#how the fuck do you tag for comics. augh

[floralete]

not living alone is hard sometimes

[mamawasatesttube]

i wish i could organize a timkon giftswap or week or whatever event, but like only for people who actually care about kon as a character, without coming off as a gatekeeping asshole or something lmao

[fulcrvm]

Last Line Tag Game

Thanks for tagging me @teejaystumbles ! A really nice surprise!! :D I am indeed contemplating writing two Dead Boy Detectives fic right now, but they're both in the very early 'being-outlined-in-my-head' stage, haha. They both revolve around post-s1 Edwin pining for Charles, one where Edwin takes matters into his own hands and one where he decides to have a chat with the Cat King about it. Not sure if they'll ever be written but they're intriguing!

But for the sake of the tag game, here's a lengthy bit from a Dreamling wip I've slowly been chipping away at for a few months!

A scene from Every Little Thing (Working Title)— In which Morpheus is a figure drawing professor who has just been fired from a film production based on his comics, and Hob does part-time figure modeling and is determined befriend the aforementioned professor.

Morpheus picks his class schedules wisely— he runs two first year general figure drawing classes, at 8 a.m. and at noon on Mondays and Thursdays. He helps the uni’s live figure workshop club on Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 p.m., and meets his sister for lunch on Wednesdays. All other free time was dedicated for his industry work. That wouldn’t be a concern anymore, would it. By the time Morpheus unlocks the door to the studio, sets his bag down by his desk, and starts fiddling with the ceiling studio lights pointed at the model stand, all of Morpheus’ thoughts have reduced to pure spite. Fine, maybe the big studios don’t want him. They don’t deserve him, then, their loss. His portfolio and repertoire are infamous in the industry, they’ll be crawling back to him in no time. Too bad, maybe he would have started his own production studio and he’ll end up with the next ground-breaking animated film. Maybe— Morpheus’ thoughts are interrupted by a knock at the door. He shakes himself out of it, calling, “Come in.” A glance at his watch tells him it’s only 7:48, perhaps it’s an overeager student here early. It’s only the second week of the semester, they grab every opportunity to prove themselves with a spirited step that Morpheus might be slightly envious of. “Hello, Morpheus Endeles?” Hearing his full name startles Morpheus, and he turns from the lighting settings to the door. “Yes?” The man who steps into view can only be described as radiant. He can’t be much older than Morpheus, not much taller either but wider in the shoulders. His hair is cropped just above his shoulders and he sports a neatly kept beard. Morpheus registers this all first simply because of his profession but— he gets caught on the man’s brilliant smile and deep brown eyes. There’s something there that knocks all thoughts clear out of Morpheus’ head. The stranger smiles warmly, smiles like he already cares. “I’m here to model for the morning and noon figure classes?” The man says. Morpheus clears his throat and steps forward, “Yes, this is the right studio.” He extends a hand, “Robert Gadling, I presume?” The man takes his hand— god, he’s so warm— and shakes it steadily, “Please, call me Hob! All my friends do.”

I'm a sucker for the 'Morpheus catalogues Hob's appearance during their first meeting' trope in most Dreamling human AU fics, I couldn't not do it too :]

Besides this, I've also got a Dreamling Velvet Goldmine-ish AU fic that I want to get done this summer. I'm a very slow and ruminative writer so let's see if I can commit to any of these fics now that I've posted about them lol!

No pressure tags! I have no idea who's been tagged recently so-- lol. @hardly-an-escape @valeriianz @moorishflower @amielot :)

[whis--ker]

Just started reading IDW Sonic finally oh my god metal virus saga

[daedalusdavinci]

spell homestuck

GOD. THIS IS SO MUCH LONGER THAN TWO FACE. i typed too much and theres too many qs so under the cut it goes

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

books!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or....... i guess comics, these days, but i HATE READING COMICS they juST HAVE MORE COMPELLING FANDOMS. book fandoms are PUNY nad everyone is STUPID. youd think actual literary fandoms would have reading comprehension and understanding of literary critique but no!!!!!!!!!!!!! its literally my eternal fuckign struggle. somehow comic fandoms hit the perfect medium between compelling, readable content and the enthusiasm of cartoon fans without the childishness of cartoon fans

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

this isnt really a thing i do. the only time i associate characters w songs is my own ocs. barbies theme is miltons tower from the what remains of edith finch soundtrack!

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

i have also never really been one to project myself into stories. its just not how i consume media. i think sollux and rose already closely resemble the kinds of friends i make, so maybe them?

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

(freddy fazbear vc) vanessa.... ive done things, im not proud of.

i dont even know if i want to answer this question bc its so fucking humiliating LKJSNDLFSDNFSDF the truth is yes. i am solely responsible for. a lot. particularly in the pjo fandom. i created several crackships ground up all on my own way back in 2014 and developed a following for them and i. dont wantto tell you what those ships were. LSKJDFNSLDJNSDFSDDF ive also pioneered many ship tags for other fandoms and i ship a lot of rarepairs and stuff but i dont think im RESPONSIBLE for them?? in that some ppl already were into them/talking abotu them or tht theyre still not popular (augh. to the ones that became popular) but i AM liTERALLY responsible for some crack shit in the pjo fandom and its. it haunts me sometimes. i dont want to talk about it. IF YOU REMEMBER WHAT I DID NO YOU DONT

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

this is so vague. my headcanons are shifting and nebulous and aus are my constant companion in everything, but uhhhhhhghhusjkdjnsdg i think. roxy writes the same way dave draws comics. its extremely memey and meta and self aware and largely just for the personal lolz, and were all doing her a disservice by pretending her writing looks like roses, when in reality dirk is probably the one whod make comics the way rose makes books (which is probably why he doesnt make comics). its more of that thing where roxy and dave are the same and rose and dirk are the same ykwim. well YOU dont corvus but im sure someone else does

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

jason takes after bruce in terms of like. adopting entirely too many kids. he broods

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

harvey is a heartwrenching character when written well, with a complicated view of morality, heartbreaking ties to our main hero, and a lot of internal conflict. something about such a hopeful character deadset on making a different in the system becoming a victim of it, and the potential he has as a vehicle for critiquing the law.

percy is my favorite character from pjo bc it was the very first time in my life i ever read a book and saw myself in it. hes aggressive, impulsive, and rebellious, he fidgets and has a hard time standing still, he acts on emotion without always thinking it through, he gets in trouble in school and hands his mom a murder weapon to kill his stepdad, hes just... hes a lot of the things ive always gotten in trouble for, things i couldnt help being, and hes a hero. he means everything to me.

vriska, i will maintain until the day i die, is one of the best homestuck characters- maybe just characters?- ever written. shes dramatic, shes impulsive, shes manipulative and mean and creative, and shes just so messy about it. shes a mean girl in a way that feels real, where her trauma impacts and shapes her as a person, and shes complex, with warring wants, and people she cares about, and dreams, and shes so messy. shes rough and rude and shes doing what SHE wants to, being a version of herself that feels right to HER, rather than some caricature of the hot badass evil lady. shes thirteen!! and she FEELS thirteen. shes a thirteen year old weird girl who is kind of an asshole, and she means literally fucking everything to me. shes a pirate!!!!! shes a swashbuckling badass dressing up in her larping outfit and yelling at her friends on the playground to swab the deck and she is the bestest ever, the end.

i didnt mean for each one of these to be longer than the last but here we are.

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

i hate jdedave peace and love it just feels weird as hell to me. dave, for the most part, is hyper respectful of other peoples choices and boundaries but when it comes to jade hes always trying to mke choices for her, to protect her, and it gets to the point where even jade points out how much it bugs her. jades crush on dave also seems to come from a place of misunderstanding to me, admiring a lot of the parts of himself that he exaggerates and pretends to care about as a result of trauma. it always felt like a kid crush that they shouldve grown out of with time. dave also just sort of seems to... go along with whatever romantic relationships people push him into at that age, rolling with whoever flirts with him jsut bc hes trying to maintain the image of a player, so its really hard to take him seriously any time he hits on someone?

that is just my interpretation of it tho

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?

well. i havent finished my reread of homestuck, so that feels difficult to comment on just yet, bc im sure ill have a different opinion when i do finish it. no one in dc gets character arc bc theyre all just undone immediately, so thats like. yeah. and in pjo the arcs are pretty weak bc 1) kids books and 2) RICK UNDOES THEM ALL. AUGH. regardless of all of this, i am going to say jason grace. he had a lot of development in like the last two hoo books, or maybe just like.... hints of how he couldve developed? promise? which rick immediately set fire to in toa when he killed him, but fUCKING WHATEVER. UGH.

anyway actually tho eleanor from the good place. bisexual icon. queen. probably one of the best character arcs of all time. the episode w her mom has some of the most powerful fucking dialogue ever and i think about it. all the time. i should rewatch the good place.....

[dxppercxdxver]

tagged by @chiropteracupola!! we will See how many books i can for real remember

rules: list ten books that have stayed with you in some way, don’t take but a few minutes, and don’t think too hard - they don’t have to be the “right” or “great” works, just the ones that have touched you.

1. The Rook - Daniel O’Malley: OUGHHH favorite book of all time and i’m not at All exaggerating. it is the pinnacle of literature to me, with a great balance of humor and drama and mystery and the supernatural and also the main character is sooooooooo. i cannot describe how insane in the head she makes me

2. Feel the Fear - Lauren Child: technically the Entire ruby redfort series lives in my brain rent free but the fourth one in particular ticks Every box to me. vintage cinema. circus performers. poetry. actual Lasting Consequences Of Trauma in a main character. skateboarding? idk it’s so fucking good and i think about it constantly

3. There, There - Tommy Orange: we had to read this for ap lit my senior year and i genuinely think about it So often its prose is so evocative and good to the brain and it Evokes such physicality and the turns of phrase are so cool and also it’s a really well structured story that’s clever and complicated (fun) and makes your heart hurt and i genuinely recommend it all the time

4. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle: i feel like this one iiiiis self explanatory but also!! the platonic ideal of holmes and watson To Me!!! exuberant and young and jittery and two steps from shaking themselves apart and so full of love and adoration for each other!!!!! AUGH!!!!!

(and here is when i start forgetting books)

5. The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: California - Gerard Way, Shaun Simon, & Becky Cloonan: comics of break your brain forever n ever n ever. full of sadness and beautiful art and lesbian robots and a Kitty (big kitty baby kitty evil kitty <3)

6. Animorphs - K. A. Applegate: books that i think about aaaaaall the time in some way because i love Meat in my sci-fi (y’all remember the allergic reaction to crocodile dna? because I DO)

7. The Wolf and the Watchman - Niklas Natt Och Dag: y’know what fuck it cecil winge and mickel cardell got real in my brain earlier this year so they get to join the list. due to there’s MEAT and DETECTIVES and PALPABLE HOMOEROTICISM (my best friends weird detective guys ough augh)

8. It Devours! - Joseph Fink & Jeffrey Cranor: noticing a theme here in that there is also Meat in this one. but also the story of something far bigger than you could ever comprehend Coming For You and the quiet dread of keeping something from your partner and carrying the burden alone and also sometimes relationships Don’t Work and that’s Fine (and also there is a massive worm)

9. Lord of the Flies - William Golding: another school read! me n my friends went Real Weird about this book at the ripe old age of thirteen. don’t remember much of it now other than Jack The Chorus Boy but i do remember having big feelings about it then

10. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson: for a Wildly different reason than em, because i don’t remember. anything? about it? read it for school when i was eleven or twelve and promptly lost all memory of the entire story BUT. i built a model ship for it for my final project and i think that jumpstarted the current Big Boat Feelings that i have some eight or nine years ago

tagging: @nico-demons, @firstmatedville, @wilhelmina-murray-harker, @natdrinkstea, and @haijinks :)

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 9

back at it again, and its time for the shadowplay arc, HELL yeah

oh I'm so excited i love this arc lets DO this

oooh its nightbeat and quark!! way before they become relevant, which is so cool

‘one of those recepticon fanatics’ lmao imagine if they were...the recepticons. just doesn't have the same ring to it 

god i fucking love all the politics of mtmte. i love how they’re talking about the senate here before we really get to See how bad they were (we heard a bit about it from whirl a few issues ago, and now here)

love how nightbeat is pretty much agreeing with the decepticon ideology here, even if its clear that he isn't Actually a decepticon - it just drives home the fact that, in this story, The Decepticons Were Right About A Lot Of That Stuff (or at least, they had a reason other than ‘destruction’ for rebelling). 

AND THEN THERES RUNG!!!!!!! WITH HIS MODEL OF THE LOST LIGHT....god i fuckgin LOVE the continuity in this story bc the first time reading this ur like oh ok rung is old yea makes sense...but then later all the time travel stuff happens and then its like OHHHHH 

damn poor rung nightbeat can rlly tell he's lonely just by looking at him vbhjdkdfhbjsjkdf geez. also nightbeat that's ur mystery stick bf from the future js!!

quarks extreme POV on all of the stuff is so interesting, and makes so much sense bc of Course he would think that as a non-combatant scientist who, due to his functional value in current society, wouldn't really benefit much from a revolution - in fact, he’d probably lose a lot. and that’s the sort of thing where you’re like, ok well think about everyone else dude, have some perspective - but at the same time, quark did suffer a pretty terrible fate, so his fears weren't entirely unfounded...augh, its so fascinating...im sorry I'm not gonna shut up about space robot politics this Entire time

HOW did nobody notice that dead body before now

ratchet spray-painting the hands he stole from pharma to match his own paintjob is like...kinda gruesome if you think about it hvbhsjkdfbkjdf

i love rewind sooo much oh my god 

he rlly stashed rung’s comatose body in a wheelchair behind the bar hbkjdhfbshjkdf rewind 

rewind and chromedome’s tag-team explanation....ough hhhhh THEM 

wait a sec, rewind, you have medical records in your database? that is, at least according to regular medical laws, very illegal lmao. my favorite long-running theme in mtmte: the fact that hipaa and osha laws on cybertron are either basically nonexistent, or just universally disregarded 

what the actual fuck is up w/cybertronian time units. that shit is wack as hell 

ooh i love how chromedome looks different in the flashback - no shoulder tires! - that's a cool detail

how come prowl just said ‘minute,’ rewind was busting it up w/all the wack ass fantasy time units just a second ago. geez

also goddd i love the scenery of pre-war cybertron, its SUCH a cool setting like, visually and aesthetically and politically

like, i adore details like the sign in the bg that says ‘everyone’s shape serves a purpose.’ really adds to the ‘society on the precipice of civil war currently controlled by an increasingly-desperate faction who are doling out propaganda like crazy in an attempt to maintain their image and control over the populace’ vibe

good ole murder mystery setup. love it!

pre-war prowl is such an interesting character. actually prowl in general is such an interesting character...I kinda wrote him off during my first read of mtmte (and even a little during my second readthru) as just this dude who’s an asshole (espec bc my prev tf experience involved watching tfa as a kid, and this prowl is very different from tfa prowl lol)...but prowl is SUCH a multi-faceted and interesting character, even in the relatively little we see of him in mtmte 

plus it was interesting to learn later that prowl was one of the characters that jro wanted for mtmte and didn't get, and MAN i wish he got prowl bc I would've loved to see what jro would've done w/prowl on the lost light, that would've been amazing. like, just imagine the arc he would have...I have no idea what that arc would BE, but I know it would be awesome. plus I’d be really interested to see how prowl would factor in, relationships-wise, amongst the crew of the lost light. so much potential!

anyways. I'm in a very talky mood tonight it seems. its currently 4 am so that kinda explains it. ok, moving on!

chromedome and prowl bantering....in their own morbid forensic-cop way...

skids bvhjdbsfjasf. speaking what we’re all thinking: is prowl gonna keep showing up in mtmte despite not technically being part of the cast??

swerves drawing of prowl lmaoooo

AND THEN REWIND IN SOME OF MY FAVORITE MTMTE PANELS....fuckgin cracks me up every time god. rewind was rlly about to flip their entire ass table just to demonstrate that prowl is a serial table-flipper...and then he cant even make the table budge and he just stares at his hands like ‘how could you betray me like this’ hvbajkhhsfdhksdf PEAK hilarity

drift hvbshfdjbasdfj his forcibly cheery expression even tho he’s being harassed by rodimus, who is a big whiny toddler w/drift lmao 

rodimus is the type of guy who, upon drift not replying to one of his texts, would post a whole twitter thread being all like ‘these days u cant trust any1 to hav ur back...u think u kno someone and then they just ghost you...(1/14)’

again, rewind, HOW and WHY do you just Have medical reports, oh my god, somebody please call a hipaa agent I’m scared, 

ratchet interrupting the story to give a quick medical PSA....that's Such an on-brand thing for Me to do that I feel like jro is assigning me ratchet kin as I read this

also, hey, its sonic and boom, those two decepticons from delphi! nice little continuity there

AND HERES ORION PAX SUPER COP

can’t believe idw made my dad optimus prime into a cop. smh. shouldn't be that shocked tho, I feel like half the idw characters are cops

orion rlly hit them w/the omae wa mo shinderu arrest strat

orion: I cant believe you're beating this guy up. anyways, now I'm gonna beat YOU up,

when ratchet puts his hand over drifts mouth and then gets spray paint on drifts face bhjdfsvsdjhfgbjdskf

pre-war ratchet and drift ;_; ratchet’s little inspirational speech...the fact that he tells drift that he’s special...the fact that drift remembered all of this even after 4 million+ yrs...it gets me bro it GETS me

ALSO the layers in the fact that drift then goes on to become a well-known murderous decepticon...so this little scene of him and ratchet in the past gives a lot of context to ratchet’s general attitude towards drift - ratchet clearly feels at least somewhat responsible for all the blood on drift’s hands, since he saved drift’s life way back in the day

the whole relinquishment clinic thing is such cool worldbuilding, bc of course that's the kind of thing that would develop in a society of robot aliens who are only allowed to work within the rigid confines of their alt mode 

I love the whole matrix thing bc its kinda like being the pope or st but also you have a ton of political sway, so its a super important position, so of Course the corrupt senate would want full control over that power, and would assassinate the current prime to try to get their own guy in 

god vhbhjsdkbgshjdf rodimus is such a dick lmao poor drift

HHHHH I love that the cybertronian version of an autopsy is taking the dudes body apart into the smallest components and laying them all out. that's so fucking cool

hmmmm chromedome maybe you should Not be interested in mnemology, how about that,

oh god. time to start being sad about op and senator shockwave. oh god

senator shockwave more like senator sexy 

also the first time I read this I thought I had just missed his name and like halfway thru the story I went back and scoured the pages looking for it hbvhsjdfbshgfdsbj then I was like oh ok so we’re maybe supposed to just know who this guy is from another comic? but NOPE it was very deliberate and I only realized very close to the end that they were setting up some sort of reveal

its funny bc normally I'm not a huge fan of stories where politics play a huge role but I fuckgin love it here, the politics and worldbuilding is all so interesting and also balanced out with a healthy dose of cool sci-fi hijinks, so

lmao there's chromedome being obsessed w/people making the ‘pfft’ sound 

also wow yet more hindsight, maybe you Shouldn’t be so interested in the Institute, chromedome, 

OHHHH shit I forgot abt the red alert stuff happening at the same time as this :( :( :( 

AUGHHH what a fucked up situation. god 

oooof i gotta continue now!! what a solid issue, I love the shadowplay arc

[veliseraptor]

more money talk from last night’s stuff, replying to some folks, etc. etc.

first off: thanks you guys for your sympathy, and your generosity (some folks dropped money in my ko-fi last night and I’m so fucking grateful) and generally just being...awesome people. I really appreciate it.

more specifically:

pennie-dreadful replied to your post “money talk nonsense under the read more[[MOR] so today I might have...”

Just thought you should know the link to your kofi is missing from your mobile header.

augh. does anyone know if there’s a good way to add it in? is it an issue with html? because...yeah that would be a nice thing to have there but I guess yeah the button isn’t showing up (also for some reason the “fic tag” link doesn’t work, what the eff is up with mobile)

not-poignant replied to your post “money talk nonsense under the read more[[MOR] so today I might have...”

I'm all for Patreon, but if you mention it once on AO3 (same with Ko-Fi) in the comments/author's notes/wherever, it will - at best - mean you get warned, but it can also lead to account deletion (I've seen it happen many times now). While donations do circumvent copyright law, Patreon does not consider itself a 'donation site' and nor does AO3 consider it a donation site. So it's...a tricky thing to do (trickier than with fanart unfortunately).

But I def think people would sign up for a Patreon. And not everyone offers extra. Ursulav didn't for years. You're not obligated to do a reward based system, and certainly not obligated to start out with one that eats all your resources. But yeah, AO3 + ever mentioning Patreon is a total no-go. I've talked to AO3 about this myself (since I have a Patreon for my AO3 original fiction) - and they have a SUPER hard line against it.

(The best way to circumvent that is to just mention that you have a Tumblr on the regular, and have your Ko-Fi / Patreon links be part of your fic posts there. I mean I still do okay on Patreon for original fic on AO3 despite never having mentioned it once on AO3? But I'm not comfortable setting up a Patreon for fanfiction, because I know peeps who've had their Patreon accounts deleted/banned for it - some folks do fine, some don't. It depends a lot on content too.)

(Antis LOVE reporting that crap).

(And one more quick side note: I would also totally throw in for a Patreon for your *articles* and comic/media meta as well?)

Thank you for all this. And yeah - I did know that about Patreon/Ko-fi and AO3 - that it’s a very dangerous area. I’d stick to mentioning it here on the blog. But yeah, I have...thought of the legal issues (and my frustration about the fact that fanart doesn’t have the same issues, sigh) and I don’t know exactly how that works? 

I could hypothetically do it, like you said, for the articles and media meta and stuff, but I don’t feel like I write enough of that to really make it worthwhile. Like...maybe I’m underselling myself (it’s definitely possible that I am) but I feel like what most people are here for...is the fic, and that’s what I do most of. (The analytical stuff just doesn’t come quite as easy or as fast.) 

I should be adding the link to my fic posts, though. Just haven’t because...again, weird shame about asking for money for fic, which I think is maybe kind of an old fandom thing? but also given all the legal issues around fic and money...ehhhh. 

(When I was poking around this yesterday I thought of a few things I could hypothetically offer - early chapters, excerpts, extra meta/commentary maybe? - but yeah, the whole legal issue is so sticky and scary and I just don’t even know.

Probably what this means is that I should try to work more on writing nonfiction, since that’s the stuff I can actually get paid for doing (once I figure out how to do that) but...odds are that’s going to continue to be slow.)

mostfacinorous replied to your post “money talk nonsense under the read more[[MOR] so today I might have...”

If you need help figuring out those forms, hit me up. I swear that's my stupid mutant power. And... is there any chance of asking for a raise at work? If your cost of living is going up, that seems like the first stop in trying to make ends meet.

I am...soldiering up and trying again today (and possibly just walking into the offices of the people in question, after checking with someone else who writes for the website and knows who those people are) so...will let you know? but thank you. 

unfortunately asking for a raise is...something that only happens yearly and isn’t under control of my boss (but rather corporate). it’s another thing I might have to suck up and actually...say something to my boss about, though, just on the off chance there’s something she can do. my understanding is no? but...maybe I’m wrong, and I probably should try to find out.

[cwdcshows]

Arrow - S8 E7 - Purgatory

Well this just proves my theory, I think, that Oliver isn't going to die in Crisis - I had to double check what number episode this is, because it's honestly hard to remember between all the different show, even though they air clustered together bit, some take breaks at different time. I knew this was close to the end of the run, but I figured this must be episode 9 with Crisis coming up, but it's episode 7. Depending on whether the 5 episode arc counts towards the individual episode count for a given series or not, means there are 3 episodes left after this one; which may or may not include the "Arrow contribution" to Crisis, meaning there's at least two episodes after Crisis which finish out the series and it seems implausible that Stephen Amell wouldn't be in the last two episodes.... And here, I thought half the reason they planned this out the way they did was to basically end the series with Crisis - although I couldn't quite reconcile how they were going to give the series its due with a proper finale, without it being overshadowed with the crossover event.

Wait, what fuckery is this; how was what happened in the last episode meant to teach Oliver to "work with the Monitor to save the multiverse"??  Fuck you.  Last week you said the lesson was to learn to accept your fate or whatever bullshit. And again, I repeat, this should arguably have been Barry's story.  I get that Arrow is the grand-daddy of the Arrowverse and this is its final season, but one of the reasons I feel this way is that there's something dissonant about hearing Oliver Queen talking about saving the multiverse.  Obviously exists in such a world where travel between universes and metahumans and all that shit is a thing, but this isn't his jam, it's Barry's; Oliver is ultimately just a regular guy with good aim.  Obviously he's going to play some type of role in all of this, but for a series that started out so earnestly, grounding itself more in reality, before giving in to the more surreal elements of the comics in order to pave way for the spin-offs, a cosmic journey doesn't seem like the right arc to go out on.  Yeah, do a victory lap and revisit your places your greatest hits took place in, but this shit just seems weird. Add to that, that both Oliver and Barry have spent this whole season assuming themselves to be dead men walking, it makes the two personal arcs for the two main characters of the respective shows seem redundant.   If the Monitor was going to ask anyone to go on missions for him around the universe or expose him to an alternate reality to teach him to trust the Monitor and agree to help him, it arguably should have been Barry.  I'd like to think it would have been more entertaining than the shit we've been watching for the last two months with Bloodwork, but honestly, having watched the way they played some of this shit out on Arrow, I just don't know. I don't know what that would leave for Oliver and crew, but arguably they could have taken a page from Supergirl, which has been to largely ignore that a Crisis was coming; which apart from the meandering stories they chose to tell in the interim, was largely a refreshing choice.  Who knows, maybe Barry could have fought Rama Kahn - Supergirl sure as hell didn't need both him and Lena to deal with at the same time; and the whole Rama Kahn/Leviathan thing seemed half-assed.  It's probably not done, but God I hope it is. Whether that would have meant the brat pack still arrived from the future when they did, I don't know.  It was such a deus ex machina, it really doesn't matter if it would have fit with any other story, because it didn't really fit with the story they did end up doing; and given their role in the last episode or two, it probably could have waited until it got closer to Crisis and worked it in as the early indicators of the Crisis and anti-matter wave, where the walls of time weaken. Wait, what? I swear Oliver already told them that he wasn't meant to survive Crisis.   You know what they say, showing is better than telling - with all the pointless filler bullshit we've had this season of Arrow, the least they could have done was take 5-10 minutes to give us a flashback of Lyla encountering and joining forces with the Monitor to fill int he blanks.  Her explanation of it just lacks any substance to care or believe that she made the right decision.   Plus, I don't feel like it does Harbinger's character from the original Crisis justice.  She was devoted to the Monitor for saving her life, which made her being infected by the Anti-Monitor and betraying the Monitor that much worse for her.  I don't know if they'll still have that plot line play out, but I figured I'd use spoiler tags to be safe. Oh, no, the B Team and Roy's plane is being shot down....?

"Gee, thanks." Fucking William.... "I was raised by Felicity too." Fuck you, William wasn't fucking raised by Felicity.  She was in his life for like, two year, tops; and that's cumulative, not even consecutive.  That includes Felicity tutoring him before she and Oliver got back together. Can I say how much I'm enjoying the lack of Felicity?  I don't say it enough, because it's so easy to overlook, but it is perhaps the best part of the season. Well that was the stupidest fucking thing to ever be fucking stupid.  Why the hell did the mercenaries even let Oliver draw his weapon, let alone do whatever bullshit he was doing putting his hands over his head and turning around first?  The second he reached for his own gun every single one of those mercs with a gun trained on him should have emptied their ammo in him.  Why?  SO HE CAN'T SHOOT THEM FIRST!  You know, the thing he was able to do, because they didn't fire as soon as he went for his weapon. I'm not saying I want Oliver dead, but come on; the only reason he isn't is because the writers made his opposition too fucking stupid. Huh... I hadn't necessarily forgotten that Roy lost his arm in the comics, but I hadn't really thought about them adapting that on the series.  Bold choice, maybe a little forced here, what with enemies on the way and sparks near jet fuel... could be worse, I suppose.  Kind of feel like maybe Oliver should have been the one in Diggle's position, but on the other hand (no pun intended) I'm not sure which of them, Oliver or Diggle, had the closer relationship with Roy.  I want to say Oliver, since he invariably provide his major training for a very brief period, but man, it's been a long time since Roy was part of the core group. Augh....Fucking Mia.... I'm really not looking forward to Green Arrow and the Canaries or whatever they're calling the prospective spin-off series.... So the nets they're caught up in are braided steal, but the one rope securing both of them is apparently made out of match sticks... When given the order to kill Team Arrow, why the do some of the bad guys start rushing them instead of firing the guns they all presumably have; especially when some of them do start firing and those rushing towards Team Arrow are putting themselves in the line of fire? Also, lining up like they did might look like a novel display of force, but it also seems like a tactically bad idea, seeing as if the bad guys were half-way competent they would have all started firing and mowed Team Arrow down before they could pull an arrow or do whatever they were going to do.  Here again, the heroes live only because the bad guys are too fucking stupid to kill them. Fucking William.... Why the hell didn't you check and confirm whose DNA sequence was needed to activate the weapon, before pulling Oliver (and inexplicably Diggle) from the battle?? "How much time do we have before the Crisis?" Well, it apparently starts at midnight in Central City.  Looking up where Central City is in the comics, it might be in Kansas or Pennsylvania.  Interestingly enough, there's a real Central City in Kentucky and in Colorado.  Lian Yu is in the north China sea, so spit-balling the time difference between China and Pennsylvania is 13 hours and China and Kansas is 14 hours - so around 1-2 pm.  Seriously, he's giving Rene and Dinah a farewell before talking to Mia?  That's cold, Oliver.  Especially seeing how, when he addressed "you two" I was looking away from the TV and assumed, naturally, that he was finally talking to William and Mia - you know, like how that was a plot point earlier in the episode, that he needed to do that? "Something tells me you're going to create your own stories." I half expected a scrolling promo or something to appear on screen saying, "Green Arrow and the Canaries, coming this fall!" "Lyla?" "Not anymore.  I'm not a harbinger of things to come." Fuck you writers. That was so fucking forced......