flint fascinates me bc he comes off as rlly polite and kind
but also. not really. at all
they apologize often and it seems like they try to be nice to others, but then u look deeper and take into account different details
one of the biggest things abt flint that gets overlooked is that he likes drama .
i dont think liking drama itself is bad, why else do we have reality tv shows yk. but i think they actively indulge in it and one of the biggest things that points to this for me is how they treat the satellite investors
he seems to talk bad about them behind their backs, then can't handle the comeuppance of cosmo yelling at him.
this is further implied with cosmo saying they're "goin' around spreadin' lies", meaning flint does actively talk shit on what might be a regular basis. and flint saying "oh, no, I shouldn't have said that" implies FURTHER that they KNOW they're gonna get yelled at for it but continue to do it anyway with the hope cosmo wont find out. like hes not sorry for doing it, only sorry for getting caught.
cosmo gets HEAVILY neglected both in the community as a whole and whenever flint is brought up even though they have a really interesting and honestly hilarious dynamic (but thats for another post..)
whenever cosmo DOES get brought up in the context of he and flints relationship, people defend flint and blame cosmo for being "mean" to him. but tbh, i think cosmo has a fair point in this particular text. Flint can talk all he wants, but at the end of the day can't handle the consequences of it and lacks the confidence to put his foot down. He's a follower, not a leader (unlike cosmo, who flint looks up to canonically. WHICH NO ONE TALKS ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!)
flint also seems to have an interesting habit of apologizing even though he actively and intentionally attacks the toons right after
which i think is interesting. i think it's just a habit of his to say sorry when he knows he's doing/has done something wrong (especially bc he doesnt like facing the consequences), even if hes not actually sorry. Considering this is the same person who claims they like setting toons on fire, i dont think any of these apologies are sincere:
speaking of not being able to handle the consequences, when flint does get defeated by toons, there's a line that sticks out.
Specifically the "i'll be back" feels vengeful. Like he takes the defeat personally, and doesn't want to give up because it makes him feel weak and he wants to come out on top.
something else i find interesting and almost jarring in flint's dialogue is some of their Power Trip dialogue:
this dude is incredibly power hungry. he craves confidence and the ability to be a leader, given how he looks up to cosmo and is drawn to graham, who also appears confident.
speaking of graham, i think it's important to note that earlier, when flint was talking shit abt the satellite investors, he was saying that specifically to graham, who encourages flint not to "let people walk all over him".
graham encourages flint to feel more confident, which is not inherently a bad thing. confidence is great! and its something flint deserves. but i think there's an issue with how they choose to express this "confidence" on the rare occasions they do.
shown throughout this post, flint's way of trying to be confident is being power hungry, talking shit, and fighting toons . i think it's pretty clear that flint has been walked all over in the past and present, and it's caused them to become shy and a bit of a doormat. which he clearly doesn't like (more evidence of this is the fact that he explicitly dislikes belittling.)
and on the rare occasions when they're "allowed" to be confident, they proceed to belittle OTHERS, like toons. in a lot of their dialogue, they come off as condescending towards the toons, even if it's pretty awkward.
i think Flint deserves to feel confident, but the way they go about it is unhealthy. They've clearly been treated like a doormat and is fed up with it, and it seems like they lash out as a result. I think he has a good and genuine heart, but he almost comes off as bitter due to being walked all over constantly. its rlly interesting to dive into flint's flaws and the way they act due to their desperation for confidence, something they really lack.
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the fact that pib's story and character doesn't lean into the horror/tragedy side of things as the other neverafter PCs do is part of why i find him so interesting
the motives and stakes that pib faces as an individual are never really as pressing/high as those that the others in the group face. marienne is already destroyed and tomas is already dead, which pib cannot and does not seek to undo (he wants revenge on the giants later on, but he only seeks it when going to snowhold & the land of giants becomes something they have to do anyways. and his starting priority isn't revenge - he's more or less just trying to get by after the fall of marienne), unlike the others, who are either in the throes of their tragedies, or actively attempting to undo what has already come to pass, or, mostly, a mix of both.
there's also the fact that pib isn't a "character" in the way the others are, but rather the archetype of the trickster cat. as both a trickster spirit and an archetype, he already holds a little more agency than the others because he's not bound to being "pib". he does grow an attachment to the identity of pib in a way that doesn't seem typical of the tricksters (the fox says that he's "gotten too caught up in it" when he returns to the trickster forest with no memories of who they are), but, ultimately, if something happens to the story of puss in boots, he's still the cat. he knows there's more for him than just pib, that, although he's still subject to the whims of the authors, he's not bound to one destiny in the same way his friends are.
in any case, whether we're talking about pib or the cat, he doesn't need to fight in the way his friends do. he doesn't need to care the way he does, or maybe even shouldn't care in the way that he does (the fox overall seems to suggest that pib is softer compared to the other tricksters; "it was a mistake to send him", "you're more the hero than you think", etc, and almost seems to look down on him for it) but he does anyways. he fights and tricks for the sake of his friends, for the sake of tomas, for the sake of the neverafter. and he does it because he chooses to. he's a trickster, who we might expect to act in a self-serving way, but he chooses to be, for the most part, selfless. he has a little more agency than the others and, instead of taking it and running, he uses it to help, to choose to be good, because he cares about the people around him. he's a little asshole with a heart goddamnit
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Redraw from 2019 (original drawing under the cut)
UMM so I got into a rabbit hole of rewatching all the director's commentaries for all of them big Markiplier projects. Afterwards, I had violent flashbacks of a Damien drawing I made in 2019 like ??? I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THAT DRAWING????? like oml it was so weird just suddenly remembering a drawing i haven't thought about for 5 years. So here's ur man weeee
Sometimes, i don't think I ever improve, but looking at this after years of not even thinking about it? Man, it's so wild to see such an enormous difference. Honestly, I kinda more or less remember most of my drawings, so even if I haven't thought about a piece in a while it feels more like "oh yeah, that one" instead of a "OH MY GOD IM GETTING FLASHBACKS" so ig that's why i feel many interesting feelings abt this redraw XDD anyway im babbling but kisskiss hope yll enjoy lmao
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I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING REGARDING ALASTOR AND VAGGIE'S DEAL
everyone is gawking over alastor and charlie's deal, but what about alastor and vaggie's deal? in hindsight, its not much- he just doesn't want to fuck with television, right?
that is, until you look at vox. the TELEVISION DEMON. by making that deal, alastor officially is no longer binded to this, and is fully allowed to leave the rest of the hotel in the dust if he finds himself in a complex situation. after all, he did make a deal with the hotel manager about not wanting to mess with TVs or frivilous modern technology, right?
just an interesting thing i bet will be exploited and explored in the next season, since the VEES are the next big bads
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