#k/da comic

[aurelion-solar]

Spotlight: Sabrina Futch

Role: Narrative Editor for Comics and Cinematics

Twitter

In light of Riot Games laying off 11% of their staff globally, I want to make a series of posts highlighting the portfolios of those affected, so that we can appreciate their contributions to the world of Runeterra and continue to support them. You can find a full list of those known to be affected here.

Star Guardian: Star Crossed (source)

K/DA: Harmonies (source)

Sentinels of Light: Steadfast Heart (source)

Katarina Comic (source)

Coming Alive: Tournament of Souls Cinematic (source)

Feeding Frenzy: Briar Champion Cinematic (source)

[t00thpasteface]

my associate @fernwehsearc is just one of several unaffiliated people who i've witnessed visibly, audibly swooning over the mere mention of the r-pat bat. when i said i didn't get the hype, they sternly reminded me that i am, in fact, A Lesbian. point taken.

[lordakiyama]

League of Legends, Arcane, K/DA prints by Liang Xing.

[newbordeaux]

Hiiii everyone I had this Anna infodump sitting around in my google docs since march and I figured I’d finally, FINALLY finish it :> I also filled out an ask meme (or part of it) for funsies once AND did a floor plan for her apartment-slash-detective bureau mostly for personal reference so this post is gonna be massive. You have been warned.

I’ll do Vera’s at some point too because god knows she needs some background development but for now. girl.

(I need to mention that the “present” in Annaverse is 2019, so all of this happens before)

—Born 1996 in East End, Gotham City, to April, a nurse, and Steve Hudson, a fireman. In 1998, Steve perished after being stuck inside a burning building, leaving her to be raised by her mother for the next few years.

—In 2004, April was fatally shot during an armed robbery while visiting a store. With no immediate family to raise her, Anna was subsequently put in an orphanage in East End. With so many children to feed and so little chance of adoption, she led a lonely life there, her caretakers often had little time for her (even though they tried) and she didn’t really make that many friends among the other children except one or two. She would often find comfort in books, enjoying classic literature as well as scientific books, and would drown herself in schoolwork.

 —Her good grades eventually paid off, and in 2007 she was chosen for a scholarship for orphaned and poor children, allowing her to attend Gotham Academy. 

As one of few children from East End attending a prestigious private school, she was often looked down upon by her wealthy peers. However, one friend she made was J**** (🙃), who after being adopted attended Gotham Academy as well and was in a few of her classes. He quickly became her closest friend and she would spend more and more time either hanging out somewhere at the pier or at the manor with him (as well as developing a little crush that she never acted on). Life was good for a while… 

—That is until he died in 2011. Anna was distraught and, not really knowing about his uh, other activities, would keep worrying about the suspicious circumstances of it. She really had no way of finding out, since she was missing crucial information and Bruce would rather die than tell her, no matter how annoying she was about it so 🤷‍♀️

—In 2012 a fellow student of hers, Holly Kingston, went missing. The two weren’t friends - Holly, despite coming from a similar background as Anna, was one of her more popular peers and even though she has shown her kindness on occasion, they never really spoke. The GCPD didn’t do much, just another girl from East End going missing, another daily occurrence in Gotham. Still distraught from her own loss, Anna took it upon herself to find out what happened to Holly, if only to bring closure to this disappearance. 

—After some investigating, she eventually found out that one of her friends had lied to the police about the events of the night that Holly was last seen, out of guilt and fear that something might have happened to her. Anna eventually discovered her body among a few others in an abandoned Junkyard at night, where a disturbed serial killer has disposed of his victims’ bodies. Unfortunately for her, the killer was at the site at the same time as she was and after s short struggle during which she was almost killed as well, she was saved just in time… by B*tman 🤡 The killer was put in jail and she enjoyed two days of fame in her school for uncovering a murder mystery. 

—Discovering that she really enjoyed investigating Holly’s disappearance (despite the grim outcome of the case), she decided to become a detective after attending college. Not for the GCPD of course when they didn’t care about the case, but as a private eye… which is just what she does. She rented a little bureau in a seedy building in East End (because rent is so cheap) and opened her own detective agency. 

—She’s got a bit of a tough girl/hard-boiled detective vibe and tends to be very sarcastic but she’s actually really nice once she warms up to someone. She’s kind of messy but smart and has a great sense of humor and would do anything for her loved ones.

—She doesn’t have much to do with Gotham’s crime fighters after her life-changing Batman encounter, nor with its Rogues gallery, but she does have a few contacts within the criminal underworld - mostly former members of the Falcone crime family who are still active otherwise, some of the Penguin’s henchmen (she does frequent the Iceberg Lounge undercover since it’s kind of a hotspot for criminals… information 😏) and uh… she does live in the same district as Catwoman I suppose so while they never really encountered each other, she does see her jumping about the rooftops from time to time at in the middle of the night and is like O_O

—Sorry tails if this looks cringe to the viewer but Post-UTRH (shortly after heh) she does meet J**** again. Only this time as R** H***, while she was checking out a local drug operation as part of a case she was working on. The whole operation went wrong and one of the guys was threatening her at gunpoint. Then HE chimed in and beat the shit out of said drug dealers (and killed some ❤) and Anna was like “what the fuck is wrong with you 😭 Aren’t you that insane guy from the news?” and… she doesn’t know that’s her best friend from high school of course but they keep running into each other so they do develop a bit of a cat and mouse kinda relationship >:)

AND some of the questions from the past/present/future ask meme

PAST

Which social class did they belong to growing up? How did it affect them?

Lower class. It did affect a lot of her worldview so to speak, especially after attending a more prestigious high school and experiencing a huge culture shock suddenly interacting with rich people. It did make her more aware of the class divide in Gotham and how little anyone truly cares for people like her. It does in smaller ways too, her speech pattern or little things about her behavior give away where she grew up.

Where did they grow up? What was it like? Were they happy there?

She grew up in East End and it was how you would imagine it - sky-high crime rates, poverty, all sorts of sketchy things happening around them. Still, she lived in a loving, relatively normal home. Sure, she had to grow up a lot earlier than a lot of other children and had to take care of herself because she was often left alone without anyone looking after her as soon as she was around 6 but she didn’t really think about it until she was much older. She never blamed her mom for being away so much, after all she had to provide somehow and some of the kids around her had it worse 🤷‍♀️ So overall yeah, there were issues but she would consider herself mostly happy there in retrospect. 

The orphanage she lived in after? Absolutely not. She made few friends among the other children and mostly kept to herself, not even bonding with her caretakers (mostly out of spite after her mother’s death, you will never be her etc). She kind of drowned herself in books (the ones some of the annoying children wouldn’t steal from her and draw in) and her homework, sometimes just chilling in the library until it closed down or joining random school clubs she had no interest in so she wouldn’t have to go back to a place she wasn’t really that happy in.

Who were their friends during childhood? Are they still in touch with them?

Her early childhood friends were some of the neighbor’s kids who lived in the same apartment complex and she’s no longer in contact with them. They see each other from time to time and chat for a bit but that’s it, they grew up and have nothing in common anymore. 

Her most significant childhood friend was… Jason aha. They had a bunch of classes together, when Anna attended Gotham Academy through the aforementioned scholarship and he did because billionaire Bruce adopted him, duh (I’m assigning this now. I think the Wayne kids all attended normie school in the comics iirc but that’s weird because if i had a ton of money I’d let my kids go to private schools). And well, they became friends because they both came from the same shitty neighborhood among a bunch of rich kids and also had a lot in common, both being kind of overachievers with an interest in classic literature. Kids who make stupid inside jokes about The Great Gatsby… Then he died and after the whole resurrection thing they were no longer in contact of course, she wasn’t aware of any of the superhero stuff he was involved in and she’s probably moved on with her life anyway so there wasn’t really a point in coming back to her life 🤷‍♀️ but more on that later

What was their childhood/teenage bedroom like?

Her 1st bedroom was basic… she lived in a shitty apartment with her mom so it wasn’t exactly the prettiest room, mismatched furniture and all, some old and some cheap new ones but it was decent enough. One specific detail was a stuffed bunny that she kept throughout the years and still has in her bedroom as an adult.

Her teenage bedroom in the orphanage wasn’t exactly a place where she had privacy, she had to share with other children. She didn’t have a lot of stuff except her clothes, books and school things. She kept a few personal items but most of her old belongings were lost when was put in the orphanage :(

What part of their past (death, other significant event) do they think affects them the most?

Well, her mom’s and best friend’s deaths respectively. Again, she has no memory of her father so she’s not too caught up on that but her mother’s death was terrible for her! And Jason’s of course, which was particularly bad because she had no idea what really happened. Again, she wasn’t in on the whole superhero thing so she never really found out what happened. It’s sort of the reason she goes and investigates Holly’s disappearance - to get a feeling of closure on something she shouldn’t really care about despite knowing she’ll never truly have it. That and sort of  doing what her mother would have done, playing the hero in a situation where she shouldn’t.

PRESENT

What is their current occupation, if any, and how did they end up there? Do they enjoy it?

Private investigator! She always pictured herself becoming a librarian or something similar growing up, but the whole business with Holly disappearing sort of got her into it? She basically took it upon herself to investigate the circumstances under which she went missing and as gruesome as finding her body was, she did enjoy it (the investigation, not necessarily the body), she was good at it and it gave her a sense of much needed closure, thus she decided to take it up as her profession. She loves it, her favorite part about it is getting to put on elaborate disguises when she’s “undercover” and being able to reinvent herself for a little bit.

Do they have a partner? How did they meet, and what's their relationship like now?

Oh you know 🙄She and J**** went to the same school and had a few classes together and originally being from the same neighborhood (even though they never saw each other there. maybe in passing but not that either would remember) and having similar interests they became friends :-) After he dies and comes back… well, she has no idea he’s alive again of course and I don't think he’d see much sense in telling her now, especially since she had no idea about the whole superhero thing and everything would take quite a bit of explaining and there isn’t really any way of telling what her reaction would be. Of course that need to receive some sort of… I dunno, gesture of love and of being missed and all that from someone who was important to him before he died is there so they “coincidentally” cross paths one time (post-UTRH duh) when she gets into a sticky situation and he has to save her from a bunch of thugs… in-costume of course and Anna’s like wtf you’re that freak from the news 🤨 So obviously she doesn’t know it’s him but they do cross paths a lot so they have a bit of a weird relationship. Kind of cat and mouse, of course with sexual tension (which Anna would deny if someone brought it up, he could be ugly under that helmet yknow 🙄). Something something yearning but her thinking he's still dead and him thinking it's weird and cringe to tell her he isn't… She does find out it’s him eventually though so love wins ❤

What hobby or pastime of theirs do they consider most important to them and why?

She was a huge literature and history nerd as a child/teenager and she still loves it! She just has so little time to read nowadays and there isn’t really much of a point to it anyway 🤷‍♀️ As an adult she kind of resorts to watching/reading about weird things, often on the internet. She loves those videos about weird conspiracy theories (she doesn't believe in them but they're fun) or strange historical things and researching if that’s true or not afterwards.

What do they always carry with them and why?

Her phone and camera, a little pocket knife for messy situations; a pen, wipes, extra eyeliner and mascara, and band aids. Most of these items come in handy when she’s out and about doing her job (except the mascara and eyeliner, that’s just in case what she’s wearing gets a little too runny and she needs to look nice). Other than that, just standard stuff. Some money and her ID (or the fake one she owns).

What kind of place do they live in?

She’s rented a little place in East End, with the first floor being her detective bureau and her home being above. It’s not too glamorous for obvious reasons and always looks messy - not disgusting (usually)  but there are always random things standing where they don’t belong and evidence & files lying about. She tries to keep them downstairs in her office, every case sorted alphabetically but that’s not her. Sometimes she’ll use her walls as a pinboard :/

I also made a floor plan for it >:) I would also like to say here that I still do have some knowledge on floor plans from before dropping out of uni so I do know how messy this is, i just didnt wanna calculate it properly or anything and just whipped this up in photoshop, it does the job lol. Here you go

[sonocomics]

Hey all - it was brought to my attention that these Roadtrip comics weren't available anymore since I got deleted my dA. So here's a blast from the past - all the way back from 2013, TEN YEARS AGO, NEARLY 11 ( OvO);;.

I'll be posting these as extras on Tues and Thurs until they're done - there's 9 parts total. I know they're really long, so you can press j or k to skip em on desktop or mute one of the tags below for the next month if you'd rather not read em ( o3o)b

PART TWO

[howlonomy]

Hey! I have loved your stuff ever since your first comics about your Monster!Clover AU, but I gotta ask. How Axis doing?

Also, I imagine that during when the gang; Starlo, Ceroba, and Martlet, was looking over the physical traits that Clover “inherited” Ceroba notices that there is no sign of Axis- like traits on Clover’s body. She immediately disregards it, thinking that the robot simply didn’t or couldn’t have enough love to impact Clover. But what if Axis’s love did contribute to Clover’s resurrection, but makes itself known in the MOST ANNOYING WAY POSSIBLE.

Clover is running through his house, chasing Kanako, but stumps his toe REALLY hard. Clover, accidentally, drops an F- bomb while in pain, but notices that it doesn’t come out right. Instead of saying F**k, Clover says “[Screw]”, and both Clover and Kanako realize that CLOVER CANNOT CUSS, JUST LIKE AXIS.

(Sorry for the long ask!)

axis is good!! hes living in the steamworks taking care of da robots w his wife and kid and robot dog. he visits the surface and the gang visit him every other month :]

ALSO HELPP THATS SO FUNNY clover forcibly banned from cursing…….

[eyeodyssey]

Lychee before Furuya: These images are from the short mangas Das Brute: Blood, Moon Age 15: Damnation, and Jinta ☆ Jinta by pseudonymous manga author Not Osada. Like Furuya, Osada was an audience member for the original Tokyo Grand Guignol underground performances who was left fascinated by the aesthetics and bizarre narratives of their plays. While Furuya’s manga was based more or less on the direct events of the play, in Osada’s short stories a student council reminiscent of the light club are depicted carrying out various atrocities in scenes that mirror the aesthetic fixations of the plays. The short comics in question were published in the anthologies Night Reading Room (1988) and Blind Beast (1996). Moon Age 15 would be most recognizable to fans. In the short story, the club grow concerned about their current hideout (an abandoned industrial shelter that they converted into a space called Eden) after a lonely girl discovers a lab rabbit kept by one of the members outside the space. They eventually lure her into Eden under the pretense of letting her meet her first friend, just to shock her with a grotesque robot made of garbage. They then trap her in the space and burn it to the ground, killing both the girl and the robot in the process. Moonlight lingers as a continual archetype throughout the stories, matching the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s distinctly nocturnal atmosphere. And during the climax of Das Brute: Blood, the student council’s leader (the story’s own stand-in for Zera) refers to the blood of their last victim as being “dirty”, like how the teacher in Mercuro calls Mikami’s blood dirty after killing him in the medical lab at the end of act 2.

In concern of the mixed relations between later Lychee adaptions and the original Tokyo Grand Guignol affiliates, while many members held complicated feelings towards Furuya’s manga, many speak of Osada’s renditions with an open fondness. Despite Osada having retired from horror manga, he remains a fan of the Tokyo Grand Guignol. On Tsunekawa’s own accounts, Osada was even invited as a cohost for a special Tokyo Grand Guignol memorial event. While I understand the concerns of said affiliates with the increasingly detached and commercial nature of subsequent Lychee spinoffs (with there now being an idol band, comedy anime, etc) I like both Furuya and Osada’s manga works equally as their own interpretations of the TGG’s story. Neither can be direct replacements or likenesses, but instead unique adaptions of a now phantom-like work in how it was known to exist, but can never be directly witnessed in its original form. The screenplay for Lychee Light Club remains unreleased to this day, whilst the screenplays for Mercuro, Galatia Teito Monogatari and Walpurgis were all printed in one way or another in various publications. Osada and Furuya were both authors who were inspired by the underground originality of the production, but Furuya’s was the one that would gain a broader commercial success despite the underground nature of the Tokyo Grand Guignol. It could essentially be read as an ideological complication, with how the theater group was abandoned with the departure of Ameya and K Tagane, what should happen with the legacy of their art? Some fear that the success of Furuya’s manga would ultimately erase Ameya and Tagane’s history. With proper handling though, it could be a gateway into a previously obscure period of underground theater. Original video recordings do exist of several of the Tokyo Grand Guignol’s events, and if published through a public service like Ubuweb (which hosts videos of performances by the Tenjo Sajiki like Directions To Servants, Cloud Cuckooland and The Lemmings), the plays can be assured a lasting cultural legacy in the field of experimental art. In a recent pandemic-era interview, Norimizu Ameya gave his opinions regarding the availability of video recordings of his plays. In the interview, he roughly said the following: “I’ve always believed that there is a finite nature to theater. The fact that it disappears on the spot is the ultimate fate of theater. I have left behind hardly any works from my past. I see myself as a director rather than a playwright, so I have almost no plays. I also feel that many people generally wouldn’t enjoy the videos that do exist as records. I do think however that it’s very important that anyone who is interested in a work can watch it at any time, even if it’s a small number of people. When I was asked to direct Transfer Student, I went to the Wasada Theater Museum to watch a video of the play’s first performance under Oriza Hirata’s direction. I think it’s a good thing that the eyes that have passed through time were able to create a circuit that provides a direct connection to the past. The fact that it’s possible to transcend the finite limit to help others is a testament of humanity.“

[racefortheironthrone]

Any chance you have seen and/or have thoughts on Across the Spider-Verse?

I literally just got back from Across the Spider-Verse and sat down at my computer, so this is about as fresh as a take as I can manage.

Short version: it's an astonishingly and relentlessly ambitious film that aims to outdo every other Spider-Man movie, every other multi-verse movie, and even its own first entry in the Miles Morales trilogy. And it succeeds.

Full spoilers below the cut. You have been warned.

The Visuals

Before I get into anything about the story, I want to first give full credit to the directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemo Powers, Justin K. Thompson, and the entire team at Sony Pictures Animation. If you saw the first Spider-Verse movie and aren't an animation nerd, you probably were impressed but didn't realize how revolutionary it was. I'll let Movies With Mikey explain the details, because it's easier if you can see what people are talking about:

When your first entry wins an Academy Award by thumbing your nose at Pixar, the reigning king of animation, and the principles of animation set down by the Nine Old Men, you have every right to sit back on your laurels.

For Across the Spider-Verse, the Sony Pictures Animation team clearly decided: fuck that. If the first film had wowed audiences by combining a half-dozen styles of animation on the screen at the same time, the second film would drown you in dozens and dozens of Spiders-Men and -Women (and -Animals) drawn in every style imaginable: Da Vinci's yellowing parchments and sketchy penicls, harsh cell-shading, punk rock collage art, 90s-style comic panels full of impossibly rippling muscles, crappy hand-drawn animation from the 1967 tv show, and then for a tip of the hat to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the man who should have been Spider-Man - live action.

The backgrounds show the same love: from the off-set printing of Miles' world (my favorite detail is that you know that Miles gets sent to the wrong Earth when the color scheme shifts from purple to green), to the dripping painterly pastels of the Gweniverse, to the riotous greens and yellows of Mumbattan, to the clean Pixaresque light blooms of the Spider-Society's technological utopia (which looks a hell of a lot like something out of Brad Bird's dreams).

I am thoroughly in awe of the mentality behind the animation in this film, the absolute determination to challenge one's own limits and exceed one's past accomplishments.

The Story

If there is a single world that defines Across the Spider-Verse, it's "canon." The moment Miguel O'Hara uttered that word, my spidey-senses started tingling and I realized that Lord & Miller came to this film with a sermon. See, if there's one message from the first Spider-Verse movie it's that "anyone can be Spider-Man." But if there's two messages is that "you can't save everyone" - the idea that the thing that unites all Spiders-Folk from across the multiverse, it is a common understanding of loss, a tragic origin that drives each hero to impossible efforts to never let it happen again.

Across the Spider-Verse's message is: "why?" I cannot begin to explain the absolute vibranium balls it took to question not just a core premise of your previous movie, but one of the core premises of the entire multi-media multi-corporate franchise. And yet, Lord & Miller show nothing but confidence executing this turn.

FULL SPOILERS OF THE BIG TWIST AHEAD in 3:

3

2

1

At the beginning of the film, which makes the brilliant move to start by telling Spider-Gwen's story since we already know Miles, we are introduced to Miguel O'Hara (the Spider-Man from 2099) as a badass who leads a secret organization dedicated to protecting the mutliverse...but who secretly is also here to protect "canon."

At the turning point of the film, when Miles is finally invited to join the Spider-Society, we are let in on a dark truth: the safety of the multiverse depends on the suffering of Spiders. Just as Uncle Ben must die, so must a gallant police captain - although almost subtextually, Spider-Gwen hints that so too must the Gwen Stacys who "fall for Spider-Man" - to keep Spider-Man emotionally isolated and solely dedicated to his mission of protecting New York. Trying to avert this lonely fate, to live a happier life, brings about the destruction of all that is.

Through an act of unabashed heroism in Mumbattan - saving the life of a gallant police captain and an innocent child - Miles has inadvertently endangered an entire universe. And unless he allows his own father, the gallant captain, to die as well - the same fate will befall his own. Miles, being a good son and a good person, refuses to accept this and takes on the entire Spider-Society to get home and save his father.

In the chase, we are let in on a second, dark truth: Miles wasn't invited to join the Spider-Society because he is one of the anomalies they hunt, because he was never supposed to be Spider-Man. (You see how this builds on both the speech from Miles' mom about not letting white society tell him he doesn't belong AND the message from the first film?) The Kingpin's collider experiments allowed an Alchemax spider to cross over from Earth-42 to Earth-1610...and as a result, Earth-42 never got a Spider-Man.

When Miles accidentally is sent to Earth-42 instead of his actual home, he learns what that meant. Without Spider-Man, Captain Jeff Davis (Brian Michael Bendis is a real mensch like 99% of the time, but man did he fuck up with that one) died instead of his brother Aaron. Because the intended Spider-Man of Earth-42 was...Miles Morales. Instead, he has become a dystopian Brooklyn's Prowler, a living reminder of the damage the accident of Earth-1610's Miles' creation has caused. This is why you don't violate "canon."

Except...as we learn, Miguel O'Hara is wrong and our Miles is right. When Gwen is sent back to her own universe, which she has been running away from because she knows that it means confronting both her father the gallant captain and the inevitability of his death, she learns that George Stacy quit the force rather than take his promotion: Captain Stacy doesn't have to die. Nor did Captain Singh. Nor does Captain Davis. (For that matter, Miles doesn't have to lie to his family and live a double life as Spider-Man, as we see from his accidentally-misdirected confession.)

We are not the prisoners of the "canon."

Ever since Amazing Fantasy #15, "with great power there must also come great responsibility" has been the indisputable truth of Spider-Man. At this point, it's become a meme: "the Parker luck." Over and over again, Peter Parker must suffer for our sins - Uncle Ben dies, Captain Stacy dies, Gwen Stacy's death ushers in a whole new era of comics and the phenomenon of "fridging," his marriage to Mary Jane has to be done away with because the Spider Office are apparently psychological eternal adolescents, Aunt May has died and almost died so many times everyone's stopped caring.

And that's the problem: we've been playing the same hit for 61 years and it's gotten old. In the process, creators and audience together have condemned Spider-Man to a Sisyphean existence of eternal backsliding, unable to move on, build a life for himself, mature, die and give way to new Spiders. Hell, the best thing that's happened to Peter Parker in the last several decades was an AU in which he has a super-powered wife and daughter and can settle into a middle age of teaching at the Xavier School.

That's the sermon that Lord & Miller came to preach: just as in 2018 it was time for a new Spider-Man, now it's time for new stories that have the courage to try something different.

A Side-Note About the Multiverse

As with the animation side of the story, Lord & Miller could have sat back on their laurels when it came to the concept of the multiverse. After all, they were the ones who made it cool and sent Marvel Studios scrambling to catch up (still haven't succeeded at that, by the way). I don't think Everything Everywhere All At Once needed the creative help, but it absolutely helped sell the movie to producers that a multiverse movie could make millions and win Oscars. (Funny how that works.) Instead, Lord & Miller took it up a notch by asking "what is the purpose of a multiverse?"

Hot take: I don't like the Spider-Verse events. For all that they've given us some amazing Spider designs - and we saw them all up on screen in Across the Spider-Verse - no one cares about the stories. That's because the naked purpose of the comics was to market test Spider designs, see which ones generated buzz, and then make spin-off comics about those Spiders.

Across the Spider-Verse uses the concept of a multiverse, the shiny Macguffin that multi-billion dollar corporate conglomerates will hope will the ticket to riches, to strip Spider-Man down to the essentials by showing every conceivable variation and asking us what they all have in common. Is it suffering, or a commitment to doing the right thing?

Conclusion:

Holy shit, is firing Lord & Miller the biggest mistake Disney has made since Walt refused to recognize the animators' union in 1941.

[fairytale-of-fear]

Ayoo, more art inspired by my DpxDc rock band au. Couldn’t decide on a background so you get three versions. We have Danny on drums in a neon-comic book inspired fusion. his hairstyle is something known as a jellyfish haircut and he is wearing a simple halter top.

Got my reference for that jellyfish haircut of Pinterest. Link to haircut ref 1 and haircut ref 2 if you feel so inclined.

The song that inspired this was K/DA’s drum go dum. The original, the rock cover versions by Sleeping Forests, Chi-Chi and Kathy Chan and the drum cover by tobines (tobines link here) were all on repeat while I drew this. (That song, all three versions included, is 100% FIRE🔥)

The pose references are from the craziest drum solo ever by the balcklist I just took a few screenshots at multiple points in the video on what looked coolest.I definitely took some creative liberties with the drawing so it isn’t exactly true to the reference but I don’t care, it turned out pretty much how I wanted it to look. Here are my screenshots that I used.

[allisian]

K/DA Lore pt.3

It took me a while to decide on how teen Evelynn would look like. So I held off my last post until I could finalise her design. Yes I heavily based her off Maddison Beers look at the 2018 worlds. Its a shame I wasn't able to showcase her fashion I had in mind. Perhaps I'll try drawing a full body reference in the future.

Time for Kai'sa! KDA's most shallow member! (I love Kai'sa guys I swear. It's riot that ruined her potential.)

As a child Kaisa would travel a lot because of her father's work (military) She would grow up as a model student fluent in many languages and educated in geography and history. Kai'sa is socially underdeveloped due to her "really moves around" upbringing. She also is the "Broken Ace" type (nomadic life), always striving for perfection in her grades and career but in turn suffers socially. This makes Kai'sa very awkward and oblivious to social cues when interacting with people outside of a professional manner. Because of this, she was typically outcasted throughout the many schools she attended. Others feared her like she was some sort of monster. A creature too mysterious and focused on achieving to be understood. School became a hunt to survive mentality to kaisa and nothing else mattered in her world. Yet the longing to belong was still there in her heart. After discovering dance in her teens Kai'sa would start to evolve. She never had hobbies or any indulgences in her life. All she knew was how to survive an ever-changing environment as she constantly moved with her father's tours and deployments around the world. With dance, she finally opened herself up to the idea of living over surviving. From ballet in Russia to hip hop in the Americas Kaisa would find the universal language to feel herself and to connect to those around her no matter where in the world she was. Kaisa grew to have a passion for the arts, she discovered she was diversly gifted in creativity. Her hardworking attitude and serious studying nature helped her achieve many degrees. As an adult, she would make her own studio the Firefly Collective (located in America) where she would share her passion and teach others the wonderful world of dance and would go on to create a popular youtube channel for her studio (think 1MILLION Dance Studio). She was happy being a teacher and was astonished to have been visited by Ahri and Evelynn. Kaisa wasn't too aware of K-pop artists so she didn't recognize them as celebrities but her students did. They freaked out when popstars Ahri and Evelynn entered their dance studio. Seeking out someone to be their choreographer. Kaisa's students urged her to take this opportunity and so Kaisa became the third member of kda.

*Yes Kai'sas lore was mostly ripped off the comics. But I was able to add more context

*in 2018, one year before KDA debuted she won Hong Kong's "Can you dance?" competition. This success was what put her on Ahri and Evelynn's radar. (Kai'sa was 21 at the time)

*Kai'sa had a complete personality overhaul when she discovered dance. She went from the recluse, studyholic to the hippie, free spirited type.

*In her life Kai'sa has lived in 10 countries: China, South Africa, South Korea, France, America, Australia, United Kingdom, Russia, India and Argentina.

*She was born in south africa (as a omage to her default voice actor)

Art by me

Here's a link to my playlist of the music I think suits this pre KDA Kai'sa

(Edit links to the other KDA girls)

Ahri

Evelynn

Akali

[spirithunts]

» — ⌜AHRI, K/DA AND HER RELATIONSHIP WITH FAME AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY⌟ 

i mentioned it briefly before that i don't believe ahri is happy with her fame and that she is definitely depressed in the k/da universe, so i wanted to elaborate on that. this is basically an overview of her background, career and where she is as of now — all according to my portrayal, of course.

ahri's career started as a teenager, as the bio of her popstar skin states. on her debut, she hit the top 100 with all 5 songs she released, becoming a huge success from the start. one of her lines talks about her trainee days being behind her, so i imagine her label somehow found her, she was a trainee for a few years, and debuted still as a teen. but her bio in this skin is also the first to point out her unhappiness.

Discovered by her record label when she was still a teen, Ahri took the music world by storm when her first five singles hit the Top 100, winning Most Talented New K-pop Artist at the 2013 Pop Shine Awards. She's been stealing hearts and sweeping awards ever since. However, underneath that perfect exterior, Ahri is feeling trapped by increasing demands…

as the last line states, despite the success and apparent perfection of her life and career, ahri wasn't happy as an idol. it makes sense, given there is an overwhelming amount of pressure with, as stated, ever-increasing demands. but the fact she was feeling trapped also suggests to me it wasn't just all the things people wanted from her; it was that, forced to fit into this perfect mold, her music lost its purpose. the way i see it, music is a means for her to express herself.

by demanding more and more of her, her label (and manager) took that away to make her fit into something that would sell well, and slowly took away her freedom in every sense. harmonies shows that around this period she had people controlling everything she did, including what her songs should be like in order to sell, something she was clearly unhappy with

it also extends to her looks and overall image, which she outright states isn't her (and in a really gross way going beyond outfits and such and into controlling what she's eating, as implied when her manager refuses to let her eat one cookie 🙃). basically, she hates it here (and only put up with it in the hopes she'd get to do what she wanted and share her music, eventually)

and that, of course, was how she started to resent her fame and success, but also a defining factor in her depressive state. i think she naturally leans to melancholy, to an extent, be it by virtue of her powers and how attuned to everyone's feelings she is most of the time and how that weighs on her, as well as the struggles about being too close to people and the lack of normalcy in her life (from her need to feed on people's spirit essence to the fact she remembers her past lives), or just because it's the way she is. in this situation, deprived of what she loved about what she was doing and forced to present herself with a perfect image that was entirely fake, that was definitely made worse.

and yet, ahri puts up with it for a while, considering she only breaks her contract after starting to plan to form k/da with eve. when she does, though, it's because she not only realizes this isn't what she wants, it also won't lead her to working with music the way she wanted from the start. when she says she'll break her contract, eve points out it'll be losing a lot of money, as well as a sure path to a big and safe career. but ahri's reply shows that she eventually understood this isn't the right path for her because she doesn't care for that. it's not why she started making music. and i feel that realization and understanding, as well as how certain she is of what she's doing, also show how that decision already makes a huge difference for her to feel freer and just... better than she was before.

the comic doesn't elaborate on what led her there, but given her friendship with eve and the fact eve is the first one ahri would've told about intending to break her contract, i imagine she definitely influenced it - maybe even with something of a direct effort, after seeing ahri get progressively worse and more lifeless with how things were going, though their conversation also suggests eve didn't try to push her a certain way, and rather let her find her own path and make herself free.

ahri's k/da bio states there was a five year hiatus between popstar and k/da, but i follow the comic timeline because i think it makes more sense. therefore, she debuted and went on to become a successful idol, working as a soloist for 3 years before deciding to break her contract and form k/da with eve. the 'hiatus' (which wasn't quite a hiatus because she was working on k/da, even if the media didn't know about it at the time) on her career lasted 2/3 years before k/da finally made its debut. and i think ahri loved this time period of working on her music, collaborating with such creative and bold artists and just. doing the things she wanted to do. no matter how they clashed (and i imagine they did! harmonies hints at it with ahri's insistence at rerecording the chorus of a song multiple times because it isn't as good as it should be, until akali questions doing that again and they end up taking a break, but it's akali's conversation with sera that really suggests they disagree and clash at times — which is seen as a positive thing, and honestly, is how ahri would see it too.

she didn't make a group to boss around and say yes to everything she wanted. she made a group to work together, strengthen each other's voices, add their own essence to the things they create together to make something truly special and unique. which is why both when akali and sera return, and when she sees them leaving, it's obvious she isn't really angry. her perfectionism definitely would lead to frustration, her own and that of the rest of the group, but that's just another reason why the group is so important to her — with them, she has people she trusts to tell her off when she's being too demanding, or to offer a new perspective when she's being nitpicky. ahri knows that. which is why no matter how frustrated she may have been initially, after taking a moment to breathe she can admit akali was right and embrace her suggestion.

but going back to the timeline: k/da's debut with pop/stars. her bio doesn't say much more that i haven't talked about: she wanted to change, to leave behind a persona that wasn't her, to make music for the reasons she loved making music, and that led her to form k/da and to them making pop/stars.

Setting her old bubblegum pop persona aside, Ahri was determined to shake up her image and reinvent herself as an unstoppable force within the music industry. Five years later, she has returned with a sleek new look and a killer sound—and this time she's not alone.

all out also doesn't expand further, instead highlighting what i said before. their differences are seen as a strength, as something that allows them to work together bringing their best to the table to craft something unique. i think the most significant part to the bio there is not her work with the band, but rather the brief mention of their friendship.

When Ahri steps onto the stage to perform with K/DA, she knows she's surrounded by the best of the best—different women with different personalities, all at the top of their craft. As their leader and as their friend, Ahri is poised to guide these divas to even greater heights and leave their audiences breathless for more.

i just think that also highlights k/da is special to her for more than the music. although we don't get much about her relationship with the girls other than eve (although with akali at least the comic establishes there's a mutual respect and fondness there, with ahri even being physically close to kali, resting her hands on her shoulder and all... so maybe the issue is just kaisa adsuhfsudhf). they are her friends; honestly, i'd say family, even. and while music played a part in their bond being formed, it goes beyond that. i think k/da impacts her positively not just due to the creative aspect and how she's pursuing music on her own terms, but because they're her family, her safety network, the people who know her and love her and can call her out for her flaws but would give her all the support in the world when she needs it. and i think that's definitely a reason why she's less depressed. she's still prone to melancholy, and i wouldn't say she's entirely better (and there's still a lot about her career that is. part of the music industry and she despises and that definitely affects her mental health). but the girls definitely help her not feel as hopeless and just. generally make her happier.

but to end the essay because this is getting too long, i wanted to talk about popstars and i'll show you. for the first one, it's really just that visually, it also references ahri's past as a teen popstar and her letting go of it — being 'cleansed' of it, in a way, with the uniform in the laundry and all that, which makes sense considering she deeply hates that period of her life

but it's the all out era that really makes it very explicit with her song. i think the lyrics in i'll show you are very obvious in what they're about. wanna be myself, wanna leave this hell is very plain in describing how she feels and her pursuit for really doing what she wants, finding her freedom and her path, and how she felt before being able to do that. the chorus is a bit more positive in the suggestion even though she struggles, she endures and even thrives. and the visuals in the mv really complement that, i think (ahri's own appearance in it, and how downcast/melancholic she is all throughout the video).

this woman is obviously depressed kajdnfjkasdnf

and that's heavily tied to how she feels about fame and the industry since the early years of her career. ahri makes music because she loves music. she does it to express herself, and to elevate others and to pursue more. but being successful and famous sucks. she struggles with the expectations and demands still, even if there's no manager fucking up her life. even if she did strive to reinvent herself, i don't think ahri freed herself entirely of this mentality that's just. too deeply ingrained in her by now. she is still trying to make things perfect, but she's not happy with it. she loves to create with k/da, but she despises the pressure everyone else is always putting on them (always about making new things, always questioning when there'll be a comeback, scrutinizing and comparing their works, always almost wanting them to fail, like the newspaper with the 'one hit wonders?' headline suggests)

the song also talks about how hard on herself she is, but i think it's uh. very obvious in talking about depression when it says not only that, but talking about forgetting your worth and struggling to see it while demanding a lot from yourself, and complementing that it'll be okay because she knows she 'can make it out those days' like. this woman is depressed idk what to add i think it's just so obvious in what she's singing there. 'you know the darker the day the more you'll shine', and 'don't let those moments outweigh all other times'... it makes it very evident how much she struggles, and how things often aren't well, but also that she's fighting and trying to go on and remember things won't always be bad like that. there are bright spots (eve, akali and kaisa definitely help with that!).

and by the end of the song, when it says something like 'you don't have to be afraid (and i'm not, cause today) + the chorus again' reinforces that, also with the visuals and the 'prison' thing she was in blooming into a sort of lotus shaped thing and just. i think all of it shows really clearly that ahri struggles greatly with these issues, and the way she feels about her life being scrutinized as someone famous, or her work being constantly picked apart by people who want her to fail, or how people expect you to just do something safe and untrue no matter how you feel about it because that's what makes you successful and famous and rich... she might make it look easy, being always perfectly poised and knowing just how to charm any audience, but in truth she actually really hates the being a celebrity part of things, and it definitely deeply affects her mentally/emotionally.

[kinetic-drama]

Ep. 1 – Our Beloved Summer

Our Beloved Summer is a k-drama that should be savoured slowly, in those late August days full of laziness and cravings of the May breeze. The two leads, Choi Ung (Choi Woo-shik) and Kook Yeon-soo (Kim Da-mi), are ex-lovers who never want to meet again. They met in high-school through the shooting of a reality show, where the top student, Yeon-soon, sits besides the one with the worst grades, Choi Ung. Fate – or, actually, a second season of the show – will bring them back together.

The brilliant banter and script is carried out by the lead actors impeccably, making the show enjoyable and light. The drama depicts a complicated relationship of two people different to their very core, the difficulty of communicating openly with the person you love, and the harshness of a break-up and the sweetness of a second chance. The rest of the cast is pretty much perfect in my opinion, and the cinematography is one of a kind, with aesthetic camera angles and unforgettable scenes. Truly a gem of its genre, this k-drama made me want to rewatch it over and over again, just for the excitement of walking with the characters through their journey of discovery of love and themselves.

If you've seen this drama and want to know more of my thoughts, keep reading below!

And here we talk about the serious stuff. In all honesty, this is one of my favorite k-dramas. Not only for its characters, tropes, and message, but also the aesthetic. You know I'm a sucker for pretty coloring, rain kiss scenes, contrasts of lighting, photography and addicting soundtrack. We need more dramas like this one, high-quality shooting paired with cured acting and an abundant amount of chemistry, pettiness, glances, side stories and character development.

It's one of the first k-dramas I've watched and one of the few I've felt the need to start again as soon as it was over, so it definitely holds a special place in my heart. I'd be lying if I said I didn't first start it because of its cast (I knew Kim Sung-cheol from literally one episode of Vincenzo and he was just too pretty), but finding out the trope was ex-lovers to enemies to lovers again – oh god. I was in love.

I usually hate love triangles, but this one was perfect??? The second male lead, Kim Ji-woong, has the most likeable character I've ever seen in a supporting role. He knows Choi Ung and Kook Yeon-soo still have some unresolved stuff to deal with and never tries to force his own unrequited feelings into their relationship, but his role never feels too shallow, maybe because of his personal life story and his closeness to the leads. At the end of the day, he knows he's just an observer, like he himself says, and accepts gracefully enough the line that separates him from being happy with the person he loves.

The rest of the supporting roles are perfect, from the leads' friends, family and co-workers and their relation with said people. Even the role of NJ, the idol who takes interest in Choi Ung, never comes off as plain and useless. And the lack of unnecessary conflict and misunderstandings and excessive jealousy is exactly what I adore about this k-drama.

About our main characters, I have a lot to say and at the same time so little. Their childish interactions and messy relationship, on the border between hate and love, create the perfect game of push and pull, all adorned with a great amount of chemistry and comic moments. This drama doesn't just tell the story of two characters, but through them shares the incommunicability between people, so different but still so similar. Neither of them are good with words and expressing feelings out loud, and neither of them seem to understand what the other needs to hear. It deals with the mutual hurt, awkwardness and resentment of a hash break-up that happens when both are still in love, they are just unable to deal with it. All this in contrast with the silent understanding of the messages brought by thoughtful actions, private smiles and small touches. It's all about finding happiness and love in those little, short moments, showing a certain side of yourself to that person only, in the case of the cold Kook Yeon-soo, or letting your world be shaken to the core and feeling alive once that person comes around, in the case of the quiet Choi Ung. But as the k-drama demonstrates, most times only actions are not enough.

This view of love, in my opinion, is what sets this show apart and makes it a must-watch.

[sonocomics]

PART FOUR

Hey all - it was brought to my attention that these Roadtrip comics weren’t available anymore since I got deleted my dA. So here’s a blast from the past - all the way back from 2013, TEN YEARS AGO, NEARLY 11 ( OvO);;.

I’ll be posting these as extras on Tues and Thurs until they’re done - there’s 9 parts total. I know they’re really long, so you can press j or k to skip em on desktop or mute one of the tags below for the next month if you’d rather not read em ( o3o)b

PART SIX

[v-arbellanaris]

personal

vee things

for me

reading list

villain-loving hours

writing resources

writing ref

antagonist discourse

character development

vocabulary

grammar & punctuation

relationship dynamics

dragon age

mine-

my writing

my meta

vee rewrites da

others-

da meta

da reference

da fanart

da fic

da fic recs

da mod recs

bioware critical

anti chantry

games-

dragon age: origins

dragon age ii

dragon age: the last court

dragon age: inquisition

dragon age: dreadwolf

dlcs-

awakening

mark of the assassin

legacy

jaws of hakkon

the descent

trespasser

spin-off novels, comics & other media-

the stolen throne

the calling

the dawn of the seeker

redemption

the silent grove

those who speak

until we sleep

the masked empire

asunder

last flight

magekiller

knight errant

deception

blue wraith

dark fortress

tevinter nights

absolution

pcs-

the warden

amell surana aeducan brosca cousland tabris mahariel

hawke

the inquisitor

lavellan trevelyan cadash adaar

my ocs (under construction)-

evadne amell

kalyani tabris

faris mahariel

aedan cousland

damon hawke

amalia hawke

joan hawke

isra trevelyan

marya lavellan

mdzs

media-

all mdzs

cql/the untamed

fatal journey

others-

mdzs meta

cql meta

mdzs fanart

cql fanart

tv

korean dramas

bad and crazy (k-drama)

beyond evil (k-drama)

bulgasal: immortal souls (k-drama)

tale of the gumiho (k-drama)

the devil judge (k-drama)

tomorrow (k-drama)

vincenzo (k-drama)

chinese dramas

love between fairy & devil (c-drama)

word of honor (c-drama)

western shows/dramas

netflix shadow and bone

netflix the sandman

netflix the witcher

books

scum villain - mxtx

the grisha verse

main tag

the grisha trilogy

other

comics

the sandman

the sandman fanart

xmen

video games

god of war

the witcher

the witcher fanart

[geckosoddysee]

Happy 30th Anniversary to the series that has been a part of my life longer than any other.

I'd like to tell you dudes a personal tale or two from my life. Mortal Kombat was the first game series I ever really was impacted by.

Fun fact: I got my username directly from the character "Smoke".

Though all in all dudes, Reptile has always & will always be my favorite. REPTILE SQUAD FOR LIFE YO.

Anyways: One of the first ever comics I ever attempted to make, some of my earliest art, was these Mortal Kombat "Komics". It was called like "Mortal Komics" or "Mortal Komedy Komics". Very very important to spell it with a "K" otherwise you're going to be banished to the fucking netherrealm for your heinous grammatical errors.

I remember I drew them on several pieces of printer paper & stapled them together to make a book. I was trying to emulate these old Calvin & Hobbes & Garfield comic collection books I read endlessly. The "komics" of mine were trying to be like a "komedic" sunday strip but it's Mortal Kombat characters. They were fucking terrible & 90% of the jokes were not jokes because they were so incomprehensible that not even I can fucking understand & remember what in the ever living fuck I was trying to convey.

But my art would not be what it is today without Mortal Kombat. It inspired me so much & it still does.

I also remember one year for valentines day, I made each of my family members a card but each card had a Mortal Kombat character with a stupid "funny" quote. The only quote I can distinctly recall was the card that I drew Jarek on. It said "Shut up & eat, it's valentines day" & I drew Jarek eating a fat fucking drumstick. I don't get the joke either, I mean, is the joke that Jarek is just kind of a rude asshole who refuses to talk with you during dinner? I mean, okay Jarek, you're very fucking rude. The other one I distinctly can remember was I gave the card with Reptile on it to my mom. There was probably a Cyrax & Smoke & Sub Zero ones too. I recall being made fun of a lot by all of them that year. I remember laughing it off with them but, really, it honestly just fucking hurt a lot. I mean, I was trying my best that year to give them something personal, that's why I went with Mortal Kombat. Yeah it was like over a decade ago, but still. To me, these characters are something that gives me so much serotonin. They just....make me happy, y'know dudes?

Mortal Kombat made me WANT to tell stories. Like beyond just one-off jokes haha funny comic strip type shit. Mortal Kombat was when I discovered the idea of having shit like world building, lore, & on-going stories with a whole "kast" of "kharacters".

I was so damn invested in it too, I think the first one I ever played was Deadly Alliance. I have the most distinct memories with UMK3, DA, Deception, Armageddon, MK9 (Mortal Kombat 2011 was over a decade ago, I hate the unstoppable passage of time.)

I will NOT be mentioning MKvsDC because I fucking hate that game & I hate that they cancelled an actual Mortal Kombat 8 for it. Like, fuck you that's such bullshit dude. Total Cowabummer.

Deception is by far my favorite game in the entire series. It's just pure Mortal Kombat Perfection. Sometimes I just love to turn on the game, load into Konquest mode & just leave it on in the background. Just getting lost in that world. This series has gotten me through a lot of really awful shit in my life. It still gets me through now actually.

This series means a lot to me man, these characters, yes this is gonna be sounding stupid, but they're like family to me dude. Yes that's fucking stupid but y'know what I don't even care anymore. These games have made me strive to be a better artist, a better writer, and a better well...idk just better. I mean shit man, when I'm down & just rock bottom feeling totally bogus, Mortal Kombat always helps cheer me up.

This was rambling as fuck but what I'm trying to say is, thank you Mortal Kombat, for always being there my whole damn life. You gave me so many memories & made me strive to be the best damn artist dude I can be. & I'll continue to do that til' I'm 6 feet underground.

Ed Boon, John Tobias, all of the midway guys who worked on those games, I know none of you will ever see this. But thank you for creating this series that defined who I am today. Thank you for the memories I have because of these games. Just, thanks for everything dudes & dudettes.

Happy 30th Anniversary you beautiful bloody violent magnificent bastard, here's to 30 more years of kombat & konquests.