#some of the newer marvel stuff just doesn't interest me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

evilwickedme · 5 months

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hey it’s me from the Batman posts! (the one that left the tags abt wanting to get into Batman but having no clue where to start)

If its not too much trouble, I’d love any advice on where to start with Batman or Batfam(?) stuff, I saw someone suggest reading the Batman: Wayne Family Adventures thing on webtoon as an intro to the characters so I’ve been doing that, but I’ve got no clue about any of the official comics or shows/movies/etc. I’ve never read a comic series before so everything is super new to me.

I know different series(?)/versions(?) can be wildly different bc of different writers and stuff, I definitely trust your taste on what would be good / enjoyable bc the posts you’ve been reblogging are like 90% of whats gotten me interested in the first place

Thank you, and absolutely no rush!!

Hey I am legit SO happy that you sent me this ask this is literally my favorite thing to do!!!!

So to start with I do actually agree that wfa is a good starting point but for a different reason than I feel most people would recommend it. The thing about wfa is that it has a consistent design for every character, is humorous, touches not only on the main batfamily members but also many extended members, other noteworthy people in Gotham, and the batfamily's cast of friends and teammates as well. This means that while its approach to characterization is incredibly fanon-y, it's a good basis for how to continue. You read wfa, and you know that Dick is the first robin, wears ridiculous costumes, was batman for a bit, is nightwing, part of the teen titans... this isn't a lot, but it's just enough to orient yourself before jumping into some of the most convoluted art ever created, aka the comic world.

Another tip I'm gonna give you is to let yourself be confused. I think the people who end up sticking with comics are people who are aware that if they pick up a comic it's very likely the writers and artists have read and worked on comics that you haven't read yet or even heard of, so you're always going to be missing something. That's fine. If something is really important to the plot, it gets explained; if it's not, it's windowdressing. Often there'll be little boxes saying what comic and issue they're referencing, so if you find it interesting you can just go read it - otherwise, if it's not there, you can google it, or go to any comic fan and ask "hey do you know what this is about?" and if they know, they will answer. There is nothing a comic fan wants more than to explain how to get into their favorite character/s, trust me.

Anyway this has been a very wordy intro but here are some potential starting points for the batfamily!

Bruce Wayne

You know who he is. Pick up an issue of Batman or Detective Comics and he's there. Pick up an issue of any other DC comic and there's like a 30% chance he's there too.

Batman: The Long Halloween

Noir style, investigative, early in batman's career, two face's origin story

It has a sequel-ish story called Batman: Dark Victory that's almost as good

Batman: Hush

Batman: Year One

Frankly there's not going to be much information in this comic you don't already know, but also, it's a classic, so might as well

Batman: A Death in the Family & Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying (crossover with the new teen titans)

First story is Jason's death, second is Tim's introduction and arguably the start of the batfamily being a family

Tim drags Dick back into the fray in ALPOD. It's just sort of the kind of thing he does

Do NOT confuse A Death in the Family with Death OF the Family, which is a much newer story, and Not Good

Batman: Under the Red Hood

Jason's villain arc! More details below

Batman himself isn't actually my favorite but you know he's got some decent stuff since he's, uh, the main character. DC doesn't have a multiverse the way Marvel does - and getting into that would be a whole separate ask - but their elseworlds are stories about the characters in different situations. Some ones I've heard good things about include Gotham by Gaslight, Dark Knights of Steel, Batman: Last Knight on Earth, and I keep meaning to get into Batman: White Knight, which is a whole other universe on its own. I've been trying to get into more modern batman stuff and unfortunately I just haven't clicked with anything.

Dick Grayson

Guy has been in a lot of things. If you read a random Batman comics from before 1980, there's a good chance he'll be there.

Teen Titans and The New Teen Titans and Titans (1980s-2000s)

I haven't read enough of these to say much of anything, but he's a founding member of the TT

Nightwing

His post-Robin superhero identity. At first only present in NTT and occasional Batman comics, but eventually he gets his own miniseries in the early 90s, followed by an ongoing. Recently-ish started reading them and they're angsty and very 90s in a lot of ways but I'm enjoying it

Modern Nightwing titles also exist. For sure.

Batman & Robin by Morrison

In one of DC's ten million crises, Bruce "dies", and after a short story called Battle for the Cowl, Dick ends up becoming Batman. Damian is his Robin. It's an interesting time for batman comics, although not necessarily the best writing that Dick has ever gotten.

Batman: The Dark Mirror

Also a great story for the Gordons. Bruce is back from the dead, but Dick is still Batman in Gotham. This was my first even Batman comic and it's really good.

Obviously there's other stories, such as Grayson, where he becomes a super spy for a bit. There's a million and a half reading lists for Dick out there as he's a massively popular character and he's one of the characters DC is pushing the most right now. As with all the rest of these, these are good entry points; from there I trust you to find your way

Barbara Gordon

The original Batgirl, sort of (nobody really brings up bette kane unless they're pointing out that babs wasn't the original Batgirl, she's just not important). She appears sporadically in silver and bronze age batman comics and detective comics, but she quits being Batgirl shortly before being raped and shot in the spine by the joker in Batman: the Killing Joke, which I purposefully did not put on my rec list.

Birds of Prey

Babs-as-Oracle at her best.

Batman: The Dark Mirror

Babs' long lost brother comes back to town. It's fucked up.

I've been reliably told to stay away from her Batgirl runs - most people who are a fan of the character don't like that they retconned Oracle away and it's mostly not very well written. There's a comic called batgirls that lasted about a year that included her, and it's okay.

Jason Todd (my beloved)

MY MAN

Batman: Second Chances

Collected edition of Jason as Robin, so much fun. Extremely silly at times since it's the 80s.

Batman: A Death in the Family

For obvious reasons.

Then he's just sort of dead for 17 years. He shows up in heaven in a Green Arrow issue and is occasionally brought up or shown as a hallucination, but that's about it.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

There's a new crime lord in town and he's so smart and talented and hot omg I wonder who he is!!!!

The collected edition also comes with the annual that reveals how he came back to life

Task Force Z

This shouldn't be as good as it is.

Jason gets recruited to work with a team of undead villains

Jason gets called a hot a bunch of times, and is shirtless a lot. This doesn't matter but you know, like, yeah it does.

For Robin!Jason there's also Batman: The Cult - which I finally got my hands on recently but haven't read yet. For Red Hood!Jason there's lots of stuff, but most of it isn't very good or is actively bad. Most people will tell you to stay away from Red Hood and the Outlaws, and they're right, although the 2016 run is better. Most people will tell you to read Batman & Red Hood: Cheer, and they're wrong, it's ass.

Tim Drake

Frankly this boy has no flops. Or very close to it.

Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying

Tim figured out who Batman and Robin are at AGE NINE. Respect.

After this he appears in various Batman and detective comics issues, I haven't read any of these.

Robin

The first Robin to get his own ongoing! Like with Nightwing, it started with a miniseries (a few of them, actually) and got turned into a long running series from there. Lasted like 200 issues, too.

Tim FUCKS.

Not Steph's first appearance, but most of her appearances pre-2009 are in this series.

Young Justice 1998

It's insane in all the best ways. Cars have sex on panel. They play baseball to save the world on an alien planet. A power of friendship speech prevents the end of the world. In the first issue, a woman develops breasts so big she falls on her face.

This team eventually breaks apart and Tim along with 3 other teen heroes nicknamed the core four (Superboy, Impulse, & Wonder Girl II) become part of Teen Titans 2003, which I haven't read and is also a bit of a flop era fashion wise for everyone anyway. I do have the volume of TT03 where they meet the versions of themselves from the future and I plan on reading that soon-ish.

In the mid 2000s basically everyone Tim loves dies. Steph died in 2004 ish after a very short stint as Robin. Tim's mom dies, then his dad is murdered, and it's unclear what happened to his step mom, but she was in Bludhaven, which had an atomic bomb dropped on it. Impulse becomes kid flash becomes the flash becomes murdered, and superboy gets killed while saving the world. Steph does turn out to not be dead after all and Impulse and Superboy come back from the dead eventually but by God he's having a tough year BEFORE Bruce "dies".

Red Robin 2009

After Bruce "dies" and Dick becomes Batman, Dick makes Damian his Robin and nobody believes Tim that Bruce is still alive, so he steals the Red Robin costume and goes on a mission to save his dad!

Not a comic to read first because it's so uncharacteristic of Tim as a person, but definitely something to read as soon as possible, because it's ridiculously good.

After flashpoint/n52 Tim doesn't have his own ongoing for a while, but he does come out as bisexual in an early issue of Batman Urban Legends (2021) and he got his own ongoing called Tim Drake: Robin in 2022 which was ugly AF and yet cancelled far too soon. There's a Young Justice run from 2019 I haven't read yet.

Stephanie Brown

For her I would go to Google, bc I haven't gone down the rabbithole enough for her yet. I know her first appearance was in a batman comic where she became spoiler to spoil her dad's plans - her dad being a third rate villain called the cluemaster - and she almost kills him, so good for her. Afterwards she appears every once in a while in various comics, most notably in Robin, where she and Tim as Robin start dating despite him knowing her identity but not the other way around.

Robin 60s (I don't remember the exact issues)

Steph gives birth and gives her baby up for adoption

Robin 126-128

Steph becomes Robin when Tim quits for his still-alive-but-not-for-long dad.

War Games

Steph does a fucky wucky and accidentally starts a gang war which gets her killed

There's another Robin arc where she comes back and it turns out she was never dead, Leslie (the family doctor) simply faked her death and sent her to Africa to recover

Batgirl 2009

Her first and only solo ongoing, but it's really good

She also appears a lot in Cass's Batgirl ongoings, and occasionally shows up in yj98. Her most recent series in Batgirls, which isn't very good but her interactions with Cass are very gay, and we've all been shipping it for 20 years at this point, so frankly it's long overdue. Unlikely to become canon tho, unfortunately.

Cassandra Cain

She doesn't use a lot of words, so neither will I. Probably.

No Man's Land

Frankly I am terrified to read this, it's so many goddamn issues, but this is her first appearance. I have one "volume" and it's as big as the fucking Bible.

Batgirl 2000

She's the first Batgirl to get an ongoing. The one from 2008 I've been reliably told isn't very good. She's absolutely terrifying in the 2000 one, I approve.

Outsiders 2016

Supposed to also be good for Duke content. I think at this point she's going by Orphan? Idk she's had a lot of names.

Idk I prefer Black Bat

Spirit World

Mini series that recently ended. Soooooo good. Alyssa Wong is a top contender for favorite modern writer.

She's mostly a background character. Bc DC is both sexist AND racist. She was also in batgirls.

Damian Wayne

Frankly he's my least favorite of the batkids, but that's not his fault, he's been a victim of a lot of really racist writing.

Batman: Son of the Demon

Somehow both his origin AND an elseworlds that doesn't count. Not required reading, but Bruce and Talia are madly in love in this.

Batman by Grant Morrison

After UTRH and before Dick was forced to become Batman Morrison reintroduced Talia's son, who in this version was a rape baby bc apparently brutalia weren't in love and Talia drugged Bruce. Fucking fine, I guess.

His character growth during his time as robin is sweet tho.

Robin 2021

His only solo ongoing, pretty good

Super Sons

He had two team up comics with then fellow child Jon Kent, son of superman, and it was fucking adorable. Then they aged up Jon to 17, so they're still friends, but Jon has his own shit going on.

Duke Thomas

He's REALLY new, and I haven't read any of it, I'm sorry.

Robin War

Batman and the Signal - I finally got my hands on the first issue of this last week!

The Outsiders 2016

Frankly they should capitalize on the Duke & Cass friendship/siblingship more often.

Alfred Pennyworth

I haven't read it, but there's a series called Pennyworth about his days as a spy for the crown. Supposed to be pretty good.

Kate Kane

The Jewish lesbian batwoman of our dreams

Batwoman: Elegy

Her introduction

Also, it's written by Greg Rucka, and if he can do one thing, it's write sapphic women. I'm not even joking.

Get the newer edition that has both of her original Rucka stories

Batwoman ongoings

She's had a couple, they're both supposed to be pretty solid, I've only read a few issues here and there

Batman in other media

Animated: I'm currently watching Batman the Animated Series for the first time and it seems to really get Bruce as a character, even if Robin will be there one episode and his existence will be a plot hole in the next. The Justice League animated series has also been fun so far. Teen Titans have gotten a number of animated adaptations all of which have pretty strong followings. There's an animated show called "Young Justice" which is a Teen Titans show and I refuse to watch it (it has a very devout following, but all that means is that the Young Justice - All Media Types tag on ao3 is just the same as Young Justice Cartoon and I have to filter heavily when looking for yj98 fics). Lego Batman is a REALLY fun film, and I think it turned into a whole franchise.

Live action TV: I have watched the first season of both Titans and Gotham, but both of those were before I was into the batfamily as a concept. My impression of Titans is overall negative and my impression of Gotham is overall positive.

Live action movies: There are so many Goddamn Batman movies. I like the Dark Knight Trilogy, but even calling it "based on" the Dark Knight comic trilogy is giving it a lil more credit than it deserves. The Batman 2022 is massively popular with the comic fandom for a reason - I'm not a big fan of it, but I did enjoy laughing at the movie so at least there's that. Batfleck sucks. I haven't seen anything else, up to and including the Joker movie. Oh, and Birds of Prey was really good, but that's not Cass.

Video games: The Arkham trilogy is well loved and I have indeed just bought it, but I haven't gotten to it because I'm currently working on Gotham Knights and uh. Okay so listen. This game is a lot of fun and I will be finishing it. But it's like. Got a massively antisemitic plot point. I can't even say I don't recommend it, I'm genuinely enjoying the game a lot. But I've never seen anybody bring this up, and it's bugging me.

ANYWAY I'm sure I've missed a LOT but this is introductory so you know I'm giving myself grace. There's characters I completely skipped and I'm sure mega fans of characters I haven't read much of will be offended that I said such and such about them but you know it's only been about a year and a half since I started reading dc comics and I'm still figuring it all out. And I probably will still be figuring it out for the next decade. To me that's actually part of the fun of it.

#batman #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #tim drake #stephanie brown #barbara gordon #cassandra cain #damian wayne #kate kane #duke thomas #alfred pennyworth #batfam #dc #reading list #gail speaks #ask #fageles

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canmom · 17 days

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what's the book for? part 2

[here's an intro where I talk about the three hour video essay that inspired me to do this]

[here's the first part where I argue that there's a big difference between the actual thing you do in an RPG and the book that tells you how you're allegedly supposed to be doing it]

So if the actual TTRPG games are mostly learned by observation and practice, what is the something that RPG books claim to give you in order to enable that?

Here's three things I can think of.

This isn't intended as a Forge-like categorisation of games, most RPG books offer (or claim to offer) all of these to some degree, ideally in complementary ways...

A ruling reference - RPG book as legal system

In the intro to a typical mainstream RPG book, this is typically the explanation that is given.

Over the course of a telling a story together, all sorts of weird edge cases come up where you might not want to simply make a call on how it should resolve. Moreover, consistency is valued, for both challenge and narrative reasons.

In this case, the RPG book is a big collection of rulings for specific situations. 'What happens when a character falls off a cliff?' You can look it up. It's like legal precedents. This is how a lot of the stuff in the early D&D books started - stuff that someone had done, and a referee had made a ruling, and it got written down. Then it would get systematised, unified, and streamlined so that it's easier to remember and extend to new situations.

A lighter game avoids special cases and just suggests a general procedure for resolving situations of uncertainty, conflicts etc.

This angle doesn't tend to cover procedures for how the game is physically run - how to go about setting up the scenario, who should get priority when speaking, etc. etc. - beyond perhaps offering prebuilt modules to inspire you. In older games, most of that is stuff you pick up by watching. In newer games... well, hold on.

A grab bag of interesting prompts - RPG book as inspiration in the moment

Most RPG books have flavour text; many also have tables of weird shit you can roll on or select when building a character, character sheets full of interesting abilities, descriptions of NPCs and so on. A select few RPGs like Unknown Armies and Chuubo's Marvellous Wish-Granting Engine have really distinctive prose too.

The aim of all these tools is to give you something to latch onto when you're in the moment and you need to think of the next thing to say. It's also to get people onto some shared understanding of what this game is all about.

This is where the bulk of many RPG books lies. It's explicitly the aim of Apocalypse World's MC moves. Many one-page RPGs are nothing but lists of evocative names and description elements, and a short snatch of prose.

Prompt tables and lists of names are popular in just about every tradition of RPG design - trad, storygames, OSR, all use them. Sometimes they're the most memorable thing about an RPG, like Dark Heresy's crit tables.

Sometimes pages of tables is the RPG - in recent years, card-based games have become popular, using a regular deck of cards which indexes into a big table of events, each of which is like 'here's a short description. how do you respond?'. This type of game has a great deal in common with storylet-based interactive fiction like Fallen London.

Prompts don't have to be short, though. Arguably an adventure module can be pretty much this - something you consult when players arrive in a new place to get an idea of who they should meet for example.

In D&D, the Monster Manual is straight up a book of real freaky guys you can put in your game. It also has stat blocks for them, of course, but the descriptions and pictures do a lot of work here to make them concrete.

This is why I describe the pictures in Lancer as load-bearing. The pictures help - or are supposed to help - grease the wheels of imagination when you're trying to imagine mechs.

This function of RPGs is a large part of the angle you're playing if you tie the game to a particular genre, setting or IP.

A machine to guide you to a specific experience - RPG book as auteur blueprint

So here's the newer flavour.

RPGs can be one of the most feelings-dense forms of art that humans create - it's your story, with your characters. This is something that tends to arise organically after you spend a long time with a character and 'get into their head'.

However, there is often a desire on the designer's side to structure the game to bring about a particular kind of emotional experience more directly. From horror games to games self-consciously 'about' colonialism, abuse, romance, etc., these games try to give you a particular experience, similar to what a film or book gives you - or indeed, a computer game.

Here are some examples:

My Life With Master is an older Forge game. It's about the 'Igor' servant characters in a classic horror movie, billing itself as 'a roleplaying game of villainy, self-loathing, and unrequited love'. It presents you with an emotionally charged scenario and mechanics that try to push you towards specific drama - if you want to be critical, a firm instance of the incentives and buttons oriented design that Huntsman was talking about, sometimes quite explicitly saying 'this mechanic was designed to...'

Dog Eat Dog is a game 'a game of imperialism and assimilation on the Pacific islands', with the DM reimagined as a colonial power adding more and more restrictions and the players as native people who will inevitably break its rules, until they are eventually pushed to 'run amok' (fatally), or assimilate. It's a game whose entire argument is more or less spelled out in the book itself.

But games don't have to be this narrowly scoped to have this kind of aspiration. Something like Apocalypse World still wants to bring about certain kinds of interaction, laid out quite explicitly as 'agendas' for the MC and players. It is strongly 'opinionated', in programmer terms.

Even a very flexible game can take on this model. Fiasco is a very abstract structure, designed to set up a chaotic situation like in a Coen Brothers movie. Microscope is designed to give you a fractal zoom in and out of a fictional history. These games are almost all procedure; Fiasco has some fantastic prompt tables, and a clear way to cook up your own, but the bulk of it is the stuff it tells you to do with scenes and dice.

These could be seen as games on an auteur model, with many of the emotional beats of the scenario already rigged up in advance. You get this type of book to experience a good/meaningful story - with a certain amount of flexibility in the details that gets you more attached. If there is a GM/MC/etc. they have instructions to facilitate the expression of that story.

...well, I refer to it as an auteur model. Thankfully not everyone is Ron Edwards! Apocalypse World has a whole chapter about how to modify the game to your taste, or build new games on its framework, and that - plus its conceptual simplicity - probably played a role in its hundreds of derivatives. 'Hacking' games was well established as a practice in the storygames milieu right from the early days. Probably the vast majority of games put out on itch.io are simply hacks of an established framework, very few offer real innovation.

Despite this, the offer of these products is still that they'll tell you how create a kind of verbal machine to realise some very specific thing.

Secret fourth thing...?

I can't think of others right now, but I hate presenting a list as exhaustive unless I can prove it's exhaustive. It's very likely there's some other function a book can claim to perform.

However, to summarise, you look at an RPG book to get:

a consistent set of rulings to handle situations of uncertainty

a set of prompts to help inspire your imagination when you need inspiration

a carefully designed procedure to lead you to a specific experience

The third thing is kind of a different beast to the other two, huh? You might be thinking that the first two are trad games and the third one is post-Forge 'story games', but it's really much older than that. Paranoia is a great early example; there are shades of it in many games published in the 80s and 90s. Not all these games are affiliated with the Forge and its diaspora either - take for example Jenna Moran's games and Bliss Stage.

Story games are not books either

The Forge and its diaspora led to a lot of games being printed, and launched the careers of many an 'indie TTRPG designer', which was not really a thing you could be in the same way before. It would be easy therefore to think this was the main contribution: we should assess it on the basis of the printed games that resulted.

However, nothing says you have to use a book to pilfer from their idea pool.

The really interesting contribution of the whole movement, to my eye, is that it calls our attention to a facet of TTRPGs that had often been left implicit. Who speaks, when? Who gets the 'narrative authority' to make the final call on what becomes 'true'? How do you organise time - do you frame scenes, use flashbacks, cut between different characters? What makes a dice roll exciting? How do you work out what would engage the other players, and communicate your own interests? Are you trying to help your character win, or are you more like a writer who might choose to make them suffer? How do you make a compelling character arc? What can be changed around behind the scenes to make a better story?

These are all aspects of 'play', the thing that you do at the table. Any given TTRPG group will settle on its own implicit or explicit approach to this kind of thing.

Different RPG books will tell you to do this or that. Some games will tell you to set stakes, or make failure interesting, or make choices that act as 'flags' to show what you're looking for.

But these tools are not tied to any specific game. You don't need the 'permission' of a book, nor can a book stop you doing it. A book may lay out a procedure that makes it easier, may introduce you to an idea that you haven't heard before, but once you have the idea, you can play with it however you like.

The way I approach a trad game like D&D, from either side of the DM screen, has become very different after my sojourn into the world of story games. A lot of what I liked there, I kept doing. Other inspiration comes from outside of the 'hobby' entirely, in related milieu like improv comedy.

This is something the OSR milieu seems to understand quite well. Everything is expected to be mixed, matched, and interpreted by the needs of your group. Posts will be framed as mere advice, which can be picked up and applied regardless of context.

But that all depends on a certain amount of common ground as to 'what the game is'. There is an authoritative DM who runs the scenario. The emphasis of the game is probably on exploring some kind of ruin and surviving in a dark, decaying fantasy world populated by various factions at odds with each other. Players control flimsy characters whose survival is not guaranteed, but if they live long enough, they can become major powers. There is a heavy strategic aspect: you are trying to use your resources to survive and get something. This is the general shape of a 'prototypical OSR game'.

the shared context of storygames

Story games form their own subsubculture, but they do not have this level of shared context. Instead, a different kind of shared context is kind of implicit in the milieu.

Here's how things go at the London Indie RPG Meetup Group, which I've attended a couple of times: a group of nerds gather in a pub. People will pitch games with a couple of sentences; then people will form groups and play that game as a one-shot session. Someone will have a book, or printouts. Most players will not have heard of the game before.

In this kind of context, a lot of the quirks of story games make sense. 'Read this out' paragraphs, rapid character creation based on selecting prompts, simple mechanics designed to push you into drama as quickly as possible: all of this stuff is perfect for a one-shot game you play once or a few times. This type of game is not really trying to 'take on' trad games.

But then there's the 'middle ground' kind of game, which are closer to a 'trad' game - a game master, persistent characters each controlled by one player, multiple sessions, progression - but also instruct you to do something more experimental by trad-game standards. This includes Apocalypse World and its derivatives, Blades in the Dark and its derivatives, the Burning Wheel/Mouse Guard lineage, Jenna Moran's games... and so on.

It's this point of overlap where things get sticky and it all becomes a bit tense. Since, well, story game fans can be quite evangelistic - and part of that evangelism depends on a dismissively book-determinist view of trad TTRPGs. But conversely, trad players can be quite reluctant to imagine there is any other way of approaching this whole activity, and dismissive of any other approach. I do not like it, Sam-I-am.

So you end up with a situation of camps, with both groups bristling at the sense that they should be compelled to give up the thing they like to do it the way they consider inferior.

And if you want to criticise the other camp, what do you do? Pick up their book and criticise it as a product, according to your sense of what a TTRPG book is for. Which seems hopelessly besides the point when a book is such a small part of the story.

I've played trad games, story games, OSR games, 'freeform' forum games, LARP, MMO roleplaying, improv comedy... Not as much as I'd like of anything, but enough to get a sense of the many ways we can do this 'roleplaying' thing, whether by explicit rule or implicit convention.

So the puzzle I now have is, if there is to be a book involved, what is that book there to do? What really makes for a good RPG book? Are there other ways to get that thing? How do you game design honestly?

We'll try to address that in part 3 of this series, coming... sometime soon, hopefully!

#roleplaying games #story games #ttrpg #tabletop roleplaying

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outofcontextbokumono · 1 year

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In your Allen post you mentioned Natsume is notorious for bad translations. That's super interesting, I had no idea! Is it more of spelling error stuff or just straight up mistranslations?

first of all great question anon!! it's kind of a mix of both, and it varies from game to game. most natsume dialogue just generally reads very clunky and robotic in the english versions, especially when compared to the newer games, where everyone has their own unique way of speaking, and you can usually tell who's talking just based on their mannerisms.

there's more general info on this topic + natsume's involvement with marvelous games in my masterpost here.

xseed's newer games obviously aren't immune to forgetting a few punctuation marks here and there, but natsume's was bad. like, "something about the games just feel Off and uncanny and there's no other way to explain it" bad.

i'm pretty sure it's just because the translators weren't native english speakers, so everything is translated super literally, but if you are one yourself it becomes blatantly obvious simply by looking at the dialogue for more than 5 minutes. this ranges anywhere from minor miswordings to lines that just don't make any sense at all no matter how many times you read them.

and then there's stuff that's so messed up we don't even KNOW how it got there. like some of this shit i would 100% believe you if you just said the game got corrupted because if it isn't that then i can only assume the employees did a large dose of crack cocaine before translating these games. i'm talking like... entire lines that didn't even get translated. text so butchered its straight up unreadable. that one time they misspelled their own NAME in the startup screen. TWICE.

and, last but not least, probably one of my all time favorite errors in a natsume game but one i'll never be able to post here because it's funny purely in context- and it is the singular line in harvest moon: friends of mineral town where the priest, carter, just speaks to you in fucking German

this. this is the error i don't have even the SLIGHTEST explanation for. and, correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm 99.9% sure nobody else does either.

this was....just one line. just the one line of dialogue. where he speaks german. in a japanese farming game that was being localized into english.

at least with the untranslated kanji you have some general sense of how that happened. like, yeah, okay, they just missed a line, whatever. but this isn't even remotely close to the same situation. there should be NO german in this equation whatsoever. it's like if you did 2 + 2 and somehow got 17. and nobody looked over your paper and went, "hey, that doesn't look quite right, man, maybe you should fix that", so you just turned it in and for some reason not even the TEACHER questioned it, they gave you a full grade and a gold star and put your paper on the whiteboard clear as day for all your classmates to see. that's what this feels like.

I. do not think the natsume employees are okay can someone check on them for me

#bokumono #bokujou monogatari #mod speaks #harvest moon #story of seasons #hmanb #harvest moon a new beginning #hm fomt #harvest moon fomt #harvest moon anb #harvest moon friends of mineral town

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aimmyarrowshigh · 10 months

Note

For the WIP meme. You knew I would zero in on this one...

Star Wars - Damerey.docx (This is In Screaming Color)

Of course! :P

First off, if you haven't read what's been posted yet -- it's here on AO3.

I'm not going to lie, the main reason that I stopped working on it, and stepped away from SW/Damerey as a whole, is because the Damerey fandom became an especially toxic mudhole in a particularly toxic fandom. I still love this story, and I have a lot more written than is posted, but

a) I don't write longfic in chronological order, so I can't post what I have without writing the in-between bits that aren't as interesting to me, and

b) I stopped particularly wanting to give Damerey fandom nice things because it stopped being a place of people who deserved nice things.

The mass bullying of my bb @dracosollicitus in particular, who BUILT that ship on her BACK p much, was my kind of last straw, and at the same time, TLJ/ROS didn't follow through on the goodness of TFA, and also WandaVision came out, so my brain was just like, "I GUESS WE'RE A MARVEL NOW INSTEAD."

But, like I said, I DO still love this story and man, I have a lot of it already written and it doesn't totally suck, so I do intend to SOMEDAY finish it. But I literally mean "someday." Like, it may well be for The Force Awakens' 30th Anniversary Rerelease With The Poe/Rey Hug Scene, or something. It definitely isn't on my immediate TBW pile. But it IS still in the WIP folder and not the WIP Amnesty pile.

Here's a clip of the unposted-yet stuff:

“You,” Poe says, setting his tray down beside Rey’s, “Need to have a talk with your droid.” Rey looks up from her bowl of porridge. She’s covered it with so much sugar that it looks like Hoth in a bowl. “I don’t have a droid, Poe.” “Artoo,” Poe says. He takes the sugar shaker from her scavenger cache and tips some into his caf. “It’s corrupting Beebee-Ate!” Rey actually stops chewing at that, and she wipes her mouth first on the back of her wrist, and belatedly, a napkin. She’s learning. “Is Beebee-Ate alright? I didn’t even think about bugs when Artoo came back online, but do you know, I don’t think it’s been defragged since before the Clone Wars. I’ll take a look through its databank and give it a good wipe as soon as I’ve finished eating. Beebee, too, if you like?” “No, not—really, the Clone Wars?” Poe shakes his head. “Not corrupt like programming. Corrupt like—like—” Poe leans down towards his tray and starts to maim his toast with butter. “It is exposing Beebee-Ate to concepts that Beebee is too young for.” “Beebee-Ate’s much newer than Artoo.” Rey still sounds baffled. “If anything, wouldn’t Beebee-Ate expose Artoo to new material and concepts? Especially after so long in hibernation?” Poe stabs the joganfruit jam. It oozes satisfyingly. “I mean that Beebee-Ate is a child and Artoo is being inappropriate with it.” Rey makes a very strange sound. When Poe looks over, she is very kindly hiding her laughter in her knuckles, but her eyes are bright. “Poe… I don’t think droids work that way. Beebee-Ate’s got a cute little personality, but it’s not actually—” “I don’t want Beebee-Ate to swear and know about—merging programming,” Poe huffs. Of course Rey doesn’t understand this; she’s couldn’t possibly feel the same kind of compunction to protect vulnerable little star-bright things from the shameful, dirty realities of being an old, battered veteran. Like R2D2. (The kriffing Clone Wars, and it’s never been defragged? No wonder it went offline so long.) “Oh,” says Rey, sitting back in her hard plastic chair. “So that explains why Beebee-Ate rolled straight for Threepio this morning.” “What?” Poe half-stands to crane his neck and look around the mess. “I thought Beebee was in the hangar!” “No, they’re right over there.” Rey points to the far corner of the mess. Poe can just barely hear the words “parts assembly” and “motherboard,” and then BB-8 gives a surprised [beep!] and rolls back a half-measure. Its dome swivels in a circle that looks embarrassed, or maybe like the droid’s concept of ‘self’ has changed, which is entirely likely. Poe raises his eyebrows at it when Beebee’s optical finds him. He mouths, “You’re in trouble, buddy.”

#fanfiction ask meme #fandom #fanfiction #my fic #in screaming color

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flwersgarden · 2 years

Note

hi liv! idk if you’ll still be doing these when you see this, but if you are, would you do a ship for me? i’m ok with either the elvis film or an era 🥰 i’m bi so the gender of the ship doesn’t matter.

i’m puerto rican, plus sized, and have curly hair. i have an obsession with tattoos and piercings, even though i only have one tatt and 6 piercings, only 1 not being on my ears 😂 i’m a violinist, and music has been my passion since i was a kid. i don’t like any specific genre of music, although lately i’ve been really into rock more than anything. besides elvis, my current favorites are måneskin, miley cyrus, and halsey, especially her album “if i can’t have love, i want power.”

i love the color pink, and i think my personal style is a combination of barbiecore and grungy rock, if that makes sense? basically a mix of a modern aphrodite and persephone, i’d say 😅

i also love writing, and when i was younger i wanted to be a journalist. i’ve been attempting to write the same book for 4 years without luck 😩 one day i’ll get it though 🤞🏼

anyways, i hope you’re having a marvelous birthday, lovely! i hope year 19 is absolutely amazing and filled with joy and wonder ❤️

of course, darling! honestly you sound like someone that i would see in the street and fall in love with like- ANYWAYS-

i ship you with priscilla presley (elvis 2022)!

priscilla is lovesick for you. and she loves it!

she shows you her love whenever and wherever she can so be ready to take a bunch of kisses everywhere. she actually feels so safe giving you affection because that way everyone will know she is yours and you are hers which is perfect.

please, please, please, PLEASEEE let her style your hair! she swears you will look even more pretty afterwards (if that could be possible, how are you so cute?!)

she would ask you a bunch of stuff about your tattoos and your piercings. did they hurt? how much did it cost? which one's your favorite one? she would ask you, after years of relationship, if you both could have matching tattoos.

if you have one, she loves your accent. she doesn't make fun of you for that, she actually giggles and kisses your nose whenever you talk- she can't help it!

she would also try to learn spanish and some moderisms from your country. she loves to be praised by you so tell her how much of a good job she's doing. <3

priscilla would be so interested in the music you listen to. she would ask you a bunch of questions! if you ever find her annoying, tell her in the softest way possible. she could be very sensible. if you enjoy the questions, let her ask more! she can always find something newer to be curious about.

she would try to match her outfits with yours, of course, if you don't find it weird. although she would sometimes do it unconsciously. you wouldn't see her for days and the both of you would meet with a pink outfit on your date. she actually loves when that happens. a true proof that she is your soulmate!

finally, priscilla would try to help you finish your book. please, let her know how though. she has the spirit, just guide her the right way!

overall priscilla and you would be the cutest couple ever! she would support you through everything, the only thing you have to do in return is show her how much you love her.

#olivia's special day! ⊹ㅤׄㅤִ

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monarch-sparrowhawk · 2 years

Text

Sam Alexander - Legacy Characters and Their Development

Been wanting to do a mini-essay about my thoughts on Sam Alexander Nova for a long time, so here we go. Put it under the cut so as not to clog up the tag feed. Warning there will be lots of tangents as I am ADHD and cannot help it.

Alrighty, so as we know Sam is a relatively newer character in terms of comic books. His first debut was in Marvel Point One #1 in the Avengers vs X-Men crossover. This was back in November 2011. This would make him around 11 years old. In this short span of time(because yeah, compared to other characters Sam is still pretty young) he has had three volumes( Nova Vol 5-7), been apart of at least three team books (New Warriors 2014, All New All Different Avengers, and most recently Champions), and has had a variety of cameos and one-offs and specials, and that's not even getting into the animated stuff he's been in. While his appearances have thinned out over the years, we still see him pop in things every now and then despite not being very popular at all(this is unfortunate, but he's still my favorite at least). A good question to explore, perhaps, why is this character still keeping up appearances? Why is he being kept around?

The answer I believe lies with his creator, Jeph Loeb. He is one of the original writers for Sam, basing him off of his own son he lost to cancer back in 2006.

*moment of respectful silence*

After that, it was probably not much more than 1 or 2 years after that that Jeph was pulled into the creation of the Ultimate Spiderman Tv show. It was originally announced in 2010, which means it was definitely worked on before then, and then debuted in 2012. Jeph was one of the main creators, and he decided to pull together some admittedly underrated and kind of unknown characters for the show. But when it came to Nova, he decided to start completely from scratch. Instead of going with the original, Richard Rider, he went with his own creation, Sam. This could have been for a variety of reasons such as: Richard Rider being too similar to Peter Parker(just take a look at his origin issue and you'll see what I mean), he was just killed off in the comic books which would lead to a natural opening for a new character, etc.

These are all substantial factors to take into consideration, but combined I think Jeph saw the opportunity to honor his late son. Legacy characters happen quite frequently in comic books(pretty much the entirety of Young Avengers for example), but Sam Alexander definitely feels a bit more... personal. He not only represents a connection to another beloved comic book character, but to a real person as well. Even though Loeb didn't stay on as a writer for Sam very long, you can see in his beginning issues where he added the info about the conception of Sam as a character that this was very important to him. And Sam being important to Loeb I think is what initially drew some people in, because the kind of dedication and love that goes into a character like that doesn't go unnoticed.

So people gave Sam a shot(ignoring the anal Rich Rider fans that cropped up in the beginning, FYI you can't be a fan of Rich if you hate Sam, thems the rules) and so it went. I remember reading all the issues of Volume 5-7 as they were coming out, and when Gerry Duggan took over for quite a large portion of the original run it was magnificent. He gave Sam interesting storylines, endearing character development, and overall I think did a superb job handling the character. His writing of Sam is most definitely what made me grow fond of the character, I don't know if I would have become a fan otherwise. Unfortunately the whole Marvel Comic Universe was being rebooted so they had to wrap things up quickly with a cap at 31 issues, but he ended Volume 5 on a good note with Sam reuniting with his dad.

Then enters my least favorite volume, Volume 6. If you thought the white-washing with Sam in Volume 5 was bad, it got so much worse. Not to mention the complete 180 in personality. In the beginning(Vol 5), Sam was an asshole. There's no sugarcoating that part about his character. But I liked that. Because when you start out a character like that, the room for development is immense. And honestly, I love watching characters grow. I love watching Sam grow. Volume 6 felt like a slap in the face because I wasn't reading about Sam. I was reading the generic teenage superhero Peter Parker clone. Sam went from being impulsive and reckless to boring and dull. Not to mention the whole 'evil clone' cliche with his dad made the ending of the previous volume feel so hollow and cheap. His original supporting cast was gone(and my ship was exiled from canon, so long Carrie), and the hinted at storyline of Sam possibly being half-alien was long since buried under the rug. It was not enjoyable for me to read at all.

Moving on before I seethe in rage, let's talk a bit about Volume 7. Never have I felt more robbed that a series was canceled too early. We had some major wins. Beautiful artwork(big points for not white-washing Sam), the dynamic between Sam and Rich(they're like squabbling siblings, I love it), and the writing was heading in a promising direction. My only complaint is Carrie and Principal Philbin not returning, along with Sam being in the chess club. Sam becoming a proficient chess player is so important to me, you have no idea. The comedy potential is golden. Imagine him beating Amadeus Cho in a game. That nerd would die from the shock. Anyways, I did like Sam's personality in this. I felt like he had developed into a jerk with a heart of gold. The jerk part is more toned down from Volume 5, and he isn't the goody two shoes he was in Volume 6, we reached a good mixture. Because that is what Sam is. He's a kid with a good heart, he just doesn't always go the best way about it. Which is understandable, given that most teenagers are not very mature in the slightest. This series would have been good development for him, and I'm forever heartbroken that I will never see where it would have gone.

But circling back around to the question, even though his character isn't that popular, the right people care about him and that's what keeps him relatively in the loop. And perhaps when he gets adapted to the MCU we will see a surge in popularity, but hopefully not at the expense of destroying what was so special about Sam in the first place. Let's hope that Feige and them don't forget what Sam was originally meant to be:

A grieving father holding onto his son in the most loving and familiar way he knew how.

By doing so will keep him in some ways alive forever. It's beautiful. To any and all future MCU adaptations, please keep this in mind when it comes to Sam. Sam's a character created from grief and love, and should not be taken lightly. If you managed to read all of this, I would love to have an open discussion about Sam and the Nova comics. It's been a bit quiet around here.

#sam alexander #nova #nova comics #essay post #character analysis

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zacksnydered · 8 months

Note

Will I understand Loki S2E1 if I haven't seen any other newer Marvel movie or series? I mean I know for example there's some invasion thing going on in the MCU which I have no idea what that is; so — is knowing about that invasion or other stuff necessary for me to understand this second season of Loki? I did see season 1! But nothing else since :(

I only have a vague knowledge of the comics and the overall ongoing arc of Marvel too so I may not be the right person to ask. I didn't really watch Ant Man 3? But just from that pov, Im kind of excited for the new season. It looks like it's really building the horror of Kang as the bad guy in an interesting way so far. I mean it's only the first episode but I really enjoyed it.

But spoiler? Disclaimer? As my friend explained it to me, the events of ant man however doesn't necessarily affect Loki, it just expounds on it in a way.

#Anonymous #Inbox.

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madfantasy · 5 years

Text

Dear Blogging

How was your week? It was the holidays here,I think. And for once, I made sure to make the most of it.

It is a very special Eid (Festival) for me, so I'd love to be talking about it mostly★

I woke up the other day dreaming of Sev in a way I didn't like, which is my #1 fear when it comes to character designing— dicing chunks of varied forms of love into some shape and listen to my precious creations talk, to use a more intimate term. (Which is more closer to describing how I feel about the process.) He was in a delicious form but wasn't himself, and that's the main goal of anything I draw; Trying to make them look themselves as possible. It didn't make me feel off as I thought I would and I do lots of sketches of him out of his character somehow and I don't care. I think this is nice. Actually, I'm enjoying myself atm drawing him in another possible that-doesn't-look-like-him-ugh-redraw episode, and I'm not being sarcastic about it, hehe. Specially with the new brush I made for myself, and I feel proud of it.

And talking more about episodes, I have made a garbage audio recording test on some speed paint I made few days ago to start somewhere. I wanted to record myself talking about the art process and all— to practice actual speech, I couldn't even settle on a tone of voice to begin with. Coming next in frustration, the video wouldn't upload and the browser keep crashing even tho it's 46 second vid. It's probably my network connections as ever, which makes me question my ability to upload videos. But we'll find something to work around that.

I think I like how I'm dealing with things lately. I'm in much more peace with things, I noticed even things that are urgent in my priorities aren't effecting my mood so drastically, I am in more control and I am thankful. So with that I was determined that I make this Eid special, with everything that I was blessed to happen to me.

I don't remember having a proper Eid beyond what snippets of my childhood memory brings me. I remember this outfit I loved crazily— black and had oranges painted on it, and Sissi had lemons on hers. (Maybe that's the roots of why I like saying the word orange so much and she lemons..). Before Eid in few days you get out charity if you can of what the country you are in be the source of main food -its rice here, then the day of eid you go to Eid prayer wearing new clothing, give money to youngsters, go to where there's lights everywhere, visit extended families— which I only remember questioning why are we there at all times. I remember kids with garlic-looking crackers, they throw it on the ground and they pop like mad, so there was alot of fireworks going on too.

Anyways, I cared for the candy and still. Because I mostly only got to have some in Eid. And that's pretty much was it throughout the years- Eid is candy. Didn't have anything else available. It's strange because I don't like sweets, only in chocolate— the darker the better tho.

I decorated the room the day before, and ya know, used the elder power in me to generate the feeling of Eid by all means. I didn't do much actually, everything just happened. I found what I need few days before without evern looking for it. Like this one song me and some of my siblings had loved in the days when we only had playstation as a source of music (we played the games' sound tracks). Just by pure luck we found it on YouTube, the nostalgia and how it's amazing hit us so hard we were all hysterical! It's old too, like- in the year 1998 or something. I put it as our party music. There are classics Arabic songs of Eid, but Arabic music -with some exceptions- never interested me in general. I know two- this one is like the Christmas tune for Eid, and just kids saying welcome Eid ~

I only know the 40 sec of it, have a listen:

https://youtu.be/c4QxNWG0qjI

More locally; this one is always everywhere, as a child it always made me giggle at how the singer moans the lyrics at the start.

It's saying may you be from whom wins the fortune of having happy Eid (or something similar) and may you have these times again in the coming years and so on.

There it is- first 40 sec again, heh:

https://youtu.be/n7a99KgEfPE

Veering from caltural taste a bit and back to mine; newer things happened in this Eid, I called it Eid Jadeed (it means new festival and it's rhymes with the traditional saying of Eid Sa'eed= happy festival)

For one— the important one, only a year ago I wished so hard I can have my baby sis take from the Eid car the was passing our streets with free nicknacks to make her day. Now her day is made because we got cheep nicknacks that she actually WANTED. And she kept saying 'Party time! Party time!' Which made me so happy I could just explode. Next second she spilled juice over her stuff and that moment was short lived, still she loved everything, hehe.

Other minor things happened like; as much as I hate taking pictures I did throughout the party and everything. I didn't feel like my picture was a demon staring back at me, and I actually liked how I looked in them so it was nice for a change.

What else? Oh yeah, ofc crackers, dried fruits, nuts, chocolates and this beautiful creature of a plant, Kaka— we enjoyed eating.

Oh and I was congratulated of Eid by ppl online I was surprised they remembered me, heh. And one person from the Snape fandom, too! (you know yourself 🙈)

It was just marvelous, I am a happy Mani ⭐

Wish you all the best my dears, sincerely as ever 💛⭐🎆

#text #drawing journey #personal #diary

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voices-of-ether · 5 years

Text

Rules and Bios (Mobile Version)

RULES

Selective RP. Story threads are mutuals only but everyone is welcome to send in asks or submissions.

Mun is An Old aka 30+

Therefore Mun does not rp smut/sexual situations with young'uns.

As a rule I don’t do explicit smut or fetish-y stuff. I’m ace and not comfortable with it. I like writing suggestive flirting and light physical intimacy (kissing, cuddling, hugs that sort of thing) but anything more graphic than that I prefer a " fade to black " approach.

I’m cool with shipping muses (platonically and romantically) and shipping them with more than one muse I just prefer it to happen over the course of interactions and let it grow naturally. If you try to force ships or romance or smut on my muses, you’ll get ignored or blocked. Please discuss it with me first, and be considerate if I’m not feeling it

I’m generally good with crossover characters and OCs but again I am selective, please understand this.

My replies might be slow sometimes. I work a full-time job and it takes a lot out of me!

If you don’t want to continue a thread, just let me know. On the same note if I don’t want to continue a thread I will let you know.

If you have any triggers please please please let me know ok? I will tag accordingly.

MUSE BIOS

The Kid

Age: 20

Name: SP-10467 (In the dystopian universe he comes from, everyone goes by serial numbers)

Description: Fluorescent yellow hair, about 5'5 in height, skinny, body like a track runner, weight 110 pounds.

Personality: He’s a quiet guy, average intelligence, unnervingly obedient to those he feels outranks him and polite but aloof to those he considers civilians. He's been trained to stay cool and calm-headed for the most part but when thrown into a high-adrenaline or dangerous situation, he can act impulsively to the point of going batshit. He’s big on self-control and sticking to routine and he’s been ruthlessly brainwashed to regard himself as expendable and just another cog in the war machine. Self-worth? Individuality? What’s that? In his latest incarnation, his emotions are quickly becoming an unpredictable wreck, much to his distress. It’s not necessarily a bad thing however. New lives always take a bit of getting used to.

Backstory: Our boy here has been an enlisted man since the age of 14, on one side of a war that has been going on for generations now. His rank is Aerial Support/Bomber and he is a member of Sqaudron 115-D aboard Zeppelin Air Carrier Class C-Dreadnought. A skirmish with an enemy craft turned out to be an encounter with the Warlord Commander of the opposing side and he took one of the newer bombers out during the scramble, loaded with an experimental directed missile

What happened to him after that and where he is now, no one’s really sure… but he's not quite the person (or persons) he used to be...

The Angel

Age: Immortal (Ok fine he kinda lost track a few millennia back hell if he knows)

Name: He goes by Angel or Blue

Description: Black wings, casual clothes, blue goggles and blue skin, blue fire hair (literally he looks like a fucking candle) Carries a big sword that pulses with energy

Personality: He’s…well he’s an asshole but he’s a cheerful asshole. Thinks humans and everything about them and their culture is gross, squishy and kinda stupid, obviously he likes being an angel and inhuman. He’ll never admit it though but he also finds humans very interesting, the way you’d find weird little bugs interesting. He’s a cold-blooded executioner, if you’re Marked you’re as good as dead but hey, it’s just his job and he’s just an underling taking orders from the Reapers. Hell if he knows what’s going on. He’s unerringly honest, literally can’t lie, angel y'know, and blunt to the point of rudeness. He’ll piss you off and think it’s funny as hell. That Weird Murder Uncle everyone loves to hate or something.

Backstory: Honestly Angel had been having a fantastic time in the previous universe, zeroing in on those humans Marked by the Reapers and harvesting their souls to be sorted into whatever constituted for an afterlife in this flaming garbage heap of a world. Then just when he had the Warlord in his sights, timelines went screwy because of something stupid the humans did. After a brief jaunt into a dismal future, he’d thought he’d taken care of his mark only to find that idiot’s soul had gotten smashed up with the soul of some dumbfuck kid who’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And now in whatever new universe the kid gets dumped in because of Time Shenanigans, Angel finds himself charged to be Guardian to this new confused bastard keeping him safe and alive…or be his Executioner and do a hard reset of the kid's soul to try again. Gods, what a headache, how many times has he done this already? Oh well. Orders are Orders.

The Librarian

Age: 40

Name: Mick Guidici

Description: 6'7 lanky. Dresses nice if not a little disheveled. Vest, tie, trousers, button up shirt with rolled up sleeves kind of guy. Nothing fancy. Dark hair, greying at the temples, grey eyes. Two stubborn cowlicks he can't seem to smooth down no matter how much hair gel he puts in 'em.

Personality: Quiet, calm and serious, hard to get to know but once you do, he's a steadfast and loyal friend with a very dry and witty sense of humor. Demisexual, panromantic. Personification of the saying " Still waters run deep. ". Sociable and polite when he needs to be, otherwise he just sort of keeps to himself. Intelligent and an Egyptology nerd. Tired a lot of times from particularly vivid lucid dreams so he's addicted to coffee and naps. Smoker.

Backstory: Still a work in progress but we'll just say he's lived a lot of different lives (and maybe isn't exactly aware of them)

Age: 25

Name: John Harkaway (an alias)

Description: 5'6 skinny, lean to the point of undernourished. Black messy curly hair a bit under shoulder length, green eyes, ruddy sunburned complexion, both ears pierced with gold earrings, classic blue-ink sailor tattoos.

Personality: John is charming, reckless and well-spoken. He very much gives off the vibes of a classic Incorrigible Rake, an image he is careful to cultivate because it's easier to pretend to be someone else. Speaks fluent Portugeuse, affects an accent around strangers that wouldn't fool a native speaker for a minute. He's intelligent, well-read in classical literature, witty and troubled, more than he'd ever admit. He suffers from strange dreams and nightmares, so his sleeping habits aren't too great. Bisexual but he tends to get very anxious and ill at ease around men that radiate a certain Vibe.

Backstory: John is a unwitting traveler out of time, born in 19th century England and through a paranormal fluke, finds himself wandering through a modern century of marvels. He doesn't care to talk about his life before...perhaps he's quite literally running from the past.

#muse bio #rules #mobile friendly version

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venomsbabe · 6 years

Text

To have a heart to heart with you guys. I want ya'll to know.

I love mark bagleys art

And only have a few venom runs in general have disappointed me with the art. Maybe the design and some of the artistic choices but that was very few.

But the overall art of venom over his span of many years hasn't been bad. Some are so so. Some are ok. But never super bad.

Except maybe venom the madness or hunger. That art i never wanna look at again. *shudders*

But other than that. All the art of venom has been absolutely amazing. I always appreciate comicbook artists. As one artist to another.

Art is my lifeblood. So of course im gonna look at the art and designs first.

But i look for story to keep me interested and keep me coming back.

If the story doesn't seem to catch me. Of course im not coming back. Even if the art is good.

Save for a few screenshots my friends and followers post up that happen to be cool. Other than that i try not to bother.

But if it does catch my eye. And the story and art are good i will return to read of course.

I may not agree 100% but it has my attention.

Guys im not hating the new runs for no reason.

It just isn't interesting to me enough. And the overall feel to me personally of the comics feels fake or forced to push a story out and one up another writer in the comic biz than to write a good story. As sometimes it can be a competitive business but it doesn't have to be when not a lot of people are buying comics as they used to back in the day. I mean real comics not online issues through apps n stuff.

Trust me i really really tried and im still trying to get into the new stuff but i can't.

But i really do try.

I keep hoping and hoping that it will be interesting enough for me but it disappoints me every time.

But i have to say mark bagley coming back as venoms artist is one thing i truly love.

And i really appreciate that from marvel comics.

But again. Im not hating just to hate.

I just am really passionate about comics,characters and story telling. I really enjoy analyzing characters and learning the psychology of them.

It fascinates me.

But most of all im just a really passionate fan.

I don't mind if you like the new runs. Thats awesome. I dont care what you enjoy. As long as your happy and being the awesome fan you are. And want to really get into venom. Or marvel period. Thats enough for me. Its nice to meet other fans. It really is. As i dont have many other people to talk to this stuff about often.

But i just post my personal opinions and thoughts.

You don't have to agree.

I just wanna share my feelings,thoughts and opinions.

But i do have things i enjoy about the newer runs.

As the colors are smooooth as fuck. Rich and bold and facial expressionsare beautiful (thanks to bagleys art). Or dark and mysterious if you want edgelord donny cates run(sorry i had to pick on him lol)

Not all of the designs are good to me. And seem generic at times.

The story is garbage not the art(at least all the time)

Most of venoms artist are great.

But the story is where like i said it means a lot.

Otherwise

You just have a book with nice art. And sure. As an artist from that point of view its great.

But the story is what keeps me.

And some of the ideas are interesting but some stuff needs to not be done. Im all for new ideas. But only if it would work and not cause major plot holes that can't easily be solved. Some things just don't make sense at all. But sometimes the ideas. Just don't work. And are a bit more fitting with other characters then venom.

Also some of the shots in some panels of Eddie's butt is nice. Come on how can i hate on butt shots of eddie brock? Lol

But on here we never talk about venom the madness or the hunger. EVER.

Or pretty much every 90s story after that,pretty much after lethal protector and after they killed of ann weying i stopped really caring. But definitely not madnes or hunger. We dont talk about that. Nor dark origins that was a slap in the face to the characters overall. But again those are just my personal opinions.

You can love whatever you love. As long as you truly love Eddie brock aka venom. And really wanna get into the character. And not just some fad. Im cool. Love whatever comicbook runs or art as you please. In fact i love meeting new fans. It exciting to finally get to be around people who love the big guy as much as i have. I was maybe preteens 9 or 10ish(of my memory serves me good) when i got into venom. It was the reruns of the 90s cartoon. After i watch the first spiderman movie. my sister a huge spidey nerd. Got me into it. I was already an xmen fan. So why not? Instant crush on venom. So yeah it warms my heart to meet other to fangirl over Eddie brock venom with me.

As long as you respect me. I do the same for you. And i really do appreciate your support and feedback.

I just don't like gatekeepers and people who send hate messages. Those i tend to ignore.

But if you have a genuine question and are polite. I will answer.

Almost all venom art is beautiful and wonderful to me.

So i have no real beef with the comic art.

The story is where i have the beef.

So hopefully this will not be any more confusion.

Again. You guys are more then welcome to share your thoughts. I do not judge anyone. I love all of my venom fans. Even the ones that annoy me.

I may or may not agree. But i always have my ask box open. And im always here to listen.

i want you to know we are all family here.

Especially my fellow monster lovers and self shippers. You most welcome

I have my own take on the character. And how i rp him. But i try to make sure everyone is welcomed.

Now here's some bagel bagley venom for you.

Stay venomous,stay beautifully you.

Much love.

#venom #eddie brock #vennie #eddiebear #venom trash #self ship #self shipping #me x venom #me x eddie #me x eddie brock #self insert #admin #admin talks #admin has heart to heart #i love each and every one of you guys dont ever think i dont

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