#me 2020 looking back my comic page from 2018

[dsi-os]

guess whos back in the cats are liquid fandom!

enjoy this comic i made. im planning on making more comics too .. if anyone has any suggestions ..... gimme gimme . more doodles ive made below the cut!!!!

some old stuff: 2018 - DOGS ARE SOLID (fangame concept)

2020 - Unfinished Animation

2021 - another unfinished animation, and a scrapbook page!

2023, now! - dogi (DAS) dance gif!!

little minis of the entire CAL cast + ocs!

lumi doodle ..

a doodle of something that happened in the last quarter studio discord ..

style/design guide of the cast for my comics + personal art!

made TPO on the level maker on CAL:ABP!!! it was a challenge i gave myself. i think i did good ...

interactions from the comic:

"can i have a piece of the cloud"

[lumi hugging maggie (the magnet clouds from alits)]

and thats all for now!! enjoy!! waves waves hiii cal fandoommm im hoommmeee

[ordinaryschmuck]

Why I Love The Owl House-Part One: The Characters

Salutations, random people on the internet who are already skimming past this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Back in 2018, when The Owl House was announced, I didn't think much of it. I looked at the teaser poster and knew that it would be a show that would gain a following, but I didn't think it'd appeal to me specifically. Then, in January 2020, just before the world made an oopsie, I saw that Disney Channel uploaded the show's first episode on YouTube. Having finished my homework and studying at the time and having nothing better to do, I clicked it out of morbid curiosity to gain a first impression of this series. And I'm not kidding when I say that the second the episode ended, I said, out loud, to myself, "I think I just found my new obsession for the next few years."

Yeah, I went from thinking the show wouldn't exactly be my thing to being obsessed with it. And obsessed I was! I wrote fan fiction and reviews and even drew a handful of fan art you are NOT allowed to look up due to how bad it is. The Owl House, with no exaggeration, also changed my life as it gave me quite a decent following on Tumblr for thoughts and stories I've crafted regarding the show and even gave me a new friend or two to share those same thoughts and ideas together. One of my closest online friends is someone who once reached out to me as a proofreader for a fic I wrote once upon a time, and I probably wouldn't have talked to them if not for The Owl House. I owe so much to this series that I adore that to explain what makes it so great...can't be done with a single review. I even considered writing a long review after Season One ended but gave up on the idea after realizing there's so much to talk and praise about the series. And that was with Season ONE! That was before Season Two made the show more spectacular in nearly every conceivable way!

So, yeah, we're gonna have to do this in parts, each dedicated to a specific theme. However, before we discuss THIS review's theme, I should get one thing out of the way: I'm not just going to praise The Owl House in every single review. There are problems to be had with the show, and I can't ignore them because the praises are stronger. I love The Owl House. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't. But it's because I love it that I have to point out problems as they come because to truly love something means to take the bad with the good. And while there's a lot of good, there's still some bad worth mentioning.

With that said, let's finally begin by discussing the backbone of any series: The characters. And BOY, does The Owl House have a LOT of great, well-written characters, to the point where I initially considered that there wasn't a bad one in the bunch...I say initially because I finally woke up to how much I despise Tibbles (Yeah, wait until we get to him). Although, know that while discussing characters, we're not talking about one-offs like Bria and her lackeys in "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" or ones who weren't named in the show, like Amelia and Cat. We're focusing strictly on frequent players and fun side characters that nail the short time they appear. And we're also going in order from my least favorite to my most favorite. And just know that this is in order based on how good they are as CHARACTERS and not as PEOPLE. There’s a difference, and I’ll be able to explain as I go.

Now, without further ado, let's begin this wild journey together with the worst character in the series.

(Also, be warned, this is going to be the LONGEST post you’ll ever read. The Google Doc is 33 pages long…)

Tibbles: Yeah, really no contest here.

Tibbles is, quite frankly, the only character that I consider inadequate. I get the idea the writers were going for: He's a secondary antagonist for lighter adventures amongst heavier ones. The problem is that type of character does not function for a show like The Owl House, a series where the writers were told they'd be cut for time while working on Season Two and having little time for lighter tales. Maybe if the show had enough room for twenty more adventures or if The Owl House had a slight lean toward episodic misadventures like Amphibia, Tibbles might have functioned better as a comedic villain that occasionally screws with the main characters for filler. But because The Owl House has so much to do and would eventually become a series with no time to do it, Tibbles becomes more annoying when he distracts from the plot. Fortunately, he's only in three episodes. Unfortunately, Tibbles never becomes as entertaining as he could have been. He has one good capitalism joke, and that's all the good I can say about Tibbles. Let's move on…

Jacob: Another secondary antagonist that would have worked better if the show had more time. Maybe make him a constant threat (read: annoyance) to Vee or the rest of the Hexsquad while they're stuck on Earth. Instead, he's nothing more than a one-and-done threat who makes a singular cameo in the best episode of the series ("Thanks to Them"). At least Jacob being a crackpot conspiracy theorist is kind of funny. Otherwise, he'd be lower than Tibbles.

Perry Porter: He has next to NO character. Barely even a scrap.

He’s the father of one of our primary characters, and Perry has NOTHING going for him other than that and being a reporter. At least he’s not annoying.

The BATs: Yeah, might as well lump these three together because they started off making you think they'd do SOMETHING, only to have very little to do with the plot, with only one of them having a definite personality (It's Amber, and I love her).

Katya's kind of fun as this weird fanfic writer who has a hint of appreciation of showmanship, given how she very clearly wrote Raine's speech. But then you also have Derwin, who's so forgettable that I know for a fact that you had to Google his name to remember who Derwin is. These three are a mixed bag of sometimes being fun yet forgettable, to the point where I don't blame the writers for forgetting their existence when it came to the rest of the series. A shame, really, because there could have been something interesting to explore with this secret resistance organized by Eda's ex. The problem is, just like Tibbles, there's not enough time for characters like the BATs to flourish. They're missed potential, sure, but that doesn't make them bad. Just less than remarkable members of this very extensive cast.

Gilbert and Harvey Park: Have slightly more personality than Perry with Gilbert having more of a playful and laidback side to him and Harvey being the more serious and worried of the two. You can see glimpses of this through the little details like Willow falling onto Gilbert in that swinging memory in “Understanding Willow.” Gilbert laughs with Willow while Harvey looks a little worried. That’s sweet. They balance each other out.

Also, they’re gay, and gay characters are always better. It’s why they’re a step above the BATs. NEXT!

Warden Wrath: He has the same problem with Tibbles and Jacob, where Warden Wrath is a secondary antagonist in a show that doesn't really have the time for him to be as effective as he COULD be. What makes him BETTER is that Wrath is at least funny. Like, the man chopped off Eda's head and then asked her out. That's humor, baby.

Also, he's a good dad to Braxus, so...you know.

Though I will admit, I'm surprised how little a role Wrath played in the show. In "A Lying Witch and a Warden," he gave off main antagonist energy with his look and menacing demeanor. Turns out he's just a throwaway character, and that's for the best. He doesn't overstay his welcome, never distracts from the plot, and has a few hilarious lines and moments. Not the strongest threat or character, but decent's good enough for me.

Kikimora: I might be the only person who doesn't hate this little gremlin, and even I have to admit she's not that great.

Don't get me wrong, I adore how insane she acts and how obsessive she can be in wanting to beat Hunter, specifically. She has a lot of fun moments and, weirdly, looks adorable when not wearing a cone of shame. She has her fun moments...but fun enough to be a recurring antagonist throughout the series? To the point where the characters have boss fights with her in three prominent episodes?

I...don't think so. I like Kiki just fine, but only in spades. Her voice can get grading after a while, and you do get sick of her obsession with the Emperor's coven given time. She's at least funnier than Wrath, though. I will ALWAYS stand by that. But that's not enough to get her higher.

Adrian Graye: He's yet another secondary antagonist that would have benefited from more time...I'm noticing a theme here.

Eh. Either way, this guy's great. His whole schtick is being a bad and nitpicky director, and that's funny to me. It's what I would expect from the head of the Illusions Coven, who are witches best defined as ones with a sense of showmanship. Some might find Adrian annoying, which...yeah, he's kind of intended to be. But I get it. Not everyone would laugh at this guy as much as I do, and that's okay. Comedy is subjective, after all. My only complaint with Adrian is that we don't see more of him. He's too fun of a villain with an equally entertaining concept to be wasted as a one-and-done antagonist that resorted to only cameos in the future. Still, if the worst I can say about a character is that I want more of them, is that actually a problem?

Tinella Nosa: Also known as Dana Terrace's self-insert. She's used primarily for comedy, and thank goodness for that. I don't know if I would have appreciated this character as much as I did if Tinella was best friends with the main cast or had some stake in the plot. In fact, the one plot and subplot that feature Tinella in a prominent role was some of the worst the show has ever had. Thankfully, she's mostly a character for random comedic bits, and I really wouldn’t have it any other way.

Barcus: Another character whose primary purpose is to be funny. At least Barcus is a dog that radiates stoner energy, giving him a ton more bonus points.

Braxxus: ALSO a comedic character, but is only better because the joke's funnier. I mean, Braxxus is just a character who's a little toddler that looks and sounds disturbing. How can you NOT laugh at that?

Eberwolf The Huntsman: Quick aside: Was anyone going to tell me that Eberwolf was apparently a man, or was I supposed to find that out for myself? I mean, shame on me for assuming genders, I guess...But I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one on that.

Anyways, Eberwolf is fine. In the short time he's in the show, Eberwolf offers great humor by being this feral little rascal that primarily annoys Darius. Not much to say other than that, and I doubt having more time would benefit Eberwolf. He really does scream "Comedy Relief" to me, and sometimes being entertaining is enough. Not everyone needs depth.

Boscha: Speaking of depth, I will forever stand by my claim that Boscha worked better as a one-dimensional bully than a three-dimensional one. Sure, three-dimensional bullies can be interesting because it leads to us learning why they do their harsh acts and that there are reasons why they're bad kids...However, that's why we have Amity. And for a redeemable bully like HER to work, you need an irredeemable one to show up to prove that not every little s**t can be better with time. Some are just sadists for no reason. And that's where Boscha comes in as a bully that knows full well she's hurting people but doesn't care because her only justification is that they deserve it. Why? Because Boscha believes she's better than them. That inflated ego makes her the perfect mirror of what Amity could have been and causes Boscha to be the best rival to Willow. Willow starts off with confidence issues, where even though she gains more of a boost thanks to her friends, there's still lingering self-doubt in the back of her brain. Boscha lacks that. She may do some affirmations to her reflection, similar to what Willow does in "Any Sport in a Storm," but while Willow briefly second guesses herself, Boscha says every word as if she knows its universal truth. So when these two go up against each other, it's great because it allows Willow to prove that she IS the best while proving that Boscha's the worst. It was perfect, and it's why I had no issues with Boscha remaining one-dimensional...But then the writers had to SCREW IT ALL UP!

Now, don't get me wrong. Revealing that Boscha had codependency issues with Amity and Boscha's other friends is interesting. There's just one problem: They introduce this idea in the second to last episode of the series. There's next to no time to fully flesh it out, leaving Boscha with a character arc that feels both forced and rushed. It might have been better if this idea had been established from the beginning instead of using most of that time writing Boscha as a one-dimensional bully with no depth to her. I still say she's entertaining, but maybe the writers tried TOO HARD with her.

Matt Holomule: But sometimes, it's better to try for a character that used to be the most universally hated.

How in the hell did I go from hating this little stink rat to being genuinely entertained by him? He's not my favorite or anything, but, like...compare Matt's first appearance with his last. He was an insufferable little prick who caused problems for Luz and Gus all because Matt wanted power and drama. That's it. Just those two things: Power and drama. Yeah, those are not great motivations for a character.

In fairness, it was clear we were supposed to hate Matt, and humor comes from watching him fail miserably. The problem is that he didn't do it enough, and while I'll laugh at the little stink nugget getting messed up at the end of "Something Ventured, Someone Framed," Matt still won by the end of the day, getting everything he wanted. He just got a little messed up along the way, is all. So while the idea is there, it's not strong enough to make the character entertaining.

But then the writers decided, "Hey since we're not going to try with Boscha, let's try SOMETHING with Matt." And it worked! "Through the Looking Glass Ruins" showed why Matt was such an insufferable, slimy weasel because he attended a school where the more powerful received more respect. Matt never got that in his old school, so he tried again in his new school, looking for power and drama because it's all he knows. Then by "For the Future," not only is the guy actually competent, but he's hilarious through false bravado and not being smart enough to know that he's been crushing on a robot. It's a huge improvement...but only from a character that makes three primary appearances and sucks with one of them. A character who's decent two-thirds of the time isn't too bad, but that still doesn't make him high up on my list, where characters are better for far more than that.

Viney: Or a character that has a better vibe despite...barely having anything to work with.

Viney...is insane. She dumps friends over the tiniest of misunderstandings and uses her griffin as an assistant for everything. She's clearly not well in the head...and that's what makes her entertaining.

Vine is a looney nut who might be unaware of her crazy actions. It's good fun, but the problem is that there's not enough of it. Like Matt, Viney has very few prominent moments in the series, and you can tell she's not as entertaining as she could have been. If the writers went all the way with her insanity or made her a character that's the textbook definition of "zero chill," you can bet Viney would be one of my favorite characters. As is, her craziness is only...a scrap of what could have been a great personality. I like her, don't love her.

Jerbo: Jerbo's higher because he has more of a well-defined personality. And he wasn't instantly unlikable, so...

And that really is all there is to say about Jerbo. He's fun as a fearful boy down on his luck and has a bit of intrigue with how he wanted to change the coven system forever. And he does, which is honestly pretty cool. Still, not a lot to make him higher.

Owlbert: Hey, look! It's a character that had a ton of prominent appearances in Season One and was all but forgotten in every season after!

This is a shame because Owlbert is one of the two palisman in the series that feels like a genuine character. The others are cute (my favorite is a tie between Ghost and Stringbean), but Owlbert, for a few episodes, felt like a prominent member of the cast with his loyalty to Eda and the connection formed with Luz. In fact, he and Luz had such a great connection that, for a while there, I assumed the show would do a thing where Eda passed down Owlbert to Luz as a form of passing the torch from the master teacher to the master student. But that didn't happen, which I can be fine with because Stringbean's perfect, and I will not hear any argument about it.

Still, it's weird how Owlbert showed up a fair amount of times in Season One, even having an entire episode dedicated to him, only to be forgotten and discarded by the time Season Two rolled around. And I know someone who'll be mad about that.

Bat Queen: And she's a character that had her own kind of potential only to be forgotten in Season Two. Only in this case, I'm willing to be more forgiving toward Bat Queen. It sucks that we'll never fully know who her owner is, but that always felt like a minor story beat for someone who wasn't that major of a character. Or, at least, someone who never had TIME to be a major character. The Bat Queen had intrigue as a discarded palisman who dedicated her life to looking after abandoned ones, but someone like her doesn't really have a place in the grander story of the show. Plenty of characters in the series have good reasons to have their stories continue or their personalities develop, whether having close ties with a main character or having a narrative purpose. Bat Queen doesn't really have either of those things, so it's why I'm not someone who’s losing sleep at night just because she has this engaging backstory brought forth but never followed up on. I'd still like to see it, but I always knew that after hearing Disney shortened the show, it was always going to be the Bat Queen's story that would fall on the cutting room floor. Missed potential for sure, but at least we had an interesting character for a short while.

Odalia Blight: And the winner for the worst mother of the year goes to--Yeah, I know. An easy joke to make. But I can't help it! It's always served on a silver platter!

Anyways, Odalia's the worst. Yet that's what makes her the best, funnily enough. She's the most snobbish snob that's ever snobbed while having zero respect for other people, least of all her family. You hate her with every fiber of your being, and you cannot wait to see her fail miserably despite trying so hard to reach the top. And Odalia absolutely is a character one loves to hate. She called Amity and her friends into the office and soon scolded Amity for not being in class. It is a challenge to make someone that kind of entertainingly despicable, yet the writers nailed it. However, they might have worked too hard to make us hate Odalia and not enough to deliver her just desserts.

I have no problems with Odalia being an awful mother, wife, and overall person throughout the show. I figured it was only a matter of time before she got hit in the face with SOME karma that would make it all worth it. Sure, it was nice to see her bend to the whim of a literal god that craved pizza bagels, and I do love that Belos, who values life less than her, didn't even want to use Odalia as his meat puppet. Still, she deserved worse. After everything Odalia did and the bridges she burned, it would have been nice to see either Amity or Camila knock her lights out for being a terrible mother. Hell, we even saw Kikimora doing community service and grunt work after her crimes, so it would be fitting to see Odalia right there with her. Or giving her SOME punishment other than making the last time we see her being Odalia standing off to the side and acting like she doesn't care that she lost everything. And that...doesn't feel right. After everything Odalia's done, we, the audience, and her family, deserve to see Odalia receive the worst punishment she had coming to her. Maybe not death or even going to jail. But SOMETHING is better than nothing. She was entertaining, but being so goes only so far without a proper failure.

...But at least she's hot. I know that's out of left field...but we all know it's true...Camila's still hotter, though.

Gwen Clawthorne: ...At least she's a better mother than Odalia?

Alright, I might be the only person who doesn't hate Gwen like others in the fandom, just like with Kikimora. But unlike Kiki, Gwen has much more to like...at least to me. Yeah, her falling for scams isn't great, and realizing the error of her ways could have been done better if not...quickly paced, but I don't mind her. Upon her introduction, it's clear that Gwen wants to try and help Eda with a vile curse. She may have been a bit hostile with her wording, but we soon learn that the curse not only turns Eda into a savage beast but one that clawed Gwen's husband's eye out and ruined the family business that's been around for generations. You can't really blame Gwen for being...agitated about the curse. Or wanting to try anything and everything to cure it. Yes, Eda's curse is often used as an allegory for a chronic illness. And a pretty decent one at that. But sometimes, with a story, you have to remove the allegory from what's shown, and doing so helps you gain more of a perspective for why Gwen reacted the way that she did. Was it right? Well...Not really. I guess she could have seen sooner that she should have been there for Eda instead of scaring her off, not to mention the damage Gwen caused in her debut appearance, but Gwen was at least quick enough to come around and realize what she did was wrong, and APOLOGIZE. Most parents like her won't be that easy, obviously, but another thing about fiction is that you have to realize that it's...fiction. Not everything equates to real life, and you should accept a character's choices and actions if it suits the story. Not many kids can do that, sure, and that's where the hesitation fits, but I think Gwen's kind enough to prove that she's worth believing in. She still spent years trying to help Eda, even if it was misguided, and was ready to kill the guys scamming her. Gwen is not a bad person. Her heart's mostly in the right place despite the troubles she caused, and I'm willing to bet she learned her lesson in the end. Just listen to her speech to Eda (and a little to Lilith) near the end of the episode. That's a mother's imperfect love if you ask me.

Masha: Admittingly, there's not much to them. Masha's a solid character. They have tidbits of personality as someone who's into the grim and horrifying but has a good sense of humor about things when they laugh off reading Vee an accurate fortune by saying she needed bath bombs or humorously sum up Belos' backstory about him being upset that his brother got a hot witch girlfriend. Plus, there's the genuine representation of having Masha be non-binary but still comfortable dressing and looking feminine. From what I've learned, being non-binary doesn't mean sticking to a gender-neutral style. Some like to look feminine, while others are fine appearing masculine, and it's cool for The Owl House to represent that through Masha. I only wish there was more about them. I could go on and on about most of these characters, but for Masha, there's not enough to go off of. It really is the good vibes and representation carrying them, but that's not much to complain about if you ask me.

Skara: SKARA IS THE BEST GIRL!

What's that? She barely has much of a consistent personality and is an over-glorified background character, if anything else? Well, too bad, because she's the best girl.

Honestly, I don't know why I love Skara so much. She hardly has any character to her, but something about her is just so gosh darn endearing. I'm telling you, sometimes a character can be entertaining by having a good vibe alone.

Steve: THIS MOTHER F**KER, however, had NO RIGHT being as entertaining as he was! Nor how popular!

Steve. F**king STEVE! All he had was one or two lines in a less-than-stellar episode, yet the fandom ADORED this mother f**ker! And, yeah, they were funny lines, but not "OMG, best character EVAH" levels of funny! But sure enough, people loved him! So the writers brought him back, and gosh dang it, he's so endearing! He's the most chill and reasonable character in the entire show! He gave King insight into who he was in one of the biggest character moments in the series! He's...NOT the golden god that I think people were picturing him as under that mask, but DAMN, is he still a handsome fella! He's so great, that I honestly wish he was in the show MORE! Gosh, DANG IT!

"If you love him so much, why are you acting angry about it?"

Because it's FUNNY!

"No, it isn't."

Yes, it is! Moving on!

Terra Snapdragon: Finally! Some good frickin' secondary antagonist!

Terra is why I hoped the series would dive deep into the other covenheads, primarily the clearly evil ones. This woman radiated supervillain energy as someone who seemed super sweet but would kill you with zero hesitation. And we learn in the flashback episode that Terra was somehow more bloodthirsty, having zero care for the lives of others, least of all children. The woman was despicable, and it was a treat seeing her return when she did. And, unlike Odalia, Terra had a proper amount of punishment. Sure, it sucks that she slinks away in the finale, but her forced to play pretend with the Collector while in an outfit that...did not work on her is pretty decent karma for someone who saw others as below her. Plus, she at least turned into a puppet for being too big of a big mouth, which is more than what Odalia got. I'd prefer if Terra had MORE punishment, but who knows? Maybe she went to jail or...tripped and snapped her spine off-screen.

If anything, my only complaint was that Terra wasn't in the series more. Make HER the main threat in "For the Future" instead of Kikimora and Boscha. THAT would have been fun. Regardless, she's entertaining enough as is, even if more screen time would have made her better.

Principal Bump: This man deserved more love...He said, while still leaving Bump below several characters.

For real, though, Bump deserves more credit, even from me. He's the school principal in a children's animated series, but instead of making him the demonic, overbearing dictator, the writers made him...the exact opposite. If anything, Principal Faust is more of what I would expect as a cold, careless, and horrifying hater of fun and children. Thankfully, that's not Bump. The man may be strict and have no problems throwing a kid into a detention pit, but he still cares about the safety and well-being of his students. Hell, he loves his students. Even with trouble-makers like Luz, Gus, and Willow, Bump can't help but cry because he has fond memories about the three of them and the trouble they caused. And while he can be dead-set in some ways, Bump is still willing to admit when he made a mistake and chooses to correct it, like in "The First Day" by letting the Detention Kids pick multiple tracks to study from. He's kind and reasonable, and that's what's to love about him. Plus, Bump's got some Grade-A snark on him. Some of the show's funniest and most quotable lines come from his dry remarks, and it's partially why he's bumped (ha) up so high. As I said, Bump deserves more love...It's just unfortunate that there are more entertaining characters than him.

Lilith Clawthorne: Admittedly, Lilith would not be up this high if she remained the person she was in Season One. Back then, Lilith wasn't the worst. She functioned nicely as a foil to Eda's wild side and had a great design for a secondary antagonist. The problem is that Lilith was a little boring, her motivations weren't made clear until the finale for the sake of a twist, and that same twist REALLY hurt her character...for about a week until everyone was quick to forgive and forget after a poorly paced redemption. And that's another fault of Lilith: Her redemption. She cursed Eda, ruined the family, ostracized Eda from society, hunted her down for YEARS because of blind faith in a man playing her like the cheap-ass kazoo that she was, and it all got wiped away almost instantly. Granted, there is one asterisk to this: It was all an accident...Sort of. 

Lilith did mean to curse Eda but didn't intend for it to last as long as it did. And you at least get a sense that Lilith feels some remorse for doing so, even stopping their first duel together the second Eda brought up the curse. The problem is that she doesn't feel enough, still treating Eda as lesser than her despite the two of them being close and Lilith supposedly feeling guilty about cursing her. And, again, it feels like everything got resolved too quickly. I accepted everyone is quick to say, "Everything's good for now" in "Young Blood, Old Souls," but only because I expected Lilith to get dragged through the coals in Season Two. But she didn't. She was quickly treated as one of the gang, and Eda did nothing but jokingly remind Lilith that she cursed her. You do that after years of getting over something, not after a week. So, as a redeemable antagonist, Lilith might as well get a C-...Thank goodness she became an entertaining character, regardless of that.

By Season Two, Lilith becomes an almost different character. Better yet, she becomes what I wanted Viney to be: Bats**t insane. Lilith is violent enough to tell Philip that he better be digging his own grave and punches him in the face without hesitation, ecstatic about banisters and having barnacles on her head, and willing to devote her whole life to an eight-year-old and perform blood sacrifices in his honor. The woman lost her mind, and I was all there for it. Even then, though, she still had a bit of intelligence, being hesitant to trust Philip after seeing some similarities to Belos and studious enough to figure out glyph combos herself. It's just that now because there are fewer worries and fears about keeping an image and being the best, Lilith can let go of inhibitions and go nuts. Her redemption could have used a lot more polish, but being so dang entertaining in Season Two is what made Lilith a character I couldn't care about to one I was excited to see when I could.

Alador Blight: Wish I could say the same about this guy...

I think I love the idea of Alador much more than his execution. Upon his introduction, he's presented as the lesser of two evils between him and Odalia, with Alador being easier to talk to without threatening to kill anybody and trying to find compromises that could stow Odalia's fire when she becomes unreasonably angry. Initially, one could assume that he's on the same agenda as hers, only to later find out that Alador's being mistreated too, with Odalia working him to exhaustion, too tired to even notice his children's problems half the time because he's too busy working for Odalia to the point where he never even took a sick day. In Season Two, this lines up with a lot of his behavior. It's why he acts so scatterbrained and unsure of what to do in most appearances. Or the way he tries to tell Odalia they've demonstrated enough with the Abomiton and how he forces a compromise by making Odalia stick to her word and sneakily tell her that being with friends makes Amity stronger, and how he promises to Amity to let Odalia back down in "Reaching Out." If you look solely at how he acts in Season Two, I believe it's pretty decent character work/development, showing a man who loves his kids but can't be the father he wants and needs to be because of his overbearing wife...However, there is ONE moment that spoils everything.

Yeah, that one. This is the scene that everyone points back to when discussing Alador's change of heart and whether or not he earns Amity's love despite it. He's very clearly on Odalia's side in this argument, being just as cold as her. Some argued that because this memory came from Amity as a kid, she might misremember the details and misconstrued how Alador acted that day. Even his silhouette seems different from how he looks in the present, and I was willing to agree because I remember days when my parents got a LITTLE mad, and it was the scariest thing in the world. However, not only would you be surprised how more traumatic experiences stick with kids, but the show makes it very clear that memories inside one's mind recreate things to the exact detail. Sure, there's the fact that it's Amity's recollection in Willow's brain, which, as far as we know, isn't as perfect as a picture. But The Owl House never explicitly establishes how weak a witch's memory could be while already inside a memory. It's a very weird distinction to make but necessary to prove that Amity's memory isn't as exact as it looks. Although, if you want explanations, I have some of my own. One realistic, another analytical, and one argumentive.

Realistically...this is a retcon. The writers had a new idea of what to do with Alador and realized, too late, that they had to make changes to his character for it to work. Changes that go beyond a scene where all we see is his silhouette. And when a retcon's made, it's sort of a team effort between the writers and the fans to explain how it works, with the writers providing the information and the fans analyzing previous scenes to see how it holds up. And after writing about how he's under Odalia's abuse and manipulation, here's where the analysis comes in.

Alador works so much and dismisses his kids because, if he doesn't, Odalia will have the kids do work for him. Not wanting to let them go through what he does, Alador reluctantly goes along with what she demands, only getting her to back down when he sees an opportunity, like in "Escaping Expulsion." Unfortunately, just like that episode, he's still on her side most of the time, doing what she wants and saying what SHE thinks is right even if he probably doesn't want to. Because if he doesn't, he and his kids are in WORSE trouble. That day, when Alador scolded Amity, might be a day when he felt like there was no other choice because Odalia left no room to back down and was forced to do and say what she wanted.

Plus--and here's where I get argumentive--We forgave this:

Granted, there are some arguments against this as well, one I'll get to when talking about Amity. For now, I will say there are three reasons why we're willing to forgive Amity: One is that she's a kid. People are more willing to forgive a child's behavior because they can outgrow it and become better. People have this idea that adults can't do the same thing, that they should already know better...even though adults rarely do, and they could live up to seventy while still unaware of how their behavior is wrong. Number two is that we spend more time with Amity, learning how much she regrets her actions and proving how she'll work hard to be a better person despite them. We can't have that with Alador because the show has to do so much and has very little time to do it. Some corners can be cut, and Alador was one of them. Thirdly, and this is the one I can't argue against, people understand Amity's plight because they WERE Amity. They've had experience with neglectful and abusive parents, and that experience beats any argument a person has. It doesn't matter if you, me, or anyone else argues that Alador isn't badly written. THOSE people, the ones who had an Alador of their own, will always feel uncomfortable by how the writers made him because those people know not every parent is like him, and they don't want kids thinking THEIR parents are the same. I mean it when I say I can't argue against that because that's a fair reason to not like a character.

Personally, I like Alador enough. At least, I like the idea he represents. It's good to show that parents can be mistreated too, especially a father because not enough people take men getting abused in a relationship as seriously as women do. The execution is a little sloppy because of that one scene in Season One, but it doesn't bother me. It DOES, however, bother others, and for reasons I can't help but sympathize. I won't call Alador a bad character, but I won't stop others from disagreeing. But at least his kids are great (and, yeah, we’ll get to them).

Dell Clawthorne: Dell's kind of both a symbol and a character.

Symbolically, he's the physical representation of Eda's biggest regret. She blinded and crippled her father, ruining the family business in the process. But the sad part is that none of it was her fault. Yet Eda still blames herself, not even wanting to go and SEE Dell because the pain of knowing what she did to him is too great. He proves that Eda can turn into what she is afraid of becoming. Something that we see in her nightmare in "Watching and Dreaming." Something that no one wants to be: A monster. A monster that doesn't deserve forgiveness or love. A monster that should be locked away for the safety of the ones she loves. But the crazy thing is that Dell DOES love Eda. He DOES forgive her.

Dell has every right to be angry. He lost his eye and his job. Who wouldn't be angry after that? And maybe he was for a bit, but I doubt he was ever angry with Eda, let alone resent her for it. Instead, after years of her running away and never wanting to talk to him again, Dell only wanted to see his daughter again. His scene with Eda in "Elsewhere and Elsewhen," where he clarifies that what happened was tragic but still loves Eda despite it, is one of my favorite interactions between two characters in The Owl House. And trust me, that's a hefty list to get on.

Dell's time on the show wasn't long, but what he does gives a lot of substance to the show for a guy who probably has less than five minutes of screen time (I don't know, I didn't do the math). Maybe he could have offered more, but I'm glad with what we still got.

The Titan: The same goes for this fluffy individual. We only knew them for a short amount of time, but holy hell, did the Titan make the most of it. Even though, technically speaking, we knew them the whole time.

I don't think I've seen a show where the setting happens to be an essential character in the plot. I'm pretty sure everyone assumed the Titan was a corpse that our characters had adventures on, and that's it. Any idea that they were a being that could talk to others could get shot down because the only person to "talk" to the Titan was Belos. And with him being the serial liar that he was, any fan could assume that even talking to the Titan was impossible, and meeting them was even more so. Turns out it wasn't.

And the Titan, the powerful being whose corpse is big enough to form a landmass, also turns out to be a chilled-out individual. There are brief moments of seriousness and even nobility in their final moments, but for the most part, the Titan is just a laid-back, jovial person. Personally, I'm into god-like beings that are like that. Not one that's wrathful or vengeful, but kind and acts like someone you could, I don't know, have a beer with. Not that I drink beer, but...you know.

Granted, the Titan WAS a bit wrathful with how they treated the Collector, but they clearly feel bad about it after finally realizing the Collector meant no harm, and it was the Collector's SIBLINGS who did the dirty work. The Titan admitted to making a mistake, making them both a kind god and a humble one. It amazes me how much characterization was given to the Titan in how little time they were officially introduced in the show. There are characters who are better after having more time, but there are also ones who might just be worse. So I appreciate that they made the Titan so top-tier, even if making them nothing more than the Isles, and the show's setting, would have been more than enough.

Emira Blight: I will forever be grateful for the course correction that the writers took with Edric and Emira, not only making them great supporting characters instead of semi-antagonists like in "Lost in Language" but also giving them their own personalities that help them stand out instead of being exact copies like most twins in media. Unfortunately, Emira might be the least interesting Blight sibling.

THAT DOES NOT MEAN BAD! Just because Amity's more engaging and Edric's more entertaining, that doesn't make Emira a horrible character because of it. It just means that, comparatively, she's not as high as her siblings. With that said, Emira's still pretty fantastic as the only Blight with a functioning brain cell. She calls Edric out for his occasional stupidity, gives proper advice to Amity when she's freaking out, and has her thoughts together because Emira didn't work herself to exhaustion. It also makes sense why Emira's a healer. She's there to keep her family physically and emotionally safe, making sure Edric doesn't hurt himself or counseling Amity when things are too overwhelming. Not only is Emira the most sensible, but it might make her the glue that keeps the family together. But despite that, she's still playful, still mischievous. Except, unlike her brother, there's a more controlled intelligence behind the fun and games Emira pulls. It's a bit more subtle, but it's there. So, while she might be the weakest Blight sibling in terms of story value, Emira is still a great character in her own right, being a fun yet essential family member with that perfect older sister energy...Mainly because she's the older sister, but my point still stands!

Edric Blight: Ah, the one Blight sibling that proves how most of the brains went to Amity and Emira while he got only the scraps.

Edric is not smart. And that very fact leads to two kinds of entertainment. Firstly, it's funny seeing his dumbass stumble through life. He tried to eat snow, attempted to keep a wild bat as a pet, couldn't pick up a hint to save his life, and ended up in a full-body cast after a reckless rescue mission. The poor boy is a riot because of how dumb he acts, which leads to the second thing entertaining about Edric: He's aware of his lack of smarts and how others see him as "The Dumb One." It causes Edric to be a little insecure about his talents, despite having great knowledge of Beast Keeping and decent skills with Potions. It's as if the writers saw the fans' preconceptions about Edric and decided to do something with it. Unfortunately, they only did it for one episode because we're strapped for time, but that brief instant of character insight is what's to love about this show. We have so many characters to use and so little time that instances like Edric helping Eda and King make a potion is enough to be considered great character development for someone who could have easily been "The Dumb One" and nothing more. He was funny enough with that simple character trait, but one tends to appreciate when a show goes the extra mile, even if it's for one episode only.

Hooty: Oh, Hooty. Sweet, dearest Hootcifer.

At first, I did not like you. You were an annoying addition as comic relief, whose screechy voice only made me hate you more. But then something interesting happened. As time went on, you became less annoying and more endearing by nature. Having an eagerness to please others mixed with a constant ignorance of social cues made you quite humorous. Yes, quite humorous indeed. The laughs brought forth by things you have done and said were plentiful, and I was delighted by each appearance you've made.

And best of all, dearest Hootcifer, you've made Luz and Amity a canonical couple. In an episode that will be nearest and dearest to many fans' hearts, you have not only brought out beautiful development between King and Eda but also managed the most adorable display of young love to occur. A young love between two girls, no less, meaning this moment of spectacular representation for the LGBTQA+ community is all thanks to you, a character best described as a "bird worm." That is both mildly hilarious as well as incredible.

Unfortunately, dearest Hootcifer, your time on the show was not perfect. Whilst Season Two was you at your best, it took all of Season One for me and others to warm up to you. And by Season Three, with every other characters taking story prominence, there was nary any time for you, Hootcifer, to add anything of value. You hardly had any lines, nor did you manage to have any final words in the series finale. Other characters in the series had faced this injustice too, but it is extra ludicrous for you, Hootcifer. You were there since that very first episode, becoming the fourth member of the Owl House family. To think that your last line was only in the second to last episode, despite how much of an impact you've left on the others and the fans, it pains me that you were one of the few cheated out the most with that final season.

Regardless, despite everything, Hootcifer, you are a well-done character with humor and heart. Tis no wonder that the show is named after you, for you are worthy of such an honor.

...In short, Hooty is funny, endearing, and surprisingly grows on you. I have...no idea why I gave that sentiment across in such a fancy way, but oh well.

(He deserves it anyways)

Flapjack: *Sigh* Another loving bird...

Just like Owlbert, Flapjack's the only palisman with enough prominence in the series to feel like a character, but unlike Owlbert, the writers actually explore more with Flapjack. But that may be because his story is tragic.

It is heavily hinted that Flapjack is Evelyn's palisman, who also lured Caleb into the Boiling Isles and indirectly sparked DECADES worth of...bad stuff. And within that time, Flapjack lost an eye and an owner and spent so much of his life alone. That is until he met Luz...who then introduced Flapjack to Hunter.

It really was a solid expectation subversion that Flapjack chose Hunter as an owner. He had a kind and playful energy that matched Luz perfectly, but no. He wanted Hunter, possibly because he looked so much like Caleb. And not wanting to lose another Caleb, Flapjack seemed to make it his number one goal to help Hunter in every way possible. That's when it hits you why Flapjack is perfect for Hunter: He's what Hunter NEEDS. Flapjack may have worked well with Luz, but Hunter needed him more than she did. Hunter was all alone for most of his life and went through so much emotional and mental stress in his unfortunate existence. Then here comes Flapjack, cheerfully supporting Hunter in his interests and literally pulling him to people who will make him happy. Flapjack's basically a therapy bird if I've ever seen one. And it really was nice seeing the majority of the time he's spent in the series be dedicated to making someone else happy...because it makes his death all the more tragic.

All Flapjack wanted was to make Hunter happy, ignoring the fact for so long that being near Hunter was the biggest risk that Flapjack could have ever taken. The second Belos might see Flapjack, he'd be as good as dead due to Belos' need to feed off the souls of palismens and because of Belos' hatred for everything that Flapjack represents. Yet Flapjack still stuck it out and stayed by Hunter's side despite these risks. His death was all but inevitable, but it hurt all the same because while we knew, deep down, it would happen, we didn't WANT it to happen. But it did, and it stings that a bird that wanted to do nothing but good only paid a horrible price for his kindness. On the bright side, Flapjack died doing the one thing he did best: Helping Hunter. No, SAVING Hunter.

Flapjack was loyal to the end, and we all love him for it. And miss him all the same.

Darius Deamonne: Hey, look! It's another character that's important to Hunter! And this one is FABULOUS!

I'll forever be blown away by the expectation subversion the writers did with Darius. Upon his introduction, you think he would be this menacing secondary antagonist the characters would have to fight through in a final battle against Belos. That was definitely the vibe I got from the guy, with how menacing he acted and how he looked in his abomination form. Turns out, most of that was an act...Most of it. I'm willing to bet that he really was ticked off by whoever was screwing with him, and his annoyance was real with Ebberwolf. But by using what we NOW know, it's clear that Darius was playing SOME of his behavior up to make it convincing enough that he's on the Emperor's side in case any ears are listening in. Belos does have eyes and ears everywhere, after all...somehow. Plus, it makes the reveal that Darius is on the side of good all the more pleasant of a surprise. He's certainly less menacing, but not as a fault. Darius still has the same snark and agitation towards people who are more, let's say, foolish than him, just as Darius did in his first appearance. It's just that now he's more subdued because he's surrounded by people who Darius doesn't need to scare. Even when dealing with the Emerald Entrails, Darius acted cold but reasonable. And when actually TRYING to scare the kids, you can argue he wanted to further scare them away from joining the Emperor's Coven, showing them what type of person they'd be dealing with.

But the biggest surprise came when he turned out to be a decent father figure for Hunter. Unfortunately, we never get to see him as an actual father, but it's still sweet seeing Darius show Hunter the first amount of respect and care from an adult the poor boy ever got. Darius shows interest in Hunter's interest, respects his decisions, and encourages him to be a kid and not a soldier, likely because Darius knows full well where that leads for the previous Golden Guards. It warms the heart to see how much Darius cares for Hunter, getting worried when he's in danger and feeling joy when he's safe and sound. It's all great...and it SUCKS that Darius is one of the few screwed over in the finale. No final lines, just pure silence...and some shipping fuel between him and Alador. At least there were still moments of Darius showing he cares for Hunter, and they're both happy together. I didn't really expect much from Darius. He was already fun upon his introduction, but having him become this stern yet caring person was such an interesting twist that I can't help but admire more. It's not what I expected, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Vee Noceda: That IS her last name, and I will hear NO SLANDER ABOUT IT!

...Anyway, Vee's a great character.

I am forever impressed by how great of an, yet another, expectation subversion Vee is. Everyone, including Luz, upon first seeing Vee, saw her as an evil doppelganger trying to steal Luz's life. I still remember the shock and fear I felt when first seeing Vee, worried about what this could mean for Luz and Camila. And then we got to know Vee...and I much prefer the character we got over an evil clone or whatever the popular theory at the time was.

Vee, quite possibly, might have the most tragic life out of everyone in the show. She was born in a cage, was treated as a lab experiment and nothing more, gained a ton of PTSD surrounding rats and cages, and likely never knew the feeling of a warm bed or a good home-cooked meal until meeting Camila. Vee's life was a nightmare before running away to the human realm, and after learning about all that, it makes her finding a home with the Nocedas, being a part of their family, all the sweeter. A friend of mine said that her plan was a LITTLE flawed because Vee didn't know whether or not Luz would return, but in fairness, Vee said that she didn't mean to keep the act up forever, but Camila was nice to her. Vee was operating off of emotions due to getting an inkling of what love feels like, even if Camila's motherly love wasn't for Vee exactly. And with the family she's found and the friends she made in the Human Realm, it's no wonder that she prefers a life there, graduating high school with Luz and having a form for herself to gain an identity of her own. It's amazing how much care and attention the writers put into Vee and her story...Especially since she's basically a minor character.

Yeah, it's crazy to think that a lot of this stuff that happens with Vee is for a character with a substantial role in TWO episodes. Honestly, I wish she had more and could have time to bond with Camila and Luz, showing how much of a happy family she's gained. But, even after "Yesterday's Lie" ended, I already assumed the odds of seeing Vee again in something big were NEVER to become a reality. The shortening of the series, leaving fans with only half a season and three specials, meant that the odds weren't in Vee's favor to grow and develop more than she already did. In a case like that, you have to learn to accept what you HAVE instead of complaining that you didn't get what you WANT. And as for what we have with Vee, it's still good and compelling stuff for a character that makes two appearances. Sure, the potential of a greater character is there for Vee, but for a minor character, she's still really great. Now, if she was a MAIN character, THEN it'd be an issue...Speaking of which.

Gus Porter: Ah, NOW we're getting to the important characters.

Gus is...probably the least interesting out of the main cast. That doesn't make him bad, mind you. I mean, look how far he's come in this list. It's just that, compared to everyone else, Gus felt as if he had less going on. While everyone else was dealing with trauma, family issues, and self-worth, Gus was always kind of...there. The worst part is that there are a lot of hints of there being more to him. He somewhat admits to Hunter in "Thanks to Them" that, while things aren't awful, Gus isn't happy. He missed his dad, and Gus was the first to break down and cry after "King's Tide." There's something there to explore, but because it's a season where so much is going on and there's little time to focus on everybody, Gus, unfortunately, gets the short end of the stick when dealing with HIS trauma. And there's not much going on with his family. There's no discussion of what happened with his mom or any animosity between Gus and his dad. They have a healthy relationship together. Which is appreciative, don't get me wrong. But it's NOTHING compared to Amity's issues with her parents, Eda's strained relationship with her sister and mother, and Luz's difficulty in getting her mom to understand her. The closest bit of intrigue we get with Gus and his dad is how bored and kind of annoyed Gus looked during the Grand Prix in "Eda's Requiem." There could be something to explore there, maybe talk about why Gus went with his dad even though he clearly wasn't having a great time. Unfortunately, this was during a season when the writers were told the series would get cut, and they had to rush to close up as many character arcs as they could before reaching the end, with Gus, again, getting the short end of the stick. Thankfully, the show does something about Gus' self-worth, showing his doubts as an Illusionist and some anxiety about being used by others for personal gain. It's engaging stuff, but it comes at the cost of Gus being overshadowed by an admittedly cute couple and the fandom's favorite white boy.

We definitely get a good amount where I say that Gus is an engaging character, but never enough to stand above the others. And that, right there, is why Gus is the least interesting in the main cast. There are great things about him to explore, but he's never given a chance to truly shine. Thankfully, Gus is still great in a supporting role, acting as the group's cheerleader and hyping them up to do something. Or how he acts as the little brother, having sometimes naive optimism and playfulness compared to everyone else. He's still a smart cookie who knows when to be serious, but it's clear that he's the second or third youngest in the cast, right next to King or the Collector. So, while Gus would have been even better with more time dedicated to him and him alone, that doesn't mean he's any worse of a character because of it. He's still endearing with how supportive he is, even if that makes him less interesting than his friends.

Speaking of which...

Willow Park: Willow...has a similar problem as Gus, but it might be a little worse. Because while Gus has entire subplots in episodes dedicated to him and his issues, Willow has consistently shared the spotlight with other characters throughout the series, where they get a lot of development, and she gets the scraps. To the point where fans talk more about the people Willow has a relationship with instead of Willow. She used to have a friendship with Amity? They latch onto AMITY'S side of things. Hunter's her boyfriend? They latch onto HUNTER'S side of things. In fact, I think people talk more about her BULLY than they do about Willow. Rarely does Willow get any attention in the fanbase and even in the series, which is a shame because she IS a solid character.

Willow's your typical shy girl who learns to gain more confidence. Only this one has more of a violent edge and seems more than capable of killing someone for hurting her but doesn't due to her self-confidence issues. Plus, instead of stretching out those issues throughout the entire series, Willow gains more confidence at the end of Season One. An annoying thing about shy girls is that they remain progressively so, getting better through inches instead of miles. With Willow, she gets over it pretty soon, to the point where I genuinely thought Willow didn't have much to do in Season Two because the writers figured her character arc was done. Which is a shame because even though her friends have more development than her, Willow is a great straight man to their antics. She's often remembered as a friend with the one functioning brain cell in the group, acting as the voice of reason when her idiot friends have a dumb idea. But she's still supportive of their ambitions and adventures because THEY were supportive of her. It's her way of paying them back. Willow just has a better idea of when to draw the line.

Plus, there is an interesting idea about Willow that the writers manage to explore beyond her shyness, even if it's not to as great of an extent as everyone else's development. You see, Willow has a problem processing trauma. In "Understanding Willow" (which ironically helps us understand Amity better), Willow states that it's best to hide away what's upsetting her while saying, "Out of sight, out of mind." Only for that to QUICKLY backfire as Amity takes things further by burning the very thing Willow only wanted to hide. They both learn it's better to confront the things that make them uncomfortable, gaining an understanding (ha) that you need to face your pain to heal from it. Except that Willow somewhat forgot that lesson in "For the Future," which showcased what makes Willow great. She's there to help her friends and their issues but ignores her own because she believes her friends’ are more important. All the girl needed was a good cry over her dads, but Willow instead repeated to herself, "Keep it in," not wanting to let her own problems overshadow everyone else's, which caused her emotions to grow more out of control. This side of her is an engaging idea, and it sucks that it's only been explored twice while her friends got more development. I'm willing to blame the shortening of the series for this one because there's no way she only had such a small role to play in the series upon conception. Willow acts as great support like Gus, but she could have been so much more. And that's a "What if" that's going to unfortunately be lost to time.

King Clawthorne: I have mixed feelings towards King, at least in the first season. I didn't hate him. It's just that, within Season One, King hardly had a direction. More often than not, he was the comic relief that went off doing silly things in the B-Plot while everyone else went on the real adventures. It led to entertaining bits, like gaining an army of sentient stuffed animals or using the Owl Beast as a tool to dominate the playground. But then there were times when they felt like an unnecessary distraction, like being an MC at Grom or being mistaken as a substitute teacher. And most of the time, it's all for the sake of an unrealistic goal. I could tell from the beginning that he would NEVER be the actual King of Demons, and it was just something the other characters played along with because even THEY knew it would never be a reality. So there was never anything King could add to the show besides humor, which he did well due to Alex Hirsch's hilarious delivery with a few jokes. If King stayed the same as he does in Season One, he'd go just above Hooty as someone entertaining with a few solid scenes of heart with the rest of the main cast, but nothing more than that.

...But then the writers decided to make King an actual character in Season Two.

King became more consistent and engaging in the series from "Echoes of the Past" to beyond. In most of the series before this moment, King always went back and forth as either a child, a pet, or an immature adult with delusions of grandeur. Post "Echoes of the Past," it's pretty clear that King's a child but one with a bit more maturity than others. He acts naive and has a definite need to be protected at all costs when he acts sad. And Alex Hirsch KILLS it when portraying King's youth, where the times King cries or gets emotional sounds like an actual kid rather than a grown man playing a kid. His delivery isn't just good for humor but for some amazing voice acting that surprisingly adds to the illusion. It's sort of like how John Roberts convinces me that Linda from Bob's Burgers is a New Jersey Mother in a way that's better than any voice actress ever could manage. Sometimes, you need to give in to the illusion.

As for what makes King engaging, that's where his purpose comes in. King wanting to become the King of Demons and have people bow down to him is...cute and results in some good humor. But King wanting to know what he is and where his Dad came from? Now THAT is a way to make someone invested in a character we already enjoyed. King was entertaining before, but seeing his struggles to find answers about his past and heritage was always endearing and helped you feel for the little guy. And when he finally DOES get answers, it cleverly gives King what he wanted in Season One: To be something that people would bow down to in respect and fear...and King doesn't want that anymore. After learning he's the last of his species, that his blood family is dead, and everything is falling down around him and his found family, King doesn't want to be the monster everyone fears. He just wants to be King and have things go back to normal. Or, HIS version of normal, anyway. It's pretty compelling to show King's growth as comic relief to an actual character by giving him everything he thought he wanted, only to practically refuse it. King is almost a completely different character by Season Two, and it really is for the best. Season One King wasn't too bad, but his Season Two self really gave him the boost he needed.

Raine Whispers: Raine is best defined as a pretty flawless character. At least, in my eyes, they are, as there's not really a bad thing I can say about them.

Upon conception, Raine was nothing more than a love interest to Eda...and that tracks. So much of Raine's development and story occurs when Eda is there, fawning over them and wanting to reconnect. Even their debut episode was more about Eda's issues and how Raine was there to guide her to the right path when it mattered most. They're very much a character severely connected with Eda and never had the chance to star in the spotlight instead of sharing it. A shame, really, since Raine organizing a resistance against Belos could be enough for an episode of its own, but, unfortunately, not the case for a series that got shortened. However, just because Raine's a character connected to Eda, it doesn't make them any less fun or engaging.

First and foremost, you GET why Eda is so in love with Raine. Where Eda is an agent of chaos, Raine is more for CONTROLLED chaos, willing to join Eda to cause some mayhem but in a way where they don't get caught or in trouble. And that's just them as kids. As an adult, Raine wants to destroy a militaristic dictatorship from the inside out, determined to keep the act going and fight literal brainwashing no matter how often they get caught. They're also pretty determined, fighting against Belos infecting Raine's brain and fighting with their last breath when Belos tried to get to the heart of the Titan. Because while Raine was one for chaos as a kid, they're still a good and caring person. Raine didn't want Eda involved so she wouldn't get hurt and MEANT their promise to Luz to make sure nothing bad happened to Eda during their mission on the Day of Unity. But on top of everything else: Raine is a charismatic dork, having enough charm to make Eda the Owl Lady blush but still having the dorkiest smile when announcing their crew's name is "The CATs." Raine is ALL these things, and the result is someone who's a blast to watch, even if they're simply Eda's love interest. They still add enough entertainment and drama, even if some of it, unfortunately, focuses more on the Eda side of things. Would I love more of a spotlight to shine on Raine? Of course. They're an outstanding character who unfortunately got put through the wringer, what with being physically tortured, used as Belos' meat puppet, and MAYBE groomed by Terra Snapdragon (That creepy witch). But when a character's conceived as a love interest, even if there's more to them, you gotta take the good moments when they're badass and awesome and appreciate when they contribute to the story on the sidelines as a supporting character than a leading one. At least they were right there to kill Belos and lived happily ever after, snuggling with Eda. Not too bad for a love interest, huh?

Oh, and Raine's also the first non-binary character in a kid's cartoon with a major influence on the characters and the plot. That's pretty cool too.

The Collector: Here we have a character that turned out WAY better than I imagined. I didn't admit it in the past, but I was a LITTLE worried that the writers would make The Collector like Bill Cypher: A chaotic god-like character who takes pleasure in treating others like his playthings. And The Collector IS that...but there's something that makes them a different yet intriguing character: The Collector's a kid. Yes, he's a kid who turned the Boiling Isles into their playground and the residents into toys, but they’re still a kid.

Upon our introduction of The Collector, we're given this idea that he’s a sick and twisted little gremlin who's just as excited as Belos is about the genocide of the Boiling Isles (which might be an image aided by the fact that it's Belos' memory). But every time we saw them since, the more the writers leaned into the Collector's child-like behavior, showing that the reason why he might be all for Belos' genocide and treat people as literal playthings is that they don't understand what life and death means. He doesn't MEAN to be a problem. It's just that no one has ever taught them otherwise. And that's a more interesting way to go about this character instead of making The Collector a new primary antagonist. It might have worked fine, but when you make a character with god-like powers, it becomes difficult to believe anyone could defeat them. So, the idea to stop The Collector by TEACHING him what's right and wrong before it's too late is a clever way to go about things, especially when it's King that does most of the teaching, using his newfound maturity to teach The Collector what Eda and Luz taught HIM. The result is a new, engaging character that also shows the stellar development of another. Not too bad for someone added to the series at the last minute...Yeah, no, that's what The Collector is, though.

After finding out the series would get shortened, Dana Terrace and the writers thought, "Hey, let's just go NUTS this season!" So, they threw in The Collector as a way to add more spectacle to the final three specials of the show. Sure, the writers had SOME idea of what to do with The Collector beforehand. But after getting the bad news from the executives who decided the series no longer fit the brand, it was the final nail in the coffin to shove The Collector in there. And MAN, there is no better representation of the show's forced conclusion than The Collector, as they're this thing that ALL the characters react to, whether protagonist or antagonist, and are forced to work through their story arcs and character development around within the last few minutes of the show. It's a pretty fun way to look at The Collector, even if he's still a great character despite all they represent. Regardless, I'm still grateful the writers didn't just turn him into the new primary antagonist who killed the old one to show off their threat level...Especially since the old one is REALLY good.

Emperor Belos/Philip Whitebane: "YOU LIKE BELOS MORE THAN WILLOW, GUS, RAINE, AND EVERYONE ELSE?!"

Yes...As a CHARACTER. Not as a PERSON. Because he's NOT a PERSON. He's a FICTIONAL CHARACTER.

I'm serious. People should stop equating "good character" to "good person," especially in this fandom. You can't talk about how well-written Belos or Odalia are without someone coming around and saying, "THEY'RE AWFUL PEOPLE!" I know that. Most...SHOULD know that. But here's the thing: Belos is an antagonist. A character whose purpose is for the audience to love to hate him. If that's done well, he's a good character. And guess what: Belos does it REALLY well, to the point where he's one of my favorite antagonists in a Disney property. Probably one of my favorite antagonists of all time.

Upon his introduction, Belos scared the crap out of me. From his design to even the way he spoke sent chills up my spine. He didn't even SOUND all that threatening, with a deep and scary voice. He sounded like a dude, but it’s in the way he said things, as if Belos knew what he was saying was messed up. But he didn't care, almost like it was because he thrived on people fearing him. And that was just on his INTRODUCTION. From a few of his future appearances, the writers showed Belos acting MORE horrifying, having disturbing spells unlike anything we've seen before, being aware that SOMETHING is spying on him, and revealing that he has a curse that turns him into a somehow MORE terrifying monster. It was pretty effective in getting me to fear this creepy son of a non-witch...And then "Eclypse Lake" showed us his face, revealing that he not only SOUNDED like an ordinary dude but LOOKED like one too. Sure, he had that weird green mark that went down his face, but so much fear I had of Belos went away when I saw that he looked like someone's grandpa who forgot to wash his face. But as the show went on, the more it made sense to make Belos look like a regular man. Instead of portraying a fantastical evil, the writers went for a more realistic one...with supernatural powers, yes, but consider the villains of OUR world. They're people who look like you and me, using their faces to hide dark intentions and charm their way to a position in leadership. That fits Belos' actions to a T, and you see how perfectly it matches in real life when Luz voices her frustrations that no one can see how evil Belos really is, only for King to tell her that no one wants to realize that they've been following the wrong guy. Do you want to know why members of your family refuse to accept that a LOT of Republicans are evil? It's because they spent years, even generations, believing the opposite. So to tell them the truth, even if they NEED to hear it, they'll refuse any facts given to them. So having Belos be the exact representation of all of that, showing kids what to be wary of, is a great way to educate them to learn that sometimes the most dangerous people in society are those who control it in the first place. Even making him a grotesque monster doesn't really take away from the allusion but adds to it, letting Belos' true, inner self take physical form and showing kids what happens to these monsters when you're too late to stop them.

And that's not even getting into the motivations! I didn't feel TOO shocked when it was revealed that Belos was Philip Wittebane. Don't get me wrong, I was still a LITTLE shocked, but I predicted it and expected that Belos' big plan was to return to the Human Realm in some way, but that left some holes into why he spent so much time controlling the Boiling Isles to do it...And then it was revealed that Belos was a WITCH HUNTER. And I'll never forget the dread I felt when I realized, "Oh, they're doing THIS. Oh, no..." The level of fear that I once had for Belos skyrocketed once his real plan became clear and how INTENSELY close he was to reach his ultimate goal.

The scariest part of all is how believable it is. Given how real-world politicians are willing to wipe out an entire group of individuals just for existing, someone like Belos isn't too far of a stretch. Neither is how he came to be the monster that he is. Philip was only an orphaned child raised to believe that witches were Satan's spawn set to destroy everything. And one witch "stole" his brother, the only family Philip had left, and left him feeling like his rage was justified. Except...it's not. It was NEVER justified. Caleb left Philip on his own volition and, when Philip found him again, tried to convince the twit that Evelyn was fine. Philip could have easily taken his brother's word for it and changed. Philip would later have YEARS, possibly CENTURIES, to learn that he was wrong, but he never did. The conditioning was put too deep into his brain, and Belos was the result. I wouldn't say that makes him a tragic character, but it DOES explain so much about why he acts the way he does.

The best part about Belos is that he's consistent. Because of his conditioning, he never once wavers his opinions or questions if what he's doing is wrong. Belos considers himself the hero of his story and views Caleb and Luz as tragic losses. When met with the LITERAL GHOSTS of his sins, Belos yells at, or flat out ignores, them, proclaiming that he was doing the right thing and it's not HIS fault that their souls were too far gone. And with Luz, Belos tried to kill her on three separate occasions, actually succeeding the third time around. And when backed into a corner, realizing he's as good as dead, does Belos ask for surrender? Does he beg for forgiveness? NOPE! He initially tries to manipulate Luz, attempting to take advantage of her good nature into thinking he's good now. And, when THAT instantly fails, Belos yells at Luz, saying she's betraying her humanity and is nothing more than the very evil he spent his whole life fighting against. Luz doesn't buy a word of ANY of it, least of all when he says they're better than this petty revenge and killing out of a twisted form of justice. Even though that's exactly what he's been doing all his life.

Evil to the end, Belos is an antagonist that works because of how perfectly diabolical and realistically despicable the writers made him, making him interesting to dissect while having it feel so cathartic to watch him get stomped to death by the very people he hated. I could honestly go on and on about what makes Belos so engaging to watch and easy to hate...but this gosh dang review is long enough already, and I haven't even gotten to my top five favorite characters yet!

Speaking of which, let's talk about the ONE good thing Belos did with his life...After we talk about Amity.

Amity Blight: How's THAT for a smooth transition?

Anyways, Amity's great because with nearly every new appearance she's made, she becomes a better character, and I mean that in two ways. For one, she becomes more intriguing as we learn about her home life, interests, and motivations, all three being connected in some capacity. Everything that Amity did, she did because her parents (her Mom, mostly) told her to do it. Ending her friendship with Willow, forcing her to be friends with Boscha and her mean girl squad, be the best of her class no matter what, and join the coven that she slowly doesn't want to join anymore. These are all the things Amity was forced to do, and had no choice to do it.She had almost no free will, but that doesn't mean she couldn't rebel in the tiniest ways. She took time out of her day to read to kids and used the cover of it being extra credit to keep doing it. She has a secret room with a collection of Azura books to enjoy a fantasy series, idolizes the purest hero, and has some creative freedom if that fan art on her diary's cover is anything to go by. Even her bullying has SOME ways of cheating. Amity may have said that Willow had no talent, but it was an attempt to get Boscha and the others to stop while covering her tracks so they won't tell anyone she went soft on Willow. And in "I Was A Teenage Abomination," some of Amity's words almost sound encouraging. There's a mocking tone to a lot of it, but the subtlety of her going "keep it up" is still there. Sure, Amity would later have a rage later regarding Willow and Luz’s cheating, but even that is more or less justified. They broke the rules, and, knowing how Odalia reacts to failure, Amity is NOT willing to let go of her "Top Student" badge without a fight. Maybe I'm stretching, and maybe I'm looking deep into things that aren't there. But it's the same thing I do with Alador: When presented with new information about a character, it's a collaborative effort to look at what came before and figure out how it works. And I think there's enough to Amity's actions in the past that are justified by her motivations yet still have a bit of her good side shining through. Which is good because that brings me to the OTHER reason why Amity gets better with each episode.

Piece by piece, bit by bit, Amity becomes a better person after learning a new and valued lesson by the end of every episode. And unlike a blonde-haired character I hate from that frog show, Amity has a clear and definite desire to become a better person. The writers SMARTLY confirm early on that Amity doesn't want to be cruel. She specifically can't show weakness, so she builds walls to hide away her good side, believing that part of herself is weak. But through Luz, the best thing that ever happened to Amity, all those walls come crumbling down, and the Amity SHE wants to become would soon blossom. She's less reserved, more open about feelings, smiles instead of sneers, and acts nicer to Luz and others around her. There's still some anger, annoyance, and the occasional snark, but it was nowhere near as bad as how Amity USED to act. And through each wall that falls gives Amity courage to stand up to her parents and finally become her own person, to the point of dying her hair to reflect the kind of person she wants to be. By a quarter of the way through Season Two, Amity finally gains an identity that reflects what she always had hidden underneath. And it's satisfying...And then writers made her Luz's girlfriend.

Yeah, this is a complaint you'll often see floating around. The second Amity and Luz start dating, a lot of her individuality tends to trickle away, with most of Amity’s problems being related to or overshadowed by Luz's. Just look at "Reaching Out," which has Amity dealing with her issues of Alador's neglect and wanting to form SOME connection with him. But it's barely touched upon due to the real meat of the episode being Luz using the event as a distraction towards her own issues, which I remember more regarding that episode than anything Amity went through. And things get worse by Season Three, where almost every character has something to go through or a chance to highlight their grief, and Amity is...just kind of there, being looped in with supporting her girlfriend and dealing with an ex-friend instead of dealing with her own problems.

It definitely sucks that after all that fighting that Amity went through to gain independence and discover her true self, only to be sidelined once she gets it. But I will say that while Amity is forced into being categorized as Luz's girlfriend, that role still highlights Amity's development. She acts warm, kind, and, most of all, understanding towards Luz and her issues, the same way Luz acted towards Amity, proving she can give as much as she can take. It's not how I wanted things to turn out, but hey. At least Amity got a complete character arc before being pushed to the side. That's WAY more than what I can say about Gus and Willow, the characters introduced to us as Luz's best friends. Guess a girlfriend takes more of a priority.

But that's enough about the fandom's favorite white girl. Let's NOW talk about the fandom's favorite white boy AND the writer's favorite punching bag.

Hunter: In all seriousness, Hunter feels like a character where the writers went, "Hey, remember Amity? Let's just...f**king do THAT again. But BETTER."

And they did! Hunter pretty much has the same journey that Amity did as a character, but with all the strengths and NONE of the weaknesses. Upon his introduction, you think he's a charismatic yet evil little brat who doesn't value the lives of others with how quickly he threatened to kill Luz, Eda, and King. But, just like with Amity, the more we learn about Hunter, the more we realize why he WOULD act the way he did and even why he SHOULD.

Hunter is the supposed "nephew" of Emperor Belos, a man who hates failure to the point where he's ready to kill after you let him down ONCE, and you don't want to push his limits too many times. Hunter knows AND fears this fact, so he learns to hold his tongue when possible so as not to gain another injury during one of Belos' temper tantrums. So, Hunter does what he's told, acts carelessly toward others beneath him, and constantly tries to prove himself as a valued soldier instead of acting as a teenager. The poor boy has his own set of walls built up, and instead of letting the cracks grow, he often tries to patch them as quickly as possible because he fears Belos WAY more than Amity fears her parents. And rightfully so, because Belos would absolutely kill Hunter if he betrayed him. He's done it before.

Hunter being a Grimwalker shouldn't surprise me, as the pieces were there and...not really subtly hidden. Yet that doesn't change how horrifying it makes Hunter's situation. It's one thing to fear being replaced by a better soldier in his ranks or something. The fact that Belos can and will attempt to make a better, more efficient clone of Hunter and kill him if needed...makes Hunter digging his own grave in "Eclypse Lake" more fitting than we realized. It makes him not only replaceable but disposable, with that newly acquired knowledge making Hunter shatter, having a panic attack as it hits him all at once that his fears are more than justified. The worst part is that Hunter spent YEARS with that monster, never standing up because he couldn't do it as easily as Amity did to her parents. She can always run away, hide out in someone else's home to escape a mother who probably doesn't even want her. There's NOWHERE Hunter could go that could keep him away from Belos for long, what with him being the Emperor and Hunter having little to no friends. Thankfully, the ones he had did a lot of work.

Luz, Amity, Willow, Gus, and ESPECIALLY Flapjack all helped to give Hunter a better life. Luz offered perspective, showing Hunter that there's more to life than being told how to live it and that the authority figure he listens to isn't perfect. Amity represents evidence, showing Hunter that if you let good people in your life, they will help you with what tortures you. Willow gave companionship through herself AND a group of people that made Hunter genuinely smile for what must have been the first time in his life. Gus then offered comfort, showing Hunter how to calm his anxieties and fears he'll continue to have. And the one to provide all of these things is Flapjack, who gives Hunter perspective, evidence, companionship, and comfort through his own actions and dragging Hunter to people who could offer more. This gave Hunter a support group of individuals that slowly but surely gave him the desire to be the person he wanted to be and gain an identity. Sure, Hunter would build his walls back up each time they tore them down. But there were always cracks that made it easier to convince him what was the right thing to do for others AND himself. And it all gave him the courage to finally stand up to Belos, who saw Hunter as nothing more than a meat puppet, metaphorically and literally.

Hunter's journey does share a lot of similarities with Amity's. I will admit to that. But where she's later demoted as a character defined by a relationship, Hunter is a character that grew because of the support system he gained and was allowed to keep a sense of identity after his friends brought out his good side. They're the ones who guided him down his path, but what Hunter chose to do after was all his own. Plus, it feels SO GOOD to see that after Hunter's grief and knowing how many others before him died tragically to Belos, he gets his happily ever after. Hunter has a home life that's healthy, friends to support him, a girlfriend to LOVE him, and a chance to genuinely smile every day. He LIVED. He SURVIVED. And that must feel inspiring to those who feel there's no escape from the tragedy of their own lives. I love Amity's journey, but Hunter's definitely better and more impactful in ways you won't believe.

And he'd be the best character in the show...if it weren't the fact that I love three more. At this point, you can probably tell who they are, so let's get started with the fandom's favorite MILF.

Eda Clawthorne: I swear that Eda being hot isn't the reason she's in my top three...Maybe.

But for real, Eda is the only character on this list where if the show was about HER...I would watch it. There is SO MUCH about Eda that makes her a blast to see and a lot to dissect that makes her engaging as she is entertaining.

When regarding her personality/character traits, Eda is an instant gem. She's a con artist, frequently driven by greed, has NO problems breaking the laws, and is more than willing to beat up anyone who messes with the kids she's grown attached to. Now many, myself included, have pointed out that Eda's character shares similarities to Grunkle Stan from Gravity Falls. And...yeah, there's definitely a lot to compare, but there's much more to contrast to help make Eda stand out more as a character. For instance, while Stan one hundred percent loves Dipper and Mabel, Eda still feels warmer towards Luz and King. She may show some annoyance at Luz's enthusiasm or playfully mock King believing he's the most dangerous creature alive, but when it matters most, Eda's there for her kids. To protect, counsel, and sometimes cry over them when situations seem dire. Though she'd probably hate to admit it, Eda has a good heart and one that isn't buried after years of emotional baggage (don't worry, we'll get into that). And she doesn't need much bonding experience to help bring that goodness inside her. When Eda saw a little creature alone in a dangerous environment, Eda took it in and raised it as her own. When seeing a young girl with the same amount of spirit as Eda did when she was younger, Eda decided to accept that young girl's offer and teach her the best she knew. Eda was a caring mother figure to King and Luz when they needed her. As for being a teacher...she could have been better, what with barely teaching Luz anything. Still, she tried, and that's primarily in part because of her own love of magic.

Eda may be a criminal striving to get rich, but those two things aren't mutually inclusive like it is for Grunkle Stan. Eda's a criminal because she disagrees with this close-minded rule that witches should be in a coven, doing one kind of magic for the rest of their lives, except for a small group of elite soldiers picked out by the Emperor himself. Anyone with half a brain can see the flaws of this, and Eda was one of them, breaking the law for years because Eda couldn't help but see how it never made sense. So, she never joined a coven, something considered a major offense against Belos' rule, with Eda being considered a wild witch by her community. And the woman RELISHED that idea. Due to not joining a coven, Eda was allowed to do any type of magic she wanted without being in a stuffy uniform and listening to the vague lies of an evil emperor. It left her with a bit of an ego boost, claiming that she's the most powerful witch on the Isles, but at least Eda gets to do what she loves. Even as a kid, Eda had a PASSION for magic, wanting to learn as much as she could and knowing more than Lilith, a character proven more studious than Eda. It's why you can buy Eda being the better witch than Lilith, because while Lilith can understand the technique, Eda has a better grasp of how good it feels to do magic. After all, she loves doing it in a variety of ways. Even her being a new headmaster of a magic college makes a lot of sense. She may not have been the best teacher for Luz, but they were both dealing with a form of magic that neither really knew much about. The only time their teaching clicked was that moment when Luz had natural magic, and Eda could finally offer advice she KNEW would work. Natural magic is what she understands and has a greater passion for, and teaching "wild magic" to the new generation, giving them something she always wanted and a chance to learn further, makes all the more sense when you take the time to think about it. It's a side of Eda that I don't think fans talk about much. A shame, really. It's an interesting part of her that's worth sharing and deserves to have more attention drawn to it. The show certainly didn't...Though, to be fair, there was one last aspect of Eda's character that's, admittedly, more engaging.

Eda's past, from her family to her ex and to her curse, is a subject that follows Eda throughout her life whether she likes it or not. One way or another, something keeps crashing back into her life, and the results lead Eda into an emotional rollercoaster that ends in tears or violence. Some healing comes from it, but the tears and violence are still prominent. Her fights with Lilith, turning into a rage monster due to her mother's meddling, losing Raine, and her father wanting to talk are all emotional situations with Eda and the tattered relationships she had over the years. The hurtful part is how it all leads back to her curse, one way or another. I'll talk more about Eda's journey with her curse and the allusion it represents in future parts, but I'll still say that so much of Eda's pain, her drama, became prominent because of something Lilith did and how Eda reacted to it. She always ran away or denied there was a problem in the first place, making a horrible situation even worse as it left her burning bridges she'll want to rebuild later. And the worst part is that this is something Eda struggles with the most.

Despite all her pain and trauma, Eda tries to cover it up with jokes and a cocky smile or anger and determination. When the curse started overtaking her in “Agony of a Witch,” she looked at Luz with a smile to make things light, but the fear in her eyes betrayed everything. When losing Raine to Darius and Eberwolf, she choked back her tears and forced herself to focus on anything else. Because to her, it's better to deny how hard you're hurting than face it. She'll voice her worries from time to time but often hides just how strong those emotions are for her. And she definitely doesn't want to relive emotional memories due to how hard it was keeping things together the first time. The only time when Eda tends to embrace her inner turmoil is when things are so intense that she can't help but cry and voice how scared/worried she is. It weirdly makes sense that the only thing that could make Eda finally open up is facing the end of the world where it's not just HER who's in danger but the people she loves too. Because above all else, while she may hate to show it, Eda is a softie to the ones she cares about, especially Luz and King. The three of them have gone on so many adventures together and faced so much danger that you can understand why it's almost always them that brings Eda to tears. Luz's attempt at a goodbye in "Young Blood, Old Souls," King's adoption in "Eda's Requiem," knowing how deep in trouble Luz is in "Edge of the World," and finally revealing that there's no plan in "O' Titan, Where Art Thou." Those kids mean the world to her, as she would be nothing without King and Luz giving her purpose, love, and a healing heart...Which makes it weirder how little Eda got to do in Season Three.

Yeah, a lot of characters got the short end of the stick in Season Three, even members of the main cast like Amity and Gus. While most got some narrative or development, others got forced into the supporting role to help those more important characters. But for Eda, it feels weird because she's part of the main trio. Nearly every poster and promotional material featured Luz, King, and Eda. Nearly every episode featured Luz, King, AND Eda. And every version of the show pitched, even if they didn't look the same, it was always Luz, King, AND EDA. So to have a season where she takes a narrative backseat while Luz and King have more relevance to the story feels off. Although, to be fair, it's not like there was much to be done with Eda. Pretty much every narrative she had got wrapped up with Season Two. She's accepted the curse as a part of her, made peace with her family, and reunited with Raine (even if they didn't seal that deal with a kiss). It's almost as if the writers knew they wouldn't have a chance to explore Eda further with a shortened season, so they completed every arc they could with her in the remaining time they had left. So I can see why they didn't do much with her because what else could they have done? But it doesn't stop how weird it is that Eda could have easily been written out of the season if not for the fact that she's part of the main trio, and it'd be even WEIRDER to have a final season without her. Because, truth be told, the series wouldn't be the same without Eda.

Eda offers humor, heart, and tragedy to The Owl House. Her past, trauma, relationships, and love make for someone that deserves main trio status. Probably even main character status too. I would love to see more of her with how much intrigue Eda has, even if a lot of it is done already. Would I want to watch a spin-off of her as a teen? Probably not. But I wouldn't mind seeing more adventures this wild witch would get into.

Also, I'll say this much about her: There's a consensus in the fandom that Eda is the best mom in the show. And while she certainly is a great mother like no other...there's someone we ALL know, deep down, deserves the title for Best Cartoon Mom.

Camila Noceda: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH, I have been waiting for this one...

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I am incredibly biased towards Camila. Upon her introduction, I always thought she was neat as a mother who truly cares about Luz, her interests, and her wonderfully creative mind. She said so within the premier. And even when sending Luz away, all Camila tried to do was look to the bright side and convince Luz that her summer won't be as miserable as she might predict it to be. Camila could tell that going to Reality Check Camp was the last thing Luz wanted to do, so Camila tried her best to make it seem like a fun time despite how down it made Luz feel. It shows that while she may not be a perfect mom for sending her daughter away, Camila is still caring enough towards Luz, and she wants her to be happy despite encouraging a decision Luz wouldn't like. I considered that a fascinating angle towards a mother like Camila, providing a reason for Luz wanting to leave but never out of malice. I liked it...But a quantifiable portion of the fandom did NOT, with too many people claiming Camila was an awful mother who hated her daughter. Camila had maybe a minute, maybe TWO minutes, of screentime, and that's somehow the interpretation people made. I wouldn't say I'm the best at analyzing and interpreting characters, which is a crazy thing to bring up THIS FAR into my longest review yet. Still, even I have to say that people's interpretation of Camila was a MAJOR reach. Like...how do you look at a woman who explicitly states she loves her daughter, gives her multiple kisses goodbye, and you immediately go, "Oh, she HATES Luz." How do you do that? And how do you claim she's a worse mom than Odalia? Yeah, that was a thing! People genuinely would defend Odalia for being a good mom with their last breath and then turn around to s**t on Camila. Even after finally meeting Odalia and seeing how bad SHE was, people still somehow considered Camila worse. I never understood how it got out of hand, and I'm convinced the writers somehow picked up on all this overreacting and decided to make Camila better with every single appearance she made soon after.

From that premier, I already gathered this idea that Camila was a flawed but caring mother trying her best despite mistakes. By "Yesterday's Lie," I was convinced she was the best mom Luz could ask for, even if powerful emotions caused Camila to make mistakes. When Vee acts like the "perfect daughter," you can see, on Camila's face, how Camila noticed something was off and how much she didn't like it. To her, "Luz" was throwing away everything that made her Luz, and Camila didn't WANT that, made even more evident by bringing all of Luz's stuff back in after Vee tried throwing them away. Then when the real Luz "calls" Camila, acting like her true self again, Camila seems ecstatic and is willing to play along with what she assumes is a weird game because she's so happy to see Luz be herself again. Through these small moments, you understand more how much Camila cares for her daughter, despite sending Luz to a camp to teach her to fit in better. It was an action done out of love, not malice. Camila couldn't be FARTHER from a bad person, as proven by how she reacts toward Vee. There may have been initial fear of finding out what Vee really was, but through some coaxing from Luz, all Camila can see is a poor girl locked in a cage and needing help. It's there that you understand where Luz got her kindness from. Because even though everything is going beyond Camila's comfort zone, the woman's still willing to kick a flat-Earther's ass to protect Vee. She's kind and warm to the people she cares about and violent to the ones that hurt them. Like mother, like daughter. But Camila isn't all too perfect. As the events finally come crashing down on her at once, she feels ALL the emotions as she has this breakdown. There's fear that Luz is stuck in a demon realm, anger knowing she WILLINGLY went there, and despair at the idea that Camila might never see Luz again. All of this leads to Camila BEGGING Luz to promise to come back, with Luz interpreting her words as "stay here and NEVER return to that awful place." This caused Luz to be fearful for the future, and more fans hyper-focussing on the negatives instead of the positives. They saw a mother telling her daughter to abandon everything that made her happy when anyone with a single functioning brain cell can tell you that it's just Camila being worried about Luz and not fully grasping the whole story. She knows Luz had SOME fun in the Boiling Isles, but Camila's strong emotions at the moment caused her to fail to understand why Luz loves it. Or, at least, misconstrue the facts, thinking it was just Luz living out a fantasy, the same thing Camila sent Luz to summer camp for. It might seem weird that Camila also focuses on the negatives instead of the positives, but in fairness to Camila, the woman went through the worst thing any mother can go through: Losing contact with her child for who knows how long. I can't blame her for her judgment being clouded by everything she's going through. Still, fans clung to the negatives, too...So it's good Season Three shut them all up for good.

Season Three might as well be the season of Camila, because of all the things Season Three did right, diving deep into Camila's character is one of them. Where her first two appearances showed how much of a caring mother she can be, Season Three took it up to TEN notches. She took so many children into her home when they had nowhere else to go, stayed up late to figure out how to get them everything they could need for a happy life, acted nurturing when they had a tough time, chose violence for someone even saying ANYTHING mean about her baby, and dove head first into a dirty graveyard pond to save a child. Camila earned the title "Mother of the Year.” And she wasn't even trying. But while the season shows how kind, nurturing, and even badass Camila can be, it also had her face some mistakes. Camila wasn't bad for sending Luz away or asking her to stay home. She's a single mother who lost her husband, who probably connected to their daughter in better ways and left Camila to do everything alone. She wanted to be the best possible mom but second-guessed every decision and was unsure if she was doing the right thing. So I like that most of this season is about her trying to LEARN from these unintended mistakes, asking for advice from Luz's friends, and finally sharing with Luz the mistakes Camila made and how she now comes to regret them. What's even better is that Camila tries her best to understand Luz's world. A lot of it scares Camila and makes her uncomfortable, even years after being aware of the Isles in the epilogue, but she still puts in the effort to TRY. It's because Camila loves Luz and wants to be a part of every aspect of her life. Camila may struggle, but she still wants to try. And THAT'S what makes her the best mom.

Camila is warm, loving, and just so much fun to see. She isn't perfect, but instead of denying those imperfections, Camila chooses to confront them and TRIES to better herself. It's evidence that not every parent gets the assignment as they receive it, but they're not instantly failures because of it. Yes, there are horrible parents who refuse to change, but I like that the show teaches kids that there are those who care enough to do better. That's what Camila is, and I love the hell out of her for it.

But do you want to know her GREATEST achievement? She gave birth to the best character in the show…

Luz Noceda: Luz Noceda. Luz fickin' Noceda. A character so good that I made an entire post discussing how she's a fan-frickin'-tastic character. And even then, it felt like I barely scratched the surface of what makes her so good. I mean, how can you accurately explain everything that you love about your favorite protagonist ever? Better yet, how can you summarize it for a review that's gone long enough already? Well, I'm at least going to try...Emphasis on try.

Luz is a character that won me over instantly. The happy, goofy character is always fun for me as I think they're perfect for humor and endearing entertainment. That's Luz to a T, as her antics and attitude towards so many things cause me to smile to no fail. How can I not when she has a kind smile as a snake bites off her doll's head or when she has an argument with her hands? Luz is almost always a delight, but what's interesting about her is that while she's primarily happy and fun-loving, that doesn't make her naive or stupid. Luz has a good sense of maturity, even before her angst arc (Yeah, we'll get to that). In "Covention," I was impressed by her response to Eda's disdain about joining a coven. Luz made it clear that she understands Eda's outlook but wants to go and make her OWN decision. In fact, Luz is mature enough not to follow ALL of Eda's orders. There are times when Luz DEFINITELY should, but I like how the writers gives her enough emotional intelligence NOT to listen to ALL of Eda's wild and free ideas of anarchy. She has enough emotional intelligence to know what's right and wrong at times but is still young enough to learn more when put in danger at a time she really SHOULD have listened to Eda. Luz IS a teen, after all. She wouldn't have all the answers.

But now that we're talking about her intelligence, that's probably an aspect of Luz that's looked over the most. Because Luz is smart, and that shouldn't be an argument. It should be a fact. The girl endlessly worked on glyphs until getting them right, often having scraps of paper lying around her after past experiments. And not only is she studious, but Luz is also crafty at any moment. Some of my favorite scenes with Luz are ones where she comes up with a great plan on the spot, like how she thought up a way to brand Belos as he was killing her. It makes sense the girl wanted to try out for theater because her improvisation is on POINT. And she has the power to back it up. I said in that character analysis that Luz is powerful but not TOO powerful. My good buddy @l-egionare pointed out how I misjudged how powerful Luz CAN be, given how a single plant glyph made that big tree in "Enchanting Grom Fright" and how she wiped the floor with Emperor's Coven members and Conformitorium guards. She certainly has the power. I highlighted her intelligence more because I love characters who win fights by outthinking their opponents rather than overpowering them. The truth is, Luz, CAN do some epic stuff. She's just not AS powerful as Eda and Lilith were at their best, due to Luz having limitations to her glyphs and how she sometimes casts them. Luz can be invisible but only for as long as she holds her breath, and the strength behind her glyph depends on how much she uses and how big they are. She can do great stuff, even with very little, but nothing TOO grand until the Titan gave Luz that power boost in the finale (which I didn’t initially want, but DAMN amI not complaining). Besides, as cool as Luz CAN be, and how underappreciated that part of her is, it’s not her best feature.

I think we can all agree that the best thing about Luz Noceda is her kindness. She’s not naive enough to believe that there’s goodness deep down inside everyone. Her kindness has limits and it says something that Luz’s first instinct upon finally meeting Belos for the first time is to go for the head. While she will help others that need it, Luz will still take the violent route if you mess with those she loves. Speaking of, do you remember your favorite characters? You know all that development and growth they all went through? Do you know who’s responsible for ALL of that? Luz, that’s who. She helped reconnect Eda with her family, led King to gaining a sense of identity, helped Willow blossom into becoming more confident, indirectly helped Gus make new friends, and helped Lilith, Hunter, and ESPECIALLY Amity become their truer, better selves. They wouldn’t be who they are now without Luz, as every person she made a connection with had their lives changed for the better. And the crazy thing is that’s…not entirely mutual. Another great point my buddy @l-egionare made is that Luz’s life wasn’t doomed for the worst, and his argument has legs. Luz could have made friends like Vee did at summer camp or befriended those two kids in “Thanks to Them” who seemed to love Luz’s brand of weirdness. After high school, Luz could have also gone on to be a writer, sharing her love of fantasy to the world. Heck, she might even  fall in love with someone else one day, like with a horror nerd that loves gore and doughnuts…Just spitballing ideas here. The point is that while Luz’s friends on the Boiling Isles ABSOLUTELY need her for a happier life, she doesn’t necessarily need THEM. It’s an interesting interpretation to think about that makes Luz even BETTER. She’s a protagonist that leads others to their change and growth, which is a primary directive for most protagonists. Not only should THEY grow and change throughout the story, but they should lead the rest of the cast to do the same. It gives importance to the main character, showing just how much they’re needed for the world and the people in it…Which is why it pains Luz to find out she’s indirectly responsible for some strife too.

Like most plucky protagonists, Luz goes through an angst phase, mirroring how the show started off as light-hearted only to become darker as time went by. Luz’s angst, in particular, started in “Young Blood, Old Souls,” where a bit of Luz’s wackiness remained, but she still slowly got more serious as Season Two continued. By the time we reached “Hollow Mind,” an episode that forces Luz to realize she accidentally helped BELOS, most of Luz’s silliness and optimism became fizzled out, with damn near all of it being gone by Season Three. This is due to her seeing what Belos almost accomplished and the damage that The Collector was already capable of. Luz was accidentally and unintentionally the cause of these issues, and it broke her for reasons that ARE understandable…but they’re not justifiable. You DO get why Luz blames herself for everything that happened. She prides herself on her kindness and helping others, with the idea of being a burden crushing Luz in “Separate Tides.” So, to find out that she’s accidentally responsible for Belos, it hurts her because it makes her believe she’s a burden to EVERYONE, to the point where she believes that the Boiling Isles would be better off without her. Even though we LITERALLY just established how that’s false. There are some haters and idiots out there who do like to point out how none of Luz’s friends wouldn’t have had any strife if she never came to the Isles. Except…No. They absolutely would have. I mean, do you SERIOUSLY think Belos wouldn’t have tricked anyone else? The man pulled off a genocidal scam for DECADES. He could have easily tricked somebody else to do his dirty work for a few minutes.

“But he was driven out of too many towns! No one would trust him!”

Which is why he made a false identity to fix that problem. For all we know, he could have done it sooner.

“But Luz gave him the light glyph!”

A glyph that did nothing but offer Belos a shortcut to finish a job he was already 99% done with. Besides, he could have learned it on his own or maybe even through The Collector, who already knows that glyphs are the language of the Titans. Belos’ plan would have gone forward no matter WHAT reason you bring up. And what’s weirdly interesting is Luz’s refusal to see it. Yes, Belos could have tricked ANYBODY, but it’s still LUZ that he tricked. That guilt eats away at her and I’m kind of glad it’s not entirely resolved by the series finale. Don’t get me wrong, I want my favorite character to live the happiest life imaginable, but there’s a sense of realism that, even though she killed Belos, there’s still a bit of guilt. It’s hinted that it sticks with her years later, as she missed birthdays just so she could help rebuild the Isles. Although, that doesn’t stop Luz from living her life. She still hangs out with friends, joins her school’s softball/baseball team, and goes out with her family. Luz’s guilt is a lot like that scar above her eye. It’ll be small and hardly noticeable on some days, but it’ll still be there, as a reminder that life isn’t a fantasy.

It’s pretty ironic that Luz escaped to a fantasy world to avoid Reality Check Camp, only to get a reality check anyway. Everytime Luz tries to apply her favorite book series or pop culture to a problem she and her friends face, it always goes wrong. Within the second episode of the series, Luz learns quickly that she’s not some chosen one predestined for greatness…I mean, she kind of is, but not in a way most fantasy stories tend to play it. Luz quickly learns that her coming to the Boiling Isles was an accident, and that the environment she’s forced to adjust to isn’t as pretty as it is in her books. Things are difficult and solutions are complicated with there being no easy answers. Luz learns this throughout her adventures and grows to understand that being a witch like Azura isn’t simple. Luz even goes through a sort of identity crisis, now realizing that her dream to be a witch was always a little too vague and that she has no idea what she wants in life after the adventure’s over. It’s a compelling aspect to her character to have Luz realize that she’s not your average protagonist. So many of us want to be the main character of the world’s story, when we should realize that job would be extraordinarily difficult. Luz learned that the hard way after experiencing pain, suffering, and literal death that will haunt her nightmares for life. I wouldn’t call Luz a cautionary tale of what happens when you continue to live in a fantasy. That’s more like Marcy from Amphbia. Instead, I’d say Luz is more of a representation of a character understanding the cruelness of reality, but through a fantasy setting. We all learn best through the things that interest us, and Luz is no different. And that’s one of the MANY reasons to love her.

I could go on and on about how much I adore Luz alone. And probably would if this thing wasn’t THIRTY-THREE PAGES LONG! And you can’t blame me. She’s my favorite protagonist in anything, and is definitely up there as one of my favorite fictional characters. There might be problems with her character, but I’m more than willing to overlook them because of how much I enjoy Luz and the journey she went on. She is flawless in my eyes, and I will never look at her in a negative light no matter who tries to make me.

And that’s it. That’s EVERY IMPORTANT CHARACTER in The Owl House…My goodness.

As you can probably tell, there’s a LOT of characters here. One could argue too many, as it becomes evident that a few of them could be better if the show had more time to let some of them grow. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a world where The Owl House had three full seasons and all the time in the world to let all its characters blossom into their beautiful selves. But with that said, there aren’t any characters in the show that I’m willing to call bad.

Okay, Tibbles is still inadequate, but he’s still not the worst. None of them are. If any character is lower than the other, it’s due to them being unable to compare to the rest of the show’s standard. Because The Owl House managed to have an expansive cast of lovable, endearing, and complex characters, with a lot of them worth a deep-dive analysis of their own. I can’t get enough of them and they will stick with me for a while.

But as great as these characters are…how well do they work TOGETHER?

Tune into part two, and I might just tell you.

Next part

[almaadst]

Which art do you like best? (´∀｀)♡

This is my second year in which I made a living just from my artwork and I'm SO grateful for that! ✨ I improved my commission schedule this year, I have always someone on my waiting list and I didn't have to take a break due to a lack of customers! Also, I'm happy with how my artwork looks but still want to improve it, and - my biggest struggle - I want to start drawing for myself. I bought a drawing tablet recently and I hope it helps me with it! 🤲

But let’s do a little rewind! As usual, almost all my artworks are commissioned work but in January I was posting redraws of my OCs which I didn't upload last year - I have to get back to those it was so much fun! This year I did more fanfiction covers (February, August, November, December) - which I LOVE to draw and I added this option to my commission info! Also did more illustrations with more than two characters (April, May) which is always challenging - especially interaction between them - but group pics were something I always I wanted to do more. I also did a few things for myself (June) including my OCs which is always refreshing to get back to my own creations. The next thing I enjoy making are "comic pages" (July, September) It makes storytelling in art much easier and fun, maybe I should make a proper comic page in the new year? And I have to mention making Bleach-related staff (March, October) as a long Bleach fan I still can't believe we have a new anime season, and making artwork connected to character design is something I would like to expand in 2024. Unfortunately, I didn't do any art raffles and art challenges this year and it's something I find joy in so I definitely have to go back to it! ~ I didn't really meet my last year's art resolutions so I will not try to force myself to do anything this year lol But I hope I will still do what brings me joy and this is what I wish for you too!

Thank you for being here, Alex 🌷

Other: Art Summary of 2022 Art Summary of 2021 Art Summary of 2020 Art Summary of 2018 Art Summary of 2017

[reignfchainscomics]

I'm curious, was your plan always to shift away from TLK and move into Reign of Chains when you started writing Broken Crown? I'm very excited for what comes next but I'm also a bit confused (though I'm sure future pages will make me less confused so I'm on the edge of my seat) as there's still some things unresolved in the Broken Crown universe. I know you probably can't say much due to spoilers but! I appreciate anything you can say and I want you to know how much I love your comics! Tysm!

Thank you so much <3 <3

So, no... But yes. When I first started Broken Crown in 2018 I didn't even know if I was going to be able to stick to regular uploads or if it was going to be one of those projects that got maybe a few pages in before fading off. That happens to a lot of comics and it's not a ding to any project - writing and drawing and keeping motivation going is hard and it's something you really have to practice to stay on top of.

Heck I think if you look at upload dates from the early pages there were hiatus periods of a couple months where I thought I had given up on continuing. ngl back then I used spite towards myself as a motivator to pick the comic back up, it was a personal goal of mine to not quit entirely.

I've known since sometime around 2020 that I wanted to do Broken Crown as an original story that didn't end with putting the TLK cast where they needed to be in order for the movie canon to still be possible. I think (and this is me musing to the best of my memory since I didn't think to record my thought process at the time) that I spent a chunk of that year debating what to do about that and, if I were to go through with it, how I could go about doing it.

From 2021-2022 I did a lot of thinking and plotting about the hows and whys, and 2023 did the 'heavy lifting' prepping for the change officially.

I'm really, REALLY excited to finally be putting all of this out there publicly now!!

[myonmukyuu]

Art Summary: 2022

It's that time of year again! This makes my 9th year of art summaries... Kind of insane to think about.

It's been a very eventful year and I have a lot to say. Extended art performance review under the cut 👌 (3k words lmao)

Previous: 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021

ABOUT THE COMIC:

So! What happened this year? Well, my book happened. I'm not sure if anything else happened ahfhasjkdkasf

See, I actually cheated this art summary a tiny bit. Usually I use the upload date of the art to place it in the summary. But if I did that for this year, there would be at least 4 blank spots. That's why February, April and May all feature different pages of the same comic (CH 9).

I really did spend the first half of the year finishing my comic. I only released 2 chapters too (the finale and the epilogue). In March I took a week and a half off to work on a short for Ayumu's birthday, but otherwise slaved all the way until June for the webcomic.

Then I spent July and August doing all of the redrawing and edits required for a physical release. Those who have a copy of my book might already know but the first two chapters have been redrawn. I also had to go through the entire comic, fixing it so that it could actually be printed (because the webcomic version definitely can't be printed as it is.) It was super time-consuming. Like, I can't even begin to describe. Moving forward I'll try to draw every comic so that it's printable from the beginning so I don't have to deal with reformatting ever again...

I'm pretty sure it was in August that I had the first copy of the book done. Then the preordering period opened in Septemeber... and now we're here! People are just now starting to receive their books. Sorry it took so long guys ;w;

I'm very happy though... Depending on who you ask, 100 sales might not be a lot, but it's a lot to me. To think that so many people would spend the money to buy this kind of product is just so surprising to me... It's expensive and all of the content is already available to read for free!!! So it's really surprising and I'm so incredibly grateful. That's why I went through the trouble of creating that golden special print for everyone! It was quite a bit of money out of my pocket, but I really wanted to show my appreciation.

As a side note, the 100 sales were really exhausting to pack. My body was sore in November because of it LMAO

So I'd say this year was great for my comic! Both its webcomic finale and its physical release. But this summary isn't meant to be about my comic, it's supposed to be about my art and me as an artist.

ABOUT MY ART:

So how did my art go this year?

Looking back I feel nothing but exhaustion. I know I'm happy to have my comic released but, my body and mind is still very very tired. I feel like I took at least 2-3 weeks off or more from work throughout the year to keep the comic on track. It's just a huge undertaking.

What I'm getting at is I feel a tired and... a little disappointed. But don't get me wrong, I don't feel regret! It's just that... well every artist draws for their own reasons. For me, I love getting my ideas and stories out there. So I guess I felt creatively-starved spending about half a year polishing and releasing an already-complete product. Also technically starved - you don't really see much improvement if all you're doing is cleaning up art. I didn't really have a lot of time to draw because of the physical release so I often felt like I wasn't doing enough.

And honestly that's my main sentiment. While I feel happy and satisfied with releasing the book, another part of me feels like she didn't do enough.

In terms of technical skill, I definitely saw improvement this year. It's like something clicked in me and I had a better understanding of atmospheric lighting. CH 9 and the epilogue are probably some of my favourite bits of colouring I've ever done. I just love how it turned out. In CH 9, the gradual setting of the sun to create this orange/pink/purple colour palette was so fun to implement. And in the Epilogue, this blue/green/yellow rainy day came out perfectly. It was a rainy day, but unlike CH 7, it wasn't a dreary downpour but something more hopeful instead. I have a love for creating atmosphere and especially through colour. And I think I did well there.

In the realm of black/white, I also feel lots of improvement! I'm becoming more confident with monochrome and am starting to push it further. I'm not satisfied with my skill level, but I think it's promising. I may be more confident with creating tone through colour, but I'm sure I can do the same without it!

This year I also did quite a bit of painting. I really love how the October and November artworks came out. Honestly it was around this point in the year, I had the most time to output works as the only comic work I had to do was purely admin (until I started packaging things in November). I could go into technical depth, but this post is long enough. Just know that I'm happy with the little leaps my colouring skills made.

GOALS FOR 2022:

For my art summaries, I've been doing a performance review styled thing where I create goals for the upcoming year. Let's take a look at what goals I wrote for 2022 and how I went with them.

“I want to finish my comic series”

Passed with flying colours! I think the comic release was a success. This goal is a little cheap of a goal though, since I don't think I'd let myself live it down if I gave up.

“I also want to continue to try things that are outside of my comfort zone. I want to see myself try things like different angles/perspectives and more complex backgrounds.”

Now this goal... I think I made progress here. I'm not sure if people noticed but I did definitely try to slip in different angles here and there. I'm particularly good at them... but I'm trying! And I think that's the least I can do. You won't get good at something if you don't try after all. That being said, I should push backgrounds more... I rarely do them 😅

"I want to do more illustrations/quick drawings on top of my comic work."

My comic work was suffocating a lot of the time. But I did try to draw on top of it. I haven't really talked about it, nor shown anyone, but I started learning copic markers this year (borrowed my friend's set!). So in the background I've been doing 30-60 minute traditional art exercises. I'm not terribly diligent, but diligent enough that I already think it's made an impact on my art. See, I'm only doing monochrome copic markers (I'm not confident enough to do colour just yet). I'm pretty sure doing monochrome markers has helped me with my manga skills 😂. I have a better understanding of tones and values because of it! Isn't that kind of amazing? Come to think of it, it's linked to the next goals.

"I want to learn to paint."

"I want to learn to draw faster."

While I still have a long way to go, somehow my marker exercises have helped me with these too. The understanding of tones/values has made an impact on coloured work and painting as well. And because I'm doing shorter pieces, my speed has increased a tiny bit. I'm sure if I keep at it, I can continue to develop better habits!

"I want to draft more quickly and be smarter about it."

Now this goal is something I have just been trying to mentally direct myself to. It's working... a little bit. I still need to try harder.

See, I think my drafting process is really slow and inefficient. This results in me spending too much time drawing a comic because I've drafted like 5 extraneous pages. If I wanna increase my output and lower my workload, I have to learn to be more clever with how I compose each page. I think I got a tiny bit better. Need to work harder on that for sure (it's quite hard to just "learn" though...)

MOVING FORWARD:

With the past year in mind, how do I want 2023 to go? To be honest, I still feel so exhausted because of 2022, I definitely need some time to recover, so let's not go too crazy next year.

But before I create my next goals, I wanted to talk about where I want to go in general - the grand scheme of things. Like I mentioned, I feel a lot of disappointment, like I wasn't doing enough. Which is contradictory because I also feel like I did too much with how exhausted I am... But the source of that disappointment is really tied in with how I feel about my art skill on a technical level.

I'm nearing a whole decade of hobby artist experience. And I don't feel like my art shows it. While there are things that I am better at, there's so much that I struggle with.

I want to become better. I want to improve.

It's hard to explain but I feel like I'm not doing the best I can for the stories I want to tell if I don't keep pushing and learning. And I love what I make, so I want to do those stories justice.

So it's really important to me that I keep trying to improve.

In the long term, I think my dream is to be like a pro-manga artist. Please don't make fun of me LMFAO. But there's more to it. See, I don't actually want to be a pro artist. I never want to compromise my creative vision for the sake of pandering to an audience. I sincerely think I wouldn't be able to succeed without doing that so I'm content with drawing as a hobby. A programmer as my day job and a manga artist by night...

I want to be as skilled as a pro some day though.

To be honest, I think the distance is so great that it's basically impossible. So my true goal is a little lower than that.

My true long-term goal is to be... a little comparable to a pro.

And I don't think I'm at that point. And I don't want to use "being a hobbyist" as an excuse to allow myself to remain like this.

I think it's terrifying actually. Where I'm at with my art.

I'm really happy people enjoy it, and don't get me wrong - I love my own work. I love drawing. But I think it's important to be critical of it - if I want to be able to reach my goals.

I think if people read this far, they might be thinking something like "but you're already so good!" or something to that effect. But I don't think it's true.

I think it's terrifying because there's so much I'm not good at. Comics are scary because they're an amalgamation of so many different skillsets. I possess some of these skills but there's just so many different ways that I feel that I'm lacking.

For instance, my art itself has such stiff lines. I'm not great at perspective. My art isn't dynamic. And this is just a few examples of stuff related to my illustration skills.

But comics are more than that.

There's the individual panel compositions that come together to create a unifying page composition. The visual flow - controlling how the reader scans the page. The storytelling skills - pacing, dialogue, story beats. The dialogue writing skills. The typesetting.

I think there's so many places I'm weak with and it's scary because it's difficult to just pick something to improve at when it feels like everything is wrong at once. It's so easy for me to pick up some manga from a shelf, flick through and think "this artist does x better than me, how can I learn from them?" but learning is hard and I'm not good at it so I'm just stuck with this awareness that I could be better.

But at the end of the day, I just have to pick a direction and go, right? I think that's all I can do and that's okay. It's just hard to shake the feeling of drowning in my own mediocrity.

Sorry I didn't mean to bring down the mood of this art summary.

I promise that at the end of the day that I love drawing. This is just my overly-critical side shining through. I don't have too much natural talent, just a very stubborn mind. I kind of need to be critical so I can push myself in the right direction. And I'm fairly happy with the way I've been pushing myself through these past years.

I'm not particularly fussed if my works receive a lot of traction or not because what's most important to me is the way I see my own work. My personal satisfaction.

And that's just tied with doing the best I can!

So with that in mind...

GOALS FOR 2023:

"Improve at atmospheric lighting"

This isn't particularly ambitious because it's something I'm already working on, but I know I can push lighting even further. So expect to see me experimenting more and more!

"Participate in a paid online course"

Now this is linked to my wall of text just now. I feel very overwhelmed so I think having an unbiased and experienced teacher's guidance could be valuable. I'm eyeing ones that include personalised feedback. The only concern is that it's hard to find the time for things like this when I work full-time.

Also it's a bit scary having a professional roast me, but I think it'd be good for me.

"Continue to practise traditionally"

This is linked to all of my technical art gripes. I think continuing to do traditional art exercises will help me with a lot of my weak points.

"Continue to be ambitious with art"

I don't mean ambition on a work-load level, but I want to continue to push out of my comfort-zone. Keep trying those weird angles and backgrounds, be more experimental!

"Start planning that next story"

I always have a billion different story ideas in my back pocket that I am itching to tell. I also don't wanna die of overwork though. So lets keep the bar low.

I have many great ideas, so I want to start outlining the next one! This is just a vague goal to remind myself to keep thinking ahead.

"Rest up."

I think this is the most important goal. Like I said I feel completely and utterly exhausted this year.

So I want Myon in 2023 to have more time for herself. Improve her health, catch up with her relationships, spend more time watching movies and playing video games.

Don't work too hard next year.

EXTRA REFLECTION:

I seriously don't know if anyone actually reads these reflections. I wonder what kind of person I come off across... (probably a try-hard 😂)

I wanted to talk about one more thing. It's not really linked to goals, just the future in general.

So I've been drawing for Nijigasaki for 2 years now. I think a lot of people are moving on from it though.

To be honest, I think that's okay. I'm kind of used to the people around me shifting into new interests. I think I'll still be with Niji for a long time to come. I just have a lot of large scale ideas and will probably stick with them unless something sweeps me off my feet.

I mean, even if my ideas take too long to actualise while I'm interested in Niji, I'm also open to converting things into original content. There are just so many stories to tell...

It makes me wonder why my readers enjoy my work and how they interact with it? Are people a fan of me? The ship/characters/fandom? Or the stories?

Probably some mix of the above. It's not terribly important why though.

I'm sorry that I'm not very good at keeping up with everyone's interests. I think the world moves too quickly and I draw too slow and I can barely keep up. But I'm a bit too stubborn with my own desires so I keep working on my own things without another thought. So maybe that apology is a bit empty eheh

But I hope people will continue to enjoy the stories that I make.

I should be less harsh on myself though. 9 years of art isn't something to just shrug off.

Anyways, before I keep rambling. Happy new year everyone. Let's keep working hard in 2023!

[rontra]

your art is making me go absolutely feral about wondermagic. I never looked at Zatanna comics before (or much comics in general), do you have any recommendations on where to start? I need more of this funky gay stage magician and her huge dork girlfriend in my life.

oh god. I MEAN first of all YES!!!!! WONDERMAGIC W!!!!!!! im so happy to hear it. they make me actually crazy im glad youre enjoying The Art

however SECOND OF ALL i must confess (as i have confessed before!) that i am a fake ass comic book fan. i've barely read Anything for Any character (LOL) i am not at ALL versed in her various appearances/history. so tbh i hope my more knowledgeable followers can drop recs for both me and you if there's anything particularly noteworthy

but i can talk about what i HAVE read bc my journey with her has been very . memorable to me. THIS IS NOT A HELPFUL POST this is just me infodumping--AT LENGTH--about my and zatanna's relationship. but i do talk a little about what ive read. like casual rontra followers can stop reading here its just rambling

anyway my first exposure to ms zatanna was in the first proper dc comic i ever read. which doesnt count because its extremely not about her (this is a tangent) but its notable for making me out loud go "who is this MAGICIAN" which prompted my partner to immediately reply "you mean zatanna zatara". oh you know her. you know the magician. bitch who the hell is--

you gotta appreciate the experience here. its babys first ever comic. i know superman i know batman ive seen them around (from being alive as a human). i have never in my life heard of the stage magician who hangs out with them (in full costume??) and is their friend(?????)

SHES VERY MEMORABLE. WHO THE HELL IS THIS MAGICIAN

anyway that's all a tangent. flash forwards to last month. i was already working on CTDE from the kara^2 angle (bc i majored in n52 power girl w a minor degree in supergirl: woman of tomorrow, of course) but i was like "i should expand this roster". my friends suggest their blorbos ofc and i have a fun time reading wiki pages from multiple storylines/continuities just getting a wide array of impressions from different places. just snooping around the Vibes. and im like. man i should look at that Magician. read some of HER pages

you gotta appreciate knowing nothing at like 3am, to figuring out ctde zatanna's palette at 5:43 am

i can't resist her.

anyway i already knew here that i was going to do something weird with her in the CTDE that wasn't necessarily connected to any of her published material. i was cooking independently. the stove was on before i had ingredients on hand bc i had the IDEA first. but i was like "i should look at some of her stuff first-hand and try and refine the Vibes" yknow. like theres limits to how much of a fake zatanna fan i can be

so we put out a call in the Mutuals Network and someone was like "you Could watch the justice league dark movie from 2017 she's in that". i was like ok 1hr15 animated movie i can handle that EASY

i didn't love the movie. so i'm not going to say anything else about it. however something VERY IMPORTANT TO NOTE:

thats right. wondermagic took hold before i read a single zatanna comic. just as it has for you anon.... we're not so different you and i...

couple days pass. im just relaxing. hanging out. looking at random tumblr blogs that post comic stuff bc im curious. so i stumble on this one post and it has a clean edit of This Fateful Image 👇

this. GODDAMN image

i was like Wonder Woman is HOW TALL? excuse ME? (>he has also never engaged with a single piece of wonder woman content)

SHES SO TALL........??? and Next To Zatanna? (diesel voice) back in my day we called this spitting distance. and we would post it on /u/

im like okay what comic is this from im going there and im going NOW. to view her. like it's that easy folks. just show me wonder woman, Tall, next to another woman. and i'll go read it

nyway this is Justice League Dark from 2018-2020 it's like 30 issues or so and theres a stretch of chapters where diana is a real hunk its unbelievable. then the art changes but it was amazing while it lasted

(and then i immediately stumbled and wondermagic ctde real)

i really enjoyed this comic actually. i have NO idea how its generally regarded by zatanna nation, but i had a fun enough time. absorbed a lot of DC Comics Magic Lore for my AU which is important

at some point it starts doing Weirdly Umineko Coded dialogue totally unprompted so if you've read that it might tickle your funnybone to see comic book characters asking each other "was this a trick or was it magic 😏". made me feel right at home

my main complaint is that SHE'S NOT DRESSED LIKE A FUCKING MAGICIAN IN IT!!!! COME ON!!!!! they chickened out on the full magician garb in this whole era. which is just so sad. the fishnet fingerless gloves are funny though i might steal that. but i think she is so funny when she's wearing the full magician costume. like call me shallow but her commitment to the bit is so important to me

on the upside she interacts with wonder woman A Lot. the rest of the team is fun too. the justice league dark team is just wonder woman severely failing to put together a squad with any star power at all and i think that's adorable. her failgirl era. now she's out here with her also-rans. i like them all im fond of them

diana scruffs zee like a cat??? she's just hanging there like she's ok with it LOL

it technically jumps off of another comic but tbh if you're willing to hit the ground running and just Accept some stuff in medias res and go with it it's pretty easy to pick up if you wanted

("Just Going With It" is a vital survival skill for getting into comics in general because even if a comic isn't part of a longer continuity its always like "omg glup shitto is here!!! for the fans!!!" and you just have to be like Okay someone else will know who that is. ill just go w it. yknow 😭)

anyway i got a lot of DC Magic Lore (Strangely Familiar Edition) and Zee Content AND!!! Wondermagic Content. in this one. so even if i had an inkling about them before, this comic is really what detonated the charge so to speak. they interact so much

and the dynamic created w their relationship to magic and stuff is really interesting. brainwormy for sure. it took me from "who the hell is this magician" to "DO PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT WONDERMAGIC????? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HELLO???" in one comic. i have a LOT of thoughts about them like genuinely i think there's meat on the bone conceptually for wondermagic

but i think pretty much any time they appear together in general they're just Like That. whenever theyre both in a comic they have to be gay about it (what the fuck did she mean by this). i was losing my mind when i was catching up on DC/RWBY (ABHORRED. avoid if possible) and zatanna is immediately on her bullshit again. IS THAT HOW YOU GREET HER

anyway to sum up my rambling here's a peek into my league of comic geeks library of Shit Ive Read Since Then (that had zee in it). basically i have no further wisdom for you but for the knowers this is where i'm at (click to enlarge)

it's a totally random selection LOL my strategy is that i look at comics that list her as a cast member and spin an actual roulette wheel in my brain to decide whether i should read it or not. there's very little else going on here. just monkey sees funny magician -> neuron activates

that pretty much catches us up on my zatanna journey. youll notice if you paid attention to the date/time stamps that it took a mere matter of Days to go from "yeah i can watch a movie" to "i think about her kissing women every night before i sleep". it is DIRE in here. im not sure ive ever had such a Severe escalation of worms

i love her. she's my funny girl. anyway. zatanna nation. if you're still reading this. if you're still with me. what is your wisdom. what should me and anon read. please.

this is a matter of international consequences.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Hey CJ 👋 I hope you’re doing well in life.

I’m on the same page as you, when it comes to taking a step back from TWDG & the fandom. And, coming back to the games after sometime & seeing it in a different light. Some things that didn’t click with you back then, makes a bit more sense now.

Also, I’m curious.. what are thoughts on true colors? Steph & Ryan? 👀

Hello, my friend! 👋 Been a while! But yeah, I'm doing fine; a lot of the usual work with writing fic and blog posts in between.

Yeah it's funny to step away from a fandom you're so engrossed in for so long, like twdg was such a huge part of my life back in 2018-2020 with me running this blog, writing fic, and streaming. Now I'm just in a completely different headspace in general, and looking at the games now, they're still amazing but my reasonings are different. Also I talk about the comics a lot, which isn't something I would've guessed I'd be doing. If you go back to when they were announced, I made posts being like "yeeeeeah I dunno if I'm gonna read them :/" jokes on me. I read them multiple times, I need to make that useful haha.

As for LiS True Colors, I actually super loved it?? way more than I ever did the first LiS game?? though I think I might've loved it for the wrong reasons. I don't know, I haven't actually looked into what LiS fans thought of it compared to the other games, but for me it was a "perfect time, perfect place" game in the moment. To me the whole thing was nearly a perfect escapism game; the music is an A+, the entire town is gorgeous and covered in flowers and woods, Alex gets to live in a nice apartment for free [the true fantasy], there's a whole LARP campaign to play through, a flower festival where I've never been so conflicted on who to give a rose to, and overall just the coziest vibes. I swear, I spent most of the game just wandering around the town looking at all the flowers, it was great.

Like if Gabe didn't die and True Colors was just about Alex moving to this fantasy-like small town and working through her issues with the help of her powers, I would've been 100% on board. I didn't mind the mystery, though I totally guessed Jed would be the twist villain given the first episode immediately presents him as a hero who saved a bunch of people in the mines, I was like "Oh did he now... mmhmmm mmhmmm and he's Ryan's dad, oohhh he's gonna be this game's Jefferson-" except he was done better than Jefferson imo. He didn't turn into a cartoon character and his motivations behind the cover up were interesting. He didn't do it for the aesthetic like Jefferson did. And in the end I got everyone to side with me, except Charlotte because I told her to take the money so she wanted to speak out but couldn't, which was honestly fine with me like take their money, send Ethan to college, we'll stab Typhon just fine without your vocal support.

I liked most of the characters, except for Diane and Mac, though I reluctantly disliked Mac less by the end... Diane can suck an egg, though. I don't think I've ever wanted to throw a character out a window more than when Alex came back all bloodied with a bullet wound on her head as she exposed the truth and when she asks why no one's saying anything, Diane just goes, "We don't want to embarrass you" kjlkajdslkjalkjdl LADY DON'T PISS ME OFF

As for Ryan and Steph, I liked them both, trying to choose between them was absurdly difficult. It was like True Colors saw how easily I picked between Louis and Violet and took it as a challenge to create Ryan and Steph specifically to stump me. I mean, soft boy who loves nature, goes out of his way to be kind and helpful to those around him, has a slow build up to being emotionally available with someone he trusts, and has some daddy issues? A girl with pretty brown eyes who loves DnD and LARP, has a passion for music and will deflect with humor, who knows who she is and is eager to help those around her, and who isn't just another rehash of Chloe? They knew what they were doing; they dressed Steph up in as a witch after having Ryan act like a goof acting like enemy creatures, they were made for me.

Having done both routes, I do prefer Steph. I adore her and Alex together, but Alex and Ryan are super cute, too.

It's not a perfect game and there are issues in the writing but honestly, I don't care. I had a good time. I was engaged. I looked at every single flower and kissed a pretty girl so good that the world exploded. What a great game.

[micahdraws]

What Micah's been up to

It's been about four years since Tumblr put up that ill-advised NSFW ban and led me to leave "forever." I honestly didn't think I'd come back. I started gaining a lot of momentum on Twitter and I'd been growing dissatisfied with Tumblr on the whole. At the time I was looking for a reason to leave and the carte-blanche NSFW ban was the nail in the coffin. I still don't fully trust Tumblr's admin, but they're allowing the kind of art I do again and my past frustrations with Tumblr don't need to be covered here.

So here are some of the things I've done the last few years!

Calendar projects!

Since 2018, I have produced four illustrated calendars that funded on Kickstarter! I started with the 2019 Hunks & Myth Calendar, which featured shirtless men from around the world carrying cute baby versions of mythological creatures!

I followed that up with the 2020 Hunks & Myth Calendar, which had mythological men and baby animals. That one was successful but not as big as the prior year. Fortunately, it was pre-covid, so I can tell it was less about the life circumstances and more about the subject itself. Just wasn't as in-demand, which is okay! Live and learn.

I took a year off from calendars and then put together the 2022 Coffeehouse Hunks Calendar! This one featured twelve coffee recipes you can make at home, all accompanied by a sort of "gijinka" hunk of that coffee drink! This one did VERY well and it was very encouraging to see it go so hard.

The Coffeehouse Hunks' success led me to create this year's calendar project, the 2023 Cocktail Hunks Calendar! The Cocktail Hunks followed the Coffeehouse theme -- a series of cocktail recipes accompanied by a "gijinka" of that drink. This was even more fun and it's been great to see how my art has evolved since the first calendar -- since the 2022 calendar, even! The Cocktail Hunks far surpassed my expectations and it feels really, really good to see so many people interested in my work like this!

If any of you are interested in the Cocktail Hunks Calendar, or recipe cards for either the Cocktails or Coffeehouse Hunks, I do have copies that I'll be posting for sale soon. So please keep an eye out for that!

The Sparrow

The year 2021 marked another big, big, big spike in my artistic career. It's when I ran and funded the Kickstarter for the Sparrow!

Some of you may remember I was still working on the Sparrow even before I left Tumblr. A lot has changed, a lot has grown out of it, a lot has happened, and thanks to Kickstarter support, I was able to fund the Sparrow's very first print run! A whole 70 pages of comics plus some bonus content like character interviews, RPG character sheets and profiles, and more.

I'm in the midst of making Book 2 right now. It'll be a while before I finish that, but you wouldn't believe how amazing it was to see so many people back the Sparrow, a book many of them had never heard of. Honestly, it was a little overwhelming, and it's amazing that I still get people interested in buying at cons and the like.

You can get a PDF version of the Sparrow on my Gumroad shop or read the whole thing on my Sparrow website. It's like Percy Jackson meets the X-Men but more gay :D

Other things

The Sparrow and the Calendars have been my biggest projects the last few years. But some other things I've worked on include:

Soldier/Sailor: A gay superhero oneshot -- This 20-page one-shot was written by Andrew Wheeler (Sins of Black Flamingo, Marvel Voices: Pride, etc.) and drawn by me. It follows the story of Jacob, aka Warrior One, as he reunites with his old lover Armon, Prince of Atlantis.

The Strapping Lads: A D&D Supplement - Twelve classes, twelve men, all ready for your D&D campaign. I put this together for FlameCon 2019 and it went over pretty well >:]

Mutants and Masterminds: Parade Route - I got hired to do the cover art for this Mutants and Masterminds RPG supplement! This illustration features the gay man Johnny Rocket supporting teammate and trans woman Lady Liberty as she attends her first Pride as both an openly queer person and a superhero!

I think there's more that's happened but those are some of my big highlights for the last few years. I'll also post some of my backlog here over the next while, once I have a chance to schedule in some posting. I hope you enjoy, and thank you to everyone that is still here and remembers lil ol' me!

[psionotic]

My favorite culture, 2022

I haven’t posted to this thing in years, and I’m not even sure if I have any followers left. But in any case, here are some of my favorite new (or new to me) things in what was probably the most difficult year of my adult life...? -Paper-

Mexican Gothic (2021). Sure, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s novel is basically a postcolonial mélange of “The Fall of the House of Usher”, Jane Eyre, and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, with a little dash of Lovecraft, but it absorbed and upset and disturbed me throughout.

The Priory of the Orange Tree (2020). A queer retelling of “St. George and the Dragon” within a mix of eastern and western fantasy, Samantha Shannon’s novel is full of delightful characters and magical hijinks.

The Three-Body Problem (2016). I mostly hated Cixin Liu’s Cultural Revolution-inspired anti-Contact while I was reading it. The characters are awful, both in their limited development and in their naked, selfish cruelty. The narrator is detached, looking down upon us from some distant star, without a care for those characters or for humanity generally. It is so profoundly cynical and pessimistic, at one point I almost threw it across the room. But then I kept reading and made it all the way to the end, frustrated and horrified all the while, and… I haven’t been able to shake this book since I’ve finished it. It’s burrowed its way into my psyche and won’t wend its way back out. Read/avoid at all costs.

I also enjoyed: The Windup Girl (2009), Gideon the Ninth (2020), Winter Tide (2018)

I was bummed out by: The Testaments (2019)

-Funny Pages-

Runaways volumes 1 – 5 (2018-). I put off reading this for years, because I’m so attached to BKV’s original run, and those that have followed in his footsteps have tripped over their imprint. But YA author Rainbow Rowell proved me wrong, letting me fall in love with these characters all over again.

Something is Killing the Children volumes 1 & 2 (2020-). Tynion and Dell’edera’s gothic monster slaying comic is a little X-Files, a bit Buffy, a smidge Sabrina, and basically a whole lot of the things I like.

Vision volumes 1 & 2 (2016). I read Tom King’s sad, wonderful run of Mister Miracle last year. This series (a partial inspiration for WandaVision) centers on the titular robot’s attempt to build himself a wife, two children, and a dog—the perfect American family. Things quickly go very very wrong in some ways that of course involve superhero shenanigans, but just as in MM and WV, the story zeroes in on the smaller tragedies of its misfit toys/wanna-be-real-boys inability to ever belong. 

-Movers-

Nope. Jordan Peele’s horror films become more diffuse in their themes and criticisms with each new installment, and many were apparently disappointed by Nope, but it really worked for me. Alien invasion story? Fable about our relationship to nature? A commentary on what we sacrifice to glut the slavering maw of spectacle? In any case, the film’s elusiveness is perhaps its great strength, and I went on thinking about it for months after seeing it.

Werewolf By Night. A direct-to-Disney Plus Marvel holiday short, featuring a character called The Man-Thing would not seem to promise much, but composer Michael Giacchino’s love letter to classic Universal monster movies is so focused, so economical, so un-tethered and therefore un-burdened by the MCU juggernaut (not Juggernaut) that I was just completely taken by it. Elsa, Jack, and Ted forever.

The Northman. Robert Eggers’ third film does everything his first two do, albeit on a larger scale: A particular/peculiar view of the past through the eyes of rejects and outsiders? Check. Long close-ups of actors staring intensely into the camera? Check. The presence of Anna Taylor-Joy and/or Willem Dafoe? Double check. It’s of course very possible that in a few years Eggers will descend into self-parody and become widely belittled for his repeating concerns and stylisms, but I for one am on board ‘til the longship sinks. (Also, I’d just like to point out that Taylor-Joy is an immortal mystical being, and all of her ‘characters’ are just different guises she takes throughout history. Do the research and follow the signs, you know this to be true.)

Glass Onion. Rian Johnson can’t miss. The Last Jedi was easily the best modern Star Wars movie (duel me). Knives Out was a titanic hit, beloved by audiences and critics. Follow-up Glass Onion is just as tight and fun, and it heavily features Janelle Monae, which is obviously a double-plus. It’s also quite timely, with characters resembling some of our time’s most obnoxious and narcissistic Main Characters.

I also enjoyed: Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, Prey, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, It Follows (2015) I was bummed out by: Thor: Love and Thunder  

-Telefusion-

Andor. It’s hard to sell anything Star Wars to those who aren’t already there. Long-time fans largely aren’t to be trusted, and I say this as one of them. For the already initiated/indoctrinated, the current wealth of SW content would seem to be everything we’ve ever wanted. No doubt that it is for some, but for me, at least, for every worthwhile product (The Last Jedi, The Mandalorian’s first season), we have been given a Book of Boba Fett or The Bad Batch or—force help us—The Rise of Skywalker. The problem with Star Wars is its caretakers have become increasingly terrified of doing anything new or interesting lest the fanboys strike back. As a result, so much of what is produced is nostalgia porn and easter-egg bait, endless fodder for YouTube channels churning out videos like “37 things you missed in Obi-Wan!”, and the effect of most of it is just to continually remind us of better movies made 40 years ago, to which all new content eternally apes and refers back to. It’s just terminally up its own tauntaun. Not Andor, though. Showrunner and head writer Tony Gilroy doesn’t like Star Wars. And this is evident watching the show—a show with no space wizards, no muppets, no Skywalkers or Solos or really anything that reminds the viewer of what’s come before. The villains in Andor are bureaucrats and pencil pushers simply upholding a system that benefits them; the heroes are not chosen ones from a Joseph Campbell diatribe, but ordinary people just trying to live their lives under creeping authoritarianism. There is some action—a heist and a prison break are highlights—but mostly it’s a political thriller, with a writer’s room built from veterans of Michael Clayton, The Americans, and House of Cards. Andor is brutal and bloody and timely and occasionally even hopeful. It is, as Lisa Simpson once said, “what I believe in now.”

Severance. Part corporate conspiracy thriller, part allegory on the meaningless of modern work and the cheap mythology of the great man entrepreneur, completely riveting. The finale simultaneously spools out four separate cliffhangers, making for the most anxious hour of TV I saw all year.

The Sandman. But isn’t this just a pretty-faithful live-action adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s classic and probably superior comic? I mean, yeah, that’s it, that’s the show, and honestly it’s all I ever wanted.

Interview with the Vampire. AMC’s adaptation is both exceedingly faithful and revisionist, and if that sounds paradoxical, well, as the great man said, “Very well then I contradict myself”. The core of Rice’s story remains untouched, while the concerns have been expanded to illumine American racial and sexual politics, life under the pandemic, and more. And that cast is incredible.

Players. This mockumentary by the creators of American Vandal explores professional eSports, following a team of League of Legends players over the course of one turbulent season. It’s a sports story, and a satire, and a character piece, and beyond all expectation the most heartwarming thing I watched all year.

I also enjoyed: Ghosts, What We Do in the Shadows, Our Flag Means Death, Wednesday, Stranger Things 4, She-Hulk, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Ms. Marvel, Lego Masters, How to Change Your Mind, Heartstopper, Murderville, Moon Knight, Star Wars: Visions, Light and Magic, Nailed It!, Rings of Power, The Wheel of Time, House of the Dragon, Get Up

I need to catch up on: Atlanta, Reservation Dogs, Derry Girls, Station Eleven

I was bummed out by: Obi-Wan 

-Pixel-o-Games-

Elden Ring. I played FROM Software’s newest opus three separate times this year, about 300 hours. I’m not sure that it’s my favorite of their games (that’s still Bloodborne), but you could make a real argument that it’s their best.

Fortnite: Zero Build. For about three months I played Fortnite. A lot of Fornite. I never thought I’d be one of those people who plays Fortnite. But I was, all summer. The new-ish no build mode means that even newb-plebs like me can occasionally win. Still the best monetization model of any free-to-play game: I spent $10 and played for about 100 hours.

Marvel Snap! A collectible card game for those who are bad at collectible card games. That means me. I’m bad at collectible card games. But the fast matches, equalizing random battlefields, and generous card distribution and monetization (I have spent a total of $2.99 over about 75 hours) makes this thing addictive as hell. Speaking of, I just got Magik, the greatest comic book character of all time.

I also enjoyed God of War: Ragnarok, V Rising, Vampire Survivors, Resident Evil Village: Shadows of Rose, Stray, The Past Within, Dicey Dungeons (2019)

I was bummed out by: Diablo: Immortal and its rapacious monetization

-Sounds-

Susanne Sundfør – Ten Love Songs (2015). I just discovered Sundfør this year, and this album dominated my drive time over the summer and fall. Hard to classify--arty Europop, maybe? But she switches genres so frequently, often within tracks, that all schemas fail. Those songs, though.

Phoebe Bridgers – So Much Wine. Leave it to Bridgers to put out the most depressing Christmas album ever made. A nice follow-up to her 2021 album Punisher, already a modern classic. 

Andor - Original Soundtrack. Nicholas Britell scores small prestige films (Moonlight), and big prestige shows (Succession), and his compositions for Andor work in party by taking as wide of a diversion from John Williams as possible. Instead Britell relies on moody synths and itchy atonal noise, punctuated by really striking percussion sections.  

-Cast Pods- 

You’re Wrong About. Even with Michael Hobbes’ recent departure, this is still the best debunker/trivia/nuance podcast around. Sarah Marshall is a national treasure, which is something that I’m certainly right about.

Triple Click. Talking vidya games with Jason, Maddy, and Kirk is still the highlight of my week. 

WTF with Marc Maron. This is one of the oldest big podcasts, but I only recently started listening. Maron’s interviewing style is divisive—he often interrupts, mostly to speculate or spool out an anecdote—and he’s certainly not for everyone, but the old man’s really grown on me. I mostly tune in to the shows where I like the guest. And my god, what guests! Just this fall I’ve listened to his interviews with Neil Gaiman, Patton Oswalt, Clea Duvall, Elvis Mitchell, Rian Johnson, Tony Gilroy, and Quinta Brunson.

I also enjoyed: Strong Songs, The Besties, Get Played, Video Palace (2018) 

-Tube You’ers- 

VaatiVidya. This is a channel specializing in FROM Software games’ lore and secrets. I’m obsessed with them, obviously, but also the host has the most charming, mellifluous British voice. 

Folding Ideas. Dan Olson’s video essays on politics and culture always get me thinking, and the breadth of the subject matter he covers is staggering. His video on crypto and NFTs, and his one on modern conspiracy theories, are musts.

Girlfriend Reviews. He’s a dork and a video editor. She’s a backseat gamer and performer. Together they mock video games and games culture. Much hilarity ensues. 

I also enjoyed: YongYea, Digital Foundry, Nerdwriter1, Pitch Meeting, PBS Storied, Zullie the Witch, Weird Rules, Alanah Pierce, PeruseProject, Ellie Dashwood, Second Thought, Emmalition, LegalEagle, Jim Sterling, Game Maker’s Toolkit, Penguin0

[taocrafttarot]

Happy Festivus to all who celebrate! Welcome to what I'm calling Blurry Time '23. Elfcon is over, the preparations are done. It's all cookies and coffee from here.

I'm a fan of Outlined, the web comic by Chaz Hutton. My favorite comic is the drawing of a December calendar page where the second half is basically a bunch of wiggly lines.

That perfectly captures the feel of the season. Even for those of us working a normal day job schedule, there is a sense of shared down time and camaraderie among those out and about actually doing the things  for that week between Christmas eve and New Years day.

It's truly liminal space and time. It is magical time. It is time disconnected from time - or something like that.

2023 as a whole felt very liminal and transitional. It was a blurry-ish year moving from the extended pandemic dumpster fire years 2020-22 (2016-22 if you live in the U.S.) We'll get back to how 2024 is looking when we do the annual just-for-fun (and wishful thinking) year-ahead Tarot reading next weekend (-ish)

In the meantime, I want to use blurry time to bridge years.

2023 was the first full year of Sage Words Tarot. I want to circle back around and use the blurry time re-introduce it all for the bright, shiny new year on the way.

I don't know why - probably no reason at all - but it always seems to start with musing about names.

Hi! I'm Sage.

I'm also a Tarot reader and author of Sage Sips blog.

I've been reading Tarot and oracle cards since around 1992 which adds up to 30 years of experience with Tarot and intuition development (!)

I didn't originally start out to be a Tarot reader (who does?) At first, I did readings for myself and friends (why PAY for it when you can DIY it?) After close friend suggested I go online with my readings (eternal gratitude!) I offered psychic Tarot readings through Keen, Advice Trader and AllExperts under my old internet handle, Baihu. After doing hundreds of online readings (I stopped counting after 400) I opened my own Tarot practice in 2003 which grew to include ModernOracleTarot.com, the Tarotbytes blog and the now-defunct Quirk & Flotsam shop on Etsy.

It was all good, but had become a hodge-podge of names and logos over the years. Then along came the Covid pandemic and changed things even more. After a short interim as TaoCraft Tarot (2018-2023) I've been working as SageWordsTarot.com and writing Sage Sips blog ever since.

TaoCraft lingers in layout names. TaoCraft was drawn from my love of Taoist philosophy. My Tarot work will always be guided by the principles of simplicity, authenticity, and kindness. It was also drawn from my affinity for solitary eclectic witchcraft. The TaoCraft name means a lot to me, but not so much to anyone else who sees it and that's a problem because these Tarot readings aren't about me - they are for YOU and about YOU.

Sage is a pen name, which helps to protect our privacy. Christian nationalism and religious bigotry is a very real thing here in America.  I will do all I can to make this a safe space for everyone, especially for the lgbtquia+ community and those of us who are not Christian.

The herb sage has a comforting, familiar scent and flavor that most of us know from home cooking and holiday turkeys.

In aromatherapy, sage incense and essential oil can clear negative energy, calm anxiety and promote a feeling of general well being.

The word sage also means something or someone who is wise. The word sage describes the wise advice Tarot gives.

Safety, comfort, calmness, wisdom and a feeling that things are going to be alright are all qualities I hope you’ll experience when you read the blog, visit my social media or best of all get a private reading of your own .

Click HERE if you would like to order a private Tarot reading by email, no appointment needed.

Click HERE to schedule a flat rate ($40) in-person, phone or online reading (valid email required to participate)

Click HERE to subscribe to Sage Sips membership on Ko-fi to get discounted email readings, free one card readings, and exclusive content on the ko-fi blog.

Enter your email in the right hand column (or scroll down on mobile) to get new posts in your inbox as they happen. If you prefer a once weekly digest please subscribe to Sage Sips on Substack

[baileytomkinsviscomblog]

'Intersections' Influences and Inspiration - Pt 2

Utku Yavasca

Utku Yavasca is a Portuguese comic artist that I found out about through my cousin, who happens to have met and befriended him on a trip to Portugal. The majority of Utku's work is shared through his Instagram page, where he regularly uploads short humorous comics about his life experiences. These comics usually contain 10 images per post, each being a different panel of the story. Utku is a very versatile artist, creating a variety of pieces that range from simplified and cartoony sketches to incredibly detailed pieces with darker, more mature themes, all of which tend to be created in his preferred medium of black ink.

It was very beneficial that I was connected to Utku through my cousin, as this meant I was able to share a dialogue with him about his work and my final piece. Here are some screenshots of the conversation I had with him.

Daniel Padure

Daniel Padure, aka Padure, is another artist who interestingly happens to be from Portugal. He works in the fields of illustration, painting, and street art, primarily sharing his art through Instagram. Padure's work can be recognised by his simplistic, bold illustration style, using minimal details and thick lines, often with his signature ink-dripping effect. What I like about Padure's work is that it's very visually consistent, using symmetry and precise proportions. He often uses the same character design in his pieces, which is very similar to the style of Keith Haring. I have been following Padure's work for a while, but what brought me back to it during my research for this project was his series of mirrored pieces, one of which can be seen below. This links to my idea of adding a flipped aspect to my graphic novel. I also feel that my approach to illustrating characters can often be very similar to Padure's, as I tend to draw with symmetry in mind as well as accurate proportions. I am also a fan of using simplified illustration styles.

Jordan Bolton

Jordan Bolton is a Manchester-based comic artist whom I discovered on the creative blog It's Nice That. Jordan creates beautifully moving short poetic stories that primarily focus on simple everyday experiences such as going to the movie theatre, looking out of the car window, and watching birds sitting in a tree. Jordan's comics, in a visual sense, are deceptively simple; however, they are always accompanied by a meaningful and often philosophical narrative. What I like about Jordan's work is his subtlety as well as the way that it subverts your expectations of a comic that traditionally has panels filled with dramatic and action-packed imagery, instead depicting more real-life settings and scenarios where the focus lies on introspection. In a way, I believe that the imagery Jordan uses is secondary to the underlying narrative, simply being used as a means to express it. Jordan's work links back to my research on Eckhart Tolle and The Slow Movement, as they all share similar themes of living in the moment and enjoying the little things in life.

GalleryJordan Bolton: Day-Off. Scenes From Imagined Films (Copyright © Jordan Bolton, 2022) (Accessed: 25th November 2023).

References

utku.yavaska (2018) trenches [Instagram], 6th September. Available from: www.instagram.com [Accessed 25th Nov 2023].

utku.yavaska (2018) inktober 13 [Instagram], 13th October. Available from: www.instagram.com [Accessed 25th Nov 2023].

utku.yavaska (2022) 🎬 Nostalgia Series #1 Gaming🕹 [Instagram], 24th August. Available from: www.instagram.com [Accessed 25th Nov 2023].

utku.yavaska (2022) ❤️”Love is blind , and deaf-mute too” - A wise person [Instagram], 5th April. Available from: www.instagram.com [Accessed 25th Nov 2023].

utku.yavaska (2023) Reverse Evolution [Instagram], 24th May. Available from: www.instagram.com [Accessed 25th Nov 2023].

(2020) Lockdown [online]. Available at: Lockdown by Daniel Padure - Street Art Cities (Accessed: 26th November 2023).

(2021) Untitled [online]. Available at: Untitled by Padure, Daniel Padure - Street Art Cities (Accessed: 26th November 2023).

padure_ (2023) 🙃🙂[Instagram], 7th November. Available from: www.instagram.com [Accessed 26th Nov 2023].

Hingely, O (2022) 'Jordan Bolton creates deeply moving comics derived from simple language and imagery', It's Nice That, 27th September. Available at: Jordan Bolton creates deeply moving comics derived from simple language and imagery (itsnicethat.com) (Accessed: 26th November 2023).

[redherald]

(Chapter 1 || Page 22)

NOTE: Page 1 until 33 are from Comic Studies subject back in 2018. Thus, the mistakes and wonky-ness in terms of art and English language are not subtle at all. :”P Deadlines rush!

[insertdisc5]

WELCOME. TO THIS YEAR’S. PERSONAL ART REVIEW THAT’S MOSTLY BLACKED OUT BECAUSE THE ONLY ART I MADE WAS FOR MY GAME AND ITS A SECRET

2021, soon to be over. alright, what did I do this year

Oh wait!!! I released START AGAIN: a prologue this year!!! That’s a whole dang game!!!! that i made!!!! and people liked it!!!! oh my god!!! oh my god???? oh my freakin god!!!!!!! that’s genuinely bananas. If you bought the game I’m incredibly grateful thank you so much

I’ve also been working on the next game for the whole dang year!!!! Real Talk i don’t like working on projects for very long. Like if I make a long 10+ pages comic I work on it for a month or two and it feels like eternity. The longest I’ve worked on something was my thesis film back in college and that was a year and a half and i wasn’t even that into it. I’ve now been working on some iteration of siffrin’s adventures for the same amount of time (EIGHTEEN MONTHS?!??!?!?!?!??!?!), and it’s a story that’s super close to my heart, and it’s such a weird feeling!!! to work on something you love for this long!!! aah!!!! anyway I sure hope me and my dear lovely publisher Armor Games Studios will be able to share some news sometime in 2022 wink wink nudge nudge sparkle emoji.

ALSO I STARTED USING CLIP STUDIO PAINT AND YEAH GUYS THIS LITTLE SOFTWARE REALLY HAS IT ALL. HOLY COW. THE AMOUNT OF TIME IM SAVING

ah, august though. the depression month. remember to take breaks, kids. i know we say it all the time. but im gonna tell you something. something you might not have heard before. and the thing is that.... it’s true, you should take breaks. apparently it’s really good for your mental health or some garbage.

Oh My God i only drew like three colored art pieces this year tho. this is the B&W year. i love drawing in black and white so it’s not even a problem this is heaven for me

In not game related stuff this persona 5 comic i drew this year absolutely rules. i don’t often look at my own art but this one. this little baby. is absolutely amazing. hey adrienne from may 2021!!!! this rules!!!!!

2022, clap your hands and believe!!!!

✨ 2014 and 2015 and 2016 and 2017 and 2018 and 2019 and 2020✨

[jessiarts]

Art Masterlist

[Last updated: 24 July 2024]

Hey, there! I'm Jessi :)

This is my Art Masterlist with links to my art, with posts that you may or may not have seen, such as my Infinity War Rewrite Comic, Morticia Addams as a mermaid, as well as other various fanart and personal art pieces. Also, I used to participate in Drawlloween a lot, so you're bound to find plenty spooky art as well. Oh, there's also this comic, that apparently resonated with way too many people.

My personal art tends to have a more surreal/magical quality to it, as it's usually a way for me to illustrate my thoughts or feelings.

Currently accepting: Requests for These! Commissions: Open on Ko-Fi

Upcoming Projects: 'Hey Alice' animation, Yondu comic

You can find me other places here. (<- Linktree!) Prints | Patreon | Ko-Fi You can also check out my FAQ.

List got long so everything is under the cut until I can decide how I want to make it neater lol

Bare with me as the list is bound to change while I figure out how to best organize all my sections lol

Fanart is listed first, followed by my original art. My older art can be found via a link at the very bottom of the page.

FANART

Comics: All the comics I’ve drawn, organized by various fandoms. Some original as well.

Sketch Practices: Compilation of sketches I did after opening requests over on my tumblr to practice drawing figures/expressions.

Marvel

Loki

Avengers 1 Loki - Very first experiment with photorealistic digital painting! (2015)

Ragnarok Loki - more photorealism experiment (2018)

Noobmaster69 Comic - Noobmaster69 strikes again and Thor lets him have it for being mean to Korg! But who is Noobmaster, really? And why does he keep coming back when he knows he’ll get yelled at by the God of Thunder? (2020)

Infinity War Rewrite Comic - Sorta a “Loki fix-it” comic. What happens when Thanos demands the tesseract from Loki, but gets much more than he bargains for? How will this work out for not only Thanos, but Thor and Loki as well? (2019)

Kid Loki and Classic Loki's Helmet - Kid Loki mourning the loss of Classic Loki (2021)

Loki borrows Tony's 3D printer - Funny comic where Loki messes with Thor (2022)

Infinity War Loki - Loki in magenta and blue lighting. (2020)

Red hair edit - Idk, I just was curious what MCU Loki would look like with Mythology Loki’s red hair (2023)

Guardians of the Galaxy

Learn the Alphabet with Groot - Meme video. I promise it’s more than just “I am Groot” and is actually funny. (2019)

Gamora - Digital watercolor style portrait (2020)

"You Were Always my Boy" - Yondu & Peter feels. Spirit Yondu watching over Peter. (2020)

Touching Foreheads - Peter x Gamora feels. Listening to music together. (2022)

Shielding - Yondu protecting little Peter Quill (2022)

"They didn't feel a thing" Comic - What was Mantis’s role in Ego’s quest for his children? Was she but a bystander- or more likely, did she play an active role, too innocent and brainwashed by her master to understand it was wrong? Does it keep her up at night? (2018)

Nebula - Digital watercolor style portrait (2020)

Mantis & Drax Holiday Fun - Mantis sitting on Drax's shoulders to hang colored lights. (Inspired by GOTG Holiday Special) (2022)

Misc:

More Marvel character portraits.

Disney

Stitch - colored pencil (2016)

Halle Bailey as The Little Mermaid- Full underwater scene photorealism experiment | Face Painting Process (2019)

Untooned Mulan

Untooned Megara

Doctor Who

Are you my Mummy?- pencil drawing (2015)

Impossible Astronaut (2016) | Colored Version (2018)

Will I ever see you again? - Ten and Rose. All the feels plus Circular Gallifreyan (2014)

Well? - Portrait of the Tenth Doctor done like one of those old red/blue 3D comics.

Do you love the color of the scarf? - Color of the sky, but with Tom Baker's scarf and tons of easter eggs. (2023)

Supernatural

Demon Dean - pencil drawing (2015)

Bean Dean - silly vector drawing of Dean Winchester as a bean with a giant piece of pie (2016) | Process video

Rowena - digital photorealism portrait experiment (2019)

Charlie Fix-It - Comic where Charlie lives at the end of S10 E21: Dark Dynasty

Misc

ET - colored pencil portrait (2016)

Captain Jack Sparrow's Compass - colored pencil (2016)

Yoda - colored pencil portrait (2016)

Graveyard Girl - digital photorealism portrait experiment (2018)

Simpsons Werewolf - silly comic, Marge is a werewolf (2018)

Winnie the Pooh Xenomorph Comic - Pooh has a rumbly in his tummy, and it seems like honey won’t quite solve this problem! (2019)

Tim Burton AHS Coven - Portrait of the coven drawn digitally in an ink style. (2019)

Unus Annus Tribute Comic - Chibi Mark and Ethan vs giant Spider. This was inspired by Eef in the Paper Plane video, when he called a spider that came out of the fireplace “Santa,” and once I started drawing this I decided to go ahead and add a bunch of other references in it too. See if you can find them all! (2020)

Unus Annus Tribute Video - Unus Annus meets Hamilton (2020)

Shrek in Space - Pretty much as stated (2022)

Morticia Addams Mermay - Morticia Addams as a mermaid, sharing a tender moment with Gomez on a lake. (2022)

Lute vs Vaggie - Hazbin Hotel fanart drawn to resemble a stained glass depiction of Lute taking Vaggie’s wings, inspired by the piece Michael vs Lucifer. (2024)

ORIGINAL ART

Animations:

Selkie - An animatic of a selkie’s escape to the song, Underground by Cody Fry. (Duet version with CowboyTinkerbell's storyline) (2023)

Personal Pieces:

These are more surreal in nature.

Creation - Magical creativity and inspiration exploding out of a woman in fantastical light (2020)

Black Butterfly - Thyroid piece. A woman with black veins radiating from a black butterfly on her throat. (2020)

Hold Me Close So I Don't Shatter - Woman with light shining through cracks in her body while her partner holds her close. (2020)

Scream - Portrait of a woman screaming as golden tears run down her face. Her eyes glow, her hair whips as though blown by wind. (2020)

Drowning - Woman drowning in a golden sea made up of her own tears. (2020)

Blue - Music can help sometimes… (2021)

Floating - Surreal. Woman floating in space. Whales, starfish, trees. (2021)

Hurt - Also known as “Idk sometimes I just doodle to help me deal with stuff” (2022)

Random Stuff

Scarecrow - Creepy scarecrow in rainy cornfield with some lightning. More realism experimentation (2018)

Our Mother is Burning - Climate piece about rising temperatures using actual climate data (2020)

Blocked - Mermaid trapped under ice (2020)

DTIYS Naga Angler Mermaid (2020)

Brain

Creating things - Comic based on actual events [Also known as ‘Sad Blorb Repost Comic’] (2022)

Galaxy Girl - Girl made of the galaxy with golden linework. Digital watercolor style (2020)

Noodle Kraken - A kraken made of pasta taking down a tomato ship (2018)

"The wine-dark sea and rosy-fingered dawn should kiss" - Surrealist painting of the sky kissing the ocean. (2022)

Cozy Witch Sleepy Kitty - Cute witch reading by magical floating candlelight while her kitty sleeps next to her. (2022)

Dragon - Redraw in the style of stained glass of a piece I drew in 2007. Depicts a fairytale scene of a knight trying to save a princess in tower from a fire breathing dragon. (2017)

Newbie Icons - Just some cute little free icons (and headers) for tumblr newbies so they don't get mistaken for bots. (2023)

Glowy Mushroom Girly - Glowy Mushroom Girly, with some torchbugs to keep her company! (2024)

Pride Norse runes- A bunch of designs I made to to say 'fuck you' to nazis appropriating norse symbols for their hate. Designs are available for free download to personal use, and also available on Threadless for anyone who don’t want to or can’t print them on stuff themselves but still want something with the designs on it. (Both linked on respective posts)

Pride Loki Rune designs - Loki written in runes over a few different flags that remind me of him and that I felt others would resonate with. Post also includes some pride rune sets. (2023) (Intersex version request) | Bindrune Staff version request - (2024)

Be Gay do Crime - Actually says "Be gay do pride," but the word "pride" in runes (ᛈᚱᛁᛞᛖ) hilariously resembles the word “crime.” (2023) | Dark version (2024)

Pride Valknuts - Two designs depicting the Valknut made of Pride flags/Pride colors. Valknut literally means “knot of the slain warrior,” so I’ve designed these Pride versions- because think of how many have already died for this cause? Either fighting for it, or murdered because of it. Think about Stonewall. The AIDS crisis. Think about how many people had already risked their safety just being open about who they were, or protecting those in the lgbt+ communities. And how many still do. Let's take back the symbol from those who use it for less noble/hateful causes. (2023)

Pride Yggdrasil - Yggdrasil (Norse tree of life) with the colors of the original pride flag in the tree/branches surrounded by rings in the colors of the triangle of the progress flag (representing BIPOC, Trans, and Intersex) (2023)

Pride Mjolnir - A series of Mjolnir designs colored as different Pride flags. There are two versions of each design, one saying “You are Worthy” and another saying “I am Worthy,” with the exception of a progress flag version that says “We are Worthy” (2023)

Fav Drawlloween Pieces

2019: Vampire | Witchy Toad | Haunted Forest 

2020: Witch | Skull Bottle

Writing:

Goals Reached - From prompt by writing-prompt-s on tumblr: "In your world, people receive xp for defeating other creatures and can level up. Swatting a fly gets you 2xp. Beating your friend at chess gets you 65xp. One morning, you wake up to the notification “7,125,000 xp obtained. Maximum level reached.” Only, you don’t remember defeating anyone."

OLD ART

Older work I’ve done. Mostly pre-2018 work or work that I just don’t personally really like anymore, but I keep around because it shows the progress I’ve made over time. Also nostalgia.

[myonmukyuu]

Art Summary: 2021

It’s time for my yearly art review! This makes my 8th year of recording year-long summaries. They’re really piling up now. 😊

I feel like this summary isn't really indicative of my improvement? It's more like what I got up to over the year.

...I really did draw stpm for an entire year 🤣

Previous: 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020

Let’s see... what did I get up to this year?

My worklife shifted to primarily working from home, so I ended up getting more time to draw. Though on the flipside I’ve been quite busy with my life, especially because I’ve been trying to organise building a house with my family.  Either way, my comic output has been quite constant.

It may have taken me 2-4 months to do ch8 in my series, but I wasn’t spending that time sitting around y’know. I feel like I’m becoming a lot more confident with making comics like this! I usually feel a lot of grief about how I’m “not fast enough” and things like that. But looking back, I really should cut myself some slack 😅. I did 138 pages worth of comic this year. On average that makes about 11 pages a month. Of course this doesn’t take into account whether those pages were coloured or not, not does it take into account the breaks I’ve taken to do standalone illustrations or other things but I still think it’s pretty consistent work if you ask me! And I’m happy I could keep it up. Comics are the kind of thing you get better at by just doing, after all.

As a side-note, I’m also happy that some of my work was accepted onto Dynasty Scans this year. People have different opinions about rehosting, but for my comics specifically, I feel comfort in knowing that they’re archived somewhere outside of my art accounts. Especially somewhere that people visit specifically to read comics.

Overall... I’m pretty darn satisfied with the content I’ve output this year! My series has always been really fun to do (even though it can be stressful) because it really lets me try to flex all of my muscles, y’know? Painting skills, writing skills, doing weird backgrounds, doing weirder angles... Stuff like that. Just trying new things. Even if it’s hard to do, I have a lot of fun trying to push things further! Of course I’m not a machine and that’s not something I can constantly do, so weaving in black/white one-shots is also very satisfying. I think above everything, I want to be able to tell a good story, so being able to do comics quickly in b/w really helps me quickly pump out an idea!

I wonder if there’s anyone out there thinking “when will she get tired of drawing Setsuna/Ayumu” and honestly that’s a really good question. If you’ve been a long time follower of mine, you probably wouldn’t be asking such a question though, You’d know that I’m that kind of person who draws a single thing and nothing else for years at a time 😂. I’m just very focused okay!! I’m a depth-first kind of person when it comes to things and I still feel like there’s so much to explore between these two. I’m sorry if there’s anyone out there who wants me to draw other ships 😂.  It’s just that I really adore these characters, so I wanna continue to explore and develop them! Both as characters and as a relationship dynamic. I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface honestly... so I have my work cut out for me. (I definitely have no shortage of ideas).

I think that’s it for my general overview? Well it’s what I can think of at the moment. I’m gonna move into where I am and where I wanna go in terms of art.

Like I said before, I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve been getting up to. Of course, technical-skills-wise I definitely have a long way to go. My lines are still so... tight, I have difficulty drawing in perspective (which really puts a wrench in lining up dramatic panels) and I barely know what 3D-shape is to name a few things. But let’s talk about what I’ve been doing!

Last year I wrote the following goals in my art summary. Let’s address them individually:

“I want to finish my comic series”

Hahhahahahahahah I’m so sorry 2020 me. This comic was a lot bigger than you initially imagine 😂. I’m not going to make any excuses or anything. But I can say for a fact that I will most definitely finish this comic in 2022! I promise!

“I want to continue to play to my strengths and enhance them”

This is a vague-sounding goal, but it still rings true. I know that my skills mainly lie in being able to create atmosphere/tone to best communicate a feeling. At least that’s what I think. But I believe I have been enhancing them! Over the course of my comics this year I’ve been trying lots of new things when it comes to lighting and colour! For my main series comics I actually do quite a bit of research and experimentation. Like in Ch 7 the rainy day scenes took some playing around with. And in ch8 the entire chapter had me trying ~4 different approaches and strategies. I think it’s really important to try to do new things and push out of your comfort-zone so I think this has been valuable to my learning. I feel like I could’ve better explained this bit but... well I’m writing this mainly for myself and I know what I mean sadaskdadklsf

“I also want to continue to try things that are outside of my comfort zone. I want to see myself try things like different angles/perspectives and more complex backgrounds.”

Speaking of comfort zones, I also shared the desires to push from them last year too. I don’t think I really pushed too far, but, I think a little goes a long way y’know? Hmmmm, while I did do more interesting angles and perspectives over the year, I don’t think I pushed as hard as I could. The same with backgrounds. While there is definitely improvement in this areas compared to last year, I think I could do a lot better. But! I will give myself credit where credit is due. It’s actually this year - a few months ago where I started using 3D tools and various other resources to help me draw. I used to be very stubborn against using such things, but now I’m much more open to it. Specifically I’ve started using 3D-models in Clip Studio Paint! This has really helped me visualise different angles and even implement foreshortening where I otherwise would’ve struggled. I feel it has helped with my improvement this year for sure. I’m hoping to better gain and understanding of 3D-space by continuing to use tools to assist me because I seriously have bad intuition for it asdasdasd.

Okay! Moving forward! What do I wanna learn in 2022? Well I have a couple of loose goals:

I want to do more illustrations/quick drawings on top of my comic work.

One thing that I always sulk about is how long my comics take to produce. And at times, it really can’t be helped. Especially if the comic is fully coloured. And like...how do I explain this... I want to upload work as often as any other fan artist, y’know? Whenever I post my big comics I feel the tension of months of work releasing from me, and like, it’s a lot lighter on my mental to be able to work on smaller things and actually finish them.  So one thing I’d like to implement is some way to work in smaller works. Whether that’d be little mini comics, or doodles or whatever while I’m working on my bigger comics. How I’ll do this? We’ll see what works, but at the moment I’m thinking of allowing 2-4 hours a week for me to work on whatever I wish outside of the main comic. Like 2 hours twice a week? Or 2 hours a week? Or- well you get the idea, I’ll figure it out! Just some time set for little things so I can get more of my ideas out.

I want to learn to paint.

This isn’t really a compulsory goal, but it’s somethign that would be nice to explore, even if it’s just a bit. For those who aren’t too familiar with making art, I’m referring to a dramatic change in my process. Usually I draw a sketch, ink the lines, and then colour beneath the lines and on top of the sketch.  Now when i say “paint” I mean it in terms of process. This would be sketching, plopping base paints on top of the sketch, then colouring as usual, painting in lines as I need them on top (much like traditional painting!). I find the style rather appealing, but it’s a bit hard for me to get used to hahahahah. But if I can figure it out well, it might help contribute to my next goal.

I want to learn to draw faster.

Above everything, I would like to be able to tell the stories that I want to tell. So it’d be helpful if I could output stories at a faster rate. I think my lining is really slow... well I think I’m quite slow in general. Even my drafting is quite slow. There are a two angles I can approach this gripe of mine from.

Faster lines.

Faster/more clever drafting.

As I’ve mentioned my lines are quite tight. If I could learn to be more loose and flowy, then perhaps I’d be able to draw faster.

As I mentioned before, I wanted to dedicate some time each week to do other things. Perhaps one of those things could be speed drawing/doodling. It’s a possibility that just allowing myself to do doodles would passively boost this skill though.

This dips into a flaw that I have that has been bubbling for awhile now. I think I’m horribly inefficient when it comes to panels and pacing when compared to professional mangaka.

...though in general I’m extremely lacking compared to a pro so what am I saying 😂

Either way, the way my comics have been becoming longer and longer is likely related to this. I’m too afraid to compress my comics and end up spacing them out unecessarily. I’m uncertain how to approach this issue as it’s very ingrained in the way I write... Regardless, I believe it to be an issue that directly affects how long I spend working a comic. I mean, if my comic panelling were more efficient, I’d have less to draw!

Again, it’s a toughie to really fix this. I think I’ll just have to do more research and keep it in mind moving forward.

I want to utilise resources that I have available to me and take more active learning.

At work I realised that my office was paying for heaps of learning resources and courses. I figured, if it’s available to me might as well use it? So maybe to help address the other problems I might take paid online lectures about them. Like gesture drawing! Or backgrounding and perspective! Stuff like that has loads of resources online so maybe putting some time into it would be valuable.

I want to print my comic.

This is a bit less of a skill-related thing. But I really want to print my setsuayu comic! I cannot promise I’ll be selling it for cheap, but if anyone buys it, I’d feel really happy! But even if people don’t, just having a physical copy of what I poured my soul into for the past 1.5 years would make me really happy. I do have my work cut out for me though. Gotta finish the comic and then reformat it to fit being printed! I believe in me!!

I also hope I can sell it in an artist alley in the coming year. I feel like people wouldn’t really be interested but.. yeah! I still wanna anyways! I’ll do my best.

General improvement.

I feel like this is a given, but I do hope to continue to improve in the various ways that I can. Like proportions, anatomy, colouring etcetc etc. Since I don’t put too much focus to it, I’m not asking for much. But, if I could be better at the end of next year than I am now, I think I’d be happy with that.

Anyways, I think that’s all from me for now? Maybe? Wait how much did I typ- oh wow 2k words asjkldaskldklas. If anyone takes the time to read this, thank you!! This is mainly written for myself, so that I can keep drawing and then look back and ask myself “did I do what I wanted to do last year?”, reflect and then do it again. For anyone looking to improve a skill, I find it really valuable to do and recommend it!

Happy New Year! Let’s see what 2022 has in store for us. 💖

[yicruz48]

Teen Titans Review: Annual #2 Part 2

August/26/2020

Part 1

This again pushes the narrative of Damian as the angry aggressor with no self-control nor a ability to be conscious of how his own actions hurt other people.

I am not denying that Damian hasn’t been extreme before or has a temper but if written correctly he would have enough awareness to feel guilt for what he did to Emiko and not act so aggressively towards Bruce.  

This is another section of the issue that I feel conflicted about how to feel about this for several reasons: 

-> The things Damian says in these panels aren’t all false : 

I wouldn’t be sincere in this review if I didn’t acknowledge the truth to Damian’s comparison. In the last two years real time the Wayne Manor has become a sort of coffin and tomb. A manor that only carries the echoes of those who used to live there. 

After a while, I could imagine it would be distressing to visit the Manor because it would remind them of the people who weren’t there anymore. 

-> I fear Anti’s will look at these panels and try to justify Damian as a bad person:

I asked my older brother (Who doesn’t know much about comics besides the bit I tell him) to read the interactions in this issue and give me his opinion on them. 

“To me it feels like the writer is trying to show Damian is conflicted and not in the right headspace therefore showing him erupting into a fight with Bruce violently but...I can definitely see how someone who doesn’t like Damian could turn this narrative against him.”  

And I agree with him. As much as dislike these direction in writing for Damian, I do see what Thompson was trying to do here (and since the beginning of the run). It hasn’t been executed well, but he has been trying to get the reader to sympathize with Damian (more than Glass that is). 

And I believe it is trying to show that Damian is at his wits end, not thinking right-well-I mean-Damian hasn’t been thinking right in TT since 2018, but I guess he’s really not in the right headspace. 

But I have the same fear that my brother mentioned, if you look at these same panels through the same lens of someone who doesn’t particularly like Damian you look at this and think is horrible. I can already imagine what they’d say:

“Look at how badly Damian treats his father!” 

Although your supposed to look at this as Damian having a outburst after keeping in it for so long and not being emotionally-neglected by his father.  

“Alfred’s death was hard for Bruce too, Damian needs to stop acting like he is the only one who is hurt.” 

Even though Bruce is an adult and Damian is a teen(a severely-damaged one at that) and you know...BRUCE DIDN’T COMFORT DAMIAN AFTER ALFRED DIED...

And this further expressed in Detective Comics where Damian causally mentions that he is surprised that his father contacted him. 

Like...um...Damian is a 13-year-old boy...are you really telling me Bruce hasn’t contacted his own underaged son especially after Alfred died? 

“Dick just got shot and lost his memories. He didn’t die. Why is he acting like he died?” 

I talk more about Damian’s and Dick’s relationship here. 

But to put it simply, Dick is one of the only people Damian trusts to be vulnerable with. Damian is extremely independent yet depends on him the most. This is expressed many times in the beginning of rebirth (specifically in the Nightwing and Batman comics). Losing that connection is extremely damaging to Damian.

Moving on, I actually appreciated this scene with Crush. I happy that she kept the group from intervening between Bruce and Damian. 

With the track record of how “great” the Teen Titans are at handling situations them getting in the middle of the fight would’ve made this worse. 

Plus I liked that she recognized that this was something personal. So far, I’ve felt like the majority of the Teen Titans have antagonized Damian and it felt refreshing to see Crush realize that Damian’s actions are more personal than they thought.  

But at the same time, I don’t know how to take this. I feel like they also wrote this in order prop her up to be the new leader in the next issues so at the same time it feels a little insincere.  

I already said this in part 1 of the review but I am grateful for the decency DC or Thompson had to give us some personal reasonings for his actions, but again, it doesn’t work as a good trigger nor does it hold the same hype it would’ve if written earlier when it happened, not months after it happened.

One of the only things about these panels that I have to say is  that I saw some people theorizing on twitter that perhaps Damian was expecting to be punished by his father because of how his other brothers have been treated by Bruce. But I really don’t know myself how to interpret it. 

Why is Damian questioning why Bruce isn’t fighting back? 

-> Was he expecting Bruce to punish him? 

-> Was Damian expecting  his father to challenge his new beliefs?

Because Bruce doesn’t really challenge Damian’s beliefs at the end, if anything, it seems like Bruce gives up trying to reason with Damian. 

Which is sad if you look back to this panel in Batman and Robin 2011:

Jumping back on track, and then we have this panel: 

Which is yet again another panel that I feel conflicted about. 

I guess it’s nice Bruce finally told his son that he loves him, but also it’s a little to late now. Bruce should’ve expressed compassion to Damian when he had the chance, and he had a lot chances to do this: 

-> On his 13th birthday.

-> By being more involved in his life. 

-> When Dick got shot to remind Damian he had someone there for him despite Dick not being there. 

-> When Alfred died in front of him. That was most likely traumatizing for him, would’ve been nice to have someone there to comfort him. 

I feel like I keep repeating myself, but again, this four pages are difficult to interpret. 

 “Everything...lead...to...THIS” 

-> I’m taking this as Damian concluding that being Robin (and everything that encompasses including the no killing rule) lead to him losing people he loved and eventually not being Robin.

“You will never truly see me so long as I am in your shadow.”

-> Damian thinking that Bruce won’t take him seriously if he is Robin? 

-> Thinking that Bruce won’t ever truly see who he really is if he is Robin?

“Now I am finally free.”

-> Damian implicating that being Robin was a burden and/or restricted him from doing what he thinks is “right?”  

As a Damian stan the last four pages were the most painful to read. Seeing Damian leave the Robin title frustrates me soo much. 

Conclusions and Predictions:

-> This issue was not as bad as I thought (but still bad): 

For one, I am glad Bruce didn’t beat up Damian. 

I am glad they had the decency to give Damian more personal reasons to go down this path even if it was late. 

-> (I’m gonna start talking about the art more in my reviews) 

Pansica is a very talented artist BUT I personally don’t think he was the best choice to draw a comic with teens. The adults in this issue were drawn great but I feel like drawing teens is not his strong point. 

There was points in this comics were Damian looked unpleasant and I think it was because Pansica tends to be very detailed although a lot detail does a disservice to drawing teens. As a artist myself, I lay off the details when drawing children since it often ages them more if you put more detail. 

Maiolo’s colors are good. I don’t know if it was a conscious decision or not but the dullness of the color really emphasizes the darker vibe of this issue. 

-> Thompson didn’t fail me this issue, he still manage to make me hate Roundhouse more than last issue :)

He also really pushed that unnecessary Emiko X Wallace ship in the middle of this issue. I think the bothers me about this relationship is that they gotten closer because of Damian killing. I really don’t vibe with that.

-> Bruce just suddenly offering a hug after giving Damian death stares at the beginning just confuses me. 

-> Teen Titan’s didn’t ever take Deathstroke go and basically let him go unless he’ll be appearing next issue. 

-> So far Damian sucks as being a villian/anti-hero, he failed both at killing KGBeast and Deathstroke. 

-> Hate that once again, most of the blame was thrown at Damian.

->To Damian, being Robin was the best thing to happen to him.  

It allowed him to see the mistakes in his past(that he was made to do) and work towards becoming a better person...in other words, it granted him an opportunity to redeem himself. 

Not only that, but it granted him the opportunity to honor the people who helped him become a better person (Dick and Bruce).

And even Damian felt like he needed to “prove” that he could be Robin because I think even Damian felt like he didn’t deserve it or wasn’t good enough. 

What this comic has done with him is atrocious and will always be no matter the outcome. 

I have a petition related to Damian here. I would appreciate it if you shared and signed.