#most of these I yoinked from canon haha!

[hedgiwithapen]

DHD prompt: Five times that someone on the Leverage Crew faked their death, and one time someone didn't stay dead.

It was a slapped together plan in all of thirty seconds. Dammit, Hardison. Eliot thought, putting the microdetonator on an expired ketchup packet and attaching the whole mess to the underside of his shirt, too close to vital organs for real comfort. Hardison babbled in his ear that it was totally safe, that Sophie’s gun blanks were loud enough anyways that he could get away with just bursting the packets with his pecs. Eliot didn’t have time to tell him that that was not how things like muscles and faked gunshots worked. Next time, he decided as the O’hare goons dragged him into the warehouse, it was Hardison’s turn to be the dead guy. It went off fine, though, Nate’s mild panic hidden under his character’s much less mild panic. Eliot waited for Sophie’s heels to click their cue, then squeezed the detonator button he’d palmed, twisting to add more force than was really there.   He laid on the cold cement floor, like he’d left a hundred men before, only this time the blood was fake, until his team was there to signal an all clear. * Katherine Clive’s corner apartment exploded, and the minute stretched a hair too long before Sophie rejoined the team on the street.  Under any other circumstance, she’d have made a quip about something--fashionable arrivals, real estate value-- but her heart is still lodged in her throat. It’s not even grifting, staring up at the destruction. Katherine was dead now, and who mourns her? An ex-boyfriend, a fictitious mother? Sophie took the hand Nathan Ford offered her, jolted under the clap on the back from Parker. She nodded briskly. “Lets go catch my killer” *

Once, Parker had gone to a Birthday party for a child next door to her then-current foster placement. The cake had been good, the clown had not been, but the best thing had been the bounce house where she’d climbed up the inflatable walls to drop to the squishy floor again and again. Several of the kids played a game she didn’t know, but by watching thought maybe she understood.  Crack the egg, where one person huddled in a ball and tried not to move while everyone else bounced them higher and higher. It hadn’t looked like as much fun as falling from the top of the castle. Like the egg, she held perfectly still, the blue makeup on her lips and the purple around her neck an only barely annoying texture. She replayed a memory of stealing from the Louvre in her mind as she felt the mark, Vector, grabbing for her wrist and touching only the makeup covered pad made to hide her pulse from him, and did not move, not even to smile at the way his voice squeaked as he tried to call his lawyer and got Hardison’s tech instead.  Maybe Sophie was right, she thought. Death scenes are fun. * Rebecca Ibanz gave the tiniest of cries as she fell back against Michael Vittori, her fake Fiance, the man who would be president if this worked, a man who would be dead for real if this didn’t. The fake blood was warm from the packet being so close to her skin, and it spread over her blouse. She had always loved the top, but sacrifices had to be made. Sophie did not sigh, keeping her upper body stiff in supposed death. Her part was over now, the coaching and the guiding, leading the candidate to be his best self for these people.  Any minute now, Nate would make his deal with Rivera, and Moreau would find himself locked in the same dungeons he had used to cage too many. Michael spoke, raw shock in his voice as he used everything she had taught him to move the crowd and sway Rivera’s soldiers to his side. Pride tipped the edges of her lips, not enough for anyone to see. She wanted to tell him how proud she was. She never could, of course. Michael was too honest a man, too honorable. He would crack under the pressure of the lie, if he knew. Suddenly, Sophie felt a twinge of shame, something no grifter can ever afford. He was a good man, and he would go one thinking that she had died for him. Well. Some sacrifices had to be made. * One of these days, Eliot thought, he was going to have to take the day off and make a batch of fake blood that tasted good. The stuff on his lips now was far too sweet, pure corn syrup.  He staggered, as rehearsed, collapsing onto Kanic’s shoulder, letting his eyes unfocus as he brought an end to his scripted mutterings about probes and alien ships and unearthly suffering. That part took more willpower than making his breath go shallow or easing back the beat of his heart. Eliot hated not being able to see with absolute clarity everything going on, almost as much as he hated margarine and sickly sweet fake blood. Kanic scampered, abandoning him in hopes of saving himself from the horrors that “Lenny” had promised awaited him. Eliot waited until he was gone, and from the noise down the hall, truly panicked, then lightly got to his feet and left. He needed to spit this sugar garbage out. *

“Dammit Hardison,” Eliot said, counting off beats in his head. He felt a rib give way, the distinctive snap echoing in his ears. “Absolutely not, you do not get to die on us.” his wrists and elbows ached as he forced Hardison’s heart to keep blood circulating. Parker stood by, ready to take over if she needed too, or to flag down the EMTs that had to be on the way by now. The portable AED gave a chirp, and Eliot rocked back on his heels, staying clear. Hardison might have had a heart rhythm once again, but they weren’t out of the woods yet.

Scream at me in the discord: https://discord.gg/9cKfGc7b

[senblades]

hi! i love fftsr and i really enjoy the dynamics between everyone and their personas so i wanted to ask how you decided to characterise the personas/their dynamics and if you had envisioned how the other thieves interact with their personas as well?

sorry if this question is weird 😭 keep up the good work!!

interesting question...

(uhhh I didn't think this would happen with this question but SPOILERS FOR UP TO CHAPTER 46 OF FFTSR)

To be honest, the ony dynamic that I put a real degree of thought into is the Akechi & Robin & Loki dynamic- I wanted neither persona to be entirely good or rational, or one side representative of 'being evil' or whatever. Akechi's problem, is that his thoughts, feelings, and ideas so often contradict eachother, and he is entirely unable to reconcile that. So even when Robin and Loki do agree, Akechi is more likely to ignore them than take thier advice.

Of course, just because I didn't put too much thought into it doesn't mean I'm pulling all the other dynamics out of my ass lmao:

Sumire takes second place for "Persona who talks the most"- Ella, for the most part, is a supportive force that also isn't afraid to call Sumire on her bullshit. Whether or not Sumi listens is another matter entirely. This sort of stems from how Sumire's third awakening is her final resolve to stand on her own, to reject Maruki's reality despite all it could give her, to be unapolagetically Sumire for the rest of her life- So her persona is a force to remind her of that vow, when she starts slipping into her anxieties and her tendency for avoidance.

Haru doesn't get a lot of POV scenes, but her awakening was very fun for me to write. Since I've taken Haru in a direction that is distinctly angry, I wanted Milady's words to reflect that anger at her circumstances, and the need to break from it.

Ren doesn't chat with Arsene often enough for me to remember much of what he says HAHA- he doesn't have the same influence on Ren's character the same way that Akechi and Sumire's persona's do. When he does talk, however, it's usually to quip or be a smartass- a trait which I've quietly yoinked from how people tend to characterise Arsene/Shadow Ren- as, simply, the essence of Joker.

And, now that Ren has also resolved the whole Crow situation, his dynamic with Metatron is pretty much that Metatron is a forceful reminder of the kind of thinking that got Ren to make poor descisions in the first place. Metatron often speaks up any time that Ren tries to justify taking Maruki's deal, spoken with all the snark and fury of the real Akechi.

Most of the PT haven't had POV scenes, but Futaba and Makoto certainly have!

For Futaba, any time Necronomicon speaks up is usually when Futaba is trying to avoid something. Stemming from her awakening, Futaba's vow to never allow lies to decieve her again is reflected in her persona, and especially when she tries to decieve herself.

For Makoto- I actually can't remember if Johanna has spoken in a previous chapter, or if she's going to speak in an upcoming one, but Johanna's shtick also stems from Makoto's awakening. Makoto's vow was to not be trampled by authority, to ensure that she can be herself even in a society that aims to push her in a box. Johanna will speak up if Makoto is becoming complacent, if she tries to take the easy way out.

Uhh that's pretty much it! For the other PT's personas, I would similarly draw from their awakenings to decide what I would want them to say. For the most part, though, everyone's personas start getting chatty when their wielders aren't being true to themselves.

FUCK I FORGOt about Maruki. HAHA I wrote Azathoth as being a cryptic peice of shit, mostly. That kind of 'cult leader talk' is the kind of shit he pulls in canon, and I saw no reason to change that.

Shadow Maruki, on the other hand, is a more true reflection of the man himself- an echo of who he was in the original timeline. Shadows and personas are two sides of the same coin, but how they present themselves does vary. They're archetypes, rather than a 1:1 of their wielder's personality.

aaand that's all I got! ty for the ask! <3 <3 <3

[mlobsters]

supernatural s11e23 alpha and omega (w. andrew dabb)

so i've often complained about how dean and cas's relationship is talked about a lot more than seen onscreen (we're best friends! ok when?) but this part of this season has been a lot more of dean showing how cas is high priority to him. it feels a little out of nowhere to me i guess, because i never got whatever vibes they were trying to establish (i didn't come into the show with any sort of bias other than i knew destiel was The Thing and got blindsided by wincest feelings out the wazoo). anyway, i just try to accept that the show is gonna try to sell me on dean and cas being close, and try not to bitch (too much) about not getting it. clearly failed that brief today

oh, i thought lucifer bailed because he thought amara was gonna off him via cas, apparently it was amara who yoinked him out

LOL chuck clinging onto sam is really cracking me up. he looks so small and sam looks like he doesn't even notice there's a person hanging off him

CROWLEY Well... that was a complete and utter dog's breakfast, wasn't it? CAS I didn't know dogs had breakfast. DEAN Cas is back.

i was 🤔 because since i (clearly) watch gbbo i know the phrase is dog's dinner lol. if a dog eats in the morning, is that not a breakfast, cas?? haha and dean's response to sam like obviously cas is back, based on the doofy comment (and voice, amirite)

based on their reactions and the dramatic music i was expecting something a little more exciting than an especially pretty sunrise

oh, the sun is dying. that is very dramatic. i don't know that would be the conclusion most people would make from that view

oh no, is this british men of letters? 😴 you know MoL storylines are my favorite. and a new batch of them

really. because we don't have enough characters. i hate the music, i already hate the premise and it's only been literally a minute

CHUCK Sam. I get it. Even if we could lock Amara away, it wouldn't do any good now. I'm dying. And when I'm gone, a cosmic balance between light and dark—it's over.

beating the dead horse of "what about the other deities" and here's the problem right. you know (they probably know) they'd make a fucking mess if they tried to address it. but they did address other religions and deities in the past several times! oh what is God just the most important god or somethin :p i know it's a no-win situation, but it still irks me on the regular

CAS I was just... so stupid. DEAN No, no, no. It wasn't stupid. You were right. You were right to let Lucifer ride shotgun. Me and Sam wouldn't have done that.

all right. bend the story around so it wasn't a fuckup

DEAN You know, sometimes me and Sam have got so much going on that...we forget about everyone else. CAS Well, you do live exciting lives. DEAN Yeah, that's one word for it. But you're always there, you know? You're the best friend we've ever had. You're our brother, Cas. I want you to know that.

and i'd offer that he's the best friend they've ever had because he's been semi-indestructible and resurrected all the times he has died when their friends pretty much never get that kind of service.

i try to really be fairly neutral when watching and writing these up, i obviously have some bias towards sam and dean as a unit because the show sold me hard on it from the get-go. but i think the lack of relationship established to me, and the very large presence cas and destiel has within fandom and even just the outsider perception of spn based on that large fandom presence - well. stuff like this, i just don't like it. it doesn't feel true to me and it kinda sorta pisses me off. and it pisses me off that part of my feelings about the character are based on some dumb kneejerk reaction to the fandom stuff. and it's perplexing.

the previous show i was into was teen wolf. stiles/derek is obviously the prevailing ship there - and there's almost nothing in canon between them. really working with crumbs. the ship that is much smaller but i can totally vibe with is scott/stiles. but i happily read all sorts of sterek fic too and it never bothered me like this does. so i'm reminding myself that it's not that it's a ship i think is more fanon based than canon that is the problem. or even that it's the popular ship. i think it's an amalgamation of the weird mismatch for me in the show, the fanon-sold-as-canon meta i see sometimes (which i avoid meta in general now) and (honestly) the virulent hate directed towards wincest shippers that i'd stumble into when just browsing the spn tag. anyway. (maybe if i keep explaining, someone will understand!!)

she really does look beaten down

SAM So, we don't really have a choice. I mean, look. Y-You've got darkness and light. You take one side away and— CAS It upsets the scales—the whole balance of the universe. SAM Exactly. But you take both away, and now both sides of the scale are empty, so...

*raising my hand to ask about when they killed those other deities*

CAS Well, what about souls? They fuel your demon deals. Souls are living batteries. They're full of energy. They're full of light. Each one is as powerful as...100 suns?

okay so would this process destroy the souls? i mean better than being tortured in hell, but the ones that are ghosts.. surely they're not all destined for hell after they get taken care of? guess it's a moot point of the earth/universe gets wiped out. ends justify the means etc

well that was cute

got their shiny rock stuff full of people and billie lurking around, of course, why not. we don't have enough people involved in this. man i'm crotchety this evening. ah right, because billie has access to a lot of souls? having flashbacks to whatever fucking season that led to the leviathans lol. marcia, marcia, marcia!

is amara having a crisis of conscience or something

AMARA So you hate him. WOMAN Well, a little bit. Sometimes. But you know family. Even when you hate them, you still love them.

eyes about rolled back into my head. so all the things we said about amara, scratch that

i do like the little flirting between crowley and billie though, that was cute

ROWENA You won't carry the bomb. You'll be the bomb.

oh for fuck's sake. and they're busting out the mushy music, not surprisingly. i refuse to get upset over this because i'm sure it's also going to be walked back very shortly. like hey amara doesn't want to kill everyone anymore because she was sad about some flowers she killed and realized the importance of family from a conversation with a rando in the park

dean's gonna (not) die-die and get thrown in the empty and he hasn't even talked to sam about it. power through. (the part of me that empathizes too much with sam had the brief moment of despair, "dean's going to leave him again! forever")

oh, come on. pulling the dead parent card? this is the kind of thing that edges into emotional manipulation for me. there better some really good fucking hugs in this episode in payment for this bullshit.

no no NO funeral planning. i actually had that conversation with my dad with terminal cancer when i was 16 and no. (he didn't want the wake to be sad but i mean. fucked if i can remember what it was like) not when it's all gonna get taken care of miraculously some other way. do not push these buttons for some shit that got cooked up halfway into the episode. i said i wasn't going to get upset and clearly that was a failure.

so do we find out chuck was lying about something. is the british mol thing just like, introducing a new plotline for next season.

look at that, amara and chuck are all peachy now.

AMARA Dean, you gave me what I needed most. I want to do the same for you.

...they couldn't zap dean back home before they left?

TONI We've been watching you, Sam. What you've done, the damage you've caused—archangels, Leviathans, the Darkness, and now, well— the old men have decided enough's enough. I mean, let's face it, Sam. You're just a jumped-up hunter playing with things you don't understand and doing more harm than good.

great. couldn't go to the good old nugget of the police or fbi being after them, gotta step it up to some supernatural police

so what dean needs most is his mom. ok, sure

[voidsnarrator]

I love Vincent and I want to know more about him but alas, I'm bad at asking questions.

I think most people are bad at asking questions, and thus they don't haha

You can always look at ask memes to get ideas from! Or think about topics! Such as queer-related stuff, or hobbies, or his thoughts/feelings on xy thing.

there's so many things i can think of but dont really have a reason to talk about normally lkjkljklj (<- plus no belief if i posted a random ramble anyone would care lol)

you could ask more about his being, during any part of the story or even after theyve escaped! ask about any sort of AU you could think of! even things that are much further from "canon" like "what if he met another narrator?"

many many things !!

but yeah, ask memes are always the easiest haha tumblr has loads of those, you can just yoink questions from them :]

[zoophagist]

Finally got to your answer about PD and boy do I have Thoughts about this show.

I really feel bad for Jekyll's actor. In the end he was kinda just there to be an eye candy and have slurs thrown at him, because what else is a Pakistani man for in a 2010s show? I really wanted him to do and be more. Seeing him team up with (and maybe kiss) Renfield would be... Just beautiful, ok, I love me some characters who start wrecking things because they were treated like dirt by everyone around them.

Also the showrunners putting Sam Barnett, the gayest, fluffiest, sunny twink in front of me and going: "Look, this one has never been loved and he definitely wants women in a creepy way" was just so funny. Guys, I know like 12 men who'd propose to him on the spot, also he looks like he has never thought about a girl carnally.

I really liked his Renfield though. There's just something very pretty and very tragic about him, like yes, he's very much going for Frye-vibes, but it all comes out simply endearing. Barnett!Renfield feels and sounds like Frye's younger brother. I do believe this Renfield genuinely loved his Master, I do believe he'd be torn up about having to hurt living beings in the most heart-wrenching way.

Also don't get me started on his Seward and his Dracula.

anon you're so right about all of this, speaking the very thoughts from my mind. i wanted jekyll to be so cool and he sure was just... there.... and that weak ass, last minute "lord hyde" reveal??? oh the humanity... look how they mutilated my boy. and YES, why subject one of our rare poc to all this just to rob them of any actual character development? now i never said anything about him kissing renfield (haha, unless...? no. although...?) but yes, truly, wanted, needed, craved a better look at jekyll in PD. if i weren't already the last atrophied member of this rpc and there were anyone left to care about it, maybe i'd also be writing jekyll and just saying YOINK he's mine now, going to make up lots of cool canon for him, thanks <3

the AUDACITY of PD to show me the man i knew as david posner in 'the history boys' and tell me he was a malevolent little sex pest? unappealing? STRAIGHT, of all things? the nerve is just galling. yeah the scene right before he meets dracula, where he's supposed to be going at it with that sex worker, i'm just..... sam you're trying your best, and it's not your fault they gave you a completely unbelievable scene to work with. i could believe that his renfield has thought about a woman carnally but only in the "desperately trying to conceal how much i want to be pegged with oversized dominance and light misogyny" way, you know? i love your description of sam's take being "frye's younger brother." so true. and the sincerity of his longing for love, yes!! the whole bit he said to seward in that final scene like "if i’d had a friend like you in life i mightn’t have ended up like this" god this man was really latching onto any crumb of affection he could.

i'm not only getting you started on seward and dracula but i'm BESEECHING you to go off. so interested to hear your thoughts. i generally thought dracula was ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ okay. you know? he was a competent and mysterious dracula that was fun, but the way it all ended with hiim was real lackluster. absolutely indebted to this dracula tho for giving me a whole scene of renfield being called his 'chosen one' and getting to really homoerotically kneel at his feet and then drink from his master's wrist like. thank you for your fucking SERVICE. PD seward is.... i'm mixed. i'm an absolute heretic among theatre kids because i don't like patti lupone and wasn't thrilled she was in this role, and but i thought the take on seward was at least.. idk interesting? there was something going on that could be fun, but hmm. i think i'd have to watch it again to articulate fuller thoughts on her.

[boatem-kinhelp]

hi, i was wondering if i could yoink some timeline questions? trying to understand my canon more.

i'm c!techno (i cant tell if it's a kin, c'link, etc.. sorry), most of my current memories are from the dsmp but i have a couple from the antarctic empire (smp earth).

in my canon i live with phil who ,, may've been my partner /p? can't really tell. i baked sometimes, spent a lot of by nearby lakes (really liked the singing ice and the stars<3), 'm trans, i literally do not know what to put i am sorry haha. i hope this is ok.

best wishes,

–techno

heyhey, you got it!!!! - scar

+ what was your favorite thing to bake? and why!! was it sentimental, or just something nice?

+ what'd you and phil's house look like?

+ did you still have pets? (wolf pack, foxes, etc?)

+ what was the antarctic empire like, if you can remember stuff like that right now?

+ were you and phil rather affectionate? or was it just sor of an unspoken thing?

+ how'd you get from smpe to the dsmp? (assuming there's anything to tell about it, of course!)

[sage-nebula]

Thinking about all the clues in canon that Susie is an orphan who, before the game started, never had any friends or anyone who really cared about her (with their care for her being known to her), such as:

— At the beginning of Chapter 2, Ralsei reveals that he has set up rooms for Susie and Kris in his castle, so that the Dark World can be like “a second home” to them. When Susie sees her room, she spends a moment marveling about how she has her own room and awkwardly asks Ralsei how long he spent setting it up for her. After that, she’s overjoyed about how cool it is, bragging about it to both Kris and Lancer. While it could be that she just likes the room, the emphasis she puts on it being her own room makes it seem like this might be the first time she’s ever had a room to herself. Which, to be fair, Kris shared their room with Asriel as well, but the room Kris shared with Asriel was still their room, at least on one side of it. If Susie is from a group home, it could be that she never even had that much to herself.

— Susie seems to care greatly for Toriel, but in Chapter 1 also seems a bit jealous of Kris for being Toriel’s child. In Chapter 1, after Susie threatens Kris about biting their face off, she stops and says, “Nah. Kris, you have a good mother. It’d be a shame to make her bury her child.” If you try to skip school instead of going to the closet after that, Susie stops Kris by saying, “If you skip school, your mother will have a heart attack.” In both cases, Susie is expressing care for Toriel’s emotional well-being; however much Susie might not care for others, she does care about Toriel enough to not want to stress her out. Keeping in mind that all of this happens before the first Dark World trip, it can’t be explained away by Susie’s character development like Susie’s eagerness to bake a pie with Toriel (and otherwise adherence and respect that she shows for Toriel) in Chapter 2 can.

But going along with that, when you follow Susie to the closet in Chapter 1, Susie mocks Kris by saying, “Not used to walking without someone holding your hand? Come on, freak.” Given the respect and care Susie has already shown for Toriel, it’s clear that her mocking of Kris here is not because Kris should be ashamed for holding Toriel’s hand; rather, it could be jealousy that Susie doesn’t have someone to do that for her, and perhaps never did. It’s easier to call Kris a freak for having a loving mother who holds their hand than it is to admit that she wishes she had the same.

As a final note on the Chapter 2 interactions, Susie is surprised that Toriel knows her name and remembers her. This, in addition to her eagerness to help out with the pie, her laughing at Toriel’s jokes, etc, shows that Susie has a fondness for Toriel, who is the most motherly character in the series. Considering that Toriel acts kind and motherly toward Susie, the idea that Susie might not have never had a mother (+ people to care about her) suggests that her fondness for Toriel (+ jealousy of Kris) contributes to how quickly she latches onto / how much she cares about Toriel.

— Susie eats chalk, and while this could be a “haha monster snack” joke, not only do we not see other monsters eating chalk (in fact, Noelle thinks Kris is lying to her if you choose to tell Noelle this about Susie at the end of Chapter 1), but eating chalk can be a sign of a nutrient deficiency. Specifically, craving chalk can be a result of an iron deficiency. If Susie is an orphan who hasn’t had parents to take care of her, then she could have an unbalanced / nutritionally deficient diet, and thus she does things like eat chalk in an effort to make up for it. (Her jeans are also ripped up, and while distressed jeans are cool, it’s also possible those are the only pants she has.)

— While the other kids in Alphys’ class openly detest Susie (e.g. laughing at Kris for being paired with her, warning Kris about possible death at Susie’s hands, refusing to hang out with Kris if Kris is hanging out with Susie, etc), Monster Kid tells a story to Kris in Chapter 1 that suggests that, at one time, Susie might have wanted to be friends with them. Specifically, if you talk to Monster Kid at the end of Chapter 1, Monster Kid tells Kris about a time when the kids from Alphys’ class (sans Kris) were playing kickball in the street. MK says that Susie was “standing in a corner” staring at them, but that when the ball did get kicked over to her, she froze before kicking it so hard that it hit Undyne’s car. Monster Kid doesn’t say what Susie did after that (only that Alphys came out and kicked all their asses at the game), but does go on to insult Susie some more, and notes that Kris looks increasingly annoyed at the insults. Regardless, the thing to take away from this story here is that Susie was watching all the other kids play, and froze when the ball came to her. She kicked it . . . and it hit Undyne’s car. Monster Kid’s retelling of the story suggests that they and the other kids thought that Susie did that on purpose, but my interpretation (knowing Susie as I do now, and also knowing what it’s like to watch other kids play while not feeling invited to play yourself) suggests that it was probably an accident. Susie wanted to play and be included, but accidentally kicked the ball into the car, and was thought of as a freak and bully after despite her actual intentions.

— To that end, at the start of Chapter 1 Susie is pretty blatantly of the opinion that everyone hates her and wants her to get kicked out of school. She flat out says as much to Kris in front of the lockers at the start of the chapter. (“Everyone wants it. Everyone’s waiting for it.”) It’s not only the other students, either; Alphys is afraid of Susie and uses any opportunity she can to get Susie out of class, which would explain why Susie doesn’t hold nearly the same care or respect for her that she does for Toriel, someone who actually did care about and treat Susie with kindness.

— Susie expresses shock when Lancer wants to be like her / wants to be her friend, and in turn, latches onto him with fierce loyalty that is only momentarily shaken when she thinks he’s betrayed her (and she even reasons that with, “why would anyone want to be my friend?”). That line, suggesting that she feels stupid for thinking Lancer would want to be her friend, points to a friendless background. But her fierce loyalty to anyone who shows her even a bit of kindness also shows just how incredibly lonely she is. In fact, if we think about it, the people who Susie latches onto are those who have shown her some big act of kindness before:

Noelle: Lent Susie the candy cane pencil and smiled at her. Considering how the other kids in Alphys’ class treat Susie, the simple act of lending a pencil with a smile probably seemed like a huge act of kindness to her.

Toriel: Acts motherly toward Susie, as she does with all her students. Might not be special treatment in the grand scheme, but it’s special to Susie who typically doesn’t get that treatment from others.

Lancer: Said that he wanted to be like Susie, that he found Susie cool, wanted monogrammed track jackets with her, etc. Actually wanted to be Susie’s friend and appreciated her.

Kris: Defended Susie from the King’s attack. Note that although Susie was working with Kris before this, she wasn’t to the level of calling Kris her friend before Kris defended Susie. Also note that this is not an action that we, the player, make Kris do; Kris does it on their own regardless of the choices the player makes.

Ralsei: Healed Susie’s injured leg after Susie fell from the trash heap in Chapter 2. Granted, Susie was being nice to Ralsei before that and seemed to consider him a friend (enough), but it was only after Ralsei went out of his way to heal Susie’s injury and offered to teach her healing magic that she yoinked him off to spend time alone with him in the city and wanted to bust out of prison to find him when she thought he was being tortured in Queen’s Castle. Ralsei showed Susie some dedicated kindness, Susie latched on for life.

The fact that it takes on gesture of care on someone else’s part for Susie to be willing to kill for a person suggests that not only has Susie not had friends before, but perhaps that her feelings of loneliness were mixed with rejection to the point where she latches on fiercely to these people who care for her and doesn’t let them go.

— In addition to all this, although Susie latches on strongly, she also seems to be worried about losing those connections, too. When Lancer seemingly betrayed her, she said “why would anyone want to be friends with me?” When they returned from the Dark World, Susie hesitantly asks Kris if they’ll still be friends even if it turns out the Dark World was just a dream (well, she doesn’t finish the thought, but it’s clear that’s what she was about to ask before she fled). In the Snowgrave Route, when Noelle flees Kris at the hospital, Susie assumes Noelle is fleeing because of her and expresses dismay that Noelle is “scared of [her] again.” Susie’s default is that people fear or hate her and will run at the first opportunity despite how she tries to keep them close, which again speaks to a history of loneliness and rejection.

— Susie got banned from Free Ham Sandwich Day. This is a throwaway joke line, but if you consider that Susie might be an orphan with food insecurity, it could be less that she was just stuffing her face to be a pig and more that she was eating as much as she could because she didn’t know when she’d be able to eat again. Considering that she also eats things like chalk, candy cane pencils, apple-scented shampoo, and moss . . . well, the idea that Susie is food insecure doesn’t seem too far-fetched. (Kris also eats moss if the player makes them, yes, but the player has to choose that. Susie just does it on her own.)

Anyway, none of this is Conclusive Evidence, of course, but I think there’s a lot to suggest that Susie could very well be an orphan possibly living in a group home, and that she’s never really had the love of family or friends before the game started. Her aggression is defensive aggression more than anything else and it’s pretty clear that she just wants to be loved and give love in return. Susie’s fantastic and I can’t wait to see what more we learn about her as the game goes on.

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 74 Rundown

Code Geass: So we’ve got another one of those “wacky bullshit student activities” episodes, though this one seems to ride the hardest on “shit is going down, the world is ending but haha Shirley romance drama” though admittedly it does have a nice character arc for Milly so that’s cool. Lelouch is worried that the Knights of the Round are here to investigate him until he realizes both of them only have one braincell between them so it’s fine. Cornelia’s also murdering her way through religious fanatics so that’s cool. And last but not least we have Shirley and Lelouch finally getting together right before Jeremiah Geass Cancels her amnesia so she knows Lelouch is Zero and killed her dad and presumably the other stuff that Charles put in the whole school’s brain somehow. I’m sure this will end well and their romance will survive in a way that isn’t insanely tragic.

Inuyasha: We’re still in fillertown and it’s another SangoxMiroku episode. Man we get a lot of these in filler huh? I kinda don’t remember which Sango/Miroku moments are canon at this point. I’d kinda laugh if it was just all filler and some manga-only fans were bewildered when they ended up together in the end. Anyway, Feudal Lord has a thing for Sango because he has great taste and Kagome ships Sango/Miroku so she doesn’t want her to go, Miroku’s like “Hey it’s her choice, she’s been through enough, she can choose her own life, I’m not gonna get involved” which is pretty mature but the girls still hate on him for it. Sango’s just like “Dude even if I wanted to stay I still have this Naraku-slaying quest to go on and I’m not about to sit around all day and be royalty while my friends go kick Naraku’s ass for me.” Which is how most love confessions in this series go. Also Sango suplexes a demon bear the size of a building with her bare hands and it’s pretty great. In the end the lord doesn’t give up going after Sango but they finish the bear stuff and are on their way. I like how they don’t go out of their way to demonize this guy in the end to prop Miroku up, he’s still a good guy, Sango’s just got shit to do and is more the type to like a warrior who’s got her back. There’s some really cute shipping shenanigans here and all in all it’s fun filler.

Yu Yu Hakusho: We’ve got a three for one deal here as Yusuke and Kuwabara assblast their way through the Dark Triad in one episode, continuing their power play of beating villains with little effort while the boss man bets that they’ll completely wreck his guards which is still a pretty interesting dynamic. We’ve got cringey 90s trans commentary, an invisible dude that gets blindsided easily and a hostage ogre that gets beaten by Botan taking off her coat. Honestly for these guys being supposedly minibosses they kind of went down easier than some of the grunts. But now Kuwabara’s in contact with Yukina because his bullshit power of love connection actually works for some reason and they’re in on the final fight with the Toguro brothers. With this many people betting the GDP of countries on the fight there’s no way this isn’t rigged. I really like how YYH basically makes shonen fights just part of stupid black market deals for a large part of it, just like in real life everything’s decided by some old rich guy.

Fate Zero: Kayneth’s still fucked up and has Rock Lee syndrome and can’t use jutsu anymore so his wife’s like “Yo buddy you can’t give Lancer the magic cummies anymore anyway, lemme take control of your hunky knight manslave or I swear to god I’ll rip your arm off and jerk him off with it” which since she asked so nicely he just kind of does. With Lancer still kinda being uppity about Kayneth having dibs on his soul and Sola-Ui being weirdly horny and increasingly yandere for him I’m sure this’ll end well. Saber and Kiritsugu are still pissy with each other because Saber wants to go after Caster to stop the child murders which is fair but she’s also injured and shit and she’s mad at Kiritsugu for not teaming up with Kayneth to just take down Caster right there and I mean I don’t think he really had time to suggest a truce while getting attacked with Terminator 2 goo, he’s not really the asshole here. Meanwhile and more importantly, ISKANDAR HAS PANTS! Nothing can stop him now and they crash Caster’s child murder party and are jumped by Assassin’s Forty Thieves (they aren’t named yet but I’mma just assume) and Iskander’s just like “Yeah no I’m not fighting five ninjas knee deep in child guts.” And they just burn the whole place down.

Konosuba: So in a bizarre Interspecies Reviewers/Food Wars crossover, Kazuma goes to a succubus house and instead of just getting sex they do dreams and shit which seems more complicated but I guess it’s less morally gray. Anyway, naked Darkness and contrived hentai plots ensue. They sprinkle in some good character stuff for Kazuma which is nice, it’s always kind of hard to pin down where his principles lie. Like he’s generally a scumbag and will take the easy way out of anything but he’s not evil and will give Darkness an out on their encounter if she wants and will get his ass kicked to protect his local sex worker. The Principled Scumbag approach is kind of neat for him, I wish a few more of these moments didn’t feel the need to immediately undercut themselves with a joke but that’s the nature of the series. I feel like one or two more genuinely sincere moments throughout a couple episodes would do wonders but either way it’s still amusing.

Sailor Moon Crystal: We pick up right where we left off with Tuxedo Mask throwing himself in front of the Kamehameha for Usagi and then she goes Super Saiyan and cries pokemon tears to bring him back to life. But the bad guys are somehow like ‘yoink’ and steal him from her lap through a barrier somehow (that still kinda pisses me off) and for some reason the crystal that booped its way into his chest isn’t there anymore and Usagi still has and and Usagi’s going through a lot of shit right now between processing the trauma of a millennia-old kingdom falling that’s partially her fault, working through her romantic feelings and having a Steven Universe identity crisis about how to process her identity as a reincarnation of someone a lot cooler than she is, so most of this episode is Usagi crying, as most episodes are, but at least she has a good reason.  Then we get a Girl Squad Roll Out montage because fuck it we’re going to the moon somehow.

Durarara!!:  Apparently everyone knows about where Celty’s head is but her because she visits Izaya’s office where the head is just kinda behind some books on his bookshelf and she doesn’t know but Shinra’s dad has enough time to mug Namie after telling Shinra and Celty off for their weird interspecies relationship and tell Izaya to have fun fucking around with the head. Also people have shifted from being worried about the Dollars to being worried about Saika and ALSO being worried about the Dollars maybe being at war with the Yellow Scarves. Celty’s looking into it and Shinra shows some character development in just coming out with it that Saika was the sword that severed her connection with her head… I don’t know how you cut the soul of a head that’s already cut off but okay, at least Shinra’s not hiding shit from here anymore. Also Saika’s about to seriously chop up Anri and Masaomi comes to visit his girl in the hospital finally.

[randompurplepanthergorl]

You know what? I'm gonna make my own neighbor Tord, AKA Todd (Wow so original I know. Well I'm just naming MY Todd "Todd" cause A: that's the most common name for the Tord neighbor, and B: That's the cannon name- He's canonically named "Todd")

SO MEEEEEEP MEEEP I'M RAMMING INTO YOUR TUMBLR DASH WITH MY OWN TODD-

So, I have to design him but I thought up of some design aspects and personality and such in the shower

So, My Todd's design would have some inspiration from @/binbunbaka and maybe @/noodle-eggs and @/the-masked-artist05 's Todd's, not heavily to the point it looks like I stole but some inspiration/aspects from their Todd's,

A rough idea for his design, and by rough idea is that it's the first draft version and I did not draw it, is he has a muscular-ish build, not nearly as buff as Mark, but much more muscle than Eduardo and Jon has, he'd have a red T-shirt maybe a button-up one (I just want his sleeves short because I want to SLIGHTLY go off of what the canon Todd was gonna be like, and in his Easter egg it looked like he had a t-shirt) and black pants, or dark grey, I'm thinking leggings, he'd have boots, maybe the ones you see on jungle adventurers, or knee-high ones BASED on those boots plus black fingerless gloves cause it fits the personality I gave him and because I said so. As for his hair, I kinda want it to be the same shade of hair Bin's or Noodle's Todd's hair is, he'd have his hair in a ponytail (Not the same hair style as Bin's Todd but I may or may not have yoinked the ponytail from the style from their Todd-) as for the rest of his hair I'm really unsure- But I'm thinking maybe hair-horns in the front like Tord's or hair-horns in the front like Tord's but this time pointing downwards to kinda mimic a demons horns as well, to counter Tord's upward ones, because according to a quick trip to google references demon horns CAN point downwards and Tord's hair horns do kinda look like a devils horns (At least in legacy and how some fanartists draw him) I can also see him with facial hair, kind of like future-Edd's but slightly longer so it hangs off his chin slightly, maybe also (Fake) tattoos (small hard to notice ones or ones hidden unless he undresses if I go that route though)

As to establish my Todd's personality he's not just a sweet kind soul (Don't get me wrong I love it when fan Todds are really sweet and kind, hell one of my favorite fan-Todd's that where not mine is like that *cough cough* Bin's Todd *cough* , but I myself just wanna go a different route on this) He's a bit more of a man of chaos, he is sweet (Ish) But he's much more of a sour patch kid (haha candy reference)- His personality roughly summed up into traits would be, smug mofo, chaos-causer, adventurous, and sweet (when he wants to be...)

For his relationship to the other neighbors:

.With Jon he'd see him as like a "Little sprog" (My Todd's Australian, because I don't want him to be full ass British and I thought it kinda fit my own Todd) and want to protect him, they have like a BROTP relationship kinda and Todd's a bit rough when it comes to hanging out but he tries to be a bit gentler when it comes to Jon

.He and Mark's relationship is currently TBA/TBD

.As for my Todd's and Eduardo's relationship, oh you thought Edu would be bullying Todd? Try the other way around Lamo, they have a weird-ish relationship, they don't want to punch each other in the face really but sometimes Eduardo would try and punch him or Jon and it ends up with Eduardo getting roundhouse kicked in the face or somth-

NOW FOR RANDOM TRIVA NOBODY ASKED FOR-

.He's not a people person (I'm not self-projecting you are-), he sees them as annoying bugs, he can tolerate and sometimes like living with and interacting with other people but only in small groups (2-6 more people to be specific) and he even has a flyswatter to swat people away

.He can't figure out a goddamn computer for the life of him- Stick him in a computer room and all you'll get is him standing there like :P, heck you'd get that dumb :P face if you stuck him in front of a TOY COMPUTER FOR FUGGIN T O D D L E R S

.He loves adventuring and exploring and a bit of a nature freak, and hates being coped up in the same place for too long, so he walks around the blocks a lot due to his love of fresh air, his equivalent to Tord leaving/reason leave would be to explore jungles or do "Naked and Afraid" (He actually HAS survived like Tarzan minus being raised by monkeys once in a jungle for a week) and he'd come back in "The End" but my Todd would return BEFORE Tord's robot rampage

.Instead of being a chatterbox like you think he'd be, my Todd counters (classic) Tord's rare talking/quietness by beinG LOUD AF the mofo's like a fugging foghorn, he even snores like one, he talks a bit more than Tord did as well, not to the point of chatterbox but he talks more, you could seriously be 8 whole ass rooms away and hear him talking- The man has NO inside voice, he's constantly left behind by the others at library's and other places that require you to be quiet-

.He despises anime, he finds it "cringy"

.He has never gone near any drugs or cigarettes or alcohol or anything, he really does not want that shit in his system, he's happy with his body and would rather stay healthy-

.He's gotten really strong from adventures he could accidently literally squish you by accident in a hug- (Could be worse- Could be MARK hugging you- Than you'd be atoms)

.He's more of a machete wielder than a gun wielder

.He likes roughhousing

.He once wrestled both an alligator and crocodile. at once. and somehow won-

-

Hoped you had fun reading about me making my own Todd- I'll probably do more of this guy in the future I like him

[bokunoheroanalysisforthefuture]

Alright, chapter 8! And man is there a lot to talk about here. I don’t really have any pre-content things to say, so we’ll just hop right into it today!

[No. 8 - Rage, You Damned Nerd]

I swear, this first page has a LOT to talk about on it, so I’ll go from panel to panel and do some rambling thoughts on each segment. 

First off, UA doesn’t actually handle the costumes the kids get! It’s support companies affiliated with the school that does - which makes sense, since the school has to focus on teaching their support students before letting them get their hands on actual costumes that these kids might be fighting in.

I mean, they seem to be allowed to practice on like, minor support stuff (read: Mei making Izuku his new gloves post-Nighteye or somewhere around there) but not full costuming, which is… actually a bit reassuring? But also explains some of the lag time in getting costume repairs / upgrades since they’re probably busy companies. It also explains why there probably aren’t major alterations to any costumes besides between the summer and winter variants, since it would be time-consuming to remake these costumes so regularly.

(It still doesn’t excuse some of the costumes the kids got, but that’s more on the whole ‘eye candy’ thing for readers than actual practicality, so whatever.)

(Also, I can’t get over the fact that Snipe has a support company. Fucking Snipe. Guess we know another canon or likely-canon Support teacher.)

Next we get a preview of what the kids sent in for specifications for their costumes:

We get a bit of insight into a few of the characters - as background stuff, we get Shouji, Mineta, Aoyama, and Sato. Mineta got pretty dunked on for char design and costuming, and Aoyama’s costume almost looks like a magical girl outfit like this, which honest to god would have been fantastic to see him in. More interesting (at least to me) are the other three: Ochako, Tenya, and Katsuki.

Ochako first, because that pressure point thing is interesting, and I dunno how often those actually come up in fics besides a passing mention, like. What if her support bracelets / neck piece broke during training / a mission / whatever? Would she suddenly have to fight through the nausea? By the point of current canon (War Arc) she’s probably trained enough that she doesn’t need them as much, but man, it could be an interesting little thing to explore, like, post-Kamino.

Tenya is a bit surprising, since we know he comes from a well-off hero family. Logically, this was before the whole Hosu / Ingenium plotline was really developed, so Tenya didn’t have that to fall back on, or it could be argued that the support company that Ingenium is associated with also works with UA. Alternatively, it could be that either Tenya didn’t want to rely on his family (which seems silly when they’d know how to work with his quirk best) or UA is very firm on ALL costume stuff going through them…

But then again, Katsuki. Oh god, Katsuki. What fucking support company looked at this kid and went ‘yeah we should give him a way to store more explosives AND give him bombs’ and just. Did so. Why did UA not vet that. Maybe the support company didn’t realize how strong his explosions were without the gear, but UA, man, I just. I suppose they had no way of knowing how reckless he’d be with them, but honestly, after the battle trials, they should have been fucking yoinked from him so damned fast. 

Anyways, onto other parts of Katsuki’s costume, we see he’s a fucking dork. Possibly what lowered their guard. ‘Something scary’ and ‘Dynamighte all over’. What the hell, kid. At least your designer stuck close to your design… including the huge-ass clunky gauntlets. Man, the Musketeer Trio movie poster ones are so much better looking and so, so streamlined. Works of art, they are.

Moving on, we get a bit of a flashback to ~three weeks ago, which by the calendar would be around March 20th? So a few weeks after the Entrance Exam. And Izuku is only NOW getting around to updating the quirk registry? Izuku baby seriously, how the FUCK did none of the UA staff notice the ‘quirkless’ on your application form at any point before this?

But yeah, he’s worried about his registry, so he calls Toshinori, who explains the update process. It gives the example of someone who might alter their stuff with updated information, with one or two allowed - though major ones aren’t accepted. Toshinori then says it’ll probably be okay since he started with nothing, then tries to correct himself to ‘definitely’, only to get cut off because Izuku accidentally hangs up in a panic when Inko calls out that she’s home. Haha poor Toshinori, and poor Izuku, the two anxious dumbasses. 

Anyways, moving on from that is Inko showing off the jumpsuit she made, with Izuku surprised. She admits it’s not the coolest, but she based it off of the design in his notebook (the one we saw back in chapter 1). She tells him she regrets giving up on him back then, and how he never quit regardless of her faith. She apologizes and says from there on she’ll be cheering him on with all she’s got. 

Izuku’s narration notes that it’s a symbol of his mom’s love, and that he couldn’t wear anything else, even if it’s not ‘efficient’ or ‘cutting edge’. (Or even at all decent looking.) And it’s also hinted through the present thoughts on it that it’s meant to be an homage to All Might (the smile and the hair pieces) which is just such a dorky thing.

We get to the wide-spread of hero costumes, which- wait a second.

That’s Momo’s initial hero costume design???? Why did Hori not stay with that??? It’s a LOT better than the stuff we’ve seen her in later! Like, sure, it’d still be improved with the main opening being her stomach and not her chest, but this still looks like actual human clothing and not a sexy Halloween costume variant of her hero uniform. Fucking hell, now I’m even more mad.

Tsuyu’s costume meets the approval of the discord server as basically ‘no changes needed’ asides from maybe the goggles being a bit bulky.

Tenya’s costume, I’m sorry, I know it’s an homage to your brother / family, but were the additional pipes really needed? Also, the helmet isn’t a bad idea since he goes fast, and bugs in the mouth/teeth have to suck, but it just looks so damned Gundam-y I can’t help but laugh a little.

Shouto… nah, too easy a target.

Aoyama is Aoyama. I’m actually a bit disappointed now that it’s not a magical girl costume, but alas, I suppose even Hori couldn’t be that brave.

Kaminari… I forgot he had that headset thingy. 

Don’t really have much else to say about anyone else, so let’s move on.

Izuku bugs out a bit about Ochako’s costume/appearance, while she compliments his more practical looks and laments not being specific, saying it’s a bit too puffy and curvy for her. Which means it’s more the accessories which seem to be her issue with it over the main costume itself? Huh.

Anyways, after All Might confirms they’re all there, he notices Izuku’s headpieces, which are a match to his costume, and has to turn to muffle a laugh for how obvious a reference it is. Tenya steps up, asking whether they’ll be doing cityscape maneuvers again since it’s the same field used in the entrance exam. Izuku thinks to himself how cool Tenya’s costume is, while All Might explains that they’re moving onto step two - indoor anti-personnel battle training!

He explains what while villain battles are most commonly seen outdoors, statistically the worst crimes and villains are more likely to be found indoors. Confinement, house arrest, black market deals… the clever villains luck indoors to avoid heroes. Which is why the class will be split into teams of two and pit against each other, heroes versus villains style!

Ah, Tsuyu. Calling him right the heck out, as expected. All Might then notes that in this scenario, the fight won’t be against disposable robots. 

This entire page is just fucking hilarious. The class and all their questions while All Might is shaking with nerves. The fucking cheat sheet he uses to try to get back on track. Him being questioned on the lot drawing, and shaking while Izuku accidentally ends up covering for him. I just. All Might was not prepared for this mess and it shows. He was doing so much better when it was the one on one stuff with Izuku.

But yeah, Izuku notes the scenario is like from a western comic plot, and he’s also the one who ‘realizes’ the lots are like when heroes from different agencies have to team up for emergencies without prior warning. 

Lots are drawn, and we have our teams:

Izuku’s so stressed out because he still can’t really talk to her, while she’s excited to be teamed up and calls it ‘fate’ that it happened. All Might draws the first two teams to participate, and… team Izuku and Ochako (as the heroes) versus team Katsuki and Tenya (as the villains). Both Izuku and Katsuki are alert from this development…

Which makes this a good point to cut off, since it’s halfway through and we got a lot of information to chew on already. Second part should be out this weekend (hopefully). 

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Alex ze Pirate Mini Review 2: Underappreciated and how Sam should deal with an abuser.

Last time I gave a general overview of how Sam is treated by his “friends”. Now I want to give a more specific example, that will also show how Dobson’s storytelling abilities are not really all that good, particularly when it comes to pacing or building up any sort of conflict.

You see, for the most part Alex ze Pirate is just a collection of stupid artwork (not even concept art, just random artwork Dobson makes of his characters dressed as something random) and one page strips with a stupid punchline, with Sam most of the time being the receiving punching bag.

There have however been a few individual, short stories over time. And when I say short stories, I mean short. As in 15 pages for a very cheap set up, a few jokes and a punchline. Those include stories such as All that Glitters (where everyone except Alex breaks into a fortress to steal something), The Wish Fish (the only halfway okay story of them all because it is just meant to be comedic) and Best Laid Plans. However, near the end of the initial run of AzP, Dobson did a three part story (partly) focused on Sam in that format, which started off with the chapter I want to talk in this post: “Underappreciated”.

As you can see, the chapter starts off following some basic rules of storytelling in comics. Two establishing panels for the location at which the story takes place initially and showing what Sam’s duties are. Nothing really bad yet. The only thing that sticks out being just the fact that a) Sam does not have his own bedroom and has to sleep in a useless outlook and b) he sleeps in his regular clothes. But hey, nothing to get upset about initially, perhaps he just prefers it like this at the moment. But with the next two pages…

The problems start to show. Page three establishing that Atea herself is just a cunt who can’t even have the basic decency of wishing her “friend” a good morning or giving him a thank you for bringing a morning beverage as she has other selfish priorities on her mind. Like wanting to lick the shower water of Alex’s skin.

Also, go fuck yourself Uncle Peggy. As in, get both your arms ripped off, shoved up your butthole with those hooks and then get hanged on those stomps like a chandelier. I wouldn’t even mind the fact here that Peggy left a mess, if the face he makes in the last panel was not obvious of the fact he left the bathroom like this on purpose and that he is rather happy of making Sam’s day extra miserable by the fecal matter he left behind. Combined with any previous strip of the comic showing that Peggy for no reason likes to get the boy in trouble and even wants to see him die, this just shows once more of how much of an asshole he is. If the last panel just showed him with a groogy hangover look, obviously unaware of how much discomfort he brings unintentionally to Sam, that would be one thing. But intentionally making Sam’s day miserable despite the obvious fact the boy is the first one to do anything around here, while making one of the worst drawn “HAHA, I am such a rascal faces” I have ever seen (and I have seen shitty anime en mass) makes me hate the character more than Dobson intented.

And then there is page 5…

And it is in my opinion the saddest page in the entire comic arc, even compared to the “heartbreaking” stuff Dobson wants to pull up in the last third of it. Because though it is meant as a joke, the general execution is too cruel, crossing into “dude, not funny” territory and showing just how little the crew cares for Sam. Talus, Sam’s “best friend” not even aware he is around, everyone stealing Sam’s food with that stupid “Yoink” sound (seriously, I wish the characters would get punched in the vaginas each time they make this sound in any of Dobson’s strips) and then leaving Sam behind with smug faces, ready to do whatever they want to do, while he, likely stinking of feces and not even having showered properly, has also to clean up after those pigs, who can’t even eat in a proper manner ( hey Atea, use a fork instead of holding the bowl) and silently. I mean, they are pretty much pigs when the noises they make are loud enough, they make the font of the writing change randomly into whatever Dobson has on his computer with every sound. Not to forget the mess they leave behind. And they call Sam the Slob?

Anyway, on to the next page…

And who the heck left their Hello Kitty toy in the bathtub? Also, I hate the way Alex’s face is drawn in the lower left corner. Something about the eyes in relation to the shit eating grin just looks off. Less “smug” and gleefully awaiting whatever she plans next and looking more like Dobson when someone tells him his opinion and reasoning for it is bad, but he can’t yell back at them because they are part of a minority and so he has make a “good face” to a bad situation, while internally he is already imagining how to strawman them in some fake news worthy facebook post.

And then we get to page 7. Which features the WORST addition to the “Alex ze Pirate” canon Dobson has ever thought up. An embodiment of what is wrong with Dobson when it comes to inserting internet culture related stuff into his own work. Ladies and gentlemen… the lolcat pirates

Yeah, those Hello Kitty rejects who ironically look still more like a proper cat than Spot in Danny and Spot, are essentially one of the worst jokes Dobson has ever created. Because they are a joke without a punchline. See, all there is to them is that they are sentient cats, that speak in a manner associated with lolcat posting. And that is the “joke”. Their speech pattern being based on a dumb internet meme that was popular at the time Dobson drew this page. It is like if you portray an Asian by making them talk with a shitty racist accent and that supposedly counts already as comedy. It is not funny, because there is nothing really done with it in context of the story. Like no one addresses the weird way they talk. Also, with the font Dobson uses, it is just an eyesore to any reader and the text gets aggravating the more the captain of the cats talks. It shows why lolcat pictures only had very short sentences accompanying the pics, cause reading more than 8 words written in this manner tingles a part of your brain that makes you want to shout “English motherfucker, do you speak it”?

Don’t get me even started on how the joke would get lost to anyone unaware of lolcats and how dated the joke already was back when the page was posted, which is one of many reasons why comic artists should just in general avoid memes in their work, if they hope for it to pass the test of time. Instead let me just point out the fact that though Alex said “All hands prepared for casting off” on the previous page (which is also a very unnatural way to give the order “Everyone get ready! Take off in 10 minutes”) not all hands are on board, seeing how Uncle Peggy is missing on this page (and spoilers) many pages of this afterwards. Weird. I thought he would be onboard the moment Alex mentioned they are going to hijack a ship full of pussy. Lastly, this is Alex being a “badass”? Taking over a ship full of little furballs you can defeat with a laserpointer, a squeaky toy and catnip? Sam, this is not just “almost” embarrassingly easy, this is literally on a level similar to stealing candy from a baby. That is mentally handicapped. And without supervision. In a candy story.

At least it turns out there is genuinely something worth stealing on this ship. Otherwise all Alex would have accomplished on that very day would have been animal abuse for the sake of entertainment. Though now it also gets me thinking: A place called Katsville, the revelation that the captain is supposedly the child of a high ranking military feline within the sea force of an entire species of sentient cats… how exactly does the world of Alex ze Pirate function? Look, I do not want to get into too much detail about this point here yet, because it is a bigger issue with the worldbuilding (or rather lack thereof) of this series in general, but what is the “consistency” when it comes to races and species in this world? See, One Piece for example is overall a very “cartoonish” and fantastic world (more cartoonish than what Dobson creates on average) when you think of the fact there are fish men, giant seacows and seamonsters, sentient furry creatures, islands in the sky, sentient weather phenomenons etc next to humans. And while Oda does not really spend time elaborating in very high detail how his world works, the sheer abundance of those elements and how they were established pretty early on in the story and are revisited constanly, with the cartoonish flavor and humor of One Piece on top of it, makes those oddities feel organic and a part of the world.

Not so much in AzP. Here over 90% of the time any character not related to the crew is some generically drawn human, in a very generically human setting with jokes just not cartoonish enough. So the world of AzP feels more “realistic” and less oddish, making then things like Talus, the lolcat pirates and once a giant sea dragon that looked like Elliot’s rejected cousin

Stand out like a sour thumb that looks like this

But I digress. Lets see what makes Sam, who just seems bored and wants to end his miserable life/drink his sorrows away, throw the cat captain against the wall.

Okay. Sam’s overall reaction makes it clear, the locket is important. So “kudos” for establishing this and in doing so also create within a moment a bit of intrigue for the reader. After all, why does this locket get such a reaction out of Sam, who we know so far as more happy go lucky or deadpan in parts, instead of looking genuinely distraught. Heck, the fact he even tells Alex to shut up when she commands him around should highlight how out of character finding this locket truly makes Sam.

Then there is Alex’s reaction to being told to shut up, which she takes with as much dignity as someone telling Dobson to just stop fawning about underaged lesbians in a toddler show.

Jesus Christ, she faces being told she looks like a guy with more grace than that. I mean, isn’t she used to being told to shut her trap? Cause if I were her parents, I would have told this entitled redheaded whinner a few times over the course of her childhood to shut up.

Scum sucking cabin boy… said by a butt ugly whore who would genuinely suck scum off if it means she can finally get laid instead of being mistaken for a man. By the way, with that angry face she makes in the first panel, I can totally see why others would mistake her for a dude. She just looks unpleasant and not in a funny way like that red panda girl from Aggretsuko. See, when she gets angry, it looks hilarious and cute because of the contrast to how the character looks ordinarily. This is just Alex looking even more unpleasant as usual.

Now, before I continue with the next pages, I like to point out the face Sam makes in the upper panel and Sam’s overall body language in the last one.

It is obvious that Sam is meant to be in a state of mind where he knows for what he is getting yelled at and where he genuinely reacts in a hurt manner. His body shaking, his head tilted down, not saying even a word. You would expect that the next page of this comic would be a follow up. Seeing Sam, who is pent up, lashing out in some way. Either for example by justifying why he said it, getting sad, angry, perhaps even violent in that situation. After all, so far the way this story has been structured, a lot of emphasize was put on the fact that Sam is treated not well and that finding this locket actually has an uncommon effect on him. Heck, even the title of this chapter hints on the idea, that we should get some sort of huge reaction out of Sam now on the next page, as this is supposed to be Sam’s story.

Instead it is just Alex grumbling and grinding her teeth, unable to comprehend that someone finally told her something every reader with more than 20 braincells said when reading this comic series. And this in my opinion is from a structural point, one of the biggest missteps in this story. Obviously, this is supposed to be a comic about Sam, based on title and him being the one character in it with the most emotional aspects so far. And it is also obvious that this is not just meant to be a silly gag comic but supposedly one with emotional weight. So, where is that weight so far, aside from the panels showing Sam being miserable because he gets the short end of the stick by his friends? Sorry to hijack this thing here now with my own ideas, but if I had writen this story, page 12 and 13 would have actually been an immense turning point for me in the dynamic so far. Why I would have let Alex shout at Sam for insubordination, I would have made it more than one panel of Alex calling him scum and also end likely with Sam, who obviously reaches a limit the longer she goes on about it, end punching her in the face, perhaps even knock out. Show truly just how far Sam is pushed emotionally at this moment, keeping it however ambiguous if he hit her because of her words hurting or because of something else, in doing so focusing also the attention to the reader back on the locket.

As an aftermath of this, Alex would (if not knocked out) hit Sam back, much to Atea’s and Talus horror, later implying additionally that Sam left because of being hit by whom he thinks is not just his captain but a “friend” (oh yes spoiler, Sam is gone in the next chapter)   or the next page would be of Alex waking up back in her hideout from having been knocked out. Atea and Talus informing her what happened, her deciding to deal with Sam later on after recovering (who accompanied everyone back on the island temporarily) only for the last page showing Sam deciding that he is leaving the island, ending the chapter on Sam in a small boat slowly drifting away from the island. You know, something to give the chapter the feeling that the “shut up” moment is an emotional turning point in this story and that there might be something bigger going on that resulted in Sam deciding to leave, without having him however go full Meg Griffin as in the Family Guy episode “Seashell Seahorse Party”, chewing Alex and the others out for the way they treat him. Cause honestly, as much as I like for Alex, Atea and Talus to be chewed out and face consequences for their actions, doing so would likely just be (like in that Family guy episode)  a pointless fillerbuster in the bigger picture of things, as no real consequences would come out of it.

Well that and just like the writers of Family Guy, Dobson is just equally loathsome and thinks he can write whatever sick joke he wants and can on his characters, basic decency or consistency in writing be damned.

But back to the comic, where things just “end” as shown here instead of any real emotions boiling up and a cliffhanger that may genuinely beg the question what is going to happen next to anyone involved in this thing.

 Cause really, by the time it is night and Sam says it is time to go, you are not surprised he wants to go, even if he did not have a genuine emotional outburst within this chapter. After all, who wants to stay with “friends” like this, with Talus and Atea not even trying to cheer him up and instead ignoring his obvious need for comfort in this uncomfortable way, as if they are a bunch of racists trying to look away as someone beats a black person in front of them into a pulp. The only question you may ask yourself by the time the last page is hit, is who that generic looking girl is, whose picture has been photoshopped into the locket.

 Something we may not find out by the time the next chapter and part of this review hits, but will get to eventually. Until then guys, in order to end on something happier, funnier and just genuinely more pleasant than what this story presented to us so far, have something silly and Super Sentai related here for the sake of childish entertainment.

[redscullyrevival]

An argument can absolutely be made that if the first season of Star Trek Discovery just went up and started like this third season has then it’d be a series that has more fans and will have had less growing pains as a production - BUT, THE EFFORT. Can we talk about the effort??? I'm DYING to talk about The Effort!

DISCO didn't HAVE to throw Trek convention out the window in season one and DISCO didn't HAVE to laboriously repaint the foundation of the franchise in season two but off they went anyways.

It’s always the boring comparison and TV vs Movie, yeah I know, but for the sake of a somewhat leveled comparison within pop cultural impact; Star Wars was like "Here is a Black stormtrooper!" and the fans that were always going to upset by that went "That's not how [I want] Stormtroopers [to] work!"

And even though Force Awakens addressed it’s casting choices even though it didn’t have to because Star Wars isn’t friggn’ real it’s a story that has to be casted with actors playing the parts so as to share the purposefully created story - all that was put down to ““justify”” a Black stormtrooper was like a few sentences with no real effort, narratively, visually, and certainly not production-wise, backing up, protecting, and supporting that change to the c a n o n - making it the continued bedrock of near all nonsense to follow. 

OBVIOUSLY this is a simplification and obviously there are lots of other conversations to be had about casting, narrative intent, audience engagement, and how all those moving parts “should” or “shouldn’t need to” interact so anyone and anything not cis, straight, and white can exist. 

But overall I think most people would agree it boiled down to a shocking underestimation of Star Wars' cultural importance with a dismissive shrug at the hinging desires of the loudest sec of invested Star Wars fans (and the suddenly invested others who found that jk they really care, because of the Culture Wars) and how such fans for many, many years bludgeoned out a space using CANON. Again, lots of conversations to be had there, but what’s most important to what I’m taking too long to get at is the entire thing was an undeniably vivid squandering of the potential for true inclusivity within franchise expansion. 

 BACK TO DISCO!

Rather than get the ball rolling with a pisspoor toe dip, DISCO went up to the elbows in commitment on clarifying Michael Burnham as Michael Burnham, Spock’s Actual Sister, and the haha yeah the Captain is bad actually and Star Fleet ain’t squeaky clean oh and the ship runs on mushrooms and jumped by a gay man and Spock is dyslexic, bunch of other cool shit - and then they go and make sure that only the friggin' origin point of the ENTIRE FRANCHISE is freshly repainted, only then did they NOPE out a "free", revised, narrative space.

Lets be real it was all a bit touch and go, but goddamn was it worth The Effort. Because now we can have A Proper Star Trek episode and anyone left standing to witness it doesn't have the foundation anymore to just point and go BuT thE C A N O N. 

Discovery’s audience had to hang on and reevaluate their understanding, their personal wants and desires from the franchise as a pop cultural institution, or let go. No one was asked to just accept a thing because that’s were the production wanted to start, those who were always going to be upset that Michael Burnham was a non-captain Black woman had the canon yoinked from them rather than leaving space for their discontent. DISCO acknowledged what it was doing different out the gate and was willing to upset hardcore trekkies because things needed to get messy if the franchise was going to remain relevant not just through the majesty of it simply being Star Trek on air again but through an ability to connect and reflect our contemporary shared existence beyond tokenism and nostalgia.

They done the work. They didn't have to and we can all bemoan that they "shouldn't have had to" but DISCO did because DISCO is talking the talk AND walking the walk.  

Look, whatever, don’t talk to me I’m emotional. 

[prophezeiung]

@vorhersage​ said:    3, 12, 18 for all of them thanks​​   ›   oc creation questions ( accepting )

3. how did you choose their name? carter: i remember scouring baby naming websites for the most obnoxious sounding rich people names. i wanted something more ~modern frat bro-y but with a touch of old money™ too, so in the end i went with lewis montgomery carter which imo already sounds extremely annoying so i’m happy. lloyd was.. just a vibe... but also lloyd bank, no correlation but a vibe. marty: marty was acc a really stupid one, because i first made him on forums where you have to sign up with the character’s name... very funny story for a different day but i just wanted to make an account so i could work on the site, so i just picked any random name that i thought sounded cute. i think i was thinking of back to the future? only after that we came up with an rpg concept and i started creating an oc... who wasn’t very marty mcfly-ish at all? but i decided to stick with this fresh nickname and give him an eccentric real name...... that’s why it’s a stretch from artemis to marty when he literally could’ve been arty but that’s not a vibe at all. his middle name is aurelio bc it’s cute and lighthearted but i realized it’s almost a c/mbyn mood which .. puke.. also all his siblings have a. a. names so 8) graves just sounded nice and dark academia-y, plus because it was a fantastic beasts-ish rpg concept i was thinking of claiming p.ercival graves as a distant relative oop. when i removed marty from the hp setting i thought the last name still fit v well with his new lore so i yoinked it from fb and now it’s mine uwu pandora: i have no clue how i came up with pandora, i just thought it’s funny to give her the nickname bread bc ‘big bread’ was somewhat of an inside joke but i couldn’t make myself give her the last name grande... also all my central american friends have like 7 names each so i wanted to give her at least one middle name and two last names ... i went with belén like bethlehem because it doesn’t fit her AT ALL hehe and then for a last name i really liked olivar.. bc of plant imagery and it sounded like bolivar... anyway... holden: very non-deep i found it on a baby naming website and vaisey is a golden trio era side-side-character so i just thought i’ll make an ancestor ... stonks! 8) margaret: i really really liked the nickname muffy and so i looked up for which names it’s a nick name... mary and margaret just happened to be on the list, which perfectly matched her background hehe 8) barr is actually kind of an eva-ism, i asked her if i should name my character after a.aron burr or c.atherine parr and she said yes <3 so i did 8) conan: conan means little wolf babey!!!! r.emus l.upin who!!!!!!!!! irish werewolf all the way!!!! and hm mcloughlin just struck me as irish™ idk it sounds nice! sunshine: haha... i didn’t have a name for her for the longest time, i just knew she was a hippie gal with a pure heart and uwu attitude so eva and i just called her ‘sunshine rainbow baby’... and then when it came to actually naming her... i didn’t :) it’s just the right amount of tacky and in-your-face so i kept it ayyy emily: she just was emily .. i didn’t choose the name it was just there and i accepted it.. sorry... for her last name i looked at japanese name meanings that sorta fit her vibe and i liked all the kuro- ones bc kuro means black which... hello... and kurosawa just sounded really fitting!

12. what have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your oc (any form of art: writing, drawing, edits, etc.)? carter: the fact that he knows shit about american politics and icba to look that up for every reply. plus the fact that his political opinions disgust me .... also i changed carter’s fc once and that kinda messed up a little how i picture him physically, esp with art and edits i... still don’t know if he rly has curly hair or nah.. have stopped thinking about it... marty: the fact that he’s so cringey and his vocabulary is bigger than mine.. also he has read walden and i refuse to... generally his obsession with classic literature is a big yikes for me bc the canon is so str8 white cis male heavy oof pandora: her lore? i am very lazy with her lore... also finding the balance between whirlwind and Chill.. i know she’s there i just gotta find where exactly... holden: trying not to make every reply sound the same but he only has 2 emotions ( angry, a little less angry ) so it’s hard. muffy: not so much difficult as interesting but i find out more and more that muffy is actually... kinda dark? idk man i don’t wanna see her snap. ( but actually.. i do.... ) conan: it just hurts man.. everything about him.. i want happy endings for my characters so bad but i wonder if he can ever be happy without being sad :/ sunshine: her whole inner monologue lmaooo i have no idea what i’m writing i’m just winging it?? emily: i’m yet to find out babey 8)

18. what is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your oc?

carter: how whiny he is rip :/ i knew he kinda was.. but oh boy he’s terrible... marty: his relationship with Evil people and that he actually... would rather follow charisma than ideology which is a big oof ://// .. not that he’s into breaking the law at all but his moral compass is so weak and he usually thinks about other things and he is so easily peer pressured that he could high key be manipulated into doing bad stuff :/ pandora: she’s a coffee person! holden: that he spits on kids muffy: that she’s kind of a slytherin? conan: he can’t sit with his back to the door.. sunshine: she could be kind of an adrenaline junkie? not in a dangerous way she just... is the person who says ‘ i wanna go again! ’ after getting off the roller coaster hehe emily: that she swears oop

[isaackuo]

Starco Week5 Wrap-up!

This week was really fun! It was nice for someone to actually see the silly comics I draw! Normally, hardly anyone even notices so I rarely put in the effort of a multi-panel comic.

Here are links and explanations to my Starco Week 5 comics:

https://isaackuo.tumblr.com/post/185176588866/awkward

The one that started it all for me! I actually didn’t even notice there was a Wedding prompt later in the week. I just saw a post about “Awkward Dating Moments” and the Kellco shipper in me thought of a cute little comic that MAXIMIZED STARCO AWKWARDNESS.

So I thought, why not? It was only 3 little panels, and it mostly involved me drawing Kelly - who I find easy to draw. And I thought it was freaking hilarious.

EXPLANATION:

This comic refers to Booth Buddies, a “memorable” episode among us Starco shippers. In it, Kelly and Marco are on a wedding date, until Star Butterfly yoinks Marco away to the infamous photo booth. Then things get a little weird. In this comic, Kelly gets back by yoinking Marco to be her breakup buddy “booth buddy”, when Marco and Star are on a “wedding date” ...

https://isaackuo.tumblr.com/post/185223809716/yeah-im-a-bad-boy-princess

This one was the toughest for me, and also the weakest. I don’t follow AUs and I’m not used to thinking in terms of AUs. I tried to study the Bad Boy AU a bit, but I couldn’t think of any funny jokes for it. Honestly, I just went with the first idea I finally thought of which was vaguely funny.

EXPLANATION:

This comic references a few of the “bad” things canon Star actually did:

1) Trash a cop car in Star vs Echo Creek

2) Shoot a cop chopper out of the sky in Sad Teen Hotline

3) Murder the MHC in Cleaved

But “nice” AU Star wouldn’t do that stuff, right? So Bad Boy Marco picks up the slack for her. So ... it’s funny? I dunno, I think my sense of humor is too obtuse a lot of the time. You really need to be in deep with the show to even remember the stuff I’m referencing and make the connections?

I guess either you “get it” or ... oh well.

https://isaackuo.tumblr.com/post/185220760531/starco-snugs

Haha, this one was “controversial”. I mean ... if you read my stuff then you know I think Star was addicted to the thrill of having both Marco and Tom, the same way Marco was addicted to the thrill of two timing with Star and Hekapoo (in Night Life). I think this was cute and tragi-comic, and it’s one of my favorite parts of Star Butterfly’s character. Let her have her distinctive flaws, okay?

But apparently this also cuts a bit too close to home, since it’s one of the things hardcore Tom stans criticize Star for (both the character and the show).

Anyways ... while everyone else was going sweet lovey-dovey, I went a bit freaky. I mean ... I think of this as romantic, but maybe I’m just weird that way. Like ... just imagine. Marco Diaz consoling Star every night for breaking up with Tom, and then he gets hit by “Mind Eraser” so he gets to do it again tomorrow. Isn’t that romantic?

EXPLANATION:

This comic is based on the “Mind Eraser” spell Eclipsa teaches Moon in Total Eclipsa the Moon. It’s one of my favorite spells to make jokes around, because it’s basically the flashy thing from Men in Black.

So I ponder ... what if Star really went all out using “Mind Eraser” and she went completely nuts taking advantage of it on Marco Diaz? Okay, in Here to Help, Star rushed to skip the awkward talky talky stuff and went straight for a kiss first. Maybe she’s used to it because she’s had the confession talk with Marco dozens of times already?

Oh, I also snuck in a joke referring to how Tom didn’t let Star kiss him on the lips after they broke up. As such, the only actual Tomstar kiss shown was the Lava Lake Beach kiss Marco saw from a distance. A bit mean to the Tomstar shippers, don’t you think?

https://isaackuo.tumblr.com/post/185256268271/when-is-this-state-going-to-end-starco-road

Road Trip was a challenge for me. I wanted to minimize drawing effort since my arm was sore, but I also wanted to depict a long amount of time. So I was thinking of them taking turns driving, but I switched to a bicycle based on Honey and Clover. Using a bicycle also allowed posing them in cute ways not available with a car, so it all worked out!

I was also thinking to try and cram in a joke about Star not being able to just use magic - using the Thor reaction gif to Steve Rogers not having the internet to look up the weather meme ... but ultimately it just didn’t fit. Also, I wanted to minimize drawing effort.

EXPLANATION:

Not much going on here - there’s really only one joke. But the cuteness of Star slumping on Marco really sells this one. Apparently, everyone else also thought so, since this ended up being pretty popular.

Oh, I suppose the sheer absurdity of doing an interstate bicycle trip eastward from the California coast is also a bit funny.

https://isaackuo.tumblr.com/post/185303660951/isaackuo-sword-fight-club-xover-double-fight

I initially struggled with this prompt. I mean ... crossover double date? It’s just weird to me. How do they even know each other? How did they meet? It makes no sense?

Well, a classic Douglas Adams writing trick is to take what you’re stuck on and turn it around. And so I did. How do they even know each other? THEY DON’T. It’s just some random “Fight Club App” meetup. Once I had that epiphany, it was a matter of figuring out what couple would be the funniest to fight ...

EXPLANATION:

I’m proud of all the jokes I packed in here. Of course, we start off with the fact that this “date” is a random “Fight Club App” thing. Not only that, but it’s a Sword Fight Club. Like that’s a thing. You’re just going to randomly fight some strangers with swords. Like you’re in freaking Highlander except there’s no Prize or whatever.

But it’s funny because getting into some random fights is indeed the sort of thing Star and Marco would do for a fun date! Same with Steven and Connie, really (although this is more along the lines of Steven and Amethyst wrt Tiger Millionaire).

Then there’s the fact that Marco Diaz wore baby Mariposa to a sword fight. Who even does that? Oh right ... Queen Solaria and Queen Eclipsa. Which fandom didn’t question at all ... we just thought it was cute.

Star’s “We’re fighting kids?” is a reference to Alone Together, when Kevin freaks out that Stevonnie is actually two kids.

Marco is okay with fighting a kid, since his Season 1 karate nemesis was 8 year old Jeremy Birnbaum (remember him?).

The slit eyes Mariposa give Steven are based on the way baby Meteora looks at Marco.

Connie’s right - Star and Marco are 15 ... not all that much older than she is. But Star has been through a lot of serious stuff making her grow up young. She has lost touch with what teenagers even do (as she noted in Cornonation).

Star’s shocked at Steven’s age the same way Connie was shocked when she learned Steven’s age.

Even though Steven’s age disconnect is caused by wibbly wobbly gem hybrid growth rates, Marco assumes it’s because he “Did time in the Neverzone”. I had fun rewording that phrase until it implied something like doing a prison sentence.

The final kicker is baby Mariposa revealing she’s almost as old as Connie. This calls up fandom mixed feelings about Neverzone age ambiguity and what the heck this implies after Gone Baby Gone. And I mean ... you all saw it coming, right? You knew baby Mariposa had to be there for a reason, right? It’s funny because you see it coming a mile away.

Needless to say, this one is the one I’m most proud of. I had so much fun writing and rewriting it in my head until it was perfect! The only bad thing is that you need to be pretty familiar with both Star vs the Forces of Evil and Steven Universe to get all the jokes. But hey ... my sense of humor is obtuse like that.

https://isaackuo.tumblr.com/post/185295564211/the-honey-moon-ball-starco-wedding-prompt

This was another tough one. I already blew my best wedding joke on Day 1, and I didn’t even notice there was a Wedding Day prompt at the time!

I struggled and struggled to come up with anything. So I just latched onto the first joke I came up with. In lieu of good jokes, I tried to sell this one with sweet cute character art showing Tom being dashing and Starco being lovey dovey. Still ... this is one of my weaker ones.

EXPLANATION:

Obviously this is based on the Blood Moon Ball/Curse, but this time Tom’s hitting them with a different curse - the Honey Moon Curse.

As we find out in Curse of the Blood Moon, Star didn’t pay attention to the MC and she thought the Blood Moon light was just a fun party light. So in this comic, she’s just obliviously caressing Marco while he questions what Tom means.

I initially thought of Tom explaining that he was confused about what Marco had previously meant when he said he wanted a “honeymoon”. But then, I thought it would be funnier if it’s simply ambiguous whether or not Tom is being spiteful or a silly practical joker or what. Sometimes it’s funnier when there’s a psychological tension - you don’t know what Tom’s thinking/feeling.

https://isaackuo.tumblr.com/post/185313724836/toy-star-starco-week-5-prompt-au-of-choice

Another one which was initially tough for me. I’m just not familiar with AUs, so I knew I’d have to make up my own. But what? Nothing clicked until ... TOY STORY! After that stroke of brilliance, there were too many ideas. The hard part was paring things down into a manageable short comic.

I’m most proud of the INSANE look of Princess Star tapping her Wand at Diaz. And also the Pony Head box for Princess Star.

Anyway, the great thing about Toy Star is that I didn’t need to fill in much detail in order for the reader to imagine a whole world around it. I mean ... we all know and love Toy Story. It’s part of our cultural consciousness. So it’s really easy to imagine some fun enemies-to-buddies story just from a few suggestions.

EXPLANATION:

The boxed Princess Star bonking Diaz off the bed is actually not quite how it happened in Toy Story. But close enough! (We don’t actually get to see the majesty of a boxed Buzz Lightyear until Toy Story 2.)

Princess Star has ball jointed arms similar to Buzz Lightyear while Diaz is a flexible stuffed doll like Woody. I left off “Butterfly” because “Princess Star” feels more self centered and self important.

Diaz is named “Diaz” just to make Jackie’s line sound more intimate and personal.

Mermaid Jackie is, of course, a reference to the popular fan theory that Jackie was a mermaid. This “Sunny Atlantis” mermaid is a reference to the Pixar short Knick Knack. She’s an aquarium decoration, rather than a toy. This is a reference to how Woody’s girlfriend Bo Peep was also not a toy (she was a lamp).

The mermaid in Knick Knack has shades rather than eyes. So that’s why mermaid Jackie is lifting up shades to look down toward Diaz.

The panel where Diaz is getting out from under Adam’s bed is directly based on a Toy Story screenshot. The original does have a cactus pictured on the bedspread. I thought it would be kinda funny if it’s ambiguous what sort of “cactuses” broke Diaz’s fall.

The “must be some mistake” panel is also directly based on a Toy Story screenshot.

Princess Star immediately trying to Narwhal Blast Diaz indicates she’s even crazier than Buzz Lightyear. Buzz merely shifted around pointing his laser arm at Woody. Oh - the “psycho” look in her face really sells this, I think.

The fact that Princess Star is somehow aware she has to tap the button on her wand to activate it is ... well I think it’s funny. (The button placement, of course, is plainly designed for human use.)

Princess Star requesting a nearby Quest Buy is a reference to Quest Buy, the episode where they go to Quest Buy to buy a wand charger. “Or do you still use Plutonium” is a reference to Buzz’s technobabble “distolic fusion” ... but I thought the use of real world “Plutonium” would give the joke a bit more kick (sort of a Back to the Future reference also).

Diaz answering “we’ve got double-A’s” is a reference to Toy Story where Woody says the same thing.

“Look, new friend,” is something Star Butterfly would say, but with a flat attitude more like Buzz Lightyear. This indicates Princess Star has a bit different personality than canon Star Butterfly. It fits in more with Toy Story, helping the reader imagine how this Starco relationship will play out.

“Multiverse High Command” is a mashup of “Magical High Commission” and “Star Command”. The threat of the multiverse being destroyed is something Queen Moon warns Star in Star Comes to Earth. The spiel where Princess Star explains her mission is similar to Buzz Lightyear explaining his mission. Presumably, it’s written on her Ponyhead box. Again, all this stuff helps the reader imagine how this Starco relationship will play out.

Diaz’s “You’re a toy” is, of course, a reference to Woody trying to explain to Buzz Lightyear that he’s just a toy.

“I believe the term you’re looking for is ‘Magical Princess from Another Dimension’“ refers to a similar Buzz Lightyear line, as well as how canon Star introduces herself to Marco Diaz in Star Comes to Earth.

But really ... there are SO many memorable Toy Story lines that cramming in references is like shooting fish in a barrel. Too easy! But still fun!

Of all the silly ideas I put out there for Starco Week 5, Toy Star is perhaps the one which has gotten some interest. It’s begging to be fleshed out. I welcome anyone to do whatever they want with it!

And again, a big thanks to everyone who read my stuff, followed, reblogged, and such! Especially, of course, @starco-week

[starlightshoe]

JOKER FOR YHE CHARACTER MEME

favorite thing about them: really appreciate that whole smug coolness but also kinda chill vibe that he gives off. characters like this make me want to like not kin, but like yoink said personality and pat it neatly into the ground of my own attempt at a personality

least favorite thing about them: while you can really have a lot of open space to characterize him, he also kinda has a tiny bit of “empty unless projected upon” vibe like for example the MSPA reader DOESN’T have.

favorite line: THE FUCKING JOKE RESPONSES KILL ME CONSTANTLY THERE ARE SO MANY MEOWS. THERE ARE SO MANY GOOD ONES

brOTP: there is Absolutely no other answer than like, ryuji. no matter if you see them as Bro Homo or 2 bros chilling in a hot tub 5 feet apart cause theyre Not Gay, you cannot deny they have unbelievable dude friendship to base it off

ofOTP: waluigi in the LSHAOG canon

nOTP: jojer x kawakami or ohya or takemi... they are so Old! tho i think kawakami is the most concerning because an actual teacher should have that better judgement!

random headcanon: i know and appreciate the Haha Funney Morgana Will Shoot You Unless You Go Immidiately To Sleep but also.... perhaps..what. if morgana’s constant correction of sleeping schedule actually motivated our boy to actually, like, want to get out of bed in the morning when shit gets stressful or he’s fucking Tired Of This Shit School Rumors Bro. Unless?

unpopular opinion: the man should be level 5 guts straight from the start no i will not explain.

song i associate with them: i xcould galaxy brain and say like. many mcr songs like we ALL know, but also. the song from diamond jack,,,,, BIG vibes

favorite picture of them:

this video made me laugh to a point where i painfully inhaled too hard into my nose/throat. it is gold and i AM drawing it

[leina-reads-homestuck]

...Did Hussie steal my ideas ? ( ಠ_ಠ)

Kidding of course, but I can’t part with this odd feeling that the guy had a peek at my thoughts and decided to yoink a few ideas from me...

•  The black hole serving as a ghost refuge

I remember how apalled I felt after learning that Callie destroys the Furthest Ring at the end of the webcomic. Heck, I even got a stomach ache. I used to think that the ghosts would be allowed to chill together in their dream bubbles no matter what... It seemed really cruel to swipe them out of the story with no regard for them, their relationships, their hopes... Remember that pic from the credits with Nepeta aspired into the black hole in front of Terezi’s eyes ? Man, it haunted me...

I saw someone mentioning something on Reddit about the black hole being actually a white hole, leading to another dimension, which made me go “Heeeey...”

There wasn’t a lot of people to agree with this idea. Most peeps seemed convinced that the ghosts were goners, and who could have blamed them ?

So I went like “Screw it, what if the black hole just channeled them all in another universe ? What can prevent me from thinking it happened ?”

And it happened.

• Aranea : “I lived, bitch”

The end of the webcomic left me with a horrible doubt : where did Aranea go ? Back to the dreambubbles ? Did she disappear ? Lots of people seemed convinced she double died, and it felt like a punch in my guts each time. I am really thankful to a friend who reminded me that what she got was a just death, not a double one, at a time I felt really demoralized because of it. 

So I decided that she would get back to the dreambubbles after her demise, and meet the other trolls again after going through the black hole. Then she manages to learn from her errors and earn their forgiveness, just like they admit that if they had been at her side, a lot of damage would have been avoided. She also realizes that she had been missed, and is able to clear her misunderstandings with Meenah & Vriska. Then she meets Mindfang and they smooch ahem.

I thought of having John intervening in her story and taking the ring from her before she can use it for her evil plans. Either him, or Meenah, or anyone, I just wanted SOMEONE to step in and stop her at the right time even if that means the epic battle between the Condesce and her wouldn’t happen. But at the same time, I didn’t dare to “rewrite” Hussie’s story too much.

...Seems like Hussie thought about it by himself.

• The ecto-clone grubs

Ok, there’s a baby Vriska in both my AU and the epilogues, like, what ?

I don’t know if all the dead trolls have their ecto baby clone in Hussie’s version (I don’t think so) but still, it feels WEIRD to have something so specific from your own AU appear in “canon” (dubious canon, yeah, but still coming from the author, if you see what I mean).

I didn’t even have the baby Vriska in my story since that long. To be fair, no one knows if it’s a baby Vriska, or a clone of Aranea, or Mindfang herself, it’s just the result of Jane and Roxy trying stuff with ectobiology and oops, look at that, we’ve cloned a Serket but we have no idea from which timeline she’s from, haha.

Only sure thing is that Aranea gets attached to the squeaky little thing, name her something original Marquise and starts to raise her. ( °  °)