basically blake and rose are about when people are afraid of looking into their bathroom mirrors in the dark at night in case their reflection doesn't do what it's supposed to. to me.
You know, as much as I would've loved a massive catharsis-led triumph over Athion Zathuda in battle, possibly left at the mercy of the vibrant flames of Fearne's Titan form reiterating herself with aplomb as Fearne Calloway, I actually kinda love how the narrative chose to defeat him.
In many ways it is just hilarious, but also ironically in-character. Man talked all about wanting to prove himself, had a grandiose title of 'Sorrowlord' and was looking to be both a physical and mental adversary after threatening to torment Fearne into becoming Exaltant by targeting her loved ones. But then when he is pit against Bells Hells he barely does a thing; he tries to talk his way into turning Fearne again, gets jumpscared by Ira, the 'farm girl' he mocked to Fearne commandeers his dragon, he loses a leg and is thrown off his dragon, and the Hells even opt to keep him alive for some reason in 107 before kinda accidentally offing him in 108.
He thought he was the shit, but enemies of true threat like Ludinus, Otohan and Liliana (a threat before she was turned) looked down on him, and thus his attempts to prove them wrong - while also falling into the same trap as Ashton's father in seeking out a personal destiny and being willing to see their child as a tool to do it - bore no fruit at all, he was practically an afterthought through and through, his dragon really being his entire threat level. In the end, he got killed running (well, hobbling) away, and while Gloamglut's keening was a little sad in a way that a pet cannot fathom the moral complexity of having to kill their owner he still had it coming, plus following his eternal torture in the Tiki Bar of Ligament Manor, the last sorrow he wrought was his own; he achieved nothing, everything he hints he did to get to his position was for naught, and for all the fear and danger he tried to make himself possess he truly had no power over anyone, especially not Fearne - who can only pity him and, as further proof of being better than he ever was, hope that he takes the time to reflect on his sorrows.
Here's an adorable Commission I had the absolute pleasure of doing for @babsvibes for @seemoreseymoursbay week. Yes, I know I'm posting it super early, but I just had to!! Look!! It's the Pesto Twins and they're so flipping adorable 😭❣️
I feel so honored that I got to do a Comm for Babs for a fandom event. I feel as if when you're an artist and you get to do a Comm for Babs for a fandom event, you've made it.
[ID]: Digital fanart of Andy and Ollie Pesto from Bob's Burgers. They are shown from the waist up, and Andy is seen from a regular view, whilst Ollie is seen from a complete side view. Andy has one eye open and is winking with the other, whilst Ollie's other eye is covered because of the side view. Andy is wearing a bright green shirt, and his hand is on top of Ollie's. Ollie is wearing bright orange overalls, and the two twins have identical-looking smiles. Their hair is also bright orange and quite fluffy. To further distinguish the two, Ollie also has some freckles dotting his face.
Anyway, I think the worst thing Geoff Johns did to Hal's character is that he just made him boring. The fun thing about Hal is that he's the worst man to walk the earth. He's a trainwreck in the making. Every day he wakes up and thinks nothing and makes 20 awful decisions and messes up everything and goes to sleep content in a job well done and it's great. Hal is the Worst Man Ever™. He's a donkey in human form. By all means his personality and skillset makes him the perfect supervillain but he's a hero and he's imperfect and he claws himself back from the brink long after most people would've given up because that's who he is. That's at the core of his character. Even when he's below rock bottom, he never gives up, and god does he hit it, over and over again.
Johns just... erased all that complexity by making Hal the bestest greatest most precious lanterny lantern ever. Suddenly everyone loves him and treats parallax as just a 'hehe! Whoops!' and it sucks because if you take away the fact that Hal is a garbage human being he's just BORING. He's just a boring stereotypical stoic superhero. Who wants to read that! Who wants to read about Universe's Best Most Precious Greatest Man Gets Praised And Solves Every Problem And Is Never Wrong. Like at least when batman does it they try to give us a detective story. Usually it's not a good detective story but they at least try. Hal doesn't need to do detectiving. He can solve pretty much anything with the ring on his finger. He's invulnerable and powerful and perfect and let's be real, at this point he barely has a secret identity. There's nothing adding stakes to the story, not when Hal the best boy is here.
It's so fucking boring!! It's genuinely an injustice to his character. Hal's much more interesting when he makes every single bad decision, ever, and then has to dig himself out of the hole that he dug. That's someone I can root for. That's a character I can develop complex feelings about. If you just hand me the perfect being in creation I feel nothing. I'm already bored.
He opened a drawer in the desk, pulling out five more dime novels.
“Doll Man and the song of the moon?”
“Read it.”
“Doll man and the revenge of the swarm queen?”
HOLY SHIT BLAKE THORBURN REFERENCED
this is my favorite of the "wildbow referencing his other serials in a serial as in-universe media" gimmicks because blake gets called a doll man in it. like pale and taylor are there also but you Know i love blake textually being a doll man. so tired i didn't even parse this as a reference at first and then i was like "damn these are some really long and specific titles...WAIT HOLD ON"
UNWILLING IMMORTALITY FUCKS ME UP SO BAD DUDE. NUMBER ONE THING THAT FUCKS WITH ME.
"19 years old and 19 forever" I AM GOING TO GET THIS MAN. ouhh and chip is so down to earth and HUMAN and this is the first time in his life things are looking up and he's stuck in developmental hell indefinitely his soul can age and grow but his physical body and his brain won't ever catch up and GRRAGH.
THE BRAIN DOESN'T FULLY DEVELOP UNTIL 25 OR SO. also niklaus literally holding his heart in his hand and the swearing to silence and vulnerability and FUUCK.