Armageddon, NaruTaru (Shadow Star)
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“Be gay. Do crimes.”
- THE EXTRAORDINARIES by TJ Klune
This was the landslide winner of the September Fanart Poll on my Patreon! (Sorry it’s late—I got sick at the end of September and it majorly delayed all my projects!)
I came at this one a little differently than usual since I wanted to get Nick, Seth, and Owen in the shot but also highlight the fact that Nick writes spectacularly funny fanfic about the Extraordinaries. And then I thought it might be cool as a variant cover, so there ya go.
If you would like to vote in the November Art Poll (it’s a sapphic fanart theme this time), come join the Patreon!
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some days its just me and the little bit of owen burke thats always with me against the world
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Narutaru doodles
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i just finished narutaru (aka shadow star) and i can't stop thinking about it. it's so full of problems, especially the last few volumes, but i struggle to think of any anime/comic i've liked so much despite so many flaws.
spoilers abound, and this probably won't be interesting if you haven't read the manga, anyway.
from a creator standpoint, i'm paying attention to the fact that kitoh's use of duality and jungian archetypes seems to be what makes it so effective, although the former is part of what makes it so messy and needlessly convoluted. it seems like kitoh's goal was to present almost all characters in pairs with their opposite. the first and best example of this is shiina and akira, shiina being light/optimism/strength and akira being darkness/pessimism/weakness.
kitoh keeps on (and keeps on and keeps on) introducing new characters and it definitely gets tiresome when you're three volumes from the end and there's a new side character/side story, but one of the ways he makes them easier to digest and more integrated into the story is to immediately establish them as a reflection or contrast to another character. when hirono is reintroduced in vol. 6, we're following her struggle with bullying and her isolation is juxtaposed with akira's. it ends up being one of the most interesting and emotional conversations of the series, as a result, although i think hirono only has about three chapters of "screen time."
to make sure every character has a foil/opposite is one of the ways he makes each one seem to have more depth. tsurumaru being really enthusiastic about procreating is a bizarre and repugnant character trait, for example, but when he's juxtaposed with the hollow, uncaring, passionless naozumi, what he symbolizes seems more important and interesting.
you quickly see the problem with relying too much on the dualism approach, though. shiina and akira spend half the manga being clear and understandable opposites, for example, before akira's role is abruptly diminished and she's replaced at the end with kuri, who explains that she's the shadow to shiina's light. it would have been way more effective to nix the kuri character and have akira fill her role. i'm baffled as to why kitoh didn't do this, but i suspect when he started focusing the characters as playing symbolic dualistic roles, he was a bit blinded to simple ways to tighten dynamics and give them greater emotional impact.
stories that heavily employ jungian archetypes (shadow self, anima, great mother, etc.) and subconscious symbolism always seem to have this lingering grip on my psyche (the last ones that i remember feeling similarly about were the nightmare alley novel and overdue rewatch of evangelion). they still seem so mysterious and meaningful to me even when i can consciously recognize what the creator is doing. it makes me wonder just how sloppily you can use these devices and still have the same effect.
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i saw an angel today
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Kirby Air Ride: Released July 11th, 2003
Whenever I talk to people about Kirby (or you for that matter) it's a pretty safe guess that their favorite game in the series was probably Air Ride, so I wanted to stream this drawing when I initially worked on it. I remember finishing it in about 6 hours or so, I believe. I had fun coming up with the background, trying to blur the road and the clouds to give a sense of motion. I think if I re-did this drawing, I'd make Kirby's Warpstar thicker. Looks a little flimsy in this picture.
Part of the Kirby's Birthday Stars project.
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an ode to seth’s sweatshirt
is october nearly over? yes. am i going to start fulfilling flufftober prompts right now anyways? also yes.
day one: wearing each other’s clothes
read it on ao3!
~~~
Seth’s Sweatshirt was a special kind of happiness. Every time Nick wore it–cold train rides, sleepovers, movie marathons, winter dates–he was covered in the smell of campfire smoke, aftershave, and Tide laundry detergent. This was, in Nick’s opinion, the best possible smell, because it was Seth’s smell.
And don’t even get him started on how it felt; after being worn for so many years, adorned by Nick’s admittedly scrawny frame and Seth’s increasingly muscular one, the threadbare fabric was more like a blanket than clothing in terms of softness. Paired with the fact that it was slightly too big for him, it was the comfiest thing he could think of for late nights with old movies playing on low volume in the background.
But even though it was almost worn through, it was warm enough for mid-January days. Nick was almost convinced Seth had put some kind of spell on it– maybe he was, like, spreading his fire-stuff to the cotton, and that was why Nick could wear it instead of a jacket without chattering his teeth off.
If Nick were to be completely honest, The Sweatshirt was just a sweatshirt, in its purest form no different than anything you could order off of Amazon. The fabric wasn’t magic. Enchantment wasn’t sewn into the stitching, and the zipper wasn’t extraordinary. There was only one quality to The Sweatshirt that made him care about it at all:
It was Seth’s.
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I am loudly pushing the batdad agenda i am loudly pushing the— DPxDC Prompt
“Woah. You look like shit."
Granted, that’s probably not the first thing Danny should be saying to the guy that just bit the curb, but in his defense; he’s not running on 100% right now either.
The man -- tall, towering, and broader than Danny is tall -- whips around on his heel, black frayed cape flaring out impressively. Danny would've whistled in appreciation, but he takes the time instead to wipe the back of his hand across his mouth, smearing the blood running from his nose across his cheek.
"Sorry." He blinks widely, not even flinching as the man with the horns zeroes in on him. "That was rude of me. I have a really bad brain-to-mouth filter; Sam says its what always gets me into trouble."
And she's not wrong either, per say. His smart mouth is what landed him in this situation -- with blood blossom extract running through his veins and cannibalizing the ectoplasm in his bloodstream. Thanks Vlad.
The man grunts at him; a short, curt "hm" that shouldn't make Danny smile, but he does because he's somewhat delirious and probably concussed. The man keeps some kind of distance, sinking towards the shadows of Gotham's alleyway like he dares to melt right into it.
If it's supposed to scare Danny, it doesn't work. Danny's never been afraid of the dark; he's always been able to hide himself in it. He blinks slowly at the mass of shadows.
"You look hurt." The shadows says, blurring together around the edges. Danny squints, and licks his lips to get the blood dripping down his chin off. Ugh, he hates the taste of blood.
"I am." He says, "My godfather poisoned me. M'dying." The agony of the blood blossom eating him from the inside out looped back around to numbing a while ago, so all he feels is half-awake and dazed.
"Hey," Danny stumbles forward towards the man, a bloodied hand reaching out to him. "You-- you're a hero, right? You're not attacking me; which is more than I can say for most costumed people I've met." Maybe it's a poor bar to judge someone at, but he's already established that Danny's not in his right mind.
The man makes no change in expression, but Danny realizes blearily that it's hard to tell with the shadows on his face. He stays still long enough for Danny to latch onto the cape -- stretchy, but almost soft under his fingers.
He looks up blearily into the whites of the man's eyes. "Can you help me? I don't-- I don't wanna die." Again. He doesn't wanna die again. He blinks slow and lizard-like. "I mean- I'll probably get to see mom and dad again, but I told them I'd at least try and make it to adulthood."
There's a clatter down the street, and Danny's ghost sense chills up his spine and leaves a bitter, ashy taste in his mouth. He immediately knows who it belongs to even before the deceptively gentle; "Daniel?" echoes down the way.
"Daniel? Quit your games, badger, Gotham is dangerous for children."
Danny's mouth pulls back, and blood spills against his tongue. "Please." He rasps, and grabs onto the shadow's cape with both hands. "Please. He's going to kill me. Please--"
"Daniel? Is that you?"
His lips part, dragging in air to plead with the darkness again. He doesn't need to, the whites of his eyes narrow, and the cape whirls around him before Danny can blink. Soon swaddled in shadows, the Night lifts him up, and steals him away.
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'Desert hermit Ben Kenobi develops a reputation as a crazy wizard because he keeps talking to thin air.'
No. This is Tatooine, talking to yourself is hardly the weirdest thing they've seen. Ben Kenobi, however, keeps having full on fucking screaming rows with thin air and seemingly gets replies back, which is decidedly a step up.
(They've managed to piece together that a major point of contention is the acquisition and raising of a child? Clearly Ben is a wizard that had a bitter divorce with a desert spirit and is working through a custody dispute)
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Owen: "I asked you out and you said yes."
Nick: "You told me we were going to break into your dad's work and steal pills to make me into an Extraordinary!"
Owen: "Well, yeah. Pretty great date idea, right?"
this is why owen is my favorite character
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Omega vs. Mouse droid
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Demisexual? No, you misheard. I said Dummysexual. I'm attracted to that moron over there. Look at them. They just tripped over nothing and set the house on fire. I'm in love.
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