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#But it's mostly because I used to only buy comics and now I mostly buy only books 👍
auyuyu006 · 3 months
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Johnshi HCs
I'm sorry most of these aren't explicitly romantic I just have so many HCs about the two of them it's driving me crazy.
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Johnny holds Kenshi by the waist, Kenshi holds Johnny by the shoulder or the bicep. After some time Kenshi starts to go for his hand instead.
Johnny is on his phone all of the time. Kenshi will either avoid the internet for a week or plays chess on the computer at the kitchen table for a day straight without talking to anyone (secretly uses Sento for this).
Kenshi has good spirits (literally) when it comes to his blindness, but can get very defensive when others pity him for it. Johnny is the only other person he will let touch his blindfold, take it off, or wash it.
Kenshi doesn't love the name "Johnny Cage" and thinks that "John Carlton" suits him. Johnny thinks that it sounds like an "old man's name"
Kenshi would visit Johnny on set sometimes but not say or do anything but sit in the background and watch him in silence until he was done.
Speaking of that- Kenshi had a good time filming in Outworld for Johnny's movie (made him feel like an action hero), but absolutely refused to watch the parts he was in.
Kenshi thought Johnny's movies were mostly cheesy before and after meeting him. However, he ended up rewatching all of them and got excited when there was news he got cast for a new one (before they started to officially date).
Johnny was a pretty good student growing up who made A's and B's as per expectations of his parents but hated school because he got picked on. He got into a decent university where he ended up falling in love with physics. He accidentally became famous around the time he was 20 (maybe he got street casted and went viral?) and had to balance acting with school to get his pHD. He is that school's most famous alumni.
Kenshi was mostly homeschooled by his parents and did not show much attention in academics in his youth due to his intense upbringing in the yakuza. This is something that he regrets but accepts that it wasn't really his choice to begin with. However he is quite knowledgable, knows broadly about history and literature, and can speak multiple languages (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, English, Spanish). He also learns braille relatively fast after losing eyesight.
Kenshi thinks it's so hot that Johnny has a pHD but also thinks its so strange he doesn't do anything with it. (It's a backup plan so he can write textbooks if his career tanks)
Johnny is great at drawing due to it being a hobby growing up stemming from him being a major comic book fan. Kenshi isn't very artistic however used to be able to do mediocre calligraphy (a skill he learned from his parents) before he became blind.
Kenshi breaking into Cage Mansion the second Cris left was admittedly pretty awkward for him (but he was too distracted by Sento to rly care).
Kenshi tries to not let it get to him, but he is saddened by the fact he cannot read properly anymore. Johnny tries to support him by buying him every audiobook in every language he understands. Kenshi will sometimes ask Johnny to read to him mostly because he loves the sound of his voice.
At first, Kenshi tried to get Sento to help him with daily tasks (cooking, cleaning, etc.), but after talking to Kuai Liang he tries not to rely on Sento on anything non-kombat related.
Kenshi has a slight lisp (I'm sorryyyy this isn't rly a hc but you can hear it in his intro dialogues he still sounds like a badass tho i think it's super cute thank god for Vic Chao)
Johnny makes their home a "smart home" a.k.a 30 Alexas in every room of their place, and a Samsung fridge he can live tweet from while making green juice.
Kenshi sometimes used to drive with Sento in the back seat and got arrested for it one time. Now he gets told off by Johnny for it every time he tries it again.
Kenshi will only drink milky coffee (lattes, cappuccinos, etc.) and prefers tea. Johnny hates coffee and tea and pounds red bull in the morning.
Kenshi used to care a lot about his personal style and mostly only wore suits and dress attire. After losing his eyesight, he didn't care as much anymore and just focused on wearing things that were comfortable (sweatpants, sweaters)
Johnny buys Kenshi soft fluffy things to wear all the time. Kenshi always says it's unnecessary but ends up wearing it anyway.
In MK1 Johnny is 32, and Kenshi is 39 (I like the idea of Kenshi being old it just makes sense to me). It both amuses and horrifies Kenshi that he's dating a white man 7 yrs his junior.
Johnny calls him "old man Takahashi" and Kenshi just goes along with it and says "get off my lawn you punk" or something LOL
I think Kenshi was more of the brawny "tough guy" of the yakuza than the suave, seductive type. He has more of an awkward and stony personality. And the fact that he was desperate to get out makes me think he wouldn't entertain the "flirty" role of the job. (a.k.a Kenshi is BAD at flirting unlike a certain someone)
Johnny sometimes helps Kenshis clunky azz samurai gear on before he engages in kombat. Johnny is also the reason Kenshi sometimes gives up and just wears a suit.
Kenshi shops like an old Asian dad. LOVES Costco, will eat all of the samples. Will buy everything on sale even if he doesn't need it. Will not take Johnny with him because his megastardom ruins the peace of being unrecognized. Has taken Raiden with him though. Will use Johnny's credit card. Johnny is dismayed that he hasn't taken a liking to Erewhon and Whole Foods
When Johnny isn't there with him at night Kenshi will play his movies and fall asleep to the sound of his voice
Kenshi will have sex with the blindfold on. He will fall asleep next to Johnny with it off.
Kenshi doesn't like sleeping with the blindfold on, but was worried it would scare or disgust Johnny in some way. It doesn't and it never did. In fact, Johnny appreciates the intimacy that it creates.
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genericpuff · 3 months
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Scamlords is at it again.
A few nights ago, there was a sudden blow-up in the /r/webtoons server showing a new announcement from Snailords -
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For anyone unaware, Death : Rescheduled has been on mid-season hiatus since October. And it's now, and only now, that Snailords has suddenly decided the comic is ending after it returns, but readers can get an extra 20 episodes... if they fork over $1k in merch sales.
Now, this could be a lot worse. They could be threatening not to return to the series at all unless their readers hand over money. But considering it's practically just one degree away from that, it's still pretty nasty. Not to mention, the further they divulged in their reasoning around this "idea", the more confusing it got.
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They also even revived their @snailordsrant account on IG which, for those of you who were there and can recall, was the same account they used to put one of their own fans on blast over some very mild criticism.
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None of this makes any actual sense, for several reasons:
1.) I literally fail to see how getting $1k in less than 24 hours is worth shoving in an extra mini arc of 10 episodes if you don't even have it planned out. Why do that to your audience or to yourself? Why drag things out just to scrounge up an emergency $1k? Why not just be honest with your audience and run a GoFundMe or just say , "Hey everyone, I've run into some financial troubles, I would really appreciate it if you could FastPass my newest episodes or donate to my Patreon or buy some merch so I can cover the costs". It's really telling that this shithead doesn't have enough confidence in themselves or their audience that practically worships them that they have to resort to this kind of underhanded shit to get the money they need. I wanna make it clear that this is NOT like a Kickstarter stretch goal or anything that incentivizes readers to support their work, they're instead holding the length and future of their series over their audiences' head (which they've done before) for money. That's not an incentive, it's an ultimatum.
2.) Maybe I'm misreading / being stupid (someone pls explain if I'm missing something here) but I literally don't see how their comment about working 50 hours a week explains why they're suddenly getting their fans to pay out $1k worth of merch in less than 24 hours. For anyone who doesn't know, $1k per episode is an example Webtoons uses in its post discussing how they pay out creators (this came after the platform got called out 2 years ago for paying creators too little, there are undoubtedly creators getting paid less). And yet for some reason $1k is apparently the difference between 10 episodes and 20? How does that add up? And is the bit about them wanting to buy boba supposed to be a joke? Where's the punchline here?
3.) They say they have writer's block and they want to use the money to "motivate them", but then just a few slides later they say 10-15 episodes is what would make them the "happiest" so which is it? Do they want to write 10 episodes or do they want people to pay them to write 20 episodes so they can draw the fluff scenes that they apparently want to draw? If you have an ending planned out, why rush it or drag it out depending on how this "fundraiser" goes? Why not just write the ending you want to write that will serve your story best? Why shove in an extra mini arc that you don't even have full confidence in writing and then try to compare it to a "super expensive cake"? What are you doing? Speaking as someone who's had trouble getting motivated in the past, suddenly getting a month's rent worth of money to do it doesn't necessarily solve that, it just turns up the pressure, and if you're not someone who deals with pressure well, then you're more likely to wind up just burning out entirely rather than fulfilling that goal.
4.) The fact that they did, in fact, hit their goal just makes it all the shittier to think about because their audience is mostly made up of teenagers who worship the ground that they walk on. It's horrifying that they keep pulling these stunts with their audience, and getting away with it to boot - and Webtoons, as a company, keeps enabling it by allowing it to happen by hosting and promoting people like this.
Anyways, there's already a lot going on here that's sketchy, but then... they went and deleted their posts. At the time of this happening (as I was there to witness it all play out in real time) I assumed this meant that they had hit their $1k goal - especially as they had been showing their progress on their IG and they were already at $900 after just a couple hours - but it gave me a sinking feeling seeing them delete it because they had also been called out by some brave readers telling them that it wasn't exactly a good look to essentially blackmail their audience through their own content into giving them money.
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Snailords deleting it gave me a stronger impression of "burying the evidence", especially now that they had the money. By all accounts, they could do whatever they wanted now.
So what did they decide to do?
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. . . Huh?
Okay, take a second to actually think about what Snailords has done here. Because I know some of you will go "oh, it was for charity all along! that was nice of them!" but . . . I don't know about the legalities of collecting donation funds under false pretenses, but morally speaking, it's a really shitty thing to do. They stripped away the choices - limiting them to three - of what their readers could donate to, and what I think their readers don't understand - due to being mostly teenagers - is that they're tax-exempt individuals and they just unknowingly gave Snailords an easy $1k tax write-off. You really, really shouldn't collect donation funds like this without being honest, it's just a shitty thing to do, especially after you've already collected the money. It mostly just comes across as damage control on Snailords' part to make it seem like they were always planning to donate to charity, when in reality, if they wanted to donate to charity, they would have been honest about that at the start. Again, even if they wanted to do that from the start, it goes to show how little confidence they have in themselves or their audience that they have to stoop to methods like these instead of just doing it honestly.
And do you really think Snailords will actually do those extra episodes? Or donate that money? This is the same asshole who has manipulated their readers for money not once but twice, and now seems intent on doing it a third time just for the charm. This is the same person who practically sabotaged their own comic, Freaking Romance, because they apparently didn't like the romance genre and may as well have only done it for clout / views / etc.
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What was especially odd - and I found this out from folks who actually read Death : Rescheduled (I do not) - was finding out that it wouldn't make sense for D : R to end in as many as 25 episodes, because apparently, the plot has basically just gotten going.
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So it does seem like this is foreshadowing that D : R will wind up just like Freaking Romance, rushed into an ending that wasn't expected. And this, of course, has the people who read their work confused because D : R was supposed to be Snailords' passion project, their magnum opus, the project they wanted to do. So them holding the timing of an ending that shouldn't even be happening yet for ransom contradicts that original intention. Really, it just goes to show that Snailords has no passion, they're just in it purely for the money, to a degree that I can't even cheer them on for being a hustler because it's missing the honesty and integrity.
And of course, every single time Snailords finds a way to backpedal and take his audience for a ride, they hop right in without a single thought for themselves.
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And no, none of this is to hate on the readers directly, I hold Snailords entirely responsible for this - they have an audience of impressionable, naive, gullible teenagers, and they know it, and take advantage of it every chance they get. It's why they weren't just honest about wanting to collect money for charity from the start. It's why they resorted to basically holding their own comic's progression for ransom during its midseason hiatus. It's why the deadline was 24 hours and why the posts are now gone.
Thankfully the Internet does what it does - any evidence that Snailords was trying to bury is now all over reddit, and hey, just for good measure, here's a post on Tumblr that's been sitting in my drafts for days now, days after people have already seemingly stopped talking about it. Don't let anyone bury or forget about the stunts Snailords is pulling on their audience, with a platform that they've been consistently given by Webtoons, because that's what they want you to do.
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muzsmoux · 1 month
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MHA headcanons bcuz the show brings me a lot of joy
If you don't agree with them or they clash with canon that's ok just scroll on, peace and love on the planet earth and whatnot.
⭐Iida is straight but is openly into BL. He's up to date on new releases, mostly pg shoujo stuff. Except for one fantasy comic that is hella explicit at some points but he is VERY passionate about the lore and characters.
⭐Bakugo has Inosuke levels of androgyny going on. He would give Shouto a run for his money in the "class 1-A's resident prettyboy" vote that was held if he 1. wasn't too scary for people to vote for him. and 2. if he stopped scowling for like two seconds.
⭐Aoyama is some flavor of nonbinary but doesn't use any labels because he HATES them. He is an ✨experience✨, a piece of art up for interpretation.
⭐Pro hero Red Riot has a line of menstrual hygiene products with cool and manly packaging because he's very popular with transmasc people and wanted to give back something helpful and validating to them.
⭐Kirishima once called Bakugo his "brofriend" and he just about had an aneurysm.
⭐ Before they got together, Kirishima wrote half the valentine's cards Bakugou recieved anonymously because he "just had so many feelings it couldn't fit just on one card!!"
⭐Bakugou is a secret romantic. He hates talking about it because it's "bad for his image" but he has a big collection of shoujo manga and internally melts whenever Kiri does something soft for him like buying flowers or holding his hand in public.
⭐Aizawa regularly gets intrusive thoughts of becoming a househusband whenever he has a particulaly annoying time. Like after his 7th parent teacher conference of the day or after a full week of falling asleep in uncomfortable beds in seedy hostels he stares at the ceiling like "Hizashi is a celebrity. He has three jobs. What am I doing here? I love him. I can't cook but I could learn 😫"
⭐Kaminari hits on Bakugo's mom every chance he gets. Bakugo's tries to blow him up, Mitsuki thinks it's fucking hilarious.
⭐Allmight has a crush on Midoriya Inko but is scared to do anything about it because A. it might upset Izuku and B. he thinks he's too old and ugly for her.
⭐You'd think Midnight would be a bad teacher based on her general sexy nature but actually she's well loved because she's the only teacher who the kids trust with advice on relationships and intimacy, especially after the dorm system set in. She has time set aside each week where she's available for anyone to pop into her office and chat about whatever they're worried about. Aizawa is endlessly thankful for this because one time Todoroki asked him what a backshot is because he heard Sero make a joke about it and he's still healing from that conversation.
⭐Since both of their quirks are food based Sato and Momo often bake together. Sato's the master decorator, Momo buys good quality ingredients and is a beast at chiffon cakes.
⭐Denki can't swim. After The Incident in primary school where he almost electrocuted a whole swimming pool of people he's been scared to try.
⭐Kirishima has two moms. His birth mom had him at like 18 and his biological father wasn't ready for that yet. Her best friend immediately stepped up to help with the baby, and that's Kiri's mama now.
Thank you for reading!! I am incredibly late to this fandom but hey I'm having fun now so. Sick.
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allgremlinart · 2 months
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i did not know how to use the internet when atla first dropped, what doujins do i keep seeing you and other blogs keep referencing?? what did i miss…
ADsdhs yeah atla is getting up there in age as a fandom so... obviously over the years there have been numerous doujins/fan comics !! The ones I've talked about on here have mostly been ones I remember seeing as a tween in the 2010s, which was mostly jetko and various slash. I think it would be absolutely impossible to find and list all of the atla doujin that's ever existed, only because there are corners of the fandom that I simply do not visit regularly, and so I'm sure there's stuff I don't know of. HOWEVER !! Fuck it. I'll put together a list of the atla doujins/fan comics I DO know of....
2009 Jetko Doujin Anthology The link above is to a yaoi website and is only accessible through the Wayback Machine. The physical anthology was, at some point, available for purchase, but obviously not anymore. There were multiple artists and stories, but it was all centered around modern au jetko. A friend recently helped me finish a translation of one of the stories - by prolific 2000s/2010s jetko artist Avici1881 - in this anthology - you can find links to most of the full translated story here <3
Jetko Doujin by Avici1881, 愛之門 (The Gateway of Love) The artist originally posted this doujin to their Deviantart, but the translation is a little rough, and it's hard to read in the correct order. Tumblr user @/zaqscans created another version of the translation, which is easier to understand, and can be downloaded here. The story is kind of a riff on "The Cave Of Two Lovers," and it's great.
Zukka Doujin by Avici1881 Like the last one, this one is a spoof on "The Cave Of Two Lovers," although this one is much shorter and more goofy. The only place I've been able to find it is Avici's Deviantart. All of the pages are there, it just takes navigating Deviantart's terrible organizational layout to find them.
Astronaut AU Jetko Doujin by kyosa-europa Now I've never actually been able to find any scans or translations for this one, only what's been posted to the artist's Deviantart. It's an astronaut au. That's about all I've got for it.
Mooncake Festival Jetko Comic by kyosa-europa I think I've seen a Chinese version of this comic too, but I can only find this translated version posted to the artist's Deviantart (which works fine for me, obviously). It's very cute. I believe it is unfinished.
2024 Zukaang Doujin by Yishu (@/shange0211) Rejoice! Doujin from the 2020s! The tradition lives on! I have not personally read or purchased this one, but this artist's work is cute. It's the only one of these that I've compiled that you could actually buy, lol. I do not believe there are any translations of it.
Now obviously this doesn't scratch the surface when it comes to the amount of pairings in atla/tlok (I believe I remember a korralok doujin floating around somewhere at some point) but this is the span of what I've probably referenced on this blog.
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gleasonlovesjasontodd · 4 months
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🎀also this post is talking about my real life jason todd and i know some people are mad about me using the tags but this is how people who want updates find my posts for updates so don’t read if you don’t wanna hear just scroll also i did a poll and mostly a lot of people want me to use these tags🎀
okay this is my update from our date thursday so he picked me up at my house and i had my cute blair waldorf outfit even curled my hair and put my cute embroidered bow on and we drove to barnes and noble and we listened to his music which had a mix of 80s and some 60s and he added taylor swift for me (i died dead when i heard superman playing) and so we decided that we would buy each other a book to read like alsomething we wouldn’t typically read and he said choose a romance book and i was like are you sure and he said absolutely and i chose him icebreaker because i really liked that book and he got me a freakin jane austen book which don’t kill me i’ve only read pride and prejudice but he got me the book emma and it was like the pretty cover and we met up 10 minutes later after we bought them and i got him a little harry potter bookmark cause he likes harry potter and he smiled at it and he has dimples which is so cute and then he asked if i wanted to keep looking around and i said of course and he held my hand which i blushed at and we were talking about some books and we probably were the only people in the store and i was leaning on the bookcase because my back was hurting (thank you cheer 🙄) and his hand was right by my face which is so jason todd coded and i wanted to just kiss him there but obviously i didn’t and then he asked about my love for fashion cause we were right by the fashion books and i told him i just really enjoy it and then the comics and graphic novels were right next to the fashion books and he said i’m gonna go look at these and i said you read comics and i am so thankful he did not notice how red my cheeks were and he said yeah i read them mostly online now but sometimes i just look at them when i come here and i asked what he prefers and he said batman and that he is a huge batman fan and i said that’s good to know but inside i was dying and we sat down in like the kids section as he was explaining me his comics and he was so cute doing it and i didn’t wanna tell him i understood everything he was saying because i like batman as well and then he said we should probably get dinner so we checked out and went to a nice restaurant and then we talked more getting to know each other more and then at dessert time when the waitress brought the the tray he asked if there’re was any sugar free options for me because i’m diabetic and i died dead at the table and was so fucking red then after he took me home and we kissed that was my first kiss and his hand his musclar hand was on my face and i was blushing so hard once again before he walked me to my door and then left and then he texted me saying he had a good time with me and i said me too and we need to go back again and then yesterday we didn’t see each other cause i left for nationals but he said he was gonna watch me on the channel we were on and then today he sent me flowers because he knew i was nervous and sad since this year is technically my last year cheering
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spider-jaysart · 3 months
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I feel like a Dceased video game would honestly be terrifyingly awesome to play and if done well, can also deliver very good emotional angst at certain moments, ESPECIALLY the ending, because Damian sacrificing himself and then also having his last moments with Jon to say bye literally made me cry frrrr😭😭 and that's the first time a comic book has ever made me do that (I imagine it would probably be turned into a little series though maybe just to get to that point, like...possibly three games?? Because that apocalypse lasted a long time in the books and everyone who survived grew and got older with all of the time passing by, but idrk though, unless there's a clever way that's figured out on how to fit the whole story into one game without any of it feeling weirdly rushed)
And I can imagine it having gameplay style like The last of us (except some of the main characters have abilities and others have very useful hero gadgets now) and also so many great jumpscare moments too, and like literally because it's mostly superpowered zombies now everywhere besides the regular ones, which is even more terrifying
It'd just be a pretty fun experience all of it, along with a lot of good main characters (idrk all of them though loll) to switch to during different parts of the story (but whenever it's their turn, I would really LOVE playing the Supersons the most though during it hehehe, especially in this kind of setting)
The only thing I would hate though is if the Damian x Cassie romance gets kept, because it just feels weird tbh due to her always being an originally older character that's also always actually been apart of Young Justice (she should be with Tim, Kon and Bart instead who are her main group, not the Supersons!!). And besides the romance, she was only put with the boys just to be the girl in it and also recreate a trinity thing, like Bruce, Clark, Diana, but I don't feel like that fits Damian and Jon's type of thing at all imo
I would honestly just replace her with Maya and Kathy, because they're so much more fitting for a team up with Damian and Jon, especially because of the fact that they're the perfect girls right there too who already have such close relationships with the boys that isn't forced like hers is!! Maya is Damian's sister and Kathy is Jon's first close friend, which is good enough, and I would make sure the romance is still erased, cause they shouldn't have to date just because they're boys and girls hanging out (and obviously mostly because Maya is Damian's sister too, so that would be gross)
But okay, that is just getting a little too off topic from what I'm really trying to talk about I think😳, but my whole point is that it would be really great to have an actual game like this based on the series and I would totally buy it and play it if it was real!!!
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misaldragon · 4 months
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The mercs (and others) red flags.
Saw someone else do a post like this, hated it, decided to give it a try at it. Please keep in mind this is my personal list so if you don’t agree with something that’s a-okay. I welcome constructive criticism and questions.
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Scout: Talks to people who aren’t there (See the comic where Zhanna tried to bed scout), major ego (to be fair he is god's favorite but still), will pick a fight with someone for you (If you have social anxiety like i do you’ll want to shrivel up and disappear), kills people (this is just going to be a given with all the mercs), and dates might be cheap due to him spending all his money on Tom Jones merch (Scout may set aside money for dates with you if you say you want to go somewhere else though but man cannot buy a house for the two of you).
Soldier: Man is as dumb as a bag of rocks (he drank led water cut him some slack… Also dumb enough to fall for just about any scam), like scout he will also fight someone for you but be much louder and bombastic about it (please i just was to not exist, no, don’t fight the dad in front of his kids), VERY proud american (as an american, this country sucks), and will yell at you, other people, anyone, that baby in the stroller? Getting yelled at! (Generally very loud person and doesn’t care who you are… Also kills people).
Pyro: Do you collect bones? You do now (Due to Pyro vision bones are probably candy or flowers or something to Pyro… They have good intentions but my god is it scary/creepy if you don’t know about Pyro vision), bones might be animal or human bones and also general body parts (Pyro vision again), will not shower around you.. Do they shower (they don’t want to be seen without their suit on but will let you clean the suit with them in it), and will probably steal your lighters (this is going off a hunch but also stealing is not something i like… Also kills people).
Heavy: Works very closely to Medic a lot of the time (and Medic is… A lot), VERY happy to do his job (and since his job is killing people this can be concerning), maybe a bit too attentive to his guns (can certainly be off putting to see a minigun in a small bed next to a larger one), and he was out of touch with his family (as shown in the comics when he's worried about his family only to find out they have been defending themselves just fine).
Engineer: Probably a workaholic so he may forget dates (note, he’ll also do his best to make it up to you if he does and start setting up reminders for himself he’s just not used to being in a relationship because of his job), makes southern sweet tea (as someone who lives in the south i know how sweet our tea is, if you don’t want cavities from looking at a drink don’t let him make sweet tea for you), probably shot at you before (mans paranoid because of spies, don’t sneak up on him), and would pressure you to ride a bull (mechanical or not but he’d prefer it to be mechanical and one he made to make sure it’s not to much, still won't take no for an answer when it comes to this only… Also kills people).
Demoman: Substance abuse (alcohol, congrats to the original you got one right), probably mommy/daddy issues (his mom seems to be an angry elderly woman, dad is dead so it seems there's something there but that could just be me), believes in monsters/ghosts (i don’t but given how the world of TF2 works this is more a IRL issue), has probably blown himself up at least once (possible that he might blow you up if he's REALLY drunk… Also kills people).
Medic: This man is a walking red flag, made a deal with the devil more than once, stole his pet doves, stole a wedding van, puts animal organs in people, manipulative (mostly seen with the tfc team when he had to manipulate them to put animal organs in them), stole a man's skeleton, medical malpractice, probably not mentally well, will take your organs, and kills people… Probably not all of it either.
Sniper: Can skin any animal or even person flawlessly and tell you how too (creepy, and i don’t want to know), very good stalker and hunter (he does this with you because he wants to surprise you with something you like but conversation is his weak point so this is the next best thing in his mind), Pyro isn’t the only one that’ll bring you animal bones (at least he’s a bit more tactful about it, making it into actual stuff like alligator teeth necklaces, deer antler coat hanger, and snake bone coasters for a few examples), probably doesn’t shower as much as he needs to (at least he brushes his teeth… Also kills people)
Spy: Will eventually leave you like he did all his other partners (which we can see with Scout's mother since he didn’t help raise Scout), is french (must i explain?), secret past (will keep as much of his past a secret as he can but also find out everything about you he can), and he never fully trusts you (he’s a spy, it’s understandable but sad.. Also kills people).
Miss pauling: Does not have time for you (unless you join her on missions but that is a large order), doesn’t fully trust you (this is from vibes), cannot fully devote herself to you or the relationship (her loyalty is to the administrator), can kill you without anyone noticing (its just scary to think about).
Saxton hale!: Can and will fight people for you even if the person just looked at you funny ( the police have been called several times), will fight a hippy just because they are a hippy (He really likes fighting), willingly and knowingly sells weapons to mercs (man can kill and condones it), will jump out of a plane with you… you have no choice.
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neil-gaiman · 2 years
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Have you held on to anything from comic book production, or from the TV production of Sandman; due to the sentimental value? What do you collect when you go to a Comicon? What do you collect as a personal side hobby?
I have what I made still and, unless I gave them away, I have the Author copies of the books and posters and comics and suchlike I was sent.
(At this point I have so many of these, especially foreign editions of my books, it's time to start thinking of a way of getting them out of my life and into the world for charitable purposes.)
I have gifts I was given and sometimes artists would give me pages or original art from Sandman. I think I only bought one piece of Sandman original art ever, a Moebius portrait of Death.
TV productions sometimes give me things, normally things they've printed, and I bought some furniture from the bookshop set of Good Omens so I would always have something to sit on to remind me of the bookshop.
When I go to a Comic con I'm normally ushered in to my panel and then zoomed out again because if I tried to walk around the dealers room I'd be mobbed by people wanting me to sign things. So it doesn't happen.
I sort of collect art by Edward Gorey, Charles Addams and Harry Clarke, along with a few classic illustrators. I'm not much of a collector really -- over the last 25 years I've managed to get three Charles Addams cartoons and an Addams painting, five pieces by Gorey, and two Harry Clarkes. Mostly I buy them to celebrate getting an award, or with award money if the award comes with a cheque, on the basis that if I just bank it and forget it the money will be used for groceries and petrol and suchlike but if I buy art with it I'll always remember the award and smile and feel fondly towards the award when I see the art hanging on the wall.
I collect a few authors, but only because that used to be the only way of ever reading their books -- James Branch Cabell, for example, and Hope Mirrlees, and Harry Stephen Keeler and several others. But I collect less now because the point of getting the books was to read them, and time is tight these days, and I have too many unread Keelers. (I used to hope that one day I would be cast adrift on a hospitable desert island with a chestful of all the books I still had to read, but I am starting to suspect that will not happen.)
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Percy's interests i'm finally posting like i've been meaning to since i asked @keladeinos for a moodboard of them for our matching Pjo brainrot giggles
Blue.Just in general,in things and as a concept
Video games.He uses an emulator and buys all her consoles and games secondhand on anti-capitalist principal and his favorites are Animal Crossing,Night In The Woods,the Slenderman franchise and Fortnite
Cats.He's transfem(bigender + she/he/a bunch of neos)so she's a catgirl and her design makes her look like a tuxedo cat
Kidcore,legos included.Autistic swagger and coping mechanism combo
Alt music.Punk rock is her fave obviously(glamrock Percy?No?Just me?Alr)but her favorite band is Mcr and she's a massive The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys fan(Mike Milligram just like him fr)but she also loves rap and Megan Thee Stallion is one of her biggest idol's
The sea but this ain't about Poseidon,it's all Sally and he actually ruined it for him for a hot sec until he learned to reclaim it for himself and his egg cracking gave her a lot of room to make her gender thanks to how much femininity the sea offers(mermaids and sirens,pearl and seashell jewelry,the moon controlling the tides,ships being called 'she',the term 'Beach Bunny',etc).Her favorite are sharks obviously and she has a secondhand bought Aquapet
Energy drinks.She drinks only the blue flavors and her faves are Cotton Candy Bang and Gfuel
Child care.It's canon he's a Team Parent because how he treats younger demigods(Tyson-Not technically a demigod but ykwim,Bianca,Nico,Hazel)and he loves kids in general as seen with Estelle so he becomes the Camp Director during summer and would have it as a college major if he went
The Superfam.The only time she's ever mentioned a superhero is Clark Kent by saying Jason looks like Superman so i mean?????
And for Marvel she only cares about Spiderverse(including Spidey and His Amazing Friends),comics X-Men and Gwenpool.Gwen Stacy and Hobie Brown are her favorite Spiderpeople based off relatability and adoptability
Anarchy.It's unironically one of her special interest's and i say this only mostly as a joke(she also has a battle jacket obviously and knows how to diy things that don't exist,she's solarpunk in addition to crustpunk)
And not a hobby technically but his type is princess-y black women.The first time he ever described a female character his age as attractive it was saying Annabeth has princess hair and she's played by Leah Jeffries now,Rachel is a girlypop and widely headcanoned as nigerian yoruba and Andromeda was the princess of Ethiopia so the shoe certainly hits
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art · 2 years
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Creator Spotlight: @still-life-mostly​
Muhammad Hardi Saputra, familiarly called Hardi, is a self-taught miniature still-life photographer and stop motion artist. His work is a mix of craft, comic, and fantasy elements. It aims to bring peace and tranquility to the viewers through their imaginations. His childhood dream was to create pictures that would make people happy just by looking at them. He has found a way to do exactly that by combining the beauty of miniatures with the art of photography. The stories he tells through his photographs are full of life and give the viewer a sense of nostalgia. He loves crafting and creating art that has a story behind it. To him, each piece has a life of its own, and he allows it to speak for itself. He says, “Art is a collaboration between the artist and the viewer. The work you do is only a part of the journey.”
Check out our interview with Hardi below!
How did you get your start in photography and stop motion?
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My hobby started when I was still a kid. I was fascinated by claymation on TV. Around the year 2003, when my sister got her first smartphone (it was Nokia 3650), I borrowed my sister’s phone to make a stop motion with my tiny robot pencil toppers. I didn’t use photos and turned them into videos. Instead, I used the r cord and pause button immediately. So the stop motion is basically a compilation of 0.5 seconds videos. It was really fun. Then when the smartphone got faster, my pause and record button trick didn’t work anymore. My stop motion video-making ended, except for my photography.
Then after I got into college, I found a photographer sharing his works on Tumblr, and I knew that day that I wanted to be a photographer. Then, my parents bought me a laptop and camera around 2013. I started shooting some photos. When I saw a looping cinemagraph video on Tumblr, my old stop motion video ideas sparked again. So I researched on YouTube to figure out how to make a looping cinemagraph GIF just by GIMP. After some trial and error, I managed to get it working. So I used my laptop to make my first ever looping cinemagraph GIF video.
Later I ran out of stuff to make a cinemagraph, so I experimented with stop motion with any objects I could find in my bedroom. After a while, I realized I could make animations using paper. These small moments are captured on my Canon Eos M., and this is how my photography journey began. So, I thank Tumblr for giving me the inspiration and a platform to share my stop-motion GIFs.
What do you wish you knew when you first started out creating art that you know now?
I have learned that investing in a new laptop would have been a better choice if I had to choose between a laptop and a smartphone. I used to buy a new phone every two years, and as a result, I didn’t have enough money to upgrade my laptop. I realized that my photo and video editing must be faster, so I can have more time to make creative choices like what kind of color should I tune, which object I could animate and so on. This new smartphone only solved the social pressure to keep up with what everyone was doing.
Now, I saved my money to upgrade my laptop so I can create more content in less time. I also stopped watching smartphone reviews because they influenced me to buy a new smartphone. I decided to learn more skills like 3D designing or photo and video editing on YouTube instead.
What is the hardest part of your process?
I use resin 3D printers to create my subjects. The process of printing them is really simple, but it does take a lot of physical work to get the prints looking their best. Sometimes they got like blemishes that need to be sanded down or parts that need to be glued on. These steps aren’t exactly my favorite parts of the process, but the results are totally worth it!
How has your style developed over the years?
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My first stop motion GIF is this blue butterfly. I put my camera on a table and made a butterfly out of paper. It was initially quite challenging because the camera moved when I pressed the shutter button. Luckily the touch screen can also trigger the camera, so I touched the screen lightly so the camera didn’t move. After that, I got a loop of about 1 second of motion.
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Then, I made another butterfly. This time I use the photo levitation technique in my stop motion video. I use wire and remove the wires frame by frame. GIF with floating subjects takes much more time to finish a frame than the first one. However, the result is really rewarding because it’s more natural looking.
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Right now, after I got my 3D printer, I chose astronauts as my main subject. At the moment, only the secondary subject moves, such as flying rockets, clouds that are moving across the sky, and ocean waves. In the future, I look forward to making a moveable astronaut, probably a robot, because they have joints. Or a wiggling alien or any kind of sci-fi space creature that could be explored in a galaxy far away.
Have any of your projects surprised you with its outcome?
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The project that surprised me the most with its outcome is this Astronaut Diner GIF. The color looks like what I wanted. I didn’t know that adding checkerboard tiles could make me feel so nostalgic. I sanded, painted, and glued every piece of the tiles. It felt like building a miniature interior set.
My favorite part of the project is the coffee steam. I use a tiny piece of thread from a cotton ball to make it look like the steam coming from the cup. I animated the steam using Photoshop. I chose to animate the steam because I thought it would be an interesting way to add movement to the image. I didn’t think it would look very realistic if no movement existed.
Biggest pet peeve as a photographer?
Batteries. Sometimes when I was shooting some frames, my camera or flashlight battery died because I forgot to charge them before I started shooting my stop motion photos. I have to restart taking photos frame by frame because the camera angle will lightly change after I take out the battery.
What does your work set up look like?
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My photography setup is just a table with one flashlight in a softbox and another flashlight in an umbrella. I use a Canon Eos M camera to take photos. I enjoy taking photos in my bedroom because it’s straightforward to set up. For example, I just set up everything on the table and snap away! It’s also very easy to clean up because I just have to put everything back in place when I am done. The setup in that photo is the setup that I used to create this article banner photo.
Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?
John Carey of @yesterdaywasonly. Because I probably wouldn’t know Tumblr if he didn’t make a Tumblr profile for me to follow. I follow him because he shares wallpapers, and I am still using photos from his website as my laptop wallpaper.
Thank you so much for stopping by, Hardi! For more of his creations, check out his Tumblr, @still-life-mostly​!
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shuttershocky · 8 months
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hi shutters. im gonna start arknights. do you have any guide/tips for new players? what to do, what to not do, what to save, what to discard, where to find community resources(if they exist). stuff like that. thanks in advance!
Most new player guides will tell you all you need to know about getting started in the game, so I'll list down 5 things about the experience of /learning/ the game instead.
You don't have to play - Before we start, it must be said that Arknights is still a gacha game, an inherently predatory monetization scheme no matter how generous the in-game system is. If you feel like you may be vulnerable to FOMO and spending real money, I don't recommend you play at all. If you're here for the world and characters, Arknights has excellent comics available for free on their website, while players upload most event stories on Youtube for you to read through without having to touch the game. With that said, let's continue.
Take your time - Raising units and generally progressing in Arknights takes a lot longer than in other mobage. Don't worry about things like "catching up". Limited time events that have already had their rerun get added as a part of the main menu permanently, and eventually they even include the free units you get per event. You're generally not going to be missing out on any content (except for 3rd party collabs like the upcoming Monster Hunter event, but that's because they don't own Monster Hunter), so don't feel like you have to rush through the game. It won't work, and you'll get easily frustrated. Think of it more like a puzzle game with updates. You don't rush through puzzle games, the point is to enjoy the puzzle.
Don't spend - This goes for all mobile games in general, but especially Arknights. The money to in-game currency conversion rate is godawful, but the actual flow of the gacha currency (called Orundrum) given to you by just playing the game normally is rather generous. Combined with a few other features that don't need to be discussed here and even a F2P player's account looks like a whale after enough time, because you eventually just get most of the units from how often you're given free rolls. Take it from me, you don't need to buy anything to get gigastacked, it will happen to you over time.
Ask for Help - Arknights is a puzzle game, and that means even with some of the best units in the game, you can find yourself stuck on stages if you have no idea how to approach strategy. If you're ever stuck, Youtube is filled with various clear guides made by the community, targeting everything from lazy clears (often called AFK) by super strong Doctors that don't want to think, to low rarity clears targeted towards new players who are mostly using the 3 star characters (as they are much quicker to raise). Just take a look at the codename of the stage you are stuck on (for example: "WD-EX-8"), and type that into the Youtube search bar. You'll find a ton of different guides from various creators. You can even shoot an Ask to this blog if you want more personalized help, though of course I can only answer those in my free time.
Take reviews with a grain of salt - Probably the biggest source of FOMO pressure in Arknights is the community itself, what with how much content creators love to use clickbait videos telling you a certain unit is a godtier must-have and if you don't have them you WILL be unable to keep up so roll for them NOW or a certain unit is fucking dogshit unusable and if you have them they're a waste of space. No in-betweens. Of course, when you actually get to try these characters for yourself you're going to realize even the absurdly powerful units aren't going to be autowinning stages by themselves (usually), nor are even the most despised, godawful units completely worthless strategically. It's a puzzle game, ultimately a lot more is going to depend on your ability to problem solve. My general rule of thumb when it comes to seeing community reactions to new operators is if everyone says they're good, they're almost certainly very good, but if everyone says a new unit is trash, it's a cointoss as to how bad they actually are. Probably the best recent example is the 6 star Mystic Caster Ebenholz, who was derided as being awkward to use and generally awful in most stages. His stock eventually rose and rose as people discovered that while Ebenholz struggled in most stages, he was incredibly good at taking on stages with very difficult, powerful enemies, flattening most of these elite enemies and bosses in an instant and trivializing the stages meant to be challenging. If you look up Ebenholz online you're mostly going to find people reacting to his initial appearance and calling him bad, but you're not going to see how he's carved out an extremely valuable strategic niche for himself. You never know who's going to end up useful, so don't be afraid to play around with your favorite units.
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I wanna talk about this today.
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Mostly I want to talk about objective truth versus subjective truth. But let me start with what's happening in this scene. (Spoilers for Original Sin and Loki: Agent of Asgard)
So in this moment from Original Sin: Thor and Loki in the Tenth Realm, Loki is talking to the queen of the Angels about what happened in the previous issue of Agent of Asgard. Loki has been working for the All-Mothers in an attempt to erase his past crimes and start anew, but discovered that they were taking cues from Old Loki in order to ensure the future he said would come about, a future in which there was (mostly) peace in Asgard, Thor was king and All-Father, but Loki was still the villain. It was a price they were willing to pay for peace. So Loki's grappling with this in this issue, along with having to deal with Thor's reckless attempts at recovering their long-lost sister (not Hela).
So then the queen says, "[The Asgardians will] never understand you, god of what works. Go ahead, use your truth-sword. Tell me you don't know I'm right."
The sword she is referring to is Gram, the sword that Loki stole from Asgard's most famous hero, Sigurd, which was forged at Old Loki's bidding when he went further back in time to ensure it would exist for the current Loki to claim (the timeline gets confusing in AoA). The sword forces those it wounds to face the truth of themselves and their actions.
But truth comes in different forms, objective truth and subjective truth. Objective truth is indisputable fact, and if you say something otherwise it would simply not be true. "Earth orbits the sun" is an objective truth. We can and have proven it. Subjective truth is something that may be true for you but is not necessarily objectively true. This is why the testimony of innocent bystanders is sometimes not permitted in court. For whatever reason, you may be completely convinced that the person you saw stealing a tv from Best Buy at 2:16PM three weeks ago was wearing a blue shirt, so convinced you'd be willing to say so under oath. They could attach you to a lie detector, and the results would say you were telling the truth. However, when they get the CCTV footage, the person was wearing a red shirt. You weren't lying; your memory had you convinced it was a blue shirt. You believed it was the truth, so you believed you were telling the truth. This is how lie detectors work (theoretically; there's also the part that it only detects physical changes that only sometimes mean someone's lying anyway), and how truth serums (in various media or CIA conspiracy theories your subjective truth may or may not have you believe) are supposed to function.
Now, it could be argued that Gram functions as a detector of objective truth. Previously in AoA, it forced Thor to come to terms with the influence an infection of evil had on him (I don't remember exactly what happened, but essentially Old Loki more or less invaded Thor like a virus and forced him to act rather nastily). He didn't seem to realize what was happening until Loki stabbed him with Gram. This is a valid argument, and honestly I don't understand this scene enough (I think a lot of background for it came from other comics if I remember correctly) to make an authentic counterargument.
However Gram acts with Thor, though, I do believe in the above panel, Gram functions like a lie detector or truth serum. The "truth" Loki speaks is subjective truth. He believes it's true, so Gram is essentially like, "Sure, yep, sounds about right."
But because Gram doesn't do whatever it does when someone lies (or maybe because it functions like Wonder Woman's lasso, and you simply can't lie when you're wounded by it), it just further convinces Loki that his beliefs about his inability to be loved are true. Or he's aware that this may merely be a subjective truth, but because he knows how the sword works and he's banking on the queen not understanding the difference between types of truth, he's using it to gain her trust. He still can't lie while holding Gram, so either what he says is 100% indisputably true in an absolute sense, or he wholeheartedly believes it to be true with such certainty that it doesn't matter that it isn't objective. He may be saying it to gain her trust, but he also still believes it.
And I'm in pain.
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jasontoddsdarling · 3 months
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barbecue day (feat damian)
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— aurora todd verse
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"Well it's not."
"It is, Todd. I know it's kind of hard for you to understand, but it is."
"It's not—"
She is in the kitchen, cutting some condiments for some sambal to go along with chicken thighs and tomahawk steaks that Jason is currently roasted over portable grills in backyard.
But he's apparently bickering with Damian—who is visiting from his university's summer break, who's helping here and there but mostly supervising Aurora, which she has provided with entertainment in the form of her inflatable pool and her baby toys.
The thing is, they've been bickering for like ten minutes straight. She's pretty sure their closest neighbor know what they are arguing about already—meanwhile she only caught something about latest episode of some sci-fi show and latest video game update because she was chopping garlic with her new chopper and it drown their voices for her.
She needs to make sure that they get along.
And oh, how she has an idea.
As she wash her hands, she can hear them becoming more louder.
When she is finally opened the kitchen door towards the backyard, she finds out Jason's making gesture with his free hand and his other gripping kitchen tongs and Damian, which is inside Rora's inflatable balloon, making gestures with his hands holding some of her baby girl's toys.
If this isn't comical.
She clears her throat.
"Jay."
Jason instantly stops talking and Damian too—but not without drawing out his last syllables.
Damian immediately sits down on inside the pool.
"Yeah, sweetheart?"
Jason is back facing the grill, flipping some of the chicken thighs. You want to roll your eyes in affection.
"I need you and Damian to buy me some Thai chili and lemongrass."
"I thought we already have all the ingredients."
"Well, we actually were underestimating the need of several sambals."
Jason basically can't say no to her request, so he just drops the kitchen tongs and cleans his hands on the nearby outdoor faucet. Then, he picks up Rora from inside the pool.
Damian gets up, eyeing the grill—probably about to take over Jason's work. But she claps her hand seemingly to surprise her brother-in-law.
"Damian, why don't you go with Jay and Rora? I can handle the grill."
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"How much she said she needs the lemongrass again?"
Damian asks when they're at the last traffic light before the grocery store. He's the one driving. Jason's shotgunning and Rora is on her baby chair on the backseat.
"Five stalks, but she also said just pick one plastic wrap building."
"And—"
"Ten ounces."
"Ons!"
Rora mimics, which surprised Damian.
"Thank you, Rora."
When it's green, he starts talking again—while Jason is currently turning to face Rora, giving her grubby little hands her a baby biscuit.
"I cannot believe she's your spawn, Todd."
"Me neither."
Jason looks ahead—back to the street in front of them afterwards, but Damian can see from the corner of his eye that he sports a fondly smile because they're talking about his niece.
"I actually think she acts more like her mom and the biggest evidence that she's yours is because she literally have your eye color, which is improbable for it to come from her mom's genetics because her eyes are dark and her heritage; but now I can see that she behaves like you, too."
Jason definitely isn't prepared to hear his little brother saying all of that, but he turns his head to the
"Really?"
"Yup. Believe me or not, before we were bickering—which I am sure why your wife sent us away, if you haven't noticed yet—I was inspecting how you and Rora interacts."
"Of course you did."
Damian dismisses his older brother.
"And from that, I can see that she's your mini you. I mean, she's obviously her mom's mini me, but it's not without you."
"That's genuinely the nicest thing you said to me today, little brother, and I appreciate that."
The twenty-one years old man shrugs.
"Don't thank me. I was just saying facts. Anyway, we're here."
Damian stops the engine and opens his car door. He goes to the backseat door to release and hoist Rora from her seat.
Jason definitely can see his smile before opening his own door, though.
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"What's this sambal called again?"
Damian points his fork at the chopped herbs and Thai chili bowl of sambal.
They already finished cooking and are sitting together in a round backyard dinner table.
"Matah. M-a-t-a-h."
"Matah," Damian nods, "it's so fresh and fragrant from the kaffir lime leaves and the lemongrass. I like it. It's unlike anything I have ever tried."
"We can put it in a jar if you want to have some when you're going back to to uni, right, Jay?"
"Of course. You should send him your recipe too, so if he runs out he can make it himself. It's quite easy to make."
"Thank you."
Damian smiles gratefully at her and Jason. She almost cannot believe these two were bickering like teenage boys awhile ago. That's just what being siblings like, she guesses.
"Easy! Uncy!" Rora giggles. She's perches on her baby high chair beside her mom and face to face with Damian. Her little fingers holding a piece of cucumber that she's chewing.
(She is pleased she picks up "uncle" when she's talking to Damian)
"Thank you, little Rora."
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mariea's notes: another writing out of aurora todd universe. randomly, "cannot believe she's your spawn" line came into my mind and then the rest is history. i know this series(?) don't have much readers compared to my regular fluff or especially regular smut (lol) but i really love exploring the dynamics of this family throughout my writings. also, trying the third person now. probably going to stick to this. as always you can drop a request (any) or a question and thanks for reading <3
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eobarried · 11 months
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ok let’s talk about miguel o’hara because it needs to be done. i want to clarify that this is not a hate post or anti-miguel in any sense, but it is a critical analysis of his character and role in the spiderverse. if you don’t feel like you can read this right now, i suggest you like it/save it for later and read it when you feel like you can with an open mind
especially for anyone who’s a miguel enjoyer (i consider myself one as well) because if you really love his character, it’s important to understand why his character was created and what a great narrative tool it is! anyway-
miguel o’hara is, allegorically, a bigot. 
now - let’s unpack and clarify that. miguel is allegorically a bigot - his character is used to represent a certain, specific type of bigotry we see in real life. notice how i’m saying “bigot” and not “racist” - because despite the memes, i don’t think miguel’s hatred of miles is rooted in antiblackness. i think it’s rooted in something a little more complicated, which is why i’m using the term bigotry. but this can be a little confusing, so let’s start from the beginning. or, at least, the most important part.
the canon.
i want you to really think about the word used here - canon. hearing that word should break the fourth wall for you, just like hearing “he’s got hammerspace!” should have earlier in the movie - or discussions different characters have surrounding their distinct art styles. it’s meant to break the fourth wall and draw attention to itself. specifically, the use of the word canon here is meant for us to take a step back from the in-universe events (treating the characters as “real” people and looking at events logically) and instead think of the spiderman story and mythos.
spiderman, as a story, has been told over and over again. we, as an audience, are deeply familiar with this story, as we’ve seen it as a live-action blockbuster in no less than three separate franchises. that’s not even mentioning all the cartoon adaptations, and of course the comic runs. adhering to a specific formula surrounding the story makes sense. when someone walks into a spiderman movie, they have certain... expectations. that no matter what version of spiderman this is, that they follow certain story beats and adhere to certain rules as they follow along in their journey. miguel, when explaining this to miles, focuses on said story beats (which i’ll get to in a second), but there’s something that’s way more important than specific plot points that we need to address here.
and that’s theme. 
theme (if you’re not an english literature person), is basically something you take away from the story. it’s usually a moral, idea, or concept that can be applied to the world around you, and helps you learn more about yourself, society, culture, or history. all stories have themes - usually they have multiple. so let’s get into it.
the original spiderman comic was notable in several ways. the thing that made spiderman so popular and successful is that he was the first (notable) teenage superhero that wasn’t a part of a greater team. spiderman wasn’t a sidekick that was written in to appeal to an audience of children. he was a teenager himself - but he was no less competent or strong than the (mostly adult) villains he fought. 
and not only was spiderman a kid - he was the kid. he was a nerd. he was an older white teen, yes - but he represented the type of person who would go out and buy a comic book more than any other hero at the time. before he became spiderman, peter parker was just kind of a geek. at the time (the 60s) this still identified him as an outcast. peter was socially awkward, not good with girls, he didn’t have many friends, and he was bullied consistently. the only thing he was good at was science, basically. we can connect peter’s original portrayal to many legitimately marginalized groups - specifically those that might be autistic and impacted by ableism. to those kids reading that comic, they saw a hero that represented them.
and how does peter represent them? what does spiderman teach these children by reading these comics? the original spiderman is the story of a man who, by chance, was granted the opportunity for greatness - to become an integral part of his community. spiderman uses his skills (both those granted to him by the spider, but also those that he inherently has, such as his skills with science and engineering), in order to prove his worth and merit. it’s lonely, the road he has to walk - he can’t tell his friends and family who he is, lest they become victims like uncle ben - or lest they betray him. he can only rely on himself and his own knowledge in order to protect his community. the themes we draw from spiderman are this: luck can strike at any time, but you need to use your own strength and intelligence to pull yourself up afterwards, no matter how hard things get. no matter how many people you lose.
that’s what miguel believes spiderman is about. this original spiderman story is that of the american dream. of a youth who is ostracized by society (for whatever reason), but is still able to use their own merit to overcome the obstacles placed in front of them and the grief and pain they face on their path to greatness. it’s a hard and lonely path, but miguel values anyone who has the bravery to face it.
so why does he hate miles?
because he didn’t do it alone. because miles doesn’t believe in the traditional american dream.
if you want to read more about that, check out my analysis comparing spider-society and visions academy over here (it’s not as in-depth as i would like it to be, but it gets the job done) but basically: miles believes that every person deserves greatness. he states it very clearly when talking to his dad about how he won the lottery to go to visions: he just got lucky. he feels as if he took an opportunity away from someone else. why is it just given to him, when anyone else at brooklyn middle is just as deserving of an amazing education? when these resources should be put to use to uplift his whole community, not just miles alone?
miles brings that same energy as a spider-person. he’s not just an anomaly because his spider was from a different dimension. he’s an anomaly because he had a mentor. not only a mentor - he had a whole clan of spider-people there for him. while peter b parker and the crew weren’t always very good allies for miles, they still wanted him to succeed. each spider-person was an outcast - not in the same way as miles, but they were eager to describe what miles needed to master in order to keep himself safe as a crime-fighter. although they weren’t always supportive, it wasn’t because they were “gatekeeping” - it’s because they were worried miles might hurt himself. to them, he hadn’t put in the work on his own, and because he hadn’t proven himself as a spider-person in isolation, they thought there was no way he could be successful as a spider-person during a very high-risk mission.
however, miles proves them wrong. it’s true that miles has to pull upon his own inner strength, but he also pulls on wisdom from those that mentored him - his father, his uncle aaron, peter parker, and peter b parker. as well as love and support from his community. miles became spiderman - but not in isolation. he had help, and support, and love - always - that helped him succeed.
because spiderman - in all universes - represents success in america. in the original comics, spiderman is able to overcome his status as an outcast in order to help his city. he now has great power - a potential allegory related to wealth and social or political status. he uses that power in order to protect the community he loves (nyc) as they can’t all protect themselves.
now let’s bring it back. miguel. right.
miguel has already made his mark as a spiderman. although we know he broke canon, it wasn’t related to him becoming spiderman. we can assume that miguel still went through serious struggle and trauma to get to where he’s at. and now, through thematic analysis, we know that becoming spiderman represents success in america.
so, miguel’s dislike of miles, thematically, connects to how older generations may believe that younger generations “have it too easy” or “don’t put in the same effort.” it’s the (mainly capitalistic) ideal that in order to succeed, it has to be in isolation, without outside help. we can infer that miguel is not only upset that miles didn’t do things “canonically” - but that he is afforded success that miguel doesn’t think he deserves. miguel believes that in order to succeed in america, one needs to do it on their own, and suffer in order to succeed. no “hand-outs,” no support, no community outreach. it’s a very rigid capitalistic standard - which is why i called it “bigoted.” miguel is still a marginalized figure - and it’s important that miguel is the one stating the viewpoint, not a white spiderman. because this isn’t a white vs black storyline. miguel’s dislike of miles is specifically a sort of generational, inter-community bigotry.
for someone who hasn’t experienced it - think of it like hazing. you join a new sports team. the senior players say “you carry the equipment out and clean everything after the game.” you ask “why? can’t we all just do it together? aren’t we supposed to be a team?” and they say “no. you’re the new guys. hard work builds character. deal with it.”
alright. so we took a look at canon through a meta-story lens. now let’s pull it back even further.
so, miguel’s ideology. he adheres firmly to canon, a series of events that cannot (or, should not), change. if we apply that to our lives, that sounds a lot like predestination. destiny. fate. let’s call it predestination for now - you’ll see why in a minute.
now, a belief in predestination makes sense. it can bring a lot of people comfort, thinking that horrible events are out of their hands, and often times it can be harmless to believe in predestination in these instances. for example: someone who blames themselves for not being able to say goodbye to a loved one who died suddenly. if this person believes in predestination, it might ease some of their pain and guilt to know that there was nothing they could do - that it was the will of some higher power that their loved one is gone, and that there was nothing they could do to prevent it. some individuals might find comfort in knowing that they are not to blame for the work of the universe.
however, predestination can also be malicious. thinking that things are the will of the universe, or the will of god... that’s been used for some pretty fucked up stuff in the past. in a more moderate (and topical) example - royalty. many kings used the concept of predestination to explain why they deserved the crown. their bloodline was chosen by god himself - that’s why they’re powerful (compare to spider-people and their success. if they are also predestined for their spider-bite, doesn’t that make them akin to monarchs?)
in more nefarious examples, predestination can be used to subjugate and oppress others. predestination was used in ancient indian society in order to justify the caste system - utilizing the hindu concept of karma to justify why certain members of society were mistreated and oppressed. in a more american sense, predestination was often used as a way to justify both slavery and segregation. originally, slavers tried to justify that god wanted black individuals to serve as slaves because it was his will. later, when divine intervention fell out of fashion, they attempted to use eugenics to justify that black individuals were simply born inferior - that it was just science, and that there was nothing they could do about it.
that’s the other reason it’s called canon. the original usage of the word was to refer to the books of the bible that the church recognized as legitimate. it ties back to faith and religion. 
now, religion, faith, and even the belief in fate itself - are not inherently bad. miguel’s belief in predestination doesn’t make him a bad or bigoted person inherently. however, the way he forces other to believe and adhere to it is. it’s very likely that miguel became so attached to the canon in order to justify why his wife and daughter died - in order to remove his own accountability for their passing and instead place the blame on some higher power. this belief snowballed out of control, however - and now influences his jealousy and distaste for miles and his way of life.
because forcing a canon - a story - on miles, is wrong. when miguel tells miles that his father must die, that he has to adhere to canon - that’s a horrible thing to say to a young black boy. to tell him that in order to be successful as a marginalized individual (to be spiderman) that he has to lose the last black male role model he has? it’s heinous! it’s akin to telling miles that in order to succeed, he has to cut ties with part of his culture. which does happen to young marginalized people in america. they are told that in order to be successful, they have to leave their culture, community, and support system behind.
it’s especially sinister when looking at it from the point of view of storytelling. when looking at it from that angle, miguel is basically telling miles that in order for his story - the story of a young black boy - to be profitable, he has to go through even more trauma and loss. it’s similar to what his guidance counselor mentions when discussing how miles should write his college entrance essay - that he should lie, and emphasize that he struggles while growing up, and that his support system was unstable. it’s the traditional story of a struggling black boy - which i discuss more here when talking about earth 42 miles and his inclusion in the spiderverse.
miguel’s bigotry is centrally tried to his idea of what american society expects of marginalized individuals who were able to achieve their dreams despite it all. a story of pain and struggle. one where they were able to - only through their own strength and intelligence, and maybe with a little bit of luck - pull themselves up, and quietly work towards their own success.
miguel’s belief in the american dream and predestination not only influences his treatment of miles, but also his creation of spider-society. now, let me be frank: miguel, in this franchise, is not supposed to represent someone who created systematic oppression. he’s simply one of the people who believed in bigoted ideals and allowed those ideals to influence his decisions. because when miguel created spider-society, it basically became an elitist isolation chamber. spider-society is located in a huge tower on miguela’s earth. the tower is so tall and imposing on the utopian landscape, there’s no way that miguel is able to properly support his own community as spiderman - he’s not worried about what happens to his own community. especially once we learn that a good portion of them live underground, where miguel can’t even see them. even if he wasn’t occupied with anomalies at all times, there’s no way he could even connect with nueva york around him.
the same can be said of all the spider-people in headquarters. they’re not even in their home dimensions. how can they possibly support their communities when they have isolated themselves as far away as they could literally be? it parallels how successful individuals often treat their communities in reality - what do wealthy people usually do at the first sign of their wealth? they build a huge mansion to get away from it all. many times in our capitalist society, wealthy and successful people abandon the communities they should be supporting. 
miguel represents that. he is a successful, powerful person, who decided to focus only on other successful, powerful people like him. marginalized people who achieved the american dream on their own. people who, instead of uplifting others, instead tear down those who don’t fit into their “mold.” who are successful in their own right, but don’t hold the same ideals and values that they do. who aren’t the model example of marginalized success in the eyes of the (white) american “audience.” 
miguel is a product of a great problem within society. while he partakes and perpetuates bigotry, that doesn’t mean that he’s irredeemable. the narrative shows that miguel is a broken man. if we think about to the end credits scene from itsv, where he calls his dimensional travel bracelet a “goober” - he wasn’t always so hateful. he wasn’t always like this. he can un-learn his bigotry and he isn’t completely lost. the way that he discusses his ideas - it’s clear that he knows that there are flaws in them, just as other spider-people consistently point out. he can be changed and improved - just like our real leaders and role models can be changed and improved. miguel is not without saving - but it’s important to remember that he does need to be saved. 
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chaifootsteps · 9 months
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(Patreon anon) Here's the last of what I have of my QnA archive, I don't plan to repledge so cheers to whoever uses their money to snitch like me.
-HB season 1 takes place within one year
-Wally Wackford won't appear much in season 2 but will be important in the future.
-Vivzie would love more Wally merch but her merch lead doesn't feel confident in it selling well.
-Vivzie hasn't consider making pride merch because "It's the kind of thing that big corporations to try to appeal to a generation they're not normally involved in."
-Vivzie claims the whole show is a celebration of pride and doesn't feel the need to make pride merch but would be down to making if there's a demand for it. (With the amount of fan merch I've seen, there is)
-She claims to do general research for the HH character time period but doesn't integrate the history into their backstories as of now.
-Viv's open to oversea convention appearances and has been trying to get a booking agent to travel more for European conventions.
-Paimon's a big shapeshifter and is only an owl because that's what he needs to be.
-There was a time where Vivzie hated Zoophobia, saying if something doesn't work out, keep trying new projects that excite you.
-One hell year equals a lot of Earth years, so stolas existed well before 1985.
-Vivzie actually loves Mammon's design, she conceptualized it and had someone else finalize it. Sort of like how Oz was designed by someone on the team with Vivzie finalizing it.
-Vivzie wanted to show men can be abused too with Stolas
-Jeremy Jordan might join be cast by Vivzie since she knows him
-Stella may not want Stolas dead right away anymore, just at a later time. (This was asked pre-Western Energy)
-It's currently unclear when we'll get HH merch with their full series designs since they're owned by A24. (This was months before the recall of that Sir Pentious keychain that used the full series design)
-At the time, they were aiming for a three month wait period between HB episodes for season 2.
-Unlike HH, HB isn't considered a musical to Vivzie but will have elements to it in season 2.
-Vivzie doesn't remember what the golden feathers in epsiode 6 meant. Adam saids the artist come up with a bunch of ideas.
-Sinners technically don't need food and water to live, it's mostly out of habit and indulgence. Electronic sinners like Vox find a way through cartoon logic.
-Because of how long episode 8 was taking, Vivzie and Adam have started making HB comics of what happens between the episodes. They're still figuring it out with HH.
-If Oz ever met Valentino, he would hate him. The team jokes that Val would be very "notice me senpai" with him.
-Stolas is confirmed to be 8ft tall with Blitz at 5ft.
-Fights between an overlord and a goetia would barely happen so Vivzie wouldn't know which one would win.
-Tilla was removed as a sibling because Blitz's family was still in the early works, she's going to be renamed.
-Vivzie doesn't have a specific favorite villain archetypes, she enjoys ruthless mean girls and dramatic, and theatrical messed up villains like The Joker.
-Episode 6's collaboration was fun for Vivzie but complicated because she had to manage an entire second team, There were file issues and they had to go back and forth to make sure they were correct.
-Vivzie's interested in making more Zoophobia merch but doesn't wish to for other older projects. She mentions it'd be hard to convince her merch lead that anyone would want to buy anything from her older works.
-Stolas does have guilt with his affair and he has a lot of turmoil related to it.
-Leviathan will have a cameo in season 2
-Vivzie can't give specifics but Stolas doesn't have many friends who we might see them in the future. Stella has two friends who at the moment of that QnA don't have names.
-White marks on Imps are scars, and can be added for aesthetics (Unsure if she means design wise or in-universe cosmetics, possibly both with how Barbie looks)
-Stolas's job is to look into the skies of Earth and find prophecies in them and inform Hell of what's to come in the future, he doesn't do much other than that.
-Oz has a broad range of powers, there were too many to list in the timespan of the QnA.
-Octavia takes after Stolas in that she's socially unaware, Vivzie claims she also unaware of her parents's relationship because of Stolas trying hard to make it seem things are fine and does that to a "good extent".
-we'll see what Octavia and Stella's relationship is like later.
-Vivzie would like to release an artbook bigger than their con-exclusive one for HB after season 2 and when the team is free to organize the production art, she's unable to do one for HH at the moment.
-DHORK will return
-She's still figuring out the sins but don't want them to be fallen angels since it doesn't matter in HB, but it will for HH. So she wants to wait until HH to decide. (Possible they figured it out with HH season 1 done)
-She finds people saying the childhood friends trope with Stolitz being fanservice frustrating. (As seen with her recent rant of the overall story)
-Vivzie adopted Pixel a year and a half after she graduated SVA. She didn't explain how she got Honeybee and Nugget.
-full quote "There would be demons from the ring of Lust who would be asexual, and they will get to that in the future. But she generally imagines that lust demons wouldn't think it'd that much of a taboo. Lust demons would generally be confused by the concept, but they wouldn't have any hate.
Asmodeus would be an example of someone who wouldn't understand asexuality"
-She would like region-free dvds of HB but it would require re-negotiations with everyone who was involved with the show, if they do release it, it'll be difficult to make it region-free.
-Stolitz didn't interact at all between the 25 years apart.
-She put a lot of her life into Loo Loo Land, and yes...Viv's dad was openly horny in front of her and her sisters growing up, Viv found it funny but like I told Lemon...There was no mention of how her sisters felt about it.
-Viv put aspects of herself into Octavia but claims to not be a self-insert. Fizz has an aspect that is directly from Viv that we'll see in season 2 that she feels needs to be shown.
-HB was spun off because IMP was originally for HH, with Vivzie thinking they were better off as their own thing. HB's also about exploring Vivzie's hell like the demons that possess people.
-HB/HH was inspired by Batman and various musicals with the idea that she wanted a worlds with nothing but villains.
-The fan interpretations of Andrealphus were pretty close to what she's written for him.
-Vivzie's interpretation of Stolas's "I used to think that I was bold, I used to think that love was for fun" is meant that he's never gotten the chance to experience true love with him being gay and he had an arranged marriage.
-She wants Stolas and Stella's relationship to be something that's debated.
-The Von Eldritches will not appear in HH season 1
-question "How did Viv get to where she was? How did she get Hazbin and Helluva produced?"
answer: "She has reps who set her up with people very interested in her show. It was the producers who pitched their interest in her. This is what happened with Hazbin in that production companies showed what they would do for that show. When A24 showed interest in Hazbin, that's when she started pitching it to others (No mention of that those others are)"
-The certificate on Loona's adoption paper was signed by Beelzebub.
-HH will have the same level of NSFW and dark as HB is at the time of season 2's beginning, (I'm not sure why people are thinking it'll be even more if she has to obey S&P with a TV show) she admits to not having a good gauge of what's too extreme as she just does what she wants to do to tell her story. HH is new territory since it's more story based than HB.
-YT doesn't allow the use of the word "cunt" so Mammon will be heavily censored with the amount of time he saids it. There's also a scene in HB that a storyboard artist went too extreme on and Vivzie was afraid it would be rejected but turned out to be okay. (This ask was in September 2022, she didn't mention which scene but if I had to guess it might have been the dildo room)
-Oz is aware of Fizz being an imp, but Vivzie doesn't know if it's an open fact and she might use it as a story element someday.
-Rosie is an overlord, that's all Vivzie can say when asked what kind of demon she is.
-At the time Vivzie was still figuring out how time works in hell, Sinners are stuck at the age they died as while Hellborns do age.
-Stolas would have thought of Blitz a lot after their day together and has a problem separating fantasy from reality, Blitz would have never thought of him.
-Blitz's horse obsession started as an inside joke among the team
-Vivzie can't say if season 2 will have a Stolitz kiss
-Episode 6's collab started 4-5 months before the episode came out, There's no plans for season 2 to have one but Vivzie would love to do it again.
-When asked if any new characters will join IMP in season 2 Vivzie said "Not this season!"
-Stolas can transform into other things, but Vivzie is still deciding if it's something he can do on his own or needs the grimoire for it.
-Vivzie uses Google sheets to write and takes the complete draft to something called Final Draft to finish it
-That white cyclops guy that shows up in Cherri Bomb's segment of Addict is likely to change but that's all Vivzie can say.
-Striker was confirmed to be a hybrid hellborn.
-The client giving birth button in episode 1 was an oversight on Vivzie's part but did say that IMP had hellborn clients before
-Any remaining reveals of HH characters will be minor characters from the pilot, the final reveal will be a brand new character. (This was before the Adam reveal, so he could have been the final one)
-The thing about the sins being a pseudo-family with "nice and asshole" ones were accurate to what's been told to you, same with them technically being goetias, they're just in a different category.
-We'll see Oz and Mammon's relationship in the middle of season 2.
-A lot of material things have been made in the greed ring, it's very industrial, full of banks, smoggy and crime ridden like that was seen in the Chaz episode.
-HH and HB are planned out but said that there's "wiggle room' in that they figure out as the show goes by how they get to the events.
-Vivzie's still deciding what special powers Striker would have as a hybrid.
-If Vivzie had unlimited funds, she would love to make a movie for HH and HB and to speed up her production pipeline. she had issues in 2022 with her working more on HH.
-Claims that HH will definitely come out in 2023, but she also mentioned season 2 of HB will have a more consistent release schedule at the same time.
-Vivzie would like to make a height chart for the HB characters but claims the team doesn't need one because they know the size of them already.
> Vivzie hasn't consider making pride merch because "It's the kind of thing that big corporations to try to appeal to a generation they're not normally involved in."
Says Vivzie as she can't put out Sallie Mae merchandise fast enough, despite her having one speaking line and about five seconds of screen time.
> -HH and HB are planned out but said that there's "wiggle room' in that they figure out as the show goes by how they get to the events.
She's flip-flopped on how planned out the show is so many times it's not even funny anymore.
> Stolas does have guilt with his affair and he has a lot of turmoil related to it.
Figures this was before both scenes where he says he has zero guilt and would feel bad if he thought he did something wrong but doesn't.
> -Stolas would have thought of Blitz a lot after their day together and has a problem separating fantasy from reality, Blitz would have never thought of him.
What a fascinating character trait that we were all looking forward to seeing more of after Blitzo told him off in Ozzie's and popped his delusional bubble! What a shame it was downgraded to "Stolas, as always, did nothing wrong."
> -She wants Stolas and Stella's relationship to be something that's debated.
Liar.
> -She put a lot of her life into Loo Loo Land, and yes...Viv's dad was openly horny in front of her and her sisters growing up, Viv found it funny but like I told Lemon...There was no mention of how her sisters felt about it.
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> -Vivzie doesn't remember what the golden feathers in epsiode 6 meant. Adam saids the artist come up with a bunch of ideas.
Remember when we all thought that was important? Oh Vivzie, you fucking hack.
Thank you so much for all of these, Patreon Anon. Hopefully someone else will step into your shoes but for now know that you're braver than any Marine.
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jasmancer · 11 months
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diving back into reading comics so here are some tips from a former comic store employee:
There is so much more than superhero comics out there. Seriously. The comic book format has been host to groundbreaking autobiographies, subversive fantasy and sci fi, experimental horror, mysteries, romance, barbarian babe booby comics, you name it
If u do really want to get into Marvel or DC superhero comics I'd recommend that you pick a character with a smaller catalogue to get started, and/or find some writers you like and look through their catalogue. A lot of comic writers for the big 2 have great original stuff that gets overlooked. There's also a good chance an author you like has written a comic series!
If you want to read a certain character and don't know where to start just look up (character) reading guide !! a lot of comics Tumblr make them and you'd be surprised just how obscure our blorbos can get.
If you can think of a property, there's a 90% chance a comic of it exists. I have stocked Three Stooges comics before. The industry knows no bounds
If ur USAmerican your library probably has access to the service Hoopla which has tons of comics on it. Seriously you can read them for free in a legitimate way on your phone or computer and all you need is a library card. The app is even set up so you can read panel-by-panel instead of having to zoom way in on text boxes and speech bubbles
KEEP TRACK OF WHAT YOURE READING. I seriously cannot tell you how many times I've started a comic and really enjoyed it only to leave it unfinished because I found another series and got so excited I forgot about the other one. I personally use a spreadsheet I found by looking up a book tracker on Google sheets and modifying it to suit comic books.
If you want to buy comics, I'd recommend you get them in TPB (Trade Paperback) volumes AKA ~Graphic Novels~ instead of individual issues. Typically these will collect a series and each book will be 5-6 issues of a comic apiece, and you can even find some that collect important appearances of certain characters or events that arent necessarily held together by one series. Saves money, time, and space
Good places to get secondhand comics in any format include thriftbooks(dot)com, secondhand book stores with comic bins and graphic novel sections like Half Price Books or Vintage Stock, and mycomicshop(dot)com. Looking through comic bins can be kinda daunting, especially if they're not well organized so I mostly recommend going to the graphic novel shelves instead. If you do want to go digging it's definitely fun though and I'd recommend bringing a buddy so you can show each other weird obscure comics you find and giggle
9/10 times comic books are NOT the investment you think they are. The industry takes advantage of this misconception a lot to try and boost sales that have been falling for decades at this point. I personally wouldn't recommend buying individual issues of series unless they're like a short miniseries or oneshots. I could get into what actually makes a comic book go up in value but this post is already long as hell so I'll just leave it here
Now go forth and read!!!
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