that him and Kerubim didn't have the best relationship even as kids, — with Bashi also disliking Atcham heavily, for unstated reasons, — and how it all might tie into Kerubim also adoptng Joris out of guilt, because he feels like he might end up like Atcham, but I don't have ten hours.

And also bc Atcham doesn't appear often, and I am mostly delusional about this.

Kerubim avoids mentioning Atcham or any of his adventures in Brakmar, so... man just give us anything to work with.

Despite Keke playing it off now, he really didn't have an easy childhood.

For all the times I say he's a bad dad, or that I want to beat him up, it is all in jest. I think he's a very tragic character who was just... never really given a chance to develop a healthy way of interacting with the world.

And for what it's worth, he grew up to be as decent of a person he could have, and did the best he could, at becoming a family with Joris and raising him, as flawed and uneven as it is.

He really just wants this kid to have a good childhood, or an approximation of one, with no violence, loneliness, or fear he went through — and it's all going to be ruined in the movie, isn't it?

It won't stop me from joking about beating him up in the future of this blog, but I wanted to make my stance clear. No non-joking slander of Kerubim in this household. Ever.

I think he was scared shitless of having a deadly quest here, but HAD to pretend he wasn't, for the public. He looks happier now than seconds ago in the queue line, lol.

Low self-esteem can result in seeking attention through being loud and obnoxious, as well as a fear of embarrassment, so, it checks out. Lying is a likely thing for Kerubim to do, and I love and respect him for it.

His immediate reaction to being embarrassed by getting a clothespin, and made fun of, as audience laughs? Double down, baby! Though, his angry facade doesn't last until the end of the line. He's just... looking sadly to the side.

By the way, considering he's only a bit older than seven, the "I've been training for years" is a bit haunting.

Do you know who DOES deserve to get beaten with hammers for real, non-ironically? The god Ecaflip. Can I get an amen?

No wonder, Kerubim coddled Joris and wanted his life to be better! His life sucked!

Of all the things not to lie about, he seemed not to lie about being trained. Doesn't stop him from being beaten up, though...

We have to beat God Ecaflip with hammers. There is no other way.

For all his cockiness, he's so stressed out. His facade is so, so ruined, the second he realizes his plan is not working.

Really, this whole scene puts their relationship together the best. He's a God, holding Kerubim, a 7-9yo orphan, on a tiny string.

His whole life, Ecaflip just belittles him over some random bullshit, makes him hate his brother for being bald, and then gives him a gambling addiction before putting him into a mental asylum to treat it. All of that because he loves him that much.

We have to kill him. There is no other way. I may be a wakfu season 3 hater, but Oropo was right.

Yay, trauma bonding, in its correct definition!

If my whole family died, and a god cared so much about me, he made me the protagonist of various sad cringe stories of overcoming personal adversities mostly caused BY him, I too, would develop some sort of complex to cope. So I get it.

But I feel like, even if Kerubim will never voice it out loud, considering what repercussions may follow, deep down he knows that Ecaflip himself is one of the reasons for his loneliness, and that most of all, he's scared of him.

[chimkin-samich]

Sorry if this has been asked before, something is confusing me I wanted clarify. Pax/ Tari is the same person right? And additionally are they transgender? I saw from one of the comics you made where they got a transitional surgery on their chest- So do they still identify with female pronouns or rather non binary or male pronouns? They give off both feminine and masculine vibes to me, I just wanted to be sure I was correct about what they went by-

And what name do they actually go by? Is there a specific time in the storyline where their names changes or is it interchangeable between Pax and Tari? I’ve seen both sun and moon call them Tari a lot tho-!

Fictional or not, I want to be respectful about it! Especially with how invested I am in these lovely characters I am :)

I’ve been debating if I should ask for days, but I seriously HAVE to know lol. Sorry if it’s a dumb question or a lot of questions in one, I am so easily confused!

Are you thinking of the one with Moon taking her boobs?!?!

Ahaha no no Tari would be considered bigender (cis and enby) they use She/they, Pax is her last name

The whole comic was just a stupid joke meme that we saw someone else do and wanted to do too

And dw! We appreciate you asking me especially honestly because I myself am an enby trans guy (He/They), while feral is bigender like Tari, it’s nice to see someone wants to be respectful of our characters pronouns ✨

And honestly the whole giving off both femme and Masc vibes at once is making feral very happy Skdkf that is literally the vibe she always wants to give when it comes to herself and her sonas, so ur ask is very much welcomed and appreciated 🥺✨

[madbox91]

Today, I caused chaos on Twitter and Mobox and friends didn't like it lol Part 3

I went all out with my new account.

This is where the "chaos" began. I went all out. I didn't think or care on wtf I was saying or did (as you can see in some of the tweets, there's a lot of misspellings because I was just speed running them). It was just slander. Some of the things I said were very ridiculous, most were just saying shit to mobox instead of Nikolai, and only like 2 or 3 tweets were logical and not just ridiculous shit. I was making fucking so much slander that it felt I was running through a field of flowers lol. Of course I'm joking around about that but god damn it, it felt so just entertaining to just constantly tweeting non stop. It was so ridiculous. First Nikolai blocked me instantly and later mobox followed. I have done it. I got what I wanted once again. I was so over joy and also just shocked to see a huge amount of tweets I have made. Seeing them be the first thing you see when you search up "mobox87" on Twitter is so funny to me. Also it's another common L on mobox because thanks to her new attention to me, she is making herself look more bad on Twitter than she already is. Like my tweets has never gotten into huge numbers of views before this happened. The only reason why I made that gimmick account is to fool and get more stupid people into not liking mobox87. I mean it's mobox's fault for me to get a chance at spreading pretty ridiculous misinformation about her to a somewhat shit ton of people to witness it. Remember I didn't got some much attention and attraction from people before this happened and so mobox was just helping me out with this goal in mind. I mean hundreds of people viewing my tweets doesn't seem like a lot but to me it's a big deal for me since I only get like 7 or 10 views out of my tweets so yeah, thanks mobox. I truly think people would believe the shit from my mobox gimmick because nowadays people are fucking stupid. I'm fully convinced that's the case and especially the case for the small and not that popular mobox and mobox related community. Making people have a reaction out of my bullshit has been one of my goals. Especially delusional people with insecurities who try to defend themselves from the shit I say. At the end of the day, bad publicity is good publicity for me if my goals can be reached from it. I want to be mobox's very own inconvenience as possible and also getting a reaction out of it. that is what has happened here

Man such a mobox-like response. Seeing this makes me smile. Like I did that. I'm now part of mobox's ops. She treating me like I'm some kind of villain in her poorly written comics about sexual abuse. Exaggerating everything to make things look more bad than they seem. Huh making people look more bad now huh? I wonder who else is doing the same thin- IT'S ME! Maybe I was right, I am the real mobox87 after all. Btw not the first time mobox has done something like this but I guess she doesn't like it when someone else is doing the same thing to her, especially if that someone is actually kinda speaking facts with their gimmick account that tends to joke and poke fun about her and her wrong doings and now getting attraction. "Oh It's very hard for me to start conversations blah blah blah I don't talk like this 🙁", OF COURSE YOU DON'T FUCKING TALK LIKE THIS 💀

This is why I'm fully convinced that people are fucking stupid here. Like honestly I don't fucking get how people would get fooled by this. Like it's so fucking obvious. Like why bothered making an awareness posts about me? Maybe it isn't about the people, maybe she really wants me to be taken down because I have bothered her or maybe hurt her feelings in some way? Have I caused harm to anyone like Nikolai or something? I have become such a bad inconvenience and problem to her that it's enough for her to make post about me and criminalize me to stop me? Am I really such a bad problem to her now? If that's the case then I have won. Of course she would've done this just for the sake of spreading awareness but still it doesn't make sense to me because I really wasn't getting many attraction to my posts that is worthy enough to get a awareness posts about me. Like literally no one saw them. Is it because to protect her image on the internet or something? Idk pretty uncertain but still see it as a win either way. I guess people really are stupid enough to believe that mobox said, "let me rub my smile and unmatched coolness on your face like a fucking load of cum". If so then who??? You?

[tricobicoart]

Tf2 Rothena!! Original & redesign!! She became my tf2 si after(under the cut):

I made a whole au where she was on a warp pad & some enemy activated it or destroyed it when she was trying to activate it to help, and she got transported to the tf2 universe (more game and non-story-comics-based one) and gradually gave less shits until she gave up(once she realized there was no way back home) on way more morals than dan vs or tf2 mae, and after busting out of jail one too many times, she accepts a job from the Administrator's corporation for protection of her & some one-sided(on her side)friends, and her fate is cemented there. Also she has the same default scars as tf2 & danvs Mae but i didn't draw them in bc i was focused on getting the new damn 'render' done. Less scars in general tho bc of her unique half-gem-full-human nature, it was easier to incorporate her into the respawn system.

Their team role is officially The Understudy, but she calls herself Cannon Fodder, Expendable, other self-deprecating terms that the team members she didn't gel with went along with(Soldier, Spy, Scout occasionally, Medic bc he thinks it's as funny as she does, same for Sniper) at the beginning. She usually picks or is assigned to(read: the rest of the team draw straws or fight w rock-paper-scissors to determine) one team member throughout the match, assisting them in their job as backup or cannon fodder/actual scouting (its okay bc she respawns & is gets good at not dying eventually). okay discord copy pasting abt her under th ecut

Rothena joins red team starting out being completely herself: adhd, gen z suicide jokes, talking abt how much she loves women, etc, unlike how she usually acts when meeting new people. She figures "it's the 1960s, if i'm gonna get like hate crimed i better do it before i get attached, put all my quirks out in the open" & being so open abt herself actually endears some of the mercs to her (& makes others think she's nuts/has to self-preservation which. true lol) However this makes soldier her worst enemy bc she keeps talking abt how much she hates america. Despite being american rothena: i want free healthcare soldier: you want handouts!? rothena: no, i just don't want to pay 10,000 dollars bc some rando got me sick & i needed to be hospitalized

eventually they settle the fighting with "america could be improved but it's our home & we should stand for it & support it to improvement" but before then, HOO boy they're like in the "can i PLEASE get a waffle" vine: rothena & soldier: *fighting abt america* engineer: can you stand on the point?? rothena & soldier: *get more violent* engineer: can you PLEASE stand on the point?!?

Rothena does godawful at her first day on the field--she's only worked with sitting-duck or inexperienced targets w miss pauling, & the team dismisses her as a liability, so she does her best to stay out of the way bc she thinks so too (and tbh she kind of is, it's like if a casual/beginner jumped into a competitive match in tf2). But heavy takes pity on her and takes her under his wing, having her practice when he has free time he's willing to sacrifice, and having her shadow him during battles!! And the team sees her become more useful and eventually more of them start asking her to shadow them, earning her first positive class-based nickname, (Little) Shadow! Maybe medic sees her potential to learn and observe when she picks up a stray medigun and uses it on him without ever being taught how to!! And from there the trust builds!!

how tf2 rothena started: "blue hair" by tv girl (sad/melancholy) how tf2 rothena is going(canon): "using you" by margo (bittersweet but mostly happy) how tf2 rothena will end up(post-canon): "lifetime achievement award" by lemon demon or smth w similar resurrection themes (driven mad from love and care, unwilling to let go of mortal friends, medic is in on this)

[volfoss]

Hiiiii <3 I remember you talking about the boys comics vs the show, and I just finished the third season and it's really funny to me how almost every time there's an interesting storyline happening the little trivia window on Amazon says something like "this was not on the comics this was invented by the TV show" . Like yeah I'm not surprised lol

What character do you think is the most improved by the show? Is there anything that you think was actually better in the comics or is it just trash altogether?

hiii!! first off, SO glad you're enjoying it!! second off good god this may be long (i love to hate on mr ennis) so. under a cut :3

As for characters, let me first give a small run down of how every woman is treated in the comic:

the female (as she um. does not have a name in the comics) has barely any development other than oh she was raised in a fucked up lab and her mom sucks and that she and frenchie kind of have something going on. all of the really good stuff during the show w her brother or just... any of it is not there. again i need to emphasize she does not have a name. ennis does not care enough to give her an alt form of communication (like in the show, her teaching frenchie her own sign is SUCH a good thing. not in the comics lmao)

starlight. oh god where do i even START. so where the show handles her sa well and respectfully, um. well you see mr ennis loves to put rape in his stories and also loves to be bad to women. so its MULTIPLE scenes with her (where like. all of the men of the team line up for her to give them a bj. which to me really kind of... ruins the messaging he could have been going thru). hughie is like... genuinely really bad about her sa in the comics (as in. when he finds out via butcher getting tapes of the headquarters and purposefully setting it up so hughie SEES HER GETTING SA'D and goes to confront her about it. its great ennis loves women) and he BLAMES HER FOR IT. and then dumps her. and hes not supposed 2 be in the wrong there so thats great.

the only thing w her character that i DID like was at the start of the comics, she was pretty religious and as it went on, she started to lose her faith in religion bc she didnt get why jesus would let this happen to her. which was imo an interesting take but also ennis is OBSESSED w shitting on religion so like. its not surprising i guess that hes putting that in there lmao. she never really gets to confront the members of the team who REPEATEDLY either do/attempt to sa her other than doing a threat once or twice. theres none of the commentary on how society views women heroes or anything like that with her (i cannot emphasize enough that they kept like. the intro for the comics in terms of what kickstarted stuff and then just like... left the rest behind. which was for the best bc my god i think if u counted the amt of slurs and just bad stuff overall you would lose count (ik i did)).

maeve. good god its bad. so she was there when... homelander had part in 9/11 (tldr for that incident: in the comics, the supes are sent out to prevent one of the planes that was gonna hit (i believe the pentagon?) and then ended up crashing it elsewhere. but the plane scene in the show was THAT plot point done better) and that just made her become an alcoholic. and that is like 99% of her character in the comics. it is so so shitty bc the show did SO much w her and the comics just... did not.

the other non prominent women (stormfront was a man in the comics for like... clarification) are all... well what we call the ennis morality compass victims. a lot of the comics are the boys going to learn abt a supe group and learning they did smth bad (which youd think murder. or like smth equally bad. youd be wrong) and then its revealed that they are having orgies, being GASP gay, or being mentally ill (there is an entire team that hughie goes undercover w that the ... entire joke is that theyre too nice bc theyre not as mentally stable as the boys are. one of the bits is one of the teammates has tourettes so he has tics of just saying fuck or something similar and its treated as a joke). so if theyre not mentally ill or being gay or doing something that ennis sees as kind of fucked up (as the entirety of the comics is a test to how much garbage he can put in one series) theyre being used solely as sex objects. its pretty bad to put it lightly.

the men dont get out of the bad writing treatment either but. the women get it the worst. as for who gets improved the most, id say easily kimiko (it is NIGHT AND DAY) or maybe oddly enough butcher (his comic issues are... bad. we would be here all day if i got into them). and MM. oh my god you do not want to know how he was handled in the comics. honestly there isnt a character that DIDNT get improved a ton, all of them did. i dont know how the writers pulled it off but it is infinitely better for everyone.

as for anything i liked more... honestly not much. i think the shock value didn't work most of the time because ennis just made it the ENTIRE comics point to be edgy. i guess the fact homelander is bi in the comics is kind of funny but its just... not handled well (shocker right). as i mentioned earlier, i think the stuff with starlight starting out as super devote to religion and then becoming disenchanted with it was interesting. the only other really good thing about it is the art. it is HIDEOUS but i feel it kind of is intentional against the comic art of the time (as the artist is genuinely amazing outside of that). oh and if you can ignore all of the bad stuff, there was a kind of cool plot point that the show hasnt hit yet/wont touch, where they discuss the comics in the world with the context of them being propaganda. one of the owners of the local comic shop used to be a comic editor, and discusses how the comics were used to cover up the bad deeds that the supes were doing irl. it was an interesting take, especially since a lot of older comics WERE propaganda (ie like the wwii era comics are INSANE propaganda). tldr do not fucking touch the comics unless you want to see how many slurs ennis wants to drop (too many).

[fantastic-nonsense]

This is my first Halloween in a wheelchair so obviously my only costume options are Oracle or Professor X, and as I was looking up Oracle costume references I discovered that Cass and Steph are Batgirl again? In their original costumes??? and Babs is Oracle again??? Am I hallucinating? Is this worth driving to the comic store to read? I haven't touched DC since n52 lol

Well they're certainly not your only options but they are absolutely SUPERIOR options for someone who has the opportunity to take it! And...yes, okay, let me explain the convoluted mess that's behind the current state of events that is "we have three Batgirls operating simultaneously."

In August of 2020, DC had that massive upper management firing event that took out Dan Didio, Bob Harras, and most of the company's upper level editorial, marketing, and publishing staff; further job cuts happened later that year as well. This massively changed the creative direction of the company, leading to a situation where Future State (which itself was a restructuring of Didio's infamous '5G initiative') ended up as a two month "alternate future" event that led to the Infinite Frontier era (starting in March 2021) instead of a dramatic re-shifting of the DCU in the aftermath of the Dark Knights: Death Metal event.

At the time, the Infinite Frontier era was explicitly billed as "everything is canon" due to Death Metal's restructuring of the multiverse as an unlimited "omniverse." As part of this initiative, several things shifted slightly to the left re: the Batfamily. In particular, Cass and Steph were once again allowed to wear bat symbols and have their histories as Batgirl at least semi-acknowledged again (something that had been denied to them for 5 years via editorial mandate).

Thus, as of March 2021 Cass and Steph are both Batgirl again and operating as such. They gave Cass her pre-reboot!Batgirl suit again and Steph a restructured look that looks like a mashup of her Rebirth-era Spoiler suit and her 2009 Batgirl look. Effectively, Babs, Cass, and Steph are all operating as Batgirl simultaneously right now (the same is also happening with the Robin and Wonder Girl mantles: Tim and Damian are sharing Robin and Cassie and Yara are sharing Wonder Girl). DC also announced a Batgirls team-up book (which debuted last December) that supposedly starred Steph and Cass, with Babs acting as their mentor. Unfortunately, it's largely been....not good. The bar was six feet underground and failed to be cleared, unfortunately. Cass's and Steph's best appearances over the past year have been as cameos or supporting roles in other books.

Meanwhile, Babs, having ripped the chip allowing her to walk again out of her spine during the Joker War event earlier that year, got a replacement but was told by Luke Fox that doing anything super strenuous might cause it to degrade and break down (permanently, this time):

"No joke, there is no next time with the implant. Your nerves won't take to it. And we both know what it means if that happens." "I know. And I don't need it to work forever--just for now. I'm fine without the implant." "I know you are." -Batgirl (2016) #48

Theoretically, this was supposed to lead to an era of Barbara technically having the capacity to walk but largely retiring the Batgirl suit to be Oracle again. At least, that's what readers were told at the start of the IF era:

"How do you feel about being back behind the computer?"

"Honestly Huntress, it feels good. There's a big part of me that felt like I could never be in all the places I wanted to be in the costume. Now I can be everywhere again. I haven't hung the costume up for good, but I'll be a little more judicious about when I use it. Go a little easier on my spinal implant. And until then...it's not like this city is going to go wanting for a Batgirl with Steph and Cass on the job." -Infinite Frontier #0 (2021)

Early Nightwing issues seemed to bear that out. Tom Taylor's ableist writing non-withstanding, Babs largely operated as Oracle in both Nightwing and Tynion's Batman run. Then Fear State came around later that year and we started getting dialogue like this:

"That's it. I can't do any more from here. I can't find who's doing this or where they're doing it from. And I can't shut them down, not remotely. I think they're plugged directly into my system. I need to find exactly where they gained entry out there. -Nightwing (2016) #84

DC initially played it off as a one-time thing, a "Batgirl!Babs going out with a bang" story…and then 5 issues later, she was suited up again. And it's been happening more and more often the further away we get from the immediate aftermath of Joker War:

She's semi-regularly using mobility aids in Batgirls, but it's the ONLY book showing that and they're STILL having her suit up regularly. She's effectively a half-time Batgirl, half-time Oracle, and the only writers who have actually utilized her well as Oracle have been Tynion (to an extent) and Mariko Tamaki.

It's an extremely frustrating state of events tbh. On the upside, Cass and Steph are Batgirl again and everyone's pre-reboot history is at least mostly back; on the other, Babs is still the victim of some pretty heinously ableist writing and the restoration of everyone's pre-reboot history has been done so sloppily that in many respects it's difficult to figure out what's canon anymore and what's not.

In terms of going to the comic store/starting to read newer comics again, I think that depends on your perspective. There's absolutely some great stories starring the Batgirls that have been written over the past few years; if you want to pick up Mariko Tamaki's Shadows of the Bat: The Tower event from earlier this year (which as a bonus, is also a big Helena Bertinelli story and finally re-canonized No Man's Land) or her Batman: One Bad Day: Two-Face issue, those are two stories from the past year that are good. If you haven't been keeping up with comics since the New 52 period, I might point you to my Cass and Steph entries on my comics recs list, which feature a few solid recs that have been written since their re-introductions (I have yet to update the Babs entry, largely because I've been so dissatisfied with most of Barbara's comics written in the post-Flashpoint era).

....imo, before you drive to the comics shop, I'd pick out a few comic arcs that look interesting to you and read them on RCO first. There's definitely some gems to read, but we're still in a massive YMMV era for the Batgirls, unfortunately.

[fizzingwizard]

a brief complaint? observation? complervation? obserplaint

I don't watch Riverdale, but this is tumblr and it was impossible to not hear about the final season hijinks, namely the polycule. alright thats cool but i couldnt help side-eyeing how it's really the boys get to sleep with all the girls, and the girls get to sleep with each other as well as the boys... but the boys aren't physically interested in each other. recently i read a quote from one of the show creators where they said Archie/Jughead would have been "too hot" which, lol, but Betty/Veronica isn't?? but anyway was certainly a joke, as the rest was about not forcing something to happen for the sake of representation.

individually all of that is fine, and i hate to nitpick but... I can't help it. I really can't. You tick all the boxes, not for wonderful lgbtqia couples, but for a male fantasy: you can date more than one girl you find hot and they're also bi and into each other. Not part of the typical fantasy are having to share the girls with another guy, and not actually watching the girls at it yourself. But that doesn't matter, because the fantasy isn't for Archie and Jughead, it's for the viewers. Who get to see everything.

Just a few years ago we X-men fans were treated to the great Wolverine/Jean Grey/Cyclops threesome. This was the culmination of literally decades of pining, envy, and truly epic ship wars. At first I was like, wow, really?? Even Cyke and Wolvie getting it on with each other? But that wasn't it - all three of them weren't together - Cyke and Wolvie just each got a piece of Jean and had to live with each other also having a piece of her. It was the sharing of the woman in the relationship which was seen as so amazing and "progressive." My bf was like "lucky Jean!" Meanwhile my reaction was, holy shit, do not want.

If I really believed this threesome came about because it's what Jean wants, that'd be one thing - and yes I'm aware Jean is fictional and can want whatever the writers want. But not even superhero comics are written in a vacuum. All I could see in my head was the writers throwing Jean to the dogs like a piece of meat. "You both want her? You can both have her!" I didn't, and don't see how Jean mattered in any way except that both Scott and Logan want her. And tbh, if they had done the same thing, but also made Jean in love with Ororo, I would still feel the same way: that the Ororo bit was shoehorned in to make people like me whine less about the curious lack of balance here. Lucky Jean, indeed.

So there's two situations which are canonical in their respective universes. It's kind of stunning to me. We lept right past "gay male representation" to "male fantasy re-spun as gay representation." The guys get the girl. The girls make out with each other. The guys still get to be like "no homo, bro," somehow. And this is like, so progressive. What's progressive about it?? Men have been watching lesbian porn since forever. My brother once told me he didn't believe women who said they were bi were really bi because he assumed they were lying to impress men with their bi-ness. Then there's the "sharing with another man" thing which I guess is such an impressive feat. Isn't that just a form of voyeurism though. Don't lots of people get off just on knowing their partner is wanted by others? I'm not seeing the sexual liberation here. I just see girls being sexy in ways men have always wanted them to be, and the men just kinda existing.

Some people insist the greater acceptance of women-loving-women on screen means women in general have far more sexual freedom than men. But being free because people think you're non-sexual or that your sexuality is for them, thus controllable, isn't freedom. There's a reason people believe Queen Victoria thought it was impossible to be a lesbian. She didn't actually. But people were happy to think she did, because they secretly didn't understand how it was possible for two women who lack the right "equipment" lol. That was culture talking. Furthermore, half of what allowed women to sneak around having fun lesbian times with each other was homophobia itself. Because women (in our strict, transphobic gender binary definition) don't have dicks. In many societies around the world, it was historically okay for men to have sex with other men as long as they were the "penetrating" partner. The one in the "male" role. To be in the "female" role was degrading. (There were also class distinctions that determined which role someone would be, depending on the culture.)

It was about pride and dominance. (This stood out to me in the comments on the Archie polycule article: fans [whoops it was the writer of the article!] were worried about how Archie and Jughead's actors would have felt about having to do homosexual scenes with each other. But they didn't express any concern at all for the possibility that Betty and Veronica's actresses may have not liked it.) And for some reason, it still is today. You can have TV lesbians, not because you're so progressive and pro-women loving women, but because lesbians are hot. But TV gays are another matter. They're not hot, at least if what you're trying to construct isn't queer representation, but a male fantasy. It's embarrassing to admit you, a man, are attracted to your male friend, let alone that you have soft feelings toward him. Honestly, even the lesbian relationships are often reduced to their sexual aspect and free of any solid foundation for why these two women picked each other. Which, I mean, it's all good to have fun for fun's sake as long as everything is safe sane and consensual. But it is rather playing in to the stereotype that homosexuals are sex-obsessed, and will wind up in socially-acceptable, straight relationships when they decide they want to have families and contribute to society.

I realize I've only used two examples here, Riverdale and X-men. Which don't really have much in common (although also more than you might think, haha). One reason why I fixed on them is that they're both media with a history. They've been around forever. They have fans across ideological and political spectra. We've seen a lot more positive queer relationships in movies and TV over the past fifteen or twenty years, including gay male relationships, and that's awesome. But by and large it stayed away from the most popular characters in these long-lasting brands. Wolverine has an alternate universe self who is gay and in a relationship with Hercules. It is hairy and bold, I guess. But not as bold as Wolverine being gay. And I'm not saying he has to be. I agree that queer relationships shouldn't be forced. I am saying I think it's curious that Wolverine can't be gay, but he can be in a threesome where he and Scott both get what they want, Jean, and the male fans don't need to feel uncomfortable, and can tell their girlfriends that Jean is so lucky. And Riverdale, like I said I'm not a fan, I never watched it, but my impression is that it was pretty weird and strange in a lot of ways... weird and strange enough to let its female characters be in love with each other as well as the boys... but not weird enough for the boys to do the same? I do think that if these weren't media with such a long history, things would be different. But no one wanted to upset the "true fans." And what makes a true fan is not wanting male characters to be gay. Female characters, sure, that's hot! But if you're waggling your brow at the male ones you must be just into it for the hot guys and incapable of fully appreciating the series. Lol. Double standard what?

This is more or less my struggle with poly relationships in media. It's not that I don't think they should be there. I just think that all the ones I've seen have been cop-outs on the writer's part, either because they don't want to disappoint fans by picking one ship to be end game or because they want the media fuss a poly relationship will make. While, ultimately, the poly relationships in question are just the sort that anyone who's used the internet in the past two decades has seen in porn ads way more times than we wanted to. Where is the polycule where the guys are dating the girls, but also dating each other, and the girls aren't interested in each other sexually at all? I can tell you where to find it: fanfiction! On a popular TV show though? You know, a place where men are more likely to see it? Hmm. Maybe tomorrow...

[strawberrytalia]

okay gonna share my takes on the hated dc questions bc i’m bored lol:

1. Choose a Robin to never have existed: I’m gonna go with Tim lmao. I know narratively he had the longest run, but I can’t choose any of the others so bye bye timmy

2. Only keeping Flash and WW comics because they have the most interesting lore in my opinion, and better casts. I mean I like bat characters, but the actual batman storylines don’t interest me as much. Same for superman.

3. Bruce has 5 children in canon. Duke is just a little guy who gets extra privileges (lmao i’m joking it’s 6 kids, although i view duke being unconventional for many reasons)

4. I AM NOT CREATIVE ENOUGH LMAO tbh wonder woman characters are so interesting, i can’t top that.

5. I really like the New Titans lineup, especially with Lilith, Vic, Karen.

6. Worst batman writer: GOD this is hard but right off the top of my head I really hate Zdarsky’s writing. Like rn i really hate it, i think he does jason and bruce such a disservice.

7. Opinion on YJ cartoon: It’s fine if you just focus on the first 2 seasons and view it like an alternate spin off that has nothing to do with comics (although my eye twitches at kon and m’gann). But after that, they do way too much and it’s just a clusterfuck of a show. S4 was so confusing and I won’t forgive them for characterizing Lor Zod! Actually overall it’s annoying that they stole the YJ name but did a huge disservice to Kon, Tim, and Cassie (Bart isn’t as bad as them) so I do share in the annoyance with yj comic fans.

8. Main batfam is Bruce, Dick, Tim, Steph, Cass, Damian, Duke, Alfred.

9. Which non-canon book I consider canon? I do like Green Lantern: Legacy because Tai’s character is so sweet and I think he has potential. Also he and Keli need to be friends!

10. Worst artist: Anyone who whitewashes Connor is a no-go for me right away. I feel bad naming an artist but yeah.

11. Should’ve stayed dead: I’m sorry but Barry and Hal maybe should stay dead. Actually Hal’s ghost can show up once in a while lol, but their stories were over 😭

12. I don’t have a favorite tom king book lol.

13. I don’t like this man 😭 i’d give him nothing

14. hmmmmm i don’t really have an opinion on dark knight returns

15. Fave Jason: I like classic Jason in UTRH and Lost Days the best. I think his values really shone best in those stories, and he was a nice mix of messy, grieving, and unhinged.

16. Character better in New52 than Pre52: I love that Helena B is a woc! Jackson Hyde and Nubia definitely were written better (aka actually written tbh).

17. Batfam kid’s fave siblings: Dick can’t choose, please don’t make him (it’s btwn tim and dami). Jason’s favorite is Duke. Cass’ favorite is Duke. Damian and Tim’s faves are Dick. Duke’s favorite is Cass.

18. Best supergirl: Ohhh this is a hard question… umm part of me wants to say Kara but a larger part of me is more interested in Cir-El, so i’m gonna go with her.

19. I CANNOT SAY WHOS THE WORST SUPERGIRL

20. I refuse to choose a superboy love interest 😭 these are the worst last two questions

[theinsanecrayonbox]

Marvel Voices Infinity Comic #27-#32 “Sknit Family Vacation”

3 for 3 lets do this! so far the AoA was good, the X loves wasn’t, so which way will this one land for me?

#27

Pack group chat confirmed. i win.

anywhos, the fam’s all separate doing their own things until Gabby summons them all. Logan does not like Jonathan lol, ok i like that; dad doesn't like the dog you go while he was dead is funny. but Gabby wants to do some family bonding via a road trip; i can get behind that. Logan doesn’t like being called old, Laura thinks fighting bad guys is enough family bonding time (wth? no she wouldn’t), and Daken is actually all for indulging his little sister which is sweet...even though he does brush off her near non-respawning too easily. and yeah no, i don’t buy Laura and Daken not being instantly into the idea of having non-fighting time family memories while Logan is the only one who is; those kids were both made to be weapons, they’ve only ever wanted to be normal kids, why wouldn’t they jump at this if they hadn’t thought of it themselves to begin with. why can no one write them correctly anymore, they’re all just mini-Logans these days.

#28

love the effort in planning Gabby but why Ontario? you guys are from Calgary. and why start at San Fran, you can teleport anywhere. is it because that’s how the movies did it?

so many “Logan is old” jokes, but none about covered wagons? because you know, that’s when he was a child. but anyway, he’s into this, which is so weird for the dad that though drunk Russian roulette with claws to the head was a great family bonding time activity once upon a time.

so road trip starts. the older kids are being stereo typical broody teenagers about it. they stop at a tourist trap and offer to help find a lost child. next chapter.

#29

they all creepily sniff the kid’s hat, no one questions it

heh scooby-doo joke

yeah...not great advice...

Laura, if he wasn’t a genetically modified wolverine that’d be a TERRIBLE plan. lowering down any animal to save a child trapped in a hole is stupid. but hey kid saved, Jonathan is growly, Logan puts him in time out, they leave not realizing the pet was kidnapped by the family they helped...wait

#30

so Logan avoids hitting a deer in the road, so they finally realize Jonathan is missing. they head back, figure out what happened, google where the family went, so they drive to Vegas. this part was really short it seemed.

#31

we start off seeing how Jonathan was kidnapped; he was roofied. alright then. Jonathan makes friends with a honey badger he can talk to and plans to escape, while the fam arrives and does their own investigating. 

hehe Deadpool easter egg since it was Wade who got helped Gabby get Jonathan.

oh creepy, the kidnapper family are groupies. boy, Logan gets a lot of stuff sold on the black market like all the time; if the guy just properly merchandised himself all his kids would have trust funds forever (since you know, long life spans)

oh c’mon! how’d they get taken out so easily and quickly. it took the Orphans of X months of planning to capture them before, but a couple of nobodies in the desert do it off panel??

#32

are we done yet? i know the one part was super short, but this feels like it’s going on forever now...

oh i guess that explains how they were taken out so easily. still lame.

ok that’s a good shot

and thus they defeat the bad guys, Gabby once again unleashes a large mass of animals unto the populous unchecked, the day is saved.

that is also a good shot, and a nice sentiment. the rest is vacation photos i guess...

isn’t she still in jail? or like, a wanted criminal? she’s an eco-terrorist and no one argues that. how...why....what???

anywhos, over all it was a cute little romp. it’s nice to see them as a family not overly edge-lordy-angsty-stupid. lately everyone seems to forget that these guys are about “the man vs the monster/weapon” and only focus on the angsty drama of fighting against the monster/weapon while forgetting that you need to highlight the struggles but also rewards of just getting to be the man, even at the simplest of times. art wise, it was also fine. so i guess this one was the middle of the other two in my triple feature readathon.

[trickster-whim]

So, my sister and I had kind of an amazing trip to Goodwill!!

(Kind of long, so I'm gonna put it under a readmore. Also nothing at all explicit, but slightly adult for doujinshi and body pillow covers)

I'm going to go out of order but in the order I took pictures, so first up are these two Dungeon Tiles Master Set boxes! They're really cool, especially since we've been playing dungeons and dragons more lately. Also there were some people's printouts of dnd books, which is adorable. The only thing is that the sets were kinda mixed up, and they were the most expensive single items we got ($6.49, I think?), so we left one behind at the store and who knows what was in that one??

But I definitely want to try to use these sometime, and the boxes themselves are really cute, so ✅

The thing that drew us in and convinced us pretty quickly this was going to be a wild trip, though, was a stack of Japanese novels and doujinshi! This was the same goodwill that I once found a gay space furry retelling of Beauty and the Beast (which turned out to be v good, btw), so there's precedent for some choice smut, but I've never found doujinshi before!

Mostly it's things I'm not super familiar with, and it all appears to be in Japanese, so we can't completely read it (although my sister's kinda learning it in her free time), but it's still awesome.

The non-comic books were these three Gankutsuou novels. Of course I've never seen it, but I did read Count of Monte Cristo in high school! (I remember reading it during my welding class lmao. And I had the teacher who tested us when we got to school over minutia that wasn't in the abridged versions, so yes I read the whole book.)

Can't read it, still cool.

The doujinshi/fanbooks I'm having a harder time finding info about, despite the fact that most of them list an author/illustrator and date. Again, they're in Japanese, but these have (more) pictures 😎. And they're quite nice pictures too lmao.

Three of the books are fanbooks from Magi (I'm not sure if that's Magi the Labyrinth of Magic, but I've been reading that, so I guess I'll see within ~300 chapters), two are from Tiger and Bunny (which I wanted to watch but just haven't gotten around to it), and one from Heat Guy J (which I've never heard of, but it looks kind of great, but it's not available for streaming right now).

Again, I haven't seen any of the anime these are from, and they're in Japanese, so I've been using an online translator to translate (and the pictures help ngl), but I fucking love them. Some aren't 100% my style (I was literally talking the day before about how many fetish-y amputee mods there are for Fallout, and one book is about a character with amputated limbs in a way I'm not sure isn't fetish-y, but it's not, like, offensive I don't think), but I'm a big fan of smut idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Also! I forgot to add that the art is very good. I'm going to keep looking up the artists to see if they've done anything else I might also like :p )

(I do have to say: these books are mostly censored [that is, no explicit shots of genitals without censor bars], but they are very adult, and they were just sitting out there for anyone to stumble on. Like when I found a Torchwood book in the kids section of Bookmans. Idk.)

Anyway! The next stuff is not smutty (sadly): Daisuki Magazine!

I hadn't heard of this magazine, but it's a mid-2000s German-language manga mag, so almost exactly a one-to-one match for my interests lol. My German is rusty, and some of the words are specific, so it's slow going reading it, but look! Fruits Basket! Which we called Frubba when we were kids because we had a million inside jokes!

(I also went back later and got Juni 2007. Also heatstroke because it is hot as all hell here.)

And lastly was another impulse purchase but also amazing: a Nightwing body pillow cover by soltian!!

Sorry for the terrible shot lmao. I wanted to put it on my pillowcase-less pillow immediately, so I had to wash it quickly.

I love this art (༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ)

I don't follow comics, but I read almost every DC (especially Batman) comic in our city's library system when I was in high school, so yeah. Also I really do like the art; it's very cute.

(Side note, all of soltion's art is cute. They have charms, and the digidestined are absolutely perfect and I love them. They also have the pillowcases in stock right now so, you know, support the artists! I'm really eyeing those keychains honestly!)

A better(?) picture of the pillowcase which also shows off the last thing I got while we were out: new bedclothes!

We stopped at Walmart because my mom had a gift card, and they had a nine-piece sheets and stuff set for $9, and I've been looking for a new blanket and pillowcases, so score! It was full size, and my bed's a twin, so it's very large, but who cares? I get almost all my bedclothes at goodwill, so I'm pleased :p

Anyway back to the goodwill trip. It was expensive, ha. Everything we got cost between $2 and $7, which is amazing but adds up, and I am so, so grateful that goodwill has a 20% off $20+ coupon and also that my sister who has a job bought this lot UwU

So it cost about $37 for a stack of doujinshi, manga mags, light novels, dnd tile sets, and a body pillow cover. So, um. Yeah. My sister and I were freaking out lmao. I don't know if we'll find such a good haul again, but I'm super happy with all this. Now I just need to make room on my packed shelves.