#better at continuity than comics but that comes with the comic medium

[lotusdumpling]

I cannot be the only person who wonders what popular YJ TV ships would look like between their comic counterparts, right?

#young justice #young justice tv #dc comics #dc #i have nothing against yj tv it's actually very good #better at continuity than comics but that comes with the comic medium #im just too adhd to get invested in it because i recognize the characters but the dissonance is too large and it makes me feel upset #like it takes so much effort to get invested in characters i don't know As Is Bro #anyway it's a crime and a travesty that Conner and Jackson haven't met in the mainstream dcu #they'd get alone great I feel #and m'gann and kon actually #dick and kon do interact actually people just prefer tim and kon #artemis is literally the farthest from any comic counterpart ever like technically she has one but not really #lotus rambles #lotus petals #queue

[david-talks-sw]

An allergy to the Prequels

While I'm putting together a post about the evolution Lucasfilm's transmedia strategies, this part kinda turned into its own thing!

So I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but, uh... there hasn't been that much Prequel content since the Disney sale, right?

'Couple novels and comics, some episodes... but nothing meaningful.

The more I look into it, the more it feels like a deliberate avoidance to touch on anything Prequel-related - beyond the required quota, that is - to a point where they'd rather tell stories set during periods that are Prequel-adjacent (Dark Times, High Republic) than something set around Episodes I, II and III.

On-screen policy: "pretend they never happened"

I mean, this one's no secret. When The Force Awakens had been announced, with J.J. Abrams at the helm, everyone sighed in relief. "Finally, George Lucas won't keep ruining the franchise."

When Abrams had been announced as the director of Episode VII, I remember this cringey animated video started circulating online, titled "4 Rules To Make Star Wars Great Again" or "Dear JJ Abrams":

“Star Wars isn’t shiny and clean... Star Wars is a western.”

If you ask me, those two things are not mutually exclusive.

'Cause Star Wars has always been both, for many Prequel kids. Both clean and dusty, Coruscant and Tatooine. There was never a disconnect between the Original Trilogy (OT) and the Prequel Trilogy.

Even the documentary The People vs George Lucas shows Prequel-hating fans begrudgingly admit their kids felt all six episodes tied seamlessly.

Abrams, on the other hand, said: "I think [the "Dear JJ" video] was right on." Later on, he also said:

he considered "putting Jar Jar Binks's bones in the desert" on Jakku, somewhere, and

he intentionally made the lightsaber fights "rougher", "primitive" and "more powerful" unlike the fast-paced ones in the Prequels.

Later, we found out he wanted to blow up Coruscant.

It's clear he wasn't a big fan of the Prequels.

But y'know what? Not many fans over 20 were, at the time. And when The Force Awakens came out, most them celebrated it as a wonderful love letter to the OT.

Star Wars is cool again. Mission accomplished 🙌 !

However movies keep coming out, and references to the Prequels - if there are any - are literally just that... references.

Sometimes in the shape of a cameo ("hey look, Genevieve O'Reilly from the Ep. III deleted scenes is playing Mon Mothma again!")

Sometimes in a name (Luke name-dropped "Darth Sidious"!)

But nothing set during the Prequel era, and nothing treating the events that happened in that period as relevant or impactful, beyond subtextual nods.

In fact, the trend of avoiding anything Prequel-related continues as the final film in the Skywalker Saga comes out:

The Rise of Skywalker has a secret Sith society that chants the name "Palpatine" instead of his Sith name "Darth Sidious",

the film pretends the Kaminoans never existed,

and neither TROS nor Trevorrow's Duel of the Fates script even try to bring Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker back on screen. Let that sink in, we're talking about the Chosen One, Skywalker Senior, whose sins caused this whole mess... and his name isn't even uttered once in the final chapter of what Disney dubbed the *Skywalker* Saga (or the entire Sequel trilogy, for that matter).

But hey, The Clone Wars got renewed for one last Season! That's cool right? So many stories had gone unfinished and somehow the animation looks even better than befo--

-- oh. It's not 22 episodes? Only 12?

Four of which had already been shown to us, but hey! We need to set-up the Bad Batch series, so let's shoehorn those episodes in there, and forget Son of Dathomir, Dark Disciple or Crystal Crisis.

*sigh* Better than nothing, I guess.

In other mediums: "just not a priority"

Now this is something that I'll explore more in the transmedia post (and purely my interpretation), but the noticeable change between Lucasfilm's transmedia strategy *post-ROTS* and the one post-Disney sale is that:

Before, the games, comics and novels were the main content. After all, Revenge of the Sith had been released, so that was it, for the movies. Thus, a variety of other content was being cranked out to keep the Star Wars franchise relevant. There were comics set 100 years after Episode 6, comics set 25,000 years prior, games set in the Old Republic era, other stories in the New Republic era, novels galore, a couple of parody films and an animated show, The Clone Wars, which sometimes received its own tie-in comics, novels and games.

After the sale and ever since, most of the transmedia products have had only one goal: promoting the films & streaming shows.

So while in 2015 you won't see an abundance of Prequel content... you'll see an avalanche of OT books and comics come out.

Why? Because the heroes of that era will be in the Sequel Trilogy movies. It provided context to the kids who hadn't seen the OT yet, and reintroduced those films to a new generation of fans, while priming them for the Sequels.

A multimedia marketing strategy that ultimately proved successful.

However, it continued even after The Force Awakens came out.

Don't believe me? Compare how many comics there have been set during the Prequel era vs the OT era.

If they make comics about the Prequels, they're limited runs.

Case in point: before the current Yoda series, the best any Disney Prequel-set comic series ever got was 6 issues.

Note: it's worth pointing out that the frequency of mini-series aren't just a Star Wars-specific thing, it's a comic book industry thing. The readership for comics is dwindling, many people are reading scans online, and so no publisher wants to commit to a story that lasts more than 4-6 issues. My problem is: there absolutely would be readership for a Prequel comic series to warrant an extended run instead of a mini-series.

Let's talk books. There have been give or 64 canon novels published since the Disney sale.

Only 11 of them are set during the Prequel era. And even those stories only came out when the planets were aligned.

Almost half of them were released while being a part of some bigger multimedia push.

Example:

Before the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was being released on Disney Plus, we'd had one novel and like two comic stories about him during the Prequels... released between 2012 and end 2021. That's about three pieces of content in almost ten years.

Clearly a low frequency.

Then, when the series is around the corner, two books and a comic story comes out in the space of months, plus an anthology book with an alt cover with his face on it and a comic with a story of him and Anakin in the first issue, all in 2022.

My takeaway: short of there being a film or series that needs to be promoted, you'll rarely get any Prequel comics or books.

And this is OBI-WAN we're talking about. The character who even the Prequel haters love. Imagine how little attention the other ones get.

Gaming-wise, Battlefront had no Prequel content at all (again, 2015 was the year where OT content was shoved down the consumer's throats to prep them for Episode VII), and Battlefront 2 only released Prequel content a full year later.

All that being said, we did seen some Prequel elements here and there. After all, some actors got to reprise their roles, books and comics came out featuring Prequel characters... but there's a catch.

The stories they appear in are set in-between Episodes III and IV, a time-period known as "the Dark Times" or the "Imperial era".

"Dark Times" being used instead of the Prequel era

It's easy to see the appeal of this era. You keep the same threat from the Original Trilogy - the Empire - but redress it with Prequel elements... while also cherry-picking the best characters of both the OT and the Prequels and giving them a chance to shine again.

The situation is more clear cut, as opposed to the complex one in the Prequels. Bad guys are stormtroopers, good guys are anyone else. And the stories no longer take place in the shiny capital, you're back on the frontier.

But at this point... it feels like a cop-out.

When you consider how much content has been set during the Dark Times, it's nothing to sneeze at. Since the sale, we've had:

2 movies (Solo, Rogue One)

4 series set in that time-period (namely The Bad Batch, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and Star Wars: Rebels).

2 video-games (Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor).

17 novels (such as Ahsoka, Lords of the Sith, the new Thrawn books, etc)

And just a whole bunch of comic book series & mini-series (like Kanan, Princess Leia, various Vader-centric comics including Darth Vader: Lord of the Sith, many tie-in mini-series promoting Rogue One, Jedi: Fallen Order, Obi-Wan Kenobi, etc).

There's been so much content made for this time-period that it feels like an unwillingness to do the work and create something set something during the Prequel era, let alone something that follows its Jedi.

After all, why make a story set in the Prequels (disliked by vocal fans) when you can just take the characters in that story and put them in an OT setting (which will appease the Prequel-haters)?

Maybe these stories get relegated to the Dark Times because:

there seems to be a perception that anything set in the Prequel era won't sell?

or maybe the current SW writers weren't fond of Episodes I, II and III, and don't find those Jedi characters likable, thinking they're too righteous and dogmatic which makes it hard to craft a story around them.

Or maybe it's because they're under the impression that the Prequel Jedi are bad. Like, canonically, in the narrative. Not just in a "I don't like them" sense, but also in a "the story is all about them becoming corrupted" sense.

Let's expand on that last point.

Retconning the Prequels as the "Fall of the Jedi" era

Somehow the rare stories set during the Prequels that we do get seem to automatically be about how "the Jedi lost their way/failed".

The series Tales of the Jedi is explicit about it...

... and I already explained why it contradicts what George Lucas established here and here.

You also see it in Rebels and the new season of The Clone Wars...

... in comics...

... in games...

It gets to a point where the Prequels era has now been redubbed the "Fall of the Jedi" era by Lucasfilm.

You wanna know what that period was referred to before the Disney sale? The "Rise of the Empire" Era.

Because - and I'll never get tired of saying this cuz it's factual - the Prequels aren't about the fall of the Jedi, they're about the fall of the Republic and Anakin, and rise of the Empire and Vader.

So in addition to being overdone, the "Jedi lost their way" is not even the intended narrative of the Prequels (if one puts any stock in Lucas' words). It's a minor subplot at best, hardly the focus of the films, let alone a whole time period.

But dubbing it "Fall of the Jedi" implies that there's another era in which the Jedi were in their heyday.

Because Star Wars authors are in luck! Yet another alternative has presented itself in the shape of a new transmedia initiative, and it's even better than the "let's set it during the Dark Times" solution:

A new transmedia initiative: The High Republic

You wanna deal with the Jedi before the Empire, but for some reason you wanna avoid dealing with the ones seen in the Prequels?

Look no further. Meet the Jedi of the High Republic.

Noble, adventurous, inspired by the Knights of the Round Table, they're everything the OT kids dreamed about when they heard ol' Ben Kenobi talk about the Knights of the Old Republic.

That's more like it!

Note: the High Republic was created for other reasons and has many more upsides than the ones mentioned above. Namely, a fresh new spot in the timeline that allows for creative freedom and a beautifully-coordinated transmedia storytelling effort where retcons are non-existent. However it does seem evident that not having to deal with the 'unlikable' Prequel Jedi and their "fall" is one of those upsides.

Another perk that the High Republic era offers is more freedom in terms of storytelling compared to the Prequels.

In 2016, Pablo Hidalgo tweeted he still quotes to authors the following excerpt of West End Games' guide for aspiring Star Wars writers, from 1994.

You can't write "this was the best day in Luke Skywalker's life", for example, because another author may want to write a better day than the one you just wrote.

My guess is that a similar approach applies to how all characters from the movies are treated. They're massively iconic. So you can't write a book that drastically changes how Mace or Yoda or Obi-Wan are perceived overall.

The stories need to be self-contained, disregardable if necessary, because you'll have dozens of writers coming up with new stories for those same characters, and you need to leave them some room.

Examples:

Notice how in the book Dooku: Jedi Lost we never see how Dooku turns to the Dark Side and joins the Sith.

Same goes for crossover comic book arcs of the Star Wars issues, like Vader Down or Crimson Reign... the characters don't really change by much in those comics. You could stick to just watching the movies and you wouldn't really miss anything.

But with The High Republic, you indeed can develop these characters as much as you want.

All stories featuring Avar Kriss leave an impact on her, you can nail down who she is perfectly in one book or one comic arc, both being just as meaningful to her character.

The fact that she's not as iconic/famous a character as Mace Windu means that authors can go to town on crafting an interesting and nuanced character arc for her that'll have a beginning, middle and end... something Mace will never really get.

CONCLUSION:

Back in 2015... let's not kid ourselves. The Prequels were unpopular and Disney is a multi-billion dollar corporation. Opting to make as much money as possible is what they do.

It's the same reason they decided not to go with George Lucas' original plans for the Sequels, in 2012.

I mean, imagine you're Disney. You just dropped 4 billion dollars, with a B, on this franchise. Your next Star Wars movie needs to be worth the price tag. Now, you can pick between two options:

Option #1 is uncharted territory and it explores the midi-chlorians (the cursed word…!) and the guy who presented you with this option also openly admits that a big chunk of customers won’t like it, but he wants this to be done because it’s his vision.

Option #2 is very simple: a soft reboot, that plays on nostalgia that the same chunk of customers (aka the 'boomer and Gen-X fans who grew up with the Original Trilogy and now have kids, grandkids and MONEY) will like.

It's a no-brainer. They gave the customers what they wanted.

But time has passed, the fans who were children when the Prequels first came out have grown up, and grew up with characters like Yoda, Mace, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto and other Jedi as their heroes, aside from main characters like Anakin and Obi-Wan and Ahsoka.

Can we maybe expand on them, flesh them out more?

No, let's either ignoring the storytelling potential of these characters or reducing it to them being "righteous, arrogant and dogmatic".

God forbid we get a story showing the Prequel Jedi in a *gasp* more positive light? One where their POV is more understandable, instead of the same old "we brought this on ourselves" storyline.

There's a whole decade between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones... you're telling me there's no space to show us Anakin's training and how he formed bonds with the Jedi we later see in The Clone Wars? I tried my hand at it here:

Interesting or fun Prequel-set ideas from other pro-Jedi fans on Tumblr can be found here, here and here.

And y'know, part of the Star Wars intent is for fans to take the ideas in the movies and come up with their own stories. You're supposed to create headcanons.

What I'm saying is fans of the Prequels are being given less "imagination food" than the rest, and many of us who like the Jedi in particular are forced to rely on headcanons only. "Better than nothing" is no longer an acceptable standard.

There's a range of recognizable Jedi characters that have already been established in films and TCW, can we maybe expand on them, flesh them out more, instead of whole new ones?

#jedi order #star wars #sw meta #long post #meta #lucasfilm #star wars prequels #prequel trilogy #sw prequels #high republic #the high republic #dark times #imperial era #the clone wars #tcw #sw negativity

[reimenaashelyee]

Clean version here

Not a bingo but a jenga. My responses below the cut

Somehow I have half of this image filled out. I wish I could cash it in for points to redeem.

Jenga:

First comic is a magnum opus: There had been a string of graphic novel adaptations of books I wanted do when I as a young teenager, but The World in Deeper Inspection was my first, substantial, original behemoth of an idea. It was the only one with the power and the potential to stay and push me to become a comics creator. Everything I am and have as an artist and writer is because of TWIDI.

Fan art more popular than OCs: This was going to be inevitable because I hardly ever post about them online. But I suppose if you count my one-off character design illustrations that go viral or my published graphic novels, this box wouldn’t be true… (The God of Arepo is my most popular fan work)

I binged your life’s work in 2 hours: I am glad you like my work enough to be this engrossed in it – but honestly please please reread it again and SLOWLY so you can appreciate the visual storytelling – not just the words and the main action!! You’ll have a fuller experience if you take the time to luxuriate!!

This isn’t even my day job: It both is and isn’t. I do enough from comics that I can survive out of it near full time (thanks to my usual speed; very grateful), but I get financial stability from the monthly paycheck from the actual day job. Relying on my speed to produce near-constant output for money is something I am losing interest in as my ideas become more ambitious and niche.

Subscribe to my Patreon: Somehow I am able to hawk my free-to-read platforms with a certain amount of success but never can get a big dent on my Ko-fi.

Received unsolicited critique on a free comic: Unavoidable reality. Though I hadn’t had something egregious in a long time (and it better stay that way).

Had to explain what a webcomic even is to someone IRL: Nearly all the people I surround myself with are ‘normies’ (people who aren’t so online and/or don’t read online media), so this comes up often – and it will become more frequent as I pursue institutional pathways like residencies and grants. Even if they knew what webcomics were, it would be under the name of webtoons.

I can’t wait to draw this scene in 4 years: lol @ Alexander Comic and TWIDI

Multi-year hiatus: TWIDI’s eternal curse, until I figure out how to build enough stability in my career/life to return to it – full-time and for real.

Financially supported by someone else: My dayjob, mainly, but previously my parents.

Is somehow mutuals with favourite artist: That’s what it’s like as your career progresses and matures! It’s always nice to become peers with those you admire – especially the ones you grow to love only after knowing them.

Characters get gayer over time: Growing up and being able to witness the various ways of living can and will change how one approaches their characters.

Successfully fulfilled a Kickstarter: Not on my own, but I had a few for my books that published smoothly.

Empty space:

ADHD diagnosis: I have ADHD-esque behaviours that I have managed to overcome with ADHD-specific hacks, but whether I actually have the thing itself is a question mark. I lean towards not really having it since I am able to execute and complete tasks regularly.

Works in animation or went to school for it: I used to want to study and work in animation before I discovered the potential of comics as a storytelling medium. I don’t have a desire to break into that industry, even without all the employment and late-capitalism instability that it’s going through right now. I am not averse to trying if asked, however.

Had an art teacher who hated anime: Never went to art school.

Yes I’ve had burnout but what about second burnout: Currently going through a fallow period, but I really don’t think it’s Burnout Burnout. Touch wood, I continue to maintain my love, interest and desire to make comics and stay in my artistic career.

Forgot how to draw main character’s face: Characters are so seared into my brain, it’s not easy to forget. Helps that they each have particular quirks that belong to their design.

This comic gave me my hand/wrist injury: Still out here WITHOUT any of those. I hope I can keep it that way until whenever I retire.

Emergency commissions: Hopefully I will never have to resort to do this. (Very grateful, yes)

Sleep… “schedule”? my 7-8 hours of sleep is essential and non-negotiable.

If it’s not 3 hours long is it even worth adding to the work playlist: This is is referring to video essays I guess? I rarely ever encounter essays of over 3 hours that I am interested enough to watch. (Also I can’t really watch something while drawing; I lose speed/concentration)

Embarrassed to look at early pages: Not embarrassed – I was younger and less-skilled then, that’s just how it is. There were a lot of things younger me did that I could still learn from.

Regrets costume choices: I pride myself in being able to style myself and my characters, and so far I have never regretted the clothes I give my characters – the TWIDI characters all have base outfits from when I was 15!

#artist meme

[beesmygod]

perpetually in awe at how bad this comic is and how much no one must read it. there is no way a human sees this panel and thinks "this looks good. no problems. hit print". there is no way that we went from celebrating some of the greatest comics made by the biggest weirdos or the most talented unknowns to dumping awards and accolades at the feet of something that seems so embarrassed to exist that it won't even pretend its being made for an audience of humans. this is a comic for algorithms and advertising executives.

an extremely new medium (comics, on the web) deserves better than to be smothered in the crib by celebrations of unashamed laziness and disrespect for the audience. i know pedantry and constantly banging the same drum is unpleasant but you couldnt even center it? add a fake phone number? address? a name?? A LOGO???? as an artist, how on earth can you look at this and think "done!"? how do you put your name on this knowing everyone can see it???

you are shaming my artform and making it look like the medium of choice for those who couldnt hack it making even the most trite and rote garbage for the least prestigious brands instead of our wild west frontier it is. you will either improve or exit webcomics in the coming year. the medium is too interesting to continue to be held hostage by this shit and youre making us look bad. fucking shape up.

unreal. unfathomable. unforgivable.

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Asians are all the same, right? The racism of a company cock gurgling moron

Like herpes and unlike the Dobbear, I am back baby.

At this point, deepest apology for my long absence. Personal issues over the last two years prevented me from writing anything and also destroyed for the longest time any desire to really continue the blog.

However, I don’t want to let things unfinished and seeing how the hypocricyofandrewdobson still manages to get some rise out of old Dobson related stuff, I wanted to just return, in order to properly contribute a bit more critical thinking in regard to his old comics.

And while I will not immediately return to my retrospective of SYAC, here is at least (for a start) my opinion on one comic of his, that in my opinion just proved hilarious and controversial in hindsight, and rather racist even back then.

I admit, I don’t know anymore what the title of the comic here is. All I know is, that it came out around 2018, shortly after the release of his “Black Panther” comic, another malignant piece of Dobtrash that has made the rounds online ever since. However, unlike the Black Panther comic, which became the center of a lot of discussion regarding Dobson’s racist assumptions about comic book fans while ironically trying to present himself as woke, this one was weirdly drifting off into obscurity. Which is kinda weird, cause in my opinion, it is way more racist and actually kinda insulting to the very craft Dobson supposedly “dedicated” his life to.

Let me explain.

First, over the course of three panels, Dobson comes essentially off like he is considering the medium of comics as inferior to the medium of movies. Making it look as if comics are unsuccessful because they cannot rail in the same amount of money than certain flics and calling them at best nothing more but a pitching ground for corporations to create new shallow mass product.

Now I am a bit of a realist and I know that, especially in the world of mainstream American superhero comics, this is kinda the case. Most comic book characters, stories and franchises are owned by multibillion dollar corporations, who either have a direct hand in the creation of the product (via corporate mandate for example) and/or use the likeness of the product to make profit in additional, more valuable revenues than the printed medium. Such as cartoons, merchandise and movies. One example I can think of, to show that it isn’t just an American issue: Yugioh. The card game wouldn’t have come to be if there hadn’t been a manga starring a little boy putting together an ancient Egyptian puzzle, but while the original manga ended way back in March of 2004, the card game makes millions globally still after 25 years and counting.

But that doesn’t change the fact, that comics as a medium still have value. Without the stories told within their pages, we wouldn’t have characters such as Captain America, Superman, the Mask, the Ninja Turtles and so on to begin with. Don’t get me even started on stories that aren’t falling into the American mainstream comic trend, but still succeeded in the printed comic medium partly because of genuine artistic and profound value such as Maus, Barefoot Gen, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, TinTin and a shitton of (other) stuff from Europe and Asia.

So when Dobson, who always acted like he is proud to be a cartoonist and that comics are a superior medium to others, suddenly reduces them to just being a “pitch ground for better stuff down the line” at best, I as a fan of the medium and just the art of creating stories in itself, get kinda pissed.

Additionally, the way how he compares movies to be better than comics, is severely flawed.

He brings up the fact, that “Captain America: Civil War” made over one billion dollars at the box office as an example, while pointing out the fact, that most single comic issues barely manage to sell 100.000 copies, while holding up a copypasted “Civil War” issue.

Already, Dobson essentially compares apples with bananas, while also giving both false and incomparable data, that also ignores many aspects to be considered.

For starters: He compares the earnings of both movies and comics with two different values. For movies, he goes by the monetary profit a superhero movie could possibly make, while for the comic issue, he goes by the total number of copies sold.

But here is the thing: Assuming the average selling price of a comic is at 4 dollars for a single 30 page issue, selling 100.000 copies would ring in like 400.000 dollars. And considering that producing one issue likely costs a company less than 20.000 dollars (obvious costs for mass production and distribution not withstanding) they can still make a decent profit this way from ONE issue alone. One issue. Not multiple issues of a long running, but sadly underperforming series. All of that by the way doesn’t even account for the fact, that most single issues at best tell only a quarter of a decent short story nowadays and ignores later “long term” factors, such as reprints of the issue, late term buying of the issue, tradepaperback sells of the issue, the longterm effect and cultural impact the issue may have on the actual series or plot continuity  (such as Amazing Spiderman 122, aka “The Night Gwen Stacy Died”). Don’t get me even started on the fact, that many of these issues get first sold in the US and only over the course of one year or longer may then additionally be sold in other parts of the world, therefore bringing in even more money for the publisher.

Example: The Duck comics by Don Rosa, which earn more than four times more in Europe, than they ever did in America, despite the guy being from California. Finally, a a little add addendum: that example Dobson gives indirectly via the “Civil War” issue? A quick google search revealed, that Civil War issue 1 sold over 300k copies in May of 2006 alone. Sure, not necessarily the best numbers ever for a single issue (as evident by the following list: https://bookriot.com/bestselling-comics-of-all-time/ )but still nothing to be ashamed of.

And yes, I know that we live currently in a time, where comic book sells have dropped significantly for a variety of reasons, one of them being an overall lack of decent stories. But as long as other stuff still manages to run freaking circles around American superheroes (*cough* One Piece *cough*) I wouldn’t say the medium itself is dead. Just a specific branch of it is suffering from a lack of quality and the customers are jumping ship.

A superhere movie meanwhile is a completely different beast. Ever since “The Avengers” came out in 2012, most superhero movies are 150-250 million dollar behemoths, that get overhyped by advertisement campaigns that are almost equally as expensive and try to trick the audience into believing, that they all are somehow the next big mindblowing thing on the big screen. Plus there hasn’t really been a superhero movie in the last 10+ years, that didn’t release simultaneously worldwide, instead of only coming out in the USA, and then a few months later, in other parts of the world.

So is it any wonder then, if a superhero movie that got advertised like the second coming of a saint, makes 1 billion, when there are already billions of potential customers worldwide all at once when the product launches?

That number btw becomes actually less impressive, once you start to think about how it came to be. Something our blue bear obviously didn’t.

See, on average every movie theater demands like what, 12-14 dollars per movie nowdays?

If we divide the box office of Civil war (1.152 billion btw) with 12 dollars, that makes on average 100 million people worldwide who watched the movie. A bit more than one or two percent of the worlds population. Not to forget, that of the box office success we have to substract such things as production cost of the movie, advertisement, the earnings of the theaters… so suddenly the movie may at best have had only earned one quarter of its box office for Disney as actual profit.

Not to forget, Dobson made that comic in 2018, when superhero movies on average did ring in so much money, because of the hype machine. But now we have 2023 and within the last five years (and especially 2023 itself) we have seen how superhero movies can also utterly fail to make money or even earn just enough to make back the production cost. Birds of Prey, Eternals, Ant Man 3, that Secret Invasion streaming show that still cost over 200 million… Do I need to get on?

Bottom line, Dobson’s indirect jab at comics as the less profitable revenue doesn’t hold that much water really in the real world, where once the hype dies down, comics may actually prove themselves as the more valuable longterm medium. Even if it may just be for the fact, that they end up staying longer relevant in the popcultural subconscious than the current movies, which tend to lose relevance with each new hastily produced and released installment in the franchise.

But where this comic really shines and shows Dobson’s ignorance on a cultural level, is in the last panel. When all off sudden it turns “racial” by claiming that Asian people, unlike “traditional” comic readers (aka white, in Dobbear s eyes therefore instantly racist people), would eat a Marvel character like Amadeus Cho up.

Question Dobson: Why do you assume, they would eat him up? You give no real argument based on anything the character does storywise, that the “target audience” may find admirable. So I can only think, that your reasoning is, because he is ever so slightly east asian coded.

Boy, do we have to unpack not just a can of worms, but a whole package of cans now.

First, the chosen language by saying “eat it up”. When being a writer, you should know that you need at times to choose your words wisely, because of the sheer implications they can carry. And the statement “eat it up” sounds way to close to a negative statement like “suck it up”. Making it come off as if Dobson considers Asian people to be mindless cattle that will consume the grub the House of Mouse will give them without question or any desire for actual quality to it.

Second, it recks of a certain mind set I hate within the American entertainment industry and some of its creators and consumers. That mind set being, that “non-traditional” American cultures supposedly don’t know better than Americans in what is okay for the sake of representation and entertainment or not. It’s a mindset that goes beyond the necessity of e.g. localizing a foreign product to the national market, by e.g. creating a sterilized, corporately mandated and rather unrealistic depiction of another culture within their product, that will fall apart as soon as the people who are supposed to be represented get a proper look at it and realize, how pandering and often times badly researched, if not outright offensive, it is.

Only recently did we see in the world of animation how that can backfire, when Disney released the trailer for “Primos” an upcoming animated show supposedly about a half Latina girl spending her summer vacation with her annoying cousins, people calling it based on the intro (and a leaked pilot) pandering towards a latino audience in a racist manner. And guess what: currently, Disney shelves it and tries to bury its existence like Dobson his old inflation art.

Dobson himself has actually indulged in that sort of shit kinda, back with his infamous Nintendo comic.

Essentially calling the “true”, Nintendo corporation approved depiction of his childhood Nintendo heroes disgraceful, for not falling in line with the late 80s depictions he saw in localized, made in America products such as the DiC cartoons. That and minor homophobia mixed with misogyny by calling Link “girly” for having longer blond hair since Ocarina of Time and blaming fangirls for it.

Third, and that is kinda related to my prior point, the reality of things is, that “Asians” actually did not eat up that sort of thing in the last couple of years. Sure, there is always that thing about a Chinese market. the big movie companies try to pander to and may succeed with some dumb action flics featuring big robots.

But the reality is, that not even people living in a dictatorship will eat up every trash you give to them, just because it comes from Hollywood or is supported by their glorious leadership. Disney tried to create two pandering messes of movies for Chinese people to watch, called Mulan (the live action adaptation) and that Shang Chi movie. And how did they do there? Oh right! The government did not even allow Shang Chi to be released and Mulan was released but supposedly didn’t do so well, considering (COVID not withstanding) it only made 70 million globally!

Don’t get me even started on every human right controversy in relation to the later, starting with filming in China near a concentration camp and ending with the main actress being essentially a Chinese propaganda puppet.

So, if those movies flopped, why would Chinese people for example flock for an Asian Hulk? A hulk that is not even Chinese but Korean.

See, this is another issue that fails with the example: The actual choice of character Dobson name dropped is actually kinda terrible.

For those unaware: Amadeus Cho is a supporting character in the Marvel comics, created in 2005 by American writer Greg Pak and artist Takeshi Miyazawa. The later, despite the name being very east Asian, sounding, actually being from Canada. Now both do have east Asian roots so to speak (Pak  e.g. is the son of an Korean-american man with a Caucasian woman), but they also have grown up within a society that taught them both western social values more so than we would see in east Asian countries. So with the creators already not necessarily having the most real life experience with the average mindset of a Korean citizen, can we really say that their actual creation helps “represent” those people of a foreign, non-american culture?

And that is not even covering stuff like the actual story of the character itself.

See, in the comics, Cho is supposed to be an American-Korean genius (wish fullfillment much, Greg?) and one of the smartest people in the Marvel Universe. His parents named him after Amadeus Mozart (a pretty white motherfucker as far as I remember) and he grew up under Methodist beliefs. So basically the “Korean heritage” of the character has already been thrown out of the window. Now I don’t expect the character to act stereotypical Korean, listen to K-pop, declare bulgogi to be his favorite dish or any of that shit. But when you want to sell me the character as being in some way or another connected to his ancestral culture, shouldn’t he engage at least in some “Korean coded” things?

I mean, the character of Anne Boonchuy in Amphibia is a Thai-American who acts more like a 13 year old girl that learns to be less selfish and impulsive over the course of the show and whose “heritage” isn’t thrown at us, the viewer, most of the time. In fact, Anne herself acknowledges that she e.g. can’t really speak thai, despite her own mother being fluent in it and a season 3 episode reveals, that Anne is “begrudgingly” a part of the L.A. thai community. And yet, in connection to the shows story and as part of Anne’s characterization, her heritage is acknowledged and plays a part of who she is. Even if it simply means she knows how to cook certain thai dishes, loves her parents and their customs, helps out in their restaurant, can speak a few words thai and knows the basics of Muay Thai, a form of martial arts (and fighting sport) from Thailand.

Amadeus doesn’t even have Korean parents anymore, because they were killed as part of his tragic hero backstory. Nor has he ever visited an Asian country. Oppps.

To build further up on it, Amadeus becomes for the longest time simply a major supporting character in the Marvel universe for the likes of Hulk and Hercules, two white coded characters. Sure, he plays a major role in the defeat of some cosmic horror level villains (such as Mikaboshi in the Chaos God storyline most people forgot even existed) but it takes a long time for him to become a “A-lister” so to speak.

In fact, according to Wikipedia, it wasn’t till after “Secret Wars” in 2016 (eleven years after the character was created), that Amadeus thanks to a chain of events eventually got his chance to Hulk out. And then they still had to kill Bruce Banner to make Amadeus “stand out” initially (don’t worry, Bruce came back. I mean, characters actually staying dead in comics, so that heroes can learn there are consequences? Preposterous) In fact, Amadeus hasn’t really proven himself as a decent “solo” act. Instead he became a member of the Champions (among Miles Morales, Mrs. Marvel, Vision’s daughter Viv. Nova and Cyclops), essentially creating yet another superhero team for teenaged vigilantes. Despite the fact, Cho himself should be by now in his mid 20s.

Now look, I do not want to shit talk the character. Partly because I haven’t read everything he was in myself and partly because in the few things I did see him in (both pre- and post Hulk) he was okay. He is a decent hero and person, who tries to do good, even if he screws up here and there. That is something I can admire in a character in general. But he is not a good “representation” of another culture, because his complexion and minor physical features aside, he is NOT embodying even minor values or traditions of that foreign culture. He is simply a Korean-American (or technically Canadian), who falls more on the American side of things.

So essentially, Dobson who virtue signaled on multiple occasions how bad it is when companies he didn’t like tried to speak on behalf of other cultures, would have no problem at all to ask for Asian people to swallow this obviously “Made in American” product. The “Made in America” line actually working both on a metaphorical and a storytelling level, cause trying to google what “east Asian coded” heroes in the Marvel Universe actually come from an Asian country instead of being simply born on American soil, is pretty damn small.

After 20 minutes I only found Shang Chi, as he was born in China, and that character was created as part of kung-fu exploitation in the 70s by white dudes.

Yaiks

However, none of that tops the next two points that really sell Dobson to me as an American centralistic racist. Or at least a twat who doesn’t understand how through bad wording he comes of as ignorant of other people’s cultures.

The way he generalizes Asian people in his statement, while also ignoring the actual accomplishments in the creation of entertainment in multiple Asian countries.

If you’ve read closely what I typed, you may have seen that I used the term Asian at times in tandem with the term “east Asian” to e.g. describe Amadeus Cho.

And that had a very deliberate reason. While I was not a fan of geography in school, even I know that Asia as a continent is not “nationally” as homogenous as let’s say Australia or North America. In fact, Asia is the biggest continent on the planet, hosts more than half of earth’s population and consists of at least 47 internationally acknowledged states.

States such as Turkey, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, North- and South Korea, Egypt, Israel, Iraq, Iran and so on.

Now what all these states have in common, is that they have their own unique historical, social and “racial” culture and background. Heck, religiously speaking, Asia is the cradle of the world.

As such, Dobson stating that a “Korean coded” character such as Amadeus Cho (who is only Korean on the most surface level and would technically just be a legacy character of yet another white person) would be an immediate hulk smash hit with all these different people of different backgrounds…. Yeah, it sounds like condescending, colonization inspired shit, a smooth brain would come up with.

To Dobson “Asia”, at least based on that comic, is only defined as the “yellow skinned” people from the far east, who like rice, noodles, spicy food and give us anime, Godzilla, fireworks, buddhism and communism. It does not include anyone from the middle east or of more European ancestry. And if you are even remotely familiar about history, you would also know that Japanese, Koreans and Chinese all around do not e.g. like to be thrown into a pot with the others for a variety of reasons. Many of them political.

Or to sum it up even shorter: Dobson insinuated that a very shallow, “east Asian” coded American comic character would be an immediate hit with more than 47 different countries, ignoring that not all of them share the same background despite being part of the “same” landmass. And in doing so, he simultaneously generalized and denounced entire groups of people based on their racial and cultural background, which in as far as I am aware of, is considered racist.

But the “racism” is supposedly justified, because “representation” matters, it would be giving the middle finger to “traditional” comic fans and those nations and their culture are underrepresented globally.

Which is baloney.

Don’t get me wrong, I myself think that representation does matter. But the world does not necessarily rely on the good old US-Ayy only to give it to us.

Cause a lot of the Asian nations I brought up here? They have their own entertainment industry and stories, which again, get ignored by Dobson to make a dumb and false point.

I mean, manga is currently dominating the international comic market, all while Japan has also a booming animation industry and some of the most iconic heroes in modern popculture with the likes of Son Goku, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai etc.

China has a prominent -if propaganda driven- movie industry.

India has Bollywood and delivers some of the most ridiculous but awesome musical movies on the planet.

Russia had authors such as Tolstoy and movie directors, that redefined the “art” of filmmaking.

Korea had a few years ago one of the biggest streaming hits with Squid Game, while also earning an Oscar for a movie titled Dobs- I mean “Parasite”.

Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Turkey… even nations that have not entertainment living up to “western standards” still produce stuff in some way or form to entertain the masses and their people. Just google up the character Kara Murat aka the avenger of Anatolia.

And don’t get me even started on the sheer ton of mythology, stories and history each of their cultures have provided the world with. Journey to the West? Baba Yaga, the entirety of the Gilgamesh epos...

And yet, there is this indirect assumption by Dobson, that all of them would be so deprived of “heroes” in their media and folklore, they would letch on second hand shop Hulk? Fuck off, Dobbear. I know you like to suck corporate cock as long as you think they are woke and you have childhood nostalgia for them, but this is pathetic. Take Amadeus before A Rama Raju comes around and roundhouse kicks him back to Canada. Then get the taste of mouse smegma of your Disney cock gobbling lips.

#adobsonartwork #syac #hypocrisyofandrewdobson #amadeus cho #racisim #mcu #tom preston #andrew dobson #i am back #back again #guess who's back #Youtube

[themattress]

And now, I just feel compelled to sing the praises of one of Kingdom Hearts' greatest heroes:

SHIRO. MOTHERFUCKING. AMANO!

The more time passes, the more amazed I am by this man. He's had a hero's journey IRL when it comes to his place in the franchise: jumping at the call but being inexperienced and screwing up, reaching his lowest point before rising, dealing with great adversity only to come out of it stronger than ever, and becoming a beloved hero to many who continues to do good.

KH1 was his first manga adaptation, and for the most part it's your by-the-numbers comic book adaptation of a story from a non-comic book medium, not especially good or especially bad. But Amano showed three weaknesses: he mischaracterized the KH-original characters (Sora, Kairi, Riku and Ansem all start out on point, but once Destiny Islands is destroyed this changes drastically: Sora turns into a spastic moron, Kairi into a bland bystander, Riku into an emotionless tool, and Ansem into an over-the-top eeeevil lunatic who actually gets himself killed without any contribution from Sora, Donald and Goofy!), he sucked at action scenes leading to many iconic battles from the game being straight-up left out altogether, and his gag manga inclinations caused him to turn scenes that should be serious / emotional into jokes.

CoM was his aforementioned lowest point. All those flaws were not only still there, but worse, turning what was once a dark, mysterious and psychological story into an unfunny farce.

Disgraceful. For a good while, I actually disliked Shiro Amano due to this.

But then came the redemption: KH2. The Prologue section of this manga is masterfully done, possibly even better than the game's version. The pace is less sluggish, the events less irritatingly obtuse, and the humor actually works to the benefit of the story's seriousness - because so much of the goofy humor is between Roxas, Hayner, Pence and Olette, you build even more of an emotional connection to them and the tragedy of Roxas learning the truth about his life hits that much harder when it transpires. When Sora returns, Amano is briefly tempted by his old inclinations and kind of backslides, with the resulting trips to Hollow Bastion, Beast's Castle, Land of Dragons and Olympus Coliseum suffering as a result. They aren't quite as insulting as the CoM manga, but still bad. However, true to hero's journey form this period of temptation and backsliding passes and only reinforces Amano's commitment to improving and actually balancing his humor and adaptational changes with drama, emotional sincerity and faithfulness to the game. From Disney Castle on, he returns to quality output. There are still mistakes here and there, but on the whole the manga is an enjoyable one. From the characterization to the action scenes to the tonal balance, Amano had improved.

And then came the hiatus between its first half and second half, during which he worked on the 358/2 Days manga. Take what I said about KH2's Prologue, then apply it x10, and you get this manga, where the writing and pacing is improved from its game counterpart and the humor is rich, well-timed and actively feeds into the drama and tragedy of the story rather than detract from it. To make the contrast to how far he's come most apparent, remember how in the CoM manga where there's an omake short that makes a complete joke out of the Riku Replica, originally one of the story's most tragic characters? Well in this manga, we get an omake short about a Dusk, which starts out hilarious but then ends up being absolutely heart-breaking. It makes me legit sad over a goddman DUSK. Now that takes real talent!

What's also apparent with the Days and KH2 mangas is that Amano had come to shine in a way that Tetsuya Nomura absolutely does not: respect for his female leads. Kairi, Namine and Xion in these mangas aren't primarily sources of support for male characters or there to make male characters feel things above all else; they are their own distinct individuals with vivid personalities and clear character arcs. Even Olette shines brighter than in the games!

Once Amano made it back to the KH2 manga for its second half, he was firing on all cylinders. Again, not everything was perfect, but much like the game itself the narrative flaws were not enough to overshadow the many more narrative strengths. And when the manga finally concluded after so many years, Amano confirmed that it truly was the end. He would not be adapting other KH games. And given that the rest of the KH series never got better than where KH2 ended, this was absolutely for the best. I could very easily imagine the Olympian gods making a constellation in Amano's image, as he had become a true hero.

However, oh no! He got persuaded into adapting KH3 when it came out in 2019! This is going to ruin everything, right? WRONG! The KH3 manga has not only been a shining example of how far Shiro Amano has come, but also a masterclass in demonstrating how acutely aware of the game's problems he is and the lengths he is willing to go to fix them. For example...

- He opens the manga with a direct adaptation of the game's opening scene with the Boy in Black and Boy in White in front of the chess board followed by the FMV intro. By doing things in this strange way, Amano invites the possibility of this being an alternate, diverging timeline from the prior manga continuity so that its ending remains untouched should you desire it to be. Almost as if the Boy in Black and Boy in White reside in some higher plane of existence and the KH3 manga is the "game" that they're playing, so it's not to be taken too seriously.

- The whole opening that semi-recaps stuff leading into KH3 is played off as a joke, and given that the stuff in question was stupid (such as the Mark of Mastery exam through sleeping worlds and Sora failing his Mark of Mastery exam on bullshit grounds), this is appreciated.

- He actually makes Maleficent and Pete more competent; rather than have Maleficent dismiss Pete's idea to take Sora out while he's still weak, he has both of them agree that they needn't bother with Sora because his weakness will lead him to being destroyed by the Xehanorganization anyway. They can find the black box while their foes fight each other.

- 0.2 BBS is adapted after the Olympus visit in a way that also recaps the most important points of BBS and includes stronger characterization for Aqua, Terra and Ventus. Stupid things like Mickey losing his shirt are avoided, and there is actually clarification on how Mickey could not have gone into the Realm of Darkness to save Aqua earlier and all the time between KH1 and KH2 he was building up his strength to obtain the Power of Waking so that he could as he promised to, making him come off so much better than he did in the games.

-Coded is not referenced, ever.

- The "Roxas and Namine ceased to exist when they merged with Sora and Kairi" retcon is completely avoided, with the manga instead saying they do exist within them as was originally the case in KH2. Giving Roxas his own body is less correcting some injustice or "hurt" and more part because he's needed for the battle against Xehanort and part because Sora's just a nice guy like that, wanting to provide his friends with all the basic comforts.

- Xehanort's master plan retcon is also discarded! Here it's said that Ansem and Xemnas' plans remained their own, as they should be, and that since Master Xehanort's return he's embarked on "a new plan" once joined by his time-traveling younger self, who never mentions needing Ansem for his time-traveling which keeps things consistent with how KH2 depicted time travel as simply a magical phenomenon that didn't need complicated rules.

- Not only are Riku and Kairi way more in-character than they were in the game, but most shockingly Axel is too! He actually feels like Axel, character flaws and all, not dumbass Lea!

- Toy Box, Corona and Arendelle, while still filler, are all adapted faithfully, which is nice.

- Various alterations are made for the better: the Riku Replica stuff is kept to an incredibly bare minimum, Ansem the Wise first appears in the scene where he returns to Radiant Garden meaning him still being alive is more of a legit twist plus he never meets Aqua only for there to be no pay-off and the dumbass plotline with him and Xehanort's Heartless is left out, the "secret Keyblade legacy" stuff with Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia and Larxene is cut, the second Kairi and Axel scene is no more, and the big reconvening at Yen Sid's Tower scene and the fallout montage is massively reworked into something far better written and paced.

All this plus maintaining his balance of humor and sincerity, including using the former to support the latter, and even correcting previous flaws (holy shit, Marluxia, Larxene, Vexen...they're all completely in-character now!) If Amano keeps this momentum going and actually manages to make something good out of the notoriously disappointing finale in the Keyblade Graveyard, then he will officially have given us the best version of KH3's story in existence.

Tl;dr: nothing but respect for Shiro Amano, who is a better writer than Nomura will ever be.

#Disney #Square Enix #Kingdom Hearts #Shiro Amano #Opinion #Analysis #Truthbomb #Anti-Nomura #Anti-Tetsuya Nomura #This has been a PSA

[dreaming-of-assclass]

omg hazama pfp …. trick or treat zainaaa <33 :]

Lee!!! Here’s a candy for you!! 🍫 And yes I’m honoring Hazama in the last few days of October lololol

…

“Aw, yeah! It’s pizza party time!” Muramatsu cheered, slapping his palm against his desk rather loudly.

Hazama rolled her eyes and thwacked him lightly with her gothic paperback. “It’s pizza, not gold.”

“Speak for yourself,” Yoshida snarked, turning around to face them and rubbing his palms together. “I even skipped lunch because I’ve been looking forward to this all day.”

“Same!” Terasaka chimed in, doing the same hand motion. “We didn’t do all that extra help in the classroom earlier for nuthin’.”

Besides him, Karma didn’t even bother to hide his snicker. “You have no idea how stupid you look right now.”

“Shut it, Karma!”

“If I knew pizza was all it took to turn you into a feral, brain dead zombie, I would’ve brought you some way sooner. You know, so you can be a better minion.”

“That’s it,” Terasaka growled, raising his fist. “Shu-!”

“PIZZA’S HERE, EVERYONE!” An obnoxious yet familiar voice sang, breaking the room into a silent pause. Korosensei glided over to his desk and rested the boxes onto the surface, his bright yellow tentacles waving around nonsensically.

“Aw yea- wait,” Kimura scrunched his nose in confusion. “Where’s the rest of it?”

There were only two medium-sized boxes.

“O-oh, erm…” Korosensei chuckled, turning a shade of pink. “That’s all Sensei can afford right now…hehehe….”

The room erupted in chaos.

“ARE YOU SERIOUS?!”

“WE’RE ALMOST THIRTY PEOPLE!”

Korosensei burst into tears, immediately covering his face with his tentacles. “I’M TRYING MY BEST! YOU KNOW SENSEI LOVES YOU VERY MUCH!”

“Clearly not enough!” Terasaka snapped.

“NOOOOOOOO I DO!”

Muramatsu frowned, eyeing the size of the boxes. He turned to Karma. “Hey, math genius. Do you think that’ll feed all of us?”

“What do I look like, your calculator?”

“God, you’re such a dick.”

The classroom has devolved into utter chaos as Korosensei continued to cry and wave his tentacles everywhere, Kimura offered to run and pick up more boxes of pizza, Kataoka swiftly reminded him they were on top of a mountain, Ritsu sacrificed her slice since she’s virtual, then Sugaya told her she wouldn’t get one in the first place, and then Ritsu started crying.

Karasuma rubbed his temple, feeling a pounding migraine come on. “OKAY ENOUGH. I’ll cut the slices for everyone myself, and next time we have pizza, I’ll make sure that oaf doesn’t buy it.”

Hearts appeared in Kurahashi’s eyes. “Mr Karasuma, you hero!”

“Yes thank you, Mr Karasuma!” Korosensei cried, holding his tentacles in a heart shape.

Karasuma sighed and pulled out a normal knife from the inside sleeve of his jacket.

After about ten minutes, Muramatsu stared down disappointingly at the tiny sliver of a pizza slice on his plate. “I think my thumb is wider than this slice.”

“Mine definitely is,” Terasaka grumbled, picking his slice up. It was comical really, how much larger his hand was.

“Why did I skip lunch for this again?” Yoshida groaned.

“I could say why, but then I’d just be repeating myself again,” Hazama said before passing her plate to Yoshida.

He looked incredulous. “For me?”

“Yeah dumbass since you didn’t eat any lunch at all. Take it.”

Yoshida grinned. “Thanks, Hazama.”

“Don’t mention it.” She went back to her book, but not before showing a tiny smile herself.

Terasaka chewed thoughtfully and glanced at Karma’s uneaten slice. “Are you gonna eat yours or what?”

The delinquent was rummaging through his desk, his head bowed while he searched. “Yes.”

“Well, what are you doing?”

“None of your bu- oh, here it is.” He pulled out a small spice container from his desk.

Terasaka squinted, reading the label. “Chili flakes? Why the fuck do you have chili flakes in your desk?”

“I don’t live by your standards,” Karma replied casually, sprinkling a generous amount over his minuscule pizza slice.

“Whatever.” Terasaka rolled his eyes. “This class is weird as hell.”

#zaina writing smth original for the first time in 2 years????? #unprecedented #assclass #trick or treat 2023 #LMAO I FORGOT ITONA so let’s just pretend he’s like tryna get adopted or smth 😭 #anyways here’s some karma + group 3 for you lee #they have sm comedic potential lol #ansatsu kyoushitsu #assassination classsroom #ryoma terasaka #karma akabane #taisei yoshida #takuya muramatsu #kirara hazama #group 3

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Considering that fanfic continuation you wrote about Azula in the Spirit Temple, I gather you have mixed to negative feelings about the ending. I can see why seeing Azula get abandoned by her "friends" (I use "friends" loosely, since the relationships Azula has are completely one sided. Azula wants them more than they want her) AGAIN would cause you fatigue. When do you think Azula will FINALLY have friends that won't abandon her in the end? Will we have to wait another 10 YEARS to see something like that? Maybe the writers can't conceive of Azula having any friends that stick with her for long because Azula is not a "good" person.

To be honest I've actually really warmed up to the story. There are some things that I didn't like about it but overall I'm glad that we finally got some canon acknowledgement that Ozai abused and manipulated her too and that she was weaponized (as the fans have been saying).

I also feel as though the ending did leave some room for hope as she did abandon the payback that she vowed to get, opting to leave them alone instead. I was really sad that she didn't get to have them as friends though. I liked them as a group, so that part disappointed me and it was like a gut punch to see them all happy and her alone again.

But the common speculation that I've seen is that the solo comic was just a retcon for Smoke and Shadow/a soft reboot. Which is why it didn't really progress her story so much as it nullified some of the mess from S&S.

Personally I'm kind of glad that they didn't try to tackle her redemption in a really short comic. I don't think that, given the small size of the comics that taking on that story in that medium would do it any justice. There's just so much complexity there that it would be better to do it in a longer novel, an Avatar Studios movie, or as one of the plotlines in a future show. I just don't think that the comic format would really work for Azula's story. So I think that they made the right call in just using it as a lead in to whatever comes next.

I am however peeved that it is taking so long to do anything to progress her story as it has be well over 10 years now.

I also feel like the writers don't know where they want to take her/got in over their heads with her.

#avatar the last airbender #azula #azula in the spirit temple

[fractualized]

I totally see where you're coming from with how you like your mix of comedy and seriousness and I think I'm really similar! I can definitely tolerate a lot of cheese but I'll almost always consider it a one off situation. I recently rewatched Batman and Robin while my wife was making a cast of my body so we could make cosplay and it was just so funny and silly that like it reminded me of what one of those really campy comics would look like in real life and I respected the fact that they could commit to it that way and make an artful movie that brought that to life but there were a few elements that didn't make sense to me like Barbara being Alfred's niece that I was just like whatever man and I knew I couldn't like... use it as a foundation for my basis of characterization, like I can with other media! I really love the animated series too, I grew up with it being my first experience with Batman and I always really respected it as a medium that I could trust to be satisfying and whole. I also really really liked Batman beyond because it felt like the closest continuation of that story even though I know it's really not canon and it kind of doesn't work, I like to view it as like a semi-official what if fan fiction from the original writers lol

I completely get what you mean about the comics, cuz I kind of view official comics like fanfictions even in their own right? I mean when you think back on like Bill finger and Bob Kane like eventually every other writer is going to be writing fanfiction of their characters but it's really fun to go through all the different Batman media and see whose stories you kind of like more and then whose stories you kind of tend to avoid

and when I mentioned I knew you liked comics, I was also speaking more from the perspective that you seem to have more knowledge about them Rather than I thought you had a preference for them, because you put together that comic PDF with batjokes moments and I was really impressed with that ☺️

i love your telltale fics and the games as a beautiful breath of fresh air into the life of batman so sometimes I like to imagine the animated series would be a great way to say where is juce 10 years later, if those universes were more cohesive setting wise lmao

Yeah, Barbara randomly being Alfred's niece is definitely one of the aspects of B&R that just… I guess it breaks up the campiness? That and Ivy being in love with Freeze for no discernable reason. And teaming up with him even though he'll kill her plants. And poor Bane! And then that weird bit at the end where Freeze is sort of forgiven but Ivy can't be? And Alfred almost dies. Should taken all that stuff out and added more camp.

I really enjoyed Batman Beyond too! I didn't even realize a lot of people didn't like it until recently. Honestly it's one of those things where I don't look into the reasons too much. lol I liked it and I'm fine with having liked it, no notes!! (OK I sorta lied. That bit in JLU where they made Bruce Terry's bio dad, that was bizarre.)

I am definitely in the "anything not created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane might as well be fanfic" camp. Like, sure, if DC puts resources behind a project, it has a better chance at being worth your time, but when I get down to it, I can't put a lot of weight behind the idea that someone's official derivative story is more valid than another someone's derivative AO3 post just because there was a cash exchange with a company that owns the original "asset." People who want to lean into that idea, that's their business.

The wild thing about the batjokes spreadsheet is I know that it's only a fraction of what's out there. I have read hundreds of comics at this point and I still feel like it's not enough to totally have a handle on things. Especially knowing how little I've retained. 😅 But that's another reason for the spreadsheet!

Thank you for enjoying my fics! And for implanting the idea in my head of a Telltale universe animated series… Just hijinks and maybe a little more murder with John and Bruce, bestest buddies.

#ask #my jibber-jabber

[rontra]

I had never even heard of this magician woman before you started making art of her but I am oddly invested in your art of this funky little woman, she seems silly and goofy

no i know right. i had the same experience i was like "who the hell is this magician woman theyve got standing next to the justice league" and my partner was like oh Zatanna Zatara? everybody knows her (and she's IN the justice league)

shook me to my core. there was a sillygoofy magician the whole time i had never once heard of... now i'm so invested in her goofy shit. i'm glad my art is becoming a secondary source of infection ❤

optional: here's some things ive learned over the past 3 months

she was introduced as a weirdo in 1964. she's been weird and strange for 59 years and counting! next year will be her 60th anniversary #Hag

her whole gimmick is that she's a famous stage magician who also happens to be a real magician, which i think is very good

i think she joined the justice league in like 1978 or smthg shes Been Around

before i had the magician disease: no matter how much someone tried to explain her character to me, i couldn't grasp her. and now that i have first-hand magician disease: no matter how much i try to explain her to my partner, they can't grasp her. i think there's something aberrant about her. like she demands hands-on interaction to be truly perceived. but watch out for the spores

????

for a while she used to drag her Normal Manager around for magic adventures. his name was Jeff and i suppose he just took the constant near-death peril as part of the "managing a stage magician" job

some website once ranked her among the top 5 sexiest comic women, making her the highest-ranking DC character on the list #LetsGo #MagicianSweep

she's quite beloved and a pretty consistent feature but she doesn't get a ton of solo stuff 😔✌ but theyre reprinting her comic from 2010 next year woohoo happy 60th bitch

they forgot to really give her a power ceiling and her magic can pretty much do anything she can think of, so she's a consistent pain in DC's neck whenever she has to intersect with other characters and Big Serious Plots—but it's not like they can just leave her on the shelf entirely either

(i think powerscaling is fake & that "who would win a fight between x and y" is a fake question that depends on so much more than hard numbers, especially in a medium like comics. but i also think DC itself quite visibly feels a pressure to manage her + i think this quirk about her is extremely funny and i LOVE to see them try so hard to nerf their pesky magician)

in 2004 they made her part of a The Gang Commits Atrocities plot without really justifying Why she would do all that, and her next several years are Fascinating to watch as writers try to come up with various ways to make new sense of her character in light of it. until the whole dc comics continuity was wiped and relaunched in 2011, solving the problem by erasing the whole thing from canon (along with everything else)

the real crime of that whole incident? the '04 comic that started it wasn't even very good

she's listed on the DC Wiki category page for "Eldritch Blast"

currently serving time in the Justice League Dark branch department, which is where we keep all the weird grimy magic stuff so it doesn't get all over everything

for a second and not too long ago, the big leaguers exploded and died for a bit (long story also they got better) including zee. and they put a gigantic scary moving painting of her in the basement as a memorial. i think this is exactly what she would have wanted to be honest

this post

they should put her in the rwby crossovers more. she was in dc/rwby for a second but i want her in the damn movies. i think it'd be funny

i love her. that's what i've learned in the past 3 months

#dont fact check me here but what ive learned is that i think im in love with her

[madhogthymaster]

Down The Cabbit Hole: The Weird World of Klonoa Literature - An Archive (Part 2)

[PART 1]

22 July 2022

As I slowly work my way towards Klonoa media completionism (pending), I find myself drawn to Dream Crusaders, a fan-made continuation to the cancelled Dream Traveller of Noctis Sol webcomic, written and illustrated by Esteban Girolami.

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As you know, my opinions about that officially licensed material are overwhelmingly negative, nevertheless I am curious as to what this adventure may yield under a new direction and vision - which is automatically better than having neither direction nor vision at all.

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To be perfectly blunt, there is absolutely no chance of redemption for that comic. It was a doomed enterprise the second Huepow showed up out of nowhere. Its mere existence is offensive. That said, I'm glad this "sequel" starts off with these two. I'm keenly aware of the hypocrisy.

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Nightmare Klonoa's face game appears to be in top shape, which is swell since the original story did not give me any reason whatsoever to care about this doofus. I only now notice the cute detail of the Pac-Man's ghost hat.

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Actually using loosely established lore from Lunatea's Veil to inform your narrative? Alright, Dream Crusaders, you have my attention.

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Ah, I see. You are using your story as a thinly-veiled excuse to bring back iconic series antagonists for fan-service purposes. I can respect that. At least, you are providing something that your audience might want to see.

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This is how you are choosing to characterize the Goddess Claire, eh? Go on.

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Thou shalt not make Nightmare Klonoa likeable.

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Hurray!

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Honestly, that's a power move on the writer's part.

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Excuse me? How dare you come at me with that expression!? I don't appreciate being specifically targeted!

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Oh no, I love her.

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As far as fanfictions go, this is giving me exactly the kind of inanity I would enjoy from the medium. It is not a good Klonoa story but it's clearly having fun with its dumb premise. Goddess Claire, in full anime super villain mode, is the unquestionable MVP.

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I get the feeling this author does not particularly care about Guntz, which the only acceptable behaviour when it comes to Guntz.

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"Oh don't mind me, I'm just going to Naruto pose in the background of this exposition panel."

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Gasp! It's the bandana-wearing Moo! Legally distinct from the bandana-wearing Waddle Dee!

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"I promise not to obliterate the elderly, metaphorically or otherwise."

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It's Trauma Bunny!

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Ah, an appropriate pairing. Trash belong together, after all.

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"Hyuck!"

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Original Character. Do Not Steal.

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I am a man of simple pleasures.

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He looks just right.

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Well, this is awkward.

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As of this date, that was the last currently available page for Dream Crusaders. I am enjoying this fan-interpretation of a failed project quite a bit. It might be just a load of fan-service and entirely self-indulgent but it's the passionate, dedicated sort of fan-service driven fanfiction.

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It is everything Noctis Sol was not: the exact opposite of a soulless, dull, visionless drivel, one that actually takes the time and care to properly write sufficiently-defined characters and consistent story beats. I will continue to read it in the future.

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Conclusively, it's a fun read and the artwork is high quality, more professionally sequenced and framed than the *official* webcomic series. Unfortunately, you would have to go through that abomination in order to get to the good part.

---

With this dream firmly behind us, like a distant memory of childhood, it is time to burrow ourselves down, deeper and deeper, into the Cabbit Hole in order to unearth older, much more obscure materials. Next time, we enter the positively drizzling underworld of Klonoa's "scanlations" and any remaining miscellanea, thus finally bringing my archive up to speed. Stay drowsy, fellow Phantomilians.

[PART 3]

#archive #klonoa #fluffy boy literature #madhog thy master #down the cabbit hole #webcomic #comics #literature #bandai namco #dream crusaders

[rezonan]

Why do people use OOC/Irrelevant stories to justify their hatred for characters?

I'll admit I got this question from reddit but seeing as you are a big fan of Iron Man and certain characters afflicted by this issue I thought I would ask

Comic book characters and the consistency of favored portrayals

Why do people do the exact opposite to justify how cool they think a character is?

Look this is probably the worst kind of question to ask me, back when I was in high school my classmates hated me cause when it came to arguments I would always 'Stand on the fence' or 'Never pick a side' and I agree, even when I disagree or agree I can't help but see the other side of things with some questions.

I think one of the biggest things comic fans need to accept with our medium is that, the only real continuity that exists is the one we try and brute force and make in our heads, some writers themselves don't really care, Geoff Jones ignored Batman previously basically begging for Hal Jordan to come back to life when he was The Spectre to writing Batman basically complaining that Hal was back because to him that is what he thinks Batman should act like with Hal, and considering he probably grew up with a comic like Dark Knight Returns the asshole authoritarian was probably was he knew of the character, who knows I don't know his personal life.

I think we can all say that you have fallen in love with a character based of Non Canon stories, Hell my favorite comic for Superman and the one that got me into liking the character was All-Star Superman. The exact opposite of that like what you asked tho, Hating a character because a story depicted them poorly whether it's canon or not is valid as well, I mean it's pretty damn short-sighted if they have been exposed to better represented sides of those characters, but it doesn’t change the impact they initially felt, wether they can get past that is on the person. Like for example, I fucking hated Superman growing up cause the first movies I remember seeing him in was the freaking Dark Knight Returns duology and certain parts of Young Justice Season 1 but overtime seeing better versions and representations of the characters and also hearing put fans on what he represents has pushed him up to my 5th favorite hero, I do understand not everyone can do this. People just want to support their view of the character.

I also do think people who hate certain characters do reach a lot of the time, sharing panels of stories older than their parents sometimes probably not even knowing what comic it even came from, just happy they have this image of the character they don't like being abusive or something. It's even worse then the he outright go out of their way to find these panels or stories to use for hate on purpose even after knowing it's generally agreed upon it's a shitty representation of the character. Seriously nobody should bring up All Star Batman and Robin as some 'Got Ya!' moment in an argument, just no. Sometimes some people have just predetermined in their mind they want to hate a character and will go out of their way to farm for anything that can paint them in the worst light possible.

With Iron Man it's people bringing up Civil War again and again and again continuously like the 40 years of stories before that don't show why Tony would never do any of that in his right mind. With Superman it's people bringing up injustice in literally any relation to him or people bringing up a scene of Jason Todd blaming Bruce for his death as evidence of how whiny he is even when one of the highlight lines of his first appearance as Red Hood is 'Bruce I forgive you for not saving me but-'

With characters like say, Hal Jordan, Magneto or Venom and meny more, it gets more interesting here. Here what the characters did that was bad IS/WAS(considering reboots in Hal's case) in continuity but a version of the characters that were received much more popularly then makes fans disregard these past appearances as wrong, say they have had this entirely new portrayal longer than they had that one or writers themselves will retcon them away by making them, in the case of former villians now refromed, seem less evil than they were. No no those people Magneto killed weren't innocent humans in the silver age, they were actually anti-mutant bigots that killed a little girl for being a mutant. One of my favorite examples of this is Hulk. Yes Hulk the rampaging monster from movies to series to comics, in comics in I think 2008 was retconned to have never and I mean never killed a single person in all his rampages In the in-universe 12 years at that point, not even indirectly because Bruce Banner was subconsciously calculating all the angles of where he would throw or smash stuff apprently. All those crumbled buildings, nope, nothing.

And you know what? I can agree with some of that (that Hulk retcon is still dumb) because let me tell you the real truth to all this.

Consistency

People love consistency, They don't care about Magneto killing innocents in the 60s or Venom eating people in the 90s, they care about the take that has been supported consistently in their view for longer or just showed more consistently in what they have seen. Even for the haters it's the same, if for example my only experience with Batman was All Star and Certain Post New 52 issues, I would be happy knowing I hate this borderline sociopathic dude that's what I know Batman as.

You see it even with the movies, When The Amazing Spider-Man came out you had people saying it was an inaccurate take or not liking the changes even though it was actually more comic accurate that what came before but fans of the Raimi movies have consistently seen Peter as a meek and nice kid before being Spider-Man not an asshole, they have consistently seen him with organic webbing not with web shooters. Anything that breaks the portrayal they have known the most if gonna make them react either well or badly. People who only knew Tony Stark from Civil War probably reacted well to his MCU version seeing as he broke the consistent borderline villian they knew him from the comics.

So the big issue is people trying to force their own consistent idea of a character on others when comics just aren't consistent, everyone like I said at the start has their own makeshift continuity in their head they made up with books they liked or think fit, the consistent portrayal they know about, so this is why you get people arguing about if Batman is the real identity or Bruce Wayne or if Clark Kent should wear trunks or not I could go on and on like if Wonder Woman should use a sword? Someone who is used to the New 52 version would say yes and someone used to the Post Crisis version would say no. Or maybe it's what love interest Spidey should end up with, people who say Gwen probably grew up with TASM and Spectacular Spider-Man. Better for people to just respectly discuss the takes of characters different people have instead of childishly pushing the version they have in their head as the correct version and putting down everyone else's pretty damn subjective takes. That's with superhero comics of course, the nature of what is canon and isn't and how fans of this stuff talk about it with different 'takes' is way more unique than talking about disliking MCU Spider-Man or talking about why you hate Sasuke or something.

I don't really have a good way to end all this cause that's just it, all about consistency if I didn't get that across the 10 times I used that word. As usual feel free to disagree with me and if possible tell me how and why.

#dc #batman #jason todd #red hood #marvel #iron man #superman #hal jordan #magneto #venom #spider man #wonder woman #hulk

[endless-bunny]

Pathfinder Iconics Comparison Part 6: Who's left?

[Part 1: Classes with Different Iconics] [Part 2: Core Classes] [Part 3: The Remaining PF2 Classes] [Part 4: Classes Who Got Demoted] [Part 5: Prestige Classes]

And so we come to the end of our journey. It's been a ride. Out of forty total classes in PF1, only twelve* remain that we have yet to examine. * Only twelve classes, but we actually have 17 Iconic characters left to look at, more on that later

Hybrid Classes

Top: Crowe (Bloodrager, he/him), Kess "The Bull" (Brawler, she/her), Adowyn & Leryn (Hunter, she/her) Bottom: Hakon (Skald, he/him), Zadim (Slayer, he/him), Oloch (Warpriest, he/him)

Half of the remaining classes are Hybrid classes from the Advanced Player's Guide. The Hybrid classes, as I've mentioned before, are meant to blend two "parent" classes, taking features from both but creating a play experience that is distinct from either. Some of these achieved their goals better than others.

A lot of the game design space that was occupied by the hybrid classes can now be filled by PF2's multiclassing system. While in PF1 it was often preferable to pick, say, Bloodrager over a Barbarian/Sorcerer multiclass, in PF2, the Archetype feats make it easier to do so. With just a few feats, a Barbarian can gain spellcasting abilities from the Sorcerer without losing any of their potency as a frontline fighter.

If I were a gambling bun — and let's be real, I spend most of my time playing games with dice — I'd say we won't be seeing the Hunter or Warpriest again as full classes in their own right. It seems like one of Oloch's parents got full custody.

In PF2, the Warpriest is one of two Doctrines that can be taken by the Cleric, sacrificing some magical potency in favour of increased martial prowess. Similarly, the niche formerly occupied by the Hunter is now occupied by certain Ranger abilities.

The Hunter was a Ranger who lost some combat focus in exchange for starting with a pet, like a Druid, rather than having to wait until Lv.4. The PF2 Ranger can start with a pet, making the niche formerly occupied by the Hunter pretty redundant.

As for the others, never say never. Even if they don't show up as classes, Paizo might surprise us with archetypes. And Oloch has already shown up in Hollow Mountain as a member of Seltyiel's adventuring party (along with Damiel and Meligaster) so it's not impossible that they might show up in future comics or books.

I feel like I sort of cheated with Shardra and maybe she should also be included here, since she wasn't used for a character option.

Occult Classes

Erasmus (Medium, he/him); Meligaster (Mesmerist, he/him)

The Kineticist and Psychic appear in PF2, while the Occultist and Spiritualist have successors in the Thaumaturge and Summoner, respectively. That leaves only two of the classes from Occult Adventures without representation in PF2. The Medium and the Mesmerist.

The Medium can channel spirits of the dead to gain their knowledge and skills for a time, manifesting in-game as bonuses to specific types of rolls.

The Mesmerist uses psychic magic to control the minds of others. Meligaster appears in Hollow Mountain as a member of Seltyiel's adventuring party, and shows off his mastery of psychic control.

Erasmus's glowing yellow eyes really sell the "possessed" angle, and the grey hair streaking his temples hints at continual psychic stress. I love his array of unconventional tools: the ouija board and planchette, the crystal ball, and the handful of... Harrow(?) cards, all very neat for divining and communing with the spirit world. He's also incredibly fashionable. It takes a brave man to wear a cravat and a scarf but he pulls it off.

Meligaster's appearance is great, I love his tall hat and the hypnotic, swirling spiral patterns on his clothes. Wayne did a great job of making his stare really intense, which is what the Mesmerist is all about. He really fixes his gaze upon the viewer, making it hard to appreciate the other fine details in his costume.

I'm not betting on these two classes making a return any time soon but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of Meligaster coming back in the story; he's the long-lost brother of Lem, the Iconic Bard. There's a fair bit of bad blood between them so I could see that getting resolved as part of a future storyline.

Alternate (Eastern) Classes

Ninja (Reiko, she/her*), Samurai (Hayato, he/him) * Liz Courts, author of Meet The Iconics: Reiko stated in this messageboard post that Reiko is a female-presenting genderqueer/genderfluid character, but was not speaking in the capacity of a member of Paizo's editorial staff at that time. Reiko's gender identity is thus not canonically confirmed.

These are two Alternate classes from Ultimate Combat. The Ninja is an alternate Rogue, and the Samurai is an alternate Cavalier. Essentially, they take the basic class and swap out a couple of features here and there while keeping the core unchanged. The Samurai gets a mounted archery ability, for example, whereas the Cavalier gets the ability to train horses more easily; and the Rogue is better at finding and disarming traps, but the Ninja becomes adept in the use of poisons.

I think Wayne's signature style of "give them a tonne of stuff to carry around" really does good work for these two. A samurai who's armed to the teeth, or a ninja with the right tool for every occasion are both great. I think Hayato might be wearing a scabbard upside-down, though? If it's a katana, they were typically worn with the edge facing up, though it is also just a question of the personal preference of the wielder.

These two haven't shown up in PF2 yet, but I think it's only a matter of time. Next year, we're going to be getting not one, but two books about the continent of Tian Xia, the Asian-inspired region of Golarion. We'll be getting a World Guide and a Character Guide. We might see Reiko or Hayato over there, as background characters, class options or archetypes. Watch this space I guess

Base Classes

Inquisitor (Imrijka, she/her), Shifter (Zova, she/her)

And now we come to the last two player classes. The Inquisitor was introduced in the Advanced Player's Guide (2011), and the Shifter in Ultimate Wilderness (2017). Imrijka has been around a while and appeared in plenty of art, being featured in comics as recently as 2019. Zova, meanwhile, is much younger (in game terms). The Shifter was the very last class to be introduced. Ultimate Wilderness was the penultimate PF1 sourcebook line before the launch of Second Edition so Zova wasn't around very long before the writers started to focus on PF2 stuff.

The Inquisitor is an agent of their faith, tasked with tracking down threats to the orthodoxy, whether they are external (as in the case of devils and demons) or internal (such as corrupt priests).

The Shifter is... a shapeshifter, they can assume the form of an animal. They're kind of like a Druid, if Wild Shape was the main thing that that class did rather than just being one of many.

Though she's appeared in comics recently, I wonder if the unfortunate implications of Inquisiting are the reason we haven't seen the class in PF2 yet. The class description is:

Grim and determined, the inquisitor roots out enemies of the faith, using trickery and guile when righteousness and purity is not enough. Although inquisitors are dedicated to a deity, they are above many of the normal rules and conventions of the church. They answer to their deity and their own sense of justice alone, and are willing to take extreme measures to meet their goals. Role: Inquisitors tend to move from place to place, chasing down enemies and researching emerging threats. As a result, they often travel with others, if for no other reason than to mask their presence. Inquisitors work with members of their faith whenever possible, but even such allies are not above suspicion.

Advanced Player's Guide (2011), p.38

And... yikes? A small yikes. One singular yike. I like the idea of an Inquisitor-type class, there's a lot of interesting stuff you can do with a character whose only motivation is to root out corruption, like an Inspector Javert kind of thing. There's definitely space for that kind of character in PF2, it's the kind of character lots of players want to play. But in practice I worry that allowing such a character class, especially in organised play, might create unnecessary friction between players. The fact that the class description includes the phrase "extreme measures" was possibly enough to leave a bad taste in some people's mouths. It's a class that I like conceptually but I feel needs to be handled delicately to avoid upset.

It is still early days, though. PF1 was around for ten years and we're only into year 5 of PF2's existence. We might yet see the Inquisitor again.

The Shifter is a class that I think there is room for in PF2. There are already a bunch of feats and ancestry features that allow players to gain specific unarmed attacks by shapeshifting a little bit, so having a class that focusses on that seems like a no-brainer.

That being said, I feel like if they were going to bring the Shifter back, the upcoming Howl of the Wild book would be the perfect place to do it, and we've heard no mention of a Shifter in the preview material for that. Howl of the Wild is going to focus on seven new characters so maybe having Zova as well would be too much. I guess we'll have to see. It's definitely not the last opportunity for a Shifter to appear.

Zova is still kicking about. Here's an illustration from Lost Omens: The Mwangi Expanse where she just seems to be having a nice meal with some friends.

Iconic Villains

Top: Emil (Assassin/Rogue, he/him); Lazzero (Cleric of Asmodeus, he/him) Bottom: Linxia (Fighter/Hellknight she/her); Nyctessa (Necromancer Wizard, she/her); Zelhara (Inquisitor, she/her)

We've seen Urgraz, the Iconic Antipaladin, already, but he's only one of a line-up of iconic villains designed by Wayne Reynolds. None of these is a unique class; instead they were created for the Hell's Vengeance Adventure Path where the players are the baddies, a fun little inversion. I know lots of people love the idea of playing an all-villains game but never get round to it. Having a single Evil character in a party can end up being very disruptive, and I think having an all-Evil party might be difficult for the Game Master to navigate.

These five, plus Urgraz, have also appeared in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game but I can't comment one way or another about that because I've never played it.

---

At time of writing (23/08/23), Paizo has promised us a playtest preview of two "fresh, new" classes at the end of the month. I guess we'll have to wait and see just how fresh the faces are, we might see someone we recognise.

As for the rest, I do wonder if we'll see them again in PF2 material. I know that many of the Iconics are really popular among fans. There exists tonnes of cosplay, fan art, fan fiction and so on using all of these characters. People like having a diverse cast of blorbos that they can draw from, inventing little interactions or scenarios. There's probably a non-zero number of Lem X Ezren shippers out there.

Paizo recently established Pathfinder Infinite, an official distribution platform where fans can create original fiction using the canon characters and setting. I think it'd be interesting to see the relative frequency of the Iconics, who gets used regularly and who not at all. I remember Fanfiction.net used to allow you to see the number of fics written for a given character.

While I was putting this post together, a friend asked if I was planning on putting together similar posts about other non-characters such as archetypes, but unless I limited the scope of such a project somewhat arbitrarily (e.g. only tackling rulebooks and not campaign setting or adventure path stuff) it would quickly grow out of hand. I guess I'll think about it? I never planned when I set out on this quest to become the authority on Pathfinder characters. I also don't know how interesting it would be, since most of those sorts of character show up exactly once, maybe I'd limit myself to only characters who appear two or more times.

But that's another story for another time. That's yer lot for now.

#pathfinder #pathfinder 2e #pf2e #ttrpg #tabletop #role playing game

[calliecat93]

So with RT shutting down, RWBY's fate is completely up in the air... but given Warner Bros. recent treatment of their properties, I do not have much hope. Plus I'd only continue watching if Miles and Kerry continued to be in charge, and I get the feeling that isn't going to happen. Call me cynical and I hope I'm wrong, but sadly I have to assume the worst.

It sucks. I've followed RWBY more or less from the start. Even after Monty passed, I kept watching. Even when I lost all respect for RT and stopped watching their content, I kept watching. Even when it moved to Crunchyroll and I nearly threw in the towel, I kept watching. I've followed this show for a decade from nearly the beginning to the supposed end and knowing that it's likely not going to get a proper ending because of a bunch of cooperate BS... I can't even be angry at this kind of thing anymore. I'm just disappointed.

But instead of lamenting over the what-ifs, I want to appreciate what had been. I've loved every minute of the show and watching it grow into what it had become by Volume 9. Not everyone liked it, and that's fair. I didn't love everything, but there was never a moment where I wanted to stop watching. I've spent the first ten years of my adult life following Team RWBY as they grew and discovered themselves, and in many ways, it helped me discover myself as well.

I never disliked any volume. No, not even Volume 5. It was a fun ride from beginning to end. It was amazing to see every single aspect of RWBY grow from good for a cheap web show to freakin' spectacular. The animation, the voice acting, the writing, and even the music which was utter perfection from the start only got better and better. And while I had no real interest in stuff like the comics or the Justice League crossover, the fact that they exist is just mind-blowing.

I'm still sad that this might be the end, but I guess it could have been in worse spots. Volume 9 gave me a lot of payoffs I'd been waiting on for years and ended on an open but still hopeful note for the future. It's better than if say... Volume 8 had been the end haha. Some parts will remain unresolved, but at least I can have some peace that our heroes will triumph in the end. Maybe I'm wrong and CRWBY can work something out even if not in the animated medium, but only time will tell. The biggest lesson that I've taken from the series is that despite what hardships and unexpected swerves come at you, you have to keep moving forward. That is a lesson I plan to follow through on now.

Thank you for an amazing decade RWBY. Thank you for all that you taught me. Thank you to CRWBY for making all that you did happen despite all the circumstances. Thank you Miles and Kerry for keeping the series alive and giving us an amazing series that we can always go back to. And of course thank you Monty for your creation, I hope wherever you are now you're watching on proud of what your team accomplished. Hopefully this isn't the final good-bye, but more of a see you later. I supposed we'll find out.

#rwby

[supersonicart]

D*Face’s “Painting Over the Cracks.”

On view beginning August 6th, 2022 at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles, California is artist D*Face’s highly anticipated solo exhibition, “Painting Over the Cracks.”

Instantly recognized as one of the UK’s most prolific Urban Contemporary artists, D*Face (Dean Stockton) has occupied the forefront of his practice since his first sell out show in 2005. Born and raised in London, his childhood interests of graffiti, California skate culture, and punk aesthetic were well nurtured from an early age. Having come across the likes of Jim Phillips and Vernon Courtlandt Johnson amidst the pages of Thrasher Magazine, he was initially inspired to follow a path of graphic design and illustration, before eventually taking a more freelance approach to his art. After learning to screen print his own stickers, he took the public domain of the street as his canvas, blending art, design, and graffiti in a manner that pre-dated the emergence of street art as it is known today. It was in this newly found outlet that D*Face quickly gained attention from others, mainly for the clean, vivid nature of his designs that quickly spread across the city. Even today, D*Face continues to approach his work with the same anarchic energy that drove his career from the outset. His murals can be found across the globe and his subversive-pop style and iconic D*Dog logo have become an inseparable part British Urban art and it’s ever-expanding medium.

Often describing his work as ‘aPOPcalyptic,’ D*Face seeks to pick up where the masters of 1980’s American Pop left off ─ to establish a very real, albeit tongue in cheek criticism of our consumer dominated world. By subverting the images and icons of the everyday, the artist encourages the eye of the beholder not just to ‘see’ but to carefully consider that which they may otherwise take for granted. By re-appropriating media from decades of materialistic over-consumption--advertising, comic books, and on-screen romance--and reshaping it with cleaner lines and the vibrant hues of his pallet, D*Face’s work acts as a necessary wake up call to overly conspicuous society of the 21st century.

Regarding his new works, D*Face shares, “Yes, yes, I’m aware the actual expression is to ‘paper over the cracks’ but for obvious reasons, painting felt more appropriate to me and to this show ─ with nearly one hundred murals under my belt, I’ve spent my fair share of time painting over real cracks in real walls. If you haven’t heard the expression before, it essentially refers to the act of ignoring or hiding an issue in both the literal and metaphorical sense ─ it’s putting on a brave face and pretending that ‘the issue’ doesn’t really exist.” Adding, “After living through an unprecedented, historical moment in time that saw us globally locked down as a result of the pandemic, I think we’ve witnessed our fair share of ‘cracks’ appearing across society and culture alike, some fresh, some older, and some deeper than before. In many of these cases it felt like the approach was to apply a big dollop of metaphorical paint to cover them up, only for the cracks to reappear slightly worse further down the line. This show and body of work is a collection of my own personal observations and feelings from the last couple of years. My intention is not a love letter to what we have lost and nor is it a celebration of the change that was catalysed by the pandemic, because, let’s face it, there’s been good and bad in both. Rather, it’s a visual acknowledgement of the altered society in which we now find ourselves and which we must strive to make better.”

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#art #painting #d face #corey helford gallery #street art #murals

[yvtro]

For me the issue is Jason retiring would never work and would only end in tragedy. We know this because Jason is a DC comic character. Gotham can't get better and more than retiring Jason needs Gotham to be better and safer to heal. Jason is a tragedy and he is a myth as a fictional character. You could maybe have him retire for a bit and comeback but there is no way DC would ever let him leave just like they will never kill the Joker. Id only except a retirement myself if the Joker died.

it’s cute you assume i care about what dc would do and what they wouldn’t. i haven’t speculated about that at any point. dc is a dumpster fire and i don’t think readers need to acknowledge everything every writer has ever written nor even agree with the general direction in which they take their universe. it’s an extremely specific medium. i care for maybe 10% of jason comics past his death and my meta is based on what i think would be good storytelling and interesting characterisation (especially in sense of continuing his pre-death stories), not what i believe dc would ever do.

but i also disagree with your belief that it can’t work because gotham wouldn’t get better. gotham wouldn’t get better no matter what jason does as a vigilante for the same reason. vigilantism is not a long term solution to any problems that society has, also in-universe; this is something that is stressed many times in “batman” too. that’s also the difference between bruce and jason; bruce knows about it. jason is still in denial.

which is why i think either retirement or taking the batman mantle would be actual character development for jason; it would mean he’s coming to terms with the fact that there’s no easy solution to crime.

“jason needs gotham to be safer to heal” sometimes healing isn’t about things being perfect. most of the time, in fact, healing is about accepting that world might be an awful place, but we endure, and sometimes we thrive, and sometimes we go back to enduring. but we keep on living and we need to preserve the hope, and find joy in things like small acts of kindness. i think about this essay fragment when it comes to jason a lot:

(this is from solnit btw)

it’s all sisyphus rolling up that rock you know. you have to imagine him happy or however camus phrased that.

also, going back to retirement, i think there are PLENTY stories to be told about civilians in universe. it would be extremely interesting to see them navigating the world of superheroes and supervillains. and i think it would be worth exploring even if the nature of dc’s never ending narration required jason deciding he can’t do it in the end.

#answered #jason todd #jay meta #dc comics