#it also has that tragic kinda vibe because the extreme shading makes it look like sunset

[not-a-mongoose]

:D

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Okay so tumblr did something super weird with the formatting and I couldn’t fix it; for some reason it had the page cut under the ask itself (as if the ask itself had the page cut in it) so I literally couldn’t edit it out and re-format it right. So I just took a screencap of the ask and I’ll respond via a standard textpost.

Gonna give a little warning because I’m gonna be talking about child abuse a bit.

Glad to hear it, anon. :) I try to keep an open mind with these discussions.

Tbh, I kinda get uncomfortable with some of the stuff I've seen in her tag regarding Zuko especially. I've seen a handful of people kind of dismissing him as being whiny or sensitive, and I just don't really vibe with that. I don't have anything against any of the people I've seen posting it, but I just don't vibe with.

I'm also gonna take the opportunity to try to break some of the misconceptions about the Azula fandom by saying that I don't feel afraid or intimidated to kinda go against a good portion of the fandom in a sense. And that's because, fellow Azula fans have never really outcast me or tried to fight me for saying that I think that Azula's a bit of an abuser. The Azula fandom imo, isn't full of bullies and hateful people; everyone I have talked to has been very open to a nice discussion. I think that it just depends how you approach them with your arguments.

All of that said, Imma get back on topic here; It’s a little tough to talk about Azula's flaws sometimes because I feel like (though, thankfully this hasn’t happened on tumblr to me yet) that some people take pointing out flaws in your faves as bashing them or posting hate.

But honestly this is really cool to hear because back when I first opened up this blog I used to do that thing where I’d justify everything that my faves did, which was a bit of a problem because my faves are all antagonists! xD So there has been a lot of progress made.

I think that there are three main reasons that people have a hard time admitting that she’s an abuser too.

I think that the biggest one is that a lot of Azula fans lately have been massively on the defensive. There has been quite a bit of hate in her tag, there have been things said by the writers (taken the wrong way or not), there have been a lot of generalizations, and so on. And all of it kind of puts fans on the defensive. I see so many posts about how Azula is irredeemable and just the worst, most evil character in the show and so people kind of swing hardcore the other way (Azula did nothing wrong) to make up for all of the demonizing she gets. One extreme usually leads to another. Seeing Azula get so much shit, like being called a killer and a sadist, provokes the Azula is a cinnamon roll reaction. Basically when a fandom gets put on blast for being 'the crazy' or 'mean' side of the fandom, I feel like it creates a cycle where that part of the fandom starts to actually act meaner because they feel backed into a corner. The more they are called 'delusional' for seeing good in Azula the more radically they will start to defend that belief until the shades of grey start disappearing, if that makes sense.

But this is just a theory of course.

The second reason I think that people tend to dismiss the things she does do wrong is that there's this association with criticism and hate. And this goes beyond the Avatar fandom. In general I feel like people find it hard to say bad things about their favorite characters because they feel like they're bashing their character and/or they don't want people to think that they are being negative. Plus it's just kinda hard to say bad things about something you like/love. Speaking as someone who used to do this; I always felt really weird about or like I was being negative when admitting that things I like have flaws. I'm not exactly sure why I used to feel like this because it wasn't an, 'I seem myself in this character, so insulting them is like insulting me' thing because I usually have almost nothing in common with my faves. Idk, it's just always been way easier for me to find things I like in a character I hate than it is for me to find things I don't like in a character that I do. On a personal level, it might just be because I'd rather focus on liking things that I like than hating things that I hate?

I guess that I think that it's just easy to forget that 'I don't like xyz aspect of Azula' is not the same as 'I don't like Azula at all'. I think that it's possible to love a character but not love everything about them, just like real people; you can love your mom to death but there will always be those things about her that drive you nuts.

And really, imo, I think that fans who are able to see flaws with their faves are the ones who understand them the best. I'm definitely not saying that the people who don't see/acknowledge their fave's flaws don't understand their fave. But I think that they are missing out on very crucial aspects of their favorite character. If you like a character you should like them for what they are in canon, not what you want them to be or what they could be.

I see a lot of potential for growth in Azula. I see potential for a redemption arc and I do love what her character can be. But I also love her character as is. Currently in canon, she's manipulative and goal driven to the point where she has a disregard for people. Currently she's an antagonist and I love her for that. Because antagonist, unredeemed Azula is the character I liked in the beginning. I don't condone her being manipulative and I don't like that as a personality trait. But I do love it as far as, she is a fantastically written antagonist. And those cold, manipulative, abusive traits add to her complexity when juxtaposed against her own abuse, insecurities, and need to be loved.

And that's kind of what I mean when I say that, if you like Azula, you should like her despite the flaws.  If that makes sense. I feel like people who say that she isn't an abuser (at least to some degree) kind of have a misunderstanding of her character. I think that one of the points of her character is to show that some abused kids don't come out okay. It's a tragic reality.

But with Azula I think that there's still room for her to change and start to break that cycle. I feel like she'd have a much harder time doing it than Zuko, because she has been subjected to his mental abuse in close range for much longer than he has. And I think that it would be something she'd struggle with her whole life, but I see good in her.

That said, I think that the third reason people have trouble seeing her as an abuse is because it is just really hard to see abuse victims become the abuser. I've mentioned before, but I come from a family where the chain ended with one of my parents. Said parent has told me many times how hard it was to fight that kind of upbringing. That's the real tragedy of abuse, it just goes on and on until you're mentally strong enough to fight yourself and break that chain. And the sad thing is, that some people just can't seem to do that. And I think that when discussing Azula, this comes into play a bit; it's just hard to look at even a fictional abuse victim and knowledge that they've become the abuser because it is all that they have known.

It's just a really hard topic and  that's why it's so easy for discourse like this to get heated; a lot of people have an Azula in their lives or relate to her in some way.

Thanks for the ask, sorry it took so long to reply! I wanted to make it thoughtful and word everything the best that I can.

As always, everyone is welcomed to chime in and give their own opinions.

EDIT: There are a few things that I don’t think I was clear enough on with the initial post lol. First and foremost, I’m definitely not saying that these three reasons are the only reasons people don’t talk about Azula’s flaws. @wingsfreedom​ made a good point about differing ways of interpreting scenes. That’s another biggy. 

The other thing I want to clarify is that I don’t think that Azula is a full on abuser. I think that she displays tendencies and does some abusive things. But I also don’t put her on the same level as Ozai. I feel like she’s a bit more merciful than him. Like Ozai is pretty much too far gone; he’s an abuser and his mind is set there. Azula, I think still has the capacity to break the chain. She’s not a lost cause. I also feel like she can be reasoned with more than Ozai. Ozai is all about power; Azula is motivated more by desperation (be it for her father’s love, to keep the last bit of control she has, and to keep her friends). It still leads to that harmful behavior, but I don’t think that she’s a lost cause like Ozai. Like, she has some abusive tendencies now, but I can also see her being able to break the chain under the right conditions.  If that makes sense. 

[tumblunni]

hey uhhh YKNO WHATS GOOD brainstorming potential headcanons for a character you know NOTHING ABOUT

i guess its less headcanons and more like.. wishes? hopes? what i think would be cool to do with this dude and like ALL I KNOW is that he is a cool dude and apparantly he doesnt have a backstory or sympatheticness SO consider what if he did and maybe thatd be cooler. like dude he owns THE SINGLE BEST BOSS BATTLE THEME IN ALL VIDEOGAMES EVER and that is ALL I KNOW ABOUT HIM and i just want him to deserve it, yo. also if he turned good i could be his friend and some of the badassness would rub off on me

ANYWAY

COOL SQUID PRESIDENT

i would vote for this man as squesident

seriously the design is SO GOOD!!! how did they manage to get such a cool colourscheme out of his entire Thing being that he has no colours?? like damn i like white being used as an evil colour for once, thanks. it symbolizing emptyness and emotionlessness is like BIG YES and i really hope thats what they were going for cos apparantly the wiki says that all the yokai who join his “we should never be friends with humans” gang turn colourless to match? but like the dude himself is less plain white and more very light shades of blue, grey and gold. MAYBE REFLECTS THAT HE IS A MANIPULATIVE DOUCHE WHO MAYBE DOESNT REALLY CARE ABOUT YOKAI AND JUST WANTS TO RULE THE WORLD PERHAPS dammit why does everything about him scream “great 100% evil guy who is very scary” when man I WANT TO LIKE HIM, DAMMIT!!

ALSO SERIOUSLY the visual effect of the wild spirally red yellow eyes against an otherwise “peaceful” colour whose entire point as an evil is “peaceful” taken to a bad extreme. it REALLY immediately sells that “tries to pretend to be calm, collected and fancy but is actually an angry mofo at heart” vibe i got from his theme song??? I REALLY HOPE THATS ACTUALLY HOW THIS COOL BOSS BATTLE GOES DOWN cos man the best villains are smug asshles who Always Win and then when you FINALLY win you get that much of a better ending!!! but AGH another part of me is like “i hope im wrong because he looks like a Cool Dad and i want him to be good”. Maybe his true design concept was to betray me personality with using all his cool dad power for evil...?

ALSO im not gonna spoil you guys on it cos it is JUST AS AMAZING AS HIS SONG but i was toooootally right that he has some sort of super intimidating second form and its got THE COOLEST DESIGN EVER HOLY SHIT! and also apprantly there’s a recoloured bonus boss called Minister Squisker who’s like a colour swap in a really creative way?? it swaps him being all “blank” themed with scary bright eyes and instead his entire body is a wild ye olde mythological illustration style paint job in every colour ever. okay COOL HEADCANON NUMBER ONE thats actually the regular colour of the species and mckraken is the white sheep of the family lol

also UHHH i dunno it seems kinda weird to me that theyd have this dude running a goddamn political party about humans being bad yet he doesnt seem to have any motivation whatsoever for it? unless it really is just supposed to be ‘he only pretends he wants to protect yokai from humans so he can manipulate and rule the yokai’. but like HYPOTHETICALLY in some universe where he actually lives up to his Grumpy Dad Who Has A Hidden Soft Spot potential, maybe he has an understandable backstory that raises legitimate concerns about how humans are destroying the natural and mythological and forgetting their roots, or other reasonable reasons why yokai could think humans are dangerous and all. i mean we ARE dangerous, we’re just a wide group of people that contain evil bastards and also good people, yknow. And thatd resonate well as a plot probably, cos well the whole point of the series is “in real life ur scared of yokai but theyre actually all goofy pranksters who will be your best friend forever”. Both sides being afraid of each other could lead to some good plotness! and it could be really effective and sad if after hours of joyous childhood wonder the protagonist bumps into the first yokai they couldnt befriend. the first one thats scared of them. the first member of this weird colourless political party who accuses them of committing crimes against yokaikind, of obviously only enslaving these yokai friends cos you have an ulterior motive, just like all humans! it could be effective if its something that shakes up the whole way you saw the world and establishes that hey its not all fun and happiness, and there’s some people you are powerless to convince. maybe even some people you are powerless to save...?

ANYWAY possible idea for ‘what if the dude originally had a sympathetic motive but it got twisted over time and now he’s just a fuck BUT maybe he could still be redeeminated someday ok thanks” What if he’s the spirit of.. like.. ocean pollution? Like there’s some yokai who are ghosts of a mortal person but theres some that are just nature spirits or personifications of concepts. What if he’s the personification of the dying screams of all the wildlife killed in a particular tragic oil spill? hence squid = thematic, and blank white colourscheme = even more thematic reflecting the stain the oil would leave on a pristine ocean and also the blank emotionlessness he was left as after witnessing that tragedy. Cos like his entire Purpose would have been born out of avenging anger but i mean he was just a kid, the only one left alive on a ruined beach and seeing just how powerful humans were and how pointless it would be to try and fight them with his weak power. like he was born to avenge all these souls and he just keeps failing!! his entire reason to live and he’s just too small!! so he ends up becoming bitter and cynical and learning how to use his silver tongue to manipulate others into becoming his weapons, and he vows that someday he’s gonna come back when he has the power he needs to complete his mission. and he’s just forever had this anger seething inside that he’s been unable to get any catharsis from, so when his cold and collected persona cracks he’s really damn scary with all these years of a man who’s grown old fearing he’ll never be able to avenge his ocean friends and just AAAAAA! itd be really good cos itd be a way he could still be intimidating and high stakes as a boss fight but also sympathetic!! also it could make sense why he’d only be redeemable after defeating him? like this entire time he’s been hidden behind a million layers of politics and minions and stuff and its very easy for him to not see the reality of the fact that he’s terrorizing human children just like how humans scarred him as a child. so like his whole big second form transformation super anger mode time would be sort of a last ditch attempt to deny what he already knows, the doubts that have been eating away at his soul now he’s getting close to the end of his life goal. but also like.. he doesnt even know who he IS, under the lies! its been his entire purpose for existing. like he probably uhh.. didnt have much plans after his victory. he probably wouldnt have much will to live left. so yeah you basically beat up this guy’s emotional walls and make him face the face of the people he’s been hurting, when he’s been trying to avoid it for so long. and he gets to see how much all the other yokai genuinely trust you and how much youre personally sacrificing to protect them so maybe you really arent just lying about being a good person...

oh also i was thinking about the inherant hypocrisy present in the fact that this guy is a big spoopy REALLY WELL DESIGNED squid monster that spends all his time in a depowered humansona instead, despite his whole Thing being hating humans. and, yknow, ‘i’ll solve this using a carbon copy of human politics instead of any more traditionally magical way of fighting the humans’. Yeah. So THEORY of SADNESS maybe he like never actually met any other yokai for a long time? I dont think it really makes sense that he’d be hypocritical because he secretly likes humans or something, that wouldnt jive with this backstory idea. So im thinking another explanation could be that he genunely doesnt know much about yokai culture? Like cos of his backstory he just poofed into existance on this destroyed beach in the human world and spent the first few centuries of his life completely alone except for the terrifying monsters that haunted every second of his life, and the knowledge that it was his purpose to defeat them but he didnt know how. And he was a nature spirit of the sea but his sea was empty of everything except death, so he couldnt even hug a cute fish sidekick or something- OH GOD WHAT IF HE DID HAVE A CUTE FISH SIDEKICK AND IT DIED COS OF HUMANS!!! very tiny sad squid monster child holding a dead pet, oh god why did my heart did this to meeee!! so yeah he didnt even know he was a yokai or wtf yokai are, he didnt know anywhere outside the tiny rock pool he would hide in on this barren beach. And then someday he gets found by an older yokai and adopted and like he feels like he owes them so much cos they gave him a reason to live, and a connection to the nature that he was supposed to protect, and.. well.. any companionship at all ever. So thats how his directionless “humans are bad” turned into “yokai are good and i need to protect them from humans like i failed to protect the beach” which turned into “i need to get more power to do this” which turned into manipulating other yokai and seeing them as nothing more than tools to take down the humans, his revenge consuming him until he barely remembered the reasons he originally wanted to do it...

and blablabla thats where we bring in the recolour bonus boss also, and say thats the nice grandpa figure who adopted him when he was all lost and trapped in the human world. and cos he was sorta adopted into nobility thats why he’s so over the top with his pompousness, its like a hint of IM LOVV MY GRANDEPA shining through his grumpface. ALSO maybe a sad situation where the gramps saw his kid growing up into this scary extremist and he tried to reason with him that humans dont need to be destroyed and that led to them fighting and him getting sealed off in recolour bonus boss land. and mckraken sees it as the biggest betrayal of his life and it totally threw him off the slippery slope to feel like the one man he trusted the most was a traitor to yokai all along. but even at his most evil he couldnt bear to actually kill his beloved gramps so he just imprisoned him and tries to stop thinking about it but like THE CONSTANT SPECTRE OF THE GUILT HANGS OVER YOUR HEAD THAT YOU DID YOU GRAMPS WRONGGGG So yehmaybe protag could find the gramps guy and hear about the sad backstory via him and then defeat mckraken and make him realise he was wrong and he apologises to his gramps and atones and all the humans and yokai are friends again and BUNNI CRIES FOREVER the end

cos seriously man this guy’s design is too good to be wasted on a hateable!! srsly he’s like that archetypical goofy big beard chubby pirate dude BUT INTIMIDATING AND BADASS AND COOL FASHION AND DAVY JONES SQUID BEARD SQUEARD I LOVE HIM he is too round to be 100% evil

*slams fists on the table* IF YOU DONT LIVE UP TO MY EXPECTATIONS I AM GONNA CRY

aaa i need to stop just sitting here theorizing about this game and actually friggin play it lolllll

[theglguidetowebcomics]

The Webcomic Graveyard

There are plenty of amazing comics on the internet, but for every good one there seems to be 3 abandoned ones. You never know when one of your favourite comics will be dropped or even simply deleted, and if you’ve read a few webcomics it’s probably happened to you a few times. But, even if unfinished they’re interesting in their own way. So, why not take a short look at some these dead webcomics?

Firstly, the biggest problem with unearthing abandoned comics is they’re quite difficult to find, especially if they’re from the 2000′s or even early 2010′s. Because if they’re old, abandoned and on the internet, the lists that featured them or even the comics themselves can be long gone in hosting archives or lost with the domain, which isn’t a bad thing. They’re dead comics. But if I’m trying to find those neon coloured wonky lined GL stories where Amazons hang out; Main characters abruptly die in flames while everyone gives up on the quest in act 1; or love interests fly around knocking out angsty protagonists with alien comets left right and centre… Digging up the remains of some of these is going to be a challenge.

But that being said, let’s have a look at some of the good, the bad, and the tragic of abandoned WLW webcomics. And let’s see if digging these up is as fun as I thought.

Roxie and the Magic Taco

Years: 2015 - 2017 Pages: 114 Reason: Unexplained

First of all, of course there’s a GL comic about a magic taco. Second of all, what a title. This comic is all kinds of weird. it’s art style is painfully 2000′s with the grey shading, gradient backgrounds, geometric yet empty landscapes, and pixelated line work. And this was presumably made in 2015. Everything about this feels and looks like a competent 2000′s comic (minus the furries), but by far the weirdest thing about this comic was that even if I read it twice a while ago, I had NO idea I had only ever read a third of it until a researched it for this list. It went on a small hiatus in the start of 2016 posting a small how it was made list instead of a page which sent you to another part of the website if you clicked on it, so there was a whole year after that update which I had never read because I kept getting stuck on that damn update page without knowing. So I finally go to finish act 1 of this comic after 3 years, and man, what a page to end on. This comic started out as a small yet surprisingly sweet romance between two characters. Princess a heavily sheltered model(?) who’s father controls her day by the minute, and has lived that way all her life except for the few minutes a day where she takes off all her femme apparel and is allowed to wander around due to a lenient body guard. Think a reverse Hannah Montana if Hannah Monatana was secretly a butchy punk lesbian. And Roxie the stuck in the dead end job for 4 years cashier, who works for an insane grandpa who talks to a “Magic Taco” and has a huge crush on the supermodel princess, well, at least her celebrity persona. And the characters are weirdly… interesting. The plot as batshit as it is is alright, there’s clear conflicts for the characters and the twist before the comic ended revealed the “magic taco” actually existing? There’s definitley a few cons to it too, the art is awkward at times, The backgrounds are weird, and there feels like there’s something missing in the story. But weirdly enough, I still kinda want to know what happens next. But with what comes next though act I wrapped up on the 23rd of April 2017 with a message saying it would update again in June the same year. It never did. No more updates. No hiatus notices. Just an empty Tumblr, Facebook page, and badly designed website. Apparently act 2 had already been written, so who knows the story behind that one. An orphaned series.

Amazoness!

Years: 2007 - 2010 Pages: unobtainable Reason: Unknown/unobtainable

Alright, we’ve finally come across a comic that’s domain has been deleted (most likely due to the bills on the domain not being paid for a few years) and subsequently has had it’s entire archive destroyed (bar a few blurry Jpegs floating around). So information about this one is going to have to rely on what I can remember from 5 years ago. So… Buckle up, let’s horribly stumble through this one! If Roxie and the Magic Taco felt like a little like 2000′s comic Amazoness! by comparison eat’s and breaths 2000′s. From the early anime influences, bold colours, and ms paint vibes coming from every pore (not that ms paint is inherently bad. More that i’s used particularly). And, I swear, every abandoned comic has a bizarre premise and plot. So what is the plot? Good question. I’m not entirely sure myself. Amazoness! is set in 559 BC in a fictional Amazonian empire. Think wonder woman but ms paint, a little anime, and a whole lot more lesbian. They live in a women only empire with a giant infamous army, and generally despise men, which makes finding husbands difficult, they’re also basically all lesbians, which  makes finding a husband very difficult. Enter the main character (Left in the panels provided), she’s small and weak compared to her Amazonian peers, which as the next Queen, is a bit of a problem. So she goes on adventures around the ancient world (and by world I mean Greece before being cancelled). It’s a fantasy story with a lot of the 2000′s brand humour, blandish characters, and weird plot. It’s as 2000′s as it gets. But it did have a lot of standout jokes including the dark brooding Amazonian who was originally an ancient goth accidentally starting modern goth fashion in ancient Greece. There was also possibly a trans character, but being the comic that it was, whether that was their gender or whether they were going to become a cross dresser butt of the joke character is up for debate. Considering it was 2007 I’m not the most optimistic about that bit. All in all though it was the standard 2000′s fantasy comedy genre with some nice jokes, a few starts to some promising romances, a few bludges on some touchy subject material, and pretty forgettable art. Who knew what this comic would have become, as a young teen I wanted to find out, but now it’s just another orphaned series, lost to time. This is not a series that’s sorely missed, But maybe foggily remembered. Oh well.

Mora and Stima Apei

Years: 2016 - 2017 Episodes: 27 (Including specials + QAs) Reasons: Hiatus. Moving, free time, and starting another comic

What’s this? A webcomic that doesn’t look like it wears baggy jeans, plays snake on a flip phone, and bedazzle tamagotchis in it’s spare time? And I was this close to have a theme here. But, no. Mora and Stima Apei isn’t from the 2000′s or even 2000′s themed. It’s very modern from its story telling, to its art, to the fact that the authors are qualified in relevant fields. And rather than being specifically abandoned it’s been publicly put on hiatus with a notice and reason why. It’s always nice when creators do that. Whether it will actually be completed story though is still anyone’s guess. It’s still a webcomic. The comic however is pretty interesting, the visuals are a little rough at the start but greatly improve later on. The characters are beautifully designed, the colours are thought out, the tone is pretty clear, and the monsters are dark and twisted. And I’m always up for dark and twisted monsters. Con wise though is it’s a little wordy and poetic at times. Which I do understand is a style choice here, but at the same time I very much in the show don’t tell camp with things like this. It doesn’t do that all the time though. Plot wise though the comic is pretty straight forward, a women wakes up, can’t remember who she is, has a rotten arm, a elf lady in the room, and a skull on her head. Why? We haven’t gotten to the why yet. The art later on is gorgeous, and the mystery is enticing. But there isn’t enough yet to get a grasp on how good it will be, it doesn’t use it’s time well. Its not a bad comic though, it’s mystery and art is very well done. But, still can’t tell what it’s going to be from what there is. On the other hand though their newer comic is still coming out (albeit in early pages) and is extremely well done with nice art, visual story telling, and an intriguing plot. So as long as they keep making comics like that, I don’t mind how long this stays on hiatus at all.

[pendingoomething]

The Webcomic Graveyard

There are plenty of amazing comics on the internet, but for every good one there seems to be 3 abandoned ones. You never know when one of your favourite comics will be dropped or even simply deleted, and if you’ve read a few webcomics it’s probably happened to you a few times. But, even if unfinished they’re interesting in their own way. So, why not take a short look at some these dead webcomics? 

Firstly, the biggest problem with unearthing abandoned comics is they’re quite difficult to find, especially if they’re from the 2000′s or even early 2010′s. Because if they’re old, abandoned and on the internet, the lists that featured them or even the comics themselves can be long gone in hosting archives or lost with the domain, which isn’t a bad thing. They’re dead comics. But if I’m trying to find those neon coloured wonky lined GL stories where Amazons hang out; Main characters abruptly die in flames while everyone gives up on the quest in act 1; or love interests fly around knocking out angsty protagonists with alien comets left right and centre... Digging up the remains of some of these is going to be a challenge. 

But that being said, let’s have a look at some of the good, the bad, and the tragic of abandoned WLW webcomics. And let’s see if digging these up is as fun as I thought.

Roxie and the Magic Taco

Years: 2015 - 2017 Pages: 114 Reason: Unexplained

First of all, of course there’s a GL comic about a magic taco. Second of all, what a title. This comic is all kinds of weird. it’s art style is painfully 2000′s with the grey shading, gradient backgrounds, geometric yet empty landscapes, and pixelated line work. And this was presumably made in 2015. Everything about this feels and looks like a competent 2000′s comic (minus the furries), but by far the weirdest thing about this comic was that even if I read it twice a while ago, I had NO idea I had only ever read a third of it until a researched it for this list. It went on a small hiatus in the start of 2016 posting a small how it was made list instead of a page which sent you to another part of the website if you clicked on it, so there was a whole year after that update which I had never read because I kept getting stuck on that damn update page without knowing. So I finally go to finish act 1 of this comic after 3 years, and man, what a page to end on.  This comic started out as a small yet surprisingly sweet romance between two characters. Princess a heavily sheltered model(?) who’s father controls her day by the minute, and has lived that way all her life except for the few minutes a day where she takes off all her femme apparel and is allowed to wander around due to a lenient body guard. Think a reverse Hannah Montana if Hannah Monatana was secretly a butchy punk lesbian. And Roxie the stuck in the dead end job for 4 years cashier, who works for an insane grandpa who talks to a “Magic Taco” and has a huge crush on the supermodel princess, well, at least her celebrity persona. And the characters are weirdly... interesting. The plot as batshit as it is is alright, there’s clear conflicts for the characters and the twist before the comic ended revealed the “magic taco” actually existing? There’s definitley a few cons to it too, the art is awkward at times, The backgrounds are weird, and there feels like there’s something missing in the story. But weirdly enough, I still kinda want to know what happens next.  But with what comes next though act I wrapped up on the 23rd of April 2017 with a message saying it would update again in June the same year. It never did. No more updates. No hiatus notices. Just an empty Tumblr, Facebook page, and badly designed website. Apparently act 2 had already been written, so who knows the story behind that one. An orphaned series.

Amazoness!

Years: 2007 - 2010 Pages: unobtainable Reason: Unknown/unobtainable

Alright, we’ve finally come across a comic that’s domain has been deleted (most likely due to the bills on the domain not being paid for a few years) and subsequently has had it’s entire archive destroyed (bar a few blurry Jpegs floating around). So information about this one is going to have to rely on what I can remember from 5 years ago. So... Buckle up, let’s horribly stumble through this one! If Roxie and the Magic Taco felt like a little like 2000′s comic Amazoness! by comparison eat’s and breaths 2000′s. From the early anime influences, bold colours, and ms paint vibes coming from every pore (not that ms paint is inherently bad. More that i’s used particularly). And, I swear, every abandoned comic has a bizarre premise and plot. So what is the plot? Good question. I’m not entirely sure myself.  Amazoness! is set in 559 BC in a fictional Amazonian empire. Think wonder woman but ms paint, a little anime, and a whole lot more lesbian. They live in a women only empire with a giant infamous army, and generally despise men, which makes finding husbands difficult, they’re also basically all lesbians, which  makes finding a husband very difficult. Enter the main character (Left in the panels provided), she’s small and weak compared to her Amazonian peers, which as the next Queen, is a bit of a problem. So she goes on adventures around the ancient world (and by world I mean Greece before being cancelled). It’s a fantasy story with a lot of the 2000′s brand humour, blandish characters, and weird plot. It’s as 2000′s as it gets. But it did have a lot of standout jokes including the dark brooding Amazonian who was originally an ancient goth accidentally starting modern goth fashion in ancient Greece. There was also possibly a trans character, but being the comic that it was, whether that was their gender or whether they were going to become a cross dresser butt of the joke character is up for debate. Considering it was 2007 I’m not the most optimistic about that bit.  All in all though it was the standard 2000′s fantasy comedy genre with some nice jokes, a few starts to some promising romances, a few bludges on some touchy subject material, and pretty forgettable art. Who knew what this comic would have become, as a young teen I wanted to find out, but now it’s just another orphaned series, lost to time. This is not a series that’s sorely missed, But maybe foggily remembered. Oh well. 

Mora and Stima Apei

Years: 2016 - 2017 Episodes: 27 (Including specials + QAs) Reasons: Hiatus. Moving, free time, and starting another comic

What’s this? A webcomic that doesn’t look like it wears baggy jeans, plays snake on a flip phone, and bedazzle tamagotchis in it’s spare time? And I was this close to have a theme here.  But, no. Mora and Stima Apei isn’t from the 2000′s or even 2000′s themed. It’s very modern from its story telling, to its art, to the fact that the authors are qualified in relevant fields. And rather than being specifically abandoned it’s been publicly put on hiatus with a notice and reason why. It’s always nice when creators do that. Whether it will actually be completed story though is still anyone’s guess. It’s still a webcomic.  The comic however is pretty interesting, the visuals are a little rough at the start but greatly improve later on. The characters are beautifully designed, the colours are thought out, the tone is pretty clear, and the monsters are dark and twisted. And I’m always up for dark and twisted monsters. Con wise though is it’s a little wordy and poetic at times. Which I do understand is a style choice here, but at the same time I very much in the show don’t tell camp with things like this. It doesn’t do that all the time though.  Plot wise though the comic is pretty straight forward, a women wakes up, can’t remember who she is, has a rotten arm, a elf lady in the room, and a skull on her head. Why?  We haven’t gotten to the why yet.  The art later on is gorgeous, and the mystery is enticing. But there isn’t enough yet to get a grasp on how good it will be, it doesn’t use it’s time well. Its not a bad comic though, it’s mystery and art is very well done. But, still can’t tell what it’s going to be from what there is.  On the other hand though their newer comic is still coming out (albeit in early pages) and is extremely well done with nice art, visual story telling, and an intriguing plot.  So as long as they keep making comics like that, I don’t mind how long this stays on hiatus at all. 

[rubyleeray]

Several Shades of Sadism Game & Routes Review

This is something a bit different for me but I always look for these before I start a game/route, so I hope this will be informative/helpful to someone else! 

Game Overall - The game overall is really fun and one of my favourites for sure! It operates much like every other Arithmetic game but you can really tell they put a lot more into this one. The addition of the voice actors is really cute and interacting with them multiple times a day made me very giddy (the voice actor for Minami is the same as Yuri from Yuri on Ice!!!). This game has everything I look for when deciding if I love a game and whether or not I recommend it to others. Those being: 1. Good Stories/Plot - Absolutely! There is a great mix and variety of funny and devastating moments with real relevant issues being addressed at times. I looked forward to my 5 tickets every day and there were several occasions where I spent because the cliff hangers were too intense! I just had to know what happened next!

2. Good MC - with the exception of Murayama’s and Minami’s MC - This MC is one of the best I’ve ever played! 

3. Interesting/Hot Guys - Yessss! The art in this game is amazing! Every guy (even the evil dad!) is gorgeous. I will say that the secondary sprites are just blue and pink outlines and that seems like a waste opportunity. 

4. Sex? -  I’m not shallow enough to say this makes or breaks a game for me, but as an adult playing a game with adult love interests, this matters to me. Yes there is sex, but only with some characters in their main story (Event stories differ in that they often feature sex with every character).  I’ll tell you below who has sex in each route description because that’s something that helps influence my spending.

5. Can I have a good time if I don’t spend any money/Will they force me to spend/make me wait weeks to progress? - Absolutely you can have a great time and achieve all endings without spending money! I played 3 full routes before I decided to spend money and the money I spent was on story tickets and an event after ending. As for having to build up free cash/experience/skill points for road blocks - it happens very easily and as long as you do it at least once a day you should never have to wait long to advance past checkpoints. 

TLDR - You need to play this game! It’s so well written and fun! You’ll find the perfect mix of romance, comedy, angst, and sex within this game but the best part is the MC who feels refreshingly modern and truly representative of a young woman of this time. There are other incentives like generous daily logins and frequent events that aren’t impossible to full clear without spending so you really feel valued as a player and a person. I highly suggest starting with Chiaki or Mei and then moving onto the others.The game is alive and well and new routes are still being released. 

Full breakdown of each guy and route spoilers below!

The MC - The MC is what made me fall in love with the game. She is HILARIOUS and she has motivations and dreams of her own. She is still my favourite MC ever despite her behaviour in Minami’s route ( much more on that later). She is just a super funny, goal oriented, mature (for the most part but aren’t we all) woman who speaks her mind and isn’t afraid to put the men in their place. I felt like she was a good representation of a real woman in an otome game. 

In order of release:

Chiaki Kira Route

- Chiaki was my first route! I chose him based on appearance alone really - Tall, dark, handsome - giving off real Jumin Han vibes you know? Chiaki is an adorable lazy idiot who says offensive things but is really sweet. He will also give you lots of attention which is something I look forward to! His route is very similar to Jumin’s in the sense that it centres around his resentment of his father but it’s a good story that really develops a good relationship between Chiaki and the MC. Sex? Unfortunately not but it’s still super cute! In the happy end they have confessed their love and are finally able to give themselves to each other fully. (The ending CG involves Chiaki climbing on top of you telling you he loves you and asking you to not give him blue balls lmao).

Sequel to Chiaki - This is a real fire & ice route. When it’s hot, it’s very hot! But when it’s cold, it’s freezing! This route suffers from the typical MC doesn’t speak up when she’s depressed and being bullied which drives a wedge in her relationship. Chiaki isn’t exactly innocent here, he can be a total dick when times get tough but the route overall is great and the ending CGs are GORGEOUS! Use your gacha tickets on his epilogue... a CG of Chiaki wearing a wedding ring as he licks your wrist? GIRL I’VE GOT THE VAPORS! 

Pick Chiaki if you love attention, romance, and a witty/sassy relationship between love interests. (Think of characters from other games like SLBP’s Nobunaga, MM Jumin + Zen, TCC Claude, Ikemen Nobunaga + Masamune)

Toma Kira Route - Toma was my second route and while Toma is drop dead gorgeous - he is kinda dead inside? His story is a dark one but it is very interesting and the climax is intense! Excellent character development here from both the MC and Love Interest. Sex? Hell ya! Toma does have sex with you towards the end a couple times and they are DETAILED scenes (The happy ending CG has a naked MC and Toma in bed after a night of sex as they are about to have even more sex!). But! He does something super hurtful to the MC during a sensitive time, so you have to have a bit of a thicker skin to play through this. Thankfully, he apologizes and more than makes it up to you! I\ll be honest, I wasn’t enjoying Toma’s route as much as Chiaki’s initially, but his ending retroactively made everything better! 

Pick Toma if you like a challenge, don’t need constant attention, don’t mind a teacher/master relationship, and you enjoy good smut. (I’m still shook from Toma’s sex scenes). (Think of characters from other games like Ayato from 7HAMH, Isuka + Asena from TCC, SLBP’s Kojuro + Masamune, Ikemen Hideyoshi).

Minami Kira Route - Ugh...let me just tell you based on every event and item scenario I got of Minami, I was REALLY looking forward to his route - like a lot a lot. It started off alright, but I quickly realized there wasn’t going to be much of a plot which was really disappointing. Minami is a fun and intelligent yet immature guy. He’s constantly pulling pranks and showering you in false affection. Unfortunately Minami does something completely unforgivable (I’ll write the spoilers at the bottom if you really want to know) and because of this and the combination of the lack of character depth and the worst iteration of the MC in the entire game - I can’t happily recommend his main route. His event routes are fun but his main route is the one of the most disappointed I have ever been in an otome game and I’m not sure how Event Minami and Main Story Minami can be so different. The MC in Minami’s route is completely different than the MC in Toma, Chiaki, and Mei’s routes. She has no ambitions of her own and she never puts Minami in his place even though he deserves it and needs it the most. She’s so scared of hurting his feelings and making him not like her that she becomes a shell of her former self and that was seriously disappointing. Minami’s past was very sad and dark but it wasn’t really fleshed out. It’s confusing. There was so much potential and it feels like it all amounted to nothing. I would have rather seen a route where the MC teaches Minami how shitty it is to treat women like toys and have her fix him, or a route where the MC helps Minami accept and control the darkness and anger within him instead of just pretending to be a happy prankster all the time. Sex? Yes but at this point I was screaming “Don’t do it!” to MC through my screen. It didn’t feel like anything good was going to come from it and surprise, surprise it didn’t. 

Do not pick Minami unless you have the thickest skin and an infinite amount of patience. 

Mei Tarantino Route  - Mei’s route reminds me of why I fell in love with the game in the first place. Mei is the sweetest tsundere there ever was and I’m still smiling about his Happy Ending. His story was wonderful (motivational and inspirational) and the relationship that develops between him and the MC feels natural, believable and is absolutely beautiful. They really support each other through their trials and tribulations and work to achieve both their dreams. There is a tragic past that explains a lot but doesn’t try to justify poor behavior in the present. His route is far superior to Minami’s and has even helped wash the bad taste Minami left right out of my mouth! Mei is everything you want from the perfect Tsundere route. The MC is funny as ever and back to her intelligent strong self. Sex? No but there’s a lot of satisfaction to be found elsewhere in this route. 

Pick Mei. Just pick him. He’s so sweet. He has creative insults but the more creative they are the more you realize he’s falling in love. Plus the red blush on this boy is TO DIE FOR!!! (Think of characters from other games like SLBP’s Mitsunari, DTL’s Takasugi, RB Aito, Ikemen Ieyasu)

Rei Shindo Route - Okay this is seriously one of my favourite routes I have ever played in any otome ever. It is extremely emotional  and the Sweet End is the most beautiful thing - paired with an absolutely BREATHTAKING pair of CGs that I think about on the daily. This route has angst, romance, comedy, and tragedy in HEAPING spoonfuls. I genuinely SOBBED twice.

I can’t write much as I don’t want to give too much away because you genuinely need to experience this route and see how fantastic and touching otome writing can be. Basically, you are roped into a revenge plot by a version of Rei that is far different than the man you have come to know in the other routes. The more time you spend together, the more you find out his reasons and what his end game is. It is A LOT TO TAKE IN but it is so rewarding! Please play it and tell me all of your thoughts and feelings.

Save him for last (if you can wait that long) because I feel like if you start with him, the other routes won’t look as good in comparison - and they don’t deserve that (except you Minami). I will say it’s important that you achieve his Sweet ending. I did not like his Normal ending at all in comparison. It was fine but it was much different and lacked all of the emotional depth of his Sweet End, so in playing Sweet first - I had high expectations of his other end as well but that was unfortunately not the case. Sex? Oh god, forgive me but I really don’t remember! I was so stressed out and emotional during this route that sex was the last thing on my mind!)  

Pick Rei if you have a thick skin and don’t mind being put through an emotional ringer. (Think of characters from other games like SLBP’s Ieyasu, + Saizo, TCC’s Lugar + Yuri, MM’s V + Saeyoung, 7HAMH Soichiro + Ayato, Ikemen Mitsuhide)

Shizuka Kira Route - Okay I loved Shizuka’s route, I really did BUT it is the most hollow of them all. Shizuka is a sweet heart but his story isn’t very exciting or memorable (Save for the sex scenes!). It’s not a bad route by any means! It it full of genuinely funny and romantic moments so I really enjoyed it and him as a love interest, the problem is that it is the most formulaic and predictable so it’s not necessarily a unique story. One of the best parts of Shizuka’s route is the more mature and level headed MC compared to the other brothers’. She was also very in touch with her sexual wants and needs which I really appreciated and found refreshing! The biggest surprise in this route for me was how big of a role Minami had and how amazing he was in it! This is the Minami I want to romance! 

Rintaro Murayama Route - Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I didn’t think I could hate a route more than Minami’s but HERE WE ARE. This route was so so so bad! I’m shocked! I took a week off from thinking about to to see if I was just being dramatic but I’m still just as mad as I was when I finished it.I’m so mad that I went back and CHANGED MY MIND about Minami’s route. That’s how bad this was. The thing about this route is everything is bad. The story makes no sense and they make NO ATTEMPT to make him a desirable love interest! The MC starts off strong and I felt for her inner struggle but then she just becomes flat-out stupid and not the fun loving hilarious witty MC this game has offered us from day 1 #notmymc. Murayama’s motivations make 0 sense and contradict themselves often. He’s supposed to be doing everything he does for his sister but he’s also supposed to not know anything about her these past 10 years?! So then why is he ruining little events that the hotel runs? To get back at his sister’s adopted brothers even though he might need them to be organ donors? What? And then that Happy Ending. No. That “Happy Ending” made everythign the MC did and put up with worth NOTHING. I have no idea how someone approved this. Murayama blackmails you constantly and at one point - late into his route - he starts trying to raping you while recording it. Not only that, he insists he’s going to show the video to her bosses and everyone else at work. Like - enough is enough in general but Murayama’s route was enough by chapter 3. It was like a cycle of dumb that just kept repeating.  

Murayama route is inexcusably bad, don’t play it. 

Sex? Another great part of Shizuka’s route is that it has the most sex and all of it was free sex (I also got to view the CGs for free? I’m not sure if this is a bug that may be fixed by the time you read this). The sex scenes were all INCREDIBLY HOT and I was sweating and taking screenshots while trying to remind myself to breathe. Out of all the Kira Brothers - Shizuka has sex with you the most. I believe it is 3-4 sex scenes vs Toma’s 2. 

Pick Shizuka if you want a romantic route with a plot straight out of a romantic comedy and/or if you like sexxxxxxxy routes. (Think of characters from other games like DTL’s Haru, MM’s Zen, 7HAMH Haruto + Shizuki, Ikemen Shingen).

***Minami route spoiler*** Minami goes on a bender after kissing you where he stays out for days getting drunk and not coming home. One night a random guy brings him home and they accidentally end up in your bedroom instead of Minami’s. Minami flops down onto a chair by your bed and then gives permission for the guy to start raping you - he even says he doesn’t care. Only after the guy has began his rape of you and like the equivalent of 6 story tickets later - does Minami stop and actually do anything about it. This was seriously disappointing and you’d think that would be the end of Minami’s bullshit but it’s not - not even close. I just found it so unforgivable that near the end of the game after you both have fallen in love, that something like this happens and it’s not even vague/implied - it’s full on clothes tearing & body violating and Minami watches the whole thing!!! His apology after doesn’t even make up for it. The writer’s really disappointed me here. It would have been just as hurtful for Minami to say he didn’t care if the MC slept with the guy but for him to sit back and watch her get raped wasn’t something Minami could come back from for me, especially with such a lackluster plot. Minami also never really apologizes or makes up for referring to women as his toys and he treats women really poorly overall. There is a really heart wrenching scene where a woman who was in love with Minami confronts him politely and he screams at her and belittles her and the MC just kinda forgets about it.