#The new comics are complete meh

[heypachuco]

#The new comics are complete meh #An abuse towards the book #One big mistake #Thrawn #Mitthrawnuruodo #Grand admiral Thrawn #Star wars #Alliances comic #Alliances #Thrawn trilogy #Alliances book #Darth Vader

[genericpuff]

The Extended Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Finale Premiere

Alright, so I had mentioned leading up to the release of the newest LO episode that my feelings regarding LO returning were pretty "meh". Not hyped, but not completely back of mind either. Just sort of a weird calm before the storm type feeling that could go either way.

I'm glad I got to have that moment of calmness because good god, this episode was an absolute shitshow. And honestly, I'm not surprised, for several reasons:

Rachel has never been good at maintaining a buffer, even back at the start of the series she only ever had 2-3 episodes ready ahead of her schedule which is NOT an ideal buffer for an originals series.

Rachel has never been good at writing, she's very "draw first write later" and has stated as such in interviews that when she gets 'stuck' on what she's writing, she'll just start drawing and fit the pieces in later.

Four months is NOT enough time to both rest, attend massive conventions, and work on improving a project while also getting buffer episodes ready.

Because of the FP episodes remaining locked over the hiatus, technically Rachel only needed to have ONE episode ready upon return for the newest FP release, not multiple like she'd usually need like in the past during the S2 midseason hiatus or the season finale episodes which would unlock those FP releases like normal - so for all we know, she could have drawn this episode literally last week, especially when the promo material was so last minute. Frankly I think it was REALLY stupid for whoever it was who decided to keep these FP episodes locked (whether it was her or WT, it was more likely WT) but you can read all I have to say about that in my review of the midseason finale episodes.

All that's to say, no, there was never any guarantee Rachel was going to somehow "turn around" the ride we're currently on. I know that many of the critics were hoping for that to happen, but with the circumstances of the hiatus mixed with Rachel's bad habits of putting her best efforts into the procrastination projects that aren't her actual comic (ex. the few original pieces and LO sketches she put out during the hiatus) it just wasn't in the cards. This is where the comic is at and this is where it will remain until it's over.

I want to also point something out about this episode that was... really glaring to me.

As with all of these hiatus returns, LO got priority advertising in the first two banner slots and push notifications AND a popup ad within the app. This is unsurprising, Webtoons is still trying to milk this thing for what it's worth.

I know a lot of people are gonna focus on the art, or the fact that WT is continuing to shill LO, but I wanna point out the part that WT implemented specifically - "NEW SEASON".

This is literally just false. At best I'd like to think some intern just messed up and thought this was a new season, but it's literally not, the episode designation still says "S3". Note that the creators only design the banner art, the actual labels on top are put there by Webtoons.

But at worst, this feels like blatant lying to continue to hide the fact that LO is ending. Mind you, Rachel and Webtoons have still not put out official posts stating that this is the final arc. There is NOTHING from either of them to communicate to the audience that the comic is ending next year. It feels like they're trying to avoid the topic altogether out of fear of losing the fanbase they still have, rather than hyping up the comic's end for those who have stuck around to see how it all wraps up. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case, considering they're now trying to funnel the fanbase into Penguin/Inklore with new marketing deals and the whole Rachel Smythe Presents thing. They're trying to make this seem like the beginning of something "new" when it's really just a quiet shifting of management (Penguin House).

But all that aside, let's actually get into the episode. It's one episode after 4 months, which is not standard for LO's hiatuses, typically FP episodes release on schedule (meaning free readers start hiatuses 3 weeks after FP readers do), the only time this has been an exception has been with the 2 week breaks because the whole point of those was to build a buffer (which you can't do if you're going ahead and releasing the FP episodes anyways). For extended hiatuses like these, usually free readers still get their FP episodes, but that wasn't the case here. That means Rachel technically only needed one episode ready for the comic's return, and it shows. It really fucking shows.

FROM HERE ON OUT THERE WILL BE FASTPASS SPOILERS REGARDING EPISODE 254. DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED !!!

As per tradition, we get a title that means nothing at all. It just says what we already know.

Our collective husband Zeus is dying, no thanks to the poison cupcake fed to him by Apollo. For those who don't remember, Apollo had tricked Zeus into eating the cupcake by making him believe it was from Hebe. We are fully aware that it was Apollo who poisoned him. Remember that for later in this review.

Right off the bat we're off to a hilarious start, both with a cryptid appearance from Apollo in the background (lmao) who is, for some reason, ALREADY returning to the scene of the crime he just committed because... who knows at this point. Apollo and Psyche know it was Apollo at this point, I might add, but I have no clue why Apollo is actually returning to the scene of the crime when he has no idea Eros and Psyche know.

Moving on from that, can we talk about this hilarious dialogue?

"We have to call a doctor! Let's call Asclepius!"

"No, we can't trust him! Gosh darn it, why are we only bothering to think of ONE doctor in this universe where we've seen more than one doctor?? Guess Zeus is just gonna die! What a horribly contrived situation this is!"

And that's literally how I can best describe most of this episode. Contrived. There is a LOT of manufactured drama in this that makes ZERO sense even on a surface level.

And what do you mean exactly, Eros? "What a terrible system!" Is this supposed to be a joke? Lampshading? We've seen Persephone go to the gynecologist. There are non-god doctors who tend to gods all the time here.

Eros just doesn't seem to be that pressed over this, he sounds like Ned Flanders and that's NOT a good way to open up a scene like this... let alone an episode people have been waiting four months for.

Anyways, after a few pointless reaction panels (again remember I have to cut a lot of what I show here for Tumblr image limitations but I promise you, I'm keeping as much important stuff as I can in this, there's just THAT MUCH filler at this point), Eros and Psyche confront Apollo and he is... good god.

There is... so much to unpack here.

First of all, remember those theories about how Rachel was clearly trying to write Apollo as this "secret twist villain" the whole time but it doesn't work because Apollo is simultaneously written as both a 'conniving villain' and a massive dumbass at the same time?

Well, I finally have a more appropriate term for him. He's your average red pill redditor - someone who thinks he's smarter than everyone else when really all he does is sit on reddit all day using big words incorrectly in arguments he gets himself into with a bunch of equally-air-headed dumbasses.

"You can't possibly understand the nuances of the Olympian political system," Apollo said proudly, a man who had, ironically and obliviously, run for president in a monarchy. The union of kettle and pot is eternal.

He's the Slappable Jerk but instead of it being a painfully hilarious impression, it's just painful and hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

this is so stupid because it's 1.) Eros pointing out how obvious Apollo's plan was, despite Apollo acting smart two seconds ago with a goddess who, mind you, has been a goddess for ten years, and 2.) patricide isn't even intrinsically linked to politics, there's nothing 'political' about a guy trying to kill his dad except in, idk, a monarchy, which again, Apollo has spent ten years trying to rise to power in as a president which is a completely different form of government.

If I wanted to be really granular with this, I'd like to think Apollo is making some kind of point about the critics who call out LO's whack as fuck political system (especially in the trial arc) - as if he's saying "well you're just a stupid reader and this is fantasy where you don't understand exactly what political system we're using, so shut the fuck up you stupid twig" - but I don't think it's meant to be that deep. I think it's just Rachel trying to write a smart character and then failing at it because she, herself, is not a smart writer. And I'm really inclined to believe that more than the theory about this being some kind of meta-narrative about the critics because this entire plotline is contrived and stupid down to its core.

I did not cut anything out here, that's the pacing. Leto literally just appears out of nowhere and uh oh spaghettio's, she has Kassandra! Remember Leto? The character we were led to believe was truly "pulling the strings" until she disappeared from the story completely after she realized that Apollo and Persephone weren't a thing, even going so far as to call out her own son for being a fucking dumbass? Well, she's back and once again she's being involved as some kind of "double agent" in this whole thing, even though we literally haven't seen her since halfway through S2.

"Mm yes, you're so stupid, falling into my trap! Even though you had no reason to remember Kassandra anyways because she's literally a mortal woman you just met and you yourself have committed acts of violence against mortals without a shred of care! I'm so smart! My plan is all coming together!"

We've never seen Apollo do anything except cry and poop his pants, the closest he got to being "powerful" was his attempts to murder Daphne (who he seems to have forgotten about in this "master plan" of his) but ultimately he's literally just a piss ant baby and there's no reason to believe that he could somehow outmatch the God of Love who can literally manipulate people's emotions and states of mind with his arrows. But yeah sure go off, you're so powerful and smart.

The worst part is, I can't even buy this as the narrative trying to be like "see how manipulative and conniving he is?" because it's just silly. We've SEEN this man cry with his victim complex, we've seen him say and do the DUMBEST things that don't lend to any amount of "intelligence" he may have, it comes across less as him being "smart the whole time" and more as him trying to sound smart but ultimately sounding incredibly stupid. And I can't even immerse myself into it and buy that maybe that's the point, because it doesn't feel like the point, it just feels like inconsistent writing, he doesn't feel like a 'threat', he's just monologuing.

Bad art and Apollo literally just repeating what Leto already implied so this is a waste of the audience's time.

This is the funniest panel in the whole episode because I can't tell if Apollo is supposed to be in the background (for some reason, despite him literally being in front of Eros and Psyche two seconds ago) or if he's in the foreground and just REALLY small for some reason. This is so off-putting. And of course, it's just Apollo explaining what we're ALREADY SEEING ONSCREEN.

You see, in addition to this episode being contrived, it also talks down to its audience a LOT by explaining exactly what we're seeing onscreen. It's like Rachel saw the criticisms about her not including enough to depict what's actually going on in her head and so she thought the solution was to spoon feed information over pictures that are already doing the job of explaining what's going on. Rachel really doesn't know how to write and even when she tries to implement changes that reflect criticisms that have been made of her writing, she somehow makes things worse because she completely misses the point of what those criticisms are trying to get across.

Anyways, without even trying to resist (for some reason) Eros and Psyche get sentenced to horny jail.

They're now trapped in a basement that Leto somehow has in her home. How do we know that?

HAHAHA FUNNY LAMPSHADING SO FUNNNYYYYYYY

Leto claims that they shouldn't try to escape because the dungeon is "enchanted", but she doesn't even bother to explain what that means. So they literally don't bother trying. They don't try to call her bluff, they don't try to teleport out of there, they literally just go "well shoot", shrug their shoulders, and accept their fate. Just like with the whole "we can't trust the only doctor we bothered to think of" situation, Eros and Psyche are turning out to be some of the stupidest, lowest-effort characters in this comic who literally can't be bothered to try because that would require too much brain power.

Notice how much time we've spent on this and we haven't gotten back to where the cliffhanger of the last episode left off? Well buckle up because there's still more to cover.

So it turns out Hebe was still inside with her dad, in FULL VIEW of what was going on through glass which is somehow COMPLETELY soundproof, and when Apollo steps inside, she just has no idea what happened. She never bothered to even look outside to see what was going on with Eros and Psyche, she's just been sitting on the floor staring at Zeus' dead face for what was likely several minutes, unless Rachel is seriously trying to convince us that conversation and hostage negotiation from earlier only took 2 seconds. The timeline is such a mess at this point that characters basically freeze in place as soon as they're not the focus of the scene.

Apollo rushes inside, acting shocked over the situation, and when Hebe asks where Eros and Psyche are (again, she could have just looked out the window at any time), he's just like "dur idk they just left lol" which Hebe just... buys, I guess.

That's just Persephone but yellow. She's even missing her beauty mark.

See how Apollo put his hand on Zeus' chest/shoulder by the way?

Apparently, despite Mr. Smarter Than Everyone Else trying to pretend it wasn't him, he's able to discern that Zeus is dying from a toxic and rare poison just from touching him. He doesn't even really seem to use his powers, he just touches him and goes "welp he's dead i guess lol don't bother asking me how I know that".

But oh nooo remember that note from before? Well gasp Apollo's gonna use it to frame Hebe! In front of no one else at all!

Hebe of course says she didn't write it, but Apollo continues to try and frame her anyways, even though, again, there's no one else present here, and so it effectively just becomes the most absurd form of gaslighting I've ever seen.

Again, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE HERE IN THE SCENE. He's just trying to claim she did it to absolutely no one at all, in the hopes of... what exactly? That she'll just take the fall for something she knows she didn't do? That she'll somehow be convinced? It's not like Hebe has the same thing going on as Persephone where she has a 'wrathful dark side' he could pin it on, this is just a criminal who just robbed a building pointing at the first person they see and yelling "YOU DID IT!"

All I'm saying is that Apollo would be really bad at Among Us. He'd be the type of player to kill someone, hit the report button, then claim yellow did it which, even if he DID convince the rest of the team, would still get kicked anyways as soon as yellow was proven through the eject to not be the imp and everyone would go "okay cool so yellow wasn't the imp, that means obviously it's purple self-reporting." It's a trick that doesn't even work anymore because of how old it is. Hebe isn't a child here, she's an 18 year old woman who should be fully capable of raising an eyebrow and wondering why Apollo is this quick to accuse her - almost like he's trying to hide the fact that he did it.

But Hebe can't catch onto this, just like Eros and Psyche, she has to act stupid for the sake of the plot.

At first I thought maybe Rachel was trying to do some "whodunit" scenario, but that doesn't work here because we already know who did it. And while there are stories that exist like that that pull it off (ex. Knives Out) the problem with trying to do this the way Rachel did is that the person being framed has to have this thing called motive. The reason why Knives Out and Glass Onion work so well is because the person who was murdered (or conspired against) is someone who is being targeted by multiple people who could all be the murderer. It's quite literally called out in Glass Onion as a form of smart lampshading. "It's like putting a loaded gun on the table, and turning off the lights."

But it doesn't work here because Hebe does not have motive. If you're going to attempt to frame a murder on someone, it has to be someone who would have reasonable motive to commit that murder, even if they didn't actually commit it.

And who among Zeus' children has motive?

What about the war-mongering bloodthirsty god of war who has been regularly sentenced to time in the Mortal Realm to fight in wars in which he's been regularly injured?

What about the chaos-seeking wrathful goddess who would do it to get revenge on the parental figure who cast her aside, or even just for the fun of saying she did it?

Why try and pin it on Hebe, the doting daughter of Zeus who's only had a collective of maybe 20 panels in the entire comic?

But then I realized... it's not Knives Out, it's the fucking Lion King.

Which is just as contrived - if not more - than the assumption this was gonna be some attempt to frame Hebe. It's not. He's literally just trying to keep her from assuming it was him. He could have just as easily played dumb without calling attention to the note but he intentionally went out of his way to try and be Scar from The Lion King , while completely missing the point of why that scene worked in the original movie.

Scar wasn't trying to 'frame' Simba for Mufasa's murder. He was trying to hide the murder, while also attempting to get the only heir to the throne out of the picture, so he passed the guilt of the death onto Simba - a child who, unlike Hebe, wouldn't have the ability to rationalize or realize his uncle his a scumbag - who then ran away from home because he was too terrified to face his family for what happened, assuming that it was all his fault when it wasn't.

That's not how this is panning out here. Hebe is the now 18 year old daughter of Zeus, and not one of his only children. She doesn't even fit into the whole "sons overthrowing their fathers" prophecy like Aries would. Apollo is literally just being a big idiot here by saying "well I'm gonna give you a headstart to run away, because if you stay, I might hurt you" (which btw, should be MORE of a smoking gun that Apollo did it??)

And again, it's all so contrived so that the plot can move forward. "Well I'm going to frame you for this murder, but y'know, you should just leave, I'm not gonna try and press it further lmao"

Again, Apollo is a fucking idiot here, because he just attempted to frame someone who has NO MOTIVE to harm Zeus, to absolutely NO ONE at all who would side with him, only to let her go which would leave her to question why Apollo would try to accuse and harm her in the first place before considering other options. And through ALL this he claims he's the smart one, which I can't even be bothered to "love to hate" because it's written so poorly.

And really it all comes down to how everyone else behaves in relation to Apollo that makes it so stupid and unbelievable. Apollo, you're not smart just because all the characters around you are intentionally being written to be as stupid and non-confrontation as possible. If you can only write a smart villain by making everyone else stupid, you haven't written a smart villain, you've written a dumbass whose victory only happens due to contrived plot convenience. It's not even done well like in Glass Onion, it's just bad writing, full stop.

And who does he call to report this emergency? The satyr police? His son the doctor?

No.

The media. Literally just "hello, the media?? I need your best journalist here stat!"

I need you to understand, even if he were calling a tabloid magazine like The Weekly Nark, you don't just... call a journalist to report a murder. These are not the actions of someone who's trying to absolve himself of guilt, these are the actions of a complete dumbass trying to get news coverage of his trophy kill who would be better off just playing dumb instead of trying to play smart. Even Walter White wasn't this fucking stupid despite all the times he fell on his own sword, Apollo is literally just instigating suspicion towards himself for no reason at all. He's self-reporting so hard and worst of all, you can't even take any of this seriously because of how corny it is. There's no dramatic tension, no stakes, it's just a bunch of characters performing in a really bad stage play and reducing every conflict to "well I guess Zeus is just dead now because no one's bothering to make an effort to stop Apollo or ask questions lmao"

It's truly the epitome of "this plot wouldn't exist if characters would just talk to each other."

But finally, FINALLY we mention the thing this episode is named after, the transition point to Persephone.

Just like with the midseason finale episode, there's a lot to cover here, so I'm gonna get more into it in a part two post.

That said, you can see already this is the messiest, most contrived bullshit to ever wind up in LO. It's trying so hard to be smart and it just comes across as a bunch of toddlers in the world's worst stage play rendition of Clue. None of what was done here was in any way dramatic or tense, it's just a bunch of characters infodumping shit we already know, trying to set up new plot threads that don't make any sense, and allowing one another to get away with what they're doing because they don't bother to even try.

It's completely manufactured, contrived nonsense. It's not "smart", it's not "so dumb it's brilliant", it's just dumb.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #this is the comic that bought two eisners #uh i mean *won* two eisners #... no wait i had it right the first time lmao

[devine-fem]

lol might get hate for this but in my opinion in terms of the ranking the SuperBat pairings….

1.) Damijon/Jondami- Yes I’m completely bias but I never felt this strong for such a pairing (regardless either platonic/romantic! ) Such an iconic (chaotic) duo! I’m glad the dynamic of Damian and Jon worked out well and is well loved!

2.) Superbat-I mean they are the OGs and I can get why fans love their dynamic and pair them! I’m more bromance for them but I do look forward to their interactions whenever the two appear together!

3.) Timkon-I’m neutral for them. I like the fanarts if I see them but otherwise I think they seem more aesthetically good together than like actually together. Hey at least Tim has Bernard now and personally Kon deserves better.

Jon + Damian have squashed potential. Their friendship would have done both their characters so much good. Eventually, as they grew Jon would have felt like he’d have to chase after Damian and keep up and Damian would seek and find in Jon when it comes to anything he can’t obtain as a hero.

Out of all the popular ships, this one is particularly rare.

Imagine a world where Jon and Damian did engage in a romantic relationship in later years. I think it would be great queer rep to show two people who knew each other as friends - grappling with the same heroic pressures and coming to terms with the fact that they might not want to be just friends anymore (a common queer experience) I also think that in stories where they are do become Batman and Superman, it’d feel very refreshing to see DC have the courage to portray an iteration of their most popular characters like that.

These characters are both fairly new and not so much engraved into the audience. They both know each other and share chemistry so there wouldn’t be a lot of room for complaint.

Superbat is meh to me. Over the years, It has done a lot regarding DC fandom, it’s a ship that’s become iconic and is popular amongst passive fans which could become quite annoying.

Superbat is realistically, never going to happen. Respectfully, I doubt DC would do anything in all seriousness when it comes to anything romantic between these two.

Especially with the obvious things like how Batman is and how Clark has a wife and kids.

Although, no ship is shipped under the ideation of becoming canon so I give this pair its flowers because honestly, it could be nice in domestic situations or maybe a workplace relationship but I don’t see it being endgame or like anything happening at all in a likable way.

Timkon, I’m very, very bias about how much I dislike Timkon. Most Timkon shippers realistically do not read comics and I know this because I was one at first for a short amount of time and realized how deluded and far off from the truth Timkon actually is.

It’s crazy to me because fandom is so intense about this ship and all for it to be… alright?

A lot of Timkon stuff is boiled down to being one-sided on Tim’s part. It really irks me that Timkon's evidence is like Tim trying to clone Conner while knowing that he has a thing about not being cloned because he’s a clone himself which irks me.

Then him dating his ex-girlfriend is a HUGE red flag to me, especially when their relationship was semi-abusive and built on grief but good thing it didn’t last.

Also, Tim and Conner are NOT as close as people pretend they are. Conner doesn’t know much about Tim beyond him being Robin, they don’t hang out outside of being heroes.

In reality, Conner doesn’t know much about Tim at all and he’s much closer with his other teammates - literally any other YJ teammate other than Tim. Conner's established friendship with Tim caused a lot of really horrible character assassinations on Bart, Cassie, and Conner. It pushed all characters aside in an attempt to emphasize their relationship.

If they were to have a relationship then people acknowledge its toxicity - see toxicity doesn’t take away from shipability but frankly, I think both these characters deserve to be happy.

If they did date, I seriously give them half a year before they break up. I’m happy Tim is with Bernard because he seems much happier than he’s ever been. I’m sorry, reading those comics it felt like Tim was just grieving his friend after having lost a family member and he was spiraling and needing help, that’s not ‘cute’ to me.

Anyway, I notice Timkon shippers use Kon more as an accessory to Tim and melt his character down for that. If they read his comics then they’d know that he is canonically attracted to Bart anyway (I say canonically because of the on-the-nose insinuation which I take as gospel because it’s crazy for a writer to just outright mention Conner might be attracted to Bart.) Which Bart is most of the reason Conner is queer coded like he is now anyway.

Anyway, not saying all Timkon shippers are horrible but I don’t like the shippers or the ship. It’s substanceless for me. If you like it I’m very happy for you. I think all of these ships are iconic and adorable. This is just me being a person with an opinion.

Anyway, my thoughts.

#asks #conner kent #damian wayne #jon kent #jonathan kent #super sons #dc comics #batman #clark kent

[certifiablyinsanez]

I’ll come out and say it. I preferred season 2 of GO over season 1 and here’s why:

For starters, season 1 was great. Of course, it was our introduction to this marvelous story and world. But here’s my problems with it:

Too many characters, most of whom I don’t care about.

Anyone who says they don’t watch for Crowley and Aziraphale would be liars. We all love them and absolutely crave content surrounding them and their admittedly perfect love story. So with all the characters fit into season 1, several of which I couldn’t stand, it’s somewhat difficult for me to get through without constantly rolling my eyes. My problems with the characters stem as such:

The relationship between Anathema and Newt. Anathema is a strong, smart woman and Newt is honestly an absolute loser. To me he’s got the personality of a wet noodle and his biggest character trait is ‘make computer explode’. It’s like if Seamus from Harry Potter was given a role past his station in the story. They know each other for all of an hour and they end up kissing and having sex which to me is just weird and out of place. I’m fully convinced that wouldn’t have ever happened if Agnes hadn’t mentioned it. And even though I like Anathema, her purpose in the story feels a little…meh. Like sure she and the human computer virus stop nuclear Armageddon but like…I feel like Adam could’ve just been like “stop” and it would’ve had the same result.

Shadwell and Madame Tracey. Again, what do they even do other than provide comic relief and give Aziraphale a body to possess? Also, how is it that Crowley and Aziraphale have the best love story I’ve ever seen and yet in the same story there’s a ‘couple’ where the man, for years and years screams at you, calling you names and treating you like dirt and you….like it? Like, it feels like something an incel would think of as a cute relationship.

The Them. Honestly I can’t be too mad over this, they played annoying little 11 year olds very well, but like, they were irritating. Like Pepper, supposedly a feminist but then says pick-me stuff like “tHeY bOuGHt mE A giRLs BiKe”. Also says that if she were an alien she “wouldn’t bring messages of peace and harmony” but bring violence instead and then later against war says “I believe in peace”, like??? Brian was just so bland he doesn’t even deserve mentioning. Wensleydale? I dunno, the line “I believe in food, and a healthy lunch” like fuck you mean you believe in food???? He could’ve said something like “I believe that all people deserve food” or something that, idk, actually made sense? And then there’s Adam and I’m sorry but the ENTIRE BUILD UP OF THE SEASON ENDING WITH “you’re not my dad”…really? He makes it seem like he loves his dad but Mr. Swindon Ambassador is a total TWAT. That whole bit was just anticlimactic to me.

Overall I feel like a ton of screen time on these characters just don’t do it for me. Season 2 on the other hand? Completely eliminates non essential characters. I’ve heard people complain about “lack of depth” in the new season and honestly, idk if they were just on the toilet or watching their phone for the whole season or what but here’s what I LOVE about season 2 that missed the mark in season 1.

The characters were just *chefs kiss*. They bring back Gabriel, an absolutely abysmal character from the last season and somehow make us love him. They introduce Muriel, who is just a peach! People seem mad over the fact that their character is just “cheerful ditz” and I will FIGHT YOU FOR THEIR HONOR. Their character is so much more than that for a start, and it’s very clear that their presence is important for the story. They took Beezlebub who had no depth in the previous season (negative depth actually), and gave them purpose and a role. If anything Nina and Maggie aren’t really my faves but at least they were more human in representation than season 1 relationships. But my favorite bit?

None of the characters on screen felt like wasted time.

Not once didn’t I roll my eyes or wish they’d get to the good bit. I enjoyed watching all these characters interact towards the greater story. But even better? We were fed with aziracrow content. An absolute feast! And I can’t believe y’all are complaining. I could genuinely just watch an entire series of their antics over the millennia I love them so much, so for people to say it was slow, boring and lacked depth is borderline offensive.

For a transitional piece, it was masterful.

#good omens #aziracrow #aziraphale #crowley #ineffable husbands #good omens 2 #aziraphale x crowley #crowly x aziraphale #haters

[hexfloog]

2021 - 2022 - 2023 - 2024

Can you believe there's barely 10 days left to the year?? Because I can't! Time to lay my feelings bare again!!!

So I definitely slowed down quite a bit compared to 2022, but I still made enough to fill the template and, in spite of everything else, lots of life development things happened these last 365 days that I think makes 2023 one of my best years in recent memory :)

I have less to say about the art this time. The drop in quantity checks out when I stop to reflect on just how much time I spent on each one. I definitely don't have as many sketchy works to show off this time either (probably in no small part due to the fact that I've also slowed down on Detco) - and that's probably owed to having spent most of my art effort this year drawing for other people, be it commissions or fan projects, and I already know that I'm more inclined to take risks when I have just myself to please. It's not a bad thing, that's just how it is.

I suppose my one observation of this year's body of work is that the vast majority of it is quite ambitious. Real pushing-my-comfort-zone stuff, but it's more of a polished brand of risk rather than the kind you get sketching ideas on the spot. Some examples:

February - both a collab and a thing that became a fan cel intended as an autograph piece at a con

April - simultaneously a gift and a very personal piece

June - silly comic (anything humorous is automatically out of my comfort zone)

August - community project + comic page redraw that really tested my ability to find a new style to play with

September - made to become tangible merch (it did)

October - redraw of my very first digital piece

November* - character design from text description only and formal reference sheet commission (my first ever)

December* - digital watercolor + fake children's paperback cover

*active WIP, not yet complete

It's not that much (really, it's average output for me) but I will take my wins where I can get them, especially since this is pretty much the scope of my art projects this year. Didn't really have much time or energy to write, or make more models, or scan more cards, because... ya girl was too busy getting a promotion/raise, moving out, enjoying the best con experience of her life (so far), volunteering, meeting lots of new people, dating again, having general fun, eating good food, trying new things, finishing a monthly art challenge for once, playing creative romhacks, waking up to new career opportunities, etc. etc. etc! It feels like so much happened this year!!

I tend to be harsh on myself and often feel like my life is not going anywhere, but this year really made me feel like I'm finally gaining some momentum again. And like... I don't expect (or want) to live life in the fast lane or anything, but stagnating isn't good, either, and with every passing year I have to ask myself with a little more sincerity what my future looks like.

So all that said, thanks very much for sticking around and suffering me another year <333 Who knows what 2024 will bring!! But for the first time in a while, I think I am looking to it with more than just a resigned "meh" and I hope the same for anyone reading this, too.

#personal #summary of art #summary of art 2023 #2023 summary of art #queue

[kimberlyannharts]

Ranger Academy: The First Arc

So! Ranger Academy has given us four issues, and as we're getting a break next month, these four issues are clearly meant to be seen as the first arc or chapter of the story. While I didn't really expect to give this series most of my attention, apparently I do have a lot to say about it, so let's discuss these four issues and my thoughts on the series so far.

Ranger Academy's kind of in a weird place, at least from my experience. As far as I'm aware, there's really not much discussion or hype for it in the fandom? Which, in some way, makes sense - the series is completely disconnected from the main series and from the beginning was stated to be skewed more towards younger readers; almost as an introduction to Power Rangers as a whole. And it does that job well......for the most part.

Before I get to the writing though, I just want to take a minute to highlight the art, since I don't talk about it enough in my recaps/other discussions. It's great! Drawn by Jo Mi-Gyeong and colored by Fabiana Mascolo, the art for the PR comics in general continues to be a high point. Every character, even the background teachers, have a distinct memorable design with a lot of personality in their poses and gestures, and the numerous settings we've already gotten - Sage's moon home, Ranger Academy's different campuses, the planet Chromia - all look fantastic. My only nitpicks would be I wish we got more non-humanoid cadets, and sometimes the way faces are drawn in profile look a little odd - especially when they have their mouths open - but those are nitpicks.

When it comes to the writing, things get a little trickier. For the most part, I think the story is good. The basic premise to all this in case you're new: a young girl named Sage lives on a remote moon with only her adopted father Rhianth and a herd of weird goat-like creatures. One day two cadets from the titular Ranger Academy, Mathis and Tula, crash-land on the moon and tell her about the Academy. Sick of living alone under her father's rules and wanting adventure, Sage stows along with them on their return journey and becomes an official student. So now instead of herding goats, she's making new friends, discovering secrets of the Academy, how her father connects to all this, and becoming a Power Ranger.

As I said, I think this is a solid premise for Boom's first ever completely original Power Rangers book (I count Power Rangers Universe as a sort of test-run for original stories, but that was still pretty connected to the main series and using established canon concepts.) The mysteries they've introduced, such as the lost Green campus, the implication that certain Ranger colors were purposefully erased from history, Rhianth's past, and Tula's interest in these secrets, all help build on the somewhat basic premise and are slowly giving the book its own identity. Sage herself is a very likable and relatable protagonist; a kid wanting more out of her lonely, isolated life so she takes the first opportunity she can to escape, but is now realizing that it's not going to be some fun adventure. The supporting cast is a little underdeveloped, but everyone's perfectly likable and I'm interested in seeing how they grow. I think for me there are two main problems that drag the book down: the setting itself being underdeveloped and the Ranger alumni cameos.

Ranger Academy itself? Meh

A criticism that immediately came out following the book's release, that I agree with for the most part, is the book pretty much follows the structure of a "magic school" story to a T. A "normal" kid who wants more out of life gets thrust into this new world by some kind of outside force. The school has a category system where kids get put into select campuses based on personality or skills. The main character doesn't fit in with everyone else until they find some friends to take care of them. There are secrets about the school that are being kept from the students, and secrets of the main character's family being hidden from them. Also, there's a bully.

During my first read of the issues, I agreed that this was a detriment to the book, but now rereading it again, I think the problem is less that the book follows these tropes and more that it speeds through these tropes REALLY QUICKLY. You can tell they want to move things along to the good stuff where Sage morphs, and I understand why - this is a Power Rangers book, and people want to see Power Rangers. But at the same time, you really don't get much of a chance to get to know the school outside of its basic layout of its campuses and that the headmaster is literally a giant floating head. You don't learn any of the non-cameo teachers' names, outside of the librarian, and that's mostly because he was part of Rhianth's old friend group. You see some of the classes Sage has to take, but there's no discussion on if each color campus focuses on a particular subject. We establish that first years are on a rotation schedule of attending classes in a different color campus each day, but what's the difference between classes in the Blue Campus and classes in the Pink?

Now this might seem trivial, and it kind of is. It does help the reader feel Sage's overwhelming new situation by not giving her, and therefore the reader, the full picture. And there's nothing saying that these concepts won't get developed down the road. Sage has three and a half years left of school, after all, assuming the book continues long enough to cover that length of time. But when it comes to these kinds of stories, the school's operation is a huge part of the charm - what makes THIS magic school stand out against all the others on the YA shelf? You basically have to turn the school itself into a character. Hogwarts is so iconic because that series does this perfectly. Ranger Academy simply doesn't have that yet - it still just feels like a generic school, really an army training camp more than anything due to the hostage negotiation and survival classes she takes, with nothing to make it stand out except for the promise that we'll get to actual Power Rangers stuff soon.

Oh, and.....the cameos.

The Cameos

So.....yeah. This is a big one for me. I think there's time for the series to fix my issue of the school itself feeling underdeveloped, but it's already too late for the cameos

Back when Ranger Academy was first being advertised, they were quick to show off that the book could cameo any ranger at any point in the franchise - the book itself accomplishes this through the Rangers using tubes as a sort of interplanetary, interdimensional Zoom........or just kind of.....showing up, as is the case with Cruger, Yale, and Katie. (I don't really know what constitutes a cameo physically being there as opposed to a tube hologram. It's another thing the book hasn't explained the rules for yet.) And for the most part, this is a fine idea. It makes sense, and fun for the simple novelty of "look!! it's my blorbo!!!" that no one is immune to.

But they get more and more out of place as the story of Ranger Academy starts to pick up.

Like I said before, the book is starting to hint that the school only having five colors isn't COMPLETELY MMPR pandering - the school is, indeed, intentionally erasing certain Ranger colors from their students' awareness. As someone who would love for the big twist to be this school and its system is inherently corrupt, this is a good start.

HOWEVER. In order to make this work, you have to assume that a) the Ranger histories that the students learn about just don't mention ANY rangers that aren't red, blue, black, pink, or yellow and b) the Ranger alumni who teach there don't mention them either. And that's just too much for me to believe, I'm sorry. For some colors like orange and white, maybe, but gold? Silver? GREEN???????? There are too many of those guys to believe they can get covered up. And I really don't see the ranger alumni being okay with erasing their teammates from history. Green is the third-highest ranking at SPD. Hello? SPD? I think these guys would have heard of SPD? Since Cruger teaches there? (And if not at school then certainly once they're out and traveling the galaxy.)

I've mentioned before that the cameos are starting to feel more like a higher-up mandate than something the author chose to do, and that'll only be supported by a lack of explanation as to how this works with the narrative they're weaving AND if none of the cameo rangers actually.......play a real part in all this. Not that I want the canon characters to overshadow the new characters, but it would feel like kind of a letdown to have access to ALL of these characters and not give them anything to do besides generic exposition (there's really nothing specific to their characters in.....ANY of the cameos' dialogue, besides the five hundredth "uh, is that a CAT???????" joke with Yale.) or not take the chance to develop some of them by, say, assigning them a mentorship role to a specific student. I LOVE seeing Katie, after BOOM kind of ignores her in favor of Jen, but is all she going to amount to is being their bus driver? I didn't even realize it was her until people pointed out that they called her Professor Walker. Nothing about her suggested that she was Katie. So I worry about the aforementioned "it's my blorbo" novelty to wear out pretty fast if the cameos start to feel more and more like just fanservice for people to post about online.

But overall.....it's fine. I'm going to keep reading, and we'll see where this goes. I don't think everyone will like this - as seen by how I barely see anyone talking about it lol. But I'm cautiously optimistic now that we're getting into the meat of things with Sage's new, FORBIDDEN!!!!!!!!! color.

(Just don't bring in Dark Specter oh god please)

Misc Thoughts:

= For all the build-up that the First Trial would be this HORRIBLE LIFE-THREATENING OH GOD HELP ME event, it was actually pretty...lowkey. They literally had no trouble until someone broke their ankle, which....could happen anywhere, at any time. Fern did that, you ain't special. We didn't even see any of those cool monsters they kept bringing up

= So after all my confusion about when and where this series is set, going back in my reread helped me notice that there IS a clue towards setting in a scene where Sage is going through yearbooks: a shelf labeled "Class of [X]498" (the first number is obscured by one of Sage's narration boxes.) So it's.....tentatively set in the far future of the PR universe?

= I've said it before that I don't blame the author for apparently not knowing that previously the books established Xybrians like Kartyr follow a name pattern of a one-syllable word (Trip, Star, Ace, Trek, etc) but it is a little funny to imagine the possibilities. Jerk, Dick, Twerp

= I think a joke could have been done with Cruger, a dog, and Yale, a cat, being in the same room together

= I hate that the Academy was founded by Zordon. It's too low-hanging fruit for me. I'll say it again that I wish it could have just been founded by some OC team

= #Lindy4Orange2024 and FUCK the Bandorian Monks!

#mmpr comic #text #comic recap #...sort of. #RA

[sweetjijisama]

How far along are you on the game 👀 looks cool

Chapter 0/intro could be released if I decided to polish the current state of the game.

But I know that I shouldn't because most of the areas will be edited and expanded anyways, so it will take much longer.

It's better to have a working prototype (gameplay & cutscenes) before I polish any graphics.

You will revisit many areas in multiple chapters (gameplay loop). Last week I started to think about the story of the alternative route (a very depressing and morally questionable one...)

Not sure if this route will ever see the light of the day. Maybe it will be added as a dlc so I can focus more on the main story.

Who knows. Maybe I will drop the game completely and make a comic instead. Which would be kinda meh because the story was created to be a game with multiple routes/endings.

Unfortunately I am having the worst time of my life again and dealing with too much trauma... I've been lying in bed since four days, not wanting to exist anymore... No motivation to live or do anything... It fucking sucks.

So yeah... It takes even longer. If someone can find my will to live again (that I've lost a decade ago...), then that would be nice. And send me a support system, new parents and true friends IRL if you can find any, thanks :' )

Unless you guys want an unfinished shitpost with earrape sound effects and not fitting music... Then I could release it instantly xD

#christmas killer #gamedev #game dev

[cer-rata]

A (long) review of the first 5 issues of Wonder Woman (2023) *Full Spoilers*

So I'm a bit of a lapsed comic fan. I grew up on my dad's collection of 90's comics and kept up on and off until the new 52 which did a lot that really put me off. And frankly Marvel wasn't doing much better so I kind of moved onto different fandoms and some smaller runs. Recently however I've decided to try to get back into the hobby more seriously, and while there have been some books that I've really enjoyed, there's been a lot of meh plots and inconsistent characterization pretty much everywhere across the major publishers.

But I was nonetheless excited to see a new Wonder Woman ongoing. Out of the trinity, Diana was always my favorite (a fact that I, as a little closeted boy, kept secret for years. More on that later) and I was aware of some of Tom King's works and was pretty impressed with his "Vision" run, so I was cautiously optimistic about the prospect of a popular modern writer giving Diana some love, and was hoping for a story with some modern nuance and uplifting fun.

The bag has been...mixed at best.

So I'm going to try to be fair about this, because writing genuinely good and transformative comics isn't easy, especially when your editorial is completely unhinged. That being said I do have some serious concerns that I think are really important to talk about.

I'm also lapsed so I haven't read everything religiously the past couple years, so if I get something about canon wrong please correct me in the notes.

I'm going to break this down into a couple of sections to help organize my thoughts. The art is gorgeous generally so I'm not going to spend too much time on that. Let's start with:

Plot

The name of this arc is Wonder Woman: Outlaw, and the first issue is devoted to setting up that premise. The action kicks off when an amazon gets into a bar fight with a group of sexist men, and ends up slaughtering every man in the establishment. The government reacts to this development poorly and ends up ordering the forced deportation of the Amazons that had settled in the states. We're given narration by a mysterious figure, detailing how Diana and her friends lobbied and fought against this obvious injustice but failed, laid over images of an Amazon resisting her deportation with violence, and being gunned down in front of her wife and daughter.

But how, you ask, was the government able to rush through this bizarre reactionary stunt?

Well you see, this is all a part of a scheme by the Sovereign, the CEO of sexism and an American "king" whose family has used the "Lasso of Lies" to control the country for it's entire existence. He showed up in WW #800 with Trinity seeking him out for information, which explains why he's narrating this story. A Wonder Woman book where she isn't the POV character? I'll get more into that later.

Anyway the Sovereign wants to run all of the amazons out of the country or kill them, whatever works, as he believes they're a threat to his rule and masculinity as a whole.

So he's in the background. The foreground antagonist is Sargent Steel, who's been tasked with leading the Amazon deportation and is actively hunting Diana, who he eventually corners as she's paying her respects to the men that the rogue amazon killed. He tries to assassinate her, obviously fails, and Diana extracts some information from him and begins her investigation. See it turns out that after running out of other options, she's trying to hunt down the rogue amazon and figure out what's going on in the hopes that she solve the tensions.

So that's the basic premise of the arc, Diana is trying to solve a murder mystery while being actively hunted by the government. It's not a bad premise on its own honestly, so I was intrigued. The first issue is pretty, well laid out and interesting. The problem is that the following issues don't really deliver on that premise.

Instead of detective!Diana, we spent issue #2 on a (gorgeous) fight with the actual US army, intercut with a flashback of Diana's trial by combat in order to leave Themyscira in the first place. It really is a beautiful issue that really drives home how much of a badass she is, especially since she ends up not killing anyone in the process. Somehow. She did throw tanks at people so...I'm not sure how she...anyway.

Issue #3 is Diana walking into Steel's base, bulldozing through all the security and then bullying him to get some more information about the case, where she finds out that the Amazon is pregnant. Intriguing right? Meanwhile we see the Sovereign showing a young soldier around his house, which is filled with old American historical artifacts. See he wants this kid to push the narrative that Wonder Woman emasculated him and took away his pride, but the soldier doesn't really care? He's actually excited to have fought a superhero and live, and he thinks she's cool. So that won't do, and we're shown the capabilities of the Lasso of Lies, as the Sovereign uses it to implant feelings of discontent and depression into the young soldier, while also ordering him to write a manifesto about Wonder Woman taking his manliness and then to...kill himself. The idea being to create some bad press and push public support away from Diana.

Issue #4 is my favorite in the run so far, devoting most of it's time to watching Diana give a terminally ill kid who idolizes her the best day of his life. I'll get into it when I talk about dialogue later but I think it's the truest depiction of Diana so far, you get to see her kindness, generosity and wisdom. There is a nice moment where she comforts the kid about destiny and soothes his feelings of otherness in the face of the expectation that he should be drawn to a male hero. It's really nice. But also kind of a strange decision in the scope of the plot. As much as I love this moment, I think her taking a day away from her mission of stopping this political disaster and being on the run to just hang out with a kid is...odd from a pacing standpoint. With the lack of effort she's shown so far in dealing with Steel and the machinations of the Sovereign, and the threat to the Amazons happening mostly off screen and with very limited access how Diana's feeling about it all because she's not the narrator, it all wraps up in not feeling very urgent. It's mentioned that she's trying to control her emotions and that makes sense in theory, but with the way she's drawn and written she just seems unbothered.

Meanwhile, Amanda Waller tells Steel that they're just going to throw all of Diana's villains at her and call it a day.

Issue #5 Deals with the Wonder Girls, Cassie, Donna and Yara trying to convince Diana to accept some help. She challenges them to trials where if they can beat her she'll allow them to assist. It's kind of a neat concept, but it highlights a strange piece of this characterization of Wonder Woman: her desire to work alone.

It's...very Batman of her in ways that don't make much sense in the narrative and in the broader scope of her characterization. And it would be more understandable if the conflict was more focused, Diana hunting down Cheetah to try to reform her, a more personal mission. But this literally involves all of her people and could lead to actual war between the states and Themysicra. It seems weirdly shortsighted for her to shun help from adult Women who she's trained and worked with in the past. The rationalization that she doesn't want to endanger them falls completely flat because they're already in danger.

Also what is Yara referring to here? She acts like there's history of them working together and it not working out. Why do they insist on trying to make her a Wonder Girl in the first place?

Anyway they all lose but then ignore the terms of the wager and show up in her apartment in their costumes, not taking no for an answer. And like that they ignored that foolishness, but then I'm bothered that we spent almost an entire issue on this pointless conflict that didn't really teach us anything useful.

But I did say almost, and the rest of the issue is devoted to Steel and the Sovereign convincing some of Diana's greatest foes to join up on a squad to take her down.

Which is...a choice. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool sequence, and It's not an unusual conceit in comics to collect a bunch of villains to take down their nemesis, but as far as I was aware, in this continuity:

Giganta and Silver Swan had buried the hatchet

Circe also helped Diana defeat the upside down man, and seemingly dropped her animosity (and...I...I thought she was trapped in a mirror. How did they get her out?) But regardless, why on earth would Circe agree to work for anyone, especially the US gov?

Grail was never that focused on Diana in the first place, but I could see her wanting to kill her for kicks, but again, why would she agree to work with lesser beings and take orders from mortals?

Angle man is nuts, so, sure

And Dr. Psycho does hate Wonder Woman with a passion so sure.

But this doesn't take into account that if they were to be written correctly, Circe or Grail on their own are justice league threats, and even with the Wonder Girls helping that would be an uphill battle. And then you add all the others, and factor in the dubious choices here in relation to established canon and it leaves me concerned that none of these villains are going to be used properly to their potential, or written in character. The idea that they were convinced to do this in the first place is hand-waved away, likely because there are no real persuasive arguments to get someone like Grail or Circe to job like this.

But enough of that tangent. This upcoming slug fest raises the question: What happened to the investigation into this rogue Amazon? 5 issues in and all we know is her name and that she's pregnant. Diana doesn't even know her name though, because if she did she'd realize that she actually knew the woman. So 5 issues in and the main plot has taken a backseat to watching Wonder Woman be a badass and including a bunch of villains. And don't get me wrong, I love a badass Wonder Woman. I was absolutely thrilled watching her go to work on people. But if you strip away those exciting set pieces and try to follow the plot and themes, there's not much substance there.

And you know, now that we've got an overview of what's happening, let's talk about the greater ideas here.

Themes

So King clearly wants to investigate misogyny in this book, with his villain Johnny Sexism. Uh. I mean, The Sovereign, an old white man who hates women and believes in the divine right of kings and wields the literal Lasso of Lies. And his unwitting sidekick, Military Industrial Complex Man, AKA Sargent Steel.

So it's not inherently bad to personify an social issue. Comics often work in shorthand like that. The issue I have here is that when you have a mastermind character who has manipulated everything behind the scenes, who is ALSO a caricature of a social problem, instead of providing interesting analysis of a systemic problem and its sources and methods, you instead attribute it all to One Evil Man. Which is painfully reductive and misguided. Sexism is complicated, much more complicated that one evil wizard deciding that women are the problem. It's like if you created a vampire slave owner who had been manipulating the country from the shadows and created the system of racism. It's bizarre and not really analysis to suggest that you can just solve social issues by stopping individual bad actors.

The bit with the soldier really crystalized this for me. We are given a kind man who has no misogynistic tendencies, and then the CEO of sexism forcibly implants it into his mind. He's shown personally bullying the president into submission, manipulating Steel, most overt examples of sexism can be tied directly to the Sovereign, which is a bizarre choice that really flattens the narrative weight. Couple that with the fact that the Sovereign is shown to be completely ill-equipped to actually stop Diana. She literally walks through all of his roadblocks, doesn't seem like she's out of control of the situation outside of the opening explanation that she wasn't able to save her sisters. The only real threat so far is the team of villains, and that's framed as Amanda Waller's plan. Why isn't she the villain of this book? And he's the narrator. In a book about sexism, immigration and tribalism, the voice we hear the most is that of the Sovereign. And he doesn't have anything particularity interesting to say. He's not scary, he doesn't seem particularly competent and he provides no interesting analysis so I'm left wondering, why are we centering his perspective over Diana's? In a book lead by a feminist icon, about the evils of sexism, we are completely locked out of her head. She barely gets a chance to speak, and when she does it's clipped and robotic. There's no personality, and certainly no continuity to her popular depictions. I'm all for writers reaching for topics, trying to make social commentary. Some of the best arcs we've ever gotten deal with real issues. But you have to A: Know what you're talking about and B: Actually talk about it. Sexism bad, men bad--it's not enough, it's not analysis, it's not revelatory and by creating such ridiculous caricatures of hyper masculinity, you make it very easy for the average male reader, who I assume you're trying to engage with, to separate themselves from the equation. It's thematic window dressing, and frustrating to see in a Wonder Woman book of all places. I don't think that only woman can write women, that's ridiculous and removes the responsibility to be better from male writers. But, if you're going to talk about social issues that apply to a group you're not a part of, you'd better know what you're talking about. Hell even if you're in that group you still have to know what you're talking about. This is feminism that starts and ends with "Sexism bad" and it's 2024, we have to be smarter about this.

That being said, I think issue #4 has bits of the right idea. Seeing Diana representing something greater than the sexist division that the world perpetuates is great. I felt incredibly seen as a little boy who loved Wonder Woman, and that moment of kindness meant a lot. We're given believable symptoms of sexism, from Jack's dad being uncomfortable with his son idolizing Diana. and Jack having internalized that judgement. It's handled gently and instead of just beating us over the head with obvious allegory, it shows us a taste of what Wonder Woman stands for: a better, more loving world. And it's mostly because it's the most insight that we get from her about how she thinks. The best part of the book about Wonder Woman is, shockingly, the part about Wonder Woman. Why can't we get more of that?

Dialogue

Man it's weird. King is clearly snappy, with a decent sense of humor. There's lots of fun exchanges in this book, particularly the backups, which I'll get to soon. He's pretty good at dialogue, which makes the way he writes Diana so bizarre. Awkward sentence structure, aloof characterization, the grating repeated use of "No thank you" as some sort of catch phrase. What? king has taken the warm beating heart of the trinity and made her distant and robotic. It's kind of impressive. And some of the rationale is that she's in emotional turmoil and trying to maintain appearances. But that's not reflected in the art at all, even when she's alone. We're told that she's conflicted and angry but almost never shown it. She feels like a side character in her own book most of the time. Speaking of side characters:

The Backups

So the running plot here is Damian Wayne and Jon Kent...babysitting? raising? Diana's daughter Lizzie Prince, who is eventually known as the hero Trinity in the future. And it's cute, particularly when they're all younger. King really gets Damian and Jon's characterization and writes some really fun exchanges.

Issue #4 and #5's backups are a little weaker but still really fun.

So my question is...why is the best characterization in this Wonder Woman book the backups starring the Supersons? I love the Supersons! Why are they here? Why would Diana choose them to watch her daughter? Why isn't she on Themyscira or being watched by any of her adult friends, especially those who have actual experience with children? It's fun but feels shoehorned and poorly reasoned. Honestly? I get the feeling that king wants to write this more than he does the main book, and it's mind boggling, because I wouldn't hate him writing supersons, and his version of Jon is the most Jon we've gotten in a while. So why is he writing Wonder Woman?

Conclusion

I think I'll keep reading, mostly to fuel my desire to see what they do with her actual villains, but it's not the smart book I was hoping for. It takes pretty big liberties with characterization and recent canon and there's not much actual commentary to find here. The art and the action are incredible, but the story that should be supporting it is pretty anemic and frustrating, with moments of genuine quality that makes the rest of the book even more disappointing.

Honestly? Just read Amazons Attack instead. Better dialogue, better pacing, better characterization, just more fun.

#wonder woman #wonder woman 2023 #diana prince #dc comics #damian wayne #jon kent #lizzie prince #tom king #daniel sampere

[live-from-flaturn]

I humbly request The Great Halloween Tranq Dart Incident with the prettiest of pleases.

For those of you wondering "wtf does this mean?" please check out This KimChay Prompt Fill for context!

tw: tranquilizer dart/symptoms of sedative

wordcount: 1k

Title: "Where is the Batman?"

“Who the hell are you supposed to be?” Kim asks, gesturing at his eldest brother’s three bodyguards. Pol, Arm, and Pete are wearing color-coded outfits complete with short capes and matching witches hats. 

Pol does a little spin to show off his spring-green suit and the vines wrapped around the base of his hat. “I’m Fauna!”

“I’m Flora,” Pete waves. His burnt orange ensemble is an exact copy of Pol’s except for his hat, which is covered in pink and orange flowers. 

Arm does some of the least enthusiastic jazz-hands Chay has ever seen, his blue cape fluttering slightly as a result. “And I’m Merryweather.”

“AND I’M PRINCE PHILIP!” Tankhun announces, strutting down the hallway in a pair of enormously puffy sleeves and tailored slacks. “They’re the three good fairies.”

Pol elbows Pete. “There’s a joke in there somewhere.”

“Hey!”

“Well it’s true,” Arm adds. 

Tankhun shushes them and turns to Kim and Chay. “You two look amazing, by the way!”

“Thanks,” Chay grins. Kim is ninety-nine-percent sure his boyfriend is blushing furiously under his cowl. It’s Porchay, for fuck’s sake. “Kim helped me with the makeup.”

“I like your mask,” Pete says. “You’re supposed to be Anne Hathaway’s version of Catwoman, right?”

Kim nods his assent. “It’s custom.”

“And he helped pick out this awesome Batman outfit!” Chay pipes, holding out the edges of his cape like the original comic logo. Kim stifles an indulgent smile – these costumes had technically been his suggestion, after all. He hadn’t wanted to state out loud that he’d been paying close attention to Chay’s new advantage in height, but that didn’t stop it from being true. “Isn’t the cape sweet?!”

“Super sweet,” Pol agreed. “Now, shall we head for the ballroom?”

—

Chay leans into his boyfriend’s side and whispers, “I’ve never been to a fancy Halloween party like this before. Will it be scary?”

“No,” Kim shakes his head. “Kinn planned it ‘to be fun’, so you don’t have to worry about business people showing up. It’ll be mostly off-duty bodyguards, staff, friends, and family.”

“Awesome.” Chay is hugely relieved. He follows Prince Tankhun and the three good fairies into the ballroom. Kinn and Porsche approach them. 

Chay barely holds back a snort of amusement. “Hia! What are you wearing?!”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Porsche huffs. He tries to cross his arms over his chest, but the gesture is interrupted by his fancy bra (made from two artfully bedazzled shells). 

“I’m Batman, and Kim is Catwoman. Isn’t he cute?”

“Meh, he’s alright.” Tankhun floats past the conversation only long enough to add. “He’s got a flat butt.”

“Phi!” Kim hisses, not unlike a cat.

“Sorry not sorry!”

Kinn chuckles and rolls his eyes at Chay, “Brothers, am I right?”

“Totally right, P’Kinn.” Kim and Porsche watch in horror as their boyfriends fist-bump. “So, what’s the pl–”

Chay’s question is cut off by a quiet scuffle near the door. Kinn excuses them both and scoops Porsche into his arms, hurrying to investigate. Kim and Chay stay put, chatting and joking. Everything is normal until Kim jolts forward and slaps a hand over his left ass cheek. 

“What the fuck?” Kim lifts his hand to show Chay a small green tube. “Babe, I am so sorry for whatever happens next.”

“P’Kim?!” 

“It’s a tranq dart, and my immunity for this isssss,” Kim trails off with a giggle. His eyes glaze over and he slumps more of his weight onto Chay. “Sssssss. That’s a fun sound.”

“Shit!” Kinn jogs over. “Did it hit him?”

“What do you think?” Chay deadpans as Kim continues hissing quietly through his teeth. 

“Okay. Right. Let’s get him upstairs.”

“Good idea.”

—

It takes Chay, Kinn, and two of the three good fairies to yank Kim free of his heinously tight pleather outfit. “Next year we’re going to do something less complicated.”

“Do you expect Khun Kim to get tranqued at a Halloween party every year?” Pol jokes. 

“Hey!” Kim complains. His eyes roll around the room, searching for one particular face. “Where is the Batman?”

“Hey babe,” Chay steps forward. He’s already swapped into pajamas and wiped (most) of the dark makeup from around his eyes. “I’m here.”

“It’s Bruce Wuce!” Kim exclaims with a theatrical gasp. “I mean Bayne Wayne!”

“Bruce Wayne?” Chay offers. His boyfriend tries to snap his uncoordinated fingers, but mostly they slide uselessly against each other. 

“Yeah! That guy.”

“You can just call me Chay,” he offers. Kim pouts adorably up at him and Chay waves the bodyguards out of the room. “Please ask someone to send up green tea and snacks, but otherwise I can handle this.”

“Are you sure, N’Chay?” “Oh yeah,” Chay laughs. “Do you know how many weird things I’ve heard Porsche say on morphine?”

“I want to hear about this,” Pol says. Arm agrees.

“Soon, but not right now.” Chay giggles. “Thanks again for helping me with P’Kim.”

“That’s literally our job.” “Well I appreciate how well you do that job. So there.”

“Ugh, how are you related to Porsche?!”

“Go,” Arm shoved Pol toward the door. “Leave the lovebirds alone.”

“I would be an owl,” Kim declares, startling Chay with his unexpected volume. Arm and Pol stifle laughter, hurriedly shutting the door behind them. 

“What would I be?” Chay asks, taking a seat on the edge of the mattress. Kim scoots awkwardly closer and squints in concentration. 

“Hmmm… A plover.”

“Why?”

“Small.” Kim cups his hands together to demonstrate and thoughtfully adds, “Fluffy. Good at surviving.”

Chay’s throat threatens to close up. Well, it does until Kim speaks again.

“Shoes are dumb and we shouldn’t have to wear them unless it’s for safety reasons.”

“Huh?”

“Slippers are okay, though.”

Chay bursts out laughing, and Kim joins him at a much higher pitch. 

Kim falls asleep after tea and a snack, and Chay sits next to him with a smile still pulling at his lips. “Weirdo. Cute, but a weirdo.”

#kimchay #kimchay prompt fill #thank youuuuuu #this was so much fun #kimchay fluff #halloween in august #sedative tw #kim being goofy #kim on drugs

[lcatala]

My top 6 movies discovered in 2023

I watched 52 new-to-me movies in 2023. Not nearly enough , as I could only find 6 movies that stood out sufficiently to be worthy of a personal top, in what was otherwise a pretty meh year — yes I'm a picky watcher — and yeah The Boy and The Heron didn't make the top, you can read the long rambling I wrote about it if you want to know why; I haven't watched Barbie, Oppenheimer or the Super Mario Bros. Movie, and haven't watched any Marvel-related movie since 2015.

6: Nimona (2023)

I didn't really expect to like the animated adaptation of N. D. Stevenson's comic, and I went in reluctantly, only because a lot of people who seemed trustworthy recommended it. Despite having some of the flaws I've come to expect in modern 3D animation, this was a very good surprise. You can read my detailed review here.

5: Suzume (2022)

The plot of Suzume stays very much within the bounds of the "modern artsy anime film", with a rather predictable 3+1 acts structure and an exploration of themes and human interactions which has some subtlety and nuance but overall stays very safe and on-the-surface. Nothing offensive, but nothing truly groundbreaking either.

But.

Suzume had, by far, the best animation of any movie I've seen this year. This movie is an absoluteely beautiful, every-frame-a-painting kind of deal. If I was to rank every animated I've ever seen solely by the quality of their animation, Suzume would easily be in the top 10.

4: Cape Fear (1962)

American cinema achieved maturity during the New Hollywood era that started in the late 1960s, marking a shift toward more naturalistic and more adult filmmaking and themes. But there were a few notable precursors before that.

The most famous of those is of course Psycho (altho tellingly, it was from a British director). But Cape Fear followed close behind, and is another example of an early 60s movie which you don't expect to be this dark and this raw, starring an absolutely get-under-your-skin-terrifying Robert Mitchum — if you thought he was creepy in The Night of the Hunter, you haven't seen nothing yet…

3: The Outwaters (2022)

This was the biggest surprise of the year, watched the same day it was recommended to me, having heard absolutely nothing about it before that (I didn't even know this movie existed). I got treated to a no-budget yet beautifully-shot found-footage horror movie — in fact the best found-footage movie I have ever seen, with a lot of attention put toward making the gimmick plausible, making the characters realistic and likeable, making this look like the kind of actual footage you'd find on a personal camera — while also having amazingly beautiful cinematography — all while slowly building up the tension.

Because that's just the first half.

Oh yeah, it's one of these horror movies in which you think you know where the story is going, and then second half just explodes in your face and becomes completely, utterly batshit insane. This is on par with Men (2022) for how weird and fucked up the climax is. Don't expect any kind of explanation or closure here, the second half of this movie turns into one of the most fucked up and bizzare horror movies you'll ever see.

2: Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Yeah so this one was a surprise late-year hit for everyone, not just me. First live-action Japanese Godzilla film in 7 years, with rather tempered expectations — we all knew that Shin Godzilla was an odd one out, that the average Japanese Godzilla movie is not like that, that we shouldn't expect this kind of quality on a regular basis.

Well we played ourselves.

This was incredibly well made as a blockbuster — Japanese cinema has completely caught up on American cinema, for a fraction of the budgets — one of the best Godzilla movies ever made from an action and visuals point of view, and a reminder that Godzilla, as a character, can also be scary, a terrifying incarnation of destruction and disaster.

But somehow this also managed to be a powerful and well filmed drama — no lazy endless shot/reverse shot dialogues here, a lot effort is put into framing choices, blocking… — a movie that actually touches on difficult questions and goes against the message of many other war or action blockbusters.

When so many stories glorify the idea of sacrifying your life for a greater cause, here's one movie that says "hey maybe expecting people to sacrifice their life for your cause is actually pretty fucked up, and maybe it's actually better to choose to live for the sake of your loved ones than to die for the sake of your own pride". Yeah a Japanese movie is saying that, a Godzilla movie is saying that.

1: Skinamarink (2022)

So, speaking of low-budget independent horror, back in 2022 I had foolishly overlooked Skinamarink. I had vaguely heard that it was good, but no particular detail was mentioned that would have picked my interest, and the poster looked fairly generic, so I skipped it, even tho I should have been more intrigued — 2022 was already shaping up to be a really good year for horror films…

Skinamarink was a tough proposition from the get go, in the "experimental" kind of tough: an entire film made in the analog horror genre — usually short videos made to ressemble old media from the 80s and 90s, advertisements, warning messages, weather channels, documentaries and informercials, with a disturbing twist; a format usually made of short segments. Trying to tell a film-length story in that fashion is an entirely different exercise, but that's fine, I've sat thru Begotten (1989), I can do this.

Right away, this is not framed like a movie: it's more as if someone had negligently left an old camera on the floor — but this is not even found-footage, there is no camera in-story, we just happen to be seeing this world thru stolen, furtive points of view. The image is grainy, the sound is bad quality (subtitles are provided), the frames are often askew, you never even see the actors' faces. We get no narration, no exposition, just a succession of disjointed scenes that slowly form a story.

This shouldn't work. And for many people, this will not work. Most will turn this off not even 5 minutes in. But if you're among the exceptions, then howdy does it work. The format is not a gimmick at all — it's completely in service of the story. The grainy image, the low quality sound prey on your pattern recognition, never quite certain if something is there or not; the framing by a "forgotten" camera contributes to make the atmosphere hyper-real in its intimacy, yet alienating and uncanny.

The director of Skinamarink deals with one very specific topic: nightmares. Not the idea of nightmares, not the heightened nightmares of fiction, but the literal nightmares that real people have; he started by making short videos representing common nightmares that people would tell him about. When it came time to make a full-length feature film, he kept the same approach. Skinamarink doesn't really use any of the classic themes or structures of horror movies; it largely ignores that folklore and instead focuses on deep childhood fears, the kind of stuff your mind used to conjure up long ago and that you have forgotten but not erased from your brain.

If you manage to enter into this very peculiar format, this very unusual and seemingly disjointed way to tell a story, and if you identify with the kind of fear material the movie is drawing on, this is a truly scary experience. Not really in a jump scare or suspense way, more like a deeply haunting and unsettling atmosphere, a strong ambient uncanniness where things are almost normal but just broken enough to give you a constant feeling of unpleasantness, of wanting to run the hell out of here while being trapped, a sense of horrible lurking threat while having nothing concrete to fight against or protect yourself from.

Of course, this isn't exactly a fun experience. This is very, very intense, I'm talking Antichrist-levels of playing with your nerves, and the story, as simple as it is, is tragically harrowing and cruel — you're essentially watching two young children getting psychologically (and eventually physically) tortured by a sadistic, unseen entity for a hundred minutes.

It's hard to recommend, and yet recommendations is how this movie ended up grossing 2 millions on a 15k budget — promotion included ! Most people actually didn't like the movie, but those who liked it liked it so much they can't shut up about it (case in point!) It's one of those horror movies that completely break the boundaries of the genre and do something truly new and unique. It's what horror should be for: imagination gone wild, format-breaking fantasy, and realism thrown out of the window.

#skinamarink #godzilla minus one #the outwaters #cape fear #suzume #nimona #2023 in films #top movies #movie review

[meoproject]

New years + 2023 thots

2023 what a year huh It's been. It's been a year. Good things have happened, bad things have happened. I don't know if this has been a good year or a bad year, so I guess it's a meh year if anything. Actually, now that I think about it, mood-wise, it's definitely been "meh, bordering on bad" because I've had some crazy lows this year. I was definitely overall happier in 2022. But! I've managed to continue my studies (I've dropped out like 3 times before due to health reasons, so this is actually pretty big for me) and done some decent art this year. In fact, there's a lot of art I did that I really like, and I'm a bit sad that a lot of those pieces went completely unnoticed by viewers. But such is life, I'm not entitled to anyone's attention, I just have to try harder. In any case, I'm my own target audience anyway. Oh, also, I am thinking of hosting an art giveaway/raffle sometime after new years, so... be ready I guess. In 2024, I'm hoping to............. - Draw more comics. I only did that short comic this year, and I'm CRAVING more. But it is time-consuming and requires focus, to draw comics I mean. Still, I WILL draw comics in 2024 - Overall focus more on narrative stuff when it comes to my own characters - I'm hoping to find an active(ish) art and/or rp community. I need more art friends. I want to get back into writing rp. I'm taking recommendations/suggestions (though I need to warn you, it takes me like 2 months to warm up before I become active on servers) - Make more games. You didn't know I made games? I've only made a few simple ones, but I can do game art and I'm looking to do more. If you want to play some games I've worked on, check out my itch.io account: https://sirmeo.itch.io/ Mänteater is especially fun as a lil arcade game, and Cyber Scythe is a short platforming experience that's not really replayable, but I still think it's worth playing through once. - Related, I want to participate in a game jam! Sadly, I don't really know many people to jam with and I'm still a bit too shy to just sign up solo - On a more IRL (ew) slant, I need to find an internship place. I've been searching for months to no avail, but to graduate I really, really, really need to find a place asap. Game art or UX design, I don't even care - Last, but not least, I need to give more kisses to little hampsters

#long post #ramblings

[winns-stuff]

Alright, new chapter and it's okay. I am tried of fertility goddess lore. I never liked the plot point in the first place, so it lost it's luster fast, but whatever. I will say I am on the fence about the jealously thing. It feels unessesary in the grand scheme of things. Honestly, I am all for communication even if it's about dumb emotions that we feel but don't approve of. However, I think Persephone has always been a jealous charaters especially before they were dating with Minthe. I am happy it's being addressed, snd she's been jealous before about Hera. I think. She's been insecure, and I think we could talk about her insecurities, but it felt very meh. Don't know how to feel. Just like...whatever. Also, also, I do like moth Hades. I think since he can't really intimidate people in this form, which is always a huge problem in the series, I almost prefer it.

I agree with you, it feels very weird that we’re focusing on Hades and Persephone when Kronos literally has a child hostage in Tartarus that they both know about and even told Hera about it. I’m not sure why they’re still walking around like everything is fine honestly and that’s one of the reasons why I hate the drama in LO, whenever Rachel adds it there’s like one or two chapters about it and then we go back to Persephone and Hades fluff. You can’t just add a huge plot point in your comic and then ignore it entirely for the sake of your romance it doesn’t make sense with the context of the story. Especially with Hades, what happened to his huge monumental trauma about Kronos escaping and coming back for him?? He has literal chapters dedicated on telling us how scared he is of Kronos and how much he terrorized him but the minute that he gains the information that he’s back and could possibly break out again he leaves the Underworld unsecured just to accompany Persephone to a date she should’ve just denied.

Speaking of that date it was so stupid, if this was Minthe accepting a date from Thanatos while officially in a relationship with Hades and he didn’t approve of it everyone would absolutely riot and say that Persephone is better. But now we see Hades not being comfortable with the fact that she even got a letter telling her to go on a date with him and she just completely ignores his worries and doesn’t talk to him about while also accepting it. It doesn’t make sense and I’m sure the only reason why Ares didn’t try anything is because Rachel didn’t want Persephone to look like a bad partner which genuinely I believe she is. Bottom line is that they need way more communication.

#lo critical #anti lore olympus #anti lo

[autisticcassandracain]

Finished Blue Beetle: Graduation Day! Pros and cons list bc I like lists!

The Good:

I overall liked Jaime’s characterization! The graduation was a good kickstarter for character development and provided an easy way to switch up the setting and Jaime’s life, which I think the comic utilized well. I am really satisfied with where the comic went in regards to Jaime’s future; I think helping the Horizon suits Jaime really well as a character. I also like that the disconnect between him and the scarab came from both of their scrambled mental states rather than outside interference, I think that’s neat. Overall I think this comic did a good job with his character and developing him for future adventures.

I also liked Kori’s characterization! I think they did a good job making her serious but also exuberant. I’m always apprehensive about post-flashpoint Kori (or, tbh, non-NTT Kori) but I think they did a decent job, considering the limited screentime they had for her. I liked the interactions she and Vic had, and the inclusion of Tamaran’s connection to the Horizon was a great way to work her into the plot a bit more. I also enjoy what they did with the language absorption power; it was a really interesting way to utilize what is usually more of a plot convenience than a proper power! I don’t think her characterization was Super Deep, but considering the limited length of the series that’s fine.

The dynamic between Jaime, Brenda and Paco was great and I loved the scene where Paco hugged them. I wish we could’ve seen more of them. Though I don’t think it was quite as good as in Blue Beetle (2006), but like, that’s to be expected.

Kori’s hair really pretty. Love this take on it!

I think The Horizon is a great addition to Blue Beetle lore. It’s an interesting and refreshing take on the previously established lore that has a lot of future story potential. I also think their introduction was, overall, quite well handled. I’m very interested to see what other comics do with them (and really hope they don’t just get sort of handwaved and stuck to the side).

Likewise, I like the new Beetles. I don’t think their introduction was as strong as it probably should’ve been, but I think there’s story potential in Beetles connected to a peaceful split-off from the Reach. I like Nitida’s powers a lot, and Xiomara’s character seems interesting. I hope future comics actually expand on them, rather than just sort of leaving them hanging.

I thought Victoria’s character was fun! I know literally nothing about her (don’t even know if she’s a Graduation Day original, an established post-flashpoint feature, or an established pre-flashpoint feature), but I thought her moral grayness and contrasting moral system to Ted made for a fun character who had fun interactions with the rest of the highly moral superheroes around her.

Gratuitous use of Spanish was great! Love when I’m obviously not the target audience for a piece of media, and I’m saying that completely unironically. It felt like this series was being written for latines with a similar background as Jaime first and everyone else second and that’s great. I, however, am not latine and don’t speak Spanish at all so I cannot vouch for how that was handled. These are just my impressions.

The Meh/Bad:

The biggest problem I had with this series is that I do not understand why we are listening to Batman. Or Superman, for that matter, but Batman was the worst offender. I get that they’re established Powerful, Senior Heroes, but that doesn’t mean they can just order everyone around? Even in the Justice League, while the other members may listen to them, they’re not their soldiers they can just send out and order around at will. Like, why do they have the power to ground Jaime? Jaime’s not their sidekick, he’s not under their command, they have no power over him, yet everyone acts like they do. Like. Why do we care what Batman thinks? A different superhero team clashing in the finale makes sense, but what doesn’t make sense is the rest of the comic acting like Batman and Superman can just decide whether Jaime does or does not do hero work, or why his mistakes should be reported to them, or whatever. It’s weird as hell and I don’t like it.

By extension: weird as hell that it took this long for them to bring Jaime in on a presumably Reach-based crisis, and no good reason is ever given for keeping him out of it, aside from ‘keeping him safe’, which, again, is not Batman’s (or Superman’s) responsibility (beyond the same base responsibility they have towards everyone). Jaime is the world’s foremost expert on kicking Reach ass, and frankly, the Reach in general (or at least, he should be). It’s super weird to me that they all tried to sideline him because, what, he’s young? This is comics? Since when do we care about that? As a result, the ‘we follow Jaime’s lead’ moment at the end that was supposed to be a major character note kinda fell flat to me. It’s weird it took this long and it’s weird Jaime let them walk all over him before that.

To be fair, I have very little knowledge on post-flashpoint Jaime. I tried to read N52 Blue Beetle, and it was reeeaaaally bad, and I just haven’t bothered keeping up since. I’m pretty sure there’s some post-flashpoint stuff I’m missing that makes this make a little more sense; it definitely reads like Jaime at some point had a mentorship under Superman/Batman and that’s why he defers to them. But it’s really jarring when compared to the agency and respect he got in Blue Beetle (2006), and I am really trying not to hold this 6-issue miniseries in a completely different continuity to that standard, but Jaime’s independence was a large part of the reason I liked his character and this just feels like a much less interesting narrative choice. Is it OOC for Jaime to defer to more experienced heroes in an alternate timeline where those heroes never, y’know, left him in space for a year? Not really. (And even pre-flashpoint, he clearly had a lot of respect for Superman. Presumably because he wasn’t involved in leaving him in space for a year.) But I hate these vibes and I will complain about them.

Second biggest issue I have is that at several time this plot falls prey to ‘this only works because nobody acts like a normal human with common sense’ syndrome. Brenda and Paco trusting Fadeaway based on what seems like literally zero evidence. Jaime trusting Fadeaway based on what seems like literally zero evidence. Jaime not getting Victoria’s side of the story before resorting to breaking into Kord Industries and stealing (or, for that matter, talking to Ted if nothing else). Everyone listening to Batman and Superman like there’s a chain of command (why does Ted care what Batman has told Jaime to do?) Nobody bothering to ask why Xiomare wants Jaime dead so badly despite clearly not being evil and actually quite reasonable seemingly, or even bothering to interrogate her stated concerns. Etc Etc Etc. There was just a lot of very convenient losing of braincells when the plot needed it. 

Aside from that the only major issue is that the inclusion of Fadeaway wasn’t particularly great. It wasn’t necessary to the story at hand and obviously only really there as a set-up for Blue Beetle: Scarab War (which I know literally nothing about but that title fills me with dread, please don’t be what that sounds like). I’m also not entirely clear on how much of their backstory was a lie to trick Jaime and how much wasn’t, but I think their character would’ve been more interesting if their motives were genuine rather than a way to trick Jaime. As a straight villain they’re kinda boring so far. IDK I’m not like, upset at their inclusion, I don’t think it tanked the story, but idk, it still feels like a sacrifice for the sake of setting up the next story more than anything else.

From hereon out its nitpicks and minor complaints mostly, that was the structural stuff that really bothered me.

It felt like there were a lot of implicit plotbeats that were just sorta... skipped over. Kori wanting to mentor Jaime is honestly kinda handwaved. Victoria and Ted knowing about the Horizon while we haven’t seen Kori or Jaime give them that information yet. I don’t quite understand why Khaji Da was scared. Was it Jaime’s graduation? The ‘Reach’ transmission? Maybe I’m just stupid but it’s kinda unclear to me. Also, Jaime helping Fadeaway steal the artifact is treated like an obvious mistake when I don’t even get why? Fadeaway said Victoria bought a stolen artifact that should be returned to its rightful owner. Victoria did, in fact, knowingly buy a stolen artifact. The ‘returned to its rightful owner’ bit is where the disagreement lies, unless that was a lie, which was never actually. Stated? Was that a lie? It felt like it was, but again, it’s never stated. Etc etc etc. Most of this stuff was ultimately minor but it was frequent enough it added up for me. Maybe all this was explained and I just read over it, though, who knows, I do that sometimes.

I don’t. Like the casual imprisonment of a citizen by a private corporation. This is a fancy way to say ‘kidnapping’. Like it’s great that Xiomare was held in humane conditions but it’s still deeply fucking uncomfortable. Ted and Victoria Kord should not have this power and everyone else should not be okay with letting them have it.

The characters of the Green and Yellow Beetles are underdeveloped. This makes sense considering this is a 6-issue-miniseries and there’s only so much time, but nonetheless, I literally can count the facts I know about these characters on one hand and that’s kinda sad. Feel like their character introduction could’ve been a lot stronger, even with the limited runtime.

Jaime and Kori’s relationship was rushed and felt way too close at the end considering they’d only had, what, one extended interaction prior to the climax? Again, limited runtime, that’s why this isn’t a major complaint, but still, it was a little strange to me. I liked what we did see, but there wasn’t enough to really make much of a call either way tbh.

The parallels that the comic attempted to draw between how Khaji Da functioned at first and how the Green and Yellow Beetles function fell kinda flat. This may be a result of me not knowing Blue Beetle’s backstory in the post-flashpoint continuity, though, but still, it felt rather weird to hear Xiomare shout about how the Horizon tried to ‘conquer’ them, which just felt like a gross overreaction to what actually happened (they got Scarabs and those scarabs told them that the Reach and their technology are dangerous, which they are, and should be eliminated, which, as a general rule, they should be). As far as I can tell no actual mind control or even forcible persuasion was going on; Xiomare and Nitida seemed in complete control of themselves, they were just working on the advice of scared and wrongly informed scarabs. But, again, I could be missing crucial post-flashpoint context regarding how scarab persuasion/mind control works and be wrong here.

An extremely petty complain but I really don’t like the way this artist draws mouths. I’m sorry I could just never get used to it. They take up almost the entire length of the face and it makes the characters look like muppets. This is highly subjective because it’s clearly a stylistic choice but it really did bother me quite a bit.

An even pettier complaint but I miss Jaime’s ragtag group of misfits :( Like I don’t need the exact Blue Beetle (2006) cast to show up, but I really liked that Jaime’s (superhero) mentors and friends consisted 100% of outcasts, losers, and/or B-listers. It feels weird to see him be so close to a bunch of A-listers and generally respected heroes and I don’t like the vibes as much I’m sorry. This is 100% a post-flashpoint thing rather than a ‘this comic specifically’ thing but it bothered me.

Verdict: A fun comic written by people who obviously care about Jaime a lot, with interesting new lore added that could easily be expanded upon in future stories. Has its flaws, but those can probably mostly be ascribed to the comic being set in the post-flashpoint continuity, and even if that’s not the issue, it’s not that big a deal. Definitely worth a read if you’re a fan of Jaime!

#my posts #infodumping #jaime reyes

[riddle-me-ri]

Hii!!! Since you already got asks about what your thoughts on the various Mad Hatters, and Scarecrows are—

Now I gotta ask what’s your thoughts on the various Riddlers? 👀

Complete the dork squad various thoughts EHEHEHEHEHEHE >:DDD

Hope you have an amazing day/night time!! ^^

-🐭💤

Hehe nope I haven't done one for the Riddlers yet, but it only makes sense to round up the Dork Squad with my ramblings let's gooooo

So I'm kinda just gonna go in random order lmao, and I'll mostly just focus on the ones I write for or else we'll be here FOR DAYS lmao but here I go!

Batman the Animated Series Riddler: Husband. 11/10, the reason I even got into Batman and the Rogues, why I'm here asdfghh. He can do no wrong, he still has done no wrong. Mockridge deserved to have sleepless paranoid nights for taking advantage of my amazing husband who would've have gone on and made amazing games had he not be mistreated....I love him a lot lol

Arkhamverse Riddler: Absolutely fucking brilliant, amazing love, love, love his character development. Definitely one of the best developments (not like...the best for him but writing wise) out of the entire series. It's so tragic, his fall from grace...and Wally's voice is perfect for him! He captures his radio/game show host voice but can also do moments of vulnerability right before picking his voice back up again, it's AH amazing.

Gotham Riddler: Ehhh...I've already griped about this show a bunch lmao, the way they've written the rogues is one of the huge issues I have with it. Ed is one of them. I almost stopped watching when I saw the split personality bs...just...AH. But I do adore S1 Edward with my entire being, I wanna be friends with him, I wanna hear him infodump and watch game shows and play video games just ugh

Reevesverse/Dano Riddler: ehh he's, he's okay. I can appreciate they had him fight for injustice (kinda like Arkham Origins, except Origins did it a wee better, just because it proved Ed's point that his knowledge and evidence was enough to make the system collapse more so than violence. Knowledge is more powerful than batman running around beating up henchmen) and I did like the cards, and I can appreciate the orphan take, but he is just kinda meh to me?

Gotham City Sirens Riddler: mmmm p.i. riddler my beloved asdfgghh love, love, love him. I know reformed riddler is a hit or a miss with some people, and I totally get it. But I adored him in this comic, it was nice seeing him doing better even for a minute. And my man's has rizz! And his relationship with the Sirens was super entertaining and endearing.

Zero Year/Capullo Riddler: Ahhh this asshole. I do sincerely enjoy him. I loved that this story showed what the Riddler is capable of (i know new 52 is garbage, but I do appreciate what Capullo/Snyder were doing in their run). I also just really, REALLY adore Capullo's style and his version of the Riddler just scratches an itch in my brain.

The War of Jokes and Riddles Riddler: asddfgh I hate this asshole. So much, it's almost a love to hate, dumb beef leprechaun looking motherfucker I swear to god. So dramatic and extra, but not even in a fun entertaining way lmao.

Young Justice Riddler: Baby boy, baby girl, can do no wrong, deserved better too. Much like BTAS, was absolutely robbed, we should've gotten more episodes. I will say his voice is absolutely jarring, but it grows on you the more you associate it with his design lmao

Telltale Riddler: AH PUZZLE GRANDPA!! lmao again, I dig how much of a threat they built him up to be. I love the different take on him being on older and established rogue. I also love his backstory or atleast the hints of it we get, it's intriguing and different.

Hush (DCAU) Riddler: asdfghj the fucking terrible twist aside...I do adore this design and voice for him. And yes, I do adore that just enough to try and write for him lmao.

Here's a few extra riddlemen I DON'T write for but in case anyone was curious:

Batman Forever Riddler: Listen, I love Jim Carrey, but the man gave me fever dreams. One of my core memories waking up at 3 am was not only to the music collection ads that'd play but also the random movies they'd play on TV. Batman Forever was one of them, and it overwhelmed the shit out of me. I woke up thinking I had some weird dream, but when I realized I wasn't totally losing it...ahhh yeah. Again, I can appreciate his inclusion, his take is absolutely iconic for sure. Just not for me.

Hush (comic) Riddler: Another excellent story about how compelling of a villain Riddler can be, I adore his design here too. If the animated version just kept what they had AHH

The Batman (2004) Riddler: I'm sorry, I adore Robert Englund voicing him, that was a neat surprise. And his backstory is so sad, but I just...not my fave design. I really can't get passed it. So sorry I know he's a favorite, but just not for me.

Batman '66 Riddler: I've only seen clips, gifs, and some episodes, but I adore this man. I don't write for him yet only because I don't know nearly enough. But I absolutely love this man and will praise him until the end of time. He's the reason we have the riddler suit. He's the OG. He's the goat.

Harley Quinn The Animated Series Riddler: As much as I'm not a fan of a bald Riddler, I fucking adore this Riddler. He's really witty and sarcastic, a man after my own heart. Gotham is overrun by rogues and this fucker opens a university? Of course, he would. I also adore him and Clock King, are you kidding me??

I...I hope that answers your question...lmao I didn't mean for it to get this long I swear to god.

#ri rambles #ri answers #dormy anon 🐭💤 #warning: super long post ahead #like pretty long lmao #ri rambles about riddlers

[amuseoffirebane]

So... tell me about this Anewbluestar won't you?

yeaaaaah so

That's the 1950 Accident Fic

which, tbh, I'm kind of like... should I write this? It will probably be covered in the comic.

On the other hand I've been saying that for 11 years. SO.

To be completely honest I've started this one a few times and fallen off for lack of meaningful structure. The first time, the Twins and Guy Hottie found Ignatius' lab hidden as an abandoned bunker. Then I rewrote it to have the lab be on Ignatius' estate (distinct from Thadeus's-- even though this is canon and not Becile Bots AU, I think it still holds likely that Ignatius didn't inherit that). Then I kind of got lost like, should there be traps? Is Norman there immediately? Three gets separated going after Ignatius at some point but how and when does that happen? I also wrote a new beginning to acknowledge what Wanda and Mark Ray were doing (keeping a robot riot from breaking out) but the pacing is a little meh?

This fic is kind of a mess, BUT I did write a nice bit about the immediate aftermath where Rabbit goes to save Three and finds Ignatius acting in a way that reminds her of the zombies from the Weekend War. and she's like hm! hate that! /carries three away from that nonsense

#steam powered giraffe #my writing #littledraga #a new blue star

[mortallyclearwonderland]

Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken/Meet the Gillmans vs Luca

Critics, Reviewers, Comment section, News outlets, etc.

TOP 10 things Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken/Meet the Gillmans copied from Luca.

Child: Mom can we watch Luca? Mom: We have Luca at home! Luca at home

Luca, but American.

DreamWorks’ Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken/Meet the Gillmans is just like Pixar’s Luca but with a girl.

What if Luca was a girl and it happens in Florida?

DreamWorks: Can I copy your homework? Pixar/Disney: Yes but change it a little. DreamWorks: Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken/Meet the Gillmans

It will just like Antz vs A Bug's life, Shark Tale vs Finding Nemo, or Megamind vs Despicable Me.

(Art by F16 - Lift Those EyebrowsPublished: Nov 7, 2010By jbwarner86. It’s not her opinion! It’s just a comic.)

I'm going to be honest. I love DreamWorks movies, so I might be bias. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion. This is mine! I'm tired of everybody calling their movies ripoffs! Hollywood only cares about Disney and Pixar. They're the studios that get all the awards, except once in the blue moon. The media has many times shown bias towards Disney. Not to mention people who don't think of animation as art or think anything animated is made by Disney.

A movie can have a completely different animation, characters, tone, plot, humor, message, story arcs, execution, etc. But as soon as it shows even the smallest similarity with another movie that came out around the same time or worse comes out after it then it's labeled as a ripoff and if not it's constantly compared to its older film siblings.

Even Rise of the Guardians gets compared to Avengers because it came out around the same time, in 2012, and has characters that form a team to stop a bad guy. Seriously!?! 

(That’s actually a fun parody!)

What's next? In this movie, people breathe, walk and talk it's just like the other movie where people breathe, walk and talk. Totally the same!

I get it. People want to describe a movie in the shortest amount of time possible without getting anything away and using a vastly popular movie that most people watched or is so prevalent that most know it in great detail even without watching the movie itself. But those descriptions are mostly misleading and are stretching a lot to find anything similar, as I previously mentioned.

There are hundreds if not thousands of things that go into the making of a movie and even changing one thing can make someone love, hate, or feel indifferent about it.

You might love Avengers but hate Justice League, love Cinderella but feel meh about Sleeping Beauty, and vice versa. They are what a lot of people would call ''the same movie'', ''similar movie'' or ''basically the same''.

Unfortunately, I don't think it's ever going to change. Not everybody has the time or wants to listen to hours of essays about why a film is great or bad, and it’s especially hard to praise something without getting into spoilers.

And I need to remind you that you have your own will, opinions, and tastes. It sounds pretentious but a lot of people seem to forget that. Even if the person describing a movie to you is someone with whose opinions you many times agreed or knows you personally and knows what you like and dislike or even you may think ''I hate - insert what you hate in movies here - ! No way I'm going to like this movie.'' and then you watch it and love it.  

Everybody and their mother makes fun of Shark Tale on the internet but I think it's funny (Polish dub). Almost no one talks about Monsters vs Aliens in a flattering light but I love it. Everybody seems to love the Guardians of the Galaxy movies but I found them unfunny.

Maybe I just didn't find those videos yet.

So, when you hear someone compare one movie to another take it with a huge spoonful of salt.

Can't wait when the Wizard of Once movie comes out and everybody will compare it to Harry Potter because it has magic and the main boy character has black hair.

What movie do you think gets this unfair treatment?

#Pixar #Pixar's Luca #Luca #dreamworks #DreamWorks Animation #Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kracken #Meet the Gillmans #Antz #Shark Tale #Megamind #Despicable Me #Finding Nemo #A Bug's life #Rise of the Guardians #Disney #the Wizard of Once