#in these way older comics that *really* haven't aged well

[teatitty]

Okay everyone buckle the fuck in because we’re doing a full comic read of all the times I can find in which Ororo and Logan interacted on page! 

Now while they don’t actually speak together in Giant Size X-Men (1975) #1 it is the comic in which they get recruited by Xavier and was Storm’s first comic book appearance! Logan first appeared in The Incredible Hulk (1962) #180 back in 1974 and Giant Size was only his 4th appearance. So I’m gonna show their recruitment pages just to give the bare minimum of backstory lol

They do stand side by side in one panel at least :D

[devine-fem]

Hi! I saw that a little bit ago you said you might write an essay on jondami and if that's something you're still interested in doing I'd love to see your thoughts compiled in that way. No pressure though, I know it's a lot of work!

Okay, took me a bit but here it is: the long awaited essay on Damijon, get a snack and something nice to drink because this is going to be unapologetically long.

Misconceptions. Firstly, I don't know how else to explain that I personally don't exactly see Damian and Jon as children. I mean that they are older to me, and I feel this because with comic books when a character is a child that is their time for development and growing. With Robins they always have this inability to be allowed to grow up due to DC personally wanting Batman to always have a Robin in his arsenal. The thing with Damian and Jon is that they are made to reach a finish line. That finish line being Superman and Batman, which they cannot be before developing and growing into those mantles (if the writer is good and has common sense of course) first. We see that in DCeased, WW23 and other Damian books in the past that becoming Batman and Superman is an important topic for these characters, they have a long way to go. Admittedly, I do enjoy content as to where they are younger because that is where their dynamic peaked to me, I also think it's a very simple serotonin boost and if it's innocent then I really have no issue with indulging. But to me... that's not Damijon. Damijon is about friendship, Damijon is about always being able to seek and find in a certain person and I don't particularly care if this is platonic or romantic. It's important to remember that in canon, they are nothing but friends and I enjoy that all the same, but I also find it interesting to explore their dynamic if it was in a romantic context and that is what Damijon is all about to me. It's just "what would these two characters would do if they developed a different kind of affection towards the other." In my head, with as Damian is now, I doubt he'd be able to hold an intimate relationship without training wheels first and a very understanding partner. He's emotionally distant and he has this great fear of being abandoned which I think would suffocate the relationship. Children are confused and lost people who haven't found themselves yet and while Damian and Jon are both children... I don't exactly think there will be enough room for Jon's problems and Damian's problems as well. I also kind of struggle with wanted to rid them of their age gap, their age gap is just big enough to make it as if Damian has some authority over Jon. It makes it so eventually as Damian and Jon grew that Damian would be somewhat out of reach for Jon and perhaps, he could feel like he'd have to chase after Damian a bit when it comes to milestones and development. It makes them just a little bit more interesting and as I said, I don't exactly want to erase that.

A lot of people bring up the topic of maturity between these two but that would mean that Damian is more mature than Jon and you would know that this is not the case in the comics. The person who slings around insults is Damian, the person who acts brashly is Damian, the person or initiates fights is Damian. The immature one is Damian, he may act like he knows everything but he is a child, he’s incredibly immature and we should remember that.

Damian. It's particularly hard to describe both Jon and Damian separately for me at this point. To me they are something that should had never been separated. Something that comes as a set. Like one of them is missing the other when alone. The thing about Damian Wayne is that he spent his childhood years training to be a natural born winner. He never had a moment in Robin or Damian Al Ghul that let his life be truly his own. The thing about his relationship with both Talia and Bruce is that he feels as though he needs to earn affection and love, similar to how some children may feel this too after going through psychological abuse and neglect - this coming from both Bruce and Talia at times.

It should be noted that the comic that contains this panel is not a good representation of Talia and Damian's relationship but overall, this line is somewhat accurate and holds weight to their dynamic. Damian is someone who feels the need to earn his keep, it's instilled in his brain that basic things that others may get will not be given to him without him having to earn it first. Damian feels like he doesn't belong, like he's stuck between two worlds. He's burdened by constantly having a destiny, a path already carved into the ground for him. Jon. Jon is quite simple. His whole narrative revolves around similar themes as Damian to where Jon feels like he's not truly like his father but also not entirely like his mother. He wants to live up to being like his dad, but a lot of his own individualism gets lost in the process. He has this need to prove himself and make others proud. His upbring was simple and homey. Lois Lane and Clark thought that it'd be best to hide the fact that Clark is Superman and Jon is half kryptonian in order to provide him a mundane foundation as a person. There's not much to say about Jon alone because unfortunately his characterization was cut quite short. Let me talk about the age-up situation. Some people don't understand why this is such a bad thing for Jon's character, but I strongly believe that people of this opinion simply do not care about the character since this is character assassination in the most basic form. Jon's childhood was a very important part of his character as it is for literally all characters. That's where all his personality quirks and traits come in, that's where he can resonate with the audience the most, that's where his bonds with other characters are established. As Jon is now, he's being thrown into the finish line with no prior characterization. Jon's personality is going to be lost when writers pick him up, at times he even seems emotionless and purposeless. He is entirely unrecognizable to me. The only thing that has been established for him is his sexuality and his boyfriend and his solo revolved entirely around said boyfriend. The least they could do is make them good representation, but they aren't even that, sorry, it's jarringly obvious. And it's not just that its "getting in the way of my ship" because I don't want Jon and Damian to be canon, not really, not when this is how they treat a canonically queer character... look at what happened to Jon. I imagine that if they were to be canon then I'd find myself complaining about how DC can't do Jon and Damian's dynamic properly constantly. I don't have that much faith in them. It's disheartening that as a fan of him that I don't have as many good things of him that I do bad. The ship also suffers from this because it's literally about growing up beside someone and that childhood friends to lovers appeal.

Damian & Jon. A lot of time in Damian's stories because of his abrasiveness and offputting/distant personality, he finds it hard to make friends and sometimes it's not entirely the other person's fault. The thing about when he met Jon is that became a past time for him, he was someone who just wanted to be around - who actually went out of his way to be around him as well as they have a wholesome foundation for a friendship. Jon feels deeply for Damian as Damian feels deeply for him. Over and over again, Jon's life is threatened in some way which forces Damian to pull down his emotional walls and show that he does care for Jon.

It's established repeatably that Damian cares a lot for Jon because when he's in danger, he visually starts to panic. Even going as far as calling Jon by his first name which is rare for him because Damian calls everyone by their last name because he speaks very formally but when Jon gets hurt, Damian slips up to suddenly call him by his first name.

Damian was so shaken up that he accidentally calls Jon his friend afterwards, which is important to note because he has always refused to acknowledge their friendship for stubborn reasons. Also to note Damian's stubbornness I'd also like to mention the time where Damian refused to acknowledge Jon could join the teen titans, every time Jon proposed the idea, Damian shut him down till it came the time to vote on whether or not Jon does join the titans and Damian was literally the only person who raised his hand.

This was one of the moments I was most frustrated with Damian because all that arguing with Jon was truly just to annoy him and nothing more, he secretly believed Jon could join the titans the entire time but when it came down to it-

He only made himself and Jon look stupid and proceeds to brush off their friendship once again. I have to admit it is slightly interesting even when frustrating. As for Jon, yes, they bumped heads at first and Jon found himself getting extremely frustrated with Damian's attitude, but it was mostly because Damian is someone, he knows he's going to have to spend a lot of time working besides and he only wanted to be his friend while Damian seemed uninterested.

The thing about these two is that whether they like it or not, they will have to spend their entire lives beside each other. This is something no other dynamic in DC can really replicate. We know Jon feels deeply for Damian, it wasn't able to be verbalized often unfortunately but he has mentioned how highly he thinks of Damian, calling him "the strongest person I know" - stronger than him by far. He's one of the few characters that want to see Damian as he is and doesn't want anything from him, he just likes being around Damian.

And for Damian one of the few ways he knows to provide to Jon is taking him away and going on missions with him, it's kind of sad to think about how this is one of the few ways he knows how to express that he wants to be around Jon. He's gotten up in the middle of the night, went across the city and met up with Jon to hang out with him.

It's sad, yes, but also really sweet. A lot of characters assume the worst for Damian and think that he's bound to end up being the worst version of himself or think he's like a ticking time bomb ready to explode at any moment.

But instead, Jon refuses to acknowledge that Damian can be evil at all, denying entire alternate realities where Damian is slowly becoming the worst version of himself because he deeply believes that in Damian's heart, he could never be anything less than great. Their mantles. Not to talk about DCeased but yes, I will be talking about DCeased because that is the perfect example of how these characters function to me.

This comic showed his the long, excruciating, and lonely years these two would have to face in disaster. The trauma of losing everything, your family and your world and moving mantles to stop it but it being something they had to do together. Like a grave already buried in the ground for them but they laid in it together as kids and adults. If you truly want to understand this ship I deeply think you should turn on your brain and read DCeased.

How they contrast. Jon and Damian's are distinctly different, their personalities are different, their upbringing is different, and what they deeply identify with is different. This is why at times they may argue but at the end of the day, they have to share their life with the other.

How they compare.

At times where they may think they are alone or have no one to talk to then they will always have each other, they're supposed to, that's what their relationship is built on. Understand that in the most basic sense that these two are platonic soulmates. They will be there for each other at the beginning.

And at the end.

They share this great burden together, they share similar paths, fears, worries and goals. They will always be together even when one of them might not want to be because the worst thing you can be when all of these things are happening to you; is alone. Their lives tell the same story just in different places and perspectives, sometimes their most defining moments directly mirror each other.

They both feel like they don’t belong and like they’re stuck between two worlds as well. For Jon, it’s Krypton and Earth, for Damian, its Batman and Al Ghul.

Their mantles supply this destiny they share. It’s what will bring them together and pull them apart.

I feel the need to mention that Jon is one of two characters that sees Damian beyond the son of batman, Damian has said “Well, If I am almost Batman.” and Jon said “You’re so much more than that.”

Damian said “Do you have a better offer?” and Jon said “Well, I have you.”

… I have to love them.

Their relationship with one another platonically. They have the friendship to end all friendships. It quite literally transcends space and time. Regardless of if you like Jon and Damian being friends in the first place or not, you cannot deny that what Jon has done for Damian is not important.

Like I said with Damian, he feels as though the love that he receives has to be earned but when he met Jon, he was introduced to the idea that someone wanted to simply be around him, that someone wanted to be his friend and love him unconditionally. You cannot deny that this friendship helped develop these two in very good directions, not only are these two entertaining but they help each other progress by simply being around the other.

They give to each other what other people can’t. Dick Grayson even admits that Jon sees something in Damian that other people like to ignore. This is very important. Now Jon’s relationship to Damian could help him as well, knowing Damian could grant him an extra layer of empathy and understanding, it already does and he can use what he’s learned from Damian in the future.

Damian teaches Jon what it means to be a hero, Jon teaches Damian what it means to be a kid. Damian shows Jon what love has been and Jon shows Damian what love can be. It’s very compelling. These are two lost people who make each other feel accepted and normal.

The potential of their relationship romantically.

Imagining what it would be like if DC was capable of allowing these two to engage in a romantic relationship with the other is compelling. Firstly, I highly doubt that DC will ever properly portray these two’s relationship with the other if they did pull the trigger.

But in the fantasy world where everything is perfect, I think it’d be nice for these characters to have a relationship free of their narratives. To be allowed to be confused about their feelings and even reject them; to have us as an audience be able to watch these two slowly navigate it over time and especially with them both being same sex, I feel like DC just showing that they’re not afraid to portray that type of relationship between character directly under one of their biggest names is certainly heartwarming.

Jon coming to terms with liking boys and having a crush on someone the same gender as him while also struggling to have that perfect american life that his father’s narrative values so much and that confusing him.

Damian struggling with his feelings and allowing himself to not feel like he’s doing something wrong by falling in love with another person.

And perhaps this love being catalyst for them to want to grow up to be distinctly different from their fathers, to carve a path for themselves because they realize that they are their own person and can’t be entirely perfect for everyone else but just perfect enough for each other.

The wasted potential of the characters overall. Super Sons was a very important comic book, it supplied things for Damian fans that was starved of us. If you look at the internet before Super Sons you will see people complaining about how Damian's stories do not contain a certain element to it which was entirely fixed by Super Sons being created, Super Sons left much to be desired. I still think that series was meant to go on for way longer than it did and contain a lot of meaningful stories for the both of them so it's a real shame that it was cut short.

Unfortunately, even though some writers want to separate Jon and Damian, they’ll never fully be able to because of how engraved Damian is into Jon’s character. Damian is one of Jon’s core personality traits because overall, he is greatly lacking so they’ll never be able to be truly separated. It’s safe to say that his character is ruined and the only way for you to like it is to have bad taste in media.

Why I personally think it’s so good. All of these things I mentioned are not really given to you with other ships like Timkon, Superbat, etc. Nothing speaks to me like this and if you really understood it then you'd know that all of these things are entirely different. Damijon in canon is literally what people think Superbat is, the way that people want Clark to provide release and catharsis to Bruce is literally done for Damijon in canon. Between Superbat, Timkon and Damijon, Damijon evidently has the strongest bond/is allowed to have the strongest bond, these characters distinctly have an effect on the other that cannot be replicated with the others. Not to put these two ships down but it's evident, I've always been against the idea that Timkon and Superbat are similar to Damijon because they just aren't literally at all.

I truly believe that if Jon and Damian weren’t Superman and Batman’s sons then I’d still ship them anyway, I also think with unfortunately the way that DC is dealing with Jon’s character that if Damian was allowed to have a relationship akin to his with Jon’s something almost exactly mirroring Jon and Damian then I’d drop Damijon instantly… but… till that day.

Damian and Jon make each other happy in the purest way possible and till that stops I think I’m shipping that.

What to check out if you’re interested in it. I made a reading list for these two a while back.

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

i understand that its cool to receive fanart, but ur really lenient about people who draw these characters thinner than they really are, and as a steven universe blog with art that is really respectful about bigger bodies its really disappointing to see u supporting these people skinnyfying fat characters

Here's the thing about your message:

It assumes everyone drawing bigger characters skinnier is doing so with fully acknowledged malicious intent

It assumes that openly shaming people for it will fix the problem and make them draw fat characters 'properly'

I'm going to be completely honest with you for a moment.

I'm a teacher. I teach kids from ages 8 to about 15 (currently I'm teaching younger grades, but I've worked a lot with the older demographic as well.) So take what I say with the comfort that I at least know a little bit of what I'm talking about.

Why does this matter? Because a lot of the fanart that is gifted to me by this community comes not from adults, but from children. Sometimes, they're teens who have been drawing for a few years! Sometimes they're younger kids who have only recently begun to develop their skills.

Here's the reality - drawing bodies is hard. ANY bodies - skinny ones, fat ones, unusually shaped ones. In order to get good at it, you have to draw them a lot! And in order to draw, you need to find ways to practice. Usually, this happens by the budding artist looking around at other artists and copying them. Or looking at tutorials.

Here's another reality - unfortunately, the majority of art online, the majority of tutorials online, don't touch on drawing larger characters. They simply pretend it's not a thing. Finding references to larger people can take work! Getting started drawing larger people if you only have skinny-people references... is hard!

You know what doesn't make it easier? Getting shamed and told off by another artist for drawing characters 'too skinny'.

I teach English to students who have never learned English before. From 8 year olds to 15 year olds, you know what the one thing that remains constant is? Learning happens best through kindness and positive reinforcement. Not through shame and grabbing the child's attention and smearing it in their mistake like you're punishing a puppy that peed on the floor.

In fact, yelling at people of ANY age about their mistake pretty rarely gets them to stop making that mistake. What ends up happening more often is that they end up hating that activity altogether.

There's a reason I consciously and indiscriminately reblog all sorts of art - all of it has something that the artist excels at. Do all of them have great body proportions that are correct for the character? No. Some art is clearly made by people who are not used to drawing anything except super skinny characters!

But all of them ARE kind enough to read my comic, which I try to fill with body types that are diverse, true to the show itself. And that, in and of itself, is exposing them to art styles that don't have to over-rely on anime or CLAMP-esque noodly kids that look like they just popped out of Wonka's Laffy machine.

So yes, maybe they draw Steven or Rose too skinny. But they're also looking at Rose and Steven and clearly find them adorable, and maybe someday, they'll try something different for a change. It's not my job to rub their nose in the fact that they haven't gotten the chance to experiment yet. It's also not my job to ignore them if they don't have the 'correct' proportions, because like it or not, that's also punishment.

I do make it my job to try to reblog the fanart I see and promote it, because getting positive reinforcement and being encouraged to continue to experiment with art is what will make kids and teens AND adults confident enough to go beyond the socially-accepted weight-limit for MCs.

I know it can feel demoralizing to see a lot of character with your body type erased and made skinny as if that's a 'prettier' version of them. But 90% of the people drawing Steven skinny aren't doing it because they hate you. It's because they haven't been told it's ok to draw characters chubby. Or fat. And the unlearning part of that sort of thing is a process that needs support, not shame.

I don't expect you to be kind if you're hurt by that. You can react any way you want, and anger is a healthy emotion in this case.

But if you want ME to react with malice on your behalf, then I'm afraid I won't. I have another job to do, and that job is teaching with kindness.

[homestuckreplay]

"why so tentacles" - the therapist

NEW CHARACTER! NEW CHARACTER! When John's computer had a notification on page 61 I was expecting TG back again, but I was happy to see that we got to meet tentacleTherapist! Assuming she's a kid around John's age, she's immediately clearly one of those kids who tries to sound much older, takes herself very seriously, and wants to be seen as intelligent. She also immediately makes it clear to the reader how well she knows John (or just how transparent he is) by calling him out on wearing a silly disguise while in his own house. John, TG and TT all have such different mannerisms, which is really effective for characterization, but makes me wonder how they all became friends, I'd love to get some nods towards their history together.

It didn't register to me that we'd only seen two of John's walls until it was pointed out, and then it immediately felt like a huge thing that had been missing. There are no real surprises - just a whole bunch more posters for movies I haven't seen. The Armageddon poster is especially, comically huge, covering up half the wall behind the desk. From this angle the desk is the clear focal point of the room, it's much bigger than the bed and even the magic chest, bringing into focus the importance of the computer to the story. It's not clarified which is the third wall and which is the fourth, but it feels symbolically more interesting for the wall with John's computer to be the fourth wall.

It's interesting to learn that 'combining' two items in the sylladex doesn't necessarily combine them in the most logical way - as we see with the ashes and urn. This definitely isn't a smart inventory system, it runs on basic programming and it can probably be manipulated and exploited. We also see another instance of 'using' an item from the sylladex on an external, non-captchalogued item. In this case it's the fake arms on the harlequin doll. Here we don't get the cursor or flashing green space like we did when John used the hammer and nails to hang the poster, possibly because we're through the tutorial level now and are supposed to infer these video game effects happening each time we see items used in this way.

Circling back to TT's accusations, John has been wearing this shitty disguise for 20 pages now, almost a third of the comic so far. I love Homestuck's willingness to commit to the bit, and the characterization of John as somebody who thinks sticking fake arms onto a doll is an Epic Prank is extremely charming. Not much is happening right now, but in all the 'not much' is a very effective portrait of John as a character - I feel like we already know him pretty well.

[genericpuff]

Do you know "Eggnoid"? It's a rather old webtoon about a girl being put into circumstances on taking care of a robot guy who hatched from an egg (hence the title) the robot guy appears to be a grown man, but he has mental capabilities of a toddler and even acts like one. So, it's like those types of "born sexy yesterday" tropes but the gender reversed. The girl also repeatedly shown crushing over the robot guy and at some point, she called him her boyfriend despite she's supposed to be his caretaker.

I haven't read it, but I can definitely attest that there's a double standard when it comes to gender roles and age gaps / situations of grooming / etc. in literature but especially in webtoons. And by that I mean I've legit seen people hold comics like Lore Olympus accountable for their gross dynamics between a young teenage girl and the much older and richer love interest, but then turn around and say it's "couple goals" for a teenage boy to hook up with a much older woman. At the end of the day there's still a power imbalance due to the age gap and the massive differences in life experiences between the two, gender doesn't really change that.

Big ole' sip of hot tea as a take, but speaking as an AFAB, a lot of women are just as capable of grooming and taking advantage of younger men in the same way as men towards young women, it's just that on the surface people tend to get skittish about addressing that because they don't want to sound like they're going "yeah well actually women though-" and dismissing the notion of toxic masculinity. Which yes, that's a fair thing to worry about, some people do use that as a way to dismiss the arguments made regarding patterns of grooming behavior in men towards young girls (among many other problems in which men and toxic masculinity are held accountable), but like any topic of this nature, it's not always a cut and dry black and white thing. Toxic masculinity and the grooming of teenage girls by adult men is a very real problem! But just like how we can understand the nuance that being a man by default doesn't immediately make you a predator, we should be able to understand the nuance that being a woman doesn't give you a free pass to do the same things we call out men for doing without consequences. It's like the double standard in LO that it's okay for Persephone to do the same things - if not worse - than what Leuce and Minthe and Thetis do, because she's the main character and she's not some scummy "mud-sucking" lower class person, she's rich and a Queen and she's wearing a giant hat so it makes it okay /s

Unfortunately the saying of "I support women's rights and women's wrongs" is being used in a completely tone deaf "literally excusing the main character of her crimes and wrongdoings against others because she happens to be a woman" kind of way, while missing the real point of the saying - supporting women's wrongs doesn't mean you celebrate their abuse towards others, it just means women shouldn't automatically be viewed as irredeemable "crazy bitches" for making mistakes like any other human does, and like any other human, they should be given the opportunity to grow and heal and learn from their wrongs.

When it comes to Persephone specifically, it can't even be chalked up to a "one time mistake" anymore, she's literally been showing patterns of abusive behavior for years now and refusing to take accountability, and now even Rachel is meme'ing on it knowing fully well it's what people are calling Persephone out for in the critical spaces. That's not "supporting women's wrongs", that's enabling the wrongs of a person because they happen to be a woman, and that's not okay. Persephone isn't a "girl boss", she's a bully.

I think the double standard in these age gap romances also speaks to the idolization and fixation on women as being nothing more than conquests for men as well. People who romanticize age gaps between a young woman and an older man think, "Wow, that woman is so mature for her age, enough that an older richer man would choose HER to be his wife! So romantic!" when in reality those who know those dynamics are unhealthy and toxic recognize it as an older man taking advantage of a young woman who's being love-bombed into believing she's "mature for her age" so that she'll sleep with him. Meanwhile, on the other side of it, those who romanticize young men getting with older women tend to come at it from the angle of "well she's so old and washed up, no man could ever love her, her chance for love and a happily ever after is gone now! it's so wonderful of that young man to give that sad and lonely old woman love and attention!" and yet fail to see it from the same perspective of an older person manipulating a young person with zero life experience, because there's still this deeply-rooted ideology that women are "used up" by age 30 and any man who gives her attention beyond that age range is a hero. Completely neglecting the fact that relationships aren't off the table at all for older single people and they don't need to involve robbing the cradle.

I blame the lack of older couple representation in media tbh, so many mainstream romance stories are basically just this:

To pull it out of the perspective of LO and webtoons for a second (sorry, I'm going on a hell of a tangent here), remember how gross it was when it was revealed in Fifty Shades Darker that Christian had been introduced to the concept of BDSM at age 15 through one of his mom's friends (i.e. an older woman!) who Anastasia calls "Mrs. Robinson"? And they had that relationship until he was 21? And they never really did anything about that, it was pretty much just there to explain why Christian was fucked up but he still got married to Anastasia, an innocent woman who he was repeating the cycle of abuse with, and lived happily ever after anyways?

Yeah. That was pretty fucked up.

[angelpuns]

Official references with colors/age/extra info for Finch in the Window!

This is more or less a master post to keep everything organized!

These are just the rough refs but lined and properly colored, along with one for Splinter that shows him in his suit ( I'll add a ref of him in his naval uniform later ).

Anyway this is gonna be the master post for this au since the comic is coming out soon!

The ROTTMNT rural au is set in 1930s-40s Japan and is essentially just an au about the boys living in the Japanese countryside and dealing with the effects of pre-war ( and then later postwar) Japan. I'm making it in the same vein as Grave of the Fireflies, This Corner of The World and The Wind Rises in that it mostly deals with the effect of the war on citizens and how it upended their lives in the smaller ways ( rationing, losing loved ones, etc )

I'm putting a lot of research into this au, but of course if there as anything that needs to be changed or is wrong please let me know.

Time to ramble about some design choices!

Starting with Splinter: he's totally human in this au, but has much of the same personality as Rise Splinter, save for the movie star thing. He's a lot more contemplative, I think. His first outfit is a simple suit - Japan in the 1920s and 30s was starting to introduce more westernized fashion, at least for the men. Many women still wore kimonos, even in the cities. Since Splinter is a decently high ranked officer as well as moving from the city to the countryside, he would definitely have a suit. I also think that color wise, he has a more subtle blue-grey palette than everyone else. Because I just thought it looked nice. Later on in the au, as he settles into country life, he typically wears a yukata around the house. He also has another outfit, which is essentially just an old naval uniform that er wears to work in the garden. He's 30 at the beginning of the au, in 1932, but since that's when we see him the most I haven't added his later looks just yet.

Raph: so Raph is kind of the main character in this au. He's the eldest and originally he's the only one who really knows what's going on. In my original design he was a bit shorter, but realistically he's probably a lot bigger than all his brothers. Design choices! So, when they were kids Raph typically didn't wear a shirt at all, though sometimes when they went to the village he would wear a yukata and some simple monpe pants. He prefers just wearing an undershirt and the monpe pants, since he's ripped a lot of yukatas with his spikes. He also tends to roll his pants up because he doesn't like when they touch his ankles.

Donnie: so Donnie is the older twin to me always. He's a little taller than Leo, too, but it's barely noticeable. He has super thick glasses that Splinter had to really work to find when he was young , thankfully the prescription was good enough. Nowadays there's a yokai doctor in the village that can help with that stuff. He gets cold easily and tends to bundle up with a more traditional yukata, except he ties the sleeves up to keep them out of the way. He also typically wears monpe pants to do the housework. He does most of the household chores along with Mikey. They're really close due to spending so much time together. He also sucks at sewing.

Leo: Leo is hard of hearing, but usually only has trouble when someone speaks too quietly or there is too much stimuli, like the rain or thunder or things like that. He also has a tendency to wander around their farm at night and frequently falls asleep on the roof. He wears a combination of undershirt + monpe pants and a regular yukata. Typically its the undershirt and pants combo, even when he goes to the village. He also gets cold easily and has a bad immune system, but he still helps Raph with most of the outside labor. Mostly cause he's reckless. He has a long-standing friendship/rivalry with Usagi Yuichi, who I have left out of this post for now since we won't really see him in the comic til later. Leo is great at sewing and has made most of their clothes/patched them up.

Mikey: baby of the group, and spoilt rotten by EVERYONE. Mikey wears mostly a yukata with monpe pants that he rolls waaaaaaay up. Leo keeps telling him to just wear shorts, but Mikey is stubborn asf. He does a lot of the cooking, since Donnie taught him. He is also the closest with their father, if only because he used to spend the most time with him. Yoshi gave him his hat for safekeeping and Mikey has barely taken it off since. His favorite food is watermelon! Mikey is very interested in humans and likes to sneak away to the nearby human village. He also likes to go into the yokai village with Leo when he can.

So that's just me rambling about design choices, clothing things, stuff like that. If anyone has questions I'd be so willing to answer! Keep an eye out for announcements about the comic within the next week or so!

EDIT: here's some helpful links for this au

Finch in the Window comic

Apples Leosagi fanfic

FITW Comic (social media version)

[havendance]

Okay, I've read up to before the Night of the Owls crossover, so let's take a moment to look at my New 52 read so far:

Batman -- I think I liked the start of this arc the most, when it's laying out the mystery and feels full of potential. I'm just not a fan of the court of owls. The issue where he was in the labrinth and all the pages got flipped around was a cool concept, but an absolute pain to read digitally. Whenever I tried to rotate my tablet to read the textboxes, my device would go 'oh you're rotating! I know how to do that!' and flip the pages back -_- It probably worked better physically.

Batman and Robin -- I liked this. I liked seeing as Bruce tried to negotiate his relationship with Damian and I liked Nobody as an antagonist drawing on the history of the people who trained Batman.

Nightwing -- I started reading this and I was like 'yes, this is what a reboot should do. Bring back Haly's Circus after it was stupidly burned down previously.' and what does this comic do? Burn down Haly's Circus again!!! Can't have shit in Nightwing comics :/

Anyway, I loved seeing Nightwing try and negotiate his relationships as Nightwing as opposed to his friendships he made at the circus. I liked the push and pull between him and Babs and him and Raya. I think, in this universe where Dick was way older when he became Robin, it works really well, and while I obviously prefer Dick being like 8, I would say that this works well as it's own thing if it weren't for the elephant in the tent-- Haly's Circus being evil (boooooooooo!)

Like I said, can't have shit in Nightwing comics :|

I don't want Haly's Circus to be evil. I don't want them to be working for the court. If you really want the whole Nightwing was raised to be a living weapon thing, then idk, make it something none of them knew about, like some outsider that had been infiltrating and using the circus for their own ends. Don't have Mr Haly be the guy selling dick/that other guy out :(

Birds of Prey -- In contrast to Nightwing, this comic is just extremely mediocre. It's almost impressive how mid it is. I like Saiz' art but I'm struggling to find much else positive to say about it. It's fine. It gets the job done. It's missing that spark to do anything more interesting than girl team fights bad guys. On that same token, I'm having trouble coming up with much to criticize either. Like, obviously I think it would be better if Birds of Prey were still Oracles team, but like, other than the fact that I still think Katana's off (but I haven't read enough of her comics to articulate more), it's hard to find much to complain other than it's just mediocre and boring. Nightwing has high highs and low lows. This is like a flat line.

Batgirl -- I miss Oracle :'( But more seriously, Barbara Gordon as Batgirl has never been as intersting to me as her as Oracle. I liked the subplot of her trying to figure out how to have a new relationship with her mom--it was probably my favorite part and I liked seeing that new aspect of her. That being said, ugh, James Gordon Jr. I just do not like him as a character. He's too grim dark edgy for my tastes.

Another thing that goes into the 'I miss Oracle' category is her new dynamic with Bruce. She's over here caring about his opinion and everything and that's part of her getting aged down yet again, but also I miss when they were antagonistic and she didn't take his shit. As well as the whole question of 'why do we need to keep the killing joke in the first place?' You're rebooting the universe. Why do you need to rub taking Oracle away in our faces like this when you could've just had her never be shot. Though, I do appreciate how Simone is handling the internal conflict that Barbara is experiencing as a result of all of that.

[sporkberries]

Hello! Do you have any recommendations for Roy Harper reading? I'm not bothered about which continuity or where, just if you had a suggestion for where you think he's best 👀

If you wanna go back to some older stuff you can check out the silver age green arrow comics and Teen Titans 1966, I'm not the BIGGEST fan of TT 1966 but it does have some cute and funny moments. I mainly read Bronze Age to Modern age so we'll go with that moving forward. Green Lantern(1960) #85-86 This is Snow Birds don't fly and Roy's most iconic story, It introdcues Roy's struggle with heroin and is pretty sympathetic to addicts which was QUITE the big deal at the time. I also think its important for to me say Ollie is not the best parent in this one, he reacts out of anger and is incredibly upset with both Roy and himself for Roy's addiction. OLLIE DOES LOVE ROY AND IS USUALLY QUITE A GOOD PARENT, THIS IS ONE MOMENT THAT DOES NOT DEFINE HIM OR HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH ROY. MUST READ not just for Roy but for comic book history in general Action Comics(1939) #32 This one is a small one shot thats post snowbirds. Roy is on his own but it shows that he and Ollie still care about eachother and that Ollie really misses Roy. The New Titans(1984) #20-21 THE REVEAL OF LIAN'S EXISTENCE !!!!! ALSO JADEROY!! also itty bitty robin Jason is in this story. ABSOLUTE MUST READ Action Comics(1938) #613-618 I LOVE THIS STORY I LOVE THIS STORY I LOVE THIS STORY. It hurts me but i love it... Jade and Roy and Lian... It also shows how Roy ended up getting Lian. other than that I will say no more... ABSOLUTE MUST READ Titans(1999) #1-2 Lot's of Cute content with Roy and Lian here. I wouldn't consider it an absolute must read but again its fucking adorable so i recommend it. Titans(1999) #6 Donna Kyle and Roy beat up a Nazi with a tragic backstory or whatever, meanwhile Lian is being babysit by someone her mom has personally affected.

Titans(1999) #8-13 JADEROY!!! JADEROY!!!! LIAN!!!! Deals with the aftermath of the previous rec. Also some DonnaRoy which is admittedly cute. This story kinda covers all the moral complications of Roy and Jade and Lian. How Jade's crimes affect them all, as well as how Roy feels about Jade. I would consider this one a must read. Titans(1999) #21-22 Aftermath of previous rec, Chesire is being held to be tried. I realize a lot of these recs are relate to JadeRoy and Lian but they are so important to his character. If you enjoyed the previous story read this one, but i wouldn't recommend it in a vacuum. Titans(1999) #30 More JadeRoy, I am predictable. This is Jade's trial. If you like the previous two storylines read this. It makes me sad it makes me emo I love Jade so much and she went through so much and it doesnt excuse here actions but it still hurts. Roy makes a decision. Roy appears prominently in The Outsiders but i haven't read it all yet so i can't speak on it. Green Arrow(2001) 1-10 This is an ArrowFam MUST READ. Ollie returns from the dead, mia is introduced, Ollie and Connor, and Ollie reuinites with Roy and Dinah. It's very good. Green Arrow(2001) #16-21 General ArrowFam goodness. Ollie and Roy Goodness. Just,,, emotions.... Ollie is Roy''s dad... I weep...

Justice Leauge of America(2006) #1 Roy and his Uncle Hal :). Also Roy joins the JLA

There's more probably but this list is getting pretty full. These are also all in chronological order so :333. as a sort of anti- recommendation if you want to read an absolutely awful roy that is horrible in every way and want to be mad about it read rhato. its awful!

[blueyellow8green]

Random thoughts about Spider from Avatar 2

So I know everyone really hates Spider and don't get me wrong I love the memes but I want to analyse his character a bit beyond "he betrayed neteyam by saving Quaritch".

Because that isn't the full story here. So from the comics which includes Spiders childhood and "origin" story we see his mother is killed at a very young age. So there's trauma number one as we know his dad is also dead making him an orphan. He is then abandoned by the ENTIRE HUMAN RACE by being left behind. I know he is raised by norm and the scientists but cmon that's abandonment issues squared. Then on top of that he is labelled a "pandoran human" (a human born on pandora) which he is the first one ever. This separates him from other humans as well and would explain even further his connection to the planet.

All of that alone in a young teenage boy is gonna traumatise him enough into making some perhaps stupid choices (I don't think him saving Quaritch was stupid, it was an emotionally loaded decision). But it doesn't end there with abandonment issues because although he grows up alongside the Sully family (and therefore Na'vi culture) he is never truly a part of that culture. He has no way to connect to ewya by the hair thing (I can't remember what it's called). He is disconnected on a physical level trying to keep up with the Na'vi, being unable to breathe with them, being separated from their cultural practice and not being able to take part in their religion no matter how much he may believe in ewya.

And despite all this he seems happy, at least in the comics and flashbacks of the movie. He is content enough with how things are with the Sully's. He clearly cares a lot about them and views them like his family.

Yet Jake literally refers to him as "a stray cat" that won't quite leave them alone. Neytiri openly dislikes him and probably ignored him as best as she could (a decision fueled by her own trauma but also he husband is half human?? Like girl pick a standard at least Spider hasn't committed war crimes unlike Jake). We actually don't see much if the kids interacting with Spider once their older apart from the scene where he goes "it's not great to know who your father is 😐"

Which yes was a funny scene but really he is opening up about what is probably a strong point of trauma with him and he gets ZERO support or recognition from people he sees as family.

I remember watching the movie and getting half way through and just constantly thinking "the Sully's haven't mentioned spider yet? When are they going back for spider? That boy is being tortured and no one cares? No one cares cause he's human?" I know getting him back wasn't feasible for Jake but they don't even say his name. They go and play with the fish and forget he ever even existed. Jake's main concern is what Spider will say, he assumed he couldn't be trusted despite practically raising that boy. Imagine you are abandoned by everyone, your parents are dead, you have never been accepted ever. And then you find out that you "family" forgot about you AGAIN. Spider has every right to be hurt and he wasn't.

I'm disappointed because we had an opportunity for an halarious dynamic is Neytiri and Jake had adopted Spider more officially when Quaritch return they could be like "we killed your ass and stole your son :p". Objectively I think that would be way more entertaining.

Him saving Quaritch if anything proves he is better than his father and maybe even Jake. Spider is literally breaking a cycle of abuse and violence in this movie but no one is willing to see it. Him teaching Quaritch the way of the Na'vi may seem like betrayal but really what we see is a traumatised abandoned child sharing his love for his home. What he is doing is more that what Jake did by trying to bride the gap with the Na'vi, Spider is bridging the gap with the sky people. Which I think will make the difference in the war.

I don't know if Quaritch will get a redemption arc but I do know Spider deserves better than everything he has been given. And the solution isn't to just give Spider an avatar body but to give him a home and the unconditional love a child deserves.

[whalehouse1]

@thefaeriefeatherdark Sorry, I just haven't had either the time nor the energy to write up a response to your thoughts on the AU and I apologize because this is basically stream of consciousness and not edited, but a few things about my 3 Superboys AU, which thanks to Jon is technically 5 but another time.

Okay, the Superboy AU has actually gotten worse thanks to Leah Williamson (long story, but now we have two Jons). But to answer your questions as best I can given my limited Super family knowlege. Connor is a Cadmus creation, he is straight up the series origins. Made by Cadmus with Lex's funding with Lex's and Clark's DNA. The main difference is he is the first attempt at being cloned and Cadmus lies and tells Lex the clone had deteriorated once he was out of his clone tube. If you want to add Contessa to this, you could have her doing this to spite Lex. I know nothing about her besides what you said in your post, but I'm sure she has good reasons to be spiteful to Lex. And you know to try to keep and groom a Superboy on her own.

As for Lena Thorul, I know nothing about her, but since I am a fan of random characters from Kara's original series (I want that trade if it will ever exist), I don't see any issue with her being involved. My only issue with Kara in your idea, is I hc her around the ages of the original Teen Titans from the comics. At most a year younger, only because I think it's funny that Dick will call her an old hag even though he's physically older, but she's older than even Clark by a decent amount.

I mean all three are Clark and Lex clones, so they will look alike, but as Connor and Kon do have other's DNA mixed in with them (Maik is the only 100% just those two's DNA), they're can be variation. I think Connor looks distinct enough, it could have just been the cartoon style, but he seems more muscular and taller. He's more of a football player, while Kon is more Baseball player in terms of general build (it's a very bad description, but the best way I can explain it without drawing it, sorry). And Maik is 12, he's baby shaped. But he's basically built thicker than Jon, but not really by much since again, babies. Connor doesn't have the earring like the other two do, but I think Maik in terms of appearance does get mistook as Kon's younger brother since they look a lot alike. Maik has much better fashion sense though, cause is it Kon if he is dressed well? Maik has the gray eyes from the movie cause they're very striking compared to everyone else's bright blue ones. I also just like grey eyes and there's not a lot of of them in comics. So Kon and Maik will look alike and will argue about who stole whose look, but it comes down to just their age and clothing. I think Maik will end up looking a bit more different when he gets older, but I think those two will resemble each other the most with the eyes and fashion being their difference sadly. As for their outfits, don't they all need those super awesome jackets? Connor sadly gets his black shirt and pants, it's boring, but you know which Super it is when you see this. I did liker Kon's outfit in Kelly's run and YJ98, but Maik's would start out as the same as in the movie, but I think he would keep a more subdued coloration in his outfit. I also think as he gets older, he would make his costume more punk-rock than just spiked shoulders. I'm not sure how exactly, but I like him having a music industry plant type of idea behind his creation and so I want to incorporate music styles into his older costume if that makes sense.

Well, we have how many Flashes now? It should be fine, right (laughing in DC's inability to give codenames to established heroes for mantle passing)? They would get new codenames, but I haven't thought that far ahead yet. Also their names would have to use some of their personality and stories (Nightwing coming from Clark's story, Troia coming from Donna's stay on the Greek Moon planet thingy, Tempest coming from his water magic, etc.). So that would take a bit to get a good codename for them. But them and both Jons would evolve into having their own codename. Kara at last could go for Superwoman (since as far as I know there isn't one running around (watch me be wrong and there's like 5).

Oh, I completely forgot about Matrix. I want to say since the goal of this AU is to give Ma and Pa Kent the biggest amount of grandchildren, I want to at first instinct say yes, but from what I remember about that, it's still just Kara just merged with another. Also, I just didn't enjoy the bits I've seen of it. But since I haven't read the whole story, I'm not going to say definitively no, but that was just a weird bit of Supergirl's history to me, but not enough for me to just, "yay, no" it. If you want those, ask me about Nightwing XD.

As for the "it's gotten more complicated" it might actually be more fun for you, since you like the paternity bit more, but again I haven't had a chance to read Kon's solo yet (I've been reading from the beginning and I haven't made it to Superman comics yet and until the 90's, there's not really any writer who I'm just going to skip (I can't with Dixon anymore. He can write good plots, but he's such an awful garbage person and it bleeds through too much for me. And actually between him and Fitzmartin, I almost started to hate Tim, but one of his fans actually helped me with that), so I still have awhile and time is a dick. But to the actual point, Connor is the first actual clone, but he isn't "alive" to the world as Contessa is keeping him a secret from Lex and so Lex decides to cut his losses and tries again and that's how we get Kon, but Kon on top of Lex and Luthor's DNA also has Westfield's DNA in the mix. So he'sd the first clone the world gets to know. As for where Contessa and Cadmus is storing Connor, I'm not 100%, since I really, really hated the clone tube, so they probably have a facility underground that they "trained" him in so that he would be perfect for their nefarious schemes. He 100% will keep Wolf, I don't know if it would be from an Outsiders' mission or a one off mission with the Titans, but he's getting Wolf. And I'm fine with him on the farm, the Supers can come and go from there and since it's centrally located, it's not a bad place for him to join up with others. He doesn't have flight, but he's fast and can jump. Also he can get the stickers from Lex again and one of the heroes could probably figure out a way to replicate them without the addiction issue, there's enough scientist to figure it out. I know absolutely nothing about Indigo, but as long as she isn't going to take him to the Legion of Superheroes I'm fine with it (still bitter about that arc with Kara in the show, it just never sat right with me). But I do like your idea of him staying at the Outsiders HQ until Clark invites him to the farm. I think Connor has more of a relationship with the Kents than Clark, because Clark just doesn't know him and after Kon doesn't know how to deal with this new, but older clone. And he has to deal with raising Jon, so he can't just drop everything to help raise this kid he never knew existed. I think it makes him more understandable than what YJ did with him where he just came off as a prick. The powers are right, the heat vision and cold breath aren't as strong as Clark or Kara's, but that can be enhanced with the shields and that's ofc where the flight comes in as well. I do think he has the most strength out of the three in terms of raw physical power. Kon's TTK though obviously wins in terms of actual strength.

Now, because I just want to make things over complicated for no reason, I get you like cybernatics, but as I'm not a big sci-fi fan, when Maik was being cloned, in an attempt to see if they could remove the kryptonite weakness, they had some red kyrptonite in the room where they were cloning him. He still has the weakness, but instead it warped his Kryptonian abilities to an extent. So for example, he has heat breath and frost vision. His superstrength isn't as strong as the others, but (thanks to your boiling water Kara thing), I think he has the strongest durability out of the Supers. This wasn't meant to contradict you, I just think it's funny Kara doesn't want to get him hurt, but if he's not around kryptonite, the kid could get punched by every other Super at full strength and he'd barely feel it. He's still strong and could punch a hole through a solid steel building without a problem, but he's losing the arm wrestling contests. He is also the one Lex had the most see-over on though so he is the smartest since he was basically being taught by Lex approved tutors and that. He also since he actually is the one clone that "got to be a kid" and if the aging thing was retconned, I'm fine with it, he started out as an actual kid, so he and Jon actually are one year apart (Jon's a year older, kid Jon, not teen Jon, as I said it got complicated, but another day), and he would have absorbed some of Lex's "morals", so he could have a good character arc of growing out of that greed inspired mindset and learning to see humans as humans. I do think the Danvers would be a great set for this. The Kents would be too, and they 100% get to help with their grandson, but the Danvers had Kara, who was a teen when they adopted her, with (depending on the timeline) good or bad Kryptonian ideaolgies and previous connotations on Earth and its inhabitants. So they have more experience with that than the Kents. Also, since he and Jon are essentially the same age and Maik starting as an antagonist, that would be a good start for them since it would give a chance of kids figuring out things and influencing each other and given what Jon has been through, it's not like he's 100% rainbows, unicorns and sunshine. He's been through the ringer, possibly more than any other Super, 3 years under Ultraman torture will do that to a person. More so, being left for dead and having to watch that person living your life. But yes, as Kon would have YJ and Connor would be best (for me personally) for the Outsiders with helping out the Titans and YJ at times, Maik would fit in perfectly with the amount of child heroes that exist right now. He might feel redundant if he joined up with Damian and Jon and the people I have on their youth team I have, but what's the harm in having two supers? But even excluding that fact, there's a large amount to make a team out of. And heck, he could even start on my Damian team, butt heads with him (not hard to do) and take a few with him to make his own team and get some of the others Damian couldn't recruit. Even more fun if it splits up the West twins so Wally and Linda have to listen to who has the better team at dinner at least twice a week. And for villains, they would have to fit a theme for him to grow, so if I were to write stories for him, I would want to figure out a good balance for that. I would have to think of a few examples, but someone targeting him for being Lex's son, clone, "hero", "weapon" wouldn't be bad, someone who isn't able to control their actions for one reason or another, I think an evil Toyman would be good to as well, a villain who wants the spotlight (like Punchline, but not as annoying, sorry I just don't like her), he'd be very good for a social media type of villain or a eugenics villain. There's potential for others, but for villains, I think the moral theme for the story should come before their gimmick for a good story (can you tell I'm a batbrat?).

As for the DNA samples, I think it'd be a cute story that Maik and Jon are wanting to be the babies (the twins come in after this so it's all pointless), and also just worried that since Cadmus and Lex both have had access to controlling all three clones, with each one being a stronger control (Maik even having a microchip just in case that Kara made inert whether through Kandor or heat vision, doesn't matter, but one of those), teaming up and Jon using some lockpicking skills he get from Damian and Maik knowing the layout of the building, breaking and entering and destroying the DNA samples Lex has and scanning the building for anything he could possibly use for more DNA and eradicating it. It doesn't even have to be a stressful comic, just a fun little one of them having fun destroying untold and unsolvable property damage to Lex Corp. Everyone wins. And I'll give you this for the cybernetics and Lex being more involved with him, we can give him electric touch. So he could be a human taser or stronger. Lightning has been shown able to incapacitate the Supers, so it wouldn't be a bad thing for Lex to put into the one he has the most control over, until he defects. But now relooking at the timeline you gave me, I don't know if Contessa could have been around for all three cloning attempts. If so, Maik could be the one she doesn't lie about to Lex, but if she couldn't have been in charge for Connor, the pettiness isn't needed. But I do like them lying to Lex that Connor was a failure, so when he finds out he's still alive and functioning, he tries to be a "good" dad with the stickers and to give him resources that Connor knows better than to accept after the incident with the stickers.

[bellybiologist]

Tallying up the Year

I hope you guys' december (which is almost over already, wtf) is going/has gone well! 2024 is upon us.

This christmas weekend, I mostly found myself thinking about how this year went, and honestly? despite all the things I haven't gotten to do, I still managed to accomplish quite a lot.

Me typing this rambly post out is less anything anyone needs to read, but more to remind myself of Things That Got Done™ than anything else because sometimes... I forget I do be getting shit done! And it's important we remind ourselves of the work we do.

The Things That got Done™

I advocated for my own Health. I scheduled (and went to!) so many doctor and dental appointments this year, holy shit. But, if the last few years have taught me anything, I simply have to put in the effort. I got my colon mostly sorted out, started a new regimen for my skin and hair (after chopping it off) so I'm feeling better, schedule an appointment with the optometrist in January, and even got lots of issues with my teeth fixed. Granted, our broken medical system made it incredibly stressful, and i spent thousands of dollars on the latter that I will be paying off til next july BUT!!!! This section is about the good things.

Started Streaming Again! I've been missing streaming since I stopped way back in I believe 2020. It was a fun way to interact with followers and supporters, so I'm glad I'm back to it on a regular schedule, with many of the old regulars still joining me while I work. Speaking of which:

I finished 43 total stream doodles. While I'm only filling a handful a month, it's definitely adding up! 40+ boys in the span of 5 months is nothing to scoff at, and that's not even considering that I'm doing this alongside normal patreon work.

I finished 39 total commissions this year. I'm definitely still going quite slowly, and I thank everyone who has been extraordinarily patient thus far, but I'm happy to say that my pace has been decent... at least relative to previous years. I got more done in the last 5 months than i did in the roughly year and a half period before 2023!

Replaced SEVERAL appliances that broke down. My computer moniter, my microwave, my refrigerator... all failed on my this year, and it took some work, but I finally managed to get them all replaced! So far, everything is working fine, but next on my agenda is to save up for a new desktop. This one I use for work has been at it since 2017, and it's about time to look into upgrading.

My Google Drive is Looking Nice. It's still not perfect, but I'm still immensely proud of how it's shaping up. There's still some curating of older pieces to do, but I've found a stride where I'm regularly updating it for people to peruse.

=====

Now despite these W's, I still got a long way to go. The things below could be considered resolutions for 2024, but that feels cursed to call them that. They are simply:

Things I Want to GET Done

Adding more YCH Figures. I was definitely expecting to have more to choose from by this point. And I really need to update some of the older ones too, because I think they've aged poorly. I got some neat suggestions and hopefully will find some time this week to showcase them in my discord to collect some feedback before releasing them.

Do more involved pieces/projects. I want to do more things like Comics, or simply pieces that I work on over the course of several sittings, ones where I can experiment and fiddle and practice!!! I rarely ever get to do that these days (I've only finished a few Big Personal Pieces this year), and I need to find time and energy to do them more because those are the things that truly make me feel like I grow as an artist. (and maybe I can find a shading style I actually fucking tolerate.). I also want to get more OC development and stuff done too, cuz I really didn't draw my children a whole lot this year!

Make more fucking Money!!!!! Let's not kid ourselves. I want to get to a point where I'm not just barely meeting the monthly quota. How to get there? I don't know, honestly. Things are so very stacked against artists right now, so it really does feel like the only thing that can be done is Not Give Up. Which I won't do. If/when I go down, I'm making it everyone else's problem. Trust. 😏

Save up to Visit the Boyfriend. I haven't seen him since January 2022! Big goal is to be comfortable enough to where I can fly my ass up there and smooch him. 👏🏽

======

I won't lie, i'm going into 2024 quite anxious and still scraping by by the skin of my teeth (that I'm still paying for). It's going to be a BIG year cuz oh boy, it's election year, there's plenty of family developments i gotta keep an eye on and work to be a part of... not to mention all the horrible stuff going on still (free palestine!).

Here's hoping shit goes our way this coming year! And let's get ,more strikes going so everyone is getting their fucking money!!! :V

[katmaatui]

omg hal for this ask game AND the other ask game!!!

You didn't give me a number so I may have done all of the second one? So read more. Tw for suicide attempt mention under the first ask game, favorite moment (its not hal)

First Ask Game

First impression

I actually have a screenshot of me, last january, going I think Hal would be cool but I've never read anything with him in it. Uhhh I did use to think he's scared of the bats which eww.

Impression now

How can I put him down to a single sentence? A single paragraph? He's literally everything to me. He's so complex. He's insecure, he's suicidal as hell. He's flawed, he hates himself and he makes that other people's problem, he takes so much onto himself, he wants to be the shinning knight of the stories, he's inspired by old tales of knights and fair damsels and good and bad and black and white. He thinks himself as right and those who disagree with him as wrong and i just love him.

Favorite moment

It's like telling me to pick a favorite child. You're talking to someone who has a 200 issue long hal rec list, but I want to do a more neglected moment beyond the popular issues like emerald twilight and gl 0.

I would have to say Spectre #23, I love the dynamic between Sinestro and Hal there and the way it harkens back to older comics and how it can make later comics make so much sense???? Hal always reaching out to Sinestro, despite Sinestro not wanting his help. It's such a good way of showing Hal's character of reaching out to those he once trusted even once they betrayed his trust!

Another favorite of mine is action comics #615? I want to say. It's after the Hal gains his ability to feel fear back arc, but only directly. He's barely able to fly he's so unused to feeling fear, but he has to. He has to because there's someone on a ledge about to jump, and he's able to work through his fear just because he wants to help someone else, and that's who Hal Jordan is to me. Someone who deeply, deeply wants to help others, even at the expense of himself.

Idea for a story

Hmmm, I want to do one I haven't talked about here so none of my fifteen million different Parallax wips.

I haven't really thought it out much beyond oooh wouldn't it be fucked up if this the guardians did this, but we know from silver age comics that the guardians can see the future, and we know from all comics that the guardians are controlling bastards, so what if in an attempt to be even more controlling than usual, the guardians kinda um kidnapped younger gls, once whatever that happened to put them on their track had happened.

The original idea focuses mostly on Hal and John years and years afterwards, trying to rebuild the lives taken from them. They don't really remember their names from before, they're trying to find their family, trying to find out who they would be if they weren't green lanterns, if the guardians hadn't taken them, and the scene floating in my mind is Hal, Jack, and Jim reuniting. Hal's been missing since he was 10 years old, and none of them know how to react.

Also I want a fic where Hal and Jess compare their experiences with possession but I don't want to write it myself so I'm stuck there.

Unpopular opinion

oh god so I'm like blocked by like half of Hal blogs for some reason???? I honestly don't really know why, it's like half of them are my mutuals and half have me blocked :(.

okay my biggest one in the circles I'm in is that I feel like the parallax recon could be done well. Geoff was a little coward with it, but if tweaked slightly, relying on the amount of inconsistencies even within issues that Geoff wrote, let alone the amount of different writers tackling it, it could be fixed. (Like both Hal and the space bug say they don't know what stuff Hal did versus the space bug, and Hal says he murdered the green lantern corps before becoming parallax multiple times).

Also I have fun with Hal and pals. It's not the best comic (especially at the beginning with Soranik) but the last 20 or so issues are enjoyable and I've read everything 30 on multiple times.

Favorite relationship

See the favorite child comment above. Okay, so my top three romantic relationships are Hal and Carol, Hal and Sinestro, and Hal and Ollie. I discussed Halcarol in the carol post so I'll focus on the other two. Hal and Sinestro...Hal and Sinestro like actually make me fucking insane. Its the homoeroticism of killing someone while calling them your best friend, your best enemy. It's about being so similar that you hate and love someone at the same time, its about wanting them by your side, no matter the cost, but it can never truly work, they'll never truly be on the same side again. But, but, but, the tragedy of all this is that they'll always be friends, that they're the same underneath the skin (cries).

Hal and Ollie are opposites who want the same thing, in comparison to hal and sinestro who are very similar but want different things. Halollie to me is about nostalgia and rose tinted glasses and a past you can't go back to, a truck you pulled out of the river but its never the same, they're not the same. Plus they also have the whole murdering each other and resurrection thing going on and I have well demonstrated my love for a good murdering each other story.

Platonically? oh god. I love Hal and Kilowog and then i love Hal and John. Hal and Kilowog are so...like they also have the murdering thing going on. Like issue 40 of gl 2011???? Its complete insanity. The devotion the two of them have towards the green lantern corps??? also the scene in gls where Hal goes I would have done the same for Kilowog to Simon who had let jess go free??? I love the little mentions like that.

Hal and John are so interesting because Hal is an absolute shit friend and sector partner to John and John says that explicitly in story and still forgives Hal anyways, still says he loves him, still says they're best friends. Like my brain is mostly spitting out !!!!!!! for them but its a very excited !!!!!.

Favorite headcanon

Undiagnosed adhd Hal for the win! Like he suffers for it too, his relationship with his dad shows a lot of his dad doesn't understand him and doesn't want to. He can't focus, he can't stay still, he can't keep his feet on the ground and his head out of the clouds. It's just very much something I project on him based on canon evidence.

Second ask game. You didn't send me a number so I did all of them.

a fun headcanon

Okay I actually did this last because I have a lot of sad headcanons? But um, I really like the idea of Hal and John having a lot of inside jokes. They will reference random things during jl meetings and sometimes they're true sometimes they're not. The justice league sure doesn't know.

a sad headcanon

His father's jacket was destroyed in Coast City along with all of his stuff. The one he has now is one made out of his memories, which is why its different than before post emerald twilight.

Also I have a headcanon where he gets invited to do a speech at the 10 year anniversary of Coast City's destruction. He cries during it.

a headcanon that canon doesn't disprove

He's using his ring to cover up his gray streaks. They never really went away, Parallax wouldn't let him go that freely, but he covers them up because he's too scared to see everyone else's reaction.

a headcanon to spite canon, specifically

I don't do a lot of headcanons to spite canon? Like I genuinely think that canon is fun and something we should work with. The closest I got is my joke that current gl hal is the ring suppressing his emotions again because that ain't my hal.

a headcanon that's all but canon, and that's a hill I will die on

See the undiagnosed adhd headcanon above. Also the fact that he has some sort of genderfuckery going on, I saw your she/he pronouns spectre hal, I know what you are <3.

a headcanon about their family

I have so many. oh god one of the biggest I would say would be that Jack and Hal were specifically pitted against each other. We see this sometimes, with in a few flashbacks Martin saying why aren't you more like Jack, but I would like to see more of it. Hal hates Jack because he was the perfect one and then he went to college and Hal and Jim were left behind in the suffocating house.

In my head, Jim was very young when Martin died and does not remember him, and Jack was almost in college already and he left, leaving Hal to really baby Jim. He saw Jim as his responsibility, his little brother to protect, which is why he still calls him his kid brother, even when Jim has two kids of his own.

Also Jim really looks up to Hal which is basically canon. I mean he counts down the hours in between Hal leaving and returning and his security password is Hal's birthday.

a pre-canon headcanon

He and Jim used to go to baseball games together, sneaking into the coast city angels baseball field. He always thinks of Jim when making his baseball construct.

a post-canon headcanon

hmmmm. My biggest one is that due to the amount of ridiculous bullshit that he dies and comes back from, he's functionally immortal. He physically can't die. He's stuck here forever, even after all those he loves are dead. He becomes a legend, the man without fear, the man he never wanted to be. He wanders out in space, only coming back when he's needed, which these days are few and far in between. Eventually the legends morph to him never having existed, a story made up and embellished over all the years. He just wants to sleep.

a missing scene that definitely happened

Okay so something had to happen in between Spectre and gl rebirth that made hal go from going I don't deserve to be human to I have to have my life back and geoff does not show it. I usually have something happen with Helen that makes Hal have to erase both of their memories, which is why she isn't there in gl rebirth, and pushes Parallax, the entity into being.

I recognize canon has made a decision, but given that it's a stupid-ass decision, I've elected to ignore it (+ what should have happened)

The fucking Hal is younger than Roy post resurrection thing. Literal hatred in my heart, that man is in his 50s and everytime dc makes him younger he gains a year.

something [other character] believes about them that isn't true

This is basically canon but specifically Guy and Ollie most believe that he wasn't in control during Parallax. Hal himself "tries to forget" who was in control and that interests me so much.

something they believe about [other character] that isn't true

He genuinely believes that the other founding jlers, especially Superman doesn't think much of him. He projects his own insecurities onto them, while they do think he's capable, they don't think he's going to go evil again.

their happiest memory

This is basically canon, but to me the memory he's most nostalgic for is being on the road with Ollie, just the two of them. That's what he thinks of when he thinks of home, and it'll never return again.

their worst memory

People like to say its his father's death, but he barely remembers that these days. It's not even coming back from space and learning what happened to Coast. No, it's his older brother looking at him and snarling that what happened was his fault, that he murdered their mother by the crime of existing.

a secret

oh uh. Well, I do really love some variation that Parallax happened later then people think and that Hal had some hand in parallax being unleashed, so something about that.

favorite canon relationship

Answered above.

favorite fanon relationship

He doesn't really have any fanon relationships? Like besides bruce but I can't stand fanon's version of that. Ummmm, fanon makes his and barry's relationship a little less boring but that's not hard to do because a sock is more interesting than them.

Oh wait! Okay my fanon version of Hal and Arisia (not romantic). I basically jumble up all the different versions and recons and plus put in some of my own extraplations to make a good friendship there. Arisia looks up to Hal and holds him to high standards but she doesn't hero worship. She's still holding a grudge for the beating up Kilowog plot.

favorite should have been canon relationship

Seeing this as romantic so sinhal. I mean if one of them was female they would have been mainline canon years ago. Morrison is the only dc writer who gets me (made sinhal canon in an alternative universe and I'm eternally grateful for that). They're such good parallels and if they got together??? Insanity

[blank] / dealer's choice

When in space and lonely, Hal will make a construct of those he loves and just talk to them, and then cry.

[hoardlikegoldenirises]

lifetimes of scars both visible and not

(au, not canon, this is all related to my unreasonably extensive timeline)

(they're married)

(she/her for flash)

i definitely made some of the text too small 😂 new tablet has given me too much power (pressure sensitivity)

closeups:

crow's feet :3c i wrote "1987 – 2005" but really it's probably more like "1990 – 2005" but birth year was easier than trying to decide exactly what year harrison started to be a piece of shit 🤷and also really his abuse did continue intermittently even after flash moved out in 2005 but not consistently since flash wasn't around him very much after that (but like, there's the incident in 2006... and some later incidents in 2013 ish) — that's what the ptsd is referring to also though by this age i think she's mostly fine... small things can still get to her of course but by 50 she's very well-adjusted and much, much happier than she was 30 years ago.

and of course... recovered/recovering alcoholic... that's kind of a lifelong thing of course

carpal tunnel is just from using a wheelchair for 30+ years

also not a wound or a scar but flash will have been on hrt for like............................ 20 years at age 50??? i think? so... boobies 😂

the three rings on her left ring finger are engagement, wedding band and an anniversary ring peter gets her for their 10th (wedding) anniversary (they'll already have been dating for like 5 years when they get married though) — she's also wearing peter's wedding band on her right ring finger on account of his arthritis causing him problems + often already not wearing it because of spidey, but you can't see her right hand in this pic and i decided not to label it since it's not exactly a scar or lasting injury

peter gets a soul patch in his late 40s because it's a law of the universe that if he's middle aged he needs to have questionable facial hair and i didn't feel like trying to draw the full goatee when i designed their older looks and i still don't (also because he looks too much like dr strange when he has the goatee AND the white streak tbh lmfao)

if peter lived into his 50s you know he'd be going fully silver w/in a couple of years already — the stress 😂 it's making him a silver fox... well. it's given him a skunk stripe at least (cause i always think it's cute when he gets a white streak when middle aged in comics)

he's got that fuzzy neck and fangs too from man-spider (even w/ the missing front teeth XD) (normally he wears partial dentures but i figured he probably doesn't sleep in them) — missing teeth, broken clavicle and one of the times he had his right scapula broken are all from the same incident which happens in 2032 and which i haven't written yet but may or may not involve a Kraven of some kind... (the first time he had the same scapula broken was by the jackal which i ALSO have not written yet... but is 2012)

busted-ass nose from when he fought doc ock around high school graduation and insisted he didn't need it looked at

ptsd is from the jackal as well, as mentioned not written yet.

also peter is 4 months younger than flash, thus 49.9 😂😂😂 it's ALMOST his birthday here okay, he's basically 50,

obviously flash has some of her own scars... maybe not quite as many as peter but losing both your legs probably counts for a few XD

and i decided to draw her a little bit fuzzy cause she's 50 here and she doesn't shave (her body) all the time anymore but... you can barely see it anyway since the hairs are red XD

trying to decide flash's level of muscle as a 50 year old woman is also difficult and i am still not sure how much tummy to give her... i probably could have given her more, though i guess she and peter still have a lot of sex....... either way i know she still has those guns even with carpal tunnel in both wrists lol

similar dilemma with peter but peter has the wrinkle of needing to eat over 5000 calories a day just to not lose weight so i think he's more likely to remain very svelte on top of refusing to like, retire from spider-man... bro take a break you already have arthritis and nerve damage which i forgot to label,

(the nerve damage is from the burn scar though) (it was real bad) (i haven't written that one yet but it's in 2009. nothing complicated, he just runs into a burning building to save people while wearing a polyester costume is all—not Trauma, just Stupidity) (...i mean, medically speaking it's burn trauma, but)

compression glove for aforementioned arthritis. he has arthritis all over, like his shoulders and stuff, but his left wrist is the worst because of when fisk broke it and he set it himself at home so it never totally healed right, but is manageable until he hits his forties and it starts getting arthritic before any of the rest of his joints 🤷 actually iirc it probably starts twinging in his 30s... but by 49 it's his whole arm for sure... plus his right shoulder... probably most of his fingers... left knee not arthritis just the nerve damage... wouldn't be surprised if he gets a sore neck from all that spidey whiplash... probably tennis elbow too lbr... yeah, he really should retire lol

also you can see his weird ribcage divots from when the extra arms in man-spider fell off...

flash and peter both got the knuckle scars—peter normally wouldn't but in 2007 he is currently spending a lot of time busting his knuckles open (peter: um some people mangle their hands punching steel and concrete to cope,) so they don't get a chance to heal fully and he ends up with scars from it.

sexual assault survivor referring to both skip in 2000 (which is finally being mentioned more concretely but i have made allusions to before) as well as the jackal in 2012 (which i have not written yet but have a lot of notes for) (well, i have a lot of notes for all of this, really,) - those are also both the major sources of his PTSD, particularly the jackal, though he's got other traumas too like his abandonment issues (parents' death) and his uncle's death... he's just been through a lot in general. unlike flash he isn't like, mostly fine, either, and therapy didn't really work out for him, so he's on... meds lol though idk maybe by 50 he doesn't need them anymore..... when he was in his 20s and 30s for sure though... he is a man prone to flashbacks and nightmares... hyperfixation... and 2012 will be a very traumatic year for him if/when i write that fic...

anyway it's fine, he's fine,

here's a foot for all the foot fetishists out there

no scars there i just really hate drawing bare feet and think it turned out sort of okay

the red things are how they die btw. peter gets taken out by [insert organization here] (i'm still working out the details, idk if natl guard or shield or what... or WHY tbh lmao i just know it happens)

flash i'm actually still not 100% sure i will do though, she might die of a broken heart/lots of stress from the very public death of her husband of 23 years (partner for almost 30)/heart problems from limited mobility (exacerbated by the carpal tunnel) or...... she might live longer, idk yet... idk if i'll even ever write that part... who knows!!!

me like angst😂 it's happy too though!!! i mean sure tragic ending eventually but also they are together for nearly 30 years despite all odds and that's not tragic at all... they love each other... 🥺🥰

they just don't live very long

though for flash 50 feels like a longer time than she'd ever expected, like, this is a woman who never thought she'd even make it to 20, you know???? so 50 is a pretty big deal. regardless of if i have her live longer than peter or not, though, i don't think she's surprised when he dies... like, upset yes, but... there have been so many times she's worried he'd never come home so it's only a shock in that it's emotionally devastating, not surprising at all. a long time coming... RIP

tfw you're outlived by your clone with a compromised lifespan

anyway i got way more rambly than i meant to on this XD

oh update in july lmao: i realized i had forgotten about a scar peter will probably acquire in 2012 in my notes and only found it skimming thru my timeline recently to edit some stuff so i sketched this real quick:

though in my mind this sketch is of peter when he's still in his mid to late 20s... but the handprint is obviously a mark of kaine print (though I think i may have made it too small XD considering peter already has big ol hands and kaine is 4 inches taller than him) think of it as something like a grab while grappling during a fight, like wrestling or whatever—though i'm ngl i'm still working out some details but i think when peter is first kidnapped by warren, he may attack kaine, for reasons having to do with his aunt, though like i said i'm still working out some stuff so there isss a chance i scrap this scar anyway... we'll see if i ever make it that far (current fic is 2007 and this would be 2012 after all but i may end up time skipping at some point like i did with, for example, curse of the man-spider)

drawing peter on a towel was the only way i could think of to get his back bare at this point too. he really buttons up for a while there.

(has a separate post on my blog: https://hoardlikegoldenirises.tumblr.com/post/722440569862881280/a-scar-i-totally-forgot-about-in-my-notes-and-by)

[orionsangel86]

What do you think is the lowest age Morpheus would date?

Morpheus is billions of years old and he had a love affair with Nada - who was 16 years old when Morpheus met her.

At least, the comic mentions that "by the time she reached her sixteenth year she was the most beautiful woman the sun had seen in his travels across the sky" so perhaps time had passed between her 16th birthday and the time Morpheus met her, but that's not what the story implies sooooo....

I don't think we know how old Killala was, and she is the only other mortal Morpheus dated, Since Calliope was already an immortal goddess, Thessaly a 2000 year old (hag) witch, and Alianora was a being of light so no idea how old she was either.

Clearly his attraction is to women, not girls. If that's whats being asked here. Nada being 16 is a bit gross in our modern perspective, but I suppose for a tribe 10,000 years ago 16 was considered a prime age to be finding a husband, based on the way Tales in the Sand talks about how the women of her tribe were all encouraging her to find a husband at that age. So I don't think we are supposed to view Morpheus' pursuit of Nada as something predatory the way we would view a 30 year old man pursuing a teenage girl for instance (well, its actually an interesting perspective to consider the story in that way, especially after she says no and he continues to chase after her - even though it is implied afterwards that Desire had a lot to do with Morpheus' persistence as well as Nada's initial obsession with him).

For a deeper dig into those darker interpretations, @so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site is where I would turn to, as she is the expert in Morpheus' darker side regarding the women in his life, and has written some really interesting meta's about it in the past.

As to how young he would be willing to date well, I don't think he's interested in children that's for sure! I stand by my interpretation that Morpheus is most attracted to strong, opinionated, and creative women, Nada was still a queen and I'm guessing mature for her age? Even if it does make me feel gross saying that. I don't think he's interesting in dating your average mortal teenager he might bump into in a modern world.

I'm hoping I haven't missed some other gross interpretation out of the Sandman Companion on this point? Morpheus was extremely paternal with Hope Beautiful Lost Nebula in Overture - even if his mother did offer him an older version of Hope to be his lover in her attempt at making him stay with her - gross, but not Morpheus' idea. He may be a bit obvious in his love for beautiful young looking women (other than Thessaly) but I think age is not a point he would focus on so long as the person he was dating was a consenting adult that he found attractive.

[about-faces]

Congratulations on your Top 22-list! Sheesh, I've been gone for a month and I feel like I've missed like half a life in the meantime. Anyway, reading through the list was a hoot. There was a surprising amount of RECENT comics as well on that list, and far up in the list too! Which leads me to a question about a story that DIDN'T make the cut, one that I was surprised didn't get a mention even at the bottom half of the list: Nightwing: The Great Leap. What made that one fall through the top 22?

Thanks, man! I was also surprised by how much recent stuff I included, but dang, it's really been a surprising last few year for good Two-Face content! When I first tried doing a Top 22 list five or six years ago, it was almost entirely older content. With potential exceptions like Peter Tomasi's work, including The Great Leap.

In fact, that story is a perfect example of why I was so riddled with indecision about how to compile this list. Before this year, I would have included Tomasi's The Big Burn and Ugly Heart (the New 52 stories) together as "one" story, but I could easily have also included The Great Leap as a kind of "trilogy" of Tomasi's particular take on Harvey, but that seemed like cheating.

The problem with all three stories is that they are all very mixed bags. Some absolutely fantastic Harvey content, combined with flaws from both Tomasi and DC editorial screwing around with things. For The Great Leap specifically, I didn't include it because of a few factors.

1.) Carol Birmingham. She was clearly made as a bland Rachel Dawes stand-in at Gilda's expense, and I have never liked Harvey having an emotional affair with her--and even LOVING her--more than Gilda. The fact that Tomasi forgot to make her a distinct character in her own right instead of just a damsel didn't help any.

2.) I hate how the story seems to be crafting a complicated, conflicted Harvey, then abandons it all in the third act to turn him into a supervillain maniac who shows no regrets nor torment over what he went through. ESPECIALLY since Harvey arguably succeeded in saving Carol from himself (by getting Nightwing's help in the first place), which could have been tragically bittersweet if Tomasi had wanted it to be.

3.) Nightwing's "No, Harvey, YOU let him win!" Dick's whole attitude towards Harvey makes perfect sense, including his callous disregard for Harvey's mental illness, but the way the narrative fully supports Dick's assertions by the end--despite everything we've seen--still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

There was a time when the pickins were slimmer for good Two-Face content that this could have still made the list. But now we're lucky enough to not have to settle for mostly mixed-bags. Hell, we're right in the middle of two potential all-time great Two-Face sagas: "Gotham Nocturne" in Tec and Batman: The Audio Adventures. It's been an exciting time! Even the mixed bags are more interesting to me than The Great Leap, like his oddball role in Priest's Deathstroke and his team-up with Jason Todd in Task Force Z. And when it comes to Tomasi, I'd still sooner include The Big Burn/Ugly Heart over TGL at this point.

I really look forward to revising the list in the coming years, to see which choices I made in 2022 have aged well and which haven't, not to mention what other new stuff might make the cut!

[fish-bowl-2]

Rolf 1, 12, 13, 22 :)

1.Why do you like or dislike this character? I love his whole...presence in the world of the show. He's such a funny character, but largely because he is genuinely funny rather than always depending on a usual "fish-out-of-water" tropes. I love how he seems to be more aware of the other characters than they are of themselves. It is really neat to me how he is depended on as voice of reason in the cul-de-sac (even if not everyone fully understands it, or the outcome turns out ideal). It could have been really easy to just make him the butt of jokes in the show. Sure, sometimes he is, but he equally hashes out judgement on his privileged American peers without changing who he is, which is pretty refreshing even for a show as old as this one.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character? I've seen people interpret that he is probably older than the Eds, maybe by a year or so. Although, I can see him having to take classes in the grade a year below his actual age (mostly inspired by a lot of classmates I knew growing up who came from out of the country). I think it has to do with the "necessary subjects learned" in one schooling system conflicting with the way it is in other country, or some other obtuse US Department of Education law. The son of a shepherd has a lot of pride, so it annoys him a bit he can't take the same classes as Nazz or Kevin.

13. What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot? 🐐 goat : ) and squids. Any form of aquatic invertebrates. I feel like he would always find an excuse to spam an emoji of the Old Country's flag for moments when he is feeling especially patriotic.

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like? Featuring Rolf at ALL in a fic is a treat. It is, understandably, hard to come across fics that feature characters other than the Eds, but Rolf gets neglected quite a bit in that regard. Maybe it is because he is hard to write? But I think Ed is way more of a delicate challenge (I can't speak much on that though since, I admit, I haven't gotten around to writing Rolf yet. I'd love to give it a shot when an idea comes around though). I like hearing people's interpretations of the Old Country through Rolf as well. Other than your work, of course, I think @themoderngogoworld 's comic has a great expansion and interpretation of the Old Country and his character.